IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
.r
a
444 MARCO POLO BOOK III.
spot it is worth only 150 farthings the hundredweight." See note 2, eh. xxvii. supra ; and next chapter, note 2.
NOTE 3.—This was no doubt a breed of four-horned sheep, and Polo, or his informant, took the lower pair of horns for abnormal ears. Probably the breed exists, but we have little information on details in reference to this coast. The Rev. G. P. Badger, D.C.L., writes : " There are sheep on the eastern coast of Arabia, and as high up as Mohammerah on the Shatt-al-Arab, with very small ears indeed; so small as to be almost inperceptible at first sight near the projecting horns. I saw one at Mohammerah having six horns." And another friend, Mr. Arthur Grote, tells me he had for some time at Calcutta a 4-horned sheep from Aden.
NOTE 4.—This custom holds more or less on all the Arabian coast from Shehr to the Persian Gulf, and on the coast east of the Gulf also. Edrisi mentions it at Shehr (printed Shajr, I. 152), and the Admiral Sidi 'Ali says : " On the coast of Shehr, men and animals all live on fish" (J. A. S. B. V. 461). Ibn Batuta tells the same of Dhafár, the subject of next chapter : " The fish consist for the most part of sardines, which are here of the fattest. The surprising thing is that all kinds of cattle are fed on these sardines, and sheep likewise. I have never seen anything like that elsewhere " (II. 197). Compare Strabo's account of the Ichthyophagi on the coast of Mekran (XV. I I), and the like account in the life of Apollonius of Tyana (III. 56).
[Burton, quoted by Yule, says (Sind Revisited, 1877, I. p. 33) : " The whole of the coast, including that of Mekrán, the land of the Máhi Khárán or Ichthyophagi." Yule adds : " I have seen this suggested also elsewhere. It seems a highly probable etymology." See note, p. 402.—H. C.]
NOTE 5.—At Hásik, east of Dhafár, Ibn Batuta says : " The people here live on a kind of fish called Al-Lukham, resembling that called the sea-dog. They cut it in slices and strips, dry it in the sun, salt it, and feed on it. Their houses are made with fish-bones, and their roofs with camel-hides" (II. 214).
CHAPTER XXXVIII. CONCERNING THE CITY OF DUFAR.
DUFAR is a great and noble and fine city, and lies 500
miles to the north-west of Esher. The people are
Saracens, and have a Count for their chief, who is
subject to the Soldan of Aden ; for this city still belongs
to the Province of Aden. It stands upon the sea and
has a very good haven, so that there is a great traffic of
shipping between this and India ; and the merchants
take hence great numbers of Arab horses to that market,
making great profits thereby. This city has under it
many other towns and villages.1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.