Travelogue Excerpts: European Visions of Others, 1300s - 1500s

Travels of Sir John Mandeville

Also men go through Ind by many diverse countries to the great sea Ocean.  And after, men find there an isle that is clept Crues.  And thither come merchants of Venice and Genoa, and of other marches, for to buy merchandises.  But there is so great heat in those marches, and namely in that isle, that, for the great distress of the heat, men’s ballocks hang down to their knees for the great dissolution of the body.  And men of that country, that know the manner, let bind them up, or else might they not live, and anoint them with ointments made therefore, to hold them up.

In that country and in Ethiopia, and in many other countries, the folk lie all naked in rivers and waters, men and women together, from undern of the day till it be past the noon.  And they lie all in the water, save the visage, for the great heat that there is.  And the women have no shame of the men, but lie all together, side to side, till the heat be past.  There may men see many foul figure assembled, and namely nigh the good towns.

This land of Chaldea is full great.  And the language of that country is more great in sounding than it is in other parts of the sea.  Men pass to go beyond by the Tower of Babylon the Great, of the which I have told you before, where that all the languages were first changed.  And that is a four journeys from Chaldea.  In that realm be fair men, and they go full nobly arrayed in clothes of gold, orfrayed and apparelled with great pearls and precious stone’s full nobly.  And the women be right foul and evil arrayed.  And they go all bare-foot and clothed in evil garments large and wide, but they be short to the knees, and long sleeves down to the feet like a monk’s frock, and their sleeves be hanging about their shoulders.  And they be black women foul and hideous, and truly as foul as they be, as evil they be.

From that country go men by the sea ocean, and by many divers isles and by many countries that were too long for to tell of.  And a fifty-two journeys from this land that I have spoken of, there is another land, that is full great, that men clepe Lamary.  In that land is full great heat.  And the custom there is such, that men and women go all naked.  And they scorn when they see any strange folk going clothed.  And they say, that God made Adam and Eve all naked, and that no man should shame him to shew him such as God made him, for nothing is foul that is of kindly nature.  And they say, that they that be clothed be folk of another world, or they be folk that trow not in God.  And they say, that they believe in God that formed the world, and that made Adam and Eve and all other things.  And they wed there no wives, for all the women there be common and they forsake no man.  And they say they sin if they refuse any man; and so God commanded to Adam and Eve and to all that come of him, when he said, Crescite et multiplicamini et replete terram.  And therefore may no man in that country say, This is my wife; ne no woman may say, This my husband.  And when they have children, they may give them to what man they will that hath companied with them.  And also all the land is common; for all that a man holdeth one year, another man hath it another year; and every man taketh what part that him liketh.  And also all the goods of the land be common, corns and all other things: for nothing there is kept in close, ne nothing there is under lock, and every man there taketh what he will without any contradiction, and as rich is one man there as is another.

But in that country there is a cursed custom, for they eat more gladly man’s flesh than any other flesh; and yet is that country abundant of flesh, of fish, of corns, of gold and silver, and of all other goods.  Thither go merchants and bring with them children to sell to them of the country, and they buy them.  And if they be fat they eat them anon.  And if they be lean they feed them till they be fat, and then they eat them.  And they say, that it is the best flesh and the sweetest of all the world.

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In one of these isles be folk of great stature, as giants.  And they be hideous for to look upon.  And they have but one eye, and that is in the middle of the front.  And they eat nothing but raw flesh and raw fish.

And in another isle toward the south dwell folk of foul stature and of cursed kind that have no heads.  And their eyen be in their shoulders.

And in another isle be folk that have the face all flat, all plain, without nose and without mouth.  But they have two small holes, all round, instead of their eyes, and their mouth is plat also without lips.

And in another isle be folk of foul fashion and shape that have the lip above the mouth so great, that when they sleep in the sun they cover all the face with that lip.

Richard Eden, English Translation of Sebastian Münster’s A Treatyse of the Newe India

Theyr bodies are verye smothe and clene by reason of theyr often washinge. They are in other thinges fylthy and withoute shame. Thei use no lawful coniunccion of marriage, and but every one hath as many women as him liketh, and leaveth them agayn at his pleasure. The women are very fruiteful, and refuse no laboure al the whyle they are with childe. They travayle in manner withoute payne, so that the nexte day they are cherefull and able to walke. Neyther have they theyr bellies wimpeled or loose, and hanginge pappes [breasts], by reason of bearing manye children.

Girolamo Benzoni, History of the New World (1541)

Then came an Indian woman . . . such a woman as I have never before nor since seen the like of; so that my eyes could not be sat- isfied with looking at her for wonder. . . . She was quite naked, except where modisty forbids, such being the custom throughout all this country; she was old, and painted black, with long hair down to her waist, and her ear-rings had so weighed her ears down, as to make them reach her shoulders, a thing wonderful to see.... her teeth were black, her mouth large, and she had a ring in her nostrils . . . so that she appeared like a monster to us, rather than a human being.22

John Lok, Decades of the New World (1554)A tribe is depicted as having women who “have no speech, but rather a grynningy and chatterynge. There are also people without heads cauled Blemines, havyinge their eyes and mouth in theyr breast.”

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