Hard by that kingdom is the country named Bacarie (Bactria), and on the trees wool grows whereof excellent cloths are made. And in that country are many beasts called hippotans (hippopotami): half of each of these beasts is a man, and the other half is a horse, and they are some time on the land and some time in the water. They eat no food save men when they are able to get them. There are gryphons in that country which in their talons carry off to their nests a man with his horse, and five oxen with their yokes. And there are long, sharp nails on them, and each of these nails is bigger than the horn of an ox: and in that country they are used for drinking out of, as horns are with us; and the folk have bows made of the gryphons' ribs in like manner.