Profit."
Cf. F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 200-202.
XXXII., pp. 406-7. Speaking of Scotra, Marco (II., p. 406) says: "The
ambergris comes from the stomach of the whale, and as it is a great object
of trade, the people contrive to take the whales with barbed iron darts,
which, once they are fixed in the body, cannot come out again. A long cord
is attached to this end, to that a small buoy which floats on the surface,
so that when the whale dies they know where to find it. They then draw the
body ashore and extract the ambergris from the stomach and the oil from
the head."
Chau Ju-kwa, at Chung-li (Somali Coast), has (p. 131): "Every year there
are driven on the coast a great many dead fish measuring two hundred feet
in length and twenty feet through the body. The people do not eat the
flesh of these fish, but they cut out their brains, marrow, and eyes, from
which they get oil, often as much as three hundred odd toeng (from a
single fish). They mix this oil with lime to caulk their boats, and use it
also in lamps. The poor people use the ribs of these fish to make rafters,
the backbones for door leaves, and they cut off vertebrae to make mortars
with."
SCOTRA.
