AND from this men go ten journeys through the land of the great Caan, which is a full good yle & a great kingdom & the king is ful mighty. And in this yle is a rich man which is no king, prince, Duke nor Erle, but he hath eche yere cccc[1] thousand horses charged[2] with ryce and corne, and he hath a noble & a rich life after the maner of the countrey, for he hath L damosels that serve him every day at his meate & bed and do what he wil. And when he sytteth at the table they bring him meat, & at eche time fiue meates togither, and they sing in the bringing a song, and they cut his meate and put it in his mouth, and he hath righte long nayles on his hands, that is a great nobility in that countrey & therefore they let theyr nayles grow as long as they may,[3] and some let them growe so long that they come about theyr handes and yt is a great nobility & gentry, and the gentry of a woman is to haue small fete, and therefore anon as they are borne, they binde their feete so straight that they cannot wax halfe as they shoulde. And he hath a full faire palaice, & rich, wher he dwelleth, of which the wall is two myle about, & there is many faire gardeins, and all the pavement of the hal, & chambres, is of gold & silver, and in the midst of one of these gardeins is a lyttle hyl, whereon is a place made wyth toures and pynacles all of golde, and there he wyll syt often to take the ayer and disport, for it is made for nothing else. From this land men may go through ye land of the great Caane.
[1:] Other editions say 300,000.
[2:] Loaded.
[3:] Similar to the Chinese custom of the upper classes.
CAP. CVII.
How all these landes yles and kingdomes, and the men therof afore rehersed, haue some of the articles of our faith.
AND ye shall understand that all these men & folke that haue reason yt I haue spoken of, haue some articles of our faith, all[1] if they be of divers lawes and divers beleves, yet they haue some good poynts of our fayth, & they beleve in God of kinde as theyr prophecie sayth, Et metuent eum omnes fines terræ, That is to say, And all endes of the earth shall dread him. And in another place, Omnes gentes servient ei, That is to say, All folk shall serve him, but they cannot speak parfitly but as theyr kyndly wit teacheth them, neither of the Son nor of the Holy Ghost can they speake, but they can speake well of the Byble, and specially of Genesis, and of the bokes of Moyses. And they say that those creatures yt they worship are no gods, but they worship them for great vertue that is in them which may not be without special grace of God, & of simulacre and ydoles, they say that all men haue simulacres, and that, say they, for us christen men haue ymages of our Lady & other, but they wot not that we worship not the ymages of stone nor of wood, but the saynts of whome they are made, for as the letter teacheth clarkes how they shal beleve, so ymages and paynture teacheth lewde[2] men. They say also that the aungell of God speaketh to them in their ydoles & do miracles, they say soth,[3] but it is the evil aungell that doth myracles to maintaine them in their ydolatrie.
[1:] Even.
[2:] Unlearned.
[3:] Truly.
CAP. CVIII.
How John Maundevyl leveth many mervailes unwrytten & the cause wherefore.
THERE are many other countreys where I haue not yet ben nor sene & therefore I can not speke properly of them. Also in countreys where I haue bene are many marvailes that I speke not of, for it were to long a tale and therefore hold you payd at this time yt I haue sayd, for I will say no more of mervailes that are there, so that other men that go thither may fynde ynough for to say that I haue not tolde.
