Next Day, Being
Easter, After Prayers And A Slight Breakfast, We Departed From The Court Of
Baatu In Much Dejection Of Spirits, Accompanied By Two Guides.
We were so
feeble that we could hardly support the fatigue of riding, our only food
during Lent having been millet boiled with water, and our only drink melted
snow.
Passing eastwards through Comania, we travelled continually with
great expedition, changing our horses five times a day, and sometimes
oftener; except when we had to pass through deserts, on which occasions we
had stronger horses allowed, that were able to undergo the whole labour. In
this manner we travelled, almost without ceasing, from the beginning of
Lent, until eight days after Easter, including our journey to the court of
Baatu.
On the north of Comania, immediately beyond Russia, lie the people called
Morduyni-Byleri[1] in great Bulgaria, and the Bastarci in great Hungary;
beyond the Bastarci are the Parositae and Samogetae; and beyond these, on
the desert shores of the ocean, a people who are said to have dogs faces.
On the south, Comania has the Alani, Circassians, Gazarians, Greece, and
Constantinople, the land of the Iberians, the Cattes, the Brutaches, who
are said to be Jews, who shave the whole of their heads, and the lands of
the Scythians, Georgians, Armenians, and Turks. On the west are Hungary and
Russia. Comania is a country of great length and breadth, the inhabitants
of which were mostly extirpated by the Tartars, though many of them were
reduced to bondage and some fled, but the fugitives have in general
returned, and now serve the Tartars. We next entered the land of the
Kangittae, which has few inhabitants, owing to a great scarcity of water.
From this circumstance, several of the servants of Jeroslaus, duke of
Russia, perished in the desert, when travelling to join him in the land of
the Tartars. Both here and in Comania, we found many human bones and skulls
in large heaps[2]. The Comanians and Kangittae, were pagans who dwelt in
tents, and lived entirely on the produce of their flocks and herds, without
practising any tillage whatever. On their conquest, a great part of the
Kangittae were rooted out by the Tartars, and the remnant reduced to
bondage.
[1] The Morduyni, Morduas, or Merdas, were probably the same
people with those now called Tscheremisses, who call themselves
Mari-murt, or the people of Mari. - E.
[2] Probably Tartar trophies of victory. Even Timour, the great
Mongol conqueror after Zingis, so much vaunted by many writers for his
virtues and humanity, used to order the erection of immense pyramids
of recent human heads, in memory of victory. - E.
SECTION XXIV.
The arrival of Carpini at the first Station of the new Emperor.
From the land of the Kangittae we entered the country of the Bisermini, who
speak the Comanian language and observe the law of Mahomet. In this country
we saw innumerable ruined cities and castles, and many towns left desolate.
The former sovereign of this country, which is full of high mountains, was
called Alti Soldan, who, with all his lineage, was destroyed by the
Tartars.
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