The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 56 (Color Image)

0056	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

BOOK II.

MARCO POLO

CHAPTER XLI.

CONCERNING THE CITY OF KENJANFU.

AND wheny ou leave the city of Cachanfu of which I

have spoken, and travel eight days westward, you meet

with cities and boroughs abounding in trade and industry,

and quantities of beautiful trees, and gardens, and fine

plains planted with mulberries, which are the trees Ön

the leaves of which the silkworms do feed.' The people

are all Idolaters. There is also plenty of game of all

sorts, both of beasts and birds.

And when you have travelled those eight days'

journey, you come to that great city which I mentioned,

called KENJANFU.2 A very great and fine city it is, and

the capital of the kingdom of Kenjanfu, which in old

times was a noble, rich, and powerful realm, and had

many great and wealthy and puissant kings.' But now

the king thereof is a prince called MANGALAI, the son

of the Great Kaan, who bath given him this realm, and

crowned hire king thereof.4 It is a city of great trade

and industry. They have great abundance of silk, from

which they weave cloths of silk and gold of divers kinds,

and they also manufacture all sorts of equipments for an

army. They have every necessary of man's life very

cheap. The city lies towards the west ; the people are

Idolaters ; and outside the city is the palace of the

Prince Mangalai, crowned king, and son of the Great

Kaan, as I told you before.

This is a fine palace and a great, as I will tell you.

It stands in a great plain abounding in lakes and streams

and springs of water. Round about it is a massive and

lofty wall, five miles in compass, well built, and all

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