Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
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[1] Pauthier’s MSS. A and B are hopelessly corrupt here. His MS. C
agrees with the Geog. Text in making the toman = 70,000 saggi, but
210 tomans = 15,700,000, instead of 14,700,000. The Crusca and
Latin have 80,000 saggi in the first place, but 15,700,000 in the
second. Ramusio alone has 80,000 in the first place, and 16,800,000
in the second.
[2] _Eng. Cyclop., “Weights and Measures.”_
CHAPTER LXXIX.
OF THE CITY OF TANPIJU AND OTHERS.
When you leave Kinsay and travel a day’s journey to the south-east,
through a plenteous region, passing a succession of dwellings and
charming gardens, you reach the city of TANPIJU, a great, rich, and
fine city, under Kinsay. The people are subject to the Kaan, and
have paper-money, and are Idolaters, and burn their dead in the way
described before. They live by trade and manufactures and handicrafts,
and have all necessaries in great plenty and cheapness.{1}
But there is no more to be said about it, so we proceed, and I will
tell you of another city called VUJU at three days’ distance from
Tanpiju. The people are Idolaters, &c., and the city is under Kinsay.
They live by trade and manufactures.
Travelling through a succession of towns and villages that look like
one continuous city, two days further on to the south-east, you find
the great and fine city of GHIUJU which is under Kinsay. The people
are Idolaters, &c. They have plenty of silk, and live by trade and
handicrafts, and have all things necessary in abundance. At this city
you find the largest and longest canes that are in all Manzi; they are
full four palms in girth and 15 paces in length.{2}
When you have left Ghiuju you travel four days S.E. through a beautiful
country, in which towns and villages are very numerous. There is
abundance of game both in beasts and birds; and there are very large
and fierce lions. After those four days you come to the great and fine
city of CHANGSHAN. It is situated upon a hill which divides the River,
so that the one portion flows up country and the other down.[1] It is
still under the government of Kinsay.
I should tell you that in all the country of Manzi they have no
sheep, though they have beeves and kine, goats and kids and swine in
abundance. The people are Idolaters here, &c.
When you leave Changshan you travel three days through a very fine
country with many towns and villages, traders and craftsmen, and
abounding in game of all kinds, and arrive at the city of CUJU. The
people are Idolaters, &c., and live by trade and manufactures. It is a
fine, noble, and rich city, and is the last of the government of Kinsay
in this direction.{3} The other kingdom which we now enter, called
Fuju, is also one of the nine great divisions of Manzi as Kinsay is.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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