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They pay to the Moals or Mongals, a tribute of 1500 cassinos or jascots every day , besides large quantities of silks and provisions, and they perform many other services. All the nations between mount Caucasus, and from the north of these mountains to the east sea, and in all the south of Scythia, which is inhabited by the Moal shepherds, are tributary, and are all addicted to idolatry.
Having appointed deputies to rule over his conquests, Zingis returned into Mongalia with immense quantities of gold and silver and other precious spoil. But the southern parts of this empire, as it lies within the sea, has not been conquered by the Mongals to this day .
Then the Indians charged the Mongals, many of whom were wounded and slain, and they were expelled from the country in great confusion, and we have not heard that they ever ventured to return . Probably Tuschi-Khan. It is needless to remark upon the confused and ignorant geography, and the idle tale of a Christian empire in India in this section.
Again assembling a great army, they invaded Cathay, and after a long struggle, they conquered the greater part of that country, and besieged the emperor in his greatest city. The siege lasted so long, that the army of the Mongals came to be in want of provisions, and Zingis is said to have commanded that every tenth man of his own army should be slain as food for the rest.
The person here alluded to was a monk named Andrew Luciumel, who had been sent ambassador, by the pope, to the emperor of the Mongals, in 1247 or 1248, with the same views as in the missions of Carpini and Asceline at the same period; but of his journey we have no account remaining.
Indeed this country is very mountainous and excessively cold, and has very little plain ground, wherefore these nations had no tillage, but dwelt in tents, which were destroyed by the Tartars. We travelled through this country for many days, and at length entered the land of the Mongals, whom we call Tartars.
On his appearance at the court of Cambalu, Kublai-khan took a fancy to the young Venetian, and caused him to be instructed in four of the principal languages which were spoken in the extensive dominions of the Mongals. Marco was afterwards employed by the khan, for a considerable number of years, in several important affairs, as will appear in the relation of his travels.
These people were Christians, and their country had been ravaged and laid waste by the Tartars or Mongals. The province of Alania contains many mountains, rivers, and plains, and in the latter there are many hills made by the hand of man, serving for sepulchral monuments, on the top of each of which there is a flat stone with a hole in it, in which a stone cross is fixed.
They resided far some time at the court of Kublai-khan, the great emperor of the Mongals or Tartars; and, returning to Venice in 1269, they found that the wife of Nicolo had died during their absence, leaving a son Marco, the author of the following travels, of whom she was pregnant at the time of their departure.
In returning through the desert, we were told by some Russian priests at the emperor's court, that the Mongals found certain women, who, being asked where their men were, said that all the women of that country had human shapes, but that the males had the shape of great dogs. After some time, they met the dogs on the other side of a river.
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