ABSTRACT
EVEN so, there is in the character of these people a justifiable ruthlessness by which, if guests who have been welcomed with such kindness are tempted by a shameful lust (although this seldom happens) and take it upon themselves to dishonour with lewd sport the master of the house’s helpmeet, or his daughter, or maid, or offer them any violence, then at once they avenge themselves on such a man with tireless effort and unappeasable rage, employing every kind of ferocity, not even stopping short of killing. For they see that their generosity, given free, is repaid with unspeakable wickedness. Nor do those guests long retain their pleasant abode if they carry with them pungent scents such as musk in their clothes or their packs, for, should women sniff this odour, they will suffer a miscarriage. In fact, because of these alien smells, such foreigners become suspected by the natives of treachery to the kingdom. Hence unfragrant riffraff, especially from among the bordering Russians, Muscovites, or Danes, are often fiercely cudgelled by the country folk because of their dislike of that stench. 1
