And
they say that it brings the favour of their gods and idols, and great
increase of temporal prosperity. For this reason they bestow their wives
on foreigners and other people as I will tell you.
When they fall in with any stranger in want of a lodging they are all
eager to take him in. And as soon as he has taken up his quarters the
master of the house goes forth, telling him to consider everything at his
disposal, and after saying so he proceeds to his vineyards or his fields,
and comes back no more till the stranger has departed. The latter abides
in the caitiffs house, be it three days or be it four, enjoying himself
with the fellow's wife or daughter or sister, or whatsoever woman of the
family it best likes him; and as long as he abides there he leaves his hat
or some other token hanging at the door, to let the master of the house
know that he is still there. As long as the wretched fellow sees that
token, he must not go in. And such is the custom over all that province.
[NOTE 3]
The money matters of the people are conducted in this way. They have gold
in rods which they weigh, and they reckon its value by its weight in
saggi, but they have no coined money. Their small change again is
made in this way. They have salt which they boil and set in a mould [flat
below and round above],[NOTE 4] and every piece from the mould weighs
about half a pound. Now, 80 moulds of this salt are worth one
saggio of fine gold, which is a weight so called. So this salt
serves them for small change.[NOTE 5]
[Illustration: The Valley of the Kin-Sha Kiang, near the lower end of
Caindu, i.e. Kienchang. (From Garnier.)
"Et quant l'en est ales ceste dix jornee adonc treuve-l'en un grant fluv
qe est apele Brius, auquel se fenist la provence de Cheindu."]
The musk animals are very abundant in that country, and thus of musk also
they have great store. They have likewise plenty of fish which they catch
in the lake in which the pearls are produced. Wild animals, such as lions,
bears, wolves, stags, bucks and roes, exist in great numbers; and there
are also vast quantities of fowl of every kind. Wine of the vine they have
none, but they make a wine of wheat and rice and sundry good spices, and
very good drink it is.[NOTE 6] There grows also in this country a quantity
of clove. The tree that bears it is a small one, with leaves like laurel
but longer and narrower, and with a small white flower like the
clove.[NOTE 7] They have also ginger and cinnamon in great plenty, besides
other spices which never reach our countries, so we need say nothing about
them.
Now we may leave this province, as we have told you all about it. But let
me tell you first of this same country of Caindu that you ride through it
ten days, constantly meeting with towns and villages, with people of the
same description that I have mentioned. After riding those ten days you
come to a river called Brius, which terminates the province of Caindu. In
this river is found much gold-dust, and there is also much cinnamon on its
banks. It flows to the Ocean Sea.
There is no more to be said about this river, so I will now tell you about
another province called Carajan, as you shall hear in what follows.
NOTE 1. - Ramusio's version here enlarges: "Don't suppose from my saying
towards the west that these countries really lie in what we call the
west, but only that we have been travelling from regions in the
east-north-east towards the west, and hence we speak of the countries we
come to as lying towards the west."
NOTE 2. - Chinese authorities quoted by Ritter mention mother-o'-pearl as
a product of Lithang, and speak of turquoises as found in Djaya to the
west of Bathang. (Ritter, IV. 235-236.) Neither of these places is,
however, within the tract which we believe to be Caindu. Amyot states that
pearls are found in a certain river of Yun-nan. (See Trans.R.A.Soc.
II. 91.)
NOTE 3. - This alleged practice, like that mentioned in the last chapter
but one, is ascribed to a variety of people in different parts of the
world. Both, indeed, have a curious double parallel in the story of two
remote districts of the Himalaya which was told to Bernier by an old
Kashmiri. (See Amst. ed. II. 304-305.) Polo has told nearly the same story
already of the people of Kamul. (Bk. I. ch. xli.) It is related by Strabo
of the Massagetae; by Eusebius of the Geli and the Bactrians; by
Elphinstone of the Hazaras; by Mendoza of the Ladrone Islanders; by other
authors of the Nairs of Malabar, and of some of the aborigines of the
Canary Islands. (Caubul, I. 209; Mendoza, II. 254; Mueller's Strabo,
p. 439; Euseb. Praep. Evan. vi. 10; Major's Pr. Henry, p. 213.)
NOTE 4. - Ramusio has here: "as big as a twopenny loaf," and adds, "on the
money so made the Prince's mark is printed; and no one is allowed to make
it except the royal officers.... And merchants take this currency and go
to those tribes that dwell among the mountains of those parts in the
wildest and most unfrequented quarters; and there they get a saggio
of gold for 60, or 50, or 40 pieces of this salt money, in proportion as
the natives are more barbarous and more remote from towns and civilised
folk.
