Then there is another kind of devotees called SENSIN, who are men of extraordinary abstinence after their fashion, and lead a life of such hardship as I will describe.  All their life long they eat nothing but bran,[NOTE 15] which they take mixt with hot water.  That is their food:  bran, and nothing but bran; and water for their drink.  ’Tis a lifelong fast! so that I may well say their life is one of extraordinary asceticism.  They have great idols, and plenty of them; but they sometimes also worship fire.  The other Idolaters who are not of this sect call these people heretics—­Patarins as we should say[NOTE 16]—­because they do not worship their idols in their own fashion.  Those of whom I am speaking would not take a wife on any consideration.[NOTE 17] They wear dresses of hempen stuff, black and blue,[NOTE 18] and sleep upon mats; in fact their asceticism is something astonishing.  Their idols are all feminine, that is to say, they have women’s names.[NOTE 19]

Now let us have done with this subject, and let me tell you of the great state and wonderful magnificence of the Great Lord of Lords; I mean that great Prince who is the Sovereign of the Tartars, CUBLAY by name, that most noble and puissant Lord.

NOTE 1.—­[There were two roads to go from Peking to Shangtu:  the eastern road through Tu-shi-k’ow, and the western (used for the return journey) road by Ye-hu ling.  Polo took this last road, which ran from Peking to Siuen-te chau through the same places as now; but from the latter town it led, not to Kalgan as it does now, but more to the west, to a place called now Shan-fang pu where the pass across the Ye-hu ling range begins.  “On both these roads nabo, or temporary palaces, were built, as resting-places for the Khans; eighteen on the eastern road, and twenty-four on the western.” (Palladius, p. 25.) The same author makes (p. 26) the following remarks:  “M.  Polo’s statement that he travelled three days from Siuen-te chau to Chagannor, and three days also from the latter place to Shang-tu, agrees with the information contained in the ’Researches on the Routes to Shangtu.’  The Chinese authors have not given the precise position of Lake Chagannor; there are several lakes in the desert on the road to Shangtu, and their names have changed with time.  The palace in Chagannor was built in 1280” (according to the Siu t’ung kien).—­H.  C.]

NOTE 2.—­Chandu, called more correctly in Ramusio Xandu, i.e.  SHANDU, and by Fr. Odorico Sandu, viz.  SHANG-TU or “Upper Court,” the Chinese title of Kublai’s summer residence at Kaipingfu, Mongolice Keibung (see ch. xiii. of Prologue) [is called also Loan king, i.e. “the capital on the Loan River,” according to Palladius, p. 26.—­H.  C.].  The ruins still exist, in about lat. 40 deg. 22’, and a little west of the longitude of Peking.  The site is 118 miles in direct line from Chaghan-nor, making Polo’s three marches