But
The King Amasses Them All, And Sends Them To Other Kings When He Has
Tribute To Render, Or When He Desires To Offer A Friendly Present; And
Such Only As He Pleases He Causes To Be Sold.
Thus he acts in order to
keep the Balas at a high value; for if he were to allow everybody to dig,
they would extract so many that the world would be glutted with them, and
they would cease to bear any value.
Hence it is that he allows so few to
be taken out, and is so strict in the matter.[NOTE 2]
There is also in the same country another mountain, in which azure is
found; 'tis the finest in the world, and is got in a vein like silver.
There are also other mountains which contain a great amount of silver ore,
so that the country is a very rich one; but it is also (it must be said) a
very cold one.[NOTE 3] It produces numbers of excellent horses, remarkable
for their speed. They are not shod at all, although constantly used in
mountainous country, and on very bad roads. [They go at a great pace even
down steep descents, where other horses neither would nor could do the
like. And Messer Marco was told that not long ago they possessed in that
province a breed of horses from the strain of Alexander's horse
Bucephalus, all of which had from their birth a particular mark on the
forehead. This breed was entirely in the hands of an uncle of the king's;
and in consequence of his refusing to let the king have any of them, the
latter put him to death. The widow then, in despite, destroyed the whole
breed, and it is now extinct.[NOTE 4]]
The mountains of this country also supply Saker falcons of excellent
flight, and plenty of Lanners likewise. Beasts and birds for the chase
there are in great abundance. Good wheat is grown, and also barley without
husk. They have no olive oil, but make oil from sesame, and also from
walnuts.[NOTE 5]
[In the mountains there are vast numbers of sheep - 400, 500, or 600 in a
single flock, and all of them wild; and though many of them are taken,
they never seem to get aught the scarcer.[NOTE 6]
Those mountains are so lofty that 'tis a hard day's work, from morning
till evening, to get to the top of them. On getting up, you find an
extensive plain, with great abundance of grass and trees, and copious
springs of pure water running down through rocks and ravines. In those
brooks are found trout and many other fish of dainty kinds; and the air in
those regions is so pure, and residence there so healthful, that when the
men who dwell below in the towns, and in the valleys and plains, find
themselves attacked by any kind of fever or other ailment that may hap,
they lose no time in going to the hills; and after abiding there two or
three days, they quite recover their health through the excellence of that
air.
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