or officers,
or any other person, he shall receive ample justice. A viceroy or governor
is never degraded, except by letters issued from the council, or divan of
kings, and this is done only for some flagrant malversation, or for the
refusal or delay of justice. The posts of judicature being conferred upon
none but men of probity and justice, good order is efectually maintained.

The province of Chorassan is almost on the borders of China. From China to
Sogd is about two months journey, through impracticable deserts of sand,
where there is no water; for which reason the Chorassanians can make no
irruptions into China. The most westerly province of China is _Medu_, which
borders on Thibet, and the two nations are often at war. A person who had
been in China, informed us, that he had seen a man at Canfu, who had
traveled from _Samare_, all the way on foot, through all the cities in
China, with a vessel of musk on his back for sale; which he might easily
do, as the part of Thibet, which produces musk, is contiguous to China. The
Chinese carry off as many of the animals which produce musk as they can
procure; but the musk of Thibet is far better than that of China, because
the animal feeds on aromatic plants in the mountains of Thibet, while in
China it has to subsist upon the ordinary pastures; and because the
inhabitants of Thibet preserve their cods of musk in its natural state of
purity, while the Chinese adulterate all that gets into their hands; for
which reason the musk of Thibet is in great request among the Arabs. The
most exquisite of all the sorts of musk, is that which the musk animals
leave behind them, in rubbing themselves on the rocks of their native
mountains. The humour whence the musk is generated, falls down towards
the navel of the animal, where it gathers into tumors like grumous blood;
and when this tumor is ripe, it produces a painful itching, on which the
animal rubs himself against rocks or stones till he bursts the tumor, and
the contents run out and coagulate on the stone; after which, the wound
heals, and the humour gathers again as before. There are men in Thibet who
make it their business to collect this species of musk, which they preserve
in bladders, and which, having ripened, naturally surpasses all others in
goodness, just as ripe fruit exceeds in flavour that which is pulled green.
There is another way of procuring musk, either by ensnaring the animals, or
shooting them with arrows; but