[The Rev. W.S.  Ament (Marco Polo, 119-120) writes, “the historian of the city of Cho-chau sounds the praises of the people for their religious spirit”.  He says:—­“It was the custom of the ancients to worship those who were before them.  Thus students worshipped their instructors, farmers worshipped the first husbandman, workers in silk, the original silk-worker.  Thus when calamities come upon the land, the virtuous among the people make offerings to the spirits of earth and heaven, the mountains, rivers, streams, etc.  All these things are profitable.  These customs should never be forgotten.’  After such instruction, we are prepared to find fifty-eight temples of every variety in this little city of about 20,000 inhabitants.  There is a temple to the spirits of Wind, Clouds, Thunder, and Rain, to the god of silk-workers, to the Horse-god, to the god of locusts, and the eight destructive insects, to the Five Dragons, to the King who quiets the waves.  Besides these, there are all the orthodox temples to the ancient worthies, and some modern heroes.  Liu Pei and Chang Fei, two of the three great heroes of the San Kuo Chih, being natives of Cho Chou, are each honoured with two temples, one in the native village, and one in the city.  It is not often that one locality can give to a great empire two of its three most popular heroes:  Liu Pei, Chang Fei, Kuan Yu.”

“Judging from the condition of the country,” writes the Rev. W.S.  Ament (p. 120), “one could hardly believe that this general region was the original home of the silk-worm, and doubtless the people who once lived here are the only people who ever saw the silk-worm in his wild state.  The historian of Cho-Chou honestly remarks that he knows of no reason why the production of silk should have ceased there, except the fact that the worms refused to live there....  The palmy days of the silk industry were in the T’ang dynasty.”—­H.C.]

NOTE 3.—­“About a li from the southern suburbs of this town, the great road to Shantung and the south-east diverged, causing an immediate diminution in the number of carts and travellers” (Oxenham). [From Peking “to Cheng-ting fu, says Colonel Bell (Proc.R.G.S., XII. 1890, p. 58), the route followed is the Great Southern highway; here the Great Central Asian highway leaves it.”  The Rev. W.S.  Ament says (l.c., 121) about the bifurcation of the road, one branch going on south-west to Pao-Ting fu and Shan-si, and one branch to Shantung and Ho-nan:  “The union of the two roads at this point, bringing the travel and traffic of ten provinces, makes Cho Chou one of the most important cities in the Empire.  The magistrate of this district is the only one, so far as we know, in the Empire who is relieved of the duty of welcoming and escorting transient officers.  It was the multiplicity of such duties, so harassing, that persuaded Fang Kuan-ch’eng to write the couplet on one of the city gateways:  Jih pien ch’ung yao, wu shuang ti:  T’ien