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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
FACFUP., so great and puissant a prince, that for vastness
of wealth and number of subjects and extent of dominion,
there was hardly a greater in all the earth except the
Great Kaan himself.' But the people of his land were
anything rather than warriors ; all their delight was in
women, and nought but women ; and so it was above all
with the King himself, for he took thought of nothing
else but women, unless it were of charity to the poor.
In all his dominion there were no horses ; nor were
the people ever inured to battle or arms, or military
service of any kind. Yet the province of Manzi is very
strong by nature, and all the cities are encompassed by
sheets of water of great depth, and more than an arblast-
shot in width ; so that the country never would have
been lost, had the people but been soldiers. But that is
just what they were not ; so lost it was.2
Now it carne to pass, in the year of Christ's incarna-
tion, 1268, that the Great Kaan, the same that now
reigneth, despatched thither a Baron of his whose name
was BAYAN CHINCSAN, which is as much as to say
" Bayan Hundred Eyes." And you must know that the
King of Manzi had found in his horoscope that he never
should lose his Kingdom except through a man that had
an hundred eyes ; so he held himself assured in his
position, for he could not believe that any man in
existence could have an hundred eyes. There, however,
he deluded himself, in his ignorance of the name of
Bayan.3
This Bayan had an immense force of horse and foot
entrusted to him by the Great Kaan, and with these he
entered Manzi, and he had also a great number of boats
to carry both horse and food when need should be.
And when he, with all his host, entered the territory of
Manzi and arrived at this city of COIGANJU whither we
now are got, and of which we shall speak presently—
VOL. II. h
41"'
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CHAP. LXV. THE CONQUEST OF MANZI
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` 145 ` 1,
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