FRIAR BEATUS ODORICUS ad. 



1330. 

 armed foes trusting too securely unto the vertue of their 

 stones. Also of the foresayd canes called Cassan they 

 make sayles for their ships, and litle houses, and many ^^-^-^ ^^de 

 other necessaries. From thence after many dayes travell, ^/^^^^^^^ 

 I arrived at another kingdome called Campa, a most Campa. 

 beautiful and rich countrey, & abounding with all 

 kind of victuals : the king wherof, at my being there, 

 had so many wives & concubines, that he had 300 

 sonnes & daughters by them. This king hath 10004 

 tame Elephants, which are kept even as we keepe droves 

 of oxen, or flocks of sheepe in pasture. 



Of the abundance of fishes, v^hich cast themselves 

 upon the shore. 



IN this countrey there is one strange thing to be 

 observed, y^ every several kind of fishes in those seas 

 come swimming towards the said countrey in such 

 abundance, that, for a great distance into the sea, noth- 

 ing can be scene but ye backs of fishes : which, casting 

 themselves upon the shore when they come neere unto 

 it, do suffer men, for the space of 3. daies, to come & 

 to take as many of them as they please, & then they 

 returne againe unto the sea. After that kind of fishes 

 comes another kind, offering it selfe after the same 

 maner, and so in like sort all other kinds whatsoever : 

 notwithstanding they do this but once in a yere. And 

 I demaunded of the inhabitants there, how, or by what 

 meanes this strange accident could come to passe } They 

 answered, that fishes were taught, even by nature, to 

 come & to do homage unto their Emperour. There 

 be Tortoises also as bigge as an oven. Many other Tortoises. 

 things I saw which are incredible, unlesse a man should - ' ^' ^ -• 

 see them with his own eies. In this country also dead 

 men are burned, & their wives are burned alive with 

 them, as in the city of Polumbrum above mentioned : 

 for the men of that country say that she goeth to 

 accompany him in another world, that he should take 

 none other wife in mariage. Moreover I traveled on 



419 



