The Travels of Marco Polo

People in this city make taffetas and gold tissue:“All the people of this country are quite civilized as a result of frequent contact with the towns, which are numerous and near each other” (2630-31). Along the road to the interior of China are vineyards and mulberry trees, enabling the cultivation of grapes and the manufacture of silk.

The emperor's hunting grounds include the large city in this kingdom, but the emperor rarely takes advantage of this fact. “The consequence is that the wild animals, especially hares, multiply to such a degree as to destroy all the crops of the province” (2638-39). The Khan, however, has solved that problem by coming himself, along with many others, and seizing many of the animals. The city is a major manufacturing center. As with the city of Gouza, vineyards and mulberry trees–and, therefore, grapes and silk–are prominent.

This is a very old fortress that has a palace within it,“the hall of which contains paintings of all the renowned princes who, from ancient times, have reigned in this place” (2651-52). As it turns out, the king who had the fortress built–who was known as the Golden King–was a vassal of Prester John, who rebelled against that leader; as a result, Prester John sent seventeen men to capture the Golden King, and they did so, at first pretending to be in his service.

Prester John humiliated this captured king, sending him to look after cattle and keeping him captive for two years. Convinced that he was to be killed, he feared an audience with Prester John; the latter, however,“after a severe rebuke and a warning against pride and arrogance, pardoned him. He then directed that he should be dressed in royal apparel and sent back to his principality with an escort of honor” (2671-72). Not surprisingly, the Golden King restored his loyalty to Prester John.

This waterway is “of such width and depth that no solid bridge can be built across it” (2676-77). Castles and populous cities are along its banks. Birds, particularly pheasants, are plentiful. Also to be found in large quantities are ginger, silk, and “a species of large cane” (2679-80). Along the river is the city Ka-chan-fu, which specializes in ginger and in gold tissues and silken cloth.

One of the Great Khan's sons, Mangalai, rules in Ken-zan-fu, a great commercial center. Gold tissues and silk clothes are two of the main goods of the city, which also specializes in military equipment. Not far from the city is King Mangalai's palace, which “contains many marble halls and chambers, ornamented with paintings, beaten gold, and the finest azure” (2699-700). The king, Polo says, treats his people as his father treats his, and they love him for it.

Silk is still prominently produced in these lands to the west of those described in the previous few chapters. The people of the province of Han-chung live “by the chase, the land being covered with woods that harbor many wild beasts, such as tigers, bears, lynxes, fallow deer, antelopes, and stags, which the people turn to good account” (2707-08).

Twenty days further west and ginger is still being produced and is “conveyed through all the province of Cathay with great profit to the merchants” (2714-15). Also grown aplenty are rice, wheat, and other grains. Also in this province are “great numbers of that species of animal which produces musk” (2718).

The king of the largest city in this district divided the city equally among this three sons; the Great Khan, however, conquered all of the city. A great trade is carried out in this city, such that from a toll bridge, “his Majesty receives daily the sum of a hundred bezants of gold” (2733-34). Trade is facilitated over land and up and down a series of rivers, which unite “to form the mighty river called the Kiang” (2734). Wild animals roam in this province.

This is a wild province, in which travelers see “numberless towns and castles in a state of ruin” (2743-44) and have to protect their horses from wild animals. In the province are a good number of large bamboo trees, parts of which travelers harvest and set on fire, to keep predators at bay. 

This province was once eight kingdoms, each having many castles and cities. Gold dust once dotted the riverbeds and veins in the mountains. Coral is the currency and bodily decoration of choice. The people have large, strong dogs that are strong enough to hunt wild oxen:“Among these people you find the most skilled wizards, who by their diabolic art perform the most extraordinary marvels that were ever seen or heard” (2781-82).

A large salt lake in this province is overflowing with white pearls:“So great indeed is the quantity that if his Majesty permitted every individual to search for them, their value would become trifling” (2793-94). Turquoise can be found in a mountain nearby. As with the people of Thebeth, the male residents of Kaindu think nothing of giving their daughters to travelers, going so far as to vacate the home and leave a traveler as head of the house. 

Another of the emperor's sons, named Essen-Temur, rules here, in the name of the emperor. This province is filled with people and has many castles and is known for its salt springs:“Here there is a lake nearly a hundred miles in circuit, in which great quantities of various kinds of fish are caught, some of them quite large” (2839-41). Trade thrives in the largest city, Yachi. The people use white porcelain shells as currency and also wear them as ornaments, as in Thebeth. Polo writes that“[t]he best horses are bred in this province” (2831).

Tens day west of Karajan is another province, Karajan, ruled by another son of the Great Khan, named Kogatin:“Gold is found in the rivers, both in small particles and in lumps; and there are also veins of it in the mountains” (2848-49). It is this gold, and also cowrie shells (brought from India), that the people of this province use for currency. Polo includes many details about the large snakes, with jaws “wide enough to swallow a man” (2853-54), and many more details about how the people kill these great beasts, after which they sell the flesh and use the gall as medicine.

Gold, silver, and cowrie shells form the currency here. The gold is so plentiful that the people who live here can afford to put a thin casing of it on their teeth. Males spend next to no time in the household until a child is born; then, a man spends forty days caring for the newborn.The people do not know how to write. When doing business, they carve notches in pieces of wood.

In the first of two chapters to describe a battle between the Great Khan and a Chinese king, Polo describes how the Great Khan sent an army into two countries as protection against incursion. A neighboring king, of Mien, didn't take kindly to his maneuver and sent his own “very large army, including many elephants upon whose backs were placed wooden battlements” (2929), to confront the Khan's army.

The Khan's army was outnumbered five-to-one yet was victorious. The Khan's commander ordered his men into a forest to neutralize the advantage of the enemy elephants. The Khan's men then dismounted and fired many arrows at the elephants and the men they carried. The attack caused the elephants to flee, and the Khan's men remounted and pursued:“So great was the tumult and the shrieking that it seemed to fill the very heavens” (2953-54). The Khan's army won the day and captured 200 elephants in the process:“Thereafter the Great Khan always used elephants in his armies” (2960).

In a place where no settlements have been built, people arrive three days a week to trade. One thing traded is gold, which is prevalent in the area:“Only the natives have access to the gold because it is located in remote areas that no one else can reach” (2967-68).

The notable feature of this city is the twin pyramids ordered built by the monarch, which flank his tomb. Polo states that both pyramids are “of marble, ten paces in height, and topped with a ball” (2975). A plate of gold topped one pyramid; a plate of silver topped the other. A plate made of both metals topped the tomb. The Mongols conquered the city:

The Great Khan, upon being informed that they had been erected in pious memory of a former king, would not suffer them to be violated nor damaged in the smallest degree, the Tartars being accustomed to respect any article connected with the dead (2982-83).

Cotton and rice are prevalent in this province, and“[s]pikenard, galingale, ginger, sugar, and many sorts of drugs are among the products of the soil” (2991-92). All male prisoners of war are castrated and sold into slavery; “women, the merchants make a large profit by carrying these slaves to other kingdoms and there selling them” (2994-95).

This province has much gold, along with many elephants and other beasts. The wine drunk here is made from rice and spices, and:

Both men and women have their bodies entirely decorated with needle markings, in figures of beasts and birds; and there are among them specialists whose sole employment is to execute these ornaments upon the hands, legs, and breast (3004-06).

The large number of horses and oxen produced here end up in India, having been sold to merchants bound for that land. Both men and women wear arm, leg, and wrist rings.

The towns and fortifications in this region are high up in the mountains, where the people also store the bones of their dead, after the bodies are burned. Currency here includes gold and cowrie shells.

Tree bark is used to make clothing worn by men and women. Fierce, predatory animals prowl the riverbanks. Polo writes that“[i]n this country are also found the largest and fiercest dogs that can be met with. So courageous and powerful are they that a man with two of them may be a match for a tiger” (3031-33). A large trading city, Chintigui does much business in silk and uses the Great Khan's paper money as currency.