-
"Cosi serva su' filo,
Ed e chiamato Nilo.
D'un su' ramo si dice,
Ch' e chiamato Calice."
- Tesoretto, pp. 81-82.
Also in the Sfera of Dati: -
- "Chiamasi il Caligine
Egion e Nilo, e non si sa l'origine." P. 9.
The word is (Ar.) Khalij, applied in one of its senses specially to the
canals drawn from the full Nile. The port on the Red Sea would be either
Suakin or Aidhab; the 30 days' journey seems to point to the former.
Polo's contemporary, Marino Sanudo, gives the following account of the
transit, omitting entirely the Red Sea navigation, though his line
correctly represented would apparently go by Kosseir: "The fourth haven is
called AHADEN, and stands on a certain little island joining, as it were,
to the main, in the land of the Saracens. The spices and other goods from
India are landed there, loaded on camels, and so carried by a journey of
nine days to a place on the River Nile, called Chus (Kus, the ancient
Cos below Luqsor), where they are put into boats and conveyed in 15 days
to Babylon. But in the month of October and thereabouts the river rises to
such an extent that the spices, etc., continue to descend the stream from
Babylon and enter a certain long canal, and so are conveyed over the 200
miles between Babylon and Alexandria." (Bk. I. pt. i. ch. i.)
Makrizi relates that up to A.H. 725 (1325), from time immemorial the
Indian ships had discharged at Aden, but in that year the exactions of the
Sultan induced a shipmaster to pass on into the Red Sea, and eventually
the trade came to Jidda. (See De Sacy, Chrest. Arabe, II. 556.)
+Aden is mentioned (A-dan) in ch. cccxxxvi. of the Ming History as
having sent an embassy to China in 1427. These embassies were subsequently
often repeated. The country, which lay 22 days' voyage west of Kuli
(supposed Calicut, but perhaps Kayal), was devoid of grass or trees.
(Bretschneider, Med. Res., II. pp. 305-306.)
[Ma-huan (transl. by Phillips) writes (J.R.A.S., April 1896): "In the
nineteenth year of Yung-lo (1422) an Imperial Envoy, the eunuch Li, was
sent from China to this country with a letter and presents to the King. On
his arrival he was most honourably received, and was met by the king on
landing and conducted by him to his palace." - H.C.]
NOTE 2. - The words describing the horses are (P.'s text): "de bons
destriers Arrabins et chevaux et grans roncins a ij selles." The meaning
seems to be what I have expressed in the text, fit either for saddle or
pack-saddle.
[Roncins a deux selles. Littre's great Dictionary supplies an apt
illustration of this phrase. A contemporary Eloge de Charles VII. says:
"Jamais il chevauchoit mule ne haquenee, mais un bas cheval trotier
entre deux selles" (a cob?).]
In one application the Deux selles of the old riding-schools were the
two styles of riding, called in Spanish Montar a la Gineta and Montar a
la Brida.
