These Animals Are Of The
Nature Of The Buffalo, For When They See A Person Clothed In Red, They Run
Furiously Upon Him To Put Him To Death.
Beyond these are the people of Tebet, who were wont to eat the dead bodies
of their parents, from a motive of piety, considering that to be the most
honourable sepulchre; but they have discontinued this custom, which was
looked upon as abominable by all other nations.
They still, however,
continue to make handsome drinking cups of the skulls of their parents,
that they may call them to remembrance even in their mirth. I received this
information from an eye-witness. In their country there is much gold, so
that any one who is in want, digs till he finds enough for his necessities,
and leaves the rest behind for another occasion; for they have an opinion,
that God would conceal all other gold from them in the earth, if they were
to hoard any in their houses. I saw some of these people, who are much
deformed. The people of Tangut are tall lusty men of a brown complexion.
The Jugurs are of middle stature like ourselves, and their language is the
root or origin of the Turkish and Comanian languages.
Beyond Tebet, are the people of Langa and Solanga[1], whose messengers I
saw in the court of Mangu-khan, who had along with them more than ten great
carts, each drawn by six oxen. These are little brown men like the
Spaniards, and are dressed in tunics or jackets, like our deacons, with
straiter sleeves. They wear a kind of caps like the mitres of our bishops;
but the fore part is less than the hinder part, and ends square, instead of
being pointed. These are made of straw, stiffened by great heat, and so
well polished, that they glister in the sun like a mirror or well polished
helmet. Round their temples, they have long bands of the same material,
fixed to their caps, which stream to the wind like two long horns from
their temples. When too much tossed by the wind, they fold these over the
top of their caps. When the principal messenger entered the court, he held
in his hand a smooth ivory tablet about a foot long and a palm broad; and
when spoken to by the khan, or any other great man, he always looked on his
tablet as if he had seen there what was spoken, never looking to the right
or the left, or to the person who spoke to him. Even in coming into the
presence and in retiring, he looked perpetually at his tablet.
Beyond these people, as I have been told for truth, there is a nation
called Muc, inhabiting towns, in whose country there are numerous flocks
and herds which are never tended, as no person appropriates any of these
exclusively; but when any one is in need of a beast, he ascends a hill and
gives a loud cry, on which all the cattle within hearing flock around him
and suffer themselves to be taken, as if they were domesticated. When a
messenger or any stranger goes into that country, he is immediately shut up
in a house, where all necessaries are provided for him, till his business
is concluded; for they affirm, that if any stranger were to travel about
their country, the animals would flee away from his scent, and become wild.
Beyond the country of these people, lies Great Cathaya, whose inhabitants I
believe to have been the Seres[2] of the ancients, as from thence came the
most excellent silken stuffs; and these people were called Seres after the
name of one of their towns. I have been told, that in that country there is
a town having walls of silver and towers of gold. In that land there are
many provinces, the greater part of which are not yet subjected to the
Moals, and the sea is interposed between them and India. These Kathayans
are men of small stature, with small eyes, and speak much through the nose.
They are excellent workmen in all kinds of handicraft; their physicians
judge exactly of diseases by the pulse, and are very skilful in the use of
herbs, but have no knowledge in regard to the urine of sick persons. Some
of these people I saw at Caracarum, where there are always considerable
numbers; and the children are always brought up to the same employments
with their fathers. They pay to the Moals or Mongals, a tribute of 1500
cassinos or jascots every day[3], besides large quantities of silks and
provisions, and they perform many other services. All the nations between
mount Caucasus, and from the north of these mountains to the east sea, and
in all the south of Scythia, which is inhabited by the Moal shepherds, are
tributary, and are all addicted to idolatry. The Nestorians and Saracens
are intermixed with them as strangers, as far as Kathay, in which country
the Nestorians inhabit fifteen cities, and have a bishop in a city called
Segan[4]. These Nestorians are very ignorant, for they say their service in
the Syrian tongue, in which all their holy books are written, and of which
language they are entirely ignorant, and sing their service as our monks do
who have not learnt Latin. They are great usurers and drunkards, and some
of them who live among the Tartars, have adopted their customs, and even
have many wives. When they enter the churches, they wash their lower parts
like the Saracens, eat no flesh on Fridays, and hold their festivals on the
same days with them. Their bishops come seldom into the country, perhaps
only once in fifty years, and then cause all the little children to be made
priests, some even in the cradle; so that almost every Nestorian man is a
priest, yet all have wives, which is contrary to the decrees of the
fathers.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 90 of 217
Words from 91250 to 92251
of 222093
