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We wandered in this labyrinth, keeping with difficulty our way, so crooked and narrow the channels, so many the sandbars. From deck it minded me of that sea of weed we met in the first passage. Waves of fragrance struck us. "Ha!" cried the Admiral. "Can you not smell cinnamon, spikenard, nutmeg, cloves and galingal?" His faith was so strong that we did smell.

They abound also in spike, galingal, ginger, sugar, and various other spices; and they make many eunuchs, whom they sell to the merchants. This province continues for thirty days journey going eastwards, when we come to the province of Cangigu . This country has its own king, who is tributary to the great khan. The inhabitants are idolaters, and have a peculiar language.

After six days journey is Quelinfu, a great city with three bridges, each of which is eight paces broad, and above an hundred paces long. The men are great merchants and manufacturers, and the women are fair and delicately shaped. The country produces plenty of ginger and galingal, and great abundance of silk and cotton.

Ginger, galingal, and other spices, grow here in great plenty, and there is an herb, of which the fruit has the same colour, smell, and effect with saffron, which it is not, and is much used in their meats , The inhabitants are idolaters, and subjects of the great khan, and eat mans flesh, if the person has not died of disease, even considering it as better flavoured than any other.