"Si bien estudier" (G.T.). The word may be
estiver (It. stivare), to stow, but I half suspect it should be
estuver in the sense of "kiln-dry," though both the Geog. Latin and the
Crusca render it gubernare.[1] Lecomte says: "Rice is always stored in
the public granaries for three or four years in advance. It keeps long if
care be taken to air it and stir it about; and although not so good to the
taste or look as new rice, it is said to be more wholesome."
The Archbishop of Soltania (A.D. 1330) speaks of these stores. "The said
Emperor is very pitiful and compassionate ... and so when there is a
dearth in the land he openeth his garners, and giveth forth of his wheat
and his rice for half what others are selling it at." Kublai Kaan's
measures of this kind are recorded in the annals of the Dynasty, as quoted
by Pauthier. The same practice is ascribed to the sovereigns of the T'ang
Dynasty by the old Arab Relations. In later days a missionary gives in
the Lettres Edifiantes an unfavourable account of the action of these
public granaries, and of the rascality that occurred in connection with
them. (Lecomte, II. 101; Cathay, 240; Relat. I. 39; Let. Ed. xxiv.
76.)
[The Yuen-shi in ch. 96 contains sections on dispensaries (Hui min yao
kue), granary regulations (Shi ti), and regulations for a time of dearth
(Chen Sue). (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. p. 187.) - H. C.]
[1] Marsden observes incidentally (Hist. of Sumatra, 1st edition, p. 71)
that he was told in Bengal they used to dry-kiln the rice for
exportation, "owing to which, or to some other process, it will
continue good for several years."
CHAPTER XXXII.
OF THE CHARITY OF THE EMPEROR TO THE POOR.
I have told you how the Great Kaan provides for the distribution of
necessaries to his people in time of dearth, by making store in time of
cheapness. Now I will tell you of his alms and great charity to the poor
of his city of Cambaluc.
You see he causes selection to be made of a number of families in the city
which are in a state of indigence, and of such families some may consist
of six in the house, some of eight, some of ten, more or fewer in each as
it may hap, but the whole number being very great. And each family he
causes annually to be supplied with wheat and other corn sufficient for
the whole year. And this he never fails to do every year. Moreover, all
those who choose to go to the daily dole at the Court receive a great loaf
apiece, hot from the baking, and nobody is denied; for so the Lord hath
ordered. And so some 30,000 people go for it every day from year's end to
year's end. Now this is a great goodness in the Emperor to take pity of
his poor people thus! And they benefit so much by it that they worship him
as he were God.
[He also provides the poor with clothes. For he lays a tithe upon all
wool, silk, hemp, and the like, from which clothing can be made; and he
has these woven and laid up in a building set apart for the purpose; and
as all artizans are bound to give a day's labour weekly, in this way the
Kaan has these stuffs made into clothing for those poor families, suitable
for summer or winter, according to the time of year. He also provides the
clothing for his troops, and has woollens woven for them in every city,
the material for which is furnished by the tithe aforesaid. You should
know that the Tartars, before they were converted to the religion of the
Idolaters, never practised almsgiving. Indeed, when any poor man begged of
them they would tell him, "Go with God's curse, for if He loved you as He
loves me, He would have provided for you." But the sages of the Idolaters,
and especially the Bacsis mentioned before, told the Great Kaan that it
was a good work to provide for the poor, and that his idols would be
greatly pleased if he did so. And since then he has taken to do for the
poor so much as you have heard.[NOTE 1]]
NOTE 1. - This is a curious testimony to an ameliorating effect of Buddhism
on rude nations. The general establishment of medical aid for men and
animals is alluded to in the edicts of Asoka;[1] and hospitals for the
diseased and destitute were found by Fahian at Palibothra, whilst Hiuen
Tsang speaks of the distribution of food and medicine at the Punyasalas
or "Houses of Beneficence," in the Panjab. Various examples of a
charitable spirit in Chinese Institutions will be found in a letter by
Pere d'Entrecolles in the XVth Recueil of Lettres Edifiantes; and a
similar detail in Nevius's China and the Chinese, ch. xv. (See
Prinsep's Essays, II. 15; Beal's Fah-hian, 107; Pel. Boudd. II.
190.) The Tartar sentiment towards the poor survives on the Arctic
shores: - "The Yakuts regard the rich as favoured by the gods; the poor as
rejected and cast out by them." (Billings, Fr. Tranls. I. 233.)
[1] As rendered by J. Prinsep. But I see that Professor H. H. Wilson did
not admit the passage to bear that meaning.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
[CONCERNING THE ASTROLOGERS IN THE CITY OF CAMBALUC.]
[There are in the city of Cambaluc, what with Christians, Saracens, and
Cathayans, some five thousand astrologers and soothsayers, whom the Great
Kaan provides with annual maintenance and clothing, just as he provides
the poor of whom we have spoken, and they are in the constant exercise of
their art in this city.
They have a kind of astrolabe on which are inscribed the planetary signs,
the hours and critical points of the whole year.
