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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 83: CAP. LXXV.
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. LXXV.

How the great Caan is the mightiest lord of all the worlde.

THIS great Caane is the myghtiest lorde of the worlde, for prester1 John is not so great a lorde as he, nor the Sowdan of Babilon, ne ye Emperour of Percy. In this lande a man hath a hundred wives & some xi,2 some more some lesse, & they take of their kin to wives, all saue their sisters, their mothers & daughters and they take also wel theyr stepmother if their father be dead, and men & women haue all one maner of clothing, so that they may not bee knowne, but yt women that are wedded beare a token on theyr heads, & they dwell not with their housbandes, but he may lye by which he will. They have plenty of all maner of beastes save swine, and forsoth they wyll (have) none, and they beleve well in God that made all thing, & yet have they ydoles of golde and sylver, and to those Idols they offer theyr fyrst mylke of beastes.

1:  In the 12th and 13th centuries there was a firm belief that ruling over a vast population in the far East was a most wealthy and powerful monarch of that name, who claimed to be descended from one of the three kings who adored the infant Christ.

2:  Others say 60.