ang. That this
river must have been the demarcation between the two provinces is obvious;
one glance into that deep rift, the only exit from which is by painful
worked artificial zigzags which, under the most favourable conditions,
cannot be called safe, will satisfy the most sceptical geographer. The
exact statement of distance is a proof that Marco entered the territory of
Yung-ch'ang." Captain Gill says (II. p. 343-344) that the five marches of
Marco Polo "would be very long ones. Our journey was eight days, but it
might easily have been done in seven, as the first march to Hsia-Kuan was
not worthy of the name. The Grosvenor expedition made eleven marches with
one day's halt--twelve days altogether, and Mr. Margary was nine or ten
days on the journey. It is true that, by camping out every night, the
marches might be longer; and, as Polo refers to the crackling of the
bamboos in the fires, it is highly probable that he found no '_fine
hostelries_' on this route. This is the way the traders still travel in
Tibet; they march until they are tired, or until they find a nice grassy
spot; they then off saddles, turn their animals loose, light a fire under
some adjacent tree, and halt for the night; thus the longest possible
distance can be performed every day, and the five days from Ta-li to
Yung-Ch'ang would not be by any means an impossibility."--H.C.]

NOTE 2.--Ramusio says that both men and women use this gold case. There
can be no better instance of the accuracy with which Polo is generally
found to have represented Oriental names, when we recover his _real_
representation of them, than this name _Zardandan_. In the old Latin
editions the name appeared as _Ardandan_, _Ardadam_, etc.; in
Ramusio as _Cardandan_, correctly enough, only the first letter
should have been printed C. Marsden, carrying out his systematic
conversion of the Ramusian spelling, made this into _Kardandan_, and
thus the name became irrecognizable. Klaproth, I believe, first showed
that the word was simply the Persian ZAR-DANDAN, "Gold-Teeth," and
produced quotations from Rashiduddin mentioning the people in question by
that identical name. Indeed that historian mentions them several times.
Thus: "North-west of China is the frontier of Tibet, and of the ZARDANDAN,
who lie between Tibet and Karajang. These people cover their teeth with a
gold case, which they take off when they eat." They are also frequently
mentioned in the Chinese annals about this p