Here Are No Horses Bred; And Thus A Great Part Of The Wealth Of The
Country Is Wasted In Purchasing Horses; I Will Tell You How.
You must know
that the merchants of KIS and HORMES, DOFAR and SOER and ADEN collect
great numbers of destriers and other horses, and these they bring to the
territories of this King and of his four brothers, who are kings likewise
as I told you.
For a horse will fetch among them 500 saggi of gold,
worth more than 100 marks of silver, and vast numbers are sold there every
year. Indeed this King wants to buy more than 2000 horses every year, and
so do his four brothers who are kings likewise. The reason why they want
so many horses every year is that by the end of the year there shall not
be one hundred of them remaining, for they all die off. And this arises
from mismanagement, for those people do not know in the least how to treat
a horse; and besides they have no farriers. The horse-merchants not only
never bring any farriers with them, but also prevent any farrier from
going thither, lest that should in any degree baulk the sale of horses,
which brings them in every year such vast gains. They bring these horses
by sea aboard ship.[NOTE 7]
They have in this country the custom which I am going to relate. When a
man is doomed to die for any crime, he may declare that he will put
himself to death in honour of such or such an idol; and the government
then grants him permission to do so.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 659 of 1350
Words from 176901 to 177177
of 370046
