and men. I have also planted mango-trees; and at every
half-coss I have caused wells to be constructed, and resting-places for
the night. And how many hostels have been erected by me at various places
for the entertainment of man and beast." (_J. A. S. B._ IV. 604.) There
are still remains of the fine avenues of Kublai and his successors in
various parts of Northern China. (See _Williamson_, i. 74.)

CHAPTER XXIX.

CONCERNING THE RICE-WINE DRUNK BY THE PEOPLE OF CATHAY.

Most of the people of Cathay drink wine of the kind that I shall now
describe. It is a liquor which they brew of rice with a quantity of
excellent spice, in such fashion that it makes better drink than any
ther kind of wine; it is not only good, but clear and pleasing to the
eye.[NOTE 1] And being very hot stuff, it makes one drunk sooner than
any other wine.

NOTE 1.--The mode of making Chinese rice-wine is described in Amyot's
_Memoires_, V. 468 seqq. A kind of yeast is employed, with which is often
mixed a flour prepared from fragrant herbs, almonds, pine-seeds, dried
fruits, etc. Rubruquis says this liquor was not distinguishable, except by
smell, from the best wine of Auxerre; a wine so famous in the Middle Ages,
that the Historian Friar, Salimbene, went from Lyons to Auxerre on purpose
to drink it.[1] Ysbrand Ides compares the rice-wine to Rhenish; John Bell
to Canary; a modern traveller quoted by Davis, "in colour, and a little in
taste, to Madeira." [Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, i. p. 117) calls this wine
_bigni_; Dr. Schlegel (_T'oung Pao_, ii. p. 264) says Odoric's wine was
probably made with the date _Mi-yin_, pronounced _Bi-im_ in old days. But
Marco's wine is made of rice, and is called _shao hsing chiu_. Mr.
Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 166, note) writes: "There is another stronger
liquor distilled from millet, and called _shao chiu_: in Anglo-Chinese,
_samshu_; Mongols call it _araka, arrak_, and _arreki_. Ma Twan-lin (Bk.
327) says that the Moho (the early Nu-chen Tartars) drank rice wine (_mi
chiu_), but I fancy that they, like the Mongols, got it from the Chinese."

Dr. Emil Bretschneider (_Botanicon Sinicum_, ii. pp. 154-158) gives a most
interesting account of the use and fabrication of intoxicating beverages
by the Chinese. "The invention of wine or spirits in China," he says, "is
generally ascribed to a certain I TI, who lived in the time of the Emperor
Yue. According to others, the inventor of wine was TU K'ANG." One may refer