Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- CHAPTER I [THE MEDITERRANEAN.]
- CHAPTER II CONCERNING ARMENIA
- CHAPTER III CONCERNING THE REALM OF PERSIA
- CHAPTER IV CONCERNING INDIA THE LESS
- CHAPTER V CONCERNING INDIA THE GREATER
- CHAPTER VI CONCERNING INDIA TERTIA (S. E. AFRICA)
- CHAPTER VII CONCERNING THE GREATER ARABIA
- CHAPTER VIII CONCERNING THE GREAT TARTAR
- CHAPTER IX CONCERNING CALDEA
- CHAPTER X CONCERNING THE LAND OF ARAN
- CHAPTER XI CONCERNING THE LAND OF MOGAN
- CHAPTER XII CONCERNING THE CASPIAN HILLS
- CHAPTER XIII CONCERNING GEORGIANA
- CHAPTER XIV CONCERNING THE DISTANCES OF COUNTRIES
- CHAPTER XV CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF CHIOS
- CHAPTER XVI CONCERNING TURKEY
- INDEX TO THE MIRABILIA OF JORDANUS AND THE COMMENTARY THEREON
CHAPTER IV - CONCERNING INDIA THE LESS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- CHAPTER I [THE MEDITERRANEAN.]
- CHAPTER II CONCERNING ARMENIA
- CHAPTER III CONCERNING THE REALM OF PERSIA
- CHAPTER IV CONCERNING INDIA THE LESS
- CHAPTER V CONCERNING INDIA THE GREATER
- CHAPTER VI CONCERNING INDIA TERTIA (S. E. AFRICA)
- CHAPTER VII CONCERNING THE GREATER ARABIA
- CHAPTER VIII CONCERNING THE GREAT TARTAR
- CHAPTER IX CONCERNING CALDEA
- CHAPTER X CONCERNING THE LAND OF ARAN
- CHAPTER XI CONCERNING THE LAND OF MOGAN
- CHAPTER XII CONCERNING THE CASPIAN HILLS
- CHAPTER XIII CONCERNING GEORGIANA
- CHAPTER XIV CONCERNING THE DISTANCES OF COUNTRIES
- CHAPTER XV CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF CHIOS
- CHAPTER XVI CONCERNING TURKEY
- INDEX TO THE MIRABILIA OF JORDANUS AND THE COMMENTARY THEREON
Summary
1. In the entrance to India the Less are [date] palms, giving a very great quantity of the sweetest fruit; but further on in India they are not found.
2. In this lesser India are many things worthy to be noted with wonder; for there are no springs, no rivers, no ponds; nor does it ever rain, except during three months, viz., between the middle of May and the middle of August; and (wonderful!) notwithstanding this, the soil is most kindly and fertile, and during the nine months of the year in which it does not rain, so much dew is found every day upon the ground that it is not dried up by the sun's rays till the middle of the third hour of the day.
3. Here be many and boundless marvels; and in this First India beginneth, as it were, another world; for the men and women be all black, and they have for covering nothing but a strip of cotton tied round the loins, and the end of it flung over the naked back. Wheaten bread is there not eaten by the natives, although wheat they have in plenty; but rice is eaten with its seasoning, only boiled in water. And they have milk and butter and oil, which they often eat uncooked. In this India there be no horses, nor mules, nor camels, nor elephants; but only kine, with which they do all their doings that they have to do, whether it be riding, or carrying, or field labour.
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- Mirabilia DescriptaThe Wonders of the East, pp. 11 - 25Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1863