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0518 Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1
Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 / Page 518 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000042
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244   LETTERS AND REPORTS

they make oil and wine from rice;1 and all fruits grow there in very great abundance, excepting filberts which they have not. Sugar, however, they have in very great quantities, and therefore it is very cheap there.

The country is mighty peaceable, nor dare anyone carry arms or stir war therein, except those only who are appointed by the emperor to guard him or any city of his.2

In the empire of Boussaye aforesaid groweth a certain manner of trees which from their sap are of great help to the folk of the country. For there be some of them which from their bark give forth a white liquor like milk, sweet, savoury, and abundant, and the people of the country make drink and food of it as if it were goat's-milk, and that right gladly. And when they cut those trees anywhere, whether it be in the branches or elsewhere, they give forth where they were cut a manner of juice in great plenty, which juice hath the colour and savour of wine. And other trees there be which bear a manner of fruit as big as filberts, or as nuts of St. Gratian ; and when this fruit is ripe the folk of the country gather it, and open it, and find inside grains like wheat, of which they make bread and maccaroni3 and other food which they are very glad to eat.4

4. On the ordering of the two cities of Cambalec and Cassay.

These two cities are very great, and right famous. Each one of them hath good thirty miles of compass round the walls thereof. And so vast is the number of people that the soldiers alone who are posted to keep ward in the city of Cambalec are forty thousand men, by sure tale. An in the

1 Wine from rice and oil and from other seeds," he should have said.

2 See Andrew of Perugia's letter, ante, p. 223, and Ibn Batuta, infra.

3 " Paste."

4 I cannot explain these statements; nor tell what is called a nut of St. Gratian; (St. Gratian's day is December 18th.)