Marco Polo in Central Asia: 14: City of Cormos

That plain extends five days journey southward.  Then come a downward slope. Twenty miles of bad and difficult road, full of wicked robbers. A full plain of Formosa,[1] watered by fine rivers with plantations of date palm, and having air filled with frsncolins, parrots and other birds unknown to other climate.  You ride two days through it, and then arrive at ocean, on which there is a city and fort named Cormos.  The ships from India bring here all kinds of spices, precious stones, and pearls, clothes of silk and gold, elephant's teeth and many other articles.  It is the capital of a kingdom having many cities and castles under it, and the sovereign is called Reumedan Achomac.  The climate is intensely hot, and extremely unhealthy, and when any foreign merchant dies, the king inherits all his property.  Wine is here made of dates, and spices as flavouring agents, and is extremely good, but when drunk by unaccustomed to it, has a strong purgative quality, though, after some use, it agrees well, and promotes corpulence.  The people live chiefly on dates and salted fish, particularly tunny; considering these victuals to be wholesome, and that if they used wheat bread and flesh they would fall sick.  The ships are bad, and many are lost from not being secured by nails like ours, but sewed together by the thread made of the bark of Indian nut tree, which being softened in water, become like horse hair, and is durable enough.  They use it for want of iron, but it is by no means strong or secure.  They have a mast sail and rudder, all single and a coverlet of leather, which is spread over the goods, and on that they place the horses, many of which are transported into India.  These ship too, are not tarred, but covered with the oil of fish.  The people are black and adore Mohammed.  They do not remain in the city during summer, for then they would fall die, and retire to the country, where they have verdant garden, finely watered by streams.  Even there they would not escape, because there often blows from the sandy tracts that surround the city a wind excessively hot that it would kill them all, if they did not plunge into the water and thus escape it.  They sow wheat, barley, and other kinds of grain in the month of November and reap them in March, when they become ripe; but none except the date will endure till May.  I have also to tell you, about their custom around death.  When men or women die, great grief is shown, and the ladies during the full four years after the death of their husbands make lamentations at least once a day.  On these occasions they assemble their kith and kin, who join them in loud moans and cried. In proof of the extreme violence of heat, Marco Polo mentions the following circumstance which occurred during his stay.  The ruler of Cormos neglected to pay his tribute to the king of Creman (modern day Kerman) who took the resolution of enforcing it at the season the principal inhabitants go into the country.  He despatched 1600 horses and 5000 foot through the district of Reobarle to take them by surprise.  Being misled, however by the guides, they did not reach their destination till night, and they halted to rest in a grove near the town.  Next morning, when they renewed their March, they were attacked by the hot wind and all suffocated; not one to carry the intelligence.  When the people of Cormos learned of this event, and went to bury the dead, lest they should infect the air, they found them so softened by the intense heat, that the limbs when handled, separated from the trunks, and it was necessary to dig graves close to where the corpses lay.



Notes:- Most probably it is Hormuz island and places around.  Linguists connect Hormuz to local Persian word Ormuz meaning date palm. I think the term Formosa was not limited to the island, on the other hand it covered a region including Hormuz island, Qeshm island, port Bandar Abbas and its interior date palm gardens. The plain was called Formosa but the Fort and city was called Cormos.

End of the Section 

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