IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD. THE PLAIN OF CURMOS .3 7.
HERE HE TELLS AGAIN OF THE GREAT DESCENT AND OF THE CITY AND OF FB FB THE MEN OF CURMOS. It is true that this plain of which I have told you y lasts towards midday for quite five days marches, and then at the end of FB FB v these five days marches one finds another very great descent and slope which it is better to L vB
travel on foot, where one must go all down hill quite twenty miles, and it is a very bad FB
road and bad men who rob and assault continually those who pass there come there in R R
abundance and therefore it is a very dangerous road. And when one has gone down this P
slope of twenty miles he finds another very beautiful plain and it is called the plain VA
of Curmos,' and it lasts quite two days journeys in length. And there are many v v v VA
waters & •most beautiful rivers, and dates enough and much of other fruits. • It is a very R FB vB
noble land. • And birds there are many francolin and parrots and very many other L V L
birds which are not at all like ours of our lands • this side of the sea; • there are also many L VA P FB
kinds of birds which we do not know how to name. And at the end of the said province when vB
one has ridden these two days journeys he finds the Ocean sea; and note that on the FB z
shore of the sea is a city [i6d] which is called Curmos2 which has a very good harbour. z L
And I tell you that all the merchants come there from all the • different parts of Indie z R z
with their ships, bringing there all spiceries and other merchandise, that is precious v
stones and pearls and cloth of silk and of gold and of other different colours and y
elephants tusks and many other wares, and in that city they sell them to the various R
other men. There are merchants also • of the city who then carry them through all the FB V
whole world, selling to the other merchant peoples. It is in truth a town of very FB R
various and great trade. It, namely Curmos, is the royal city and has under it cities and LT LT
villages enough; for it is chief of the kingdom of Cherman. The king of the city has LT R R
for name Rucnedin Acmat who rules tyrannically but is subject to the king of Cherman. • R
And there is very great heat, for the sun is very hot there, and it is a very unhealthy L z
land. And if it happen that any merchant from other lands die there the king takes z
and puts away for himself all his possessions. And in this land the wine is made of z
dates and with many other good spices, and it is very good. And yet when the men VA P
who are not used to drink it drink it at first it makes them go down much and L
purges them entirely; but afterwards when he is used to drink it it does great good and LT FB
gives them flesh enough. And the men of that country do not use our food because LT LT
if they eat wheat bread and flesh when they are well they fall ill for the most part • FB L
immediately. • And when they are ill then they eat flesh and wheat bread. But when they are LT FL'
0
1 formose R: Ormus followed by B. V: belissinia
z R: doue sopra v►ra Isola vicina vi è vna citta chiamata Ormus This seems to be due to
RAMUSIO'S editing. cf. Y. I. p. Ho. See p. 44 and PN.
123
F.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.