From Russia Also
To OROECH It Is Not Very Far, And The Journey Could Be Soon Made, Were It
Not For The Tremendous Cold; But This Renders Its Accomplishment Almost
Impossible.[NOTE 3]
Now then let us speak of the Great Sea, as I was about to do.
To be sure
many merchants and others have been there, but still there are many again
who know nothing about it, so it will be well to include it in our Book.
We will do so then, and let us begin first with the Strait of
Constantinople.
NOTE 1. - Ibn Fozlan, the oldest Arabic author who gives any detailed
account of the Russians (and a very remarkable one it is), says he "never
saw people of form more perfectly developed; they were tall as palm-trees,
and ruddy of countenance," but at the same time "the most uncleanly people
that God hath created," drunken, and frightfully gross in their manners.
(Fraehn's Ibn Fozlan, p. 5 seqq.) Ibn Batuta is in some respects less
flattering; he mentions the silver-mines noticed in our text: "At a day's
distance from Ukak[1] are the hills of the Russians, who are Christians.
They have red hair and blue eyes; ugly to look at, and crafty to deal
with. They have silver-mines, and it is from their country that are
brought the saum or ingots of silver with which buying and selling is
carried on in this country (Kipchak or the Ponent of Polo). The weight of
each saumah is 5 ounces" (II.
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