A SPANISH DESCRIPTION OF THE CHAMS IN 1595 By C.R, Boxer (Indiana University) The "Relacion de las Costumbres del Reyno de Champa", which appears together with an English translation below, is taken from an anonymous and undated account on fls, 303-05 of a manuscript codex compiled at Ma- nila about 1590-95, which has been described in greater detail elsewhere. (2) It gives the impression of having been included in the codex as an after thought, possibly as part of the documentation then being assembled by Don Luis Pérez das Marinas in justification of his schemes for the conquest of Cambodia and other states of Indochina, concerning which a good deal of information is available in print, (2) It has certain affinities with the description of Champa given by Blas Ruiz de Hernan Gonzdlez at Manila on the 7 December 1595, judging by the summary of this last document given in Maggs Bros., Catalogue 515 (London, 1929), item nr, 5, (3) but there are also some marked differences, For instance, Hernan Gonzalez states that Islam was already well entrenched and making marked progress in Champa; whereas this anonymous account makes no mention of the Mus- lim faith, and implies that Hinduism in its Shivaite form was the only ac- cepted religion, Despite its obvious exaggerations, misapprehensions, and deficiencies, this account is not without a certain interest, as we know very little about conditions in Champa at this period, ‘The kingdom was then reduced to a small "rump" state, centering around the two southern provinces of Kau- thara and Panduranga after the sack of Vijaya by the Vietnamese in 1471. Phe late Georges Maspéro in his classic Le Royaume de Champa (Paris 1928), after narrating the fall of Vijaya, added: "Je compte d’ ailleurs, par la suite, donner une histoire succincte des derniéres luttes de Champa contre Ll’ Annam, et rapporter en meme temps les documents européens sur cette contrée, assez nombreux a partir du XVI" sigcle", (4) So far as I now, he was unable to do so, which affords another excuse for the publication of this brief account, During the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, it was suggested that perhaps the information was mainly of Chinese origin, sin- ce it resembled that given in earlier Chinese texts,preea Notes ( (2) @, C.R. Boxer, "A late sixteenth-century Manila MS", in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, April, 1950, pp. 37-49. Antonio de Morga - W.E, Retana, Sucesos de las islas Filipinas, 1609 (Madrid, 1910), pp. 35-42, 63-96, 123-25; Gabriel Quiroga de San Antonio, O.P. - Antoine Cabaton, Breve et véridique rela~ tion des événements du Cambodge (Paris, 1914); Antoine Cabaton (ed.), Le Mémorial de Pedro Sevil 8 Philippe III sur la conquéte de U Indochine (Paris, 1916); Diego Aduarte, O.P., Historia de la Pro- Vineia del Sancto Rosario de la Orden de Predicadores en Philippinas. Tapon, y China (Manila, 1640), I, 207-228, 259-62, 283-88; Il, 378- 94; Pedro Torres y Lanzas - Pablo Pastells, S.J., Catdlogo de los documentos relativos 4 las islas Filipinas existentes en el archivo de Indias de Sevilla, Vol. IV, 1595-1602 (Barcelona, 1928), pp. xxii, Txxix-Lexxiv, boxxvii-viii, ciii-eviii, cliii-clx, 56, 81, 118, 107, 108, 113-116, 119, 125, 128-30, 141, 148, 150; E.H. Blair & JA, Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1498-1898, Vol, IX, 1593-1597 (Cleveland, Ohio, 1903), pp. 161-180, 198-203; Maggs Bros. , Cata- logue 515, Bibliotheca Asiatica, Part III (London, 1929), pp. 21- B.P. Groslier and C.R. Boxer, Angkor et le Cambodge au XVI° siécle d’ aprés les sources portugaises et espagnoles (Par pp, 34-62, 178, Recently (Dec, 1967) offered for sale by H.P, Kraus of New York at $3, 500. Le Royaume de Champa (1928), pp, 238-41, Published forty years ago, this is still the standard work on the subject of which it treats, though supplemented in some respects by Jean Boisselier, La Statuaire du Champa. Recherches sur les cultes et 1’ iconographie (Paris, 1963). 36fl, 303 Relacion de las Costumbres del Reyno de Champa f1,303 verso Es tierra muy fertil de mantinentientos y ganado mayor, e muy sana en si, La gente que tiene no es muncha, son de color basa e gentiles, Visten como los moros de esta ysla de Luzon; y‘desde el principio hasta agoranno an quebran- tado ninguna de sus costumbres antiguas, En este reyno no ay moneda ni plata adonde se venda cosa alguna; e para aver de comprar lo que se tiene menester, truecan mantimientos por mantas y otras cosas que hazen al proposito entream- bas partes del que compra y el que vende; y asi se negogia, aunque sea en tratos de mayor quantia, Esta gente no comen ninguna cosa guisada, sino cruda o podrida, y para desistir y deshazer estas comidas son grandes bebedores de agua ardiente fortisima, y bebenla muy poco a poco y munchas vezes, y no tienen por afrenta a caer de beber muncha; mas antes quando los grandes y el Rey an de consultar algun negocio de ynportancia, comen primero todos juntos, y beben a discregion, y despues determinan lo que se a de hazer del negocio y se cumple ynfaliblemente, La justicia de estagente es estrana, porque no es crimen para cosa alguna sino con- forme a su parecer, y quando la cosa es grave con dos testi- gos lo averiguan, Sus juramentos son de fuego y aseyte hirviendo, y los cul- pados a la muerte se executa en ellos con grandissima crueldad la sentencia; a unos condenan a morir debajo de pies de eleffantes, otros a agotes, otros teniendolos penando dos o tres dias, sacandole bocados y partes de su cuerpo con tenasas y cortandolas hasta que muere; y por cosas muy leves y ordinarias les cortan pies y manos, bragos y orejas, y con esto satisfazen la culpa de qualguiere delito, y no con agotes ni dineros ni prisiones, En este reyno por la razon dicha se concluyen luego los negogios de ynproviso, y los juezes de estas causas son el Rey y los que goviernan la tierra que son quatro mandarines, Nadie puede andar calsado sino solo el Rey, ni puede ser casado con mas de dos muje- res, El Rey y los principales de este reyno ninguno de ellos dexa de tener su ofigio, y todos lo usan por su contento, Tienen el ano repartido en seys fiestas, la primera que hazen es que todos los mas de sus vasallos le pagan tributo en esta primera fiesta de lo que poseen; base el Rey a un campo, y alli se juntan todos estos tributos y ellos da luego por las animas de sus difuntos de limosna, y haze grandes obsequias y honras en memoria dellos, alsando un ariguefl, 304 fl, 304 v. que es como una Viga por memoria, Cada ano este arigue esta gulco por de dentro y alli le meten sus vestidos para que se vista, y al pie del arigue ponen grandes comidas hechas a su uso; y luego suben a cavallo en unos animales que aman carabaos, que son propriamente bufanos de Ytalia, y en algunos cavallos que tienen, y corren munchas carreras en ellos y en los carabaos; y tienen por bisarria y honra salir descalabrados al cabo de esta fiesta, y asi el que mas caydas a dado sale mas honrado, En estas fies- tas estan dos meses, La segunda fiesta es que dura otro tanto tiempo como esta, y gastanla solo en cantar, de mane- ra que no se a de hazer otra cosa ni dexar de cantar por cosa ninguna, Y esto salvo a ora de comer, Esta fiesta se haze en la plaga donde el Rey vive, adonde comen esplendi- damente, a las noches hazen comedias, representando las constumbres, Ritos y trajes de otras tierras vezinas suyas, Tienen livertad las mugeres en estas fiestas de qualquier estado que sean, de que no les se a pedida quenta de sus personas en tres dias, sino que hazan lo que quisieren dellas, [La] tercera fiesta es que se van a la orilla del mar y alli estan otros dos meses pescando; y el Rey es el primero que echa su red a la mar, y luego los principales tras el, y asi por su horden los demas, En esto se guelgan todo este tiempo, trayendo pescado para todo el ano, echandolo en sus tinajas con muy poca sal; y de esta manera lo comen podrido, Y esto tienen por gran regalo; y quando fresco lo parten muy menudo, y con genxibre verde y pimienta revuel- ta lo comen; y su vino de arroz muy fuerte en cima, Y con este mantenimiento andan muy regios y rebustos. Quando el Rey se vuelve a la ciudad, se ordenan luminarias de noche y de dia, con algunas comedias y corridas en publico que haze el Rey, Esta quando buelve el Rey es la quarta fiesta que tienen, La quinta es que va el Rey a casa de elefantes, que en esta tierra ay munchos, Ilevando consigo los grandes y principales de su reyno, y en sus elefantes henbras, y con quinientos 0 seyscientos Indios sus redes de mecates que son de cuerdas de bexuco, y sercan el monte donde ellos andan; y entran las hembras en el lugar donde andan los elefantes bravos, los quales se van atras ellas hasta a entrarse en un pequeno lugar, que para esto tienen sercado, y muy fuerte, y alli los tienen presos algunos dias hasta que se amansan, De esta manera cogen grande cantidad, aunque matan munchos de ellos por aprovechar de los cornillos de marfil. Lapostre- ra fiesta que hazen es una casa de tigueres (sic), y antes que 38fl, 305 £1,305 verso vayan a casarlos se hazen grandes comidas y bebidas, porque dizen que con esta fiesta y alegria que ellos toman (? coman) vajan los tigueres a comer los bufanos que tienen amarrados en ciertos puestos en un arbol; a estos ponen sentinelas, para que quando los tigueres vajen a comer vengan a dar aviso a el Rey, y este se haze con muncho cuydado; y en el punto que le viene el aviso esta el Rey aprestado con muncha cantidad de Indios e redes, y haze con ellos lo que con los elefantes; sercandolos una vez, y alli los mata, Es constumbre de estos Indios que en el Ynterque andan haziendo esta casa, despacha el Rey y en muger cien Indios o mas por esos caminos con mandato expreso de que no se buelvan sin que traygan dos bagos de oro que les dan Ilenos de xel de gen- te, la qual a de ser de su misma nagion y no de otra, y ellos lo cumplen como se les manda, no perdonando a ninguna persona que hallen, sea chica o grande como ellos la puedan cojer por los caminos, y luego lo amarran a un arbol, y alli le sacan la hiel, y en su lugar le meten en la herida un poco de gacate, que es la yerva de estas tierras, Echo esto vienen a el Rey y el trae veynte o treynta tigueres, y estos matan en la ciudad, echandolos a bufanos, y matandolos con agagayas. Esto se haze en una plaga echa al proposito para esto; en esta se junta toda la gente de la tierra a verlos, A cabo de todo esto, sale el Rey y su muger a una ribera que tienen en la ciudad, muy linda, en cima de sus elefantes y alli se banan y laban con esta yel de gente; y dizen que con esto se lavan de sus culpas y pecados, y viven con este engano, ‘Tienen por dioses a sus principales y antepasados, a los quales piden todo lo que an menester, Tienen otra constum- bre ynventada por el mismo demonio, y es que quando se muere alguna persona principal quemanla, y antes dello esta ocho o diez dias el cuerpo hasta que se le haze el apa- rato conbentente a su estado, quemanto en el campo; y en murriendo que muere prenden a todos los criados familiares de este que muere, y guardanlos hasta el mismo dia que queman el cuerpo del amo o de la ama, y alli los echan vivos con el, Ilevando consigo todas las cosas con que aca le ser- vian para que en el otro mundo les sirvan, por que este engano tienen entre los demas, echan los todos en una gran Oguera o corral de fuego que tienen para este efecto, que son entre ellos sus sepulccos y entierros, Otra constumbre guardan de arto trauajo para las mugeres, y es que quando el marido muere queman a la muger conele, 39y por el consiguente todos los criados delle y della, Esta ley dizen se hizo porque las mugeres no diesen yerva a sus maridos porque ay grandisimos echisos y vellaquerias en estas tierras, y grande aparejo en el conocimiento de las yervas que tienen, que es muncho, de las quales se aprovechan para estos efectos, Dizen que sabiendo la muger que no a de vivir mas de lo que viviere su marido que procurara su vida y regalo, y no se atrevera a matallo como dicho tengo con yerva. Otras munchas cosas guardan, pero por evitar prolijidad no se escriven, por ser estas las principales de que se tlene noticia, y que ellos guardan entre si, Relation of the Customs of the Kingdom of Champa It is a land very fertile in foodstuffs and cows and oxen and very healthy in itself, It is not thickly populated, (1) and the people are swarthy and heathens, They dress like the Muslims of this island of Luzon; and from the earliest times to the present day they have broken none of their ancient customs, In this kingdom there is no money nor silver with which to sell anything; and in order to buy what they need, they exchange foodstuffs for cotton blankets and other things which they make for the purpose of buying and selling with each other; and they trade in this way even when trading on a large scale, (2) These people do not eat anything properly cooked, but only in raw or putrid condition; and in order to digest and consume these foods, they are great drinkers of very strong spirits, which they drink little by little and very frequently, thinking it no disgrace to fall down from drinking too much; but rather, when the great ones and the king: have to discuss any weighty matter, they first gather round eating all together and drink their fill, and then they decide what to do about the matter, and execute it infallibly, The justice of this people is peculiar, for they have no fised criminal code, but only their personal opinions, and when the case is a serlous one, they investigate it with two witnesses, Their oaths are made with fire and boiling oil, and those condemned to death are executed with great barbarity, Some are sentenced to be trampled to death by elephants; others are flogged to death; others are tortured for two or three days, during which time bits and pieces are cut out of their bodies with pincers until they die. And for very trifling and common offen- ces, they cut off their feet, hands, arms, and ears; punishing all offences in this way, and not with mere flogging, fines, or imprisonment. For this reason, all affairs in this kingdom are decided summarily, and the judges 40of these matters are the king and those who administer the land, who are four mandarins, Nobody is allowed to go shod, save only the king, and no- body can be married with more than two wives, The king and all the great men of this kingdom each have their own allotted tasks, which they do not fail to practice, and this entirely for their own satisfaction, They divide the year into six festivals, during the first of which the vast majority of his vassals pay tribute [to the king] out of what they possess. (3) The king goes to a field, and there they assemble all these tributes, out of which they make alms to the souls of their dead, and perform great obse- quies and funeral rites in their memory, raising a stake which is like a beam in memory of them, Each year this stake is hollow [ ?] on the inside, and there they place their clothes so that the spirits [?] may dress, and at the foot of the stake they place great dishes of food after their manner, (4) They then mount (as if they were horses) some animals which they call carabaos, which are just like Italian buffaloes, and on some horses which they have; and they run many races on these and on the buffaloes, And they regard it as a great honour and prestige to finish up with broken pates at the end of this feast, and thus he who has had the most falls has acquired the greatest honour, (5) These festivals last for two months, The second festival lasts as long as this one, and they spend the whole of their time in singing, to the exclusion of everything else, except when they are actually eating their meals, This festival is held in the square where the king lives, where they eat magnificently, and at night-time they have plays in which they depict the customs, rites, and dresses of other lands adjoining their own, During these festivals the women, of whatsoever condition they be, have liberty to do what they like for the space of three days, during which they are not asked to account for their behaviour, In the third festival, they go to the sea- side, where they stay fishing for another two months; and the king is the first to cast his net into the sea, followed by the leading men, and then by all the others successively in accordance with their res- pective ranks, (6) They make merry the whole of this time in this way, catching enough fish to last them for the year, pickling it in their jars, with just a little salt, and they eat it putrid in this manner, They regard it as a great dainty; and when it is fresh, they cut it into little pieces, and eat it mixed with green ginger and pepper, with their very strong rice- wine on top of it, And they thrive very strong and lusty on this food, When the king returns to the city, they display lights by night and day, putting on plays and races in public, in which the king participates, This celebra- tion when the king returns is the fourth of their festivals. The filth is when the king goes hunting elephants, of which there are many in this land, tak- ing with him the nobility and chief men of his kingdom; and they take along their female elephants, together with 500 or 600 Indians with their fibre nets, which are cords of rattan, and they surround the hill where the ele- phants are; and the females go into the place where the wild elephants are, 4Lwhich follow after the former into a Little space which they have very strong- ly stockaded off for this purpose, and there they keep them for some days until they are tamed, In this way they capture a great number of them, even though they kill many for the sake of their ivory tusks, The last fes- tival which they celebrate is a tiger-hunt; and before they go and hunt them, they hold great banquets and drinking- bouts, because they say that with the noise and joyfulness of this feast, the tigers come to eat the buffa- loes, which are tied to a tree in certain places, They place sentinels over them, so that when the tigers approach, the king is informed accordingly, and this they do very carefully, And as soon as this news arrives, the king gets ready with a great number of Indians and nets, and they do with the tigers like they do with the elephants, surrounding them at once, and kill- ing them there and then, It is the custom with these Indians that at the time when they are occupied in this hunt, the king and his wife send out a hund- red or more Indians along the roads, with express order that they should not return without filling two gold basins which they give them, full of hu- man gall, which must be from people of their own nation and not foreigners; and these emissaries do as they are told, not sparing anyone they meet, whether of high or low degree, As soon as they can.catch a person on the roads, they tie them at once to a tree, and there they cut out the gall, and in its place they smear the wound with a little cacate, which is the [heal- ing ?] herb of those regions, When this is done, they retarn to the king, and he brings twenty or thirty tigers, which they kill in the city, throwing them to the buffaloes, and killing them with javelins, This is done in a square which they make expressly for this purpose, and where all the people of the region assemble to see them, When all this is over, the king and his wife go to a very beautiful river-bank which they have in this city, riding on their elephants, and there they bathe and wash themselves with this human gall; and they say that in this way they cleanse themselves of their sins and faults, and they live in this mistaken belief, (7) They look upon their great ones and their ancestors as gods, to whom they pray for everything they want, They have another custom invented by the Devil him- self, which is that when any leading personage dies, they cremate the body, after it has been kept for eight or ten days until they have made the necessa- ry preparations in accordance with the quality of the deceased, when they burn it in the field, When such a person dies, they seize all the household servants and keep them until the same day on which they burn the body of their master or mistress, and then they throw them alive into the flames, taking with them all the things with which they served them in this Life, so that they can serve them therewith in the other, for they have this erroneous belief among others, throwing everything into a huge bonfire or fire-pit, which they have for this purpose and which serve as their sepulchres and graveyards, Another custom which they have, which is a very harsh one for women, is that when the husband dies, they burn the wife with him, 42|| and likewise all the servants of them both, They say that this law was made to prevent wives from giving [poisonous] herbs to their husbands, for there are very great witchcrafts and knaveries in these lands, and great skill in the knowledge of the poisonous herbs which they have and which they utilise for these results, They say that if the wife realises that she will not live any longer than her husband, she will take good care of his life and ease, and will not dare to kill him (as I have said) with poison. (8) They have many other customs, which, to avoid prolixity, are not described here, since these are the most important which have come to our knowledge, and which they keep among themselves. Notes (1) "Une mer mauvaise, des ports peu stirs, un sentier escaldant pénible- ment des cols escarpés y font les communications difficiles, et 1’ étroi- } tesse des vallées n’y peut, malgré la richesse du sol, nourrir qu’une : population peu nombreuse" (G, Maspéro, Le Royaume de Champa, p. ‘ 2) (2) Money was, perhaps, not entirely unknown, but trade was usually carried on by barter. cf. G. Maspéro, Le Royaume de Champa, p. 35, Chau Ju-kua, writing of Champa (Chou-ch” éng) at an earlier period, states: "Money is not used in trade; they barter with wine, rice, and other food substances; with these they settle their accounts yearly", (F,Hirth & W.W.Rockhill, Chau Ju- ua on the Chinese and Arab trade in the 12th and 13th centuries, St. Petersburg, 1911, p.48.) (3) "The full moon day of the eleventh moon is kept as the winter solstice, At that time cities and towns all bring the king the products of the soil and of their industry" (Firth & Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua, p. 48.) i (4) The Spanish text is very confused and possibly corrupt or incomplete here: but this may be a garbled reference to Shiva-worship in theform i of the linga, and placing offerings at the foot of the koga as described in G, Maspéro, Le Royaume de Champa, p. 39. Or it may refer to the lut, “stdles funéraires généralement privées de toute representation | humaine", discussed in J, Boisselier, La Statuaire du Champa (Paris, 1963), pp. 391-94, (5) Cf. G.Maspéro, Le Royaume de Champa, p. 23, (6) "In the fourth moon they play at boat- sailing, when they have a proces- sion of fishing-boats and look at them" (Firth & Rockhill, Chau Ju- Kua, p. 48), 43 |@ (8) Ido not know whether there was any foundation for this allegation con- cerning the ritual use of human gall, but it was widely believed by con- temporary Chinese and Europeans, and is echoed by Fr, Gabriel de San Antonio, O.P. (ed. Cabaton, Paris, 1914, p, 123), and by Fr, Diego Aduarte, O.P., Historia (Manila, 1640), 11,381, 383, among others. The prevalence of cremation and suttee, at any rate among the upper classes, is attested by Fr. Odoric de Pordenone O.F.M., as well as by Chinese travellers, Cf, G, Maspéro, Le Royaume de Champa, pp. 22, 32, 44