_ 93 _ summer they wear white cotton tunics and shoes which they whiten, with thick soles; others wear half-boots secured with straps. The only difference from the Portugese was in dress and language, for in stature, manner and facial features they were the same. They live like the others by selling their crops to travellers. It is a land of many plantations, livestock and orchards like others in Persia. More of them grow crops and grain or construct houses and buildings. There is here a fruit with a very thin shell, like a small green almond, looking exactly like our pine-nuts, which is very tasty. The Persians call it pistu. There is a great abundance of these throughout Persia. A great quantity of these is sent from a city in Syria, a day’s journey from Aleppo, called Sarmin, to Cyprus, and from there to Rome, where they are called pistache. They are highly esteemed. All the fruits are better than ours except the melons, which are white and of poor quality. There some which they call bateas and sweet carpuzes, which disintegrate in water. The people of the caravan liked them very much, but I could not eat them. They were given to us as a remedy for fevers. We left here on the 11th of the month and spent two days in houses made of planks; and on the third day we arrived in a small place called [Benvit].
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