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0526 The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 526 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000269
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suspecting that this lady with a Turkish name in the Indian Archipelago is a bit of fiction. Possibly Ibn Batuta had heard the legend of King Kaidu's daughter. The story of Kaidu's daughter, and still more the parallel one from Ibn Batuta, recall what Herodotus tells of the Sauromatae, who had married the Amazons; that no girl was permitted to marry till she had killed an enemy (IV. 117). They recall still more closely Brunhild, in the Nibelungen : —
“a royal maiden who reigned beyond the sea;
From sunrise to the sundown no paragon had she.
All boundless as her beauty was her strength was peerless too,
And evil plight hung o'er the knight who dared her love to woo.
For he must try three bouts with her; the whirling spear to fling;
To pitch the massive stone; and then to follow with a spring;
And should he beat in every feat his wooing well has sped,
But he who fails must lose his love, and likewise lose his head.”
CHAPTER V.
HOW ABAGA SENT HIS SON ARGON IN COMMAND AGAINST KING CAIDU.
ABAGA the Lord of the Levant had many districts and provinces bordering on King Caidu's territories. These lay in the direction of the Arbre Sol, which the Book of Alexander calls the Arbre Sec, about which I have told you before. And Abaga, to watch against forays by Caidu's people sent his son Argon with a great force of horsemen, to keep the marches between the Arbre Sec and the River Jon. So there tarried Argon with all his host.¹
Now it came to pass that King Caidu assembled a great army and made captain thereof a brother of his called Barac, a brave and prudent man, and sent his host under his brother to fight with Argon.²
† (Barac and his army cross the Jon or Oxus and are totally routed by Argon, to whose history the traveller now turns.)