The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 107

(_Mem._ VIII. 185.)

NOTE 7.--The post-system is described almost exactly as in the text by Friar Odoric and the Archbishop of Soltania, in the generation after Polo, and very much in the same way by Magaillans in the 17th century. Posts had existed in China from an old date. They are spoken of by Mas'udi and the _Relations_ of the 9th century. They were also employed under the ancient Persian kings; and they were in use in India, at least in the generation after Polo. The Mongols, too, carried the inst.i.tution wherever they went.

Polo describes the couriers as changed at short intervals, but more usually in Asiatic posts the same man rides an enormous distance. The express courier in Tibet, as described by "the Pandit," rides from Gartokh to Lhasa, a distance of 800 miles, travelling day and night. The courier's coat is _sealed_ upon him, so that he dares not take off his clothes till the seal is officially broken on his arrival at the terminus. These messengers had faces cracked, eyes bloodshot and sunken, and bodies raw with vermin. (_J. R. G. S._ x.x.xVIII. p. 149.) The modern Turkish post from Constantinople to Baghdad, a distance of 1100 miles, is done in twenty days by four Tartars riding night and day. The changes are at Sivas, Diarbekir, and Mosul. M. Tchihatcheff calculates that the night riding accomplishes only one quarter of the whole. (_Asie Mineure_, 2'de Ptie.

632-635.)--See I. p. 352, _pa tze_.

CHAPTER XXVII.

HOW THE EMPEROR BESTOWS HELP ON HIS PEOPLE, WHEN THEY ARE AFFLICTED WITH DEARTH OR MURRAIN.

Now you must know that the Emperor sends his Messengers over all his Lands and Kingdoms and Provinces, to ascertain from his officers if the people are afflicted by any dearth through unfavourable seasons, or storms or locusts, or other like calamity; and from those who have suffered in this way no taxes are exacted for that year; nay more, he causes them to be supplied with corn of his own for food and seed. Now this is undoubtedly a great bounty on his part. And when winter comes, he causes inquiry to be made as to those who have lost their cattle, whether by murrain or other mishap, and such persons not only go scot free, but get presents of cattle. And thus, as I tell you, the Lord every year helps and fosters the people subject to him.

[There is another trait of the Great Kaan I should tell you; and that is, that if a chance shot from his bow strike any herd or flock, whether belonging to one person or to many, and however big the flock may be, he takes no t.i.the thereof for three years. In like manner, if the arrow strike a boat full of goods, that boat-load pays no duty; for it is thought unlucky that an arrow strike any one's property; and the Great Kaan says it would be an abomination before G.o.d, were such property, that has been struck by the divine wrath, to enter into his Treasury.[NOTE 1]]

NOTE 1.--The Chinese author already quoted as to Kublai's character (Note 2, ch. xxiii. supra) says: "This Prince, at the sight of some evil prognostic, or when there was dearth, would remit taxation, and cause grain to be distributed to those who were in dest.i.tution. He would often complain that there never lacked informers if balances were due, or if _corvees_ had been ordered, but when the necessities of the people required to be reported, not a word was said."

Wa.s.saf tells a long story in ill.u.s.tration of Kublai's justice and consideration for the peasantry. One of his sons, with a handful of followers, had got separated from the army, and halted at a village in the territory of Bishbaligh, where the people gave them sheep and wine. Next year two of the party came the same way and _demanded_ a sheep and a stoup of wine. The people gave it, but went to the Kaan and told the story, saying they feared it might grow into a perpetual exaction. Kublai sharply rebuked the Prince, and gave the people compensation and an order in their favour. (_De Mailla_, ix. 460; _Hammer's Wa.s.saf_, 38-39.)]

CHAPTER XXVIII.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN CAUSES TREES TO BE PLANTED BY THE HIGHWAYS.

The Emperor moreover hath taken order that all the highways travelled by his messengers and the people generally should be planted with rows of great trees a few paces apart; and thus these trees are visible a long way off, and no one can miss the way by day or night. Even the roads through uninhabited tracts are thus planted, and it is the greatest possible solace to travellers. And this is done on all the ways, where it can be of service. [The Great Kaan plants these trees all the more readily, because his astrologers and diviners tell him that he who plants trees lives long.[NOTE 1]

But where the ground is so sandy and desert that trees will not grow, he causes other landmarks, pillars or stones, to be set up to show the way.]

NOTE 1.--In this Kublai imitated the great King Asoka, or Priyadarsi, who in his graven edicts (circa B.C. 250) on the Delhi Pillar, says: "Along the high roads I have caused fig-trees to be planted, that they may be for shade to animals and men. I have also planted mango-trees; and at every half-coss I have caused wells to be constructed, and resting-places for the night. And how many hostels have been erected by me at various places for the entertainment of man and beast." (_J. A. S. B._ IV. 604.) There are still remains of the fine avenues of Kublai and his successors in various parts of Northern China. (See _Williamson_, i. 74.)

CHAPTER XXIX.

CONCERNING THE RICE-WINE DRUNK BY THE PEOPLE OF CATHAY.

Most of the people of Cathay drink wine of the kind that I shall now describe. It is a liquor which they brew of rice with a quant.i.ty of excellent spice, in such fashion that it makes better drink than any ther kind of wine; it is not only good, but clear and pleasing to the eye.[NOTE 1] And being very hot stuff, it makes one drunk sooner than any other wine.

NOTE 1.--The mode of making Chinese rice-wine is described in Amyot's _Memoires_, V. 468 seqq. A kind of yeast is employed, with which is often mixed a flour prepared from fragrant herbs, almonds, pine-seeds, dried fruits, etc. Rubruquis says this liquor was not distinguishable, except by smell, from the best wine of Auxerre; a wine so famous in the Middle Ages, that the Historian Friar, Salimbene, went from Lyons to Auxerre on purpose to drink it.[1] Ysbrand Ides compares the rice-wine to Rhenish; John Bell to Canary; a modern traveller quoted by Davis, "in colour, and a little in taste, to Madeira." [Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, i. p. 117) calls this wine _bigni_; Dr. Schlegel (_T'oung Pao_, ii. p. 264) says Odoric's wine was probably made with the date _Mi-yin_, p.r.o.nounced _Bi-im_ in old days. But Marco's wine is made of rice, and is called _shao hsing chiu_. Mr.

Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 166, note) writes: "There is another stronger liquor distilled from millet, and called _shao chiu_: in Anglo-Chinese, _samshu_; Mongols call it _araka, arrak_, and _arreki_. Ma Twan-lin (Bk.

327) says that the Moho (the early Nu-chen Tartars) drank rice wine (_mi chiu_), but I fancy that they, like the Mongols, got it from the Chinese."

Dr. Emil Bretschneider (_Botanicon Sinic.u.m_, ii. pp. 154-158) gives a most interesting account of the use and fabrication of intoxicating beverages by the Chinese. "The invention of wine or spirits in China," he says, "is generally ascribed to a certain I TI, who lived in the time of the Emperor Yu. According to others, the inventor of wine was TU K'ANG." One may refer also to Dr. Macgowan's paper _On the "Mutton Wine" of the Mongols and a.n.a.logous Preparations of the Chinese_. (_Jour. N. China Br. R. As. Soc._, 1871-1872, pp. 237-240.)--H. C.]

[1] _Kington's Fred. II._ II. 457. So, in a French play of the 13th century, a publican in his _patois_ invites custom, with hot bread, hot herrings, and wine of Auxerre in plenty:--

"Chaiens, fait bon disner chaiens; Chi a caut pain et caus herens, _Et vin d'Aucheurre_ a plain tonnel."-- (_Theat. Franc. au Moyen Age_, 168.)

CHAPTER x.x.x.

CONCERNING THE BLACK STONES THAT ARE DUG IN CATHAY, AND ARE BURNT FOR FUEL.

It is a fact that all over the country of Cathay there is a kind of black stones existing in beds in the mountains, which they dig out and burn like firewood. If you supply the fire with them at night, and see that they are well kindled, you will find them still alight in the morning; and they make such capital fuel that no other is used throughout the country. It is true that they have plenty of wood also, but they do not burn it, because those stones burn better and cost less.[NOTE 1]

[Moreover with that vast number of people, and the number of hot baths that they maintain--for every one has such a bath at least three times a week, and in winter if possible every day, whilst every n.o.bleman and man of wealth has a private bath for his own use--the wood would not suffice for the purpose.]

NOTE 1.--There is a great consumption of coal in Northern China, especially in the brick stoves, which are universal, even in poor houses.

Coal seems to exist in every one of the eighteen provinces of China, which in this respect is justly p.r.o.nounced to be one of the most favoured countries in the world. Near the capital coal is mined at Yuen-ming-yuen, and in a variety of isolated deposits among the hills in the direction of the Kalgan road, and in the district round Siuen-hwa-fu. (_Sindachu_ of Polo, ante ch. lix.) But the most important coal-fields in relation to the future are those of Shan-tung Hu-nan, Ho-nan, and Shan-si. The last is eminently _the_ coal and iron province of China, and its coal-field, as described by Baron Richthofen, combines, in an extraordinary manner, all the advantages that can enhance the value of such a field except (at present) that of facile export; whilst the quant.i.ty available is so great that from Southern Shan-si alone he estimates the whole world could be supplied, at the present rate of consumption, for several thousand years.

"Adits, miles in length, could be driven within the body of the coal....

These extraordinary conditions ... will eventually give rise to some curious features in mining... if a railroad should ever be built from the plain to this region ... branches of it will be constructed within the body of one or other of these beds of anthracite." Baron Richthofen, in the paper which we quote from, indicates the revolution in the deposit of the world's wealth and power, to which such facts, combined with other characteristics of China, point as probable; a revolution so vast that its contemplation seems like that of a planetary catastrophe.

In the coal-fields of Hu-nan "the mines are chiefly opened where the rivers intersect the inclined strata of the coal-measures and allow the coal-beds to be attacked by the miner immediately at their out-croppings."

At the highest point of the Great Kiang, reached by Sarel and Blakiston, they found mines on the cliffs over the river, from which the coal was sent down by long bamboo cables, the loaded baskets drawing up the empty ones.

[Many coal-fields have been explored since; one of the most important is the coal-field of the Yun-nan province; the finest deposits are perhaps those found in the bend of the Kiang; coal is found also at Mong-Tzu, Lin-ngan, etc.; this rich coal region has been explored in 1898 by the French engineer A. Leclere. (See _Congres int. Geog._, Paris, 1900, pp.

178-184.)--H. C.]

In various parts of China, as in Che-kiang, Sze-ch'wan, and at Peking, they form powdered coal, mixed with mud, into bricks, somewhat like our "patent fuel." This practice is noticed by Ibn Batuta, as well as the use of coal in making porcelain, though this he seems to have misunderstood.

Rashiduddin also mentions the use of coal in China. It was in use, according to citations of Pauthier's, before the Christian era. It is a popular belief in China, that every provincial capital is bound to be established over a coal-field, so as to have a provision in case of siege.

It is said that during the British siege of Canton mines were opened to the north of the city.

(_The Distribution of Coal in China_, by Baron Richthofen, in _Ocean Highways_, N.S., I. 311; _Macgowan_ in _Ch. Repos._ xix. 385-387; _Blakiston_, 133, 265; _Mid. Kingdom_, I. 73, 78; _Amyot_, xi. 334; _Cathay_, 261, 478, 482; _Notes by Rev. A. Williamson_ in _J. N. Ch. Br.

R. A. S._, December, 1867; _Hedde and Rondot_, p. 63.)

Aeneas Sylvius relates as a miracle that took place before his eyes in Scotland, that poor and almost naked beggars, when _stones_ were given them as alms at the church doors, went away quite delighted; for stones of that kind were imbued either with brimstone or with some oily matter, so that they could be burnt instead of wood, of which the country was dest.i.tute. (Quoted by _Jos. Robertson, Statuta Eccles. Scotic._ I. xciii.)

CHAPTER x.x.xI.