penaunce & may go no farther to get their meat, than to men that haue wit & may travail for theyr meat. Then come men to a citie y^t is called Chibens & there was the first sege[14] of the King of Mancy. In this citie are LX brydges of stone as fayre as they may be. [Illustration] [Footnote 1: Or Manzi, that part of China south of the river Hoang-ho.] [Footnote 2: _Pynson_ has "berdes _thynne_ of here, as it were cattes."] [Footnote 3: Larger.] [Footnote 4: _Pynson_ here has, "and there is plenty of great neddres (_adders_) of whyche they make a greate fest and ete theym at great solemnytees. For, if a man make a greate fest, and had gyven them all the mete that he myght gete, and he give theym no neddres, he hath no thanke for all that he doth."] [Footnote 5: Wool.] [Footnote 6: Hangchow-fu.] [Footnote 7: _Pynson_ says, "There is in y^t citie mo than VII thousand gates and each of III gate is a good toure where the kepers dwell," &c.] [Footnote 8: Borders.] [Footnote 9: Baboons.] [Footnote 10: Convent.] [Footnote 11: What is left over.] [Footnote 12: _Pynson_ says III Thousand or IIII Thousand.] [Footnote 13: Off.] [Footnote 14: Seat or settlement.] CAP. LXIIII. _Of the lande of Pygmen,[1] wherein dwell but smal people of three spanne long._ WHEN men passe from that citie of Chibens, they passe over a great river of freshe water, and it is nere IIII mile brode & then men enter into the lande of the great Caan. This river goeth through the land of Pigmeens, and there men are of little stature for they are but three span long, and they are right fayre bothe men and women, though they bee little, and they are wedded when they are halfe a yere olde, and they live but viii[2] yeare, and he that liveth viii yeare is holden right olde, and these small men are the best workemen in sylke and of cotton in all maner of thing that are in the worlde, and these smal men travail not nor tyl land but they haue amonge them great men, as we are, to travaill for them & they haue great scorne of those great men, as we would haue of giaunts or of them if they were among us.