In Fact, You Shall Find Many
Men Who Have Each More Than Thirty Sons Who Form An Armed Retinue To Their
Father, And This Through The Fact Of His Having So Many Wives.
With us, on
the other hand, a man hath but one wife; and if she be barren, still he
must abide by her for life, and have no progeny; thus we have not such a
population as they have.
"And as regards food, they have abundance; for they generally consume
rice, panic, and millet (especially the Tartars, Cathayans, and people of
Manzi); and these three crops in those countries render an hundred-fold.
Those nations use no bread, but only boil those kinds of grain with milk
or meat for their victual. Their wheat, indeed, does not render so much,
but this they use only to make vermicelli, and pastes of that description.
No spot of arable land is left untilled; and their cattle are infinitely
prolific, so that when they take the field every man is followed by six,
eight, or more horses for his own use. Thus you may clearly perceive how
the population of those parts is so great, and how they have such an
abundance of food."
NOTE 5. - The Burmese kings used to have the odoriferous Durian
transmitted by horse-posts from Tenasserim to Ava. But the most notable
example of the rapid transmission of such dainties, and the nearest
approach I know of to their despatch by telegraph, was that practised for
the benefit of the Fatimite Khalif Aziz (latter part of 10th century), who
had a great desire for a dish of cherries of Balbek.
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