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The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
CHAP. XXXIII. THE ISLAND OF MADEIGASCAR
411
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF MADEIGASCAR.
MADEIGASCAR is an Island towards the south, about a
thousand miles from Scotra. The people are all
Saracens, adoring Mahommet. They have four Lsheks,
i.e. four Elders, who are said to govern the whole
Island. And you must know that it is a most noble
and beautiful Island, and one of the greatest in the
world, for it is about 4000 miles in compass. The
people live by trade and handicrafts.
In this Island, and in another beyond it called ZAN-
GHIBAR, about which we shall tell you afterwards, there
are more elephants than in any country in the world.
The amount of traffic in elephants' teeth in these two
Islands is something astonishing.
In this Island they eat no flesh but that of camels ;
and of these they kill an incredible number daily. They
say it is the best and wholesoriiest of all flesh ; and so
they eat of it all the year round.l
They have in this Island, many trees of red sanders,
of excellent quality ; in fact, all their forests consist of
it.2 They have also a quantity of ambergris, for whales
are abundant in that sea, and they catch numbers of
them ; and so are Oil-heads, which are a huge kind of
fish, which also produce ambergris like the whale.'
There are numbers of leopards, bears, and lions in the
country, and other wild beasts in abundance. Many
traders, and many ships go thither with cloths of gold
and silk, and many other kinds of goods, and drive a
profitable trade.
You must know that this Island lies so far south that
ships cannot go further south or visit other Islands in
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