OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. ^J 



were in general "the richest people in the world ; " and China was "the best and safest country for 

 travellers." At the city of Fanjanfur, he met a townsman from Tangiers, whose brother he after- 

 wards saw in Sudan. — Returning by sea to Sumatra and the West, Ebn Batuta arrived at Zafar 

 (Dhofar in Southern Arabia) in April or May 1347; and continuing on by the way of Maskit El 

 Torayat (Muscat), Hormuz, Saman, reached the city of Saba (in Interior Arabia) after an absence in 

 all of "twenty years." 



" 1346 A. D." (art de verif.), Schaban-Kamel succeeded by Zeyneddin, sixteenth Memluk sultan 

 of Egypt. 



" Aug." (Humb. cosm.), the West coast of Africa as far along the Desert as Rio de Ouro N. Lat. 

 23° 40', visited by the Catalan navigator Don Jaime Ferrer :— Cape " Bugeder " (Bojador) is laid 

 down in the Catalan map "of 1375" (Major pr. Henr. 47). 



" In this year " (Ibn Batut., and Major pr. Henr. 48), death at Timbuctoo " of Abu-Ishac-es- 

 Sahili," a famous poet of Granada. — His tomb continued in after times " one of the curiosities of 

 Timbuctoo." The stone mosque and royal palace, "the only two remarkable buildings in the city," 

 were built by "an experienced architect of Granada" (Leo Afr.). 



"Aug. 26th " (Blair), the French defeated by Edward III. at Cressy: "perhaps the first battle 

 in which cannon were used" (Pouchet moy. age). — In the following year, Calais was captured by 

 the English. 



Maundeville on his journey found the king of Hungary very powerful, holding Slavonia, a great 

 part of Comania and Bulgaria, "and the realm of Russia a great part" to the border of Prussia. 



Continuing Eastward, Maundeville 15 mentions the burning of widows in Hindustan ; devotees 

 wounding themselves with knives, and others prostrating themselves to be crushed under the car of 

 a huge idol. 



In the Malayan Archipelago, Maundeville mentions cannibals, and an isle where the people 

 "make marks on their faces with a hot iron" (Papuans). Houses built of large reeds (bamboo) : 

 and people having " thin and long beards " seldom of more than " fifty hairs " (Malayans). He also 

 mentions in another country, men letting the nails of their fingers grow, as a sign of nobility, while 

 the women "bind their feet so tight that they may not grow half as nature would" (Chinese). 



■Maundeville 18 maintains, That the Earth is "of a round form ; " and "that if a man found pas- 

 sages by ships, he might go by ship all round the world above and beneath," and always "find men, 

 lands, and isles." 



" 1347 A. D." (Nicol.), a synod at Constantinople. The patriarch Joannes of Apri was deposed. 



"The same year" (art de verif.), Zeyneddin succeeded by Hassan seventeenth Memluk sultan of 

 Egypt. A gold coin issued by Hassan, is figured in Marcel p. 174. The large mosque and tomb 

 built by him, is " the finest edifice" in Cairo (Wilk. theb. and eg.). 



"The same year" (Rafn, and Major), a voyage from Greenland to Markland: — the account, 

 written " nine " years afterwards, speaks of Markland as still known and visited ; the latest notice of 

 the country in the Icelandic records. 



" In this year (= 74S A. H." of Ferisht., Elph.), revolt in the Deccan and the insurgent chiefs 

 shut up in the fortress of Dowlatabad. Before reducing the place, Mohammed Toghlak was called 

 away by fighting in Guzerat ; when the people of the Deccan rose behind him, and their revolt in the 

 end proved successful, their leader Hasan Gangu becoming head of the new dynasty of Bahmani ; — 

 that reigned "one hundred and seventy-one years." 



" 1348 A. D." (Alst., and Blair), pestilence throughout Europe, carrying off nearly "a fourth 

 part of its inhabitants : " extending to Denmark and Norway (Relat. du Groenl. 210) : beginning in 

 England " May 31st " — (Skeat ed. Piers PI.) and ending " Sept. 29th, 1349 ; " called the black death 

 and "occasioned" Boccaccio's Decamerone. 



" 1349 A. D. (= 2009th of Synmu," art de verif.), accession of Siukouo, now dairo of Japan.* 



The " Book of Nature," an encyclopaedic work of Conrad of Meygenberg, a priest in this year 

 at Regensburg (Humb. cosm.). 



* Camellia diupifera of Anam. Apparently the "Camellia" from whose seeds "a very fine oil 

 is extracted," and " either flavored or unflavored is used " in Japan " for the hair or for pomades " — 

 Hap. centen. comm. 57). C. drupifera was observed by Loureiro in Anam, the oil from its seeds 

 fragrant, and used for various purposes by the natives (Pers.). 



& Perilla ocymoides of Japan. A Labiate plant yielding an oil that, "chiefly on account of its 

 drying qualities, is used either alone or with other pigments, for painting, coating, or varnishing; 

 its applications are numerous and most important, — such as, for instance, for umbrellas, water-proof 

 cloth and coats, made of paper, for paper imitations of leather, for mixing with lacquer, and for many 

 other purposes" (Jap. centen. comm. 57). Transported to Europe, P. ocymoides is described by 

 Arduino ii. pi. 13, and Linnaeus (Pers.). 



