Travels Of Marco Polo: Seventy Four

Koiganzu is a great, rich, and noble city, at the entrance of the province of Manji, lying to the south.  The whole people are subject to the Khan; they are idolators, and burn the bodies of their dead.  It lies on the river Kara-moran, and the river is full of ships.  Many merchants bring their commodities here to be distributed throughout other cities.  It is the capital of the province.  Here is made a very great quantity of salt, which is supplied therefrom to forty different towns.  The Khan has a very large revenue from this and other trades carried on here.  And now let us tell you about another city called Pauchym.

When a man departs from Koiganzu, he goes a whole day along a causeway, finely built of stones, and on each side is a large water, so that it is impossible to enter the province, unless by this causeway.  He then finds a city called Pauchym.  All people are idolaters, burn the bodies of their dead, and are under the great Khan.  They are artificers and merchants, have abundance of silk, and make much cloth of it mixed with gold, and thus earn a sufficient livelihood.  Through all that country the paper money of Khan is circulated.

When a man sets out from Pauchym, he travels a day and discovers a very large city named Chaym.  There is great abundance of necessaries of life; fish beyond measure, beasts and birds in great numbers for sport, so for a Venitian silver grasso you may purchase three pheasants.

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