Augustals. This leather coinage was very popular, especially at Florence, and it was afterwards honourably redeemed by Frederic's Treasury.

(Klapr. in Mem. Rel. à l'Asie, I. 375 seqq.; Biot, in J. As. ser. 3, tom. iv.; Marsden and Pauthier, in loco; Parkes, in J. R. A. S. XIII. 179; Doolittle, 452 seqq.; Wylie, J. of Shanghai Lit, and Scient. Soc. No. I.; Arbeiten der kais. russ. Gesandsch. zu Peking, I. p. 48; Rennie, Peking, &c., I. 296, 347; Birch, in Num. Chron. XII. 169; Information from Dr. Lockhart; Alcock, II. 86; D'Ohsson, IV. 53; Cowell, in J. A. S. B. XXIX. 183 seqq.; Thomas, Coins of Patan Sovs. of Hind. (from Numism. Chron. 1852), p. 139 seqq.; Kington's Fred. II. II. 195.)

CHAPTER XXV.

CONCERNING THE TWELVE BARONS WHO ARE SET OVER ALL THE AFFAIRS OF THE GREAT KAAN.

You must know that the Great Kaan hath chosen twelve great Barons to whom he hath committed all the necessary affairs of thirty-four great provinces; and now I will tell you particulars about them and their establishments.

These judges provinces to

You must know that these twelve Barons reside all together in a very rich and handsome palace, which is inside. the city of Cambaluc, and consists of a variety of edifices, with many suites of apartments. To every province is assigned a judge and several clerks, and all reside in this palace, where each has his separate quarters. and clerks administer all the affairs of the which they are attached, under the direction of the twelve Barons. Howbeit, when an affair is of very great importance, the twelve Barons lay it before the Emperor, and he decides as he thinks best. But the power of those twelve Barons is so great that they choose the governors for all those 34 great provinces that I have mentioned, and only after they have chosen do they inform the Emperor of their choice. This he confirms, and grants to the person nominated a tablet of gold such as is appropriate to the rank of his government.

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Those twelve Barons also have such authority that they can dispose of the movements of the forces, and send them whither, and in such strength as, they please. This is done indeed with the Emperor's cognizance, but still the orders are issued on their authority. They are styled SHIENG, which is as much as to say "The Supreme Court," and the palace where they abide is also called Shieng. This body forms the highest authority at the Court of the Great Kaan; and indeed they can favour and advance whom they will. I will not now name the 34 provinces to you, because they will be spoken of in detail in the course of this Book."

NOTE 1.-Pauthier's extracts from the Chinese annals of the dynasty, in illustration of this subject, are interesting. These, as he represents them, show the council of ministers usually to have consisted of twelve high officials, viz.: 2 Ching-siang or (chief) ministers of state, one styled, "of the Right," and the other of the Left;" 4 called Ping chang ching-ssé, which seems to mean something like ministers in charge of special departments; 4 Assistant ministers; 2 Counsellors.

Rashiduddin, however, limits the council to the two first classes: "Strictly speaking, the council of state is composed of four Chingsang (Ching-siang) or great officers (Wazirs, he afterwards terms them), and four Fanchán (P'ing-chang) or associated members, taken from the nations of the Tajiks, Cathayans, Ighurs, and Arkaun."

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In a later age we find the twelve Barons reappearing in the Mendoza: "The King hath in this city of Tabin (Peking), where he is resident, a royal council of twelve counsellors and a president, chosen men throughout al the kingdom, and such as have had experience in government many yeares." And also in the early centuries of the Christian era we hear that the Khan of the Turks had his twelve grandees, divided into those of the Right and those of the Left, probably a copy from a Chinese order then also existing.

But to return to Rashiduddin: "As the Kaan generally resides at the capital, he has erected a place for the sittings of the Great Council, called Sing. . . . The dignitaries mentioned above are expected to attend daily at the Sing, and to make themselves acquainted with all that passes there."

The Sing of Rashid is evidently the Shieng or Sheng (Scieng) of Polo. M. Pauthier is on this point somewhat contemptuous towards Neumann, who, he says, confounds Marco Polo's twelve barons of ministers of state with the chiefs of the twelve great provincial governments called Sing, who had their residence at the chief cities of those

governments; whilst in fact Polo's Scieng (he asserts) has nothing to do with the Sing, but represents the Chinese word Siang "a minister," and "the office of a minister."

It is very probable that two different words, Siang and Sing, got confounded by the non-Chinese attachés of the imperial court; but it seems to me quite certain that they applied the same word, Sing or Sheng, to both institutions, viz., to the high council of state, and to the provincial governments. It also looks as if Marco Polo himself had made that very confusion with which Pauthier charges Neumann. For whilst here he represents the twelve Barons as forming a council of state at the capital, we find further on, when speaking of the city of Yangcheu, he says: "Et si siet en ceste cité uns des xii Barons du Grant Kaan; car elle est esleue pour un des xii sieges," where the last word is probably a mistranscription of sciengs or sings, and in any case the reference is to a distribution of the empire into twelve governments.

To be convinced that Sing was used by foreigners in the double sense that I have said, we have only to proceed with Rashiduddin's account of the administration. After what we have already quoted, he goes on "The Sing of Khanbaligh is the most eminent, and the building is very large . . . Sings do not exist in all the cities, but only in the capitals of great provinces . . . In the whole empire of the Kaan there are twelve of these Sings; but that of Khanbaligh is the only one which has Ching-sangs amongst its members." Wassáf again, after describing the greatness of Khanzai (Kinsay of Polo), says: "These circumstances characterize the capital itself, but 400 cities of note, and embracing ample territories, are dependent on its jurisdiction, insomuch that the most inconsiderable of those cities surpasses Baghdad and Shiraz. In the number of these cities are Lankinfu and Zaitun, and Chinkalán; for they call Khanzai a Shing, i.e. a great city in which the high and mighty council of administration holds its meetings." Friar Odoric again says: "This empire hath been divided by the Lord thereof into twelve parts, each one whereof is termed a Singo."

Polo, it seems evident to me, knew nothing of Chinese. His Shieng is no direct attempt to represent any Chinese word, but simply the term that he had been used to employ in talking Persian or Turki, in the way that Rashiduddin and Wassáf employ it.

I find no light as to the 34 provinces into which Polo represents the empire as divided.

(Cathay, 263 seqq., and 137; Mendoza, I. 96; Erdmann, 142; Hammer's Wassáf, p. 42, but corrected.)

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CHAPTER XXVI.

HOW THE KAAN'S POSTS AND RUNNERS ARE SPED THROUGH MANY LANDS AND PROVINCES.

Now you must know that from this city of Cambaluc proceed many roads and highways leading to a variety of provinces, one to one province, another to another; and each road receives the name of the province to which it leads; and it is a very sensible thing.' And the messengers of the Emperor in travelling from Cambaluc, be the road whichsoever they will, find at every 25 miles of the journey a station which they call Yamb, or, as we should say, the "Horse-Post-House." And at each of those stations used by the messengers there is a large and handsome building for them to put up at, in which they find all the rooms furnished with fine beds and all other necessary articles in rich silk, and where they are provided with everything they can want. If even a king were to arrive at one of these, he would find himself well lodged.

At some of these stations, moreover, there shall be posted some 400 horses standing ready for the use of the messengers; at others there shall be 200, according to the requirements, and to what the Emperor has established in each case. At every 25 miles, as I said, or any how at every 30 miles, you find one of these stations, on all the principal highways leading to the different provincial governinents; and the same is the case throughout all the chief provinces subject to the Great Kaan.' Even when the messengers have to pass through a roadless tract where neither house nor hostel exists, still there the station-houses have been established just the same, excepting that the intervals are somewhat greater, and the day's journey is fixed at 35 to 45 miles, instead of 25 to 30. But they are provided with horses and all the other necessaries just like those we have described, so that the Emperor's messengers, come they

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from what region they may, find everything ready for them.

And in sooth this is a thing done on the greatest scale of magnificence that ever was seen. Never had emperor, king, or lord, such wealth as this manifests! For it is a fact that on all these posts taken together there are more than 300,000 horses kept up, specially for the use of the messengers. And the great buildings that I have mentioned are more than 10,000 in number, all richly furnished as I told you. The thing is on a scale so wonderful and costly that it is hard to bring oneself to describe it.*

But now I will tell you another thing that I had forgotten, but which ought to be told whilst I am on this = subject. You must know that by the Great Kaan's orders there has been established between those post-houses at every interval of 3 miles, a little fort with some 40 houses round about it, in which dwell the people who act as the Emperor's foot-runners. Every one of those runners wears a great wide belt, set all over with bells, so that as they run the 3 miles from post to post their bells are heard jingling a long way off. off. And thus on reaching the post the runner finds another man similarly equipt, and all ready to take his place, who instantly takes over whatsoever he has in charge, and with it receives a slip of paper from the clerk who is always at hand for the purpose; and so the new man sets off and runs his 3 miles. At the next station he finds his relief ready in like manner; and so the post proceeds, with a change at every 3 miles. And in this way the Emperor, who has an immense number of these runners, receives despatches with news from places 10 days' journey off in one day and night; or, if need be, news from a hundred days off in ten days and nights; and that is no small matter! [In fact in the fruit season many a time fruit shall be gathered one morning in Cambaluc, and the evening of the next day it shall reach the Great Kaan at Chandu, a distance of ten days' journey. The clerk at each