The air here is so fine and salubrious as to induce people to remain willingly and with great enjoyment; nor did I ever see anyone in bad health there. They almost all eat mutton there, which has a very delicate taste. The beef there is most vile; so that but little is eaten by the inhabitants. Their bread is of flour as white as milk; they have little wine, but still there are some red wines, and some wines white in colour, and tasting like malmsey. There are also a good many fish, which are caught in a lake,[608] a day’s journey distant from the city, which is salt like those of Vastan and Van. The fish have not a natural taste, but have a strange smell and taste of sulphur. To this place there are also brought many sturgeon,[609] smaller than those of the Mediterranean, but still excellent. There is delicious caviar also, which, as well as the sturgeon, is brought from the Caspian Sea, nine days’ journey distant from this place, from a castle named Maumutaga. There also come from this sea fresh [Transcriber’s Note: a gap was left here intentionally in the original printing; use your imagination], as large as men, and so good that they are better than the flesh of pheasants; but they only come during the spring, as their season only lasts two months. There are also the common fruits, as over all the world, few nuts, most delicious olives, and Adam’s apples; but no oil, oranges, or lemons. These fruits, which fail in spring-time, are brought from Chilan,[610] a little province on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, extending twenty-five miles from the sea. This city is also ornamented with numerous gardens, in which there are the common herbs like cabbages, lettuces, greens, and other small vegetables, like those at Venice; rape and carrots, small radishes, marjoram, parsley, and rosemary. There is also much rice, and great abundance of corn and barley.