'Tis in this way: they have those great canes of which I
told you before that they are some fifteen paces in length; these they
take and split from end to end [into many slender strips], and then they
twist these strips together so as to make a rope of any length they
please. And the ropes so made are stronger than if they were made of
hemp.[NOTE 5]
[There are at many places on this river hills and rocky eminences on which
the idol-monasteries and other edifices are built; and you find on its
shores a constant succession of villages and inhabited places.[NOTE 6]]
NOTE 1. - The traveller's diversion from his direct course - sceloc
or south-east, as he regards it - towards Fo-kien, in order to notice
Ngan-king (as we have supposed) and Siang-yang, has sadly thrown out both
the old translators and transcribers, and the modern commentators. Though
the G. Text has here "quant l'en se part de la cite de Angui," I cannot
doubt that Iangui (Yanju) is the reading intended, and that Polo here
comes back to the main line of his journey.
[Illustration: 'Sono sopiaquesto frumern molti luoghi, colline e
monticelli sassosi, sopia quali sono edificati monasteir d'Edoli, e altre
stanze...']
