[Dr. Schlegel writes to me that according to the Malay Dictionary of Von de Wall and Van der Tuuk, n. 414-415, Polo’s Basman is the Arab pronunciation of Paseman, the modern Ophir in West Sumatra. Gunung Paseman is Mount Ophir.—­H.C.]

[Illustration:  The three Asiatic Rhinoceroses, (upper) Indicus, (middle) Sondaicus, (lower) Sumatranus.[2]]

NOTE 5.—­The elephant seems to abound in the forest tracts throughout the whole length of Sumatra, and the species is now determined to be a distinct one (E.  Sumatranus) from that of continental India and identical with that of Ceylon.[3] The Sumatran elephant in former days was caught and tamed extensively.  Ibn Batuta speaks of 100 elephants in the train of Al Dhahir, the King of Sumatra Proper, and in the 17th century Beaulieu says the King of Achin had always 900.  Giov. d’Empoli also mentions them at Pedir in the beginning of the 16th century; and see Pasei Chronicle quoted in J.  As. ser.  IV. tom. ix. pp. 258-259.  This speaks of elephants as used in war by the people of Pasei, and of elephant-hunts as a royal diversion.  The locus of that best of elephant stories, the elephant’s revenge on the tailor, was at Achin.

As Polo’s account of the rhinoceros is evidently from nature, it is notable that he should not only call it unicorn, but speak so precisely of its one horn, for the characteristic, if not the only, species on the island, is a two-horned one (Rh.  Sumatranus),[4] and his mention of the buffalo-like hair applies only to this one.  This species exists also on the Indo-Chinese continent and, it is believed, in Borneo.  I have seen it in the Arakan forests as high as 19 deg. 20’; one was taken not long since near Chittagong; and Mr. Blyth tells me a stray one has been seen in Assam or its borders.

[Ibn Khordadhbeh says (De Goeje’s Transl. p. 47) that rhinoceros is to be found in Kameroun (Assam), which borders on China.  It has a horn, a cubit long, and two palms thick; when the horn is split, inside is found on the black ground the white figure of a man, a quadruped, a fish, a peacock or some other bird.—­H.C.]

[John Evelyn mentions among the curiosities kept in the Treasury at St. Denis:  “A faire unicorne’s horn, sent by a K. of Persia, about 7 foote long.” Diary, 1643, 12th Nov.—­H.C.]

What the Traveller says of the animals’ love of mire and mud is well illustrated by the manner in which the Semangs or Negritoes of the Malay Peninsula are said to destroy him:  “This animal ... is found frequently in marshy places, with its whole body immersed in the mud, and part of the head only visible....  Upon the dry weather setting in ... the mud becomes hard and crusted, and the rhinoceros cannot effect his escape without considerable difficulty and exertion.  The Semangs prepare themselves with large quantities of combustible materials, with which they quietly approach the animal, who is aroused