And
though a good deal is exported, much is consumed in the province, for the
people are very much given to costly apparel. Thus silk goods are very
conspicuous in the shops of the capital. (Richthofen.)
[1] My lamented friend Lieutenant F. Garnier had kindly undertaken to send
me a plan of Ch'eng-tu fu from the place itself, but, as is well
known, he fell on a daring enterprise elsewhere. [We hope that the
plan from a Chinese map we give from M. Marcel Monnier's
Itineraires will replace the promised one.
It will be seen that Ch'eng-tu is divided into three cities: the Great
City containing both the Imperial and Tartar cities. - H.C.
[2] I find the same expression applied to the miskal or dinar in a MS.
letter written by Giovanni dell' Affaitado, Venetian Agent at Lisbon
in 1503, communicated to me by Signor Berchet. The King of Melinda was
to pay to Portugal a tribute of 1500 pesi d'oro, "che un peso
val un ducato e un quarto."
CHAPTER XLV.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF TEBET.
After those five days' march that I spoke of, you enter a province which
has been sorely ravaged; and this was done in the wars of Mongu Kaan.
There are indeed towns and villages and hamlets, but all harried and
destroyed.[NOTE 1]
In this region you find quantities of canes, full three palms in girth and
fifteen paces in length, with some three palms' interval between the
joints. And let me tell you that merchants and other travellers through
that country are wont at nightfall to gather these canes and make fires of
them; for as they burn they make such loud reports that the lions and
bears and other wild beasts are greatly frightened, and make off as fast
as possible; in fact nothing will induce them to come nigh a fire of that
sort. So you see the travellers make those fires to protect themselves and
their cattle from the wild beasts which have so greatly multiplied since
the devastation of the country. And 'tis this great multiplication of the
wild beasts that prevents the country from being reoccupied. In fact but
for the help of these canes, which make such a noise in burning that the
beasts are terrified and kept at a distance, no one would be able even to
travel through the land.
I will tell you how it is that the canes make such a noise. The people cut
the green canes, of which there are vast numbers, and set fire to a heap
of them at once. After they have been awhile burning they burst asunder,
and this makes such a loud report that you might hear it ten miles off.
