Travels to Tana and Persia : $b A narrative of Italian travels in Persia, in the 15th and 16th centuriesBarbaro, Giosofat
History
Travels to Tana and Persia : $b A narrative of Italian travels in Persia, in the 15th and 16th centuries
Barbaro, Giosofat
Iran -- Description and travel; Voyages and travels
guyde, drewe their horses togither to cutt my waie; but I (ꝑceaving they
were disposed to do me displeasʳ) badde my boye go on wᵗʰ the guyde, and
I folowed faire and softelie, till I overtooke them, they having passed
on twoo boweshootes before me. And whan I came neere I rode a litle
besides the waie; wherevpon, one of them called me, howe father herken?
I, wᵗʰ a good countenaunce approched, and asked him what he wolde? He
again asked me whither I went? I tolde him I went wheare as myne evill
fortune ledde me. He asked me what I ment by those words. Mary (qᵈ I), a
xij moonthes past, I solde a trusse of sylkes to a merchaunt man, whom
I haue sought in Aleppo to haue had my mooney, wheare I haue myssed
him. And nowe it is tolde me that he is goon to Baruto, I am faine to
go aftre to seeke my povertie: which answere moved him so to pitie me,
that he badde me, Go on, poore man, a Godds name. I folowed my waie,
and overtooke my guyde: who, as soone as he sawe me, beganne to laughe,
saieng, Hay, hay, hay, meaneng that I had handled the matter well to
escape out of the Mamalukes hands. For he coulde speake no Turkishe, nor
I no Moresco. On this wise, I came to Baruti, wheare a fewe daies aftre
arryved a shippe of Candia: on the which, at her retoʳne, I passed into
Cyprus; and from thense, by the helpe of Almightie God, came to Venice.
And, seing I haue tolde the things belonging to the waies, me thinketh
it reasonable to tell also the things app̄teyneng some vnto their
superstitions, some to their dissemblings of religion, and some vnto
the yll entreatie that the Christians haue in those p̄ties that I haue
travailed.
Comeng towardes SAMACHI, I laie in a litle hospital, wheare was a
sepulture vnder an arche of stone, by the which was a man of yeres, wᵗʰ
a longe bearde and heares, naked all, saving that a litle before and
behinde he was covered wᵗʰ a certein skynne; and he sate on a peece
of a matt vpon the grounde. I greeted him and asked what he did? He
answered me, that he watched his father. I asked him againe, who was his
father? Wherevnto, he answered that he is a father that doth good to his
neighboʳ, as this man did that lieth there buried. Addeng, further,
that he had kept him company xxx yeres, by his lief tyme, and was so
determyned also to do aftre his death. And whan I die (said he), here
woll I also be buried. Furthermore, he saied, I haue seene enough of the
worlde, and nowe am determyned thus to remaigne till my death.
[Sidenote: Drauis are madde men esteemed to haue hollie spirites.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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