Which
they put upon the top of a large fire, and they make such a crackling noise
in burning as to be heard for two miles off by which the wild beasts are
terrified and fly from the place; but it has sometimes happened that the
horses, and other beasts belonging to the merchants or travellers, have
been frightened by this noise, and have run away from their masters: for
which reason prudent travellers use the precaution of fettering or binding
their feet together, to prevent them from running off.
[1] Owing to the prodigious revolutions which have taken place in the East
since the time of Marco, and the difference of languages, by which
countries, provinces, towns, and rivers have received very dissimilar
names, it is often difficult or impossible to ascertain, with any
precision, the exact geography of the relations and descriptions in
the text. Wherever this can be done with any tolerable probability of
usefulness it shall be attempted. - E.
[2] The Pei-ho, which runs into the gulf of Pekin, near the head of the
Yellow sea. - E.
[3] Kathay, or Northern China, contained the six northern provinces, and
Mangi or Southern China, the nine provinces to the south of the river
Kiang, Yang-tse-Kiang or Kian-ku. Tain-fu may possibly be Ten-gan-fu:
Gouza it is impossible to ascertain, unless it may be Cou-gan, a small
town, about thirty miles south from Peking or Cambalu. I suspect in
the present itinerary, that Marco keeps on the north of the Hoang-ho.
- E.
[4] Hara-moran, or Hoang-he. Thaigin may therefore be Tan-gin, about twenty
miles east from that river, in Lat. S6-1/4 N. In which case, Pian-fu
may be the city of Pin-yang; and Tain-fu, Tay-uen. - E.
[5] Bamboos. - E.
SECTION XIV.
An account of Thibet, and several other Provinces, with the Observations
made by the Author in passing through them.
At the end of twenty days journey through the before mentioned depopulated
country, we met with cities and many villages, inhabited by an idolatrous
people, whose manners are so licentious that no man marries a wife who is a
virgin. Hence when travellers and strangers from other countries come among
them, the women of the country who have marriageable daughters bring them
to the tents of the strangers, and entreat them to enjoy the company of
their daughters so long as they remain in the neighbourhood. On these
occasions the handsomest are chosen, and those who are rejected return home
sorrowful and disappointed. The strangers are not permitted to carry away
any of these willing damsels, but must restore them faithfully to their
parents; and at parting the girl requires some toy or small present, which
she may shew as a token of her condition; and she who can produce the
greatest number of such favours has the greatest chance of being soon and
honourably married.
