With Them
The Blacians Or Walachians, The Bulgarians, And The Vandals United.
These
Bulgarians came from the Greater Bulgaria, The people named Ilac or Vlac,
who inhabit beyond the Danube from Constantinople, not far from Pascatir,
are the same people, being properly named Blac or Blacians, but as the
Tartars cannot pronounce the letter B, they are called Ilac, Vlac, or
Wallachians.
From them, likewise, the inhabitants of the land of the Assani
are descended, both having the same name in the Russian, Polish, and
Bohemian languages. The Sclavonians and the Vandals speak the same
language; and all of these joined themselves formerly with the Huns, as
they now do with the Tartars. All this that I have written concerning the
land of Pascatir, I was informed by certain friars predicants, who had
travelled there before the irruption of the Tartars; and as they had been
subdued by their neighbours the Bulgarians, who were Mahometans, many of
them adopted that faith. Other matters respecting these people may be known
from various chronicles. But it is obvious, that those provinces beyond
Constantinople, which are now called Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Sclavonia
[1], formerly belonged to the Greek empire; and Hungary was formerly named
Pannonia.
We continued riding through the land of the Changles or Kangittae, as
before mentioned, from Holy Cross-day till All-Saints, travelling every
day, as well as I could guess, about as far as from Paris to Orleans, and
sometimes farther [2], according as we happened to be provided with relays;
for sometimes we would change horses two or three times a-day, and then
we travelled quicker; while sometimes we had to travel two or three days
without finding any inhabitants to supply us, and then we were forced to
travel more deliberately.
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