Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	chief_a	great_a	place_n	4,421	4	4.0822	3	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

the body they put three pieces of timber leauing one to the other round about him vpon the which they hang certeine woll The men of Scithia wash not them selues but the women wash their bodyes with water and rub them selues with a plain stone shut within a peece of wood of Cypres or Ceder or incēse After they haue so washed thē selues that they begin to smel they annoynt all their body face with oyntments so they remaine very cleane shining The maner of the othe that they sweare is by the kings chayr And if they find any periured which they knowe by the diuines that haue the knowledge therof immediatly without any longer tarrying they behead him and he loseth all his goods which is giuen to such as accused him of periury There are in Scithia other people called the Massagetas towards the part of Asia neere to the Caspian sea which are like to the people of Scithia in apparell also in life by the which many beleeue that they are Scithians These fight both on horseback on foote eyther way are almost inuincible In battayle they vse arrowes launces short swords that they always carry with thē They vse much gold in their girdels in the trimming of their heads vnder their armepits in the breasts of their horses The heades of their launces arrowes be of copper There is neither Iron nor siluer among them Euery of them taketh out wife but afterward shee is common to all Howe long they liue no man hitherto could set downe any certaintie for as soone as any of them beginneth to waxe olde his kinsfolkes and friendes ●eete together and kill him and then seethe him and after sacrifice him with certeyne ●heepe and then eate of that fleshe at a ban●et which they make And this manner of death they accompt a happy kind of death And if he dye of any disease they eate him ●ot but rather bury him hold it for a gret s●me losse that he was not killed sacrifi●ed They sowe nothing in the earth but liue ●f the cattel fishes that are taken in the ●●uer Araxes and for the most parte drinke ●ilke They worship the Sunne and to it they offer sacrifice with horses saying it is the ●ightest planet therfore the lightest beast ●ight to be sacrifised to him There is ano●her sort of people called Seres who are a●ong themselues very quiet tame they 〈◊〉 from the company of al men in so much ●hat they wil haue no trafique with any strange ●eople Howbeit merchants may passe vpō●heir riuer in the same without any other ●●●ling put their merchandize to exchange ● that they buy nothing but by way of bar●●y exchange one cōmoditie for another Among this last sort there is no woman brought to answer in iudgement nor otherwise touched although shee be a wicked woman an adulteresse or theefe And as it is reported there hath beene no man put to death among them at any time for the feare reuerence which they haue to their lawes is of more strength then any other constellation or sinne They dwell at the beginning of the roundnesse of the worlde and because they liue chaste they be not afflicted with Caterpiller nor worme nor hayle nor pestilence nor any other euils The woman after shee is conceiued is neither touched nor desired of any Vncleane fleshe or forbidden none eate thereof Euery one is Iudge for him selfe according to the righteousnes of Iustice and therefore they are not chastened nor afflicted with those plagues that are vsed to come to others for their sinnes and so they liue long and ende their life without any disease There are others which are called Tauroscythas of the mountayne Tauro neare to the which they inhabite These offer in sacrifice to the virgin Ephigenia all those that come sayling to them by sea and are lost and al maner of Greekes that repaire thither and the sacrifice is in this manner After they haue made certein prayers they wound the head of the man and so kill him Others say they cast the body headlong from a great rocke because her temple standeth vpon a high rocke and they set the head vpon a stake And some say that the body is not cast downe from the rocke but that they bury it This diuell to whome they offer this sacrifice they say is Ephigenia that was daughter to king Agamemnon Their enimies whome they take they vse in this sort euery one cutteth off the head of his enimie and carryeth it to his house and setteth it vpon a staffe the greatest that he can get and then setteth it vpon his house commonly vppon the chimney and say that they set them so high to the ende their enimies may be keepers of all the house They of this coūtrey liue by robberies warres There are others called Agatirsos which are very politike vse to weare vpon their bodies great store of golde All their women are common among them for they say ●hey are al brethren of one house There is not among them any enuye nor contenti●● but are like in manners to the people of Tracia There are others called Neuros which vse the maners and lawes of the Scithians These were constrayned to leaue their countrey one yeare before the conquest of king Darius by reason of the multitude of Serpentes that breede in it They holde for a certaine trueth and sweare that euery yeare in certeine dayes they were conuerted into Wolues and afterwarde returned into the forme and shape that they were first of There are others which are called Antropophagis because they eate mens flesh whose manners and lawes are the moste rude and beastly of all others which are among men They liue vnder no maner of lawe All their trade is in cattell Their apparel is like to theirs of Scithia They haue a language proper to them selues Ther are other called Melandenos which vse to weare all their apparell blacke and therefore are so called These onely among the Scithians do eate mans fleshe In the rest they haue the manners and lawes of the people of Scithia The Budinos are another great nation and all these haue fayre eyes and the collours of their bodyes are white and red The citie that these possesse is called Gelona of the which they are called Gelonas and this is the head place of that realme They make their feastes in the honour of the god Bacchus which are called Trietericas Bacchanales from three yeares to three yeares These were Greeks in tymes past but going out of their countrey came to this region where they made their abode and euen at this daye vse parte of the Greeke language and part of the Scithians The Budinos do differ from the Gelones in their language life for these Budinos are naturalles of this countrey and al their liuing dependeth vpō the trade of cattell and these of that region vse to eate lyce