Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 144 (Color Image)

0144	Marco Polo : vol.1

.4.6. THE PORCUPINES OF SCASSEM •AND BADASCIAN ,4MARCO POLO

V L of this city passes a rather large river.' And in this province there [lob] are taken VB many porcupines. And when the hunters wish to catch them and set the very fierce. VA FB large dogs upon them, the porcupines gather themselves all together' and they are P many . And when they are all assembled, .they shake themselves each with great fury and FB Z VA run & then throw the spines, which are lightly fastened on their backs and on the head P FB P and by their sides, at the dogs and men and wound them badly • very often in several

V L FB places. Then the hunters go upon then: & take them. • And this city of Scassem is in a great FB province' which is also called Scassetr: and has a language for itself. And the rustics FB who have their flocks stay in the mountains; for they make very fine dwellings FB FB there and large underground. For they make great caves there, and they can do so FB Z VB L very easily because the mountains are not of rock here but are .for the more part • only of FB earth. And when one leaves this city of Sc.assen: of which I have told you above FB he goes riding three days marches in which he finds no dwelling nor food nor R drink for the wayfarers except water; but grass enough for the horses is found; but the way-FB VA farers must carry it with them as much as they need for the journey. And at the end

V FB of these three days marches one finds the province of the name of Badascian, and I

will tell you here below of its doings.
47 • P T TERE HE TELLS OF THE GREAT PROVINCE OF BADASCIAN. Badascian is a large
province where the people worship Mahomct and have a language of FB VB R 1 1 their own. It is a very great & broad realm which for length lasts quite

L V twelve days marches, and is ruled by inheritance, that is that it is said that. all the kings

they are of a lineage descended from the king Alexandre and from his wife who was FB FB the daughter of the king Darius the Great who was lord of the great realm of Persie;
and all those kings of the said[provincel are still called Çulcarnein in Saracen, their
language, which means to say in French king Alexandre, for love of [zoc] Alexandre FB LT the Great. And in this province or kingdom the precious stones are produced which LT one calls balasci, which are very beautiful and of great value. And they are called balasci from Badascian, that is from the province or from that kingdom where they are found. z And they are produced in the rocks of the great mountains, and I tell you that

V VB when they wish to dig then: • [they are got]with great trouble, for they make great caverns

1 FA,FB: auques grant Z: aliquantulum magnum P: fluuius magnus TA,VB: grande fiume V: vito fiume grande VA: vno gram fiume L: in piano per medium cuius trar:ssit flumen satis magnum R: assai ben grande

2 les porches sacoilent toutes ensenble Z: porcus totus in se glomeratur It seems to be probable that Z is right, but the other texts have taken it as in F.

3 scasunen est une grant prouences Read perhaps scasim est en une But V: questa sorto vna gran prouinzia L: est magna prouincia dicta scasunen See PN.

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Citation Information

OCR Text

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books