The Travels of Marco Polo 1: Chapter 19

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CHAPTER XIX.

OF THE DESCENT TO THE CITY OF HORMOS.

[...only Note 2 is retained for relevance to Armenia]

NOTE 2.--A spirit is still distilled from dates in Persia, Mekran, Sind, and some places in the west of India. It is mentioned by Strabo and Dioscorides, according to Kämpfer, who says it was in his time made under the name of a medicinal stomachic; the rich added _Radix Chinae_, ambergris, and aromatic spices; the poor, liquorice and Persian absinth. (_Sir B. Frere_; _Amoen. Exot._ 750; _Macd. Kinneir_, 220.)

["The _date_ wine with spices is not now made at Bender 'Abbás. Date arrack, however, is occasionally found. At Kermán a sort of wine or arrack is made with spices and alcohol, distilled from sugar; it is called Má-ul-Háyát (water of life), and is recommended as an aphrodisiac. Grain in the Shamíl plain is harvested in April, dates are gathered in August." (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. p. 496.)

See "Remarks on the Use of Wine and Distilled Liquors among the Mohammedans of Turkey and Persia," pp. 315-330 of _Narrative of a Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, and Mesopotamia_.... By the Rev. Horatio Southgate,... London, 1840, vol. ii.--H. C.]

[Sir H. Yule quotes, in a MS. note, these lines from Moore's _Light of the Harem_:

 "Wine, too, of every clime and hue,
 Around their liquid lustre threw
 _Amber Rosolli_[3]--the bright dew
 From vineyards of the Green Sea gushing."] See above, p. 114.

[Illustration: The Double or Latin Rudder, as shown in the Navicella of Giotto. (From Eastlake.)]

The date and dry-fish diet of the Gulf people is noticed by most travellers, and P. del a Valle repeats the opinion about its being the only wholesome one. Ibn Batuta says the people of Hormuz had a saying, "_Khormá wa máhí lút-i-Pádshahi_," i.e. "Dates and fish make an Emperor's dish!" A fish, exactly like the tunny of the Mediterranean in general appearance and habits, is one of the great objects of fishery off the Sind and Mekran coasts. It comes in pursuit of shoals of anchovies, very much like the Mediterranean fish also. (_I. B._ II. 231; _Sir B. Frere_.)

[Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, I. pp. 55-56) says: "And there you find (before arriving at Hormuz) people who live almost entirely on dates, and you get forty-two pounds of dates for less than a groat; and so of many other things."]