44 
IBN BATUTAH IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 
occasionally visited by Chinese vessels ; ^ here also was a fine 
mosque — always an interesting feature to Ibn Batiitali — to 
whicli was attached a college, the students being paid salaries 
(scholarships ?) out of the revenues of the temple. 
Jarfattan ((j^ y^-) obtains only a very casual notice ; its 
ruler, a powerful prince, was also sovereign of Dahiattan 
and Bud Fattan, coast towns, about which there seems to 
have been nothing worth recording, except the existence of a 
miraculous tree at the former place that shed but one leaf a 
year, on which was found invariably inscribed the Muham- 
madan formula : " There is no God but God, and Muham- 
mad was the messenger of God." 
Fandaraina, another coast town, possessed no objects of 
interest excepting fine gardens and markets. 
At Calicut (J=^aJU), where the embassy was to tranship 
for China, the little fieet was received by the authorities 
with all possible pomp and circumstance and escorted to an 
anchorage to the sound of timbrels^ trumpets, and clarions 
and with standards flying, all of which rejoicing was destined 
shortly to end in sorrow and disaster. Here the embassy 
waited three months for a favourable opportunity to start 
on the last portion of their journey. 
The reasons for this long delay are not, however, men- 
tioned, but their stay was made very agreeable, suitable 
accommodation was found for them in the town, and they 
were hospitably entertained by the sultan of the country. 
In the port of Calicut were thii'teen Chinese vessels. 
These were of three kinds— the large ships or jimks, the 
mediirm-sized vessels called zau, and the small ones or 
kalcams. 
The junks carried os many as twelve sails, made of a 
species of matting, which were allowed to float loosely in 
> Accordinc; to Ibn I!;\tutah the Chinese merchants had thi'ce ports of 
call on the Malabar coast, viz., Hill, Calicut, and KtUam. 
