For In Years Of
Great Abundance, He Purchases Large Quantities Of Grain, Which Is Carefully
Preserved For Three Or Four Years, By Officers Appointed For The Purpose;
By Which Means, When A Scarcity Occurs In Any Province, The Defect May Be
Supplied From The Granaries Of The Khan In Another Province.
On these
occasions, he orders his grain to be sold at a fourth part of the market
price, and
Great care is taken to keep his granaries always well supplied.
When any murrain attacks the cattle of one of the provinces, the deficiency
is supplied from the tenths which he receives in the other provinces. If
any beast or sheep happens to be killed by lightning in a flock or herd, he
draws no tribute from that flock, however great, for three years, under an
idea that God is angry with the owner of the herd.
That travellers may discern, and be able to discover the road in
uninhabited places, trees are planted at convenient distances, along all
the principal roads; and in the sandy and desert places, where trees will
not grow, stones and pillars are erected to direct the passengers, and
officers are appointed to see that all these things are performed.
According to the opinion of the astrologers, the planting of trees conduces
to lengthen the age of man, and therefore, the khan is the more induced to
encourage their propagation by his order and example.
In the province of Cathay, the people make excellent drink of rice and
certain spices, which even excels wine in flavour; and those who drink too
much of it become sooner drunk than with wine[3]. Through this whole
province, certain black stones are dug from the mountains, which burn like
wood, and preserve fire a long time, and if kindled in the evening, will
keep on fire all night[4]; and many people use these stones in preference
to wood, because, though the country abounds in trees, there is a great
demand for wood for other purposes.
The great khan is particularly attentive to the care of the poor in the
city of Cambalu. When he hears of any honourable family that, has fallen to
decay through misfortune, or of any who cannot work, and have no
subsistence, he gives orders for issuing a whole years subsistence,
together with garments, both for winter and summer, to the heads of those
distressed families. There is an appropriate office or tribunal for this
imperial bounty, to which those who have received the warrants or orders of
the khan apply for relief. The khan receives the tenths of all wool, silk,
and hemp, which he causes to be manufactured into stuffs of all kinds, in
houses set apart for this purpose; and as all artificers of every
description are bound to work for him one day in every week, he has immense
quantities of every kind of useful commodity in his storehouses. By these
means, likewise, there are similar imperial manufactures in every city of
the empire, in which clothing is made from his tithe wool for his
innumerable soldiers. According to their ancient customs, the Tartars gave
no alms, and were in use to upbraid those who were in poverty, as hated of
God. But the priests of the idolaters, especially those who have been
formerly mentioned under the name of Bachsi, have convinced the khan that
charity is a good work, and an acceptable service to God; so that in his
court food and raiment are never denied to those who ask, and there is no
day in which there is less than the value of 20,000 crowns distributed in
acts of charily, particularly in rice, millet, and panik; by which
extensive benevolence the khan is esteemed as a god among his subjects.
There are in Cambalu about five thousand astrologers and diviners,
Christians, Mahometans, and Kathayans, all of whom are provided yearly by
the khan in food and raiment. These have an Astrolabe, on which all the
signs of the planets are marked, together with the hours, and most minute
subdivisions of the whole year. By this instrument, these astrologers, each
religion apart, observe the course of the year, according to every moon,
noting the prognostications of the weather, yet always referring to God, to
do as they predict or otherwise, according to his pleasure. They write down
upon square tablets, called Tacuini, all those things which are to fall
out during the year, which they sell to any who will purchase; and those
who are most fortunate in their predictions are held in the highest honour.
If any one intends to commence an important labour, or to undertake a
distant journey, and is anxious to be certified of the event, he has
recourse to the astrologers to read, as they pretend, his destiny in the
heavens, for this purpose, being instructed in the precise date of birth of
the person consulting them, they calculate the present aspect of the
constellation which ruled at his birth, and foretel that good or evil will
flow from his intentions. The Tartars compute time by cycles of twelve
lunar years; calling the first of each series the year of the lion; the
second of the ox; the third of the dragon; the fourth of the dog; and so on
through the whole twelve, and when these are gone through, they begin the
series anew. Thus, if a man is asked when he was born, he answers that it
was on such a division of such an hour, day, and moon, in the year of the
lion, ox, or so forth. All this their fathers set down exactly in a book.
It has been already said that the Tartars are idolaters. Each man of any
consequence has a table aloft in the wall of one of his chambers, on which
a name is written, to signify the great God of Heaven, whom he adores once
each day, with a censer of burning incense; and lifting up his hands, and
thrice gnashing his teeth, he prays to God to grant him health and
understanding; this being the only petition addressed to the Almighty, of
whom they pretend not to make any similitude.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 142 of 217
Words from 144639 to 145677
of 222093
