Yet another way by lande toward the lande of promission.
NOW haue I tolde you some wayes by land and by water how men may go to Hierusalem. And if it be so that there be many other wayes that men go by, after the countreys that they come from, neverthelesse they tourne all to one ende, yet is there a way all by land to Hierusalem, & passe no sea from Fraunce or Flaunders, but that way is full longe and perylous & of great travaile, & therefore few go that way, he that goeth that way, he goeth through Almayn & Pruse and so to Tartary, this Tartary is holden of the great Cane,1 of whome I shall speake afterwarde, for thether lasteth2 his lordeshippe, and all the lords of Tartary yelde to him tribute. Tartary is a full evill land, sandy and a lytle fruite bearing, for there groweth but little corne or fruyte, but bestes are there great plentie, and therefore eate they but fleshe without breade, and they sup the broth, and they drynke mylke of all maner of bestes, they eat Cattes, and all maner of wyld bestes, rattes & myce, and they haue but lyttle wodde,3 and therefore they dyght4 theyr meate with horse dounge & other bestes doung, when it is dry. Princes and other lordes eate but ones in the day, and ryght lyttle, and they be ryght foule folke, and of evyll lyking, and in somer there is many tempests and thonders, that sleaeth many men & bestes (sodainly it is) right colde, and sodainly it is right hot. The Prince that governeth that land they call him Roco and he dwelleth at a Citie that men call Orda, and forsoth there is no man that will dwell in that lande, for it is good to sow in thornes & wedes, other good is there none, as I herd say, for I was not that way, but I have bene in other lordes landes marching thereon, and the land of Rossye and Nyflonde & the Kingedome of Grecon5 and Lectowe, and the kingdome of Grasten6 & in many other places, but I went neuer that way to Hierusalem & therefore I may not tell it, for I haue understande, that men may not well go that way but in winter, when the waters and marys7 that be in that lande be frosen and covered with snow, so that men may passe thereon, for were not the snow, there might no man go in that lande but he wer lost. And ye shall understande that a man shall go three days journey from Pruse to passe this waye, tyll he come to the lande of Sarasyns, that men dwell in. And if by fortune any christen men passe that way, as once a yeare they doe, they cary theyr vitale with them, for they shoulde finde nothing there but a maner of things that they call Syleys, and they cary theyr vytales upon the yce on sleddes8 and charyottes without wheles, and as long as theyr vitayles laste, they may dwell there, but no longer. And when spyes of the countrey see christen men come, they runne to the towns and castels and cry right loude, Kera, Kera, Kera, and as sone as they haue cryed, then dothe the people arme them. And ye shall understande that the yse there is harder than it is here, and euery man hath a stew9 in his house, and therein they eat and do all things that them nedeth. And that is at the North part of the world, where it is commonly colde, for the Sonne cometh ne shineth but a little in that countrey, and that lande is in some places so colde, that there may no man dwel therein, and on the South side of the world it is in some places so hote, that there can no man dwel, the son giveth so great heate in those countreys.
