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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
-3 7. HOT SPRINGS OF CHERMAN AND SALT DESERTS ..MARCO POLO
FB tell you of the facts of Indie at this point, for indeed I shall tell you of it below in our book when it shall be time and place; but now I shall go back by tramontaine
V L to tell you of those regions & provinces, and we shall go back in order to do this from Curmos of which we have now spoken by another road to the city of Cherman of
which I have told you above, because into the countries of which I wish to tell you one cannot go except from this city of Cherman. And I say to you that the king
of the said[city], Rucnedin Acmat whom we left just now, is a vassal of this king of Cherman. And on the way back from Curmos to Cherman is a very beautiful z VA L VB and great plain and great abundance of food . And there are many good & most perfect FB Z VB naturally hot baths springing from the earth .•And there are partridges enough and very
v VB FB L cheap. And there are fruits and dates in very great plenty and very cheap. • And even VA the wheat bread here is so bitter that none can [17c] eat of it if he is not for a z good time used to it; and this comes about because the land is soaked with the «'ater z R there which indeed is bitter and salt.' The baths of which I have spoken to you above are of spring water very hot, and they are very good for many diseases and P FB for removing the itch. Now I wish to begin to tell you about the countries which I FB V shall name to you in this my book turning to the road towards tramontaine, and
you shall hear howl one goes through many wild and desert places.
38 • T TOW ONE GOES THROUGH WILD COUNTRY AND POOR.3 When one sets off
FB P
z z
VA P VB
z
LT
z
V LT LT
from this city of Cherman towards Cobinan he rides quite seven days marches of very troublesome road, and I shall tell you how. When one
leaves Cherman where there are three days marches, a certain desert is entered where one finds no river4 nor rivulet nor water, or very little, and that which one finds is salt and green as meadow grass, so that it looks more like the juice of grass than water, • and unwholesome; and it is so bitter that none could bear to drink it, and if one were to drink only one sip of it it would make him retire more than ten times. And again he who should eat only a little grain of the salt which that water produces, it would also make him purge a great deal. And therefore the men who go crossing those deserts by that way must carry good water with them to drink through all that road .
i TA: e questo e per lo mare cheuui uiene and so LT.
2 et bores cornant FB: et orez comment TA: et diremo chome V: diremo chomo se nano per molti luogi saluadegi e dexerti But FA: & ore commence So B. translates Incominciamo.
3 part sauuaie contre a pour Ft part saouaie contra & pour. This rubric seems to have puzzled the scribes and appears in many forms. It is probably right to read with B. goure; but his reading par tre is less certain. The mark on the cross of the t in the Table (p. 6 5) looks like a smudge, and is not a familiar sign for re in this MS..
4 riuer VA: aqua ne fiume ne riozuol Others: "water"
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