The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 374 (Color Image)

0374	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

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MARCO POLO $ooK III.

demanded of those who were with him what thing

that was ? and then they told him it was a dead man.

How, then," quoth the king's son, do all men die ? "

" Yea, forsooth," said they. Whereupon the young

gentleman said never a word, but rode on right

pensively. And after he had ridden a good way he

fell in with a very aged man who could no longer

walk, and had not a tooth in his head, having lost all

because of his great age. And when the king's son

beheld this old man he asked what that might mean,

and wherefore the man could not walk ? Those who

were with him replied that it was through old age the

man could walk no longer, and had lost all his teeth.

And so when the king's son bad thus learned about

the dead man and about the aged man, be turned back

to his palace and said to himself that he would abide

no longer in this evil world, but would go in search

of Him Who dieth not, and Who had created him.'

So what did he one night but take his departure

from the palace privily, and betake himself to certain

lofty and pathless mountains. And there he did abide,

leading a life of great hardship and sanctity, and keep-

ing great abstinence, just as if he had been a Christian.

Indeed, an he had but been so, be would have been

a great saint of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so good and

pure was the life he led.3 And when he died they

found his body and brought it to his father. And

when the father saw dead before him that son whom

he loved better than himself, he was near going dis-

traught with sorrow. And he caused an image in the

similitude of his son to be wrought in gold and precious

stones, and caused all his people to adore it. And they

all declared him to be a god ; and so they still say.4

They tell moreover that he bath died fourscore and

four times. The first time he died as a man, and came

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