tuguese made
_Zanzibar_.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF ZANGHIBAR. A WORD ON INDIA IN GENERAL.

Zanghibar is a great and noble Island, with a compass of some 2000
miles.[NOTE 1] The people are all Idolaters, and have a king and a
language of their own, and pay tribute to nobody. They are both tall and
stout, but not tall in proportion to their stoutness, for if they were,
being so stout and brawny, they would be absolutely like giants; and they
are so strong that they will carry for four men and eat for five.

They are all black, and go stark naked, with only a little covering for
decency. Their hair is as black as pepper, and so frizzly that even with
water you can scarcely straighten it. And their mouths are so large, their
noses so turned up, their lips so thick, their eyes so big and bloodshot,
that they look like very devils; they are in fact so hideously ugly that
the world has nothing to show more horrible.

Elephants are produced in this country in wonderful profusion. There are
also lions that are black and quite different from ours. And their sheep
and wethers are all exactly alike in colour; the body all white and the
head black; no other kind of sheep is found there, you may rest
assured.[NOTE 2] They have also many giraffes. This is a beautiful
creature, and I must give you a description of it. Its body is short and
somewhat sloped to the rear, for its hind legs are short whilst the
fore-legs and the neck are both very long, and thus its head stands about
three paces from the ground. The head is small, and the animal is not at
all mischievous. Its colour is all red and white in round spots, and it is
really a beautiful object.[NOTE 3]

**The women of this Island are the ugliest in the world, with their great
mouths and big eyes and thick noses; their breasts too are four times
bigger than those of any other women; a very disgusting sight.

The people live on rice and flesh and milk and dates; and they make wine
of dates and of rice and of good spices and sugar. There is a great deal
of trade, and many merchants and vessels go thither. But the staple trade
of the Island is in elephants' teeth, which are very abundant; and they
have also much ambergris, as whales are plentiful.[NOTE 4]

They have among them excellent and valiant warriors, and have little fear
of death. They have no horses, but fight mounted on camels and elephants.
On the latter they set wooden castles which car