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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XVIII. HUMPED OXEN AND FAT-TAILED SHEEP
99
extremity of a province called DALIVAR. He established
himself in that city and government, which he took from
the King of the country, ASEDIN SOLDAN by name, a
man of great power and wealth. And there abideth
N ogodar with his army, afraid of nobody, and waging
war with all the Tartars in his neighbourhood.4
Now that I have told you of those scoundrels and
their history, I must add the fact that Messer Marco
himself was all but caught by their bands in such a
darkness as that I have told you of ; but, as it pleased
God, he got off and threw himself into a village that was
hard by, called CONOsALMI. Howbeit he lost his whole
company except seven persons who escaped along with
him. The rest were caught, and some of them sold,
some put to death.5
n
NOTE I.—Ramusio has " Adam «s apple" for apples of Paradise. This was some kind of Citrus, though Lindley thinks it impossible to say precisely what. According to Jacques de Vitry it was a beautiful fruit of the Citron kind, in which the bite of human teeth was plainly discernible. (Note to Vulgar Errors, II. 21 I ; Bongars, I. 1099.) Mr. Abbott speaks of this tract as " the districts (of Kermán) lying towards the South, which are termed the Ghermseer or Hot Region, where the temperature of winter resembles that of a charming spring, and where the palm, orange, and lemon-tree flourish." (MS. Report; see also./ R. G. S. XXV. 56.)
[` ` Marco Polo's apples of Paradise are more probably the fruits of the Konár tree. There are no plantains in that part of the country. Turtle doves, now as then, are plentiful, and as they are seldom shot, and are said by the people to be unwholesome food, we can understand Marco Polo's saying that the people do not eat them." (IloutumSchindler, 1. c. pp. 492-493.)—H. C.]
The Francolin here spoken of is, as Major Smith tells me, the Darraj of the Persians, the Black Partridge of English sportsmen, sometimes called the Red-legged Francolin. The Darráj is found in some parts of Egypt, where its peculiar call is interpreted by the peasantry into certain Arabic words, meaning " Sweet are the corn-ears ! Praised be the Lord ! " In India, Baber tells us, the call of the Black Partridge was (less piously) rendered " Shír dáram shat rak," " I've got milk and sugar ! " The bird seems to be the dTTayàs of A thenaeus, a fowl " speckled like the partridge, but larger," found in Egypt and Lydia. The Greek version of its cry is the best of all : " Tpis TOCs KaKOÚpyOls KaKá " (" Threefold ills to the ill-doers ! "). This is really like the call of the black partridge in India as I recollect it. [ Tetrao francoliizus.—H. C.]
(Chrestomathie Arabe, II. 295 ; Baber, 320 ; Yonge's Atken. IX. 39.)
NOTE 2.—Abbott mentions the humped (though small) oxen in this part of Persia, and that in some of the neighbouring districts they are taught to kneel to receive the load, an accomplishment which seems to have struck Mas'udi (III. 27), who says he saw it exhibited by oxen at Rai (near modern Tehran). The Ain Akbari also ascribes it to a very fine breed in Bengal. The whimsical name Zebu, given to the
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