Chapter XXXVII: Concerning the City of Esher

Esher is a great city lying in a north-westerly direction from the last, and 400 miles distant from the Port of Aden. It has a king, who is subject to the Soldan of Aden. He has a number of towns and villages under him, and administers his territory well and justly.

The people are Saracens. The place has a very good haven, wherefore many ships from India come thither with various cargoes; and they export many good chargers thence to India.{1}

A great deal of white incense grows in this country, and brings in a great revenue to the Prince; for no one dares sell it to any one else; and whilst he takes it from the people at 10 livres of gold for the hundredweight, he sells it to the merchants at 60 livres, so his profit is immense.{2}

Dates also grow very abundantly here. The people have no corn but rice, and very little of that; but plenty is brought from abroad, for it sells here at a good profit. They have fish in great profusion, and notably plenty of tunny of large size; so plentiful indeed that you may buy two big ones for a Venice groat of silver. The natives live on meat and rice and fish. They have no wine of the vine, but they make good wine from sugar, from rice, and from dates also.

And I must tell you another very strange thing. You must know that their sheep have no ears, but where the ear ought to be they have a little horn! They are pretty little beasts.{3}

And I must not omit to tell you that all their cattle, including horses, oxen, and camels, live upon small fish and nought besides, for ’tis all they get to eat. You see in all this country there is no grass or forage of any kind; it is the driest country on the face of the earth. The fish which are given to the cattle are very small, and during March, April, and May, are caught in such quantities as would astonish you. They are then dried and stored, and the beasts are fed on them from year’s end to year’s end. The cattle will also readily eat these fish all alive and just out of the water.{4}

The people here have likewise many other kinds of fish of large size and good quality, exceedingly cheap; these they cut in pieces of about a pound each, and dry them in the sun, and then store them, and eat them all the year through, like so much biscuit.{5}

NOTE 1.—_Shiḥr_ or _Sheḥr_, with the article, ES-SHEḤR, still
exists on the Arabian coast, as a town and district about 330 m.
east of Aden. In 1839 Captain Haines described the modern town
as extending in a scattered manner for a mile along the shore,
the population about 6000, and the trade considerable, producing
duties to the amount of 5000_l._ a year. It was then the residence
of the Sultan of the Hamúm tribe of Arabs. There is only an open
roadstead for anchorage. Perhaps, however, the old city is to be
looked for about ten miles to the westward, where there is another
place bearing the same name, “once a thriving town, but now a
desolate group of houses with an old fort, formerly the residence
of the chief of the _Kaṣaidi_ tribe.” (_J. R. G. S._ IX. 151–152.)
Sheḥr is spoken of by Barbosa (_Xaer_ in Lisbon ed.; _Pecher_ in
Ramusio; _Xeher_ in Stanley; in the two last misplaced to the
east of Dhofar): “It is a very large place, and there is a great
traffic in goods imported by the Moors of Cambaia, Chaul, Dabul,
Batticala, and the cities of Malabar, such as cotton-stuffs ...
strings of garnets, and many other stones of inferior value; also
much rice and sugar, and spices of all sorts, with coco-nuts; ...
their money they invest in horses for India, which are here very
large and good. Every one of them is worth in India 500 or 600
ducats.” (_Ram._ f. 292.) The name Sheḥr in some of the Oriental
geographies, includes the whole coast up to Omán.

NOTE 2.—The hills of the Sheḥr and Dhafár districts were the great
source of produce of the Arabian frankincense. Barbosa says of
Sheḥr: “They carry away much incense, which is produced at this
place and in the interior; ... it is exported hence all over the
world, and here it is used to pay ships with, for on the spot it
is worth only 150 farthings the hundredweight.” See note 2, ch.
xxvii. _supra_; and next chapter, note 2.

NOTE 3.—This was no doubt a breed of four-horned sheep, and Polo,
or his informant, took the lower pair of horns for abnormal ears.
Probably the breed exists, but we have little information on
details in reference to this coast. The Rev. G. P. Badger, D.C.L.,
writes: “There are sheep on the eastern coast of Arabia, and as
high up as Mohammerah on the Shatt-al-Arab, _with very small ears
indeed_; so small as to be almost imperceptible at first sight near
the projecting horns. I saw one at Mohammerah having _six_ horns.”
And another friend, Mr. Arthur Grote, tells me he had for some time
at Calcutta a 4-horned sheep from Aden.

NOTE 4.—This custom holds more or less on all the Arabian coast
from Sheḥr to the Persian Gulf, and on the coast east of the Gulf
also. Edrisi mentions it at Sheḥr (printed _Shajr_, I. 152), and
the Admiral Sidi ’Ali says: “On the coast of Shehr, men and animals
all live on fish” (_J. A. S. B._ V. 461). Ibn Batuta tells the
same of Dhafár, the subject of next chapter: “The fish consist
for the most part of sardines, which are here of the fattest. The
surprising thing is that all kinds of cattle are fed on these
sardines, and sheep likewise. I have never seen anything like that
elsewhere” (II. 197). Compare Strabo’s account of the Ichthyophagi
on the coast of Mekran (XV. 11), and the like account in the life
of Apollonius of Tyana (III. 56).

[Burton, quoted by Yule, says (_Sind Revisited_, 1877, I. p. 33):
“The whole of the coast, including that of Mekrán, the land of
the _Máhi Khárán_ or Ichthyophagi.” Yule adds: “I have seen this
suggested also elsewhere. It seems a highly probable etymology.”
See note, p. 402.—H. C.]

NOTE 5.—At Hásik, east of Dhafár, Ibn Batuta says: “The people here
live on a kind of fish called _Al-Lukham_, resembling that called
the sea-dog. They cut it in slices and strips, dry it in the sun,
salt it, and feed on it. Their houses are made with fish-bones, and
their roofs with camel-hides” (II. 214).