XV.]

STRICT GAME-LAWS.

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Falconers, and all the other attendants on so great a company; and add that everybody there has his whole family with him, for such is their custom.

The Kaan remains encamped there until the spring, and all that time he does nothing but go hawking round about among the cane-brakes along the lakes and rivers that abound in that region, and across fine plains on which are plenty of cranes and swans, and all sorts of other fowl. The other gentry of the camp also are never done with hunting and hawking, and every day they bring home great store of venison and feathered game of all sorts. Indeed, without having witnessed it, you would never believe what quantities of game are taken, and what marvellous sport and diversion they all have whilst they are in camp there.

There is another thing I should mention; to wit, that for twenty days' journey round the spot nobody is allowed, be he who he may, to keep hawks or hounds, though anywhere else whosoever list may keep them. And furthermore, throughout all the Emperor's territories, nobody, however audacious, dares to hunt any of these four animals, to wit, hare, stag, buck, and roe, from the month of March to the month of October. Anybody who should do so would rue it bitterly. But those people are so obedient to the Kaan's commands, that even if a man were to find one of those animals asleep by the roadside he would not touch it for the world! And thus the game multiplies at such a rate that the whole country swarms with it, and the Emperor gets as much as he could desire. Beyond the term I have mentioned, however, to wit, that from March to October, everybody may take these animals as he lists.

After the Emperor has tarried in that place, enjoying his sport as I have related, from March to the middle of May, he moves with all his people, and returns straight to his capital city of Cambaluc (which is also the capital of Cathay, as you have been told), but all the while

ΙΟ

continuing to take his diversion in hunting and hawking as he goes along.

In those days, hunting with hawks and falcons was called a royal sport, although we should consider it rather cruel to chase the birds of the air with fierce birds of prey, who are the natural enemies of the game birds. But that was certainly a royal manner of hunting in which Kublai Khan went to the field. Carried in a fine chamber lined with gold and covered with choice skins, and borne by a double team of elephants, Kublai Khan had only to sit and view the scenery until called by his barons to look out for the game that had been scared up for him. No wonder that Marco exclaims in his enthusiasm, that he does not believe that any other man in the world had such rare opportunities for sport! But the great Emperor had one drawback, which must have reminded him that he was, after all, only a common mortal with all his magnificence, riches, and opportunities for enjoyment, this gorgeous monarch had the gout!

CHAPTER XVI.

KUBLAI'S FINANCES AND GOVERNMENT-THE GREAT KHAN AS A MONEY-SPINNER

THE

PRINTING MONEY TO ORDER EMPEROR'S VALUABLE MONOPOLIES-THE TWELVE BARONS AND THEIR POWERS-POST-RUNNERS WHO TRAVEL FAST BLACK STONES FOR FUEL -THE KHAN'S PATRIARCHAL RULE.

-BURNING

THE

"9

HE Great Khan's method for supplying himself with the money needed to maintain his splendid state and magnificent expenditure must needs have excited the admiration of Marco Polo. It appears that the Khan had hit on the scheme of manufacturing paper money, and, contrary to the usages of modern times, the paper money of the Khan did not represent gold and silver lying in the vaults of the imperial treasury. The Khan's officials printed their money on a soft fabric made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree, a paper-like substance which is still used in China and Japan instead of the paper made from linen or cotton. The fabric was cut into pieces of different sizes, and on each piece was printed the value to be placed on the note; and Marco says, that each bit of paper was issued with as

much solemnity and authority as if it were pure gold or silver on every piece, he adds, "a variety of officials, whose duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals. And when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by the Kaan smears the seal entrusted to him with vermilion, and impresses it upon the paper, so that the form of the seal remains stamped upon it in red; the money is then authentic. Any one forging it would be punished with death. And the Kaan causes every year to be made such a vast quantity of this money, which costs him nothing, that it must equal in amount all the treasure in the world." Curiously enough, the place in which this paper money was manufactured was called "The Mint." Usually, a mint is an establishment in which metal is coined into money.

By an imperial edict, as we may presume, the Great Khan caused his paper currency to be accepted as money universally over all his kingdoms and provinces and territories, and whithersoever his power and sovereignty extends." It must have been a fine thing to be able to make money from paper, and then, by imperial command, under penalty of death, put it into circulation. For Marco tells us that these notes were all taken by the people without question; he adds: "And nobody, however important he may think himself, dares to refuse them, on pain of death."

Not only did the Emperor make his own money in