Their
Native Language Is Quite Different From Arabic, Which However Most Of
Them Understand.
They live very miserably, many of them being famished
with hunger.
They are not permitted to kill any flesh, so that they are
forced to live on such fish as they can catch in the sea, and what dates
they may procure, having no means to purchase rice, except by means of
their women prostituting themselves to the Guzerats when they reside
here. Such as are employed to keep the cattle belonging to the Arabs
maintain themselves on milk.
I could not learn of any merchandize produced in this island, except
aloes and dragon's blood; and some black ambergris is said to be got on
the shores of Abba del Curia. They could make, in my opinion, more
aloes than could be used in all Christendom, as the plant from which it
is procured grows every where in great abundance, being no other than
the semper vivum of Dioscorides, with whose description it agrees in
seed, stalk, &c. It is all of the red prickly sort, much chamferred in
the leaves, and so full of resinous juice as to be ready to burst. The
chief time of preparing the aloes is in September, when the north winds
blow, after the fall of some rain. Being gathered, it is cut in small
pieces, and cast into a pit in the ground, which is paved and cleaned
from all filth. It lies here to ferment in the heat of the sun, which
causes the juice to flow out; which is put into skins that are hung up
in the wind to dry and grow hard.
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