They Have No Iron To Make
Nails Of, And For This Reason They Use Only Wooden Trenails In Their
Shipbuilding,
And then stitch the planks with twine as I have told you.
Hence 'tis a perilous business to go a
Voyage in one of those ships, 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 worshippers 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 encompass 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.
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