At the place
where the ships anchor, the water is fresh. The people drink this water
and also that of the wells. Zaitun is 30 days' journey from Khanbaligh.
The inhabitants of this town burn their dead either with Sandal, or Brazil
wood, according to their means; they then throw the ashes into the river."
Mr. Phillips adds: "The custom of burning the dead is a long established
one in Fuh-Kien, and does not find much favour among the upper classes. It
exists even to this day in the central parts of the province. The time for
cremation is generally at the time of the Tsing-Ming. At the commencement
of the present dynasty the custom of burning the dead appears to have been
pretty general in the Fuchow Prefecture; it was looked upon with disfavour
by many, and the gentry petitioned the Authorities that proclamations
forbidding it should be issued. It was thought unfilial for children to
cremate their parents; and the practice of gathering up the bones of a
partially cremated person and thrusting them into a jar, euphoniously
called a Golden Jar, but which was really an earthen one, was much
commented on, as, if the jar was too small to contain all the bones, they
were broken up and put in, and many pieces got thrown aside. In the
Changchow neighbourhood, with which we have here most to do, it was a
universal custom in 1126 to burn the dead, and was in existence for many
centuries after." (See note, supra, II. p. 134.)
Captain Gill, speaking of the country near the Great Wall, writes (I. p.
61): ["The Chinese] consider mutton very poor food, and the butchers'
shops are always kept by Mongols. In these, however, both beef and mutton
can be bought for 3d. or 4d. a lb., while pork, which is considered by
the Chinese as the greatest delicacy, sells for double the price." - H.C.]
NOTE 2. - Che-kiang produces bamboos more abundantly than any province of
Eastern China. Dr. Medhurst mentions meeting, on the waters near
Hang-chau, with numerous rafts of bamboos, one of which was one-third of a
mile in length. (Glance at Int. of China, p. 53.)
NOTE 3. - Assuming Tanpiju to be Shao-hing, the remaining places as far as
the Fo-kien Frontier run thus: -
3 days to Vuju (P. Vugui, G.T. Vugui, Vuigui, Ram. Uguiu).
2 " to Ghiuju (P. Guiguy, G.T. Ghingui, Ghengui, Chengui, Ram.
Gengui).
4 " to Chanshan (P. Ciancian, G.T. Cianscian, Ram. Zengian).
3 " to Cuju or Chuju (P. Cinguy, G.T. Cugui, Ram. Gieza).
First as regards Chanshan, which, with the notable circumstances about
the waters there, constitutes the key to the route, I extract the
following remarks from a note which Mr. Fortune has kindly sent me: "When
we get to Chanshan the proof as to the route is very strong. This is
undoubtedly my Chang-shan. The town is near the head of the Green River
(the Ts'ien T'ang) which flows in a N.E. direction and falls into the Bay
of Hang-chau. At Chang-shan the stream is no longer navigable even for
small boats. Travellers going west or south-west walk or are carried in
sedan-chairs across country in a westerly direction for about 30 miles to
a town named Yuh-shan. Here there is a river which flows westward ('the
other half goes down'), taking the traveller rapidly in that direction,
and passing en route the towns of Kwansinfu, Hokow or Hokeu, and onward
to the Poyang Lake." From the careful study of Mr. Fortune's published
narrative I had already arrived at the conclusion that this was the
correct explanation of the remarkable expressions about the division of
the waters, which are closely analogous to those used by the traveller in
ch. lxii. of this book when speaking of the watershed of the Great Canal
at Sinjumatu. Paraphrased the words might run: "At Chang-shan you reach
high ground, which interrupts the continuity of the River; from one side
of this ridge it flows up country towards the north, from the other it
flows down towards the south." The expression "The River" will be
elucidated in note 4 to ch. lxxxii. below.
This route by the Ts'ien T'ang and the Chang-shan portage, which turns the
danger involved in the navigation of the Yang-tzu and the Poyang Lake, was
formerly a thoroughfare to the south much followed; though now almost
abandoned through one of the indirect results (as Baron Richthofen points
out) of steam navigation.
The portage from Chang-shan to Yuh-shan was passed by the English and
Dutch embassies in the end of last century, on their journeys from
Hang-chau to Canton, and by Mr. Fortune on his way from Ningpo to the Bohea
country of Fo-kien. It is probable that Polo on some occasion made the
ascent of the Ts'ien T'ang by water, and that this leads him to notice the
interruption of the navigation.
[Mr. Phillips writes (T. Pao, I. p. 222): "From Fuyang the next point
reached is Tunglu, also another 100 li distant. Polo calls this city
Ugim, a name bearing no resemblance to Tunglu, but this name and Ta Pin Zu
are so corrupted in all editions that they defy conjecture. One hundred
li further up the river from Tunglu, we come to Yenchau, in which I
think we have Polo's Gengiu of Ramusio's text. Yule's text calls this city
Ghiuju, possibly an error in transcription for Ghinju; Yenchau in ancient
Chinese would, according to Williams, be pronounced Ngam, Ngin, and
Ngienchau, all of which are sufficiently near Polo's Gengiu. The next city
reached is Lan Ki Hien or Lan Chi Hsien, famous for its hams, dates, and
all the good things of this life, according to the Chinese.
