oot and a half in height.
This is the very city the streets of which are paved with squared stones:
the city which lies in a swampy situation, and is intersected by a number
of navigable canals; this, in short, is the city from which the emperor
escaped to seaward by the great river Ts'ien-T'ang, the breadth of which
exceeds a German mile, flowing on the south of the city, exactly
corresponding to the river described by the Venetian at Quinsai, and
flowing eastward to the sea, which it enters precisely at the distance
which he mentions. I will add that the compass of the city will be 100
Italian miles and more, if you include its vast suburbs, which run out on
every side an enormous distance; insomuch that you may walk for 50 Chinese
_li_ in a straight line from north to south, the whole way through crowded
blocks of houses, and without encountering a spot that is not full of
dwellings and full of people; whilst from east to west you can do very
nearly the same thing." (_Atlas Sinensis_, p. 99.)

And so we quit what Mr. Moule appropriately calls "Marco's famous rhapsody
of the Manzi capital"; perhaps the most striking section of the whole
book, as manifestly the subject was that which had made the strongest
impression on the narrator.

[1] _Fanfur_, in Ramusio.

[2] See the mention of the _I-ning Fang_ at Si-ngan fu, supra,
p. 28. Mr. Wylie writes that in a work on the latter city, published
during the Yuen time, of which he has met with a reprint, there are
figures to illustrate the division of the city into _Fang_, a
word "which appears to indicate a certain space of ground, not an open
square ... but a block of buildings crossed by streets, and at the end
of each street an open gateway." In one of the figures a first
reference indicates "the market place," a second "the official
establishment," a third "the office for regulating weights." These
indications seem to explain Polo's squares. (See Note 3, above.)

[3] _Foreigner in Far Cathay_, pp. 158, 176.

[4] A famous poet and scholar of the 11th century.

[5] Mr. Wylie, after ascending this hill with Mr. Moule, writes: "It is
about two miles from the south gate to the top, by a rather steep
road. On the top is a remarkably level plot of ground, with a cluster
of rocks in one place. On the face of these rocks are a great many
inscriptions, but so obliterated by age and weather that only a few
characters c