No More Learning

XVIII
1\Dof Kublal
I have told you of that emperor's city 1Il detw And wtll tell you of the           m Cambaluc
that hyght the secret of alchemy They take bast of the mulberry-tree,
That 15 a sklll between the wood and the bark, And of thIS they make paper, and mark It
Half a tornesel, a tornesel, or a half-groat of stIver, Or two groats, or five groats, or ten groats,
Or, for a great sheet, a gold bezant, 3 bezants, ten bezants,
And they are wrItten on by offiCIals,
And smeared WIth the great khan's seallll vermlixon, And the forgers are punIshed WIth death
And all thts costs the Kahn nothmg,
And so he IS rIch 1Il thIS world
And hIS postmen go sewed up and sealed up,
TheIr coats buttoned behllld and then sealed,
In thlS way from the voyage's one end to Its other And the IndIan merchants arrIvmg
Must gtve up theIr Jewels, and take thIS money
In paper,
(That trade runs, 1Il bezants, to 400,000 the year)
And the nobles must buy theIr pearls" - thus Messlre Polo, pnson at Genoa-
ct Of the Emperor"
There was a boy 1Il ConstantInople,
And some bntlSher kIcked hIS arse
cc I hate these french," saxd Napoleon, aged 12,
To young Bournenne, cc I Will do them all the harm
that I can"
In hke manner Zenos Metevsky
U
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