Early Travels in Palestine Part 22

[357] The foregoing account of Mohammed and his doctrines is of course full of error and prejudice; but it is curious, as showing the popular notions on the subject in England and France in the fourteenth century, and may be compared with several other popular tracts of that age. The Koran had been translated into Latin as early as the twelfth century. An account very similar to the above is given by Roger of Wendover (Bohn's Antiq. Lib.).

[358] _i. e._ The Athanasian Creed.

[359] A Christian dynasty reigned over the small independent kingdom of Trebizond from 1204 to 1462, after which it was swallowed up in the Ottoman empire.

[360] This is an allusion to another medieval religious legend.

[361] An account of the remarkable ruins, both ecclesiastical and palatial, that are met with at Anni, which was the capital of the Pakradian branch of Armenian kings, will be found in the Travels of Sir R. K. Porter, and those of W. J. Hamilton, vol. i. p. 197.

[362] One hundred and forty years. Job, xlii. 16.

[363] Here follows, in the original, the common story of the Amazons, taken from the ancient authors, which is not worth reprinting.

[364] Maundeville's notions concerning diamonds are somewhat singular; they are, however, partly taken from Pliny, lib. x.x.xvii. c. 4.

[365] Hence the ring was commonly worn on the left hand.

[366] The "Liber Lapidarius" was a popular medieval treatise on the virtues and properties of precious stones, which was of great importance when people implicitly believed in the wonderful efficacy of such things.

[367] _i. e._ The loadstone. The appellation of the "s.h.i.+pman's stone" is curious, as showing that the properties of the mariners' compa.s.s were well known before the middle of the fourteenth century. We have other evidence to show that the mariner's compa.s.s was known at a much earlier period.

[368] This is taken from Pliny's Natural History, lib. ix. c. 3.

[369] Pliny's Natural History, lib. vi. c. 17.

[370] Ormuz.

[371] _Undurn_ was nine o'clock in the morning. The Latin text has "_A diei hora tertia usque ad nonam_."

[372] This tradition of a mountain of magnetic ore is very general among the Chinese and throughout Asia. The Chinese a.s.sign its position to a specific place, which they call Tchang-ha, in the southern sea, between Tonquin and Cochin-China, which is precisely the same geographical region indicated in the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor.

[373] The Well of Youth was a sort of El Dorado of the middle ages, which most people believed in, and many went in search of; but, in spite of Maundeville's a.s.sertion that he had drunk of the water, it appears never to have been found.

[374] This is the country described by Marco Polo, book iii. c. 20, under the name of Maabar.

[375] A rich cloth of silk, mentioned not unfrequently in medieval writers.

[376] An astronomical instrument used in the middle ages for taking alt.i.tudes, &c. Maundeville's notions about the form of the earth, and the possibility of pa.s.sing round it, are extremely curious, from the circ.u.mstance of their having been written and published so long before the time of Columbus.

[377] Job, xxvi. 7.

[378] Perhaps Sumatra. Maundeville seems to allude to the tattooing practised so generally in the islands of the Pacific.

[379] This seems to be an allusion to the upas tree.

[380] This accusation was spread against the Jews, as an excuse for persecution and spoliation.

[381] This may possibly be meant for Ceylon; but it would be vain to attempt to identify the islands mentioned in this and the following chapter. Some of the descriptions may, however, have had their foundation in what was originally correct information, but exaggerated or misunderstood.

[382] Adam's Peak is in the island of Ceylon, which seems to be the one here alluded to under the name of Silha.

[383] The "marvels" that follow in this paragraph are taken almost entirely from Pliny and Solinus.

[384] This is the city called by Marco Polo (from whom Maundeville appears to have abridged his description) Kin-sai. It was the capital of Southern China, under the dynasty of the Song.

[385] Part of this account is taken from Pliny, Hist. Nat., vii. 2.

[386] This is the word used in the English version. The Latin has _ascensorium_, and the French, _mountaynette_.

[387] These are old names of precious stones, which it would not be very easy now to explain.

[388] This was the famous Ghengis-khan, who ruled the Moguls from 1176 to 1227, and was the founder of the Tartar empire. It is needless to say that the history Maundeville gives of his accession is a mere fable.

[389] Veneration for peculiar numbers was a very general superst.i.tion, and the number three, and its multiple, nine, were, in particular, in universal repute.

[390] This story of the king and the twelve arrows is told in very nearly the same manner in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; and the substance of a well-known fable will be easily recognised in it.

[391] Oktai-khan, who ruled over the Tartars from 1229 (having been absent in China when his father died) to 1241.

[392] Gaiouk reigned from 1246 to 1249. The death of his predecessor had been followed by a regency.

[393] Mango-khan, after another regency, succeeded in 1251; and after conquering Persia and other countries, died in 1259. This monarch was made known to Europeans by the emba.s.sy of William de Rubruquis and others, and excited interest in the west by the report of his conversion to Christianity.

[394] Mango's successor was the celebrated Houlagou (1259 to 1265), who was followed in succession by eight khans between then and the time when Maundeville wrote. These were followed, in 1360, by the famous Timur-beg, or Tamerlane.

[395] These are the names of different birds used in hawking.

[396] _Leech_ was the old English name for one cla.s.s of medical pract.i.tioners. It is employed here in contradistinction to physicians, and I have not ventured to a.s.sign a modern equivalent. The preference given to Christian physicians is somewhat curious when we compare it with a similar feeling existing in the East at the present day.

[397] Paper money was in common use among the Tartars and Chinese at an early period. See, on this curious subject, the travels of Marco Polo.

[398] "And none shall appear before me empty." Exod. x.x.xiv. 20.

[399] A kind of garment made of skins with the fur on. In the Latin the pa.s.sage stands, "Habent et pelliceas, quibus utuntur ex transversis;" in the French, "Et vestent des pellices, le peil dehors."

[400] Leather boiled soft, and then reduced to any required shape and hardened; a substance very much used for a variety of purposes in the middle ages.

[401] The Maure Sea seems to be the Northern Ocean, and the mountains of Chotaz are perhaps the Ourals.

[402] These are, no doubt, Bokhara and Samarcand.

[403] Iskendroon?

[404] Tabreez.

[405] The Kurds, the Gordynae of the ancients.

[406] Take the sacrament.