In Their Wars, They Use Targets And Other
Defensive Armour Made Of Buffalo Hides; And Their Offensive Weapons Are
Lances And Crossbows, With Poisoned Arrows.
Some of them, who are great
villains, are said always to carry poison with them, that if taken
prisoners, they may swallow it to procure sudden death, and to avoid
torture.
On which occasion, the great lords force them to swallow dogs dung
that they may vomit up the poison. Before they were conquered by the great
khan, when any stranger of good appearance happened to lodge with them,
they used to kill him in the night; believing that the good properties of
the murdered person would afterwards devolve to the inhabitants of the
house; and this silly notion has occasioned the death of many persons.
Travelling still westwards from the province of Carazam, or Cariam, we
came, after five days journey, to the province of Cardandan, of which the
chief city is called Vociam[7]. The inhabitants, who are subject to the
great khan, use porcelain shells, and gold by weight, instead of money. In
that country, and many other surrounding provinces, there are no silver
mines, and the people give an ounce of gold for five ounces of silver, by
which exchange the merchants acquire great profits. The men and women cover
their teeth with thin plates of gold, so exactly fitted, that the teeth
seem as if they were actually of solid gold. The men make a kind of lists
or stripes round their legs and arms, by pricking the places with needles,
and rubbing in a black indelible liquid, and these marks are esteemed as
great decorations.
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