Chapter XXVI.
OF THE COUNTRIES AND ISLANDS BEYOND THE LAND OF CATHAY, AND OF THE FRUITS THERE; AND OF TWENTY-TWO KINGS INCLOSED WITHIN THE MOUNTAINS.
In passing by the land of Cathay towards Upper India, and towards Bucharia, men pass by a kingdom called Caldilhe, which is a very fair country. And there grows a kind of fruit like gourds, which, when they are ripe, men cut in two, and find within a little beast, in flesh, bone, and blood, as though it were a little lamb, without wool. And men eat both the fruit and the beast, and that is a great marvel. Of that fruit I have eaten; and I told them of as great a marvel to them that is amongst us, and that was of the barnacles. For I told them that in our country were trees that bear a fruit that becomes flying birds; and those that fall in the water live; and those that fall on the earth die anon; and they are right good for man's meat. And thereof had they also great marvel, that some of them thought it was an impossibility. In that country are long apples, of good flavour, whereof there are more than a hundred in a cluster; and they have great long leaves and large, of two feet long or more. And in that country, and in other countries thereabout, grow many trees that bear clove-gylofres and nutmegs, and great nuts of India, and of canelle, and many other spices. And there are vines which bear grapes so large, that a strong man would have enough to do to carry one cluster. In that same region are the mountains of Caspia, which are called Uber in the country. Between those mountains are inclosed the Jews of ten lineages, who are called Gog and Magog; and they may not go out on any side. There were inclosed twenty-two kings, with their people, that dwelt between the mountains of Scythia. King Alexander drove them between those mountains, and there he thought to inclose them through work of his men. But when he saw that he might not do it, nor bring it to an end, he prayed to the God of Nature that he would perform that which he had begun. And although he was a Pagan, and not worthy to be heard, yet God of his grace closed the mountains together, so that they dwell there fast locked and inclosed with high mountains all about, except only on one side, and on that side is the Caspian Sea. Men say they shall come out in the time of Antichrist, and that they shall make great slaughter of the Christians; and therefore all the Jews that dwell in all lands learn always to speak Hebrew, in hope that when the other Jews shall go out, that they may understand their speech, and so lead them into Christendom, to destroy the Christians. For the Jews say that they know well, by their prophecies, that they of Caspia shall go out, and spread through all the world, and that the Christians shall be under subjection as long as they have been in subjection to them. And if you will know how they shall find their way, after what I have heard say I will tell you. In the time of Antichrist, a fox shall make there his trail, and burrow a hole where king Alexander made the gates; and so long he shall burrow and pierce the earth, till he shall pass through, towards that people. And when they see the fox, they shall have great wonder of him, because they never saw such a beast; for of all other beasts they have some inclosed among them, except the fox. And then they shall hunt him, and pursue him so close, till he arrive at the same place he came from; and then they shall dig and burrow so strongly, till they find the gates that king Alexander made of immense stones, well cemented and made strong for the mastery; and those gates they shall break, and so go out, by finding that issue.
From that land men go towards the land of Bucharia, where are very evil and cruel people. In that land are trees that bear wool[408], as though it were of sheep, whereof men make clothes, and all things that may be made of wool. In that country are many ipotaynes, that dwell sometimes in the water and sometimes on the land; and they are half man and half horse, as I have said before; and they eat men, when they may take them. And there are rivers of water that are very bitter, three times more than is the water of the sea. In that country are many griffins, more abundant than in any other country. Some men say that they have the body upward of an eagle, and beneath of a lion; and that is true. But one griffin has a greater body and is stronger than eight lions, and greater and stronger than a hundred eagles. For one griffin there will carry, flying to his nest, a great horse, or two oxen yoked together as they go at the plough. For he has his talons so long, and so large and great, as though they were horns of great oxen, or of bulls, or of kine, so that men make cups of them to drink out of[409]; and of their ribs, and of the feathers of their wings, men make bows full strong, to shoot with arrows and darts. From thence men go, by many days, through the land of Prester John, the great emperor of India. And they call his kingdom the isle of Pentexoire.