MILLS, J. V. G. (1970). Ma Huan, Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan , 'The overall suvey of the Ocean Shores', 1433. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.The country of Hsi-Lan (Ceylon) / The country of the naked people (Nicobar and Andaman Islands)
Putting out to sea from the South of Mao mountain and travelling towards the north-east with a fair wind for three days, you see Ts’ui lan mountains situated in the middle of the sea. These mountains number three or four; but one mountain is very high and large; the foreign name for it is An-tu-man mountain.
The people of those places dwell in caves; men and women have naked bodies, all without a stitch of clothing, like the bodies of brute beasts. The land does not produce rice; but they eat such things as mountain-tubers, jack-fruit, and bananas; sometimes they catch fish and shrimps in the sea and eat them.
The people have a traditional saying that if they have a stitch of cloth on their bodies, they will develop septic ulcers. In olden times Shih-chia Buddha crossed the sea and went ashore at this place; having taken off his clothing, he entered the water to bathe; the people there stole and hid his clothes; they were cursed by Shih-chia; this is the reason why, right down to the present day, the people have been unable to wear clothing.
[The place] commonly called Ch’u luan wu is this country.
After the ship has passed here and traveled towards the west for seven days, you see Parrot’s Beak mountain; two or three days later you come to Buddha Hall mountain; then you reach the jetty in the country of Hsi-lan; its name is Pieh-lo-li; from this the ship is moored, and you go ashore and walk on dry land.
In this place, on a shining stone at the foot of a mountain beside the sea, there is a single foot-print about two ch’ih long; the saying is that when Shih~chia came from Ts’ui lan mountains and went on shore from this place, his foot trod on this stone, and therefore the footprint is still, preserved. Inside [the foot-print] there is fresh water which never dries; [and] the people all dip their hands in this water and wash their faces and wipe their eyes, saying ‘The water of Buddha is pure and untainted.’
On the left-hand side there is a temple of Buddha, which contains the complete body of Shih-chia Buddha lying on its side; it is still preserved uncorrupted; the couch on which it rests is made of sinking incense wood, decorated with inlaid precious stones of every kind; it is most beautiful. They also have a tooth of Buddha and relics of the living and other such things in the hall. This is precisely the place where Shih-chia entered into Nirvana.
Again, if you go north for forty or fifty li, you reach the city where the king resides. The king of the country is a man of the So-li race; he is a firm believer in the Buddhist religion; he venerates the elephant and the cow.
The people take cow-dung, burn it to ashes, and smear it all over their bodies; they do not dare to eat cows; they consume only the milk; if a cow dies, then they bury it. If a person secretly slaughters a cow, the king’s law imposes the penalty of death; or else pays gold as large as a cow’s head to redeem the penalty.
In the king’s domain, both the great personages and the common folk each morning take cow-dung, mix it thin with water, and smear it all over the surface of the ground underneath the house; after that they worship Buddha. Both hands are stretched out straight in front of them, both legs are extended straight behind them, and both breast and stomach are glued to the ground—and they perform their worship.
At the side of the king’s residence, there is a large mountain which. penetrates high into the clouds; on the summit of the mountain there is the single imprint of a man’s foot, which goes two ch'ih deep into the rock and has a length of more than eight ch’ih; they say that it is the foot-print of a holy man A-tan, ancestor of mankind, that is, P’an Ku.
The interior of this mountain produces red ya-ku, blue ya-ku, yellow ya-ku, blue mi-lan stones, hsi-la-ni, k’u-mo-lan, and other such; they have each and every precious stone. Whenever heavy rain occurs, the water rushes out of the earth and flows down amidst the sand; they search for and collect, and that is how they get them. There is a common saying that the precious stones are in truth the crystallized tears of Buddha their patriarch.
In the sea there is a stretch of snow-white floating sand; when the sun or moon shines on the sand, it sparkles brilliantly like ripples on the water; every day the pearl-oysters collect together on the sand. The king has constructed a pearl-pond; [and] once in two or three years he orders men to take pearl-oysters and pour them out into the pond; he sends men to guard over this pond; they wait until the [pearl-oysters] are decayed and rotten, then with water they scour out the pearls, and take them to the officials; [but] it also happens that they are stolen and sold in other countries.
The territory of the country is extensive, and the people numerous— second only to Chao-wa. The populace have an abundance of supplies.
The men, as regards the upper body, have bare shoulders; around the lower part a coloured silk kerchief, to which they add a waist-band. The whole body is shaved clean of all traces of hair; they keep only the hair on the head, they use a white cloth to bind round the head. If father or mother dies, he does not shave his beard; this is the rite of filial duty.
The women dress the hair in a chignon at the back of the head; [and] they surround the lower part with a white cloth.
The newly-born boys have the head shaved; girls retain the hair with which they were born; it is not shaved off, and accordingly it is kept until they are grown up.
They never eat their rice without butter and cow’s milk; when people wish to eat their rice, they eat privately in a secluded place, without letting people see them. In everyday life areca-nut and betel-leaf are never out of their mouths.
Rice and grain, sesame, and lentils—all these they have; but they have neither barley nor wheat. The coconut is very abundant; oil, sugar, and wine are all manufactured from this article for human consumption.
When people die, they are cremated, and the bones are buried. When there is a funeral in a family, the wives of the relations and friends assemble, and all together with both hands, strike their breasts and wail and lament, in accordance with their rites.
For fruits, they have bananas, jack-fruit, and sugar-cane; gourds, vegetables, oxen, goats, fowls, and ducks—all these they have.
The king makes coins of gold, these are in current use; each coin weighs, on our official steelyard, one fen six li.
The musk, hemp-silk, coloured silk-taffeta, blue porcelain dishes and bowls, copper coins, and camphor of the Central Country are very much liked; and so they take precious stones and pearls to give in exchange.
The king constantly sends men with offerings of precious stones and other such things; they accompany the treasure-ships returning from the Ocean and bring tribute to the Central Country.