I.
1. Between Sicily and Calabria there is a marvel in the sea. This is it: on one side the sea runneth with an upward current, and on the other side cometh down towards the island with a swifter stream than any river; and so in the middle is caused a wondrous eddy, sucking down ships that hap to fall in with it, whatever be their bigness. And ’tis said that in the bottom of the sea there is a horrid kind of a whirlpool, from which the water cometh forth so wondrous dark that even the fishes nowhere dare to come near it.[41]
2. In Greece I neither saw nor heard of aught worth telling, unless it be that between the island of Negropont and the mainland the sea ebbeth and floweth sometimes thrice, sometimes four times, sometimes oftener, like a rapid river; and that is a marvel to be sure![42]
3. I was at Thebes, where there be so many earthquakes that nobody could believe it who had not felt them; for it will happen five, or six, or seven times in the twenty-four hours, many a time and oft, that the strongest houses and walls shall be thrown down by earthquakes.[43]
II.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING ARMENIA.
1. In Armenia the Greater I saw one great marvel. This is it: a mountain of excessive height and immense extent, on which Noah’s ark is said to have rested. This mountain is never without snow, and seldom or never without clouds, which rarely rise higher than three parts up. The mountain is inaccessible, and there never has been anybody who could get farther than the edge of the snow.[44] And (marvellous indeed!) even the beasts chased by the huntsmen, when they come to the snow, will liefer turn, will liefer yield them into the huntsmen’s hands, than go farther up that mountain. This mountain hath a compass of more than three days journey for a man on horseback going without halt. There be serpents of a great size, which swallow hares alive and whole, as I heard from a certain trustworthy gentleman who saw the fact, and shot an arrow at a serpent with a hare in his mouth, but scathed it not.[45] In a certain part of the mountain is a dwelling which Noah is said to have built on leaving the ark; and there, too, is said to be that original vine which Noah planted, and whereby he got drunk; and it giveth such huge branches of grapes as you would scarce believe. This I heard from a certain Catholic archbishop of ours, a great man and a powerful, and trustworthy to boot, the lord of that land; and, indeed, I believe I have been at the place myself, but it was in the winter season.[46]
2. This country of Armenia the Greater is very extensive, and there three of the apostles suffered martyrdom: Bartholomew, Simon, and Judas. I saw a prison in which the two latter apostles were kept; and likewise springs of water which they produced from the living rock, smiting it with a rod VIII times, or X times, or XVII times (anyhow there be just as many springs as there were blows struck); and hard by there was a church built, beauteous and of wonderful bigness.[47]
3. In this same Armenia the Greater a certain glorious virgin suffered martyrdom, the daughter of a king, and Scala by name.[48] And there, too, was cast into a well, with a lion and a dragon, St. Gregory, who converted Armenia to the Catholic faith, as well as its king Tertal,[49] in the time of St. Sylvester and the Emperor Constantine.[50] In this Armenia, too, was slain the blessed martyr Jacobus.
4. This province is inhabited chiefly by schismatic Armenians, but the Preaching and Minor friars have converted a good four thousand of them, and more. For one archbishop, a great man, called the Lord Zachary, was converted with his whole people; and we trust in the Lord that in a short time the whole residue shall be converted also, if only the good friars go on so.[51]
5. There are many good and great Armenian princes, Christians; but the Persian emperor hath the paramount sovereignty.[52]
6. In this Armenia there is a Dead Sea, very bitter to the taste, where they say there be no fish at all, and which cannot be sailed upon by reason of the stench; and it has an island where are buried many ancient emperors and kings of the Persians, with an infinity of treasure; but nobody is allowed to go there, or, if allowed, they dare not search for the treasure.[53]
7. This Armenia extendeth in length from Sebast to the Plain of Mogan and the Caspian Mountains; and in breadth from the Barcarian Mountains to Tabriz,[54] which is a good twenty-three days’ journey, the length being more than forty days.[55]
8. There is a certain lake, at the foot of the aforesaid great mountain, where ten thousand martyrs were martyred, and in their martyrdom happened all the same tokens as in the Passion of Christ, for that they all were crucified for Christ.[56] And that part of the mountain is called Ararat; and there was a city there called Semur, exceeding great, which was destroyed by the Tartars.[57] I have been over all that country,—almost.
9. But I saw not anything else, in this Armenia the greater, worth telling as a marvel.
III.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE REALM OF PERSIA.
1. In Persia, however, I saw a very marvellous thing: to wit, that in Tabriz, which is a very great city, containing as many as two hundred thousand houses,[58] dew never falls from heaven; nor doth it rain in summer as in most parts it doth, but they water artificially everything that is grown for man’s food.[59] There also, or thereabouts, on a kind of willows, are found certain little worms, which emit a liquid which congeals upon the leaves of the tree, and also drops upon the ground, white like wax; and that excretion is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.[60]
2. There we have a fine-enough church, and about a thousand of the schismatics converted to our faith, and about as many also in Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham was born, which is a very opulent city, distant about two days from Tabriz.[61]
3. Likewise also at Sultania we have five hundred, or five hundred and fifty. This is eight days’ distant from Tabriz, and we have a very fine church there.
4. In this country of Persia are certain animals called onagri, which are like little asses, but swifter in speed than our horses.[62]
5. This Persia is inhabited by Saracens and Saracenized Tartars, and by schismatic Christians of divers sects, such as Nestorians, Jacobites, Greeks, Georgians, Armenians, and by a few Jews. Persia hath abundance of silk, and also of ultramarine,[63] but they wot not how to prepare it. They have likewise exceeding much gold in the rivers, but they wot not how to extract it, nor be they worthy to do so.
6. Persia extendeth about V[64] days’ journey in length, and as much in breadth. The people of this realm live all too uncleanly, for they sit upon the ground, and eke eat upon the same, putting mess and meats[65] in a trencher for three, four, or five persons together. They eat not on a table-cloth,[66] but on a round sheet of leather, or on a low table of wood or brass, with three legs. And so six, seven, or eight persons eat out of one dish, and that with their hands and fingers; big and little, male and female, all eat after this fashion. And after they have eaten, or even whilst in the middle of their eating, they lick their fingers with tongue and lips, and wipe them on their sleeves,[67] and afterwards, if any grease still remains upon their hands, they wipe them on their shoes. And thus do the folk over all those countries, including Western and Eastern Tartary, except the Hindus, who eat decently enough, though they too eat with their hands.[68]
7. In Persia are some springs, from which flows a kind of pitch, which is called kic[69] (pix, dico, seu Pegua), with which they smear the skins in which wine is carried and stored.
8. Between this country of Persia and India the Less is a certain region where manna falls in a very great quantity, white as snow, sweeter than all other sweet things, delicious, and of an admirable and incredible efficacy. There are also sandhills in great numbers, and very destructive to men; for when the wind blows, the sand flows down just like water from a tank.[70] These countries aforesaid, to wit, Persia, Armenia Major, Chaldeia, as well as Cappadocia and Asia Minor and Greece, abound in good fruits, meats, and other things, like our own country; but their lands are not so populous,—no, not a tithe,—except Greece.
IV.
CONCERNING INDIA THE LESS.[71]
1. In the entrance to India the Less are [date] palms, giving a very great quantity of the sweetest fruit; but further on in India they are not found.[72]
2. In this lesser India are many things worthy to be noted with wonder; for there are no springs, no rivers, no ponds; nor does it ever rain, except during three months, viz., between the middle of May and the middle of August; and (wonderful!) notwithstanding this, the soil is most kindly and fertile, and during the nine months of the year in which it does not rain, so much dew is found every day upon the ground that it is not dried up by the sun’s rays till the middle of the third hour of the day.[73]
3. Here be many and boundless marvels; and in this First India beginneth, as it were, another world; for the men and women be all black, and they have for covering nothing but a strip of cotton tied round the loins, and the end of it flung over the naked back. Wheaten bread is there not eaten by the natives, although wheat they have in plenty; but rice is eaten with its seasoning,[74] only boiled in water. And they have milk and butter and oil, which they often eat uncooked. In this India there be no horses, nor mules, nor camels, nor elephants; but only kine, with which they do all their doings that they have to do, whether it be riding, or carrying, or field labour. The asses are few in number and very small, and not much worth.[75]
4. The days and nights do not vary there more than by two hours at the most.
5. There be always fruits and flowers there, divers trees, and fruits of divers kinds; for (example) there are some trees which bear very big fruit, called Chaqui; and the fruit is of such size that one is enough for five persons.[76]
6. There is another tree which has fruit like that just named, and it is called Bloqui, quite as big and as sweet, but not of the same species. These fruits never grow upon the twigs, for these are not able to bear their weight, but only from the main branches, and even from the trunk of the tree itself, down to the very roots.
7. There is another tree which has fruit like a plum, but a very big one, which is called Aniba. This is a fruit so sweet and delicious as it is impossible to utter in words.[77]
8. There be many other fruit trees of divers kinds, which it would be tedious to describe in detail.
9. I will only say this much, that this India, as regards fruit and other things, is entirely different from Christendom; except, indeed, that there be lemons there, in some places, as sweet as sugar, whilst there be other lemons sour like ours.[78] There be also pomegranates, but very poor and small. There be but few vines, and they make from them no wine, but eat the fresh grapes; albeit there are a number of other trees whose sap they collect, and it standeth in place of wine to them.
10. First of these is a certain tree called Nargil;[79] which tree every month in the year sends out a beautiful frond like [that of] a [date] palm-tree, which frond or branch produces very large fruit, as big as a man’s head. There often grow on one such stem thirty of those fruits as big as I have said. And both flowers and fruits are produced at the same time, beginning with the first month and going up gradually to the twelfth; so that there are flowers and fruit in eleven stages of growth to be seen together. A wonder! and a thing which cannot be well understood without being witnessed.[80] From these branches and fruits is drawn a very sweet water. The kernel [at first] is very tender and pleasant to eat; afterwards it waxeth harder, and a milk is drawn from it as good as milk of almonds; and when the kernel waxeth harder still, an oil is made from it of great medicinal virtue. And if any one careth not to have fruit, when the fruit-bearing stem is one or two months old he maketh a cut in it, and bindeth a pot to this incision; and so the sap, which would have been converted into fruit, drops in; and it is white like milk, and sweet like must, and maketh drunk like wine, so that the natives do drink it for wine; and those who wish not to drink it so, boil it down to one-third of its bulk, and then it becometh thick, like honey; and ’tis sweet, and fit for making preserves, like honey and the honeycomb.[81] One branch gives one potful in the day and one in the night, on the average throughout the year:[82] thus five or six pots may be found hung upon the same tree at once. With the leaves of this tree they cover their houses during the rainy season.[83] The fruit is that which we call nuts of India; and from the rind of that fruit is made the twine with which they stitch their boats together in those parts.[84]
11. There is another tree of a different species, which like that gives all the year round a white liquor pleasant to drink, which tree is called Tárí.[85] There is also another, called Belluri, giving a liquor of the same kind, but better.[86] There be also many other trees, and wonderful ones; among which is one which sendeth forth roots from high up, which gradually grow down to the ground and enter it, and then wax into trunks like the main trunk, forming as it were an arch; and by this kind of multiplication one tree will have at once as many as twenty or thirty trunks beside one another, and all connected together. ’Tis marvellous! And truly this which I have seen with mine eyes, ’tis hard to utter with my tongue. The fruit of this tree is not useful, but poisonous and deadly.[87] There is [also] a tree harder than all, which the strongest arrows can scarcely pierce.
12. The trees in this India, and also in India the Greater, never shed their leaves till the new ones come.[88]
13. To write about the other trees would be too long a business, and tedious beyond measure; seeing that they are many and divers, and beyond the comprehension of man.
14. But about wild beasts of the forest I say this: there be lions, leopards, ounces, and another kind something like a greyhound, having only the ears black and the whole body perfectly white, which among those people is called Siagois.[89] This animal, whatever it catches, never lets go, even to death. There is also another animal, which is called Rhinoceros,[90] as big as a horse, having one horn long and twisted; but it is not the unicorn.
15. There be also venomous animals, such as many serpents, big beyond bounds, and of divers colours, black, red, white, and green, and parti-coloured; two-headed also, three-headed, and five-headed. Admirable marvels![91]
16. There be also coquodriles, which are vulgarly called Calcatix;[92] some of them be so big that they be bigger than the biggest horse. These animals be like lizards, and have a tail stretched over all, like unto a lizard’s; and have a head like unto a swine’s, and rows of teeth so powerful and horrible that no animal can escape their force, particularly in the water. This animal has, as it were, a coat of mail; and there is no sword, nor lance, nor arrow, which can anyhow hurt him, on account of the hardness of his scales. In the water, in short, there is nothing so strong, nothing so evil, as this wonderful animal. There be also many other reptiles, whose names, to speak plainly, I know not.
17. As for birds, I say plainly that they are of quite different kinds from what are found on this side of the world; except, indeed, crows and sparrows;[93] for there be parrots and popinjays in very great numbers, so that a thousand or more may be seen in a flock. These birds, when tamed and kept in cages, speak so that you would take them for rational beings. There be also bats really and truly as big as kites. These birds fly nowhither by day, but only when the sun sets. Wonderful! By day they hang themselves up on trees by the feet, with their bodies downwards, and in the daytime they look just like big fruit on the tree.[94]
18. There are also other birds, such as peacocks, quails, Indian fowls,[95] and others, divers in kind; some white as white can be, some green as green can be, some parti-coloured, of such beauty as is past telling.
19. In this India, when men go to the wars, and when they act as guards to their lords, they go naked, with a round target,—a frail and paltry affair,—and holding a kind of a spit[96] in their hands; and, truly, their fighting seems like child’s play.
20. In this India are many and divers precious stones, among which are the best diamonds under heaven. These stones never can be dressed or shaped by any art, except what nature has given. But I omit the properties of these stones, not to be prolix.
21. In this India are many other precious stones, endowed with excellent virtues, which may be gathered by anybody; nor is anyone hindered.
22. In this India, on the death of a noble, or of any people of substance, their bodies are burned: and eke their wives follow them alive to the fire, and, for the sake of worldly glory, and for the love of their husbands, and for eternal life, burn along with them, with as much joy as if they were going to be wedded; and those who do this have the higher repute for virtue and perfection among the rest. Wonderful! I have sometimes seen, for one dead man who was burnt, five living women take their places on the fire with him, and die with their dead.
23. There be also other pagan-folk in this India who worship fire; they bury not their dead, neither do they burn them, but cast them into the midst of a certain roofless tower, and there expose them totally uncovered to the fowls of heaven. These believe in two First Principles, to wit, of Evil and of Good, of Darkness and of Light, matters which at present I do not purpose to discuss.[97]
24. There be also certain others which be called Dumbri, who eat carrion and carcases; who have absolutely no object of worship; and who have to do the drudgeries of other people, and carry loads.[98]
25. In this India there is green ginger, and it grows there in great abundance.[99]
There be also sugar-canes in quantities; carobs also, of such size and bigness that it is something stupendous.[100] I could tell very wonderful things of this India; but I am not able to detail them for lack of time. Cassia fistula is in some parts of this India extremely abundant.[101]
26. The people of this India are very clean in their feeding; true in speech, and eminent in justice, maintaining carefully the privileges of every man according to his degree, as they have come down from old times.[102]
27. The heat there is perfectly horrible, and more intolerable to strangers than it is possible to say.[103]
28. In this India there exists not, nor is found, any metal but what comes from abroad, except gold, iron, and electrum. There is no pepper there, nor any kind of spice except ginger.
29. In this India the greater part of the people worship idols, although a great share of the sovereignty is in the hands of the Turkish Saracens, who came forth from Multán, and conquered and usurped dominion to themselves not long since, and destroyed an infinity of idol temples, and likewise many churches, of which they made mosques for Mahomet, taking possession of their endowments and property. ’Tis grief to hear, and woe to see![104]
30. The Pagans of this India have prophecies of their own that we Latins are to subjugate the whole world.[105]
31. In this India there is a scattered people, one here, another there, who call themselves Christians, but are not so, nor have they baptism, nor do they know anything else about the faith. Nay, they believe St. Thomas the Great to be Christ!
32. There, in the India I speak of, I baptized and brought into the faith about three hundred souls, of whom many were idolaters and Saracens.[106]
33. And let me tell you that among the idolaters a man may with safety expound the Word of the Lord; nor is anyone from among the idolaters hindered from being baptized throughout all the East, whether they be Tartars, or Indians, or what not.
34. These idolaters sacrifice to their gods in this manner; to wit, there is one man who is priest to the idol, and he wears a long shirt, down to the ground almost, and above this a white surplice[107] in our fashion; and he has a clerk with a shirt who goes after him, and carries a hassock, which he sets before the priest. And upon this the priest kneels, and so begins to advance from a distance, like one performing his stations; and he carries upon his bent arms a tray of two cubits [long], all full of eatables of different sorts, with lighted tapers at top; and thus praying he comes up to the altar where the idol is, and deposits the offering before it after their manner; and he pours a libation, and places part [of the offering] in the hands of the idol, and then divides the residue, and himself eats a part of it.
35. They make idols after the likeness of almost all living things of the idolaters; and they have besides their god according to his likeness.[108] It is true that over all gods they place One God, the Almighty Creator of all those.[109] They hold also that the world has existed now xxviii thousand years.[110]
The Indians, both of this India and of the other Indies, never kill an ox, but rather honour him like a father; and some, even perhaps the majority, worship him. They will more readily spare him who has slain five men than him who has slain one ox, saying that it is no more lawful to kill an ox than to kill one’s father. This is because oxen do all their services, and moreover furnish them with milk and butter, and all sorts of good things.[111] The great lords among the idolaters, every morning when they rise, and before they go anywhither, make the fattest cows come before them, and lay their hands upon them, and then rub their own faces, believing that after this they can have no ailment.
36. Let this be enough about Lesser India; for were I to set forth particulars of everything down to worms and the like, a year would not suffice for the description.
37. But [I may say in conclusion] as for the women and men, the blacker they be, the more beautiful they be [held.][112]
V.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING INDIA THE GREATER.
1. Of India the Greater I say this; that it is like unto Lesser India as regards all the folk being black. The animals also are all similar, neither more nor less [in number], except elephants, which they have [in the former] in very great plenty. These animals are marvellous; for they exceed in size and bulk and strength, and also in understanding, all the animals of the world. This animal hath a big head; small eyes, smaller than a horse’s; ears like the wings of owls or bats; a nose reaching quite to the ground, extending right down from the top of his head; and two tusks standing out of remarkable magnitude [both in] bulk and length, which are [in fact] teeth rooted in the upper jaw. This animal doth everything by word of command; so that his driver hath nothing to do but say once, “Do this,” and he doeth it; nor doth he seem in other respects a brute, but rather a rational creature. They have very big feet, with six hoofs like those of an ox, or rather of a camel.[113] This animal carrieth easily upon him, with a certain structure of timber, more than thirty men; and he is a most gentle beast,[114] and trained for war, so that a single animal counteth by himself equal in war to 1,500 men and more; for they bind to his tusks blades or maces of iron wherewith he smiteth. Most horrible are the powers of this beast, and specially in war.
2. Two things there be which cannot be withstood by arms: one is the bolt of heaven; the second is a stone from an artillery engine; this is a third! For there is nothing that either can or dare stand against the assault of an elephant in any manner. A marvellous thing! He kneeleth, lieth, sitteth, goeth and cometh, merely at his master’s word. In short, it is impossible to write in words the peculiarities of this animal.
3. In this India there are pepper and ginger, cinnamon, brazil,[115] and all other spices.
4. Ginger is the root of a plant which hath leaves like a reed. Pepper is the fruit of a plant something like ivy, which climbs trees, and forms grape-like fruit like that of the wild vine.[116] This fruit is at first green, then when it comes to maturity it becomes all black and corrugated as you see it. ’Tis thus that long pepper is produced, nor are you to believe that fire is placed under the pepper, nor that it is roasted, as some will lyingly maintain.[117] Cinnamon is the bark of a large tree which has fruit and flowers like cloves.[118]
5. In this India be many islands, and more than 10,000 of them inhabited, as I have heard; wherein are many world’s wonders.[119] For there is one called Silem, where are found the best precious stones in the whole world, and in the greatest quantity and number, and of all kinds.[120]
6. Between that island and the main are taken pearls or marguerites, in such quantity as to be quite wonderful. So indeed that there are sometimes more than 8,000 boats or vessels, for three months continuously, [engaged in this fishery]. It is astounding, and almost incredible, to those who have not seen it, how many are taken.
7. Of birds I say this: that there be many different from those of Lesser India, and of different colours; for there be some white all over as snow; some red as scarlet of the grain; some green as grass; some parti-coloured; in such quantity and delectability as cannot be uttered. Parrots also, or popinjays, after their kind, of every possible colour except black, for black ones are never found; but white all over, and green, and red, and also of mixed colours. The birds of this India seem really like creatures of Paradise.[121]
8. There is also told a marvellous thing of the islands aforesaid, to wit that there is one of them in which there is a water, and a certain tree in the middle of it. Every metal which is washed with that water becomes gold; every wound on which are placed the bruised leaves of that tree is incontinently healed.
9. In this India, whilst I was at Columbum, were found two cats having wings like the wings of bats;[122] and in Lesser India there be some rats as big as foxes, and venomous exceedingly.[123]
10. In this India are certain trees which have leaves so big that five or six men can very well stand under the shade of one of them.[124]
11. In the aforesaid island of Sylen is a very potent king, who hath precious stones of every kind under heaven, in such quantity as to be almost incredible. Among these he hath two rubies, of which he weareth one hung round his neck, and the other on the hand wherewith he wipeth his lips and his beard; and [each] is of greater length than the breadth of four fingers, and when held in the hand it standeth out visibly on either side to the breadth of a finger. I do not believe that the universal world hath two stones like these, or of so great a price, of the same species.[125]
12. There is also another island where all the men and women go absolutely naked, and have in place of money comminuted gold like fine sand. They make of the cloth which they buy walls like curtains;[126] nor do they cover themselves or their shame at any time in the world.
13. There is also another exceeding great island, which is called Jaua,[127] which is in circuit more than seven [thousand?] miles as I have heard,[128] and where are many world’s wonders. Among which, besides the finest aromatic spices, this is one, to wit, that there be found pygmy men, of the size of a boy of three or four years old, all shaggy like a he goat. They dwell in the woods, and few are found.[129]
14. In this island also are white mice, exceeding beautiful. There also are trees producing cloves, which, when they are in flower, emit an odour so pungent that they kill every man who cometh among them, unless he shut his mouth and nostrils.[130]
15. There too are produced cubebs, and nutmegs, and mace, and all the other finest spices except pepper.[131]
16. In a certain part of that island they delight to eat white and fat men when they can get them.[132]
17. In the Greater India, and in the islands, all the people be black, and go naked from the loins upwards, and from the knee downwards, and without shoes.
18. But the kings have this distinction from others, that they wear upon their arms gold and silver rings, and on the neck a gold collar with a great abundance of gems.[133]
19. In this India never do [even] the legitimate sons of great kings, or princes, or barons, inherit the goods of their parents, but only the sons of their sisters; for they say that they have no surety that those are their own sons, because wives and mistresses may conceive and generate by some one else; but ’tis not so with the sister, for whatever man may be the father they are certain that the offspring is from the womb of their sister, and is consequently thus truly of their blood.[134]
20. In this Greater India many sacrifice themselves to idols in this way. When they are sick, or involved in any grave mischance, they vow themselves to the idol if they should happen to be delivered. Then, when they have recovered, they fatten themselves for one or two years continually, eating and drinking fat things, etc. And when another festival comes round, they cover themselves with flowers and perfumes, and crown themselves with white garlands, and go with singing and playing before the idol when it is carried through the land (like the image of the Virgin Mary here among us at the Rogation tides); and those men who are sacrificing themselves to the idol carry a sword with two handles, like those [knives] which are used in currying leather; and, after they have shown off a great deal, they put the sword to the back of the neck, cutting strongly with a vigorous exertion of both hands, and so cut off their own heads before the idol.[135]
21. In this Greater India, in the place where I was, the nights and days are almost equal, nor does one exceed the other in length at any season by so much as a full hour.
22. In this India the sun keeps to the south for six months continuously, casting the shadows to the north; and for the other six months keeps to the north, casting the shadow to the south.[136]
23. In this India the Pole-star is seen very low, insomuch that I was at one place where it did not show above the earth or the sea more than two fingers’ breadth.[137]
24. There the nights, when the weather is fine and there is no moon, are, if I err not, four times as clear as in our part of the world.
25. There also, if I err not, between evening and morning, often all the planets may be seen; there are seen their influences [as it were] eye to eye, so that ’tis a delightful thing there to look out at night![138]
26. From the place aforesaid is seen continually between the south and the east a star of great size and ruddy splendour, which is called Canopus, and which from these parts of the world is never visible.
27. There are many marvellous things in the cycle of those [heavenly bodies] to delight a good astronomer.[139]
28. In this India, and in India the Less, men who dwell a long way from the sea, under the ground and in woody tracts, seem altogether infernal; neither eating, drinking, nor clothing themselves like the others who dwell by the sea.[140]
29. There serpents too be numerous, and very big, of all colours in the world; and it is a great marvel that they be seldom or never found to hurt anybody unless first attacked.
30. There is there also a certain kind of wasps, which make it their business to kill very big spiders whenever they find them, and afterwards to bury them in the sand, in a deep hole which they make, and so to cover them up that there is no man in the world who can turn them up, or find the place.[141]
31. There is also a kind of very small ants, white as wool, which have such hard teeth that they gnaw through even timbers and the joints of stones,[142] and, in short, whatever dry thing they find on the face of the earth, and mutilate woollen and cotton clothes. And they build out of the finest sand a crust like a wall, so that the sun cannot reach them, and so they remain covered. But if that crust happens to get broken, so that the sun reaches them, they incontinently die.[143]
32. As regards insects, there be wonders, so many, great, and marvellous, that they cannot be told.
33. There is also in this India a certain bird, big like a kite, having a white head and belly, but all red above, which boldly snatches fish out of the hands of fishermen and other people, and indeed [these birds] go on just like dogs.[144]
34. There is also another big bird, not like a kite, which flies only at night, and utters a voice in the night season like the voice of a man wailing from the deep.[145]
35. What shall I say then? Even the Devil too there speaketh to men, many a time and oft, in the night season, as I have heard.[146]
36. Every thing indeed is a marvel in this India! Verily it is quite another world!
37. There is also a certain part of that India which is called Champa. There, in place of horses, mules and asses, and camels, they make use of elephants for all their work.[147]
38. ’Tis a wonderful thing about these animals, that when they are in a wild state they challenge each other to war, and form troops [for the purpose]; so that there will be sometimes a hundred against a hundred, more or less; and they put the strongest and biggest and boldest at the head, and thus attack each other in turn, so that within a short time there will remain in one place XL or L killed and wounded, more or less. And ’tis a notable thing that the vanquished, it is said, never again appear in war or in the field.
39. These animals, on account of their ivory, are worth as much dead as alive, nor are they ever taken when little, but only when big and full grown.
40. And the mode of taking them is wonderful. Enclosures are made, very strong, and of four sides, wherein be many gateways, and raised gates, formed of very big and strong timbers. And there is one trained female elephant which is taken near the place where the elephants come to feed. The one which they desire to catch is pointed out to her, and she is told to manage so as to bring him home. She goeth about him and about him, and so contriveth by stroking him and licking him, as to induce him to follow her, and to enter along with her the outer gate, which the keepers incontinently let fall. Then, when the wild elephant turneth about, the female entereth the second gate, which is instantly shut like the first, and so the [wild] elephant remaineth caught between the two gates. Then cometh a man, clothed in black or red, with his face covered, who cruelly thrasheth him from above, and crieth out abusively against him as against a thief; and this goeth on for five or six days, without his getting anything to eat or drink. Then cometh another fellow, with his face bare, and clad in another colour, who feigneth to smite the first man, and to drive and thrust him away; then he cometh to the elephant and talketh to him, and with a long spear he scratcheth him, and he kisseth him, and giveth him food; and this goeth on for ten or fifteen days, and so by degrees he ventureth down beside him, and bindeth him to another elephant. And thus, after about twenty days, he may be taken out to be taught and broken in.[148]
41. In this Greater India are twelve idolatrous kings, and more.[149] For there is one very powerful king in the country where pepper grows, and his kingdom is called Molebar. There is also the king of Singuyli and the king of Columbum, the king of which is called Lingua, but his kingdom Mohebar. There is also the king of Molephatam, whose kingdom is called Molepoor, where pearls are taken in infinite quantities. There is also another king in the island of Sylen, where are found precious stones and good elephants. There be also three or four kings on the island of Java, where the good spices grow. There be also other kings, as the king of Telenc, who is very potent and great. The kingdom of Telenc abounds in corn, rice, sugar, wax, honey and honeycomb, pulse, eggs, goats, buffalos, beeves, milk, butter, and in oils of divers kinds, and in many excellent fruits, more than any other part of the Indies. There is also the kingdom of Maratha which is very great; and there is the king of Batigala, but he is of the Saracens. There be also many kings in Chopa.
42. What shall I say? The greatness of this India is beyond description. But let this much suffice concerning India the Greater and the Less.
VI.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING INDIA TERTIA.[150]
1. Of India Tertia I will say this, that I have not indeed seen its many marvels, not having been there, but have heard them from trustworthy persons. For example, there be dragons in the greatest abundance, which carry on their heads the lustrous stones which be called carbuncles. These animals have their lying-place upon golden sands,[151] and grow exceeding big, and cast forth from the mouth a most fetid and infectious breath, like the thickest smoke rising from fire. These animals come together at the destined time, develope wings, and begin to raise themselves in the air, and then, by the judgment of God, being too heavy, they drop into a certain river which issues from Paradise, and perish there.
2. But all the regions round about watch for the time of the dragons, and when they see that one has fallen, they wait for lxx days, and then go down and find the bare bones of the dragon, and take the carbuncle which is rooted in the top of his head, and carry it to the emperor of the Æthiopians, whom you call Prestre Johan.[152]
3. In this India Tertia are certain birds, which are called Roc, so big that they easily carry an elephant up into the air. I have seen a certain person who said that he had seen one of those birds, one wing only of which stretched to a length of eighty palms.[153]
4. In this India are the true unicorns, like a great horse, having only one horn in the forehead, very thick and sharp, but short, and quite solid, marrow and all.[154] This creature,[155] it is said, is of such fierceness that it will kill an elephant, nor can it be captured except by a virgin girl. All the parts of that creature are of wonderful virtue, and the whole of them good for medicine.
5. There are other animals also of very divers species: thus, there is one like a cat, whose sweat is of such good odour that it surpasses all the other scents in the world, and that sweat is thus collected. When it sweats it rubs itself on a certain wood, and there [the sweat] becomes coagulated; then men come and collect it, and carry it away.[156]
6. Between this India and Æthiopia is said to be, towards the east, the terrestrial paradise; for from those parts come down the four rivers of Paradise, which abound exceedingly in gold and gems.
7. There be serpents with horns, and some with precious stones.[157]
8. The men of that land are very black, pot-bellied, fat, but short; having thick lips and squab nose, overhanging forehead, and hideous countenances, whilst they go altogether naked.
9. I have seen many of them. They hunt the most savage beasts, such as lions, ounces, and leopards, and most dreadful serpents; wild men they be, wild against wild beasts!
10. In this India is found embar, which is like wood, and exceeding fragrant, and is called gemma marina, or the Treasure of the Sea.[158]
11. There also be certain animals like an ass, but with transverse stripes of black and white, such as that one stripe is black and the next white. These animals be wonderfully beautiful.
12. Between this India and India the Greater, are said to be islands of women only, and of men only, such that the men cannot live long in the islands of the women, and vice versa.
13. But they can live there for some x or xv days and cohabit; and when the women produce male children they send them to the men, and when female children they retain them.[159]
14. There are many other different islands in which are men having the heads of dogs, but their women are said to be beautiful.[160] I cease not to marvel at the great variety of islands that there be.
15. Let this suffice about India Tertia and the islands for the present.
VII.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE GREATER ARABIA.
1. I have been in the Greater Arabia, but can tell little, except that there grow there choice incense and myrrh.
2. The natives of this Arabia are all black, very crafty and lean, with voices like that of a little boy. They dwell in caverns and holes on the ground: they eat fish, herbs, and roots, and nothing else.[161]
3. This Arabia hath very great deserts, pathless and very dry.
4. Of Æthiopia, I say that it is a very great land, and a very hot. There are many monsters there, such as gryphons that guard the golden mountains which be there. Here, too, be serpents and other venomous beasts, of vast size and venomous exceedingly.
5. There, too, are very many pretious stones. The lord of that land I believe to be more potent than any man in the world, and richer in gold and silver and in pretious stones. He is said to have under him fifty-two kings, rich and potent. He ruleth over all his neighbours towards the south and the west.
6. In this Æthiopia are two burning mountains, and between them a mountain of gold. The people of the country are all Christians, but heretics. I have seen and known many folk from those parts.
7. To that emperor the Soldan of Babylon giveth every year 500,000 ducats[162] of tribute as ’tis said.
8. I can tell nothing more of Æthiopia, not having been there.
VIII.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE GREAT TARTAR.[163]
1. Of the Great Tartar, I relate what I have heard from trustworthy persons; to wit, that he is very rich, very just, and very generous. He hath under him four realms as big as the realm of France, and well peopled too. In his dominions every person who cannot get a livelihood, may, an he will, have victual and raiment from that lord, all the days of his life.[164]
2. In his dominion is current, in place of money, paper stamped with black ink, with which can be procured gold, silver, silk, gems, and in short all that man can desire.[165]
3. In that empire are idol-temples, and also monasteries of men and women as with us; and they have a choral service and sermons just like us; and the great pontiffs of the idols wear red hats and capes like our cardinals. ’Tis incredible what splendour, what pomp, what festivity is made in the idol sacrifices.[166]
4. There they burn not their dead; nor do they bury them sometimes for ten years. Some defer this because they have not the means to perform the sacrifices and the obsequies as they would wish. But they keep the body in the house, and serve it with food as if it were alive.
5. The great lords, when they die, are buried with a horse, and with one or two of their best beloved slaves alive.[167]
6. In that empire are very great cities, as I have heard tell from those who have seen them; and there is one called Hyemo which it taketh a day’s journey on horseback to cross, by a direct street through the middle of it.[168]
7. I have heard that that emperor hath two hundred cities under him greater than Toulouse; and I certainly believe them to have more inhabitants.
8. The folk of that empire be marvellously well-mannered, clean, courteous, and liberal withal.
9. In that empire rhubarb is found, and musk. And musk is the navel of a certain wild animal like a goat, from which, when it is taken alive, the skin of the navel is cut in a round form, and the blood which flows from the wound is gathered and put into the said skin, and dried; and that makes the best musk in the world.
10. There are no other things in that empire that I am acquainted with worthy to be described, except the very beautiful and noble earthenware, full of good qualities, and [which is called] porcelain.[169]
11. When the emperor dies, he is carried by certain men with a very great treasure to a certain place, where they place the body, and run away as if the devil were after them, and others are ready incontinently to snatch up the body and bear it in like manner to another place, and so on to the place of burial; and they thus do that the place may not be found, and consequently that no one may be able to steal the treasure.[170]
12. Nor is the death of the emperor made known until another has been secretly established on the throne by his relations and the chiefs.[171]
13. That emperor bestows greater alms than any prince or lord in the world.
14. The people subject to him are for the most part idolaters.
IX.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING CALDEA.
1. Of Caldea I will say not much, but yet what is greatly to be wondered at; to wit, that in a place of that country stood Babylon, now destroyed and deserted, where are hairy serpents and monstrous animals. In the same place also, in the night season, are heard such shoutings, such howlings, such hissings, that it is called Hell. There no one would dare to pass a single night, even with a great army, on account of the endless terrors and spectres.[172]
2. When I was there, there was seen a tortoise that carried five men on its back.[173]
3. Also a two-headed animal, exceeding frightful, which dared to wade across the Euphrates, and to chase the inhabitants on the other side.[174]
4. Also there be there serpents of such bulk that it is horrible to hear tell of; and I believe that that land is the habitation of demons.
X.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE LAND OF ARAN.
Concerning Aran I say nothing at all, seeing that there is nothing worth noting.[175]
XI.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE LAND OF MOGAN.[176]
1. From the land of Mogan came three kings to worship the Lord.
2. And in a certain place there, which is called Bacu, are pits dug, whence is extracted and drawn a certain oil, which is called naft; and it is a very warm oil of medicinal virtue, and it burneth passing well.[177]
XII.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE CASPIAN HILLS.
Of the Caspian Hills I say that there they sacrifice sheep upon a cross, and they call themselves Christians, though they are not so, and know nothing of the faith.[178] Among those mountains are more than fifteen different nations.
XIII.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING GEORGIANA.
Of Georgiana [I have to say] that it is entirely like our country; and all the people are Christians and warriors.[179]
XIV.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE DISTANCES OF COUNTRIES.
1. Now I will mention in a brief statement the distances of the countries. Know ye, then, that from this place to Constantinople ’tis about three thousand miles or more.
2. From Constantinople to Tanan[180] or Tartary is a thousand miles, going always towards the east, and by sea.
3. The empire of Persia beginneth at Trebizond, which is a city of the Greeks, situated in the furthest bight of the Moorish Sea. And that empire[181] extendeth far; for it includeth Lesser Asia, Cilicia,[182] Media, Cappadocia, Lycia, Greater Armenia, Caldea, Georgiana, part of the Caspian Hills and Mogan,—whence came those three kings to worship Christ,[183]—even to the Iron Gates,[184] and all Persia, with some part of Lesser India; so that the empire extendeth across from the Black Sea to the Indian Sea, and so great is the distance as to equal lxxxx days of ordinary journey with cattle, or more.
4. Then Lesser India extendeth four-square over LX days’ journey, and is entirely level.
5. But the Greater India extendeth over more than CLXX days’ journey, excluding the islands, of which there be more than XII thousand inhabited, and more than VIII thousand uninhabited, as those say who navigate that sea. And [this India also] is nearly all a plain.
6. But the vessels of these Indies be of a marvellous kind. For although they be very great, they be not put together with iron, but stitched with a needle, and a thread made of a kind of grass. Nor are the vessels ever decked over, but open, and they take in water to such an extent that the men always, or almost always, must stand in a pool to bale out the water.
7. Cathay is a very great empire, which extendeth over more than C days’ journey; and it hath only one lord, whereas the case with the Indies is the very opposite, for there be therein many kings, many princes, not one of whom holdeth himself tributary to another.
8. And the dominion of Æthiopia is great exceedingly; and I believe, and lie not, that the population thereof is, at the least, three times that of our Christendom.[185]
9. But other two empires of the Tartars, as I have heard, to wit, that which was formerly of Cathay, but now is of Osbet, which is called Gatzaria, and the empire of Dua and Cayda, formerly of Capac and now of Elchigaday, extend over more than CC days’ journey.[186]
10. The vessels which they navigate in Cathay be very big, and have upon the ship’s hull more than C cabins, and with a fair wind they carry X sails, and they are very bulky, being made of three thicknesses of plank, so that the first thickness is as in our great ships, the second cross-wise, the third again long-wise. In sooth, ’tis a very strong affair.[187] It is true that they venture not far out to sea; and that Indian sea is seldom or never boisterous, and when it does rise to such a degree as they deem awfully perilous, it is such weather as our mariners here would deem splendid. For one of the men of our country would there (’tis no lie), be reckoned at sea worth a hundred of theirs and more.
11. Græcia[188] also is of great extent, but of how many days’ journey I wot not.
12. One general remark I will make in conclusion; to wit, that there is no better land or fairer, no people so honest, no victuals so good and savoury, dress so handsome, or manners so noble, as here in our own Christendom; and, above all, we have the true faith, though ill it be kept. For, as God is my witness, ten times better [Christians], and more charitable withal, be those who be converted by the Preaching and Minor friars to our faith, than our own folk here, as experience hath taught me.
13. And of the conversion of those nations of India, I say this: that if there were two hundred or three hundred good friars, who would faithfully and fervently preach the Catholic faith, there is not a year which would not see more than X thousand persons converted to the Christian faith.
14. For, whilst I was among those schismatics and unbelievers, I believe that more than X thousand, or thereabouts, were converted to our faith, and because we, being few in number, could not occupy, or even visit, many parts of the land, many souls (wo is me!) have perished, and exceeding many do yet perish for lack of preachers of the Word of the Lord. And ’tis grief and pain to hear how, through the preachers of the perfidious and accursed Saracens, those sects of the heathen be day by day perverted. For their preachers run about, just as we do, here, there, and everywhere over the whole Orient, in order to turn all to their own miscreance.[189] These be they who accuse us, who smite us, who cause us to be cast into durance, and who stone us; as I indeed have experienced, having been four times cast into prison by them, I mean the Saracens. But how many times I have had my hair plucked out, and been scourged, and been stoned, God himself knoweth and I, who had to bear all this for my sins, and yet have not attained to end my life as a martyr for the faith, as did four of my brethren. For what remaineth God’s will be done! Nay, five Preaching Friars and four Minors were there in my time cruelly slain for the Catholic faith.
Wo is me that I was not with them there!
15. I believe moreover that the king of France might subdue the whole world to his own dominion and to the Christian faith, without the aid of any other.
XV.
HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF CHIOS.
I have seen an island called Chios, where groweth mastick in very great abundance; nor do those trees when planted anywhere else in the whole world produce mastick. Mastick is the gum of a very noble tree. That island was held by a very noble Genoese, by name Martin Zachary, a most worthy sea captain, who slew or took more than ten thousand Turks. But, alackaday! the rascally emperor of Constantinople, Greek that he was, got possession of the island by treason, a thing most deeply to be lamented; and all the more that the captain was taken in person, and made a prisoner.
XVI.
CONCERNING TURKEY.[190]
1. I was also in Turkey, in a certain camp on the coast of the main, held by a noble Genoese, by name Andreolo Cathani, who hath with him only fifty-two knights[191] and four hundred foot soldiers. He doth much scathe to the Turks. And there he himself maketh alum, without which no cloth can be properly dyed; and ’tis made in a marvellous way, nor do I believe that the art could have been invented by human ingenuity, but rather by the Holy Spirit.[192] For thus it is: stones be taken from under the ground, not stones of any kind, but such as be specially suitable, for few be found of that kind. And these stones be baked like bricks or pottery, and that in great quantity and for many days, and with a most potent fire. The stones be afterwards placed on a great platform, and water is poured upon them, and this two or three times a day for a month continuously, so that the stones become like [slaked] lime. Afterwards they be placed in great caldrons with water, and that which falleth to the bottom is extracted with great iron ladles. Then four-square tanks of plaster are prepared, numerous and large, and into these the water from the caldrons is poured, and there gradually taketh place a precipitation like crystal, and that is choice alum.[193]
2. In this Turkey be the VII Churches to which wrote the Blessed John in the Apocalypse, who also ordered a sepulchre to be dug for him in Ephesus, whereinto he entered and was seen no more. But I will tell one very marvellous thing concerning that excavation, as I heard it from a certain devout religious person, who was there and heard it with his own ears. From time to time is heard there a very loud sound, as of a man snoring, and yet is the sepulchre void.[194]
3. This Turkey, which is called Asia Minor, is inhabited by the Turks, and by a few schismatic Greeks and Armenians. Which Turks be most rascally Saracens, and capital archers withal, and the most warlike and perfidious of all mankind.
4. The country is very fertile, but uncultivated; for the Turks trouble not themselves.[195]
EXPLICIT.