These soothsayers pretend to foretell lucky and unlucky days for all affairs; and the Tartars never levy an army, or undertake a war without their approbation.  They had long since resumed their attack on Hungary, but that the soothsayers have always opposed it.  They make every thing which is sent to court pass between two fires, as a purification, likewise, all the household stuff belonging to a dead person must be purged in the same manner; and, if any living creature drop down, or any thing whatever fall to the ground during the ceremony, it becomes the property of the soothsayers, who, besides, have a certain proportion of every thing which they purify as their due.  There was, therefore, a twofold reason why Friar Andrew Carpini was made to pass between the fires; both because he brought presents, and because Con-khan, for whom these had been brought, was dead:  But as I brought nothing, this was not required of me.

Once on a time, some very costly furs were presented at the court of the Christian lady, whom Pascha, the good woman of Metz served, and the soothsayers, in passing them between the fires, took more than was their due.  Another woman, who had the custody of the treasures belonging to that lady, accused them of the fraud to her mistress, who reproved them severely for their conduct.  Sometime afterwards the lady fell sick, and the soothsayers accused the servant, who had detected their fraud, of having bewitched her.  She received the bastinado for seven days successively, and other tortures, to make her confess; and on hearing of her mistress’s death, begged to be killed that she might follow her, for that, in truth, she had never done her the smallest injury.  But, as she confessed nothing, Mangu-khan commanded that she should live.  After this the soothsayers accused the daughters nurse of the deceased lady, which nurse was a Christian, and wife to the chief of the Nestorian priests.  She and her servant-maid were tortured to make a confession, and the maid answered, that the nurse had sent her to receive responses from a certain horse.  The nurse also confessed that she had used some spells to procure the love of her lady, but had never done any thing to hurt her.  On being demanded to say whether her husband knew of her incantations, she excused him, saying that he had burnt the characters which she had made.  Then she was put to death, and the husband was sent to be judged by his bishop in Kathay.

It happened that the principal wife of Mangu brought forth a son, and the soothsayers were brought to foretell the destiny of the infant, when they prophesied that he should live long and prosperously, and become a great lord; but he died in a few days.  On being reproached for their falsehood, they said that the nurse of Cerina, who had been lately put to death, had killed the boy, and pretended to have seen her carrying him away.  There were then in the camp a son and daughter of the nurse, whom the lady immediately