The great King of the Tartars

With the. king’s envoys returned other envoys from the great King of the Tartars, and these brought letters to the King of France, saying: “ A good thing is peace; for in the land where peace reigns those that go about on four feet eat the grass of peace; and those that go about on two feet till the earth from which good things do proceed in peace also. And this thing we tell thee for thy advertisement; for thou canst not have peace save thou have it with us. For Prester John rose up against us, and such and such kings ” and he named a great many “ and we have put them all to the sword. So we admonish thee to send us, year by year, of thy gold and of thy silver, and thus keep us to be thymine; and if thou wilt not do this, we will destroy thee and people, as we have done to the kings already named.” And you must know that it repented the king sorely that he id ever sent envoys to the great King of the Tartars.

CERTAIN KNIGHTS ARRIVE FROM NORWAY

Now let us return to the matter in hand, and tell how, while the king was fortifying Csesarea, there came to the imp my Lord Alenard of Senaingan, and he told us he had built his ship in the realm of Norway, which is at the world’s :id, towards the west, and how, in coming to the king, he ad gone all round Spain, and passed through the Straits of morocco. Great perils had he undergone before he came to s. The king retained him in his service and nine of his nights. And this lord Alenard told us that, in the land of Norway, the nights were so short in summer that every ight you saw at one time the light of the day that was passing and the light of the day that was dawning.

And he betook himself, he and his people, to the hunting f lions; and they took several very perilously; for they round go forward to shoot at the lions, spurring as hard as hey could; and when they had shot their shafts, the lions prang at them; and now would they have been seized and devoured if they had not let fall a piece of ragged cloth, reach the lion leapt upon, tore and devoured, thinking he Lad hold of a man. While the lion was thus tearing the loth, another hunter went and shot at him, and the lion eft tearing the cloth, and sprang after this hunter; and he a turn let fall another piece of cloth, and again the lion lounged upon it. And thus they killed the lion with their .rrows.