_Of the Russians, Hungarians, Alanians, and of the Caspian_.
I know not whether Sartach really believes in Christ, but am certain that
he refuses to be called a Christian, and I rather think that he scoffs at
Christianity. His residence lies in the way through which the Russians,
Walachians, Bulgarians of the lesser Bulgaria, the Soldaians, or Christians
of Casaria, the Kerkis, Alanians, and other Christians have to pass in
their way with gifts or tribute to the court of his father Baatu-khan; and
by this means Sartach is more connected with the Christians than any of the
rest, yet when the Saracens or Mahometans bring their gifts, they are
sooner dispatched. Sartach has always about him some Nestorian priests, who
count their beads and sing their devotions.
There is another commander under Baatu-khan, called Berta or Berca, who
pastures his flocks towards the Iron-gate, or Derbent, through which lies
the passage of all the Saracens or Mahometans who come from Persia and
Turkey, to pay their gifts and tributes to Baatu, and who make presents to
Berta in their way. This person professes himself to be of the Mahometan
faith, and will not permit swines flesh to be eaten in his dominions. But
it appearing to Baatu, that his affairs suffered detriment by this
intercourse with the Mahometans, we learnt on our return, that he had
commanded Berta to remove from the Iron-gate to the east side of the Volga.
For the space of four days which we spent in the court of Sartach, we had
no victuals allowed us, except once a little cosmos; and during our journey
to the residence of his father Baatu, we travelled in great fear, on
account of certain Russian, Hungarian, and Alanian servants of the Tartars,
who often assemble secretly in the night, in troops of twenty or thirty
together, and being armed with bows and arrows, murder and rob whoever they
meet with, hiding themselves during the day. These men are always on
horseback, and when their horses tire, they steal others from the ordinary
pastures of the Tartars, and each man has generally one or two spare horses
to serve as food in case of need. Our guide therefore was in great fear
lest we might fall in with some of these stragglers. Besides this danger,
we must have perished during this journey, if we had not fortunately
carried some of our biscuit along with us. We at length reached the great
river Etilia or Volga, which is four times the size of the Seine, and of
great depth. This river rises in the north of Greater Bulgaria, and
discharges itself into the Hircanian Sea, called the Caspian by Isidore,
having the Caspian mountains and the land of Persia on the south, the
mountains of Musihet, or of the Assassins on the east, which join the
Caspian mountains, and on the north is the great desert now occupied by the
Tartars, where formerly there dwelt certain people called Canglae, or
Cangitae, and on that side it receives the Etilia, or Volga, which
overflows in summer like the Nile in Egypt. On the west side of this sea
are the mountains of the Alani and Lesgis, the Iron-gate or Derbent, and
the mountains of Georgia. This sea, therefore, is environed on three sides
by mountains, but by plain ground on the north. Friar Andrew, in his
journey, travelled along its south and east sides; and I passed its north
side both in going and returning between Baatu and Mangu-khan, and along
its western side in my way from Baatu into Syria. One may travel entirely
round it in four months; and it is by no means true, as reported by
Isidore, that it is a bay of the ocean, with which it nowhere joins, but is
environed on all sides by the land.
At the region from the west shore of the Caspian, where the Iron-gate of
Alexander is situated, now called Derbent, and from the mountains of the
Alani, and along the Palus Moeotis, or sea of Azoph, into which the Tanais
falls, to the northern ocean, was anciently called Albania; in which
Isidore says, that there were dogs of such strength and fierceness, as to
fight with bulls, and even to overcome lions, which I have been assured by
several persons to be true; and even, that towards the northern ocean, they
have dogs of such size and strength, that the inhabitants make them draw
carts like oxen[1].
[1] It is astonishing how easily a small exaggeration converts truth to
fable. Here the ill-told story of the light sledges of the Tshutki,
drawn by dogs of a very ordinary size, is innocently magnified into
carts dragged by gigantic mastiffs.--E.