vines, supplying great
plenty of wine; and in all Cathay this is the only place where wine is
produced. It is carried hence all over the country.[NOTE 3] There is also a
great deal of silk here, for the people have great quantities of
mulberry-trees and silk-worms.

From this city of Taianfu you ride westward again for seven days, through
fine districts with plenty of towns and boroughs, all enjoying much trade
and practising various kinds of industry. Out of these districts go forth
not a few great merchants, who travel to India and other foreign regions,
buying and selling and getting gain. After those seven days' journey you
arrive at a city called PIANFU, a large and important place, with a number
of traders living by commerce and industry. It is a place too where silk is
largely produced.[NOTE 4]

So we will leave it and tell you of a great city called Cachanfu. But
stay--first let us tell you about the noble castle called Caichu.

NOTE 1.--Marsden translates the commencement of this passage, which is
peculiar to Ramusio, and runs "_E in capo di cinque giornate delle predette
dieci_," by the words "At the end of five days' journey _beyond_ the ten,"
but this is clearly wrong.[1] The place best suiting in position, as
halfway between Cho-chau and T'ai-yuan fu, would be CHENG-TING FU, and I
have little doubt that this is the place intended. The title of _Ak-Baligh_
in Turki,[2] or _Chaghan Balghasun_ in Mongol, meaning "White City," was
applied by the Tartars to Royal Residences; and possibly Cheng-ting fu may
have had such a claim, for I observe in the _Annales de la Prop. de la Foi_
(xxxiii. 387) that in 1862 the Chinese Government granted to the R.C.
Vicar-Apostolic of Chihli the ruined _Imperial Palace_ at Cheng-ting fu for
his cathedral and other mission establishments. Moreover, as a matter of
fact, Rashiduddin's account of Chinghiz's campaign in northern China in
1214, speaks of the city of "Chaghan Balghasun which the Chinese call
_Jintzinfu_." This is almost exactly the way in which the name of
Cheng-ting fu is represented in 'Izzat Ullah's Persian Itinerary
(_Jigdzinfu_, evidently a clerical error for _Jingdzinfu_), so I think
there can be little doubt that Cheng-ting fu is the place intended. The
name of Hwai-luh'ien (see Note 2), which is the first stage beyond
Cheng-ting fu, is said to mean the "Deer-lair," pointing apparently to the
old character of the tract as a game-preserve. The city of Cheng-ti