The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 60 : _MS. Note_, H. Y.) The belief that such opportune phenomena were produced by enchantmen

_MS. Note_, H. Y.)

The belief that such opportune phenomena were produced by enchantment was a thoroughly Tartar one. D'Herbelot relates (art. _Giagathai_) that in an action with a rebel called Mahomed Tarabi, the Mongols were encompa.s.sed by a dust storm which they attributed to enchantment on the part of the enemy, and it so discouraged them that they took to flight.

NOTE 5.--The specification that only _seven_ were saved from Marco's company is peculiar to Pauthier's Text, not appearing in the G. T.

Several names compounded of _Salm_ or _Salmi_ occur on the dry lands on the borders of Kerman. Edrisi, however (I. p. 428), names a place called KANaT-UL-SHaM as the first march in going from Jiruft to Walashjird.

Walashjird is, I imagine, represented by _Galashkird_, Major R. Smith's third march from Jiruft (see my Map of Routes from Kerman to Hormuz); and as such an indication agrees with the view taken below of Polo's route, I am strongly disposed to identify Kanat-ul-Sham with his _castello_ or walled village of _Canosalmi_.

["Marco Polo's Conosalmi, where he was attacked by robbers and lost the greater part of his men, is perhaps the ruined town or village Kamasal (Kahn-i-asal = the honey ca.n.a.l), near Kahnuj-i-pancheh and Vakilabad in Jiruft. It lies on the direct road between Shehr-i-Daqia.n.u.s (Camadi) and the Nevergun Pa.s.s. The road goes in an almost due southerly direction. The Nevergun Pa.s.s accords with Marco Polo's description of it; it is very difficult, on account of the many great blocks of sandstone scattered upon it. Its proximity to the Bashakird mountains and Mekran easily accounts for the prevalence of robbers, who infested the place in Marco Polo's time. At the end of the Pa.s.s lies the large village Shamil, with an old fort; the distance thence to the site of Hormuz or Bender 'Abbas (lying more to the west) is 52 miles, two days' march. The climate of Bender 'Abbas is very bad, strangers speedily fall sick, two of my men died there, all the others were seriously ill." (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. pp.

495-496.) Major Sykes (ch. xxiii.) says: "Two marches from Camadi was Kahn-i-Panchur, and a stage beyond it lay the ruins of Fariab or Pariab, which was once a great city, and was destroyed by a flood, according to local legend. It may have been Alexander's Salmous, as it is about the right distance from the coast, and if so, could not have been Marco's _Cono Salmi_. Continuing on, Galashkird mentioned by Edrisi, is the next stage."--H. C.]

The raids of the Mekranis and Biluchis long preceded those of the Karaunas, for they were notable even in the time of Mahmud of Ghazni, and they have continued to our own day to be prosecuted nearly on the same stage and in the same manner. About 1721, 4000 hors.e.m.e.n of this description plundered the town of Bander Abbasi, whilst Captain Alex.

Hamilton was in the port; and Abbott, in 1850, found the dread of Biluch robbers to extend almost to the gates of Ispahan. A striking account of the Biluch robbers and their characteristics is given by General Ferrier.

(See _Hamilton_, I. 109; _J. R. G. S._ XXV.; _Khanikoff's Memoire; Macd.

Kinneir_, 196; _Caravan Journeys_, p. 437 seq.)

[1] _Khajlak_ is mentioned as a leader of the Mongol raids in India by the poet Amir Khusru (A.D. 1289; see _Elliot_ III. 527).

[2] Professor Cowell compares the Mongol inroads in the latter part of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century, in their incessant recurrence, to the incursions of the Danes in England. A pa.s.sage in Wa.s.saf (_Elliot_, III. 38) shows that the Mongols were, circa 1254-55, already in occupation of Sodia on the Chenab, and districts adjoining.

CHAPTER XIX.

OF THE DESCENT TO THE CITY OF HORMOS.

The Plain of which we have spoken extends in a southerly direction for five days' journey, and then you come to another descent some twenty miles in length, where the road is very bad and full of peril, for there are many robbers and bad characters about. When you have got to the foot of this descent you find another beautiful plain called the PLAIN OF FORMOSA.

This extends for two days' journey; and you find in it fine streams of water with plenty of date-palms and other fruit-trees. There are also many beautiful birds, francolins, popinjays, and other kinds such as we have none of in our country. When you have ridden these two days you come to the Ocean Sea, and on the sh.o.r.e you find a city with a harbour which is called HORMOS.[NOTE 1] Merchants come thither from India, with s.h.i.+ps loaded with spicery and precious stones, pearls, cloths of silk and gold, elephants' teeth, and many other wares, which they sell to the merchants of Hormos, and which these in turn carry all over the world to dispose of again. In fact, 'tis a city of immense trade. There are plenty of towns and villages under it, but it is the capital. The King is called RUOMEDAM AHOMET. It is a very sickly place, and the heat of the sun is tremendous.

If any foreign merchant dies there, the King takes all his property.

In this country they make a wine of dates mixt with spices, which is very good. When any one not used to it first drinks this wine, it causes repeated and violent purging, but afterwards he is all the better for it, and gets fat upon it. The people never eat meat and wheaten bread except when they are ill, and if they take such food when they are in health it makes them ill. Their food when in health consists of dates and salt-fish (tunny, to wit) and onions, and this kind of diet they maintain in order to preserve their health.[NOTE 2]

Their s.h.i.+ps are wretched affairs, and many of them get lost; for they have no iron fastenings, and are only st.i.tched together with twine made from the husk of the Indian nut. They beat this husk until it becomes like horse-hair, and from that they spin twine, and with this st.i.tch the planks of the s.h.i.+ps together. It keeps well, and is not corroded by the sea-water, but it will not stand well in a storm. The s.h.i.+ps are not pitched, but are rubbed with fish-oil. They have one mast, one sail, and one rudder, and have no deck, but only a cover spread over the cargo when loaded. This cover consists of hides, and on the top of these hides they put the horses which they take to India for sale. They have no iron to make nails of, and for this reason they use only wooden trenails in their s.h.i.+pbuilding, and then st.i.tch the planks with twine as I have told you.

Hence 'tis a perilous business to go a voyage in one of those s.h.i.+ps, and many of them are lost, for in that Sea of India the storms are often terrible.[NOTE 3]

The people are black, and are wors.h.i.+ppers of Mahommet. The residents avoid living in the cities, for the heat in summer is so great that it would kill them. Hence they go out (to sleep) at their gardens in the country, where there are streams and plenty of water. For all that they would not escape but for one thing that I will mention. The fact is, you see, that in summer a wind often blows across the sands which encompa.s.s the plain, so intolerably hot that it would kill everybody, were it not that when they perceive that wind coming they plunge into water up to the neck, and so abide until the wind have ceased.[NOTE 4] [And to prove the great heat of this wind, Messer Mark related a case that befell when he was there.

The Lord of Hormos, not having paid his tribute to the King of Kerman the latter resolved to claim it at the time when the people of Hormos were residing away from the city. So he caused a force of 1600 horse and 5000 foot to be got ready, and sent them by the route of Reobarles to take the others by surprise. Now, it happened one day that through the fault of their guide they were not able to reach the place appointed for their night's halt, and were obliged to bivouac in a wilderness not far from Hormos. In the morning as they were starting on their march they were caught by that wind, and every man of them was suffocated, so that not one survived to carry the tidings to their Lord. When the people of Hormos heard of this they went forth to bury the bodies lest they should breed a pestilence. But when they laid hold of them by the arms to drag them to the pits, the bodies proved to be so _baked_, as it were, by that tremendous heat, that the arms parted from the trunks, and in the end the people had to dig graves hard by each where it lay, and so cast them in.][NOTE 5]

The people sow their wheat and barley and other corn in the month of November, and reap it in the month of March. The dates are not gathered till May, but otherwise there is no gra.s.s nor any other green thing, for the excessive heat dries up everything.

When any one dies they make a great business of the mourning, for women mourn their husbands four years. During that time they mourn at least once a day, gathering together their kinsfolk and friends and neighbours for the purpose, and making a great weeping and wailing. [And they have women who are mourners by trade, and do it for hire.]

Now, we will quit this country. I shall not, however, now go on to tell you about India; but when time and place shall suit we shall come round from the north and tell you about it. For the present, let us return by another road to the aforesaid city of Kerman, for we cannot get at those countries that I wish to tell you about except through that city.

I should tell you first, however, that King Ruomedam Ahomet of Hormos, which we are leaving, is a liegeman of the King of Kerman.[NOTE 6]

On the road by which we return from Hormos to Kerman you meet with some very fine plains, and you also find many natural hot baths; you find plenty of partridges on the road; and there are towns where victual is cheap and abundant, with quant.i.ties of dates and other fruits. The wheaten bread, however, is so bitter, owing to the bitterness of the water, that no one can eat it who is not used to it. The baths that I mentioned have excellent virtues; they cure the itch and several other diseases.[NOTE 7]

Now, then, I am going to tell you about the countries towards the north, of which you shall hear in regular order. Let us begin.

NOTE 1.--Having now arrived at HORMUZ, it is time to see what can be made of the Geography of the route from Kerman to that port.

The port of Hormuz, [which had taken the place of Kish as the most important market of the Persian Gulf (H. C.)], stood upon the mainland. A few years later it was transferred to the island which became so famous, under circ.u.mstances which are concisely related by Abulfeda:--"Hormuz is the port of Kerman, a city rich in palms, and very hot. One who has visited it in our day tells me that the ancient Hormuz was devastated by the incursions of the Tartars, and that its people transferred their abode to an island in the sea called Zarun, near the continent, and lying west of the old city. At Hormuz itself no inhabitants remain, but some of the lowest order." (In _Busching_, IV. 261-262.) Friar Odoric, about 1321, found Hormuz "on an island some 5 miles distant from the main." Ibn Batuta, some eight or nine years later, discriminates between Hormuz or Moghistan on the mainland, and New Hormuz on the Island of Jeraun, but describes only the latter, already a great and rich city.

The site of the Island Hormuz has often been visited and described; but I could find no published trace of any traveller having verified the site of the more ancient city, though the existence of its ruins was known to John de Barros, who says that a little fort called _Cuxstac_ (_Kuhestek_ of P.

della Valle, II. p. 300) stood on the site. An application to Colonel Pelly, the very able British Resident at Bus.h.i.+re, brought me from his own personal knowledge the information that I sought, and the following particulars are compiled from the letters with which he has favoured me:--

"The ruins of Old Hormuz, well known as such, stand several miles up a creek, and in the centre of the present district of Minao. They are extensive (though in large part obliterated by long cultivation over the site), and the traces of a long pier or Bandar were pointed out to Colonel Pelly. They are about 6 or 7 miles from the fort of Minao, and the Minao river, or its stony bed, winds down towards them. The creek is quite traceable, but is silted up, and to embark goods you have to go a farsakh towards the sea, where there is a custom-house on that part of the creek which is still navigable. Colonel Pelly collected a few bricks from the ruins. From the mouth of the Old Hormuz creek to the New Hormuz town, or town of Turumpak on the island of Hormuz, is a sail of about three farsakhs. It may be a trifle more, but any native tells you at once that it is three farsakhs from Hormuz Island to the creek where you land to go up to Minao. _Hormuzdia_ was the name of the region in the days of its prosperity. Some people say that Hormuzdia was known as _Jerunia_, and Old Hormuz town as _Jerun_." (In this I suspect tradition has gone astray.) "The town and fort of Minao lie to the N.E. of the ancient city, and are built upon the lowest spur of the Bashkurd mountains, commanding a gorge through which the Rudbar river debouches on the plain of Hormuzdia." In these new and interesting particulars it is pleasing to find such precise corroboration both of Edrisi and of Ibn Batuta. The former, writing in the 12th century, says that Hormuz stood on the banks of a ca.n.a.l or creek from the Gulf, by which vessels came up to the city. The latter specifies the breadth of sea between Old and New Hormuz as _three farsakhs_. (_Edrisi_, I. 424; _I. B._ II. 230.)

I now proceed to recapitulate the main features of Polo's Itinerary from Kerman to Hormuz. We have:--

Marches 1. From Kerman across a plain to the top of a mountain-pa.s.s, where _extreme cold was experienced_ . . . . . . . . 7 2. A descent, occupying . . . . . . . 2 3. A great plain, called _Reobarles_, in a much warmer climate, abounding in francolin partridge, and in dates and tropical fruit, with a ruined city of former note, called _Camadi_, near the head of the plain, which extends for . . . . . . . . 5 4. A second very bad pa.s.s, descending for 20 miles, say 1 5. A well-watered fruitful plain, which is crossed to _Hormuz_, on the sh.o.r.es of the Gulf . . . . 2 -- Total 17

No European traveller, so far as I know, has described the most direct road from Kerman to Hormuz, or rather to its nearest modern representative Bander Abbasi,--I mean the road by Baft. But a line to the eastward of this, and leading through the plain of Jiruft, was followed partially by Mr. Abbott in 1850, and completely by Major R. M. Smith, R.E., in 1866.

The details of this route, except in one particular, correspond closely in essentials with those given by our author, and form an excellent basis of ill.u.s.tration for Polo's description.

Major Smith (accompanied at first by Colonel Goldsmid, who diverged to Mekran) left Kerman on the 15th of January, and reached Bander Abbasi on the 3rd of February, but, as three halts have to be deducted, his total number of marches was exactly the same as Marco's, viz. 17. They divide as follows:--

Marches 1. From Kerman to the caravanserai of Deh Bakri in the pa.s.s so called. "The ground as I ascended became covered with snow, and the weather bitterly cold"

(_Report_) . . . . . . . . . 6 2. Two miles _over very deep snow_ brought him to the top of the pa.s.s; he then descended 14 miles to his halt.

Two miles to the south of the crest he pa.s.sed a second caravanserai: "The two are evidently built so near one another to afford shelter to travellers who may be unable to cross the ridge during heavy snow-storms."

The next march continued the descent for 14 miles, and then carried him 10 miles along the banks of the Rudkhanah-i-Shor. The approximate height of the pa.s.s above the sea is estimated at 8000 feet. We have thus for the descent the greater part of . . . . 2 3. "Clumps of date-palms growing near the village showed that I had now reached a totally different climate."

(_Smith's Report_.) And Mr. Abbott says of the same region: "Partly wooded ... and with thickets of reeds abounding with francolin and _Jirufti_ partridge....

The lands yield grain, millet, pulse, French- and horse-beans, rice, cotton, henna, Palma Christi, and dates, and in part are of great fertility.... Rainy season from January to March, after which a luxuriant crop of gra.s.s."

Across this plain (districts of Jiruft and Rudbar), the height of which above the sea, is something under 2000 feet . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4. 6-1/2 hours, "nearly the whole way over a most difficult mountain-pa.s.s," called the Pa.s.s of Nevergun . . . 1 5. Two long marches over a plain, part of which is described as "continuous cultivation for some 16 miles," and the rest as a "most uninteresting plain" . . . . . 2 -- Total as before . . . . 17

In the previous edition of this work I was inclined to identify Marco's route _absolutely_ with this Itinerary. But a communication from Major St.

John, who surveyed the section from Kerman towards Deh Bakri in 1872, shows that this first section does not answer well to the description. The road is not all plain, for it crosses a mountain pa.s.s, though not a formidable one. Neither is it through a thriving, populous tract, for, with the exception of two large villages, Major St. John found the whole road to Deh Bakri from Kerman as desert and dreary as any in Persia. On the other hand, the more direct route to the south, which is that always used except in seasons of extraordinary severity (such as that of Major Smith's journey, when this route was impa.s.sable from snow), answers better, as described to Major St. John by muleteers, to Polo's account.

The first _six days_ are occupied by a gentle ascent through the districts of Bardesir and Kairat-ul-Arab, which are the best-watered and most fertile uplands of Kerman. From the crest of the pa.s.s reached in those six marches (which is probably more than 10,000 feet above the sea, for it was closed by snow on 1st May, 1872), an easy descent of _two days_ leads to the Garmsir. This is traversed in four days, and then a very difficult pa.s.s is crossed to reach the plains bordering on the sea. The cold of this route is much greater than that of the Deh Bakri route. Hence the correspondence with Polo's description, as far as the descent to the Garmsir, or Reobarles, seems decidedly better by this route. It is admitted to be quite possible that on reaching this plain the two routes coalesced. We shall a.s.sume this provisionally, till some traveller gives us a detailed account of the Bardesir route. Meantime all the remaining particulars answer well.

[General Houtum-Schindler (l.c. pp. 493-495), speaking of the Itinerary from Kerman to Hormuz and back, says: "Only two of the many routes between Kerman and Bender 'Abbas coincide more or less with Marco Polo's description. These two routes are the one over the Deh Bekri Pa.s.s [see above, Colonel Smith], and the one via Sardu. The latter is the one, I think, taken by Marco Polo. The more direct roads to the west are for the greater part through mountainous country, and have not twelve stages in plains which we find enumerated in Marco Polo's Itinerary. The road via Baft, Urzu, and the Zendan Pa.s.s, for instance, has only four stages in plains; the road, via Rahbur, Rudbar and the Nevergun Pa.s.s only six; and the road via Sirjan also only six."

Marches.

The Sardu route, which seems to me to be the one followed by Marco Polo, has five stages through fertile and populous plains to Sarvizan . . . . . 5 One day's march ascends to the top of the Sarvizan Pa.s.s 1 Two days' descent to Rahjird, a village close to the ruins of old Jiruft, now called Shehr-i-Daqia.n.u.s . . 2 Six days' march over the "vast plain" of Jiruft and Rudbar to Fariab, joining the Deh Bekri route at Kerimabad, one stage south of the Shehr-i-Daqia.n.u.s . . . . 6 One day's march through the Nevergun Pa.s.s to Shamil, descending . . . . . . . . . 1 Two days' march through the plain to Bender 'Abbas or Hormuz . . . . . . . . . . 2 -- In all . . . . . . 17

The Sardu road enters the Jiruft plain at the ruins of the old city, the Deh Bekri route does so at some distance to the eastward. The first six stages performed by Marco Polo in seven days go through fertile plains and past numerous villages. Regarding the cold, "which you can scarcely abide," Marco Polo does not speak of it as existing on the mountains only; he says, "From the city of Kerman to this descent the cold in winter is very great," that is, from Kerman to near Jiruft. The winter at Kerman itself is fairly severe; from the town the ground gradually but steadily rises, the absolute alt.i.tudes of the pa.s.ses crossing the mountains to the south varying from 8000 to 11,000 feet. These pa.s.ses are up to the month of March always very cold; in one it froze slightly in the beginning of June. The Sardu Pa.s.s lies lower than the others. The name is Sardu, not Sardu from sard, "cold." Major Sykes (_Persia_, ch. xxiii.) comes to the same conclusion: "In 1895, and again in 1900, I made a tour partly with the object of solving this problem, and of giving a geographical existence to Sardu, which appropriately means the 'Cold Country.' I found that there was a route which exactly fitted Marco's conditions, as at Sarbizan the Sardu plateau terminates in a high pa.s.s of 9200 feet, from which there is a most abrupt descent to the plain of Jiruft, Komadin being about 35 miles, or two days' journey from the top of the pa.s.s. Starting from Kerman, the stages would be as follows:--I. Jupar (small town); 2.

Bahramjird (large village); 3. Gudar (village); 4. Rain (small town)....

Thence to the Sarbizan pa.s.s is a distance of 45 miles, or three desert stages, thus const.i.tuting a total of 110 miles for the seven days. This is the camel route to the present day, and absolutely fits in with the description given.... The question to be decided by this section of the journey may then, I think, be considered to be finally and most satisfactorily settled, the route proving to lie between the two selected by Colonel Yule, as being the most suitable, although he wisely left the question open."--H. C.]

In the abstract of Major Smith's Itinerary as we have given it, we do not find Polo's city of _Camadi_. Major Smith writes to me, however, that this is probably to be sought in "the ruined city, the traces of which I observed in the plain of Jiruft near Kerimabad. The name of the city is now apparently lost." It is, however, known to the natives as the _City of Dakia.n.u.s_, as Mr. Abbott, who visited the site, informs us. This is a name a.n.a.logous only to the Arthur's ovens or Merlin's caves of our own country, for all over Mahomedan Asia there are old sites to which legend attaches the name of _Dakia.n.u.s_ or the Emperor Decius, the persecuting tyrant of the Seven Sleepers. "The spot," says Abbott, "is an elevated part of the plain on the right bank of the Hali Rud, and is thickly strewn with kiln-baked bricks, and shreds of pottery and gla.s.s.... After heavy rain the peasantry search amongst the ruins for ornaments of stone, and rings and coins of gold, silver, and copper. The popular tradition concerning the city is that it was destroyed by a flood long before the birth of Mahomed."

[General Houtum-Schindler, in a paper in the _Jour. R. As. Soc._, Jan.

1898, p. 43, gives an abstract of Dr. Houtsma's (of Utrecht) memoir, _Zur Geschichte der Saljuqen von Kerman_, and comes to the conclusion that "from these statements we can safely identify Marco Polo's Camadi with the suburb Qumadin, or, as I would read it, Qamadin, of the city of Jiruft."-- (Cf. _Major Sykes' Persia_, chap. xxiii.: "Camadi was sacked for the first time, after the death of Toghrul Shah of Kerman, when his four sons reduced the province to a condition of anarchy.")

Major P. Molesworth Sykes, _Recent Journeys in Persia_ (_Geog. Journal_, X. 1897, p. 589), says: "Upon arrival in Rudbar, we turned north wards and left the Farman Farma, in order to explore the site of Marco Polo's 'Camadi.'... We came upon a huge area littered with yellow bricks eight inches square, while not even a broken wall is left to mark the site of what was formerly a great city, under the name of the Sher-i-Jiruft."--H.