The Inhabitants Are
Dressed In Those Sorts Of Striped Garments Which The Arabs Call Fauta, And
They Commonly Wear Only One At A Time, Which Fashion Is Common To People Of
All Ranks.
At this place they take in water, which is drawn from wells that
are fed by springs, and which is preferred to that which is procured from
cisterns or tanks.
Calabar is about a month's voyage from a place called
Kaukam, which is almost upon the skirts of the sea of Herkend. In ten days
after this, ships reach Betuma, from whence, in ten days more, they come to
Kadrange. In all the islands and peninsulas of the Indies, water is to be
found by digging. In this last mentioned place there is a very lofty
mountain, which is entirely inhabited by slaves and fugitives. From thence,
in ten days, they arrive at Senef, where is fresh water, and from whence
comes the aromatic wood which we call Hud al Senefi. Here is a king; the
inhabitants are black, and they wear two striped garments. Having watered
at this place, it is ten days passage to Sanderfulat, an island which has
fresh water. They then steer through the sea of Sanji, and so to the gates
of China; for so they call certain rocks and shallows which form a narrow
strait in that sea, through which the ships are obliged to pass. It
requires a month to sail from Sanderfulat to China, and it takes eight
whole days to steer through among the rocks and shoals.
When a ship has got through the before mentioned gates, she goes with the
flood tide into a fresh water gulf, and drops anchor in the chief port of
China, which is called Canfu[8], where they have fresh water, both from
springs and rivers, as also in most of the other cities of China. The city
is adorned with large squares, and is supplied with every thing necessary
for defence against an enemy, and in most of the other provinces of the
empire there are cities of strength similarly fortified. In this port the
tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours; but, whereas from Basra to
the island of Bani Kahouan it flows when the moon is at full, and ebbs when
she rises and when she sets; from near Bani Kahouan quite to the coast of
China it is flood tide when the moon rises, and ebb when she is at her
height; and so on the contrary, when she sets, it is flowing water, and
when she is quite hidden under the horizon, the tide falls.
They say, that in the island of Muljan, between Serendib and Cala, on the
eastern shore of the Indies, there are negroes who go quite naked; and when
they meet a stranger they hang him up by the heels and slice him into
pieces, which they eat quite raw. These negroes, who have no king, feed
chiefly on fish, mousa, cocoa nuts, and sugar canes.
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