I will tell you of a wicked thing they used to do before the Great Kaan conquered them.  If it chanced that a man of fine person or noble birth, or some other quality that recommended him, came to lodge with those people, then they would murder him by poison, or otherwise.  And this they did, not for the sake of plunder, but because they believed that in this way the goodly favour and wisdom and repute of the murdered man would cleave to the house where he was slain.  And in this manner many were murdered before the country was conquered by the Great Kaan.  But since his conquest, some 35 years ago, these crimes and this evil practice have prevailed no more; and this through dread of the Great Kaan who will not permit such things.[NOTE 5]

NOTE 1.—­There can be no doubt that this second chief city of Carajan is TALI-FU, which was the capital of the Shan Kingdom called by the Chinese Nan-Chao.  This kingdom had subsisted in Yun-nan since 738, and probably had embraced the upper part of the Irawadi Valley.  For the Chinese tell us it was also called Maung, and it probably was identical with the Shan Kingdom of Muang Maorong or of Pong, of which Captain Pemberton procured a Chronicle. [In A.D. 650, the Ai-Lao, the most ancient name by which the Shans were known to the Chinese, became the Nan-Chao.  The Meng family ruled the country from the 7th century; towards the middle of the 8th century, P’i-lo-ko, who is the real founder of the Thai kingdom of Nan-Chao, received from the Chinese the title of King of Yun-Nan and made T’ai-ho, 15 lis south of Ta-li, his residence; he died in 748.  In A.D. 938, Twan Sze-ying, of an old Chinese family, took Ta-li and established there an independent kingdom.  In 1115 embassies with China were exchanged, and the Emperor conferred (1119) upon Twan Ch’eng-ya the title of King of Ta-li (Ta-li Kwo Wang).  Twan Siang-hing was the last king of Ta-li (1239-1251).  In 1252 the Kingdom of Nan-Chao was destroyed by the Mongols; the Emperor She Tsu (Kublai) gave the title of Maharaja (Mo-ho Lo-tso) to Twan Hing-che (son of Twan Siang-hing), who had fled to Yun-Nan fu and was captured there.  Afterwards (1261) the Twan are known as the eleven Tsung-Kwan (governors); the last of them, Twan Ming, was made a prisoner by an army sent by the Ming Emperors, and sent to Nan-King (1381). (E.  H. Parker, Early Laos and China, China Review, XIX. and the Old Thai or Shan Empire of Western Yun-Nan, Ibid., XX.; E.  Rocher, Hist. des Princes du Yunnan, T’oung Pao, 1899; E.  Chavannes, Une Inscription du roy de Nan Tchao, J.A., November-December, 1900; M.  Tchang, Tableau des Souverains de Nan-Tchao, Bul.  Ecole Franc. d’Ext.  Orient, I. No. 4.)—­H.C.] The city of Ta-li was taken by Kublai in 1253-1254.  The circumstance that it was known to the invaders (as appeals from Polo’s statement) by the name of the province is an indication of the fact that it was the capital of Carajan before the conquest. ["That Yachi and Carajan represent Yuennan-fu and Tali, is proved by topographical and other evidence of an overwhelming nature.  I venture to add one more proof, which seems to have been overlooked.