The third river is called TYGRIS. It passes over against the land of the Assyrians, and comes down near NYNEVE, that great city of three days' journey, to which Jonas was sent to preach ; and his sepulchre is there. I have been there also, and stopped a fortnight in the adjoining towns which were built out of the ruins of the city. There are capital fruits there, especially pomegranates of wonderful size and sweetness, with all the other fruits that we have in Italy. And on the opposite side [of the river] is a city built out of the ruins of Nyneve, which is called MoNSOL.r
Between that river and the fourth, there is a long tract of country bearing these names ; viz., Mesopotamia, i.e. the land between the waters ; Assyria, the land of Abraham and Job, where also is the city of King Abagarus, to whom Christ sent a letter written with his own hand, once a most fair and Christian city, but now in the hands of the Saracens. There also I abode four days in no small fear.
We come lastly to the fourth river, by name EUPHRATES, which separates Syria, Assyria, and Mesopotamia from the Holy Land. When we crossed it we were in the Holy Land. In this region are some very great cities, especially ALEP, in
Caspian (Ethilia...faciens Mare Caspium, says Roger Bacon). How he connects the Caspian and the Karamuren is puzzling. The Chinese have indeed a notion that the sources of the Hoang-Ho were originally in the mountains near Kashgar, whence their streams flowed into the Lop Nur, and thence diving under ground, issued forth as the Hoang-Ho. There was also an old notion that the waters of the country about Karashahr came from the Si-Hai or Caspian (Timkowsky, ii, 272) ; (Fo-koue-ki, p. 37; Julien in N. A. des Voyages, as quoted at p. 339). Something of these legends Marignolli may have heard, without quite digesting.
On this passage, with an amusing sense of his own superior advantages, Dobner observes : " Here Marignola shows himself excessively ignorant of geography; but we must pardon him, for in his day geographical studies had by no means reached that perfection which they have attained now."
1 The ruins opposite Mosul are those called Nabi Yunus and Kouyunjik, well known from Mr. Layard's excavations and interesting books. A sketch showing the tomb of Jonah mentioned in the text, will be found at p. 131, vol. i, of Nineveh and its Remains. Ricold of Montecroce also mentions the traces and ramparts of Nineveh, and a spring which was called the Fount of Jonah.
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