AND when the Tartars had subdued a great part of the world, they came unto the sayd olde man, and tooke from him the custody of his paradise: who being incensed thereat, sent abroad divers desperate and resolute persons out of his forenamed paradise, and caused many of the Tartarian nobles to be slaine. The Tartars seeing this, went and beseiged the citie wherein the sayd olde man was, tooke him, and put him to a most cruell and ignominious death. The friers in that place haue this special gift and prerogative, namely, that by the vertue of the name of Christ Jesu, & in the vertue of his precious blood, which he shedde upon the crosse for the salvation of mankinde, they doe cast foorth devils out of them that are possessed. And because there are many possessed men in those parts, they are bound and brought ten dayes journey unto the sayd friers, who being dispossessed of the uncleane spirits, do presently beleeve in Christ, who delivered them, accounting him for their God, and being baptised in his name, and also delivering immediately unto the friers all their idols and the idols of their cattell, which are commonly made of felt or of womens haire: then the sayd friers kindle a fire in a publicke place (whereunto the people resort, that they may see the false gods of their neighbors burnt), and cast the sayd idols thereinto: howbeit at first those idols came out of the fire againe. Then the friers sprinkled the sayd fire with holy water, casting in the idols the second time, and with that the devils fled in the likenesse of black smoake, and the idols still remained till they were consumed unto ashes. Afterward, this noise and outcry was heard in the ayre: Beholde and see how I am expelled out of my habitation. And by these means the friers doe baptise great multitudes, who presently revolt againe unto their idols; insomuch that the sayd friers must eftsoones, as it were, underprop them, and informe them anew. There was another terrible thing which I saw there: for passing by a certaine valley, which is situate beside a pleasant river, I saw many dead bodies, and in the said valley also I heard divers sweet sounds and harmonies of musike, especially the noise of citherns, whereat I was greatly amazed. This valley conteineth in length seven or eight miles at the least, into the which whosoeuer entreth, dieth presently, and can by no means passe aliue thorow the middest thereof; for which cause all the inhabitants thereabout decline unto the one side. Moreover, I was tempted to go in & to see what it was. At length, making my prayers and recommending my selfe to God in the name of Jesu, I entred, and saw such swarmes of dead bodies there, as no man would beleeve unless he were an eyewitnesse thereof. At the one side of the foresayde valley upon a certaine stone, I saw the visage of a man, which behelde me with such a terrible aspect that I thought verily I should haue died in the same place. But alwayes this sentence, the word became flesh, and dwelt amomgst us, I ceased not to pronounce, signing my selfe with the signe of the crosse, and neerer than seven to eight pases I durst not approach unto the sayd head: but I departed & fled unto another place in the sayd valley, ascending up into a little sande mountaine, where looking about, I saw nothing but the sayd citherns, which methought I heard miraculously sounding and playing by themselves without the helpe of musicians. And being upon the toppe of the mountaine, I found silver there like the scales of fishes in great abundance, and I gathered some part thereof into my bosome to shew for a wonder, but my conscience rebuking me, I cast it upon the earth, reserving no whit at all unto my selfe, and so, by God's grace I departed without danger. And when the men of the countrey knew that I was returned out of the valley alive, they reverenced me much, saying that I was baptised and holy, and that the foresayd bodies were men subject unto the devils infernall who used to play upon citherns, to the end they might allure people to enter, and so murther them. Thus much concerning these things which I beheld most certainly with mine eyes, I frier Odoricus haue heere written: many strange things also I haue of purpose omitted, because men will not beleeue them unlesse they should see them.