wder and more graphic, runs
thus: "Farther on is Great Cathay, which I take to be the country
which was anciently called the Land of the Seres. For the best silk
stuffs are still got from them... The sea lies between it and India.
Those Cathayans are little fellows, speaking much through the nose,
and, as is general with all those eastern people, their eyes are very
narrow. They are first-rate artists in every kind, and their
physicians have a thorough knowledge of the virtues of herbs, and an
admirable skill in diagnosis by the pulse... The common money of
Cathay consists of pieces of cotton-paper, about a palm in length and
breadth, upon which certain lines are printed, resembling the seal of
Mangu Khan. They do their writing with a pencil, such as painters
paint with, and a single character of theirs comprehends several
letters, so as to form a whole word."

Here we have not only what is probably the first European notice of
paper-money, but a _partial_ recognition of the peculiarity of Chinese
writing, and a perception that puts to shame the perverse boggling of
later critics over the identity of these Cathayans with the Seres of
classic fame.

But though these travellers saw Cathayans in the bazaars in the great
khan's camps, the first actual visitors of Cathay itself were the Polo
family, and it is to the book of Marco Polo's recollections mainly that
Cathay owed the growing familiarity of its name in Europe during the
14th and 15th centuries. It is, however, a great mistake to suppose, as
has often been assumed, that the residence of the Polos in that country
remained an isolated fact. They were but the pioneers of a very
considerable intercourse, which endured till the decay of the Mongol
dynasty in Cathay, i.e. for about half a century.

We have no evidence that either in the 13th or 14th century Cathayans,
i.e. Chinese, ever reached Europe, but it is possible that some did, at
least in the former century. For, during the campaigns of Hulagu in
Persia (1256-1265), and the reigns of his successors, Chinese engineers
were employed on the banks of the Tigris, and Chinese astrologers and
physicians could be consulted at Tabriz. Many diplomatic communications
passed between the Hulaguid Ilkhans and the princes of Christendom. The
former, as the great khan's liegemen, still received from him their
seals of state; and two of their letters which survive in the archives
of France e