The people are Idolaters, burn their dead, use
paper-money, and are subjects of the Great Kaan. They possess extensive and
fertile plains producing abundance of wheat and other grain.[NOTE 1] But
there is nothing else to mention, so let us proceed and tell you of the
countries further on.
On leaving Siju you ride south for three days, constantly falling in with
fine towns and villages and hamlets and farms, with their cultivated lands.
There is plenty of wheat and other corn, and of game also; and the people
are all Idolaters and subjects of the Great Kaan.
At the end of those three days you reach the great river CARAMORAN, which
flows hither from Prester John's country. It is a great river, and more
than a mile in width, and so deep that great ships can navigate it. It
abounds in fish, and very big ones too. You must know that in this river
there are some 15,000 vessels, all belonging to the Great Kaan, and kept
to transport his troops to the Indian Isles whenever there may be
occasion; for the sea is only one day distant from the place we are
speaking of. And each of these vessels, taking one with another, will
require 20 mariners, and will carry 15 horses with the men belonging to
them, and their provisions, arms, and equipments.[NOTE 2]
Hither and thither, on either bank of the river, stands a town; the one
facing the other. The one is called COIGANJU and the other CAIJU; the
former is a large place, and the latter a little one. And when you pass
this river you enter the great province of MANZI. So now I must tell you
how this province of Manzi was conquered by the Great Kaan.[NOTE 3]
NOTE 1. - SIJU can scarcely be other than Su-t'sien (Sootsin of Keith
Johnston's map) as Murray and Pauthier have said. The latter states that
one of the old names of the place was Si-chau, which corresponds to that
given by Marco. Biot does not give this name.
The town stands on the flat alluvial of the Hwang-Ho, and is approached by
high embanked roads. (Astley, III. 524-525.)
[Sir J.F. Davis writes: "From Sootsien Hien to the point of junction
with the Yellow River, a length of about fifty miles, that great stream
and the canal run nearly parallel with each other, at an average distance
of four or five miles, and sometimes much nearer." (Sketches of China,
I. p. 265.) - H.C.]
[Illustration: Sketch Map, exhibiting the VARIATIONS of the TWO GREAT
RIVERS OF CHINA Within the Period of History]
NOTE 2.
