[61] Marco Polo, a famous voyager (1298), gives an account of this pearl fishery.
[62] Mr. Ives mentions wells of fresh water under the sea in the Persian Gulf, near the island of Barien.—Hole.
[63] "Such fountains are not unfrequent in India and in Ceylon; and the Mohammedan travelers speak of ambergris swallowed by whales, who are made sick and regorge it."—Hole.
[64] "Ambergris—a substance of animal origin, found principally in warm climates floating on the sea, or thrown on the coast. The best comes from Madagascar, Surinam, and Java. When it is heated or rubbed, it exhales an agreeable odor."—Knight's English Cyclopædia, Vol. I, p. 142.
[65] "Camphor is the produce of certain trees in Borneo, Sumatra, and Japan. The camphor lies in perpendicular veins near the center of the tree, or in its knots, and the same tree exudes a fluid termed oil of camphor. The Venetians, and subsequently the Dutch, monopolized the sale of camphor."—Encyclopædia Metropolitana, Vol. III, p. 195. Gibbons, in his notes to the Decline and Fall, says: "From the remote islands of the Indian Ocean a large provision of camphor had been imported, which is employed, with a mixture of wax, to illuminate the palaces of the East."
[66] "There is a snake in Bengal whose skin is esteemed a cure for external pains by applying it to the part affected."—Hole.
[67] "The king is honorably distinguished by various kinds of ornaments, such as a collar set with jewels, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies of immense value."—Marco Polo, p. 384.
[68] "Throwing the lance was a favorite pastime among the young Arabians, and prepared them for the chase or war."—Notes to Vathek, p. 295.
[69] Thus the Roman slave, on the triumph of an imperator, "Respice post te, hominem te esse memento"; or the page of Philip of Macedonia, who was made to address him every morning, "Remember, Philip, thou art mortal."
[70] "The use of a bow was a constituent part of an Eastern education."—Notes to Vathek, p. 301. See the account of Cyrus's education—Xenophon's Cyclopædia.