雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界歷史58 一位了不起的講故事的人

58
A Great Story Teller
一位了不起的講故事的人

     FAR away from England,
　Far off in the direction of the rising sun,
　Far beyond Italy and Jerusalem and the Tigris and Euphrates and Persia was a country called Cathay-C-A-T-H-A-Y.
     If you looked down at your feet, and the world were glass, you would see Cathay on the other side.
     Cathay is the same place we now call China. There had been people living in Cathay, of course, all through the centuries that had passed, but Europeans knew little of this land or of its people.
     In the thirteenth century or twelve hundreds, Mongols, who came from the north, were ruling China. Soon, it seemed that they might conquer all the other countries whose histories we have been hearing about. The ruler of the Mongols was a fierce fighter named Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan had an army of Tartar horsemen who were terrific fighters.
     Genghis usually found some excuse for making war on others, but if he couldn't find a good excuse, he made up one, for he was bent on building an enormous empire.
     Genghis and his horsemen swept over the land from Cathay toward Europe. They burned and destroyed thousands upon thousands of towns and cities and everything in their way. No one was able to stop them.
     Genghis Khan had conquered the whole land from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern part of Europe. At last he stopped. With this kingdom he seemed to be satisfied. He might well have been satisfied, for it was larger than the Roman Empire or that of Alexander the Great.
     Even when Genghis died, things were no better, for his son was just as fierce a fighter as his father and conquered still more territory.
     But the grandson of Genghis Khan was much less warlike than his grandfather had been. He was named Kublai Khan, and he was quite different from his father and grandfather. He made his capital at a city in China called Peiping, now called Beijing, and ruled over this vast empire that he had inherited from his father. Kublai built magnificent palaces and surrounded himself with beautiful gardens, and he made such a wonderful capital for himself that Solomon in all his glory did not live in such splendor as did Kublai Khan.
     Now, far, far off from Beijing and the palace of Kublai Khan, in the north of Italy was a city built on the water. Its streets were of water, and boats were used instead of carriages. This city was called Venice. About the Year 1260 there were living in Venice two brothers named Nicolo and Maffeo Polo. The Polos got an idea in their heads that they would like to see something of the world. So these two Venetian merchants started off toward the rising sun looking for adventure, just like boys in storybooks who go off to seek their fortunes. After several years of travel, always toward the east, they at last came to the gardens and to the magnificent palace of Kublai Khan.
     When Kublai Khan heard that strange white men from a far-off place and an unknown country were outside the palace, he wanted to see them. They were brought into his presence. They told Kublai Khan all about their own land. They were good story-tellers, and they made it interesting. They told him also about the Christian religion and many other things that he had never heard of. After several years, the Polos went home to Venice.
     The emperor was so much interested in the Polos and in the stories they told about their country that he wanted to hear more. In 1271 the Polos returned to China with Nicolo's teenage son, Marco. The emperor persuaded them to stay with him and tell him more. He gave them rich presents. Then he made them his advisers and assistants in ruling his empire. The Polos stayed on for years and years and years and learned the language and came to be very important people in Cathay.
     At last after they had spent about twenty years in Cathay, the Polos thought it was about time to go home and see their own people again. They begged leave to return. Kublai Khan did not want them to go. In the end though he did let them go, and they started back to what once had been their home.
     When they at last arrived in Venice, they had been away so long and had been traveling so far that no one knew them. They had almost forgotten how to speak their own language, and they talked like foreigners. Their clothes had become worn out and ragged by their long trip. They looked like tramps, and not even their old friends recognized them. No one would believe that these ragged, dirty strangers were the same fine Venetian gentlemen who had disappeared almost twenty years before.
     The Polos told their townspeople all about their adventures and the wonderfully rich lands and cities that they had visited. The townspeople only laughed at them, for they thought them story tellers.
     The Polos then ripped open their ragged garments, and out fell piles of magnificent and costly jewels, diamonds and rubies and sapphires and pearls- enough to buy a kingdom. The people looked in wonder and amazement and began to believe.
     Marco Polo told his stories to a man who wrote them down and made a book of them called The Travels of Marco Polo. This is an interesting book for you to read even today, although we cannot believe all the tales he told. We know that he exaggerated a great many things, for he liked to amaze people.
     Marco Polo described the magnificence of Kublai Khan's palace. He told of its enormous dining hall, where thousands of guests could sit down at the table at one time. He told of a bird so huge that it could fly away with an elephant. He said that Noah's Ark was still on Mount Ararat, only the mountain was so high and so dangerous to climb on account of the ice and snow with which it was covered that no one could go to see if the ark really was there.