was a great city, and in the olden time did great scathe to the Romans. The compass of its walls is a good fifty miles, and there be therein palaces yet standing entire, but without inhabitants. It aboundeth however in many kinds of victual.
Leaving this and going on through many towns and cities I reached the city called Huz,' which abounds in all kinds of victuals, and is beautifully situated. For near this city are mountains, which afford in great abundance the finest of pastures for cattle. There also is found manna of better quality and in greater abundance than in any part of the world. In that country also you can get four good partridges for less than a Venetian groat. In those parts also you see very comely elders; and 'tis the custom there for the men to knit and spin, and not the women. And this land adjoineth the extremity of Chaldeea towards the North.3
route, seem to identify the remains of which he speaks with those of Persepolis. The name Comerurn will then probably represent the grossa villa of Camara, at which Barbaro places the ruins, and this is perhaps the same with the Kinara of Rich. The great platform and columns of the palace, probably then more perfect than now, and the vast circuit assigned to the ruins by Persian tradition, varying from twelve to forty-four parasangs (forty to a hundred and fifty miles, the former estimate not exaggerated if the remains in that neighbourhood be supposed within the compass of one city), answer well to the brief words of our traveller.
1 Some copies have " the land (or city) of Job"; others " the land of Job, called Huz" (see Latin text).
2 The Huz of Odoric I at first supposed to be Ahwâz (or Hawâz), or some other city of Khuzistan. Assemanni in Latin calls that country Huzia, and sometimes Huzitis; whilst Magini in Italian calls it Gus. Job's name, which appears in many copies, is probably an interpolation suggested by the name of the country. However, Chardin tells us that Mayn, north-west of Shiraz, was pointed out as the residence of Job ; and probably the nearest approximation in modern times to the Patriarch's wealth in cattle is to be found amongst the nomade chiefs of Persia. It is, however, more probable that the Huz of Odoric is the Hazah of Eastern writers, frequently coupled with Mosul, and identified by Assemanni with Adiabene (see Assemanni, pp. 5, 11, 12, 13, 209, 710). This would certainly be more consistent with the accuracy of the last clause of the chapter.
3 I suppose Odoric to pass through a part of the hill countrÿ of Luristan
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