popular impression that it was a sort of infernal machine presided
over by the devil himself.

[Illustration: SHIPS OF COLUMBUS]

2. And to this age had been bequeathed the fascinating stories of Sir
John Mandeville and Marco Polo, stories to make every boy crazy to be
off to seek his fortune. From their travels in Asia these men had
brought back the most remarkable accounts of the eastern lands. A
country was there, they said, called Cathay, bordering on the sea. It
was ruled by an emperor, the Kubla Khan, or Great Khan, who lighted
his bedroom with a bright jewel half a foot long, set upon golden
pillars, and decorated his walls with wrought gold and hundreds of
precious stones. The rivers of the land were crossed by marble
bridges, and the houses were roofed and paved with gold. The seas were
full of islands where spices grew and countless strange creatures
lived: one-eyed men; men with a lip long enough to cover their whole
face; men with only one foot, but that so large that they held it over
them like an umbrella when they lay down in the sun to rest;
two-headed men and men with no heads at all; men whose only food was
snakes, and others whose favorite beverage was human blood; dragons
and unicorns; woolly hens and sheep that grew on trees; and in one
island a valley where only devils dwelt. But there were besides great
hills of gold, cities with towers of silver and gold, precious stones
of all kinds, and rose-tinted pearls, big and round.

3. There was trade between Europe and certain parts of Asia which they
called the Indies, and reached by going east and south by land; but
this marvelous country of the Grand Khan lay beyond, and its riches
remained a golden dream, known only by the travelers' reports. That