Highest esteem, and most sought in marriage,
because they say the charms of such an one are greatest.[NOTE 4] But
after marriage these people hold their wives very dear, and would consider
it a great villainy for a man to meddle with another's wife; and thus
though the wives have before marriage acted as you have heard, they are
kept with great care from light conduct afterwards.
Now I have related to you this marriage custom as a good story to tell,
and to show what a fine country that is for young fellows to go to!
The people are Idolaters and an evil generation, holding it no sin to rob
and maltreat: in fact, they are the greatest brigands on earth. They live
by the chase, as well as on their cattle and the fruits of the earth.
I should tell you also that in this country there are many of the animals
that produce musk, which are called in the Tartar language Gudderi.
Those rascals have great numbers of large and fine dogs, which are of
great service in catching the musk-beasts, and so they procure great
abundance of musk. They have none of the Great Kaan's paper money, but use
salt instead of money. They are very poorly clad, for their clothes are
only of the skins of beasts, and of canvas, and of buckram.[NOTE 5] They
have a language of their own, and they are called Tebet. And this country
of TEBET forms a very great province, of which I will give you a brief
account.
NOTE 1. - The mountains that bound the splendid plain of Ch'eng-tu fu on
the west rise rapidly to a height of 12,000 feet and upwards. Just at the
skirt of this mountain region, where the great road to Lhasa enters it,
lies the large and bustling city of Yachaufu, forming the key of the hill
country, and the great entrepot of trade between Sze-ch'wan on the one
side, and Tibet and Western Yunnan on the other. The present political
boundary between China Proper and Tibet is to the west of Bathang and the
Kin-sha Kiang, but till the beginning of last century it lay much further
east, near Ta-t'sien-lu, or, as the Tibetans appear to call it,
Tartsedo or Tachindo, which a Chinese Itinerary given by Ritter makes
to be 920 li, or 11 marches from Ch'eng-tu fu. In Marco's time we must
suppose that Tibet was considered to extend several marches further east
still, or to the vicinity of Yachau.[1] Mr. Cooper's Journal describes
the country entered on the 5th march from Ch'eng-tu as very mountainous,
many of the neighbouring peaks being capped with snow.
