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The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys cover

The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys

Chapter 69: CAP. LXI.
By Sir John Mandeville
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About This Book

The narrator offers a medieval travelogue that traces routes toward Jerusalem and across regions of Asia, Africa, and India, blending eyewitness-style observations, borrowed reports, and fantastic tales. It catalogs cities, landscapes, animals, plants, trade goods, and unfamiliar customs, alternating itinerary notes with moral and religious commentary. Frequent digressions present marvels and monstrous races alongside practical details about pilgrim routes, local rites, and fortifications, producing a text that shifts between guidebook information and imaginative storytelling. The structure mixes descriptive chapters with episodic anecdotes, inviting readers to weigh veracity while encountering the era's geographical knowledge, commerce, and popular curiosities.

CAP. LXI.

Of an yland named Macumeran, whereas the people haue heads lyke houndes.1

FROM that yle menne go to an yle that is called Macumeran, whiche is a greate yle and a fayre and the men and women of the countrey haue heads like houndes, they are reasonable & worship an oxe for their god, they go all naked but a little clothe before them, they are good men to fighte, & they beare a great target with which they couer all the body and a speare in theyr hande, and if they take any man in batayle they sende him to theyr King which is a great lorde & devoute in his faith, for he hath about his necke on a cord thre hondred pearles great & orient,2 in maner of Pater noster, and as we saye Pater noster, and Ave maria. Right so ye King saith euery day three hundred prayers to his god before he eate, & he beareth also about hys necke a ruby, oryent, fine & good, that is neer a foote & five fingers long. For when they chuse theyr Kyng they giue to him that Ruby to beare in his hande, and then they lead him riding about the citie, and then euer after are they subjecte to him, and therefore he beareth that Ruby alway about his necke, for if he beareth not the Ruby, they woulde no longer holde hym for kynge. The greate Caane of Cathay hath much coveted this Ruby: but he might never haue it, neither for war nor for other catell,3 and this Kinge is a full true & a righteous man, for men may go safely & surely through his lande & beare yt he will, for there is no man so hardy to let4 them. And from thence men go to an ile that is called Silo, this ile is more than a hundred5 myle about and therein be many serpents which are great with yelow stripes & they haue foure feete, with short leggs & great claws, some be five fadome6 of length & some of viii & some of x & some more and some lesse & be called Cocodrylles & there are also many wylde beasts & Olyfants.7 Also in this yle & in many yles thereabout are many wyld geese with two heads, and there be also in yt countrey white lyons and many other dyverse mervaylous beastes, & if I should tell it all it should be to long.

1: Again in Book 7, cap. 2, Pliny speaks of Cynocephali, or dog-headed people, for he says that on many of the mountains there is a tribe of men, who have the heads of dogs, and clothe themselves with the skins of wild beasts. Instead of speaking, they bark; and, furnished with claws, they live by hunting and catching birds.

2:  Oriental,—coming from the East.

3:  Nor in exchange.

4:  Hinder.

5:  Others say 800.

6:  A fathom is 6 feet.

7:  Elephants.