That is clept Mosul; and
it stretcheth toward the west to the flom of Euphrates unto a city
that is clept Roianz; and in length it goeth to the mount of
Armenia unto the desert of Ind the less. This is a good country
and a plain, but it hath few rivers. It hath but two mountains in
that country, of the which one hight Symar and that other Lyson.
And this land marcheth to the kingdom of Chaldea.
Yet there is, toward the parts Meridionals many countries and many
regions, as the land of Ethiopia, that marcheth, toward the east to
the great deserts, toward the west to the kingdom of Nubia, toward
the south to the kingdom of Moretane, and toward the north to the
Red Sea.
After is Moretane, that dureth from the mountains of Ethiopia unto
Lybia the high. And that country lieth along from the sea ocean
toward the south; and toward the north it marcheth to Nubia and to
the high Lybia. (These men of Nubia be Christian.) And it
marcheth from the lands above-said to the deserts of Egypt, and
that is the Egypt that I have spoken of before.
And after is Lybia the high and Lybia the low, that descendeth down
low toward the great sea of Spain, in the which country be many
kingdoms and many diverse folk.
Now I have devised you many countries on this half the kingdom of
Cathay, of the which many be obeissant to the great Chan.
CHAPTER XXIX
OF THE COUNTRIES AND ISLES THAT BE BEYOND THE LAND OF CATHAY; AND
OF THE FRUITS THERE; AND OF TWENTY-TWO KINGS ENCLOSED WITHIN THE
MOUNTAINS
NOW shall I say you, suingly, of countries and isles that be beyond
the countries that I have spoken of.
Wherefore I say you, in passing by the land of Cathay toward the
high Ind and toward Bacharia, men pass by a kingdom that men clepe
Caldilhe, that is a full fair country.
And there groweth a manner of fruit, as though it were gourds. And
when they be ripe, men cut them a-two, and men find within a little
beast, in flesh, in 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, although it
were wonderful, but that I know well that God is marvellous in his
works. And, natheles, I told them of as great a marvel to them,
that is amongst us, and that was of the Bernakes. For I told them
that in our country were trees that bear a fruit that become birds
flying, and those that fell in the water live, and they that fall
on the earth die anon, and they be right good to man's meat. And
hereof had they as great marvel, that some of them trowed it were
an impossible thing to be.
In that country be long apples of good savour, whereof be more than
an hundred in a cluster, and as many in another; and they have
great long leaves and large, of two foot 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 Ind, and of
Canell and of many other spices. And there be vines that bear so
great grapes, that a strong man should have enough to do for to
bear one cluster with all the grapes.
In that same region be the mountains of Caspian that men crepe Uber
in the country. Between those mountains the Jews of ten lineages
be enclosed, that men clepe Goth and Magoth and they may not go out
on no side. There were enclosed twenty-two kings with their
people, that dwelled between the mountains of Scythia. There King
Alexander chased them between those mountains, and there he thought
for to enclose them through work of his men. But when he saw that
he might not do it, ne bring it to an end, he prayed to God of
nature that he would perform that that he had begun. And all were
it so, that he was a paynim and not worthy to be heard, yet God of
his grace closed the mountains together, so that they dwell there
all fast locked and enclosed with high mountains all about, save
only on one side, and on that side is the sea of Caspian.
Now may some men ask, since that the sea is on that one side,
wherefore go they not out on the sea side, for to go where that
them liketh?
But to this question, I shall answer; that sea of Caspian goeth out
by land under the mountains, and runneth by the desert at one side
of the country, and after it stretcheth unto the ends of Persia,
and although it be clept a sea, it is no sea, ne it toucheth to
none other sea, but it is a lake, the greatest of the world; and
though they would put them into that sea, they ne wist never where
that they should arrive; and also they can no language but only
their own, that no man knoweth but they; and therefore may they not
go out.
And also ye shall understand, that the Jews have no proper land of
their own for to dwell in, in all the world, but only that land
between the mountains. And yet they yield tribute for that land to
the Queen of Amazonia, the which that maketh them to be kept in
close full diligently, that they shall not go out on no side but by
the coast of their land; for their land marcheth to those
mountains.
