The Travels of Marco Polo, Vol. 1 · Marco Polo
On leaving the province of which I spoke before, you ride ten days between north-east and east, and in all that way you find no human dwelling, or next to none, so that there is nothing for our book to speak of.
At the end of those ten days you come to another province called SUKCHUR, in which there are numerous towns and villages. The chief city is called SUKCHU. The people are partly Christians and partly Idolaters, and all are subject to the Great Kaan.
The great General Province to which all these three provinces belong is called TANGUT.
Over all the mountains of this province rhubarb is found in great abundance, and thither merchants come to buy it, and carry it thence all over the world. [Travellers, however, dare not visit those mountains with any cattle but those of the country, for a certain plant grows there which is so poisonous that cattle which eat it lose their hoofs. The cattle of the country know it and eschew it.] The people live by agriculture, and have not much trade. [They are of a brown complexion. The whole of the province is healthy.]
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End of part 63 of 115
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