"Throughout The
Mountains In The South Of Persia, Which Are Generally Covered With Dwarf
Oak, The People Are In The Habit Of Making Bread Of The Acorns, Or Of The
Acorns Mixed With Wheat Or Barley.
It is dark in colour, and very hard,
bitter, and unpalatable."
Major St. John also noticed the bitterness of the bread in Kerman, but his
servants attributed it to the presence in the wheat-fields of a bitter
leguminous plant, with a yellowish white flower, which the Kermanis were
too lazy to separate, so that much remained in the thrashing, and imparted
its bitter flavour to the grain (surely the Tare of our Lord's
Parable!).
[General Houtum-Schindler says (l.c. p. 496): "Marco Polo's return journey
was, I am inclined to think, via Urzu and Baft, the shortest and most
direct road. The road via Tarum and Sirjan is very seldom taken by
travellers intending to go to Kerman; it is only frequented by the
caravans going between Bender 'Abbas and Bahramabad, three stages west of
Kerman. Hot springs, 'curing itch,' I noticed at two places on the
Urzu-Baft road. There were some near Qal'ah Asgber and others near Dashtab;
they were frequented by people suffering from skin-diseases, and were
highly sulphureous; the water of those near Dashtab turned a silver ring
black after two hours' immersion. Another reason of my advocating the Urzu
road is that the bitter bread spoken of by Marco Polo is only found on it,
viz. at Baft and in Bardshir. In Sirjan, to the west, and on the roads to
the east, the bread is sweet. The bitter taste is from the Khur, a bitter
leguminous plant, which grows among the wheat, and whose grains the people
are too lazy to pick out. There is not a single oak between Bender 'Abbas
and Kerman; none of the inhabitants seemed to know what an acorn was. A
person at Baft, who had once gone to Kerbela via Kermanshah and Baghdad,
recognised my sketch of tree and fruit immediately, having seen oak and
acorn between Kermanshah and Qasr-i-Shirin on the Baghdad road." Major
Sykes writes (ch. xxiii.): "The above description undoubtedly refers to the
main winter route, which runs via Sirjan. This is demonstrated by the fact
that under the Kuh-i-Ginao, the summer station of Bandar Abbas, there is a
magnificent sulphur spring, which, welling from an orifice 4 feet in
diameter, forms a stream some 30 yards wide. Its temperature at the source
is 113 degrees, and its therapeutic properties are highly appreciated. As
to the bitterness of the bread, it is suggested in the notes that it was
caused by being mixed with acorns, but, to-day at any rate, there are no
oak forests in this part of Persia, and I would urge that it is better to
accept our traveller's statement, that it was due to the bitterness of the
water." - However, I prefer Gen. Houtum-Schindler's theory. - H. C.]
[1] It is but fair to say that scholars so eminent as Professors Sprenger
and Blochmann have considered the original suggestion lawful and
probable. Indeed, Mr. Blochmann says in a letter: "After studying a
language for years, one acquires a natural feeling for anything
un-idiomatic; but I must confess I see nothing un-Persian in
rudbar-i-duzd, nor in rudbar-i-lass.... How common lass is, you
may see from one fact, that it occurs in children's reading-books." We
must not take Reobarles in Marco's French as rhyming to (French)
Charles; every syllable sounds. It is remarkable that Las, as the
name of a small State near our Sind frontier, is said to mean, "in the
language of the country," a level plain. (J. A. S. B. VIII. 195.)
It is not clear what is meant by the language of the country. The
chief is a Brahui, the people are Lumri or Numri Biluchis, who are,
according to Tod, of Jat descent.
[2] Sir Henry Rawlinson objects to this identification (which is the same
that Dr. Karl Mueller adopts), saying that Organa is more probably
"Angan, formerly Argan." To this I cannot assent. Nearchus sails 300
stadia from the mouth of Anamis to Oaracta, and on his way passes
Organa. Taking 600 stadia to the degree (Dr. Mueller's value), I make
it just 300 stadia from the mouth of the Hormuz creek to the eastern
point of Kishm. Organa must have been either Jerun or Larek; Angan
(Hanjam of Mas'udi) is out of the question. And as a straight run
must have passed quite close to Jerun, not to Larek, I find the former
most probable. Nearchus next day proceeds 200 stadia along Oaracta,
and anchors in sight of another island (Neptune's) which was separated
by 40 stadia from Oaracta. This was Angan; no other island answers,
and for this the distances answer with singular precision.
[3] Moore refers to Persian Tales.
[4] This tison can be seen in the cuts from the tomb of St. Peter Martyr
and the seal of Winchelsea.
[5] Spere, bundles of spars, etc., dragged overboard.
CHAPTER XX.
OF THE WEARISOME AND DESERT ROAD THAT HAS NOW TO BE TRAVELLED.
On departing from the city of Kerman you find the road for seven days most
wearisome; and I will tell you how this is.[NOTE 1] The first three days
you meet with no water, or next to none. And what little you do meet with
is bitter green stuff, so salt that no one can drink it; and in fact if
you drink a drop of it, it will set you purging ten times at least by the
way. It is the same with the salt which is made from those streams; no one
dares to make use of it, because of the excessive purging which it
occasions. Hence it is necessary to carry water for the people to last
these three days; as for the cattle, they must needs drink of the bad
water I have mentioned, as there is no help for it, and their great thirst
makes them do so.
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