Abstract
[...]chapter 3 outlines the character of the book the Devisament dou Monde or ``Description of the World'') associated with Polo's name and drafted with the assistance of the Pisan romance writer Rustichello, while chapter 4 examines those seemingly striking omissions that have traditionally been used to impugn the authenticity of his travels in East Asia: for example, the Great Wall, tea-drinking and foot-binding. [...]in the context of natural products, plants and game animals and birds, Haw's specialist knowledge corroborates Polo on a number of points. Polo's extensive material about the natural world makes up another corpus of compelling evidence that his book was based on first-hand experience of Khubilai Khan's dominions. [...]he also advances new ideas, proposing that Polo may have served in Khubilai Khan's 14,000-strong keshig personal guard), which would possibly account for the presence of the belt of a ``Tartar knight'' in the inventory of his possessions pp. 1658); and that he may have been given a Mongol wife by his employer pp. 43, 1523), which would in turn explain his familiarity with the selection process for imperial concubines.