Difference between revisions of "On the State of Novgorod"

Latest revision as of 11:03, 20 February 2008

Found in the library of the Duchess Anna Ivanovna, it's in Arabic:

    in these lands. It had been rumored, or so I have read in the libraries of His Excellency al-Muktadir,
    PBUH, that Ikulu had and hid in Nawobod the Ediolon of Khalk-Ru, a yellow lozenge engraved with the
    images of creatures of the sea. Those possessing it, who managed to overcome its terrible curses, were
    supposed to be able to summon and command various sea creatures, although even this was to be fraught
    with peril. But I have searched the town high and low with no lozenges to be found. Indeed, this city is
    a cultural wasteland, lacking any redeeming merits whatsoever, frigid, freezing, unpleasant, stagnant.
    Its people are the most shameless and unkempt in the world, often having intercourse in public, and
    having no shame in micturating or defecataing, and never washing after any of these activities, nor when
    dining. Better by far if they did not wash at all! For very day the Rus must wash their faces and heads
    and this they do in the dirtiest and filthiest fashion possible: viz., every morning a girl servant
    brings a great basin of water; she offers this to her master and he washes his hands and face and his
    hair, and combs it out with a comb into the water; then he blows his nose and spits into the basin. When
    he has finished, the servant carries the basin to the next person, who does likewise. She carries the
    basin thus to all the household in turn, and each blows his nose, spits, and washes his face and hair in
    it. Only its soil of this land is purported to be of use, although even this I doubt. The nights are
    uncommonly short, and before I reached my destination, and barbarians of the true faith, I had a great
    deal of difficulty determining the correct time for morning prayers. Had I not had to hasten, perhaps I
    would have found the Eirolon [sic], but to no avail. I discovered even that

An identical copy was found in a Roman library by the Danger Gang.