Near This City There Is A Valley In Which The Emperor Has Had Several Little Houses Erected In Which He Keeps In Mew A Huge Number Of Cators Which Are What We Call The Great Partridge.

You would be astonished to see what a quantity there are, with men to take charge of them.

So whenever the Kaan visits the place he is furnished with as many as he wants. [NOTE 5]

NOTE 1. - [According to the Siu t'ung kien, quoted by Palladius, the palace in Chagannor was built in 1280. - H. C.]

NOTE 2. - "Ou demeurent sesnes." Sesnes, Cesnes, Cecini, Cesanae, is a mediaeval form of cygnes, cigni, which seems to have escaped the dictionary-makers. It occurs in the old Italian version of Brunetto Latini's Tresor, Bk. V. ch. xxv., as cecino; and for other examples, see Cathay, p. 125.

NOTE 3. - The city called by Polo CHAGAN-NOR (meaning in Mongol, as he says, "White Lake") is the Chaghan Balghasun mentioned by Timkowski as an old city of the Mongol era, the ruined rampart of which he passed about 30 miles north of the Great Wall at Kalgan, and some 55 miles from Siuen-hwa, adjoining the Imperial pastures. It stands near a lake still called Chaghan-Nor, and is called by the Chinese Pe-ching-tzu, or White City, a translation of Chaghan Balghasun. Dr. Bushell says of one of the lakes (Ichi-Nor), a few miles east of Chaghan-Nor: "We ... found the water black with waterfowl, which rose in dense flocks, and filled the air with discordant noises.

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