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1,37-38,1 COUNTRIES IS THE SEA (iNDAMAN ISLANDS). 147
them, might be seene fiftie days journey by land, that is, aboYO the space of five hundred leagues
off». Purchas, His Pilgrimes, Yin, 589.
2) Masudi, op. cit., II, 434—436 says that under the reign of the Omayyad Caliph
Walid I, which was from A. D. 705 to 715, the king of Byzantium sent one of his favorite eunuchs
5 to Egypt on a secret mission. Led into the presence of el-Walid, he said that he had fled from the
court of the Greek king to save his life, and that he wished to become a mussulman. This he did,
and little by little he gained the confidence of the Caliph by disclosing to him the existence of
hidden treasures in Damascus and other places in Syria. One day he told el-Walid that when
Alexander had got possession of the property and the precious stones of Sheddad, son of Ad, or
10 of other Arab kings in Egypt and in Syria, he had built vaults and subterranean chambers,
covered over with vaults and arches. In these he put all his treasures,iingots, coin and precious
stones. Above these vaults he built the Pharos, which was not less than a thousand cubits high,
and on the top of it he placed a mirror and a guard. As soon as an enemy appeared in the
offing, the watchmen cried out to the neighbouring posts and, by means of signals, warned the
15 remotest ones. So the inhabitants were warned, ran to the defense of the city, and foiled the
enemy's attempt. On hearing this the Caliph sent the eunuch with some soldiers who pulled down
half of the tower and destroyed the mirror. The people of Alexandria and of the other cities
saw the ruse, and that they would be its victims, and the eunuch, fearing lest the Caliph should
soon hear of his perfidy, fled during the night and made oif on a ship which he had got ready in
20 case of need. Edrisi, I, 298 says a fire burnt on the Pharos continually, but he does not
mention the mirror. Cf. Yaliut, 263-4, who docs not believe this tale.
Conf. Abulfeda, II, Pt. 2, 144, who says the mirror was of airon of China». Leo Afri-
canus, Historic of Africa, III, 864 (Hakl. Soc. edit.), says it was a «steele-glasse by the hidden
vertue of which glasse as many ships as passed by while the glasse was uncovered should imme-
25 diately be set on fire; but the said glasse being broken by the Mahumetans, the secret vertue
30
thereof vanished)).
38.
COUNTRIES IN THE SEA.
1. Andaman islands.
Yen-ro-man {^ ^t W-
When sailing from Lan-wu-li to Si-lan, if the wind is not fair, ships
may.'be driven to a place called Yen-t'o-man. This is a group of two islands
in the middle of the sea, one of them being large, the other small; the latter
is quite uninhabited. The large one measures seventy U in circuit. The
85 natives on it are of a colour resembling black lacquer; they eat men alive,
so that sailors dare not anchor on this coasts
This inland does not contain so much as an inch of iron, for which
reason the natives use (bits of) eonch-shell {c¥6-¥u) with ground edges in-
stead of knives. On this island is a sacred relic, (the so-called) «corpse on a bed
40 of rolling gold., (M ^ M ^ ^)- s body has been there for genera-
10*