IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
AND THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 473
After leaving Kakula they sailed for thirty-four days, and then arrived at the Calm or Pacific Sea (ul Bahr-ul I~cchil), which is of a reddish tint, and in spite of its great extent is disturbed by neither winds nor. waves. The boats were brought into play to tow the ship, and the great sweeps of the junk were pulled likewise.1 They were thirty-seven days in passing this sea, and it was thought an excellent passage, for the time occupied was usually forty or fifty days at least. They now arrived at the country of TAwÂLISI, a name derived, according to Ibn Batuta, from that of its king.
It is very extensive, and the sovereign is the equal of the King of China. He possesses numerous junks with which he makes war upon the Chinese until they sue for peace, and consent to grant him certain concessions. The people are idolaters; their countenances are good, and they bear a strong resemblance to the Turks. They are usually of a copper complexion, and are very valiant and warlike. The women ride, shoot, and throw the javelin well, and fight in fact just
to say Dulaurier seems to accept the traveller's statement of the nutmeg being the fruit of the clove tree (Journ. Asiat., ser. iv, tom. ix, p. 248 ; Lassen, iv, 890). The notion that the clove was the flower of the nutmeg appears also to have prevailed in Europe, for it is contradicted in a work of the sixteenth century (Bode, Comment. in Theophrastum, p. 992). Mandeville says in this case simply and correctly : Know well that the nutmeg bears the maces, for right as the hazel hath a husk in which the nut is inclosed till it be ripe, so it is of the nutmeg and the maces" (p. 233).
What our author says however about the clove imported into the west consisting of the wood or branches is curious. A marginal note on the MS. translated by Lee observes : " This is perhaps what physicians call Kir fat-ul-Karanful or bark of clove." However that may be, no doubt it was the same as the Fusti di Gherofani• of Pegolotti and Uzzano (see note, supra, p. 305.) The term flower of clove cited in the text is also used by those writers.
I may note here that the Diction. de Trevoux, under the words Noix Giroflée or Noix de Madagascar, describes a nut of that island as Nux CaryophyIlacea; " La seconde écorce de cet arbre étant sechée ressemble en figure à la canelle, mais elle a le gout du girofle : on l'appelle Canelle Giroflée." I have not met with any recent description of' this which would appear to be the Kirfat-ul-Karanful just mentioned.
1 Polo mentions the practice of towing the large Chinese ships by their row-boats (iii, 1).
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