AD THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1253- 



the Emperor of Constantinople had written letters of 

 request, to suffer me to passe through his territory. With 

 this answere of ours they were satisfied, giving us horses 

 & oxen, & two men to conduct us, Howbeit before they 

 would allow us the foresayd necessaries for our journey, 

 they made us to awayt a long while, begging our bread for 

 their yong brats, wondering at all things which they sawe 

 about our servants, as their knives, gloves, purses, & 

 points, and desiring to have them. I excused my self that 

 [I. loi.] we had a long way to travel, & that we must in no wise 

 so soon deprive our selves of things necessary, to finish so 

 long a journey. Then they said that I was a very varlet. 

 True it is, that they tooke nothing by force from me : 

 howbeit they wil beg that which they see very importu- 

 natly & shamelesly. And if a man bestow ought upon 

 them, it is but cost lost, for they are thankles wretches. 

 They esteeme themselves lords & think y' nothing should 

 be denied them by any man. If a man gives them nought, 

 & afterward stands in neede of their service, they will do 

 right nought for him. They gave us of their cowes 

 milke to drink after ye butter was cherned out of it, being 

 very sower, which they cal Apram. And so we departed 

 from them. And in very deed it seemed to me y^ we 

 were escaped out of the hands of divels. On the morrow 

 we were come unto the captain. From the time wherin 

 we departed from Soldaia, till we arrived at the court of 

 Sartach, which was the space of two moneths, we never lay 

 in house or tent, but alwaies under the starry canopy, & in 

 the open aire, or under our carts. Neither yet saw we any 

 village, nor any mention of building where a village had 

 bin, but the graves of the Comanians in great abundance. 

 The same evening our guide which had conducted us, 

 gave us some Cosmos. After I had drunke thereof I 

 sweat most extreamly for the novelty and strangenes, 

 because I never dranke of it before. Notwithstanding 

 me thought it was very savory, as indeed it was. 



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