OF THE COUNTRIES AND ISLANDS BEYOND THE LAND OF CATHAY, AND OF THE
FRUITS THERE; AND OF TWENTY-TWO KINGS INCLOSED WITHIN THE
MOUNTAINS.
In passing by the land of Cathay towards Upper India, and towards
Bucharia, men pass by a kingdom called Caldilhe, which is a very fair
country. And there grows a kind of fruit like gourds, which, when they
are ripe, men cut in two, and find within a little beast, in flesh,
bone, and blood, as though it were a little lamb, without wool. And men
eat both the fruit and the beast, and that is a great marvel. Of that
fruit I have eaten; and I told them of as great a marvel to them that is
amongst us, and that was of the barnacles. For I told them that in our
country were trees that bear a fruit that becomes flying birds; and
those that fall in the water live; and those that fall on the earth die
anon; and they are right good for man's meat. And thereof had they also
great marvel, that some of them thought it was an impossibility. In that
country are long apples, of good flavour, whereof there are more than a
hundred in a cluster; and they have great long leaves and large, of two
feet long or more. And in that country, and in other countries
thereabout, grow many trees that bear clove-gylofres and nutmegs, and
great nuts of India, and of canelle, and many other spices. And there
are vines which bear grapes so large, that a strong man would have
enough to do to carry one cluster. In that same region are the mountains
of Caspia, which are called Uber in the country. Between those mountains
are inclosed the Jews of ten lineages, who are called Gog and Magog; and
they may not go out on any side. There were inclosed twenty-two kings,
with their people, that dwelt between the mountains of Scythia. King
Alexander drove them between those mountains, and there he thought to
inclose them through work of his men. But when he saw that he might not
do it, nor bring it to an end, he prayed to the God of Nature that he
would perform that which he had begun. And although he was a Pagan, and
not worthy to be heard, yet God of his grace closed the mountains
together, so that they dwell there fast locked and inclosed with high
mountains all about, except only on one side, and on that side is the
Caspian Sea. Men say they shall come out in the time of Antichrist, and
that they shall make great slaughter of the Christians; and therefore
all the Jews that dwell in all lands learn always to speak Hebrew, in
hope that when the other Jews shall go out, that they may understand
their speech, and so lead them into Christendom, to destroy the
Christians. For the Jews say that they know well, by their prophecies,
that they of Caspia shall go out, and spread through all the world, and
that the Christians shall be under subjection as long as they have been
in subjection to them. And if you will know how they shall find their
way, after what I have heard say I will tell you. In the time of
Antichrist, a fox shall make there his trail, and burrow a hole where
king Alexander made the gates; and so long he shall burrow and pierce
the earth, till he shall pass through, towards that people. And when
they see the fox, they shall have great wonder of him, because they
never saw such a beast; for of all other beasts they have some inclosed
among them, except the fox. And then they shall hunt him, and pursue him
so close, till he arrive at the same place he came from; and then they
shall dig and burrow so strongly, till they find the gates that king
Alexander made of immense stones, well cemented and made strong for the
mastery; and those gates they shall break, and so go out, by finding
that issue.
From that land men go towards the land of Bucharia, where are very evil
and cruel people. In that land are trees that bear wool[408], as though
it were of sheep, whereof men make clothes, and all things that may be
made of wool. In that country are many ipotaynes, that dwell sometimes
in the water and sometimes on the land; and they are half man and half
horse, as I have said before; and they eat men, when they may take them.
And there are rivers of water that are very bitter, three times more
than is the water of the sea. In that country are many griffins, more
abundant than in any other country. Some men say that they have the body
upward of an eagle, and beneath of a lion; and that is true. But one
griffin has a greater body and is stronger than eight lions, and greater
and stronger than a hundred eagles. For one griffin there will carry,
flying to his nest, a great horse, or two oxen yoked together as they
go at the plough. For he has his talons so long, and so large and great,
as though they were horns of great oxen, or of bulls, or of kine, so
that men make cups of them to drink out of[409]; and of their ribs, and
of the feathers of their wings, men make bows full strong, to shoot with
arrows and darts. From thence men go, by many days, through the land of
Prester John, the great emperor of India. And they call his kingdom the
isle of Pentexoire.