CURIOUS CREATURES. 325 



posed of all the four elements. Now, I, Marco Polo, 

 had a Turkish acquaintance of the name of Zurficar, and 

 he was a very clever fellow, and this Turk related to 

 Messer Marco Polo how he had lived three years in that 

 region on behalf of the Great Kaan, in order to procure 

 those Salamanders for him. He said that the way they 

 got them was by digging in that mountain till they found 

 a certain vein. The substance of this vein was then 

 taken and crushed, and, when, so treated, it divides, as it 

 were, into fibres of wool, which they set forth to dry. 

 When dry, these fibres were pounded in a great copper 

 mortar, and then washed, so as to remove all the earth, 

 and to leave only the fibres, like fibres of wool. These 

 were then spun, and made into napkins. When first 

 made, these napkins are not very white, but by putting 

 them in the fire for a while they come out as white as 

 snow. And so again, whenever they become dirty they 

 are bleached by being put in the fire. 



" Now this, and nought else, is the truth about the 

 Salamander, and the people of the country all say the 

 same. Any other account of the matter is fabulous 

 nonsense. And I may add that they have, at Rome, a 

 napkin out of this stuff, which the Grand Kaan sent to 

 the Pope, to make a wrapper, for the Holy Sudarium of 

 Jesus Christ." 



That extremely truthful person, Benvenuto Cellini, 

 in his thoroughly veracious autobiography, tells us the 

 following Snake Story: "When I was about five years 

 old, my father happened to be in a basement- chamber 

 of our house, where they had been washing, and where 

 a good fire of oak-logs was still burning ; he had a viol 

 in his hand, and was playing and singing alone beside 

 the fire. 



