IIIF Color HighRes
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
.49. DIVINERS LIBERTY AND MONKS OF CHESCEMIR pMARCO POLO
VB or day, • and from darkness change it into sunshine. They do by enchantment and by
L z wisdom so very many other great wonderful things that there is no one who did not see them who could believe them. Moreover I tell you that they• are the head
L z TA & source of all the other idolaters of the world, and from them the idols' descend.
V LT And from this place one could go to the sea of Indie. And commonly they, the men P LT P V and women of Chescemir, are dark and not perfectly black, • and big, and very lean. And
V likewise the women are very beautiful for dark women. And their food is flesh FB V P VA and milk and rice &' many other things. •For it is a very temperate2 land where it is
V V neither too hot nor too cold. And there are cities and villages enough, and they
L L VA LT L have many woods and some • very large deserts around then' and so many narrow & very
strong passes that they have fear of none, & access to them is difficult on every side,. LT so that one could not go to them without great weariness. And they keep themselves by FB V VB themselves; for they have their kings who maintain them in•great justice E for
their justice are much loved by all their people, • and are tributary to none. In this province VB P VB they have many hermits after their customs who stay[and]serve the idols • shut in their
hermitages or cells and make great abstinence from food and from drink, and are very pure from self-indulgence and keep themselves beyond measure from FB VB doing any other sin which may be against their goodness & from transgressing the command-P z VB ments of their wicked. law and faith; so that they might be called blessed if they knew the true God & were obedient to his commandments as they are to their false idols & gods. They z P are held wise and very holy and great reverence is shown them by their people, and I FB VB Z tell you that they live for a very great age because of the temperate air. And all the
great abstinence from sin which they make they make for the love[and]honour of
V their idols according to their law. And they have too abbeys and monasteries enough z vB z of their faith. And the brothers •of many sorts• in then► lead a strict life and wear tonsures like the Brothers Preachers and Minors. Moreover the men of that province do not kill any R Z animals, do not shed blood, but • if they wish to eat flesh it is necessary that • certain Saracens who are mixed among them kill their animals that they may have to eat. And the coral which R is brought from our land to[sell is-sold' more in that country for greater price R than in any others. Now let us leave you this province and these parts. And we
shall not go forward, because if we were to go forward twelve days marches further
we should enter into Indie, to the parts where pepper grows which are near the kingdom
' ydoles ...ydres Z: qui adorant ydolla ... ydola and ydres is not strictly observed in F.
2 Z: calida V: chalda R: calda temperatamente
3 po uende Read perhaps, as B., por uendre se uende FA,FB: se uent V: seuende
But this distinction between ydoles (or ydules)
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