[He also provides the poor with clothes. For he lays a tithe upon all
wool, silk, hemp, and the like, from which clothing can be made; and he
has these woven and laid up in a building set apart for the purpose; and
as all artizans are bound to give a day's labour weekly, in this way the
Kaan has these stuffs made into clothing for those poor families, suitable
for summer or winter, according to the time of year. He also provides the
clothing for his troops, and has woollens woven for them in every city,
the material for which is furnished by the tithe aforesaid. You should
know that the Tartars, before they were converted to the religion of the
Idolaters, never practised almsgiving. Indeed, when any poor man begged of
them they would tell him, "Go with God's curse, for if He loved you as He
loves me, He would have provided for you." But the sages of the Idolaters,
and especially the Bacsis mentioned before, told the Great Kaan that it
was a good work to provide for the poor, and that his idols would be
greatly pleased if he did so. And since then he has taken to do for the
poor so much as you have heard.[NOTE 1]]
NOTE 1. - This is a curious testimony to an ameliorating effect of Buddhism
on rude nations. The general establishment of medical aid for men and
animals is alluded to in the edicts of Asoka;[1] and hospitals for the
diseased and destitute were found by Fahian at Palibothra, whilst Hiuen
Tsang speaks of the distribution of food and medicine at the Punyasalas
or "Houses of Beneficence," in the Panjab. Various examples of a
charitable spirit in Chinese Institutions will be found in a letter by
Pere d'Entrecolles in the XVth Recueil of Lettres Edifiantes; and a
similar detail in Nevius's China and the Chinese, ch. xv. (See
Prinsep's Essays, II. 15; Beal's Fah-hian, 107; Pel. Boudd. II.
190.) The Tartar sentiment towards the poor survives on the Arctic
shores: - "The Yakuts regard the rich as favoured by the gods; the poor as
rejected and cast out by them." (Billings, Fr. Tranls. I. 233.)
[1] As rendered by J. Prinsep. But I see that Professor H. H. Wilson did
not admit the passage to bear that meaning.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
[CONCERNING THE ASTROLOGERS IN THE CITY OF CAMBALUC.]
[There are in the city of Cambaluc, what with Christians, Saracens, and
Cathayans, some five thousand astrologers and soothsayers, whom the Great
Kaan provides with annual maintenance and clothing, just as he provides
the poor of whom we have spoken, and they are in the constant exercise of
their art in this city.
They have a kind of astrolabe on which are inscribed the planetary signs,
the hours and critical points of the whole year.
