Across This River There Is A Bridge Of Twenty-Six Boats, Laid Over
With Planks, And Kept Together By Iron Hooks And Chains, Which Are Fastened
To Iron Pillars On Each Bank, As Thick As A Mans Thigh, So That The Whole
Is Kept Perfectly Firm And Even.
On crossing this river they came to a
great city, where the ambassadors were more splendidly, feasted that in any
other place; and here they saw a more magnificent idol temple than any of
the former.
They took notice also of three public stews, full of very
beautiful harlots; and as the women here are handsomer than any other in
Kathay, this place has the name of Rosnabaad, or the City of Beauty.
After passing through several other cities, they arrived on the twelfth of
the month Zu'lkaadeh, at another river[30] twice as large as the Jihon,
which they passed over in boats. Continuing their journey, and crossing
over several rivers, some in boats and others by means of bridges, they
arrived, on the twenty-seventh of the last mentioned month, at the great
and populous city of Sadin-fu[31]. In one of the temples of this city
there stands a gilded brass image fifty cubits high, called the image with
a thousand hands, for such is the number with which this idol is
furnished, and on the palm of each there is an eye. The feet of this idol
are near ten cubits long. Round this idol there are several others of
different heights, placed in chambers or niches, some reaching only as high
as the ankle of the great one, others to the knee, and others again as high
as the breast.
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