city which is the capital of the kingdom. So we will
now tell you what we know of it.

NOTE 1.--The vague description does not suggest the root _turmeric_ with
which Marsden and Pauthier identify this "fruit like saffron." It is
probably one of the species of _Gardenia_, the fruits of which are used by
the Chinese for their colouring properties. Their splendid yellow colour
"is due to a body named crocine which appears to be identical with the
polychroite of saffron." (_Hanbury's Notes on Chinese Mat. Medica_, pp.
21-22.) For this identification, I am indebted to Dr. Flueckiger of Bern.
["Colonel Yule concludes that the fruit of a _Gardenia_, which yields a
yellow colour, is meant. But Polo's vague description might just as well
agree with the Bastard Saffron, _Carthamus tinctorius_, a plant introduced
into China from Western Asia in the 2nd century B.C., and since then much
cultivated in that country." (_Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc._ I. p.
4.)--H.C.]

[Illustration: Scene in the Bohea Mountains, on Polo's route between
Kiang-si and Fo-kien (From Fortune.)

"Adonc entre l'en en roiaume de Fugin, et ici comance. Et ala siz jornee
por
montangnes e por bales...."]

NOTE 2.--See vol. i. p. 312.

NOTE 3.--These particulars as to a race of painted or tattooed caterans
accused of cannibalism apparently apply to some aboriginal tribe which
still maintained its ground in the mountains between Fo-kien and Che-kiang
or Kiang-si. Davis, alluding to the Upper part of the Province of Canton,
says: "The Chinese History speaks of the aborigines of this wild region
under the name of Man (Barbarians), who within a comparatively recent
period were subdued and incorporated into the Middle Nation. Many persons
have remarked a decidedly Malay cast in the features of the natives of
this province; and it is highly probable that the Canton and Fo-kien
people were originally the same race as the tribes which still remain
unreclaimed on the east side of Formosa."[1] (_Supply. Vol._ p. 260.)
Indeed Martini tells us that even in the 17th century this very range of
mountains, farther to the south, in the Ting-chau department of Fo-kien,
contained a race of uncivilised people, who were enabled by the
inaccessible character of the country to maintain their independence of
the Chinese Government (p. 114; see also _Semedo_, p. 19).

["Colonel Yule's 'pariah caste' of Shao-ling, who, he says, rebelled
against either the Sung or the Yuean,