Marco Polo - Laurence Bergreen [150]
During the short harvesting season, April to May, the ships sailed to a “place where the scallops are found in greater number, which is called Bettala, which is on firm land. And from there they go into the sea…, sixty miles straight toward midday, where they cast their anchors, and then from their large ships enter into those small barques…. There will be many ships like this”—as many as eight thousand, according to other contemporaneous accounts—“because it is true that there are many merchants who pay attention to this fishing; and they make many companies. All the merchants who are associated on one ship will have several boats that will tow the ship through the gulf. The small boats carry the anchors of the large boats to land. They [employ] many men who can swim well, clever pearl-fishers for hire, with whom they make agreement by the month; that is, they give them so much for the whole month of April till mid-May or so long as the fishery lasts in the gulf.”
Harvesting posed hazards, especially “great fishes” ready to strike and kill the fishermen. The merchants protected themselves with “magicians” known as “braaman, who with their enchantments and diabolical art control and stupefy those fishes so they can hurt no one. Because this fishing is done by day and not by night, those magicians make spells by day that they break for the following night.”
At last “the ship is anchored and the men who are in the small barques…leave the barques and go under the water some four paces and some five, up to twelve, and stay under water as long as ever they can; and when they are at the bottom of the sea, they find on it scallops that men call sea oysters, and bring them up in a little bag of net tied to the body.”
Marco proceeds to describe the timeless process of extracting pearls: “These scallops are indeed split and are put in the aforesaid tubs full of water that are on the ships, for the pearls are found in the flesh of those scallops. And while they stay in the water of the tub, those bodies decompose and rot and are made like the white of an egg, and then they float at the top and the pearls stay on the bottom clean.” When Marco avers that “the pearls that are found in this sea are distributed through all the world,” he does not exaggerate.
The inhabitants of Maabar adorned themselves lavishly with the pearls they acquired. At times, that was all they wore. “There is no need of a tailor or stitcher to cut and sew cloth because they go naked at all times of the year,” Marco notes, with the exception that “they cover their natural parts with a little cloth.” The king of the realm was distinguished by a broad gold collar studded with “large and beautiful pearls and…precious stones,” including rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. From his collar hung a long “cord of thin silk” strung with exactly 104 choice pearls and rubies, the number of precious stones determined by the 104 prayers the wearer uttered each day. The king also wore pearl-studded golden bracelets—“a marvel to see”—covering his arms and legs, and even his fingers and toes. Marco estimated these gems to be “worth more than a good city.” The king jealously guarded his treasures, “commanding that all those who have beautiful pearls and good stones must bring them to the court; and that he will have twice as much as the cost.” The offer enticed merchants like Marco, as well as the king’s subjects, to “take them gladly to the court because they are well paid.”
As always, sexual excess preoccupied the Venetian, who revealed that the king had five hundred wives. “As soon as he sees a beautiful lady or girl then he wishes her for himself and takes her to wife,” Marco states. “In this kingdom are women very beautiful of themselves; and besides this they make themselves beautiful in the face and in the whole body.”
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