| | | | | | PEOPLE CUSTOMS & VAST SIZE OF CAMBALUC ∎MARCO POLO R lord (and wherever he holds his court the people come there from every side for various reasons) and for this that the town is in so good a market that the merchants and the other R men come there for their business. And to each kind of people one factory is set apart, as if one said one for the Lombards, another for the Germans, and another for the French. Moreover I tell you that there are as beautiful houses and as beautiful palaces in the suburbs as in the town, except those of the great lord. And you may know that no man who VB dies is allowed for anything in the world to be buried in the town. But if he is an idolater FB then he is carried to the distant place where the body must be burnt, which is FB outside the town and outside all the suburbs. And so it happens with the other dead FB (if he is of another faith when it is right to bury him, as a Christian and Saracen and other F13 FB FB manner of person), who are also carried to be buried _far outside all the suburbs in an R appointed place, so that the land is more valuable and more healthy in consequence.. And likewise no evil deed is done in the city,' but only outside the suburbs. And again I tell you another R thing, that inside the town dare live no sinful woman (unless it is secretly) as is said before,' these arc women [43d1 of the world who do service to men for money, R FB but I tell you that they all live outside in the suburbs. And you may know that there FB are so great a multitude of them for the foreigners that no man could believe it, for I VB FB R dare tell you in truth that they are quite twenty thousand3 (reckoning those of the new FB city and those of the suburbs of the old city) who all serve men for money, and they all find a living. Moreover I tell you that they are all wanted for the vast numbers of R R merchants and of other foreigners who come and go there every day for the court. And they have a general captain, and there is a head for each hundred and for each thousand, and they are all responsible to the general. And the reason why these women have a captain is that whenever ambassadors come to the great Kaan for the things and affairs of that lord, and lodge at his expense, which is done for them in the most honourable manner, this captain is obliged to give to the said ambassadors and to each one of the retinue one harlot each night; and they are changed every night, and they have no pay because this is the tax which they pay to the great Kaan. Then you can see if there is great abundance of people in Cambaluc VA since the worldly women there are as many as I have told. And again you may know VB quite truly that I believe there is not a place in the world to which so many merchants come & FB that dearer things and of greater value and more strange come into this town of |
| | | | | | parimente nessuno maleficio si fa nella città, MARSDEN: "There, likewise, all public executions take place." B.: Nessun sinistro spettacolo è permesso nella citta 2 R has this passage in full in his chapter 7 (p. 2,13 above, just before "Besides this the guards . . ") and repeats it briefly here. LT has this whole chapter in the earlier position and omits it here. s VB: oltra miara xx R: venticinquemila |
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