I now return to some provinces more to the north, where many Tartars dwell, who have a king called Caidu, of the race of Zingis, but who is entirely independent. These Tartars, observant of the customs of their ancestors, dwell not in cities, castles, or fortresses, but continually roam about, along with their king, in the plains and forests, and are esteemed true Tartars. They have no corn of any kind, but have multitudes of horses, cattle, sheep, and other beasts, and live on flesh and milk, in great peace. In their country there are white bears of large size, twenty palms in length; very large wild asses, little beasts called rondes, from which we have the valuable fur called sables, and various other animals producing fine furs, which the Tartars are very skilful in taking. This country abounds in great lakes, which are frozen over, except for a few months in every year, and in summer it is hardly possible to travel, on account of marshes and waters; for which reason, the merchants who go to buy furs, and who have to travel for fourteen days through the desert, have wooden houses at the end of each days journey, where they barter with the inhabitants, and in winter they travel in sledges without wheels, quite flat at the bottom, and rising semicircularly at the top, and these are drawn by great dogs, yoked in couples, the sledgeman only with his merchant and furs, sitting within534.
Beyond these Tartars is a country reaching to the extremest north, called the Obscure land, because the sun never appears during the greatest part of the winter months, and the air is perpetually thick and darkish, as is the case with us sometimes in hazy mornings. The inhabitants are pale and squat, and live like beasts, without law, religion, or king. The Tartars often rob them of their cattle during the dark months; and lest they might lose their way in these expeditions they ride on mares which have sucking foals, leaving these at the entrance of the country, under a guard; and when they have got possession of any booty, they give the reins to the mares, which make the best of their way to rejoin their foals. In their, long-continued summer535, these northern people take many of the finest furs, some of which are carried into Russia, which is a great country near that northern land of darkness. The people in Russia have fair complexions, and are Greek Christians, paying tribute to the king of the Tartars in the west, on whom they border. In the eastern parts of Russia there is abundance of fine furs, wax, and mines of silver; and I am told the country reaches to the northern ocean, in which there are islands which abound in falcons and ger-falcons.
CHAPTER XII.
Travels of Oderic of Portenau, into China and the East, in 1318536
Oderic of Portenau, a minorite friar, travelled into the eastern countries in the year 1318, accompanied by several other monks, and penetrated as far as China. After his return, he dictated, in 1330, the account of what he had seen during his journey to friar William de Solona, or Solangna, at Padua, but without order or arrangement, just as it occurred to his memory. This traveller has been named by different editors, Oderic, Oderisius, and Oldericus de Foro Julii, de Udina, Utinensis, or de Porto Vahonis, or rather Nahonis. Porto-Nahonis, or Portenau, is the Mutatio ad nonum, a station or stage which is mentioned in the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, or description of the various routes to Jerusalem, a work compiled for the use of pilgrims; and its name is apparently derived from the Kymerian language, apparently a Celtic dialect, in which port signifies a stage, station, or resting-place, and nav or naou signifies nine; Port-nav, Latinized into Portus naonis, and Frenchified into Portenau, implies, therefore, the ninth station, and is at present named Pordanone in the Friul. The account of his travels, together with his life, are to be found: in Bolandi Actis Sanctorum, 14to Januarii; in which he is honoured with the title of Saint. Oderic died at Udina in 1331. In 1737, Basilio Asquini, an Italian Barnabite of Udina, published La Vita e Viaggi del Beato Qderico da Udihe, probably an Italian translation from the Latin of Bolandi. The account of these travels in the collection of Hakluyt, is called "The Journal of Friar Odericus, concerning the strange things which he sawe among the Tartars of the East;" and was probably transcribed and translated from Bolandi, in which these travels are entitled De mirabilibus Mundi, or the Wonders of the World. They have very much the air of an ignorant compilation, fabricated in the name of Oderic, perhaps upon some slight foundation, and stuffed with ill-assorted stories and descriptions from Marco Polo, and other, writers, interspersed with a few ridiculous miracles, for the honour or disgrace of the minorite order. Mr Pinkerton asserts, that Oderic was not canonized until 1753. But the Acts of the Saints is a publication of considerable antiquity, and he is called Beatus in the work of Asquini, already mentioned as having been published in 1787.
Many things are related by various authors, concerning the customs, fashions, and conditions of this world: Yet, as I, friar Oderic of Portenau in the Friul, have travelled among the remote nations of the unbelievers, where I saw and heard many great and wonderful things, I have thought fit to relate all these things truly. Having crossed over the great sea537 from Pera, close by Constantinople, I came to Trebizond, in the country called Pontus by the ancients. This land is commodiously situated as a medium of intercourse for the Persians and Medes, and other nations beyond the Great Sea, with Constantinople, and the countries of the west. In this island I beheld a strange spectacle with great delight; a man, who led about with him more than 4000 partridges. This person walked on the ground, while his partridges flew about him in the air, and they followed him wherever he went; and they were so tame, that when he lay down to rest, they all came flocking about him, like so many chickens. From a certain castle called Zauena, three days journey from Trebizond, he led his partridges in this manner to the palace of the emperor in that city. And when the servants of the emperor had taken such a number of the partridges as they thought proper, he led back the rest in the same manner, to the place from whence he came.
From this city of Trebizond, where the body of St Athanasius is preserved over one of the gates, I journeyed into the Greater Armenia, to a city named Azaron, which was rich and flourishing in former times, but the Tartars have nearly laid it entirely waste; yet it still has abundance of bread and flesh, and victuals of all sorts, excepting wine and fruits. This city is remarkably cold, and is said to be situated on a higher elevation that any other city of the world. It has abundance of excellent water, which seems to originate from the great river Euphrates538, which is only at the distance of a days journey. Azaron stands in the direct road between Trebizond and Tauris. In journeying farther on, I came to a mountain named Sobissacalo; and we passed by the very mountain of Ararat, on which the ark of Noah is said to have rested. I was very desirous to have gone to the top of that mountain, but the company with which I travelled would not wait for me; and the people of the country allege that no one was ever able to ascend to its top, because, say they, it is contrary to the will of God. Continuing our journey, we came to Tauris539, a great and royal city anciently called Susa, which is reckoned the chief city in the world for trade and merchandize; for every article whatever, both of merchandize and provision, is to be had there, in the greatest abundance, Tauris is most conveniently situated, and to it may all the nations of the earth, almost, resort for trade. The Christians in those parts report, that the emperor of Persia derives more tribute from this city alone than the king of France receives from the whole of his dominions. Near this city there is a hill of salt, from whence every one may take as much as he pleases, without paying any thing whatever to any person. Many Christians from all parts of the world are to be found in this place, over whom the Saracens have the supreme authority.
535
The summer in this northern country of the Samojeds is extremely short; but the expression here used, must allude to the long-continued summer day, when, for several months, the sun never sets. –E.
536
Hakluyt, II. 142, for the Latin; II. 158, for the old English translation. –Forst. Voy. and Disc. 147.
538
The holy traveller ought rather to have said, that the springs or rivulet near Azaron flowed into the Euphrates. Azaron is obviously Erzerum, on or near one of the higher branches of the Frat or Euphrates. –E.