This Melic has also a castle which is still stronger than the city, and has a better command of the entry to the Gulf.[NOTE 3]

The people of this country live on dates and salt fish, which they have in great abundance; the nobles, however, have better fare.

There is no more to say on this subject.  So now let us go on and speak of the city of Hormos, of which we told you before.

NOTE 1.—­Kalhat, the Calaiate of the old Portuguese writers, is about 500 m by shortest sea-line north-east of Dhafar.  “The city of Kalhat,” says Ibn Batuta, “stands on the shore; it has fine bazaars, and one of the most beautiful mosques that you could see anywhere, the walls of which are covered with enamelled tiles of Kashan....  The city is inhabited by merchants, who draw their support from Indian import trade....  Although they are Arabs, they don’t speak correctly.  After every phrase they have a habit of adding the particle no.  Thus they will say ’You are eating,—­ no?’ ‘You are walking,—­no?’ ‘You are doing this or that,—­no?’ Most of them are schismatics, but they cannot openly practise their tenets, for they are under the rule of Sultan Kutbuddin Tehemten Malik, of Hormuz, who is orthodox” (II. 226).

Calaiate, when visited by d’Alboquerque, showed by its buildings and ruins that it had been a noble city.  Its destruction was ascribed to an earthquake. (De Barros, II. ii. 1.) It seems to exist no longer.  Wellsted says its remains cover a wide space; but only one building, an old mosque, has escaped destruction.  Near the ruins is a small fishing village, the people of which also dig for gold coins. (J.R.G.S.  VII. 104.)

What is said about the Prince of Hormuz betaking himself to Kalhat in times of trouble is quite in accordance with what we read in Teixeira’s abstract of the Hormuz history.  When expelled by revolution at Hormuz or the like, we find the princes taking refuge at Kalhat.

NOTE 2.—­“Of the interior.”  Here the phrase of the G.T. is again “en fra tere a mainte cite et castiaus.” (See supra, Bk.  I. ch. i. note 2.)

There was still a large horse-trade from Kalhat in 1517, but the Portuguese compelled all to enter the port of Goa, where according to Andrea Corsali they had to pay a duty of 40 saraffi per head.  If these ashrafis were pagodas, this would be about 15_l._ a head; if they were dinars, it would be more than 20_l._ The term is now commonly applied in Hindustan to the gold mohr.

NOTE 3.—­This no doubt is Maskat.

CHAPTER XL.

RETURNS TO THE CITY OF HORMOS WHEREOF WE SPOKE FORMERLY.

When you leave the City of Calatu, and go for 300 miles between north-west and north, you come to the city of Hormos; a great and noble city on the sea.[NOTE 1] It has a Melic, which is as much as to say a King, and he is under the Soldan of Kerman.