The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 252 (Color Image)

0252	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

204 MARCO POLO BOOK II.

how, on every market-day, all those squares are thronged

and crammed with purchasers, and with the traders who

have brought in stores of provisions by land or water ;

and everything they bring in is disposed of.

To give you an example of the vast consumption in

this city let us take the article of yelper; and that will

enable you in some measure to estimate what must be

the quantity of victual, such as meat, wine, groceries,

which have to be provided for the general consumption.

Now Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great

Kaan's officers of customs that the quantity of pepper

introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay

amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lbs.7

The houses of the citizens are well built and elabor-

ately finished ; and the delight they take in decoration,

in painting and in architecture, leads them to spend in

this way sums of money that would astonish you.

The natives of the city are men of peaceful character,

both from education and from the example of their kings,

whose disposition was the same. They know nothing of

handling arms, and keep none in their houses. You

hear of no feuds or noisy quarrels or dissensions of any

kind among them. Both in their commercial dealings

and in their manufactures they are thoroughly honest and

truthful, and there is such a degree of good will and

neighbourly attachment among both men and women

that you would take the people who live in the same

street to be all one family.'

And this familiar intimacy is free from all jealousy or

suspicion of the conduct of their women. These they

treat with the greatest respect, and a man who

should presume to make loose proposals to a married

woman would be regarded as an infamous rascal. They

also treat the foreigners who visit them for the sake of

trade with great cordiality, and entertain them in the

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