The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 77 (Color Image)

0077	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

CHAP. XLV. THE PROVINCE OF TERET

the wild easts that prevents the country from being

reoccupied. In fact but for the help of these canes,

which make such a noise in burning that the beasts

are terrified and kept at a distance, no one would be

able even to travel through the land.

I will tell you how it is that the canes make such

a noise. The people cut the green canes, of which

there are vast numbers, and set fire to a heap of them

at once. After they have been awhile burning they

burst asunder, and this makes such a loud report that you

might hear itten miles off. In fact, any one unused to

this noise, who should hear it unexpectedly, might easily

go into a swound or die of fright. But those who are

used to it care nothing about it. Hence those who are

not used to it stuff their ears well with cotton, and wrap

up their heads and faces with all the clothes they can

muster ; and so they get along until they have become

used to the sound. 'Tis just the same with horses.

Those which are unused to these noises are so alarmed

by them that they break away from their halters and

heel-ropes, and many a man has lost his beasts in

this way. So those who would avoid losing their horses

take care to tie all four legs and peg the ropes down

strongly, and to wrap the heads and eyes and ears of

the animals closely, and so they save them. But horses

also, when they have heard the noise several times, cease

to mind it. I tell you the truth, however, when I say

that the first time you hear it nothing can be more

alarming. And yet, in spite of all, the lions and bears

and other wild beasts will sometimes come and do much

mischief ; for their numbers are great in those tracts.'

You ride for 20 days without finding any inhabited

spot, so that travellers are obliged to carry all their

provisions with them, and are constantly falling in with

those wild beasts which are so numerous and so dangerous.

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books