The Province of Zardandan

CHAPTER 53. The Great Descent that leads towards the Kingdom of Mien.

After leaving the Province of which I have been speaking you come to a great Descent. In fact you ride for two days and a half continually down hill.

On all this descent there is nothing worthy of mention except only that there is a large place there where occasionally a great market is held.

All the people of the country round come there on fixed days, 3 times a week, and hold a market there.

They exchange gold for silver; for they have gold in abundance.

They give one weight of fine gold for five weights of fine silver; so this induces merchants to come from various quarters bringing silver which they exchange for gold with these people.

In this way the merchants make great gain.

As regards those people of the country who dispose of gold so cheaply, you must understand that nobody is acquainted with their places of abode.

They dwell in inaccessible positions, in sites so wild and strong that no one can get at them to meddle with them.

Nor will they allow anybody to accompany them so as to gain a knowledge of their abodes.

After you have ridden those two days and a half down hill, you find yourself in a province towards the south which is pretty near to India.

• This province is called Amien.

You travel therein for fifteen days through a very unfrequented country, and through great woods abounding in elephants and unicorns and numbers of other wild beasts.

There are no dwellings and no people, so we need say no more of this wild country, for in sooth there is nothing to tell.

CHAPTER 54. The City of Mien, and the Two Towers that are therein, one of Gold and the other of Silver.

When you have travelled those 15 days through such a difficult country as I have described, in which travellers have to carry provisions for the road because there are no inhabitants, then you arrive at the capital city of this Province of Mien.

It also is called Amien, and is a very great and noble city.

The people are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan.

In former days, they had a rich and puissant king in this city. When he was about to die, he commanded that by his tomb they should erect 2 towers [one at either end], one of gold and the other of silver.

The towers are built of fine stone; and then one of them has been covered with gold a good finger in thickness, so that the tower looks as if it were all of solid gold.

The other is covered with silver in like manner so that it seems to be all of solid silver.

Each tower is a good 10 paces in height and of breadth in proportion. The upper part of these towers is round, and girt all about with bells, the top of the gold tower with gilded bells and the silver tower with silvered bells, insomuch that whenever the wind blows among these bells they tinkle.

The tomb likewise was plated partly with gold, and partly with silver.

The King had these towers built to commemorate his magnificence and for the good of his soul.

They are really one of the finest sights in the world. So exquisitely finished are they, so splendid and costly.

When they are lighted up by the sun they shine most brilliantly and are visible from a vast distance.

At the Court of the Great Kaan there were many gleemen and jugglers.

He said to them one day that he wanted them to go and conquer the province of Mien, and that he would give them a good Captain to lead them and other good aid.

They replied that they would be delighted.

So the Emperor caused them to be fitted out with all that an army requires, and gave them a Captain and a body of men-at-arms to help them.

And so they set out, and marched until they came to the country and province of Mien. And they did conquer the whole of it!

When they found the 2 towers of gold and silver, they were greatly astonished.

They sent word of them to the Great Kaan, asking what he would have them do with the two towers, seeing what a great quantity of wealth there was upon them.

The Great Kaan, being well aware that the King had caused these towers to be made for the good of his soul, and to preserve his memory after his death, said that he would not have them injured, but would have them left precisely as they were.

No Tartar will ever lay hand on anything appertaining to the dead.

They have in this province numbers of elephants and wild oxen, beautiful stags and deer and roe, and other kinds of large game in plenty.

CHAPTER 55. The Province of Bangala.

Bangala is a Province towards the south, which up to the year 1290, when the aforesaid Marco Polo was still at the Court of the Great Kaan, had not yet been conquered; but his armies had gone thither to make the conquest.

This province has a peculiar language, and that the people are wretched Idolaters.

They are tolerably close to India. There many eunuchs there, insomuch that all the Barons who keep them get them from that Province.{1}

The people have oxen as tall as elephants, but not so big.

They live on flesh and milk and rice.

They grow cotton, in which they drive a great trade, and also spices such as spikenard, galingale, ginger, sugar, and many other sorts.

The people of India also come there in search of the eunuchs, and of slaves, male and female, of which there are great numbers, taken from other provinces with which those of the country are at war.

These eunuchs and slaves are sold to the Indian and other merchants who carry them thence for sale about the world.

There is nothing more to mention about this country, so we will quit it, and I will tell you of another province called Caugigu.

CHAPTER 56. The Province of Caugigu [Vietnam]

Caugigu is a province towards the east, which has a king.

The people are Idolaters, and have a language of their own.

They have made their submission to the Great Kaan, and send him tribute every year.

Their king is so given to luxury that he has at the least 300 wives.

Whenever he hears of any beautiful woman in the land, he takes and marries her.

They find in this country a good deal of gold, and a lot of spices.

But they are so far from the sea that the products are of little value. Thus their price is low.

They have many elephants, and other cattle of sundry kinds, and plenty of game.

They live on flesh and milk and rice, and have wine made of rice and good spices.

Nearly all of the people tattoo their skin in patterns representing lions, dragons, birds, and what not, done in such a way that it can never be obliterated.

This work they cause to be wrought over face and neck and chest, arms and hands, and belly, and, in short, the whole body.

They look on it as a token of elegance, so that those who have the largest amount of this embroidery are regarded with the greatest admiration.

CHAPTER 57. The Province of Anin

Anin is a Province towards the east, the people of which are subject to the Great Kaan, and are Idolaters.

They live by cattle and tillage, and have a peculiar language.

The women wear on the legs and arms bracelets of gold and silver of great value, and the men wear such as are even yet more costly.

They have plenty of horses which they sell in great numbers to the Indians, making a great profit thereby.

They have also vast herds of buffaloes and oxen, having excellent pastures for these. They have likewise all the necessaries of life in abundance.

Between Anin and Caugigu, which we have left behind us, there is a distance of 25 days’ journey.

From Caugigu to Bangala, the third province in our rear, is 30 days’ journey.

We shall now leave Anin and proceed to another province which is some 8 days’ journey further, always going eastward.