NOTE 6.—­Martini speaks of the public clock-towers in the Chinese cities, which in his time were furnished with water-clocks.  A watchman struck the hour on a great gong, at the same time exhibiting the hour in large characters.  The same person watched for fires, and summoned the public with his gong to aid in extinguishing them.

[The Rev. G. B. Farthing mentions (North-China Herald, 7th September, 1884) at T’ai-yuen fu the remains of an object in the bell-tower, which was, and is still known, as one of the eight wonders of this city; it is a vessel of brass, a part of a water-clock from which water formerly used to flow down upon a drum beneath and mark off time into equal divisions.—­H.  C.]

The tower indicated by Marco appears still to exist.  It occupies the place which I have marked as Alarm Tower in the plan of Taidu.  It was erected in 1272, but probably rebuilt on the Ming occupation of the city. ["The Yuen yi t’ung chi, or ‘Geography of the Mongol Empire’ records:  ’In the year 1272, the bell-tower and the drum-tower were built in the middle of the capital.’  A bell-tower (chung-lou) and a drum-tower (ku-lou) exist still in Peking, in the northern part of the Tartar City.  The ku-lou is the same as that built in the thirteenth century, but the bell-tower dates only from the last century.  The bell-tower of the Yuen was a little to the east of the drum-tower, where now the temple Wan-ning sse stands.  This temple is nearly in the middle of the position I (Bretschneider) assign to Khanbaligh.” (Bretschneider, Peking, 20.)—­H.  C.] In the Court of the Old Observatory at Peking there is preserved, with a few other ancient instruments, which date from the Mongol era, a very elaborate water-clock, provided with four copper basins embedded in brickwork, and rising in steps one above the other.  A cut of this courtyard, with its instruments and aged trees, also ascribed to the Mongol time, will be found in ch. xxxiii. (Atlas Sinensis, p. 10; Magaillans, 149-151; Chine Moderne, p. 26; Tour du Monde for 1864, vol. ii. p. 34.)

NOTE 7.—­“Nevertheless,” adds the Ramusian, “there does exist I know not what uneasiness about the people of Cathay.”

[1] Mr. Wylie confirms my assumption:  “Whilst in Peking I traced the old
    mud wall,... and found it quite in accordance with the outline in your
    map.  Mr. Gilmour (a missionary to the Mongols) and I rode round it, he
    taking the outside and I the inside....  Neither of us observed the
    arch that Dr. Lockhart speaks of.... There are gate-openings about
    the middle of the east and west sides, but no barbicans.” (4th
    December 1873.)

CHAPTER XII.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN MAINTAINS A GUARD OF TWELVE THOUSAND HORSE, WHICH ARE CALLED KESHICAN.