ABSTRACT
Christians, they were clothed in a xebec1 made with folds, and the sleeves were quilted with cotton. And on their heads they wore a cap a palm and a half long, made of red cloth. These same men are as white as we are, and confess that they are Christians, and believe in the Trinity, and likewise in the Twelve Apostles, in the four Evangelists, and they also have baptism with water. But they write in the contrary way to us, that is, after the manner of Armenia. And they say that they keep the Nativity and the Passion of Christ, and observe our Tent and other vigils in the course of the year. These Christians .do not wear shoes, but they wear a kind of breeches made of silk, similar to those need hardly remark that Varthema is wrong in stating that the Arme nians write in that way, for they write as we do from left to right.) Assemanni, indeed, concludes that all the Christians formerly in Tartary and China were Nestorians, quoting Marco Polo, among others, as his authority :— “ Christianos in Sinarum regno Nestorianos fuisse, non Armenios, neque ex Armenia, sed partita ex Assyria et Mesopotamia, partim ex Sogdiana, Bactriana et India illuc convolasse, eo maxime tempore, quo Tartari in illud regnum invaserunt, ipse Marcus Paulus Venetus, qui a Trigautio citatur, pluribus in locis affirmat, ubi quoties Christianorum in Sinis meminit, eos Nestorianos vocat.” The same author defines the limits o f the ancient kingdom o f Cathay as follows:— “ Cataja Sinam borealem significat, quam orientalis Sinae nomine ap pellant : habet autem Turchestanam ad occasum ; Sinam ad austrum ; terram et mare Esonis, vulgb de Jesso, ad ortum ; et Tartariam veram ad septentrionem. Sericse antiquse pars est, ut ex Ptolemseo scribit C e l la r iu s b u t I have perused the interesting section from which this quotation is made, (Biblioth,. Orient., vol. iv. § vi.), and every other avail able author from Marco Polo downwards, without discovering any clue to Varthema’s city o f Sarnau. The only additional information which his book affords respecting its locality is given in a subsequent chapter, and while he was at Sumatra, from which island his Christian com panions told him it was 3,000 miles distant.
