Of the dueties inioined vnto the Tartarian women, and of their labours, and also of their mariages. Chap. 9.
The duties of women are, to driue carts: to lay their houses vpon carts and to take them downe again: to milke kine: to make butter and Gry-vt: to dresse skins and to sow them, which they vsually sowe with thread made of sinewes, for they diuide sinewes into slender threads, and then twine them into one long thread. They make sandals and socks and other garments. Howbeit they neuer wash any apparel: for they say that God is then angry, and that dreadful thunder wil ensue, if washed garments be hanged forth to drie: yea, they beat such as wash and take their garments from them. They are wonderfully afraid of thunder: for in the time of thunder they thrust all strangers, out of their houses, and then wrapping themselues in black felt, they lie hidden therein, til the thunder be ouerpast. They neuer wash their dishes or bowles: yea, when their flesh is sodden, they wash the platter wherein it must be put, with scalding hot broth out of the pot, and then powre the said broth into the pot againe. They make felte also, and couer their houses therewith. The duties of the men are to make bowes and arrowes, stirrops, bridles and saddles, to build houses and carts, to keep horses, to milke, mares, to churne Cosmos and mares milke, and to make bags wherein to put it, they keepe camels also and lay burthens vpon them. As for sheepe and goates they tend and milke them, aswell the men as the women. With sheeps milke thicked and salted they dresse and tan their hides. When they wil wash their hands or their heads, they fil their mouthes full of water, and spouting it into their hands by little and little, they sprinckle their haire and wash their heades therwith. [Footnote: The same custom still exists amongst the inhabitants of the Lena Delta] As touching mariages, your Highnes is to vnderstand, that no man can haue a wife among them till he hath bought her whereupon somtimes their maids are very stale before they be maried, for their parents alwaies keepe them till they can sel them. They keepe the first and second degrees of consanguinitie inuiolable, as we do but they haue no regard of the degrees of affinity: for they wil marrie together, or by succession, two sisters. Their widowes marie not at al, for this reason: because they beleeue, that al who haue serued them in this life, shall do them seruice in the life to come also. Whereupon they are perswaded, that euery widow after death shal returne vnto her own husband. And herehence ariseth an abominable and filthy custome among them, namely that the sonne marieth somtimes all his fathers wiues except his own mother: For the court or house of the father or mother falleth by inheritance alwaies to the yonger son. Whereupon he is to prouide for all his fathers wiues, because they are part of his inheritance aswel as his fathers possessions. And then if he will he vseth then for his owne wiues: for he thinks it no iniurie or disparagement vnto himselfe, although they returne vnto his father after death. Therfore when any man hath bargained with another for a maid, the father of the said damosel makes him a feast: in the meane while she fleeth vnto some of her kinsfolks to hide her selfe. Then saith her father vnto the bridegrome: Loe, my daughter is yours, take her whersoeuer you can find her. Then he and his friends seek for her till they can find her, and hauing found her hee must take her by force and cary her, as it were, violently vnto his owne house.
De iusticijs eorum et iudicijs, et de morte ac sepultura eorum. Cap. 10.
De iusticijs eorum nouentis, quod quando duo homines pugnant, nemo audet se intermittere. Etiam pater non audet iuuare filium. Sed qui peiorem partem habet, appellat ad curiam domini. Et si alius post appellationem tangat eum, interficitur. Sed oportet quod statim absque dilatione vadat: Et ille qui passus est iniuriam ducit eum quasi captiuum. Neminem puniunt capitali sententia, nisi deprehensus fuerit in facto, vel confessus. Sed quum diffamatus est à pluribus, bene torquent eum, vt confiteatur. Homicidium puniunt capitali sententia, et etiam coitum cum non sua. Non suam dico vel vxorem vel famulam: Sua enim sclaua licet vti prout libet. Item enorme furtum puniunt morte. Pro leui furto, sicut pro vno ariete, dummodo non fuerit sæpe deprehensus in hoc, verberant crudeliter. Et si dant centum ictus oportet quod habeant centum baculos, de illis dico, qui verberantur sententia curiæ. Item falsos nuncios, quia faciunt se nuncios et non sunt, interficiunt. Item sacrilegas, de quibus dicam vobis postea plenius, quia tales reputant veneficas. Quando aliquis moritur plangunt vehementer vlulando: et tunc sunt liberi quod non dant vectigal vsque ad annum. Et si quis interest morti alicuius adulti non ingreditur domum ipsius Mangucham vsque ad annum. Si paruulus est qui moritur, non ingreditur vsque post lunationem. Iuxta sepulturam defuncti semper relinquunt domum vnam. Si est de nobilibus, hoc est de genere Chingis, qui fuit primus pater et domimis eorum, illius qui moritur ignoratur sepultura: et semper circa loca illa vbi sepeliunt nobiles suos est vna herbergia hominum custodientium sepulturas. Non intellexi quod ipsi recondunt thesaurum cum mortuis. Comani faciunt magnum tumulum super defunctum et erigunt ei statuam versa facie ad orientem, tenentem ciphum in manu sua ante vmbelicum; fabricant et diuitibus pyramides, id est domunculas acutas: et alicubi vidi magnas turres de tegulis coctis: alicubi lapideas domos, quamuis lapides non inueniantur ibi. Vidi quendam nouiter defunctum, cui suspenderant pelles sexdecem equorum, ad quodlibet latus mundi quatuor inter perticas altas: et apposuerunt ei cosmos vt biberet, et carnes vt comederet: et tamen dicebant de illo quod fuerat baptizatus. Alias vidi sepulturas versus orientem. Areas scilicet magnas structas lapidibus, aliquas rotundas, aliquas quadratas, et postea quatuor lapides longos erectos ad quatuor regiones mundi circa aream. Et vbi aliquis infirmatur cubat in lecto et ponit signum super domum suam, quod ibi est infirmus, et quod nullus ingrediatur: vnde nullus visitat infirmum nisi seruiens eius. Quando etiam aliquis de magnis curijs infirmatur, ponunt custodes longe circa curiam, qui infra illos terminos neminem permittunt transire: timent enim ne mali spiritus vel ventus veniant cum ingredientibus. Ipsos diuinatores vocant tanquam sacerdotes suos.
The same in English.
Of their execution of iustice and iudgement: and of their deaths and burials. Chap. 10.
Concerning their lawes or their execution of iustice, your Maiesty is to be aduertised, and when two men fight, no third man dare intrude himself to part them. Yea, the father dare not help his owne sonne. But he that goes by the worst must appeale vnto the court of his lord. And whosoeuer els offereth him any violence after appeale, is put to death. But he must go presently without all delay: and he that hath suffered the iniury, carieth him, as it were captiue. They punish no man with sentence of death, vnles hee bee taken in the deede doing, or confesseth the same. But being accused by the multitude, they put him vnto extreame torture to make him confesse the trueth. They punish murther with death, and carnall copulation also with any other besides his owne. By his own, I meane his wife or his maid seruant, for he may vse his slaue as he listeth himself. Heinous theft also or felony they punish with death. For a light theft, as namely for stealing of a ram, the party (not being apprehended in the deed doing, but otherwise detected) is cruelly beaten. And if the executioner laies on an 100. strokes, he must haue an 100. staues, namely for such as are beaten vpon sentence giuen in the court. Also counterfeit messengers, because they feine themselues to be messengers, when as indeed they are none at all, they punish with death. Sacrilegious persons they vse in like manner (of which kind of malefactors your Maiesty shall vnderstand more fully hereafter) because they esteeme such to be witches. When any man dieth, they lament and howle most pitifully for him: and the said mourners are free from paying any tribute for one whole yeare after. Also whosoeuer is present at the house where any one growen to mans estate lieth dead, he must not enter into the court of Mangu-Can til one whole yere be expired. If it were a child deceased he must not enter into the said court til the next moneth after. Neere vnto the graue of the partie deceased they alwaies leaue one cottage. If any of their nobles (being of the stock of Chingis, who was their first lord and father) deceaseth, his sepulcher is vnknowen. And alwayes about those places where they interre their nobles, there is one house of men to keep the sepulchers. I could not learn that they vse to hide treasures in the graues of their dead. The Comanians build a great toomb ouer their dead, and erect the image of the dead party thereupon, with his face towards the East, holding a drinking cup in his hand, before his nauel. They erect also vpon the monuments of rich men, Pyramides, that is to say, little sharpe houses or pinacles: and in some places I saw mighty towers made of brick, in other places Pyramides made of stones, albeit there are no stones to be found thereabout. I saw one newly buried, in whose behalfe they hanged vp 16. horse hides, vnto each quarter of the world 4, betweene certain high posts: and they set besides his graue Cosmos for him to drink, and flesh to eat: and yet they sayd that he was baptized. I beheld other kinds of sepulchers also towards the East: namely large flowres or pauements made of stone, some round and some square, and then 4. long stones pitched vpright, about the said pauement towards the 4. regions of the world. When any man is sicke, he lieth in his bed, and causeth a signe to be set vpon his house, to signifie that there lieth a sicke person there, to the end that no man may enter into the sayd house: whereupon none at all visit any sicke party but his seruant only. Moreouer, when any one is sicke in their great courts, they appoint watchmen to stand round about the said court, who wil not suffer any person to enter within the precincts thereof. For they feare least euill spirits or winds should come together with the parties that enter in. They esteeme of soothsayers, as of their priests.
Qualiter ingressi sunt inter Tartaros, et de ingratitudine eorum. Cap. 11.
Quando ergo ingressi sumus inter illos barbaros, visum fuit mihi, vt dixi superius, quod ingrederer aliud seculum. Circumdederunt enim nos in equis postquam diu fecerant nos expectare sedentes in vmbra sub bigis nigris. Prima quæstio fuit, vtrum vnquam fuissemus inter eos; habito quod non: inceperunt impudenter petere de cibarijs nostris, et dedimus de pane biscocto et vino quod attuleramus nobiscum de villa: et potata vna lagena vini, petierunt aliam, dicentes, quod homo non ingreditur domum vno pede; non dedimus eis, excusantes nos quod parem haberemus Tunc quæsiuerunt vnde veniremus, et quo vellemus ire; dixi eis superiora verba, quod audieramus de Sartach, quod esset Christianus, et quod vellem ire ad eum, quia habebam deferre ei literas vestras. Ipsi diligenter quæsiuerunt, vtrum irem de mea voluntate, vel vtrum mitterer. Ego respondi quod nemo coegit me ad eundum, nec iuissem nisi voluissem: vnde de mea voluntate ibam, et etiam de voluntate superioris me. Bene caui, quod nunquam dixi, me esse nuncium vestrum. Tunc quæsiuerunt quid esset in bigis, vtrum esset aurum vel argentum, vel vestes preciosæ, quas deferrem Sartach. Ego respondi, quod Sartach videret quid deferremus ei quando perueniremus ad eum; et quod non intererat eorum ista quærere: sed facerent me deduci vsque ad capitaneum suum, et ipse si vellet mihi præbere ducatum vsque ad Sartach faceret: sin minus, reuerterer. Erat enim in illa prouincia vnus consanguineus Baatu, nomine Scacatai, cui dominus imperator Constantinopolitanus mittebat literas deprecatorias, quod me permitteret transire. Tunc ipsi acquieuerunt, præbentes nobis equos et boues et duos homines, qui deducerent nos. Et alij qui adduxerant nos sunt reuersi. Prius tamen antequam prædicta darent, fecerunt nos diu expectare petentes de pane nostro pro paruulis suis: Et omnia quæ videbant super famulos nostros, cultellos, chirothecas, bursas, corrigias, omnia admirantes et volentes habere. Excusabam me, quia longa nobis restabat via, nec debebamus ita cito spoliare nos rebus necessarijs ad tantam viam perficiendam. Tunc dicebant quod essem batrator. Verum est quod nihil abstulerint vi: Sed valde importune et impudenter petunt quæ vident. Et si dat homo eis perdit, quia sunt ingrati. Reputant se dominos mundi, et videtur eis, quod nihil debeat eis negari ab aliquo. Si non dat, et postea indigeat seruicio eorum, male ministrant ei. Dederunt nobis bibere de lacte suo vaccino, à quo contractom erat butirum, acetoso valde, quod ipsi vocant Apram et sic recessimus ab eis. Et visum fuit mihi recte, quod euadissem de manibus dæmonum. In crastino peruenimus ad capitaneum. Ex quo recessimus à Soldaia vsque ad Sartach in duobus mensibus nunquam iacuimus in domo nec in tentorio, sed semper sub dio, vel sub bigis nostris, nec vidimus aliquam villam, vel vestigium alicuius ædificij vbi fuisset villa, nisi tumbas Comanorum in maxima multitudine. Illo sero dedit nobis garcio qui ducebat nos bibere cosmos; ad cuius haustum totus sudaui propter horrorem et nouitatem, quia nunquam biberam de eo; valde tamen sapidum videbatur mihi, sicut vere est.
The same in English.