Before God, 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 destitution. 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."
Wassaf tells a long story in illustration 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 Wassaf, 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 quantity 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, pronounced 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 Sinicum, 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
Yue. 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
Analogous 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 XXX.
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.
