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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THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD, PIRATES FROM GOÇURAT • I 8 3 •
cloth of gold, and cloth of silk, sendal, gold, and silver, cloves, spikenard, and z such spicery as these which they of Melibar have not; and they change these things R with the goods of these of this country. And you may know that the ships corne z hither from many parts, that is from the great province of Mangi, and the merchants z carry them away in many directions. But that which goes towards sunsetting, which FA the merchants take in their ships who go to Aden, is carried afterwards to Alexandre; which are not one ship of ten of those which go towards the sunrising,1—which is a wry great FB feat, as I have told you. Now we have told you of the kingdom of Melibar. Then we will leave it and will go forward & will tell you of the kingdom of Goçurat so FB as you will be able to hear. And you may know that we do not tell you of [89a] all the cities of the kingdoms because it would be too long a matter to mention. For you may know that each kingdom has cities and villages enough.
HERE HE SPEAKS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOÇURAT. Goçurat is also a great • 184 •
kingdom near to Melibar, and they are idolaters and have a king, a rich P VB and powerful lord, and a language for themselves, and they pay tribute to FB none of the lords in the world. And it is toward sunsetting in Greater Indie. And from TA P
this kingdom the star of tramontaine is seen yet more high, for it seems to be quite L
six goues high. And there are also in this kingdom the greatest corsairs on the water TA G
and robbers by land in the world, cruel and evil. • They seize the merchants & beside taking VB vL
the goods from them torture them and put a ransom on their persons; and if they do not quickly
pay the ransom they give them so great torments that many die of it. Moreover I tell you
that they do such a wickedness as I shall tell you. But when the merchants are about z
to cross the parts where the aforesaid pirates roam the sea, and have pearls and precious stones,
they swallow them that they may not be snatched from them by the pirates. And if they were
caught they lost some goods and keep the stones in this way. Because when the pirates had seised
what they had found they used to let the merchants go immediately. But now the pirates are
infected with evilness; for you may know that when these wicked corsairs take some FB
ship of the merchants and find no stones and pearls, immediately they give them to drink z
1 Et sachies qe il uienent les nes de maintes parties ce est de la grant prouence dou mangi. E les merchans lenportent por plosors parties nies celz qe uaut adonc est puis portes a alexandre. uaut adonc seems to be certainly for wait (or wont) a aden and there may be some error in the clause about Mangi, for which TA reads, qui si uenghono i inerchatanti de mangi et portano queste merchatantie in molte parti. Z (p. xci) agrees with F. FB (fol. 124r0), omitting the first sentence, Et sachies . . . plosors parties, has "So that the heavy spicery which issues from this kingdom and goes to the province of Mangi and towards the east is consumed in those regions. But that which goes towards the west, which go to Aden, go to Alexandre, which are not one ship of ten of those which go towards the east." This does not seem to be quite satisfactory, but (with FA) is on the whole perhaps better than F or Z.
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