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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. XXXVII. THE CITY OF ESIIER
443
q
And I must tell you another very strange thing.
You must know that their sheep have no ears, but where
the ear ought to be they have a little horn ! They are
pretty little beasts.3
And I must not omit to tell you that all their cattle,
including horses, oxen, and camels, live upon small fish
and nought besides, for 'tis all they get to eat. You see
in all this country there is no grass or forage of any kind ;
it is the driest country on the face of the earth. The
fish which are given to the cattle are very small, and
during March, April, and May, are caught in such
quantities as would astonish you. They are then dried
and stored, and the beasts are fed on them from year's
end to year's end. The cattle will also readily eat these
fish all alive and just out of the water.4
The people here have likewise many other kinds of
fish of large size and good quality, exceedingly cheap ;
these they cut in pieces of about a pound each, and dry
them in the sun, and then store them, and eat them all
the year through, like so much biscuit.5
NOTE 1.—Shilrr or Shehr, with the article, Es-SHEHR, still exists on the Arabian coast, as a town and district about 33o m. east of Aden. In 1839 Captain Haines described the modern town as extending in a scattered manner for a mile along the shore, the population about 6000, and the trade considerable, producing duties to the amount of 50001. a year. It was then the residence of the Sultan of the Hamúm tribe of Arabs. There is only an open roadstead for anchorage. Perhaps, however, the old city is to be looked for about ten miles to the westward, where there is another place bearing the same name, " once a thriving town, but now a desolate group of houses with an old fort, formerly the residence of the chief of the Kasaidi tribe." (J. R. G. S. IX. 151-152.) Shehr is spoken of by Barbosa (Xaer in Lisbon ed. ; Pecker in Ramusio ; Xeher in Stanley ; in the two last misplaced to the east of Dhofar) : " It is a very large place, and there is a great traffic in goods imported by the Moors of Cambaia, Chaul, Dabul, Batticala, and the cities of Malabar, such as cotton-stuffs . . . . strings of garnets, and many other stones of inferior value ; also much rice and sugar, and spices of all sorts, with coco-nuts ; . . . . their money they invest in horses for India, which are here very large and good. Every one of them is worth in India 500 or 600 ducats." (Ram. f. 292.) The name Shehr in some of the Oriental geographies, includes the whole coast up to Omán.
NOTE 2.—The hills of the Shehr and Dhafár districts were the great source of produce of the Arabian frankincense. Barbosa says of Shehr : " They carry away much incense, which is produced at this place and in the interior ; . . . . it is exported hence all over the world, and here it is used to pay ships with, for on the
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