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 plan.{1} And
the messengers of the Emperor in travelling from Cambaluc, be the
road whichsoever they will, find at every twenty-five miles of the
journey a station which they call _Yamb_,{2} 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 four
hundred horses standing ready for the use of the messengers; at others
there shall be two hundred, according to the requirements, and to
what the Emperor has established in each case. At every twenty-five
miles, as I said, or anyhow at every thirty miles, you find one of
these stations, on all the principal highways leading to the different
provincial governments; and the same is the case throughout all the
chief provinces subject to the Great Kaan.{3} 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 thirty-five to forty-five miles, instead
of twenty-five to thirty. 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 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.{4}
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 three miles, a little fort with some
forty 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 three miles from
post to post their bells are heard jingling a long way 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 three miles. At the next station he finds his relief ready in
like manner; and so the post proceeds, with a change at every three
miles. And in this way the Emperor, who has an immense number of these
runners, receives despatches with news from places ten 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.{5} The clerk at each of
the posts notes the time of each courier’s arrival and departure; and
there are often other officers whose business it is to make monthly
visitations of all the posts, and to punish those runners who have
been slack in their work.{6}) The Emperor exempts these men from all
tribute, and pays them besides.
Moreover, there are also at those stations other men equipt similarly
with girdles hung with bells, who are employed for expresses when
there is a call for great haste in sending despatches to any governor
of a province, or to give news when any Baron has revolted, or in
other such emergencies; and these men travel a good two hundred or two
hundred and fifty miles in the day, and as much in the night. I’ll tell
you how it stands. They take a horse from those at the station which
are standing ready saddled, all fresh and in wind, and mount and go at
full speed, as hard as they can ride in fact. And when those at the
next post hear the bells they get ready another horse and a man equipt
in the same way, and he takes over the letter or whatever it be, and is
off full-speed to the third station, where again a fresh horse is found
all ready, and so the despatch speeds along from post to post, always
at full gallop, with regular change of horses. And the speed at which
they go is marvellous. (By night, however, they cannot go so fast as by
day, because they have to be accompanied by footmen with torches, who
could not keep up with them at full speed.)
Those men are highly prized; and they could never do it, did they not
bind hard the stomach, chest and head with strong bands. And each of
them carries with him a gerfalcon tablet, in sign that he is bound on
an urgent express; so that if perchance his horse break down, or he
meet with other mishap, whomsoever he may fall in with on the road, he
is empowered to make him dismount and give up his horse. Nobody dares
refuse in such a case; so that the courier hath always a good fresh nag
to carry him.{7}
Now all these numbers of post-horses cost the Emperor nothing at all;
and I will tell you the how and the why. Every city, or village, or
hamlet, that stands near one of those post-stations, has a fixed demand
made on it for as many horses as it can supply, and these it must
furnish to the post. And in this way are provided all the posts of
the cities, as well as the towns and villages round about them; only
in uninhabited tracts the horses are furnished at the expense of the
Emperor himself.
(Nor do the cities maintain the full number, say of 400 horses, always
at their station, but month by month 200 shall be kept at the station,
and the other 200 at grass, coming in their turn to relieve the first