In their country there is much gold, so
that any one who is in want, digs till he finds
Enough for his necessities,
and leaves the rest behind for another occasion; for they have an opinion,
that God would conceal all other gold from them in the earth, if they were
to hoard any in their houses. I saw some of these people, who are much
deformed. The people of Tangut are tall lusty men of a brown complexion.
The Jugurs are of middle stature like ourselves, and their language is the
root or origin of the Turkish and Comanian languages.
Beyond Tebet, are the people of Langa and Solanga[1], whose messengers I
saw in the court of Mangu-khan, who had along with them more than ten great
carts, each drawn by six oxen. These are little brown men like the
Spaniards, and are dressed in tunics or jackets, like our deacons, with
straiter sleeves. They wear a kind of caps like the mitres of our bishops;
but the fore part is less than the hinder part, and ends square, instead of
being pointed. These are made of straw, stiffened by great heat, and so
well polished, that they glister in the sun like a mirror or well polished
helmet. Round their temples, they have long bands of the same material,
fixed to their caps, which stream to the wind like two long horns from
their temples. When too much tossed by the wind, they fold these over the
top of their caps. When the principal messenger entered the court, he held
in his hand a smooth ivory tablet about a foot long and a palm broad; and
when spoken to by the khan, or any other great man, he always looked on his
tablet as if he had seen there what was spoken, never looking to the right
or the left, or to the person who spoke to him. Even in coming into the
presence and in retiring, he looked perpetually at his tablet.
Beyond these people, as I have been told for truth, there is a nation
called Muc, inhabiting towns, in whose country there are numerous flocks
and herds which are never tended, as no person appropriates any of these
exclusively; but when any one is in need of a beast, he ascends a hill and
gives a loud cry, on which all the cattle within hearing flock around him
and suffer themselves to be taken, as if they were domesticated. When a
messenger or any stranger goes into that country, he is immediately shut up
in a house, where all necessaries are provided for him, till his business
is concluded; for they affirm, that if any stranger were to travel about
their country, the animals would flee away from his scent, and become wild.
Beyond the country of these people, lies Great Cathaya, whose inhabitants I
believe to have been the Seres[2] of the ancients, as from thence came the
most excellent silken stuffs; and these people were called Seres after the
name of one of their towns.
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