The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 781 (Color Image)

0781	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1

CHAP. XXXIV. RELIGION OF THE CATHAYANS

457

better, or from a bad to a worse, according as he hath

conducted himself well or ill. That is to say, a poor man,

if he have passed through life good and sober, shall be

born again of a gentlewoman, and shall be a gentleman ;

and on a second occasion shall be born of a princess

and shall be a prince, and so on, always rising, till he

be absorbed into the Deity. But if he have borne himself

ill, he who was the son of a gentleman shall be reborn as

the son of a boor, and from a boor shall become a dog,

always going down lower and lower.

The people have an ornate style of speech ; they

salute each other with a cheerful countenance, and with

great politeness ; they behave like gentlemen, and eat

with great propriety.4 They show great respect to their

parents ; and should there be any son who offends his

parents, or fails to minister to their necessities, there is

a public office which has no other charge but that of

punishing unnatural children, who are proved to have

acted with ingratitude towards their parents.'

Criminals of sundry kinds who have been imprisoned,

are released at a time fixed by the Great Kaan (which

occurs every three years), but on leaving prison they are

branded on one cheek that they may be recognized.

The Great Kaan hath prohibited all gambling and

sharping, things more prevalent there than in any other

part of the world. In doing this, he said : " I have con-

quered you by force of arms, and all that you have is

mine ; if, therefore, you gamble away your property, it

is in fact my property that you are gambling away."

Not that he took anything from them however.

I must not omit to tell you of the orderly way in

which the Kaan's Barons and others conduct themselves

in coming to his presence. In the first place, within a

coming

half mile of the place where he is, out of reverence for

his exalted majesty, everybody preserves a mien of the

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