IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLDS CATTLE FED ON FISHES •I 94.
openings of the ears where the others have, but where the opening of the ear ought to R v
be is a little horn,' and lower down towards the nose they have two openings in place of the R
ears.. And they are small animals and beautiful. Moreover I tell you again a thing v
that will really seem wonderful to you. For you may know quite truly that their
animals, these are sheep, oxen, and camels, and their little nags, are accustomed to LT
cat fish, and this is most of their common & daily food which they give to their animals; and TA3 LT TA
this is because in all their land there is no green grass nor grain, nor in all that country, R LT
but it is the driest place which is found on earth through the great heat. And you may v VB
know that the fishes which the animals eat are very small and there are many streams2 VB
where they are caught in the months of March and in April and in May in such vast y
quantities that it is a wonder. Moreover I tell you that they dry them in salt. & raw VB VL
and put them away in the houses . And then they give them to their animals to eat all z v
the year like hay. And again I tell you that the animals like then' so much that they L TA
also eat them all fresh and alive just as they are taken from the water, though they L P
are more used to the dry. And they have also large fish and good and in great abundance
and very cheap. And I tell you that for the dearth of grain they even make biscuit R R
loaves of the said large fish in this way; for they cut them in small strips which can P P R
be about one pound, and boil them and press out the juice from them, • and with some flour G R
they make a liquor • and sprinkle those pieces and stick them together and mix them together as P
is done with flour when dough is made of wheat, • and they knead them together and make loaves vA
of fish,. and bake them and have them dried and hardened in the burning sun, and then G R R
they put them back [95cí in the houses; and they keep very well and they eat them P
very gladly all the year like biscuit.' And about the incense of which I have told G
you that it grows there in so great quantity, the lord buys it for ten bezants of
gold the cantar, but afterwards the lord sells it to the other people and to the
merchants' who come there for forty bezants the cantar. And this lord of Scier does z
this and collects for the sultan of the province of Aden; for the sultan of Aden causes incense
to be bought through all his district for himself at the price of ten pounds and afterwards to be sold
for forty as has been said. And from this especially' the lord of this city has very great
profit and very great revenue. There is nothing else in this city which does to
1 FB: petit partuis, "little hole". VB: "which have the ears where the others the nose, the nose where the others have the ears."
2 G: in dem mere 3 G: das heysit brot viscotum, das is brot von vischin.
4 Z(p. civ.): mercatoribus cantarre The meaning of this is obscure, and it may be that cantarre should simply be omitted. A cantaro was a measure weighing (at Florence) 15o pounds. See PN.
5 propes de cest perhaps for propemant de cest
443
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