Odoric
Likewise Speaks Of The Hostelries Called Yam, And Rubruquis Applies The
Same Term To Quarters In The Imperial Camp, Which Were Assigned For The
Lodgment Of Ambassadors.
(Cathay, ccii.
137; Rubr. 310.)
[Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, 101, note) says that these post-stations were
established by Okkodai in 1234 throughout the Mongol empire. (D'Ohsson,
ii. 63.) Dr. G. Schlegel (T'oung Pao, II. 1891, 265, note) observes that
iam is not, as Pauthier supposed, a contraction of yi-ma, horse
post-house (yi-ma means post-horse, and Pauthier makes a mistake), but
represents the Chinese character [Chinese], pronounced at present chan,
which means in fact a road station, a post. In Annamite, this character
[Chinese] is pronounced tram, and it means, according to Bonet's Dict.
Annamite-Francais: "Relais de poste, station de repos." (See
Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. p. 187 note.) - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - Martini and Magaillans, in the 17th century, give nearly the same
account of the government hostelries.
NOTE 4. - Here Ramusio has this digression: "Should any one find it
difficult to understand how there should be such a population as all this
implies, and how they can subsist, the answer is that all the Idolaters,
and Saracens as well, take six, eight, or ten wives apiece when they can
afford it, and beget an infinity of children. 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. The Wazir Yakub
ben-Kilis caused six hundred pigeons to be despatched from Balbek to Cairo,
each of which carried attached to either leg a small silk bag containing a
cherry! (Quat. Makrizi, IV. 118.)
NOTE 6. - "Note is taken at every post," says Amyot, in speaking of the
Chinese practice of last century, "of the time of the courier's arrival,
in order that it may be known at what point delays have occurred."
(Mem. VIII. 185.)
NOTE 7. - The post-system is described almost exactly as in the text by
Friar Odoric and the Archbishop of Soltania, in the generation after Polo,
and very much in the same way by Magaillans in the 17th century. Posts had
existed in China from an old date. They are spoken of by Mas'udi and the
Relations of the 9th century. They were also employed under the ancient
Persian kings; and they were in use in India, at least in the generation
after Polo. The Mongols, too, carried the institution wherever they went.
Polo describes the couriers as changed at short intervals, but more
usually in Asiatic posts the same man rides an enormous distance. The
express courier in Tibet, as described by "the Pandit," rides from Gartokh
to Lhasa, a distance of 800 miles, travelling day and night. The courier's
coat is sealed upon him, so that he dares not take off his clothes till
the seal is officially broken on his arrival at the terminus. These
messengers had faces cracked, eyes bloodshot and sunken, and bodies raw
with vermin. (J. R. G. S. XXXVIII. p. 149.) The modern Turkish post from
Constantinople to Baghdad, a distance of 1100 miles, is done in twenty
days by four Tartars riding night and day. The changes are at Sivas,
Diarbekir, and Mosul. M. Tchihatcheff calculates that the night riding
accomplishes only one quarter of the whole. (Asie Mineure, 2'de Ptie.
632-635.) - See I. p. 352, pai tze.
CHAPTER XXVII.
HOW THE EMPEROR BESTOWS HELP ON HIS PEOPLE, WHEN THEY ARE AFFLICTED WITH
DEARTH OR MURRAIN.
Now you must know that the Emperor sends his Messengers over all his Lands
and Kingdoms and Provinces, to ascertain from his officers if the people
are afflicted by any dearth through unfavourable seasons, or storms or
locusts, or other like calamity; and from those who have suffered in this
way no taxes are exacted for that year; nay more, he causes them to be
supplied with corn of his own for food and seed. Now this is undoubtedly a
great bounty on his part. And when winter comes, he causes inquiry to be
made as to those who have lost their cattle, whether by murrain or other
mishap, and such persons not only go scot free, but get presents of
cattle. And thus, as I tell you, the Lord every year helps and fosters the
people subject to him.
[There is another trait of the Great Kaan I should tell you; and that is,
that if a chance shot from his bow strike any herd or flock, whether
belonging to one person or to many, and however big the flock may be, he
takes no tithe thereof for three years.
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