Chapter VII: Preface (1)

The little work here presented was printed in the original Latin at Paris in 1839, under the editorship of M. Coquebert-Montbret, in the _Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires, publié par la Société de Géographie_, vol. iv.

I cannot find that it has ever been published or translated in England, or even noticed in any English book, except in the _Ceylon_ of Sir James Emerson Tennent, where there is an allusion to it.

The book itself does not add anything to our knowledge; but the observations of a traveller who resided in India so far back as the beginning of the fourteenth century must be very dull indeed if sufficient interest cannot be derived from their date to make them acceptable. Nor do I think our author is dull, whilst I regret that he is so brief, and has omitted so much that he might really have laid up as an addition to our knowledge. The very fact that there were Roman Catholic missionaries and a bishop in India at that period, just between the days of Marco Polo and those of Ibn Batuta, may indeed be excavated from old ecclesiastical chronicles; but it is certainly unfamiliar to the knowledge of those who do not dig in such mines.

The translation which follows has been made, and the brief particulars which I shall give respecting the author have been derived, from the _Recueil_ above indicated.[22]

The manuscript from which the French editor transcribed belonged to the Baron Walckenaer. It is on parchment, of the fourteenth century, and contains other matter, the work of Jordanus occupying twenty-nine quarto pages.

The author is termed a native of Séverac. That he was a Frenchman will appear from several passages in his book. But there are at least five places of the name of Séverac in France. Three of these are in the district of Rouergue, in the department of the Aveyron (near the eastern boundary of the old province of Guyenne, and some ninety miles N.E. of Toulouse), and it was probably from one of these that he came. There was a noble family of this province called De Séverac, of which was Amaulry de Séverac, Marshal of France in the time of Charles VII. But, as will afterwards appear, our traveller was called _Catalani_.[23]

The dates of his birth, his death, or his first going to the East, are undetermined. But it is ascertained that he was in the East in 1321-1323, that he returned to Europe, and started again for India, in or soon after 1330. There appears to be nothing to determine whether this book of _Mirabilia_ was written on his first, or on a subsequent, return to Europe.

The authorities for the dates just given are the following:—

Two letters from Jordanus are found in a MS. in the national library at Paris (in 1839,—Bibliothèque du Roi—MS. No. 5,006, p. 182), entitled _Liber de ætatibus_, etc. The first of these is dated from Caga,[24] 12th October, 1321. It is addressed to members of his own order (the Dominican) and of that of St. Francis, residing at Tauris, Tongan, and Marogo,[25] and points out three stations adapted for the establishment of missions, viz., Supera, Paroco, and Columbum. On the receipt of these letters, Nicolaus Romanus, who was Vice-Custos of the Dominicans in Persia, is stated to have started for India.[26]

In his second letter, dated in January, 1324, Jordanus relates how he had started from Tabriz to go to Cathay, but embarked first for Columbum with four Franciscan missionaries, and how they were driven by a storm to Tana,[27] in India, where they were received by the Nestorians. There he left his companions, and started for Baroch, where he hoped to preach with success, as he was better acquainted with the Persian tongue than the others were. Being detained however at Supera, he there heard that his four brethren at Tana had been arrested, and returned to aid them, but found them already put to death. He was enabled to remove the bodies of these martyrs by the help of a young Genoese whom he found at Tana, and, having transported them to Supera, he buried them in a church there as honourably as he could.[28]

The only remaining date in the biography of Jordanus is derived from a bull of Pope John XXII., the date of which is equivalent to 5th April 1330, addressed to the Christians of Columbum, and intended to be delivered to them by Jordanus, who was nominated bishop of that place. The bull commences as follows:—[29]

“Nobili viro domino Nascarinorum et universis sub eo
Christianis Nascarinis de Columbo, Venerabilem fratrem nostrum
Jordanum Catalani, episcopum Columbensem, Prædicatorum Ordinis
professorem, quem nuper ad episcopalis dignitatis apicem
auctoritate apostolicâ duximus promovendum⸺” etc.

The Pope goes on to recommend the missionaries to their good-will, and ends by inviting the Nascarini (_Nazrání_, Christians, in India) to abjure their schism, and enter the unity of the Catholic Church.

The Pope had shortly before nominated John de Core to be Archbishop of Sultania in Persia. This metropolitan had, at least, three bishops under him, viz., of Tabriz, of Semiscat, and of Columbum.[30] The two latter were entrusted by the Pope with the _Pallium_ for the archbishop. Sultania, between Tabriz and Tehran, was the seat of the Persian kings previous to the Tartar conquest in the thirteenth century, and was still a great centre of commerce between the Indies and Europe. The number of Christians was so great, that they had in this city, it is said, four hundred churches. (?)[31]

We may suppose that Jordanus, after fulfilling his commission at Sultania, proceeded to his see in Malabar by the Persian Gulf, the route which he had followed on his first visit to India; but whether he ever reached it, or ever returned from it, seems to be undetermined.[32] M. Coquebert-Montbret assumes that he did both; but as far as I can gather, this is based on the other assumption, that his _Mirabilia_ was written _after_ returning a second time. My impression is that it was written _before_ he went out as bishop, for it contains no allusion to his having held that dignity. Nor does it appear to be known whether he had any successor in his episcopate.

Another work appears to have been traced with some plausibility to our author. It is a chronicle composed in the fourteenth century, and quoted by Muratori from a MS. which in 1740 existed in the Vatican library, with the No. 1960. It is adorned with fine miniatures, and is entitled

“Satyrica gestarum rerum, regum et regnorum, atque summorum
pontificum, historia, à creatione mundi usque ad Henricum VII.
Romanum augustum.”

The chronicle ends with the year 1320, and purports to be written by one _Jordanus_. The passage which is considered to identify him with our author is one relating to the martyrdom of four Minor Friars at Tana, and is so interesting in itself as to be worth quoting at length. It is very perplexing, that though several of the circumstances appear to identify his narrative with that which forms the subject of our author’s letter quoted in a previous page, the dates are irreconcilable. This difficulty the French editor does not notice, nor can I solve it.[33]

“MDCCCXIX. Pope John read in the consistory, with great
approval, a letter which he had received, to the effect
following: To wit, that certain brethren of the orders of
Minors and Preachers, who had been sent on a mission to Ormus
to preach the faith to the infidels, when they found that they
could do no good there, thought it well to go over to Columbum
in India. And when they arrived at the island called Dyo,[34]
the brethren of the order of Minors separated from the rest
of the party, both Preachers and secular Christians, and set
out by land to a place called Thana, that they might there
take ship for Columbum. Now there was at that place a certain
Saracen of Alexandria, Ysufus[35] by name, and he summoned them
to the presence of Melich, the governor of the land, to make
inquest how and why they were come. Being thus summoned, he
demands: what manner of men are ye called? They made answer,
that they were Franks, devoted to holy poverty, and anxious
to visit St. Thomas. Then, being questioned concerning their
faith, they replied that they were true Christians, and uttered
many things with holy fervour regarding the faith of Christ.
But when Melich let them go, the aforesaid Yusuf a second and a
third time persuaded him to arrest and detain them. At length
Melich and the Cadi and the people of the place were assembled,
Pagans and idolaters as well as Saracens, and questioned the
brethren: How can Christ, whom ye call the Virgin’s son, be
the son of God, seeing that God hath not a mate? Then set
they forth many instances of divine generation, as from the
sun’s rays, from trees, from germs in the soil; so that the
infidels could not resist the Spirit who spake in them. But
the Saracens kindled a great fire, and said: Ye say that your
law is better than the law of Mahomet; an it be so, go ye into
the fire, and by miracle prove your words. The brethren replied
that, for the honour of Christ, that they would freely do;
and brother Thomas coming forward would first go in, but the
Saracens suffered him not, for that he seemed older than the
others; then came forward the youngest of the brethren, James
of Padua, a young wrestler for Christ, and incontinently went
into the fire, and abode in it until it was well nigh spent,
rejoicing and uttering praise, and without any burning of his
hair even, or of the cloth of his gown. Now they who stood by
shouted with a great cry, Verily these be good and holy men!

“But the Cadi, willing to deny so glorious a miracle, said:
It is not as ye think, but his raiment came from the land of
Aben ...[36] a great friend of God, who when cast into the
flames in Chaldea, took no hurt; therefore, hath this man abode
scatheless in the fire.

“Then stripped they the innocent youth, and all naked as he was
born was he cast by four men into the fire. But he bore the
flames without hurt, and went forth from the fire unscathed
and rejoicing. Then Melich set them free to go whither they
would. But the Cadi, and the aforesaid Yusuf, full of malice,
knowing that they had been entertained in the house of a
certain Christian, said to Melich: What dost thou? why slayest
thou not these Christ-worshipers? He replied: That I find no
cause of death in them. But they say: If ye let them go, all
will believe in Christ, and the law of Mahomet will be utterly
destroyed. Melich again says: What will ye that I should do,
seeing that I find no cause of death? But they said: His blood
be upon us. For it is said that if one cannot go pilgrim to
Mecca, let him slay a Christian and he shall obtain a full
remission of sins, as if he had visited Mecca. Wherefore, the
night following, the three men aforesaid, Melich, the Cadi,
and Yusuf, sent officers who despatched the three brethren,
Thomas, James, and Demetrius, to the joys of heaven, bearing
the palm of martyrdom. And after awhile, having made brother
Peter, who was in another place, present himself before them,
when he firmly held to the faith of Christ, for two days they
vexed him with sore afflictions, and on the third day, cutting
off his head, accomplished his martyrdom. But their comrades,
the Preachers and the rest, when they heard this, wrote to the
West, lamenting wofully that they had been parted from the
company of the holy martyrs, and saying that they were devoutly
engaged in recovering the relics of the martyrs.”

I had desired to add to this preface some notices of the Christians of Malabar, embracing the latest information; but my work is cut short by circumstances, and I must content myself with saying something, hurriedly put together, as to the identity of _Columbum_, the seat of the bishop’s see.

It is clear that Columbum is not Colombo in Ceylon, though the French editor is wrong in supposing that the latter city did not exist in the time of Jordanus, for it is mentioned by the modern name in Ibn Batuta’s travels, only a few years later. Jordanus evidently does not speak of Ceylon as one who had been there, and whilst treating of greater India, he says distinctly, “_In istâ Indiâ, me existente in Columbo, fuerunt inventi_,” _etc._

The identity of Columbum with Kulam or Quilon, on the coast of Malabar (now in Travancore), might therefore have been assumed, but for the doubts which have been raised by some of the editors of Marco Polo as to the position of the _Kulam_ or _Coilon_ of Marco and other medieval travellers.

Mr. Hugh Murray, adopting the view of Count Baldello Boni in his edition of Marco Polo, considers that the place so-called by those travellers was on the east coast of the Peninsula. I have not time to seek for Baldello’s edition, and do not know his arguments; but I conceive that there is enough evidence to show that he is wrong.

The argument on which Murray rests is chiefly the position in which Polo introduces his description of Coilon, after Maabar, and before Comari; Maabar being with him an extensive region of Coromandel, and Comari doubtless the country about Cape Comorin. But, omitting detailed discussion of the value of this argument, which would involve a consideration of all the other difficulties in reducing to geographical order Polo’s notices of the kingdoms on the coast of India, his description of Coilon as a great port for pepper and brazil-wood, is sufficient to identify it as on the coast of Malabar. The existence of places called Coulan on the east coast in the maps of D’Anville, Rennel, and Milburn, is of little moment, for an inspection of the “Atlas of India” will show scores of places so-called on both sides of Cape Comorin, the word signifying, in the Tamul tongue, ‘an irrigation tank, formed by damming up natural hollows.’ Indeed, though I have found no trace of any well-known port on the east coast so-called, there were at least four ports of the name on the west coast frequented by foreign vessels, viz., Cote Colam, north of Cananore; Colam, called Pandarani, north of Calicut; Cai-Colam, or Kaincolam,[37] between Cochin and the chief place of the name; Coulam, or Quilon, the Columbum of our author.

We know that Kulam, on the coast of Malabar, was founded in the ninth century, and that its foundation formed an era from which dates were reckoned in Malabar.[38] In that same century we find[39] that the sailing directions for ships making the China voyage from the Persian Gulf, were to go straight from Maskát to _Kulam Malé_, a place evidently, both from name and fact, on the coast of Malabar. Here there was a custom-house, where ships from China paid their dues.

The narrative of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela is very hazy. He calls _Chulan_ only seven days from El-Cathif (which is a port on the west coast of the Persian Gulf), “and on the confines of the country of the Sun-worshippers.” However, his description of the pepper-gardens adjoining the city, the black Jews, etc., identify it with one of the Kulams on the Malabar coast, and doubtless with Quilon, which was the chief of them.

Then comes Polo’s notice of Coilon already alluded to, followed by our author’s mention of it, and residence there.

It is probable that the Polumbrum or Polembum of his contemporaries Odoricus and Mandevill, are corrupt readings of the name of Kulam or Columbum. The former describes this place as at the head of the pepper forest towards the south, and as abounding in all sorts of merchandize; Mandevill adding, “thither go merchants often from Venice to buy pepper and ginger.”

Ibn Batuta, only half a century after Polo, is quite clear in his description of _Kaulam_, as the seat of an infidel king, the last city on the Malabar coast, and frequented by many Mahomedan merchants. He also says that Kaulam, Calicut, and Hílí were the only ports entered by the ships of China.

So also Conti, early in the fifteenth century, on his return from the Eastern Archipelago, departing from Champa (Cambodia), doubtless in one of those same ships of China, after a month’s voyage arrives at _Coloen_, a noble city, three days from Cochin, and “situated in the province called Melibaria.”

Coming down to later times, Barbosa, in the first years of the sixteenth century, speaks of Coulon still as the great pepper port, the seat of one of the three (chief) kings of Malabar, and where lived many Moors, Gentiles, and Christians, who were great merchants, and had many ships trading to Coromandel, Ceylon, Bengal, Pegu, Malacca, Sumatra, etc.

Here, however, at last, we find something to justify Marco Polo in regard to the position in which he introduces the kingdom of Coilon. For, after speaking of Coulam on the Malabar coast, Barbosa goes forward to Cape Comorin, where he says the country of Malabar indeed terminates, but the “aforesaid kingdom of Coulam” still goes on and comes to an end at the city of Cail, where the King of Coulam made his continual residence. So also the “Summary of kingdoms,” etc., in Ramusio, describes the kingdom of Colam as extending on both sides of Cape Comorin.

It is intelligible, therefore, that Marco, coming upon territory belonging to the _kingdom_ of Coilon, before reaching Cape Comorin, should proceed to speak of the city of that name, though it lay upon the western coast. But there is in this no ground for asserting, as Mr. Murray does, that “the _place_ of that name described by Marco and other early Europeans lay to the east of that great promontory.” We have seen that a regular catena of authorities, from the ninth to the sixteenth century, concurs in representing Coulam, Kulam, Coloen, Coilon (_Quilon_), on the coast of Malabar, as the great entrepôt of trade with east and west, and there can be no reasonable doubt that this is the Columbum which was the seat of our author’s mission.

The occasional quotations given in the notes will indicate the quality of the author’s Latin. The French editor is unwilling to believe that episcopal Latinity could be so bad, and suggests that his vernacular was Latinized by some humbler scribe, and probably extracted from a larger work. In support of this, he adduces the abrupt commencement, and the “but” with which he plunges in—“Inter Siciliam _autem_ et Calabriam.” But he gives a fac-simile of the beginning of the MS., and the words seem to me (all inexpert I confess) almost certainly to be “Inter Siciliam _atque_ Calabriam,” so that this argument is null.

One must notice the frequent extraordinary coincidences of statement, and almost of expression, between this and other travellers of the same age, especially M. Polo. At first one would think that Jordanus had Polo’s book. But he certainly had not Ibn Batuta’s, and the coincidences with him are sometimes almost as striking. Had those ancient worthies, then, a MURRAY from whom they pilfered experiences, as modern travellers do? I think they had; but _their_ Murray lay in the traditional yarns of the Arab sailors with whom they voyaged, some of which seem to have been handed down steadily from the time of Ptolemy—peradventure of Herodotus[40]—almost to our own day.

And so I commend the simple and zealous Jordanus to kindly entertainment.

London, June 27th, 1863.

NOTA BENE. The English edition of Marco Polo, so often referred
to in my notes, is Mr. Hugh Murray’s fourth edition; Edinburgh,
Oliver and Boyd, (_no date_; more shame to Oliver and Boyd).

In my absence on the continent my friend Mr. Badger has
undertaken the correction of the press. The _revise_ sheets
have been sent to me, but in the absence of my manuscript and
references I fear some errors may still inevitably escape
correction.

The numbers to chapters and paragraphs have been attached by me,

H. Y.

FOOTNOTES

[22] I have to regret that unavoidable circumstances have interrupted my pleasant task, and have compelled me to leave this preface, and some part of the commentary, in a cruder state than I should have allowed, had time permitted of the search for further particulars or illustrations of the author’s life, mission, and descriptions.

[23] The French editor regards this as his surname. Is it not more probably only the genitive of his father’s name?

[24] “Which I suspect to be _Conengue_ or _Khounouk_, a port of Persia, on the Persian Gulf,” (_French Editor_). Speaking without having seen the letter, I should rather suspect it to be the island and roadstead of _Karrack_, called by the Arabs _Khârej_, but also locally, as appears by the Government charts, _Khárg_. (My friend Mr. Badger thinks it may be _El-Kât_, an ancient port still much frequented, fifty miles south-west of the mouth of the Euphrates.) I find from M. D’Avezac in _Rec. de Voyages_, (iv. 421), that this letter is published in _Quétif & Echard_, Scriptoris Ordinis Dom., i. p. 549, and that the second letter is given by _Wadding_, _Annales Minorum_, vi. 359.

[25] _Tauris_, Tabriz; _Tongan_, which the French editor calls “Djagorgan” (?), is probably Daumghan in Persia, south of Astrabad, mentioned by Marco Polo (ii. 17), with an allusion to the Christians there; and _Marogo_ is Maragha in the plain east of Lake Urumia, formerly the capital of the Tartar Hulaku.

[26] Which shows that the places indicated by Jordanus were in India. Paroco is of course Baroch, and Columbum, Coulam or Quilon. Respecting the identity of this last we shall, however, have to speak more fully. Supera, the French editor states, after D’Anville, to be “the port now called Sefer, the _Sefara el Hind_ of the Arabs.” It is doubtless the Supara of Ptolomy, which he places on the north of the first great river south of the Namadus or Nerbudda. Masudi also says that Sefara was four days’ journey from Cambay. These indications fix Supera on the Tapti, over against Surat, and probably as the ancient representative of that port. (See Reinaud’s _Mém. sur la Géog. de l’Inde_, and Vincent’s _Periplus of the Erythræan Sea_, p. 385.)

[27] A town on the island of Salsette, about twelve miles from Bombay, and formerly a port of considerable importance.

[28] According to the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, this martyrdom took place, 1st April 1322. There is a letter from Francis of Pisa (I presume in the MS. above quoted), a comrade and friend of Jordanus, which gives similar details. They are also found in the _Bibliotheca Hispanica Vetus_ of _Nicol. Antonio_, p. 268. (_French Editor’s Comment._) See also below, pp. ix-xii.

[29] Quoted by the French editor from _Odericus Raynaldus_, _Annal. Eccles._, No. 55.

[30] The French editor supposes _Semiscat_ to be, perhaps, a misreading for Samirkat = _Samarkand_. Mr. Badger suggests judiciously _Someisât_, the ancient Samosata. There was another see under Sultania, _viz._, Verna, supposed by D’Avezac to be Orna or Ornas, which he identifies with Tana, the seat of a Venetian factory at the mouth of the Don, on the site of ancient Tanais. (_Rec. de Voy._, iv. 510.)

[31] The editor does not give his authority for this. Sultania was destroyed by Tamerlane, and never recovered its former importance. It was still a city of some size in the time of Chardin, but is now apparently quite deserted. It is not mentioned by M. Polo.

[32] I conclude, from a passage near the end of the work (ch. xiv.), that the actual residence of Jordanus at Columbum, previous to his writing, lasted only a year, or thereabouts.

[33] I have now no doubt that the date in the next line is wrong. For, according to M. D’Avezac (in the same volume of the _Rec. de Voyages_, which contains Jordanus, p. 417), the celebrated traveller Odoricus of Friuli, who was at Tana in 1322, sent home a letter describing this martyrdom as having occurred in the preceding year. It is in the Bib. Royale (now Impériale) at Paris. The narrative, in still greater detail than here, is indeed to be found in the Itinerary of Odoricus, as published in Hakluyt, at least in the Latin; the English translation does not give the details. From this error in date, as well as the better style of Latin, I should doubt if this chronicle was written by our Jordanus.

[34] Diu, on the coast of Guzerat, where the old Portuguese warriors afterwards made such a gallant defence against the “Moors” in 1547.

[35] Yusuf.

[36] _Sic._ I suppose it should be Abraham, according to the well-known Mussulman tradition; perhaps called, as Mr. Badger kindly suggests, _Aben_ (or Ibn) _Azer_, the son of Azer, the Mussulman name for Terah.

[37] In Keith Johnstone’s new and beautiful atlas Quilon is identified with Kayan or Kain-Kulam. This, I have no doubt, is quite a mistake. The places, though near, are quite distinct, and in the beginning of the sixteenth century were under distinct sovereigns. I may here notice what I venture, with respect, to think is an error in Mr. Major’s edition of Conti (_India in the Fifteenth Century_). Conti, on his first arrival in Malabar, lands at “Pudefitania,” and, after describing his visit to Bengal, and his ascent of the Ganges, returns to Pudefitania. Mr. Major interprets this in the last place _Burdwan_. But, apart from other arguments, it is evidently in both passages the same place, _i.e._, _Pudipatanam_, one of the old forgotten ports on the coast of Malabar, but mentioned by Barbosa and the Geographer in Ramusio. Other names mentioned by Conti are in need of examination. _Maarazia_, the great city on the Ganges which he visits, is certainly not _Muttra_, as the editor has it, but Benares. The Braminical name, _Baranási_, is near enough to Conti’s.

[38] Wilson’s preface to Mackenzie’s Collections, p. xcviii.

[39] See the relations of Mahomedan voyagers published by Renaudot, and again by Reinaud.

[40] See end of note to ch. v. para. 16.

MARVELS DESCRIBED BY FRIAR JORDANUS,

OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, NATIVE OF SEVERAC, AND BISHOP OF COLUMBUM IN INDIA THE GREATER.

I.

1. Between Sicily and Calabria there is a marvel in the sea. This is it: on one side the sea runneth with an upward current, and on the other side cometh down towards the island with a swifter stream than any river; and so in the middle is caused a wondrous eddy, sucking down ships that hap to fall in with it, whatever be their bigness. And ’tis said that in the bottom of the sea there is a horrid kind of a whirlpool, from which the water cometh forth so wondrous dark that even the fishes nowhere dare to come near it.[41]

2. In Greece I neither saw nor heard of aught worth telling, unless it be that between the island of Negropont and the mainland the sea ebbeth and floweth sometimes thrice, sometimes four times, sometimes oftener, like a rapid river; and that is a marvel to be sure![42]

3. I was at Thebes, where there be so many earthquakes that nobody could believe it who had not felt them; for it will happen five, or six, or seven times in the twenty-four hours, many a time and oft, that the strongest houses and walls shall be thrown down by earthquakes.[43]

II.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING ARMENIA.

1. In Armenia the Greater I saw one great marvel. This is it: a mountain of excessive height and immense extent, on which Noah’s ark is said to have rested. This mountain is never without snow, and seldom or never without clouds, which rarely rise higher than three parts up. The mountain is inaccessible, and there never has been anybody who could get farther than the edge of the snow.[44] And (marvellous indeed!) even the beasts chased by the huntsmen, when they come to the snow, will liefer turn, will liefer yield them into the huntsmen’s hands, than go farther up that mountain. This mountain hath a compass of more than three days journey for a man on horseback going without halt. There be serpents of a great size, which swallow hares alive and whole, as I heard from a certain trustworthy gentleman who saw the fact, and shot an arrow at a serpent with a hare in his mouth, but scathed it not.[45] In a certain part of the mountain is a dwelling which Noah is said to have built on leaving the ark; and there, too, is said to be that original vine which Noah planted, and whereby he got drunk; and it giveth such huge branches of grapes as you would scarce believe. This I heard from a certain Catholic archbishop of ours, a great man and a powerful, and trustworthy to boot, the lord of that land; and, indeed, I believe I have been at the place myself, but it was in the winter season.[46]

2. This country of Armenia the Greater is very extensive, and there three of the apostles suffered martyrdom: Bartholomew, Simon, and Judas. I saw a prison in which the two latter apostles were kept; and likewise springs of water which they produced from the living rock, smiting it with a rod VIII times, or X times, or XVII times (anyhow there be just as many springs as there were blows struck); and hard by there was a church built, beauteous and of wonderful bigness.[47]

3. In this same Armenia the Greater a certain glorious virgin suffered martyrdom, the daughter of a king, and Scala by name.[48] And there, too, was cast into a well, with a lion and a dragon, St. Gregory, who converted Armenia to the Catholic faith, as well as its king Tertal,[49] in the time of St. Sylvester and the Emperor Constantine.[50] In this Armenia, too, was slain the blessed martyr Jacobus.

4. This province is inhabited chiefly by schismatic Armenians, but the Preaching and Minor friars have converted a good four thousand of them, and more. For one archbishop, a great man, called the Lord Zachary, was converted with his whole people; and we trust in the Lord that in a short time the whole residue shall be converted also, if only the good friars go on so.[51]

5. There are many good and great Armenian princes, Christians; but the Persian emperor hath the paramount sovereignty.[52]

6. In this Armenia there is a Dead Sea, very bitter to the taste, where they say there be no fish at all, and which cannot be sailed upon by reason of the stench; and it has an island where are buried many ancient emperors and kings of the Persians, with an infinity of treasure; but nobody is allowed to go there, or, if allowed, they dare not search for the treasure.[53]

7. This Armenia extendeth in length from Sebast to the Plain of Mogan and the Caspian Mountains; and in breadth from the Barcarian Mountains to Tabriz,[54] which is a good twenty-three days’ journey, the length being more than forty days.[55]

8. There is a certain lake, at the foot of the aforesaid great mountain, where ten thousand martyrs were martyred, and in their martyrdom happened all the same tokens as in the Passion of Christ, for that they all were crucified for Christ.[56] And that part of the mountain is called Ararat; and there was a city there called Semur, exceeding great, which was destroyed by the Tartars.[57] I have been over all that country,—almost.

9. But I saw not anything else, in this Armenia the greater, worth telling as a marvel.

III.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE REALM OF PERSIA.

1. In Persia, however, I saw a very marvellous thing: to wit, that in Tabriz, which is a very great city, containing as many as two hundred thousand houses,[58] dew never falls from heaven; nor doth it rain in summer as in most parts it doth, but they water artificially everything that is grown for man’s food.[59] There also, or thereabouts, on a kind of willows, are found certain little worms, which emit a liquid which congeals upon the leaves of the tree, and also drops upon the ground, white like wax; and that excretion is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.[60]

2. There we have a fine-enough church, and about a thousand of the schismatics converted to our faith, and about as many also in Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham was born, which is a very opulent city, distant about two days from Tabriz.[61]

3. Likewise also at Sultania we have five hundred, or five hundred and fifty. This is eight days’ distant from Tabriz, and we have a very fine church there.

4. In this country of Persia are certain animals called _onagri_, which are like little asses, but swifter in speed than our horses.[62]

5. This Persia is inhabited by Saracens and Saracenized Tartars, and by schismatic Christians of divers sects, such as Nestorians, Jacobites, Greeks, Georgians, Armenians, and by a few Jews. Persia hath abundance of silk, and also of ultramarine,[63] but they wot not how to prepare it. They have likewise exceeding much gold in the rivers, but they wot not how to extract it, nor be they worthy to do so.

6. Persia extendeth about V[64] days’ journey in length, and as much in breadth. The people of this realm live all too uncleanly, for they sit upon the ground, and eke eat upon the same, putting mess and meats[65] in a trencher for three, four, or five persons together. They eat not on a table-cloth,[66] but on a round sheet of leather, or on a low table of wood or brass, with three legs. And so six, seven, or eight persons eat out of one dish, and that with their hands and fingers; big and little, male and female, all eat after this fashion. And after they have eaten, or even whilst in the middle of their eating, they lick their fingers with tongue and lips, and wipe them on their sleeves,[67] and afterwards, if any grease still remains upon their hands, they wipe them on their shoes. And thus do the folk over all those countries, including Western and Eastern Tartary, except the Hindus, who eat decently enough, though they too eat with their hands.[68]

7. In Persia are some springs, from which flows a kind of pitch, which is called _kic_[69] (_pix_, _dico_, _seu Pegua_), with which they smear the skins in which wine is carried and stored.

8. Between this country of Persia and India the Less is a certain region where manna falls in a very great quantity, white as snow, sweeter than all other sweet things, delicious, and of an admirable and incredible efficacy. There are also sandhills in great numbers, and very destructive to men; for when the wind blows, the sand flows down just like water from a tank.[70] These countries aforesaid, to wit, Persia, Armenia Major, Chaldeia, as well as Cappadocia and Asia Minor and Greece, abound in good fruits, meats, and other things, like our own country; but their lands are not so populous,—no, not a tithe,—except Greece.

IV.

CONCERNING INDIA THE LESS.[71]

1. In the entrance to India the Less are [date] palms, giving a very great quantity of the sweetest fruit; but further on in India they are not found.[72]

2. In this lesser India are many things worthy to be noted with wonder; for there are no springs, no rivers, no ponds; nor does it ever rain, except during three months, viz., between the middle of May and the middle of August; and (wonderful!) notwithstanding this, the soil is most kindly and fertile, and during the nine months of the year in which it does not rain, so much dew is found every day upon the ground that it is not dried up by the sun’s rays till the middle of the third hour of the day.[73]

3. Here be many and boundless marvels; and in this First India beginneth, as it were, another world; for the men and women be all black, and they have for covering nothing but a strip of cotton tied round the loins, and the end of it flung over the naked back. Wheaten bread is there not eaten by the natives, although wheat they have in plenty; but rice is eaten with its seasoning,[74] only boiled in water. And they have milk and butter and oil, which they often eat uncooked. In this India there be no horses, nor mules, nor camels, nor elephants; but only kine, with which they do all their doings that they have to do, whether it be riding, or carrying, or field labour. The asses are few in number and very small, and not much worth.[75]

4. The days and nights do not vary there more than by two hours at the most.

5. There be always fruits and flowers there, divers trees, and fruits of divers kinds; for (example) there are some trees which bear very big fruit, called _Chaqui_; and the fruit is of such size that one is enough for five persons.[76]

6. There is another tree which has fruit like that just named, and it is called _Bloqui_, quite as big and as sweet, but not of the same species. These fruits never grow upon the twigs, for these are not able to bear their weight, but only from the main branches, and even from the trunk of the tree itself, down to the very roots.

7. There is another tree which has fruit like a plum, but a very big one, which is called _Aniba_. This is a fruit so sweet and delicious as it is impossible to utter in words.[77]

8. There be many other fruit trees of divers kinds, which it would be tedious to describe in detail.

9. I will only say this much, that this India, as regards fruit and other things, is entirely different from Christendom; except, indeed, that there be lemons there, in some places, as sweet as sugar, whilst there be other lemons sour like ours.[78] There be also pomegranates, but very poor and small. There be but few vines, and they make from them no wine, but eat the fresh grapes; albeit there are a number of other trees whose sap they collect, and it standeth in place of wine to them.

10. First of these is a certain tree called _Nargil_;[79] which tree every month in the year sends out a beautiful frond like [that of] a [date] palm-tree, which frond or branch produces very large fruit, as big as a man’s head. There often grow on one such stem thirty of those fruits as big as I have said. And both flowers and fruits are produced at the same time, beginning with the first month and going up gradually to the twelfth; so that there are flowers and fruit in eleven stages of growth to be seen together. A wonder! and a thing which cannot be well understood without being witnessed.[80] From these branches and fruits is drawn a very sweet water. The kernel [at first] is very tender and pleasant to eat; afterwards it waxeth harder, and a milk is drawn from it as good as milk of almonds; and when the kernel waxeth harder still, an oil is made from it of great medicinal virtue. And if any one careth not to have fruit, when the fruit-bearing stem is one or two months old he maketh a cut in it, and bindeth a pot to this incision; and so the sap, which would have been converted into fruit, drops in; and it is white like milk, and sweet like must, and maketh drunk like wine, so that the natives do drink it for wine; and those who wish not to drink it so, boil it down to one-third of its bulk, and then it becometh thick, like honey; and ’tis sweet, and fit for making preserves, like honey and the honeycomb.[81] One branch gives one potful in the day and one in the night, on the average throughout the year:[82] thus five or six pots may be found hung upon the same tree at once. With the leaves of this tree they cover their houses during the rainy season.[83] The fruit is that which we call _nuts of India_; and from the rind of that fruit is made the twine with which they stitch their boats together in those parts.[84]

11. There is another tree of a different species, which like that gives all the year round a white liquor pleasant to drink, which tree is called _Tárí_.[85] There is also another, called _Belluri_, giving a liquor of the same kind, but better.[86] There be also many other trees, and wonderful ones; among which is one which sendeth forth roots from high up, which gradually grow down to the ground and enter it, and then wax into trunks like the main trunk, forming as it were an arch; and by this kind of multiplication one tree will have at once as many as twenty or thirty trunks beside one another, and all connected together. ’Tis marvellous! And truly this which I have seen with mine eyes, ’tis hard to utter with my tongue. The fruit of this tree is not useful, but poisonous and deadly.[87] There is [also] a tree harder than all, which the strongest arrows can scarcely pierce.

12. The trees in this India, and also in India the Greater, never shed their leaves till the new ones come.[88]

13. To write about the other trees would be too long a business, and tedious beyond measure; seeing that they are many and divers, and beyond the comprehension of man.

14. But about wild beasts of the forest I say this: there be lions, leopards, ounces, and another kind something like a greyhound, having only the ears black and the whole body perfectly white, which among those people is called _Siagois_.[89] This animal, whatever it catches, never lets go, even to death. There is also another animal, which is called _Rhinoceros_,[90] as big as a horse, having one horn long and twisted; but it is not the _unicorn_.

15. There be also venomous animals, such as many serpents, big beyond bounds, and of divers colours, black, red, white, and green, and parti-coloured; two-headed also, three-headed, and five-headed. Admirable marvels![91]

16. There be also coquodriles, which are vulgarly called _Calcatix_;[92] some of them be so big that they be bigger than the biggest horse. These animals be like lizards, and have a tail stretched over all, like unto a lizard’s; and have a head like unto a swine’s, and rows of teeth so powerful and horrible that no animal can escape their force, particularly in the water. This animal has, as it were, a coat of mail; and there is no sword, nor lance, nor arrow, which can anyhow hurt him, on account of the hardness of his scales. In the water, in short, there is nothing so strong, nothing so evil, as this wonderful animal. There be also many other reptiles, whose names, to speak plainly, I know not.

17. As for birds, I say plainly that they are of quite different kinds from what are found on this side of the world; except, indeed, crows and sparrows;[93] for there be parrots and popinjays in very great numbers, so that a thousand or more may be seen in a flock. These birds, when tamed and kept in cages, speak so that you would take them for rational beings. There be also bats really and truly as big as kites. These birds fly nowhither by day, but only when the sun sets. Wonderful! By day they hang themselves up on trees by the feet, with their bodies downwards, and in the daytime they look just like big fruit on the tree.[94]

18. There are also other birds, such as peacocks, quails, Indian fowls,[95] and others, divers in kind; some white as white can be, some green as green can be, some parti-coloured, of such beauty as is past telling.

19. In this India, when men go to the wars, and when they act as guards to their lords, they go naked, with a round target,—a frail and paltry affair,—and holding a kind of a spit[96] in their hands; and, truly, their fighting seems like child’s play.

20. In this India are many and divers precious stones, among which are the best diamonds under heaven. These stones never can be dressed or shaped by any art, except what nature has given. But I omit the properties of these stones, not to be prolix.

21. In this India are many other precious stones, endowed with excellent virtues, which may be gathered by anybody; nor is anyone hindered.

22. In this India, on the death of a noble, or of any people of substance, their bodies are burned: and eke their wives follow them alive to the fire, and, for the sake of worldly glory, and for the love of their husbands, and for eternal life, burn along with them, with as much joy as if they were going to be wedded; and those who do this have the higher repute for virtue and perfection among the rest. Wonderful! I have sometimes seen, for one dead man who was burnt, five living women take their places on the fire with him, and die with their dead.

23. There be also other pagan-folk in this India who worship fire; they bury not their dead, neither do they burn them, but cast them into the midst of a certain roofless tower, and there expose them totally uncovered to the fowls of heaven. These believe in two First Principles, to wit, of Evil and of Good, of Darkness and of Light, matters which at present I do not purpose to discuss.[97]

24. There be also certain others which be called _Dumbri_, who eat carrion and carcases; who have absolutely no object of worship; and who have to do the drudgeries of other people, and carry loads.[98]

25. In this India there is green ginger, and it grows there in great abundance.[99]

There be also sugar-canes in quantities; carobs also, of such size and bigness that it is something stupendous.[100] I could tell very wonderful things of this India; but I am not able to detail them for lack of time. Cassia fistula is in some parts of this India extremely abundant.[101]

26. The people of this India are very clean in their feeding; true in speech, and eminent in justice, maintaining carefully the privileges of every man according to his degree, as they have come down from old times.[102]

27. The heat there is perfectly horrible, and more intolerable to strangers than it is possible to say.[103]

28. In this India there exists not, nor is found, any metal but what comes from abroad, except gold, iron, and electrum. There is no pepper there, nor any kind of spice except ginger.

29. In this India the greater part of the people worship idols, although a great share of the sovereignty is in the hands of the Turkish Saracens, who came forth from Multán, and conquered and usurped dominion to themselves not long since, and destroyed an infinity of idol temples, and likewise many churches, of which they made mosques for Mahomet, taking possession of their endowments and property. ’Tis grief to hear, and woe to see![104]

30. The Pagans of this India have prophecies of their own that we Latins are to subjugate the whole world.[105]

31. In this India there is a scattered people, one here, another there, who call themselves Christians, but are not so, nor have they baptism, nor do they know anything else about the faith. Nay, they believe St. Thomas the Great to be Christ!

32. There, in the India I speak of, I baptized and brought into the faith about three hundred souls, of whom many were idolaters and Saracens.[106]

33. And let me tell you that among the idolaters a man may with safety expound the Word of the Lord; nor is anyone from among the idolaters hindered from being baptized throughout all the East, whether they be Tartars, or Indians, or what not.

34. These idolaters sacrifice to their gods in this manner; to wit, there is one man who is priest to the idol, and he wears a long shirt, down to the ground almost, and above this a white surplice[107] in our fashion; and he has a clerk with a shirt who goes after him, and carries a hassock, which he sets before the priest. And upon this the priest kneels, and so begins to advance from a distance, like one performing his stations; and he carries upon his bent arms a tray of two cubits [long], all full of eatables of different sorts, with lighted tapers at top; and thus praying he comes up to the altar where the idol is, and deposits the offering before it after their manner; and he pours a libation, and places part [of the offering] in the hands of the idol, and then divides the residue, and himself eats a part of it.

35. They make idols after the likeness of almost all living things of the idolaters; and they have besides their god according to his likeness.[108] It is true that over all gods they place One God, the Almighty Creator of all those.[109] They hold also that the world has existed now xxviii thousand years.[110]

The Indians, both of this India and of the other Indies, never kill an ox, but rather honour him like a father; and some, even perhaps the majority, worship him. They will more readily spare him who has slain five men than him who has slain one ox, saying that it is no more lawful to kill an ox than to kill one’s father. This is because oxen do all their services, and moreover furnish them with milk and butter, and all sorts of good things.[111] The great lords among the idolaters, every morning when they rise, and before they go anywhither, make the fattest cows come before them, and lay their hands upon them, and then rub their own faces, believing that after this they can have no ailment.

36. Let this be enough about Lesser India; for were I to set forth particulars of everything down to worms and the like, a year would not suffice for the description.

37. But [I may say in conclusion] as for the women and men, the blacker they be, the more beautiful they be [held.][112]

V.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING INDIA THE GREATER.

1. Of India the Greater I say this; that it is like unto Lesser India as regards all the folk being black. The animals also are all similar, neither more nor less [in number], except elephants, which they have [in the former] in very great plenty. These animals are marvellous; for they exceed in size and bulk and strength, and also in understanding, all the animals of the world. This animal hath a big head; small eyes, smaller than a horse’s; ears like the wings of owls or bats; a nose reaching quite to the ground, extending right down from the top of his head; and two tusks standing out of remarkable magnitude [both in] bulk and length, which are [in fact] teeth rooted in the upper jaw. This animal doth everything by word of command; so that his driver hath nothing to do but say once, “Do this,” and he doeth it; nor doth he seem in other respects a brute, but rather a rational creature. They have very big feet, with six hoofs like those of an ox, or rather of a camel.[113] This animal carrieth easily upon him, with a certain structure of timber, more than thirty men; and he is a most gentle beast,[114] and trained for war, so that a single animal counteth by himself equal in war to 1,500 men and more; for they bind to his tusks blades or maces of iron wherewith he smiteth. Most horrible are the powers of this beast, and specially in war.

2. Two things there be which cannot be withstood by arms: one is the bolt of heaven; the second is a stone from an artillery engine; this is a third! For there is nothing that either can or dare stand against the assault of an elephant in any manner. A marvellous thing! He kneeleth, lieth, sitteth, goeth and cometh, merely at his master’s word. In short, it is impossible to write in words the peculiarities of this animal.

3. In this India there are pepper and ginger, cinnamon, brazil,[115] and all other spices.