- A giraffe - made into a seraph by the Italians - had been
frequently seen in Italy in the early part of the century, there being one
in the train of the Emperor Frederic II. Another was sent by Bibars to the
Imperial Court in 1261, and several to Barka Khan at Sarai in 1263; whilst
the King of Nubia was bound by treaty in 1275 to deliver to the Sultan
three elephants, three giraffes, and five she-panthers. (Kington, I.
471; Makrizi, I. 216; II. 106, 108.) The giraffe is sometimes wrought in
the patterns of mediaeval Saracenic damasks, and in Sicilian ones imitated
from the former. Of these there are examples in the Kensington Collection.
I here omit a passage about the elephant. It recounts an old and
long-persistent fable, exploded by Sir T. Brown, and indeed before him by
the sensible Garcia de Orta.
NOTE 4. - The port of Zanzibar is probably the chief ivory mart in the
world. Ambergris is mentioned by Burton among miscellaneous exports, but
it is not now of any consequence. Owen speaks of it as brought for sale at
Delagoa Bay in the south.
NOTE 5. - Mas'udi more correctly says: "The country abounds with wild
elephants, but you don't find a single tame one. The Zinjes employ them
neither in war nor otherwise, and if they hunt them 'tis only to kill
them" (III. 7). It is difficult to conceive how Marco could have got so
much false information. The only beast of burden in Zanzibar, at least
north of Mozambique, is the ass. His particulars seem jumbled from various
parts of Africa. The camel-riders suggest the Bejas of the Red Sea
coast, of whom there were in Mas'udi's time 30,000 warriors so mounted,
and armed with lances and bucklers (III. 34). The elephant stories may
have arisen from the occasional use of these animals by the Kings of
Abyssinia. (See Note 4 to next chapter.)
[Illustration: Ethiopian Sheep.]
NOTE 6. - An approximation to 12,000 as a round number seems to have been
habitually used in reference to the Indian Islands; John of Montecorvino
says they are many more than 12,000; Jordanus had heard that there were
10,000 inhabited. Linschoten says some estimated the Maldives at 11,100.
And we learn from Pyrard de Laval that the Sultan of the Maldives called
himself Ibrahim Sultan of Thirteen Atollons (or coral groups) and of
12,000 Islands! This is probably the origin of the proverbial number. Ibn
Batuta, in his excellent account of the Maldives, estimates them at only
about 2000. But Captain Owen, commenting on Pyrard, says that he believes
the actual number of islands to be treble or fourfold of 12,000. (P. de
Laval in Charton, IV. 255; I.B. IV. 40; J.R.G.S. II. 84.)
NOTE 7. - The term "India" became very vague from an early date. In fact,
Alcuin divides the whole world into three parts, Europe, Africa, and
India.
