A horse on a pole for the dead lord
Editorial contextRiccoldo describes Tartar funerals: cooked meat, clothes and money buried with the dead, and for a great lord a horse ridden to exhaustion, killed, stuffed with green grass and hung up on a stake, told to be ready whenever its master rises again. He adds that they once buried up to twenty living slaves with a lord until Christians shamed them out of it, and that Tartars even paid bishops to be buried in Christian cemeteries.
and the horse falls, and he guts it and empties everything from the horse's belly and fills it with green grass, and then drives a great stake in from behind and makes the stake come out at the mouth, and so leaves the horse impaled, and hangs it up and orders it to be ready whenever its lord wishes to rise
Working translation
Original wording
et equus cadit, et ipse exenterat eum et euacuat omnia de ventre equi, et implet herba viridi, et postea infigit palum magnum per posteriora, et facit palum exire vsque ad os, et ita dimittit equum impalatum, et suspendit eum et mandat ei, quod sit paratus, quandocumque wlt dominus surgere
About Tartars (Mongols of the Ilkhanate)
Keep in mind
He does not say he watched a funeral; this is presented as general custom. The horse-on-a-pole rite matches steppe burial practice reported by other travellers.
Raised on black felt: a khan election Hayton saw twice
Editorial contextHayton says the Tartars still make their lord the way they made Genghis: the whole people gathers in a field, the chosen man is seated on a black felt, the nobles and Genghis's kin lift him high and set him on a rich throne, and all kneel to him. He adds that he himself was present at two such elections, and marvels that for all their conquests they never changed their first custom.
When they want to elect their lord (and I have been twice at the election of the emperor of the Tartars, and saw how all the Tartars gathered in a great field), they seated the one who was to be their lord on a black felt, and set a rich throne in their midst.
Working translation
Original wording
Quant volent eslire leur seignor, e j'ai esté II foiz à la eleccion de l'empereor des Tartars, e ai veü coment tous les Tartars s'assembloient en un grant champ, e celui qui devoit estre leur seignor faisoient seoir sur un feltre noir, e metoient un riche siege au mi d'eaus.
About Tartars (Mongols)
Continue in this sourceHayton's Flower of the Histories of the East1260 to 1305 · 13 passagesA shaman who seemed to fly
Editorial contextRiccoldo says the Tartars honour above all men certain 'boxitae' (bakhshis), priests of idols from India, wise and grave, who practise magic with the help of demons, show many marvels and foretell the future. One of their leaders was said to fly, but, Riccoldo reports, it was found that he only walked just above the ground without touching it and sat on nothing solid.
For one of the greater among them was said to fly, but according to the truth it was found that he did not fly, but walked close to the ground without touching it, and when he seemed to sit he was held up by nothing solid.
Working translation
Original wording
Nam et vnus maior inter eos dicebatur volare, sed secundum veritatem repertum est, quod non volauit, sed ambulabat iuxta terram et eam non tangebat, et quando videbatur sedere, nulla re solida sustentabatur.
About Tartars and their 'baxitae' (Buddhist or shamanic priests)
Keep in mind
Hearsay about a wonder, which Riccoldo half-debunks (not flying) and half-repeats (levitating).
Execution called 'sleep', and a blank space for the lord's name
Editorial contextTwo sharp details of Mongol court manners. When writing to a superior, a Tartar leaves a gap where the lord's name belongs and writes the name out in the margin. When a man is condemned, the lord says 'cut him and make him sleep', because they do not call death death, and the condemned simply holds out his arms to be bound.
When they write to their superiors they keep such reverence that they do not write their superior's name in its place, but leave an empty space and afterwards write the name outside, in the margin, in another place.
Working translation
Original wording
Cum scribunt suis maioribus, tantam reuerenciam habent et seruant, quod non scribant nomen sui maioris in suo loco, sed dimittunt spacium vacuum et postea scribunt nomen de foris in margine in alio loco.
About Tartars (Mongols of the Ilkhanate)
Continue in this sourceFriar Riccoldo's pilgrimage book, with chapters on the Tartars of Persia and Baghdadc. 1288 to 1300 · 11 passages