169 rub themselves up against the trees, enabling some excellent and genuine grains to be collected. Hunters track them down by their scent and trap them. They capture them in nets and take them alive to a house appointed by the king for this very purpose. There, they cut round these abscesses through the skin, and once they have been dried, one is left with the most exquisite and genuine musk pod. Yet, very few of these exist, because they fake it in all sorts of ways, cutting abscesses off live animals and then putting lots of leeches on the wounds and letting them swell on their blood. Once they are full and swollen, they are thrown into the sun to dry and so many are put on the animal that it is sucked dry of its blood and drops dead. They then skin it and make lots of fake pods from the skin which seem genuine, and they grind the dry leeches down into a powder. They make grains of musk by hand and taking one measure from the genuine musk pod and mixing it with seven or eight meaures of leeches, they make a good musk. It is so good that if it were to come to our country, they would think themselves most fortunate, because in addition, after this, the merchants who buy it in the city to take to other kingdoms also fake it, since genuine musk is so strong that if you were to put it on the tip of your nose, it would immediately give you an almighty nose-bleed. This King of Ava is an overlord with many precious stones and gold and a large number of horses and elephants and many soldiers. His country is rich in provisions. Caplan Lying further inland from this city and kingdom is another gentile city with its own king, who is however a subject of his overlord, the King of Ava. His kingdom or city is called Caplan. Many rubies are found in the surrounding area, which are brought to be sold at the Ava fair and they are much better than the local ones.
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