CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF TENDUC, AND THE DESCENDANTS OF PRESTER JOHN.

Tenduc is a province which lies towards the east, and contains numerous towns and villages; among which is the chief city, also called TENDUC.  The king of the province is of the lineage of Prester John, George by name, and he holds the land under the Great Kaan; not that he holds anything like the whole of what Prester John possessed.[NOTE 1] It is a custom, I may tell you, that these kings of the lineage of Prester John always obtain to wife either daughters of the Great Kaan or other princesses of his family.[NOTE 2]

In this province is found the stone from which Azure is made.  It is obtained from a kind of vein in the earth, and is of very fine quality.[NOTE 3] There is also a great manufacture of fine camlets of different colours from camel’s hair.  The people get their living by their cattle and tillage, as well as by trade and handicraft.

The rule of the province is in the hands of the Christians, as I have told you; but there are also plenty of Idolaters and worshippers of Mahommet.  And there is also here a class of people called Argons, which is as much as to say in French Guasmul, or, in other words, sprung from two different races:  to wit, of the race of the Idolaters of Tenduc and of that of the worshippers of Mahommet.  They are handsomer men than the other natives of the country, and having more ability, they come to have authority; and they are also capital merchants.[NOTE 4]

You must know that it was in this same capital city of Tenduc that Prester John had the seat of his government when he ruled over the Tartars, and his heirs still abide there; for, as I have told you, this King George is of his line, in fact, he is the sixth in descent from Prester John.

Here also is what we call the country of GOG and MAGOG; they, however, call it UNG and MUNGUL, after the names of two races of people that existed in that Province before the migration of the Tartars. Ung was the title of the people of the country, and Mungul a name sometimes applied to the Tartars.[NOTE 5]

And when you have ridden seven days eastward through this province you get near the provinces of Cathay.  You find throughout those seven days’ journey plenty of towns and villages, the inhabitants of which are Mahommetans, but with a mixture also of Idolaters and Nestorian Christians.  They get their living by trade and manufactures; weaving those fine cloths of gold which are called Nasich and Naques, besides silk stuffs of many other kinds.  For just as we have cloths of wool in our country, manufactured in a great variety of kinds, so in those regions they have stuffs of silk and gold in like variety.[NOTE 6]

All this region is subject to the Great Kaan.  There is a city you come to called SINDACHU, where they carry on a great many crafts such as provide for the equipment of the Emperor’s troops.  In a mountain of the province there is a very good silver mine, from which much silver is got:  the place is called YDIFU.  The country is well stocked with game, both beast and bird.[NOTE 7]