Bamboos of three palms in girth (28 to 30 inches)
exist, but are not ordinary, I should suppose, even in Sze-ch'wan. In 1855
I took some pains to procure in Pegu a specimen of the largest attainable
bamboo. It was 10 inches in diameter.
NOTE 3. - M. Gabriel Durand, a missionary priest, thus describes his
journey in 1861 to Kiangka, via Ta-t'sien-lu, a line of country partly
coincident with that which Polo is traversing: "Every day we made a
journey of nine or ten leagues, and halted for the night in a Kung-kuan.
These are posts dotted at intervals of about ten leagues along the road to
Hlassa, and usually guarded by three soldiers, though the more important
posts have twenty. With the exception of some Tibetan houses, few and far
between, these are the only habitations to be seen on this silent and
deserted road.... Lytang was the first collection of houses that we had
seen in ten days' march." (Ann. de la Propag. de la Foi, XXXV. 352
seqq.)
NOTE 4. - Such practices are ascribed to many nations. Martini quotes
something similar from a Chinese author about tribes in Yunnan; and Garnier
says such loose practices are still ascribed to the Sifan near the
southern elbow of the Kin-sha Kiang. Even of the Mongols themselves and
kindred races, Pallas asserts that the young women regard a number of
intrigues rather as a credit and recommendation than otherwise.