which lies in a swampy situation, and is intersected by a number of navigable canals; this, in short, is the city from which the emperor escaped to seaward by the great river Ts’ien-T’ang, the breadth of which exceeds a German mile, flowing on the south of the city, exactly corresponding to the river described by the Venetian at Quinsai, and flowing eastward to the sea, which it enters precisely at the distance which he mentions. I will add that the compass of the city will be 100 Italian miles and more, if you include its vast suburbs, which run out on every side an enormous distance; insomuch that you may walk for 50 Chinese _li_ in a straight line from north to south, the whole way through crowded blocks of houses, and without encountering a spot that is not full of dwellings and full of people; whilst from east to west you can do very nearly the same thing.” (_Atlas Sinensis_, p. 99.) And so we quit what Mr. Moule appropriately calls “Marco’s famous rhapsody of the Manzi capital”; perhaps the most striking section of the whole book, as manifestly the subject was that which had made the strongest impression on the narrator. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] _Fanfur_, in Ramusio. [2] See the mention of the _I-ning Fang_ at Si-ngan fu, _supra_, p. 28. Mr. Wylie writes that in a work on the latter city, published during the Yuen time, of which he has met with a reprint, there are figures to illustrate the division of the city into _Fang_, a word “which appears to indicate a certain space of ground, not an open square ... but a block of buildings crossed by streets, and at the end of each street an open gateway.” In one of the figures a first reference indicates “the market place,” a second “the official establishment,” a third “the office for regulating weights.” These indications seem to explain Polo’s squares. (See Note 3, above.) [3] _Foreigner in Far Cathay_, pp. 158, 176. [4] A famous poet and scholar of the 11th century.