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By Root 1092 0

“the girl is taken for the test of her virtue to the baths, where there will be the mothers and relations of herself and of the spouse, and on behalf of either party certain matrons specially deputed for this duty who will first examine the girl’s virginity with a pigeon’s egg. And if the women on behalf of the bridegroom are not satisfied with such a test, since a woman’s natural parts can well be contracted by medicinal means, one matron will cunningly insert a finger wrapped in fine white linen into the natural parts and will break a little of the virginal vein so that the linen may be a little stained with virginal blood. That blood is of such a nature and strength that it can be removed by no washing from cloth where it is fixed. And if it be removed, it is a sign that she has been defiled, nor is that blood of her proper nature. When the test has been made, if she is found a virgin, the marriage is valid; but if not, not. And the father of the girl will be punished by the government according to the agreement that he has made.

“You ought to know that for the keeping of this virginity, maidens always step so gently as they walk that one foot never goes before the other by more than a finger, because the privy parts of a virgin are very often opened if she take herself along too wantonly.”

Marco notes parenthetically that Mongols “do not care about this sort of convention; for their daughters ride with them, and their wives, whence it may be believed that to some extent they suffer harm”—with none the worse for the disturbance. Clearly, this was a more realistic approach to the issue of virginity.

WHILE IN TUNDINFU, Marco lost a cherished ring, and his attempts to recover it opened his eyes wider than ever before to the possibilities of Buddhism. Here he found “eighty-four idols, each with its own name,” but this time he did not dismiss this form of worship. He faithfully reports that “the idolaters say that an appropriate power has been given to each idol by the supreme God, namely to one for the finding of things lost; to one for the provision of fertility of lands and seasonable weather; to one for the helping of flocks; and with regard to everything.”

Marco naturally felt drawn to the idols capable of locating lost items. Resembling twelve-year-old boys, they were decorated with “beautiful ornaments” and were tended around the clock by an old woman. Anyone seeking to retrieve a lost item, he notes, appealed to this woman, whereupon she advised burning incense. Only then would she speak on behalf of her inanimate charges, saying, “Look in such a place and you shall find it.” If the item was stolen, she would answer, “So-and-so has it. Tell him to give it to you. And if he shall deny, come back to me, for I will make him certainly restore it to you.” And this is what Marco did and heard in pursuit of the lost ring.

He reports that the old woman’s charms, in combination with the idols’ powers, worked wonders beyond the mere retrieval of lost or stolen goods. A woman who refused to return a stolen kitchen knife, for instance, might find that it “cuts off her hand, or [she] falls into the fire, or another misfortune happens to her.” A man might wind up accidentally cutting off his foot with a stolen knife while chopping wood, or breaking his arms and legs. “Because men know by experience that this happens to them because of denials of thefts, they give back what they have stolen immediately.”

To hear Marco tell it, the old woman frequently communicated with the mischievous spirits. They “produce whispering in a sort of thin and low voice like a hissing. Then the old woman [gives] them many thanks in this way: she raises her hands before them, she will gnash her teeth three times, saying something like, ‘Oh, how worthy a thing, how holy, and how virtuous.’ And she will say to him who has lost horses, ‘You may go to such a place and you will find them’ or, ‘Robbers found them in such a place and are leading them away with them in such a direction, run, and you shall find them.’ And it is found exactly as she has