(Gaubil; D'Ohsson; De Mailla; Cathay, p. 272.) [See Parker,
supra, p. 148 and 149. - H.C.]
There is a curious account in the Lettres Edifiantes (xxiv. 45 seqq.)
by P. Parrenin of a kind of Pariah caste at Shao-hing (see ch. lxxix.
note 1), who were popularly believed to be the descendants of the great
lords of the Sung Court, condemned to that degraded condition for
obstinately resisting the Mongols. Another notice, however, makes the
degraded body rebels against the Sung. (Milne, p. 218.)
NOTE 7. - There is much about the exposure of children, and about Chinese
foundling hospitals, in the Lettres Edifiantes, especially in Recueil
xv. 83, seqq. It is there stated that frequently a person not in
circumstances to pay for a wife for his son, would visit the foundling
hospital to seek one. The childless rich also would sometimes get children
there to pass off as their own; adopted children being excluded from
certain valuable privileges.
Mr. Milne (Life in China), and again Mr. Medhurst (Foreigner in Far
Cathay), have discredited the great prevalence of infant exposure in
China; but since the last work was published, I have seen the translation
of a recent strong remonstrance against the practice by a Chinese writer,
which certainly implied that it was very prevalent in the writer's own
province. Unfortunately, I have lost the reference. [See Father G.
Palatre, L'Infanticide et l'Oeuvre de la Ste. Enfance en Chine, 1878.
- H.C.]
CHAPTER LXVI.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF COIGANJU.
Coiganju is, as I have told you already, a very large city standing at the
entrance to Manzi. The people are Idolaters and burn their dead, and are
subject to the Great Kaan. They have a vast amount of shipping, as I
mentioned before in speaking of the River Caramoran. And an immense
quantity of merchandize comes hither, for the city is the seat of
government for this part of the country. Owing to its being on the river,
many cities send their produce thither to be again thence distributed in
every direction. A great amount of salt also is made here, furnishing some
forty other cities with that article, and bringing in a large revenue to
the Great Kaan.[NOTE 1]
NOTE 1. - Coiganju is HWAI-NGAN CHAU, now -Fu on the canal, some
miles south of the channel of the Hwang-Ho; but apparently in Polo's time
the great river passed close to it. Indeed, the city takes its name from
the River Hwai, into which the Hwang-Ho sent a branch when first
seeking a discharge south of Shantung.
