Page 66 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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166 APPENDIX A.
Only in Torunpaque, which is a patch of salt white soil on the
point of the isle, there is one well which the king and the wazir
use to water their gardens there.1 In these all plants of those
i >■ parts grow in perfection. But, contrariwise, in all the rest of the
isle is no tree or plant to be seen, except that on the plain
there are some thorny evergreens called cottar, which bear a
berry like the jujube, and on the ground a few little mallows
\i s may be seen in spring time. And there is purgative senna, which
|5l!
'fl­ they call senna of Mecca.2
Of this salt mud they make water-vessels on the spot, which,
when once sweetened, keep the water cool and pure. And I
remember now that in 1596, when I happened to be at Harmuz,3
­
the then king, Ferragut Xd,4 a pretty old man, fell in love with the
cash of one Bi Fatima, an old lady, the widow of one of his
subjects called Rex Bradadin,5 who had been wazir of Mogostam
on the Persian mainland. She was said to be very rich, and the
king proposed marriage to her. But she, to put that idea out of
I .
his head, told him that he might do so when he had made a new
garden in Turunpaque, and found a new freshwater spring. This
■Hi she thought impossible, but the old man, doubtless spurred by
H' his greed, was no laggard. He planted a new garden better than
his old one, and found a good sweet spring; but not for all that
r did he get hold of the money.
Near this Torunpaque, among some rocks not far from the sea,
ill
Bi 1 “ Torunpaque ” can hardly be said to survive, nor do its wells and
gardens. But, on the east point of the isle, our charts show “ Turum-
1 bagh (Ruins),” which can hardly represent any other place than this:
the less so, as the hills above this part of the shore are the only hills
I ! on the island that are not salt. Probably the original name of the
garden was “Turdn Bdgh,” and indicates its plantation or renewal
■ by the royal historian. At least, one would like to think so. (Vide
;!* Persian Gulf Pilot, sub voce “ Hormuz,” and charts.) [On “Turum-
baque” and its wells, see Comment, of Af Dalb., vol. i, pp. 138-140,
175-178 ; also Nieuhof’s description of the place as he saw it in 1662
fi:
{Of. Cit., p. 233).—D. F.]
F: 1 The 11 cottar” certainly was a jujube (Ztzyphus). 1 cannot find the
1 name in either dictionaries or botanical books, as one of that genus
of plants. But Thevenot gives it as the name of a tree, abundant in
!!■
this very region of Persia, with a description and drawing, and his
tree was pretty surely Zizyphus Spina Christi (Lovell’s translation,
London, 1686, Pt. II, p. 117). The “ Sena Maky” was probably Cassia
halo sericca, ,which grows even on the barren rock of Aden. But it
iJi may have been C. anguslifolia, which also bears that name, quaintly
Indianized by Hindus into sonamtikhi =“ golden-face.” [Johnson’s
■ y
t •• Persian-Arabic-English Dictionary has “ kuttar, the lote-fruit,” which
is the fruit of Zizyphus lotus, and the supposed food of the Lotophagi.
—D. F.] 3 See Introduction.—D. F.
: i
■i 4 See note at end of this Appendix, and also Appendix B.—D. f
5 Cf. infra. This is probably the “ Rax Lardadi” (read “ Bardadi”)
, 1
mentioned by Couto {Dec. X, Liv. 11, cap. xi).—D. F.
.7
1
>1
ii
r*
KINGS OF HORMUZ. 167
is a spring which the native Harmuzis call Abdarmon, that is to
say, “ the medicinal water.”1 It is very purgative, and at a certain
season many come here and drink it, quant, suff. And when they
feel relieved, they eat a little of an orange or lemon. If they pass
the pips presently, they think the cure complete, and go to dinner.
There is plenty of game taken on the isle, namely gazelles,
adibes (which are a sort of foxes), partridges, turtle-doves, and
other birds. And it is matter of marvel what these creatures can
drink, seeing that there is no fresh water in the isle but what I
have mentioned. Some pretend that they drink salt water, and
others tell other equally ill-founded stories. -
The city is not now very great, though it has been. But the
most and best part of it was removed to clear a great esplanade
in front of the fortress.3 The houses are well built, of an indiffer­
ently good stone, quarried on the island, and of that fished out
of the sea, as has been related already,4 which is light, and best
endures the earthquakes from which the isle suffers. The cement
is made of white gypsum, abundant on the mainland, which they
call gueche,5 and of a local sort, red, and not so good. They
use another cement for buildings set in the water, which I will
describe briefly, as here unknown. They call it chart/* and it
is made of the oldest and best cured dung collected on the
middens. They take the upper stuff off this, and make cakes of
it, and dry them in the sun. When they are quite dry, they
make a mound of them, and burn them for a while, and keep
the remaining ash. Of this they take a certain quantity, and lay
it on a hard clean place; and around it stand seven or eight
Arabs, men of that trade, every one with a staff in hand, who set
to work to thresh it, striking all together. And one of them sings
stroke in the same tone. And so it is brought to perfection, and
out, from one up to a settled number, the rest answering at each
used up at once; for if it be left to cool, and kept over a day, it
goes bad, and is useless. This stuff is especially proof against
water, and resists it for many years.7
1 From ab=il water” and ddru — “medicine.” The spelling is
evidently corrupt.
2 There is not space here for an essay on the desert fauna of Persia.
It is enough to say that the creatures mentioned are by no means
impossible inhabitants of Hormuz. The adibes, according to the
dictionaries, should have been cither wolves or hyajnas, but were pro­
bably jackals. \Adibe=Arabic ad-dib = u the wolf,” from sib, wolf.—
D. F.]
3 Cf. the plans referred in the note on p. 164.—D. F.
4 In the Kings of Persia, Bk. I, chap, xxxiii (see infra, Appendix B)
5 Gach, Persian, = cement or mortar.
• Probably sarugh = cement (Persian).
7 The mixture of good ashes with cement is well known throughout