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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
Y
98
BOOK I.
MARCO POLO
¶1
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In this plain there are a number of villages and
towns which have lofty walls of mud, made as a defence
against the banditti,3 who are very numerous, and are
called CARAONAS. This name is given them because
they are the sons of Indian mothers by Tartar fathers.
And you must know that when these Caraonas wish to
make a plundering incursion, they have certain devilish
enchantments whereby they do bring darkness over the
face of day, insomuch that you can scarcely discern your
comrade riding beside you ; and this darkness they will
. cause to extend over a space of seven days' journey.
They know the country thoroughly, and ride abreast,
keeping near one another, sometimes to the number of
Io,000, at other times more or fewer. In this way they
extend across the whole plain that they are going to
harry, and catch every living thing that is found outside
of the towns and villages ; man, woman, or beast, nothing
can escape them ! The old men whom they take in this
way they butcher ; the young men and the women they
sell for slaves in other countries ; thus the whole land is
ruined, and has become well-nigh a desert.
The King of these scoundrels is called NOGODAR.
This N ogodar had gone to the Court of Chagatai, who
was own brother to the Great Kaan, with some I o,000
horsemen of his, and abode with him ; for Chagatai was
his uncle. And whilst there this Nogodar devised a
most audacious enterprise, and I will tell you what it was.
He left his uncle who was then in Greater Armenia, and
fled with a great body of horsemen, cruel unscrupulous
fellows, first through BADASIJAN, and then through
another province ealled PASHAI-DIR, and then through
another called ARIORA-KESHEMUR. There he lost a
great number of his people and of his horses, for the
roads were very narrow and perilous. And when he had
y conquered all those provinces, he entered India at the
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