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132 SOMALI COAST. 1,27
from Zeila oa the Beibera ccast to Magadoxo. See also Masudi, op. cit., Ill, 6, aad supra. The
town in which the king of Chung-li lived may well have been Magadoxo.
2) The African frankincense, also called by the Ancients Peratic and Libyan frankincense,
was found according to the Periplus (§ 11), near Cape Aromata (Eas Jardafun), and there only;
the supply, it says, was most abundant, and it was of the very finest quality. See also infra, Pt. II. 5
Ch. II. Socotra produced, and still produces, frankincense. See Bent, Southern Arabia, 380, S8t.
3) Ibn Batuta, IV, 227, says that the natives of the island of Barahnagar, which was
between Bengal and Sumatra, used to raise storms by enchantment. Marco Polo (II, 399)
speaks of the sorcery of the people of Socotra in nearly the same terms as Chau Jn-kua: «And
you must know that in this Island there are the best enchanters in the world. It is true that 10
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. There, 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 IB
better to say nothing about in our Book».
Friar Joanno dos Santos (A. D. 1597) says «In the He 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, 20
could never open his mouth to speake, but a Cocke crowed in his belly, till he had reconciled
himselfe: with other like odious 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, 361.
4) Eastern and Western mediaeval writers all speak of the vast numbers of whales in the 25
Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. Kazwini says that whales were often caught by the low tide
in the channels near Basra. The people harpooned them and got much oil out of the brain, which
they used for their lamps and smearing ships. Beinaud, Relations, I, 145—146. Marco Polo
speaks of the capture of whales by the people of Socotra, and of the great abundance of whales
and of capdols («oil-heads», spermaceti whales) oflf tlie Zanguebar coast (II, 399, 404). 30
Tong (}^) is not known as a measure of capacity. It is usually the Sanskrit tola, a
weight equal to 4 mashas. In our text the character must transcribe some other foreign word,
Persian probably. Conf. supra, p. 69j n. 2. Edrisi, I, 95, 06, says: «A11 Chinese ships, big or little,
which sail the sea of China, are solidly built of wood. The pieces bearing the one on the other
are arranged in geometric figures, secured (against leaking) by palm fibres and caulked with 35
flour and whale oil ... . This oily substance is famous in the Yemen, at Aden, on the coast of
Fars, of Oman, and in the seas of India and China The people of these regions use this substance
to caulk their ships». Conf. also Reinaud, Relations, I, 144— 146.
All authors from the time of Nearchus (Arrian, Hist. Indica, §§ 29, 30) have spoken of
the huts on the Makran coast built with whale bones; although I find no references to this 40
custom having obtained on the Berbera or Somali coast, there is no reason to suppose that it did
not. See M" Crindle, Commerce and navigation of the Erythrsean Sea, 196, 197.
5) The Periplus (§ 30) already mentions dragon's-blood as a product of the island of -
Dioskorides (Socotra), and it has continued one of the principal exports of the island ever since.
See infra, Pt. II, Ch. IV. Socotra was famous from ancient times for its aloes which, according to 45
Edrisi (I, 47), was exported thence to the East and the West. Heyd, Hist, du Commerce, II, 563.
Marco Polo (II, 399) speaks of the ambergris of the island. See infra, Pt. II, Ch. XXX and
XLI, and Reinaud, Relations, I, 139. Also Duarte Barbosa, op. cit, 30.
The island of Socotra is very mountainous; Mount Haghier arises in many jagged and
stupendous peaks to the height of nearly 5,000 feet... The glory of Mount Haghier is undoubtedly 50
its dragon's-blood tree (Dracaenia cinnahari), found scattered at an elevation of about 1,000 feet
and upwards over the greater part of Sokotra»... Theo. Bent, Southern Arabia, 378—379, 388.