The Male and Female Islands: a world that seems impossible to be the same as ours

Now that summer takes us on trips, the Proa publishing house has reissued The Book of Wonders by Marco Polo, translated by Manel Forcano and with a prologue and afterword by Francesco Andolino. It is the story of the Venetian merchant through 13th-century Asia, especially through China under Kublai Khan, the emperor he served for seventeen years. Polo became a kind of ambassador and official emissary. The book is one of the founding texts of Western travel literature, with stories halfway between chronicle, fable, adventure story, and ethnographic description. Marco Polo's fascination with this world, which he describes with passion, infects the reader.

In one chapter, the medieval explorer talks about Quinsai, present-day Hangzhou, the ancient capital of the Song dynasty empire. He describes it as the best and noblest city in the world "and there are so many pleasures to be found that man believes he is in Paradise." The author claims to have seen it all with his own eyes. It speaks of the streets, the canals, the more than twelve thousand bridges, and the enormous square plazas where markets are held and tens of thousands of people gather. Marco Polo's stories occasionally reveal his curiosity for sexual exoticism. He describes courtesans as women with a great gift for flattering and deceiving people: "Foreigners who have had carnal relations with them remain as if in a daze, so bewitched by their sweetness and charm that they can never forget them." He explains how doctors teach their inhabitants to read and astrologers preserve their destiny, because for each child, they record the day, hour, and minute of birth, the sign and planet, and when they are adults, they advise them on the advisability of traveling.

Just by flipping through the index, you trace an incredible route in a world that seems impossible to be the same as ours. It's inevitable to smile when you stop at the episode where he talks about the islands of Macho and Hembra, separated by only thirty miles. On the former, only men live, and on the latter, women. All are baptized Christians. Marco Polo reveals the peculiarity of the place: the men of Macho Island only go to Hembra Island during the months of March, April, and May. The women, on the other hand, never make the journey in the opposite direction. During these three months, "the men go to the other island to be with their wives, and rest with them, each man taking his wife to her house." Marco Polo is well aware of marital duties: "Dear, I tell you that a man, when his wife becomes pregnant, stops touching her until the day she gives birth, and then goes for another forty days without touching her. After these forty days, he touches her again whenever he pleases." Once the work is done, they return to Macho Island. The babies born stay with their mothers. If they are boys, from the age of fourteen they settle with their parents on the other island. And if they are girls, the mother takes care of them until they are of marriageable age. Then they are paired with a boy from the neighboring island who only visits during the relevant months.

At the bottom of the page, Forcano warns us that the Male and Female islands could be a legendary invention of the chronicler because attempts to locate them on the map have been unsuccessful. But it is suspected that they could be the Huriyya Muriyya islands located off the coast of the Sultanate of Oman. In any case, se non è vero, è bien trovatoIt is even beautiful that the explorer imagined a society that showed respect for feminine power.