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camphor tree 1 which is of a height unattained by any other 14
tree. It has a white trunk and is so large as to shelter more than
two hundred men under its shade. Incisions are made in the
lower part of the tree and the camphor flows out upon it like
gum, after which the tree withers. In the immediate proximity
of Sarandib lies the island of Alkalb,* which has mines of gold.
The staple food of its inhabitants is the cocoa-nut. They are
fair, nude and comely in form. The adjoining island is known
as the island of ar-Rami.³ Here the tree known as Baqqam*
flourishes; it is planted by hand and bears a fruit resembling
carob-pods, with a bitter taste; and the roots counteract the
ill effects of the most powerful poisons. The island of Usqutrah
[Socotra] rises like a tower in the dark sea; it is a refuge for
the pirates 5 who are the terror of sailing ships in these parts;
and not till the island is cleared do they cease to be a cause of
fear. Of the two seas, this is the most beneficial and salutary.
The other sea issues from the furthest west between as-Susu-l
Aqsa and al-Andalus. It is broad where it emerges from the
wife, too, throws herself on the fire and is burned with him. In Ibnu-l
Faqih, Kitabu-l-Buldan, p. 10, it is the king's men who thus sacrifice themselves.
1 Dryobalanops Camphora or D, aromatica N. O. Dipterocarpaceae. The
Camphor tree is indigenous to the island of Sumatra, and does not exist in
Ceylon. (Remand's Introduot. Abulf. p. 409). The word • there,' therefore,
must be understood to refer to one of the ocean islands, other than Sarandib.
2 This is the Alankabalùs or Lanjabalus of other geographers, the modern
Nikobar.
3 The name of this island is variously written as ar-Rami, ar-Ramini and
ar-Rami. It is the modern Sumatra.
4 Coesalpinia Sappan N. 0. Leguminosoe. The Bakkam or Wakkam wood
of Sind, On the Coromandel coast a red dye called " Chay " contains this
Wood as an ingredient. It is known in commerce as " red-wood " from the
red dye which it furnishes. See Drury, Useful Plants of India, p. 93.
5 The Bawanj were the pirates of Kachh and Somanatb, thus called
because they committed their robberies on sea in ships called bira. Al-
Biruni's India, (Sachau) Vol. I, p. 208. The latter word is still used in this
sense, in Hindustani, under the form (Gloss. Beladh, sub De Goeje
has taken the word here to mean * refugium,' because Yaqut (III, 102)
describes the island as having formerly been a place of refuge to these
pirates of India. But it were more accurate to give it its proper sense of
1 barrier,' as the meaning seems to be that the pirates did not go beyond this
island in their expeditions.