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
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| UNICORNS & SMALL APES IN JAVA THE LESS ,MARCO POLO z VB z presents by those who pass by there of elephants, unicorns, or other • beautiful and strange z z things, and specially of a kind of black goshawks. They have many wild elephants and FB they also have unicorns enough which are not at all by any means less' than an FB Z FB elephant in size . • And they are made 1 ike this, for thty all have the hair of the buffalo; z it has the feet made like the feet of an elephant. It has one horn in the middle of the LT VA forehead very thick and large and black. And I tell you that it does no harm to men and z z beasts with its horn, but only with the tongue and knees, for on its tongue it has very long z z spines and sharp; so that when they wish to hurt anyone they trample and press him down with the knees, afterwards inflicting the harm which it does with[its]tongue.2 It has the top of the head made like a wild boar and [76a1 always carries its head bent towards the FB L ground, and stays very willingly amongst lakes and forests in the mud and in the mire like L z swine. It is a very ugly beast to see and unclean. • And they are not so as we here say and FB FB describe, who say that it lets itself be caught in the lap by a virgin girl; but I tell I.T you that it is quite the contrary of that which we believe3 that it was. They of this kingdom have monkeys in very great abundance and of many fashions strangely z made. They also have hawks all black like ravens. They are very large and hawk L VB very well and are very swift, • and take monkeys and other animals and birds. Moreover R Z I wish to say and make you know that those who bring the little dead men, as is said, LT VB from Indie, it is a great lie and a great deception that anyone say that they are men . • I do not believe that those who say that they are very small men have seen a little man alive, but they are dead; and they are not men; for I tell you that those which they say are men FB Z from Indie so small, they are not so, but are made so by hand in this island, and I will tell you how. It is true that in this isle there is a kind of monkeys which are very L z VA small and have faces which are altogether like the face of men, and they have other parts VB of the body resembling men. • So they say that those monkeys are men and deceive others. P VL Now the men who are hunters take such monkeys as those & boil them and strip them z z all bare of all hair with a certain ointment, and fix and leave them the long hairs in the z L chin in place of beard and on the chest,' and paint the skin with some colour to make it | ||||||||||||||
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| 1 Z: qui sunt multo minores Comparison with LT: qui non sunt multum minores; P,L: parum minores; V: non menor; VL: pocho menori seems to make it likely that we should read qui [non]sunt ...; but it is interesting to see that R has the sono molto minori . . . 2 il ne fait maus con sa langue car ... si qe le maus qe qe il fait con langue The first clause is obviously defective. The second may be omitted as in almost all other MSS.; or mended by reading ... maus qe il fait, il fait con sa langue; or it may be woven into the text of Z as above, only omitting the third qe. cf. B. p. 171. 3 nos quidion B. prefers to read nos qui dion "we here say". 4 peterin i.e. poitrine (GoDEI RoY). FG,TA,&c.: "groin" P: "other parts" Z omits. | |||||||||||||||
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