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The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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at the side of this city there flows a river near which it is built, like Ferrara by the
Po, for it is longer than it is broad," and so on, relating how his host took him to see
a great monastery of the idolaters, where there was a garden full of grottoes, and
therein many animals of divers kinds, which they believed to be inhabited by the
souls of gentlemen. "But if any one should desire to tell all the vastness and great
marvels of this city, a good quire of stationery would not hold the matter, I trow.
For 'tis the greatest and noblest city, and the finest for merchandize that the whole
world containeth." (Cathay, 113 seqq.)
The Archbishop of Soltania (circa 1330) :—"And so vast is the number of people
that the soldiers alone who are posted to keep ward in the city of Cambalec are
40,000 men by sure tale. And in the city of Cassay there be yet more, for its people
is greater in number, seeing that it is a city of very great trade. And to this city all
the traders of the country come to trade; and greatly it aboundeth in all manner of
merchandize." (Ib. 244-245.)
John Marignolli (in China 1342-1347) :—"Now Manzi is a country which has
countless cities and nations included in it, past all belief to one who has not seen them.
. . . And among the rest is that most famous city of Campsay, the finest, the
biggest, the richest, the most populous, and altogether the most marvellous city, the
city of the greatest wealth and luxury, of the most splendid buildings (especially idol-
temples, in some of which there are 1000 and 2000 monks dwelling together), that
exists now upon the face of the earth, or mayhap that ever did exist." (Ib. p. 354.)
He also speaks, like Odoric, of the "cloister at Campsay, in that most famous
monastery where they keep so many monstrous animals, which they believe to be the
souls of the departed" (384). Perhaps this monastery may yet be identified. Odoric
calls it Thebe. [See A. Vissière, Bul. Soc. Géog. Com., 1901, pp. 112-113.—H. C.]
Turning now to Asiatic writers, we begin with Wassaf (A.D. 1300) :—
"Khanzai is the greatest city of the cities of Chin,
'Stretching like Paradise through the breadth of Heaven.'
Its shape is oblong, and the measurement of its perimeter is about 24 parasangs. Its
streets are paved with burnt brick and with stone. The public edifices and the houses
are built of wood, and adorned with a profusion of paintings of exquisite elegance.
Between one end of the city and the other there are three Yams (post-stations)
established. The length of the chief streets is three parasangs, and the city contains
64 quadrangles corresponding to one another in structure, and with parallel ranges
of columns. The salt excise brings in daily 700 balish in paper-money. The
number of craftsmen is so great that 32,000 are employed at the dyer's art alone;
from that fact you may estimate the rest. There are in the city 70 tomans of
soldiers and 70 tomans of rayats, whose number is registered in the books of the
Dewán. There are 700 churches (Kalisâ) resembling fortresses, and every one
of them overflowing with presbyters without faith, and monks without religion,
besides other officials, wardens, servants of the idols, and this, that, and the other,
to tell the names of which would surpass number and space. All these are exempt
from taxes of every kind. Four tomans of the garrison constitute the night patrol.
. . . Amid the city there are 360 bridges erected over canals ample as the Tigris,
which are ramifications of the great river of Chin; and different kinds of vessels and
ferry-boats, adapted to every class, ply upon the waters in such numbers as to pass all
powers of enumeration. . . . The concourse of all kinds of foreigners from the four
quarters of the world, such as the calls of trade and travel bring together in a
kingdom like this, may easily be conceived." (Revised on Hammer's Translation,
pp. 42-43.)
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731
732
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