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.
