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[QUOTE]Originally posted by DD'eDeN: [QB] History of time ( translated ) http://www.jasoncolavito.com/akhbar-al-zaman.html The Akhbār al-zamān is a treasury of medieval lore about the world before the Flood and the wonder of Egypt before and after the Deluge. This text has long been considered the earliest extant account of these myths, but its exact origins and provenance are unknown. Based on internal evidence and the dates when manuscripts were copied, it appears that the text was composed no earlier than 904 CE and no later than 1140, though it is clearly based on much older sources, including the work of Abu Ma‘shar, dating to 840-860 CE, and Christian chronographic material, likely the chronography of Anianus, dating back to Late Antiquity. Its author is unknown. Tradition, and one manuscript, attribute it to al-Masʿūdī (c. 896-956 CE), who wrote a thirty-volume encyclopedia with the same title. Close similarities in language, and an ascription on a 1211 CE manuscript now in St. Petersburg, suggest that the author might have been the mysterious figure known as Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah, a presumed twelfth century writer. The question of the true author remains open. This valuable book of lore is the earliest surviving form of stories better known to the West from their appearance in Murtada ibn al-‘Afif’s thirteenth century Prodigies of Egypt and al-Maqrizi’s fifteenth century Al-Khitat. I have made the following translation from the French edition of Baron Carra de Vaux, published in 1898 as L’abrégé des merveilles. I have tried to be as literal as possible. Words and phrases in parentheses are explanatory notes, adapted from those of Carra de Vaux. Material in square brackets are lines that do not appear in all four of the manuscripts Carra de Vaux used in preparing his text. Bracketed lines marked as variant are alternative readings to the preceding sentence appearing in a single manuscript. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PART ONE: PEOPLES AND NATIONS Chapter 1: On the Creation In the name of God, clement and merciful, Abu al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Hodali al-Masʿūdī said: We begin by giving glory to God by thanking him for his blessings, by invoking his blessings on all his prophets and all his angels, especially on our Lord and Prophet Muhammad and on his wives and his companions. We will present what we know of the secrets of nature and the different types of creatures, limiting ourselves to what relates to our design. We will append the traditions concerning the kings of the earth, the wonders they made, and the description of the different wonders that the different countries contain, magical instruments, talismans, temples, laws, countries, and inscriptions on stones. We will discuss all the things which have been reported. We will also discuss what is known about the ancient laws and pagan doctrines, as well as what was transmitted by the sages of old. May God be our guide! I have titled my book: The Book of the History of Time and That Which Was Destroyed by Revolutions, the Wonders of the Countries, of the Seas, and of the Lands. I therefore say: God, whose glory is great and whose names are holy, has created without need; he made his creatures grow without his need for them, but he created them only so that they might serve him and glorify him, that they might thank him for his blessings. That is why he said: “I created the djinn and mankind only that they might serve me. I did not need them to feed me” (Quran 60:56-57). For God himself is the sustenance of all things, and all power comes from him. His creation does not grow by even the weight of an atom, nor does their loss reduce its grandeur by even a hair. It is unchanging: it does not generate power, and its power is diminished neither by the days, nor by night. He endowed his creatures with hearing, sight, intelligence, so that by these faculties they might know the true and the false, the useful and the harmful. He gave them the earth as an expanse that they might walk therein by spacious roads (Quran 71:19-29), and the sky as a solidly built roof (Quran 21:32); He has sent down from heaven the clouds, which pour out rain and fertility. He set the course of the moon in the night and that of the sun during the day, so that they in turn serve a useful function; he gave them the night as a rest (Quran 6:96) and the day as a time for action (Quran 78:11). He made the sign of the night and made the sign of the day; both were established to enable people to know the times (Quran 17:12) of their different obligations, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage, and so they can calculate the years and the maturities of their debts. God the Almighty said: “They ask you about the new moons. Answer them that they are used to measure the time for men and to regulate the pilgrimage” (Quran 2:189). He also said: “It is God who placed the sun as a torch and the moon as a light, and measured their houses to calculate years and time. He has created these things in view of justice” (Quran 10:5). Sa‘id bin Jubayr narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas this tradition: The world lasts for one week of the other world; and these weeks are comprised of days of a thousand years. Six thousand years and many hundreds of years more have already passed. There are still a few hundred years to come. — Nāfi‘ told from the son of Omar: “I heard the Prophet of God say ‘You have come through the report of past nations as in the space of time between the prayer of ‘aṣr and sunset.’” — Abu Hureyrah said: “The Prophet of God said: ‘My mission and the time of the end of the world are like these two fingers,’ and he pointed to the index and middle finger.” — A tradition taken from Sahl ibn Sa’d al-Sa’idi holds that the Prophet of God said, “Time and I, we are like two racehorses struggling near the end of the race.” According to Ibn ‘Abbas, the Prophet would have said: “The first creature of God is the Qalam (reed pen); He created it from light. Its length is five hundred years of operation.” He then created the preserved tablet, from a white pearl, and it gave it an edge of red hyacinth. Its width equals the distance between heaven and earth. He created them before creatures, before heaven, and before earth. He told the Qalam, “Write.” The Qalam replied, “What shall I write?” He said, “Write everything I know of creation until the day of resurrection.” Then the Qalam inscribed on the tablet all that had to happen until the day of resurrection, and all that was in the knowledge of God. God Almighty looks at this tablet three hundred and sixty times each day, and then he creates, he develops, he gives life, and he causes death; he performs everything he wishes to do and he executes all he has decided. The Prophet was asked, “Where was God before our master created humanity, heaven, and the earth?” He said that he had been in a cloud, having only air above him and air below him. He then created his tabernacle on the water. — We asked Ibn ‘Abbas: “What does the water sit upon?” He replied: “On the back of the wind; and when the Creator wished to produce the creatures, he gave to the wind power over the water, and the water swelled in waves, splashed with foam, and sent vapor over itself. And these vapors remained high above the water, and God called this heaven. The foam solidified and became land. The earth was placed on a fish [and fish on a bull].” This is discussed in the book of God, where it says: “N...” [There is a lacuna in the text, which likely referenced Quran 68:1: “Nun. By the Qalam and what is written thereby.”] The Qalam and that which was written thereby place the fish in the water and the water upon on a rock and the rock on the back of the wind. The earth shook, and God ordered the waves to rise above it in steep mountains, and the waves arrested themselves in this position and remained stable. This is what the Almighty says: He has been established firm places on earth. “We have established,” he said, “on earth, solid mountains, that they might they secure your home” (Quran 16:15). Ibn ‘Abbas reported that the Jews came to the Prophet and asked about the origin of the world. He answered them that God created the earth on Sunday and Monday. He created the mountains along with that which they contain on Tuesday. He created the water, trees, towns, and fertile fields on Wednesday. Such is his word: “Do not disbelieve him who created the Earth in two days,” up to the words “also to all those who ask” (Quran 41:9-10). On Thursday, he created the sky, the planets, the fixed stars, and the angels. On Friday, he created heaven and the fires of hell, and Adam, on whom may there be salvation. “And after?” asked the Jews. After that, Muhammad said he stood balanced on his throne (Quran 7:54). The Jews answered, “You would have spoken well if you had finished by saying: ‘And then he rested.’” The Prophet of God was very angry with this remark, and he received revelation of this verse: “We created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, and we have not felt fatigue. Be patient over what they say” (Quran 50:38-39). We read in a tradition of Asad ibn Musa that God Almighty commanded the skies to rise and they rose; he ordered the earth to spread and to descend as it spread; God spread it around the location of the holy house. — The Prophet said: “The world is hollow and pushed back; if it were not so, the sun and moon would burn the earth and everything on it. In between one heaven and the next heaven there is a space of five hundred years of walking, and between the seventh heaven and the throne, a space of one thousand years.” The Prophet says of God: “He is the first, and there is nothing before him; and the last, and there is nothing after him.” — Zorarah ibn Abu Aufa reports that the Prophet said: “I asked Jibril (the angel Gabriel): ‘Have you ever seen your Lord?’ Jibril was confused and said, ‘O, Muhammad, between me and him there are seventy thousand veils of light. If I approached one of those veils, I would be burned.’” After God decided to create Adam, he ordered Jibril to descend onto the earth and take up a handful of the earth, with which he would create man. But the earth said to Jibril: “I beg you in the name of God not take anything from me.” And Jibril returned to God, saying, “The earth implored me in your name.” God sent Israfil, who returned with the same message. Then he sent the angel of death, and the earth still implored him in the name of God; but the Angel of Death answered: “I come by order of my Lord, and I beg you not to allow me to return to him without executing his command.” Many traditionalists say that God first infused the spirit into Adam in the head and eyes, before infusing it in the rest of the body. Adam, before seeing the fruits of paradise, wished to move to reach them, before the spirit had started his legs, so he could not. That is why God said, “Man is overly hasty” (Quran 17:11). When Adam was created, the angels were amazed at him, and God ordered them all to bow down before him. They bowed in obedience, except for Iblis (the devil), who was filled with pride and became animated by a spirit of hatred and revolt. [“I am better than him,” he said to God, “for you created me from fire whereas you created him from mud.”] God became irritated with Iblis, the accursed: this was the cause of his fall to the earth, [and he became evil]. The ancient sages say that God gathered the stars in Aries. He gave them the Sun for a king; Mercury assumed the place of secretary; Jupiter was the judge; Mars, the guardian who carries weapons; the Moon was the treasurer; Venus, the wife, and Saturn, the counselor. The nodes (i.e. the points where the ecliptic crosses the equator) were employed in the operation of the celestial sphere. The ancients reported that there were on earth twenty-eight races of creatures endowed with spiritual powers and strength, corresponding to the twenty-eight houses (of the moon). They believed that past nations were under the direction of the fixed stars. There are one thousand and twenty fixed stars, each of which runs through the zodiac over thirty-six thousand years. It is they who produce all operations and direct all world affairs. Some traditionalists say God created the celestial spheres out of sea water and after the water had been inflated, it solidified. The spheres are seven in number; on top of them is placed the Inhabited House; this house has three hundred and sixty doors, each of which opens onto a degree of the sphere. All blessings and all graces flow from these open doors onto the signs (of the zodiac), and those are the stars which transmit them to the Earth. — The traditionalists further say: God created a substance that fills his kingdom and is called the mind. Above are the veils, and above all this is placed the throne. That is why God said, “He has expanded his throne above the heavens and the earth.” The throne and everything in it are themselves placed in the tabernacle; the tabernacle and everything in it are contained in the knowledge of God. The highest of the seven wandering stars is Saturn. Below it, Jupiter is placed, followed in order by Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. — Several among the ancient sages believed that the stars were angels, each having a share in the administration of the world. This is why they glorified them and worshiped them. Some think that the higher creatures, which are the angels, are divided into twelve classes corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and that God’s commands are transmitted from one class to another. God gave these angels their strength and various faculties. Some may assume a figure so colossal that it would fill the earth; others may assume one so small it would pass through the eye of a needle; they penetrate into the depths of the earth, in the seas, in the mountains, and no one can stop them. There are angels which have wings in pairs of two, three, or four; it is of them that God says, “They travel in a flash to the ends of the earth.” There are some that are made of light; others are azure like the flame, and still others are resplendent. Some angels are carriers of the grace of God, while others function as guards and supervisors; these originate from water vapor; they have lovely faces, but dark in color. They are occupied solely in the service of God, and they have various forms to infinity. Physicists teach that, after the creation of the spheres, the spheres played the role of the body in relation to the stars, and the stars played the role of spirits relative to the spheres. Hermes said: “After creating the signs of the Zodiac, God divided time among them. He gave to Aries the presiding role for twelve thousand years; Taurus assumed it for eleven thousand years; Gemini assumed it for ten thousand years, [nine thousand to Cancer], eight thousand to the Lion, seven thousand to the Virgin, six thousand to Libra, five thousand to Scorpio, four thousand to Sagittarius, three thousand to Capricorn, two thousand to Aquarius, and one thousand to Pisces. The full tour of the entire celestial sphere is seventy-eight thousand years. The planet Saturn has dominated for fifty-six thousand years; the remaining time is shared between the other planets. During the time that the world was under the signs of Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, there were no animals. This lasted the duration of thirty-three thousand years; there were no longer any spiritual being on earth. When the turn of Cancer came, there appeared sea monsters and the giants of the earth. When Leo had taken the presiding role, quadrupeds appeared on earth. When it was the turn of the Virgin, there were born the two humans, Adamānūs and Hīwāūs. The birds appeared during the reign of Libra.” Here is what physicists think of the size of the stars: The Sun is one hundred and sixty-three times as big as the Earth; Saturn, ninety-one and a half times as big as her; Jupiter, eighty-one times; Mars, seventy-three times; Venus, sixty and a bit more times; Mercury thirty-three and a third; Moon, twenty-seven times and a quarter. The Sun is, as we have said, the king of the planets. There are philosophers who think that the planets are alive, endowed with reason and senses. According to some of them, the planets have the senses of hearing, sight, and touch, but not those of taste and smell, which would be useless for them. Many say that the celestial sphere is alive, and that it distinguishes all that is in it and that has corporeal form. They say that the Moon borrows its light from the Sun, because when these two stars meet, the Moon loses its light. According to some of them, the world was created, but it will never end because it is the work of wisdom and the work of wisdom cannot perish. On the length of time, they express different opinions, of which we will report only that which has a wonderful character, without worrying about the truth. The book of Sindhind (i.e. Siddhānta, or Indian philosophy), from which were made the Almagest and several tables, teaches that the orbit the Sun, from its starting point in Aries, will only be completed in the space of 1,400,020,000 rounds, each of which is one year, being the year of three hundred sixty-five days and a quarter. They say that the measure of the cycle is 4,320,000,000 rounds, each comprising one thousand years. The traditionalists report that the age of the world up to Adam was seven thousand years. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari says, as we reported earlier, that from Adam until the end of the world seven thousand years must pass; and he tells us that before the end of time, the sun will rise in the West. Some people say that when the Heart (Antares, in Scorpius) reaches the fifteenth degree of the Lion, there will be a deluge of fire that will consume the world, leaving no living being in the sea or on land. After that God will restore such creatures as he pleases. Aristotle believed that time has neither beginning nor end and that nature is eternal. Chapter 2: The Nations Created before Adam It is said that God created twenty-eight nations corresponding to the heavenly mansions inhabited the moon, because this star was the attendant, by the permission of God, of the government of the earthly world. These races were created using different mixtures of elements: water, air, fire, and earth, and the individuals in them had various forms. There is a race where the individuals are tall and very agile and have wings, and whose language is formed by the snapping of fingers. In another race, the individuals have the bodies of lions and birds’ heads, covered in hair and having long tails, and their language is a buzzing. In another, they have two faces, one in front and one behind, and several feet; their language is similar to that of birds. These nations are the djinn; there is among others a kind of djinn which has the form of dogs, complete with tails; their language is an incomprehensible growl. In another of these races, individuals resemble men except that they have their mouths in the middle of their chests and speak by whistling. Another race is similar to long snakes provided with wings, legs, and tails; others are like halves of men, having only one eye, a hand, and a foot and walking by jumping and bounding; their language resembles that of cranes. Others have the faces of men and loins covered tortoiseshell like turtles; they have claws for hands, long horns on their heads, and their language is similar to the howling of wolves. Others have two heads with two faces like the heads of lions; they are great and speak an incomprehensible language. Others have a round face, white hair, tails like oxen, and they spit fire from their mouths. Others look like women, with hair and breasts; there are no males in this race; these women are made pregnant by the wind, and they bring forth that individuals who resemble them; they have lovely voices and they attract many people of other races by the charm of their voices. Others are shaped like reptiles and insects. Although they are tall, they eat and drink like cattle. Still others are like the beasts of the sea; but they have tusks like wild boars and long ears. The rest of these twenty-eight breeds are of various forms, and all have a wild appearance. They say that these nations interbred, and that the number of distinct races grew to one hundred and twenty. The Djinn, Their Tribes, and the Their Kinds They asked the emir of the believers, Ali ibn Abu Talib, if before Adam there existed on earth creatures capable of serving God. He replied: Yes; God created the earth, and then he put onto it races of djinn who celebrated ceaselessly his glory and holiness. They flew into heaven, they met with the angels, they greeted them, and they received from them the knowledge of good and of the disasters that that would arrive from heaven. But some of the djinn rebelled, rejecting the authority of God and filling the earth with injustice. Some elevated themselves above the others; they shed blood, and they displayed corruption and contempt for divine things. The rest of the djinn persevered in religion and in obedience and broke the rebels. They, because of their submission, could continue to fly up to heaven. Angels, as we have said above, are spiritual creatures, equipped with wings that enable them to fly where God sends them. They live between the levels of heaven, and there they praise God and proclaim his holiness tirelessly until they are called for a mission. The angel closest to God is Israfil (Raphael); Mikhail (Michael) comes after him, then Jibrail (Gabriel). [The revelation is passed from one to another until it reaches us.] The Indians, the Persians, and the Greeks treated the genealogy and tribes of the djinn and gave the names of their kings, and they believed they were divided into twenty-one tribes. When their empire had lasted five thousand years, they appointed a king from among themselves and called Shāma’īl, son of Aras. Then they divided and named five kings, and they stayed a long time in this state. At the end, some of the djinn attacked each other, and there were a great number of battles and terrible wars. Iblis (the Devil) is a djinn. He has many names, varying with languages; his name in Arabic is al-Harit, and his nickname, Abu Murrah (Father of Bitterness). He was a very powerful creature; he ascended into heaven, stood in the middle of the angelic orders and served God with great zeal. When discord broke out among the djinn and these wars took place among them, he came down to earth with an army of angels and defeated and massacred the djinn; then he established his empire on earth. But he swelled with pride and prevarication. One of his sins was his refusal to prostrate himself before Adam, as God tells us in his book. His form was changed into a hideous one, a figure of great repulsiveness, and all the tribes of djinn disowned him and moved away from him in horror. Seeing this, he fixed his abode on the sea. God made him raise a throne on the water. Later, he fathered a lineage, as Adam did. But the deformity of his race was manifested even in the act of reproduction; his descendants were similar to birds in this, and hatched from eggs. The scholars have mentioned the types of the djinn. According to them, there are thirty-five tribes of satans, fifteen tribes of djinn that fly in the air, [twenty-five tribes of djinn who walk on land, twenty tribes of djinn that live in the water, twelve tribes of djinn who run in storms,] ten tribes of djinn who run in the flame, thirty tribes of djinn occupied with the magic of sounds. The kings of these tribes are responsible for protecting them against danger. It is reported that there is a kind of fairy that assumes the form of beautiful women and marries men. This adventure happened, they say, to Sa‘id bin Jubayr. He married one of the women-fairies, without knowing what she was. She stayed close to him and gave him children. One night while she was with him on a terrace overlooking the countryside, plaintive voices of women were heard in the distance. She was troubled and told her husband, “Do not you see the fairy lights? I leave to your care your house and your children.” And she flew away and did not return. There is also a kind of djinn that sets upon a man when they find him alone in the rocks or in ruins; they take him by the hand, forcing him to dance until he falls down, dizzy, and they suck his blood. There are some which are no different snakes; sometimes men kill them and die immediately; [if the killer is a child, his father dies, or someone even more powerful.] It is said that a young Ansarian (companion of the Prophet), being close to getting married, asked the Prophet for permission to celebrate the wedding and reunite his family at a feast during the Battle of the Ditch. The Prophet allowed him to do so. Back at his home, this Ansarian found his wife standing at the door; he conceived a great jealousy, and made the gesture of directing his spear against her; but she stopped and said: “Abandon this thought, and instead enter and see what is on your bed.” He entered and saw on the bed a great snake. He killed it with a spear, and instantly he died. The Arabs report the next adventure as having occurred to ‘Abīd ibn al-Abraṣ. He left with some men to visit Syria. At one point along the way, he saw a shojā’ serpent panting with thirst, and behind him, a black [saudā] serpent which was chasing it. He dismounted and killed the black serpent; then untying his water-skin, he sprinkled water on the shojā’, which crawled under a stone. ‘Abīd went on his way, and he finished his business in Syria. As he was returning, he fell asleep in a deserted place, and he saw, when he awoke, that his camels were lost. Not knowing the way, he remained in the same place; but, when night had already enveloped all in shadow, he heard a voice saying: “O, master of the young camel, you who have lost your way and have with you no guide to lead you, I offer you a young camel; climb up on him; and when the darkness of the night is dissipated, and the morning will be near and the star will shine, removes his saddle from him and let him go free.” When he heard these words of the voice, ‘Abīd turned and caught sight of a camel of surpassing beauty. He climbed up on it and traveled the rest of the night. In the morning, he found himself in front of himself; yet the day before he was twenty-one stations from his home. He descended from the camel and began to speak. “O young camel, I am here thanks to you saving me from a mortal peril. I was a traveler in the night without a guide. Return covered in the praise I heap upon you, so that the good you did to me is returned to you at night or in the morning.” The camel replied saying, “I am the shojā’ serpent whom you met in distress and dying of thirst. You gave me water without thinking about yourself, and you did not reason like the men with hard hearts. Goodness persists long; evil is the worst provision that you can put in your travel bag.” The camel said, “The black snake that was following me is one of my slaves who sought to kill me. You removed me from his evil designs, and you quenched my thirst. This good deed will not be lost; God will count it.” Ibn ‘Abbas said: Most tame animals are types of djinn. Dogs, among others, are djinn. When they see you eat, throw them some of your food because they have souls; that is to say that they understand what they see with their eyes. The Arabs report that a man riding a camel the size of a ram appeared in the market of ‘Okāz and said, “Who will give me eighty camels both the white and brown?” Seeing that no one answered him, he struck his camel, and it flew between heaven and earth with the speed of lightning. The crowd was amazed and a man from among them recounted this fact: “I once met,” he said, “in a desert a character mounted on an ostrich; he had both eyes split across the width of his face. At first I was afraid of him; then I asked him to stop and I said: ‘Do you know some poems?’ — ‘Yes,’ he said. — ‘Recite them for me, then.’ He began to recite the poem that begins with this line: ‘Will Kitami finally abandon her coquetry, or will she always remain stingy with greetings and words?’ “And he went through to the end. I told him, ‘Excellent! But the brother of the son of Dhubyan (i.e. al-Nābighah al-Dhubiyānī) wrote these verses before you.’ He replied, ‘O my brother, I have, by God, uttered these very words in the market of ‘Okāz four hundred years before him.’” It is said that God created one thousand and twenty nations, according to the number of fixed stars. There are six hundred in the sea and four hundred and twenty on the continents. Of all these races, the human race is the most beautiful, the most perfect, the most beloved of the Creator, [and the human form is the one in which the proportions are most admirable]. Man was created in the image of Israfil, who is the angel closest to God. It is written in the Torah (Bible): God created man in his image; and a tradition holds: Do not hit faces because they are in the likeness of Israfil; another holds: Do not stop gazing on the faces of beardless youths because they throw glances like those of black-eyed houris. They also say that there is something of all other creatures in man; that is why he is above other animals, mastering, hunting, and enslaving them. God has prepared for his food plants and animals; he has prepared for him all sorts of pleasures, and made him capable of performing any kind of work through his hands. Man has the power of speech, laughter, reflection, intelligence, and the capability of invention; and it is with him that the Creator communicates; it is he who orders and defends, he who invented the arts, who developed science, who builds tools, who digs mines, who extracts the hidden wonders in the depths of the seas, and who rules over all. Among the wonderful creatures, one must mention the Nasnās. The Nasnās is built like half a man; it has one hand and one foot; he walks by jumps and he runs with great speed. Once it was found in Yemen and sometimes in non-Arab countries. The Arabs hunted and ate it. An Arab legend says that one day some travelers arrived in a country where there were many Nasnās. They cornered one, and it killed, and roasted it, yet it was very fat. When they had sat down to eat, one traveler said, “How did the Nasnās grow fat?” Another Nasnās who was hiding near there in a tree began to respond: "He ate mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), which is what made him fat.” The hunters, tipped off by this explanation, seized that nasnās and killed him. Another then said, in a tree where he was hiding, “If he had presence of mind, he would have been talking to himself instead of you.” The hunters took him in turn and killed him. At that moment, a fourth Nasnās, hidden in a hole in the ground, shouted: “I am cleverer, so I will say nothing!” He was immediately seized and put to death like the first. Travelers were thus provided with food. They say the Nasnās feed on fruits and plants and they are able to withstand thirst. It is said that in the east of the world, toward the sea, there is a breed that is both human and wild beast. Individuals have a wide face and are hairy like the lion, have round and shiny eyes, sharp teeth, long tails and long ears; but they have the bodies of men, except the extremities are provided with large curved and sharp claws. There are more nations beyond that; they serve as food for the animals of the sea. One of the races that is most similar to man is that of the Wāḳwāḳ. These individuals hang from branches by their hair; they have breasts and sexual organs similar to those of women, and they have a ruddy complexion; they constantly shout “Wak Wak!”, and if one of these females is captured, it goes silent and falls dead. We read in the Book of Treasure that the traveler who passes by this nation comes to another race entirely of women, greater than these and more beautiful in the face and the rest of the body. These, after being captured, survive a little over a day. Many times those who took them used them for their pleasure; they are similar to women, but they have a pleasant smell and they provide the most delicious pleasures. The atmosphere of this country is more fragrant than camphor. This race does not comprise thousands. We do not know anything else of them except that given in the accounts of sailors who have been driven to that country. Another wonderful breed is that of marine women called water girls. They have the appearance of beautiful women with flowing hair; they are provided with developed sex organs and breasts, and they speak an incomprehensible language accompanied by laughter. Sailors have recounted that they had been thrown by the winds against an island where there were forests and freshwater rivers, and there they heard shouts and laughter. They approached unseen and surprised two women whom they tied up. They remained with those who had captured them. The sailors visited them all the time, and they found very great pleasure in them. One of them made her his mistress and took off her chains, but immediately she ran into the sea and he never saw her again. The other remained captive to her master; she became pregnant by him and gave him a son. The sailor took her to sea with the child; having seen in the ship that she did not wish to be separated from her son, he had pity on her and removed her bonds; immediately she abandoned the child and jumped into the sea. The next day she showed herself to the sailor and threw him a shell that contained a precious pearl. [Al-Masʿūdī said:] We have spoken of the celestial spirits from what we have learned, — but God knows his creation best! — and of other things, looking for wonderful legends and not the exact truth. Whoever reads our book will have to guard against the stories we report herein. In God we find our strength, salvation, and duration. Chapter 3: The Earth and What It Contains cont'd.... [/QB][/QUOTE]
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