But Now I Will Tell You Another Thing That I Had Forgotten, But Which
Ought To Be Told Whilst I Am On This Subject.
You must know that by the
Great Kaan's orders there has been established between those post-houses,
at every interval of three miles, a little fort with some forty houses
round about it, in which dwell the people who act as the Emperor's
foot-runners.
Every one of those runners wears a great wide belt, set all
over with bells, so that as they run the three miles from post to post
their bells are heard jingling a long way off. And thus on reaching the
post the runner finds another man similarly equipt, and all ready to take
his place, who instantly takes over whatsoever he has in charge, and with
it receives a slip of paper from the clerk, who is always at hand for the
purpose; and so the new man sets off and runs his three miles. At the next
station he finds his relief ready in like manner; and so the post proceeds,
with a change at every three miles. And in this way the Emperor, who has an
immense number of these runners, receives despatches with news from places
ten days' journey off in one day and night; or, if need be, news from a
hundred days off in ten days and nights; and that is no small matter! (In
fact in the fruit season many a time fruit shall be gathered one morning in
Cambaluc, and the evening of the next day it shall reach the Great Kaan at
Chandu, a distance of ten days' journey.[NOTE 5] The clerk at each of the
posts notes the time of each courier's arrival and departure; and there are
often other officers whose business it is to make monthly visitations of
all the posts, and to punish those runners who have been slack in their
work.[NOTE 6]) The Emperor exempts these men from all tribute, and pays
them besides.
Moreover, there are also at those stations other men equipt similarly with
girdles hung with bells, who are employed for expresses when there is a
call for great haste in sending despatches to any governor of a province,
or to give news when any Baron has revolted, or in other such emergencies;
and these men travel a good two hundred or two hundred and fifty miles in
the day, and as much in the night. I'll tell you how it stands. They take
a horse from those at the station which are standing ready saddled, all
fresh and in wind, and mount and go at full speed, as hard as they can
ride in fact. And when those at the next post hear the bells they get
ready another horse and a man equipt in the same way, and he takes over
the letter or whatever it be, and is off full-speed to the third station,
where again a fresh horse is found all ready, and so the despatch speeds
along from post to post, always at full gallop, with regular change of
horses. And the speed at which they go is marvellous. (By night, however,
they cannot go so fast as by day, because they have to be accompanied by
footmen with torches, who could not keep up with them at full speed.)
Those men are highly prized; and they could never do it, did they not bind
hard the stomach, chest and head with strong bands. And each of them
carries with him a gerfalcon tablet, in sign that he is bound on an urgent
express; so that if perchance his horse break down, or he meet with other
mishap, whomsoever he may fall in with on the road, he is empowered to
make him dismount and give up his horse. Nobody dares refuse in such a
case; so that the courier hath always a good fresh nag to carry him.[NOTE
7]
Now all these numbers of post-horses cost the Emperor nothing at all; and
I will tell you the how and the why. Every city, or village, or hamlet,
that stands near one of those post-stations, has a fixed demand made on it
for as many horses as it can supply, and these it must furnish to the
post. And in this way are provided all the posts of the cities, as well as
the towns and villages round about them; only in uninhabited tracts the
horses are furnished at the expense of the Emperor himself.
(Nor do the cities maintain the full number, say of 400 horses, always at
their station, but month by month 200 shall be kept at the station, and
the other 200 at grass, coming in their turn to relieve the first 200. And
if there chance to be some river or lake to be passed by the runners and
horse-posts, the neighbouring cities are bound to keep three or four boats
in constant readiness for the purpose.)
And now I will tell you of the great bounty exercised by the Emperor
towards his people twice a year.
NOTE 1. - The G. Text has "et ce est mout scue chouse"; Pauthier's Text,
"mais il est moult cele" The latter seems absurd. I have no doubt that
scue is correct, and is an Italianism, saputo having sometimes the
sense of prudent or judicious. Thus P. della Valle (II. 26), speaking of
Shah Abbas: "Ma noti V.S. i tiri di questo re, saputo insieme e
bizzarro," "acute with all his eccentricity."
NOTE 2. - Both Neumann and Pauthier seek Chinese etymologies of this Mongol
word, which the Tartars carried with them all over Asia. It survives in
Persian and Turki in the senses both of a post-house and a post-horse, and
in Russia, in the former sense, is a relic of the Mongol dominion. The
ambassadors of Shah Rukh, on arriving at Sukchu, were lodged in the
Yam-Khana, or post-house, by the city gate; and they found ninety-nine
such Yams between Sukchu and Khanbaligh, at each of which they were
supplied with provisions, servants, beds, night-clothes, etc.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 321 of 335
Words from 327092 to 328124
of 342071
