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By Root 1082 0

as Kublai Khan’s tax assessor. In the city of Cianglu, yet another remote outpost of the Mongol Empire, he observed with a fine appraising eye local miners digging for veins of salt in the earth, and laboriously piling the salt into great mounds. “Over these mounds they throw water in plenty, so much that the water penetrating through them goes to the bottom of the mound of earth, and then they take and collect that and put it in great jars and in great cauldrons of iron, and make it boil. When it is well boiled and purified by the force of the fire, they leave it to cool, and then the water thickens and they take it and salt is made from it—very beautiful and white and fine.”

The locals produced enough salt to sell quantities to other provinces, deriving “great wealth” from the sale. At the same time, Kublai Khan received “much revenue and profit from it,” thanks to the diligent efforts of foreign tax collectors like Marco.

IN THE RECENTLY conquered province of Tundinfu—a place-name sometimes taken to refer to Yen Chau in Vietnam—Marco resumed his investigation of the intimate lives of young women. He found those in the area refreshingly “pure” and “able to keep the virtue of modesty,” in contrast to women of other places who opened their beds, if not their hearts, to travelers. In fact, the women of Tundinfu sound downright severe, for they neither danced nor skipped nor frolicked, nor did they “fly into a passion.” Unlike other girls he had encountered, these virtuous creatures did not lurk behind windows, staring at passersby, and they abjured “unseemly talk” and “merry-making.” On the rare occasions when they ventured beyond the sanctuary of their homes, they were accompanied by their mothers, and they avoided “staring improperly at people.” Their broad bonnets restricted their field of vision and focused their attention on the road ahead. It went without saying that they paid “no attention to suitors.” So modest were these young women that they refrained from bathing in pairs.

Photo Insert 2

Kublai Khan, emperor of the world’s largest land-based empire

(Granger)

Kublai Khan’s wife Chabi, an influential partner during his reign

(Granger)

Kublai Khan dining, surrounded by wives and barons

(AKG)

One of the many statues arrayed like supernatural sentries along the Marco Polo Bridge

(Courtesy of the author)

The Marco Polo Bridge, leading from Cambulac (Beijing). The Venetian crossed this impressive stone bridge to begin his journey across China in the service of the khan.

(Courtesy of the author)

The city of Quinsai (Hangzhou) as depicted in the fifteenth-century Book of Marvels, based on Marco’s lavish description of what was then the largest city in the world

(AKG)

The Venetian traveler dressed in Mongol finery

(Art Resource)

In this illustration from the Book of Marvels, Kublai Khan looks on as his emissaries conduct business using paper money, an innovation unknown in the West at the time of Marco Polo’s journey.

(Imageworks)

A Chinese banknote

(Bridgeman)

Kublai Khan employed Westerners as tax collectors to administer his empire, and Marco Polo likely found himself in this role.

(AKG)

Kublai Khan hunting atop elephants

(AKG)

Kublai Khan’s generosity to the poor, as recounted by Marco Polo and portrayed in this illuminated manuscript, impressed Western minds.

(Art Archive)

Silkworms, one of the principal sources of Chinese wealth

(Imageworks)

Haunting representations of the Buddha outside Quinsai (Hangzhou) deeply impressed Marco, who had initially dismissed them as idols.

(Courtesy of the author)

Their entire lives were arranged to protect them from any disturbance or violation; otherwise, the girl in question would not be able to marry, or, as Marco puts it, “if the opposite [of virginity] is found, the marriage would not hold.” Since this was a serious legal matter, the interested parties—the father of the bride and the bridegroom—took extreme measures to confirm the girl’s virginity.

“When the bonds and agreements have been duly made,” reports Marco,