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From Caracarum to the court of Baatu our journey continued four months and ten days, during all which time we never saw a town, or even the appearance of a single house, except one village, in which we did not even eat bread; nor in all that time did we ever rest, except one day, when we could not get horses.
They appointed one to take care of us, and we went to the monk; and when we were about to return to; our lodging, the interpreter came to us, saying, that Mangu-khan gave us two months to stay, till the extreme cold were past; and we might either go ten day's journey from thence to the city of Caracarum, or might remain with the court.
Kathay is on the ocean, and I was told by the French goldsmith at Caracarum, that there is a people or nation called Tante and Manse, inhabiting certain islands, the sea around which is frozen in winter, so that the Tartars might invade them; but they sent messengers to the great khan, offering a tribute of 2000 tuemen or jascots yearly, to permit them to live in peace . A tuemen, toman, or jascot, is a piece of money equal to ten marks.
Having passed over the before mentioned desert of forty days, travelling always to the northward, we come to the large city of Charachoran, or Caracarum which is three miles in circumference, and strongly fortified with an earthen rampart, as there is no stone in these parts. Near the city there is a great castle with an elegant palace, in which the governor usually resides.
Account of the Country under the Dominion of the Great Khan of the Manners and Customs of his Subjects; of a Wonderful Piece of Mechanism, constructed by a French Goldsmith; and of the Palace of the Khan at Caracarum.
Then the monk sent him incense, desiring him to put it on the coals, as an offering to God: Whether he did this or no, I know not, but the tempest ceased, which had lasted two days. On Palm Sunday we were near Caracarum, and at dawn of day we blessed the willow boughs, on which, as yet, there were no buds.
Leaving the city of Caracarum, and the mountain Altai, we enter the champaign country of Bargu , which extends northwards for about fifty days journey. The inhabitants of this country are called Medites , and are subject to the great, khan, and resemble the Tartars in their manners.
Leaving the Leskar or moving camp of Mangu-khan, we came to Caracarum, and while we remained in the house of William Bouchier the goldsmith, my guide brought ten jascots, five of which he delivered to William, commanding him, from the khan, to expend these for the use of the friar while he remained there, and he left the other five with my interpreter for my subsistence by the way; for William had given them such instructions without my knowledge.
In the winter little snow fell there; but about Easter, which was that year in the latter end of April, there fell so great a snow, that the streets of Caracarum were so full, it had to be carried out in carts. The country on the Onon and Kerlon, in Daouria, or the land of the Tunguses. Forst. The Introduction of Rubruquis to Mangu-khan.
About nine o'clock we entered the city of Caracarum, carrying the cross aloft with the banner, and passing through the street of the Saracens, in which the market is held, we proceeded to the church, where the Nestorians met; us in procession.
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