49 The beautiful city of Hormuz When one leaves this sea and strait, one comes to an island which is right at its entrance. It is not very big and it is on this island that the city of Hormuz stands. It is not as big as it is beautiful. With very big houses of stone and mortar, with roof terraces, and many windows. As the land is very hot, all the houses have wind fans, made in such a way as to bring the breeze down from the highest point to the lowest rooms when they need it. This is a fine-standing and well-planned city. It has many fine squares. Outside, on the island itself, there are hills of rock salt and some sulphur, although there is not much of the latter. The salt is in great rocks, like boulders from a rocky mountain range. It is called Indian salt and it is made by nature. Once ground, it is very white and good. All the ships that come to the city take it back as ballast, because it is worth money in many parts. Persians and Arabs make the merchants of this island and city. The Persians are tall and handsome, both the men and women are very fine-looking. The men are sturdy and virile and eat well. They are very devoted to Mohammed’s idolatry. They are very libidinous, to the point that amongst themselves they commit the unspeakable sin. They are also musicians and have many different types of instrument. The Arab men are blacker and darker. There are many principal merchants in the city and many large ships because there is an excellent harbour. This is provided with all manner of goods, which come from all over and are traded here to send to many parts of India. Here, all sorts of spices are brought for trade: pepper, cloves, ginger, cardamom, agarwood, sandalwood, brazilwood, cherry plums, tamarinds, Indian saffron, beeswax, iron, sugar, a lot of rice and coconut, as well as many precious stones, porcelains and benzoin resin. From all these goods, everybody makes a lot of money. There are also large quantities of clothes from Cambay; Chaul; Bubhol, and they bring manyfine Bengal
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