215
seqq.; Upper and Lower Amoor, 390.)
NOTE 9. - Hawking is still common in North China. Petis de la Croix the
elder, in his account of the Yasa, or institutes of Chinghiz, quotes one
which lays down that between March and October "no one should take stags,
deer, roebucks, hares, wild asses, nor some certain birds," in order that
there might be ample sport in winter for the court. This would be just the
reverse of Polo's statement, but I suspect it is merely a careless
adoption of the latter. There are many such traps in Petis de la Croix.
(Engl. Vers. 1722, p. 82.)
CHAPTER XXI.
REHEARSAL OF THE WAY THE YEAR OF THE GREAT KAAN IS DISTRIBUTED.
On arriving at his capital of Cambaluc,[NOTE 1] he stays in his palace
there three days and no more; during which time he has great court
entertainments and rejoicings, and makes merry with his wives. He then
quits his palace at Cambaluc, and proceeds to that city which he has
built, as I told you before, and which is called Chandu, where he has that
grand park and palace of cane, and where he keeps his gerfalcons in mew.
There he spends the summer, to escape the heat, for the situation is a
very cool one. After stopping there from the beginning of May to the 28th
of August, he takes his departure (that is the time when they sprinkle the
white mares' milk as I told you), and returns to his capital Cambaluc.
There he stops, as I have told you also, the month of September, to keep
his Birthday Feast, and also throughout October, November, December,
January, and February, in which last month he keeps the grand feast of the
New Year, which they call the White Feast, as you have heard already with
all particulars. He then sets out on his march towards the Ocean Sea,
hunting and hawking, and continues out from the beginning of March to the
middle of May; and then comes back for three days only to the capital,
during which he makes merry with his wives, and holds a great court and
grand entertainments. In truth, 'tis something astonishing, the
magnificence displayed by the Emperor in those three days; and then he
starts off again as you know.
Thus his whole year is distributed in the following manner: six months at
his chief palace in the royal city of Cambaluc, to wit, September,
October, November, December, January, February;
Then on the great hunting expedition towards the sea, March, April, May;
Then back to his palace at Cambaluc for three days;
Then off to the city of Chandu which he has built, and where the Cane
Palace is, where he stays June, July, August;
Then back again to his capital city of Cambaluc.
So thus the whole year is spent; six months at the capital, three months
in hunting, and three months at the Cane Palace to avoid the heat. And in
this way he passes his time with the greatest enjoyment; not to mention
occasional journeys in this or that direction at his own pleasure.
NOTE 1. - This chapter, with its wearisome and whimsical reiteration,
reminding one of a game of forfeits, is peculiar to that class of MSS.
which claims to represent the copy given to Thibault de Cepoy by Marco
Polo.
Dr. Bushell has kindly sent me a notice of a Chinese document (his
translation of which he had unfortunately mislaid), containing a minute
contemporary account of the annual migration of the Mongol Court to
Shangtu. Having traversed the Kiu Yung Kwan (or Nankau) Pass, where stands
the great Mongol archway represented at the end of this volume, they left
what is now the Kalgan post-road at Tumuyi, making straight for
Chaghan-nor (supra, p. 304), and thence to Shangtu. The return journey in
autumn followed the same route as far as Chaghan-nor, where some days were
spent in fowling on the lakes, and thence by Siuen-hwa fu ("Sindachu,"
supra, p. 295) and the present post-road to Cambaluc.
CHAPTER XXII.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF CAMBALUC, AND ITS GREAT TRAFFIC AND POPULATION.
You must know that the city of Cambaluc hath such a multitude of houses,
and such a vast population inside the walls and outside, that it seems
quite past all possibility. There is a suburb outside each of the gates,
which are twelve in number;[NOTE 1] and these suburbs are so great that
they contain more people than the city itself [for the suburb of one gate
spreads in width till it meets the suburb of the next, whilst they extend
in length some three or four miles]. In those suburbs lodge the foreign
merchants and travellers, of whom there are always great numbers who have
come to bring presents to the Emperor, or to sell articles at Court, or
because the city affords so good a mart to attract traders. [There are in
each of the suburbs, to a distance of a mile from the city, numerous fine
hostelries[NOTE 2] for the lodgment of merchants from different parts of
the world, and a special hostelry is assigned to each description of
people, as if we should say there is one for the Lombards, another for the
Germans, and a third for the Frenchmen.] And thus there are as many good
houses outside of the city as inside, without counting those that belong
to the great lords and barons, which are very numerous.
[Illustration: Plain of Cambaluc; the City in the distance; from the Hills
on the north-west]
You must know that it is forbidden to bury any dead body inside the city.
If the body be that of an Idolater it is carried out beyond the city and
suburbs to a remote place assigned for the purpose, to be burnt. And if it
be of one belonging to a religion the custom of which is to bury, such as
the Christian, the Saracen, or what not, it is also carried out beyond the
suburbs to a distant place assigned for the purpose.
