One Day, While Marcus Was Absent, The Khan Or Prince Of The Tartars[3],
Broke Open The Door Of Our
Hut, and endeavoured to compel me by threats
to deliver up the pearls which he believed I was possessed of,
And I had
infinite difficulty to escape out of his hands, and to persuade him not
to put me to death. The Tartars used often to come to our hut in the
night, when drunk with mead, demanding with loud outcries to deliver up
the Franks to them, and the bravest among us were terrified at the
dangerous situation in which we were among these savages. In this
horrible situation we remained from the 1st of May to the 10th of August.
The city of Citracan belongs to three brothers, who are sons to the
brother of the Tartar emperor, and the inhabitants often make plundering
inroads into the plains of _Cinassia_[4], and along the borders of the
Don. During the height of summer they travel with their flocks in search
of pasturage, to the northern parts of Russia, and hardly spend above a
month every year in Citracan. That city, which stands on the banks of the
Wolga, is by no means large, its houses being built of earth: It is
surrounded by a slight wall, and does not appear to have had any better
buildings for a long time past. It is said to have had a very
considerable fair formerly, and that the perfumes and spiceries which
used to be brought to Venice, came first to this place from the east,
whence they were carried to the Tanais or Don, which is only eight days
journey from the Wolga.
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