Mirabilia Descripta, The Wonders of the East, by Friar Jordanus

Of the Order of Preachers and Bishop of Columbum in India the Greater, (circa 1330)

Henry Yule, Henry Yule

• Editore: Hakluyt Society
• Anno: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317095613
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Geschichte
• Categoria: Altertum

Translated from the Latin Original, as published at Paris in 1839, in the Recueil de Voyages et de mémoires, of the Society of Geography, with the Addition of a Commentary'. The supplementary material includes the 1863 annual report. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1863.

Marvels Described

BY FRIAR JORD ANUS, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, NATIVE OF SEYERAC, AND BISHOP OF COLUMBUM IN INDIA THE GREATER.

I.

1. BETWEEN Sicily and Calabria there is a marvel in the sea. This is it: on one side the sea runneth with an upward current, and on the other side cometh down towards the island with a swifter stream than any river; and so in the middle is caused a wondrous eddy, sucking down ships that hap to fall in with it, whatever be their bigness. And 'tis said that in the bottom of the sea there is a horrid kind of a whirlpool, from which the water cometh forth so wondrous dark that even the fishes nowhere dare to come near it.¹

2. In Greece I neither saw nor heard of aught worth telling, unless it be that between the island of Negropont and the mainland the sea ebbeth and floweth sometimes thrice, sometimes four times, sometimes oftener, like a rapid river; and that is a marvel to be sure I¹

3. I was at Thebes_, where there be so many earthquakes that nobody could believe it who had not felt them; for it will happen five, or six, or seven times in the twenty-four hours, many a time and oft, that the strongest houses and walls shall be thrown down by earthquakes.¹

II.
Here Followeth Concerning Armenia.

1. In Armenia the Greater I saw one great marvel. This is it: a mountain of excessive height and immense extent, on which Noah's ark is said to have rested. This mountain is never without snow, and seldom or never without clouds, which rarely rise higher than three parts up. The mountain is inaccessible, and there never has been anybody who could get farther than the edge of the snow.² And (marvellous indeed!) even the beasts chased by the huntsmen, when they come to the snow, will liefer turn, will liefer yield them into the huntsmen's hands, than go farther up that mountain. This mountain hath a compass of more than three days journey for a man on horseback going without halt. There be serpents of a great size, which swallow hares alive and whole, as I heard from a certain trustworthy gentleman who saw the fact, and shot an arrow at a serpent with a hare in his mouth, but scathed it not.¹ In a certain part of the mountain is a dwelling which Noah is said to have built on leaving the ark; and there, too, is said to be that original vine which Noah planted, and whereby he got drunk; and it giveth such huge branches of grapes as you would scarce believe. This I heard from a certain Catholic archbishop of ours, a great man and a powerful, and trustworthy to boot, the lord of that land; and, indeed, I believe I have been at the place myself, but it was in the winter season.²

2. This country of Armenia the Greater is very extensive, and there three of the apostles suffered martyrdom: Bartholomew, Simon, and Judas. I saw a prison in which the two latter apostles were kept; and likewise springs of water which they produced from the living rock, smiting it with a rod VIII times, or X times, or XVII times (anyhow there be just as many springs as there were blows struct); and hard by there was a church built, beauteous and of wonderful bigness.¹

3. In this same Armenia the Greater a certain glorious virgin suffered martyrdom, the daughter of a king, and Scala by name.² And there, too, was cast into a well, with a lion and a dragon, St. Gregory, who converted Armenia to the Catholic faith, as well as its king Tertal,³ in the time of St. Sylvester and the Emperor Constantine.⁴ In this Armenia, too, was slain the blessed martyr Jacobus.

4. This province is inhabited chiefly by schismatic Armenians, but the Preaching and Minor friars have converted a good four thousand of them, and more. For one archbishop, a great man, called the Lord Zachary, was converted with his whole people; and we trust in the Lord that in a short time the whole residue shall be converted also, if only the good friars go on so.¹

5. There are many good and great Armenian princes, Christians; but the Persian emperor hath the paramount sovereignty.²

6. In this Armenia there is a Dead Sea, very bitter to the taste, where they say there be no fish at all, and which cannot be sailed upon by reason of the stench; and it has an island where are buried many ancient emperors and kings of the Persians, with an infinity of treasure; but nobody is allowed to go there, or, if allowed, they dare not search for the treasure.³

7. This Armenia extendeth in length from Sebast to the Plain of Mogan and the Caspian Mountains; and in breadth from the Barcarian Mountains to Tabriz,⁴ which is a good twenty-three days' journey, the length being more than forty days.⁵

8. There is a certain lake, at the foot of the aforesaid great mountain, where ten thousand martyrs were martyred, and in their martyrdom happened all the same tokens as in the Passion of Christ, for that they all were crucified for Christ.¹ And that part of the mountain is called Ararat; and there was a city there called Semur, exceeding great, which was destroyed by the Tartars.² I have been over all that country,—almost.

9. But I saw not anything else, in this Armenia the greater, worth telling as a marvel.

III.
Here Followeth Concerning the Realm of Persia.

1. In Persia, however, I saw a very marvellous tiring: to wit, that in Tabriz, which is a very great city, containing as many as two hundred thousand houses,³ dew never falls from heaven; nor doth it rain in summer as in most parts it doth, but they water artificially everything that is grown for man's food.¹ There also, or thereabouts, on a kind of willows, are found certain little worms, which emit a liquid which congeals upon the leaves of the tree, and also drops upon the ground, white like wax; and that excretion is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.²

2. There we have a fine-enough church, and about a thousand of the schismatics converted to our faith, and about as many also in Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham was born, which is a very opulent city, distant about two days from Tabriz.¹

3. Likewise also at Sultania we have five hundred, or five hundred and fifty. This Is eight days' distant from Tabriz, and we have a very fine church there.

4. In this country of Persia are certain animals called onagri, which are like little asses, but swifter in speed than our horses.²

5. This Persia is inhabited by Saracens and Saracenized Tartars, and by schismatic Christians of divers sects, such as Nestorians, Jacobites, Greeks, Georgians, Armenians, and by a few Jews. Persia hath abundance of silk, and also of ultramarine,³ but they wot not how to prepare it. They have likewise exceeding much gold in the rivers, but they wot not how to extract it, nor be they worthy to do so.

6. Persia extendeth about V⁴ days' journey in length, and as much in breadth. The people of this realm live all too uncleanly, for they sit upon the ground, and eke eat upon the same, putting mess and meats⁵ in a trencher for three, four, or five persons together. They eat not on a table-cloth,¹ but on a round sheet of leather, or on a low table of wood or brass, with three legs. And so six, seven, or eight persons eat out of one dish, and that with their hands and fingers; big and little, male and female, all eat after this fashion. And after they have eaten, or even whilst in the middle of their eating, they lick their fingers with tongue and lips, and wipe them on their sleeves,² and afterwards, if any grease still remains upon their hands, they wipe them on their shoes. And thus do the folk over all those countries, including Western and Eastern Tartary, except the Hindus, who eat decently enough, though they too eat with their hands.³

7. In Persia are some springs, from which flows a kind of pitch, which is called kic⁴ (pix, dico, seu Pegua), with which they smear the skins in which wine is carried and stored.

8. Between this country of Persia and India the Less is a certain region where manna falls in a very great quantity, white as snow, sweeter than all other sweet things, delicious, and of an admirable and incredible efficacy. There are also sandhills in great numbers, and very destructive to men; for when the wind blows, the sand flows down just like water from a tank.⁵ These countries aforesaid, to wit, Persia, Armenia Major, Chaldeia, as well as Cappadocia and Asia Minor and Greece, abound in good fruits, meats, and other things, like our own country; but their lands are not so populous,—no, not a tithe,—except Greece.

IV.
Concerning India the Less.¹

1. In the entrance to India the Less are [date] palms, giving a very great quantity of the sweetest fruit; but further on in India they are not found.²

2. In this lesser India are many things worthy to be noted with wonder; for there are no springs, no rivers, no ponds; nor does it ever rain, except during three months, viz., between the middle of May and the middle of August; and (wonderful!) notwithstanding this, the soil is most kindly and fertile, and during the nine months of the year in which it does not rain, so much dew is found every day upon the ground that it is not dried up by the sun's rays till the middle of the third hour of the day.¹

3. Here be many and boundless marvels; and in this First India beginneth, as it were, another world; for the men and women be all black, and they have for covering nothing but a strip of cotton tied round the loins, and the end of it flung over the naked back. Wheaten bread is there not eaten by the natives, although wheat they have in plenty; but rice is eaten with its seasoning,² only boiled in water. And they have milk and butter and oil, which they often eat uncooked. In this India there be no horses, nor mules, nor camels, nor elephants; but only kine, with which they do all their doings that they have to do, whether it be riding, or carrying, or field labour. The asses ar...