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 ships are wretched affairs, and many of them get lost; for they have
no iron fastenings, and are only stitched 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 stitch the planks
of the ships together. It keeps well, and is not corroded by the
sea-water, but it will not stand well in a storm. The ships 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.
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