their women are the most beautiful of any under the sun.  The first city that I came to belonging to this country is called Ceuskalon[2], which is a days journey from the sea, standing on a river, which at its mouth overflows the land, to the extent of twelve days journey.  This city has so prodigious a number of ships and vessels, as would be quite incredible by any person who had not been an eye-witness.  In this city I saw 300 pounds of good and new ginger sold for less than a groat.  They have the largest and finest geese, and the greatest plenty of them is to be sold, more than in any other part of the world.  They are as white as milk, having a bone the size of an egg on the crown of the head, of a blood-red colour, and a skin or bag under their throat, which hangs down half a foot or more[3].  These birds are exceedingly fat, and are sold at reasonable rates.  The ducks and hens of this country are twice the size of ours.  There are likewise large and monstrous serpents, which are caught and eaten by the natives, and are held in such estimation as to be produced at all their feasts.  In short, this city abounds in all kind of provisions.

Travelling from thence through many cities, I came at length to a city called Caitan or Zaiton[4], in which the minorite friars have two places of abode, unto which I transported the bones of the dead friars formerly mentioned, who suffered martyrdom for the faith of Christ.  In this city, which is twice as long as Bologna, there are abundance of provisions, and it contains many monasteries of religious persons, who are devoted to the worship of idols.  I was in one of these monasteries, which was said to contain 3000 religious men, and 11,000 idols, one of the smallest of which was as large as our St Christopher.  These religious men feed their idols daily, serving up a banquet of good things before them, smoking hot, and they affirm that their gods are refreshed and fed by the steam of the victuals, which are afterwards carried away, and eaten up by the priests.

[1] Otherwise Mangi, or Southern China.—­E.

[2] This place, which on the margin is corrected by the equally unknown
    name of Ceuskala, was probably Canton; but having endeavoured to
    explain the distorted names of places in China, in the travels of
    Marco Polo, it is unnecessary to resume the almost impossible task in
    these much less interesting, and perhaps fabricated travels of
    Oderic.—­E.

[3] Oderic here means pelicans, called alca-trarzi by the Spaniards. 
    —­Hakluyt.

[4] Called in p. 404.  Carchan.—­E.

SECTION XI.

Of the City of Fuko, or Foquien.