Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	world_n	write_v	year_n	1,737	5	4.5984	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B00052	A discouerie of the countries of Tartaria, Scithia, & Cataya, by the northeast: with the maners, fashions, and orders which are vsed in those countries. / Set foorth by Iohn Frampton merchaunt.	Frampton, John, fl. 1577-1596.	1580 (1580)	STC 11255; ESTC S92572	34,080	90

Gelones are labourers and tillers of the earth and haue corne and possesse gardeines and orchardes and haue no manner of likenesse at all vnto the Budinos neither in countenance nor collour all the realme where these inhabite is full of trees by a very great lake that is there They hunt great store of wilde beasts And of their skinnes make gownes for them selues to weare There is an other kynde of people called Argipeos which liue at the foote of certeine high mountaines They are a people balde from the tyme of their birth as well the women as the men They haue flat and broad noses and verye great beardes and a certayne sounde of a voyce wherewith they speake They are apparelled like to the Scythians They liue commonly of the fruite of trees They care not for breeding of cattell and therefore haue not many Euery one hath his dwelling place vnder a tree which in the Winter they couer with a white couering and in the Summer it is not couered at all No people of the worlde hurteth them for they say that they are sanctified They possesse no armour neither to defende nor to offend but rather themselues by perswasions and faire meanes take vp all maner of controuersies strifes that rise among them Whosoeuer commeth vnto them they fauour and succour him There are others called Isledones which vse these customes whensoeuer the father of any of them dyeth all his kinred bring thither their cattell the which they kill and make bankets and the like is done of the father of him that hath conuited them and so they make their banket eating the fleshe of the dead man with the flesh of the cattaile They flea and take off the skinne of the head of the dead man and clense it of all that is therwithin and after gilde the same haue it for their image and make therevnto euery yeare very great ceremonies and sacrifices This the father doeth for the sonne and the sonne for the father euen as the Greekes do celebrate the day of their birth These do affirme them selues to be a iust people and their women are as strong as the men thēselues These were the manners and fashions of the Scithians in tymes past vntill they were brought vnder the subiection of the Tartars and then followed their maner of liuing and nowe liue as the Tartars do being all called Tartars by one generall name Of the Countrie that is called the other side of Ganges and of Cataya and the region of Sinas which is a countrey of the great Cham and of the meruailous things that haue bene seene in those countries BEyond the riuer Ganges towards the East is the land and part of India that standeth on the other side of the same riuer and therfore is called the other side of Ganges This is the greatest the best the rychest countrey of all India which is towardes the East partes where the Sunne riseth and is now called Cataya and it appertaineth to the great Cham who is lorde of Tartaria In old time it was saide that it belonged to Prester Iohn The countrey of Cataya is greate and hath in it manye kingdomes and the buyldings like to Europe There is in it great policie of all things It is a riche countrey of Gold spices and precious stones whereof there is great aboundance The people are of great reason and liue in better order then we do There are among them Philosophers who are much esteemed The seconde sort are husbandmen The third Shepheards The fourth handicraftes men The fifth men of warre to defende the countrey The sixt the presidents and gouernours that gouerne the country The seuenth are the counsellers to the king And these are cheefest and haue charge ouer all the rest and will not consent that any one should leaue his owne office or science and take an other and therefore they are better gouerned then we are The great Chain deuyded this prouince into nine kingdomes in the which are two thousande great cities or thereabouts There is no richer prouince in the worlde It hath all thinges necessarie and in great plentie for the life of mankinde The Catayans are idolaters great merchauntes and craftes men They giue them selues much to Astronomy There are among them many religious houses of Idolaters which leade a straight life They haue among them there Vniuersities and studies of learning and the scripture of the old and newe Testament wherof it commeth to passe that they honor God and beleeue in the euerlasting life but are not baptized They loue the Christians and giue almes with a good will They haue no beardes They are much like in face countenaunce to those of the prouince of Mongall There are many Christians in Cataya It is so great a countrey and so inhabited that in a verye short space the great Cham can ioyne together an armye of three hundred thousand fighting men In the prouince of Cataya they haue no wine but make their drinke of Rise They haue fleshe milke and cheese They bury their dead bodyes richely In this prouince they celebrate their weddings with great bankets Songs and Trumpets They vse bathes They deuide the yeare into 12 monethes according to the twelue signes The moste part of these people accompteth the yeare from August They vse Crosse-bowes and gunnes and of all kinde of artillery for they are the best handycraftes men in the worlde They write vppon the leaues of trees and make bookes of them They make money of the rinds of Mulbery trees In some places they vse small Irons for money like to needles In other places small peeces of Golde There is among these neither pestilence nor any other contagious diseases and therefore is such an infinite number of people There is in this countrey many and very great Serpents which the Catayans do eate in their bankets with great affection The principall citie in Cataya is Cambula contayning xxiiii myles in compasse and is foure square and in euery square reacheth vi myles Some saye that it contayneth xl Italian myles which is xx leagues in compasse The walles are xx paces in height and v. in breadth with pinacles vpon all of three paces in height In the foure corners are foure rounde fortes and euery one of them foure myles in compasse with greate prouision of armour in euery of the same This citie hath xii gates two myles distant one from another Euery gate hath ouer it a faire large house wherein are continually a thousand watchmen kept to gard the citie There is a wall that goeth to euery one of these fortes with their arches where the king may passe into any of them The great Cham his pallace is strong and very stately and faire The streetes are streight in so much that the light of the fire is seene from one ende to another In this citie are many faire and sumptuous houses and palaces and in the middest of it is a great and wonderfull Pallace