At length, about the Holyrood, 14th September, or festival of the exaltation of the Holy Cross, there came to us a certain rich Moal, whose father was a millenary or captain of a thousand horse, who informed us that he had been appointed to conduct us. He informed us that the journey would take us four months, and that the cold was so extreme in winter, as even to tear asunder trees and stones with its force. "Advise well with yourselves, therefore," said he, "whether you be able to endure it, for otherwise I shall forsake you by the way." To this I answered, that I hoped we should be able, with the help of God, to endure hardships like other men; but as we were sent by his lord under his charge, and did not go on any business of our own, he ought not to forsake us. He then said that all should be well, and having examined our garments, he directed us what we should leave behind in the custody of our host, as not useful for the journey; and next day he sent each of us a furred gown, made of sheep skins, with the wool on, and breeches of the same, likewise shoes or footsocks made of felt, and boots of their fashion, and hoods of skins. The second day after the holy cross day, 16th September, we began our journey, attended by three guides, and we rode continually eastwards during forty-six days, till the feast of All-Saints, 1st November. The whole of that region, and even beyond it, is inhabited by the people named Changle or Kangittae, who are descended from the Romans. Upon the north side we had the country of the Greater Bulgaria, and to the south the Caspian sea.
[1] This, however, is only to be understood of what may be termed the pretorian or royal horde, in a time of profound peace, travelling in their usual and perpetual round in quest of forage; the almost boundless space of the desert must have been interspersed with numerous subordinate hordes, and though the usual guard of Baatu might not have exceeded 500 heads of families, the military force of his dominions, though subordinate to Mangu-khan, certainly exceeded 200,000 fighting men.--E.
_Of the River Jaic or Ural, and of sundry Regions and Nations_.
At the end of twelve days journey from the Etilia or Volga, we came to a great river named the Jagag (Jaic or Ural); which, issuing from the land of Pascatir (of Zibier or of the Baschirs, now Siberia), falls into the Caspian. The language of the Baschirs and of the Hungarians is the same, and they are all shepherds, having no cities; and their land is bounded on the west by the Greater Bulgaria; from which country eastwards, in these northern parts, there are no cities whatsoever, so that the Greater Bulgaria is the last country which possesses towns and cities. From this country of Pascatir the Huns went, who were afterwards called Hungarians. Isidore writes, that with swift horses they passed the walls of Alexander, and the rocks of Caucasus, which opposed the barbarians, and even exacted tribute from Egypt, and laid waste the whole of Europe as far as France, being even more warlike in their day than the Tartars are now. With them the Blacians or Walachians, the Bulgarians, and the Vandals united. These Bulgarians came from the Greater Bulgaria, The people named Ilac or Vlac, who inhabit beyond the Danube from Constantinople, not far from Pascatir, are the same people, being properly named Blac or Blacians, but as the Tartars cannot pronounce the letter B, they are called Ilac, Vlac, or Wallachians. From them, likewise, the inhabitants of the land of the Assani are descended, both having the same name in the Russian, Polish, and Bohemian languages. The Sclavonians and the Vandals speak the same language; and all of these joined themselves formerly with the Huns, as they now do with the Tartars. All this that I have written concerning the land of Pascatir, I was informed by certain friars predicants, who had travelled there before the irruption of the Tartars; and as they had been subdued by their neighbours the Bulgarians, who were Mahometans, many of them adopted that faith. Other matters respecting these people may be known from various chronicles. But it is obvious, that those provinces beyond Constantinople, which are now called Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Sclavonia [1], formerly belonged to the Greek empire; and Hungary was formerly named Pannonia.