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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XIX. WINES AND SPIRITS
I15
very fruitful in every way except that there were no olives. The weary mariners landed and enjoyed this pleasant rest from their toils. (Indica, 33 ; J. R. G. S. V. 274.)
The name Formosa is probably only Rusticiano's misunderstanding of Harnzuza, aided, perhaps, by Polo's picture of the beauty of the plain. We have the same change in the old Mafomet for Mahomet, and the converse one in the Spanish hermzosa for formosa. Teixeira's Chronicle says that the city of Hormuz was founded by Xa Mahamed Dranku, i.e. Shah Mahomed Dirhem-Ko, in " a plain of the same name."
The statement in Ramusio that Hormuz stood upon an island, is, I doubt not, an interpolation by himself or some earlier transcriber.
When the ships of Nearchus launched again from the mouth of the Anamis, their first day's run carried them past a certain desert and bushy island to another which was large and inhabited. The desert isle was called Organa ; the large one by which they anchored Oaracta. (Indica, 37.) Neither name is quite lost ; the latter greater island is Kishm or Braklzt ; the former Jerún,* perhaps in old Persian Gerún or Gerún, now again desert though no longer bushy, after having been for three centuries the site of a city which became a poetic type of wealth and splendour. An Eastern saying ran, " Were the world a ring, Hormuz would be the jewel in it."
[" The Yüan ski mentions several seaports of the Indian Ocean as carrying on trade with China ; Hormuz is not spoken of there. I may, however, quote from the Yiian History a curious statement which perhaps refers to this port. In eh. cxxiii., biography of Arsz-lan, it is recorded that his grandson Hurdutai, by order of Kubilai Khan, accompanied Bu-lo no yen on his mission to the country of Ha-rh-ma-sz. This latter name may be intended for Hormuz. I do not think that by the Noyen Bulo, M. Polo could be meant, for the title Noyen would hardly have been applied to him. But Rashid-eddin mentions a distinguished Mongol, by name Pulad, with whom he was acquainted in Persia, and who furnished him with much information regarding the history of the Mongols. This may be the Bu-lo no yen of the Yiian History.' (Bretschneider, Med. Res. II. p. 132.)—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—A spirit is still distilled from dates in Persia, Mekran, Sind, and some places in the west of India. It is mentioned by Strabo and Dioscorides, according to Kämpfer, who says it was in his time made under the name of a medicinal stomachic ; the rich added Radix Clzinae, ambergris, and aromatic spices ; the poor, liquorice and Persian absinth. (Sir B. Frere ; Amoen. Exot. 750 ; llfacd. Kinneir, 220.)
E" The date wine with spices is not now made at Bender 'Abbás. Date arrack, however, is occasionally found. At Kermán a sort of wine or arrack is made with spices and alcohol, distilled from sugar ; it is called Má-ul-Háyát (water of life), and is recommended as an aphrodisiac. Grain in the Shamíl plain is harvested in April, dates are gathered in August." (Ilozztztm-Schindler, l.c. p. 496. )
See " Remarks on the Use of Wine and Distilled Liquors among the Mohammedans of Turkey and Persia," pp. 315-330 of Narrative ofa Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, and Mesopotamia. . . . By the Rev. Horatio Southgate, . . . London, 1840,
vol. ii.—H. C.]
[Sir H. Yule quotes, in a MS. note, these lines from Moore's Light of the Harem :
Wine, too, of every clime and hue,
Around their liquid lustre threw
Amber Rosolli t—the bright dew
From vineyards of the Green Sea gushing."] See above, p. 114.
* Sir Henry Rawlinson objects to this identification (which is the same that Dr. Karl Müller adopts), saying that Organa is more probably " Angan, formerly Argan." 'fo this I cannot assent. Nearchus sails 300 stadia from the mouth of Anamis to Oaracta, and on his way passes Organa. Taking 600 stadia to the degree (Dr. Müller's value), I make it just 300 stadia from the mouth of the Hormuz creek to the eastern point of Kishm. Organa must have been either Jerún or Lárek ; Angan (Hanjá;u of Mas'udi) is out of the question. And as a straight run must have passed quite close to Jerún not to Larek, I find the former most probable. Nearchus next day proceeds 200 stadia along Oaracta, and anchors in sight of another island (Neptune's) which was separated by 40 stadia from Oaracta. This was Angan ; no other island answers, and for this the distances answer with singular
precision.
t Moore refers to Persian Tales.
VOL. I.
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