WILLIAM DE RUBRUQUIS ad. \ 



1253- j 



two men, who shoulde give attendance upon our selves, s 



upon our horses, and upon our Oxen. And hee caused i 



us to ride in his companie, till the messenger whome hee \ 



had sent for the interpretation of the Emperours letters, 5 



was returned. And so wee traveiled in his companie till ^ 

 the morowe after Pentecost. 



Howx the Alanians came unto us on Pentecost 



or Whitson even. Chap. 13. ^ 



UPon the even of Pentecost, there came unto us cer- : 



taine Alanians, who are there called *Acias, being *0r, Jkas. 1 

 Christians after the maner of the Grecians, using greeke 



bookes and Grecian priests : howbeit they are not schis- ' 



matiques as the Grecians are, but without acception of ; 



persons, they honour al Christians. And they brought ■ 



unto us sodden flesh, requesting us to eat of their meat, 1 



and to pray for one of their company being dead. Then i 



I sayd, because it was the even of so great and so solemne ■ 



a feast day, that we would not eate any flesh for that time. J 



And I expounded unto them the solemnitie of the sayd \ 



feast, whereat they greatly rejoyced : for they were ignorant ■ 

 of all things appertayning to Christian religion, except only 

 the name of Christ. They and many other Christians, 

 both Russians, and Hungarians demanded of us, whether 

 they might be saved or no, because they were constrained 

 to drinke Cosmos, & to eate the dead carkases of such 

 things, as were slaine by the Saracens, and other infidels ? 

 Which even the Greeke & Russian priests themselves 

 also esteeme as things strangled or offered unto idoles : 



because they were ignorant of the times of fasting, neither \ 



could they have observed them albeit they had knowen J 



them. Then instructed I them aswell as I could and ■ 



strengthened them in the faith. As for the flesh which j 



they had brought we reserved it untill the feast day. For C/of/i is the | 



there was nothing to be sold among the Tartars for gold ^^^'c^ march- : 



& silver, but only for cloth and garments, of the which "l^fj^^^^ 1 



kind of marchandise wee had none at all. When our ' \ 



servants offered them any coine called Yperpera, they j 



253 \ 



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