The Book of Marvels and Travels (Oxford World's Classics) by Mandeville John & Anthony Bale

Author:Mandeville, John & Anthony Bale [Mandeville, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

16

THE KINGDOM OF MANZI

ONE who travels from this land eastwards by the Indian Ocean must voyage for many days until they arrive at the kingdom of Manzi;* this is the best region in India, the most pleasing and most bountiful in all things within man’s power. Christians and Saracens live in this land, for it is large. There are two thousand cities in it and many other towns. In this land no one goes begging because it has no poor people in it. Also, the men have wispy beards like a cat’s whiskers.

There are fair-complexioned women in this region, and therefore some people call it Albania on account of its white people. There is a city there which people call Latorim and it’s larger even than Paris. That city has a fine waterway navigable by ship. There are birds in that land that are twice as big as in other places in the world. There is plenty of food and also great snakes, which they use in lavish feasts and they eat them during great rituals. If someone held a banquet and provided all the best meat they could get but gave their guests no snake-meat, they would have no thanks for the entire banquet.

In this country there are white hens with no feathers but rather white wool, like sheep in our country. Married women there wear crowns* on their heads so that they can be recognized as such. In this land they take a beast called a loires* and they teach it to go into fishponds and without delay it retrieves nice big fish. And so they take as much fish until they have all that they want.

From there one travels for many days to a city called Cassay, the biggest city in the whole world. This city is fifty miles in circumference. There are more than twelve gates to this city, and at each gate there is a fine tower in which men live to protect the town against the Great Khan, for it shares a border with his land. A great river runs on one side of the city, and fine wine is cultivated there which they call bygoun.* Christians and others live there, and the King of Manzi was accustomed to live there too. Religious men, Christian friars, devout men, live there.*

People travel by that river until they reach a monastic abbey, a little way from the city. In this abbey there’s a large, pretty garden, and there are many trees with different fruits. In this garden there are many different animals, such as baboons, little monkeys, apes, and others. Then, when the convent community has eaten, a monk takes the remainder of the meal into the garden, and he strikes once a little silver bell he holds in his hand. Then all the animals, some three or four thousand of them, come out from their burrows and line up in a row. He gives them this remainder of food in a fine silver vessel and they eat it.

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