I should tell you that in this city (i.e. of Zayton) they have a
peculiar language. [For you must know that throughout all Manzi they
employ one speech and one kind of writing only, but yet there are local
differences of dialect, as you might say of Genoese, Milanese,
Florentines, and Neapolitans, who though they speak different dialects can
understand one another.[NOTE 6]]
And I assure you that the Great Kaan has as large customs and revenues
from this kingdom of Chonka as from Kinsay, aye and more too.[NOTE 7]
We have now spoken of but three out of the nine kingdoms of Manzi, to wit
Yanju and Kinsay and Fuju. We could tell you about the other six, but it
would be too long a business; so we will say no more about them.
And now you have heard all the truth about Cathay and Manzi and many other
countries, as has been set down in this Book; the customs of the people
and the various objects of commerce, the beasts and birds, the gold and
silver and precious stones, and many other matters have been rehearsed to
you. But our Book as yet does not contain nearly all that we purpose to
put therein. For we have still to tell you all about the people of India
and the notable things of that country, which are well worth the
describing, for they are marvellous indeed. What we shall tell is all
true, and without any lies. And we shall set down all the particulars in
writing just as Messer Marco Polo related them. And he well knew the
facts, for he remained so long in India, and enquired so diligently into
the manners and peculiarities of the nations, that I can assure you there
never was a single man before who learned so much and beheld so much as he
did.
NOTE 1. - The Laurus (or Cinnamomum) Camphora, a large timber tree,
grows abundantly in Fo-kien. A description of the manner in which camphor
is produced at a very low cost, by sublimation from the chopped twigs,
etc., will be found in the Lettres Edifiantes, XXIV. 19 seqq.; and
more briefly in Hedde by Rondot, p. 35. Fo-kien alone has been known
to send to Canton in one year 4000 piculs (of 133-1/3 lbs. each), but
the average is 2500 to 3000 (Ib.).
NOTE 2. - When Marco says Zayton is one of the two greatest commercial
ports in the world, I know not if he has another haven in his eye, or is
only using an idiom of the age. For in like manner Friar Odoric calls Java
"the second best of all Islands that exist"; and Kansan (or Shen-si) the
"second best province in the world, and the best populated." But apart
from any such idiom, Ibn Batuta pronounces Zayton to be the greatest haven
in the world.
