IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
I I 3 • SINDUFU AND THE RIVER CALLED QUTANSUI OMARCO POLO
VA FB VB and stags and wolves; and there are also very great quantities of gazelles, that is those little creatures which make musk. Now we will leave this country and will tell you of the [sob] others well and in order so as you will be able to hear.
I 14. ERE HE TELLS OF THE GREAT PROVINCE OF SINDUFU. When one has gone
FB FB riding the twenty' days journeys in the mountains and valleys, of which
L I have told you above, and always toward sunsetting, then he finds a
VB TA great plain and a province which is also called one of the borderlands of Mangi, VA which is called Sindufu, and the capital city which once was very rich & great and z z noble has Sindufu also for name. And in old times there have been many very great VB and rich kings there, of great power & valour & famous for very great deeds. And it is quite twenty miles in circuit. But now it is divided in such a way as I shall describe FB to you. It was true that the king of this province formerly, when he came to death, he VA FB Z leaves three sons & to each his third part of the realm. And then by his order • before his FB death' this great town was divided into three parts that each of his three sons might have FB P his share of it. Each of these three parts is separate and has a wall for itself, but never-P Z theless all and three are inside the former•general surrounding walls of the great city. FB And I tell you that all and three of these sons of that king were kings each by himself, z for each had his city and each had in his share many and great lands and wealth enough, FB for their father was very powerful and rich, so that each by himself was a king. And the VA z great Kaan takes this kingdom & this city and disinherits and destroyed these three kings and holds the realm for himself. And you may know that through the middle of this great town goes a very great river of fresh water, in which fish are caught rB FB FB in plenty. It is quite half a mile wide; and it is very deep; and it is so long that it goes all the way to the Ocean sea, which is there more than eighty days journeys,' FE or up to a hundred; and it is called Quiansui.4 [50e] There are very great quantities
1 VB: vna zornata
2 P says that the division was done by the sons after their father's death. VB says that the city was taken & ruled by Prester John, instead of by the great Kaan.
3 TA',LT: "miles" V: mia sesanta tre P: octoginta dietas TA3,VB: "more than ioo miles" Others, 8o to ioo days journeys.
4 This passage is different in Z (closely followed by R), which reads: "Through this city run also very many great rivers which come down from the mountains far off and circle the city round about and through the middle, in very many directions. These rivers are some half a mile wide, some two hundred paces, some a hundred and fifty, and more and less, & they are very deep; and over them are built very many very beautiful & great bridges of stone, the width of which is eight paces and the length according to the width of the rivers, and more and less." The description of the bridge in the text of F is then applied, with small additions as noted,
to
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