[1] See Quatremere's Rashid., P. Lxxxvii., And Hammer's Wassaf, P. 42.

[2] I owe these valuable illustrations, as so much else, to the unwearied kindness of Mr. A. Wylie.

There were originally four maps: (1) The City, (2) The Empire, (3) The Heavens, (4) no longer known. They were drawn originally by one Hwan Kin-shan, and presented by him to a high official in Sze-ch'wan. Wang Che-yuen, subsequently holding office in the same province, got possession of the maps, and had them incised at Su-chau in A.D. 1247. The inscription bearing these particulars is partially gone, and the date of the original drawings remains uncertain. (See List of Illustrations.)

[3] The Ever Victorious Army, p. 395

CHAPTER LXXVI.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY, WHICH IS THE CAPITAL OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY OF MANZI.

When you have left the city of Changan and have travelled for three days through a splendid country, passing a number of towns and villages, you arrive at the most noble city of Kinsay, a name which is as much as to say in our tongue "The City of Heaven," as I told you before.[NOTE 1]

And since we have got thither I will enter into particulars about its magnificence; and these are well worth the telling, for the city is beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world. In this we shall speak according to the written statement which the Queen of this Realm sent to Bayan the conqueror of the country for transmission to the Great Kaan, in order that he might be aware of the surpassing grandeur of the city and might be moved to save it from destruction or injury.

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