IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XLIV. THE PROVINCE AND CITY OF SINDAFU
41
the waters about the city highly credible."] [See Irrigation of the Ch'eng-'u Plain, by Joshua Vale, China Inland Mission in Jour. China Br. R. A. S. Soc. XXXIII. 1899-1900, pp. 22-36.—H. C.]
[Above Kwan Hsien, near Ch'éng-tu, there is a fine suspension bridge, mentioned by Marcel Monnier (Itinéraires, p. 43), from whom I borrow the cut reproduced on this page. This bridge is also spoken of by Captain Gill (i.e. I. p. 335) : " Six ropes, one above the other, are stretched very tightly, and connected by vertical battens of wood laced in and out. Another similar set of ropes is at the other side of the roadway, which is laid across these, and follows the curve of the ropes. There are three or four spans with stone piers."—II. C.]
Bridge near Kwan-hsien (Ch'éng-tu).
NOTE 3.—(G. T.) "Hi est le couiereque dou Grant Sire, ce est cilz qe recevent rente dou Seignor." Pauthier has couvert. Both are, I doubt not, misreadings or misunderstandings of comereque or comerc. This word, founded on the Latin connmercium, was widely spread over the East with the meaning of customs-duty or custom-house. In Low Greek it appeared as KoµµépKCOV and KovuEpKCOV, now Ko,apKC ;
in Arabic and Turkish as
V 3 and (kumruk and gyumruk), still in use ; in
Romance dialects as conzerchio, comerho, conzergio, etc.
NOTE 4.—The word in Pauthier's text which I have rendered pieces of gold is pois, probably equivalent to saggi or miskáls. * The G. T. has " is well worth moo bezants of gold," no doubt meaning daily, though not saying so. Ramusio has " 10o bezants daily." The term Bezant may be taken as synonymous with Dinár, and the statement in the text would make the daily receipt of custom upwards of 5001, that in Ramusio upwards of 501. only.
NOTE 5. —I have recast this passage, which has got muddled, probably in the original dictation, for it runs in the G. text : " Et de ceste cité se part l'en et
* I find the same expression applied to the miskál or dinár in a MS. letter written by Giovanni dell' Affaitado, Venetian Agent at Lisbon in 1503, communicated to me by Signor Berchet. The King of Melinda was to pay to Portugal a tribute of i5oo pesi derv, " che un peso val un ducato e un quarto."
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