Some days we had change of horses twice or thrice in a day. Sometimes we travelled two or three days together, not finding any people, and then we were constrained not to ride so fast. Of twenty or thirty horses we had always the worst, because we were strangers. For everyone took their choice of the best horses before us. They provided me always of a strong horse, because I was very corpulent and heavy: but whether he ambled a gentle pace or no, I durst not make any question. Neither yet durst I complain, although he trotted full sore. But everyone must be contented with his lot as it fell. Chapter XXIV Of hunger and thirst, cold and weariness there was no end. For they gave us no victuals but only in the evening. In the morning they used to give us a little drink, or some sodden millet to sup off. In the evening they bestowed flesh upon us ... and every man had a measured quantity of broth to drink.... In the beginning our guide highly disdained us, and it was tedious unto him to conduct such base fellows. Afterward, when he began to know us somewhat better he directed us on our way by the courts of rich Moals [? Moghuls], and we were requested to pray for them. Wherefore had I carried a good interpreter with me, I should have had opportunity to have done much good.... And they marvelled exceedingly that we would receive neither gold, nor silver, nor precious and costly garments at their hand.... Chapter XXVII They begin to write at the top of their paper drawing their lines right down: and so they read and multiply their lines from the left hand to the right.... They burn their dead, according to the ancient custom, and lay up the ashes on the top of a Pyramid.... Chapter XXVIII (p. 234) Beyond Muc is Great Cathaya, the inhabitants whereof (as I suppose) were of old time called Seres. For from them are brought most excellent stuffs of silk. And this people is called Seres of a certain town in the same country. I was credibly informed that, in the said country, there is one town having walls of silver, and bulwarks or towers of gold. There be many provinces in that land, the greater part whereof are not as yet subdued unto the Tartars. MARCO POLO (_The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian_, Col. H. Yule. Edn. 1875) Rusticiano’s address (p. 1) Great Princes, Emperors, and Kings, Dukes and Marquises, Counts, Knights and Burgesses and people of all degrees who desire to get knowledge of the various races of mankind, and of the diversities of the sundry regions of the World, take this book and cause it to be read to you.... For let me tell you that since our Lord God did mould with his hands our first father, Adam, even until this day, never hath there been Christian or Pagan, or Tartar or Indian or any man of any nation, who in his own person hath had so much knowledge and experience of the divers parts of the World and its Wonders as hath this Messer Marco....