["The Yuean shi mentions several seaports of the Indian Ocean as carrying on trade with China; Hormuz is not spoken of there.  I may, however, quote from the Yuean History a curious statement which perhaps refers to this port.  In ch. cxxiii., biography of Arsz-lan, it is recorded that his grandson Hurdutai, by order of Kubilai Khan, accompanied Bu-lo no-yen on his mission to the country of Ha-rh-ma-sz.  This latter name may be intended for Hormuz.  I do not think that by the Noyen Bulo, M. Polo could be meant, for the title Noyen would hardly have been applied to him.  But Rashid-eddin mentions a distinguished Mongol, by name Pulad, with whom he was acquainted in Persia, and who furnished him with much information regarding the history of the Mongols.  This may be the Bu-lo no-yen of the Yuean History.” (Bretschneider, Med.  Res. II. p. 132.)—­H.  C.]

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 Kaempfer, 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 ’Abbas.  Date arrack, however, is occasionally found.  At Kerman a sort of wine or arrack is made with spices and alcohol, distilled from sugar; it is called Ma-ul-Hayat (water of life), and is recommended as an aphrodisiac.  Grain in the Shamil 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, “Khorma wa mahi lut-i-Padshahi,” 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.)