_Of the River Jaic or Ural, and of sundry Regions and Nations_.
At the end of twelve days journey from the Etilia or Volga, we came to a
great river named the Jagag (Jaic or Ural); which, issuing from the land of
Pascatir (of Zibier or of the Baschirs, now Siberia), falls into the
Caspian. The language of the Baschirs and of the Hungarians is the same,
and they are all shepherds, having no cities; and their land is bounded on
the west by the Greater Bulgaria; from which country eastwards, in these
northern parts, there are no cities whatsoever, so that the Greater
Bulgaria is the last country which possesses towns and cities. From this
country of Pascatir the Huns went, who were afterwards called Hungarians.
Isidore writes, that with swift horses they passed the walls of Alexander,
and the rocks of Caucasus, which opposed the barbarians, and even exacted
tribute from Egypt, and laid waste the whole of Europe as far as France,
being even more warlike in their day than the Tartars are now. With them
the Blacians or Walachians, the Bulgarians, and the Vandals united. These
Bulgarians came from the Greater Bulgaria, The people named Ilac or Vlac,
who inhabit beyond the Danube from Constantinople, not far from Pascatir,
are the same people, being properly named Blac or Blacians, but as the
Tartars cannot pronounce the letter B, they are called Ilac, Vlac, or
Wallachians. From them, likewise, the inhabitants of the land of the Assani
are descended, both having the same name in the Russian, Polish, and
Bohemian languages. The Sclavonians and the Vandals speak the same
language; and all of these joined themselves formerly with the Huns, as
they now do with the Tartars. All this that I have written concerning the
land of Pascatir, I was informed by certain friars predicants, who had
travelled there before the irruption of the Tartars; and as they had been
subdued by their neighbours the Bulgarians, who were Mahometans, many of
them adopted that faith. Other matters respecting these people may be known
from various chronicles. But it is obvious, that those provinces beyond
Constantinople, which are now called Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Sclavonia
[1], formerly belonged to the Greek empire; and Hungary was formerly named
Pannonia.
We continued riding through the land of the Changles or Kangittae, as
before mentioned, from Holy Cross-day till All-Saints, travelling every
day, as well as I could guess, about as far as from Paris to Orleans, and
sometimes farther [2], according as we happened to be provided with relays;
for sometimes we would change horses two or three times a-day, and then
we travelled quicker; while sometimes we had to travel two or three days
without finding any inhabitants to supply us, and then we were forced to
travel more deliberately. Out of thirty or forty horses, we were always
sure to have the worst, being strangers, as every one took their choice
before it came to our turn. They always, however, provided me with a strong
horse, because I was corpulent and heavy; but whether his pace happened to
be hard or gentle, was all one to them, and I dared not to make any
complaints. Our horses often tired before we could fall in with any of the
inhabitants, and we were then obliged to beat and whip them up, being
obliged to lay our garments upon spare horses, and sometimes two of us
obliged to ride on one horse.
[1] Probably intended for what is now called Servia--E.
[2] This may be taken at a medium of thirty miles a day which, in
forty-six days, would amount to 1380 miles; no doubt a very fatiguing
journey for a corpulent heavy man as he describes himself--E.