Departing from the province of Carian, or Caraiam, there is a great desert which continues for two days and a half, without any inhabitants, at the end of which desert there is a large plain, in which great multitudes meet for traffic three days in every week.  Many people come down from the great mountains, bringing gold, which they exchange for five times its weight of silver; on which account, many merchants come here from foreign countries with silver, and carry away gold, bringing likewise large quantities of merchandize to sell to these people; for no strangers can go into the high mountains where the people dwell who gather gold, oh account of the intricacy and impassable nature of the roads.  After passing this plain, and going to the south for fifteen days journey, through uninhabited and woody places, in which there are innumerable multitudes of elephants, rhinoceroses[10], and other wild beasts, we come to Mien, which borders upon India.  At the end of that journey of fifteen days, we come to the great and noble city of Mien, the capital of the kingdom, which is subject to the great khan.  The inhabitants are idolaters, and have a peculiar language.  There was formerly a king in this city, who being on the point of death, gave orders to erect two pyramidal monuments, or towers of marble, near his sepulchre, one at the head and the other at the foot, each of them ten fathoms high, and having a round ball on the top of each.  One of these he ordered to be covered with gold, and the other with silver, a fingers breadth in thickness; and round about the tops of these pyramids many little bells of gold and silver were hung, which gave a pleasing shrill sound, when agitated by the wind.  The monument or sepulchre between these was likewise covered with plates of gold and silver.  When the great khan undertook the conquest of this country, he sent a valiant captain at the head of a large army, mostly of cavalry, of which the Tartarian armies principally consist.  After the city was won, the general would not demolish this monument without orders from the khan; who, on being informed that the former king had erected it in honour of his soul, would not permit it to be injured, as the Tartars never violate those things which belong to the dead.  In the country of Mien there are many elephants and wild oxen, large stags and deer, and various other kinds of wild beasts in great abundance.

The province of Bengala borders on India towards the south[11], and was subdued by the great khan, while I Marco Polo resided in the eastern countries.  It had its own proper king, and has a peculiar language.  The inhabitants are all idolaters, and have schools in which the masters teach idolatries and enchantments, which are universal among all the great men of the country.  They eat flesh, rice, and milk; and have great abundance of cotton, by the manufacture of which a great trade is carried on.  They abound also in spike, galingal, ginger, sugar, and various other