Chapter XXXVI: Account of the City of Juju

When you leave the Bridge, and ride towards the west, finding all the way excellent hostelries for travellers, with fine vineyards, fields, and gardens, and springs of water, you come after 30 miles to a fine large city called JUJU, where there are many abbeys of idolaters, and the people live by trade and manufactures. They weave cloths of silk and gold, and very fine taffetas.{1} Here too there are many hostelries for travellers.{2}

After riding a mile beyond this city you find two roads, one of which goes west and the other south-east. The westerly road is that through Cathay, and the south-easterly one goes towards the province of Manzi.{3}

Taking the westerly one through Cathay, and travelling by it for ten days, you find a constant succession of cities and boroughs, with numerous thriving villages, all abounding with trade and manufactures, besides the fine fields and vineyards and dwellings of civilized people; but nothing occurs worthy of special mention; and so I will only speak of a kingdom called TAIANFU.

NOTE 1.—The word is _sendaus_ (Pauthier), pl. of _sendal_, and in
G. T. _sandal_. It does not seem perfectly known what this silk
texture was, but as banners were made of it, and linings for richer
stuffs, it appears to have been a light material, and is generally
rendered _taffetas_. In _Richard Cœur de Lion_ we find

“Many a pencel of sykelatoun
And of sendel of grene and broun,”

and also _pavilions_ of sendel; and in the Anglo-French ballad of
the death of William Earl of Salisbury in St. Lewis’s battle on the
Nile—

“Le Meister du Temple brace les chivaux
Et le Count Long-Espée depli les _sandaux_.”

The oriflamme of France was made of _cendal_. Chaucer couples
taffetas and sendal. His “Doctor of Physic”

“In sanguin and in persë clad was allë,
Linëd with taffata and with sendallë.”

[La Curne, _Dict., s.v. Sendaus_ has: Silk stuff: “Somme de
la delivrance des _sendaus_.” (_Nouv. Compt. de l’Arg._ p.
19).—Godefroy, _Dict._, gives: “_Sendain_, adj., made with the
stuff called cendal: Drap d’or _sendains_ (1392, _Test. de Blanche,
duch d’Orl._, Ste-Croix, Arch. Loiret).” He says _s.v._ CENDAL,
“_cendau, cendral, cendel, ... sendail_, ... étoffe légère de soie
unie qui paraît avoir été analogue au taffetas.” “‘On faisait des
_cendaux_ forts ou faibles, et on leur donnait toute sorte de
couleurs. On s’en servait surtout pour vêtements et corsets, pour
doublures de draps, de fourrures et d’autres étoffes de soie plus
précieuses, enfin pour tenture d’appartements.’ (_Bourquelot, Foir.
de Champ._ I. 261).”

“J’ay de toilles de mainte guise,
De sidonnes et de _cendaulx_.
Soyes, satins blancs et vermaulx.”
—_Greban, Mist. de la Pass._, 26826, _G. Paris_.—H. C.]

The origin of the word seems also somewhat doubtful. The word Σενδἑς
occurs in _Constant. Porphyrog. de Ceremoniis_ (Bonn, ed. I. 468),
and this looks like a transfer of the Arabic _Săndăs_ or _Sundus_,
which is applied by Bakui to the silk fabrics of Yezd. (_Not. et
Ext._ II. 469.) Reiske thinks this is the origin of the Frank word,
and connects its etymology with Sind. Others think that _sendal_
and the other forms are modifications of the ancient _Sindon_, and
this is Mr. Marsh’s view. (See also _Fr.-Michel, Recherches, etc._
I. 212; _Dict. des Tissus_, II. 171 _seqq._)

NOTE 2.—JÚJÚ is precisely the name given to this city by
Rashiduddin, who notices the vineyards. Juju is CHO-CHAU, just at
the distance specified from Peking, viz. 40 miles, and nearly 30
from Pulisanghin or Lu-kou K’iao. The name of the town is printed
_Tsochow_ by Mr. Williamson, and _Chechow_ in a late Report of a
journey by Consul Oxenham. He calls it “a large town of the second
order, situated on the banks of a small river flowing towards the
south-east, viz. the Kiu-ma-Ho, a navigable stream. It had the
appearance of being a place of considerable trade, and the streets
were crowded with people.” (_Reports of Journeys in China and
Japan_, etc. Presented to Parliament, 1869, p. 9.) The place is
called _Jújú_ also in the Persian itinerary given by ’Izzat Ullah
in _J. R. A. S._ VII. 308; and in one procured by Mr. Shaw. (_Proc.
R. G. S._ XVI. p. 253.)

[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 hsia fan nan, ti yi Chou_. ‘In all the
world, there is no place so public as this: for multiplied cares
and trials, this is the first Chou.’ The people of Cho-Chou, of
old celebrated for their religious spirit, are now well known for
their literary enterprise.”—H. C.] This bifurcation of the roads
is a notable point in Polo’s book. For after following the western
road through Cathay, _i.e._ the northern provinces of China, to
the borders of Tibet and the Indo-Chinese regions, our traveller
will return, whimsically enough, not to the capital to take a fresh
departure, but to this bifurcation outside of Chochau, and thence
carry us south with him to Manzi, or China south of the Yellow
River.

Of a part of the road of which Polo speaks in the latter part of
the chapter Williamson says: “The drive was a very beautiful one.
Not only were the many villages almost hidden by foliage, but the
road itself hereabouts is lined with trees.... The effect was to
make the journey like a ramble through the avenues of some English
park.” Beyond Tingchau however the country becomes more barren. (I.
268.)