the most exquisite of any in the world.  They have continual war with all the surrounding kingdoms; The kingdom of Mabet is beyond that of Mujet, wherein are many cities, and the inhabitants have even a greater resemblance to the Chinese than those of Mujet; for they have officers or eunuchs like those who govern the cities among the Chinese.  The country of Mabet borders upon China, and is at peace with the emperor, but not subject to him.  The king of Mabet sends ambassadors every year with presents to the emperor of China, who in return sends ambassadors and presents to Mabet.  But when the ambassadors of Mabet enter China, they are very carefully watched, lest they should survey the country, and form designs of conquest; which would be no difficult matter, as their country is very extensive, and extremely populous, and as they are only divided from China by rocks and mountains.

It is said that, in the country of China, there are above two hundred cities having jurisdiction over others, each of which has a governor and an eunuch or lieutenant.  Canfu is one of these cities, being the port for all shipping, and has jurisdiction over twenty towns.  A town is raised, to the dignity of a city, by the grant of certain large trumpets.  These are three or four cubits in length, and as large about as can be grasped by both hands, growing smaller towards the end which is fitted to the mouth.  On the outside, they are adorned with Chinese ink, and may be heard at the distance of a mile.  Each city has four gates, at each of which five of these trumpets are stationed, which are sounded at certain hours of the day and night.  There are also ten drums in each city, which are beaten at the same times; and this is done as a public token of obedience to the emperor, and to point out the hours of the day and night to the inhabitants; and for ascertaining the time; they have sun dials, and clocks with weights[11].

In China they use a great quantity of copper money, like that named falus by the Arabians, which is the only sort of small money, and is current all over the country, and is indeed the only current coin.  Yet their emperor has treasures like other kings, containing abundance of gold and silver, with jewels, pearls, silk, and vast quantities of rich stuffs of all kinds, which are only considered as moveables or merchandize; and from foreign commerce they derive ivory, frankincense, copper in bars, tortoise shell, and unicorns horns, with which they adorn their girdles.  Of animals they have abundance, particularly of beasts of burden; such as oxen, horses, asses, and camels; but they have no Arabian horses.  They have an excellent kind of earth, of which they make a species of ware equal in fineness to glass, and almost equally transparent.  When merchants arrive at Canfu, the Chinese seize their cargoes, which they convey to warehouses, where the goods are detained six months, until the last merchant ship of the season has arrived; they