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 messengers were lighted on their way by persons running before them with torches; and when they approached a posthouse, of which there were ten thousand in the empire, they sounded a horn, as our mail and stage coaches do, to inform the inmates of their coming, that no delay might be experienced. By this means, one of these couriers sometimes travelled two hundred or two hundred and fifty miles in a day. In desolate and uninhabited places, the courses of the roads were marked by trees which had been planted for the purpose; and in places where nothing would vegetate, by stones or pillars.

The manners, customs, and opinions of the people, though apparently considered by Marco Polo as less important than what regarded the magnificence and greatness of the khan, commanded a considerable share of our traveller's attention. The religion of Buddha, whose mysterious doctrines have eluded the grasp of the most comprehensive minds even up to the present moment, he could not be expected to understand; but its great leading tenets, the unity of the supreme God, the immortality of the soul, the metempsychosis, and the final absorption of the virtuous in the essence of the Divinity, are distinctly announced. The manners of the Tartars were mild and refined; their temper cheerful; their character honest. Filial affection was assiduously cultivated, and such as were wanting in this virtue were condemned to severe punishment by the laws. Three years' imprisonment was the usual punishment for heinous offences; but the criminals were marked upon the cheek when set at liberty, that they might be known and avoided.

Agriculture has always commanded a large share of the attention of the Chinese. The whole country for many days' journey west of Cambalu was covered with a numerous population, distinguished for their ingenuity and industry. Towns and cities were numerous, the fields richly cultivated, and in