The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 347 (Color Image)

0347	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

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CIIAP. X. ,. SAMARA AND DAGROIAN 293

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and when cutting a branch no longer gives a flow of wine,

they water the root of the tree, and before long the

branches again begin to give out wine as before.3 They

have also great quantities of Indian nuts [as big as a

man's head], which are good to eat when fresh ; [being

sweet and savoury, and white as milk. The inside of

the meat of the nut is filled with a liquor like clear fresh

water, but better to the taste, and more delicate than

wine or any other drink that ever existed.]

Now that we have done telling you about this king-

dom, let us quit it, and we will tell you of Dagroian.

V'Then you leave the kingdom of Samara you come to

another which is called DAGROIAN. It is an independent

kingdom, and has a language of its own. The people

are very wild, but they call themselves the subjects of the

Great Kaan. I will tell you a wicked custom of theirs.'

When one of them is ill they send for their sorcerers,

and put the question to them, whether the sick man shall

recover of his sickness or no. If they say that he will

recover, then they let him alone till he gets better. But

if the sorcerers foretell that the sick man is to die, the

friends send for certain judges of theirs to put to death him

who has thus been condemned by the sorcerers to die.

These men come, and lay so many clothes upon the sick

man's mouth that they suffocate him. And when he is

dead they have him cooked, and gather together all the

dead man's kin, and eat him. And I assure you they do

suck the very bones till not a particle of marrow remains

in them ; for they say that if any nourishment remained

in the bones this would breed worms, and then the

worms would die for want of food, and the death of those

worms would be laid to the charge of the deceased man's

soul. And so they eat him up stump and rump. And

when they have thus eaten him they collect his bones

and put them in fine chests, and carry them away, and

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