He did this a great deal more for the
hate he bears the Christians than for any love he bears the Soldan of
Babylon; for these two do hate one another heartily.[NOTE 4]
Now we will have done with the Soldan of Aden, and I will tell you of a
city which is subject to Aden, called Esher.
NOTE 1. - This is from Pauthier's text, which is here superior to the G.T.
The latter has: "They put the goods in small vessels, which proceed on a
river about seven days." Ram. has, "in other smaller vessels, with
which they make a voyage on a gulf of the sea for 20 days, more or less,
as the weather may be. On reaching a certain port they load the goods on
camels, and carry them a 30 days' journey by land to the River Nile, where
they embark them in small vessels called Zerms, and in these descend the
current to Cairo, and thence by an artificial cut, called Calizene, to
Alexandria." The last looks as if it had been edited; Polo never uses
the name Cairo. The canal, the predecessor of the Mahmudiah, is also
called Il Caligine in the journey of Simon Sigoli (Frescobaldi p.
168). Brunetto Latini, too, discoursing of the Nile, says: -
"Cosi serva su' filo,
Ed e chiamato Nilo.
D'un su' ramo si dice,
Ch' e chiamato Calice."
- Tesoretto, pp. 81-82.
Also in the Sfera of Dati: -
- "Chiamasi il Caligine
Egion e Nilo, e non si sa l'origine." P. 9.
The word is (Ar.) Khalij, applied in one of its senses specially to the
canals drawn from the full Nile. The port on the Red Sea would be either
Suakin or Aidhab; the 30 days' journey seems to point to the former.
Polo's contemporary, Marino Sanudo, gives the following account of the
transit, omitting entirely the Red Sea navigation, though his line
correctly represented would apparently go by Kosseir: "The fourth haven is
called AHADEN, and stands on a certain little island joining, as it were,
to the main, in the land of the Saracens. The spices and other goods from
India are landed there, loaded on camels, and so carried by a journey of
nine days to a place on the River Nile, called Chus (Kus, the ancient
Cos below Luqsor), where they are put into boats and conveyed in 15 days
to Babylon. But in the month of October and thereabouts the river rises to
such an extent that the spices, etc., continue to descend the stream from
Babylon and enter a certain long canal, and so are conveyed over the 200
miles between Babylon and Alexandria." (Bk. I. pt. i. ch. i.)
Makrizi relates that up to A.H. 725 (1325), from time immemorial the
Indian ships had discharged at Aden, but in that year the exactions of the
Sultan induced a shipmaster to pass on into the Red Sea, and eventually
the trade came to Jidda. (See De Sacy, Chrest. Arabe, II. 556.)
+Aden is mentioned (A-dan) in ch. cccxxxvi. of the Ming History as
having sent an embassy to China in 1427. These embassies were subsequently
often repeated. The country, which lay 22 days' voyage west of Kuli
(supposed Calicut, but perhaps Kayal), was devoid of grass or trees.
(Bretschneider, Med. Res., II. pp. 305-306.)
[Ma-huan (transl. by Phillips) writes (J.R.A.S., April 1896): "In the
nineteenth year of Yung-lo (1422) an Imperial Envoy, the eunuch Li, was
sent from China to this country with a letter and presents to the King. On
his arrival he was most honourably received, and was met by the king on
landing and conducted by him to his palace." - H.C.]
NOTE 2. - The words describing the horses are (P.'s text): "de bons
destriers Arrabins et chevaux et grans roncins a ij selles." The meaning
seems to be what I have expressed in the text, fit either for saddle or
pack-saddle.
[Roncins a deux selles. Littre's great Dictionary supplies an apt
illustration of this phrase. A contemporary Eloge de Charles VII. says:
"Jamais il chevauchoit mule ne haquenee, mais un bas cheval trotier
entre deux selles" (a cob?).]
In one application the Deux selles of the old riding-schools were the
two styles of riding, called in Spanish Montar a la Gineta and Montar a
la Brida. The latter stands for the old French style, with heavy bit and
saddle, and long stirrups just reached by the toes; the former the Moorish
style, with short stirrups and lighter bit. But the phrase would also seem
to have meant saddle and pack-saddle. Thus Cobarruvias explains the
phrase Hombre de dos sillas, "Conviene saber de la gineta y brida, ser
de silla y albarda (pack-saddle), servir de todo," and we find the
converse expression, No ser para silla ni para albarda, good for
nothing.
But for an example of the exact phrase of the French text I am indebted to
P. della Valle. Speaking of the Persian horses, he says: "Few of them are
of any great height, and you seldom see thoroughbreds among them; probably
because here they have no liking for such and don't seek to breed them.
For the most part they are of that very useful style that we call horses
for both saddles (che noi chiamiamo da due selle)" etc. (See
Cobarruvias, under Silla and Brida; Dice. de la Lengua Castellana por
la Real Academia Espanola, under Silla, Gineta, Brida; P. della Valle,
Let.
