And to calculate the 2-1/2 days with which
the journey commences from an indefinite point seems scarcely admissible.
Polo is giving us a continuous itinerary; it would be ruptured if he
left an indefinite distance between his last station and his "long
descent." And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between
Carajan (or Tali) and Vochan (Yung-ch'ang), the result would be nonsense.
[Illustration: Temple of Gaudapalen (in the city of Mien), erected circa
A.D. 1160.]
[Mien-tien, to which is devoted ch. vii. of the Chinese work
Sze-i-kwan-k'ao, appears to have included much more than Burma proper.
(See the passage supra, pp. 70-71, quoted by Deveria from the Yuen-shi
lei pien regarding Kien-tou and Kin-Chi.) - H.C.]
The hypothesis that I have suggested would suit better with the
traveller's representation of the country traversed as wild and
uninhabited. In a journey to Great Pagan the most populous and fertile
part of Burma would be passed through.
[Baber writes (p. 180): "The generally received theory that 'the great
descent which leads towards the Kingdom of Mien,' on which 'you ride for
two days and a half continually downhill,' was the route from Yung-ch'ang
to T'eng-Yueh, must be at once abandoned.
