From Tauris I travelled to the city called Soldania540, where the Persian emperor resides during the summer; but in winter he changes his residence to another city upon the sea of Baku541. Soldania is a large city, but very cold, from its situation in the mountains, and has considerable trade, and abundance of good water. From thence I set out with a caravan of merchants, for the Upper India, and in our way, after many days journey, we came to Cassan or Casbin542, the noble and renowned city of the three wise men, which abounds in bread and wine, and many other good things, but the Tartars have nearly destroyed it. From this city to Jerusalem, to which the three wise men we're led by miracle, the distance is fifty days journey. For the sake of brevity I omit many wonderful things which I saw in this city. Going from thence, we came to the city of Geste543, whence the sea of sand, a most wonderful and dangerous track, is distant only one days journey. In the city of Yezd there is abundance of all kinds of victuals, especially of figs, grapes, and raisins, which are there more plentiful, in my opinion, than in any other part of the world. It is one of the principal cities in all Persia, and its Saracen inhabitants allege that no Christian can live there above a year. Continuing our journey forwards for many days, I came to a city named Comum544, which was a great city in old times, near fifty miles in circumference, and often did much damage to the Romans. In this place there are stately palaces, now destitute of inhabitants, yet it hath abundance of provisions. Travelling from thence through many countries, I came at length into the land of Job, named Us545, which borders on the north of Chaldea. This land is full of all kinds of provisions, and manna is here found in great abundance. Four partridges are sold here for less than an Italian groat; and the mountains have excellent pastures for cattle. In this country the men card and spin, and not the women; and the old men are very comely.
From thence I travelled into Chaldea, which is a great kingdom, having a language peculiar to itself, and I passed beside the Tower of Babel. The men of this country have their hair nicely braided and trimmed, like the women of Italy, wearing turbans richly ornamented with gold and pearls, and are a fine looking people: but the women are ugly and deformed, and are clad in coarse shifts, only reaching to their knees, with long sleeves hanging down to the ground, and breeches or trowsers which likewise reach the ground, but their feet are bare. They wear no head-dresses, and their hair hangs neglected and dishevelled about their ears. There are many other strange things to be seen in this country.
From thence I travelled into the lower India, which was overrun and laid waste by the Tartars546. In this country the people subsist chiefly on dates, forty-two pound weight of which may be purchased for less than a Venetian groat. Travelling on for many days, I arrived at Ormus on the main ocean, which is a well fortified city, having great store of merchandize and treasure. The heat of this country is excessive, and constrains the people to make use of extraordinary expedients to preserve their lives547. In this place, their ships or barks are called jase, the planks of which are sewed together with hemp. Embarking in one of these vessels, in which I could find no iron whatever, I arrived in twenty-eight days sail at Thana548, in which place four of our friars suffered martyrdom for the Christian faith. This country is well situated for trade, and has abundance of bread and wine, and of all other articles necessary for the food of man. The kingdom in ancient times was very large and populous, and was under the dominion of King Porus, who fought a great battle with Alexander the Macedonian conqueror. The inhabitants are idolaters, worshipping the fire, and likewise paying divine honours to serpents, and even to trees. The Saracens have conquered the whole of this land, and are themselves under subjection to king Daldili549. In this country there are great numbers of black lions; apes and monkies are also very numerous, and their bats are as large as our pigeons. They have rats also, as large as the dogs in Italy, which are hunted by means of dogs, as cats are unable to cope with them. In this country every one has a bundle of great boughs of trees, as large as a pillar, standing in a pot of water before the door; and there are many other strange and wonderful novelties, a relation of which would be exceedingly delightful.
Four of our friars, Tolentinus de Marchia, James of Padua, Demetrius, a lay brother, and Peter de Senis, suffered martyrdom in the city of Thana. These friars had engaged for their passage at Ormus to Polumbrum, but were forcibly carried to Thana, where there are fifteen houses of Christians, schismatics of the Nestorian communion, and on their arrival they were hospitably entertained in one of these houses. A strife happened to take place between the man of that house and his wife, in which the man beat his wife severely. She complained to the kadi, who interrogated her how she could prove her assertion. On which she answered that there were four priests of the Franks who were present, and could attest the bad usage she had received. On this a person of Alexandria, who was present, requested of the kadi that these men might be sent for, since they were learned men, versant in the scriptures, and it would be right to dispute with them concerning the faith. Our friars were accordingly sent for, and, leaving Peter to take charge of their goods, the other three went to the kadi; who began to dispute with them concerning our faith, saying, "That Christ was a mere man, and not God." But friar Thomas551 shewed evidently, both from reason and by examples drawn from Scripture, that Christ was really God and man, and so confounded the kadi and the other infidels, that they were unable to produce any rational arguments in contradiction to him. On this some one exclaimed, "And what do you say concerning Mahomet?" To this friar Thomas replied; "Since I have proved to you that Christ is really God and man, who hath given the law to mankind, and since Mahomet set himself contrary thereto, and taught an opposite law, if ye are wise, you may well know what ought to be concluded respecting him." But the kadi and the other Saracens insisted that he should declare his own opinion concerning Mahomet. "You may all see," said he, "what must be my opinion; and as you insist that I should speak out plainly, I must declare that your Mahomet is the son of perdition, and is in hell with his father the devil. And not him only, but all who have held his law, which is entirely abominable and false, contrary to GOD, and adverse to the salvation of souls." On hearing this, the Saracens cried out, "Let him die! let him die! who hath thus blasphemed against the prophet."
Then they seized upon the friars, and exposed them to the burning sun, that they might suffer a severe death by the adust heat of the suns rays: For such is the excessive heat of the sun in that place, that any person who remains exposed to its direct influence, during the time necessary to say the mass, is sure to die. But the friars remained hale and joyful, from the third to the ninth hour of the day, praising and glorifying the Lord. The Saracens, astonished at this, came to the friars, saying, "We intend to make a large fire, and to throw you therein; and if your faith is true, as you say, the fire will not be able to burn you; but if you are burnt, it will plainly appear that your faith is false." To this the friars answered, that they were ready to endure chains and imprisonment, and even the fire, and all other torments for the faith; but should the fire consume them it was not to be inferred that it did so on account of their faith, but as a punishment for their sins: declaring that their faith was most true and perfect, and the only one by which the souls of men could possibly be saved. While they thus determined upon burning the friars, the report of this affair spread over the whole city, and all the people of both sexes, young and old, flocked to behold the spectacle. The friars were accordingly led to the most public square of the city, where a great fire was lighted up, into which friar Thomas endeavoured to throw himself; but a Saracen held him back, saying: "You shall not do so, old man, as you may have some spell or contrivance about you, for preventing the fire from hurting you, and you must allow another of your people to go into the fire." Then four of the Saracens seized upon friar James, intending to have thrown him into the fire, but he requested permission to walk in of his own accord, to shew his devotion to the faith. This, however, they refused, and threw him in headlong. The fire was so large and fierce that he could not be seen; yet his voice was heard from the midst of the flames, calling upon the name of the Glorious Virgin. When the fire was totally consumed, friar James was seen standing on the embers, unhurt and joyful, with his hands raised to heaven in form of the cross, and himself praising and glorifying GOD, who had thus manifested the greatness of his faith; and nothing whatever about his person, not even his clothes or his hair, was found in the slightest degree injured by the fire. Upon this, all the people began to cry aloud, "They are holy! they are holy! it is sinful to do them any injury, for we see now that their faith is good and holy." To this the kadi objected, saying that he was not holy, notwithstanding he remained unhurt amid the fire; but that his tunic, being fabricated from the wool of the land of Habraa, had protected him: That he ought therefore to be thrown naked into the fire, and they should then see whether or not he would be consumed.
541
The Caspian; so called in this place, from Baku or Baccou, a city on its banks, in the province of Shirvan. –E.
542
Oderic must have made a mistake here, as Casbin is not above seventy or eighty miles from Sultanie, and the journey of the caravans between these cities, could not have exceeded four or five days. –E.
544
This is obviously the city of Kom or Koom, above 400 miles to the north-west of Yezd, and much nearer Sultanie. Our traveller, therefore, must either have strangely forgotten his route or he came back again from Yezd, instead of journeying forwards. –E.
547
Tantus est calor, quod virilia hominum exeunt corpus, et descendant usque at mediam tibiarum: ideo faciunt unctionum, et ungunt illa, et in, quibusdam sacculis ponunt circa se cingentes, et aliter morerentur.
549
This unknown king, rex Daldili, is probably an error in translating from the Venetian or Friul dialect of Oderic into Monkish Latin, and may have been originally
550
The whole of this and the following section is omitted in the old English of Hakluyt, and is here translated from the Latin. –E.