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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
[Vol. 4

the finger, and longer. These go to war seated in chairs, carried on the shoulders of other men. They frequently become intoxicated, and are very libidinous. They guard their women very carefully. The women also do not cut their finger-nails. When daughters are born to people of rank, they compress the child's feet by the toes, so that they cannot grow; and the girl cannot stand on them, but is always carried about seated. For this reason, these women never leave the house.

63. The men have as many wives as they can support. They wear their hair long, gathered up on top of the head, as women dress their hair.

64. None but a few principal people ever see the face of the king, and those only who are near him. His face is always covered when he goes out, and he is accompanied by a numerous guard.

65. The king resides in the province of Paquian, in a city called Quincay, mentioned by Marco Polo, the Venetian,[1] in his second book, and sixty-fourth chapter. According to the account given by these people, their country must have been ruled by the

  1. Marco Polo, the noted Venetian traveler, was born about 1256, and died in his native city in 1323. His father and uncle were also travelers; they went to Tartary in 1255, returning to Europe in 1269, as envoys from the noted Kublai Khan. Two years later, they returned to the court of that ruler, accompanied by the young Marco; and they remained in the service of the Mongol emperor until 1292, when they returned to Venice. Marco's account of his travels and observations was written as early as 1307. A Latin version of it was published in Antwerp, about 1485; and one in Italian at Venice, in 1496. Many other editions and translations of it have since been issued—perhaps the most notable being that by G. Pauthier (Paris, 1865). See this editor's account of Polo and of his work, in Hoefer's Nouvelle biographie générale, t. xxxix, art. Polo; Pauthier shows that this work must have been originally written in French. Kublai Khan at that time had his capital at Pekin, not at Kingszé.