ake at least 20 days. And to calculate the 2-1/2 days with which
the journey commences from an indefinite point seems scarcely admissible.
Polo is giving us a continuous _itinerary_; it would be ruptured if he
left an indefinite distance between his last station and his "long
descent." And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between
Carajan (or Tali) and Vochan (Yung-ch'ang), the result would be nonsense.

[Illustration: Temple of Gaudapalen (in the city of Mien), erected circa
A.D. 1160.]

[_Mien-tien_, to which is devoted ch. vii. of the Chinese work
_Sze-i-kwan-k'ao_, appears to have included much more than Burma proper.
(See the passage supra, pp. 70-71, quoted by Deveria from the _Yuen-shi
lei pien_ regarding _Kien-tou_ and _Kin-Chi_.)--H.C.]

The hypothesis that I have suggested would suit better with the
traveller's representation of the country traversed as wild and
uninhabited. In a journey to Great Pagan the most populous and fertile
part of Burma would be passed through.

[Baber writes (p. 180): "The generally received theory that 'the great
descent which leads towards the Kingdom of Mien,' on which 'you ride for
two days and a half continually downhill,' was the route from Yung-ch'ang
to T'eng-Yueh, must be at once abandoned. Marco was, no doubt, speaking
from hearsay, or rather, from a recollection of hearsay, as it does not
appear that he possessed any notes; but there is good reason for supposing
that he had personally visited Yung-ch'ang. Weary of the interminable
mountain-paths, and encumbered with much baggage--for a magnate of Marco's
court influence could never, in the East, have travelled without a
considerable state--impeded, in addition, by a certain quantity of
merchandise, for he was 'discreet and prudent in every way,' he would have
listened longingly to the report of an easy ride of two and a half days
downhill, and would never have forgotten it. That such a route exists I am
well satisfied. Where is it? The stream which drains the Yung-ch'ang plain
communicates with the Salwen by a river called the 'Nan-tien,' not to be
confounded with the 'Nan-ting,' about 45 miles south of that city, a fair
journey of two and a half days. Knowing, as we now do, that it must
descend some 3500 feet in that distance, does it not seem reasonable to
suppose that the valley of this rivulet is the route alluded to? The great
battle on the Yung-ch'ang plain, moreover, was fought only a few years
bef