No allusion to the Chinese Wall; in the
archives of Portugal nothing about the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci in
the service of that crown." (Varnhagen v. Ense, quoted by Hayward,
Essays, 2nd Ser. I. 36.) See regarding the Chinese Wall the remarks
referred to above, at p. 292 of this volume.
[11] [It is a strange fact that Polo never mentions the use of Tea in
China, although he travelled through the Tea districts in Fu Kien, and
tea was then as generally drunk by the Chinese as it is now. It is
mentioned more than four centuries earlier by the Mohammedan merchant
Soleyman, who visited China about the middle of the 9th century. He
states (Reinaud, Relation des Voyages faits par les Arabes et les
Persans dans l'Inde et a la Chine, 1845, I. 40): "The people of China
are accustomed to use as a beverage an infusion of a plant, which they
call sakh, and the leaves of which are aromatic and of a bitter
taste. It is considered very wholesome. This plant (the leaves) is
sold in all the cities of the empire." (Bretschneider, Hist. Bot.
Disc.I. p. 5.) - H. C.]
[12] It is probable that Persian, which had long been the language of
Turanian courts, was also the common tongue of foreigners at that of
the Mongols.
