The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 434 (Color Image)

0434	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

376

MARCO POLO

1300K III.

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brother's wife after the brother's death ; and all the

people of India have this custom.°

There is no more to tell you there ; so we will pro-

ceed, and I will tell you of another country called

Comari. •

one of the rivers it will be boiled, before you have had

time to go any distance, by the mere heat of the sun !

The merchants from Manzi, and from Arabia, and

from the Levant come thither with their ships and

their merchandise and make great profits both by what

they import and by what they export.

There are in this country many and divers beasts

quite different from those of other parts of the world.

Thus there are lions black all over, with no mixture of

any other colour ; and there are parrots of many sorts,

for some are white as snow with red beak and feet, and

some are red, and some are blue, forming the most

charming sight in the world ; there are green ones

too. There are also some parrots of exceeding small

size, beautiful creatures.' They have also very beautiful

peacocks, larger than ours, and different ; and they

have cocks and hens quite different from ours ; and

what more shall I say ? In short, everything they have

is different from ours, and finer and better. Neither is

their fruit like ours, nor their beasts, nor their birds ;

and this difference all comes of the excessive heat.

Corn they have none but rice. So also their wine

they make from [palm-] sugar ; capital drink it is, and

very speedily it makes a man drunk. All other neces-

saries of man's life they have in great plenty and

cheapness. They have very good astrologers and

physicians. Man and woman, they are all black, and

go naked, all save a fine cloth worn about the middle.

They look not on any sin of the flesh as a sin. They

marry their cousins german, and a man takes bis

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