Cap. cxxv.—Of the manner in which the lords and gentlemen come to the Court, and go about it, and depart from it.
The mode which the lords and gentlemen follow in coming to or going away from the Court is this, namely: no great lord of lands, if he is in them, can come out of them, nor set out for the Court by any means without being summoned by the Prester; and being summoned he cannot omit coming for any cause. And when he sets out from the land of which he is the lord, he does not leave in it either wife or children or any property, because he goes away with the expectation of never returning, since, as has been said before, the Prester gives when he pleases, and takes away when he pleases; and if he happens to take it away, from that moment they take from him whatever they find belonging to him in the lordship; that is to say, the lord who comes to succeed him in his place. For this reason they carry everything away with them without leaving anything, or at least without putting it in another lordship. When a lord approaches near the Court with great show he takes up quarters at least a league from the Court, and there he often remains a month or two months without moving from there; and they treat them as if they were forgotten as long as the Prester chooses. They do not however desist whilst thus forgotten from entering the Court and speaking to other lords, but not with an array, nor with clothes, but with two or three men, and stripped from the waist upwards, and with a sheep skin over their shoulders; and so they return to their tents until they have permission to enter. When they get this permission, they enter with great array, and sounding kettledrums, and encamp in their station, which is already ordained for each. When he encamps he still does not appear clothed as he made his entry, but walks about as before his entry, naked from the waist upwards, although at his entry he came clothed and with pomp. Then they say generally: Such a one is not yet in the favour of the sovereign, for he still goes about stripped. As soon as he had any speech of the Prester, he at once comes out dressed, and then they say: Such a one is in the king’s favour. Then it is divulged and said why he was summoned, and sometimes and frequently they return to their lordships, and at others not. If they return to them they are despatched more quickly; and if they are taken from them, they let them go five, six, and seven years without going away from the Court. By no manner of means can they go from the Court without permission, so obedient are they, and so much do they fear their king; and much as they used to be accompanied by many, so now are they neglected, and they go about on a mule with two or three men, because the many who used to accompany them belonged to the lordships that have been taken from them, and they transfer themselves to the new lord; and this we used to see every day.
Cap. cxxvi.—How those who go to and come from the wars approach the Prester more closely, and of the maintenance they get.
If such gentlemen are summoned for wars, as we saw happen many times, their entry is not delayed, but they come in at once. As they come with a body of men, so they enter from their march. With regard to these, they do not observe what I mentioned, that people do not enter between the cacalla and king’s tent on mules or on horseback. These who come for wars come up to the king’s tents, and show themselves off close to them, and they skirmish and sport and show their method of warfare, as they think best to please the king. This we saw an infinite number of times. These men who go thus to the wars do not remain two days at the Court, because their ordinances are to call a hundred thousand men, if they want as many, to assemble in two days, so as they arrive they are sent off. Because here there is no pay to be given, and every man brings with him what he is to eat, which consists of flour of parched barley, and that is a good food, and parched peas or millet. This is their maintenance for the wars, and the cows, they find them where they go; and if it is the season of ...[251] wheat, that is the principal provision for war of those people.
Cap. cxxvii.—Of the manner in which they carry the Prester’s property when he travels, and of the brocades and silks which he sent to Jerusalem, and of the great treasury.
The manner in which Prester John travels has been before mentioned, as we saw him travel; now I will only relate how his stuffs and property travel, which are in the Balagamija, and which are beyond reckoning. All silk stuffs go in square osier baskets; they will be four spans[252] long, and two or two and a half wide, they are covered with leather of raw cowhide with the hair on; from each corner comes a chain to go over the lid, which has an iron ring in the middle through which they pass these chains, and in them a padlock. Thus these baskets go locked, and both those containing silks and those with thin Indian stuffs, and men carry them on their heads, more than five or six of them. And between a certain number of these carriers are guards. And since every year the silks and brocades increase in number, both those that are paid to him and those that he buys, and so many are not expended, neither can they carry them all on a journey, he orders every year some to be put in hollows in the earth which are arranged for that purpose. We knew of one as our road passed by there, and close to some gates which have already been mentioned, and which are named Badabaje, at the great ravines which I spoke of before. And at this hollow there are many guards, and all the merchants who pass there pay dues for toll. In the same way that the stuffs travel, the treasure also travels in smaller baskets covered with leather, and also locked like those of the stuffs, only that they have over their leather covering and chains and padlock, another cowhide put on fresh and sewn with straps of the hide, and it dries there and becomes strong. These treasure baskets are in very great quantity, and travel with numerous guards, and they say that every year he puts many of these also into hollows in the earth or in grottos, because he cannot carry the increase of each year. This hollow, which we knew of, is a league from the house of Pero de Covilham, and he used to tell us that the gold which was in this hollow was enough to buy the world, because every year a large sum was put in, and they never took it out again. As to the silks and brocades, Pero de Covilham said that they often took them out to give them to churches and monasteries, as was done three years before our arrival, when Prester John sent large offerings to Jerusalem of the silks and brocades from the grottos, on account of the multitude he possessed; and that there were many of these excavations or grottos of the same kind as that that we knew of, which is under a mountain. The ambassador who conveyed these offerings is named Abba Azerata, and now he is chief guardian of the Prester’s sisters, and they say that he took with him fifteen men, among whom were gentlemen of nagaridas, or as we should say in our language, of kettledrums,[253] and the number of their kettledrums was sixty. And I heard tell by those who went with him that they sounded them all along the road, and in the city of Cairo, as far as Jerusalem; and on their return they came in flight, because the Turk was coming against the Sultan,[254] and against his great city, through which they had to pass.