And The Author Describes Only The Sea On The Left Hand,
In Which Are Comprehended The Seas Of India And China.
In this sea, to the
right as you leave Oman, is the country of Sihar or Shihr, where
frankincense
Grows, and other countries possessed by the nations of Ad,
Hamyar, Jorham, and Thabatcha, who have the Sonna, in Arabic of very
ancient date, but differing in many things from what is in the hands of the
Arabs, and containing many traditions unknown to us. They have no villages,
and live a very hard and miserably wandering life; but their country
extends almost as far as Aden and Judda on the coast of Yaman, or Arabia
the happy. From Judda, it stretches up into the continent, as far as the
coast of Syria, and ends at Kolzum. The sea at this place is divided by a
slip of land, which God hath fixed as a line of separation between the two
seas[17]. From Kolzum the sea stretches along the coast of the Barbarians,
to the west coast, which is opposite to Yaman, and then along the coast of
Ethiopia, from whence we have the leopard skins of Barbary[18], which are
the best of all, and the most skilfully dressed; and lastly, along the
coast of Zeilah, whence come excellent amber and tortoiseshell.
When the Siraff ships arrive in the Red Sea, they go no farther than Judda,
whence their cargo is transported to Cairo, or Kahira by ships of Kolsum,
the pilots of which are acquainted with the navigation of the upper end of
this sea, which is full of rocks up to the water's edge; because, also,
along the coast there are no kings[19], and scarcely any inhabitants; and
because, every night ships are obliged to put into some place for safety,
for fear of striking on the rocks, or must ride all night at anchor,
sailing only in the day-time. This sea is likewise subject to very thick
fogs, and to violent gales of wind, and is therefore of very dangerous
navigation, and devoid of any safe or pleasant anchorage. It is not, like
the seas of India and China, whose bottom is rich with pearls and
ambergris; whose mountains are stored with gold, precious stones, and
ivory; whose coasts produce ebony, redwood, aloes, camphor, nutmegs,
cloves, sandal, and all other spices and aromatics; where parrots and
peacocks are birds of the forest, and in which musk and civet are collected
in abundance: so productive, in short, are these shores of articles of
infinite variety, and inestimable value, that it were vain to endeavour to
make any enumeration.
Ambergris is thrown upon this coast by the flux of the sea, but its origin
is unknown. It is found on the coast of the Indies, but the best, which is
of a bluish white, and in round lumps, is got upon the Barbarian coast: or
on the confines of the land of the Negroes, towards Sihar and that
neighbourhood. The inhabitants of that country have camels trained for the
purpose, on which they ride along the shore in moonshine nights, and when
the camels perceive a piece of amber, he bends his knees, on which the
rider dismounts, and secures his prize. There is another kind which swims
on the surface of the sea in great lumps, sometimes as big as the body of
an ox, or somewhat less. When a certain fish, named Tal, of the whale
tribe, sees these floating lumps, he swallows them, and is thereby killed;
and when the people, who are accustomed to this fishery, see a whale
floating on the surface, they know that this whale has swallowed ambergris,
and going out in their boats, they dart their harpoons into its body, and
tow it on shore, and split the animal down the back, to get out the
ambergris. What is found about the belly of the whale is commonly spoiled
by the wet, and has an unpleasant scent; but the ambergris which is not
contaminated by the ordure in the belly of the whale, is perfectly
good[20].
It is not unusual to employ the vertebrae of this species of whale as
stools; and it is said, there are many houses in the village of Tain, ten
leagues from Siraff, in which the lintels of the doors are made of whale
ribs. An eye-witness told me that he went to see a whale which had been
cast ashore, near Siraff, and found the people mounting on its back by
means of ladders; that they dug pits in different parts of his body, and
when the sun had melted the grease into oil, they collected this, and sold
it to the masters of ships, who mixed it up with some other matter, used by
seamen for the purpose of serving the bottoms of their vessels, and
securing the seams of the planks, to prevent or to stop leaks. This
whale-oil sells for a great deal of money; and the bones of the whale are
sold by the druggists of Bagdat and Bassora.
The pearl oyster is at first a small thin tender substance, resembling the
leaves of the plant called Anjedana, and swims on the surface of the sea,
where it sticks to the sides of ships under water. It there hardens, grows
larger, and becomes covered by a shell; after which, it becomes heavy, and
falls to the bottom of the sea, where it subsists, and grows in a way of
which we are ignorant. The included animal resembles a piece of red flesh,
or like the tongue of an animal towards the root, having no bones, veins,
or sinews. One opinion of the production of pearls in this shell-fish is,
that the oyster rises to the surface when it rains, and, by gaping, catches
the drops of rain, which harden into pearls. The more likely opinion is,
that the pearls are generated within the body of the oyster, for most of
them are fixed, and not moveable.
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