Mr Pinkerton
Asserts, That Oderic Was Not Canonized Until 1753.
But the Acts of the
Saints is a publication of considerable antiquity, and he is called
Beatus in the work of Asquini, already mentioned as having been published
in 1787.
[1] Hakluyt, II. 142, for the Latin; II. 158, for the old English
translation. - Forst. Voy. and Disc. 147.
SECTION I.
The Commencement of the Travels of Oderic.
Many things are related by various authors, concerning the customs,
fashions, and conditions of this world: Yet, as I, friar Oderic of Portenau
in the Friul, have travelled among the remote nations of the unbelievers,
where I saw and heard many great and wonderful things, I have thought fit
to relate all these things truly. Having crossed over the great sea[1] from
Pera, close by Constantinople, I came to Trebizond, in the country called
Pontus by the ancients. This land is commodiously situated as a medium of
intercourse for the Persians and Medes, and other nations beyond the Great
Sea, with Constantinople, and the countries of the west. In this island I
beheld a strange spectacle with great delight; a man, who led about with
him more than 4000 partridges. This person walked on the ground, while his
partridges flew about him in the air, and they followed him wherever he
went; and they were so tame, that when he lay down to rest, they all came
flocking about him, like so many chickens. From a certain castle called
Zauena, three days journey from Trebizond, he led his partridges in this
manner to the palace of the emperor in that city.
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