d the Plain to 11 days, which is just about a proper
allowance for the whole journey, though not accurately distributed. Two
days, though ample, would not be excessive for the journey across the
Plain of Han-chung, especially if the traveller visited that city. And "20
days from Han-chung, to Ch'eng-tu fu would correspond with Marco Polo's
rate of travel." (_Richthofen_).

So far then, provided we admit the reading of the MS. C, there is no ground
for hesitating to adopt the usual route between the two cities,
via Han-chung.

But the key to the exact route is evidently the position of Acbalec Manzi,
and on this there is no satisfactory light.

For the name of the province, Pauthier's text has _Acbalec Manzi_, for the
name of the city _Acmalec_ simply. The G.T. has in the former case
_Acbalec Mangi_, in the latter "Acmelic Mangi _qe vaut dire_ le une _de le
confine dou Mangi_." This is followed literally by the Geographic Latin,
which has "_Acbalec Mangi et est dictum in lingua nostra_ unus _ex
confinibus Mangi_." So also the Crusca; whilst Ramusio has "_Achbaluch
Mangi, che vuol dire_ Citta Bianca de' confini di Mangi." It is clear that
Ramusio alone has here preserved the genuine reading.

Klaproth identified Acbalec conjecturally with the town of _Pe-ma-ching_,
or "White-Horse-Town," a place now extinct, but which stood like Mien and
Han-chung on the extensive and populous Plain that here borders the Han.

It seems so likely that the latter part of the name _Pe_-MACHING ("_White_
Maching") might have been confounded by foreigners with _Machin_ and
_Manzi_ (which in Persian parlance were identical), that I should be
disposed to overlook the difficulty that we have no evidence produced to
show that Pemaching was a place of any consequence.

It is possible, however, that the name _Acbalec_ may have been given by the
Tartars without any reference to Chinese etymologies. We have already twice
met with the name or its equivalent (_Acbaluc_ in ch. xxxvii. of this Book,
and _Chaghan Balghasun_ in note 3 to Book I. ch. lx.), whilst Strahlenberg
tells us that the Tartars call all great residences of princes by this name
(Amst. ed. 1757, I. p. 7). It may be that Han-chung itself was so named by
the Tartars; though its only claim that I can find is, that it was the
first residence of the Han Dynasty. Han-chung fu stands in a beautiful
plain, which forms a very striking object to the traveller who is leaving
the T'sing-ling m