Page 73 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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•h 180 APPENDIX A.
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v unreasonable to assert that pearls are engendered of dew-
drops.1 To this there are a thousand objections; for instance,
that the oyster itself, which is heavy and clumsy, cannot come to
the surface to receive the dewdrop; still less can it reach him
ft.;;. pure at the bottom through so much of salt, water, More-
over, we know by experience that the deeper the water where the
oyster is obtained, the more and finer are the pearls and seed-
pearls, and those of the shallows less, in number and in size.
Now it would not be thus if they came of the dewdrops, for
u :,i those oysters nearest the surface would get most and purest dew,
and be most influenced by the sun, acting more strongly on what
is nearest him than on more distant objects. But the contrary is
the case. And my opinion is favoured by what I have often seen
and tried, both by myself and in company of Christians, Moors,
and heathen, well skilled in pearls. That is, that we took out of*
the oyster-shells, with tools made for that purpose, pearls and
seed-pearls produced by the shells themselves. These, whether
for want of time, or from defective arrangement of their material,
or from any natural or other cause, had not come to perfection,
and yet remained united to the oyster-shell, of whose substance
they were formed. But when they had been detached, polished,
M i
M 1 the perfect pearls, and fetched very good prices. 1 the beach of Dosar, his brother had reached the isle. As he
and set in order, they looked as if they had been born apart like
Wherefore I hold it for certain that pearls are born and formed
p of the very matter of the shell, and of nothing else ; since this is
Vi.: very likely and the objections to the other opinion so great. And
i, i! this is supported by the great resemblance of the pearl and the
I® oyster-shell in substance and colour. Further, it is a thing
•?;s< observed and well vouched for, that whatever oyster contains
pearls has the flesh unsound and almost rotten in those parts
where the greater and less pearls are produced, in proportion to
their quantity. And those oysters that have no pearls, or so few
i; and small as not to be worth reckoning, are sound and clean-
3
fleshed.2 And this is no weak argument in favour of my opinion,
subject always to correction of better judgment. Yet I wonder
M- at those doctors11 who even now prescribe pierced or entire pearls
in their recipes, making much of the difference, and their error is
inexcusable. For they cannot be acquitted on the plea of
3.
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1 A very old belief, embodied by Moore in his Lalla Rookh;
Hi “ And precious their tears as that rain from the sky,
& Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea.”—D. F.
5 • ’
2 On the vexed question of the origin of pearls see the Paper by
3;1i O. Collett on “ Pearl Oysters and Pearl Fisheries,” and the discussion
in thereon, in the Journal of the Ceylon Asiatic Society for 1900.— D. F.
3 u
■h i Sehores Dotores.): But one cannot describe a sixteenth-century
doctor of physic by so very modern a phrase as “medical gentle­
man.”
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KINGS OF HORMUZ. 1S1
ignorance, not admissible in this matter, nor on that of precedent,
which is inequitable: knowing that all pearls are of the same
medicinal value, whether entire or drilled through, for none are
naturally perforated.1
And now we will go on with Xa Kodbadin. He, when he had
taken Barhen, as we have said, took also Katifa, Karga, and
Derab, and mastered all the shores both Persian and Arabian,-
whence every year he drew great tribute.
Xa Kodbadin had a brother named Nazomadin, whom he
loved and honoured greatly, in return for which the other plotted
his murder.3 Kodbadin went to the mainland to hunt,4 and being
in the Rudxur* for that purpose, Nazomadin and his fellows,
under pretence of chasing a hare towards Moridon, left the king,
and went to the beach of Doc&r, a stream of the mainland, which
lies opposite Gerun, or Harmuz, only five miles away. Here he
embarked himself and his company, who were awaiting him, in
terranques, and passed over to the isle. As all the chief of the
people were away in the king’s company, it was easily subdued,
and when he had won it he called himself king.
When Xakodbadin heard what road his brother Nazomadin had
taken, he followed him at full speed. But by the time he got to
could do nothing else at once, he remained on the mainland, and
secured himself in Kolongon,1' whence he sent out posts with
letters to all his territories, calling for men and aid against his
brother. This happened in the year of the Hyxaiay 745 : a.u.
1345*
Malek Nazomadin, having taken possession of the Isle of Har-
1 Cf. Garcia dc Orta, Colloquies, f. 140.—D. K.
* This should not be taken to mean, necessarily, that his power
extended even to Aden, still less to the Red Sea. But the modern
history of the Imams of Maskat shows that such a maritime empire
was easily established over a very much greater extent of the coasts
of the Indian Ocean, by a similar dynasty, acting from a similar ba»c.
Katifa and Karga (Karak) retain the same or similar names. Derab
seems to be an isle at the eastern mouth of the Shat-al-Arab.
3 A good example of our author’s occasional style, translated ver­
batim.
4 Compare what follows with the account by I bn Batiita, given in
a note infra (p. 183).— D. F.
6 “Rudxur” = “ Salt River.” Probably this is the “ Rudkhanch-i-
1 Shur” of the Royal Geographical Society’s Map, near Bandar Abbas.
I cannot find Moridon, nor Dochr, or Dosar, though there can be little
doubt as to where the latter was, behind where salt marshes of later
growth now lie opposite Hormuz. [Sec supra, p. 164 n.—D. r.]
6 This is evidently the “ Kulaghan” of the Survey of India Map, on
the mainland north-east of Hormuz Island.—D. F.