CHAPTER   THE   THIRTEENTH
THE SALLI  ROVERS

WHO  has not heard  of the  rovers  of Salli?    Yet
how few have  any idea what they really were!
Some picturesque notions, doubtless, exist in most minds,
some romantic fancy resembling that which casts a halo
over brigands and vikings, which it were almost a crime
to dispel—an ungrateful task truly, but without
Undeserved          alternative.*    Their fame is even preserved by

Glamour.                                                                                                                  ■•                              ^

the popular name bestowed on the oceanic
medusa—vulgarly sea-blubber—Velella^ known as the
"Sallee-man," companion to the Phrysalia pelagica, known
as the " Portuguese M an-of-war."f Explain it as we may,
it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that   our   highest   naval   title :|:

* The name *' pirate " does not appear to have originally meant a high-sea
thief, for among the ancient Danes it was an honourable title borne by
princes and captains of vessels, as was the case in King Alfred's navy,
according to Bishop Ascher.^ The word "corsair" is evidently from the
Arabic karsan, a pirate (cruiser for prey), though attributed by some to the
Latin currere "to run" {f. "courser" and "cruiser.") A more common
name in Morocco is ghazi (//. ghuzat), whence ghazawat " raids," especially
applied to those directed against infidels.

t Excellent descriptions of the former ship-like creature are given by
Professor Jones in his Natural History of Animals, vol. i., p. 189 ; and of the
latter by Mr. P. H. Gosse in his Year at the Sea-shore^' ch. x., which contains
also a beautiful coloured drawing of it. (PI. 28.)    See also Gosse's Life, p. 89.

% Spelled "Ammiral" by Milton ^Par. Lost, bk. i., 1. 294). Cf. Arsenal,
from Dar es-sana, " House of Industry."

I Dan, p. 9.
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