during his journey to friar William de Solona, or Solangna, at
Padua, but without order or arrangement, just as it occurred to his memory.
This traveller has been named by different editors, Oderic, Oderisius, and
Oldericus de Foro Julii, de Udina, Utinensis, or de Porto Vahonis, or
rather Nahonis. Porto-Nahonis, or Portenau, is the _Mutatio ad nonum_, a
station or stage which is mentioned in the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, or
description of the various routes to Jerusalem, a work compiled for the use
of pilgrims; and its name is apparently derived from the Kymerian language,
apparently a Celtic dialect, in which _port_ signifies a stage, station, or
resting-place, and _nav_ or _naou_ signifies nine; _Port-nav_, Latinized
into Portus naonis, and Frenchified into Portenau, implies, therefore, the
ninth station, and is at present named Pordanone in the Friul. The account
of his travels, together with his life, are to be found: in _Bolandi Actis
Sanctorum, 14to Januarii_; in which he is honoured with the title of Saint.
Oderic died at Udina in 1331. In 1737, Basilio Asquini, an Italian
Barnabite of Udina, published _La Vita e Viaggi del Beato Qderico da
Udihe_, probably an Italian translation from the Latin of Bolandi. The
account of these travels in the collection of Hakluyt, is called "The
Journal of Friar Odericus, concerning the strange things which he sawe
among the Tartars of the East;" and was probably transcribed and translated
from Bolandi, in which these travels are entitled _De mirabilibus Mundi_,
or the Wonders of the World. They have very much the air of an ignorant
compilation, fabricated in the name of Oderic, perhaps upon some slight
foundation, and stuffed with ill-assorted stories and descriptions from
Marco Polo, and other, writers, interspersed with a few ridiculous
miracles, for the honour or disgrace of the minorite order. Mr Pinkerton
asserts, that Oderic was not canonized until 1753. But the Acts of the
Saints is a publication of considerable antiquity, and he is called
_Beatus_ in the work of Asquini, already mentioned as having been published
in 1787.

[1] Hakluyt, II. 142, for the Latin; II. 158, for the old English
translation.--Forst. Voy. and Disc. 147.

SECTION I.

_The Commencement of the Travels of Oderic_.

Many things are related by various authors, concerning the customs,
fashions, and conditions of this world: Yet, as I, friar Oderic of Portenau
in the Friul, have travel