ror 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. Odoric
likewise speaks of the hostelries called _Yam_, and Rubruquis applies the
same term to quarters in the imperial camp, which were assigned for the
lodgment of ambassadors. (_Cathay_, ccii. 137; _Rubr._ 310.)

[Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, 101, note) says that these post-stations were
established by Okkodai in 1234 throughout the Mongol empire. (_D'Ohsson_,
ii. 63.) Dr. G. Schlegel (_T'oung Pao_, II. 1891, 265, note) observes that
_iam_ is not, as Pauthier supposed, a contraction of _yi-ma_, horse
post-house (_yi-ma_ means post-horse, and Pauthier makes a mistake), but
represents the Chinese character [Chinese], pronounced at present _chan_,
which means in fact a road station, a post. In Annamite, this character
[Chinese] is pronounced _tram_, and it means, according to _Bonet's Dict.
Annamite-Francais_: "Relais de poste, station de repos." (See
_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ I. p. 187 note.)--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--Martini and Magaillans, in the 17th cent