The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 469 (Color Image)

0469	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

CHAP. XXXIII. THE ISLAND OF MADEIGASCAR

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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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