I Have Been Told, That In That Country There Is
A Town Having Walls Of Silver And Towers Of Gold.
In that land there are
many provinces, the greater part of which are not yet subjected to the
Moals, and the sea is interposed between them and India.
These Kathayans
are men of small stature, with small eyes, and speak much through the nose.
They are excellent workmen in all kinds of handicraft; their physicians
judge exactly of diseases by the pulse, and are very skilful in the use of
herbs, but have no knowledge in regard to the urine of sick persons. Some
of these people I saw at Caracarum, where there are always considerable
numbers; and the children are always brought up to the same employments
with their fathers. They pay to the Moals or Mongals, a tribute of 1500
cassinos or jascots every day[3], besides large quantities of silks and
provisions, and they perform many other services. All the nations between
mount Caucasus, and from the north of these mountains to the east sea, and
in all the south of Scythia, which is inhabited by the Moal shepherds, are
tributary, and are all addicted to idolatry. The Nestorians and Saracens
are intermixed with them as strangers, as far as Kathay, in which country
the Nestorians inhabit fifteen cities, and have a bishop in a city called
Segan[4]. These Nestorians are very ignorant, for they say their service in
the Syrian tongue, in which all their holy books are written, and of which
language they are entirely ignorant, and sing their service as our monks do
who have not learnt Latin. They are great usurers and drunkards, and some
of them who live among the Tartars, have adopted their customs, and even
have many wives. When they enter the churches, they wash their lower parts
like the Saracens, eat no flesh on Fridays, and hold their festivals on the
same days with them. Their bishops come seldom into the country, perhaps
only once in fifty years, and then cause all the little children to be made
priests, some even in the cradle; so that almost every Nestorian man is a
priest, yet all have wives, which is contrary to the decrees of the
fathers. They are even bigamists, for their priests, when their wives die,
marry again. They are all Simonists, as they give no holy thing without
pay. They are careful of their wives and children, applying themselves to
gain, and not to propagating the faith. Hence, though some of them are
employed to educate the children of the Mongal nobility, and even teach
them the articles of the Christian faith, yet by their evil lives they
drive them from Christianity, as the moral conduct of the Mongals and
Tuinians[5], who are downright idolaters, is far more upright than theirs.
[1] Forster conjectures that the original words of Rubruquis are here
corrupted, and that this passage ought to have been "beyond Tangut,"
instead of beyond Tebet or Thibet; in which case, the countries of
Langa and Solanga, may refer to that of the Lamuts and Solonians, the
ancestors of the Mantschus or Mundschurians.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 177 of 425
Words from 91874 to 92402
of 222093
