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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
A
52 MARCO POLO Boo1L I.
the people live by trade and handicrafts. 'Tis a very
mountainous region, and full of strait defiles and of
fortresses, insomuch that the "Tartars have never been
able to subdue it out and out.
There is in this country a certain Convent of Nuns
called St. Leonard's, about which I have to tell you a
very wonderful circumstance. Near the church in
question there is a great lake at the foot of a mountain,
and in this lake are found no fish, great or small,
throughout the year till Lent come. On the first day of
Lent they find in it the finest fish in the world, and great
store too thereof ; and these continue to be found till
Easter Eve. After that they are found no more till
Lent come round again ; and so 'tis every year. 'Tis
really a passing great miracle ! 6
That sea whereof I spoke as coming so near the
mountains is called the Sea of GHEL or GHELAN, and
extends about 70o miles.? It is twelve days' journey
distant from any other sea, and into it flows the great
River Euphrates and many others, whilst it is surrounded
by mountains. Of late the merchants of Genoa have
begun to navigate this sea, carrying ships across and
launching them thereon. It is from the country on this
sea also that the silk called Ghellé is brought.$ [The
said sea produces quantities of fish, especially sturgeon,
at the river-mouths salmon, and other big kinds of fish.] 9
6,
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NOTE I.--Ramusio has : " One part of the said province is subject to the Tartar, and the other part, owing to its fortresses, remains subject to the King David." We give an illustration of one of these medieval Georgian fortresses, from a curious collection of MS. notices and drawings of Georgian subjects in the Municipal Library at Palermo, executed by a certain P. Cristoforo di Castelli of that city, who was a Theatine missionary in Georgia, in the first half of the 17th century.
The G. T. says the King was always called David. The Georgian Kings of the family of Bagratidae claimed descent from King David through a prince Shampath, said to have been sent north by Nebuchadnezzar ; a descent which was usually asserted in their public documents. Timur in his Institutes mentions a suit of armour given him by the King of Georgia as forged by the hand of the Psalmist King. David is a
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