in rich silks, and adorned with valuable jewels.  Their houses are well built, and richly furnished, and adorned with pictures and other ornaments of immense price; and they exercise their trades with great integrity.  The whole inhabitants are idolaters, of a very fair complexion, and mostly dressed in silken garments, as silk is produced in great abundance in their neighbourhood, or brought from other places.  They dwell together in great amity, insomuch, that the inhabitants of a street seem only to compose one family, and are particularly circumspect in their behaviour to females, as it would be reputed exceedingly disgraceful to use any indecorous language to a married woman.  The natives are of a most peaceable disposition, and no way addicted to strife or quarrelling, and altogether unused to arms, which they do not even keep in their houses.  They are extremely hospitable to foreign merchants, whom they entertain kindly in their houses, giving them the best advice in regard to the conduct of their affairs:  But they are by no means fond of the soldiers and guards of the great khan, as by their means they have been deprived of their natural kings and rulers.  About the lake there are many fair buildings and palaces of the principal men, and numerous idol temples, with monasteries of idolatrous priests.  There are two islands in the lake, on each of which is a palace, containing an incredible number of rooms, to which they resort on occasion of marriages and other festivals.  In these palaces, abundance of plate, linens, and all other things necessary for such purposes, are kept up at the common expence, and sometimes 100 separate companies are accommodated at one time in the several apartments.  In the lake also there are vast numbers of pleasure boats and barges, adorned with fair seats and tables under cover, being flat on the tops, where men stand to push the boats along with poles, as the lake is very shallow.  These are all painted within, and have windows to open or shut at pleasure.  Nothing in the world can be more pleasant or delightful than this lake, from its immense variety of rich objects on all sides; particularly the city ornamented with so many temples, monasteries, palaces, gardens, trees, barges, and innumerable people taking their recreations; for they ordinarily work only a part of each day, spending the remainder in parties of pleasure with their friends, or with women, either on the lake, or in driving through the city in chariots.  All the streets are paved with stone, as are all the highways in the kingdom of Mangi, only a space on one side being left unpaved for the use of the foot posts.  The principal street of Quinsai has a pavement of ten paces broad on each side, the middle being laid with gravel, and having channels in every place for conveying water, it is kept always perfectly clean.  In this street there are innumerable long close chariots, each of which is accommodated with seats and silk cushions for six persons, who divert themselves by driving about the streets, or go to the public gardens, where they pass their time in fine walks, shady bowers, and the like, and return at night in the same chariots to the city[7].