to it, might do good works by planting trees and vines, and making
gardens and orchards for their exercise; and they do nothing. The
country is ready to produce everything, as is seen from that which is
uncultivated: they do not plant or grow anything except millet and
beehives. When it is night, neither they nor anybody else go out from
their houses from fear of the wild beasts that are in the country,
and those who watch the millet have very high resting places upon
the trees, in which they sleep at night. In the district of this
monastery there are, in the valleys between the mountains, very large
herds of cows, kept by Arab Moors, and there go with each herd forty
or fifty Moors, with their wives and children: and their headman is
a Christian, because the cows that they keep belong to Christian
gentlemen of the country of the Barnagais. These Moors have nothing
else for their labour than the milk and butter which they get from
the cows, and with this they maintain themselves and their wives and
children. On some occasions it happened to us to sleep near these
Arabs, they accosted us to ask if we wished to buy cows, and for the
price allowed us to choose them. They say that these Moors, and headmen
who go with them, are all robbers under the favour of the lords to
whom the cows belong, and so only large caravans travel. The revenues
of this monastery are very large; those which I saw and heard of are,
chiefly, this mountain in which the monastery is situated, of an extent
of ten leagues, in which they sow much millet, barley, rye, and all
these pay dues to the monastery, and they are also paid on the herds.
On the skirts of this mountain there are many large villages, and most
of them belong to the monastery, and at a distance of one or two days’
journey an infinite number of places belonging to the monastery, and
are called _Gultus_ of the monastery, which means _coutos_
or _celeiros_,[22] according to our Portugal. Don Rodrigo the
ambassador and I were going on the road to the Court, a good five days’
journey from this monastery, and arriving at a town which is named
_Caina_ we kept Saturday and Sunday in a small village which
might contain twenty people, and they told us they belonged to the
monastery of Bisan. Besides that town there were a hundred villages
all belonging to the monastery, and that in which we halted was one
of them. We were also shown many of the others, and they told us that
every three years they paid a horse to the monastery, and that each
village did this, which makes thirty-three horses every year. And in
order to be certain of this I went to ask it of the _Alicaxi_
of the monastery, which means the auditor or major-domo, because he
receives, and does justice: he told me that it was true that they paid
the said horses. I asked why the monastery wanted so many horses, since
they did not ride on them. He told me that they were obliged to pay
horses, but that they did not give him horses, but paid fifty cows
for each horse, and that this due of horses was so because these were
villages of the King which paid him this due, and as he had endowed the
monastery with these villages, between the monastery and the villagers
this due of horses had been transmuted into cows. And over and above
these dues of cows they also pay dues on fruits. Besides, at fifteen
days’ journey from the monastery, in the kingdom of Tigre mahom, there
is a very large town belonging to the monastery named Aadete, which may
be a large dukedom. This pays every year sixty horses, and an infinite
number of dues and customs. In this district there are always more than
a thousand friars of the monastery, because there are many churches in
it, and the monastery is much favoured there. Of these friars some are
very good, honourable, and devout, and others are not such. Besides
these dues of horses paid to this monastery and to others, there are
many villages belonging to the King which pay dues of the said horses,
because this is always his due, and there are villages neighbouring to
Egypt in which are large and good horses, and others near Arabia in
which they are very good, but not so much so as those of Egypt.
CAP. XVI.--_How the friars impeded our departure, and of what
happened to us on the road._
Returning therefore to our journey; whilst we were still at the
monastery of St. Michael there arrived the man sent by the Barnagais
to take us away, and with him two of our Portuguese, on the fourth
day of the month of June; and he brought a few oxen and men to carry
our baggage. The said man who had thus come went off at once to the
mountains to fetch more oxen and people, and he came back with them.
Whilst our baggage was out in the road for our departure, and the
men and oxen ready, the friars came and talked so much to the people
without their understanding us that they disarranged our departure,
so that we again took in our baggage, and the ambassador again sent
another time to the Barnagais, and Joan Escolar the clerk went thither
with the man of the Barnagais, and they remained there six days.
They came with orders and equipment for our departure, that is to
say, that they were to conduct us and our goods, and to give us as
many oxen and mules as we had need of. Even then the friars were set
on impeding us greatly, as though they wished us evil. We left this
monastery of St. Michael on the 15th day of June, and because there was
detention in loading the baggage, on account of the oxen only coming
in a few at a time, and there not being mules enough for all of us,
and some having to go on foot, and also because there were few people
to carry the baggage which could not go on the oxen where the country
was precipitous, the bombards and four barrels of powder remained
behind. Not very far from the monastery, half a league at most, the
ambassador came up, and those that had remained with him, and we found
all the baggage unloaded. Not being able to understand the cause for
their having done it, we made them load it again; and not having yet
started it all, a rumour arose amongst the negroes who were carrying
our baggage, and they said that there were robbers there who were
waiting for us in the road. Nevertheless we did not on that account
desist from making the baggage go on in front through the bushes,
because the road was narrow. The ambassador and all those that were
with him determined to die upon the King’s goods. The negroes were much
amazed at the courage of ten or twelve men, who did not fear passing
such steep mountains, where it was said that there were multitudes of
robbers. Thus we went away, divided, with the oxen and negroes, with
their burdens in front of us, going forward on our course. We travelled
through very wild mountains, over ascents and descents, and very bad
stony road. Most of the woods of these mountains are very large wild
olive trees, from which good olive trees could be made. Issuing from
these mountain ranges we entered into dry channels, which in winter
time are great rivers, that is to say, as long as the showers last. As
soon as the shower is finished the river is dry. These channels have on
each side of them very high mountains, as rugged as those we had left
behind. In these river beds there are large clumps of unknown trees,
amongst which, near the rivers, there are a few wild palm trees. We
slept this night in a river bed with little water in it.
CAP. XVII.--_How we passed a great mountain in which there were
many apes, on a Saturday, and on the following Sunday we said
mass in a village called Zalote._
On the following day we again crossed another very high and rugged
mountain ridge, over which we could not make our way, either on the
mules or on foot. In this mountain there are many animals of different
species, and an infinite quantity of apes in herds: and they are not
generally spread over the mountain, but only where there are clefts
and holes in the rock; they are not found in quantities less than two
or three hundred, and beyond that number. If there is any flat ground
above these precipices, that is their promenade, and no stone remains
that they do not turn, and they scrape the earth so that it looks as
though it were tilled. They are very large, the size of sheep, and from
the middle upwards hairy like lions. We passed the mountain, and went
to sleep at the foot of a village called Zalote. There will be about
four or five leagues from this place to the monastery from which we
set out. We halted by a running river of very good water, and when our
baggage had been unloaded we went to the said village to see a very
honourable gentleman, the headman of it--a very old man, who was lodged
here very honourably. He gave us a very hospitable reception, giving
us many fowls cooked in butter, and much mead, and he sent us a very
large fat cow to the place of our halt. On the following day, which was
Sunday, we went to say our mass at the church of the village, which is
called St. Michael, a poor church, both the fabric and the ornaments.
There are in this church three married priests and three others,
deacons[23] that is to say, of the gospel, and all are necessary, for
no less can say mass. This honourable captain I met with later as a
friar in the monastery of Bisan, and he left his condition and revenues
to his sons, who were honourable persons; and I saw him stand at the
gate outside, and he did not enter within the monastery, and there he
received the communion with the novices, and when the offices of the
church were ended he remained in honour with the provincial. On this
Sunday we set out again in the afternoon, because the country people
who conducted us wished it so. Here we began to travel through flat
country fallows and tillage, in the fashion of Portugal, and the bushes
which are between the tilled lands are all wild olives, without other
trees. We slept by some running streams, between many good villages.
CAP. XVIII.--_How we arrived at the town of Barua, and how the
Ambassador went in search of the Barnagais, and of the manner of
his state._
We reached the town of Barua,[24] which will be three leagues from the
village of Zalote, on the 28th day of June. This town is the chief
place of the country and kingdom of the Barnagais, in which are his
principal palaces, which they call Beteneguz,[25] which means house
of the king. On this day that we arrived here the Barnagais departed
hence, before our arrival, to another town, the chief place of another
district, which is named Barra, and the town is called Çeruel. It
seemed to us that his departure was in order not to have to receive
us, and some told us that he had gone away with pain in his eyes. We
were very well lodged for this country, in good large houses of one
story, terraced above. On the third day of our arrival, Don Rodrigo
the ambassador determined on going to see the Barnagais; and we went
with him, five of us on mules, and reached the place where he was
staying at vespers. The distance to this place from that at which we
were halting might be three and a half or four leagues, and we went to
dismount before his palace, close to the door of a church, where we
offered our prayers. Then we went our way to the palace, or Beteneguz,
as they call it, thinking that we should at once speak to him; and they
did not allow us to enter, saying that he was sleeping. And although
we waited a good bit we had no means of speaking to him. We went to
rest in a goat shed, in which we barely found room; and they gave us
two ox-hides with the hair on to sleep upon, and for supper bread, and
wine of the country in abundance, and a sheep. On the following day we
waited a long time for them to call us, and a message came for us to
come. Then in the outer gate we found three men like porters, each one
with his whip[26] in his hand, and they would not let us enter, saying
that we should give them some pepper, and they kept us for a good
while at the gate. Passing through this gate we arrived at another, at
which stood three other porters who seemed more honourable persons;
these made us wait more than half an hour standing on a little straw,
and the heat was so great it killed us. Upon this the ambassador sent
to say that he should bid us come in or he would return to his abode.
Then the message went by one who seemed to be of higher position, and
word came that we should enter. The Barnagais was in this manner, in
a large house of one story (for in this country there are not houses
of several stories), sitting on a bedstead, as is their custom, fitted
with poor curtains; he had sore eyes, and his wife was sitting at the
head of the bedstead. Having made our obeisance, the ambassador offered
him a _master_ to cure him; and he said that he had no need of
him, as though he did not thank him for it. Upon this the ambassador
asked him as a favour, and required on the part of Prester John, that
he should order equipment to be given us for our journey, assuring him
how much service he would be doing in this way to the king of Portugal,
which would be well repaid to him by the King and by his Captain-major;
and he, the ambassador, would tell Prester John the honour and favour
which he received from him. The Barnagais asking what it was that we
required, the ambassador said he wanted oxen and asses for baggage, and
mules for the Portuguese. To this the Barnagais replied that he could
not give any mules, and that we might buy them ourselves; that he would
give orders for the rest, and would send a son of his with us to the
court of Prester John, and with that he gave us our dismissal.
CAP. XIX.--_How they gave us to eat in the house of the
Barnagais, and how in this country the journeys are not reckoned
by leagues._
When we were out of the house where the Barnagais was, they made us sit
down in the receiving room of another house on mats on the ground, and
they brought here a large trencher of barley meal, but little kneaded,
and a horn of mead. And, since we had not seen such food, we would
not eat it; but when we were more accustomed to the country we ate it
readily. Without eating of this, we arose and came to our resting-place
and then set out. This might be at two hours before midday. Having gone
on our road half a league or more there came to us a man running and
telling us to wait; that the mother of the Barnagais was sending us
food, and took it as a misfortune our coming away without eating and
not accepting the food they gave us, which was that customary in the
country. We waited, and the food came to us, that is to say, five large
rolls of wheat bread and a horn of mead. Let not anyone be amazed who
hears of a horn of wine, because for the great lords and Prester John
cows’ horns are their cups for wine, and there are horns holding five
or six canadas.[27] Besides this, the mother of the Barnagais sent us
some of the same kneaded flour, and now we ate some of it. This meal is
of parched barley, made into flour, and they mix it up with very little
water, and so eat it. After this banquet we made our way to the town of
Barua, where our goods and companions had remained. In this country,
and in all the kingdoms of Prester John, there are no leagues, and if
you ask how far it is from this place to such a place, they say: If you
depart in the morning at sunrise, you will arrive when the sun is in
such a place; and if you travel slowly you will arrive there when they
shut up the cows, that is at night. And if it is distant they say, you
will arrive in a _sambete_, that is a week, and so they define it
according to the distances. When I said that from Barua to Barra there
were from three and a half up to four leagues, that was according to
our opinion, and it would not be more. We afterwards travelled there
many times, and we started from one town and dined at the other, and
did our business and returned to the town we had started from by
daylight. The people of the country reckon this as a day’s journey,
because they travel very slowly. Between these two towns there is very
remarkable country, tilled fields of wheat, barley, millet, pulse,
lentils, and all other sorts of vegetables which the country possesses
unknown to us. From the road from one place to the other more than
fifty towns are to be seen: I say large towns and very good ones, all
on heights. In these plains and fields there are herds of wild cattle,
forty or fifty in a herd. It is a chase that is very pleasant for the
Portuguese, but the country people are able to do them little hurt,
although they receive from them much injury to their crops.
CAP. XX.--_Of the town of Barua, and of the women and their
traffic, and of the marriages which are made outside of the
churches._
This town of Barua in which we were staying, and where later we passed
more time, may have three hundred hearths and more, a great part of
them belonging to women, because this is like a court in many respects.
One is that people of the Prester’s court never go from here, and as
many as come are not without wives. The other is because this is the
residence and seat of the Barnagais, and there are continually in his
house three hundred mounted men and upwards, and as many more who come
every day for business of petitions, and few are without wives. This
causes many single women to live here, and when they are old they have
another resource, for in this town every Tuesday there is a great
market or fair at which three or four hundred persons are brought
together; and all the old women and some young ones have measures to
measure wheat and salt, and they go to the market to measure and gain
their living; they give hospitality to those that sleep there that day,
and also take care for them of what remains to be sold for the next
market day. There is another reason why there are many women in this
town, it is because the men who have plenty of food to eat keep two or
three wives; and this is not forbidden to them by the King nor by their
magistrates, only by the Church. Every man who has more than one wife
does not enter the church, nor does he receive any sacrament: and they
hold him to be excommunicated. For a year and a half a nephew of mine
and I lodged in the house of a man named Ababitay, and he had three
wives still alive and acquaintances of ours, friends in honourable
friendship: they said that he had had seven wives and thirty children
of them. Nobody forbade them, except the Church, as has been said,
which did not give them the benefit of the sacraments; and before our
departure, he put away from him, and from intercourse with him, two
wives, and remained with one, that is to say, the one he had last,
who was the youngest, and already they gave him the sacraments, and
he entered the church like anybody else, and as though he had not had
more than one wife. On this account there are many women in this town,
because the men are well off and are like courtiers: and they take two
or three, or more if it pleases them. In this country marriages are not
fixed, because they separate for any cause. I saw people married, and
was at a marriage which was not in a church, and it was done in this
manner. On the open space before some houses they placed a bedstead;
and seated upon it the bridegroom and the bride, and there came
thither three priests, and they began a chaunt with Hallelujah, and
then continued the chaunt, the three priests walking three times round
the bedstead on which the couple were seated. Then they cut a lock of
hair from the head of the bridegroom, and another from the head of the
bride. They wetted these locks with mead, and placed the hair of the
bridegroom on the head of the bride, and that of the bride on the head
of the bridegroom, on the place from which they had cut them, and then
sprinkled them with holy water: after that they kept their festivities
and wedding feasts. At night they put them in a house, and for a month
from that time no one saw the bride, except one man only whom they call
the best man,[28] who remains all this month with the married couple,
and when this month is ended the man or best friend goes away. If she
is an honourable woman she does not go out of the house for five or six
months, nor remove a black veil from her face: and if before that she
becomes pregnant she removes the veil. When these months are ended,
even though she is not pregnant, she removes the veil.
CAP. XXI.--_Of their marriages and benedictions, and of their
contracts, and how they separate from their wives, and the wives
from them, and it is not thought strange._
I saw the Abima Marcos, whom they call Pope, giving blessings in
the church, that is to say, before the principal door; the bride
and bridegroom were also seated on a bedstead, and the Abima walked
round them with incense and cross, and laid his hands on their heads,
telling them to observe that which God had commanded in the gospel;
and that they were no longer two separate persons, but two in one
flesh; and that so in like manner should their hearts and wills be.
There they remained until mass had been said, and he gave them the
communion, and bestowed on them the blessing. And this I saw done in
the town of Dara, in the Kingdom of Xoa.[29] I saw another performed
in the town of Çequete, in the Kingdom of the Barnagais. When they
make these marriages they enter into contracts, as for instance: If
you leave me or I you, that one that causes the separation shall pay
such a penalty. And they set the penalty according to the persons, so
much gold or silver, or so many mules, or cloths, or cows, or goats,
or so many measures of wood. And if either of them separate, that one
immediately seeks a cause of separation for such and such reasons, so
that few incur the penalty, and so they separate when they please, both
the husbands and the wives. If there are any that observe the marriage
rule, they are the priests, who never can separate, and cultivators,
who have an affection for their wives because they help them to bring
up their sons, and to harrow and weed their tillage, and at night when
they come to their house they find a welcome reception: thus in effect
or perforce they are married for the whole of their lives. As I said
that they imposed penalties at marriages, the first Barnagais that we
knew, whose name was Dori, separated from his wife, and paid her the
penalty of a hundred gold ounces, which were a thousand cruzados, and
he married another woman. And the wife that he separated from married a
noble gentleman who was named Aaron, a brother of the said Barnagais.
Both the brothers had sons, known to us, of this woman, and these were,
or are, great lords, both are brothers of the mother of Prester John,
whom all of us knew. All of us who were there knew Romana Orque[30]
sister of the Prester John, who is a noble lady married to a great
lord, a noble young gentleman. In our time she separated from this
husband and married a man more than forty years of age, who is one of
the great lords of the court; the title of this one whom she married
is Abuquer, and his father Cabeata. This is the greatest lord there is
in the court. Thus I saw and knew many of these separations; I have
named these because they are of great personages. And because I said
that Aaron married the wife of his brother, let not him that reads it
be amazed, because it is the usage of the country. They do not think it
strange for a brother to sleep with the wife of his brother. This Aaron
moreover had sons of her who had been the wife of his brother, and he
left her and married another to whom he is now married.
CAP. XXII.--_Of the manner of baptism and circumcision, and how
they carry the dead to their burial._