India: An artist's impression of the people of the Andaman Islands, based on the tales of Marco Polo (c.1254—1324).

Returning to Venice after 24 years of travelling in Asia, Marco Polo was imprisoned and spent the few months of his incarceration recounting his adventures to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, who incorporated the tales into a book he called 'The Travels of Marco Polo'. Although the book opened European eyes to the Chinese use of paper money and the burning of coal, many readers were more entranced with some of the legends and folklore that Marco Polo heard along the way. In India, he was told that the island people of the Andamans in the Indian Ocean had heads, eyes and teeth “like those of dogs”, which is what at least one artist sought to portray.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History