1862. More recently Major St. John has shown the magnitude of this

range, which rises into summits of 15,000 feet in altitude, and after a course of 550 miles terminates in a group of volcanic hills some 50 miles S.E. of Bamm. Yet practically this chain is ignored on all our maps! Marco’s description of the “Plain of Formosa” does not apply, now at least, to the _whole_ plain, for towards Bander Abbási it is barren. But to the eastward, about Minao, and therefore about Old Hormuz, it has not fallen off. Colonel Pelly writes: “The district of Minao is still for those regions singularly fertile. Pomegranates, oranges, pistachio-nuts, and various other fruits grow in profusion. The source of its fertility is of course the river, and you can walk for miles among lanes and cultivated ground, partially sheltered from the sun.” And Lieutenant Kempthorne, in his notes on that coast, says of the same tract: “It is termed by the natives the Paradise of Persia. It is certainly most beautifully fertile, and abounds in orange-groves, and orchards containing apples, pears, peaches, and apricots; with vineyards producing a delicious grape, from which was at one time made a wine called _amber-rosolli_”—a name not easy to explain. _’Ambar-i-Rasúl_, “The Prophet’s Bouquet!” would be too bold a name even for Persia, though names more sacred are so profaned at Naples and on the Moselle. Sir H. Rawlinson suggests _’Ambar-’asali_, “Honey Bouquet,” as possible. When Nearchus beached his fleet on the shore of _Harmozeia_ at the mouth of the _Anamis_ (the River of Minao), Arrian tells us he found the country a kindly one, and very fruitful in every way except that there were no olives. The weary mariners landed and enjoyed this pleasant rest from their toils. (_Indica_, 33; _J. R. G. S._ V. 274.) [Illustration: MARCO POLO’S ITINERARIES Nᵒ. II. Kerman to Hormuz (Bᵏ. I. Ch. 19.) Approximate Section from Yazd to Hormuz] The name Formosa is probably only Rusticiano’s misunderstanding of _Harmuza_, aided, perhaps, by Polo’s picture of the beauty of the plain. We have the same change in the old _Mafomet_ for Mahomet, and the converse one in the Spanish _hermosa_ for _formosa_. Teixeira’s Chronicle says that the city of Hormuz was founded by Xa Mahamed Dranku, _i.e._ Shah Mahomed Dirhem-Ko, in “a plain of the same name.” The statement in Ramusio that Hormuz stood upon an island, is, I doubt not, an interpolation by himself or some earlier transcriber. When the ships of Nearchus launched again from the mouth of the Anamis, their first day’s run carried them past a certain desert and bushy island to another which was large and inhabited. The desert isle was called _Organa_; the large one by which they anchored _Oaracta_. (_Indica_, 37.) Neither name is quite lost; the latter greater island is Kishm or _Brakht_; the former _Jerún_,[2] perhaps in old Persian _Gerún_ or _Gerán_, now again desert though no longer bushy, after having been for three centuries the site of a city which became a poetic type of wealth and splendour. An Eastern saying ran, “Were the world a ring, Hormuz would be the jewel in it.” [“The _Yüan shi_ mentions several seaports of the Indian Ocean as carrying on trade with China; Hormuz is not spoken of there. I may, however, quote from the Yüan History a curious statement which perhaps refers to this port. In ch. cxxiii., biography of Arsz-lan, it is recorded that his grandson Hurdutai, by order of Kubilai Khan, accompanied _Bu-lo no-yen_ on his mission to the country of _Ha-rh-ma-sz_. This latter name may be intended for Hormuz. I do not think that by the Noyen _Bulo_, M. Polo could be meant, for the title Noyen would hardly have been applied to him. But Rashid-eddin mentions a distinguished Mongol, by name _Pulad_, with whom he was acquainted in Persia, and who furnished him with much information regarding the history of the Mongols. This may be the _Bu-lo no-yen_ of the Yüan History.” (Bretschneider, _Med. Res._ II. p. 132.)—H. C.] NOTE 2.—A spirit is still distilled from dates in Persia, Mekran, Sind, and some places in the west of India. It is mentioned by Strabo and Dioscorides, according to Kämpfer, who says it was in his time made under the name of a medicinal stomachic; the rich added _Radix Chinae_, ambergris, and aromatic spices; the poor, liquorice and Persian absinth. (_Sir B. Frere_; _Amoen. Exot._ 750; _Macd. Kinneir_, 220.) [“The _date_ wine with spices is not now made at Bender ’Abbás. Date arrack, however, is occasionally found. At Kermán a sort of wine or arrack is made with spices and alcohol, distilled from sugar; it is called Má-ul-Háyát (water of life), and is recommended as an aphrodisiac. Grain in the Shamíl plain is harvested in April, dates are gathered in August.” (_Houtum-Schindler_, _l.c._ p. 496.) See “Remarks on the Use of Wine and Distilled Liquors among the Mohammedans of Turkey and Persia,” pp. 315–330 of _Narrative of a Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, and Mesopotamia_.... By the Rev. Horatio Southgate,... London, 1840, vol. ii.—H. C.] [Sir H. Yule quotes, in a MS. note, these lines from Moore’s _Light of the Harem_: “Wine, too, of every clime and hue, Around their liquid lustre threw _Amber Rosolli_[3]—the bright dew From vineyards of the Green Sea gushing.”] See above, p. 114. [Illustration: The Double or Latin Rudder, as shown in the Navicella of Giotto. (From Eastlake.)] The date and dry-fish diet of the Gulf people is noticed by most travellers, and P. della Valle repeats the opinion about its being the only wholesome one. Ibn Batuta says the people of Hormuz had a saying, “_Khormá wa máhí lút-i-Pádshahi_,” _i.e._ “Dates and fish make an Emperor’s dish!” A fish, exactly like the tunny of the Mediterranean in general appearance and habits, is one of the great objects of fishery off the Sind and Mekran coasts. It comes in pursuit of shoals of anchovies, very much like the Mediterranean fish also. (_I. B._ II. 231; _Sir B. Frere_.) [Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, I. pp. 55–56) says: “And there you find (before arriving at Hormuz) people who live almost entirely on dates, and you get forty-two pounds of dates for less than a groat; and so of many other things.”] NOTE 3.—The stitched vessels of Kermán (πλοιάρια ῥαπτὰ) are noticed in the _Periplus_. Similar accounts to those of our text are given of the ships of the Gulf and of Western India by Jordanus and John of Montecorvino. (_Jord._ p. 53; _Cathay_, p. 217.) “Stitched vessels,” Sir B. Frere writes, “are still used. I have seen them of 200 tons burden; but they are being driven out by iron-fastened vessels, as iron gets cheaper, except where (as on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts) the pliancy of a stitched boat is useful in a surf. Till the last few years, when steamers have begun to take all the best horses, the Arab horses bound to Bombay almost all came in the way Marco Polo describes.” Some of them do still, standing over a date cargo, and the result of this combination gives rise to an extraordinary traffic in the Bombay bazaar. From what Colonel Pelly tells me, the stitched build in the Gulf is _now_ confined to fishing-boats, and is disused for sea-going craft. [Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, I. p. 57) mentioned these vessels: “In this country men make use of a kind of vessel which they call _Jase_, which is fastened only with stitching of twine. On one of these vessels I embarked, and I could find no iron at all therein.” _Jase_ is for the Arabic _Djehaz_.—H. C.] The fish-oil used to rub the ships was whale-oil. The old Arab voyagers of the 9th century describe the fishermen of Siraf in the Gulf as cutting up the whale-blubber and drawing the oil from it, which was mixed with other stuff, and used to rub the joints of ships’ planking. (_Reinaud_, I. 146.) Both Montecorvino and Polo, in this passage, specify _one rudder_, as if it was a peculiarity of these ships worth noting. The fact is that, in the Mediterranean at least, the double rudders of the ancients kept their place to a great extent through the Middle Ages. A Marseilles MS. of the 13th century, quoted in Ducange, says: “A ship requires three rudders, two in place, and one to spare.” Another: “Every two-ruddered bark shall pay a groat each voyage; every one-ruddered bark shall,” etc. (See Duc. under _Timonus_ and _Temo_.) Numerous proofs of the use of two rudders in the 13th century will be found in “_Documenti inediti riguardanti le due Crociate di S. Ludovico IX., Re di Francia_, etc., da _L. T. Belgrano_, Genova, 1859.” Thus in a specification of ships to be built at Genoa for the king (p. 7), each is to have “_Timones duo_, affaiticos, grossitudinis palmorum viiii et dimidiae, longitudinis cubitorum xxiiii.” Extracts given by Capmany, regarding the equipment of galleys, show the same thing, for he is probably mistaken in saying that one of the _dos timones_ specified was a spare one. Joinville (p. 205) gives incidental evidence of the same: “Those Marseilles ships have each two rudders, with each a tiller (? _tison_) attached to it in such an ingenious way that you can turn the ship right or left as fast as you would turn a horse. So on the Friday the king was sitting upon one of these tillers, when he called me and said to me,” etc.[4] Francesco da Barberino, a poet of the 13th century, in the 7th part of his _Documenti d’Amore_ (printed at Rome in 1640), which instructs the lover to whose lot it may fall to escort his lady on a sea-voyage (instructions carried so far as to provide even for the case of her death at sea!), alludes more than once to these plural rudders. Thus— “———— se vedessi avenire Che vento ti rompesse _Timoni_ ... In luogo di timoni Fa spere[5] e in aqua poni.” (P. 272–273.) And again, when about to enter a port, it is needful to be on the alert and ready to run in case of a hostile reception, so the galley should enter stern foremost—a movement which he reminds his lover involves the reversal of the ordinary use of the two rudders:— “_L’un timon leva suso L’altro leggier tien giuso_, Ma convien levar mano Non mica com soleàno, Ma per contraro, e face Cosi ’l guidar verace.” (P. 275.) [Illustration: 12th Century Illumination. (After Pertz.) Seal of Winchelsea. 12th Century Illumination (After Pertz.) From Leaning Tower. (After Jal.) After Spinello Aretini at Siena. From Monument of St. Peter Martyr. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DOUBLE RUDDER OF THE MIDDLE AGES.] A representation of a vessel over the door of the Leaning Tower at Pisa shows this arrangement, which is also discernible in the frescoes of galley-fights by Spinello Aretini, in the Municipal Palace at Siena. [Godinho de Eredia (1613), describing the smaller vessels of Malacca which he calls _bâlos_ in ch. 13, _De Embarcaçôes_, says: “At the poop they have two rudders, one on each side to steer with.” E por poupa dos bâllos, tem 2 lêmes, hum en cada lado pera o governo. (_Malacca, l’ Inde mérid. et le Cathay_, Bruxelles, 1882, 4to, f. 26.)—H. C.] The midship rudder seems to have been the more usual in the western seas, and the double quarter-rudders in the Mediterranean. The former are sometimes styled _Navarresques_ and the latter _Latins_. Yet early seals of some of the Cinque Ports show vessels with the double rudder; one of which (that of Winchelsea) is given in the cut. In the Mediterranean the latter was still in occasional use late in the 16th century. Captain Pantero Pantera in his book, _L’ Armata Navale_ (Rome, 1614, p. 44), says that the Galeasses, or great galleys, had the helm _alla Navarresca_, but also a great oar on each side of it to assist in turning the ship. And I observe that the great galeasses which precede the Christian line of battle at Lepanto, in one of the frescoes by Vasari in the Royal Hall leading to the Sistine Chapel, have the quarter-rudder very distinctly. The Chinese appear occasionally to employ it, as seems to be indicated in a woodcut of a vessel of war which I have traced from a Chinese book in the National Library at Paris. (See above, p. 37.) [For the Chinese words for _rudder_, see p. 126 of J. Edkins’ article on _Chinese Names for Boats and Boat Gear, Jour. N. China Br. R. As. Soc._ N.S. XI. 1876.—H. C.] It is also used by certain craft of the Indian Archipelago, as appears from Mr. Wallace’s description of the Prau in which he sailed from Macassar to the Aru Islands. And on the Caspian, it is stated in Smith’s “Dict. of Antiquities” (art. _Gubernaculum_), the practice remained in force till late times. A modern traveller was nearly wrecked on that sea, because the two rudders were in the hands of two pilots who spoke different languages, and did not understand each other! (Besides the works quoted see _Jal, Archéologie Navale_, II. 437–438, and _Capmany, Memorias_, III. 61.) [Major Sykes remarks (_Persia_, ch. xxiii.): “Some unrecorded event, probably the sight of the unseaworthy craft, which had not an ounce of iron in their composition, made our travellers decide that the risks of the sea were too great, so that we have the pleasure of accompanying them back to Kermán and thence northwards to Khorasán.”—H. C.] NOTE 4.—So also at Bander Abbási Tavernier says it was so unhealthy that foreigners could not stop there beyond March; everybody left it in April. Not a hundredth part of the population, says Kämpfer, remained in the city. Not a beggar would stop for any reward! The rich went to the towns of the interior or to the cool recesses of the mountains, the poor took refuge in the palm-groves at the distance of a day or two from the city. A place called ’Ishin, some 12 miles north of the city, was a favourite resort of the European and Hindu merchants. Here were fine gardens, spacious baths, and a rivulet of fresh and limpid water. The custom of lying in water is mentioned also by Sir John Maundevile, and it was adopted by the Portuguese when they occupied Insular Hormuz, as P. della Valle and Linschoten relate. The custom is still common during great heats, in Sind and Mekran (Sir B. F.). An anonymous ancient geography (_Liber Junioris Philosophi_) speaks of a people in India who live in the Terrestrial Paradise, and lead the life of the Golden Age.... The sun is so hot _that they remain all day in the river!_ The heat in the Straits of Hormuz drove Abdurrazzak into an anticipation of a verse familiar to English schoolboys: “Even the bird of rapid flight was burnt up in the heights of heaven, as well as the fish in the depths of the sea!” (_Tavern._ Bk. V. ch. xxiii.; _Am. Exot._ 716, 762; _Müller, Geog. Gr. Min._ II. 514; _India in XV. Cent._ p. 49.) NOTE 5.—A like description of the effect of the _Simúm_ on the human body is given by Ibn Batuta, Chardin, A. Hamilton, Tavernier, Thévenot, etc.; and the first of these travellers speaks specially of its prevalence in the desert near Hormuz, and of the many graves of its victims; but I have met with no reasonable account of its poisonous action. I will quote Chardin, already quoted at greater length by Marsden, as the most complete parallel to the text: “The most surprising effect of the wind is not the mere fact of its causing death, but its operation on the bodies of those who are killed by it. It seems as if they became decomposed without losing shape, so that you would think them to be merely asleep, when they are not merely dead, but in such a state that if you take hold of any part of the body it comes away in your hand. And the finger penetrates such a body as if it were so much dust.” (III. 286.) Burton, on his journey to Medina, says: “The people assured me that this wind never killed a man in their Allah-favoured land. I doubt the fact. At Bir Abbas the body of an Arnaut was brought in swollen, and decomposed rapidly, the true diagnosis of death by the poison-wind.” Khanikoff is very distinct as to the immediate fatality of the desert wind at Khabis, near Kermán, but does not speak of the effect on the body after death. This Major St. John does, describing a case that occurred in June, 1871, when he was halting, during intense heat, at the post-house of Pasangan, a few miles south of Kom. The bodies were brought in of two poor men, who had tried to start some hours before sunset, and were struck down by the poisonous blast within half-a-mile of the post-house. “It was found impossible to wash them before burial.... Directly the limbs were touched they separated from the trunk.” (_Oc. Highways, ut. sup._) About 1790, when Timúr Sháh of Kabul sent an army under the Sirdár-i-Sirdárán to put down a revolt in Meshed, this force on its return was struck by Simúm in the Plain of Farrah, and the Sirdár perished, with a great number of his men. (_Ferrier, H. of the Afghans_, 102; _J. R. G. S._ XXVI. 217; _Khan. Mém._ 210.) NOTE 6.—The History of Hormuz is very imperfectly known. What I have met with on the subject consists of—(1) An abstract by Teixeira of a chronicle of Hormuz, written by Thurán Sháh, who was himself sovereign of Hormuz, and died in 1377; (2) some contemporary notices by Wassáf, which are extracted by Hammer in his History of the Ilkhans; (3) some notices from Persian sources in the 2nd Decade of De Barros (ch. ii.). The last do not go further back than Gordun Sháh, the father of Thurán Sháh, to whom they erroneously ascribe the first migration to the Island. One of Teixeira’s Princes is called _Ruknuddin Mahmud_, and with him Marsden and Pauthier have identified Polo’s Ruomedam Acomet, or as he is called on another occasion in the Geog. Text, _Maimodi Acomet_. This, however, is out of the question, for the death of Ruknuddin is assigned to A.H. 675 (A.D. 1277), whilst there can, I think, be no doubt that Marco’s account refers to the period of his return from China, viz. 1293 or thereabouts. We find in Teixeira that the ruler who succeeded in 1290 was _Amir Masa’úd_, who obtained the Government by the murder of his brother Saifuddin Nazrat. Masa’úd was cruel and oppressive; most of the influential people withdrew to Baháuddin Ayaz, whom Saifuddin had made Wazir of Kalhát on the Arabian coast. This Wazir assembled a force and drove out Masa’úd after he had reigned three years. He fled to Kermán and died there some years afterwards. Baháuddin, who had originally been a slave of Saifuddin Nazrat’s, succeeded in establishing his authority. But about 1300 great bodies of Turks (_i.e._ Tartars) issuing from Turkestan ravaged many provinces of Persia, including Kermán and Hormuz. The people, unable to bear the frequency of such visitations, retired first to the island of Kishm, and then to that of Jerún, on which last was built the city of New Hormuz, afterwards so famous. This is Teixeira’s account from Thurán Sháh, so far as we are concerned with it. As regards the transfer of the city it agrees substantially with Abulfeda’s, which we have already quoted (_supra_, note 1). Hammer’s account from Wassáf is frightfully confused, chiefly I should suppose from Hammer’s own fault; for among other things he assumes that Hormuz was always on an island, and he distinguishes between the Island of Hormuz and the Island of Jerún! We gather, however, that Hormuz before the Mongol time formed a government subordinate to the Salghur Atabegs of Fars (see note 1, ch. xv.), and when the power of that Dynasty was falling, the governor Mahmúd Kalháti, established himself as Prince of Hormuz, and became the founder of a petty dynasty, being evidently identical with Teixeira’s Ruknuddin Mahmud above-named, who is represented as reigning from 1246 to 1277. In Wassáf we find, as in Teixeira, Mahmúd’s son Masa’úd killing his brother Nazrat, and Baháuddin expelling Masa’úd. It is true that Hammer’s surprising muddle makes Nazrat kill Masa’úd; however, as a few lines lower we find Masa’úd alive and Nazrat dead, we may safely venture on this correction. But we find also that Masa’úd appears as _Ruknuddin_ Masa’úd, and that Baháuddin does not assume the princely authority himself, but proclaims that of _Fakhruddin Ahmed_ Ben Ibrahim At-Thaibi, a personage who does not appear in Teixeira at all. A MS. history, quoted by Ouseley, _does_ mention Fakhruddin, and ascribes to him the transfer to Jerún. Wassáf seems to allude to Baháuddin as a sort of Sea Rover, occupying the islands of Larek and Jerún, whilst Fakhruddin reigned at Hormuz. It is difficult to understand the relation between the two. It is _possible_ that Polo’s memory made some confusion between the names of RUKNUDDIN Masa’úd and Fakhruddin AHMED, but I incline to think the latter is his RUOMEDAN AHMED. For Teixeira tells us that Masa’úd took refuge at the court of Kermán, and Wassáf represents him as supported in his claims by the Atabeg of that province, whilst we see that Polo seems to represent Ruomedan Acomat as in hostility with that prince. To add to the imbroglio I find in a passage of Wassáf Malik Fakhruddin Ahmed at-Thaibi sent by Ghazan Khan in 1297 as ambassador to Khanbalig, staying there some years, and dying off the Coromandel coast on his return in 1305. (Elliot, iii. pp. 45–47.) Masa’úd’s seeking help from Kermán to reinstate him is not the first case of the same kind that occurs in Teixeira’s chronicle, so there may have been some kind of colour for Marco’s representation of the Prince of Hormuz as the vassal of the Atabeg of Kermán (“_l’homme de cest roy de Creman;_” see _Prologue_, ch. xiv. note 2). M. Khanikoff denies the _possibility_ of the existence of any _royal dynasty_ at Hormuz at this period. That there _was_ a dynasty of _Maliks_ of Hormuz, however, at this period we must believe on the concurring testimony of Marco, of Wassáf, and of Thurán Sháh. There was also, it would seem, another _quasi_-independent principality in the Island of Kais. (_Hammer’s Ilch._ II. 50, 51; _Teixeira, Relacion de los Reyes de Hormuz; Khan. Notice_, p. 34.) The ravages of the Tartars which drove the people of Hormuz from their city may have begun with the incursions of the Nigudaris and Karaunahs, but they probably came to a climax in the great raid in 1299 of the Chaghataian Prince Kotlogh Shah, son of Dua Khan, a part of whose bands besieged the city itself, though they are said to have been repulsed by Baháuddin Ayas. [The Dynasty of Hormuz was founded about 1060 by a Yemen chief Mohammed Dirhem Ko, and remained subject to Kermán till 1249, when Rokn ed-din Mahmúd III. Kalháti (1242–1277) made himself independent. The immediate successors of Rokn ed-din were Saif ed-din Nazrat (1277–1290), Masa’úd (1290–1293), Bahad ed-din Ayaz Sayfin (1293–1311). Hormuz was captured by the Portuguese in 1510 and by the Persians in 1622.—H. C.] NOTE 7.—The indications of this alternative route to Kermán are very vague, but it may probably have been that through Finn, Tárum, and the Sírján district, passing out of the plain of Hormuz by the eastern flank of the Ginao mountain. This road would pass near the hot springs at the base of the said mountain, Sarga, Khurkhu, and Ginao, which are described by Kämpfer. Being more or less sulphureous they are likely to be useful in skin-diseases: indeed, Hamilton speaks of their efficacy in these. (I. 95.) The salt-streams are numerous on this line, and dates are abundant. The bitterness of the bread was, however, more probably due to another cause, as Major Smith has kindly pointed out to me: “Throughout the mountains in the south of Persia, which are generally covered with dwarf oak, the people are in the habit of making bread of the acorns, or of the acorns mixed with wheat or barley. It is dark in colour, and very hard, bitter, and unpalatable.” Major St. John also noticed the bitterness of the bread in Kermán, but his servants attributed it to the presence in the wheat-fields of a bitter leguminous plant, with a yellowish white flower, which the Kermánis were too lazy to separate, so that much remained in the thrashing, and imparted its bitter flavour to the grain (surely the _Tare_ of our Lord’s Parable!). [General Houtum-Schindler says (_l.c._ p. 496): “Marco Polo’s return journey was, I am inclined to think, _viâ_ Urzú and Báft, the shortest and most direct road. The road _viâ_ Tárum and Sírján is very seldom taken by travellers intending to go to Kermán; it is only frequented by the caravans going between Bender ’Abbás and Bahrámábád, three stages west of Kermán. Hot springs, ‘curing itch,’ I noticed at two places on the Urzú-Báft road. There were some near Qal’ah Asgher and others near Dashtáb; they were frequented by people suffering from skin-diseases, and were highly sulphureous; the water of those near Dashtáb turned a silver ring black after two hours’ immersion. Another reason of my advocating the Urzú road is that the bitter bread spoken of by Marco Polo is only found on it, viz. at Báft and in Bardshír. In Sírján, to the west, and on the roads to the east, the bread is sweet. The bitter taste is from the Khúr, a bitter leguminous plant, which grows among the wheat, and whose grains the people are too lazy to pick out. There is not a single oak between Bender ’Abbás and Kermán; none of the inhabitants seemed to know what an acorn was. A person at Báft, who had once gone to Kerbelá _viâ_ Kermánsháh and Baghdád, recognised my sketch of tree and fruit immediately, having seen oak and acorn between Kermánsháh and Qasr-i-Shírín on the Baghdád road.” Major Sykes writes (ch. xxiii.): “The above description undoubtedly refers to the main winter route, which runs _viâ_ Sírján. This is demonstrated by the fact that under the Kuh-i-Ginao, the summer station of Bandar Abbás, there is a magnificent sulphur spring, which, welling from an orifice 4 feet in diameter, forms a stream some 30 yards wide. Its temperature at the source is 113 degrees, and its therapeutic properties are highly appreciated. As to the bitterness of the bread, it is suggested in the notes that it was caused by being mixed with acorns, but, to-day at any rate, there are no oak forests in this part of Persia, and I would urge that it is better to accept our traveller’s statement, that it was due to the bitterness of the water.”—However, I prefer Gen. Houtum-Schindler’s theory.—H. C.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] It is but fair to say that scholars so eminent as Professors Sprenger and Blochmann have considered the original suggestion lawful and probable. Indeed, Mr. Blochmann says in a letter: “After studying a language for years, one acquires a natural feeling for anything un-idiomatic; but I must confess I see nothing un-Persian in _rúdbár-i-duzd_, nor in _rúdbár-i-lass_.... How common _lass_ is, you may see from one fact, that it occurs in children’s reading-books.” We must not take _Reobarles_ in Marco’s French as rhyming to (French) _Charles_; every syllable sounds. It is remarkable that _Lăs_, as the name of a small State near our Sind frontier, is said to mean, “in the language of the country,” _a level plain_. (_J. A. S. B._ VIII. 195.) It is not clear what is meant by the language of the country. The chief is a Brahui, the people are Lumri or Numri Bilúchis, who are, according to Tod, of Jat descent. [2] Sir Henry Rawlinson objects to this identification (which is the same that Dr. Karl Müller adopts), saying that _Organa_ is more probably “Angan, formerly Argan.” To this I cannot assent. Nearchus sails 300 stadia from the mouth of Anamis to Oaracta, and _on his way_ passes Organa. Taking 600 stadia to the degree (Dr. Müller’s value), I make it just 300 stadia from the mouth of the Hormuz creek to the eastern point of Kishm. Organa must have been either Jerún or Lárek; Angan (_Hanjám_ of Mas’udi) is out of the question. And as a straight run must have passed quite close to Jerún, not to Lárek, I find the former most probable. Nearchus next day proceeds 200 stadia along Oaracta, and anchors in sight of another island (Neptune’s) which was separated by 40 stadia from Oaracta. _This_ was Angan; no other island answers, and for this the distances answer with singular precision. [3] Moore refers to _Persian Tales_. [4] This _tison_ can be seen in the cuts from the tomb of St. Peter Martyr and the seal of Winchelsea. [5] _Spere_, bundles of spars, etc., dragged overboard.