and _Sing_, got
confounded by the non-Chinese attaches of the Imperial Court; but it seems
to me quite certain that they applied the same word, Sing or Sheng, to
both institutions, viz. to the High Council of State, and to the
provincial governments. It also looks as if Marco Polo himself had made
that very confusion with which Pauthier charges Neumann. For whilst here
he represents the twelve Barons as forming a Council of State at the
capital, we find further on, when speaking of the city of Yangchau, he
says: "_Et si siet en ceste cite uns des xii Barons du Grant Kaan; car
elle est esleue pour un des xii sieges_," where the last word is probably
a mistranscription of _Sciengs_, or _Sings_, and in any case the reference
is to a distribution of the empire into twelve governments.

To be convinced that _Sing_ was used by foreigners in the double sense
that I have said, we have only to proceed with Rashiduddin's account of
the administration. After what we have already quoted, he goes on: "The
_Sing_ of Khanbaligh is the most eminent, and the building is very
large.... _Sings_ do not exist in all the cities, but only in the capitals
of great provinces.... In the whole empire of the Kaan there are twelve of
these Sings; but that of Khanbaligh is the only one which has Ching-sangs
amongst its members." Wassaf again, after describing the greatness of
Khanzai (Kinsay of Polo) says: "These circumstances characterize the
capital itself, but four hundred cities of note, and embracing ample
territories, are dependent on its jurisdiction, insomuch that the most
inconsiderable of those cities surpasses Baghdad and Shiraz. In the number
of these cities are Lankinfu and Zaitun, and Chinkalan; for they call
Khanzai a _Shing_, i.e. a great city in which the high and mighty Council
of Administration holds its meetings." Friar Odoric again says: "This
empire hath been divided by the Lord thereof into twelve parts, each one
thereof is termed a Singo."

Polo, it seems evident to me, knew nothing of Chinese. His _Shieng_ is no
direct attempt to represent _any_ Chinese word, but simply the term that
he had been used to employ in talking Persian or Turki, in the way that
Rashiduddin and Wassaf employ it.

I find no light as to the thirty-four provinces into which Polo represents
the empire as divided, unless it be an enumeration of the provinces and
districts which he describes in the second and third parts of Bk. II., of
which it is not d