Chapter IX.

OF SEVERAL OTHER COUNTRIES, AND THE PRINCIPAL CURIOSITIES IN THEM.

From Chermain, in three days’ riding, you come to a desert, which extends to Cobinham, seven days’ journey from thence. In the first three days you have no water, save a few ponds, and those salt and bitter, of a green colour in show, as if it were the juice of herbs; and whoever tasteth but a little thereof cannot escape a looseness; the like also happeneth if any taste the salt made of the water: it is therefore necessary that travellers carry some water with them, if they would escape the inconvenience of thirst; the beasts also which are compelled to drink that water escape not without scouring: in the fourth day they find a fresh river under ground; the three last days are as the first. Cobinham is a great city, inhabited by Mohammedans, where great looking-glasses of steel are made. Tutia, or tutty also, which cureth the eyes, and spodio, is prepared after this manner. That country hath mines, out of which they dig earth, which they boil, casting it into a furnace, an iron gate receiving the ascending vapour from above, in which the conglutinated and clammy vapour becometh tutia, but the grosser matter remaining in the fire is called spodio. Leaving the city of Cobinham, you meet with another desert, eight days’ journey in length, and grievously barren; it hath not either trees, or fruits, or water, except what is very bitter, so that the very beasts refuse to drink it, except they mix meal therewith, and travellers carry water with them.

But having passed over this desert, you come to the kingdom of Timochaim, in the north confines of Persia, where are many cities and strong castles. There is a great plain, in which a great tree grows, called the Tree of the Sun, which the Christians call the Dry Tree. This tree is very thick, and hath leaves which on the one side are white, and on the other side green. It produceth prickly husky shells, like those of chestnuts, but nothing in them. The wood is solid and strong, in colour yellow, like box. There is no tree within one hundred miles, except on one side, on which are trees within miles. In this place the inhabitants say that Alexander the Great fought with Darius. The cities are plentifully furnished with good things; the air is temperate, the people are handsome, but especially women, the most beautiful in my judgment in the world.