Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 183 (Color Image)

0183	Marco Polo : vol.1

THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD. PUNISHMENTS & CATTLE . 7

themselves very much in the manner of Saracens & hold the faith & laws of Mahomet • And L VB V

they [z9d] maintain justice and judgement in such a way as I shall now describe to you. For LT R G

a murderer there is no ransom. Indeed if a elan strikes with steel or with a sword, whether he hits

or not, or threatens one, he loses his hand. He who wounds must receive a like wound from the

wounded. It is true that when a man has taken some little thing for which he ought

not to die, • they condemn him to be beaten . There is given him by the government • at least seven V L FB L

blows with a rod or, if he has stolen two things, seventeen blows or, if three things twenty- P VB VB VB

seven blows or thirty-seven or forty-seven, and in this way it goes up sometimes to a VB L

hundred and seven, always increasing by ten blows for each thing which is stolen, according L VB

to what he has taken and the measure of the crime.And many of them die of this beating. P

And if the man steals is oxen so that it would come to exceed 107 blows[or]a horse or VB

other thing for which he ought to lose life he is cut in two with a sword and killed;' P

so, truly, that if he who steals can pay and will give nine' times as much as the value L

of that which he has stolen he escapes from death • and they do not despatch him with the P V

sword. And the country is so secure that each lord or the other men who have animals VB

in plenty, they have them marked with their seal stamped on the hair, that is the horses P

and the mares and camels and oxen and cows and other large beasts; then he lets

them go safely to graze anywhere over the plains and over the mountains without a L R

watchman; and if on their return they are mixed the one with the other, each man P

who finds them recognizes the owner's mark and immediately • takes pains to inquire for him LT P

and quickly gives back his own to him whose mark is found. And in this way each V

finds his own animals. • But • the flocks and small animals, the rams & the sheep and the goats L LT

they have indeed watched by men, without a stamp. Their flocks are all very large L

and fat and very fine' beyond measure. And again I shall tell you another wonderful y

usage which they have which I had forgotten to write, that they make among themselves LT

marriages of their dead children. You may know quite truly that when there are two

men who, the one has had a male child [3oa] who is dead, and he may be dead at y

four years or when he pleases before he is married, and he inquires for another man who FB LT LT

may have had a female child suited to him, and she also may be dead before she is LT FB

married; • these two parents they make a marriage of these two dead together in this way, • y y v

when he is at the age that he should take a wife if he were alive. For they give the dead girl LT

to the dead boy for wife, and they have documents made about it in corroboration R

1 P: per transuersum in uentrem mucrone percutitur et occiditur seems rather to suggest disembowelling. VB: i fa monzar la testa

2 FB: viii VA, VB: .x.

3 bestes for belles VA: grande grosse e belle oltra muodo

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