The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, vol 9 | Page 8

ad formam agnelli
absque lana, et manducatur totus fructus cum bestiola. Sunt et alij
plures diuersi fructus, quorum penes nos non est respectus nec vsus.
Nam et sunt ibi nonnullæ speciales vites ferentes botros incredibiliter
magnos, quorum vnum vix virilis vir valet in hasta portare.
Et deinde in meridiem per aliquas diætas, potest perueniri ad primas
Caspiæ alpes, quæ descendendo descendunt vsque ad Amazoniam,
insulam mulierum, de qua tractatum est. Inter has Alpes retinetur
maxima multitudo Iudæorum decem tribum Israel, per Dei voluntatem
ita inclusa, vt in copiosa numerositate non possint à nostra parte exire,
quamuis aliqui pauci nonnunquam sunt visi transisse. Haberent autem
competentem exitum circa insulam Amazoniæ, sed illum diligenter
regina obseruat.
[Sidenote: Bacchariæ Regnum vel Boghariæ.] Porrò de regione Cadilla
in orientem venitur ad regnum Backariae, in qua mali et multum
crudeles habitant homines, nec est securum itinerare per illam, quòd ad
modicam occasionem (si Deus non conseruaret) occiderent viatorem et
manducarent. [Sidenote: Arbor Lanifera.] Illic sunt arbores ferentes
lanam velut ouium, ex qua texunt pannos ad vestimenta. Hypocentauri
sunt ibi pro media superiori parte in forma humana, et pro inferiori
figura equorum, seu taurorum, venantes in terris, et piscantes in aquis
quod comedunt, et super omnia carnes hominum, quos capere possunt.
[Sidenote: Gryphones, de quibus Paulus Venetæ] Nec non et gryphi
illic apparent pro media posteriori parte in forma leonis, pro anteriori in
forma aquilæ. Sed sciatis, corpus magni gryphi maius esse octo
leonibus de partibus istis. Nam postquam equum, bouem vel hominem,
etiam asinum occiderit, leuat et asportat pleno volatu: tanquam cornua
bouis aut vaccae sunt illi vngulæ, de quibus etiam fieri solent ciphi ad
bibendum, qui plurimùm reputantur preciosi. Fiunt quóque de pennis
alarum eius arcus rigidi, et fortes ad iaciendum missilia et sagittas. Ad
istius regni Baccariae extremitates in Orientum finitur terra potestatis
Grand Can: Et iungitur ei terra potestatis magni Imperatoris Indiæ, qui

semper vocatur Præsbyter Ioannes. Notandum, quoties per prouincias
totius Imperij Grand Can, quicquam accidit, quod Imperatorem non
oportet latere, confestim mittuntur per reges aut barones nuncij in
dromedarijs aut equis, qui celerrimè festinant ad certa hospitia, ad hoc
ipsum, velut ábsque numero per imperium instituta: Isque nuncius
hospitio appropinquans, et cornu resonans, dum auditor paratur
minicius alter, qui de manu suscipiens literas, per recentem
dromedarium festinat ad aliud hospitium, et sic in breui tempore
perferuntur rumores ad curia aures. [Sidenote: Cursores, Chidibo
Tartaricè dicti.] Similique modo nuncij pedites permutantur de hospitio
in hospitium, vt citiùs percipiatur negocium huius nuncij: appellantur
sua lingua Chidibo.
[Sidenote: Charita Mandeuilli.] Ergò per præmissa satis elucet magnam
esse nobilitatem, potestatem, reuerentiam, et dominationem Imperatoris
Tartariæ Grand Can de Cathay, et quòd nullus ab ista parte Imperator
nec Persiæ, nec Babylonia, nec Greciæ, sed nec Romæ est illi
comparandus. Vndè et multum miserandum est, quia ipse cùm toto
Imperio nec est fide Catholica illustratus, nec salutari lauachro
regeneratus: et hoc oremus vt in breui eueniat, per Iesum Christum
Dominum nostrum.
Explicit pars secunda huius opens.
The English Version.
And whan the emperour dyethe, men setten him in a chayere in myddes
the place of his tent: and men setten a table before him clene, covered
with a clothe, and there upon flesche and dyverse vyaundes, and a
cuppe fulle of mares mylk: And men putten a mare besyde him, with
hire fole, and an hors saddled and brydeled; and thei leyn upon the hors
gold and silver gret quantytee: and thei putten abouten him gret plentee
of stree: and than men maken a gret pytt and a large; and with the tent
and alle theise other thinges, then putten him in erthe. And thei seyn,
that whan he schalle come in to another world, he schalle not ben with
outen an hows, ne with owten hors, ne with outen gold and sylver: and
the mare schalle zeven him mylk, and bryngen him forthe mo hors, tille
he be wel stored in the tother world. For thei trowen, that aftre hire
dethe, thei schulle be etynge and drynkynge in that other world, and
solacynge hem with hire wifes, as thei diden here. And aftre tyme, that
the emperour is thus entered, no man schalle be so hardy to speke of

him before his frendes, And zit natheles somtyme fallethe of manye,
that thei maken hem to ben entered prevylly be nyghte, in wylde places,
and putten azen the grasse over the pytt for to growe: or elle men
coveren the pytt with gravelle and sond, that no man schalle perceyve
where, ne knowe where the pytt is, to that entent, that never aftre, non
of his frendes schulle han mynde ne rememberance of him. And thanne
thei seyn, that he is ravissht in to another world where he is a grettre
lord, than he was here. And thanne aftre the dethe of the emperour, the
7 lynages assemblen