son or insurrection
against him. [Each guard is provided with a hollow instrument of wood and
with a metal basin, and with a time-keeper to enable them to know the hour
of the day or night. And so when one hour of the night is past the sentry
strikes one on the wooden instrument and on the basin, so that the whole
quarter of the city is made aware that one hour of the night is gone. At
the second hour he gives two strokes, and so on, keeping always wide awake
and on the look out. In the morning again, from the sunrise, they begin to
count anew, and strike one hour as they did in the night, and so on hour
after hour.

Part of the watch patrols the quarter, to see if any light or fire is
burning after the lawful hours; if they find any they mark the door, and
in the morning the owner is summoned before the magistrates, and unless he
can plead a good excuse he is punished. Also if they find any one going
about the streets at unlawful hours they arrest him, and in the morning
they bring him before the magistrates. Likewise if in the daytime they
find any poor cripple unable to work for his livelihood, they take him to
one of the hospitals, of which there are many, founded by the ancient
kings, and endowed with great revenues.[NOTE 6] Or if he be capable of
work they oblige him to take up some trade. If they see that any house has
caught fire they immediately beat upon that wooden instrument to give the
alarm, and this brings together the watchmen from the other bridges to
help to extinguish it, and to save the goods of the merchants or others,
either by removing them to the towers above mentioned, or by putting them
in boats and transporting them to the islands in the lake. For no citizen
dares leave his house at night, or to come near the fire; only those who
own the property, and those watchmen who flock to help, of whom there
shall come one or two thousand at the least.]

Moreover, within the city there is an eminence on which stands a Tower,
and at the top of the tower is hung a slab of wood. Whenever fire or any
other alarm breaks out in the city a man who stands there with a mallet in
his hand beats upon the slab, making a noise that is heard to a great
distance. So when the blows upon this slab are heard, everybody is aware
that fire has broken out, or that there is some other cause of alarm.

The Kaan watches this city with especial diligence because it forms the
head of all Manzi; and because he has an immense rev