And When Night Came, I Was Constrained, To My Great Grief And Sorow, To Eat Flesh.

Sometimes we were faine to eate flesh halfe sodden, or almost rawe, and all for want of fewel to seethe it withal: especially when we lay in the fields, or were benighted before we came at our iourneis end:

Because we could not then conueniently gather together the doung of horses or oxen: for other fewel we found but seldome, except perhaps a few thornes in some places. [Sidenote: Certaine riuers.] Likewise vpon the bankes of some riuers, there are woods growing here and there. Howbeit they are very rare. In the beginning our guide highly disdained vs, and it was tedious vnto him to conduct such base fellowes. Afterward, when he began to know vs somewhat better, he directed vs on our way by the courts of rich Moals, and we were requested to pray for them. Wherefore, had I caried a good interpreter with me, I should haue had opportunities to haue done much good. The foresaid Chingis, who was the first great Can or Emperour of the Tartars, had foure sonnes, of whome proceeded by natural descent many children, euery one of which doeth at this day enioy great possessions: and they are daily multiplied and dispersed ouer that huge and waste desert, which is, in dimensions, like vnto the Ocean Sea. Our guide therefore directed vs, as we were going on our iourney, vnto many of their habitations. And they marueiled exceedingly, that we would receiue neither gold, nor siluer, nor precious and costly garments at their hands.

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