A Long Cord
Is Attached To This End, To That A Small Buoy Which Floats On The Surface,
So That When The Whale Dies They Know Where To Find It.
They then draw the
body ashore and extract the ambergris from the stomach and the oil from
the head."
Chau Ju-kwa, at Chung-li (Somali Coast), has (p. 131): "Every year there
are driven on the coast a great many dead fish measuring two hundred feet
in length and twenty feet through the body. The people do not eat the
flesh of these fish, but they cut out their brains, marrow, and eyes, from
which they get oil, often as much as three hundred odd toeng (from a
single fish). They mix this oil with lime to caulk their boats, and use it
also in lamps. The poor people use the ribs of these fish to make rafters,
the backbones for door leaves, and they cut off vertebrae to make mortars
with."
SCOTRA.
XXXII., p. 407. "And you must know that in this island there are the best
enchanters in the world. It is true that their Archbishop forbids the
practice to the best of his ability; but 'tis all to no purpose, for they
insist that their forefathers followed it, and so must they also. I will
give you a sample of their enchantments. Thus, if a ship be sailing past
with a fair wind and a strong, they will raise a contrary wind and compel
her to turn back. In fact they make the wind blow as they list, and
produce great tempests and disasters; and other such sorceries they
perform, which it will be better to say nothing about in our Book."
Speaking of Chung-li (Somali Coast), Chau Ju-kwa writes, p. 130: "There
are many sorcerers among them who are able to change themselves into
birds, beasts, or aquatic animals, and by these means keep the ignorant
people in a state of terror. If some of them in trading with some foreign
ship have a quarrel, the sorcerers pronounce a charm over the ship, so
that it can neither go forward nor backward, and they only release the
ship when it has settled the dispute. The government has formally
forbidden this practice."
Hirth and Rockhill add, p. 132: "Friar Joanno dos Santos (A.D. 1597) says:
'In the Ile of Zanzibar dwelt one Chande, a great sorcerer, which caused
his Pangayo, which the Factor had taken against his will, to stand still
as it were in defiance of the Winde, till the Factor had satisfied him,
and then to fly forth the River after her fellowes at his words. He made
that a Portugall which had angered him, could never open his mouth to
speake, but a Cocke crowed in his belly, till he had reconciled himselfe:
with other like sorceries.'" See PURCHAS, His Pilgrimes, IX., 254.
"Not twenty years ago, Theo. Bent found that the Somalis were afraid of
the witchcraft of the natives of Socotra. Theo. BENT, Southern Arabia,
p. 361."
XXXIII., p. 412. Speaking of the bird Ruc at Madeigascar, Marco Polo says:
"It is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry
him high into the air, and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces;
having so killed him the bird gryphon swoops down on him and eats him at
leisure."
Chau Ju-kwa writing of K'un lun ts'oeng' ki, on the coast of Africa,
writes, p. 149: "This country is in the sea to the south-west. It is
adjacent to a large island. There are usually (there, i.e., on the great
island) great p'oeng birds which so mask the sun in their flight that the
shade on the sundial is shifted. If the great p'oeng finds a wild camel
it swallows it, and if one should chance to find p'oeng's feather, he can
make a water-butt of it, after cutting off the hollow quill."
XXXIII., p. 421.
THE RUKH.
The Chinese traveller Chau Ju-kwa in his work Chu-fan-chi on the Chinese
and Arab trade in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, speaking of the
country of Pi p'a lo (Berbera), says: "The country brings forth also the
(so-called) 'camel crane', which measures from the ground to its crown
from six to seven feet. It has wings and can fly, but not to any great
height." The translators and commentators Hirth and Rockhill have (p. 129)
the following notes: "Quotation from Ling-wai-tai-ta, 3, 6a. The ostrich
was first made known to the Chinese in the beginning of the second century
of our era, when some were brought to the court of China from Parthia. The
Chinese then called them An-si-tsio 'Parthian bird.' See Hou Han Shu,
88, and Hirth, China and Roman Orient, 39. In the Wei shu, 102, 12b,
no name is given them, they are simply 'big birds which resemble a camel,
which feed on herbs and flesh and are able to eat fire. In the T'ang
shu, 221, 7a, it is said that this bird is commonly called 'camel-bird.'
It is seven feet high, black of colour, its feet like those of the camel,
it can travel three hundred li a day, and is able to eat iron. The
ostrich is called by the Persians ushturmurgh and by the Arabs
teir al-djamal, both meaning 'camel birds.'"
Dr. Bretschneider in his Notes on Chinese Mediaeval Travellers to the
West (1875), p. 87, n. 132, has a long note with a figure from the Pen
ts'ao kang mu on the "camel-bird" (p. 88).
Cf. F. Hirth, Die Laender des Islam, Supp. Vol. V. of T'oung Pao, 1894,
p. 54. Tsuboi Kumazo, Actes XII'e Cong, Int. Orient., Rome, 1899, II., p.
120.
XXXIII., p. 421.
GIRAFFES.
Speaking of Pi p'a lo (Berbera Coast) Chau Ju-kwa (p. 128) says: "There is
also (in this country) a wild animal called tsu-la; it resembles a camel
in shape, an ox in size, and is of a yellow colour.
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