Chapter VIII: Preface (2)

4. Ginger is the root of a plant which hath leaves like a reed. Pepper is the fruit of a plant something like ivy, which climbs trees, and forms grape-like fruit like that of the wild vine.[116] This fruit is at first green, then when it comes to maturity it becomes all black and corrugated as you see it. ’Tis thus that long pepper is produced, nor are you to believe that fire is placed under the pepper, nor that it is roasted, as some will lyingly maintain.[117] Cinnamon is the bark of a large tree which has fruit and flowers like cloves.[118]

5. In this India be many islands, and more than 10,000 of them inhabited, as I have heard; wherein are many world’s wonders.[119] For there is one called Silem, where are found the best precious stones in the whole world, and in the greatest quantity and number, and of all kinds.[120]

6. Between that island and the main are taken pearls or marguerites, in such quantity as to be quite wonderful. So indeed that there are sometimes more than 8,000 boats or vessels, for three months continuously, [engaged in this fishery]. It is astounding, and almost incredible, to those who have not seen it, how many are taken.

7. Of birds I say this: that there be many different from those of Lesser India, and of different colours; for there be some white all over as snow; some red as scarlet of the grain; some green as grass; some parti-coloured; in such quantity and delectability as cannot be uttered. Parrots also, or popinjays, after their kind, of every possible colour except black, for black ones are never found; but white all over, and green, and red, and also of mixed colours. The birds of this India seem really like creatures of Paradise.[121]

8. There is also told a marvellous thing of the islands aforesaid, to wit that there is one of them in which there is a water, and a certain tree in the middle of it. Every metal which is washed with that water becomes gold; every wound on which are placed the bruised leaves of that tree is incontinently healed.

9. In this India, whilst I was at Columbum, were found two cats having wings like the wings of bats;[122] and in Lesser India there be some rats as big as foxes, and venomous exceedingly.[123]

10. In this India are certain trees which have leaves so big that five or six men can very well stand under the shade of one of them.[124]

11. In the aforesaid island of Sylen is a very potent king, who hath precious stones of every kind under heaven, in such quantity as to be almost incredible. Among these he hath two rubies, of which he weareth one hung round his neck, and the other on the hand wherewith he wipeth his lips and his beard; and [each] is of greater length than the breadth of four fingers, and when held in the hand it standeth out visibly on either side to the breadth of a finger. I do not believe that the universal world hath two stones like these, or of so great a price, of the same species.[125]

12. There is also another island where all the men and women go absolutely naked, and have in place of money comminuted gold like fine sand. They make of the cloth which they buy walls like curtains;[126] nor do they cover themselves or their shame at any time in the world.

13. There is also another exceeding great island, which is called Jaua,[127] which is in circuit more than seven [thousand?] miles as I have heard,[128] and where are many world’s wonders. Among which, besides the finest aromatic spices, this is one, to wit, that there be found pygmy men, of the size of a boy of three or four years old, all shaggy like a he goat. They dwell in the woods, and few are found.[129]

14. In this island also are white mice, exceeding beautiful. There also are trees producing cloves, which, when they are in flower, emit an odour so pungent that they kill every man who cometh among them, unless he shut his mouth and nostrils.[130]

15. There too are produced cubebs, and nutmegs, and mace, and all the other finest spices except pepper.[131]

16. In a certain part of that island they delight to eat white and fat men when they can get them.[132]

17. In the Greater India, and in the islands, all the people be black, and go naked from the loins upwards, and from the knee downwards, and without shoes.

18. But the kings have this distinction from others, that they wear upon their arms gold and silver rings, and on the neck a gold collar with a great abundance of gems.[133]

19. In this India never do [even] the legitimate sons of great kings, or princes, or barons, inherit the goods of their parents, but only the sons of their sisters; for they say that they have no surety that those are their own sons, because wives and mistresses may conceive and generate by some one else; but ’tis not so with the sister, for whatever man may be the father they are certain that the offspring is from the womb of their sister, and is consequently thus truly of their blood.[134]

20. In this Greater India many sacrifice themselves to idols in this way. When they are sick, or involved in any grave mischance, they vow themselves to the idol if they should happen to be delivered. Then, when they have recovered, they fatten themselves for one or two years continually, eating and drinking fat things, etc. And when another festival comes round, they cover themselves with flowers and perfumes, and crown themselves with white garlands, and go with singing and playing before the idol when it is carried through the land (like the image of the Virgin Mary here among us at the Rogation tides); and those men who are sacrificing themselves to the idol carry a sword with two handles, like those [knives] which are used in currying leather; and, after they have shown off a great deal, they put the sword to the back of the neck, cutting strongly with a vigorous exertion of both hands, and so cut off their own heads before the idol.[135]

21. In this Greater India, in the place where I was, the nights and days are almost equal, nor does one exceed the other in length at any season by so much as a full hour.

22. In this India the sun keeps to the south for six months continuously, casting the shadows to the north; and for the other six months keeps to the north, casting the shadow to the south.[136]

23. In this India the Pole-star is seen very low, insomuch that I was at one place where it did not show above the earth or the sea more than two fingers’ breadth.[137]

24. There the nights, when the weather is fine and there is no moon, are, if I err not, four times as clear as in our part of the world.

25. There also, if I err not, between evening and morning, often all the planets may be seen; there are seen their influences [as it were] eye to eye, so that ’tis a delightful thing there to look out at night![138]

26. From the place aforesaid is seen continually between the south and the east a star of great size and ruddy splendour, which is called Canopus, and which from these parts of the world is never visible.

27. There are many marvellous things in the cycle of those [heavenly bodies] to delight a good astronomer.[139]

28. In this India, and in India the Less, men who dwell a long way from the sea, under the ground and in woody tracts, seem altogether infernal; neither eating, drinking, nor clothing themselves like the others who dwell by the sea.[140]

29. There serpents too be numerous, and very big, of all colours in the world; and it is a great marvel that they be seldom or never found to hurt anybody unless first attacked.

30. There is there also a certain kind of wasps, which make it their business to kill very big spiders whenever they find them, and afterwards to bury them in the sand, in a deep hole which they make, and so to cover them up that there is no man in the world who can turn them up, or find the place.[141]

31. There is also a kind of very small ants, white as wool, which have such hard teeth that they gnaw through even timbers and the joints of stones,[142] and, in short, whatever dry thing they find on the face of the earth, and mutilate woollen and cotton clothes. And they build out of the finest sand a crust like a wall, so that the sun cannot reach them, and so they remain covered. But if that crust happens to get broken, so that the sun reaches them, they incontinently die.[143]

32. As regards insects, there be wonders, so many, great, and marvellous, that they cannot be told.

33. There is also in this India a certain bird, big like a kite, having a white head and belly, but all red above, which boldly snatches fish out of the hands of fishermen and other people, and indeed [these birds] go on just like dogs.[144]

34. There is also another big bird, not like a kite, which flies only at night, and utters a voice in the night season like the voice of a man wailing from the deep.[145]

35. What shall I say then? Even the Devil too there speaketh to men, many a time and oft, in the night season, as I have heard.[146]

36. Every thing indeed is a marvel in this India! Verily it is quite another world!

37. There is also a certain part of that India which is called Champa. There, in place of horses, mules and asses, and camels, they make use of elephants for all their work.[147]

38. ’Tis a wonderful thing about these animals, that when they are in a wild state they challenge each other to war, and form troops [for the purpose]; so that there will be sometimes a hundred against a hundred, more or less; and they put the strongest and biggest and boldest at the head, and thus attack each other in turn, so that within a short time there will remain in one place XL or L killed and wounded, more or less. And ’tis a notable thing that the vanquished, it is said, never again appear in war or in the field.

39. These animals, on account of their ivory, are worth as much dead as alive, nor are they ever taken when little, but only when big and full grown.

40. And the mode of taking them is wonderful. Enclosures are made, very strong, and of four sides, wherein be many gateways, and raised gates, formed of very big and strong timbers. And there is one trained female elephant which is taken near the place where the elephants come to feed. The one which they desire to catch is pointed out to her, and she is told to manage so as to bring him home. She goeth about him and about him, and so contriveth by stroking him and licking him, as to induce him to follow her, and to enter along with her the outer gate, which the keepers incontinently let fall. Then, when the wild elephant turneth about, the female entereth the second gate, which is instantly shut like the first, and so the [wild] elephant remaineth caught between the two gates. Then cometh a man, clothed in black or red, with his face covered, who cruelly thrasheth him from above, and crieth out abusively against him as against a thief; and this goeth on for five or six days, without his getting anything to eat or drink. Then cometh another fellow, with his face bare, and clad in another colour, who feigneth to smite the first man, and to drive and thrust him away; then he cometh to the elephant and talketh to him, and with a long spear he scratcheth him, and he kisseth him, and giveth him food; and this goeth on for ten or fifteen days, and so by degrees he ventureth down beside him, and bindeth him to another elephant. And thus, after about twenty days, he may be taken out to be taught and broken in.[148]

41. In this Greater India are twelve idolatrous kings, and more.[149] For there is one very powerful king in the country where pepper grows, and his kingdom is called Molebar. There is also the king of Singuyli and the king of Columbum, the king of which is called Lingua, but his kingdom Mohebar. There is also the king of Molephatam, whose kingdom is called Molepoor, where pearls are taken in infinite quantities. There is also another king in the island of Sylen, where are found precious stones and good elephants. There be also three or four kings on the island of Java, where the good spices grow. There be also other kings, as the king of Telenc, who is very potent and great. The kingdom of Telenc abounds in corn, rice, sugar, wax, honey and honeycomb, pulse, eggs, goats, buffalos, beeves, milk, butter, and in oils of divers kinds, and in many excellent fruits, more than any other part of the Indies. There is also the kingdom of Maratha which is very great; and there is the king of Batigala, but he is of the Saracens. There be also many kings in Chopa.

42. What shall I say? The greatness of this India is beyond description. But let this much suffice concerning India the Greater and the Less.

VI.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING INDIA TERTIA.[150]

1. Of India Tertia I will say this, that I have not indeed seen its many marvels, not having been there, but have heard them from trustworthy persons. For example, there be dragons in the greatest abundance, which carry on their heads the lustrous stones which be called carbuncles. These animals have their lying-place upon golden sands,[151] and grow exceeding big, and cast forth from the mouth a most fetid and infectious breath, like the thickest smoke rising from fire. These animals come together at the destined time, develope wings, and begin to raise themselves in the air, and then, by the judgment of God, being too heavy, they drop into a certain river which issues from Paradise, and perish there.

2. But all the regions round about watch for the time of the dragons, and when they see that one has fallen, they wait for lxx days, and then go down and find the bare bones of the dragon, and take the carbuncle which is rooted in the top of his head, and carry it to the emperor of the Æthiopians, whom you call Prestre Johan.[152]

3. In this India Tertia are certain birds, which are called Roc, so big that they easily carry an elephant up into the air. I have seen a certain person who said that he had seen one of those birds, one wing only of which stretched to a length of eighty palms.[153]

4. In this India are the true unicorns, like a great horse, having only one horn in the forehead, very thick and sharp, but short, and quite solid, marrow and all.[154] This creature,[155] it is said, is of such fierceness that it will kill an elephant, nor can it be captured except by a virgin girl. All the parts of that creature are of wonderful virtue, and the whole of them good for medicine.

5. There are other animals also of very divers species: thus, there is one like a cat, whose sweat is of such good odour that it surpasses all the other scents in the world, and that sweat is thus collected. When it sweats it rubs itself on a certain wood, and there [the sweat] becomes coagulated; then men come and collect it, and carry it away.[156]

6. Between this India and Æthiopia is said to be, towards the east, the terrestrial paradise; for from those parts come down the four rivers of Paradise, which abound exceedingly in gold and gems.

7. There be serpents with horns, and some with precious stones.[157]

8. The men of that land are very black, pot-bellied, fat, but short; having thick lips and squab nose, overhanging forehead, and hideous countenances, whilst they go altogether naked.

9. I have seen many of them. They hunt the most savage beasts, such as lions, ounces, and leopards, and most dreadful serpents; wild men they be, wild against wild beasts!

10. In this India is found embar, which is like wood, and exceeding fragrant, and is called _gemma marina_, or the Treasure of the Sea.[158]

11. There also be certain animals like an ass, but with transverse stripes of black and white, such as that one stripe is black and the next white. These animals be wonderfully beautiful.

12. Between this India and India the Greater, are said to be islands of women only, and of men only, such that the men cannot live long in the islands of the women, and _vice versa_.

13. But they can live there for some x or xv days and cohabit; and when the women produce male children they send them to the men, and when female children they retain them.[159]

14. There are many other different islands in which are men having the heads of dogs, but their women are said to be beautiful.[160] I cease not to marvel at the great variety of islands that there be.

15. Let this suffice about India Tertia and the islands for the present.

VII.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE GREATER ARABIA.

1. I have been in the Greater Arabia, but can tell little, except that there grow there choice incense and myrrh.

2. The natives of this Arabia are all black, very crafty and lean, with voices like that of a little boy. They dwell in caverns and holes on the ground: they eat fish, herbs, and roots, and nothing else.[161]

3. This Arabia hath very great deserts, pathless and very dry.

4. Of Æthiopia, I say that it is a very great land, and a very hot. There are many monsters there, such as gryphons that guard the golden mountains which be there. Here, too, be serpents and other venomous beasts, of vast size and venomous exceedingly.

5. There, too, are very many pretious stones. The lord of that land I believe to be more potent than any man in the world, and richer in gold and silver and in pretious stones. He is said to have under him fifty-two kings, rich and potent. He ruleth over all his neighbours towards the south and the west.

6. In this Æthiopia are two burning mountains, and between them a mountain of gold. The people of the country are all Christians, but heretics. I have seen and known many folk from those parts.

7. To that emperor the Soldan of Babylon giveth every year 500,000 ducats[162] of tribute as ’tis said.

8. I can tell nothing more of Æthiopia, not having been there.

VIII.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE GREAT TARTAR.[163]

1. Of the Great Tartar, I relate what I have heard from trustworthy persons; to wit, that he is very rich, very just, and very generous. He hath under him four realms as big as the realm of France, and well peopled too. In his dominions every person who cannot get a livelihood, may, an he will, have victual and raiment from that lord, all the days of his life.[164]

2. In his dominion is current, in place of money, paper stamped with black ink, with which can be procured gold, silver, silk, gems, and in short all that man can desire.[165]

3. In that empire are idol-temples, and also monasteries of men and women as with us; and they have a choral service and sermons just like us; and the great pontiffs of the idols wear red hats and capes like our cardinals. ’Tis incredible what splendour, what pomp, what festivity is made in the idol sacrifices.[166]

4. There they burn not their dead; nor do they bury them sometimes for ten years. Some defer this because they have not the means to perform the sacrifices and the obsequies as they would wish. But they keep the body in the house, and serve it with food as if it were alive.

5. The great lords, when they die, are buried with a horse, and with one or two of their best beloved slaves alive.[167]

6. In that empire are very great cities, as I have heard tell from those who have seen them; and there is one called Hyemo which it taketh a day’s journey on horseback to cross, by a direct street through the middle of it.[168]

7. I have heard that that emperor hath two hundred cities under him greater than Toulouse; and I certainly believe them to have more inhabitants.

8. The folk of that empire be marvellously well-mannered, clean, courteous, and liberal withal.

9. In that empire rhubarb is found, and musk. And musk is the navel of a certain wild animal like a goat, from which, when it is taken alive, the skin of the navel is cut in a round form, and the blood which flows from the wound is gathered and put into the said skin, and dried; and that makes the best musk in the world.

10. There are no other things in that empire that I am acquainted with worthy to be described, except the very beautiful and noble earthenware, full of good qualities, and [which is called] porcelain.[169]

11. When the emperor dies, he is carried by certain men with a very great treasure to a certain place, where they place the body, and run away as if the devil were after them, and others are ready incontinently to snatch up the body and bear it in like manner to another place, and so on to the place of burial; and they thus do that the place may not be found, and consequently that no one may be able to steal the treasure.[170]

12. Nor is the death of the emperor made known until another has been secretly established on the throne by his relations and the chiefs.[171]

13. That emperor bestows greater alms than any prince or lord in the world.

14. The people subject to him are for the most part idolaters.

IX.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING CALDEA.

1. Of Caldea I will say not much, but yet what is greatly to be wondered at; to wit, that in a place of that country stood Babylon, now destroyed and deserted, where are hairy serpents and monstrous animals. In the same place also, in the night season, are heard such shoutings, such howlings, such hissings, that it is called Hell. There no one would dare to pass a single night, even with a great army, on account of the endless terrors and spectres.[172]

2. When I was there, there was seen a tortoise that carried five men on its back.[173]

3. Also a two-headed animal, exceeding frightful, which dared to wade across the Euphrates, and to chase the inhabitants on the other side.[174]

4. Also there be there serpents of such bulk that it is horrible to hear tell of; and I believe that that land is the habitation of demons.

X.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE LAND OF ARAN.

Concerning Aran I say nothing at all, seeing that there is nothing worth noting.[175]

XI.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE LAND OF MOGAN.[176]

1. From the land of Mogan came three kings to worship the Lord.

2. And in a certain place there, which is called Bacu, are pits dug, whence is extracted and drawn a certain oil, which is called _naft_; and it is a very warm oil of medicinal virtue, and it burneth passing well.[177]

XII.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE CASPIAN HILLS.

Of the Caspian Hills I say that there they sacrifice sheep upon a cross, and they call themselves Christians, though they are not so, and know nothing of the faith.[178] Among those mountains are more than fifteen different nations.

XIII.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING GEORGIANA.

Of Georgiana [I have to say] that it is entirely like our country; and all the people are Christians and warriors.[179]

XIV.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE DISTANCES OF COUNTRIES.

1. Now I will mention in a brief statement the distances of the countries. Know ye, then, that from this place to Constantinople ’tis about three thousand miles or more.

2. From Constantinople to Tanan[180] or Tartary is a thousand miles, going always towards the east, and by sea.

3. The empire of Persia beginneth at Trebizond, which is a city of the Greeks, situated in the furthest bight of the Moorish Sea. And that empire[181] extendeth far; for it includeth Lesser Asia, Cilicia,[182] Media, Cappadocia, Lycia, Greater Armenia, Caldea, Georgiana, part of the Caspian Hills and Mogan,—whence came those three kings to worship Christ,[183]—even to the Iron Gates,[184] and all Persia, with some part of Lesser India; so that the empire extendeth across from the Black Sea to the Indian Sea, and so great is the distance as to equal lxxxx days of ordinary journey with cattle, or more.

4. Then Lesser India extendeth four-square over LX days’ journey, and is entirely level.

5. But the Greater India extendeth over more than CLXX days’ journey, excluding the islands, of which there be more than XII thousand inhabited, and more than VIII thousand uninhabited, as those say who navigate that sea. And [this India also] is nearly all a plain.

6. But the vessels of these Indies be of a marvellous kind. For although they be very great, they be not put together with iron, but stitched with a needle, and a thread made of a kind of grass. Nor are the vessels ever decked over, but open, and they take in water to such an extent that the men always, or almost always, must stand in a pool to bale out the water.

7. Cathay is a very great empire, which extendeth over more than C days’ journey; and it hath only one lord, whereas the case with the Indies is the very opposite, for there be therein many kings, many princes, not one of whom holdeth himself tributary to another.

8. And the dominion of Æthiopia is great exceedingly; and I believe, and lie not, that the population thereof is, at the least, three times that of our Christendom.[185]

9. But other two empires of the Tartars, as I have heard, to wit, that which was formerly of Cathay, but now is of Osbet, which is called Gatzaria, and the empire of Dua and Cayda, formerly of Capac and now of Elchigaday, extend over more than CC days’ journey.[186]

10. The vessels which they navigate in Cathay be very big, and have upon the ship’s hull more than C cabins, and with a fair wind they carry X sails, and they are very bulky, being made of three thicknesses of plank, so that the first thickness is as in our great ships, the second cross-wise, the third again long-wise. In sooth, ’tis a very strong affair.[187] It is true that they venture not far out to sea; and that Indian sea is seldom or never boisterous, and when it does rise to such a degree as they deem awfully perilous, it is such weather as our mariners here would deem splendid. For one of the men of our country would there (’tis no lie), be reckoned at sea worth a hundred of theirs and more.

11. Græcia[188] also is of great extent, but of how many days’ journey I wot not.

12. One general remark I will make in conclusion; to wit, that there is no better land or fairer, no people so honest, no victuals so good and savoury, dress so handsome, or manners so noble, as here in our own Christendom; and, above all, we have the true faith, though ill it be kept. For, as God is my witness, ten times better [Christians], and more charitable withal, be those who be converted by the Preaching and Minor friars to our faith, than our own folk here, as experience hath taught me.

13. And of the conversion of those nations of India, I say this: that if there were two hundred or three hundred good friars, who would faithfully and fervently preach the Catholic faith, there is not a year which would not see more than X thousand persons converted to the Christian faith.

14. For, whilst I was among those schismatics and unbelievers, I believe that more than X thousand, or thereabouts, were converted to our faith, and because we, being few in number, could not occupy, or even visit, many parts of the land, many souls (wo is me!) have perished, and exceeding many do yet perish for lack of preachers of the Word of the Lord. And ’tis grief and pain to hear how, through the preachers of the perfidious and accursed Saracens, those sects of the heathen be day by day perverted. For their preachers run about, just as we do, here, there, and everywhere over the whole Orient, in order to turn all to their own miscreance.[189] These be they who accuse us, who smite us, who cause us to be cast into durance, and who stone us; as I indeed have experienced, having been four times cast into prison by them, I mean the Saracens. But how many times I have had my hair plucked out, and been scourged, and been stoned, God himself knoweth and I, who had to bear all this for my sins, and yet have not attained to end my life as a martyr for the faith, as did four of my brethren. For what remaineth God’s will be done! Nay, five Preaching Friars and four Minors were there in my time cruelly slain for the Catholic faith.

Wo is me that I was not with them there!

15. I believe moreover that the king of France might subdue the whole world to his own dominion and to the Christian faith, without the aid of any other.

XV.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF CHIOS.

I have seen an island called Chios, where groweth mastick in very great abundance; nor do those trees when planted anywhere else in the whole world produce mastick. Mastick is the gum of a very noble tree. That island was held by a very noble Genoese, by name Martin Zachary, a most worthy sea captain, who slew or took more than ten thousand Turks. But, alackaday! the rascally emperor of Constantinople, Greek that he was, got possession of the island by treason, a thing most deeply to be lamented; and all the more that the captain was taken in person, and made a prisoner.

XVI.

CONCERNING TURKEY.[190]

1. I was also in Turkey, in a certain camp on the coast of the main, held by a noble Genoese, by name Andreolo Cathani, who hath with him only fifty-two knights[191] and four hundred foot soldiers. He doth much scathe to the Turks. And there he himself maketh alum, without which no cloth can be properly dyed; and ’tis made in a marvellous way, nor do I believe that the art could have been invented by human ingenuity, but rather by the Holy Spirit.[192] For thus it is: stones be taken from under the ground, not stones of any kind, but such as be specially suitable, for few be found of that kind. And these stones be baked like bricks or pottery, and that in great quantity and for many days, and with a most potent fire. The stones be afterwards placed on a great platform, and water is poured upon them, and this two or three times a day for a month continuously, so that the stones become like [slaked] lime. Afterwards they be placed in great caldrons with water, and that which falleth to the bottom is extracted with great iron ladles. Then four-square tanks of plaster are prepared, numerous and large, and into these the water from the caldrons is poured, and there gradually taketh place a precipitation like crystal, and that is choice alum.[193]

2. In this Turkey be the VII Churches to which wrote the Blessed John in the Apocalypse, who also ordered a sepulchre to be dug for him in Ephesus, whereinto he entered and was seen no more. But I will tell one very marvellous thing concerning that excavation, as I heard it from a certain devout religious person, who was there and heard it with his own ears. From time to time is heard there a very loud sound, as of a man snoring, and yet is the sepulchre void.[194]

3. This Turkey, which is called Asia Minor, is inhabited by the Turks, and by a few schismatic Greeks and Armenians. Which Turks be most rascally Saracens, and capital archers withal, and the most warlike and perfidious of all mankind.

4. The country is very fertile, but uncultivated; for the Turks trouble not themselves.[195]

EXPLICIT.

FOOTNOTES

[41] Admiral Smyth says that the currents in the Faro are so numerous and varied, that it is difficult to ascertain anything precise about them. In settled seasons a central stream runs north and south, at the rate of two to five miles an hour. On each shore there is a _refluo_, or counter-set, often forming eddies to the central current. When the main current runs to the north it is called _Rema montante_, or flood; when it runs south, _Rema scendente_, or ebb; and this has obtained, perhaps, even from the days of Eratosthenes. He considers that the _special_ danger from the Faro currents is insignificant. There are dangerous _squalls_ from the ravines or river-beds on the high Calabrian coast.

He admits some little more of reality in the celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which must have been formidable to the undecked vessels of the ancients; for in the present day small craft are sometimes endangered, and he has seen even a seventy-four whirled round on its surface. The “Galofaro” appears to be an agitated water of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies, but rather an incessant undulation than a whirlpool, and the cases are only extreme when any vortiginous ripples threaten danger to laden boats. “It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the main one, the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees in some measure with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas, and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read who has assigned this danger its true situation, and not exaggerated its effects.” (_Abridged from_ Smyth’s _Mediterranean_, pp. 180-1). Our author seems to mix up the two phenomena in his exaggerated account. The _upward and downward current_ suggest that he had heard the local terms quoted by Admiral Smyth.

[42] “The breadth of the Euripus is diminished by a rock in mid-channel, on which a fort is built, dividing it into two channels: that towards the main, though rather the broader, is only practicable for small boats, as there is not more than three feet water at any time. Between the rock and the walls of Egripos is a distance of 33 feet, and the least depth at the highest water is 7 feet. It is here that the extraordinary tides take place for which the Euripus was formerly so noted; at times the water runs as much as eight miles an hour, with a fall under the bridge of 1½ foot; but what is most singular is, that vessels lying 150 yards from the bridge are not the least affected by this rapid. It remains but a short time in a quiescent state, changing its direction in a few minutes, and almost immediately resuming its velocity, which is generally from four to five miles an hour either way, its greatest rapidity being, however, always to the southward. The results of three months’ observation, in which the above phenomena were noted, afforded no sufficient data for reducing them to any regularity.”—_Penny Cyclop._, Article _Eubœa_. See also _Leake_ (_Tr. in Northern Greece_, ii. p. 257), who quotes Wheler and Spon.

[43] Greece generally is subject to earthquakes, but I cannot find evidence that Thebes is particularly so.

[44] The first ascent of Ararat is well known to have been made by Professor Parrot, of Dorpat, 9th October, 1829, whose account of his journey has been translated by Mr. Cooley.

“From the summit downwards, for nearly two-thirds of a mile perpendicular, or nearly three miles in an oblique direction, it is covered with a crown of eternal snow and ice” (_Parrot’s Journey_, p. 133). As to the clouds, the same author remarks with regard to a drawing of Ararat: “The belt of clouds about the mountain is characteristic” (p. 137). And Smith and Dwight (_Researches in Armenia_, p. 266) say that they were prevented by clouds from seeing it for three weeks. It is believed in the country that the Ark still exists on the mountain, access to which has been forbidden by Divine decree since Noah’s time. A holy monk called Jacob resolved to convince himself by inspection. But in his ascent of the mountain he three times was overtaken by sleep, and each time found that he had unconsciously lost the ground that he had gained when awake. At last an angel came to him when again asleep, and told him that his zeal was fruitless, but was to be rewarded by a fragment of the wood of the Ark, a sacred relic still preserved in the Cathedral of Echmiazin. (_Parrot_, and _Smith and Dwight_); see also the narrative of _Guillaume de Rubruk_ (Rubruquis), in _Rec. de Voyages_, iv. p. 387.

[45] Stories of serpents seem to be rife in Armenia. On the Araxes, south of Nakhcheván (see note below), is a mountain called the Serpent Mountain, where serpents are said to collect in such numbers at certain times, that no man or beast dare approach. (See _Haxthausen’s Transcaucasia_, pp. 144, 181, 353, etc.)

[46] The name of the province and town of Nakhcheván, east of Ararat, signifies “first place of descent, or of lodging.” The antiquity of the tradition is proved by the fact, that Josephus affirms that the Armenians call the place where the Ark rested “_the place of descent_;” whilst Ptolemy supplies the name of Naxuana. (_Smith and Dwight_, p. 255.)

The place alluded to by Jordanus appears to be Arguri, the only village upon Ararat. Here Noah is said to have built his altar on the exact spot now occupied by the church, and it is of the vineyards of Arguri that the Scripture is believed to speak when it is said that “Noah began to be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard.” The church is of unascertained but remote date; and the name of the place signifies (_Argh-urri_) “He planted the vine.” (_Parrot_, p. 122.) At Nakhcheván “the grapes were almost unequalled in excellence, and seemed to deserve the honour of growing on the spot.” (_Smith and Dwight_, p. 256.) Arguri was buried by an earthquake, accompanied by volcanic indications, July 2nd, 1840. (_Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, Art. Ararat._)

[47] The Armenian belief is, that Thaddeus, one of the Seventy, was, after the Ascension, sent by St. Thomas, according to commands given him by the Lord, to Abgarus of Edessa, who had written the celebrated letter. Thaddeus, and Bartholomew who followed him, were successively put to death by Sanatruk, the heathen nephew of Abgarus. Jude also came to preach in Armenia, and was put to death in Ormi (Urumia). The mission of Simon I do not find mentioned, but Chardin states that his body was said to be preserved in one of the churches. (See _Avdall’s_ Tr. of _Chamich’s Hist. of Armenia_. Calcutta, 1827, pp. 107-111, and _Smith and Dwight_.)

[48] The virgin must be _Rhipsime_, said to have been of the house of Claudius Cæsar, who, with Kayane and thirty-seven other holy virgins, were put to death in the time of Dioclesian. There are churches dedicated to R. and K. at Echmiazin. (_Smith and Dwight._)

[49] Tertal is Tiridates, in Armenian Dertad = Theodosius. (_Smith and Dwight._)

[50] St. Gregory, called The Illuminator, born A.D. 257, consecrated Archbishop of Armenia 302. He is said to have revived (probably _introduced_) Christianity in Armenia, and, after suffering persecution at the hands of King Tiridates, converted him and his whole people. The place alluded to by Jordanus is at the convent of Khor-virab (“Deep pit”), on the Araxes, under Ararat. Here Gregory is believed to have been confined in a cave with serpents, and in the endurance of manifold torments, for fourteen years. (_Smith and Dwight_, p. 273. See also _Chardin_, p. 251. _Curzon’s Armenia_ has a concise account of the Armenian church.)

[51] “The ancient and extensive Dominican mission, which once had its seat in this province, (Nakhcheván) is now no more. It was commenced about 1320 by an Italian papal monk of the Dominican order. Such success attended it that soon nearly thirty Armenian villages embraced the faith of Rome, and acknowledged subjection to a papal bishop, who after being consecrated at Rome resided in the village of Aburan, with the title of Archbishop of Nakhcheván.” (_Smith and Dwight_, p. 257.)

[52] At this time a Tartar successor of Hulaku.

[53] This Dead Sea is doubtless the Lake of Urumia, the waters of which are salter than sea water. It appears to be about ninety miles in length from north to south. There are no fish in it. It contains several islands, or peninsulas which are occasionally islands, two of which have been used as fortresses. In one of these Hulaku the Tartar conqueror of Baghdad was said to have stored his treasures. Another is said to be “as old as the days of Zoroaster,” who is believed to have been born in the vicinity. I do not find tombs mentioned. (_Penny Cyc._ in v. _Azerbijan_, also _Monteith_ in _Jour. Geog. Soc._ iii. 55, and _Smith and Dwight_, 348.)

[54] “_Thaurisium._”

[55] Sebast is doubtless Sivas, called by Marco Polo Sebastos, anciently Sebasteia (_Smith’s Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geo._) south of Tokat, and giving name to a pachalik. The Barcarian mountains appear as _Barchal Dagh_ running parallel to the Black Sea between Trebizond and Kars. (_Stieler’s Hand-Atlas_, 43a.) Mogan is _Orogan_ in the original, but, as we shall see below, this is an error of transcription. The _Plain_ of Mogan is the great plain extending from the eastern foot of Caucasus along the Caspian, and stretching to the south of the Cyrus and Araxes. Here Pompey’s career eastward is said to have been arrested by the venomous serpents with which the long grass of the plain is infested. The dread of these serpents still exists. “Their hissing is heard from afar, and they seem to rise from the grass like fish from the sea”, Kinneir was told. Here the camp of Heraclius was pitched, as was that of the Tartar hosts for many months during their invasion of Armenia in the thirteenth century, and that of Nadir Shah when he placed the crown upon his head. (_Macd. Kinneir’s Mem. of Persia_, 153; _Avdall’s Hist. of Armenia._)

[56] The Lake appears to be Gokchai or Sevan, north-east of Erivan. There is a small island with a monastery upon it. There are many traditions attached to the monasteries in this vicinity, but I cannot find this one.

[57] Perhaps Erivan, but I cannot trace the name.

[58] Sir John Chardin (356) says he may “truly reck’n” the population of Tauris to be 550,000 persons, and that several in the city would have it to be double that number! yet he had said just before that it contained 15,000 houses and 15,000 shops, so that 150,000 souls would be a liberal estimate. It appears now to contain from 30,000 to 50,000. Kinneir calls it one of the most wretched cities in Persia. Such estimates of city population are common enough still. Many books and many gentlemen in India will still tell us that Benares contains half a million, and that Lucknow before 1857 contained 700,000; the fact being, as regards Benares, that by _census_ and including its suburbs it contains 171,668; whilst the estimate for Lucknow was probably five or six times the truth. I suspect the usual estimate of 900,000 in the city of Madras to be of equal value.

[59] At Tabriz “dew is entirely unknown, and not more than two or three showers fall between March and December. The plain around is very fertile where irrigated.” (_Penny Cyc._)

[60] The only manna I have known in India was exuded by a tamarisk; but it appears to be produced on various shrubs in Persia and the adjoining countries, camelthorns, tamarisks, and others. And one kind called _Bed-kisht_ is produced on a species of willow. (_Bed_ signifies a _willow_.) Some kinds of manna are used as sugar. (See _Pen. Cyc._ in v. _Manna_.) This authority does not seem to recognize the agency of any insect in its production. But Macdonald Kinneir (in his _Memoir of the Persian Empire_, p. 329) has the following note. “Manna is exported from Moosh, on the Euphrates [west of Lake Van] in considerable quantities. It is termed _guz_ by the Persians, and found in great quantities in Louristan, and in the district of Khonsar in Irak. It is taken from a small shrub, in appearance not unlike a funnel, about four feet in height and three in diameter at the top. The _guz_ is said to be produced by small insects, which are seen to move in vast numbers under the small and narrow leaves of the shrub.—These were always in motion, and continued to crawl between the bark and the leaves. The _guz_ is collected during the months of August and September in the following manner. A vessel of an oval form being placed under the bush as a receptacle, the leaves are beat every third day with a crooked stick covered with leather. The manna when first gathered has the tenacity and appearance of gum, but, when exposed to the heat of 90° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, it dissolves into a liquid resembling honey. When mixed with sweetmeat its tenacity resists the application of the knife, but when suddenly struck it shivers into pieces.”

[61] There is a town called in the maps _Ahar_, about fifty miles north-east of Tabriz, but I cannot find that this was ever considered to be Ur of the Chaldees. Urfa, which is generally supposed to be Ur, is in quite another region, more than four hundred miles from Tabriz.

[62] Wild asses are found in the dry regions from the frontiers of Syria to the Runn of Cutch, and north to 48° lat. Ferrier mentions herds of hundreds between Mushid and Herat, and on the banks of the Khashrood, south of Herat. “They are fleet as deer,” he says. Their flesh is more delicate than Persian beef, and the Afghans consider it a great delicacy, as did the old Roman epicures. This species, as I learn from a note with which Mr. Moore, of the India Museum, has kindly favoured me, is _Asinus Onager_, the _Kulan_ or _Ghor-khar_ of the Persians. That of Syria and Northern Arabia is the _Asinus Hemippus_, the Hemionus of the ancients; whilst the _Kyang_ or _Jiggetai_ (_Equus Hemionus_ of Pallas, _E. Polyodon_ of Hodgson) inhabits Tibet and thence northward to southern Siberia; and the true wild ass (_E. asinus_) is indigenous to north-eastern Africa, and perhaps to south Arabia and the island of Socotra.

[63] “_Lapis azurii_,” hod. _lapis lazuli_. Quantities of this are found in Badakshan. (_Burnes_, _Bokhara_, ii. 205. 8vo ed.)

[64] _Sic._ Probably L, or LV is intended.

[65] “_Ferculum et carnem._”

[66] “_Tobalia._”

[67] The Afghans exceed the practices here graphically described; for they, I believe, often expectorate in the hairy sleeve of the _postin_, which in winter they wear after the fashion of Brian O’Linn, “with the leather side out and the woolly side in.” Scott Waring (_Tour to Shiraz_, p. 103) notices the dirty table habits of the Persians.

[68] The friar’s remarks seem to shew that forks were common in Europe earlier than is generally represented to be the case.

[69] No doubt it should be _kīr_, which is bituminous pitch in Persian. What the parenthesis means I cannot make out. _Pegua_ can scarcely be a reference to the petroleum of Pegu at this early date?

[70] Burnes describes the vast fields of soft sand, formed into ridges, between Bokhara and the Oxus. Their uniformity is remarkable, all having the shape of a horse-shoe, convex towards the north, from which the prevailing wind blows. On this side they slope, inside they are precipitous. The height is from fifteen to twenty feet. “The particles of sand, moving from one mound to another, wheeling in the eddy or interior of the semicircle, and having now and then, particularly under the rays of the sun, much the look of water, an appearance, I imagine, which has given rise to the opinion of moving sands in the desert.” (_Bokhara_, ii. pp. 1, 2.)

Our author may possibly have heard of the _Reg-rawán_, or “flowing sand,” of the Koh Daman, near Istalif. (See _Wood’s Oxus_, p. 181.)

[71] It may be gathered from what follows, that Lesser India embraces Sindh, and probably Mekrán, and India along the coast as far as some point immediately north of Malabar. Greater India extends from Malabar very indefinitely to the eastward, for he makes it include Champa (Cambodia). India Tertia is the east of Africa.

According to the old Portuguese geographer, whose “Summary of Kingdoms,” etc., is given by Ramusio, _First India_ (see text, next page), ends at Mangalore, _Second India_ at the Ganges.

Marco Polo reverses the titles given by our author. He makes Greater India extend from Maabar (south part of the Coromandel coast) to Kesmacoran (Kidj-mekrán or Mekrán), whilst Lesser India stretches from the Coromandel to Champa. Abyssinia, Marco calls _Middle India_. (See _Murray’s Polo_, pt. ii. ch. xxxvi.) Benjamin of Tudela speaks of “Middle India which is called Aden.” Conti says all India is divided into three parts, the first extending from Persia (Ormus?) to the Indus, the second from the Indus to the Ganges, the third all beyond.

It is worth noting that Pliny says it was disputed whether Gedrosia (Mekrán), etc., belonged to India or to Ariana. (vi. p. 23.)

[72] I believe this is substantially correct. Sindh is the only province in India that produces edible dates. A date-palm is found all over India, but the fruit is worthless.

[73] Till half-past nine o’clock. “_Quod usque ad mediam tertiam per solis radios ullâtenus possit desiccari._” “The dews” in Lower Sindh, says Burnes, “are very heavy and dangerous.” (iii. p. 254.) The fertility of the country is, however, confined to the tracts inundated or irrigated from the Indus and its branches. As to the absence of rain, Dr. Lord says, that “the rainfall registered by Lt. Wood during one year at Hyderabad was only 2·55 inches, whilst at Larkhana, further north, a shower of rain which fell after the arrival of Burnes’s party was universally ascribed to the good fortune of the Firingis, as for three years, the natives said, rain had scarcely been known.” (_Reports and Papers on Sindh_, etc.—Calcutta, 1839, p. 61.)

[74] “_Risis autem comeditur atque sagina in aquâ tantummodo cocta._”

[75] He is wrong about the non-existence of horses and camels in what he calls India the Less.

[76] Five persons to _eat_, that is. But an English gentleman, who is a coffee planter in the middle of Java, told me that he once cut a jack (the fruit intended by the bishop), which it took _three_ men to _carry_. That they grow in Ceylon to 50 lbs. weight at least is testified by Cordiner and Sir Emerson Tennent. The former says they grow there to two feet in length, and to the same circumference, which is bigger than I ever saw them in Bengal. The manner of growing is accurately described in the next paragraph of the text.

The jack is, no doubt, the Indian fruit described by Pliny, Book xii. ch. 12, as putting forth its fruit from the bark, and as being remarkable for the sweetness of its juice, a single one containing enough to satisfy four persons. The name of the tree, he says, is _pala_, and of the fruit _Ariena_. The former is possibly the Tamul name, _Pila_, which is also one of the Malabar names. If, however, Pliny derived the whole of his information on this fruit, as he appears to derive part of it, from the historians of the Alexandrian invasion, the name may be merely the Sanskrit _phala_, a fruit, and it would be a comical illustration of the persistency of Indian habits of mind. For a stranger in India asking the question, “What is that?” would almost certainly at this day receive for reply, “_P’hal hai, khudáwand!_” “It is a _fruit_, my lord!”