Note {2} — Chapter LXXI

Note 2.—The river is, of course, the Great Kiang or Yang-tzŭ Kiang (already spoken of in ch. xliv. as the Kiansui), which Polo was justified in calling the greatest river in the world, whilst the New World was yet hidden. The breadth seems to be a good deal exaggerated, the length not at all. His expressions about it were perhaps accompanied by a mental reference to the term Dalai, “The Sea,” which the Mongols appear to have given the river. (See Fr. Odoric, p. 121.) The Chinese have a popular saying, “Haï vu ping, Kiang vu ti,” “Boundless is the Ocean, bottomless the Kiang!”