Marco Polo in Central Asia:15: Return to Creman

We will now leave this city, and not go on to India, I will describe it later. We will return to Creman (Kerman), because the countries I am going to visit can only be accessed by it. Here, I am taking another route from Cormos to Creman, and this route is a fine plain.  There are many hot springs on the way and a bath in these, is a remedy for some skin diseases.  Abundant fruits, especially dates, also birds like partridges.  But wheaten bread owing to the poor quality of water is so  bitter that no one unaccustomed to it can eat it.  When a man has left Creman, he travels seven days northward through a very dreary region.  During the first three days he finds no river, and the scarce water he gets is saline, green like grass, so bitter that it is impossible to drink it, and if a man tastes even a drop, it produces violent purging.  Travellers therefore carry water with them; but the beasts being obliged to drink, such as they find, suffer violently.  The whole tract is an arid desert, destitute of animals.  On the fourth day, you reach a river of fresh water, but its channel mostly under ground.  In some spots, however, the force of current makes abrupt opening, when the stream appears for a short space, and drink is abundantly supplied.  Then follows another tract that lasts four days and is also a dry desert, with bitter water, and no animals except wild asses.  At the end of the four days, we leave the kingdom of Creman. 

End of the Section 










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