.[NOTE 3]

There are five different kinds of cranes found in those tracts, as I shall
tell you. First, there is one which is very big, and all over as black as
a crow; the second kind again is all white, and is the biggest of all; its
wings are really beautiful, for they are adorned with round eyes like
those of a peacock, but of a resplendent golden colour, whilst the head is
red and black on a white ground. The third kind is the same as ours. The
fourth is a small kind, having at the ears beautiful long pendent feathers
of red and black. The fifth kind is grey all over and of great size, with
a handsome head, red and black.[NOTE 4]

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. _Swans_, geese, and ducks predominated, and _three
different species of cranes_ were distinguished."

The town appears as _Tchahan Toloho_ in D'Anville. It is also, I imagine,
the _Arulun Tsaghan Balghasun_ which S. Setzen says Kublai built about the
same time with Shangtu and another city "on the shady side of the Altai,"
by which here he seems to