Even more than Marco Polo tells us he must, indeed, have seen. The
impersonality of the greater part of the book is its one blemish, for we
would fain know more of how he lived in China. There is some evidence
that he consorted with the Mongol conquerors rather than with the
Chinese, and that Chinese was not one of the languages which he learned.
He makes no mention of several characteristic Chinese customs, such as
the compressed feet of the women, and fishing with cormorants (both of
which are described by Ordoric of Pordenone after him); he travelled
through the tea districts of Fo-kien, but he never mentions
tea-drinking, and he has no word to say even of the Great Wall.[22] And
how typical a European he is, in some ways, for all his keen interest in
new and strange things. 'They are,' he says of the peaceful merchants
and scholars of Suchow, 'a pusillanimous race and solely occupied with
their trade and manufactures. In these indeed they display considerable
ability, and if they were as enterprising, manly, and warlike as they
are ingenious, so prodigious is their number that they might not only
subdue the whole of the province, but carry their rule further
still.'[23] Nearly five hundred years later we find the same judgement
expressed in different words: 'Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle
of Cathay.' The answer is a question: Would you rather be the
pusillanimous Chinese, who painted the landscape roll of which a portion
is reproduced opposite page 52, or the enterprising, manly, and warlike
European of the same period, whose highest achievement in pictorial art
is the picture of Marco Polo's embarkation, reproduced opposite page 21?
What is civilization and what progress? Yet Marco Polo shows himself
throughout his book far from unable to appreciate other standards than
those of his own land and religion, for of Sakya-muni Buddha he says
that, 'had he been a Christian he would have been a great saint of our
Lord Jesus Christ,' and he could honour Kublai as that great
Khan deserved.