The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 458 (Color Image)

0458	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1

158

MARCO POLO

13OOK T.

mountains which contain a great amount of silver ore, so

that the country is a very rich one ; but it is also (it must

be said) a very cold one.' It produces numbers of

excellent horses, remarkable for their speed. They are

not shod at all, although constantly used in mountainous

country, and on very bad roads. [They go at a great

pace even down steep descents, where other horses neither

would nor could do the like. And Messer Marco was

told that not long ago they possessed in that province a

breed of horses from the strain of Alexander's horse

Bucephalus, all of which had from their birth a particular

mark on the forehead. This breed was entirely in the

hands of an uncle of the king's ; and in consequence of

his refusing to let the king have any of them, the latter

put him to death. The widow then, in despite, destroyed

the whole breed, and it is now extinct.4]

The mountains of this country also supply Saker

falcons of excellent flight, and plenty of Lanners like-

wise. Beasts and birds for the chase there are in great

abundance. Good wheat is grown, and also barley with-

out husk. They have no olive oil, but make oil from

sesamé, and also from walnuts.5

[In the mountains there are vast numbers of sheep

400, 500, or 600 in a single flock, and all of them wild ;

and though many of them are taken, they never seem to

get aught the scarcer.'

Those mountains are so lofty that 'tis a hard day's

work, from morning till evening, to get to the top of

them. On getting up, you find an extensive plain, with

great abundance of grass and trees, and copious springs

of pure water running down through rocks and ravines.

In those brooks are found trout and many other fish of

dainty kinds ; and the air in those regions is so pure, and

residence there so healthful, that when the men who dwell

below in the towns, and in the valleys and plains, find

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