females; but probably the extensive suburb was not included in the enumeration. Perhaps 350,000 would be a fair total estimate." It is the seat of the Viceroy of the Sze-ch'wan province. Mr. Hosie says (Three Years in Western China, p. 86): "It is without exception the finest city I have seen in China; Peking and Canton will not bear comparison with it." Captain Gill writes (River of Golden Sand, II. p. 4): "The city of Ch'êng-Tu is still a rich and noble one, somewhat irregular in shape, and surrounded by a strong wall, in a perfect state of repair. In this there are eight bastions, four being pierced by gates."

"It is one of the largest of Chinese cities, having a circuit of about 12 miles." (Baber, p. 26.) "It is now three and a half miles long by about two and a half miles broad, the longest side lying about east-south-east, and west-north-west, so that its compass in the present day is about 12 miles." (Captain Gill, II. p. 4.)— H. C.]

NOTE 2.-Ramusio is more particular: "Through the city flow many great rivers, which come down from distant mountains, and run winding about through many parts of the city. These rivers vary in width from half a mile to 200 paces, and are very deep. Across them are built many bridges of stone," etc. "And after passing

the city these rivers unite and form one immense river called Kian,” etc. Here we have the Great River or KIANG, Kian (Quian) as in Ramusio, or KIANG-SHUI, "Waters of the Kiang," as in the text. So Pauthier explains. [Mr. Baber remarks at Ch'êng-tu (Travels, p. 28): "When all allowance is made for the diminution of the river, one cannot help surmising that Marco Polo must have felt reluctant to call it the Chiang-Sui or Yangtzŭ waterway.' He was, however, correct enough, as usual, for the Chinese consider it to be the main upper stream of the Yangtzŭ.”— H. C.] Though our Geographies give the specific names of Wen and Min to the great branch which flows by Ch'êng-tu fu, and treat the Tibetan branch which flows through northern Yunnan under the name of Kin Sha or "Golden Sand," as the main river, the Chinese seem always to have regarded the former as the true Kiang; as may be seen in Ritter (IV. 650) and Martini. The latter describes the city as quite insulated by the ramifications of the river, from which channels and canals pass all about it, adorned with many quays and bridges of stone.

The numerous channels in reuniting form two rivers, one the Min, and the other the To-Kiang, which also joins the Yangtzŭ at Lu-chau.

[In his Introductory Essay to Captain Gill's River of Golden Sand, Colonel Yule (p. 37) writes: "Captain Gill has pointed out that, of the many branches of the river which ramify through the plain of Ch'êng-tu, no one now passes through the city at all corresponding in magnitude to that which Marco Polo describes, about 1283, as running through the midst of Sin-da-fu, 'a good half-mile wide, and very deep withal.' The largest branch adjoining the city now runs on the south side, but does not exceed a hundred yards in width; and though it is crossed by a covered bridge with huxters' booths, more or less in the style described by Polo, it necessarily falls far short of his great bridge of half a mile in length. Captain Gill suggests that a change may have taken place in the last five (this should be six) centuries, owing to the deepening of the river-bed at its exit from the plain, and consequent draining of the latter. But I should think it more probable that the ramification of channels round Ch❜êng-tu, which is so conspicuous even on a small general map of China, like that which accompanies this work, is in great part due to art; that the mass of the river has been drawn off to irrigate the plain; and that thus the wide river, which in the 13th century may have passed through the city, no unworthy representative of the mighty Kiang, has long since ceased, on that scale, to flow. And I have pointed out briefly that the fact, which Baron Richthofen attests, of an actual bifurcation of waters on a large scale taking place in the plain of Ch'êng-tu-one arm 'branching east to form the To' (as in the terse indication of the Yu-Kung)—viz. the To Kiang or Chung-Kiang flowing south-east to join the great river at Lu-chau, whilst another flows south to Sü-chau or Swi-fu, does render change in the distribution of

the waters about the city highly credible."] [See Irrigation of the Ch'eng-tu Plain, by Joshua Vale, China Inland Mission in Jour. China Br. R. A. S. Soc. XXXIII. 1899-1900, pp. 22-36.-H. C.]

[Above Kwan Hsien, near Ch'êng-tu, there is a fine suspension bridge, mentioned by Marcel Monnier (Itinéraires, p. 43), from whom I borrow the cut reproduced on this page. This bridge is also spoken of by Captain Gill (.c. I. p. 335): "Six ropes, one above the other, are stretched very tightly, and connected by vertical battens of wood laced in and out. Another similar set of ropes is at the other side of the roadway, which is laid across these, and follows the curve of the ropes. There are three or four spans with stone piers."-H. C.]

NOTE 3.-(G. T.) "Hi est le couiereque dou Grant Sire, ce est cilz qe recevent la rente dou Seignor." Pauthier has couvert. Both are, I doubt not, misreadings or misunderstandings of comereque or comerc. This word, founded on the Latin commercium, was widely spread over the East with the meaning of customs-duty or custom-house. In Low Greek it appeared as κομμέρκιον and κουμέρκιον, now κομέρκι ; in Arabic and Turkish as and SS (kumruk and gyumruk), still in use; in

Romance dialects as comerchio, comerho, comergio, etc.

NOTE 4.-The word in Pauthier's text which I have rendered pieces of gold is pois, probably equivalent to saggi or miskáls.* The G. T. has "is well worth 1000 bezants of gold," no doubt meaning daily, though not saying so. Ramusio has "100 bezants daily." The term Bezant may be taken as synonymous with Dínár, and the statement in the text would make the daily receipt of custom upwards of 500/., that in Ramusio upwards of 50%. only.

NOTE 5.-I have recast this passage, which has got muddled, probably in the original dictation, for it runs in the G. text: "Et de ceste cité se part l'en et

* I find the same expression applied to the miskál or dínár 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."

chevauche cinq jornée por plain et por valée, et treve-l'en castiaus et casaus assez. Les homes vivent dou profit qu'il traient de la terre. Il hi a bestes sauvajes assez, lions et orses et autres bestes. Il vivent d'ars: car il hi se laborent des biaus sendal et autres dras. Il sunt de Sindu meisme." I take it that in speaking of Ch'êng-tu fu, Marco has forgotten to fill up his usual formula as to the occupation of the inhabitants; he is reminded of this when he speaks of the occupation of the peasantry on the way to Tibet, and reverts to the citizens in the words which I have quoted in Italics. We see here Sindu applied to the city, suggesting Sindu-fu for the reading at the beginning of the chapter.

Silk is a large item in the produce and trade of Sze-ch'wan; and through extensive quarters of Ch'êng-tu fu, in every house, the spinning, dying, weaving, and embroidering of silk give occupation to the people. 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.)

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.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. In fact, any one unused to this noise, who should hear it unexpectedly, might easily go into a swound or die of fright. But those who are used to it care nothing about it. Hence those who are not used to it stuff their ears well with cotton, and wrap up their heads and faces with all the clothes they can muster; and so they get along until they have become. used to the sound. 'Tis just the same with horses. Those which are unused to these noises are so alarmed by them that they break away from their halters and heel-ropes, and many a man has lost his beasts in this way. So those who would avoid losing their horses take care to tie all four legs and peg the ropes down strongly, and to wrap the heads and eyes and ears of the animals closely, and so they save them. But horses also, when they have heard the noise several times, cease to mind it. I tell you the truth, however, when I say that the first time you hear it nothing can be more alarming. And yet, in spite of all, the lions and bears and other wild beasts will sometimes come and do much mischief; for their numbers are great in those tracts.2

You ride for 20 days without finding any inhabited spot, so that travellers are obliged to carry all their provisions with them, and are constantly falling in with those wild beasts which are so numerous and so dangerous.

After that you come at length to a tract where there are towns and villages in considerable numbers. The people of those towns have a strange custom in regard to marriage which I will now relate.

No man of that country would on any consideration take to wife a girl who was a maid; for they say a wife is nothing worth unless she has been used to consort with men. And their custom is this, that when travellers come that way, the old women of the place get ready, and take their unmarried daughters or other girls related to them, and go to the strangers who are passing, and make over the young women to whomsoever will accept them; and the travellers take them accordingly and do their pleasure; after which the girls are restored to the old women who brought them, for they are not allowed to follow the strangers away from their home. In this manner people travelling that way, when they reach a village or hamlet or other inhabited place, shall find perhaps 20 or 30 girls at their disposal. And if the travellers lodge with those people they shall have as many young women as they could wish coming to court them! You must know too that the traveller is expected to give the girl who has been with him a ring or some other trifle, something in fact that she can show as a lover's token when she comes to be married. And it is for this in truth and for this alone that they follow that custom; for every girl is expected to obtain at least 20 such tokens in the way I have described before she can be married. And those who have most tokens, and so can show they have been most run after, are in the highest esteem, and most sought in marriage, because they say the charms of such an one are greatest. 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