In these expeditions they ride on mares which have sucking
foals, leaving these at the entrance of the country, under a guard; and
when they have got possession of any booty, they give the reins to the
mares, which make the best of their way to rejoin their foals. In their,
long-continued summer[8], these northern people take many of the finest
furs, some of which are carried into Russia, which is a great country near
that northern land of darkness. The people in Russia have fair complexions,
and are Greek Christians, paying tribute to the king of the Tartars in the
west, on whom they border. In the eastern parts of Russia there is
abundance of fine furs, wax, and mines of silver; and I am told the country
reaches to the northern ocean, in which there are islands which abound in
falcons and ger-falcons.
[1] This concluding section may be considered as a kind of appendix, in
which Marco has placed several unconnected hearsay notices of
countries where he never had been personally. - E.
[2] Mandeigascar in the Trevigi edition, and certainly meant for
Madagascar. - E.
[3] Madagascar has no pretensions to riches or trade, and never had; so
that Marco must have been imposed upon by some Saracen or Arab
mariner.
