Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
And let me tell you that in all those three provinces that I have
been speaking of, to wit Carajan, Vochan, and Yachi, there is never a
leech. But when any one is ill they send for their magicians, that is
to say the Devil-conjurors and those who are the keepers of the idols.
When these are come the sick man tells what ails him, and then the
conjurors incontinently begin playing on their instruments and singing
and dancing; and the conjurors dance to such a pitch that at last one
of them shall fall to the ground lifeless, like a dead man. And then
the devil entereth into his body. And when his comrades see him in this
plight they begin to put questions to him about the sick man’s ailment.
And he will reply: “Such or such a spirit hath been meddling with the
man,{9} for that he hath angered the spirit and done it some despite.”
Then they say: “We pray thee to pardon him, and to take of his blood
or of his goods what thou wilt in consideration of thus restoring him
to health.” And when they have so prayed, the malignant spirit that is
in the body of the prostrate man will (mayhap) answer: “The sick man
hath also done great despite unto such another spirit, and that one is
so ill-disposed that it will not pardon him on any account;”—this at
least is the answer they get, an the patient be like to die. But if he
is to get better the answer will be that they are to bring two sheep,
or may be three; and to brew ten or twelve jars of drink, very costly
and abundantly spiced.{10} Moreover it shall be announced that the
sheep must be all black-faced, or of some other particular colour as it
may hap; and then all those things are to be offered in sacrifice to
such and such a spirit whose name is given.{11} And they are to bring
so many conjurors, and so many ladies, and the business is to be done
with a great singing of lauds, and with many lights, and store of good
perfumes. That is the sort of answer they get if the patient is to get
well. And then the kinsfolk of the sick man go and procure all that has
been commanded, and do as has been bidden, and the conjuror who had
uttered all that gets on his legs again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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