While I Marco Was In
Quinsai, An Account Was Taken For The Great Khan, Of The Revenues, And The
Number Of Inhabitants, And I Saw That There Were Enrolled 160 Toman Of
Fires, Reckoning For Each Fire A Family Dwelling In One House.
Each toman
is 10,000, which makes 1,600,000 families[12]; and for all this population
there is only one Nestorian church, all the rest being idolaters.
Every
householder is obliged to have written over his door the names of every
individual in his family, whether males or females, as also the number of
horses, adding or effacing as the family increases or diminishes, and this
rule is observed in all the cities of Mangi and Kathay. Those also who keep
inns, must write down in a book the names of all their guests, with the day
and hour of their arrival and departure; and these books are sent daily to
the magistrates who preside at the market places. The revenues which accrue
to the khan from Quinsai, and the other cities under its authority, are,
first from salt eight tomans of gold, every toman being 80,000 sazzi, and a
sazzi is more than a gold florin, which will amount to six millions, and
four hundred thousand ducats. The cause of this is, that being near the
sea, there are many lakes or salines of sea water, which dry up and
coagulate into salt in summer, and five other provinces in Mangi are
supplied from the coast of Quinsai. This province produces plenty of sugar,
which pays, like all other spices, three and a third in the hundred, which
is likewise paid for rice-wine. All the twelve companies, which, we said
before, have twelve thousand shops, and all merchants who bring goods
hither by sea, or carry any away, pay a similar rate. Those who come from
India or other remote countries, pay ten per cent. All breeding cattle, and
all productions of the earth, as silk, rice, corn, and the like, pay to the
khan. The whole computation being made in my presence, amounted yearly,
besides the above mentioned produce from salt, to two hundred and ten
tomans of gold, which are equal to sixteen millions and eight hundred
thousand golden ducats[13].
A days journey from Quinsai to the south-east, we pass the whole way
through houses, villages, fine gardens, and abundant cultivation, and then
come to a fine city called Tapin-zu. Three days hence is Uguiu, and two
days farther, we still ride past castles, cities, and well cultivated
fields, so near adjoining, that the whole seems, to travellers, like one
continued city; in this district are great canes, fifteen paces long, and
four palms thick. Two days farther is the large and handsome city of
Congui, and travelling thence for four days, through places well filled
with industrious people, having plenty of beeves, buffaloes, goats, and
swine, but no sheep, we come to the city of Zengian, which is built on a
hill in the middle of a river, which, after encompassing it, divides into
two branches, one of which runs to the south-east and the other to the
north-west. Three days journey thence, through a most pleasant country,
exceedingly well inhabited, we come to the large city of Gieza, which is
the last in the kingdom of Quinsai, After this we enter into another
province of the kingdom of Mangi called Concha, the principal city of which
is Fugiu, by which you travel six days journey south-east, through hills
and dales, always finding inhabited places, and plenty of beasts, fowls,
and game, and some strong lions are found in the mountains and forests.
Ginger, galingal, and other spices, grow here in great plenty, and there is
an herb, of which the fruit has the same colour, smell, and effect with
saffron, which it is not, and is much used in their meats[15], The
inhabitants are idolaters, and subjects of the great khan, and eat mans
flesh, if the person has not died of disease, even considering it as better
flavoured than any other. When they go into the fields, they shave to the
ears, and paint their faces with azure. All their soldiers serve on foot,
except the captains, who are on horseback, and their arms are swords and
lances. They are very cruel, and when they kill an enemy, they immediately
drink his blood, and afterwards eat his flesh.
After six days journey is Quelinfu, a great city with three bridges, each
of which is eight paces broad, and above an hundred paces long. The men are
great merchants and manufacturers, and the women are fair and delicately
shaped. The country produces plenty of ginger and galingal, and great
abundance of silk and cotton. I was told, but saw them not, that they have
hens without feathers, hairy like cats, which yet lay eggs, and are good to
eat[16]. In this part of the country there are many lions, which make the
ways very dangerous. After three days journey, we arrive in a populous
country inhabited by idolaters, who make great quantities of silk stuffs.
The chief city is Unguem, near which abundance of sugar is produced, and
sent from thence to Cambalu. Before the reduction of this country by the
great Khan, the inhabitants of this country could only manufacture a bad
kind of sugar, by boiling down the juice of the cane into a black paste;
but certain inhabitants from Babylonia, taught them refine it by means of
the ashes of a certain tree[17]. Fifteen miles farther is the city of
Cangiu, still in the province of Concha, and here the Khan has always an
army in readiness for keeping the country under subjection. Through this
city there runs a river of a mile broad, with handsome buildings on both
sides, and the river is constantly covered with vessels carrying sugar and
other goods. This river disembogues itself at the distance of five days
journey south-east from Cangiu, into the sea at Zaitum all the country
between being extremely pleasant, and abounding in trees and shrubs of
camphor.
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