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
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLDS WONDERS OF MOGEDAXO •1 9 I •
which those who have seen them tell of them. And indeed it is true that that which VB
I have seen of the said bird is that the great Kaan Cublai sent his messengers there to P know and inquire about the strange things of those islands, and again he sends word z z there to make them of this island release one of his messengers whom he sent to know z LT
about those things, but they have taken him & held him captive. And these messengers LT and he who had been taken tell the great Kaan many great and strange marvels of z those strange islands. That messenger of his brought to the lord the great Kaan a feather VB of the wing of the said bird ruc, which I Marc Pol measured & found it to be ninety of my handbreadths long, and the said feather was two of my palms round, which indeed was a wonderful thing to behold. And the lord had a singular pleasure in it, and it was reckoned a marvellous & beautiful thing; • and he made great presents to him who brought it to him . R Moreover I tell you quite truly that those messengers bring to the great Kaan teeth of wild boar which were immeasurably great. Moreover I tell you that the
great lord had one of them weighed when I Marc was present, which weighs by our VB VB ,1
weights more than fourteen' pounds; so you can tell how large was the boar which
had such large teeth. Moreover[I tell]you that they say that there are many boars z
which are large as a buffalo in the said island. • I Marc Pol saw the same messengers and R G
the feather and also the teeth. •And those messengers told that on the said island there are VB
also giraffes enough and wild asses likewise. And in short they have all•other wild y L L FR
beasts and birds so differently from ours that it would be a wonder to hear and
a greater wonder to see. And we wish to come back' to the grifon bird. Those of L
those islands call it ruc and call it by no other name, and do not know what a
grifon may be, wherefore I do not know if there are such great birds any more, or if the birds FB
are grifons, but they have not the form, such as we say, of half lion and of half bird, but
they are of very great size and are like the eagle; but we believe quite truly that for the
great size which they relate of that bird, that it is a grifon. Now we have told
you of this island a [9z.b] great part of the doings and of the customs of them. z
And in it there is nothing else which does to tell and so we will depart from it, and y
proceeding farther will tell you of the island of Çanghibar which is near to this, so as z VB
you will be able to hear.
HERE HE TELLS OF THE ISLAND OF ÇANGHIBAR. Çanghibar is a very • 192
exceedingly great and noble island of the great Indie. It is quite two G thousand' miles round. The people of the island, they are all idolaters, and VA V •
they have a king and a language for themselves, and they pay tribute to none. And v V
1 VL: .xxiiij.
2 not uoill retorner Z: reuerti uolumus
3 VL: mille mia (FRAMPTON: "tenne thousand myles")
431
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