(Indica, 37.) Neither Name Is Quite Lost; The Latter Greater Island Is Kishm Or Brakht; The Former Jerun,[2] Perhaps

In old Persian Gerun or Geran, now again desert though no longer bushy, after having been for three centuries the

Site of a city which became a poetic type of wealth and splendour. An Eastern saying ran, "Were the world a ring, Hormuz would be the jewel in it."

["The Yuean shi mentions several seaports of the Indian Ocean as carrying on trade with China; Hormuz is not spoken of there. I may, however, quote from the Yuean History a curious statement which perhaps refers to this port. In ch. cxxiii., biography of Arsz-lan, it is recorded that his grandson Hurdutai, by order of Kubilai Khan, accompanied Bu-lo no-yen on his mission to the country of Ha-rh-ma-sz. This latter name may be intended for Hormuz. I do not think that by the Noyen Bulo, M. Polo could be meant, for the title Noyen would hardly have been applied to him. But Rashid-eddin mentions a distinguished Mongol, by name Pulad, with whom he was acquainted in Persia, and who furnished him with much information regarding the history of the Mongols. This may be the Bu-lo no-yen of the Yuean History." (Bretschneider, Med. Res. II. p. 132.) - H. C.]

NOTE 2. - A spirit is still distilled from dates in Persia, Mekran, Sind, and some places in the west of India. It is mentioned by Strabo and Dioscorides, according to Kaempfer, who says it was in his time made under the name of a medicinal stomachic; the rich added Radix Chinae, ambergris, and aromatic spices; the poor, liquorice and Persian absinth. (Sir B. Frere; Amoen.

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