They Gave Us Some Of Their Butter Milk,
Called Apram, Which Is Extremely Sour.
After this we left them, thinking
that we had escaped out of the hands of the demons, and the next day we
arrived at the quarters of their captain.
From the tune when we left
Soldaia, till we got to Sartach, which took us two months, we never lay
under a house or a tent, but always in the open air, or under our carts;
neither did we see any town, or the vestiges of any buildings where a
village had been; though we saw vast numbers of the tombs of the Comanians.
On the same evening, our conductor gave us some cosmos, which was very
pleasant to drink, but not having been accustomed to that liquor, it
occasioned me to sweat most profusely.
SECTION XII.
Of the Court of Zagathai, and how the Christians drink no Cosmos.
Next morning, we met the carts of Zagathai, laden with houses, and I
thought that a great city was travelling towards us. I was astonished at
the prodigious droves of oxen and horses, and the immense flocks of sheep,
though I saw very few men to guide them; which made me inquire how many men
he had under his command, and I was told he had not above 500 in all, half
of whom we had already passed at another station. Then the servant who
conducted us, informed me that it was requisite for us to make a present to
Zagathai, and desired us to stop while he went forwards, to announce our
arrival. It was then past three o'clock, and the Tartars unladed their
houses near a certain water. After this, the interpreter of Zagathai came
to us, and learning that we had not been before among them, he demanded
some of our victuals, which we gave him; he also required to have some
garments, as a reward for his trouble in interpreting for us to his master;
but we excused ourselves on account of our poverty. He then asked us what
we intended to present to his lord, when we shewed him a flaggon of wine,
and filled a basket with biscuit, and a platter with apples and other
fruits; but he was not satisfied, as we had not bought him some rich
stuffs. However, we entered into the presence of Zagathai with fear and
bashfulness; he was sitting on a bed, having a small citern or lute in his
hand, and his wife sat beside him, who, I really believe, had amputated her
nose, between the eyes, that it might be the flatter, for she had no nose
in that part of her face, which was smeared over with black ointment, as
were also her eyebrows, which seemed very filthy in our eyes. I then
repeated to him the exact same words which I had used before, respecting
the object of our journey, as we had been admonished by some who had been
among them formerly, never to vary in our words.
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