Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/98

MARCO POLO. 87 •when they went off half a league. One horseman was lost who never reappeared, and two horsed, all Sad- dled and bridled, which they never saw again. No track was left of where they went, and on this ac- count it was necessary to mark the road by which they went with the cow dung, so as to return, since there were no stones or anything else. Marco Polo, the Venetian, in his treatise, (chapter 15), relates and says that he saw the same cows with the same sort of hump; and in the same chapter he says that there are sheep as big as horses, Nicholas, the Venetian, gave an account to Micer Pogic, the Florentine, in his sec- ond book, toward the end, which says, that in Ethio- pia they have oxen with a hump, like camels, and they have horns three cubits long, and they carry their horns up over their backs, and one of these horns makes a wine pitcher. Marco Polo (in chapter 134), says, that in the country of the Tartars, toward the north, they have dogs as large or little smaller than asses. They harness these into a sort of cart and with these enter a very miry country, aU a quag- mire, Ivhere other animals cannot enter and come out without getting submerged, and on this account they take dogs. We found Indians among these first cows, who were on this ac<3ouht called Querechos by those in the flat-roof houses. They do not live in houses, but have some sets of poles which they carry with them to make some huts at the places where th^ stop, which serve them for houses. They tie these poles together at the top and stick the bottoms into ttiie ground, covering thelu with some cow-sMns which they carry around, and wMeh, as I have said,