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025 - Book First Chapters 26 to 29 Concerning the city of Sapurgan Of the city of Balc Of Taican and the m · The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 1

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty five of the Book of Sir Marco Polo,
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  Speaker 1: the Venetian concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East,
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  Speaker 1: Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Stephen Gibbons. The
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  Speaker 1: Book of Sir Marco Polo the Venetian concerning the Kingdoms
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  Speaker 1: and Marvels of the East, Volume one by Roustcello de Pisa,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Henry Yule, Section twenty five, book first chapters
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  Speaker 1: twenty six to twenty nine, concerning the city of Suburgen,
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  Speaker 1: of the City of Balk of Tikan, and the Mountains
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  Speaker 1: of Salt, also of the Province of Kassum, of the
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  Speaker 1: Province of Badishan. Chapter twenty six concerning the city of Suburgan.
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  Speaker 1: On leaving the castle, you ride over fine plains and
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  Speaker 1: beautiful valleys and pretty hillsides, producing excellent grass pasture and
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  Speaker 1: abundance of fruits and all other products. Armies are glad
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  Speaker 1: to take up their quarters here on account of their
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  Speaker 1: plenty that exists. This kind of country extends for six
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  Speaker 1: days journey with a goodly number of towns and villages
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  Speaker 1: in which the people are worshippers of Mohammed. Sometimes also
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  Speaker 1: you meet with a tract of desert extending for fifty
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  Speaker 1: or sixty miles, or somewhat less. And in these deserts
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  Speaker 1: you find no water, but have to carry it along
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  Speaker 1: with you. The beasts do without drink until you have
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  Speaker 1: got across the desert tract and come to watering places. So,
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  Speaker 1: after traveling for six days, as I have told you,
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  Speaker 1: you come to a city called Suburgen. It has great
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  Speaker 1: plenty of everything, but especially of the very best melons
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  Speaker 1: in the world. They preserve them by pairing them round
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  Speaker 1: and round into strips and drying them in the sun.
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  Speaker 1: When dry, they are sweeter than honey and are carried
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  Speaker 1: off for sale all over the country. There is also
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  Speaker 1: abundance of game here, both birds and beasts. Chapter twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven of the City of Balk. Balk is a noble city,
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  Speaker 1: though it was much greater in former days, but the
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  Speaker 1: Tartars and other nations have greatly ravaged and destroyed it.
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  Speaker 1: There were formerly many fine palaces and buildings of marble,
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  Speaker 1: and the ruins of them still remain. The people of
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  Speaker 1: the city. Tell that it was here that Alexander took
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  Speaker 1: to wife the daughter of Darius. Here, you should be told,
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  Speaker 1: is the end of the empire of the Tartar, lord
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  Speaker 1: of the Levant, and this city is also the limit
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  Speaker 1: of Persia in the direction between east and northeast. Now
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  Speaker 1: let us quit this city, and I will tell you
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  Speaker 1: of another country called Dogana. When you have quitted the
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  Speaker 1: city of which I have been speaking, you ride some
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  Speaker 1: twelve days between northeast and east without finding any human inhabitation,
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  Speaker 1: for the people have all taken refuge in fastness among
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  Speaker 1: the mountains on account of the Banditti and armies that
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  Speaker 1: harass them. There is plenty of water on the road
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  Speaker 1: and abundance of game. There are lions too. You can
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  Speaker 1: get no provisions on the road, and must carry with
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  Speaker 1: you all that you require for these twelve days Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight of Tai Khan and the Mountains of Salt,
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  Speaker 1: also of the Province of Kasum. After those twelve days journey,
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  Speaker 1: you come to a fortified place called Tai Khan, where
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  Speaker 1: there is a great corn market. It is a fine place,
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  Speaker 1: and the mountains that you see towards the south are
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  Speaker 1: all composed of salt. People from all the countries round
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  Speaker 1: to some thirty days journey come to fetch this salt,
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  Speaker 1: which is the best in the world, and is so
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  Speaker 1: hard that it can only be broken with iron picks.
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  Speaker 1: Tis in such abundance that it would supply the whole
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  Speaker 1: world to the end of time. Other mountains there grow
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  Speaker 1: almonds and pistachios, which are exceedingly cheap. When you leave
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  Speaker 1: this town and ride three days further between northeast and east,
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  Speaker 1: you meet with many fine tracts full of vines and
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  Speaker 1: other fruits, and with a goodly number of habitations, and
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  Speaker 1: everything to be had very cheap. The people are worshippers
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  Speaker 1: of Mahomet, and are an evil and a murderous generation,
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  Speaker 1: whose great delight is in the wine shop. For they
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  Speaker 1: have good wine, albeit boiled, and are great topers. In truth,
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  Speaker 1: they are constantly getting drunk. They wear nothing on the
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  Speaker 1: head but a cord some ten palms long twisted around it.
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  Speaker 1: They are excellent huntsmen and take a great deal of game.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, they wear nothing but the skins of the
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  Speaker 1: beasts they have taken in the chase, for they make
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  Speaker 1: of them both coats and shoes. Indeed, all of them
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  Speaker 1: are acquainted with the art of dressing skins for these purposes.
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  Speaker 1: When you have ridden those three days, you find a
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  Speaker 1: town called Cassum, which is subject to account his Other
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  Speaker 1: towns and villages are on the hills. But through this
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  Speaker 1: town there flows a river of some size. There are
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  Speaker 1: a great many porcupines hereabouts, and very large ones too.
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  Speaker 1: When hunted with dogs, several of them will get together
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  Speaker 1: and huddle close, shooting their quills at the dogs, which
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  Speaker 1: get many a serious wound thereby. This town of Kassam
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  Speaker 1: is at the head of a very great province, which
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  Speaker 1: is also called Kassam. The people have a peculiar language.
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  Speaker 1: The peasants who keep cattle abide in the mountains and
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  Speaker 1: have their dwellings in caves, which form fine and spacious
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  Speaker 1: houses for them, and are made with ease, as the
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  Speaker 1: hills are composed of earth. After leaving the town of Kassam,
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  Speaker 1: you ride for three days without finding a single habitation
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  Speaker 1: or anything to eat or drink, so that you have
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  Speaker 1: to carry with you everything that you require. At the
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  Speaker 1: end of those three days you reach a province called Badashan,
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  Speaker 1: about which we shall now tell you Chapter twenty nine
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  Speaker 1: of the province of Badishan. Badashan is a province inhabited
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  Speaker 1: by people who worship Mohammed and have a peculiar language.
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  Speaker 1: It forms a very great kingdom, and the royalty is hereditary.
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  Speaker 1: All those of the royal blood are descended from King
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  Speaker 1: Alexander and the daughter of King Darius, who was lord
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  Speaker 1: of the vast empire of Persia. And all these kings
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  Speaker 1: call themselves in the Saracen tongue Zokonayen, which is as
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  Speaker 1: much as the say Alexander. And this out of regard
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  Speaker 1: for Alexander the Great. It is in this province that
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  Speaker 1: those fine and valuable gems, the balas rubies are found.
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  Speaker 1: They are got in certain rocks among the mountains, and
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  Speaker 1: in the search for them the people did great caves underground,
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  Speaker 1: just as is done by miners for silver. There is
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  Speaker 1: but one special mountain that produces them, and it is
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  Speaker 1: called the signin The stones are dug on the King's account.
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  Speaker 1: No one else dares dig in that mountain on pain
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  Speaker 1: of forfeiture of life as well as goods, nor may
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  Speaker 1: any one carry the stones out of the kingdom. But
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  Speaker 1: the king amasses them all and sends them to other
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  Speaker 1: kings when he has tribute to render, or when he
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  Speaker 1: desires to offer a friendly present, and such only as
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  Speaker 1: he pleases he causes to be sold. Thus he acts
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  Speaker 1: in order to keep the balas at a high value,
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  Speaker 1: For if he were to allow everybody to dig, they
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  Speaker 1: would extract so many that the world would be glutted,
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  Speaker 1: and they would cease to bear any value. Hence it
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  Speaker 1: is that he allows so few to be taken out,
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  Speaker 1: and is so strict in the matter. There is also
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  Speaker 1: in the same country another mountain in which azure is found,
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  Speaker 1: tis the finest in the world, and is gotten a
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  Speaker 1: vein like silver. There are also other mountains which contain
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  Speaker 1: a great amount of silver ore, so that the country
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  Speaker 1: is a very rich one. But it is also, it
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  Speaker 1: must be said, a very cold one. It produces numbers
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  Speaker 1: of excellent horses, remarkable for their speed. They are not
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  Speaker 1: shod at all, Although constantly used in mountainous country and
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  Speaker 1: on very bad roads. They go at a great pace,
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  Speaker 1: even down steep descents, where other horses neither would nor
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  Speaker 1: could do the like. And Messer Marco was told that
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  Speaker 1: not long ago they possessed in that province a breed
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  Speaker 1: of horses from the strain of Alexander's horse Busaphalas, all
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  Speaker 1: of which had from their birth a particular mark on
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  Speaker 1: the forehead. This breed was entirely in the hands of
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  Speaker 1: an uncle of the kings, and in consequence of his
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  Speaker 1: refusing to let the king have any of them, the
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  Speaker 1: latter put him to death. The widow in despite destroyed
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  Speaker 1: the whole breed, and it is now extinct. The mountains
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  Speaker 1: of this country also supply sacred falcons of excellent flight,
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  Speaker 1: and plenty of laners. Likewise beasts and birds for the chase.
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  Speaker 1: There are in great abundance good wheat is grown, and
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  Speaker 1: also barely without husk. They have no olive oil, but
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  Speaker 1: make oil from sesame and also from walnuts. In the
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  Speaker 1: mountains there are vast numbers of sheep, four hundred, five hundred,
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  Speaker 1: six hundred in a single flock, and all of them wild,
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  Speaker 1: and though many of them are taken, they never seem
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  Speaker 1: to get aught. The scarcer those mountains are so lofty
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  Speaker 1: that tis a hard day's work from morning till evening
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  Speaker 1: to get to the top of them. On getting up
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  Speaker 1: you find an extensive plain with great abundance of grass
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  Speaker 1: and trees, and copious springs of pure water running down
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  Speaker 1: through rocks and ravines. In those brooks are found trout
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  Speaker 1: and many other fish of dainty kinds. And the air
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  Speaker 1: in those regions is so pure, and residents they are
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  Speaker 1: so healthful that when the men who dwell below in
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  Speaker 1: the towns and in the valleys and plains find themselves
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  Speaker 1: attacked by any kind of fever or other ailment that
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  Speaker 1: may have, they lose no time in going to the hills,
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  Speaker 1: and after abiding there two or three days, they quite
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  Speaker 1: recover their health through the excellence of that air. And
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  Speaker 1: Messer Marco said he had proved this by experience, for
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  Speaker 1: when in those parts he had been ill for about
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  Speaker 1: a year, but as soon as he was advised to
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  Speaker 1: visit that mountain, he did so, and got well at once.
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  Speaker 1: In this kingdom there are many straight and perilous passes,
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  Speaker 1: so difficult to force, that the people have no fear
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  Speaker 1: of invasion. Their towns and villages also are on lofty
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  Speaker 1: hills and in very strong positions. They are excellent archers,
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  Speaker 1: and much given to the chase. Indeed, most of them
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  Speaker 1: are dependent for clothing on the skins of beasts, For
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  Speaker 1: stuffs are very dear among them. The great ladies, however,
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  Speaker 1: are arrayed in stuffs, and I will tell you the
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  Speaker 1: style of their dress. They all wear drawers made of
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  Speaker 1: cotton cloth, and to the making of these some will
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  Speaker 1: put sixty eighty or even one hundred ells of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: This they do to make themselves look large in the hips,
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  Speaker 1: for the men of those parts think that to be
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  Speaker 1: a great beauty in a woman. End of Section twenty five.