The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 66

[1] "_Drogue franche_:--Qui a les qualites requises sans melange"

(_Littre_). "_Franc_ ... Vrai, veritable" (_Raynouard_).

The mediaeval _Olibanum_ was probably the Arabic _Al-luban_, but was popularly interpreted as _Oleum Libani_. Dr. Birdwood saw at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 samples of frankincense solemnly labelled as the produce of Mount Lebanon!

"Professor Dumichen, of Strasburg, has discovered at the Temple of Dar-el-Bahri, in Upper Egypt, paintings ill.u.s.trating the traffic carried on between Egypt and Arabia, as early as the 17th century B.C.

In these paintings there are representations, not only of bags of olibanum, but also of olibanum-trees planted in tubs or boxes, being conveyed by s.h.i.+p from Arabia to Egypt." (_Hanbury_ and _Fluckiger_, _Pharmacographia_, p. 121.)

[2] Published in _J.R.G.S._, vol. XV. (for 1845).

[3] By courtesy of the publishers, Messrs. Ca.s.sell, Petter, & Galpin.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

CONCERNING THE GULF OF CALATU AND THE CITY SO CALLED.

Calatu is a great city, within a gulf which bears the name of the Gulf of Calatu. It is a n.o.ble city, and lies 600 miles from Dufar towards the north-west, upon the sea-sh.o.r.e. The people are Saracens, and are subject to Hormos. And whenever the Melic of Hormos is at war with some prince more potent than himself, he betakes himself to this city of Calatu, because it is very strong, both from its position and its fortifications.

[NOTE 1]

They grow no corn here, but get it from abroad; for every merchant-vessel that comes brings some. The haven is very large and good, and is frequented by numerous s.h.i.+ps with goods from India, and from this city the spices and other merchandize are distributed among the cities and towns of the interior. They also export many good Arab horses from this to India.

[NOTE 2] For, as I have told you before, the number of horses exported from this and the other cities to India yearly is something astonis.h.i.+ng.

One reason is that no horses are bred there, and another that they die as soon as they get there, through ignorant handling; for the people there do not know how to take care of them, and they feed their horses with cooked victuals and all sorts of trash, as I have told you fully heretofore; and besides all that they have no farriers.

This City of Calatu stands at the mouth of the Gulf, so that no s.h.i.+p can enter or go forth without the will of the chief. And when the Melic of Hormos, who is Melic of Calatu also, and is va.s.sal to the Soldan of Kerman, fears anything at the hand of the latter, he gets on board his s.h.i.+ps and comes from Hormos to Calatu. And then he prevents any s.h.i.+p from entering the Gulf. This causes great injury to the Soldan of Kerman; for he thus loses all the duties that he is wont to receive from merchants frequenting his territories from India or elsewhere; for s.h.i.+ps with cargoes of merchandize come in great numbers, and a very large revenue is derived from them. In this way he is constrained to give way to the demands of the Melic of Hormos.

This Melic has also a castle which is still stronger than the city, and has a better command of the entry to the Gulf.[NOTE 3]

The people of this country live on dates and salt fish, which they have in great abundance; the n.o.bles, however, have better fare.

There is no more to say on this subject. So now let us go on and speak of the city of Hormos, of which we told you before.

NOTE 1.--_Kalhat_, the _Calaiate_ of the old Portuguese writers, is about 500 m by shortest _sea-line_ north-east of Dhafar. "The city of Kalhat,"

says Ibn Batuta, "stands on the sh.o.r.e; it has fine bazaars, and one of the most beautiful mosques that you could see anywhere, the walls of which are covered with enamelled tiles of Kashan.... The city is inhabited by merchants, who draw their support from Indian import trade.... Although they are Arabs, they don't speak correctly. After every phrase they have a habit of adding the particle _no_. Thus they will say 'You are eating,-- no?' 'You are walking,--no?' 'You are doing this or that,--no?' Most of them are schismatics, but they cannot openly practise their tenets, for they are under the rule of Sultan Kutbuddin Tehemten Malik, of Hormuz, who is orthodox" (II. 226).

_Calaiate_, when visited by d'Alboquerque, showed by its buildings and ruins that it had been a n.o.ble city. Its destruction was ascribed to an earthquake. (_De Barros_, II. ii. 1.) It seems to exist no longer.

Wellsted says its remains cover a wide s.p.a.ce; but only one building, an old mosque, has escaped destruction. Near the ruins is a small fis.h.i.+ng village, the people of which also dig for gold coins. (_J.R.G.S_. VII.

104.)

What is said about the Prince of Hormuz betaking himself to Kalhat in times of trouble is quite in accordance with what we read in Teixeira's abstract of the Hormuz history. When expelled by revolution at Hormuz or the like, we find the princes taking refuge at Kalhat.

NOTE 2.--"Of the interior." Here the phrase of the G.T. is again "en fra tere _a mainte cite et castiaus_." (See supra, Bk. I. ch. i. note 2.)

There was still a large horse-trade from Kalhat in 1517, but the Portuguese compelled all to enter the port of Goa, where according to Andrea Corsali they had to pay a duty of 40 _saraffi_ per head. If these _ashrafis_ were paG.o.das, this would be about 15_l._ a head; if they were _dinars_, it would be more than 20_l._ The term is _now_ commonly applied in Hindustan to the gold mohr.

NOTE 3.--This no doubt is Maskat.

CHAPTER XL.

RETURNS TO THE CITY OF HORMOS WHEREOF WE SPOKE FORMERLY.

When you leave the City of Calatu, and go for 300 miles between north-west and north, you come to the city of Hormos; a great and n.o.ble city on the sea.[NOTE 1] It has a _Melic_, which is as much as to say a King, and he is under the Soldan of Kerman.

There are a good many cities and towns belonging to Hormos, and the people are Saracens. The heat is tremendous, and on that account their houses are built with ventilators to catch the wind. These ventilators are placed on the side from which the wind comes, and they bring the wind down into the house to cool it. But for this the heat would be utterly unbearable.

[NOTE 2]

I shall say no more about these places, because I formerly told you in regular order all about this same city of Hormos, and about Kerman as well. But as we took one way to go, and another to come back, it was proper that we should bring you a second time to this point.

Now, however, we will quit this part of the world, and tell you about Great Turkey. First, however, there is a point that I have omitted; to wit, that when you leave the City of Calatu and go between west and north-west, a distance of 500 miles, you come to the city of Kis.[NOTE 3]

Of that, however, we shall say no more now, but pa.s.s it with this brief mention, and return to the subject of Great Turkey, of which you shall now hear.

NOTE 1.--The distance is very correct; and the bearing fairly so for the first time since we left Aden. I have tried in my map of Polo's Geography to realise what seems to have been his idea of the Arabian coast.

NOTE 2.--These ventilators are a kind of masonry windsail, known as _Bad-gir_, or "wind-catchers," and in general use over Oman, Kerman, the province of Baghdad, Mekran, and Sind. A large and elaborate example, from Hommaire de h.e.l.l's work on Persia, is given in the cut above. Very particular accounts of these ventilators will be found in P. della Valle, and in the emba.s.sy of Don Garcias de Silva Figueroa. (_Della Val._ II.

333-335; _Figueroa_, Fr. Trans. 1667, p. 38; _Ramus._ I. 293 v.; _Macd.

Kinneir_, p. 69.) A somewhat different arrangement for the same purpose is in use in Cairo, and gives a very peculiar character to the city when seen from a moderate height.

["The structures [at Gombroon] are all plain atop, only _Ventoso's_, or Funnels, for to let in the Air, the only thing requisite to living in this fiery Furnace with any comfort; wherefore no House is left without this contrivance; which shews gracefully at a distance on Board s.h.i.+p, and makes the Town appear delightful enough to Beholders, giving at once a pleasing Spectacle to Strangers, and kind Refreshment to the Inhabitants; for they are not only elegantly Adorned without, but conveniently Adapted for every Apartment to receive the cool Wind within." (_John Fryer, Nine Years'

Travels_, Lond., 1698, p. 222.)]

NOTE 3.--On _Kish_ see Book I. ch. vi. note 2.

[Chao Ju-kua (transl. in German by Dr. F. Hirth, _T'oung Pao_, V. Supp. p.

40), a Chinese Official of the Sung Dynasty, says regarding Kish: "The land of _Ki-s.h.i.+h_ (Kish) lies upon a rocky island in the sea, in sight of the coast of Ta-s.h.i.+h, at half-a-day's journey. There are but four towns in its territories. When the King shows himself out of doors, he rides a horse under a black canopy, with an escort of 100 servants. The inhabitants are white and of a pure race and eight Chinese feet tall. They wear under a Turban their hair loose partly hanging on their neck. Their dress consists of a foreign jacket and a light silk or cotton overcoat, with red leather shoes. They use gold and silver coins. Their food consists of wheaten bread, mutton, fish and dates; they do not eat rice.

The country produces pearls and horses of a superior quality."--H.C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Persian Wind-Catcher.]

The Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali, who was sent in 1553 to command the Ottoman fleet in the Persian Gulf, and has written an interesting account of his disastrous command and travels back to Constantinople from India, calls the Island Kais, or "_the old Hormuz_." This shows that the traditions of the origin of the island of Hormuz had grown dim. _Kish_ had preceded Hormuz as the most prominent port of Indian trade, but old Hormuz, as we have seen (Bk. I. ch. xix.), was quite another place. (_J. As._ ser. i, tom. ix. 67.)

BOOK FOURTH

WARS AMONG THE TARTAR PRINCES AND SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN COUNTRIES