Islands in the Sea of Thyme


 * Islands in the Sea of Thyme FN1
 * by Jonathan I. Edelstein
 * 7 January 2002

From the Chronicles of Benjamin of Tudela, SE 250-53 [1022-1025 CE]:

... The island of Java is divided into many kingdoms. The western part of the island is held by the Srivijayans, but in the east there is no emperor; instead, there are only petty princes jealous of their domains. FN2

So rich is Java, however, that even the petty kings style themselves maharajas and are lords of great cities. The port of Rembang, for instance, is a city of ninety thousand souls with teeming markets and dockyards. The king of Rembang also commands rich rice fields and market towns in the interior, and forests of sandalwood and teak.

The kings of Java regard themselves as living gods and build great monuments and temples. The most spectacular of these is said to be the great stupa of Borobodur, built some two hundred years past by the kings of the Sailendra house. This temple consists of eight terraces containing statues, carved scenes from the life of the Buddha, and a shrine at the very highest level symbolizing the summit of spiritual perfection.

Several curious entertainments can be seen in Rembang. In the court of the king and the houses of the noble families, trained dancers perform the epics of India to the accompaniment of twenty-six musicians on drums, bars, stringed instruments and gongs. Dancers also perform for the common people, but these re-enact fanciful stories of the adventures of monkey warriors and birds. The people also enjoy the "shadow theater," where puppets are made to cast shadows behind a screen; these shows are most often comic stories or tales of the gods. FN3

There is also in Rembang a royal garden containing many fabulous beasts. Among these is a kind of ape with a man's face, which is called "the jungle man" in the tongue of the island. An ancient skull, which may be that of an ape from before the Flood, is also on display there...

... It is said that, beyond Java, there is no law but the law of the pirates. Indeed, throughout the Sundas and the Moluccas, pirate chieftains rule as kings, and command fleets that might better be called navies. There are few things more frightening than a pirate fleet sweeping down from the north, with the war gongs beating and hundreds of armed men preparing to board their prize. No village in Sulawesi or Kalimantan is safe from them, and they often carry entire towns off into slavery. The only defense against them, for merchantman and village alike, is to be swifter or stronger than they.

If not for the riches of the Spice Islands, I am sure that none would brave the pirates, but the prizes to be won there are so great that merchants willingly risk becoming prizes themselves. Three times the pirates attacked on my voyage from Rembang to Ambon, and three times we ran before the wind and escaped them, or drove them off with arrows and catapults of fire. Finally, the Moluccas lay before us...

... The wealth of the Spice Islands is worth little to their native tribes. The spices of the Moluccas are sold dearly in the markets of the west, but on the islands themselves they are common and cheaply bought. The Moluccan tribes are primitive and warlike, living in fear of the pirates and purchasing arms and trinkets from the sea merchants. These they pay for with nutmeg, camphor, aloes, scented oils and pepper -- the spices that are worth their weight in gold to those brave enough to carry them west. These spices are grown in great plantations worked by captured prisoners of war, and by slaves bought from the very pirates they fear...

... Merchants come to the Spice Islands from the north as well as the west -- from China, and even from the distant country of Nippon. The latter, to my great surprise, called themselves Jews, but also acknowledged the Buddha as a prophet and worshiped the gods of Nippon as their own. Their holy books spoke of Avraham Avinu as the grandson of the sun goddess. They spend much time cleansing themselves to be fit for prayer, but they do not hesitate to dirty their hands with the blood of pirates...

... Who can name all the islands beyond the Moluccas? There are a thousand of them and more, rising like emeralds from the eastern sea, and there is no end to them. Most are hardly more than islets, but three days' sail east of Ambon is the great land of Irian, which stretches farther east than any Javanese has ever sailed. Irian is a dangerous land; the coves of the western coast are dotted with pirate towns, and the tribesmen of the interior eat human flesh and take the heads of their enemies as trophies. Traders still go there, however, because of a nut that is mixed with lime and chewed by the native tribes. There is hardly a man or woman in Irian whose teeth are not blackened from chewing this nut, which is said to transport them to the realm of the gods... FN4

... The merchants of the eastern sea also tell stories of an even greater land far to the south. There, by a riverside a short distance in from the coast, can be found diamonds of many colors. Of these, the pink stones are the rarest, and are sold for fabulous prices in the markets of Java and Kedah. FN5

This land, or so I am told, is inhabited by a people of unknown origin, who paint their faces and bodies in intricate patterns and sing songs of the "dream time" before history. They hunt with sticks that return to them when thrown, and their prey is as strange as themselves -- beasts that hop on their hind legs and carry their young in pouches. None but these tribesmen, and a few miners, inhabit their land, as it is a desert that none but them would want...

... The storm caught us off the southern coast of Irian and tossed us about the sea for eleven days. Only by the grace of God did we survive, and the storm took us far to the east before it ended. From there, the winds and currents bore us to the east and south, away from any land we knew. We were sure that thirst and starvation would take us where the storm had not, but then we found land to the east...

... The island upon which we found ourselves was inhabited by a race of men who spoke no language known to us. Our first meeting with them placed us in deadly danger, because they regarded us as invaders, but gifts of jewelry and swords to their chief convinced them to allow us to land. Later, I learned that if we had not been so generous, we would have been eaten.

As time passed and we repaired our ship, we learned their speech; they called themselves the Maori, and their island Aotearoa. FN6 On the seventh day after our arrival, they bade us to a feast and served us roast pig and fish. I alone refused their offer of pork; when I explained that the law of the Torah forbade me to eat it, they offered their condolences for having such a harsh god. They explained that they had lately arrived from another island far to the east called Havaiki, and that they made the dangerous journey back and forth in great canoes. FN7 I was more tempted than I can say to seek out Havaiki and follow the curve of the earth eastward until I emerged again in the west, but the oceans beyond held dangers that our ship could not bear.

We were nine months on Aotearoa before our vessel was once again fit to sail...