that the body of a dog, always descending to the lowest rank of baseness.  In their manners, the language of the Tartars is comely; they salute one another with grace and cheerfulness, conducting themselves honestly, and they feed in a cleanly manner.  They bear great reverence to their parents, and if any one be undutiful or regardless of their necessities, they are liable to the jurisdiction of a public tribunal, especially assigned for the punishment of ungrateful or disobedient children.  Persons condemned to imprisonment for crimes, are discharged after three years confinement, when they are marked on the cheek, that they may be known as malefactors.

All barons or others, who approach within half a mile of the residence of the great khan, must be still and quiet, no noise or loud speech being permitted in his presence or neighbourhood.  Every one who enters the hall of presence, must pull off his boots, lest he soil the carpets, and puts on furred buskins of white leather, giving his other boots to the charge of servants till he quits the hall; and every one carries a small covered vessel to spit in; as no one dare spit in the halls of the palace.

[1] The deserts or Tartarian wastes are probably meant in this passage.—­E.

[2] Instead of this number, 10,000 post-houses, at 400 horses each, would
    require four millions of horses.  The number and proportion of horses
    in the text would only supply 500 inns; or would allow only 20 horses
    each to 10,000 inns.  The text, therefore, must be here corrupted.—­E.

[3] This must allude to a species of corn-spirits or brandy, distilled from
    rice, fermented with water, named Arrak.—­E.

[4] This evidently points out the use of coal in northern China.—­E.

SECTION XIII.

Some Account of the Provinces of Kathay, or Northern China, and of other neighbouring Countries subject to the Great Khan[1].

Ten miles from Cambalu is a great river called Pulisangan[2], which empties itself into the ocean, and by which many vessels ascend with merchandize to a certain handsome bridge, all built of serpentine stone, curiously wrought.  This bridge is 300 paces in length, and eight paces broad, so that ten men may ride abreast.  It is secured on each side with a wall of marble, ornamented with a row of pillars.  The pillar on each side, at the summit of the bridge, has the image of a great lion on the top, and another at its base; and all the others, which are at intervals of a pace and a half, have figures of lions on their tops only.  After passing this bridge, and proceeding to the westwards for thirty miles, continually passing through vineyards, and fertile fields, with numerous palaces on all sides, you come to the fair and large city of Gouza, in which there are many idol temples, and in which cloth of gold and silk, and the purest and finest cambrics or