watchmen, constantly keeping guard for the great
khan, or emperor of Cathay. The people of the country informed me that they
have to pay, as tribute to their lord, one _balis_ for every fire. Now one
balis consists of five pieces of silken paper, which are worth one florin
and a half of our coin. Ten or twelve households are counted as one fire,
and only pay accordingly. All these tributary fires amount to eighty-five
tomans, besides four tomans of the Saracens, making in all eighty-nine
tomans; and one toman contains 10,000 fires[3]. The residue of the people
consist of some Christians, some merchants, and some who travel through the
country. I marvelled how it were possible for such an infinite number of
people to live together, and get food; yet there is great abundance of
provisions, such as bread and wine, and other necessaries, especially hogs
flesh.

[1] Cansai, Quinzay, or Quinsay.--Hakluyt.

[2] In the Italian copy, published by Ramusio, the number of bridges is
extended to 11,000.--Hakluyt.

[3] This enumeration would give 890,000 fires, or almost ten millions of
households; which at four persons to each, would produce an aggregate
population of 39 millions of people for Quinsay alone. The tribute, as
stated by Oderic, amounts to 6,675,000 florins.--E.

SECTION XII.

_Of a Monastery, having many different kinds of Animals on a certain Hill_.

In this city of Quinsay, four of our friars had converted a powerful man to
the Christian faith, in whose house I abode all the time I remained in that
place. This man once addressed me, by the name of _Ara_ or father, asking
me to visit the city. Embarking in a boat, he carried me to a certain
monastery, where he spoke to one of the priests of his acquaintance,
saying, "this Raban, or religious man of the Francs, coming from the
western parts of the earth, is on his way to Cambalu to pray for the life
of the great khan, and you must shew him some rare thing, that he may be
able to say on his return to his own country, what strange and novel sights
he has beheld in our city of Quinsay." Then the priest took two great
baskets full of broken victuals, and led me to a small walled inclosure, of
which he had the key, the door of which he unlocked, and we went into a
pleasant green plot, in which stood a small hillock like a steeple, all
adorned with fragrant herbs and trees. He then beat upon a cymbal, at the
sound of which many animals of various k