Travels Of Marco Polo: Sixty Five

Tholoman is a third province towards the east.  All the people are idolators, have a language of their own under the great Khan.  They are rather handsome, of rather brown complexion, good men at arms, and have a number of cities, castles, and forts, on the top of very high moutains.  When they die, the bodies are burned, and the bones which cannot be consumed by fire, are placed in chests, and carried to the caverns of high moutains, where they are kept suspended, so that neither man not beast can touch them.  Gold is found here; but small money is of porcelain, which circulates in all these provinces.  The merchants are very rich; the people live on flesh and rice, and have good spices.

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1.Tholoman is probably a part of Yun-nan inhabited by the Yi or Nuosu people whose habitat is the rural and mountainous areas like Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi.

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