IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
FRIAR ODORIC. 137
twelve parts ; each one whereof is termed a Singo.1 And of those twelve parts that of Manzi forms one which hath under it two thousand great cities. And, indeed, so vast is that empire of his, that if one wished to visit each of these provinces he would have enough to do for six months ; and that exclusive of the islands, five thousand in number, which are not comprehended in the number of the twelve provinces. [Moreover, there be four chief ministers to govern the empire of this great lord.]2
And that travellers may have their needs provided for, throughout his whole empire he hath caused houses and courts to be established as hostelries, and these houses are called Yarn. In these houses is found everything necessary for subsistence, [and for every person who travels throughout those territories, whatever be his condition, it is ordained that he shall have two meals without payment] .3 And when any matter of news arises in the empire messengers start
Barnum's. I once saw, at Agra, going about as a show, a small bullock which had one or two (apparent) legs and hoofs growing out of its hump. These hung flabbily and boneless, but were certainly, as far as I could judge, vitally united to the flesh of the hump. My impression (be it just or not) was that they had been grafted in. Similar, perhaps, was the calf which 2Elian says he saw at Alexandria, with a supernumerary foot hanging useless from the shoulder. (De Nat. Animal., xi, 40.)
" In the whole empire of the Kaan", says Rashideddin, " there are twelve Sing". And Klaproth annotates : " This word Sing is the Chinese Sing or Ching, by which is designated a province and its administration". (As above, p. 447).
It is correct that the empire of Cathay was divided, as Odoric says, into twelve great provinces, but not that Manzi constituted only one of those provinces. It is true, however, that the one province of Kiang-che embraced all the great cities south of the Kiang which he had visited, except Canton. The twelve provinces as constituted by Kublai and his successor, will be found stated in an extract from Rashideddin hereafter.
2 MIN. RAM. This passage from the MIN. RAM. again shows the claims of that version to attention. The four chief governors are the four wazirs whom the Mongols called Chingsang (Chin. Chhingsiang). These were Mongolian princes, and were aided in their deliberations by four others, (Fanchcn), who were Chinese, Uigurs, or Persians. (See extracts from
Rashideddin, and notes, infra) . 3 MIN. RAM.
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