With Abubachar, was the son of a king of Great Tartary. To him came messengers, wanting him to go home, that he might be responsible for the kingdom. He asked Abubachir to allow him to go; this he did, and so he went home with six hundred horsemen; I was one of five [Christians?] who went with him into Great Tartary. You must notice through which countries he passed. First, through the country called Strana, where silk grows; then through a country called Gursey, where there are Christians, and they believe in the Christian faith, and Saint Jörig is patron there. After that, he passed through a country called Lochinschan; there, also, silk grows; then through another called Schurban, where silk grows of which the good stuffs are made at Tamasch and at Kaffer, and also at Wursa, the capital of the Infidels, situated in Turkey; this silk is also taken to Venice and to Lickcha, where good velvet is worked; but it is an unhealthy country. Afterwards he passed through a country called Samabram;(1) then through one called in the Tartar tongue, Temurtapit,[1](2) which is as much as to say, the Iron Gate. This divides Persia and Tartary. Then he passed through a city called Origens; it is powerful, and lies in the middle of a river called Edil.(3) Then he travelled through a mountainous country called Setzulet, where there are many Christians who have a bishop there; their priests belong to the Order of the Shoeless, who do not know Latin, and they sing and read their prayers in the Tartar tongue. It is found that thus the laity become stronger in the faith, and also many Infidels are confirmed in the Christian faith, because they understand the words that the priests sing and read. After that, he went into Great Tartaria, and came to the lord named Edigi, who had written and sent messengers to him, as he wanted him to come and rule the kingdom. And when he arrived, Edigi was waiting, having prepared to go into a country called Ibissibur.[2] It is to be noted, that it is the custom for the king, in Great Tartary, to have a Chief to rule over him, who can elect or depose a king, and has also power over vassals. Now at that time Edigi was the Chief. The vassals in Tartary wander about in winter and summer, with their wives and children, and their cattle, and when the king encamps, there must be erected one hundred thousand huts. Now when the son of the above-named king of Tartary, and who was named Zegre,(4) had come to Edigi, he went with him into the above-named country, Ibissibur, and they travelled two months before they arrived there. There is a mountain in that country, which is thirty-two days’ journey in extent. The people there, themselves say, that at the extremity of the mountain is a desert, and that the said desert is the end of the earth; and in this same desert nobody can have an habitation, because of snakes and wild beasts. On the same mountain there are savages, who are not like other people, and they live there.