From Juju you set out again and travel four days towards the south, finding many towns and villages.  The people are great traders and craftsmen, are all Idolaters, and use the paper-money of the Great Kaan their Sovereign.  At the end of those four days you come to the city of Cacanfu belonging to the province of Cathay, and of it I shall now speak.

NOTE 1.—­In spite of difficulties which beset the subject (see Note 6 below) the view of Pauthier, suggested doubtingly by Marsden, that the Cuiju of the text is KWEI-CHAU, seems the most probable one.  As the latter observes, the reappearance of paper money shows that we have got back into a province of China Proper.  Such, Yun nan, recently conquered from a Shan prince, could not be considered.  But, according to the best view we can form, the traveller could only have passed through the extreme west of the province of Kwei-chau.

The name of Fungul, if that be a true reading, is suggestive of Phungan, which under the Mongols was the head of a district called PHUNGAN-LU.  It was founded by that dynasty, and was regarded as an important position for the command of the three provinces Kwei-chau, Kwang-si, and Yun-nan. (Biot, p. 168; Martini, p. 137.) But we shall explain presently the serious difficulties that beset the interpretation of the itinerary as it stands.

NOTE 2.—­Several Chinese plants afford a fibre from the bark, and some of these are manufactured into what we call grass-cloths.  The light smooth textures so called are termed by the Chinese Hiapu or “summer cloths.”  Kwei-chau produces such.  But perhaps that specially intended is a species of hemp (Urtica Nivea?) of which M. Perny of the R.C.  Missions says, in his notes on Kwei-chau:  “It affords a texture which may be compared to batiste.  This has the notable property of keeping so cool that many people cannot wear it even in the hot weather.  Generally it is used only for summer clothing.” (Dict. des Tissus, VII. 404; Chin.  Repos. XVIII. 217 and 529; Ann. de la Prop. de la Foi, XXXI. 137.)

NOTE 3.—­Tigers of course are meant. (See supra, vol. i. p. 399.) M. Perny speaks of tigers in the mountainous parts of Kwei-chau. (Op. cit. 139.)

NOTE 4.—­These great dogs were noticed by Lieutenant (now General) Macleod, in his journey to Kiang Hung on the great River Mekong, as accompanying the caravans of Chinese traders on their way to the Siamese territory. (See Macleod’s Journal, p. 66.)

NOTE 5.—­The trade in wild silk (i.e. from the oak-leaf silkworm) is in truth an important branch of commerce in Kwei-chau.  But the chief seat of this is at Tsuni-fu, and I do not think that Polo’s route can be sought so far to the eastward. (Ann. de la Prop. XXXI. 136; Richthofen, Letter VII. 81.)

NOTE 6.—­We have now got back to Sindafu, i.e.  Ch’eng-tu fu in Sze-ch’wan, and are better able to review the geography of the track we have been following.  I do not find it possible to solve all its difficulties.