from various quarters bringing silver which they exchange for gold with these people; and in this way the merchants make great gain. As regards those people of the country who dispose of gold so cheaply, you must understand that nobody is acquainted with their places of abode, for they dwell in inaccessible positions, in sites so wild and strong that no one can get at them to meddle with them. Nor will they allow any body to accompany them so as to gain a knowledge of their abodes."

After you have ridden those two days and a half down hill, you find yourself in a province towards the south which is pretty near to India, and this province is called AMIEN. You travel therein for fifteen days through a very unfrequented country, and through great woods abounding in elephants and unicorns and numbers of other wild beasts. There are no dwellings and no people, so we need say no more of this wild country, for in sooth there is nothing to tell. But I have a story to relate which you shall now hear.2

NOTE 1.-In all the Shan towns visited by Major Sladen on this frontier he found markets held every fifth day. This custom he says is borrowed from China, and is general throughout Western Yunnan. There seem to be traces of this five-day week over Indo-China, and it is found in Java; as it is in Mexico. The Kakhyens attend in great crowds. They do not now bring gold for sale to Momien, though it is found to some extent in their hills, more especially in the direction of Mogaung, whence it is exported towards Assam.

Major Sladen saw a small quantity of nuggets in the possession of a Kakhyen who had brought them from a hill two days north of Bamó. (MS. Notes by Major Sladen.)

NOTE 2.—I confess that the indications in this and the beginning of the following chapter are, to me, full of difficulty. According to the general style of Polo's itinerary, the 24 days should be reckoned from Yungchang; the distance therefore to the capital city of Mien would be 17 days. The real capital of Mien or Burma at this time was however Pagán, in lat. 21° 13', and that city could hardly have been reached by a land traveller in any such time. We shall see that something may be said in behalf of the supposition that the point reached was Tagaung or Old Pagán on the upper Irawadi, in lat 23° 28'; and there was perhaps some

confusion in the traveller's mind between this and the great city. The descent might then be from Yungchang to the valley of the Shwéli, and that valley then followed to the Irawadi. Taking as a scale Polo's 5 marches from Tali to Yungchang, I find we should by this route make just about 17 marches from Yungchang to Tagaung. We have no detailed knowledge of the route, but there is a road that way, and by no other does the plain country approach so near to Yungchang (see Anderson's Report on Expedition to Western Yunnan, p. 160).

Dr. Anderson's remarks on the present question do not in my opinion remove the difficulties. He supposes the long descent to be the descent into the plains of the Irawadi near Bhamo; and from that point the land journey to Great Pagán could, he conceives, "easily be accomplished in 15 days." I greatly doubt the latter assumption. By the scale I have just referred to it would take at least 20 days. And to calculate the

2 days with which the journey commences from an indefinite point seems scarcely admissible. Polo is giving us a continuous itinerary; it would be ruptured if he left an indefinite distance between his last station and his "long descent." And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between Carajan (or Tali) and Vochan (Yungchang), the result would be nonsense.

The hypothesis that I have suggested would suit better with the traveller's representation of the country traversed as wild and uninhabited. In a journey to Great Pagán the most populous and fertile part of Burma would be passed through.

CHAPTER LIV.

CONCERNING THE CITY OF MIEN, AND the Two ToweRS THAT ARE THEREIN, ONE OF GOLD AND THE OTHER OF SILVER.

AND when you have travelled those 15 days through such a difficult country as I have described, in which travellers. have to carry provisions for the road because there are no inhabitants, then you arrive at the capital city of this Province of Mien, and it also is called AMIEN, and is a very great and noble city. The people are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan.

And in this city there is a thing so rich and rare that I must tell you about it. You see there was in former days a rich and puissant king in this city, and when he was about to die he commanded that by his tomb they should erect two towers [one at either end], one of gold. and the other of silver, in such fashion as I shall tell you. The towers are built of fine stone; and then one of them has been covered with gold a good finger in thickness, so that the tower looks as if it were all of solid gold; and the other is covered with silver in like manner so that it seems to be all of solid silver. Each tower is a good ten paces in height and of breadth in proportion. The upper part of these towers is round, and girt all about with bells, the top of the gold tower with gilded bells and the silver tower with silvered bells, insomuch that whenever the wind blows among these bells they tinkle. [The tomb likewise was plated partly with gold, and partly with silver.] The King caused these towers to be erected to commemorate his magnificence and for the good of his soul; and really they do form one of the finest sights in the world; so exquisitely finished are they, so splendid and costly. And when they are lighted up by the sun they shine most brilliantly and are visible from a vast distance.