Full text of "The book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East"

?;;Pi-li'i Mil

THE BOOK OF '

SER MARCO POLO

THE VENETIAN CONCERNING THE

KINGDOMS AND MARVELS OF

THE EAST

TRANSLATED AND EDITED, WITH NOTES, BY

COLONEL SIR HENRY YULE, R.E., C.B, K.CS.I.,

CORR. INST. FRANCE

THIRD EDITION, REVISED THROUGHOUT IN THE LIGHT OF
RECENT DISCOVERIES BY HENRI CORDIER (OF PARIS)

PROFESSOR OF CHINF.SE HISTORY AT THEECOLEDES LANGUES ORIENTALES VIVANTES ; VICE-PRESIDENT
OK THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS ; MEMBER OF COUNCIL OFTHE SOCI6t6 ASIATIQUE ; HON.
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY AND OF THE REGIA DEPUTAZIONE VENETA DI STORIA PATRIA

WITH A MEMOIR OF HENRY YULE BY HIS DAUGHTER
AMY FRANCES YULE, L.A.SOC. ANT. SCOT., ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES-VOL. II.
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

1903

«*> *

Makco Polo in the Prison of Genoa.

\,To /ollo%v Title, vol. ii,

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

Page

Synopsis of Contents iii

Explanatory List of Illustrations xvi

The Book of Marco Polo.

Appendices 503

Index .607

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.

BOOK SECOND— (Continued).

PART II.
Journey to the West and South- West of Cathay.

Chap. Page

XXXV.— Here begins the Description of the Interior of

Cathay ; and first of the River Pulisanghin 3

Notes. — i. Marco's Route. 2. The Bridge Pul-i-sangin, or Lu-
ku-Miao.

XXXVI.— Account OF THE City OF Juju . . . . . 10

Notes. — i. The Silks called Sendals. 2. Chochau. 3. Bifurca-
tion of Two Great Roads at this point.

XXXVII.— The Kingdom of Taianfu 12

Notes. — i. Acbaluc 2. T''ai-yuan fu. 3. Grape-wine of that
place. 4. R'ing-yangfti.

XXXVIII.— Concerning the Castle of Caichu. The Golden

King and Prester John 17

Notes. — i. The Story and Portrait of the Roi d'Or. 2. Effemin-
acy reviving in every Chinese Dynasty.

XXXIX.— How Prester John treated the Golden King

his Prisoner 21

XL. —Concerning the Great River Caramoran and

THE City of Cachanfu 22

Notes. — i. The Kara Muren. 2. Former growth of silk in Shan-
si and Shen-si. 3. The akche or asper.

XLI. — Concerning the City of Kenjanfu . . . 24

Notes. — i. Morus alba. 2. Geography of the Route since
Chapter XXXVIII. 3. Kenjanfti or Si-ngan ft; the
Christian monument there. 4. Prince Mangala.

XLI I.— Concerning the Province of Cuncun, which is

RIGHT wearisome TO TRAVEL THROUGH . . 3I

Note. — The Motmtain Road to Southern Shen-si.
VOL. IL a 2

iv SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

Chap. Page

XLI 1 1.— Concerning the Province of Acbalec Manzi . 33

Notes. — i. Geography, and doubts about Acbalec. 2. Further
Journey into Sze-cKwan.

XLIV.— Concerning the Province of Sindafu ... 36

Notes.— I. Ch'hig-tufu, 2. The Great River or YJi^ng. 3. The
word Comereque. 4. The Bridge-Tolls. 5. Correction of
Text.
XLV.— Concerning the Province of Tebet ... 42
Notes. — i. The Part of Tibet and events referred to. 2. Noise
of burning bamboos. 3. Road retains its desolate character.
4. Persistence of eccentric manners illustrated. 5. Name
of the Musk animal.

XLVI.— Further Discourse concerning Tebet ... 49

Notes. — i. Explanatory. 2. **0r de PalioUe." 3. Cinnamon.

4. 5. Great Dogs^ and Beyamini oxen.

XLVII.— Concerning the Province OF Caindu • • • 53

Notes. — i. Explanation from Ramusio. 2. Pearls of Inland
Waters. 3. Lax manners. 4. Exchange of Salt for Gold.

5. Salt currency. 6. Spiced Wine. 7. Plant like the
Clove, spoken of by Polo. Tribes of this Tract.

XLVIIL— Concerning the Province OF Carajan ... 64
Notes. — i . Geography of the Route between Sindafu or CKing-tufu,
and Carajan or Yun-nan. 2. Christians and Mahomedans
in Yun-nan. 3. Wheat. 4. Cowries. 5. Brine-spring.

6. Parallel.

XLIX.— Concerning a further part of the Province of

Carajan 76

Notes.— I. City of Talifu. 2. Gold. 3. Crocodiles. 4. Yun-nan
horses and riders. Arms of the Aboriginal Tribes. 5.
Strange superstition and parallels.

L.— Concerning the Province of Zardandan . . 84
Notes.— i. Carajan and Zardandan. 2. The Gold- Teeth.

Z. Male Indolence. 4. The Couvade. (See App. L. 8.) 5.

Abundance of Gold. Relatioji of Gold to Silver. 6. Worship

of the Ancestor. 7. Unhealthiness of the climate. 8. Tallies.

9. - 1 2. Medicine-tnen or Devil-dancers ; extraordinary identity

of practice in various regions.

LI.— Wherein is related how the King of Mien and
Bangala vowed vengeance against the Great
Kaan c,8

Notes.— I. Chronology. 2. Mien or Burma. Why the King
may have been called King of Bengal also. 3. Numbers
alleged to have been carried on elephants.

LI I.— Of the Battle that was fought by the Great
Kaan^s Host and his Seneschal against the
King of Mien loi

Notes.— I. Nasruddin. 2. Cyrus's Camels. 3. Chinese Account
of the Action. General Correspondence of the Chinese and
Burmese Chronologies.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS V

Chap. Page

LI 1 1. — Of the Great Descent that leads towards the

Kingdom of Mien . . . . . . io6

Notes. — i. Market-days. 2. Geographical difficulties.

LIV. — Concerning the City of Mien, and the Two
Towers that are therein, one of Gold, and
the other of silver i09

Notes. — l. Amien. 2. Chinese Account of the Invasion 0/ Burma.
Comparison with Burmese Annals. The City intended.
The Pagodas. 3. Wild Oxen.

LV. — Concerning THE Province OF Bangala . . .114

Notes. — i. Polo's view of Bengal ; and details of his account
illustrated. 2. Great Cattle.

LVI.— Discourses OF THE Province OF Caugigu . .116

Note. — A Part of Laos. Papesifu. Chinese Geographical Ety-
mologies.

LVIL— Concerning THE Province OF Anin . . . .119

Notes, — i. The Name. Probable identification of territory.
2. Textual.

LVIII.— Concerning the Province of Coloman . . .122

Notes, — i. The Name, The Kolo-man. 2. Natural defences of
Kwei-chau.

LIX.— Concerning THE Province OF Cuiju . . .124

Notes. — i. Kwei-chau. Phungan-lu. 2. Grass-cloth. 3. l^igers.
4. Great Dogs. 5. Silk. 6. Geographical Review of the
Route since Chapter LV. 7. Return tojuju.

BOOK SECOND.

{Continued.)

PART III.

Journey Southward through Eastern Provinces of Cathay and
Manzi.

LX. — Concerning the Cities of Cacanfuand Changlu 132

Notes. — I. Pauthiet's Identifications. 2. Changlu. The
Burning of the Dead ascribed to the Chinese.

LXI.— Concerning the City of Chinangli, and that of

Tadinfu, and the Rebellion of Litan . .135
Notes. — i. T^ si-nan fu. 2. Silk of Shan-tung. 3. 7zV/<? Sangon.
4. Agul and Mangkiitai. 5. History of Litan'' s Revolt.

vl SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

Chap. '"age

LXII.— Concerning THK Noble City OF SiNjuMATU . . 138
Note. — The City intended. The Great Canal.

LXIII.— Concerning tJie Cities OF LiNju AND Piju . . 140

Notes.— I. IJnju. 2. Piju.
LXIV.— Concerning the City of Siju, and the Great

River Caramoran 141

Notes.— I. Siju. 2. The Hwang- Ho and its changes. 3.
Entrance to Manzi ; that name for Southern China.

LXV.— How THE Great Kaan conquered the Province

of Manzi 144

Notes. — i. Meaning and application of the title Faghfur. 2.
Chinese self-devotion. 3. Bayan the Great Captain.
4. His lines of Operation. 5. The Juggling Prophecy.
6. The Fall of the Sung Dynasty. 7. Exposure of
Infants, and Foundling Hospitals.

LXVI.— Concerning THE City OF Coiganju . . . .151

Note. — Hwai-nganfu.

LXVI I. — Of THE Cities OF Paukin and Cayu . . . .152
Note. — Pao-yng and Kao-yu.

LXVI 1 1.— Of the Cities of Tiju, Tinju, and Yanju . .153
Notes. — i. Cities between the Canal and the Sea. 2. Yang-
chau. 3. Marco Polo's Employment at this City.

LXIX.— Concerning THE City OF Nanghin . . . .157
Note. — Ngan-king.

LXX.— Concerning the very Noble City of Saianfu,

and HOW its Capture was EFFECTED . . .158

Notes. — i. and 2. Various Readings. 3. Digression on the
Military Engines of the Middle Ages. 4. Mangonels
of Cceur de Lion. 5. Difficulties connected with Polo's
Account of this Siege.

LXXI.— Concerning the City of Sinju and the Great
River Kian

170

Notes. — i. I-chin Men. 2. The Great Kiang. 3. Vast amount
of tonnage on Chinese Waters. 4. Size of River Vessels.
5. Bamboo Tow-lines. 6. Picturesque Island Monasteries,

LXXIL— Concerning the City of Caiju 174

Notes. — i. Kwa-chau. 2. The Grand Canal and Rice-
Transport. 3. The Golden Island.

LXXIIL— Of THE City OF Chinghianfu 176

'^OT-E..—Chin-kiangfu. Mar Sarghis, the Christian Governor.

LXXIV.~Of THE City of Chinginju and the Slaughter of

certain Alans there 178

Notes.— I. Chang-chau. 2. Employment of Alans in the
Mongol Service. 3. The Chang-chau Massacre. Mongol
Cruelties.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS vii

Chap. Page

LXXV.— Of the Noble City of Suju i8i

Notes. — i. Su-chau. 2. Bridges of that part of China. 3.
Rhubarb ; its mention here see??is erroneous. 4. The Cities of
Heaven and Earth. Ancient incised Plan of Su-chau. 5.
Hu-chau, Wu-kiang, and Kya-hing.

LXXVI.— Description of the Great City of Kinsay, which
IS THE Capital of the whole Country of
Manzi 185

Notes. — i. King-szi now Hang-chau. 2. The circuit ascribed to
the City ; the Bridges. 3. Hereditary Trades. 4. The Si-htc
or Western Lake. 5. Dressiness of the People. 6.
Charitable Establishments. 7. Paved roads. 8. Hot and Cold
Baths. 9. Kanpu, and the Hang-chau Estuary. 10. The
Nine Provinces of Manzi. 11. The Kaan's Garrisons in
Manzi. 12, Mourning costume. 13. 14. Tickets recording
inm%tes of houses.

LXXVI I.— [Further Particulars concerning the Great

City of Kinsay.] . . . . . . .200

(From Ramusio only.)

Notes. — i. Remarks on these supplementary details. 2. Tides
in the Hang-chati Estuary. 3. Want of a good Survey of
Hang-chau. The Squares. 4. Marco ignores pork. 5. Great
Pears: Peaches. 6. Textual. 7. Chinese use of Pepper.
8. Chinese claims to a character for Good Faith, 9. Pleasure-
parties on the Lake. 10. Chinese Carriages. ii. The Sting
Emperor. 12. The Sung Palace. Extracts regarding this
Great City from other mediceval writers, European and
Asiatic. Martini'' s Description.

LXXVI 1 1.— Treating of the Yearly Revenue that the

Great Kaan hath from Kinsay . . . .215

Notes. — i. Textual. 2. Calculations as to the values spoken of.
LXXIX.— Of the City of Tanpiju and others . . .218

Notes. — i. Route from Hang-chau southward. 2. Bamboos. 3.
Ldentification of places. Chang-shan the key to the route.

LXXX.— Concerning the Kingdom of Fuju . . . .224

Notes. — l. ^^ Fruit like Saffron.''^ 2. 3. Cannibalism ascribed to
Mountain Tribes on this route. 4 Kien-ning fu. 5.
Galingale. 6. Fleecy Fowls. 7. Details of the Journey in
Fo-kien and various readings. 8. Unken. Lntroduction of
Stigar-refining into China.

LXXXL— Concerning the Greatness of the City of Fuju 231
Notes. — i. The name Qhox^z., applied to Fo-kien here. Cay ton (9r
Zayton. 2. Objections that have been made to identity of

Fuju and Fu-chau. 3. The Min River.

LXXXII.— Of THE City and Great Haven OF Zayton . . 234

Notes.— I. The Camphor Laurel. 2. The Port of Zayton or
Tswan-chau ; Recent objections to this identity. Probable

Vlll SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

origin of the word Satin. 3. Chinese Consumption of Pepper.
4. Artists in l^attooing. 5. Position of the Porcelain manu-
facture spoken of Notions regarding the Great River of
China. 6. Fo-kien dialects and variety of spoken language
in China. 7. From Ramusio.

BOOK THIRD.

JapaUy the Archipelago, Southern India, and the Coasts and Islands
of the Indian Sea.

Chap. Page

I.— Of the Merchant Ships of Manzi that sail upon

THE Indian Seas 249

Notes. — i. Pine Timber. 2, Rudder atid Masts. 3. Watertight
Compartments. 4. Chinese substitute for Pitch. 5. Oars
used by Junks. 6. Descriptions of Chinese Junks from other
Mediceval Writers.

II.— Description of the Island of Chipangu, and the

Great Kaan's Despatch of a Host against it. . 253

Notes, — i. Chipangu or Japan. 2. Abundance of Gold. 3. The
Golden Palace. 4. Japanese Pearls. Red Pearls.

II.— What further came of the Great Kaan's Expedi-
tion against Chipangu 258

Notes. — i. Kubldi's attempts against Japan. Japanese Narrative
of the Expedition here spoken of (See App. L. 9.) 2. Species
of Torture. 3. Devices to proctire Invulnerability.

IV.— Concerning the Fashion of the Idols . . . .263

Notes. — i. Many-limbed Idols. 2. The Philippines and Moluccas.
3. The natrie Osxm or Q\i\xy3.. 4. The Gulf of Cheinan.

v.— Of the Great Country called Chamba . . . 266

Notes. — i. Champa, and Kubldi's dealings with it. (See App.
L. 10). 2. Chronology. 3. Eagle-wood and Ebony. Folds
use of Persian words.

VI.— Concerning the Great Island of Java . . . .272

^OT'^.—Java ; its supposed vast extent. Kubldi's expedition
against it and failure.

VII.— Wherein the Isles of Sondur and Condur are

spoken of ; AND THE KINGDOM OF LOCAC . . . 276

Notes.— I. Textual. 2. Pulo Condore. 3. The Kingdom of
Locac, Southern Siam.

VIII.— Of THE Island called Pentam, and the City Malaiur 280
Notes.— I. Bintang. 2. The Straits of Singapore. 3. Remarks
on the Malay Chronology. Malaiur probably Palembang.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS IX

Chap. Page

IX.— Concerning the Island of Java the Less. The

Kingdoms of Ferlec and Basma 284

Notes. — i. The Island of Sumatra : application of the term Java.
2. Products of Sumatra. The six kingdoms. 3. Ferlec or
Parldk. The Battas. 4. Basma, Pacem, or Pasei. 5. The
Elephant and the Rhinoceros. The Legend of Monoceros and
the Virgin. 6. Black Falcon.

X. — The Kingdoms of Samara and Dagroian . . . 292

Notes. — l. Samara, Sumatra Proper. 2. The Tramontaine and
the Mestre. 3. The Malay Toddy-Palm. 4. Dagroian.
5. Alleged custom of eating dead relatives.

XI. — Of the Kingdoms of Lambri and Fansur . . . 299

Notes. — i. Lambri. 2. Hairy and Tailed Men. 3. Fansur and
Camphor Fansuri. Stimatran Camphor. 4. The Sago-Palm,
5. Remarks on Folds Sumatran Kingdoms.

XII. — Concerning the Island of Necuveran . . . 306

Note. — Gauenispola, and the Nicobar Islands.

XIII.— Concerning THE Island OF Angamanain . . .309

Note. — The Andaman Islands.

XIV. — Concerning THE Island OF Seilan .... 312

Notes. — i. Chinese Chart. 2. Exaggeration of Dimensions. The
Name. 3. Sovereigns then ruling Ceylon. 4. Brazil Wood
and Cinnamon. 5. The Great Ruby.

XV.— The same continued. The History of Sagamoni

BORCAN and the BEGINNING OF IDOLATRY . . . 316

Notes. — i. Adam^s Peak, and the Foot thereon. 2. The Story of
Sakya-Muni Buddha. The History of Saints Barlaam and
Josaphat ; a Christianised version thereof . 3. High Estimate
of Buddha^ s Character. 4. Curious Parallel Passages. 5.
Pilgrimages to the Peak. 6. The Pdtra of Buddha, and the
Tooth-Relic. 7. Miraculous endowments of the Pdtra ; it is
the Holy Grail of Buddhism.

XVI.— Concerning the Great Province of Maabar, which
IS CALLED India the Greater, and is on the
Mainland 331

Notes. — i. Maabar, its definition, and notes on its Mediceval History.
2. The Pearl Fishery.

XVII.— Continues TO speak OF THE Province OF Maabar . 338

Notes. — i. Costume. 2. Hind:i Royal Necklace. 3. Hindu use of
the Rosary. 4. The Saggio. 5. Companions in Death ; the
wor'd K\x\d^. 6. Accumulated Wealth of Southern India at
this time. 7. Horse Importation from the Persian Gulf. 8.
Religious Suicides. 9. Suttees. 10. Worship of the Ox.
The Govis. ii. Verbal. 12. The Thomacides. 13. Ill-
success of Horse-breeding in S. India. 14. Curious Mode of

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

Chai'. I'a^''^

Arrest for Debt, 15. The Rainy Seasons. 16. Omens of the
Hindus. 17. Strange treatment of Horses. 18. The
Devaddsis. 19. Textual.

XVIII.— Discoursing of the Place where lieth the Body
OF St. Thomas the Apostle ; and of the: Miracles

THEREOF .... 353

Notes. — i. Mailap^r. 2. The word Avarian. 3. Miraculous
Earth. 4. The Traditions of St. Thomas in India. The
ancient Church at his Tomb ; the ancient Cross preserved on
St. Thomas's Mount. 5., White Devils. 6. The Yak's Tail.

XIX.— Concerning the Kingdom of Mutfili . . . -359

Notes. — i. MotapalU, The Widow Queen of Telingaita. 2. The
Diamond Mines, and the Legend of the Diamond Gathering.

3. Buckram.

XX.— Concerning the Province of Lar whence the

Brahmans come 363

Notes. — i. Abrataman. The Country of Lar. Hindu Character.
2. The Kingdom of Soli or Chola. 3. Lucky and Unlucky
Days and Hours. The Canonical Hotirs of the Church.

4. Omens. 5. Jogis. The Ox-emblem, 6. Verbal. 7.
Recurrence of Human Eccentricities.

XXL— Concerning the City of Cail 370

Notes. — i. Kdyal\ its true position. Kolkhoi identified. 2. The
King Ashar or As-char. 3. Correa, Note. 4. Betel-chewing.

5. Duels.

XXII.— Of the Kingdom of Coilum 375

Notes. — i. Coihim, Coilon, Katilam, Cohimbum, Quilon. Ancient
Christian Churches. 2. Brazil Wood: notes on the name. 3.
Columbine Ginger and other kinds. 4. Indigo. 5. Black
Lions. 6. Marriage Ctistoms.

XXIII.— Of THE Country called CoMARi ..... 382
Notes. — i. Cape Comorin. 2. The word Gat-paul.

XXIV.— Concerning the Kingdom Eli 385

Notes.— I. Mount D'Ely, and the City of Hili-Marawi. 2.
f Textual. 3. Produce. 4. Piratical custoin. 5. Wooden

Anchors.

XXV.— Concerning the Kingdom of Melibar . . .389

Notes. — i. Dislocation of Polo's Indian Geography. The name of
Malabar. 2. Verbal. 3, Pirates. 4. Cassia: Turbit :
Cubebs. 5. Cessation of direct Chinese trade with Malabar.

XXVI. — Concerning the Kingdom of Gozurat . . . 392

Notes. — i. Topographical Confusion. 2. Tamarina. 3. Tall
Cotton Trees. 4. Embroidered Leather-work.

XXVII.— Concerning THE Kingdom OF Tana . . . .395
Notes.— I. Tana, and the Koftkan. 2. Incense of Western India.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

Chap.

XXVIII. — Concerning the Kingdom of Cambaet

Note. — Cambay.

XXIX.— Concerning the Kingdom of Semenat
Note. — Somnaih, and the so-called Gates of Somnath.

XXX.— Concerning the Kingdom of Kesmacoran .

2. Recapittdatioji of

Page
397

398

401

Notes. — i. Kij-Mekrdn. Limit of India.
Polo's Indian Kingdoms.

XXXI. — Discourseth of the Two Islands called Male

AND Female, and why they are so called . 404
Note — The Legend and its diffusion.
XXXIL— Concerning the Island of Scotra . . . .406

Notes. — i. Whales of the Indian Seas. 2. Socotra and its former
Christianity. 3. Piracy at Socotra. 4. Sorcerers.

XXXI 1 1.— Concerning Tks Island OF Madeigascar . . 411

Notes, — i. Madagascar ; some conftision here with Magadoxo. 2.
Sandalwood. 3. Whale-killing. The Capidoglio or Sperm-
Whale. 4. The Ctirrents towards the South. 5. The Rukh
(and see Appendix L. 11). 6. More on the dimensions
assigned thereto. 7. Hippopotamus Teeth.

XXXIV

A Word

Concerning the Island of Zanghibar.
ON India in General

Notes. — i. Zangibar ; Negroes. 2. Ethiopian Sheep. 3. Giraffes.
4. Ivory trade. 5. Error about Elephant-taming. 6. Num-
ber of Islands assigned to the Indian Sea. 7.
Indies, and various distributions thereof.
Geography.

The Three
Polo's Indian

XXXVI.— Concerning the Province of Aden

Notes. — i. The Trade to Alexandria from India via Aden. 2.

" Roncinsadeux selles." 3. The Sultan of Aden,
and its Great Tanks. 4. The Loss of Acre.

The City

XXXVIL— Concerning THE City OF EsHER

Notes. — i. Shihr. 2, Frankincense. 3. Four-horned Sheep.
Cattle fed on Fish. 5. Parallel passage.

XXXVIII.— Concerning the City of Dufar

Notes. — I. Dhofar. 2. Notes on Frankincense.

422

XXXV.— Treating of the Great Province of Abash, which

IS Middle India, and is on the Mainland . . 427

Notes. — i. Habash or Abyssinia. Application of the name India
toil. 2. Fire Baptism ascribed to the Abyssinian Christians.
3. Folds idea of the position of Aden. 4. Taming of the
African Elephant for War. 5. Marco's Story of the Abys-
sinian Invasion of the Mahomedan Low -Country, and Review
of Abyssinian Chronology in connection therewith. 6.
Textual.

438

442

444

Xll SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

Chap. Page

XXXIX.— Concerning the Gulf of Calatu, and the City

so called 449

Notes. — i. Kalhdt. 2. " En fra tcrre." 3. Maskat.

XL.— Returns to the City of Hormos whereof we

SPOKE formerly 45 1

Notes. — i. Folds distances and bearings in these latter chapters.
2. Persian Bad-g{rs or wind-catching chimneys. 3. Island
ofKish.

BOOK FOURTH.

Wars among the Tartar Princes^ and some Accou7tt of the
Northern Countries

I. — Concerning Great Turkey 457

Notes. — i. Kaidu Khan. 2. His frontier towards the Great Kaan.

II.— Of certain Battles that were fought by King
Caidu against the Armies of his Uncle the Great
Kaan 459

Notes. — l. Textual. 2. "Araines." 3. Chronology in connection
with the events described.

III. — tWHAT THE Great Kaan said to the Mischief done

BY Caidu his nephew 463

IV.— Of the Exploits of King Caidu's valiant Daughter . 463
Note. — Her name explained. Remarks on the story.

V. — How Abaga sent his Son Argon in command against

King Caidu 466

(Extract and Substance.)

Notes. — i. Government of the Khorasan frontier. 2. The His-
torical Events.

VI.— How Argon after the Battle heard that his Father
WAS dead and went to assume the Sovereignty as
was his right 467

Notes.— I. Death of Abaka. 2. Textual. 3. Ahmad Tigudar.

VII.— tHow Acomat Soldan set out with his Host against
his Nephew who was coming to claim the throne

THAT BELONGED TO HIM 468

t Of chapters so marked nothing is given but the substance in brief.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS xili

Chap. Page

VIII.— fHow Argon took Counsel with his Followers

ABOUT ATTACKING HIS UNCLE ACOMAT SOLDAN . . 468

IX. — tHow THE Barons of Argon answered his Address 469

X. — tTHE Message sent by Argon to Acomat . . . 469

XL— How Acomat replied to Argon's Message . . .469

XII. — Of the Battle between Argon and Acomat, and

THE Captivity of Argon . . . . . . . 470

Notes. — i. Verbal. 2. Historical.

XIII.— How Argon was delivered from Prison . . .471

XIV.— How Argon got the Sovereignty at last . . .472

XV.— tHow Acomat was taken Prisoner , . . .473

XVI.— How Acomat was slain by Order of his Nephew . 473

XVII. — How Argon WAS recognised AS Sovereign . . . 473

Notes. — i. The historical circumstances and persons named in these
chapters. 2. Arghun! s accession and death.

XVIII.— How KlACATU SEIZED THE SOVEREIGNTY AFTER ArGON'S

Death 475

Note. — The reign and character of Kaikhdtu,

XIX. — How Baidu seized the Sovereignty after the

Death of Kiacatu 476

Notes. — i. Baidu's alleged Christianity. 2. Ghdzdn Khan.

XX.— Concerning King Conchi who rules the Far

North 479

Notes. — i. Kaunchi Khan. 2. Siberia. 3. Dog-sledges. 4. The
animal here styled Erculin. The Vair. 5. Yugria.

XXI. — Concerning the Land of Darkness .... 484

Notes. — i. The Land of Darkness. 2. The Legend of the Mares
and their Foals. 3. Dumb Trade with the People of the
Darkness.

XXI I.— Description of Rosia and its People. Province

OF Lac 486

Notes. — i. Old Accounts of Russia. Rtcssian Silver and Rubles.
2. Lac^ or Wallachia. 3. Oroech, Norway {?) or the Waraeg
Country [?)

>XIII. — He begins to speak of the Straits of Constan-
tinople, BUT decides to LEAVE THAT MATTER . . 49O

t Of chapters so marked nothing is given but the substance in brief.

Xlv SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

Chap. Page

XXIV.— Concerning the Tartars of the Ponent and their

Lords 49°

Notes. — i. The Comanians ; the Alans; Majar ; Zic ; the Goths
of the Crimea ; Gazaria. 2. The Khans of Kipchak or the
Golden Horde ; errors in Polo's list. Extent of their Empire.

XXV.— Of the War that arose between Alau and Barca,

AND THE Battles that they fought . . . -494

(Extracts and Substance.)

Notes. — l. Verbal. 2. The Sea of Sarai. 3. The War here
spoken of. Wassdfs rigmarole.

XXVI.— fHow Barca and his Army advanced to meet

Alau 495

XXVII.— tHow Alau addressed HIS followers . . . -495

XXVIII.— tOF THE Great Battle between Alau and Barca . 496

xxix. — how totamangu was lord of the tartars of the

Ponent ; and after him Toctai 496

Note. — Confusions in the Text. Historical circumstances con-
nected with the Persons spoken of. Toctai and Noghai
Khan. Symbolic Messages.

XXX.— tOF THE Second Message that Toctai sent to

NoGAi . . 498

XXXI.— fHow Toctai marched against Nogai .... 499

XXXII.— tHow Toctai and Nogai address their People,

and the next Day join Battle 499

XXXIII.— tTHE Valiant Feats and Victory of King Nogai . 499
XXXIV. and Last. Conclusion 500

APPENDICES.

A. Genealogy of the House of Chinghiz to the End of the Thirteenth

Century 505

B. The Polo Families :—

(I.) Genealogy of the Family of Marco Polo the Traveller . 506
(II.) The Polos of San Geremia 507

C. Calendar of Documents relating to Marco Polo and his Family 510

t Of chapters so marked nothing is given but the substance in brief.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

D. Comparative Specimens of the Different Recensions of Polo's
Text

E. Preface to Pipino's Latin Version .,..,.

F. Note of MSS. of Marco Polo's Book, so far as known :

General Distribution of MSS

List of Miniatures in two of the finer MSS

List of MSS. of Marco Polo's Book, so far as they are known .

G. Diagram showing Filiation of Chief MSS. and Editions of Marco

Polo

H. Bibliography : —

(I.) Principal Editions of Marco Polo's Book.

(IL) Bibliography of Printed Editions ....

(in.) Titles of Sundry Books and Papers treating of Marco
Polo and his Book . . . ' .

[l. Titles of Works quoted by Abbreviated References in this Book

[. Values of Certain Moneys, Weights, and Measures occurring in
this Book

L. Supplementary Notes to the Book of Marco Polo

Page

522

526

527

553
554

574
582

590
593

1. The Polos at Acre.

2. Sorcery in Kashmir.

3. Paonano Pao.

4. Pamir.

5. Number of Pamirs.

6. Site of Pein.

13. Sir John Mandeville.

7. Fire-arms.

8. La Couvade.

9. Alacan

10. Champa.

11. Ruck Quills.

12. A Spanish Marco Polo.

Index 607

EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TO VOLUME 11.

INSERTED PLATES AND MAPS.

To face Title. Portrait bearing the inscription "Marcus Polvs Venetvs
ToTivs Orbis et Indie Peregrator" Primvs." In the
Gallery of Monsignor Badia at Rome ; copied by Sign.
Giuseppe Gnoli, Rome.
Illuminated Title ; with Medallion, representing Marco Polo in the Prison of
Genoa, dictating his story to Master Rustician of Pisa,
drawn by Signor Quinto Cenni from a rough design by the
Editor.
To face page 28. The celebrated Christian Inscription of Si-ngan fu.
Photolithographed by Mr W. Grigg, from a Rubbing of the
original monument, given to the Editor by the Baron F. vojt
Richthofev.

This rubbing is more: complete than that used in the first
edition, for which the Editor was indebted to the kindness
of William Lockhart, Esq.

,, ,, 78. The Lake of Tali (Carajan of Polo) from the Northern

End. Woodcut after Lieut. Delaporte, borrowed from
Lieut. Garnier's Narrative in the Tour du Monde.

,, ,, 80. Suspension Bridge, neighbourhood of Tali. From a photograph

by M. Tannant.

,, ,, 131. Itineraries of Marco Polo. No. V. The Indo-Chinese

Countries. With a small sketch extracted from a Chinese
Map in the possession of Baron von Richthofen, showing the
position of Kien-ch'ang, the Caindu of Marco Polo.

,, ,, 144. Sketch Map exhibiting the Variations of the Two Great

Rivers of China, within the Period of History.

„ ,, 182. The City of Su-chau. Reduced by the Editor from a

Rubbing of a Plan incised on Marble, and preserved in the
Great Confucian Temple in the City.

The date of the original set of Maps, of which this was one,
is uncertain, owing to the partial illegibility of the Inscrip-
tion ; but it is subsequent to A.D. looo. They were engraved
on the Marble a.d. 1247. Many of the names have been
obliterated, and a few of those given in the copy are filled up
from modern information, as the Editor learns from Mr. Wylie,
to whom he owes this valuable illustration.

,» M 193- Map of Hang-chau fu and its Lake, from Chinese Sources.

The Map as published in the former edition was based on^
a Chinese Map in the possession of Br. W. Lockhart^ with

EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

XVll

some particulars from Maps in a copy of the Local Topo-
graphy, '.^a«^f-C>^az/-/«-r>^2, in the B. Museum Library. In
the second edition the Map has been entirely redrawn by the
Editor, with many corrections, and with the aid of new
materials, supplied by the kindness of the Rev, G. Moule
of the Church Mission at Hang-chau. These materials
embrace a Paper read by Mr. Moule before the N. China
Branch of the R. As. Soc. at Shang-hai ; a modern engraved
Map of the City on a large scale ; and a large MS. Map of
the City and Lake, compiled by Joh^i Shing, Tailor, a
Chinese Christian and Catechist;

The small Side-plan is the City of Sl-NGAN fu, from a plan
published during the Mongol rule, in the 14th century, a trac-
ing of which was sent by Mr. Wylie, The following
references could not be introduced in lettering for want of
space : —

Yuen-Tu-Kwan (Tauist Monastery).

16.

Refectory.

Chapel of Hien-ning Prince.

17.

Chapel of the Fang-Yuen Prince.

Leih-Ching Square {Fang).

18.

Embroidery manufactory.

Tauist Monastery.

19.

Ilwa-li Temple.

Kie-lin General Court.

20.

Old Superintendency of Investiga

Ancestral Chapel of Yang-Wan-Kang.

tions.

Chapel of the Mid-year Genius.

21.

Superintendent of Works.

Temple of the Martial Peaceful King.

22.

Ka-yuen Monastery.

Stone where officers are selected.

23-

Prefectural Confucian Temple.

10.

Mews.

24.

Benevolent Institution.

II.

Jasper-Waves Square {Fang).

25-

Temple of Tu-Ke-King.

12.

Court of Enquiry.

26.

Balustrade enclosure.

13-

Gate of the Fang-Yuen Circuit.

27.

Medicine-Bazar Street.

14.

Bright Gate.

28.

Tsin and Ching States Chapel.

15-

Northern Tribunal.

29.

Square of the Double Cassia Tree.

N.E

I People.
7^0 face

N.B. — The shaded spaces are marked in the original Mht-Keu '* Dwellings of the

To face page 212. Plan of Southern Part of the City of King-sze (or Hang-chau),
with the Palace of the Sung Emperors. From a Chinese
Plan forming part of a Reprint of the official Topography of
the City during the period Hien-Shun (1265-1274) of the Sung
Dynasty, i.e. the period terminated by the Mongol conquest of
the City and Empire. Mr. Moule, who possesses the Chinese
plan (with others of the same set), has come to the conclusion
that it is a copy at second-hand. Names that are underlined
are such as are preserved in the modern Map of Hang-chau.
I am indebted for the use of the original plan to Mr. Moule;
for the photographic copy and rendering of the names to
Mr. Wylie.

, 240. Sketch Map of the Great Ports of Fo-kien, to illustrate the
identity of Marco Polo's Zayton. Besides the Admiralty
Charts and other well-known sources the Editor has used in
forming this a " Missionary Map of Amoy and the Neighbour-
ing Country," on a large scale, sent him by the Rev. Carstairs
Douglas, LL.D., of Amoy. This contains some points not to
be found in the others,

VOL. II. b

XV HI EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

C
{'

To face page 246, Itineraries of Marco Polo, No. VI. The Journey through
Kiang-Nan, Che-kiang, and Fo-kien.
Map to illustrate Marco Polo's Chapters on the Malay

312. \ Countries.

.2, Map to illustrate his Chapters on Soutiip:rn India.
I. Sketch showing the Position of KAyal in Tinnevelly.

374. \ 2. Map showing the Position of the Kingdom of Ely in
Malauar.

440. Aden, with the attempted Escalade under Alboquerque in 1513,
being the Reduced Facsimile of a large contemporary Wood
Engraving in the Map Department of the British Museum.
(Size of the original 42I inches by 19!^ inches.) Photolitho-
graphic Reduction by Mr. G. B. Praetor i US, through the
assistance oi R. II. Major ^ Esq.

474. Facsimile of the Letters sent to Philip the Fair, King of France,
by Arghun Khan, in a.d. 1289, and by Oljattu, in a.d.
1305, preserved in the Archives of France, and reproduced from
the Recueil des Documents de V Epoqtie Mongole by kind permis-
sion of H.H. Prince Roland Bonaparte.

595. Some of the objects found by Dr. M. A. Stein, in Central Asia.
From a photograph kindly lent by the Traveller.

WOODCUTS PRINTED WITH THE TEXT.

Book Second. — Part Second.

Page 4. The Bridge of Pulisanghin, the Lu-ku-k'iao of the Chinese, reduced
from a large Chinese Engraving in the Geographical work called
Ki-fti-thung-chi in the Paris Library. I owe the indication of this,
and of the Portrait of Kublai Kaan in vol. i. to notes in M. Pauthier's
edition.

,, 5. The Bridge of Pulisanghin. From the Livre des Merveilles.

,, 7. Bridge of Lu-ku-k'iao. From a photograph by Count de Semalle.

,, 9. Bridge of Lu-ku-k'iao. From a photograph by Count de Semalle.

,, 19. The Roi d'Or. Professed Portrait of the Last of the Altun Khans or
Kin Emperors of Cathay, from the (fragmentary) Arabic Manuscript of
Rashiduddiii s History in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society.
This Manuscript is supposed to have been transcribed under the eye of
Rashiduddin, and the drawings were probably derived from Chinese
originals.
26. Plan of Ki-chau, after Duhalde.

30. The Cross incised at the head of the Great Christian Inscription of
Si-ngan fu (a.d. 781) ; actual size, from copy of a pencil rubbing made
on the original by the Rev. J. Lees. Received from Mr. A. Wylie. i

38. Diagram to elucidate the cities of Ch'eng-tu fu.

39. Plan of Ch'eng-tu. From Marcel Monnier's Tour d'Asie, by kind per-
mission of M. Plon.

41. Bridge near Kwan-hsien (Ch'eng-tu). From Marcel Monnier's Tour

d'Asie, by kind permission of M. Plon.
47. Mountaineers on the Borders of Sze-ch'wan and Tibet, from one of

the illustrations to Lieut. Garnier's Narrative (see p. 48). From Totir

du Monde.
50. Village of Eastern Tibet on Sze-ch'wan Frontier. From Mr. Coopers

Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce.

EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xlx

Page 51. Example of Roads on the Tibetan Frontier of China (being actually
a view of the Gorge of the Lan t'sang Kiang). From Mr. Cooper's
Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce.
,, 55. The Valley of the Kin-sha Kiang, near the lower end of the Caindu

of Marco Polo. From Lieut. Gamier in the Tour du Monde.
,, 58. Salt Pans in Yun-nan, From the same.
,, 61. Black Lolo.

,, 62. White Lolo. From Dev^ria's Frontikre Sino-annamite.
,, 65. Pa-y Script. From the T'oung-Pao.
,, 68. Garden-House on the Lake of Yun-nan-fu, Yachi of Polo. From

Lieut. Garnier in the Tour du Monde.
,, 71. Road descending from the Table-Land of Yun-nan into the Valley of

the Kin-sha Kiang (the Brius of Polo). From the same.
,, 73. " A Saracen of Carajan," being the portrait of a Mahomedan Mullah

in Western Yun-nan. From the same.
,, 74. The Canal at Yun-nan fu. From a photograph by M. Tannant.
,, 78. *' Riding long like Frenchmen," exemplified from the Bayeux Tapestry.

After Lacroix, Vie Militaire du Moyen Age.
,, 83. The Sang-miau tribe of Kwei-chau, with the Cross-bow. From a

coloured drawing in a Chinese work on the Aboriginal Tribes, belonging

to W. Lockhart, Esq.
,, 90. Portraits of a Kakhyen man and woman. Drawn by Q. Cenni from a

photograph (anonymous).
,, 108. Temple called Gauuapalen in the city of Mien {i.e. Pagan in Burma),

erected circa A.D. 1160. Engraving after a sketch by the first Editor,

from Fergusson^s History of Architecture.
,, 112. The Palace of the King of Mien in modern times (viz., the Palace at

Amarapura). From the saf?ie, being partly from a sketch by the first

Editor.
,, 118. Script Pa-pe. From the T^oung-Pao.
,, 121. Ho-NHi and other Tribes in the Department of Lin-ngan in S. Yun-nan,

supposed to be the Anin country of Marco Polo. From Garnier in the

Tour du Monde.
,, 125. The Koloman tribe, on borders of Kwei-chau and Yun-nan. From

coloured drawing in Mr. Lockharfs book as above (under p. 83).
,, 129. Script ^'/^«z of Xieng-hung. YxQvc\.\h.Q. T''oung-Pao.
,, 130. Iron Suspension Bridge at Lowatong. From Gamier in Tour du

Monde.
,, 131. Fortified Villages on Western Frontier of Kwei-chau. From the

same.

Book Second. — Part Third.

155. Yang-chau : the three Cities under the Sung.

156. Yang-chau : the Great City under the Sung. From Chinese Plans

kindly sent to the present Editor by the late Father H. Havret, S.J.,
Zi-ka-wei.
162. Medieval Artillery Engines. Figs, i, 2, 3, 4, and 5, are Chinese.
The first four are from the Y^XicycXo^'at^iz. San-Thsai-Thou-hoei {^2s\s,
Library), the last from Amyot, vol. viii.

Figs. 6, 7, 8 are Saracen, 6 and 7 are taken from the work of
Reinaud and Fav^, Du Feu Grigeois, and by them from the Arabic MS.
of Hassan al Ratimah {Arab Anc. Fonds, No. 11 27). Fig. 8 is from
Lord Munster's Arabic Catalogue of Military Works, and by him from
a MS. of Rashiduddin^s History.
VOL. IL b 2

XX EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The remainder are European. Fig. 9 is fron Pertz,^ Scriptores,
vol. xviii., and by him from a figure of the Siege of Arbicella, 1227,
in a MS. of Genoese Annals (No. 773, Supp. Lat. oi Bib. Imp.). Fig. lO
from Shaw's Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages, vol. i., No. 21,
after B. Mus. MS. Reg. 16, G. vi. Fig. 11 from Pertz as above, under
A.D. 1 182. Fig. 12, from Valturius de Re Militari, Verona, 1483.
Figs. 13 and 14 from ihe Poliorceticon oi Justus Lipsius. Fig. 15 is after
the Bodleian MS. of the Romance of Alexander (a.d. 1338), but is
taken from the Gentleman's Magazine, 3rd ser. vol. vii. p. 467. Fig. 16
from Lacroix's Art au Moyen Age, after a miniature of 13th cent, in the
Paris Library. Figs. 17 and 18 from the Emperor Napoleon's Etudes
de TArtillerie, and by him taken from the MS. of Paulus Santinus (Lat.
MS. 7329 in Paris Library). Fig. 19 from Professor Moseley's restora-
tion of a Trebuchet, after the data in the Mediaeval Note-book of Villars
de Honcourt, in Gentleman's Magazine as above. Figs. 20 and 21 from
the Emperor's Book. Fig. 22 from a German MS. in the Bern Library,
the Chronicle of Justinger and Schilling.
Page 169. Coin from a treasure hidden during the siege of Siang-yang in 1268-73,
and lately discovered in that city.
,, 172. Island Monasteries on the Yang-tzu kiang ; viz. : —

1. Uppermost. The "Little Orphan Rock," after a cut in Oliphanfs

Narrative.

2. Middle. The "Golden Island" near Chin-kiang fu, after Fisher's

China. (This has been accidentally reversed in the drawing.)

3. Lower. The " Silver Island,'' below the last, after Mr. Lindley's book

on the T'ai-P'ings.

,, 177. The West Gate of Chin-kiang fu. From an engraving in Fishers
China after a sketch made by Admiral Stoddart, R.N., in 1842.

,, 183. South-West Gate and Water Gate of Su-CHAU ; facsimile on half scale
from the incised Map of 1247. (See List of Inserted Plates preceding,
under p. 182.)

,, 193. The old LuH-HO-TA or Pagoda of Six Harmonies near Hang-CHAU, and
anciently marking the extreme S.W. angle of the city. Drawn by
Q. Cenni from an anonymous photograph received from the Rev. G.
Moule.

,, 195. Imperial City of Hang-chau in the 13th Century.

,, 197. Metropolitan City of Hang-chau in the 13th Century. From the Notes
of the Right Rev. G. E. Moule.

„ 209. /fl«^^ of Si-ngan FU. Communicated by ^. Wylie.

,, 212. Stone Chwang or Umbrella Column, one of two which still mark
the site of the ancient Buddhist Monastery called Fan-T'ien-Sze or
"Brahma's Temple" at Hang-chau. Reduced from a pen-and-ink
sketch by Mr. Moule.

,, 223. Mr. Phillips' Theory of Marco Polo's Route through Fo-Kien.

,, 227. Scene in the Bohea Mountains, on Polo's route between Kiang-Si and
Fo-Kien. From Fortune's Three Years' Wanderings.

,, 233. Scene on the Min River below Fu-chau. From the same.

,, 245. The Kaan's Fleet leaving the Port of Zayton. The scenery is taken
from an engraving in Fisher^s China, purporting to represent the mouth
of the Chinchew River (or River of Tswan-chau), after a sketch by
Capt. (now Adm.) Stoddart. But the Rev. Dr. Douglas, having pointed
out that this cut really supported his view of the identity of Zayton,
being a view of the Chang-chau River, reference was made to Admiral
Stoddart, and Dr. Douglas proves to be quite right. The View was
really one of the Chang-chau River ; but the Editor has not been able
to procure material for one of the Tswan-chau River, and so he leaves it,

EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxi

Book Third

Page 248. The Kaan's Fleet passing through the Indian Archipelago. From a

drawing by the Editor.
,, 254. Ancient Japanese Emperor, after a Native Drawing. From the Tour

dti Monde.
,, 257. Ancient Japanese Archer, after a native drawing. J^'rom the same.
,, 261. The Japanese engaged in combat with the Chinese, after an ancient

native drawing. From Ckarion, Voyageurs Anciens et Modernes.
>> "^l?)' Java. A view in the interior. From a sketch of the slopes of the Ged6h

Volcano, taken by the Editor in i860.
,, 274. Bas Relief of one of the Vessels frequenting the Ports of Java in the

Middle Ages. From one of the sculptures of the BoRO BODOR, after a

photograph.
,, 289. The three Asiatic Rhinoceroses. Adapted from a proof of a woodcut

given to the Editor for the purpose by the late eminent zoologist,

Edward Blyth. It is not known to the Editor whether the cut

appeared in any other publication.
,, 291. MoNOCEROS and the Maiden. From a mediseval drawing engraved in

Cahier et Martin, Melanges d' Archiologie, II. PI. 30.
,, 310. The BoRUS. From a manuscript belonging to the late Charles

Schefer, now in the BibliotMque Nationale, Paris.
,, 311. The Cynocephali. Yxom ihe Livre des Merveilles.
,, 321. Adam's Peak from the Sea.
>> 327* Sakya Muni as a Saint of the Roman Martyrology. Facsimile from an

old German version of the story of Barlaam and Josaphat {circa 1477),

printed by Zainer at Augsburg, in the British Museum.
,, 330. Tooth Reliques of Buddha, i. At Kandy, after Emerson Tennent.

2. At Fu-chau, after Fortune.
j» 336. "Chinese Pagoda" (so called) at Negapatam. From a sketch taken

hy Sir Walter Elliot, K.C.S.I., in 1846.
,, 352. Pagoda at Tanjore. Frotn Fergussori^s History of Architecture,
i) 353- Ancient Cross with Pehlvi Inscription, preserved in the church on St.

Thomas's Mount near Madras. From a photograph, the gift of A.

Burnell, Esq., of the Madras Civil Service, assisted by a lithographic

drawing in his unpublished pamphlet on Pehlvi Crosses in South India.

JV.B. — The lithograph has now appeared in the Indian Antiquary ^

November, 1874.
,, 356. The Little Mount of St. Thomas, near Madras. After Daniel.
,, 358. Small Map of the St. Thomas localities at Madras.
,, 378. Ancient Christian Church at Parur or Palur, on the Malabar Coast;

from an engraving in Pearson's Life of Claudius Buchanan, after a

sketch by the latter.
>> 379- Syrian Church at Karanyachirra, showing the quasi-Jesuit Fafade

generally adopted in modern times. From the Life of Bishop Daniel

Wilson.
,, 379. Interior of Syrian Church at Kotteiyam. From the same.
,, 384. Cape Comorin. From an original sketch by Mr. Foote of the Geological

Survey of India.
,, 387. Mount D'Ely. From a. nautical sketch of last century.
)> 393' Mediaeval Architecture in Guzerat, being a view of Gateway at

Jinjawara, given in Forbes's Fas Mala. From FergussorHs History of

Architecture.

xxii EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

P<^g^ 399- The Gates of Somnath (so called), as preserved in the British Arsenal

at Agra. From a photograph by Messrs. Shepherd and Bourne,

converted into an elevation.
,, 415. The RUKH, after a Persian drawing. From Lanis Arabian Nights.
,, 416. Frontispiece of A. Mailer's Marco Polo, showing the Bird Rukh.
,, 425. The Ethiopian Sheep. Yxoxi\?L^it{.c\ihy Miss Catherine Frere.
,, 441. View of Aden in 1840. From a sketch by Dr. R. Kirk in the Map-room

of the Royal Geographical Society.
„ 447. The Harvest of Frankincense in Arabia. Facsimile of an engraving in

Thevef s Cosmographie Universelle {iS7S)- Reproduced from Casselts

Bible Educator, by the courtesy of the publishers.
,, 448. BoswELLiA Fkereana, from a drawing by Mr. W. H. P'itch. The use

of this engraving is granted by the India Museum through the kindness

of Sir George Bird-wood.
„ 453. A Persian BAd-gIr, or Wind-Catcher. From a drawing in the Atlas to

Ilommaire de Hell's Persia. Engraved by Adeney.

Book Fourth.

478. Tomb of Oljaitu Khan, the brother of Polo's Casan, at Sultaniah.

From Fergus son's History of Architecture.
482. The Siberian Dog-Sledge. From the Tour du Monde.
489. Mediaeval Russian Church. From Fergusson's History of Architecture.
493. Figure of a Tartar under the Feet of Henry Duke of Silesia, Cracow,

and Poland, from the tomb at Breslau of that Prince, killed in battle

with the Tartar host, 9th April, 1241. After a plate in Schlesische

Fiirstenbilder des Mittelalters, Breslau, 1868.
501. Asiatic Warriors of Polo's Age. From the MS. of Rashiduddin's

History, noticed under cut at p. 19. Engraved by Adeney.

Appendices.

555. Figure of Marco Polo, from the first printed edition of his Book,
published in German at Nuremberg 1477. Traced from a copy in the
Berlin Library. (This tracing was the gift of Mr. Samuel D. Horton,
of Cincinnati, through Mr. Marsh.)

595. Marco Polo's rectified Itinerary from KJiotan to Nia.

THE BOOK OF MARCO POLO

BOOK SECOND.— COJVT/Jvc/ED.

Part II.— JOURNEY TO THE WEST AND SOUTH-
WEST OF CATHAY.

VOL. II

THE

BOOK OF MARCO POLO

BOOK 11. — CONTINUED,

Part II.— JOURNEY TO THE WEST AND
SOUTH-WEST OF CATHAY

CHAPTER XXXV.

Here begins the Description of the Interior of Cathay ;
AND first of the River Pulisanghin.

Now you must know that the Emperor sent the afore-
said Messer Marco Polo, who is the author of this
whole story, on business of his into the Western
Provinces. On that occasion he travelled from Cam-
baluc a good four months' journey towards the west'
And so now I will tell you all that he saw on his travels
as he went and returned.

When you leave the City of Cambaluc and have
ridden ten miles, you come to a very large river which
is called Pulisanghin, and flows into the ocean, so
that merchants with their merchandise ascend it from
the sea. Over this River there is a very fine stone
bridge, so fine indeed, that it has very few equals. The
fashion of it is this : it is 300 paces in length, and it
must have a good eight paces of width, for ten mounted
men can ride across it abreast. It has 24 arches and
VOL, II. A 2

MARCO POLO

Book II.

as many water-mills, and 'tis all of very fine marble,
well built and firmly founded. Along the top of the
bridge there is on either side a parapet of marble slabs
and columns, made in this way. At the beginning of
the bridge there is a marble column, and under it a
marble lion, so that the column stands upon the lion's
loins, whilst on the top of the column there is a second
marble lion, both being of great size and beautifully
executed sculpture. At the distance of a pace from
this column there is another precisely the same, also

The Bridge of Pulisanghin. (Reduced from a Chinese original.)

"—ti ^tsns ct2t flttm a nn moni hxnns> pont iic fxnzs : mx snchitz qt poni n'ji
m t0ut h monht iic s>i hinxxs nt son yarrtl."

with its two lions, and the space between them is closed
with slabs of grey marble to prevent people from falling
over into the water. And thus the columns run from
space to space along either side of the bridge, so that
altogether it is a beautiful object."

Note i..— [When Marco leaves the capital, he takes the main road, the "Imperial
Highway," from Peking to Si-ngan fu, ma Pao-ting, Cheng-ting, Hwai-luh, Tai'ryuan,
Ping-yang, and T'ung-kwan, on the Yellow River. Mr. G. F. Eaton, writing from

Chap. XXXV.

BRIDGE OF PULISANGHIN

rian-chung [Jour. China Br. R.As. Soc. XXVIII. No. i) says it is a cart-road, except
for six days between Ta'i-yuan and Hwai-luh, and that it takes twenty-nine days to
go from Peking to Si-ngan, a figure which agrees well with Polo's distances ; it is also
the time which Dr. Forke's journey lasted; he left Peking on the 1st May, 1892,
reached Tai-yuan on the 12th, and arrived at Si-ngan on the 30th ( Von Peking nach
Ch'ang-an). Mr. Rockhiil left Peking on the 17th December, 1888, reached T'ai-
yiian on the 26th, crossed the Yellow River on the 5th January, and arrived at Si-
ngan fu on the 8ih January, 1889, in twenty-two days, a distance of 916 miles.
{Land of the Lamas, pp. 372-374.) M. Grenard left Si-ngan on the loth November
and reached Peking on the i6th December, 1894 = thirty-six days; he reckons 1389
kilometres = 863 miles. (See AVz^. C. ILolconibe^ Totir through Shan-hsi and Shen-hsi
mjottr. North China Br. R. A. S. N. S. X. pp. 54-70.)— H. C]

Note 2. — rtd-i-Sangin, the name which Marco gives the River, means in Persian
simply (as Marsden noticed) "The Stone Bridge." In a very different region the
same name often occurs in the history of Timur applied to a certain bridge, in the
country north of Badakhshan, over the Wakhsh branch of the Oxus. And the

The Bridge of Pulisanghin. (From the Livre dcs Merveilles.)

Turkish admiral Sidi 'Ali, travelling that way from India in the i6th century, applies
the name, as it is applied here, to the river ; for his journal tells us that beyond
Kulab he crossed "the River Pulisangin.''''

We may easily suppose, therefore, that near Cambaluc also, the Bridge, first, and
then the River, came to be known to the Persian-speaking foreigners of the court and
city by this name. This supposition is however a little perplexed by the circumstance
that Rashiduddin calls the River the Sangin, and that Sangkan-llo appears from the
maps or citations of Martini, Klaproth, Neumann, and Pauthier to have been one of
the Chinese names of the river, and indeed, Sankang is still the name of one of the
confluents forming the Hwan Ho.

[By Sanghin, Polo renders the Chinese Sang-kan, by which name the River Hun-
ho is already mentioned, in the 6th century of our era. LIun-ho is also an ancient
name : and the same river in ancient books is often called Lu-Koti River also. All

6 MARCO POLO Book II.

these names are in use up to the present time ; but on modern Chinese maps, only
the upper part of the river is termed Sang-Kan ho, whilst south of the inner Great
Wall, and in the plain, the name oi Hun-ho is api:)lied to it. Hun ho means '* Muddy
River," and the term is quite suitable. In the last century, the Emperor K'ien-lung
ordered the Hun-ho to be named Yung-ting ho, a name found on modern maps, but
the people always call it Ilun ho.'''' {Bretschneider, Pekmg, p. 54.)— H. C]

The River is that which appears in the maps as the Hwan Ho, Hun-ho, or
Yongting Ho, flowing about 7 miles west of Teking towards the south-east and joining
the Pe-Ho at Tientsin ; and the Bridge is that which has been known for ages as the
Lu-kou-Kiao or Bridge of Lukou, adjoining the town which is called in the Russian
map of Peking Feuchen, but in the official Chinese Atlas Kung-Keih-cheng. (See Map
at ch. xi. of Bk. II. in the first Volume.) ["Before arriving at the bridge the small
walled city of Kung-ki cheng is passed. This was founded in the first half of the 17th
century. The people generally call it Fei-ch'eng" {Bretschneider, Peking, p. 50.)—
H. C] It is described both by Magaillans and Lecomte, with some curious dis-
crepancies, whilst each affords particulars corroborative of Polo's account of the
character of the bridge. The former calls it the finest bridge in China. Lecomte's
account says the bridge was the finest he had yet seen. " It is above 170 geometrical
paces (850 feet) in length. The arches are small, tut the rails or side-walls are made
of a hard whitish stone resembling marble. These stones are more than 5 feet long,
3 feet high, and 7 or 8 inches thick ; supported at each end by pilasters adorned with
mouldings and bearing the figures of lions. . . . The bridge is paved with great flat
stones, so well joined that it is even as a floor."

Magaillans thinks Polo's memory partially misled him, and that his description
applies more correctly to another bridge on the same road, but some distance further
west, over the Lieu-li PIo. For the bridge over the Hwan Ho had really but
thirteen arches, whereas that on the Lieu-li had, as Polo specifies, twenty-four. The
engraving which we give of the Lu-kou K'iao from a Chinese work confirms this
statement, for it shows but thirteen arches. And what Polo says of the navigation of
the river is almost conclusive proof that Magaillans is right, and that our traveller's
memory confounded the two bridges. For the navigation of the Hwan Ho, even
when its channel is full, is said to be impracticable on account of rapids, whilst the
Lieu-li Ho, or ' ' Glass River," is, as its name implies, smooth, and navigable, and it
is largely navigated by boats from the coal-mines of Fang-shan. The road crosses the
latter about two leagues from Cho-chau. (See next chapter.)

[The Rev. W. S. Ament {M. Polo in Cainbaluc, p. 116-I17) remarks regarding
Yule's quotation from Magaillans that "a glance at Chinese history would have
explained to these gentlemen that there was no stone bridge over the Liu Li river till
the days of Kia Tsing, the Ming Emperor, 1522 A.D., or more than one hundred and
fifty years after Polo was dead. Hence he could not have confounded bridges, one
of which he never saw. The Lu Kou Bridge was first constructed of stone by She
Tsung, fourth Emperor of the Kin, in the period Ta Ting 1189 A.D., and, was
finished by Chang Tsung 11 94 a.d. Before that time it had been constructed of
wood, and had been sometimes a stationary and often a floating bridge. The oldest
account [end of i6th century] states that the bridge was pu 200 in length, and
specifically states that each pu was 5 feet, thus making the bridge 1000 feet long.
It was called the Kuan Li Bridge. The Emperor, Kia Tsing of the Ming, was a great
bridge builder. He reconstructed this bridge, adding strong embankments to prevent
injury by floods. He also built the fine bridge over the Liu Li Ho, the Cho Chou
Bridge over the Chii Ma Ho. What cannot be explained is Polo's statement that the
bridge had twenty-four arches, when the oldest accounts give no more than thirteen,
there being eleven at the present time. The columns which supported the balustrade
in Polo's time rested upon the loins of sculptured lions. The account of the lions
after the bridge was repaired by Kia Tsing says that there are so many that it is
impossible to count them correctly, and gossip about the bridge says that several
persons have lost their minds in making the attempt. The little walled city on the

8 MARCO POLO Book II.

east end of the bridge, rightly called Kung Chi, popularly called Fei Ch'eng, is a
monument to Ts'ung Cheng, the last of the Ming, who built it, hoping to check the
advance of Li Tzu ch'eng, the great robber chief who finally proved too strong for
him."— II. C]

The Bridge of Lu-kou is mentioned more ttian once in the history of the conquest
of North China by Chinghiz. It was the scene of a notable mutiny of the troops of
the Kin Dynasty in 1215, which induced Chinghiz to break a treaty just concluded,
and led to his capture of Peking.

This bridge was begun, according to Klaproth, in 1 189, and was five years a-building.
On the 17th August, 1688, as Magaillans tells us, a great flood carried away two
arches of the bridge, and the remainder soon fell. [Father Intorcetta, quoted by
Bretschneider [Peking, p. 53), gives the 25th of July, I668, as the date of the destruc-
tion of the bridge, which agrees well with the Chinese accounts. — H. C] The
bridge was renewed, but with only nine arches instead of thirteen, as appears from
tlie following note of personal observation with which Dr. Lockhart has favoured me :

'* At 27 // from Peking, by the western road leaving the gate of the Chinese city
called Kwang-'an-man, after passing the old walled town of Feuclien, you reach the
bridge of Lo-Kii-Kiao. As it now stands it is a very long bridge of nine arches (real
arches) spanning the valley of the 1 1 wan Ho, and surrounded by beautiful scenery.
The britlge is built of green sandstone, and has a good balustrade with short square
pilasters crowned by small lions. It is in very good repair, and has a ceaseless traffic,
being on the road to the coal-mines which supply the city. There is a pavilion at
each end of the bridge with inscriptions, the one recording that K'anghi (1662-1723)
built the bridge, and the other that Kienlung (1736-1796) repait'ed it^ These circum-
stances are strictly consistent with Magaillans' account of the destruction of the
mediaeval bridge. WiUiamson describes the present bridge as about 700 feet long,
and 12 feet wide in the middle part.

[Dr. Bretschneider saw the bridge, and gives the following description of it : " The
bridge is 350 ordinary paces long and 18 broad. It is built of sandstone, and
has on either side a stone balustrade of square columns, about 4 feet high, 140 on
each side, each crowned by a sculptured lion over a foot high. Beside these there
are a number of smaller lions placed irregularly on the necks, behind the legs, under
the feet, or on the back of the larger ones. The space between the columns is closed
by stone slabs. Four sculptured stone elephants lean with their foreheads against
the edge of the balustrades. The bridge is supported by eleven arches. At each
end of the bridge two pavilions with yellow roofs have been built, all with large
marble tablets in them ; two with inscriptions made by order of the Emperor K'ang-
hi (1662-1723); and two with inscriptions of the time of K'ien-lung (1736-1796).
On these tablets the history of the bridge is recorded." Dr. Bretschneider adds
that Dr. Lockhart is also right in counting nine arches, for he counts only the water-
ways, not the arches resting upon the banks of the river. Dr. Forke (p. 5) counts II
arches and 280 stone lions.— H. C]

{P. de la Croix, II. ii, etc. ; Erskine's Babcr, p. xxxiii. ; Ti;no7ir's Institutes^
70; /. As. IX. 205; Cathay, 260; Magaillans, 14-18, 35; Lecointe in Astley, III.
529 ;y". As. ser. II. torn. i. 97-98; D'Ohsson, I. 144.)

lO MARCO POLO Book II.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Account of the City of Juju.

When you leave the Bridge, and ride towards the west,
finding all the way excellent hostel ries for travellers,
with fine vineyards, fields, and gardens, and springs of
water, you come after 30 miles to a fine large city called
Juju, where there are many abbeys of idolaters, and the
people live by trade and manufactures. They weave
cloths of silk and gold, and very fine taffetas.-^ Here
too there are many hostelries for travellers.^

After riding a mile beyond this city you find two
roads, one of which goes west and the other south-east*
The westerly road is that through Cathay, and the
south-easterly one goes towards the province of
Manzi."

Taking the westerly one through Cathay, and
travelling by it for ten days, you find a constant
succession of cities and boroughs, with numerous thriv-
ing villages, all abounding with trade and manufactures,
besides the fine fields and vineyards and dwellings
of civilized people ; but nothing occurs worthy of
special mention ; and so I will only speak of a kingdom
called Taianfu.

Note i. — The word hse/idatts (Pauthier), pi. oi scudal^ and in G. T. sandal. It
does not seem perfectly known what this silk texture was, but as banners were made
of it, and linings for richer stuffs, it appears to have been a light material, and is
generally rendered taffetas. In Richard Cceitr de Lion we find

" Many a pencel of sykelatoun

And of sendel of grene and broun,''

and a\?,o pavilions of sendel ; and in the Anglo-French ballad of the death of Williann
Earl of Salisbury in St. Lewis's battle on the Nile —

" Le Meister du Temple brace les chivaux
Et le Count Long-Espee depli les sandaiix."

Chap. XXXVI. THE CITY OF JUJU 1 1

The oriflamme of France was made of cendal. Chaucer couples taffetas and sendal.
His " Doctor of Physic "

*' In sanguin and in perse clad was alle,
Lined with taffata and with sendalle."

[La Curne, Dict,^ s. v. Sendaus has : Silk stuff: "Somme de la delivrance des
sendausP {Notiv. Compt. de V Arg. p. 19). — Godefroy, Diet., gives: '■'■ Sendain,
adj., made with the stuff called cendal : Drap d'or se?tdains (1392, Test, de
Blanche, duck. d'Orl., Ste-Croix, Arch. Loiret)." He says s.v. Cendal,
^' cendau, cendral, cettdcl, . . . sendail, . . . etoffe legere de soie unie qui parait
avoir ete analogue au taffetas." "'On faisait des cendatix forts ou faibles, et on
leur donnait toute sorte de couleurs. On s'en servait surtout pour vetements et
corsets, pour doublures de draps, de fourrures et d'autres etofifes de soie plus
precieuses, enfin pour tenture d'appartements,' {Bow-qttelot, Fair, de Champ.
I. 261)."

"J'ay de toilles de mainte guise,
De sidonnes et de cendatdx.
Soyes, satins blancs et vermaulx."
—Grebaji, Mist, de la Pass., 26826, G. Paris. -H. C]

The origin of the word seems also somewhat doubtful. The word 'Levbh occurs in
Co7tstant. Porphyrog. de Ceretnoniis (Bonn, ed. I. 468), and this looks like a transfer
of the Arabic Sdndds or Swidus, which is applied by Bakui to the silk fabrics of
Yezd. {Not. et Ext. II. 469.) Reiske thinks this is the origin of the Frank word,
and connects its etymology with Sind. Others think that sendal and the other forms
are modifications of the ancient Sindon, and this is Mr. Marsh's view. (See also Fr.-
Michel, Recherches, etc. I. 212; Diet, des Tissus, II. 171 seqq.)

Note 2. — ^Ji5ju is precisely the name given to this city by Rashiduddin, who
notices the vineyards. Juju is Cho-CHAU, just at the distance specified from Peking,
viz. 40 miles, and nearly 30 from Pulisanghin or Lu-kou K'iao. The name of the
town is printed Tsochow by Mr. Williamson, and Chechow in a late Report of a journey
by Consul Oxenham. He calls it "a large town of the second order, situated on the
banks of a small river flowing towards the south-east, viz. the Kiu-ma-Ho, a navigable
stream. It had the appearance of being a place of considerable trade, and the streets
were crowded with people." {Reports of Journeys in China arid Japan, etc. Pre-
sented to Parliament, 1 869, p. 9.) The place is called y^(;'zi also in the Persian
itinerary given by 'Izzat Ullah iny. R. A. S. VII. 308 ; and in one procured by Mr.
Shaw. {Proc. R. G. S. XVI. p. 253.)

[The Rev. W. S. Ament {Marco Polo, 1 19-120) writes, '* the historian of the city of
Cho-chau sounds the praises of the people for their religious spirit. He says : — ' It
was the custom of the ancients to worship those who were before them. Thus students
worshipped their instructors, farmers worshipped the first husbandman, workers in
silk, the original silk-worker. Thus when calamities come upon the land, the virtuous
among the people make offerings to the spirits of earth and heaven, the mountains,
rivers, streams, etc. All these things are profitable. These customs should never be
forgotten.' After such instruction, we are prepared to find fifty-eight temples of
every variety in this little city of about 20,000 inhabitants. There is a temple to the
spirits of Wind, Clouds, Thunder, and Rain, to the god of silk-workers, to the Horse-
god, to the god of locusts, and the eight destructive insects, to the Five Dragons, to
the King who quiets the waves. Besides these, there are all the orthodox temples to
the ancient worthies, and some modern heroes. Liu Pei and Chang Fei, two of
the three great heroes of the San Kzio Chih, being natives of Cho Chou, are each
honoured with two temples, one in the native village, and one in the city. It is not
often that one locality can give to a great empire two of its three most popular heroes :
Liu Pei, Chang Fei, Kuan Yu."

"Judging from the condition of the country," writes the Rev. W. S. Ament

12 MARCO POLO Book II.

(p. I20), *' one could hardly believe that this general region was the original home of the
silk-worm, and doubtless the people who once lived here are the only people who
ever saw the silk-worm in his wild state. The historian of Cho-Chou honestly re-
marks that he knows of no reason why the production of silk should have ceased
there, except the fact that the worms refused to live there. . . . The palmy days of
the silk industry were in the T'ang dynasty." — II. C]

Note 3. — " About a li from the southern suburbs of this town, the great road to
Shantung and the south-east diverged, causing an immediate diminution in the
number of carts and travellers" {Oxenham). [From Peking "to Cheng-ting fu,
says Colonel Bell {^Proc. R. G. S., XII. 1890, p. 58), the route followed is the Great
Southern highway ; here the Great Central Asian highway leaves it." . The
Rev. W. S. Ament says (/.f., 121) about the bifurcation of the road, one branch
going on south-west to Pao-Ting fu and Shan-si, and one branch to Shantung
land Ho-nan : "The union of the two roads at this point, bringing the travel
and traffic of ten provinces, makes Cho Chou one of the most important cities in
the Empire. The magistrate of this district is the only one, so far as we know,
in the Empire who is relieved of the duty of welcoming and escorting tran&ient
officers. It was the multiplicity of such duties, so harassing, that persuaded Fang
Kuan-ch'eng to write the couplet on one of the city gate-ways : Jt/i pien chhrngyao,
wu shuang ti : T'ien hsiafan nan, ti yi Chou. * In all the world, there is no place
so public as this : for multiplied cares and trials, this is the first Chou.' The people
of Cho-Chou, of old celebrated for their religious spirit, are now well known for their
literary enterprise." — H. C] This bifurcation of the roads is a notable point in
Polo's book. P'or after following the western road through Cathay, i.e. the northern
provinces of China, to the borders of Tibet and the Indo-Chinese regions, our
traveller will return, whimsically enough, not to the capital to take a fresh de-
parture, but to this bifurcation outside of Chochau, and thence carry us south with
him to Manzi, or China south of the Yellow River.

Of a part of the road of which Polo speaks in the latter part of the chapter
Williamson says : " The drive was a very beautiful one. Not only were the many
villages almost hidden by foliage, but the road itself hereabouts is lined with
trees. . . . The effect was to make the journey like a ramble through the avenues
of some English park." Beyond Tingchau however the country becomes more
barren. (I. 268.)

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The Kingdom of 7'aianfu.

After riding then those ten days from the city of Juju,
you find yourself in a kingdom called Taianfu, and
the city at which you arrive, which is the capital, is also
called Taianfu, a very great and fine city. [But at the
end of five days' journey out of those ten, they say
there is a city unusually large and handsome called

Chap. XXXVII THE KINGDOM OF TAIANFU

AcBALUC, whereat terminate in this direction the hunt-
ing preserves of the Emperor, within which no one
dares to sport except the Emperor and his family, and
those who are on the books of the Grand Falconer.
Beyond this limit any one is at liberty to sport, if he be
a gentleman. The Great Kaan, however, scarcely ever
went hunting in this direction, and hence the game,
particularly the hares, had increased and multiplied to
such an extent that all the crops of the Province were
destroyed. The Great Kaan being informed of this,
proceeded thither with all his Court, and the game that
was taken was past counting.] ^

Taianfu ^ is a place of great trade and great industry,
for here they manufacture a large quantity of the most
necessary equipments for the army of the Emperor.
There grow here many excellent vines, supplying great
plenty of wine ; and in all Cathay this is the only
place where wine is produced. It is carried hence
all over the country.^ There is also a great deal of silk
here, for the people have great quantities of mulberry-
trees and silk-worms.

From this city of Taianfu you ride westward again
for seven days, through fine districts with plenty of
towns and boroughs, all enjoying much trade and
practising various kinds of industry. Out of these
districts go forth not a few great merchants, who travel
to India and other foreign regions, buying and selling
and getting gain. After those seven days' journey you
arrive at a city called Pianfu, a large and important
place, with a number of traders living by commerce
and industry. It is a place too where silk is largely
produced.^

So we will leave it and tell you of a great city called
Cachanfu. But stay — first let us tell you about the
noble castle called Caichu.

14 MARCO POLO Book II.

Note i. — Marsden translates the commencement of this passage, which is peculiar
to Ramusio, and runs '■'' E in capo di cinqtie giornate delle predeite died,'" by the words
" At the end of five days' journey beyond the ten," but this is clearly wrong.* The
place best suiting in position, as halfway between Cho-chau and T'ai-yuan fu, would be
Cheng-ting fu, and I have little doubt that this is the place intended. The title of
Ak-BdlighmT\xx\s.\,\ or Chaghdn Balghdstm in Mongol, meaning " White City," was
applied by the Tartars to Royal Residences ; and possibly Cheng-ting fu may have
had such a claim, for I observe in the Annales de la Prop, de la Foi (xxxiii. 387) that
in 1862 the Chinese Government granted to the R. C. Vicar-Apostolic of Chihli the
ruined Imperial Palace at Cheng-ting fu for his cathedral and other mission establish-
ments. Moreover, as a matter of fact, Rashiduddin's account of Chinghiz's campaign
in northern China in 1214, speaks of the city of " Chaghan Balghasun which the
Chinese call Jintzinfu.^^ This is almost exactly the way in which the name of
Cheng-ting fu is represented in 'Izzat Ullah's Persian Itinerary {/igdzinfu, evidently
a clerical error iox Jingdzinfti), so I think there can be little doubt that Cheng-ting fu
is the place intended. The name of Hwai-luh'ien (see Note 2), which is the first
stage beyond Cheng-ting fu, is said to mean the " Deer-lair," pointing apparently to
the old character of the tract as a game-preserve. The city of Cheng-ting is described
by Consul Oxenham as being now in a decayed and dilapidated condition, consisting
only of two long streets crossing at right angles. It is noted for the manufacture of
images of Buddha from Shan-si iron. {Cojistdar Reports, p. 10 ; Erdmann, 331.)

[The main road turns due west at Cheng-ting fu, and enters Shan-si through what is
known among Chinese travellers as the Ku-kwan, Customs' Barrier. — H. C]

Between Cheng-ting fu and T'ai-yuan fu the traveller first crosses a high and
rugged range of mountains, and then ascends by narrow defiles to the plateau of
Shan-si. But of these features Polo's excessive condensation takes no notice.

The traveller who quits the great plain of Chihli [which terminates at Fu ch'eng-i, a
small market-town, two days from Pao-ting. — H. C] for " tlie kingdom of Taianfu,"
i.e. Northern Shan-si, enters a tract in which predominates that very remarkable
formation called by the Chinese Hwaitg-tu, and to which the German name Loss has
been attached. With this formation are bound up the distinguishing characters of
Northern Interior China, not merely in scenery but in agricultural products, dwellings,
and means of transport. This Loss is a brownish-yellow loam, highly porous, spread-
ing over low and high ground alike, smoothing over irregularities of surface, and often
more than looo feet in thickness. It has no stratification, but tends to cleave
vertically, and is traversed in every direction by sudden crevices, almost glacier-like,
narrow, with vertical walls of great depth, and infinite ramification. Smooth as the
loss basin looks in a bird's-eye view, it is thus one of the most impracticable countries
conceivable for military movements, and secures extraordinary value to fortresses in
well-chosen sites, such as that of Tung-kwan mentioned in Note 2 to chap. xli.

Agriculture may be said in N. China to be confined to the alluvial plains and
the loss ; as in S. China to the alluvial plains and the terraced hill-sides. The loss
has some peculiar quality which renders its productive power self-renewing without
manure (unless it be in the form of a surface coat of fresh loss), and unfailing in
returns if there be sufficient rain. This singular formation is supposed by Baron
Richthofen, who has studied it more extensively than any one, to be no subaqueous
deposit, but to be the accumulated residue of countless generations of herbaceous
plants combined with a large amount of material spread over the face of the ground by
the winds and surface waters.

[I do not agree with the theory of Baron von Richthofen, of the almost exclusive
Eolian formation of loess ; water has something to do with it as well as wind, and I
think it is more exact to say that loess in China is due to a double action, Neptunian
as well as Eolian. The climate was different in former ages from what it is now, and

* And I see Ritter understood the passage as I do (IV. 515),
t Bdligh is indeed properly Mongol,

Chap. XXXVII. THE CITY OF TAIANFU 1 5

rain was plentiful and to its great quantity was due the fertility of this yellow soil.
(Cf. A. de Lapparent, Le^ojis de Geographic Physique, 2^ ed. 1898, p. 566.)— II. C]

Though we do not expect to find Polo taking note of geological features, we are
surprised to find no mention of a characteristic of Shan-si and the adjoining districts,
which is due to the loss; viz. the practice of forming cave dwellings in it; these in
fact form the habitations of a majority of the people in the loss country. Polo has
noticed a similar usage in Badakhshan (I. p. 161), and it will be curious if a better
acquaintance with that region should disclose a surface formation analogous to the
loss. {Richthofen's Letters, VII. 13 et passim.)

Note 2. — Ta?anfu is, as Magaillans pointed out, T'ai-yuan fu, the capital of the
Province of Shan-si, and Shan-si is the "Kingdom." The city was, however, the
capital of the great T'ang Dynasty for a time in the 8th century, and is probably the
Tdj'ah or Taiyunah of old Arab writers. Mr. Williamson speaks of it as a very
pleasant city at the north end of a most fertile and beautiful plain, between two noble
ranges of mountains. It was a residence, he says, also of the Ming princes, and is
laid out in Peking fashion, even to mimicking the Coal-Hill and Lake of the Imperial
Gardens. It stands about 3000 feet above the sea [on the left bank of the Fen-ho. —
H. C.]. There is still an Imperial factory of artillery, matchlocks, etc., as well as a
powder mill ; and fine carpets like those of Turkey are also manufactured. The city
is not, however, now, according to Baron Richthofen, very populous, and conveys no
impression of wealth or commercial importance. [In an interesting article on this
city, the Rev. G. B. Farthing writes {North China Herald, 7th September, 1894) :
** The configuration of the ground enclosed by T'ai-yuan fu city is that of a * three
times to stretch recumbent cow.' The site was chosen and described by Li Chun-
feng, a celebrated professor of geomancy in the days of the T'angs, who lived during
the reign of the Emperor T'ai Tsung of that ilk. The city having been then founded,
its history reaches back to that date. Since that time the cow has stretched twice.
. . . T'ai-yuan city is square, and surrounded by a wall of earth, of which the outer
Face is bricked. The height of the Mall varies from thirty to fifty feet, and it is so
broad that two carriages could easily pass one another upon it. The natives would
tell you that each of the sides is three miles, thirteen paces in length, but this,
possibly, includes what it will be when the cow shall have stretched for the third and
last time. Two miles is the length of each side ; eight miles to tramp if you wish to
go round the four of them." — H. C] The district used to be much noted for cutlery
and hardware, iron as well as coal being abundantly produced in Shan-si. Apparently
the present Birmingham of this region is a town called Hwai-lu, or Hwo-luh'ien,
about 20 miles west of Cheng-ting fu, and just on the western verge of the great plain
of Chihli. [Regarding Hwai-lu, the Rev. C. Holcombe calls it "a miserable town
lying among the foot hills, and at the mouth of the valley, up which the road into
Shan-si lies." He writes (p. 59) that Ping-ting chau, after the Customs' barrier
(Ku Kwan) between Chih-li and Shan-si, would, under any proper system of
management, at no distant day become the Pittsburg, or Birmingham, of China. —
H, C] {Richthofen^ s Letters, No. VI I. 20; Cathay, xcvii. cxiii. cxciv. ; Rennie, II.
265 ; Williamson^ s Jotcrneys in North China ; Oxenham, u. s. 11 ; Klaproth vaj. As.
ser. II. torn. i. 100 ; Izzat Ullah's Pers. Ltifi. in/. R. A. S. VII. 307 ; Forke, Von
Peking nach Ch'ang-an, p. 23.)

[" From Khavailu (Hwo-luh'ien), an important commercial centre supplying
Shansi, for 130 miles to Sze-tien, the road traverses the loess hills, which extend
from the Peking-Kalgan road in a south-west direction to the Yellow River, and which
are passable throughout this length only by the Great Central Asian trade route to
T'ai-yuan fu and by the Tung-Kwan, Ho-nan, i.e. the Yellow River route. {Colonel
Bell, Proc. R. G. S. XII. 1890, p. 59.) Colonel Bell reckons seven days (218 miles)
from Peking to Hwo-lu-h'ien and five days from this place to T'ai-yuan fu," — H. C]

Note 3. — Martini observes that the grapes in Shan-si were very abundant and the

l6 MARCO POLO Book II,

best in China. The Chinese used them only as raisins, but wine was made there for
the use of the early Jesuit Missions, and their successors continue to make it.
Klaproth, however, tells us that the wine of T'ai-yuan fu was celebrated in the days of
the T'ang Dynasty, and used to be sent in tribute to the Emperors. Under the
Mongols the use of this wine spread greatly. The founder of the Ming accepted the
offering of wine of the vine from T'aiyuan in 1373, but prohibited its being presented
again. The finest grapes are produced in the district of Yukau-hien, where hills
shield the plain from north winds, and convert it into a garden many square miles in
extent. In the vintage season the best grapes sell for less than a farthing a pound.
[Mr. Theos. Sampson, in an article on " Grapes in China," writes {Notes atid Queries
on China and Japan, April, 1869, p. 50) : "The earliest mention of the grape in
Chinese literature appears to be contained in the chapter on the nations of Central
Asia, entitled Ta Yuan Chwan, or description of Fergana, which forms part of the
historical records {Sze-Ki) of Sze-ma Tsien, dating from B.C. 100. Writing of the
political relations instituted shortly before this date by the Emperor Wu Ti with the
nations beyond the Western frontiers of China, the historian dwells at considerable
length, but unluckily with much obscurity, on the various missions despatched west-
ward under the leadership of Chang K'ien and others, and mentions the grape vine in
the following passage : — * Throughout the country of Fergana, wine is made from
grapes, and the wealthy lay up stores of wine, many tens of thousands of shih in
amount, which may be kept for scores of years without spoiling. Wine is the
common beverage, and for horses the mu-su is the ordinary pasture. The envoys
from China brought back seeds with them, and hereupon the Emperor for
the first time cultivated the grape and the mu-su in the most productive soils.'
In the Description of Western regions, forming part of the History of the Han Dynasty,
it is stated that grapes are abundantly produced in the country of K'i-pin (identified
with Cophene, part of modern Afghanistan) and other adjacent countries, and
referring, if I mistake not, to the journeys of Chang K'ien, the same work says, that the
Emperor Wu-Ti despatched upwards of ten envoys to the various countries west-
ward of Fergana, to search for novelties, and that they returned with grape and mu-
su seeds. These references appear beyond question to determine the fact that grapes
were introduced from Western — or, as we term it, Central — Asia, by Chang K'ien."

Dr. Bretschneider {Botanicon Sinicum, I. p. 25), relating the mission of Chang
K'ien {139 B.C. Emperor Wu-Ti), who died about B.C. 103, writes : — " He is said to
have introduced many useful plants from Western Asia into China. Ancient Chinese
authors ascribe to him the introduction of the Vine, the Pomegranate, Safflower, the
Common Bean, the Cucumber, Lucerne, Coriander, the Walnut-tree, and other
plants." — H. C] The river that flows down from Shan-si by Cheng-ting-fu is called
" Putu-ho, or the Grape River." {J. As, u. s. ; Richthofen, u. s.)

[Regarding the name of this river, the Rev. C. Holcombe {I.e. p. 56) writes :
" Williamson states in \{\'& Journeys in North China that the name of this stream is,
properly Poo-too Ho — ' Grape River,' but is sometimes written Hu-t'ou River in-
correctly. The above named author, however, is himself in error, the name given
above \^Hu-t^o'\ being invariably found in all Chinese authorities, as well as being the
name by which the stream is known all along its course."

West of the Fan River, along the western border of the Central Plain of Shan-si,
in the extreme northern point of which lies T'ai-yuan fu, the Rev. C. Holcombe says
(p. 61), " is a large area, close under the hills, almost exclusively given up to the
cultivation of the grape. The grapes are unusually large, and of delicious flavour." —
H. C]

Note 4. — --In no part of China probably, says Richthofen, do the towns and
villages consist of houses so substantial and costly as in this. Pianfu is undoubtedly,
as Magaillans again notices, P'ing-YANG fu.* It is the Bikan of Shah Rukh's

* It seems to be called Piyingfu (miswritten Piying/^«) in Mr. Shaw's Itinerary from Yarkand
{JPr. R. G, S, XVI. 253.) We often find the Western modifications of Chinese names very persistent,

Chap. XXXVIII. THE GOLDEN KING 1 7

ambassadors. [Old P'ing yang, 5 lis to the south] is said to have been the residence
of the primitive and mythical Chinese Emperor Yao. A great college for the educa-
tion of the Mongols was instituted at P'ing-) ang, by Yeliu Chutsai, the enlightened
minister of Okkodai Khan. [Its dialect differs from the T'ai-yuan dialect, and is more
like Pekingese.] The city, lying in a broad valley covered with the yellow loss, was
destroyed by the T'ai-P'ing rebels, but it is reviving. [It is known for its black pottery.]
The vicinity is noted for large paper factories. [" From T'ai-yuan fu to P'ing-yang fu
is a journey of 185 miles, down the valley of the Fuen-ho." (Colonel Bell, Proc.
R. G. S. XII. 1890, p. 61.) By the way, Mr. Rockhill remarks [Land of the Lamas,
p. 10) : " Richthofen has transcribed the name of this river Ftien. This spelling has
been adopted on most of the recent maps, both German and English, but Ftieji is
an impossible sound in Chinese." (Read Feu ho.)—lLC.'] [Cathay, ccxi. ; Ritter,
IV. 516; D'Ohsson, II. 70; IVilliamson, I. 336.)

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Concerning the Castle of Caichu.

On leaving" Pianfu you ride two days westward, and
come to the noble castle of Caichu, which was built
in time past by a king of that country, whom they used
to call the Golden King, and who had there a great
and beautiful palace. There is a great hall of this
palace, in which are pourtrayed all the ancient kings of
the country, done in gold and other beautiful colours,
and a very fine sight they make. Each king in succes-
sion as he reigned added to those pictures.^

[This Golden King was a great and potent Prince,
and during his stay at this place there used to be in
his service none but beautiful girls, of whom he had
a great number in his Court. When he went to take
the air about the fortress, these girls used to draw him
about in a little carriage which they could easily move,
and they would also be in attendance on the King for
everything pertaining to his convenience or pleasure.^]

Now I will tell you a pretty passage that befel
between the Golden King and Prester John, as it was
related by the people of the Castle.

VOL. II. B

l8 MARCO POLO Book II.

It came to pass, as they told the tale, that this
Golden King was at war with Prester John. And the
King held a position so strong that Prester John was
not able to get at him or to do him any scathe ; where-
fore he was in great wrath. So seventeen gallants
belonging to Prester John's Court came to him in a
body, and said that, an he would, they were ready to
bring him the Golden King alive. His answer was,
that he desired nothing better, and would be much
bounden to them if they would do so*.

So when they had taken leave of their Lord and
Master Prester John, they set off together, this goodly
company of gallants, and went to the Golden King,
and presented themselves before him, saying that they
had come from foreign parts to enter his service. And
he answered by telling them that they were right
welcome, and that he was glad to have their service,
never imagining that they had any ill intent. And so
these mischievous squires took service with the Golden
King ; and served him so well that he grew to love
them dearly.

And when they had abode with that King nearly
two years, conducting themselves like persons who
thought of anything but treason, they one day accom-
panied the King on a pleasure party when he had very
few else along with him : for in those gallants the King
had perfect trust, and thus kept them immediately about
his person. So after they had crossed a certain river
that is about a mile from the castle, and saw that they
were alone with the King, they said one to another that
now was the time to achieve that they had come for.
Then they all incontinently drew, and told the King
that he must go with them and make no resistance, or
they would slay him. The King at this was in alarm
and great astonishment, and said: "How then, good

Chap. XXXVIII. " PRESTER JOHN AND THE GOLDEN KING

my sons, what thing is this ye say ? and whither would
ye have me go?" They answered, and said: "You
shall come with us, will ye^ nill ye, to Prester John our
Lord."

Note i. — The name of the castle is very doubtful. But of that and the geography,
which in this part is tangled, we shall speak further on.

Whilst the original French texts were unknown, the king here spoken of figured
in the old Latin versions as King Darhis, and in Ramusio as Re Dor. It was a most
happy suggestion of Marsden's, in absence of all knowledge of the fact that the
original narrative was French, that this Dor represented the Emperor of the Kin or

The " Roi d'Or." (From a MS. in the Royal Asiatic Society's Collection.)

" C5t t\x ctstt clia$ti;t«s! ha nn moni hi\m^ pwlnsi zn qxxd n mxt QXttnhxBmt sale
la on xl siurxt iffoxtxnxt a mout hzlksi px»itttures tout Its rots ie alzsi
iffxobzrxczs quz fuwnt ansienemant, tt cz Z5i inxrut hzUt hxstz a bo'xx."

Golden Dynasty, called by the INIongols Altiai Khan., of which Roi D'Or is a literal
translation.

Of the legend itself I can find no trace. Rashiduddin relates a story of the grand-
father of Aung Khan (Polo's Prester John), INIerghuz Boiruk Khan, being treacher-
ously made over to the King of the Churche (the Kin sovereign), and put to death by
being nailed to a wooden ass. But the same author tells us that Aung Khan got his
title of Aung (Ch. Wang) or king from the Kin Emperor of his day, so that no
hereditary feud seems deducible.

Mr. Wylie, who is of opinion, like Baron Richthofen, that the Caichii which Polo
makes the scene of that story, is Kiai-chau (or Hiai-chau as it seems to be pronounced),
north of the Yellow River, has been good enough to search the histories of the Liao
and Kin Dynasties,* but without finding any trace of such a story, or of the Kin
Emperors having resided in that neighbourhood.

* [There is no trace of it in Harlez's French translation from the Manchu of the History of the Kin
Empire, 1887.— H. C]

VOL. II.

B 2

20 MARCO POLO Book II.

On the other hand, he points out that the story has a strong resemblance to a real
event which occurred in Central Asia in the beginning of Polo's century.

The Persian historians of the Mongols relate that when Chinghiz defeated and
slew Taiyang Khan, the king of the Naimans, Kushluk, the son of Taiyang, fled to
the Gur-Khan of Karakhitai and received both his protection and the hand of his
daughter (see i. 237) ; but afterwards rose against his benefactor and usurped his
throne. "In the Liao history I read," Mr. Wylie says, "that Chih-lu-ku, the last
monarch of the Karakhitai line, ascended the throne in 1 168, and in the 34th year of
his reign, when out hunting one day in autumn, Kushluk, who had 8000 troops in
ambush, made him prisoner, seized his throne and adopted the customs of the Liao,
while he conferred on Chili-lu-ku the honourable title of Tai-shang-hwang ' the old
emperor.'" *

It is this Kushluk, to whom Rubruquis assigns the role of King (or Prester) John,
the subject of so many wonderful stories. And Mr. Wylie points out that not only
was his father Taiyang Khan, according to the Chinese histories, a much more
important prince than Aung Khan or Wang Khan the Kerait, but his name 7az- Yang-
Khan is precisely " Great King John " as near as John (or Yohana) can be expressed
in Chinese. He thinks therefore that Taiyang and his son Kushluk, the Naimans,
and not Aung Khan and his descendants, the Keraits, were the parties to whom the
character of Prester John properly belonged, and that it was probably this story of
Kushluk's capture of the Karakhitai monarch {Roi de Fer) which got converted into
the form in which he relates it of the Roi d'Or.

The suggestion seems to me, as regards the story, interesting and probable ;
though I do not admit that the character of Prester John properly belonged to any
real person.

I may best explain my view of the matter by a geographical analogy. Pre-
Columbian maps of the Atlantic showed an Island of Brazil, an Island of Antillia,
founded — who knows on what ? — whether on the real adventure of a vessel driven in
sight of the Azores or Bermudas, or on mere fancy and fogbank. But when discovery
really came to be undertaken, men looked for such lands and found them accordingly.
And there they are in our geographies, Brazil and the Antilles !

The cut which we give is curious in connection with our traveller's notice of the
portrait-gallery of the Golden Kings. For it is taken from the fragmentary MS. of
Rashiduddin's History in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society, a MS. believed to
be one of those executed under the great Vazir's own supervision, and is presented
there as the portrait of the last sovereign of the Dynasty in question, being one of a
whole series of similar figures. There can be little doubt, I think, that these were
taken from Chinese originals, though, it may be, not very exactly.

Note 2. — The history of the Tartar conquerors of China, whether Khitan,
Churche, Mongol, or Manchu, has always been the same. For one or two genera-
tions the warlike character and manly habits were maintained ; and then the intruders,
having adopted Chinese manners, ceremonies, literature, and civilization, sank into
more than Chinese effeminacy and degradation. We see the custom of employing
only female attendants ascribed in a later chapter (Ixxvii.) to the Sung Emperors at
Kinsay ; and the same was the custom of the later Ming emperors, in whose time the
imperial palace was said to contain 5000 women. Indeed, the precise custom which
this passage describes was in our own day habitually reported of the T'ai-P'ing
sovereign during his reign at Nanking : " None but women are allowed in the
interior of the Palace, and he is drawn to the atidiencc-chamber in a gilded sacred
dragon-car by the ladies.''^ {Blakiston, p. 42 ; see also Wilson^ s Ever- Victorious
Army, p. 41.)

* See also Oppert (p. 157), who cites this story from Visdelou, but does not notice its analogy to
Polo's.

Chap. XXXIX. PRESTER JOHN AND THE GOLDEN KING 2 1

CHAPTER XXXIX.

How Prester John treated the Golden King his Prisoner.

And on this the Golden King was so sorely grieved that
he was like to die. And he said to them : "Good, my
sons, for God's sake have pity and compassion upon me.
Ye wot well what honourable and kindly entertainment
ye have had in my house ; and now ye would deliver me
into the hands of mine enemy! In sooth, if ye do what
ye say, ye will do a very naughty and disloyal deed, and
a right villainous." But they answered only that so it
must be, and away they had him to Prester John their
Lord.

And when Prester John beheld the King he was
right glad, and greeted him with something like a
malison.* The King answered not a word, as if he
wist not what it behoved him to say. So Prester John
ordered him to be taken forth straightway, and to be put
to look after cattle, but to be well looked after himself
also. So they took him and set him to keep cattle.
This did Prester John of the grudge he bore the King,
to heap contumely on him, and to show what a nothing
he was, compared to himself

And when the King had thus kept cattle for two
years, Prester John sent for him, and treated him with
honour, and clothed him in rich robes, and said to him :
"Now Sir King, art thou satisfied that thou wast in no
way a man to stand against me?" "Truly, my good
Lord, I know well and always did know that I was in
no way a man to stand against thee." And when he
had said this Prester John replied : " I ask no more ; but

* " Lui dist que il feust le mal veniiz."

2 2 MARCO POLO Book II.

henceforth thou shalt be waited on and honourably
treated." So he caused horses and harness of war to
be given him, with a goodly train, and sent him back
to his own country. And after that he remained ever
friendly to Prester John, and held fast by him.

So now I will say no more of this adventure of the
Golden King, but I will proceed with our subject.

CHAPTER XL.

Concerning the Great River Caramoran and the City of

Cachanfu.

When you leave the castle, and travel about 20 miles
westward, you come to a river called Caramoran, so
big that no bridge can be thrown across it ; for it is of
immense width and depth, and reaches to the Great
Ocean that encircles the Universe, — I mean the whole
earth. On this river there are many cities and walled
towns, and many merchants too therein, for much traffic
takes place upon the river, there being a great deal of
ginger and a great deal of silk produced in the country.^

Game birds here are in w^onderful abundance, inso-
much that you may buy at least three pheasants for a
Venice groat of silver. I should say rather for an asper^
which is worth a little more.^

[On the lands adjoining this river there grow vast
quantities of great canes, some of which are a foot or a
foot and a half (in girth), and these the natives employ
for many useful purposes.]

After passing the river and travelling two days west-
ward you come to the noble city of Cachanfu, which we

Chap. XL. THE CITY OF CACHANFU

have already named. The inhabitants are all Idolaters.
And I may as well remind you again that all the people
of Cathay are Idolaters. It is a city of great trade and
of work in gold-tissues of many sorts, as well as other
kinds of industry.

There is nothing else worth mentioning, and so we
will proceed and tell you of a noble city which is the
capital of a kingdom, and is called Kenjanfu.

Note i. — Kard-Muren, or Black River, is one of the names applied by the
Mongols to the Hwang Ho, or Yellow River, of the Chinese, and is used by all the
mediaeval western writers, e.g. Odoric, John Marignolli, Rashiduddin.

The River, where it skirts Shan-si, is for the most part difficult both of access and
of passage, and ill adapted to navigation, owing to the violence of the stream.
Whatever there is of navigation is confined to the transport of coal down-stream from
Western Shan-si, in large flats. Mr. Elias, who has noted the River's level by
aneroid at two points 920 miles apart, calculated the fall over that distance, which
includes the contour of Shan-si, at 4 feet per mile. The best part for navigation is
above this, from Ning-hiato Chaghan Kuren (in about 1 10° E. long.), in which Captain
Prjevalski's observations give a fall of less than 6 inches per mile. {Richthofen,
Letter VH. 25 ; Williamson, I. 69;/. R. G. S. XLHI. p. 115; Petermann, 1873,
pp. 89-91.)

[On 5th January, 1889, Mr. Rockhill coming to the Yellow River from P'ing-yang,
found {Land of the Lamas, p. 17) that "the river was between 500 and 600 yards
wide, a sluggish, muddy stream, then covered with floating ice about a foot thick.
.... The Yellow River here is shallow, iiv the main channel only is it four or five
feet deep." The Rev. C. Holcombe, who crossed in October, says (p. 65) : that "it
was nowhere more than 6 feet deep, and on returning, three of the boatmen sprang
into the water in midstream and waded ashore, carrying a line from the ferry-boat
to prevent us from rapidly drifting down with the current. The water was just up
to their hips." — H. C]

Note 2. — It is remarkable that the abundance of silk in Shan-si and Shen-si is so
distinctly mentioned in these chapters, whereas now there is next to no silk at all
grown in these districts. Is this the result of a change of climate, or only a com-
mercial change? Baron Richthofen, to whom I have referred the question, believes it
to be due to the former cause : "No tract in China would appear to have suffered so
much by a change of cHmate as Shen-si and Southern Shan-si." [See pp. 11-12.]

Note 3. — The asper or akchi^ (both meaning " white") of tne Mongols at Tana or
Azov I have elsewhere calculated, from Pegolotti's data {Cathay, p. 298), to have
contained about 05-. 2-8<^. worth of silver, which is less than the grossoj but the name
may have had a loose application to small silver coins in other countries of Asia.
Possibly the money intended may have been the 50 tsiett note. (See note I, ch. xxiv.
supra. )

24 MARCO POLO Book II.

CHAPTER XL I.

Concerning the City of Kenjanfu.

And when you leave the city of Cachanfu of which I
have spoken, and travel eight days westward, you meet
with cities and boroughs abounding in trade and industry,
and quantities of beautiful trees, and gardens, and fine
plains planted with mulberries, which are the trees on
the leaves of which the silkworms do feed/ The people
are all Idolaters. There is also plenty of game of all
sorts, both of beasts and birds.

And when you have travelled those eight days'
journey, you come to that great city which I mentioned,
called Kenjanfu.^ A very great and fine city it is, and
the capital of the kingdom of Kenjanfu, which in old
times was a noble, rich, and powerful realm, and had
many great and wealthy and puissant kings.^ But now
the king thereof is a prince called Mangalai, the son
of the Great Kaan, who hath given him this realm, and
crowned hirn king thereof.* It is a city of great trade
and industry. They have great abundance of silk, from
which they weave cloths of silk and gold of divers kinds,
and they also manufacture all sorts of equipments for an
army. They have every necessary of man's life very
cheap. The city lies towards the west ; the people are
Idolaters ; and outside the city is the palace of the
Prince Mangalai, crowned king, and son of the Great
Kaan, as I told you before.

This is a fine palace and a great, as I will tell you.
It stands in a great plain abounding in lakes and streams
and springs of water. Round about it is a massive and
lofty wall, five miles in compass, well built, and all

Chap. XLI. PALACE OF THE PRINCE MANGALAI 25

garnished with battlements. And within this wall is the
king s palace, so great and fine that no one could imagine
a finer. There are in it many great and splendid halls,
and many chambers, all painted and embellished with
work in beaten gold. This Mangalai rules his realm
right well with justice and equity, and is much beloved
by his people. The troops are quartered round about
the palace, and enjoy the sport (that the royal demesne
afTords).

So now let us quit this kingdom, and I will tell you
of a very mountainous province called Cuncun, which
you reach by a road right wearisome to travel.

Note i.—[^'Morus alba is largely grown in North China for feeding sillcworms."
{Bretschneider, Hist, of Bot. Disc. I. p. 4.)— H. C]

Note 2. — Having got to sure ground again at Kenjanfu, which is, as we shall
explain presently, the city of Si-NGAN fu, capital of Shen-si, let us look back at the
geography of the route from P'ing-yang fu. Its difficulties are great.

The traveller carries us two days' journey from P'ing-yang fu to his castle of the
Golden King. This is called in the G. Text and most other MSS. Caiati, Caytui, or
the like, but in Ramusio alone Thaigin. He then carries us 20 miles further to the
Caramoran ; he crosses this river, travels two days further, and reaches the great city
Cachanfu ; eight days more (or as in Ramusio seven) bring him to Si-ngan fu.

There seems scarcely room for doubt that Cachanfu is the Ho-chung fu [the
ancient capital of Emperor Shun — H. C] of those days, now called P'u-CHAU fu,
close to the great elbow of the Hwang Ho {Klaproth). But this city, instead of
being two days west of the great river, stands near its eastern bank.

[The Rev. C. Holcombe writes (pp. 64-65) : " P'u-chau fu lies on a level with the
Yellow River, and on the edge of a large extent of worthless marsh land, full of pools
of brackish, and in some places, positively salt water. . . . The great road does not
pass into the town, having succeeded in maintaining its position on the high ground
from which the town has backslided. . . . The great road keeping to the bluff, runs
on, turning first south, and then a trifle to the east of south, until the road, the bluff,
and Shan-si, all end together, making a sudden plunge down a precipice and being
lost in the dirty waters of the Yellow River." — H. C]

Not maintaining the infallibility of our traveller's memory, we may conceive
confusion here, between the recollections of his journey westward and those of his
return ; but this does not remove all the difBculties.

The most notable fortress of the Kin sovereigns was that of T'ungkwan, on the
right bank of the river, 25 miles below P'u-chau fu, and closing the passage between
the river and the mountains, just where the boundaries of Plo-nan, Shan-si, and Shen-si
meet. It was constantly the turning-point of the Mongol campaigns against that
Dynasty, and held a prominent place in the dying instructions of Chinghiz for the pro-
secution of the conquest of Cathay. This fortress must have continued famous to
Polo's time — indeed it continues so still, the strategic position being one which
nothing short of a geological catastrophe could impair, — but I see no way of reconcil-
ing its position with his narrative.

The name in Ramusio's form might be merely that of the Dynasty, viz. Tai-Kin

MARCO POLO

Book II.

Plan of Kichau, after Duhalde.

= Great Golden. JJut \\c have scon that Tliait,nii is not the only reading. That
of the MSS. seems to point rather to sonic nainc like KaicJiau. A hypothesis

which has seemed to me to call
/y g "" -7"j,^/fli (|( ^^r J'^^st correction in the text

is that the castle was at the Ki-chait,
of the maps, nearly due west of
r'ing-yang fu, and just about 20 miles
from the Hwang Ho ; that the river
was crossed in that vicinity, and that
the traveller then descended the
valley to opposite P'u-chau fu, or
possibly embarked and descended
the river itself to that point. This
last hypothesis would mitigate the
apparent disproportion in the times
assigned to the different parts of the
journey, and would, I think, clear
the text of error. But it is only a
hypothesis. There is near Kichau
one of the easiest crossing places of
the River, insomuch that since the
Shen-si troubles a large garrison has
been kept up at Ki-chau to watch
it.* And this is the only direction
in which two days' march, at Polo's
rate, would bring him within 20
miles of the Yellow River. Whether
there is any historic castle at Ki-chau I know not ; the plan of that place in Duhalde,
however, has the aspect of a strong position. Baron v. Richthofen is unable to
accept this suggestion, and has favoured me with some valuable remarks on this
difficult passage, which I slightly abridge : —

" The difficulties are, (i) that for either reading, Thaigin or Caiclnt, a correspond-
ing place can be found ; (2) in the position of Cachaiifti, setting both at naught.

" Thaigin. There are two' passages of the Yellow River near its great bend. One
is at T'ungkwan, where I crossed it ; the other, and more convenient, is at the
fortress of Taiching-kwan, locally pronounced Taigin-Vv^'AXv. This fortress, or rather
fortified camp, is a very well-known place, and to be found on native maps ; it is very
close to the river, on the left bank, about 6 m. S.W. of P'u-chau fu. The road
runs hence to Tung-chau fu and thence to Si-ngan fu. T'aiching-kwan could not
possibly (at Polo's rate) be reached in 2 days from P'ing-yang fu.

" Caichu. If this reading be adopted ]Marsden may be right in supposing Kiai-
chaii, locally Khaidjtt, to be meant. This city dominates the important salt marsh,
whence Shan-si and Shen-si are supplied with salt. It is 70 or 80 m. from P'ing-yang
fu, but could be reached in 2 days. It commands a large and tolerably populous
plain, and is quite fit to have been an imperial residence.

"May not the striking fact that there is a place corresponding to either name
suggest that one of them was passed by Polo in going, the other in returning ? and
that, this being the only locality between Ch'eng-tu fu and Chu-chau where there was any
deviation between the two journeys, his geographical ideas may have become some-
Avhat confused, as might now happen to any one in like case and not provided with a
map ? Thus the traveller himself might have put into Ramusio's text the name of
Thaigin instead of Caichu. From Kiai-chau he would probably cross the River at
T'ungkwan, whilst in returning by way of Taiching-kwan he would pass through

I am indebted for this information to Baron Richthofen.

Chap. XLI. CHRISTIAN MONUMENT AT SI-NGAN FU 27

P'uchau-fu (or vice versd). The question as to Caichu may still be settled, as it
must be possible to ascertain where the Kin resided." *

[Mr. Rockhill writes {Land of the Latnas, p. 17) : "One hundred and twenty li
south-south-west of the city is Kiai Chou, with the largest salt works in China."
Richthofen has estimated that about 150,000 tons of salt are produced annually from
the marshes around it. — H. C]

Note 3. — The eight days' journey through richly cultivated plains run up the basin
of the Wei River, the most important agricultural region of North- West China, and the
core of early Chinese History. The loss is here more than ever predominant, its
yellow tinge affecting the whole landscape, and even the atmosphere. Here, accord-
ing to Baron v. Richthofen, originated the use of the word hwang "yellow," as the
symbol of the Earth, whence the primeval emperors were styled Hwang-ti, "Lord of
the Earth," but properly "Lord of the Loss.^'

[The Rev. C. Holcombe {I.e. p. 66) writes: "From T'ung-kwan to Si-ngan fu,
the road runs in a direction nearly due west, through a most lovely section of country,
having a range of high hills upon the south, and the Wei River on the north. The
road lies through one long orchard, and the walled towns and cities lie thickly along,
for the most part at a little distance from the highway." Mr. Rockhill says {Land of
the Lamas, pp. 19-20) : "The road between T'ung-kwan and Si-ngan fu, a distance
of no miles, is a fine highway — for China — with a ditch on either side, rows of willow-
trees here and there, and substantial stone bridges and culverts over the little
streams which cross it. The basin of the Wei ho, in which this part of the province
lies, has been for thousands of years one of the granaries of China. It was the colour
of its loess-covered soil, called ' yellow earth ' by the Chinese, that suggested the use
of yellow as the colour sacred to imperial majesty. Wheat and sorghum are the
principal crops, but we saw also numerous paddy fields where flocks of flamingoes
were wading, and fruit-trees grew everywhere." — H. C]

Kenjanfu, or, as Ramusio gives it, Quenzanfu, is Sl-NGAN FU, or as it was called
in the days of its greatest fame, Chang-ngan, probably the most celebrated city in
Chinese history, and the capital of several of the most potent dynasties. It was the
metropolis of Shi Hwang-ti of the T'sin Dynasty, properly the first emperor and
whose conquests almost intersected those of his contemporary Ptolemy Euergetes. It
was, perhaps, the Thinae of Claudius Ptolemy, as it was certainly the Khumdan t of
the early Mahomedans, and the site of flourishing Christian Churches in the 7th
century, as well as of the remarkable monument, the discovery of which a thousand
years later disclosed their forgotten existence. J Kingchao-fii was the name which

* See the small map attached to "Marco Polo's Itinerary Map, No. IV.," at end of Vol. I.

t [It is supposed to come from kang (yxa^ dang. — H. C]

X In the first edition I was able to present a reduced facsimile of a rubbing in my possession from
this famous inscription, which I owed to the generosity of Dr. Lockhart. To the Baron von
Richthofen I am no less indebted for the more complete rubbing which has afforded the plate now
published. A tolerably full account of this inscription is given in Cathay, p. xcii. seqq., and
p. clxxxi. seqq.^ but the subject is so interesting that it seems well to introduce here the most import-
ant particulars : —

The stone slab, about 7^ feet high by 3 feet wide, and some 10 inches in thickness,! which bears
this inscription, was accidentally found in 1625 by some workmen who were digging in the Chang-ngan
suburb of the city of Singanfu. The cross, which is engraved at p. 30, is incised at the top of the
slab, and beneath this are 9 large characters in 3 columns, constituting the heading, which runs :
" Monumefit com7neniorating the introduction and 'propagation of the noble Law oy'i'a. T'sin in the
Middle Kingdom ;" Ta T'sin he.\ng the term applied in Chinese literature to the Roman Empire,
of which the ancient Chinese had much such a shadowy conception as the Romans had, conversely,
of the Chinese as Sinae and Seres. Then follows the body of the inscription, of great length and
beautiful execution, consisting of 1780 characters.^ Its chief contents are as follows :— ist. An abstract
of Christian doctrine, of a vague and figurative kind ; 2nd. An account of the arrival of the missionary
Oi.opAn (probably a Chinese form of Rq,bban — M.Qr^^ from Ta T'sin in the year equivalent to

^ [M. Grenard, who reproduces (III. p. 152) a good facsimile of the inscription, gives to the slab
the following dimensions : high 2m. 36, wide cm. 86, thick om. 25. — H. C]

2 [Dr. F. Hirth (^Chinaand the Roman Orient, p. 323) writes : " 0-lo-pen = Ruben, Rupen?" He
adds {Jour. China Br. R. As. Soc. XXI. 1886, pp. 214-215): "Initial r is also quite commonly
represented by initial /. I am in doubt whether the two characters o-lo in the Chinese name for
Russia {O-lo-ssii) stand for foreign ru or ro alone. This word would bear comparison with a Chinese

MARCO POLO Book II.

the city bore when the Mongol invasions brought China into communication with
the west, and Klaprolh supposes tliat tliis was modified by the Mongols into Kenjanfu.
Under the latter name it is mentioned by Rashiduddin as the seat of one of the Twelve
Sings or great provincial administrations, and we find it still known by this name in
Sharffuddin's history of Timur. The same name is traceable in the Kansan of
Odoric, which he calls the second best province in the world, and the best populated.

A.n. 635, bringing sacred hooks and imngcs; of the translation 0/ the said books; of the Imperial
approval of the doctrine and permission to teach it publicly. Tliere follows a decree of the Emperor
(T ai-Tsung, a very famous prince), issued in 638, in favour of the new doctrine, and ordering a
church to be built in the Square of Peace and Justice {I-ninp; Fan"), at the capital. The Emperor's
portrait was to be placed in the church. After this comes a description of Ta-T'sin (here apparently
implying Syria); and then some account of the fortunes of the Church in China. Kao-Tsung (650-
683, the devout patron also of the I'uddhist traveller and Dr. Hiuen Tsang) continued to favour it.
In the end of the century, Buddhism gets the upper hand, but under PIiuan-Tsung (713-755) the
Church recovers its prestige, and KiHO, a new missionary, arrives. Under Te-Tsung (780-783) the
monument was erected, and this part ends with the eulogy of Issfe, a statesman and benefactor of the
Church. 3rd. There follows a recapitulation of the purport in octosyllabic verse.

The Chinese inscription concludes with the date of erection, viz. the second year Kienchung oi the
Great T'ang Dynasty, the seventh day of the month Tait'su, the feast of the great Vaosan. This
corresponds, according to Gaubil, to 4th February, 781 ; and Vaosan is supposed to stand for
Hosatma {i.e. Palm-Sunday ; but this apparently' does not fit ; see infra). There are added the name
chief of the law, Ningchu (presumed to Ije the Chinese name of the Metropolitan), the name of the
writer, and the official sanction.

The Great Hosanna was, though ingenious, a misinterpretation of Gaubil's. Mr. Wylie has sent
me a paper of his own (in Chin. Recorder and Miss. Journal, July, 1871, p. 45), which makes things
perfectly^ clear. The expression transcribed by Pauthier, Yao-san-iven, and rendered "Hosanna,"
appears in a Chinese work, without reference to this inscription, as Vao-san-wah, and is in reality
only a Chinese transcript of the Persian word for Sunday, ' Yak-shavibaJi.' Mr. Wylie verified this
from the mouth of a Peking Mahomedan. The 4th of February, 781, was Sunday; \i\\y Great
Sunday? Mr. Wylie suggests, possibly because the first Sunday of the (Chinese) year.

The monument exhibits, in addition to "the Chinese text, a series of short inscriptions in the Syriac
language, and Estranghelo character, containing the date of erection, viz. 1092 of the Greeks
( = A.D. 781), the name of the reigning Patriarch of the Nestorian church Mar Hanan Ishua (dead
in 778, but the fact apparently had not reached China), that of Adam, Bishop and Pope of
Tzinisth^n {i.e. China), and those of the clerical staff of the capital, which here bears the name,
given it by the early Arab Travellers, of Kumddn. There follow sixty-seven names of persons in
Sj'rlac characters, most of whom are characterised as priests {Kashfshd), and sixty-one names of
persons in Chinese, all priests save one.

[It appears that Adam {King-tsing), who erected the monument under Te-Tsung was, under the
same Emperor, with a Buddhist the translator of a Buddhist sutra, the Satparamita, from a Hu text.
(See a curious paper by Mr. J. Takakusu, in the Toung Pao, VII. pp. 589-591.)

Mr. Rockhill {Ritbruck, p. 157, note) makes the following remarks : " it Is strange, however, that
the two famous Uigur Nestorlans, Mar Jabalaha and Rabban Cauma, when on their journey from
Koshangin Southern Shan-hsi to Western Asia in about 1276, while they mention ' the city of Tangut,'
or Ning-hsia on the Yellow River as an important Nestorian centre, do not once refer to HsI-anfu or
Chang-an. Had Chang-an been at the time the Nestorian Episcopal see, one would think that these
pilgrims would have visited it, or at least referred to it. {Chabot, Mar Jabalaha, 21.)" — H. C]

KIrcher gives a good many more Syriac names than appear on the rubbing ; probably because
some of these are on the edge of the slab now built in. We have no room to speak of the controversies
raised by this stone. The most able defence of its genuine character, as well as a transcript with
translation and commentary, a work of great interest, was published by the late M. Pauthier. The
monument exists intact, and has been visited by the Rev. Mr. Williamson, I'aron RIclithofen, and
other recent travellers. [The Rev. Moir Duncan wrote from Shen-si regarding the present state of
the stone {London and China Telegraph. 5th June, 1893): "Of the covering rebuilt so recently,
not a trace remains save the pedestals for the pillars and atoms of the tiling. In answer to a question
as to when and how the covering was destroyed, the old priest replied, with a twinkle in his eye as if
his conscience pinched, ' There came a r jshing wind and blew it down.' He could not say when, for
he paid no attention to such mundane affairs. More than one outsider, however, said it had been
deliberately destroyed, because the priests are jealous of the interest manifested in it. . . . The
stone has evidently been recently tampered with ; several characters are effaced, and there are other
signs of malicious hands." — H. C] Pauthier's works on the subject i.re — De I' Authenticite de
r Inscri/>tion Nestorienne, etc. ; B. Duprat, 1357; and V Inscription Sy7o-Chinoise de Si-ngan-fou,
etc. ; Firmin DIdot, 1858. (See also Kircher, China Illustrata ; and article by Mr. Wylie in/. Am
Or. Soc. V. 278.) [Father Havret, S.J., of Zi-ka-wei, near Shang-hai, has undertaken to write a
large work on this inscription with the title of La Sti'le Chretienne de Si-nga7i-fou; the first part
giving the Inscription in full size, and the second containing the history of the monument, have been

transcription of the Sanskrit word for silver, 7-2lpya,yA\\^ in the Pen-ts' ao-kang-mu {ch. 8, p. 9) is
given as o-lu-pa. If we can find further analogies, this may help us to read that mysterious word in
the Nestorian stone inscription, being the name of the first Christian missionary who carried the cross
to China, O-lo-pin, as " Ruben." This was indeed a common name among the Nestorlans, for which
reason I would give it the preference over Pauthier's Syriac "Alopeno." But Father Havret {Stele
Chretienne, Leide, 1897, p. 26) objects to Dr. Hirth that the Chinese character lo, to which he gives
the sound rti, is not to be found as a Sanskrit phonetic element in Chinese characters, but that this
phonetic element ru is represented by the Chinese characters pronounced lu, and therefore, he,
Father Havret, adopts Colonel Yule's opinion as the only one being fully satisfactory.— II. C]

Chap. XLI. CITY OF SI-NGAN FU

Whatever may have been the origin of the name Kenjanfii, Baron v. Richthofen
was, on the spot, made.avvare of its conservation in the exact form of the Ramusian
Polo. The Roman Catholic missionaries there emphatically denied that Marco
could ever have been at Si-ngan fu, or that the city had ever been known by such a
name as Kenjan-fu. On this the Baron called in one of the Chinese pupils of the
Mission, and asked him directly what had been the name of the city under the Yuen
Dynasty. lie replied at once with remarkable clearness : *'Quen-zan-fu." Every-
body present was struck by the exact correspondence of the Chinaman's pronuncia-
tion of the name with that which the German traveller had adopted from Ritter.

[The vocabulary Hwe'i H%vei (Mahomedan) of the College of Interpreters at
Peking transcribes King chao from the Persian Kin-chang, a name it gives to the
Shen-si province. King chao was called Ngan-si fu in 1277. {Dev^ria, Epip-aphie,
p. 9.) Ken-jan comes from Kin-chang = King-chao = Si-ngan fu. — 11. C]

Martini speaks, apparently from personal knowledge, of the splendour of the city,
as regards both its public edifices and its site, sloping gradually up from the banks
of the River Wei, so as to exhibit its walls and palaces at one view like the interior of
an amphitheatre. West of the city was a sort of Water Park, enclosed by a wall 30 li
in circumference, full of lakes, tanks, and canals from the Wei, and within this park
were seven fine palaces and a variety of theatres and other places of public diversion.
To the south-east of the city was an artificial lake with palaces, gardens, park, etc.,
originally formed by the Emperor Hiaowu (B.C. ICX)), and to the south of the city was
another considerable lake called Fan. This may be the Fanchan Lake, beside which
Rashid says that Ananda, the son of Mangalai, built his palace.

The adjoining districts were the seat of a large Musulman population, which in
1861-1862 [and again in 1895 (See Wellby, Tibet, ch. xxv.)— -H. C] rose in revolt
against the Chinese authority, and for a time was successful in resisting it. The capital it-
self held out, though invested for two years ; the rebels having no artillery. The move-
ment originated at Hwachau, some 60 miles east of Si-ngan fu, now totally destroyed.
But the chief seat of the Mahomedans is a place which they call Salar, identified with
Hochau in Kansuh, about 70 miles south-west of Lanchau-fu, the capital of that
province. [Mr. Rockhill {Land of the La^nas, p. 40) writes : *' Colonel Yule, quoting
a Russian work, has it that the word Salar is used to designate Ho-chou, but this is
not absolutely accurate. Prjevalsky {Alojigolia, II. 149) makes the following compli-
cated statement : ' The Karatangutans outnumber the Mongols in Koko-nor, but
their chief habitations are near the sources of the Yellow River, where they are called
Salirs ; they profess the Mohammedan religion, and have rebelled against China.' I
will only remark here that the Salar have absolutely no connection with the so-called
Kara-tangutans, who are Tibetans. In a note by Archimandrite Palladius, in the
same work (11. 70), he attempts to show a connection between the Salar and a colony
of Mohammedans who settled in Western Kan-Suh in the last century, but the Mmg
shih (History of the Ming Dynasty) already makes mention of the Salar, remnants of
various Turkish tribes {Hsi-ch'iang) who had settled in the districts of Ho-chou,
Huang-chou, T'ao-chou, and Min-chou, and who were a source of endless trouble to
the Empire. (See Wei Yne7i, Sheng-wu-ki, vii. 35 ; also Utiattg chHng shih ktingfu,
v. 7.) The Russian traveller, Potanin, found the Salar living in twenty-four villages,
near Hsiin-hua t'ing, on the south bank of the Yellow River. (See Proc. R. G. S.
ix. 234. ) The Annals of the Ming Dynasty {Ming Shih, ch. 330) say that An-ting wei,
1500 li south-west of Kan-chou, was in old times known as Sa-li Wei-wn-ehr. These

published at Shang-hai in 1895 and 1897; the author died last year (29th September, 1901), and the
translation which was to form a third part has not j^et appeared. The Rev. Dr. J. Legge has given a
translation and the Chinese text of the monument, in 188S. — H. C]

Stone monuments of character strictly analogous are frequent in the precincts of Buddhist
sanctuaries, and probably the idea of this one was taken from the Buddhists. It is reasonably
supposed by Pauthier that the monument may have been buried in 845, when the Emperor Wu-Tsung
issued an edict, still extant, against the vast multiplication of Buddhist convents, and ordering their
destruction. A clause in the edict also orders x\\^ foreign bonzes of Ta-T sin and Mubupa (Christian
and Mobed or Magian ?) to return to secular life.

MARCO POLO

Book II.

Sari Uigurs are inciuioned by Du Plan Carpin, as Sari Iluiur. Can Sala be the same
as S'ari? "

** Mohammedans," says Mr. Rockhill {Ibid. p. 39), "here are divided into two sects,
known as * white-capped Ilui-hui,' and ' black-capped Hui-hui.' One of the
questions which separate them is the hour at which fast can be broken during the
Ramadan. Another point which divides them is that the white-capped burn incense,
as do the ordinary Chinese ; and the Salar condemn this as Paganish. The usual
way by which one finds out to which sect a Mohammedan belongs is by asking him if
he burns incense. The black-capped Hui-hui are more frequently called Salar, and
are much the more devout and fanatical. They live in the vicinity of Ho-chou, in
and around Hsun-hua t'ing, their chief town being known as Salar Pakun or Paken."

Ho-chou, in Western Kan-Suh, about 320 // (107 miles) from Lan-chau, has a

Cross on the Monument at Si-ngan fu (actual size). (From a rubbing.)

population of about 30,000 nearly entirely Mahomedans with 24 mosques ; it is a
"hot-bed of rebellion." Salar-pa-Jmn means " the eight thousand Salar families," or
"the eight thousands of the Salar." The eight kiiin (Chinese fstin? a village, a
commune) constituting the Salar pa-kun are Ka-tzii, the oldest and largest, said to
have over 1300 families living in it, Chang-chia, Nemen, Ch'ing-shui, Munta, Tsu-chi,
Antasu and Ch'a-chia. Besides these Salar kiun there are five outer {wai) kiun :
Ts'a-pa, Ngan-ssii-to, Hei-ch'eng, Kan-tu and Kargan, inhabited by a few Salar and
a mixed population of Chinese and T'u-ssii ; each of these wai-wu kiun has,
theoretically, fifteen villages in it. Tradition says that the first Salar who came to China
(from Rum or Turkey) arrived in this valley in the third year of Hung-wu of

Chap. XLII. THE PROVINCE OF CUNCUN 3 1

the Ming (1370). {Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, Jotn-ney ; Grenard, II. p. 457) —
H. C] Martini; Cathay, 148, 269; P^iis de la Croix, III. 218 ; Russian paper on
the Dtingen, see szipra, vol. i. p. 291 ; William soil's North China, u. s. ; Richthofen's
Letters, and MS. Notes. )

Note 4. — Mangalai, Kiiblai's third son, who governed the provinces of Shen-si
and Sze-ch'wan, with the title of Wang ox king {supra ch. ix. note 2), died in 1280, a
circumstance which limits the date of Polo's journey to the west. It seems unlikely
that Marco should have remained ten years ignorant of his death, yet he seems to
speak of him as still governing.

[With reference to the translation of the oldest of the Chinese-Mongol inscriptions
known hitherto (1283) in the name of Ananda, King of Ngan-si, Professor Deveria
{Notes d'J^pigraphie Mongolo-Chinoise, p. 9) writes : " In 1264, the Emperor Kublai
created in this region [Shen si] the department of Ngan-si chau, occupied by ten hordes
of Si-fan (foreigners from the west). All this country became in 1272, the apanage of
the Imperial Prince Mangala ; this prince, third son of Kublai', had been invested with
the title of King of Ngan-si, a territory which included King-chao fu (modern
Si-ngan fu). His government extended hence over Ho-si (west of the Yellow River),
the T'u-po (Tibetans), and Sze-ch'wan. The following year (1273) Mangala received
from Kublai a second investiture, this of the Kingdom of Tsin, which added to his
domain part of Kan-Suh ; he established his royal residence at K'ia-ch'eng (modern
Ku-yuan) in the Liu-p'an shan, while King-chao remained the centre of the command
he exercised over the Mongol garrisons. In 1277 this prince took part in miHtary
operations in the north ; he died in 1280 (17th year Che Yuan), leaving his principality
of Ngan-si to his eldest son Ananda, and this of Tsin to his second son Ngan-tan
Bu-hoa. Kublai, immediately after the death of his son Mangala, suppressed administra-
tive autonomy in Ngan-si." ( Yuan-shi lei pien). — H. C]

CHAPTER XLII.

Concerning the Province of Cuncun, which is right
wearisome to travel through.

On leaving the Palace of Mangalai, you travel westward
for three days, finding a succession of cities and boroughs
and beautiful plains, Inhabited by people who live by
trade and Industry, and have great plenty of silk. At
the end of those three days, you reach the great mountains
and valleys which belong to the province of Cuncun.-^
There are towns and villages In the land, and the people
live by tilling the earth, and by hunting in the great
woods ; for the region abounds In forests, wherein are
many wild beasts, such as lions, bears, lynxes, bucks and

32 MARCO POLO Book II.

roes, and sundry other kinds, so that many are taken by
the people of the country, who make a great profit thereof.
So this way we travel over mountains and valleys, finding
a succession of towns and villages, and many great
hostelries for the entertainment of travellers, interspersed
among extensive forests.

Note i. — The region intended must necessarily be some part of the southern
district of the province of Shen-si, called Han-chung, the axis of which is the River
Han, closed in by exceedingly mountainous and woody country to north and south,
dividing it on the former quarter from the rest of Shen-si, and on the latter from
Sze-ch'wan. Polo's C frequently expresses an H, especially the Guttural II of
Chinese names, yet Cuncun is not satisfactory as the expression of Ilanchuiig.

The country was so rugged that in ancient times travellers from Si-ngan fu had to
make a long circuit eastward by the frontier of Tlo-nan to reach Han-chung ; but, at an
early date, a road was made across the mountains for military purposes ; so long ago
indeed that various eras and constructors are assigned to it. Padre Martini's
authorities ascribed it to a general in the service of Liu Pang, the founder of the first
Han Dynasty (b. c. 202), and this date is current in Shan-si, as Baron v. Richthofen
tells me. But in Sze-ch'wan the work is asserted to have been executed during the
3rd century, when China was divided into several states, by Liu Pei, of the Han family,
who, about a.d. 226, established himself as Emperor [Minor Han] of Western China
at Ch'eng-tu fu.* This work, with its difficulties and boldness, extending often for
great distances on timber corbels inserted in the rock, is vividly described by
Martini. Villages and rest-houses were estabhshed at convenient distances. It
received from the Chinese the name of Chien-tao, or the *' Pillar Road." It com-
menced on the west bank of tlie Wei, opposite Pao-ki h'ien, 100 miles west of Si-ngan
fu, and ended near the town of Paoching-h'ien, some 15 or 20 miles north-west
from Han-chung.

We are told that Tului, the son of Chinghiz, when directing his march against
Ho-nan in 1231 by this very line from Paoki, had to make a road with great difficulty ;
but, as we shall see presently, this can only mean that the ancient road had fillen into
decay, and had to be repaired. The same route was followed by Okkodai's son
Kutan, in marching to attack the Sung Empire in 1235, and again by Mangku Kaan
on his last campaign in 1258. These circumstances show that the road from Paoki
was in that age the usual route into Plan-chung and Sze-ch'wan ; indeed there is no
other road in that direction that is more than a mere jungle-track, and we may be
certain that this was Polo's route.

This remarkable road was traversed by Baron v. Richthofen in 1872. To my
questions, he replies: "The entire route is a work of tremendous engineering, and
all of this was done by Liu Pei, who first ordered the construction. The hardest work
consisted in cutting out long portions of the road from solid rock, chiefly where ledges
project on the verge of a river, as is frequently the case on the He-lung Kiang. . . .
It had been done so thoroughly from the first, that scarcely any additions had to be
made in after days. Another kind of work which generally strikes tourists like Father
Martini, or Chinese travellers, is the poling up of the road on the sides of steep
cliffsf Extensive cliffs are frequently rounded in this way, and imagination

* The last is also stated by Klaproth. Ritter has overlooked the discrepancy of the dates (b.c. and
A.D.)) and has supposed Liu Pei and Liu Pang to be the same. The resemblance of the names, and
the fact that both princes were founders of Han Dynasties, give ample room for confusion.

t See cut from Mr. Cooper's book at p. 51 below. This so exactly illustrates Baron R.'s descrip-
tion that I may omit the latter.

CHAr. XLIII. THE TROVINCE OF ACBALEC MANZI 33

is much struck with the perils of walking on the side of a precipice, with the foaming
river below. When the timbers rot, such passages of course become obstructed, and
thus the road is said to have been periodically in complete disuse. The repairs, which
were chiefly made in the time of the Ming, concerned especially passages of this sort."
Richthofen also notices the abundance of game ; but inhabited places appear to be
rarer than in Polo's time. (See Martini in Blaeu ; Chine Ancienne, p. 234 ; Ritter^
IV. 520 ; D'Ohsson, II. 22, 80, 328 ; LecomU, II. 95 ; Chin. Rep. XIX. 225 ;
Hichihofen, Letter Nil. p. 42, and MS. Notes.)

CHAPTER XLIII.

Concerning the Province of Acbalec Manzi.

After you have travelled those 20 days through the
mountains of Cuncun that I have mentioned, then you
come to a province called Acbalec Manzi, which" is all
level country, with plenty of towns and villages, and
belongs to the Great Kaan. The people are Idolaters,
and live by trade and industry. I may tell you that in
this province, there grows such a great quantity of ginger,
that it is carried all over the region of Cathay, and it affords
a maintenance to all the people of the province, who get
great gain thereby. They have also wheat and rice, and
other kinds of corn, in great plenty and cheapness ; in
fact the country abounds in all useful products. The
capital city is called Acbalec Manzi [which signifies
*' the White City of the Manzi Frontier"].^

This plain extends for two days' journey, throughout
which it is as fine as I have told you, with towns and
villages as numerous. After those two days, you again
come to great mountains and valleys, and extensive
forests, and you continue to travel westward through
this kind of country for 20 days, finding however
numerous towns and villages. The people are Idolaters,
and live by agriculture, by cattle-keeping, and by the

VOL. II. c

34 MARCO POLO ^ Book II.

chase, for there is much game. And among other kinds,
there are the animals 'that produce the musk, in great
numbers. 2

Note i. — Though ihe termini of the route, described in these two chapters, are
undoubtedly Si-ngan fu and Gh'eng-tu fu, there are serious difficulties attending the
determination of the line actually followed.

The time according to all the MSS., so far as I know, except those of one type, is
as follows :

In the plain of Kenjanfu . . . . .3 days.

In the mountains of Cuncun . . . . 20 ,,

In the plain of Acbalec , . . . . 2 ,,

In mountains again . , , . . . 20 ,,

45 days.

[From Si-ngnn fu to Ch'eng-tu (Sze-ch'wan), the Chinese reckon 2300 li (766
miles). (Cf. Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, p. 23.) Mr G. F. Eaton, writing from
Han-chung {Jour, China Br. R. A. S. xxviii. p. 29) reckons : " From Si-ngan Fu S.W.
to Ch'eng-tu, via K'i-shan, Fung-sien, Mien, Kwang-yuan and Chao-hwa, about 30
days, in chairs." He says (p. 24) : " From Ch'eng-tu via Si-ngan to Peking the road
does not touch Han-chung, but 20 li west of the city strikes north to Pao-ch'eng.—
The road from Han-chung to Ch'eng-tu made by Ts'in Shi Hwang-li to secure his
conquest of Sze-ch'wan, crosses the Ta-pa-shan." — H. C]

It seems to me almost impossible to doubt that the Plain of Acbalec represents
some part of the river-valley of the Han, interposed between the two ranges of
mountains called by Richthofen 7^ sing- Ling-Shan and Ta-pa-Shan: But the time,
as just stated, is extravagant for anything like a direct journey between the two
termini.

The distance from Si-ngan fu to Pao-ki is 450 li, which could be done in 3 days,
but at Polo's rate would probably require 5. The distance by the mountain road from
Pao-ki to the Plain of Han-chung, could never have occupied 20 days. It is really
a 6 or 7 days' march.

But Pauthier's MS. C (and its double, the Bern MS.) has viii. marches instead of
XX., through the mountains of Cuncun. This reduces the time between Kenjanfu and
the Plain to ii days, which is just about a proper allowance for the whole journey,
though not accurately distributed. Two days, though ample, would not be excessive
for the journey across the Plain of Han-chung, especially if the traveller visited that
city. And "20 days from Han-chung, to Ch'eng-tu fu would correspond with
Marco Polo's rate of travel." {Richthofen.)

So far then, provided we admit the reading of the MS. C, there is no ground for
hesitating to adopt the usual route between the two cities, via Plan-chung.

But the key to the exact route is evidently the position of Acbalec Manzi, and on
this there is no satisfactory light.

For the name of the province, Pauthier's text has Acbalec Manzi, for the name of
the city Acmalec simply. The G. T. has in the former case Acbalec Mangi, in the
latter " Acmelic Mangi qe vant dire le une de le confine dou Mangi.'''' This is followed
literally by the Geographic Latin, which has ^^ Achalec Mangi et est dictum in lingua
nostra unus ex confinibus Alangi." So also the Crusca ; whilst Ramusio has
^'- Achbaluch Mangi, che vuol dire Citta Bianca de' confini di Mangi." It is clear
that Ramusio alone has here preserved the genuine reading.

Klaproth identified Acbalec conjecturally with the town oi Pe-ma-ching, or " White-
Horse-Town," a place now extinct, but which stood like Mien and Han-chung on
the extensive and populous Plain that here borders the Han.

Chap. XLIII. THE PROVINCE OF ACBALEC MANZI

It seems so likely ihat the latter part of the name jP^-M ACHING (" Whiie Maching ")
might have been confounded by foreigners with Mdchin and Manzi (which in Persian
parlance were identical), that I should be disposed to overlook the difficulty that we
have no evidence produced to show that Pemaching was a place of any consequence.

It is possible, however, that the name Acbalec may have been given by the Tartars
without any reference to Chinese etymologies. We have already twice met with the
name or its equivalent {Achaluc in ch. xxxvii. of this Book, and Chaghan Balghasiin
in note 3 to Book I. ch. Ix.), whilst Strahlenberg tells us that the Tartars call all great
residences of princes by this name (Amst. ed. 1757, I. p. 7). It may be that Han-
chung itself was so named by the Tartars ; though its only claim that I can find is,
that it was the first residence of the Han Dynasty. Han-chung fu stands in a beautiful
plain, which forms a very striking object to the traveller who is leaving the T'sing-ling
mountains. Just before entering the plains, the Helung Kiang passes through one of
its wildest gorges, a mere crevice between vertical walls several hundred feet high.
The road winds to the top of one of the cliffs in zigzags cut in the solid rock. From
the temple of Kitau Kwan, which stands at the top of the cliff, there is a magnificent
view of the Plain, and no traveller would omit this, the most notable feature between
the valley of the Wei and Ch'eng-tu-fu. It is, moreover, the only piece of level ground,
of any extent, that is passed through between those two regions, whichever road or
track be taken. {Kichihofen, MS. Notes.)

[In the China Review (xiv. p. 358) Mr. E. H. Parker, has an article on Acbalec
Alanzi, but does not throw any new light on the subject. — H. C]

Note 2. — Polo's journey now continues through the lofty mountainous region in
the north of Sze-ch'wan.

The dividing range Ta-pa-shan is less in height than the T'sing-ling range, but with
gorges still more abrupt and deep ; and it would be an entire barrier to communica-
tion but for the care with which the road, here also, has been formed. But this road,
from Han-chung to Ch'eng-tu fu, is still older than that to the north, having been
constructed, it is said, in the 3rd century B.C. [See supra.'\ Before that time
Sze-ch'wan was a closed country, the only access from the north being the circuitous
route down the Han and up the Yang-tz'u. [Ibid.)

[Mr. G. G. Brown writes {Jotir. China Br. K. As. Soc. xxviii. p. 53 ) : ** Cross-
ing the Ta-pa-shan from the valley of the Upper Han in Shen-si we enter the province
of Sze-ch'wan, and are now in a country as distinct as possible from that that has
been left. The climate which in the north was at times almost Arctic, is now pluvial,
and except on the summits of the mountains no snow is to be seen. The people are
ethnologically different. . . . More even than the change of climate the geological
aspect is markedly different. The loess, which in Shen-si has settled like a pall over
the country, is here absent, and red sandstone rocks, filling the valleys between the
high-bounding and intermediate ridges of palaeozoic formation, take its place. Sze-
ch'wan is evidently a region of rivers flowing in deeply eroded valleys, and as these
find but one exit, the deep gorges of Kwei-fu, their disposition takes the form of the '
innervations of a leaf springing from a solitary stalk. The country between the
branching valleys is eminently hilly ; the rivers flow with rapid currents in well-de-
fined valleys, and are for the most part navigable for boats, or in their upper reaches
for lumber-rafts. . . . The horse-cart, which in the north and north-west of China is
the principal means of conveyance, has never succeeded in gaining an entrance into
Sze-ch'wan with its steep ascents and rapid unfordable streams ; and is here represented
for passenger traffic by the sedan-chair, and for the carriage of goods, with the
exception of a limited number of wheel-barrows, by the backs of men or animals,
unless where the friendly water-courses afford the cheapest and readiest means of
intercourse." — H. C]

Martini notes the musk-deer in northern Sze-ch'wan.

VOL. II. C 2

36 MARCO rOLO Book II.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Concerning the Province and City of Sindafu.

When you have travelled those 20 days westward
through the mountains, as I have told you, then you
arrive at a plain belonging to a province called Sindafu,
which still is on the confines of Manzi, and the capital
city of which i^(also) called Sindafu. This city was in
former days a rich and noble one, and the Kings who
reigned there were very great and wealthy. It is a good
twenty miles in compass, but it is divided in the way
that I shall tell you.

You see the King of this Province, in the days of
old, when he found himself drawing near to death,
leaving three sons behind him, commanded that the city
should be divided into three parts, and that each of his
three sons should have one. So each of these three parts
is separately walled about, though all three are surrounded
by the common wall of the city. Each of the three sons
v/as King, having his own part of the city, and his own
share of the kingdom, and each of them in fact was a great
and wealthy King. But the Great Kaan conquered the
kingdom of these three Kings, and stripped them of their
inheritance.*

Through the midst of this great city runs a large
river, in which they catch a great quantity of fish. It is
a good half mile wide, and very deep withal, and so long
that it reaches all the way to the Ocean Sea, — a very
long way, equal to 80 or 100 days' journey. And the
name of the River is Kian-suy. The multitude of
vessels that navigate this river is so vast, that no one
who should read or hear the tale would believe it. The

Chap. XLIV. THE PROVINCE AND GITY OF STNDAFU

quantities of merchandize also which merchants carry up
and down this river are past all belief. In fact, It is so
big, that It seems to be a Sea rather than a River ! ^

Let us now speak of a great Bridge which crosses this
River within the city. This bridge is of stone ; it Is
seven paces in width and half a mile in length (the river
being that much in width as I told you) ; and all along
its length on either side there are columns of marble to
bear the roof, for the bridge is roofed over from end to
end with timber, and that all richly painted. And on
this bridge there are houses in which a great deal of trade
and industry Is carried on. But these houses are all of
wood merely, and they are put up in the morning and
taken down in the evening. Also there stands upon the
bridge the Great Kaan's Comercque, that is to say, his
custom-house, where his toll and tax are levied.^ And
I can tell you that the dues taken on this bridge bring to
the Lord a thousand pieces of fine gold every day and
more. The people are all Idolaters.^

When you leave this city you travel for five days
across a country of plains and valleys, finding plenty of
villages and hamlets, and the people of which live by
husbandry. There are numbers of wild beasts, lions,
and bears, and such like.

I should have mentioned that the people of SIndu
itself live by manufactures, for they make fine sendals
and other stuffs.^

After travelling those five days' march, you reach a
province called Tebet, which has been sadly laid waste ;
we will now say something of it.

Note i. — We are on firm ground again, for Sindafu is certainly Cii'£;ng-tu FU,
the capital of Sze-ch'wan. Probably the name used by Polo was Sindu-fti, as we
find Sindu in the G. T. near the end of the chapter. But the same city is, I observe,
called Thindafti by one of the Nepalese embassies, whose itineraries Mr. Hodgson
has given in the J. A. S. B. XXV. 488.

MARCO rOLO

Book II.

A. Ihe Great City.

B. The Little City.

C. The Imperial City.

The modern French missions have a bishop in Ch'eng-tu fu, and the city has been

visited of late years by Mr. T. T. Cooper, by Mr. A. Wylie, by Baron v. Richthofen,

[Captain Gill, Mr. Baber, Mr. Ilosie, and several other

travellers]. Mr. Wylie has kindly favoured me with

the following note: — "My notice all goes to

EB^BM coriioborate Marco Polo. The covered bridge with

I I the stalls is still there, the only difference being the

I C I A absence of the toll-house. I did not see any traces of

I I a tripartite division of the city, nor did I make any

^■■■^ enquiries on the subject during the 3 or 4 days I spent

there, as it was not an object with me at the time to
verify Polo's account. The city is indeed divided,
but the division dates more than a thousand years
back. It is sometiiing like this, I should say [see
diagram]. *

"The Imperial City [Hwang Ching) was the
residence of the monarch Lew Pe [i.e. Liu Pei of p. 32) during the short period of the
'Three Kingdoms' .(3rd century), and some relics of the ancient edifice still remain.
I was much interested in looking over it. It is now occupied by the Public Examina-
tion Plall and its dependencies."

I suspect Marco's story of the Three Kings arose from a misunderstanding about
this historical period of the San-Kw^, or Three Kingdoms (a.d. 222-264). And this
tripartite division of the city may have been merely that which we see to exist at
present.

[Mr. Baber, leaving Ch'eng-tu, 26th July, 1877, writes {Travels, p. 28): "We
took ship outside the East Gate on a rapid narrow stream, apparently the city moat,
which soon joins the main river, a little below the An-shun Bridge, an antiquated
wooden structure some 90 yards long. This is in all probability the bridge mentioned
by Marco Polo. The too flattering description he gives of it leads one to suppose
that the present handsome stone bridges of the province were unbuilt at the time of
his journey." Baber is here mistaken.

Captain Gill writes (I.e. II. p. 9) : "As Mr. Wylie in recent days had said that
Polo's covered bridge was still in its place, we went one day on an expedition in
search of it. Polo, however, speaks of a bridge full half a mile long, whilst the
longest now is but 90 yards. On our way we passed over a fine nine-arched stone
bridge, called the Chin-Yen-Ch'iao. Near the covered bridge there is a very pretty
view down the river." — H. C]

Baron Richthofen observes that Ch'eng-tu is among the largest of Chinese cities,
and is of all the finest and most refined. The population is called 800,000. The
walls form a square of about 3 miles to the side, and there are suburbs besides. The
streets are broad and straight, laid out at right angles, with a pavement of square flags
very perfectly laid, slightly convex and drained at each side. The numerous com-
memorative arches are sculptured with skill ; there is much display of artistic taste ;
and the people are remarkably civil to foreigners. This characterizes the whole
province ; and an air of wealth and refinement prevails even in the rural districts.
The plain round Ch'eng-tu fu is about 90 miles in length (S.E. to N.W.), by 40 miles
in width, with a copious irrigation and great fertility, so that in wealth and population
it stands almost unrivalled. {Letter NW. pp. 48-66.)

[Mr. Baber {Travels, p. 26) gives the following information regarding the popula-
tion of Ch'eng-tu : " The census of 1877 returned the number of famiHes at about
70,000, and the total population at 330,000 — 190,000 being males and 140,000

* My lamented friend Lieutenant F. Gamier had kindly undertaken to send me a plan of Ch'eng-tu
fu from the place itself, but, as is well known, he fell on a daring enterprise elsewhere. [We hope that
the plan from a Chinese map we give from M. Marcel Monnier's Itineraires will replace the
promised one.

It will be seen that Ch'eng-tu is divided into three cities: the Great City containing both the
Imperial and Tartar cities. — H, C]

40 MARCO POLO Book II.

females ; but probably the extensive suburb was not included in the enumera-
tion. Perhaps 350,000 would be a fair total estimate." It is the seat of the
Viceroy of the Sze-ch'wan province. Mr. Ilosie says {Three Years in Western
China, p. 86) : ** It is without exception the finest city I have seen in China ;
Peking and Canton will not bear comparison with it." Captain Gill writes [River oj
Golden Sand, II. p. 4) : " The city of Ch'eng-Tu is still a rich and noble one, some-
what irregular in shape, and surrounded by a strong wall, in a perfect state of repair.
In this there are eight bastions, four being pierced by g:ites."

" It is one of the largest of Chinese cities, having a circuit of about 12 miles."
{Baber, p. 26.) "It is now three and a half miles long by about two and a half
miles broad, the longest side lying about east-south-east, and west-north-west, so
that its compass in the present day is about 12 miles." [Captain Gill, II. p. 4.) —
H. C]

Note 2. — Ramusio is more particular : ** Through the city flow many great rivers,
which come down from distant mountains, and run winding about through many
parts of the city. These rivers vary in width from half a mile to 200 paces, and are
very deep. Across them are built many bridges of stone," etc. "And after passing
the city these rivers unite and form one immense river called Kian," etc. Here we
have the Great River or Kiang, Kian (Quian) as in Ramusio, or Kiang-shui,
" Waters of the Kiang," as in the text. So Pauthier explains. [Mr. Baber remarks
at Ch'eng-tu {Travels, p. 28) : "When all allowance is made for the diminution of
the river, one cannot help surmising that Marco Polo must have felt reluctant to call
it the Chiang-Sui or *Yangtzu waterway.' He was, however, correct enough, as
usual, for the Chinese consider it to be the main upper stream of the Yangtzii." —
H. C. ] Though our Geographies give the specific names of Wen and Min to the great
branch which flows by Ch'eng-tu fu, and treat the Tibetan branch which flows through
northern Yunnan under the name of Kin Sha or "Golden Sand," as the main
river, the Chinese seem always to have regarded the former as the true Kiang ; as
may be seen in Ritter (IV. 650) and Martini. The latter describes the city as quite
insulated by the ramifications of the river, from which channels and canals pass all
about it, adorned with many quays and bridges of stone.

The numerous channels in reuniting form two rivers, one the Min, and the other
the To-Kiang, which also joins the Yangtzu at Lu-chau.

[In his Introductory Essay to Captain GilPs River of Golden Sand, Colonel Yule
(p. 37) writes: "Captain Gill has pointed out that, of the many branches of the
river which ramify through the plain of Ch'eng-tu, no one now passes through the
city at all corresponding in magnitude to that which Marco Polo describes, about 1283,
as running through the midst of Sin-da-fu, * a good half-mile wide, and very deep
withal.' The largest branch adjoining the city now runs on the south side, but does
not exceed a hundred yards in width ; and though it is crossed by a covered bridge
with huxters' booths, more or less in the style described by Polo, it necessarily falls
far short of his great bridge of half a mile in length. Captain Gill suggests that a
change may have taken place in the last five (this should be six) centuries, owing to
the deepening of the river-bed at its exit from the plain, and consequent draining of
the latter. But I should think it more probable that the ramification of channels
round Ch'eng-tu, which is so conspicuous even on a small general map of China, like
that which accompanies this work, is in great part due to art ; that the mass of the
river has been drawn off" to irrigate the plain ; and that thus the wide river, which in
the 13th century may have passed through the city, no unworthy representative
of the mighty Kiang, has long since ceased, on that scale, to flow. And I have
pointed out briefly that the fact, which Baron Richthofen attests, of an actual bifurca-
tion of waters on a large scale taking place in the plain of Ch'eng-tu — one arm
* branching east to form the To ' (as in the terse indication of the Yii-Kung) — viz. the
To Kiang or Chung-Kiang flowing south-east to join the great river at Lu-chau, whilst
another flows south to Su-chau or Swi-fu, does render change in the distribution gf

Chap. XLIV.

THE PROVINCE AND CITY OF SINDAFU

the waters about the city highly credible."] [See Irrigation of the Ch^eng-tu Plain,
hy Joshua Vale, China Inland Mission in Jour. China Br. R. A. S. Soc. XXXIII.
1 899- 1 900, pp. 22-36. — H. C]

[Above Kwan Hsien, near Ch'eng-tu, there is a fine suspension bridge, mentioned
by Marcel Moim'ier {/tin Jraires, p. 43), from whom I borrow the cut reproduced on
this page. This bridge is also spoken of by Captain Gill {I.e. I. p. 335) : " Six ropes,
one above the other, are stretched very tightly, and connected by vertical battens of
wood laced in and out. Another similar set of ropes is at the other side of the road-
way, which is laid across these, and follows the curve of the ropes. There are three
or four spans with stone piers." — II. C]

Bridge near Kwan-hsien (Ch'eng-tu).

Note 3. — (G. T.) " Hi est le couiereque doti Grant Sire, ce est cilz qe recevent iji
rente don Seignor." Pauthier has convert. Both are, I doubt not, misreadings or
misunderstandings of comereque or comerc. This word, founded on the Latin covi-
mercitun, was widely spread over the East with the meaning of custotns-dtity or
ctistojn- house. In Low Greek it appeared as KOfi/a^pKiou and Kov/x^pKiov, now KOfxepKL ;

in Arabic and Turkish as <^*S and O^JlS {knmruk and gyumruk), still in use ; in
Romance dialects as comerchio, comerho, comergio, etc.

Note 4. — The word in Pauthier's text which I have rendered /zVr^j of gold is /^?j,
probably equivalent to saggi or niiskdls.* The G. T. has " is well worth looo bezants
of gold," no doubt meaning daily, though not saying so. Ramusio has " 100 bezants
daily." The term Bezant may be taken as synonymous with Dinar, and the statement
in the text would make the daily receipt of custom upwards of 500/., that in Ramusio
upwards of 50/. only.

Note 5. — I have recast this passage, which has got muddled, probably in the
original dictation, for it runs in the G. text : " Et de ceste cite se part Ten et

* I find the same expression applied to the miskal or dinar in a MS. letter written by Giovanni
deir Affaitado, Venetian Agent at Lisbon in 1503, communicated to me by Signor Berchet. The
King of Melinda was to pay to Portugal a tribute of isoo pesi cToro, " che un peso val un ducato e un
quarto."

42 MARCO POLO Book II.

chevauche cinq jornce per plain ct jxm valcc, et treve-l'en castiaiis et casaus assez. Les
homes vivent dou prohl qu'il traitni dc la tcrre. II hi a bestes sauvajes assez, lions et
orses et autres bestes. // vivent cfars : car il hi se lahorent des Mans sendal et attires
dras. II stmt de Sindu meisnie." I take it that in speaking of Ch'eng-tu fu, Marco
has forgotten to fill up his usual formula as to the occupation of the inhabitants ; he
is reminded of this when he speaks of the occupation of the peasantry on the way to
Tibet, and reverts to the citizens in the words which I have quoted in Italics. We
see here Sindu applied to the city, suggesting Sindii-fu for the reading at the begin-
ning of the chapter.

Silk is a large item in the produce and trade of Sze-ch'wan ; and through extensive
quarters of Ch'eng-tu fu, in every house, the spinning, dying, weaving, and embroider-
ing of silk give occupation to the people. And though a good deal is exported, much
is consumed in the province, for the people are very much given to costly apparel.
Thus silk goods are very conspicuous in the shops of the capital. ^Richthofen.)

CHAPTER XLV.
Concerning the Province of Tebet.

After those five days' march that I spoke of, you enter
a province which has been sorely ravaged ; and this was
done in the wars of Mongu Kaan. There are indeed
towns and villages and hamlets, but all harried and
destroyed.^

In this region you find quantities of canes, full three
palms in girth and fifteen paces in length, with some
three palms' interval between the joints. And let me
tell you that merchants and other travellers through that
country are wont at nightfall to gather these canes and
make fires of them ; for as they burn they make such
loud reports that the lions and bears and other wild
beasts are greatly frightened, and make off as fast as
possible ; in fact nothing will induce them to come nigh
a fire of that sort. So you see the travellers make those
fires to protect themselves and their cattle from the wild
beasts which have so greatly multiplied since the devasta-
tion of the country. And 'tis this great multiplication of

Chap. XLV. THE PROVINCE OF TEBET

the wild beasts that prevents the country from behig
reoccupied. In fact but for the help of these canes,
which. make such a noise in burning that the beasts
are terrified and kept at a distance, no one would be
able even to travel through the land.

I will tell you how it is that the canes make such
a noise. The people cut the green canes, of which
there are vast numbers, and set fire to a heap of them
at once. After they have been awhile burning they
burst asunder, and this makes such a loud report that you
might hear it ten miles off. In fact, any one unused to
this noise, who should hear it unexpectedly, might easily
go into a swound or die of fright. But those who are
used to it care nothing about it. Hence those who are
not used to it stuff their ears well with cotton, and wrap
up their heads and faces with all the clothes they can
muster ; and so they get along until they have become
used to the sound. 'Tis just the same with horses.
Those which are unused to these noises are so alarmed
by them that they break away from their halters and
heel-ropes, and many a man has lost his beasts in
this way. So those who would avoid losing their horses
take care to tie all four legs and peg the ropes down
strongly, and to wrap the heads and eyes and ears of
the animals closely, and so they save them. But horses
also, when they have heard the noise several times, cease
to mind it. I tell you the truth, however, when I say
that the first time you hear it nothing can be more
alarming. And yet, in spite of all, the lions and bears
and other wild beasts will sometimes come and do much
mischief; for their numbers are great in those tracts.^

You ride for 20 days without finding an}" inhabited
spot, so that travellers are obliged to carry all their
provisions with them, and are constantly falling in with
those wild beasts which are so numerous and so dangerous.

44 MARCO POLO Book II.

After that you come at length to a tract where there are
towns and villages in considerable numbers.^ The people
of those towns have a strange custom in regard to
marriage which I will now relate.

No man of that country would on any consideration
take to wife a girl who was a maid ; for they say a wife
is nothing worth unless she has been used to consort with
men. And their custom is this, that when travellers
come that way, the old women of the place get ready, and
take their unmarried daughters or other girls related to
them, and go to the strangers who are passing, and make
over the young women to whomsoever will accept them ;
and the travellers take them accordingly and do their
pleasure ; after which the girls are restored to the old
women who brought them, for they are not allowed to
follow the strangers away from their home. In this
manner people travelling that way, when they reach a
village or hamlet or other inhabited place, shall find
perhaps 20 or 30 girls at their disposal. And if the
travellers lodge with those people they shall have as many
young women as they could wish coming to court them !
You must know too that the traveller is expected to give
the girl who has been with him a ring or some other trifle,
something in fact that she can show as a lover's token
when she comes to be married. And it is for this in
truth and for this alone that they follow that custom ; for
everygirl is expected to obtain at least 20 such tokens
in the way I have described before she can be married.
And those who have most tokens, and so can show they
have been most run after, are in the highest esteem, and
most sought in marriage, because they say the charms of
such an one are greatest.* But after marriage these
people hold their wives very dear, and would consider
it a great villainy for a man to meddle with another's
wife ; and thus though the wives have before marriage

Chap. XLV. PEOPLE OF TEBET

acted as you have heard, they are kept with great care
from light conduct afterwards.

Now I have related to you this marriage custom as a
good story to tell, and to show what a fine country that
is for young fellows to go to !

The people are Idolaters and an evil generation,
holding it no sin to rob and maltreat : in fact, they are
the greatest brigands on earth. They live by the chase,
as well as on their cattle and the fruits of the earth.

I should tell you also that in this country there are
many of the animals that produce musk, which are called
in the Tartar language Gudderi. Those rascals have
great numbers of large and fine dogs, which are of great
service in catching the musk-beasts, and so they procure
great abundance of musk. They have none of the Great
Kaan's paper money, but use salt instead of money.
They are very poorly clad, for their clothes are only of
the skins of beasts, and of canvas, and of buckram.*^
They have a language of their own, and they are called
Tebet. And this country of Tebet forms a very great
province, of which I will give you a brief account.

Note i. — The mountains that bound the splendid plain of Ch'eng-tu fu on the
west rise rapidly to a height of 12,000 feet and upwards. Just at the skirt of this
mountain region, where the great road to Lhasa enters it, lies the large and bustling
city of Yachaufu, forming the key of the hill country, and the great entrep6t of trade
between Sze-ch'wan on the one side, and Tibet and Western Yunnan on the other.
The present political boundary between China Proper and Tibet is to the west of
Bathang and the Kin-sha Kiang, but till the beginning of last century it lay much further
east, near Ta-fsien-ht, or, as the Tibetans appear to call it, Tartsddo or Tachindo, which
a Chinese Itinerary given by Ritter makes to be 920 li, orlfi marches from Ch'eng-tu
fu. In Marco's time we must suppose that Tibet was considered to extend several
marches further east still, or to the vicinity of Yachau.* Mr. Cooper's Journal describes
the country entered on the ^th march from Ch'eng-tu as very mountainous, many of
the neighbouring peaks being capped with snow. And he describes the people as
speaking a language mixed with Tibetan for some distance before reaching Ta-t'sien-lu.
Baron Richthofen also who, as we shall see, has thrown an entirely new light upon
this part of Marco's itinerary, was exactly five days in travelling through a rich and

* Indeed Richthofen says that the boundary lay a few (German) miles west of Yachau. I see that
Martini's map puts it (io the 17th century) 10 German geographical miles, or about 46 statute miles,
west of that city.

46 MARCO POLO Book II.

populous country, from Ch'eag-tu to Yachau. [Captain Gill left Ch'eng-tu on the loth
July, 1877, and reached Ya-chau on the 14th, a distance of 75 miles. — II. C] [Kiiter,
IV. 190 se(jq. ; Cooper, pp.j[64-i73 ; Richtliofen in Verhandl. Ges.f. Erdk. zu Berlin,
1874, p. 35.)

Tibet was always reckoned as a part of the Empire of the Mongol Kaans in the
period of their greatness, but it is not very clear how it came under subjection to them.
No conquest of Tibet by their armies appears to be related by either the Mahomedan
or the Chinese historians. Yet it is alluded to by Piano Carpini, who ascribes the
achievement to an unnamed son of Chinghiz, and narrated by Sanang Setzen, who
says that the King of Tibet submitted without fighting when Chinghiz invaded his
country in the year of the Panther (1206). During the reign of Mangku Kaan, inr
deed, Uriangkadai, an eminent Mongol general [son of Subudai] who had accom-
panied Prince Kublai in 1253 against Yunnan, did in the following year direct his
arms against the Tibetans. But this campaign, that no doubt to which the text
alludes as "the wars of Mangu Kaan," appears to have occupied only a part of one
season, and was certainly confined to the parts of Tibet on the frontiers of Yunnan and
Sze-ch'wan. ["In the Ytien-shi, Tibet is mentioned under different names. Some-
times the Chinese history of the Mongols uses the ancient name T^u-fan. In the
Annals, s.a. 1251, we read : 'Mangu Khan entrusted Ho-li-dan with the command
of the troops against Tht-fan."^ Sub anno 1254 it is stated that Kiiblai (who at that
time was still the heir-apparent), after subduing the tribes of Yun-nan, entered T''u-fan,
when So-ho-to, the ruler of the country, surrendered. Again, s.a. 1275: 'The
prince -<4/-/«-f>^z (seventh son of Kublai) led an expedition to T''tifaji.^ In chap, ccii.,
"biography oi Ba-sz^-ba^ the Lama priest who invented Kiiblai's official alphabet, it is
stated that this Lama was a native oi Sa-s^ -kia in T'u-fan." {Bretschneider, Med Res.
II. p. 23.) — H. C] Koeppen seems to consider it certain that there was no actual
conquest of Tibet, and that Kublai extended his authority over it only by diplomacy
and the politic handling of the spiritual potentates who had for several generations in
Tibet been the real rulers of the country. It is certain that Chinese history attributes
the organisation of civil administration in Tibet to Kublai. Mali Dhwaja, a young and
able member of the family which held the hereditary primacy of the Satya [Sakya]
convent, and occupied the most influential position in Tibet, was formerly recognised
by the Emperor as the head of the Lamaite Church and as the tributary Ruler of Tibet.
He is the same person that we have already (vol. i. p. 28) mentioned as the Passepa or
Bash pah Lama, the inventor of Kiiblai's official alphabet. {Carpini, 658, 709 ;
DAvezac, 564 ; S. Setzen, 89 ; WOhsson, II. 317 ; Koeppen, II. 96 ; Aviyot, XIV. 128. )

With the caution that Marco's Travels in Tibet were limited to the same
mountainous country on the frontier of Sze-ch'wan, we defer further geographical
comment till he brings us to Yunnan.

Note 2. — Marco exaggerates a little about the bamboos ; but before gunpowder
became familiar, no sharp explosive sounds of this kind were known to ordinary ex-
perience, and exaggeration was natural. I have been close to a bamboo jungle on
fire. There was a great deal of noise comparable to musketry ; but the bamboos were
not of the large kind here spoken of. The Hon. Robert Lindsay, describing his
elephant-catching in Silhet, says : " At night each man lights a fire at his post, and
furnishes himself with a dozen joints of the large bamboo, one of which he occasionally
throws into the fire, and the air it contains being rarefied by the heat, it explodes with
a report as loud as a musket." {Lives of the Lindsays, III. 191. )

[Dr. Bretschneider (ZTzV/ <7/"i5i7/. Disc. I. p. 3) says: " In corroboration of Polo's
statement regarding the explosions produced when burning bamboos, I may adduce
Sir Joseph Hooker's Himalayan Journals (edition of 189 1, p. 100), where in speaking of
the fires in the jungles, he says : ' Their triumph is in reaching a great bamboo clump,
when the noise of the flames drowns that of the torrents, and as the great stem-joints
burst, from the expansion of the confined air, the report is as that of a salvo from a
park of artillery,'"— H. C]

*tl

48 MARCO POLO Book II.

Richthofen remarks that nowhere in China docs the bamboo attain such a size as
in this region. Bamboos of three palms in girth (28 to 30 inches) exist, but are not
ordinary, I should suppose, even in Sze-ch'wan. In 1855 I took some pains to
procure in Pegu a specimen of the largest attainable bamboo. It was 10 inches in
diameter.

Note 3. — M. Gabriel Durand, a missionary priest, thus describes his journey in
1 86 1 to Kiangka, via Ta-t'sien-lu, a line of country partly coincident with that which
Polo is traversing : "Every day we made a journey of nine or ten leagues, and halted
for the night in a Kung-kuaii. These are posts dotted at intervals of about ten
leagues along the road to Hlassa, and usually guarded by three soldiers, though the
more important posts have twenty. With the exception of some Tibetan houses, few
and far between, these are the only habitations to be seen on this silent and deserted
road. . . . Lytang was the first collection of houses that we had seen in ten days'
march." {Ann. de la Propag, de la Fot, XXXV. 352 seqq.)

Note 4. — Such practices are ascribed to many nations. Martini quotes something
similar from a Chinese author about tribes in Yunnan ; and Gamier says such loose
practices are still ascribed to the Sifan near the southern elbow of the Kin-sha Kiang.
Even of the Mongols themselves and kindred races, Pallas asserts that the young
women regard a number of intrigues rather as a credit and recommendation than
otherwise. Japanese ideas seem to be not very different. In old times ^lian gives
much the same account of the Lydian women. Herodotus's Gindanes of Lybia afford a
perfect parallel, " whose women wear on their legs anklets of leather. Each lover
that a woman has gives her one ; and she who can show most is the best esteemed, as
she appears to have been loved by the greatest number of men." {Martini, 142 ;
Gamier, I. 520 ; Pall. Samml. II. 235 ; ^7. Var. Hist. III. i ; Rawl. Herod. Bk.
IV. ch. clxxvi.)

['* Among some uncivilised peoples, women having many gallants are esteemed
better than virgins, and are more anxiously desired in marriage. This is, for instance,
stated to be the case with the Indians of Quito, the Laplanders in Regnard's days, and
the Hill Tribes of North Aracan. But in each of these cases we are expressly told
that want of chastity is considered a merit in the bride, because it is held to be the
best testimony to the value of her attractions." {Westermarck, Htiman Marriage,
p. 81.)— H. C]

Mr. Cooper's Journal, when on the banks of the Kin-sha Kiang, west of Bathang,
affords a startling illustration of the persistence of manners in this region : *' At I2h.
30m. we arrived at a road-side house, near which was a grove of walnut-trees ; here
we alighted, when to my surprise I was surrounded by a group of young girls and two
elderly women, who invited me to partake of a repast spread under the trees. . . .
I thought I had stumbled on a pic-nic party, of which the Tibetans are so fond.
Having finished, I lighted my pipe and threw myself on the grass in a state of castle-
building. I had not lain thus many seconds when the maidens brought a young girl
about 1 5 years old, tall and very fair, placed her on the grass beside me, and forming
a ring round us, commenced to sing and dance. The little maid beside me, however,
was bathed in tears. All this, I must confess, a little puzzled me, when Philip (the
Chinese servant) with a long face, came to my aid, saying, ' Well, Sir, this is a bad
business .... they are marrying youJ' Good heavens ! how startled I was." For
the honourable conclusion of this Anglo-Tibetan idyll I must refer to Mr. Cooper's
Journal. (See the now published Travels, ch. x.)

Note 5. — All this is clearly meant to apply only to the rude people towards the
Chinese frontier ; nor would the Chinese (says Richthofen) at this day thinkfthe
description at all exaggerated, as applied to the Lolo who occupy the mountains to
the south of Yachaufu. The members of the group at p. 47, from Lieutenant Garnier's
book, are there termed Man-tzii ; but the context shows them to be of the race of
these Lolos. (See below, pp. 60, 61.) The passage about the musk animal, both in

Chap. XLVI. PEOPLE OF TEBET 49

Pauthier and in the G. T., ascribes the word Gudderi to the language "of that people,"
i.e. of the Tibetans. The Geog. Latin, however, has ^^ lingud Tartaricd" and this
is the fact. Klaproth informs us that Gtideri is the Mongol word. And it will be
found [Kuderi) in Kovalevski's Dictionary, No. 2594. Musk is still the most valuable
article that goes from Ta-t'sien-lu to China. Much is smuggled, and single travellers
will come all the way from Canton or Si-ngan fu to take back a small load of it.
{Richthofen.)

CHAPTER XLVI.

Further Discourse concerning Tebet.

This province, called Tebet, is of very great extent.
The people, as I have told you, have a language of their
own, and they are Idolaters, and they border on Manzi
and sundry other regions. Moreover, they are very
great thieves.

The country is, in fact, so great that it embraces
eight kingdoms, and a vast number of cities and villages.^
It contains in several quarters rivers and lakes, in which
gold-dust is found in great abundance.^ Cinnamon also
grows there in great plenty. Coral is in great demand
in this country and fetches a high price, for they delight
to hang it round the necks of their women and of their
idols.^ They have also in this country plenty of fine
woollens and other stuffs, and many kinds of spices are
produced there which are never seen in our country.

Among this people, too, you find the best enchanters
and astrologers that exist in all that quarter of the world ;
they perform such extraordinary marvels and sorceries by
diabolic art, that it astounds one to see or even hear of
them. So I will relate none of them in this book of
ours ; people would be amazed if they heard them, but it
would serve no good purpose.*

These people of Tebet are an ill-conditioned race.
They have mastiff dogs as bigs as donkeys, which are

VOL. II. D

MARCO rOLO

Book II.

capital at seizing* wild beasts [and in particular the wild
oxen which are called Beyavmii, very great and fierce
animals]. They have also sundry other kinds of sport-
ing dogs, and excellent lanner falcons [and sakers], swift
in fliorht and well-trained, which are orot in the mountains
of the country/

Now I have told you in brief all that is to be said
about Tebet, and so we will leave it, and tell you about
another province that is called Caindu.

Village of Eastern Tibet on Sze-ch'wan Frontier. (From Cooper.)

As reofards Tebet, however, vou should understand
that It is subject to the Great Kaan. So, likewise, all
the other kingdoms, regions, and provinces which are
described in this book are subject to the Great Kaan ;
nay, even those other kingdoms, regions, and provinces
of which I had occasion to speak at the beginning of the
book as belono-Ino: to the son of Arofon, the Lord of the
Levant, are also subject to the Emperor ; for the former
holds his dominion of the Kaan, and Is his liegeman and

sT/

Roads in Eai^lein Tibet, (Gorge of the Lan t'sang Kiang, from Cooper J

VOL. II.

D 2

52 MARCO POLO Book II.

kinsman of the blood Imperial. So you must know that
from this province forward all the provinces mentioned in
our book are subject to the Great Kaan ; and even if this
be not specially mentioned, you must understand that it
is so.

Now let us have done with this matter, and I will tell
you about the Province of Caindu.

Note i. — Here Marco at least shows that he knew Tibet to be much more
extensive than the small part of it that he had seen. But beyond this his information
amounts to little.

Note 2. — *' Or de paliolle.'' " Oro di paglucola" {pagliuola, "a spangle") must
have been the technical phrase for what we call gold-dust, and the French now call
or en paillettes, a phrase used by a French missionary in speaking of this very region.
{Ann. de la Foi, XXXVII. 427.) Yet the only example of this use of the word cited
in the Voc. Ital. Universale is from this passage of the Crusca MS. ; and Pipino seems
not to have understood it, translating ' ' atirtmi quod dicitur Deplaglola " ; whilst Zurla
says erroneously that pajola is an old Italian word for gold. Pegolotti uses argento
ijt pagliuola (p. 219). A Barcelona tariff of 1271 sets so much on every mark of
Pallola. And the old Portuguese navigators seem always to have used the same
expression for the gold-dust of Africa, ota-o de pajola. (See Major s Prince Henry,
pp. Ill, 112, 116; Capinany Memorias, etc., II. App. p. 73 ; also ''Aurum de Pajola,"
in Usodimare of Genoa, see Graberg, Annali, II. 290, quoted by Peschel, p. 178.)

Note 3. — The cinnamon must have been the coarser cassia produced in the lower
parts of this region (See note to next chapter.) We have already (Book I. ch. xxxi.)
quoted Tavernier's testimony to the rage for coral among the Tibetans and kindred
peoples. Mr. Cooper notices the eager demand for coral at Bathang : (See also
Desgodins, La Mission du Thibet^ 310.)

Note 4. — See supra, Bk. 1. ch. Ixi. note 11.

Note 5. — The big Tibetan mastiffs are now well known. Mr. Cooper, at
Ta-t'sien lu, notes that the people of Tibetan race "keep very large dogs, as large as
Newfoundlands." And he mentions a pack of dogs of another breed, tan and black,
" fine animals of the size of setters." The missionary M. Durand also, in a letter from
the region in question, says, speaking of a large leopard : *'Our brave watch-dogs
had several times beaten him off gallantly, and one of them had even in single combat
with him received a blow of the paw which had laid his skull open." {Anjt. de la
Prop de la Foi, XXXVII. 314.) On the title-page of vol. i. we have introduced one
of these big Tibetan dogs as brought home by the Polos to Venice.

The *' wild oxen called BeyaminV are probably some such species as the Gaur.
Beyamini I suspect to be no Oriental word, but to stand for Btiemini, i.e. Bohemian,
a name which may have been given by the Venetians to either the bison or urus.
Polo's contemporary, Brunetto Latini, seems to speak of one of these as still existing
in his day in Germany : " Autre buef naissent en Alemaigne qui ont grans cors, et
sont bons por sommier et por vin porter." (Paris ed., p. 228; see also Lubbock,
Pre-historic Limes, 296-7.)

[Mr. Baber {Travels, pp. 39, 40) writes : "A special interest attaches to the wild
oxen, since they are unknown in any other part of China Proper. From a Lolo chief
and his followers, most enthusiastic hunters, I afterwards learnt that the cattle are

Chap. XLVII. EVIL CUSTOMS OF CAINDU 53

mel with in herds of from seven to twenty head in the recesses of the Wilderness,
which may be defined as the region between the T'ung River and Yachou, but that
in general they are rarely seen. ... I was lucky enough to obtain a pair of horns and
part of the hide of one of these redoubtable animals, which seem to show that they
are a kind of bison.' Sir H. Yule remarks in a footnote {Ibid. p. 40) : ** It is not
possible to say from what is stated here what the species is, but probably it is a gavceus,
of which Jerdan describes three species. (See Mammals of India, pp. 301-307.) Mr.
Hodgson describes the Gaur {Gavceus gaurus of Jerdan) of the forests below Nepaul
as fierce and revengeful." — H. C]

CHAPTER XLVII.

Concerning the Province of Caindu.

Caindu is a province lying towards the west/ and there
is only one king in it. The people are Idolaters, subject
to the Great Kaan, and they have plenty of towns and
villages. [The chief city is also called Caindu, and
stands at the upper end of the province.] There is a
lake here,* in which are found pearls [which are white
but not round]. But the Great Kaan will not allow
them to be fished, for if people were to take as many as
they could find there, the supply would be so vast that
pearls would lose their value, and come to be worth
nothing. Only when it is his pleasure they take from
the lake so many as he may desire ; but any one attempt-
ing to take them on his own account would be incon-
tinently put to death.

There is also a mountain in this country wherein they
find a kind of stone called turquoise, in great abundance ;
and it is a very beautiful stone. These also the Emperor
does not allow to be extracted without his special order.^

I must tell you of a custom that they have in this
country regarding their women. No man considers
himself wronged if a foreigner, or any other man, dis-

• Ramusio alone has " a great salt lake."

54 MARCO POLO Book It.

honour his wife, or daughter, or sister, or any woman of
his family, but on the contrary he deems such intercourse
a piece of good fortune. And they say that it brings
the favour of their gods and idols, and great increase of
temporal prosperity. For this reason they bestow their
wives on foreigners and other people as I will tell you.

When they fail in v/ith any stranger in want of a
lodging they are all eager to take him in. And as soon
as he has taken up his quarters the master of the house
goes forth, telling him to consider everything at his
disposal, and after saying so he proceeds to his vineyards
or his fields, and comes back no more till the stranger has
departed. The latter abides in the caitiff's house, be it
three days or be it four, enjoying himself with the fellow's
wife or daughter or sister, or whatsoever woman of the
family it best likes him ; and as long as he abides there
he leaves his hat or some other token hanging at the
door, to let the master of the house know that he is still
there. As long as the wretched fellow sees that token,
he must not go in. And such is the custom over all
that province.^

The money matters of the people are conducted in
this way. They have gold in rods which they weigh,
and they reckon its value by its weight in saggi, but they
have no coined money. Their small change again is
made \\\ this way. They have salt which they boil and
set in a mould [flat below and round above],* and every
piece from the mould weighs about half a pound. Now,
80 moulds of this salt are worth one saggio of fine gold,
which is a weight so called. So this salt serves them
for small change.^

The musk animals are very abundant in that country,
and thus of musk also they have great store. They
have likewise plenty of fish which they catch in the lake
in w^hich the pearls are produced. Wild animals, such

fj'

56 MARCO POLO Book II.

as lions, bears, wolves, stags, bucks and roes, exist in great
numbers ; and there are also vast quantities of fowl of
every kind. Wine of the vine they have none, but they
make a wine of wheat and rice and sundry good spices,
and very good drink it is.^ There grows also in this
country a quantity of clove. The tree that bears it is a
small one, with leaves like laurel but longer and narrower,
and with a small white flower like the clove."^ They
have also ginger and cinnamon in great plenty, besides
other spices which never reach our countries, so we need
say nothing about them.

Now we may leave this province, as we have told you
all about it. But let me tell you first of this same
country of Caindu that you ride through it ten days,
constantly meeting with towns and villages, with people
of the same description that I have mentioned. After
riding those ten days you come to a river called Brius,
which terminates the province of Caindu. In this river
is found much gold-dust, and there is also much cinnamon
on its banks. It flows to the Ocean Sea.

There is no more to be said about this river, so I
will now tell you about another province called Carajan,
as you shall hear in what follows.

Note i. — Ramusio's version here enlarges: "Don't suppose from my saying
towards the west that these countries really lie in what we call the west, but only that
we have been travelling from regions in the east-north-east towards the west, and
hence we speak of the countries we come to as lying towards the west."

Note 2. — Chinese authorities quoted by Ritter mention mother-d -pearl as a pro-
duct of Lithang, and speak of turquoises as found in Djaya to the west of Bathang.
{Ritter, IV. 235-236. ) Neither of these places is, however, within the tract which we
believe to be Caindu. Amyot states that pearls are found in a certain river of
Yun-nan. (See Trans. R. A. Soc. II. 91.)

Note 3. — This alleged practice, like that mentioned in the last chapter but one,
is ascribed to a variety of people in different parts of the world. Both, indeed, have
a curious double parallel in the story of two remote districts of the Himalaya which
was told to Bernier by an old Kashmiri. (See Amst. ed. 11. 304-305.) Polo has told
nearly the same story already of the people of Kamul. (Bk. I. ch. xH. ) It is related
by Strabo of the Massagetae ; by Eusebius of the Geli and the Bactrians ; by
Elphinstone of the Hazaras ; by Mendoza of the Ladrone Islanders ; by othei

Chap. XLVII. SALT AS CURRENCY ^ 57

authors of the Nairs of Malabar, and of some of the aborigines of the Canary Islands.
{Caubul, I. 209; Mendoza, II. 254; Mailer's St7'abo, p. 439; Euseb. Praep. Evan,
vi. 10; Major's Pr. Henry, p. 213.)

Note 4. — Ramusio has here: "as big as a twopenny loaf," and adds, "on
the money so made the Prince's mark is printed ; and no one is allowed to make it
except the royal officers. . . . And merchants take this currency and go to those
tribes that dwell among the mountains of those parts in the wildest and most un-
frequented quarters ; and there they get a saggio of gold for 60, or 50, or 40 pieces
of this salt money, in proportion as the natives are more barbarous and more remote
from towns and civilised folk. For in such positions tliey cannot dispose at pleasure
of their gold and other things, such as musk and the like, for want of purchasers ;
and so they give them cheap. . . . And the merchants travel also about the
mountains and districts of Tebet, disposing of this salt money in like manner to their
own great gain. For those people, besides buying necessaries from the merchants,
want this salt to use in their food ; whilst in the towns only broken fragments are
used in food, the whole cakes being kept to use as money." This exchange of salt cakes
for gold forms a curious parallel to the like exchange in the heart of Africa, narrated
by Cosmas in the 6th century, and by Aloisio Cadamosto in the 15th. (See Cathay,
pp. clxx-clxxi.) Ritter also calls attention to an analogous account in Alvarez's
description of Ethiopia. "The salt," Alvarez says, "is current as money, not only
in the kingdom of Prester John, but also in those of the Moors and the pagans, and
the people here say that it passes right on to Manicongo upon the Western Sea.
This salt is dug from the mountain, it is said, in squared blocks. ... At the place
where they are dug, 100 or 120 such pieces pass for a drachm of gold . . . equal
to I of a ducat of gold. When they arrive at a certain fair . . . one day from the
salt mine, these go 5 or 6 pieces fewer to the drachm. And so, from fair to fair,
fewer and fewer, so that when they arrive at the capital there will be only 6 or 7
pieces to the drachm." {^Ramusio, I. 207. ) Lieutenant Bower, in his account of Major
Sladen's mission, says that at Momein the salt, which was a government monopoly,
was "made up in rolls of one and two viss" (a Rangoon viss is 3 lbs. 5 oz. 5^ drs.),
"and stamped" (p. 120).

[At Hsia-Kuan, near Ta-li, Captain Gill remarked to a friend (II. p. 312) "that
the salt, instead of being in the usual great flat cakes about two or two and a half feet
in diameter, was made in cylinders eight inches in diameter and nine inches high.
•Yes,' he said, 'they make them here in a sort of loaves,' unconsciously using almost
the words of old Polo, who said the salt in Yun-Nan was in pieces * as big as a two-
penny loaf.' " (See also p. 334.)— H. C]

M. Desgodins, a missionary in this part of Tibet, gives some curious details of
the way in which the civilised traders still prey upon the simple hill-foUcs of that
quarter ; exactly as the Hindu Banyas prey upon the simple forest-tribes of India.
He states one case in which the account for a pig had with interest run up to 2127
bushels of corn ! {Ann. de la Prop de la Foi, XXXVI. 320.)

Gold is said still to be very plentiful in the mountains called Gulan Sigong, to the
N.W. of Yun-nan, adjoining the great eastern branch of the Irawadi, and the Chinese
traders go there to barter for it. (See /. A. S. B. VI. 272.)

Note 5. — Salt is still an object highly coveted by the wild Lolos already alluded
to, and to steal it is a chief aim of their constant raids on Chinese villages. {Richthofen
in Verkandhmgen, etc., u. s. p. 36.) On the continued existence of the use of salt
currency in regions of the same frontier, I have been favoured with the following note
by M. Francis Garnier, the distinguished leader of the expedition of the great
Kamboja River in its latter part: "Salt currency has a very wide diffusion from
Muang Yong [in the Burman-Shan country, about lat. 21° 43 '] to Sheu-pin [in Yun-nan,
about lat. 23° 43 ']. In the Shan markets, especially within the limits named, all
purchases are made with salt. At Sse-mao and Pou-erl \_Esmok and Puer of some of

MARCO I'()LO

Book II.

our maps], silver, wciglicd and cut in small pieces, is in our day lending to drive out
the custom ; but in former days it must have been universal in the tract of which I
am speaking. The salt itself, prime necessity as it is, has there to be extracted by
condensation from saline springs of great depth, a very difficult affair. The operation
consumes enormous quantities of fuel, and to this is partly due the denudation of the
country." Marco's somewhat rude description of the process, " II prennent la scl e la
font aiire^ et puis la gitent en forme,''' points to the manufacture spoken of in this
note. The cut which we give from M. Garnier's work illustrates the process, but the
cakes are vastly greater than INIarco's. Instead of a half-pound they weigh a picttl,
^•^' I33ff lt)s. In Sze-ch'wan the brine wells are bored to a depth of 700 to 1000 feet ;
and the brine is drawn up in bamboo tubes by a gin. In Yun-nan the wells are
much less deep, and a succession of hand pumps is used to raise the brine.

[Mr. Ilosie has a chapter {Three Years in IV. C/iina, VII.) to which he has given
the title of Through Caindu to Carajan ; regarding salt he writes (p. 121): "Th;

Salt-pans in Yun-nan. (From Garnicr.)

" il ^jrrnnent la ^t\ t \x iQwi t\\\xt, zi pui^ \-x xjitrnt t\\ fxjrmc."

brine wells from which the salt is derived lie at Pai-yen-ching, 14 miles to the
south-west of the city [of Yen-yuan] . . . [they] are only two in number, and
comparatively shallow, being only 50 feet in depth. Bamboo tubes, ropes and
buffaloes are here dispensed with, and small wooden tubs, with bamboos fixed to
their sides as handles for raising, are considered sufficient. At one of the wells a
staging was erected half-way down, and from it the tubs of brine were passed up to
the workmen above. Passing from the wells to the evaporating sheds, we found a
series of mud furnaces with round holes at the top, into which cone-shaped pans,
manufactured from iron obtained in the neighbourhood, and varying in height from
one to two and a half feet, were loosely fitted. When a pan has been sufficiently
heated, a ladleful of the brine is poured into it, and, bubbling up to the surface, it

Chap. XLVlt. CASSIA 59

sinks, leaving a saline deposit on the inside of the pan. This process is repeated until
a layer, some four inches thick, and corresponding to the shape of the pan, is formed,
when the salt is removed as a hollow cone ready for market. Care must be taken to
keep the bottom of the pan moist ; otherwise, the salt cone would crack, and be
rendered unfit for the rough carriage which it experiences on the backs of pack
animals. A soft coal, which is found just under the surface of the yellow-soiled
hills seven miles to the west of Pai-yen-ching, is the fuel used in the furnaces.
The total daily output of salt at these wells does not exceed two tons a day, and the
cost at the wells, including the Government tax, amounts to about three half-pence a
pound. The area of supply, owing to the country being sparsely populated, is greater
than the output would lead one to expect." — H. C]

Note 6. — The spiced wine of Kien-ch'ang (see note to next chapter) has even now
a high repute. {Kichthofen.)

Note 7. — M. Pauthier will have it that Marco was here the discoverer of Assam
tea. Assam is, indeed, far out of our range, but his notice of this plant, with the
laurel-like leaf and white flower, was brought strongly to my recollection in reading
Mr. Cooper's repeated notices, almost in this region, of the large-leaved tea-tree,
with its white flowers ; and, again, of " the hills covered with tea-oil trees, all white
with flowers." Still, one does not clearly see why Polo should give tea-trees the
name of cloves.

Failing explanation of this, I should suppose that the cloves of which the text
speaks were cassia-biids, an article once more prominent in commerce (as indeed were
all similar aromatics) than now, but still tolerably well known. I was at once
supplied with them at a drogheria, in the city where I write (Palermo), on asking for
Fiori di Canella, the name under which they are mentioned repeatedly by Pegolotti
and Uzzano, in the 14th and 15th centuries. Friar Jordanus, in speaking of the
cinnamon (or cassia) of Malabar, says, " it is the bark of a large tree which has fruit
2SidL flowers like cloves''^ (p. 28). The cassia-buds have indeed a general resemblance
to cloves, but they are shorter, lighter in colour, and not angular. The cinnamon,
mentioned in the next lines as abundantly produced in the same region, was no doubt
one of the inferior sorts, called cassia-bark.

Williams says : " Cassia grows in all the southern provinces of China, especially
Kwang-si and Yun-nan, also in Aiinam, Japan, and the Isles of the Archipelago.
The wood, bark, buds, seeds, twigs, pods, leaves, oil, are all objects of com-
merce. . . . The buds {kwei-tz) are the fleshy ovaries of the seeds ; they are
pressed at one end, so that they bear some resemblance to cloves in shape." Up-
wards oi yyo pictils (about 30 tons), valued at 30 dollars each, are annually exported
to Europe and India. [Chin. Commercial Guide, 113- 11 4.)

The only doubt as regards this explanation will probably be whether the cassia
would be found at such a height as we may suppose to be that of the country in
question above the sea-level. I know that cassia bark is gathered in the Kasia Kills
of Eastern Bengal up to a height of about 4000 feet above the sea, and at least the
valleys of " Caindu " are probably not too elevated for this product. Indeed, that of
the Kin-sha or Britis, near where I suppose Polo to cross it, is only 2600 feet.
Positive evidence I cannot adduce. No cassia or cinnamon was met with by M.
Garnier's party where they intersected this region.

But in this 2nd edition I am able to state on the authority of Baron Richthofen
that cassia is produced in the whole length of the valley of Kien-ch'ang (which is, as
we shall see in the notes on next chapter, Caindu), though in no other part of
Sze-ch'wan nor in Northern Yun-nan.

[Captain Gill {River of Golden Sand, II. p. 263) writes : "There were chestnut
trees . . ; and the Kwei-Hua, a tree ' with leaves like the laurel, and with a small
white flower, like the clove,' having a delicious, though rather a luscious smell.

6o MARCO POLO Book II.

This was the Cassia, and I can find no words more suitable to describe it than those
of Polo which I have just used." — H. C]

Ethnology. — The Chinese at Ch'eng-tu fu, according to Richthofen, classify the
aborigines of the Sze-ch'wan frontier as Man-izu, Lolo^ Si-fan^ and Tibetan. Of
these the Si-fan are furthest north, and extend far into Tibet. The Man-tzu
(properly so called) are regarded as the remnant of the ancient occupants of Sze-ch'wan,
and now dwell in the mountains about the parallel 30°, and along the Lhdsa road,
Ta-t'sien lu being about the centre of their tract. The Lolo are the wildest and
most independent, occupying the mountains on the left of the Kin-sha Kiang where
it runs northwards (see above p. 48, and below p. 69) and also to some extent on its
right. The Tibetan tribes lie to the west of the Man-tzii, and to the west of Kien-ch'ang.
(See next chapter.)

Towards the Lan-ts'ang Kiang is the quasi-Tibetan tribe called by the Chinese
Mossos, by the Tibetans Guions, and between the Lan-ts'ang and the Lii-Kiang or
Salwen are the Lissus, wild hill-robbers and great musk hunters, like those described
by Polo at p. 45. Gamier, who gives these latter particulars, mentions that near the
confluence of the Yalung and Kin-sha Kiang there are tribes called Fa-i, as there are
in the south of Yun-nan, and, like the latter, of distinctly Shan or Laotian character.
He also speaks of Si-fan tribes in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu, and coming south of the
Kin-sha Kiang even to the east of Ta-li. Of these are told such loose tales as Polo
tells of Tebet and Caindu.

[In the Topography of the Yun-nan Province (edition of 1836) there is a cata-
logue of 141 classes of aborigines, each with a separate name and illustration, without
any attempt to arrive at a broader classification. Mr. Bourne has been led to the
conviction that exclusive of the Tibetans (including Si-fan and Ku-tsung), there are
but three great non-Chinese races in Southern China : the Lolo, the Shan, and the
Miao-tzu. {Reporty China, No. i, 1888, p. 87.) This classification is adopted by Dr.
Deblenne. {Mission Lyonnaise.)

Man-tzii, Man, is a general name for " barbarian " (see my note in Odoric de
Pordenone, p. 248 seqq.) ; it is applied as well to the Lolo as to the Si-fan.

Mr. Parker remarks {China Review, XX. p. 345) that the epithet of Man-tzii, or
"barbarians," dates from the time when the Shans, Annamese, Miao-tzii, etc.,
occupied nearly all South China, for it is essentially to the Indo-Chinese that the
term Man-tzu belongs.

Mr. Hosie \^x\\.t% {Three years in W. China, 122): "At the time when Marco
Polo passed through Caindu, this country was in the possession of the Si-fans. . . .
At the present day, they occupy the country to the west, and are known under the
generic name of Man-tzii."

" It has already been remarked that Si-fan, convertible with Man-tzii, is a loose
Chinese expression of no ethnological value, meaning nothing more than Western
barbarians ; but in a more restricted sense it is used to designate a people (or peoples)
which inhabits the valley of the Yalung and the upper T'ung, with contiguous valleys
and ranges, from about the twenty-seventh parallel to the borders of Koko-nor. This
people is sub-divided into eighteen tribes." {Baber, p. 81.)

Si-fan or Pa-tsiu is the name by which the Chinese call the Tibetan tribes which
occupy part of Western China. {Deviria, p. 167.)

Dr. Bretschneider writes {Med. Res. II. p. 24): "The north-eastern part of
Tibet was sometimes designated by the Chinese name Si-fan, and Hyacinth
[Bitchurin] is of opinion that in ancient times this name was even applied to the
whole of Tibet. Si-fan means, 'Western Barbarians.' The biographer of Hiuen-
Tsang reports that when this traveller, in 629, visited Liang-chau (in the province of
Kan-Suh), this city was the entrep6t for merchants from Si-fan and the countries east
of the Ts'ung-ling mountains. In the history of the Hia and Tangut Empire (in the
Sung-shi) we read, s. a. 1003, that the founder of this Empire invaded Si-fan and
then proceeded to Si-Hang (Liang-chau). The Yuen-shi reports, s. a. 1268 : ' The
(Mongol) Emperor ordered Meng-gu-dai to invade Si-fan with 6000 men.' The

Chap. XLVII.

ETHNOLOGY

name Si-fan appears also in ch. ccii., biography of Dan-ba.^' It is stated in the
Ming-shiy " that the name Si-fan is applied to the territory situated beyond the
frontiers of the Chinese provinces of Shen-si (then including the eastern part of
present Kan-Suh) and Sze-ch'wan, and inhabited by various tribes of Tangut race,
anciently known in Chinese history under the name of Si Kiang, . . . The
Kiiang yu ki notices that
Si-fan comprises the territory
of the south-west of Shen-si,
west of Sze-ch'wan and north-
west of Yun-nan. . . . The
tribute presented by the Si-
fan tribes to the Emperor
used to be carried to the court
at Peking byway ofYa-chau
in Sze-ch'wan." {Bret Sch-
neider, 203. ) The Tangutans
of Prjevalsky, north-east of
Tibet, in the country of Ku-
ku nor, correspond to the Si-
fan.

"The Ta-tu River may
be looked upon as the south-
ern limit of the region in-
habited by Sifan tribes, and
the northern boundary of the
Lolo country which stretches
southwards to the Yang-tzu
and east from the valley of
Kien-ch'ang towards the right
bank of the Min." {Hosie^
p. 102.)

To Mr. E. C. Baber we
owe the most valuable infor-
mation regarding the Lolo
people :

" ' Lolo ' is itself a word
of insult, of unknown Chinese
origin, which should not be
used in their presence, al-
though they excuse it and
will even sometimes employ
it in the case of ignorant
strangers. In the report of
Governor-General Lo Ping-
chang, above quoted, they
are called 'I,' the term ap-
plied by Chinese to Euro-
peans. They themselves
have no objection to being
styled 'I-chia' (I families),
but that word is not their
native name. Near Ma-pien they call themselves ' Lo-su ' ; in the neighbourhood
of Lui-po T'ing their name is ' No-su or 'Ngo-su' (possibly a mere variant of
'Lo-su'); near Hui-li-chou the term is ' Le-su ' — the syllable Le being pronounced
as in French. The subject tribes on the T'ung River, near Mount Wa, also name
themselves 'Ngo-su.' I have found the latter people speak very disrespectfully of

Black Lolo.

MARCO POLO

Book II.

the Le-su, which argues an internal distinction; but there can be no doubt that they
are the same race, and speak the same language, though with minor differences of
dialect." {Baber, Travels, dd-d"].)

" With very rare exceptions the male Lolo, rich or poor, free or subject, may be
instantly known by his horn. All his hair is gathered into a knot over his forehead
and there twisted up in a cotton cloth so as to resemble the horn of a unicorn. The

White Lolo.

horn with its wrapper is sometimes a good nine inches long. They consider this
coiffure sacred, so at least I was told, and even those who wear a short pig-tail for
convenience in entering Chinese territory still conserve the indigenous horn, concealed
for the occasion under the folds of the Sze-ch'wan turban." {Baber, p. 6i,) See
these horns on figures, Bk. II. ch. Iviii.

" The principal clothing of a Lolo is his mantle, a capacious sleeveless garment of
grey or black felt gathered round his neck by a string, and reaching nearly to his

Chap. XLVII. ETHNOLOGY 6^

heels. In the case of the better classes the mantle is of fine felt — in great request
among the Chinese — and has a fringe of cotton-web round its lower border. For
journeys on horseback they have a similar cloak differing only in being slit half-way
up the back ; a wide lappet covering the opening lies easily along the loins and croup
of the horse. The colour of the felt is originally grey, but becomes brown-black or
black, in process of time. It is said that the insects which haunt humanity never in-
fest these gabardines. The Lolo generally gathers this garment closely round his
shoulders and crosses his arms inside. His legs, clothed in trowsers of Chinese
cotton, are swathed in felt bandages bound on with strings, and he has not yet
been super-civilised into the use of foot-gear. In summer a cotton cloak is often
substituted for the felt mantle. The hat, serving equally for an umbrella, is woven
of bamboo, in a low conical shape, and is covered with felt. Crouching in his felt
mantle under this roof of felt the hardy Lolo is impervious to wind or rain." {Bader,
Travels, 61-62.)

"The word, 'Black-bone,' is generally used by the Chinese as a name for the
independent Lolos, but in the mouth of a Lolo it seems to mean a ' freeman ' or
'noble,' in which sense it is not a whit more absurd than the * blue-blood,' of
Europeans. The 'White-bones,' an inferior class, but still Lolo by birth, are, so
far as I could understand, the vassals and retainers of the patricians — the people, in
fact. A third class consists of Wa-tzu, or slaves, who are all captive Chinese. It
does not appear whether the servile class is sub-divided, but, at any rate, the slaves
born in Lolodom are treated with more consideration than those who have been
captured in slave-hunts." {Baber, Travels, dj.)

According to the French missionary, Paul Vial {Les Lolos, Shang-hai, 1898) the
Lolos say that they come from the country situated between Tibet and Burma. The
proper manner to address a Lolo in Chinese is Lao-pen-kia. The book of Father
Vial contains a very valuable chapter on the writing of the Lolos. Mr. F. S. A. Bourne
writes {Report, China, No. i. 1888, p. 88) : — " The old Chinese name for this race
was ' Ts'uan Man ' — ' Ts'uan barbarians,' a name taken from one of their chiefs. The
Yim-nan Topogj'aphy says: — 'The name of "Ts'uan Man" is a very ancient
one, and originally the tribes of Ts'uan were very numerous. There was that called
" Lu-lu Man," for instance, now improperly called " Lo-Lo." ' These people call
themselves ' Nersu,' and the vocabularies show that they stretch in scattered com-
munities as far as SsCi-mao and along the whole southern border of Yun-nan. It
appears from the Topography that they are found also on the Burmese border."

The Moso call themselves Nashi and are called Djhing by the Tibetans ; their
ancient capital is Li-kiang fu which was taken by their chief Mong-ts'u under the
Sung Dynasty ; the Mongols made of their country the kingdom of Chaghan-djang.
Li-kiang is the territory of Yue-si Chao, called also Mo-sie (Moso), one of the six
Chao of Nan-Chao. The Moso of Li-kiang call themselves Ho. '\ hey have an epic
styled Dj inn g- Lin g {^\o'&o Division) recounting the invasion of part of Tibet by the
Moso. The Moso were submitted during the 8th century, by the King of Nan-Chao.
They have a special hieroglyphic scrip, a specimen of which has been given by
Deveria. {Frontiere, p. 166.) A manuscript was secured by Captain Gill, on the
frontier east of Li-t'ang, and presented by him to the British Museum {Add. MSS. Or.
2162); T. de Lacouperie gave a facsimile of it. (Plates I., II. oi Beginnings of IVritijig.)
Prince Henri d'Oileans and M. Bonin both brought home a Moso manuscript with a
Chinese explanation.

Dr. Anderson {Exped. to Yunnan, Calcutta, p. 136) says the Li-sus, or Lissaus are
"a small hill-people, with fair, round, flat faces, high cheek bones, and some little
obliquity of the eye." These Li-su or Li-si^, are scattered throughout the Yunnanese
prefectures of Yao-ngan, Li-kiang, Ta-li and Yung-ch'ang; they were already in
Yun-Nan in the 4th century when the Chinese general Ch'u Chouang-kiao entered the
country. {Devdria, Frojit., p. 164.)

The Pa-y or P''o-y formed under the Han Dynasty the principality of P'o-tsiu and
under the T'ang Dynasty the tribes of Pu-hiung and of Si-ngo, which were among the

64 MARCO POLO Book II.

thirty-seven tribes dependent on the ancient state of Nan-Chao and occupied the
territory of the sub-prefectures of Kiang-Chuen (Ch'eng-kiang fu) and of Si-ngo
(Lin-ngan fu). They submitted to China at the beginning of the Yuen Dynasty ; their
country bordered upon Burma (Mien-ticn) and Ch'e-li or Kiang-Hung (Xieng-IIung),
in Yun-Nan, on the right bank of the Mekong River. According to Chinese tradi-
tion, the Pa-y descended from Muong Tsiu-ch'u, ninth son of Ti Muong-tsiu, son of
Piao-tsiu-ti (Asoka). Dev^ria gives (p. 105) a specimen of the Pa-y writing (i6th
century). [Devt'ria, Front. , 99, 117; Bourne, Report , p. 88.) Chapter iv. of the
Chinese work, Sze-i-kivan-JSao, is devoted to the Pa-y, including the sub-divisions of
Muong- Yang, Muong-Ting, Nan-tien, Tsien-ngaT, Lung-chuen, Wei-yuan, Wan-tien,
Chen-k'ang, Ta-how, Mang-shi, Kin-tung, Ho-tsin, Cho-lo tien. (Devt^ria, Mil. de
JTarlez, p. 97.) I give a specimen of Pa-yi writing from a Chinese work purchased by
Father Amiot at Peking, now in the Paris National Library (Fonds chinois, No. 986).
(See on this scrip, F. W. K. Miiller, Voimg-Pao, IIL p. i, and V. p. 329; E. H.
Parker, The Muong Language, China Review, L 1891, p. 267; P. Lefivre-Pontalis,
Etndes sttr qtielques alphabets et vocab. Thais, T^oung Pao, IIL pp. 39-64.) — 11. C]

These ethnological matters have to be handled cautiously, for there is great
ambiguity in the nomenclature. Thus Man-tzii is often used generically for aborigines,
and the Lolos of Richthofen are called Man-tzii by Garnier and Blakiston ; whilst
Lolo again has in Yun-nan apparently a very comprehensive generic meaning, and is
so used by Garnier. {Richt. Letter'MVL. 67-68 and MS. notes ; Garnier, 1. 519 seqq.
IT. W. Kingsviill, Han Wu-ti, China Review, XXV. 103-109.])

CHAPTER XLVIII.

Concerning the Province of Carajan.

When you have passed that River you enter on the pro-
vince of Carajan, which is so large that it includes
seven kingdoms. It lies towards the west; the people
are Idolaters, and they are subject to the Great Kaan.
A son of his, however, is there as King of the country,
by name Essentimur; a very great and rich and
puissant Prince ; and he well and justly rules his
dominion, for he is a wise man, and a valiant.

After leaving the river that I spoke of, you go five
days' journey towards the west, meeting with numerous
towns and villages. The country is one in which
excellent horses are bred, and the people live by cattle
and agriculture. They have a language of their own
which is passing hard to understand. At the end of
those five days' journey you come to the capital, which is

°5

'^-

Lu , L..

"4^

-Hi

"% ^

VOL, II,

66 MARCO POLO Book II.

called Yacht, a very great and noble city, in which are
numerous merchants and craftsmen/

The people are of sundry kinds, for there are not
only Saracens and Idolaters, but also a few Nestorian
Christians.^ They have wheat and rice in plenty.
Howbeit they never eat wheaten bread, because in that
country it is unwholesome.^ Rice they eat, and make
of it sundry messes, besides a kind of drink which is
very clear and good, and makes a man drunk just as
wine does.

Their money is such as I will tell you. They use
for the purpose certain white porcelain shells that are
found in the sea, such as are sometimes put on dogs'
collars ; and 80 of these porcelain shells pass for a
single weight of silver, equivalent to two Venice groats,
i.e. 24 piccoli. Also eight such weights of silver count
equal to one such weight of gold.^

They have brine-wells in this country from which they
make salt, and all the people of those parts make a
living by this salt. The King, too, I can assure you,
gets a great revenue from this salt.^

There is a lake in this country of a good hundred
miles in compass, in which are found great quantities of the
best fish in the world ; fish of great size, and of all sorts.

They reckon it no matter for a man to have intimacy
with another's wife, provided the woman be willing.

Let me tell you also that the people of that country
eat their meat raw, whether it be of mutton, beef, buffalo,
poultry, or any other kind. Thus the poor people will
go to the shambles, and take the raw liver as it comes
from the carcase and cut it small, and put it in a sauce of
garlic and spices, and so eat it ; and other meat in like
manner, raw, just as we eat meat that is dressed.^

Now I will tell you about a further part of the
Province of Carajan, of which I have been speaking.

Chap. XLVIII. THE PROVINCE OF CARAJAN 67

Note i. — We have now arrived at the great province of Carajan, the KarXjAng
of the Mongols, which we know to be Yun-NAN, and at its capital Yachi, which — I
was about to add — we know to be Yun-NAN-fu. But I find all the commentators
make it something else. Rashiduddin, however, in his detail of the twelve Sings or
provincial governments of China under the Mongols, thus speaks : " loth, KarAjang.
This used to be an independent kingdom, and the Sing is established at the great city
of YAcHi. All the inhabitants are Mahomedans. The chiefs are Noyan Takin, and
Yakub Beg, son of 'Ali Beg, the Beliich." And turning to Pauthier's corrected
account of the same distribution of the empire from authentic Chinese sources (p. 334),
we find : "8. The administrative province of Yun-nan. . . . Its capital, chief town
also of the canton of the same name, was called Chung-khmg, now Yun-nan-fu."
Hence Yachi was Yun-nan-fu. This is still a large city, having a rectangular rampart
with 6 gates, and a circuit of about 6| miles. The suburbs were destroyed by the
Mahomedan rebels. The most important trade there now is in the metallic produce
of the Province. [According to Oxenham, Historical Atlas ^ there were ten provinces-
or jy^(?;/^ (Liao-yang, Chung-shu, Shen-si, Ho-nan, Sze-ch'wan, Yun-nan^ Hu-kwang,
Kiang-che, Kiang-si and Kan-suh) and twelve military governorships. — H. C]

Yachi was perhaps an ancient corruption of the name Yichati, which the territory
bore (according to Martini and Biot) under the Han ; but more probably Yichau was
a Chinese transformation of the real name Yachi. The Shans still call the city Muang
Chi, which is perhaps another modification of the same name.

We have thus got Ch'eng-tu fu as one fixed point, and Yun-nan-fu as another, and
we have to track the traveller's itinerary between the two, through what Ritter called
with reason a terra incognita. What little was known till recently of this region
came from the Catholic missionaries. Of late the veil has begun to be lifted ; the
daring excursion of Francis Gamier and his party in 1868 intersected the tract towards
the south ; Mr. T. T. Cooper crossed it further north, by Ta-t'sien lu, Lithang and
Bathang; Baron v. Richthofen in 1872 had penetrated several marches towards the
heart of the mystery, when an unfortunate mishap compelled his return, but he brought
back with him much precious information.

Five days forward from Ch'eng-tu fu brought us on Tibetan ground. Five days
backward from Yun-nan fu should bring us to the river Brius, with its gold-dust and
the frontier of Caindu. Wanting a local scale for a distance of five days, I find that
our next point in advance, Marco's city of Carajan undisputably Tali-fu, is said by
him to be ten days from Yachi. The direct distance between the cities of Yun-nan
and Ta-li I find by measurement' on Keith Johnston's map to be 133 Italian miles.
[The distance by road is 215 English miles. (See Baber, p. 191.) — PI. C] Taking
half this as radius, the compasses swept from Yun-nan-fu as centre, intersect near its
most southerly elbow the great upper branch of the Kiang, the Kin-sha Kiang of the
Chinese, or "River of the Golden Sands," the Murus Ussu and Brichu of the
Mongols and Tibetans, and manifestly the auriferous Brius of our traveller.* Hence
also the country north of this elbow is Caindu.

* [Baber writes (p. 107) : " The river is never called locally by any other name than Kin-ho, or
* Gold River. '1 The term Kin-sha- Kiang ^oxAA in strictness be confined to the Tibetan course of
the stream ; as applied to other parts it is a mere book name. There is no great objection to its
adoption, except that it is unintelligible to the inhabitants of the banks, and is liable to mislead
travellers in search of indigenous information, but at any rate it should not be supposed to asperse
Marco Polo's accuracy. Gold River is the local name from the junction of the Yalung to about P'ing-
shan ; below P'ing-shan it is known by various designations, but the Ssu-ch'uanese naturally call it
'the River,' or, by contrast with its affluents, the 'Big River' (Ta-hd)." I imagine that Baber
here makes a slight mistake, and that they use the name kiang, and not ho, for the river. — H. C]

[Mr. Rockhill remarks {Land of the Lamas, p. 196 note) that " Marco Polo speaks of the Yang-
tzu as the Brius, and Orazio della Penna calls it Biciu, both words representing the Tibetan Dre ck'u.
This last name has been frequently translated ' Cow yak River,' but this is certainly not its meaning,
as cow yak is dri-?no, never pronounced dr^, and unintelligible without the suffix,7«(7. Dre may mean
either mule, dirty, or rice, but as T have never seen the word written, I cannot decide on any of
these terms, all of which have exactly the same pronunciation. The Mongols call it Murus osu, and
in books this is sometimes changed to Murui osu, ' Tortuous river.' The Chinese call it Tung i^ien

I Marco Polo nowhere calls the river "Gold River," the name he gives it is Brius.— H. Y.

VOL. II. E 2

Chap. XLVIII. ROUTE FROM CH'ENG-TU TO YUN-NAN 69

I leave the preceding paragraph as it stood in the first edition, because it shows
how near the true position of Caindu these unaided deductions from our author's data
had carried me. That paragraph was followed by an erroneous hypothesis as to the
intermediate part of that journey, but, thanks to the new light shed by Baron
Richthofen, we are enabled now to lay down the whole itinerary from Ch'eng-tu fu to
Yun-nan fu with confidence in its accuracy.

The Kin-sha Kiang or Upper course of the Great Yang-tzu, descending from Tibet
to Yun-nan, forms the great bight or elbow to which allusion has just been made, and
which has been a feature known to geographers ever since the publication of
D'Anville's atlas. The tract enclosed in this elbow is cut in two by another great
Tibetan River, the Yarlung, or Yalung-Kiang, which joins the ICin-sha not far from
the middle of the great bight ; and this Yalung, just before the confluence, receives
on the left a stream of inferior calibre, the Ngan-ning Ho, which also flows in a valley
parallel to the meridian, like all that singular fascis of great rivers between Assam
and Sze-ch'wan.

This River Ngan-ning waters a valley called Kien-ch'ang, containing near its northern
end a city known by the same name, but in our modern maps marked as Ning-yuan fu ;
this last being the name of a department of which it is the capital, and which embraces
much more than the valley of Kien-ch'ang. The town appears, however, as KJen-ch'ang
in the Atlas Sinensis of Martini, and as Kienchang-ouei in D'Anville. This remark-
able valley, imbedded as it were in a wilderness of rugged highlands and wild races,
accessible only by two or three long and difficult routes, rejoices in a warm climate, a
most productive soil, scenery that seems to excite enthusiasm even in Chinamen, and
a population noted for amiable temper. Towns and villages are numerous. The
people are said to be descended from Chinese immigrants, but their features have
little of the Chinese type, and they have probably a large infusion of aboriginal
blood. [Kien-ch'ang, "otherwise the Prefecture of Ning-yuan, is perhaps the least
known of the Eighteen Provinces," writes Mr. Baber. {Travels^ p. 58.) "Two or three
sentences in the book of Ser Marco, to the effect that after crossing high mountains, he
reached a fertile country containing many towns and villages, and inhabited by a very
immoral population, constitute to this day the only description we possess of Cain-dtt,
as he calls the district." Baber adds (p. 82) : " Although the main valley of Kien-
ch'ang is now principally inhabited by Chinese, yet the Sifan or Menia people are
frequently met with, and most of the villages possess two names, one Chinese, and
the other indigenous. Probably in Marco Polo's time a Menia population predomin-
ated, and the valley was regarded as part of Menia. If Marco had heard that name,
he would certainly have recorded it ; but it is not one which is likely to reach the ears
of a stranger. The Chinese people and officials never employ it, but use in its stead
an alternative name, Ckan-tu or Chan-ttci, of precisely the same application, which I
make bold to offer as the original of Marco's Caindu, or preferably Ciandu." — H. C]

This valley is bounded on the east by the mountain country of the Lolos, which
extends north nearly to Yachau {siipra, pp. 45, 48, 60), and which, owing to the
fierce intractable character of the race, forms throughout its whole length an impene-
trable barrier between East and West. [The Rev. Gray Owen, of Ch'eng-tu, wrote
[Jotir. China, B. R. A. S. xxviii. 1893- 1 894, p. 59) : "The only great trade route
infested by brigands is that from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan fu, where Lo-lo brigands
are numerous, especially in the autumn. Last year I heard of a convoy of 18
mules with Shen-si goods on the above - mentioned road captured by these
brigands, muleteers and all taken inside the Lo-lo country. It is very seldom
that captives get out of Lo-lo-dom, because the ransom asked is too high, and the
Chinese officials are not gallant enough to buy out their unfortunate countrymen.
The Lo-los hold thousands of Chinese in slavery ; and more are added yearly to

ho, ' River of all Heaven,* The name Kin-sha kiang, ' River of Golden Sand,' is used for it from
Bat'ang to Sui-fu, or thereabouts." The general name for the river is Ta- Kiang {Gr&sit River), or
simply Kiang, in contradistinction to Ho, for Hwang-Ho (Yellow River) in Northern China.— H. C]

7d MARCO tOLO Book It.

the number." — II, C] Two routes run from Ch'eng-tu fu to Yun-nan ; these fork
at Ya-chau and thenceforward arc entirely separated by this barrier. To the east of
it is the route which descends the Min River to Siu-chau, and then passes by
Chao-tong and Tong-chuan to Yun-nan fu : to the west of the barrier is a route
leading through Kien-ch'ang to Ta-li fu, but throwing off a branch from Ning-yuan
southward in the direction of Yun-nan fu.

This road from Ch'eng-tu fu to Ta-li by Ya-chau and Ning-yuan appears to be that
by which the greater part of the goods for Bhamo and Ava used to travel before the
recent Mahomedan rebellion ; it is almost certainly the road by which Kiiblai, in 1253,
during the reign of his brother Mangku Kaan, advanced to the conquest of Ta-li, then
the head of an independent kingdom in Western Yun-nan. As far as Ts'ing-k'i hien,
3 marches beyond Ya-chau, this route coincides with the great Tibet road by Ta-t'sien lu
and Bathang to L'hdsa, and then it diverges to the left.

We may now say without hesitation that by this road Marco travelled. His Tibet
commences with the mountain region near Ya-chau ; his 20 days' journey through a
devastated and dispeopled tract is the journey to Ning-yuan fu. Even now, from
Ts'ing-k'i onwards for several days, not a single inhabited place is seen. The official
route from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan lays down 13 stages, but it generally takes from 15 to
18 days. Polo, whose journeys seem often to have been shorter than the modern
average,* took 20. On descending from the highlands he comes once more into a
populated region, and enters the charming Valley of Kien-ch'ang. This valley, with
its capital near the upper extremity, its numerous towns and villages, its cassia, its
spiced wine, and its termination southward on the River of the Golden Sands, is
Caindu. The traveller's road from Ningyuan to Yunnanfu probably lay through
Hwei-li, and the Kin-sha Kiang would be crossed as already indicated, near its most
southerly bend, and almost due north of Yun-nan fu. (See Richthofen as quoted
at pp. 45-46.)

As regards the name of Caindu or Ghkindu (as in G. T,), I think we may
safely recognise in the last syllable the do which is so frequent a termination of
Tibetan names (Amdo, Tsiamdo, etc. ) ; whilst the Cain, as Baron Richthofen has
pointed out, probably survives in the first part of the name Kieiich^.xxg.

[Baber writes (pp. 80-81) : *' Colonel Yule sees in the word Caindu a variation of
* Chien-ch'ang,' and supposes the syllable ' du ' to be the same as the termination
'du,' 'do,' or 'tu,' so frequent in Tibetan names. In such names, however, 'do'
never means a district, but always a confluence, or a town near a confluence, as might
almost be guessed from a map of Tibet. . . . Unsatisfied with Colonel Yule's
identification, I cast about for another, and thought for a while that a clue had been
found in the term *Chien-t'ou' (sharp-head), applied to certain Lolo tribes. But the
idea had to be abandoned, since Marco Polo's anecdote about the ' caitiff,' and the
loose manners of his family, could never have referred to the Lolos, who are admitted
even by their Chinese enemies to possess a very strict code indeed of domestic
regulations. The Lolos being eliminated, the Si-fans remained ; and before we had
been many days in their neighbourhood, stories were told us of their conduct which a
polite pen refuses to record. It is enough to say that Marco's account falls rather
short of the truth, and most obviously applies to the Si-fan."

Deveria {Front, p. 146 note) says that Kien-ch'ang is the ancient territory of
Kiung-tu which, under the Han Dynasty, fell into the hands of the Tibetans, and was
made by the Mongols the march of Kien-ch'ang {Che-Kong- fu) ; it is the Caindu of
Marco Polo ; under the Han Dynasty it was the Kiun or division of Yueh-sui or
Yueh-hsi. Deveria quotes from the Yuen-shi-lei pien the following passage relating
to the year 1284 : "The twelve tribes of the Barbarians to the south-west of Kien-tou
and Kin-Chi submitted ; Kien-tou was administered by Mien (Burma) ; Kien-tou
submits because the Kingdom of Mien has been vanquished." Kien-tou is the

* Baron Richthofen, who has travelled hundreds of miles in his footsteps, considers his allowance
of time to be generally from J to i greater than that now usual

Road descending from the Table-Land of Yun-nan into the Valley of the Kin-sha Kiang (the BHus of Polo).

(After Garnier.)

72 MARCO POLO Book II.

Chien-fou of Baber, the Caindu of Marco Polo. {Melanges de Harlez, p. 97.)
According to Mr. E. II. Parker [China Review, xix. p. 69), Yueh-hsi or Yueh-sui
"is the modern Kien-ch'ang Valley, the Caindu of Marco Polo, between the
Yalung and Yang-tzii Rivers ; the only non-Chinese races found there now are the
Si-fan and Lolos."— H. C]

Turning to minor particulars, the Lake of Caindu in which the pearls were found
is doubtless one lying near Ning-yuan, whose beauty Richthofen heard greatly extolled,
though nothing of the pearls. [Mr. Hosie writes {Three Years, 112-113): "If the
former tradition be true (the old city of Ning-yuan having given place to a large lake in
the early years of the Ming Dynasty), the lake had no existence when Marco Polo passed
through Caindu, and yet we find him mentioning a lake in the country in which pearls
were found. Curiously enough, although I had not then read the Venetian's narrative,
one of the many things told me regarding the lake was that pearls are found in it,
and specimens were brought to me for inspection." The lake lies to the south-east
of the present city. — H. C] A small lake is marked by D'Anville, close to Kien-
ch'ang, under the name of Gechoui-tang. The large quantities of gold derived from
the Kin-sha Kiang, and the abundance of musk in that vicinity, are testified to by
Martini. The Lake mentioned by Polo as existing in the territory of Yachi is no
doubt the Tien-chi, the Great Lake on the shore of which the city of Yun-nan stands,
and from which boats make their way by canals along the walls and streets. Its
circumference, according to Martini, is 500 li. The cut (p. 68), from Gamier, shows
this lake as seen from a villa on its banks. [Deveria (p. 129) quotes this passage
from the Yuen-shi-lei pien: "Yachi, of which the U-tnan or Black Barbarians made
their capital, is surrounded by Lake Tien-chi on three sides." Tien-chi is one of the
names of Lake Kwen-ming, on the shore of which is built Yun-nan fu. — H. C]

Returning now to the Karajang of the Mongols, or Carajan, as Polo writes it, we
shall find that the latter distinguishes tins great province, which formerly, he says, in-
cluded seven kingdoms, into two Mongol Governments, the seat of one being at Yachi,
which we have seen to be Yun-nan fu, and that of the other at a city to which he gives
the name of the Province, and which we shall find to be the existing Ta-li fu. Great
confusion has been created in most of the editions by a distinction in the form of the
name as applied to these two governments. Thus Ramusio prints the province under
Yachi as Carajan, and that under Ta-li as Carazan, whilst Marsden, following out his
system for the conversion of Ramusio's orthography, makes the former Karaian and
the latter Karazan. Pauthier prints Caraian all through, a fact so far valuable as
showing that his texts make no distinction between the names of the two governments,
but the form impedes the recognition of the old Mongol nomenclature. I have no
doubt that the name all through should be read Carajan, and on this I have acted.
In the Geog. Text we find the name given at the end of ch. xlvii. Caragian, in
ch. xlviii. as Carajan, in ch. xlix. as Caraian, thus just reversing the distinction made
by Marsden. The Crusca has Charagia{n) all through.

The name then was Kardjdng, in which the first element was the Mongol or
Turki Kara, "Black." For we find in another passage of Rashid the following
information:* — "To the south-west of Cathay is the country called by the Chinese
Dailiii or * Great Realm,' and by the Mongols Kardjdng, in the language of India
and Kashmir Kandar, and by us Kandahar. This country, which is of vast extent, is
bounded on one side by Tibet and Tangut, and on others by Mongolia, Cathay, and
the country of the Gold-Teeth. The King of Karajang uses the title oi Mahdrd, i.e.
Great King. The capital is called Yachi, and there the Council of Administration is
established. Among the inhabitants of this country some are black, and others are
white; these latter are called by the Mongols Chaghdn-Jdng ('White Jang')."
Jang has not been explained ; but probably it may have been a Tibetan term adopted

* See Quatrentere' s Rashiduddin, pp. Ixxxvi.-xcvi. My quotation is made up from two citations
by Quatremere, one from his text of Rashiduddin, and the other from the History of Benaketi, which
Quatremere shows to have been drawn from Rashiduddin, whilst it contains some particulars not
existing in his own text of that author.

Chap. XLVIII.

THE NAME KARAJANG

by the Mongols, and the colours may have applied to their clothing. The dominant
race at the Mongol invasion seems to have been Shans ;* and black jackets are the
characteristic dress of the Shans whom one sees in Burma in modern times. The
Kara-jang and Chaghan-jang appear to correspond also to the U-mati and Pe-man, or
Black Barbarians and White Barbarians, who are mentioned by Chinese authorities as
conquered by the Mongols, It would seem from one of Pauthier's Chinese quotations
(p. Z^^)j that the Chaghan-jang were found in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu. (D'Ohsson,
II. 317;/. R. Geog. Soc. III. 294.) [Dr. Bretschneider {Med. Res. I. p. 184) says
that in the description of Yun-nan, in the Yuen-shi, " Cara-jang and Chagan-jang ax^
rendered by Wu-man and Fo-fnan {Black and White Barbarians). But in the

A Saracen ofCarajan, being a portrait of a Mahomedan Mullah in Western Yun-nan.
(From Garnier's Work.)

"^«5( «unt iic0 ^\ozoxs maitttrcs, cnr il hi a jcn0 xjc norent ^laomct."

biographies of Djao-a-JSo-p''an, A-r-szelaii [Ytten-shi, ch. cxxiii.), and others, these
tribes are mentioned under the names of Ha-la-djang and ClCa-han-djang, as the
Mongols used to call them ; and in the biography of Wu-liaiig-ho fai. [Uriang
kadai], the conqueror of Yun-nan, it is stated that the capital of the Black Barbarians
was called YachH. It is described there as a city surrounded by lakes from three
sides."— n. C]

Regarding Rasliiduddin's application of the name Kandahar or Gandhara to
Yun-nan, and curious points connected therewith, I must refer to a paper of mine in
they. R. A. Society (n.s. IV. 356). But I may mention that in the ecclesiastical
translation of the classical localities of Indian Buddhism to Indo-China, which is

* The title Chao in Nan-Chao {infra, p. 79) is said by a Chinese author (Pauthier, p. 391) to
signify King in the language of those barbarians. This is evidently the Chao which forms an
essential part of the title of all Siamese and Shan princes.

[Regarding the word Nan-Chao, Mr. Parker {China Review, XX. p. 339) writes "In the
barbarian tongue ' prince' is Chao" says the Chinese author ; and there were six Chao, of which the
Nan or Southern was the leading power. Hence the name Nan-Chao ... it is hardly necessary for
me to say that chao or kyiao is still the Shan-Siamese word for 'prince.'" Pallegoix {Diet. p. 85)
has CJtao, Princeps, rex.— H. C. ]

74 MARCO POLO ■ Book II.

current in Burma, Yun-nan represents Gandhdra,* and is still so styled in state
documents {Ganddlarii).

What has been said of the supposed name Caraian disposes, I trust, of the fancies
which have connected the origin of the Karens of Burma with it. More groundless
still is M. Pauthier's deduction of the Talains of Pegu (as the Burmese call them)
from the people of Ta-li, who fled from Kublai's invasion.

Note 2. — The existence of Nestorians in this remote province is very notable
\steBonin,J. As. XV. 1900, pp. 589-590. — H. C] ; and also the early prevalence
of Mahomedanism, which Rashiduddin intimates in stronger terms. " All the
inhabitants of Yachi," he says, "are Mahomedans." This was no doubt an exaggera-
tion, but the Mahomedans seem always to have continued to be an important body in
Yun-nan up to our own day. In 1855 began their revolt against the imperial authority,
which for a time resulted in the establishment of their independence in Western
Yun-nan under a chief whom they called Sultan Suleiman. A proclamation in
remarkably good Arabic, announcing the inauguration of his reign, appears to have
been circulated to Mahomedans in foreign states, and a copy of it some years ago
found its way through the Nepalese agent at L'hasa, into the hands of Colonel
Ramsay, the British Resident at Katmandu. f

Note 3. — Wheat grows as low as Ava, but there also it is not used by natives for
bread, only for confectionery and the like. The same is the case in Eastern China.
(See ch. xxvi. note 4, and Middle Kingdom, II. 43.)

Note 4. — The -^oxd piccoli is supplied, doubtfully, in lieu of an unknown symbol.
If correct, then we should read "24 piccoli each,'" for this was about the equivalent
of a grosso. This is the first time Polo mentions cowries, which he calls porcellani.
This might have been rendered by the corresponding vernacular name ^^ Pig-shells ^^^
applied to certain shells of that genus {Cypraea) in some parts of England. It is
worthy of note that as the name porcellana has been transferred from these shells to
China-ware, so the word pig has been in Scotland applied to crockery ; whether the
process has been analogous, I cannot say.

Klaproth states that Yun-nan is the only country of China in which cowries
had continued in use, though in ancient times they were more generally diffused.
According to him 80 cowries were equivalent to 6 cash, or a half- penny. About
1780 in Eastern Bengal 80 cowries were worth |th of a penny, and some 40 years ago,
when Prinsep compiled his tables in Calcutta (where cowries were still in use a few
years ago, if they are not now), 80 cowries were worth fV of 3- penny.

At the time of the Mahomedan conquest of Bengal, early in the 13th century,
they found the currency exclusively composed of cowries, aided perhaps by bullion in
large transactions, but with no coined money. In remote districts this continued to
modern times. When the Hon. Robert Lindsay went as Resident and Collector to
Silhet about 1778, cowries constituted nearly the whole currency of the Province.
The yearly revenue amounted to 250,000 rupees, and this was entirely paid in
cowries at the rate of 5120 to the rupee. It required large warehouses to contain
them, and when the year's collection was complete a large fleet of boats to transport
them to Dacca. Before Lindsay's time it had been the custom to count the whole
before embarking them ! Down to 1801 the Silhet revenue was entirely collected in
cowries, but by 1813, the whole was realised in specie. {Thomas, in J. K. A. S.
N.s. II. 147; Lives of the Lindsays, III. 169, 170.)

Klaproth's statement has ceased to be correct. Lieutenant Garnier found cowries
nowhere in use north of Luang Prabang ; and among the Kakhyens in Western
Yun nan these shells are used only for ornament. [However, Mr. E. H. Parker says
{China Review, XXVI. p. 106) that the porcelain money still circulates in the Shan
States, and that he saw it there himself. — H. C]

* Gandhdra, Arabic^ Kandahar, is properly the country about Peshawar, Gandaritis of Strabo.
t This is printed almost in full in the French Voyage d'ExJ>lo7ation, I. 564.

76 MARCO POLO Book II.

Note 5. — See eh. xlvii. note 4. Martini speaks of a great brine- well to the N.E.
of Yaogan (W.N.W. of the city of Yun-nan), which supplied the whole country
round.

Note 6. — Two particulars appearing in these latter paragraphs are alluded to by
Rashiduddin in giving a brief account of the overland route from India to China,
which is unfortunately very obscure : "Thence you arrive at the borders of Tibet,
where they eat ratv meat and worship images, and have no shame respecting their
wives.'" {Elliot, I. p. 73.)

CHAPTER XLIX.

Concerning a further part of the Province of Carajan.

After leaving that city of Yachi of which I have been
speaking, and traveUing ten days towards the west, you
come to another capital city which is still in the province
of Carajan, and is itself called Carajan. The people are
Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan ; and the King-
is CoGACHiN, who is a son of the Great Kaan/

In this country gold-dust is found in great quantities ;
that is to say in the rivers and lakes, whilst in the moun-
tains gold is also found in pieces of larger size. Gold is
indeed so abundant that they give one saggio of gold for
only six of the same weight in silver. And for small
change they use porcelain shells as I mentioned before.
These are not found in the country, however, but are
brought from India.^

In this province are found snakes and great serpents
of such vast size as to strike fear into those who see
them, and so hideous that the very account of them must
excite the wonder of those to hear it. I will tell you
how long and big they are.

You may be assured that some of them are ten paces
in length ; some are more and some less. And in bulk
they are equal to a great cask, for the bigger ones are

Chap. XLIX. SERPENT TRAPPING 77

about ten palms in girth. They have two forelegs near
the head, but for foot nothing but a claw like the claw of
a hawk or that of a lion. The head is very big, and the
eyes are bigger than a great loaf of bread. The mouth
is large enough to swallow a man whole, and is garnished
with great [pointed] teeth. And in short they are so
fierce-looking and so hideously ugly, that every man and
beast must stand in fear and trembling of them. There
are also smaller ones, such as of eight paces long, and of
five, and of one pace only.

The way in which they are caught is this. You must
know that by day they live underground because of the
great heat, and in the night they go out to feed, and
devour every animal they can catch. They go also to
drink at the rivers and lakes and springs. And their
weight is so great that when they travel in search of food
or drink, as they do by night, the tail makes a great
furrow in the soil as if a full ton of liquor had been
dragged along. Now the huntsmen who go after them
take them by certain gyn which they set in the track over
which the serpent has past, knowing that the beast will
come back the same way. They plant a stake deep in the
ground and fix on the head of this a sharp blade of steel
made like a razor or a lance-point, and then they cover
the whole with sand so that the serpent cannot see it.
Indeed the huntsman plants several such stakes and
blades on the track. On coming to the spot the beast
strikes against the iron blade with such force that it
enters his breast and rives him up to the navel, so that
he dies on the spot [and the crows on seeing the brute
dead begin to caw, and then the huntsmen know that
the serpent is dead and come in search of him].

This then is the way these beasts are taken. Those
who take them proceed to extract the gall from the
inside, and this sells at a great price ; for you must know

MARCO POLO

Book II. ■

it furnishes the material for a most precious medicine.
Thus if a person is bitten by a mad dog, and they give
him but a small pennyweight of this medicine to drink,
he is cured in a moment. Again i-f a woman is hard in
labour they give her just such another dose and she is
delivered at once. Yet again if one has any disease like
the itch, or it may be worse, and applies a small quantity
of this gall he. shall speedily be cured. So you see why
it sells at such a high price.

They also sell the flesh of this serpent, for it is ex-
cellent eating, and the people are very fond of it. And
when these serpents are very hungry, sometimes they
will seek out the lairs of lions or bears or other large
wild beasts, and devour their cubs, without the sire and
dam being able to prevent it. Indeed if they catch the
big ones themselves they devour them too ; they can
make no resistance.^

In this province also are bred large and excellent
horses which are taken to India for sale. And you
must know that the people dock two or three joints of
the tail from their horses, to prevent them from flipping

their riders, a thing which
they consider very unseemly.
They ride long like French-
men, and wear armour of
boiled leather, and carry
spears and shields and arb-
lasts, and all their quarrels
are poisoned.* [And I was
told as a fact that many per-
sons, especially those medi-
tating mischief, constantly
carry this poison about with
them, so that if by any
chance they should be taken, and be threatened with

" Riding long like Frenchmen."

®t tntoxt sachil qt u^it Qtns cht-
iittuchtni lD..nc i.amx frattckois."

Chap. XLIX. THE CITY OF TA-LI FU 79

torture, to avoid this they swallow the poison and so
die speedily. But princes who are aware of this keep
ready dog's dung, which they cause the criminal in-
stantly to swallow, to make him vomit the poison. And
thus they manage to cure those scoundrels.]

I will tell you of a wicked thing they used to do
before the Great Kaan conquered them. If it chanced
that a man of fine person or noble birth, or some other
quality that recommended him, came to lodge with those
people, then they would murder him by poison, or other-
wise. And this they did, not for the sake of plunder, but
because they believed that in this way the goodly favour
and wisdom and repute of the murdered man would cleave
to the house where he was slain. And in this manner
many were murdered before the country was conquered
by the Great Kaan. But since his conquest, some 35
years ago, these crimes and this evil practice have pre-
vailed no more ; and this through dread of the Great
Kaan who will not permit such things.^

Note I. — There can be no doubt that this second chief city of Carajan is Tali-
FU, which was the capital of the Shan Kingdom called by the Chinese Nan-Chao.
This kingdom had subsisted in Yun-nan since 738, and probably had embraced the
upper part of the Irawadi Valley. For the Chinese tell us it was also called Maung,
and it probably was identical with the Shan Kingdom of Muang Maorong or of Pong^
of which Captain Pemberton procured a Chronicle. [In A.D. 650, the Ai-Lao, the most
ancient name by which the Shans were known to the Chinese, became the Nan-Chao.
The Meng family ruled the country from the 7th century ; towards the middle of the
8th century, P'i-lo-ko, who is the real founder of the Thai kingdom of Nan-Chao,
received from the Chinese the title of King of Yun-Nan and made T'ai-ho, 15 lis south
of Ta-li, his residence; he died in 748. In A.D. 938, Twan Sze-ying, of an old
Chinese family, took Ta-li and established there an independent kingdom. In 1115
embassies with China were exchanged, and the Emperor conferred (11 19) upon Twan
Cheng-yn the title of King of Ta-li {Ta-li Kwo Wang). Twan Siang-hing was the
last king of Ta-H (i 239-1 251). In 1252 the Kingdom of Nan-Chao was destroyed by
the Mongols; the Emperor She Tsu (Kublai) gave the title of Maharaja {Mo-ho
Lo-tso) to Twan Hing-che (son of Twan Siang-hing), who had fled to Yun-Nan fu and
was captured there. Afterwards (1261) the Twan are known as the eleven Tsung-
Kwan (governors) ; the last of them, Twan Ming, was made a prisoner by an army
sent by the Ming Emperors, and sent to Nan-King (1381). {E. H. Parker, Early
Laos and China, China Review, XIX. and the Old Thai or Shan Empire of Western
Yun-Nan, Ibid., XX. ; E. Rocher, Hist, des Princes du Yunnan, Voung Pao, 1899;
E. Chavannes, Une Inscription du. roy. de Nan Tchao, J. A., November- December,
1900; M, Tchang, Tableau des Souverains de Nan- Tchao, Bui. Ecole Franc. d'Ext.

8o MARCO POLO Book II

Orient, I. No. 4.)— H. C] The city of Ta-li was taken by Kubldi in 1253-1254. The
circumstance that it was known to the invaders (as appears from Polo's statement) by
the name of the province is an indication of the fact that it was the capital of Carajan
before the conquest. ["That Yachi and Caray^w represent Yunnan-fu and Tali, is
proved by topographical and other evidence of an overwhelming nature. I venture
to add one more proof, which seems to have been overlooked.

" If there is a natural feature which must strike any visitor to those two cities, it
is that they both lie on the shore of notable lakes, of so krge an extent as to be
locally called seas ; and for the comparison, it should be remembered that the
inhabitants of the Yunnan province have easy access to the ocean by the Red River,
or Sung Ka. Now, although Marco does not circumstantially specify the fact of these
cities lying on large bodies of water, yet in both cases, two or three sentences further
on, will be found mention of lakes ; in the case of Yachi, * a lake of a good hundred
miles in compass' — by no means an unreasonable estimate.

"Tali-fu is renowned as the strongest hold of Western Yunnan, and it certainly
must have been impregnable to bow and spear. From the western margin of its
majestic lake, which lies approximately north and south, rises a sloping plain of about
three miles average breadth, closed in by the huge wall of the Tien-tsang Mountains.
In the midst of this plain stands the city, the lake at its feet, the snowy summits at
its back. On either flank, at about twelve and six miles distance respectively, are
situated Shang-Kuan and Hsia-Kuan (upper and lower passes), two strongly fortified
towns guarding the confined strip between mountain and lake ; for the plain narrows
at the two extremities, and is intersected by a river at both points." {Baber, J ravels,
i55.)-H. C]

The distance from Yachi to this city of Karajang is ten days, and this corresponds
well with the distance from Yun-nan fu to Tali-fu. For we find that, of the three
Burmese Embassies whose itineraries are given by Barney, one makes 7 marches
between those cities, specifying 2 of them as double marches, therefore equal to
9, whilst the other two make 11 marches ; Richthofen's information gives 12. Ta-li-
fu is a small old city overlooking its large lake (about 24 miles long by 6 wide), and
an extensive plain devoid of trees. Lofty mountains rise on the south side of the city.
The Lake appears to communicate with the Mekong, and the story goes, no doubt
fabulous, that boats have come up to Ta-li from the Ocean. [Captain Gill (II.
pp. 299-300) writes: "Ta-li fu is an ancient city ... it is the Carajan of Marco
Polo. . . . Marco's description of the lake of Yun-Nan may be perfectly well
applied to the Lake of Ta-li. ... The fish were particularly commended to our
notice, though we were told that there were no oysters in this lake, as there are said to
be in that of Yun-Nan ; if the latter statement be true, it would illustrate Polo's
account of another lake somewhere in these regions in which are found pearls (which
are white but not round)," — H. C]

Ta-li fu was recently the capital of Sultan Suleiman [Tu Wen-siu]. It was reached
by Lieutenant Gamier in a daring detour by the north of Yun-nan, but his party were
obliged to leave in haste on the second day after their arrival. The city was captured
by the Imperial officers in 1873, when a horrid massacre of the Mussulmans took
place [19th January]. The Sultan took poison, but his head was cut off and sent to
Peking. Momein fell soon after [lOth June], and the PantlU Vmg^oxa is ended.

We see that Polo says the King ruling for Kublai at this city was a son of the
Kaan, called CoGACHiN, whilst he told us in the last chapter that the King reigning
at Yachi was also a son of the Kaan, called EssENTiMUR. It is probably a mere
lapsus or error of dictation calling the latter a son of the Kaan, for in ch. li. infra,
this prince is correctly described as the Kaan's grandson. Rashiduddin tells us that
Kublai had given his son IIuKAji (or perhaps Hogdchi, i.e. Cogachin) the govern-
ment of Karajang,* and that after the death of this Prince the government was con-

* [Mr, E. H. Parker writes {China Review, XXIV. p. 106) : " Polo's Kogatin is Hukoch'ih, who
was made King of Yun-nan in 1267, with military command over Ta-li, Shen-shen, Chagan Changi
Golden-Teeth, etc,"— H. C]

?£>

Chap. XLIX. CROCODILES 8 1

tinued to his son Isentimur. Klaproth gives the date of the latter's nomination
from the Chinese Annals as 1280. It is not easy to reconcile Marco's statements
perfectly with a knowledge of these facts ; but we may suppose that, in speaking of
Cogachin as ruling at Karajang (or Tali-fu) and Esentimur at Yachi, he describes
things as they stood when his visit occurred, whilst in the second reference to
*' Sentemur's" being King in the province and his father dead, he speaks from later
knowledge. This interpretation would confirm what has been already deduced from
other circumstances, that his visit to Yun-nan was prior to 1280. [Pemberton's Report
on the Eastern Frontier y 108 seqq. ; Qtiat. Rashid. pp. Ixxxix-xc. ',Journ. Asiat. sen
II. vol. i.)

Note 2. — [Captain Gill writes (II. p. 302) : "There are said to be very rich gold
and silver mines within a few days' journey of the city " (of Ta-li). Dr. Anderson
says [Mandalay to Momien, p. 203): "Gold is brought to Momein from Yonephin
and Sherg-wan villages, fifteen days' march to the north-east ; but no information
could be obtained as to the quantity found. It is also brought in leaf, which is sent
to Burma, where it is in extensive demand." — H. C]

Note 3. — It cannot be doubted that Marco's serpents here are crocodiles, in spite
of his strange mistakes about their having only two feet and one claw on each, and
his imperfect knowledge of their aquatic habits. lie may have seen only a mutilated
specimen. But there is no mistaking the hideous ferocity of the countenance, and
the " eyes bigger than a fourpenny loaf," as Ramusio has it. Though the actual eye
of the crocodile does not bear this comparison, the prominent orbits do, especially in
the case of the Ghariydl of the Ganges, and form one of the most repulsive features
of the reptile's physiognomy. In fact, its presence on the surface of an Indian river
is often recognisable only by three dark knobs rising above the surface, viz. the snout
and the two orbits. And there is some foundation for what our author says of the
animal's habits, for the crocodile does sometimes frequent holes at a distance from
water, of which a striking instance is within my own recollection (in which the deep
furrowed track also was a notable circumstance).

The Cochin Chinese are very fond of crocodile's flesh, and there is or was a
regular export of this dainty for their use from Kamboja. I have known it eaten by
certain classes in India. {J. R. G. S. XXX. 193.)

The term serpent is applied by many old writers to crocodiles and the like, e.g.
by Odoric, and perhaps allusively by Shakspeare (" Where's my Serpent of Old
Nile ? " ). Mr. Fergusson tells me he was once much struck with the snahe-lihe
motion of a group of crocodiles hastily descending to the water from a high sand-bank,
without apparent use of the limbs, when surprised by the approach of a boat. *

Matthioli says the gall of the crocodile surpasses all medicines for the removal of
pustules and the like from the eyes. Vincent of Beauvais mentions the same, besides
many other medical uses of the reptile's carcass, including a very unsavoury cosmetic.
{Matt. p. 245 ; Spec. Nattir. Lib. XVII. c. 106, 108.)

["According to Chinese notions, Han Yii, the St. Patrick of China, having
persuaded the alligators in China that he was all-powerful, induced the stupid
saurians to migrate to Ngo Hu or 'Alligators' Lake' in the Kwang-tung province."
{North-China Herald, 5th July, 1895, P- 5-)

Alligators have been found in 1878 at Wu-hu and at Chen-kiang (Ngan-hwei and
Kiang-Su). (See A. A. Fauvel, Alligators in China, mjoiir. N. China B. R. A. S.
XIII. 1879, 1-36.)— H. C]

Note 4. — I think the ^^ra/ horses must be an error, though running through all

* Though the bellowing of certain American crocodiles is often spoken of, I have nowhere seen
allusion to the roaring of the ghariydl, nor does it seem to be commonly known. I have once only
heard it, whilst on the bank of the Ganges near Rampur Boliah, waiting for a ferry-boat. It was like
a loud prolonged snore ; and though it seemed to come distinctly from a crocodile on the surface of
the river, I made sure by asking a boatman who stood by : " It is the ghariyal speaking," he answered.

VOL. II. F

82 MARCO POLO Book II.

the texts, and that^^zn/ quantiU de chevaus was probably intended. Valuable /(?w/^j
are produced in those regions, but I have never heard of large horses, and Martinis
testimony is to like effect (p. 141). Nor can I hear of any race in those regions in
modern times that uses what we should call long stirrups. It is true that the Tartars
rode very short — ^^ brevissitnas habent slrepas" as Carpini says (643); and the
Kirghiz Kazaks now do the same. Both Burmese and Shans ride what we should
call short ; and Major Sladen observes of the people on the western border of
Yun-nan : *' Kachyens and Shans ride on ordinary Chinese saddles. The stirrups are
of the usual average length, but the saddles are so constructed as to rise at least a foot
above the pony's back." He adds with reference to another point in the text: "I
noticed a few Shan ponies with docked tails. But the more general practice is to loop
up the tail in a knot, the object being to protect the rider, or rather his clothes, from
the dirt with which they would otherwise be spattered from the flipping of the
animal's tail." [MS. Notes.)

[After Yung-ch'ang, Captain Gill writes {II. p. 356) : *' The manes were hogged
and the tails cropped of a great many of the ponies these men were riding ; but there
were none of the docked tails mentioned by Marco Polo." — H. C]

Armour of boiled leather — '■^ armes ctiiracis de^uir bouillV^ ; so Pauthier's text;
the material so often mentioned in mediseval costume ; e.g. in the leggings of Sir
Thopas : —

•' His jambeux were of cuirbouly,
His swerdessheth of ivory,
His helme of latoun bright."

But the reading of the G. Text which is '^cuir de bufal,'' is probably the right one.
Some of the Miau-tzu of Kweichau are described as wearing armour of buffalo-
leather overlaid with iron plates. {Ritter, IV. 768-776.) Arblasts or crossbows are
still characteristic weapons of many of the wilder tribes of this region ; e.g. of
some of the Singphos, of the Mishmis of Upper Assam, of the Lu-tzii of the valley of
the Lukiang, of tribes of the hills of Laos, of the Stiens of Cambodia, and of several
of the Miau-tzii tribes of the interior of China. We give a cut copied from a Chinese
work on the Miau-tzii of Kweichau in Dr. Lockhart's possession, which shows three
little men of the Sang-Miau tribe of Kweichau combining to mend a crossbow, and a
chief with amies cuiracis and jambeux also. [The cut (p. 83) is well explained by
this passage of Saber's Travels among the Lolos (p. 71) : " They make their own
swords, three and a half to five spans long, with square heads, and have bows which
it takes three men to draw, but no muskets." — H. C.]

Note 5. — I have nowhere met with z. precise parallel to this remarkable supersti-
tion, but the following piece of Folk-Lore has a considerable analogy to it. This
extraordinary custom is ascribed by Ibn Fozlan to the Bulgarians of the Volga : " If
they find a man endowed with special intelligence then they say : ' This man should
serve our Lord God ; ' and so they take him, run a noose round his neck and hang
him on a tree, where they leave him till the corpse falls to pieces." This is precisely
what Sir Charles Wood did with the Indian Corps of Engineers ; — doubtless on the
same principle.

Archbishop Trench, i» a fine figure, alludes to a belief prevalent among the
Polynesian Islanders, " that the strength and valour of the warriors whom they have
slain in battle passes into themselves, as their rightful inheritance." {Fraehn, JVolga-
Bulgaren, p. 50 ; Studies in the Gospels^ p. 22 ; see also Ltibbock, 4570

There is some analogy also to the story Polo tells, in the curious Sindhi tradition,
related by Burton, of Baha-ul-hakk, the famous saint of Multan. When he visited
his disciples at Tatta they plotted his death, in order to secure the blessings of his
perpetual presence. The people of Multan are said to have murdered two celebrated
saints with the same view, and the Hazaras to "make a point of killing and burying
in their own country any stranger indiscreet enough to commit a miracle or show any

ir^

The Sangmiau Tribe of Kweichau, with the Crossbow. (From a Chinese Drawing.)

®nt avmes coniscs le cmvht h\xt,\\, tt ont l.mccss rt ocu^ ct ont Jjnlcstrcs."

VOL. II.

Y 2

84 MARCO POLO Book II.

particular sign of sanctity." The like practice is ascribed to the rude Moslem cl
Gilghit ; and such allegations must have been current in P^urope, for they are the
motive of Southey's St. Romuald:

" * But,' quoth the Traveller, ' wherefore did he leave
A flock that knew his saintly worth so well ?'

" 'Why, Sir,' the Host replied,
• We thought perhaps that he might one day leave us ;
And then, should strangers have
The good man's grave,
A loss like that would naturally grieve us ;

For he'll be made a saint of, to be sure.
Therefore we thought it prudent to secure
His relics while we might ;
And so we meant to strangle him one night.' "

(See Sindh, pp. ^6, 388 ; Ind. Antiq. I. 13 ; Southey's Ballads ^ etc., ed. Routledge,

P- 330)

[Captain Gill (I. p. 323) says that he had made up his mind to visit a place called
Li-fan Fu, near Ch'eng-tu. " I was told," he writes, " that this place was inhabited
by the Man-Tzu, or Barbarians, as the Chinese call them ; and Monseigneur Pinchon
told me that, amongst other pleasing theories, they were possessed of the belief that
if they poisoned a rich man, his wealth would accrue to the poisoner ; that, therefore,
the hospitable custom prevailed amongst them of administering poison to rich or
noble guests ; that this poison took no effect for some time, but that in the course of
two or three months it produced a disease akin to dysentery, ending in certain
death."— H. C]

CHAPTER L.

Concerning the Province of Zardandan.

Wpien you have left Carajan and have travelled five
days westward, you find a province called Zardandan.
The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan.
The capital city is called Vochan.^

The people of this country all have their teeth gilt ;
or rather every man covers his teeth with a sort of
golden case made to fit them, both the upper teeth and
the under. The men do this, but not the women.^
[The men also are wont to gird their arms and legs
with bands or fillets pricked in black, and it is done thus ;
they take five needles joined together, and with these

Chap. L. THE PROVINCE OF ZARDANDAN 85

they prick the flesh till the blood comes, and then they
rub in a certain black colouring stuff, and this is perfectly
indelible. It is considered a piece of elegance and
the sign of gentility to have this black band.] The
men are all gentlemen in their fashion, and do nothing
but go to the wars, or go hunting and hawking. The
ladies do all the business, aided by the slaves who have
been taken in war.^

And when one of their wives has been delivered of a
child, the infant is washed and swathed, and then the
woman gets up and goes about her household affairs,
whilst the husband takes to bed with the child by his
side, and so keeps his bed for 40 days ; and all the kith
and kin come to visit him and keep up a great festivity.
They do this because, say they, the woman has had a
hard bout of it, and 'tis but fair the man should have his
share of suffering.^

They eat all kinds of meat, both raw and cooked, and
they eat rice with their cooked meat as their fashion is.
Their drink is wine made of rice and spices, and excel-
lent it is. Their money is gold, and for small change
they use pig-shells. And I can tell you they give one
weight of gold for only five of silver ; for there is no
silver-mine within five months' journey. And this in-
duces merchants to go thither carrying a large supply of
silver to change among that people. And as they have
only five weights of silver to give for one of fine gold,
they make immense profits by their exchange business in
that country.^

These people have neither idols nor churches, but
worship the progenitor of their family, **for 'tis he," say
they, " from whom we have all sprung." ^ They have no
letters or writing ; and 'tis no wonder, for the country is
wild and hard of access, full of great woods and
mountains which 'tis impossible to pass, the air in

86 MARCO POLO Book II.

summer is so impure and bad ; and any foreigners
attempting it would die for certain.^ When these people
have any business transactions with one another, they
take a piece of stick, round or square, and split it, each
taking half. And on either half they cut two or three
notches. And when the account is settled the debtor
receives back the other half of the stick from the
creditor.^

And let me tell you that in all those three provinces
that I have been speaking of, to wit Carajan, Vochan,
and Yachi, there is never a leech. But when any one
is ill they send for their magicians, that is to say the
Devil-conjurors and those who are the keepers of the
idols. When these are come the sick man tells
what ails him, and then the conjurors incontinently begin
playing on their instruments and singing and dancing ;
and the conjurors dance to such a pitch that at last one
of them shall fall to the ground lifeless, like a dead man.
And then the devil entereth into his body. And when
his comrades see him in this plight they begin to put
questions to him about the sick man's ailment. And he
will reply : " Such or such a spirit hath been meddling
with the man,^ for that he hath angered the spirit and
done it some despite." Then they say : *' We pray thee
to pardon him, and to take of his blood or of his goods
what thou wilt in consideration of thus restoring him
to health." And when they have so prayed, the malig-
nant spirit that is in the body of the prostrate man will
(mayhap) answer : *' The sick man hath also done great
despite unto such another spirit, and that one is so ill-
disposed that it will not pardon him on any account ; " —
this at least is the answer they get, an the patient be like
to die. But if he is to get better the answer will be that
they are to bring two sheep, or may be three ; and to
brew ten or twelve jars of drink, very costly and

Chap. L. DEVIL-CONJURORS Sy

abundantly spiced. ^^ Moreover it shall be announced
that the sheep must be all black-faced, or of some other
particular colour as it may hap ; and then all those things
are to be offered in sacrifice to such and such a spirit
whose name Is given. -^^ And they are to bring so many
conjurors, and so many ladies, and the business is to be
done with a great singing of lauds, and with many lights,
and store of good perfumes. That Is the sort of answer
they get If the patient Is to get well. And then the
kinsfolk of the sick man go and procure all that has
been commanded, and do as has been bidden, and
the conjuror who had uttered all that gets on his legs
again.

So they fetch the sheep of the colour prescribed, and
slaughter them, and sprinkle the blood over such places
as have been enjoined, in honour and propitiation of the
spirit. And the conjurors come, and the ladles, In the
number that was ordered, and when all are assembled
and everything Is ready, they begin to dance and play
and sing In honour of the spirit. And they take flesh-
broth and drink and lign-aloes, and a great number of
lights, and go about hither and thither, scattering the
broth and the drink and the meat also. And when they*
have done this for a while, again shall one of the con-
jurors fall flat and wallow there foaming at the mouth,
and then the others will ask if he have yet pardoned the
sick man ? And sometimes he shall answer yea ! and
sometimes he shall answer no ! And if the answer be no^
they shall be told that something or other has to be done
all over again, and then he will be pardoned ; so this
they do. And when all that the spirit has commanded
has been done with great ceremony, then it shall be
announced that the man is pardoned and shall be
speedily cured. So when they at length receive such
a reply, they announce that it Is all made up with the

88 MARCO POLO Book II.

spirit, and that he is propitiated, and they fall to eating
and drinking with great joy and mirth, and he who had
been lying lifeless on the ground gets up and takes his
share. So when they have all eaten and drunken, every
man departs home. And presently the sick man gets
sound and well.^^

Now that I have told you of the customs and
naughty ways of that people, we will have done talking
of them and their province, and I will tell you about
others, all in regular order and succession.

Note i. — [Baber writes {Travels^ p. 171) when arriving to the Lan-tsang kiang
(Mekong River) : *' We were now on the border-line between Carajan and Zardandan :
'When you have travelled five days you find a province called Zardandan,' says
Messer Marco, precisely the actual number of stages from Tali-fu to the present
boundary of Yung-ch'ang. That this river must have been the demarcation
between the two provinces is obvious ; one glance into that deep rift, the only exit
from which is by painful worked artificial zigzags which, under the most favourable
conditions, cannot be called safe, will satisfy the most sceptical geographer. The
exact statement of distance is a proof that Marco entered the territory of Yung-
ch'ang." Captain Gill says (II. p. 343-344) that the five marches of Marco Polo
** would be very long ones. Our journey was eight days, but it might easily have been
done in seven, as the first march to IIsia-Kuan was not worthy of the name. The
Grosvenor expedition made eleven marches with one day's halt — twelve days
altogether, and Mr. Margary was nine or ten days on the journey. It is true that,
by camping out every night, the marches might be longer ; and, as Polo refers to the
crackling of the bamboos in the fires, it is highly probable that he found no ^Jine
hostelries^ on this route. This is the way the traders still travel in Tibet ; they march
until they are tired, or until they find a nice grassy spot ; they then off saddles, turn
their animals loose, light a fire under some adjacent tree, and halt for the night ; thus
the longest possible distance can be performed every day, and the five days from
Ta-li to Yung-Ch'ang would not be by any means an impossibility." — H. C]

Note 2. — Ramusio says that both men and women use this gold case. There
can be no better instance of the accuracy with which Polo is generally found to have
represented Oriental names, when we recover his real representation of them, than
this name Zardandan. In the old Latin editions the name appeared as Ardandan,
Arcladam, etc. ; in Ramusio as Cardandajt, correctly enough, only the first letter
should have been printed ^. Marsden, carrying out his systematic conversion of the
Ramusian spelling, made this into Kardandan, and thus the name became irrecogniz-
able. Klaproth, I believe, first showed that the word was simply the Persian
ZAr-dandAn, " Gold-Teeth," and produced quotations from Rashiduddin mention-
ing the people in question by that identical name. Indeed that historian mentions
them several times. Thus : ** North-west of China is the frontier of Tibet, and
of the Zardandan, who lie between Tibet and Karajang. These people cover
their teeth with a gold case, which they take off when they eat." They are also
frequently mentioned in the Chinese annals about this period under the same name,
viz. Kin-Chi, "Gold-Teeth," and some years after Polo's departure from the East
they originated a revolt against the Mongol yoke, in which a great number of the
imperial troops were massacred. {De Mailla, IX. 478-479.)

Chap. L. "GOLD-TEETH" TRIBE 89

[Baber writes (p. 159) : "In Western Yunnan the betel-nut is chewed with pre-
pared Hme, colouring the teeth red, and causing a profuse expectoration. We first
met with the practice near Tali-fu.

*' Is it not possible that the red colour imparted to the teeth by the practice of
chewing betel with lime may go some way to account for the ancient name of this
region, ' Zar - dandan,' ' Chin - Ch'ih,' or ' Golden-Teeth ' ? Betel - chewing is, of
course, common all over China ; but the use of lime is almost unknown and the
teeth are not necessarily discoloured.

** In the neighbourhood of Tali, one comes suddenly upon a lime-chewing people,
and is at once struck with the strange red hue of their teeth and gums. That some
of the natives used formerly to cover their teeth with plates of gold (from which
practice, mentioned by Marco Polo, and confirmed elsewhere, the name is generally
derived) can scarcely be considered a myth ; but the peculiarity remarked by ourselves
would have been equally noticeable by the early Chinese invaders, and seems not
altogether unworthy of consideration. It is interesting to find the name 'Chin-
Ch'ih ' still in use.

"When Tu Wen-hsiu sent his 'Panlhay' mission to England with tributary
boxes of rock from the Tali Mountains, he described himself in his letter *as a
humble native of the golden-teeth country.' " — II. C]

Vochan seems undoubtedly to be, as Martini pointed out, the city called by the
Chinese Yung-ch'ang-fu. Some of the old printed editions read Unciam, i.e.
Uncham or Unchan, and it is probable that either this or Vocian, i.e. Vonchan, was
the true reading, coming very close to the proper name, which is Wunchen. (See
/. A. S. B. VI. 547.) [In an itinerary from Ava to Peking, we read on the loth
September, 1833: "Slept at the city Wun-tsheng (Chinese Yongtchang fii and
Burmese Wim-zeny {Chin. Rep. IX. p. 474) :— Mr. F. W. K. Miiller in a study on
the Pa-yi language from a Chinese manuscript entitled Hwa-i-yi-yii found by Dr. F.
Hirth in China, and belonging now to the Berlin Royal Library, says the proper
orthography of the word is Wan-chang in Pa-yi. {T^oung Pao^ III. p. 20.) This
helps to find the origin of the name Vochan. — H. C] This city has been a Chinese
one for several centuries, and previous to the late Mahomedan revolt its population
was almost exclusively Chinese, with only a small mixture of Shans. It is now noted
for the remarkable beauty and fairness of the women. But it is mentioned by
Chinese authors as having been in the Middle Ages the capital of the Gold-Teeth.
These people, according to Martini, dwelt chiefly to the north of the city. They
used to go to worship a huge stone, 100 feet high, at Nan-ngan, and cover it annually
with gold-leaf. Some additional particulars about the Kin-Chi, in the time of the
Mongols, will be found in Pauthier's notes (p. 398).

[In 1274, the Burmese attacked Yung ch'ang, whose inhabitants were known
under the name of A'm-C/zz (Golden-Teeth). {E. Rocher, Princes du Yun-nan, p. 71.)
From the Annals of Momein, translated by Mr. E. H. Parker {China Review, XX.
p. 345), we learn that : " In the year 1271, the General of Ta-li was sent on a mission
to procure the submission of the Burmese, and managed to bring a Burmese envoy
named Kiai-poh back with him. Four years later Fu A-pih, Chief of the Golden-
Teeth, was utilised as a guide, which so angered the Burmese that they detained
Fu A-pih and attacked Golden-Teeth : but he managed to bribe himself free. A-ho,
Governor of the Golden-Teeth, was now sent as a spy, which caused the Burmese to
advance to the attack once more, but they were driven back by Twan Sin-cha-jih.
These events led to the Burmese war," which lasted till 1301.

According to \\\q. Hwang-tsing Chi-kung fu (quoted by Deveria, Front, p. 130),
the Pei-jen were Kin-chi, of Pa-y race, and were surnamed Min-kia-tzii ; the Min-kia,
according to F. Garnier, say that they come from Nan-king, but this is certainly an
error for the Pei-jen. From another Chinese work, Deveria (p. 169) gives this
information : The Piao are the Kin-Chi ; they submitted to the Mongols in the
13th century ; they are descended from the people of Chu-po or Piao Kwo (Kingdom
of Piao), ancient Pegu ; P'u-p'iao, in a little valley between the Mekong and the

MARCO rOLO

Book II.

Salwon Rivers, was the place through which the P'u and the Piao entered
China.

The Chinese geographical work Fang-yu-ki-yao mentions thp name of Kin -Chi
Ch'eng, or city of Kin-Chi, as the ancient denomination of Yung-ch'ang. A Chinese
Pa-y vocabulary, belonging to Professor Deveria, translates Kin-Chi by Wan-Chang
(Yung-ch'ang). {Devc'ria, Front, p. 128.) — II. C.J

It has not been determined who are the representatives of these Cold-Teeth,
who were evidently distinct from the Shans, not Buddhist, and without literature. I
should think it probable that they were Kakhyens or Shigphos, who, excluding
Shans, appear to form the greatest body in that quarter, and are closely akin to each
other, indeed essentially identical in race.* The Singphos have now extended
widely to the west of the Upper Irawadi and northward into Assam, but their
traditions bring them from the borders of Yunnan. The original and still most
populous seat of the Kakhyen or Singpho race is pointed out by Colonel Hannay in
the Gulansigung Mountains and the valley of the eastern source of the Irawadi,
This agrees with Martini's indication of the seat of the Kin-Chi as north of Yung-
ch'ang. One of Hannay's notices of Singpho
customs should also be compared with the
interpolation from Ramusio about tattooing :
"The men tattoo their limbs slightly, and all
married females are tattooed on both legs
from the ankle to. the knee, in broad
horizontal circular bands. Both sexes also
wear rings below the knee of fine shreds cf
rattan varnished black" (p. 18). These rings
appear on the Kakhyen woman in our cut.

The only other wild tribe spoken of by
Major Sladen as attending the markets on the
frontier is that of the Lissits, already men-
tioned by Lieutenant Garnier {supra, ch. xlvii.
note 6), and who are said to be the most
savage and indomitable of the tribes in that
quarter. Garnier also mentions the Mossos,
who are alleged once to have formed an in-
dependent kingdom about Li -.kiang fu.
Possibly, however, the Gold-Teeth may have
become entirely absorbed in the Chinese and
Shan population.

The characteristic of casing the teeth in
gold should identify the tribe did it still exist.
But I can learn nothing of the continued
existence of such a custom among any tribe of
the Indo-Chinese continent. The insertion cf
gold studs or spots, which Btlrck confounds
with it, is common enough among Indo-
Chinese races, but that is quite a different
thing. The actual practice of the Zardandan
is, however, followed by some of the people
of Sumatra, as both Marsden and Raffles
testify : "The great men sometimes set their teeth in gold, by casing with a plate of

* " Sinqpho," says Colonel Hannay, "signifies in the Kakhyen language ' a man,' and all of this
race who have settled in Hookong or Assam are thus designated ; the reason of their change of name
I could not ascertain, but so much importance seems to be attached to it, that the Singphos, in
talking of their eastern and southern neiglibours, call them Kakhyens or Kakoos, and consider it an
insult to be called so themselves." {Sketch of the Sinsphos, or the Kakhyens of Burma, Calcutta,'
1847, pp. 3-4.) If, however, the Kakhyens, or Kachyens(z.?, Alajor Sladen calls them), are represented
by the Go-tchattg of Pauthier's Chinese extracts, these seem to be distinguished from the Kin-Chi,
though associated with them. (See pp. 397, 411. )

Kakhyens. (From a Photograph.)

Chap. L. CUSTOM OF THE "COUVADE" gi

that metal the under row .... it is sometimes indented to the shape of the teeth,
but more usually quite plain. They do not remove it either to eat or sleep." The
like custom is mentioned by old travellers at Macassar, and with the substitution of
silver for gold by a modern traveller as existing in Timor ; but in both, probably, it
was a practice of Malay tribes, as in Sumatra. {Marsden^s Sumatra, 3rd ed., p. 52 ;
Raffles' s Java, I. 105; Bickmore's Ind. Archipelago.)

[In his second volume of The River of Golden Sand, Captain Gill has two
chapters (viii. and ix.) with the title : In the footsteps of Marco Polo and of Augustus
Margary devoted to The Land of the Gold- Teeth and The Marches of the Kingdotn of
Mien.—\\. C]

No IE 3. — This is precisely the account which Lieutenant Gamier gives of the people
of Laos : "The Laos people are very indolent, and when they are not rich enough
to possess slaves they make over to their women the greatest part of the business
of the day ; and 'tis these latter who not only do all the work of the house,
but who husk the rice, work in the fields, and paddle the canoes. Hunting and
fishing are almost the only occupations which pertain exclusively to the stronger sex."
{Notice stir le Voyage d^ Exploration, etc. , p. 34. )

Note 4. — This highly eccentric practice has been ably illustrated and explained
by Mr. Tylor, under the name of the Cotivade, or " Hatching," by which it is known
in some of the Beam districts of the Pyrenees, where it formerly existed, as it does
still or did recently, in some Basque districts of Spain. [In a paper on La Couvade
chez les Basques, published in the Ripublique Fran^aise, of 19th January, 1877, and
reprinted in Etudes de Linguistique et a^Ethnograpkie par A. Hovelacque et Julien
Vinson, Paris, 1878, Prof. Vinson quotes the following curious passage from the
poem in ten cantos, Luciniade, by Sacombe, of Carcassonne (Paris and Nunes,
1790) :

** En Amerique, en Corse, et chez I'lberien,
En France meme encor chez le Venarnien,
Au pays Navarrois, lorsqu'une femme accouche,
L'epouse sort du lit et le mari se couche ;
Et, quoiqu'il soit tres sain et d'esprit et de corps,
Contre un mal qu'il n'a point I'art unit ses efforts.
On le met au regime, et notre faux malade.
Soigne par I'accouchee, en son lit fait couvade:
On ferme avec grand soin portes, volets, rideaux ;
Immobile, on I'oblige a rester sur le dos.
Pour etouffer son lait, qui gene dans sa course,
Pourrait en I'etouffant remonter vers sa source.
Un mari, dans sa couche, au medecin soumis,
Re5oit, en cet etat, parents, voisins, amis.
Qui viennent I'exhorter a prendre patience
Et font des voeux au ciel pour sa convalescence."

Professor Vinson, who is an authority on the subject, comes to the conclusion that
it is not possible to ascribe to the Basques the custom of the couvade.

Mr. Tylor writes to me that he " did not quite begin the use of this good French
word in the sense of the * man-child-bed ' as they call it in Germany. It occurs in
Rochefort, lies Antilles, and though Dr. Murray, of the English Dictionary, maintains
that it is spurious, if so, "it is better than any genuine word I know of." — H. C] " In
certain valleys of Biscay," says Francisque-Michel, "in which the popular usages
carry us back to the infancy of society, the woman immediately after her delivery gets
up and attends to the cares of the household, whilst the husband takes to bed
with the tender fledgeling in his arms, and so receives the compliments of his
neighbours."

The nearest people to the Zardandan of whom I find this custom elsewhere

92 MARCO POLO Book II.

recorded, is one called Langszi* a small tribe of aborigines in the department of
Wei-ning, in Kweichau, but close to the border of Yun-nan : " Their manners and
customs are very extraordinary. For example, when the wife has given birth to a
child, the husband remains in the house and holds it in his arms for a whole month,
not once going out of doors. The wife in the mean time does all the work in doors
and out, and provides and serves up both food and drink for the husband, she only
giving suck to the child." I am informed also that, among the Miris on the Upper
Assam border, the husband on such occasions confines himself strictly to the house
for forty days after the event.

The custom of the Couvade has especially and widely prevailed in South America,
not only among the Carib races of Guiana, of the Spanish Main, and (where still
surviving) of the West Indies, but among many tribes of Brazil and its borders from
the Amazons to the Plate, and among the Abipones of Paraguay ; it also exists or has
existed among the aborigines of California, in West Africa, in Bouro, one of the
Moluccas, and among a wandering tribe of the Telugu-speaking districts of Southern
India. According to Diodorus it prevailed in ancient Corsica, according to Strabo
among the Iberians of Northern Spain (where we have seen it has lingered to recent
times), according to Apollonius Rhodius among the Tibareni of Pontus. Modified
traces of a like practice, not carried to the same extent of oddity, are also found in a
variety of countries besides those that have been named, as in Borneo, in Kamtchatka,
and in Greenland. In nearly all cases some particular diet, or abstinence from
certain kinds of food and drink, and from exertion, is prescribed to the father ; in
some, more positive and trying penances are inflicted.

Butler had no doubt our Traveller's story in his head when he made the widow in
Hiidibras allude in a ribald speech to the supposed fact that

" Chineses go to bed

And lie in, in their ladies' stead."

The custom is humorously introduced, as Pauthier has noticed, in the Mediaeval
Fabliau of Aticasin and Nicolete. Aucasin arriving at the castle of Torelore asks for
the king and is told he is in child-bed. Where then is his wife ? She is gone to the
wars and has taken all the people with her. Aucasin, greatly astonished, enters the
palace, and wanders through it till he comes to the chamber where the king lay : —

'* En le canbre entre Aucasins
Li cortois et li gentis ;
II est venus dusqu'au lit
Alec u li Rois se gist.
Pardevant lui s'arestit
Si parla, Oes que dist ;
Diva fau, que fais-tu ci ?
Dist le Rois, Je gis d'un fil.
Quant mes mois sera complis,
Et ge serai bien garis,
Dont irai le masse oir
Si comme mes ancessor fist," etc.

Aucasin pulls all the clothes ofif him, and cudgels him soundly, making him promise
that never a man shall lie in again in his country.

This strange custom, if it were unique, would look like a coarse practical joke,
but appearing as it does among so many different races and in every quarter of the
world, it must have its root somewhere deep in the psychology of the uncivilised man.
I must refer to Mr. Tylor's interesting remarks on the rationale of the custom, for

* [Mr. E. H. Va.rV.&r {China Review, XIV. p. 359) says that Colonel Yule's Zaw^a/ are evidently
the Szilang, one of the six Chao, but turned upside down. — H. C]

Chap. L. CUSTOM OF THE "COUVADE" 93

they do not bear abridgment. Professor Max Miiller humorously suggests that "the
treatment which a husband receives among ourselves at the time of his wife's con-
finement, not only from mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and other female relations,
but from nurses, and from every consequential maid-servant in the house," is but a
"survival," as Mr. Tylor would call it, of the couvade ; or at least represents the
same feeling which among those many uncivilised nations thus drove the husband to
his bed, and sometimes (as among the Caribs) put him when there to systematic
torture.

{Tylory Researches, 288-296; Michel, Le Pays Basque, p. 201 ; Sketches of the
Meau-tsze, transl. by Bridgman m J. of North China Br. of R. As. Soc, p. 277;
Htidibras, Pt. III., canto I. 707; Fabliaus et Coxites par Barbazan, id. Mion, I.
408-409 ; /«^/aw Antiq. III. 151 ; Mailer's Chips, II. 227 seqq. ; many other references
in Tylor, and in a capital monograph by Dr. H. H. Ploss of Leipzig, received during
revision of this sheet: ^ Das Manner kindbett.' What a notable example of the
German power of compounding is that title !)

[This custom seems to be considered generally as a survival of the matriarchate in
a society with a patriarchal regime. We may add to the list of authorities on this
subject : E. Westermai'ck, Hist, of Human Marriage, 106, seqq. ; G. A. Wilken, De
Couvade bij de Volken v.d. Indischen Archipel, Bijdr, Ind. Inst., 5th ser., iv. p. 250.
Dr. Ernest Martin, late physician of the French Legation at Peking, in an article on
La Couvade en Chine {Revue Scientifque, 24th March, 1894), gave a drawing repre-
senting the couvade from a sketch by a native artist.

In the China Review (XL pp. 401-402), " Lao Kwang-tung" notes these interesting
facts: "The Chinese believe that certain actions performed by the husband during
the pregnancy of his wife will affect the child. If a dish of food on the table is raised
by putting another dish, or anything else below it, it is not considered proper for a
husband, who is expecting the birth of a child, to partake of it, for fear the two dishes
should cause the child to have two tongues. It is extraordinary that the caution thus
exercised by the Chinese has not prevented many of them from being double-tongued.
This result, it is supposed, however, will only happen if the food so raised is eaten in
the house in which the future mother happens to be. It is thought that the pasting
up of the red papers containing antithetical and felicitous sentences on them, as at
New Year's time, by a man under similar circumstances, and this whether the future
mother sees the action performed or not, will cause the child to have red marks on
the face or any part of the body. The causes producing naevi materni have probably
been the origin of such marks, rather than the idea entertained by the Chinese that
the father, having performed an action by some occult mode, influences the child yet
unborn. A case is said to have occurred in which ill effects were obviated, or rather
obliterated, by the red papers being torn down, after the birth of the infant, and soaked
in water, when as the red disappeared from the paper, so the child's face assumed a
natural hue. Lord Avebury also speaks of la couvade as existing among the
Chinese of West Yun-Nan. {Origin of Civilisation and Primitive Condition of Alan,
p. i8).»

Dr. J. A. PI. Murray, editor of the New English Dictionary, wrote, in The'
Academy, of 29th October, 1892, a letter with the heading of Couvade, The Genesis
of an Anthropological Term, which elicited an answer from Dr. E. B. Tylor {Academy,
5th November): "Wanting a general term for such customs," writes Dr. Tylor,
"and finding statements in books that this male lying-in lasted on till modern times,
in the south of France, and was there called couvade, that is brooding or hatching
{couver), I adopted this word for the set of customs, and it has since become
established in English." The discussion was carried on in The Academy, 12th
and 19th November, loth and 17th December; Mr. A. L. Mayhew wrote (12th
November) : " There is no doubt whatever that Dr. Tylor and Professor Max Miiller
(in a review of Dr. Tylor's book) share the glory of having given a new technical
sense to an old provincial French word, and of seeing it accepted in France, and
safely enshrined in the great Dictionary of Littre. "

94 MARCO rOLO Book IL

Now as to the origin of the word ; we have seen above that Rochefort was the
first to use the expression faire la couvade. This author, or at least the author
(see Barbier, Ouvrages anonymes) of the Hisloire naturelle . . . des Iks Antilles^
which was pubUshed for the first time at Rotterdam, in 1658, 4to., writes : "C'est
qu'au meme tcms que la femme est delivree le mary se met au lit, pour s'y plaindre
et y faire I'acouchee : coutume,*qui bien que Sauvage et ridicule, se trouve neantmoins
h. ce que Ton dit, parmy les paysans d'vne certaine Province de France. Et ils
appellent cela faire la couvade. Mais ce qui est de facheus pour le pauvre Caraibe,
qui s'est mis au lit au lieu de I'acouchee, c'est qu'on luy fait faire diete dix on douze
jours de suite, ne luy donnant rien par jour qu'vn petit morceau de Cassave, et vn
peu d'eau dans la quelle on a aussi fait botiillir vn peu de ce pain de racine. . . .
Mais ils ne font ce grand jeusne qu' a la naissance de leur premier enfant ..." (II.
pp. 607-608).

Lafitau {McBurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, I. pp. 49-50) says on the authority of
Rochefort : " Je la trouve chez les Iberiens ou les premiers Peuples d'Espagne . . .
elle est aujourd'hui dans quelques unes de nos Provinces d'Espagne."

The word couvade, forgotten in the sense of lying-in bed, recalled by Sacombe,
has been renovated in a happy manner by Dr. Tylor.

As to the custom itself, there can be no doubt of its existence, in spite of some
denials. Dr. Tylor, in the third edition of his valuable Early History of Mankind,
published in 1878 (Murray), since the last edition of The Book of Ser Marco Polo, has
added (pp. 291 seqq.') many more proofs to support what he had already said on the
subject.

There may be some strong doubts as to the couvade in the south of France, and
the authors who speak of it in Beam and the Basque Countries seem to have copied
one another, but there is not the slightest doubt of its having been and of its being
actually practised in South America. There is a very curious account of it in the
Voyage dans le Nord du Brdsil made by Father Yves d'Evreux in 161 3 and 16 14
(see pp. 88-89 of the reprint, Paris, 1864, and the note of the learned Ferdinand
Denis, pp. 411 -41 2). Compare with Durch Central- Brasilien . . . ini Jahre 1884
von K.v. den Steinen. But the following extract from Among the Indians of Guiana.
. . . By Everard hn Thurn (1883), will settle, I think, the question :

*' Turning from the story of the day to the story of the life, we may begin at the
beginning, that is, at the birth of the children. And here, at once, we meet with,
perhaps, the most curious point in the habits of the Indians ; the couvade or male
child-bed. This custom, which is common to the uncivilized people of many parts
of the world, is probably among the strangest ever invented by the human brain.
Even before the child is born, the father abstains for a time from certain kinds of
animal food. The woman works as usual up to a few hours before the birth of the
child. At last she retires alone, or accompanied only by some other women, to the
forest, where she ties up her hammock ; and then the child is born. Then in a few
hours — often less than a day — the woman, who, like all women living in a very
unartificial condition, suffers but little, gets up and resumes her ordinary work.
According to Schomburgk, the mother, at any rate among the Macusis, remains in
her hammock for some time, and the father hangs his hammock, and lies in it, by her
side ; but in all cases where the matter came under my notice, the mother left her
hammock almost at once. In any case, no sooner is the child born than the father
takes to his hammock and, abstaining from every cort of work, from meat and all
other food, except weak gruel of cassava meal, from smoking, from washing
himself, and, above all, from touching weapons of any sort, is nursed and cared for
by all the women of the place. One other regulation, mentioned by Schomburgk,
is certainly quaint ; the interesting father may not scratch himself with his finger-nails,
but he may use for this purpose a splinter, specially provided, from the mid-rib of a
cokerite palm. This continues for many days, and sometimes even weeks. Couvade
is such a wide-spread institution, that I had often read and wondered at it ; but it
was not until I saw it practised around me, and found that I was often suddenly

Chap. L. COMPARATIVE VALUES OF GOLD AND SILVER

deprived of the services of my best hunters or boat-hands, by the necessity which they
felt, and which nothing could persuade them to disregard, of observing couvade, that
I realized its full strangeness. No satisfactory explanation of its origin seems attain-
able. It appears based on a belief in the existence of a mysterious connection
between the child and its father — far closer than that which exists between the child
and its mother, — and of such a nature that if the father infringes any of the rules of
the couvade, for a time after the birth of the child, the latter suffers. For instance, if
he eats the flesh of a water-haas {Capybara), a large rodent with very protruding
teeth, the teeth of the child will grow as those of the animal ; or if he eats the flesh
of the spotted-skinned labba, the child's skin will become spotted. Apparently there
is also some idea that for the father to eat strong food, to wash, to smoke, or to
handle weapons, would have the same result as if the new-born babe ate such food,
washed, smoked, or played with edged tools" (pp. 217-219.)

I have to thank Dr. Edward B. Tylor for the valuable notes he kindly sent me. —
H. C]

Note 5. — " The abundance of gold in Yun-nan is proverbial in China, so that if a
man lives very extravagantly they ask if his father is governor of Yun-nan." {Martini,
p. 140.)

Polo has told us that in Eastern Yun-nan the exchange was 8 of silver for one of
gold (ch. xlviii.) ; in the Western division of the province 6 of silver for one of gold
(ch. xlix.) ; and now, still nearer the borders of Ava, only 5 of silver for one of gold.
Such discrepancies within 15 days' journey would be inconceivable, but that in both
the latter instances at least he appears to speak of the rates at which the gold was
purchased from secluded, ignorant, and uncivilised tribes. It is difiicult to reconcile
with other facts the reason which he assigns for the high value put on silver at Vochan,
viz., that there was no silver-mine within five months' journey. In later days, at
least, Martini speaks of many silver-mines in Yun-nan, and the "Great Silver
Mine" {Baii-dwen gyi of the Burmese) or group of mines, which affords a chief
supply to Burma in modern times, is not far from the territory of our Traveller's
Zardandan. Garnier's map shows several argentiferous sites in the Valley of the
Lan-t'sang.

In another work * I have remarked at some length on the relative values of gold
and silver about this time. In Western Europe these seem to have been as 12 to i,
and I have shown grounds for believing that in India, and generally over civilised
Asia, the ratio was 10 to i. In Pauthier's extracts from the Yucn-shi or Annals of
the Mongol Dynasty, there is an incidental but precise confirmation of this, of which
I was not then aware. This states (p. 321) that on the issue of the paper currency of
1287 the official instructions to the local treasuries were to issue notes qf the nominal
value of two strings, i.e. 2000 wen or cash, for every ounce of flowered silver, and
20,000 cash for every ounce of gold. Ten to i must have continued to be the
relation in China down to about the end of the 17th century if we may believe
Lecomte ; but when Milburne states the same value in the beginning of the 19th
he must have fallen into some great error. In 1781 Sonnerat tells us thoX formerly
gold had been exported from China with a profit of 25 per cent., but at that
time a profit of 18 to 20 per cent, was made by importing it. At present f the
relative values are about the same as in Europe, viz. i to 15I or i to 16; but in
Canton, in 1844, they were i to 17 ; and Timkowski states that at Peking in 1821 the
finest gold was valued at 18 to i. And as regards the precise territory of which this
chapter speaks I find in Lieutenant Bower's Commercial Report on Sladen's Mission that
the price of pure gold at Momein in 1868 was 13 times its weight in silver (p. 122) ;
whilst M. Gamier mentions that the exchange at Ta-li in 1869 was 12 to i
(I. 522).

Does not Shakspeare indicate at least a memory of 10 to i as the traditional

• Cathay, etc., pp. ccl. seqq. and p. 441, t Written in 1870.

96 MARCO POLO Book II.

relation of gold to silver when he makes the Prince of Morocco, balancing over
Portia's caskets, argue : —

" Or shall I think in silver she's immured,
Being ten times undervalued to tried gold ?
O sinful thought ! "

In Japan, at the time trade was opened, we know from Sir R. Alcock's work the
extraordinary fact that the proportionate value set upon gold and silver currency by
authority was as 3 to i .

{^Cathay, etc., p. ccl. and p, 442 ; Lecomte, II. 91 ; Milburne's Oriejital Commerce,
II. 510; Sonnerat, II. 17; Hedde, Etude, Pratique, etc., p. 14; Williams,
Chinese Cotnmercial Guide, p. 129 ; Timkowski, II. 202 ; Alcock, I 281 ; II.
411, etc.)

Note 6. — Mr. Lay cites from a Chinese authority a notice of a tribe of ** Western
Miautsze," who *'in the middle of autumn sacrifice to the Great Ancestor or Founder
of their Race." {The Chinese as they are, p. 321.)

Note 7. — Dr. Anderson confirms the depressing and unhealthy character of the
summer climate at Momein, though standing between 5000 and 6000 feet above the
sea (p. 41).

Note 8. — " Whereas before," says Jack Cade to Lord Say, " our forefathers had
no books but score and tally, thou hast caused printing to be used." The use of such
tallies for the record of contracts among the aboriginal tribes of Kweichau is
mentioned by Chinese authorities, and the French missionaries of Bonga speak of the
same as in use among the simple tribes in that vicinity. But, as Marsden notes, the
use of such rude records was to be found in his day in higher places and much nearer
home. They continued to be employed as records of receipts in the British Exchequer
till 1834, "and it is worthy of recollection that the fire by which the Houses of
Parliament were destroyed was supposed to have originated in the over-heating of the
flues in which the discarded tallies were being burnt." I remember often, when a
child, to have seen the tallies of the colliers in Scotland, and possibly among that
class they may survive. They appear to be still used by bakers in various parts of
England and France, in the Canterbury hop-gardens, and locally in some other
trades. {Martini, 135; Bridgman,il<), 262; Eng. Cyclop, sub v. Tally; Notes
and Queries, 1st ser. X. 485.)

[According to Father Crabouillet {Missions Cath. 1873, p. 105), the Lolos use
tallies for their contracts ; Dr. Harm.and mentions {Tour dtc Monde, 1877, No. VII.)
the same fact among the Khas of Central Laos ; and M. Pierre Lefevre-Pontalis
{Populations du nord de Plndo- Chine, 1892, p. 22, from the J. As.) says he saw these
tallies among the Khas of Luang-Prabang. — H. C]

" In Illustration of this custom I have to relate what follows. In the year 1 863
the Tsaubwa (or Prince) of a Shan Province adjoining Yun-nan was in rebellion
against the Burmese Government. He wished to enter into communication with the
British Government. He sent a messenger to a British Officer with a letter tender-
ing his allegiance, and accompanying this letter was a piece of bamboo about five
inches long. This had been split down the middle, so that the two pieces fitted
closely together, forming a tube in the original shape of the bamboo. A notch at
one end included the edges of both pieces, showing that they were a pair. The
messenger said that if the reply were favourable one of the pieces was to be returned
and the other kept. I need hardly say the messenger received no written reply, and
both pieces of bamboo were retained." {MS. Note by Sir Arthur Phayre.)

Note 9. — Compare Mr. Hodgson's account of the sub-Himalayan Bodos and
Dhimals : "All diseases are ascribed to supernatural agency. The sick man is
supposed to be possessed by one of the deities, who racks him with pain as a

Chap. L. DEVIL-DANCERS 97

punishment for impiety or neglect of the god in question. Hence not the mediciner,
but the exorcist, is summoned to the sick man's aid." {J. A. S. B. XVIII. 728.)

Note 10. — Mr. Hodgson again : " Libations of fermented liquor always accompany
sacrifice — because^ to confess the whole truth, sacrifice and feast are commutable
words, and feasts need to be crowned with copious potations." {Ibid.)

Note ii. — And again: "The god in question is asked what sacrifice he re-
quires? a buffalo, a hog, a fowl, or a duck, to spare the sufferer ; . . . anxious as I
am fully to illustrate the topic, I will not try the patience of my readers by describing
all that vast variety of black victims and white, of red victims and blue, which each
particular deity is alleged to prefer." {Ibid, and p. 732,)

Note 12. — The same system of devil-dancing is prevalent among the tribes on
the Lu-kiang, as described by the R. C. Missionaries. The conjurors are there
called Mumos. {Ann. de la Prop, de la' Foi, XXXVI. 323, and XXXVII.

312-3130

"Marco's account of the exorcism of evil spirits in cases of obstinate illness
exactly resembles what is done in similar cases by the Burmese, except that I never
saw animals sacrificed on such occasions." {Sir A. Phayre.)

Mouhot says of the wild people of Cambodia called Stiens : " When any one is ill
they say that the Evil Spirit torments him ; and to deliver him they set up about the
patient a dreadful din which does not cease night or day, until some one among the
bystanders falls down as if in a syncope, crying out, ' I have him, — he is in me, — he
is strangling me ! ' Then they question the person who has thus become possessed.
They ask him what remedies will save the patient ; what remedies does the Evil
Spirit require that he may give up his prey? Sometimes it is an ox or a pig ; but too
often it is a human victim." {J. R. G. S. XXXII. 147.)

See also the account of the Samoyede Tadibe'i or Devil-dancer in Klaproth's
Magasin Asiatique (II. 83).

In fact these strange rites of Shamanism, devil-dancing, or what not, are found
with wonderful identity of character among the non-Caucasian races over parts of the
earth most remote from one another, not only among the vast variety of Indo-
Chinese Tribes, but among the Tamulian tribes of India, the Veddahs of Ceylon, the
races of Siberia, and the red nations of North and South America. Hinduism has
assimilated these " prior superstitions of the sons of Tur" as Mr. Hodgson calls them,
in the form of Tantrika mysteries, whilst, in the wild performance of the Dancing
Dervishes at Constantinople, we see perhaps again the infection of Turanian blood
breaking out from the very heart of Mussulman orthodoxy.

Dr. Caldwell has given a striking account of the practice of devil-dancing among
the Shanars of Tinnevelly, which forms a perfect parallel in modern language to our
Traveller's description of a scene of which he also had manifestly been an eye-witness :
"When the preparations are completed and the devil-dance is about to commence,
the music is at first comparatively slow ; the dancer seems impassive and sullen, and
he either stands still or moves about in gloomy silence. Gradually, as the music
becomes quicker and louder, his excitement begins to rise. Sometimes, to help him
to work himself up into a frenzy, he uses medicated draughts, cuts and lacerates
himself till the blood flows, lashes himself with a huge whip, presses a burning torch
to his breast, drinks the blood which flows from his own wounds, or drains the
blood of the sacrifice, putting the throat of the decapitated goat to his mouth. Then,
as if he had acquired new life, he begins to brandish his staff of bells, and to dance
with a quick but wild unsteady step. Suddenly the afflatus descends ; there is no
mistaking that glare, or those frantic leaps. He snorts, he stares, he gyrates. The
demon has now taken bodily possession of him, and though he retains the power of
utterance and motion, both are under the demon's control, and his separate con-
sciousness is in abeyance. The bystanders signalise the event by raising a long
shout, attended with a peculiar vibratory noise, caused by the motion of the hand and
VOL. II. G

98 MARCO rOLO Book II.

tongue, or the tongue alone. The devil-dancer is now worshipped as a present
deity, and every bystander consults him respecting his diseases, his wants, the
welfare of his absent relatives, the offerings to be made for the accomplishment of his
wishes, and in short everything for which superhuman knowledge is supposed to be
available." {ffod<'.son, J. R. As. Soc. XVIII, 397 ; The Tinnevelly Shanars, by the
J^ev. A'. Caldwell^ B.A., Madras, 1849, PP- 19-20.)

CHAPTER LI.

Wherein is related how the King of Mien and Bangala

VOWED vengeance AGAINST THE GrEAT KaAN.

But I was forgetting to tell you of a famous battle that
was fought in the kingdom of Vochan in the Province of
Zardandan, and that ought not to be omitted from our
Book. So we will relate all the particulars.

You see, in the year of Christ, 1272,^ the Great Kaan
sent a large force into the kingdoms of Carajan and
Vochan, to protect them from the ravages of ill-disposed
people ; and this was before he had sent any of his sons
to rule the country, as he did afterwards when he made
Sentemur king there, the son of a son of his who was
deceased.

Now there was a certain kina called the kingf of Mien
and of Bangala, who was a very puissant prince, with
much territory and treasure and people ; and he was not
as yet subject to the Great Kaan, though it was not long
after that the latter conquered him and took from him
both the kingdoms that I have named.^ And it came to
pass that when this king of Mien and Bangala heard
that the host of the Great Kaan was at Vochan, he said
to himself that it behoved him to go against them with
so great a force as should insure his cutting off the whole
of them, insomuch that the Great Kaan would be very
sorry ever to send an army again thither [to his frontier].

Chap. LI. THE KING OF MIEN AND BANGALA 99

So this king prepared a great force and munitions of
war ; and he had, let me tell you, 2000 great elephants,
on each of which was set a tower of timber, well framed
and strong, and carrying from twelve to sixteen well-
armed fighting men.^ And besides these, he had of
horsemen and of footmen good 60,000 men. In short,
he equipped a fine force, as well befitted such a puissant
prince. It was indeed a host capable of doing great
things.

And what shall I tell you ? When the king had
completed these great preparations to fight the Tartars,
he tarried not, but straightway marched against them.
And after advancing without meeting with anything
worth mentioning, they arrived within three days of the
Great Kaan's host, which was then at Vochan in the
territory of Zardandan, of which I have already spoken.
So there the king pitched his camp, and halted to refresh
his army.

Note i. — This date is no doubt corrupt. (See note 3, ch, lii.)

Note 2. — Mien is the name by which the kingdom of Burma or Ava was and is
known to the Chinese. M. Garnier informs me that Mien-Kwi or Mien-tisong is the
name always given in Yun-nan to that kingdom, whilst the Shans at Kiang Hung call
the Burmese Mati (pronounced like the English word).

The title given to the sovereign in question of King of Bengal, as well as of
Mien, is very remarkable. We shall see reason hereafter to conceive that Polo did
more or less confound Bengal with Pegu, which was subject to the Burmese
monarchy up to the time of the Mongol invasion. But apart from any such mis-
apprehension, there is not only evidence of rather close relations between Burma and
Gangetic India in the ages immediately preceding that of our author, but also some
ground for believing that he may be right in his representation, and that the King of
Burma may have at this time arrogated the title of "King of Bengal," which is
attributed to him in the text.

Anaurahta, one of the most powerful kings in Burmese history (1017-1059),
extended his conquests to the frontiers of India, and is stated to have set up images
within that ceuntry. He also married an Indian princess, the daughter of the King
of Wethali (i.e. Vai^ali in Tirhut).

There is also in the Burmese Chronicle a somewhat confused story regarding a
succeeding king, Kyan-tsittha (a.d. 1064), who desired to marry his daughter to the
son of the King of Patteik-Kard, a part of Bengal.* The marriage was objected to

* Sir A. Phayre thinks this may have been VikrajupUr, for some time the capital of Eastern
Bengal before the Mahomedan conquest. Vikrampur was some miles east of Dacca, and the
dynasty in question was that called Vaidya. (See Lassen, HI. 749.) PatteikKard is apparently an
attempt to represent some Hindi name such as Patthargarh, " The Stone-Fort."

VOL. II. G 2

lOO MARCO POLO Book II.

by the Burmese nobles, but the princess was already with child by the Bengal prince ;
and their son eventually succeeded to the Burmese throne under the name of
Alaungtsi-thu. When king, he travelled all over his dominions, and visited the
images which Anaurahta had set up in India. He also maintained intercourse with
the King of Patteik-Kara and married his daughter. Alaungtsi-thu is stated to have
lived to the age of loi years, and to have reigned 75. Even then his death was
hastened by his son Narathu, who smothered him in the temple called Shwe-Ku
(** Golden Cave"), at Pagdn, and also put to death his Bengali step-mother. 'I'he
father of the latter sent eight brave men, disguised as Brahmans, to avenge his
daughter's death. Having got access to the royal presence through their sacred
character, they slew King Narathu and then themselves. Hence King Narathu is
known in the Burmese history as the Kald-Kya Afeng, or "King slain by the
Hindus." He was building the great Temple at Pagan called Dhammayangyi, at
the time of his death, which occurred about the year 1171. The great-grandson of
this king was Narathihapade (presumably Narasinha-paii), the king reigning at the
time of the Mongol invasion.

All these circumstances show tolerably close relations between Burma and
Bengal, and also that the dynasty then reigning in Burma was descended frotn a
Bengal stock. Sir Arthur Phayre, after noting these points, remarks : " From all
these circumstances, and from the conquests attributed to Anaurahta, it is very
probable that, after the conquest of Bengal by the Mahomedans in the 13th century,
the kings of Burma would assume the title of Kings of Bengal. This is nowhere
expressly stated in the Burmese history, but the course of events renders it very
probable. We know that the claim to Bengal was asserted by the kings of Burma
in long after years. In the Journal of the Marquis of Hastings, under the date of
6th September, 1818, is the following passage : * The king of Burma favoured us early
this year with the obliging requisition that we should cede to him Moorshedabad and
the provinces to the east of it, which he deigned to say were all natural dependencies
of his throne.' And at the time of the disputes on the frontier of Arakan, in 1823-
1824, which led to the war of the two following years, the Governor of Arakan made
a similar demand. We may therefore reasonably conclude that at the close of the
13th century of the Christian era the kings of Pagan called themselves kings of
Burma and of Bengala." {MS. Note by Sir Arthtir Phayre ; see also his paper in
/. A. S. B. vol. XXXVII. part I.)

Note 3. — It is very difficult to know what to make of the repeated assertions of
old writers as to the numbers of men carried by war-elephants, or, if we could admit
those numbers, to conceive how the animal could have carried the enormous structure
necessary to give them space to use their weapons. The Third Book of Maccabees
is the most astounding in this way, alleging that a single elephant carried 32 stout
men, besides the Indian Mahatit. Bochart indeed supposes the number here to be a
clerical error for 12, but this would even be extravagant. Friar Jordanus is, no
doubt, building on the Maccabees rather than on his own Oriental experience when
he says that the elephant "carrieth easily more than 30 men." Philostratus, in his
Life of Apollonius, speaks of lo to 15 ; Ibn Batuta of about 20 ; and a great elephant
sent by Timur to the Sultan of Egypt is said to have carried 20 drummers.
Christopher Borri says that in Cochin China the elephant did ordinarily carry 13 or
14 persons, 6 on each side in two tiers of 3 each, and 2 behind. On the other hand,
among the ancients, Stiabo and Aelian speak oi three soldiers only in addition to the
driver, and Eivy, describing the Battle of Magnesia, oifour. These last are reason-
able statements.

{Bochart f Hierozoicon, ed. 3rd, p. 266; Jord., p. 26; Philost. trad, par A.
Chassaing, liv. II. c. ii. ; Ibn Bat. II. 223; N. and E. XIV. 510; Cochin China^
etc, London, 1633, ed. 3 ; Armandi, Hist. Militaire des Eldphants^ 259 seqq. 442.)

Chap. LII. BATTLE WITH THE KING OF MIEN IQI

CHAPTER LII.

Of the Battle that was fought by the Great Kaan's
Host and his Seneschal, against the King of Mien.

And when the Captain of the Tartar host had certain
news that the king aforesaid was coming against him
with so great a force, he waxed uneasy, seeing that he
had with him but 12,000 horsemen. Natheless he was
a most valiant and able soldier, of great experience in
arms and an excellent Captain ; and his name was
Nescradin. ^ His troops too were very good, and he
gave them very particular orders and cautions how to act,
and took every measure for his own defence and that of
his army. And why should I make a long story of it ?
The whole force of the Tartars, consisting of 12,000
well-mounted horsemen, advanced to receive the enemy
in the Plain of Vochan, and there they waited to give
them battle. And this they did through the good
judgment of the excellent Captain who led them ; for
hard by that plain was a great wood, thick with trees.
And so there in the plain the Tartars awaited their
foe. Let us then leave discoursing of them a while ; we
shall come back to them presently ; but meantime let us
speak of the enemy.

After the King of Mien had halted long enough to
refresh his troops, he resumed his march, and came to
the Plain of Vochan, where the Tartars were already
in order of battle. And when the king's army had
arrived in the plain, and was within a mile of the
enemy, he caused all the castles that were on the
elephants to be ordered for battle, and the fighting-
men to take up their posts on them, and he arrayed his
horse and his foot with all skill, like a wise king as he

I02 MARCO POLO Book II.

was. And when he had completed all his arrangements
he began to advance to engage the enemy. The Tartars,
seeing the foe advance, showed no dismay, but came
on likewise with good order and discipline to meet
them. And when they were near and nought remained
but to begin the fight, the horses of the Tartars took
such fright at the sight of the elephants that they could
not be got to face the foe, but always swerved and
turned back ; whilst all the time the king and his
forces, and all his elephants, continued to advance upon
them.^

And when the Tartars perceived how the case stood,
they were in great wrath, and wist not what to say or do ;
for well enough they saw that unless they could get their
horses to advance, all would be lost. But their Captain
acted like a wise leader who had considered everything
beforehand. He immediately gave orders that every
man should dismount and tie his horse to the trees of the
forest that stood hard by, and that then they should take
to their bows, a weapon that they know how to handle
better than any troops in the world. They did as he
bade them, and plied their bows stoutly, shooting so
many shafts at the advancing elephants that in a short
space they had wounded or slain the greater part of them
as well as of the men they carried. The enemy also shot
at the Tartars, but the Tartars had the better weapons,
and were the better archers to boot.

And what shall I tell you ? Understand that when
the elephants felt the smart of those arrows that pelted
them like rain, they turned tail and fled, and nothing on
earth would have induced them to turn and face the
Tartars. So off they sped with such a noise and
uproar that you would have trowed the world was coming
to an end ! And then too they plunged into the wood
and rushed this way and that, dashing their castles

Chap. LIT. BATTLE WITH THE KING OF MIEN 103

aealnst the trees, burstincy their harness and smashlnof
and destroying everything that was on them.

So when the Tartars saw that the elephants had
turned tail and could not be brouorht to face the fio^ht
again, they got to horse at once and charged the enemy.
And then the battle began to rage furiously with sword
and mace. Right fiercely did the two hosts rush together,
and deadly were the blows exchanged. The king's
troops were far more in number than the Tartars, but
they were not of such metal, nor so inured to war ;
otherwise the Tartars who were so few in number could
never have stood against them. Then might you see
swashing blows dealt and taken from sword and mace ;
then might you see knights and horses and men-at-arms
go down ; then might you see arms and hands and legs
and heads hewn off: and besides the dead that fell,
many a wounded man, that never rose again, for the
sore press there was. The din and uproar were so
great from this side and from that, that God might have
thundered and no man would have heard it ! Great was
the medley, and dire and parlous was the fight that was
fought on both sides ; but the Tartars had the best of it.^

In an ill hour indeed, for the king and his people, was
that battle begun, so many of them were slain therein.
And when they had continued fighting till midday the
king's troops could stand against the Tartars no longer ;
but felt that they were defeated, and turned and fled.
And when the Tartars saw them routed they gave
chase, and hacked and -slew so mercilessly that it was a
piteous sight to see. But after pursuing a while they
gave up, and returned to the wood to catch the elephants
that had run away, and to manage this they had to cut
down great trees to bar their passage. Even then they
would not have been able to take them without the help
of the king's own men who had been taken, and who

I04 MARCO POLO Book II.

knew better how to deal with the beasts than the Tartars
did. The elephant is an animal that hath more wit than
any other ; but in this way at last they were caught, more
than 200 of them. And it was from this time forth that
the Great Kaan began to keep numbers of elephants.

So thus it was that the king aforesaid was defeated by
the sagacity and superior skill of the Tartars as you have
heard.

Note i. — Nescradin for Nesradin, as we had Bascra for Basra.

This NAsRUDDiN was apparently an officer of whom Rashiduddin speaks, and
whom he calls governor (or perhaps commander) in Karajang. lie describes him
as having succeeded in that command to his father the Sayad Ajil of Bokhara, one
of the best of Kiihlai's chief Ministers. Nasr-uddin retained his position in Yun-nan
till his death, which Rashid, writing abojt 1300, says occurred five or six years before.
His son Bayan, who also bore the grandfather's title of Sayad Ajil, was Minister of
Finance under Kiiblai's successor ; and another son, Hala, is also mentioned as one of
the governors of the province of Fu-chau. (See Cathay, pp. 265, 268, and D'Ohsson,
11. 507-508.)

Nasr-uddin {Nasulating) is also frequently mentioned as employed on this frontier
by the Chinese authorities whom Pauthier cites.

[Na-su-la-ding [Nasr-uddin] was the eldest of the five sons of the Mohammedan
Sai-dien-ch'i shan-sze-ding, Sayad Ajil, a native of Bokhara, who died in Yun-nan,
where he had been governor when Kiiblai, in the reign of Mangu, entered the country.
Nasr-uddin "has a separate biography in ch. cxxv of the Yuen-shi. He was governor
of the province of Yun-nan, and distinguished himself in the war against the southern
tribes of Kiao-chi (Cochin-China) and Mien (Burma). He died in 1292, the father of
twelve sons, the names of five of which are given in the luograph-y, viz. Bo-yen-M a-rh
[Bayan], who held a high office, Omar, Djafar, Hussein, and Saadi." {Bretschfteider,
Med. Res. I. 270-271). Mr. E. H. Parker writes in the China Review, February-March,
1901 , pp. 196-197, that the Mongol history states that amongst the reforms of Nasr-uddin's
father in Yun-nan, was the introduction of coffins for the dead, instead of burning
them.— H. C]

[Note 2. — In his battle near Sardis, Cyrus " collected together all the camels that
had come in the train of his army to carry the provisions and the baggage, and taking
off their loads, he mounted riders upon them accoutred as horsemen. These he com-
manded to advance in front of his other troops against the Lydian horse. . . . The
reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to the enemy's horse was, because the horse has
a natural dread of the camel, and cannot abide either the sight or the smell of that
animal. . . . The two armies then joined battle, and immediately the Lydian
horses, seeing and smelling the camels, turned round and galloped off." . . . {Ilerodotu.
Bk. I. i. p. 220, Rawlin:on''s ed.) — H. C]

Note 3. — We are indebted to Pauthier for very interesting illustrations of this
narrative from the Chinese Annalists (p. 410 setjq.). These latter fix the date to the
year 1277, and it is probable that the 1272 or MCCLXXii of the Texts was a clerical
error for MCCLXXVii. The Annalists describe the people of Mien as irritated at calls
upon them to submit to the Mongols (whose power they probably did not appreciate,
as their descendants did not appreciate the British power in 1824), and as crossing the
frontier of Yung-ch'ang to establish fortified posts. The force of Mien, they say,
amounted to 50,000 men, with 800 elephants and 10,000 horses, whilst the Mongol

Chap. LII. ROUT OF THE BURMESP: ARMY IO5

Chief had but seven hundred men. " When the elephants felt the arrows (of the
Mongols) they turned tail and fled with the platforms on their backs inio a place that
was set thickly with sharp bamboo-stakes, and these their riders laid hold of to prick
them with." This threw the Burmese army into confusion ; they fled, and were
pursued with great slaughter.

The Chinese author does not mention Nasr-uddin in connection with this battle.
He names as tlie chief of the Mongol force Htithukh (Kutuka ?), commandant of
Ta-li fu. Nasr-uddin is mentioned as advancing, a few months later (about December,
1277), with nearly 4000 men to Kiangtheu (which appears to have been on the Irawadi,
somewhere near Bhamo, and is perhaps the Kaungtaung of the Burmese), but effecting
little (p. 415).

[I have published in the Rev. Ext. Orient^ II. 72-8S, from the British Museum
Add, MS. 1 69 1 3, the translation by Mgr. Visdelou, of Chinese documents relating to
the Kingdom of Mien and the wars of Kublai ; the battle won by Hu-tu, commandant
of Ta-li, was fought during the 3rd month of the 14th year (1277). (Cf. Pauthier,
supra.) — H. C]

These affairs of the battle in the Yung-ch'ang territory, and the advance of Nasr-
uddin to the Irawadi are, as Polo clearly implies in the beginning of ch. li., quite
distinct from the invasion and conquest of Mien some years later, of which he speaks in
ch. liv. They are not mentioned in the Burmese Annals at all.

Sir Arthur Phayre is inclined to reject altogether the story of the battle near
Yung-ch'ang in consequence of this absence from the Burmese Chronicle, and of its
inconsistency with the purely defensive character which that record assigns to the
action of the Burmese Government in regard to China at this time. With the strongest
respect for my friend's opinion I feel it impossible to assent to this. We have not only
the concurrent testimony of Marco and of the Chinese Official Annals of the Mongol
Dynasty to the facts of the Burmese provocation and of the engagement within the
Yung-ch'ang or Vochan territory, but we have in the Chinese narrative a consistent
chronology and tolerably full detail of ihe relations between the two countries.

[Baber writes (p. 173) : " Biot has it that Yung-ch'ang was first established by the
Mings, long subsequent to the time of Marco's visit, but the name was well known
much earlier. The mention by Marco of the Plain of Vochan (Unciam would be a
perfect reading), as if it were a plain par excellence, is strikingly consistent with the
position of the city on the verge of the largest plain west of Yiinnan-fu. Hereabouts
was fought the great battle between the ' valiant soldier and the excellent captain
Nescradin,' with his 12,000 well-mounted Tartars, against the King of Burmah and a
large army, whose strength lay in 2000 elephants, on each of which was set a tower of
timber full of well-armed fighting men.

"There is no reason to suppose this 'dire and parlous fighl' to be mythical, apart
from the consistency of annals adduced by Colonel Yule ; the local details of the
narrative, particularly the prominent importance of the wood as an element of the
Tartar success, are convincing. It seems to have been the first occasion on which the
Mongols engaged a large body of elephants, and this, no doubt, made the victory
memorable.

" Marco informs us that 'from this time forth the Great Khan began to keep
numbers of elephants.' It is obvious that cavalry could not manoeuvre in a morass
such as fronts the city. Let us refer to the account of the battle.

" ' The Great Khan's host was at Yung-ch'ang, from which they advanced into the
plain, and there waited to give battle. This they did through the good judgment of
the captain, for hard by that plain was a great wood thick with trees.' The general's
purpose was more probably to occupy the dry undulating slopes near the south end of
the valley. An advance of about five miles would have brought him to that position.
The statement that * the King's army arrived in the plain, and was within a mile of
the enemy,' would then accord perfectly with the conditions of the ground. The
Burmese would have found themselves at about that distance from their foes as soon
as they were fairly in the plain.

I06 MARCO POLO Book II.

"The trees 'hard by the plain,' to which the Tartars tied their horses, and in
which the elephants were entangled, were in all probability in the corner below the
'rolling hills' marked in the chart. Very few trees remain, but in any case the
grove would long ago have been cut down by the Chinese, as everywhere on inhabited
plains. A short distance up the hill, however, groves of exceptionally fine trees are
passed. The army, as it seems to us, must have entered the plain from its southern-
most point. The route by which we departed on our way to Burmah would be very
embarrassing, though perhaps not utterly impossible, for so great a number of
elephants."— H. C]

Between 1277 and the end of the century the Chinese Annals record three
campaigns or expeditions against Mien ; viz. (i) that which Marco has related in this
chapter ; (2) that which he relates in ch. liv, ; and (3) one undertaken in 1300 at the
request of the son of the legitimate Burmese King, who had been put to death by an
usurper. The Burmese Annals mention only the two latest, but, concerning both the
date and the main circumstances of these two, Chinese and Burmese Annals are in
almost entire agreement. Surely then it can scarcely be doubted that the Chinese
authority is amply trustworthy for the first campaign also, respecting which the
Burmese book is silent ; even were the former not corroborated by the independent
authority of Marco.

Indeed the mutual correspondence of these Annals, especially as to chronology, is
very remarkable, and is an argument for greater respect to the chronological value of
the Burmese Chronicle and other Indo-Chinese records of like character than we
should otherwise be apt to entertain. Compare the story of the expedition of 1300 as
told after the Chinese Annals by De Mailla, and after the Burmese Chronicle by
Burney and Pha)re. (See De Mailla^ IX. 476 seqq. ; and/". A. S. B. vol. vi. pp. 121-
122, and vol. xxxvii. Pt. I. pp. 102 and no.)

CHAPTER LIII.

Of the Great Descent that leads towards the Kingdom

OF Mien.

After leaving the Province of which I have been speaking
you come to a great Descent. In fact you ride for two
days and a half continually down hill. On all this
descent there is nothing worthy of mention except only
that there is a large place there where occasionally a
great market is held ; for all the people of the country
round come thither on fixed days, three times a week,
and hold a market there. They exchange gold for silver ;
for they have gold In abundance ; and they give one
weight of fine gold for five weights of fine silver ; so
this induces merchants to come from various quarters

Chap. LIII. THE PROVINCE OF AMIEN IO7

bringing silver which they exchange for gold with these
people ; and in this way the merchants make great gain.
As regards those people of the country who dispose of
gold so cheaply, you must understand that nobody is
acquainted with their places of abode, for they dwell
in inaccessible positions, in sites so wild and strong
that no one can get at them to meddle with them. Nor
will they allow anybody to accompany them so as to gain
a knowledge of their abodes.^

After you have ridden those two days and a half
down hill, you find yourself in a province towards the
south which is pretty near to India, and this province is
called Amien. You travel therein for fifteen days through
a very unfrequented country, and through great woods
abounding in elephants and unicorns and numbers of
other wild beasts. There are no dwellings and no people,
so we need say no more of this wild country, for in sooth
there is nothing to tell. But I have a story to relate
which you shall now hear.^

Note i. — In all the Shan towns visited by Major Sladen on this frontier he
found markets held evejy fifth day. This custom, he says, is borrowed from China,
and is general throughout Western Yun-nan. There seem to be traces of this five-
day week over Indo-China, and it is found in Java ; as it is in Mexico. The
Kakhyens attend in great crowds. They do not now bring gold for sale to Momein,
though it is found to some extent in their hills, more especially in the direction of
Mogaung, whence it is exported towards Assam.

Major Sladen saw a small quantity of nuggets in the possession of a Kakhyen who
had brought them from a hill two days north of Bhamo. {MS. Notes by Major
Sladen. )

Note 2. — I confess that the indications in this and the beginning of the following
chapter are, to me, full of difficulty. According to the general style of Polo's
itinerary, the 2| days should be reckoned from Yung-ch'ang ; the distance therefore
to the capital city of Mien would be \']\ days. The real capital of Mien or Burma
at this time was, however, Pagan, in lat. 21° 13', and that city could hardly have been
reached by a land traveller in any such lime. We shall see that something may be
said in behalf of the supposition that the point reached was Tagaung or Old Fagdn,
on the upper Irawadi, in lat. 23° 28 ' ; and there was perhaps some confusion in the
traveller's mind between this and the great city. The descent might then be from
Yung-ch'ang to the valley of the Shweli, and that valley then followed to the
Irawadi. Taking as a scale Polo's 5 marches from Tali to Yung-ch'ang, I find we
should by this route make just about 17 marches from Yung-ch'ang to Tagaung.
We have no detailed knowledge of the route, but there is a road that way, and by

io8

MARCO POLO

Book II.

no other does the plain country approach so near to Yung-ch'ang. (See Andersotis
Report on Expedition to Westetn Yunnan, p. 160.)

Dr. Anderson's remarks on the present question do not in my opinion remove
the difficulties. He supposes the long descent to be the descent into the plains of
the Irawadi near Bhamo ; and from that point the land journey to Great Pagdn
could, he conceives, ''easily be accomplished in 15 days." I greatly doubt the
latter assumption. By the scale I have just referred to it would take at least 20 days.
And to calculate the 2\ days with which the journey commences from an indefinite
point seems scarcely admissible. Polo is giving us a continuous itinerary ; it would
be ruptured if he left an indefinite distance between his last station and his *' long
descent." And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between Carajan
(or Tali) and Vochan (Yung-ch'ang), the result would be nonsense.

Temple of Gaudapalen (in the city of Mien), erected circa a.d. 1160.

\^Mie)i-tien, to which is devoted ch. vii. of the Chinese work Sze-i-kwan-k'ao,
appears to have included much more than Burma proper. (See the passage stipra,
pp. 70-71, quoted by Deveria from the Yuen-shi lei pi en regarding Kien-ton and Kin-
Chi.)—Yi, C]

The hypothesis that I have suggested would suit better with the traveller's
representation of the country traversed as wild and uninhabited. In a journey to
Great Pagan the most populous and fertile part of Burma would be passed through.

[Baber writes (p. 180) : "The generally received theory that 'the great descent
which leads towards the Kingdom of Mien,' on which 'you ride for two days and a
half continually downhill,' was the route from Yung-ch'ang to T'eng-Yueh, must be
at once abandoned. Marco was, no doubt, speaking from hearsay, or rather, from a
recollection of hearsay, as it does not appear that he possessed any notes ; but there
is good reason for supposing that he had personally visited Yung-ch'ang. Weary of
the interminable mountain-paths, and encumbered with much baggage — for a
magnate of Marco's court influence could never, in the Fast, have travelled without
a considerable state— impeded, in addition, by a certain quantity of merchandise,
for he was ' discreet and prudent in every way,' he would have listened longingly
to the report of an easy ride of two and a half days downhill, and would never have
forgotten it. That such a route exists I am well satisfied. Where is it? The stream

Chap. LIV. THE CITY OF MIEN IO9

which, drains the Yung-ch'ang plain communicates with the Salwen by a river called
the 'Nan-tien,' not to be confounded with the * Nan-ting,' about 45 miles south of
that city, a fair journey of two and a half days. Knowing, as we now do, that it must
descend some 3500 feet in that distance, does it not seem reasonable to suppose that
the valley of this rivulet is the route alluded to ? The great battle on the Yung-ch'ang
plain, moreover, was fought only a few years before Marco's visit, and seeing that
the king and his host of elephants in all probability entered the valley from the south,
travellers to Burma would naturally have quitted it by the same route.

"But again, our mediaeval Herodotus reports that 'the country is wild and hard
of access, full of great woods and mountains which 'tis impossible to pass, the air is
so impure and unwholesome ; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain.'

"This is exactly and literally the description given us of the district in which we
crossed the Salwen.

"To insist on the theory of the descent by this route is to make the traveller ride
downhill, 'over mountains it is impossible to pass.'

" The fifteen days' subsequent journey described by Marco need not present much
difficulty. The distance from the junction of the Nan-tien with the Salwen to the
capital of Burma (Pagan) would be something over 300 miles ; fifteen days seems a fair
estimate for the distance, seeing that a great part of the journey would doubtless be
by boat."

Regarding this last paragraph. Captain Gill says (II. 345): "An objection
may be raised that no such route as this is known to exist; but it must be
remembered that the Burmese capital changes its position every now and then, and
it is obvious that the trade routes would be directed to the capital, and would change
with it. Altogether, with the knowledge at present available, this certainly seems the
most satisfactory interpretation of the old traveller's story." — H. C]

CHAPTER LIV.

Concerning the City of Mien, and the Two Towers that are
therein, one of ciold and the other of silver.

And when you have travelled those 15 days through
such a difficult country as I have described, in which
travellers have to carry provisions for the road because
there are no inhabitants, then you arrive at the capital city
of this Province of Mien, and it also is called Amien,
and is a very great and noble city.^ The people are
Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject
to the Great Kaan.

And in this city there is a thing so rich and rare that
I must tell you about it. You see there was in former
days a rich and puissant king in this city, and when he

no MARCO POLO Book II.

was about to die he commanded that by his tomb they
should erect two towers [one at either end], one of gold
and the other of silver, in such fashion as I shall tell you.
The towers are built of fine stone ; and then one of them
has been covered with gold a good finger in thickness,
so that the tower looks as if it were all of solid gold ;
and the other is covered with silver in like manner so
that it seems to be all of solid silver. Each tower is a
good ten paces in height and of breadth in proportion.
The upper part of these towers is round, and girt all
about with bells, the top of the gold tower with gilded
bells and the silver tower with silvered bells, insomuch
that whenever the wind blows among these bells they
tinkle. [The tomb likewise was plated partly with gold,
and partly with silver.] The King caused these towers
to be erected to commemorate his magnificence and for
the good of his soul ; and really they do form one of the
finest sights in the world ; so exquisitely finished are they,
so splendid and costly. And when they are lighted up
by the sun they shine most brilliantly and are visible
from a vast distance.

Now you must know that the Great Kaan conquered
the country in this fashion.

You see at the Court of the Great Kaan there was a
great number of gleemen and jugglers ; and he said to
them on^ day that he wanted them to go and conquer
the aforesaid province of Mien, and that he would give
them a good Captain to lead them and other good aid.
And they replied that they would be delighted. So the
Emperor caused them to be fitted out with all that an
army requires, and gave them a Captain and a body of
men-at-arms to help them ; and so they set out, and
marched until they came to the country and province of
Mien. And they did conquer the whole of it ! And
when they found in the city the two towers of gold and

Chap. LIV. MONGOL INVASION OF BURMA 1 1 I

silver of which I have been telHng you, they were
greatly astonished, and sent word thereof to the Great
Kaan, asking what he would have them do with the two
towers, seeing what a great quantity of wealth there was
upon them. And the Great Kaan, being well aware
that the King had caused these towers to be made for
the good of his soul, and to preserve his memory after
his death, said that he would not have them injured, but
would have them left precisely as they were. And that
was no wonder either, for you must know that no Tartar
in the world will ever, If he can help It, lay hand on any-
thing appertaining to the dead.^

They have in this province numbers of elephants and
wild oxen ; ^ also beautiful stags and deer and roe, and
other kinds of large game in plenty.

Now having told you about the province of Mien, I
will tell you about another province which is called
Bangala, as you shall hear presently.

Note I. — The name of the city appears as Aniien both in Pauthier's text here,
and in the G. Text in the preceding chapter. In the Bern MS. it is Aamicii.
Perhaps some form hke Amien was that used by the Mongols and Persians. I fancy
it may be traced in the Aj'tnan or Uman of Rashiduddin, probably corrupt readings
(in Elliot I. 72).

Note 2. — M. Pauthier's extracts are here again very valuable. We gather from
them that the first Mongol communication with the King of Mien or Burma took
place in 1271, when the Commandant of Tali-fu sent a deputation to that sovereign
to demand an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Emperor. This was
followed by various negotiations and acts of offence on both sides, which led to the
campaign of 1277, already spoken of. For a few years no further events appear to
be recorded, but in 1282, in consequence of a report from Nasruddin of the ease
with which Mien could be conquered, an invasion was ordered under a Prince of
the Blood called Siangtaur [called Siani-ghu-talh, by Visdelou. — H. C.]. This was
probably Singttir, great-grandson of one of the brothers of Chinghiz, who a few
years later took part in the insurrection of Nayan. (See D'Ohssoti, II. 461.) The army
started from Yun-nan fu, then called Chung-khing (and the Yachi of Polo) in the
autumn of 1283. We are told that the army made use of boats to descend the River
Oho to the fortified city of Kiangtheu (see sttpra, note 3, ch. lii.), which they took
and sacked ; and as the King still refused to submit, they then advanced to the
"primitive capital," Taiktmg, which they captured. Here Pauthier's details stop.
(Pp. 405, 416 ; see also D^Ohsson, II. 444 [and Visdelou].)

It is curious to compare these narratives with that from the Burmese Royal
Annals given by Colonel Burney, and again by Sir A. Phayre in the y. A. S. B.
(IV. 401, and XXXVII. Pt. I. p. loi.) Those annals afford no mention of

112

MARCO POLO

Book II.

trnn<;;\riion.s with the Mongols previous to 1281. In that year they relate that a
inissi..ii (I 1(11 nobles and 1000 horse came from the Emperor to demand gold and
silvn \, -< 1> ,i> symbols of homage, on the ground of an old precedent. The envoys
conducted themselves disrespectfully (the tradition was that they refused to take off

The Palace of the King of Mien in modern times.
their boots, an old grievance at the Burmese court), and the King put them all to
death. The Emperor of course was very wroth, and sent an army of 6,000,000 of
horse and 20,000,000 of foot (!) to invade Burma. The Burmese generals had their
point d'appnizX the city oi Nga-tsliaung-gyan, apparently somewhere near the mouth

Chap. LIV. CHINESE NOTICES OF BURMESE AFFAIRS

113

of the Bhamo River, and after a protracted resistance on that river, they were obliged
to retire. They took up a new point of defence on the Hill of Male, which they had
fortified. Here a decisive battle was fought, and the Burmese were entirely routed.
The King, on hearing of their retreat from Bhamo, at first took measures for fortifying
his capital Pagan, and destroyed 6cx)0 temples of various sizes to furnish material.
But after all he lost heart, and embarking with his treasure and establishments on the
Irawadi, fled down that river to Bassein in the Delta. The Chinese continued the
pursuit long past Pagan till they reached the place now called Tarokmati or
"Chinese Point," 30 miles below Prome. Here they were forced by want of pro-
visions to return. The Burmese Annals place the abandonment of Pagan by the
King in 1284, a most satisfactory synchronism with the Chinese record. It is a
notable point in Burmese history, for it marked the fall of an ancient Dynasty which
was speedily followed by its extinction, and the abandonment of the capital. The
King is known in the Burmese Annals as Tarok-py^-Meng^ "The King who fled
from the Tar ok. ''^ *

In Dr. Mason's abstract of the Pegu Chronicle we find the notable statement with
reference to this period that " the Emperor of China, having subjugated Pagan, his
troops with the Burmese entered Pegu and invested several cities."

We see that the Chinese Annals, as quoted, mention only the " capitale primitive"
Taihmg, which I have little doubt Pauthier is right in identifying with Tagatmg,
traditionally the most ancient royal city of Burma, and the remains of which stand
side by side with those of Old Pagan, a later but still very ancient capital, on the
east bank of the Irawadi, in about lat. 23° 28'. The Chinese extracts give no idea of
the temporary completeness of the conquest, nor do they mention Great Pagan (lat.
21° 13'), a city whose vast remains I have endeavoured partially to describe, t Sir
Arthur Phayre, from a careful perusal of the Burmese Chronicle, assures me that
there can be no doubt that this was at the time in question the Burmese Royal
Residence, and the city alluded to in the Burmese narrative. M. Pauthier is mistaken
in supposing that Tarok-Mau, the turning-point of the Chinese Invasion, lay north of
this city : he has not unnaturally confounded it with Tarok-J^^ or "China-Town,"
a district not far below Ava. Moreover Male, the position of the decisive victory of
the Chinese, is itself much to the south of Tagaung (about 22° 55').

Both Pagan and Male are mentioned in a remarkable Chinese notice extracted
m Ajnyot' s M^moires {X.W . 292): "Mien-Tien .... had five chief towns, of which
the first was Kiangtheu {stipra, pp. 105, 1 1 1), the second Taikung, the third Malai, the
fourth Ngan-cheng-kwe (? perhaps the Nga-tshaung gyaji of the Burmese Annals),
the fifth PuKAN Mien-Wang (Pagan of the Mien King?). The Yuen carried war
into this couniry, particularly during the reign of Shun-Ti, the last Mongol Emperor
[1333-1368], who, after subjugating it, erected at Pukan Mien-Wang a tribunal styled
Hwen-'-juei-she-s^, the authority of which extended over Pang-ya and all its de-
pendencies." This is evidently founded on actual documents, for Panya or Pengya,
otherwise styled Vijayapura, was the capital of Burma during part of the 14th century,
between the decay of Pagan and the building of Ava. But none of the translated
extracts from the Burmese Chronicle afford corroboration. From Sangermano's.
abstract, however, we learn that the King of Panya from 1323 to 1343 was the
son of a daughter of the Emperor of China (p. 42). I may also refer to Pemberton's
abstract of the Chronicle of the Shan State of Pong in the Upper Irawadi valley,
which relates that about the middle of the 14th century the Chinese invaded Pong and
took Maung Maorong, the capital, ^i The Shan King and his son fled to the King of

* This is the name now applied in Burma to the Chinese. Sir A. Phayre supposes it to be THrky
in which case its use probably began at this time.

t In the Narrative of Phayre's Mission, ch. ii.

% Dr. Anderson has here hastily assumed a discrepancy of sixty years between the chronology of the
Shan document and that of the Chinese Annals. But this is merely because he arbitrarily identifies
the Chinese invasion here recorded with that of Kublai in the preceding century. (See Andersons
Western Yunnan^ p. 8.) We see in the quotation above from Amyot that the Chinese Annals also
contain an obscure indication of the later invasion.

yoL. II, H

114 MARCO POLO Book II.

Burma for protection, but the Burmese surrendered the in and they were carried to
China. {Report 07i E. Frontier of Bengal, p. 112.)

I see no sufficient evidence as to whether Marco himself visited the " city of Mien."
I think it is quite clear that his account of the conquest is from the merest hearsay,
not to say gossip. Of the absurd story of the jugglers we find no suggestion in the
Chinese extracts. We learn from them that Ndsruddin had represented the conquest
of Mien as a very easy task, and Kublai may have in jest asked his gleemen if they
would undertake it. The haziness of Polo's account of the conquest contrasts strongly
with his graphic description of the rout of the elephants at Vochan. Of the latter he
heard the particulars on the spot (I conceive) shortly after the event ; whilst the
conquest took place some years later than his mission to that frontier. Ilis descrip-
tion of the gold arid silver pagodas with their canopies of tinkling bells (the Burmese
Hti), certainly looks like a sketch from the life ;* and it is quite possible that some
negotiations between 1277 and 1281 may have given him the opportunity of visiting
Burma, though he may not have reached the capital. Indeed he would in that case
surely have given a distincter account of so important a city, the aspect of which in
its glory we have attempted to realize in the plate of " the city of Mien."

It is worthy of note that the unfortunate King then reigning in Pagan, had in
1274 finished a magnificent Pagoda called Mengala-dzedi [Mangala Chatty a) respecting
which ominous prophecies had been diffused. In this pagoda were deposited, besides
holy relics, golden images of the Disciples of Buddha, golden models of the holy
places, golden images of the King's fifty-one predecessors in Pagan, and of the King and
his Family. It is easy to suspect a connection of this with Marco's story. "It is
possible that the King's ashes may have been intended to be buried near those relics,
though such is not now the custom ; and Marco appears to have confounded the
custom of depositing relics of Buddha and ancient holy men in pagodas with the
supposed c\is,tovci of the burial of the dead. Still, even now, monuments are occasion-
ally erected over the dead in Burma, although the practice is considered a vain folly.
I have known a miniature pagoda with a hti complete, erected over the ashes of a
favourite disciple by a P'hungyi or Buddhist monk." The latter practice is common
in China. {Notes by Sir A. Phayre ; J. A. S. B. IV. u. s., also V. 164, VI. 251 ;
Mason's Burmah, 2nd ed. p. 26 ; Milne's Life in China, pp. 288, 450. )

Note 3. — The Gaur — Bos Gaurus, ox B. {Bibos) Cavifrons of Hodgson — exists in
certain forests of the Burmese territory ; and, in the south at least, a wild ox nearer
the domestic species. Bos Sondaicus. Mr. Gouger, in his book The Prisoner in Burma,
describes the rare spectacle which he once enjoyed in the Tenasserim forests of a herd
of wild cows at graze. He speaks of them as small and elegant, without hump, and
of a light reddish dun colour (pp. 326-327).

CHAPTER LV.

Concerning the Province of Bangala.

Bangala Is a Province towards the south, which up to
the year 1290, when the aforesaid Messer Marco Polo

* Compare the old Chinese Pilgrims Hwui Seng and Seng Yun, in their admiration of a vast
pagoda erected by the great King Kanishka in Gandhara (at Peshawur in fact): "At sunrise the
gilded disks of the vane are lit up with dazzling glory, whilst the gentle breeze of morning causes the
precious bells to tinkle with a pleasing sound." {Beat, p. zoij.,)

Chap. LV. THE PROVINCE OF BANGALA

115

was still at the Court of the Great Kaan, had not yet
been conquered ; but his armies had gone thitherto make
the conquest. You must know that this province has
a peculiar language, and that the people are wretched
Idolaters. They are tolerably close to India. There
are numbers of eunuchs there, insomuch that all the
Barons who keep them get them from that Province.-^

The people have oxen as tall as elephants, but not so
big.^ They live on flesh and milk and rice. They
grow cotton, in which they drive a great trade, and also
spices such as spikenard, galingale, ginger, sugar, and
many other sorts. And the people of India also come
thither in search of the eunuchs that I mentioned, and
of slaves, male and female, of which there are great
numbers, taken from other provinces with which those of
the country are at war ; and these eunuchs and slaves are
sold to the Indian and other merchants who carry them
thence for sale about the world.

There is nothing more to mention about this country,
so we will quit it, and I will tell you of another province
called Caugigu.

Note I. — I do not think it probable that Marco even touched at any port of
Bengal on that mission to the Indian Seas of which we hear in the prologue ; but he
certainly never reached it from the Yun-nan side, and he had, as we shall presently
see [in/ray ch. lix. note 6), a wrong notion as to its position. Indeed, if he had
visited it at all, he would have been aware that it was essentially a part of India,
whilst in fact he evidently regarded it as an Indo-Chinese region, like Zardandan,
Mien, and Caugigu.

There is no notice, I believe, in any history, Indian or Chinese, of an attempt by
Kublai to conquer Bengal. The only such attempt by the Mongols that we hear of
is one mentioned by Firishta, as made by way of Cathay and Tibet, during the reign
of Alauddin Masa'iid, king of Delhi, in 1244, and stated to have been defeated by
the local officers in Bengal. But Mr. Edward Thomas tells me he has most distinctly
ascertained that this statement, which has misled every historian "from Badauni and
Firishtah to Briggs and Elphinstone, is founded purely on an erroneous reading"
(and see a note in Mr. Thomas's Pathan Kings of Dehli, p. 121).

The date 1290 in the text would fix the period of Polo's final departure from
Peking, if the dates were not so generally corrupt.

The subject of the last part of this paragraph, recurred to in the next, has been
misunderstood and corrupted in Pauthier's text, and partially in Ramusio's. These
make the escuillis or escoilliez (vide Ducange in v. Escodahts, and Raynouard^ Lex.
Rom. VI. 11) into scholars and what not. But on comparison of the passages in

VOL. II. H 2

Il6 MARCO POLO Book II.

those two editions with the Geographic Text one cannot doubt the correct reading.
As to the fact that Bengal had an evil notoriety for this traffic, especially the
province of Silhet, see the Ayeen Akbery^ II. 9-1 1, Barbosa's chapter on Bengal, and
Be Ban-OS {Kamusio I. 316 and 391).

On the cheapness of slaves in Bengal, see Ibn Batuta^ IV. 211-212. He says
people from Persia used to call Bengal Duzakh pur-i n^amat, "a hell crammed with
good things," an appellation perhaps provoked by the official style often applied to it
oi Jannat-nl-baldd or ** Paradise of countries."

Professor H. Blochmann, who is, in admirable essays, redeeming the long neglect
of the history and archaeology of Bengal Proper by our own countrymen, says that
one of the earliest passages, in which the name Bangdlah occurs, is in a poem of
Hafiz, sent from Shiraz to Sultan Ghiassuddfn, who reigned in Bengal from 1367 to
1373. Its occurrence in our text, however, shows that the name was in use among
the Mahomedan foreigners (from whom Polo derived his nomenclature) nearly a
century earlier. And in fact it occurs (though corruptly in some MSS.) in the
history of Rashiduddin, our author's contemporary. (See Elliot, I. p. 72.)

Note 2. — "Big as elephants" is only a fa^on de parler, but Marsden quotes
modern exaggerations as to the height of the Arna or wild buffalo, more specific and
extravagant. The unimpeachable authority of Mr. Hodgson tells us that the Arna
in the Nepal Tarai sometimes does reach a height of 6 ft. 6 in. at the shoulder,
with a length of 10 ft. 6 in. (excluding tail), and horns of 6 ft. 6 in. {J. A. S. B.,
XVI. 710.) Marco, however, seems to be speaking oi domestic cattle. Some of the
breeds of Upper India are very tall and noble animals, far surpassing in height any
European oxen known to me ; but in modern times these are rarely seen in Bengal,
where the cattle are poor and stunted. The A^n Akbari, however, speaks of
Sharffabad in Bengal, which appears to have corresponded to modern Bardwan, as
producing very beautiful white oxen, of great size, and capable of carrying a load of
15 mansy which at Prinsep's estimate of Akbar's man would be about 600 lbs.

CHAPTER LVI.

Discourses of the Province of Caugigu.

Caugigu is a province towards the east, which has a
king.-^ The people are Idolaters, and have a language
of their own. They have made their submission to the
Great Kaan, and send him tribute every year. And
let me tell you their king is so given to luxury that he
hath at the least 300 wives ; for whenever he hears of
any beautiful woman in the land, he takes and marries
her.

They find in this country a good deal of gold, and
they also have great abundance of spices. But they

Chap. LVI.

THE PROVINCE OF CAUGIGU

117

are such a long way from the sea that the products are
of little value, and thus their price is low. They have
elephants in great numbers, and other cattle of sundry
kinds, and plenty of game. They live on flesh and
milk and rice, and have wine made of rice and good
spices. The whole of the people, or nearly so, have
their skin marked with the needle in patterns represent-
ing lions, dragons, birds, and what not, done in such a
way that it can never be obliterated. This work they
cause to be wrought over face and neck and chest, arms
and hands, and belly, and, in short, the whole body ; and
they look on it as a token of elegance, so that those who
have the largest amount of this embroidery are regarded
with the greatest admiration.

Note i. — No province mentioned by Marco has given rise to wider and wildei
conjectures than this, Cangigu as it has been generally printed.

M. Pauthier, who sees in it Laos, or rather one of the states of Laos called in the
Chinese histories Papesifu, seems to have formed the most probable opinion hitherto
propounded by any editor of Polo. I have no doubt that Laos or some part of
that region is meant to be described, and that Pauthier is right regarding the general
direction of the course here taken as being through the regions east of Burma, in a
north-easterly direction up into Kwei-chau, But we shall be able to review the
geography of this tract better, as a whole, at a point more advanced. I shall then
speak of the name Caugigu, and why I prefer this reading of it.

I do not believe, for reasons which will also appear further on, that Polo is now
following a route which he had traced in person, unless it be in the latter
part of it.

M. Pauthier, from certain indications in a Chinese work, fixes on Chiangmai or
Kiang-mai, the Zimme of the Burmese (in about latitude 18° 48' and long. 99° 30')
as the capital of the Papesifu and of the Caugigu of our text. It can scarcely
however be the latter, unless we throw over entirely all the intervals stated in
Polo's itinerary ; and M. Gamier informs me that he has evidence that the capital
of the Papesifu at this time was Muang- Yong, a little to the south-east of Kiang-Tung,
where he has seen its ruins.* That the people called by the Chinese Papesifu were of
the great race of Laotians, Shans, or Thai, is very certain, from the vocabulary of
their language published by Klaproth.

Pauthier's Chinese authority gives a puerile interpretation of Papesifu as signifying
"the kingdom of the 800 wives," and says it was called so because the Prince
maintained that establishment. This may be an indication that there were popular

* Indeed documents in Klaproth 's Asia Polyglotta show that the Papi state was also called
Muang-Yong (pp. 364-365). I observe that the river running to the east of Pu-eul and Ssemao (Puer
and Esmok) is called /"^/zVwKiang, the name of which is perhaps a memorial of the Pap6.

[The old Laocian kingdom oi Xieng-mai [Kiang-mai], called Muong-Yong by the Pa-y, was in-
habited by the Pa-pe Si-fu or Bat-bS T'uc-phu ; the inhabitants called themselves Thai niai or
great Thai. {Deveria, Frontiere, p. 100.) Ch. ix. of the Chinese work Sze-i-kwan-kao is devoted
to Xieng-mai Pa-pe), which includes the subdivisions of Laos, Xieng Hung [Kiang Hung] and
Muong-Ken. (^Deveria, Mel. de Harlez, p. 97.)— H. C]

o ex.

Q
OfD

IP
s

O
0:2

05
:3

V3t 1^

5
5

On)
8

Q
"Pi

:3
o

Chap. LVII. THE PROVINCE OF ANIN II9

stories about the numerous wives of the King of Laos, such as Polo had heard ; but
the interpretation is doubtless rubbish, like most of the so-called etymologies of
proper names applied by the Chinese to foreign regions. At best these seem to be
merely a kind of Memoria Tec/mica, and often probably bear no more relation to the
name in its real meaning than Swift's All-eggs-under-the-grate bears to Alexander
Magnus. How such "etymologies" arise is obvious from the nature of the Chinese
system of writing. If we also had to express proper names by combining mono-
syllabic words already existing in English, we should in fact be obliged to write the
name of the Macedonian hero much as Swift travestied it. As an example we may
give the Chinese name of Java, -JCwawa, which signifies "gourd-sound," and was
given to that Island, we are told, because the voice of its inhabitants is very like that
of a dry gourd rolled upon the ground ! It is usually stated that Tungking was
called Kiao-chi, meaning " crossed-toes," because the people often exhibit that mal-
formation (which is a fact), but we may be certain that the syllables were originally
a phonetic representation of an indigenous name which has no such meaning. As
another example, less ridiculous but not more true. Chin-tan, representing the Indian
name of China, Chinasthdna, is explained to mean " Eastern - Dawn " {Aurore
Orientale). {Atnyot, XIV. loi ; Klapr. AT^m. III. 268.)

The states of Laos are shut out from the sea in the manner indicated ; they
abound in domestic elephants to an extraordinary extent ; and the people do tattoo
themselves in various degrees, most of all (as M. Gamier tells me) about Kiang
Hung. The style of tattooing which the text describes is quite that of the Burmese,
in speaking of whom Polo has omitted to mention the custom : " Every male Burman
is tattooed in his boyhood from the middle to his knees ; in fact he has a pair of
breeches tattooed on him. The pattern is a fanciful medley of animals and arab-
esques, but it is scarcely distinguishable, save as a general tint, except on a fair
skin." {Mission to Ava, 151.)

CHAPTER LVII.

Concerning the Province of Anin.

Anin is a Province towards the east, the people of which
are subject to the Great Kaan, and are Idolaters. They
live by cattle and tillage, and have a peculiar language.
The women wear on the legs and arms bracelets of gold
and silver of great value, and the men wear such as are
even yet more costly. They have plenty of horses
which they sell in great numbers to the Indians, making
a great profit thereby. And they have also vast herds
of buffaloes and oxen, having excellent pastures for these.
They have likewise all the necessaries of life in abun-
dance.^

I20 MARCO POLO Book II.

Now you must know that between Anin and Caugigu,
which we have left behind us, there is a distance of [25]
days' journey ; ^ and from Caugigu to Bangala, the third
province in our rear, is 30 days' journey. We shall now
leave Anin and proceed to another province which is
some 8 days' journey further, always going eastward.

Note i. — Ramusio, the printed text of the Soc. de Geographic, and most editions
have Amu ; Pauthier reads Aniti, and considers the name to represent Tungking or
Annam, called also Nan-ytiL The latter word he supposes to be converted into
Aiiyue, Aniu. And accordingly he carries the traveller to the capital of Tungking.

Leaving the name for the present, according to the scheme of the route as I shall
try to explain it below, I should seek for Amu or Aniu or Anin in the extreme south-
east of Yun-nan. A part of this region was for the first time traversed by the officers
of the French expedition up the Mekong, who in 1867 visited Sheu-ping, Lin-ngan
and the upper valley of the River of Tungking on their way to Yun-nan-fu. To my
question whether the description in the text, of Aniu or Anin and its fine pastures,
applied to the tract just indicated, Lieut. Garnier replied on the whole favourably
(see further on), proceeding: "The population about Sheu-ping is excessively mixt.
On market days at that town one sees a gathering of wild people in great number
and variety, and whose costumes are highly picturesque, as well as often very rich.
There are the Pa-is, who are also found again higher up, the Ho-nhi, the Khato, the
Lopi, the Shentsetc. These tribes appear to be allied in part to the Laotians, in part

to the Kakhyens The wilder races about Sheuping are remarkably handsome,

and you see there types of women exhibiting an extraordinary regularity of feature,
and at the same time a complexion surprisingly white. The Chinese look quite an
inferior race beside them I may add that all these tribes, especially the Ho-
nhi and the Pa-i', wear large amounts of silver ornament ; great collars of silver round
the neck, as well as on the legs and arms."

Though the whiteness of the people of Anin is not noticed by Polo, the distinctive
manner in which he speaks in the next chapter of the dark complexion of the tribes
described therein seems to indicate the probable omission of the opposite trait
here.

The prominent position assigned in M. Garnier's remarks to a race called Ho-nhi
first suggested to me that the reading of the text might be Anin instead of Aniu.
And as a matter of fact this seems to my eyes to be clearly the reading of the Paris
Livi-e des Merveilles (Pauthier's MS. B), while the Paris No. 5631 (Pauthier's A) has
Auin, and what may be either Aniu or Anin. Anyn is also found in the Latin
Brandenburg MS. of Pipino's version collated by Andrew Miiller, to which, however,
we cannot ascribe much weight. But the two words are so nearly identical in
mediaeval writing, and so little likely to be discriminated by scribes who had nothing
to guide their discrimination, that one need not hesitate to adopt that which is
supported by argument. In reference to the suggested identity of Aniti and Ho-nhi,
M. Garnier writes again : "All that Polo has said regarding the country of Aniu,
though not containing anything very characteristic, may apply perfectly to the
different indigenous tribes, at present subject to the Chinese, which are dispersed
over the country from Talan to Sheuping and Lin-ngan. These tribes bearing
the names (given above) relate that they in other days formed an independent state,
to which they give the name of Muang Shung. Where this Muang was situated
there is no knowing. These tribes have langage par euls, as Marco Polo says, and
silver ornaments are worn by them to this day in extraordinary profusion ; more,
however, by the women than the men. They have plenty of horses, buffaloes and

I s

122 MARCO POLO Book II.

oxen, and of sheep as well. It was the first locality in which the laiiter were seen.
The plateau of Lin-ngan affords pasture-grounds which are exceptionally good for
that part of the world.

" Beyond Lin-ngan we find the Ho-nhi, properly so called, no longer. But ought
one to ky much stress on mere names which have undergone so many changes, and
of which so many have been borne in succession by all those places and peoples ? . . .
I will content myself with reminding you that the town of Homi-cheu near Lin-ngan
in the days of the Yuen bore the name o{ Ngo-ning.''''

Notwithstanding M. Garnier's caution, I am strongly inclined to believe that
Anin represents either Ho-nhi or Ngo-mng, if indeed these names be not identical.
For on reference to Biot I see that the first syllable of the modern name of the town
which M. Gamier writes How/, is expressed by the same character as the first
syllable of NGOnmg.

[The Wo-nhi are also called Ngo-ni, Kan-ni, Ho-ni, Lou-mi, No-pi, Ko-ni and
Wa-heh ; they descend from the southern barbarians called Ho-nhi. At the time of
the kingdom of Nan-Chao, the Ho-nhi, called In-yuen, tribes were a dependence of the
Kiang (Xieng) of Wei-yuen (Prefecture of P'u-erh). They are now to be found in the
Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, King-tung, Chen-yuen, Yuen-kiang and Yun-nan.
(See Dev^ria, p. 135.)— H. C.]

We give one of M. Garnier's woodcuts representing some of the races in this
vicinity. Their dress, as he notices, has, in some cases, a curious resemblance
to costumes of Switzerland, or of Brittany, popular at fancy balls.* Coloured figures
of some of these races will be found in the Atlas to Garnier's work ; see especially
Plate 35.

Note 2. — All the French MSS. and other texts except Ramusio's read 15. We
adopt Ramusio's reading, 25, for reasons which will appear below.

CHAPTER LVIII.

Concerning the Province of Coloman.

CoLOMAN is a province towards the east, the people of
which are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and
are subject to the Great Kaan. They are a [tall and]
very handsome people, though in complexion brown
rather than white, and are good soldiers.^ They have
a good many towns, and a vast number of villages, among
great mountains, and in strong positions,^

When any of them die, the bodies are burnt, and then
they take the bones and put them in little chests.

* There is a little uncertainty in the adjustment of names and figures of some of these tribes,
between the illustrations and the incidental notices in Lieutenant Garnier's work. But all the figures
in the present cut certainly belong to the tract to which we point as Anin ; and the two middle figures
answer best to what is said of the Ho-nhi.

Chap. LVIII. THE PROVINCE OF COLOMAN 1 23

These are carried high up the mountains, and placed in
great caverns, where they are hung up in such wise that
neither man nor beast can come at them.

A good deal of gold is found in the country, and for
petty traffic they use porcelain shells such as I have told
you of before. All these provinces that I have been
speaking of, to wit Bangala and Caugigu and Anin,
employ for currency porcelain shells and gold. There
are merchants in this country who are very rich and
dispose of large quantities of goods. The people live
on flesh and rice and milk, and brew their wine from rice
and excellent spices.

Note i. — The only MSS. that afford the reading Coloman or Cholo?nan instead of
Toloman or Tholoman, are the Bern MS., which has Coloman in the initial word of
the chapter, Paris MS. 5649 (Pauthier's C) which has Coloman in the Table of Chapters,
but not in the text, the Bodleian, and the Brandenburg MS. quoted in the last note.
These variations in themselves have little weight. But the confusion between c and t
in mediaeval MSB., when dealing with strange names, is so constant that I have
ventured to make the correction, in strong conviction that it is the right reading. M.
Pauthier indeed, after speaking of tribes called Lo on the south-west of China, adds,
"on les nommait To-lo-man (' les nombreux Barbares Lo')." Were this latter
statement founded on actual evidence we might retain that form which is the usual
reading. But I apprehend from the manner in which M. Pauthier produces it, without
corroborative quotation, that he is rather hazarding a conjecture than speaking with
authority. Be that as it may, it is impossible that Polo's Toloman or Coloman should
have been in the south of Kwangsi, where Pauthier locates it.

On the other hand, we find tribes of both Kolo and Kihlau Barbarians {i.e. Many
whence Kolo-man or Kihlau-mdn) very numerous on the frontier of Kweichau. (See
Bridgman^ s transl. of Tract on Meautsze, pp. 265, 269, 270, 272, 273, 274, 275, 278,
279, 280.) Among these the Kolo, described as No. 38 in that Tract, appear to me
from various particulars to be the most probable representatives of the Coloman of
Polo, notwithstanding the sentence with which the description opens : *' IColo originally
called Ltihih ; the modern designation Kolo is incorrect."* They are at present found
in the prefecture of Tating (one of the departments of Kweichau towards the Yun-nan
side). *' They are tall, of a dark complexion, with sunken' eyes, aquiline nose, wear
long whiskers, and have the beard shaved off above the mouth. They pay great
deference to demons, and on that account are sometimes called ' Dragons of Lo.' . . .
At the present time these Kolo are divided into 48 clans, the elders of which are called
Chieftains (lit. ' Head-and-Eyes ') and are of nine grades. . . . The men bind their
hair into a tuft with blue cloth and make it fast on the forehead like a horn. Their
upper dresses are short, with large sleeves, and their lower garments are fine blue.
When one of the chieftains dies, all that were under him are assembled together clad
in armour and on horseback. Having dressed his corpse in silk and woollen robes,
they burn it in the open country ; then, invoking the departed spirit, they inter the

* On the other hand, M. Gamier writes : " I do not know any name at all like Kolo, except Lolo,
the generic name given by the Chinese to the wild tribes of Yun-nan." Does not this look as ii Kolo
were really the old name, Luluh or Lolo the later 7

1 24 MARCO POLO Book II.

ashes. Their attachment to him as their sole master is such that nothing can drive or
tempt them from their allegiance. Their large bows, long spears, and sharp swords,
are strong and well-wrought. They train excellent horses, love archery and hunting ;
and so expert are they in tactics that their soldiers rank as the best among all the un-
civilized tribes . There is this proverb: 'The Lo Dragons of Shwui-si rap the head
and strike the tail,' which is intended to indicate their celerity in defence."
[B^-idgman, pp. 272-273.)

'fhe character Lo, here applied in the Chinese Tract to these people, is the same
as that in tlie name of the Kwangsi Lo of M. Pauthier.

I append a cut (opposite page) from the drawing representing these Kolo-man in
the original work from which Bridgman translated, and which is in the possession of
Dr. Lockhart.

[I believe we must read To-lo-man. Man, barbarian, T\i-lao or Shan-tzU
(mountaineers) who live in the Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, Cheng-kiang, etc.
T'u-la-Man or T'u-la barbarians of the Mongol Annals. ( Yuen-shi lei-pien, quoted
by Deveria, p. 115.) — H. C]

Note 2. — Magaillans, speaking of the semi-independent tribes of Kwei-chau and
Kwang-si, says : " Their towns are usually so girt by high mountains and scarped rocks
that it seems as if nature had taken a pleasure in fortifying them" (p. 43). (See cut
at p. 131.)

CHAPTER LIX.

Concerning the Province of Cuiju.

Cuiju is a province towards the East.-^ After leaving
Coloman you travel along a river for 12 days, meeting
with a good number of towns and villages, but nothing
worthy of particular mention. After you have travelled
those twelve days along the river you come to a great
and noble city which is called Fungul.

The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great
Kaan, and live by trade and handicrafts. You must
know they manufacture stuffs of the bark of certain trees
which form very fine summer clothing.^ They are good
soldiers, and have [)aper-money. For you must under-
stand that henceforward we are in the countries where
the Great Kaan's paper-money is current.

The country swarms with lions to that degree that
no man can venture to sleep outside his house at night.^

/a 4'

The Koloman, after a Chinese drawing.

Colomitrt f0t mn pxobtnct btxs h\)Ant .... EI sunt mtilt bclhs jcns zt we
sunt intc bim b lances mcs tivun^. 11 sxint hxtn homes ii'arnus . . ."'

126 MARCO POLO Book II.

Moreover, when you travel on that river, and come to a
halt at night, unless you keep a good way from the bank
the lions will spring on the boat and snatch one of the
crew and make off with him and devour him. And but
for a certain help that the inhabitants enjoy, no one could
venture to travel in that province, because of the multitude
of those lions, and because of their strength and ferocity.

But you see they have in this province a large breed
of dogs, so fierce and bold that two of them together will
attack a lion.^ So every man who goes a journey takes
with him a couple of those dogs, and when a lion appears
they have at him with the greatest boldness, and the
lion turns on them, but can't touch them for they are very
deft at eschewing his blows. So they follow him, per-
petually giving tongue, and watching their chance to give
him a bite in the rump or in the thigh, or wherever they
may. The lion makes no reprisal except now and then
to turn fiercely on them, and then indeed were he to
catch the dogs it would be all over with them, but they
take good care that he shall not. So, to escape the
dogs' din, the lion makes off, and gets into the wood,
where mayhap he stands at bay against a tree to have
his rear protected from their annoyance. And when
the travellers see the lion in this plight they take to their
bows, for they are capital archers, and shoot their arrows
at him till he falls dead. And 'tis thus that travellers
in those parts do deliver themselves from those lions.

They have a good deal of silk and other products
which are carried up and down, by the river of which we
spoke, into various quarters.^

You travel along the river for twelve days more, find-
ing a good many towns all along, and the people always
Idolaters, and subject to the Great Kaan, with paper-
money current, and living by trade and handicrafts.
There are also plenty of fighting men. And after

Chap. LIX. THE PROVINCE OF CUIJU 1 27

travelling those twelve days you arrive at the city of
Sindafu of which we spoke in this book some time ago.®

From Sindafu you set out again and travel some 70
days through the provinces and cities and towns which
we have already visited, and all which have been already
particularly spoken of in our Book. At the end of those
70 days you come to Juju where we were before.''

From Juju you set out again and travel four days
towards the south, finding many towns and villages.
The people are great traders and craftsmen, are all
Idolaters, and use the paper-money of the Great Kaan
their Sovereign. At the end of those four days you
come to the city of Cacanfu belonging to the province of
Cathay, and of it I shall now speak.

Note i. — In spite of difficulties which beset the subject (see Note 6 below) the
view of Pauthier, suggested doubtingly by Marsden, that the Cuiju of the text is
KwEi-CHAU, seems the most probable one. As the latter observes, the reappearance
of paper money shows that we have got back into a province of China Proper. Such,
Yunnan, recently conquered from a Shan prince, could not be considered. But,
according to the best view we can form, the traveller could only have passed through
the extreme west of the province of Kwei-chau.

The name of Fungul, if that be a true reading, is suggestive of Fhungan, which
under the Mongols was the head of a district called Phungan-LU. It was founded
by that dynasty, and was regarded as an important position for the command of the
three provinces Kwei-chau, Kwang-si, and Yun-nan. {Biot, p. 168 ; Martini, p. 137.)
But we shall explain presently the serious difficulties that beset the interpretation of
the itinerary as it stands.

Note 2. — Several Chinese plants afford a fibre from the bark, and some of these
are manufactured into what we call grass-cloths. The light smooth textures so called
are termed by the Chinese Hiapti or "summer cloths." Kwei-chau produces such.
But perhaps that specially intended is a species of hemp ( Urtica Nivea ?) of which
M, Perny of the R. C. Missions says, in his notes on Kwei-chau : " It affords a
texture which may be compared to batiste. This has the notable property of keeping
so cool that many people cannot wear it even in the hot weather. Generally it is
used only for summer clothing." {Diet, des Tissus, VII. 404 ; Chiit. Eepos.
XVIII. 217 and 529 ; Ann. de la Prop, de la Foi, XXXI. 137.)

Note 3. — Tigers of course are meant. (See supra, vol. i. p. 399.) M. Perny
speaks of tigers in the mountainous parts of Kwei-chau. {Op. cit. 139.)

Note 4. — These great dogs were noticed by Lieutenant (now General) Macleod,
in his journey to Kiang Hung on the great River Mekong, as accompanying the
caravans of Chinese traders on their way to the Siamese territory. (See Macleod i
Toiirnal, p. 66.)

128 MARCO POLO Book II.

Note 5. — The trade in wild silk {i.e. from the oak-leaf silkworm) is in truth an
important branch of commerce in Kwei-chau. But the chief seat of this is at Tsuni-fu,
and I do not think that Polo's route can be sought so far to the eastward. [Ann. de la
Prop. XXXI. 136; Richthofen, Letter VII. 81.)

Note 6. — We have now got back to Sindafu, i.e. Ch'eng-tu fu in Sze-9h'wan, and
are better able to review the geography of the track we have been following. I do
not find it possible to solve all its difficulties.

The different provinces treated of in the chapters from Iv. to lix. are strung by
Marco upon an easterly, or, as we must interpret, 7torth-easterly line of travel, real or
hypothetical. Their names and intervals are as follows: (i) Bangala ; whence 30
marches to (2) Caugigu ; 25 marches to {3) Anin ; 8 marches to (4) Toloman or
Coloman ; 12 days in Cuiju along a river to the city of (5) Fungul, Sinugul (or what
not); 12 days further, on or along the same river, to (6) Ch'eng-tu. fu. Total from
Bangala to Ch'eng-tu fu 87 days.

I have said that the line of travel is real or hypothetical, for no doubt a large part
of it was only founded on hearsay. We last left our traveller at Mien, or on the
frontier of Yun-nan and Mien. Bangala is reached per salttim with no indication of
interval, and its position is entirely misapprehended. Marco conceives of it, not as
in India, but as being, like Mien, a province on the confines of India, as being under
the same king as Mien, as lying to the south of that kingdom, and as being at the (south)
western extremity of a great traverse line which runs (north) east into Kwei-chau and
Sze-ch'wan. All these conditions point consistently to one locality ; that, however, is
not Bengal but Pegu. On the other hand, the circumstances of manners and products,
so far as they go, do belong to Bengal. I conceive that Polo's information regarding
these was derived from persons who had really visited Bengal by sea, but that he had
confounded what he so heard of the Delta of the Ganges with what he heard on the
Yun-nan frontier of the Delta of the Irawadi. It is just the same kind of error that
is made about those great Eastern Rivers by Fra Mauro in his Map. And possibly
the name of Pegu (in Burmese Bagoh) may have contributed to his error, as well as
the probable fact that the Kings of Burma did at this time claim to be Kings of
Bengal, whilst they actually were Kings of Pegu.

Caugigu. — We have seen reason to agree with M. Pauthier that the description
of this region points to Laos, though we cannot with him assign it to Kiang-mai.
Even if it be identical with the Papesifu of the Chinese, we have seen that the centre
of that state may be placed at Muang Yong not far from the Mekong ; whilst I
believe that the limits of Caugigu must be drawn much nearer the Chinese and
Tungking territory, so as to embrace Kiang Hung, and probably the Papien River.
(See note at p. 117.)

As regards the name, it is possible that it may represent some specific name of the
Upper Laos territory. But I am inclined to believe that we are dealing with a case
of erroneous geographical perspective like that of Bangala ; and that whilst the
circumstances belong to Upper Laos, the name, read as I read it, Caugigu (or Cavgigu),
is no other than the Kafchikue of Rashiduddin, the name applied by him to Tungking,
and representing the Kiaochi-kwe of the Chinese. D'Anville's Atlas brings Kiaochi
up to the Mekong in immediate contact with Che-li or Kiang Hung. I had come to
the conclusion that Caugigu was probably the correct reading before I was aware that
it is an actual reading of the Geog. Text more than once, of Pauthier's A more than
once, of Pauthier's C at least once and possibly twice, and of the Bern MS. ; all
which I have ascertained from personal examination of those manuscripts. *

Anin or Aniu. — I have already pointed out that I seek this in the territory about
Lin-ngan and Homi. In relation to this M. Garnier writes: "In starting from
Muang Yong, or even if you prefer it, from Xieng Hung (Kiang Hung of our
maps), ... it would be physically impossible in 25 days to get beyond the arc

* A passing suggestion of the identity of Kafchi Ku6 and Caugigu is made by D'Ohsson, and I
formerly objected. (See Cathay, p. 272,)

Chap. LIX. REVIEW OF POLO'S TRACK

129

which I have laid down on your map (viz. extending a few miles north-east of Homi),
There are scarcely any roads in those mountains, and easy lines of communication
begin only after you have got to the Lin-ngan territory. In Marco Polo's days things
were certainly not better, but the reverse. All that has been done of consequence in
the way of roads, posts, and organisation in the part of Yun-nan between Lin-ngan
and Xieng Hung, dates in some degree from the Yuen, but in a far greater degree
from K'ang-hi." Hence, even with the Ramusian reading of the itinerary, we cannot
place Aniii much beyond the position indicated already.

rncf

<7cr .

^0 .

-Cr .

Ko-.

7h2 .

•Ho

J). J) y) c. ^

f>o- . ^o . n>^ . n>t> f>a- KJ^,

gp 'I c/:> ^^ ^ q

Script t/ia'i of Xieng-hung.

KoloTuan. — We have seen that the position of this region is probably near the
western frontier of Kwei-chau. Adhering to Homi as the representative of Anin, and
to the 8 days' journey of the text, the most probable position of Koloman would
be about Lo-pitig, which lies about 100 English miles in a straight line north-east fr.om
Homi. The first character of the name here is again the same as the Lo of the
Kolo tribes.

Beyond this point the difficulties of devising an interpretation, consistent at once
with facts and with the text as it stands, become insuperable.

The narrative demands that from Koloman we should reach Fungul, a great and
noble city, by travelling 12 days along a river, and that Fungul should be within
twelve days' journey of Ch'eng-tu fu, along the same river, or at least along rivers
connected with it.

In advancing from the south-west guided by the data afforded by the texts, we have
not been a.ble to carry the position of Fungul {Simigul^ or what not of G. T. and
other MSS.) further north than Phungan. But it is impossible that Ch'eng-tu fu
should have been reached in 12 days from this point. Nor is it possible that a new
post in a secluded position, like Phungan, could have merited to be described as
" a great and noble city."

Baron v. Richthofen has favoured me with a note in which he shows that in
reality the only place answering the more essential conditions of Fungul is Siu-chau fu
at the union of the two great branches of the Yang-tzu, viz, the Kin-sha Kiang, and
VOL. IL I

I30

MARCO POLO

Book II.

the Min-Kiang from Ch'cng-tu fu. (i) The distance from Siu-chau to Ch'eng-tu by
land travelling is just about 12 days, and the road is along a river. (2) In approach-
ing *' Fungul" from the south Polo met with a good many towns and villages. This
would be the case along either of the navigable rivers that join the Yang-tzii below
Siu-chau (or along that which joins above Siu-chau, mentioned further on). (3) The
large trade in silk up and down the river is a characteristic that could only apply to
the Yang-tzii.

These reasons are very strong ; though some little doubt must subsist until we
can explain the name (Fungul, or Sinugul) as applicable to Siu-chau.* And assuming
Siu-chau to be the city we must needs carry the position of Coloman considerably
further north than Lo-ping, and must presume the interval between Aiiin and Coloman
to be greatly understated, through clerical or other error. With these assumptions
we should place Polo's Coloman in the vicinity of Wei-ning, one of the localities of
Kolo tribes.

From a position near Wei-ning it would be quite possible to reach Siu-chau in 12
days, making use of the facilities afforded by one or other of the partially navigable
rivers to which allusion has just been made.

"That one," says M. Gamier in a letter, "which enters the Kiang a little above
Siu-chau-fu, the
River of Lowa-
tong, which was
descended by
our party, has a
branch to the
eastward which
is navigable up
to about the lati-
tude of Chao-
tong. Is not
this probably
Marco Polo's
route? It is
to this day a
line much fre-
quented, and
one on which
great works have
been executed j
among others
two iron sus-
pension bridges,
works truly gi-
gantic for the
country in which
we find them."

An extract to • t. • , ^ .^ ^ . v

r ^, . Iron buspension Bridge at Lowatong. (From Garnier,)

from a Chmese ^ ^ '

Itinerary of this route, which M. Garnier has since communicated to me, shows that
at a point 4 days from Wei-ning the traveller may embark and continue his voyage
to any point on the great Kiang.

We are obliged, indeed, to give up the attempt to keep to a line of communicat-
ing rivers throughout the whole 24 days. Nor do I see how it is possible to adhere
to that condition literally without taking more material liberties with the text.

* Cuiju might be read 0'w;«— representing Siiichau, but the difficulty about Fungul would
remain.

f 3 o

. :^#-S^|^v ..^4^^;:;;^ Silver
^oU '^:-^:M:W^ Mines

^^- — ;s#^

mmM

^ Ml/

JProjne.
Tarjc>% Tnctxo

'^lahorl^

Rangoofi

^M^ori^_

Bus seal,

oMqulirkeifv

B. of Benga.1

or -^

T^u n -2 k i n
Hanoi

Muan^l xuuig Prabang

Viencharv

MARCO polo's itineraries

N?V.

Indo Chinese Regions

(BookH, Chap? 44-59)

Polo'sRoxiio ^------

Polo's names thus Yacfii
Miles

Lyuthii

an^ok

\_ToJace p. 131, z'tf/. ii.

Chap. LIX.

REVIEW OF POLO'S TRACK

131

My theory of Polo's actual journey would be that he returned from Yun-nan fu to
Ch'eng-tu fu through some part of the province of Kwei-chau, perhaps only its western
extremity, but that he spoke of Caugigu, and probably of Anin, as he did of Bangala,
from report only. And, in recapitulation, I would identify provisionally the
localities spoken of in this difficult itinerary as follows : Catigigu with Kiang Hung ;
Anin with Homi ; Colojuan with the country about Wei-ning in Western Kwei-chau ;
Fiuigul or Sinugul with Siu-chau.

[This itinerary is difficult, as Sir Henry Yule says. It takes Marco Polo 24 days
to go from Coloman or Toloman to Ch'eng-tu. The land route is 22 days from
Yun-nan fu to Swi-fu, via Tung-ch'wan and Chao-t'ung. (/. China B. R. A. S.
XXVIII. 74-75.) From the Toloman province, which I place about Lin-ngan and
Cheng-kiang, south of Yun-nan fu, Polo must have passed a second time through this
city, which is indeed at the end of all the routes of this part of South-Western China.
He might go back to Sze-ch'wan by the western route, via Tung-ch'M'an and Chao-
t'ung to Swi-fu, or, by the eastern, easier and shorter route by Siucn-wei chau,
crossing a corner of the Kwei-chau province (Wei-ning), and passing by Yun-ninghien
to the Kiang ; this is the route followed by Mr. A. Hosie in 1883 and by Mr. F. S.
A. Bourne in 1885, and with great likelihood by Marco Polo ; he may have taken
the Yun-ning River to the district city of Na-ch'i hien, which lies on the right bank
both of this river and of the Kiang ; the Kiang up to Swi-fu and thence to Ch'eng-tu.
I do not attempt to explain the difficulty about Fungul.

I fully agree with Sir H. Yule when he says that Polo spoke of Caugigu and of
Bangala, probably of Anin, from report only. However, I believe that Caugigu is
the Kiao-Chi kzv^ of the Chinese, that Kxi\n must be read Ani«, that Aniu is but a
transcription of Nan-yii^, that both Nan-yue and Kiao-Chi represent Northern
Annam, i.e. the portion of Annam which we call Tung-king. Regarding the tattooed
inhabitants of Caugigu, let it be remembered that tattooing existed in Annam till it
was prohibited by the Chinese during the occupation of Tung-king at the beginning
of the 15th century.— H. C]

Note 7. — Here the traveller gets back to the road-bifurcation near Juju, i.e.
Chochau {ante p. ii), and thence commences to travel southward.

Fortified Villages on Western frontier of Kweichau. (From Garnier.)

"Chaatmiis Qwi-xX xjrant xiuvintitc t\\ %x\\\\\\%\\\z^ montitgitcs rt fortrcs."
VOL. II, I 2

BOOK I I — Continued.

Part III. — JOURNEY SOUTHWARD
THROUGH EASTERN PROVINCES
OF CATHAY AND MANZI.

CHAPTER LX.

Concerning the Cities of Cacanfu and of Changlu.

Cacanfu Is a noble city. The people are Idolaters and
burn their dead ; they have paper-money, and live by
trade and handicrafts. For they have plenty of silk from
which they weave stuffs of silk and gold, and sendals in
large quantities. [There are also certain Christians at
this place, who have a church.] And the city is at the
head of an important territory containing numerous
towns and villages. [A great river passes through it,
on which much merchandise is carried to the city of
Cambaluc, for by many channels and canals it is con-
nected therewith.^]

We will now set forth again, and travel three days
towards the south, and then we come to a town called
Changlu. This is another great city belonging to the
Great Kaan, and to the province of Cathay. The people
have paper-money, and are Idolaters and burn their

Chap. LX. THE CITIES OF CACANFU AND CHANGLU 1 33

dead. And you must know they make salt in great
quantities at this place ; I will tell you how 'tis done.^

A kind of earth is found there which is exceedingly
salt. This they dig up and pile in great heaps. Upon
these heaps they pour water in quantities till it runs out
at the bottom ; and then they take up this water and boil
it well in great iron cauldrons, and as it cools it deposits
a fine white salt in very small grains. This salt they
then carry about for sale to many neighbouring districts,
and get great profit thereby.

There is nothing else worth mentioning, so let us go
forward five days' journey, and we shall come to a city
called Chinangli.

Note i. — In the greater part of the journey which occupies the remainder of Book
11. , Pauthier is a chief authority, owing to his industrious Chinese reading and citation.
Most of his identifications seem well founded, though sometimes we shall be con-
strained to dissent from them widely. A considerable number have been anticipated
by former editors, but even in such cases he is often able to bring forward new grounds.

Cacanfu is Ho-KIEN FU in Pe Chih-li, 52 miles in a direct line south by east of
Chochau. It was the head of one of the Lu or circuits into which the Mongols divided
China. {Pauthier.)

Note 2. — Marsden and Murray have identified Changlu with T'sang-CHAU in
Pe Chih-li, about 30 miles east by south of Ho-kien fu. This seems substantially right,
but Pauthier shows that there was an old town actually called Ch'anglu, separated
from T'sang-cnau only by the great canal. [Ch'ang-lu was the name of T'sang-chau
under the T'ang and the Kin. (See Playfair, Diet., p. 34.) — H. C]

The manner of obtaining salt, described in the text, is substantially the same as one
described by Duhalde, and by one of the missionaries, as being employed near the
mouth of the Yang-tzii kiang. There is a town of the third order some miles south-east
of T'sang-chau, called Yen-shan or "salt-hill," and, according to Pauthier, T'sang-chau
is the mart for salt produced there. {Duhalde in Astley, IV. 310 ; Lettres Edif. XI.
267 seqq. ; Biot. p. 283.)

Polo here introduces a remark about the practice of burning the dead, which, with
the notice of the idolatry of the people, and their use of paper-money, constitutes a
formula which he repeats all through the Chinese provinces with wearisome iteration.
It is, in fact, his definition of the Chinese people, for whom he seems to lack a
comprehensive name.

A great cliange seems to have come over Chinese custom, since the Middle Ages,
in regard to the disposal of the dead. Cremation is now entirely disused, except in
two cases ; one, that of the obsequies of a Buddhist priest, and the other that in which
the coffin instead of being buried has been exposed in the fields, and in the lapse of
time has become decayed. But it is impossible to reject the evidence that it was a
common practice in Polo's age. He repeats the assertion that it was the custom at
every stage of his journey through Eastern China ; though perhaps his taking
absolutely no notice of the practice of burial is an instance of that imperfect knowledge
of strictly Chinese peculiarities which has been elsewhere ascribed to him. It is the

'34

MARCO POLO Book II.

case, however, that the author of the Book of the Estate of the Great Kaan {circa 1330)
also speaks of cremation as the usual Chinese practice, and that Ibn Batuta says
positively: " The Chinese are infidels and idolaters, and they burn their dead after
the manner of the Hindus." This is all the more curious, because the Arab Relations
of the 9th century say distinctly that the Chinese bury their dead, though they often
kept the body long (as they do still) before burial ; and there is no mistaking the
description which Conti (15th century) gives of the Chinese mode of sepulture.
Mendoza, in the i6th century, alludes to no disposal of the dead except by burial, but
Semedo in the early part of the 17th says that bodies were occasionally burnt, especially
in Sze-ch'wan.

I am greatly indebted to the kindness of an eminent Chinese scholar, Mr. W. F.
Mayers, of Her Majesty's Legation at Peking, who, in a letter, dated Peking, i8th
September, 1874, sends me the following memorandum on the subject : —

" Colonel Yule's Marco Polo, \l. 97 [First Edition], Burning of the Dead.

*' On this subject compare the article entitled Huo Tsang, or ' Cremation Burials,'
in Bk. XV of \hejih Che Luh, or ' Daily Jottings,' a great collection of miscellaneous
notes on classical, historical, and antiquarian subjects, by Ku Yen-wu, a celebrated
author of the 17th century. The article is as follows : —

** ' The practice of burning the dead flourished (or flourishes) most extensively in
Kiang-nan, and was in vogue already in the period of the Sung Dynasty. According
to the history of the Sung Dynasty, in the •27th year of the reign Shao-hing (a.d. ii57)>
the practice was animadverted upon by a public official. ' Here follows a long extract,
in which the burning of the dead is reprehended, and it is stated that cemeteries were
set apart by Government on behalf of the poorer classes.

" In A.D. 1 26 1, Hwang Chen, governor of the district of Wu, in a memorial
praying that the erection of cremation furnaces might thenceforth be prohibited, dwelt
upon the impropriety of burning the remains of the deceased, for whose obsequies a
multitude of observances were prescribed by the religious rites. He further exposed
the fallacy of the excuse alleged for the practice, to wit, that burning the dead was a
fulfilment of the precepts of Buddha, and accused the priests of a certain monastery of
converting into a source of illicit gain the practice of cremation."

[As an illustration of the cremation of a Buddhist priest, I note the following
passage from an article published in \.h& North- China Herald, 20th May, 1887, p. 556,
on Kwei Hua Ch'eng, Mongolia : " Several Lamas are on visiting terms with me and
they are very friendly. There are seven large and eight small Lamaseries, in care of
from ten to two hundred Lamas. The principal Lamas at death are cremated. A
short time ago, a friendly Lama took me to see a cremation. The furnace was roughly
made of mud bricks, with four fire-holes at the base, with an opening in which to place
the body. The whole was about 6 feet high, and about 5 feet in circumference.
Greased fuel was arranged within and covered with glazed foreign calico, on which were
written some Tibetan characters. A tent was erected and mats arranged for the
Lamas. About 1 1. 30 A. M. a scarlet covered bier appeared in sight carried by thirty-two
beggars. A box 2 feet square and 2| feet high was taken out and placed near the
furnace. The Lamas arrived and attired themselves in gorgeous robes and sat cross-
legged. During the preparations to chant, some butter was being melted in a corner
of the tent. A screen of calico was drawn round the furnace in which the cremator
placed the body, and filled up the opening. Then a dozen Lamas began chanting the
burial litany in Tibetan in deep bass voices. Then the head priest blessed the torches
and when the fires were lit he blessed a fan to fan the flames, and lastly some melted
butter, which was poured in at the top to make the whole blaze. This was frequently
repeated. When fairly ablaze, a few pieces of Tibetan grass were thrown in at the
top. After three days the whole cooled, and a priest with one gold and one silver
chopstick collects the bones, which are placed in a bag for burial. If the bones are
white it is a sign that his sin is purged, if black that perfection has not been attained."
— H. C]

And it is very worthy of note that the Chinese envoy to Chinia (Kamboja) in 1295,

Chap. LXI. THE CITY OF CHINANGLI 1 35

an individual who may have personally known Marco Polo, in speaking of the custom
prevalent there of exposing the dead, adds : " There are some, however, who burn their
dead. These are all descendants of Chinese ifjimigrants.''^

[Professor J. J. M. de Groot remarks that " being of religious origin, cremation is
mostly denoted in China by clerical terms, expressive of the metamorphosis the funeral
pyre is intended to effect, viz. ' transformation of man ' ; ' transformation of the body' ;
'metamorphosis by fire.' Without the clerical sphere it bears no such high-sounding
names, being simply called 'incineration of corpses.' A term of illogical composition,
and nevertheless very common in the books, is ' fire burial.' " It appears that during the
Sung Dynasty cremation was especially common in the provinces of Shan-si, Cheh-kiang,
and Kiang-su. During the Mongol Dynasty, the instances of cremation which are
mentioned in Chinese books are, relatively speaking, numerous. Professor de Groot
says also that " there exists evidence that during the Mongol domination cremation
also throve in Fuhkien." {Religiotts System, of China, vol. iii. pp. 1391, 1409, 1410.)
—II. C]

[Doolittle, 190 ; Deguigjtes, I. 69 ; Cathay, pp. 247, 479 ; Reinaud, I. 56 ; India
in the XVth Century, p. 23 ; Semedo, p. 95 ; R^tn. AUl. Asiat. I. 128.)

CHAPTER LXI.

Concerning the City of Chinangli, and that of Tadinfu, and
THE Rebellion of Litan.

Chinangli is a city of Cathay as you go south, and it
belongs to the Great Kaan ; the people are Idolaters,
and have paper-money. There runs through the city
a great and wide river, on which a large traffic in silk
goods and spices and other costly merchandize
passes up and down.

When you travel south from Chinangli for five days,
you meet everywhere with fine towns and villages, the
people of which are all Idolaters,' and burn their dead, and
are subject to the Great Kaan, and have paper-money,
and live by trade and handicrafts, and have all the
necessaries of life in great abundance. But there is
nothing particular to mention on the way till you come,
at the end of those five days, to Tadinfu.-^

This, you must know, is a very great city, and in old
times was the seat of a great kingdom ; but the Great
Kaan conquered it by force of arms. Nevertheless it is

136 MARCO POLO Rook II.

Still the noblest city in all those provinces. There are
very great merchants here, who trade on a great scale,
and the abundance of silk is something marvellous.
They have, moreover, most charming gardens abounding
with fruit of large size. The city of Tadinfu hath also
under its rule eleven imperial cities of great importance,
all of which enjoy a large and profitable trade, owing to
that immense produce of silk.^

Now, you must know, that in the year of Christ, 1273,
the Great Kaan had sent a certain Baron called Liytan
Sangon,^ with some 80,000 horse, to this province and
city, to garrison them. And after the said captain had
tarried there a while, he formed a disloyal and traitorous
plot, and stirred up the great men of the province to
rebel against the Great Kaan. And so they did ; for
they broke into revolt against their sovereign lord, and
refused all obedience to him, and made this Liytan,
whom their sovereign had sent thither for their protection,
to be the chief of their revolt.

When the Great Kaan heard thereof he straightway
despatched two of his Barons, one of whom was called
Aguil and the other Mongotay f giving them 100,000
horse and a great force of infantry. But the affair was a
serious one, for the Barons were met by the rebel Liytan
with all those whom he had collected from the province,
mustering more than 100,000 horse and a large force of
foot. Nevertheless in the battle Liytan and his party
were utterly routed, and the two Barons whom the
Emperor had sent won the victory. When the news
came to the Great Kaan he was right well pleased, and
ordered that all the chiefs who had rebelled, or excited
others to rebel, should be put to a cruel death, but that
those of lower rank should receive a pardon. And so it
was done. The two Barons had all the leaders of the
enterprise put to a cruel death, and all those of lower

Chap. LXI. THE CITY OF T'SI-NAN FU

137

rank were pardoned. And thenceforward they conducted
themselves with loyalty towards their lord. ^

Now having told you all about this affair, let us have
done with it, and I will tell you of another place that you
come to in going south, which is called Sinju-matu.

Note i. — There seems to be no solution to the difficulties attaching to the account
of these two cities (Chinangli and Tadinfu) except that the two have been confounded,
either by a lapse of memory on the traveller's part or by a misunderstanding on that
of Rusticiano.

The position and name of Chinangli point, as Pauthier has shown, to T'si-nan fu,
the chief city of Shan-tung. The second city is called in the G. Text and Pauthier's
MSS. Candinfu, Condinfu, and Cundinfu^ names which it has not been found possible
to elucidate. But adopting the reading Tadinfu of some of the old printed editions
(supported by the Ttidinfu of Ramusio and the Tafidifii of the Riccardian MS.)>
Pauthier shows that the city now called Yen-chau bore under the Kin the name of
Tai-ting fu, which may fairly thus be recognised. [Under the Sung Dynasty Yen-
chau was named T'ai-ning and Lung-k'ing. {Play/air's Diet. p. 388.) — H. C]

It was not, however, Yen-chau, but jT si-nan fu^ which was '* the noblest city in
all those provinces," and had been **in old times the seat of a kingdom," as well
as recently the scene of the episode of Litan's rebellion. T'si-nan fu lies in a direct
line 86 miles south of T'sang-chau {Changlu)^ near the banks of the Ta-t'singho,
a large river which communicates with the great canal near T'si-ning chau, and which
was, no doubt, of greater importance in Polo's time than in the last six centuries.
For up nearly to the origin of the Mongol power it appears to have been one of the
main discharges of the Hwang-Ho. The recent changes in that river have again
brought its main stream into the same channel, and the " New Yellow River" passes
three or four miles to the north of the city. T'si-nan fu has frequently of late been
visited by European travellers, who report it as still a place of importance, with
much life and bustle, numerous book-shops, several fine temples, two mosques, and
all the furniture of a provincial capital. It has also a Roman Catholic Cathedral of
Gothic architecture. {Williamson^ I. I02.)

[Tsi-nan *' is a populous and rich city ; and by means of the river (Ta Tsing ho,
Great Clear River) carries on an extensive commerce. The soil is fertile, and pro-
duces grain and fruits in abundance. Silk of an excellent quality is manufactured, and
commands a high price. The lakes and rivers are well stored with fish." {Chin.
Rep. XL p. 562.)— H. C]

Note 2. — The Chinese Annals, more than 2000 years B.C., speak of silk as an
article of tribute from Shan-tung ; and evidently it was one of the provinces most-
noted in the Middle Ages for that article. Compare the quotation in note on next
chapter from Friar Odoric. Yet the older modern accounts speak only of the wild
silk of Shan-tung. Mr. Williamson, however, points out that there is an extensive
produce from the genuine mulberry silkworm, and anticipates a very important trade
in Shan-tung silk. Silk fabrics are also largely produced, and some of extraordinary
quality. {WiUiainson, I. 1 12, 131.)

The expressions of Padre Martini, in speaking of the wild silk of Shan-tung,
strongly remind one of the talk of the ancients about the origin of silk, and suggest
the possibility that this may not have been mere groundless fancy : "Non in
globum aut ovum ductum, sed in longissimum filum paulatim ex ore emissum, albi
coloris, qua; arbustis dumisque, adhserentia, atque a vento hue illucque agitata
coUiguntur," etc. Compare this with Pliny's ** Seres lanitia silvarum nobiles, per-

138 MARCO POLO Book II.

fusam aqua depectentes frondium caniciem," or Claudian's "Stamine, quod moUi
tondent de stipite Seres, Frondea lanigerte carpentes vellera silvie ; Et longum tenues
tractus producit in aurum."

Note 3. — The title Sangon is, as Pauthier points out, the Chinese Tsiang-kiun, a
"general of division," [or better " Military Governor." — H. C] John Bell calls an
officer, bearing the same title, "Merin Sanguin.^^ I suspect 'P siang-kitm is Xh^Jang-
Jang of Baber.

Note 4. — Agul v^^as the name of a distant cousin of KiibUi, who was the father
of Nayan {supra, ch. ii. and Genealogy of the House of Chinghiz in Appendix A).
Mangkutai, under Kiiblai, held the command of the third Hazara (Thousand) of the
right wing, in which he had succeeded his father Jedi Noyan. He was greatly dis-
tinguished in the invasion of South China under Bayan. {ErdmamU s Teinudschin,
pp. 220, 455 ; Gaubil, p. 160.)

Note 5. — Litan, a Chinese of high military position and reputation under the
Mongols, in the early part of Kublai's reign, commanded the troops in Shan-tung and
the conquered parts of Kiang-nan. In the beginning of 1262 he carried out a design
that he had entertained since Kublai's accession, declared for the Sung Emperor, to
whom he gave up several important places, put detached Mongol garrisons to the
sword, and fortified T'si-nan and T'sing-chau. Kublai despatched Prince Apiche
and the General Ssetienche against him. Litan, after some partial success, was
beaten and driven into T'si-nan, which the Mongols immediately invested. After a
blockade of four months, the garrison was reduced to extremities. Litan, in despair,
put his women to death and threw himself into a lake adjoining the city ; but he was
taken out alive and executed. T'sing-chau then surrendered. {Gaubil, 139-140;
De Mailla, IX. 298 seqq.; U Ohsson, II. 381.)

Pauthier gives greater detail from the Chinese Annals, which confirm the amnesty
granted to all but the chiefs of the rebellion.

The date in the text is wrong or corrupt, as is generally the case.

CHAPTER LXII.

Concerning the noble City of Sinjumatu.

On leaving Tadinfu you travel three days towards the
south, always finding numbers of noble and populous
towns and villages flourishing with trade and manu-
factures. There is also abundance of game in the
country, and everything in profusion.

When you have travelled those three days you come
to the noble city of Sinjumatu, a rich and fine place,
with great trade and manufactures. The people are
Idolaters and subjects of the Great Kaan, and have paper-

Chap. LXII. THE CITY OF SINJUMATU 1 39

money, and they have a river which I can assure you
brings them great gain, and I will tell you about it.

You see the river in question flows from the South
to this city of Sinjumatu. And the people of the city
have divided this larger river in two, making one half
of it flow east and the other half flow west ; that is to
say, the one branch flows towards Manzi and the other
towards Cathay. And it is a fact that the number of
vessels at this city is what no one would believe without
seeing them. The quantity of merchandize also which
these vessels transport to Manzi and Cathay is some-
thing marvellous ; and then they return loaded with
other merchandize, so that the amount of goods borne
to and fro on those two rivers is quite astonishing.^

Note i. — Friar Odoric, proceeding by water northward to Cambaluc about
1324-1325, says: "As I travelled by that river towards the east, and passed many
towns and cities, I came to a certain city which is called Sunzumatu, which hath a
greater plenty of silk than perhaps any place on earth, for when silk is at the dearest
you can still have 40 lbs. for less than eight groats. There is in the place likewise
great store of merchandise," etc. When commenting on Odoric, I was inclined to
identify this city with Lin-t'sing chau, but its position with respect to the two last
cities in Polo's itinerary renders this inadmissible ; and Murray and Pauthier seem to
be right in identifying it with T'si-ning CHAU. The affix Matu {Ma-feu, a jetty,
a place of river trade) might easily attach itself to the name of such a great dep&t
of commerce on the canal as Marco here describes, though no Chinese authority has
been produced for its being so styled. The only objection to the identification with
T'si-ning chau is the difficulty of making 3 days' journey of the short distance
between Yen-chau and that city.

Polo, according to the route supposed, comes first upon the artificial part of the
Great Canal here. The rivers Wen and Sse (from near Yen-chau) flowing from the
side of Shan-tung, and striking the canal line at right angles near T'si-ning chau, have
been thence diverted north-west and south-east, so as to form the canal ; the point
of their original confluence at Nan-wang forming, apparently, the summit level of the
canal. There is a little confusion in Polo's account, owing to his describing the river
as coming from the south, which, according to his orientation, would be the side
towards Honan. In this respect his words would apply more accurately to the
Wei River at Lin-t'sing [zqq Bioi mj. As. ser. III. torn. xiv. 194, andy. N. C. B. R.
A. S., 1866, p. II ; also the map with ch. Ixiv.) [Father Gandar (Canal /m/>^rial,
p. 22, note) says that the remark of Marco Polo : "The river flows from the south
to this city of Sinjumatu," cannot be applied to the Wen-ho nor to the Sse-ho, which
are rivers of little importance and running from the east, whilst the Wei-ho, coming
from the south-east, waters Lin-ts'ing, and answers well to our traveller's text. —
II. C] Duhalde calls T'si-ning chau "one of the most considerable cities of the
empire " ; and Nieuhofif speaks of its large trade and population. [Sir John F. Davis
writes that Tsi-ning chau is a town of considerable dimensions. . . . "The ma-tow.

140 MARCO POLO Book II.

or platforms, before the principal boats had ornamental gateways over them. . . .
The canal seems to render this an opulent and flourishing place, to judge by the
gilded and carved shops, temples, and public offices, along the eastern banks."
{Sketches of China, I. pp. 255-257.)— H. C]

CHAPTER LXIII.

Concerning the Cities of Linju and Piju.

On leaving the city of Sinju-matu you travel for eight
days towards the south, always coming to great and rich
towns and villages flourishing with trade and manu-
factures. The people are all subjects of the Great Kaan,
use paper-money, and burn their dead. At the end of
those eight days you come to the city of Linju, in the
province of the same name of which it is the capital.
It is a rich and noble city, and the men are good
soldiers, natheless they carry on great trade and manu-
factures. There is great abundance of game in both
beasts and birds, and all the necessaries of life are in
profusion. The place stands on the river of which I told
you above. And they have here great numbers of
vessels, even greater than those of which I spoke
before, and these transport a great amount of costly
merchandize.^

So, quitting this province and city of Linju, you
travel three days more towards the south, constantly
finding numbers of rich towms and villages. These still
belong to Cathay ; and the people are all Idolaters,
burning their dead, and using paper-money, that I mean
of their Lord the Great Kaan, whose subjects they are.
This is the finest country for game, whether in beasts or
birds, that is anywhere to be found, and all the
necessaries of life are in profusion.

Chap. LXIV. LINJU, PIJU, AND SIJU I4I

At the end of those three days you find the city of
Piju, a great, rich, and noble city, with large trade and
manufactures, and a great production of silk. This
city stands at the entrance to the great province of
Manzi, and there reside at it a great number of merchants
who despatch carts from this place loaded with great
quantities of goods to the different towns of Manzi.
The city brings in a great revenue to the Great Kaan.^

Note i. — Murray suggests that Lingiu is a place which appears in D'Anville's
Map of Shan-tung as Lintching-y, and in Arrowsmith's Map of China (also in those
of Berghaus and Keith Johnston) as Lingchinghien. The position assigned to it,
however, on the west bank of the canal, nearly under the 35th degree of latitude,
would agree fairly with Polo's data. [^Lin-ch^ing, Lin-tsing^ lat. 37° 03', Play/air's
Diet. No. 4276; Biot, p. 107.— H. C]

In any case, I imagine Lingiu (of which, perhaps, Lingiu maybe the correct read-
ing) to be the Lenzin of Odoric, which he reached in travelling by water from the
south, before arriving at Sinjumatu. {Cathay^ p. 125.)

Note 2. — There can be no doubt that this is Pei-chau on the east bank of the
canal. The abundance of game about here is noticed by Nieuhoff (in Astley^ III.
417). [See Z>. Gandar, Canal Imperial, 1894.— H. C]

CHAPTER LXIV.

Concerning the City of Siju, and the Great River Caramoran.

When you leave Piju you travel towards the south
for two days, through beautiful districts abounding in
everything, and in which you find quantities of all kinds
of game. At the end of those two days you reach the
city of Siju, a great, rich, and noble city, flourishing
with trade and manufactures. The people are Idolaters,
burn their dead, use paper-money, and are subjects of
the Great Kaan. They possess extensive and fertile plains
producing abundance of wheat and other grain.^ But
there is nothing else to mention, so let us proceed and
tell you of the countries further on.

142 MARCO POLO Book II.

On leaving Siju you ride south for three clays, con-
stantly falling in with fine towns and villages and hamlets
and farms, with their cultivated lands. There is plenty
of wheat and other corn, and of game also ; and the
people ^re all Idolaters and subjects of the Great Kaan.

At the end of those three days you reach the great
river Caramoran, which flows hither from Prester John's
country. It is a great river, and more than a mile in
width, and so deep that great ships can navigate it. It
abounds in fish, and very big ones too. You must know
that in this river there are some 15,000 vessels, all
belonging to the Great Kaan, and kept to transport his
troops to the Indian Isles whenever there may be
occasion ; for the sea is only one day distant from the
place we are speaking of. And each of these vessels,
taking one with another, will require 20 mariners, and will
carry 15 horses with the men belonging to them, and
their provisions, arms, and equipments.^

Hither and thither, on either bank of the river, stands
a town ; the one facing the other. The one is called
CoiGANju and the Other Caiju ; the former is a large
place, and the latter a little one. And when you pass
this river you enter the great province of Manzi. So
now I must tell you how this province of Manzi was
conquered by the Great Kaan.^

Note i. — Slju can scarcely be other than Su-t'sien {Sootsin of Keith Johnston's
map) as Murray and Pauthier have said. The latter states that one of the old names
of the place was Si-chau, which corresponds to that given by Marco. Biot does not
give this name.

The town stands on the flat alluvial of the Hwang-Ho, and is approached by
high embanked roads. [Aslley, III. 524-525.)

[Sir J. F. Davis writes : " From Sootsien Hien to the point of junction with the
Yellow River, a length of about fifty miles, that great stream and the canal run
nearly parallel with each other, at an average distance of four or five miles, and
sometimes much nearer." {Sketches of China, I. p. 265.)— II. C]

Note 2. — We have again arrived on the banks of the Hwang-Ho, which was
crossed higher up on our traveller's route to Karajang.

No accounts, since China became known to modern Europe, attribute to the
JJwang-Ho the great utility for navigation which Polo here and elsewhere ascribes to

Chap. LXIV. CHANGES IN THE RIVER CARAMORAN 1 43

it. Indeed, we are told that its current is so rapid that its navigation is scarcely
practicable, and the only traffic of the kind that we hear of is a transport of coal in
Shan-si for a certain distance down stream. This rapidity also, bringing down vast
quantities of soil, has so raised the bed that in recent times the tide has not entered
the river, as it probably did in our traveller's time, when, as it would appear from his
account, seagoing craft used to ascend to the ferry north of Hwai-ngan fu, or there-
abouts. Another indication of change is his statement that the passage just
mentioned was only one day's journey from the sea, whereas it is now about 50 miles
in a direct line. But the river has of late years undergone changes much more
material.

In the remotest times of which the Chinese have any record, the Hwang-Ho
discharged its waters into the Gulf of Chih-li, by two branches, the most northerly of
which appears to have followed the present course of the Pei-ho below Tien-tsing.
In the time of the Shang Dynasty (ending B.C. 1078) a branch more southerly than
either of the above flowed towards T'si-ning, and combined with the Vsi River,
which flowed by T' si-nan fu, the same in fact that was till recently called the Ta-t'sing.
In the time of Confucius we first hear of a branch being thrown off south-east
towards the Hwai, flowing north of Hwai-ngan, in fact towards the embouchure
which our maps still display as that of the Hwang-Ho. But, about the 3rd and 4th
centuries of our era, the river discharged exclusively by the T'si ; and up to the
Mongol age, or nearly so, the mass of the waters of this great river continued to flow
into the Gulf of Chih-li. They then changed their course bodily towards the Hwai,
and followed that general direction to the sea ; this they had adopted before the time
of our traveller, and they retained it till a very recent period. The mass of Shan-tung
thus forms a mountainous island rising out of the vast alluvium of the Hwang-Ho,
whose discharge into the sea has alternated between the north and the south of that
mountainous tract. {See Alap opposite.)

During the reign of the last Mongol emperor, a project was adopted for restoring
the Hwang-Ho to its former channel, discharging into the Gulf of Chih-li ; and dis-
contents connected with this scheme promoted the movement for the expulsion of
the dynasty (1368).

A river whose regimen was liable to such vast changes was necessarily a constant
source of danger, insomuch that the Emperor Kia-K'ing in his will speaks of it as
having been "from the remotest ages China's sorrow." Some idea of the enormous
works maintained for the control of the river may be obtained from the following
description of their character on the north bank, some distance to the west of
Kai-fung fu :

*'In a village, apparently bounded by an earthen wall as large as that of the
Tartar city of Peking, was reached the first of the outworks erected to resist the
Hwang-Ho, and on arriving at the top that river and the gigantic earthworks rendered
necessary by its outbreaks burst on the view. On a level with the spot on which I
was standing stretched a series of embankments, each one about 70 feet high, and of
breadth sufiicient for four railway trucks to run abreast on them. The mode of their
arrangement was on this wise : one long bank ran parallel to the direction of the
stream ; half a mile distant from it ran a similar one ; these two embankments were
then connected by another series exactly similar in size, height, and breadth, and
running at right angles to them right down to the edge of the water."

In 1 85 1, the Hwang-Ho burst its northern embankment nearly 30 miles east of
Kai-fung fu ; the floods of the two following years enlarged the breach ; and in 1853
the river, after six centuries, resumed the ancient direction of its discharge into the
Gulf of Chih-li. Soon after leaving its late channel, it at present spreads, without
defined banks, over the very low lands of South-Western Shan-tung, till it reaches the
Great Canal, and then enters the Ta-t'sing channel, passing north of T'si-nan to the
sea. The old channel crossed by Polo in the present journey is quite deserted. The
greater part of the bed is there cultivated ; it is dotted with numerous villages ; and
the vast trading town of Tsing-kiang pu was in 1868 extending so rapidly from th^

144 MARCO POLO Book II.

southern bank that a traveller in that year says he expected that in two yeais il
would reach the northern bank.

The same change has destroyed tlie Grand Canal as a navigable channel for many
miles south of Lin-t'sing chau. (/. R. G. S. XXVIII. 294-295 ; Escayrac de Lauture,
Mhn. sur la Chine; Cathay y p. 125 ; Reports of Journeys in China, etc. [by Consuls
Alabaster, Oxenham, etc., Pari. Blue Book], 1869, pp. 4-5, 14; Mr. Elias in
J. K. G. S. XL. p. I set/(/.)

[Since the exploration of the Hwang-Ho in 1868 by Mr. Ney Elias and by Mr. H.
G. HoUingworth, an inspection of this river was made in 1889 and a report published
in 1891 by the Dutch Engineers J. G. W. Fijnje van Salverda, Captain P. G. van
Schermbeek and A. Visser, for the improvement of the Yellow River. — H. C]

Note 3. — Coiganju will be noticed below. Caiju does not seem to be traceable,
having probably been carried away by the changes in the river. But it would seem
to have been at the mouth of the canal on the north side of the Hwang-Ho, and the
name is the same as that given below (ch. Ixxii.) to the town {Kwachau) occupying the
corresponding position on the Kiang.

" Khatai," says Rashiduddin, " is bounded on one side by the country of Machin,
which the Chinese call Manzi. ... In the Indian language Southern China is
called Maha-chfn, i.e. ' Great China,' and hence we derive the word Machiii. The
Mongols call the same country Nangiass. It is separated from Khatai by the river
called Karamoran, which comes from the mountains of Tibet and Kashmir, and
which is never fordable. The capital of this kingdom is the city of Khingsai, which
is forty days' journey from Khanbalik." {Qiiat. Rashid., xci.-xciii.)

Manzi (or Mangi) is a name used for Southern China, or more properly for the
territory which constituted the dominion of the Sung Dynasty at the time when the
Mongols conquered Cathay or Northern China from the Kin, not only by Marco, but
by Odoric and John Marignolli, as well as by the Persian writers, who, however,
more commonly call it MdchCn. I imagine that some confusion between the two
words led to the appropriation of the latter name, also to Southertt China. The term
Man-tzu or Man-tze signifies " Barbarians" (" Sons of Barbarians"), and was applied,
it is said, by the Northern Chinese to their neighbours on the south, whose civilisation
was of later date.* The name is now specifically applied to a wild race on the banks
of the Upper Kiang. But it retains its mediaeval application in Manchuria, where
Mantszi is the name given to the Chinese immigrants, and in that use is said to date
from the time of Kiiblai. {Palladius'mJ. R. G. S. vol. xhi. p. 154.) And Mr. Moule
has found the word, apparently used in Marco's exact sense, in a Chinese extract of
the period, contained in the topography of the famous Lake of Hang-chau [infra, ch.
Ixxvi.-lxxvii.)

Though both Polo and Rashiduddin call the Karamoran the boundary between
Cathay and Manzi, it was not so for any great distance. Ho-nan belonged essentially
to Cathay.

CHAPTER LXV.

How THE Great Kaan conquered the Province of Manzi.

You must know that there was a King and Sovereign
lord of the great territory of Manzi who was styled

* Magaillans says the Southerns, in return, called the Northerns Pe-tai, " Fools of the North" 1

114*

38'

36°

lie'^ Tients ii^^ 1 18° MARCO POlO,Book lI.Ch.6^

1/ /^>

J^^oTsiiian- fix

jChangtey

oTsirt^cliau

»#^

^AVenH.

340

32<

300

ri^!^^

Kaifuitg^^^

^m^M^^^^^F^^^'^'"^

x^^^

oVencltait

AndiinciJiieh-

.©7H > //i

^vi<^^

>udist

in-fu

Sketch Map.exhibiting the

VARIATIONS
of theTwo Great Rivers

ofChina

Within the Period of Hisioiy.

VangcKau

Chang chaW^*.

liichau i

S\^

116°

«^Poyaii.^l^a\cc

118°

HaivQ cKqtu If J^

38^

36<

34°

32°

120°

ang

[7'o Jace /■>. 144, z/t?/. ii.

Chap. LXV. THE CONQUEST OF MANZI 1 45

Facfur, so great and puissant a prince, that for vastness
of wealth and number of subjects and extent of dominion,
there was hardly a greater in all the earth except the
Great Kaan himself/ But the people of his land were
anything rather than warriors ; all their delight was in
women, and nought but women ; and so it was above all
with the King himself, for he took thought of nothing
else but women, unless it were of charity to the poor.

In all his dominion there were no horses ; nor were
the people ever inured to battle or arms, or military
service of any kind. Yet the province of Manzi is very
strong by nature, and all the cities are encompassed by
sheets of water of great depth, and more than an arblast-
shot in width ; so that the country never would have
been lost, had the people but been soldiers. But that is
just what they were not ; so lost it was.^

Now it came to pass, in the year of Christ's Incarna-
tion, 1268, that the Great Kaan, the same that now
reigneth, despatched thither a Baron of his whose name
was Bayan Chincsan, which is as much as to say
" Bayan Hundred Eyes." And you must know that the
King of Manzi had found in his horoscope that he never
should lose his Kingdom except through a man that had
an hundred eyes ; so he held himself assured in his
position, for he could not believe that any man in
existence could have an hundred eyes. There, however,
he deluded himself, in his ignorance of the name of
Bayan.^

This Bayan had an Immense force of horse and foot
entrusted to him by the Great Kaan, and with these he
entered Manzi, and he had also a great number of boats
to carry both horse and food when need should be.
And when he, with all his host, entered the territory of
Manzi and arrived at this city of Coiganju — whither we
now are got, and of which we shall speak presently —

VOL. II. K

146 MARCO POLO Book II.

he summoned the people thereof to surrender to the
Great Kaan ; but this they flatly refused. On this
Bayan went on to another city, with the same result,
and then still went forward ; acting thus because he was
aware that the Great Kaan was despatching another
great host to follow him up/

What shall I say then? He advanced to five cities
in succession, but got possession of none of them ; for he
did not wish to engage in besieging them and they
would not give themselves up. But when he came to
the sixth city he took that by storm, and so with a
second, and a third, and a fourth, until he had taken
twelve cities in succession. And when he had taken all
these he advanced straight against the capital city of the
kingdom, which was called Kinsay, and which was the
residence of the King and Queen.

And when the King beheld Bayan coming with all
his host, he was in great dismay, as one unused to see
such sights. So he and a great company of his people
got on board a thousand ships and fled to the islands of
the Ocean Sea, whilst the Queen who remained behind
in the city took all measures in her power for its defence,
like a valiant lady.

Now it came to pass that the Queen asked what was
the name of the captain of the host, and they told her
that it was Bayan Hundred-Eyes. So when she wist
that he was styled Hundred-Eyes, she called to mind
how their astrologers had foretold that a man of an
hundred eyes should strip them of the kingdom.^
Wherefore she gave herself up to Bayan, and surrendered
to him the whole kingdom and all the other cities and
fortresses, so that no resistance was made. And in
sooth this was a goodly conquest, for there was no realm
on earth half so wealthy.^ The amount that the King-
used to expend was perfectly marvellous ; and as an

chai'. lxv. the conquest of manzi 147

example I will tell you somewhat of his liberal
acts.

In those provinces they are wont to expose their new-
born babes ; I speak of the poor, who have not the
means of bringing them up. But the King used to have
all those foundlings taken charge of, and had note made
of the signs and planets under which each was born, and
then put them out to nurse about the country. And
when any rich man was childless he would go to the
King and obtain from him as many of these children as
he desired. Or, when the children grew up, the King
would make up marriages among them, and provide for
the couples from his own purse. In this manner he used
to provide for some 20,000 boys and girls every year.^

I will tell you another thing this King used to do.
If he was taking a ride through the city and chanced to
see a house that was very small and poor standing
among other houses that were fine and large, he would
ask why it was so, and they would tell him it belonged
to a poor man who had not the means to enlarge it.
Then the King would himself supply the means. And
thus it came to pass that in all the capital of the kingdom
of Manzi, Kinsay by name, you should not see any but
,nne houses.

This King used to be waited on by more than a
thousand young gentlemen and ladies, all clothed in the
richest fashion. And he ruled his realm with such
justice that no malefactors were to be found therein.
The city in fact was so secure that no man closed his
doors at night, not even in houses and shops that were
full of all sorts of rich merchandize. No one could do
justice in the telling to the great riches of that country,
and to the good disposition of the people. Now that I
have told you about the kingdom, I will go back to the
Queen.

VOL. II. K 2

148 MARCO POLO Book II.

You must know that she was conducted to the Great
Kaan, who gave, her an honourable reception, and caused
her to be served with all state, like a great lady as she
was. But as for the King her husband, he never more
did quit the isles of the sea to which he had fled, but
died there. So leave we him and his wife and all their
concerns, and let us return to our story, and go on
regularly with our account of the great province of
Manzi and of the manners and customs of its people.
And, to begin at the beginning, we must go back to the
city of Coiganju, from which we digressed to tell you
about the conquest of Manzi.

Note i. — Faghfur or Baghbur was a title applied by old Persian and Arabic
writers to the Emperor of China, much in the way that we used to speak of the Great
Mogul, and our fathers of the Sophy. It is, as Neumann points out, an old Persian
translation of the Chinese title Tien-tzii, "Son of Heaven"; Bagh-Pur = "The
Son of the Divinity," as Sapor or Shdh-P-^r = "The Son of the King." Faghftir
seems to have been used as a proper name in Turkestan. (See Baber, 423.)

There is a word, Takfur, applied similarly by the Mahomedans to the Greek
emperors of both Byzantium and Trebizond (and also to the Kings of Cilician
Armenia), which was perhaps adopted as a jingling match to the former term ;
Faghfur, the great infidel king in the East ; Takfur, the great infidel king in the
West. Defremery says this is Armenian, Tagavor, "a king." (/. B., II. 393, 427.)

["The last of the Sung Emperors (1276) 'Facfur' {i.e. the Arabic for lYen Tzu)
was freed by Kublai from the (ancient Kotan) indignity of surrendering with a rope
round his neck, leading a sheep, and he received the title of Duke : In 1288 he went
to Tibet to study Buddhism, and in 1296 he and his mother, Ts'iuen T'ai How,
became a bonze and a nun, and were allowed to hold 360 kHng (say 5000 acres) of
land free of taxes under the then existing laws." {E. H. Parker, China Review,
February, March 1901, p. 195.)— H. C]

Note 2. — Nevertheless the history of the conquest shows instances of extra-
ordinary courage and self-devotion on the part of Chinese officers, especially in the
defence of fortresses — virtues often shown in like degree, under like circumstances,
by the same class, in the modern history of China.

Note 3. — Bayan (signifying "great" or "noble") is a name of very old renown
among the Nomad nations, for we find it as that of the Khagan of the Avars in the
6th century. The present Bayan, Kublai's most famous lieutenant, was of princely
birth, in the Mongol tribe called Barin. In his youth he served in the West of Asia
under Hulaku. According to Rashiduddin, about 1265 he was sent to Cathay with
certain ambassadors of the Kaan's who were returning thither. He was received
with great distinction by Kublai, who was greatly taken with his prepossessing
appearance and ability, and a command was assigned him. In 1273, after the
capture of Siang-Yang {infra, ch. Ixx.) the Kaan named him to the chief command in
the prosecution of the war against the Sung Dynasty. Whilst Bayan was in the full
tide of success, Kublai, alarmed by the ravages of Kaidu on the Mongolian frontier,
recalled him to take the command there, but, on the general's remonstrance, he gave
way, and made him a minister of state (Chingsiang). The essential part of his task

Chap. I>XV. THE CONQUEST OF MANZI

T49

was completed by the surrender of the capital King-szi (Lin-ngan, now Ilang-chau) to
his arms in the beginning of 1276. He was then recalled to court, and immediately
despatched to Mongolia, where he continued in command for seventeen years, his great
business being to keep down the restless Kaidu. [" The biography of this valiant
captain is found in the Yuen-shi (ch. cxxvii.). It is quite in accordance with the bio-
graphical notices Rashid gives of the same personage. He calls him Bayan^
{Bret Schneider, Med. Res. I. p. 271, note).]

["The inventory, records, etc., of Kinsai, mentioned by Marco Polo, as also the
letter from the old empress, are undoubted facts : complete stock was taken, and
5,692,656 souls were added to the population (in the two Cheh alone). The
Emperor surrendered in person to Bayan a few days after his official surrender, which
took place on the i8th day of the ist moon in 1276. Bayan took the Emperor to see
Kublai." {E. H. Parker, China Review, XXIV. p. 105.)— H. C]

In 1293, enemies tried to poison the emperor's ear against Bayan, and they
seemed to have succeeded ; for Kublai despatched his heir, the Prince Teimur, to
supersede him in the frontier command. Bayan beat Kaidu once more, and then
made over his command with characteristic dignity. On his arrival at court, Kublai
received him with the greatest honour, and named him chief minister of state and
commandant of his guards and the troops about Cambaluc. The emperor died in the
beginning of the next year (1294), and Bayan's high position enabled him to take
decisive measures for preserving order, and maintaining Kublai's disposition of the
succession. Bayan was raised to still higher dignities, but died at the age of 59,
within less than a year of the master whom he had served so well for 30 years (about
January, 1295). After his death, according to the peculiar Chinese fashion, he
received yet further accessions of dignity.

The language of Chinese historians in speaking of this great man is thus rendered
by De Mailla ; it is a noble eulogy of r. Tartar warrior : —

*' He was endowed with a lofty genius, and possessed in the highest measure the
art of handling great bodies of troops. When he marched against the Sung, he
directed the movements of 200,000 men with as much ease and coolness as if there
had been but one man under his orders. All his officers looked up to him as a
prodigy ; and having absolute trust in his capacity, they obeyed him with entire
submission. Nobody knew better how to deal with soldiers, or to moderate their
ardour v/hen it carried them too far. He was never seen sad except when forced to
shed blood, for he was sparing even of the blood of his enemy. . . . His modesty
was not inferior to his ability. . . , He would attribute all the honour to the conduct
of his officers, and he was ever ready to extol their smallest feats. He merited the
praises of Chinese as well as Mongols, and both nations long regretted the loss of this
great man." De Mailla gives a diffisrent account from Rashiduddin and Gaubil, of
the manner in which Bayan first entered the Kaan's service. {Gaubil, 145, 159, 169,
179, 183, 221, 223-224; Erdmann, 222-223; De Mailla, IX, 335, 458, 461-463.)

Note 4. — As regards Bayan personally, and the main body under his command,
this seems to be incorrect. His advance took plr.ce from Siang-yang along the lines
of the Han River and of the Great Kiang. Another force indeed marched direct
upon Yang-chau, and therefore probably by Hwai-ngan chau [infra, p. 152) ; and it
is noted that Bayan's orders to the generals of this force were to spare bloodshed.
{Gaubil, 159; D'Ohsson, II. 398.)

Note 5. — So in our own age ran the Hindu prophecy that Bhartpiir should never
fall till there came a great alligator against it ; and when it fell to the English assault,
the Brahmans found that the name of the leader was Combermere = Kumhlr-Mir.
the Crocodile Lord !

" Be those juggling fiends no more believed

That palter with us in a double sense ;

That keep the word of promise to our ear

And break it to our hope ! "

I50

MARCO POLO Book II.

It would seem from tlie expression, both in Pauthier's text and in the G. T., as if
Polo intended to say that Chincsan (Cinqsan) meant "One Hundred Eyes" ; and if
so we could have no stronger proof of his ignorance of Chinese. It is Pe-yen, the
Chinese form of Bayaji, that means, or rather may be punningly rendered, "One
Hundred Eyes." Chincsan, i.e. Ching-siang, was the title of the superior ministers of
state at Khanbaligh, as we have already seen. The title occurs pretty frequently in
the Persian histories of the Mongols, and frequently as a Mongol title in Sanang
Setzen. We find it also disguised as Chyamam in a letter from certain Christian
nobles at Khanbaligh, which Wadding quotes from the Papal archives. (See Cathay^
pp. 314-3150

But it is right to observe that in the Ramusian version the mistranslation which
we have noticed is not so undubitable : " Volendo sapere come avea nome il Capitano
nemico, le fu detto, Chmsanibaian, c\oh Cent^occhiJ^

A kind of corroboration of Marco's story, but giving a different form to the pun,
has been found by Mr. W. F. Mayers, of the Diplomatic Department in China, in a
Chinese compilation dating from the latter part of the 14th century. Under the head-
ing, " A Kiaiig-nan Prophecy,^' this book states that prior to the fall of the Sung a
prediction ran through Kiang-nan : " If Kiang-nan fall, a hundred wild geese {Pi-yen)
will make their appearance." This, it is added, was not understood till the
generalissimo Peyen Chmgsiang made his appearance on the scene. " Punning
prophecies of this kind are so common in Chinese history, that the above is only
worth noticing in connection with Marco Polo's story. " {N. and Q. , China and Japan,
vol. ii. p. 162.)

But I should suppose that the Persian historian Wassaf had also heard a bungled ver-
sion of the same story, which he tells in a pointless manner of the fortress of Sindfur
(evidently a clerical error for Saianfu, see below, ch. Ixx.) : " Payan ordered this
fortress to be assaulted. The garrison had heard how the capital of China had fallen,
and the army of Payan was drawing near. The commandant was an experienced
veteran who had tasted all the sweets and bitters of fortune, and had borne the day's
heat and the night's cold ; he had, as the saw goes, milked the world's cow dry. So
he sent word to Payan : ' In my youth ' (here we abridge WassaPs rigmarole) ' I heard
my father tell that this fortress should be taken by a man called Payan, and that all
fencing and trenching, fighting and smiting, would be of no avail. You need not,
therefore, bring an army hither ; we give in ; we surrender the fortress and all that is
therein.' So they opened the gates and came down." {WassdJ\ Hammer's ed.,
p. 41).

Note 6. — There continues in this narrative, with a general truth as to the course
of events, a greater amount of error as to particulars than we should have expected.
The Sung Emperor Tu Tsong, a debauched and effeminate prince, to whom Polo
seems to refer, had died in 1274, leaving young children only. Chaohien, the
second son, a boy of four years of age, was put on the throne, with his grandmother
Siechi, as regent. The approach of Bayan caused the greatest alarm ; the Sung Court
made humble propositions, but they were not listened to. The brothers of the young
emperor were sent off by sea into the southern provinces ; the empress regent was also
pressed to make her escape with the young emperor, but, after consenting, she
changed her mind and would not move. The Mongols arrived before King-sze, and
the empress sent the great seal of the empire to Bayan. He entered the city with-
out resistance in the third month (say April), 1276, riding at the head of his whole
staff with the standard of the general-in-chief before him. It is remarked that he
went to look at the tide in the River Tsien Tang, which is noted for its bore. He
declined to meet the regent and her grandson, pleading that he was ignorant of the
etiquettes proper to such an interview. Before his entrance Bayan had nominated a
joint-commission of Mongol and Chinese officers to the government of the city, and
appointed a committee to take charge of all the public documents, maps, drawings,
records of courts, and seals of all public offices, and to plant sentinels at necessary

Chap. LXVI. THE CITY OF COIGANJU I51

points. The emperor, his mother, and the rest of the Sung princes and princesses,
were despatched to the Mongol capital. A desperate attempt was made, at Kwa-chau
{infra, ch. Ixxii.) to recapture the young emperor, but it failed. On their arrival at
Ta-tu, Kiiblai's chief queen, Jamui Khatun, treated them with delicate consideration.
This amiable lady, on being shown the spoils that came from Lin-ngan, only wept, and
said to her husband, " So also shall it be with the Mongol empire one day !" . The
eldest of the two boys who had escaped was proclaimed emperor by his adherents at
Fu-chau, in Fo-kien, but they were speedily driven from that province (where the local
histories, as Mr. G. Phillips informs me, preserve traces of their adventures in the
Islands of Amoy Harbour), and the young emperor died on a desert island off the
Canton coast in 1278. His younger brother took his place, but a battle, in the
beginning of 1279 finally extinguished these efforts of the expiring dynasty, and the
minister jumped with his young lord into the sea. It is curious that Rashiduddin,
with all his opportunities of knowledge, writing at least twenty years later, was not
aware of this, for he speaks of the Prince of Manzi as still a fugitive in the forests
between Zayton and Canton. {Gaubil ; D''Ohsson'; De Mailla ; Cathay^ p. 272.)
[See Parker, supra, p. 148 and 149. — H. C]

There is a curious account in the Lettres Adijiantes (xxiv. 45 seqq.) by P. Parrenin
of a kind of Pariah caste at Shao-hing (see ch. Ixxix. note i), who were popularly
believed to be the descendants of the great lords of the Sung Court, condemned to
that degraded condition for obstinately resisting the Mongols. Another notice, how-
ever, makes the degraded body rebels against the Sung. {Milne, p. 218.)

Note 7. — There is much about the exposure of children, and about Chinese
foundling hospitals, in the Leltres Edifiantes, especially in Recueil xv. 83, seqq. It
is there stated that frequently a person not in circumstances to pay for a wife for his
son, would visit the foundling hospital to seek one. The childless rich also would
sometimes get children there to pass off as their own ; aa<?//(?^ children being excluded
from certain valuable privileges.

Mr. Milne {Life in China), and again Mr. Medhurst {Foreigner in Far Cathay),
have discredited the great prevalence of infant exposure in China ; but since the last
work was published, I have seen the translation of a recent strong remonstrance
against the practice by a Chinese writer, which certainly implied that it was very
prevalent in the writer's own province. Unfortunately, I have lost the reference.
[See Father G. Palatre, V Infanticide et POeuvre de la Ste. Enfance en Chine,
1878.— II. C]

CHAPTER LXVI.

Concerning the City of Coiganju.

CoiGANju is, as I have told you already, a very large
city standing at the entrance to Manzi. The people are
Idolaters and burn their dead, and are subject to the
Great Kaan. They have a vast amount of shipping, as
I mentioned before in speaking of the River Caramoran.
And an imfnense quantity of merchandize comes hither,

152 MARCO POLO Book II.

for the city is the seat of government for this part of the
country. Owing to its being on the river, many cities
send their produce thither to be again thence distributed
in every direction. A great amount of salt also is made
here, furnishing some forty other cities with that article,
and bringing in a large revenue to the Great Kaan.^

Note i. — Coiganju is Hwai-ngan chau, now -Fti, on the canal, some miles
south of the channel of the Hwang- Ho ; but apparently in Polo's time the great
river passed close to it. Indeed, the city takes its name from the River Hwai, into
which the IIwang-Ho sent a branch when first seeking a discharge south of Shantung.
The city extends for about 3 miles along the canal and much below its level.
[According to Sir J. F. Davis, the situation of Hwai-ngan "is in every respect
remarkable. A part of the town was so much below the level of the canal, that only
the tops of the walls (at least 25 feet high) could be seen from our boats. . . .
It proved to be, next to Tien-tsin, by far the largest and most populous place we had
yet seen, the capital itself excepted." {Sketches of China, I. pp. 277-278.) — H. C]

The headquarters of the salt manufacture of Hwai-ngan is a place called Yen-ching
("Salt-Town"), some distance to the S. of the former city {Pauihicr).

CHAPTER LXVII.

Of the Cities of Paukin and Cayu.

When you leave Coiganju you ride south-east for a day
along a causeway laid with fine stone, which you find
at this entrance to Manzi. On either hand there is a
great expanse of water, so that you cannot enter the
province except along this causeway. At the end of the
day's journey you reach the fine city of Paukin. The
people are Idolaters, burn their dead, are subject to the
Great Kaan, and use paper-money. They live by trade
and manufactures and have great abundance of silk,
whereof they weave a great variety of fine stuffs of silk
and gold. Of all the necessaries of life there is great
store.

When you leave Paukin you ride another day to the
south-east, and then you arrive at the city of Cayu.

Chap. LXVIII. MARCO'S GOVERNMENT OF YANJU T53

The people are Idolaters (and so forth). They live by
trade and manufactures and have great store of" all
necessaries, including fish in great abundance. There
is also much game, both beast and bird, insomuch that
for a Venice groat you can have three good pheasants.^

Note i. — Paukin is PAO-YING-Hien [a populous place, considerably below the
level of the canal {Davis, Sketches, I. pp. 279-280)] ; Cayu is IvAO-YU-chau, both
cities on the east side of the canal. At Kao-yu, the country east of the canal lies
some 20 feet below the canal level ; so low indeed that the walls of the'city are not
visible from the further bank of the canal. To the west is the Kao-yu Lake, one of
the expanses of water spoken of by Marco, and which threatens great danger to the
low country on the east. (See Alabaster' s Journey in Consular Reports above quoted,
p. 5 [and Gandar, Canal Impirial, p. 17. — H. C.])

There is a fine drawing of Pao-ying, by Alexander, in the Staimton collection,
British Museum.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

Of the Cities of Tiju, Tinju, and Yanju.

When you leave Cayu, you ride another day to the
south-east through a constant succession of villages and
fields and fine farms until you come to Tiju, which is a
city of no great size but abounding in everything. The
people are Idolaters (and so forth). There is a great
amount of trade, and they have many vessels. And you
must know that on your left hand, that is towards the
east, and three days' journey distant, is the Ocean Sea.
At every place between the sea and the city salt is made
in great quantities. And there is a rich and noble city
called Tinju, at which there is produced salt enough to
supply the whole province, and I can tell you it brings
the Great Kaan an incredible revenue. The people are
Idolaters and subject to the Kaan. Let us quit this,
however, and go back to Tiju.^

Again, leaving Tiju, you ride another day towards

154 MARCO POLO Book II.

the south-east, and at the end of your journey you arrive
at the very great and noble city of Yanju, which has
seven-and-twenty other weahhy cities under its administra-
tion ; so that this Yanju is, you see, a city of great im-
portance.^ It is the seat of one of the Great Kaan's
Twelve Barons, for it has been chosen to be one of the
Twelve Sitigs. The people are Idolaters and use paper-
money, and are subject to the Great Kaan. And Messer
Marco Polo himself, of whom this book speaks, did
govern this city for three full years, by the order of the
Great Kaan.^ The people live by trade and manu-
factures, for a great amount of harness for knights and
men-at-arms is made there. And in this city and its
neighbourhood a large number of troops are stationed by
the Kaan's orders.

There is no more to say about it. So now I will tell
you about two great provinces of Manzi which lie
towards the west. And first of that called Nanghin.

NoTK I. — Though the text would lead us to look for Tij'ti on the direct line
between Kao-yu and Yang-chau, and like them on the canal bank (indeed one MS.,
C. of Pauthier, specifies its standing on the same river as the cities already passed,
i.e. on the canal), we seem constrained to admit the general opinion that this is
Tai-Chau, a town lying some 25 miles at least to the eastward of the canal, but
apparently connected with it by a navigable channel.

Tinjtc or Chinju (for both the G. T. and Ramusio read Cingui) cannot be identified
with certainty. But I should think it likely, from Polo's "geographical style," that
when he spoke of the sea as three days distant he had this city in view, and that it is
probably Tung-chau, near the northern shore of the estuary of the Yang-tzu, which
might be fairly described as three days from Tai-chau. Mr. Kingsmill identifies it
with I-chin hien, the great port on the Kiang for the export of the Yang-chau salt.
This is possible ; but I-chin lies west of the canal, and though the form Chinju would
really represent I-chin as then named, such a position seems scarcely compatible with
the way, vague as it is, in which Tinju or Chinju is introduced. Moreover, we shall
see that I-chin is spoken of hereafter. {Kingsmill in N. and Q. Ch. and Japan ^
I. 53.)

Note 2. — Happily, there is no doubt that this is Yang-chau, one of the oldest
and most famous great cities of China. [Aftulfeda {Gtiyard, II. ii. 122) says that
Yang-chau is the capital of the Faghfur of China, and that he is called Tamghadj-
khan. — H. C] Some five-and-thirty years after Polo's departure from China, Friar
Odoric found at this city a House of his own Order (Franciscans), and three Nestorian
churches. The city also appears in the Catalan Map as langio. Yang-chau suffered
greatly in the T'ai-P'ing rebellion, but its position is an "obligatory point" for

Chap. LXVIII.

THE CITY OF YANJU

155

commerce, and it appears to be rapidly recovering its prosperity. It is the head-
quarters of the salt manufacture, and it is also now noted for a great manufacture
of sweetmeats. (See Alabaster's Rcpo7-t, as above, p. 6.)

[Through the kindness of the late Father H. Havret, S.J. , of Zi-ka-wei, I am enabled

to give two plans from the Chronicles of Yang-chau, Yang-chau fu chi (ed. 1733) '•> ^"^
bears the title: "The Three Cities under the Sung," and the other: "The Great
City under the Sung." The three cities are Pao yew chejig, built in 1256, Sin Pao-
cheng or Kia cheng, built after 1256, and lacheng, the "Great City," built in 1175;

156

MARCO POLO

Book II.

J" U57. T'^ chcn^ was rebuilt, and in 1557 it was augmented, taking the place of the
three cities; from 553 B.C. until the 12th century, Yang-chau had no less than five
enclosures ; the governor's yamen stood where a cross is marked in the Great City.

Since Yang-chau has been laid in ruins by the T'ai-P'ing insurgents, these plans
offer now a new interest. — H. C]

Note 3. — What I have rendered "Twelve Sinks'' is in the G. T. "douze sajes,"
and in Pauthier's text ^'' sieges.'^ It seems to me a reasonable conclusion that the

Chap. LXIX. TPIE CITY OF NANGHIN 1 57

original word was Sings (see I. 432, stipra) ; anyhow that was the proper term for
the thing meant.

In his note on this chapter, Pauthier produces evidence that Yang-chau was the
seat of a Lti or circuit* from 1277, and also of a Sing or Government-General, but
only for the first year after the conquest, viz. 1276- 1277, and he seems (for his
argument is obscure) to make from this the unreasonable deduction tliat at this period
Kiiblai placed Marco Polo — who could not be more than twenty-three years of age,
and had been but two years in Cathay — in charge either of the general government,
or of an important district government in the most important province of the empire.

In a later note M. Pauthier speaks of 1284 as the date at which the Sing oixho.
province of Kiang-che was transferred from Yang-chau to Hang-chau ; this is probably
to be taken as a correction of the former citations, and it better justifies Polo's state-
ment. {Pauthier, pp. 467, 492.)

I do not think that we are to regard Marco as having held at any time the im-
portant post of Governor-General of Kiang-che. The expressions in the G. T. are :
*^ Meser Marc Pol meisme, celui de cui traie ceste livre, seingneurie ceste citi por irois
anz.^' Pauthier's MS. A. appears to read : ^^ Et ot seigneurie, Marc Pol, en ceste citi^
trois ans.^^ These expressions probably point to the government of the Lu or circuit
of Yang-chau, just as we find in ch. Ixxiii. another Christian, Mar Sarghis, mentioned
as Governor of Chin-kiang fu for the same term of years, that city being also the head
ofaZz/!. It is remarkable that in Pauthier's MS. C, which often contains readings
of peculiar value, the passage runs (and also in the Bern MS.): ^^ Et si vous dy que
ledit Messire Marc Pol, cellui meisme de guinostj-e livre pari e, sejourna, en ceste cite de
Jangtiy. iii. ans accompliz, par le commandement du Grant Kaan,'" in which the nature
of his employment is not indicated at all (though sijourna may be an error for
seigneura). The impression of his having been Governor-General is mainly due to the
Ramusian version, which says distinctly indeed that '* M. Marco Polo di commissions
del Gran Can li ebbe il governo tre anni continui in luogo di un dei detti Baroni," but
it is very probable that this is a gloss of the translator. I should conjecture his rule at
Yang-chau to have been between 1282, when we know he was at the capital (vol. i.
p. 422), and 1287- 1288, when he must have gone on his first expedition to the Indian
Seas.

CHAPTER LXIX.

Concerning the City of Nanghin.

Nanghin is a very noble Province towards the west.
The people are Idolaters (and so forth) and live by trade
and manufactures. They have silk in great abundance,
and they weave many fine tissues of silk and gold.
They have all sorts of corn and victuals very cheap, for
the province is a most productive one. Game also is

* The Lu or Circuit was an administrative division under the Mongols, intermediate between the
Sing and the Fu^ or department. There were 185 lu in all China under Kublai. {Pauih. 333). [Mr.
E. L. Oxenham, Hist. Atlas Chin. Einp., reckons 10 provinces or sheng; ig/u cities, 316 chau, 188
lu, 12 military governorships. — H. C]

158 MARCO POLO Book II.

abundant, and lions too are found there. The merchants
are great and opulent, and the Emperor draws a large
revenue from them, in the shape of duties on the goods
which they buy and sell.^

And now I will tell you of the very noble city of
Saianfu, which well deserves a place in our book, for
there is a matter of great moment to tell about it.

Note i. — The name and direction from Yang-chau are probably sufficient to indicate
(as Pauthier has said) that this is Ngan-king on the Kiang, capital of the modern
province of Ngan-hwei. The more celebrated city of Nan-king did not bear that
name in our traveller's time.

Ngan-king, when recovered from the T'ai-P'ing in 1861, was the scene of a frightful
massacre by the Imperialists. They are said to have left neither man, woman, nor
child alive in the unfortunate city. {Blakiston, p. 55.)

CHAPTER LXX.

Concerning the very noble City of Saianfu, and how its Capture

WAS effected.

vSaianfu is a very great and noble city, and it rules over
twelve other large and rich cities, and is itself a seat of
great trade and manufacture. The people are Idolaters
(and so forth). They have much silk, from which they
weave fine silken stuffs ; they have also a quantity of
game, and in short the city abounds in all that it behoves
a noble city to possess.

Now you must know that this city held out against
the Great Kaan for three years after the rest of Manzi
had surrendered. The Great Kaan's troops made in-
cessant attempts to take it, but they could not succeed
because of the great and deep waters that were round
about it, so that they could approach from one side only,
which was the north. And I tell you they never would
have taken it, but for a circumstance that I am going to
relate.

Chap. LXX. THE POLOS MAKE MANGONELS 1 59

You must know that when the Great Kaan's host
had lain three years before the city without being able
to take it, they were greatly chafed thereat. Then Messer
Nicolo Polo and Messer Maffeo and Messer Marco said :
*'We could find you a way of forcing the city to sur-
render speedily ; " whereupon those of the army replied,
that they would be right glad to know how that should
be. All this talk took place in the presence of the Great
Kaan. For messengers had been despatched from the
camp to tell him that there was no taking the city by
blockade, for it continually received supplies of victual
from those sides which they were unable to invest ; and
the Great Kaan had sent back word that take it they
must, and find a way how. Then spoke up the two
brothers and Messer Marco the son, and said: ''Great
Prince, we have with us among our followers men who
are able to construct mangonels which shall cast such
great stones that the garrison will never be able to stand
them, but will surrender incontinently, as soon as the
mangonels or trebuchets shall have shot into the town."^

The Kaan bade them with all his heart have such
mangonels made as speedily as possible. Now Messer
Nicolo and his brother and his son immediately caused
timber to be brought, as much as they desired, and fit
for the work in hand. And they had two men among
their followers, a German and a Nestorian Christian,
who were masters of that business, and . these they
directed to construct two or three mangonels capable of
casting stones of 300 lbs. weight. Accordingly they
made three fine mangonels, each of which cast stones of
300 lbs. weight and more.^ And when they were
complete and ready for use, the Emperor and the others
were greatly pleased to see them, and caused several
stones to be shot in their presence ; whereat they
marvelled greatly and greatly praised the work. And

l6o MARCO POLO Book II.

the Kaan ordered that the engines should be carried
to his army which was at the leaguer of Saianfu.^

And when the engines were got to the camp they
were forthwith set up, to the great admiration of the
Tartars. And what shall I tell you? When the
engines were set up and put in gear, a stone was shot
from each of them into the town. These took effect
among the buildings, crashing and smashing through
everything with huge din and commotion. And when
the townspeople witnessed this new and strange visitation
they were so astonished and dismayed that they wist
not what to do or say. They took counsel together, but
no counsel could be suggested how to escape from these
engines, for the thing seemed to them to be done by
sorcery. They declared that they were all dead men if
they yielded not, so they determined to surrender on
such conditions as they could get.^ Wherefore they
straightway sent word to the commander of the army
that they were ready to surrender oh the same terms as
the other cities of the province had done, and to become
the subjects of the Great Kaan ; and to this the captain
of the host consented.

So the men of the city surrendered, and were received
to terms ; and this all came about through the exertions
of Messer Nicolo, and Messer Maffeo, and Messer
Marco ; and it was no small matter. For this city and
province is one of the best that the Great Kaan possesses,
and brings him in great revenues.^

Note i. — Pauthier's MS. C. here says: "When the Great Kaan, and the Barons
about him, and the messengers from the camp . . . heard this, they all marvelled
greatly ; for I tell you that in all those parts they know nothing of mangonels or
trebuchets ; and they were so far from being accustomed to employ them in their wars
that they had never even seen them, nor knew what they were." The MS. in question
has in this narrative several statements peculiar to itself,* as indeed it has in various
other passages of the book ; and these often look very like the result of revision by

* And to the Bern MS. which seems to be a copy of it, as is also I think (in substance) the Bodleian.

Chap. LXX. CAPTURE OF SAIANFU l6l

Polo himself. Yet I have not introduced the words just quoted into our text, because
they are, as we shall see presently, notoriously contrary to fact.

Note 2. — The same MS. has here a passage which I am unable to understand.
After the words "300 lbs. and more," it goes on : " Et la veoit Ten voler moult
loing, desquelles pierres il en y aToii phis de Ix routes qui taut niontoit tune coninie
V autre.'''' The Bern has the same. [Perhaps we might read Ix en routes, viz. on
their way. — H. C]

Note 3. — I propose here to enter into some detailed explanation regarding the
military engines that were in use in the Middle Ages. * None of these depended for their
motive force on torsion like the chief engines used in classic times. However numerous
the names applied to them, with reference to minor variations in construction or
differences in power, they may all be reduced to two classes, v\z. great slings zxA great
crossbows. And this is equally true of all the three great branches of mediaeval
civilisation — European, Saracenic, and Chinese. To the first class belonged the
Trebuchet and Mangonel ; to the second, the Winch- Arblast (Arbalete a Tour),
Springold, etc.

Whatever the ancient Batista may have been, the word in mediaeval Latin seems
always to mean some kind of crossbow. The heavier crossbows were wound up by
various aids, such as winches, ratchets, etc. They discharged stone shot, leaden bullets,
and short; square-shafted arrows called quarrels, and these with such force we are
told as to pierce a six-inch post (?). But they were worked so slowly in the field that
they were no match for the long-bow, which shot five or six times to their once. The
great machines of this kind were made of wood, of steel, and very frequently of horn ;t
and the bow was sometimes more than 30 feet in length. Dufour calculates that such
a machine could shoot an arrow of half a kilogram in weight to a distance of about
860 yards.

The Trebttchet consisted of a long tapering shaft or beam, pivoted at a short
distance from the butt end on a pair of strong pyramidal trestles. At the other end of
the shaft a sling was applied, one cord of which was firmly attached by a ring, whilst
the other hung in a loop over an iron hook which formed the extremity of the shaft.
The power employed to discharge the sling was either the strength of a number of
men, applied to ropes which were attached to the short end of the shaft or lever, or
the weight of a heavy counterpoise hung from the same, and suddenly released.

Supposing the latter force to be employed, the long end of the shaft was drawn
down by a windlass ; the sling was laid forward in a wooden trough provided for it,
and charged with the ^hot. The counterpoise was, of course, now aloft, and was so
maintained by a detent provided with a trigger. On pulling this, the counterpoise
falls and the shaft flies upwards drawing the sling. When a certain point is reached
the loop end of the sling releases itself from the hook, and the sling flies abroad

* In this note I am particularly indebted to the researches of the Emperor Napoleon III. on this
subject. {Etudes sur le passe et t'avenir de t Artillerie ; 1851.)

t Thus Joinville mentions the journey of Jehan li Ermin, the king's artillerist, from Acre to
Damascus, pour acheter comes et gins pour /aire arbalestres — to buy horns and glue to make
crossbows withal (p. 134).

In the final defence of Acre (1291) we hear of balistae bipedales (with a forked rest?) and other
vertiginates (traversing on a pivot?) that shot 3 quarrels at once, and with such force as to stitch the
Saracens to their bucklers — cum ctypeis consutos interfecerunt.

The crossbow, though apparently indigenous among various tribes of Indo-China, seems to have
been a new introduction in European warfare in the 12th century. William of Brittany in a poem
called the Philippis, speaking of the early days of Philip Augustus, says : —

" Francigenis nostris illis ignota diebus
Res erat omnino quid balistarius arcus,
Quid balista foret, nee habebat in agniine toto
Rex quenquam sciret armis qui talibus uti."

— Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script., V. 115,

Anna Comnena calls it T.^'a'ypQ, (which looks like Persian charkJi), "a barbaric bow, totally un-
known to the Greeks" ; and she gives a very lengthy description of it, ending : " Such then are the
facts about the Tzagra, and a truly diabolical affair it is." {Atex. X. — Paris ed.' p. 291.)

VOL. IL L

Chap. LXX. MEDIEVAL ARTILLERY ENGINES 163

whilst the shot is projected in its parabolic flight.* To secure the most favourable
result the shot should have acquired its maximum velocity, and should escape at an
angle of about 45°. The attainment of this required certain proportions between the
different dimensions of the machine and the weight of the shot, for which, doubtless,
traditional rules of thumb existed among the mediaeval engineers.

The ordinary shot consisted of stones carefully rounded. Hut for these were
substituted on occasion rough stones with fuses attached, f pieces of red-hot iron, pots
of fused metal, or casks full of Greek fire or of foul matter to corrupt the air of the
besieged place. Thus carrion was shot into Negropont from such engines by
Mahomed II. The Cardinal Octavian, besieging Modena in 1249, slings a dead ass
into the town. Froissart several times mentions such measures, as at the siege of
Thin I'Eveque on the Scheldt in 1340, when "the besiegers by their engines flung
dead horses and other carrion into the castle to poison the garrison by their smell."
In at least one instance the same author tells how a living man, an unlucky messenger
from the Castle of Auberoche, was caught by the besiegers, thrust into the sling with
the letters that he bore hung round his neck, and shot into Auberoche, where he fell
dead among his horrified comrades. And Lipsius quotes from a Spanish Chronicle
the story of a virtuous youth, Pelagius, who, by order of the Tyrant Abderramin, was
shot across the Guadalquivir, but lighted unharmed upon the rocks beyond. Ramon
de Muntaner relates how King James of Aragon, besieging Majorca in 1228, vowed
vengeance against the Saracen King because he shot Christian prisoners into the
besiegers' camp with his trebuchets (pp. 223-224). We have mentioned one kind of
corruption propagated by these engines ; the historian Wassaf tells of another. When
the garrison of Dehli refused to open the gates to Alauddin Khilji after the murder
of his uncle, Firiiz (1296), he loaded his mangonels with bags of gold and shot them
into the fort, a measure which put an end to the opposition.

Ibn Batuta, forty years later, describes Mahomed Tughlak as entering Dehli
accompanied by elephants carrying small balistae [ra^dddl), from which gold and
silver pieces were shot among the crowd. And the same king, when he had given
the crazy and cruel order that the population of Dehli should evacuate the city and
depart to Deogir, 900 miles distant, having found two men skulking behind, one
of whom was paralytic and the other blind, caused the former to be shot from a
mangonel. (/. B. III. 395, 315.)

Some old drawings represent the shaft as discharging the shot from a kind of
spoon at its extremity, without the aid of a sling [e.g. fig. 13) ; but it may be doubted
if this was actually used, for the sling was essential to the efficiency of the engine.
The experiments and calculations of Dufour show that without the sling, other
things remaining the same, the range of the shot would be reduced by more than a
half

In some of these engines the counterpoise, consisting of a timber case filled with
stones, sand, or the like, was permanently fixed to the butt-end of the shaft. This
seems to have been the Trebuchet proper. In others the counterpoise hung free on a
pivot from the yard ; whilst a third kind (as in fig. 17) combined both arrangements.
The first kind shot most steadily and truly ; the second with more force.

Those machines, in which the force of men pulling cords took the place of the
counterpoise, could not discharge such weighty shot, but they could be worked more
rapidly, and no doubt could be made of lighter scantling. Mr. Hewitt points out a
curious resemblance between this kind of Trebuchet and the apparatus used on the
Thames to raise the cargo from the hold of a collier.

The Emperor Napoleon deduces from certain passages in mediaeval writers that the
Mangonel was similar to the Trebuchet, but of lighter structure and power. But

* The construction is best seen in Figs. 17 and 19. Figs, i, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the cut are from Chinese
sources ; Figs. 6, 7, 8 from Arabic works ; the rest from European sources.

t Christine de Pisan says that when keeping up a discharge by night lighted brands should be
attached to the stones in order to observe and correct the practice. (Livre des/aits, ^tc, du sag^e
Roy Charles, Pt. II. ch. xxiv.)

VOL. IL L 2

/64 MARCO POLO Book II.

often certainly the term Mangonel seems to be used generically for all machines of
this class. Marino Sanudo uses no word but Machina, which he appears to
employ as the Latin equivalent of Mangonel, whilst the machine which he
describes is a Trebuchet with moveable counterpoise. The history of the word
appears to be the following. The Greek word fidyyavov, "apiece of witchcraft."
came to signify a juggler's trick, an unexpected contrivance (in modern slang "a
j'im^^), and so specially a military engine. It seems to have reached this specific
meaning by the time of Hero the Younger, who is believed to have written in the
first half of the 7th century. From the form /xayyaviKbv the Orientals got Manganik
and Manjdnik* whilst the Franks adopted Mangona and Mangonella. Hence the
verbs manganare and anianganare, to batter and crush with such engines, and
eventually our verb "to mangle." Again, when the use of gunpowder rendered
these warlike engines obsolete, perhaps their ponderous counterweights were utilised
in the peaceful arts of the laundry, and hence gave us our substantive "the Mangle"
(It. Mcmgand) !

The Emperor Napoleon, when Prince President, caused some interesting ex-
periments in the matter of mediaeval artillery to be carried out at Vincennes, and a
full-sized trebuchet was constructed there. With a shaft of 33 feet 9 inches in length,
having a permanent counterweight of 3300 lbs. and a pivoted counterweight of
6600 lbs. more, the utmost effect attained was the discharge of an iron 24-kilo. shot
to a range of 191 yards, whilst a 12^-inch shell, filled with earth, ranged to 131 yards.
The machine suffered greatly at each discharge, and it was impracticable to increase
the counterpoise to 80CO kilos., or 17,600 lbs. as the Prince desired. It was evident
that the machine was not of sufficiently massive structure. But the officers in charge
satisfied themselves that, with practice in such constructions and the use of very
massive timber, even the exceptional feats recorded of mediaeval engineers might be
realised.

Such a case is that cited by Quatremere, from an Oriental author, of the dis-
charge of stones weighing ifio inmis, certainly not less than 800 lbs., and possibly
much more ; or that of the Men of Bern, who are reported, when besieging Nidau in
1388, to have employed trebuchets which shot daily into the town upwards of 200
blocks weighing 12 cwt. apiece, f Stella relates that the Genoese armament sent
against Cyprus, in 1373, among other great machines had one called Troja {Truia?),
which cast stones of 12 to 18 hundredweights ; and when the Venetians were
besieging the revolted city of Zara in 1346, their Engineer, Master Francesco delle
Barche, shot into the city stones of 3000 lbs. weight. J In this case the unlucky
engineer was "hoist with his own petard," for while he stood adjusting one of his
engines, it went off, and shot him into the town.

With reference to such cases the Emperor calculates that a stone of 3000 lbs.
weight might be shot 'J^ yards with a counterpoise of 36,000 lbs. weight, and a shaft
65 feet long. The counterpoise, composed of stone shot of 55 lbs. each, might be
contained in a cubical case of about 5^ feet to the side. The machine would be
preposterous, but there is nothing impossible about it. Indeed in the Album of
Villard de Honnecourt, an architect of the 13th century, which was published at
Paris in 1858, in the notes accompanying a plan of a trebuchet (from which

* Professor Sprenger informs me that the first mention of the Manjanik in Mahomedan history is
at the siege of Tayif by Mahomed himself, a.d. 630 (and see Sprenger s Mohammed [German], III.
330). The Annales Marbacenses in Pertz, xvii. 172, say under 1212, speaking of wars of the Emperor
Otho in Germany: " Ibi tunc cepit haberi usus instrumenti belHci quod vulgo tribok appellari
solet."

There is a ludicrous Oriental derivation of Manjanik, from the Persian : " Man chi nek " ! " How
good am I ! " Ibn Khallikan remarks that the word must be foreign, because the letters j and k

(O ^"d O / never occur together in genuine Arabic words {Notes by Mr. E. Thomas, F.R.S.). It
maybe noticed that the letters in question occur together in another Arabic word of foreign origin
used by Polo, viz. /rti?/z(a!//^.

t Dufour mentions that stone shot of the mediaeval eng".nes exist at Zurich, of 20 and 2a inches
diameter. The largest of these would, however, scarcely exceed 500 lbs. in weight.

{ Georg. Stellae Ann. in Muratoti, XVII. 1105 ; and Daru, Bk. viii. § 12,

Chap. LXX. MEDIEVAL ARTILLERY ENGINES 1 65

Professor Willis restored the machine as it is shown in our fig. 19), the artist remarks :
"It is a great job to heave down the beam, for the counterpoise is very heavy. For
it consists of a chest full of earth which is 2 great toises in length, 8 feet in breadth,
and 12 feet in depth" ! (p. 203).

Such calculations enable us to understand the enormous quantities of material said
to have been used in some of the larger mediaeval machines. Thus Abulfeda speaks
of one used at the final capture of Acre, which was entrusted to the troops of Hamath,
and which formed a load for 100 carts, of which one was in charge of the historian
himself. The romance of Richard Coeur de Lion tells how in the King's Fleet an
entire ship was taken up by one such machine with its gear : —

" Another schyp was laden yet
With an engyne hyghte Robinet,
(It was Richardys o mangonel)
And all the takyl that thereto fel."

Twenty-four machines, captured from the Saracens by St. Lewis in his first partial
success on the Nile, afforded material for stockading his whole camp. A great
machine which cumbered the Tower of St. Paul at Orleans, and was dismantled
previous to the celebrated defence against the English, furnished 26 cart-loads of
timber. {Abtilf. Ann. Musiem, V. 95-97 ; Weber, II. 56 ; Michel's Joinville, App.
p. 278 ; /ollois, H. du Siege d Orleans, 1833, P- ^2.)

The number of such engines employed was sometimes very great. We have seen
that Si. Lewis captured 24 at once, and these had been employed in the field.
Villehardouin says that the fleet which went from Venice to the attack of
Constantinople carried more than 300 perriers and mangonels, besides quantities of
other engines required for a siege (ch. xxxviii). At the siege of Acre in 1291, just
referred to, the Saracens, according to Makrizi, set 92 engines in battery against the
city, whilst Abulfaraj says 300, and a Frank account, of great and small, 666. The
larger ones are said to have shot stones of "a kantar and even more." {Makrizi,
III. 125; Reinaud, Chroniqiies Arabes, etc., p. 570; De Excidio Urbis Acconis, in
Marlcne and Durand, V. 769. )

How heavy a viangonade was sometimes kept up may be understood from the
account of the operations on the Nile, already alluded to. The King was trying to
run a dam across a branch of the river, and had protected the head of his work by
' ' cat-castles " or towers of timber, occupied by archers, and these again supported by
trebuchets, etc., in battery. " And," says Jean Pierre Sarrasin, the King's Chamber-
lain, "when the Saracens saw what was going on, they planted a great number of
engines against ours, and to destroy our towers and our causeway they shot such
vast quantities of stones, great and small, that all men stood amazed. They slung
stones, and discharged arrows, and shot quarrels from winch-arblasts, and pelted us
with Turkish darts and Greek fire, and kept up such a harassment of every kind
against our engines and our men working at the causeway, that it was horrid either
to see or to hear. Stones, darts, arrows, quarrels, and Greek fire came down on
them like rain."

The Emperor Napoleon observes that the direct or grazing fire of the great
arblasts may be compared to that of guns in more modern war, whilst the mangonels
represent mortar-fire. And this vertical fire was by no means contemptible, at least
against buildings of ordinary construction. At the sieges of Thin I'Eveque in 1340,
and Auberoche in 1344, already cited, Froissart says the French cast stones in, night
and day, so as in a few days to demolish all the roofs of the towers, and none within
durst venture out of the vaulted basement.

The Emperor's experiments showed that these machines were capable of sur-
prisingly accurate direction. And the mediaeval histories present some remarkable
feats of this kind. Thus, in the attack of Mortagne by the men of Hainault and
Valenciennes (1340), the latter had an engine which was a great annoyance to
the garrison ; there was a clever engineer in the garrison who set up another machine ^

1 66 MARCO POLO Book II.

against it, and adjusted it so well that the first shot fell within 12 paces of the
enemy's engine, the second fell near the box, and the third struck the shaft and split
it in two.

Already in the first half of the 13th century, a French poet (quoted by Weber)
looks forward with disgust to the supercession of the feats of chivalry by more
mechanical methods of war : —

*' Chevaliers sont esperdus,
Cil ont auques leur tens perdus ;
Arbalestier et mineor
Et perrier et engigneor
Seront dorenavant plus chier."

When Ghazdn Khan was about to besiege the castle of Damascus in 1300, so much
importance was attached to this art that whilst his Engineer, a man of reputation
therein, was engaged in preparing the machines, the Governor of the castle offered a
reward of 1000 dinars for that personage's head. And one of the garrison was daring
enough to enter the Mongol camp, stab the Engineer, and carry back his head into
the castle !

Marino Sanudo, about the same time, speaks of the range of these engines with
a prophetic sense of the importance of artillery in war : —

"On this subject (length of range) the engineers and experts of the army should
employ their very sharpest wits. For if the shot of one army, v/hether engine-stones
or pointed projectiles, have a longer range than the shot of the enemy, rest assured
that the side whose artillery hath the longest range will have a vast advantage in
action. Plainly, if the Christian shot can take effect on the Pagan forces, whilst the
Pagan shot cannot reach the Christian forces, it may be safely asserted that the
Christians will continually gain ground from the enemy, or, in other words, they
will win the battle."

The importance of these machines in war, and the efforts made to render them
more effective, went on augmenting till the introduction of the still more " villanous
saltpetre," even then, however, coming to no sudden halt. Several of the instances
that we have cited of machines of extraordinary power belong to a time when the use
of cannon had made some progress. The old ent;ines were employed by Timur ; in
the wars of the Hussites as late as 1422 ; and, as we have seen, up to the middle of
that century by Mahomed II. They are also distinctly represented on the towers of
Aden, in the contemporary print of the escalade in 15 14, reproduced in this volume.
(Bk. III. ch. xxxvi.)

{Etudes sur le Fassd et VAvenir de VArtillerie, par L. N. Bonaparte, etc., tom.
II. ; Marinus Saniitms, Bk. II. Pt. 4, ch. xxi. and xxii. ; Kington's Fred. //., II.
488; Froissart, I. 69, 81, 182; Elliot, III. 41, etc. ; Hewitt's Ancient Armour, I.
350; Pertz^ Scriptores, XVIII. 420, 751 ; Q. R. 135-7; Weber, III. 103; Hammer,
llch. II. 95-)

Note 4. — Very like this is what the Romance of Coeur de Lion tells of the effects
of Sir Fulke Doyley's mangonels on the Saracens oi Ebedy : —

" Sir Fouke brought good engynes

Swylke knew but fewe Sarazynes —

* * *

A prys tour stood ovyr the Gate ;

He bent his engynes and threw thereate

A great stone that harde droff,

That the Tour al to roff

* * *

And slough the folk that therinne stood ;

The other fledde and wer nygh wood,

And sayde it was the devylys dent," etc. — Weber ^ II. 172.

Chap. LXX. SIEGE OF SAIANFU 1 67

Note 5. —This chapter is one of the most perplexing in the whole book, owing
to the chronological difficulties involved.

Saianfu is SiANG-YANG FU, which stands on the south bank of the River Han,
and with the sister city of Fan-ch'eng, on the opposite bank, commands the junction
of two important approaches to the southern provinces, viz. that from Shen-si down
the Han, and that from Shan-si and Peking down the Pe-ho. Fan-ch'eng seems now
to be the more important place of the two.

The name given to the city by Polo is precisely that which Siang-yang bears in
Rashiduddin, and there is no room for doubt as to its identity.

The Chinese historians relate that Kublai was strongly advised to make the
capture of Siang-yang and Fan-ch'eng a preliminary to his intended attack upon the
Sung. The siege was undertaken in the latter part of 1268, and the twin cities held
out till the spring [March] of 1273. Nor did Kublai apparently prosecute any other
operations against the Sung during that long interval.

Now Polo represents that the long siege of Saianfu, instead of being a prologue
to the subjugation of Manzi, was the protracted epilogue of that enterprise ; and he
also represents the fall of the place as caused by advice and assistance rendered by
his father, his uncle, and himself, a circumstance consistent only with the siege's
having really been such an epilogue to the war. For, according to the narrative as it
stands in all the texts, the Polos could not have reached the Court of Kublai before
the end of 1274, i.e. a year and a half after the fall of Siang-yang, as represented in the
Chinese histories.

The difficulty is not removed, nor, it appears to me, abated in any degree, by
omitting the name of Marco as one of the agents in this affair, an omission which
occurs both in Pauthier's MS. B and in Ramusio. Pauthier suggests that the father
and uncle may have given the advice and assistance in question when on their first
visit to the Kaan, and when the siege of Siang-yang was first contemplated. But this
would be quite inconsistent with the assertion that the place had held out three years
longer than the rest of Manzi, as well as with the idea that their aid had abridged the
duration of the siege, and, in fact, with the spirit of the whole story. It is certainly
very difficult in this case to justify Marco's veracity, but I am very unwilling to
believe that there was no justification in the facts.

It is a very curious circumstance that the historian Wassaf also appears to represent
Saianfu (see note 5, ch. Ixv.) as holding out after all the rest of Manzi had been
conquered. Yet the Chinese annals are systematic, minute, and consequent, and it
seems impossible to attribute to them such a misplacement of an event which they
represent as the key to the conquest of Southern China.

In comparing Marco's story with that of the Chinese, we find the same coincidence
in prominent features, accompanying a discrepancy in details, that we have had
occasion to notice in other cases where his narrative intersects history. The Chinese
account runs as follows : —

In 1271, after Siang-yang and Fan-ch'eng had held out already nearly three years,
an Uighur General serving at the siege, whose name was Alihaiya, urged the Emperor
to send to the West for engineers expert at the construction and working of machines
casting stones of 150 lbs. weight. With such aid he assured Kiiblai the place would
speedily be taken. Kublai sent to his nephew Abaka in Persia for such engineers,
and two were accordingly sent post to China, Alawating of Mufali and his pupil
Ysemain of Huli or Hiulie (probably Ala^uddin oi Miafarakain and Ismaeloi Heri or
Herat). Kublai on their arrival gave them military rank. They exhibited their skill
before the Emperor at Tatu, and in the latter part of 1272 they reached the camp
before Siang-yang, and set up their engines. The noise made by the machines, and
the crash of the shot as it broke through everything in its fall, caused great alarm in
the garrison. Fan-ch'eng was first taken by assault, and some weeks later Siang-yang
surrendered.

The shot used on this occasion weighed 125 Chinese pounds (if catties ^ then equal
to about 166 Ihs. avoird.), and penetrated 7 or 8 feet into the earth.

1 68 MARCO POLO Book II.

Rashiduddin also mentions the siege of Siangyang, as we learn from D'Ohsson.
He states that as there were in China none of the Manjanlks or Mangonels called
Kuni^qhd, the Kaan caused a certain engineer to be sent from Damascus or Balbek,
and the three sons of this person, Abubakr, Ibrahim, and Mahomed, with their work-
men, constructed seven great Manjanfks which were employed against Sayanfu, a
frontier fortress and bulwark of Manzi.

We thus see that three different notices of the siege of Siang-yang, Chinese, Persian,
and Venetian, all concur as to the employment of foreign engineers from the West,
but all differ as to the individuals.

We have seen that one of the MSS. makes Polo assert that till this event the
Mongols and Chinese were totally ignorant of mangonels and trebuchets. This, how-
ever, is quite untrue ; and it is not very easy to reconcile even the statement, implied
in all versions of the story, that mangonels of considerable power were unknown in
the far East, with other circumstances related in Mongol history.

The Persian History called labakdt-i-Ndsiri speaks of Aikah Nowin the Manjaniki
Khds or Engineer-in-Chief to Chinghiz Khan, and his corps of ten thousand Man-
jantkis or Mangonellers. The Chinese histories used by Gaubil also speak of these
artillery battalions of Chinghiz. At the siege of Kai-fung fu near the Hwang-Ho, the
latest capital of the Kin Emperors, in 1232, the Mongol General, Subutai, threw from
his engines great quarters of millstones which smashed the battlements and watch-
towers on the ramparts, and even the great timbers of houses in the city. In 1236
we find the Chinese garrison of Chinchau {I-chin-hien on the Great Kiang near the
Great Canal) repelling the Mongol attack, partly by means of their stone shot.
When Hulaku was about to march against Persia (1253), his brother, the Great Kaan
Mangku, sent to Cathay to fetch thence 1000 families of mangonellers, naphiha-
shooters, and arblasteers. Some of tbe crossbows used by these latter had a range, we
are told, of 2500 paces ! European history bears some similar evidence. One of the
Tartar characteristics reported by a fugitive Russian Archbishop, in Matt. Paris
(p. 570 under 1244), is : '■'■ Machiiias habent ■muliipHces, rede et fortiter jacienles.''''

It is evident, therefore, that the Mongols and Chinese had engines of war, but that
they were deficient in som.e advantage possessed by those of the Western nations.
Rashiduddin's expression as to their having no Kumghd mangonels, seems to be
unexplained. Is it perhaps an error for Kardhtcghd, the name given by the Turks
and Arabs to a kind of great mangonel? This was known also in Europe as
Carabaga, Calabra, etc. It is mentioned under the former name by Marino Sanudo,
and under the latter, with other quaintly-named engines, by William of Tudela, as
used by Simon de Montfort the Elder against the Albigenses : —

" E dressa sos Calabres, et foi Mai Vezina
E sas autras pereiras, e Dona, e Reina ;
Pessia les autz murs e la sala peirina." *

(*' He set up his Caldbers, and likewise his Ill-Neighbours,
With many a more machine, this the Lady, that the Queeti,
And breached the lofty walls, and smashed the stately Halls.")

Now, in looking at the Chinese representations of their ancient mangonels, which
are evidently genuine, and of which I have given some specimens (figs, i, 2, 3),
I see none worked by the counterpoise ; all (and there are six or seven different repre-
sentations in the work from which these are taken) are shown as worked by man-ropes.
Hence, probably, the improvement brought from the West was essentially the use ol
the counterpoised lever. And, after I had come to this conclusion, I found it to be
the view of Captain Fave. (See Du Feu Grigeois, by MM. Reinaud and Fave,

P- I93-)

In Ramusio the two Polos propose to Kiiblai to make ^^ mangani al niodo di

•* Shaw, Dresses and Decorations o/the Middle Ages, vol. i. No. ax.

Chap. LXX.

MONGOL ARTILLERY ENGINES

169

Ponenie^'' ; and it is worthy of note that in the campaigns of Alaudin Khilji and his
generals in the Deccan, circa 1300, frequent mention is made of the Western
Manjaniks and their great power. (See Elliot, III. 75, 78, ttc.)

Of the kind worked by man-ropes must have been that huge mangonel which
Mahomed Ibn Kasim, the conqueror of Sind, set in battery against the great Dagoba
of Daibul, and which required 500 men to work it. Like Simon de Montfort's it had
a tender name ; it was called "The Bride." {Elliot, I. 120.)

Before quitting this subject, I will quote a curious passage from the History of the
Sung Dynasty, contributed to the work of Reinaud and Fave by M. Stanislas Julien :
"In the 9th year of the period Hien-shun (a.d. 1273) the frontier cities had fallen
into the hands of the enemy (Tartars). The Pao (or engines for shooting) of the
Hwei-IIwei (Mahomedans) were imitated, but in imitating them very ingenious
improvements were introduced, and pao of a different and very superior kind were
constructed. Moreover, an extraordinary method was invented of neutralising the
effects of the enemy's pao. Ropes were made of rice-straw 4 inches thick, and 34
feet in length. Twenty such ropes were joined, applied to the tops of buildings,
and covered with clay. In this manner the fire-arrows, fire-/a^, and even the pao
casting stones of 100 lbs. weight, could cause no damage to the towers or houses."
{lb. 196 ; also for previous parts of this note, Visdelou, 188 ; Gatibil, 34, 155 seqq.
and 70; De Mailla, 329 ; Paitthier in loco and Introduction; D'Ohsson, II. 35, and
391 ; Notes hy Mr. Edward Thomas, F.R.S. ; Q. Rashid., pp. 132, 136.) [See I.
P- 342.]

[Captain Gill writes {River of Golden Sand, I. p. 148): "The word *P'ao'
which now means 'cannon,' was, it was asserted, found in old Chinese books of a
date anterior to that in which gunpowder was first known to Europeans ; hence the
deduction was drawn that the Chinese were acquainted with gunpowder before it was
used in the West. But close examination shows that in all old books the radical of
the character * P'ao ' means ' stone,' but that in modern books the radical of the
character ' P'ao' means ' fire' ; that the character with the radical ' fire' only appears
in books well known to have been written since the introduction of gunpowder into
the West ; and that the old character ' P'ao' in I'eality means ' Balista.' " — H. C]

[" Wheeled boats are mentioned in 1272 at the siege of Siang-yang. Kublai did
not decide to 'go for' Manzi, i.e. the southern of the two Chinese Empires, until
1273. Bayan did not start until 1274, appearing
before Hankow in January 1275. Wuhu and Taiping
surrendered in April ; then Chinkiang, Kien K'ang
(Nanking), and Ning kwoh ; the final crushing blow
being dealt at Hwai-chan. In March 1276, the Manzi
Emperor accepted vassaldom. Kiang-nan was regularly-
administered in 1278." {E. H. Parker, China Review,
xxiv. p. 105.)— H, C]

Siang-yang has been twice visited by Mr. A. Wylie.
Just before his first visit (I believe in 1866) a discovery
had been made in the city of a quantity of treasure
buried at the time of the siege. One of the local
officers gave Mr. Wylie one of the copper coins, not
indeed in itself of any great rarity, but worth engraving
here on account of its connection with the siege com-
memorated in the text ; and a little on the principle of Smith the Weaver's evidence

Coin from a treasure hidden at
Siang-yang during the siege
in 1268-73, lately discovered.

"The bricks are alive at this day to testify of it ; therefore der

170 MARCO POLO Book II

CHAPTER LXXI.

Concerning the City of Sinju and the Great River Kian.

You must know that when you leave the city of Yanju,
after gonig 1 5 miles south-east, you come to a city called
Sinju, of no great size, but possessing a very great
amount of shipping and trade. The people are Idolaters
and subject to the Great Kaan, and use paper-money.^

And you must know that this city stands on the
greatest river in the world, the name of which is Kian. It
is in some places ten miles wide, in others eight, in others
six, and it is more than 100 days' journey in length from
one end to the other. This it is that brings so much trade
to the city we are speaking of; for on the waters of that
river merchandize is perpetually coming and going, from
and to the various parts of the world, enriching the city,
and bringing a great revenue to the Great Kaan.

And I assure you this river flows so far and traverses
so many countries and cities that in good sooth there pass
and repass on its waters a great number of vessels, and
more wealth and merchandize than on all the rivers and
all the seas of Christendom put together! It seems
indeed more like a Sea than a River.^ Messer Marco
Polo said that he once beheld at that city 15,000 vessels
at one time. And you may judge, if this city, of no
great size, has such a number, how many must there be
altogether, considering that on the banks of this river
there are more than sixteen provinces and more than
200 great cities, besides towns and villages, all possessing
vessels ?

Messer Marco 'Polo aforesaid tells us that he heard
from the officer employed to collect the Great Kaan's
duties on this river that there passed up-stream '200,000

Chap. LXXI. THE GREAT RIVER KIAN 171

vessels in the year, without counting those that passed
down! [Indeed as it has a course of such great length,
and receives so many other navigable rivers, it is no
wonder that the merchandize which is borne on it is of
vast amount and value. And the article in largest quan-
tity of all is salt, which is carried by this river and its
branches to all the cities on their banks, and thence to
the other cities in the interior.^]

The vessels which ply on this river are decked.
They have but one mast, but they are of great burthen,
for I can assure you they carry (reckoning by our weight)
from 4000 up to 12,000 cantars each.*

Now we will quit this matter and I will tell you of
another city called Caiju. But first I must mention a
point I had forgotten. You must know that the vessels
on this river, in going up-stream have to be tracked, for
the current is so strong that they could not make head
in any other manner. Now the tow-line, which is some
300 paces in length, is made of nothing but cane. 'Tis
in this way : they have those great canes of which I
told you before that they are some fifteen paces in length ;
these they take and split from end to end [into many
slender strips], and then they twist these strips together
so as to make a rope of any length they please. And
the ropes so made are stronger than if they were made
of hemp.^

[There are at many places on this river hills and
rocky eminences on which the idol-monasteries and
other edifices are built ; and you find on its shores a
constant succession of villages and inhabited places.^

Note i. — The traveller's diversion from his direct course — sceloc or south-east, as
he regards it — towards Fo-kien, in order to notice Ngan-king (as we have supposed)
and Siang-yang, has sadly thrown out both the old translators and transcribers, and
the modern commentators. Though the G. Text has here '■^ quant? en se part de la
citi de Angui," I cannot doubt that langui (Yanju) is the reading intended, and
that Polo here comes back to the main line of his journey.

Chap. LXXI. THE KIANG 1 73

I conceive Sinju to be the city which was then called Ch^n-chau, but now
I-CHING HIEN,* and which stands on the Kiang as near as may be 15 miles from
Yang-chau. It is indeed south-west instead of south-east, but those who have
noted the style of Polo's orientation will not attach much importance to this.
I-ching hien is still the great port of the Yang-chau salt manufacture, for export by
the Kiang and its branches to the interior provinces. It communicates with the
Grand Canal by two branch canals. Admiral Coilinson, in 1842, remarked the
great numbers of vessels lying in the creek off I-ching. (See note i to ch. Ixviii.
above; and/. R, G. S. XVII. 139.)

["We anchored at a place near the town of Y-ching-hien, distinguished by a
pagoda. The most remarkable objects that struck us here were some enormously
large salt-junks of a very singular shape, approaching to a crescent, with sterns at
least thirty feet above the water, and bows that were two-thirds of that height.
They had ' bright sides,' that is, were varnished over the natural wood without
painting, a very common style in China." {Davis, Sketches, II. p. 13.) — II. C]

Note 2. — The river is, of course, the Great Kiang or Yang-tzii Kiang (already
spoken of in ch. xliv. as the Kianstii), which Polo was justified in calling
the greatest river in the world, whilst the New World was yet hidden. The
breadth seems to be a good deal exaggerated, the length not at all. His expressions
about it were perhaps accompanied by a mental reference to the term Dalai, " The
Sea," which the Mongols appear to have given the river. (See Fr. Odoric, p. 121.)
The Chinese have a popular saying, " Ha'i vu ping, Kiang vu tt," " Boundless is the
Ocean, bottomless the Kiang ! "

Note 3. — " The assertion that there is a greater amount of tonnage belonging to
the Chinese than to all other nations combined, does not appear overcharged to those
who have seen the swarms of boats on their rivers, though it might not be found
strictly true." {Mid. Kingd. II. 398.) Barrow's picture of the life, traffic, and
population on the Kiang, excepting as to specific numbers, quite bears out Marco's
account. This part of China suffered so long from the wars of the T'ai-P'ing rebellion
that to travellers it has presented thirty years ago an aspect sadly belying its old fame.
Such havoc is not readily repaired in a few years, nor in a few centuries, but prosperity
is reviving, and European navigation is making an important figure on the Kiang.

[From the Rehirns of Trade for the Year 1900 of the Imperial Maritime Customs
of China, we take the following figures regarding the navigation on the Kiang.
Steamers entered inwards and cleared outwards, under General Regulations at
Chung-King: i; 331 tons; sailing vessels, 2681; 84,862 tons, of which Chinese,
816; 27,684 tons. At Ichang: 314; 231,000 tons, of which Chinese, 118; 66,944
tons; sailing vessels, all Chinese, 5139; 163,320 tons. At Shasi: 606; 453,818
tons, of which Chinese, 606; 453,818 tons; no sailing vessels. At Yochow : 650;
299,962 tons, of which Chinese, 458; 148,112 tons; no sailing vessels; under
Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 280 Chinese vessels, 20,958 tons. At Hankow:
under General Regulation, Steamers, 2314; 2,101,555 tons, of which Chinese, 758;
462,424 tons ; sailing vessels, 1137; 166,118 tons, of which Chinese, 1129; 163,724
tons ; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 1682 Chinese vessels, 31,173 tons. At
Kiu-Kiang : under General Regulation, Steamers, 2916; 3,393,514 tons, of which
Chinese, 478 ; 697,468 tons ; sailing vessels, 163 ; 29,996 tons, of which Chinese, 160;
27,797 tons; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 798 Chinese vessels; 21,670 tons.
At Wti-hu: under General Regulation, Steamers,3395 ; 3,713, 172 tons, of which Chinese,
540; 678,362 tons; sailing vessels, 356; 48,299 tons, of which Chinese, 355; 47,848 tons;
under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 286 Chinese vessels ; 4272 tons. At Nanking:
under General Regulation, Steamers, 1672; 1,138,726 tons, of which Chinese, 970;
713,232 tons; sailing vessels, 290; 36,873 tons, of which Chinese, 281 ; 34,985 tons;
under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 30 Chinese vessels ; 810 tons. At Chinkiang:

* See Gaubil, p. 93, note ^ ; Biot, p. 275 [and Play/air's Did., p. 393].

174 MARCO POLO Book II.

under General Regulation, Steamers, 4710; 4,413,452 tons, of which Chinese, 924 ;
794,724 tons ; sailing vessels, 1793 ; 294,664 tons, of which Chinese, 1771 ; 290,286
tons ; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 2920 ; 39,346 tons, of which Chinese,
1684; 22,776 tons.— H. C]

Note 4. — --12,000 cantars would be more than 500 tons, and this is justified
by the burthen of Chinese vessels on the river ; we see it is more than doubled
by that of some British or American steamers thereon. In the passage referred
to under Note i. Admiral Collinson speaks of the salt-junks at I-ching as " very remark-
able, being built nearly in the form of a crescent, the stern rising in some of them
nearly 30 feet and the prow 20, whilst the mast is 90 feet high." These dimensions
imply large capacity Oliphant speaks of the old rice-junks for the canal traffic as
transporting 200 and 300 tons (I. 197).

Note 5. — The tow-line in river-boats is usually made (as here described) of strips
of bamboo twisted. Hawsers are also made of bamboo. Ramusio, in this passage,
says the boats are tracked by horses, ten or twelve to each vessel. I do not find this
mentioned anywhere else, nor has any traveller in China that I have consulted heard
of such a thing.

Note 6. — Such eminences as are here alluded to are the Little Orphan Rock,
Silver Island, and the Golden Island, which is mentioned in the following chapter.
We give on the preceding page illustrations of those three picturesque islands ; the
Orphan Rock at the top, Golden Island in the middle, Silver Island below.

CHAPTERLXXII.

Concerning the City of Caiju.

Caiju Is a small city towards the south-east. The people
are subject to the Great Kaan and have paper-money.
It stands upon the river before mentioned.^ At this place
are collected great quantities of corn and rice to be trans-
ported to the great city of Cambaluc for the use of the
Kaan's Court ; for the grain for the Court all comes from
this part of the country. You must understand that the
Emperor hath caused a water-communication to be made
from this city to Cambaluc, in the shape of a wide and
deep channel dug between stream and stream, between
lake and lake, forming as it were a great river on which
large vessels can ply. And thus there is a communica-
tion all the way from this city of Caiju to Cambaluc ; so
that great vessels with their loads can go the whole way.

Chap. LXXII. THE CITY OF CAIJU 1 75

A land road also exists, for the earth dug from those
channels has been thrown up so as to form an embanked
road on either side.^

Just opposite to the city of Caiju, in the middle of the
River, there stands a rocky island on which there is an
idol-monastery containing some 200 idolatrous friars, and
a vast number of idols. And this Abbey holds supremacy
over a number of other idol-monasteries, just like an
archbishop s see among Christians.^

Now we will leave this and cross the river, and I
will tell you of a city called Chinghianfu.

Note i. — No place in Polo's travels is better identified by his local indications
than this. It is on the Kiang ; it is at the extremity of the Great Canal from
Cambaluc ; it is opposite the Golden Island and Chin-kiang fu. Hence it is KwA-
CHAU, as Murray pointed out. Marsden here misunderstands his text, and puts the
place on the south side of the Kiang.

Here Van Braam notices that there passed in the course of the day more than
fifty great rice -boats, most of which could easily carry more than 300,000 lbs. of rice.
And Mr. Alabaster, in 1868, speaks of the canal from Yang-chau to Kwa-chau as " full
of junks."

[Sir J. F. Davis writes {Sketches of China, II. p. 6) : "Two . . . days . . . were
occupied in exploring the half-deserted town of Kwa-chow, whose name signifies * the
island of gourds,' being completely insulated by the river and canal. We took a long
walk along the top of the walls, which were as usual of great thickness, and afforded
a broad level platform behind the parapet : the parapet itself, about six feet high, did
not in thickness exceed the length of a brick and a half, and the embrasures were
evidently not constructed for cannon, being much too high. A very considerable
portion of the area within the walls consisted of burial-grounds planted with
cypress ; and this alone was a sufficient proof of the decayed condition of the place,
as in modern or fully inhabited cities no person can be buried within the walls.
Almost every spot bore traces of ruin, and there appeared to be but one good street
in the whole town ; this, however, was full of shops, and as busy as Chinese streets
always are." — H. C]

Note 2. — Rashiduddin gives the following account of the Grand Canal spoken of
in this passage. "The river of Khanbaligh had," he says, "in the course of time,
become so shallow as not to admit the entrance of shipping, so that they had to
discharge their cargoes and send them up to Khanbaligh on pack-cattle. And the
Chinese engineers and men of science having reported that the vessels from the
provinces of Cathay, from Machin, and from the cities of Khingsai and Zaitun, could
no longer reach the court, the Kaan gave them orders to dig a great canal into which
the waters of the said river, and of several others, should be introduced. This canal
extends for a distance of 40 days' navigation from Khanbaligh to Khingsai and
Zaitun, the ports frequented by the ships that come from India, and from the
city of Machin (Canton). The canal is provided with many sluices . . . and when
vessels arrive at these sluices they are hoisted up by means of machinery, whatever
be their size, and let down on the other side into the water. The canal has a width
of more than 30 ells. Kublai caused the sides of the embankments to be revetted

1 76 MARCO POLO Book II.

with stone, in order to prevent the earth giving way. Along the side of the canal
runs the high road to Machin, extending for a space of 40 days' journey, and this
has been paved throughout, so that travellers and their animals may get along during
the rainy season without sinking in the mud. . . . Shops, taverns, and villages line
the road on both sides, so that dwelling succeeds dwelling without intermission
throughout the whole space of 40 days' journey." {Cathay, 259-260.)

The canal appears to have been [begun in 1289 and to have been completed in
1292. — H. C] though large portions were in use earlier. Its chief object was to
provide the capital with food. Pauthier gives the statistics of the transport of rice
by this cnnal from 1283 to the end of Kiiblai's reign, and for some subsequent years
up to 1329. In the latter year the quantity reached 3,522,163 ski or 1,247,633
quarters. As the supplies of rice for the capital and for the troops in the Northern
Provinces always continued to be drawn from Kiang-nan, the distress and derange-
ment caused by the recent rebel occupation of that province must have been enormous.
{Pauthier, p. 481-482 ; De Mailla, p. 439.) Polo's account of the formation of the
canal is exceedingly accurate. Compare that given by Mr. Williamson (I. 62).

Note 3. — "On the Kiang, not far from the mouth, is that remarkably beautiful
little island called the 'Golden Isle,' surmounted by numerous temples inhabited by
the votaries of Buddha or Fo, and very correctly described so many centuries since
by Marco Polo." {Davis's Chinese, I. 149.) The monastery, according to Pauthier,
was founded in the 3rd or 4th century, but the name Kin-Shan, or "Golden Isle,"
dates only from a visit of the Emperor K'ang-hi in 1684.

The monastery contained one of the most famous Buddhist libraries in China.
This was in the hands of our troops during the first China war, and, as it was intended
to remove the books, there was no haste made in examining their contents. Mean-
while peace came, and the library was restored. It is a pity Ttow that \\\qJus belli
had not been exercised promptly, for the whole establishment was destroyed by the
T'ai-P'ings in i860, and, with the exception of the Pagoda at the top of the hill, which
was left in a dilapidated state, not one stone of the buildings remained upon another.
The rock had also then ceased to be an island ; and the site of what not many years
before had been a channel with four fathoms of water separating it from the southern
shore, was covered by flourishing cabbage-gardens. {Giitzlaff in /. R. A. S, XII.
87 ; 71/?^. Kingd. I. 84, 86; Oliphant's Narrative, II. 301 ; A^, arid Q. Ch. and Jap.
No. 5, p. 58.)

CHAPTER LXXIII.

Of the City of Chinghianfu,

Chinghianfu is a city of Manzi. The people are
Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan, and have
paper-money, and live by handicrafts and trade. They
have plenty of silk, from which they make sundry kinds
of stuffs of silk and gold. There are great and wealthy
merchants in the place ; plenty of game is to be had, and
of all kinds of victual.

Chap. LXXIII. THE CITY OF CHINGHIANFU

177

There are in this city two churches of Nestorlan
Christians which were estabhshed in the year of our
Lord 1278; and I will tell you how that happened.
You see, in the year just named, the Great Kaan sent a
Baron of his whose name was Mar Sarghis, a Nestorian

West Gate of Chin-kiang fa in 1842.

Christian, to be governor of this city for three years.
And during the three years that he abode there he
caused these two Christian churches to be built, and since
then there they are. But before his time there was no
church, neither were there any Christians.^

Note i. — Chin-kiang fu retains its name unchanged. It is one which became
well known in the war of 1842. On its capture on the 21st July in that year, the
heroic Manchu commandant seated himself, among his records and then set fire to
the building, making it his funeral pyre. The city was totally destroyed in the
T'ai-P'ing wars, but is rapidly recovering its position as a place of native commerce.

rChen-kiang, "a name which may be translated 'River Guard,' stands at the
point where the Grand Canal is brought to a junction with the waters of the Yang-tzu
when the channel of the river proper begins to expand into an extensive tidal estuary."
{Treaty Ports of China, p. 421.) It was declared open to foreign trade by the Treaty
ofTien-Tsin 1858.— H. C]

Mar Sarghis (or Dominus Sergius) appears to have been a common name among
Armenian and other Oriental Christians. As Pauthier mentions, this very name is
VOL. II. M

178 MARCO POLO Book II.

one of the names of Nestorian priests inscribed in Syriac on the celebrcted monument
of Si-ngan fii.

[In the description of Chin-kiang quoted by the Archimandrite Palladius (see
vol. i. p. 187, note 3), a Christian monastery or temple is mentioned : "The temple
Ta-hing-kuo-sze stands in Chin-kiang fu, in the quarter called Kia-t'ao Keang. It was
built in the i8th year of Chl-yuen (a.d. 1281) by the Sub-dartigachi, Sie-li-ki-sze
(Sergius), Limig Siang, the teacher in the Confucian school, wrote a commemorative
inscription for him," From this document we see that *' Sie-7ni-sze-hien (Samarcand)
is distant from China 100,000 li (probably a mistake for 10,000) to the north-west.
It is a country where the religion of the Ye-li k'o-wen dominates. . . . The founder
of the religion was called ]\Ia-rh Ye-li-ya. He lived and worked miracles a thousand
five hundred years ago. Ma Sie-li-ki-sze (Mar Sergius) is a follower of him."
{Chinese Recorder, VI. p. 108).— H. C]

From this second xw^v^AOXioi three years as a term of government, we may probably
gather that this was the usual period for the tenure of such office. {Mid. Kingd. , I.
86 ; Cathay, p. xciii.)

CHAPTER LXXIV.

Of the City of Chinginju and the Slaughter of certain
Alans there.

Leaving the city of Chlnghlanfu and travelling three
days south-east through a constant succession of busy
and thriving towns and villages, you arrive at the great
and noble city of Chinginju. The people are Idolaters,
use paper-money, and are subject to the Great Kaan.
They live by trade and handicrafts, and they have
plenty of silk. They have also abundance of game, and
of all manner of victuals, for it is a most productive
territory.^

Now I must tell you of an evil deed that was done,
once upon a time, by the people of this city, and how
dearly they paid for it.

You see, at the time of the conquest of the great
province of Manzi, when Bayan was in command, he
sent a company of his troops, consisting of a people
called Alans, who are Christians, to take this city.^
They took it accordingly, and when they had made their

Chap. LXXIV. MASSACRE OF THE ALANS

179

way in, they lighted upon some good wine. Of this they
drank until they were all drunk, and then they lay down
and slept like so many swine. So when night fell, the
townspeople, seeing that they were all dead-drunk, fell
upon them and slew them all ; not a man escaped.

And when Bayan heard that the townspeople had thus
treacherously slain his men, he sent another Admiral of
his with a great force, and stormed the city, and put the
whole of the inhabitants to the sword ; not a man of
them escaped death. And thus the whole population of
that city was exterminated.^

Now we will go on, and I will tell you of another city
called Suju.

Note i. — Both the position and the story which follows identify this city with
CiiANG-CHAU. The name is written in Pauthier's MSS. Chingingtiy^ in the G. T.
Cingiggiii and Cinghingiii, in Ramusio Tingiiigui.

The capture of Chang-chau by Gordon's force, nth May 1864, was the final
achievement of that " Ever Victorious Army."

Regarding the territory here spoken of, once so rich and densely peopled, Mr.
Medhurst says, in reference to the effects of the T'ai-P'ing insurrection : "I can con-
ceive of no more melancholy sight than the acres of ground that one passes through
strewn with remains of once thriving cities, and the miles upon miles of rich land, once
carefully parcelled out into fields and gardens, but now only growing coarse grass and
brambles — the home of the pheasant, the deer, and the wild pig." {Foi'eigner in Far
Cathay, p. 94.)

Note 2. — The relics of the Alans were settled on the northern skirts of the
Caucasus, where they made a stout resistance to the Mongols, but eventually became
subjects of the Khans of Sarai. The name by which they were usually known in
Asia in the Middle Ages was Aas, and this name is assigned to them by Carpini,
Rubruquis, and Josafat Barbaro, as well as by Ibn Batuta. Mr. Iloworth has lately
denied the identity of Alans and Aas ; but he treats the question as all one with the
identity of Alans and Ossethi, which is another matter, as may be seen in Vivien de
St. Martin's elaborate paper on the Alans (A^. Ann. des Voyages, 1848, tom. 3, p. 129
seqq.). The Alans are mentioned by the Byzantine historian, Pachymeres, among
nations whom the Mongols had assimilated to themselves and adopted into their
military service. Gaubil, without being aware of the identity of the Asu (as the name
Aas appears to be expressed in the Chinese Annals), beyond the fact that they dwelt
somewhere near the Caspian, observes that this people, after they were conquered,
furnished many excellent officers to the Mongols ; and he mentions also that when
the Mongol army was first equipt for the conquest of Southern China, many officers
took service therein from among the Uighurs, Persians, and Arabs, Kincha (people of
Kipchak), the Asti and other foreign nations. We find also, at a later period of the
Mongol history (1336), letters reaching Pope Benedict XII. from several Christian
Alans holding high office at the court of Cambaluc — one of them being a Chingsang
or Minister of the First Rank, and another a Fanchang or Minister of the Second
Order — in which they conveyed their urgent request for the nomination of an Arch-
VOL IT. M 2

l8o MARCO POLO Book II.

bishop in succession to tlie deceased John of Monte Corvine. John Marignolli speaks
of those Alans as "the greatest and noblest nation in the world, the fairest and
bravest of men," and asserts that in his day there were 30,000 of them in the Great
Kaan's service, and all, at least nominally. Christians.* Rashiduddin also speaks of
the Alans as Christians; though Ibn Batuta certainly mentions the Aas as Mahomedans.
We find Alans about the same time (in 1306) fighting well in the service of the
Byzantine Emperors {Mimtaner, p. 449). All these circumstances render Marco's
story of a corps of Christian Alans in the army of Bayan perfectly consistent with
probability. {Carpim, p. 'joT ; Kub., 243; Ramusio, II. 92; /. B. II. 428;
Gaubil, 40, 147 ; Cathay, 314 seqq.)

[Mr. Rockhill writes {Rubrtick, p. 88, note) : " The Alans or Aas appear to be
identical with the An-ts'ai or A-lan-na of the Iloti Han shu (bk. 88, 9), of whom we
read that * they led a pastoral life N.W. of Sogdiana (K'ang-chii) in a plain bounded
by great lakes (or swamps), and in their wanderings went as far as the shores of the
Northern Ocean.' (Ma Twan-lin, bk. 338.) Pei-shih (bk. 97, 12) refers to them
under the name of Su-te and Wen-na-sha (see also Bret Schneider, Med. Geog., 258,
et seq.). Strabo refers to them under the name of Aorsi, living to the north but con-
tiguous to the Albani, whom some authors confound with them, but whom later
Armenian historians carefully distinguish from them {De Morgaji, Mission, i. 232).
Ptolemy speaks of this people as the ' Scythian Alans ' ('AXaj/oi l^Kijdai) ; but the first
definite mention of them in classical authors is, according to Bunbury (ii. 486), found
in Dionysius Periergetes (305), who speaks of the aXK-qevres 'AXapot. (See also De
Morgan, i. 202, and Deguignes, ii. 279 et seq.)

"Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 348) says, the Alans were a congeries of tribes
living E. of the Tanais (Don), and stretching far into Asia. ' Distributed over two
continents, all these nations, whose various names I refrain from mentioning, though
separated by immense tracts of country in which they pass their vagabond existence,
have with time been confounded under the generic appellation of Alans.' Ibn Alathir,
at a later date, also refers to the Alans as ' formed of numerous nations.' [Dulaurier,
xiv. 455)-

*' Conquered by the Huns in the latter part of the fourth century, some of the Alans
moved westward, others settled on the northern slopes of the Caucasus ; though long
prior to that, in a.d. 51, they had, as allies of the Georgians, ravaged Armenia.
(See Ytile, Cathay, 316 ; Deguignes, I., pt. ii. 277 et seq. ; and De Morgan, I. 217,
et seq. )

" Mirkhond, in the Tarikhi Wassaf, and other Mohammedan writers speak of the
Alans and As. However this may be, it is thought that the Oss or Ossetes of the
Caucasus are their modern representatives {Klaproth, Tab!, hist., 180; De Morgan,
i. 202, 231.)" Aas is the transcription of A-soo ( Yuen-shi, quoted by Deveria,
Notes dipig, p. "]$. (See Bretschneider, Med. Res., II., p, 84.)— H. C]

Note 3. — The Chinese histories do not mention the story of the Alans and their
fate ; but they tell how Chang-chau was first taken by the Mongols about April 1275,
and two months later recovered by the Chinese ; how Bayan, some months afterwards,
attacked it in person, meeting with a desperate resistance ; finally, how the place was
stormed, and how Bayan ordered the whole of the inhabitants to be put to the sword.
Gaubil remarks that some grievous provocation must have been given, as Bayan was
far from cruel. Pauthier gives original extracts on the subject, which are interesting.
They picture the humane and chivalrous Bayan on this occasion as demoniacal in
cruelty, sweeping together all the inhabitants of the suburbs, forcing them to construct
his works of attack, and then butchering the whole of them, boiling down their
carcasses, and using the fat to grease his mangonels ! Perhaps there is some misunder-
standing as to the zise of this barbarous lubricant. For Carpini relates that the

* I must observe here that the learned Professor Bruun has raised doubts whether these Alans of
Marignolli's could be Alans of the Caucasus, and if they were not rather Ohldtis, i.e. Mongol
princes and nobles. There are difficulties certainly about Marignolli's Alans ; but obvious difficulties
also in this explanation.

Chap. LXXV. THE CITY OF SUJU l8l

Tartars, when they cast Greek fire into a town, shot with it human fat, for this
caused the fire to rage inextinguishably.

Cruelties, like Bayan's on this occasion, if exceptional with him, were common
enough among the Mongols generally. Chinghiz, at an early period in his career, after
a victory, ordered seventy great caldrons to be heated, and his prisoners to be boiled
therein. And the "evil deed" of the citizens of Chang-chau fell far short of Mongol
atrocities. Thus Hulaku, suspecting the Turkoman chief Nasiruddin, who had just
quitted his camp with 300 men, sent a body of horse after him to cut him off. The
Mongol officers told the Turkoman they had been ordered to give him and his men
a parting feast ; they made them all drunk and then cut their throats. [Gatibil, 166,
167, 170; Carpini, 696; Erdinann, 262; Qiiat. Rashid. 357.)

CHAPTER LXXV.
Of the Noble City of Suju.

Suju is a very great and noble city. The people are
Idolaters, subjects of the Great Kaan, and have paper-
money. They possess silk in great quantities, from
which they make gold brocade and other stuffs, and they
live by their manufactures and trade.-^

The city is passing great, and has a circuit of some
60 miles ; it hath merchants of great wealth and an
incalculable number of people. Indeed, if the men of
this city and of the rest of Manzi had but the spirit of
soldiers they would conquer the world ; but they are no
soldiers at all, only accomplished traders and most skilful
craftsmen. There are also in this city many philosophers
and leeches, diligent students of nature.

And you must know that in this city there are 6,ooc
bridges, all of stone, and so lofty that a galley, or even
two galleys at once, could pass underneath one of
them.^

In the mountains belonging to this city, rhubarb and
ginger grow in great abundance ; insomuch that you
may get some 40 pounds of excellent fresh ginger for a
Venice groat.^ And the city has sixteen other great

1 82 MARCO POLO Book 1 1.

trading cities under its rule. The name of the city, Suju,
signifies in our tongue, " Earth," and that of another
near it, of which we shall speak presently, called Kinsay,
signifies '* Heaven ; " and these names are given because
of the great splendour of the two cities/

Now let us quit Suju, and go on to another which is
called Vuju, one day's journey distant ; it is a great and
fine city, rife with trade and manufactures. But as there
is nothing more to say of it we shall go on and I will tell
you of another great and noble city called Vughin. The
people are Idolaters, &c., and possess much silk and
other merchandize, and they are expert traders and crafts-
men. Let us now quit Vughin and tell you of another
city called Changan, a great and rich place. The people
are Idolaters, &c., and they live by trade and manu-
factures. They make great quantities of sendal of
different kinds, and they have much game in the neigh-
bourhood. There is however nothing more to say about
the place, so we shall now proceed.^

Note i. — Suju is of course the celebrated city of Su-CHAU in Kiang-nan—
before the rebellion brought ruin on it, the Paris of China. "Everything remark-
able was alleged to come from it ; fine pictures, fine carved-work, fine silks, and fine
ladies!" {Fortune, I. i86,) When the Emperor K'ang-hi visited Su-chau, the
citizens laid the streets with carpets and silk stuffs, but the Emperor dismounted and
made his train do the like, [Davis, I. i86.)

[Su-chau is situated 80 miles west of Shang-hai, 12 miles east of the Great Lake,
and 40 miles south of the Kiang, in the plain between this river and Hang-chau Bay.
It was the capital of the old kingdom of Wu which was independent from the 12th to
the 4th centuries (B.C.) inclusive; it was founded by Wu Tzu-sli, prime minister of
King Hoh Lu (514-496 B.C.), who removed the capital of Wu from Mei-li (near the
modern Ch'ang-chau) to the new site now occupied by the city of Su-chau. " Suchau
is built in the form of a rectangle, and is about three and a half miles from North to
South, by two and a half in breadth, the wall being twelve or thirteen miles in length.
There are six gates." {Rev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec, xix. p. 205.) It has
greatly recovered since the T'ai-P'ing rebellion, and its recapture by General (then
Major) Gordon on the 27th November 1863 ; Su-chau has been declared open to
foreign trade on the 26th September 1896, under the provisions of the Japanese
Treaty of 1895.

"The great trade of Soochow is silk. In the silk stores are found about 100
varieties of satin, and 200 kinds of silks and gauzes. . . . The weavers are divided
into two guilds, the Nankin and Suchau, and have together about 7000 looms.
Thousands of men and women are engaged in reeling the thread." {Rev. H. C. Du
Bose, Chin. Rec, xix. pp. 275-276.) — H. C]

MARCO POLO

North

tiookll.cliap.LXXV.

Lit fraLLenl;elcLeT.P,aiermo

Reduced to 5^ the Scale fromaRubbin^ of a PLAN incised on MARBLE
•DNICCXLVIJ, & preservedinlheGREAT Temple of CONFUCIUS atSUCHAU.

{To /ace p. 182, vol. ii.

Chap. LXXV.

THE CITY OF SUJU

183

Note 2. — I believe we must not brinp; Marco to book for the literal accuracy
of his statements as to the bridges ; but all travellers have noticed the number and
elegance of the bridges of cut stone in this part of China ; see, for instance, Van
Braam, II. 107, 1 19-120, 124, 126; and Degin'gnes, I. 47, who gives a particular
account of the arches. These are said to be often 50 or 60 feet in span.

[" Within yie city there are, generally speaking, six canals from North to South,
and six canals from East to West, intersecting one another at from a quarter to half a
mile. There are a hundred and fifty or two hundred bridges at intervals of two or
three hundred yards ; some of these with arches, others with stone slabs thrown
across, many of which are twenty feet in length. The canals are from ten to fifteen
feet wide and faced with stone." {Kev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec, xix., 1888,
p. 207).-H. C.l

South-West Gate and Water-Gate of Su-chau ; facsimile 01
incised on Marble, a.u.

half the scale from a mediaeval Map,

[247.

Note 3. — This statement about the abundance of rhubarb in the hills near
Su-chau is believed by the most competent authorities to be quite erroneous. Rhubarb
is exported from Shang-hai, but it is brought thither from Hankau on the Upper
Kiang, and Ilankau receives it from the further west. Indeed Mr, Hanbury, in a note
on the subject, adds his disbelief also that ginger is produced in Kiang-nan. And I see
in the Shang-hai trade-returns of 1 865, that there is no ginger among the exports.
[Green ginger is mentioned in the Shang-hai Trade Reports for 1900 among the
exports (p. 309) to the amount of 18,756 piculs ; none is mentioned at Su-chau. — H. C.].
Some one, I forget where, has suggested a confusion with Suh-chau in Kan-suh, the
great rhubarb mart, which seems possible.

[" Polo is correct in giving Tangut as the native country of Rhubarb {Rheum
palinatiiju), but no species of Rheum has hitherto been gathered by our botanists
as far south as Kiang-Su, indeed, not even in Shan-tung." {Bret Schneider, Hist, of
Bat. Disc, I. p. 5.)— H. C]

Note 4. — The meanings ascribed by Polo to the names of Su-chau and King-S7e
illang-chau) show plainly enough that be was ignorant of Chinese. Odoric does not

t84

MARCO POLO Book II.

mention Su-chau, but he gives the same explanation of Kinsay as signifying the
"City of Heaven," and Wassdf also in his notice of the same city has an obscure
passage about Paradise and Heaven, which is not improbably a corrupted reference
to the same interpretation.* I suspect therefore that it was a " Vulgar Error" of the
foreign residents in China, probably arising out of a misunderstanding of the Chinese
adage quoted by Duhalde and Davis : — ,

*'■ Shang yeu fien fang, Hia yen. Su Hang 1"

" There's Paradise above 'tis true,
But here below we've Hang and Su ! "

These two neighbouring cities, in the middle of the beautiful tea and silk districts,
and with all the advantages of inland navigation and foreign trade, combined every
source of wealth and prosperity, and were often thus coupled together by the
Chinese. Both are, I believe, now recovering from the effects of devastation by
T'ai-P'ing occupation and Imperialist recapture ; but neither probably is one-fifth of
what it was.

The plan of Su-chau which we give is of high interest. It is reduced {^ the scale)
from a rubbing of a plan of the city incised on marble measuring 6" *]" by 4' 4", and
which has been preserved in the Confucian Temple in Su-chau since A.D. 1247.
Marco Polo's eyes have probably rested on this fine work, comparable to the famous
Pianta Capitolina. The engraving on page 183 represents one of the gates traced
from the rubbing and reduced to Aa/fthe scale. It is therefore an authentic repre-
sentation of Chinese fortification in or before the 13th century, f

["In the southern part of Su-chau is the park, surrounded by a high wall, which
contains the group of buildings called the Confucian Temple. This is the Dragon's
head ; — the Dragon Street, running directly North, is his body, and the Great
Pagoda is his tail. In front is a grove of cedars. To one side is the hall where
thousands of scholars go to worship at the Spring and Autumn P'estivals — this for the
gentry alone, not for the unlettered populace. There is a building used for the
slaughter of animals, another containing a map of the city engraved in stone ; a third
with tablets and astronomical diagrams, and a fourth containing the Provincial
Library. On each side of the large courts are rooms where are placed the tablets of
the 500 sages. The main temple is 50 by 70 feet, and contains the tablet of
Confucius and a number of gilded boards with mottoes. It is a very imposing
structure. On the stone dais in front, a mat-shed is erected for the great sacrifices
at which the official magnates exercise their sacerdotal functions. As a tourist beheld
the sacred grounds and the aged trees, she said : ' This is the most venerable-
looking place I have seen in China.' On the gateway in front, the sage is called
' The Prince of Doctrine in times Past and Present.'" {J?ev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin.
Rec, xix. p. 272).— H. C]

Note 5. — The Geographic Text only, at least of the principal Texts, has dis-
tinctly the three cities, Vugin, Vtighm, Ciangan. Pauthier identifies the first and
third with Hu-CHAU fu and Sung-kiang fu. In favour of Vuju's being Hu-chau is the
fact mentioned by Wilson that the latter city is locally called Wuchu. J If this be
the place, the Traveller does not seem to be following a direct and consecutive
route from Su-chau to Hang-chau. Nor is Hu-chau within a day's journey of Su-chau.
Mr. Kingsmill observes that the only town at that distance is Wukiang-hien, once of
some little importance but now much reduced. WUKIANG, however, is suggestive

* See Quatremere's Rashid., p. Ixxxvii., and Hammer's Wassdf, p. 42.

t I owe these valuable illustrations, as so much else, to the unwearied kindness of Mr. A. Wylie.
There were originally four maps : (i) The City, (2) The Empire, (3) The Heavens, (4) no longer
known. They were drawn originally by one Hwan Kin-shan, and presented by him to a high official
in Sze-ch'wan. Wang Che-yuen, subsequently holding office in the same province, got possession of
the maps, and had them incised at Su-chau in a.d. 1247. The inscription bearing these particulars is
partially gone, and the date of the original drawings remains uncertain. (See List 0/
/ llustrations.)

J The E7ier Victorious Army, p. 395.

Chap. LXXVI. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 185

of VuGHiN ; and, in that supposition, Hu-chau must be considered the object of a
digression from which the Traveller returns and takes up his route to Hang-chau via
Wukiang. Kiahmg would then best answer to Cian^ n, or Cahigan^ as it is
written in the following chapter of the G.T.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

Description of the Great City of Kinsay, which is the Capital
OF the whole Country of Manzi.

When you have left the city of Changan and have tra-
velled for three days through a splendid country, passing
a number of towns and villages, you arrive at the most
noble city of Kinsay, a name which is as much as to say
in our tongue *' The City of Heaven," as I told you
before.^

And since we have got thither I will enter into parti-
culars about its magnificence ; and these are well >vorth
the telling, for the city is beyond dispute the finest and
the noblest in the world. In this we shall speak according
to the written statement which the Queen of this Realm
sent to Bayan the conqueror of the country for trans-
mission to the Great Kaan, in order that he might be
aware of the surpassing grandeur of the city and might
be moved to save it from destruction or injury. I will
tell you all the truth as it was set down in that document.
For truth it was, as the said Messer Marco Polo at a
later date was able to witness with his own eyes. And
now we shall rehearse those particulars.

First and foremost, then, the document stated the city
of Kinsay to be so great that it hath an hundred miles of
compass. And there are in it twelve thousand bridges
of stone, for the most part so lofty that a great fleet
could pass beneath them. And let no man marvel that
there are so many bridges, for you see the whole city

1 86 MARCO rOLO Book II.

Stands as it were in the water and surrounded by water,
so that a great many bridges are required to give free
passage about it. [And though the bridges be so high
the approaches are so well contrived that carts and horses
do cross them.^]

The document aforesaid also went on to state that
there were in this city twelve guilds of the different
crafts, and that each guild had 12,000 houses in the occu-
pation of its workmen. Each of these houses contains at
least 12 men, whilst some contain 20 and some 40, — not
that these are all masters, but inclusive of the journey-
men who work under the masters. And yet all these
craftsmen had full occupation, for many other cities of
the kingdom are supplied from this city with what they
require.

The document aforesaid also stated that the number
and wealth of the merchants, and the amount of goods
that passed through their hands, was so enormous that
no man could form a just estimate thereof. And I should
have told you with regard to those masters of the different
crafts who are at the head of such houses as I have
mentioned, that neither they nor their wives ever touch
a piece of work with their own hands, but live as nicely
and delicately as if they were kings and queens. The
wives indeed are most dainty and angelical creatures !
Moreover it was an ordinance laid down by the King
that every man should follow his father's business and
no other, no matter if he possessed 100,000 bezants.^

Inside the city there is a Lake which has a compass
of some 30 miles : and all round it are erected beautiful
palaces and mansions, of the richest and most exquisite
structure that you can imagine, belonging to the nobles
of the city. There are also on its shores many abbeys
and churches of the Idolaters. In the middle of the
Lake are two Islands, on each of which stands a rich,

Chap. LXXVI. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 1 87

beautiful and spacious edifice, furnished in such style as
to seem fit for the palace of an Emperor. And when
any one of the citizens desired to hold a marriage feast,
or to give any other entertainment, it used to be done at
one of these palaces. And everything would be found
there ready to order, such as silver plate, trenchers, and
dishes [napkins and table-cloths], and whatever else was
needful. The King made this provision for the gratifica-
tion of his people, and the place was open to every one
who desired to give an entertainment. [Sometimes
there would be at these palaces an hundred different
parties ; some holding a banquet, others celebrating
a wedding ; and yet all would find good accommodation
in the different apartments and pavilions, and that in
so well ordered a manner that one party was never in
the way of another.^]

The houses of the city are provided with lofty towers
of stone in which articles of value are stored for fear of
fire ; for most of the houses themselves are of timber,
and fires are very frequent in the city.

The people are Idolaters ; and since they were con-
quered by the Great Kaan they use paper-money. [Both
men and women are fair and comely, and for the most
part clothe themselves in silk, so vast is the supply of
that material, both from the whole district of Kinsay, and
from the imports by traders from other provinces.^] And
you must know they eat every kind of flesh, even that
of dogs and other unclean beasts, which nothing would
induce a Christian to eat.

Since the Great Kaan occupied the city he has
ordained that each of the 12,000 bridges should be pro-
vided with a guard often men, in case of any disturbance,
or of any being so rash as to plot treason or insurrection
against him. [Each guard is provided with a hollow
instrument of wood and with a metal basin, and with a

1 88 MARCO POLO Book II.

time-keeper to enable them to know the hour of the day
or night. And so when one hour of the night is past
the sentry strikes one on the wooden instrument and on
the basin, so that the whole quarter of the city is made
aware that one hour of the night is gone. At the second
hour he gives two strokes, and so on, keeping always
wide awake and on the look out. In the morning again,
from the sunrise, they begin to count anew, and strike
one hour as they did in the night, and so on hour after
hour.

Part of the watch patrols the quarter, to see if any
light or fire is burning after the lawful hours ; if they
find any they mark the door, and in the morning the
owner is summoned before the magistrates, and unless he
can plead a good excuse he is punished. Also if they
find any one going about the streets at unlawful hours
they arrest him, and In the morning they bring him before
the magistrates. Likewise if in the daytime they find
any poor cripple unable to work for his livelihood, they
take him to one of the hospitals, of which there are
many, founded by the ancient kings, and endowed with
great revenues.^ Or If he be capable of work they oblige
him to take up some trade. If they see that any house
has caught fire they immediately beat upon that wooden
instrument to give the alarm, and this brings together
the watchmen from the other bridges to help to extin-
guish it, and to save the goods of the merchants or others,
either by removing them to the towers above mentioned,
or by putting them in boats and transporting them to the
Islands In the lake. For no citizen dares leave his house
at night, or to come near the fire ; only those who own
the property, and those watchmen who flock to help, of
whom there shall come one or two thousand at the
least.]

Moreover, within the city there is an eminence on

Chap. LXXVI. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 189

which stands a Tower, and at the top of the tower is
hung a slab of wood. Whenever fire or any other alarm
breaks out in the city a man who stands there with a
mallet in his hand beats upon the slab, making a noise that
is heard to a great distance. So when the blows upon this
slab are heard, everybody is aware that fire has broken
out, or that there is some other cause of alarm.

The Kaan watches this city with especial diligence
because it forms the head of all Manzi ; and because he
has an immense revenue from the duties levied on the
transactions of trade therein, the amount of which is such
that no one would credit it on mere hearsay.

All the streets of the city are paved with stone or
brick, as indeed are all the highways throughout Manzi,
so that you ride and travel in every direction without
inconvenience. Were it not for this pavement you could
not do so, for the country is very low and fiat, and after
rain 'tis deep in mire and water. [But as the Great
Kaan's couriers could not gallop their horses over the
pavement, the side of the road is left unpaved for their
convenience. The pavement of the main street of the
city also is laid out in two parallel ways of ten paces in
width on either side, leaving a space in the middle laid
with fine gravel, under which are vaulted drains which
convey the rain water into the canals ; and thus the road
is kept ever dry.]^

You must know also that the city of Kinsay has some
3000 baths, the water of which is supplied by springs.
They are hot baths, and the people take great delight in
them, frequenting them several times a month, for they
are very cleanly in their persons. They are the finest
and largest baths in the world; large enough for 100
persons to bathe together.^

And the Ocean Sea comes within 25 miles of the
city at a place called Ganfu, where there is a town and

I90 MARCO POLO Book II.

an excellent haven, with a vast amount of shipping which
is engaged in the traffic to and from India and other
foreign parts, exporting and importing many kinds of
wares, by which the city benefits. And a great river
flows from the city of Kinsay to that sea-haven, by
which vessels can come up to the city itself. This river
extends also to other places further inland.^

Know also that the Great Kaan hath distributed the
territory of Manzi into nine parts, which he hath con-
stituted into nine kingdoms. To each of these kingdoms
a king is appointed who is subordinate to the Great
Kaan, and every year renders the accounts of his king-
dom to the fiscal office at the capltal.^^ This city of
Kinsay is the seat of one of these kings, who rules over
140 great and wealthy cities. For in the whole of this
vast country of Manzi there are more than 1200 great
and wealthy cities, without counting the towns and
villages, which are in great numbers. And you may
receive it for certain that in each of those 1 200 cities the
Great Kaan has a garrison, and that the smallest of such
garrisons musters 1000 men ; whilst there are some of
10,000, 20,000 and 30,000; so that the total number of
troops is something scarcely calculable. The troops
forming these garrisons are not all Tartars. Many are
from the province of Cathay, and good soldiers too.
But you must not suppose they are by any means all of
them cavalry ; a very large proportion of them are foot-
soldiers, according to the special requirements of each
city. And all of them belong to the army of the Great
Kaan;^

I repeat that everything appertaining to this city Is
on so vast a scale, and the Great Kaan's yearly revenues
therefrom are so immense, that it is not easy even to put
It In writing, and it seems past belief to one who merely
hears it told. But I will write it down for you.

Chap. LXXVI. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY I9I

First, however, I must mention another thing. The
people of this country have a custom, that as soon as a
child is born they write down the day and hour and the
planet and sign under which its birth has taken place ; so
that every one among them knows the day of his birth.
And when any one intends a journey he goes to the
astrologers, and gives the particulars of his nativity in
order to learn whether he shall have good luck or no.
Sometimes they will say no, and In that case the journey
is put off till such day as the astrologer may recommend.
These astrologers are very skilful at their business, and
often their words come to pass, so the people have great
faith in them.

They burn the bodies of the dead. And when any
one dies the friends and relations make a great mourning
for the deceased, and clothe themselves in hempen gar-
ments,^^ and follow the corpse playing on a variety of
instruments and singing hymns to their idols. And
when they come to the burning place, they take represen-
tations of things cut out of parchment, such as capari-
soned horses, male and female slaves, camels, armour
suits of cloth of gold (and money), in great quantities,
and these things they put on the fire along with the
corpse, so that they are all burnt with It. And they tell
you that the dead man shall have all these slaves and
animals of which the effigies are burnt, alive in flesh and
blood, and the money in gold, at his disposal in the next
world ; and that the Instruments which they have caused
to be played at his funeral, and the idol hymns that have
been chaunted, shall also be produced again to welcome
him in the next world ; and that the idols themselves
will come to do him honour.

Furthermore there exists in this city the palace of the
king who fled, him who was Emperor of Manzi, and that
is the greatest palace In the world, as I shall tell you more

192 MARCO POLO Book II.

particularly. For you must know its demesne hath a
compass of ten miles, all enclosed with lofty battlemented
walls ; and inside the walls are the finest and most
delectable gardens upon earth, and filled too with the
finest fruits. There are numerous fountains in it also,
and lakes full offish. In the middle is the palace itself,
a great and splendid building. It contains 20 great and
handsome halls, one of which is more spacious than the
rest, and affords room for a vast multitude to dine. It is
all painted in gold, with many histories and representa-
tions of beasts and birds, of knights and dames, and
many marvellous things. It forms a really magnificent
spectacle, for over all the walls and all the ceiling you
see nothing but paintings in gold. And besides these
halls the palace contains 1000 large and handsome
chambers, all painted in gold and divers colours.

Moreover, I must tell you that in this city there are
160 tomans of fires, or in other words 160 tomans of
houses. Now I should tell you that the toman is 10,000,
so that you can reckon the total as altogether 1,600,000
houses, among which are a great number of rich palaces.
There is one church only, belonging to the Nestorian
Christians.

There Is another thing I must tell you. It is the
custom for every burgess of this city, and in fact for every
description of person in it, to write over his door his own
name, the name of his wife, and those of his children,
his slaves, and all the inmates of his house, and also the
number of animals that he keeps. And if any one dies
in the house then the name of that person is erased, and
if any child is born its name is added. So in this way
the sovereign is able to know exactly the population of
the city. And this is the practice also throughout all
Manzi and Cathay.^^

And I must tell you that every hosteler who keeps

/fa

Chap. LXXVI.

THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY

193

an hostel for travellers is bound to register their names
and surnames, as well as the day and month of their
arrival and departure. And thus the sovereign hath the
means of knowing, whenever it pleases him, who come
and go throughout his dominions. And certes this is a
wise order and a provident.

Messer Marco Polo was frequently at

Note i. — Kinsay represents closely enough the Chinese term King-sze, " capital,"
which was then applied to the great city, the proper name of which was at that time
Lin-ngan and is now Hang-chau, as being since 1 127 the capital of the Sung Dynasty.
The same term King-sze is now on Chinese inaps generally used to designate Peking.
It would seem, however, that the term adhered long as a quasi-proper name to
Hang-chau ; for in the Chinese Atlas, dating from 1595, which the traveller Carletti
presented to the Magliabecchian Library, that city appears to be still marked with
this name, transcribed by Carletti as Camse ; very near the form Campsay used by
MarignoUi in the 14th century.

Note 2. — {-The Ramusian version says :
this city, and took
great pains to learn
everything about it,

writing down the ^

whole in his notes."
The information be-
ing originally de-
rived from a Chinese
document, there
might be some
ground for suppos-
ing that 100 miles
of circuit stood for
100 //. Yet the
circuit of the mod-
ern city is stated in
the official book
called Hang- chaii
Fii - Chi, or topo-
graphical history of
Hang-chau, at only
35 li. And the
earliest record of
the wall, as built
under the Sui by
Yang-su (before
A.D, 606), makes its
extent little more
(36 li and 90
paces.)* But the
wall was reconstructed by Ts'ien Kiao, feudal prince of the region, during the reign

The ancient Lun-ho-ta Pagoda at Hang-chau.

* In the first edition my best authority on this matter was a lecture on the city by the late Rev.
D. D. Green, an American Missionary at Ningpo, which is printed in the November and December
numbers for 1869 of the (Fuchau) Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal. In the present (second)
edition I have on this, and other points embraced in this and the following chapter, benefited largely

VOL. XL N

194

MARCO rOLO Book TI.

of Chao Tsung, one of (he last emperors of the T'ang Dynasty (892), so as to em-
brace the Luh-ho-ta Pagoda, on a high bluff over the Tsien-tang River,* 15 //
distant from the present south gate, and had then a circuit of 70 //. Moreover, in 1 1 59,
after the city became the capital of the Sung emperors, some further extension was
given to it, so that, even exclusive of the suburbs, the circuit of the city may have
been not far short of 100 li. When the city was in its glory under the Sung, the
Luh-ho-ta Pagoda may be taken as marking the extreme S.W. Another known
point marks approximately the chief north gate of that period, at a mile and a half or
two miles beyond tlie present north wall. The S.E. angle was apparently near the
river bank. But, on the other hand, the waist of the city seems to have been a good
deal narrower than it now is. Old descriptions compare its form to that of a slender-
waisted drum (dice-box or hour-glass shape).

Under the Mongols the walls w ere allowed to decay ; and in the disturbed years
thatclosed that dynasty ( 1 341 -1 368) they were rebuilt by an insurgent chief on a greatly
reduced compass, probably that which they still retain. Whatever may have been
the facts, and whatever the origin of the estimate, I imagine that the ascription of 100
miles of circuit to Kinsay had become popular among Westerns. Odoric makes the
same statement. Wassaf calls it 24 parasangs, which will not be far short of the same
amount. Ibn Batuta calls the length of the city three Qiiys' journey. Rashiduddin says
the enceinte had a diameter of 1 1 parasangs, and that there were three post stages
between the two extremities of the city, which is probably what Ibn Batuta had
heard. The Masdlak-al-Absdr zdW^ it one day's journey in length, and half a day's
journey in breadth. The enthusiastic Jesuit Martini tries hard to justify Polo in this as
in other points of his description. We shall quote the whole of his remarks at the end
of the chapters on Kinsay.

[Dr. F. Hirth, in a paper published in the T^otmg Pao, V. pp. 386-390 ( Ueber
den Shiffsverkehr von Kinsay zu Marco Folds Zeit\ has some interesting notes on the
maritime trade of Hang-chau, collected from a work in twenty books, kept at the
l^erlin Royal Library, in which is to be found a description of Plang-chau under the
title oi Meng-liang-lu, published in 1 274 by Wu Tzu-mu, himself a native of this city :
there are various classes of sea-going vessels ; large boats measuring 5000 liao and
carrying from five to six hundred passengers ; smaller boats measuring from 2 to 1000
liao and carrying from two to three hundred passengers ; there are small fast boats
called tsuan-feng, "wind breaker," with six or eight oarsmen, which can carry easily
100 passengers, and are generally used for fishing ; sampans are not taken into account.
To start for foreign countries one must embark at Ts'wan-chau, and then go to the sea
of Ts'i-chau (Paracels), through the Tai-hsu pass ; coming back he must look to
Kwen-lun (Pulo Condor). — H. C]

The 12,000 bridges have been much carped at, and modern accounts of Hang-chau
(desperately meagre as they are) do not speak of its bridges as notable. " There is,
indeed," says Mr. Kingsmill, speaking of changes in the hydrography about Hang-chau,
'*no trace in the city of the magnificent canals and bridges described by Marco
Polo." The number was no doubt in this case also a mere popular saw, and Friar
Odoric repeats it. The sober and veracious John Marignolli, alluding apparently to
their statements, and perhaps toothers which have not reached us, says: "When
authors tell of its ten thousand noble bridges of stone, adorned with sculptures and
statues of armed princes, it passes the belief of one who has not been there, and yet
peradventure these authors tell us no lie." Wassaf speaks of 360 bridges only, but

by the remarks of the Right Rev. G. E. Moule of the Ch. Mission. Soc, now residing at Hang-chau.
These are partly contained in a paper {Notes on Colonel Yule's Edition 0/ Marco Polo's ' Qtdnsay')
read before the'North China Branch of the R. A. Soc. at Shang-hai in December 1873 [published in
New Series, No. IX. o^ the J ournal N. C. B. R. A. Soc.\, of which a prooHias been most kindly sent
to me by Mr. Moule, and partly in a special communication, both forwarded through Mr. A. Wylie.
[See also Notes on Hangckow Past and Present^ a paper read in 1889 by Bishop G. E. Moule at a'
Meeting of the Hangchau Missionary Association, at whose request it was compiled, and sabsequently
printed for private circulation. — H. C.]

* The building of the present Luh-ho-ta ("Six Harmonies Tower"), after repeated destructions
by fire, is recorded on a fine tablet of the Sung period, still standing {Moule).

Chap. LXXVT.

THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY

195

they make up in size what they lack in number, for they cross canals as big as the
Tigris ! Marsden aptly quotes in reference to this point excessively loose and dis-
crepant statements from modern authors as to the number of bridges in Venice. The

Plan of the Imperial City of Hangchow in the 13th Centurj\ (From the Notes of the Right
Rev. G. E. Moule.)

1-17, Gates; 18, Ta-nuy; 19, Woo-Foo; 20, T'at Miao; 21, Fung-hwan^ shan ; 22, Shih
/lih she; 2^, Fan t'ien she ; 24, Koo-shin^ Kwo she.

great height of the arches of the canal bridges in this part of China is especially noticed

by travellers. Barrow, quoted by Marsden, says : " Some have the piers of such an

VOL. II. N 2

196 MARCO POLO Book II.

extraordinary height that the largest vessels of 200 tons sail under them without
striking their masts."

Mr. Moule has added up the lists of bridges in the whole department (or Fti) and
found them to amount to 848, and many of these even are now unknown, their
approximate sites being given from ancient topographies. The number represented in
a large modern map of the city, which I owe to Mr. Moule's kindness, is in.

Note 3. — Though Rubruquis (p. 292) says much the same thing, there is little
trace of such an ordinance in modern China. F^re Parrenin observes : "As to the
hereditary perpetuation of trades, it has never existed in China, On the contrary,
very few Chinese will learn the trade of their fathers ; and it is only necessity that
ever constrains them to do so." <^Lett. Edif. XXIV. 40.) Mr. Moule remarks,
however, that P. Parrenin is a little too absolute. Certain trades do run in families,
even of the free classes of Chinese, not to mention the disfranchised boatmen, barbers,
chair-coolies, etc. But, except in the latter cases, there is no compulsion, though the
Sacred Edict goes to encourage the perpetuation of the family calling.

Note 4. — This sheet of water is the celebrated Si-iiu, or " Western Lake," the
fame of which had reached Abulfeda, and which has raised the enthusiasm even of
modern travellers, such as Barrow and Van Braam. The latter speaks of three
islands (and this the Chinese maps confirm), on each of which were several villas,
and of causeways across the lake, paved and bordered with trees, and provided with
numerous bridges for the passage of boats. Barrow gives a bright description of the
lake, with its thousands of gay, gilt, and painted pleasure boats, its margins studded
with light and fanciful buildings, its gardens of choice flowering shrubs, its monu-
ments, and beautiful variety of scenery. None surpasses that of Martini, whom it is
always pleasant to quote, but here he is too lengthy. The most recent description
that I have met with is that of Mr. C. Gardner, and it is as enthusiastic as any. It
concludes: "Even to us foreigners . . . the spot is one of peculiar attraction, but
to the Chinese it is as a paradise." The Emperor K'ien Lung had erected a palace on
one of the islands in the lake ; it was ruined by the T'ai-P'ings. Many of the con-
structions about the lake date from the flourishing days of the T'ang Dynasty, the
7th and 8th centuries.

Polo's ascription of a circumference of 30 miles to the lake, corroborates the
supposition that in the compass of the city a confusion had been made between miles
and li, for Semedo gives the circuit of the lake really as 30 li. Probably the docu-
ment to which Marco refers at the beginning of the chapter was seen by him in a
Persian translation, in which li had been rendered by mil. A Persian work of the
same age, quoted by Quatremere (the Ntizhdt al-Kulub), gives the circuit of the lake
as six parasangs, or some 24 miles, a statement which probably had a like origin.

Polo says the lake was within the city. This might be merely a loose way of
speaking, but it may on the other hand be a further indication of the former existence
of an extensive outer wall. The Persian author just quoted also speaks of the lake
as within the city. {Barrow's Antobiog., p. 104; V. Braam, II. 154; Gardner in
Proc. of the R. Geog. Soc, vol. xiii. p. 178; Q. Rashid, p. Ixxxviii.) Mr. Moule
states that popular oral tradition does enclose the lake within the walls, but he can
find no trace of this in the Topographies.

Elsewhere Mr. Moule says: "Of the luxury of the (Sung) period, and its
devotion to pleasure, evidence occurs everywhere. Hang-chow went at the time by
the nickname of the melting-pot for money. The use, at houses of entertainment,
of linen and silver plate appears somewhat out of keeping in a Chinese picture. I
cannot vouch for the linen, but here is the plate. ... * The most famous Tea-
houses of the day were the Pa-seen ("8 genii"), the " Pure Delight," the "Pearl,"
the "House of the Pwan Family," and the "Two and Two" and "Three and
Three" houses (perhaps rather "Double honours" and "Treble honours"). In
these places they always set out bouquets of fresh flowers, according to the season.
, , . At the counter were sold " Precious thunder Tea," Tea of fritters and onions,

CiiAr. LXXVr.

THE GREAT CITY OF KINS AY

197

or else Pickle broth ; and in hot weather wine of snow bubbles and apricot blossom,
or other kinds of refrigerating liquor. Saucers, ladles, and bowls were all of pure
silver!' {Si-Hu-Chi.)"

Note 5. — This is still the case : " The people of Ilang-chow dress gaily, and are

Plan of the Metropolitan CTty of Hangchow In the 13th Century. (From the Notes of the
Right Rev. G, E. Moule.)

1-17, Gates; 18, Ta-nuy, Central Palace; 19, Woo-Foo, The Five Courts; 20, T'ai Miao,
The Imperial Temple; 21, Fung-hwang shan, Phoenix Hill; 22, Shih /uh she, Monastery of the
Stone Buddha; 23, Fan t'ien she, Monastery of Brahma; 24, Koo-shing Ktvo-she, Monastery of
the Sacred Fruit; 25-30, Gates; 31, Tien tsung yen tsang- T'l&n tsung Salt Depot; 2, 7'ien
tsnng- tsevj koo, T'ien tsung Wine Store ; 33, Chang she. The Chang Monastery ; 34, Foo che.
Prefecture ; Foo hio, Prefectural Confucian Temple.

198

MARCO POLO Book II.

remarkable among the Chinese for their dandyism. All, except the lowest labourers
and coolies, strutted about in dresses composed of silk, satin, and crape. . . .
' Indeed ' (said the Chinese servants) ' one can never tell a rich man in Hang-chow,
for it is just possible that all he possesses in the world is on his back.'" {Fortune,
II. 20.) "The silk manufactures of Hang-chau are said to give employment to
60,000 persons within the city walls, and Hu-chau, Kia-hing, and the surrounding
villages, are reputed to employ 100,000 more." {Ningpo Trade Report , January 1869,
comm. by Mr. N. B. Dennys.) The store-towers, as a precaution in case of fire, are
still common both in China and Japan.

Note 6. — Mr. Gardner found in this very city, in 1868, a large collection of
cottages covering several acres, which were " erected, after the taking of the city
from the rebels, by a Chinese charitable society for the refuge of the blind, sick, and
infirm." This asylum sheltered 200 blind men M'ith their families, amounting
to 800 souls ; basket-making and such work was provided for them ; there were
also 1200 other inmates, aged and infirm ; and doctors were maintained to look after
them. "None are allowed to be absolutely idle, but all help towards their own
sustenance." {Proc. R. G. Soc. XIII. 176-177.) Mr. Moule, whilst abating some-
what from the colouring of this description, admits the establishment to be a con-
siderable charitable effort. It existed before the rebellion, as I see in the book of
Mr. Milne, who gives interesting details on such Chinese charities. {Life in China,
pp. /\,(iseqq.)

Note 7. — The paved roads of Manzi are by no means extinct yet. Thus, Mr.
Fortune, starting from Chang-shan (see below, ch. Ixxix.) in the direction of the
Black-Tea mountains, says : " The road on which we were travelling was well paved
with granite, about 12 feet in width, and perfectly free from weeds." (II. 148).
Garnier, Sladen, and Richthofen speak of well-paved roads in Yun-Nan and Sze-
ch'wan.

The Topography quoted by Mr. Moule says that in the year 1272 the Governor
renewed the pavement of the Imperial road (or Main Street), "after which nine cars
might move abreast over a way perfectly smooth, and straight as an arrow." In
the Mongol time the people were allowed to encroach on this grand street.

Note 8. — There is a curious discrepancy in the account of these baths. Pauthier's
text does not say whether they are hot baths or cold. The latter sentence, beginning,
"They are hot baths" {esti/ves), is from the G. Text. And Ramusio's account is
quite different: "There are numerous baths of cold water, provided with plenty of
attendants, male and female, to assist the visitors of the two sexes in the bath. For
the people are used from their childhood to bathe in cold water at all seasons, and
they reckon it a very wholesome custom. But in the bath-houses they have also
certain chambers furnished with hot water, for foreigners who are unaccustomed to
cold bathing, and cannot bear it. The people are used to bathe daily, and do not
eat without having done so." This is in contradiction with the notorious Chinese
horror of cold water for any purpose.

A note from Mr. C. Gardner says : " There are numerous public baths at
Hang-chau, as at every Chinese city I have ever been in. In my experience natives
always take /lot baths. But only the poorer classes go to the public baths ; the
tradespeople and middle classes are generally supplied by the bath-houses with hot
water at a moderate charge."

Note 9. — The estuary of the Ts'ien T'ang, or river of Hang-chau, has undergone
great changes since Polo's day. The sea now comes up much nearer the city ; and
the upper part of the Bay of Hang-chau is believed to cover what was once the site of
the port and town of Kanp'u, the Ganpu of the text. A modern representative of
the name still subsists, a walled town, and one of the dep6ts for the salt which is so
extensively manufactured on this coast ; but the present port of Hang-chau, and till

Chap. LXXVI. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 19^

recently the sole seat of Chinese trade with Japan, is at Chapu, some 20 miles further
seaward.

. It is supposed by Klaproth that Kanp'u was the port frequented by the early
Arao voyagers, and of which they speak under the name of Khdnfu, confounding in
their details Hang-chau itself with the port. Neumann dissents from this, main-
taining that the Khanfu of the Arabs was certainly Canton. Abulfeda, however,
states expressly that Khanfu was known in his day as Khansd [i.e. Kinsay), and he
speaks of its lake of fresh water called Sikhu (Si-hu). [Abulfeda has in fact two
KJianqu (Khanfu) : Khansa with the lake which is Kinsay, and one KhanfA which is
probably Canton. {SceGtcyard's transL, II., ii., 122-124.) — H. C] There seems
to be an indication in Chinese records that a southern branch of the Great Kiang
once entered the sea at Kanp'u ; the closing of it is assigned to the 7th century, or a
little later.

[Dr. F. Ilirth writes {/our. Roy. As. Soc, 1896, pp. 68-69: *'For centuries
Canton must have been the only channel through which foreign trade was permitted ;
for it is not before the year 999 that we read of the appointment of Inspectors of
Trade at Hang-chou and Ming-chou. The latter name is identified with Ning-po."
Dr. Hirth adds in a note : " This is in my opinion the principal reason why the
port of Khanfu, mentioned by the earliest Muhammadan travellers, or authors
(Soleiman, Abu Zeid, and Ma9oudi), cannot be identified with Hang-chou. The
report of Soleiman, who first speaks of Khanfu, was written in 851, and in those
days Canton was apparently the only port open to foreign trade. Marco Polo's
Ganfu is a different port altogether, viz. Kan-fu, or Kan-pu, near Hang-chou, and
should not be confounded with Khanfu.'''' — H. C]

The changes of the Great Kiang do not seem to have attracted so much attention
among the Chinese as those of the dangerous Hvvang-Ho, nor does their history
seem to have been so carefully recorded. But a paper of great interest on the subject
was published by Mr. Edkins, in the Journal of the North China Branch of the
R. A. S. for September i860 [pp. 77-84], which I know only by an abstract given by the
late Comte d'Escayrac de Lauture. F'rom this it would seem that about the time of
our era the Yang-tzu Kiang had three great mouths. The most southerly of these
was the Che-Kiang, which is said to have given its name to the Province still so
called, of which Hang-chau is the capital. This branch quitted the present channel
at Chi-chau, passed by Ning-Kwe and Kwang-te, communicating with the southern
end of a great group of lakes which occupied the position of the T'ai-Hu, and so by
Shih-men and T'ang-si into the sea not far from Shao-hing. The second branch quitted
the main channel at Wu-hu, passed by I-hing (or I-shin) communicating with the
northern end of the T'ai-Hu (passed apparently by Su-chau), and then bifurcated,
one arm entering the sea at Wu-sung, and the other at Kanp'u. The third, or
northerly branch is that which forms the present channel of the Great Kiang. These
branches are represented hypothetically on the sketch-map attached to ch. Ixiv.
supra.

\_Kingsmill, u. s. p. 53; Chin. Repos. III. 118; Middle Kingdom, I. 95-106;
Biirck. p. 483; Cathay, p. cxciii. \ J. 'N. Ch. Br. R. A. S., December 1865, p. 3
seqq. ; Escayrac de Lauture, Mdm. sur la Chine, H. du Sol, p. 114.)

Note id. — Pauthier's text has : " Chascun Roy fait chascun an le compte de son
royaume aux coniptes du grant siege, ^^ where I suspect the last word is again a
mistake for sing or scieng. (See supra, Bk. II. ch. xxv., note i.) It is interesting
to find Polo applying the term king to the viceroys who ruled the great provinces ;
Ibn Batuta uses a corresponding expression, sultan. It is not easy to make out the
nine kingdoms or great provinces into which Polo considered Manzi to be divided.
Perhaps his nine is after all merely a traditional number, for the ' ' Nine Provinces "
was an ancient synonym for China proper, just as Nau-Khanda, with like meaning,
was an ancient name of India. (See Cathay, p. cxxxix. note ; and Reinaud, Inde,
p. 116.) But I observe that on the portage road between Chang-shan and Yuh-shaa

200 MARCO rOLO Book II.

(infra, p. 222) there are stone pillars inscribed "Highway (from Che-kiang) to Eight
Provinces," thus indicating Nine. {Milne, p. 319.)

Note ii. — We have in Ramusio : "The men levied in the province of Manzi
are not placed in garrison in their own cities, but sent to others at least 20 days'
journey from their homes ; and there they serve for four or five years, after which
they are relieved. This applies both to the Cathayans and to those of Manzi.

*'The great bulk of the revenue of the cities, which enters the exchequer of the
Great Kaan, is expended in maintaining these garrisons. And if perchance any city
rebel (as you often find that under a kind of madness or intoxication they rise and
murder their governors), as soon as it is known, the adjoining cities despatch such
large forces from their garrisons that the rebellion is entirely crushed. For it would
be too long an affair if troops from Cathay had to be waited for, involving perhaps a
delay of two months."

Note 12. — "The sons of the dead, wearing hempen clothes as badges of mourn-
ing, kneel down," etc. {DooHltle, p. 138.)

Note 13. — These practices have been noticed, supra, Bk. I, ch. xl.

Note 14. — This custom has come down to modern times. In Pauthier's Chine
Modcrne, we find extracts from the statutes of the reigning dynasty and the comments
thereon, of which a passage runs thus : "To determine the exact population of each
province the governor and the lieutenant-governor cause certain persons who are
nominated as Fao-kia, or Tithing-Men, in all the places under their jurisdiction, to
add up the figures inscribed on the wooden tickets attached to the doors of houses,
and exhibiting the number of the inmates" (p. 167).

Friar Odoric calls the number of fires 89 tomans ; but says 10 or 12 households
would unite to have one fire only J

CHAPTER LXXVII.

[Further Particulars concerning the Great City of Kinsay."^]

[The position of the city is such that it has on one side
a lake of fresh and exquisitely clear water (already
spoken of), and on the other a very large river. The
waters of the latter fill a number of canals of all sizes
which run through the different quarters of the city,
carry away all impurities, and then enter the Lake ;
whence they issue again and flow to the Ocean, thus
producing a most excellent atmosphere. By means of
these channels, as well as by the streets, you can go all
about the city. Both streets and canals are so wide and
spacious that carts on the one and boats on the other can

Chap. LXXVII. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 20I

readily pass to and fro, conveying necessary supplies to
the inhabitants.^

At the opposite side the city is shut in by a channel,
perhaps 40 miles in length, very wide, and full of water
derived from the river aforesaid, which was made by the
ancient kings of the country in order to relieve the river
when flooding its banks. This serves also as a defence
to the city, and the earth dug from it has been thrown
inwards, forming a kind of mound enclosing the
city.^

In this part are the ten principal markets, though
besides these there are a vast number of others in the
different parts of the town. The former are all squares
of half a mile to the side, and along their front passes the
main street, which is 40 paces in width, and runs straight
from end to end of the city, crossing many bridges of
easy and commodious approach. At every four miles of
its length comes one of those great squares of 2 miles (as
we have mentioned) in compass. So also parallel to this
great street, but at the back of the market places, there
runs a very large canal, on the bank of which towards
the squares are built great houses of stone, in which the
merchants from India and other foreign parts store their
wares, to be handy for the markets. In each of the
squares is held a market three days in the week,
frequented by 40,000 or 50,000 persons, who bring
thither for sale every possible necessary of life, so that
there is always an ample supply of every kind of meat
and game, as of roebuck, red-deer, fallow-deer, hares,
rabbits, partridges, pheasants, francolins, quails, fowls,
capons, and of ducks and geese an infinite quantity ; for
so many are bred on the Lake that for a Venice groat of
silver you can have a couple of geese and two couple of
ducks. Then there are the shambles where the larger
animals are slaughtered, such as calves, beeves, kids, and

202 MARCO POLO Book II.

lambs, the flesh of which is eaten by the rich and the
great dignitaries.'^

Those markets make a daily display of every kind of
vegetables and fruits ; and among the latter there are in
particular certain pears of enormous size, weighing as
much as ten pounds apiece, and the pulp of which is
white and fragrant like a confection ; besides peaches in
their season both yellow and white, of every delicate
flavour.*^

Neither grapes nor wine are produced there, but very
good raisins are brought from abroad, and wine likewise.
The natives, however, do not much care about wine, being
used to that kind of their own made from rice and spices.
From the Ocean Sea also come daily supplies of fish in
great quantity, brought 25 miles up the river, and there
is also great store of fish from the lake, which is the
constant resort of fishermen, who have no other business.
Their fish is of sundry kinds, changing with the season ;
and, owing to the impurities of the city which pass into
the lake, it is remarkably fat and savoury. Any one
who should see the supply of fish in the market would
suppose it impossible that such a quantity could ever be
sold ; and yet in a few hours the whole shall be cleared
away ; so great is the number of inhabitants who are
accustomed to delicate living. Indeed they eat fish and
flesh at the same meal.

All the ten market places are encompassed by lofty
houses, and below these are shops where all sorts of
crafts are carried on, and all sorts of wares are on sale,
including spices and jewels and pearls. Some of these
shops are entirely devoted to the sale of wine made from
rice and spices, which is constantly made fresh and fresh,
and is sold very cheap.

Certain of the streets are occupied by the women of
the town, who are in such a number that I dare not say

Chap. LXXVII. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 203

what it is. They are found not only in the vicinity of
the market places, where usually a quarter is assigned to
them, but all over the city. They exhibit themselves
splendidly attired and abundantly perfumed, in finely
garnished houses, with trains of waiting-women. These
women are extremely accomplished in all the arts of
allurement, and readily adapt their conversation to all
sorts of persons, insomuch that strangers who have once
tasted their attractions seem to get bewitched, and are so
taken with their blandishments and their fascinating
ways that they never can get these out of their heads.
Hence it comes to pass that when they return home they
say they have been to Kinsay or the City of Heaven,
and their only desire is to get back thither as soon as
possible.^

Other streets are occupied by the Physicians, and by
the Astrologers, who are also teachers of reading and
writing ; and an infinity of other professions have their
places round about those squares. In each of the squares
there are two great palaces facing one another, in which
are established the officers appointed by the King to
decide differences arising between merchants, or other
inhabitants of the quarter. It is the daily duty of these
officers to see that the guards are at their posts on the
neighbouring bridges, and to punish them at their
discretion if they are absent.

All along the main street that we have spoken of, as
running from end to end of the city, both sides are lined
with houses and great palaces and the gardens pertaining
to them, whilst in the intervals are the houses of trades-
men engaged in their different crafts. The crowd of
people that you meet here at all hours, passing this way
and that on their different errands, is so vast that no one
would believe . it possible that victuals enough could be
provided for their consumption, unless they should see

204 MARCO POLO Book II.

how, on every market-day, all those squares are thronged
and crammed with purchasers, and with the traders who
have brought in stores of provisions by land or water ;
and everything they bring in is disposed of.

To give you an example of the vast consumption in
this city let us take the article oi pepper ; and that will
enable you in some measure to estimate what must be
the quantity of victual, such as meat, wine, groceries,
which have to be provided for the general consumption.
Now Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great
Kaan's officers of customs that the quantity of pepper
introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay
amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 Ibs."^

The houses of the citizens are well built and elabor-
ately finished ; and the delight they take in decoration,
in painting and in architecture, leads them to spend in
this way sums of money that would astonish you.

The natives of the city are men of peaceful character,
both from education and from the example of their kings,
whose disposition was the same. They know nothing of
handling arms, and keep none in their houses. You
hear of no feuds or noisy quarrels or dissensions of any
kind among them. Both in their commercial dealings
and in their manufactures they are thoroughly honest and
truthful, and there is such a degree of good will and
neighbourly attachment among both men and women
that you would take the people who live in the same
street to be all one family.^

And this familiar intimacy is free from all jealousy or
suspicion of the conduct of their women. These they
treat with the greatest respect, and a man who
should presume to make loose proposals to a married
woman would be regarded as an infamous rascal. They
also treat the foreigners who visit them for the sake of
trade with great cordiality, and entertain them in the

Chap. LXXVII. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 205

most winning manner, affording them every help and
advice on their business. But on the other hand they
hate to see soldiers, and not least those of the Great
Kaan's garrisons, regarding them as the cause of their
having lost their native kings and lords.

On the Lake of which we have spoken there are num-
bers of boats and barges of all sizes for parties of pleasure.
These will hold lo, 15, 20, or more persons, and are from
15 to 20 paces in length, with flat bottoms and ample
breadth of beam, so that they always keep their trim.
Any one who desires to go a-pleasuring with the women,
or with a party of his own sex, hires one of these barges,
which are always to be found completely furnished with
tables and chairs and all the other apparatus for a feast.
The roof forms a level deck, on which the crew stand,
and pole the boat along whithersoever may be desired,
for the Lake is not more than 2 paces in depth. The
inside of this roof and the rest of the interior is covered
with ornamental painting in gay colours, with windows
all round that can be shut or opened, so that the party at
table can enjoy all the beauty and variety of the pros-
pects on both sides as they pass along. And truly a
trip on this Lake is a much more charming recreation than
can be enjoyed on land. For on the one side lies the
city in its entire length, so that the spectators in the
barges, from the distance at which they stand, take in
the whole prospect in its full beauty and grandeur, with
its numberless palaces, temples, monasteries, and gardens,
full of lofty trees, sloping to the shore. And the Lake is
never without a number of other such boats, laden with
pleasure parties ; for it is the great delight of the citizens
here, after they have disposed of the day's business, to
pass the afternoon in enjoyment with the ladies of their
families, or perhaps with others less reputable, either in
these barges or in driving about the city in carriages.*

2o6 My\RCO POLO Book II.

Of these latter we must also say something, for they
afford one mode of recreation to the citizens in going
about the town, as the boats afford another in going
about the Lake. In the main street of the city you meet
an infinite succession of these carriages passing to and
fro. They are long covered vehicles, fitted with curtains
and cushions, and affording room for six persons ; and
they are in constant request for ladies and gentlemen
going on parties of pleasure. In these they drive to
certain gardens, where they are entertained by the
owners in pavilions erected on purpose, and there they
divert themselves the livelong day, with their ladies,
returning home in the evening in those same carriages.

(Further Particulars of the Palace of the King Facfur.)

The whole enclosure of the Palace was divided into
three parts. The middle one was entered by a very
lofty gate, on each side of which there stood on the
ground-level vast pavilions, the roofs of which were
sustained by columns painted and wrought in gold and
the finest azure. Opposite the gate stood the chief
Pavilion, larger than the rest, and painted in like style,
with gilded columns, and a ceiling wrought in splendid
gilded sculpture, whilst the walls were artfully painted
with the stories of departed kings.

On certain days, sacred to his gods, the King
Facfur* used to hold a great court and give a feast
to his chief lords, dignitaries, and rich manufacturers of
the city of Kinsay. On such occasions those pavilions
used to give ample accommodation for 10,000 persons
sitting at table. This court lasted for ten or twelve days,
and exhibited an astonishing and incredible spectacle in
the magnificence of the guests, all clothed in silk and

* Fan/tir, in Ramusio.

Chap. LXXVIT. THE GkEAT CITY OF KINSAY 207

gold, with a profusion of precious stones ; for they tried
to outdo each other In the splendour and richness of their
appointments. Behind this great Pavilion that faced the
great gate, there was a wall with a passage in it shutting
off the inner part of the Palace. On entering this you
found another great edifice In the form of a cloister
surrounded by a portico with columns, from which
opened a variety of apartments for the King and the
Queen, adorned like the outer walls with such elaborate
work as we have mentioned. From the cloister again
you passed Into a covered corridor, six paces in width, of
great length, and extending to the margin of the lake.
On either side of this corridor were ten courts, in the form
of oblong cloisters surrounded by colonnades ; and in each
cloister or court were fifty chambers with gardens to each.
In these chambers were quartered one thousand young
ladies in the service of the King. The- King would
sometimes go with the Queen and some of these maidens
to take his diversion on the Lake, or to visit the Idol-
temples, in boats all canopied with silk.

The other two parts of the enclosure were distributed
in groves, and lakes, and charming gardens planted with
fruit-trees, and preserves for all sorts of animals, such as
roe, red-deer, fallow-deer, hares, and rabbits. Here the
King used to take his pleasure in company with those
damsels of his ; some In carriages, some on horseback,
whilst no man was permitted to enter. Sometimes the
King would set the girls a-coursing after the game with
dogs, and when they were tired they would hie to the
groves that overhung the lakes, and leaving their clothes
there they would come forth naked and enter the water
and swim about hither and thither, whilst it was the
King's delight to watch them ; and then all would return
home. Sometimes the King would have his dinner
carried to those groves, which were dense with lofty trees,

2o8 MARCO POLO Book II.

and there would be waited on by those young ladies.
And thus he passed his life in this constant dalliance
with women, without so much as knowing what arms
meant ! And the result of all this cowardice and
effeminacy was that he lost his dominion to the Great
Kaan in that base and shameful way that you have
heard. ^-^

All this account was given me by a very rich merchant
of Kinsay when I was in that city. He was a very old man,
and had been in familiar intimacy with the King Facfur,
and knew the whole history of his life ; and having seen
the Palace in its glory was pleased to be my guide over
it. As it is occupied by the King appointed by the
Great Kaan, the first pavilions are still maintained as
they used to be, but the apartments of the ladies are all
gone to ruin and can only just be traced. So also the
wall that enclosed the groves and gardens is fallen down,
and neither trees nor animals are there any longer. ^^J

Note i. — I have, after some consideration, followed the example of Mr. H.
Murray, in his edition of Marco Polo, in collecting together in a separate chapter a
number of additional particulars concerning the Great City, which are only found in
Ramusio. Such of these as could be interpolated in the text of the older form of the
narrative have been introduced between brackets in the last chapter. Here I bring
together those particulars which could not be so interpolated without taking liberties
with one or both texts.

The picture in Ramusio, taken as a whole, is so much more brilliant, interesting,
and complete than in the older texts, that I thought of substituting it entirely for the
other. But so much doubt and difficulty hangs over some passages of the Ramusian
version that I could not satisfy myself of the propriety of this, though I feel that the
dismemberment inflicted on that version is also objectionable.

Note 2. — The tides in the Hang-chau estuary are now so furious, entering in the
form of a bore, and running sometimes, by Admiral Collinson's measurement,
ii| knots, that it has been necessary to close by weirs the communication which
formerly existed between the River Tsien-tang on the one side and the Lake Si-hu and
internal waters of the district on the other. Thus all cargoes are passed through the
small city canal in barges, and are subject to transhipment at the river-bank, and at
the great canal terminus outside the north gate, respectively. Mr. Kingsmill, to
whose notices I am indebted for part of this information, is, however, mistaken in
supposing that in Polo's time the tide stopped some 20 miles below the city. We
have seen (note 6, ch. Ixv. supra) that the tide in the river before Kinsay was the
object which first attracted the attention of Bayan, after his triumphant entrance into
the city. The tides reach Fuyang, 20 miles higher. (A'', and Q., China and Japan,

Chap. LXXVII.

THE GREAT CITY OF KINS AY

209

vol. I. p. 53; Mid. Kingd. I. 95, 106; /. N. Ch. Br. K. A. S., December, 1865,
p. 6 ; Milne, p. 295 ; Note by Mr. Moule).

[Miss E. Scidmore writes {China, p. 294) : "There are only three wonders of the
world in China — The Demons at Tungchow, the Thunder at Lungchow, and the
Great Tide at Hangchow, the last, the greatest of all, and a living wonder to this d;^y
of * the open door,' while its rivals are lost in myth and oblivion. . . The Great
Bore charges up the narrowing river at a speed of ten and thirteen miles an hour,
with a roar that can be heard for an hour before it arrives." — H. C]

Note 3. — For satisfactory elucidation as to what is or may have been authentic
in these statements, we shall have to wait for a correct survey of Hang-chau and its
neighbourhood. We have already seen strong reason to suppose that miles have been
substituted for li in the circuits assigned both to the city and to the lake, and we are
yet more strongly impressed with Che conviction that the same substitution has been
made here in regard to the canal on the east of the city, as well as the streets and
market-places spoken of in the next paragraph,

Chinese plans of Ilang-chau do show a large-canal encircling the city on the cast
and north, i.e., on the sides away from the lake. In some of them this is represented
like a ditch to the rampart, but in others it is more detached. And the position
of the main street, with its parallel canal, does answer fairly to the account in the
next paragraph, setting aside the extravagant dimensions.

The existence of the squares or market-places is alluded to by Wassaf in a
passage that we shall quote below ; and the Masdlak-al-Absdr speaks of the main
street running from end to end of the city.

On this Mr. Moule says : " I have found no certain account of market-squares,
though the Fang,* of which a few still exist, and a very large number are laid down
in the Sung Map, mainly grouped along the chief street, may perhaps represent
them. . . . The names of some of these {Fang) and of the Sze or markets still
remain."

Mr. Wylie sent Sir Henry Yule a tracing of the figures mentioned in the foot
note ; it is worth while to append them, at least in diagram.

No. I.

No. 2.

No.

b
c

No. I. Plan of a Fang or Square.

No. 2. ,, ,, in the South of the Imperial City of Si-ngan fu.

No. 3 Arrangement of Two- Fang Square, with four streets and 8 gates.

a. The Market place.

b. The Official Establishment.

c. Office for regulating Weights.

Compare Polo's statement that in each of the squares at Kinsay, where the

* See the mention of the I-ning Fangz.t Si-ngan fu, supra, p. 28. Mr. Wylie writes that in a work
on the latter city, published during the Yuen time, of which he has met with a reprint, there are
figures to illustrate the division of the city into Fang; a word " which appears to indicate a certain
space of ground, not an open square . . . but a block of buildings crossed by streets, and at the end
of each street an open gateway." In one of the figures a first reference indicates "the market place,"
a second " the official establishment," a third " the office for regulating weights." These indications
seem to explain Polo's squares. (See Note 3, above.)

VOL. II. O

2IO MARCO rOLO Book II.

markets were held, there were two great Palaces facing one another, in which were
established the officers who decided differences between merchants, etc.
The double lines represent streets, and the J are gated.

Note 4. — There is no mention oi pork, the characteristic animal food of China,
and the only one specified by Friar Odoric in his account of the same city. Prob-
ably Mark may have got a little Saracenized among the Mahomcdans at the Kaan's
Court, and doubted if 'twere good manners to mention it. It is perhaps a relic of
the same feeling, gendered by Saracen rule, that in Sicily pigs are called i neri.

"The larger game, red-deer and fallow-deer, is now never seen for sale. Hog-
deer, wild-swine, pheasants, water-fowl, and every description of ' vermin ' and small
birds, are exposed for sale, not now in markets, but at the retail wine shops.
Wild-cats, racoons, otters, badgers, kites, owls, etc., etc., festoon the shop fronts
along with game." {Motile.)

Note 5. — Van Braam, in passing through Shan-tung Province, speaks of very
large pears. "The colour is a beautiful golden yellow. Before it is pared tlie pear
is somewhat hard, but in eating it the juice flows, the pulp melts, and the taste is
pleasanlf enough." Williams says these Shan-tung pears are largely exported, but he
is not so complimentary to them as Polo : *' The pears are large and juicy, some-
times weighing 8 or 10 pounds, but remarkably tasteless and coarse." ( V. Braam,
II- 33-34; Mid. Kitigd., I. 78 and II. 44). In the beginning of 1867 I saw pears
in Covent Garden Market which I should guess to have weighed 7 or 8 lbs. each.
They were priced at 18 guineas a dozen !

["Large pears are nowadays produced in Shan-tung and Manchuria, but they
are rather tasteless and coarse. I am inclined to suppose that Polo's large pears
were Chinese quinces, Cydotiia chiiiensis, Thouin, this fruit being of enormous size,
sometimes one foot long, and very fragrant. The Chinese use it for sweet-meats."
{Bretschneider, Hist, of Sot. Disc. I. p. 2.)— H. C]

As regards the "yellow and white" peaches, Marsden supposes the former to be
apricots. Two kinds of peach, correctly so described, are indeed common in Sicily,
where I write ; — and both are, in their raw state, equally good food for i neri! But
I see Mr. Moule also identifies the yellow peach with "the hwang-tnei or clingstone
apricot," as he knows no yellow peach in China.

Note 6. — ^^ E 11071 veggono maiVora che di nuovo possano ritornarvi ;^^ a curious
Italian idiom. (See Vocab. It. Univ., sub. v. ^' vedere'\)

Note 7. — It would seem that the habits of the Chinese in reference to the use of
pepper and such spices have changed. Besides this passage, implying that their
consumption of pepper was large, Marco tells us below (ch. Ixxxii. ) that for one ship-
load of pepper carried to Alexandria for the consumption of Christendom, a hundred
went to Zayton in Manzi. At the present day, according to Williams, the Chinese
use little spice ; pepper chiefly as a febrifuge in the shape of pepper-tea, and that
even less than they did some years ago. (See p. 239, infra, and Mid. Kingd., II. 46,
408.) On this, however, Mr. Moule observes: "Pepper is not so completely
relegated to the doctors. A month or two ago, passing a portable cookshop in the
city, I heard a girl - purchaser cry to the cook, * Be sure you put in pepper and
leeks r''

Note 8. — Marsden, after referring to the ingenious frauds commonly related of
Chinese traders, observes : "In the long continued intercourse that has subsisted
between the agents of the European companies and the more eminent of the Chinese
merchants .... complaints on the ground of commercial unfairness have been
extremely rare, and on the contrary, their transactions have been marked with the
most perfect good faith and mutual confidence." Mr. Consul Medhurst bears
similar strong testimony to the upright dealings of Chinese merchants. His remark
tliat, as a rule, he has found that the Chinese deteriorate by intimacy with foreigners

Chap. LXXVII. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 2 1 I

is worthy of notice ;* it is a remark capable of application wherever the East and
West come into habitual contact. Favourable opinions among the nations on their
frontiers of Chinese dealing, as expressed to Wood and Burnes in Turkestan, and
to Macleod and Richardson in Laos, have been quoted by me elsewhere in reference
to the old classical reputation of the Seres for integrity. Indeed, Marco's whole
account of the people here might pass for an expanded paraphrase of the Latin
commonplaces regarding the Seres. Mr. Milne, a missionary for many years in
China, stands up manfully against the wholesale disparagement of Chinese character
(p. 401).

Note 9. — Semedo and Martini, in the 17th century, give a very similar account
of the Lake Si-hu, the parties of pleasure frequenting it, and their gay barges.
{Semedoy pp. 20-21 ; Mart. p. 9.) But here is a Chinese picture of the very thing
described by Marco, under the Sung Dynasty: "When Yaou Shunming was
Prefect of Hangchow, there was an old woman, who said she was formerly a
singing-girl, and in the service of Tung-p'o Seen-sheng.f She related that her
master, whenever he found a leisure day in spring, would invite friends to take
their pleasure on the lake. They used to take an early meal on some agreeable
spot, and, the repast over, a chief was chosen for the company of each barge, who
called a number of dancing-girls to follow them to any place they chose. As the
day waned a gong sounded to assemble all once more at * Lake Prospect Chambers,'
or at the ' Bamboo Pavilion,' or some place of the kind, where they amused them-
selves to the top of their bent, and then, at the first or second dr.um, before the
evening market dispersed, returned home by candle-light. In the city, gentlemen
and ladies assembled in crowds, lining the way to see the return of the thousand
Knights. It must have been a brave spectacle of that time." {Motile, from the Si-
hti-Chi, or "Topography of the West Lake.") It is evident, from what Mr. Moule
says, that this book abounds in interesting illustration of these two chapters of Polo.
Barges with paddle-wheels are alluded to.

Note 10, — Public carriages are still used in the great cities of the north, such as
Peking. Possibly this is a revival. At one time carriages appear to have been much
more general in China than they were afterwards, or are now. Semedo says they
were abandoned in China just about the time that they were adopted in Europe, viz.
in the i6th century. And this disuse seems to have been either cause or effect of the
neglect of the roads, of which so high an account is given in old times. {Semedo ;
N. and Q. Ch. and Jap. I. 94.)

Deguignes describes the public carriages of Peking, as "shaped like a palankin,
but of a longer form, with a rounded top, lined outside and in with coarse blue
clolh, and provided with black cushions" (I. 372). This corresponds with cur
author's description, and with a drawing by Alexander among his published sketches.
The present Peking cab is evidently the same vehicle, but smaller.

Note ii. — The character of the King of Manzi here given corresponds to that
which the Chinese histories assign to the Emperor Tu-Tsong, in whose time Kublai
commenced his enterprise against Southern China, but who died two years before the fall
of the capital. He is described as given up to wine and women, and indifferent to all
public business, which he committed to unworthy ministers. The following words,
quoted by. Mr. Moule from the Hang-Chau Fti-Chi, are like an echo of Marco's:
"In those days the dynasty was holding on to a mere corner of the realm, hardly
able to defend even that ; and nevertheless all, high and low, devoted themselves to
dress and ornament, to music and dancing on the lake and amongst the hills, with no
idea of sympathy for the country." A garden called Tseu-king ("of many prospects ")
near the Tsing-po Gate, and a monastery west of the lake, near the Lingin, are
mentioned as pleasure haunts of the Sung Kings.

* Foreigner in Far Cathay, pp. 158, 176.

t A famous poet and scholar of the nth century.

VOL. II. O 2

212

MARCO I'OI/)

Book 11.

Ktiii'. 12. 'Jlir shilriiienl lli:it llic ]);ilacc' (jf Kin^fs/c was occupied by tlic Great
Ka;in s IkuUuaiit hrcius lo be inr()ii.si.sUiil w illi llic iiulicc in iJe Mailla that Kiiblai
made it owr to ihe I'uddhist j^iesls. I'erhaps Kubldi's name is a mistake ; for one
of Mr. Abuile's l)ooks {J in-ho-Jticii-chi) says that under the last Mongtjl Emperor five
convents were built on the area of the palace.

Mr. II. Murray argues, from this closing j)assage especially, that Marco never
rould have been the author of the Ramusian interpolations; but with this I cannot
agree. Did this passage stand alone we might doubt if it were Marco's; but the
interpolations must be considered as a whole. Many of them bear to my mind
clear evidence of being his own, and I do not see that the present one may not be his.
The picture conveyed of the ruined walls and half-obliterated buildings does, it is
true, give the impression of a long interval between their abandonment and the
traveller's visit, whilst the whole interval between the capture of the city and Polo's
departure from China was not more than fifteen or sixteen years. But this is too
vague a basis for theorising.

Mr. Moule has ascertained by maps of the Sung period, and by a variety of
notices in the Topographies, that the palace lay to the south and south-east of
the present city, and included a large part of the fine hills called Fung-hwang Shan
or Phoenix Mount,* and othkor names, whilst its southern gate opened near the Ts'ien-
T'ang River. Its north gate is supposed to have been the Fung Shan Gate of
the present city, and the chief street thus formed the avenue to the palace.

By the kindness of Messrs. Moule and ^^'ylie, I am able to give a copy of the
Sung Map of the Palace (for origin of which see list of
illustrations). I should note that the orientation is different
from that of the map of the city already given. This map
elucidates Polo's account of the palace in a highly interest-
ing manner.

[Father PI. Havret has given in p. 2i of Varietds
Smologiques, No. 19, a complete study of the inscription
of a chwang, nearly similar to the one given here, which is
erected near Ch'eng-tu. — H. C.]

Before quitting Kinsay, the description of which forms
the most striking feature in Polo's account of China, it is
worth while to quote other notices from authors of nearly
the same age. However exaggerated some of these may
be, there can be little doubt that it was the greatest city
then existing in the world.

Friar Odoric (in China about 1324-1327) : — " Departing
thence I came unto the city of Cansay, a name which
signifieth the ' City of Heaven.' And 'tis the greatest city
in the whole world, so great indeed that I should scarcely
venture to tell of it, but that I have met at Venice people
in plenty who have been there. It is a good hundred
miles in compass, and there is not in it a span of ground
which is not well peopled. And many a tenement is there
which shall have 10 or 12 households comprised in it. And

e ^, -^ , ,, therebealsogreatsuburbs which contain a greater population

Stone Chwang, or Umbrella , ^i •. •. ir -t-u- •. • v . j

Column, on site of " Brah- than even the City Itself. . . . This city is situated upon

ma's Temple," Hang-chau. lagoons of Standing water, with canals like the city of

Venice. And it hath more than 12,000 bridges, on each

of which are stationed guards, guarding the city on behalf of the Great Kaan. And

* Mr. Wylie, after ascending this hill with Mr. Moule, writes : " It is about two miles from the
south gate to the top, by a rather steep road. On the top is a remarkably level plot of ground, with
a cluster of rocics in one place. On the face of these rocks are a great many inscriptions, but so
obliterated by age and weather that only a few ch.iracters can be decyphered. A stone road leads up
from the city gate, and another one, very steep, down to the lake. This is the only vestige remain-
ing of the old palace grounds. There ii nj doubt about this being really a relic of tlie palace.

H±WON

H±nos

Chap. LXXVII. THE GREAT CITY OF KINSAY 213

at the side of this city there flows a river near which it is built, like Ferrara by the
Po, for it is longer than it is broad," and so on, relating how his host took him to see
a great monastery of the idolaters, where there was a garden full of grottoes, and
therein many animals of divers kinds, which they believed to be inhabited by the
souls of gentlemen. " But if any one should desire to tell all the vastness and great
marvels of this city, a good quire of stationery would not hold the matter, I trow.
For 'tis the greatest and noblest city, and the finest for merchandize that the whole
world containeth." {Cathay, 113 seqq,)

The Archbishop of Soltania (circa 1330) : — " And so vast is the number of people
that the soldiers alone who are posted to keep ward in the city of Cambalec are
40,000 men by sure tale. And in the city of Cassay there be yet more, for its people
is greater in number, seeing that it is a city of very great trade. And to this city all
the traders of the country come to trade ; and greatly it aboundeth in all manner of
merchandize." {lb. 244-245.)

John Marignolli (in China 1342- 1347): — "Now Manzi is a country which has
countless cities and nations included in it, past all belief to one who has not seen them.
. . . And among the rest is that most famous city of Campsay, the finest, the
biggest, the richest, the most populous, and altogether the most marvellous city, the
city of the greatest wealth and luxury, of the most splendid buildings (especially idol-
temples, in some of which there are 1000 and 2000 monks dwelling together), that
exists now upon the face of the earth, or mayhap that ever did exist." {lb. p. 354.)
He also speaks, like Odoric, of the "cloister at Campsay, in that most famous
monastery where they keep so many monstrous animals, which they believe to be the
souls of the departed " (384). Perhaps this monastery may yet be identified. Odoric
calls it Thebe. [See ^. Vissiere, Bid, Soc. G^og. Com., 1901, pp. 112- 113. — H. C]

Turning now to Asiatic writers, we begin with IVassdf {a.d. 1300) : —

*' Khanzai is the greatest city of the cities of Chin,

* Stretching like Paradise through the breadth of Heaven.*

Its shape is oblong, and the measurement of its perimeter is about 24 parasangs. Its
streets are paved with burnt brick and with stone. The public edifices and the houses
are built of wood, and adorned with a profusion of paintings of exquisite elegance.
Between one end of the city and the other there are three Yams (post-stations)
established. The length of the chief streets is three parasangs, and the city contains
64 quadrangles corresponding to one another in structure, and with parallel ranges
of columns. The salt excise brings in daily 700 balish in paper-money. The
number of craftsmen is so great that 32,000 are employed at the dyer's art alone ;
from that fact you may estimate the rest. There are in the city 70 totnans of
soldiers and 70 tomans of rayats, whose number is registered in the books of the
Dewan. There are 700 churches {KaHsid) resembling fortresses, and every one
of them overflowing with presbyters without faith, and monks without religion,
besides other officials, wardens, servants of the idols, and this, that, and the other,
to tell the names of which would surpass number and space. All these are exempt
from taxes of every kind. Four tojnans of the garrison constitute the night patrol.
. . . Amid the city there are 360 bridges erected over canals ample as the Tigris,
which are ramifications of the great river of Chin ; and different kinds of vessels and
ferry-boats, adapted to every class, ply upon the waters in such numbers as to pass all
powers of enumeration. . . . The concourse of all kinds of foreigners from the four
quarters of the world, such as the calls of trade and travel bring together in a
kingdom like this, may easily be conceived." {Revised on Hammer's Translation^
pp. 42-43-)

. . . You will see on the map, just inside the walls of the Imperial city, the Temple of Brahma.
There are still two stone columns standing with curious Buddhist inscriptions. . . . Although the
temple is entirely gone, these columns retain the name and mark the place. They date from the
6th century, and there are few structures earlier in China." One is engraved above, after a sketch
by Mr. Moule.

214 MARCO rOLO Book 1 1.

The Persian work NirJidt-al-Ktilnb: — *' Khinzai is the capital of the country of
Mdchfn. If one may believe what some travellers say, there exists no greater city on
the face of the earth ; but anyhow, all agree that it is the greatest in all the countries
in the East. Inside the place is a lake which has a circuit of six parasangs, and all
round which houses are built. . . . The population is so numerous that the
watchmen are some 10,000 in number." {Qnat. Hash. p. Ixxxviii. )

The Arabic work Masdlak-al-Absdr : — " Two routes lead from Khanbalik to
KhinsA, one by land, the other by water ; and either way takes 40 days. The city
of Khinsd extends a whole day's journey in length and half a day's journey in breadth.
In the middle of it is a street which runs right from one end to the other. The
streets and squares are all paved ; the houses are five-storied (?), and are built
with planks nailed together," etc. {Ibid.)

Ibn Batuta: — "We arrived at the city of Khansa. . . . This city is the
greatest I have ever seen on the surface of the earth. It is three days' journey
in length, so that a traveller passing through the city has to make his marches
and his halts ! .... It is subdivided into six towns, each of which has a
separate enclosure, while one great wall surrounds the whole," etc. {Cathay ^
p. 496 seqq.)

Let us conclude with a writer of a later age, the worthy Jesuit Martin Martini,
the author of the admirable Atlas Sinensis, one whose honourable zeal to maintain
Polo's veracity, of which he was one of the first intelligent advocates, is apt, it must
be confessed, a little to colour his own spectacles: — "That the cosmographers of
Europe may no longer make such ridiculous errors as to the QuiNSAi of Marco
Polo, I will here give you the very place. [He then explains the name.] . . .
And to come to the point ; this is the very city that hath those bridges so lofty and
so numberless, both within the walls and in the suburbs; nor will they fall much
short of the 10,000 which the Venetian alleges, if you count also the triumphal
arches among the bridges, as he might easily do because of their analogous structure,
just as he calls tigers lions; ... or if you will, he may have meant to include
not merely the bridges in the city and suburbs, but in the whole of the dependent
territory. In that case indeed the number which Europeans find it so hard to
believe might well be set still higher, so vast is everywhere the number of bridges
and of triumphal arches. Another point in confirmation is that lake which he
mentions of 40 Italian miles in circuit. This exists under the name of Si-hu ;
it is not, indeed, as the book says, inside the walls, but Ues in contact with
them for a long distance on the west and south-west, and a number of canals drawn
from it do enter the city. Moreover, the shores of the lake on every side are so
thickly studded with temples, monasteries, palaces, museums, and private houses,
that you would suppose yourself to be passing through the midst of a great city
rather than a country scene. Quays of cut stone are built along the banks, affording
a spacious promenade ; and causeways cross the lake itself, furnished with lofty
bridges, to allow of the passage of boats ; and thus you can readily walk all
about the lake on this side and on that. 'Tis no wonder that Polo considered
it to be part of the city. This, too, is the very city that hath within the walls,
near the south side, a hill called Ching-hoang* on which stands that tower with
the watchmen, on which there is a clepsydra to measure the hours, and where each
hour is announced by the exhibition of a placard, with gilt letters of a foot and' a half
in height. This is the very city the streets of which are paved with squared stones :
the city which lies in a swampy situation, and is intersected by a number of navigable
canals ; this, in short, is the city from which the emperor escaped to seaward by the
great river Ts'ien-T'ang, the breadth of which exceeds a German mile, flowing on the
south of the city, exactly corresponding to the river described by the Venetian at
Quinsai, and flowing eastward to the sea, which it enters precisely at the distance
which he mentions. I will add that the compass of the city will be 100 Italian

* See the plan of the city with last chapter.

Chap. LXXVIIL THE REVENUE FROM KINSAY 215

miles and more, if you include its vast suburbs, which run out on every side an
enormous distance ; insomuch that you may walk for 50 Chinese li in a straight
line from north to south, the whole way through crowded blocks of houses, and
without encountering a spot that is not full of dwellings and full of people ; whilst from
east to west you can do very nearly the same thing." {Atlas Sinensis, p. 99.)

And so we quit what Mr. Moule appropriately calls ** Marco's famous rhapsody
of the Manzi capital"; perhaps the most striking section of the whole book, as
manifestly the subject was that which had made the strongest impression on the
narrator.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

Treating of the great Yearly Revenue that the Great Kaan

HATH FROM KiNSAY.

Now I will tell you about the great revenue which the
Great Kaan draweth every year from the said city of
Kinsay and its territory, forming a ninth part of the
whole country of Manzi.

First there is the salt, which brings in a great
revenue. For it produces every year, in round numbers,
fourscore tomans of gold ; and the toman is worth 70,000
saggi of gold, so that the total value of the fourscore
fomans will be five millions and six hundred thousand
saggi of gold, each saggio being worth more than a gold
florin or ducat ; in sooth, a vast sum of money ! [This
province, you see, adjoins the ocean, on the shores of
which are many lagoons or salt marshes, in which the
sea-water dries up during the summer time ; and thence
they extract such a quantity of salt as suffices for the
supply of five of the kingdoms of Manzi besides this
one.]

Having told you of the revenue from salt, I will now
tell you of that which accrues to the Great Kaan from
the duties on merchandize and other matters.

You must know that in this city and its dependencies
they make great quantities of sugar, as indeed they do

2l6 MARCO rOLO Book II.

in the other eight divisions of this country ; so that I
believe the whole of the rest of the world together does
not produce such a quantity, at least, if that be true
which many people have told me ; and the sugar alone
again produces an enormous revenue. — However, I will
not repeat the duties on every article separately, but
tell you how they go in the lump. Well, all spicery pays
three and a third per cent, on the value ; and all
merchandize likewise pays three and a third per cent.
[But sea-borne goods from India and other distant
countries pay ten per cent.] The rice-wine also makes
a great return, and coals, of which there is a great
quantity ; and so do the twelve guilds of craftsmen that
I told you of, with their 12,000 stations apiece, for every
article they make pays duty. And the silk which is
produced in such abundance makes an immense return.
But why should I make a long story of it ? The silk,
you must know, pays ten per cent, and many other
articles also pay ten per cent.

And you must know that Messer Marco Polo, who
relates all this, was several times sent by the Great Kaan
to inspect the amount of his customs and revenue from
this ninth part of Manzi,^ and he found it to be, exclusive
of the salt revenue which we have mentioned already,
210 tomans of gold, equivalent to 14,700,000 saggi of
gold ; one of the most enormous revenues that ever was
heard of. And if the sovereign has such a revenue from
one-ninth part of the country, you may judge what he
must have from the whole of it! However, to speak
the truth, this part is the greatest and most productive ;
and because of the great revenue that the Great Kaan
derives from it, it is his favourite province, and he takes
all the more care to watch it well, and to keep the
people contented.^

Now we will quit this city and speak of others.

Chap. LXXVIII. THE REVENUE FROM KINSAY 2 1 7

Note i. — Pauthier's text seems to be the only one which says that Marco was
sent by the Great Kaan. The G. Text says merely : " Si qe jeo March Pol qe
pliisor foies hoi faire le conte de la rende de tous cestes cotises,^^ — "had several times
heard the calculations made."

Note 2. — To77tan is 10,000. And the first question that occurs in considering
the statements of this chapter is as to the unit of these tomans, as intended by Polo.
I believe it to have been the tael (or Chinese ounce) of gold.

We do not know that the Chinese ever made monetary calculations in gold. But
the usual unit of the revenue accounts appears from Pauthier's extracts to have been
the ting, i.e. a money of account equal to ten taels of silver, and we know {supra, ch. 1.
note 4) that this was in those days the exact equivalent of one tael of gold.

The equation in our text is 10,000 x = 70,000 saggi of gold, giving x, or the unit
sought, = 7 saggi. But in both Ramusio on the one hand, and in the Geog.
Latin and Crusca Italian texts on the other hand, the equivalent of the toman is
80,000 saggi ; though it is true that neither with one valuation nor the other are the
calculations consistent in any of the texts, except Ramusio's.* This consistency does
not give any greater weight to Ramusio's reading, because we know that version to
have been edited, and corrected when the editor thought it necessary : but I adopt
his valuation, because we shall find other grounds for preferring it. The unit of the
toman then is = 8 saggi.

The Venice saggio was one-sixth of a Venice ounce. The Venice mark of 8 ounces
I find stated to contain 3681 grains troy;t hence the sagg-io = y6 grains. But I
imagine the term to be used by Polo here and in other Oriental computations, to
express the Arabic miskdl, the real weight of which, according to Mr. Maskelyne, is
74 grains troy. The miskdl of gold was, as Polo says, something more than a ducat
or sequin, indeed, weight for weight, it was to a ducat nearly as i'4 : i.

Eight saggi or miskdls would be 592 grains troy. The tael is 580, and the
approximation is as near as we can reasonably expect from a calculation in such
terms.

Taking the silver tael at ds. Jd., the gold tael, or rather the ting, would be = 3/.
5^. lod. ; the /^w<a;« = 32,916/. i^s. ^d. ; and the whole salt revenue (8otomans) =
2,633,333/. ; the revenue from other sources (210 tomans) = 6,912,500/.; total
revenue from Kinsay and its province (290 tomans) = 9,545,833/. A sufficiently
startling statement, and quite enough to account for the sobriquet of Marco
Milioni.

Pauthier, in reference to this chapter, brings forward a number of extracts regard-
ing Mongol finance from the official history of that dynasty. The extracts are
extremely interesting in themselves, but I cannot find in them that confirmation of
Marco's accuracy which M. Pauthier sees.

First as to the salt revenue of Kiang-Che, or the province of Kinsay. The facts
given by Pauthier amount to these : that in 1277, the year in which the Mongol salt
department was organised, the manufacture of salt amounted to 92,148 yin, or
22,115,520 kilos.; in 1286 it had reached 450,000 jm, or 108,000,000 kilos.; in
1289 it fell off" by 100,000 yin.

The price was, in 1277, 18 linng ox taels, in chao or paper-money of the years
1260-64 (see vol. i. p. 426) ; in 1282 it was raised to 22 taels; in 1284 a permanent
and reduced price was fixed, the amount of which is not stated.

M. Pauthier assumes as a mean 400,000 jm, at 18 taels, which will give 7,200,000
taels ; or, at 6y. "jd. to the tael, 2,370,000/. But this amount being in chao or paper-
currency, which at its highest valuation was worth only 50 per cent, of the nominal

* Pauthier's MSS. A and B are hopelessly corrupt here. His MS. C agrees with the Geog. Text
in making the toman = 7o,ooo saggi, but 210 tomans ==15,700,000, instead of 14,700,000. The Crusca
and Latin have 8o,coo saggi in the first place, but 15,700,000 in the second. Ramusio alone has
80,000 in the first place, and 16,800,000 in the second.

t Eng. Cyclop., " Weights and Measures."

2 1 8 MARCO POLO Book TI.

value of the notes, we must halve the sum, giving the salt revenue on Pauthicr's
assumptions = 1,185,000/.

Pauthier has also endeavoured to present a table of the whole revenue of
Kiang-Che under the Mongols, amounting to 12,955,710 paper taeh^ or 2,132,294/.,
including the salt revenue. This would leave only 947,294/. for the other sources of
revenue, but the fact is that several of these are left blank, and among others one so
important as the sea-customs. However, even making the extravagant supposition
that the sea-customs and other omitted items were equal in amount to the whole of
the other sources of revenue, salt included, the total would be only 4,264,585/.

Marco's amount, as he gives it, is, I think, unquestionably a huge exaggeration,
though I do not suppose an intentional one. In spite of his professed rendering of
the amounts in gold, I have little doubt that his tomans really represent paper-
currency, and that to get a valuation in gold, his total has to be divided at the very
least by two. We may then compare his total of 290 tomans of paper ting with
Pauthier's 130 tomans of paper /m^, excluding sea-customs and some other items.
No nearer comparison is practicable ; and besides the sources of doubt already in-
dicated, it remains uncertain what in either calculation are the limits of the province
intended. For the bounds of Kiang-Che seem to have varied greatly, sometimes
including and sometimes excluding Fo-kien.

I may observe that Rashiduddin reports, on the authority of the Mongol minister
Pulad Chingsang, that the whole of Manzi brought in a revenue of "900 tomans."
This Quatremere renders " nine million pieces of gold," presumably meaning dinars.
It is unfortunate that there should be uncertainty here again as to the unit. If it
were the dinar the whole revenue of Manzi would be about 5,850,000/., wheieas if
the unit were, as in the case of Polo's toman, the ting, the revenue would be nearly
30,000,000 sterling !

It does appear that in China a toman of some denomination of money near the
dinar was known in account. For Friar Odoric states the revenue of Yang-chau in
tojnans of Balish, the latter unit being, as he explains, a sum in paper-currency
equivalent to a florin and a half (or something more than a dinar) ; perhaps, however,
only the Hang ox tael (see vol. i, pp. 426-7).

It is this calculation of the Kinsay revenue which Marco is supposed to be ex-
pounding to his fellow-prisoner on the title-page of this volume. [See F. Hoang,
Commerce Public du Sel, Shanghai, 1898, Liang- tche-yen, pp. 6-7. — 11. C]

CHAPTER LXXIX.

Of the City of Tanpiju and Others.

When you leave Kinsay and travel a day's journey to
the south-east, through a plenteous region, passing a
succession of dwellings and charming gardens, you reach
the city of Tanpiju, a great, rich, and fine city, under
Kinsay. The people are subject to the Kaan, and have
paper-money, and are Idolaters, and burn their dead in
the way described before. They live by trade and

Chap. LXXIX. CITIES TO THE SOUTH OF KINSAY 2I9

manufactures and handicrafts, and have all necessaries
in great plenty and cheapness.^

But there is no more to be said about it, so we
proceed, and I will tell you of another city called Vuju
at three days' distance from Tanpiju. The people are
Idolaters, &c., and the city is under Kinsay. They live
by trade and manufactures.

Travelling through a succession of towns and villages
that look like one continuous city, two days further on to
the south-east, you find the great and fine city of Ghiuju
which is under Kinsay. The people are Idolaters, &c.
They have plenty of silk, and live by trade and handi-
crafts, and have all things necessary in abundance. At
this city you find the largest and longest canes that are
in all Manzi ; they are full four palms in girth and 1 5
paces in length.^

When you have left Ghiuju you travel four days S.E.
through a beautiful country, in which towns and villages
are very numerous. There is abundance of game both
in beasts and birds ; and there are very large and fierce
lions. After those four days you come to the great and
fine city of Chansiian. It is situated upon a hill which
divides the River, so that the one portion flows up
country and the other down.* It is still under the
government of Kinsay.

I should tell you that in all the country of Manzi
they have no sheep, though they have beeves and kine,
goats and kids and swine In abundance. The people
are Idolaters here, &c.

When you leave Changshan you travel three days
through a very fine country with many towns and
villages, traders and craftsmen, and abounding In game
of all kinds, and arrive at the city of Cuju. The people

* " Est sus un tKont qzie parte le Flum, que le unc nioitie ala en sus e r autre moitii en jus"
(G. T.).

2 20 MARCO POLO Book II.

are Idolaters, &c., and live by trade and manufactures.
It is a fine, noble, and rich city, and is the last of the
government of Kinsay in this direction.^ The other
kingdom which we now enter, called Fuju, is also one of
the nine great divisions of Manzi as Kinsay is.

Note I. — The traveller's route proceeds from Kinsay or Hang-chau southward to
the mountains of Fo-kien, ascending the valley of the Ts'ien T'ang, commonly called
by Europeans the Green River. The general line, directed as we shall see upon
Kien-ning fu in Fo-kien, is clear enough, but some of the details are very obscure,
owing partly to vague indications and partly to the excessive uncertainty in the
reading of some of the proper names.

No name resembling Tanpiju (G. T., Tanpigtii ; Pauthier, Tacpigtiy, Carpiguy,
Capigiiy ; Ram., Tapmzu) belongs, so far as has yet been shown, to any considerable
town in the position indicated.* Both Pauthier and Mr. Kingsmill identify the place
with Shao-hing fu, a large and busy town, compared by Fortune, as regards population,
to Shang-hai. Shao-hing is across the broad river, and somewhat further down than
Hang-chau : it is out of the traveller's general direction ; and it seems unnatural that
he should commence his journey by passing this wide river, and yet not mention it.

For these reasons 1 formerly rejected Shao-hing, and looked rather to Fu-yang as
the representative of Tanpiju. But my opinion is shaken when I find both Mr. Elias
and Baron Richthofen decidedly opposed to Fu-yang, and the latter altogether in
favour of Shao-hing. " The journey through a plenteous region, passing a succession
of dwellings and charming gardens; the epithets 'great, rich, and fine city'; the
*t^^ade, manufactures, and handicrafts,' and the 'necessaries in great plenty and
cheapness,' appear to apply rather to the populous plain and the large city of ancient
fame, than to the small Fu-yang hien . . . shut in by a spur from the hills, which
would hardly have allowed it in former days to have been a great city." [Note by
Baron R.) The after route, as elucidated by the same authority, points with even
more force to Shao-hing.

[Mr. G. Phillips has made ^ special study of the route from Kinsay to Zaytun
in the Tdung Pao, I. p. 218 seq. {The Identity of Marco Polo's 7aitun with
Changchau). He says (p. 222) : " Leaving Hangchau by boat for Fuhkien, the first
place of importance is Fuyang, at 100 li from Hangchau. This name does not in
any way resemble Polo's Ta Pin Zu, but I think it can be no other." Mr. Phillips
writes (pp. 221-222) that by the route he describes, he " intends to follow the high-
way which has been used by travellers for centuries, and the greater part of which
is by water." He adds : " I may mention that the boats used on this route can be
luxuriously fitted up, and the traveller can go in them all the way from Hangchau to
Chinghu, the head of the navigation of the Ts'ien-t'ang River. At this Chinghu, they
disembark and hire coolies and chairs to take them and their luggage across the Sien-
hia pass to Puching in Fuhkien. This route is described by Fortune in an opposite
direction, in his Watiderings in China, vol. ii. p. 139. I am inclined to think that
Polo followed this route, as the one given by Yule, by way of Shao-hing and Kin-hua
by land, would be unnecessarily tedious for the ladies Polo was escorting, and there
was no necessity to take it ; more especially as there was a direct water route to the
point for which they were making. I further incline to this route, as I can find no
city at all fitting in with Yenchau, Ramusio's Gengiu, along the route given by Yule."

* One of the Hien, forming the special districts of Hang-chau itself, now called Tsien-tang, was
formerly called Tan^-wei-tang. But it embraces the eastern part of the district, and can, I think,
have nothing to do with Tanpiju. (See Biot, p. 257, and Chin. Repos. for February, 1842, p. 109.)

CiiAP. LXXIX. ASCENT OF THE TS'IEN-T'ANG VALLEY 22 1

In my paper on the Catalan Map (Paris, 1895) I gave the following itinerary:
Kinsay (Hang-chau), Tanpiju (Shao-hing fu), Vuju (Kin-hwa fu), Ghiuju (K'iu-chau
fu), Chan-shan (Sui-chang hien), Cuju (Ch'u-chau), Ke-lin-fu (Kien-ning fu), Unken
(Hu-k\van), Fuju (Fu-chau), Zayton (Kayten, Ilai-t'au), Zayton (Ts'iuen-chau),
Tyunju (Tek-hwa).

Regarding the burning of the dead, Mr. Phillips [Voung Pao, VI. p. 454) quotes
the following passage from a notice by M. Jaubert. " The town of Zaitun is situated
half a day's journey inland from the sea. At the place where the ships anchor, the
water is fresh. The people drink this water and also that of the wells. Zaitun is
30 days' journey from Khanbaligh. The inhabitants of this town burn their dead
either with Sandal, or Brazil wood, according to their means ; they then throw the
ashes into the river." Mr. Phillips adds : "The custom of burning the dead is a long
established one in Fuh-Kien, and does not find much favour among the upper classes.
It exists even to this day in the central parts of the province. The time for cremation
is generally at the time of the Tsing-Ming. At the commencement of the present
dynasty the custom of burning the dead appears to have been pretty general in the
Fuchow Prefecture ; it was looked upon with disfavour by many, and the gentry peti-
tioned the Authorities that proclamations forbidding it should be issued. It was thought
unfilial for children to cremate their parents ; and the practice of gathering up the bones
of a partially cremated person and thrusting them into ajar, euphoniously called a
Golden Jar, but which was really an earthen one, was much commented on, as, if the
jar was too small to contain all the bones, they were broken up and put in, and many
pieces got thrown aside. In the Changchow neighbourhood, with which we have here
most to do, it was a universal custom in 1126 to burn the dead, and was in existence
for many centuries after." (See note, siipra, II. p. 134.)

Captain Gill, speaking of the country near the Great Wall, writes (I. p. 61) : ['* The
Chinese] consider mutton very poor food, and the butchers^ shops are always kept by
Mongols. In these, however, both beef and mutton can be bought for 3^^. or /^d.
a lb., while pork, which is considered by the Chinese as the greatest delicacy, sells
for double the price." — H. C]

Note 2. — Chekiang produces bamboos more abundantly than any province of
Eastern China. Dr. Medhurst mentions meeting, on the waters near Hang-chau, with
numerous rafts of bamboos, one of which was one- third of a mile in length. {Glance at
Int. of China, p. 53.)

Note 3. — Assnmiing Tanpiju to be Shao-hing, the remaining places as far as the
Fo-kien Frontier run thus : —

3 days to Vuju (P. Vugtii, G. T. Vugtii, Vuigiii, Ram. Ugtiiu).

2 ,, to Ghiuju (P. Guiguy, G. T. Ghingui, Ghengiii, Chengui, Ram. Gengut).

4 ,, to Chanshan (P. Ciancian, G. T. Cianscian, Ram. Zengian).

3 ,, to Cuju or Chuju (P. Cmgiiy, G. T. Ctigui, Ram. Gieza).

First as regards Chanshan, which, with the notable circumstances about the waters
there, constitutes the key to the route, I extract the following remarks from a note
which Mr. Fortune has kindly sent me : " When we get to Chanshan the proof as to
the route is very strong. This is undoubtedly my Chang-shan. The town is near the
head of the Green River (the Ts'ien T'ang) which flows in a N.E. direction and falls
into the Bay of Hang-chau. At Chang-shan the stream is no longer navigable even for
small boats. Travellers going west or south-west walk or are carried in sedan-chairs
across country in a westerly direction for about 30 miles to a town named Yuh-shan.
Here there is a river which flows westward (' the other half goes down'), taking the
traveller rapidly in that direction, and passing en route the towns of Kwansinfu,
Hokow or Hokeu, and onward to the Poyang Lake." From the careful study of Mr.
Fortune's published narrative I had already arrived at the conclusion that this was
the correct explanation of the remarkable expressions about the division of the waters,
which are closely analogous to those used by the traveller in ch. Ixii. of this book

222 MARCO POLO Book II.

when speaking of the watershed of the Great Canal at Sinjumatu. Paraphrased the
words might run : ** At Chang-shan you reach high ground, which interrupts the con-
tinuity of the River ; from one side of this ridge it flows up country towards the north,
from the other it flows down towards the south." The expression *' The River" will
be elucidated in note 4 to ch. Ixxxii, below.

This route by the Ts'ien T'ang and the Chang-shan portage, which turns the danger
involved in the navigation of the Vang-tzii and the Poyang Lake, was formerly a
thoroughfare to the south much followed ; though now almost abandoned through one
of the indirect results (as Baron Richthofen points out) of steam navigation.

The portage from Chang-shan to Yuh-shan was passed by the English and Dutch
embassies in the end of last century, on their journeys from Hang-chau to Canton, and
by Mr. Fortune on his way from Ningpo to the Bohea country of Fo-kien. It is
probable that Polo on some occasion made the ascent of the Ts'ien T'ang by water,
and that this leads him to notice the interruption of the navigation.

[Mr. Phillips writes (71 Pao, I. p. 222) : "From Fuyang the next point reached
is Tunglu, also another 100 li distant. Polo calls this city Ugim, a name bearing no
resemblance to Tunglu, but this name and Ta Pin Zu are so corrupted in all editions
that they defy conjecture. One hundred li further up the river from Tunglu, we
come to Yenchau, in which I think we have Polo's Gengiu of Ramusio's text. Yule's
text calls this city Ghiuju, possibly an error in transcription for Ghinju ; Yenchau in
ancient Chinese would, according to Williams, be pronounced Ngam, Ngin, and
Ngienchau, all of which are sufficiently near Polo's Gengiu. The next city reached is
Lan Ki Hien or Lan Chi Hsien, famous for its hams, dates, and all the good things of
this life, according to the Chinese. In this city I recognise Polo's Zen Gi An of
Ramusio. Does its description justify me in my identification? 'The city of
"Zen gi an," ' says Ramusio, ' is built upon a hill that stands isolated in the river, which
latter, by dividing itself into two branches, appears to embrace it. These streams take
opposite directions : one of them pursuing its course to the south-east and the other to
the north-west.' Fortune, in his Wanderings in China (vol. ii. p. 139), calls Lan-Khi,
Nan-Che-hien, and says : ' It is built on the banks of the river, and has a picturesque
hill behind it.' Milne, who also visited it, mentions it in his Life in China (p. 258), and
says : ' At the southern end of the suburbs of Lan-Ki the river divides into two
branches, the one to the left on south-east leading direct to Kinhua.' Milne's de-
scription of the place is almost identical with Polo's, when speaking of the division
of the river. There are in Fuchau several Lan-Khi shopkeepers, who deal in hams,
dates, etc., and these men tell me the city from the river has the appearance of being
built on a hill, but the houses on the hill are chiefly temples. I would divide the
name as follows, Zen gi an ; the last syllable an most probably represents the modern
liien, meaning District city, which in ancient Chinese was pronounced Han, softened
by the Italians into an. Lan-Khi was a Hien in Polo's day." — H. C]

Kin-hwa fu, as Pauthier has observed, bore at this time the name of Wu-CHAU, which
Polo would certainly write Vtigiti. And between Shao-hing and Kin-hwa there exists,
as Baron Richthofen has pointed out, a line of depression which affords an easy con-
nection between Shao-hing and Lan-ki hien or Kin-hwa fu. This line is much used by
travellers, and forms just 3 short stages. Hence Kin-hwa, a fine city destroyed by
the T'ai-P'ings, is satisfactorily identified with Vtigitc.

The journey from Vugui to Ghiuju is said to be through a succession of towns and
villages, looking like a continuous city. Fortune, whose journey occurred before the
T'ai-P'ing devastations, speaks of the approach to Kiu-chau as a vast and beautiful
garden. And Mr. Milne's map of this route shows an incomparable density of towns
in the Ts'ien T'ang valley from Yen-chau up to Kiu-chau. Ghiuju then will be Kiu-
chau. But between Kiu-chau and Chang-shan it is impossible to make four days :
barely possibl- to make two. My map {Iiinera?'ies, No. VL), based on D'Anville and
Fortune, makes the direcl distance 24 miles ; Milne's map barely 18 ; whilst from his
book we deduce the distance travelled by water to be about 30. On the whole, it
seems probable that there is a mistake in the figure here.

2 :2.

11 G'

117''

JJS"

Marco Polo's route from Kiusai to ZAITUN, illustrating Mr. G. Phillips' theory.

2 24 MARCO POLO. Book II.

Troni the head of the great Clie-kiang valley I find two roads acioss the mountains
iiilo I'o-kien described.

One leads from Kiang-shan (not Chang-shan) by a town called Ching-hu, and then,
nearly due south, across the mountains to Pu-ch'eng in Upper P'o-kien. Tliis is specified
by Martini (p. 113) : it seems to have been followed by the Dutch Envoy, Van Iloorn,
in 1665 (see Astley, III. 463), and it was travelled by Fortune on his return /;w/i the
Bohea country to Ningpo. (II. 247, 271.)

The other route follows the portage spoken of above from Chang-shan to Yuh-shan,
and descends the river on that side to Hokeu, whence it strikes south-east across the
mountains to Tsung-ngan-hien in Fo-kien. This route was followed by Fortune on
his way io the Bohea country.

Both from Pu-ch'eng on the former route, and from near Tsung-ngan on the latter,
the waters are navigable down to Kien-ning fu and so to Fu-chau.

Mr. Fortune judges the first to have been Polo's route. There does not, however,
seem to be on this route any place that can be identified with his Cuju or Chuju.
Ching-hu seems to be insignificant, and the name has no resemblance. On the other
route followed by Mr. Fortune himself from that side we have Kwansin fu, Hokeu,
Yen-shan, and (last town passed on that side) CJmchu. The latter, as to both name
and position, is quite satisfactory, but it is described as a small poor town. Hokeu
would be represented in Polo's spelling as Caghiu or Cughiu. It is now a place of
great population and importance as the entrepot of the Black Tea Trade, but, like
many important commercial cities in the interior, not being even a hien^ it has no
place either in Duhalde or in Biot, and I cannot learn its age.

It is no objection to this line that Polo speaks of Cuju or Chuju as the last city of
the government of Kinsay, whilst the towns just named are in Kiang-si. For Kiang-
Chd, the province of Kinsay, then included the eastern part of Kiang-si. (See
Cathay, p. 270.)

[Mr. Phillips writes ( T. Pao, I. 223-224) : ' ' Eighty-five li beyond Lan-ki hien
is Lung-yin, a place not mentioned by Polo, and another ninety-five li still further on
is ChUchau or Keuchau, which is, I think, the Gie-za of Ramusio, and the Cuju of
Yule's version. Polo describes it as the last city of the government of Kinsai
(Che-kiang) in this direction. It is the last Prefectural city, but ninety li beyond
Chii-chau, on the road to Pu-cheng, is Kiang-shan, a district city which is the last one
in this direction. Twenty li from Kiang-shan is Ching-hu, the head of the navigation
of the T'sien-T'ang river. Here one hires chairs and coolies for the journey over the
Sien-hia Pass to Pu-cheng, a distance of 215 li. From Pu-cheng, Fu-chau can be
reached by water in 4 or 5 days. The distance is 780 /z." — H. C]

CHAPTER LXXX.

Concerning the Kingdom of Fuju.

On leaving Cuju, which is the last city of the kingdom
of Kinsay, you enter the kingdom of Fuju, and travel
six days in a south-easterly direction through a country
of mountains and valleys, in which are a number of
towns and villages with great plenty of victuals and

Chap. LXXX. THE KINGDOM OF FUJU 22*5

abundance of game. Lions, great and strong, are also
very numerous. The country produces ginger and
galingale in immense quantities, insomuch that for a
Venice groat you may buy fourscore pounds of good
fine-flavoured ginger. They have also a kind of fruit
resembling saffron, and which serves the purpose of
saffron just as well.-^

And you must know the people eat all manner of
unclean things, even the flesh of a man, provided he has
not died a natural death. So they look out for the
bodies of those that have been put to death and eat
their flesh, which they consider excellent.^

Those who go to war in those parts do as I am going
to tell you. They shave the hair off the forehead and
cause it to be painted in blue like the blade of a glaive.
They all go afoot except the chief; they carry spears
and swords, and are the most savage people in the
world, for they go about constantly killing people, whose
blood they drink, and then devour the bodies.^

Now I will quit this and speak of other matters.
You must know then that after going three days out of
the six that I told you of you come to the city of
Kelinfu, a very great and noble city, belonging to the
Great Kaan. This city hath three stone bridges which
are among the finest and best in the world. They are a
mile long and some nine paces in width, and they are
all decorated with rich marble columns. Indeed they are
such fine and marvellous works that to build any one of
them must have cost a treasure.^

The people live by trade and manufactures, and have
great store of silk [which they weave into various stuffs],
and of ginger and galingale.^ [They also make much
cotton cloth of dyed thread, which is sent all over Manzi.]
Their women are particularly beautiful. And there is a
strange thing there which I needs must tell you. You

VOL. II P

226 MARCO POLO Book II.

must know they have a kind of fowls which have no
feathers, but hair only, like a cat's fur.^ They are black
all over ; they lay eggs just like our fowls, and are very
good to eat.

In the other three days of the six that I have men-
tioned above,^ you continue to meet with many towns
and villages, with traders, and goods for sale, and
craftsmen. The people have much silk, and are
Idolaters, and subject to the Great Kaan. There is
plenty of game of all kinds, and there are great and
fierce lions which attack travellers. In the last of those
three days' journey, when you have gone 15 miles
you find a city called Unken, where there is an immense
quantity of sugar made. From this city the Great
Kaan gets all the sugar for the use of his Court, a
quantity worth a great amount of money. [And before
this city came under the Great Kaan these people knew
not how to make fine sugar ; they only used to boil and
^skim the juice, which when cold left a black paste. But
after they came under the Great Kaan some men of
Babylonia who happened to be at the Court proceeded
to this city and taught the people to refine the sugar
with the ashes of certain trees/]

There is no more to say of the place, so now we shall
speak of the splendour of Fuju. When you have gone
15 miles from the city of Unken, you come to this noble
city which is the capital of the kingdom. So we will
now tell you what we know of it.

Note i. — The vague description does not suggest the root turmeric with which
Marsden and Pauthier identify this "fruit like saffron." It is probably one of the
species of Gardenia, the fruits of which are used by the Chinese for their colouring
properties. Their splendid yellow colour "is due to a body named crocine which
appears to be identical with the polychroite of saffron." {Hanbiiry's Notes on Chinese
Mat. Medica, pp. 21-22.) For this identification, I am indebted to Dr. Flilckiger of
Bern. [" Colonel Yule concludes that the fruit of a Gardenia, which yields a yellow
colour, is meant. But Polo's vague description might just as well agree with the
Bastard Saffron, Cari'hamus tinctorius^ a plant introduced into China from Western

:^a9

Scene In the Bohea Mountains, on Polo's route between Kiang-sl and Fo-klen. (From Fortune.)

Jlbottc ^tttr^ Vtn en xomnmt U JuQiw, tt id comxna. m aia mz wxnh vox
montitngncs c |Jorbvt!r3. ..." j r

VOL. II,

P 2

228 MARCO POLO Book II.

Asia in the 2nd century n.c, and since then much cultivated in that countiy."
{Bretschneidery Hist, of Bot. Disc. I. p. 4.)— H- C.]

Note 2. — See vol. i. p. 312.

Note 3. — These particulars as to a race of painted or tattooed caterans accused
of cannibalism apparently apply to some aboriginal tribe which still maintained its
ground in the mountains between Fo-kien and Che-kiang or Kiang-si. Davis, alluding
to the Upper part of the Province of Canton, says: "The Chinese History speaks
of the aborigines of this wild region under the name of Mdn (Barbarians), who within
a comparatively recent period were subdued and incorporated into the Middle
Nation. Many persons have remarked a decidedly Malay cast in the features
of the natives of this province ; and it is highly probable that the Canton and Fo-kien
people were originally the same race as the tribes which still remain unreclaimed on
the east side of Formosa."* {Supply. Vol. p. 260.) Indeed Martini tells us that
even in the 17th century this very range of mountains, farther to the south, in the
Ting-chau department of Fo-kien, contained a race of uncivilised people, who were
enabled by the inaccessible character of the country to maintain their independence of
the Chinese Government (p. 114; see also Semedo, p. 19).

["Colonel Yule's 'pariah caste' of Shao-ling, who, he says, rebelled against
either the Sung or the Yiian, are evidently the tomin of Ningpo and zikas of
Wenchow. Colonel Yule's ' some aboriginal tribe between Fo-kien and Che-kiang '
are probably the zikas of Wenchow and the siapo of Fu-kien described by recent
travellers. The zikas are locally called dogs' heads, which illustrates Colonel Yule's
allophylian theories." {Parker, China Review, XIV. p. 359.) Cf. A Visit to the
'''^ Dog- Headed Baj'barians^' or Hill People, near Fu-chow, by Rev. F. Ohlinger^
Chinese Recorder, July, 1886, pp. 265-268.— II. C]

Note 4. — Padre Martini long ago pointed out that this Qtielinftc is Kien-ning fu,
on the upper part of the Min River, an important city of Fo-kien. In the Fo-kien
dialect he notices that / is often substituted for n, a well-known instance of which is
Liampoo, the name applied by F. M. Pinto and the old Portuguese to Nittgpo.

[Mr. Phillips writes {T. Pao, I. p. 224) : "From Pucheng to Kien-Ning-P'oo the
distance is 290 //, all down stream. I consider this to have been the route followed
by Polo. His calling Kien-Ning-Foo, Que-lin-fu, is quite correct, as far as the
Ling is concerned, the people of the city and of the whole southern province pro-
nounce Ning, Ling. The Ramusian version gives very full particulars regarding the
manufactures of Kien-Ning-Foo, which are not found in the other texts ; for example,
silk is said in this version to be woven into various stuffs, and further : ' They also
make much cotton cloth of dyed thread which is sent all over Manzi.' All this is
quite true. Much silk was formerly and is still woven in Kien-Ning, and the
manufacture of cotton cloth with dyed threads is very common. Such stuff is
called Hung Lu Kin ' red and green cloth.' Cotton cloth, made with dyed thread,
is also very common in our day in many other cities in Fuh-Kien." — H. C]

In Ramusio the bridges are only "each more than 100 paces long and 8 paces
wide." In Pauthier's text each is a mile long, and 20 feet wide. I translate from
the G. T.

Martini describes one beautiful bridge at Kien-ning fu : the piers of cut stone, the
superstructure of timber, roofed in and lined with houses on each side (pp. 112-113).
If this was over the Min it would seem not to survive. A recent journal says : " The
river is crossed by a bridge of boats, the remains of a stone bridge being visible just
above water." {Chinese Recorder (Foochow), August, 1870, p. 65.)

* " It is not improbable that there is some admixture of aboriginal blood in the actual population
(of Fuh-Kien), but if so, it cannot be much. The surnames in this province are the same as those in
Central and North China. . . . The language also is pure Chinese ; actually much nearer the
ancient form of Chinese than the modern Mandarin dialect. There are indeed many words in the
vernacular for which no corresponding character has been found in the literary style : but careful in-
vestigation is gradually diminishing the number." (Note by Rev. Dr. C. Douglas.')

Chap. LXXX. THE KINGDOM OF FUJU 229

Note 5. — Galanga or Galangal is an aromatic root belonging to a class of drugs
once much more used than now. It exists of two kinds : i. Great ox Java Galangal ^
the root of the Alpinia Galanga. This is rarely imported and hardly used in Europe
in modern times, but is still found in the Indian bazaars. 2. Lesser or China
Galangal is imported into London from Canton, and is still sold by druggists in
England. Its botanical origin is unknown. It is produced in Shan-si, Fo-kien, and
Kwang-tung, and is called by the Chinese Liang Kiang ox " Mild Ginger."

["According to the Chinese authors the province of Sze-ch'wan and Han-chung
(Southern Shen-si) were in ancient times famed for their Ginger. Ginger is still
exported in large quantities from Han k'ou. It is known also to be grown largely
in the southern provinces. — Galingale is the Lesser or Chinese Galanga of commerce,
Alpinia officinarum Ilance." {Bretschneider, Hist, of Bot. Disc. I. p. 2. See
Heyd, Com. Levant, II. 616-618.)— H. C]

Galangal was much used as a spice in the Middle Ages. In a syrup for a capon,
temp. Rich. II., we find ground-ginger, cloves, cinnamon and galingale. "Galingale"
appears also as a growth in old English gardens, but this is believed to have been
Cyperus Longns, the tubers of which were substituted for the real article under the
name of English Galingale.

The name appears to be a modification of the Arabic KuUjan, Pers. Kholinjdn,
and these from the Sanskrit Kulanjana. {Mr. Hanbury ; China Comm.-Guidey
120 ; Eng. Cycl. ; Garcia, f. dT, ; Wright, p. 352.)

Note 6. — The cat in question is no doubt the fleecy Persian. These fowls, — but
white, — are mentioned by Odoric at Fu-chau ; and Mr. G. Phillips in a MS. note says
that they are still abundant in Fo-kien, where he has often seen them ; all that he saw
or heard of were white. The Chinese call them "velvet-hair fowls." I believe they
are well known to poultry-fanciers in Europe. \Gallus LanatuSy Temm. See note,
p. 286, of my edition of Odoric. — H. C]

Note 7. — The times assigned in this chapter as we have given them, after the
G. Text, appear very short ; but I have followed that text because it is perfectly
consistent and clear. Starting from the last city of Kinsay government, the traveller
goes six days south-east ; three out of those six days bring him to Kelinfu ; he goes on
the other three days and at the 15th mile of the 3rd day reaches Unken ; 15 miles
further bring him to Fuju. This is interesting as showing that Polo reckoned his
day at 30 miles.

In Pauthier's text again we find : " Sachiez qtte quand on est aU six journees,
apres ces trois que je vous ay dit," not having mentioned trois at all '*<?« treuve la
citi de Quelifu.'''' And on leaving Quelinfu : " Sachiez que es autres trois journees
oultre et plus xv. milles irenve Peti une citi qui a nam Vugtien." This seems to mean
from Cugui to Kelinfu six days, and thence to Vuguen (or Unken) three and a half days
more. But evidently there has been bungling in the transcript, for the es autre
trois journees belongs to the same conception of the distance as that in the G. T.
Pauthier's text does not say how far it is from Unken to Fuju. Ramusio makes six
days to Kelinfu, three days more to Unguem, and then 15 miles more to Fuju (which
he has erroneously as Cagiu here, though previously given right, Fugiu).

The latter scheme looks probable certainly, but the times in the G. T. are quite
admissible, if we suppose that water conveyance was adopted where possible.

For assuming that Cugiu was Fortune's Chuchu at the western base of the Bohea
mountains (see note 3, ch. Ixxix.), and that the traveller reached Tsun-ngan-hien,
in two marches, I see that from Tsin-tsun, near Tsun-ngan-hien, Fortune says he
could have reached Fu-chau in four days by boat. Again Martini, speaking of the skill
with which the Fo-kien boatmen navigate the rocky rapids of the upper waters, says
that even from Pu-cKeng the descent to the capital could be made in three days. So
the thing is quite possible, and the G. Text may be quite correct. (See Fortune, II.
171-183 and 210; Mart, iio.) A party which recently made the journey seem to

230 MARCO rOLO I?ooK II.

have been six days from Tlokcn to llic Wu-e-shan and then five and a half days by
water (but in stormy vi^eather) to Fu-chau. {Chinese Recorder, as above.)

Note 8. — Pauthier supposes Unken, or Vugiien as he reads it, to be Iltikzuan,
one of the hiens under the immediate administration of Fu-chau city. This cannot be,
according to the lucid reading of the G. T., making Unken 15 miles from the chief
city. The only place which the maps show about that position is Min-ts'ing hien.
And the Dutch mission of 1664-1665 names this as ^* Binkin, by some called Min-
sing." [Asiley, III. 461.)

[Mr. Phillips writes {T. Pao, I. 224-225) : *' Going down stream from Kien-Ning,
we arrive first at Yen -Ping on the Min Main River. Eighty-seven li further down is
the mouth of the Yiu-Ki River, up which stream, at a distance of eighty H, is Yiu-Ki
city, where travellers disembark for the land journey to Yung-chun and Chinchew.
This route is the highway from the town of Yiu-Ki to the seaport of Chinchew. This
I consider to have been Polo's route, and Ramusio's Unguen I believe to be Yung-
chun, locally known as Eng-chun or Ung-chun, a name greatly resembling Polo's
Unguen. I look upon this mere resemblance of name as of small moment in
comparison with the weighty and important statement, that ' this place is remarkable
for a great manufacture of sugar.' Going south from the Min River towards Chin-
chew, this is the first district in which sugar-cane is seen growing in any quantity.
Between Kien-Ning- Foo and Fuchau I do not know of any place remarkable for the
g}'eat manufacture of sugar. Pauthier makes How-Kuan do service for Unken or
Unguen, but this is inadmissible, as there is no such place as How-Kuan ; it is
simply one of the divisions of the city of Fuchau, which is divided into two districts,
viz. the Min-Hien and the How-Kuan-Hien. A small quantity of sugar-cane is, I
admit, grown in the How-Kuan division of Fuchau-foo, but it is not extensively made
into sugar. The cane grown there is usually cut into short pieces for chewing and
hawked about the streets for sale. The nearest point to Foochow where sugar is
made in any great quantity is Yung-Foo, a place quite out of Polo's route. The
great sugar manufacturing districts of Fuh-Kien are Hing-hwa, Yung-chun, Chinchew,
and Chang-chau." — H. C]

The Babylonia of the passage from Ramusio is Cairo, — Babylon of Egypt, the
sugar of which was very famous in the Middle Ages. Zucchero di Bambellonia is
repeatedly named in Pegolotti's Handbook (210, 311, 362, etc.).

The passage as it stands represents the Chinese as not knowing even how to get
sugar in the granular form : but perhaps the fact was that they did not know how to
refine it. Local Chinese histories acknowledge that the people of Fo-kien did not
know how to make fine sugar, till, in the time of the Mongols, certain men from the
West taught the art.* It is a curious illustration of the passage that in India coarse
sugar is commonly called Chini, "the produce of China," and sugar candy or
fine sugar Misri, the produce of Cairo {Babylonia) or Egypt. Nevertheless, fine Misri
has long been exported from Fo-kien to India, and down to 1862 went direct from
Amoy. It is now, Mr. Phillips states, sent to India by steamers via Hong-Kong.
I see it stated, in a late Report by Mr. Consul Medhurst, that the sugar at this day
commonly sold and consumed throughout China is excessively coarse and repulsive
in appearance. (See Academy, February, 1874, p. 229.) [We note from the
Returns of Trade for 1900, of the Chinese Customs, p. 467, that during that year
1900, the following quantities of sugar were exported from Amoy: Brown, 89,116
piculs, value 204,969 Hk. taels ; white, 'i,']0^ pictils, 20,024 Hk. taels ; candy,
^2„S'^Apiculs, 304,970 PIk. taels. — H. C]

[Dr. Bretschneider {Hist, of Bot. Disc. I. p. 2) remarks that "the sugar cane
although not indigenous in China, was known to the Chinese in the 2nd century B.C.
It is largely cultivated in the Southern provinces." — H. C]

* Note by Mr. C. Phillips. I omit a corroborative quotation about sugar from the Turkish
Geography, copied from Klaproth in the former edition ; because the author, Hajji Khalfa, used
European sources ; and I have no doubt the passage was derived indirectly from Marco Polo.

Chap. LXXXI. THE CITY OF FUJU 23 T

The fierce lions are, as usual, tigers. These are numerous in this province, and
tradition points to the diversion of many roads, owing to their being infested by
tigers. Tiger cubs are often offered for sale in Amoy.*

CHAPTER LXXXI.

Concerning thp: Greatness of the City of Fuju.

Now this city of Fuju is the key of the kingdom which
is called Chonka, and which is one of the nine great
divisions of Manzi.^ The city is a seat of great trade
and great manufactures. The people are Idolaters and
subject to the Great Kaan. And a large garrison is main-
tained there by that prince to keep the kingdom in peace
and subjection. For the city is one which is apt to revolt
on very slight provocation.

There flows through the middle of this city a great
river, which is about a mile in width, and many ships are
built at the city which are launched upon this river. Enor-
mous quantities of sugar are made there, and there is a
great traffic in pearls and precious stones. For many
ships of India come to these parts bringing many
merchants who traffic about the Isles of the Indies. For
this city is, as I must tell you, in the vicinity of the Ocean
Port of Zayton,^ which is greatly frequented by the ships
of India with their cargoes of various merchandize ; and
from Zayton ships come this way right up to the city of
Fuju by the river I have told you of; and 'tis in this way
that the precious wares of India come hither.^

The city is really a very fine one and kept in good
order, and all necessaries of life are there to be had in
great abundance and cheapness.

*Note by Mr. G. Phillips.

232 MARCO rOLO Book II.

Note i. — The name here applied to Fo-kien by Polo is variously written as
Choncha, Chonka, Concha, Chouka. It has not been satisfactorily explained.
Klaproth and Neumann refer it to Kiang-Chi, of which Fo-kien at one time of
the Mongol rule formed a part. This is the more improbable as Polo expressly
distinguishes this province or kingdom from that which was under Kinsay, viz.
Kiang-Chd Pauthier supposes the word to represent Kien-Kw^, " the Kingdom
of Kien," because in the 8th century this territory had formed a principality of
which the seat was at Kien-chati, now Kien-ning fu. This is not satisfactory either,
for no evidence is adduced that the name continued in use.

One might suppose .that Choncha represented T^swan-chau, the Chinese name of
the city of Zayton, or rather of the department attached to it, written by the French
Thsiuan-tchiou, but by Medhurst Chwanchezv, were it not that Polo's practice of
writing the term tch^u or chau by gin is so nearly invariable, and that the soft
ch is almost always expressed in the old texts by the Italian ci (though the
Venetian does use the soft ch).*

It is again impossible not to be struck with the resemblance of Chonka to
" Chung-kwe " "the Middle Kingdom," though lean suggest no ground for the
application of such a title specially to Fo-kien, except a possible misapprehension.
Chonkwi occurs in the Persian Historia Cathaica published by Miiller, but is there
specially applied to North China. (See Quat. Rashid., p. Ixxxvi.)

The city of course is Fu-CHAU. It was visited also by Friar Odoric, who
calls it Fuzo, and it appears in duplicate on the Catalan Map as Fugio and
as Fozo.

I used the preceding words, "the city of course is Fu-chau," in the first edition.
Since then Mr. G. Phillips, of the consular staff in Fo-kien, has tried to prove that
Polo's Fuju is not Fu-chau {Foochow is his spelling), but T'swan-chau. This view is
bound up with another regarding the identity of Zayton, which will involve lengthy
notice under next chapter ; and both views have met with an able advocate in the
Rev. Dr. C. Douglas, of Amoy.f I do not in the least accept these views about
Fuju.

In considering the objections made to Fu-chau, it must never be forgotten that,
according to the spelling usual with Polo or his scribe, Fuju is not merely "a name
with a great resemblance in sound to Foochow " (as Mr. Phillips has it) ; it is Mr.
Phillips's word Foochow, just as absolutely as my word Fu-chau is his word Foochow.
(See remarks almost at the end of the Introductory Essay.) And what has to be
proved against me in this matter is, that when Polo speaks of Fu-chau he does not
mean Fu-chau. It must also be observed that the distances as given by Polo (three
days from Quelinfu to Fuju, five days from Fuju to Zayton) do correspond well with
my interpretations, and do not correspond with the other. These are very strong
fences of my position, and it demands strong arguments to level them. The adverse
arguments (in brief) are these :

(l.) That Fu-chau was not the capital of Fo-kien {^^ chief dou reigne'''').

(2.) That the River of Fu-chau does not flow through the middle of the city {^' por
le mi de cest f?V/"), nor even under the walls.

(3.) That Fu-chau was not frequented by foreign trade till centuries afterwards.

The first objection will be more conveniently answered under next chapter

(P- 239).

As regards the second, the fact urged is true. But even now a straggling street

* Dr. Medhurst calls the proper name of the city, as distinct from the /-"w, Chinkang (^Dict. of the
Hok-keen dialect^). Dr. Douglas has suggested Chinkang^ and T'swan-kok, i.e. " Kingdom of
T'swan " (chau), as possible explanations of Chonka.

t Mr. Phillips's views were issued first in the Chinese Recorder (published by Missionaries at
Fu-chau) in 1870, and afterwards sent to the R. Geo. Soc, in whose Journal for 1874 they appeared,
with remarks in reply more detailed than I can introduce here. Dr. Douglas's notes were received
after this sheet was in proof, and it will be seen that they modify to a certain extent my views about
Zayton, though not about Fu-chau. His notes, which do more justice to the question than Mr.
Phillips's, should find a place with the other papers in the Geog. Society's Journal.

Chap. LXXXI.

THE CITY OF FUJU

^?>?>

extends to the river, ending in a large suburb on its banks, and a famous bridge there
crosses the river to the south side where now the foreign settlements are. There viay
have been suburbs on that side to justify \.\\q por le mi, or these words may have been
a slip ; for the Traveller begins the next chapter — *' When you quit Fuju (to go south)
you cross the river. " *

Touching the question of foreign commerce, I do not see that Mr. Phillips's
negative evidence would be sufficient to establish his point. But, in fact, the words
of the Geog. Text {i.e. the original dictation), which we have followed, do not (as I
now see) necessarily involve any foreign trade at Fu-chau, the impression of which has
been derived mainly from Ramusio's text. They appear to imply no more than that,
through the vicinity of Zayton, there was a great influx of Indian wares, which were
brought on from the great port by vessels (it may be local junks) ascending the river
Min.t

Scene on the Min River, below Fu-chau. (From Fortune.)

" <5 «Jtthtl0 t\\z par \t mi be tt^it tit! twit ttn ^ntitt tlutt 4c bitit tst krgt an
mil, ti t\\ tt^U cite jsc frrnt maiittes nes Icsqucl^ irajcnt por tt\ flum."

[Mr. Phillips gives the following itinerary after Unguen : Kangiu = Chinchew =
Chuan-chiu or Ts'wan-chiu. He writes {T. Pao, I. p. 227) : " When you leave the
city of Chinchew for Changchau, which lies in a south-westerly, not a south-easterly
direction, you cross the river by a handsome bridge, and travelling for five days by
way of Tung-an, locally Tang-oa, you arrive at Changchau. Along this route in
many parts, more especially in that part lying between Tang-oa and Changcliau, very
large camphor-trees are met with. I have frequently travelled over this road. The
road from Fuchau to Chinchew, which also takes five days to travel over, is bleak and
barren, lying chiefly along the sea-coast, and in winter a most uncomfortable journey.

* There is a capital lithograph of Fu-chau in Fortune's Three Years' Wanderings (1847), '"
which the city shows as on the river, and Fortune always so speaks of it ; e.g. (p. 369) : " The river
runs through the suburbs." I do not krow what is the worth of the old engravings in Monlanus.^ A
view of Fu-chau in one of these (reproduced in Astley, iv, 33) shows a broad creek from the river
penetrating to the heart of the city.

t The words of the G. T. are these: ^' II hi se /Izii grant incrcandies de perles e dautres pieres
prcsiose, e ce est por ce que Ics nes de Yndie hi vienent inaintes con inaitit vierchaant qe usent en ics
j'sies de Endie ; et encore voz di que ccste ville est pre s aii port de Caiton en la vier Osiane ; ct illuec
vienent viaintcs ncs de Indie con viaifitcs tnercandies, e puis de cest part vienent les nes por le grant
flufn qeje voz ai dit desoure jxtsque a la cite de Fugui, et en ceste inainere hi vienent chieres cousse
dc Indie."

234 MARCO POLO Book II.

But few trees are met with ; a banyan here and there, but no camphor-trees along
this route ; but there is one extremely interesting feature on it that would strike the
most unobservant traveller, viz. : the Loyang bridge, one of the. wonders of China."
Had Polo travelled by this route, he would certainly have mentioned it. Pauthier
remarks upon Polo's silence in this matter : ** It is surprising," says he, " that Marco
Polo makes no mention of it."— H. C]

Note 2. — The G. T. reads Caiton, presumably for ^aiton or Zayton. In
Pauthier's text, in the following chapter, the name of Zayton is written Qaiton and
Qayton^ and the name of that port appears in the same form in the Letter of its
Bishop, Andrew of Perugia, quoted in note 2, ch. Ixxxii. Pauthier, however, in this
place reads Kayteu^ which he developes into a port at the mouth of the River Min.*

Note 3. — The Min, the River of Fu-chau, "varies much in width and depth.
Near its mouth, and at some other parts, it is not less than a mile in width, elsewhere
deep and rapid." It is navigable for ships of large size 20 miles from the mouth, and
for good-sized junks thence to the great bridge. The scenery is very fine, and is com-
pared to that of the Hudson. {Fortune^ I. 281 ; Chin. Repos. XVI. 483.)

CHAPTER LXXXII.

Of the City and Great Haven of Zayton.

Now when you quit Fuju and cross the River, you travel
for five days south-east through a fine country, meeting
with a constant succession of flourishing cities, towns,
and villages, rich in every product. You travel by
mountains and valleys and plains, and in some places
by great forests in which are many of the trees which
give Camphor.^ There is plenty of game on the road,
both of bird and beast. The people are all traders and
craftsmen, subjects of the Great Kaan, and under the
government of Fuju. When you have accomplished
those five days' journey you arrive at the very great and
noble city of Zayton, which is also subject to Fuju.

At this city you must know is the Haven of Zayton,
frequented by all the ships of India, which bring thither
spicery and all other kinds of costly wares. It is the
port also that is frequented by all the merchants of

* It is odd enough that Martini (though M. Pauthier apparently was not aware of it) does show a
fort called Haiteu at the mouth of the Min ; but I believe this to be merely an accidental coincidence.
The various readings must be looked at together ; that of the G. T. which I have followed is clear in
itself and accounts for the others.

Chap. LXXXlI. THE CITY AND HAVEN OF ZAYTON 235

Manzl, for hither is Imported the most astonishing
quantity of goods and of precious stones and pearls,
and from this they are distributed all over Manzl.^ And
I assure you that for one shipload of pepper that goes to
Alexandria or elsewhere, destined for Christendom, there
come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven
of Zayton ; for It Is one of the two greatest havens in
the world for commerce.^

The Great Kaan derives a very large revenue from
the duties paid in this city and haven ; for you must
know that on all the merchandize imported, including
precious stones and pearls, he levies a duty of ten per
cent., or In other words takes tithe of everything. Then
again the ship's charge for freight on small wares is 30
per cent., on pepper 44 per cent., and on lignaloes,
sandalwood, and other bulky goods 40 per cent., so
that between freight and the Kaan's duties the merchant
has to pay a good half the value of his investment
[though on the other half he makes such a profit that
he is always glad to come back with a new supply of
merchandize]. But you may well believe from what I
have said that the Kaan hath a vast revenue from this
city.

There is a great abundance here of all provision for
every necessity of man's life. [It is a charming country,
and the people are very quiet, and fond of an easy life.
Many come hither from Upper India to have their bodies
painted with the needle in the way we have elsewhere
described, there being many adepts at this craft in the
city.']

Let me tell you also that In this province there is a
town called Tyunju, where they make vessels of
porcelain of all sizes, the finest that can be imagined.
They make it nowhere but in that city, and thence it is
exported all over the world. Here it is abundant and

236 MARCO POLO Book II.

very cheap, insomuch that for a Venice groat you can
buy three dishes so fine that you could not imagine
better/

I should tell you that in this city {i.e. of Zayton)
they have a peculiar language. [For you must know
that throughout all Manzi they employ one speech and
one kind of writing only, but yet there are local
differences of dialect, as you might say of Genoese,
Milanese, Florentines, and Neapolitans, who though
they speak different dialects can understand one
another/]

And 1 assure you that the Great Kaan has as large
customs and revenues from this kingdom of Chonka as
from Kinsay, aye and more too/

We have now spoken of but three out of the nine
kingdoms of Manzi, to wit Yanju and Kinsay and Fuju.
We could tell you about the other six, but it would
be too long a business ; so we will say no more about
them.

And now you have heard all the truth about Cathay
and Manzi and many other countries, as has been set
down in this Book ; the customs of the people and the
various objects of commerce, the beasts and birds, the
gold and silver and precious stones, and many other
matters have been rehearsed to you. But our Book as
yet does not contain nearly all that we purpose to put
therein. For we have still to tell you all about the people
of India and the notable things of that country, which
are well worth the describing, for they are marvellous
indeed. What we shall tell is all true, and without any
lies. And we shall set down all the particulars in
writing just as Messer Marco Polo related them. And
he well knew the facts, for he remained so long in India,
and enquired so diligently into the manners and peculi-
arities of the nations, that I can assure you there never

Chap. LXXXII. THE CITY AND HAVEN OF ZAYTON 237

was a single man before who learned so much and beheld
so much as he did.

Note i. — The Lau7-tis (or Cinnamomum) Caniphora, a large timber tree, grows
abundantly in Fo-kien. A description of the manner in which camphor is produced
at a very low cost, by sublimation from the chopped twigs, etc., will be found in the
Lettres Edifiantes, XXIV. 19 seqq. ; and more briefly in Hedde by Rondot, p. 35.
P'o-kien alone has been known to send to Canton in one year ^000 piculs (of 133 J lbs.
each), but the average is 2500 to 3000 [ib.).

Note 2. — When Marco says Zayton is one of the two greatest commercial ports
in the world, I know not if he has another haven in his eye, or is only using an
idiom of the age. For in like manner Friar Odoric calls Java "the second best of
all Islands that exist"; and Kansan (or Shen-si) the ^^ second best province in the
world, and the best populated." But apart from any such idiom, Ibn Batuta
pronounces Zayton to be the greatest haven in the world.

Martini relates that when one of the Emperors wanted to make war on Japan,
the Province of Fo-kien offered to bridge the interval with their vessels !

Zayton, as Martini and Deguignes conjectured, is T'swan-chau fu, or
Chwan-chau fu (written by French scholars Thsiouan-ich^on-fou), often called in
our charts, etc., Chinchew, a famous seaport of Fo-kien about 100 miles in a
straight line S.W. by S. of Fu-chau. Klaproth supposes that the name by which
it was known to the Arabs and other Westerns was corrupted from an old Chinese
name of the city, given in the Imperial Geography, viz. Tseu-t'ung.* Zaitun
commended itself to Arabian ears, being the Arabic for an olive-tree (whence
Jerusalem is called Zaih'miyah) ; but the corruption (if such it be) must be of very
old date, as the city appears to have received its present name in the 7th or 8th
century.

Abulfeda, whose Geography was terminated in 1321, had heard the real name
of Zayton: ^^ Shanjti" he calls it, "known in our time as Zaitun"; and again:
"Zaitun, i.e. Shanju, is a haven of China, and, according to the accounts of
merchants who have travelled to those parts, is a city of mark. It is situated on
a marine estuary which ships enter from the China Sea. The estuary extends
fifteen miles, and there is a river at the head of it. According to some who have
seen the place, the tide flows. It is half a day from the sea, and the channel
by which ships come up from the sea is of fresh water. It is smaller in size than
Ilamath, and has the remains, of a wall which was destroyed by the Tartars. The
people drink water from the channel, and also from wells."

Friar Odoric (in China, circa 1323-1327, who travelled apparently by land from
Chin-kalan, i.e. Canton) says: "Passing through many cities and towns, I came
to a certain noble city which is called Zayton, where we Friars Minor have two

Houses In this city is great plenty of all things that are needful for human

subsistence. For example, you can get three pounds and eight ounces of sugar
for less than half a groat. The city is twice as great as Bologna, and in it are
many monasteries of devotees, idol-worshippers every man of them. In one ot

those monasteries which I visited there were 3000 monks The place is one

of the best in the world. . . . Thence I passed eastward to a certain city called
Fuzo. . . . The city is a mighty fine one, and standeth upon the sea." Andrew of
Perugia, another Franciscan, was Bishop of Zayton from 1 322, having resided there
from 1318. In 1326 he writes a letter home, in which he speaks of the place as "a
great city on the shores of the Ocean Sea, which is called in the Persian tongue

Dr. C. Douglas objects to this derivation of Zayton, that the place was never called Tseut'ung

ig-trees"; and this r
applied to Calcutta.

absolutely, but 'jTseu-t'ung-ching; "city of prickly T'ung-trees" ; and this not as a name, but as tt
polite literary epithet, somewhat like "City of Palaces" aj

238 MARCO POLO Book H.

Cayton (Clayton) ; and in this city a rich Armenian lady did build a large and
fine enough church, which was erected into a cathedral by the Archbishop," and so
on. He speaks incidentally of the Genoese merchants frequenting it. John
MarignoUi, who was there about 1347, calls it "a v/ondrous fine sea-port, and
a city of incredible size, where our Minor Friars have three very fine churches ;
. . . and they have a bath also, and a fondaco v.'hich serves as a depot for all the
merchants." Ibn Batuta about the same time says : " The first city that I reached
after crossing the sea M'as Zaitun. ... It is a great city, superb indeed ; and
in it they make damasks of velvet as well as those of satin {Kimkhd and Atlds)^
which are called from the name of the city Zaitmiiah ; they are superior to the stuffs
of Khansd and Khanbalik. The harbour of Zaitun is one of the greatest in the world
— I am wrong ; it is the greatest ! I have seen there about an hundred first-class junks
together ; as for small ones, they were past counting. Ihe harbour is formed by an
estuary which runs inland from the sea until it joins the Great River."

[Mr. Geo. Phillips finds a strong argument in favour of Changchau being Zayton
in this passage of Ibn Batuta. He says [Jour, China Br. R. A. Soc. 1888, 28-29) :
"Changchow in the Middle Ages was the seat of a great silk manufacture, and the
production of its looms, such as gauzes, satins and velvets, were said to exceed in
beauty those of Soochow and Ilangchow. According \.o Xhs. Fuhkien Gazetteer, siWm
goods under the name of Kinki, and porcelain were, at the end of the Sung
Dynasty, ordered to be taken abroad and to be bartered against foreign wares,
treasure having been prohibited to leave the country. In this Kinki I think we may
recognise the Kimkha of Ibn Batuta. I incline to this fact, as the characters
Kinki are pronounced in the Amoy and Changchow dialects Khimkhi and
Kimkhia. Anxious to learn if the manufacture of these silk goods still existed in
Changchow, I communicated with the Rev. Dr. Talmage of Amoy, who, through
the Rev. Mr. Ross of the London Mission, gave me the information that Kinki was
formerly somewhat extensively manufactured at Changchow, although at present it
was only made by one shop in that city. Ibn Batuta tells us that the King of
China had sent to the Sultan, five hundred pieces of Kamkha, of which one
hundred were made in the city of Zaitun. This form of present appears to have been
continued by the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty, for we learn that the Emperor
Yunglo gave to the Envoy of the Sultan of Quilon, presents of Kinki and Shalo,
that is to say, brocaded silks and gauzes. Since writing the above, I found that
Dr. HiKTH suggests that the characters Kinhua, meaning literally gold flower in the
sense of silk embroidery, possibly represent the mediaeval Khimka. I incline rather
to my own suggestion. In the Pei-wen-yun-fu these characters Kien-ki are fre-
quently met in combination, meaning a silk texture, such as brocade or tapestry.
Curtains made of this texture are mentioned in Chinese books, as early as the com-
mencement of the Christian era." — H. C]

Rashiduddin, in enumerating the Sings or great provincial governments of the
empire, has the following : "7th FuCHU. — This is a city of Manzi. The Sing was
formerly located at Zaitun, but afterwards established here, where it still remains.
Zaitun is a great shipping-port, and the commandant there is Bohauddin Kandari."
Pauthier's Chinese extracts show us that the seat of the Sing was, in 1281, at
T'swan-chau, but was then transferred to Fu-chau. In 1282 it was removed back to
T'swan-chau, and in 1283 recalled to Fu-chau. That is to say, what the Persian
writer tells us of Fiijii and Zayton, the Chinese Annalists tell us of Fu-chau and
T'swan-chau. Therefore Fuju and Zayton were respectively Fu-chau and T'swan-chau.

[In the Yuen-shi (ch. 94), Shi po, Maritime trade regulations, it "is stated,
among other things, that in 1277, a superintendency of foreign trade was established
in Ts'uan-chou. Another superintendency was established for the three ports of
K'ing-ylian (the present Ning-po), Shang-hai, and Gan-p'u. These three ports
depended on the province of Fu-kien, the capital of which was Ts'iian-chou.
Farther on, the ports of Hang-chou and Fu-chou are also mentioned in connection
with foreign trade, Chang-chou (in Fu-kien, near Amoy) is only once spoken of

Chap. LXXXII. THE CITY AND HAVEN OF ZAYTON 239

there. We meet further the names of Wen-chou and Kuang-chou as seaports for
foreign trade in the Mongol time. But Ts'uan-chou in this article on the sea-trade
seems to be considered as the most important of the seaports, and it is repeatedly
referred to. I have, therefore, no doubt that the port of Zayton of Western
mediaeval travellers can only be identified with Ts'uan-chou, not with Chang-chou.
. . . There are many other reasons found in Chinese works in favour of this view.
Gan-p'u of the Yuen-shi is the seaport Ganfu of Marco Polo." {Bret Schneider^ Med.
Res. I. pp. 186-187.)

In his paper on ChangchoWy the Capital of Fuhkien in Mongol Times, printed in
the Jour. China B. R. A. Soc. 1888, pp. 22-30, Mr. Geo. Phillips from Chinese
works has shown that the Port of Chang-chau did, in Mongol times, alternate with
Chinchew and Fu-chau as the capital of Fuh-kien. — PI. C]

Further, Zayton was, as we see from this chapter, and from the 2nd and 5th of
Bk. III., in that age the great focus and harbour of communication with India and
the Islands. From Zayton sailed Kublai's ill-fated expedition against Japan. .From
Zayton Marco Polo seems to have sailed on his return to the West, as did John
Marignolli some half century later. At Zayton Ibn Batata first landed in China, and
from it he sailed on his return.

All that we find quoted from Chinese records regarding T swan-chau corresponds
to these Western statements regarding Zayton. For centuries T'swan-chau was the
seat of the Customs Department of Fo-kien, nor was this finally removed till 1473.
In all the historical notices of the arrival of ships and missions from India and the
Indian Islands during the reign of Kublai, T'swan-chau, and T'swan-chau almost
alone, is the port of debarkation ; in the notices of Indian regions in the annals of the
same reign it is from T'swan-chau that the distances are estimated ; it was from
T'swan-chau that the expeditions against Japan and Java were mainly fitted out.
(See quotations by Pauthier, pp. 559, 570, 604, 653, 603, 643; Gaubil, 205, 217;
Deguigncsy III. 169, 175, 180, 187 ; Chinese Recorder (Foochow), 1870, pp. 45
seqq.)

When the Portuguese, in the i6th century, recovered China to European
knowledge, Zayton was no longer the great haven of foreign trade ; but yet the old
name was not extinct among the mariners of Western Asia. Giovanni d'Empoli, in
1 515, writing about China from Cochin, says : " Ships carry spices thither from these
parts. Every year there go thither from Sumatra 60,000 cantars of pepper, and
15,000 or 20,000 from Cochin and Malabar, worth 15 to 20 ducats a cantar ; besides
ginger (?), mace, nutmegs, incense, aloes, velvet, European gold wire, coral, woollens,
etc. The Grand Can is the King of China, and he dwells at Zeiton." Giovanni
hoped to get to Zeiton before he died.*

The port of T'swan-chau is generally called in our modern charts Chitichew.
Now Chincheo is the name given by the old Portuguese navigators to the coast of
Fo-kien, as well as to the port which they frequented there, and till recently I
supposed this to be T'swan-chau. But Mr. Phillips, in his paper alluded to at p. 232,
asserted that by Chincheo modern Spaniards and Portuguese designated (not
T'swan-chau but) Chang-chau, a great city 60 miles W.S.W. of T'swan-chau, on a
river entering Amoy Harbour. On turning, with this hint, to the old maps of the
17th century, I found that their Chincheo is really Chang-chau. But Mr. Phillips also
maintains that Chang-chau, or rather its port, a place formerly called Gehkong and
now Haiteng, is Zayton. Mr. Phillips does not adduce any precise evidence to
show that this place was known as a port in Mongol times, far less that it was

* Giovanni did not get to Zayton ; but two years later he got to Canton with Fernao Perez, was
sent ashore as Factor, and a few days after died of fever. (De Barros, III. II. viii.) The way in
which Botero, a compiler in the latter part of the i6th century, speaks of Zayton as between Canton
and Liampo (Ningpo), and exporting immense quantities of porcelain, salt and sugar, looks as if he
had before him modern information as to the place. He likewise observes, "All the moderns note
the port of Zaiton between Canton and Liampo." Yet I know no other modern allusion except
Giovanni d'Empoli's ; and that was printed only a few years ago. {Botero, Relazione Universate^
pp. 97, 228.)

240 MARCO POLO Book II.

known as the most famous haven in the world ; nor was I able to attach great
weight to the arguments which he adduced. But his thesis, or a modification of it,
has been taken up and maintained with more force, as already intimated, by the
Rev. Dr. Douglas.

The latter makes a strong point in the magnificent character of Amoy Harbour,
which really is one of the grandest havens in the world, and thus answers belter to
the emphatic language of Polo, and of Ibn Batuta, than the river of T'swan-chau.
All the rivers of Fo-kien, as I learn from Dr. Douglas himself, are rapidly silling up ;
and it is probable that the river of Chinchew presented, in the I3lh and 14th
centuries, a far more impressive aspect as a commercial basin than it does now.
But still it must have been far below Amoy Harbour in magnitude, depth, and
accessibility. I have before recognised this, but saw no way to reconcile the pro-
posed deduction with the positive historical facts already stated, which absolutely (to
my mind) identify the Zayton of Polo and Rashiduddin with the Chinese city and
port of T'swan-chau. Dr. Douglas, however, points out that the whole northern
shore of Amoy Harbour, with the Islands of Amoy and Quemoy, are within the Fu
or Department of T'swan-chau ; and the latter name would, in Chinese parlance, apply
equally to the city and to any part of the department. He cites among other
analogous cases the Treaty Port Neuchwang (in Liao-tong). That city really lies
20 miles up the Liao River, but the name of Neuchwang is habitually applied by
foreigners to Ying-tzii, which is the actual port. Even now much of the trade of
T'swan-chau merchants is carried on through Amoy, either by junks touching, or by
using the shorter sea-passage to 'An-hai, which was once a port of great trade, and is
only 20 miles from T'swan-chau.* With such a haven as Amoy Harbour close
by, it is improbable that Kiiblai's vast armaments would have made rendezvotis in the
comparatively inconvenient port of T'swan-chau. Probably then the two were
spoken of as one. In all this I recognise strong likelihood, and nothing incon-
sistent with recorded facts, or with Polo's concise statements. It is even possible
that (as Dr. Douglas thinks) Polo's words intimate a distinction between Zayton the
City and Zayton the Ocean Port ; but for me Zayton the city, in Polo's chapters,
remains still T'swan-chau. Dr. Douglas, however, seems disposed to regard it as
Chang-chatt.

The chief arguments urged for this last identity are: (i.) Ibn Batuta's
representation of his having embarked at Zayton "on the river," i.e. on the internal
navigation system of China, first for Sin-kalan (Canton), and afterwards for Kinsay.
This could not, it is urged, be T'swan-chau, the river of which has no communication
with the internal navigation, whereas the river at Chang-chau has such communication,
constantly made use of in both directions (interrupted only by brief portages); (2.)
Martini's mention of the finding various Catholic remains, such as crosses and images
of the Virgin, at Chang-chau, in the early part of the 17th century, indicating that city
as the probable site of the Franciscan establishments.

[I remember that the argument brought forward by Mr. Phillips in favour of
Changchow which most forcibly struck Sir H. Yule, was the finding of various
Christian remains at this place, and Mr. Phillips wrote {/our. China Br. R. A. Soc.
1888, 27-28): "We learn from the history of the Franciscan missions that two
churches were built in Zaitun, one in the city and the other in a forest not far from
the town. Martini makes mention of relics being found in the city of Changchow,
and also of a missal which he tried in vain to purchase from its owner, who gave as a
reason for not parting with it, that it had been in his family for several generations.
According to the history of the Spanish Dominicans in China, ruins of churches were
used in rebuilding the city walls, many of the stones having crosses cut on them.
Another singular discovery relating to these missions, is one mentioned by Father
ViTTORio Ricci, which would seem to point distinctly to the remains of the

* Martini says of Ganhai ('An-Hai or Ngan-Hai), " Ingens hie mercium ac Sinensium naviunn
copia est .... ex his ('Anhai and Amoy) in totam Indiam merces avehuntur."

^-j^O

H^NGCnUN

y- _ C ^ort Mathesorv

Cian^-pHi

Qubemayl.

Sketch Map

of the

to illustrate the Identity of
Marco Polos ZAYTON .

^-24

[ To face /. 240, w/. ii.

Chap. LXXXII. THE CITY AND HAVEN OF ZAYTON ^4!

Franciscan church built by Andre de Perouse outside the city of Zaitun : ** The
heathen of Changchow," says Ricci, " found buried in a neighbouring hill called
Saysou another cross of a most beautiful form cut out of a single block of stone, which
I had the pleasure of placing in my church in that city. The heathen were alike
ignorant of the time when it was made and how it came to be buried there." — H. C]

Whether the application by foreigners of the term Zayton, may, by some possible
change in trade arrangements in the quarter-century after Polo's departure from
China, have undergone a transfer, is a question which it would be vain to answer
positively without further evidence. But as regards Polo's Zayton, I continue in the
belief that this was T'swan-chau and its haven, with the admission that this haven
may probably have embraced that great basin called Amoy Harbour, or part of it.*

[Besides the two papers I have already mentioned, the late Mr. Phillips has
published, since the last edition of Marco Polo, in the T^oung-Pao, VI. and VII. : Two
Mediceval Ftih-kien Trading'Ports : Chiian-chow and Chang-chow. He has certainly
given many proofs of the importance of Chang-chau at the time of the Mongol
Dynasty, and one might well hesitate (I know it was also the feeling of Sir Henry
Yule at the end of his life) between this city and T'swan-chau, but the weak point of
his controversy is his theory about Fu-chau. However, Mr. George Phillips, who died
in T896, gathered much valuable material, of which we have made use ; it is only fair
to pay this tribute to the memory of this learned consul. — H. C] '

Martini {circa 1650) describes T'swan-chau as delightfully situated on a promontory
between two branches of the estuary which forms the harbour, and these so deep
that the largest ships could come up to the walls on either side. A great suburb,
Loyang, lay beyond the northern water, connected with the city by the most
celebrated bridge in China. CoUinson's Chart in some points below the town
gives only \\ fathom for the present depth, but Dr. Douglas tells me he has
even now occasionally seen large junks come close to the city.

Chinchew, though now occasionally visited by missionaries and others, is not
a Treaty port, and we have not a great deal of information about its modern
state. It is the head-quarters of the 7H-iuh, or general commanding the troops
in Fo-kien. The walls have a circuit of 7 or 8 miles, but embracing much vacant
ground. The chief exports now are tea and sugar, which are largely grown in the
vicinity, tobacco, china-ware, nankeens, etc. There are still to be seen (as I learn
from Mr. Phillips) the ruins of a fine mosque, said to have been founded by the Arab
traders who resorted thither. The English Presbyterian Church Mission has had a
chapel in the city for about ten years.

Zayton, we have seen from Ibn Batuta's report, was famed for rich satins called
Zaituniah. I have suggested in another work {Cathay , p. 486) that this may be
the origin of our word Satin, through the Zettani of mediaeval Italian (or Aceytuni
of mediaeval Spanish). And I am more strongly disposed to support this, seeing that
Francisque-Michel, in considering the origin of Satin, hesitates between Satalin
from Satalia in Asia Minor and Sondanin from the Soudan or Sultan ; neither
half so probable as Zaituni. I may add that in a French list of charges of 1352
we find the intermediate form Zatony. Satin in the modern form occurs in
Chaucer : —

" In Surrie whilom dwelt a compagnie
Of chapmen rich, and therto sad and trewe,
That wide where senten their spicerie.
Clothes of gold, and satins riche of hewe."

— Man of Law^s Tale, st. 6.

[Hatzfeld {Diet.) derives satin from the Italian setino ; and setino from SETA,
pig's hair, and gives the following example : *'Deux aunes et un quartier de satin

* Dr. Douglas assures me that the cut at p. 245 is an excellent view of the entrance to the
S. channel of the Chang-chau River, though I derived it from a professed view of the mouth of the
Chinchew River. I find he is quite right; 'S,^^ List 0/ Illustrations.

VOL. II. Q

242 MARCO POLO Book II.

vremeil," in Cajfiaux^ Abattis de maisons b, Gommegiiies, p. 17, 14th century.
The Portuguese have setim. But I wilUngly accept Sir Henry Yule's suggestion that

the origin of the word is Zayton ; of. zeihm O yi!> olive.

*' The King [of Bijanagar] .... was clothed in a robe oi zaitun satin." {Elliot^
IV. p. 113, whoadds in z.xiQ\.Q.zaitiin: Olive-coloured?) And again {Ibid. p. 120) :
*' Before the throne there was placed a cushion of zaitiini satin, round which three
rows of the most exquisite pearls were sewn." — H. C]

{Rechenhes, etc., II. 229 seqq. ; Maj-tini, circa p. 1 10; Klaproth^ Mini. II.
209-210; Cathay^ cxciii. 268, 223, 355, 486; Empoli in Append, vol. iii. 87 to
Archivio Storico Italiano ; Doiiet d^Arcq. p. 342; Galv., Discoveries of the World,
Ilak. Soc. p. 129; Marsden, ist ed. p. 372; Appendix to Trade Report of Amoy^
for 1868 and 1900. {Heyd, Com. Levant, II. 701-702.]

Note 3. — ^We have referred in a former note (ch. Ixxvii. note 7) to an apparent
change in regard to the Chinese consumption of pepper, which is now said to be
trifling. We shall see in the first chapter of Bk. III. that Polo estimates the
tonnage of Chinese junks by the number of baskets of pepper they carried, and
we have seen in last note the large estimate by Giov. d'Empoli of the quantity that
went to China in 1515. Galvano also, speaking of the adventure of Fernao Perez
d'Andrade to China in 1517? says that he took in at Pacem a cargo of pepper, "as
being the chief article of trade that is valued in China." And it is evident from
what Marsden says in his History of Sumatra, that in the last century some tangible
(Quantity was still sent to China. The export from the Company's plantations in
Sumatra averaged 1200 tons, of which the greater part came to Europe, the rest
went to China.

[Couto says also: "Os portos principaes do Reyno da Sunda sao Banta, Ache,
Xacatara, por outro nome Caravao, aos quaes vam todos os annos mui perto de vinte
sommas, que sao embarca9oes do Chincheo, huma das Provincias maritimas da China,
a carregar de pimenta, porque da este Reyno todos cs annos oito mil bares della, que
sao trinta mil quintaes." {Decada IV. Liv. III. Cap. I. 167.)]

Note 4, — These tattooing artists were probably employed mainly by mariners
frequenting the port. We do not know if the Malays practised tattooing before
their conversion to Islam. But most Indo-Chinese races tattoo, and the Japanese
still "have the greater part of the body and limbs scrolled over with brightTblue
dragons, and lions, and tigers, and figures of men and women tattooed into their
skins with the most artistic aqd elaborate ornamentation." {Alcock, I. 191.) Probably
the Arab sailors also indulged in the same kind of decoration. It is common among
the Arab women now, and Della Valle speaks of it as in his time so much in
vogue among both sexes through Egypt, Arabia, and Babylonia, that he had not
been able to escape. (I. 395.)

Note 5. — The divergence in Ramusio's version is here very notable : "The River
which enters the Port of Zayton is great and wide, running with great velocity, and is
a branch of that which flows by the city of Kinsay. And at the place where it quits
the main channel is the city of Tingui, of which all that is to be said is that there they
make porcelain basins and dishes. The manner of making porcelain was thus related
to him. They excavate a certain kind of earth, as it were from a mine, and this
they heap into great piles, and then leave it undisturbed and exposed to wind, rain,
and sun for 30 or 40 years. In this space of time the earth becomes sufficiently
refined for the manufacture of porcelain ; they then- colour it at their discretion, and
bake it in a furnace. Those who excavate the clay do so always therefore for their
sons and grandsons. The articles are so cheap in that city that you get 8 bowls for a
Venice groat."

Ibn Batuta speaks of porcelain as manufactured at Zayton ; indeed he says
positively (and wrongly) : " Porcelain is made nowhere in China except in the cities

Chap. LXXXIL PORCELAIN MANUFACTURE 243

of Zaitun and Sinkalan" (Canton). A good deal of China ware in modern times is
made in Fo-kien and Canton provinces, and it is still an article of export from
T'swan-chau and Amoy ; but it is only of a very ordinary kind. Pakwiha, between
Amoy and Chang-chau, is mentioned in the Chinese Commercial Guide (p. 114) as
now the place where the coarse blue ware, so largely exported to India, etc., is
largely manufactured ; and Phillips mentions Tung-'an (about half-way between
T'swan-chau and Chang-chau) as a great seat of this manufacture.

Looking, however, to the Ramusian interpolations, which do not indicate a locality
necessarily near Zayton, or even in Fo-kien, it is possible that Murray is right in
supposing the place intended in these to be really King-ii chen in Kiang-si, the great
seat of the manufacture of genuine porcelain, or rather its chief mart Jau-CHAU fu on
the P'o-yang Lake.

The geographical indication of this city of porcelain, as at the place where a
branch of the River of Kinsay flows off- towards Zayton, points to a notion prevalent
in the Middle Ages as to the interdivergence of rivers in general, and especially of
Chinese rivers. This notion will be found well embodied in the Catalan Map, and
something like it in the maps of the Chinese themselves ;* it is a ruling idea with Ibn
Batuta, who, as we have seen (in note 2), speaks of the River of Zayton as connected
in the interior with ' ' the Great River," and who travels by this waterway accordingly
from Zayton to Kinsay, taking no notice of the mountains of Fo-kien. So also {supra,
p. 175) Rashiduddin had been led to suppose that the Great Canal extended to
Zayton. With apparently the same idea of one Great River of China with many
ramifications, Abulfeda places most of the great cities of China upon "The River."
The " Great River of China," with its branches to Kinsay, is alluded to in a like spirit
by Wassaf [supra, p. 213). Polo has already indicated the same idea (p. 219).

Assuming this as the notion involved in the passage from Ramusio, the position
oi Jau-chau might be fairly described as that of Tingui is therein, standing as it does
on the P'o-yang Lake, from which there is such a ramification of internal navigation,
e.g. to Kinsay or Hang-chau fu directly by Kwansin, the Chang-shan portage already
referred to [supra, p. 222), and the Ts'ien T'ang (and this is the Kinsay River line to
which I imagine Polo here to refer), or circuitously by the Yang-tzii and Great Canal ;
to Canton by the portage of the Meiling Pass ; and to the cities of Fo-kien either by
the Kwansin River or by Kian-chan fu, further south, with a portage in each case
across the Fo-kien mountains. None of our maps give any idea of the extent of
internal navigation in China. (See Klaproth, Mdm. vol. iii.)

The story of the life-long period during which the porcelain clay was exposed to
temper long held its ground, and probably was only dispelled by the publication of
the details of the King-te chen manufacture by Pere d'Entrecolles in the Lettres
Edijiantes.

Note 6. — The meagre statement in the French texts shows merely that Polo had
heard of the Fo-kien dialect. The addition from Ramusio shows further that he was
aware of the unity of the written character throughout China, but gives no indication
of knowledge of its peculiar principles, nor of the extent of difference in the spoken
dialects. Even different districts of Fo-kien, according to Martini, use dialects so
different that they understand each other with difficulty (108).

[Mendoza already said: " It is an admirable thing to consider how that in that
kingdome they doo speake manie languages, the one differing from the other : yet
generallie in writing they doo understand one the other, and in speaking not."
[Parke's Transl. p. 93.)]

Professor Kidd, speaking of his instructors in the Mandarin and Fo-kien dialects
respectively, says : ' ' The teachers in both cases read the same books, composed in
the same style, and attached precisely the same ideas to the written symbols, but

* In a modern Chinese geographical work abstracted by Mr. Laidlay, we are told that the great
river of Tsim-lo, or Siam, " penetrates to a branch of the Hwang-Ho." (/. A. S. B. XVII. Pt. I.
1 57-)

VOL. II. Q 2

244 MARCO POLO Book II.

could not understand each other in conversation." Moreover, besides these sounds
attaching to the Chinese characters when read,in the dialect of Fo-kien, thus discrepant
from the sounds used in reading the same characters in the Mandarin dialect, yet
another class of sounds is used to express the same ideas in the Fo-kien dialect when
it is used colloquially and without reference to written symbols ! {KidcCs China^ etc.,
pp. 21-23.)

The term Fokien dialect in the preceding passage is ambiguous, as will be seen
from the following remarks, which have been derived from the Preface and Appendices
to the Rev. Dr. Douglas's Dictionary of the Spoken Language of Amoy,* and which
throw a distinct light on the subject of this note : —

"The vernacular or spoken language of Amoy is not a mere colloquial dialect or
patois, it is a distinct language — one of the many and widely differing spoken
languages which divide among them the soil of China. For these spoken languages
are not dialects of one language, but cognate languages, bearing to each other a
relation similar to that between Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, or between English,
Dutch, German, and Danish. The so-called ^written language'' is indeed uniform
throughout the whole country, but that is rather a notation than a language. And
this "written language, as read aloud from books, is not spoken in any place whatever,
under any form of pronunciation. The most learned men never employ it as a
means of ordinary oral communication even among themselves. It is, in fact, a
dead language, related to the various spoken languages of China, somewhat as Latin
is to the languages of Southern Europe.

" Again : Dialects, properly speaking, of the Amoy vernacular language are
found {e.g.) in the neighbouring districts of Changchew, Chinchew, and Tungan,
and the language with its subordinate dialects is believed to be spoken by 8 or 10
millions of people. Of the other languages of China the most nearly related to the
Amoy is the vernacular of Chau-chau-fu, often called *the Swatow dialect,' from
the only treaty-port in that region. The ancestors of the people speaking it
emigrated many years ago from Fuh-kien, and are still distinguished there by
the appellation Hok-lS, i.e. people from Plok-kien (or Fuh-kien). This language
differs from the Amoy, much as Dutch differs from German, or Portuguese from
Spanish.

"In the Island of Hai-nan (Hai-lam), again (setting aside the central aborigines),
a language is spoken which differs from Amoy more than that of Sw-atow, but is more
nearly related to these tw o than to any other of the languages of China.

' ' In Fuh-chau fu we have another language which is largely spoken in the centre
and north of Fuh-kien. This has many points of resemblance to the Amoy, but is
quite unintelligible to the Amoy people, with the exception of an occasional word or
phrase.

" Hing-hwa fu (Ileng-hoa), between Fuh-chau and Chinchew, has also a language
of its own, though containing only two Hien districts. It is alleged to be unintel-
ligible both at Amoy and at Fuhchau.

"To the other languages of China that of Amoy is less closely related ; yet all
evidently spring from one common stock. But that common stock is not the modern
Mandarin dialect, but the ancient form of the Chinese language as spoken some
3000 years ago. The so-called Mandarin, far from being the original form, is
usually more changed than any. It is in the ancient form of the language (naturally)
that the relation of Chinese to other languages can best be traced ; and as the Amoy
vernacular, which very generally retains the final consonants in their original shape,
has been one of the chief sources from which the ancient form of Chinese has been
recovered, the study of that vernacular is of considerable importance."

* Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken language of Amoy., with the
principal variations of the Chang-chezv and CJiin-cheiu Dialects; by the Rev. Carst airs Douglas,
M.A., LL.D., Glasg., Missionary of the Presb. Church in England. (Triibner, 1873.) I "must note
that I have not access to the book itself, but condense these remarks from extracts and abstracts made
by a friend at my request.

Chap. LXXXII.

WEALTH OF KINSAY

245

Note 7. — This is inconsistent with his former statements as to the supreme wealth
of Kinsay. But with Marco the subject in hand is always /r^ magnifico.

Ramusio says that the Traveller will now "begin to speak of the territories,
cities, and provinces of the Greater, Lesser, and Middle India, in which regions he
was when in the service of the Great Kaan, being sent thither on divers matters of
business : and then again when he returned to the same quarter with the queen of
King Argon, and with his father and uncle, on his way back to his native land. So
he will relate the strange things that he saw in those Indies, not omitting others
which he heard related by persons of reputation and worthy of credit, ^nd things that
were pointed out to him on the maps of mariners of the Indies aforesaid."

The Kaan's Fleet leaving the Port of Zayton.

^WV

^HQ

Pauklno

1
iCayu

jIRervS'xi

Chian^hianfu

CfwiTfumff fxc

Marco polo's Itineraries

(Book n, Chapters 67-82)

Journey thrortgliManzi

Polo's Tuvmes thxis Kinsay

Jfiles

o IMan^hin

lirJH-

o S^
Chinginju ^^

Tung chaoju

Tai-hu oSujU Suchau,

WiokiaTigyu^h\r\Ot

SioiffJcian0

VujuO-:?^ Chansgan

^'^^/—ypiF^

Simg t^uuoK\nseiy / Ganfu

if>fi^

.;S^^:

siJ^j"^"

Fo^yangZ

^IS^, m^^^'^^'^

Fu-ning

Cuju Gvubchauy

^^p^'o M4^-

Tai chau

■'*

3Wfc>o UnkVn, p^j^

Min Asin^ "^O fitchew.

"Rm^ churv /

2aiuarvehcao Zayton <5
Chang chxoAj

l^ANG CHAU

/\ .

ching»liieii Kwcbchcoa,

■^ ^SHverlsl'f

CROSSINGofKIANGatCHINKIANG FU "^q
MUea \.

\_To face p. 246, e/i?/. ii.

7*41

BOOK THIRD.

JAPAN, THE ARCHIPELAGO, SOUTHERN INDIA,
AND THE COASTS AND ISLANDS OP^ THE
INDIAN SEA

a-ff

BOOK III.

CHAPTER I.

Of the Merchant Ships of Manzi that sail upon the
Indian Seas.

Having finished our discourse concerning those countries
wherewith our Book hath been occupied thus far, we are
now about to enter on the subject of India, and to tell
you of all the wonders thereof.

And first let us speak of the ships in which merchants
go to and fro amongst the Isles of India.

These ships, you must know, are of fir timber.^ They
have but one deck, though each of them contains some
50 or 60 cabins, wherein the merchants abide greatly at
their ease, every man having one to himself. The ship
hath but one rudder, but it hath four masts ; and some-
times they have two additional masts, which they ship
and unship at pleasure.^

[Moreover the larger of their vessels have some
thirteen compartments or severances in the interior, made
with planking strongly framed, in case mayhap the ship
should spring a leak, either by running on a rock or by
the blow of a hungry whale (as shall betide ofttimes, for
when the ship in her course by night sends a ripple back
alongside of the whale, the creature seeing the foam
fancies there is something to eat afloat, and makes a rush

249

250 MARCO POLO Book III.

forward, whereby it often shall stave in some part of the
ship). In such case the water that enters the leak flows
to the bilge, which is always kept clear ; and the mariners
having ascertained where the damage is, empty the cargo
from that compartment into those adjoining, for the
planking is so well fitted that the water cannot pass from
one compartment to another. They then stop the leak
and replace the lading.^]

The fastenings are all of good iron nails and the sides
are double, one plank laid over the other, and caulked
outside and in. The planks are not pitched, for those
people do not have any pitch, but they daub the sides
with another matter, deemed by them far better than
pitch ; it is this. You see they take some lime and some
chopped hemp, and these they knead together with a
certain wood-oil ; and when the three are thoroughly
amalgamated, they hold like any glue. And with this
mixture they do paint their ships.*

Each of their great ships requires at least 200 mariners
[some of them 300]. They are indeed of great size, for
one ship shall carry 5000 or 6000 baskets of pepper [and
they used formerly to be larger than they are now]. And
aboard these ships, you must know, when there is no
wind they use sweeps, and these sweeps are so big that
to pull them requires four mariners to each.^ Every
great ship has certain large barks or tenders attached to
it; these are large enough to carry 1000 baskets of
pepper, and carry 50 or 60 mariners apiece [some of them
80 or 100], and they are likewise moved by oars ; they
assist the great ship by towing her, at such times as her
sweeps are in use [or even when she is under sail, if the
wind be somewhat on the beam ; not if the wind be astern,
for then the sails of the big ship would take the wind out
of those of the tenders, and she would run them down].
Each ship has two [or three] of these barks, but one is

Chap. I. THE MERCHANT SHIPS OF MANZI 25 I

bigger than the others. There are also some ten [small]
boats for the service of each great ship, to lay out the
anchors, catch fish, bring supplies aboard, and the like.
When the ship is under sail she carries these boats slung
to her sides. And the large tenders have their boats in
like manner.

When the ship has been a year In v^ork and they v^Ish
to repair her, they nail on a third plank over the first two,
and caulk and pay It well ; and when another repair is
wanted they nail on yet another plank, and so on year by
year as It Is required. Howbelt, they do this only for a
certain number of years, and till there are six thicknesses
of planking. When a ship has come to have six planks
on her sides, one over the other, they take her no more
on the high seas, but make use of her for coasting as long
as she will last, and then they break her up.^

Now that I have told you about the ships which sail
upon the Ocean Sea and among the Isles of India, let us
proceed to speak of the various wonders of India ; but
first and foremost I must tell you about a number of
Islands that there are In that part of the Ocean Sea
where we now are, I mean the Islands lying to the east-
ward. So let us begin with an Island which Is called
Chipangu.

Note i. — Pine \_Pinus sinensis'] is [still] the staple timber for ship-building both
at Canton and in Fo-kien. There is a very large export of it from P'u-chau, and even
the chief fuel at that city is from a kind of fir. Several varieties of pine-wood are also
brought down the rivers for sale at Canton. {N. and Q., China andjapan^ I. 170;
Fortune, 1. 286 ; Doolittle. )

Note 2. — Note the ^?z^ rudder z.'g^iva. {Supra, Bk. I. ch. xix. note 3.) One of the
shifting masts was probably a bowsprit, which, according to Lecomte, the Chinese
occasionally use, very slight, and planted on the larboard bow.

Note 3. — The system of water-tight compartments, for the description of which
we have to thank Ramusio's text, in our own time introduced into European con-
struction, is still maintained by the Chinese, not only in sea-going junks, but in the
larger river craft. (See Mid. Kingd. H. 25 ; Blakiston, 88 ; Degtdgnes, I. 204-206.)

Note 4. — This still remains quite correct, hemp, old nets, and the fibre of a
certain creeper being used for oakum. The wood-oil is derived from a tree called

252 MARCO rOLO Book III.

Tong-shu, I do not know if identical with the wood-oil trees of Arakan and Pegu
{Dipterocarptis laevis).

["What goes under the name of 'wood-oil' to-day in China is the poisonous oil
obtained from the nuts of Eheococca verrucosa. It is mucli used for painting and
caulking ships." {Bretschneider, Hist, of Bot. Disc. I. p. 4.) — H. C]

Note 5. — The junks that visit Singapore still use these sweeps. (/. htd. Arch. II.
607.) Ibn Batuta puts a much larger number of men to each. It will be seen from
his account below that great ropes were attached to the oars to pull by, the bulk of
timber being too large to grasp ; as in the old French galleys wooden nianetteSy or
grips, were attached to the oar for the same purpose.

Note 6. — The Chinese sea-going vessels of those days were apparently larger than
was at all common in European navigation. Marco here speaks of 200 (or in
Ramusio up to 300) mariners, a large crew indeed for a merchant vessel, but not so
great as is implied in Odoric's statement, that the ship in which he went from India to
China had 700 souls on board. The numbers carried by Chinese junks are
occasionally still enormous. " In February, 1822, Captain Pearl, of the English
ship Indiana, coming through Caspar Straits, fell in with the cargo and crew of a
wrecked junk, and saved 198 persons out of 1600, with whom she had left Amoy,
whom he landed at Pontianak. This humane act cost him 11,000/.'' (Quoted by
Williams ixom Chin. Rep. VI. 149.)

The following are some other mediaeval accounts of the China shipping, all
unanimous as to the main facts.

Friar Jordanus : — "The vessels which they navigate to Cathay be very big, and
have upon the ship's hull more than one hundred cabins, and with a fair wind they
carry ten sails, and they are very bulky, being made of three thicknesses of plank, so
that the first thickness is as in our great ships, the second crosswise, the third again
longwise. In sooth, 'tis a very strong affair ! " (55. )

Nicolo Conti: — "They build some ships much larger than ours, capable of con-
taining 2000 butts {vegetes)y with five masts and five sails. The lower part is con-
structed with triple planking, in order to withstand the force of the tempests to which
they are exposed. And the ships are divided into compartments, so formed that if
one part be shattered the rest remains in good order, and enables the vessel to com-
plete its voyage."

Ibn Batuta: — " Chinese ships only are used in navigating the sea of China. . . .
There are three classes of these : (i) the Large, which are CdXXediJon^k [smg. Junk) ;
(2) the Middling, which are called Zao ; and (3) the Small, called Kakam. Each of
the greater ships has from twelve sails down to three. These are made of bamboo
laths woven into a kind of mat ; they are never lowered, and they are braced this
way and that as the wind may blow. When these vessels anchor the sails are allowed
to fly loose. Each ship has a crew of 1000 men, viz. 600 mariners and 400 soldiers,
among whom are archers, target-men, and cross-bow men to shoot naphtha. Each
large vessel is attended by three others, which are called respectively 'The Half,'
* The Third,' and ' The Quarter.' These vessels are built only at Zayton, in China,
and at Sinkalan or Sln-ul-Sfn (z.^. Canton). This is the way they are built. They
construct two walls of timber, which they connect by very thick slabs of wood,
clenching all fast this way and that with huge spikes, each of which is three cubits in
length. When the two walls have been united by these slabs they apply the bottom
planking; and then launch the hull before completing the construction. The timbers
projecting from the sides towards the water serve the crew for going down to wash and
for other needs. Ariti to these projecting timbers are attached the oars, which are
like masts in size, and need from 10 to 15 men * to ply each of them. There are
about 20 of these great oars, and the rowers at each oar stand in two ranks facing
one another. The oars are provided with two strong cords or cables ; each rank pulls

* Or even 30 (p. 248).

Chap. II. THE ISLAND OF CIIIPANGU 253

at one of these and then lets go, whilst the other rank pulls on the opposite cable.
These rowers have a pleasant chaunt at their work usually, singing L£ la I La! la I*
The three tenders which we have mentioned above also use oars, and tow the great
ships when required.

** On each ship four decks are constructed ; and there are cabins and public rooms
for the merchants. Some of these cabins are provided with closets and other con-
veniences, and they have keys so that their tenants can lock them, and carry with
them their wives or concubines. The crew in some of the cabins have their children,
and they sow kitchen herbs, ginger, etc., in wooden buckets. The captain is a very
great Don; and when he lands, the archers and negro -slaves march before him with
javelins, swords, drums, horns, and trumpets." (IV. pp. 91 seqq. and 247 seqq. com-
bined.) Comparing this very interesting description with Polo's, we see that they
agree in all essentials except size and the number of decks. It is not unlikely that the
revival of the trade with India, which Kublai stimulated, may have in its development
under his successors led to the revival also of the larger ships of former times to which
Marco alludes.

CHAPTER II.

Description of the Island of Chipangu, and the Great Kaan's
Despatch of a Host against it.

Chipangu is an Island towards the east in the high
seas, 1500 miles distant from the Continent; and a very
great Island it is.^

The people are white, civilized, and well-favoured.
They are Idolaters, and are dependent on nobody. And
I can tell you the quantity of gold they have is endless ;
for they find it in their own Islands, [and the King does
not allow it to be exported. Moreover] few merchants
visit the country because it is so far from the main land,
and thus it comes to pass that their gold is abundant
beyond all measure.^

I will tell you a wonderful thing about the Palace of
the Lord of that Island. You must know that he hath a
great Palace which is entirely roofed with^fine gold, just
as our churches are roofed with lead, insomuch that it

* Corresponding to the " Hevelowand rumbelow" of the Christian oarsmen. (See Coeurde Lion in
Weber ^ II. gg,)

254

MARCO POLO

Book III.

would scarcely be possible to estimate its value. More-
over, all the pavement of the Palace, and the floors of its
chambers, are entirely of gold, in plates like slabs of stone,
a good two fingers thick ; and the windows also are of

Ancient Japanese Emperor. (After a Native Drawing ; from Humbert.)

gold, so that altogether the richness of this Palace is past
all bounds and all belief.^

They have also pearls in abundance, which are of a
rose colour, but fine, big, and round, and quite as
valuable as the white ones. [In this Island some of the
dead are buried, and others are burnt. When a body is

Chap. II. EXPEDITION AGAINST CIIIPANGU 255

burnt, they put one of these pearls in the mouth, for such
is their custom.] They have also quantities of other
precious stones.^

Cublay, the Grand Kaan who now reigneth, having
heard much of the immense wealth that was in this Island,
formed a plan to get possession of it. For this purpose
he sent two of his Barons with a great navy, and a great
force of horse and foot. These Barons were able and
valiant men, one of them called Abacan and the other
VoNSAiNCHiN, and they weighed with all their company
from the ports of Zayton and Kinsay, and put out to sea.
They sailed until they reached the Island aforesaid, and
there they landed, and occupied the open country and the
villages, but did not succeed in getting possession of any
city or castle. And so a disaster befel them, as I shall
now relate.

You must know that there was much ill-will between
those two Barons, so that one would do nothing to help
the other. And it came to pass that there arose a north
wind which blew with great fury, and caused great damage
along the coasts of that Island, for its harbours were few.
It blew so hard that the Great Kaan's fleet could not
stand against it. And when the chiefs saw that, they
came to the conclusion that if the ships remained where
they were the whole navy would perish. So they all got
on board and made sail to leave the country. But when
they had gone about four miles they came to a small Island,
on which they were driven ashore in spite of all they could
do ; and a large part of the fleet was wrecked, and a great
multitude of the force perished, so that there escaped only
some 30,000 men, who took refuge on this Island.

These held themselves for dead men, for they were
without food, and knew not what to do, and they were in
great despair when they saw that such of the ships as
had escaped the storm were making full sail for their own

256 MARCO POLO Book III.

country without the slightest sign of turning back to help
them. And this was because of the bitter hatred between
the two Barons in command of the force ; for the Baron
who escaped never showed the slightest desire to return
to his colleague who was left upon the Island In the way
you have heard ; though he might easily have done so
after the storm ceased ; and it endured not long. He did
nothing of the kind, however, but made straight for home.
And you must know that the Island to which the soldiers
had escaped was uninhabited ; there was not a creature
upon It but themselves.

Now we will tell you what befel those who escaped on
the fleet, and also those who were left upon the Island.

Note i. — ;-Chipangu represents the Chinese Jih-pht-kwd, the kingdom of Japan,
the name Jih-pen being the Chinese pronunciation, of which the term Nippon, Niphon
or Nihon, used in Japan, is a dialectic variation, both meaning "the origin of the
sun," or sun-rising, the place the sun comes from. The name Chipangu is used also
by Rashiduddin, Owx Japan v/as probably taken from the Malay /(Z/«« ox Japdng.

["The name Nihon ('Japan') seems to have been first officially employed by the
Japanese Government in A. D. 670. Before that time, the usual native designation of
the country was Yamato, properly the name of one of the central provinces. Yamato
and 0-mi-kuni, that is, 'the Great August Country,' are the names still preferred
in poetry and belles-lettres. Japan has other ancient names, some of which are of
learned length and thundering sound, for instance, Toyo-ashi-wara-no-cki-aki-no-naga-
i-ho-aki-no-mizu-ho-no-kuni^ that is ' the Luxuriant- Reed-Plains-the-Land-of- Fresh-
Rice - Ears-of-a-Thousand-Autumns-of - Long - Five - Hundred - Autumns.' " {B. H.
Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rded. p. 222.) — 11. C]

It is remarkable that the name Nipon occurs, in the form of Al-Ndfun, in the
Ikhwdn-al-Safd, supposed to date from the loth century. (See J. A. S. B. XVII.
Pt. L 502.)

[I shall merely mention the strange theory of Mr. George Collingridge that
Zipangti is Java and not Japan in his paper on The Early Cartography of Japan.
{Geog. Jour. May, 1894, pp. 403-409.) Mr. F. G. Kramp {Japan or Java ?) , in the
Tijdschrift v. het K. Nederl. Aardrijkskundig Gcnootschap, 1894, and Mr. H. Yule
Oldham {Geog. Jour., September, 1894, pp. 276-279), have fully replied to this
paper. — H. C]

Note 2. — The causes briefly mentioned in the text maintained the abundance
arid low price of gold in Japan till the recent opening of the trade. (See Bk. II. ch. 1.
note 5.) Edrisi had heard that gold in the isles of Sila (or Japan) was so abundant
that dog-collars were made of it.

Note 3. — This was doubtless an old "yarn," repeated from generation to
generation. We find in a Chinese work quoted by Amyot : "The palace of the
king (of Japan) is remarkable for its singular construction. It is a vast edifice, of
extraordinary height ; it has nine stories, and presents on all sides an exterior shining

Chap. II. * THE ISLAND OF CHIPANGU 257

with the purest gold." {Mem. cone, les Chinois, XIV. 55.) See also a like story in
Kaempfer. {II. du/apon, I. 139.)

Note 4. — Kaempfer speaks of pearls being found in considerable numbers,
chiefly about Satsuma, and in the Gulf of Omura, in Kiusiu. From what Alcock

Ancient Japanese Archer. (From a Native Drawing.)

says they do not seem now to be abundant. (//;. I. 95 ; Alcock, I. 200.) No precious
stones are mentioned by Kae^npfer.

Rose-tinted pearls are frequent among the Scotch pearls, and, according to
Mr. King, those of this tint are of late the most highly esteemed in Paris. Such
pearls were perhaps also most highly esteemed in old India ; for red pearls
{LohitaDiukti) form one of the seven precious objects which it was incumbent to use
in the adornment of Buddhistic reliquaries, and to distribute at the building of a
Dagoba. {Nat. Hist, of Free. Stones, etc., 263 ; Koeppen, I. 541.)

VOL. IL R

258 MARCO POLO Book III.

CHAPTER III.

What further came of the Great Kaan's Expedition against

Chipangu.

You see those who were left upon the Island, some 30.000
souls, as I have said, did hold themselves for dead men,
for they saw no possible means of escape. And when the
King- of the Great Island got news how the one part of the
expedition had saved themselves upon that Isle, and the
other part was scattered and fled, he was right glad
thereat, and he gathered together all the ships of his
territory and proceeded with them, the sea now being
calm, to the little Isle, and landed his troops all round it.
And when the Tartars saw them thus arrive, and the whole
force landed, without any guard having been left on board
the ships (the act of men very little acquainted with such
work), they had the sagacity to feign flight. [Now the
Island was very high in the middle, and whilst the enemy
w^ere hastening after them by one road they fetched a
compass by another and] in this way managed to reach
the enemy's ships and to get aboard of them. This they
did easily enough, for they encountered no opposition.

Once they were on board they got under weigh
immediately for the great Island, and landed there,
carrying with them the standards and banners of the
King of the Island ; and in this wise they advanced to
the capital. The garrison of the city, suspecting nothing
wrong, when they saw their own banners advancing
supposed that it was their own host returning, and so
gave them admittance. The Tartars as soon as they
had got in seized all the bulwarks and drove out all who
were in the place except the pretty women, and these

Chap. III. EXPEDITION AGAINST CHIPANGU 259

they kept for themselves. In this way the Great Kaan's
people got possession of the city.

When the King of the great Island and his army
perceived that both fleet and city were lost, they were
greatly cast down ; howbeit, they got away to the great
Island on board some of the ships which had not been
carried off And the King then gathered all his host to
the siege of the city, and invested it so straitly that no
one could go in or come out. Those who were within
held the place for seven months, and strove by all means
to send word to the Great Kaan ; but it was all in vain,
they never could get the intelligence carried to him. So
when they saw they could hold out no longer they
gave themselves up, on condition that their lives should
be spared, but still that they should never quit the Island.
And this befel in the year of our Lord 1279.^ The
Great Kaan ordered the Baron who had fled so disgrace-
fully to lose his head. And afterwards he caused the
other also, who had been left on the Island, to be put to
death, for he had never behaved as a orood soldier ouQ^ht
to do.^

But I must tell you a wonderful thing that I had
forgotten, which happened on this expedition.

You see, at the beginning of the affair, when the
Kaan's people had landed on the great Island and
occupied the open country as I told you, they stormed a
tower belonging to some of the islanders who refused to
surrender, and they cut off the heads of all the garrison
except eight ; on these eight they found it impossible to
inflict any wound ! Now this was by virtue of certain
stones which they had in their arms inserted between
the skin and the flesh, with such skill as not to show at
all externally. And the charm and virtue of these stones
was such that those who wore them could never perish
by steel. So when the Barons learned this they ordered
VOL. II. K 2

26o MARCO POLO Book III.

the men to be beaten to death with clubs. And after
their death the stones were extracted from the bodies of
all, and were greatly prized.^

Now the story of the discomfiture of the Great Kaan's
folk came to pass as I have told you. But let us have
done with that matter, and return to our subject.

Note i. — Kublai had long hankered after the conquest of Japan, or had at least,
after his fashion, desired to obtain an acknowledgment of supremacy from the
Japanese sovereign. He had taken steps in this view as early as 1266, but entirely
without success. The fullest accessible particulars respecting his efforts are con-
tained in the Japanese Annals translated by Titsing ; and these are in complete
accordance with the Chinese histories as given by Gaubil, De Mailla, and in
Pauthier's extracts, so far as these three latter enter into particulars. But it seems
clear from the comparison that the Japanese chronicler had the Chinese Annals in
his hands.

In 1268, 1269, 1270, and 1271, Kublai's efforts were repeated to little purpose,
and, provoked at this, in 1274, he sent a fleet of 300 vessels with 15,000 men against
Japan. This was defeated near the Island of Tsushima with heavy loss.

Nevertheless Kublai seems in the following years to have renewed his attempts at
negotiation. The Japanese patience was exhausted, and, in 1280, they put one of
his ambassadors to death.

"As soon as the Moko (Mongols) heard of this, they assembled a considerable
army to conquer Japan. When informed of their preparations, the Dairi sent
ambassadors to Ize and other temples to invoke the gods. Fosiono Toki Mune,
who resided at Kama Kura, ordered troops to assemble at Tsukuzi {Tsikouzen of
Alcock's Map), and sent . . . numerous detachments to Miyako to guard the
Dairi and the Togou (Heir Apparent) against all danger. ... In the first moon
(of 1281) the Mongols named Asikan (Ngo Tsa-han*), Fan-bunko (Fan Wen-hu),
Kinto (Hintu), and Kosakio (Hung Cha-khieu), Generals of their army, which con-
sisted of 100,000 men, and was embarked on numerous ships of war. Asikan fell
ill on the passage, and this made the second General (Fan Wen-hu) undecided as to
his course.

'* ^th Month. The entire fleet arrived at the Island of Firando (P'hing-hu), and
passed thence to Goriosan (Ulungshan). The troops of Tsukuzi were under arms.
\st of yd Month. A frightful storm arose ; the Mongol ships foundered or were
sorely shattered. The General (Fan Wen-hu) fled with the other Generals on the
vessels that had least suffered ; nobody has ever heard what became of them.
The army of 100,000 men, which had landed below Goriosan, wandered about for
three days without provisions ; and the soldiers began to plan the building of vessels
in which they might escape to China.

" ']th day. The Japanese army invested and attacked them with great vigour.
The Mongols were totally defeated. 30,000 of them were made prisoners and
conducted to Fakata (the Fokotioka of Alcock's Map, but Fakatta in Kaempfer's),
and there put to death. Grace was extended to only (three men), who were sent to
China with the intelligence of the fate of the army. The destruction of so numerous
a fleet was considered the most evident proof of the protection of the gods."
{Titsingh, pp. 264-265.) At p. 259 of the same work Klaproth gives another account
from the Japanese Encyclopaedia ; the difference is not material.

* These names in parentheses are the Chinese forms ; the others, the Japanese modes of reading
them.

Chap. III.

THE INVASION OF JAPAN

261

The Chinese Annals, in De Mailla, state that the Japanese spared 10,000 or
12,000 of the Southern Chinese, whom they retained as slaves. Gaubil says that
30,000 Mongols were put to death, whilst 70,000 Coreans and Chinese were made
slaves.

Kiiblai was loth to put up with this huge discomfiture, and in 1283 he made
preparations for another expedition ; but the project excited strong discontent ; so
strong that some Buddhist monks whom he sent before to collect information, were

Japanese in fight with Chinese. (After Siebold, from an ancient Japanese drawing.)

®r tnsxnt abint ctsU zsioixt tc la iicscrrufiturc ht Us qzwis ^oxx (grant ^nan.'

thrown overboard by the Chinese sailors ; and he gave it up. {De Mailla, IX. 409 ;
418, 428; Ga^ibil, 195; Deguignes, III. 177.)

The Abacan of Polo is probably the Asikan of the Japanese, whom Gaubil calls
Argan. Vonsainchin is perhaps Fan Wen-hu with the Chinese title of Tsiang-Kiun
or General (elsewhere represented in Polo by Sangon), — Fan Tsiang-kiun.

We see that, as usual, whilst Marco's account in some of the main features
concurs with that of the histories, he gives a good many additional particulars, some

262 MARCO rOLO Book III.

of which, such as the ill-will between the Generals, are no doubt genuine. But of
the story of the capture of the Japanese capital by the shipwrecked army we know not
what to make : we can't accept it certainly.

[The Korea Review publishes a History of Korea based upon Korean and Chinese
sources, from which M'C gather some interesting facts regarding the relations of
China, Korea, and Japan at the time of Kubldi : "In 1265, the seed was sown that
led to the attempted invasion of Japan by the Mongols. A Koryu citizen, Choi.,
found his way to Peking, and there, having gained the ear of the emperor, told him
that the Mongol powers ought to secure the vassalage of Japan. The emperor
listened favourably and determined to make advances in that direction. He therefore
appointed Heuk Chuk and Eun Hong as envoys to Japan, and ordered them to go by
way of Koryii and take with them to Japan a Koryii envoy as well. Arriving in
Koryii they delivered this message to the king, and two officials, Son Kun-bi and
Kim Ch'an, were appointed to accompany them to Japan. They proceeded by the
way of Koje Harbor in Kyiing-sang Province, but were driven back by a fierce storm,
and the king sent the Mongol envoys back to Peking. The P^mperor was ill satisfied
with the outcome of the adventure, and sent Heuk Chuk with a letter to the king,
ordering him to forward the Mongol envoy to Japan. The message which he was to
deliver to the ruler of Japan said, ' The Mongol power is kindly disposed towards
you and desires to open friendly intercourse with you. She does not desire your
submission, but if you accept her patronage, the great Mongol empire will cover the
earth.' The king forwarded the message with the envoys to Japan, and informed the
emperor of the fact. . . . The Mongol and 'Koryii envoys, upon reaching the
Japanese capital, were treated with marked disrespect. . . . They remained five
months, . . . and at last they were dismissed without receiving any answer either
to the emperor or to the king." {II. pp. 37, 38.)

Such was the beginning of the difficulties with Japan ; this is the end of
them: *'The following year, 1283, changed the emperor's purpose. He had time
to hear the whole story of the sufferings of his army in the last invasion ; the im-
possibility of squeezing anything more out of Koryu, and the delicate condition of
liome affairs, united in causing him to give up the project of conquering Japan, and he
countermanded the order for the building of boats and the storing of grain." (II.
p. 82.)

Japan was then, for more than a century (A.D. 1 205- 1333), governed really in the
name of the descendants of Yoritomo, who proved unworthy of their great ancestor
"by the so-called ' Regents' of the Hojo family, while their liege lords, the Shoguns,
though keeping a nominal court at Kamakura, were for all that period little better
than empty names. So completely were the Hojos masters of the whole country, that
they actually had their deputy governors at Kyoto and in Kyushu in the south-west,
and thought nothing of banishing Mikados to distant islands. Their rule was made
memorable by the repulse of the Mongol fleet sent by Kiiblai Khan with the purpose
of adding Japan to his gigantic dominions. This was at the end of the 13th century,
since which time Japan has never been attacked from without." (5. H. Chamberlain,
Things Japanese, 3rd ed., 1898, pp. 208-209.)

The sovereigns {Mikado, Tenno) of Japan during this period were : Kameyama-
Tenno (1260; abdicated 1274 ; repulse of the Mongols); Go-Uda-TQnnb (1275;
abdicated 1287); Fushimi-T&nnb (1288; abdicated 1298); and Go-FushimiTQrxwb.
The shikken {^nme ministers) were Hojo Tokiyori (1246); Hojo Tokinmne [1261) ',
Hojo Sadatoki (1284). In 1266 Prince Kore-yasu, and in 1289 Hisa-akira, were
appointed shognn. — H. C]

Note 2. — Ram. says he was sent to a certain island called Zorza {Chorcha?)^
wliere men who have failed in duty are put to death in this manner : They wrap the
arms of the victim in the hide of a newly flayed buffalo, and sew it tight. As this
dries it compresses him so terribly that he cannot move, and so, finding no help, his
life ends in misery. The same kind of torture is reported of different countries in

Chap. IV.

THE SEA OF CHIN 263

the East: e.g. see Makrizi, Pt. III. p. 108, and Pottinger, as quoted by Marsden
in loco. It also appears among the tortures of a Buddhist hell as represented in
a temple at Canton. [Oliphattfs Narrative, I. 168.)

Note 3. — Like devices to procure invulnerability are common in the Indo-
Chinese countries. The Burmese sometimes insert pellets of gold under the skin
with this view. At a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1868, gold and
silver coins were shown, which had been extracted from under the skin of a Burmese
convict who had been executed at the Andaman Islands. Friar Odoric speaks of the
practice in one of the Indian Islands (apparently Borneo) ; and the stones possessing
such virtue were, according to him, found in the bamboo, presumably the siliceous
concretions called Tabashir. Conti also describes the practice in Java of inserting
such amulets under the skin. The Malays of Sumatra, too, have great faith in the
efficacy of certain "stones, which they pretend are extracted from reptiles, birds,
animals, etc., in preventing them from being wounded." (See Mission to Ava,
p. 208; Cathay, 94; Conti, p. 32; Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1868, p. 116; Aitu^r^:vn'i
Mission to Sumatra, p. 323. )

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning the Fashion of the Idols.

Now you must know that the Idols of Cathay, and of
Manzi, and of this Island, are all of the same class. And
in this Island as well as elsewhere, there be some of the
Idols that have the head of an ox, some that have the
head of a pig, some of a dog, some of a sheep, and some
of divers other kinds. And some of them have four
heads, whilst some have three, one growing out of
either shoulder. There are also some that have four
hands, some ten, some a thousand ! And they do put
more faith in those Idols that have a thousand hands
than in any of the others.^ And when any Christian
asks them why they make their Idols in so many different
guises, and not all alike, they reply that just so their
forefathers were wont to have them made, and just so
they will leave them to their children, and these to
the after generations. And so they will be handed down
for ever. And you must understand that the deeds

264 MARCO POLO Book III.

ascribed to these Idols are such a parcel of devilries as
it is best not to tell. So let us have done with the
Idols, and speak of other things.

But I must tell you one thing still concerning that
Island (and 'tis the same with the other Indian Islands),
that if the natives take prisoner an enemy who cannot
pay a ransom, he who hath the prisoner summons all
his friends and relations, and they put the prisoner to
death, and then they cook him and eat him, and they
say there is no meat in the world so good ! — But now we
ze'/Z/have done with that Island and speak of something
else.

You must know the Sea in which lie the Islands of
those parts is called the Sea of Chin, which is as much
as to say "The Sea over against Manzi." For, in the
language of those Isles, when they say Chin, 'tis Manzi
they mean. And I tell you with regard to that Eastern
Sea of Chin, according to what is said by the experienced
pilots and mariners of those parts, there be 7459 Islands
in the waters frequented by the said mariners ; and that
is how they know the fact, for their whole life is spent in
navigating that sea. And there is not one of those
Islands but produces valuable and odorous woods like
the lignaloe, aye and better too ; and they produce also
a great variety of spices. For example in those Islands
grows pepper as white as snow, as well as the black in
great quantities In fact the riches of those Islands is
something wonderful, whether in gold or precious stones,
or in all manner of spicery ; but they lie so far off from
the main land that it is hard to get to them. And when
the ships of Zayton and Kinsay do voyage thither they
make vast profits by their venture.^

It takes them a whole year for the voyage, going in
winter and returning in summer. For in that Sea there
are but two winds that blow, the one that carries them

Chap. IV. ^ THE SEA OF CHIN 265

outward and the other that brings them homeward ;
and the one of these winds blows all the winter, and the
other all the summer. And you must know these regions
are so far from India that it takes a long time also for
the voyage thence.

Though that Sea is called the Sea of Chin, as I have
told you, yet it is part of the Ocean Sea all the same.
But just as in these parts people talk of the Sea of
England and the Sea of Rochelle, so in those countries
they speak of the Sea of Chin and the Sea of India, and
so on, though they all are but parts of the Ocean.^

Now let us have done with that region which is very
inaccessible and out of the way. Moreover, Messer
Marco Polo never was there. And let me tell you the
Great Kaan has nothing to do with them, nor do they
render him any tribute or service.

So let us go back to Zayton and take up the order of
our book from that point.^

Note i. — "Several of the (Chinese) gods have horns on the forehead, or wear
animals' heads ; some have three eyes. . . . Some are represented in the Indian
manner with a multiplicity of arms. We saw at Yang-cheu fu a goddess with thirty
arms." {Deguignes, I. 364-366.)

The reference to any particular form of idolatry here is vague. But in Tibetan
Buddhism, with which Alarco was familiar, all these extravagances are prominent,
though repugnant to the more orthodox Buddhism of the South.

When the Dalai Lama came to visit the Altun Khan, to secure the reconversion of
the Mongols in 1577, he appeared as a manifest embodiment of the Bodhisatva
Avalokite5vara, \V\\h.four hands, of which two were always folded across the breast !
The same Bodhisatva is sometimes represented with eleven heads. Manjushri
manifests himself in a golden body with 1000 hands and 1000 Pdtras or vessels, in
each of which were 1000 figures of Sakya visible, etc. {Koeppen, II. 137 ; Fassi/yev,
200.)

Note 2. — Polo seems in this passage to be speaking of the more easterly Islands
of the Archipelago, such as the Philippines, the Moluccas, etc., but with vague ideas
of their position.

Note 3. — In this passage alone Polo makes use of the now familiar name of
China. " CMn,'' as he says, "in the language of those Isles means Afanzt." In
fact, though the form C/im is more correctly Persian, we do get the exact form China
from "the language of those Isles," i.e. from the Malay. China is also used in
Japanese.

What he says about the Ocean and the various names of its parts is nearly a
version of a passage in the geographical Poem of Dionysius, ending : —
OuTws 'l]/ceaj'6s TrepLdeSpofxe yalav diraaav
Toios iuv Kal Tola tier dvdpdaiu ovvbixad^ fKKuv (42-3).

266 MARCO POLO Book III.

So also Abulfeda : ** This is the sea whicli flows from the Ocean Sea. . . , This sea
takes the names of the countries it washes. Its eastern extremity is called the Sea of
Chin ... the part west of this is called the Sea of India . . . then comes the Sea
of Fars, the Sea of Berbera, and lastly the Sea of Kolzum " (Red Sea).

Note 4. --The Ramusian here inserts a short chapter, shown by the awkward way
in which it comes in to be a very manifest interpolation, though possibly still an inter-
polation by the Traveller's hand :- -

" Leaving the port of Zayton you sail westward and something south-westward for
1500 miles, passing a gulf called Cheinan, having a length of two months' sail
towards the north. Along the whole of its south-east side it borders on the province
of Manzi, and on the other side with Anin and Coloman, and many other provinces
formerly spoken of. Within this Gulf there are innumerable Islands, almost all well-
peopled ; and in these is found a great quantity of gold-dust, which is collected from
the sea where the rivers discharge. There is copper also, and other things ; and the
people drive a trade with each other in the things that are peculiar to their respective
Islands. They have also a traffic with the people of the mainland, selling them gold
and copper and other things ; and purchasing in turn what they stand in need of.
In the greater part of these Islands plenty of corn grows. This gulf is so great, and
inhabited by so many people, that it seems like a world in itself "

This passage is translated by Marsden with much forcing, so as to describe the
China Sea, embracing the Philippine Islands, etc. ; but, as a matter of fact, it seems
clearly to indicate the writer's conception as of a great gulf running up into the
continent between Southern China and Tong-king for a length equal to two months'
journey.

The name of the gulf, Cheinan, i.e. Heinan, may either be that of the Island so
called, or, as I rather incline to suppose, 'An-Jtan, i.e. Tong-king. But even by
Camoens, writing at Macao in 1559-1560, the Gulf of Hainan is styled an unknown sea
(though this perhaps is only appropriate to the prophetic speaker) : —

" Ves, corre a costa, que Champa se chama,
Cuja mata he do pao cheiroso ornada :
Ves, Cauchichina esta de escura fama,
E de Ainao vc a incognita enseada " (X. 129).

And in Sir Robert Dudley's Airano del Mare (Firenze, 1647), we find a great bottle-
necked gulf, of some 5^° in length, running up to the north from Tong-king, very much
as I have represented the Gulf of Cheinan in the attempt to realise Polo's Own
Geography. (See map in Introductory Essay.)

CHAPTER V.
Of the Great Country called Chamba.

You must know that on leaving the port of Zayton you
sail west-south-west for 1500 miles, and then you come
to a country called Chamba/ a very rich region, having
a king of its own. The people are Idolaters and pay a

Chap. V. THE COUNTRY CALLED CHAMBA 267

yearly tribute to the Great Kaan, which consists of
elephants and nothing but elephants. And I will tell
you how they came to pay this tribute.

It happened in the year of Christ 1278 that the Great
Kaan sent a Baron of his called, Sagatu with a great
force of horse and foot against this King of Chamba, and
this Baron opened the war on a great scale against the
King and his country.

Now the King [whose name was Accambale] was a
very aged man, nor had he such a force as the Baron
had. And when he saw what havoc the Baron was
making with his kingdom he was grieved to the heart.
So he bade messengers get ready and despatched them
to the Great Kaan. And they said to the Kaan : " Our
Lord the King of Chamba salutes you as his liege-lord,
and would have you to know that he Is stricken in years
and long hath held his realm In peace. And now he
sends you word by us that he Is willing to be your liege-
man, and will send you every year a tribute of as many
elephants as you please. And he prays you In all gentle-
ness and humility that you would send word to your
Baron to desist from harrying his kingdom and to quit
his territories. These shall henceforth be at your
absolute disposal, and the King shall hold them of you."

When the Great Kaan had heard the King's
ambassage he was moved with pity, and sent word to
that Baron of his to quit that kingdom with his army,
and to carry his arms to the conquest of some other
country ; and as soon as this command reached them
they obeyed It. Thus It was then that this King
became vassal of the Great Kaan, and paid him every
year a tribute of 20 of the greatest and finest elephants
that were to be found In the country.

But now we will leave that matter, and tell you other
particulars about the King of Chamba.

268 MARCO POLO Book III.

You must know that in that kingdom no woman is
allowed to marry until the King shall have seen her ; if
the woman pleases him then he takes her to wife ; if she
does not, he gives her a dowry to get her a husband
withal. In the year of Christ 1285, Messer Marco Polo
was in that country, and at that time the King had,
between sons and daughters, 326 children, of whom at
least 150 were men fit to carry arms.^

There are very great numbers of elephants in this
kingdom, and they have lignaloes in great abundance.
They have also extensive forests of the wood called
Boniis, which is jet-black, and of which chessmen and
pen-cases are made. But there is nought more to tell,
so let us proceed.^

Note i. ;-The name Champa is of Indian origin, like the adjoining Kamboja

and many other names in Indo-China, and was probably taken from that of an ancient
Hindu city and state on the Ganges, near modern Bhagalpur. Hiuen Tsang, in the
7th centurv, makes mention of the Indo-Chinese state as Mahachampa. {PH. Botidd,
III. %l.)

The title of Champa down to the 15th century seems to have been applied by
Western Asiatics to a kingdom which embraced the whole coast between Tong-king
and Kamboja, including all that is now called Cochin China outside of Tong-king.
It was termed by the Chinese Chen- Ching. In 147 1 the King of Tong-king,
L^ Thanh -tong, conquered the country, and the genuine people of Champa were
reduced to a small number occupying the mountains of the province of Binh
Thuan at the extreme south-east of the Coch. Chinese territory. To this part of
the coast the name Champa is often applied in maps. (See /. A. ser. II. tom. xi.
p. 31, andy. des Savajis, 1822, p. 71.) The people of Champa in this restricted
sense are said to exhibit Malay affinities, and they profess Mahoaiedanism.
["The Mussulmans of Binh-Thuan call themselves Bant or Ora7ig Bani, 'men
mussulmans,' probably from the Arabic beiti ' the sons,' to distinguish them from
the Chams DJat 'of race,' which they name also Kaphir or Akaphir, from the
Arabic word kafer 'pagans.' These names are used in Binh-Thuan to make a dis-
tinction, but Banis and Kaphirs alike are all Chams. ... In Cambodia all Chams
are Mussulmans." {E. Aynionier, Les Tchames, p. 26.) The religion of the pagan
Chams of Binh-Thuan is degenerate Brahmanism with three chief gods, Po-Nagar,
Po-Rome, and Po-Klong-Garai. {Ibid.^ p. 35.)— H. C] The books of their
former religion they say (according to Dr. Bastian) that they received from Ceylon,
but they were converted to Islamism by no less a person than 'Ali himself. The
Tong-king people received their Buddhism from China, and this tradition puts
Champa as the extreme flood-mark of that great tide of Buddhist proselytism, which
went forth from Ceylon, to the Indo-Chinese regions in an early century of our era,
and which is generally connected with the name of Buddaghosha.

The prominent position of Champa on the route to China made its ports places
of call for many ages, and in the earliest record of the Arab navigation to China we
find the country noticed under the identical name (allowing for the deficiencies of the

Chap. V. THE COUNTRY CALLED CHAMBA 269

Arabic Alphabet) of San/ or Chanf. Indeed it is highly probable that the Zd/Sa or
Zd/Jai of Ptolemy's itinerary of the sea-route to the Sinae represents this same name.

[" It is true," Sir Henry Yule wrote since (1882), " that Champa, as known in later
days, lay to the east of the Mekong delta, whilst Zabai of the Greeks lay to the west
of that and of the yU^7a aKpor-qpiov — the Great Cape, or C. Cambodia of our maps.
Crawfurd {Desc. Ind. Aixh. p. 80) seems to say that the Malays include under
the name Chajyipa the whole of what we call Kamboja. This may possibly be a slip.
But it is certain, as we shall see presently, that the Arab 6'a>'z/-— which is unquestion-
ably Champa — also lay west of the Cape, i.e. within the Gulf of Siam. The fact is
that the Indo-Chinese kingdoms have gone through unceasing and enormous vicissi-
tudes, and in early days Champa must have been extensive and powerful, for in the
travels of Hiuen Tsang (about A.D. 629) it is called J/rt/^a-Champa. And my late
friend Lieutenant Garnier, who gave great attention to these questions, has deduced
from such data as exist in Chinese Annals and elsewhere, that the ancient kingdom
which the Chinese describe under the name of Fu-nan, as extending over the
whole peninsula east of the Gulf of Siam, was a kingdom of the Tsiam or Champa
race. The locality of the ancient port of Zabai or Champa is probably to be sought
on the west coast of Kamboja, near the Campot, or the Kang-kao of our maps. On
this coast also was the Koind7- and Kamdrah of Ibn Batuta and other Arab writers,
the great source of aloes- wood, the country then of the Khmer or Kambojan People."
{Notes on the Oldest Records of the Sea- Route to China from Western Asia, Proc,
R. G. S. 1882, pp. 656-657.)

M. Barth says that this identification would agree well with the testimony of his
inscription XVIII. B., which comes from Angkor and for which Campd is a part of
the Dakshindpalha, of the southern country. But the capital of this rival State of
Kamboja would thus be very near the Treang province where inscriptions have been
found with the names of Bhavavarman and of I^anavarman. It is true that in 627,
the King of Kamboja, according to the Chinese Annals (A^^wz/. Mil. As. I. p. 84), had
subjugated the kingdom of Fu-nan identified by Yule and Garnier with Campd.
Abel Remusat {Nouv. Md. As. I. pp. 75 and 77) identifies it with Tong-king and
Stan. Julien (/. As. 4^ Ser. X. p. 97) with Siam. {Inscrip. Sanscrites du Cainbodge,
1885, pp. 69-70, note.)

Sir Henry Yule writes {I.e. p. 657) : " We have said that the Arab Sanf, as well
as the Greek Zabai, lay west of Cape Cambodia. This is proved by the statement
that the Arabs on their voyage to China made a ten days' run from Sanfto Pulo
Condor," But Abulfeda (transl. by Guyard, II. ii. p. 127) distinctly says that the
Komar Peninsula (Khmer) is situated west of the Sanf Peninsula ; between §anf and
Komar there is not a day's journey by sea.

We have, however, another difficulty to overcome.

I agree with Sir Henry Yule and Marsden that in ch. vii. infra, p. 276, the text
must be read, "When you leave Chamba,'" instead of "When you leave Java."
Coming from Zayton and sailing 1500 miles. Polo arrives at Chamba ; from Chamba,
sailing 700 miles he arrives at the islands of Sondur and Condur, identified by Yule
with Sundar Fulat (Pulo Condore) ; from Sundar Fiilat, after 500 miles more, he finds
the country called Locac ; then he goes to Pentam (Bintang, 500 miles), Malaiur, and
Java the Less (Sumatra). Ibn Khordadhbeh's itinerary agrees pretty well with Marco
Polo's, as Professor De Goeje remarks to me : ' ' Starting from Mait (Bintang), and leaving
on the left Tiyuma (Timoan), in five days' journey, one goes to Kimer (Kmer, Cambodia),
and after three days more, following the coast, arrives to Sanf ; then to Lukyn, the
first point of call in China, 1 00 parasangs by land or by sea ; from Lukyn it takes
four days by sea and twenty by land to go to Kanfu." [Canton, see note, supra p. 199.]
(See De Goeje s Ibn Khordddhbeh, p. 48 et seq.) But we come now to the difficulty.
Professor De Goeje writes to me : " It is strange that in the Relation des Voyages of
Reinaud, p. 20 of the text, reproduced by Ibn al Fakih, p. 12 seq., Sundar Fulat
(Pulo Condore) is placed between Sanf and the China Sea {Sandjy) ; it takes ten days
to go from Sanf to Sundar Fulat, and then a month (seven days of which between

270 MARCO POLO Book III.

mountains called the Gates of China.) In the Livre des Merveiiles de t hide (pp. 85-
86) we read : ' When arrived between Sanf and the China coast, in the neighbour-
hood of Sundar Fiildt, an island situated at the entrance of the Sea of Sandjy, which is
the Sea of China. . . .' It would appear from these two passages that Sanf is to
be looked for in the Malay Peninsula. This Sanf is different from the Sanf of Ibn
Khordadhbeh and of Abulfeda." [Guyard's trans l. II. ii. 127.)

It does not strike me from these passages that Sanf must be loo'.^ed for in the
Malay Peninsula. Indeed Professor G. Schlegel, in a paper published in the VoungPao,
vol. X., seems to prove that Shay-po (Djava), represented by Chinese characters, which
are the transcription of the Sanskrit name of the China Rose [Hibiscus rosa sinensis),
Djava or Djapa, is not the great island of Java, but, according to Chinese texts, a state
of the Malay Peninsula ; but he does not seem to me to prove that Shay-po is Champa,
as he believes he has done.

However, Professor De Goeje adds in his letter, and I quite agree with the
celebrated Arabic scholar of Leyden, that he does not very much like the theory of
two Sanf, and that he is inclined to believe that the sea captain of the Marvels of
India placed Sundar Fiilat a little too much to the north, and that the narrative of the
Relation des Voyages is inexact.

To conclude : the history of the relations between Annam (Tong-king) and her
southern neighbour, the kingdom of Champa, the itineraries of Marco Polo and Ibn
Khordadhbeh as well as the position given to Sanf by Abulfeda, justify me, I think,
in placing Champa in that part of the central and southern indo-Chinese coast which
the French to-day call Annam (Cochinchine and Basse-Cochincbine), the Binh-lhuan
province showing more particularly what remains of the ancient kingdom.

Since I wrote the above, I have received No. i of vol. ii. of the Bid. de
VEcole Fran^aise d' Extreme-Orient, which contains a note on Canf et Cauipd, by
M. A. Barth. The reasons given in a note addressed to him by Professor De Goeje
and the work of Ibn Khordadhbeh have led M. A. Barth to my own conclusion, viz.
that the coast of Champa was situated where inscriptions have been found on the
Annamite coast. — H. C]

The Sagatu of Marco appears in the Chinese history as Sotic, the military governor
of the Canton districts, which he had been active in reducing.

In 1278 Sotu sent an envoy to Chen-ching to claim the king's submission, which
was rendered, and for some years he sent his tribute to Kublai. But when the Kaan
proceeded to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom by sending a Resident and
Chinese officials, the king's son (1282) resolutely opposed these proceedings, and
threw the Chinese officials into prison. The Kaan, in great wrath at this insult,
(coming also so soon after his discomfiture in Japan), ordered Sotu and others to
Chen-ching to take vengeance. The prince in the following year made a pretence
of submission, and the army (if indeed it had been sent) seems to have been with-
drawn. The prince, however, renewed his attack on the Chinese establishments,
and put 100 of their officials to death. Sotu then despatched a new force, but
it was quite unsuccessful, and had to retire. In 1284 the king sent an embassy,
including his grandson, to beg for pardon and reconciliation. Kublai, however,
refused to receive them, and ordered his son Tughan to advance through Tong-king,
an enterprise which led to a still more disastrous war with that country, in which
the Mongols had much the worst of it. We are not told more.

Here we have the difficulties usual with Polo's historical anecdotes. Certain
names and circumstances are distinctly recognisable in the Chinese Annals ; others
are difficult to reconcile with these. The embassy of 1284 seems the most likely to
be the one spoken of by Polo, though the Chinese history does not give it the
favourable result which he ascribes to it. The date in the text we see to be wrong,
and as usual it varies in different MSS. I suspect the original date was MCCLXXXIII.

One of the Chinese notices gives one of the king's names as Sinhopala, and no
doubt this is Ramusio's Accauibale (A9ambale) ; an indication at once of the authentic
character of that interpolation, and of the identity of Champa and Chen-ching.

Chap. V. THE COUNTRY CALLED CHAMBA 27 1

[We learn from an inscription that in 1265 the King of Champa was Jaya-
Sinhavarman IL, who was named Indravarman in 1277, and whom the Chinese called
Che li Tseya Sinho phala Maha thiwa (^ri Jaya Sinha varmma maha deva). He
was the king at the time of Polo's voyage. {^A. Bergaig7te, Ancieti royatinte dc
Campd, pp. 39-40; E. Aynionier, les Tchames et letirs religions, p. 14.) — H. C]

There are notices of the events in De Mailla (IX. 420-422) and Gaubil (194), but
Pauthier's extracts which we have made use of are much fuller.

Elephants have generally formed a chief part of the presents or tribute sent
periodically by the various Indo-Chinese states to the Court of China.

[In a Chinese work published in the 14th century, by an Annamite, under the
title oi Ngan-iian chi Ho, and translated into French by M. Sainson (1896), we read
(P- 397)= "Elephants are found only in Lin-y ; this is the country which became
Champa. It is the habit to have burdens carried by elephants ; this country is to-day
the Pu-cheng province." M. Sainson adds in a note that Pu-cheng, in Annamite
Bo chanh quan, is to-day Quang-binh, and that, in this country, was placed the first
capital (Dong-hoi) of the future kingdom of Champa thrown later down to the
south.— H. C]

[The Chams, according to their tradition, had three capitals : the most ancient,
Shi'i-Banatcy, probably the actual Quang-Binh province ; Bal-Hangov, near Hue ;
and Bal-Angoud, in the Binh-Dinh province. In the 4th century, the kingdom of
Lin-y or Ldm-dp is mentioned in the Chinese Annals. — H. C]

Note 2. — The date of Marco's visit to Champa varies in the MSS. : Pauthier has
1280, as has also Ramusio ; the G. T. has 1285; the Geographic Latin 1288. I
incline to adopt the last. For we know that about 1290, Mark returned to Court from
a mission to the Indian Seas, which might have included this visit to Champa.

The large family of the king was one of the stock marvels. Odoric says: "Zampa
is a very fine country, having great store of victuals and all good things. The king
of the country, it was said when I was there \circa 1323], had, what with sons and
with daughters, a good two hundred children ; for he hath many wives and other
women whom he keepeth. This king hath also 14,000 tame elephants. . . . And
other folk keep elephants there just as commonly as we keep oxen here" (pp. 95-96).
The latter point illustrates what Polo says of elephants, and is scarcely an exaggeration
in regard to all the southern Indo-Chinese States. (See note to Odoric u. s. )

Note 3. — Champa Proper and the adjoining territories have been from time
immemorial the chief seat of the production of lign-aloes or eagle-wood. Both names
are misleading, for the thing has nought to do either wiih aloes or eagles ; though
good Bishop Pallegoix derives the latter name from the wood being speckled like an
eagle's plumage. It is in fact through Aquila, Agila, from Agurti, one of the Sanskrit
names of the article, whilst that is possibly from the Malay Kayu {v^ood)-gahru,
though the course of the etymology is more likely to be the other way ; and AX6'>7 is
perhaps a corruption of the term which the Arabs appiv to it, viz. Al- Ud, "The
Wood."

[It is probable that the first Portuguese who had to do with eagle-wood called it
by its Arabic name, aghaluhy, or malayalam, agila ; whence /«^ de'' agidla "aguila
wood." It was translated into Latin as lignum aquilae, and after into modern
languages, as bois d^aigle, eagle-wood, adlerkolz, etc. {A. Cabaton, les Chains, p. .50. )
Mr. Groeneveldt {Notes, pp. 141-142) writes: ^^ Lignum aloes is the wood of the
Aqtiilaria agallocha, and is chiefly known as sinking incense. The Pen-ts'an Ka)ig-mu
describes it as follows : ' Sinking incense, also called honey incense. It comes from
the heart and the knots of a tree and sinks in water, from which peculiarity
the name sinking incense is derived. ... In the Description of Annara we find it
called hojiey incense, because it smells like honey.' The same work, as well as the
Nan-fang Tsati-mu Chiiang, further informs us that this incense was obtained
in all countries south of China, by felling the old trees and leaving them to deca}'',

272 MARCO POLO Book III.

when, after some time, only the heart, the knots, and some other hard parts
remained. The product was known under different names, according to its quality
or shape, and in addition to the names given above, we find fowl boneSy horse-hoofs,
and^een cinnamon ; these latter names, however, are seldom used." — H. C]

The fine eagle-wood of Champa is the result of disease in a leguminous tree,
Aloexylon Agallochum ; whilst an inferior kind, though of the same aromatic properties,
is derived from a tree of an entirely different order, Aqitilaria Agallocha, and is
found as far north as Silhet.

The Bomts of the G. T. here is another example of Marco's use, probably un-
conscious, of an Oriental word. It is Persian Abniis, Ebony, which has passed almost
unaltered into the Spanish Abenuz. We find Ibemts also in a French inventory
[Dotiet (VArcq, p. 134), but the Bomis seems to indicate that the word as used by
the Traveller was strange to Rusticiano. The word which he uses for pen-cases too,
Calamanz, is more suggestive of the Persian Kalamddn than of the Italian Calamajo.

"Ebony is very common in this country (Champa), but the wood which is the
most precious, and which is sufficiently abundant, is called ' Eagle-wood,' of which
the first quality sells for its weight in gold ; the native name is ICinam.'" {Bishop
Louis in /. A. S. B. VI. 742 ; Dr. Birdwood, in the Bible Educator, I. 243 ;
Crawfurd^s Diet. )

CHAPTER VI.

Concerning the Great Island of Java.

When you sail from Chamba, 1500 miles in a course
between south and south-east, you come to a great Island
called Java. And the experienced mariners of those
Islands who know^ the matter well, say that it is the
greatest Island in the world, and has a compass of more
than 3000 miles. It is subject to a great King and
tributary to no one else in the world. The people are
Idolaters. The Island is of surpassing wealth, producing
black pepper, nutmegs, spikenard, galingale, cubebs,
cloves, and all other kinds of spices.

This Island is also frequented by a vast amount of
shipping, and by merchants who buy and sell costly
goods from which they reap great profit. Indeed the
treasure of this Island is so great as to be past telling.
And I can assure you the Great Kaan never could get
possession of this Island, on account of its great distance,

SL^J^

VOL. II.

274

MARCO POLO

Book III.

and the great expense of an expedition thither. The
merchants of Zayton and Manzl draw annually great
returns from this country.^

Note i. — Plere Maico speaks of that Pearl of Islands, Java. The chapter is a
digression from the course of his voyage towards India, but possibly he may have
touched at the island on his previous expedition, alluded to in note 2, ch. v. Not
more, for the account is vague, and where particulars are given not accurate. Java
does not produce nutmegs or cloves, though doubtless it was a great mart for these
and all the products of the Archipelago. And if by treasure he means gold, as
indeed Ramusio reads, no gold is found in Java. Barbosa, however, has the same
story of the great amount of gold drawn from Java ; and De Barros says that Sunda,
i.e. Western Java, which the Portuguese regarded as a distinct island, produced
inferior gold of 7 carats, but that pepper was the staple, of which the annual supply
was more than 30,000 cwt. {Ram. I. 318-319; De Barros^ Dec. IV. liv. i.
cap. 12.)

The circuit ascribed to Java in Pauthier's Text is 5000 miles. Even the 3000
which we take from the Geog. Text is about double the truth ; but it is exactly the

Ship of the Middle Ages in the Java Seas. (From Bas-rehef at Boro Bodor.)

'^ (En rcste ^sU bi^n^nt ^ntnt r^mmtitc iic lus, c J)c mcrwn^ xjc hi ncn:tcrtt iie
nminUs tncrcanbii^s ti hi fant jgrnnt gajignc."

same that Odoric and Conti assign. No doubt it was a tradition among the Aral)
seamen. They never visited the south coast, and probably had extravagant ideas of
its extension in that direction, as the Portuguese had for long. Even at the end of
the l6th century Linschoten says : "Its breadth is as yet unknown ; some conceiving
it to be a part of the Terra Australis extending from opposite the Cape of Good Hope.
However it is commonly held to be an island" (ch. xx. ). And in the old map
republished in the Lisbon De Barros of 1777, the south side of Java is marked
" Parte incognita de Java," and is without a single name, whilst a narrow strait
runs right across the island (the supposed division of Sunda from Java Proper).

Chap. VI. THE GREAT ISLAND OF JAVA 275

The history of Java previous to the rise of the Empire of Majapahit, in the age
immediately following our Traveller's voyage, is very obscure. But there is some
evidence of the existence of a powerful dynasty in the island about this time ; and in
an inscription of ascertained date (a.d. 1294) the King Uttungadeva claims to have
subjected Jive kings, and to be sovereign of the whole Island of Java [Jawa-dvipa ;
see Lassen, IV. 482). It is true that, as our Traveller says, Kublai had not yet
attempted the subjugation of Java, but he did make the attempt almost immediately
after the departure of the Venetians. It was the result of one of his unlucky
embassies to claim the homage of distant states, and turned out as badly as the
attempts against Champa and Japan. His ambassador, a Chinese called Meng-K'i,
was sent back with his face branded like a thief s. A great armament was assembled
in the ports of Fo-kien to avenge this insult ; it started about January, 1293, but did
not effect a landing till autumn. After some temporary success the force was
constrained to re-embark with a loss of 3000 men. The death of Kublai prevented
any renewal of the attempt ; and it is mentioned that his successor gave orders for the
re-opening of the Indian trade which the Java war had interrupted. (See Gaubil^
pp. 217 seqq., 224.) To this failure Odoric, who visited Java about 1323, alludes :
" Now the Great Kaan of Cathay many a time engaged in war with this king ; but
the king always vanquished and got the better of him." Odoric speaks in high terms
of the richness and population of Java, calling it "the second best of all Islands that
exist," and describing a gorgeous palace in terms similar to those in which Polo
speaks of the Palace of Chipangu. {Cathay, p. 87 seqq.)

[We read in the Yuoi-shi (Bk. 210), translated by Mr. Groeneveldt, that "Java is
situated beyond the sea and further away than Champa ; when one embarks at
Ts'wan-chau and goes southward, he first comes to Champa and afterwards to this
country." It appears that when his envoy Meng-K'i had been branded on the face,
Kublai, in 1292, appointed Shih-pi, a native of Po-yeh, district Li-chau, Pao-ting fu,
Chih-li province, commander of the expedition to Java, whilst Ike-Mese, a Uighiir,
and Kau-Hsing, a man from Ts'ai-chau (Ho-nan), were appointed to assist him. Mr.
Groeneveldt has translated the accounts of these three officers. In the Aling-shi
(Bk. 324) we read : "Java is situated at the south-west of Champa. In the time of
the Emperor Kublai of the Yuen Dynasty, Meng-K'i was sent there as an envoy and
had his face cut, on which Kublai sent a large army which subdued the country and
then came back." {L.c. p. 34.) The prince guilty of this insult was the King of
Tumapel "in the eastern part of the island Java, whose country was called Java par
excellence by the Chinese, because it was in this part of the island they chiefly
traded." {L.c. p. 32.)— 11. C]

The curious figure of a vessel which we give here is taken from the vast series of
mediceval sculptures which adorns the great Buddhist pyramid in the centre of Java,
known as Boro Bodor, one of the most remarkable architectural monuments in the
world, but the history of which is all in darkness. The ship, with its outrigger and
apparently canvas sails, is not Chinese, but it undoubtedly pictures vessels which
frequented the ports of Java in the early part of the 14th century,* possibly one of
those from Ceylon or Southern India.

* 1344 is the date to which a Javanese traditional verse ascribes the edifice. {jOraw/urcTs Desc.
Dictionary.')

VOL. II. * S 2

276 MARCO POLO Book III.

CHAPTER VTI.

Wherein the Isles of Sondur and Condur ark spoken of;
AND THE Kingdom of Locac.

When you leave Chamba ^ and sail for 700 miles on a
course between south and south-west, you arrive at two
Islands, a greater and a less. The one is called Sondur
and the other Condur.^ As there is nothing about them
worth mentioning, let us go on five hundred miles beyond
Sondur, and then we find another country which is called
Locac. It is a good country and a rich ; [it is on the
mainland] ; and it has a king of its own. The people
are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and pay
tribute to nobody, for their country is so situated that no
one can enter it to do them ill. Indeed if it were
possible to get at it, the Great Kaan would soon bring
them under subjection to him.

In this country the brazil which we make use of
grows in great plenty ; and they also have gold in In-
credible quantity. They have elephants likewise, and
much game. In this kingdom too are gathered all
the porcelain shells which are used for small change in
all those regions, as I have told you before.

There is nothing else to mention except that this is a
very wild region, visited by few people ; nor does the
king desire that any strangers should frequent the
country, and so find out about his treasure and other
resources.^ We will now proceed, and tell you of
something else.

Note i. — All the MSS. and texts I believe without exception read '^ when yoti
leave Java," etc. But, as Marsden has indicated, the point of departure is really
Champa, the introduction of Java being a digression ; and the retention of the latter
name here would throw us irretrievably into the Southern Ocean. Certain old
geographers, we may observe, did follow that indication, and the results were curious
enough, as we shall notice in next note but one, Marsden's observations are

Chap. VII. THE ISLANDS OF SONDUR AND CONDUR 277

so just that I have followed Pauthier in substituting Champa for Java in the
text.

Note 2. — There is no reason to doubt that these islands are the group now
known as that of Pulo Condore, in old times an important landmark, and
occasional point of call, on the route to China. The group is termed Stmdar Fuldt
{F-iddt representing the Malay Pulo or Island, in the plural) in the Arab Relations of
the 9th century, the last point of departure on the voyage to China, from which it
was a month distant. This old record gives us the name Sondor ; in modern times
we have it as Kondor ; Polo combines both names. ["These may also be the
'Satyrs' Islands' of Ptolemy, or they may be his Sindai ; for he has a Sinda city
on the coast close to this position, though his Sindai islands are dropt far away. But
it would not be difficult to show that Ptolemy's islands have been located almost at
random, or as from a pepper castor." [Yule, Oldest Records, p. 657.)] The group
consists of a larger island about 12 miles long, two of 2 or 3 miles, and some half-
dozen others of insignificant dimensions. The large one is now specially called Pulo
Condore. It has a fair harbour, fresh water, and wood in abundance. Dampier
visited the group and recommended its occupation. The E. I. Company did
establish a post there in 1702, but it came to a speedy end in the massacre of the
Europeans by their Macassar garrison. About the year 1720 some attempt to found
a settlement there was also made by the French, who gave the island the name of
Isle d'OrUans. The celebrated P^re Gaubil spent eight months on the island and
wrote an interesting letter about it (February, 1722 ; see also Lettres Edifiantes,
Rec. xvi.). When the group was visited by Mr. John Crawfurd on his mission to
Cochin China the inhabitants numbered about 800, of Cochin Chinese descent. The
group is now held by the French under Saigon. The chief island is known to the
Chinese as the mountain of Kunlun. There is another cluster of rocks in the same
sea, called the Seven Cheu, and respecting these two groups Chinese sailors have a
kind of Incidit-in-Scyllan saw : — '

^^ Shang f a Tsi-chiu, hia-pa Kun-lun,
Chen mi fuo shih,jin chuen mo tsnn.''' *
Meaning : —

" With Kunlun to starboard, and larboard the Cheu,
Keep conning your compass, whatever you do.
Or to Davy Jones' Locker go vessel and crew."

[Rilter, IV. 1017 ; Reinaud, I. 18; A. Hamilton, II. 402; Mem. cone, les Chinois,
XIV. 53-)

Note 3. — Pauthier reads the name of the kingdom Soucat, but I adhere to the
readings of the G. T., Lochac and Locac, which are supported by Ramusio.
Pauthier's C and the Bern MS. have le chac and le that, which indicate the same
reading.

Distance and other particulars point, as Hugh Murray discerns, to the east coast
of the Malay Peninsula, or (as I conceive) to the territory now called Siam, including
the said coast, as subject or tributary from time immemorial.

The kingdom of Siam is known to the Chinese by the name of Sien-Lo. The
Supplement to Ma Twan-lin's Encyclopaedia describes Sien-Lo as on the sea-board to
the extreme south of Chen-ching. " It originally consisted of two kingdoms, Sien
and Lo-hoh. The Sien people are the remains of a tribe which in the year
(a.d. 1 341) began to come down upon the Lo-hoh, and united with the latter into
one nation. . . . The land of the Lo-hoh consists of extended plains, but not much
agriculture is done."t

* [From the Hsing-ch'a Shing-lan^ by Fei Hsin.]

t The extract of which this is the substance I owe to the kindness of Professor J. Summers,
formerly of King's College.

278

MARCO POLO Book III.

In this Lo or Lo-HOH, which appaicnily formed the lower part of what is now
Siam, previous to the middle of the 14th century, I believe that we have our
Traveller's Locac. The latter half of the name may be either the second syllable of
Lo-IIoh, for Polo's c often represents h ; or it may be the Chinese Kwd or Kwt',
"kingdom," in the Canton and P'o-kien pronunciation {i.e. the pronunciation of
Polo's mariners) kok ; Lo-kok, "the kingdom of Lo." .SV>;/-Lo-Kok is the exact
form of the Chinese name of Siam which is used by Bastian.

What was this kingdom of Lo which occupied the northern shares of the Gulf of
Siam? Chinese scholars generally say that Sien-Lo means Siam and Laos ; but this
I cannot accept, if Laos is to bear its ordinary geographical sense, i.e. of a country
bordering Siam on the north-east and north. Still there seems a probability that
the usual interpretation may be correct, when properly explained,

[Regarding the identification of Locac with Siam, Mr. G. Phillips writes {Jour.
China B.R.A.S., XXL, 1886, p. 34, note): "I can only fully endorse what Col.
Yule says upon this subject, and add a few extracts of my own taken from the article
on Siam given in the Wn-pi-chL It would appear that previously to 1 341 a country
called Lohoh (in Amoy pronunciation Lohok) existed, as Vule says, in what is now called
Lower Siam, and at that date became incorporated with Sien. In the 4th year of
Hung-wu, 1372, it sent tribute to China, under the name of Sien Lohok. The
country was first called Sien Lo in the first year of Yung Lo, 1403. In the T'ang
Dynasty it appears to have been known as Lo-yneh, pronounced Lo-gueh at that
period. This Lo-yueh would seem to have been situated on the Eastern side of
Malay Peninsula, and to have extended to the entrance to the Straits of Singapore, in
what is now known as Johore." — 11. C. j

In 1864, Dr. Bastian communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal the translation
of a long and interesting inscription, brought [in 1834] from Sakkothai to Bangkok
by the late King of Siam [Mongkut, then crown prince], and dated in a year 1214,
which in the era of Salivahana (as it is almost certainly, see Gamier, cited below) will
be A.D. 1 292- 1 293, almost exactly coincident with Polo's voyage. The author of this
inscription was a Prince of Thai (or Siamese) race, styled Phra Rama Kamheng
("The Valiant") [son of Sri Indratiya], who reigned in Sukkothai, whilst his
dominions extended from Vieng-chan on the Mekong River (lat. 18°), to Pechabur,
and Sri-Thammarat [i.e. Ligor, in lat. 8° 18'), on the coast of the Gulf of Siam.
[This inscription gives three dates — 1205, 1209, and 1214 s'aka = A.D. 1283, 1287 and
1292. One passage says : " Formerly the Thais had no writing ; it is in 1205 s'aka,
year of the goat = A.D. 1283, that King Rama Kamheng sent for a teacher who
invented the Thai writing. It is to him that we are indebted for it to-day." (Cf.
Fournereau, Siam ancien, p. 225 ; Schmitt, Exc. et Recon., 1885 ; Aynionier,
Cavibodge, II. p. 72.) — H. C] 'i he conquests of this prince are stated to have
extended eastward to the "Royal Lake," apparently the Great Lake of Kamboja ;
and we may conclude with certainty that he was the leader of the Siamese, who had
invaded Kamboja shortly before it was visited (in 1296) by that envoy of Kiiblai's
successor, whose valuable account of the country has been translated by Remusat.*
Now this prince Rama Kamheng of Sukkothai was probably (as Lieutenant Garnier
supposes) of the Thai-nyai, Great Thai, or Laotian branch of the race. Hence the
application of the name Lo-kok to his kingdom can be accounted for.

It was another branch of the Thai, known as Thai-noi, or Little Thai, which in
1 35 1, under another Phra Rama, founded Ayuthia and the Siamese monarchy, which
still exists.

The explanation now given seems more satisfactory than the suggestions formerly
made of the connection of the name Locac, either with Lophaburi (or Lavo, Louvo),
a very ancient capital near Ayuthia, or with Lawdk, i.e. Kamboja. Kamboja had at

* I am happy to express my obligation to the remarks of my lamented friend Lieutenant Garnier,
for light on this subject, which has led to an entire reform in the present note. (See his excellent
Historical Essay, forming ch. v. of the great " Voyage cC Exploration en Tndo-Chine" pp. 136-137).

Chap. VII. THE KINGDOM OF LOCAC 279

an earlier date possessed the lower valley of the Menam, but, we see, did so no
longer. *

The name Lawek or Lovek is applied by writers of the i6th and 17th centuries to
the capital of what is still Kamboja, the ruins of which exist near Udong. Laiveik
is mentioned along with the other Siamese or Laotian countries of Yuthia, Tennas-
serim, Sukkothai, Pichalok, Lagong, Lanchang (or Luang Prabang), Zimme (or
Kiangmai), and Kiang-Tung, in the vast list of states claimed by the Burmese
Chronicle as tributary to Pagan before its fall. We find in the Ain-i-Akbari a kind
of aloes-wood called Lawdki, no doubt because it came from this region.

The G. T. indeed makes the course from Sondur to Locac sceloc or S.E, ; but
Pauthier's text seems purposely to correct this, calling it, "z/. c. viilles oultre Sandur.'^
This would bring us to the Peninsula somewhere about what is now the Siamese
province of Ligcr,t and this is the only position accurately consistent with the next
indication of the route, viz. a run of 500 miles south to the Straits of Singapore.
Let us keep in mind also Ramusio's specific statement that Locac was on terra
firma.

As regards the products named: (i) gold is mined in the northern part of the
Peninsula and is a staple export of Kalantan, Tringano, and Pahang, further down.
Barbosa says gold was so abundant in Malacca that it was reckoned by Bahars of 4
cwt. Though Mr. Logan has estimated the present produce of the whole
Peninsula at only 20,000 ounces, Hamilton, at the beginning of last century,
says Pahang alone in some years exported above 8 cwt. (2) Brazil - wood,
now generally known by the Malay term Sappan, is abundant on the coast.
Ritter speaks of three small towns on it as entirely surrounded by trees of this
kind. And higher up, in the latitude of Tavoy, the forests of sappan-wood
find a prominent place in some maps of Siam. In mediceval intercourse between the
courts of Siam and China we find Brazil-wood to form the bulk of the Siamese
present. ["Ma Huan fully bears out Polo's statement in this matter, for he says:
This Brazil (of which Marco speaks) is as plentiful as firewood. On Cheng-ho's chart
Brazil and other fragrant woods are marked as products of Siam. Polo's statement of
the use of porcelain shells as small change is also corroborated by Ma Huan." [G.
Phillips, Jour. China B.R.A.S., XXL, 1886, p. 37.)— H. C] (3) Elephants are
abundant. (4) Cowries, according to Marsden and Crawfurd, are found in those
seas largely only on the Sulu Islands ; but Bishop Pallegoix says distinctly that"
they are found in abundance on the sand-banks of the Gulf of Siam. And I
see Dr. Fryer, in 1673, says that cowries were brought to Surat "from Siam and
the Philippine Islands."

For some centuries after this time Siam was generally known to traders by the
Persian name oi Shahr-i-nao, or New City. This seems to be the name generally applied
to it in the Shijarat Malayti (or Malay Chronicle), and it is used also by Abdurrazzak.
It appears among the early navigators of the 1 6th century, as Da Gama, Varthema,
Giovanni d'Empoli and Mendez Pinto, in the shape of Sornmi, Xarnau, Whether
this name was applied to the new city of Ayuthia, or was a translation of that of the
older Lophdburi{v^'hich. appears to be the Sansk. or Pali Nava /«ra = New-City) I
do not know.

[Reinaud (/«/. Abulfeda, p. CDXVI.) writes that, according to the Christian monk
of Nadjran, who crossed the Malayan Seas, about the year 980, at this time, the King
of Lukyn had just invaded the kingdom of Sanf and taken possession of it. According

* The Kakula of Ibn Batuta was probably on the coast of Locac. The Kaifidrah Komar of
the same traveller and other Arab writers, I have elsewhere suggested to be Khmer, or Kamboja
Proper. (See /. B. IV. 240; Cathay, 469, 519.) KaVula and Kamarah were both in " Mul-fava" ;
and the king of this undetermined country, whom Wassaf states to have submitted to Kubl.ii in 1291,
was called Sri Rama. It is possible that this was Phra Rama of Sukkothai. (See Cathay, 519;
Elliot, III. 27.)

t Mr. G. Phillips supposes the name Locac to be Ligor, or rather Lakhon, as the Siamese call it.
But it seems to me pretty clear from what has been said that Lo-kok, though including Ligor, is a
different name from Lakhon. The latter is a corruption of the Sanskrit, Nagara, " city."

28o MARCO POLO Book III.

to Ibn Khoidadhbeh {De Goeje, p. 49) Lukyn is the fust port of China, 100 parasangs
distant from Sanf by land or sea ; Chinese stone, Chinese silk, porcelain of excellent
quality, and rice are to be found at Lukyn. — H. C]

{Bastian, I. 357, IIL 433, and in /. A. S. B. XXXIV. Pi. I. p. 27 seqq.-.
Ramus. I. 318; Amyot, XIV. 266, 269; PaUegoix^ I. 196; Bowj-ing, I. 41, 72;
Phayre'mJ. A. S. B. XXXVII. Pt. I. p. 102; Aht Akh. 80; Motihot, I. 70; Roe
and Fryer, reprint, 1873, p. 271,)

Some geographers of tlie 16th century, following the old editions which carried the
travellers south-east or south-west of Java to the \2iX\6ioi Boeach (for Locac), introduced
in their maps a continent in that situation. (See e.g. the map of the world by P.
Plancius in Linschoten.) And this has sometimes been adduced to prove an early
knowledge of Australia. Mr. Major has treated this question ably in his interesting
essay on the early notices of Australia.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Island called Pentam, and the City Malatur

When you leave Locac and sail for 500 miles towards
the south, you come to an island called Pentam, a very
wild place. All the wood that grows thereon consists of
odoriferous trees.^ There is no more to say about it ; so
let us sail about sixty miles further between those two
Islands. Throughout this distance there Is but four
paces' depth of water, so that great ships in passing this
channel have to lift their rudders, for they draw nearly
as much water as that.^

And when you have gone these 60 miles, and again
about 30 more, you come to an Island which forms a
Kingdom, and is called Malaiur. The people have a
King of their own, and a peculiar language. The city is
a fine and noble one, and there is oreat trade carried on
there. All kinds of spicery are to be found there, and
all other necessaries of life.^

Note i. — Pentam, or as in Ram. Pentan, is no doubt the Bintang of our maps,
more properly BentAn, a considerable Island at the eastern extremity of the Straits of
Malacca. It appears in the list, published by Dulaurier from a Javanese Inscription,
of the kingdoms conquered in the 15th century by the sovereigns reigning at Majapahit
in Java. (/. A. ser. IV. torn. xiii. 532. ) Bintang was for a long time after the Portuguese

Chap. VIII. THE ISLAND OF PENTAM 28 1

conquest of Malacca the chief residence of the Malay Sultans who had been expelled
by that conquest, and it still nominally belongs to the Sultan of Johore, the descendant
of those princes, though in fact ruled by the Dutch, whose port of Rhio stands on a
small island close to its western shore. It is the Bhitdo of the Portuguese whereof
Camoens speaks as the persistent enemy of Malacca (X. 57).

[Cf. Professor Schleget s Geog. Notes, VI. Ma-it; regarding the odoriferous trees,
Professor Schlegel remarks (p. 20) that they were probably santal trees. — H, C]

Note 2. — There is a good deal of confusion in the text of this chapter. Here
we have a passage spoken of between " those two Islands," when only one island seems
to have been mentioned. But I imagine the other " island" in the traveller's mind to
be the continuation of the same Locac, i.e. the Malay Peninsula (included by him under
that name), which he has coasted for 500 miles. This is confirmed by Ramusio, and
the old Latin editions (as Miiller's) : *' between the kingdom of Locac and the Island
of Pentan." The passage in question is the Strait of Singapore, or as the old
navigators called it, the Straits of Gobernador, having the mainland of the Peninsula
and the Island of Singapore, on the one side, and the Islands of Bintang and Batang
on the other. The length of the strait is roughly 60 geographical miles, or a little
more ; and I see in a route given in the Lettres Edifiantes (II. p. 118) that the length
of navigation is so stated : " Le detroit de Gobernador a vingt lieues de long, et est
for difficile quand on n'y a jamais passe."

The Venetian passo was 5 feet. Marco here alludes to the well-known practice
with the Chinese junks of raising the rudder, for which they have a special arrange-
ment, which is indicated in the cut at p. 248.

Note 3. — There is a difficulty here about the indications, carrying us, as they do,
first 60 miles through the Strait, and then 30 miles further to the Island Kingdom and
city of Malaiur. There is also a singular variation in the readings as to this city and
island. The G. T. has *' Une isle qe est roiame, et s^apelle Malanir e I'isle Pentam."
The Crusca has the same, only reading Malavir. Pauthier : * ' Une isle qui est
royattme, et a nam Maliur." The Geog. Latin : " Ibi invenitur una insula in qua est
unus rex quem vocant Lamovich. Civitas et insjda vocantur Pontavich." Ram. :
" Chiamasi la citth Malaiur, e cosi I'isola Malaiur."

All this is very perplexed, and it is difficult to trace what may have been the true
readings. The 30 miles beyond the straits, whether we give the direction south-east
as in G. T. or no, will not carry us to the vicinity of any place known to have been
the site of an important city. As the point of departure in the next chapter is from
Pentam and not from Malaiur, the introduction of the latter is perhaps a digression
from the route, on information derived either from hearsay or from a former voyage.
But there is not information enough to decide what place is meant by Malaiur. Pro-
babilities seem to me to be divided between Pale??iban§, and its colony Singhapura,
Palembang, according to the Commentaries of Alboquerque, was called by the
Javanese Malayo. The List of Sumatran Kingdoms in De Barros makes Tana-
Malayu the 7iext to Palembang. On the whole, I incline to this interpretation.

[In Valentyn (V. I, Beschryvinge van Malakka, p. 317) we find it stated that the
Malay people just dwelt on the River Malay ti in the Kingdom of Palembang, and
were called from the River Orang Malayii. — MS. Note. — H. Y.]

[Professor Schlegel in his Geog. Notes, IV., tries to prove by Chinese authorities
that Maliur and Tana- Malay u are two quite distinct countries, and he says that
Maliur may have been situated on the coast opposite Singapore, perhaps a little
more to the S.W. where now lies Malacca, and that Tana-Malay u may be placed
in Asahan, upon the east coast of Sumatra. — H. C]

Singhapura was founded by an emigration from Palembang, itself a Javanese
colony. It became the site of a flourishing kingdom, and was then, according to the
tradition recorded by De Barros, the most important centre of population in those
regions, * ' whither used to gather all the navigators of the Eastern Seas, from both

282 MARCO POLO Book III.

East and West ; to this great city of Singapura all flocked as to a general market."
(Dec. II. 6, I.) This suits the description in our text well ; but as Singhapura was
in sight of any ship passing through the straits, mistake could hardly occur as to its
position, even if it had not been visited.

I omit Malacca entirely from consideration, because the evidence appears to me
conclusive against the existence of Malacca at this time.

The Malay Chronology, as published by Valentyn, ascribes the foundation of
that city to a king called Iskandar Shah, placing it in A.D. 1252, fixes the reign of
Mahomed Shah, the third King of Malacca and first Mussulman King, as extending
from 1276 to 1333 (not staling when his conversion took place), and gives 8 kings in
all between the foundation of the city and its capture by the Portuguese in 151 1,
a space, according to those data, of 259 years. As Sri Iskandar Shah, the founder,
had reigned 3 years in Singhapura before founding Malacca, and Mahomed Shah, the
loser, reigned 2 years in Johore after the loss of his capital, we have 264 years to
divide among 8 kings, giving 33 years to each reign. This certainly indicates that
the period requires considerable curtailment.

Again, both De Barros and the Commentaries of Alboquerque ascribe the
foundation of Malacca to a Javanese fugitive from Paleuibang called Paramisura, and
Alboquerque makes Iskandar Shah {Xaquem darxa) the son of Paramisura, and the
first convert to Mahomedanism. Four other kings reign in succession after him, the
last of the four being Mahomed Shah, expelled in 151 1.

[Godinho de Eredia says expressly (Cap. i. Do Citio Malaca, p. 4) that Malacca
was founded hy Per fnictcri, primeiro monarcha de JSIalayos, in the year 1411, in the
Pontificate of John XXIV., and in the reign of Don Juan II. of Castille and Dom
Juan I. of Portugal.]

The historian De Couto, whilst giving the same number of reigns from the con-
version to the capture, places the former event about 1384. And the Commentaries
of Alboquerque allow no more than some ninety years from the foundation of
Malacca to his capture of the city.

There is another approximate check to the chronology aftbrded by a Chinese
record in the X I Vth volume of Amyot's collection. This informs us that Malacca
first acknowledged itself as tributary to the Empire in 1405, the king being Sili-jti-
eul-stda (?). In 141 1 the King of Malacca himself, now called Peilintisula
(Paramisura), came in person to the court of China to render homage. And in 1414
the Queen-Mother of Malacca came to court, bringing her son's tribute.

JNow this notable fact of the visit of a King of Malacca to the court of China,
and his acknowledgment of the Emperor's supremacy, is also recorded in the
Commentaries of Alboquerque. This work, it is true, attributes the visit, not to
Paramisura, the founder of Malacca, but to his son and successor Iskandar Shah.
This may be a question of a title only, perhaps borne by both ; but we seem entitled
to conclude with confidence that Malacca was founded by a prince whose son was
reigning, and visited the court of China in 141 1. And the real chronology will be
about midway between the estimates of De Couto and of Alboquerque. Hence
Malacca did not exist for a century, more or less, after Polo's voyage.

[Mr. C. O. Blagden, in a paper on the Mediaeval Chronology of Malacca {Actes da
A'/e Cong. Int. Orient. Paris, 1897), writes (p. 249) that "if Malacca had been in the
middle of the 14th century anything like the great emporium of trade which it
certainly was in the 15th, Ibn Batuta would scarcely have failed to speak of it." The
foundation of Malacca by Sri Iskandar Shah in 1252, according to the Sejarah Malayu
"must be put at least 125 years later, and the establishment of the Muhammadan
religion there would then precede by only a few years the end of the 14th century,
instead of taking place about the end of the 13th, as is generally supposed" (p. 251).
(Cf. G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes, XV.)— PL C]

Mr. Logan supposes that the form Malayu-r may indicate that the Malay
language of the 13th century "had not yet replaced the strong naso-guttural
terminals by pure vowels." We find the same form in a contemporary Chinese

Chap. VIII. THE CITY MALAIUR ^ 283

notice. This records that in the 2nd year of the Yuen, tribute was sent from Siam
to the Emperor. "The Siamese had long been at war with the Maliyi or Matjurh,
but both nations laid aside their feud and submitted to China," ( Valentyn, V. p. 352 ;
Crawfin-d's Desc. Diet. art. Malacca; Lassen, IV. 541 seqq. ; Jonrn. Ind. Archip.
V. 572, II. 608-609 j De Barros, Dec. II. 1. vi. c. i ; Conientarios do grande Afonso
(CAlboqiierque, Pt. III. cap. xvii. ; Couto, Dec. IV. liv. ii. ; Wade in Bown'ng's
Kingdom and People of Siaiii, I. 72.)

[From I-tsing we learn that going from China to India, the traveller visits the
country of Shih-li-fuh-shi {Cribhoja or simply Fuh-shi=^^\iO)?i), then Mo-louo-yn,
which seems to Professor Chavannes to correspond to the Malaiur of Marco Polo and
to the modern Palembang, and which in the loth century formed a part of (^ribhodja
identified by Professor Chavannes with Zabedj. {I-tsing, p. 36.) The Rev. vS. Beal
has some remarks on this question in Xhe Alerveilles de Plnde, p. 251, and he says
that he thinks "there are reasons for placing this country [(^rlbhoja], or island, on
the East coast of Sumatra, and near Palembang, or, on the Palembang River."
Mr. Groeneveldt ( ? '<??^//^ Pao, VII. abst. p. 10) gives some extracts from Chinese
authors, and then writes : "We have therefore to find now a place for the Molayu of
I-tsing, the Malaiur of Marco Polo, the Malayo of Alboquerque, and the Tana-
Malayu of De Barros, all which may be taken to mean the same place. I-tsing tells
us that it took fifteen days to go from Bhoja to Molayu and fifteen days again to go
from there to Kich-ch'a. The latter place, suggesting a native name Kada, must
have been situated in the north-west of Sumatra, somewhere near the present Atjeh,
for going from there west, one arrived in thirty days at Magapatana, near Ceylon,
whilst a northern course brought one in ten days to the Nicobar Islands. Molayu
should thus lie half-way between Bh6ja and Kieh-ch'a, but this indication must not be
taken too literally where it is given for a sailing vessel, and there is also the statement
of De Barros, which does not allow us to go too far away from Palembang, as he
mentions Tana-Malayu 7iext to that place. We have therefore to choose between the
next three larger rivers : those of Jambi, Indragiri, and Kampar, and there is an
indication in favour of the last one, not very strong, it is true, but still not to be
neglected. I-tsing tells us : " Le roi me donna des secours grace auxquels je parvins
au pays de Mo-lotio-yu ; j'y sejournai derechef pendant deux mois. Je changeai de
direction pour aller dans le pays de Kie-tchaJ'^ The change of direction during a
voyage along the east coast of Sumatra from Palembang to Atjeh is nowhere very
perceptible, because the course is throughout more or less north-west, still one may
speak of a change of direction at the mouth of the River Kampar, about the entrance
of the Strait of Malacca, whence the track begins to run more west, whilst it is more
north before. The country of Kampar is of little importance now, but it is not
improbable that there has been a Hindoo settlement, as the ruins of religious monu-
ments decidedly Buddhist are still existing on the upper course of the river, the only
ones indeed on this side of the island, it being a still unexplained fact that the
Hindoos in Java have built on a very large scale, and those of Sumatra hardly
anything at all." — Mr. Takakusu [A Record of the Btiddhist Religion, p. xH. ) proposes
to place Shih-li-fuh-shi at Palembang and Mo-louo-yu farther on the northern coast .
of Sumatra. — (Cf. G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes ^ XVI. ; P. Pdliot^ Btd. Ecolc PYan^. Ext.
Orient, II. pp. 94-96. )— II. C]

284 MARCO POLO Book III.

CHAPTER rX.

Concerning thk Island of Java the Less. The Kingdoms of
Ferlec and Basma,

When you leave the Island of Pentam and sail about
100 miles, you reach the Island of Java the Less.
For all its name 'tis none so small but that it has a
compass of two thousand miles or more. Now I will
tell you all about this Island.^

You see there are upon it eight kingdoms and eight
crowned kings. The people are all Idolaters, and every
kingdom has a language of its own. The Island hath
great abundance of treasure, with costly spices, lign-aloes
and spikenard and many others that never come Into our
parts.^

Now I am going to tell you all about these eight
kingdoms, or at least the greater part of them. But let
me premise one marvellous thing, and that is the fact
that this Island lies so far to the south that the North
Star, little or much, is never to be seen !

Now let us resume our subject, and first I will tell
you of the kingdom of Ferlec.

This kingdom, you must know, is so much frequented
by the Saracen merchants that they have converted the
natives to the Law of Mahommet — I mean the towns-
people only, for the hill-people live for all the world like
beasts, and eat human flesh, as well as all other kinds of
flesh, clean or unclean. And they worship this, that, and
the other thing ; for in fact the first thing that they see
on rising in the morning, that they do worship for the
rest of the day.^

Having told you of the kingdom of Ferlec, I will
now tell of another which is called Basma.

Chap. IX. THE KINGDOMS OF FERLEC AND BASMA 285

When you quit the kingdom of Ferlec you enter
upon that of Basma. This also is an independent
kingdom, and the people have a language of their own ;
but they are just like beasts without laws or religion.
They call themselves subjects of the Great Kaan, but
they pay him no tribute ; indeed they are so far away
that his men could not go thither. Still all these
Islanders declare themselves to be his subjects, and
sometimes they send him curiosities as presents/ There
are wild elephants in the country, and numerous unicorns,
which are very nearly as big. They have hair like that
of a buffalo, feet like those of an elephant, and a horn in
the middle of the forehead, which is black and very
thick. They do no mischief, however, with the horn,
but with the tongue alone ; for this is covered all over
with long and strong prickles [and when savage with
any one they crush him under their knees and then rasp
him with their tongue]. The head resembles that of a
wild boar, and they carry it ever bent towards the
ground. They delight much to abide in mire and mud.
'Tis a passing ugly beast to look upon, and is not in the
least like that which our stories tell of as beingr cauofht in
the lap of a virgin ; in fact, 'tis altogether different from
what we fancied.^ There are also monkeys here in
great numbers and -of sundry kinds; and goshawks as
black as crows. These are very large birds and capital
for fowling.^

I may tell you moreover that when people bring,
home pygmies which they allege to come from India, 'tis
all a lie and a cheat. For those little men, as they call
them, are manufactured on this Island, and I will tell you
how. You see there is on the Island a kind of monkey
which is very small, and has a face just like a man's.
They take these, and pluck out all the hair except the
hair of the beard and on the breast, and then they dry

286 MARCO POLO Book III.

them and stuff them and daub them with saffron and
other things until they look like men. But you see it is
all a cheat; for nowhere in India nor anywhere else in
the world were there ever men seen so small as these
pretended pygmies.

Now I will say no more of the kingdom of Basma,
but tell you of the others in succession.

Note i. — Java the Less is the Island of Sumatra. Here there is no exaggera-
tion in the dimension assigned to its circuit, which is about 2300 miles. The old
Arabs of the 9th century give it a circuit of 800 parasangs, or say 2800 miles, and
Barbosa reports the estimate of the Mahomedan seamen as 2100 miles. Compare the
more reasonable accuracy of these estimates of Sumatra, which the navigators knew
in its entire compass, with the wild estimates of Java Proper, of which they knew but
the northern coast.

Polo by no means stands alone in giving the name of Java to the island now
called Sumatra. The terms Jawa, /awi, were applied by the Arabs to the islands
and productions of the Archipelago generally [e.g., Ltihdnjawi, "Java frankincense,"
whence by corruption Benzoin), but also specifically to Sumatra. Thus Sumatra is
the Jdzvah both of Abulfeda and of Ibn Batata, the latter of whom spent some time
on the island, both in going to China and on his return. The Java also of the
Catalan Map appears to be Sumatra. Javaku again is the name applied in the
Singalese chronicles to the Malays in general. Jdu and Dawa are the names still
applied by the Battaks and the people of Nias respectively to the Malays, showing
probably that these were looked on as Javanese by those tribes who did not partake
of the civilisation diffused from Java. In Siamese also the Malay language is called
Chawa ; and even on the Malay peninsula, the traditional slang for a half-breed born
from a Kling (or Coromandel) father and a Malay mother is yirzw/ /'cz/wz, " a Jawi
{i.e. Malay) of the market." De Barros says that all the people of Sumatra called
themselves by the common name oijauijs. (Dec. III. liv. v. cap. i.)

There is some reason to believe that the application of the name Java to Sumatra
is of very old date. For the oldest inscription of ascertained date in the Archipelago
which has yet been read, a Sanskrit one from Pagaroyang, the capital of the ancient
Malay state of Menang-kabau in the heart of Sumatra, bearing a date equivalent to
A.D. 656, entitles the monarch whom it commemorates, Adityadharma by name, the
king of " the First Java " (or rather Yava). This Mr. Friedrich interprets to mean
Sumatra. It is by no means impossible that the labadin, or Yavadvipa of Ptolemy
may be Sumatra rather than Java.

An accomplished Dutch Orientalist suggests that the Arabs originally applied the
terms Great Java and Little Java to Java and Sumatra respectively, not because of
their imagined relation in size, but as indicating the former to be Java Proper. Thus
also, he says, there is a Great Acheh (Achin) which does not imply that the place so
called is greater than the well-known state of Achin (of which it is in fact a part),
but because it is Acheh Proper. A like feeling may have suggested the Great
Bulgaria, Great Hungary, Great Turkey of the mediaeval travellers. These were, or
were supposed to be, the original seats of the Bulgarians, Plungarians, and Turks.
The Great Horde of the Kirghiz Kazaks is, as regards numbers, not the greatest, but
the smallest of the three. But the others look upon it as the most ancient. The
Burmese are alleged to call the Rakhain or people of Arakan Mranvia Gyi or Great
Burmese, and to consider their dialect the most ancient form of the language. And,

Chap. IX. THE ISLAND OF JAVA THE LESS 287

in like manner, we may perhaps account for the term of Little Thai, formerly applied
to the Siamese in distinction from the Great Thai, their kinsmen of Laos.

In after-days, when the name of Sumatra for the Great Island had established
itself, the traditional term " Little Java " sought other applications. Barbosa seems
to apply it to Stunbawa ; Pigafetta and Cavendish apply it to Bali, and in this way
Raffles says it was still used in his own day. Geographers were sometimes puzzled
about it. Magini says Java Minor is almost incognita.

( Tumour'' s Epitome, p. 45 ; Van der Ttiuk, Bladwijzer tot de drie Stukken van
het Bataksche Leesboek, p. 43, etc. ; Friedrich in Bat. Transactions, XXVI. ;
Levchine, Les Kirghiz Kazaks, 3CX), 301.)

Note 2. — As regards the treasure, Sumatra was long famous for its produce of
gold. The export is estimated in Crawfurd's History at 35,530 ounces; but no
doubt it was much more when the native states were in a condition of greater wealth
and civilisation, as they undoubtedly were some centuries ago. Valentyn says that
in some years Achin had exported 80 bahars, equivalent to 32,000 or 36,000 lbs.
avoirdupois (!). Of the other products named, lign-aloes or eagle-wood is a product
of Sumatra, and is or was very abundant in Campar on the eastern coast. The Ain-
i-Akbari says this article was usually brought to India from Achin and Tenasserim.
Both this and spikenard are mentioned by Polo's contemporary, Kazwini, among the
products of Java (probably Sumatra), \iz., Java lign-aloes {al- Ud al-Jdwi), camphor
spikenard {Stwibul), etc. Adrdwastu is the name of a grass with fragrant roots
much used as a perfume in the Archipelago, and I see this is rendered spikenard in a
translation from the Malay Annals in Xho. Journal of the Archipelago.

With regard to the kingdoms of the island which Marco proceeds to describe, it
is well to premise that all the six which he specifies are to be looked for towards the
north end of the island, viz., in regular succession up the northern part of the east
coast, along the north coast, and down the northern part of the west coast.
This will be made tolerably clear in the details, and Marco himself intimates at the
end of the next chapter that the six kingdoms he describes were all at this side or
end of the island : " Or vos avon contde de cesti roiaines que sunt de ceste partie de
scete ysle, et des autres roiaines de I'autre partie ne voz conteron-noz riejt." Most
conmientators have made confusion by scattering them up and down, nearly all round
the coast of Sumatra. The best remarks on the subject I have met with are by Mr.
Logan in his Journal of the Ind. Arch. II. 610.

The "kingdoms" were certainly many more than eight throughout the island.
At a later day De Barros enumerates 29 on the coast alone. Crawfurd reckons 15
diiTerent nations and languages on Sumatra and its dependent isles, of which ii
belon;T to the great island itself.

{Hist, of Ind. Arch. III. 482 ; Valentyn, V. (Sumatra), p. 5 ; Desc. Diet. p. 7,
417; Gildevieister, p. 193 ; Crazvf Malay Diet. iig;J. Ind. Arch. V. 313.)

Note 3. — The kingdom of Parlak is mentioned in the Shijarat Malayu or
Malay Chronicle, and also in a Malay History of the Kings of Pasei, of which an
abstract is given by Dulaurier, in connection with the other states of which we shall
speak presently. It is also mentioned {Barlak), as a city of the Archipelago, by
Rashiduddin. Of its extent we have no knowledge, but the position (probably of its
northern extremity) is preserved in the native name, Tanjong {i.e. Cape) Parlak of
the N.E. horn of Sumatra, called by European seamen "Diamond Point," whilst the
river and town of Perla, about 32 miles south of that point, indicate, I have little
doubt, the site of the old capital.* Indeed in Malombra's Ptolemy (Venice, 1 574), I
find the next city of Sumatra beyond Pacen marked as Pulaca.

* See Andersons Mission to East Coast o/Stiinatra, pp. 229, 233, and map. The Ferlec of Polo
was identified by Valentyn. {Sumatra, in vol. v. p. 21.) Marsden remarks that a terminal k is in
Sumatra always softened or omitted in pronunciation. (//. o/Suvi. ist. ed. p. 163.) Thus we have
Perlak, and Perla, as we have Battak and Batta.

288 MARCO rOLO Book III.

The form Ferlec shows that Polo got it from the Arabs, who having no / often
replace that letter by /. It is notable that the Malay alphabet, which is that of the
Arabic with necessary modifications, represents the sound / not by the Persian pe

( ^ ), but by the Arabic /e; ( (3 )' ^^'^ three dots instead of one ( ^^ )•

A Malay chronicle of Achin dates the accession of the first Mahomcdan king of
that state, the nearest point of Sumatra to India and Arabia, in the year answering to
A.D. 1205, and this is the earliest conversion among the Malays on record. It is
doubtful, indeed, whether there were Kings of Achin in 1205, or for centuries after
(unless indeed Lambri is to be regarded as Achin), but the introduction of Islam may
be confidently assigned to that age.

The notice of the Ilill-people, who lived like beasts and ate human flesh, pre-
sumably attaches to the Battas or Bataks, occupying high table-lands in the interior of
Sumatra. They do not now extend north beyond lat. 3°. The interior of Northern
Sumatra seems to remain a terra incognita, and even with the coast we are far less
familiar than our ancestors were 250 years ago. The Battas are remarkable among
cannibal nations as having attained or retained some degree of civilisation, and as
being possessed of an alphabet and documents. Their anthropophagy is now pro-
fessedly practised according to precise laws, and only in prescribed cases. Thus :
(i) A commoner seducing a Raja's wife must be eaten; (2) Enemies taken in battle
outside their village must be eaten alive; those taken in storming a village may be
spared ; (3) Traitors and spies have the same doom, but may ransom themselves for
60 dollars a-head. There is nothing more horrible or extraordinary in all the stories
of medigeval travellers than \ht facts of this institution. {S>eeJtmghHhn, Die Battaldnder,
II. 158.) And it is evident that human flesh is also at times kept in the houses for
food. Junghuhn, who could not abide Englishmen but was a great admirer of the
Battas, tells how after a perilous and hungry flight he arrived in a friendly village,
and the food that was offered by his hosts was the flesh of two prisoners who had
been slaughtered the day before (I. 249). Anderson was also told of one of the most
powerful Batta chiefs who would eat only such food, and took care to be supplied
with it (225).

The story of the Battas is that in old times their communities lived in peace and
knew no such custom ; but a Devil, Nanalain, came bringing strife, and introduced
this man-eating, at a period which they spoke of (in 1840) as " three men's lives ago,"
or about 210 years previous to that date. Junghuhn, with some enlargement of the
time, is disposed to accept their story of the practice being comparatively modern.
This cannot be, for their hideous custom is alluded to by a long chain of early
authorities. Ptolemy's anthropophagi may perhaps be referred to the smaller islands.
But the Arab Relations of the 9th century speak of man-eaters in Al-Ramni,
undoubtedly Sumatra. Then comes our traveller, followed by Odoric, and in the
early part of the 15th century by Conti, who names the Batech cannibals. Barbosa
describes them without naming them ; Galvano (p. 108) speaks of them by name ; as
does De Barros. (Dec. III. liv. viii. cap. i.)

The practice of worshipping the first thing seen in the morning is related of a
variety of nations. Pigafetta tells it of the people of Gilolo, and Varthema in his
account of Java (which I fear is fiction) ascribes it to some people of that island.
Richard Eden tells it of the Laplanders. {Notes on Russia, Ilak. Soc. II. 224.)

Note 4. — Basma, as Valentyn indicated, seems to be the Pasei of the Malays,
which the Arabs probably called Basa/n or the like, for the Portuguese wrote it
Pacem. [Mr. J. T. Thomson writes {Proc. R. G. S. XX. p. 221) that of its actual
position there can be no doubt, it being the Passier of modern charts. — H. C] Pasei
is mentioned in the Malay Clironicle as founded by Malik-al-Salih, the first Mussul-
man sovereign of Samudra, the next of Marco's kingdoms. He assigned one of these
states to each of his two sons, Malik al-Dhahir and Malik al-Mansiir ; the former of
vvhom was reigning at Samudra, and apparently over the whole coast, when Ibn

Chap. IX.

ASIATIC RHINOCEROSES

289

Batuta was there (about 1346-47). There is also a Malay History of the Kings of
Pasei to which reference has already been made.

Somewhat later Pasei was a great and famous city : Majapahit, Malacca, and
Pasei being reckoned the three great cities of the Archipelago. The stimulus of
conversion to Islam had not taken effect on those Sumatran states at the time of Polo's
voyage, but it did so soon afterwards, and, low as they have now fallen, their power
at one time was no delusion. Achin, which rose to be the chief of them, in 161 5
could send against Portuguese Malacca an expedition of more than 500 sail, 100
of which were galleys larger than any then constructed in Europe, and carried from
600 to 800 men each.

[Dr. Schlegel writes to me that according to the Malay Dictionary of Von de Wall
and Van der Tuuk, ii, 414-415 Polo's Basvian is the Arab pronunciation o{ Pashuan.
the modern Ophir in West Sumatra ; Gunung Pasevian is Mount Ophir. — H. C]

The three Asiatic Rhinoceroses; (upper) Indicus, (middle) Sondaicus, (ower; Sumatranus.*

Note 5. — The elephant seems to abound in the forest-tracts throughout the whole
length of Sumatra, and the species is now determined to oe a distinct one {E.
Siwiatranus) from that of continental India and identical with that of Ceylon, t
The Sumatran elephant in former days as caught and tamed extensively. Ibn
Batuta speaks of 100 elephants in the train of Al Dhahir, the King of Sumatra Proper,
and in the 17th century Beaulieu says the King of Achin had always 900. Giov.

* Since this engraving was made a fourth species has been estabh'shed, Rhin. lasyotts, found ne.ir
Chittagong.

t The elephant of India has 6 true ribs and 13 false ribs ; that of Sumatra and Ceylon has 6 true
and 14 false.

VOL. II.

290 MARCO POLO Book ITT.

d'l^mpoli also mentions Uiem at Pedir in the beginning of the i6th century ; and see
Pasei Chronicle c^noicd in/. As. ser. IV. torn. ix. pp. 258-259. This speaks of elephants
as used in war by the people of Pasei, and of elephant-hunts as a royal diversion. The
locus of that best of elephant stories, the elephant's revenge on the tailor, was at Achin.

As Polo's account of the rhinoceros is evidently from nature, it is notable that
he should not only call it unicorn, but speak so precisely of its one horn, for the
characteristic, if not the only, species on the island, is a two-horned one {Rh.
Sumatranus)* and his mention of the buffalo-like hair applies only to this one.
This species exists also on the Indo-Chinese continent and, it is believed, in Borneo.
I have seen it in the Arakan forests as high as 19° 20'; one was taken not long since
near Chittagong ; and Mr. Blyth tells me a stray one has been seen in Assam or its
borders.

[Ibn Khordadhbeh says {De Goeje's Transl. p. 47) that rhinoceros is to be found
in Kameroun (Assam), which borders on China. It has a horn, a cubit long, and
two palms thick ; when the horn is split, inside is found on the black ground the
white figure of a man, a quadruped, a fish, a peacock or some other bird. — H. C]

[John Evelyn mentions among the curiosities kept in the Treasury at St. Denis :
"A faire unicorne's horn, sent by a K. of Persia, about 7 foote long." Diary, 1643,
I2th Nov.— H. C]

What the Traveller says of the animals' love of mire and mud is well illustrated by
the manner in which the Semangs or Negritoes of the Malay Peninsula are said to
destroy him : " This animal ... is found frequently in marshy places, with its whole
body immersed in the mud, and part of the head only visible. . . . Upon the dry
weather setting in . . . the mud becomes hard and crusted, and the rhinoceros
cannot effect his escape without considerable difficulty and exertion. The Semangs
prepare themselves with large quantities of combustible materials, with which they
quietly approach the animal, who is aroused from his reverie by an immense fire over
him, which being kept well supplied by the Semangs with fresh fuel, soon completes
his destruction, and renders him in a fit state to make a meal of." {J. Ind. Arch. IV.
426. )t There is a great difference in aspect between the one-horned species {Rh.
Sondaiciis and Rh. Indicus) and the two-horned. The Malays express what that
difference is admirably, in calling the last Bddak-Karbdu, "the Buffalo-Rhinoceros,"
and the Sondaicus Bddak-Gdjah, " the Elephant-Rhinoceros."

The belief in the formidable nature of the tongue of the rhinoceros is very old and
wide-spread, though I can find no foundation for it but the rough appearance of the
organ. ["His tongue also is somewhat of a rarity, for, if he can get any of his
antagonists down, he will lick them so clean, that he leaves neither skin nor flesh to
cover his bones." {A. Hamilton^ ed. 1727, II. 24. M.S. Note of Ytcle.) Compare
what is said of the tongue of the Yak, I. p. 277. — H. C] The Chinese have the
belief, and the Jesuit Lecomte attests it from professed observation of the animal in
confinement. [Chin. Repos. VII. 137 ; Lecomte, II. 406.) [In a Chinese work quoted
by Mr, Groeneveldt [Tooting Pao, VII. No. 2, abst. p. 19) we read that "the
rhinoceros has thorns on its tongue and always eats the thorns- of plants and trees,
but never grasses or leaves." — H. C]

The legend to which Marco alludes, about the Unicorn allowing itself to be
ensnared by a maiden (and of which Marsden has made an odd perversion in his
translation, whilst indicating the true meaning in his note), is also an old and general
one. It will be found, for example, in Brunetto Latini, in the Image dti Monde, in
tlie Mirabilia of Jordanus,t and in the verses of Tzelzes. The latter represents
Monoceros as attracted not by the maiden's charms but by her perfumery. So he is

* Marsden, however, does say that a one-horned species {_Rh. sondaicus ?) is also found on Sumatra
(3rd ed. of his //. ofSvmatra, p. 116).

t An American writer professes to have discovered in Missouri the fossil remains of a bogged
mastodon, which had been killed precisely in this way bj' human contemporaries. (See Lubbock, Preh,
Times, 2d ed. 279.)

\ T7-esor, p. 253 ; N. and E., V. 263 ; Jordanus, p. 43.

Chap. IX.

THE UNICORN

291

inveigled and blindfolded by a stout young knave,
drenched with scent :—

disguised as a maiden and

*"Tis then the huntsmen hasten up, abandoning their ambush ;
Clean from his head they chop his horn, prized antidote to poison ;
And let the docked and luckless beast escape into the jungles."

—V. 399, seqq.

In the cut which we give of this from a medijeval source the horn of the unicorn
is evidently the tusk of a narwhaL This confusion arose very early, as may be seen
from its occurrence in Aelian, who says that the horn of the unicorn or Kartazonon
(the Arab Karkaddan or Rhinoceros) was not straight but twisted {e\t.y/xovs ^x^v rivds,
Hist. An. xvi. 20). The mistake may also be traced in tlie illustrations to Cosmas
Indicopleustes from his own drawings, and it long endured, as may be seen in Jerome
Cardan's description of a unicorn's horn which he saw suspended in the church of
St. Denis ; as well as in a circumstance related by P. della Valle (II. 491 ; and
Cardan, de Varietate, c. xcvii. ). Indeed tlie supporter of the Royal arms retains the
narwhal horn. To this popular error is no doubt due the reading in Pauthier's text,
which makes the horn white instead of black.

Philip
p. 81):

Monoceros and the Maiden. *

may quote the following quaint version of the fable from th; Bestiary o\
de Thaun, published by Mr. Wright {Popular Treatises en Science, etc.

' ' Monosceros est Beste, un corne ad en la teste,
Purceo ad si a nun, de buc ad fa^un ;
Par Pucele est prise ; or vez en quel guise.

Quant hom le volt cacer et prendre et enginner,
Si vent hom al forest u sis riparis est ;
La met une Pucele hors de sein sa mamele,
Et par odurement Monosceros la sent ;
Dune vent a la Pucele, et si baiset la mamele.
En sein devant se dort, issi vent a sa mort
Li hom suivent atant ki I'ocit en dormant
U trestout vif le prent, si fais puis sun talent.
Grant chose signifie," .... '

And so goes on to moralise the fable.

Note 6.— In the /. Indian Archip. V. 285, there is mention of the Falco
Malaiensis, black, with a double white-and-brown spotted tail, said to belong to the
ospreys, " but does not disdain to take birds and other game."

* Another mediaeval illustration of the subject is given in Les Arts au Moyen Age, p. 499, from
the binding of a book. It is allegorical, and the Maiden is there the Virgin Mary.

VOL. II,

T 2

292 MARCO POLO Book III.

CHAPTER X.

The Kingdoms of Samara and Dagroian.

So you must know that when you leave the kingdom of
Basma you come to another kingdom called Samara,
on the same Island.^ And in that kingdom Messer
Marco Polo was detained five months by the weather,
which would not allow of his going on. And I tell you
that here aoain neither the Pole-star nor the stars of the

<z>

Maestro ^ were to be seen, much or little. The people
here are wild Idolaters ; they have a king who is great
and rich ; but they also call themselves subjects of the
Great Kaan. When Messer Mark was detained on this
Island five months by contrary winds, [he landed with
about 2000 men in his company ; they dug large ditches
on the landward side to encompass the party, resting at
either end on the sea-haven, and within these ditches
they made bulwarks or stockades of timber] for fear of
those brutes of man-eaters ; [for there is great store of
wood there ; and the Islanders having confidence in the
party supplied them with victuals and other things need-
ful.] There is abundance of fish to be had, the best in
the world. The people have no wheat, but live on
rice. Nor have they any wine except such as I shall
now describe.

You must know that they derive it from a certain
kind of tree that they have. When they want wine they
cut a branch of this, and attach a great pot to the stem
of the tree at the place where the branch was cut ; in a
day and a night they will find the pot filled. This wine
is excellent drink, and is got both white and red. [It is
of such surpassing virtue that it cures dropsy and tisick
and spleen.] The trees resemble small date-palms ; . . ,

CiiAP. X. SAMARA AND DAGROIAN 293

and when cutting a branch no longer gives a flow of wine,
they water the root of the tree, and before long the
branches again begin to give out wine as before.^ They
have also great quantities of Indian nuts [as big as a
man's head], which are good to eat when fresh ; [being
sweet and savoury, and white as milk. The inside of
the meat of the nut is filled with a liquor like clear fresh
water, but better to the taste, and more delicate than
wine or any other drink that ever existed.]

Now that we have done telling you about this king-
dom, let us quit it, and we will tell you of Dagroian.

When you leave the kingdom of Samara you come to
another which is called Dagroian. It is an independent
kingdom, and has a language of its own. The people
are very wild, but they call themselves the subjects of the
Great Kaan. I will tell you a wicked custom of theirs.^

When one of them is ill they send for their sorcerers,
and put the question to them, whether the sick man shall
recover of his sickness or no. If they say that he will
recover, then they let him alone till he gets better. But
if the sorcerers foretell that the sick man Is to die, the
friends send for certain judges of theirs to put to death him
who has thus been condemned by the sorcerers to die.
These men come, and lay so many clothes upon the sick
man's mouth that they suffocate him. And when he is
dead they have him cooked, and gather together all the
dead man's kin, and eat him. And I assure you they do
suck the very bones till not a particle of marrow remains
in them ; for they say that if any nourishment remained
in the bones this would breed worms, and then the
worms would die for want of food, and the death of those
worms would be laid to the charge of the deceased man's
soul. And so they eat him up stump and rump. And
when they have thus eaten him they collect his bones
and put them in fine chests, and carry them away, and

294 MARCO POLO Book III.

place them in caverns among the mountains where no
beast nor other creature can get at them. And you
must know also that if they take prisoner a man of
another country, and he cannot pay a ransom in coin,
they kill him and eat him straightway. It is a very evil
custom and a parlous.^

Now that I have told you about this kingdom let us
leave it, and I will tell you of Lambri.

Note i. — I have little doubt that in Marco's dictation the name was really
Sumatra, and it is possible that we have a trace of this in the Samarcha (for
Samartha) of the Crusca MS.

The Shijarat Malayu has a legend, with a fictitious etymology, of the foundation
of the city and kingdom of Sanmdra, or Sumatra, by Marah Silu, a fisherman near
Pasangan, who had acquired great wealth, as wealth is got in fairy tales. The name
is probably the Sanskrit 6'a;;/w^ra, "the sea." Possibly it may have been imitated
from Dwara Samudra, at that time a great state and city of Southern India. [We
read in the Malay Annals, Salalat al Salatin, translated by Mr. J. T. Thomson
{Proc. R. G. S. XX. p. 216) : " Mara Silu ascended the eminence, when he saw an
ant as big as a cat ; so he caught it, and ate it, and on the place he erected his
residence, which he named Samandara, which means Big Ant {Senitit besar in
Malay)." — H. C] Mara Silu having become King of Samudra was converted to
Islam, and took the name of Malik-al-Salih. He married the daughter of the King
oi Parldk, by whom he had two sons ; and to have a principality for each he founded
the city and kingdom of Pasei. Thus we have Marco's three first kingdoms, Ferlec,
Basma, and Samara, connected together in a satisfactory manner in the Malayan
story. It goes on to relate the history of the two sons Al-Dhahir and Al-Mansur,
Another version is given in the history of Pasei already alluded to, with such
dififerences as might be expected when the oral traditions of several centuries came to
be written down.

Ibn Batuta, about 1346, on his way to China, spent fifteen days at the court of
Samudra, which he calls Sdmathrah or Sdiniithrah. The king whom he found
there reigning was the Sultan Al-Malik Al-Dhahir, a most zealous Mussulman,
surrounded by doctors of theology, and greatly addicted to religious discussions, as
well as a great warrior and a powerful prince. The city was 4 miles from its port,
which the traveller calls Sdrha ; he describes the capital as a large and fine town,
surrounded with an enceinte and bastions of timber. The court displayed all the
state of Mahomedan royalty, and the Sultan's dominions extended for many days
along the coast. In accordance with Ibn Batuta's picture, the Malay Chronicle
represents the court of Pasei (which we have seen to be intimately connected with
Samudra) as a great focus of theological studies about this time.

There can be little doubt that Ibn Batuta's Malik Al-Dhahir is the prince of the
Malay Chronicle the son of the first Mahomedan king. We find in 1292 that
Marco says nothing of Mahomedanism ; the people are still wild idolaters ; but the
king is already a rich and powerful prince. This may have been Malik Al-Salih
before his conversion ; but it may be doubted if the Malay story be correct in repre-
senting him as the founder of the city. Nor is this apparently so represented in the
Book of the Kings of Pasei.

Before Ibn Batuta's time, Sumatra or Samudra appears in the travels of Fr.
Odoric. After speaking of Lamori (to which we shall come presently), he says :

Chap. X. SAMARA AND DAGkOIAN 295

" In the same island, towards the south, is another kingdom, by name Sumoltra,
in which is a singular generation of people, for they brand themselves on the face
with a hot iron in some twelve places," etc. This looks as if the conversion to
Islam was still [circa 1323) very incomplete. Rashiduddin also speaks oi SumiUra as
lying beyond Lamuri. {Elliot, I. p. 70. )

The power attained by the dynasty of Malik Al-Salih, and the number of
Mahomedans attracted to his court, probably led in the course of the 14th century
to the extension of the name of Sumatra to the whole island. For when visited early
in the next century by Nicolo Conti, we are told that he " went to a fine city of the
island of Taprobana, which island is called by the natives Shamuthera" Strange to
say, he speaks of the natives as all idolaters. Fra Mauro, who got much from
Conti, gives us Isola Siamotra over Taprobana; and it shows at once his own
judgment and want of confidence in it, when he notes elsewhere that " Ptolemy, pro-
fessing to describe Taprobana, has really only described Saylan,"

We have no means of settling the exact position of the city of Sumatra, though
possibly an enquiry among the natives of that coast might still determine the point.
Marsden and Logan indicate Samarlanga, but I should look for it nearer Pasei. As
pointed out by Mr. Braddell in they. Ind. Arch., Malay tradition represents the site
of Pasei as selected on a hunting expedition from Samudra, which seems to imply
tolerable proximity. And at the marriage of the Princess of Parlak to Malik Al-
Salih, we are told that the latter went to receive her on landing at Jambu Ayer (near
Diamond Point), and thence conducted her to the city of Samudra. I should seek
Samudra near the head of the estuary-like Gulf of Pasei, called in the charts Telo (or
Talak) Saniawe ; a place very likely to have been sought as a shelter to the Great
Kaan's fleet during the south-west monsoon. Fine timber, of great size, grows close
to the shore of this bay,* and would furnish material for Marco's stockades.

When the Portuguese first reached those regions Pedir was the leading state upon
the coast, and certainly no state called Sumatra continued to exist. Whether the city
continued to exist even in decay is not easy to discern. The Ain-i-Akbari says that
the best civet is that which is brought from the seaport town of Sumatra, in the
territory of Achin, and is called Sumatra Zabdd ; but this may have been based on
old information. Valentyn seems to recognise the existence of a place of note called
Samadra or Samotdara, though it is not entered on his map. A famous mystic
theologian who flourished under the great King of Achin, Iskandar Muda, and died
in 1630, bore the name of Shamsuddin Shamatrdni, which seems to point to the
city of Sumatra as his birthplace, t The most distinct mention that I know of the city
so called, in the Portuguese period, occurs in the soi-disant " Voyage which Juan Serano
made when he fled from Malacca," in 15 12, published by Lord Stanley of Alderley,
at the end of his translation of Barbosa. This man speaks of the " island of Samatra "
as named from " a city of this northern party And on leaving Pedir, having gone
down the northern coast, he says, " I drew towards the south and south-east direction,
and reached to another country and city which is called Samatra," and so on. Now
this describes the position in which the city of Sumatra should have been if it existed
But all the rest of the tract is mere plunder from Varthema. J

There is, however, a like intimation in a curious letter respecting the Portuguese
discoveries, written from Lisbon in 15 15, by a German, Valentine Moravia, who was
probably the same Valentyn Fernandez, the German, who published the Portuguese
edition of Marco Polo at Lisbon in 1502, and who shows an extremely accurate con-
ception of Indian geography. He says : ** La maxima insula la quale e chiamata da
Marcho Polo Veneto lava Minor, et al presente si chiama Sumatra, da un emporie
di dicta insula'" (printed by De Gubernatis, Viagg. Ita. etc., p. 170).

Several considerations point to the probability that the states of Pasei and

* Marsden, ist ed. p. 291. t VetJis Atchin, 1S73, p. 37.

X It might be supposed that Varthema had stolen from Serano ; but the book of the former was
published m 1510.

296 MARCO POLO Book III.

Sumatra had become united, and that the town of Sumatra may have been
represented by the Pacem of the Portuguese.* I have to thank Mr. G. Phillips
for the copy of a small Chinese chart showing the northern coast of the island, which
he states to be from " one of about the 13th century." I much doubt the date, but
the map is valuable as showing the town of Sumatra {Sumantala). This seems to be
placed in the Gulf of Pasei, and very near where Pasei itself still exists. An ex-
tract of a "Chinese account of about a.d. 1413 " accompanied the map. This
states that the town was situated some distance up a river, so as to be reached in two
tides. There was a village at the mouth of the river called Tahimangkin.'\

[Mr. E. H. Parker writes (C7/ma Review, XXIV. p. 102) : ** Colonel Yule's remarks
about Pasei are borne out by Chinese History (Ming, 325, 20, 24), which states that in
1 52 1 Pieh-tu-lu (Pestrello [for Perestrello ?]) having failed in China * went for ' Pa-si.
Again ' from Pa-si, Malacca, to Luzon, they swept the seas, and all the other nations
were afraid of them.' " — H. C]

Among the Indian states which were prevailed on to send tribute (or presents) to
Kublai in 1286, we find Stcmutala. The chief of this state is called in the Chinese
record Tu-^han-pa-ti, which seems to be just the Malay words Tuan Pati, " Lord
Ruler." No doubt this was the rising state of Sumatra, of which we have been
speaking ; for it will be observed that Marco says the people of that state called them-
selves the Kaan's subjects. Rashiduddin makes the same statement regarding the
people of Java {i.e. the island of Sumatra), and even of Nicobar : " They are all
subject to the Kaan." It is curious to find just the same kind of statements about the
princes of the Malay Islands acknowledging themselves subjects of Charles V., in the
report of the surviving commander of Magellan's ship to that emperor (printed by
Baldelli-Boni, I. Ixvii.). Pauthier has curious Chinese extracts containing a notable
passage respecting the disappearance of Sumatra Proper from history : " In the years
Wen-chi (1573-1615), the Kingdom of Sumatra divided in two, and the new state
took the name oiAchi (Achin). After that Sumatra was no more heard of." {Gattbil,
205 ; De Mailla, IX..429 ; Elliot, I. 71 ; Pauthier, pp. 605 and 567.)

Note 2. — " Vos di que la Tratiiontaitie ne part. Et eficore vos di que Pestoilles
dou Meistre ne aparertt ne pou ne grant''^ (G. T. ). The Tramontaine is the Pole
star : —

*' De nostre Pere I'Apostoille
Volsisse qu'il semblast I'estoile
Qui ne se muet . . .
Par cele estoile vont et viennent
Et lor sen et lor voie tiennent
II I'apelent la tres montaigne.'''
— La Bible Gtiiot de Provins in Barbazan, by Mion, II. yil-

The Meistre is explained by Pauthier to be Arcturus ; but this makes Polo's error
greater than it is. Brunetto Latini says: " Devers la tramontane en a il i. autre
(vent) plus debonaire, qui a non Chorus. Cestui apelent li marinier MAISTRE/^r vij.
estoiles qui sojit en celui meisme leu," etc. {Li Tresors, p. 122). Magister or
Magistra in mediaeval Latin, La Maistre in old French, signifies "the beam of a
plough." Possibly this accounts for the application of Maistre to the Great Bear, or
Plough. But on the other hand tlie pilot's art is called in old French maistrance.
Hence this constellation may have had the name as the pilot's guide, — like our Lode-

* Castanheda speaks of Pacem as the best port of the Island : "standing on the bank of a river on
mirshy ground about a league inland ; and at the mouth of the river there are some houses of timber
where a customs collector was stationed to exact duties at the anchorage from the ships which toached
there." (Bk. II. ch. iii.) This agrees with Ibn Batuta's account of Sumatra, 4 miles from its port.
[A village named Savtudra discovered in our days near Pasei is perhaps a remnant of the kingdom of
Samara. (^Memeilles de l^Inde, p. 234.) — H. C]

t If Mr. Phillips had given particulars about his map and quotations, as to date, author, etc., it
would have given them more value. He leaves this vague.

Chap. X. SAMARA AND DAGROIAN 297

star. The name was probably given to the N.W. point under a latitude in which the
Great Bear sets in that quarter. In this way many of the points of the old Arabian
Rose des Vents were named from the rising or setting of certain constellations. (See
ReinatcoC s Abtilfeda, Introd. pp. cxcix.-cci. )

Note 3. — The tree here intended, and which gives the chief supply of toddy and
sugar in the Malay Islands, is the Areng Saccharifera (from the Javanese name),
called by the Malays Gojuuti, and by the Portuguese Saguer. It has some re-
semblance to the date-palm, to which Polo compares it, but it is a much coarser and
wilder-looking tree, with a general raggedness, '■^ incompta et adspectu tristis" as
Rumphius describes it. It is notable for the number of plants that find a footing in
the joints of its stem. On one tree in Java I have counted thirteen species of such
parasites, nearly all ferns. The tree appears in the foreground of the cut at p. 273.

Crawfurd thus describes its treatment in obtaining toddy : "One of the spathae,
or shoots of fructification, is, on the first appearance of the fruit, beaten for three
successive days with a small stick, with the view of determining the sap to the
wounded part. The shoot is then cut off, a little way from the root, and the liquor
which pours out is received in pots. . . . The Goniuti palm is fit to yield toddy at
9 or 10 years old, and continues to yield it for 2 years at the average rate of 3 quarts
a day." {Hist, of Ind. Arch. I. 398.)

The words omitted in translation are unintelligible to me : ^^ et stint quatre 7'aimes
trots eel en."" (G. T.)

["Polo's description of the wine-pots of Samara hung on the trees Mike date-
palms,' agrees precisely with the Chinese account of the shti theti tsiu made from
' coir trees like cocoa-nut palms ' manufactured by the Burmese. Therefore it seems
more likely that Samara is Siam (still pronounced Skiiimiro in Japan, and Siamlo in
Hakka), than Sumatra." {Parker, China Review, XIV. p. 359.) I think it useless
to discuss this theory. — H. C]

Note 4. — No one has been able to identify this state. Its position, however,
must have been near Pedir, and perhaps it was practically the same. Pedir was the
most flourishing of those Sumatran states at the appearance of the Portuguese.

Rashiduddin names among the towns of the Archipelago Dalmian, which may
perhaps be a corrupt transcript of Dagroian.

Mr. Phillips's Chinese extracts, already cited (p. 296), state that west of Sumatra
(proper) were two small kingdoms, the first Nakzi-tirh, the second Liti. Naku-urh,
which seems to be the Ting-' ho-'' rh of Pauthier's extracts, which sent tribute to the
Kaan, and may probably be Dagroian as Mr. Phillips supposes, was also called the
Kingdom of Tattooed Folk.

[Mr G. Phillips wrote since {J.R.A.S., July 1895, p. 528): " Dragoian has
puzzled many commentators, but on (a) Chinese chart . . . there is a country called
Ta-htia-mien, which in the Amoy dialect is pronounced Dakolien, in which it is very
easy to recognise the Dragoian, or Dagoyam, of Marco Polo." In his paper of The
Seaports of India and Ceylon {Jour. China B.R.A.S., xx. 1885, p. 221), Mr.
Phillips, referring to his Chinese Map, already said : Ta-hsiao-hua-mien, in the Amoy
dialect Toa-sio-hoe {ox Ko)-bin, "The Kingdom of the Greater and Lesser Tattooed
Faces." The Toa-Ko-bin, the greater tattooed-face people, most probably represents
the Dagroian, or Dagoyum, of Marco Polo. This country was called Na-kti-irh, and
Ma Huan says, " the King of Na-kti-erh is also called the King of the Tattooed Faces."
— H. C]

Tattooing is ascribed by Friar Odoric to the people of Stimoltra. {Cathay,
p. 86.) Liti is evidently the Lidd of De Barros, which by his list lay immediately east
of Pedir. This would place Naku-urh about Samarlangka. Beyond Liti was Lanmoli
{i.e. Lambri). [See G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes, XVI. Li-tai, Nakur.— H. C]

There is, or was fifty years ago, a small port between Ayer Labu and Samarlangka,
called Daridn-G^-dQ {Great Darian?). This is the nearest approach to Dagroian
that I hive met with. (A". Ann. des V., tom. xviii. p. 16.)

298 MARCO POLO Book 111.

Note 5.— Gasimro Balbi (1579-1587) heard the like story of the Battas under
Achin. True or false, the charge against them has come down to our times. The
like is told by Herodotus of the Paddaei in India, of the Massagetae, and of
the Isscdonians ; by Strabo of the Caspians and of the Derbices ; by the Chinese of
one of the wild tribes of Kwei-chau ; and was told to Wallace of some of the Aru
Island tribes near New Guinea, and to Bickmore of a tribe on the south coast of Floris,
called Rakka (probably a form of Hindu Kdkshasa, or ogre-goblin). Similar charges
are made against sundry tribes of the New World, from Brazil to Vancouver Island.
Odoric tells precisely Marco's story of a certain island called Dondin. And in
"King Alisaunder," the custom is related of a people of India, called most in-
appropriately Orphani : —

"Another Folk woneth there beside;
Orphani he hatteth wide.
When her eldrynges beth elde,
And ne mowen hemselven welde
Hy hem sleeth, and bidelve
And," etc., etc. — Weber, I. p. 206.

Benedetto Bordone, in his Isolario (1521 and 1547), makes the same charge
against the hish, but I am glad to say that this seems only copied from Strabo.
Such stories are still rife in the East, like those of men with tails. I have myself
heard the tale told, nearly as Raffles tells it of the Battas, of some of the wild tribes
adjoining Arakan. [Balbi, f. 130; Raffles, Mem. p. 427; Wallace, Malay Arc hip.
281 ; Bickmore' s Travels, p. ill ; Cathay, pp. 25, 100),

The latest and most authentic statement of the kind refers to a small tribe called
Birhors, existing in the wildest parts of Chota Nagpur and Jashpur, west of Bengal,
and is given by an accomplished Indian ethnologist, Colonel Dalton. " They were
wretched-looking objects .... assuring me that they had themselves given up the
practice, they admitted that their fathers were in the habit of disposing of their dead
in the manner indicated, viz., by feasting on the bodies; but they declared that they
never shortened life to provide such feast, and shrunk with horror at the idea of any
bodies but those of their own blood relations being served up at them !" {J. A. S. B.
XXXIV. Pt. 11. 18.) The same practice has been attributed recently, but only on
hearsay, to a tribe of N. Guinea called Tartmgares.

The Battas now bury their dead, after keeping the body a considerable time. But
the people of Nias and the Batu Islands, whom Junghuhn considers to be of common
origin with the Battas, do not bury, but expose the bodies in coffins upon rocks by
the sea. And the small and very peculiar people of the Paggi Islands expose their
dead on bamboo platforms in the forest. It is quite probable that such cust(*ms
existed in the north of Sumatra also ; indeed they may still exist, for the interior
seems unknown. We do hear of pagan hill-people inland from Pt-dir who make
descents upon the coast. [Junghuhn II. 140; Tijdschrift voor hidische Taal, etc.,
2iid year, No. 4 ; Nouv. Ann. des. V. XVIII.)

Chap. XI. LAMBRI xVND FANSUR 299

CHAPTER XI.

Of the Kingdoms of Lambri and Fansur.

When you leave that kingdom you come to another
which is called Lambri.^ The people are Idolaters, and
call themselves the subjects of the Great Kaan. They
have plenty of Camphor and of all sorts of other spices.
They also have brazil in great quantities. This they
sow, and when it is grown to the size of a small shoot
they take it up and transplant it ; then they let it grow
for three years, after which they tear it up by the root.
You must know that Messer Marco Polo aforesaid
brought some seed of the brazil, such as they sow, to
Venice with him, and had it sown there ; but never a
thing came up. And I fancy it was because the climate
was too cold.

Now you must know that in this kingdom of Lambri
there are men with tails ; these tails are of a palm in
length, and have no hair on them. These people live in
the mountains and are a kind of wild men. Their tails
are about the thickness of a dog s.^ There are also plenty
of unicorns in that country, and abundance of game in birds
and beasts.

Now then I have told you about the kingdom of
Lambri.

You then come to another kingdom which is called
Fansur. The people are Idolaters, and also call them-
selves subjects of the Great Kaan ; and understand, they
are still on the same Island that I have been telling you
of. In this kingdom of Fansur grows the best Camphor
in the world called Canfora Fanstiri. It is so fine that It
sells for its weight in fine gold.^

30O MARCO rOLO Book III.

The people have no wheat, but have rice which they
eat with milk and flesh. They also have wine from
trees such as I told you of. And I will tell you another
great marvel. They have a kind of trees that produce
flour, and excellent flour it is for food. These trees
are very tall and thick, but have a very thin bark, and
inside the bark they are crammed with flour. And I
tell you that Messer Marco Polo, who witnessed all this,
related how he and his party did sundry times partake
of this flour made into bread, and found it excellent/

There is now no more to relate. For out of those
eight kingdoms we have told you about six that lie at
this side of the Island. I shall tell you nothing about
the other two kingdoms that are at the other side of the
Island, for the said Messer Marco Polo never was there.
Howbeit we have told you about the greater part of this
Island of the Lesser Java : so now we will quit it, and I
will tell you of a very small Island that is called
Gauenispola.^

Note i. — The name of Lambri is not now traceable on our maps, nor on any list
of the ports of Sumatra that I have met with ; but in old times the name occurs
frequently under one form or another, and its position can be assigned generally to
the north part of the west coast, commencing from the neighbourhood of Achin
Head.

De Barros, detailing the twenty-nine kingdoms which divided the coast of Sumatra,
at the beginning of the Portuguese conquests, begins with Daya, and then passes round
by the north. He names as next in order Lambrij, and then Achem. This would
make Lambri lie between Daya and Achin, for which there is but little room. And
there is an apparent inconsistency ; for in coming round again from the south, his
28th kingdom is Qimichel {Smgkel of our modern maps), the 29th Mancopa, " which
falls upon Lambrij, which adjoins Daya, the first that we named." Most of the data
iabout Lambri render it very difficult to distinguish it from Achin.

The name of Lambri occurs in the Malay Chronicle, in the account of the first
Mahomedan mission to convert the Island. We shall quote the passage in a follow-
ing note.

The position of Lambri would render it one of the first points of Sumatra made
by navigators from Arabia and India ; and this seems at one time to have caused the
name to be applied to the whole Island. Thus Rashiduddin speaks of the very large
Island Lamuri lying beyond Ceylon, and adjoining the country of Sumatra;
Odoric also goes from India across the Ocean to a certain country called Lamori,
where he began to lose sight of the North Star. He also speaks of the camphor,
gold, and lign-aloes which it produced, and proceeds thence to Surnoltra in the

Chap. XL LAMBRI

301

same Island.* It is probable that the verzino or brazil-wood of Ameri (L'Ameri, i.e.
Lambri ?) which appears in the mercantile details of Pegolotti was from this part of
Sumatra. It is probable also that the country called Nanwuli, which the Chinese
Annals report, with Sumtintula and others, to have sent tribute to the Great Kaan
in 1286, was this same Lambri which Polo tells us called itself subject to the
Kaan.

In the time of the Sung Dynasty ships from T'swan-chau (or Zayton) bound for
Tashi, or Arabia, used to sail in forty days to a place called Lanli-pdi (probably this is
also Lambri, Lambri-puri?). There they passed the winter, i.e. the south-west
monsoon, just as Marco Polo's party did at Sumatra, and sailing again when the wind
became fair, they reached Arabia in sixty days. {Bret schu eider, p. 16.)

[The theory of Sir H. Yule is confirmed by Chinese authors quoted by Mr.
Groeneveldt {Notes on the Malay Archipelago, pp. 98-100): "The country of
Lambri is situated due west of Sumatra, at a distance of three days saiHng with a fair
wind ; it lies near the sea and has a population of only about a thousand families. . . .
On the east the country is bordered by Litai, on the west and the north by the sea,
and on the south by high mountains, at the south of which is the sea again. ... At
the north-west of this country, in the sea, at a distance of half a day, is a flat mountain,
called the Hat-island ; the sea at the west of it is the great ocean, and is called the
Ocean of Lambri. Ships coming from the west all take this island as a landmark."
Mr. Groeneveldt adds: " Lambri [according to his extracts from Chinese authors]
must have been situated on the north-western corner of the island of Sumatra, on or
near the spot of the present Achin : we see that it was bounded by the sea on the
north and the west, and that the Indian Ocean was called after this insignificant
place, because it was considered to begin there. Moreover, the small island at half
a day's distance, called Hat-island, perfectly agrees with the small islands Bras or
Nasi, lying off Achin, and of which the former, with its newly-erected lighthouse, is a
landmark for modern navigation, just what it is said in our text to have been for the
natives then. We venture to think that the much discussed situation of Marco Polo's
Lambri is definitely settled herewith." The Chinese author writes: "The
mountains [of Lambri] produce the fragrant wood called Hsiang-chhi Hsiang.''^ Mr.
Groeneveldt remarks {I.e. p. 143) that this "is the name of a fragrant wood, much
used as incense, but which we have not been able to determine. Dr. Williams says it
comes from Sumatra, where it is called laka-wood, and is the product of a tree to
which the name of Tanarius major is given by him. For different reasons, we think
this identification subject to doubt."

Captain M. J. C. Lucardie mentions a village called Lamreh, situated at Atjeh,
near Tungkup, in the xxvi. Mukim, which might be a remnant of the country of
Lameri. {Merveilles de Vlnde, p. 235,) — H. C]

{De Barros, Dec. III. Bk. V. ch. i. ; Elliot, I. 70; Cathay, 84, seqq. ; Pegol.
p. 361 ; Patithier, p. 605.)

Note 2. — Stories of tailed or hairy men are common in the Archipelago, as in
many other regions. Kazwini tells of the hairy little men that are found in Ramni
(Sumatra) with a language like birds' chirping. Marsden was told of hairy people
called Orang Gtigtt in the interior of the Island, who differed little, except in the use
of speech, from the Orang utang. Since his time a French writer, giving the same
name and same description, declares that he saw "a group" of these hairy people on
the coast of Andragiri, and was told by them that they inhabited the interior of
Menangkabau and formed a small tribe. It is rather remarkable that this writer
makes no allusion to Marsden though his account is so nearly identical {V Oc^anie in
V Univers Fittoresqtie, I. 24.) [One of the stories of the Merveilles de Plnde (p. 125)
is that there are anthropophagi with tails at Lulu bilenk between Fansur and

* I formerly supposed Al-Ratnni, the oldest Arabic name of Sumatra, to be a corruption of
Lambri; but this is more probably of Hindu origin. One of the Dvfpas oi the ocean mentioned in
the Puranas is called Rdinantyaka, "delightfulness." {IVilliajns's Skt. Did.)

302 MARCO POLO Book III.

Lameri. — II. C] Mr. Anderson says there are "a few wild people in the Siak
country, very little removed in point of civilisation above their companions the
monkeys," but he says nothing of hairiness nor tails. P'or the earliest version of the
tail story we must go back to Ptolemy and the Isles of the Satyrs in this quarter ;
or rather to Ctesias who tells of tailed men on an Island in the Indian Sea. Jordanus
also has the story of the hairy men. Galvano heard that there were on the Island
certain people called Daraqtie Dara (?), which had tails like unto sheep. And the
King of Tidore told him of another such tribe on the Isle of Batochina. Mr. St.
John in Borneo met with a trader who had seen andy^// the tails of such a race in-
habiting the north-east coast of that Island. The appendage was 4 inches long and
very stiff; so the people all used perforated seats. This Borneo story has lately been
brought forward in Calcutta, and stoutly maintained, on native evidence, by an
English merchant. The Chinese also have their tailed men in the mountains above
Canton. In Africa there have been many such stories, of some of which an account
will be found in the Bullet m de la Soc, de Gdog. ser. IV. tom. iii. p. 31. It was a
story among mediaival Mahomedans that the members of the Imperial House of
Trebizond were endowed with short tails, whilst mediosval Continentals had like
stories about Englishmen, as Matthew Paris relates. Thus we find in the Romance
of Coeur de Lion, Richard's messengers addressed by the " Emperor of Cyprus" : —

" Out, Taylards, of my palys !
Now go, and say your tayled King
That I owe him nothing."

— Weber, II. 83.

The Princes of Purbandar, in the Peninsula of Guzerat, claim descent from the
monkey-god Hanuman, and allege in justification a spinal elongation which gets
them the name oi Pwichdriah, "Taylards."

[Eth^s Kazwini, p. 221 ; Anderson, p. 210 ; St. John, Forests of the Far East,
1.40; Galvano, Plak. Soc. 108, 120; Gildemeister, 194; Allen's Indian Mail, ]\\\y
28, 1869; Mid. Kingd. I. 293; N. et Ext. XIII. i. 3S0 ; Mat. Paris under a.u.
1250; Tod's Rajasthan, I. 114.)

Note 3. — The Camphor called Fansuri is celebrated by Arab writers at least as
old as the 9th century, e.g., by the author of the first part of the Relations, by Mas'udi
in the next century, also by Avicenna, by Abulfeda, by Kazwini, and by Abul Fazl,
etc. In the second and third the name is miswritten Katisur, and by the last Kaisi'iri,
but there can be no doubt of the correction required. {Reitiatid, I. 7 ; Mas. I. 338 ;
Liber Canonis, Ven. 1544, I. 116; Biisching, IV. 277; Gildem. p. 209; Ain-i-Akb.
p. 78.) In Serapion we find the same camphor described as that of Pansor ; and
when, leaving Arab authorities and the earlier Middle Ages we come to Garcias, he
speaks of the same article under the name of camphor of Barros. And this is the
name — Kdpi'ir Bdrus — derived from the port which has been the chief shipping-place
of Sumatran camphor for at least three centuries, by which the native camphor is still
known in Eastern trade, as distinguished from the Kapur China or Kdpur-Japmi, as
the Malays term the article derived in those countries by distillation from the Lanrus
Camphora. The earliest western mention of camphor is in the same prescription by
the physician Aetius (^circa A.D. 540) that contains one of the earliest mentions of
musk. {Supra, I. p. 279.) The prescription ends: "and if you have a supply of
camphor 2i(i<l iwo ounces of that." {Aetii Medici Graeci Tetrabiblos, etc., Froben,

1549, P- 910- )

It is highly probable that Fansur and Barns may be not only the same locality
but mere variations of the same name.* The place is called in the Shijarat Malay u,

* Van der Tuuk says posiiivel}', I find : " Fantsur was the ancient name of Bams." (/. R. A. S.
n.s. II. 232.) [Professor Schlegel writes also (GV(7j^. Notes, XVI. p. 9): "At all events, Fansur qx
Panisur C3M. be naught but Baros." — H.C.]

Chap. XI. FANSURI CAMPHOR 3O3

Pasjir?', a name which the Arabs certainly made into Fansuri in one direction, and
which might easily in another, by a very common kind of Oriental metathesis, pass
into Bartisi. The legend in the Shijarat Malayu relates to the first Mahomedan
mission for the conversion of Sumatra, sent by the Sherif of Mecca via India. After
sailing from Malabar the first place the party arrived at was Pasuri, the people of
which embraced Islam. They then proceeded to Lambri, which also accepted the
Faith, Then they sailed on till they reached Haru (see on my map Aru on the East
Coast), which did likewise. At this last place they enquired for Samudra, which
seems to have been the special object of their mission, and found that they had passed
it. Accordingly they retraced their course to Perlak, and after converting that
place went on to Samudra, where^they converted Mara Sihi the King. (See note i,
ch. X. above.) This passage is of extreme interest as naming y^wr out of Marco's
six kingdoms, and in positions quite accordant with his indications. As noticed by
Mr. Braddell, from whose abstract I take the passage, the circumstance of the party
having passed Samudra unwittingly is especially consistent with the site we have
assigned to it near the head of the Bay of Pasei, as a glance at the map will show.

Valentyn observes: '■'' Fansur can be nought else than the famous Paul stir, no
longer known indeed by that name, but a kingdom which we become acquainted with
through H^tnza Pantsuri, a celebrated Poet, and native of this Pantsur. It lay in
the north angle of the Island, and a little west of Achin : it formerly was rife with
trade and population, but would have been utterly lost in oblivion had not Hamza
Pantsuri made us again acquainted with it." Nothing indeed could well be "a little
west of Achin" ; this is doubtless a slip for'"a little down the west coast from Achin."
Hamza Fantsuri, as he is termed by Professor Veth, who also identifies Fantsur with
Bariis, was a poet of the first half of the 17th century, who in his verses popularised
the mystical theology of Shamsuddin Shamatrani {supra, p. 291), strongly tinged
with pantheism. The works of both were solemnly burnt before the great mosque of
Achin about 1640. {J. Ind. Arch. V, 312 seqq; Valetityn, Sumatra, in Vol. V.,
p. 21 ; Veth, Atchin, Leiden, 1873, p. 38.)

Mas'udi says that the Fansur Camphor was found most plentifully in years rife with
storms and earthquakes. Ibn Batuta gives a jumbled and highly incorrect account
of the product, but one circumstance that he mentions is possibly founded on a real
superstition, viz., that no camphor was formed unless some animal had been sacrificed
at the root of the tree, and the best quality only then when a human victim had been
offered. Nicolo Conti has a similar statement: "The Camphor is found inside
the tree, and if they do not sacrifice to the gods before they cut the bark, it disappears
and is no more seen." Beccari, in our day, mentions special ceremonies used by the
Kayans of Borneo, before they commence the search. These superstitions hinge on
the great uncertainty of finding camphor in any given tree, after the laborious process
of cutting it down and splitting it, an uncertainty which also largely accounts for the
high price. By far the best of the old accounts of the product is that quoted by
Kazwini from Mahomed Ben Zakaria Al-Razi : "Among the number of marvellous
things in this Island" {ZdniJ for Zabaj, i.e. Java or Sumatra) "is the Camphor
Tree, which is of vast size, insomuch that its shade will cover a hundred persons and
more. They bore into the highest part of the tree and thence flows out the camphor-
water, enough to fill many pitchers. Then they open the tree lower down about the
middle, and extract the camphor in lumps." [This very account is to be found in Ibn
Khordadhbeh. {De Goeje's transl. p. 45.) — H. C] Compare this passage, which we
may notice has been borrowed bodily by Sindbad of the Sea, with what is probabh-
the best modern account, Junghuhn's : "Among the forest trees (of Tapanuli adjoining
Barus) the Camphor Tree [Dryabalanops Catuphora) attracts beyond all the traveller's
observation, by its straight columnar and colossal grey trunk, and its mighty
crown of foliage, rising high above the canopy of the forest. It exceeds in
dimensions the Kasa7nala,''' the loftiest tree of Java, and is probably the greatest tree

* Liquidanibar Altin^iana.

304 MARCO POLO Book III.

of the Archipelago, if not of the world,* reaching a height of 200 feet. One of the
middling size which I had cut down measured at the base, where the camphor leaks
out, 7^ Paris feet in diameter (about 8 feet English); its trunk rose to 100 feet, with
an upper diameter of 5 feet, before dividing, and the height of the whole tree to the
crown was 150 feet. The precious consolidated camphor is found in small quantities,
i lb. to I lb. in a single tree, in fissure-like hollows in the stem. Yet many are cut
down in vain, or split up the side without finding camphor. The camphor oil is
prepared by the natives by bruising and boiling the twigs." The oil, however, appears
also to be found in the tree, as Crawfurd and Collingwood mention, corroborating the
ancient Arab.

It is well known that the Chinese attach an extravagantly superior value to the
Malay camphor, and probably its value in Marco's day was higher than it is now,
but still its estimate as worth its weight in gold looks like hyperbole. Forrest, a
century ago, says Barus Camphor was in the Chinese market worth nearly its weight
in silver, and this is true still. The price is commonly estimated at 100 times that of
the Chinese camphor. The whole quantity exported from the Barus territory goes to
China. De Vriese reckons the average annual export from Sumatra between 1839
and 1844 at less than 400 kilogrammes. The following table shows the wholesale rates
in the Chinese market as given by Rondot in 1848 : —

Qualities of Camphor. Per pi ad <?/" 133^ lbs.

Ordinary China, 1st quality .... 20 dollars.

,, ,, 2nd ,, .

Formosa .....
Japan .....
China ngai (ext. from an Artemisia)
Barus, ist quality

2nd ,

250

2000

1000

The Chinese call the Sumatran (or Borneo) Camphor Ping-pien " Icicle flakes,"
and Lung-nau " Dragon's Brains." [Regarding Baros Camphor, Mr. Groeneveldt
writes [Notes, p. 142) : " This substance is generally called dragon^ s brain perfume,
or icicles. The former name has probably been invented by the first dealers in the
article, who wanted to impress their countrymen with a great idea of its value
and rarity. In the trade three different qualities are distinguished : the first is
called prune-blossojHS, being the larger pieces ; the second is rice-camphor, so called
because the particles are not larger than a rice-kernel, and the last quality is golden
dregs, in the shape of powder. These names are still now used by the Chinese traders
on the west coast of Sumatra. The Pin-ts'au Kang-mtc further informs us that
the Camphor Baros is found in the trunk of a tree in a solid shape, whilst from the
roots an oil is obtained called Po-lut (Pa-lut) ificense, or Pohit balm. The name of
Polut is said to be derived from the country where it is found (Bares.)" — H. C]
It is just to remark, however, that in the Am Akbari we find the price of the
Sumatran Camphor, known to the Hindus as Bhim Seni, varying from 3 rupees as
high as 2 mohurs (or 20 rupees) for a rupee's weight, which latter price would be
twice the weight in gold. Abul Fazl says the worst camphor went by the name of
Bdlus. I should suspect some mistake, as we know from Garcias that the fine
camphor was already known as Barus. {Ain-i-Akb. 75-79.)

{Mas'zidi, I. 338; /. B. IV. 241 ; J. A. ser. IV. torn. viii. 216; Lanis Arab.
Nights (1859), III. 21 ; Battaldnder, I. 107 ; Crawf. Hist. III. 218, and Desc. Diet.
81 ; Hedde et Pojidot, Com. de la Chine, 36-37 ; Chin. Comm. Gtiide ; Dr. F. A.
Fliickiger, Zur Geschichte des Camphers, in Schweiz. Wochenschr. fUr Pharmacie,
Sept., Oct., 1867.)

Note 4. — An interesting notice of the Sago-tree, of which Odoric also gives an
account. Ramusio is, however, here fuller and more accurate : " Removing the first

* The Californian and Australian giants of 400 feet were not then known.

Chap. XI. SAGO TREE

305

bark, which is but thin, you come on the wood of the tree which forms a thickness all
round of some three fingers, but all inside this is a pith of flour, like that of the
Carvolo (?). The trees are so big that it will take two men to span them. They put
this flour into tubs of water, and beat it up with a stick, and then the bran and other
impurities come to the top, whilst the pure flour sinks to the bottom. The water is
then thrown away, and the cleaned flour that remains is taken and made vcAo pasta
\ in strips and other forms. These Messer Marco often partook of, and brought some
with him to Venice. It resembles barley bread and tastes much the same. The
wood of this tree is like iron, for if thrown into the water it goes straight to the
bottom. It can be split straight from end to end like a cane. When the flour has
been removed the wood remains, as has been said, three inches thick. Of this the
people make short lances, not long ones, because they are so heavy that no one could
carry or handle them if long. One end is sharpened and charred in the fire, and
when thus prepared they will pierce any armour, and much better than iron would
do." Marsden points out that this heavy lance- wood is not that of the true Sago-
palm, but of the Nibonq- or Caryota urens ; which does indeed give some amount of
sago.

[" When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected just before it is going to
flower. It is cut down close to the ground, the leaves and leaf-stalks cleared away,
and a broad strip of the bark taken off the upper side of the trunk. This exposes the
pithy matter, which is of a rusty colour near the bottom of the tree, but higher up
pure white, about as hard as a dry apple, but with woody fibres running through it
about a quarter of an inch apart. This pith is cut or broken down into a coarse
powder, by means of a tool constructed for the purpose. . . . Water is poured on
the mass of pith, which is kneaded and pressed against the strainer till the starch is
all dissolved and has passed through, when the fibrous refuse is thrown away, and a
fresh basketful put in its place. The water charged with sago starch passes on to a
trough, with a depression in the centre, where the sediment is deposited, the surplus
water trickling oft" by a shallow outlet. When the trough is nearly full, the mass of
starch, which has a slight reddish tinge, is made into cylinders of about thirty pounds'
weight, and neatly covered with sago leaves, and in this state is sold as raw sago.
Boiled with water this forms a thick glutinous mass, with a rather astringent taste,
and is eaten with salt, limes, and chilies. Sago-bread is made in large quantities, by
baking it into cakes in a small clay oven containing six or eight slits side by side,
each about three-quarters of an inch wide, and six or eight inches square. The raw
sago is broken up, dried in the sun, powdered, and finely sifted. The oven is heated
over a clear fire of embers, and is lightly filled with the sago powder. The openings
are then covered with a flat piece of sago bark, and in about five minutes the cakes
are turned out sufficiently baked. The hot cakes are very nice with butter, and when
made with the addition of a little sugar and grated cocoa-nut are quite a delicacy.
They are soft, and something like corn-flour cakes, but have a slight characteristic
flavour which is lost in the refined sago we use in this country. When not wanted for
immediate use, they are dried for several days in the sun, and tied up in bundles
of twenty. They will then keep for years ; they are very hard, and very rough and
dry. . . ." {A. R. Wallace's Malay Archipelago, 1869, II. pp. 118-121.)— H. C]

Note 5.— In quilting the subject of these Sumatran Kingdoms it may appear to
some readers that our explanations compress them too much, especially as Polo
seems to allow only two kingdoms for the rest of the Island. In this he was doubt-
less wrong, and we may the less scruple to say so as he had not visited that other
portion of the Island, We may note that in the space to which we assign the six
kingdoms which Polo visited, De Barros assigns twelve, viz. : Bara (corresponding
generally to Ferlec), Pacem {Basj/ia), Pirada, Lide, Pedir, Biar, Achin, Lainbri,
Daya, Mancopa, Quinchel, Barros {Fansur). {Dec. III. v. i.)

[Regarding these Sumatrian kingdoms, Mr. Thomson {Proc. R. G. S. XX.
p. 223) writes that Malaiur "is no other than Singapore . . . th.c ancient capital
VOL. II. U

3o6 MARCO POLO ^" Book 111.

of the Malays or Malaiurs of old voyagers, existent in the times of Marco
Polo [who] mentions no kingdom or city in Java Minor till he arrives at the
kingdom of Felech or Perlak. And this is just as might be expected, as the channel
in the Straits of Malacca leads on the north-eastern side out of sight of Sumatra ; and
the course, after clearing the shoals near Selangore, being direct towards Diamond
Point, near which . . . the tower of Perlak is situated. Thus we see that the
Venetian traveller describes the first city or kingdom in the great island that he,
arrived at. . . . [After Basman and Samara] Polo mentions Dragoian . . . froni
the context, and following Marco Polo's course, we would place it west from his last
city or Kingdom Samara ; and we make no doubt, if tlie name is not much corrupted,
it may yet be identified in one of the villages of the coast at this present time. ... By
the Malay annalist, Lambri was west of Samara ; consecutively it was also westerly from
Samara by Marco Polo's enumeration. Fanfur ... is the last kingdom named by
Marco Polo [coming from the east], and the first by the Malay annalist [coming from
the west] ; and as it is known to modern geographers, this corroboration doubly settles
the identity and position of all. Thus all the six cities or kingdoms mentioned by
Marco Polo were situated on the north coast of Sumatra, now commonly known as the
Pedir coast." I have given the conclusion arrived at by Mr. J. T. Thomson in his
paper, Marco Polo's Six Kingdoms or Cities in Java Minor, identified in translations
from the ancient Malay Annals, which appeared in the Pi'oc. R. G. S. XX. pp. 215-
224, after the second edition of this Book was published and Sir H. Yule added the
following note {Proc, I.e., p. 224) : " Mr. Thomson, as he mentions, has not seen my
edition of Marco Polo, nor, apparently, a paper on the subject of these kingdoms by
the late Mr. J. R. Logan, in his /ournal of the Indian Archipelago, to which refer-
ence is made in the notes to Marco Polo. In the said paper and notes the quotations
and conclusions of Mr. Thomson have been anticipated ; and FansTir also, which he
leaves undetermined, identified." — H. C]

CHAPTER XI L

Concerning the Island of Necuveran.

When you leave the Island of Java (the less) and the
kingdom of Lambri, you sail north about 150 miles, and
then you come to two Islands, one of which is called
Necuveran. In this Island they have no king nor chief,
but live like beasts. And I tell you they go all naked,
both men and women, and do not use the slightest cover-
ing of any kind. They are Idolaters. Their woods are
all of noble and valuable kinds of trees ; such as Red
Sanders and Indian-nut and Cloves and Brazil and sundry
other good spices.^

There is nothing else worth relating ; so we will go
on, and I will tell you of an Island called Angamanain.

Chap. XII. THE ISLAND OF NECUVERAN 307

Note i. — The end of the last chapter and the commencement of this I have taken
from the G. Text. There has been some confusion in the notes of the original dictation
which that represents, and corrections have made it worse. Thus Pauthier's text runs :
" I will tell you of two small Islands, one called Gauenispola and the other Necouran,"
and then : "You sail north about 150 miles and find two Islands, one called Necouran
and the other Gauenispola." Ramusio does not mention Gauenispola, but says in
the former passage : " I will tell you of a small Island called Nocueran "— and then :
"You find two islands, one called Nocueran and the other Angaman."

Knowing the position of Gauenispola there is no difficulty in seeing how the
passage should be explained. Something has interrupted the dictation after the last
chapter. Polo asks Rusticiano, "Where were we?" " Leaving the Great Island."
Polo forgets the "very small Island called Gauenispola," and passes to the north,
where he has to tell us of two islands, "one called Necuveran and the other
Angamanain." So, I do not doubt, the passage should run.

Let us observe that his point of departure in sailing north to the Nicobar Islands
was the Kingdom of Lambri. This seems to indicate that Lambri included Achin
Head or came very near it, an indication which we shall presently see confirmed.

As regards Gauenispola, of which he promised to tell us and forgot his promise,
its name has disappeared from our modern maps, but it is easily traced in the maps
of the i6th and 17th centuries, and in the books of navigators of that time. The
latest in which I have observed it is the Neptune Orietifal, Paris 1775, which calls it
Ptilo Gommes. The name is there applied to a small island off Achin Head, outside
of which lie the somewhat larger Islands of Pulo Nankai (or Ndsi) and Pulo Bras,
whilst Pulo Wai lies further east.* I imagine, however, that the name was by the
older navigators applied to the larger Island of Pulo Bras, or to the whole group.
Thus Alexander Hamilton, who calls it Gomus and Pulo Gomuis, says that "from
the Island of Gomus and Pulo Wey . . . the southernmost of the Nicobars may
be seen." Dampier most precisely applies the name of Pulo Gomez to the larger
island which modern charts call Pulo Bras. So also Beaulieu couples the islands of
" Gomispoda and Pulo Way" in front of the roadstead of Achin. De Barros mentions
that Gaspar d'Acosta was lost on the Island of Gomispola. Linschoten, describing
the course from Cochin to Malacca, says: " You take your course towards the small
Isles of GoMESPOLA, which are in 6°, near the corner of Achin in the Island of
Sumatra." And the Turkish author of the Mohit, in speaking of the same navigation,

says : " If you wish to reach Malacca, guard against seeing Jamisfulah ^ W>S\ytJ^^^\
because the mountains of Lamri advance into the sea, and the flood is there very
strong." The editor has misunderstood the geography of this passage, which
evidently means "Don't go near enough to Achin Head to see even the islands in
front of it." And here we see again that Lambri is made to extend to Achin Head.
The passage is illustrated by the report of the first English Voyage to the Indies.
Their course was for the Nicobars, but " by the Master's fault in not duly observing
the South Star, they fell to the southward of them, within sight of the Islands of
Gomes Polo." {Nept. Orient. Charts 38 and 39, and pp. 126-127; Hamilton, II. 66
and Map; Dampier, ed. 1699, II. 122; H. Gin. des Voyages, XII. 310; Linschoten,
Routier, p. 30; De Barros, Dec. III. liv. iii. cap. 3;/. A. S. B. VI. 807;
Astley, I. 238.)

The two islands (or rather groups of Islands) Neaiveran and Angamanain are the
Nicobar and Andaman groups. A nearer trace of the form Necuveran, or Necouran
as it stands in some MSS., is perhaps preserved in Nancouri, the existing name of one
of the islands. They are perhaps the Nalo-kilo-cUu {Narikela-dvipa) or Coco-nut
Islands of which Hiuen Tsang speaks as existing some thousand li to the south of
Ceylon. The men, he had heard, were but 3 feet high, and had the beaks of birds.

* It was a mistake to suppose the name had disappeared, for it is applied, in the form Pulo Gaimr,
to the small island above indicated, in Colom, 1 Versteeg's map to Veth's ^^'cr/izw (1873). In a map
chiefly borrowed from that, in Ocean Highways, August, 1873, I have ventured to restore the name
as Pulo Gomus. The name is perhaps (Mai.) Gamds, " hard, rough."

VOL* II. U 2

3o8

MARCO POLO Book III.

They had no cultivation and lived on coco-nuts. The islands are also believed to be
the Lauja hdlus or Lanl-Iia Inih'is of the old Arab navigators : ''These Islands support
a numerous population, l^oth men and women go naked, only the women wear a
girdle of the leaves of trees. When a ship passes near, the men come out in boats of
various sizes and barter ambergris and coco-nuts for iron," a description whicli has
applied accurately for many centuries. [Ibn Khordadhbeh says (Z^^ Goeje's iransL,
p. 45) that the inhabitants of Nicobar (Alankabalous), an island situated at ten or
fifteen days from Serendib, are naked; they live on bananas, fresh fish, and coco-nuts;
the precious metal is iron in their country; they frequent foreign merchants. — II. C]
Rashiduddin writes of them nearly in the same terms under the name of Ldkvdravi,
but read NAkavAram) opposite Lamuri. Odoric also has a chapter on the island
of Nicoveran, but it is one full of fable. {H. Tsang, III. 114 and 517; Relations,
p. 8 ; Elliot, I. p. 71; Cathay, p. 97.)

[Mr. G. PhilHps writes {J.R.A.S., July 1895, p. 529) that the name Tsui-Ian given
to the Nicobars by the Chinese is, he has but little doubt, "a corruption of Nocueran,
the name given by Marco Polo to the group. The characters Tsui-Ian are pronounced
Ch'ui-lan in Amoy, out of which it is easy to make Cueran. The Chinese omitted
the initial syllable and called them the Cueran Islands, while Marco Polo called them
the Nocueran Islands." — PI. C]

[The Nicobar Islands " are generally known by the Chinese under the name of
Rdkchas or Demons who devour men, from the belief that their inhabitants were
anthropophagi. In A.D. 607, the Emperor of China, Yang-ti, had sent an envoy to
Siam, who also reached the country of the Rakchas. According to Tu-yen^s Vung-
tien, the Nicobars lie east [west] of Poli. Its inhabitants are very ugly, having red
hair, black bodies, teeth like beasts, and claws like hawks. Sometimes they traded
with Lin-yih (Champa), but then at night ; in day-time they covered their faces."
{G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes, I. pp. 1-2.— H. C]

Mr. Phillips, from his anonymous Chinese author, gives a quaint legend as to the
nakedness of these islanders. Sakya Muni, having arrived from Ceylon, stopped at
the islands to bathe. Whilst he was in the water the natives stole his clothes, upon
which the Buddha cursed them ; and they have never since been able to v\ ear any
clothing without suffering for it.

[Professor Schlegel gives the same legend {Geog. Notes, I. p. 8) with reference to
the Andaman Islands from the Sing-cKa Sheng-lan, published in 1436 by Fei-sin ;
Mr. Phillips seems to have made a confusion between the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands. {Doolittle's Vocab. 11. p. 556 ; cf. Schlegel, I.e. p. 11.)— H. C]

The chief part of the population is believed to be of race akin to the Malay, but
they seem to be of more than one race, and there is great variety in dialect. There
have long been reports of a black tribe with woolly hair in the unknown interior of
the Great Nicobar, and my friend Colonel H. Man, when Superintendent of our
Andaman Settlements, received spontaneous corroboration of this from natives of the
former island, who were on a visit to Port Blair. Since this has been in type I have
seen in the F. of India (28th July, 1874) notice of a valuable work by F. A. de
Roepstorfif on the dialects and manners of the Nicobarians. This notice speaks of aii
aboriginal race called Shofaengs, "purely Mongolian," but does not mention
negritoes. The natives do not now go quite naked ; the men wear a narrow cloth ;
and the women a grass girdle. They are very skilful in management of their canoes.
Some years since there were frightful disclosures regarding the massacre of the crews
of vessels touching at these islands, and this has led eventually to their occupation by
the Indian Government. Trinkat and Nancouri are the islands which were guilty. A
woman of Trinkat who could speak Malay was examined by Colonel Man, and she
acknowledged having seen nineteen vessels scuttled, after their cargoes had been
plundered and their crews massacred. " The natives who were captured at Trinkat,"
says Colonel Man in another letter, " were a most savage-looking set, with remarkably
long arms, and very projecting eye-teeth."

The islands have always been famous for the quality and abundance of their

Chap. XIII. THE ISLAND OF ANGAMANAIN 309

"Indian Nuts," i.e. cocos. The tree of next importance to the natives is a kind of
Pandanus, from the cooked fruit of which they express an edible substance called
Melori, of which you may read in Dami)ier ; they have the betel and areca ; and they
grow yams, but Oiily for barter. As regards the other vegetation, mentioned by Polo,
I will quote, what Colonel Man writes to me from the Andamans, which probably is
in great measure applicable to the Nicobars also ! " Our woods are very fine, and
doubtless resemble those of the Nicobars. Sapan wood {i.e. Polo's Brazil) is in abund-
ance ; coco-nuts, so nunferous in the Nicobars, and to the north in the Cocos, are not
found naturally with us, though they grow admirably when cultivated. There is said to
be sandal-wood in our forests, and camphor, but I have not yet come across them. I
do not believe in cloves, but we have lots of the wild nutmeg."* The last, and
cardamoms, are mentioned in the Voyage of the Novara, vol. ii., in which will be
found a detail of the various European attempts to colonise the Nicobar Islands with
other particulars. (See alsoy^ A. S. B. XV. 344 seqq.) [See SchlegePs Geog. Notes,
XVI., The Old States in the Island of Sumatra. — H. C]

CHAPTER XIII.

Concerning the Island of Angamanain.

Angamanain is a very large Island. The people are
without a king and are Idolaters, and no better than wild
beasts. And I assure you all the men of this Island of
Angamanain have heads like dogs, and teeth and eyes
likewise ; in fact, in the face they are all just like big
mastiff dogs ! They have a quantity of spices ; but they
are a most cruel generation, and eat everybody that they
can catch, if not of their own race.-^ They live on flesh
and rice and milk, and have fruits different from any of
ours.

Now that I have told you about this race of people, as
indeed it was highly proper to do in this our book, I will
go on to tell you about an Island called Seilan, as you
shall hear.

Note i. — Here Marco speaks of the remarkable population of the Andaman
Islands — Oriental negroes in the lowest state of barbarism — who have remained in
their isolated and degraded condition, so near the shores of great civilised countries,

* Kurz's Vegetation of the A ndavian Islands gives four vtyristicae (nutmegs) ; but no snndal- wood
nor camphor- laurel. Nor do I find sappan-wood, though there is another Caesalpinia (C. Ntif^a).

3IO

MARCO POLO

Book III.

for so many ages. "Rice and milk" they have not, and their fruits are only wild
ones.

[From \\\Q Sing-ch''a S/im^^- /an quoted by Professor Schlegel ( C<?<7^. Notes, I. p. 8)
we learn that these islanders have neither " rice or corn, ])ut only descend into the
sea and catch fish and shrimps in their nets ; they also plant Banians and Cocoa-trees
for their food."— li. C]

I imagine our traveller's form A>igamanain to be an Arabic (oblique) dual —
** The two Andamans," viz. The Great and The Little, the former being in truth a
chain of three islands, but so close and nearly continuous as to form apparently one,
and to be named as such.

[Professor Schlegel writes {Geog: Notes, I. p. 12): " This etymology is to be^re-

n.Housj:e//n

The Borus. (From a Manuscript.)

jected because the old Chinese transcription gives So — (or Siin) daman. . . . The
Pien-i-tien (ch. 107, L fol. 30) gives a description of Andaman, here called
An-to-ma7t kwoh, quoted from the San-tsai Tti-hwtiiy — H. C]

The origin of the name seems to be unknown. The only person to my knowledge
who has given a meaning to it is Nicolo Conti, who says it means " Island of Gold " ;
probably a mere sailor's yarn. The name, however, is very old, and may perhaps be
traced in Ptolemy ; for he names an island of cannibals called that of Good Fortune,
'Ayadou SaifjLovos. It seems probable enough that this was ^ Aydai/movos Ntjo-os, or the
like, "The Angdaman Island," misunderstood. His next group of Islands is the
Barussae, which seems again to be the Lankha Bdlus of the oldest Arab navigators,
since these are certainly the Nicobars. [The name first appears distinctly in the
Arab narratives of the 9th century. ( Ytde, Hobson-Jobson. )]

Chap. XIII.

THE ISLAND Ol" ANGAMANAIN

311

The description of the natives of the Andaman Islands in the early Arab Relations
has been often quoted, but it is too like our traveller's account to be omitted : "The
inhabitants of these islands eat men alive. They are black with woolly hair, and in

their eyes and countenance there is something quite frightful They go naked,

and have no boats. If they had they would devour all who passed near them.
Sometimes ships that are wind-bound, and have exhausted their provision of water,
touch here and apply to the natives for it ; in such cases the crew sometimes fall into
the hands of the latter, and most of them are massacred " (p. 9).

The traditional charge of cannibalism against these people used to be very
persistent, though it is generally rejected since our settlement upon the group in 1858.
Mr. Logan supposes the report was cherished by those who frequented the islands
for edible birds' nests, in order to keep the monopoly. Of their murdering the crews
of wrecked vessels, like their Nicobar neighbours, I believe there is no doubt ; and
it has happened in our own day. Cesare Federici, in Ramusio, speaks of the terrible
fate of crews wrecked on the Andamans ; all such were killed and eaten by the natives,
who refused all intercourse with strangers. A. Hamilton mentions a friend of his

The Cynocephali. (From the Livre des Mervcillcs.)

who was wrecked on the islands ; nothing more was ever heard of the ship's company,
"which gave ground to conjecture that they were all devoured by those savage
cannibals."

They do not, in modern times, I believe, in their canoes, quit their own im-
mediate coast, but Hamilton says they used, in his time, to come on forays to' the
Nicobar Islands ; and a paper in the Asiatic Researches mentions a tradition to the
same effect as existing on the Car Nicobar. They have retained all the aversion to
intercourse anciently ascribed to them, and they still go naked as of old, the utmost
exception being a leaf-apron worn by the women near the British Settlement.

The Dog-head feature is at least as old as Ctesias. The story originated, I imagine,
in the disgust with which " allophylian" types of countenance are regarded, kindred
to the feeling which makes the Hindus and other eastern rations represent the
aborigines whom they superseded as demons. The Cubans described the Caribs to
Columbus as man-eaters with dogs' muzzles ; and the old Danes had tales of Cyno-
cephali in Finland. A curious passage from the Arab geographer Ibn Said pays an
ambiguous compliment to the forefathers of Moltke and Von Roon : "The Borus

312 MARCO POLO Book III.

(Prussians) are a miserable people, and still more savage than the Russians

One reads in some books that the Boriis have dogs faces ; it is a way of saying that
they are very brave.'''' Ibn Batuta describes an Indo-Chinese tribe on the coast of
Arakan or Pegu as having dogs' mouths, but says the women were beautiful. Friar
Jordanus had heard the same of the dog-headed islanders. And one odd form of the
story, found, strange to say, both in China and diffused over Ethiopia, represents the
males as actual dogs whilst the females are women. Oddly, too, Pere Barbe tells us
that a tradition of the Nicobar people themselves represent them as of canine descent,
but on the female side ! The like tale in early Portuguese days was told of the
Peguans, viz. that they sprang from a dog and a Chinese woman. It is mentioned by
Camoens (X. 122). Note, however, that in Colonel Man's notice of the wilder part of
the Nicobar people the projecting canine teeth are spoken of.

Abraham Roger tells us that the Coromandel Brahmans used to say that the
Rdkshasas or Demons had their abode "on the Island of Andaman lying on the route
from Pulicat to Pegu," and also that they were man-eaters. This would be very
curious if it were a genuine old Brahmanical Saga; but I fear it may have been
gathered from the Arab seamen. Still it is remarkable that a strange weird-looking
island, a steep and regular volcanic cone, which rises covered with forest to a height
of 2 1 50 feet, straight out of the deep sea to the eastward of the Andaman group, bears
the name o{ Nai'kandam , in which one cannot but recognise •HT^ , Narak, 'M lell " ;

perhaps Naraka-kundam, "a pit of hell." Can it be that in old times, but still
contemporary with Hindu navigation, this volcano was active, and that some Brahman
St. Brandon recognised in it the mouth of Hell, congenial to the Rakshasas of the
adjacent group ?

" Si est de saint Brandon le matere furiiie ;
Qui fu si pres d'enfer, a nef et a galie,
Que deable d'enfer issirent, par maistrie,
Getans brandons de feu, pour lui faire hasquie."

— Bauduiii de SebourCy I. 123.

[Ramusio, III. 391 ; Ham. II. 65 ; Navarrete (Fr. Ed.), II. loi ; Cathay, 467 ;
Bullet, de la Soc. de Gt'og. ser. IV. torn iii. 36-37 ; J. A. S. B. u. s. ; Reinaud's
Abulfeda, I. 315;/. Ind. Arch., N.S., III. I. 105; La Forte Otiverte, p. 188.) [I shall
refer to my edition of Odoric, 206-217, for a long notice on dog-headed barbarians ;
I reproduce here two of the cuts. — H. C]

CHAPTER XIV.

Concerning the Island of Seilan.

When you leave the Island of Angamanain and sail
about a thousand miles in a direction a little south of
west, you come to the Island of Seilan/ which is in
good sooth the best Island of its size in the world.
You must know that it has a compass of 2400 miles,
but in old times it was greater still, for it then had a
circuit of about 3600 miles, as you find in the charts

31^

Chap. XIV. THE ISLAND OF SEILAN 313

of the mariners of those seas. But the north wind
there blows with such strength that it has caused
the sea to submerge a large part of the Island ; and
that is the reason why it is not so big now as it used
to be. For you must know that, on the side where
the north wind strikes, the Island is very low and
flat, insomuch that in approaching on board ship from
the high seas you do not see the land till you are
right upon it.^ Now I will tell you all about this
Island.

They have a king there whom they call Sendemain,
and are tributary to nobody.^ The people are Idolaters,
and go quite naked except that they cover the middle.
They have no wheat, but have rice, and sesamum of
which they make their oil. They live on flesh and
milk, and have tree-wine such as I have told you of.
And they have brazil-wood, much the best in the
world.*

Now I will quit these particulars, and tell you of
the most precious article that exists in the world.
You must know that rubies are found in this Island
and in no other country in the world but this. They
find there also sapphires and topazes and amethysts,
and many other stones of price. And the King of this
Island possesses a ruby which is the finest and biggest
in the world ; I will tell you what it is like. It is about
a palm in length, and as thick as a man's arm ; to look
at, it is the most resplendent object upon earth ; it is
quite free from flaw and as red as fire. Its value is so
great that a price for it in money could hardly be named
at all. You must know that the Great Kaan sent an
embassy and begged the King as a favour greatly
desired by him to sell him this ruby, offering to give for
it the ransom of a city, or in fact what the King would.
But the King replied that on no account whatever

314 MARCO POLO Book III.

would he sell it, for it had come to him from his
ancestors/

The people of Seilan are no soldiers, but poor
cowardly creatures. And when they have need of
soldiers they get Saracen troops from foreign parts.

[Note i. — Mr. Geo. Phillips gives {Seaports of India ^ p. 216 <?/ seqq.) the Stai
Chart used by Chinese Navigators on their return voyage from Ceylon to Su-tnen-td-
la.—W. C]

Note 2. — Valentyn appears to be repeating a native tradition when he says:
" In old times the island had, as they loosely say, a good 400 miles {i.e. Dutch, say
1600 miles) of compass, but at the north end the sea has from time to time carried
away a large part of it." {Ceylon, in vol. v., p. 18.) Curious particulars touching the
exaggerated ideas of the ancients, inherited by the Aral;s, as to the dimensions of
Ceylon, will be found in Ten7ient^s Ceylon, ch. i. The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang
has the same tale. According to him, the circuit was 7000 li, or 1400 miles. We
see from Marco's curious notice of the old charts (G. T. " selonc qe se ireuve en la
mapemondi des mariner de eel mer'''') that travellers had begun to find that the
dimensions were exaggerated. The real circuit is under 700 miles !

On the ground that all the derivations of the name Sailan or Ceylon from the
old Sinhala, Seretidib, and what not, aeem forced. Van der Tuuk has suggested that
the name may have been originally Javanese, being formed (he says) according to the
rules of that language from Sela, "a precious stone," so that Ptilo Selan would be the
'* Island of Gems." [Professor Schlegel says (6>^^. Notes, I. p. 19, note) that "it
seems better to think of the Sanskrit sila, 'a stone or rock,' or "iaila, 'a mountain,'
which agree with the Chinese interpretation." — H. C] The Island was really called
anciently RatnadvTpa, "the Island of Gems" {Mhn. de H. T., II. 125, and Hari-
vansa, I. 403) ; and it is termed by an Arab Historian of the 9th century Jazirat al
Yakut, "The Isle of Rubies." [The (Chinese) ckvweicX.tx'', ya-ku-pao-shih are in some
accounts of Ceylon used to express Vdktit. {Ma-Huan, transl. by Phillips, p. 213)—
H. C] As a matter of fact, we derive originally from the Malays nearly all the
forms we have adopted for names of countries reached by sea to the east of the Bay of
Bengal, e.g. Awa, Banna, Paigu, Siyam, China, Japiin, Kochi (Cochin China),
Champa, Katnboja, Maluka (properly a place in the Island of Ceram), Suluk, Btirnei,
Tanasari, Martavan, etc. That accidents in the history of marine affairs in those
seas should have led to the adoption of the Malay and Javanese names in the case
of Ceylon also is at least conceivable. But Dr. Caldwell has pointed out to me that
the Pali form of Sinhala was Sihalan, and that this must have been colloquially
shortened to Sflan, for it appears in old Tamul inscriptions as J lam.* Hence there
is nothing really strained in the derivation oi Sailan from Sinhala. Tennent {Ceylon,
I. 549) and Crawfurd {Malay Diet. p. 171) ascribe the name Selan, Zeilan, to the
Portuguese, but this is quite unfounded, as our author sufficiently testifies. The
name Sailan also occurs in Rashiduddin, in Hayton, and in Jordanus (see next note).
(See Van der Tuuk, work quoted above (p. 287), p. 118 ; J. As. ser. IV., tom. viii.
145; J. Ind. Arch. IV. 187; Elliot, I. 70.) {Sinhala ox Sihala, " hons' abode,"
with the addition of " Island," Sihala-dvipa, comes down to us in Cosmas SteXeSi'^a
( Hob son -Job son ) . ]

Note 3. — The native king at this time was Pandita Prakrama Bahu III., who
reigned from 1267 to 1301 at Dambadenia, about 40 miles north-north-east of Columbo.
But the Tamuls of the continent had recently been in possession of the whole northern

* The old Tamul alphabet has no sibilant.

Chap XIV. THE ISLAND OF SEILAN 315

half of the island. The Singhalese Chronicle represents Prakrania to have recovered
it from them, but they are so soon again found in full force that the completeness of
this recovery may be doubted. There were also two invasions of Malays {Javaku)
during this reign, under the lead of a chief called Chandra Banu. On the second
occasion this invader was joined by a large Tamul reinforcement. Sir E. Tennent
suggests that this Chandra Banu may be Polo's Sende-tnain or Sendernaz, as
Ramusio has it. Or he may have been the Tamul chief in the north ; the first part
of the name may have been either Chandra or Sitndara.

Note 4. — Kazwini names the brazil, or sapan-wood of Ceylon. Ibn Batuta
speaks of its abundance (IV. 166) ; and Ribeyro does the like (ed. of Columbo, 1847,
p. 16) ; see also Ritter, VI. 39, 122 ; and Trans. R. A. S. I. 539.

Sir E. Tennent has observed that Ibn Batuta is the first to speak of the Ceylon
cinnamon. It is, however, mentioned by Kazwini {circa A.D. 1275), and in a letter
written from Mabar by John of Montecorvino about the very time that Marco was in
these seas. (See Ethe's Kazwini, 229, and Cathay, 213.)

[Mr. G. Phillips, in the /<?«r. China B. R. A. :Soc.yXX. 1885, pp. 209-226;
XXL 1886, pp. 30-42, has given, under the title of The Seaports of India and Ceylon^
a translation of some parts of the Ying-yai-sheng-lan, a work of a Chinese
Mahomedan, Ma-Huan, who was attached to the suite of Cheng-PIo, an envoy
of the Emperor Yong-Lo (a.d. 1403- 1425) to foreign countries. Mr. Phillips's
translation is a continuation of the Notes of Mr. W. P. Groeneveldt, who leaves us at
Lambri, on the coast of Sumatra. Ma-IIuan takes us to the Tshd-lan Islands (Nicobars)
and to Hsi- 1 an- ktio {Ceylon), whose " people," he says (p. 214), "are abundantly
supplied with all the necessaries of life. They go about naked, except that they wear
a green handkerchief round their loins, fastened with a waist-band. Their bodies are
clean-shaven, and only the. hair of their heads is left. . . . They take no meal
without butter and milk, if they have none and wish to eat, they do so unobserved
and in private. The betel-nut is never out of their mouths. They have no wheat,
but have rice, sesamum, and peas. The cocoa-nut, which they have in abundance,
supplies them with oil, wine, sugar, and food." Ma-Huan arrived at Ceylon at Pieh-
lo-li, on the 6th of the nth moon (seventli year, Siian Teh, end of 1432). Cf. Sylvain
L^vi, Ceylan et la Chine, J. As., Mai-juin, 1900, p. 41 1 seqq.

Odoric and the Adjaib do not mention cinnamon among the products of Ceylon ;
this omission was one of the arguments of Dr. Schumann {Ergdnz. No. 73 zu
Petermann's Mitt., 1 883, p. 46) against the authenticity of the Adjaib. These
arguments have been refuted in the Livre des Mei-veilles de V Inde, p. 265 seqq.

Nicolo Conti, speaking of the "very noble island called Zeilan," says (p. 7):
"Here also cinnamon grows in great abundance. It is a tree which very much
resembles our thick willows, excepting that the branches do not grow upwards, but
are spread out horizontally : the leaves are very like those of the laurel, but are
somewhat larger. The bark of the branches is the thinnest and best, that of the
trunk of the tree is thicker and inferior in flavour. The fruit resembles the berries of
the laurel ; an odoriferous oil is extracted from it adapted for ointments, which are
much used by the Indians. When the bark is stripped off, the wood is used for
fuel,"— H. C]

Note 5. — There seems to have been always afloat among Indian travellers, at
least from the time of Cosmas (6th century), some wonderful story about the ruby or
rubies of the king of Ceylon. With Cosmas, and with the Chinese Hiuen Tsang, in
the following century, this precious object is fixed on the top of a pagoda, "a
hyacinth, they say, of great size and brilliant ruddy colour, as big as a great pine-cone ;
and when 'tis seen from a distance flashing, especially if the sun's rays strike upon it, 'tis
a glorious and incomparable spectacle." Our author's contemporary, Hayton, had
heard of the great ruby : "The king of that Island of Celan hath the largest and
finest ruby in existence. When his coronation takes place this ruby is placed in his
hand, and he goes round the city on horseback holding it in his hand, and thence-

1 6 xMARCO POLO Book III.

forth all recognise and obey him as their king." Odoric too speaks of the great ruby
and the Kaan's endeavours to get it, though by some error the circumstance is
referred to Nicoveran instead of Ceylon. Ibn Batuta saw in the possession of Arya
Chakravarti, a Tamul chief ruling at Patlam, a ruby bowl as big as the palm of one's
hand. Friar Jordaniis speaks of two great rubies belonging to the king of Sylen,
each so large that when grasped in the hand it projected a finger's breadth at either
side. The fame, at least, of these survived to the i6th century, for Andrea Corsali
(15 15) says : " They tell that the king of this island possesses two rubies of colour so
brilliant and vivid that they look like a flame of fire."

Sir E. Tennent, on this subject, quotes from a Chinese work a statement that early
in the 14th century the Emperor sent an officer to Ceylon to purchase a carbuncle of
unusual lustre. This was fitted as a ball to the Emperor's cap ; it was upwards of an
ounce in weight and cost 100,000 strings of cash. Every time a grand levee was
held at night the red lustre filled the palace, and hence it was designated "The Red
Palace-Illuminator." (/. B. IV. 174-175; Cathay, p. clxxvii. ; Hay/on, ch. vi. ;
/o7-d. p. 30 ; Ramus. I. 180 ; Ceylon, I. 568).

[" This mountain [Adam's Peak] abounds with rubies of all kinds and other
precious stones. These gems are being continually washed out of the ground by
heavy rains, and are sought for and found in the sand carried down the hill by
the torrents. It is currently reported among the people, that these precious stones
are the congealed tears of Buddha." {Ala-Htian, transL by Phillips, p. 213.)

In the Chinese work Cho keng In, containing notes on different matters referring to
the time of the Mongol Dynasty, in ch. vii. entitled Hwui hwui shi fou (" Precious
Stones of the Mohammedans ") among the four kinds of red stones is mentioned the
si-la-ni of a dark red colour ; si-la-ni, as Dr. Bretschneider observes {Med. Res.
I. p. I74)j nieans probably "from Ceylon." The name for ruby in China is now-
9.-^3.^% hung pao shi, "red precious stone." {Ibid. p. 173.)— II. C.]

CHAPTER XV.

The Same continued. The History of Saga.moni Borcan and

THE beginning OF IDOLATRY.

Furthermore you must know that In the Island of
Seilan there is an exceeding high mountain ; it rises
right up so steep and precipitous that no one could
ascend it, were it not that they have taken and fixed to
it several great and massive iron chains, so disposed
that by help of these men are able to mount to the top.
And I tell you they say that on this mountain is the
sepulchre of Adam our first parent ; at least that is what
the Saracens say. But the Idolaters say that it is the
sepulchre of Sagamoni Borcan, before whose time there

Chap. XV. HISTORY OF SAGAMONI BORCAN 317

were no Idols. They hold him to have been the best
of men, a great saint In fact, according to their fashion,
and the first In whose name Idols were made.^

He was the son, as their story goes, of a great and
wealthy king. And he was of such an holy temper
that he would never listen to any worldly" talk, nor
would he consent to be king. And when the father
saw that his son would not be king, nor yet take any
part In affairs, he took it sorely to heart. And first he
tried to tempt him with great promises, offering to
crown him king, and to surrender all authority Into his
hands. The son, however, would none of his offers ;
so the father was In great trouble, and all the more
that he had no other son but him, to whom he might
bequeath the kingdom at his own death. So, after
taking thought on the matter, the King caused a
great palace to be built, and placed his son therein,
and caused him to be waited on there by a number of
maidens, the most beautiful that could anywhere be
found. And he ordered them to divert themselves
with the prince, night and day, and to sing and dance
before him, so as to draw his heart towards worldly
enjoyments. But 'twas all of no avail, for none of
those maidens could ever tempt the king's son to any
wantonness, and he only abode the firmer in his
chastity, leading a most holy life, after their manner
thereof. And I assure you he was so staid a youth
that he had never gone out of the palace, and thus
he had never seen a dead man, nor any one who was
not hale and sound ; for the father never allowed any
man that was aged or infirm to come into his presence.
It came to pass however one day that the young gentle-
man took a ride, and by the roadside he beheld a dead
man. The sight dismayed him greatly, as he never
had seen such a sight before. Incontinently he

3l8 MARCO POLO Book III.

demanded of those who were with him what thing
that was? and then they told him it was a dead man.
*' How, then," quoth the king's son, *' do all men die?"
" Yea, forsooth," said they. Whereupon the young
gentleman said never a word, but rode on right
pensively. And after he had ridden a good way he
fell in with a very aged man who could no longer
walk, and had not a tooth in his head, having lost all
because of his great age. And when the king's son
beheld this old man he asked what that might mean,
and wherefore the man could not walk ? Those who
were with him replied that it was through old age the
man could walk no longer, and had lost all his teeth.
And so when the king's son had thus learned about
the dead man and about the aged man, he turned back
to his palace and said to himself that he would abide
no longer in this evil world, but would go in search
of Him Who dieth not, and Who had created him.^

So what did he one night but take his departure
from the palace privily, and betake himself to certain
lofty and pathless mountains. And there he did abide,
leading a life of great hardship and sanctity, and keep-
ing great abstinence, just as if he had been a Christian.
Indeed, an he had but been so, he would have been
a great saint of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so good and
pure was the life he led.^ And when he died they
found his body and brought it to his father. And
when the father saw dead before him that son whom
he loved better than himself, he was near going dis-
traught with sorrow. And he caused an image in the
similitude of his son to be wrought in gold and precious
stones, and caused all his people to adore it. And they
all declared him to be a god ; and so they still say.^

They tell moreover that he hath died fourscore and
four times. The first time he died as a man, and came

Chap. XV. HISTORY OF SAGAMONI BORCAN 3 1 9

to life again as an ox ; and then he died as an ox and
came to Hfe again as a horse, and so on until he had
died fourscore and four times ; and every time he
became some kind of animal. But when he died the
eighty-fourth time they say he became a god. And
they do hold him for the greatest of all their gods.
And they tell that the aforesaid image of him was the
first idol that the Idolaters ever had ; and from that
have originated all the other idols. And this befel in the
Island of Seilan in India.

The Idolaters come thither on pilgrimage from very
long distances and with great devotion, just as
Christians go to the shrine of Messer Saint James in
Gallicia. And they maintain that the monument on the
mountain is that of the king's son, according to the story
I have been telling you ; and that the teeth, and the
hair, and the dish that are there were those of the same
king's son, whose name was Sagamoni Borcan, or
Sagamoni the Saint. But the Saracens also come
thither on pilgrimage in great numbers, and they say
that it is the sepulchre of Adam our first father, and
that the teeth, and the hair, and the dish were those of
Adam.^

Whose they were In truth, God knoweth ; howbeit,
according to the Holy Scripture of our Church, the
sepulchre of Adam is not in that part of the world.

Now it befel that the Great Kaan heard how on
that mountain there was the sepulchre of our first father
Adam, and that some of his hair and of his teeth, and
the dish from which he used to eat, were still preserved
there. So he thought he would get hold of them
somehow or another, and despatched a great embassy
for the purpose, in the year of Christ, 1284. The
ambassadors, with a great company, travelled on by sea
and by land until they arrived at the island of Seilan,

320 MARCO POLO Book III.

and presented themselves before the king. And they
were so urgent with him that they succeeded in getting
two of the grinder teeth, which were passing great and
thick ; and they also got some of the hair, and the dish
from which that personage used to eat, which is of a
very beautiful green porphyry. And when the Great
Kaan's ambassadors had attained the object for which
they had come they were greatly rejoiced, and returned to
their lord. And when they drew near to the great city
of Cambaluc, where the Great Kaan was staying, they
sent him word that they had brought back that for
which he had sent them. On learning this the Great
Kaan was passing glad, and ordered all the ecclesiastics
and others to go forth to meet these reliques, which he
was led to believe were those of Adam.

And why should I make a long story of it ? In sooth,
the whole population of Cambaluc went forth to meet
those reliques, and the ecclesiastics took them over and
carried them to the Great Kaan, who received them
with great joy and reverence.^ And they fmd it written
in their Scriptures that the virtue of that dish is such
that if food for one man be put therein it shall become
enough for five men : and the Great Kaan averred that
he had proved the thing and found that it was really
true."^

So now you have heard how the Great Kaan came
by those reliques ; and a mighty great treasure it did
cost him ! The reliques being, according to the
Idolaters, those of that king's son.

Note i. — Sagamoni Borcan is, as Marsden points out, Sakya-Muni, or Gautama-
Buddha, with the affix Burkhan, or " Divinity," which is used by the Mongols as
the synonym of Buddha.

"The Dewa of Samantakuta (Adam's Peak), Samana, having heard of the arrival
ofBudha(in Lanka or Ceylon) . . . presented a request that he would leave an im-
pression of his foot upon the mountain of which he was guardian. ... In the midst
of the assembled Dewas, Budha, looking towards the East, made the impression of
his foot, in length three inches less than the cubit of the carpenter ; and the ira-

Chap. XV.

HISTORY OF SAGAMONI BORCAN

321

pression remained as a seal to show that Lanka is the inheritance of Budha, and
that his religion will here flourish." {Hardy's Manual, p. 212.)

[Ma-Huan says (p. 212): *'0n landing (at Ceylon), there is to be seen on the
shining rock at the base of the cliff, an impress of a foot two or more feet in length.
The legend attached to it is, that it is the imprint of Shakyamuni's foot, made when
he landed at this place, coming from the Ts'ui-lan (Nicobar) Islands. There is a
little water in the hollow of the imprint of this foot, which never evaporates. People
dip their hands in it and wash their faces, and rub their eyes with it, saying : ' This is
Buddha's water, which will make us pure and clean. '" — H. C]

" The veneration with which this majestic mountain has been regarded for ages,
took its rise in all probability amongst the aborigines of Ceylon. ... In a later
age, .... the hollow in the lofty rock that crowns the summit was said by the

Adam's Peak.

©r tzX tixjtr i\t fu astc jisk x wwt moutviguc mout hnut rt si ii£grx>t ic ks
rocchcs qc nitl hi :pxicnt mxrntcr sus sc nc z\x tz%it wxtawtxt 4c je br>5
lirai"

Brahmans to be the footstep of Siva, by the Buddhists, of Buddha, ... by the
Gnostics of leu, by the Mahometans of Adam, whilst the Portuguese authorities were
divided between the conflicting claims of St. Thomas and the eunuch of Candace,
Queen of Ethiopia." {Temtent, II. 133.)

[" Near to the King's residence there is a lofty mountain reaching to the skies.
On the top of this mountain there is the impress of a man's foot, which is sunk two
feet deep in the rock, and is some eight or more feet long. This is said to be the
impress of the foot of the ancestor of mankind, a Holy man called A-tan, otherwise
P'an-Ku." [Ma-Huan, p. 213.)— H. C]

Polo, however, says nothing oi\h^foot ; he speaks only of the sepulchre of Adam,
or of Sakya-muni. I have been unable to find any modern indication of the monu-
ment that was shown by the Mahomedans as the tomb, and sometimes as the house,
of Adam ; but such a structure there certainly was, perhaps an ancient Kist-vaen, or
the like. John Marignolli, who was there about 1349, has an interesting passage on
the subject : " That exceeding high mountain hath a pinnacle of surpassing height,
which on account of the clouds can rarely be seen. [The summit is lost in the clouds.
{Ihn Khordadhheh, p. 43.) — II. C] But God, pitying our tears, lighted it up one
morning just before the sun rose, so that we beheld it glowing with the brightest flame.
[They say that a flame bursts constantly, like a lightning, from the Summit of the
mountain. — [Ihn Khordddhbeh, p. 44.) — H. C] In the way down from this mountain
there is a fine level spot, still at a great height, and there you find in order : first,
tlie mark of Adam's foot ; secondly, a certain statue of a sitting figure, with the left
hand resting on the knee, and the right hand raised and extended towards the west ;
VOL. II. X

32i2 Marco t>oLO ibook hi.

lastly, there is the house (of Adam), which he made with his own hands. It is of an
oblong quadrangular shiipc like a sepulchre, with a door in the middle, and is formed
of great tabular slabs of marble, not cemented, but merely laid one upon another.
{Cathay^ 2,^^.) A Chinese account, translated in AmyoCs Mchiioires, says that at the
foot of the mountain is a Monastery of Bonzes, in which is seen the veritable body of
Fo, in the attitude of a man lying on his side " (XIV. 25). [Ma-IIuan says (p. 212) :
'* Buddhist temples abound there. In one of them there is to be seen a full length
recumbent figure of Shakyamuni, still in a very good state of preservation. The dais on
which the figure reposes is inlaid with all kinds of precious stones. It is made of sandal-
wood and is very handsome. The temple contains a Buddlm's tooth and other relics.
This must certainly be the place where Shakyamuni entered Nirvana." — H. C]
Osorio, also, in his history of Emanuel of Portugal, says : " Not far from it (the
Peak) people go to see a small temple in which are two sepulchres, which are the
objects of an extraordinary degree of superstitious devotion. For they believe that in
these were buried the bodies of the first man and his wife " (f. 120 v.). A German
traveller {Daniel Parthey, Nurnberg, 1698) also speaks of the tomb of Adam and his
sons on the mountain, {^qq Fabricms , Cod. Psetidep. Vet. Test. II. 31 ; also Ouselefs
Travels, I. 59.)

It is a perplexing circumstance that there is a double set of indications about bhe
footmark. The Ceylon traditions, quoted above from Hardy, call its length 3 inches
less than a carpenter's cubit. Modern observers estimate it at 5 feet or 5^ feet.
Hardy accounts for this by supposing that the original footmark was destroyed in the
end of the sixteenth century. But Ibn Batuta, in the 14th, states it at 11 spans, or
more than the modern report. [Ibn Khordadhbeh at 70 cubits. — H. C] Marignollii
on the other hand, says that he measured' it and found it to be 2| palms, or about half
a Prague ell, which corresponds in a general way with Hardy's tradition. Valentyn
calls it i^ ell in length ; Knox says 2 feet ; Herman Bree (De Bry ?), quoted by
Fabricius, 8^ spans ; a Chinese account, quoted below, 8 feet. These discrepancies
remind one of the ancient Buddhist belief regarding such footmarks, that they seemed
greater or smaller in proportion to the faith of the visitor ! (See Koeppen, I. 529, and
BeaPs Fah-hian, p. 27.)

The chains, of which Ibn Batuta gives a particular account, exist still. The
highest was called (he says) the chain of the Shahddat, or Credo, because the fearful
abyss below made pilgrims recite the profession of belief. Ashraf, a Persian poet of
the 15th century, author of an Alexandriad, ascribes these chains to the great con-
queror, who devised them, with the assistance of the philosopher Bolinas,* in order
to scale the mountain, and reach the sepulchre of Adam. (See Otiseley, I. 54
segg. ) There are inscriptions on some of the chains, but I find no account of them.
(Skeen^s Adam^s Peak, Ceylon, 1870, p. 226.)

Note 2. — The general correctness with which Marco has here related the
legendary history of Sakya's devotion to an ascetic life, as the preliminary to his
becoming the Buddha or Divinely Perfect Being, shows what a strong impression the
tale had made upon him. He is, of course, w'rong in placing the scene of the history
in Ceylon, though probably it was so told him, as the vulgar in all Buddhist countries
do seem to localise the legends in regions known to them.

Sakya Sinha, Sakya Muni, or Gautama, originally called Siddharta, was the son
of Suddhodhana, the Kshatriya prince of Kapilavastu, a small state north of the
Ganges, near the borders of Oudh. His high destiny had been foretold, as well as
the objects that would move him to adopt the ascetic life. To keep these from his
knowledge, his father caused three palaces to be built, within the limits of which the
prince should pass the three seasons of the year, whilst guards were posted to bar the
approach of the dreaded objects. But these precautions were defeated by inevitable
destiny and the power of the Devas.

* Apollonia (of Macedonia) is made Bolina ; so ^t7//«aj= Apollonius (Tyanaeus).

Chap. XV. HISTORY OF BUDDHA CHRISTIANISED 323

When the prince was sixteen he was married to the beautiful Yasodhara, daughter
of the King of Koh, and 40,000 other princesses also became the inmates of his harem.

" Whilst living in the midst of the full enjoyment of every kind of pleasure,
Siddharta one day commanded his principal charioteer to prepare his festive chariot ;
and in obedience to his commands four lily-white horses were yoked. The prince
leaped into the chariot, and proceeded towards a garden at a little distance from the
palace, attended by a great retinue. On his way he saw a decrepit old man, with
broken teeth, grey locks, and a form bending towards the ground, his trembling
steps supported by a staff (a Deva had taken this form). . . . The prince enquired
what strange figure it was that he saw ; and he was informed that it was an old man.
He then asked if the man was born so, and the charioteer answered that he was not,
as he was once young like themselves. 'Are there,' said the prince, 'many such
beings in the world ? ' ' Your highness,' said the charioteer, ' there are many.' The
prince again enquired, * Shall I become thus old and decrepit ? ' and he was told that
it was a state at which all beings must arrive."

The prince returns home and informs his father of his intention to become an
ascetic, seeing how undesirable is life tending to such decay. His father conjures
him to put away such th-ughts, and to enjoy himself with his princesses, and he
strengthens the guards about the palaces. Four months later like circumstances recur,
and the prince sees a leper, and after the same interval a dead body in corruption.
Lastly, he sees a religious recluse, radiant with peace and tranquillity, and resolves
to delay no longer. He leaves his palace at night, after a look at his wife Yasodhara
and the boy just born to him, and betakes himself to the forests of Magadha, where
he passes seven years in extreme asceticism. At the end of that time he attains the
Buddhahood. (See Hard/s Manual, p. 151 seqq.) The latter part of the story told by
Marco, about the body of the prince being brought to his father, etc., is erroneous.
Sakya was 80 years of age when he died under the sal trees in Kusinara.

The strange parallel between Buddhistic ritual, discipline, and costume, and those
which especially claim the name of Catholic in the Christian Church, has been often
noticed ; and though the parallel has never been elaborated as it might be, some of
the more salient facts are familiar to most readers. Still many may be unaware that
Buddha himself, Siddharta the son of Siiddodhana, has found his way into the Roman
martyrology as a Saint of the Church.

In the first edition a mere allusion was made to this singular story, for it had
recently been treated by Professor Max Muller, with characteristic learning and grace.
(See Contemporary Review for July, 1870, p. 588.) But the matter is so curious and
still so little familiar that I now venture to give it at some length.

The rehgious romance called the History of Barlaam and Josaphat was for
several centuries one of the most popular works in Christendom. It was translated
into all the chief European languages, including Scandinavian and Sclavonic tongues.
An Icelandic version dates from the year 1204; one in the Tagal language of the
Philippines was printed at Manilla in 17 12.* The episodes and apologues with which
the story abounds have furnished materials to poets and story-tellers in various ages
and of very diverse characters ; e.g. to Giovanni Boccaccio, John Gower, and to the
compiler of the Gesta Romanortifn, to Shakspere, and to the late W. Adams, author
of the King's Messengej's. The basis of this romance is the story of Siddharta.

The story of Barlaam and Josaphat first appears among the works (in Greek)
of St. John of Damascus, a theologian of the early part of the 8th century, who, before
he devoted himself to divinity had held high office at the Court of the Khalif Abu
Jafar Almansiir. The outline of the story is as follows : —

St. Thomas had converted the people of India to the truth ; and after the eremitic
life originated in Egypt many in India adopted it. But a potent pagan King arose,

* In 1870 I saw in the Library at Monte Cassino a long French poem on the story, in a MS. of our
traveller's age. This is perhaps one referred to by Migne, as cited in Hist. Litt. de la France, XV.
4S4. [It " has even been published in the Spanish dialect used in the Philippine Islands!" (Rhys
Davids, Jataka Tales, p. xxxvii.) In a MS. note, Yule says : " Is not this a mistake ? " — H. CI

VOL. II. ■ X 2

324 MARCO POLO Book III.

by name Abennkr, who persecuted the Christians and especially the ascetics. After
this King had long been childless, a son, greatly desired, is born to him, a boy of
matchless beauty. The King greatly rejoices, gives the child the name of Josaphat,
and summons the astrologers to predict his destiny. They foretell for the prince glory
and prosperity beyond all his predecessors in the kingdom. One sage, most learned of
all, assents to this, but declares that the scene of these glories will not be the paternal
realm, and that the child will adopt the faith that his father persecutes.

This prediction greatly troubled King Abenner. In a secluded city he caused a
splendid palace to be erected, within which his son was to abide, attended only by
tutors and servants in the flower of youth and health. No one from without was to
have access to the prince ; and he was to witness none of the afflictions of humanity,
poverty, disease, old age, or death, but only what was pleasant, so that he should have
no inducement to think of the future life ; nor was he ever to hear a word of Christ
or His religion. And, hearing that some monks still survived in India, the King in
his wrath ordered that any such, who should be found after three days, should be
burnt alive.

The Prince grows up in seclusion, acquires all manner of learning, and exhibits
singular endowments of wisdom and acuteness. At last he urges his father to allow
him to pass the limits of the palace, and this the King reluctantly permits, after taking
all precautions to arrange diverting spectacles, and to keep all painful objects at a
distance. Or let us proceed in the Old English of the Golden Legend.* "Whan his
fader herde this he was full of sorowe, and anone he let do make redy horses and
ioyfull felawshyp to accompany him, in suche wyse that nothynge dyshonest sholde
happen to hym. And on a tyme thus as the Kynges sone wente he mette a mesell
and a blynde man, and wha he sawe them he was abasshed and enquyred what them
eyled. And his seruautes sayd : These ben passions that comen to men. And he
demaunded yf the passyons came to all men. And they sayd nay. Tha sayd he, ben
they knowen whiche men shall suffre. . . . And they answered, Who is he that may
knowe ye aduentures of men. And he began to be moche anguysshous for ye in-
customable thynge hereof. And another tyme he found a man moche aged, whiche
had his chere frouced, his tethe fallen, and he was all croked for age. . . . And tha
he demaunded what sholde be ye ende. And they sayd deth. . . . And this yonge
man remembered ofte in his herte these thynges, and was in grete dyscoforte, but he
shewed hy moche glad tofore his fader, and he desyred moche to be enformed and
taught in these tbyges." [Fol. ccc. lii.]

At this time Barlaam, a monk of great sanctity and knowledge in divine things,
who dwelt in the wilderness of Sennaritis, having received a divine warning, travels
to India in the disguise of a merchant, and gains access to Prince Josaphat, to whom he
unfolds the Christian doctrine and the blessedness of the monastic life. Suspicion is
raised against Barlaam, and he departs, l^ut all efforts to shake the Prince's con-
victions are vain. As a last resource the King sends for a magician called Theudas,
who removes the Prince's attendants and substitutes seductive girls, but all their
blandishments are resisted . through prayer. The King abandons these attempts and
associates his son with himself in the government. The Prince uses his power to
promote religion, and everything prospers in his hand. Finally King Abenner is
drawn to the truth, and after some years of penitence dies. Josaphat then surrenders
the kingdom to a friend called Barachias, and proceeds into the wilderness, where he
wanders for two years seeking Barlaam, and much buffeted by the demons. " And
whan Balaam had accoplysshed his dayes, he rested in peas about ye yere of Our
L>orde. cccc. &. Ixxx. Josaphat lefte his realme the. xxv, yere of his age, and ledde the
lyfe of an heremyte. xxxv, yere, and than rested in peas full of vertues, and was buryed
by the body of Balaam." [Fol. ccc. Ivi.] The King Barachias afterwards arrives and
transfers the bodies solemnly to India.

This is but the skeleton of the story, but the episodes and apologues which round

* Imprynted at London in Flete Strete at the sygne of the Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde (1527).

Chap. XV. HISTORY OF BUDDHA CHRISTIANISED 325

its dimensions, and give it its mediaeval popularity, do not concern our subject. In
this skeleton the story of Siddharta, nuiiatis mutandis, is obvious.

The story was first popular in the Greek Church, and was embodied in the lives
of the saints, as recooked by Simeon the Metaphrast, an author whose period is
disputed, but was in any case not later than 1 150. A Cretan monk called Agapios
made selections from the work of Simeon which were published in Romaic at Venice
in 1541 under the name of the Paradise, and in which the first section consists of the
story of Barlaam and Josaphat. This has been frequently reprinted as a popular book
of devotion. A copy before me is printed at Venice in 1865.*

From the Greek Church the history of the two saints passed to the Latin, and
they found a place in the Roman martyrology under the 27th November. When this
first happened I have not been able to ascertain. Their history occupies a large space
in the Speculum Historiale of Vincent of Beauvais, written in the 13th century,
and is set forth, as we have seen, in the Golden Legend of nearly the same age.
They are recognised by Baronius, and are to be found at p. 348 of " The Roman
Martyrology set forth by command of Pope Gregory XIII., and revised by the
authority of Pope Urban VIII., translated out of Latin into English by G. K. of the
Society of Jesus .... and now re-edited ... by W. N. Skelly, Esq. London, T.
Richardson & Son." (Printed at Derby, 1847.) Here in Palermo is a church bear-
ing the dedication Divo losaphat.

Professor Mliller attributes the first recognition of the identity of the two stories to
M. Laboulaye in 1859. But in fact I find that the historian de Couto had made the
discovery long before.f He says, speaking oi Biiddo (Buddha), and after relating his
history :

" To this name the Gentiles throughout all India have dedicated great and superb
pagodas. With reference to this story we have been diligent in enquiring if the ancient
Gentiles of those parts had in their writings any knowledge of St. Josaphat who was
converted by Barlam, who in his Legend is represented as the son of a great King of
India, and who had just the same up-bringing, with all the same particulars, that we
have recounted of the Hfe of the Budao. . . . And as a thing seems much to the
purpose, which was told us by a very old man of the Salsette territory in Ba9aim,
about Josaphat, I think it well to cite it : As I was travelling in the Isle of Salsette,
and went to see that rare and admirable Pagoda (which we call the Canara Pagoda ij:)
made in a mountain, with many halls cut out of one solid rock . . . and enquiring
from this old man about the work, and what he thought as to who had made it, he
told us that without doubt the work was made by order of the father of St. Josaphat
to bring him up therein in seclusion, as the story tells. And as it informs us that he
was the son of a great King in India, it may well be, as we have just said, that he was
the Budao, of whom ihey relate such marvels." (Dec. V. liv. vi. cap. 2.)

Dominie Valentyn, not being well read in the Golden Legend, remarks on the
subject of Buddha : " There be some who hold this Budhum for a fugitive Syrian
Jew, or for an Israelite, others who hold him for a Disciple of the Apostle Thomas ;
but how in that case he could have been born 622 years before Christ I leave them to
explain. Diego de Couto stands by the belief that he was cQx\.2i\v\y Joshua, which is
still more absurd !" (V. deel, p. 374.)

[Since the days of Couto, who considered the Buddhist legend but an imitation of
the Christian legend, the identity of the stories was recognised (as mentioned supra)
by M. Edouard Laboulaye, in ihe Journal des Dcbats of the 26th of July, 1859. About
the same time, Professor F. Liebrecht of Liege, in Eberi's Jahrbuch fiir Ro77ianische

* The first Life is thus entitled : B/oy KoX IloXirei'a ro\) 'Oaiov UaTpbs t}[xQ>v koI
'laawoaToKov 'Iwdaa^ tov ^aaiX^us rrjs 'Iv8ias. Professor Miiller says all the Greek copies
have loasaph. I have access to no copy in the ancient Greek.

t Also Migne's Diet. Legendes, qur;ting a letter of C. L. Struve, Director of Konigsberg
Gymnasium, to the Journal General de I'lnsf. PubL, says that "an earlier story is entirely repro-
duced in the Barlaam," but without saving what story.

J The well-known Kayhari Caves. (See Handbook /or India, p. 306.)

326

MARCO POLO Book III.

unci Englische Literature II. j). 314 seqq,, comparing the Book of Barla;^m and
Joasaph with the work of Barthelemy St. Ililaire on Buddha, arrived at the same
conchision.

In 1880, Professor T. W. Rhys Davids has devoted some pages (xxxvi.-xli.) in his
Buddhist Birth Stories ; or, Jataka Tales, to The Barlaa7n and Josaphat Literature,
and we note from them that: "Pope Sixtus the Plflh (1585-1590) authorised a
particular Martyrologiuni, drawn up by Cardinal Baronius, to be used throughout the
Western Church." In that work are included not only the saints first canonised at
Rome, but all those who, having been already canonised elsewhere, were then
acknowledged by the Pope and the College of Rites to be saints of the Catholic
Church of Christ. Among such, under the date of the 27th of November, are included
"The holy Saints Barlaam and Josaphat, of India, on the borders of Persia, whose
wonderful acts Saint John of Damascus has described. Where and when they were
first canonised, I have been unable, in spite of much investigation, to ascertain.
Petrus de Natalibus, who was Bishop of Equilium, the modern Jesolo, near Venice,
from 1370 to 1400, wrote a Martyrology called Catalogus Sanctoruni ; and in it,
among the * Saints,' he inserts both Barlaam and Josaphat, giving also a short
account of them derived from the old Latin translation of St. John of Damascus. It
is from this work that Baronius, the compiler of the authorised Martyrology now in
use, took over the names of these two saints, Barlaam and Josaphat. But, so far as I
have been able to ascertain, they do not occur in any martyrologies or lists of saints of
the Western Church older than that of Petrus de Natalibus. In the corresponding
manual of worship still used in the Greek Church, however, we find, under 26th
August, the name 'of the holy losaph, son of Abener, King of India.' Barlaam is
not mentioned, and is not therefore recognised as a saint in the Greek Church. No
history is added to the simple statement I have quoted ; and I do not know on what
authority it rests. But there is no doubt that it is in the East, and probably among
the records of the ancient church of Syria, that a final solution of this question should
be sought. Some of the more learned of the numerous writers who translated or
composed new works on the basis of the story of Josaphat, have pointed out in their
notes that he had been canonised ; and the hero of the romance is usually called St.
Josaphat in the titles of these works, as will be seen from the Table of the Josaphat
literature below. But Professor Liebrecht, when identifying Josaphat wdth the
Buddha, took no notice of this ; and it was Professor Max Miiller, who has done so
much to infuse the glow of life into the dry bones of Oriental scholarship, who first
pointed out the strange fact — almost incredible, were it not for the completeness of
the proof — that Gotama the Buddha, under the name of St. Josaphat, is now officially
recognised and honoured and worshipped throughout the whole of Catholic Christen-
dom as a Christian saint ! " Professor T. W. Rhys Davids gives further a Biblio-
graphy, pp. xcv.-xcvii.

M. H. Zotenberg wrote a learned memoir {N. et Ext. XXVIII. Pt. I.) in 1886 to
prove that the Greek Text is not a translation but the original of the Legend. There
are many MSS. of the Greek Text of the Book of Barlaam and Joasaph in Paris,
Vienna, Munich, etc., including ten MSS. kept in various libraries at Oxford. New
researches made by Professor E. Kuhn, of Munich [BarlaatJi und Joasaph. Eine Biblio-
gi'aphisch — literargcschichtliche Siudie, 1893), seem to prove that during the 6th
century, in that part of the Sassanian Empire bordering on India, in fact Afghanistan,
Buddhism and Christianity were gaining ground at the expense of the Zoroastrian faith,
and that some Buddhist wrote in Pehlevi a Book of F?/(^^?i-a/'(Bodhisatva) ; a Christian,
finding pleasant the legend, made an adaptation of it from his own point of view,
introducing the character of the monk Balauhar (Barlaam) to teach his religion to
Yudasaf, who could not, in his Christian disguise, arrive at the truth by himself like a
Bodhisatva. This Pehlevi version of the newly-formed Christian legend was translated
into Syriac, and from Syriac was drawn a Georgian version, and, in the first half of the
7th century, the Greek Text of John, a monk of the convent of St. Saba, near
Jerusalem, by some turned into St. John of Damascus, who added to the story

Chap. XV

HISTORY OF BUDDHA CHRISTIANISED

327

some long theological discussions. From this Greek, it was translated into all the
known languages of Europe, while the Pehlevi version being rendered into Arabic,
was adapted by the Mussulmans and the Jews to their own creeds. (//. Zotenberg^
Mt'm. stir le texte et les versions orientales du Livre de Barlaam et Joasaph^ Not. et Ext.
XXVIII. Pt. I. pp. 1-166 ; G. Paris, Saint Jos aphat in Rev. de Paris, l^r Juin, 1895,
and Pohnes et Ldgendes dti Moyen Age, pp. 181-214.)

Mr. Joseph Jacobs published in London, 1896, a valuable little book, Barlaam
and Josaphat, English Lives of Buddha, in which he comes lo this conclusion
(p. xli.): "I regard the literary history of the Barlaam literature as completely
parallel with that of the Fables of Bidpai. Originally Buddhistic books, both lost
their specifically Buddhistic traits before they left India, and made their appeal, by
their parables, more than by their doctrines. Both were translated into Pehlevi in

Sakya Muni as a Saint of the Roman Martyrology.

''WSxt birs lluttigs cSun iit iem jtufsc^icchcit am trettn snhc i« b^m ^Heg
tmzw JbUnl)cit txuli £^n aufsmiirckigcn wnb z'^tw alien krumtncit Jttan." *

the reign of Chosroes, and from that watershed floated off into the literatures of all
the great creeds. In Christianity alone, 'characteristically enough, one of them, the
Barlaam book, was surcharged with dogma, and turned to polemical uses, with the
curious result that Buddha became one of the champions of the Church. ' To divest the
Barlaam-Buddha of this character, and see him in his original form, we must take a
further journey and seek him in his home beyond the Himalayas."

Professor Gaston Paris, in answer to Mr. Jacobs, writes {Pohnes et L^g. du Moyen
Age, p. 213) : " Mr. Jacobs thinks that the Book of Balauhar and Yudasaf was not
originally Christian, and could have existed such as it is now in Buddhistic India,
but it is hardly likely, as Buddha did not require the help of a teacher to find truth,
and his followers would not have invented the person of Balauhar-Barlaam ; on the
other hand, the introduction of the Evangelical Par-able of The Sower, which exists in

* The quotation and the cut are from an old German version of Barlaam and Josaphat printed by
Zainer at Augsburg, circa 1477. (B. M., Grenv. Lib., No. 11,766.)

328

MARCO POLO Book III.

the original of all the versions of our Book, shows that this original was a Christian
adaptation of the Legend of Buddha. Mr. Jacobs seeks vainly to lessen the force of
this proof in showing that this Parable has parallels in Buddhistic literature." — H. C]

Note 3. — Marco is not the only eminent person who has expressed this view of
Sakyamuni's life in such words. Professor Max Muller (n.s.) says : " And whatever
we may think of the sanctity of saints, let those who doubt the right of Buddha to a
place among them, read the story of his life as it is told in the Buddhistic canon. If
he lived the life which is there described, few saints have a better claim to the title
than Buddha ; and no one either in the Greek or the Roman Church need be
ashamed of having paid to his memory the honour that was intended for St. Josaphat,
the prince, the hermit, and the saint."

Note 4. — This is curiously like a passage in the Wisdom of Solomon : " Neque
enim erant (idola) ab initio, neque erunt in perpetuum . . . acerbo enim luctu dolens
pater cito sibi rapti filii fecit imaginem : et ilium qui tunc quasi homo mortuus fuerat
nunc tamquam deum colere coepit, et constituit inter servos suos sacra et sacrificia"
(xiv. 13-15). Gower alludes to the same story ; I know not whence taken : —

' ' Of Cirophanes, seith the booke, .
That he for sorow, whiche he toke
Of that he sigh his sonne dede,
Of comfort knewe none other rede.
But lete do make in remembrance
A faire image of his semblance,
And set it in the market place :
Whiche openly to fore his face *

Stood euery day, to done hym ease ;
And thei that than wolden please
The Fader, shuld it obeye,
Whan that thei comen thilke weye." — Confessio Amantis*

Note 5. — Adam's Peak has for ages been a place of pilgrimage to Buddhists,
Hindus, and Mahomedans, and appears still to be so. Ibn Batuta says the Mussul-
man pilgrimage was instituted in the loth century. The book on the history of the
Mussulmans in Malabar, called Tohfat-ul-Mcjdhidin (p. 48), ascribes their first
settlement in that country to a party of pilgrims returning from Adam's Peak.
MarignoUi, on his visit to the mountain, mentions "another pilgrim, a Saracen of
Spain ; for many go on pilgrimage to Adam."

The identification of Adam with objects of Indian worship occurs in various forms.
Tod tells how an old Rajput Chief, as they stood before a famous temple of Mahadeo
near Udipiir, invited him to enter and worship "Father Adam." Another traveller
relates how Brahmans of Bagesar on the Sarju identified Mahadeo and Parvati with
Adam and Eve. A Malay MS., treating of the origines of Java, represents Brahma,
Mahadeo, and Vishnu to be descendants of Adam through Seth. And in a Malay
paraphrase of the Ramayana, Nabi Adam takes the place of Vishnu. {Tod. I. 96 ;
/. A. S. B. XVI. 233 ; /. R. A. S. N.s. 11. 102 ; /. Asiat. IV. s. VII. 438.)

Note 6. — The Fdira, or alms-pot, was the most valued legacy of Buddha. It
had served the three previous Buddhas of this world-period, and was destined to
serve the future one, Maitreya. The Great Asoka sent it to Ceylon. Thence it
was carried off by a Tamul chief in the ist century, A.D., but brought back we know
not how, and is still shown in the Malagawa Vihara at Kandy. As usual in such
cases, there were rival reliques, for P"a-hian found the alms-pot preserved at Peshawar.

* Ed. 1554, fol. xci. V. So also I find in A. Tostati Hisp. Comvtent. in prifiiam ptem. Exodi,
Ven. 1695, p p. 295-296 : ' ' Idola autem sculpta in Aegypto primo in venta sunt per Syrophenem primum
Idolotrarum; ante hoc enim pura elementa ut dii cylebantur." I cannot trace the tale,

Chap. XV. BUDDHA'S TOOTH 329

Hiuen Tsang says in his time it was no longer there, but in Persia. And indeed the
Pdtra from Peshawar, according to a remarkable note by Sir Henry Rawhnson, is
still preserved at Kandahdr, under the name of Kashkul (or the Begging-pot), and
retains among the Mussulman Dervishes the sanctity and miraculous repute which it
bore among the Buddhist Bhikshus. Sir Henry conjectures that the deportation of
this vessel, the palladium of the true Gandhdra (Peshawar), was accompanied by a
popular emigration, and thus accounts for the transfer of that name also to the chief
city of Arachosia. {Koeppen^ I. 526 ; Fah-hian, p. 36 ; //. 7'sang, II. 106 ;
/. i^. A. S. XL 127.)

Sir E. Tennent, through Mr. Wylie (to whom this book owes so much), obtained
the following curious Chinese extract referring to Ceylon (written 1350) : " In front
of the image of Buddha there is a sacred bowl, which is neither made of jade nor
copper, nor iron ; it is of a purple colour, and glossy, and when struck it sounds like
glass. At the commencement of the Yuen Dynasty {i.e. under Kublai) three
separate envoys were sent to obtain it." Sanang Setzen also corroborates Marco's
statement: "Thus did the Khaghan (Kublai) cause the sun of religion to rise over
the dark land of the Mongols ; he also procured from India images and reliques of
Buddha ; among others the Pdtra of Buddha, which was presented to him by the
four kings (of the cardinal points), and also the chandatta chu " (a miraculous sandal-
wood image). {Temient, I. 622 ; Schfnidt, p. 1 1 9.)

The text also says that several teeth of Buddha were preserved in Ceylon, and
that the Kaan's embassy obtained two molars. Doubtless the envoys were imposed on ;
no solitary case in the amazing history of that relique, for the Dalada, or tooth relique,
seems in all historic times to have been unique. This, " the left canine tooth " of the
Buddha, is related to have been preserved for 800 years at Dantapura (" Odontopolis "),
in Kalinga, generally supposed to be the modern Puri or Jagannath. Here the
Brahmans once captured it and carried it off to Palibothra, where they tried in vain to
destroy it. Its miraculous resistance converted the king, who sent it back to
Kalinga. About A.D. 311 the daughter of King Guhasiva fled with it to Ceylon.
In the beginning of the 14th century it was captured by the Tamuls and carried to
the Pandya country on the continent, but recovered some years later by King
Parakrama III., who went in person to treat for it. In 1560 the Portuguese got pos-
session of it and took it to Goa. The King of Pegu, who then reigned, probably
the most powerful and wealthy monarch who has ever ruled in Further India, made
unlimited offers in exchange for the tooth ; but the archbishop prevented the viceroy
from yielding to these temptations, and it was solemnly pounded to atoms by the
prelate, then cast into a charcoal fire, and finally its ashes thrown into the rivfer of
Goa.

The King of Pegu was, however, informed by a crafty minister of the King of
Ceylon that only a sham tooth had been destroyed by the Portuguese, and that the
real relique was still safe. This he obtained by extraordinary presents, and the
account of its reception at Pegu, as quoted by Tennent from De Couto, is a curious
parallel to Marco's narrative of the Great Kaan's reception of the Ceylon reliques at
Cambaluc. The extraordinary object still so solemnly preserved at Kandy is
another forgery, set up about the same time. So the immediate result of the yice-
roy's virtue was that two reliques were worshipped instead of one !

The possession of the tooth has always been a great object of desire to Buddhist
sovereigns. In the nth century King Anarauhta, of Burmah, sent a mission to
Ceylon to endeavour to procure it, but he could obtain only a "miraculous emana-
tion" of the relique. A tower to contain the sacred tooth was (1855), however, one
of the buildings in the palace court of Amarapura. A few years ago the King of
Burma repeated the mission of his remote predecessor, but obtained only a viodel,
and this has been deposited within the walls of the pakce at Mandale, the new
capital. {Turnour'vsxJ. A. S.B. VI. "^^d seqq. ; Koeppen, I. 521 ; Tennc7it, I. 388,
II. 198 segq. ; MS. Note by Sir A. Phayre ; Mission to Ava, 136.)

Of the four eye-teeth of Sakya, one, it is related, passed to the heaveji of Iiidra j

330

MARCO POLO

Book III.

the second to the capital of Gandiulra ; the

third to Kalinga ; the fourth to the snake-
gods. The Gandhdra tooth was
perhaps, like the alms - bowl,
carried off by a Sassanid invasion,
and may be identical with that
tooth of Fo, which the Chinese
annals state to have been brought
to China in a.d. 530 by a Persian
embassy. A tooth of Buddiia is
now shown in a monastery at Fu-
chau ; but whether this be either
the Sassanian present, or that got
from Ceylon by Kublai, is un-
known. Other teeth of Buddha
were shown in Hiuen Tsang's
time at Balkh, at Nagarahara (or
Jalalabad), in Kashmir, and at
Kanauj. {Koeppen, u. s. ; For-
time, II. 108; H. Tsan<^, II. 31,
80,263.)

Note 7. — Fa-hian writes 01
the alms-pot at Peshawar, that
poor people could fill it with a
few flowers, whilst a rich man
should not be able to do so with
100, nay, with looo or 10,000
bushels of rice ; a parable doubt-
less originally carrying a lesson,
like Our Lord's remark on the
Teeth of Buddha. widow's mite, but which hardened

I. At Kandy, after Tennent. 2. At Fu-chau, from Fortune, eventually into some foolish Story

like that in the text.
The modern Mussulman story at Kandahar is that the alms-pot will contain any
quantity of liquor without overflowing.

This Pdtra is the Holy Grail of Buddhism. Mystical powers of nourishment are
ascribed also to the Grail in the European legends. German scholars have traced in
the romances of the Grail remarkable indications of Oriental origin. It is not im-
possible that the alms-pot of Buddha was the prime source of them. Read the pro-
phetic history of the Fdtra as Fa-hian heard it in India (p. 161) ; its mysterious
wanderings over Asia till it is taken up into the heaven Tiishita, where Maitreya the
Future Buddha dwells. When it has disappeared from earth the Law gradually
perishes, and violence and wickedness more and more prevail :

"What is it?

The phantom of a cup that comes and goes ?

* * * '' If a man
Could touch or see it, he was heal'd at once,
By faith, of all his ills. But then the times
Grew to such evil that the holy cup
Was caught away to Heaven, and disappear'd."

— Tennyson's Holy Grail

Chap. XVI. THE PEARL-FISHERY OF MALABAR 331

CHAPTER XVI.

Concerning the great Province of Maabar, which is called
India the Greater, and is on the Mainland.

When you leave the Island of Seilan and sail westward
about 60 miles, you come to the great province of
Maabar which is styled India the Greater ; it is best
of all the Indies and is on the mainland.

You must know that in this province there are five
kings, who are own brothers. I will tell you about each
in turn. The Province is the finest and noblest in ' the
world.

At this end of the Province reigns one of those five
Royal Brothers, who is a crowned King, and his name is
Sonder Bandi Davar. In his kingdom they find very
fine and great pearls ; and I will tell you how they are
got/

You must know that the sea here forms a gulf
between the Island of Seilan and the mainland. And all
round this gulf the water has a depth of no more than lo
or 12 fathoms, and in some places no more than two
fathoms. The pearl-fishers take their vessels, great and
small, and proceed into this gulf, where they stop from
the beginning of April till the middle of May. They go
first to a place called Bettelar, and (then) go 60 miles
into the gulf. Here they cast anchor and shift from
their large vessels into small boats. You must know
that the many merchants who go divide into various
companies, and each of these must engage a number of
men on wages, hiring them for April and half of May.
Of all the produce they have first to pay the King, as his
royalty, the tenth part. And they must also pay those
men who charm the great fishes, to prevent them from

332 MARCO POLO Book III.

injuring the divers whilst engaged in seeking pearls
under water, one twentieth part of all that they take.
These fish-charmets are termed Abraiaman ; and their
charm holds good for that day only, for at night they
dissolve the charm so that the fishes can work mischief
at their will. These Abraiaman know also how to
charm beasts and birds and every living thing. When
the men have got into the small boats they jump into the
water and dive to the bottom, which may be at a depth
of from 4 to 1 2 fathoms, and there they remain as long
as they are able. And there they find the shells that
contain the pearls [and these they put into a net bag
tied round the waist, and mount up to the surface with
them, and then dive anew. When they can't hold their
breath any longer they come up again, and after a little
down they go once more, and so they go on all day].2
The shells are in fashion like oysters or sea-hoods.
And in these shells are found pearls, great and small, of
every kind, sticking in the flesh of the shell-fish.

In this manner pearls are fished in great quantities,
for thence in fact come the pearls which are spread all
over the world. And I can tell you the King of that
State hath a very great receipt and treasure from his
dues upon those pearls.

As soon as the middle of May is past, no more of
those pearl-shells are found there. It is true,, however,
that a long way from that spot, some 300 miles distant,
they are also found; but that is in September and the
first half of October.

Note i. — Maabar [Ma' bar) was the name given by the Mahomedans at this
time (13th and 14th centuries) to a tract corresponding in a general way to what we
call the Coromandel Coast. The word in Arabic signifies the Passage or Ferry, and
may have referred either to the communication with Ceylon, or, as is more probable,
to its being in that age the coast most frequented by travellers from Arabia and the
Gulf.* The name does not appear in Edrisi, nor, I believe, in any of the older geo-

* So the Barbary coast from Tunis westward was called by the Arabs Bdr-ul-'Adwah, " Terr3
Trginsitus," because thence they used to pass into Spain. (J. As. for Jan. 1846, p. 228.)

Chap. XVI. SUNDAR BANDI DEVAR 333

graphers, and the earliest use of it that I am aware of is in Abdallatif s account of
Egypt, a work written about 1 203- 1 204. {DeSacy, Rel. de V Egypte, p. 31.) Abulfeda
distinctly names Cape Comorin as the point where Malabar ended and Ma'bar began,
and other authority to be quoted presently informs us that it extended to Nildwar^
i.e. Nellore.

There are difiiculties as to the particular locality of the port or city which Polo
visited in the territory of the Prince whom he calls Sondar Bandi Davar ; and there
are like doubts as to the identification, from the dark and scanty Tamul records, of
the Prince himself, and the family to which he belonged ; though he is mentioned by
more than one foreign writer besides Polo.

Thus Wassaf : "Ma'bar extends in length from Kaulam to Nilawar, nearly 300
parasangs along the sea-coast ; and in the language of that country the king is called
Devar, which signifies, ' the Lord of Empire.' The curiosities of Chin and Machfn, and
the beautiful products of Plind and Sind, laden on large ships which they call /wiks,
sailing like mountains with the wings of the wind on the surface of the water, are always
arriving there. The wealth of the Isles of the Persian Gulf in particular, and in part
the beauty and adornment of other countries, from 'Irak and Khurasan as far as Rum
and Europe, are derived from Ma'bar, which is so situated as to be the key of Hind.

" A few years since the Devar was Sundar Pandi, who had three brothers, each
of whom established himself in independence in some different country. The eminent
prince, the Margrave {Marzbdn) of Hind, Taki-uddin Abdu-r Rahman, a son of
Muhammad-ut-Tibi, whose virtues and accomplishments have for a long time been
the theme of praise and admiration among the chief inhabitants of that beautiful
country, was the Devar's deputy, minister, and adviser, and was a man of souftd
judgment. Fattan, Malifattan, and Kail * were made over to his possession. . . .
In the months of the year 692 H. (a.d. 1293) the above-mentioned Devar, the ruler of
Ma'bar, died and left behind him much wealth and treasure. It is related by Malik-
ul-Islam Jamaluddin, that out of that treasure 7000 oxen laden with precious stones
and pure gold and silver fell to the share of the brother who succeeded him. INIalik-i
'Azam Taki-uddin continued prime minister as before, and in fact ruler of that
kingdom, and his glory and magnificence were raised a thousand times higher." f

Seventeen years later (1310) Wassaf introduces another king of Ma'bar called
Kalesa Devar, who had ruled for forty years in prosperity, and had accumulated in the
treasury of Shahr-Mandi {i.e., as Dr. Caldwell informs me Madura, entitled by the
Mahomedan invaders Shahr-Pandi, and still occasionally mispronounced Shahr-Mandi)
1200 crores (!) in gold. He had two sons, Sundar Bandi by a lawful wife, and
Pirabandi (Vira Pandi?) illegitimate. He designated the latter as his successor.
Sundar Bandi, enraged at this, slew his father and took forcible possession of Shahr-
Mandi and its treasures. Pirabandi succeeded in driving him out ; Sundar Bandi
went to Alauddin, Sultan of Delhi, and sought help. The Sultan eventually sent his
general Hazardinari {alias Malik Kafur) to conquer Ma'bar.

* Wassaf has Fitan, Mali Fifan, Kdbil^ and meant the names so, as he shows by silly puns. For
my justification in presuming to correct the names, I must refer to an article, in the/. R. As. Soc,
N.s. IV. p. 347, on Rashiduddin's Geography.

t The same information is given in almost the same terms by Rashiduddin. (See jE" ///£»/, I. 69.) But
he (at least in Elliot's translation) makes Shaikh Jujualiiddin the successor of the Devar, instead of
merely the narrator of the circumstances. This is evidently a mistake, probably of transcription, and
Wassaf gives us the true version.

The members of the Arab family bearing the surname of At-Thaibi (or Thibi) appear to have been
powerful on the coasts of the Indian Sea at this time. (1) The Malik-ul-Islam Jamaluddin Ibrahim At
Thaibi was Farmer-General of Fars, besides being quasi-independent Prince of Kais and other Islands
in the Persian Gulf, and at the time of his death (1306) governor of Shiraz. He had the horse trade
with India greatly in his hands, as is mentioned in a note (7) on next chapter. (2) The son of
Jamaluddin, Fakhruddin Ahmed, goes ambassador to the Great Kaan in 1297, and dies near the coast
of Ma'bar on his way back in 1305. A Fakhruddin Ahmed Ben Ibrahim at-Thaibi also appears in
Hammer's extracts as ruler of Hormuz about the time of Polo's return, (see ante, vol. i. p. 121); and
though he is there represented as opposed by Shaikh Jumaluddin (perhaps through one of Hammer's
too frequent confusions), one should suppose that he must be the son just mentioned. (3) Takiuddin
Abdurrahman, the Wazir and Marzban in Ma'bar ; followed successively in that position by his son
Surajuddin, and his grandson Nizamuddln. {/ichan. II. 49-50, 197-198, 205-206; Elliot, III. 32,
34-35, 45-47-)

334 MARCO POLO Book III.

In the third volume of Elliot we find some of the same main facts, with some
differences and greater detail, as recounted by Amfr Khusru. Bir Pandiya and
Sundara Pandiya are the Kais of Ma'bar, and are at war with one another, when the
army of Alauddin, after reducing Bilal Deo of Dwdra Samudra, descends upon
Ma'bar in the beginning of 131 1 (p. ^t'J seqq.).

We see here two rulers in Ma'bar, within less than twenty years, bearing the name
of Sundara Pandi. And, strange to say, more than a century before, during the con-
tinental wars of Parakrdma Bahu I., the most martial of Singhalese kings (a.d. 1153-
1186), we find another Kulasaikera {=Kalesa of Wassaf), King of Madura, with
another Vlra Pdndi for son, and another Sundara Pandi Raja, figuring in the history
of the Pandionis Regio. But let no one rashly imagine that there is a confusion in
the chronology here. The Hindu Chronology of the continental states is dark and
confused enough, but not that of Ceylon, which in this, as in sundry other respects,
comes under Indo-Chinese rather than Indian analogies. (See Tumour s Ceylonese
Epitome, pp. 41-43 ; andy. A. S. B. XLI. Pt. I. p. 197 seqq.)

In a note with which Dr. Caldwell favoured me some time before the first publica-
tion of this work, he considers that the Sundar Bandi of Polo and the Persian
Historians is undoubtedly to be identified with that Sundara Pandi Devar, who is in
the Tamul Catalogues the last king of the ancient Pandya line, and who was (says
Dr. Caldwell,) "succeeded by Mahomedans, by a new line of Pandyas, by the Nayak
Kings, by the Nabobs of Arco.t, and finally by the English. He became for a time
a Jaina, but was reconverted to the worship of Siva, when his name was changed from
Kun or Kuhja, ' Crook-backed,' to Sundai-a, ' Beautiful,' in accordance with a
change which then took place, the Saivas say, in his personal appearance. Probably

his name, from the beginning, was Sundara In the inscriptions belonging to

the period of his reign he is invariably represented, not as a joint king or viceroy, but
as an absolute monarch ruling over an extensive tract of country, including the Chola
country or Tanjore, and Conjeveram, and as the only possessor for the time being of
the title Pandi Devar. It is clear from the agreement of Rashiduddin with Marco
Polo that Sundara Pandi's power was shared in some way with his brothers, but it
seems certain also from the inscription that there was a sense in which he alone was
king."

I do not give the whole of Dr. Caldwell's remarks on this subject, because, the 3rd
volume of Elliot not being then published, he had not before him the whole of the
information from the Mussulman historians, which shows so clearly that two princes
bearing the name of Sundara Pandi are mentioned by them, and because I cannot see
my way to adopt his view, great as is the weight due to his opinion on any such
question.

Extraordinary darkness hangs over the chronology of the the South Indian
kingdoms, as we may judge from the fact that Dr. Caldwell would have thus placed
at the end of the I3lh century, on the evidence of Polo and Rashiduddin, the reign
of the last of the genuine Pandya kings, whom other calculations place earlier even
by centuries. Thus, to omit views more extravagant, Mr. Nelson, the learned
official historian of Madura, supposes it on the whole most probable that Kun Pandya
alias Sundara, reigned in the latter half of the nth century. "The Sri Tala Book,
which appears to have been written about 60 years ago, and was probably compiled
from brief Tamil chronicles then in existence, states that the Pandya race became
extinct upon the death of Kiin Pandya; and the children of concubines and of younger
brothers who (had) lived in former ages, fought against one another, split up the
country into factions, and got themselves crowned, and ruled one in one place,
another in another. But none of these families succeeded in getting possession of
Madura, the capital, which consequently fell into decay. And further on it tells us,
rather inconsistently, that up to a.d, 1324 the kings 'who ruled the Madura country,
were part of the time Pandyas, at other times foreigners.'" And a variety of
traditions referred to by Mr. Nelson appears to interpose such a period of unsettlement
and shifting and divided sovereignty, extending over a considerable time, between the

Chap. XVI. TANJORE 335

end of the genuine Pandya Dynasty and the Mahomedan invasion; whilst lists of
numerous princes who reigned in this period have been handed down. Now we have
just seen that the Mahomedan invasion took place in 131 1, and we must throw aside
the traditions and the lists altogether if we suppose that the Sundara Pandi of 1292
was the last prince of the Old Line. Indeed, though the indication is faint, the
manner in which Wassaf speaks of Polo's Sundara and his brothers as having
established themselves in different territories, and as in constant war with each other,
is suggestive of the state of unsettlement which the Sri Tala and the traditions
describe.

There is a difficulty in co-ordinating these four or five brothers at constant war,
whom Polo found in possession of different provinces of Ma'bar about 1290, with the
Devar Kalesa, of whom Wassaf speaks as slain in 13 10 after a prosperous reign of
forty years. Possibly the brothers were adventurers who had divided the coast districts,
whilst Kalesa still reigned with a more legitimate claim at Shahr-Mandi or Madura.
And it is worthy of notice that the Ceylon Annals call the Pandi king whose army
carried ofTthe sacred tooth in 1303 Kulasaikera^ a name which we may easily believe
to represent Wassaf s Kalesa. {Nelsons Madura, 55, 67, 71-74; Tumour's
Epitome, p. 47. )

As regards the position of the port of Ma'bar visited, but not named, by Marco
Polo, and at or near which his Sundara Pandi seems to have resided, I am inclined to
look for it rather in Tanjore than on the Gulf of Manar, south of the Rameshwaram
shallows. The difficulties in this view are the indication of its being "60 miles
west of Ceylon," and the special mention of the Pearl Fishery in connection with it.
We cannot, however, lay much stress upon Polo's orientation. When his general
direction is from east to west, every new place reached is for him west of that last
visited ; whilst the Kaveri Delta is as near the north point of Ceylon as Ramnad is to
Aripo. The pearl difficulty may be solved by the probability that the dominion of
Sonder Bandi extended to the coast of the Gulf of Manar.

On the other hand Polo, below (ch. xx.), calls the province of Sundara Pandi
Soli, which we can scarcely doubt to be Chola or Soladesavi, i.e. Tanjore. He calls
it also "the best and noblest Province of India," a description which even with his
limited knowledge of India he would scarcely apply to the coast of Ramnad, but
which might be justifiably applied to the well-watered plains of Tanjore, even when
as yet Arthur Cotton was not. Let it be noticed too that Polo in speaking (ch. xix.)
of Mutfili (or Telingana) specifies its distance from Ma'bar as if he had made the run
by sea from one to the other ; but afterwards when he proceeds to speak of Cail^
which stands on the Gulf of Manar, he does not specify its position or distance in
regard to Sundara Pandi's territory ; an omission which he would not have been
likely to make had both lain on the Gulf of Manar.

Abulfeda tells us that the capital of the Prince of Ma'bar, who was the great horse-
importer, was called Biyarddwal,* a name which now appears in the extracts from
Amfr Khusru {Elliot, III. 90-91) as Birdhul, the capital of Bir Pandi mentioned
above, whilst Madura was the residence of his brother, the later Sundara Pandi.
And from the indications in those extracts it can be gathered, I think, that Birdhul
was not far from the Kaveri (called Kanobari), not far from the sea, and five or six days'
march from Madura. These indications point to Tanjore, Kombakonam, of some
other city in or near the Kaveri Delta. t I should suppose that this Birdhul was the
capital of Polo's Sundara Pandi, and that the port visited was Kaveripattanam. This
was a great sea-port at one of the mouths of the Kaveri, which is said to have been
destroyed by an inundation about the year 1300. According to Mr. Burnell it was

t My learned friend Mr. A. Burnell suggest? that Birdhul must have been Vriddachalam,
Virdachellatn of the maps, which is in South Arcot, about 50 miles north of Tanjore. There are old
and well-known temples there, and relics of fortifications. It is a rather famous place of pilgrimage.

33^

MARCO POLO

Book III.

the '■^ Pattanam 'par excellence' of the Coromandel Coast, and the great port of the
Chola kingdom."*

Some corroboration of the supposition that theTanjore ports were those frequented
by Chinese trade may be found in the fact that a remarkable Pagoda of uncemented
brickwork, about a mile to the north-west of Negapatam, popularly bears (or bore)
the name of the Chinese Pagoda. T do not mean to imply that the building was

Chinese Pagoda (so called) at Negapatam. (From a sketch taken in 1846 by Sir Walter Elliot.)

Chinese, but that the application of that name to a ruin of strange character pomted
to some tradition of Chinese visitors.! Sir Walter Elliot, to whom I am Indebted for
the sketch of it given here, .states that this building differed essentially from any type
of Hindu architecture with which he was acquainted, but being without inscription or
sculpture it was impossible to assign to It any authentic origin. Negapatam was,
however, celebrated as a seat of Buddhist worship, and this may have been a
remnant of their work. In 1846 it consisted of three stories divided by cornices of
stepped brickwork. The interior was open to the top, and showed the marks of a
floor about 20 feet from the ground. Its general appearance Is shown by the cut.
This interesting building was reported In 1859 to be In too dilapidated a state for
repair, and now exists no longer. Sir W. Elliot also tells me that collectors em-

* It was also perhaps the Fattan of the Mahomedan writers ; but in that case its destruction must
have been after Ibn Batuta's time (say middle of 14th century).

t I leave this passage as it stood in the first edition. It is a mistake, but this mistake led to the
engraving of Sir W. Elliot's sketch (perhaps unique) of a very interesting building which has dis-
appeared. Dr. Caldwell writes : " The native name was ' the Jaina Toiver,' turned by the English
into China aiid Chinese. This I was told in Negapatam 30 years ago, but to make sure of the
matter I have now written to Negapatam, and obtained from the Munsiff of the place confirmation of
what I had heard long ago. It bore also the name of the Tower of the Malla.' The Chalukya
Malla kings were at one time Jainas. The 'Seven Pagodas' near Madras bear their name, Ma-
Mallei puram, and their power may at one time have extended as far south as Negapatam." I have
no doubt Dr. Caldwell is right in substance, but the name Cnina Pagoda at Negapatam is at least as
old as Baldaeus (1672, p. 149), and the ascription to the Chinese is in Valentyn (1726, torn. v. p. 6).
It is, I find, in the Atlas of India, " Jayne Pagoda."

Chap. XVI. THE PEARL FISHERY 2)Z7

ployed by him picked up in the sand, at several stations on this coast, numerous
Byzantine and Chinese as well as Hindu coins.* The brickwork of the pagoda, as
described by him, very fine and closely fitted but without cement, corresponds to that
of the Burmese and Ceylonese mediaeval Buddhist buildings. The architeciure has a
slight resemblance to that of Pollanarua in Ceylon (see Fergusson, II. p. 512).
{Abulf. in Gildemeister^ p. 185; Nelson, Pt. II. p. 27 seqq. ; Taylor's Catalogue
Raiso7in^, III. 386-389.)

Ma'bar is mentioned {Ma-pa-'' rh) in the Chinese Annals as one of the foreign
kingdoms which sent tribute to Kublai in 1286 [stipra, p. 296) ; and Pauthier has
given some very curious and novel extracts from Chinese sources regarding the dip-
lomatic intercourse with Ma'bar in 1280 and the following years. Among other
points these mention the "five brothers who were Sultans" [Suantan), an envoy
Chamalating (Jumaluddin) who had been sent from Ma'bar to the Mongol Court, etc.
(See pp. 603^1?^^.)

Note 2. — Marco's account of the pearl-fishery is still substantially correct.
Bettelar, the rendezvous of the fishery, was, I imagine, Patlam on the coast of Ceylon,
called by Ibn Batuta Batthdla. Though the centre of the pearl-fishery is now at
Aripo and Kondachi further north, its site has varied sometimes as low as Chilaw, the
name of which is a corruption of that given by the Tamuls, Saldbham, which means
" the Diving," i.e. the Pearl-fishery. Tennent gives the meaning erroneously as
"the Sea of Gain." I owe the correction to Dr. Caldwell. {Ceylon, I. 440;
Fridham, 409 ; Jbn Bat. IV. 166; Ribeyro, ed. Columbo, 1847, App. p. 196.)

[Ma Huan (/. North China B. R. A. S. XX. p. 213) says that "the King
(of Ceylon) has had an [artificial] pearl pond dug, into which every two or three years
he orders pearl oysters to be thrown, and he appoints men to keep watch over it.
Those who fish for these oysters, and take them to the authorities for the King's use,
sometimes steal and fraudulently sell them."— H. C]

The shark-charmers do not now seem to have any claim to be called Abraiaman
or Brahmans, but they may have been so in former days. At the diamond mines of
the northern Circars Brahmans are employed in the analogous office of propitiating
the tutelary genii. The shark-charmers are called in Tamul Kadal-Katti, " Sea-
binders," and in Hindustani Hai-banda or " Shark-binders." At Aripo they
belong to one family, supposed to have the monopoly of the charm. The chief
operator is (or was, not many years ago) paid by Government, and he also received
ten oysters from each boat daily during the fishery. Tennent, on his visit, found the
incumbent of the office to be a Roman Catholic Christian, but that did not seem to
affect the exercise or the validity of his functions. It is remarkable that when Tennent
wrote, not more than one authenticated accident from sharks had taken place, during
the whole period of the British occupation.

The time of the fishery is a little earlier than Marco mentions, viz. in March and
April, just between the cessation of the north-east and commencement of the south-
west monsoon. His statement of the depth is quite correct ; the diving is carried
on in water of 4 to 10 fathoms deep, and never in a greater depth than 13.

I do not know the site of the other fishery to which he alludes as practised in
September and October ; but the time implies shelter from the south-west Monsoon,
and it was probably on the east side of the island, where in 1750 there was a fishery,
at Trincomalee. {Stewart in Trans. R. A. S. III. 456 seqq.; Fridham., u. s. ;
Tennent, II. 564-565 ; Ribeyro, as above, App. p. 196.)

* Colonel Mackenzie also mentions Chinese coins as found on this coast. {J. R. A. S. I. 352-353-)

VOL. II,

338 MARCO POLO Book III.

CHAPTER XVII.

Continues to speak of the Province of Maabar.

You must know that in all this Province of Maabar
there is never a Tailor to cut a coat or stitch it, seeing
that everybody goes naked ! For decency only do they
wear a scrap of cloth ; and so 'tis with men and women,
with rich and poor, aye, and with the King himself,
except what I am going to mention.^

It is a fact that the King goes as bare as the rest,
only round his loins he has a piece of fine cloth, and
round his neck he has a necklace entirely of precious
stones, — rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and the like,
insomuch that this collar is of great value. ^ He wears
also hanging in front of his chest from the neck down-
wards, a fine silk thread strung with 104 large pearls
and rubies of great price. The reason why he wears
this cord with the 104 great pearls and rubies, is (accord-
ing to what they tell) that every day, morning and
evening, he has to say 104 prayers to his idols. Such is
their religion and their custom. And thus did all the
Kings his ancestors before him, and they bequeathed
the string of pearls to him that he should do the like.
[The prayer that they say daily consists of these words,
Pacauta I Pacauta ! Pacauta ! And this they repeat
104 times. ^

The King aforesaid also wears on his arms three
golden bracelets thickly set with pearls of great value,
and anklets also of like kind he wears on his legs, and
rings on his toes likewise. So let me tell you what this
King wears, between gold and gems and pearls, is worth
more than a city's ransom. And 'tis no wonder ; for he
hath great store of such gear ; and besides they are

Chap. XVII. THE PROVINCE OF MAABAR 339

found in his kingdom. Moreover nobody is permitted
to take out of the kingdom a pearl weighing more than
half a saggio, unless he manages to do it secretly.^ This
order has been given because the King desires to
reserve all such to himself; and so in fact the quantity
he has is something almost incredible. Moreover
several times every year he sends his proclamation
through the realm that if any one who possesses a pearl
or stone of great value will bring it to him, he will pay
for it twice as much as it cost. Everybody is glad to do
this, and thus the King gets all into his own hands,
giving every man his price.

Furthermore, this King hath some ^yq, hundred
wives, for whenever he hears of a beautiful damsel he
takes her to wife. Indeed he did a very sorry deed as I
shall tell you. For seeing that his brother had a
handsome wife, he took her by force and kept her for
himself. His brother, being a discreet man, took the
thing quietly and made no noise about it. The King
hath many children.

And there are about the King a number of Barons
in attendance upon him. These ride with him, and
keep always near him, and have great authority in
the kingdom ; they are called the King's Trusty Lieges.
And you must know that when the King dies, and they
put him on the fire to burn him, these Lieges cast them-
selves into the fire round about his body, and suffer
themselves to be burnt along with him. For they say
they have been his comrades in this world, and that
they ought also to keep him company in the other
world.^

When the Kinor dies none of his children dares

to touch his treasure. For they say, "as our father did

gather together all this treasure, so we ought to

accumulate as much in our turn." And in this way it

VOL. II, Y 2

340 MARCO POLO Book IIT.

comes to pass that there is an immensity of treasure
accumulated in this kingdom.^

Here are no horses bred ; and thus a great part of
the wealth of the country is wasted in purchasing horses ;
I will tell you how. You must know that the merchants
of Kis and Hormes, Dofar and Soer and Aden collect
great numbers of destriers and other horses, and these
they bring to the territories of this King and of his four
brothers, who are kings likewise as I told you. For a
horse will fetch among them 500 saggi of gold, worth
more than 100 marks of silver, and vast numbers are
sold there every year. Indeed this King wants to buy
more than 2000 horses every year, and so do his four
brothers who are kings likewise. The reason why they
want so many horses every year is that by the end of
the year there shall not be one hundred of them remain-
ing, for they all die off. And this arises from mis-
management, for those people do not know in the least
how to treat a horse ; and besides they have no farriers.
The horse-merchants not only never bring any farriers
with them, but also prevent any farrier from going
thither, lest that should in any degree baulk the sale of
horses, which brings them in every year such vast gains.
They bring these horses by sea aboard ship.^

They have in this country the custom which I am
going to relate. When a man is doomed to die for any
crime, he may declare that he will put himself to death in
honour of such or such an idol ; and the crovernment
then grants him permission to do so. His kinsfolk and
friends then set him up on a cart, and provide him with
twelve knives, and proceed to conduct him all about the
city, proclaiming aloud : "This valiant man is going to
slay himself for the love of (such an idol)." And when
they be come to the place of execution he takes a knife
and sticks it through his arm, and cries : " I slay myself

Chap. XVII. THE PROVINCE OF MAABAR 341

for the love of (such a god) ! " Then he takes another
knife and sticks it through his other arm, and takes a
third knife and runs it into his belly, and so on until he
kills himself outright. And when he is dead his kinsfolk
take the body and burn it with a joyful celebration.^
Many of the women also, when their husbands die and
are placed on the pile to be burnt, do burn themselves
along with the bodies. And such women as do this
have great praise from all.^

The people are Idolaters, and many of them worship
the ox, because (say they) it is a creature of such
excellence. They would not eat beef for anything in
the world, nor would they on any account kill an ox.
But there is another class of people who are called Govy,
and these are very glad to eat beef, though they dare
not kill the animal. Howbeit if an ox dies, naturally or
otherwise, then they eat him.^^

And let me tell you, the people of this country have
a custom of rubbing their houses all over with cow-
dung. ^^ Moreover all of them, great and small. King
and Barons included, do sit upon the ground only, and
the reason they give is that this is the most honourable
way to sit, because we all spring from the Earth and to
the Earth we must return ; so no one can pay the Earth
too much honour, and no one ought to despise it.

And about that race of Govis, I should tell you that
nothing on earth would induce them to enter the place
where Messer St. Thomas is — I mean where his body
lies, which is in a certain city of the province of Maabar.
Indeed, were even 20 or 30 men to lay hold of one of
these Govis and to try to hold him in the place where
the Body of the Blessed Apostle of Jesus Christ lies
buried, they could not do it ! Such is the influence of
the Saint ; for it was by people of this generation that
he was slain, as you shall presently hear.^^

342 MARCO POLO Book III.

No wheat grows in this province, but rice only.

And another strange thing to be told is that there is
no possibility of breeding horses In this country, as hath
often been proved by trial. For even when a great
blood-mare here has been covered by a great blood-
horse, the produce is nothing but a wretched wry-legged
weed, not fit to rlde.^^

The people of the country go to battle all naked, with
only a lance and a shield ; and they are most wretched
soldiers. They will kill neither beast nor bird, nor any-
thing that hath life ; and for such animal food as they
eat, they make the Saracens, or others who are not of
their own religion, play the butcher.

It is their practice that every one, male and female,
do wash the whole body twice every day ; and those who
do not wash are looked on much as we look on the
Patarlns. [You must know also that in eating they use
the right hand only, and would on no account touch their
food with the left hand. All cleanly and becoming uses
are ministered to by the right hand, whilst the left is
reserved for uncleanly and disagreeable necessities, such
as cleansing the secret parts of the body and the like.
So also they drink only from drinking vessels, and every
man hath his own ; nor will any one drink from another's
vessel. And when they drink they do not put the
vessel to the lips, but hold it aloft and let the drink
spout into the mouth. No one would on any account
touch the vessel with his mouth, nor give a stranger
drink with it. But if the stranger have no vessel of his
own they will pour the drink into his hands and he may
thus drink from his hands as from a cup.]

They are very strict In executing justice upon
criminals, and as strict in abstaining from wine. Indeed
they have made a rule that wine-drinkers and seafaring
men are never to be accepted as sureties. For they say

Chap. XVII. THE PROVINCE OF MAABAR

343

that to be a seafaring man is all the same as to be
an utter desperado, and that his testimony is good for
nothing.* Howbeit they look on lechery as no sin.

[They have the following rule about debts. If a
debtor shall have been several times asked by his
creditor for payment, and shall have put him off from
day to day with promises, then if the creditor can once
meet the debtor and succeed in drawing a circle round
him, the latter must not pass out of this circle until he
shall have satisfied the claim, or given security for its
discharge. If he in any other case presume to pass the
circle he is punished with death as a transgressor against
right and justice. And the said Messer Marco, when in
this kingdom on his return home, did himself witness a
case of this. It was the King, who owed a foreign
merchant a certain sum of money, and though the claim
had often been presented, he always put it off with
promises. Now, one day when the King was riding
through the city, the merchant found his opportunity,
and drew a circle round both King and horse. The
King, on seeing this, halted, and would ride no further ;
nor did he stir from the spot until the merchant was
satisfied. And when the bystanders saw this they
marvelled greatly, saying that the King was a most just
King indeed, having thus submitted to justice.-^*]

You must know that the heat here is sometimes so
great that 'tis something wonderful. And rain falls only
for three months in the year, viz. in June, July, and
August. Indeed but for the rain that falls in these three
months, refreshing the earth and cooling the air, the
drought would be so great that no one could exist.-^^

They have many experts in an art which they call
Physiognomy, by which they discern a man's character
and qualities at once. They also know the import

* '* Audax ofnniaperpeti," etc.

344 MARCO POLO Book III.

of meeting with any particular bird or beast ; for such
omens are regarded by them more than by any people
in the world. Thus if a man is going along the road
and hears some one sneeze, if he deems it (say) a good
token for himself he goes on, but if otherwise he stops
a bit, or peradventure turns back altogether from his
journey.^^

As soon as a child is born they write down his
nativity, that is to say the day and hour, the month, and
the moon's age. This custom they observe because
every single thing they do is done with reference to
astrology, and by advice of diviners skilled in Sorcery
and Magic and Geomancy, and such like diabolical arts ;
and some of them are also acquainted with Astrology.

[All parents who have male children, as soon as
these have attained the age of 13, dismiss them from
their home, and do not allow them further maintenance
in the family. For they say that the boys are then of
an age to get their living by trade ; so off they pack
them with some twenty or four-and-twenty groats, or at
least with money equivalent to that. And these urchins
are running about all day from pillar to post, buying and
selling. At the time of the pearl-fishery they run
to the beach and purchase, from the fishers or others,
five or six pearls, according to their ability, and take
these to the merchants, who are keeping indoors for
fear of the sun, and say to them : '' These cost me such
a price ; now give me what profit you please on them."
So the merchant gives something over the cost price for
their profit. They do in the same way with many other
articles, so that they become trained to be very dex-
terous and keen traders. And every day they take
their food to their mothers to be cooked and served, but
do not eat a scrap at the expense of their fathers.]

In this kingdom and all over India the birds and

Chap. XVII. THE PROVINCE OF MAABAR 345

beasts are entirely different from ours, all but one bird
which is exactly like ours, and that is the Quail. But
everything else is totally different. For example they
have bats, — I mean those birds that fly by night and
have no feathers of any kind ; well, their birds of this
kind are as big as a goshawk ! Their goshawks again
are as black as crows, a good deal bigger than ours, and
very swift and sure.

- Another strange thing is that they feed their horses
with boiled rice and boiled meat, and various other kinds
of cooked food. That is the reason why all the horses
die off.^^

They have certain abbeys in which are gods and
goddesses to whom many young girls are consecrated ;
their fathers and mothers presenting them to that idol for
which they entertain the greatest devotion. And when
the [monks] of a convent * desire to make a feast to
their god, they send for all those consecrated damsels
and make them sing and dance before the idol with
great festivity. They also bring meats to feed their
idol withal ; that is to say, the damsels prepare dishes of
meat and other good things and put the food before the
idol, and leave it there a good while, and then the
damsels all go to their dancing and singing and festivity
for about as long as a great Baron might require to eat his
dinner. By that time they say the spirit of the idols has
consumed the substance of the food, so they remove the
viands to be eaten by themselves with great jollity.
This is performed by these damsels several times every
year until they are married. -^^

[The reason assigned for summoning the damsels to
these feasts is, as the monks say, that the god is vexed
and angry with the goddess, and will hold no com-

* TheG.T. has nuns, *"■ Li nosnain do mostitr," But in Ramusio it is monks, which is more
probable, and I have adopted it.

346 MARCO POLO Book III.

munication with her ; and they say that if peace be not
established between them things will go from bad to
worse, and they never will bestow their grace and
benediction. So they make those girls come in the way
described, to dance and sing, all but naked, before the
god and the goddess. And those people believe that the
god often solaces himself with the society of the goddess.

The men of this country have their beds made of
very light canework, so arranged that, when they
have got in and are going to sleep, they are drawn up
by cords nearly to the ceiling and fixed there for the
night. This is done to get out of the way of tarantulas
which give terrible bites, as well as of fleas and such
vermin, and at the same time to get as much air as
possible in the great heat which prevails in that region.
Not that everybody does this, but only the nobles and
great folks, for the others sleep on the streets.-^^]

Now I have told you about this kingdom of the
province of Maabar, and I must pass on to the other
kingdoms of the same province, for I have much to tell
of their peculiarities.

Note i. — The non-existence of tailors is not a mere figure of speech. Sundry
learned pundits have been of opinion that the ancient Hindu knew no needle-made
clothing, and Colonel Meadows Taylor has alleged that they had not even a word for
the tailor's craft in their language. These opinions have been patriotically refuted by
Babii Rajendralal Mitra. [Froc. Ass. Soc. B. 1871, p. 100.)

Ibn Batuta describes the King of Calicut, the great "Zamorin," coming down to
the beach to see the wreck of certain Junks ; — "his clothing consisted of a great piece
of white stuff rolled about him from the navel to the knees, and a little scrap of a
turban on his head ; his feet were bare, and a young slave carried an umbrella over
him." (IV. 97.)

Note 2. — The necklace taken from the neck of the Hindu King Jaipal, captured
by Mahmiid in A.D. looi, was composed of large pearls, rubies, etc., and was valued
at 200,000 dinars^ or a good deal more than 100,000/. {Elliot, II, 26.) Compare
Correa's account of the King of Calicut, in Stanley's V. da Gama, 194.

Note 3. — The word is printed in Ramusio Pacauca,h\xt no doubt Pacaiita is the
true reading. Dr. Caldwell has favoured me with a note on this : " The word ....
was probably Bagavd or Pagavdy the Tamil form of the vocative of Bhagavata,
'Lord,' pronounced in the Tamil manner. This word is frequently repeated by
Hindus of all sects in the utterance of their sacred formulae, especially by Vaishnava

Chap. XVIT. "TRUSTY LIEGES'* 347

devotees, some of whom go about repeating this one word alone. When I mentioned
Marco Polo's word to two learned Hindus at different times, they said, ' No doubt he
meant Bagava.''* The Saiva Rosary contains 32 beads; the doubled form of the
same, sometimes used, contains 64 ; the Vaishnava Rosary contains 108, Possibly
the latter may have been meant by Marco." [Captain Gill {River of Golden Sand, II.
p. 341) at Yung-Ch'ang, speaking of the beads of a necklace, writes : "One hundred
and eight is the regulation number, no one venturing to wear a necklace, with one
bead more or less."]

Ward says : " The Hindus believe the repetition of the name of God is an act of

adoration Jdpd (as this act is called) makes an essential part of the daily

worship. . . . The worshipper, taking a string of beads, repeats the name of his
guardian deity, or that of any other god, counting by his beads 10, 28, 108, 208,
adding to every 108 not less than 100 more." (Madras ed. 1863, pp. 217-218.)

No doubt the number in the text should have been 108, which is apparently a
mystic number among both Brahmans and Buddhists. Thus at Gautama's birth 108
Brahmans were summoned to foretell his destiny ; round the great White Pagoda at
Peking are 108 pillars for illumination ; J08 is the number of volumes constituting
the Tibetan scripture called Kahgytir ; the merit of copying this work is enhanced by
the quality of the ink used, thus a copy in red is 108 times more meritorious than one
in black, one in silver 108 ^ times, one in gold, 108 "^ times ; according to the Malabar
Chronicle Parasurama established in that country 108 Iswars, 108 places of worship,
and 108 Durga images; there are said to be 108 shrines of especial sanctity in India ;
there are 108 Upanishads (a certain class of mystical Brahmanical sacred literature) ;
108 rupees is frequently a sum devoted to alms ; the rules of the Chinese Triad
Society assign 108 blows as the punishment for certain offences ; — 108, according to
Athenaeus, were the suitors of Penelope ! I find a Tibetan tract quoted (by Koeppen,
II. 284) as entitled, "The Entire Victor over all the 104 Devils," and this is the only
example I have met with of 104 as a mystic number.

Note 4. — The Saggio, here as elsewhere, probably stands for the Miskdl.

Note 5. — This is stated also by Abu Zaid, in the beginning of the loth century.
And Reinaud in his note refers to Mas'udi, who has a like passage in which he gives
a name to these companions exactly corresponding to Polo's Fdoilz or Trusty Lieges :
"When a King in India dies, many persons voluntarily burn themselves with him.
These are called Baldnjariyah (sing. Ba/dnjar), as if you should say ' Faithful
Friends' of the deceased, whose life was life to them, and whose death was death to
them." (^«f. i^^/. I. 121 andnote; J/^j. II. 85.)

On the murder of Ajit Singh of Marwar, by two of his sons, there were 84 satis,
and "so much was he beloved," says Tod, "that even men devoted themselves on
his pyre" (I. 744). The same thing occurred at the death of the Sikh Giiru
Hargovind in 1645. {H. of Sikhs, p. 62.)

Barbosa briefly notices an institution like that described by Polo, in reference to
the King of Narsinga, i.e. Vijayanagar. [Ram. I. f. 302.) Another form of the same
bond seems to be that mentioned by other travellers as prevalent in Malabar, where
certain of the Nairs bore the name of Amuki, and were bound not only to defend the
King's life with their own, but, if he fell, to sacrifice, themselves by dashing among the
enemy and slaying until slain. Even Christian churches in Malabar had such hereditary
Amuki. (See P. Vine. Maria, Bk. IV. ch. vii., and Cesare Federici in Ram, III.
390, also Faria y Sousa, by Stevens, I. 348.) There can be little doubt that this is
the Malay Amuk, which would therefore appear to be of Indian origin, both in name
and practice. I see that De Gubernatis, without noticing the Malay phrase, traces
the term applied to the Malabar champions to the Sanskrit Amokhya, "indissoluble,"
and Amukia, "not free, bound." [Pice. Eneie. Ind. T 88.) The same practice, by
which the followers of a defeated prince devote themselves in anmk [vulgo running

M. Pauthier has suggested the same explanation in his notes.

348

MARCO POLO Book III.

d-muck)* is called in the island of Bali Beta, a term applied also to one kind of
female Sati, probably from S. Bali^ "a sacrifice." (See Friedrich in Batavian Trans.
XXIII.) In the first syllable of the Baldnjar of Mas'udi we have probably the same
word. A similar institution is mentioned by Caesar among the Sotiates, a tribe of
Aquitania. The Fioilz of the chief were 600 in number and were called Soldurii;
they shared all his good things in life, and were bound to share with him in death also.
Such also was a custom among the Spanish Iberians, and the name of these Amuki
signified "sprinkled for sacrifice." Other generals, says Plutarch, might find a few
such among their personal staff and dependents, but Sertorius was followed by many
myriads who had thus devoted themselves. Procopius relates of the White Huns
that the richer among them used to entertain a circle of friends, some score or more,
as perpetual guests and partners of their wealth. But, when the chief died, the whole
company were expected to go down alive into the tomb with him. The King of the
Russians, in the tenth century, according to Ibn Fozlan, was attended by 400
followers bound by like vows. And according to some writers the same practice was
common in Japan, where the friends and vassals who were under the vow committed
hara kiri at the death of their patron. The Likamankwas of the Al^yssinian kings,
who in battle wear the same dress with their master to mislead the enemy — "Six
Richmondsin the field" — form apparently a kindred institution. {Bell. Gall. iii. c. 22;
Plutarch, in Vit. Sertorii ; Procop. De B. Pers. I. 3 : Ibn Fozlan by Fraehn, p. 22 ;
Sonnerat, I. 97.)

Note 6. — However frequent may have been wars between adjoining states, the
south of the peninsula appears to have been for ages free from foreign invasion until
the Delhi expeditions, which occurred a few years later than our traveller's visit ; and
there are many testimonies to the enormous accumulations of treasure. Gold, accord-
ing to the Masdlak-al-Absdr, had been flowing into India for 3000 years, and had
never been exported. Firishta speaks of the enormous spoils carried off by Malik
Kafur, every soldier's share amounting to 25 lbs. of gold ! Some years later Mahomed
Tughlak loads 200 elephants and several thousand bullocks with the precious spoil of
a single temple. We have quoted a like statement from Wassaf as to the wealth
found in the treasury of this very Sundara Pandi Dewar, but the same author goes
far beyond this when he tells that Kales Dewar, Raja of Ma' bar about 1309, had
accumulated 1200 crores of gold, i.e. 12,000 millions of dinars, enough to girdle the
earth with a four-fold belt of bezants ! {N. and E. XIII. 218, 220-221, Brigg's
Firishta, I. 373-374; Hammer's Ilkhans, II. 205.)

Note 7. — Of the ports mentioned as exporting horses to India we have already
made acquaintance with Kais and HoRMUZ ; of Dofar and Aden we shall hear
further on ; Soer is SoHAR, the former capital of Oman, and still a place of some
little trade. Edrisi calls it " one of the oldest cities of Oman, and of the richest.
Anciently it was frequented by merchants from all parts of the world ; and voyages to
China used to be made from it." (I. 152.)

Rashiduddin and Wassaf have identical statements about the horse trade, and so
similar to Polo's in this chapter that one almost suspects that he must have been their
authority. Wassaf says: "It was a matter of agreement that Malik-ul-Islam
Jamaluddin and the merchants should embark every year from the island of Kais
and land at Ma'bar 1400 horses of his own breed. ... It was also agreed that he
should embark as many as he could procure from all the isles of Persia, such as Katif,
Lahsa, Bahrein, Hurmuz, and Kalhatu. The price of each horse was fixed from of
old at 220 dinars of red gold, on this condition, that if any horses should happen to
die, the value of them should be paid from the royal treasury. It is related by
authentic writers that in the reign of Atabek Abu Bakr of (Fars), 10,000 horses were
annually exported from these places to Ma'bar, Kambayat, and other ports in their

* Running a-muck in the genuine Malay fashion is not unknown among the Rajputs ; see two
notable instances in Tod^ II. 45 and 315. [See Hobson-Jobson.]

Chap. XVII. THE HORSE TRADE

349

neighbourhood, and the sum total of their value amounted to 2,200,000 dinars.
. . . They bind them for 40 days in a stable with ropes and pegs, in order that they
may get fat ; and afterwards, without taking measures for training, and without
stirrups and other appurtenances of riding, the Indian soldiers ride upon them like
demons. ... In a short time, the most strong, swift, fresh, and active horses
become weak, slow, useless, and stupid. In short, they all become wretched and good
for nothing. . . . There is, therefore, a constant necessity of getting new horses
annually." Amfr Khusru mentions among Malik Kafur's plunder in Ma'bar, 5000
Arab and Syrian horses. {Elliot, HI. 34, 93.)

The price mentioned by Polo appears to be intended for 500 dinars, which in the
then existing relations of the precious metals in Asia would be worth just about 100
marks of silver. Wassaf s price, 220 dinars of red gold, seems very inconsistent with
this, but is not so materially, for it would appear that the dinar of red gold (so called)
was worth izvo dinai's*

I noted an early use of the term Arab chargers in the famous Bodleian copy of the
Alexander Romance (1338) :

" Alexand' descent du destrier Arrabis."

Note 8. — I have not found other mention of a condemned criminal being allowed
thus to sacrifice himself; but such suicides in performance of religious vows have
occurred in almost all parts of India in all ages. Friar Jordanus, after giving a
similar account to that in the text of the parade of the victim, represents him as
cutting off his own /^m^ before the idol, with a peculiar two-handled knife " like those
used in currying leather." And strange as this sounds it is undoubtedly true. Ibn
Batuta witnessed the suicidal feat at the Court of the Pagan King of Mul-Java (some-
where on the coast of the Gulf of Siam), and Mr. Ward, without any knowledge of
these authorities, had heard that an instrument for this purpose was formerly pre-
served at Kshira, a village of Bengal near Nadiya. The thing was called Karavat ;
it was a crescent-shaped knife, with chains attached to it forming stirrups, so adjusted
that when the fanatic placed the edge to the back of his neck and his feet in the
stirrups, by giving the latter a violent jerk his head was cut off. Padre Tiefifentaller
mentions a like instrument at Prag (or Allahabad). Durgavati, a famous Queen on
the Nerbada, who fell in battle with the troops of Akbar, is asserted in a family in-
scription to have " severed her own head with a scimitar she held in her hand."
According to a wild legend told at Ujjain, the great king Vikramajit was in the habit
of cutting off his own head daily, as an offering to Devi. On the last performance the
head failed to re-attach itself as usual ; and it is now preserved, petrified, in the
temple of Harsuddi at that plnce.

I never heard of anybody in Europe performing this extraordinary feat except Sir
Jonah Barrington's Irish mower, who made a dig at a salmon with the butt of his
scythe-handle and dropt his own head in the pool ! {ford. 33 ; /. B. IV. 246 ; Ward,
Madras ed. 249-250 ; /. A. S. B. XVII. 833 ; Rds Mala, II. 387.)

Note 9. — Satis were very numerous in parts of S. India. In 1815 there were one
hundred in Tanjore alone. {Ritter, VI. 303 ; /. Cathay, p. 80.)

Note 10. — " The people in this part of the country (Southern Mysore) consider the
ox as a living god, who gives them bread ; and in every village there are one or two
bulls to whom weekly or monthly worship is performed." {F. Buchanan, II. 174.)
" The low-caste Hindus, called Gavi by Marco Polo, were probably the caste now called
Paraiyar (by the English, Pariahs). The people of this caste do not venture to kill
the cow, but when they find the carcase of a cow which has died from disease, or

* See Journ. Astat. s^r. VI. torn. xi. pp. 505 and 512. May not the dinar of red gold have heen
the gold mohr of those days, popularly known as the red tanga, which Ibn Batuta repeatedly tells us
was equal to ■2\ dinars of the west. 220 red tangas would be equivalent to 550 western dinars, or saggi^
of Polo. {ElliQt, II. 332, HI. 582.)

350 MARCO POLO Book III.

any other cause, they cook and eat it. The name Paraiyar, which means
' Drummers,' does not appear to be ancient," * {Note by the Rev. Dr. Caldivell.)

In the history of Sind called Chach Namah, the Hindus revile the Mahomedan
invaders as Chanddls and cow-eaters. {Elliot^ I. 172, 193). The low castes are often
styled from their unrestricted diet, e.g. Haldl-Khor (P. ** to whom all food is lawful "),
Sab-khawd (11. "omnivorous").

Bdbu Rajendraldl Mitra has published a learned article on Beef in ancient India,
showing that the ancient Brahmans were far from entertaining the modern horror of
cow-killing. We may cite two of his numerous illustrations. Goghna, "a guest,"
signifies literally **a cow-killer," i.e. he for whom a cow is killed. And one of the
sacrifices prescribed in the Sutras bears the name oi Suta-gava " spit-cow," i.e. roast-
beef. (/. A. S. B. XLI. Pt. I. p. 174 seqq.)

Note ii. — The word in the G. T. is losci dou buef, which Pauthier's text has con-
verted into suifde buef—\n reference to Hindus, a preposterous statement. Yet the
very old Latin of the Soc. Geog. also has pingiiedinem, and in a parallel passage
about the Jogis {infra, ch. xx. ), Ramusio's text describes them as daubing themselves
with powder of ox- bones i^Possa). Apparently Posci was not understood (It. uscito).

Note 12. — Later travellers describe the descendants of St. Thomas's murderers as
marked by having one leg of immense size, i.e. by elephantiasis. The disease was
therefore called by the Portuguese Pejo de Santo Toma.

Note 13. — Mr. Nelson says of the Madura country : "The horse is a miserable,
weedy, and vicious pony ; having but one good quality, endurance. The breed is
not indigenous, but the result of constant importations and a very limited amount of
breeding." {The Madura Country, Pt. II. p. 94.) The ill success in breeding horses
was exaggerated to impossibility, and made to extend to all India. Thus a Persian
historian, speaking of an elephant that was born in the stables of Khosru Parviz,
observes that ' ' never till then had a she-elephant borne young in Iran, any more than
a lioness in Rum, a tabby cat in China (!), or a tnare in India.'''' {J. A. S. ser. III.
tom. iii. p. 127.)

[Major-General Crawfurd T. Chamberlain, C.S.I., in a report on Stud Matters
in India, 27th June 1874, writes : "I ask how it is possible that horses could be bred
at a moderate cost in the Central Division, when everything was against success.
I account for the narrow-chested, congenitally unfit and malformed stock, also for the
creaking joints, knuckle over fittocks, elbows in, toes out, seedy toe, bad action,
weedy frames, and other degeneracy: 1st, to a damp climate, altogether inimical to
horses ; 2nd, to the operations being intrusted to a race of people inhabiting a
country where horses are not indigenous, and who therefore have no taste for
them . . . ; 5th, treatment of mares. To the impure air in confined, non-ventilated
hovels, etc. ; 6th, improper food ; 7th, to a chronic system of tall rearing and
forcing." {MS. Note.— II. Y.)]

Note 14. — This custom is described in much the same way by the Arabo- Persian
Zakariah Kazwini, by Ludovico Varthema, and by Alexander Hamilton. Kazwini
ascribes it to Ceylon. "If a debtor does not pay, the King sends to him a person
who draws a line round him, wheresoever he chance to be ; and beyond that circle he
dares not to move until he shall have paid what he owes, or come to an agreement
with his creditor. For if he shoujd pass the circle the King fines him three times the
amount of his debt ; one-third of this fine goes to the creditor and two-thirds to the
King." Pere Bouchet describes the strict regard paid to the arrest, but does not
notice the symbolic circle. {Gildetn. 197; Varthema, 147; Ham. I. 318; Lett.
Edif XIV. 370.)

" The custom undoubtedly prevailed in this part of India at a former time. It is

* I observe, however, that Sir Walter Elliot thinks it possible that the Paraya which appears on
the oldest of Indian inscriptions as the name of a nation, coupled with Chola and Kerala (Coromandel
and Malabar), is that of the modern despised tribe. (/. Etlm. Soc. n. s. I. 103.)

Chap. XVII. TREATMENT OF IMPORTED HORSES 35 1

said that it still survives amongst the poorer classes in out-of-the-way parts of the
country, but it is kept up by schoolboys in a serio-comic spirit as vigorously as ever.
Marco does not mention a very essential part of the ceremony. The person who
draws a circle round another imprecates upon him the name of a particular divinity,
whose curse is to fall upon him if he breaks through the circle without satisfying the
claim." {MS. Note by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell. )

Note 15. — The statement about the only rains falling in June, July, and
August is perplexing. "It is entirely inapplicable to every part of the Coromandel
coast, to which alone the name Ma'bar seems to have been given, but it is quite true
of the western coast generally." {Rev. Dr. C.) One can only suppose that
Polo inadvertently applied to Maabar that which he knew to be true of the regions
both west of it and east of it. The Coromandel coast derives its chief supply of rain
from the north-east monsoon, beginning in October, whereas both eastern and
western India have theirs from the south-west monsoon, between June and
September.

Note 16. — Abraham Roger says of the Hindus of the Coromandel coast : " They
judge of lucky hours and moments also by trivial accidents, to which they pay great
heed. Thus 'tis held to be a good omen to everybody when the bird Garuda (which
is a red hawk with a white ring round its neck) or the bird Pala flies across the road
in front of the person from right to left ; but as regards other birds they have just the
opposite notion. ... If they are in a house any \\ here, and have moved to go, and
then any one should sneeze, they will go in again, regarding it as an ill omen," etc.
{Abr. Roger ^ pp. 75-76.)

Note 17. — Quoth Wassaf: "It is a strange thing that when these horses arrive
there, instead of giving them raw barley, they give them roasted barley and grain
dressed with butter, and boiled cow's milk to drink : —

" Who gives sugar to an owl or a crow ?
C*r who feeds a parrot with a carcase ?
A crow should be fed with carrion.
And a parrot with candy and sugar.
Who loads jewels on the back of an ass?
Or who would approve of giving dressed almonds to a cow ? ''

—Elliot, HI. 33.

" Horses," says Athanasius Nikitin, "are fed on peas ; also on Kicheri, boiled
with sugar and oil ; early in the morning they get shishenivo.''^ This last word is a
mystery. {India in the XVth Century, p. 10, )

" Rice is frequently given by natives to their horses to fatten them, and a sheep's
head occasionally to strengthen them." {Note by Dr. Caldwell.)

The sheep's head is peculiar to the Deccan, but ghee (boiled butter) is given by
natives to their horses, I believe, all over India. Even in the stables of Akbar an
imperial horse drew daily 2 lbs. of flour, i^ lb. of sugar, and in winter \ lb. oi ghee !
{Ain. Akb. 134.)

It is told of Sir John Malcolm that at an English table where he was present, a
brother officer from India had ventured to speak of the sheep's head custom to an un-
believing audience. He appealed to Sir John, who only shook his head deprecatingly.
After dinner the unfortunate story-teller remonstrated, but Sir John's answer was only,
" My dear fellow, they took you for one Munchausen ; they would merely have taken
me for another !"

Note 18. — The nature of the institution of the Temple dancing-girls seems to
have been scarcely understood by the Traveller. The like existed at ancient Corinth
under the name of lepbbovKoi, which is nearly a translation of the Hindi name of the
girls, Deva-ddsi. {Strabo, VIII. 6, § 20.) " Each (Dasi) is married to an idol when

352

MARCO POLO

Book HI

quite young. The female children are generally brought up to the trade of the
mothers. It is customary with a few castes to present their superflous daughters to
the Pagodas." {Nelsoji's Madura Country, Pt. II. 79.) A full account of this matter
appears to have been read by Dr. Shortt of Madras before the Anthropological Society.
But I have only seen a newspaper notice of it.

Note 19. — The first part of this paragraph is rendered by Marsden : "The
natives make use of a kind of bedstead or cot of very light canework, so ingeniously
contrived that when they repose on them, and are inclined to sleep, they can draw
close the curtains about them by pulling a string.'''' This is not translation. An
approximate illustration of the real statement is found in Pyrard de Laval, who says
(of the Maldive Islanders) : " Their beds are hung up by four cords to a bar supported
by two pillars. . . The beds of the king, the grandees, and rich folk are made
thus that they may be swung and rocked with facility." {Charton, IV. 277.) In the
Rds Mala swinging cots are several times alluded to. (I. 173, 247, 423. ) In one case
the bed is mentioned as suspended to the ceiling by chains.

Pagoda at Tanjore,

Chap. XVllI.

SHRINE OF ST. THOMAS

353

CHAPTER XVIII.

Discoursing of the Place where lieth the Body of St. Thomas
THE Apostle ; and of the Miracles thereof.

The Body of Messer St. Thomas the Apostle lies in
this province of Maabar at a certain little town having
no great population • 'tis a place where few traders go,

Ancient Cross with Pehlevi Inscription on St. Thomas's Mount, near Madras. (From Photograph.)

because there is very little merchandize to be got there,
and it is a place not very accessible.^ Both Christians
and Saracens, however, greatly frequent it in pilgrimage.
For the Saracens also do hold the Saint in great
reverence, and say chat he was one of their own Saracens
and a great prophet, giving him the title of Avarian,
which is as much as to say "Holy Man."^ The

VOL. II. z

354 Marco t>oLO fiooK in.

Christians who go thither in pilgrimage take of the earth
from the place where the Saint was killed, and give a
portion thereof to any one who is sick of a ruartan or a
tertian fever ; and by the power of God and of St.
Thomas the sick man is incontinently cured. ^ The earth,
I should tell you, is red. A very fine miracle occurred
there in the year of Christ, 1288, as I will now
relate.

A certain Baron of that country, having great store of
a certain kind of corn that Is called rice, had filled up with
it all the houses that belonged to the church, and stood
round about it. The Christian people in charge of the
church were much distressed by his having thus stuffed
their houses with his rice ; the pilgrims too had nowhere to
lay their heads ; and they often begged the pagan Baron
to remove his grain, but he would do nothing of the kind.
So one night the Saint himself appeared with a fork in
his hand, which he set at the Baron's throat, saying : '' If
thou void not my houses, that my pilgrims may have
room, thou shalt die an evil death," and therewithal
the Saint pressed him so hard with the fork that he
thouo^ht himself a dead man. And when morninor came
he caused all the houses to be voided of his rice, and
told everybody what had befallen him at the Saint's hands.
So the Christians were greatly rejoiced at this grand
miracle, and rendered thanks to God and to the blessed
St. Thomas. Other great miracles do often come to pass
there, such as the healing of those who are sick or de-
formed, or the like, especially such as be Christians.

[The Christians who have charge of the church have
a great number of the Indian Nut trees, whereby they
get their living ; and they pay to one of those brother
Kings six groats for each tree every month.*]

Now, I will tell you the manner in which the Christian

* Should be "year" no doubt.

Chap. XVlIt. StIRINE OF St. tHOMAS 355

brethren who keep the church relate the story of the
Saint's death.

They tell that the Saint was in the wood outside his
hermitage saying his prayers ; and round about him were
many peacocks, for these are more plentiful in that
country than anywhere else. And one of the Idolaters
of that country being of the lineage of those called Govt
that I told you of, having gone with his bow and arrows to
shoot peafowl, not seeing the Saint, let fly an arrow at
one of the peacocks ; and this arrow struck the holy man
in the right side, insomuch that he died of the wound,
sweetly addressing himself to his Creator. Before he
came to that place where he thus died he had been
In Nubia, where he converted much people to the faith of
Jesus Christ.^

The children that are born here are black enough,
but the blacker they be the more they are thought of;
wherefore from the day of their birth their parents do
rub them every week with oil of sesame, so that they
become as black as devils. Moreover, they make their
gods black and their devils white, and the images of
their saints they do paint black all over.^

They have such faith in the ox, and hold It for a thing
so holy, that when they go to the wars they take of the
hair of the wild-ox, whereof I have elsewhere spoken, and
wear it tied to the necks of their horses; or, if serving
on foot, they hang this hair to their shields, or attach it to
their own hair. And so this hair bears a high price,
since without it nobody goes to the wars in any good
heart. For they believe that any one who has it shall
come scatheless out of battle.^

Note i.— The little town where the body of St. Thomas lay was Mailapi5^r,
the name of which is still applied to a suburb of Madras about 3I miles south of P^ort
St. George.

Note 2. — The title of Avarian, given to St. Thomas by the Saracens, is
VOL. .II. Z 2

356

MARCO POLO

Book III.

judiciously explained by Joseph Scaliger to be the Arabic Hawdriy (pi. Hawdnytin)^
**An Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ." Scaliger somewhat hypercritically for the
occasion finds fault with Marco for saying the word means "a holy man." {De
Emendatione TemJ>orum, Lib. VII., Geneva, 1629, p. 680.)

Note 3. — The use of the earth from the tomb of St. Thomas for miraculous cures
is mentioned also by John Marignolli, who was there about 1348-1349. Assemani
gives a special formula of the Nestorians for use in the application of this dust, which
was administered to the sick in place of the unction of the Catholics. It ends with
the words : " Signattir ct sanctijicatur hie Ilanana {pulvis) cuvi hac Taibutha {gratia)
Sancti Thomae Apostoli in sanitatem et medelam corporis et animae, in novien P. et
F. et S.S.'' (III. rt. 2, 278.) The Abyssinians make a similar use of the earth
from the tomb of their national Saint Tekla Haimanot. (/. A'. G. S. X. 483.) And
the Shiahs, on solemn occasions partake of water in which has been mingled the dust
of Kerbela.

Fa-hian tells that the people of Magadha did the like, for the cure of headache,
with earth from the place where lay the body of Kasyapa, a former Buddha.
{Bea/, p. 1 33-)

The Liulc Mount of bt. Thomas, near Madras.

Note 4. — Vague as is Polo's indication ot the position of the Siirine of St.
Thomas, it is the first geographical identification of it that I know of, save one. At
the very time of Polo's homeward voyage, John of Monte Corvino on his way to China
spent thirteen months in Maabar, and in a .letter thence in 1292-1293 he speaks of
the church of St. Thomas there, having buried in it the companion of his travels.
Friar Nicholas of Pistoia.

But the tradition of Thomas's preaching in India is very old, so old that it pro-
bably is, in its simple form, true. St. Jerome accepts it, speaking of the Divine
Word as being everywhere present in His fulness: ''aim Thomd in India, cum
Petro Romae, cum Paulo in Illyrico," etc. {Scti. Hieron. Episfolae, LIX.,
ad Marceila/n.) So dispassionate a scholar as Professor H. II. Wilson speaks of the
preaching and martyrdom of St. Thomas in S. India as "occurrences very far from
invalidated by any arguments yet adduced against the truth of the tradition." I do
not know if the date is ascertainable of the very remarkable legend of St. Thomas in

Chap. XVII I. TRADITIONS OF ST. THOMAS 357

the apocryphal Acts of the Aposlles, but it is presumably very old, though subsequent
to the translation of the relics (real or supposed) to Edessa, in the } ear 394, which is
alluded to in the story. And it is worthy of note that this legend places the martyr-
dom and original burial-place of the Saint upon a mount. Gregory of Tours |
(a.d. 544-595) relates that "in that place in India where the body of Thomas lay!
before it was transported to Edessa, there is a monastery and a temple of great size
and excellent structure and ornament. In it God shows a wonderful miracle; for the
lamp that stands alight before the place of sepulture keeps burning perpetually, night
and day, by divine influence, for neither oil nor wick are ever renewed by human
hands ; " and this Gregory learned from one Theodorus, who had visited the spot.

The apocryphal history of St. Thomas relates that while the Lord was still upon
earth a certain King of India, whose name was Gondaphorus, sent to the west a
certain merchant called Abban to seek a skilful architect to build him a palace, and
the Lord sold Thomas to him as a slave of His own who was expert in such work.
Thomas eventually converts King Gondaphorus, and proceeds to another country of
India ruled by King Meodetis^ where he is put to death by lances. M. Reinaud
first, I believe, pointed out the remarkable fact that the name of the King Gonda-
phorus of the legend is the same with that of a King who has become known from
the Indo-Scythian coins, Gondophares, Yndoferres, or Gondaferres, This gives great
interest to a votive inscription found near Peshawar, and now in the Lahore
Museum, which appears to bear the name of the same King. This Professor Dowson
has partially read : " In the 26th year of the great King Guna . . . pharasa, on the
seventh day of the month Vaisakha." . . . General Cunningham has read the date
with more claim to precision : "In the 26th year of King Guduphara, in the Sam vat
year 103, in the month of Vaisakh, the 4th day." . . . But Professor Dowson now
comes much closer to General Cunningham, and reads : " 26th year of the King, the
year 100 of Samvat, 3rd day of Vaisakha." (See Rep. of R. As. Soc, iSth January,
1875.) In ordinary application of Samvat (to era of Vikramaditya) A.s. 100 =
A. n. 43 ; but the era meant here is as yet doubtful. Lassen put Yndoferres about
90 B.C., as Cunningham did formerly about 26 B.C. The chronology is very doubtful,
but the evidence does not appear to be strong against the synchronism of the King
and the legend. (See Prinsep's Essays, II. 176, 177,- and Mr. Thomas's remarks at
p. 214; Triibner's Record, 30th June, 187; Cunningham's Desc. List of Buddhist
Sculptures in Lahore Central Museum ; Reinaud, Inde, p. 95.)

Here then may be a faint trace of a true apostolic history. But in the i6th and
17th centuries Roman Catholic ecclesiastical story-tellers seem to have striven in
rivalry who should most recklessly expand the travels of St. Thomas. According to
an abstract given by P. Vincenzo Maria, his preaching began in Mesopotamia, and
extended through Bactria, etc., to China, "the States of the Great Mogul" (!)
and Siam ; he then revisited his first converts, and passed into Germany, thence to
Brazil, "as relates P. Emanuel Nobriga," and from that to Ethiopia. After thus
carrying light to the four quarters of the World, the indefatigable Traveller and
Missionary retook his way to India, converting Socotra as- he passed, and then
preached in Malabar, and on the Coromandel Coast, where he died, as already
stated.

Some parts of this strange rhapsody, besides the Indian mission, were no doubt of
old date ; for the Chaldaean breviary of the Malabar Church in its office of St.
Thomas contains such passages as this : "By St. Thomas were the Chinese and the
Ethiopians converted to the Truth;" and in an Anthem: "The Hindus, the
Chinese, the Persians, and all the people of the Isles of the Sea, they who dwell in
Syria and Armenia, in Javan and Romania, call Thomas to remembrance, and adore
Thy Name, O Thou our Redeemer ! "

The Roman Martyrology calls the city of Martyrdom Calamina, but there is
(I think) a fair presumption that the spot alluded to by Gregory of Tours was
Mailapur, and that the Shrine visited by King Alfred's envoy, Sighelm, may have
been the same.

358

MARCO POLO

Book III,

Marco, as we see, speaks of certain houses belonging to the church, and of certain
Christians who kept it. Odoric, some thirty years later, found beside the church,
"some 15 houses of Nestorians," but the Church itself filled with idols. Conti, in the
following century, speaks of the church in which St. Thomas lay buried, as large and
beautiful, and says there were looo Nestorians in the city. Joseph of Cranganore,
the Malabar Christian who came to Europe in 1501, speaks like our traveller of the
worship paid to the Saint, even by the heathen, and compares the church to that of
St. John and St, Paul at Venice. Certain Syrian bishops sent to India in 1504, whose
report is given by Assemani, heard that the church had begwt to be occupied by some
Christian people. But Barbosa, a few years later, found it half in ruins and in the
charge of a Mahomedan Fakir, who kept a lamp burning.

There are two St. Thomas's Mounts in the same vicinity, the Great and the Little
Mount. A church was built upon the former by the Portuguese and some sanctity
attributed to it, especially in connection with the cross mentioned below, but I believe
there is no doubt that the Little Motmt was the site of the ancient church.

The Portuguese ignored the ancient translation of the Saint's remains to Edessa,
and in 1522, under the Viceroyalty of Duarte Menezes, a commission was sent to
Mailapiir, or San Tome as they called it, to search for the body. The narrative
states circumstantially that the Apostle's bones were found, besides those of the king
whom he had converted, etc. The supposed relics were transferred to Goa, where
they are still preserved in the Church of St. Thomas in that city. The question
appears to have become a party one among Romanists in India, in connection with
other differences, and I see that the authorities now ruling the Catholics at Madras
are strong in disparagement of the special sanctity of the localities, and of the whole
story connecting St. Thomas with Mailapur. ( Greg. Turon. Lib. Mirac. I. p. 85 ;
Tr. R A. S. I. 761 ; Assemani, III. Pt, II, pp. 32, 450 ; Novus Orbis (ed. 1555),
p. 210; Maffei, Bk, VIII. ; Cathay, pp. 81, 197, 374-377, etc.)

The account of the Saint's death was no doubt that current among the native
Christians, for it is told in much the same way by Marignolli and by Barbosa, and was
related also in the same manner by one Diogo Fernandes, who gave evidence before
the commission of Duarte Menezes, and who claimed to have been the first Portuguese
visitor of the site. (See De Coiito, Dec. V. Liv. vi. cap, 2, and Dec. VII. Liv. x.
cap, 5,)

As Diogo de Couto relates the story of the localities, in the shape which

it had taken by the middle of the
i6th century, both Little and Great
Mounts were the sites of Oratories
which the Apostle had frequented ;
during prayer on the Little Mount
he was attacked and wounded, but
fled to the Great Mount, where he
expired. In repairing a hermitage
which here existed, in 1547, the
workmen came upon a stone slab
with a cross and inscription carved
upon it. The story speedily de-
veloped itself that this was the cross
which had been embraced by the
dying Apostle, and its miraculous
virtues soon obtained great fame.
It was eventually set up over an
altar in the Church of the Madonna,
which was afterwards erected on
the Great Mount, and there it
still exists. A Brahman im-
postor professed to give an interpretation of the inscription as relating to the death

Kn tttn fj^

Thomas Localities at Madras.

Chap. XIX. THE KINGDOM OF MUTFILI 359

of St. Thomas, etc., and this was long accepted. The cross seemed to have been
long forgotten, when lately Mr. Burnell turned his attention to these and other like
relics in Southern India. He has shown the inscription to be Pehlvi, and probably
of the 7th or 8th century. Mr. Fergusson considers the architectural character to be
of the 9th. The interpretations of the Inscription as yet given are tentative and
somewhat discrepant. Thus Mr. Burnell reads: "In punishment (?) by the cross
(was) the suffering to this (one) : (He) who is the true Christ and God above, and
Guide for ever pure." Professor Haug : "Whoever believes in the Messiah, and in
God above, and also in the Holy Ghost, is in the grace of Him who bore the pain
of the Cross." Mr. Thomas reads the central part, between two small crosses, "-•- In
the Name of Messiah -•-." See Kircher, China Ilhistrata^ p. 55 seqq. ; De Couto^
u. s. (both of these have inaccurate representations of the cross) ; Academy^ vol. v.
(1874), p. 145, etc. ; and Mr. Burnell's pamphlet ** On sojne Pahlavi Inscriptions in
South India.^^ To his kindness I am indebted for the illustration (p. 351).

[" E na quelle parte da tranqueira alem, do ryo de Malaca, em hum citio de Raya
Mudiliar, que depois possuyo Dona Helena Vessiva, entre os Mangueiraes cavando
ao fundo quasi 2 bra9as, descobrirao hua -•- floreada de cobre pouco carcomydo, da
forma como de cavaleyro de Calatrava de 3 palmos de largo, e comprido sobre
hua pedra de marmor, quadrada de largura e comprimento da ditta -•- , entra huas
ruynas de hua caza sobterranea de tijolos como Ermida, e parece ser a -•- de algum
christao de Meliapor, que veo em companhia de mercadores de Choromandel a
Malaca." {Godinho de Eredia, fol. 15.)—.^^. Note.—U. Y.]

The etymology of the name Mayildpptir, popular among the native Christians, is
** Peacock-Town," and the peafowl are prominent in the old legend of St. Thomas.
Polo gives it no name; Marignolli {circa 1350) calls it MirapoliSy the Catalan Map
(1375) Mirapor ; Conti {circa 1440) Malepor ; Joseph of Cranganore (1500) Milapar
(or Milapor) ; De Barros and Couto, Aleliapor. Mr. Burnell thinks it was probably
J/a/d;z-ppuram, "Mount-Town" ; and the same as the Malifatan of the Mahomedan
writers ; the last point needs further enquiry.

Note 5. — Dr. Caldwell, speaking of the devil-worship of the Shanars of Tin-
nevelly (an important part of Ma'bar), says: "Where they erect an image in
imitation of their Brahman neighbours, the devil is generally of Brahmanical lineage.
Such images generally accord with those monstrous figures with which all over India
orthodox Hindus depict the enemies of their gods, or the terrific forms of Siva or
Durga. They are generally made of earthenware, and painted white to look horrible
in Hindu eyes.^^ {The Tinnevelly Shanars y Madras, 1849, p. 18.)

Note 6. — The use of the Yak's tail as a military ornament had nothing to do
with the sanctity of the Brahmani ox, but is one of the Pan-Asiatic usages, of which
there are so many. A vivid account of the extravagant profusion with which
swaggering heroes in South India used those ornaments will be found in P. delta Valle,
II. 662.

CHAPTER XIX.

Concerning the Kingdom, of Mutfili.

When you leave Maabar and go about 1,000 miles in a
northerly direction you come to the kingdom of Mutfili.
This was formerly under the rule of a King, and since his

360 MARCO rOLO , Book III.

death, some forty years past, it has been under his
Queen, a lady of much discretion, who for the great love
she bore him never would marry another husband. And
I can assure you that during all that space of forty years
she had administered her realm as well as ever her
husband did, or better; and as she was a lover of justice,
of equity, and of peace, she was more beloved by those
of her kingdom than ever was Lady or Lord of theirs
before. The people are Idolaters, and are tributary to
nobody. They live on flesh, and rice, and milk.^

It is in this kingdom that diamonds are got ; and I
will tell you how. There are certain lofty mountains in
those parts ; and when the winter rains fall, which are
very heavy, the w^aters come roaring down the mountains
in great torrents. When the rains are over, and the
waters from the mountains have ceased to flow, they
search the beds of the torrents and find plenty of diamonds.
In summer also there are plenty to be found in the
mountains, but the heat of the sun is so great that it is
scarcely possible to go thither, nor is there then a drop
of water to be found. Moreover in those mountains
great serpents are rife to a marvellous degree, besides
other vermin, and this owing to the great heat. The
serpents are also the most venomous in existence, inso-
much that any one going to that region runs fearful peril ;
for many have been destroyed by these evil reptiles.

Now among these mountains there are certain great
and deep valleys, to the bottom of which there is no
access. Wherefore the men who go in search of the
diamonds take with them pieces of flesh, as lean as they
can get, and these they cast into the bottom of a valley.
Now there are numbers of white eagles that haunt those
mountains and feed upon the serpents. When the eagles
see the meat thrown down they pounce upon it and carry
it up to some rocky hill-top where they begin to rend it.

Chap. XIX. THE KINGDOM OF MUTFILI 36 1

But there are men on the watch, and as soon as they see
that the eagles have settled they raise a loud shouting to
drive them away. And when the eagles are thus
frightened away the men recover the pieces of meat, and
find them full of diamonds which have stuck to the meat
down in the bottom. For the abundance of diamonds
down there in the depths of the valleys is astonishing,
but nobody can get down ; and if one could, it would be
only to be incontinendy devoured by the serpents which
are so rife there.

There is also another way of getting the diamonds.
The people go to the nests of those white eagles, of
which there are many, and in their droppings they find
plenty of diamonds which the birds have swallowed in
devouring the meat that was cast into the valleys. And,
when the eagles themselves are taken, diamonds are
found in their stomachs.

So now I have told you three different ways in which
these stones are found. No other country but this king-
dom of Mutfili produces them, but there they are found
both abundantly and of large size. Those that are
brought to our part of the world are only the refuse, as
it were, of the finer and larger stones. For the flower of
the diamonds and other large gems, as well as the largest
pearls, are all carried to the Great Kaan and other Kings
and Princes of those regions ; in truth they possess all
the great treasures of the world. ^

In this kingdom also are made the best and most
delicate buckrams, and those of highest price ; in sooth
they look like tissue of spider's web ! There is no King
nor Queen in the world but might be glad to wear them.^
The people have also the largest sheep in the world, and
great abundance of all the necessaries of life.

There is now no more to say ; so I will next tell you about
a province called Lar from which the Abraiaman come.

362 MARCO rOLO Book III.

Note i. — There is no doubt that the kingdom here spoken of is that of
Telingana {^Tiling of the Mahomedan writers), then ruled by the Kdkateya or
Ganapati dynasty reigning at Warangol, north-east of Hyderabad. But Marco seems
to give the kingdom the name of that place in it which was visited by himself or his in-
formants. MUTFILI is, with the usual Arab modification {e.g. Perlec, Ferlec —
Pattan, Fattan), a port called Motupalli;:, in the Gantiir district of the Madras
Presidency, about 170 miles north of Fort St. George. Though it has dropt out of
most of our modern maps it still exists, and a notice of it is to be found in W.
Hamilton, and in Milburne. The former says : *' Miitapali, a town situated near the
S. extremity of the northern Circars. A considerable coasting trade is carried on from
hence in the craft navigated by natives," which can come in c loser to shore than at
other ports on that coast. — [Cf. Hunter^ Gaz. India, Mohtpalliy "now only an
obscure fishing village." — It is marked in Constaby 5 Hand Atlas of India. — H, C]

The proper territory of the Kingdom of Warangol lay inland, but the last reigning
prince before Polo's visit to India, by name Kakateya Pratapa Ganapati Rudra Deva,
had made extensive conquests on the coast, including Nellore, and thence northward
to the frontier of Orissa. This prince left no male issue, and his widow, Rudrama
Devi, daughter of the Raja of Devagiri, assumed the government and continued to
hold it for twenty-eight, or, as another record states, for thirty-eight years, till the son
of her daughter had attained majority. This was in 1292, or by the other account
1295, when she transferred the royal authority to this grandson Pratapa Vira Rudra
Deva, the " Luddur Deo" of Firishta, and the last Ganapati of any political moment.
He was taken prisoner by the Delhi forces about 1323. We have evidently in
Rudrama Devi the just and beloved Queen of our Traveller, who thus enables us to
attach colour and character to what was an empty name in a dynastic list.
(Compare Wilsoiis Mackenzie, I. cxxx. ; Taylo7-''s Or. Hist. MSS. I. 18; Do.^s
Catalogue Raiso7ini, III. 483.)

Mutfili appears in the Carta Catalana as Butijlis, and is there by some mistake
made the site of St. Thomas's Shrine. The distance from Maabar is in Ramusio only
500 miles — a preferable reading.

Note 2. — Some of the Diamond Mines once so famous under the name of
Golconda are in the alluvium of the Kistna River, some distance above the Delta,
and others in the vicinity of Kadapa and Karniil, both localities being in the territory
of the kingdom we have been speaking of.

The strange legend related here is very ancient and widely diffused. Its earliest
known occurrence is in the Treatise of St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus,
concerning the twelve Jewels in the Rationale or Breastplate of the Hebrew High
Priest, a work written before the end of the 4th century, wherein the tale is told of the
Jacinth. It is distinctly referred to by Edrisi, who assigns its locality to the land of
the Kirkhir (probably Khirghiz) in Upper Asia. It appears in Kazwini's Wonders of
Creation, and is assigned by him to the Valley of the Moon among the mountains of
Serendib. Sindbad the Sailor relates the story, as is well known, and his version is
the closest of all to our author's. [So Les Merveilles de tlnde, pp. 128-129. — H. C]
It is found in the Chinese Narrative of the Campaigns of Hulaku, translated by both
Remusat and Pauthier. [We read in the Si Shi Ki, of Ch'ang Te, Chinese Envoy to
Hulaku (1259), translated by Dr. Bretschneider {Med. Res. I. p. 151) : "The kin-
kang tsuan (diamonds) come from Yin-du (Hindustan). The people take flesh and
throw it into the great valleys (of the mountains). Then birds come and eat this
flesh, after which diamonds are found in their excrements." — H. C] It is told in two
different versions, once of the Diamond, and again of the Jacinth of Serendib, in the
work on precious stones by Ahmed Taifashi. It is one of the many stories in the
scrap-book of Tzetzes. Nicolo Conti relates it of a mountain called Albenigaras,
fifteen days' journey in a northerly Direction from Vijayanagar ; and it is told again,
apparently after Conti, by Julius Caesar Scaliger. It is related of diamonds and
Balasses in the old Genoese MS., called that of Usodimare. A feeble form of the

Chap. XX. THE BRAHMANS

363

tale is quoted contemptuously by Garcias from one Francisco de Tamarra. And
Ilaxthausen found it as a popular legend in Armenia. {S. Epiph. de XIII. Gemmis^
etc., Romae, iJ^t,; Jatibert, Edrisi, I. 500 ; y. A. S. B. XIII. 657; Lane's Ar.
Nights, ed. 1859, III. 88; Rc^m. N'ouv. Md. Asiat. I. 183; Raineri, Fior di Pensieri
di Ahmed Teifascite, pp. 13 and 30; Tzetzes, Chil. XI. 376; India in XVth Cent.
pp. 29-30;/. C. Seal, de Subtilitate, CXIII. No. 3; An. des Voyages, VIII. 195;
Garcias, p. 71 ; Transcaticasia, p. 360 ; /. A. S. B. I. 354.)

The story has a considerable resemblance to that which Herodotus tells of the way
in which cinnamon was got by the Arabs (III. iii). No doubt the two are ramifica-
tions of the same legend.

Note 3. — Here buckram is clearly applied to fine cotton stuffs. The districts
about Masulipatam were long famous both for muslins and for coloured chintzes.
The fine muslins of Masalia are mentioned in the Periplus. Indeed even in the time
of Sakya Muni Kalinga was already famous for diaphanous muslins, as may be seen
in a story related in the Buddhist Annals. (/. A. S. B. VI. 1086.)

CHAPTER XX.

Concerning the Province of Lar whence the Brahmins come.

Lar is a Province lying towards the west when you quit
the place where the Body of St. Thomas lies ; and all the
Abraiaman in the world come from that province.^

You must know that these Abraiaman are the best
merchants in the world, and the most truthful, for they
would not tell a lie for anything on earth. [If a foreign
merchant who does not know the ways of the country
applies to them and entrusts his goods to them, they
will take charge of these, and sell them in the most loyal
manner, seeking zealously the profit of the foreigner and
asking no commission except what he pleases to bestow.]
They eat no flesh, and drink no wine, and live a life of
great chastity, having intercourse with no women except
with their wives ; nor would they on any account take
what belongs to another ; so their law commands. And
they are all distinguished by wearing a thread of cotton
over one shoulder and tied under the other arm, so that it
crosses the breast and the back.

^54 MARCO rOLO Book III.

They have a rich and powerful King who is eager to
purchase precious stones and large pearls ; and he sends
these Abraiaman merchants into the kingdom of Maabar
called Soli, which is the best and noblest Province ot
India, and where the best pearls are found, to fetch him
as many of these as they can get, and he pays them double
the cost price for all. So in this way he has a vast
treasure of such valuables.^

These Abraiaman are Idolaters ; and they pay greater
heed to signs and omens than any people that exists. I
will mention as an example one of their customs. To
every day of the week they assign an augury of this sort.
Suppose that there is some purchase in hand, he who
proposes to buy, when he gets up in the morning takes
note of his own shadow in the sun, which he says ought
to be on that day of such and such a length ; and if his
shadow be of the proper length for the day he completes
his purchase ; if not, he will on no account do so, but
waits till his shadow corresponds with that prescribed.
For there is a length established for the shadow for every
individual day of the week ; and the merchant will com-
plete no business unless he finds his shadow of the length
set down for that particular day. [Also to each day in
the week they assign one unlucky hour, which they term
Choiach. For example, on Monday the hour of Half-
tierce, on Tuesday that of Tierce, on Wednesday Nones,
and so on.^]

Again, if one of them is in the house, and is meditating
a purchase, should he see a tarantula (such as are very
common in that country) on the wall, provided it advances
from a quarter that he deems lucky, he will complete his
purchase at once ; but if it comes from a quarter that he
considers unlucky he will not do so on any inducement.
Moreover, if in going out, he hears any one sneeze, if it
seems to him a good omen he will go on, but if the reverse

Chap. XX. THE BRAHMANS 365

he will sit down on the spot where he is, as long as he
thinks that he ought to tarry before going on again. Or,
if in travelling along the road he sees a swallow fly by,
should its direction be lucky he will proceed, but if not
he will turn back again ; in fact they are worse (in these
whims) than so many Patarins ! ^

These Abraiaman are very long-lived, owing to their
extreme abstinence in eating. And they never allow
themselves to be let blood in any part of the body. They
have capital teeth, which is owing to a certain herb they
chew, which greatly improves their appearance, and is also
very good for the health.

There is another class of people called CJnighi, who are
indeed properly Abraiaman, but they form a religious
order devoted to the Idols. They are extremely long-
lived, every man of them living to 150 or 200 years.
They eat very little, but what they do eat is good ; rice
and milk chiefly. And these people make use of a very
strange beverage ; for they make a potion of sulphur and
quicksilver mixt together and this they drink twice every
month. This, they say, gives them long life ; and it is a
potion they are used to take from their childhood.^

There are certain members of this Order who lead
the most ascetic life in the world, going stark naked ; and
these worship the Ox. Most of them have a small ox of
brass or pewter or gold which they wear tied over the
forehead. Moreover they take cow-dung and burn it,
and make a powder thereof ; and make an ointment of it,
and daub themselves withal, doing this with as great
devotion as Christians do show in using Holy Water.
[Also if they meet any one who treats them well, they daub
a little of this powder on the middle of his forehead.'''

They eat not from bowls or trenchers, but put their
victuals on leaves of the Apple of Paradise and other big
leaves ; these, however, they use dry, never green. For

3^6 MARCO f'OLO Rook lit.

they say the green leaves have a soul in them, and so it
would be a sin. And they would rather die than do what
they deem their Law pronounces to be sin. If any one
asks how it comes that they are not ashamed to go stark
naked as they do, they say, ** We go naked because naked
we came into the world, and we desire to have nothing
about us that is of this world. Moreover, we have no
sin of the flesh to be conscious of, and therefore we are
not ashamed of our nakedness, any more than you are
to show your hand or your face. You who are conscious
of the sins of the flesh do well to have shame, and to
cover your nakedness."

They would not kill an animal on any account, not
even a fly, or a flea, or a louse,"^ or anything in fact that
has life ; for they say these have all souls, and it would
be sin to do so. They eat no vegetable in a green state,
only such as are dry. And they sleep on the ground
stark naked, without a scrap of clothing on them or under
them, so that it is a marvel they don't all die, in place of
living so long as I have told you. They fast every day
in the year, and drink nought but water. And when a
novice has to be received among them they keep him
awhile in their convent, and make him follow their rule
of life. And then, when they desire to put him to the
test, they send for some of those girls who are devoted to
the Idols, and make them try the continence of the novice
with their blandishments. If he remains indifferent they
retain him, but if he shows any emotion they expel him
from their society. For they say they will have no man
of loose desires among them.

They are such cruel and perfidious Idolaters that it
is very devilry ! They say that they burn the bodies of
the dead, because if they were not burnt worms would
be bred which would eat the body ; and when no more
food remained for them these worms would die, and the

Chap. X"^. THE JOGlS 367

soul belonging to that body would bear the sin and the
punishment of their death. And that is why they burn
their dead !

Now I have told you about a great part of the people
of the great Province of Maabar and their customs ; but
I have still other things to tell of this same Province
of Maabar, so I will speak of a city thereof which is
called Cail.

Note I. — The form of the word Adraiaman, -main or -min^ by which Marco
here and previously denotes the Brahmans, probably represents an incorrect Arabic
plural, such as Abrdhamin; the correct Arabic form is Bardhimah.

What is said here of the Brahmans coming from " Lar, a province west of St.
Thomas's," of their having a special King, etc., is all very obscure, and that I suspect
through erroneous notions.

Lak-Desa, "The Country of Lar," properly Ldt-desa, was an early name for the
territory of Guzerat and the northern Konkan, embracing Saimur (the modern Chaul,
as I believe). Tana, and Baroch. It appears in Ptolemy in the form Larike. The
sea to the west of that coast was in the early Mahomedan times called the Sea of Lar,
and the language spoken on its shores is called by Mas'udi Ldri. Abulfeda's authority,
Ibn Said, speaks of Lar and Guzerat as identical. That position would certainly be
very ill described as lying west of Madras. The kingdom most nearly answering to
that description in Polo's age would be that of the Belial Rajas of Dwara Samudra,
which corresponded in a general way to modern Mysore. {Mas'tidi, I. 330, 381 ; IL
85; Gildem. 185; Elliot, i. 66.)

That Polo's ideas on this subject were incorrect seems clear from his conception of
the Brahmans as a class of merchants. Occasionally they may have acted as such,
and especially as agents ; but the only case I can find of Brahmans as a class adopting
trade is that of the Konkani Brahmans, and they are said to have taken this step
when expelled from Goa, which was their chief seat, by the Portuguese. Marsden
supposes that there has been confusion between Brahmans and Banyans ; and, as
Guzerat or Lar was the country from which the latter chiefly came, there is much
probability in this.

The high virtues ascribed to the Brahmans and Indian merchants were perhaps in
part matter of tradition, come down from the stories of Palladius and the like ; but
the eulogy is so constant among mediaeval travellers that it must have had a solid
foundation. In fact it would not be difficult to trace a chain of similar testimony
from ancient times down to our own. Arrian says no Indian was ever accused of
falsehood. Hiuen Tsang ascribes to the people of India eminent uprightness, honesty,
and disinterestedness. Friar Jordanus {circa 1330) says the people of Lesser India
(Bind and Western India) were true in speech and eminent in justice; and we may
also refer to the high character given to the Hindus by Abul Fazl. After 150 years
of European trade indeed we find a sad deterioration. Padre Vincenzo (1672) speaks
of fraud as greatly prevalent among the Hindu traders. It was then commonly said
at Surat that it took three Jews to make a Chinaman, and three Chinamen to make
a Banyan. Yet Pallas, in the last century, noticing the Banyan colony at Astrakhan,
says its members were notable for an upright dealing that made them greatly prefer-
able to Armenians. And that wise and admirable public servant, the late Sir
William Sleeman, in our own time, has said that he knew no class of men in the
world more strictly honourable than the mercantile classes of India.

368 MARCO POLO Book III.

We know too well that there is a very different aspect of the matter. All exten-
sive intercourse between two races far asunder in habits and ideas, seems to be
demoralising in some degrees to both parties, especially to the weaker. But can we
say that deterioration has been all on one side ? In these days of lying labels and
plastered shirtings does the character of English trade and English goods stand as
high in Asia as it did half a century ago ! (/W. Boudd. II. 83 ; Jordanus, p. 22 ;
Ayeen Akb. III. 8; P. Vincenzo, p. 114; Pallas, Beylrdge, III. 85 ; Rambles and
Keens. II. 143.)

Note 2. — The kingdom of Maabar called Soli is Chola or Soladesam, of
which Kanchi (Conjeveram) was the ancient capital.* In the Ceylon Annals the
continental invaders are frequently termed Solli. The high terms of praise applied to
it as ** the best and noblest province of India," seem to point to the well- watered
fertility of Tanjore ; but what is said of the pearls would extend the territory in-
cluded to the shores of the Gulf of Manar.

Note 3. — Abraham Roger gives from the Calendar of the Coromandel Brahmans
the character, lucky or unlucky, of every hour of every day of the week ; and there is
also a chapter on the subject in Sonnerat (I. 304 seqq.). For a happy explanation of
the term Choiaeh I am indebted to Dr. Caldwell : ' ' This apparently difficult word
can be identified much more easily than most others. Hindu astrologers teach that
there is an unlucky hour every day in the month, i.e. during the period of the moon's
abode in every ndkshatra, or lunar mansion, throughout the lunation. This in-
auspicious period is called Tydj'ya, 'rejected.' Its mean length is one hour and
thirty-six minutes, European time. The precise moment wben this period com-
mences differs in each nakshatra, or (which comes to the same thing) in every day in
the lunar month. It sometimes occurs in the daytime and sometimes at night ;— see
Colonel Warren's Kala Sankatila, Madras, 1825, p. 388. The Tamil pronunciation
of the word is tiydcham, and when the nominative case-termination of the word is
rejected, as all the Tamil case-terminations were by the Mahomedans, who were
probably Marco Polo's informants, it becomes iiydch, to which form of the word
Marco's Choiaeh is as near as could be expected." [MS. Note.)^

The phrases used in the passage from Ramusio to express the time of day are
taken from the canonical hours of prayer. The following passage from Robert de
Borron''s Romanee of Merlin illustrates these terms : Gauvain " quand il se levoit le
matin, avoit la force al millor chevalier del monde ; et quant vint a heure de prime si
li doubloit, et a heure de tierce aussi ; et quant il vint a eure de midi si revenoit a sa
premiere force ou il avoit este le matin ; et quant vint a eure de nonne et a toutes les
seures de la nuit estoit-il toudis en sa premiere force." (Quoted in introd. to Messir
Gauvain^ etc., edited by C. Hippeau, Paris, 1862, pp. xii.-xiii.) The term Half-
Tieree is frequent in mediaeval Italian, e.g. in Dante : —

•' Lev at i su, disse'l Maestro, in piede :

La via ^ lunga, e'l eamniino e malvagio :
E gia il Sole a mezza terza riede.^' (Inf. xxxiv.)

LLalf -prime we have in Chaucer : —

*' Say forth thy tale and tary not the time
Lo Depeford, and it is half way prime."

— {Reeve's Prologue.)

Definitions of these terms as given by Sir II. Nicolas and Mr. Thomas Wright
{Chroji. of LList. p. 195, and Mareo Polo, p. 392) do not agree with those of Italian
authorities ; perhaps in the north they were applied with variation. Dante dwells on

* From Sola was formed apparently Sola-mandala or Chola-viandala, which the Portuguese
made into Choromandel and the Dutch into Coromandel.

t I may add that pohsibly the real reading may have been thoiach.

Chap. XX. CALENDAR OF THE BRAHMANS 369

the matter in two passages of his Convito (Tratt. III. cap. 6, and Tratt. IV. cap. 23);
and the following diagram elucidates the terms in accordance with his words, and
with other Italian authority, oral and literary : —

!^ %

(T)
r-h

ezza-N

ona

t-.

* ••

....f....

•• * ••

-■•* 4>.

* *••

....f....

•• *

• *

•t

5 6

7 8

Ecclesiastical Hours.

II 12

1 I 2

A.M.

Civil Hours. p.m.

Note 4. — Valentyn mentions among what the Coromandel Hindus reckon
unlucky rencounters which will induce a man to turn back on the road : an empty
can, buffaloes, donkeys, a dog or he-goat without food in his mouth, a monkey, a
loose hart, a goldsmith, a carpenter, a barber, a tailor, a cotton-cleaner, a smith, a
widow, a corpse, a person coming from a funeral without having washed or changed,
men carrying butter, oil, sweet milk, molasses, acids, iron, or weapons of war.
Lucky objects to meet are an elephant, a camel, a laden cart, an unladen horse, a
cow or bullock laden with water (if unladen 'tis an ill omen), a dog or he-goat with
food in the mouth, a cat on the rit^ht hand, one carrying meat, curds, or sugar, etc.,
etc. (p. 91). (See also Sotmeiat, I. 73.)

Note $.—Chughi oi course stands for JOGI, used loosely for any Hindu ascetic.
Arghun Khan of Persia (see Prologue, ch. xvii.), who was much given to alchemy and
secret science, had asked of the Indian Bakhshis how they prolonged their lives to such
an extent. They assured him that a mixture of sulphur and mercury was the Elixir of
Longevity. Arghun accordingly took this precious potion for eight months ; — and
died shortly after ! (See Hammer, Ilkhans, I. 391-393, and Q. R. p. 194.) Bernier
mentions wandering Jogis who had the art of preparing mercury so admirably that
one or two grains taken every morning restored the body to perfect health (II. 130).
The Merairitis Vitae of Paracelsus, which, according to him, renewed youth, was
composed chiefly of mercury and antimony. {^Opeja,\\. 20.) Sulphur and mercury,
combined under different conditions and proportions, were regarded by the Alchemists
both of East and West as the origin of all the metals. Quicksilver was called the
mother of the metals, and sulphur the father. (See Vincent. Bellov. Spec. Natur.
VII. c. 60, 62, and Bl. Ain-i-Akbari, p. 40.)

[We read in Ma Huan's account of Cochin (/. R. A. S. April, 1896, p. 343) :
" Here also is another class of men, called Chokis (Yogi), who lead austere lives like
the Taoists of China, but who, however, are married. These men from the time they
are born do not have their heads shaved or combed, but plait their hair into several
tails, which hang over their shoulders; they wear no clothes, but round their waists
they fasten a strip of rattan, over which they hang a piece of white calico ; they carry
a conch-shell, which they blow as they go along the road ; they are accompanied by
their wives, who simply wear a small bit of cotton cloth round their loins. Alms of
rice and money are given to them by the people whose houses they visit."

(See F. Bernier, Voy., ed. 1699, II., Des Gentils de CHindoiistan, pp. 97, seqq.)

We read in the Nine Heavens oi Kxmi Khusrii {Elliot, III. p. 563) : " Ay^^/ who
could restrain his breath in this way (diminishing the daily number of their expira-
tions of brealh) lived in an idol to an age of more than three hundred and fifty
years."

"Ihave read in a book that certain chiefs of Turkistan sent ambassadors with
VOL. II. 2 A

370 MARCO POLO Book III.

letters to the Kings of India on the following mission, viz. : that they, the chiefs, had
been informed that in India drugs were procurable which possessed the property of
prolonging human life, by the use of which the King of India attained to a very great
age . . . and the chiefs of Turkistdn begged that some of this medicine might be
sent to them, and also information as to the method by which the Rdfs preserved
their health so long," {Elliot, II. p. 174.)— H. C]

** The worship of the ox is still common enough, but I can find no trace of the use
of the efifigy worn on the forehead. The two Tam Pundits whom I consulted, said
that there was no trace of the custom in Tamil literature, but they added that the
usage was so truly Hindu in character, and was so particularly described, that they
had no doubt it prevailed in the time of the person who described it." {^MS. Note
by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell. )

I may add that the fangajus, a Linga-worshipping sect of Southern India, wear
a copper or silver linga either round the neck or on the forehead. The name of
Jangam means "movable," and refers to their wearing and worshipping the portable
symbol instead of the fixed one like the proper Saivas. {Wilson, Mack. Coll. II. 3 ;
J. R. A. S. N.S. V. 142 seqq.)

Note 6. — In G. T. proques, which the Glossary to that edition absurdly renders
pore ; it is some form apparently oi pidocchio.

Note 7. — It would seem that there is no eccentricity of man in any part of the
world for which a close parallel shall not be found in some other part. Such strange
probation as is here spoken of, appears to have had too close a parallel in the old
Celtic Church, and perhaps even, at an earlier date, in the Churches of Africa. (See
Todd's Life of St. Patrick, p. 91, note and references, and Saturday Review of 13th
July, 1867, p. 65.) The latter describes a system absolutely like that in the text, but
does not quote authorities.

CHAPTER XXI.

Concerning the City of Cail.

Cail Is a great and noble city, and belongs to Ashar,
the eldest of the five brother Kings. It Is at this city
that all the ships touch that come from the west, as from
Hormos and from KIs and from Aden, and all Arabia,
laden with horses and with other things for sale. And
this brings a great concourse of people from the country
round about, and so there is great business done In this
city of Call.i

The King possesses vast treasures, and wears upon
his person great store of rich jewels. He maintains
great state and administers his kingdom with great

Chap. XXI. THE CITY OF CAIL 37 I

equity, and extends great favour to merchants and
foreigners, so that they are very glad to visit his
city.^

This King has some 300 wives ; for in those parts
the man who has most wives is most thought of.

As I told you before, there are in this great province
of Maabar five crowned Kings, who are all own brothers
born of one father and of one mother, and this king is
one of them. Their mother is still living. And when
they disagree and go forth to war against one another,
their mother throws herself between them to prevent
their fighting. And should they persist in desiring to
fight, she will take a knife and threaten that if they will
do so she will cut off the paps that suckled them and rip
open the womb that bare them, and so perish before their
eyes. In this way hath she full many a time brought
them to desist. But when she dies it will most assuredly
happen that they will fall out and destroy one another.^

[All the people of this city, as well as of the rest of
India, have a custom of perpetually keeping in the mouth
a certain leaf called Tembul, to gratify a certain habit
and desire they have, continually chewing it and spitting
out the saliva that it excites. The Lords and gentle-
folks and the King have these leaves prepared with
camphor and other aromatic spices, and also mixt with
quicklime. And this practice was said to be very good
for the health.* If any one desires to offer a gross
insult to another, when he meets him he spits this leaf or
its juice in his face. The other immediately runs before
the King, relates the insult that has been offered him,
and demands leave to fight the offender. The King
supplies the arms, which are sword and target, and all
the people flock to see, and there the two fight till one
of them is killed. They must not use the point of the
sword, for this the King forbids.]^

VOL. II. 2 A 2

372 MARCO POLO Book III.

Note i. — Kail, now forgotten, was long a famous port on the coast of what is
now the Tinnevelly District of the Madras Presidency. It is mentioned as a port of
Ma'bar by our author's contemporary Rashiduddin, though the name has been per-
verted by careless transcription into Bdzual a.x\d Kdbal. (See Elliot, I. pp. 69, 72.) It
is also mistranscribed as Kdbil in Quatrem^re's publication of Abdurrazzdk, who
mentions it as "a place situated opposite the island of Serendib, otherwise called
Ceylon," and as being the extremity of what he was led to regard as Malabar (p. 19).
It is mentioned as Cahila, the site of the pearl-fishery, by Nicolo Conti (p. 7). The
Roteiro of Vasco da Gama notes it as Caell, a state having a Mussulman King and a
Christian (for which read Kdfir) people. Here were many pearls. Giovanni
d'Empoli notices it {Gael) also for the pearl-fishery, as do Varthema and Barbosa.
From the latter we learn that it was still a considerable seaport, having rich
Mahomedan merchants, and was visited by many ships from Malabar, Coromandel,
and Bengal. In the time of the last writers it belonged to the King of Kaulam, who
generally resided at Kail:

The real site of this once celebrated port has, I believe, till now never been
identified in any published work. I had supposed the still existing Kayalpattanam
to have been in all probability the place, and I am again indebted to the kindness of
the Rev. Dr. Caldwell for conclusive and most interesting information on this subject.
He writes :

"There are no relics of ancient greatness in Kayalpattanam, and no traditions of
foreign trade, and it is admitted by its inhabitants to be a place of recent origin,
which came into existence after the abandonment of the true Kayal. They state
also that the name of Kayalpattanam has only recently been given to it, as a
reminiscence of the older city, and that its original name was Sonagarpattanam. *
There is another small port in the same neighbourhood, a little to the north of
Kayalpattanam, called Pinna Cael in the maps, properly Punnei-Kayal, from Pnnnei,
the Indian Laurel ; but this is also a place of recent origin, and many of the inhabi-
tants of this place, as of Kayalpattanam, state that their ancestors came originally
from Kayal, subsequently to the removal of the Portuguese from that place to
Tuticorin.

' ' The Cail of Marco Polo, commonly called in the neighbourhood Old Kayal, and
erroneously named Koil in the Ordnance Map of India, is situated on the Tamraparni
River, about a mile and a half from its mouth. The Tamil word /:dyal means ' a
backwater, a lagoon,' and the map shows the existence of a large number of these
kdyals or backwaters near the mouth of the river. Many of these kayals have now
dried up more or less completely, and in several of them salt-pans have been estab-
lished. The name of Kayal was naturally given to a town erected on the margin of
a kdyal ; and this circumstance occasioned also the adoption of the name of Punnei
Kayal, and served to give currency to the name of Kayalpattanam assumed by
S6nagarpattanam, both those places being in the vicinity of kayals.

" Kayal stood originally on or near the sea-beach, but it is now about a mile and
a half inland, the sand carried down by the river having silted up the ancient harbour,
and formed a waste sandy tract between the sea and the town. It has now shrunk
into a petty village, inhabited partly by Mahommedans and partly by Roman
Catholic fishermen of the Parava caste, with a still smaller hamlet adjoining inhabited
by Brahmans and Vellalars ; but unlikely as the place may now seem to have been
identical with ' the great and noble city ' described by Marco Polo, its identity is
established by the relics of its ancient greatness which it still retains. Ruins of old
fortifications, temples, storehouses, wells and tanks, are found everywhere along the
coast for two or three miles north of the village of Kayal, and a mile and a half inland ;
the whole plain is covered with broken tiles and remnants of pottery, chiefly of China

* " Sonagar or JGnagar is a Tamil corruption of Yavanar, the Yavanas, the name by which the
Arabs were known, and is the name most commonly used in the Tamil country to designate the mixed
race descended from Arab colonists, who are called Mdpillas on the Malabar coast, and Lz{bbies '\x\
the neighbourhood of Madras." (Dr. C.'s note )

Chap. XXI. THE CITY OF CAIL

^7?>

manufacture, and several mounds are apparent, in which, besides the shells of the
pearl-oyster and broken pottery, mineral drugs (cinnabar, brimstone, etc.), such as
are sold in the bazaars of sea-port towns, and a few ancient coins have been found.
I send you herewith an interesting coin discovered in one of those mounds by Mr. R.
Puckle, collector of Tinnevelly.*

" The people of the place have forgotten the existence of any trade between Kayal
and China, though the China pottery that lies all about testifies to its existence at
some former period ; but they retain a distinct tradition of its trade with the Arabian
and Persian coasts, as vouched for by Marco Polo, that trade having in some degree
survived to comparatively recent times Captain Phipps, the Master Attend-
ant at Tuticorin, says : ' The roadstead of Old Cael (Kayal) is still used by native
craft when upon the coast and meeting with south winds, from which it is sheltered.

The depth of water is 1 6 to 14 feet ; I fancy years ago it was deeper There

is a surf on the bar at the entrance (of the river), but boats go through it at all times.'

** I am tempted to carry this long account of Kayal a little further, so as to bring
to light the Kolkhoi [/c6Xxot ifiirdpLov] of the Greek merchants, the situation of the
older city being nearly identical with that of the more modern one. Kolkhoi, described
by Ptolemy and the author of the Periplus as an emporium of the pearl-trade, as situated
on the sea-coa^t to the east of Cape Comorin, and as giving its name to the Kolkhic
Gulf or Gulf of Manaar, has been identified by Lassen with Keelkarei ; but this
identification is merely conjectural, founded on nothing better than a slight apparent
resemblance in the names. Lassen could not have failed to identify Kolkhoi with
KoRKAi, the mother-city of Kayal, if he had been acquainted with its existence and
claims. Korkai, properly KoLKAi (the / being changed into r by a modern refine-
ment — it is still called Kolka in Malayalam), holds an important place in. Tamil
traditions, being regarded as the birthplace of the Pandyan Dynasty, the place where
the princes of that race ruled previously to their removal to Madura. One of the
titles of the Pandyan Kings is ' Ruler of Korkai.' Korkai is situated two or three
miles inland from Kayal, higher up the river. It is not marked in the Ordnance
Map of India, but a village in the immediate neighbourhood of it, called Mdramanga-
lam, 'the Good-fortune of the Pandyas,' will be found in the map. This place,
together with several others in the neighbourhood, on both sides of the river, is
proved by inscriptions and relics to have been formerly included in Korkai, and the
whole intervening space between Korkai and Kayal exhibits traces of ancient dwel-
lings. The people of Kayal maintain that their city was originally so large as to in-
clude Korkai, but there is much more probability in the- tradition of the people of
Korkai, which is to the effect that Korkai itself was originally a sea-port ; that as the
sea retired it became less and less suitable for trade, that Kayal rose as Korkai fell,
and that at length, as the sea continued to retire, Kayal also was abandoned. They
add that the trade for which the place was famous in ancient times was the trade in
pearls." In an article in the Madras Journal (VII, 379) it is stated that at the great
Siva Pagoda at Tinnevelly the earth used ceremonially at the annual festival is
brought from Korkai, but no position is indicated.

Note 2. — Dr. Caldwell again brings his invaluable aid : —

" Marco Polo represents Kayal as being governed by a king whom he calls Asciar
(a name which you suppose to be intended to be pronounced Ashar), and says that
this king of Kayal was the elder brother of Sonderbandi, the king of that part of the
district of Maabar where he landed. There is a distinct tradition, not only amongst
the people now inhabiting Kayal, but in the district of Tinnevelly generally, that

* I am sorry to say that the coin never reached its destination. In the latter part of 1872 a quantity
of treasure was found near Kayal by the labourers on irrigation works. Much of it was dispersed
without coming under intelligent eyes, and most of the coins recovered were Arabic. One, however, is
stated to have been a coin of "Joannaof Castille, a.d. 1236." {Allen's India Mail, 5th January, 1874.)
There is no such queen. Qu. Joanna I. of ^<iz'arr^(i274-i276)? or Joanna II. of iVa&arr^ (1328-1336)?

374 MARCO POLO Book III.

Kayal, during the period of its greatness, was ruled by a king. This king is some-
times spoken of as one of 'the Five Kings' who reigned in various parts of
Tinnevelly, but whether he was independent of the King of Madura, or only a

viceroy, the people cannot now say The tradition of the people of Kayal

is that .... S{lr-Raja was the name of the last king of the place. They stale
that this last king was a Mahommedan, .... but though Sur-Raja does not
sound like the name of a Mahommedan prince, they all agree in asserting that this

was his name Can this Sur be the person whom Marco calls Asciar?

Probably not, as Asciar seems to have been a Hindu by religion. I have discovered
what appears to be a more probable identification in the name of a prince mentioned
in an inscription on the walls of a temple at Sri-Vaikuntham, a town on the
Tamraparni R., about 20 miles from Kayal. In the inscription in question a dona-
tion to the temple is recorded as having been given in the time of * Asadia-deva called
also Smya-deva.' This name 'Asadia'is neither Sanskrit nor Tamil; and as the
hard (/ is often changed into r, Marco's Askar may have been an attempt to render
this Asad. If this Asadia or Surya-deva were really Sundara-pandi-deva's brother,
he must have ruled over a narrow range of country, probably over Kayal alone,
whilst his more eminent brother was alive ; for there is an inscription on the walls of
a temple at Sindamangalam, a place only a few miles from Kayal, which records a
donation made to the place ' in the reign of Sundara-pandi-deva.' " *

Note 3. — [**0 aljofar, e perolas, que me manda que Iha enuie, nom as posso
auer, que as ha em Ceylao e Caille, que sao as fontes dellas : compralashia do meu
sangue, a do meu dinheiro, que o tenho porque vos me daes." (Letter of the
Viceroy Dom Francisco to the King, Anno de 1508." {G. Correa, Lendas da India,
I. pp. 908-909.) — Note by Yicle.'\

Note 4. — lejnbul is the Persian name for the betel-leaf or pan, from the
Sanskrit Tdnibida. The latter is also used in Tamul, though Vettilei is the proper
Tamul word, whence Betel {Dr. Caldwell). Marsden supposes the mention of
camphor among the ingredients with which the pan is prepared to be a mistake, and
suggests as a possible origin of the error that kdpur in the Malay language means not
only camphor but quicklime. This is curious, but in addition to the fact that the
lime is mentioned in the text, there seems ample evidence that his doubt about
camphor is unfounded.

Garcia de Orta says distinctly: "In chewing betre .... they mix areca with
it and a little lime. . . . Some add Licio {i.e. catechu), but the rich and grandees
add some Borneo camphor, and some also lign-aloes, musk, and ambergris" (31 v.
and 32). Abdurrazzak also says: "The manner of eating it is as follows: They
bruise a portion of faufel (areca), otherwise called sipaj-i, and put it in the mouth.
Moistening a leaf of the betel, together with a grain of lime, they rub the one upon
the other, roll them together, and then place them in the mouth. They thus take as
many as four leaves of betel at a time and chew them. Sometimes they add camphor
to it'''' (p. 32). And Abiil Fazl : "They also put some betel-nut and kath (catechu)
on one leaf, and some lime-paste on another, and roll them up ; this is called a berah.
Some put camphor and musk into it, and tie both leaves with a silk thread," etc.
(See Blochmann^s Transl. p. T^^.) Finally one of the Chinese notices of Kamboja,
translated by Abel Remusat, says : " When a guest comes it is usual to present him
with areca, camphor, arid other arojnatics." {Nouv. Mel. I. 84.)

Note 5. — This is the only passage of Ramusio's version, so far as I know,

that

See

above, p. 334, as to Dr. Caldwell's view of Polo's Sonderbandi. May not Ashar vety well
represent Ashddlia, "invincible," among the applications of which Williams gives " N. of a prince "
1 observe also that ^/cAa-A- (Sansk. Aschariya " marvellous ") is the name of one of the objects of
worship in the dark Sakti system, once apparently potent in S. India. (See Taylor's Catalogue
Raisonne, II. 414, 423, 426, 443, and remark p. xlix.)

[" lis disent done que Dieu qu'ils appellent Achar, c'est-k-dire, immobile ou immuable."
{F. Betnier, Voy.,^A. 1699, II- P- ^^tt-Y-MS. Note.—Yi. Y.]

CiiAr. XXII. THE KINGDOM OF COILUM

375

suggests interpolation from a recent author, as distinguished from mere editorial
modification. There is in Barbosa a description of the duello as practised in Canara,
which is rather too like this one.

CHAPTER XXII.

Of the Kingdom of Coilum.

When you quit Maabar and go 500 miles towards the
south-west you come to the kingdom of Coilum. The
people are Idolaters, but there are also some Christians
and some Jews. The natives have a language of their
own, and a King of their own, and are tributary to no

one.-^

A great deal of brazil is got here which is called
brazil Coihimin from the country which produces it ;
'tis of very fine quality.^ Good ginger also grows here,
and it is known by the same name of Coihmiin after the
country.^ Pepper too grows in great abundance
throughout this country, and I will tell you how. You
must know that the pepper-trees are (not wild but)
cultivated, being regularly planted and watered ; and the
pepper is gathered in the months of May, June, and July.
They have also abundance of very fine indigo. This is
made of a certain herb which is gathered, and [after the
roots have been removed] is put into great vessels upon
which they pour water and then leave it till the whole of
the plant is decomposed. They then put this liquid in
the sun, which is tremendously hot there, so that it boils
and coagulates, and becomes such as we see it. [They
then divide it into pieces of four ounces each, and in that
form it is exported to our parts.]* And I assure you
that the heat of the sun is so great there that it is
scarcely to be endured ; in fact if you put an ^gg into

Zl^ MARCO POLO Book III.

one of the rivers it will be boiled, before you have had
time to go any distance, by the mere heat of the sun !

The merchants from Manzi, and from Arabia, and
from the Levant come thither with their ships and
their merchandise and make great profits both by what
they import and by what they export.

There are in this country many and divers beasts
quite different from those of other parts of the world.
Thus there are lions black all over, with no mixture of
any other colour ; and there are parrots of many sorts,
for some are white as snow with red beak and feet, and
some are red, and some are blue, forming the most
charming sight in the world ; there are green ones
too. There are also some parrots of exceeding small
size, beautiful creatures.^ They have also very beautiful
peacocks, larger than ours, and different ; and they
have cocks and hens quite different from ours ; and
what more shall I say? In short, everything they have
is different from ours, and finer and better. Neither is
their fruit like ours, nor their beasts, nor their birds ;
and this difference all comes of the excessive heat.

Corn they have none but rice. So also their wine
they make from [palm-] sugar ; capital drink it is, and
very speedily it makes a man drunk. All other neces-
saries of man's life they have in great plenty and
cheapness. They have very good astrologers and
physicians. Man and woman, they are all black, and
go naked, all save a fine cloth worn about the middle.
They look not on any sin of the flesh as a sin. They
marry their cousins german, and a man takes his
brother's wife after the brother's death ; and all the
people of India have this custom.*^

There is no more to tell you there ; so we will pro-
ceed, and I will tell you of another country called
Comari.

Chap. XXII. THE KINGDOM OF COILUM 2)11

Note i. — Futile doubts were raised by Baldelli Boni and Hugh Murray as to the
position of Coilum, because of Marco's mentioning it before Comari or Cape
Coniorin ; and they have insisted on finding a Coilum to the east of that promontory.
There is, however, in reality, no room for any question on this subject. For ages
Coikim, Kaulam, or, as we now write it, Quilon, and properly KoUam, was one of
the greatest ports of trade with Western Asia.* The earliest mention of it that I can
indicate is in a letter written by the Nestorian Patriarch, Jesujabus of Adiabene,
who died a.d. 660, to Simon Metropolitan of Fars, blaming his neglect of duty,
through which he says, not only is India, "which extends from the coast of the
Kingdom of Fars to Colon, a distance of 1200 parasangs, deprived of a regular
ministry, but Fars itself is lying in darkness." {Asscm. III. pt. ii. 437.) The same
place appears in the earlier part of the Arab Relations (a.d. 851) as Kaulam- Mali ^
the port of India made by vessels from Maskat, and already frequented by great
Chinese Junks.

Abulfeda defines the position of Kaulam as at the extreme end of Balad-ul-Falfal,
i.e. the Pepper country or Malabar, as you go eastward, standing on an inlet of the
sea, in a sandy plain, adorned with many gardens. The brazil-tree grew there, and
the Mahomedans had a fine, mosque and square. Ibn Batuta also notices the fine
mosque, and says the city was one of the finest in Malabar, with splendid markets and
rich merchants, and was the chief resort of the Chinese traders in India. Odoric
describes it as "at the extremity of the Pepper Forest towards the south," and aston-
ishing in the abundance of its merchandise. Friar Jordanus of Severac was there as
a missionary some time previous to 1328, in which year he was at home ; [on the 21st of
August, 1329, he] was nominated Bishop of the See of Kaulam, Latinised as Cohimbum
or Columbus [created by John XXII. on the 9th of August of the same year — H. C.].
Twenty years later John MarignoUi visited " the very noble city of Columbum, where
the whole world's pepper is produced," and found there a Latin church of St. George,
probably founded by Jordanus. f Kaulam or Coilon continued to be an important
place to the beginning of the i6th century, when Varthema speaks of it as a fine port,
and Barbosa as "a very great city," with a very good haven, and with many great
merchants, Moors and Gentoos, whose ships traded to all the Eastern ports as far as
Bengal, Pegu, and the Archipelago. But after this its decay must have been rapid,
and in the following century it had sunk into entire insignificance. Throughout the
Middle Ages it appears to have been one of the chief seats of the St. Thomas

* The etymology of the name seems to be doubtful. Dr. Caldwell tells me it is an error to connect
it (as in the first edition) with the word for a Tank, which is Kulatn. The apparent meaning of
Kollavt is "slaughter," but he thinks the name is b;st explained as "Palace" or "Royal
Residence.'

t There is still a Syrian church of St. George at Quilon, and a mosque of some importance ; — the
representatives at least of those noted above, though no actual trace of antiquity of any kind remains
at the place. A vague tradition of extensive trade with China yet survives. The form Coluvibum is
accounted for by an inscription, published by the Prince of Travancore {Ind. Antiq. II. 360), which
shows that the city was called in Sanskrit Kolatnba. May not the real etymology be Sansk. Kolant,
" El.ack Pepper"?

On the suggestion ventured in this note Dr. Caldwell writes :

"I fancy Kola, a name for pepper in Sanskrit, maybe derived from the name of the country
Kdlam, North Malabar, which is much more celebrated for its pepper than the country aboiit
Quilon. This Kdlaftt, though TQS^mhWng Kollam, is really a separate word, and never confounded
with the latter by the natives. The prince of Kolam (North Malabar) is called Kolastri or
Kolattiri."^ Compare also Kolagiri, the name of a hill in the Sanskrit dictionaries, called also Kollagin.
The only possible derivations for the Tamil and Malayalim name of Quilon that I am acquainted
with, are these: (i.) From Kolu, the ' Royal Presence' or presence-chamber, or hall of audience.
Kollani might naturally be a derivative of this word ; and in confirmation I find that other residences
of Malabar kings were also called KoUam, e.g. Kodunga'ur or Cranganore. (2.) From Kolu, the
same word, but with the meaning 'a height' or ' high-ground.' Hence Kollei, a very common word
in Tamil for a ' dry grain field, a back-yard.' Kolli is also, in the Tamil poets, said to be the name of
a hill in the Chera country, i.e. the Malabar coast. Kdlant in Tamil has not the meaning of pepper ;
it means 'beauty,' and it is said also to mean the fruit of the jujuba. (3.) It might possibly be
derived from Kol, to slay ; — Kollavt, slaughter, or a place where some slaughter happened ....
in the absence, however, of any tradition to this effect, this derivation of the name seems improbable."

1 See II. 367.

37^

MARCO POLO

Book III.

Christians. Indeed botli it and Kayal were two out of the seven ancient churches
which Indo-Syrian tradition ascribed to St. Thomas himself.*

I have been desirous to give some illustration of the churches of that interesting
body, certain of which must date from a very remote periled, but I have found un-
looked-for difficulties in procuring such illustration. Several are given in the Life of
Dr. Claudius Buchanan from his own sketches, and a few others in the Life of Bishop
D. Wilson. But nearly all represent the churches as they were perverted in the I7lh
century and since, by a coarse imitation of a style of architecture bad enough in its
genuine form. I give, after Buchanan, the old church at Parur, not far from Cranga-
nore, which had escaped masquerade, with one from Bishop Wilson's Life, showing
the quasi-Jcsuit deformation alluded to, and an interior also from the latter work,
which appears to have some trace of genuine character. Pariir church is probably
Fdli'ir, or Pdzhur, which is one of those ascribed to St. Thomas ; for Dr. Buchanan

Ancient Christian Church at Parur, on the Malabar coast. (After Claudius Buchanan.)

says it bears the name of the Apostle, and "is supposed to be the oldest in Malabar."
{Christ. Res. p. 113.)

[Quilon is "one of the oldest towns on the coast, from whose re-foundation in
1019, A.D., Travancore reckons its era." {Hunter^ Gaz.^ xi., p. 339.) — H. C]

How Polo comes to mention Coilum before Comari is a question that will be treated
further on, with other misplacements of like kind that occur in succeeding chapters.

Kiiblai had a good deal of diplomatic intercourse of his usual kind with Kaulam.
De Mailla mentions the arrival at T'swan-chau (or Zayton) in 1282 of envoys from
KiULAN, an Indian State, bringing presents of various rarities, including a black ape
as big as a man. The Emperor had three times sent thither an officer called Yang

BurncU.

CHAr. XXII. ANCIENT CHURCHES OF S. INDIA

379

Syrian Church at Caranyachirra (from " Life ot Bp. D. Wiison ), showing the quasi-Jesuit fagade
generally adopted in modern times.

Interior of Syrian Church at KOtteiyam m fravancore. (I'rom "Life of Bp. D. Wilson.")

38o

MARCO POLO Book III.

Ting-pi (IX. 415). Some rather curious details of these missions are extracted by
Pauthier from the Chinese Annals. The royal residence is in these called A-pu-hota*
The king is styled Pinati. I may note that Earbosa also tells us that the King of
Kaulam was called Benate-deri {dcvarJ). And Dr. Caldwell's kindness enables me
to explain this title. Pinati or Senate represents V^nddan^ ** the Lord of the
Venadu," or Venattu, that being the name of the district to which belonged the
family of the old kings of Kollam, and Venddan l)eing their regular dynastic name.
The Rajas of Travancore who superseded the Kings of Kollam, and inherit their
titles, are still poetically styled Venadan. ( Pauthier, p. 603 scqq. ; Ram. I. f. 304. )

Note 2. — The brazil-wood of Kaulam appears in the Commercial Handbook of
Pegolotti {circa 1340) as Verzino Colombino, and under the same name in that of Giov.
d'Uzzano a century later. Pegolotti in one passage details kinds of brazil under the
names of Verzino salvatico, dimestico, and columbino. In another passage, where he
enters into particulars as to the respective values of different qualities, he names three
kinds, as Colomni, Atfieri, and Seni, of which the Colomni (or Colombino) was worth
a sixth more than the Atneri and three times as much as the Seni. I have already
conjectured that Ameri may stand for Lameri referring to Lambri in Sumatra {supra
ch. xi., note i) ; and perhaps Seni is Sini or Chinese, indicating an article brought to
India by the Chinese traders, probably from Siam.

We have seen in the last note that the Kaulam brazil is spoken of by Abulfeda ;
and Ibn Batuta, in describing his voyage by the back waters from Calicut to Kaulam,
says: "All the trees that grow by this river are either cinnamon or brazil trees.
They use these for firewood, and we cooked with them throughout our journey."
Friar Odoric makes the same hyperbolic statement : " Here they burn brazil-wood
for fuel."

It has been supposed popularly that the brazil-wood of commerce took its name
from the great country so called ; but the verzino of the old Italian writers is only a
form of the same word, and bresil is in fact the word used by Polo. So Chaucer : —

*' Him nedeth not his colour for to dien
With brazil, ne with grain of Portingale."

— The Nun's Priest's 7^ale.

The Eastern wood in question is now known in commerce by its Malay name of
Sappan (properly Sapang), which again is identical with the Tamil name Sappangi.
This word properly me?ins Japan, and seems to have been given to the wood as a
supposed product of that region, t It is the wood of the Caesalpinia Sapan, and is
known in Arabic (and in Hindustani) as Bakdin. It is a thorny tree, indigenous in
Western India from Goa to Trevandrum, and growing luxuriantly in South Malabar.
It is extensively used by native dyers, chiefly for common and cheap cloths, and for
fine mats. The dye is precipitated dark-brown with iron, and red with alum. It is
said, in Western India, to furnish the red powder thrown about on the Hindu feast of
the H^li. The tree is both wild and cultivated, and is grown rather extensively by
the Mahomedans of Malabar, called Moplahs {Mapillas, see p. 372), whose custom it
is to plant a number of seeds at the birth of a daughter. The trees require fourteen
or fifteen years to come to maturity, and then become the girl's dowry.

Though to a great extent superseded by the kindred wood from Pernambuco, the
sappan is still a substantial object of importation into England. That American dye-
stuff which now bears the name of brazil-wood is believed to be the produce of at
least two species of Caesalpinia, but the question seems to partake of the singular
obscurity which hangs over the origin of so many useful drugs and dye-stuffs. The
variety called Braziletto is from C. bahamensis, a native of the Bahamas.

The name of Brazil has had a curious history. Etymologists refer it to the colour

* The translated passage about 'Apuhota is a little obscure. The name looks like Kapiikada,
which was the site of a palace north of Calicut (not in Kaulam), the Capucate of the Portuguese.
t Dr. Caldwell.

Chap. XXII. GINGER

38t

of braise or hot coals, and its first application was to this dye-wood from the far East.
Then it was applied to a newly-discovered tract of South America, perhaps because
producing a kindred dye-wood in large quantities : finally the original wood is robbed
of its name, which is monopolised by that imported from the new country. The
Region of Brazil had been originally styled Santa Cruz, and De Barros attributes the
change of name to the suggestion of the Evil One, "as if the name of a wood for
colouring cloth were of more moment than that of the Wood which imbues the
Sacraments with the tincture of Salvation."

There may perhaps be a doubt if the Land of Brazil derived its name from the
dye-wood. For the Isle of Brazil, long before the discovery of America, was a
name applied to an imaginary Island in the Atlantic. This island appears in the map
of Andrea Bianco and in many others, down at least to Coronelli's splendid Venetian
Atlas (1696) ; the Irish used to fancy that they could see it from the Isles of Arran ;
and the legend of this Island of Brazil still persisted among sailors in the last century.*
The story was no doubt the same as that of the green Island, or Island of Youth>
which Mr. Campbell tells us the Hebrideans see to the west of their own Islands.
(See Pop. Pales of West Highlands, IV. 163. For previous references, Delia Decima,
III. 298, 361 ; IV. 60; /. B. IV. 99; Cathay, p. 'j'] ; Note by Dr. H. G leghorn ;
Marsh'' s ed. of Wedgwood s Etym. Diet. I. 123 ; Southey, H. of Brazil, I. 22.)

Note 3. — This is the Colonihine ginger which appears not unfrequently in
mediaeval writings. Pegolotti tells us that " ginger is of several sorts, to wit, Belledi,
Colonibino, and Mecchino. And these names are bestowed from the producing
countries, at least this is the case with the Colombino and Alecchino, for the BelLdi is
produced in many districts of India. The Colombino grows in the Island of Colombo
of India, and has a smooth, delicate, ash-coloured rind ; whilst the Mecchino comes
from the districts about Mecca and is a small kind, hard to cut," etc. {Delia Dec.
III. 359.) A century later, in G. da Uzzano, we still find the Colo??ibino and Belladi
ginger (IV. iii, 210, etc.). The Baladi is also mentioned by Rashiduddin as an
export of Guzerat, and by Barbosa and others as one of Calicut in the beginning of
the 1 6th century. The Mecchino too is mentioned again in that era by a Venetian
traveller as grown in the Island of Camran in the Red Sea. Both Columbine
{gigembre cohimbin) and Baladi ginger {gig. baladit) appear among the purchases for
King John of France, during his captivity in England. And we gather from his
accounts that the price of the former was I3(/. a pound, and of the latter I2c/., sums
representing three times the amount of silver that they now indicate, with a higher
value of silver also, and hence equivalent to about 4^. and 4^. a^d. a pound. The
\.Q.xx\\ Baladi {hx.), Indigenous or "Country" ginger, indicated ordinary qualities of
no particular repute. The word Baladi seems to have become naturalised in Spanish
with the meaning " of small value." We have noticed on a former occasion the
decay of the demand for pepper in China. Ginger affords a similar example. This
spice, so highly prized and so well known throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, I
have found to be quite unknown by name and qualities to servants in Palermo of
more than average intelligence. {Elliot, I. 67 ; Ratmisio, I. f. 275, v. 323 ; Dozy
and Engel/n. pp. 232-233 ; Doiiet d\4rcq, p. 218 ; Philobiblon Soc. Miscellanies, vol. ii.
p. 116.)

Note 4. — In Bengal Indigo factories artificial heat is employed to promote the
drying of the precipitated dye ; but this is not essential to the manufacture. Marco's
account, though grotesque in its baldness, does describe the chief features of the
manufacture of Indigo by fermentation. The branches are cut and placed stem
upwards in the vat till it is three parts full ; they are loaded, and then the vat is filled
with water. Fermentation soon begins and goes on till in 24 hours the contents of
the vat are so hot that the hand cannot be retained in it. This is what Marco ascribes

* Indeed, Humboldt speaks of Brazil Isle as appearing to the west of Ireland in a modern English
piap — Purciy's ; but I do not know its date, (^ee Exainen, etc., II. 244-245 )

382 MARCO POLO Book III.

to the sun's heat. The liquor is then drawn off to another cistern and there agitated ;
the indigo separates in flakes. A quantity of lime-water then is added, and the blue
is allowed to subside. The clear water is drawn off; the sediment is drained, pressed,
and cut into small squares, etc. (See Madras Journal, vol. viii. 198.)

Indigo had been introduced into Sicily by the Jews during the time of Frederick
II., in the early part of Polo's century. Jews and Indigo have long vanished from
Sicily. The dye is often mentioned in Pegolotti's Book ; the finest quality being
termed Indaco Baccadeo, a corruption of Bdghdddi. Probably it came from India by
way of Baghdad. In the Barcelona Tariffs it appears as Indigo de Bagadel. Another
quality often mentioned is Indigo di Golfo. (See Capmany^ Memorias, II. App.
p. 73.) In the bye-laws of the London Painters' Guild of the 13th century, quoted
by Sir F. Palgrave from the Liber Home, it is forljidden to paint on gold or silver
except with fine (mineral) colours, ^^ e nient de hra?ii\, ne de inde de Baldas, ne de
mil autre mauvcise couleur.^^ {The Alerchant and the Friar, p. xxiii.) There is
now no indigo made or exported at Quilon, but there is still some feeble export of
sappanwood, ginger, and pepper. These, and previous particulars as to the present
Quilon, I owe to the kindness of Mr. Ballard, British Resident at Trevandrum.

Note 5. — Black Tigers and black Leopards are not very rare in Travancore
(See Welsh's Mil. Reminiscences, II. 102.)

Note 6. — Probably founded on local or caste customs of marriage, several of
which in South India are very peculiar ; e.g., see Nelson's Madura, Pt. II. p. 51.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Of the Country called Comari

CoMARi is a country belonging to India, and there you
can see something of the North Star, which we had not
been able to see from the Lesser Java thus far. In
order to see it you must go some 30 miles out to sea,
and then you see it about a cubit above the water.^

This is a very wild country, and there are beasts of all
kinds there, especially monkeys of such peculiar fashion
thaf you would take them for men ! There are also
gatpauls'^ m wonderful diversity, with bears, lions, and
leopards, in abundance.

Note i. — Kumdri is in some versions of the Hindu cosmography the most
southerly of the nine divisions of Jambodvipa, the Indian world. Polo's Comari can
only be the country about Cape CoMORiN, the Ko/jidpia &Kpov of Ptolemy, a name
derived from the Sanskrit Kumdri, "a Vh-gin," an appellation of the goddess

Chap. XXIII. THE COUNTRY CALLED COM ART 383

Durga. The monthly bathing in her honour, spoken of by the author of the
Periphis, is still continued, though now the pilgrims are few. Abulfeda speaks of
Rds Ktimhdri as the limit between Malabar and Ma'bar. Kumdri is the Tamul
• pronunciation of the Sanskrit word and probably Comdri was Polo's pronunciation.

At the beginning of the Portuguese era in India we hear of a small Kingdom of
CoMORi, the prince of which had succeeded to the kingdom of Kaulam. And this,
as Dr. Caldwell points out, must have been the state which is now called Travancore.
Kumari has been confounded by some of the Arabian Geographers, or their modern
commentators, with Kumar, one of the regions supplying aloes-wood, and which was
apparently A7zw^r or Kamboja. {CaldiveWs Drav. Grammar, p. 67; Gildem. 185;
Ram. I. 333.)

The cut that we give is, as far as I know, the first genuine view of Cape Comorin
ever published.

[Mr. Talboys Wheeler, in his History of India, vol. iii. (p. 386), says of this
tract :

"The region derives its name from a temple which was erected there in honour
of Kumarf, * the Virgin ' ; the infant babe who had been exchanged for Krishna, and
ascended to heaven at the approach of Kansa." And in a note :

"Colonel Yule identifies Kumarf with Durga. This is an error. The temple of
Kumari was erected by Krishna Raja of Narsinga, a zealous patron of the
Vaishnavas."

Mr. Wheeler quotes Faria y Souza, who refers the object of worship to what is
meant for this story (II. 394), but I presume from Mr. Wheeler's mention of the
builder of the temple, which does not occur in the Portuguese history, that he has
other information. The application of the Virgin title connected with the name of
the place, may probably have varied with the ages, and, as there is no time to obtain
other evidence, I have removed the words which identified the existing temple with
that of Duiga. But my authority for identifying the object of 7vorship, in whose
honour the pilgrims bathe monthly at Cape Comorin, with Durga, is the excellent
one of Dr. Caldwell. (See his Dravidian Grammar as quoted in the passage above.)
Krishna Raja of whom Mr. Wheeler speaks, reigned after the Portuguese were
established in India, but it is not probable that the Krishna stories of that class were
even known in the Peninsula (or perhaps anywhere else) in the time of the author of
the Periplus, 1450 years before ; and 'tis as little likely that the locality owed its
name to Yasoda's Infant, as that it owed it to the Madonna in St. Francis Xavier's
Church that overlooks the Cape.

Era Paolino, in his unsatisfactory way ( Viaggio, p. 68)^ speaks of Cape Comorin,
'•which the Indians call Canyamuri, Virginis Promontot'itim, or simply Comar I or
Cumari ' a Virgin,' because they pretend that anciently the goddess Comari ' the
Damsel,' who is the Indian Diana or Hecate, used to bathe" etc. However, we can
discover from his book elsewhere (see pp. 79, 285) that by the Indian Diana he means
Parvatf, i.e. Durga.

Lassen at first * identified the Kumari of the Cape with Parvatf ; but afterwards
connected the name with a story in the Mahabharata about certain Apsarases changed
into Crocodiles.! On the whole there does not seem sufficient ground to deny that
Parvatf was the original object of worship at Kumarf, though the name may have
lent itself to various legends.]

Note 2. — I have not been able to ascertain with any precision what animal is
meant by Gat-panl. The term occurs again, coupled with monkeys as here, at
p. 240 of the Geog. Text, where, speaking of Abyssinia, it is said : "//(?«/■ gat paulz
et autre gat-maim on si divisez," etc. Gatto maimone, for an ape of some kind, is
common in old Italian, the latter part of the term, from the Pers. Maimun, being

* Ind. Alt. ist ed. I. 158.

t Id. 564 ; and 2nd ed. I. 193.

MARCO POLO

Look III.

Chap. XXIV. THE KINGDOM OF ELI 385

possibly connected witli our Baboon. And that the Gat-paul was also some kind of
ape is confirmed by the Spanish Dictionaries. Cobarrubias gives: '■'■Gato-Patts^ a
kind of tailed monkey. Gato-pans^ Gato pqblo ; perhaps as they call a monkey
* Martha,' they may have called this particular monkey ' Paul,' " etc. (f. 431 v.). So
also the Diccion. de la Lengua Castellana comp. por la Real Acadetnia (1783) gives :
" Gato Paul) a kind of monkey of a grey colour, black muzzle and very b oad tail."
In fact, the word is used by Columbus, who, in his own account of his third voyage,
describes a hill on the coast of Paria as covered with a species of Gatos Paulos. (See
Navarrete, Fr. ed. III. 21, also 147- 148.) It also occurs in Marmol, Desc. General
de Affrica, who says that one kind of monkeys has a black face ; "^ estas comune-
mente se llama7i en Espana Gatos Paules, las quales se crian en la tierra de los Negros^*
(I. f. 27). It is worth noting that the revisers of the text adopted by Pauthier have
not understood the word. For they substitute for the ^^ II hi a gat paul si divisez qe
ce estoit mervoille" of the Geog, Text, ^' et si a jnoull de grsxiz paluz ei motilt gratis
pantaijis d, merveilles " — wonderful swamps and marshes ! The Pipino Latin has
adhered to the correct reading — 'Wbi .vzm/ cati qui dicuntur pauli, valde diversi ab
alii s J"

CHAPTERXXIV.

Concerning the Kingdom of Eli.

Eli Is a kingdom towards the west, about 300 miles
from Comari. The people are Idolaters and have a
king, and are tributary to nobody ; and have a peculiar
language. We will tell you particulars about their
manners and their products, and you will better under-
stand things now because we are drawing near to places
that are not so outlandish.^

There is no proper harbour in the country, but there
are many great rivers with good estuaries, wide and
deep.^ Pepper and ginger grow there, and other spices
in quantities.^ The King is rich in treasure, but not
very strong in forces. The approach to his kingdom
however is so strong by nature that no one can attack
him, so he is afraid of nobody.

And you must know that if any ship enters their
estuary and anchors there, having been bound for some
other port, they seize her and plunder the cargo. For
they say, *' You were bound for somewhere else, and 'tis

VOL, IL 2 B

2,S6 MARCO POLO Book III.

God has sent you hither to us, so we have a right to all
your goods." And they think it no sin to act thus.
And this naughty custom prevails all over these
provinces of India, to wit, that if a ship be driven by
stress of weather into some other port than that to which
it w^is bound, it is sure to be plundered. But if a ship
come bound originally to the place they receive it with
all honour and give it due protection.'' The ships of
Manzi and other countries that come hither in summer
lay in their cargoes in 6 or 8 days and depart as fast as
possible, because there is no harbour other than the
river-mouth, a mere roadstead and sandbanks, so that it
is perilous to tarry there. The ships of Manzi indeed
are not so much afraid of these roadsteads as others are,
because they have such huge wooden anchors which
hold in all weather.^

There are many lions and other wild beasts here and
plenty of game, both beast and bird.

Note i. — No city or district is now known by the name of Ely, but the name
survives in that of Mount De/y, properly Monte d'ELY, the Yeli-inala of the Malabar
people, and called also in the legends of the coast Sapta-shaila, or the Seven
Hills. This is the only spur of the Ghats that reaches the sea within the Madras
territory. It is an isolated and very conspicuous hill, or cluster of hills, forming a
promontory some i6 miles north of Cananore, the first Indian land seen by Vasco da
Gama, on that memorable August morning in 1498, and formerly very well known to
navigators, though it has been allowtd to drop out of some of our most ambitious
modern maps. Abulfeda describes it as " a great mountain projecting into the sea, and
descried from a great distance, called Ras Haili '" ; and it appears in Era Mauro's map
as Cavo de Eli.

Rashiduddin mentions " the country of Hili," between yI/^;i/ar/^r(Mangalore) and
Fandaraina (miswritten in Elliot's copy Sadarsd). Ibn Batuta speaks of Hili, which
he reached on leaving Manjanir, as " a great and well-built city, situated on a large
estuary accessible to great ships. The vessels of China come hither ; this, Kaulam,
and Kalikut, are the only ports that they enter." From Hili he proceeds 12 miles
further down the coast to Jor-fattan, which probably corresponds to Baliapatan.
Elly appears in the Carta Catalana, and is marked as a Christian city. Nicolo Conti
is the last to speak distinctly of the city. Sailing from Cambay, in 20 days he
arrived at two cities on the sea-shore, Pacajnuria [Faknur, of Rashid and Firishta,
Baccanor of old books, and now Bdrkur, the Malayalim Vdkkaniir) and Helli. But
we read that in 1527 Simon de Melo was sent to burn ships in the River of Marabia
and at Moiite d'Elli.* When Da Gama on his second voyage was on his way from

* The Town of Monte d'Ely appears {Monie Dil) in Coronelli's Atlas (1690) from some older
source. Mr. Burnell thinks Baliapatan (properly ValarpafJanam) which is still a prosperous Mappila
town, on a broad and deep river, must be Hili. I see a little difficulty in this. [Marabia at Monte
Dely is often mentioned in Correa, as one of the ports of the Kingdom of Cananor.]

Chap. XXIV.

THE KINGDOM OF ELI

Z^7

Baticala (in Canara) to Cananor, a squall having sprung his mainmast just before
reaching Mt. d'Ely, " the captain-major anchore"d in the Bay of Marabia, because he
saw there several Moorish ships, in order to get a mast from them." It seems clear
that this was the l)ay just behind Mt. d'Ely.

Indeed the name of Marabia or Mdrdwi is still preserved in Mdddvi or Madai,
corruptly termed Matidoy in some of our maps, a township upon the river which enters
the bay about 7 or 8 miles south-east of Mt. d'Ely, and which is called l)y De Barros
the Rio Marabia. Mr. Ballard informs me that he never heard of ruins of importance
at Madai, but there is a place on the river just mentioned, and within the Madai
township, called Payangddi (" Old Town "), which has the remains of an old fort of
the Kolastri (or Kolatiri) Rajas. A palace ^X Madai (perhaps this fort) is alluded to
by Dr. Gundert in the Madras Jotcnial, and a Buddhist Vihara is spoken of in an old
Malayalim poem as having existed at the same place. The same paper speaks of
" the famous emporium of Cachilpatnam near Mt. d'Ely," which may have been our
city of Ilili, as the cities Ilili and Marawi were apparently separate though near.*

The slate o{ IHH-Mdrd'wi is aho mentioned in the Arabic work on the early history

Mount d'Ely, from the Sea, in last century.

of the Mahomedans in Malabar, called Tiihfat-al-Mujdhidm, and translated by
Rowlandson ; and as the Prince is there called Koltiiree, this would seem to identify
him either in family or person with the Raja of Cananor, for that old dynasty always
bore the name of /v'^/a/?W.t

The Ramusian version of Barbosa is very defective here, but in Stanley's version
(Hak. See. East African and Malabar Coasts, p. 149) we find the topography in a
passage from a Munich MS. clear enough : "After passing this place" (the river of
Nirapura or Nileshwaram) *' along the coast is the mountain Dely (of Ely) on the
edge of the sea; it is a round mountain, very lofty, in the midst of low land ; all the

* Mr. Burnell thinks A'ac/^c/wVpattanam must I.c aii ^iror (easy in MalayaUm) for A'«z/z///pattanam,
i.e. Kavvayi (Kanwai in our map).

As printed hy Rowlandson, the name is corrupt (like many others in the book), being given as
Huhaee Murawee. But suspecting what this pointed to, I examined the MS, in the R. A. Society's
Library. The knowledge of the Arabic character was quite sufficient to enable me to trace the name

^^ ^3L^ /•Jl'^j Hilt Mdrdwi, (See Rowlandson, pp. 54, 58-59, and MS. pp. 23 and 26, also

Indian Antiquary, III. p. 213.)

VOL. IL 2 B 2

388

MARCO POLO Book III.

ships of the Moors and Gentiles that navigate in this sea of India sight this mountain
when coming from without, and make their reckoning by it ; . . . . after this, at the
foot of the mountain to the south, is a town called Marave, very ancient and well off,
in which live Moors and Gentiles and Jews ; these Jews are of the language of the
country ; it is a long time that they have dwelt in this place."

(Stanley's Correa, Hak. Soc. pp. 145, 312-313; Gildem. p. 185; Elliot, I. 68;
/. A IV. 81 ; Conti, p. 6 ; Madras Joztj-Jial, XI 11. No. 31, pp. 14, 99, 102, 104 ; Be
Barros, III. 9, cap. 6, and IV. 2, cap. 13 ; De Couto, IV. 5, cap. 4.)

Note 2. — This is from Pauthier's text, and the map with ch. xxi. illustrates the
fact of the many wide rivers. The G. T. has *' a good river with a very good estuary "
or mouth. The latter word is in the G. T. faces, afterwards more correctly foces,
equivalent to fauces. We have seen that Ibn Batuta also speaks of the estuary or
inlet at Hili. It may have been either that immediately east of Mount d'Ely, com-
municating with Kavvayi and the Nileshwaram River, or the Madai River. Neither
could be entered by vessels now, but there have been great littoral changes. The
land joining Mt. d'Ely to the main is mere alluvium.

Note 3. — Barbosa says that throughout the kingdom of Cananor the pepper was
of excellent quality, though not in great quantity. There was much ginger, not first-
rate, which was called Hely from its growing about Mount d'Ely, with cardamoms
(names of which. Eld in Sanskrit, Hel in Persian, I have thought might be connected
with that of the hill), mirobolans, cassia fistula, zerumbet, and zedoary. The two last
items are two species of curctima, formerly in much demand as aromatics ; the last is,
I believe, the setewale of Chaucer : —

*' There was eke wexing many a spice,
As clowe gilofre and Licorice,

Ginger and grein de Paradis,
Canell and setewale of pris.
And many a spice delitable
To eaten when men rise from table." — R. of the Rose,

The Hely ginger is also mentioned by Conti.

Note 4. — This piratical practice is noted by Abdurrazzak also : " In other parts
(than Calicut) a strange practice is adopted. When a vessel sets sail for a certain
point, and suddenly is driven by a decree of Divine Providence into another road-
stead, the inhabitants, under the pretext that the wind has driven it thither, plunder
the ship. But at Calicut every ship, whatever place it comes from, or wherever it
may be bound, when it puts into this port, is treated like other vessels, and has no
trouble of any kind to put up with" (p. 14). In 1673 Sivaji replied to the pleadings
of an English embassy, that it was "against the Laws of Conchon" (Ptolemy's Pirate
Coast!) "to restore any ships or goods that were driven ashore." [Fryer, p. 261.)

Note 5. — With regard to the anchors, Pauthier's text has just the opposite of the G. T.
which we have preferred : ^'- Les nefs dti Manzi portent si grans ancres de fust, que il
seuffrent moult de grans fortunes aus plajes.'" De Mailla says the Chinese consider
their iron wood anchors to be much better than those of iron, because the latter are
subject to strain. {Lett. Edif. XIV. 10.) Capt. Owen has a good word for wooden
anchors. {Narr. of Voyages, etc., I. 385.)

Chap. XXV. THE KINGDOM OF MELIBAR 389

CHAPTER XXV.

Concerning the Kingdom of Melibar.

Melibar is a great kingdom lying towards the west.
The people are Idolaters ; they have a language of their
own, and a king of their own, and pay tribute to
nobody.^

In this country you see more of the North Star, for
it shows two cubits above the water. And you must
know that from this kingdom of Melibar, and from
another near it called Gozurat, there go forth every year
more than a hundred corsair vessels on cruize. These
pirates take with them their wives and children, and
stay out the whole summer. Their method is to join in
fleets of 20 or 30 of these pirate vessels together, and
then they form what they call a sea cordon,^ that is,
they drop off till there is an interval of 5 or 6 miles
between ship and ship, so that they cover something like
an hundred miles of sea, and no merchant ship can
escape them. For when any one corsair sights a vessel
a signal is made by fire or smoke, and then the whole of
them make for this, and seize the merchants and
plunder them. After they have plundered them they
let them go, saying : " Go along with you and get more
gain, and that mayhap will fall to us also I " But now
the merchants are aware of this, and go so well manned
and armed, and with such great ships, that they don't
fear the corsairs. Still mishaps do befall them at times.^

There is in this kingdom a great quantity of pepper,
and ginger, and cinnamon, and turbit, and of nuts of
India.^ They also manufacture very delicate and
beautiful buckrams. The ships that come from the east

390 MARCO POLO Book III.

bring copper in ballast. They also bring hither cloths
of silk and gold, and sendels ; also gold and silver,
cloves and spikenard, and other fine spices for which
there is a demand here, and exchange them for the
products of these countries.

Ships come hither from many quarters, but especially
from the great province of Manzi.^ Coarse spices are
exported hence both to Manzi and to the west, and that
which is carried by the merchants to Aden goes on to
Alexandria, but the ships that go in the latter direction
are not one to ten of those that go to the eastward ; a
very notable fact that I have mentioned before.

Now I have told you about the kingdo^n of Melibar ;
we shall now proceed and tell you of the kingdom of
Gozurat. And you must understand that in speaking of
these kingdoms we note only the capitals ; there are
great numbers of other cities and towns of which we
shall say nothing, because it would make too long a
story to speak of all.

Note i. — Here is another instance of that confusion which dislocates Polo's de-
scriptions of the Indian coast ; we shall recur to it under ch. xxx.

Malabar is a name given by the Arabs, and varies in its form : Ibn Batuta and

Kazwini write it jUaX^), al-Malibdr, Edrisi and Abulfeda jLuXf^)? ^^-
Manibdr, etc., and like variations occur among the old European travellers. The
country so-called corresponded to the Kerala of the Brahmans, which in its very
M'idest sense extended from about lat. 15" to Cape Comorin. This, too, seems to be
the extension which Abulfeda gives to Malabar, viz., from Hunawar to Kumhari ;
Rashiduddin includes Sindabur, i.e. Goa. But at a later date a point between Mt.
d'Ely and Mangalore on the north, and Kaulam on the south, were the limits usually
assigned to Malabar.

Note 2. — '■^ II font eschiel en la mcr'''' (G.T.). Eschiel is the equivalent of the
Italian schera or schiera, a troop or squadron, and thence applied to order of battle,
whether by land or sea.

Note 3. — The northern part of Malabar, Canara, and the Konkan, have been
nests of pirates from the time of the ancients to a very recent date. Padre Paolino
specifies the vicinity of Mt. d'Ely as a special haunt of them in his day, the latter half
of last century. Somewhat further north Ibn Batuta fell into their hands, and was
stripped to his drawers.

Note 4. — There is something to be said about these Malabar spices. The cin-
namon of Malabar is what we call cassia, the cauclla grossa of Conti, the canela brava
of the Portuguese. Notices of it will be found in Rheede (I. 107) and in Garcia

Chap. XX V. THE KINGDOM OF MELIBAR

39^

(f. 26 seqq.). The latter says the Ceylon cmnamon exceeded it in value as 4: i.
Uzzano discriminates canella lunga, Salami, and Mabari. The Salami, I have no
doubt, is Sailani, Ceylonese ; and as we do not hear of any cassia from Mabar, pro-
bably the last was Malabar cinnamon.

Ttcrbit: Radex Turpethi is still known in pharmacy, at least in some parts of the
Continent and in India, though in England obsolete. It is mentioned in the Pharma-
copoeia of India (1868) as derived from Ipomcea TtirpetJmm.

But it is worthy of note that Kamusio has cubebs instead of turbit. The formei
does not seem now to be a product of Western India, though Garcia says that a
small quantity grew there, and a Dutch report of 1675 in Valentyn also mentions it as
an export of Malabar. ( V., Ceylon, p. 243.) There is some ambiguity in statements
about it, because its popular name Kabab-chini seems to be also applied to the cassia
bud. Cubeb pepper was much used in the Middle Ages as a spice, and imported into
Europe as such. But the importation had long practically ceased, when its medical uses
became known during the British- occupation of Java, and the demand was renewed.

Budaeus and Salmasius have identified this drug with the KihfiaKov, which.
Theophrastus joins with cinnamomum and cassia as an ingredient in aromatic con-
fections. The inducement to this identification was no doubt the singular resemblance
which the word bears to the Javanese name of cubeb pepper, viz., Kumukus. If the
foundation were a little firmer this would be curious evidence of intercourse and trade
with Java in a time earlier than that of Theophrastus, viz., the 4th century B.C.

In the detail of 3 cargoes from Malabar that arrived at Lisbon in September 1504
we find the following proportions : Pepper, 10,000 catitars ; cinnamon, 500 ; cloves,
450; zz. {i.e. zenzaro, ginger), 130; lac and brazil, 750; camphor, 7; cubebs, 191 ;
mace, 2| ; spikenard, 3 ; lign-aloes, ij.

[Btichajian'' s Mysore, II. 31, III. 193, and App. p. v. ; Garcia, Ital. version,
1576, f. 39-40; Salmas. Exerc. Plin. p. 923; Bud. on Theoph. 1004 and loio ;
Archiv. St. Ital., Append. II. p. 19.)

Note 5. — We see that Marco speaks ot the merchants and ships of Manzi, or
Southern China, as frequenting Kaulam, Hili, and now Malabar, of which Calicut
was the chief port. This quite coincides with Ibn Batuta, who says those were the
three ports of India which the Chinese junks frequented, adding Fandaraina {i.e.
Pandarani, or Pantalani, 16 miles north of Calicut), as a port where they used to
moor for the winter when they spent that season in India. By the winter he means
the rainy season, as Portuguese writers on India do by the same expression (IV.
81, 88, 96). I have been unable to find anything definite as to the date of the
cessation of this Chinese navigation to Malabar, but I believe it may be placed
about the beginning of the 15th century. The most distinct allusion to it that I am
aware of is in the information of Joseph of Cranganore, in the Nov us Orbis (Ed. of
15555 P- 208). He says : "These people of Cathay are men of remarkable energy,
and formerly drove a first-rate trade at the city of Calicut. But the King of Calicut
having treated them badly, they quitted that city, and returning shortly after inflicted
no small slaughter on the people of Calicut, and after that returned no more. After
that they began to frequent Mailapetam, a city subject to the king of Narsingha ;
a region towards the East, .... and there they now drive their trade." There is
also in Caspar Correa's account of the Voyages of Da Gama a curious record of a
tradition of the arrival in Malabar more than four centuries before of a vast
merchant fleet "from the parts of Malacca, and China, and the Lequeos " (Lewchew) ;
many from the company on board had settled in the country and left descendants.
In the space of a hundred years none of these remained ; but their sumptuous idol
temples were still to be seen. {Stanley's Transl., Hak. Soc, p. 147- )* ^^ is prob-

* It appears from a paper in the Mackenzie MSS. that down to Colonel Mackenzie's time there
was a tribe in Calicut whose ancestors were believed to have been Chinese. (See Taylor's Catal.
Raisonne, III. 664.) And there is a notable passage in Abdurrazzak which says the seafaring popula-
tion of Calicut were nicknamed Chinl bachagdn, " China boys." {India in XV th Cent. p. 19.)

592

MARCO POLd Book III.

able that both these stories must be referred to those extensive expeditions to the
western countries with the object of restoring Chinese influence which were
despatched by the Ming Emperor Ch'eng-Tsu (or Yung-lo), about 1406, and one of
which seems actually to have brought Ceylon under a partial subjection to China,
which endured half a century. (See Tenneni, \. 622, seqg. ; a-ndi Letter of P. Gaiibil
\VlJ. a. s6r. II, torn. x. pp. 327-328. ) ["So that at this day there is great memory of
them in the ilands Philippinas, and on the cost of Coromande, which is the cost
against the kingdome of Norsinga towards the sea of Cengala : whereas is a towne
called unto this day the soile of the Chinos, for that they did reedifie and make the
same. The hke notice and memory is there in the kingdom of Calicut, whereas be
many trees and fruits, that the naturals of that countrie do say, were brought thither
by the Chinos, when that they were lords and gouernours of that countrie."
{Mendoza, Parkers transl. p. 71.)] De Barros says that the famous city of Diu was
built by one of the Kings of Guzerat whom he calls in one place Dariar Khan, and
in another Pertixiah, in memory of victory in a sea-fight with the Chinese who then
frequented the Indian shores. It is difficult to identify this King, though he is
represented as the father of the famous toxiccphagous Sultan Mahmud Begara (1459-
151 1 ). De Barros has many other allusions to Chinese settlements and conquests
in India which it is not very easy to account for. Whatever basis of facts there is
must probably refer to the expeditions of Ch'eng-Tsu, but not a little probably grew out
of the confusion of Jainas and Chinas already alluded to ; and to this I incline to
refer Correa's ''sumptuous idol-temples."

There must have been some revival of Chinese trade in the last century, if P.
Paolino is correct in speaking of Chinese vessels frequenting Travancore ports for
pepper. {De Barros^ Dec. II. Liv. ii. cap. 9, and Dec. IV. Li v. v. cap. 3 ; Paolhwy
p. 74-)

CHAPTER XXVI.

Concerning the Kingdom of Gozurat.

GozuRAT is a great kingdom. The people are Idolaters
and have a peculiar language, and a king of their own,
and are tributary to no one. It lies towards the west,
and the North Star is here still more conspicuous,
showing itself at an altitude of about 6 cubits.^

The people are the most desperate pirates in exist-
ence, and one of their atrocious practices is this. When
they have taken a merchant-vessel they force the
merchants to swallow a stuff called Tamarindi mixed in
sea-water, which produces a violent purging.^ This is
done in case the merchants, on seeing their danger,
should have swallowed their most valuable stones and
pearls. And in this way the pirates secure the whole.

Chap. XXVI.

THE KINGDOM OF GOZURAT

393

In this province of Gozurat there grows much
pepper, and ginger, and indigo. They have also a great
deal of cotton. Their cotton trees are of very great size,
growing full six paces high, and attaining to an age of
20 years. It is to be observed however that, when the
trees are so old as that, the cotton is not good to spin,
but only to quilt or stuff beds withal. Up to the age of

Mediaeval Architecture in Guzerat. (From Fergusson.)

12 years indeed the trees give good spinning cotton, but
from that age to 20 years the produce is inferior.^

They dress in this country great numbers of skins of
various kinds, goat-skins, ox-skins, buffalo and wild ox-
skins, as well as those of unicorns and other animals.
In fact so many are dressed every year as to load a
number of ships for Arabia and other quarters. They
also work here beautiful mats in red and blue leather.

394 MARCO POLO liooK III.

exquisitely inlaid with figures of birds and beasts, and
skilfully embroidered with gold and silver wire. These
are marvellously beautiful things ; they are used by the
Saracens to sleep upon, and capital they are for that
purpose. They also work cushions embroidered with
gold, so fine that they are worth six marks of silver a
piece, whilst some of those sleeping-mats are worth ten
marks/

Note i. — Again we note the topographical confusion. Guzerat is mentioned as if
it were a province adjoining Malabar, and before arriving at Tana, Cambay, and
Somnath ; though in fact it includes those three cities, and Cambay was then its
great mart. Wassaf, Polo's contemporary, perhaps acquaintance, speaks of Gujarat
which is commonly called Kambayat. {Elliot, III. 31.)

Note 2. — ["The origin of the name \Tatnarmd\ is curious. It is Ar. tamar-
li'l-Hmd, 'date of India,' or perhaps rather, in Persian form, tamar-i- Hindi. It is
possible that the original name may have been thamar, (' fruit ') of India, rather than
tamar, ( ' date ').." {Hobson-Jobson. )]

Note 3. — The notice of pepper here is hard to explain. But Hiuen Tsang also
speaks of Indian pepper and incense (see next chapter) as grown at ''Ochali which
seems to be some place on the northern border of Guzerat (II. 161).

Marsden, in regard to the cotton, supposes here some confused introduction of the
silk-cotton tree {Bombax or Salmalia, the Semal of Hindustan), but the description
would be entirely inapplicable to that great forest tree. It is remarkable that nearly
the same statement with regard to Guzerat occurs in Rashiduddin's sketch of India,
.IS translated in Sir H. Elliot's History of India {ed. by Professor Bowson, I. 67) :
** Grapes are produced twice during the year, and the strength of the soil is such
that cotton-plants grow like willows and plane-trees, and yield produce ten years
running." An author of later date, from whom extracts are given in the same work,
viz., Mahommed Masum in his History of Sind, describing the wonders of Siwi, says :
** In Korzamin and Chhatur, which are districts of Siwi, cotton-plants grow as large
as trees, insomuch that men pick the cotton mounted" (p. .237).

These would appear to have been plants of the species of true cotton called by
Royle Gossipinm arborenin, and sometimes termed G. religioswn, from its being often
grown in South India near temples or abodes of devotees ; though the latter name
has been applied also to the nankeen cotton. That of which we speak is, however,
according to Dr. Cleghorn, termed in Mysore Deo kapds, of which G. religiosum
would be a proper translation. It is grown in various parts of India, but generally
rather for ornament than use. It is stated, however, to be specially used for the
manufacture of turbans, and for the Brahmanical thread, and probably afforded the
groundwork of the story told by Philostratus of the wild cotton which was used only
for the sacred vestments of the Brahmans, and refused to lend itself to other uses.
One of Royle's authorities (Mr. Vaupell) mentions that it was grown near large towns
of Eastern Guzerat, and its wool regar-ded as the finest of any, and only used in
delicate muslins. Tod speaks of it in Bikanir, and this kind of cotton appears to be
grown also in China, as we gather from a passage in Amyofs Memoires (II. 606),
which speaks of the " Cotonniers arbres, qui ne devoient etre fertiles qu'apres un bon
nombre d'annees."

The height appears to have been a difficulty with Marsden, who refers to the
G. arborenm, but does not admit that it could be intended. Yet I see in the Evglish

Chap. XXVII. THE KINGDOM OF TANA

395

Cyclopcedia that to this species is assigned a height of 15 to 20 feet. Polo's six paces
therefore, even if it means 30 feet as I think, is not a great exaggeration. {Royle, Cult.
of Cotton, 144, 145, 152 ; Eng. Cycl. art. Gossypium.)

Note 4. — Embroidered and Inlaid leather-work for bed-covers, palankin mats
and the like, is still a great manufacture in Rajkot and other places of Kattiawar in
Peninsular Guzerat, as well as in the adjoining region of Sind. (Note from Sir Bartle
Frere.) The embroidery of Guzerat is highly commended by Barbosa, Linschoten,
and A. Hamilton.

The G. T. adds at the end of this passage: ^^ E qe voz en diroi? Sachids tout
voiremant qe en ceste reingne se labore roiaus dereusse de cuir et plus sotilment que
ne fait en tout lo monde, e celz qe sunt de greingnors 7)ailance.''''

The two words in Roman type I cannot explain ; qu. royaux devises?

CHAPTER XXVII.

CONCKRNING THE KINGDOM OF TaNA.

Tana is a great kingdom lying towards the west, a
kingdom great both in size and worth. The people are
Idolaters, with a language of their own, and a king of
their own, and tributary to nobody.-^ No pepper grows
there, nor other spices, but plenty of incense ; not the
white kind however, but brown. ^

There is much traffic here, and many ships and mer-
chants frequent the place ; for there is a great export of
leather of various excellent kinds, and also of good buck-
ram and cotton. The merchants in their ships also
import various articles, such as gold, silver, copper, and
other things in demand.

With the King's connivance many corsairs launch
from this port to plunder merchants. These corsairs
have a covenant with the King that he shall get all the
horses they capture, and all other plunder shall remain
with them. The King does this because he has no
horses of his own, whilst many are shipped from abroad
towards India; for no ship ever goes thither without
horses in addition to other cargo. The practice is
naughty and unworthy of a king.

396 ' MARCO POLO Book III.

Note i. — The town of TiiAna, on the landward side of the island of Salsette,
still exists, about 20 miles from Bombay. The Great Peninsular Railroad here crosses
the strait which separates Salsette from the Continent.

The Konkan is no doubt what was intended by the kingdom of Thdna. Albiruni
speaks of that city as the capital of Konkan ; Rashiduddin calls it Konkan-Tdna^ Ibn
Batuta Kikkin- Tdna, the last a form which appears in the Carta Catalana as Cucintana.
Tieffentaller writes Kokan, and this is said {Cunningham^ s A?ic. Geog. 553) to be the
local pronunciation. Abulfeda speaks of it as a very celebrated place of trade, pro-
ducing a kind of cloth which was called Tdnasi, bamboos, and Tabashir derived from
the ashes of the bamboo.

As early as the i6th year of the Hijra (a.d. 637) an Arab fleet from Oman made
a hostile descent on the Island of Thdna, i.e. Salsette. The place {Sri Sthdnaka)
appears from inscriptions to have been the seat of a Hindu kingdom of the Konkan,
in the nth century. In Polo's time Thana seems to have been still under a Hindu
prince, but it soon afterwards became subject to the Delhi sovereigns ; and when
visited by Jordanus and by Odoric some thirty years after Polo's voyage, a Mussulman
governor was ruling there, who put to death four Franciscans, the companions of
Jordanus. Barbosa gives it the compound name of Tana-Maiambu, the latter part
being the first indication I know of the name of Bombay {Mambai). It was still a
place of many mosques, temples, and gardens, but the trade was small. Pirates still
did business from the port, but on a reduced scale. Botero says that there were the
remains of an immense city to be seen, and that the town still contained 5000 velvet-
weavers (p. 104). Till the Mahrattas took Salsette in 1737, the Portuguese had
many fine villas about Thana.

Polo's dislocation of geographical order here has misled Fra Mauro into placing
Tana to the west of Guzerat, though he has a duplicate Tana nearer the correct
position.

Note 2. — It has often been erroneously supposed that the frankincense {olibaniim)
of commerce, for which Bombay and the ports which preceded it in Western India
have for centuries afforded the chief mart, was an Indian product. But Marco is not
making that mistake ; he calls the incense of Western India brown, evidently in
contrast with the white incense or olibanum, which he afterwards assigns to its true
locality {infra, ch. xxxvii., xxxviii.). Nor is Marsden justified in assuming that the
brown incense of Tana must needs have been Benzoin imported from Sumatra, though
I observe Dr. Birdwood considers that the term Indian Frankincense which occurs
in Dioscorides must have included Benzoin. Dioscorides describes the so-called
Indian Frankincense as blackish ; and Garcia supposes the name merely to refer to
the colour, as he says the Arabs often gave the name of Indian to things of a dark
colour.

There seems to be no proof that Benzoin was known even to the older Arab
writers. Western India supplies a variety of aromatic gum-resins, one of which was
probably intended by our traveller :

I. BoswELLiA THURIFERA of Colebrooke, whose description led to a general
belief that this tree produced the Frankincense of commerce. The tree is found in
Oudh and Rohilkhand, in Bahar, Central India, Khandesh, and Ka'.tiawar, etc.
The gum-resin is used and sold locally as an incense, but is soft and sticky, and is not
the olibanum of commerce ; nor is it collected for exportation.

The Coromandel Boswellia glabra of Roxburgh is now included (see Dr. Bird-
wood's Monograph) as a variety under the B. thicrifera. Its gum-resin is a good
deal used as incense, in the Tamul regions, under the name of Kundrikam, with
which is apparently connected Kundur, one of the Arabic words for olibanum (see
ch. xxxviii,, note 2).

II. Valeria Indica (Roxb.), producing a gum-resin which when recent is known
as Piney Varnish, and when hardened, is sold for export under the names of
Indian Copal, White Dammar, and others. Its northern limit of growth is North

Chap. XXVIII. THE KINGDOM OF CAMBAET

39?

Canara ; but the gum is exported from Bombay. The tree is the Chloroxylon
Dupada of Buchanan, and is, I imagine, the Dupu or Incense Tree of Rheede.
{Hort. Malab. IV.) The tree is a fine one, and forms beautiful avenues in Malabar
and Canara. The Hindus use the resin as an incense, and in Malabar it is also made
into candles which burn fragrantly and with little smoke. It is, or was, also used as
pitch, and is probably the thus with which Indian vessels, according to Joseph of
Cranganore (in Novus Orbis), were payed. Garcia took it for the ancient
Cancatnum, but this Dr. Birdwood identifies with the next, viz. : —

HI. Gardenia hicida (Roxb.). It grows in the Konkan districts, producing a
fragrant resin called Dikamdli in India, and by the Arabs Kaiikham.

IV. Bahamodendron Muktd, growing in Sind, Kattiawar and the Deesa
District, and producing the Indian Bdellium^ Mtikl of the Arabs and Persians, used
as an incense and as a cordial medicine. It is believed to be the BSAXa mentioned
in the Periplus as exported from the Indus, and also as brought down with Costus
through Ozene (Ujjain) to Barygaza (Baroch — see Muller's Geog. Grcec. Minor. I.
2S7, 293), It is mentioned also {Mukl) by Albiruni as a special product of Kachh,
and is probably the incense of that region alluded to by Pliuen Tsang. (See last
chapter, note 3.) It is of a yellow, red, or brownish colour. {Eng. Cyc. art.
Bdellium; Dowson's Elliot, I. 66; Reinaud'mJ. As. ser. IV. tom. iv. p. 263).

V. Canarium stricium (Roxb.), of the Western Ghats, affording the Black
Dammar of Malabar, which when fresh is aromatic and yellow in colour. It
abounds in the country adjoining Tana. The natives use it as incense, and call the
tree Dhilp (incense) and Gugul (Bdellum).

Besides these resinous substances, the Costus of the Ancients may be mentioned
(Sansk. Kushth), being still exported from Western India, as well as from Calcutta,
to China, under the name of Futchok, to be burnt as incense in Chinese temples.
Its identity has been ascertained in our own day by Drs. Royle and Falconer, as the
root of a plant which they called Aucklandia Costus. But the identity of the Pucho
(which he gives as the Malay name) with Costus was known to Garcia. Alex.
Hamilton, at the beginning of last century, calls it Ligna Dulcis (sic), and speaks
of it as an export from Sind, as did the author of the Periplus 1600 years earlier.

My own impression is that Mukl or Bdellium was the brown incense of
Polo, especially because we see from Albiruni that this was regarded as a staple
export from neighbouring regions. But Dr. Birdwood considers that the Black
Dammar of Canaritim strictu/n is in question. {Report on Indian Gum-Resins, by
Mr. Dalzell of Bot. Gard. Bombay, 1866 ; Birdivood^s Bovibay Products, 2nd ed.
pp. 282, 287, etc. ; Dritiy''s Useful Plants of India, 2nd ed. ; Garcia; A. Hajuilton,
I. 127; Eng. Cyc, art. Putchtck ; Buchanan s Journey, II. 44, 335, etc.)

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Concerning the Kingdom of Cambaet.

Cambaet is a great kingdom lying further west. The
people are Idolaters, and have a language of their own,
and a king of their own, and are tributary to nobody.^
The North Star is here still rnore clearly visible;

39^ MARCO POLO Book III.

and henceforward the further you go west the higher
you see it.

There is a great deal of trade in this country. It
produces indigo in great abundance ; and they also make
much fine buckram. There is also a quantity of cotton
which is exported hence to many quarters ; and there is
a great trade in hides, which are very well dressed ; with
many other kinds of merchandize too tedious to mention.
Merchants come here with many ships and cargoes,
but what they chiefly bring is gold, silver, copper [and
tutia].

There are no pirates from this country ; the inhabi-
tants are good people, and live by their trade and
manufactures.

Note i. — Cambaet is nearer the genuine name of the city than our Cambay. Its
proper Hindu name was, according to Colonel Tod, Khanibavati, "the City of the
Pillar." The inhabitants write it Kambdyat. The ancient city is 3 miles from the
existing Cambay, and is now overgrown with jungle. It is spoken of as a flourishing
place by Mas'udi, who visited it in a.d. 915. Ibn Batuta speaks of it also as a very
fine city, remarkable for the elegance and solidity of its mosques, and houses built by
wealthy foreign merchants. Cambeth is mentioned by Polo's contemporary Marino
Sanudo, as one of the two chief Ocean Ports of India ; and in the 15th century
Conti calls it 14 miles in circuit. It was still in high prosperity in the early
part of the 1 6th century, abounding in commerce and luxury, and one of the greatest
Indian marts. Its trade continued considerable in the time of Federici, towards
the end of that century ; but it has now long disappeared, the local part of it being
transferred to Gogo and other ports having deeper water. Its chief or sole industry
now is in the preparation of ornamental objects from agates, cornelians, and the like.

The Indigo of Cambay was long a staple export, and is mentioned by Conli,
Nikitin, Santo Stefano, Federici, Linschoten, and Abu'l Fazl.

The independence of Cambay ceased a few years after Polo's visit ; for it was
taken in the end of the century by the armies of Alauddin Khilji of Delhi, a king
whose name survived in Guzerat down to our own day as Aldtuidin Khuni — Bloody
Alauddin. {Rds Mdld, I. 235.)

CHAPTER XXIX.

Concerning the Kingdom of Semenat.

Skmenat is a great kingdom towards the west. The
people are Idolaters, and have a king and a language of
their own, and pay tribute to nobody. They are not

Chap. XXIX.

THE KINGDOM OF SEMENAT

399

corsairs, but live by trade and industry as honest people
ought. It is a place of very great trade. They are
forsooth cruel Idolaters.^

f^e%(^^:P^;i^(^Wi^y^r<^^^(r^,<^(r>m^^^'' "r&^^'O ;' o -r^.l^^^. ^^'^-^^^'^ffe^^C A^.^-.^C^'^C^tai'-gO^.g?.^

•w

(r^^

^:^^<y

li ^i| k(l!tU^

' The Gates of Soiiinath,' as preserved m the Britibh Arsenal at Agra, from a photograph

((-uOvcrttd mnj clcvtiiiuii).

400 MARCO POLO 15ook III.

Note i. — SoMNAtrii is the site oflhe celebrated Temple on the coast of Saurdshtra,
or Peninsular Guzerat, plundered by Mahmvid of Ghazni on his sixteenth expedition to
India (a. D. 1023). The term " great kingdom " is part of Polo's formula. But the
place was at this time of some importance as a commercial port, and much visited by
the ships of Aden, as Abulfeda tells us. At an earlier date Albiruni speaks of it both
as the seat of a great Mahadeo much frequented by Hindu pilgrims, and as a port of
call for vessels on their way from Sofala in Africa to China, — a remarkable incidental
notice of departed trade and civilisation ! He does not give Somnath so good a
character as Polo does ; for he names it as one of the chief pirate-haunts. And Colonel
Tod mentions that the sculptured memorial stones on this coast frequently exhibit the
deceased as a pirate in the act of boarding. In fact, piratical habits continued in the
islands off the coast of Kattiawar down to our own day.

Properly speaking, three separate things are lumped together as Somnath : (i) The
Port, properly called Verawal, on a beautiful little bay ; (2) the City of Deva-Pattan,
Somnath- Pattan, or Prabhas, occupying a prominence on the south side of the bay,
having a massive wall and towers, and many traces of ancient Hindu workmanship,
though the vast multitude of tombs around shows the existence of a large Mussulman
population at some time ; and among these are dates nearly as old as our Traveller's
visit ; (3) The famous Temple (or, strictly speaking, the object of worship in that
Temple) crowning a projecting rock at the south-west angle of the city, and close to
the walls. Portions of columns and sculptured fragments strew the soil around.

Notwithstanding the famous story of Mahmiid and the image stuffed with jewels,
there is little doubt that the idol really termed Somnath (Moon's Lord) was nothing
but a huge columnar emblem of Mahadeo. Hindu authorities mention it as one of
the twelve most famous emblems of that kind over India, and Ibn Asir's account,
the oldest extant narrative of Mahmud's expedition, is to the same effect. Every day
it was washed with water newly brought from the Ganges. Mahmiid broke it to
pieces, and with a fragment a step was made at the entrance of the Jami' Mosque at
Ghazni.

The temples and idols of Pattan underwent a second visitation at the hands of
Alauddin's forces a few years after Polo's visit (1300),* and this seems in great
measure to have wiped out the memory of Mahmud. The temple, as it now stands
deserted, bears evident tokens of having been converted into a mosque. A good
deal of old and remarkable architecture remains, but mixed with Moslem work, and
no part of the building as it stands is believed to be a survival from the time of
Mahmud ; though part may belong to a reconstruction which was carried out by
Raja Bhima Deva of Anhilwara about twenty-five years after Mahmud's invasion. It is
remarkable that Ibn Asir speaks of the temple plundered by Mahmud as *' built
upon 56 pillars of teak- wood covered with lead." Is it possible that it was a wooden
building ?

In connection with this brief chapter on Somnath we present a faithful representa-
tion of those Gates which Lord Ellenborough rendered so celebrated in connection
with that name, when he caused them to be removed from the Tomb of Mahmud, on
the retirement of our troops from Kabul in 1842. His intention, as announced in
that once famous ^cran of his, was to have them carried solemnly to Guzerat, and
there restored to the (long desecrated) temple. Calmer reflection prevailed, and the
Gates were consigned to the Fort of Agra, where they still remain.

Captain J. D, Cunningham, in his HzsL of the Sikhs (p. 209), says that in 1831,
when Shah Shiija treated with Ranjft Singh for aid to recover his throne, one of the
Maharaja's conditions was the restoration of the Gates to Somnath. This probably
put the scheme into Lord Ellenborough's head. But a remarkable fact is, that the
Shah reminded Ranjit of a prophecy that foreboded the downfall of the Sikh Empire
on the removal of the Ghazni Gates. This is quoted from a report of Captain Wade's,

* So in Elliot, II. 74. But Jacob says there is an inscription of a Mussulman Governor in Pattan gf
1297,

Chap. XXX. THE KINGDOM OF KESMACORAN 40I

dated 2 1st November, 1831. The gates were removed to India in the end of 1842.
The "Sikh Empire" practically collapsed with the murder of Sher Singh in
September, 1843.

It is not probable that there was any real connection between these Gates, of
Saracenic design, carved (it is said) in Himalayan cedar, and the Temple of Somnath.
But tradition did ascribe to them such a connection, and the eccentric prank of a
clever man in high place made this widely known. Nor in any case can we regard
as alien to the scope of this book the illustration of a work of mediaeval Asiatic art,
which is quite as remarkable for its own character and indisputable history, as for
the questionable origin ascribed to it. ( Tod's Travels, 385, 504 ; Burgess, Visit to
Somnath, etc. ; Jacob's Report on Kattywar, p. 18; Gildemeister, 185; Dow son's
Elliot, II. 468 seqq. ; Asiatic Jotcrnal, 3rd series, vol. L).

CHAPTER XXX.

CONCERIMING THE KiN'GDOM OF KeSMACORAN.

Kesmacoran is a kingdom having a king of its own and
a peculiar language. [Some of] the people are Idolaters,
[but the most part are Saracens]. They live by mer-
chandize and industry, for they are professed traders, and
carry on much traffic by sea and land in all directions.
Their food is rice [and corn], flesh and milk, of which
they have great store. There is no more to be said
about them.^

And you must know that this kingdom of Kesma-
coran is the last In India as you go towards the west and
north-west. You see, from Maabar on, this province is
what is called the Greater India, and it is the best of all
the Indies. I have now detailed to you all the kingdoms
and provinces and (chief) cities of this India the Greater,
that are upon the seaboard ; but of those that lie in the
interior I have said nothing, because that would make too
long a story.^

And so now let us proceed, and I will tell you of
some of the Indian Islands. And I will begin by two
Islands which are called Male and Female.

VOL. ir. 2 c

402 MARCO POLO Book III.

Note i. — Though M. Pauthier has imagined objections there is no room for
doubt that Kesmacoraii is the province of Mekran, known habitUrilly all over the
East as Kij-MakkAn, from the combination with the name of the country of that of
its chief town, just as we lately met with a converse combination in Konkan-tana.
This was pointed out to Marsden by his illustrious friend Major Rennell. We find
the term Kij Makrdn used by Ibn Batuta (III. 47); by the Turkish Admiral Sidi
'Ali (/. As,, s6r. I. tom. ix. 72 ; and /. A. S. B. V. 463) ; by Sharifuddin {P. de la
Croix, I. 379, II. 417-418) ; in the famous Sindian Romeo-and-Juliet tale of Sassi and
Pannun {Elliot, I. 333) ; by Pietro della Valle (I. 724, II. 358) ; by Sir F. Goldsmid
(/. R. A, S., N.S., T. 38) ; and see for other examples,/. A. S. B. VII. 298, 305,
308; VIII. 764; XIV. 158; XVII. pt. ii. 559: XX. 262, 263.

The argument that Mekrdn was not a province of India only amounts to saying
that Polo has made a mistake. But the fact is that it often was reckoned to belong
to India, from ancient down to comparatively modern times. Pliny says : " Many
indeed do not reckon the Indus to be the western boundary of India, but include in
that term also four satrapies on this side the river, the Gedrosi, the Arachoti, the
Arii, and the Parapomisadae {i.e. Mekran, Kandahar, Herat, and Kabul) ....
whilst others class all these together under the name of Ariana " (VI. 23). Arachosia,
according to Isidore of Charax, was termed by the Parthians "White India." Aelian
calls Gedrosia a part of India. {Hist. Animal. XVII. 6.) In the 6th century the
Nestorian Patriarch Jesujabus, as we have seen {supra, ch. xxii. note i), considered
all to be India from the coast of Persia, i.e. of Fars, beginning from near the Gulf.
According to Ibn Khordadbeh, the boundary between Persia and India was seven
days' sail from Hormuz and eight from Daibul, or less than half-way from the mouth
of the Gulf to the Indus. {J. As. ser. VI. tom. v. 283.) Beladhori speaks of the
Arabs in early expeditions as invading Indian territory about the Lake of Sijistan ;
and Istakhri represents this latter country as bounded on the north and partly on the
west by portions of India. Kabul was still reckoned in India. Chach, the last
Hindu king of Sind but one, is related to have marched through Mekran to a river
which formed the limit between Mekran and Kerman. On its banks he planted date-
trees, and set up a monument which bore : " This was the bowidary of Hind in the
time of Chach, the son of Silaij, the son of Basabas." In the Geography of Bakui
we find it stated that " Hind is a great country which begins at the province of
Mekran." {N. and E. II. 54.) In the map of Marino Sanuto India begins from
Hormuz ; and it is plain from what Polo says in quitting that city that he considered
the next step from it south-eastward would have taken him to India {supra, I. p. no).

["The name Mekran has been commonly, but erroneously, derived from Mahi
Khoran, i.e. the fish-eaters, or ichthyophagi, which was the title given to the in-
habitants of the Beluchi coast-fringe by Arrian. But the word is a Dravidian name,
and appears as Makara in the Brhat Sanhita of Varaha Mihira in a list of the tribes
contiguous to India on the west. It is also the MaKaprjvr] of Stephen of Byzantium,
and the Makuran of Tabari, and Moses of Chorene. Even were it not a Dravidian
name, in no old Aryan dialect could it signify fish-eaters." {Curzon, Persia, II.
p. 261, note.)

" It is to be noted that Kesmacoran is a combination of Kech or Kej and Makran,
and the term is even to-day occasionally used." {Major P. M. Sykes, Persia, p. 102.)
— H. C]

We may add a Romance definition of India from King Alisaunder : —

" Lordynges, also I fynde.
At Mede so bigynneth Ynde :
Forsothe ich woot, it stretcheth ferest
Of alle the Londes in the Est,
And oth the South half sikerlyk,
To the cee taketh of Affryk ;
And the north half to a Mountayne,
That is ycleped Caucasayne." — L 4824 -4S31.

f 2. St. Thomas's {Madras).

Maabar, I 3. Maabar Proper, Kingdom of , ,

including 1 Sender Band i (7a«>;r). maabar,

[4- C^^{Tmneve/iy). ' mcludmg

5. Comari(C Cojuorin).

Chap. XXX. INDIAN GEOGRAPHY OF MARCO POLO 403

It is probable that Polo merely coasted Mekran ; he seems to know nothing of the
Indus, and what he says of Mekran is vague.

Note 2. — As Marco now winds up his detail of the Indian coast, it is proper to try
to throw some light on his partial derangement of its geography. In the following
columns the first shows the real geographical order from east to west of the Indian
provinces as named by Polo, and the second shows the order as he puts them. The
Italic names are brief and general identifications.

Real order. Polo's order,

I. yi\x\.^X\{Telingana). I. Mutfili.

2. St. Thomas's (Lar,
west of do,).

3. Maabar proper, or
Soli.

4. Cail.
Melibar, / 6. Coilum {Travancore). ' 5. Coilum.
including \ 7. YX\ {Candnore). 6. Comari.

.GuzERAT, \ 8. i:2s\2. [Bombay). 7. Eli.

or Lar, \ 9. Canbaet {Cai7ibay). 8. (Melibar).

including [10. ^^xatXizX [Somnath). 9. (Gozurat).

II. Kesmacoran [Mekran), 10. Tana.

11. Canbaet.

12. Semenat.

13. Kesmacoran.

It is difficult to suppose that the fleet carrying the bride of Arghun went out of its
way to Maabar, St. Thomas's, and Telingana. And on the other hand, what is said
in chapter xxiii. on Comari, about the North Star not having been visible since they
approached the Lesser Java, would have been grossly inacccurate if in the interval
the travellers had been north as far as Madras and Motupalle. That passage suggests
to me strongly that Comari was the first Indian land made by the fleet on arriving
from the Archipelago (exclusive perhaps of Ceylon). Note then that the position of
Eli is marked by its distance of 300 miles from Comari, evidently indicating that this
was a run made by the traveller on some occasion without an intermediate stoppage.
Tana, Cambay, Somnath, would follow naturally as points of call.

In Polo's order, again, the positions of Comari and Coilum are transposed, whilst
Melibar is introduced as if it were a country westward (as Polo views it, northward
we should say)* of Coilum and Eli, instead of including them, and Gozurat is introduced
as a country lying eastward (or southward, as we should say) of Tana, Cambaet, and
Semenat, instead of including them, or at least the two latter. Moreover, he names
no cities in connection with those two countries.

The following hypothesis, really not a complex one, is the most probable that I
can suggest to account for these confusions.

I conceive, then, that Cape Comorin (Comari) was the first Indian land made by
the fleet on the homeward voyage, and that Ilili, Tana, Cambay, Somnath, were
touched at successively as it proceeded towards Persia.

I conceive that in a former voyage to India on the Great Kaan's business Marco
had visited Maabar and Kaulam, and gained partly from actual visits and partly from
information the substance of the notices he gives us of Telingana and St Thomas's on
the one side and of Malabar and Guzerat on the other, and that in combining into one
series the results of the information acquired on two different voyages he failed rightly
to co-ordinate the material, and thus those dislocations which we have noticed
occurred, as they very easily might, in days when maps had practically no existence ;
to say nothing of the accidents of dictation.

The expression in this passage for "the cities that lie in the interior," is in the
G. T. ^^ celz qe sunt en fra terres"; see I. 43. Pauihier's text has '"'■ celles qui soiit
en ferme terre," which is nonsense here.

* Abulfeda's orientation is th^ same as Polo's.

VOL. II. 2 C 2

404 MARCO POLO Book III.

CHAPTER XXXI.

DiSCOURSETH OF THE TwO ISLANDS CALLED MaLE AND FeMALE,
AND WHY THEY ARE SO CALLED.

When you leave this kingdom of Kesmacoran, which is
on the mainland, you go by sea some 500 miles towards
the south ; and then you find the two Islands, Male and
Female, lying about 30 miles distant from one another.
The people are all baptized Christians, but maintain the
ordinances of the Old Testament ; thus when their wives
are with child they never go near them till their confine-
ment, or for forty days thereafter.

In the Island however which is called Male, dwell
the men alone, without their wives or any other women.
Every year when the month of March arrives the men
all set out for the other Island, and tarry there for three
months, to wit, March, April, May, dwelling with their
wives for that space. At the end of those three months
they return to their own Island, and pursue their
husbandry and trade for the other nine months.

They find on this Island very fine ambergris. They
live on flesh and milk and rice. They are capital fisher-
men, and catch a great quantity of fine large sea-fish, and
these they dry, so that all the year they have plenty of
food, and also enough to sell to the traders who go
thither. They have no chief except a bishop, who is
subject to the archbishop of another Island, of which we
shall presently speak, called Scotra. They have also a
peculiar language.

As for the children which their wives bear to them,
if they be girls they abide with their mothers ; but if they
be boys the mothers bring them up till they are fourteen,
and then send them to the fathers. Such is the custom

Chap. XXXI. THE MALE AND FEMALE ISLANDS 405

of these two Islands. The wives do nothing but nurse
their children and gather such fruits as their Island pro-
duces ; for their husbands do furnish them with all

Note i. — It is not perhaps of much use to seek a serious identification of the
locality of these Islands, or, as Marsden has done, to rationalise the fable. It ran from
time immemorial, and as nobody ever found the Islands, their locality shifted with the
horizon, though the legend long hung about Socotra and its vicinity. Coronelli's
Atlas (Venice, 1696) identifies these islands with those called Abdul Kuri near Cape
Gardafui, and the same notion finds favour with Marsden. No islands indeed exist
in the position indicated by Polo if we look to his direction " south of Kesmacoran,"
but if wi take his indication of " half-way between Mekran and Socotra," the Kuria
Muria Islands on the Arabian coast, in which M. Pauthier longs to trace these veri-
table Male and Female Isles, will be nearer than any others. Marco's statement that
they had a bishop subject to the metropolitan of Socotra certainly looks as if certain
concrete islands had been associated with the tale. Friar Jordanus (p. 44) also places
them between India the Greater and India Tertia {i.e. with him Eastern Africa).
Conti locates them not more than 5 miles from Socotra, and yet 100 mile distant
from one another. " Sometimes the men pass over to the women, and sometimes the
women pass over to the men, and each return to their own respective island before
the expiration of six months. Those who remain on the island of the others beyond
this fatal period die immediately" (p. 21). Fra Mauro places the islands to the south
of Zanzibar, and gives them the names of Manghi and Nebila. One is curious to
know whence came these names, one of which seems to be Sanskrit, the other
(also in Sanudo's map) Arabic; {Nabilah, Ar., "Beautiful"; Mangala, Sansk.
"Fortunate").

A savour of the story survived to the time of the Portuguese discoveries, and it had
by that time attached itself to Socotra. {De Barros, Dec. II. Liv. i. cap. 3;
Bartoli, H. della Co??ip. di Gesii^ Asia, I. p. 37 ; P. Vincenzo, p. 443.)

The story was, I imagine, a mere ramification of the ancient and wide-spread
fable of the Amazons, and is substantially the same that Palladius tells of the
Brahmans ; how the men lived on one side of the Ganges and the women on the
other. The husbands visited their wives for 40 days only in June, July, and
August, "those being their cold months, as the sun was then to the north." And
when a wife had once borne a child the husband returned no more. {Mailer's Ps.
Callisth. 105.) The Mahabharata celebrates the Amazon country of Rana Paramita,
where the regulations were much as in Polo's islands, only male children were put to
death, and men if they overstayed a month. {Wheeler's Itidia^ I. 400.)

Hiuen Tsang's version of the legend agrees with Marco's in placing the Woman's
Island to the south of Persia. It was called the Kingdom of Western Women.
There were none but women to be seen. It was under Folin (the Byzantine Empire),
and the ruler thereof sent husbands every year ; if boys were born, the law prohibited
their being brought up. ( Vie et Voyages^ p. 268. ) Alexander, in Ferdusi's poem,
visits the City of Women on an island in the sea, where no man was allowed.

The Chinese accounts, dating from the 5th century, of a remote Eastern Land
called Fusang, which Neumann fancied to have been Mexico, mention that to the
east of that region again there was a Woman's Island, with the usual particulars.
{Lassen, IV. 751.) [Cf. G. Schlegel, Niu Kono, Toimg Pao, HI. pp. 495-510. —
H. C] Oddly enough, Columbus heard the same story of an island called Matityna
or Malinino (apparently Martinique) which he sighted on his second voyage. The
Indians on board "asserted that it had no inhabitants but women, who at a certain
time of the year were visited by the Cannibals (Caribs) ; if the children born were

406 MARCO POLO Book III.

boys they were brought up and sent to their fathers, if girls they were retained by
the mothers. They reported also that these women had certain subterranean
caverns in which they look refuge if any one went thither except at the established
season," etc. {P. Martyr in Kamxisio, III. 3 v. and see 85.) Similar Amazons
are placed by Adam of Bremen on the Baltic Shores, a story there supposed to
have originated in a confusion between Gwenland, i.e. Finland, and a land of Cwens
or Women.

Mendoza heard of the like in the vicinity of Japan (perhaps the real Fusang story),
though he opines judiciously that "this is very doubtfull to be beleeved, although I
have bin certified by religious men that have talked with persons that within these
two yeares have beene at the saide ilands, and have scene the saide women." {H. of
Chinay II. 301.) Lane quotes a like tale about a horde of Cossacks whose wives
were said to live apart on certain islands in the Dnieper. [Arab. Nights, 1859, III.
479.) The same story is related by a missionary in the Lettres Edifiantes of certain
unknown islands supposed to lie south of the Marian group. Pauthier, from whom I
derive this last instance, draws the conclusion : "On voit que le recit de Marc Pol
est loin d'etre imaginaire." Mine from the premises would be different !

Sometimes the fable took another form ; in which the women are entirely isolated,
as in that which Mela quotes from Hanno (III. 9). So with the Isle of Women
which Kazwini and Bakui place to the South of China. • They became enceinte by
the Wind, or by eating a particular fruit [or by plunging into the sea ; cf. Schlegel, I.e.
— PI. C], or, as in a Chinese tradition related by Magaillans, by looking at their own
faces in a well ! The like fable is localised by the Malays in the island of Engano oft"
Sumatra, and was related to Pigafetta of an island under Great Java called Ocoloro,
perhaps the same.

{Magail. 76; Gildem. 196; N. et Ex. II. 398; Pigafetta, 173; Marsden's
Sumat7'a, ist ed. p. 264.)

CHAPTER XXXII.

Concerning the Island of Scotra.

When you leave those two Islands and go about 500
miles further towards the south, then you come to an
Island called Scotra. The people are all baptized
Christians ; and they have an Archbishop. They have a
great deal of ambergris ; and plenty also of cotton stuffs
and other merchandize ; especially great quantities of
salt fish of a large and excellent kind. They also eat
flesh and milk and rice, for that is their only kind of
corn ; and they all go naked like the other Indians.

[The ambergris comes from the stomach of the whale,

Chap. XXXII. THE ISLAND OF SCOTRA 407

and as it is a great object of trade, the people contrive
to take the whales with barbed iron darts, which, once
they are fixed in the body, cannot come out again. A
long cord is attached to this end, to that a small buoy
which floats on the surface, so that when the whale dies
they know where to find it. They then draw the body
ashore and extract the ambergris from the stomach and
the oil from the head.^

There is a great deal of trade there, for many ships
come from all quarters with goods to sell to the natives.
The merchants also purchase gold there, by which they
make a great profit ; and all the vessels bound for Aden
touch at this Island.

Their Archbishop has nothing to do with the Pope of
Rome, but is subject to the great Archbishop who lives
at Baudas. He rules over the Bishop of that Island,
and over many other Bishops in those regions of the
world, just as our Pope does in these.'^

A multitude of corsairs frequent the Island ; they
come there and encamp and put up their plunder to sale ;
and this they do to good profit, for the Christians of the
Island purchase it, knowing well that it is Saracen or
Pagan gear.^

And you must know that in this Island there are the
best enchanters in the world. It is true that their Arch-
bishop forbids the practice to the best of his ability ; but
'tis all to no purpose, for they insist that their forefathers
followed it, and so must they also. I will give you a
sample of their enchantments. Thus, if a ship be sailing
past with a fair wind and a strong, they will raise a
contrary wind and compel her to turn back. In fact
they make the wind blow as they list, and produce great
tempests and disasters ; and other such sorceries they
perform, which it will be better to say nothing about in
our Book.*

4o8

MARCO POLO Book HI.

Note I. — Mr. Blylh appears to consider that the only whale met with nowadays
in the Indian Sea north of the line is a great Rorcjual or Balaenoptera, to which lie
gives the specific name o{ Indica. (See/. A. S. B. XXVIII. 481.) The text, how-
ever (from Kamusio), clearly points to the Spermaceti whale ; and Maury's Whale-
Chart consists with this.

"The best ambergris," says Mas'udi, "is found on the islands and coasts of the
Sea of Zinj (Eastern Africa); it is round, of a pale blue, and sometimes as big as an
ostrich egg. . . . These are morsels which have been swallowed by the fish called
Aivdl. When the sea is much agitated it casts up fragments of amber almost Uke
lumps of rock, and the fish swallowing these is choked thereby, and floats on the
surface. The men of Zinj, or wherever it be, then come in their canoes, and fall on
the creature with harpoons and cables, draw it ashore, cut it up, and extract the
ambergris" (I. 134).

Kazwini speaks of whales as often imprisoned by the ebb tide in the channels
about Basra. The people harpooned them, and got much oil out of the brain, which
they used for lamps, and smearing their ships. This also is clearly the sperm whale.
{EthJ, p. 268.)

After having been long doubted, scientific opinion seems to have come back to
the opinion that ambergris is an excretion from the whale. " Ambergris is a morbid
secretion in the intestines of the cachalot, deriving its origin either from the stomach
or biliary ducts, and allied in its nature to gall-stones, . . . whilst the masses found
floating on the sea are those that have been voided by the whale, or liberated from
the dead animal by the process of putrefaction." {Bennett, Whaling Voyage Ronnd
the Globe, 1840, II. 326.)

["The Pen ts'ao, ch. xliii. fol. 5, mentions ambergris under the name lung
sien hiang (dragon's saliva perfume), and describes it as a sweet-scented product,
which is obtained from the south-western sea. It is greasy, and at first yellowish
white ; when dry, it forms pieces of a yellowish black colour. In spring whole herds
of dragons swim in that sea, and vomit it out. Others say that it is found in the
belly of a large fish. This description also doubtless points to ambergris, which in
reality is a pathological secretion of the intestines &f the spermaceti whale [Physeter
inacrocephalus), a large cetaceous animal. The best ambergris is collected on the
Arabian coast. In Xho. Ming shi {':^\. cccxxvi.) lung sien hiang xs, mentioned as a
product of Bu-la-wa {Braiu, on the east coast of Africa), and an-ba-rh (evidently
also ambergris) amongst the products of Dsu-fa-rh {Dsahfar, on the south coast of
Arabia)." {Bret Schneider, Med. Res. I. p. 152, note.)— H. C]

Note 2. — Scotra probably represented the usual pronunciation of the name
SocOTRA, which has been hypothetically traced to a Sanskrit original, Dvipa-Sukhdd-
hdra, "the Island Abode of Bliss," from which (contracted Diuskadi-a) the Greeks
made "the island oi Dioscorides."

So much painful interest attaches to the history of a people once Christian, but
now degenerated almost to savagery, that some detail may be permitted on this subject.

The Periphis calls the island very large, but desolate ; . . . . the inhabitants were
few, and dwelt on the north side. They were of foreign origin, being a mixture of
Arabs, Indians, and Greeks, who had come thither in search of gain. . . . The island
was under the king of the Incense Country. . . . Traders came from Muza (near
Mocha) and sometimes from Limyrica and Barygaza (Malabar and Guzerat), bringing
rice, wheat, and Indian muslins, with female slaves, which had a ready sale. Cosmas
(6th ceniury) says there was in the island a bishop, appointed from Persia. The
inhabitants spoke Greek, having been originally settled there by the Ptolemies.
"There are clergy there also, ordained and sent from Persia to minister among the
people of the island, and a multitude of Christians. We sailed past the island, but
did not land. I met, however, with people from it who were on their way to Ethiopia,
and they spoke Greek."

The ecclesiastical historian Nicephorus Callistus seems to allude to the people of

Chap. XXXII. THE ISLAND OF SCOTRA 409

Socotra, when he says that among the nations visited by tht missionary Theophilus,
in the time of Constantius, were "the Assyrians on the verge of the outer ocean
towards the East .... whom Alexander the Great, after driving them from Syria,
sent thither to settle, and to this day they keep their mother tongue, though all of
the blackest, through the power of the sun's rays." The Arab voyagers of the 9th
century say that the island was colonised with Greeks by Alexander the Great, in
order to promote the culture of tlie Socotrine aloes ; when the other Greeks adopted
Christianity these did likewise, and they had continued to retain their profession of
it. The colonising by Alexander is probably a fable, but invented to account for facts.

[Edrisi says [Jatiberfs transl. pp. 47, seqq.) that the chief produce of Socotra is
aloes, and that most of the inhabitants of this island are Christians ; for this
reason : when Alexander had subjugated Porus, his master Aristotle gave him
the advice to seek after the island producing aloes ; after his conquest of India,
Alexander remembered the advice, and on his return journey from the Sea of India •
to the Sea of Oman, he stopped at Socotra, which he greatly admired for its fertility
and the pleasantness of its climate. Acting on the advice of Aristotle, Alexander
removed the inhabitants- from their island, and established in their place a colony of
lonians, to whom he entrusted the care of cultivating aloes. These Greeks were
converted when the Christian religion was preached to them, and their descendants
have remained Christians. — H. C]

In the list of the metropolitan Sees of the Nestorian Church we find one called
Koirobah, which is supposed to stand for Socotra. According to Edrisi, Kotrobah
was an island inhabited by Christians ; he speaks of Socotra separately, but no
island suits his description of Kotrobah but Socotra itself; and I suspect that we
have here geography in duplicate, no uncommon circumstance. There is an epistle
extant from the Nestorian Patriarch Jesujabus (a.d. 650-660), ad Episcopos
Cataretisium, which Assemani interprets of the Christians in Socotra and the
adjacent coasts of Arabia (III. 133).* Abulfeda says the people of Socotra were
Nestorian Christians and pirates. Nicolo Conti, in the first half of the 15th century,
spent two months on the island {Sechtiterd). He says it was for the most part
inhabited by Nestorian Christians.

[Professor W. R. Smith, in a letter to Sir H. Yule, dated Cambridge, 15th June,
1886, writes : "The authorities for Kotrobah seem to be (i) Edrisi, (2) the list of
Nestorian Bishops in Assemani. There is no trace of such a name anywhere else
that I can find. But there is a place called Katar about which most of the Arab
Geographers know very little, but which is mentioned in poetry. Bekri, who seems
best informed, says that it lay between Bahrain and Oman. . . . Istakhri and Ibn
Haukal speak of the Katar pirates. Their collective name is the Katariya."]

Some indications point rather to a connection of the island's Christianity with the
Jacobite or Abyssinian Church. Thus they practised circumcision, as mentioned by
Maffei in noticing the proceedings of Albuquerque at Socotra. De Barros calls them
Jacobite Christians of the Abyssinian stock. Barbosa speaks of them as an olive-
coloured people. Christian only in name, having neither baptism nor Christian
knowledge, and having for many years lost all acquaintance with the Gospel.
Andrea Corsali calls them Christian shepherds of Ethiopian race, like Abyssinians.
They lived on dates, milk, and butter ; some rice was imported. They had churches
like mosques, but with altars in Christian fashion.

When Francis Xavier visited the island there were still distinct traces of the
Church. The people reverenced the cross, placing it on their altars, and hanging it
round their necks. Every village had its minister, whom they called Kashis {Ar. for
a Christian Presbyter), to whom they paid tithe. No man could read. The Kashis
repeated prayers antiphonetically in a forgotten tongue, which De Barros calls
Chaldee, frequently scattering incense ; a word like Allehiia often recurred. For
bells they used wooden rattles. They assembled in their churches four times a day,

* [Assemani, in his corrections (III. p. 362), gives up Socotra in favour oi Bactrta.}

4 TO MARCO POLO Book III.

and held St. Thomas in great veneration. The Kaslifses married, but were very
abstemious. They had two Lents, and then fasted strictly from meat, milk, and fish.

The last vestiges of Christianity in Socotra, so far as we know, are those traced by
P. Vincenzo, the Carmelite, who visited the island after the middle of the 17th
century. The people still retained a profession of Christianity, but without any
knowledge, and with a strange jumble of rites ; sacrificing to the moon ; circumcising ;
abominating wine and pork. They had churches which they called Moqttanie {Ar.
Makdm, "Locus, Statio " ?), dark, low, and dirty, daily anointed with butter. On
the altar was a cross and a candle. The cross was regarded with ignorant reverence,
and carried in processions. They assembled in their churches three times in the day,
and three times in the night, and in their worship burned much incense, etc. The
priests were called Odambo, elected and consecrated by the people, and changed
every year. Of baptism and other sacraments they had no knowledge.

There were two races : one, black with crisp hair ; the other, less black, of better
aspect, and with straight hair. Each family had a cave in which they deposited their
dead. They cultivated a few palms, and kept flocks ; had no money, no writing,
and kept tale of their flocks by bags of stones. They often committed suicide in age,
sickness, or defeat. When rain failed they selected a victim by lot, and placing him
within a circle, addressed prayers to the moon. If without success they cut off the
poor wretch's hands. They had many who practised sorcery. The women were all
called Maria, which the author regarded as a relic of Christianity ; this De Barros
also notices a century earlier.

Now, not a trace of former Christianity can be discovered — unless it be in the
name of one of the villages on the coast, Colesseeah, which looks as if it faintly com-
memorated both the ancient religion and the ancient language {4KK\rjaia). The
remains of one building, traditionally a place of worship, were shown to Wellsted ;
he could find nothing to connect it with Christianity.

The social state of the people is much as Father Vincenzo described it ; lower it
could scarcely be. Mahomedanism is now the universal profession. The people of
the interior are still of distinct race, with curly hair, Indian complexion, regular
features. The coast people are a mongrel body, of Arab and other descent.
Probably in old times the case was similar, and the civilisation and Greek may have
been confined to the littoral foreigners. {Mailer's Geog. Gr. Minores, I. pp. 280-281 ;
Relations, I. 139-140; Cathay, clxxi., ccxlv. 169; Cofiti, 20; Maffei, lib. III.;
Biisching, IV. 278; Faria, I. 117-118; Ram. I. f. 181 v. and 292 ; Jarric, Thes.
Rer. Indie. I. 108-109; P. Vine. 132, 442;/. R. G. S. V. 1295-^^^.)

Note 3. — As far back as the loth century Socotra was a noted haunt of pirates.
Mas'udi says : " Socotra is one of the stations frequented by the Indian corsairs called
Baivdrij, which chase the Arab ships bound for India and China, just as the Greek
galleys chase the Mussulmans in the sea of Rum along the coasts of Syria and Egypt "
(III. 37). The Bawdrij were corsairs of Kach'h and Guzerat, so called from using a
kind of war- vessel called Bdrja. {Elliot, I. 65.) Ibn Batuta tells a story of a friend
of his, the Shaikh Sa'fd, superior of a convent at Mecca, who had been to India and
got large presents at the court of Delhi. With a comrade called Hajji Washl, who
was also carrying a large sum to buy horses, "when they arrived at the island of
Socotra .... they were attacked by Indian corsairs with a great number of vessels.
. . . The corsairs took everything out of the ship, and then left it to the crew with
its tackle, so that they were able to reach Aden." Ibn Batuta's remark on this
illustrates what Polo has said of the Malabar pirates, in ch. xxv. supra: "The
custom of these pirates is not to kill or drown anybody when the actual fighting is
over. They take all the property of the passengers, and then let them go whither
they will with their vessel" (I. 362-363).

Note 4. — We have seen that P. Vincenzo alludes to the sorceries of the people ;
and De Barros also speaks of i\\Q feitieeria or witchcraft by which the women drew
ships to the island, and did other marvels (u. s.).

Chap. XXXIII. THE ISLAND OF MADEIGASCAR 4 1 i

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Concerning the Island of Madeigascar.

Madeigascar is an Island towards the south, about a
thousand miles from Scotra. The people are all
Saracens, adoring Mahommet. They have four Esheks,
i,e, four Elders, who are said to govern the whole'
Island. And you must know that it is a most noble
and beautiful Island, and one of the greatest in the
world, for it is about 4000 miles in compass. The
people live by trade and handicrafts.

In this Island, and in another beyond it called Zan-
GHIBAR, about which we shall tell you afterwards, there
are more elephants than in any country in the world.
The amount of traffic in elephants' teeth in these two
Islands is something astonishing.

In this Island they eat no flesh but that of camels :
and of these they kill an incredible number daily. They
say it is the best and wholesomest of all flesh ; and so
they eat of it all the year round.^

They have in this Island many trees of red sanders,
of excellent quality ; in fact, all their forests consist of
it.^ They have also a quantity of ambergris, for whales
are abundant in that sea, and they catch numbers of
them ; and so are Oil-heads, which are a huge kind of
fish, which also produce ambergris like the whale.^
There are numbers of leopards, bears, and lions in the
country, and other wild beasts in abundance. Many
traders, and many ships go thither with cloths of gold
and silk, and many other kinds of goods, and drive a
profitable trade.

You must know that this Island lies so far south that
ships cannot go further south or visit other Islands in

412 MARCO POLO Book III.

that direction, except this one, and that other of which
we have to tell you, called Zanghibar. This is because
the sea-current runs so strong towards the south that
the ships which should attempt it never would get back
again. Indeed, the ships of Maabar which visit this
Island of Madeigascar, and that other of Zanghibar,
arrive thither with marvellous speed, for great as the
distance is they accomplish it in 20 days, whilst the
return voyage takes them more than 3 months. This
(I say) is because of the strong current running south,
which continues with such singular force and in the
same direction at all seasons.^

'Tis said that in those other Islands to the south,
which the ships are unable to visit because this strong
current prevents their return, is found the bird Gryphon^
which appears there at certain seasons. The descrip-
tion given of it is however entirely different from what
our stories and pictures make it. For persons who had
been there and had seen it told Messer Marco Polo
that it was for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed
of enormous size ; so big in fact that its wings covered
an extent of 30 paces, and its quills were 12 paces long,
and thick in proportion. And it is so strong that it will
seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into
the air, and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces ;
having so killed him the bird gryphon swoops down on
him and eats him at leisure. The people of those isles
call the bird Rue, and it has no other name.^ So I wot
not if this be the real gryphon, or if there be another
manner of bird as great. But this I can tell you for
certain, that they are not half lion and half bird as our
stories do relate ; but enormous as they be they are
fashioned just like an eagle.

The Great Kaan sent to those parts to enquire about
these curious matters, and the story was told by those

Chap. XXXIIL THE ISLAND OF MADEIGASCAR 413

who went thither. He also sent to procure the release
of an envoy of his who had been despatched thither, and
had been detained ; so both those envoys had many
wonderful thinos to tell the Great Kaan about those
strange islands, and about the birds I have mentioned.
[They brought (as I heard) to the Great Kaan a feather
of the said Rue, which was stated to measure 90 spans,
whilst the quill part was two palms in circumference, a
marvellous object ! The Great Kaan was delighted
with it, and gave great presents to those who brought it.^]
They also brought two boars' tusks, which weighed
more than 14 lbs. a-piece ; and you may gather
how big the boar must have been that had teeth
like that ! They related indeed that there were
some of those boars as big as a great buffalo.
There are also numbers of giraffes and wild asses ;
and in fact a marvellous number of wild beasts of
strange aspect.^

Note i. — Marco is, I believe, the first writer European or Asiatic, who unambigu-
ously speaks of Madagascar ; but his information about it was very incorrect in many
particulars. There are no elephants nor camels in the island, nor any leopards,
bears, or lions.

Indeed, I have no doubt that Marco, combining information from different sources,
made some confusion between Makdashau (Magadoxo) and Madagascar, and that
particulars belonging to both are mixed up here. This accounts for Zanghibar being
placed entirely beyond Madagascar, for the entirely Mahomedan character given to
the population, for the hippopotamus-teeth and staple trade in ivory, as well for the
lions, elephants, and other beasts. But above all the camel-killing indicates Sumali
Land and Magadoxo as the real locality of part of the information. Says Ibn Batuta :
" After leaving Zaila we sailed on the sea for 15 days, and arrived at Makdashau, an
extremely large town. The natives keep camels in great numbers, and they slaughter
seve7-al hundreds daily'''' (II, 181). The slaughter of camels for food is still a Sumali
practice. (See/. R. G. S. VI. 28, and XIX. 55.) Perhaps the Shaikhs {Esccqe)
also belong to the same quarter, for the Arab traveller says that the Sultan of
Makdashau had no higher title than Shaikh (183) ; and Brava, a neighbouring settle-
ment, was governed by 12 shaikhs. {De Barros, I. viii. 4.) Indeed, this kind of local
oligarchy still prevails on that coast.

We may add that both Makdashau and Brava are briefly described in the Annals
of the Ming Dynasty. The former Mu-kti-tti-su, lies on the sea, 20 days from Siao-
Kolan (Quilon?), a barren mountainous country of wide extent, where it sometimes
does not rain for years. In 1427 a mission came from this place to China. Pu-la-
wa (Brava, properly Barawa) adjoins the former, and is also on the sea. It produces

414 MARCO POLO Book III.

olibanum, myrrh, and ambergris ; and among animals elephants, camels, rhinoceroses,
spotted animals like asses, etc.*

It is, however, true that there are traces of a considerable amount of ancient Arab
colonisation on the shores of Madagascar. Arab descent is ascribed to a class of the
people of the province of Matitdnana on the cast coast, in lat. 2i°-23° south, and the
Arabic writing is in use there. The people of the St. Mary's Isle of our maps off the
east coast, in lat. 17°, also call themselves the children of Ibrahim, and the island
Nti si- Ibrahim. And on the north-west coast, at Bambeluka Bay, Captain Owen found
a large Arab population, whose forefathers had been settled there from time im-
memorial. The number of tombs here and in Magambo Bay showed that the Arab
population had once been much greater. The government of this settlement, till con-
quered by Radama, was vested in three persons : one a Malagash, the second an
Arab, the third as guardian of strangers ; a fact also suggestive of Polo's four sheikhs
{Ellis, I. 131 ; Owen, II. 102, 132. See also Sonnerat, II. 56.) Though the Arabs
were in the habit of navigating to Sofala, in about lat. 20° south, in the time of Mas'udi
(beginning of loth century), and must have then known Madagascar, there is no in-
telligible indication of it in any of their geographies that have been translated.!

[M. Alfred Grandidier, in his Hist, de la Giog. de Madagascar, p. 31, comes to the
conclusion that Marco Polo has given a very exact description of Magadoxo, but that
he did not know the island of Madagascar. He adds in a note that Yule has shown
that the description of Madeigascar refers partly to Magadoxo, but that notwithstanding
he (Yule) believed that Polo spoke of Madagascar when the Venetian traveller does not.
I must say that I do not see any reason why Yule's theory should not be accepted.

M. G. Ferrand, formerly French Agent at Fort Dauphin, has devoted ch. ix.
(pp. 83-90) of the second part of his valuable work Les Musulmans a Madagascar
(Paris, 1893), to the "Etymology of Madagascar. " He believes that M. Polo really
means the great African Island. I mention from his book that M, Guet {Origines de
tile Bourbon, 1888) brings the Carthaginians to Madagascar, and derives the name of
this island from Madax-Aschtoret or Madax-Astarti, which signifies Isle of Astartd
zxA Isle of Tanit ! Mr. I. Taylor {7'he origin of the name 'Madagascar,' in Anta-
nanarivo Annual, 1891) gives also some fancy etymologies; it is needless to mention
them. M. Ferrand himself thinks that very likely Madagascar simply means Country
of the Malagash (Malgaches), and is only a bad transcription of the Arabic Madagasbar.
— H. C]

Note 2. — There is, or used to be, a trade in sandal- wood from Madagascar. (See
Owen, II. 99.) In the map of S. Lorenzo (or Madagascar) in the Isole of Porcacchi
(1576), a map evidently founded on fact, I observe near the middle of the Island :
quivi sono base hi di sandari rossi.

Note 3. — "The coast of this province" (Ivongo, the N.E. of the Island)
" abounds with whales, and during a certain period of the year Antongil Bay is a
favourite resort for whalers of all nations. The inhabitants of Titingue are remarkably
expert in spearing the whales from their slight canoes." {Lloyd m J. R. G. S. XX.
56.) A description of the whale-catching process practised by the Islanders of St.
Mary's, or Nusi Ibrahim, is given in the Qninta Pars Indiae Orientalis of De Bry,
p. 9. Owen gives a similar account (I. 170).

The word which I have rendered Oil-heads is Capdoilles or Capdols, representing
Capidoglio, the appropriate name still applied in Italy to the Spermaceti whale. The
Vocab. Ital. Univ. quotes Ariosto (VII. 36) : —

— " /Capidogli co' vecchi marini
Vengon tnrbati dal lor pigro sonno."

* Bretschneider, On the knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs, elc. London,
1871, p. 21.

t Mas'udi speaks of an island Kanbalii, well cultivated and populous, one or two days from the
Zinj coast, and the object of voyages from Oman, from which it was about 500 parasangs distant. It
was conquered by the Arabs, who captured the whole Zinj population of the island, about the begin-
ning of the Abasside Dynasty {circa a.d. 750). Barbier de Meynard thinks this may be Madagascar.
I suspect it rather to be Pemba. (See Prairies d'Or^ I. 205, 232, and III. 31.)

Chap. XXXIII.

THE RUKII

415

The Spermaceti-whale is described under this name by Rondeletius, but from his
cut it is clear he had not seen the animal.

Note 4. — De Barros, after describing the dangers of the Channel of Mozambique,
adds : "And as the Moors of this coast of Zanguebar make their voyages in ships and
sambuks sewn with coir, instead of being nailed like ours, and thus strong enough to
bear the force of the cold seas of the region about the Cape of Good Hope, ....
they never dared to attempt the exploration of the regions to the westward of the
Cape of Currents, although they greatly desired to do so." (Dec. I. viii. 4 ; and see
also IV. i. 12.) Kazwini says of the Ocean, quoting Al Biruni : **Then it extends
to the sea known as that of Berbera, and stretches from Aden to the furthest extremity
of Zanjibar ; beyond this goes no vessel on account of the great current. Then it
extends to what are called the Mountains of the Moon, whence spring the sources of
the Nile of Egypt, and thence to Western Sudan, to the Spanish Countries and the
(Western) Ocean." There has been recent controversy between Captain A. D. Taylor
and Commodore Jansen of the Dutch navy, regarding the Mozambique currents, and
(incidentally) Polo's accuracy. The currents in the Mozambique Channel vary with
the monsoons, but from Cape Corrientes southward along the coast runs the perma-
nent Lagullas current, and Polo's statement requires but little correction. {Eth^,
pp. 214-215; see also Barbosa in Ram. I. 288; Ozven, I. 269; Stanley's Correa,
p. 261 ; J. JR. G. S. II. 91 ; Fra Mauro in Zurla^ p- 61 ; see also Reinatid's Abul-
feda, vol. i. pp. 15-16 ; and Ocean Highways, August to November, 1873.)

Note 5. — The fable of the Rukh was old and widely spread, like that of the
Male and Female Islands, and, just as in that case, one accidental circumstance or
another would give it a local habitation, now here now there. The Garuda of the

The Rukh (from Lane's ''Arabian Nights"), after a Persian drawing.

Hindus, the Simurgh of the old Persians, the ^Angka of the Arabs, the Bar Yuchre of
the Rabbinical legends, the Gryps of the Greeks, were probably all versions of the
same original fable.

4i6

MARCO POLO

Book III.

Bochart quotes a bitter Arabic proverb which says, " Good- Faith, the Ghul, and
the Gryphon {^Angka) are three names of tilings that exist nowhere." And Mas'udi,
after having said that whatever country he visited he always found that the people
believed these monstrous creatures to exist in regions as remote as possible from their
own, observes: "It is not that our reason absolutely rejects the possibility of the
existence of the Nesjids (see vol. i. p. 206) or of the ' Angka, and other beings of that
rare and wondrous order ; for there is nothing in their existence incompatible with

Frontispiece showing the Bird RttkJi.

the Divine Tower ; but we decline to believe in them because their existence has not
been manifested to us on any irrefragable authority."

The circumstance which for the time localized the Rukh in the direction of
Madagascar was perhaps some rumour of the great fossil Aepyornis and its colossal
eggs, found in that island. According to Geoffroy St. Hilaire, the Malagashes assert
that the bird which laid those great eggs still exists, that it has an immense power of

Chap. XXXIII. THE RUKH 417

flight, and preys upon the greater quadrupeds. Indeed the continued existence of
the bird has been alleged as late as 1861 and 1863 !

On the great map of Fra Mauro (1459) near the extreme point of Africa which he
calls Cavo de Diab, and which is suggestive of the Cape of Good Hope, but was
really perhaps Cape Corrientes, there is a rubric inscribed with the following remark-
able story : " About the year of Our Lord 1420 a ship or junk of India in crossing the
Indian Sea was driven by way of the Islands of Men and Women beyond the Cape
of Diab, and carried between the Green Islands and the Darkness in a westerly and
south-westerly direction for 40 days, without seeing anything but sky and sea, during
which time they made to the best of their judgment 2000 miles. The gale then ceasing
they turned back, and were seventy days in getting to the aforesaid Cape Diab. The
ship having touched on the coast to supply its wants, the mariners beheld there the
egg of a certain bird called Chrocho, which egg was as big as a butt.* And the big-
ness of the bird is such that between the extremities of the wings is said to be 60
paces. They say too that it carries away an elephant or any other great animal with
the greatest ease, and does great injury to the inhabitants of the country, and is most
rapid in its flight."

G.-St. Hilaire considered the Aepyornis to be of the Ostrich family; Prince C.
Buonaparte classed it with the Ijiepti or Dodos ; Duvernay of Valenciennes with
aquatic birds ! There was clearly therefore room for difference of opinion, and
Professor Bianconi of Bologna, who has written much on the subject, concludes that
it was most probably a bird of the vulture family. This would go far, he urges, to
justify Polo's account of the Rue as a bird of prey, though the story of i's lifting zxiy
large animal could have had no foundation, as the feet of the vulture kind are unfit for
such efforts. Humboldt describes the habit of the condor of the Andes as that of
worrying, wearying, and frightening its four-footed prey until it drops ; sometimes the
condor drives its victim over a precipice.

Bianconi concludes that on the same scale of proportion as the condor's, the
great quills of the Aepyornis would be about 10 feet long, and the spread of the wings
about 32 feet, whilst the height of the bird would be at least four times that of the
condor. These are indeed little more than conjectures. And I must add that in
Professor Owen's opinion there is no reasonable doubt that the Aepyornis was a bird
allied to the Ostriches.

We gave, in the first edition of this work, a drawing of the great Aepyornis egg in
the British Museum of its true size, as the nearest approach we could make to an
illustration of the Rtikh from nature. The actual contents of this egg will be about
2 '35 gallons, which may be compared with Fra Mauro's anfora! Except in this
matter of size, his story of the ship and the egg may be true.

A passage from Temple's Travels in Peru has been quoted as exhibiting exaggera-
tion in the description of the condor surpassing anything that can be laid to Polo's
charge here ; but that is, in fact, only somewhat heavy banter directed against our
traveller's own narrative. (See Travels in Various Parts of Peru, 1830, II. 414-417.)

Recently fossil bones have been found in New Zealand, which seem to bring us a
step nearer to the realization of the Rukh. Dr. Haast discovered in a swamp at
Glenmark in the province of Otago, along with remains of the Dinornis or Moa, some
bones (femur, ungual phalanges, and rib) of a gigantic bird which he pronounces to
be a bird of prey, apparently allied to the Plarriers, and calls Harpagornis. He
supposes it to have preyed upon the Moa, and as that fowl is calculated to have been
10 feet and upwards in height, we are not so very far from the elephant-devouring
Rukh. (See Comptes Rendus, Ac. des Sciences 1872, p. 1782; and Ibis, October
1872, p. 433.) This discovery may possibly throw a new light on the traditions of
the New Zealanders. For Professor Owen, in first describing the Dinornis in 1839,
mentioned that the natives had a tradition that the bones belonged to a bird of the

* " De la g7-andeza de una bota d anfora." The lowest estimate that I find of the Venetian anfora
makes it equal to about io8 imperial gallons, a little less than the English butt. This seems intended.
The ancient amphora would be more reasonable, being only 5*66 gallons.

VOL, XL 2 D

4i8

Marco polo BookiiL

eagle kind. (See Eng. Cyc. Nat. Hist, sub. v. Dinornis.) And Sir Geo. Grey appears to
have read a paper, 23rd October 1872,* which was the description by a Maori of the
Hokiol, an extinct gigantic bird of prey of which that people have traditions come down
from their ancestors, said to have been a black hawk of great size, as large as the Moa.

I have to thank Mr. Arthur Grote for a few words more on that most interesting
subject, the discovery of a real fossil Rtu in New Zealand. He informs me (under
date 4th December 1874) that Professor Owen is now working on the huge bones sent
home by Dr. Haast, "and is convinced that they belonged to a bird of prey, probably
(as Dr. Haast suggested) a Harrier, double the weight of the Moa, and quite capable
therefore of preying on the young of that species. Indeed, he is disposed to attribute
the extinction of the Harpagornis to that of the Moa, which was the only victim in
the country which could supply it with a sufficiency of food."

One is tempted to add that if the Moa or Dinornis of New Zealand had its
Harpagornis scourge, the still greater Aepyornis of Madagascar may have had a
proportionate tyrant, whose bones (and quills ?) time may bring to light. And the
description given by Sir Douglas Forsyth on page 542, of the action of the Golden
Eagle of Kashgar in dealing with a wild boar, illustrates how such a bird as our
imagined Harpagornis Aepyornithon might master the larger pachydermata, even the
elephant himself, without having to treat him precisely as the Persian drawing at
p. 415 represents.

Sindbad's adventures with the Rukh are too well known for quotation. A variety
of stories of the same tenor hitherto unpublished, have been collected by M. Marcel
De vie from an Arabic work of the loth century on the ^^ Mai'vels of Hind,^'' by an
author who professes only to repeat the narratives of merchants and mariners whom
he had questioned, A specimen of these will be found under Note 6. The story
takes a peculiar form in the Travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela. He heard tliat
when ships were in danger of being lost in the stormy sea that led to China the sailors
were wont to sew themselves up in hides, and so when cast upon the surface they
were snatched up by great eagles called gryphons, which carried their supposed prey
ashore, etc. It is curious that this very story occurs in a Latin poem stated to be at
least as old as the beginning of the 13th century, which relates the romantic adventures
of a certain Duke Ernest of Bavaria ; whilst the story embodies more than one other
adventure belonging to the History of Sindbad.f The Duke and his comrades,
navigating in some unknown ramification of the Euxine, fall within the fatal at-
traction of the Magnet Mountain. Hurried by this augmenting force, their ship is
described as crashing through the rotten forest of masts already drawn to their doom : —

*' Et ferit impulsus majoris verbere montem
Quam si diplosas impingat machina turres."

There they starve, and the dead are deposited on the lofty poop to be carried away

by the daily visits of the gryphons : —

" Quae grifae membra leonis

Et pennas aquilae simulantes unguibus alris
ToUentes miseranda suis dant prandia puUis."

When only the Duke and six others survive, the wisest of the party suggests the

scheme which Rabbi Benjamin has related : —

*' Quaeramus tergora, et armis

Vestiti prius, optatis volvamur in illis,
Ut nos toUentes mentita cadavera Grifae
Pullis objiciant, a queis facientibus armis
Et cute dissuta, nos, si volet, lUe Deorum
Optimus eripiet."

* The friend who noted this for me, omitted to name the Society.

t I got the indication of this poem, I think, in Bochart. But I have since observed that its coin-
cidences with Sindbad are briefly noticed by Mr. Lane(ed. 1859, HI. 78) from an article in the "Foreign
Quarterly Review."

Chap. XXXIII. THE RUKH

419

Which scheme is successfully carried out. The wanderers then make a raft on which
they embark on a river which plunges into a cavern in the heart of a mountain ; and
after a time they emerge in the country of Arimaspia inhabited by the Cyclopes ; and
so on. The Gryphon story also appears in the romance of Huon de Bordeaux, as
well as in the tale called ' Hasan of el-Basrah ' in Lane's Version of the Arabian
Nights.

It is in the China Seas that Ibn Batuta beheld the Rukh, first like a mountain in
the sea where no mountain should be, and then " when the sun rose," says he, ** we
saw the mountain aloft in the air, and the clear sky between it and the sea. We were
in astonishment at this, and I observed that the sailors were weeping and bidding
each other adieu, so I called out, * What is the matter ? ' They replied, ' What we
took for a mountain is '* the Rukh." If it sees us, it will send us to destruction.' It
was then some 10 miles from the junk. But God Almighty was gracious unto us,
and sent us a fair wind, which turned us from the direction in which the Rukh was ;
so we did not see him well enough to take cognizance of his real shape." In this
story we have evidently a case of abnormal refraction, causing an island to appear
suspended in the air.*

The Archipelago was perhaps the legitimate habitat of the Rukh, before circum-
stances localised it in the direction of Madagascar. In the Indian Sea, says Kazwini,
is a bird of size so vast that when it is dead men take the half of its bill and make a
ship of it ! And there too Pigafetta heard of this bird, under its Hindu name of
Garuda, so big that it could fly away with an elephant, f Kazwini also says that the
'Angka carries off an elephant as a hawk flies off with a mouse ; his flight is like the
loud thunder. Whilom he dwelt near the haunts of men, and wrought them great
mischief. But once on a time it had carried off a bride in her bridal array, and
Hamd Allah, the Prophet of those days, invoked a curse upon the bird. Wherefore
the Lord banished it to an inaccessible Island in the Encircling Ocean.

The Simurgh or 'Angka, dwelling behind veils of Light and Darkness on the in-
accessible summits of Caucasus, is in Persian mysticism an emblem of the Almighty.

In Northern Siberia the people have a firm belief in the former existence of birds
of colossal size, suggested apparently by the fossil bones of great pachyderms which
are so abundant there. And the compressed sabre-like horns of Rhinoceros tichorintis
are constantly called, even by Russian merchants, birds' claws. Some of the native
tribes fancy the vaulted skull of the same rhinoceros to be the bird's head, and the
leg-bones of other pachyderms to be its quills ; and they relate that their forefathers
used to fight wonderful battles with this bird. Erman ingeniously suggests that the
Herodotean story of the Gryphons, from under which the Arimaspians drew their gold,
grew out of the legends about these fossils.

I may add that the name of our rook in chess is taken from that of this same
bird ; though first perverted from (Sansk.) rath^ a chariot.

Some Eastern authors make the Rtikh an enormous beast instead of a bird. (See
J. R. A. S. XIII. 64, and Elliot, II. 203.) A Spanish author of the i6th century
seems to take the same view of the Gryphon, but he is prudently vague in describing
it, which he does among the animals of Africa: *'The Grifo which some call
Camello pardal .... is called by the Arabs Yfrit (!), and is made just in that
fashion in which we see it painted in pictures." ^Marmot, Descripcion General de
Africa, Granada, 1573, I. f. 30.) The Zorafa is described as a different beast, which
it certainly is !

{Bochart, Hierozoica, II. 852 seqq. ; Mashidi, IV. 16 ; Mem. deW Acad. delP
Instit. di Bologna, III. 174 seqq., V. U2 seqq. ; Zurla on Fra Matiro, p. 62;

* An intelligent writer, speaking of such effects on the same sea, says : *' The boats floating on a
calm sea, at a distance from the ship, were magnified to a great size ; the crew standing up in them
appeared as masts or trees, and their arms in motion as the wings of windmills ; whilst the surrounding
islands (especially at their low and tapered extremities) seemed to be suspended in the air, some feet
above the ocean's level." {Bennett's Whaling: Voyage, II. 71-72.)

t An epithet of the Garuda is Gajakurmdsin, " elephant cum-tortoise-devourer," because said to
have swallowed boh when engaged m a contest with each other.

VOL. 11. 2 D 2

420 MARCO POLO Book III.

Lane's Arabian Nights, Notes on Sindbad ; BenJ. of Tudela, p. Wj -, Be Varia
Fortuna Ernesti Bavariae Ducis, in l^hesaurtis Nimus Anecdotortan of Martenc and
Durand, vol. III. col. 353 seqq. ; I. B. IV. 305; Gildcm. p. 220; Pigafelta, p. 174;
ATajoi's Prince Henry, p. 311 ; Erman, II. 88 ; Carcin de 7 assy, La Poisie philos.
etc. , chez les Persans, 30 seqq. )

[In a letter to Sir Henry Yule, dated 24th March 1887, Sir (then Dr.) John Kirk
writes: " I was speaking with the present Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyed Barghash,
about the great bird which the natives say exists, and in doing so I laughed at the
idea. His Highness turned serious and said that indeed he believed it to be quite
true that a great bird visited the Udoe country, and that it caused a great shadow to
fall upon the country ; he added that it let fall at times large rocks. Of course he
did not pretend to know these things from his own experience, for he has never been
inland, but he considered he had ample grounds to believe these stories from what he
had been told of those who travelled. The Udoe country lies north of the River
Wami opposite the island of Zanzibar and about two days going inland. The people
are jealous of strangers and practise cannibalism in war. They are therefore little
visited, and although near the coast we know little of them. The only members of
their tribe I have known have been converted to Islam, and not disposed to say much
of their native customs, being ashamed of them, while secretly still believing in them.
The only thing I noticed was an idea that the tribe came originally from the West, from
about Manyema ; now the people of that part are cannibals, and cannibalism is almost
unknown except among the Wadoe, nearer the east coast. It is also singular that
the other story of a gigantic bird comes from near Manyema and that the whalebone
that was passed off at Zanzibar as the wing of a bird, came, they said, from
Tanganyika. As to rocks faUing in East Africa, I think their idea might easily arise
from the fall of meteoric stones."]

[M. Alfred Grandidier {Hist, de la Giog. de Madagascar, p. 31) thinks that
the Rukh is but an image ; it is a personification of water-spouts, cyclones, and
typhoons.— H. C]

Note 6. — Sir Thomas Brown says that if any man will say he desires before
belief to behold such a creature as is the Kttkh in Paulus Venetus, for his own part he
will not be angry with his incredulity. But M. Pauthier is of more liberal belief ; for
he considers that, after all, the dimensions which Marco assigns to the wings and
quills of the Rukh are not so extravagant that we should refuse to admit their
possibility.

Ludolf will furnisli him with corroborative evidence, that of Padre Bolivar, a
Jesuit, as communicated to Thevenot ; the assigned position will suit well enough
with Marco's report : " The bird condor differs in size in different parts of the world.
The greater species was seen by many of the Portuguese in their expedition against
the Kingdoms of Sofala and Cuama and the Land of the Caffres from Monomotapa
to the Kingdom of Angola and the Mountains of Teroa. In some countries I have
myself seen the wing-feathers of that enormous fowl, although the bird itself I never
beheld. The feather in question, as could be deduced from its form, was one of the
middle ones, and it was 28 palms in length and three in breadth. The quill part,
from the root to the extremity, was five palms in length, of the thickness of an average
man's arm, and of extreme strength and hardness. [M. Alfred Grandidier {Llist. de
la Giog. de Madagascar, p. 25) thinks that the quill part of this feather was one of
the bamboo shoots formerly brought to Yemen to be used as water-jars and called
\\\Q.x^ feathers of Rukh, the Arabs looking upon these bamboo shoots as the quill part
of the feathers of the Rukh. — H.C.] The fibres of the feather were equal in length
and closely fitted, so that they could scarcely be parted without some exertion of force ;
and they were jet black, whilst the quill part was white. Those who had seen the
bird stated that it was bigger than the bulk of a couple of elephants, and that
hitherto nobody had succeeded in killing one. It rises to the clouds with such
extraordinary swiftness that it seems scarcely to stir its wings. In form it is like an

Chap. XXXIII. THE RUKH

421

eagle. But although its size and swiftness are so extraordinary, it has much trouble in
procuring food, on account of the density of the forests with which all that region is
clothed. Its own dwelling is in cold and desolate tracts such as the Mountains of
Teroa, i.e. of the Moon ; and in the valleys of that range it shows itself at certain
periods. Its black feathers are held in very high estimation, and it is with the
greatest difficulty that one can be got from the natives, for one such serves to fan ten
people, and to keep off the terrible heat from them, as well as the wasps and flies "
{Ludolfi Hist. Aethiop. Comment, p. 164.)

Abu Mahomed, of Spain, relates that a merchant arrived in Barbary who had
lived long among the Chinese. He had with him the quill of a chick Rukh, and this
held nine skins of water. He related the story of how he came by this, — a story
nearly the same as one of Sindbad's about the Rukh's egg. (Bochart, II. 854.)

Another story of a seaman wrecked on the coast of Africa is among those collected
by M. Marcel Devic. By a hut that stood in the middle of a field of rice and dtirra
there was a trough. "A man came up leading a pair of oxen, laden with 12 skins of
water, and emptied these into the trough. I drew near to drink, and found the
trough to be polished like a steel blade, quite different from either glass or pottery.
' It is the hollow of a quill,' said the man. I would not believe a word of the sort,
until, after rubbing it inside and outside, I found it to be transparent, and to retain
the traces of the barbs." {Comples J^endtis, etc., tit supra ; and Livre des Merveilles
de Pinde, p. 99. )

Fr. Jordanus also says : ^^ In ihis India 7>;Y/a (Eastern Africa) are certain birds
which are called Roc, so big that they easily carry an elephant up into the air. I
have seen a certain person who said that he had seen one of those birds, one wing
only of which stretched to a length of 80 palms" (p. 42).

The Japanese Encyclopaedia states that in the country of the Tsengs^ (Zinjis) in
the South- West Ocean, there is a bird called pheng, which in its flight eclipses the
sun. It can swallow a camel ; and its quills are used for water-casks. This was
probably got from the Arabs, (y^ As., ser. 2, tom. xii. 235-236.)

I should note that the Geog. Tejct in the first passage where the feathers are
spoken of says : " <? c^ qej'e en vi voz dirai en autre leu^ por ce qe il convient ensifairc
^ nostre livre, ''^ — " that which / have seen of them I will tell you elsewhere, as it suits
the arrangement of our book." No such other detail is found in that text, but we
have in Ramusio this passage about the quill brought to the Great Kaan, and I
suspect that the phrase, "as I have heard," is an interpolation, and that Polo
is here telling ce qe il en vit. What are we to make of the story ? I have some-
times thought that possibly some vegetable production, such as a great frond of the
Ravenala, may have been cooked to pass as a Rukh's quill. [See App. L.]

Note 7. — The giraffes are an error. The Eng. Cyc. says that wild asses and
zebras (?) do exist in Madagascar, but I cannot trace authority for this.

The great boar's teeth were indubitably hippopotamus-teeth, which form a con-
siderable article of export from Zanzibar * (not Madagascar). Burton speaks of their
reaching 12 lbs in weight. And Cosmas tells us : *'The hippopotamus I have not
seen indeed, but I had some great teeth of his that weighed thirteen pounds^ which I
sold here (in Alexandria). And I have seen many such teeth in Ethiopia and in
Egypt." (See/. R. G. S. XXIX. 444 ; Cathay, p. clxxv.)

* The name as pronounced seems to have been Za«^/3^r (hard ^), which polite Arabic chanaed
into Zanjibdr^ whence the Portuguese made Zanzibar.

422 MARCO POLO Book III.

• CHAPTER XXXIV.

Concerning the Island of Zanghibar. A Word on India
IN General.

Zangtiibar is a great and noble Island, with a compass
of some 2000 miles.^ The people are all Idolaters, and
have a king and a language of their own, and pay tribute
to nobody. They are both tall and stout, but not tall in
proportion to their stoutness, for if they were, being so
stout and brawny, they would be absolutely like giants ;
and they are so strong that they will carry for four men
and eat for five.

They are all black, and go stark naked, with only a
little covering for decency. Their hair is as black as
pepper, and so frizzly that even with water you can
scarcely straighten it. And their mouths are so large,
their noses so turned up, their lips so thick, their eyes so
big and bloodshot, that they look like very devils ; they
are in fact so hideously ugly that the world has nothing
to show more horrible.

Elephants are produced In this country In wonderful
profusion. There are also lions that are black and quite
different from ours. And their sheep and wethers are
all exactly alike in colour ; the body all white and the head
black ; no other kind of sheep is found there, you may
rest assured.^ They have also many giraffes. This is
a beautiful creature, and I must give you a description of
it. Its body is short and somewhat sloped to the rear, for
its hind legs are short whilst the fore-legs and the neck
are both very long, and thus its head stands about three
paces from the ground. The head Is small, and the
animal Is not at all mischievous. Its colour is all red and
white in round spots, and it is really a beautiful object.^

Chap. XXXIV. THE ISLAND OF ZANGHIBAR 423

* * The women of this Island are the ugliest in the
world, with their great mouths and big eyes and thick
noses ; their breasts too are four times bigger than those
of any other women ; a very disgusting sight.

The people live on rice and flesh and milk and dates ;
and they make wine of dates and of rice and of good
spices and sugar. There is a great deal of trade, and
many merchants and vessels go thither. But the staple
trade of the Island is in elephants' teeth, which are very
abundant ; and they have also much ambergris, as whales
are plentiful.*

They have among them excellent and valiant warriors,
and have little fear of death. They have no horses, but
fight mounted on camels and elephants. On the latter
they set wooden castles which carry from ten to sixteen
persons, armed with lances, swords, and stones, so that
they fight to great purpose from these castles. They
wear no armour, but carry only a shield of hide, besides
their swords and lances, and so a marvellous number of
them fall In battle. When they are going to take an
elephant into battle they ply him well with their wine, so
that he is made half drunk. They do this because the
drink makes him more fierce and bold, and of more
service in battle.^

As there is no more to say on this subject I will go
on to tell you about the Great Province of Abash, which
constitutes the Middle India; — but I must first say
something about India In general.

You must understand that In speaking of the Indian
Islands we have described only the most noble provinces
and kingdoms among them ; for no man on earth could
give you a true account of the whole of the Islands of
India. Still, what I have described are the best, and as
it were the Flower of the Indies. For the greater part
of the other Indian Islands that I have omitted are

424 MARCO POLO Book III.

subject to those that I have described. It Is a fact that
in this Sea of India there are 12,700 Islands, inhabited
and uninhabited, according to the charts and documents
of experienced mariners who navigate that Indian Sea/

India the Greater is that which extends from Ma-
abar to Kesmacoran ; and it contains 13 great kingdoms,
of which we have described ten. These are all on the
mainland.

India the Lesser extends from the Province of
Champa to Mutfili, and contains eight great kingdoms.
These are likewise all on the mainland. And neither of
these numbers includes the Islands, among which also
there are very numerous kingdoms, as I have told you.^

Note i. — Zangibar, "the Region of the Blacks," known to the ancients as
Zingis and Zingiiim. The name was applied by the Arabs, according to De Barros,
to the whole stretch of coast from the Kilimanchi River, which seems to be the Jubb,
to Cape Corrientes beyond the Southern Tropic, i.e. as far as Arab traffic extended ;
Burton says now from the Jubb to Cape Delgado. According to Abulfeda, the King
of Zinjis dwelt at Mombasa. In recent times the name is by Europeans almost appro-
priated to the Island on which resides the Sultan of the Maskat family, to whom Sir
B. Frere lately went as envoy. Our author's " Island" has no reference to this ; it is
an error simply.

Our traveller's information is here, I think, certainly at second hand, though no
doubt he had seen the negroes whom he describes with such disgust, and apparently
the sheep and the giraffes.

Note 2. — These sheep are common at Aden, whither they are imported from the
opposite African coast. They have hair like smooth goats, no wool. Varthema also
describes them (p. 87). In the Cairo Museum, among ornaments found in the
mummy-pits, there is a little figure of one of these sheep, the head and neck in some
blue stone and the body in white agate. [_Note by Author of the sketch on next page.)

Note 3. — A giraffe — made into a seraph by the Italians — had been frequently
seen in Italy in the early part of the century, there being one in the train of the
Emperor Frederic II. Another was sent by Bibars to the Imperial Court in 1261,
and several to Barka Khan at Sarai in 1263 ; whilst the King of Nubia was bound by
treaty in 1275 to deliver to the Sultan three elephants, three giraffes, and five she-
panthers. [Kington, I. 471; Makrizi, I. 216; II. 106, 108.) The giraffe is some-
times wrought in the patterns of mediaeval Saracenic damasks, and in Sicilian ones
imitated from the former. Of these there are examples in the Kensington Collection.

I here omit a passage about the elephant. It recounts an old and long-persistent
fable, exploded by Sir T. Brown, and indeed before him by the sensible Garcia de Orta.

Note 4. — The port of Zanzibar is probably the chief ivory mart in the world.
Ambergris is mentioned by Burton among miscellaneous exports, but it is not now of
any consequence. Owen speaks of it as brought for sale at Delagoa Bay in the south.

Note 5. — Mas'udi more correctly says: "The country abounds with wild
elephants, but you don't find a single tame one. The Zinjes employ them neither in

Chap. XXXIV.

THE THREE INDIES

425

war nor otherwise, and if they hunt them 'tis only to kill them " (III. 7). It is
difficult to conceive how Marco could have got so much false information. The only
beast of burden in Zanzibar, at least north of Mozambique, is the ass. His particulars
seem jumbled from various parts of Africa. The camel-riders suggest the Bejas of the
Red Sea coast, of whom there were in Mas'udi's time 30,000 warriors so mounted,
and armed with lances and bucklers (III. 34). The elephant stories may have arisen
from the occasional use of these animals by the Kings of Abyssinia. (See Note 4 to
next chapter.)

N£»TE 6. — An approximation to 12,000 as a round number seems to have been
habitually used in reference to the Indian Islands ; John of Montecorvino says they
are many more than 12,000 ; Jordanus had heard that there were 10,000 inhabited.
Linschoten says some estimated the Maldives at 11,100. And we learn from Pyrard

Ethiopian Sheep.

de Laval that the Sultan of the Maldives called himself Ibrahim Sultan of Thirteen
AtoUons (or coral groups) and of 12,000 Islands ! This is probably the origin of the
proverbial number. Ibn Batuta, in his excellent account of the Maldives, estimates
them at only about 2000. But Captain Owen, commenting on Pyrard, says that he
believes the actual number of islands to be treble or fourfold of 12,000. {P. de Laval
in Charton, IV. 255 ; /. B, IV. 40 ; /. R. G. S. II. 84.)

Note 7. — The term " India " became very vague from an early date. In fact,
Alcuin divides the whole world into three parts, Europe, Africa, and India. Hence
it was necessary to discriminate different Indias, but there is very little agreement
among different authors as to this discrimination.

The earliest use that I can find of the terms India Major and Minor is in the Liber
Junioris Philosophi published by Hudson, and which is believed to be translated from
a lost Greek original of the middle of the 4th century. In this author India Minor
adjoins Persia. So it does with Friar Jordanus. His India Minor appears to em-
brace Sind (possibly Mekran), and the western coast exclusive of Malabar. India
Major extends from Malabar indefinitely eastward. His India Tertia is Zanjibar.
The Three Indies appear in a map contained in a MS. by Guido Pisanus, written in

426 MARCO POLO Book III.

1 1 18. Conti divides India into three: (l) From Persia to the Indus {i.e. Mekran
and Sind) ; (2) From the Indus to the Ganges ; (3) All that is beyond Ganges (Indo-
China and China).

In a map of Andrea Bianco at Venice (No. 12) the divisions are — (i) India Minor,
extending westward to the Persian Gulf; (2) India Media, "containing 14 regions
and 12 nations ; " and (3) India Superior, containing 8 regions and 24 nations.

Marino Sanuto places immediately east of the Persian Gulf '' India Minor quae et
Ethiopia:'

John Marignolli again has three Indias : (i) Manzi or India Maxima (S. China) ;
(2) Mynibar (Malabar) ; (3) Maabar. The last two with Guzerat are Abulfeda's
divisions, exclusive of Sind.

We see that there was a traditional tendency to make out Three Indies, but little
concord as to their identity. With regard to the expressions Greater and Lesser
India, I would recall attention to what has been said about Greater and Lesser Java
{.supra, chap. ix. note i). Greater India was originally intended, I imagine, for the
real India, what our maps call Hindustan. And the threefold division, with its
inclination to place one of the Indies in Africa, I think may have originated with the
Arab Hind, Sind, and Zinj. I may add that our vernacular expression *' the Indies "
is itself a vestige of the twofold or threefold division of which we have been speaking.
The partition of the Indies made by King Sebastian of Portugal in 1571, when he
constituted his eastern possessions into three governments, recalled the old division
into Three Indias. The first, India, extending from Cape Gardafui to Ceylon, stood
in a general way for Polo's India Major ; the second Monomotapa, from Gardafui to
Cape Corrientes (India Tertia of Jordanus) ; the third Malacca, from Pegu to China
(India Minor). [Faria y Souza, II. 319.)

Polo's knowledge of India, as a whole, is so little exact that it is too indefinite a
problem to consider which are the three kingdoms that he has not described. The
ten which he has described appear to be — (i) Maabar, (2) Coilum, (3) Comari,
(4) Eli, (5) Malabar, (6) Guzerat, (7) Tana, (8) Canbaet, (9) Semenat, (10) Kesma-
coran. On the one hand, this distribution in itself contains serious misapprehensions,
as we have seen, and on the other there must have been many dozens of kingdoms
in India Major instead of 13, if such states as Comari, Hili, and Somnath were to be
separately counted. Probably it was a common saying that there were 12 kings in
India, and the fact of his having himself described so many, which he knew did not
nearly embrace the whole, may have made Polo convert this into 13. Jordanus says :
*' In this Greater India are 12 idolatrous kings and more;" but his Greater India is
much more extensive than Polo's. Those which he names are Molebar (probably the
kingdom of the Zamorin of Calicut), Singiiyli (Cranganor), Columbum (Quilon),
Molephatan (on the east coast, uncertain, see above pp. 333, 391), and Sylen (Ceylon),
Java, three or four kings, Telenc (Polo's Mutfili), Maratha (Deogir), Batigala (in
Canara), and in Champa (apparently put for all Indo-China) many kings. According
to Firishta there were about a dozen important principalities in India at the time of
the Mahomedan conquest of which he mentions eleven, viz.: (i) Kanauj, (2) Mirat
(or Delhi), (3) Mahdvan (Mathra), (4) Lahore, (5) Malwa, (6) Gtizerat, (7) Ajmir,
(8) Gwalior, (9) Kalinjar, (10) Mulidn, (ii) Ujjain. {Ritter, V. 535.) This omits
Bengal, Orissa, and all the Deccan. Twelve is a round number which constantly
occurs in such statements. Ibn Batuta tells us there were 12 princes in Malabar
alone. Chinghiz, in Sanang-Setzen, speaks of his vow to subdue the twelve kings
of the human race (91). Certain figures in a temple at Anhilwara in Guzerat are said
by local tradition to be the effigies of the twelve great kings of Europe. [Todd's
Travels, p. 107.) The King of Arakan used to take the title of *'Lord of the 12
provinces of Bengal " {Reinaud, Inde, p. 139.)

The Masdlak-al-Absdr of Shihabuddin Dimishki, written some forty years after
Polo's book, gives a list of the provinces (twice twelve in number) into which India
was then considered to be divided. It runs — (i) Delhi, (2) Deogir, (3) Multdn,
(4) Kehran {Kohrdm, in Sirhind Division of Province of Delhi?), (5) Sdmdn

Chap. XXXV. THE KINGDOM OF ABASH • 427

(Samana, N.W. of Delhi ?), (6) Siwastdn (Sehwan), (7) Ujah (Uchh), (8) Hdsi
(Hansi), (9) Sarsati (Sirsa), (10) Ma' bar, (ii) Tiling, (12) Gujerat^ (13) Baddun,
(14) Attdh, (15) Kanauj, (16) Laknaoti (Upper Bengal), (17) Bah&r, (18) Karrdh
(in the Doab), (19) Maldwa, (Malwa), (20) Lahaur, (21) Kdldnur (in the Bari Dodb,
above Lahore), (22) Jdjnagar (according to Elphinstone, Tipura in Bengal), (23)
Tilinj [z. repetition or error), (24) Dttrsamand (Dvfoxa. Samudra, the kingdom of the
Bellals in Mysore). Neither Malabar nor Orissa is accounted for. (See Not. et Ext.
XIII. 170). Another list, given by the historian Zfa-uddfn Barni some years later,
embraces again only twelve provinces. These are (i) Delhi, (2) Gujerat, (3) Malwah,
(4) Deogfr, (5) Tiling, (6) Kampilah (in the Doab, between Koil and Farakhabad),
(7) Dur Samandar, (8) Ma'bar, (9) Tirhut, (10) Lakhnaoti, (ii) Satgdnw,
(12) Sundrgdnw (these two last forming the Western and Eastern portions of
Lower Bengal).*

CHAPTER XXXV.

Treating of the Great Province of Abash which is Middle
India, and is on the Mainland.

Abash is a very great Province, and you must know-
that It constitutes the Middle India ; and it is on the
mainland. There are in it six oreat Kinors with six

o o

great Kingdoms ; and of these six Kings there are three
that are Christians and three that are Saracens ; but the
greatest of all the six Is a Christian, and all the others
are subject to hlm.^

The Christians In this country bear three marks on
the face ; ^ one from the forehead to the middle of the
nose, and one on either cheek. These marks are made
with a hot iron, and form part of their baptism ; for after
that they have been baptised with water, these three
marks are made, partly as a token of gentility, and
partly as the completion of their baptism. There are
also Jews In the country, and these bear two marks, one
on either cheek ; and the Saracens have but one, to wit,
on the forehead extending halfway down the nose.

The Great King lives in the middle of the country ;
the Saracens towards Aden. St. Thomas the Apostle

* E. Thomas, Chronicles of the Pathdn Kings of Delhi, p. 203.

428 MARCO POLO Book III.

preached in this region, and after he had converted the
people he went away to the province of Maabar, where
he died ; and there his body lies, as I have told you in a
former place.

The people here are excellent soldiers, and they go
on horseback, for they have horses in plenty. Well they
may ; for they are in daily war with the Soldan of Aden,
and with the Nubians, and a variety of other nations.^
I will tell you a famous story of what befel in the year of
Christ, 1288.

You must know that this Christian King, who is the
Lord of the Province of Abash, declared his intention to
go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to adore the Holy
Sepulchre of Our Lord God Jesus Christ the Saviour.
But his Barons said that for him to go in person would
be to run too great a risk ; and they recommended him
to send some bishop or prelate in his stead. So the
King assented to the counsel which his Barons gave, and
despatched a certain Bishop of his, a man of very holy
life. The Bishop then departed and travelled by land
and by sea till he arrived at the Holy Sepulchre, and
there he paid it such honour as Christian man Is bound
to do, and presented a great offering on the part of his
King who had sent him in his own stead.

And when he had done all that behoved him, he set
out again and travelled day by day till he got to Aden.
Now that is a Kingdom wherein Christians are held in
great detestation, for the people are all Saracens, and
their enemies unto the death. So when the Soldan of
Aden heard that this man was a Christian and a Bishop,
and an envoy of the Great King of Abash, he had him
seized and demanded of him if he were a Christian ?
To this the Bishop replied that he was a Christian indeed.
The Soldan then told him that unless he would turn to
the Law of Mahommet he should work him great shame

Chap. XXXV. VENGEANCE OF THE KING OF ABASH 429

and dishonour. The Bishop answered that they might
kill him ere he would deny his Creator.

When the Soldan heard that he waxed wroth, and
ordered that the Bishop should be circumcised. So
they took and circumcised him after the manner of the
Saracens. And then the Soldan told him that he had
been thus put to shame in despite to the King his master.
And so they let him go.

The Bishop was sorely cut to the heart for the shame
that had been wrought him, but he took comfort because
it had befallen him in holding fast by the Law of Our
Lord Jesus Christ ; and the Lord God would recompense
his soul in the world to come.

So when he was healed he set out and travelled by
land and by sea till he reached the King his Lord in the
Kingdom of Abash. And when the King beheld him,
he welcomed him with great joy and gladness. And he
asked him all about the Holy Sepulchre ; and the Bishop
related all about it truly, the King listening the while as
to a most holy matter In ail faith. But when the Bishop
had told all about Jerusalem, he then related the outrage
done on him by the Soldan of Aden in the King's
despite. Great was the King's wrath and grief when he
heard that ; and it so disturbed him that he was like to die
of vexation. And at length his words waxed so loud
that all those round about could hear what he was saying.
He vowed that he would never wear crown or hold king-
dom if he took not such condign vengeance on the Soldan
of Aden that all the world should ring therewithal, even
until the insult had been well and thoroughly redressed.

And what shall I say of it ? He straightway caused
the array of his horse and foot to be mustered, and great
numbers of elephants with castles to be prepared to
accompany them ; ^ and when all was ready he set out
with his army and advanced till he entered the Kingdom

430 MARCO POLO Book III.

of Aden in great force. The Kings of this province of
Aden were well aware of the King's advance against
them, and went to encounter him at the strongest pass on
their frontier, with a great force of armed men, in order
to bar the enemy from entering their territory. When
the King arrived at this strong pass where the Saracens
had taken post, a battle began, fierce and fell on both
sides, for they were very bitter against each other. But
it came to pass, as it pleased our Lord God Jesus Christ,
that the Kings of the Saracens, who were three in
number, could not stand against the Christians, for they
are not such good soldiers as the Christians are. So the
Saracens were defeated, and a marvellous number of
them slain, and the King of Abash entered the Kingdom
of Aden with all his host. The Saracens made various
sallies on them in the narrow defiles, but it availed
nothing ; they were always beaten and slain. And when
the King had greatly wasted and destroyed the king-
dom of his enemy, and had remained in it more than a
month with all his host, continually slaying the Saracens,
and ravaging their lands (so that great numbers of them
perished), he thought it time to return to his own king-
dom, which he could now do with great honour. Indeed
he could tarry no longer, nor could he, as he was aware,
do more injury to the enemy ; for he would have had to
force a way by still stronger passes, where, in the narrow
denies, a handful of men might cause him heavy loss.
So he quitted the enemy's Kingdom of Aden and began
to retire. And he with his host got back to their own
country of Abash in great triumph and rejoicing ; for he
had well avenged the shame cast on him and on his
Bishop for his sake. For they had slain so many .
Saracens, and so wasted and harried the land, that 'twas
something to be astonished at. And in sooth 'twas a
deed well done ! For it is not to be borne that the dogs

Chap. XXXV. ABYSSINIA STYLED MIDDLE INDIA 431

of Saracens should lord It over good Christian people !
Now you have heard the story.^

I have still some particulars to tell you of the same
province. It abounds greatly in all kinds of victual ;
and the people live on flesh and rice and milk and
sesame. They have plenty of elephants, not that they
are bred in the country, but they are brought from the
Islands of the other India. They have however many
giraffes, which are produced in the country ; besides
bears, leopards, lions in abundance, and many other
passing strange beasts. They have also numerous wild
asses ; and cocks and hens the most beautiful that exist,
and many other kind of birds. For instance, they have
ostriches that are nearly as big as asses ; and plenty of
beautiful parrots, with apes of sundry kinds, and baboons
and other monkeys that have countenances all but
human.^

There are numerous cities and villages In this
province of Abash, and many merchants ; for there is
much trade to be done there. The people also manu-
facture very fine buckrams and other cloths of cotton.

There is no more to say on the subject ; so now let
us go forward and tell you of the province of Aden.

Note i. — Abash (Abasce) is a close enough representation of the Arabic Habsh or
Habash, i.e. Abyssinia. He gives as an alternative title Middle India. I am not
aware that the term India is applied to Abyssinia by any Oriental (Arabic or Persian)
writer, and one feels curious to know where our Traveller got the appellation. We
find nearly the same application of the term in Benjamin of Tudela :

*' Eight days from thence is Middle India, which is Aden, and in Scripture Eden
in Thelasar. This country is very mountainous, and contains many independent
Jews who are not subject to the power of the Gentiles, but possess cities and fortresses
on the summits of the mountains, from whence they descend into the country of
Maatum, with which they are at war. Maatum, called also Nubia, is a Christian
kingdom and the inhabitants are called Nubians," etc. (p. 117). Here the Rabbi
seems to transfer Aden to the west of the Red Sea (as Polo also seems to do in this
chapter) ; for the Jews warring against Nubian Christians must be sought in the
Falasha strongholds among the mountains of Abyssinia. His Middle India is there-
fore the same as Polo's or nearly so. In Jordanus, as already mentioned, we have
India Tertia, which combines some characters of Abyssinia and Zanjibar, but is
distinguished from the Ethiopia of Prester John, which adjoins it.

But for the occurrence of the name in R. Benjamin I should have supposed

432 MARCO POLO Book III.

the use of it to have been of European origin and current at most among
Oriental Christians and Frank merchants. The European confusion of India and
Ethiopia comes down from Virgil's time, who brings the Nile from India. And
Servius (4th century) commenting on a more ambiguous passage —

" Sola India nigrum

Fert ebenum"
says exphcitly *' Indiatn onmem plagain yJCthiopice. accipimiisy Trocopius brings the
Nile into Egypt e^ 'IvSw;' ; and the Ecclesiastical Historians Sozomen and Socrates
(I take these citations, like the last, from Ludolf), in relating the conversion of the
Abyssinians by Frumentius, speak of them only [as of the ^IvhCiv tCjv ivboripw,
"Interior Indians," a phrase intended to imply ronoter, but which might perhaps
give rise to the term Middle India. Thus Cosmas says of China: " ^s evdoT^pu},
there is no other country"; and Nicolo Conti calls the Chinese Interiores Indi,
which Mr. Winter Jones misrenders "natives of Central India."* St. Epiphanius
(end of 4th century) says India was formerly divided into nine kingdoms, viz., those
of the (i) Alahastri, (2) Homeritae, (3) Aztuniti, and Dulites, (4) Bugaei,
(5) Taiani, (6) Isabeni, and so on, several of which are manifestly provinces subject
to Abyssinia, t Roger Bacon speaks of the " Ethiopes de Nubia et ultimi illi qui
vocantur Indi, propter approximationem ad Indiaj?i.''^ The term India Minor is
applied to some Ethiopia region in a letter which Matthew Paris gives under 1237.
And this confusion which prevailed more or less till the i6th century was at the
bottom of that other confusion, whatever be its exact history, between Prester John
in remote Asia, and Prester John in Abyssinia. In fact the narrative by Damian de
Goes of the Embassy from the King of Abyssinia to Portugal in 151 3, which was
printed at Antwerp in 1532, bears the title ''^ legatio Magni Indorum Imperatoris,^^
etc. {Ludolf, Comment, p. 2 and 75-76; Epiph. de Geminis, etc., p. 15 ; R. Bacon,
Opus Majlis, p. 148 ; Matt. Paris, p. 372.)

Wadding gives a letter from the Pope (Alex. II.) under date 3rd Sept. 1329,
addressed to the Emperor of Ethiopia, to inform him of the appointment of a Bishop
of Diagorgan. As this place is the capital of a district near Tabriz (Dehi-Khorkhan)
the papal geography looks a little hazy.

Note 2. — The allegation against the Abyssinian Christians, sometimes extended to
the whole Jacobite Church, that they accompanied the rite of Baptism by branding
with a hot iron on the face, is pretty old and persistent.

The letter quoted from Matt. Paris in the preceding note relates of the Jacobite
Christians " who occupy the kingdoms between Nubia and India," that some of them
brand the foreheads of their children before Baptism with a hot iron/' (p. 302). A
quaint Low-German account of the East, in a MS. of the 14th century, tells of the
Christians of India that when a Bishop ordains a priest he fires him with a sharp and
hot iron from the forehead down the nose, and the scar of this wound abides till the
day of his death. And this they do for a token that the Holy Ghost came on the
Apostles with fire. Frescobaldi says those called the Christians of the Girdle were
the sect which baptized by branding on the head and temples. Clavijo says there is
such a sect among the Christians of India, but they are despised by the rest. Barbosa,
speaking of the Abyssinians, has this passage : ' ' According to what is said, their
baptism is threefold, viz. , by blood, by fire, and by water. For they use circumcision
like the Jews, they brand on the forehead with a hot iron, and they baptize with water
like Catholic Christians." The respectable Pierre Belon speaks of the Christians of
Prester John, called Abyssinians, as baptized with fire and branded in three places,

* Reinaud {Abut/. I. 81) says the word Interior applied by the Arabs to a country, is the
equivalent of citerior, whilst by exterior they mean utterior. But the truth is just the reverse, even
in the case before him, where Bolghdr-al-bakhiia, ' Bulgari Interiores,' are the Volga Bulgars.
So also the Arabs called Armenia on the Araxes Interior, Armenia on Lake Van Exterior (St.
Martin, I. 31).

t Thus (2) the Homeritae of Yemen, (3^ the people of Axum, and AduHs or Zulla, (5) the Bugaei
or Bejahs of the Red Sea coast, (6) Taiani or Tiamo, appear in Salt's Axum Inscription as suiiject
to the King of Axum in the middle of the 4ih century.

Chap. XXXV BRANDING

433

i.e. between the eyes and on either cheek. Linschoten repeats the like, and one of
his plates is entitled Habitus Abissinoriwi qttibns loco Baptisinatis frons itiuriiur,
Ariosto, referring to the Emperor of Ethiopia, has : —

" Gli i, s' io non piglio error e^ in quest o loco
Ove al battesi??io loro nsano il fuoco."

As late as 1 819 the traveller Dupre published the same statement about the Jacobites
generally. And so sober and learned a man as Assemani, himself an Oriental, says :
"yEthiopes vero, seu Abissini, praeter circumcisionem adhibent etiam ferrum candens,
quo pueris notam inurunt."

Yet Ludolfs Abyssinian friend, Abba Gregory, denied that there was any such
practice among them. Ludolf says it is the custom of various African tribes, both
Pagan and Mussulman, to cauterize their children in the veins of the temples, in order to
inure them against colds, and that this, being practised by some Abyssinians, was taken
for a religious rite. In spite of the terms " Pagan and Mussulman," I suspect that
Herodotus was the authority for this practice. He states that many of the nomad
Libyans, when their children reached tlie age of four, used to burn the veins at the top
of the head with a flock of wool; others burned the veins about the temples. And
this they did, he says, to prevent their being troubled with rheum in after life.

Indeed Andrea Corsali denies that the branding had aught to do with baptism, "but
only to observe Solomon's custom of marking his slaves, the King of Ethiopia claim-
ing to be descended from him." And it is remarkable that Salt mentions that most
of the people of Dixan had a cross marked {i.e. branded) on the breast, right arm, or
forehead. This he elsewhere explains as a mark of their attachment to the ancient
metropolitan church of Axum, and he supposes that such a practice may have
originated the stories of fire-baptism. And we find it stated in Marino Sanudo that
"some of the Jacobites and Syrians who had crosses branded on them said this was
done for the destruction of the Pagans, and out of reverence to the Holy Rood."
Matthew Paris, commenting on the letter quoted above, says that many of the
Jacobites before baptism brand their children on the forehead with a hot iron, whilst
others brand a cross upon the cheeks or temples. He had seen such marks also on the
arms of both Jacobites and Syrians who dwelt among the Saracens. It is clear, from
Salt, that such branding was practised by many Abyssinians, and that to a recent
date, though it may have been entirely detached from baptism. A similar practice is
followed at Dwarika and Koteswar (on the old Indus mouth, now called Lakpat River),
where the Plindu pilgrims to these sacred sites are branded with the mark of the god.

{Orient tend Occidetit, Gottingen, 1862, I. 453; Frescob. 114; Clavij'o, 163;
Ramus. I. f. 290, v., f. 184 ; Marin. Sanud. 185, and Bk. iii. pt. viii. ch. iv. ; Clusitis,
Exotica, pt. ii. p. 142; Orla7id. Fur. XXXIII. st. 102; Voyage en Perse, dans les
Annies 1807- 1809 ; Assemani, II. c. ; Ltidolf, iii. 6, § 41 ; Salt, in Valentids Trav.
II. p. 505, and his Second Journey, French Tr., II. 219 ; J/. Paris, p. 373;
/. R. A. S. I. 42.)

Note 3. — It is pretty clear from what follows (as Marsden and others have noted)
that the narrative requires us to conceive of the Sultan of Aden as dominant over the
territory between Abyssinia and the sea, or what was in former days called Adel, be-
tween which and Aden confusion seems to have been made. I have noticed in Note I
the appearance of this confusion in R. Benjamin ; and I may add that also in the
Map of Marino Sanudo Aden is represented on the western shore of the Red Sea.
But is it not possible that in the origin of the Mahomedan States of Adel the Sultan of
Aden had some power over them ? For we find in the account of the correspondence
between the King of Abyssinia and Sultan Bibars, quoted in the next Note but one,
that the Abyssinian letters and presents for Egypt were sent to the Sultan of Yemen
or Aden to be forwarded.

Note 4. — This passage is not authoritative enough to justify us in believing that
the mediaeval Abyssinians or Nubians did use elephants in war, for Marco has
already erred in ascribing that practice to the Blacks of Zanjibar.

VOL. II. 2 E

434 MARCO rOLO book III.

There can Indeed be no doubt that elephants from the countries on the west of
the Red Sea were caught and tamed and used for war, systematically and on a great
scale, by the second and third Ptolemies, and the latter (Euergetes) has com-
memorated this, and his own use of Troglodytic and Ethiopic elephants, and the fact
of their encountering the elephants of India, in the Adulitic Inscription recorded by
Cosmas.

This author however, who wrote about A. D. 545, and had been at the Court of
Axum, then in its greatest prosperity, says distinctly: "The Ethiopians do not
understand the art of taming elephants ; but if their King should want one or two for
show they catch them young, and bring them up in captivity.'' Hence, when we
find a few years later (a.d. 570) that there was one great elephant, and some say
thirteen elephants,* employed in the army which Abraha, the Abyssinian Ruler of
Yemen led against Mecca, an expedition famous in Arabian history as the War of the
Elephant, we are disposed to believe that these must have been elephants imported
from India. There is indeed a notable statement quoted by Ritter, which if trust-
worthy would lead to another conclusion : "Already in the 20lh year of the Ilijra
(a.d. 641) had the Ahibas and Bejas hastened to the help of the Greek Christians of
Oxyrhynchus {Bahnasa of the Arabs) .... against the first invasion of the
Mahommedans, and according to the exaggerated representations of the Arabian
Annalists, the army which they brought consisted of 50,000 men and 1300 wa?'-
elephantsJ'\ The Nubians certainly must have tamed elephants on. some scale down
to a late period in the Middle Ages, for elephants, — in one case three annually, —
formed a frequent part of the tribute paid by Nubia to the Mahomedan sovereigns ot
Egypt at least to the end of the 13th century ; but the passage quoted is too isolated
to be accepted without corroboration. The only approach to such a corroboration
that I know of is a statement by Poggio in the matter appended to his account of
Conti's Travels. He there repeats some information derived from the Abyssinian
envoys who visited Pope Eugenius IV. about 1440, and one of his notes is : "They
have elephants very large and in great numbers ; some kept for ostentation or
pleasure, some as useful in war. They are hunted ; the old ones killed, the young
ones taken and tamed." But the facts on which this was founded probably amounted
to no more than what Cosmas had stated. I believe no trustworthy authority since
the Portuguese discoveries confirms the use of the elephant in Abyssinia ; % and
Ludolf, whose information was excellent, distinctly says that the Abyssinians did not
tame them. {Cathay, p. clxxxi. ; Qtcat., 3Um., sur TAgypte, II. 98, 113 ; India in
xvth Centiny, 37 ; Ludolf, I. 10, 32 ; Armandi, H. Militaire des EUphants, p. 54S.)

Note 5. — To the loth century at least the whole coast country of the Red Sea,
from near Berbera probably to Suakin, was still subject to Abyssinia. At this time
we hear only of '• Musalman families" residing in Zaila' and the other ports, and
tributary to the Christians (see Mashtdi, III. 34).

According to Bruce's abstract of the Abyssinian chronicles, the royal line was
superseded in the loth century by Falasha Jews, then by other Christian families,
and three centuries of weakness and disorder succeeded. In 1268, according to
Bruce's chronology. Icon Amlac of the House of Solomon, which had continued to
rule in Shoa, regained the empire, and was followed by seven other princes whose
reigns come down to 1312. The history of this period is very obscure, but Bruce
gathers that it was marked by civil wars, during which the Mahomedan communities

* Muirs Life of Mahomet, I. cclxiii.

t Ritter, Africa, p. 605. The statement appears to be taken from Burckhardt's Nubia, but the
reference is not quite clear. There is nothing about this army in Quatremere's Mem. sur la Nubie.
{Met7i. surtEgypte, vol. ii.)

X Armandi indeed quotes a statement in support of such use from a Spaniard, Marmot, who
travelled (he says) in Abyssinia in the beginning of the i6th century. But the author in question,
already quoted at pp. 368 and 407, was no traveller, only a compiler ; and the passage cited by
Armandi is evidently made up from the statement in Poggio and from what our traveller has said
about Zanjibar. {Sufra, p. 422. See Marmot, Desc. de Affrica, I. f. 27, v.)

Chap. XXXV. CHRONOLOGY OF THE ABYSSINIAN STORY

435

that had by this time grown up in the coast-country became powerful and expelled
the Abyssinians from the sea-ports. Inland provinces of the low country also, such
as Ifat and Dawaro, had fallen under Mahomedan governors, whose allegiance to the
Negush, if not renounced, had become nominal.

One of the principal Mahomedan communities was called Adel, the name,
according to modern explanation, of the tribes now called Danakfl. The capital of
the Sultan of Adel was, according to Bruce at Aussa, some distance inland from the
port of Zaila', which also belonged to Adel.

Amda Zion, who succeeded to the Abyssinian throne, according to Bruce's
chronology, in 13 12, two or three years later, provoked by the Governor of Ifat,
who had robbed and murdered one of his Mahomedan agents in the Lowlands,
descended on Ifat, inflicted severe chastisement on the offenders, and removed the
governor. A confederacy was then formed against the Abyssinian King by several of
the Mahomedan States or chieftainships, among which Adel is conspicuous. Bruce
gives a long and detailed account of Amda Zion's resolute and successful campaigns
against this confederacy. It bears a strong general resemblance to Marco's narrative,
always excepting the story of the Bishop, of which Bruce has no trace, and always
admitting that our traveller has confounded Aden with Adel.

But the chronology is obviously in the way of identification of the histories.
Marco could not have related in 1298 events that did not occur till 1315-16. Mr.
Salt however, in his version of the chronology, not only puts the accession of Amda
Zion eleven years earlier than Bruce, but even then has so little confidence in its
accuracy, and is so much disposed to identify the histories, that he suggests that the
Abyssinian dates should be carried back further still by some 20 years, on the authority
of the narrative in our text. M. Pauthier takes a like view.

I was for some time much disposed to do likewise, but after examining the subject
more minutely, I am obliged to reject this view, and to abide by Bruce's Chronology.
To elucidate this I must exhibit the whole list of the Abyssinian Kings from the re-
storation of the line of Solomon to the middle of the i6th century, at which period
Bruce finds a check to the chronology in the record of a solar eclipse. The chrono-
logies have been extracted independently by Bruce, Riippell, and Salt ; the latter
using a different version of the Annals from the other two. I set down all three.

Bruce.

RiJPPEL.

Salt.

Reigns.

Duration
of reign.

Dates.

Duration
of reign.

Reigns.

Duration
of reign.

Dates.

Icon Amlac

Igba Zion

Bahar Segued ....

Tzenaff „

Jan ,,

Hazeb Araad

Kedem Segued . . .

Wedem Arad

Amda Zion

Saif Arad

Wedem Asferi . . .
David II

Years.
IS
9

1 '

30
28
10
29
3

\ .^

34
10

} -

13
32

1268— 1283
1283— 1292

1292—1297

1297— 1312
1312— 1342
1342— 1370
1370 — 1380
1380—1409
1409 1412
1412— 1429

1429
1429— 1433
1433—143'!

1434— 1468
1468—1478

1478—1495

1495— 1508

1508—15^0

1540

Years.
IS
9

IS
30
28
10
29
3

34i
10

171V

Woudem Ar.id . .

Kudma Asgud . . .

Asfa

Sinfa „

Bar

Iglm Zion

Years.
14
15

5
9

30
28
10
32

I
IS

34
10

1255—1269
1269—1284

1284—1287

1287—1292
1292 — 1301

1301-1331
1331— 1359
1359— 1369
1369—1401
1401—1402
1402— 1417
1417—1424
1424—1429

1429—1434

1434—1468
1468—1478

1478— 1494
1494—1507

Theodorus

Haseb Nanya . . .

Sarwe Yasus

Ameda Yasus ....

Zara Jacob

Beda Mariam

Iskander

Ameda Zion

Naod

David III

1507— 1536

VOL. II.

2 E 2

436 MARCO POLO Book III.

Bruce checks his chronology by an eclipse which took place in 1553, and which
the Abyssinian chronicle assigns to the 13th year of Claudius. This alone would be
scarcely satisfactory as a basis for the retrospective control of reigns extending through
nearly three centuries ; but we find some other checks.

Thus in Quatremere's Makrizi we find a correspondence between Sultan Bibars
and the King of Habasha, or of Amhara, Mahar AmlAk, which occurred in a.h.
672 or d'Ji^ i.e. A.D. 1273- 1274. This would fall within the reign of Icon Amlak
according to Bruce's chronology, but not according to Salt's, and h fortiori not
according to any chronology throwing the reigns further back still.

In Quatremere's Egypte we find another notice of a letter which came to the
Sultan of Egypt from the King of Abyssinia, Iakba Siun, in Ramadhan 689, i.e. in
the end of a.d. 1289.

Again, this is perfectly consistent with Bruce's order and dates, but not with Salt's.

The same work contains a notice of an inroad on the Mussulman territory of
Assuan by David (II. )> the son of Saif Arad, in the year 783 (a.d. 1381-1382).

In Rink's translation of a work of Makrizi's it is stated that this same King David
died in a.h. 812, i.e. a.d. 1409; that he was succeeded by Theodorus, whose reign
was very brief, and he again by Isaac, who died in Dhulkada 833, i.e. July- August
1430. These dates are in close or substantial agreement with Bruce's chronology,
but not at all with Salt's or any chronology throwing the reigns further back.
Makrizi goes on to say that Isaac was succeeded by Andreas, who reigned only four
months, and then by Hazbana, who died in Ramadhan 834, i.e. May-June 143 1.
This last date does not agree, but we are now justified in suspecting an error in the
Hijra date,* whilst the 4 months' reign ascribed to Andreas shows that Salt again
is wrong in extending it to 7 years, and Bruce presumably right in making it
7 months.

These coincidences seem to me sufficient to maintain the substantial accuracy of
Bruce's chronology, and to be fatal to the identification of Marco's story with that of
the wars of Amda Zion. The general identity in the duration of reigns as given by
Riippell shows that Bruce did not tamper with these. It is remarkable that in
Makrizi's report of the letter of Igba Zion in 1289 (the very year when according to
the text this anti-Mahoraedan war was going on), that Prince tells the Sultan that he
is a protector of the Mahomedans in Abyssinia, acting in that respect quite differ-
ently from his Father who had been so hostile to them.

I suspect therefore that Icon Amlak must have been the true hero of M.arco's
story, and that the date must be thrown back, probably to 1278.

Riippell is at a loss to understand where Bruce got the long story of Amda Zion's
heroic deeds, which enters into extraordinary detail, embracing speeches after the
manner of the Roman historians and the like, and occupies some 60 pages in the
French) edition of Bruce which I have been using. The German traveller could
find no trace of this story in any of the versions of the Abyssinian chronicle which he
consulted, nor was it known to a learned Abyssinian whom he names. Bruce him-
self says that the story, which he has "a little abridged and accommodated to our
manner of writing, was derived from a work written in very pure Gheez, in Shoa,
under the reign of Zara Jacob " ; and though it is possible that his amplifications out-
weigh his abridgments, we cannot doubt that he had an original groundwork for his
narrative.

The work of Makrizi already quoted speaks of seven kingdoms in Zaila' (here used
for the Mahomedan low country) originally tributary to the Hati (or Negush)
of Amhara, viz., Aufat,'\ Dawaro, Arababni, Hadiah, Shirha, Bali, Darah. Of
these Ifat, Dawaro, arid Hadiah repeatedly occur in Bruce's story of the war. Bruce
also tells us that Amda Zion, when he removed Hakeddin, the Governor of Ifat, who
had murdered his agent, replaced him by his brother Sabreddin. Now we find in

* 834 for 836.

t On Aufat, see De Sacy, Chrestom. Arabe, I. 457.

Chap. XXXV. THE OSTRICH 437

Makrizi that about a.h. 700, the reigning governor of Aufat under the Hati was
Sabreddin Mahomed Valahui ; and that it was 'Ali, the son of this Sabreddin, who
first threw off allegiance to the Abyssinian King, then Saif Arad (son of Amda Zion).
The latter displaces 'Ali and gives the government to his son Ahmed. After various
vicissitudes Hakeddin, the son of Ahmed, obtains the mastery in Aufat, defeats Saif
Arad completely, and founds a city in Shoa called Vahal, which superseded Aufat or
Ifat. Here the Sabreddin of Makrizi appears to be identical with Amda Zion's
governor in Bruce's story, whilst the Hakeddins belong to two different generations of
the same family. But Makrizi does not notice the wars of Amda Zion any more than
the Abyssinian Chronicles notice the campaign recorded by Marco Polo.

{Bruce, vol. HI. and vol. IV., pp. 23-90, and SaWs Second Journey to Abyssinia^
II. 270, etc. ; both these are quoted from French versions which are alone available
to me, the former by Castera, Londres, 1790, the latter by/*. Henry, Paris, 1816;
Fr. Th. Rink, Al Macrisi, Hist. Rerum Islamiticartwi in Abyssinia, etc., Lugd.
Bat. 1798 ; RUppell, Dissert, on Abyss. Hist, and Chronology in his work on that
country; Quat. Makr. II. 122-123 ; Quat. Mdm. sur V Egypte, II. 268, 276.)

Note 6. — The last words run in the G. T. : ^^ II ont singles de plosors maineres.
II ont gat paulz (see note 2, ch. xxiii. supra), et autre gat maimon si devisez qe pou
s^en faut de tiel hi a qe ne senblent a vix dromes." The beautiful cocks and hens are,
I suppose, Guinea fowl.

[We read in the Si Shi ki: "There is (in Western Asia) a large bird, above 10
feet high, with feet like a camel, and of bluish -grey colour. When it runs it flaps the
wings. It eats fire, and its eggs are of the size of a sheng (a certain measure for grain).
{Bretschneider, Med. Res., I. pp. 143- 144.) Dr. Bretschneider gives a long note on
the ostrich, called in Persian shuttir-murg (camel-bird), from which we gather the
following information : " The ostrich, although found only in the desert of Africa and
Western Asia, was known to the Chinese in early times, since their first intercourse
with the countries of the far west. In the History of the Han ( T'sien Han shu,
ch. xcvi.) it is stated that the Emperor Wti-ti, B.C. 140-186, first sent an embassy to
An-si, a country of Western Asia, which, according to the description given of it, can
only be identified with ancient Parthia, the empire of the dynasty of the Arsacides.
In this country, the Chinese chronicler records, a large bird from 8 to 9 feet high
is found, the feet, the breast, and the neck of which make it resemble the camel.
It eats barley. The name of this bird is ta ma tsio (the bird of the great horse). It
is further stated that subsequently the ruler of An-si sent an embassy to the Chinese
emperor, and brought as a present the eggs of this great bird. In the Hou Han shu,
ch. cxviii., an embassy from An-si is mentioned again in A.D. loi. They brought as
presents a lion and a large bird. In the History of the ?f^/ Dynasty, A.D. 386-558,
where for the first time the name of Po-s^ occurs, used to designate Peisia, it is
recorded that in that country there is a large bird resembling a camel and laying eggs
of large size. It has wings and cannot fly far. It eats grass and flesh, and swallows
men. In the History of the T'ang (618-907) the camel-bird is again mentioned as a
bird of Persia. It is also stated there that the ruler of T^u-huo-Io (Tokharestan) sent
a camel-bird to the Chinese emperor. The Chinese materia medica. Pen is'ao Kang
mu, written in the i6th century, gives (ch. xlix.) a good description of the ostrich,
compiled from ancient authors. It is said, amongst other things, to eat copper, iron,
stones, etc., and to have only two claws on its feet. Its legs are so strong that it can
dangerously wound a man by jerking. It can run 300 li a day. Its native countries
are A-dan (Aden) Dju-bo (on the Eastern African coast). A rude but tolerably exact
drawing of the camel-bird in the Pen-ts'ao proves that the ostrich was well known to
the Chinese in ancient times, and that they paid great attention to it. In the History
of the Ming Dynasty, ch. cccxxvi., the country of Hu-lu-mo-s^ (Hormuz on the
Persian Gulf) is mentioned as producing ostriches." — IT. C]

438 MARCO POLO Book III.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Concerning the Province of Aden.

You must know that in the province of Aden there is a
Prince who is called the Soldan. The people are all
Saracens and adorers of Mahommet, and have a great
hatred of Christians. There are many towns and villages
in the country.

This Aden is the port to which many of the ships of
India come with their cargoes ; and from this haven the
merchants carry the goods a distance of seven days
further in small vessels. At the end of those seven days
they land the goods and load them on camels, and 5o
carry them a land journey of 30 days. This brings them
to the river of Alexandria, and by it they descend to
the latter city. It is by this way through Aden that the
Saracens of Alexandria receive all their stores of pepper
and other spicery ; and there is no other route equally
good and convenient by which these goods could reach
that place.^

And you must know that the Soldan of Aden receives
a large amount in duties from the ships that traffic
between India and his country, importing different kinds
of goods ; and from the exports also he gets a revenue,
for there are despatched from the port of Aden to India a
very large number of Arab chargers, and palfreys, and
stout nags adapted for all work, which are a source of
great profit to those who export them.^ For horses fetch
very high prices in India, there being none bred there,
as I have told you before ; insomuch that a charger will
sell there for 100 marks of silver and more. On these
also the Soldan of Aden receives heavy payments in port
charges, so that 'tis said he is one of the richest princes
in the world.^

Chap. XXXVI. THE PROVINCE OF ADEN 439

And it is a fact that when the Soldan of Babylon
went against the city of Acre and took it, this Soldan of
Aden sent to his assistance 30,000 horsemen and full
40,000 camels, to the great help of the Saracens and the
grievous injury of the Christians. He did this a great
deal more for the hate he bears the Christians than for
any love he bears the Soldan of Babylon ; for these two
do hate one another heartily/

Now we will have done with the Soldan of Aden, and
I will tell you of a city which is subject to Aden,
called Esher.

Note i. — This is from Pauthier's text, which is here superior to the G. T. The
latter has : "They put the goods in small vessels, which proceed on a river shout
seven days." /Cam. has, **in other smaller vessels, with which they make a voyage
on a gulf of the sea for 20 days, more or less, as the weather may be. On reaching
a certain port they load the goods on camels, and carry them a 30 days' journey by
land to the River Nile, where they embark them in small vessels called Zerms, and
in these descend the current to Cairo, and thence by an artificial cut, called Calizene,
to Alexandria." The last looks as if it had been (?a^//^^; Polo never uses the name
Cairo. The canal, the predecessor of the Mahmiidlah, is also called // Caligine in
the journey of Simon Sigoli [Frescobaldi, p. 168). Brunetto Latini, too, discoursing
of the Nile, says : —

** Cosi serva su' filo,
Ed e chiamato Nilo.
D'un su' ramo si dice,
Ch' e chiamato Caiice.^'

— Tesoretio, pp. 81-82.
Also in the Sfera of Dati : —

"Chiamasi il Caligine

Egion e Nilo, e non si sa I'origine." P. 9.

The word is (Ar.) Khalij, applied in one of its senses specially to the canals
drawn from the full Nile. The port on the Red Sea would be either Suakin or
Aidhab ; the 30 days' journey seems to point to the former. Polo's contemporary,
Marino Sanudo, gives the following account of the transit, omitting entirely the Red
Sea navigation, though his line correctly represented would apparently go by Kosseir :
"The fourth haven is called Ahaden, and stands on a certain little island joining,
as it were, to the main, in the land of the Saracens. The spices and other goods
from India are landed there, loaded on camels, and so carried by a journey, of nine
days to a place on the River Nile, called Chns [Kits, the ancient Cos below Luqsor),
where they are put into boats and conveyed in 15 days to Babylon. But in the month
of October and thereabouts the river rises to such an extent that the spices, etc.,
continue to descend the stream from Babylon and enter a certain long canal, and
so are conveyed over the 200 miles between Babylon and Alexandria." (Bk. I. pt. i.
ch. i.)

Makrizi relates that up to A.H. 725 (1325), from time immemorial the Indian
ships had discharged at Aden, but in that year the exactions of the Sultan induced a
shipmaster to pass on into the Red Sea, and eventually the trade came to Jidda.
(See De Sacy^ Chrest. Arabe, II. 556,)

-•-Aden is mentioned [A-dan) in ch. cccxxxvi. of the Ming History as having sent

440 MARCO POLO Book III.

an embassy to China in 1427. These embassies were subsequently often repeated.
The country, which lay 22 days' voyage west of Kuli (supposed Calicut, but perhaps
Kayal), was devoid of grass or trees. {Bretschneider, Med. Res., II. pp. 305-306.)

[Ma-huan (transl. by Phillips) writes (/. R. A. S., April 1896): "In the
nineteenth year of Yung-lo (1422) an Imperial Envoy, the eunuch Li, was sent from
China to this country with a letter and presents to the King. On his arrival he was
most honourably received, and was met by the king on landing and conducted by him
to his palace." — H. C]

Note 2. — The words describing the horses are (P.'s text) : " de dons destriers
Arrabins et chevaux et grans roncins ^ ij selles." The meaning seems to be what I
have expressed in the text, fit either for saddle or pack-saddle.

\^Roncins (t deux selles. Littre's great Dictionary supplies an apt illustration of
this phrase. A contemporary ^Z;?^*; de C harks VII. says: '■^ Jamais il chevauchoit
mule ne haquenie, mais un bas cheval trotier entre deux selles" (a cob?).]

In one application the Deux selles of the old riding-schools were the two styles of
riding, called in Spanish Montar d la Gineta and Moniar a la Brida. The latter
stands for the old French style, with heavy bit and saddle, and long stirrups just
reached by the toes ; the former the Moorish style, with short stirrups and lighter bit.
But the phrase would also seem to have meant saddle and pack-saddle. Thus
Cobarruvias explains the phrase Hombre de dos sillas, ' ' Conviene saber de la gineta y
brida, ser de silla y albarda (pack-saddle), sei'vir de todo," and we find the converse
expression, No ser para silla ni par-a albarda, good for nothing.

But for an example of the exact phrase of the French text I am indebted to
P. della Valle. Speaking of the Persian horses, he says : "Few of them are of any
great height, and you seldom see thoroughbreds among them ; probably because here
they have no liking for such and don't seek to breed them. For the most part they
are of that very useful style that we call horses for both saddles {che not chiamiamo da
due selle),'^ etc. (See Cobarrtwias, under Silla and Brida; Dice, de la Lengua
Castellana par la Real Academia Espafiola, under Silla, Gineta, Brida; P. della
Valle, Let. XV. da Sciraz, § 3, vol. ii. p. 240.)

Note 3. — The supposed confusion between Adel and Aden does not affect this
chapter.

The " Soldan of Aden" was the Sultan of Yemen, whose chief residence was at
Ta'izz, North-East of Mokha. The prince reigning in Polo's day was Malik
Muzafifar Shamsuddin Abul Mahasen Yusuf. His father, Malik Mansur, a retainer
of the Ayubite Dynasty, had been sent by Saladin as Wazir to Yemen, with his
brother Malik Muazzam Turan Shah. After the death of the latter, and of his
successor, the Wazir assumed the government and became the founder of a dynasty.
Aden was the chief port of his dominions. It had been a seat of direct trade with
China in the early centuries of Islam.

Ibn Batuta speaks of it thus correctly: "It is enclosed by mountains, and you
can enter by one side only. It is a large town, but has neither corn nor trees,
nor fresh water, except from reservoirs made to catch the rain-water ; for other
drinking water is at a great distance from the town. The Arabs often prevent
the townspeople coming to fetch it until the latter have come to terms with
them, and paid them a bribe in money or cloths. The heat at Aden is great.
It is the port frequented by the people from India, and great ships come thither
from Kunbayat, Tina, Kaulam, Kalikut, Fandaraina, Shdliat, Manjarur, Fakanur,
Ilinaur, Sinddbur,* etc. There are Indian merchants residing in the city, and
Egyptian merchants as well."

The tanks of which the Moor speaks had been buried by debris ; of late years
they have been cleared and repaired. They are grand works. They are said to
have been formerly 50 in number, with a capacity of 30 million gallons.

* All ports of Western India : Pandarani, Shalia (near Calicut), Mangalore, Baccanore, Onore,
Goa.

Chap. XXXVI.

THE PROVINCE OF ADEN

441

This cut, from a sketch by Dr.
Kirk, gives an excellent idea of Aden
as seen by a ship approaching from
India. The large plate again, reduced
from a grand and probably unique con-
temporary wood-engraving of great
size, shows the impression that the city
made upon European eyes in the
beginning of the i6th century. It will
seem absurd, especially to those who
knew Aden in the early days of our
occupation, and no doubt some of the
details are extravagant, but the general
impression is quite consonant with that
derived from the description of De
Barros and Andrea Corsali : "In site
and aspect from the seaward," says the
former, "the city forms a beautiful
object, for besides the part which lies
along the shore with its fine walls and
towers, its many public buildings and
rows of houses rising aloft in many
stories, with terraced roofs, you have all
that ridge of mountain facing the sea
and presenting to its very summit a
striking picture of the operations of
Nature, and still more of the industry
of man." This historian says that the
prosperity of Aden increased on the
arrival of the Portuguese in those seas,
for the Mussulman traders from Jidda
and the Red Sea ports now dreaded
these western corsairs, and made Aden
an entrepot, instead of passing it by as
they used to do in days of unobstructed
navigation. This prosperity, however,
must have been of very brief duration.
Corsali's account of Aden (in 151 7) is
excellent, but too long for extract.
Makrizi, IV. 26-27; Playfair, H. of
Yemejt, p. 7 ; Ibn Bahita, II. 177 ; Dc
Barros, II. vii. 8; Ram. I. f. 182.)

Note 4. — I have not been able to
trace any other special notice of the
part taken by the Sultan of Yemen in
the capture of Acre by the Mameluke
Sultan, Malik Ashraf Khalil, in 1291.
Ibn Ferat, quoted by Reinaud, says
that the Sultan sent into all the pro-
vinces the most urgent orders for the
supply of troops and machines ; and
there gathered from all sides the
warriors of Damascus, of Hamath, and
the rest of Syria, of Egypt, and of
Arabia. {Michaud, Bibl. des Crois-
ades, 1829, IV. 569.)

442 MARCO POLO Book III.

" I once" (says Joinville) "rehearsed to the Legate two cases of sin that a priest
of mine had been telling me of, and he answered me thus : * No man knows as much
of the heinous sins that are done in Acre as I do ; and it cannot be but God will take
vengeance on them, in such a way that the city of Acre shall be washed in the blood
of its inhabitants, and that another people shall come to occupy after them.' The
good man's prophecy hath come true in part, for of a truth the city hath been washed in
the blood of its inhabitants, but those to replace them are not yet come : may God send
theili good when it pleases Ilim !" (p. 192).

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Concerning the City of Esher.

EsHER is a great city lying in a north-westerly direction
from the last, and 400 niiles distant from the Port of
Aden. It has a king, who is subject to the Soldan of
Aden. He has a number of towns and villages under
him, and administers his territory well and justly.

The people are Saracens. The place has a very good
haven, wherefore many ships from India come thither
with various cargoes ; and they export many' good
chargers thence to Iiidia.^

A great deal of white incense grows in this country,
and brings in a great revenue to the Prince ; for no one
dares sell it to any one else ; and whilst he takes it from
the people at 10 livres of gold for the hundredweight,
he sells it to the merchants at 60 livres, so his profit is
immense.^

Dates also grow very abundantly here. The people
have no corn but rice, and very litde of that ; but plenty
is brought from abroad, for it sells here at a good profit.
They have fish in great profusion, and notably plenty of
tunny of large size ; so plentiful indeed that you may buy
two big ones for a Venice groat of silver. The natives
live on meat and rice and fish. They have no wine of
the vine, but they make good wine from sugar, from rice,
and from dates also.

Chap. XXXVII. THE CITY OF ESHER 443

And I must tell you another very strange thing.
You must know that their sheep have no ears, but where
the ear ought to be they have a little horn ! They are
pretty little beasts.^

And I must not omit to tell you that all their cattle,
including horses, oxen, and camels, live upon small fish
and nought besides, for 'tis all they get to eat. You see
in all this country there is no grass or forage of any kind ;
It is the driest country on the face of the earth. The
fish which are given to the cattle are very small, and
during March, April, and May, are caught in such
quantities as would astonish you. They are then dried
and stored, and the beasts are fed on them from year's
end to year's end. The cattle will also readily eat these
fish all alive and just out of the water.*

The people here have likewise many other kinds of
fish of large size and good quality, exceedingly cheap ;
these they cut in pieces of about a pound each, and dry
them in the sun, and then store them, and eat them all
the year through, like so much biscuit.^

Note i.—Shihr or Shehr, with the article, Es-Shehr, still exists on the Arabian
coast, as a town and district about 330 m. east of Aden. In 1839 Captain Haines
described the modern town as extending in a scattered manner for a mile along the
shore, the population about 6000, and the trade considerable, producing duties to the
amount of 5000/. a year. It was then the residence of the Sultan of the Hamum
tribe of Arabs. There is only an open roadstead for anchorage. Perhaps, however,
the old city is to be looked for about ten miles to the westward, where there is
another place bearing the same name, "once a thriving town, but now a desolate
group of houses with an old fort, formerly the residence of the chief of the Kasaidi
tribe." {J. R. G. S. IX. 151-152.) Shehr is spoken of by Barbosa (^a^r in Lisbon
ed. ; Pecker in Ramusio ; Xeher in Stanley ; in the two last misplaced to the east of
Dhofar) : " It is a very large place, and there is a great traffic in goods imported by
the Moors of Cambaia, Chaul, Dabul, Batticala, and the cities of Malabar, such as
cotton-stuffs .... strings of garnets, and many other stones of inferior value ; also
much rice and sugar, and spices of all sorts, with coco-nuts ; . . . . their money they
invest in horses for India, which are here very large and good. Every one of them is
worth in India 500 or 600 ducats." {Ram. f. 292.) The name Shehr in some of the
Oriental geographies, includes the whole coast up to Oman.

Note 2. — The hills of the Shehr and Dhafar districts were the great source of
produce of the Arabian frankincense. Barbosa says of Shelir : ' ' They carry away
much incense, which is produced at this place and in the interior ; .... it is
exported hence all over the world, and here it is used to pay ships with, for on the

444 MARCO POLO " Book III.

spot it is worth only 150 farthings the hundredweight." See note 2, ch. xxvii. supra ;
and next chapter, note 2.

Note 3. — This was no doubt a breed of four-horned sheep, and Polo, or his
informant, took the lower pair of horns for abnormal ears. Probably the breed
exists, but we have little information on details in reference to this coast. The Rev.
G. P. Badger, D.C.L., writes : "There are sheep on the eastern coast of Arabia, and
as high up as Mohammerah on the Shatt-al-Arab, wii/i very small ears indeed ; so
small as to be almost inperceptible at first sight near the projecting horns. I saw one
at Mohammerah having six horns." And another friend, Mr. Arthur Grote, tells me
he had for some time at Calcutta a 4-horned sheep from Aden.

Note 4. — This custom holds more or less on all the Arabian coast from Shehr to
the Persian Gulf, and on the coast east of the Gulf also. Edrisi mentions it at Shehr
(printed Shaj'r', I. 152), and the Admiral Sidi 'AH says: "On the coast of Shehr,
men and animals all live on fish" {/. A. S. B. V. 461). Ibn Batuta tells the same
of Dhafar, the subject of next chapter: "The fish consist for the most part of
sardines, which are here of the fattest. The surprising thing is that all kinds of
cattle are fed on these sardines, and sheep likewise. I have never seen anything like
that elsewhere" (II. 197). Compare Strabo's account of the Ichthyophagi on the
coast of Mekran (XV. 11), and the like account in the hfe of Apollonius of Tyana
(III. 56).

[Burton, quoted by Yule, says {Sind Revisited, iSyy, I. p. 33) : " The whole
of the coast, including that of Mekran, the land of the Afd^i Khdrdn or
Ichthyophagi." Yule adds : " I have seen this suggested also elsewhere. It seems a
highly probable etymology." See note, p. 402. — H. C]

Note 5. — At Hasik, east of Dhafar, Ibn Batuta says : "The people here live on
a kind of fish called Al-Lukham, resembling that called the sea-dog. They cut it in
slices and strips, dry it in the sun, salt it, and feed on it. Their houses are made
with fish-bones, and their roofs with camel-hides" (II. 214).

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Concerning the City of Dufar.

DuFAR Is a great and noble and fine city, and lies 500
miles to the north-west of Esher. The people are
Saracens, and have a Count for their chief, who is
subject to the Soldan of Aden ; for this city still belongs
to the Province of Aden. It stands upon the sea and
has a very good haven, so that there is a great traffic of
shipping between this and India; and the merchants
take hence great numbers of Arab horses to that market,
making great profits thereby. This city has under it
many other towns and villages.^

Chap. XXXVIII. THE CITY OF DUFAR 445

Much white incense is produced here, and I will tell
you how it grows. The trees are like small fir-trees ;
these are notched with a knife in several places, and
from these notches the incense is exuded. Sometimes
also it flows from the tree without any notch ; this is by
reason of the great heat of the sun there. ^

Note i. — Dufar. The name jlx^ is variously pronounced Dhafar, Dhofar,
Zhafar, and survives attached to a well-watered and fertile plain district opening on
the sea, nearly 400 miles east of Shehr, though according to Haines there is now no
towji of the name. Ibn Batuta speaks of the city as situated at the extremity of
Yemen ("the province of Aden"), and mentions its horse-trade, its unequalled dirt,
stench, and flies, and consequent diseases. (See II. 196 seqq.) What he says of the
desert character of the tract round the town is not in accordance with modern descrip-
tions of the plain of Dhafar, nor seemingly with his own statements of the splendid
bananas grown there, as well as other Indian products, betel, and coco-nut. His
account of the Sultan of Zhafar in his time corroborates Polo's, for he says that prince
was the son of a cousin of the King of Yemen, who had been chief of Zhafar under
the snzeraineti of that King and tributary to hifu. The only ruins mentioned by
Haines are extensive ones near Haffer, towards the western part of the plain ; and
this Fresnel considers to be the site of the former city. A lake which exists here, on
the landward side of the ruins, was, he says, formerly a gulf, and formed the port,
"the very good haven," of which our author speaks.

A quotation in the next note however indicates Merbat, which is at the eastern
extremity of the plain, as having been the port of Dhafar in the Middle Ages.
Professor Sprenger is of opinion that the city itself was in the eastern part of the
plain. The matter evidently needs further examination.

This Dhafar, or the bold mountain above it, is supposed to be the Sephar of
Genesis (x. 30). But it does not seem to be the Sapphara metropolis of Ptolemy,
which is rather an inland city of the same name : " Dhafar was the name oi two cities
of Yemen, one of which was near Sana'a .... it was the residence of the Himyarite
Princes ; some authors allege that it is identical with Sana'a " {Mardsid-al-Ittila\
in Reinaud's Abulfeda, I. p. 124).

Dofar is noted by Camoens for its fragrant incense. It was believed in Malabar
that the famous King Cheram Perumal, converted to Islam, died on the pilgrimage to
Mecca and was buried at Dhafar, where his tomb was much visited for its sanctity.

The place is mentioned [Tsafarh) in the Ming Annals of China as a Mahomedan
country lying, with a fair wind, 10 days N.W. of Kuli {supra, p. 440). Ostriches
were found there, and among the products are named drugs which Dr. Bretschneider
renders as Olibannniy Storax liqtdda, Myrrh, Catechu (?), Dragon^ s blood. This state
sent an embassy (so-called) to China in 1422. {Haines \nj. R. G. S. XV. 116 seqq. ;
PlayJ air's Yemen, p. 31 ; Fresnel m /. As. ser. 3, tom. V. 517 seqq.; Tohfut-ul-
Mujahideen, p. 56; Bretschneider,^. 19.)

Note 2. — Frankincense presents a remarkable example of the obscurity which so
often attends the history of familiar drugs ; though in this case the darkness has been,
like that of which Marco spoke in his account of the Caraonas (vol. i. p. 98),
much of man's making.

This coast of Hadhramaut is the true and ancient xt^pa Xi^apocpdpos or
Xi^avwTo^dpos, indicated or described under those names by Theophrastus, Ptolemy,
Pliny, Pseudo-Arrian, and other classical writers; i.e. the country producing the
fragrant gum-resin called by the Hebrews Lebonah, by the Brahmans apparently

446 MARCO POLO Book III.

Kiiudu and Kuudnrii^ by the Arabs Ltibdn and K'uudtir, by the Greeks Libanos, by
the Romans 'jyius^ in mediaeval 1-atin Olibamini, and in English Frankincense ^ i.e.
I apprehend, " Genuine incense," or "Incense Proper."* It is still produced in this
region and exported from it : but the larger part of that which enters the markets of
the world is exported from the roadsteads of the opposite SumdU coast. In ancient
times also an important quantity was exported from the latter coast, immediately
west of Cape Gardafui {Arotnatuin Prom.), and in the Periplus this frankincense is
distinguished by the title Per^tic^ "from over the water."

The Mardsid-al-Ittild , a Geog. Dictionary of the end of the 14th century, in a
passage of which we have quoted the commencement in the preceding note, proceeds
as follows: "The other Dhafar, which still subsists, is on the shore of the Indian
Sea, distant 5 parasangs from Merbath in the province of Shehr. Merbath lies below
Dhafar, and serves as its port. Olibanum is found nowhere except in the mountains
of Dhafar, in the territory of Shehr ; in a tract which extends 3 days in length and the
same in breadth. The natives make incisions in the trees with a knife, and the
incense flows down. This incense is carefully watched, and can be taken only to
Dhafar, where the Sultan keeps the best part for himself; the rest is made over
to the people. But any one who should catry it elsewhere than to Dhafar would be
put to death."

The elder Niebuhr seems to have been the first to disparage the Arabian produce
of olibanum. He recognises indeed its ancient celebrity, and the fact that it was
still to some extent exported from Dhafar and other places on this coast, but he says
that the Arabs preferred foreign kinds of incense, especially benzoin ; and also
repeatedly speaks of the superiority of that from India {des hides and de VInde), by
which it is probable that he meant the same thing — viz., benzoin from the Indian
Archipelago. Niebuhr did not himself visit Iladhramaut.

Thus the fame of Arabian olibanum was dying away, and so was our knowledge
of that and the opposite African coast, when Colebrooke (1807) published his Essay
on Olibanum, in which he showed that a gum-resin, identical as he considered with
frankincense, and so named {Knndtir), was used in India, and was the produce of an
indigenous tree, Boswellia serrata of Roxburgh, but thereafter known as B. thurifera.
This discovery, connecting itself, it may be supposed, with Niebuhr's statements about
Indian olibanum (though probably misunderstood), and with the older tradition
coming down from Dioscorides of a so-called Indian libattos {supra p. 396), seems to
have induced a hasty and general assumption that the Indian resin was the olibanum
of commerce ; insomuch that the very existence of Arabian olibanum came to be
treated as a matter of doubt in some respectable books, and that down to a very
recent date.

In the Atlas to Bruce's Travels is figured a plant under the name of Angotia,
which the Abyssinians believed to produce true olibanum, and which Bruce says did
really produce a gum resembling it.

In 1837 Lieut. Cruttenden of the Indian Navy saw the frankincense tree of
Arabia on a journey inland from Merbat, and during the ensuing year the trees of the
Sumali country were seen, and partially described by Kempthorne, and Vaughan of
the same service, and by Cruttenden himself. Captain Haines also in his report of
the Survey of the Hadhramaut coast in 1843- 1844,! speaks, apparently as an eye-
witness, of the frankincense trees about Dhafar as extremely numerous, and adds

* '■'^ Drogue franche : — Quia les qualitds requises sans melange " (ZzV^r^')- ^^ Franc , . . . Vrai,
veritable " {Raynojtard).

The mediaeval Olibanum was probably the Arabic Al-lnbdn, but was popularly interpreted as
Oleum Libani. Dr. Bird wood saw at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 samples of frankincense solemnly
labelled as the produce of Mount Lebanon !

"Professor Diimichen, of Strasburg, has discovered at the Temple of Dair-el-Bahri, in Upper
Egypt, paintings illustrating the traffic carried on between Egypt and Arabia, as early as the i7ih
century B.C. In these paintings there are representations, not only of bags of olibanum, but also of
olibanum-trees planted in tubs or boxes, being conveyed by ship from Arabia to Egypt." {Hanburv
and Flilckiger, Phartnacographia, p. 121.) '

t Published in/. R. G. S., vol. XV. (for 1845).

Chap. XXXVIII,

FRANKINCENSE

447

that from 3000 to io,coo viaunds were annually exported "from Merbat and Dhafar."
*' 3 to 10" is vague enough ; but as the kind of viaund is not specified it is vaguer
still. Maunds differ as much as livres Fran^-ais and livres sterling. In 1844 and
1846 Dr. Carter also had opportunities of examining olibanum trees on this coast,
which he turned to good account, sending to Government cuttings, specimens, and
drawings, and publishing a paper on the subject in the Journal of the Bombay Branch
of the R. As. Society (1847).

But neither Dr. Carter's paper and specimens, nor the previous looser notices of
the naval officers, seemed to attract any attention, and men of no small repute went

The Harvest of Frankincense in Arabia. Facsimile of an engraving in Thevet's Cosmographte
Universelle (1575), reproduced from the Bible Educator*

* By courtesy of the publishers, Messrs. Cassell, Fetter, & Galpin,

448

MARCO POLO

Book III.

on repealing in their manuals the old story about Indian olibanum. Dr. G.
Birdwood however, at Bombay, in the years following 1859, took up the subject with
great zeal and intelligence, procuring numerous specimens of the Sumalf trees and
products ; and his monograph of the genus Boswe/lia in the Linnaean Transactions
(read April 1869), to which this note is very greatly indebted, is a most interesting
paper, and may be looked on, I believe, as embodying the most correct knowledge
as yet attainable. The S})ccies as ranked in his table are the following :

^^. coc^/'s-^. s-c
Boswellia Frereana {Birdw.).

1. Boswellia Caj-terii (Birdw.), including the Arabian tree of Dhafar, and the
larger variety called Mohr Madau by the Sumalis.

2. B. Bhau-dajiana (Birdw.), Mohr A' d oi the Sumalis.

3. ^./a/j/rzy9ra (Richard). Abyssinian species.

4. B. llzurz/era {Colehr.), seep, y^d supra.

5. B. Frereana (Birdw-.), Yegdr ol the Sumalis — named after Mr. William Frere,
Member of Council at Bombay. No. 2 was named from Bhau Daji, a very eminent
Hindu scholar and physician at Bombay (Birdw.).

Chap. XXXIX. THE CITY OP IIORMOS 449

No. I produces the Arabian olibanum, and Nos. i and 2 together the bulk of the
oHbanum exported from the Sumali coast under the name Ltibdn-Shehri. Both are
said to give an inferior kind besides, called L. Bedawi. No. 3 is, according to
Birdwood, the same as Bruce's A?igotia. No. 5 is distinctly a new species, and
affords a highly fragrant resin sold under the name of Lubdn Miti,

Bombay is now the great mart of frankincense. The quantity exported thence in
1872-1873 was 25,000 cwt., of which nearly one quarter went to China.

Frankincense when it first exudes is milky white ; whence the name "White
Incense" by which Polo speaks of it. And the Arabic name lubdn apparently refers
to milk. The Chinese have so translated, calling \tju-siang ox Milk-perfume.

Polo, we see, says the tree was like a fir tree ; and it is remarkable that a
Chinese Pharmacology quoted by Bretschneider says the like, which looks as if their
information came from a common source. And yet I think Polo's must have been
oral. One of the meanings of Liibdn, from the Kamus, is Pimis [Freytag). This
may have to do with the error. Dr. Birdwood, in a paper in Cassells' Bible Educator,
has given a copy of a remarkable wood engraving from Thevet's Cosmographie
Universelle (1575), representing the collection of Arabian olibanum, and this through
his kind intervention I am able to reproduce here. The text (probably after Polo)
speaks of the tree as resembling a fir, but in the cut the firs are in the background ;
the incense trees have some real suggestion of Boswellia, and the whole design has
singular spirit and verisimilitude.

Dr. Birdwood thus speaks of the B. Frereatia, the only species that he has seen in
flower : "As I saw the plant in Playfair's garden at Aden .... in young leaf and
covered with bloom, I was much struck by its elegant singularity. The long racemes of
green star-like flowers, tipped with the red anthers of the stamens (like aigrettes of
little stars of emerald set with minute rubies), droop gracefully over the clusters of
glossy, glaucous leaves; and every part of the plant (bark, leaves, and flowers) gives
out the most refreshing lemon-like fragrance." {Birdwood \n Linnaean Transactions
for 1869, pp. 109 seqq. ; Hanbury and Fluckiger s Phar?fiacographia, pp. 120 seqq. ;
Ritter^ xii. 356 seqq. ; Niebtihr, Desc. de P Arabic, I. p. 202, II. pp. 125-132.)

I
I

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Concerning the Gulf of Calatu and the City so called.

Calatu is a great city, within a gulf which bears the
name of the Gulf of Calatu. It is a noble city, and lies
600 miles from Dufar towards the north-west, upon the
sea-shore. The people are Saracens, and are subject to
Hormos. And whenever the Melic of Hormos is at war
with some prince more potent than himself, he betakes
himself to this city of Calatu, because it is very strong,
both from its position and its fortifications.^

They grow no corn here, but get it from abroad ; for

VOL. II. 2 F

450 MARCO POLO Book III.

every merchant-vessel that comes brings some. The
haven is very large and good, and is frequented by
numerous ships with goods from India, and from this
city the spices and other rrierchandize are distributed
among the cities and towns of the interior. They also
export many good Arab horses from this to India.^ For,
as I have told you before, the number of horses exported
from this and the other cities to India yearly is some-
thing astonishing. One reason is that no horses are bred
there, and another that they die as soon as they get
there, through ignorant handling ; for the people there
do not know how to take care of them, and they feed
their horses with cooked victuals and all sorts of trash, as
I have told you fully heretofore ; and besides all that
they have no farriers.

This City of Calatu stands at the mouth of the Gulf,
so that no ship can enter or go forth without the will of
the chief. And when the Melic of Hormos, who is
Melic of Calatu also, and is vassal to the Soldan of
Kerman, fears anything at the hand of the latter, he gets
on board his ships and comes from Hormos to Calatu.
And then he prevents any ship from entering the Gulf.
This causes great injury to the Soldan of Kerman ; for
he thus loses all the duties that he is wont to receive
from merchants frequenting his territories from India or
elsewhere ; for ships with cargoes of merchandize come in
great numbers, and a very large revenue is derived from
them. In this way he is constrained to give way to the
demands of the Melic of Hormos.

This Melic has also a castle which is still stronger
than the city, and has a better command of the entry to
the Gulf.^

The people of this country live on dates and salt fish,
which they have in great abundance ; the nobles, how-
ever, have better fare.

Chap. XL. THE CITV OF HORMOS

451

There is no more to say on this subject. So now let
us go on and speak of the city of Hormos, of which we
told you before.

Note i. — Kalhat, the Calaiate of the old Portuguese writers, is about 500 m by
shortest sea-line north-east of Dhafar. "The city of Kalhat," says Ibn Batuta,
"stands on the shore; it has fine bazaars, and one of the most beautiful mosques
that you could see anywhere, the walls of which are covered with enamelled tiles of

Kashan The city is inhabited by merchants, who draw their support from

Indian import trade Although they are Arabs, they don't speak correctly.

After every phrase they have a habit of adding the particle no. Thus they will say
• You are eating, — no ? ' ' You are walking, — no ? ' ' You are doing this or that, —
no ? ' Most of them are schismatics, but they cannot openly practise their tenets, for
they are under the rule of Sultan Kutbuddin Tehemten Malik, of Hormuz, who is
orthodox " (II. 226).

Calaiate, when visited by d' Albuquerque, showed by its buildings and ruins that it
had been a noble city. Its destruction was ascribed to an earthquake. (^De Barros,
II. ii. I.) It seems to exist no longer. Wellstedsays its remains cover a wide space ;
but only one building, an old mosque, has escaped destruction. Near the ruins is a
small fishing village, the people of which also dig for gold coins. {J. R. G. S. VII.
104.)

What is said about the Prince of Hormuz betaking himself to Kalhat in times of
trouble is quite in accordance with what we read in Teixeira's abstract of the Hormuz
history. When expelled by revolution at Hormuz or the like, we find the princes
taking refuge at Kalhat.

Note 2. — " Of the interior." Here the phrase of the G. T. is again " en fra tere
a inainte citi et castiaus." (See sttpra, Bk. I. ch. i. note 2.)

There was still a large horse-trade from Kalhat in 15175 but the Portuguese com-
pelled all to enter the port of Goa, where according to Andrea Corsali they had to pay
a duty of 40 saraffl per head. If these ashrajis were pagodas, this would be about 15/.
a head ; if they were dinars, it would be more than 20/. The term is now commonly
applied in Hindustan to the gold mohr.

Note 3. — This no doubt is Maskat.

CHAPTERXL.

Returns to the City of Hormos whereof we spoke formerly.

When you leave the City of Calatu, and go for 300
miles between north-west and north, you come to the
city of Hormos ; a great and noble city on the sea.^ It
has a Me lie, which is as much as to say a King, and he
is under the Soldan of Kerman.

VOL. 11. 2 F 2

452 MARCO POLO Book III.

There are a good many cities and towns belongin^^ to
Hormos, and the people are Saracens. The heat is tre-
mendous, and on that account their houses are built with
ventilators to catch the wind. These ventilators are
placed on the side from which the wind comes, and they
bring the wind down into the house to cool it. But for
this the heat would be utterly unbearable.^

I shall say no more about these places, because I for-
merly told you in regular order all about this same city
of Hormos, and about Kerman as well. But as we took
one way to go, and another to come back, it was proper
that we should bring you a second time to this point.

Now, however, we will quit this part of the world,
and tell you about Great Turkey. P'irst, however, there
is a point that I have omitted ; to wit, that when you
leave the City of Calatu and go between west and north-
west, a distance of 500 miles, you come to the city of
Kis.^ Of that, however, we shall say no more now, but
pass it with this brief mention, and return to the subject
of Great Turkey, of which you shall now hear.

Note i. — The distance is very correct ; and the bearing fairly so for the first time
since we left Aden. I have tried in my map of Polo's Geography to realise what
seems to have been his idea of the Arabian coast.

Note 2.— These ventilators are a kind of masonry windsail, known as Bdd-glr, or
" wind-catchers," and in general use over Oman, Kerman, the province of Baghdad,
Mekran, and Sind. A large and elaborate example, from Hommaire de Hell's work
on Persia, is given in the cut above. Very particular accounts of these ventilators will
be found in P. della Valle, and in the embassy of Don Garcias de Silva Figueroa.
[Delia Val. II. 333-335 ; Figueroa, Fr. Trans. 1667, p. 38; Ramus. I. 293 v. ; Macd.
Kinneir, p. 69.) A somewhat different arrangement for the same purpose is in use
in Cairo, and gives a very peculiar character to the city when seen from a moderate
height.

['* The structures [at Gombroon] are all plain atop, only Venloso's, or Funnels, for
to let in the Air, the only thing requisite to living in this fiery Furnace with any
comfort ; wherefore no House is left without this contrivance ; which shews grace-
fully at a distance on Board Ship, and makes the Town appear delightful enough to
Beholders, giving at once a pleasing Spectacle to Strangers, and kind Refreshment
to the Inhabitants ; for they are not only elegantly Adorned without, but conveniently
Adapted for every Apartment to receive the cool Wind within." {John Fryer, Nine
Years' Travels, Lond.j 1698, p. 222.)]

Note 3. — On Kish see Book I. ch. vi. note 2.

Chap XL.

THE CITY OF HORMOS

453

[Chao Ju-kua (transl. in German by Dr. F. Hirth, T'oiing Pao^ V. Supp. p. 40), a
Chinese Official of the Sung Dynasty, says regarding Kish : "The land of Ki-shih
(Kish) lies upon a rocky island in the sea, in sight of the coast of Ta-shih, at half-a-day's
journey. There are but four towns in its territories. When the King shows himself
out of doors, he rides a horse under a black canopy, with an escort of 100 servants.
The inhabitants are white and of a pure race and eight Chinese feet tall. They wear
under a Turban their hair loose partly hanging on their neck. Their dress consists of
a foreign jacket and a light silk or cotton overcoat, with red leather shoes. They
use gold and silver coins. Their food consists of wheaten bread, mutton, fish and
dates ; they do not eat rice. The country produces pearls and horses of a superior
quality."— H. C]

A Persian Wind-Catcher.

The Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali, who was sent in 1553 to command the Ottoman
fleet in the Persian Gulf, and has written an interesting account of his disastrous com-
mand and travels back to Constantinople from India, calls the Island Kais, or
''the old Hornmz.'" This shows that the traditions of the origin of the island of
Hormuz had grown dim. Kish had preceded Hormuz as the most prominent port
of Indian trade, but old Hormuz, as we have seen (Bk. I. ch. xix.), was quite another
place. (/. As. ser. i, torn, ix, 6'].)

BOOK FOURTH

WARS AMONG THE TARTAR PRINCES

AND

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN COUNTRIES

Note. — A considerable number of the quasi -historical chapters in this section
(which I have followed M. Pauthier in making into a Fourth Book) are the merest
verbiage and repetition of narrative formulae without the slightest value. I have
therefore thought it undesirable to print all at length, and have given merely the gist
(marked thusf), or an extract, of such chapters. They will be found entire in
English in H. Murray's and Wright's editions, and in the original French in the
edition of the Societe de Geographic, in Bartoli, and in Pauthier.

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning Great Turkey.

In Great Turkey there is a king called Caidu, who is
the Great Kaan's nephew, for he was the grandson of
Chagatai, the Great Kaan's own brother. He hath
many cities and castles, and is a great Prince. He and
his people are Tartars alike ; and they are good soldiers,
for they are constantly engaged in war.^

Now this King Caidu is never at peace with his uncle
the Great Kaan, but ever at deadly war with him, and
he hath fought great battles with the Kaan's armies.
The quarrel between them arose out of this, that Caidu
demanded from the Great Kaan the share of his father's
conquests that of right belonged to him ; and in particular
he demanded a share of the Provinces of Cathay and
Manzi. The Great Kaan replied that he was willing
enough to give him a share such as he gave to his own
sons, but that he must first come on summons to the
Council at the Kaan's Court, and present himself as one
of the Kaan's liegemen. Caidu, who did not trust his
uncle very far, declined to come, but said that where he
was he would hold himself ready to obey all the Kaan's
commands.

In truth, as he had several times been in revolt, he
dreaded that the Kaan might take the opportunity to de-

457

458 MARCO POLO Book IV.

stroy him. So, out of this quarrel between them, there
arose a great war, and several great battles were fought
by the host of Caidu against the host of the Great Kaan,
his uncle. And the Great Kaan from year's end to year's
end keeps an army watching all Caidu's frontier, lest he
should make forays on his dominions. He, natheless,
will never cease his aggressions on the Great Kaan's
territory, and maintains a bold face to his enemies.^

Indeed, he is so potent that he can well do so ; for
he can take the field with 100,000 horse, all stout soldiers
and inured to war. He has also with him several Barons
of the imperial lineage; i.e., of the family of Chinghis
Kaan, who was the first of their lords, and conquered a
great part of the world, as I have told you more particu-
larly in a former part of this Book.

Now you must know that Great Turkey lies towards
the north-west when you travel from Hormos by that
road I described. It begins on the further bank of the
River Jon,"^ and extends northward to the territory of the
Great Kaan.

Now I shall tell you of sundry battles that the troops
of Caidu foucrht with the armies of the Great Kaan.

Note i. — We see that Polo's error as to the relationship between Kiiblai and
Kaidu, and as to the descent of the latter (see Vol. I. p. i86) was not a slip, but
persistent. The name of Kaidu's grandfather is here in the G. T. written precisely
Chagatai {Ciagalai).

Kaidu was the son of Kashin, son of Okkodai, who was the third son of Chinghiz
and his successor in the Kaanate. Kaidu never would acknowledge the supremacy
of Kublai, alleging his own superior claim to the Kaanate, which Chinghiz was said
to have restricted to the house of Okkodai as long as it should have a representative.
From the vicinity of Kaidu's position to the territories occupied by the branch of
Chaghatai he exercised great influence over its princes, and these were often his allies
in the constant hostilities that he maintained against the Kaan. Such circumstances
may have led Polo to confound Kaidu with the house of Chaghatai. Indeed, it is not
easy to point out the mutual limits of their territories, and these must have been some-
what complex, for we find Kaidu and Borrak Khan of Chaghatai at one time
exercising a kind of joint sovereignty in the cities of Bokhara and Samarkand,
Probably, indeed, the limits were in a great measure tribal rather than territorial.
But it may be gathered that Kaidu's authority extended over Kashgar and the cities

* The Jaihiin or Oxus.

Chap. II. BATTLES BETWEEN CAIDU AND THE KAAN

459

bordering the south slopes of the Thian Shan as far east as Kara Khoja, also the
valley of the Talas River, and the country north of the Thian Shan from Lake
Balkhash eastward to the vicinity of Barkul, and in the further north the country
between the Upper Yenisei and the Irtish.

Kaidu died in 130 1 at a very great age. He had taken part, it was said, in 41
pitched battles. He left 14 sons (some accounts say 40), of whom the eldest, called
Shabar, succeeded him. He joined Dua Khan of Chaghatai in making submission to
Teimur Kaan, the successor of Kublai ; but before long, on a quarrel occurring
between the two former, Dua seized the territory of Shabar, and as far as I can learn
no more is heard, of the house of Kaidu. Vambery seems to make the Khans of
Khokand to be of the stock of Kaidu ; but whether they claim descent from Yunus
Khan, as he says, or from a son of Baber left behind in his flight from Ferghana,
as Pandit Manphul states, the genealogy would be from Chaghatai, not from Kaidu.

Note 2.— "To the N.N.W. a desert of 40 days' extent divides the states of
Kublai from those of Kaidu and Dua. This frontier extends for 30 days' journey
from east to west. From point to point," etc. ; see continuation of this quotation
from Rashlduddin, in Vol. I. p. 214.

CHAPTER II.

Of certain Battles that were Fought by King Caidu against
THE Armies of his Uncle the Great Kaan.

Now it came to pass in the year of Christ's incarnation,
1266, that this King- Caidu and another prince called
Yesudar, who was his cousin, assembled a great force
and made an expedition to attack two of the Great
Kaan's Barons who held lands under the Great Kaan,
but were Caidu's own kinsmen, for they were sons of
Chagatai who was a baptized Christian, and own brother
to the Great Kaan ; one of them was called Chibai, and
the other Chiban.^

Caidu with all his host, amounting to 60,000 horse,
engaged the Kaan's two Barons, those cousins of his,
who had also a great force amounting to more than
60,000 horsemen, and there was a great battle. In the,
end the Barons were beaten, and Caidu and his people
won the day. Great numbers were slain on both sides,
but the two brother Barons escaped, thanks to their

460 MARCO POLO Book IV.

good horses. So King Caidu returned home swelling
the more with pride and arrogance, and for the next two
years he remained at peace, and made no further war
against the Kaan.

However, at the end of those two years King Caidu
assembled an army composed of a vast force of horsemen.
He knew that at Caracoron was the Great Kaan's son
NoMOGAN, and with him George, the grandson of Prester
John. These two princes had also a great force of
cavalry. And when King Caidu was ready he set forth
and crossed the frontier. After marching rapidly without
any adventure, he got near Caracoron, where the
Kaan's son and the younger Prester John were awaiting
him with iheir great army, for they were well aware of
Caidu's advance in force. They made them ready for
batde like valiant men, and all undismayed, seeing that
they had more than 60,000 well-appointed horsemen.
And when they heard Caidu was so near they went forth
valiantly to meet him. When they got within some 10
miles of him they pitched their tents and got ready for
battle, and the enemy who were about equal in numbers
did the same ; each side forming in six columns of 10,000
men with good captains. Both sides were well equipped
with swords and maces and shields, with bows and
arrows, and other arms after their fashion. You must
know that the practice of the Tartars going to battle is to
take each a bow and 60 arrows. Of these, 30 are light
with small sharp points, for long shots and following up
an enemy, whilst the other 30 are heavy, with large
broad heads which they shoot at close quarters, and with
which they inflict great gashes on face and arms, and cut
the enemy's bowstrings, and commit great havoc. This
every one is ordered to attend to. And when they have
shot away their arrows they take to their swords and
maces and lances, which also they ply stoutly.

Chap. II. BATTLES BETWEEN CAIDU AND THE KAAN 46 1

So when both sides were ready for action the
Naccaras began to sound loudly, one on either side.
For 'tis their custom never to join battle till the Great
Naccara is beaten. And when the Naccaras sounded,
then the battle began in fierce and deadly style, and
furiously the one host dashed to meet the other. So
many fell on either side that in an evil hour for both it
was begun ! The earth was thickly strewn with the
wounded and the slain, men and horses, whilst the uproar
and din of battle was so loud you would not have heard
God's thunder ! Truly King Caidu himself did many a
deed of prowess that strengthened the hearts of his
people. Nor less on the other side did the Great Kaan's
son and Prester John's grandson, for well they proved
their valour in the medley, and did astonishing feats
of arms, leading their troops with right good judg-
ment.

And what shall I tell you ? The battle lasted so long-
that it was one of the hardest the Tartars ever fought.
Either side strove hard to bring the matter to a point
and rout the enemy, but to no avail. And so the battle
went on till vesper-tide, and without victory on either side.
Many a man fell there ; many a child was made an
orphan there ; many a lady widowed ; and many another
woman plunged in grief and tears for the rest of her
days, I mean the mothers and the araines of those who
fell.^

So when they had fought till the sun was low they
left off, and retired each side to its tents. Those who
were unhurt were so dead tired that they were like to
drop, and the wounded, who were many on both sides,
were moaning in their various degrees of pain ; but all
were more fit for rest than fighting, so gladly they took
their repose that night. And when morning approached,
King Caidu, who had news from his scouts that the

462 MARCO POLO Book IV.

Great Kaan was sending a great army to reinforce his
son, judged that it was time to be off; so he called his
host to saddle and mounted his horse at dawn, and away
they set on their return to their own country. And
when the Great Kaan's son and the grandson of Prester
John saw that King Caidu had retired with all his host,
they let them go unpursued, for they were themselves
sorely fatigued and needed rest. So King Caidu and
his host rode and rode, till they came to their own realm
of Great Turkey and to Samarcand ; and there they
abode a long while without again making war.^

Note i. — The names are uncertain. The G. T. has " one of whom, was called
Tibai or Ciban " ; Pauthier, as in the text.

The phrase about their being Kaidu's kinsmen is in the G. T,, "^f zinzinz (?)
fueisme estoient de Caidu roi. "

Note 2. — Araines for Harii/is, I presume. In the narrative of a merchant in
Ramusio (II. 84, 86) we find the same word represented by Arin and Arino.

Note 3. — The date at the l)eginning of the chapter is in G. T., and Pauthier's
MS. A, as we have given it. Pauthier substitutes 1276, as that seems to be the
date approximately connecting Prince Numughan with the wars against Kaidu. In
1275 Kublai appointed Numughan to the command of his N.W. frontier, with
Ngantung or 'Antung, an able general, to assist him in repelling the aggressions of
Kaidu. In the same year Kaidu and Dua Khan entered the Uighiir country (W. and
N.W. ofKamul), with more than 100,000 men. Two years later, viz., in 1277, Kaidu
and Shireghi, a son of Mangu Khan, engaged near Almalik (on the Hi) the troops of
Kublai, commanded by Numughan and 'Antung, and took both of them prisoners.
The invaders then marched towards Karakorum. But Bayan, who was in Mongolia,
marched to attack them, and completely defeated them in several engagements.
{Gaubil, 69, 168, 182.)

Pauthier gives a little more detail from the Chinese annals, but throws no new
light on the discrepancies which we see between Polo's account and theirs. 'Antung,
who was the grandson of Mokli, the Jebir, one of Chinghiz's Orlok or Marshals,
seems here to take the place assigned to Prester John's grandson, and Shireghi per-
haps that of Yesudar. The only prince of the latter name that I can find is a son of
Hulaku's.

The description of the battle in this chapter is a mere formula again and again
repeated. The armies are always exactly or nearly equal, they are always divided
into corps of 10,000 {tomans), they always halt to prepare for action when within ten
miles of one another, and the terms used in describing the fight are the same. Wc
shall not inflict these tiresome repetitions again on the reader.

Chaps. III.-IV. KING CAIDU'S VALIANT DAUGHTER 463

CHAPTER III.

What the Great Kaan said to the mischief done by Kaidu

HIS nephew.

4'(That were Caldu not of his own Imperial blood, he
would make an utter end of him, &c.)

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Exploits of King Caidu's valiant Daughter.

Now you must know that King Caidu had a daughter
whose name was Aijaruc, which in the Tartar is as much
as to say ''The Bright Moon." This damsel was very
beautiful, but also so strong and brave that in all her
father's realm there was no man who could outdo her in
feats of strength. In all trials she showed greater strength
than any man of them.^

Her father often desired to give her in marriage, but
she would none of it. She vowed she would never
marry till she found a man who could vanquish her in
every trial ; him she would wed and none else. And
when her father saw how resolute she was, he gave a
formal consent in their fashion, that she should marry
whom she list and when she list. The lady was so tall
and muscular, so stout and shapely withal, that she was
almost like a giantess. She had distributed her challenges
over all the kingdoms, declarincr that whosoever should
come to try a fall with her, it should be on these conditions,
viz., that if she vanquished him she should win from him
100 horses, and if he vanquished her he should win her
to wife. Hence many a noble youth had come to try his
strength against her, but she beat them all ; and in this
way she had won more than 10,000 horses.

464 MARCO POLO Book IV.

Now it came to pass in the year of Christ 1280 that
there presented himself a noble young gallant, the son of
a rich and puissant king, a man of prowess and valiance
and great strength of body, who had heard word of the
damsel's challenge, and came to match himself against
her in the hope of vanquishing her and winning her to
wife. That he greatly desired, for the young lady was
passing fair. He, too, was young and handsome, fear-
less and strong in every way, insomuch that not a man in
all his father's realm could vie with him. So he came
full confidently, and brought with him 1000 horses to be
forfeited if she should vanquish him. Thus might she
gain 1000 horses at a single stroke! But the young
gallant had such confidence in his own strength that he
counted securely to win her.

Now ye must know that King Caidu and the Queen
his wife, the mother of the stout damsel, did privily
beseech their daughter to let herself be vanquished.
For they greatly desired this prince for their daughter,
seeing what a noble youth he was, and the son of a great
king. But the damsel answered that never would she
let herself be vanquished if she could help it ; if, indeed,
he should get the better of her then she would gladly be
his wife, according to the wager, but not otherwise.

So a day was named for a great gathering at the
Palace of King Caidu, and the King and Queen were
there. And when all the company were assembled, for
CTreat numbers flocked to see the match, the damsel first
came forth in a strait jerkin of sammet ; and then came
forth the young bachelor in a jerkin of sendal ; and a
winsome sight they were to see. When both had taken
post in the middle of the hall they grappled each other
by the arms and wrestled this way and that, but for a long
time neither could get the better of the other. At last, how-
ever, it so befel that the damsel threw him right valiantly

Chap. IV. KING CAIDU'S VALIANT DAUGHTER 465

on the palace pavement. And when he found himself
thus thrown, and her standing over him, great indeed
was his shame and discomfiture. He gat him up
straightway, and without more ado departed with all his
company, and returned to his father, full of shame and
vexation, that he who had never yet found a man that
could stand before him should have been thus worsted by
a girl ! And his looo horses he left behind him.

As to King Caidu and his wife they were greatly an-
noyed, as I can tell you ; for if they had had their will
this youth should have won their daughter.

And ye must know that after this her father never
went on a campaign but she went with him. And gladly
he took her, for not a knight in all his train played such
feats of arms as she did. Sometimes she would quit
her father's side, and make a dash at the host of the
enemy, and seize some man thereout, as deftly as a hawk
pounces on a bird, and carry him to her father ; and this
she did many a time.

Now I will leave this story and tell you of a great
battle that Caidu fought with Argon the son of Abaga,
Lord of the Tartars of the Levant.

Note i. — The name of the lady is in Pauthier's MSS. Agiaiitf, Agyanie ; in the
Bern, Agyaiiic ; in the MS. of the G. T., distinctly Aigiartic, though printed in the
edition of 1S24 as Aigiarm. It is Oriental Turkish, Ai-Yaruk, signifying precisely
Lucent Lune, as Marco explains it. For this elucidation I am indebted to the kindness
of Professor Vambery, who adds that the name is in actual use among the Uzbek
women.

Kaidu had many sons, but only one daughter, whom Rashiduddin (who seems to
be Hammer's authority here) calls Kiituhin. Her father loved her above all his sons j
she used to accompany him to the field, and aid in state affairs. Letters were ex-
changed between her and Ghazan Khan, in which she assured him she would marry
no one else ; but her father refused her hand to all suitors. After Kaidu's death,
this ambitious lady made some attempt to claim the succession. {Hammer^ s Ilkhans,
II. I43-M4-)

The story has some resemblance to what Ibn Batuta relates of another warlike
Princess, Urdiija, whom he professes to have visited in the questionable kingdom of
Tawalisi on his way to China : "I heard . . . that various sons of kings had sought
Urduja's hand, but she always answered, ' I will marry no one but him who shall
fight and conquer me' ; so they all avoided the trail, for fear of the shame of being
beaten by her." (/. B. IV. 253-254,) I have given reasons {Cathay, p. 520) for
VOL, II, 2 G

466 MARCO POLO Book IV.

suspecting that this lady with a Turkish name in the Indian Archipelago is a bit of
fiction. Possibly Ibn Batuta had heard the legend of King Kaidu's daughter.

The story of Kaidu's daughter, and still more the parallel one from Ibn Batuta,
recall what Herodotus tells of the Sauromatae, who had married the Amazons ; that
no girl was permitted to marry till she had killed an enemy (IV. 117). They recall
still more closely Brunhild, in the Nibelungen : —

** a royal maiden who reigned beyond the sea :

From sunrise to the sundown no paragon had she.
All boundless as her beauty was her strength was peerless too,
And evil plight hung o'er the knight who dared her love to woo.
P'or he must try three bouts with her ; the whirling spear to fling ;
To pitch the massive stone ; and then to follow with a spring ;
And should he beat in every feat his wooing well has sped,
But he who fails must lose his love, and likewise lose his head."

CHAPTER V.

How Apaga sent his Son Argon in command against King Caidu.

Abaga the Lord of the Levant had many districts and
provinces bordering on King Caidu's territories. These
lay in the direction of the Arh^e Sol, which the Book of
Alexander calls the Arbre Sec, about which I have told
you before. And Abaga, to watch against forays by
Caidu's people sent his son Argon with a great force of
horsemen, to keep the marches between the Arbre Sec
and the River Jon. So there tarried Argon with all his
host.^

Now it came to pass that King Caidu assembled a
great army and made captain thereof a brother of his
called Barac, a brave and prudent man, and sent his host
under his brother to fight with Argon.^

•f» (Barac and his army cross the Jon or Oxus and
are totally routed by Argon, to whose history the
traveller now turns.)

Note i. — The Government of this frontier, from Kazwin or Rei to the banks of
the Oxus, was usually, under the Mongol sovereigns of Persia, confided to the heir of
the throne. Thus, under Hulaku it was held by Abaka, under Abaka by Arghun,
and under Arghun by Ghazan. (See Hammer, passim.)

We have already spoken amply of the Arbre Sol (vol. i. p. 128 seqq,).

Chap. VI. ACOMAT'S USURPATION

467

Note 2. — Barac or Borrak, who has been already spoken of in ch. iii. of the
Prologue (vol. i. p. 10), was no brother of Kaidu's. He was the head of the house
of Chaghatai, and in alliance with Kaidu. The invasion of Khorasan by Borrak took
place in the early part of 1269. Argluin was only about 15, and his father Abaka
came to take the command in person. The battle seems to have been fought some-
where near the upper waters of the Murghab, in the territory of the Badghfs (north of
Herat). Borrak was not long after driven from power, and took refuge with Kaidu.
He died, it is said from poison, in 1270.

CHAPTER VI.

How Argon after the Battle heard that his Father was dead,

AND WENT TO ASSUME THE SOVEREIGNTY AS WAS HIS RIGHT.

After Argon had gained this battle over Caidu's brother
Barac and his host, no long time passed before he had
news that his father Abaga was dead, whereat he was
sorely grieved/ He made ready his army and set out
for his father's Court to assume the sovereignty as was
his right ; but he had a march of 40 days to reach it.

Now it befel that an uncle of Argon's whose name
was AcoMAT SoLDAN (for he had become a Saracen),
when he heard of the death of his brother Abaga, whilst
his nephew Argon was so far away, thought there was a
ofood chance for him to seize the ofovernment. So he
raised a great force and went straight to the Court of his
late brother Abaga, and seized the sovereignty and
proclaimed himself King ; and also got possession of
the treasure, which was of vast iimount. All this, like
a crafty knave, he divided among the Barons and the
troops to secure their hearts and favour to his cause.
These Barons and soldiers accordingly, when they saw
what large spoil they had got from him, were all ready
to say he was the best of kings, and were full of love for
him, and declared they would have no lord but him.
But he did one evil thing that was greatly reprobated by
all ; for he took all the wives of his brother Abaga, and
kept them for himself.^

VOL. J I. 2 G 2

468 MARCO POLO Book IV.

Soon after he had seized the government, word came
to him how Argon his nephew was advancing with all his
host. Then he tarried not, but straightway summoned
his Barons and all his people, and in a week had fitted
out a great army of horse to go to meet Argon. And he
went forth light of heart, as being confident of victory,
showing no dismay, and saying on all occasions that he
desired nought so much as to take Argon, and put him
to a cruel death.^

Note i. — Abaka died at Hamadan ist April 1282, twelve years after the defeat
of Borrak.

Note 2. — This last sentence is in Pauthier's text, but not in the G. T. The
thing was a regular Tartar custom (vol. i. pp. 253, 256), and would scarcely be
"reprobated by all."

Note 3. — Acomat Soldan is Ahmad, a younger son of Hulaku, whose Mongol
name was Tigudar, and who had been baptized in his youth by the name of Nicolas,
but went over to Islam, and thereby gained favour in Persia. On the death of his
brother Abaka he had a strong party and seized the throne. Arghiin continued in
sullen defiance, gathering means to assist his claim.

CHAPTER VII.

How Acomat Soldan set out with his Host against his Nephew
WHO was coming to claim the Throne that belonged to him.

^ (Relates how Acomat marches with 60,000 horse,
and on hearing of the approach of Argon summons his
chiefs together and addresses them.)

C H A P T E R VII I.

How Argon TOOK Counsel with his Followers about attacking
his Uncle Acomat Soldan.

"^ (Argon, uneasy at hearing of Acomat's approach, calls
together his Barons and counsellors and addresses them.)

Chaps. IX. -XI. ACOMAT'S USURPATION 469

CHAPTER IX.

How THE Barons of Argon answered his Address.

4* (An old Baron, as the spokesman of the rest, expresses
their zeal and advises immediate advance. On coming
within ten miles of Acomat, Argon encamps and sends
two envoys to his uncle.)

CHAPTER X.

The Message sent by Argon to Acomat.

^ (A REMONSTRANCE and summons to surrender the
throne. )

CHAPTER XI.

How Acomat replied to Argon's Message.

And when Acomat Soldan had heard the message of
Argon his nephew, he thus replied : '' Sirs and envoys,"
quoth he, "my nephew's words are vain ; for the land is
mine, not his, and I helped to conquer it as much as his
father did. So go and tell my nephew that if he will I
will make him a great Prince, and give him ample lands,
and he shall be as my son, and the greatest lord in the
land after myself. But if he will not, let him be assured
that I will do my best to bring him to his death ! That
is my answer to my nephew, and nought else of conces-
sion or covenant shall you ever have from me ! " With
that Acomat ceased, and said no word more. And when

470 MARCO POLO Book IV.

the Envoys had heard the Soldan's words they asked
again : "Is there no hope that we shall find you in
different mind?" ''Never," quoth he, *' never whilst I
live shall ye find my mind changed."

4» (Argon's wrath at the reply. Both sides prepare
for battle.)

CHAPTER XII.

Of the Battle between Argon and Acomat, and the Captivity

OF Argon.

*^ (There is a prolix description of a battle almost
identical with those already given in Chapter II. of this
Book and previously. It ends with the rout of Argon's
army, and proceeds :)

And in the pursuit Argon was taken. As soon as
this happened they gave up the chase, and returned to
their camp full of joy and exultation. Acomat first caused
his nephew to be shackled and well guarded, and then,
being a man of great lechery, said to himself that he
would go and enjoy himself among the fair women of his
Court. He left a great Melic-^ in command of his host,
enjoining him to guard Argon like his own life, and to
follow to the Court by short marches, to spare the troops.
And so Acomat departed with a great following, on his
way to the royal residence. Thus then Acomat had
left his host in command of that Melic whom I mentioned,
whilst Argon remained in irons, and in such bitterness of
heart that he desired to die.^

Note I. — This is in the original Belu, for Melic, i.e. Ar. Malik, chief or prince.

Note 2. — In the spring of 1284 Ahmad marched against his nephew Arghun,
and they encountered in the plain of Ak Khoja, near Kazwin. Arghun's force was

Chap. XIII. ARGON DELIVERED FROM PRISON

471

very inferior in numbers, and he was defeated. He fled to the Castle of Kala'at
beyond Tus, but was persuaded to surrender. Ahmad treated him kindly, and
though his principal followers urged the execution of the prisoner, he refused, having
then, it is said, no thought for anything but the charms of his new wife Tudai.

CHAPTER XIII.

How Argon was delivered from Prison.

Now it befel that there was a great Tartar Baron, a
very aged man, who took pity on Argon, saying to him-
self that they were doing an evil and disloyal deed in
keeping their lawful lord a prisoner, wherefore he re-
solved to do all in his power for his deliverance. So he
tarried not, but went incontinently to certain other Barons
and told them his mind, saying that it would be a good
deed to deliver Argon and make him their lord, as he was
by right. And when the other Barons had heard what
he had to put before them, then both because they
regarded him as one of the wisest men among them, and
because what he said was the truth, they all consented to
his proposal and said that they would join with all their
hearts. So when the Barons had assented, Boga (which
was he who had set the business going), and with him
Elchidai, Togan, Tegana, Tagachar, Ulatai, and
Samagar, — all those whom I have now named, — pro-
ceeded to the tent where Argon lay a prisoner. When
they had got thither, Boga, who was the leader in the
business, spoke first, and to this effect : *' Good my Lord
Aroron," said he, *'we are well aware that we have done
ill in making you a prisoner, and we come to tell you
that we desire to return to Right and Justice. We come
therefore to set you free, and to make you our Liege
Lord as by right you are ! " Then Boga ceased and said
no more.

472 MARCO POLO Book IV.

CHAPTER XIV.

How Argon got the Sovereignty at last.

When Argon heard the words of Boga he took them in
truth for an unthnely jest, and replied with much bitter-
ness of soul : *' Good my Lord," quoth he, ''you do 111 to
mock me thus ! Surely it suffices that you have done
me so great wrong already, and that you hold me, your
lawful Lord, here a prisoner and in chains ! Ye know
well, as I cannot doubt, that you are doing an evil and a
wicked thing, so I pray you go your way, and cease to
flout me." "Good my Lord Argon," said Boga, "be
assured we are not mocking you, but are speaking in
sober earnest, and we will swear it on our Law." Then
all the Barons swore fealty to him as their Lord, and
Argon too swore that he would never reckon it against
them that they had taken him prisoner, but v/ould hold
them as dear as his father before him had done.

And when these oaths had passed they struck off
Argon's fetters, and hailed him as their lord. Argon
then desired them to shoot a volley of arrows into the
tent of the Melic who had held them prisoners, and who
was in command of the army, that he might be slain.
At his word they tarried not, but straightway shot a
great number of arrows at the tent, and so slew the
Melic. When that was done Argon took the supreme
command and gave his orders as sovereign, and was
obeyed by all. And you must know that the name of
him who was slain, whom we have called the Melic, was
SoLDAN ; and he was the greatest Lord after Acomat
himself. In this way that you have heard, Argon re-
covered his authority.

Chaps. XV. -XVII. ACOMAT ARRESTED AND SLAIN 473

CHAPTER XV.

How AcOMAT WAS TAKEN PRISONER.

•^(A MESSENGER breaks in upon Acomat's festivities with
the news that Soldan was slain, and Argon released and
marching to attack him. Acomat escapes to seek
shelter with the Sultan of Babylon, i.e. of Egypt,
attended by a very small escort. The Officer in
command of a Pass by which he had to go, seeing the
state of things, arrests him and carries him to the Court
(probably Tabriz), where Argon was already arrived.)

CHAPTER XVI.

How Acomat was slain by Order of his Nephew.

And so when the Officer of the Pass came before Areon
bringing Acomat captive, he was in a great state of
exultation, and welcomed his uncle with a malediction,*
saying that he should have his deserts. And he straight-
way ordered the army to be assembled before him, and
without taking counsel with any one, commanded the
prisoner to be put to death, and his body to be
destroyed. So the officer appointed to this duty took
Acomat away and put him to death, and threw his body
where it never was seen again.

CHAPTER XVII.

How Argon was recognised as Sovereign.

And when Argon had done as you have heard, and
remained in possession of the Throne and of the Royal

• " // dit a son ungle qe il soil le niau-venu " (see su/ra, p. 21).

474 MARCO POLO Book IV.

Palace, all the Barons of the different Provinces, who
had been subject to his father Abaga, came and per-
formed homage before him, and obeyed him, as was his
due.^ And after Argon was well established in the
sovereignty he sent Casan, his son, with 30,000 horse to
the Arbre Sec, I mean to the region so-called, to watch
the frontier. Thus then Argon got back the govern-
ment. And you must know that Argon began his reign
in the year 1286 of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Acomat had reigned two years, and Argon reigned six
years ; and at the end of those six years he became ill
and died ; but some say 'twas of poison.^

Note i. — Arghun, a prisoner (see last note), and looking for the worst, was
upheld by his courageous wife Bulughan (see Prologue, ch. xvii.), who shared his
confinement. The order for his execution, as soon as the camp should next move,
had been issued.

BuKA the Jelair, who had been a great chief under Abaka, and had resentments
against Ahmad, got up a conspiracy in favour of Arghun, and effected his release as
well as the death of Alinak, Ahmad's commander-in-chief. Ahmad fled towards
Tabriz, pursued by a band of the Karaunas, who succeeded in taking him. When
Arghun came near and saw his uncle in their hands, he called out in exultation
Morio! — an exclamation, says Wassaf, which the Mongols used when successful in
archery, — and with a gesture gave the signal for the prisoner's death (loth August
1284).

Buka is of course the Boga of Polo ; Alinak is his Soldan. The conspirators
along with Buka, who are named in the history of Wassaf, are Yesubuka, Gicrgan,
Aruk, Kurjnishi, and Arkasun Noian. Those named by Polo are not mentioned on
this occasion, but the names are all Mongol. Tagajar, Ilchidai, Tughan,
Samaghar, all appear in the Persian history of those times. Tagajar appears to
have had the honour of a letter from the Pope (Nicolas IV.) in 1291, specially
exhorting him to adopt the Christian faith ; it was sent along with letters of like
tenor addressed to Arghun, Ghazan, and other members of the imperial family.
Tagajar is also mentioned by the continuator of Abulfaraj as engaged in the con-
spiracy to dethrone Kaikhatu. Ulatai was probably the same who went a few
years later as Arghun's ambassador to Cambaluc (see Prologue, ch. xvii.) ; and Polo
may have heard the story from him on board ship.

{Assejn. III. pt. 2, 118; Mosheim, p. 80; Ilchan., passim.)

Abulfaragius gives a fragment of a letter from Arghun to Kublai, reporting the
deposition of Ahmad by the princes because he had "apostatized from the law of
their fathers, and adopted that of the Arabs." {Assemani, u.s. p. 116.) The same
historian says that Ahmad was kind and liberal to the Christians, though Hayton
speaks differently.

Note 2. — Arghun obtained the throne on Ahmad's death, as just related, and
soon after named his son Ghazan (born in 1271) to the Government of Khorasan,
Mazanderan, Kumis, and Rei. Buka was made Chief Minister. The circumstances
of Arghun's death have been noticed already {supra, p. 369).

4^4

"^""■yv "S^-

<f .t^r.r^ c»«p?

'— S5?|5^=S3 ^ 1

Chap. XVIII. KIACATU'S SOVEREIGNTY 475

CHAPTER XVIII.

How KlACATU SEIZED THE SOVEREIGNTY AFTER ArGON's DeATH.

And immediately on Argon's death, an uncle of his who
was own brother * to Abaga his father, seized the throne,
as he found it easy to do owing to Casan's being so far
away as the Aj^bre Sec. When Casan heard of his
father's death he was in great tribulation, and still more
when he heard of Kiacatu's seizing the throne. He
could not then venture to leave the frontier for fear of
his enemies, but he vowed that when time and place
should suit he would go and take as great vengeance as
his father had taken on Acomat. And what shall I tell
you? Kiacatu continued to rule, and all obeyed him
except such as were along with Casan. Kiacatu took
the wife of Argon for his own, and was always dallying
with w^omen, for he was a great lechour. He held the
throne for two years, and at the end of those two years
he died ; for you must know he was poisoned.^

Note i. — Kaikhatu, of whom we heard in the Prologue (vol. i. p. 35), was
the brother, not the uncle, of Arghun. On the death of the latter there were three
claimants, viz., his son Ghazan, his brother Kaikhatu, and his cousin Baidu, the son
of Tarakai, one of Hulaku's sons. The party of Kaikhatu was strongest, and he was
raised to the throne at Akhlath,. 23rd July 1291. He took as wives out of the
Royal Tents of Arghun the Ladies Bulughan (the 2nd, not her named in the
Prologue) and Uruk. All the writers speak of Kaikhatu's character in the same way.
Hayton calls him "a man without law or faith, of no valour or experience in arms,
but altogether given up to lechery and vice, living like a brute beast, glutting all his
disordered appetites ; for his dissolute life hated by his own people, and lightly
regarded by foreigners." {Ram. II. ch. xxiv.) The continuator of Abulfaraj, and
Abulfeda in his Annals, speak in like terms. {Assem. III. Pt. 2nd, 1 19-120 ; Reiske,
Ann. Abulf. III. loi.)

Baidu rose against him ; most of his chiefs abandoned him, and he was put to
death in March- April, 1295. He reigned therefore nearly four years, not two as the
text says.

* Frer carnaus (I. p. 187).

476 MARCO POLO Book IV.

CHAPTER XIX.

How Baidu seized the Sovereignty after the Death of

KlACATU.

When Kiacatu was dead, Baidu, who was his uncle, and
was a Christian, seized the throne.^ This w^as in the
year 1294 of Christ's Incarnation. So Baidu held the
government, and all obeyed him, except only those who
were with Casan.

And when Casan heard that Kiacatu was dead, and
Baidu had seized the throne, he was in great vexation,
especially as he had not been able to take his vengeance
on Kiacatu. As for Baidu, Casan swore that he would
take such vengeance on him that all the world should
speak thereof; and he said to himself that he would
tarry no longer, but would go at once against Baidu and
make an end of him. So he addressed all his people,
and then set out to get possession of his throne.

And when Baidu had intelligence thereof he assembled
a great army and got ready, and marched ten days to
meet him, and then pitched his camp, and awaited the
advance of Casan to attack him ; meanwhile addressing
many prayers and exhortations to his own people. He
had not been halted two days when Casan with all his
followers arrived. And that very day a fierce battle
began. But Baidu was not fit to stand long against
Casan, and all the less that soon after the action began
many of his troops abandoned him and took sides with
Casan. Thus Baidu was discomfited and put to death,
and Casan remained victor and master of all. For as
soon as he had won the battle and put Baidu to death, he
proceeded to the capital and took possession of the
government ; and all the Barons performed homage and

Chap. XIX. BAIDU AND CASAN 477

obeyed him as their liege lord. Casan began to reign
in the year 1294 of the Incarnation of Christ.

Thus then you have had the whole history from
Abaga to Casan, and I should tell you that Alaii, the
conqueror of Baudac, and the brother of the Great Kaan
Cublay, was the progenitor of all those I have mentioned.
For he was the father of Abaga, and Abaga was the
father of Argon, and Argon was the father of Casan
who now reigns.^

Now as we have told you all about the Tartars of the
Levant, we will quit them and go back and tell you more

about Great Turkey But in good sooth we have told

you all about Great Turkey and the history of Caidu, and
there is really no more to tell. So we will go on and tell
you of the Provinces and nations in the far North.

Note i. — The Christian writers often ascribe Christianity to various princes of the
Mongol dynasties without any good grounds. Certain coins of the Ilkhans of Persia,
up to the time of Ghazan's conversion to Islam, exhibit sometimes Mahomedan and
sometimes Christian formulae, but this is no indication of the religion of the prince.
Thus coins not merely of the heathen Khans Abaka and Arghiin, but of Alimad
Tigudar, the fanatical Moslem, are found inscribed " In the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost." Raynaldus, under 1285, gives a fragment of a letter addressed by
Arghun to the European Powers, and dated from Tabriz, "in the year of the Cock,"
which begins "/w Christi Novicn, Amen!'''' But just in like manner some of the
coins of Norman kings of Sicily are said to bear the Mahomedan profession of faith ;
and the copper money of some of the Ghaznevide sultans bears the pagan effigy of the
bull Nandi, borrowed from the coinage of the Hindu kings of Kabul.

The European Princes could not get over the belief that the Mongols were necessarily
the inveterate enemies of Mahomedanism and all its professors. Though Ghazan was
professedly a zealous Mussulman, we find King James of Aragon, in 1300, offering
Cassan Rey del Alogol amity and alliance with much abuse of the infidel Saracens ;
and the same feeling is strongly expressed in a letter of Edward II. of England to the
"Emperor of the Tartars," which apparently was meant for Oljaitu, the successor of
Ghazan. {Fraehn de Ilchan. Nummis, vi. and passim; Raynald. III. 619;
J. A, S. B. XXIV. 490 ; Kington^ s Frederick II. I. 396 ; Capmajiy, Antiguos
Tratados, etc. p. 107 ; Ry^jier, 2d Ed. III. 34; see also p. 20.)

There are other assertions, besides our author's, that Baidu professed Christianity.
Hayton says so, and asserts that he prohibited Mahomedan proselytism among the
Tartars. The continuator of Abulfaraj says that Baidu's long acquaintance with the
Greek Despina Khatim, the wife of Abaka, had made him favourable to Christians,
so that he wiUingly allowed a church to be carried about with the camp, and bells to
be struck therein, but he never openly professed Christianity. In fact at this time the
whole body of Mongols in Persia was passing over to Islam, and Baidu also, to please
them, adopted Mahomedan practices. But he would only employ Christians as
Ministers of State. His rival Ghazan, on the other hand, strengthened his own

478^

MARCO rOLO

Book IV.

influence by adopting Islam ; Baidu's followers fell off from him, and delivered him
into Ghaza's power. He was put to death 4th of October, 1295, about seven
months after the death of his predecessor. D'Ohsson's authorities seem to mention
no battle such as the text speaks of; but Mirkhond, as abridged by Teixeira, does so,
and puts it at Nakshivvan on the Araxes (p. 341).

Note 2. — Hayton testifies from his own knowledge to the remarkable personal
beauty of Arghiin, whilst he tells us that the son Ghazan was as notable for the reverse.
After recounting with great enthusiasm instances which he had witnessed of the daring
and energy of Ghazan, the Armenian author goes on : " And the most remarkable
thing of all was that within a frame so small, and ugly almost to monstrosity, there
should be assembled nearly all those high qualities which nature is wont to associate
with a form of symmetry and beauty. In fact among all his host of 200,000 Tartars
you should scarcely find one of smaller stature or of uglier and meaner aspect than
this Prince."

Tomb of Oljaitu Khan, the brother of Polo's " Casan," at Sultanlah. (From Fergusson.)

Pachymeres says that Ghazan made Cyrus, Dariiis, and Alexander his patterns,
and delighted to read of them. He was very fond of the niechanial arts ; " no one
surpassed him in making saddles, bridles, spurs, greaves, and helmets ; he could
hammer, stitch, and polish, and in such occupations employed the hours of his leisure
from war." The same author speaks of the purity and beauty of his coinage, and the
excellence of his legislation. Of the latter, so famous in the East, an account at
length is given by D'Ohsson. {Hayton in Ramus. II. ch. xxvi. ; Pachym. Andron.
Palaeol. VI. I ; jyOhsson, vol. iv. )

Before finally quitting the "Tartars of the Levant," we give a representation of
the finest work of architecture that they have left behind them, the tomb built for
himself by Oljaitu (see on this page), or, as his Moslem name ran, Mahomed
Khodabandah, in the city of Sultaniah, which he founded. Oljaitu was the brother
and successor of Marco Polo's friend Ghazan, and died in 1316, eight years before our
traveller.

Chap. XX. KING CONCHI OF THE FAR NORTH 479

CHAPTER XX.

Concerning King Conchi who rules the Far North.

You. must know that in the far north there is a King
called Conchi. He is a Tartar, and all his people are
Tartars, and they keep up the regular Tartar religion.
A very brutish one it is, but they keep it up just the
same as Chinghis Kaan and the proper Tartars did, so I
will tell you something of it.

You must know then that they make them a god of
felt, and call him Natigai ; and they also make him
a wife ; and then they say that these two divinities are
the gods of the Earth who protect their cattle and their
corn and all their earthly goods. They pray to these
figures, and when they are eating a good dinner they rub
the mouths of. their gods with the meat, and do many
other stupid things.

The King is subject to no one, although he is of the
Imperial lineage of Chinghis Kaan, and a near kinsman
of the Great Kaan.-^ This King has neither city nor
castle ; he and his people live always either in the wide
plains or among great mountains and valleys. They
subsist on the milk and flesh of their cattle, and have no
corn. The King has a vast number of people, but he
carries on no war with anybody, and his people live in
great tranquillity. They have enormous numbers of
cattle, camels, horses, oxen, sheep, and so forth.

You find in their country immense bears entirely
white, and more than 20 palms in length. There are
also large black foxes, wild asses, and abundance of
sables ; those creatures I mean from the skins of which
they make those precious robes that cost 1000 bezants
each. There are also vairs in abundance ; and vast

480 MARCO POLO Book IV.

multitudes of the Pharaoh's rat, on which the people live
all the summer time. Indeed they have plenty of all
sorts of wild creatures, for the country they inhabit is
very wild and trackless.^

And you must know that this King possesses one
tract of country which is quite impassable for horses, for
it abounds greatly in lakes and springs, and hence there
is so much ice as well as mud and mire, that horses
cannot travel over it. This difficult country is 13 days
in extent, and at the end of every day's journey there is
a post for the lodgment of the couriers who have to cross
this tract. At each of these post-houses they keep some
40 dogs of great size, in fact not much smaller than
donkeys, and these dogs draw the couriers over the day's
journey from post-house to post-house, and I will tell you
how. You see the ice and mire are so prevalent, that
over this tract, which lies for those 13 days' journey in a
great valley between two mountains, no horses (as I
told you) can travel, nor can any wheeled carriage either.
Wherefore they make sledges, which are carriages with-
out wheels, and made so that they can run over the ice,
and also over mire and mud without sinking too deep in
it. Of these sledges indeed there are many in our own
country, for 'tis just such that are used in winter
for carrying hay and straw when there have been heavy
rains and the country is deep in mire. On such a
sledge then they lay a bear-skin on which the courier
sits, and the sledge is drawn by six of those big dogs that
I spoke of. The dogs have no driver, but go straight
for the next post-house, drawing the sledge famously
over ice and mire. The keeper of the post-house how-
ever also gets on a sledge drawn by dogs, and guides the
party by the best and shortest way. And when they
arrive at the next station they find a new relay of dogs
and sledges ready to take them on, whilst the old relay

Chap. XX. POLO'S ACCOUNT OF SIBERIA 48 1

turns back ; and thus they accompHsh the whole journey
across that region, always drawn by dogs.^

The people who dwell in the valleys and mountains
adjoining that tract of 13 days' journey are great hunts-
men, and catch great numbers of precious little beasts
which are sources of great profit to them. Such are the
Sable, the Ermine, the Vair, the Erculin, the Black Fox,
and many other creatures from the skins of which the most
costly furs are prepared. They use traps to take them,
from which they can't escape.* But in that region the cold
is so great that all the dwellings of the people are under-
ground, and underground they always live.^

There is no more to say on this subject, so I shall
proceed to tell you of a region in that quarter, in which
there is perpetual darkness.

Note i. — There are two KuwiNjis, or Kaunchis, as the name, from Polo's
representation of it, probably ought to be written, mentioned in connection with the
Northern Steppes, if indeed there has not been confusion about them ; both are
descendants of Juji, the eldest son of Chinghiz. One was the twelfth son of Shaibani,
the 5th son of Juji. Shaibani's Yurt was in Siberia, and his family seem to have
become predominant in that quarter. Arghun, on his defeat by Ahmad {supra
p. 470), was besought to seek shelter with Kaunchi. The other Kaunchi was the son of
Sirtaktai, the son of Orda, the eldest son of Juji, and was, as well as his father and
grandfather, chief of the White Horde, whose territory lay north-east of the Caspian.
An embassy from this Kaunchi is mentioned as having come to the court of Kaikhatu
at Siah-Kuh (north of Tabriz) with congratulations, in the summer of 1293. Polo
may very possibly have seen the members of this embassy, and got some of his
information from them. (See Gold. Horde, 149, 249 ; I/khans, I. 354, 403 ; II. 193,
where Hammer writes the name of Kandschi. )

It is perhaps a trace of the lineage of the old rulers of Siberia that the old town of
Tyuman in Western Siberia is still known to the Tartars as Chinghiz Tora, or the
Fort of Chinghiz. {Eriiian., I. 310.)

Note 2. — We see that Polo's information in this chapter extends over the whole
latitude of Siberia ; for the great White Bears and the Black Foxes belong to the
shores of the Frozen Ocean ; the Wild Asses only to the southern parts of Siberia.
As to the Pharaoh's Rat, see vol. i. p. 254.

Note 3. — No dog-sledges are now known, I believe, on this side of the course of
the Obi, and there not south of about 61° 30'. But in the iith century they were in
general use between the Dwina and Petchora. And Ibn Batuta's account seems to
imply that in the 14th they were in use far to the south of the present limit : " It had
been my wish to visit the Land of Darkness, which can only be done from Bolghar.
There is a distance of 40 days' journey between these two places. I had to give up
the intention however on account of the great difficulty attending the journey and the
little fruit that it promised. In that country they travel only with small vehicles
VOL. II. 2 \\

Chap. XX. POLO'S ACCOUNT OF SIBERIA 483

drawn by great dogs. For the steppe is covered with ice, and the feet of men or the
shoes of horses would slip, whereas the dogs having claws their paws don't slip upon
the ice. The only travellers across this wilderness are rich merchants, each of whom
owns about 100 of these vehicles, which are loaded with meat, drink, and firewood.
In fact, on this route there are neither trees nor stones, nor human dwellings. The
guide of the travellers is a dog who has often made the journey before ! The price of
such a beast is sometimes as high as looo dinars or thereabouts. He is yoked to the
vehicle by the neck, and three other dogs are harnessed along with him. He is the
chief, and all the other dogs with their carts follow his guidance and stop when he
stops. The master of this animal never ill-uses him nor scolds him, and at feeding-
time the dogs are always served before the men. If this be not attended to, the
chief of the dogs will get sulky and run off, leaving the master to perdition"
(II. 399-400).

[Mr. Parker writes [China Revietv, xiv. p. 359), that dog-sledges appear to have
been known to the Chinese, for in a Chinese poem occurs the line : " Over the thick
snow in a dog-cart." — H. C]

The bigness attributed to the dogs by Polo, Ibn Batuta, and Rubruquis, is an
imagination founded on the work ascribed to them. Mr. Kennan says they are
simply half-domesticated Arctic wolves. Erman calls them the height of European
spaniels (qu. setters?), but much slenderer and leaner in the flanks. A good draught-
dog, according to Wrangell, should be 2 feet high and 3 feet in length. The number
of dogs attached to a sledge is usually greater than the old travellers represent, — none
of whom, however, had seeii the thing.

Wrangell's account curiously illustrates what Ibn Batuta says of the Old Dog
who guides : " The best-trained and most intelligent dog is often yoked in front. , . .
He often displays extraordinary sagacity and influence over the other dogs, e.g. in
keeping them from breaking after game. In such a case he will sometimes turn and
bark in the opposite direction ; . . . . and in crossing a naked and boundless tamidra
in darkness or snow-drift he will guess his way to a hut that he has never visited but
once before" (I. 159). Kennan also says : "They are guided and controlled entirely
by the voice and by a lead-dog, who is especially trained for the purpose." The like
is related of the Esquimaux dogs. {Kennaii^s Tent Life in Siberia, pp. 163-164;
Wood's Mammalia, p. 266. )

Note 4. — On the Erculin and Ercolin of the G. T., written Arculin in next chapter,
Arcolino of Ramusio, Heradini of Pipino, no light is thrown by the Italian or other
editors. One supposes of course some animal of the ermine or squirrel kinds afford-
ing valuable fur, but I can find no similar name of any such animal. It may be the
Argali or Siberian Wild Sheep, which Rubruquis mentions : "I saw another kind of
beast which is called Arcali ; its body is just like a ram's, and its horns spiral like a
ram's also, only they are so big that I could scarcely lift a pair of them wit^h one hand.
They make huge drinking-vessels out of these" (p. 230). [See I. p. 177.]

Vair, so often mentioned in mediaeval works, appears to have been a name
appropriate to the fur as prepared rather than to the animal. This appears to have
been the Siberian squirrel called in Yxerxch petit -g7-is, the back of which is of a fine
grey and the belly of a brilliant white. In the Vair (which is perhaps only varius or
variegated) the backs and bellies were joined in a kind of checquer ; whence the
heraldic checquer called by the same name. There were two kinds, memi-ojair
corrupted into 7?iijiever, and gros-vair, but I cannot learn clearly on what the distinc-
tion rested. (See Douet dArcq, p. xxxv.) Upwards of 2000 ventres de memivair
were sometimes consumed in one complete suit of robes {ib. xxxii.).

The traps used by the Siberian tribes to take these valuable animals are described
by Erman (I. 452), only in the English translation the description is totally incom-
prehensible ; also in Wrangell, I. 151.

Note 5. — The country chiefly described in this chapter is probably that which the
Russians, and also the Arabian Geographers, used to term Yugria, apparently the
VOL. IL 2 H 2

484 MARCO POLO Book IV.

country of the Ostyaks on the Obi. The winter-dwellings of the people are not,
strictly speaking, underground, but they are flanked with earth piled up against the
walls. The same is the case with those of the Yakuts in Eastern Siberia, and these
often have the floors also sunk 3 feet in the earth. Habitations really subterranean,
of some previous race, have been found in the Samoyed country. {Ala-Broth's Mag.
Asiatiqtiey II. 66.)

CHAPTER XXI.

Concerning the Land of Darkness.

Still further north, and a long way beyond that
kingdom of which I have spoken, there is a region
which bears the name of Darkness, because neither sun
nor moon nor stars appear, but it is always as dark as
with us in the twilight. The people have no king of
their own, nor are they subject to any foreigner, and live
like beasts. [They are dull of understanding, like half-
witted persons.^]

The Tartars however sometimes visit the country,
and they do it in this way. They enter the region riding
mares that have foals, and these foals they leave behind.
After taking all the plunder that they can get they find
their way back by help of the mares, which are all eager
to get back to their foals, and find the way much better
than their riders could do.^

Those people have vast quantities of valuable peltry ;
thus they have those costly Sables of which I spoke, and
they have the Ermine, the Arculin, the Vair, the Black
Fox, and many other valuable furs. They are all
hunters by trade, and amass amazing quantities of those
furs. And the people who are on their borders, where
the Light is, purchase all those furs from them ; for the
people of the Land of Darkness carry the furs to the
Light country for sale, and the merchants who purchase
these make great gain thereby, I assure you.^

Chap. XXI. THE LAND OF DARKNESS 485

The people of this region are tall and shapely, but
very pale and colourless. One end of the country
borders upon Great Rosia. And as there is no more to
be said about it, I will now proceed, and first I will tell
you about the Province of Rosia.

Note i. — In the Ramusiau version we have a more intelligent representation of
the facts regarding the Land of Darkness : '* Because for most part of the winter
months the sun appears not, and the air is dusky, as it is just before the dawn when
you see and yet do not see ; " and again below it speaks of the inhabitants catching
the fur animals *'in summer when they have continuous daylight." It is evident
that the writer of this version did and the writer of the original French which we
have translated from did not understand what he was writing. The whole of the
latter account implies belief in the perpetuity of the darkness. It resembles Pliny's
hazy notion of the northern regions : * *' pars niundi damnata a rerum natura
et densa mersa caligine." Whether the fault is due to Rustician's ignorance or is
Polo's own, who can say ? We are willing to debit it to the former, and to credit
Marco with the improved version in Ramusio. In the Masdlak-al-Absdr^ however,
we have the following passage in which the conception is similar : *' Merchants do
not ascend (the Wolga) beyond Bolghar ; from that point they make excursions
through the province of Julman (supposed to be the country on the Kama and
Viatka). The merchants of the latter country penetrate to Yughra, which is the
extremity of the North. Beyond that you see no trace of habitation except a great
Tower built by Alexander, after which there is nothing but Darkness." The narrator
of this, being asked what he meant, said : " It is a region of desert mountains, where
frost and snow continually reign, where the sun never shines, no plant vegetates, and
no animal lives. Those mountains border on the Dark Sea, on which rain falls
perpetually, fogs are ever dense, and the sun never shows itself, and on tracts per-
petually covered with snow." {N. et Ex. XIII. i. 285.)

Note 2. — This is probably a story of great antiquity, for it occurs in the legends
of the mythical Ughuz^ Patriarch of the Turk and Tartar nations, as given by Rashid-
uddin. In this hero's campaign towards the far north, he had ordered the old men
to be left behind near Almalik ; but a very ancient sage called Bushi Khwaja per-
suaded his son to carry him forward in a box, as they were sure sooner or later to
need the counsel of experienced age. When they got to the land of Kara Hulun,
Ughuz and his officers were much perplexed about finding their way, as they had
arrived at the Land of Darkness. The old Bushi was then consulted, and his advice
was that they should take with them 4 mares and 9 she-asses that had foals, and tie
up the foals at the entrance to the Land of Darkness, but drive the dams before
them. And when they wished to return they would be guided by the scent and
maternal instinct of the mares and she-asses. And so it was done. (See Erdfnann
Te7>nidschin, p. 478.) Ughuz, according to the Mussulman interpretation of the
Eastern Legends, was the great-grandson of Japhet.

The story also found its way into some of the later Greek forms of the Alex-
ander Legends. Alexander, when about to enter the Land of Darkness, takes with
him only picked young men. Getting into difficulties, the King wants to send back
for some old sage who should advise. Two young men had smuggled their old father
with them in anticipation of such need, and on promise of amnesty they produce him.
He gives the advice to use the mares as in the text. (See Mailer's ed. of Psetido-
Callisthenes, Bk. II. ch. xxxiv.)

* That is, in one passage of Pliny (iv. 12) ; for in another pass.ige from his multifarijus note book,
where Thule is spoken of, the Arctic day and night are much more distinctly characterised (IV. 16).

486

MARCO POLO Book IV.

Note 3. — Ibn Batuta thus describes the traffic that took place with the natives of
the Land of Darkness : "When the Travellers have accomplished a journey of 40
days across this Desert tract they encamp near the borders of the Land of Darkness.
Each of them then deposits there the goods that he has brought with him, and all
return to their quarters. On the morrow they come back to look at their goods, and
find laid beside them skins of the Sable, the Vair, and the Ermine. If the owner of
the goods is satisfied with what is laid beside his parcel he takes it, if not he leaves it
there. The inhabitants of the Land of Darkness may then (on another visit) increase
the amount of their deposit, or, as often happens, they may take it away altogether
and leave the goods of the foreign merchants untouched. In this way is the trade
conducted. The people who go thither never know whether those with whom they
buy and sell are men or goblins, for they never see any one !" (II. 401.)

["Ibn Batuta's account of the market of the 'Land of Darkness' . . . agrees
almost word for word with Dr Hirth's account of the ' Spirit Market, taken from the
Chinese.'" {Parker, China Review, XIV. p. 359.) — H. C]

Abulfeda gives exactly the same account of the trade ; and so does Herberstein.
Other Oriental writers ascribe the same custom to the Wisn, a people three nionths'
journey from Bolghar. These Wisu have been identified by Fraehn with the IVesses,
a people spoken of by Russian historians as dwelling on the shores of the Bielo Osero,
which Lake indeed is alleged by a Russian author to have been anciently called Wiisu,
misunderstood into Weissensee, and thence rendered into Russian Bielo Osero
("White Lake"). {Golden Horde, A pp. p. 429; BUsching, IV. 359-360; Herberstein
in Ram. II. 168 v.; Fraehn, Bolghar, pp. 14, 47 ; Do,, Ibn Fozlan, lo^seqq., 221.)
Dumb trade of the same kind is a circumstance related of very many different races
and periods, e.g., of a people beyond the Pillars of Hercules by Herodotus, of
the Sabaean dealers in frankincense by Theophrastus, of the Seres by Pliny, of the
Sasians far south of Ethiopia by Cosmas, of the people of the Clove Islands by
Kazwini, of a region beyond Segelmessa by Mas'udi, of a people far beyond Timbuc-
too by Cadamosto, of the Veddas of Ceylon by Marignolli and more modern writers,
of the Poliars of Malabar by various authors, by Paulus Jovius of the Laplanders,
etc. etc.

Pliny's attribution, surely erroneous, of this custom to the Chinese [see supra,
H.C.], suggests that there may have been a misunderstanding by which this method
of trade was confused with that other curious system of dumb higgling, by the pressure
of the knuckles under a shawl, a masonic system in use from Peking to Bombay,
and possibly to Constantinople.

The term translated here "Light," and the "Light Country," is in the G. T.
"a la Carte" " a la Caries." This puzzled me for a long time, as I see it puzzled
Mr. Hugh Murray, Signor Bartoli, and Lazari (who passes it over). The version of
Pipino, "a^ Lucis terras finitimas deferunt," points to the true reading; — Carte
is an error for Clarti.

The reading of this chapter is said to have fired Prince Rupert with the scheme
which resulted in the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company.

CHAPTER XXII.

Description of Rosia and its People. Province of Lac.

RosiA is a very great province, lying towards the north.
The people are Christians, and follow the Greek doctrine.

Chap. XXII. ROSIA AND ITS PEOPLE 487

There are several kings in the country, and they have a
language of their own. They are a people of simple
manners, but both men and women very handsome, being
all very white and [tall, with long fair hair]. There are
many strong defiles and passes in the country ; and they
pay tribute to nobody except to a certain Tartar king of
the Ponent, whose name is Toctai ; to him indeed they
pay tribute, but only a trifle. It is not a land of trade,
though to be sure they have many fine and valuable furs,
such as Sables, in abundance, and Ermine, Vair, Ercolin,
and Fox skins, the largest and finest in the world [and
also much wax]. They also possess many Silver-mines,
from which they derive a large amount of silver.^

There is nothin-g else worth mentioning ; so let us
leave Rosia, and 1 will tell you about the Great Sea, and
what provinces and nations lie round about it, all in
detail ; and we will begin with Constantinople. — First,
however, I should tell you of a province that lies between
north and north-west. You see in that region that I
have been speaking of, there is a province called Lac,
which is conterminous with Rosia, and has a king of its
own. The people are partly Christians and partly
Saracens. They have abundance of furs of good quality,
which merchants export to many countries. They live
by trade and handicrafts.^

There is nothing more worth mentioning, so I will
speak of other subjects ; but there is one thing more to
tell you about Rosia that I had forgotten. You see in
Rosia there is the greatest cold that is to be found any-
where, so great as to be scarcely bearable./ The country
is so great that it reaches even to the shores of the Ocean
Sea, and 'tis in that sea that there are certain islands in
which are produced numbers of gerfalcons and peregrine
falcons, which are carried in many directions.,/' From V-^
Russia also to Oroech it is not very far, and the journey

488 MARCO POLO Rook IV.

could be soon made, were it not for the tremendous
cold ; but this renders its accomplishment almost
impossible.^

Now then let us speak of the Great Sea, as I was
about to do. To be sure many merchants and others
have been there, but still there are many again who know
nothing about it, so it will be well to include it in our
Book. We will do so then, and let us begin first with
the Strait of Constantinople.

Note i. — Ibn Fozlan, the oldest Arabic author who gives any detailed account of
the Russians (and a very remarkable one it is), says he " never saw people of form more
perfectly developed ; they were tall as palm-trees, and ruddy of countenance," but at
the same time "the most uncleanly people that God hath created," drunken, and
frightfully gross in their manners. {Fraelm s Ihi Fozlan, p. 5 seqq.) Ibn Batuta is in
some respects less flattering ; he mentions the silver-mines noticed in our text : "At
a day's distance from Ukak* are the hills of the Russians, who are Christians. They
have red hair and blue eyes ; ugly to look at, and crafty to deal with. They have
silver-mines, and it is from their country that are brought the saum or ingots of silver
with which buying and selling is carried on in this country (Kipchak or the Ponent of
Polo). The weight of each saiiinah is 5 ounces" (II. 414). Mas'udi also says:
" The Russians have in their country a silver-mine similar to that which exists
in Khorasan, at the mountain of Iknjhir {i.e. Pa7ijshir ; II. 15 ; and see supra, vol.
i. p. 161). These positive and concurrent testimonies as to Russian silver-mines are
remarkable, as modern accounts declare that no silver is found in Russia. And if we
go back to the i6th century, Herberstein says the same. There was no silver, he
says, except what was imported ; silver money had been in use barely 100 years ;
previously they had used oblong ingots of the value of a ruble, without any figure or
legend. {Ram. II. 159.)

But a welcome communication from Professor Bruun points out that the statement
of Ibn Batuta identifies the silver-mines in question with certain mines of argentiferous
lead-ore near the River Mious (a river falling into the sea of Azof, about 22 miles west
of Taganrog) ; an ore which even in recent times has afforded 60 per cent, of lead,
and Y^4 per cent, of silver. And it was these mines which furnished the ancient
Russian rubles or ingots. Thus the original ruble was the sawnah of Ibn Batuta, the
soimiio of Pegolotti. A ruble seems to be still called by some term like saumah in
Central Asia ; it is printed soom in the Appendix to Davies's Punjab Report, p. xi.
And Professor Bruun tells me that the silver ruble is called Som by the Ossethi of
Caucasus, t

Franc. -Michel quotes from Fitz-Stephen's Desc. of London {temp. Henry II.) : —

" Aurum mil tit Arabs ....
Seres purpureas vestes ; Galli sua vina ;
Norwegi, Russi, varium, grysium, sabelinas."

* This Ukak of Ibn Batuta is not, as I too hastily supposed (vol. i. p. 8) the Ucaca of the Polos
on the Volga, but a place of the same name on the Sea of Azof, which appears in some mediaeval maps
as Locac or Locaq {i.e. I'Ocac), and which Elie de Laprimaudaie in his Periplus of the Mediaeval
Caspian, locates at a place called Kaszik, a little east of Mariupol. {Et. sur le Coiiim. au Moyen. Age,
p. 230.) I owe this correction to a valued correspondent. Professor Bruun, of Odessa

t The word is, however, perhaps Or. Turkish ; Sojit, " pure, solid." (See Pavetde Courteiile, and
Vdtnbery, s. v.)

Chap. XXII.

ROSIA AND ITS PEOPLE

489

Russia was overrun with fire and sword as far as Tver and Torshok by Batu Khan
(1237-1238), some years before his invasion of Poland and Silesia. Tartar tax-
gatherers were established in the Russian cities as far north as Rostov and Jaroslawl,
and for many years Russian princes as far as Novgorod paid homage to the Mongol
Khans in their court at Sarai. Their subjection to the Khans was not such a trifle as
Polo seems to imply ; and at least a dozen Russian princes met their death at the
hands of the Mongol executioner.

Mediaeval Russian Church. (From Fergusson.)

Note 2. — The Lac of this passage appears to be Wallachia. Abulfeda calls
the Wallachs Auldk ; Rubruquis Iliac, which he says is the same word as Blac (the
usual European form of those days being Blachi, Blachia), but the Tartars could not
pronounce the B (p. 275). Abulghazi says the original inhabitants of Kipchak were
the Urus, the Olaks, the Majars, and the Bashkirs.

Rubruquis is wrong in placing Iliac or Wallachs in Asia ; at least the people near
the Ural, who he says were so-called by the Tartars, cannot have been Wallachs.
Professor Bruun, who corrects rny error in following Rubruquis, thinks those Asiatic
Blac must have been Folovtzi, or Cumanians.

[Mr. Rockhill {Rtibruck, p, 130, note) writes: "A branch of the Volga Bulgars
occupied the Moldo-Vallach country in about A.D. 485, but it was not until the first
years of the 6tli century that a portion of them passed the Danube under the leader-
ship of Asparuk, and established themselves in the present Bulgaria, Friar William's
' Land of Assan.' "— H. C. ]

Note 3. — Oroech is generally supposed to be a mistake for Noroech, NoRWEGE
or Norway, which is probable enough. But considering the Asiatic sources of most
of our author's information, it is also possible that Oroech represents Wareg. The

490 MARCO POLO Book IV.

Waraegs or Warangs are celebrated in the oldest Russian history as a race of warlike
immigrants, of whom came Rurik, the founder of the ancient royal dynasty, and whose
name was long preserved in that of the Varangian guards at Constantinople. Many
Eastern geographers, from Al Biruni downwards, speak of the Warag or Warang as a
nation dwelling in the north, on the borders of the Slavonic countries, and on the
shores of a great arm of the Western Ocean, called the Sea of Warang^ evidently the
Baltic. The Waraegers are generally considered to have been Danes or Northmen,
and Erman mentions that in the bazaars of Tobolsk he found Danish goods known as
Varaegian. Mr. Hyde Clark, as I learn from a review, has recently identified the
Warangs or Warings with the Varini, whom Tacitus couples with the Angli, and has
shown probable evidence for their having taken part in the invasion of Britain. He
has also shown that many points of the laws which they established in Russia were
purely Saxon in character. {Bayer in Comment. Acad. Petropol. IV. 276 seqq.;
Fraehn in App. to Ibn Fozlan, p. 177 seqq.; Erman, I. 374 ; Sat. Review, 19th June,
1869; Gold. Horde, App. p. 428.)

CHAPTER XXIII.

He begins to speak of the Straits of Constantinople, but

DECIDES TO leave THAT MATTER.

At the straits leading into the Great Sea, on the west
side, there is a hill called the Faro. But since be-
ginning on this matter I have changed my mind, because
so many people know all about it, so we will not put it
in our description, but go on to something else. And so
I will tell you about the Tartars of the Ponent, and the
lords who have reigned over them.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Concerning the Tartars of the Ponent and their Lords.

The first lord of the Tartars of the Ponent was Sain, a
very great and puissant king, who conquered Rosia and
CoMANiA, Alania, Lac, M EN JAR, Zic, GoTHiA, and Ga-
ZARiA ; all these provinces were conquered by King Sain.
Before his conquest these all belonged to the Comanians,

Chap. XXIV. THE TARTARS OF THE PONENT 49 1

but they did not hold well together nor were they
united, and thus they lost their territories and were
dispersed over divers countries ; and those who remained
all became the servants of King Sain.^

After King Sain reigned King Patu, and after Patu
Barca, and after Barca Mungletemur, and after
Mungletemur King Totamangul, and then Toctai the
present sovereign.^

Now I have told you of the Tartar kings of the
Ponent, and next I shall tell you of a great battle that
was fought between Alau the Lord of the Levant and
Barca the Lord of the Ponent.

So now we will relate out of what occasion that battle
arose, and how it was fought.

Note i. — --The Comanians, a people of Turkish race, the Polovtzi\px " Dwellers
of the Plain" of Nestor, the Russian Annalist] of the old Russians, were one of the
chief nations occupying the plains on the north of the Black Sea and eastward to
the Caspian, previous to the Mongol invasion. Rubruquis makes them identical with
the KiPCHAK, whose name is generally attached to those plains by Oriental
writers, but Hammer disputes this. [See a note, pp. 92-93 of RockhilPs Rubruck.
— H. C]

Alania, the country of the Alans on the northern skirts of the Caucasus and
towards the Caspian ; Lac, the Wallachs as above. Menjar is a subject of doubt.
It may be Aldjar, on the Kuma River, a city which was visited by Ibn Batuta, and is
mentioned by Abulfeda as Ktimmdjar. It was in the 14th century the seat of a
Franciscan convent. Coins of that century, both of Majar and New Majar, are
given by Erdmann. The building of the fortresses of Kichi Majar and Ulu Majar
(little and great) is ascribed in the Derbend Nameh to Naoshirwan. The ruins of
Majar were extensive when seen by Gmelin in the last century, but when visited by
Klaproth in the early part of the present one there were few buildings remaining.
Inscriptions found there are, like the coins, Mongol-Mahomedan of the 14th century.
Klaproth, with reference to these ruins, says that Majar merely means in -'old
Tartar" a stone building, and denies any connection with the Magyars as a nation.
But it is possible that the Magyar country, i.e. Hungary, is here intended by Polo, for
several Asiatic writers of his time, or near it, speak of the Hungarians as Majar.
Thus Abulfeda speaks of the infidel nations near the Danube as including Aulak,
Majars, and Serbs ; Rashiduddin speaks of the Mongols as conquering the country
of the Bashkirds, the Majars, and the Sassan (probably Saxons of Transylvania).
One such mention from Abulghazi has been quoted in note 2 to ch. xxii. ; in the
Masdlak-al-Absdr, the Cherkes, Russians, Aas (or Alans), and Majar are
associated ; the Majar and Aldti in Sharifuddin. Doubts indeed arise whether in
some of these instances a people located in Asia be not intended.* {Rubr. p. 246;

* This doubt arises also where Abulfeda speaks of Majgaria in the far north, " the capital of the
country of the Madjgars. a Turk race " of pagan nomads, by whom he seems to mean the Bashkirs.
{Reinauds Abulf. I. 324.) For it is to the Bashkir country that the Franciscan travellers apply the
term Great Hungary, showing that they were led to believe it the original seat of the Magyars.

492 MARCO POLO Book IV.

{D'Avezac^ p. 486 segq. ; Golden Horde ^ P- 5 > ^' ^- 1 1. 375 seqq. ; Biisching, IV.
359; Cathay^ p. 233; Numi Asiatici, I. 333, 451 ; Klaproth's Travels, ch. xxxi. ;
N. el Ex. XIII. i. 269, 279 ; P. de la Croix, II. 383 ; Rein. Abulf. I. 80 ;
D'Ohsson, II. 628.)

["The author of the Tarikh DJihan Ktishai, as well as Rashid and other
Mohammedan authors of the same period, term the Hungarians Bashkerds (Bashkirs).
This latter name, written also BashJmrd, appears for the first time, it seems, in
Ibn Fozlan's narrative of an embassy to the Bulgars on the Volga in the beginning

of the loth century (translated by Fraehn, ' De Bashkiris,' etc., 1822) The

Hungarians arrived in Europe in the 9th century, and then called themselves Magyar
(to be pronounced Modjor), as they do down to the present time. The Russian
Chronicler Nestor mentions their passing near Kiev in 898, and terms them Ugry.
But the name Magyar was also known to other nations in the Middle Ages. Abulfeda
(ii. 324) notices the Madjgars ; it would, however, seem that he applies this name to
the Bashkirs in Asia. The name Madjar occurs also in Rashid's record. In the
Chinese and Mongol annals of the 13th century the Hungarians are termed
Madja-rh'"' {Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. pp. 326-327.)— H. C]

Zic is Circassia. The name was known to Pliny, Ptolemy, and other writers of
classic times. Ramusio (II. 196 v) gives a curious letter to Aldus Manutius from
George Interiano, ^^ Delia vita de' Zychi chiatnati Circassi," and a great number of
other references to ancient and mediaeval use of the name will be found in D'Avezac's
Essay, so often quoted (p. 497).

GoTHiA is the soutliern coast of the Crimea from Sudak to Balaklava and the
mountains north of the latter, then still occupied by a tribe of the Goths. The
Genoese officer who governed this coast in the 15th century bore the title of
Capitanus Gotiae ; and a renmant of the tribe still survived, maintaining their Teutonic
speech, to the middle of the i6th century, when Busbeck, the emperor's ambassador
to the Porte, fell in with two of them, from whom he derived a small vocubulary and
other particulars. {Busbequii Opera, 1660, p. 321 seqq.; DAvezac, pp. 498-499;
Heyd, II. 123 seqq. ; Cathay, pp. 200-201.)

Gazaria, the Crimea and part of the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, formerly
occupied by the Khazars, a people whom Klaproth endeavours to prove to have been
of Finnish race. When the Genoese held their settlements on the Crimean coast
the Board at Genoa which administered the affairs of these colonies was called The
Office of Gazaria.

Note 2. — The real list of the " Kings of the Ponent," or Khans of the Golden
Horde, down to the time of Polo's narrative, runs thus : Bat a, Sartak, Ulagchi
(these two almost nominal), Barka, MangkuTimur, Tudai Mangku, Ttilabtigha,
Titktuka or Toktai. Polo here omits Tulabugha (though he mentions him below
in ch. xxix.), and introduces before Batu, as a great and powerful conqueror, the
founder of the empire, a prince whom he calls Sain. This is in fact Batu himself,
the leader of the great Tartar invasion of Europe (1240-1242), whom he has split into
two kings. Batu bore the surname of Saitt Khan, or "the Good Prince," by which
name he is mentioned, e.g., in Makrizi {Qtialreniei-e's Trans. II. 45), also in Wassaf
{Hammer'' s Trans, pp. 29-30). Piano Carpini's account of him is worth quoting :
" Hominibus quidem ejus satis benignus ; timetur tamen valde ab iis ; sed crudelis-
simus est in pugna ; sagax est multum ; et etiam astutissimus in bello, quia longo
tempore jam pugna vit." This Good Prince was indeed crudelissimus in pugnd.

{Ruhr. 274, Plan. Carpin. 747 ; and in same vol., D'Avezac, p. 491.) Further confusion aiises from
the fact that, besides the UraUan Bashkirs, there were, down to the 13th century, Bashkirs recognised
as such, and as distinct from the Hungarians though akin to them, dwelling in Hun°:arian territory.
Ibn Said, speaking of Sebennico (the cradle of the Polo family), says that when the Tartars advanced
under its walls (1242?) " the Hungarians, the Bashkirs, and the Germans united their forces near the
city "and gave the invaders a signal defeat. iReinaud's Abulf. I. 312; see also 294, 295.) One
would gladly know what are the real names that M. Reinaud renders Hongrois and Attemandt.
The Christian Bashkirds of Khondemir, on the borders of the Franks, appear to be Hungarians. (S;e
/. As., s6r. IV. torn. xvii. p. iii.)

Chap. XXIV.

THE TARTARS OF THE PONENT

493

At Moscow he ordered a general massacre, and 270,000 right ears are said to have
been laid before him in testimony to its accomplishment. It is odd enough that a
mistake like that in the text is not confined to Polo. The chronicle of Kazan,
according to a Russian writer, makes Sain succeed Batti. ( Carpini^ p. 746 ; /. As.
ser. IV. tom. xvii. p. 109; Biisching, V. 493; also Golden Ho7-de, p. 142, note.)

Batu himself, in the great invasion of the West, was with the southern host in
Hungary ; the northern army which fought at Liegnitz was under Baidar, a son of
Chaghatai.

According to the MasdIak-al-Absdr, the territory of Kipchak, over which this
dynasty ruled, extended in length from the Sea of Istambul to the River Irtish, a
journey of 6 months, and in breadth from Bolghar to the Iron Gates, 4 (?) months'
journey. A second traveller, quoted in the same work, says the empire extended
from the Iron Gates to Yughra (see p. 483 supra), and from the Irtish to the country
of the Nemej. The last term is very curious, being the Russian Niemicz, " Dumb,"
a term which in Russia is used as a proper name of the Germans ; a people, to wit,
unable to speak Slavonic. {N. et Ex. XIII. i. 282, 284.)

["An allusion to the Mongol invasion of Poland and Silesia is found in the
Yuen-shi, ch. cxxi., biography of Wu-liang-ho t'ai (the son of Su-bu-t'ai). It is
stated there that Wu-liang-ho t'ai [Uriangcadai] accompanied Badu when he invaded
the countries of AltV^-^/^'o! (Kipchak) and Wti-la-sz^ {Kxxssva.). Subsequently he took
part also in the expedition against the P'o-lie-rh and Nie-mi-sze,''^ {Dr. Breischneider,
Med. Res. I. p. 322. ) With reference to these two names. Dr. Bretschneider says,
in a note, that he has no doubt that the Poles and Germans are intended. *' As to
its origin, the Russian linguists generally derive it from nevioi, *dumb,' i.e., unable
to speak Slavonic. To the ancient Byzantine chroniclers the Germans were known
under the same name. Cf. MuraWs Essai de Chronogr. ByzanL, sub anno
882 : * Les Slavons maltraites par les guerriers Nemetzi de Swiatopolc ' (King of
Great Moravia, 870-894). Sophocles' Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine
periods from B.C. i46toA.D. iioo: ' A^^;;///s?' Austrians, Germans. This name is
met also in the Mohammedan authors. According to tlie Masalak-al-Absar, of
the first half of the 14th century (transl. by Quatremere, N. et Ext. XXII. 284), the
country of the Kipchaks extended (eastward) to the country of the NeDiedj, which
separates the Franks from the Russians. The Turks still call the Germans Niemesi ;
the Hungarians term them Nejnet.'''' — H. C]

^^^

^^^^^^

(^^^^^M

^^^^^\j^^^H

i^^^^^^^^v^

^^ft|k ^I^^^^^^^x^^^^^

\/\S^Wt^

[i; (!^^:u^^t^|f

Figure of a Tartar under the feet of Henry II., Duke of Silesia, Cracow, and
Poland, from the tomb at Breslau of that Prince, killed in battle with the
Tartar host at Liegnitz, 9th April, 1241.

494 MARCO POLO Book IV.

CHAPTER XXV.

Of the War that arose between Alau and Barca, and the
Battles that they fought.

It was In the year 1261 of Christ's incarnation that there
arose a great discord between King Alau the Lord of
the Tartars of the Levant, and Barca the King of the
Tartars of the Ponent ; the occasion whereof was a
province that lay on the confines of both.^

•J* (They exchange defiances, and make vast prepara-
tions.)

And when his preparations were complete, Alau the
Lord of Levant set forth with all his people. They
marched for many days without any adventure to speak
of, and at last they reached a great plain which extends
between the Iron Gates and the Sea of Sarain.^ In
this plain he pitched his camp in beautiful order ; and I
can assure you there was many a rich tent and pavilion
therein, so that it looked indeed like a camp of the wealthy.
Alau said he would tarry there to see If Barca and his
people would come ; so there they tarried, abiding the
enemy's arrival. This place where the camp was pitched
was on the frontier of the two kings. Now let us speak
of Barca and his people.^

Note i. — *' Que marcesoit a le tin et h le autre ;^^ in Scotch phrase, "which
marched with both."

Note 2. — Respecting the Iron Gates, see vol. i. p. 53. The Caspian is here
called the Sea of Sarain, probably for Sarai, after the great city on the Volga. For
we find it in the Catalan Map of 1375 termed the Sea of Sarra. Otherwise Sarain
might have been taken for some corruption of Shirwdn. (See vol. L p. 59, note 8. )

Note 3. — The war here spoken of is the same which is mentioned in the very
beginning of the book, as having compelled the two Elder Polos to travel much
further eastward than they had contemplated.

Many jealousies and heart-burnings between the cousins Hulaku and Barka had
existed for several years. The Mameluke Sultan Bibars seems also to have stimulated
Barka to hostility with Hulaku. War broke out in 1262, when 30,000 men from

Chaps. XXVI. -XXVII. V^AR BETWEEN ALAU AND BARCA 495

Kipchak, under the command of Nogai, passed Derbend into the province of Shirwan.
They were at first successful, but afterwards defeated. In December, Hulaku, at the
head of a great army, passed Derbend, and routed the forces which met him.
Abaka, son of Hulaku, was sent on with a large force, and came upon the opulent
camp of Barka beyond the Terek. They were revelling in its plunder, when Barka
rallied his troops and came upon the army of Abaka, driving them southward again,
across the frozen river. The ice broke and many perished. Abaka escaped, chased
by Barka to Derbend. Hulaku returned to Tabriz and made great preparations for
vengeance, but matters were apparently never carried further. Hence Polo's is any-
thing but an accurate account of the matter.

The following extract from Wassafs History, referring to this war, is a fine sample
of that prince of rigmarole :

"In the winter of 662 (a.d. 1262- 1263) when the Almighty Artist had covered
the River of Derbend with plates of silver, and the Furrier of the Winter had clad the
hills and heaths in ermine ; the river being frozen hard as a rock to the depth of a
spear's length, an army of Mongols went forth at the command of Barka Aghul, filthy
as Ghuls and Devils of the dry-places, and in numbers countless as the rain-drops,''
etc. etc. {Golden Horde, p. 163 seqq. ; Ilchan. I. 214 seqq. ; Q. R. p. 393 seqq. ;
Q. Makrizi, I. 170; Hamtiicrs Wassdf, p. 93.)

CHAPTER XXVI.
How Barca and his Army advanced to meet Alau.

^ (Barca advances with 350,000 horse, encamps on
the plain within 10 miles of Alau ; addresses his men, an-
nouncing his intention of fighting after 3 days, and
expresses his confidence of success as they are in the
right and have 50,000 men more than the enemy.)

CHAPTER XXVII.

How Alau addressed his P'ollowers.

'^ (Alau calls together " a numerous parliament of his
worthies"* and addresses them.)

* " /I asenble encore sez ^arleniant de grand quantitis des buens hofiies"

496 MARCO POLO

Book IV.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
Of the Great Battle between Alau and Barca.

4. (Description of the Battle in the usual style, with
nothing characteristic. Results in the rout of Barca and
great slaughter.)

CHAPTER XXIX.

How Totamangu was Lord of the Tartars of the Ponent.

You must know there vv^as a Prince of the Tartars of
the Ponent called Mongotemur, and from him the
sovereignty passed to a young gentleman called
ToLOBUGA. But Totamangu, who was a man of great
influence, with the help of another Tartar King called
NoGAi, slew Tolobuga and got possession of the
sovereignty. He reigned not long however, and at
his death Toctai, an able and valiant man, v^as chosen
sovereign in the place of Totamangu. But in the mean-
tirhe two sons of that Tolobuga who was slain were grown
up, and were likely youths, able and prudent.

So these two brothers, the sons of Totamangu, got
together a goodly company and proceeded to the court
of Toctai. When they had got thither they conducted
themselves with great discretion, keeping on their knees
till Toctai bade them welcome, and to stand up. Then
the eldest addressed the Sovereign thus : " Good my
Lord Toctai, I will tell you to the best of my ability why
we be come hither. We are the sons of Totamangu,
whom Tolobuga and Nogai slew, as thou well knowest.
Of Tolobuga we will say no more, since he is dead, but

Chap. XXIX. TARTARS OF THE PONENT 497

we demand justice against Nogai as the slayer of our
Father ; and we pray thee as Sovereign Lord to summon
him before thee and to do us justice. For this cause are
we come ! " ^

(Toctai agrees to their demand and sends two
messengers to summon Nogai, but Nogai mocks at the
message and refuses to go. Whereupon Toctai sends a
second couple of messengers.)

Note i. — I have not attempted to correct the obvious confusion here; for in
comparing the story related here with the regular historians we find the knots too
complicated for solution.

In the text as it stands we first learn that Totamangu by help of Nogai kills
Tolobuga, takes the throne, dies, and is succeeded by Toctai. But presently we find
that it is the sons of Totamangu who claim vengeance from Toctai against Nogai for
having aided Tolobuga to slay their faiher. Turning back to the list of princes in
chapter xxiv. we find Totamangu indeed, but Tolobuga omitted altogether.

The outline of the history as gathered from Hammer and D'Ohsson is as
follows : —

NOGHAi, for more than half a century one of the most influential of the Mongol
Princes, was a great-great-grandson of Chinghiz, being the son of Tatar, son of
Tewal, son of Juji. He is first heard of as a leader under Batu Khan in the great
invasion of Europe (1241), and again in 1258 we find him leading an invasion of
Poland.

In the latter quarter of the century he had established himself as practically in-
dependent, in the south of Russia. There is much about him in the Byzantine history
of Pachymeres ; Michael Palaeologus sought his alliance against the Bulgarians (of
the south), and gave him his illegitimate daughter Euphrosyne to wife. Some years
later Noghai gave a daughter of his own in marriage to Feodor Rostislawitz, Prince
of Smolensk.

Mangu- or Mangku-Temur, the great-nephew and successor of Barka, died in
1280-81 leaving nine sons, but was succeeded by his brother Tudai-Mangku (Polo's
Totamangu). This Prince occupied himself chiefly with the company of Mahomedan
theologians and was averse to the cares of government. In 1287 he abdicated, and
was replaced by Tulabugha {Tolobuga)^ the son of an elder brother, whose power,
however, was shared by other princes. Tulabugha quarrelled with old Noghai and
was preparing to attack him. Noghai however persuaded him to come to an interview,
and at this Tulabugha was put to death. Toktai, one of the sons of Mangku-Temur,
who was associated with Noghai, obtained the throne of Kipchak. This was in 1291.
We hear nothing of sons of Tudai-Mangku or Tulabugha.

Some years later we hear of a symbolic declaration of war sent by Toktai to
Noghai, and then of a great battle between them near the banks of the Don, in which
Toktai is defeated. Later, they are again at war, and somewhere south of the
Dnieper Noghai is beaten. As he was escaping with a few mounted followers, he
was cut down by a Russian horseman. " I am Noghai," said the old warrior, " take
me to Toktai." The Russian took the bridle to lead him to the camp, but by the
way the old chief expired. The horseman carried his head to the Khan ; its heavy
grey eyebrows, we are told, hung over and hid the eyes. Toktai asked the Russian
how he knew the head to be that of Noghai. "He told me so himself," said the
man. And so he was ordered to execution for having presumed to slay a great Prince
VOL. II. 2 \

49^

MARCO POLO TiooK IV

without orders. How like the story of David and the Amalekite in Ziklag ! (2 Samuel,
ch. i.).

The chronology of these events is doubtful. Kashiduddin seems to put the defeat
of Toktai near the Don in 1298-1299, and a passage in Wassaf extracted by Hammer
seems to put the defeat and death of Noghai about 1303. On the other hand, there
is evidence that war between the two was in full flame in the ])ei;inning of 1296 ;
Makrizi seems to report the news of a great defeat of Toktai by Noghai as reaching
Cairo in /ttviadah I. A.H. 697 or February-March, 1298. And Novairi, from whom
D'Ohsson gives extracts, appears to put the defeat and death of Noghai in 1299. If
the battle on the Don is that recounted by Marco it cannot be put later than 1297,
and he must have had news of it at Venice, perhaps from relations at Soldaia. I
am indeed reluctant to believe that he is not speaking of events of which he had
cognizance before quitting the East ; but there is no evidence in favour of that view.
{Golden Horde, especially 269 seqq. ; Ilchan. II. 347, and also p. 35 ; D'Ohssoft, IV.
Appendix; Q. Makrizi, IV. 60.)

The symbolical message mentioned above as sent by Toktai to Noghai, consisted
of a hoe, an arrow, and a handful of earth. Noghai interpreted this as meaning, ** If
you hide in the earth, I will dig you out ! If you rise to the heavens I will shoot you
down ! Choose ^ battle-field ! " What a singular similarity we have here to the
message that reached Darius 1800 years before, on this very ground, from Toktai's
predecessors, alien from him in blood it may be, but identical in customs and mental
characteristics: —

"At last Darius was in a great strait, and the Kings of the Scythians having
ascertained this, sent a herald bearing, as gifts to Darius, a bird, a mouse, a frog, and

five arrows Darius's opinion was that the Scythians meant to give themselves

up to him But the opinion of Gobryas, one of the seven who had deposed

the Magus, did not coincide with this ; he conjectured that the presents intimated :
' Unless, O Persians, ye become birds, and fly into the air, or become mice and hide
yourselves beneath the earth, or become frogs and leap into the lakes, ye shall never
return home again, but be stricken by these arrows.' And thus the other Persians
interpreted the gifts." {Herodotus, by Carey, IV. 131, 132.) Again, more than 500
years after Noghai and Toktai were laid in the steppe, when Muraview reached the
court of Khiva in 1820, it happened that among the Russian presents offered to the
Khan were two loaves of sugar on the same tray wilh a quantity of powder and shot.
The Uzbegs interpreted this as a symbolical demand : Peace or War ? ( V. en
Turcojuanie, p. 165.)

CHAPTER XXX.

Of the Second Message that Toctai sent to Nogai, and his

Reply.

^ (They carry a threat of attack if he should refuse to
present himself before Toctai. Nogai refuses with
defiance. Both sides prepare for war, but Toctai's force
is the greater in numbers.)

Chaps. XXXI.-XXXIII. TOCTAI AND NOGHAI 499

CHAPTER XXXI.

How TOCTAI MARCHED AGAINST NOGAI.

^ (The usual description of their advance to meet one
another. Toctai is joined by the two sons of Totamangu
with a goodly company. They encamp within ten miles
of each other in the Plain of Nerghi.)

CHAPTER XXXII.

how toctai and nogai address their people, and the next
Day join Battle.

•J* (The whole of this is in the usual formula without any
circumstances worth transcribing. The forces of Nogai
though inferior in numbers are the better men-at-arms.
King Toctai shows great valour.)

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The valiant Feats and Victory of King Nogai.

4* (The deeds of Nogai surpass all ; the enemy scatter
like a flock, and are pursued, losing 60,000 men, but
Toctai escapes, and so do the two sons of Totamangu.)

VOL. n. 212

500 MARCO POLO Book IV.

CHAPTER XXXIV. AND LAST

Conclusion.*

And now ye have heard all that we can tell you about
the Tartars and the Saracens and their customs, and
likewise about the other countries of the world as
far as our researches and information extend. Only
we have said nothing whatever about the Greater
Sea and the provinces that lie round it, although we
know it thoroughly. But it seems to me a needless
and useless task to speak about places which are
visited by people every day. For there are so many
who sail all about that sea constantly, Venetians, and
Genoese, and Pisans, and many others, that everybody
knows all about it, and that is the reason that I pass it
over and say nothing of it.

Of the manner in which we took our departure
from the Court of the Great Kaan you have heard at
the beginning of the Book, in that chapter where
we told you of all the vexation and trouble that
Messer Maffeo and Messer Nicolo and Messer Marco
had about getting the Great Kaan's leave to go ; and
in the same chapter is related the lucky chance that
led to our departure. And you may be sure that
but for that lucky chance, we should never have got
away in spite of all our trouble, and never have got
back to our country again. But I believe it was
God's pleasure that we should get back in order that
people might learn about the things that the world
contains. For according to what has been said in
the introduction at the beginning of the Book, there

* This conclusion is not found in any copy except in the Crusca Italian, and, with a little modifica
tion, in another at Florence, belonging to the Pucci family. It is just possible that it was the
embellishment of a transcriber or translator ; but in any case it is very old, and serves as an epilogue.

Chap. XXXTV.

CONCLUSION

501

never was a man, be he Christian or Saracen or
Tartar or Heathen, who ever travelled over so much
of the world as did that noble and illustrious citizen of the
City of Venice, Messer Marco the son of Messer Nicolo
Polo.

"Chanks bt to (»lob ! ^mm ! '^mtn I

Asiatic Warriors of Polo's Age. (From a contemporary Persian Miniature.)

5-oS

APPENDICES

Ai'P. A.

HOUSE OF CHINGIIIZ

505

. D( is?. -i

ttt -- ^

Itioned by
under their

ight to left.

C/3 i-i — u _

<•

— z

D
2

D
•—I

1 V V '-'

M i

< :£.

••=,

se who are
Polo have a

ority runs fr

4 P

1 1
•2 J

— id

fe2

Tho:
Marco
names

Seni

1 1

^ H

• ;z;

— ! -a

^ .1

i .05.

is 23 15

^2 J

^i S^^

8 3||i

mil

i 5

«l * OS

i2 rt "^

' 5

fL, J

.x:

rt ■.

,Q M •

ci? ^^

-: '~-

.^ ^

s <':? .

'tD N

rt t^

•0 a

U ^«^

oogH

fc^

— -

■1 1

1^1

rt ■ rt

u w

t^ t^

"5; c <*
tT 1 — rtrs

^J3

>-* IS

"-• w

t« .

z;i -M

.SI

- S,^

<
4

§1
— s

P-i

— <

h
_5

(J:

■J

S
X

? ^„

< pal

. • .1

c'rt • (3 • S

•r ti S •rT> "T? F*l

ij" be c M be rt|

1= - i! < zl

< 2

o fa

z *

5o6

MARCO rOLO

App. B.

.4) 4)

8="

gj?.

o -a

pi § ?

0i . O 7

O rt 1-, >

5 t

.S c
o .

^3-

rt ^

Sc/5

~*C

oil

-s<r«

^1!

■"1

'mo ^

C/2

S:S

app. b. the two polo families 507

Appendly B. — continued.

(n.) The Polos of San Geremia.

The preceding Table gives the Family of our Traveller as far as I have
seen sound data for tracing it, either upwards or downwards.

I have expressed, in the introductory notices, my doubts about the
Venetian genealogies, which continue the family down to 141 8 or 19, because
it seems to me certain that all of them do more or less confound with our
Polos of S. Giovanni Grisostomo, members of the other Polo Family of S.
Geremia. It will help to disentangle the subject if we put down what is
ascertained regarding the S. Geremia family.

To the latter with tolerable certainty belonged the following : —

1302. Marco Polo of Cannareggio, see vol. i. pp. 64-67. (The Church of S.

Geremia stands on the canal called Cannareggio.)

Already in 1224, we find a Marco Polo of S. Geremia and Canna

reggio. (See Liber Plegiorum, published with Archivio Veneto, 1872

pp. 32, 36.
1 3 19. (Bianca, widow of Giovanni Polo?)*

1332. 24lh March. Concession, apparently of some privilege in connection with

the State Lake in San Basilio, to Donato and Hermorao ( = Hermolaus
or Almoro) Paulo (Document partially illegible). t

1333. 23rd October. Will of Marchesina Corner, wife of Marino Gradenigo of

S. Apollinare, who chooses for her executors "my mother Dona Fiordelisa
Cornaro, and my uncle {Barba) Ser Marco Polo.":|: Another extract
apparently of the same will mentions '' mia cusiiia Maria Polo," and
" mio ctisin Marco Polo" three times. §
1349. Marino Polo and Brothers. |i

1348. About this time died Nicolo Polo of S. Geremia,ir who seems to have been
a Member of the Great Council.** He had a brother Marco, and this
Marco had a daughter Agnesina. Nicolo also leaves a sister Barbara
(a nun), a son Giovannino (apparently illegitimate **), of age in 1351,11 a
nephew Gherardo, and a niece FiLirrA,1l Abbess of Sta. Catarina in
Mazzorbo.

The executors of Nicolo are Giovanni and Donato Polo.H We
have not their relationship stated.

Donato must have been the richest Polo we hear of, for in the
Estimo or forced Loan of 1379 for the Genoese War, he is assessed at
23,000 Lire.-\\ A history of that war also states that he ("Donado
Polo del Canareggio") presented the Government with looo ducats,

* Document in Archivio of the Casa di Ricovero, Bundle LXXVII., No. 209.

t Registro di Grazie, 4" c. Comm. by Comm. Berchet.

X Arch. Gen. dei Giudici del Propria, Perg. No. 82, ist July, 1342, cites this. (Comm. Berchet.)

§ Arch, dei Procuratori di San Marco, with Testam. 1327, January, marked " N. H. Ser Marco
Gradenigo." (Comm. Berchet.)

!| Document in Archivio of the Casa di Ricovero, Bundle LXXIV., No. 651.

^1 List (extracted in 1868-9) of Documents in the above Archivio, but which seem to have been
since mislaid.

** Parchment in the possession of Cav. F. Stefani, containing a decision, dated 16th September,
1355) signed by the Doge and two Councillors, in favour of Giovannino Polo, natural son of the Noble
Nicoletto of S. Geremia {qu. Nobilis Viri Nicoleti Paulo).

tt In Gallicciolli, Delle Mem. Ven. Antiche, Ven. 1795, II. p. 136. In the MS. of Cappellari-
Campidoslio Veneto, in the Marciana, the sum stated is 3000 only.

508 MARCO POLO App. B.

besides maintaining in arms himself, his son, and seven others.* Under
1388 we find Donate still living, and mention of Caiaruzza, d. of
Donato :t and under 1390 of Elena, widow of Donato.f

The Testamentary Papers of Nicolo also speak of GlACOMO [or
Jacopo] Polo. He is down in the Estimo of 1379 for looo Lire ;\\ and
in 1 37 1 an inscription in Cicogna shows him establishing a family burial-
place in Sta. Maria de' Servi :%

[M°CCC°LXXI. Die primo mensis . . . S. Dni lACHOBI.
PAVLI. DE CFINIO. SANCTI. lEREMIE. ET. SVOR.
HEREDVM.]

(1353. 2nd June. Viriola, widow of Andrea or Andriuolo Polo of Sta. Maria
Nuova ?)§

1379. In addition to those already mentioned we have NicOLO assessed at 4000
lire.W

1381. And apparently this is the NicOLO, son of Almoro [Hermolatis), who was
raised to the Great Council, for public service rendered, among 30 elected
to that honour after the war of Chioggia.H Under 14 10 we find Anna,
relict of Nicolo Polo.**

1379. In this year also, Almoro, whether father or brother of the last, contributes
4000 lire to the Estimo. |1

1390. Clemente Polo (died before 1397)** and his wife Maddaluzia.** Also
in this year Paolo Polo, son of Nicolo, gave his daughter in marriage to
Giov. Vitturi.tt

1408 and 141 1. Chiara, daughter of Francesco Balbi, and widow of Ermolao
(or Almoro) Polo, called of Sia. Trinita**

1416. Giovanni, perhaps the Giovannino mentioned above.**

1420. 22nd November. Bartolo, son of Ser Almoro and of the Nobil Donna
Chiara Orio. (?)JJ This couple probably the same as in the pen-
ultimate entry.

1474, seqq. Accounts belonging to the Trust Estate of Bartolomeo Polo of S.
Geremia.**

There remains to be mentioned a Marco Polo, member of the Greater
Council, chosen Auditor Sente?itiaru7n^ 7th March, 1350, and named among
the electors of the Doges Marino Faliero (1354) and Giovanni Gradenigo
(1355). The same person appears to have been sent as Provveditore to
Dalmatia in 1355. As yet it is doubtful to what family he belonged, and it
is possible that he may have belonged to our traveller's branch, and have
continued that branch according to the tradition. But I suspect that he is
identical with the Marco, brother of Nicolo Polo of S. Geremia, mentioned
above, under 1348. (See also vol. i. p. 7^.) Cappellari states distinctly that
this Marco was the father of the Lady who married Azzo Trevisan. (See
Introd. p. /<?.)

We have intimated the probability that he was the Marco mentioned
twice in connection with the Court of Sicily. (See vol. i. p. /p, note.)

A later Marco Polo, in 1537, distinguished himself against the Turks in

* Delia Presa di Chiozza in Muratori, Script, xv. 785.

t Documents seen by the Editor in the Arch, of the Casa di Ricovero.

X Cicogna, I. p. 77.

§ Arch. Gen. deiGiud. Perg. No. 120.

n In Gallicciolli Delle Mem. Ven. Aniiche, Yen. 1795, II. p. 136.

1 Cappellari, MS. ; Sanuto, Vite de Duchi di Ven. in Muratori, XXII. 730.

** Documents seen by the Editor in the Arch, of the Casa di Ricovero.

tt Cappellari.

XX Libro d'Oro from 1414 to 1497 in Museo Correr. Comm. by Comm. Berchet.

App. B.

THE TWO POLO FAMILIES

509

command of a ship called the Gitcstinianaj forcing his way past the enemy's
batteries into the Gulf of Prevesa, and cannonading that fortress. But he
had to retire, being unsupported.

It may be added that a Francesco Paulo appears among the list of those
condemned for participation in the conspiracy of Baiamonte Tiepolo in 13 10.
{Dandulo in Miir. XII. 410, 490.)

[I note from the MS. oi Priuli, Genealogie delle famiglie nobili di Venesia^
kept in the R°. Archivio di Stato at Venice, some information, pp. 4376-4378,
which permit me to draw up the following Genealogy which may throw some
light on the Polos of San Geremia : —

Marco
(Milioni)

Andrea, of San P'elice

I .1 ,

Marco Nicolo

of S. Grisostomo,
buried at S. Lorenzo.

I
Steffano

I .
Giovanni

I
Maffio

Maffio

Almoro of
San Geremia

I
Maffio

I
Marco

Nicol6

Nicolo of San Geremia
made a Nobleman, 4th Sept. 1381

Maffio Marco

I I

Marco + 1418

Governor of Castel Vecchio,
at Verona.

Marin

Sir Henry Yule writes above (II. p. 507) that Nicolo Polo of S. Geremia
had a brother Marco, and this Marco had a daughter Agnesina. I find in
the Acts of the Notary Brutti, in the Will of Elisabetta Polo, dated 14th
March, 1350 : —

Beta = Marco Polo [Marcolino ?]

of S.

Grisostomo

Agnesina
= Nicoleto.

Christina
Michaleto

Marina
in the Monastery
of S. Lorenzo.

The Maffio, son of Nicolo of S. Giov. Grisostomo, and father of Pasqua
and Fiordelisa, married probably after his will (1300) and had his four sons :
Almoro of S. Geremia, Maffio, Marco, Nicolo. Indeed, Cicogna writes
i^Insc. Veil. II. p. 390): — "Non apparisce che Maffeo abbia avuto figliuoli
maschi da questo testamento [1300]; ma per altro non h cosa a?surda il
credere che posteriormente a questo testamento 1300 possa avere avuti

5IO MARCO POLO App. C.

figliuoli maschi ; ed in effetto le Genealogie gliene danno quatro, cioe
Ermolao, Maffio^ Marco^ Nicold. II Ramusio anzi glieii dk cinque, senza
nominarli, uno de'quali Marco^ e una femmina di nome Maria; e Marco
Barbaro gliene dk sei, cio^ Nicold^ Maria^ Pietro^ Doiiado^ Marco, Fran-
ceschinor — H. C]

[Sig. Ab. Cav. Zanetti gwts {Archivio Veneto, XVI. 1878, p. no). See
our Int., p. /(?.

Matted, son of Marcolino

I .

I I

Maria ? Marco

married Benedetto died at Verona

Cornaro in J401, and in 1417, 1418, or 1425.]
Azzo Trevisan

Appendix C. — Calendar of Documents Relating to
Marco Polo and his Family.

I.— (1280).

Will of Marco Polo of S. Severo, uncle of the Traveller, executed at
Venice, 5 th x^ugust, 1280. An Abstract given in vol. i. pp. 23-24.

The originals of this and the two other Wills (Nos. 2 and 8) are in St. Mark's
Library. They were published first by Cicogna, Iscrizioni Veneziane, and
again more exactly by I^azari.

2.— (1300).

Will of Maffeo Polo, brother of the Traveller, executed at Venice, 31st
August, 1300. Abstract given at pp. 64-6S of vol. i.

3.— (1302).

Archivio Generate — Maggior Consiglio — Liber Magims, p. 81.*

1392. 13 Aprilis. (Capta est): Quod fit gratia provido viro Marco Paulo
quod ipse absolvatur a pena incursa pro eo quod non fecit circari unam suam con-
ductam cum ignoraverit ordinem circa hoc.

Ego Marcus Michael consiliarius m. p. s.

Ego Paulus Delphinus consiliarius m. p. s.

Ego Marcus Siboto de mandato ipsorum cancellavi.

* For this and for all the other documents marked with an * I am under obligation to Comm.
Beichet. 1 here is some doubt if this refer to our Marco Polo. (See vol. i. p. 66.)

App. C CALENDAR OF DOCUMENTS 5II

4.— (1305)-

Resolution of the Maggior Consiglio, under date loth April, 1305, in
which Marco Polo is styled Marcus Paulo Milioni. (See p. 6'j of
vol. i.) In the Archivio Gefierale^ Maggior Cons, Reg, M.S.^
Carta 82.!

" Item quod fiat gratia Bonocio de Mestre de illis Libris centum quinqua-
ginta duobus, in quibus extitit condempnatus per Capitaneos Postarum,
occasione vini per eum portati contra bampnum, isto modo videlicet quod
solvere debeat dictum debitum hinc ad annos quatuor, solvendo annuatim
quartum dicti debit! per hunc modum, scilicet quod dictus Bonocius ire
debeat cum nostris Ambaxiatoribus, et soldum quod ei competet pro ipsis
viis debeat scontari, et it quod ad solvendum dictum quartum deficiat per
eum vel suos plegios integre persolvatur. Et sunt plegii Nobiles Viri
Petrus Mauroceno et Marchus Paulo Milion et plures alii qui sunt
script! ad Cameram Capitaneorum Postarum."

5.— (1311).

Decision in Marco Polo's suit against Paulo Girardo, 9th March 131 1,
for recovery of the price of musk sold on commission, etc. (From
the Archives of the Casa di Ricovero at Venice, Filza No. 202.
(See vol. i. p. 70.)

" In nomine Dei Eterni Amen. Anno ab Incarnatione Domini Nostri
Jcsu Christi millesimo trecentesimo undecimo, Mensis Marci die nono,
intrante Indicione Nona, Rivoalti . . .

" Cum coram nobilibus viris Dominis Catharino Dalmario et Marco
Lando, Judicibus Peticionum, Domino Leonardo de Molino, tercio
Judice curie, tunc absente, inter Nobilem Virum Marcum Polo de confinio
Sancti Johannis Grisostomi ex uni parte, et Paulum Girardo de confinio
Sancti Apollinaris ex altera parte, quo ex suo officio verteretur occasione
librarum trium denarioruin grossoruin Venetortnn in parte un^, quas sibi
Paui.o Girardo petebat idem Marcus Polo pro dimidia libra muscli
quam ab ipso MARCO Polo ipse Paulus Girardo habuerat, et vendiderat
precio suprascriptarum Librarum trium den. Ve?i. grvs. et occasione den.
Venet. gross, viginti, quos eciam ipse Marcus Polo eidem Polo Girardo
pectebat pro manchamento unius sazii de muscio, quem dicebat sibi defficere
de libra una muscli, quam simul cum suprascripta dimidii ipse Paulus
Girardo ab ipso Marco Polo habuerat et receperat, in parte altera de dicta,
Barbaro advocator! {sic) curie pro suprascripto MARCO POLO sive JOHANNiS
{sic) Polo % de Confinio Sancti Johannis Grisostomi constitutus in Curia pro
ipso Marco Polo sicut coram suprascriptis Dominis Judicibus legitimum
testificatum extiterat . . . leg! fecit quamdam cedulam bambazinam scriptam
manu propria ipsius Pauli CjIRARDI, cujus tenor talis, videlicet : , . . ''^ de
a7>ril recevi io Polo Girardo da Missier Marco Polo libre \ de muscio meiemelo
litre ire de grossi. Ancora recevi io Polo libre una de imcsclo che me lo mete

t For the indication of this I was indebted to Professor Minotto.

J This perhaps indicates that Marco's half-brother Giovannino was in partnership with him.

512 MARCO POLO App. C.

litre sei de grossly et va a so risico et da sua vmiura et damelo in choleganza
a la mitade de lo precioP •»«••* * * " Quare cum ipse Paulus noluerit
satisfacere de predictis, nee velit ad presens ***•>«•** Condemp-
natum ipsum Paulum Girardo in expensis pro parte dicti Marci Paulo
factis in questione, dando et assignando sibi terminum competentem pro
predictis omnibus et singulis persolvendis, in quem terminum si non solveret
judicant ipsi domini judices quod capi debetur ipse Paulus Gerardo et
carceribus Comunis Venetiarum precludi, de quibus exire non posset donee
sibi Marco Paulo omnia singula suprascripta exolvenda dixisset, non
obstante absencia ipsius Pauli Gerardo cum sibi ex parte Domini Duels
proministeriale Curie Palacii preceptum fuisset ut hodie esset ad Curiam
Peticionum.

it********

"Ego Katharinus Dalmario Judex Peticionum manu mei

subscripsi
*' Ego Marcus Lando Judex Peticionum manu mea subscripsj,
"Ego NicOLAUS, Presbiter Sancti Canciani notarius complevi

et roboravi."

6-— (1319)-
In a list .of documents preserved in the Archives of the Casa di Ricovero^
occurs the entry which follows. But several recent searches have
been made for the document itself in vain.

* " No 94 Marco Gai.etti imiesie della proprietd dei bent che si trovano in
S. Giovanni Grisostomo Marco Polo di Nicolo. 1319, 10 Settembre,
rogato dal notaio Nicolo Prete di S, Canciano.^'

The notary here is the same who made the official record of the
document last cited.

[This document was kept in the Archives of the Isiitnto degli Esposti, now trans-
ferred to the Archivio di Stato, and was found by the Ab. Cav. V. Zanetti, and
published by him in the Archivio Vene/o, XVI., 1878, pp. 98-100; parchment, 1157.
filza I.; Marco Polo the traveller, according to a letter of the i6th March, 1306, had
made in 1304, a loan of 20 lire di grossi to his cousin Nicolo, son of Marco the
elder ; the sum remaining unpaid at the death of Nicolo, his son and heir Marcolino
became the debtor, and by order of the Doge Giovanni Soranzo, Marco Galetti,
according to a sentence of the Giudici del Mobile, of the 2nd July, transferred to the
'traveller Marco on the loth September, 1319, duas proprietates que stint hospicia et
camere fosite in . . . cofi/inio sancti Ihoanis gHsostomi que fnerunt Nicolai Paiilo.
This Document is important, as it shows the exact position of Marcolino in the
family.— H. C]

7.— (1323).

Document concerning Plouse Property in S. Giovanni Grisostomo,
adjoining the Property of the Polo Family, and sold by the Lady
Donata to her husband Marco Polo. Dated May, 1323.
See No. 16 below.

App. C.

CALENDAR OF DOCUMENTS

513

1 s

a
CO

o
o

(In
O

■i-> CO ^

(U B C <

2:^ S 2 r.

.2 'C .y S
.5 5 "3 I

c <3 i3 •-

>i^ ,ti .t:!

0) rt

o a V

U, (D C

O^ en C

(U <u rt

t— I ^

— IJ "'

•— I (/) >_ p

c .^ ^

o 2 c 3

^ l5 ns

n C O

OJ O >

<u « c

•+3 O <U

C (3 5

s ^ 5

o
ti ^

2 o

CJ -^
bo D

2 (/)

-. o

•c ^

I ^

di O
o C

O '-H

w
o

OJ '

5 c/5 1)

-< 3 O

2^6 ^

D (U

■5 o

.2f 4^ S i-

^ V5 « O

s all

3 6 6^

G OJ §

<V U U

> OJ o

o
u

J-i o

U J-"

E
o

H ^3

.5 ^

O S

(/3 U

5 2 5 tJ

a5 -d

<U W5

S.S 2 Z

OS 3

•3 S

^•^.

^ ^5 S rt

o •

^^ O C

2 s'-a

<rt ^ ii

S 2

^ &|

'S i^ f^
c Q ^

1 - S
^ a, <u

U G CJ

G G Vh

rt rt <u

^ ^ 1^

^ tn (U
O 3 U

G '^ O

8.^'^S

S 6

^ s

G ,'^

n-l J^ '^

S 6 rt o

2 § S o

-I W CO

en <U

•^•^§1 6 5 -I

.'2 c w ^ *" 2

S. ?^ H G t/5 J^ aj

° -^ '^ ^

« (u •'^^ -r

- -2 3 e i!

en H-i cr C cd

>'S.2^2u erg 5

5s§

1^ t^ 5 J5 G
S OS .ti 'd G

C; en

§ I ^

3 TO -rH

■4-> S-l

G
Si a;

K CJ

^ h

'-'3-2
5 'd 03

go's

ci p. cr

^ - O

>^ ^ 7: -d -^ ^

^ 5; +-) ^ .„ . . ^^

^ ^ '§ *s 3 tj tJ

2 5-

^ o3 ^

° Ph S

O <n

o
Is.

^ &

"" G

v2 .2

G !t

« C^

.3 -xj r
r= G <«

VOL. n.

2 K

MARCO rOLO App. C.

I 1 I

<rt y

CL,

sSl? ° .-a I ^ ^S ^ « oi3 rSs^ i^'l-li §i3.2.? S
•^ ill I i-^M^i^l S g^^S ^^^-^ ^^B^ 8 S5
^ a <u o '^

3 7 ^ .s 5 r9 ^ e

00 H S c3 G ti 9

SU t5 ^

app. c. calendar of documents

5^5

o
o

IllilHI I

'H ^ '5 ^ >^ '^ =1 ^ o -r "J ^> ^

I I S I : g i5 .B- S . I I g S I ^

-^ ■§ 'S ^ S :^ •c;5 § -^ ^ '^ S ^ ^

i2-^-^ § i^i3 ^u c-n cr^fj

^ 5^-^ ^ ^ ^ ^ c; a 8 .^ S

« « S .5 X ^ - ^ § I ^ I

13 ^ g S 13 S .> 5 .y ^ S .^

VOL. II, 2 K 2

5l6 MARCO POLO App. C.

9.— (1325). ^

Release, dated 7th June, 1325, by the Lady Donata and her three
daughters, Fantina, Bellella, and Marota, as Executors of the
deceased Marco Polo, to Marco Bragadino. (From the Archivio
Notarile at Venice.) •

"In nomine Dei Eterni Amen. Anno ab Inc. Dni. Ntri. Jhu. Xri. Mille-
simo trecentesimo vigesimo quinto, mensis Junii die septimo, exeunte
Indictione octava, Rivoalti.

"Plenam et irrevocabilem securitatem facimus nos Donata relicta,
Fantina, Bellella et Marota quondam filie, et nunc omnes commissarie
Marci Polo de confinio Sancti Joannis Grisostomi cum nostris success-
oribus, tibi Marco Bragadino quondam de confinio Sancti Geminiani
nunc de confinio Sancti Joannis Grisostomi, quondam genero antedicti
Marci Polo et tuis heredibus, de omnibus bonis mobillibus quondam
suprascripti Marci Polo seu ipsius commissarie per te dictum Marchum
Bragadino quoque modo et forma intromissis habitis et receptis, ante
obitum, ad obitum, et post obitum ipsius Marci Polo, et insuper de tota
coUegancia quam a dicti quondam Marco Polo habuisti, et de ejus lucro
usque ad presentem diem ***** -x- si igitur contra hanc securi-
tatis cartam ire temptaverimus tunc emendare debeamus cum nostris
successoribus tibi et tuis heredibus auri libras quinque, et hec securitatis
carta in sua permaneat firmitate. Signum suprascriptarum Donate relicte,
Fantine, Bellelle et Marote, omnium filiarum et nunc commissarie,
que hec rogaverunt fieri.

"Ego Petrus Massario clericus Ecclesie Scti. Geminiani
testis subscripsi.

" Ego Simeon Gorgii de Jadra testis subscripsi.

"Ego DOMINICUS Mozzo presbiter plebanus Scti. Geminiani
et notarius complevi et roboravi.

"^f Marcus Barisano presbiter Canonicus et notarius ut vidi
in matre testis sum in fillip.

"I Ego Joannes Teupullo Judex Esaminatorum ut vidi in
matre testis sum in fillip.
"(l. S..N.) Ego magister Albertinus de Mayis Notarius Veneci-
arum hoc exemplum exemplari anno ab incarnatione
domini nostri Jesu Christi Millesimo trecentesimo quin-
quagesimo quinto mensis Julii die septimo, intrante
indictione octava, Rivoalti, nil addens nee minuens
quod sentenciam mutet vel sensum tollat, complevi et
roboravi." t

t This was printed in the First Edition (ii. p. 442), but was omitted in the Second.

app. c. calendar of documents

517

10.— (1326).

Resolution of Counsel of XL. condemning Zanino Grioni for insulting
Donna Moreta Polo in Campo San Vitale.

{Avvogaria di Comim. Reg. I. Raspe, 1 324-1 341, Carta 23 del 1325.)*

"Mcccxxv. Die xxvi. Februarii.
"Cum Zaninus Grioni quondrim Ser Lionardi Grioni contrate Sancte
lleustachii diceretur intulisse iniuriam Domine Morete qm. Dni. Marci Polo,
de presente mense in Campo Sancti Vitalis et de verbis iniuriosis et factis ....
Capta fuit pars hodie in dicto consilio de XL. quod dictus Zaninus condemnatus
sit ad standum duobus mensibus in carceribus comunis, scilicet in quarantia.

" Die eodem ante prandium dictus Zaninus Grioni fuit consignatus capitaneo
et custodibus quarantie," etc.

ii.-(i328).
{MaJ. Cojis. Delib. Brutus^ c. 77.)^

" Mccxxvii. Die 27 Januarii.
"Capta. Quod quoddam instrumentum vigoris et roboris processi et facti a
quondam Ser Marco Paulo contra Ser Henricum Quirino et Pauli dictum
dictum Sclavo \sic\ Johanni et Phylippo et Anfosio Quirino, scriptum per
presbyterum Johannem Taiapetra, quod est adheo corosum quod legi non potest,
relevetur et fiat," etc.

12.— (1328).

Judgment on a Plaint lodged by Marco Polo, called Marcolino, regard-
ing a legacy from Mafifeo Polo the Elder. (See I. p. 77^

{Avvogaria di Coinun. Raspe Reg. i. 1 324-1 341, c. 14 tergo, del
1329.)*

" 1328. Die XV. Mensis Marcii.
" Cum coram dominis Advocatoribus Comunis per D. Marcum, dictum
Marcolinum Paulo sancti Johannis Grisostomi fuisset querela depositata de
translatione et alienadone imprestitorum olim Domini Maphei Paulo majoris
Scti. Joh. Gris., facta domino Marco Paulo de dicto confinio in Mcccxviii
mense Mali, die xi, et postea facta heredibus ejusdem dni. Marci Paulo post
ejus mortem, .... cum videretur eisdem dominis Advocatoribus quod dicte
translationes et alienationes imprestitorum fuerint injuste ac indebite facte, vide-
licet in tantum quantum sunt libre mille dimisse Marco dicto Marcolino Paulo
predicto in testamento dicti olim dni. Mathei Paulo maioris, facti in anno
domini MCCCViii mense Februarii die vi intrante indictione viii* .... Capta
fuit pars in ipso consilio de XL** quod dicta translactio et alienatio imprestitorum

revocentur, cassentur, et annulentur, in tantum videlicet quantum sunt

dicte mille libre," etc.

13.— (1328).

Grant of citizenship to Marco Polo's old slave Peter the Tartar. (See
vol. i. p. 72.)

{Maj. Cone. Delib. Brutus, Cart. 78 t.)*

"mcccxxviii, die vii Aprilis.
"(Capta) Quod fiat gratia Petro S. Marie Formose, olim sclavorum Ser Marci
Pauli Sancti Joh. Gris., qui longo tempore fuit Venetiis, pro suo bono portamento,
de cetero sit Venetus, et pro Venetus \_sic] haberi et tractari debeat."

5l8 MARCO POLO App. C.

14.— (1328).
Process against the Lady Donata Polo for a breach of trust. See
vol. i. p. 77 (as No. 12, c. 8, del 1328).*

" Mcccxxviii. Die ultimo Maii.

"Cum olim de mandate .... curie Petitionum, ad petitionem Ser Bertutii
Quiring factum fuerit apud Dominam Donatam Paulo Sancti Joh. Oris., quoddam
sequestrum de certis rebus, inter quas erant duo sachi cum Venetis grossis intus, legati
et bullati, et postea in una capsella sigillata repositi, prout in scripturis dicti sequestri
plenius continetur. Et cum dicerctur fuisse subtractam aliquam pecunie quantitatem,
non bono modo, de dictis sachis, post dictum sequestrum, et dicta de causa per dictos

dominos Advocatores fuerit hodie in conscilio de XL. placitata dicta Dna.

Donata Paulo, penes quam dicta capsella cum sachis remansit hucusque.

cum per certas testimonias habeatur quod tempore sequestri

facti extimata fuit pecunia de dictis sacchis esse libras Ixxx grossorum vel circha,t
et quando postea numerata fuit inventam esse solummodo libras xlv grossorum et
grossos xxii, quod dicta Dna. Donata teneatur et debeat restituere et consignare in
saculo seu saculis, loco pecunie que ut predicitur deficit et extrata, et ablata est libras
XXV \jic\ grossorum. Et ultra hoc pro pena ut ceteris transeat in exemplum
condempnetur in libris ducentis et solvat eas."

I5-— (1330)-

Remission of fine incurred by an old servant of Marco Polo's.

(Reg. Grazie 3°, c. 40.)*

"mcccxxx, iiii Septembris.
"Quod fiat gratia Manulli familiari Ser Marci Polo sancti Joh. Oris, quod
absolvatur a pena librarum L pro centenariis, quam dicunt officiales Levantis
incurrisse pro eo quod ignorans ordines et pure non putans facere contra aliqua nostra
ordinamenta cum galeis que de Ermenii venerunt portavit Venecias tantum piperis et
lanse quod constitit supra soldos xxv grossorum tanquam forenses (?). Et officiales
Levantis dicunt quod non possunt aliud dicere nisi quod solvat. Sed consideratis
bonitate et legalitate dicti Manulli, qui mercatores cum quibus stetit fideliter servivit,
sibi videtur pecatum quod debeat amittere aliud parum quod tam longo tempore cum
magnis laboribus aquisivit, sunt contenti quod dicta gratia sibi fiat."

16.— (1333)-
Attestation by the Gastald and Officer of the Palace Court of his
having put the Lady Donata and her daughters in possession of
two tenements in S. Giovanni Grisostomo. Dated 12th July,

1333-

(From the Archivio of the Istituio degli EsJ>osti, No. 6.)X

The document begins with a statement, dated 22nd August, 1390,
by MORANDUS DE Carovellis, parson of St. Apollinaris and Chan-
cellor of the Doge's Aula, that the original document having been lost,
he, under authority of the Doge and Councils, had formally renewed it
from the copy recorded in his office.

In nomine Dei Eterni Amen. Anno ab Incarn. D. N. J. C. millesimo

t About 300/. sterling.

X For this I was indebted to Coram. Barozzi,

Arp. C. CALENDAR OF DOCUMENTS

519

trecentesimo tregesimo tertio mensis Julii die duodecimo, intrantis indicione
prim4 Rivoalti. Testificor Ego DONATUS Gastaldio Dni. nostri Dni.
Francisci Dandulo Dei gratis inclyti Venetiarum Ducis, et Ministerialis
Curie Palacii, quod die tercio intrante suprascripti mensis Julii, propter
preceptum ejusdem Dni. Ducis, secundum formam statuti Veneciarum, posui
in tenutam et corporalem possessionem Donatam quondam uxorem,
Fantinam et MORETAM quondam filias, omnes commissarias Nobilis Viri
Marci Paulo de confinio Scti. Johannis Grisostomi, nomine ipsius Com-
missarie, cum Belella olim filii et similiter nominate commissari^ dicti
Marci Paulo ■'^ "^ "^ de duabus proprietatibus terrarum et casis copertis
et discopertis positis in dicto confinio Scti. Johannis Grisostomi, que firmant
prout inferius in infrascripte notitie carta continetur * "^^ "^ * ut in ea
legitur :

"Hec est carta fata anno ab Inc. D. N. J. C. millesimo trecentesimo
vigesimo tercio, mensis Maij die nono, exeunte Indictione sexti, Rivoalti,
quam fieri facit Dnus. Johannes Superantio D. G. Veneciarum Dalmacie
atque Croacie olim Dux, cum suis judicibus examinatorum, suprascripto
Marco Paulo postquam venit ante suam suorumque judicum examinatorum
presenciam ipse Marcus Paulo de confinio Scti. Johannis Grisostomi, et
ostendit eis duas cartas completas et roboratas, prima quarum est venditionis
et securitatis carta, facta anno ab Inc. D. N. J. C. (1321) mensis Junii die
decimo, intrante indictione quinti, Rivoalti ; qui manifestum fecit ipsa
DONATA uxor Marci Paulo de confinio Scti. Johannis Grisostomi cum
suis successoribus quia in Dei et Christi nomine dedit, vendidit, atque trans-
actavit sibi Marco Paulo viro suo de eodem confinio et suis heredibus duas
suas proprietates terre, et casas copertas et discopertas, que sunt hospicia,
videlicet camere et camini, simul conjuncta versus Rivum . . . secundum
quod dicta proprietas sive hospicium firmat ab uno suo capite, tam superius
quam inferius, in muro comuni huic proprietati et proprietati Marci Paulo
et Stephani Paulo. Et ab alio suo capite firmat in uno alio muro comuni
huic proprietati et predictorum Marci et Stephani Paulo. Ab imo suo
latere firmat in supradicto Rivo. Et alio suo latere firmat tam superius
quam inferius in salis sive porticis que sunt comunes huic proprietati et pro-
prietati suprascriptorum Marci et Stephani Paulo fratrum. Unde hec
proprietas sive hospicia habent introitum et exitum per omnes scalas positas
a capite dictarum salarum sive porticuum usque ad curiam et ad viam
comunem discurrentem ad Ecclesiam Scti. Johannis Grisostomi et alio.
Et est sciendum quod curia, puthei, gradate, et latrine sunt comunes huic
proprietati et proprietati suprascriptorum Marci et Stephani Paulo
fratrum. * ^ * ^

[The definition of the second tenement — una cusina — follows, and then a
long detail as to a doubt regarding common rights to certain sale sive porticus
magne que respiciunt et stmt versus Ecclesiam Scti. Johannis Grisostomi, and
the discussion by a commission appointed to report ; and, again, similar
detail as to stairs, wells, etc.] — " declaraverunt et determinaverunt omnes
suprascripti cancellarii in concordid quod tam putheus qui est in dicti curii,
quam etiam putheus qui est extra curiam ad quem itur per quamdam januam
que est super calle extra januam principalem tocius proprietatis de Cha Polo,
sunt communes supradictis duabus proprietatibus Marci Paulo et toti
reliquo dicte proprietatis quod est indivisum." * * -x- -J^ Et ego supra-

520 MARCO POLO App. C.

scriptus DONATUS Gastaldio supradicti Dni. Ducis secundum predictas
declarationes et determinationes posui suprascriptas commissarias dicti
Marci Paulo die suprascripto tercio intrante mensis Julii in tenutam ct
possessionem de suprascriptis duabus proprietatibus confiniatis in carti
noticie supradicte. Et hoc per verum dico testimonium. Signum supradicti
DONATI Gastaldionis Dni. Ducis, et Ministerialis Curie Palacii, qui hec
rogavit fieri.t

I7-— (1336).

Release granted by Agnes Lauredano, sister, and by Fantina Bragadino
and Moreta Dolphyno, daughters, and all three Trustees of the
late Domina Donata, relict of Dominus Marcus Polo of S. Giov.
Grisostomo, to Dominus Raynuzo Dolphyno of the same, on
account of 24 lire of grossi\ which the Lady Donata Polo had
advanced to him on pledge of many articles. Dated 4th March,
1336. The witnesses and notary are the same as in the next.
(In the Archivio Generate j Pacta, Serie T, No. 144.)

i8.-(i336).

Release by the Ladies Fantina and Moreta to their aunt Agnes Laure-
dano and themselves, as Trustees of the late Lady Donata, on
account of a legacy left them by the latter.§ Dated 4th March,
1336.

(In the Archivio Generate; Pacta, Serie T, No. 143.)

" Plenam et irrevocabilem securitatem facimus nos Fantina uxor Marci Braga-
dino de confinio Scti. Johannis Grisostomi et Moreta uxor Renuzi Delfino de
dicto confinio Scti. Johannis Grisostomi, ambe sorores, et filie comdam Donate
relicte Domini Marci Pollo de dicto confinio Scti. J. G. cum nostris successoribus,
vobis Agneti Lauredano, comdam sorori, ac nobis preditis Fantine et Morete
dim filiabus (predicte Donate) omnibus commissariabus predicte Donate relicte
dicti Domini Marci Polo de predict© confinio S. J. G. et vestris ac nostris success-
oribus de libris denarioruni Veneciarum Grossorum quadraginta quinque, que libre
den. Ven. gros. quadraginta quinque sunt pro parte librarum den. Ven. gros. quadra-
ginta octo quas suprascripta Domina Donata olim mater nostra secundum formam sui
testamenti cartam nobis dimisit, in quibus libris . . . sententiam obtinuimus . . .
anno ab Inc. D.N.J.C. Millesimo trecentesimo trigesimo quinto mensis febbruarij
die ultimo (29th February, 1336) indictione, quarta Rivoalti.

*' Signum suprascriptarum Fantine et Morete que hec rogaverunt fieri.

"Ego Marcus Lovari Canonicus Sancti Marci testis sub-

scripsi.
" Ego NICOLETUS DE BoNOMO Canonicus Sancti Marci testis

subscripsi.
"(l. s. N.) Ego Presbiter GuiDO Trevisano Canonicus Sancti Marcij

et Notarius complevi et roboravi."

t See i. p. 31. — Reprinted from the First Edition.

X About ^o/.

§ Of 48 lire of grossi, or about i8o/.

app. c. calendar of documents 521

19.— (1388).

[Document dated 15th May, 1388, found at the Archives degli Esposii^
now at the Archivio di Stato, by the Ab. Cav. V. Zanetti, containing
a sentence of the Giudici della Curia del Procuraiore in favour of
Pietro Bragadin against Agnesina, sister, and Catartnuzza, widow
of Matteo Polo di S. Giovanni Grisostomo, for work done. This
document is interesting^ as it shows that this Matteo was a son of
Marcolino. Published partly in the Archivio Veneto, XVI., 1878,
pp. 102-103. — H. C]

20.— (138S.)

[Document dated 15th May, 13S8, found in the Archives degli Esposti^
now at the Archivio di Stato, by the Ab. Cav. V. Zanetti, and
mentioned by him in the Archivio Veneto, XVI.y 1878, pp. 104-105,
containing a sentence of the Giudici della Curia del Procuratore in
favour of Pietro Bragadin against the Commissaries of the late
Matteo Polo.— H. C]

522

MARCO POLO

App. D.

l-H

o
w

Ph
Pm

S'S g

s <<-.§

4J •< (U

c -^ ■=

o ^ j^

C! -2 "^

O Oh OJ

<U 2 d

•& S CI.

d -^ "^

C3 52 ^ b/3

s .: r "^ -^ ;^

§ >

trij bfl

>- " o bjj "'
/n ii ■'-' c ir!

3 §. O

1> cti

o a

^ o

§ s

►^ o X .ii2 "u
<u g c3 (U aj

n^ <u

.S -^

O S «! ^ "

t>^ =^

o <o

<L)

2 O

2 <

^ >

B -^

S ^
to ^

5c > ^ ^

S ^ S

D (U rt

.S2 ^ g

ca Kj o

1) (U 4_. JJ

'77! =1 ••< P (u tt;

no K

5^ s

L*^ - ^ "^ ^ :. ^ rt

X c ^ ^

0) g

O^ fciD cj

3o > g

t5 ii <3-> ,/

- "> " ^

a w

•3 '" is

H n

<L» o o +j S:*

.ri .•"

^ O

C/3 .,i, w >-,

■13 > <« V-

ti B

s ^

O -O

g 2

W a^

!/3

<D OJ cn tn

C <U J-

t/3

g .^ «^ '^^ ^-g « 0^ ^ ''.-;3 § ^^

Q JU (U

^ (^ Z, ^

!^" </5 "

w l^ -^ vj — gj in

hn 3 > ^ in 3

w <y S2

c cr

W o

..3's.S'^'§ss^a|ss

M O

. aJ +j

^13«Ja>T5d„, ^^^^cS-SooT^-

oj 0) 3

« -2 a; -^

u5 C C -

<L) O M C

" S 2 2

<L) 3 (U (U

■u. N S

;_. '^.^ ° > q c'^ u - V ^- Q
rVri3'^"Sl4J<^tuO,„(u'T3--|£:!C „

sow

S ana

Arp. D.

DIFFERENT RECENSIONS OF POLO'S TEXT

523

^ o §

OJ o c^

cow

a^^u

0:i

H-1

:< 2 w

^ to

s "^^ '^ d
<U'.2 S

^ rt O — I

.1^ It

• - ^ '^ rt

ill?

ri cr

g -4J cr

^o ^

>-! !->

O O

C ?; >
c3 rt o
DC a

<«

s s ^

O cj W'

_ C t-i • "
•CO ^

V ^ ^

- E '>

a, c2 o

C3 _^ 2i

■t; "^ aj

•-^ ^" "J

-- § ^.

t« G n

S.2 §•

^ w a

w c C .

- « O

cr <u
3

c-c'8

bJ3 rt

K rt rt

^ - 2

g O^

e i3 1^

C n3
3 O

<
^ <

< ^

Hi} :z:

•■§1

H o

^ 2

dJ -rH

W g

o .

S "

i 2

Q H

5 cr-c

-^ 3

fl O 4J

O ^ 'O

rJ3 i!

O T3

g -o

o
o

o .^

g -^ •

3 "^3 3
'^ ,— CT"

<U O v^

c m 7\

o .5

g cr-'-
g -, Pi

i3 o o

■< 73

-^ O

cr ^
S W d
« .1

Z 'g to

S^ g

M g 3

s g ■«
< s ^

^^ ^

"Q 'C -xs
,— I ±i w

3 3

cr;:^ cr

o 3

O C

Si I

.J cr

•5: O

O ^

tJD
O

.•- o o

rt o fl '

S ■

o
o

•rH O

1^ 'S

o ,0

< (U o

S rrt .Si "1 "

:iv.

m in -»

" S, <=!

C « §

2 6 <u

n3 3 o

O ■'3

524

MARCO POLO

Ai'P. D.

c
o

P «

CO J?:

u ci

1— >

»5 O

P-i

(^ fO

D50

r'n

Pi ro

W p

z S B

(/) c c

*1^ /-^ rt

rt o

•i: (^

o
a,

- 5- »^

cT g^ 5

I § ^

S 1=^ c

o <u

^ ^ -p

.2 G

e .;2

5 :3 -XJ

<, (U
fc! <«

-^ Go H «

•3 = "" 1 I

I S^ 2

y (/) M •- S

^ S 6 § S

O x2 oj oS rt

OU
;?; o

o <"

— : <u

3 o

(U (L>

U2 ci

*. '^ t;
■i si

CO cr

6 - -

t/) t/3 [/)

CJ <U 3

^ "D rQ

T^ o
a,

^.•^

-I-' t3

(U r^

o 5

>^ P.

•J3 <u h

> to

■u '3 2 *j '*^

a a

■g "

Ed '^

B <u

o 5 Id rt

^1 g^g^

o ■

C/2

§^

•^'biO

P-l (L> JD

IS ,

■^ .sf § -^ if

c o <u '^ S

w c3

IS 'So

S c 8

I ^

I c •

!3 .S <u

o t-

S g
■" I

^ 5

o
B

Ji H ^ _3 :-3

cj .1^ cr' "TJ O Pn.tl

"21

^ (S a f: :: _

■^ "^ (U (D O 3 Cfl

Q ^

'^ o ^
<: c 2

ON
CO

Pi T

*< s

PQ rt

^ s g ^

1-^

.s 2: 'O

53 -^
oO

o "^ .

W S-B

S S °

P^.S 3 c

S o rt «

<u X c5 "^ •— '

3 3 wi ^ ro (u

'0<rtc/3 oj 6 v^

TO 4-» t- flj r^ r^ 4-1

a w o (i; v5 B (u

|3"

j3 3 i5
3 ell's

■si.s

.?3

4-. P
3 O

c B

c
p o
o

3 3
rQ cr"

t3 o c t/3 «5 i»

O lU 3 -p 3 xJ

§« 3 a.-a o

'^■^S'^ o B
is 3 tJ-^t;

3 3

•r <c5 3 '*

'III
o > >

G P

g S

Oh <U

3P^
.S O

app. e. preface of friar piping 5^5

Appendix E. — The Preface of Friar Pipino to his
Latin Version of Marco Polo.
(Circa 131 5— 1320.)

" The Book of that prudent, honourable, and most truthful gentleman, Messer
Marco Polo of Venice, concerning the circumstances and manners of the Regions of
the East, which he conscientiously wrote and put forth in the Vulgar Tongue, I,
Friar Francesco Pipino of Bologna, of the Order of the Preaching Friars, am
called upon by a number of my Fathers and Masters to render faithfully and truthfully
out of the vulgar tongue into the Latin. And this, not merely because they are
themselves persons who take more pleasure in Latin than in vernacular compositions,
but also that those who, owing to the diversity of languages and dialects, might find
the perusal of the original difficult or impossible, may be able to read the Book with
understanding and enjoyment.

"The task, indeed, which they have constrained me to undertake, is one which
they themselves could have executed more competently, but they were averse to
distract their attention from the higher contemplations and sublime pursuits to which
they are devoted, in order to turn their thoughts and pens to things of the earth
earthy. I, therefore, in obedience to their orders, have rendered the whole substance
of the Book into such plain Latin as was suited to its subject.

"And let none deem this task to be vain and unprofitable; for I am of opinion
that the perusal of the Book by the Faithful may merit an abounding Grace from the
Lord ; whether that in contemplating the variety, beauty, and vastness of God's
Creation, as herein displayed in His marvellous works, they may be led to bow in
adoring wonder before His Power and "Wisdom ; or, that, in considering the depths
of blindness and impurity in which the Gentile Nations are involved, they may be
constrained at once to render thanks to God Who hath deigned to call His faithful
people out of such perilous darkness into His marvellous Light, and to pray for the
illumination of the hearts of the Heathen. Hereby, also, the sloth of undevout
Christians may be put to shame, when they see how much more ready the nations of
the unbelievers are to worship their Idols, than are many of those who have been
marked with Christ's Token to adore the True God. Moreover, the hearts of some
members of the religious orders may be moved to strive for the diffiision of the
Christian P'aith, and by Divine Aid to carry the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for-
gotten among so vast multitudes, to those blinded nations, among whom the harvest
is indeed so great, and the labourers so few.

'* But lest the inexperienced Reader should regard as beyond belief the many
strange and unheard of things that are related in sundry passages of this Book, let all
know Messer Marco Polo, the narrator of these marvels, to be a most respectable,
veracious, and devout person, of most honourable character, and receiving such good
testimony from all his acquaintance, that his many virtues claim entire belief for that
which he relates. His Father, Messer Nicolo, a man of the highest respectability,
used to relate all these things in the same manner. And his uncle, Messer MafFeo,
who is spoken of in the Book, a man of ripe wisdom and piety, in familiar conversa-
tion with his Confessor when on his death-bed, maintained unflinchingly that the
whole of the contents of this Book were true.

''Wherefore I have, with a safer conscience, undertaken the labour of this
Translation, for the entertainment of my Readers, and to the praise of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things visible and invisible."

526

MARCO POLO

App. F.

Appendix v.— Note ofMSS. of Marco Polo so far as
they are known.

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF MSS.

Latin

French

Italian

German

Irish

Total

Great Britain

and Ireland ...
Cambridge
Dublin . .

3
I

...

Lismore Castle .

Glasgow .
London .

...

Oxford .

...

France

Paris

...

Luxemburg

Belgium

Brussels .

I
I

...

Italy

Venice

...

Ferrara

...

Milan . .

Modena .

Florence .

Lucca

Siena

Rome

...

Spain

Escurial .

Toledo .

Switzerland ...
Bern .

Vevey.

...

Germany
Munich

Wolfenbiittel .

Berlin

...

Wiirzburg .
Giessen

I
I

...

Jena .

...

Mentz

...

Austria

Prague

Vienna

...

Sweden

Stockholm

...

App. F.

MSS. OF MARCO POLO— MINIATURES

527

I add Lists of the Miniatures in two of the finer MSS. as noted from
examination.

List of Miniatures in the Great Volume of the French National
Library, commonly known as ' Le Livre des Merveilles' (Fr. 2810)
which belong to the Book of Marco Polo.

21.
22.

23-
24.

Frontispiece. "Comment les deux
freres se partirent de Constanti-
nople pour chechier du monde."
Conversation with the Ambassadors
at Bokhara (fol. 2).
The Brothers before the G. Kaan

(f. 2 1^.).

The Kaan giving them Letters

(f. 3).

„ a Golden

Tablet (f. 3 v.).

The Second Departure from Venice

(f. 4).

The Polos before Pope Gregory

(f. 4^.)

The two elder Polos before the

Kaan presenting Book and Cross

(f. 5).

The Polos demand con^^ (f. 6).

(Subject obscure) (f 7).

Georgians, and Convent of St.

Leonard (f 8).

The Calif shut up in his Treasury

(f. 9)-

The Calif ordering Christians to

move the Mountain (f 10).

Miracle of the Mountain (God is

seen pushing it) (f 10 v.)

The three Kings en route (f. ii v.).

,, ,, ,, adoring the Fire

(f. 12).

(Subject obscure — Travelling in
Persia?) (f. 12 z;.)
Cattle of Kerman (f 13 z'.).
Ship from India arriving at Hormus
(f. 14'^.).

Travelling in a Wood, with Wild
Beasts (f 15 z^.).

The Old Man's Paradise (f. 16 v.).
The Old Man administering the
Potion (f 17).

Hunting Porcupines in Badashan
(f 18).

Digging for Rubies in Badashan
(f. 18).

25. Kashmir — the King maintaining
Justice {i.e.y seeing a Man's head
cut off) (f. 19 z;.).

26. Baptism of Chagatai (f. 20 v. ).

27. People of Charchan in the Desert
(f 21 t/.).

28. Idolaters of Tangut with Ram
before Idol (f. 22 v.).

29. Funeral Festivities of Tangut (f 23).

30. (Subject obscure) (f 24).

31. Coronation of Chinghiz (f. 25 v.).

32. Chinghiz sends to Prester John (f 26).

33. Death of Chinghiz (f 27).

34. (Subject obscure) (f 28).

35. Some of Pliny's Monsters {hpropos
de bottes) (f 29 v.).

-^d. A Man herding White Cattle (?)
(f. 30 z^.).

37. Kublai hawking, with Cheeta en
croupe (f. 31 v.).

38. Kaan on Elephant, in Battle with
Nayan (f 33).

39. Nayan with his wife surprised by
the enemy (f. 34).

40. The Kaan's four Queens (f. 36).

41. The Kaan's Palace, with the Lake
and Green Mount (f. 37).

42. The Kaan's Son's Palace (f 38).

43. The Kaan's Banquet (f 39).

44. ,, worship of Idols (f 40).

45. The Kaan travelling in Horse-
litter (f. 41).

46. ,, hunting (f. 42).

47. ,, in Elephant - Utter
(f 42 v.).

48. The White Feast (f. 44).

49. The Kaan gives Paper for Treasure

(f. 45)-

50. Couriers arrive before Kaan (f 46 v. ).

51. The Kaan transplants big Trees

(f.47^'.).

52. The Bridge PuHsangin (f. 49).

53. The Golden King as a Cow-herd
(f. 50).

54. Trade on the Caramoran (f. 51).

528

MARCO POLO

App. F.

55. The Girls of Tibet (f. 52 v.).

56. Fishing Pearls in Caindu (f. 54).

57. Dragons of Carajan (f. 55 v.).

58. Battle of Vochan (f. 58).

59. The Forests of Mien, Elephants in
the Wood (f. 59).

60. ,, ,, and Unicorns, etc.
(f. 59 z/.).

61. Lion hunting in Coloman (f. 61).

62. Return from the Chase (f. 62 v. ).

63. The Queen of Manzi surrenders (f. 64).

64. The City of Quinsai (f. 67).

65. The Receipt of Custom at Quinsai
(f. 69).

66. Curiosities brought from India to
Great Kaan (f. 71).

67. War with Chipangu (f. 72).

68. Scene at Sea (an Expedition to
Chipangu?) (f. 73'^-)-

69.
70.

72.
73-
74.
75-
76.

77-
78.

79-
80.
81.
82.

83.
84.

Cannibals of Sumatra (f. 74 v.).
Cynocephali (rather Alopeco-
cephali !) (f. 76 v. ).
The folk of Ma'abar, without rai-
ment (f. 78).

Idol worship of Indian girls (f. 80).
The Valley of Diamonds (f. 82).
Brahmin Merchants (f. 83).
Pepper gathering (f. 84).
Wild Beasts (f. 85).
City of Cambaia (f. 86 v.),
Male and Female Islands (f. 87).
Madagascar (f. 88).
Battle of the Abyssinian Kings (f 89 v. )
City of the Ichthyophagi (f. 91).
Arab horses at Calatu (f. 92).
Wars of Caidu (f. 93 v. ).
Prowess of Caidu's daughter
(f. 95 ^.).*

List of Miniatures in the Bodleian MS. of Marco PoLO.t

Frontispiece (f. 218).

15.

The Kaan giving the Golden Tablet.

16.

Presentation of Pope's Letter.

17.

Taking of Baudas.

18.

The Bishop before the Calif.

19.

The Three Kings at Bethlehem.

20.

White Oxen of Kerman.

21.

Paradise of the Old Man.

22.

River of Balashan.

23-

10.

City of Campichu.

24.

II.

Battle with Prester John.

25.

12.

Tartars and their Idols.

26.

13-

The Kaan in his Park at Chandu.

27.

14.

Idol Worship.

28.

Battle with Nayan.

Death of the Rebels.

Kaan rewarding his Officers.

,, at Table.

,, hunting.
The Kaan and his Barons.
The Kaan's alms.
City of Kenjanfu.
,, ,, Sindinfu.
People of Carajan.
The Couvade.

Gold and Silver Towers of Mien.
Funeral Customs.
The Great River Kian ?

* + This MS. Fr. 2810 (formerly 8392), known as the Livre des Merveilles, belonged to the Library
of John, Duke of Berry, at the Chateau of Mehun-sur-Yevre, 1416, No. 116 of the catalogue ; also No.
196, p. 186, of Z^ Cabinet des Manuscrits de la Bibl. Nationale, par. L. Delisle, III. Count A. de
Bastard began publishing some of the miniatures, but did not finish the work. Of the miniatures,
Nos. I, 12, 19, 35, 41, 37, 45, 47, 52, 56, 57, 60, 66, 70, 75, 78, 81 are engraved, pp. 258, 273, 282, 310,
316, 317, 328, 332, 340, 348, 350, 354, 381, 392, 406, 411, 417 in Chartons Voyageurs du Moyen Age,
vol. ii., besides two others, pp. 305, 395, not identified ; [in my edition of Odoric, I reproduced Nos. 33,
41, 70, pp. 439, 377, 207.— H. C] ; in the present work, Nos. 5, 31, 41, 52, 70 are engraved, vol. i.
pp. IS, 244, 369 ; Nos. 52, 70, vol. ii. pp. 5, 311. Nos. 60 and 75 have been reproduced, pp. 97 and
98 of Fagnefs Hist, de la Litterature Frangaise, and ed., Paris, 1900.

t [Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, who thought at first that this MS. was written at the end of the 14th
century, in his Introduction to Early Bodleian Music, by J. F. R. Stainer and C. Stainer, London,
1901, has come to the conclusion (p. xviii.) that it belongs to the first half of the 15th century. I
agree with him. Mr. Nicholson thinks that the writing is English, and that the miniatures are by a
Flemish artist ; Mr. Holmes, the King's Librarian, believes that both writing and miniatures are
English. This MS. came into the Bodleian Library between 1598 and 1605, and was probably given
by Sir Thomas Bodley himself.— H. C]

API'. K

MSS. OF MARCO POLO— MINIATURES

529

29. The Attack of Saianfu (with a
Cannon, a Mangonel, and a Cross-
bow).

30. City of Quinsay.

31. Palace of Facfur.

32. Port of Zaylon.

33. Cynocephali.

34.

35. Idolaters of Little Java.

36. Pearl Divers.

2)T. Shrine of St. Thomas.

38. The Six Kings, subject to Abyssinia.

Part of the Frontispiece is engraved in
vol. i. p. 18 of the present work ;
the whole of the Frontispiece repre-
senting the Piazzetta reduced has
been poorly reproduced in Mrs.
Oliphant's The Alakers of Venice,
London, 1887, P- I34-

VOL. II.

2 L

530

MARCO POLO

Apr. F.

^
^

.2
o

•^

fi.

►Si?

'^^.^

S "- ^

11-2

o ^5 d

«J aj S

<: ^

o ^ b"^

r/1 t-i '-' r\

<kj v>

53 -:

g ^ 8
Jf^ , 'i^ .^ ><s r

«.5

^1
;.0

"^^3

M V3 O

^3 J:^

*pq

S b

•^ ^

g
(U

'j-i

•c

Ai'P. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

531

"^ -S i2

CO =

^ a;

■JU -S S^ _ iJ
O ^^ 'i' H i5 _L

'S ^s

f- C3 dJ r-i

i'^ o

•C ^^ '^3 t-i ij °

k » G

C o/;'

:z; u2 ts^ "^ <U CIh N

OJ-S-t! .

2^^

vT G ^ ,<tf c o .;2 ^ ^ ^

lis
' ' o

^ rt C

•S S o

C O

CO -^ ID N

■N .'<3 fO" _c $ '53
t; -1 cq -g ^ ^

i_J .o " s

^ O <u r>

S HH tj C^

O <L> «

^ c rt S

_^s

c^W

•5 o <-'

<u o

•^

^g-

.-§1

VOL. 11.

2 L 2

532

MARCO POLO

App. F.

c
o
(J

O
X
h

[/*. Meyer, Romania, XL,
1882, pp. 290-301. E.
W. B. Nicholson; Per-
sonal.— H. C]

c/5

b
O

2:
o

5
3

Britain and Ireland — {continued).

This is bound up with the celebrated Alexander
MS. It is a beautiful work, embellished
with thirty- eight miniatures, some of which
are exquisite, e.g., the Frontispiece, a
large piece of about 9 J in. x 9 in. , forming
a sort of condensed view of the Field of
Travel ; a large part of it occupied by
Venice, of which our cut {The Piazzetta)
in vol. i. , p. j8, Introduction, is an extract.
Another fine work (f. 220) represents the three
Polos presenting the Pope's Letter to the
Kaan. The embroidered bands on the Kaan's
robe form an inscription, in which is legible
'■'■Johannes me fecit." This Mr. Coxe attri-
butes to John of Cologne, a known artist of
the 14th century. He considers the MS.
to be of about 1380. The Alexander is
dated 1338, and its illuminations as finished
in I344byjehan de Grise. [See supra, p.
528, note.'\

A comparison of a good many readings, as well
as of the point where the version breaks ofi",
and the words : '■'Explicit le Livre nomm^ du
Grant Caan de la Gratint Citi de Cambahic,
Dietix ayde Amen,'' indicate that this MS.
is of the same type as Pauthier's C (No. 20
in this List) and the Bern. MS. (No. 63).

The name given in the colophon as above has

Great
French

d
12;

H
<

App. F,

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

533

I
r

"fe.

•^'r^
« 'O

^^1

I-

>;se

^ -o

'"^ ^ 5
^^s

2 c3 ^

^ bJDO
Co
T3 ^ y

^ <u o

-^ § §

T-) >

^ c G G
o Ph i-U ^

-o g o ^

W B rj "S

<u o n

c3 !:< j_, c«

.2 > S 'f'S
o ^ <^ a o

1^ ^

^§

•X}

rt ^'-> ^ >^ ,«

S(?

s i:^

4J ^

a, o.

^ o

runs

(U ^

.-2 •-

1S>

s d

onville and
College,
162

a '-3

more Castl
a Transcr
Library of
Irish Aca
Dublin

t/i

<^<

'-?

)-i

<i;

534

MARCO POLO

App. F.

c
o
u

«-5

• - "on bi ts- Si

- tj oj b S

g " S '^ Si ^

S ^ O S r^J ">i

^1:^ d cs ^3 ^ <j

feg-S

= ..§

_. rtH

P4 3

[^°«

o C S
0) u '^

.. I— t ►«»

I ON

..^q

.Vj

^c a

rt 2 OJ _,

0, ^^ rt 3 O

•"s^??

C/3

"^ 'q. O "5 <U <^ -M

c3 C 4^ b -5 » O

bill's

f>.vO

C S
C ,_^

A pp. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

535

c.i'

IFUlK

u-S'^^.

Hod

O D > "^ .i;

-< fcjOt-J
oj S oj

■73 > pq ^ o

u: W Xi '13 <;

3 ^,5^^

1-^ c

_ 0) <u ■" :>-

^ ^ T. " o

h-l (U

(U vj ;j

C! S'T3

"5 r ) is

^ r 1

o OJ

0) tn '^ 1^

•^ IJ § S <"

1-2 11 =

rt to • . t/3 *J Ui

^^ V ,^ <V V <U

bJJ

(X! 2

.in 'a

S g
■ a> 3

.'^ CI

C3 Q !"

r't* '^^ ^

•2 - §

^g a 03

5" 3 C o
fcjOT3 - Si --ii

(^ W "^ ^ In
^?^^°

^ C 3 tfl '-^

>% 1/5 -^ flj <i

•Co t^" ^

<U cj ^ r:

a-^ at;-
f^ o

c/5 C!

o-> ii

bjo fcij.a

O 0^ ^

^^a

a; ^ tj

So P^ O

o " "12 •
^ -^ 'o
QJ^^ >

^ ^-H •

OJ o its w

- ^ 2

■2 o ."^

536

MARCO POLO

App. F.

P
c

c
o
o

•5

■-J

[X,

h
X

France— {continued).

"Ci commencent les rebriches de cest Livre
qui est appellez le Deuisement du Monde,
lequel je Grigoires contrefais du Livre de
Messire Marc Pol le meilleur citoien de
Venisse creant Crist."

At the beginning of the Text is a coarse draw-
ing of Kublai on his bretesche, carried by
four elephants (vol. i., p. 337) ; and after
the prologue another apparently represent-
ing the Princess Aijaruc wrestling with her
wooer (vol. ii. p. 465).

This is Pauthier's MS. A. (vol. i, Int., Various
Types of the Text), and also was in the Due
de Berry's Library, valued at 6 livres 5 sols.
[Second half of the 14th cent.].

This is Pauthier's MS. C. (See as before). It
is that which has the certificate about the
original presented to the Seigneur de Cepoy ;
see Int., p. 6g.

At the end is Bertran Pichart scripsit hoc.
Small 4to, parchment, in a clear enough
half-current hand ; 134 ff.

Came from the library of the Archb. of
Rheims. [Middle of the 15th century.]

o
<

o
z

■
French

French

<
u
3
z

Bib. nationale, No.
10260 (now Fr.
5631)

Bib. nationale, No,
10,270 (now Fr.
5649)

<
U

Paris .
Paris .

2: %

App. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

537

^'"^

•I

. a,

tfl OJ 4J t« t3 -"

&i rv (U M

X <U C ^ g<3 '

tJ3 > „ >3 O '— ' O
> £3 O C O jH ■i:

C/3

;^o^^5^.^^^'

O 3

W OJ g

c/3 5^ «<>s;^

' Xi ^3

OtJ

O (U

•;3 -fcj (U

P ^ Pr^ ^^

■^ .o

CC/5 '-S-S-

■£ -^ O .. - [;5 £ -^ ^ o ^ d

Ci <u *j

c< 8

3
PL,

15^^

sills

?j V ,^ 3 i^ tt, -s ,Q - 5 -S;
t; V, -^ -.■«^'^. <il2 h i*

^ I ?2 I .^ -I

- '5 g «".

« N» " M5, -^ ,

•xi o

538

MARCO POLO

A pp. F.

Q
12;

C t/i ^

o '^•^

O li T3 a;
c

1^1,"^ iSl ^

--^^•11^ S^'". 2

. *j («

Co. '^ -^ -J

.2 IS J

»so C-, ;>i Ji •§

K. -J " 1^
« S rt Jj

^ o^irj*^

a o

CO > "-^ si

6 "^-^

k" ^^ vc 5s "J* <i

.,1

■5-0

■^ O "^ k'S V) VC 'S

(£1

12;

«5

(iT

'rt

-rt

"cS .

»o

c
o

•13. IT)

■-3 VO

■-2 rt

cS On

rt M

a ^

c li

C N

. fn

. VO

^' "^

■pq

•

'Ji

1/)

»^

App. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

539

••p St

1^^ y

^ 6

2 rt (D nj

3 Si ajg

-^ bJO> §

'" >^ n
!-( uj 2

3-^ ^ I

O C ^r

»>^ '-O X (
O c cj OJ ,

^. ^

^§ 8

^ -^ .^ ^ ^

2 «

bit) .

C 13

■a .2

d )-i

5 >
<-> tfl

"o
oT.g

:'~°-

o Q-4->
OJ o o
G W C

C S

o ^

a; S

"o
>

O !«

o o

n3 >,

§3

s-s

W^^

3cj

O CQ

540

MARCO POLO

App. F.

,<3

h-i

W
Ph

o ^

5.S

'O ^«

o;^

^;h

rO.S

. >^^'"

■<

c/5 -^C

"O <L> ^

'"'

.S H^£>

.S-S

fi^flH

i3 \0 '^

d
'a,

(-1 >-

o ^
c

fe CttO

.2 t}^^ ^ 12

(U lU O rt t^

O -

.2 ^

Si .

t/3 — :«
O 5

oat o

X3 cu

II 5^ 2

S o

b"X3

.-SO

:v^> ^

i.-i

^Oi

A pp. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

541

<U O G

.2 <u

;3 «* s c

^ 2 G ^

rt lJ eg M

.S ^ « 3 5

o -S •

. (« ^ S JJ >

0.2

> s d ^

O ^ S C3

' T3
ju-c ^ <u ^

Ml .

-I '■y '-' .—

:^ oj (U >-.i4-. c

.13 «5 ifl o X3 O .1h

(U t/)

-^ 2

.^ o

cj So

3 O

:: >

a; g O rt
03 S a; '^^

•^ ^ O c^ C

!t3 oti

2 iicr;

^ ^ 5 2 u

•^ U > ^ *^

CAi O S OJ iJ

G-S ^ S^ rt ^

flj o w ^ w -^

o
c
'a-

j^ Si o

N ^ "ij n

c_ ^ 1^ C

V. o

"^ = 'c^ 'o ti

^' II

2 ^^< w"

•N g

k5 O o
o ^

o .v: 00

3 q

U7.

C CQ
^ •

o .
2

54^

MARCO POLO

App. t\

<2>

•W

U
h

Muratori ; and Prof. Bian-
coni, Degli Scritti di Marco
Polo, etc,

*
*

c/5

o
o

It ATJY— {continued).

Pipino's Parchment of 14th century. Muratori
speaks of this. {Script. VII.) as ''fortassis
autographtim. "

The Crusca MS., of which an account has
been given, vol. i. Int., Original Language
of the Book.

Paper, folio, early in 14th century.

Many liberties taken with the text, and mucli
abridged and disarranged. Thus, after the
Prologue it proceeds: '' Jl nome di Dio io
Marcho Polo Veneziarto raccontero tutte le
maravigliose chose ch'io trovai e vidi, etc.
etc." It ends at the chapter on Russia with
the following impertinence : ^'^ E se volete
sapere pitt innanzi dimandatene nn altro
chHo Marcho Polo 7ion cercai piii avanti.^'
The Khalif is called Largaliffe ; Reobarles,
Reuharhe, with a marginal note in an old
hand, " Reubarbe citta di Persia, donde viene
il reubarberoherbamedicinale." Completed
by Dolfo Spini, i6th July, 1425. Paper.
Belonged to the Strozzi Collection.

o
<

Latin

Italian
{ Tuscm)

Italian

Este Library .

Bib. Magliabecchi-
ana (now Na-
zionale), CI.
XIIL, Plut.
IV. c. 104

Bib. Magliabecchi-
ana (now Na-
zionale), CI
XIIL, Plut.
IV. c. 73

< 1 P

1 S S

1 s s

§ fXH W

CO ^ ^

App. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

543

o ii s

13 o «

, o ^

^ 8 «

> o

8 ^ ^

<ci

2"tq o-

cT =" • , • iJ
^.S S^ -^^ ^
«i 5 I S Q ^

'^ -" "^ "^ ov ..2

o o > 2 «c ^

t/j^ts'^ ^8^

T3 =

-^^ 8

. cS 3 -fc-"
.2 o ^
'35 1) O '"'
(/J — TD >+<

pq
o

C
W

S 2

tJO

c
'•^ b

.2 ^

PlhO.

- ^
oN

. "N

'o S
> o

o w^
>i3 <u-5

5^W

4J ,
O t/3

C/3 H

^ o S^ S

a; g ^ -^E'-" ^
&3 g 8 S ■« .2 -O ji

i-'tn'-'t/)_,4_.CV

S s SO

Uii ^.^P^O^i

<2S

k^ - ^^

O rt I— ( .

. rt C Ah
J2

b
"'3

3 a

-1

I-]

Jxh

■^

544

MARCO POLO

App. F.

3
G

§
k

•<!

3
w

Ph
PU

H
D

1 1

b.
O

Italy — {continued).

Corresponds to the corrupt Venice epitome
published in 1496. Contains also Odorico.

[Ends : — " Complito el libro de le cosse mirabile
vedute per lo nobile homo Messer Marcho Polo
gientelomo de Venesia a di 12 de Marzo 1465
per mi Daniele da Verona in sul Ponte de'
Berettari al onore e laude delP Omnipotente."

Paper, 4to, 75 fif.

H. Cordier, Odoric, pp. xcvi.-xcviii.]

This is a miscellaneous MS. which, among
other things, contains a fragment of Polo,
" Qui comlcio eUibro di Missere Macho Polo
da Vinegia de le cose mauiglose che trovo
p lo mondo," etc. It calls Rusticiano
Missere Stacio ^ da Pisa.—N.B.—^^\A^\\\
gives a very similar description of a fragment
at Siena, but under press mark A. IV. 8. I
assume that it is the same that I saw.

A fragment, going no further than the chapter
on Georgia, and ending thus : "Autre chose
ne vous en scay dire parquoi je vous fois fin
en ce livre ; le nom de notre Seigneur soi
benoist et de sa benoiste Mere. Amen. Loys
de Luxembourg."

Parchment, 14 cenl.

Italian ( Ven.
dialect)

Italian
French

<;
y

Bib. governativa,
Coll. (Lucchesini,
Giacomo), No. n6
(now No. 296)

•

Public Library,
c. V. 14

Vatican Library,
Cod. 2207, Otto-
boniano

Lucca .
Siena
Rome .

Tl- LO "^

App. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

545

§11

lid

'^ ?^ S 'o •

.H2

en W3

^rO^

;§

OOD

t/1

<U (/I

O J3

> i5

fl-^

J =^

•■^^^

•^s

1^ :^

■zi «

"^c:^ q'-s -:

3 O cj

O Q.

£ g

S S "^'^

c/5 2

T3 '-I

a k

P4^

5^ o « ^ -§

o s "" s I "^ .

ti"^ ^^ h o

£/5 r,-, "T? tv> K?l "^ ^ a

0:5

s^^.S

^ <U C3

-5

t^l^

o S

ex. c/i >i3

^ o^ OJ

a ^ o

.a «

S«

d O

.a>^

^ T

•a ^

Ci3

T)-

VOL. II,

2 M

546

MARCO rOLO

App. F.

X
Q

***

••»

n-.

X u->

•S 2

-S fe'S

•

O c

C
GO

,bJ3

•

•5 gf^

tl.
o

/?;
o

•

^•2

IN
•rt-

o liH

111

"^ l-H* ^

1
1

-1

1^-

1 ^s

•i

<!
H

H- (

C/2

•

— I-

"^•S

►4

t«

.§ "^

►vj

•^

•■^

•^

•^ s

«3

u5
2

O
H

'^J ^

^ «

1— J
>

13
1

;-<

■h3

;

•<

•

C£

t2
(J

t/2

„

»o

LT)

App. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

547

log

_ !/5 'd
G Oj (J3

c ^ o
a; ^ (^

c3 ^ M ?;:::;'-'

•^ I

^ (/! -C

y:2 ^ ^ oV-" '^
•Z3 O f_ -^ >^ u C

■S ^^-^Z o ^ S
52 o V c u2 •■^ 'o ^

'^ C S CJ ^ ^ a;

bJD h ►J^ u^ -S

bJ3 ^ ^ 0) r^

O ^5

1j 5 S o l3^

2§^

^5 ^^^

-^^3

.G rt

^ B

2^-^
^.^ ^

t/2 fC,

S.N ^ § O

^ jg • CO t;; ,

— • CO

OJ ^TH ^ .S .S O

=i zi ^ -.b: >,

O C '-' '^ tJ3 h I
--^ a J N C (U ^ ^
^ P> <.

■^ (U

VOL. TI

2 M 2

548

MARCO POLO

A pp. F.

c
o

c, pp.

>-i

•Sf

•S

•SJ

•?j

'jf

■iS

•^

•«

''^

tt:

g
1

•ti

■<d-

^J. c3 n;

•s"

.2 i § "5*^'

fc,
o

w
Q

to 2

1
i

•S-.-i S ^ -j=

1-1 '~^

<U O

II
1

fill — 1

.2 o

Ph Td .2 o, C3

•

.?i

■§

-a

rt 00

3^_

rv..
>>

■73

•;3

•

Ij ti)

•— ;

■nis

•

cii

rv^

i-v.

r..

t/5

■

••s

1-1

7^,

*>.

t->i

App. F.

LIST OF MSS. OF MARCO POLO'S BOOK

549

t^ loo

^ -goo
^ -S 4:^

•;^ s Is 'L'

o „

.S g "* V b ^

ftS«

.« "^

. - > 'o ^

.5 2i'c

-<i O-i

-rr-r's O TS vl

^ S .2

>^ -^ ^

~ 00 73 .^

.Co

o
c
'a.

►-5 JrJ

- s g
ISI

o ^
"^ C

t/5 5

lis

o
P^

r2
•-J 00

a. -

55<^

MARCO POLO

App. F.

o
o

H
<

o
c

lO "^ c c

C/J'

'-^ <U <-> (U '^

^ "^ <« > s

O ^ ^ 3 g3

5 OJPQS Oh

(U (U

.S o

'/J -M <u
_tfl -73 K*^

IS
H

4-j "^^ a"::^ si <^ «J

,*z ^ r^ <v (u (-•

^ ^ a; - =^ a §

i-'S *" f^ o

Ji t; <u •• c o o

Z3 • . "3 rd <^

aT 3 ^ ^ ^ iJ ^

HH <U C .2 <U ;3 rrt

c3 S C
C </5 ri

o c ,,

!/5

App. F.

List Of MSS. OP MARCO POLO'S BOOK

55 f

'if

^ 4 8 d
S M a oo

„ a, ^

2^ OJ V2

^ 00 'O ^.

o ^

CI tf OJ

00 ^ o

<:mk

^ K> ^
t/) -^

"" J o

o-G

3 rt

3 C

^ :5

•-00

rJ3

552

MARCO POLO

App. G.

_(/2

FRENCH

PRINTED

EDITIONS,

OF IS56, &C.

App. H. principal editions of POLO'S BOOK 553

Appendix H. — Bibliography of Marco Folds Book.

I.— Principal Editions.

We attempt a list of all the editions of Polo ; a task for which Sir Henry
Yule had no advantages, and which will be found well done for the time in
Lazari's Appendix, based on Marsden. It may be also useful to mention
the chief Editions, with their dates.

1477. The first Printed Edition is in German. We give a reduced Facsimile of

its Frontispiece. [See p. 555.]
148 1. A reproduction of the preceding at Augsburg, in the same volume with the

History of Duke Leopold and his Son William of Austria.
About 1490. Pipino's Latin; the only printed edition of that version. Without

place, date, or printer's name. (See p. 558.)
1496. Edition in Venetian Dialect, printed by J. B. da Sessa.
1500. The preceding reproduced at Brescia (often afterwards in Italy).

1502. Portuguese version from Pipino, along with the Travels of Nicolo Conti.
Printed at Lisbon by Valentym Fernandez Alemao (see vol. ii. of this work,
p. 295). Stated to have been translated from the MS. presented by
Venice to Prince Pedro (vol. i. p. IJS-)

1503. Spanish version by Rodrigo de Santaella. Sevilla.
1529. Ditto. Reprinted at Logroiio.

1532. Novus Orbis— Basilese. (See vol. i. p. 95.)

1556. French version from the Novus Orbis.

1559. Ramusio's 2nd volume, containing his version of Polo, of which we have

spoken amply.
1579. First English Version, made by John Frampton, according to Marsden,

from the Spanish version of Seville or Logroiio.
1625. Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. iii. contains a very loose translation from Ramusio.
1664. Dutch Version, from the Novus Orbis. Amsterdam.
1 67 1. Andreas Miiller of Greiffenhagen reprints the Latin of the Novus Orbis,

with a collation of readings from the Pipino MS. at Berlin ; and with it

the book of Hayton, and a disquisition De Chataid. The Editor appears

to have been an enthusiast in his subject, but he selected his text very

injudiciously. (See vol. i. p. 96.)
1735. Bergeron's interesting collection of Mediaeval Travels in Asia, published in

French at the Hague. The Polo is a translation from Miiller, and hence is

(as we have already indicated) at 6th hand.
1747. In Astley's Collection, IV. 580 seqq., there is an abstract of Polo's book,

with brief notes, which are extremely acute, though written in a vulgar tone,

too characteristic of the time.
1 818. Marsden's famous English Edition.
1824. The Publication of the most valuable MS. and most genuine form of the

text, by the Soc. de Geographic of Paris. (See vol. i. p. 83.) It also contains

the Latin Text (No. 24 in our list of MSS. App. F.).
1827, Baldelli-Boni published the Crusca MS. (No. 40), and republished the

Ramusian Version, with numerous notes, and interesting dissertations. ^ The

2 volumes are cumbered with 2 volumes more containing, as a Preliminary,

a*History of the Mutual Relations of Europe and Asia, which probably no

man ever read. Florence.
1844. Hugh Murray's Edidon. It is, like die present one, eclectic as regards the

text, but the Editor has taken large liberties with the arrangement of the

Book.

554 MARCO POLO Apr. If.

1845. Btirck's German Version, Leipzig, It is translated from Ramusio, with
copious notes, chiefly derived from Marsden and Ritter. There are some
notes at the end added by the late Karl Friedrich Neumann, but as a whole
these are disappointing.

1847. Lazari's Italian edition was prepared at the expense of the late Senator L.
Tasini, in commemoration of the meeting of the Italian Scientific Congress
at Venice in that year, to the members of which it was presented. It is a
creditable work, but too hastily got up.

1854. Mr. T. Wright prepared an edition for Bohn's Antiq. Library. The notes
are in the main (and professedly) abridged from Marsden's, whose text is
generally followed, but with the addition of the historical chapters, and a
few other modifications from the Geographic Text.

1S54-57- Voyageiirs Anciens et Modernes^ ^c. Par M. Ed. Charton, Paris.
An interesting and creditable popular work. Vol. ii. contains Marco Polo,
with many illustrations, including copies from miniatures in the Livre des
Merveilles. (See list in App. F. p. 528. )

1863. Signor Adolfo Bartoli reprinted the Crusca MS. from the original, making
a careful comparison with the Geographic Text. He has prefixed a valuable
and accurate Essay on Marco Polo and the Literary History of his Book,
by which I have profited.

1865. M. Pauthier's learned edition.

187 1. First edition of the present work.

1873. First publication of Marco Polo in Russian.

1875. Second edition of this work.

1882. Facsimile of the French Stockholm MS. by Baron A. E. Nordenskiold.

II. — Bibliography of Printed Editions.*

A.— :GERMAN EDITIONS.

I. — I. Nuremberg .... 1477.

The first translation of Marco Polo's Book was printed in German, at Nuremberg,
in 1477.

Collation : 58 ff. folio without pagination and without signatures.

Verso f. I : Frontispiece : Portrait of Marco Polo with this inscription round the
border : [Top] Das ist der edel Ritter. Marcho polo von [right] Venedig der grost
landtfarer. der vns beschreibt die grossen wunder der welt [Foot] die er selber
gesehenn hat. Von dem auffgang [left] pis zu dem nydergag der sunne. der gleyche
vor nicht meer gehort seyn. [See p. 555.]

Recto f. 2, begins :

G Hie hebt sich an das puch des edeln Ritters vn landtfarers || Marcho polo.

In dem er schreibt die grossen wunderlichen || ding dieser welt.

Sunderlichen von den grossen kiinigen vnd || keysern die da herschen

in den selbigen landen | vnd von irem || volck vnd seiner gewonheit da

selbs.
Verso f. 58 : CT Hie endet sich das puch des edeln Ritters und landtfarerz il Marcho
polo I das do sagt vo mangerley wunder der landt || vii lewt | vn wie er die selbigen
gesehen vii durch faren hat |1 von de auffgang pisz zu dem nydergang der sune
Seliglich. ♦

(T Disz hat gedruckt Fricz Creuszner zu Nurmberg Nach cristi |1 gepurdt Tausent
vierhundert vn im siben vii sibenczigte iar.

* [Sir Henry Yule expressed his regret to me that he had not thefacility at Palermo to undertake
this Bibliography which I consider as a legacy from the first and illustrious editor of this book. — H. C]

App. H.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF POLO'S BOOK

555

Juyliynu «i43f ni)C5 ^ol| wwaijipti x\\]i} Ai 3tQ

Frontispiece of the first German Edition.

556

MARCO POLO App. H.

The copy which I have examined is in the Grenville Library, No. 6787, (Vide Bib.
Grenvilliana^ Part IL p. 305.) When Marsden edited his Marco Polo, Grenville did
not possess this edition. The only known copy was in the Vienna Imperial Library,
but was without the portrait. Grenville had made a transcript spoken of by Marsden,
pp. Ixx.-lxxi., which we describe infra. " When Mr. Marsden," says Grenville in a
MS. note at the beginning of this fine volume, *' published his translation of this work,
the only known copy of this first German Edition was in the Imperial Library at
Vienna, and I had a literal transcript made from it : Since that time a second
copy was found and sold l)y Payne and Foss to Lord Spencer : and now I have
purchased from Leipsick a third [the present] beautiful copy. I know of no fourth
copy. The copy at Vienna wants the portrait."

Vide Bib. Spenceriana, vol. vi. p. 176.

Other copies are to be found at the Imperial Library, Vienna, the Royal Library,
Berlin, the Germanisches Museum^ Nuremberg ; a sixth copy was in the Crawford
Collection (London, June, 1887, 1359) with the portrait, and was purchased by
B. Quaritch. [See H. Cordier, Cent, of Marco Polo, p. 41.]

— The copy we just spoke of has No. LII. in the Grenville collection, British
Museum ; it is a folio of 114 pages numbered with a pencil ; bound with the arms of
the Rt. Honble. Thos. Grenville. Page 114, the exactness of this copy is thus
certified: "Apographam collatum cum prototypo, quod in Bibliotheca Palatina
Vindobonensi adservatur. illo quidem, qui descripsit, recitante ex prototypo, me
vero hoc apographum inspectante. Respondet pagina paginae, versui versus &
syllaba syllabae. Vindobonae die 29. August! 1817. B. Kopitar, Biblioth. Palatinae
Vindobon. scriptor."

With this manuscript is bound a letter addressed to Mr. Grenville by the Chevalier
Scotti, who had the copy made ; it is dated " Vienne 20 nmbre 181 7," and ends with
this post-scriptum : " N. B. Comme cette Edition fort peu connue du 477. est une
edition non seulement precieuse, mais k la verite fort rare aussi, elle avoit ete prise
par les Francois et portee a Paris la derniere fois qu'ils ont ete a Vienne. Elle y a
ete rendue avec tout le reste qu'on avoit emporte a la suite des heureux succes des
Coilises, auxquels L'immortel Wellington a tant contribue en y mettant la derniere
couronne dont les lauriers resteront a jamais infletrissables."

2. — 2. Augsburg" .... 148 1.

— The second German edition of Marco Polo has been reprinted at Augsburg in
1481 ; it is as scarce as the first edition ; I have examined the copy in the Imperial
Library at St. Petersburg.

Collation : 60 ff. folio, without pagination nor signatures.

Recto f. I : End of the story of William of Austria, after which is printed Marco Polo.

Verso f I : Frontispiece : Portrait of Marco Polo coloured with this inscription
round the border : [Top] Das ist der edel ritter Marcho polo von Venedig. [right]
der grost landfarer. der vns beschreibt die grossen wunder der welt die er selber gese
[foot] hen hat. Von dem auffgang biss zu dem nidergang der [left] sunnen | der geleich
vor nit meer gehort seind.

Recto f. 2, begins :

Hie hept sich an das buch des edie ritters vn landtfarers Marcho polo, in
dem er schreibt die grossen wunderlichen ding diser welt, sunderlichen
yo den grossen kiinigen vnd keisern | die da herschen in den selbigen
landen vnd von jrem volck vnnd seiner gewonheyt da selbs.

Recto f 60 : Hie enndet sich herczog Wilhalm von osterreich vii das buch des edeln
ritters vn landtfarers Marcho polo | das da sagt von mengerley wunder der land vnd
leiit. vnd wie er die selbige gesehen vn durch faren hat von dem auffgang biss zu
dem nydergang d'sunnen Seligklich. Diss hat gedruckt Anthonius Sorg zu Augspurg
Nach xpi gepurt tausent vier hundert vnd jm Ixxxj. jare.

No. fig. in the text.

App. H. bibliography of POLO'S BOOK 557

3. — 3. Die New Welt der landschaften vnnd Insulen .... gedruckt zu
Strassburg durch Georgen Vlricher .... An. M.D.XXXIIII, folio.

Ff. 103-133 ; Marr Paulen des Venedigers Erst Buch | von den Morgenlandern. —
Ff, 134-152 : Haithon des Armeniers Premonstratensis ordens |; von den Tar tern.
Translated from the Novus Orbis Regionvm. — See 11- 12.

4.-4.* M. Polus. Reise in die Tartarey und zum Grossen Chan von
Chatai, uebersetzt. v. H. Megisser. Altenburg, 1609, 8vo.

H. Ternaux-Compans, Bibliotheque asiatique et africaine, No. 1031. — [Notwith-
standing all my researches, I could not find this edition in any private or public library
in Germany. — H. C]

5. — 5. Chorographia Tartariae : || Oder || Warhafftige Beschreibiing der ||
vberaus wunderbahrlichen Reise | |i welche der Edle vnd weit
erfahrne Venedigi — 1| sche Gentilhuomo Marcus Polus, mit dem |1
zLinahmen Million, noch vor vierthalb hundert Jah = ||ren | in die
Oriental vnd Morgenlander | Sonderlich aber in || die Tartarey | zu
dem grossen Can von Cathai | zu || Land vnd Wasser Personlich
verrichtet : !| Darinnen ausfiihrlich vnd vmbstand = ||lich erzehlet
werden | viel zuvor vnbekandte Landschafif=||ten | Konigreich vnd
Stadt 1 sampt dero Sitten vnd || Gebrauchen [ vnd andern seltzamen
Sachen : || Die Er | als der erste Erfinder der newen Welt | gegen ||
Orient ] oder den Ost Indien | gesehen vnd erfahren. j] In drey
vnterschiedliche Biicher abge = || [tjheilet : sampt einem Discurs Herrn
Johan ■Bapti = || stae Rhamnusij | der Herrschafft zu Vene = || dig
geheimen Secretarij | von dem || Leben des Autoris. || Alles aus dem
Original | so in Italianischer || Sprach beschrieben | treulich vnd mit
fleis ver=|| teutschet | auch mit Kupfferstiicken || geziehret | durch ||
HiERONYMUM MegiSERUM. — |1 Anno M. DC. XI. || Leipzig I in vorle-
gung Henning Grossen des Jiingern. Small 8vo. pp. 354 (last page
numbered by mistake 351) + 36 prel. fif. for the tit., preface, etc., and
7 ff. at the end for the table.
Plates. — See p. 350 : Alphabetiun Tartaricum, et Oratio Dominica Tartaric^.

6.-6. Die Reisen des Marco Polo, oder Marcus Paulus, eines Venetianers,
in die Tartarey, im Jahre 1272. {Allgemeine Historic der Reisen^
Leipzig, 1750, VII, pp. 423 et seq.)

7. — 7. Marco Paolo's || Reise in den Orient | || wahrend der Jahre 1272 bis
1295.11 — Nach den || vorziiglichsten Original = Ausgaben verdeutscht,||
und II mit einem Kommentarbegleitet || von || Felix Peregrin.|| — Ronne-
burg und Leipzig, || bei August Schumann, 1802, Bvo., pp. vi-248.
P. 248 : Eisenberg, gedruckt bei Johann Wilhelm Schone.

8. — 8. Die Reisen des Venezianers Marco Polo im dreizehnten Jahrhundert. —

Zum ersten Male vollstandig nach den besten Ausgaben Deutsch mit

einem Kommentar von August Biirck. — Nebst Zusatzen und Verbesser-

ungen von Karl Friedrich Neumann. Leipzig, B. G- Teubner, 1845,

8vo, pp. xvi-631.

— Di un frammento inedito di Marco Foscarini intorno ai Viaggiatori Veneziani e

di una nuova traduzione in tedesco dei Viaggi di Marco Polo. [By Tommaso Gar]

(Archivio Storico Italiano, Appendice, T. IV, Firenze, 1847, pp. 89 et sec[.)

558 MARCO POLO App. H.

9.-9. Die Reisen des Venezianers Marco Polo im dreizehnten Jahrhundcrt. —
Zum ersten Male vollstandig nach den besten Ausgaben Deutsch mit
einem Kommentar von August Biirck. Nebst Zusiitzen und Verbesser-
ungen von Karl Friedrich Neumann. Zweite unveranderte Ausgabe. —
Leipzig, Druck und Verlag von B. G. Teubner, 1855, 8vo, pp.
xvi-631.

B. — LATIN EDITIONS.

10. — I. Commence ; d In nomine dni nri ihu xpi filij dei viui et veri amen.
Incipit plogus I libro dni marci pauli de venecijs de cosuetudinibus et codi-
cionibus orientaliii regionu.

Then the declaration of ' ' Frater franciscus pepur. de bononia frin pdicatoru "
who translated the work from the vulgar language into Latin.

End p. 147 ; Explicit liber dfii marci de venecijs Deo gracias.

Collation : 74 f. or 148 pages ; the last is blank, 4to, no title, no pagination ;
signatures p. i, a. i =:p. 141, k. 3 {a-h, par 8; z, by 4; k, by 6); maximum 33
lines by page; [1485?].

It is interesting to note that Christopher Columbus had a copy of this edition of
Marco Polo, now kept in the Colombina at Seville. The margins of the following
folios contain the autograph notes of the great navigator :

31 r. & v. 46 v.

36 V. 47 r. & V.

38 V. 48 r, & V.

39 r. 49 r. & V.

40 r. & V. 50 r. & V.

41 r. 51 r. & V.

42 r. & V. 52 r. & V.

43 r. & V. 53 r. & V.

44 r. & V. 54 r.

Cf. Simon de la Rosa y Lopez, pp. XXlii, XLlli-XLiv of vol. II, Sevilla, 1891,
4to : Biblioteca Colombina. — Catalogo de sus libros impresos publicado por primera
vez en virtud de acuerdo del Excmo. e Ilmo. Sr. Dean y Cabildo de la Santa
Metropolitana y Patriarcal Iglesia de Sevilla bajo la immediata direccion de su
Bibliotecario el Ilmo. Sr. Dr. D. Servando Arboli y Faraudo Dignidad de Capellan
Mayor de San Fernando. — See also H. Harrisse, BibL aviericana vetttsHssima. —
Additions, p. xii.

"Edition fort rare, dit Brunet, et la plus ancienne que Ton ait de cette version
latine de Marco Polo, faite par Pipino, vers 1320, Elle est imprimee avec les
memes caracteres, que V liiyierarium de Joan, de Mandeville, c'est-a-dire par Gerard
de Leeu, a Anvers, vers 1485, et non pas a Rome et a Venise, comme on I'avait
suppose. Vend. 4 liv. 14 sh. 6d. Hanrott ; 7 liv. Libri en 1859. {Choicer portio7i,
1562.)" Brunet writes elsewhere (cf. Mandeville par H. Cordier) about Mandeville
from the same press: ". . . La souscription que nous allons rapporter semble
prouver qu'elle a ete imprimee a Venise ; cependant Panzer, IX, 200, la croit sortie
des presses de Theodoric Martin, a Aloste, et M. Grenville en trouvait les caracteres
conformes a ceux que Gerard Leeu a employes a Anvers, de 1484- 1485. M.
Campbell {Ann. de la typ. n^erlandaise) la donne a Gerard Leeu, et fixe la date de
I'impression a la premiere annee du sejour de ce typographe a Anvers, apres son
depart de Gouda."

It is certain from the use of the signatures it, JTil, it, and the similitude of
the type of the three works, that the Mandeville, the Ludolphe, and the Marco Polo
come from the same printing office, and have been printed together as it seems to be
proved by the copy of the Sunderland Library, which was complete and. contained
the three works.

9v.

13 V.

15 r.

& V.

17 V.

18 r.

& V.

19 r.

23 r.

& V.

24 r.

& V.

25 r.

55 r. & V.

66 r. & V.

57 r. & V.

67 r. & V.

59 r. & V.

68 r. & V.

60 r. & V.

69 r. & V.

61 r. & V.

70 r. & V.

62 r. & V.

71 r. & V.

63 r.

72 r. & V.

64 V.

1Z r. & V.

65 r. & V.

74 r.

App. H. bibliography of POLO'S BOOK

559

Lazari, p. 460, writes: "Jo. de Mandeville itineraria : Dom. Ludolph. de
itinera ad Terram Sanctam : M. Paul. Venet. de regionibus orientalibus. Liber
rariss. ZwoUis, 1483, in-4.

"Leggiamo questanota nell' opera Bibliotheca Beattclerkiana or Sale catalogue of
the books of Tofha?n Beauclerck's Library, London, 1781, P. II., p. 15, n. 430.
Marsden per6 ritiene celarsi sotto quell'erronea indicazione la seguente prima
edizione [s. a., 4to] latina de' viaggi di M. Polo. Egli istitui molte ricerche per
rinvenire in Inghilterra quell' esemplare, ma non gli e stato possibile di averne
traccia."

11. — 2. Marci Pavli Veneti, de Regionibvs orientalibvs Libri III. {Novus

Orbis Regionvm).

Editions of 1532, 1537, 1555.— See 3-3.

12. — 3. Marci Pavli 1| Veneti Itinerarivm, || sen de rebus Orientalibus |1

Libri Ires. || Helmaestadii, || M.D. LXXXV, 4to.

Part of the Collection of Reineccius :

— Reineri Reinecii I| Polyhistoris clarissimi |] Historia O — 1| rientalis : i] Hoc est ||
Rerum in oriente ^ Christianis, Saracenis, Tur-Hcis & Tartaris gestarum diuersorum 1|
Auctorum. || Totum opus in duas partes tribulum est, 1| contenta in singulis sequens ||
pagina indicat. 1| Helmaestadii, |1 Typis lacobi Lucij, impensis heredum Ludolphi ||
Brandes. Anno 1602, 4to.

Verso of the title :
Primus Tomus continet:

— Chronicon Hierosolomytanura, cum appen-||dice Reineri Reineccij &
Chronologia |! Henr. Meibomij.

/// Altera sunt :

— Vita Henrici VII. Imp. auctore Conrado Vec — Herio.

— Vita Caroli IIII. Imp. ab ipso Carolo con-||scripta.

— Historia Orientalis Haythoni Armenij.

— Pauli Veneti Itinerarium.

— Fragmentum de reb. orientalibus ex Speculo || Historiali Vincentij Beluacensis.

— Appendix ad Expositiones Haythoni auctore || Rein. Reineccio.

The colophon at the end of the first part has the date of 1584 ; at the end of the
second part, 1585.

— This Marco Polo was reprinted according to Lazari, p. 465, in 1602.

13. — 4. Marci Paul: Veneti, || Historici fidelissimi juxta ac praestant-

issimi, || de || Regionibus | I orientalibus || libri IIL || Cum Codice
Manuscripto Biblio- 1| thecae Electoralis Brandenburgicae collati, exq' ;
II eo adjectis Notis plurimum turn suppleti || turn illustrati. || Accedit,
propter cognationcm materiae, || Haithoni Armeni historia || orien-
talis : quae & de Tartaris 1| inscribitur ; || Itemque || Andreae
MULLERI, GreifFenhagii, || de Chataja, cujus praedictorum Auctorum
uter- II que mentionem facit, DiSQUisiTio ; inque ipsum || Marcum
Paulum Venetum Praefatio, & || locupletissimi indices. || Coloniae
Brandenburgicae, ||— Ex Officina Georgii Schulzii, Typogr. Elect. ||
Anno M. DC. LXXI. 4to.

Contains :
Engraved frontispiece.
Dedicatory Epistle, 3 ff. not numbered.

Andre?e Mulleri Greiffenhagii, in Marci Pauli Veneti Chorographiam, Praefatio,
pp. 26.

560 MARCO POLO App. II.

Doctorum Virorum De hoc Marci Pauli Veiieti Opcre Testimonia, ac Judicia. . . .

(Franciscus Pipinus, etc.) 8 ff. n. ch.

Marci Pauli .Veneti De Regionibus orientalibus Libri III, pp. 167.

Index primus Historicus, Sive alphabetica Recensio omnium eorum, quae Autor
passim observavit, atque ali^s memoranda reliquit, 22 ff. not numbered.

Index secundus Chronographicus, qui Annos & cujuslibet anni Noj'AUILIA
(quae quidem Autor designavit) continet, i page.

Index tertius Itinerarius, Ubi Loca recensentur, quae auctor pertransiit, &
Distanstantiae Locorum, quas ipse annotavit, 2 ff. not numbered.

Index quartus Glossarius, Estque vocum exoticarum, quas Autor ipse interpretatus
est, I half p.

Emendanda in Marco Paulo Veneto, quae^ ; ad hunc pertinent : aut ad eadem
Addenda, i f. not numbered.

Haithoni Armeni 1| Historia ori-||entalis : || Qvae eadem & De Tartaris || in-
scribitur. |1 Anno || CI3. IOC. LXXI, 2 ff. not numbered + pp. 107.

[Errata] 2 pp. not numbered.

Index, 7 pp. not numbered.

Andreae Mulleri, I| Greiffenhagii, || DiSQUisiTio 1| Geographica & Historica, ||
De II Chataja, || In Qua jj I. Praecipue Geographorum nobiiis J! ilia Controversia :
Quaenam Chataja sit, &= an || sit idem ille terrarum tractus, quem Sinas, dr^ vul-||
go Chinam vocant, aut pars ejus aliqua? || latissime tractatur; || 2. Eadem ver6
opera pleraque rerum, quae unquam || de Chataja, deque Sinis memorabilia || fuerunt,
atque etiam nunc sunt, compendiose Ij enarrantur. Ij— Ecclesiastae I. v. 15. || : DDDni?

P^V ^? niDH II Senec. de Beneficiis VI. I. || £^iam qtwd discere supe^-vacuum est
prodest \\ cognoscere. || — Berolini, Typis Rungianis. || Anno M. DC. LXX, 2 ff.
not numbered + pp. 115 on 2 col.

C— ITALIAN EDITIONS.

14. — I. Marco Polo da Venie || sia de le meraiiegliose || cose del Hondo.

Below this title the mark of the printer Sessa : a cat holding a mouse in its
mouth with the initials I and B on the right and on the left of the coat of arms (with
a ducal crown above) which exhibits this group, and S at foot. Verso of f. 83 :

Finisse lo libro de Marco Polo da Venie || sia dele meraiiegliose cose del modo
Im \^presso in Venetia per zoanne Baptista || da Sessa Milanese del
M. ccccxcvi. I! adi. xiii. del mese de lufiio re^na \\ do lo Illustris-
simo Principe Au || gustifio Barbadico inclyto || Duce di Venetia,

Recto of folio 84 : " Registro. abcdefghikl Tutti questi sono quaderni
excepto 1 chie duerno " ; audessous le monogramme de I'imprimeur en blanc sur fond
noir. — Verso of folio 84 is blank.

The copy which I have examined is in the Grenville Library, No. 6666. It is in
fine condition and complete, notwithstanding what the Sobolewski Sale Catalogue
says to the contrary (No. 1730) : it is a small 8vo ff. 84; each quire containing, as
is indicated by the register, eight sheets, except quire 1, which has but four.

Grenville added to his copy the following note: "This appears to be the first
edition printed in the original Italian. — The Abbe Morelli who sent me this book
from Venice had found great difficulty in procuring a copy for the I>ibrary of St.
Marc. — Panzer III. 396, refers only to the mention made of it by Denis. Supp.
I, pe 415. I know of no other copy in England "

Lazari, p. 460, says : " Prima e rarissima edizione del compendio veneziano. Un
capitolo che parla di Trebisonda, tratto dal viaggio di Fr. Odorico, precede il testo
del Polo mutilo e scorrettissimo : quel capitolo non forma pero parte d'esso, come
nelle molte ristampe di questo compendio,"

App. II. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF POLO'S BOOK 56 1

See Odoric de Pordenone, par Henri Cordier, p. 9.

Ternaux-Compans (29) mentions an edition of Sessa of i486, which does not seem
to exist.

1 5 — 2. Marco Polo da Vene || sia de le maraueliose || cose del Mondo. || Small
8vo.; 64 fif. non chif., sig. a—i: a—g by 8 = 56 ff., h and z by 4 = 8
ff., total 64 ff.

Collation :

Redo istf. : border ; vignette ; above the vig. title ut supra.

Verso istf. begins : Tractato delle piu maraueliose cose e delle piu notabile : che si
ri II trouano nelle pte del m5do. Re || dutte & racolte sotto breuita...

Recto f. 64: Impressa la presente opera per el Venerabile mi || ser pre Batista da
Farfengo nella Magnifica cita de || Bressa. adi. xx. December. M. CCCCC. ||

" Ristampa dell' edizione 1496, leggiermente modificata nella introduzione.
Rarissima." (Lazari, p. 460.)

16.— 3. Marco Polo da Veniesia II de le marauegliose co=||sedel Mondo.
small 8vo, 56 ff. not numbered, sig. a—g by 8.

Collation: title ut supra: Prmter' s mark : a cat holding a mouse in its mouth,
M O on the sides; S at foot. — Ends, recto f. 56; ^ Impresso in Vemtia per
Melchior Sessa. An\\no Dni. M. CCCCC VIII. Adi. xxi. ziigno.

17. — 4. Marco Polo II Venetiano II in cvi si tratta le meravijlgliose cose del
mondo per lui uedute : del costu = ||me di uarij paesi, dello stranio
uiuere di 1| quelli ; della descrittione de diuersi II animali, e del trouar
deir o = ||ro, dell' argento, e delle || pietre preciose, co = llsa non men
utillle, che belllla. [Vignette.] II In Venetia, 8vo ; 56 ff. n. ch., sig. a—g
by 8.

At the end : Finito i lo libro de Marco Polo da 'Venetia delle: || marauegliose cose
del mondo. || In Venetia per Matthio Pagan, in Frezaria, \\ al segno della Fede. 1555.

" Ristampa dell' edizione 1496. La edizione 1555 fu riprodotta dello stesso
Mathio Pagan senza data." (Lazari, p. 463.)

A copy s. d. exists in the Grenville Library (304. a. 23), this is the title of it :

18. — 5. Marco Polo II Venetiano. II In cvi si tratta le meravijlgliose cose del

mondo per lui uedute, del costullme di uarij paesi, dello stranio uiuere
di II quelli ; della descrittione de diuersi || animali, e del trouar dell'
oro II dell' argento, e delle pielltre preciose, cosa || non men utile, || che
bel||la. In Venetia. s. d., 8vo., 56 ff. not numbered, sig. a—ghy 8. At
the end : In Venetia per Mathio Pagan., in Freza\ \ria, al Segno delta
Fede. — On the title M. Pagan's mark.

19. — 6. C Opera stampata nouame||te delle marauigliose co^ljse del

mondo: comin = llciado da Leuante a ponente fin al meljzo di. El
mondo nouo & isole & lo = ||chi incogniti & siluestri abondajlti e sterili
& doue aboda loro || & largento & Zoglie & pie || tre pciose & animali
& II mostri spaurosi & do||ue manzano car = ||ne humana e || i gesti &
vi = ||uer & co = |!slumi || de quelli paesi cosa certamete molto cu = |/
riosa de intendere & sapere.

Small 8vo, 56 {L not numbered, sig. a—g by 8. At foot of recto f. 56 : ^Finito
lo libro dc Marco Polo da Venetia de le || marauegliose cose del mondo. || C Stampata in
Venetia per Paulo Danza Anno. 1| Dili M. D. xxxiij. Adi. jo Febraro. ||

Reprint of the 1496 edition.

VOL. II. 2 N

562 Marco polo Ait. 11.

20. — 7. De i Viaggi di Mcsscr Marco Polo Gcntil hvomo Vcnetiano

(Ramusio, II, 1606.)
See the former editions of Ramusio.

21. — .8 Marco Polo || Venetiano, || Delle Merauiglie del Mondo || per lui

vedute ; || Del Costume di varij Paesi, & dello stranio || viuer di
quelli. II Delia Descrittione de diuersi Animali. || Del trouar dell' Oro,
& deir Argento. || Delle Pietre Preciose. || Cosa non nieno vfile, che
bella. II Di nouo Ristampato, & osseruato I'ordine || suo vero nel dire.
II In Treuigi, Ad instantia di Aurelio Reghet||tini Libraro. M DXC.
8vo, 57 ff. numbered, a—g x 8 = 56 ff. + ^ x i = 57 fif. ; vignette
on the title ; i wood-cut, not inserted in the text.
The wood-cut is not to be found in the copy of the British Museum, G bbb 8.

22. — 9. Marco Polo Venetiano, Delle Merauiglie del Mondo per lui vedute ;
Del costume di varij Paesi, & dello stranio viuer di quelli. Delia
Descrittione de diuersi Animali. Del trouar Dell' Oro, & dell'
Argento. Delle Pietre Preciose. Cosa non me7to vtile^ che bella^ Di
nouo Ristampato, & Osseruato I'ordine suo vero nel dire. In Venetia,
Appresso Marco Claseri, M DXCVII, 8vo, pp. 128, no cut.

23. — 10. Marco Polo || Venetiano, || Delle Maravigiie del Mondo || per lui
vedute. || Del costume di varij Paesi, & dello stranio viuer || di quelli.
II Delia Descrittione de diuersi Animali. || Del trouar dell' Oro, &
dell' Argento. || Delle Pietre Pretiose. || Cosa non meno vtile^ che bella.
II Di nuouo ristampato, & osseruato I'ordine suo || vero nel dire. ||
[fleuron] In Venetia, M DCII. jj Appresso Paolo Vgolino, small 8vo
pp. 104 ; no cut.

Page 104 : Fuiito e lo Libro di Marco Polo da Venetia delle || Marauigliose cose
del Mondo.

This edition differs from the following bearing the same date :

24. — II. Marco Polo Venetiano, Delle Merauiglie del Mondo per lui vedute.
Del costume di varij Paesi, & dello stranio viuere di quelli. Delia
Descritione de diuersi Animali. Del trouar Dell' oro, & dell' Argento.
Delle Pietre Preciose. Cosa non meno vlile, che bella. Di nouo
Risstampato, & osseruato I'ordine suo vero nel dire. In Venetia.
M DCII. Appresso Paulo Vgolino, 8vo, pp. 128; on the title, vig.
exhibiting David carrying the head of Goliath ; no cut.

25. — 12. Marco Polo Venetiano, Delle Merauiglie del Mondo per lui vedute.
Del costume di varij Paesi, & dello stranio viuer di quelli. Delia
Descrittione de diuersi Animali. Dell trouar dell' Oro, & dell'
Argento. Delle Pietre Preciose. Cosa no?t meno vltle, che bella. Di
nuouo ristampato, & osseruato I'ordine suo vero nel dire. Con licenza
de' Superiori, & Priuilegio. In Venetia, M.DC. XXVI. Appresso
Ghirardo, & Iseppo Imberti, small 8vo, pp. 128 ; i wood-cut, not
inserted in the text.

26. — 13. Marco Polo || Venetiano. || Delle Merauiglie del Mondo per || lui
vsdute. II Del costume di varij Paesi, & dello stranio viuer di quelli. t|
De la Descrittione de diuersi Animali. II Del trouar dell' Oro, & de

App. H. bibliography of. POLO'S BOOK 563

I'Argento. || Delle Pietre preciose. |! Cosa iion vieno utile^ che bella. |1
Di nuouo ristampato, & osseruato I'ordine || suo vero nel dire. || In
Venetia, & poi in Treuigi per Angelo Righettini. 1267 [read 1627].
II Con Licenza de' Superiori, small 8vo, pp. 128 ; i wood-cut, not inserted
in the text.

27. — 14. Marco Polo || Venetiano. || Delle Merauiglie del Mondo per || lui
vedute. || Del costume di varij Paesi, «& dello stranio viuer di quelli. j]
De la Descrittione de diuersi Animali. || Del trouar dell' Oro, & de
I'Argento. |j Delle Pietre preciose. || Cosa no?i meno utile, che bella. Di
nuouo ristampato, & osseruato I'ordine suo j| vero nel dire. || In Treuigi,
Appresso Girolamo Righettini: 1640. || Co7t Lice7tza de" Superiori,
small Svo, 128 pages with a vignette on the title, printer's mark ; wood-
cut f. 2 verso.

28.— 15.— * In Trevigi M. DC, LVIL, appresso Girolamo Righettini, 8vo.

29. — 16. Marco Polo Venetiano. Delle Merauiglie del Mondo per lui vedute.
1. Del costume di varij Paesi, & dello strano viuer di quelli. II.
De la Descrittione de diuersi Animali. III. Del trouar dell' Oro, &
dell' Argento. IV. Delle Pietre pretiose. Cosa ?iofi meno vtile, che
bella. Si nuouo ristampato, & osseruato I'ordine suo vero nel dire.
In Trevigi, Per il Righettini. M. DC. LXV. Con Licenza de' Svperiori,
small Svo, 128 pp. with a wood-cut.

30. — 17. Marco Polo Venetiano Delle Merauiglie del Mondo per lui vedute.
I. Del costume di varij Paesi, & dello strano viuer di quelli. II.
Delia Descrittione de diuersi Animali. III. Del trouar dell' Oro, &
deir Argento. IV. Delle Pietre pretiose. Cosa non meno vtile, che
bella. Di nuouo ristampato, & osseruato I'ordine suo vero nel dire.
In Trevigi, Per il Reghettini. M. DC. LXXII. Con Licenza de'
Svperiori, small Svo. pp. 128 ; i cut not inserted in the text.
These various editions are reprints of the text of 1496.

31. — 18. II Milione || di Marco Polo || Testo di lingua || del secolo decimoterzo
II ora per la prima volta || pubblicato ed illustrato || dal Conte || Gio.
Batt. Baldelli Boni. || Tomo primo || Firenze || Da' Torchi di Giuseppe
Pagani || M. DCCCXXVII. || Con approv. e privilegio, 4to, pp. xxxii.-
CLXXV.-234+ I f. not numbered for the index.

Indice : Vita di Marco Polo, P. I. — Sommario Cronologico della Vita del Polo,
P. XXV . — Storia del Milione, P. i. — Illustrazione della Tela del Salone dello Scudo,
P. CV. — Descrizione dell' Atlante Cinese, posseduto dalla Magliabechiana, P.CIX. —
Schiarimento relativo all' eta dell' Atlante Cinese, P. CXXI. — Notizia dei Manoscritti
del Milione, di cui si e fatto uso nell' Opera, o veduti, o fatti riscontrare, P. cxxiil. —
Delia Porcellana. Discorso, P. cxxxvii. — Del Portulano Mediceo, e delle Scoperte dei
Genovesi nell' Atlantico. Discorso, P. CLIII. — Voci del Milione di Marco Polo, citate
dal Vocabolario della Crusca, P. CLXXiii. — Voci tratte dal Testo del Polo, e da citarsi
dal Vocabolario della Crusca, P. CLXXiv. — II Milione di Marco Polo, Testo Della
Crusca, p. I.

— II Milione || di || Messer Maico Polo || Viniziano || Secondo la lezione
Ramusiana || illustrato e comentato || dal Conte || Gio. Batt. Baldelli
Boni II Tomo Secondo || Firenze || Da' Torchi di Giuseppe Pagani ||
VOL. II. 2 N 2

564 MARCO POLO App. H.

M DCCC XXVII. II Conapprov. e privilcgio, 4to, pp. xxvi. -514 + 2 ff.
n. ch.

Indice : Dichiarazione al Libro Primo, P. i. — Proemio di Fra Pipino al Milione,
P. 3. — Testo Ramusiano del Milione. Libro Primo, P. 5 — Dichiarazione al Libro
Secondo, per rischiarare le Legazioni di Marco Polo, P. 147. — Libro Secondo, P.
153. — Dichiarazione alia parte seconda del Libro Secondo. Delia Lingua Cinese,
P. 223. — Libro Terzo, P. 357. — Aggiunte e Correzioni, P. 481.

— Storia || delle j| Relazioni vicendevoli || Dell' Europa e dell' Asia || dalla

Decadenza di Roma || fino alia || distruzione del Califfato || del Conte
II Gio. Batt. Baldelli Boni. || Parte Prima || Firenze || Da' Torchi di
Giuseppe Pagani || M DCCC XXVII. || Con approv. e privilegio, 4to,
4 ff. n. c. for the tit. and the ded. : "A Sua Altezza Imperiale e Reale
Leopoldo Secondo Principe Imperiale d' Austria.. ." + pp. 466.

— Parte Seconda || Firenze || Da' Torchi di Giuseppe Pagani || M DCCC

XXVII. II Con approv. e privilegio, 4to, pp. 467 to 1004 + i f. n. ch.

Eighty copies of Baldelli-Boni's work were printed on large paper, and two on
vellum.

Two maps generally bound apart accompany the work.

32. — 19. I Viaggi in Asia in Africa, nel mare dell' Indie descritti nel secolo
XIII da Marco Polo Veneziano. Testo di lingua detto // Milione
illustrato con annotazioni. Venezia, dalla tipografia di Alvisopoli,
M DCCC XXIX, 2 parts, 8vo, pp. xxi + 1-189, 195-397-

" Ristampa del Testo di Crusca procurata da B. Gambail quale vi appose piccole
note a pie di pagina." (Lazari, p. 470.)

"II en a ete tire 100 exemplaires, in-8, auxquels est jointe la carte geographique
qui fait partie de I'ouvrage de Zurla. II y en a aussi des exemplaires in-8, tres grand
Pap., et sur des papiers de dififerentes couleurs." (Brunet.)

33. — 20. II Libro di Marco Polo intitolato il Milione. {Relazioni di Viag-
giatori, Venezia, co' tipi del Gondoliere, M DCCC XLI, I, pp.
1-231.)

Reprint of the Crusca Text. — See Baldelli-Boni, supra 31-18.
Gondoliere's Collection form vol. i. and ii. of the class XI. of the Biblioteca
classica italiana di Scieiize, Lettere ed Arti disposta e ilhistrata da Ltiigi Carver.

34. — 21. I Viaggi in Asia in Africa, nel marc dell' Indie descritti nel secolo
XIII da Marco Polo Veneziano testo di lingua detto II Milione
illustrato con annotazioni. Volume unico. Parma, per Pietro
Fiaccadori, M DCCC XLI 1 1, Small Bvo, pp. IV.-308.
Reprint of the Crusca Text.

35. —22. I Viaggi in Asia, in Africa, nel mare dell' Indie descritti nel secolo
XIII da Marco Polo Veneziano. Testo di lingua detto II Milione.
Udine, Onofrio Turchetto, Tip. edit. 185 1, i6mo, pp. X.-207.

36.-23. I Viaggi II di II Marco Polo || Veneziano || tradotti per la prima volta
dall' originale francese || di Rusticiano di Pisa || e corredati d'illustra-
zioni e di document! II da Vincenzo Lazari || pubblicati per cura || di

App. pi. bibliography of POLO'S BOOK 565

Lodovico Pasini || membro eff. e segretario dell' I. R. Istituto Veneto. ||
Venezia || M DCCC XLVII, 8vo, pp. LXIV.-484, map.

Verso of the title : " Coi Tipi di Pietro Naratovitch."

See pp. 447-471, Bibliografia.—V'^. 473-484, Indice Alfabetico delle Materic.

yj. — 24. I Viaggi di Marco Polo secondo la lezione del Codice Maglia-
bechiano piu antico reintegrati col testo francese a stampa per cura
di Adolfo Bartoli. Firenze, Felice Le Monnier, 1863, small 8vo, pp.
LXXXIII.-439.

38. — 25. II Milione ossia Viaggi in Asia, in Africa e nel Mar delle Indie des-
critti nel secolo XIII da Marco Polo Veneziano. Torino, Tip. dell'
oratorio di S. Franc, di Sales, 1873, 32mo, pp. 280.
Biblioteca della Gioventu Italiana.

39. — 26. Giulio Verne. I Viaggi di Marco Polo unica versione originale
fedelmente riscontrata sub codice Magliabeccano e sulle opere di
Charton per cura di Ezio Colombo. Volume Unico. Milano, Serafino
Muggiani e Comp., 1878, i6mo, pp. 143.

The frontispiece is a coarse wood-cut exhibiting Marco Polo ; this vol, is part of a
popular Collection of Travels.

40. — 27. Marco Polo. — I Viaggi secondo la lezione del codice Magliabechiano
piu antico. Milano, Sonzogno, 1886, i6mo.
See supra 37-24.

D. — PORTUGUESE EDITION

41.— I. Marco || Paulo. ^ Ho liuro de Nycolao veneto. ^ O trallado da
carta de huu genoues das ditas terras. ^ Co priuilegio del Rey nosso
senhor. q nenhuQ faga a impres || sam deste liuro. ne ho venda em
todollos se' regnos C senho = ||rios sem liQe^a de Valentim fernadez so
pena coteuda na car || ta do seu preuilegio. Ho prc^o delle. Cento C
dez reaes. folio of 106 ff.

Collation : 8 prel. ff. n. chiff., and 98 ff. numbered.

Recto i^i f. : Titre ut supra. — Vignette showing a sphere.

Verso 2^f. : C Come9ase a epistola sobre a trallada9a do liuro de 1| Marco paulo.
Feita per Valetym fernadez escudey || ro da excellentissima Raynlia Dona Lyanor.
Ende || ren9ada ao Serenissimo C Inuictissimo Rey C Sen ||hor Dom Emanuel o
primeiro. Rey de Portugal C- || dos Alguarues. daque ^ alem mar em Africa. Sen !l
hor de Buynee. E da conquista da nauega9om C co|]mercio de Ethiopia. Arabia.
Persia. & da India.

Redo l^^^f. : Come9ase a tauoa dos capitulos do liuro Primeyro.

Recto ist f. chif. : C Come9ase ho Liuro Primeiro de Marco paulo || de Veneza
das condi90oes C custumes das getes || C das terras C prouincias orientaes. E prime y
ralimente de como C em que maneyra Dom Marco = || paulo de Veneza C Dom
Maffeo seu irmaao se pasHsarom aas partes do oricnte ; vig. repres. a galley ; border.

Verso f. 77 : End of Marco Polo.

Recto f. 78: Nicolo Conti.

Verso f. gs • End of Nicolo Conti.

Recto f. <p6 : A Carta do genoues.

566 MARCO POLO Ait. Jl.

Verso f. ()S : C Acabasc ho liuro dc Marco paulo. co ho liuro de Nicolao
ve = I|neto ou vencziano. C assi nicsnio ho trallado de hua carta de huii !l genoues
mercador. que todos escreuero das Indias, a serui9o || de d's. C auisameto daquelles
Ti agora vam pera as ditas Indias || Aos quaes rogo & pe90 humihnente q benignamete
queira eme||dar & correger ho que menos achaie no escreuer. s, nos vocabul' |1 das
prouincias. regnos. 9idades. ylhas. C outrascousas muytas I| C no menos em a dist5.cia
das legoas de hua terra pa outra. Im = \\ prwiido per Valentyi)i fcrnddez aletnaao.
Em a muy nobre ^ida || de Lyxboa. Era de Mil C quinhentos C doiis annos. Aos.
qua\\iro dias do mes de Fetireyro.—hX the top, printer's mark.

A detailed description of this edition is to l>e found in Figaniere's Bihlioi^raphia,
No. 947.

E.— SPANISH EDITIONS.

42. — I. Cosmographia || breue introdu||ctoria en el libro|| d' Marco paulo. ||
— El libro del famoso Marco paulo || veneciano d'las cosas marauillosas 1| q

vido enlas partes orietales. couie || ne saber enlas Indias. Armenia.

A||rabia. Persia C Tartaria. E d'l pode || rio d'l gra Ca y otros rcyes.

Co otro II tratado de micer Pogio floretino q !| trata delas mesmas

tierras t; yslas.

Folio ; 2 col. ; 34 ff. numbered and 4 pre) ff. not numbered.
On the title page 4 woodcuts exhibiting :

Marc paulo.

Micer pogio.

S. Domingo, ela ysla Isabela.

Calicu.
— The 4 prelim, ff. contain :

— Recto if. : Title.

— Verso if. : Prologo primero.

— F. 2 and j: Maestre Rodrigo al lector.

— F. 4: Tabla de los capitulos.
— Marco Polo, ff. 1/26.

— Tratado de Micer Pogio, ff. 27 -recto f. 27 [read 34].

— Last f. V. [numbered xxvij erroneously for xxxiv.]

" Acabase el libro del famoso Marco paulo vene||ciano el ql cueta de todas las
tierras proulcias C islas delas Indias. Arabia || Persia Armenia y Tartaria y d'las
co^as marauillosas que enellas se ha!|llan assi mesmo el gra senorio y riquezas del gran
Can de Catayo sejjnor delos tartaros | aLadido en fin vn tratado breue de micer Pogio ||
florentino el qual el mesmo escriuio por mandado de eugenio papa 1| quarto deste
nombre por relacion de vn Nicolao [Conti] veneciano el || qual assi mesmo auia
andado las ptidas orietales C de otros || testigos dinos d' fe como por el parece fiel
mete trasladado || en lengua castellana por el reueredo sefior maestre Rodrillgo de
santa ella | Arcediano de reyna y canonigo ela sa || ta yglesia de Seuilla. El ql se
eprimio por La [?] alao || polono y Jacome Croberger alemano ela muy || noble y
muy leal ciudad d'Seuilla. Ano de || mil C q' nietos y tres a. xxviij. dias d'mayo."

43. — 2. (X Libro del famoso Marco || Polo veneciano delas cosas maraui||llosas
q vido enlas partes orien = || tales : conuiene saber enlas || Indias |
Armenia I Ara||bia | Persia | C Tarta||ria. Edel poderio || del gran
Can y || otros reyes. || Con otro || tratado || de mi||cer || Pogio Florentino
& trata || delas mesmas tie = |lrras C islas. s. 1. n. d., fol; 2 col.
[Logrono, 1529].

Collation : 4 prel. ff. not numbered + signatures a — d x 8 = 32 ff.; in all 36 ff.
F. I. v.: Prologo del Interprete. — f. 2 r. Cosmographia introductoria. — f. 3. v. :
Tabla — f. 4 z/. ; Fin dela Tabla. — 32 numbered f. follow: F. i. — Begins: Libro de

App. II. Blf^LIOGRAPHY OF POLO'S BOOK 567

Marco Polo Vencciano 1| (col. i.) C Aqui comien9a vn ]i libio que trata delas cosas
marauillosas ll que el noble varon inicer Marco Polo de || Venecia vido enlas partes de
Oriente.

Ends: recto f. xxxij : La presente obra del famoso Marco 1| Polo veneciano q fue
traduzida fielmete de lengua veneciana en 1| castellano por el reueredo senor maestre
Rodrigo Arcedia||no de reyna y canonigo enla yglcsia de Seuilla. || Fue impressa y
corregida de nueuo enla || muy constante y leal civdad de || Logroiio en casa d'Mi||guel
de eguia || a treze ll de junio de mill C qui||nientos y. xx. Xi nueue. ||

'* Cette edition de 1529, says Brunet est fort rare : 2 liv. 9 sh. Heber ; 210 flor.
Putsch, et 130 fr. en 1859. — II y en a une plus ancienne de Seville, Croniberger, 1520
in-fol., que cite Panzer d'apres Vogt."

Lazari says of this edition of 1520, p. 461 : " Di estrema rarit^. Questa
traduzione e tratta da un antico testo italiano : I'autore n'e Maestro Rodrigo de
Santaella."

44. — 3. Historia |! de las Gran-|jdezas y Cosas || marauillosas de las Prouin-||
cias Orientales. || Sacada de Marco Pavlo || Veneto, y traduzida de Latin
en Romance, y ana-|| dida en muchas partes por Don Martin de Bolea ||
y Castro, Varon de Clamosa, || sefior de la Villa de || Sietamo. || Dirigida
a Don Beltran de || la Cueba, Duque de Alburquerque, Marques de||
Cuellar, Conde de Ledesma y Guelma, Lugar-|l teniente, y Capitan
Geneial por su Ma-|!gestad, en el Reyno de || Aragon. || Con Licencia,
en Carago^a. II Por Angelo Tauano, Aiio. M. DC I, 8vo, 8 fif. n. ch. + 163
ff. + 8 ff. n. cb. for the tab. and errata. Last f. n. ch. verso: En
Caragoga || For Angelo Tauano || Ano. 1601.

45.-4. Biblioteca universal. Coleccion de los Mejores autores antiguos y
modernos, nacionales y extranjeros. Tomo LXVL Los Viages de
Marco Polo veneciano. Madrid. Direccion y administracion, 1880,
i6mo, pp. 192.

" La edicion que hemos tenido principalmente a la vista, para formar este
volumen de nuestra Biblioteca, es la de Ludovico Pasini, Venecia 1847."

F. — FRENCH EDITIONS.

46. — I. La II description gco-jlgraphiqve des Provinces || & villes plus fameuses
de rinde Orientale, meurs, || loix, & coustumes des habitans d'icelles,
mesme-||ment de ce qui est soubz la domination du grand || Cham
Empereur des Tartares. || Par Marc Paule gentilhomme Venetien, ||
Et nouuellement reduict en || vulgaire Francois. H \_uiark'] A Paris, ||
Pour Vincent Sertenas tenant sa boutique au Palais en la gallerie
par II ou on va a la Chacellerie. Et en larue neuue Nostre dame a \\
rimage sainct lehan TEuangeliste. || 1556. || Avec Privilege dv Roy,
II 4to, 10 prel. f. not numbered + 123 ff. numbered +1 f. not
numbered.

Sommaire dv Privilege du Roy (verso of title). — Episle "A Adrian de Lavnay
seillgneur de sainct Germain le Vieil, Viconte del| sainct Siluain, Notaire & Secretaire I!
du Roy." F. G. L. S. — De Paris ce xviii. iour d'Aoust 1556, 3 pages. — Preface
av lectevr par F. G. L., 5 pages. — Table, 8 pages. ^ — Pieces de vers 2 pages at the
beginning and an advertisement (i page) at the end.

Begins page I : " Lors que Bauldoyn Prince Chre||stien tat fameux & renomme
tenoit 11 I'Empire de Constatinople, assauoir |1 en I'an de I'incarnation de nostre ||

568 MARCO rOLO App. h.

Saulueur mil deux cens soixanle & || neuf, deux nobles & prudes citoyts |i do
Venise

Verso of last f. not numbered, the mark of Vincent Sertenas.

Oldest edition in French.

Marsden and Yule believe that it has been translated from the Latin of the
Novus Orbis.

47. — 2. Same title. A I\'iris, II Pour Estienne Groulleau, demourant en la rue
neuue Nostre 1| dame, A I'image sainct lehan Baptiste. || 1556. Ij Avec
privilege dv Roy, 4to. *

Same edition with a different bookseller.

48. — 3. La Description geographique . . . de I'Inde Orientale . . . Par
Marc Paule . . . || A Paris, || Pour Jehan Longis tenant sa boutique
au Palais en la gallerie par |1 ou on va a la Chancellerie. || 1556.II Auec
Priuilege du Roy. 4to.

Same edition as Sertenas' with the privilege of this bookseller. A copy is marked
'm\he Catalogue des livj-es . . . de . . . /anies de Rothschild, 1\, Paris, 1887, No. 1938.
M. E. Picot remarks that the Preface by F. G. L., as well as the motto Inter
utrumque belong to Francois Gruget, Lochois, who in the same year edited with
the same booksellers the Dodechedron de Fortune.

49. — 4. Les I! Voiages || tres-curieux & fort remarquables, || Achevees par toute
II I'Asie, Tartaric, Mangi, Japon, || les || Indes orientales, iles ad-
jacentes, || & I'Afrique, || Commencees I'An 1252. || Par Marc Paul,
Venitien, || Historien recommandable pour sa fidelite. || Qui contiennent
une Relation tres-exacte des Pais Orientaux : || Dans laquelle il decrit
tres exactement plusieurs Pais 6r» Villes, lesquelles || Lui meme a
Voiagees 61^ viies la pluspart : 6^ ou il nous enseigne brievement ||
les Mceurs &^ Coutumes de ces Peuples, avant ce tems Ik inconnues
aux Ij Europeens ; || Comme aussi I'origine de la puissance des Tartares,
quand a leurs Conquetes || de plusieurs Etats ou Pais dans la Chine,
ici clairement proposee &^ expliquee. || Le tout divise en III. Livres, ||
Confere avec un Manuscrit de la Bibliotheque de S. A. E. de Brande-
bourg, II &^ enrichi de plusieurs Notes (Sr* Additions tirees du dit
Manuscrit, || de I'Edition de Ramuzio, de celle de Purchas, || &^ de
celle de Vitriare.

Form a part of 43 and 185 col. in vol. ii. of Voyages fails prmcipale77ient en
Asie . . . par Pierre Bergeron. A la Haye, Chez Jean Neaulme M. DCC. XXXV,
in-4.

After Andre Miiller Greiffenhag.

Remark on the title-page the date of the voyage 1252 ! In the text, col. 6, it is
marked 1272.

50. — 5. Marco Polo — Un Venitien chez les Chinois avec etude biographique
et litteraire par Charles Simond. Paris, Henri Gautier, s. d. [1888], pp*-
8vo,-pp. 32.

Forms No. 122 of Nouvellc Bibliotheque populaire a 10 Cent. Besides a short
biographical notice, it contains Bergeron's Text.

51. — 6. Voyages de Marco Polo. Premiere partie. Introduction, Texte^
Glossaire et Variantes.
Introduction, pp. xi.-liv. [by Roux.]

App. H. bibliography of POLO'S BOOK 569

Voyage de Marc Pol, pp. 1-288— Table des Chapitres, pp. 289-296. [Published
from MS. 7367 of the Bibliotheque nationale.]

Peregrinatio Marci Pauli. Ex Manuscripto Bibliothecae Regiae, No 3195 f, pp.
297-494 — Index Capitum, pp. 495-502.

Glossaire des mots hors d'usage, pp. 503-530 [by Meon].

Errata, pp. 531-532.

Variantes et Tableau comparatif des noms propres et des noms de lieux cites dans
les voyages de Marco Polo, pp. 533-552.

(Vol. i. 1824, of the Recueil de Voyages, de la Societe de geographic de Paris.)

— Rapport sur la Publication des Voyages de Marco Polo, fait au nom de

la section de publication, par M. Roux, rapporteur. {Bull, de la Soc. de
Geog., I. 1822, pp. 181-191.)

— Itineraires k Jerusalem et Descriptions de la 7>rre Sainte rediges en

frangais aux xi% xii^, & xiii^ siecles publics par Henri Michelant &
Gaston Raynaud. Geneve, Fick, 1882, in-8.

Voyage des Polo, pp. xxviii.-xxix.— Ext. of MS. fr. 11 16 are given, pp. 201-212,
et of the version called after Thiebault de Cepoy, pp. 213-226.

The Fr. MS. 11 16, late 7367, has been reproduced by photography (including the
binding, a poor modern one in calf !) at Karlsruhe this year (1902) under the title :

— Le divisiment dou monde de Messer March Pol de Venece. — Die Hand-

schrift Fonds Frangais No. 11 16 der National bibliothek zu Paris
photographisch aufgenommen auf der Gr. Hof-und Landes bibliothek
zu Karlsruhe von Dr. A. Steiner. — Karlsruhe. Hof-Buchdruckerei
Friedrich Gutsch. 1902, in-4.
Has No. Impr, 5210 in the National Library, Paris.

52. — 7. Marco Polo. (Charton, Voy. ajic. et mod., II. pp. 252-440.)
Modernized Text of the Geographical Society. — Notes, Bibliography, etc.

53-8. ^.'jL^mmmmm\%m^m

— Le livre || de || Marco Polo |1 citoyen de Venise \\ Conseiller prive et

commissaire imperial || de || Khoubilai-Khaan ; |] redige en frangais
sous sa dictee en 1298 || par Rusticien de Pise ; || Public pour la
premiere fois d'apres trois manuscrits inedits de la Bibliotheque
imperiale de Paris, \\ presentant la redaction primitive du Livre, revue
par Marc Pol lui-meme et donnee par lui, en 1307, k Thiebault de
Cepoy, II accompagnee des variantes., de F explication des mots hors
dhiSAge, et de Cojnjnentaires geographiqties et Mstorigrces, \\ tires des
ecrivains orientaux, principalement chinois, avec une Carte -generale
de I'Asie ; || par || M. G. Pauthier. || — Paris || Librairie de Firmin
Didot M. DCCC. LXV, 2 parts, large 8vo.

— Polo (Marco) par G. Pauthier.

Extrait de la Noiivelle Biographic gdnirale, publiee par MM. Firmin Didot freres
et fils. Ppt. 8vo, on 2 col.

•-- A Memoir of Marco Polo, the Venetian Traveller to Tartary and China
[translated from the French of M. G. Pauthier]. (C/nn. & Jap. Rep.,
Sept. & Oct. 1863.)

570

MARCO rOLO App. II.

54. — 9. Les Recits de Marco Polo citoyen de Venise sur I'histoire, Ics
moeurs et les coutumcs des Mongols, sur I'empire Chinois et ses
merveilles ; sur Gengis-Khan et ses hauls faits ; sur le Vieux de la
Montagne ; le Dieu des idohltres, etc. Texte original fran^ais du
Xlll^ sieclc rajeuni et annote par Henri Bcllenger. Paris, Maurice
Dreyfous, s. d., i8nio, pp. iv-280.

55. — 10, Le Livre de Marco Polo — Facsimile d'un manuscrit du xive
si^cle conserve h. la Biblioth^que royale de Stockholm, 4to, 4 ff. n. c.
for the title ut supra and preface + 100 ff. n. c. [200 pages] of text
facsimile.

We read on the verso of the title-page : "Photolithographic par I'Institut litho-
graphique de I'Etat-Major — Typographic par I'linprimerie centrale — Stockholm,
1882." — We learn from the preface by the celebrated A. E. Nordenskiold, that 200
copies, two of which on parchment have been printed. In the preface is printed a
letter, Paris, 22nd Nov. 1881, written by M. Leopold Delisle, which shows that the
Stockholm MS. belonged to the library of the King of France, Charles V. (who had
five copies of Polo's Book) and had No. 317 in the Inventory of 1411 ; it belonged
to the Lorvre, to Sober of Ilonfleur, to Paul Petau when it was purchased by
King Christina.

— Le "Livre de Marco Polo." Facsimile d'un manuscrit du xiVe siecle
conserve a la Bibliotheque royale de Stockholm. Stockholm, 1882, in-4 (Signed :
Leopold Delisle) — Nogent-le-Rotrou, imp. de Daupeley-Gouvemeur. [1882],
pp. 8vo.

Extrait de la Bibliotheqne de PEcole des Chart es. t. xliii. 1882. —
This is a reprint of an article by M. Delisle in the Bib. de rAc. des Chartes,
xliii. 1882, pp. 226-235.— see also p. 434. — M. G. Raynaud has also given a notice
of this edition of Stockholm in Romania, xl. 1882, pp. 429-430, and Sir Henry
Yule, in The Athencctini, 17th June, 1882, pp. 765-766.

— II libro di Marco Polo facsimile d'un manoscritto del XIV secolo. Nota del prof.
G. Pennesi. {Bol. Soc. Geog. ItaL, 1882, pp. 949-950.)

— See MuRET, Ernest, pp. 547 and 582.

G. — ENGLISH EDITIONS.

56. — I. The most noble || and famous trauels of || Marcics Faulus., one \\ of
the nobilitie of the state of |1 Venice, into the East partes || of the
world, as Armenia., Pet'^^sia., Arabia, Tartary., with || many other
kingdoms || and Prouinces. |1 No lesse pleasant, than || profitable, as
appeareth Ijby the Table, or Contents [j of this Booke. || Most necessary
for all sortes |1 of Persons, and especially || for Trauellers. || Traiulated
into E7iglish. || At London, || Printed by Ralph Nevvbery, || A?jno.
1579. Small 4to. pp. [28]+ i67-f-[i]. Sig. ^-^■^-** A — X. *

Pp. 167 without the 28 first pages which contain the title (2 p.), the epistle of the
translator, lohn Frampton (2 p.). Maister Rothorigo to the Reader : An introduction
into Cosmographie (10 pages), the Table of the Chapters (6 p.). The Prologue (8 p.).

57,_2. The first Booke of Marcvs Pavlvs Venetvs, or of Master Marco
Polo, a Gentleman of Venice, his Voyages. (Purchas, His Pilgji7nes.
London, Printed by William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, . . .
1625, Lib. I. Ch. nil. pp. 65-108.)
After Ramusio.

Apr IL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF POLO'S BOOK

571

58. — 3. The Travels of Marco Polo, or Mark Paul, the Venetian, into
Tartary, in 1272. (Astley's Colleciioii of Travels^ IV. pp. 580-619).
French translation in V Hist. G^n, des Voyages.

59. — 4. Harris's Navigantium atque Itiii. Bib..^ ed. of 17 15 and of 1744.

60. — 5. The curious and remarkable Voyages and Travels of Marco Polo,
a Gentleman of Venice who in the Middle of the thirteenth
Century passed through a great part of Asia, all the Dominions of
the Tartars, and returned Home by Sea through the Islands of the
East Indies. [Taken chiefly from the accurate Edition of Ramusio,
compared with an original Manuscript in His Prussian Majesty's
Library and with most of the Translations hitherto published.]
{Pinker ton., VII. p. loi.)

61. — 6. Marco Polo. Travels into China and the East, from 1260 to 1295.
(Robert Kerr, A General History and Collectio7i of Voyages and
Travels Edinburgh, 181 1 -1824, vol. i.)

62.-7. The II Travels || of || Marco Polo, || a Venetian, |1 in the Thirteenth
Century : || being a || Description, by that early traveller, || of || remark-
able places and things, || in || the || Eastern Parts of the World. || Trans-
lated from the Italian, || with 1| Notes, || by William Marsden, F.R.S.,
&c. II With a Map. |1 London : || M. DCCC. XVI 1 1., large 4to, pp. Ixxx.-
782 + I f. n. ch. for the er.
The first 80 pages are devoted to a remarkable Introduction, in which are

treated of various subjects enumerated on p. 782 : Life of Marco Polo ; General View

of the Work; Choice of Text for Translation; Original Langtcage, etc. There is an

index, pp. 757-781.

63.-8. The Travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian. The Translation of
Marsden revised, with a Selection of his Notes. Edited by Thomas
Wright, Esq. M.A., etc. London : " Henry G. Bohn, 1854, small 8vo,
pp. xxviii.-5o8.

64.-9. The Travels of Marco Polo . . . By Hugh Murray . . . Edinburgh :
Oliver & Boyd . . . M. DCCC. XLIV, 8vo, pp. 368.
Vol. 38 of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library., published at 5s.

— Second Edition, . . . Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd . . . M DCCC XLIV,

8vo.

— The Travels of Marco Polo, greatly amended and enlarged from valuable

early manuscripts recently published by the French Society of
Geography, and in Italy by Count Baldelli Boni. With copious
Notes, illustrating the routes and observations of the author and com-
paring them with those of more recent Travellers. By Hugh Murray,
F.R.S.E. Two Maps and a Vignette. New York, Harper, 1845,
i2mo, pp. vi-326.
— 4th ed., Edinburg, s. a.

65.— 10. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the
Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. Newly Translated and edited,
with Notes. Bv Colonel Henry Yule, C.B., late of the Royal

572 MARCO POLO App. H.

Engineers (Bengal), Hon. Fellow of 'the Geographical Society of
Italy. In two volumes. With Maps, and other Illustrations. London,
John Murray, Albemarle vStreet, 1871, 2 vol. 8vo.

66. — [I. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the
Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. Newly translated and edited,
with Notes, Maps, and other Illustrations. By Colonel Henry Yule,
C.B., late of the Royal Engineers (Bengal) ... In two volumes.
Second edition, revised. With the addition of new matter and many
new illustrations. London : John Murray, 1875, 2 vols. 8vo.

— Marco Polo e il suo Libro del Colonncllo Henry Yule, C.B. Por

Guglielmo Berchet. {Archivio Ve7ieto, II. 1871, pp. 124-174,259-350.)
Contains a Translation of the Introductory Essay, etc.

— The Story of Marco Polo. With Illustrations. London, John Murray,

1898, 8vo, pp. xiv.-247.

Preface by Noah Brooks. " In his comments . . . the author has made use of
the erudite notes of Colonel Henry Yule. ..."

67. — 12. Voyages and Travels of Marco Polo. — London, Cassell, 1886,
i6mo, pp. 192.

The Preface is signed H. M[osley]. — From Pinkerton. — Popular Edition. Casselts
National Library.

H.— Dutch Editions

— Die nieuvve vveerelt der Landtschappen ende Eylanden . . . Gheprint
Thantwerpen . . . Anno. M.D. LXIII. foHo.
Marcus Pauwels, f xxvii.

68. — I. MarkuS Paulus Venetus || Reisen, || En |1 Beschryving |! Der 1|
oostersche || Lantschappen ; || Daar in hy naaukeuriglijk veel Landen
en Steden, die hy zelf ten meestendeel ||bereist en bezichtigt heeft,
beschrijft, de zeden en gewoonten van die Vol-||ken, tot aan die tijt
onbekent, ten toon stelt, en d'opkoomst van de Heer-|lschappy der
Tartaren, en hun verovering van verscheidc landen in Sina, || met
ander namen genoemt, bekent maakt. || Beneffens de || Historic || Der
II oostersche Lantschappen, || Door Haithon van Armenien te
zamen gestelt. || Beide nieuwelijks door J. H. Glazemaker vertaalt.
II Hier is noch by gevoegt De Reizen van Nicolaas Venetus^ en ||
Jeronyinus va?t St. Steve?t naar d'oostersche Landen, en || naar
d'Indien. Door P.P. vertaalt. |1 Als 00k een Verhaalvan de verovering
van V Eila?it Formosa., door || de Sinezejij door J. V. K. B. vertaalt.
II Met Kopere Platen verciert. || t' Amsterdam, || Voor Abraham Wolf-
gang, Boekverkoper, aan d'Opgang van de || Beurs, by de Beur-
stooren, in 't Geloof, 1664. 4to, 6 ff. not numbered for the tit., prf. -t-
pp. 99 -f 4 ff. not numbered for the tab. etc. of Marco Polo,
The other works have a special pagination.

App. H. bibliography of POLO'S BOOK 573

I. — TCH^QUE EDITION.

69. — I. Million Marka Pavlova. Fragment of the tcheque translation of the
Berlin Museum. Prague, No. 3 F. 26, xvth cent, by an Anonym,
Moravian? {Vybor z Literatiiry ceske^ II. v Praze, 1868.)

70. — 2. Pohledy do Velkorise mongolske v cas nejmocnejsiho rozkvetu

jejiho za Kublaje kana. Na zaklade cestopisu Marka Polova podava

A. J. Vrtatko. (Vynato z Casopisu Musea krai. Ceskeho 1873.)

V Praze, J. Otto, 1873, 8vo, pp. 7i-

M. A. Jarosl. Vrtatko has translated the whole of Marco Polo, but he has

published only this fragment.

J.— RUSSIAN EDITIONS.

71. — I. MapKO ITojio nyxeuiecTBie b'b 1286 roAy no Taxapin h ApyrHMi
cxpanaMb BoexoKa BeneniaHCKaro ^BopfluHna MapKO flojio, npo-
seaHHaro MwjiaioHepoM'B. — Tpn nacxH. — St. Petersburg, 1873, Svo,
pp. 250.

72. — 2. M. n. MHHaeBx. — IlyxeuiecxBie MapKO IIojio nepeBOA'b cxapo-
*paHii;y3CKaro xeKCxa. — Hs^anie Hmh. PyccKaro Peor. 06iij,ecxBa
no^-B peAaKi],ieH A^HcxBHxeJibHaro HJiena B. B. Bapxoab^a. —

St. Petersburg, 1902, Svo, pp. xxix + i f. + pp. 355.

Vol. xxvi. of the Zapiski of the Russian Geog. Society, translated from the
French.

K.— IRISH EDITION.

By Whitley

Stokes. {Zeit. f. Celtische Philologie^ i Bd., 2 & 3 Hft. Halle a. S.
1896-7, 8vo, pp. 245-273, 362-438-)
Book of Lismore. — See our hitrodiiction, I. p. /oj, note.

L.— VARIOUS EDITIONS.

74. — I. The edition of Marco Polo in preparation by Klaproth is announced
in the part of June, 1824 of \\\q Journal Asiaiiq.ue^ pp. 380-381.

" M, Klaproth vient de terminer son travail sur Marco Polo, qui I'a occupe depuis
plusieurs annees. . . .

"La nouvelle edition de Alareo Polo, que notre confrere prepare, contiendra
I'italien de Ramusio, complete, et des Notes explicatives en has des pages. Elle sera
accompagnee d'une Carte representant les pays visites ou decrits par le celebre
Venitien."

— See also on this edition of Klaproth, the Bulletin des Sciences kistoriqites,
antiqnitis, etc., juin 1824, art. 580 ; the /our. des SavanSy juillet 1824, pp. 446-447,

574 MARCO POLO App. H.

and \\\t Jour. As. of 1824- 1828: Rcchenhes stir les Ports de Gampou. Klaproth's
materials for this edition were sold after his death Fr.200 to the bookseller Duprat ;
See Cat. des Livres composant la Bib. de M.K.^ lie Partie, No. 292.

75. — 2. Marco Polos Beskrivelse af det ostlige asiatiske Holland, foiklaret
ved C.V. Rimestad. Forste Afdeling, indcholdende Indledningen og
Ost-Turkestan. Indbydclseskrift til den aarlige ofifentlige Examen i
Borgerdydskolen i Kjobenhavn i Juli 1841. Kjobenhavn, Trykt hos
Bianco Luno. 1841, 8vo, pp. 80.

76. — 3. Marco Polo's Resa i Asien.

Small ppt. square i2mo, pp. 16 ; on p. 16 at foot : Stockholm, tryckt hos P. G.
Berg, 1859.

On the title-page a cut illustrating a traveller in a chariot drawn by elephants.

III. — Titles of Sundry Books and Papers which treat of
Marco Polo and his Book.

1. Salviati, Cavalier Lionardo. Degli Avvertinie7tti dclla Li?igiia

sopraH Decajnerone. In Venezia, 1584.

lias some brief remarks on Texts of Polo, and on references to him or his story
in Villani and Boccaccio.

2. Martini, Martino. Novus Atlas Sinensis. Amstelodami, 1655.

The Maps are from Chinese sources, and are surprisingly good. The Descriptions,
also from Chinese works but interspersed with information of Martini's own, have, in
their completeness, never been superseded. This estimable Jesuit often refers to
Polo with affectionate zeal, identifying his localities, and justifying his descriptions.
The edition quoted in this book forms a part of Blaeu's Great Atlas (1663). It was
also reprinted in Thevenot's Collection.

3. Kircher, Athanasius. C/ii?ta Illustrata. Amstelodami. 1667.
He also often refers to Polo, but chiefly in borrowing from Martini.

4. Magaillans, Gabriel de (properly Magalhaens). Nouvclle Descrip-

tion de la Chine., contenant la description des Particidarites les plus
considerables de ce Grand Empire. Paris, 1688, 4to.
Contains many excellent elucidations of Polo's work.

5. CoroneLLI, Vincenzo. Atlante Veneto. Venezia, 1690.

Has some remarks on Polo, and the identity of Cathay and Cambaluc with China
and Peking.

6. MuratORI, Lud. Ant. Ferfetta Poesia, con note di Salvini.

Venezia, 1724.
In vol. ii. p. 117, Salvini makes some remarks on the language in which he
supposes Polo to have composed his Book.

7. Foscarini, Marco. Delia Leticratura Veneziana. Padova, 1752.

Vol. i. 414 seqq.

App. tt. filBtlOGl^APttY 0^ COLO'S I^OOK 575

8. FOSCARINI, Marco. Franiviento inedito di, i?itorno ai Viaggiatori

Venesiani; accompanied by Remarks on Biirck's German edition of
Marco Polo, by ToMMASo' Gar (late Director of the Venice
Archives). In Archivio Storico Italiano^ Append, torn. iv. p. 89 seqq.
[See Bibliography^ supra 8-8, p. 557.]

9. Zeno, Apostolo, Amiotaziojii sopra la Biblioteca delP Eloqiienza

Italiana di Giiisto Fojifani7ii. Venezia, 1753.
See Marsden's Introduction, passim.

10. TiRABOSCHf, Girolamo. Storia della Leiteratura Italiaiia. Modena,

1772-1783-
There is a disquisition on Polo, with some judicious remarks (iv. pp. 68-73),

11. TOALDO, Giuseppe. Saggi di Sticdj Veneti nelP Astronomia e nella

Marina. Ven. 1782.

This work, which I have not seen, is stated to contain some remarks on Polo's
Book. The author had intended to write a Commentary thereon, and had collected
books and copies of MSS. with this view, and read an article on the subject before
the Academy of Padua, but did not live to fulfil his intention (d. 1797).

[See Cicogna^ II. p. 386 ; vi. p. 855.]

12. Lessing. Marco Polo^ aus einer Handschrift ergdnzl^ iind aus cincr

aiidern sehr zu verbesserti : (Zi/r Geschichte und Littej'atur . . . von
G. E. Lessing, II. Beytrag. Braunschweig, 1773, 8vo, pp. 259-298.)

13. FORSTER, J. Reinhold. H. des Dccotivertes et des Voyages fails

dans le Nor d. French Version. Paris, 1788.

14. Sprengel, Mathias Christian. Geschichte der wichtigstcn

geographischen Eittdeckiingen., &~'q.. 2nd Ed. Halle, 1792.

This book, which is a marvel for the quantity of interesting matter which it
contains in small space, has much about Polo.

1 5. ZURLA, Abate Placido. Life of Polo, in Collezioiw di Vile e Ritratli

d' Illiistri Italiani. Padova, 1816.

This book is said to have procured a Cardinal's Hat for the author. It is a
respectable book, and Zurla's exertions in behalf of the credit of his countrymen are
greatly to be commended, though the reward seems inappropriate.

1 5, J . Dissertazio?ii di Marco Polo e degli altri Viaggiatori

Veneziani, &^c. Venezia, 1818-19, 4to.

17, 18, 19. Quarterly Review, vol. xxi. (1819), contains an Article on
Marsden's Edition, written by John Barrow, Esq. ; that for July,
1868, contains another on Marco Polo and his Recent Editors,
written by the present Editor; and that for Jan. 1872, one on the
First Edition of this w^ork, by R. H, Major, Esq,

20. Asia, Hist. Account of Discovery and Travels in. By Hugh Murray
Edinburgh, 1820.

576 MARCO POLO App. H.

21. Stein, C. G. D. Rede des Herrn Professor Dr. Christian Gottfried

Daniel Stein. (Gesprochen den 29sten September, 1819.) Ueber
den Venetiancr Marco Polo. • Pages 8-19 of Einladung zur
Geddchtniszfeier der Wohlthdter des Berlinisch-Kollnischen Gym-
nasiums . . . von dem Direktor Johann Joachim Bellermann.
Sm. 8vo, s.d. [1821].

22. Klaproth, Julius. A variety of most interesting articles in the

Journal Asiatique (see ser. I. torn, iv., torn. ix. ; ser. II. torn. i. torn. xi.
etc.), and in his Memoires Relatifs d VAsie. Paris, 1824.

Klaproth speaks more than once as if he had a complete Commentary on Marco
Polo prepared or in preparation {e.g. , see J. As. , ser. i. tom. iv. p. 380). But the
examination of his papers after his death produced little or nothing of this kind.
— [Cf. suj>ra, p. 573.]

23. CiCOGNA, Emmanuele Antonio. Delle Iscriziofii Veneziane^ Raccolte

ed Illustrate. Venezia, 1824- 1843.
Contains valuable notices regarding the Polo family, especially in vol. ii.

24. Remusat, Jean Pierre Abel. Melanges Asiatiqucs. Paris, 1825.

Nouveaux Mehmges As. Paris, 1829.

The latter contains (i. 381 seqq.) an article on Marsden's Marco Polo, and one
(p. 397 seqq.) upon Zurla's Book.

25. Antologia, edited by Vieussieux. Tom. xix. B. pp. 92-124.

Firenze, 1825.
A review of the publication of the old French Text by the Soc. de Geographic.

26. Annali Universali di Statistica. Vol. xvi, p. 286. Milano.

1828. Article by F. CUSTODI.

27. Walckenaer, Baron C. Vies de plusieurs Personnages Cclcbres des

temps anciens et modernes. Laon, 1830, 2 vol. 8vo.
This contains a life of Marco Polo, vol. ii. pp. 1-34.

28. St. John, James Augustus. Lives of Celebrated Travellers.

London {circa 1831).
Contains a life of Marco Polo, which I regret not to have seen.

29. Cooley, W. D. Hist, of Maritime and Inhvid Discovery. London,

{circa 1831).
This excellent work contains a good chapter on Marco Polo.

30. RiTTER, Carl. Die Erdkimde von Asien. Berlin, 1832, seqq.

This great work abounds with judicious comments on Polo's Geography, most
of which have been embodied in Btlrck's edition,

31. Delecluze, M. Article on Marco Polo in the Revue des Deux

Mofides for 1st July, 1832. Vol. vii. 8vo, pp. 24.

32. Paulin Paris. Papers of much value on the MSS. of Marco

Polo, etc., in Bulletiii de la Soc. de Geographie for 1833, tom. xix.
pp. 23-31 ; as well as in Journal Asiatique^ ser. II. tom. xii.
pp. 244-54; D Institute Journal des Sciences., &^c.., Sect. II.
tom. xvi. Jan. i8$i.

App. H. bibliography of POLO'S BOOK 577

2^. Malte-Brun. Fnri's de la Geog. U7tiversclle^ 4^*^™*^ Ed. par HuOT.
Paris, 1836.
Vol. i. (pp. 551 scqq.) contains a section on Polo, neither good nor correct.

34. De Montemont, Albert. Bibliotheqiie Universelle des voyages.
In vol. xxxi. pp. 33-51 there is a Notice of Marco Polo.

35. Palgrave, Sir Francis. The Merchant and the Friar. London, 1837.
The Merchant is Marco Polo, who is supposed to visit England, after his return

from the East, and to become acquainted with the Friar Roger Bacon. The book
consists chiefly of their conversations on many subjects.

It does not affect the merits of this interesting book that Bacon is believed to
have died in 1292, some years before Marco's return from the East.

36. D'AvEZAC, M. Remarks in his most valuable Notice stir les Anciens

Voyages de Tartarie^ &^c., in the Rcciieil de Voyages et de Memoires

publid par la Societd de Geographic., torn. iv. pp. 407 seqq. Paris,

1839. Also article in the Bulletin de la Soc. de Geog.., &^c., for

August, 1841 ; and m. Journal Asiat. ser. II. torn. xvi. p. 117.

yj. Paravey, Chev. de. Article m Jotirn. AsiatiquCj ser. II. torn. xvi. 1841,

p. lOI.

38. LIammer-Purgstall, in Bull, de la Soc. de Geog, torn. iii. No. 21,

p. 45.

39. Quatremere, Etienne. His translations and other works on

Oriental subjects abound in valuable indirect illustrations of M. Polo ;
but in Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliotheqiie du Roi, tom.
xvi. Pt. i. pp. 281-286, Paris, 1843, there are some excellent remarks
both on the work itself and on Marsden's Edition of it.

40. Macfarlane, Charles. Rojnance of Travel. London. C. Knight.

1846.
A good deal of intelligent talk on Marco Polo.

41. Meyer, Ernst H. F. Geschichte der Botanik. Konigsberg, 1854-57.
In vol. iv. there is a special chapter on Marco Polo's notices of plants.

42. Thomas, Professor G. M. Zu Marco Polo., aus einem Cod. ital.

Mo7iacensis in the Sitzungsberichten der Mii7tchner Akadetnie, 4th
March, 1862, pp. 261-270.

43. Khanikoff, Nicolas de. Notice sur le Livre de Marco Polo, edite et

commente par M. G. Pauthier. Paris, 1866. Extracted from the
Journal Asiaiique. I have frequently quoted this with advantage,
and sometimes have ventured to dissent from it.

44. Cahier, Pere. Criticism of Pauthier's Marco Polo, and reply by G.

Pauthier, in Etudes Littiraires et Religieuses of 1866 and 1867.
Paris.

45. Barthelemy St. Hilaire. A series of articles on Marco Polo

in the Journal des Savants for January-May, 1867, chiefly consisting
of a reproduction of Pauthier's views and deductions.

46. De Gubernatis, Prof. Angelo. Memoria intorno ai Viaggiatoti

Italiani nelle Indie Orientali, dal secolo XIII. a tutto il XVI.
Firenze, 1867.

VOL. II. 2 O

578 MARCO POLO Ai'P. II.

47. BiANCONi, Prof. Giuseppe. DcgU Scrtt/i di Marco Polo e delP

Ucccllo Rue da ltd menzionato. 2 parts large 8vo. IJologna, 1862
and 1868, pp. 64, 40.
A meritorious essay, containing good remarks on the comparison of different
Texts.

48. KiNGSLEY, Henry. Tales of Old Travel rcftarrated. London, 1869.
This begins with Marco Polo. The work has gone through several editions,

but I do not know whether the author has corrected some rather eccentric geography
and history that were presented in the first. Mr. Kingsley is the author of
another story about Marco Polo in a Magazine, but I cannot recover the
reference.

49. Notes and Queries for China and Japan. This was published

from January, 1867, to November, 1870, at Hong-Kong under able
editorship, and contained some valuable notes connected with Marco
Polo's chapters on China.

50. Ghika, Princess Elena {^Dora d'Istrid). Marco Polo, II Cristoforo

Coloinbo delV Asia. Trieste, 1869, 8vo, pp. 39.

51. BUFFA, Prof. Gaspare. Marco Polo, Orazioju coimnevwrativa, Letta

nel R. Liceo Cristoforo Colombo il 24 niarzo 1872. Genova, 8v0)
pp. 18.

52. Edinburgh Review, January, 1872, pp. 1-36. A review of the first

edition of the present work, acknowledged by SiR Henry Rawlin-
SON, and full of Oriental knowledge. (See also No. 19 supra.)

53. Ocean Highways, for December, 1872, p. 285. An interesting letter

on Marco Polo's notices of Persia, by Major Oliver St. John, R.E.

54. RiCHTHOFEN, Baron F. VON. Das Land und die Stadt Caindu von

Marco Polo, a valuable paper in the Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft
filr Erdkunde zu Berlin. No. i of 1874, p. 33.

55. BUSHELL, Dr. S. W., Physician to H.M.'s Legation at Peking. Notes

of a fourney outside the Great Wall of China, embracing an account
of the first modern visit to the site of Kublai's Palace at Shang-tu.
Appeared in /. R. G. S. vol. xliv. An abstract was published in the
Proc. R. G. S. xviii., 1874, pp. 149-168.

56. Phillips, George, of H.M.'s Consular Service in Oi\\n2i.— Marco Polo

and Ibn Batuta in Fookien {Chinese Recorder, \\\., 1 870-1 871,
pp. 12, 44, 71, 87, 125) ; Notices of Southern Mangi, with Remarks by
Colonel Henry Yule, C.B. (from the foiirnal of the Royal
Geographical Society) ; Notices of Southern Mangi [Abridgment]
{Proc. R. Geog. Soc, XVHL, 1873- 1874, PP- 168-173); Zaitun Re-
searches {Chin. Rec, V. pp. 327-339; VL 31-42; VH. pp. 330-338,
404-418; VHL 117-124); Chafigchow, the Capital of Fuhkien in
Mongol Times, read before the Society, 19th November, 1888
{four. C. B. R. A. S., XXHL N.S., n° i, 1888, pp. 23-30); The
Identity of Marco Polds Zaitun with Chang-chau, with a sketch-
map of Mar CO- P olds route {Toung Pao, L, Oct. 1890, pp. 218-238);
TwQ Medieval Fuh-kien T?'ading Ports, Chiian-chozu and Chang-

.App. H. bibliography of POLO'S BOOK

579

chow. — Part I. Chang-choiv {T'oitng-Pao^ VL No. 5, dec. 1895, PP-
449/463).— Part IL Chiicm-Chow \lbid., VII. No. 3, Juillet 1896
pp. 223/240, with 3 photog.).

57. Wheeler, J. Talboys. History of India (vol. iii. pp. 385-393) contains

a resume of, and running- comment on, Marco Polo's notices of
India,
Mr. Wheeler's book says; "His travels appear /^ /^az^i? (5^<?« 7f;rzV/^« at Comorin,
the most southerly point of India " (p. 385). The words that I have put in Italics are
evidently a misprint, though it is not clear how to correct them.

58. De Skattschkoff, Constantin. Le Venitien Marco Polo, et les

services quHl a rendus en faisant connattre VAsie. Read before the
Imp. Geog. Society at St. Petersburg, ^ October, 1865 ; translated
by M. Emile Durand in the Journ. Asiatique, ser. VII. torn. iv. pp.
122-158 (September, 1874).
The Author expresses his conviction that Marco Polo had described a number of
localities after Chinese written authorities ; for in the old Chinese descriptions of
India and other transmarine countries are found precisely the same pieces of informa-
tion, neither more nor fewer, that are given by Marco Polo. Though proof of this
would not be proof of the writer's deduction that Marco Polo was acquainted with the
Chinese language, it would be very interesting in itself, and would explain some
points to which we have alluded {e.g., in reference to the frankincense plant, p. 396,
and to the confusion between Madagascar and Makdashau, p. 413). And Mr. G.
Phillips has urged something of the same kind. But M. de Skattschkoff adduces no
proof at all ; and for the rest his Essay is full of inaccuracy.

59. Cantu, Cesare. Italiani Illustri Ritratti, 1873, vol. i. p. 147.

60. Marsh, John B. Stories of Venice and the Venetians .... illustrated

by C. Berjeau. London, 1873, 8vo, pp. vii.-4i8.
Chaps. VI., VII. and viii. are devoted to Marco Polo.

61. KiNGSMiLL, Thos. W. Notes on the Topography of some of the

Localities in Manji, or Soiitherji China mentiotied by Marco Polo.
{Notes and Queries on China and fapa?i^ vol. i. pp. 52-54-)

Notes on Marco Polos Route from Khoteii to

China. {Chin. Recorder^ VII. 1876, pp. 338-343.)

62. Paquier, J. B. Itineraire de Marco Polo d travers la region du Pamir

au xnp siecle. {Bull. Soc. Geog.., 1876, aout, pp. 11 3- 128.)

63. Palladius, Archimandrite. Elucidations of Marco Folds Travels

in North-China, dratvnfrom Chiftese Sources. {Jour. N. C. Br. R. As.
Soc, X. 1876, pp. 1-54.)
Translated into English by A. Wylie and E. Bretschneider. The Russian text
has just been published (T. xxxviii. 1902, of the Isviestiya) by the Imp. Russian
Geog. Society.

Sir Henry Yule wrote in the Addenda of the second edition :
" And I learn from a kind Russian correspondent, that an early number of the
f. N. China Branch R. Asiatic Society will contain a more important paper, viz. :
Remarks on Marco Polo's Travels to the North of China, derived from Chinese
Sources ; by the Archimandrite Palladius. This celebrated traveller and scholar
says (as I am informed) : ' I have followed up the indications of Marco Polo from
VOL. II. 2 2

580 MARCO POLO App. H,

Lobnor to Shangdu, and in part to Pekinp; It would seem that I have been

so fortunate as to clear up the points that remained obscure to Yule.' I deeply
regret that my book cannot now profit by these promised remarks. I am not, how-
ever, without hope, that in the present edition, with its Appendices, some at least of
the Venerable Traveller's identifications may have been anticipated."

The greater part of the notes of my late friend, the Archimandrite Palladius
Katharov, have been incorporated in the present edition of Marco Polo. — H. C.

64. JlRECEK, Josef. Bdseh o pobiti Tataruv a ^^ MilHon" Marka Pavlova^

{Casopis Musea krdlovstvileskiho^ 1877, pp. 103-119).

65. Gebauer, J. Ein Beitrag zur Erkldriing der Kdnigi7ihofer Handschrift.

(J. Gebauer, in ArcMv fiir Slavische Philologie^ Berlin, 1877, ii.
pp. 143-155-)

66. Zanetti, V. Quattro Documenti inediti dell' Archivio degli Esposti in

Venezia (Marco Polo e la sua Famiglia—Marin Falier). For V. Zanetti.
{Archivio Veneto, xvi. 1878, pp. 95-110.)
See Calendar, Nos. 6, 19, and 20 for the three Documents relating to the Polo
Family.

— Marco Polo e la sua famiglia. {Ibid.^ xvii. 1879, PP- 359-362.)
Letters of Comm. G. Berchet and Yule regarding these documents.

67. HOUTUM-SCHINDLER, Gen. Notes o?t Marco Folds Itinerary in

Southerti Persia {Chapters xvi. to xxi., Col. Yicle's Translation).
(Jour. R. As. Soc, N.S., vol. xiii. Art. XX. Oct. 1881, pp. 490-497.)

Marco Polds Caniadi. {Ibid, Jan. 1898,

pp. 43-46.)

68. Thomson, J. T. Marco Polds Six Kingdoms or Cities in Java Minor.,

identified in translations from the ancient Malay Annals, by J. T. T.,
Commissioner of Crown Lands, Otago, 1875. {Proc. R. G. Soc, XX.
1875-1876, pp. 215-224.)

Translation from the "Salafat al Salatin perturan segala rajaraja," or Malay
Annals.

69. K. C. Amrein. Marco Polo' Oeffentlicher Vortrag, gehalten in der

Geographisch - Kommerziellen Gessllschaft i7i St. Galleii. Zurich,
1879, 8vo.

70. ViDAL-ItABLACHE, PAUL. Bibliotheque des Ecoles et des Families.—

Marco Polo., son temps et ses voyages. Paris, 1880, 8vo, pp. 192.
There is a second edition.

71. G. M. Urbani de Gheltof. ///. Congresso Geografico Fiter-

?iazionale iji Venezia. — La Collezione del Doge Marin Faliero e i
tesori di Marco Polo. Venezia, 1881, 8vo, pp. 8.
From the Bulletino di Arti, Industrie e curiositd veneziane IIL pp. 98-103. — See
Int. p. 79.

72. Seguso, L. La Casa dei Milioni I abitazione di Maixo Polo. ( Venezia

e il Congresso., 1881.)

T}^. CORDIER, Henri. Maison de Marco Polo \d Venise.] {Revue de
V Extreme - Oriejit., i. No. i, p. 157); Statue de Marco Polo.
{Revue de PExtreme-0rie7tt^ i. No. i, pp. 156-157.)

App. H. bibliography of POLO'S BOOK 58 1

74. — Illustrazio7ie Italiana^ No. 38, Sept. 18, 1881.

75. — Yule, Sir Henry. Marco Polo. {EftcyclopcBdia Britannica^ 1885,
c|th ed., xix. pp. 404-409.)

76. Schumann, Dr. K. Marco Polo, ein Weltreisender des XIII. Jahr-

hunderts. Berlin, 1885. 8vo, pp. 32.
Sanunhmg gemeinverstdndlicher wissenschaftlicher Vortrdge, herausgegeben von
Rud. Virchow und Fr. von HoltzendorfF. XX. Serie. Heft 460.

77. Marco Polo. {Blackwood s Mag.., clxii. Sept. 1887, pp. 373-386.)
(Rep. in LitteWs Living Age, Boston, CLXXV., p. 195.) *

78. Edkins, Joseph. Kan Fu. {China Revietv, xv. pp. 310-331.)

79. Oliphant, Mrs.— 77z^ Makers of Venice. London, 1887, 8vo.

Part II. — Chap. i. The Travellers : Niccolo, Matteo, and Marco Polo, pp.
134-157.

80. DUCLAU, S. — La Science populaire — Marco Polo., sa Vie et ses Voyages.

Par S. Duclau. Limoges, Eugene Ardant, s. d. [1889], 8vo, pp. 192.

81. Parker, E. H. Charchan. {China Review^ xviii. p. 261 .r Htmting

Lodges {Ibid.., p. 261) ; Barscol. {Lbid.) ; Life Guards (p. 262) ; Canfu
or Canton {Ibid.., xiv. pp. 358-359) ; Kaunchis {Ibid.., p. 359) ; Polo
{Ibid.., XV., p. 249) ; Marco Polo's Transliterations {Ibid.., xvi.,
p. 125); Cajtfu {Ibid., p. 189).

82. Schaller, M. — Marco Polo und die Texte seiner ^^ Reisen^\—Pro-

grajnm der Kgl. Studie?i — Anstalt Burghausen fiir das Studienjahr
i88g-go von Michael Schaller, Kgl. Studienlehzer f.n. Sprachen.
Burghausen, Russy, 8vo, pp. 57.

83. Severtzow, Dr. Nicolas. Etudes de Geographic historique sur les

anciens itindraires a travers le Pamir., Ptolemde, Hiouen- Thsang, Song-
yuen, Marco Polo. {Bui. Soc. Giog., 1890, pp. 417-467, 553-610.)
(Marco Polo, pp. 583 seqq.)

84. Ament, W. S. Marco Polo in Cambaluc : A Comparison of foreign and

native Accoimts. {Journ. Peking Orieiit. Soc, III. No. 2, 1892, pp.
97-122.)

85. COLLINGRIDGE, GeorGE. The Early Cartography of Japan. By

George Collingridge. {Geographical Jour?ial, May, 1894, pp. 403-409.) —
Japan or Java ? An Answer to Mr. George Collingridge' s Article on
" The Early Cartography of Japan," by F. G. Kra??tp. Overgedrukt
uit het " Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig
Genootschap, Jaargang 1894." Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1894, 8vo, pp. 14.
The Early Cartography of Japan. By H. Yule Oldham. {Geographical
Journal, Sept. 1894, pp. 276-279.)

86. Hirth, Fried. Ueber den Schiffsverkehr von Kifisay zu Marco Polo's

Zeit. {T^oung Pao, Dec. 1894, pp. 386-390.)

87. Drapeyron, Ludovic— Z^ Retour de Marco Polo en 1295. Cathay

et Sypangu. {Revue de Geographic, Juillet, 1895, pp. 3-8.)

582

MARCO POLO Ai'P. I.

88. CoRDiER, Henri. Cejttenaire de Marco Polo. Paris, 1896, 8vo.

A Lecture with a Bibliography which is the basis of the list of this edition of
Marco Polo. •

89. Manly. — Marco Polo and the Squire's Tale. By John Matthews

Manly. {Publications of the Modern Language Association of
America^ vol. xi. 1896, pp. 349-362.)
Cf. our Introduction, p. 12S.

90. Suez, lUMiNG C. Marco Polo. (5/./<9/^«'j^<r/^^,Shang-hai, Nov. 1899.)

91. NORDENSKIOLD, A. E. — Ojn det inflytande Marco Polos reseberditelse

ufofvat pa Gastaldis kartor ofver Asien. {ur Yiner, Tidskrift utgifven

of Svenska Sdllskapct for Antropologi och Geografi., Arg. 1899,

H. I, pp. 33 to 42).
The hiflucnce of the " Travels of Marco Polo^^ 07i

facobo Gastaldt's Map of Asia. {Geog. journal^ April, 1899, pp. 396

to 406.)
See Introduction, p. /j/.

92. Chaix, Paul. Majro Polo. {Le Globe^ Soc. Geog. Geneve, fev.-avril,

1900, pp. 84-94.)

93. Le Strange, Guy. The Cities of Kirman in the time of Hamd- Allah

Mustawfi and Marco Polo. (/. R. As. Soc, April, 1901, pp. 281-290.)

94. MURET, Ernest. Un fragme?it de Marco Polo. Paris, 1901, Bvo., pp. 8.

From Ro7na?iia^ torn. xxx. See p. 547, App. F., 65.

95. Great Explorers.— Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, Mungo Park,

Sir John Franklin, David Livingstone, Christopher Columbus, etc.,
etc. Thomas Nelson, London, 1902, 8vo, pp. 224.
Marco Polo, pp. 7-.?/.

Appendix I. — Titles of Works which are cited by abbreviated
References in this Book.

Abdallatif. Relation de VEgypte. Trad, par M. Silvestre de Sacy.
Paris, 1 8 10.

Abulpharagius. Hist. Compejid. Dy?iastiaru7n, etc., ab Ed. Pocockio.
Oxon. 1663.

Abr. Roger. See La Porte ouverte.

Acad. Alem. de V Academic des Inscriptions et Bclles-Lettres.

Ain-i-Akbari or Am. Akb. Bl. refers to Blochmann's Translation in
Bibliotheca Indica. Calcutta, 1869, seqq.

Alexandriade, ou Chansofi de Geste d Alexandre-le-Grand., de Lambert Le
Court et Alex, de Bernay. Dinan et Paris, 1861, i2mo.

Alphabetum Tibetanum Missio?mm Apostolicarum coinmodo editu/n ;
A. A. Georgii. Romae, 1762, 4to.

Am. Exot. Engelbert Kaempfer's Amoenitatiim Exoticarum Fasciculi V.
Lemgoviae, 17 12.

App. I. FULLER TITLES OF WORKS CITED 583

Amyot. Mthnoires concernant les Ckt?tois, etc. Paris v. y.

Arabs., Arabshah. Ahmedis Arabsiadis Vitae .... Timuri ....

Historia. Latine vertit . . . . S. H. Manger. Franequerae, 1767.
Arch. Stor. Ital. Archivio Storico Italiano. Firenze, v. y.
ASSEMANI, Bibliotheca Orientalis. Romae, 1719-28.
ASTLEY. A New General Collection of Voyages, etc. London, 1745- 1747.
AvA, Mission to, Narrative of Major Phayre's. By Capt. H. Yule.

London, 1858.
Ayeen Akbery refers to Gladwin's Transl., Calcutta, 1787.

Baber, Memoir of. Transl. by Leyden and Erskine. London, 1826.
Baber, E. Colborne. Travels and Researches in Western China. London,

1882, 8vo.
Vol. i. Pt. I. Supp. Papers R. Geog. Society.
Bacon, Roger. Opus Majus. Venet. 1750.
Baer und Helmersen. Beitrdge ziir Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches, etc.

St. Petersburg, 1839, ^^^Q-
Bauduin de Sebourc. Li Rojiia7is de Bauduin de S., III^ Roy de

Jherusalem. Valenciennes, 1841, 2 vol. large 8vo.
Benjamin of Tudela. Quoted from T. Wright's Early Travels in

Palestine. Bohn, London, 1848.
Bretschneider, Dr. E. Notes on Chinese Mediaeval Travellers to the

West. Shanghai, 1875, ^vo.
Archaeological and Historical Researches on Peking and

its Environs. Shanghai, 1876, 8vo.
. Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources.

London, 1888, 2 vol. 8vo.

History of European Botanical Discoveries in China.

London [St. Petersburg], 1898, 2 Pts. 8vo. Begins with Marco Polo,

pp. 1-5.
All these works are most valuable.
Bridgman, Rev. Dr. Sketches of the Meaou-tszd, transl. by. In/. N. Ch.

Br. R. As. Soc. for Dec. 1859.
Browne's Vulgar Errors, in Bohn's Ed. of his Works. London, 1852.
BUCHON. Chroniques Etraftgeres relatives aux Expeditions Franqaises

pe7ida7itle X Hie Steele. Paris, 184 1.
BuRNES, Alex. Travels into Bokhara. 2nd Ed. London, 1835.
BUSCHING'S Magazin flir die neue Historie und Geographic. Halle, 1779,

segg.

Cahier et Martin. Melanges dArchcologic. Paris, v. y.
Capmany, Antonio. Memorias Historicas sobre la marina . . , , de
Barcelona. Madrid, 1779-1792-

584 MARCO rOLO Ai'P. I.

CARr., Carpini. As published in Recueil de Voyages et de M^tnoires de la

Soc. de G^og. Tom. iv. Paris, 1839.
Cathay, and the Way Thither. By Col. H. Yule. Hakluyt Society,

1866.
Chardin, Voyages en Perse de. Ed. of Langl^s. Paris, 181 1.
Chavannes, Edouard. Mdmoire composi d Vdpoque de la grande

dynastie T^ang sur les Religieux dminents qui allerent chercher la loi

dans les Pays dOccidetit par I-TsiNG. Paris, 1894, 8vo.

China Illustrata. See Kircher.

Chine Ancienne. By Pauthier, in IJU?tivers Pittoresque. Paris, 1837.

Moderns. By do. and Bazin, in do. Paris, 1853.

Chin. Rep, Chinese Repository. Canton, 1832, j-?^^.

Clavijo. Transl. by C. R. Markham. Hak. Society, 1859.

Consular Reports. (See this vol. p. 144.)

Conti, Travels of Nicolo. In htdia in the XVth Century. Hak. Society,

1H57.
Cordier, Henri. Les Voyages en Asie au XIV^ Siecle du Bienheureux

Frere Odoric de Pordenone. Paris, 1891, 8vo.

. U Extreme- Orient dans r Atlas Catalan de Charles V,

Roi de France. Paris, ]f895, 8vo.
Curzon, George N. Persia and the Persian Question. London, 1892,

2 vol. 8vo.

D'Avezac. See App. H., III., No. 36.

Davies's Report. Rep. on the Trade and Resources of the Countries 071

the N.W. Boundary of Br. India (By R. H. Davies, now (1874)

Lieut. -Governor of the Panj^b).

Deguignes. Hist. Ght. des Huns., etc. Paris, 1756.

(the Younger). Voyage d, Peking^ etc. Paris, i8o3.

Della Decima, etc. Lisbon e e Lucca (really Florence) 1765-1766. The 3rd

volume of this contains the Mercantile Handbook of Pegolotti {circa

1340), and the 4th volume that of Uzzano (1440).
Della Penna. Breve Notizia del Reg?to del Thibet. An extract from the

Journal Asiatigue^ ser.' II. tom. xiv. (pub. by Klaproth).
Della Valle, P. Viaggi. Ed. Brighton, 1843.
De Mailla. H. Generate de la Chifte, etc. Paris, 1783.
Deveria, G. La Frontitre Sino-A7inamite. Paris, 1886, 8vo.

Notes dEpigraphie motigole-chitioise. Paris, 1897, 8vo.

From the /our. As.

" Musulmans et Manichee7is chinois. Paris, 1898, 8 vo. From

the Jour. As.

Stele Si-Hia de Lea7tg-tcheou. Paris, 1898, 8vo. From the

Jour. As.

App. I. FULLER TITLES OF WORKS CITED 585

DiCT. DE LA Perse. Diet. G^og. Hist, et Litt. de la Perse ^ etc.j par

Barbier de Meynard. Paris, 1861.
D'Ohsson. H. des Mo7igols. La Haye et Amsterdam, 1834.

DOOLITTLE, Rev. J. The Social Life of the Chi7iese. Condensed Ed.
London, 1868.

DOUET D'Arcq. Comptes de I Argenterie des Rois de France an XV^ Siecle
Paris, 185 1.

Dozy and Engelmann. Glossaire des Mots Espagnols et Portugais derivSs
dePArabe. 2de. Ed. Leyde, 1869.

Duchesne, Andr^, Historiae Francorum Scriptores. Lut. Par. 1636- 1649.

Early Travels in Palestine, ed. by T. Wright, Esq. Bohn, London, 1848.

Edrisl Trad, par Amedee Jaubert ; in Rec. de Voy. et de Mem.., tom. v. et
vi. Paris, 1836- 1840.

Elie de Laprimaudaie. Etudes sur le Commerce au Moyr.ji Age. Paris,

1848.
Elliot. The History of India as told by its own Historia?is. Edited

from the posthumous papers of Sir H. M. Elliot, by Prof Dowson.

1 867, seqq.

Erdmann, Dr. Franz v. Temudschin der Unerschiitterliche. Leipzig-, 1862.
Erman. Travels in Siberia. Transl. by W. D. Cooley. London, 1848.
ESCAYRAC de Lauture. Mhnoires sur la Chine. Paris, 1865.
Etude Pratique, etc. See Hedde.

Faria y Souza. History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the
Portuguese. Transl. by Capt. J. Stevens. London, 1695.

Ferrier, J. P. Caravajt Journeys, etc. London, 1856.

Fortune. Two Visits to the Tea Countries of Chiita. London, 1853.

Francisque-Michel. Recherches sur le Commerce., la fabrication., et lusage
des etoffes de Sole., etc. Paris, 1852.

Frescob. Viaggiin Terra Sa?ita di L. Frescobaldi, etc. (1384). Firenze,
1862.

Garcia de Orta. Garzia dalV Horto., DelV Istoria dei semplici ed
altre cose che vengono portate dalV htdie Orientali., etc. Trad, dal
Portughese da Annib. Briganti. Venezia, 1589.

Garnier, Francis. Voyage d Exploration en Indo-Chine. Paris, 1873.

Gaubil. H. de Ge7itchiscan et de toute la Dinastie des Mongous.. Paris,

1739-
Gildem., Gildemeister. Sc7Hptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis, etc.

Bonn, 1838.
Gill, Capt. William. The River of Golden Sand . . . With an Itttro-

ductory Essay by Col. Henry Yule. . . . London, 1880, 2 vol. 8vo.
Godinho de Eredia. Malaca Plnde meridionale et le Cathay reproduit

en facsimile et traduit par M. LfeON Janssen. Bruxelles, 1882, 4to.

586 MARCO POLO Am I.

Gold. Horde. See Hammer.

Grenard, F. J.-L. Dutreuil de Rhi?is- Mission scie7itifique dajts la Haute
Asie, 1890-1895. Paris, 1897-1898, 3 vol. 4to and Atlas.

Groeneveldt, W. p. Notes on the Archipelago and Malacca. Compiled
from Chinese Sources. [Batavia, 1877] 8vo.
Rep. by Dr. R. Rost in 1887.

Supplementary Jotti?tgs to the Notes, looting Pao,

VH, May, 1896, pp. 113-134-

Hamilton, A. Ne%u Account of the East Indies. London, 1744.
Hammer-Purgstall. Geschichte der Goldenen Horde. Pesth, 1840.

Geschichte dcr Ilchane. Darmstadt, 1842.

Hedde et Rondot. Etude Pratique du Commerce d' Exportation de la

Chine., par L Hedde. Revue et completee par N. Rondot. Paris,

1849.
Heyd, Prof. W. Le Colonic Co7nmerciali degli Italiani in Orie?ite nel

Medio Evoj Dissert. Rifatt. dalP A tit ore e re cat e in Italiano dal

Prof. G. Miiller. Venezia e Torino, 1866.

Histoire du Co?nmerce du Levaiit au Moyen Age . . . dd.

fra7i(^aise . . . par Furcy Raynaud. Leipzig, 1885-6, 2 vol. 8vo.

Hosie, Alexander. Three Years in Western Chi7ta ; a Narrative of three
fourneys in Ssii-ch^ua?t^ Kuei-chow , and Ytht-na?t. London, 1890, 8vo.

H. T. or Hiuen Tsang. Vie et Voyages, viz. Hist, de la Vie de Hiouen
Thsang et de ses Voyages dans I'lnde, &c. Paris, 1853.

or . Manoires sur les Co?ttrees Occidentales., &^c.

Paris, 1857. Sqq Peleri7ts Bouddhistes.

Hue. Recollectio7is of a fourney through Tartary, &^c. Condensed
Transl. by Mrs. P. Sinnett. London, 1852.

L B., Ibn. Bat., Ibn Batuta. Voyages d^Ib7i Batoutah par Defrmiery et

Sangui7ietti. Paris, 1853-58, 4 vol. 8vo.
Ibn Khordadhbeh. . . . Cum versione gallica edidit, . . , M, J. de Goeje.

Lug. Bat, 1889, 8vo.

Ilch., Ilchan., Hammer's Ilch. See Ha7ii7)ier.

India in XVth Century. Hak. Soc. 1857.

Ind. Ant., Indian Antiquary, a Journal of Oriental Research. Bombay,
1872, seqq.

J. A. S. B. fouriml of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

J. As. fournal Asiatique.

J. C. Br. R. a. S. four7ial of the China B7'anch of the R. Asiatic Society,

Shanghai.
J. Ind. Arch. four7tal of the I7ulia7t Archipelago.

App. I. FULLER TITLES OF WORKS CITED 587

J. N. C. Br. R. a. S. Journal of the North China Branch of the R.

Asiatic Society^ Shanghai.
J. R. A. S. Journal of the Royal As. Society.
J. R. G. S. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.
JOINVILLE. Edited by Francisque-Michel. Firmin-Didot : Paris, 1867.

Kaempfer. See Am. Exot.

Khanikoff, Notice. See App. H., III., No. 43.

Memoire sur la Partie Meridionale de VAsie Centrale,

Paris, 1862.

KiRCHER, Athanasius. Chi?ta^ Monumentis.^ Qr'c.j Illustrata. Amstelod.
1667.

Klap. Mem. See App. H., III., No. 22.

KOEPPEN, Die Religion des Buddha^ von Carl Friedrich. Berlin,
1857-59-

La Porte Guverte, &c., ou la Vraye Represe?itation de la Vie., des
Moeurs, de la Religion, et du Service Divin des Braniines., Qr'c.,
par le Sieur Abraham Roger, trad, en Francois. Amsterdam, 1670.

Ladak, &c. By Major Alex. Cunningham. 1854.

Lassen. Indische Alterthumskunde. First edition is cited throughout.

Lecomte, P^re L. Nouveaux Me'moires sur la Chine. Paris, 1701.

Levchine, Alexis de. Desc. des Hordes et des Steppes des Kirghiz
Katssaks ; trad, par F. de Pigny. Paris, 1840.

LiNSCHOTEN. Hist, de la Navigatio?t de Jean Hugues de Li7ischot
3iem ed. Amst., 1638.

Magaillans. See App. H., III., No. 4.

Makrizi. See Quat. Mak.

Mar. San., Marin. Sanut., Marino Sanudo. Liber Secretorum

Fidelium Crucis, in Bongarsii Gesta Dei per Francos. Hanoviae,

1611. Tom. ii.
Martene ET DURAND. Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum. Paris, 1 717.
Martini. See App. H., III., No. 2.
Mas'udi. Les Prairies d^Or, par Barbier de Afey?iard et Pavet de

Courteille. Paris, 1861, seqq.
Matthioli, p. a. Co?ninentarii in libros VI. Pedacii Dioscoridis de

Medicd Materia. Venetiis, 1554; sometimes other editions are

cited.
Maundevile. Hallivvell's Ed. London, 1866.
Mem. de l'Acad. See Acad.
Mendoza. H. of China. Ed. of Hak. Society, 1853-54.

588 MARCO POLO App. I.

Merveilles DE l'Inde. Livre des Merveilles de PInde . . . TexU arabe
par P. A. Van der Lith. Trad, fraft^aise par L. Marcel Devic.
Leide, 1883- 1886, 4to.

Michel. See Fra?icisqiie- Michel.

Mid. Kingd. See Williams.

MOORCROFT (2«^ Trcbcck^s Travels; edited by Prof. H. H. Wilson, 1841.

MOSHEIM. Historia Tartarorum Ecclesiastica. Helmstadi, 1741.

MUNTANER, in Bucho?t^ q. v.

N. & E., Not. ET Ext. Notices et Ex traits des MSS. de la Biblioth^^que

du Roy. Paris, v. y.
N. & Q. Notes and Queries.

N. & Q. C. & J. Notes a7id Queries for China and Japa7i.
Nelson, J. H. The Madura Country., a Ma?iual. Madras, 1868.
Neumann, C. F. His Notes at end of Biirck's German ed. of Polo.
'^OV\j?> O'R.Bl'S, Regionujn &^c. Veteribus incognitarum. Basil. Ed. 1555.

P. DE LA Croix. P]^tis de la Croix, Hist, de Timurbec, Qr^c. Paris,

1722.
P. DELLA V. See Delia Valle.
P. ViNC. Maria, P. Vincenzo. Viaggio alV Indie Oriejttali del P. F.

V. M. di S. Catarina da Siena. Roma, 1672.

Pallas. Voyages dans plusieurs Proviiices de PEmpij'e de Russie^ &'c.
Paris, Tan XI.

Paolino. Viaggio alle Indie^ &^c. da Fra P. da S. Bartolomeo. Roma,
1796.

Pegolotti. See Delia Decima.

P^lerins Bouddhistes, par Stan. Julien. This name covers the two
works entered above under the heading H. T., the Vie et Voyages
forming vol. i., and the Manoires, vols. ii. and iii.

Pereg. Quat. Peregrinatores Medii Aevi Quatuor, &^c. Recens. J. M.

Laurent. Lipsige, 1864.
Post und Reise Routen. See Sprenger.
Prairies d'Or. See Mashcdi.
PuNjAUB Trade Report. See Davies.

Q. R., Quat. Rashid. H. des Moiigols de la Perse., par Raschid-ed-din,
trad. &^c. par M. Quatremere. Paris, 1836.

Quat. Mak., Quatremere's Mak. H. des Sidtans Mainlouks de
PEgypte, par Makrizi. Trad, par Q. Paris, 1837, j^^^.

Ras Mala, or Hindoo Annals of Goozerat. By A. K. Forbes. London,
1856.

App. I. FULLER TITLES OF WORKS CITED 589

Reinaud, Rel. Relations dcs Voyages faits par les Arabes dans VInde
et la C/iifie, Qr^c. Paris, 1845.

, Inde, Mdm. Geog. Hisfor. et Scientifique sur /', &^c. Paris,

1849.

Relat., Relations. See last but one.

RiCHTHOFEN, Baron F. von. Letters (addressed to the Committee of the

Shanghai Chamber of Commerce) on the Interior Provinces of

Chi?ia. Shanghai, 1870-72.

ROCKHILL, W. W. The Land of the La7nas. London, 1 891, 8vo.

Diary of a Journey through Mongolia ajtd Tibet in

1891 and i%()2. Washington, 1894, 8vo.

The Journey of William of Rubruck. London, Halduyt

Society^ 1900, 8vo.

Roman., Romanin, Storia Docunicntata di Venezia. Venezia, 1853,
seqq.

Rui5., RUBRUQUIS. Cited from edition in Recueil de Voyages et de
Me'inoires, torn. iv. Paris, 1839. See Rockhill.

S. S., San. Setz., Ss. Ssetz. See Schmidt.

Santarem, Essai sur VHist. de la Cosniogj-aphie., &^c. Paris, 1849.

Sanudo. See Mar. San.

SCHILTBERGER, Reisen des Johan. Ed. by Neumann. Miinchen, 1859.

SCHLEGEL, G. Geographical Notes., \.-XV\.^\n Totatg Pao, Leiden, 1898-

1901.
Schmidt. Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen, &^c., verfasst von Ssanang-

Ssetzcfi CJnmgtaidschi. St. Petersburg, 1829.
Sonnerat. Voyage aux Indes Orie7itales. Paris, 1782.
Sprenger. Post und Reise Routen des Orients. Leipzig, 1864.
St. Martin, M. J. Memoires Historiques et Geographiques sur tAnninie^

&^c. Paris, 181 8-19.
Sykes, Major Percy Molesworth. Tejt Thousand Miles in Persia^ or

Eight Years in Iran. London, 1902, 8vo.
Chap, xxiii. Marco Folds Travels in Persia.
Recent Journeys i7i Persia. {Geog. Journal^ X, 1897, pp. 568-

597.)

Teixeira, Relaciones de Pedro, del Origen Descendencia y Succession de
los Reyes de Persia., y de Uarinuz, y de un Viage hecho por el
misino aotor, &^c. En Amberes, 1670.

TiMKOWSKi. Travels, &c., edited by Klaproth. London, 1827.

UzzANO. See Delia Decima.

Varthema's Ti%ivels. By Jones and Badger. Hak. Soc., 1863.

590 MARCO POLO API'. K.

ViGNE, G. T. Travels in Kashmir^ &-r. London, 1842.

ViN. Bell., Vinc. Bellov. Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Historlale,

Speculum Naturale^ &^c.
ViSDELOU. Suppk^mcnt to D'llcrbclot. 1780.

Williams's Middle Kijigdom. 3rd. Ed. New York and London, 1857.
Williamson, Rev. A. Journeys in N. China^ &^c. London, 1870.
Weber's Metrical Ro?na?ices of the Xlllth, XlVth, and XVth Centuries.
Edinburgh, 18 10.

WiTSEN. Noord en Oost Tartaryen. 2nd Ed. Amsterdam, 1785.

mean

Appendix K. — Vahtes of certain Moneys^ Weights^ and
Measures^ occurring in this Boole,

French Money.

The Livre Tournois of the period may be taken, on the
of five valuaUons cited in a footnote at p. ^"j of vol. i., as equal
\x\ modern silver value X.O ......... i^'Od^ francs.

Say English money . . . ., . . . . \^s. ^'Sd.

The Livre Parisis w^as worth one-founh more than the Toza--

noisf and therefore equivalent in silver value to 22'^^ francs.

Say English money . . . 17^-. lO'Si/.

(Gold being then to silver in relative value about 12:1 instead of about 15:1
as now, one-fourth has to be added to the values based on silver in equations
with the gold coin of the period, and one-fifth to be deducted in values based
on gold value. By oversight, in vol. i. p. 87, I took 16 : I as the present gold
value, and so exaggerated the value of the livre Tournois as compared with gold.)

M. Natalis de Wailly, in his recent fine edition of Joinville, deter-
mines the valuation of these livres, in the reign of St. Lewis, by taking
a mean between a value calculated on the present value of silver,
and a value calculated on the present value of gold,t and his result is :

Livre Tournois =■ 20-26 francs,

Livre Parisis ^ 25-33 ,,

Though there is something arbitrary in this mode of valuation, it is, perhaps, on
the whole the best ; and its result is extremely handy for the memory (as some-
body has pointed out) for we thus have

One Livre Tournois — One Napoleon.
,, ,, Parisis = One Sovereign.

* See {Dupre de St. Maur) Essai sur les Monnoies, Ss'c Paris, 1746, p. xv ; and Douet cTArrq,
pp. 5, 15, &c.

t He takes the silver value of the gros Tournois (the sol o{ the system) at 0*8924 y^., whence the
Livre = 17 '849 /v. And \\\& gold value of the golden Agncl, which passed for 12 J sols Tournois^ is
I4"i743yr. Whence the Livre=22*6789y9'. Mean=2o'2639yr,

Arp. K. VALUE OF MONEY, WEIGHTS, &c. 591

Venetian Money.

The Mark of Silver all over Europe may be taken fairly at 2/. 4s. of our money
in modern value ; the Venetian mark being a fraction more, and the marks of
England, Germany and France fractions less.*

The Venice Gold Ducat or Zecchin, first coined in accordance
with a Law of 31st October 1283, was, z« ottr gold value, worth . . \\''^2 francs. •\

or English 9^. 4-284^/.

The Zecchin when first coined was fixed as equivalent to 18 grossi, and on this
calculation the GroSSO should be a little less than $d. sterling. J But from what
follows it looks as if there must have been another grosso, perhaps only of account,
which was only | of the former, therefore equivalent to 3|i/. only. This would be a
clue to difficulties which I do not find dealt with by anybody in a precise or thorough
manner ; but I can find no evidence for it.

Accounts were kept at Venice not in ducats and grossi, but in Lire, of which there
were several denominations, viz. :

I. Lira dei Grossi, called in Latin Documents Libra denariorum Vene-
tortiin grosoruvi.% Like every Lira or Pound, this consisted of 20 soldi,
and each soldo of 12 deiiari or deniers.\\ In this case the Lira was
equivalent to 10 golden ducats ; and its Denier, as the name implies, was
the Grosso. The Grosso therefore here was -5^77 of 10 ducats or 5^ of
a ducat, instead of -^^.

2. Lira ai Grossi [L. den. Ven. ad grossos). This by decree of 2nd June,

1285, went two to the ducat. In fact it is the soldo of the preceding
Lira, and as such the Grosso was, as we have just seen, its denier ;
which is perhaps the reason of the name.

3. Lira dei Piccoli {L. den. Ven. parvtdomm). The ducat is alleged to

have been at first equal to three of these Lire {Komanin, I. 321) ; but

•the calculations of Marino Sanudo (1300- 1320) in the Secreta Fidelitan

Crucis show that he reckons the Ducat equivalent to 3*2 lire oi piccoli.\

In estimating these Lire in modern English money, on the basis of their relation

to the ducat, we must reduce the apparent value by \. We then have :

I. Lira dei Grossi equivalent to nearly 3/. 15^-. od. (therefore exceeding

* The Mark was | of a pound. The EngUsh Pound. Sterling of the period was in silver
vakie=3/. s^- '^■d. Hence the Mark=2/. 3^-. s'Ai,d. _ The Cologne Mark, according to Pegolotti, was
the same, and the Venice Mark of silver was=i English Tower Mark + 3i sterlings {i.e. pence of the
period), =therefore to 2/. a,s. 4"84<f. The FVench Mark of Silver, according to Dupr6 de St. Maur, was
about 3 Livres, presumably Tournois, and therefore 2/. 2.5-. w^d.

t Cibrario, Pol. Ec. del Med. Evo. III. 228. The Gold Florin of Florence was worth a
fraction more=9.y. \''i>^d.

Sign. Desimoni, of Genoa, obligingly points out that the changed relation of Gold ducat and silver^rt75J(7
was due to a general rise in price of gold between 1284 and 1302, shown by notices of other Italian
mints which raise the equation of the gold florin in the same ratio, viz. from 9 sols tournois to 12.

X For fV of the florin will be t'-22,d., and deducting \, as pointed out above, we have 4*99fl;. as the
value of the grosso. _ _ _ • _

I have a note that the grosso contained 42/^*^ Venice grains of pure silver. If the Venice grain be
the same as the old Milan grain ('051 gravimes) this will give exactly the same value of 5^.

§ Also called, according to Romanin, Lira dirnprestidi. See Introd. Essay in vol. i. p. 66.

II It is not too universally known to be worth noting that our £. s. d. represents Livres, soli,
deniers.

T[ He also states the grosso to have been worth 32 piccoli, which is consistent with this and the
two preceding statements. For at 3*2 lire to the ducat the latter would — 768 piccoli, and ^ of
this = 32 piccgli. Pegolotti also assigns 24 grossi to the ducat (p. 151).

The tendency of these Lire, as of pounds generally, was to degenerate in value. In Uzzano (1440)
> e find the Ducat equivalent to 100 soldi, i.e. to 5 lire.

Everybody seems to be tickled at the notion that the Scotch Pound or Livre was only 20 Pence
Nobody finds it funny that the French or Italian Pound is only 20 halfpence, or less I

592

MARCO POLO An-

by nearly los. the value of the round sterling of the period, or Li?a di
Slerlini, as it was called in the appropriate Italian phrase).*

2. Lira ai Grossi . . • 3^-9^.

3- Lira dei Piccoli . . • • . . • . 2s. ^d.
The Tornese or Tornesel at Venice was, according to Romanin (III. 343)
= 4 Venice deniers : and if these are the deniers of the Lira ai Grossi, the coin
would be worth a little less than ^d., and nearly the equivalent of the denier
Tournois, from which it took its name.f

The term Bezant is used by Polo always (I believe) as it is by Joinville, by
Marino Sanudo, and by Pegolotti, for the Egyptian gold dfndr, the intrinsic value of
which varied somewhat, but can scarcely be taken at less than 105-. 6d. or lis. (See
Cathay, pp. 440-441 ; and see also/. As. ser. VI. torn. xi. pp. 506-507.) The exchange
of Venice money for the Bezant or Dinar in the Levant varied a good deal (as is
shown by examples in the passage in Cathay just cited), but is always in these
examples a large fraction {\ up to \) more than the Zecchin. Hence, when Joinville
gives the equation of St. Lewis's ransom as 1,000,000 bezants or 500,000 livres, I
should have supposed these to be livres Parisis rather than Tournois, as M. de
Wailly prefers.

There were a variety of coins of lower value in the Levant called Bezants, J but
these do not occur in our Book.

The Venice Sag'g'io, a weight for precious substances was \ of an ounce,
corresponding to the weight of the Roman gold solidus^ from which was originally de-
rived the Arab MiskaL And Polo appears to use saggio habitually as the equivalent
of Miskdl. Plis pois or pesO, applied to gold and silver, seems to have the same
sense, and is indeed a literal translation oi Miskdl. (See vol. ii. p. 41.)

For measures Polo uses the palm rather than the foot. I do not find a value of
the Venice palm, but over Italy that measure varies from 9^ inches to something over
10. The Genoa Palm is stated at 9725 inches.

Jal [Arch^ologie Nav. I, 271) cites the following Table of

Old Venice Measures of Length.

4 fingers =

I handbreadth.

4 handbreadths =^

I foot.

5 feet =

I pace.

1000 paces =

I mile.

4 miles =

I league.

* Uzzano in Delia Decinia, iV. 124.

t According to Galliccioli (II. 53) /zVc^// (probably in the vague sense of small copper coin) were
called in the Levant ropvicTiOL.

X Thus in the document containing the autograph of King Hayton, presented at p. 13 of Intro-
ductory Essay, the King gives with his daughter, " Damoiselle Femie," a dowry of 25,000 besans
sarrazinas, and in payment 4 of his own bezants staurats (presumably so called from bearing a cross)
are to count as one Saracen Bezant. (jCod.DiJ>loiiiat. del S. Mil. 0?d, GerosoUm. I. 134.)

app. l. supplementary notes on special subjects 593

Appendix L. — Sundry Supplemenfaiy Notes on Special
Subjects. — (H. C.)

I.— The Polos at Acre.

8. — La Couvade.

2. — Sorcery in Kashmir.

9. — Alacan.

3. — Paonano Pao.

10. — Chajnpa.

4. — Pamir.

\\.—Ruck Quills.

5. — Number of Pamirs.

12.— A Spanish Edition of Marco

6. — Site of Pei7i.

Polo.

7. — Fire-arms.

13. — Sir John Mandeville.

I. — The Polos at Acre. (Vol. i. p. ig. Int.)

M. le Comte Riant {Itiit. h Jdrusalejti, p. xxix.) from various data thinks the two
sojourns of the Polos at Acre must have been between the 9th May, 1271, date of the
arrival of Edward of England and of Tedaldo Visconti, and the i8th November, 1271,
time of the departure of Tedaldo. Tedaldo was still in Paris on the 28th December,
1269, and he appears to have left for the Holy Land after the departure of S. Lewis
for Tunis (2nd July, 1270). — H. C.

2.— Sorcery in Kashmir. (Vol. i. p. 166.)

In KalhancCs Rdjataraitginiy A Chronicle of the Kiyigs of Kdsinlr translated by
M. A. Stein, we read (Bk. IV. 94, p. 128) : "Again the Brahman's wife addressed
him : ' O king, as he is famous for his knowledge of charms [Khdrkhodavidyd],
he can get over an ordeal with ease.'" Dr. Stein adds the following note : "The
practice of witchcraft and the belief in its efficiency have prevailed in Kasmir from
early times, and have survived to some extent to the present day ; comp. Biihler^
Feport, p. 24. . . . The term Khdrkhoda, in the sense of a kind of deadly charm
or witchcraft, recurs in v. 239, and is found also in the Vijaydsvaramdh (Adipur.),
xi. 25. In the form Khdrkota it is quoted by the N. P. W. from Caraka, vi. 23.
Khdrkhota appears as the designation of a sorcerer or another kind of uncanny
persons in Haracar., ii. 125, along with Krtyas and Vetalas. . . , ."

3. — Paonano Pao. (Vol. i. p. 173.)

In his paper on Zoj'oastrian Deities on I ndo- Scythians' Coins {Babylonian and
Ojiental Record, AwgnsX., 1887, pp. 155-166; xq^. in i\\Q Indian Anticjuary, 1888),
Dr. M. A. Stein has demonstrated that the legend Paonano Pao on the coins of the
Yue-Chi or Indo-Scythian Kings (Kanishka, Huvishka, Vasudeva), is the exact
transcription of the old Iranian title Shdhandn Shdh (Persian Shdhan-shdh), " King
of Kings " ; the letter P, formerly read as P(r), has since been generally recognised,
in accordance with his interpretation as a distinct character expressing the sound sh.

4.— Pamir. (Vol. i. pp. 1 74-1 75-)

I was very pleased to find that my itinerary agrees with that of Dr. M. A. Stein ;
this learned traveller sends me the following remarks: "The remark about the
VOL. II. 2 P

594 MARCO POLO App. L.

absence of birds (pp. 174-175) mii^ht be a reflex of the very ancient legend (based prob-
ably on the name zend Upairi-saena, pehlevi Apdrsin, * higher than the birds ' )
which represents the Hindti Kush range proper as too high for birds to fly over. The
legend can be traced by successive evidence in the case of the range north of Kabul." —
Regarding the route (p. 175) from the Wakhjir (sic) Pass down the Taghdum-bash
Pamir, then vid Tash-kurghan, Little Karakul, Buhm Kul, Gez Daria to Tashmalik
and Kashgar, Dr. Stein says that he surveyed it in July, 1900, and he refers for the
correct phonetic spelling of local names along it to his map to be published in
J, R. G. S., in December, 1902. He says in his Prel. Report, p. 10: "The Wakhjir
Pass, only some 12 miles to the south-west of Kok-iordk, connects the Taghdumbash
Pamir and the Sarikol Valleys with the head-waters of the Oxus. So I was glad that
the short halt, which was unavoidable for survey purposes, permitted me to move a
light camp close to the summit of the Wakhjir Pass (circ. 16,200 feet). On the
following day, 2nd July, I visited the head of Ab-i-Fanja Valley, near the great
glaciers which Lord Curzon first demonstrated to be the true source of the River
Oxus. It was a strange sensation for me in this desolate mountain waste to know
that I lad reached at last the eastern threshold of that distant region, including
Bactria and the Upper Oxus Valley, which as a field of exploration had attracted me
long before I set foot in India. Notwithstanding its great elevation, the Wakhjir
Pass and its approaches both from west and east are comparatively easy. Com-
paring the topographical facts with Hiuen-Tsiang's account in the Si yu-ki, I am led
to conclude that the route followed by the great Chinese Pilgrim, when travelling
about A.D. 649 from Badakshan towards Khotan, through 'the valley of Po-mi-lo
(Pamir) ' into Sarikol, actually traversed this Pass."

Dr. Stein adds in his notes to me that " Marco Polo's description of the forty
days' journey to the E.N.E. of Vokhan as through tracts of wilderness can weU
be appreciated by any one who has passed through the Pamir Region, in thd
direction of the valleys W. and N. of Muztagh Ata. After leaving Tashkurghan
and Tagharma, where there is some precarious cultivation, there is no local produce to
be obtained until the oasis of Tashmalik is reached in the open Kashgar plains. In
the narrow valley of the Yamanyar River (Gez Defile) there is scarcely any grazing ;
its appearance is far more desolate than that of the elevated Pamirs." — " Marco Polo's
praise (p. 181) of the gardens and vine-yards of Kashgar is well deserved ; also the
remark about the trading enterprise of its merchants still holds good, if judged by the
standard of Chinese Turkestan. Kashgar traders visit Khotan far more frequently
than vice versa. It is strange that no certain remains of Nestorian worship can be
traced now." — "My impression [Dr. Stein's] of the people of the Khotan oasis
(p. 188) was that they are certainly a meeker and more docile race than e.g. the
average ' Kashgarlik ' or Yarkandi. The very small number of the Chinese garrison
of the districts Khotan and Keria (only about 200 men) bears out this impression."

We may refer for the ancient sites, history, etc., of Khotan to the Preliminary
Report of Dr. Stein and to his paper in the Geographical Journal iox. December, 1902,
actually in the press.

5.— Number of Pamirs. (Vol. i. p. 176.)

Lord Curzon gives the following list of the *' eight claimants to the distinction and
title of a Pamir": (i) Taghdumbash, or Supreme Head of the Mountains Pamir,
lying immediately below and to the north of the Kilik Pass. (2) The Pamir-i-
Wakhan. (3) The Pamir-i-Khurd, or Little Pamir. (4) The Pamir-i-Kalan, or
Great Pamir. (5) The Alichur Pamir. (6) The Sarez Pamir. (7) The Rang Kul
Pamir. (8) The Khargosh or Hare Pamir, which contains the basin of the Great
Kara Kul. See this most valuable paper. The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus^
reprinted from the Geographical Journal oi 1896, in 1896, 1898, and 1899.

r f 4

Some of the objects found by Dr. M. A. Stein, in Central Asia.

[To/ace />. $g$, vol. ii

API'. L. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ON SPECIAL SUBJECTS 595

6. — Pein. (Vol. i. p. 192.)

Dr. M. A. Stein, of the Indian Educational Service, appears to have exactly
identified the site of Pein, during his recent archaeological researches in Central
Asia; he writes {Prel. Report on a Jotirney of Archceological and Topog. Exploration
in Chinese Tjirkestan, Lond., 1901, pp. 58-59): "Various antiquarian and topo-
graphical considerations made me anxious to identify the position of the town oiPi-nio,
which Hiuen-Tsiang describes as some 300 It to the east of the Khotan capital.
It was probably the same place as the Pein^ visited by Marco Polo. After march-
ing back along the Keriya River for four days, I struck to the south-west, and,
after three more marches, arrived in the vicinity of Lachin-Ata Mazar, a desolate
little shrine in the desert to the north of the Khotan-Keriya route. Though our
search was rendered difficult by the insufficiency of guides and the want of \\ater, I
succeeded during the following few days in tracing the extensive ruined site which
previous information had led me to look for in that vicinity. *Uzun-Tati' (*the
distant Tati,') as the debris-covexedi area is locally designated, corresponds in its
position and the character of its remains exactly to the description of Pi-mo.
Owing to far-advanced erosion and the destruction dealt by treasure-seekers, the
structural remains are very scanty indeed. But the dSi'is, including bits of glass,
pottery, china, small objects in brass and stone, etc., is plentiful enough, and in
conjunction with the late Chinese coins found here, leaves no doubt as to the site
having been occupied up to the Middle Ages."

Our itinerary should therefore run from Khotan to Uzun Tati, and thence to
Nia, leaving Kiria to the south; indeed Kiria is not an ancient place. — H. C.

MARCO polo's itinerary CORRECTED

Khotan U:51^I^i

Votkan

J VL TV

cf I e

Kial
_o

Jflriao

Mr. E. J. Rapson, of the British Museum, with the kind permission of Dr. Stein,
has sent me a photograph (which we reproduce) of coins and miscellaneous objects
found at Uzun Tati. Coin (i) bears the nien-hao (title of reign) Pao Ytcen (1038-
1040) of the Emperor Jen Tsung, of the Sung Dynasty ; Coin (2) bears the
nien-hao, K'ien Ynen (758-760) of the Emperor Su Tsung of the T'ang Dynasty ;
Coin (3) is of the time of the Khan of Turkestan, Muhammad Arslan Khan, about
441 A. H. = 1049 A.D. From the description sent to me by Mr. Rapson and written
by Mr. Andrews, I note that the miscellaneous objects include: "Two fragments
of fine Chinese porcelain, highly glazed and painted with Chinese ornament in blue.
That on the left is painted on both sides, and appears to be portion of rim of a bowl.
Thickness ^\ of an inch. That to the right is slightly coarser, and is probably
portion of a larger vessel. Thickness J inch (nearly). A third fragment of
porcelain, shown at bottom of photo, is decorated roughly in a neutral brown colour,
which has imperfectly 'fluxed.' It, also, appears to be Chinese. Thickness |- inch
(nearly). — A brass or bronze object, cast. Probably portion of a clasp or buckle. —
A brass finger ring containing a piece of mottled green glass held loosely in place
by a turned-over denticulated rim. The metal is very thin." — H. C.

VOL. n. 2 p 2

59^ MARCO POLO App. L.

7. — Fire-arms. (Vol. i. p. 342.)

From a paper on Sm/n's Intenoiirse with China, published by Lieutenant-Colonel
Gerini in the Asiatic Quarterly Reziew for October, 1902, it would appear that fire-
arms were mentioned for the first time in Siamese Records during the Lau invasion and
the siege of Swankhalok (from 1085 to 1097 a.d.) ; it is too early a date'for the intro-
duction of fire-arms, though it would look " much more like an anachronism were the
advent of these implements of warfare [were] placed, in blind reliance upon the
Norther7t Chronicles, still a few centuries back. The most curious of it all is, how-
ever, the statement as to the weapons in question having been introduced into the
country from China." Following W. F. Mayers in his valuable contributions to the
Jottr. North-China B. R. A. S., 1869- 1870, Colonel Gerini,' who, of course,
did not know of Dr. Schlegel's paper, adds: "It was not until the reign of the
Emperor Yung Le, and on occasion of the invasion of Tonkin in a.d. 1407, that the
Chinese acquired the knowledge of the propulsive effect of gunpowder, from their
vanquished enemies."

8. — La Couvade. (Vol. ii. p. 91.)

Mr. H. Ling Roth has given an interesting paper entitled On the Signification oj
Couvade, in the Journ. Anthropological Inslitzite, XXI L 1893, pp. 204-243. He
writes (pp. 221-222): — "From this survey it would seem in the first place that we
want a great deal more information about the custom in the widely isolated cases
where it has been reported, and secondly, that the authenticity of some of the
reported cases is doubtful in consequence of authors repeating their predecessors' tales,
as Colquhoun did Marco Polo's, and V. der Haart did Schouten's. I should not be
at all surprised if ultimately both Polo's and Schouten's accounts turned out to be
myths, both these travellers making their records at a time when the Old World was
full of the tales of the New, so that in the end, we may yet find the custom is not,
nor ever has been, so widespread as is generally supposed to have been the case."

I do not very well see how Polo, in the 13th and 14th centuries could make his
record at a time when the Old World was full of the tales of the New, discovered at
the end of the 15th century ! Unless Mr. Ling Roth supposes the Venetian Traveller
acquainted with the various theories of the Pre-Columbian discovery of America ! !

9.— Alacan. (Vol. ii. pp. 255 and 261.)

Dr. G. Schlegel writes, in the Voung Fao [May, 1898, p. 153): ''Abakan or
Abachan ought to be written Alahan. His name is written by the Chinese Ats'zehati
and by the Japanese Asikan ; but this is because they have both confounded the
character lah with the character ts'ze ; the old sound of [the last] character [of the
name] was kan and is always used by the Chinese when wanting to transcribe the
title Khan or Chan. Marco Polo's A^^acan is a clerical error for A/acan."

10. — Champa. (Vol. ii. p. 268.)

In Ma Huan's account of the Kingdom of Siam, transl. by Mr. Phillips [Jour.
China B. R. A. S., XXI. 1886, pp. 35-36) we read: "Their marriage ceremonies
are as follows : — They first invite the priest to conduct the bridegroom to the bride's
house, and on arrival there the priest exacts the ' droit seigneurial,' and then she
is introduced to the bridegroom."

II.— Ruck Quills. (Vol. ii. p. 421.)

Regarding Ruck Quills, Sir H. Yule wrote in the Academy, 22nd March, 1884,
pp. 204-405 :—

" I suggested that this might possibly have been some vegetable production, such

app. l. supplementary notes on special subjects 597

as a great frond of the Ravenala ( Urania speciosa) cooked to pass as a rue's quill.
{Marco Polo, first edition, ii. 354; second edition, ii. 414.) Mr. Sibree, in his
excellent book on Madagascar {The Great African Island, 1880) noticed this, but
said :

" * It is much more likely that they [the rue's quills] were the immensely long
midribs of the leaves of the rofia palm. These are from twenty to thirty feet long,
and are not at all unlike an enormous quill stripped of the feathering portion' "

(p. 55).

In another passage he describes the palm, Sagus ruffia { ? raphia) :

"The rofia has a trunk of from thirty to fifty feet in height, and at the head
divides into seven or eight immensely long leaves. The midrib of these leaves is a
very strong, but extremely light and straight pole. . . . These poles are often
twenty feet or more in length, and the leaves proper consist of a great number of
fine and long pinnate leaflets, set at right angles to the midrib, from eighteen to
twenty inches long, and about one and a half broad," etc. (pp. 74, 75).

When Sir John Kirk came home in 1881-1882, I spoke to him on the subject,
and he felt confident that the rofia or raphia palm-fronds were the original of the
rue's quills. He also kindly volunteered to send me a specimen on his return to
Zanzibar. This he did not forget, and some time ago there arrived at the India
Office not one, but four of these rue's quills. In the letter which announced this
despatch Sir John says : —

" I send to-day per s.s. Arcot .... four fronds of the Raphia palm, called here
* Moale.' They are just as sold and shipped up and down the coast. No doubt
they were sent in Marco Polo's time in exactly the same state, i.e. stripped of their
leaflets, and with the tip broken off". They are used for making stages and ladders,
and last long if kept dry. They are also made into doors, by being cut into lengths,
and pinned through. The stages are made of three, like tripods, and used for
picking cloves from the higher branches."

The largest of the four midribs sent (they do not differ much) is 25 feet 4 inches
long, measuring 12 inches in girth at the butt, and 5 inches at the upper end.
I calculate that if it originally came to a point the whole length would be 45 feet, but,
as this would not be so, we may estimate it at 35 to 40 feet. The thick part is
deeply hollowed on the upper (?) side, leaving the section of the solid butt in form
a thick crescent. The leaflets are all gone, but when entire, the object must have
strongly resembled a Brobdingnagian feather. Compare this description with that
of Padre Bolivar in Ludolf, referred to above.

"In aliquibus .... regionibus vidi pennas alaeistius avis prodigiosae, licet avem
non viderim, Penna ilia, prout ex forma colligebatur, erat ex mediocribus, longitudine
28 palmorum, latitudine trium. Calamus vero a radice usque ad extremitatem
longitudine quinque palmorum, densitatis instar brachii moderati, robustissimus
erat et durus. Pennulae inter se aequales et bene compositae, ut vix ab invicem
nisi cum violentia divellerentur. Colore erant valde nigro, calamus colore albo."
{Ludolfi, ad suani Hist. Aethiop., Comment., p. 164.)

The last particular, as to colour, I am not able to explain : the others correspond
well. The palmus in this passage may be anything from 9 to 10 inches.

I see this tree is mentioned by Captain R. F. Burton in his volume on the
Lake Regions (vol. xxix. of Xho. J onrnal oi X^ae. Royal Geographical Society, p. 34),*
and probably by many other travellers.

I ought to mention here that some other object has been shown at Zanzibar as
part of the wings of a great bird. Sir John Kirk writes that this (which he does not
describe particularly) was in the possession of the Roman Catholic priests at
Bagamoyo, to whom it had been given by natives of the interior, who declared that
they had brought it from Tanganyika, and that it was part of the wing of a gigantic

* "The raphia, here called the 'Devil's date,' is celebrated as having the largest leaf in the
vegetable Kingdom," etc. In his translation of Lacerda's journey he calls it Raphia vinifera.

598

MARCO POLO App. L.

bird. On another occasion they repeated this statement, alleging that this bird
was known in the Udoc (?) country near the coast. These priests were able to com-
municate directly with their informants, and certainly believed the story. Dr.
Hildebrand, also, a competent German naturalist, believed in it. But Sir John Kirk
himself says that "what the priests had to show was most undoubtedly the whalebone
of a comparatively small whale."

12. — A Spanish Edition of Marco Polo.

As we go to press we receive the newly published volume. El Libro de Marco Polo —
Alls dem vermdchtnis des Dr. Hermann Knust nach der Madrider Handschrift
herausgegeben von Dr. R. Stuebe. Leipzig, Dr. Seele & Co., 1902, 8vo., pp. xxvi.-
114. It reproduces the old Spanish text of the manuscript Z-I-2 of the Escurial
Library from a copy made by Seiior D. Jose Rodriguez for the Society of the Spanish
Bibliophiles, which, being unused, was sold by him to Dr. Hermann Knust, who
made a careful comparison of it with the original manuscript. This copy, found among
the papers of Dr. Knust after his death, is now edited by Dr. Stuebe. The original
14th century MS., written in a good hand on two columns, includes 312 leaves of
parchment, and contains several works ; among them we note : 1°, a Collection
entitled Flor de las Ystorias de Oriente (fol. 1-104), made on the advice of Juan
Fernandez de Heredia, Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (1377),
of which Marco Polo (fol. 50-104) is a part ; 2° and Secrettim Secretorutn (fol. 254 r-
fol. 312 V.) ; this MS. is not mentioned in our List, App. F., H. p. 546, unless it be
our No. 60.

The manuscript includes 68 chapters, the first of which is devoted to the City of
Lob and Sha-chau, coi-responding to our Bk. I., ch. 39 and 40 (our vol. i. pp, 196
seqq.)', ch. 65 (p. in) corresponds approximatively to our ch. 40, Bk. HI. (vol. ii.
p. 451) ; chs. 6(i, 67, and the last, 68, would answer to our chs. 2, 3, and 4 of Bk. I.
(vol i., pp. 45 seqq.). A concordance of this Spanish text, with Pauthier's, Yule's,
and the Geographic Texts, is carefully given at the beginning of each of the 68
chapters of the Book.

Of course this edition does not throw any new light on the text, and this volume
is but a matter of curiosity.

13.— Sir John Mandeville.

One of the last questions in which Sir Henry Yule * took an interest in, was the
problem of the authorship of the book of Travels which bears the name of Sir
John Mandeville, the worthy Knight, who, after being for a long time considered
as the "Father of English Prose" has become simply "the name claimed by the
compiler of a singular book of Travels, written in French, and published between
1357 and I37i."t

It was understood that "Johan Maundeuille, chiualer, ia soit ceo qe ieo ne
soie dignes, neez et norriz Dengleterre de la ville Seint Alban," crossed the sea "Ian
millesme ccc^e vintisme et secund, le iour de Seint Michel,":!: that he travelled since
across the whole of Asia during the 14th century, that he wrote the relation of his
travels as a rest after his fatiguing peregrinations, and that he died on the 17th of
November, 1372, at Liege, when he was buried in the Church of the Guillemins.

No work has enjoyed a greater popularity than Mandeville's ; while we describe
but eighty-five manuscripts of Marco Polo's, and I gave a list of seventy-three manu-

* Mandeville, Jehan de [By Edward Byron Nicholson, M.A., and Colonel Henry Yule, C.B.]
Ext. from the Encyclopad. Britan. 9th ed., xv. 1883, ppt. 4to., pp. 4.
t Encyclop. Brit. xv. p. 473.
J British Museum, Harley, 4383, f. i verso.

app. l. supplementary notes on special subjects 599

scripts of Friar Odoric's relation,* it is by hundreds that Mandeville's manuscripts
can be reckoned. As to the printed editions, they are, so to speak, numberless ;
Mr. Carl Schonbornf gave in 1840, an incomplete bibliography; Tobler in his
Bibliographia geographica Palestinae (1867), J and Rohricht§ after him compiled a
better bibliography, to which may be added my own lists in the Bibliotheca Sinica i|
and in the Tonng-Pao.'^

Campbell, Ann. de la Typog. n^erlandaise^ 1874, p. 338, mentions a Dutch
edition : Reysen int heilighe lani, s.l.n.d., folio, of which but two copies are known,
and which must be dated as far back as 1470 [see p. 600]. I believed hitherto (I am
not yet sure that Campbell is right as to his date) that the first printed edition was
German, s.l.n.d., very likely printed at Basel, about 1475, discovered by Tross, the
Paris Bookseller.** The next editions are the French of the 4th April, 1480, ft and
8th Februaiy of the same year, %+ Easter being the 2nd of April, then the Latin, §§

* Les Voyages en Asie an XIV^ siecle du Bienhctireux/rere Odoric de Pordenone. Paris, 1891,
p. cxvi.

t Bibliographische Untersuchungen iiber die Reise-Beschreibung des Sir John Maundeville. — Dem
Herrn Samuel Gottfried Reiche, Rector und Professor des Gymnasiums zu St. Elisabet in Breslau und
Vice-Prases der Schlesischen Gesellschaft fiir Vaterlandische Cultur, Ritter des rothen Adlerordens,
zur Feier Seines Amts-Jubelfestes am 30. October 1840 im Namen des Gymnasiums zu St. Maria
Magdalena gewidmet von Dr. Carl. Schonborn, Director, Rector und Professor.— Breslau, gedruckt
bei Grass, Barth und Comp., ppt. 4to. pp. 24.

X Bibliographia geographica Palaestinae. Zunachst kritische Uebersicht gedruckter und unge-
druckter Beschreibungen der Reisen ins heilige Land. Von Titus Tobler. — Leipzig, Verlag von
S. Hirzel. 1867, 8vo., pp. iv.-265.= : C. 1336 (1322-1356). Der englische ritter John Maundeville,
pp. 36-39.

§ Bibliotheca geographica Palestinae. Chronologisches Verzeichniss der auf die Geographic des
Heiligen Landes beziiglichen Literatur von 333 bis 1878 und Versuch einer Cartographie. Herausgege-
ben von Reinhold Rohricht. Berlin, H. Reuther, 1890, 8vo, pp. xx-742.

II Bibliotheca Sinica. — Dictionnaire bibliographique des ouvrages relatif s^ I'empire chinois par
Henri Cordier. Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1878-1895, 3 vol. 8vo. col. 943-959, 1921-1927, 2201.

^ Jean de Mandeville. _Ext. du Toting Pao, vol. ii. No. 4, Leide, E. J. Brill, 1891, 8vo, pp. 38.

** Jch Otto von diemeringen ein || Thiimherre zu Metz in Lothoringen . han dises buch verwandel-
vsz II welschs vnd vsz latin zu tiitsch durch das die tutschen liite ouch mogent || dai" inne lesen von
menigen wunderlichen sachen die dor inne geschribe || sind . von fremden landen vn fremden tieren
von fremden liiten vnd von || irem glouben . von iren wesen von iren kleidern . vnd vo vil andern wun
II deren als hie noch in den capitelen geschriben stat. Und ist das buch in || funf teil geteilt vnd saget
das erst buch von den landen vnd von den we || gen vsz tutschen nider landen gen Jerusalem zu
varen . vnd zu sant Ka | || therine grab vnd zu dem berg Synai . vnd von den landen vnd von den [j
wundern die man vnterwegen do zwischen vinden mag. Jtem von des || herren gewalt vnd herrschafft
der do heisset der Soldan vnd von sinem || wesen. Das ander buch saget ob ymant wolt alle welt
vmbfaren was || lands vnd was wunders er vinden mocht. Jn manchen steten vn in vil || insulen dot
inne er kame . vnd saget ouch von den wegen vnd von den la || den vn liiten was in des grossen herre
land ist. 8 do heisset zu latin Ma || gnus canis | das ist zu tiitsch der grosz hunt . der ist so gar
gewaltig vnd |1 so rich das im vff erden an gold an edlem gestein viian anderm richtum || niemant
gelichen mag . on allein priester Johann von Jndia._ Das drit || buch saget von des vor genanten herren
des grossen hunds glowben vSi 1| gewonheit vnd wie er von erst her komen ist vnd von andern sachen
vil II Das vierde buch saget von jndia vnd von priester Johann vnd von siner || herschafft . von sinem
vrsprung vnd von siner heiligkeit von sjnem glou | || ben von siner gewonheit vnd vil andern wundern
die in sinem lande sind || Das fiinfft buch saget von manchen heydischen glouben vnd ir gewon j ||
heit vii ouch von menigerlei cristen glouben die gensit mers sint die doch |1 nit gar vnsern glouben
hand. Jtem von menigerlei Juden glouben vnd || wie vil cristen land sint vnd doch nicht vnsern
glouben haltend noch re | 1| chte cristen sind. Folio ; black letter.

tt Ce liure est eppelle ma // deuille et fut fait i compose // par monsieur iehan de man // deuille
cheualier natif dagle // terre de la uille de salct alel // Et parle de la terre de pro // mission cest
assauoir de ieru // salem et de pluseurs autres // isles de mer et les diuerses i // es^anges choses qui
sont es // dites isles.

Ands recto f°. 88 : Cy finist ce tres plaisant // liure nome Mandeville par // lane moult autentique-
ment // du pays et terre d'oultre mer // Et fut fait La Mil cccc // Ixxx le iiii iour dauril, s.l., without
any printer's name ; small folio ; ff. 88 ; sig. a (7 fF.) — 1. (9 fF.) ; others 8 ff. — Grenville Library, 6775.

\X F. I recto: Ce liure est appelle // mandeuilie et fut fait et // compose par monsieur // iehan de
mandeuille che // ualier natif dangleterre // de la uille de sainct alein // Et parle de la terre de // pro-
mission cest assauoir // de iherusalem et de plu // seurs autres isles de mer // et les diuerses et estran //
ges choses qui sont esd' // isles. — Ends verso f. 93 : Cy finist ce tresplay // sant liure nome Mande //
uille parlat moult antd // tiquement du pays r t're // doultre mer Jmprime a // lyo sur le rosne Lan Mil
cccclxxx le viii iour de // freuier a la requeste de // Maistre Bartholomieu // Buyer bourgoys du dit //
lyon. Small folio.

§§ F. I recto. Jtinerarius domi//ni Johanis de ma//deville militis. — F. 2 recto : Tabula capitulorum
in // itinerarium ad partes Jhe = // rosolimitanas. 10 ad vlterio // res trasmarinas domini Jo//hannis de
Mandeville mili//tis Jncipit feliciter. — F. 4. recto: Jncipit Itinerarius a ter//ra Anglie in ptes Jherosoli
= //mitanas. TO in vlteriores tras//marinas. editus primo in li//gua gallicana a milite suo au//tore Anno
incarnatonis diii // M. ccc. Iv. in ciuitate Leodi // ensi. JO paulo post in eade ciui//tate traslatus in banc
forma // latinam. //

Ends f. 71 verso: Explicit itinerarius domini // Johannis de Mandeville // militis. Small 410,
black letter, ff. 71 on 2 col., sig. a-i iij ; a-h by 8 = 64 ff. ; i, 7 ff.

6oO MARCO POLO Ait. L.

Dutcli,* and Italian f editions, and after the l^^nglish editions of I'ynson an<l
Wynkin de Worde.

In what tongue was Mandeville's Book written ?

The fact that the first edition of it was printed either in German or in Dutch,
only shows that the scientific progress was greater and printing more active in such
towns as Basel, Nuremberg and Augsburg than in others. At first, one might believe
that there were three original texts, probably in French, English, and vulgar Latin ;
the Dean of Tongres, Radulphus of Rivo, a native of Breda, writes indeed in his
Gesta Pontificum Leodiensium, 1616, p. 17: "Hoc anno loannes Mandeuilius
natione Anglus vir ingenio, & arte medendi eminens, qui toto fere terrarum orbe
peragrato, tribtis Unguis peregrinationem suam doctissime conscripsit, in alium orb8
nullis finibus clausum, logeque hoc quietiorem, & beatiorem migrauit 17.
Nouembris. Sepultus in Ecclesia Wilhelmitarum non procul ^ moenibus Ciiiitatis
Leodiensis." The Dean of Tongres died in 1483 ; % Mr. Warner, on the authority
of the Bulleti7i de Pinst. ArMoL Li^geois, xvi. 1882, p. 358, gives 1403 as the date of
the death of Radulphus. However, Mandeville himself says [Warner, Harley, 4383)
at the end of his introduction, p. 3 : — " Et sachez qe ieusse cest escript mis en latyn
pur pluis briefment deuiser ; mes, pur ceo qe plusours entendent mieltz romantz qe latin,
ieo lay mys en romance, pur ceo qe chescun lentende et luy chiualers et les seignurs
et lez autres nobles homes qi ne sciuent point de latin ou poy, et qount estee outre
meer, sachent et entendent, si ieo dye voir ou noun, et si ieo erre en deuisant par
noun souenance ou autrement, qils le puissent adresser et amender, qar choses de
long temps passez par la veue tornent en obly, et memorie de homme ne puet
mye tot retenir ne comprendre." From this passage and from the Latin text :
"Incipit itinerarius a terra Anglise ad partes Iherosolimitanas et in ulteriores
transmarinas, editus primo in lingua gallicana a milite suo autore anno incarnacionis
Domini m. ccc. Iv, in civitate Leodiensi, et pauk) post in eadem civitate translatus in
banc formam latinam." (P. 33 of the Relation des Mongols ou Tartars par le frkre
Jean du Plan de Carpin, Paris, 1838). D'Avezac long ago was inclined to believe in
an unique French version. The British Museum, English MS. (Cott., Titus. C.
xvi.), on the other hand, has in the Prologue (cf. ed. 1725, p. 6) : " And zee schulle
undirstonde, that I have put this Boke out of Latyn into Frensche, and translated
it azen out of Frensche into Englyssche, that every Man of my Nacioun may undir-
stonde it . . ."§

But we shall see that — without taking into account the important passage in
French quoted above, and probably misunderstood by the English translator —
the English version, a sentence of which, not to be found in the Latin manuscripts,
has just been given, is certainly posterior to the French text, and therefore that the

* Reysen. — s.l.n.d., without printer's name; fol. 108 fF. on 2 col. black letter, without sig., etc.

F. I recto: Dit is die tafel van // desen boecke // (D)at eerste capittel van // desen boeck is Hoe
dat Jan va//mandauille schyet wt enghe//lat. . . . f. io8 v° 26th line : regneert in alien tiden //
Amen// T] Laus deo in altissimo //.

See Campbell, sit/>ra, p. 599.

t F. I verso : Tractato de le piumarauegliose cosse e piu notabile che // se trouano in le parte del
m5do redute JO collecte soto bre//uita in el presente copedio dal strenuissimo caualer spero // doro
Johanne de Mandauilla anglico nato ne la Cita // de sancto albano el quale secodo dio prncialmente
uisi // tato quali tute le parte habitabel de el modo cossi fidelfn // te a notato tute quelle piu degue
cosse che la trouato e ve//duto in esse parte 10 chi bene discorre qsto libro auerra p // fecta cognitione
de tuti li reami puincie natione e popu//li gente costumi leze hystorie K> degne antiquitate co bre//
uitade le quale pte da altri non sono tractate 10 parte piu // cosusamete dalchu gran ualente homini son
state tocate ,0 amagiore fede el psato auctore in psona e stato nel 1322. in//yerusalem Jn Asia menore
chiamata Turchia i Arme//nia grande e in la picola. Jn Scythia zoe in Tartaria in // persia Jn Syria
o uero suria Jn Arabiain egipto alto // fO in lo inferiore in libia in la parte grande de ethiopia in //
Caldea in amazonia in india mazore in la meza ^ in la // menore in div'se sette de latini greci iudei
e barbari chri//stiani JO infideli JQ i molte altre prouincie como appare nel // tractato de sotto. — Ends
f. 114 verso : Explicit Johannes d'Madeuilla impressus Medio//lani ductu Xj auspicijs Magistri Petri de
corneno pri // die Callendas augusti m.cccclxxx. Joha//ne Galeazo Maria Sfortia Vicecomitte Duce
no // stro inuictissimo ac principe Jucondissimo. Small 4to ; ff. 114; sig. a-oX8 = ii2 ff. ; if,
between a and t>.

I Gesta Pont. Leodiensium. — Vita Radvlphi de Rivo ex eius scriptis : "Obijt Radulphus anno,
1483-"

§ This passage is not to be found in the Egertpn MS, 1983, npr in the Latin versions.

aj'p. l. supplementary notes on special subjects 6oi

abstract of Titus C. xvi, has but a slight value. There can be some doubt only for
the French and the Latin texts.

Dr. Carl Schonborn * and Ilerr Eduard Matzner,t "respectively seem to have
been the first to show that the current Latin and English texts cannot possibly have
been made by Mandeville himself. Dr. J. Vogels states the same of unprinted Latin
versions which he has discovered in the British Museum, and he has proved it as
regards the Italian version." J

" In Latin, as Dr. Vogels has shown, there are five independent versions. Four of
them, which apparently originated in England (one manuscript, now at Leyden,
being dated in 1390) have no special interest ; the fifth, or vulgate Latin text, was no
doubt made at Liege, and has an important bearing on the author's identity. It is
found in twelve manuscripts, all of the 15th century, and is the only Latin version as
yet printed." §

The universal use of the French language at the time would be an argument in
favour of the original text being in this tongue, if corrupt proper names, abbreviations
in the Latin text, etc., did not make the fact still more probable.

The story of the English version, as it is told by Messrs. Nicholson and Warner, is
highly interesting: The English version was made from a "mutilated archetype,"
in French (Warner, p. x.) of the beginning of the 15th century, and was used for all
the known EngHsh manuscripts, with the exception of the Cotton and Egerton
volumes — and also for all the printed editions until 1725. Mr. Nicholson 1| pointed out
that it is defective in the passage extending from p. 36, 1. 7 : " And there were to
ben 5 Soudans," to p. 62, 1. 25 : "the Monkes of the Abbeye of ten tyme," in
Halliwell's edition (1839) from Titus C. xvi. which corresponds to Mr. Warner's
Egerton text, p. 18, 1. 21 : "for the Sowdan," and p. 32, 1. 16, "synges oft tyme."
It is this bad text which, until 1725,1! has been printed as we just said, with numerous
variants, including the poor edition of Mr. Ashton ** who has given the text of East
instead of the Cotton text under the pretext that the latter was not legible, ft

Two revisions of the English version were made during the first quarter of the
15th century ; one is represented by the British Museum Egerton MS. 1982 and the
abbreviated Bodleian MS. e. Mus. 116 ; the other by the Cotton MS. Titus C. xvi.
This last one gives the text of the edition of 1725 often reprinted till Halliwell's
(1839 and 1866). JJ The Egerton MS. 1982 has been reproduced in a magnificent
volume edited in 1889 for the Roxburghe Club par Mr. G. F. Warner, of the British
Museum ;§§ this edition includes also the French text from the Harley MS. 4383

* Bib. Untersuchungen.

t Altenglische Sprachproben nebst einem Worterbuche unter Mitwirkung von Karl Goldbeck
herausgegeben von Eduard Matzner. Erster Band : Sprachproben. Zweite Abtheilung : Prosa.
Berlin. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung. (Vol, i. 1869, large 8vo, pp. 415 ; vol. i., John Maundeville,
pp. 152-221.)

X Encyclopcedia Brit., p. 475, § Nat. Biog. p, 23-24.

II The Acadejuy, x. p. ^■jj.—Encyclo^cedia Britannica, 9th ed., XV., p. 475.

1 The // Voiage // and // Travaile // of// Sir John Maundevile, kt. // Which Treateth of the // Way
to Hierusalem ; and of // Marvayles of Inde, // With other // Hands and Countryes. // — Now
publish'd entire from an Original MS. // in the Cotton Library. // — London : // Printed for J.
Woodman, and D. Lyon, in // Russel-Street, Covent-Garden, and C. Davis, // in Hatton-Garden.
1725, Bvo, 5. ff. n. c+pp. xvi.— 384-^-4 ff. n. c.

** The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundewlle Knight which treateth of the way towards
Hierosallun and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys. Edited, Annotated, and
Illustrated in Facsimile by John Ashton. . . . London, Pickering & Chatto, 1887, large 8vo., pp;
xxiv.-289.

tt L.c. p. vi.

it The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundevile, Kt. which treateth of the way to Hierusalem ;
and of Marvajdes of Inde, with other ilands and countryes. Reprinted from the Edition of a.d. 1725.
With an introduction, additional notes, and Glossary. By J. O. Hallivvell, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.A.S.
London : Published by Edward Lumley, M.D.CCC.XXXIX., 8vo, pp. xvii.-xii.-326.

The Voiage and Travaille of Sir John Maundevile ... By J. O. Halliwell, London : F. S. Ellis,
MDCCCLXVL, 8vo, pp xxxi.-326.

§§ The Buke of John Maundeuill being the Travels of sir John Mandeville, knight 1322-13563
hitherto unpublished english version from the unique copy (Egerton Ms. 1982) in the British
Museum edited together with the French text, notes, and an introduction by George F. Warner, M.A.,
F.S.A., assistant-keeper of Manuscripts in the British Museum. Illustrated with twenty-eight
miniatures reproduced in facsimile from the additional MS. 24,189. Printed for the Roxburghe Club.
Westminster, Nichols and Sons. . . . MDCCCLXXXIX., large 4to, pp. xlvi.-l-232-[-28 miniatures.

602 MARCO POLO App. L.

which, being defective from the middle of chap. xxii. has been completed with the
Royal MS. 20 B. X. Indeed the Egerton MS. 1982 is the only complete English
manuscript of the British Museum,* as, besides seven copies of the defective text,
three leaves are missing in the Cotton MS. after f. 53, the text of the edition of
1725 having been completed with the Royal MS. 17 B.f

Notwithstanding its great popularity, Mandeville's Book could not fail to strike
with its similarity with other books cf travels, with Friar Odoric's among others.
This similarity has been the cause that occasionally the P^anciscan Friar was given
as a companion to the Knight of St. Albans, for instance, in the manuscripts of
Mayence and Wolfenbuttel.J Some Commentators have gone too far in their
appreciation and the Udine monk has been treated either as a plagiary or a liar !
Old Samuel Purchas, in his address to the Reader printed at the beginning of Marco
Polo's text (p. 65), calls his countryman ! Mandeville the greatest Asian traveller
next (if next) to Marco Polo, and he leaves us to understand that the worthy knight
has been pillaged by some priest ! § Astley uses strong language ; he calls Odoric a
great liar! ||

Others are fair in their judgment, Malte-Brun, for instance, marked what Mandeville
borrowed from Odoric, and La Renaudiere is also very just in the Biographic
Universelle. But what Malte-Brun and La Renaudiere showed in a general manner,
other learned men, such as Dr. S. Bormans, Sir Henry Yule, Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, H
Dr. J. Vogels,** M. Leopold Delisle, Herr A. Bovenschen,tt and last, not least. Dr.
G. F. Warner, have in our days proved that not only has the book bearing
Mandeville's name L;en compiled from the works of Vincent of Beauvais, Jacques of
Vitry, Boldensel, Carpini, Odoric, etc., but that it was written neither by a Knight
of St. Albans, by an Englishman, or by a Sir John Mandeville, but very likely by the
physician John of Burgundy or John a Beard.

In a repertory of La Librairie de la Coll^giale de Saint Faul h Likge au XV^.
Siecle, published by Dr. Stanislas Bormans, in the Bibliophile Beige, Brussels, 1866,
p. 236, is catalogued under No. 240 : Legenda de Joseph et Asseneth ejus uxore, in
papiro. In eodem itineraritim /ohannis de Mandevilla militis, apud guilhelmitanos
Leodienses sepulti.

Dr. S. Bormans has added the following note : " Jean Mandeville, ou Manduith,
theologien et mathematicien, etait ne a St. Alban en Angleterre d'une famille noble.

* There are in the British Museum twenty-nine MSS. of Mandeville, of which ten are French,
nine English, six Latin, three German, and one Irish. Cf. Warner, p. x.

t Cf. Warner, p. 61.

X Mayence, Chapter's Library: "Incipit Itinerarius fidelis Fratris Oderici, socii Militis
Mendavil, per Indiam." — Wolfenbiittel, Ducal Library, No. 40, Weissemburg : "Incipit itinerarius
fratris Oderici socii militis Mandauil per Indiam." — Henri Cordjer, Odoric de Pordenone, p. Ixxii.
and p. Ixxv.

§ Purchas, His Pilgrimes, 3rd Pt., London, 1625 : "and, O that it were possible to doe as much
for our Countriman Mandeuil, who next (if next) was the greatest AsianTraueller that euer the World had,
& hauing falne amongst theeues, neither Priest, nor Leuite can know him, neither haue we hope
of a Samaritan to releeue him."

II Astley (iv. p. 620): "The next Traveller we meet with into Tartary, and the Eastern
Countries, after Marco Polo, is Friar Odoric, of Udin in Friuli, a Cordelier; who set-about the Year
1^18, and at his Return the Relation of it was drawn-up, from his own Mouth, by Friar William of
Solanga, in 1330. Ramusio\v^s inserted it in Ilalian, in the second Volume of his Collection; as
Hakluyt, in his Navigations, has done the Latin, with an English Translation. This is a most super-
ficial Relation, and full oi Lies ; such as People with the Heads of Beasts, and Valleys haunted with
Spirits : In one of which he pretends to have entered, protected by the Sign of the Cross ; yet fled for
Fear, at the Sight of a Face that grinned at him. In short, though he relates some Things on the
Tartars and Manci (as he writes Manji) which agree with Polo's Account ; yet it seems plain, from
the Names of Places and other Circumstances, that he never was in those Countries, but imposed on
the Public the few Informations he had from others, mixed with the many Fictions of his own. He
set out again for the East in 1331 ; but warned, it seems, by an Apparition a few Miles from Padua,
he returned thither, and died." And a final blow in the index : " Oderic, Friar, Travels of, iv, 620 a.
A great liar !! "

If E. B. Nicholson.— Letters to the Acade^ny, nth November, 1876 ; 12th February, 1881. E. B. N.
and Henry Yule, Mandeville, in Encyclopcedia Britannica, 9th ed., 18B3, pp. 472-475.

** Die ungedruckten Lateinischen Versionen Mandeville's. (Beilage zum Programm des
Gymnasiums zu Crefeld.) 1886.

tt Untersuchungen iiber Johan von Mandeville und die Quellen seiner Reisebeschreihung. Von
Albert Bovenschen. {Zeitschri/t d. Ges. fiir F.rdkunde zu Berlin, XXIII. Bd., 3 u. 4 Hft. No, 135,
136, pp. 177-306.)

app. l. supplementary notes on special subjects 603

On le surnonima pour un motif inconnu, ad Barb am et inagnovillanus. En 1322, il
traversa la France pour aller en Asia, servit quelque temps dans les troupes du Sultan
d'Fgypte et revint seulement en 1355 en Angleterre. II mourut d Liege chez les
Guilhemins, le 17th Novembre, 1372. II laissa au dit monaslere plusieurs MSS. de
ses oeuvres fort vantes, tant de ses voyages que de la medecine, ecrits de sa main ; il
y avait enfore en ladite maison plusieurs meubles qu'il leur laissa pour memoire. II
a laisse quelques livres de medecine qui n'ont jamais ete imprimes, des tabulae astro-
nomicae, de chorda recta et iwibra, de doctrina theologica. La relation de son voyage
est en latin, fran^ais et anglais ; il raconte, en y melant beaucoup de fables, ce qu'il a
vu de curieux en Egypte, en Arabie et en Perse."

Then is inserted, an abstract from Lefort, Li^ge Herald, at the end of the 17th
century, ixoxa. Jean d' Outremeuse, which we quote from another publication of Dr.
Bormans' as it contains the final sentence : " Mort enfin, etc." not to be found in the
paper of the BilHiophile Beige.

In his introduction to the Chronique et geste de Jean des Frets dit cC Oiitretneuse,
Brussels, F. Hayez, 1887 {^Collection des Chroiiiqiies beiges im^dites), Dr. Stanislas
Bormans writes, pp. cxxxiii.-cxxxiv. : " L'an M.CCC.LXXII, mourut a Liege, le 12
Novembre, un homme fort distingue par sa naissance, content de s'y faire connoitre sous
le nom de Jean de Bourgogne dit h. la Barbe. II s'ouvrit neanmoins au lit de la mort a
Jean d'Outremeuse, son compare, et institue son executeur testamentaire. De vrai il
se titra, dans le precis de sa derniere volonte, messirey^^w de Mandeville, chevalier,
comte de Montfort en Angleterre, et seigneur de ?isle de Campdi et du chdteau Perouse.
Ayant cependant eu le malheur de tuer, en son pays, un comte qu'il ne nomme pas,
il s'engagea k parcourir les trois parties du monde. Vint k Liege en 1343. Tout
sorti qu'il etoit d'une noblesse tres-distinguee, il aima de s'y tenir cache. II etoit, au
reste, grand naturaliste, profond philosophe et astrologue, y joint en particulier une
connoissance tres singuliere de la physique, se trompant rarement lorsqu'il disoit son
sentiment a I'egard d'un malade, s'il en reviendroit ou pas. Mort enfin, on I'enterra aux
F. F. Guillelmins, au faubourg d'Avroy, comme vous avez vu plus amplement cydessous. "

It is not the first time that the names lean de Mandeville and Jean h la Barbe
are to be met with, as Ortelius, in his description of Liege, included in his Itinerary
of Belgium, has given the epitaph of the knightly physician : ^)

" Leodium primo aspectu ostentat in sinistra ripa (nam dextra vinetis plena est,)
magna, & populosa suburbia ad collium radices, in quorum iugis multa sunt,
& pulcherrima Monasteria, inter quae magnificum illud ac nobile D. Laurentio
dicatum ab Raginardo episcopo, vt habet Sigebertus, circa ann. sal. M.XXV
aedificatum est in hac quoq. regione Guilelmitaru Coenobium in quo epitaphiu hoc
loannis a Mandeuille excepimus : Hie iacet vir nobilis Dns loes de Mandeville al
Dcvs ad barbam miles dhs de Capdi natvs de Anglia medicie pfessor devotissimvs orator
el bonorv7-n largissimvs pavpribvs erogator qvi toto qvasi orbe Ivstrato leodii diem vite
sve clavsit extremvm ano Dni M CCC° LXXT'^) mcnsis novebr die XVII. ^)

" Haec in lapide, in quo caelata viri armati imago, leonem calcantis, barba
bifurcata, ad caput manus benedicens, & vernacula haec verba : vos ki paseis sor mi
povr lamovr deix proies por mi. Clypeus erat vacuus, in quo olim laminam fuisse
dicebant seream, & eius in ea itidem caelata insignia, leonem videlicet argenteum, cui
ad pectus lunula rubea, in campo caeruleo, quern limbus ambiret denticulatus ex auro,
eius nobis ostendebat & cultros, ephippiaque, & calcaria, quibus vsum fuisse asserebat
in peragrando toto fere terrarum orbe, vt clarius eius testatur itinerarium, quod typis
etiam excusum passim habetur."*

* (i) Itinerarivm // per nonnv las // Gallise Belgicae partes, // Abrahanii Ortelii et // loannis Viviani.
//Ad Gerardvm Mercatorem, // Cosmographvm. // Antverpiae, //Ex officina Christophori Plantini.
// clo. l3. Ixxxiv. // small 8vo, pp. 15-16.

(2) Read 1372.

(3) Furchas, His Pilgrimes, 3rd Pt., Lond., 1625, reproduces it on p. 128: "Hie jacet vir
nobilis, D. loannes de Mandeville, aliter dictus ad Barbam, Miles, Dominus de Campdi, natus de
Anglia, Medicinae Professor, deuotissimus, orator, & bonorum largissimus pauperibus erogator qui
toto quasi orbe lustrato, Leodij diem vitae suae clausit extremum. Anno Dom. 1371, Mensis
Nouembris, die 17.

604 MARCO POLO App. L.

Dr. Warner writes in the National Biography :

" There is abundant proof that the tomb of the author of the Travels was to be
seen in the Church of the Guillemins or Guillehnitcs at Li^ge down to the demolition
of the building in 1798. The fact of his burial there, with the date of his death,
17th November, 1372, was published by Bale in 1548 [Summarium, f. 149 /5), and
was confirmed independently by Jacob Meyer [Annales rcrum FlaJidric, 1561,
p. 165) and Lud. Guicciardini. {Paesi Bassi, 1567, p. 281.")

In a letter dated from Bodley's Library, 17th March, 1884, to The Academy,
1 2th A;jril, 1884, No. 623, Mr. Edward B. Nicholson drew attention to the
abstract from Jean d'Outremeuse, and came to the conclusion that the writer of
Mandeville's relation was a profound liar, and that he was the Liege Professor of
Medicine, John of Burgundy or d, la Barbe. lie adds : "If, in the matter of literary
honesty, John a Beard was a bit of a knave, he was very certainly no fool."

On the other hand, M. Leopold Delisle,* has shown that two maliuscripts, Nouv.
acq. fran9. 4515 (Barrois, 24) and Nouv. acq. fran9. 4516 (Barrois, 185), were part
formerly of one volume copied in 1371 by Raoulet of Orleans and given in the same
year to King Charles V. by his physician Gervaise Crestien, viz. one year before the
death of the so-called Mandeville ; one of these manuscripts — now separate — contains
the Book of Jehan de Mandeville, the other one, a treatise of "la preservacion de
epidimie, minucion ou curacion d'icelle faite de maistre Jehan de Bourgoigne, autrement
dit a la Barbe, professeur en medicine et cytoien du Liege," in 1365. This bringing
together is certainly not fortuitous.

Sir Henry Yule traces thus the sources of the spurious work : " Even in that
part of the book which may be admitted with probability to represent some genuine
experience, there are distinct traces that another work has been made use of, more or
less, as an aid in the compilation, we might almost say, as a framework to fill up. This
is the itinerary of the German knight William of Boldensele, written in 1336 at the
desire of Cardinal Talleyrand de Perigord. A cursory comparison of this with
Mandeville leaves no doubt of the fact that the latter has followed its thread, using its
suggestions, and on many subjects its expressions, though digressing and expanding
on every side, and too often eliminating the singular good sense of the German
traveller. After such a comparison we may indicate as examples Boldensele's
account of Cyprus [Mandeville, HalliwelV s ed. 1866, p. 28, and p. 10), of Tyre and
the coast of Palestine [Mandeville, 29, 30, 33, 34), of the journey from Gaza to Egypt
(34), passages about Babylon of Egypt (40), about Mecca (42), the general account
of Egypt (45), the pyramids (52), some of the particular wonders of Cairo, such as the
slave-market, the chicken-hatching stoves, and the apples of Paradise, i.e. plantains
(49), the Red Sea (57), the convent on Sinai (58, 60), the account of the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre (74-76), etc."

He adds : " It is curious that no passage in Mandeville can be plausibly traced to
Marco Polo, with one exception. This is [HallixuelVs ed., p. 163) where he states
that at Ormus the people, during the great heat, lie in water, — a circumstance
mentioned by Polo, though not by Odoric. We should suppose it most likely that
this fact had been interpolated in the copy of Odoric used by Mandeville ; for, if he
had borrowed it direct from Polo, he would have borrowed more." [Encyclopcedia
Britannica, p. 474.)

" Leaving this question, there remains the more complex one whether the book
contains, in any measure, facts and knowledge acquired by actual travels and resid-
ence in the East. We believe that it may, but only as a small portion of the whole,
and that confined entirely to the section of the work which treats of the Holy Land,
and of the different ways of getting thither, as well as of Egypt, and in general of
what we understand by the Levant." [Ibid. p. 473.)

Dr. Warner deals the final blow in the National Biogi-aphy : "The alphabets

* Bibliotheque nationale : — Catalogue des manuscrits des fonds Libri et Barrois. Paris, i?
8vo. cf. pp. 251-253.

app. l. supplementary notes on special subjects 605

which he gives have won him some credit as a linguist, but only the Greek and the
Hebrew (which M'ere readily accessible) are what they pretend to be, and that which
he calls Saracen actually comes from the Cos??iogi'aphia of ^thicus ! His knowledge
of Mohammedanism and its Arabic formulae impressed even Yule. He was, however,
wholly indebted for that information to the Liber de Statti Saracenorum of William
of Tripoli {circa 1270), as he was to the HistoricB Orientis of Hetoum, the Armenian
(1307), for much of what he wrote about Egypt. In the last case, indeed, he shows
a rare sign of independence, for he does not, with Hetoum, end his history of the
sultanate about 1300, but carries it onto the death of En-Nasir (1341), and names two
of his successors. Although his statements about them are not historically accurate,
this fact and a few other details suggest that he may really have been in Egypt, if not
at Jerusalem, but the proportion of original matter is so very far short of what might
be expected that even this is extremely doubtful."

With this final quotation, we may take leave of John of Mandeviile, alias
John a Beard. H. C.

aXs

INDEX

ADORATION

82;/,
III;/,

57«

Aas, Asu, see Alans

Abacan, a Tartar general, ii. 255, 26i;z,

A bah, see Avah

Abaji, Kublai's son, i. 361^

Abaka (Abaga), Khan of Persia, i. 33;/,

36;/, 91;^, 103^2, ii. 465-467, 474,

475> 477^2, 495'^ .
Abano, Pietro of, his notice of Polo, iig
Abash (Habsh), see Abyssinia
Abba Gregory, ii. 433^
Abbas, vShc4h, i. 90^
Abbott, Consul Keith E., i. 8i«

89;/, 92«, 96?/, 99«, 106;/,

113W, 114;?, 125;?
Abdul Kuri islands, ii. 405?^

Mejid, i. 175;?

Abeskun (Baxon), on the Caspian, i
Abher, i. 38;;, 82/2
Abkashian forests, boxwood of the, i
A/mus, ebony, ii. 272^

Abraha, ruler of Yemen, ii. 434;;

Abraiaman, see Brahmans

Abubakr, Atabeg of Fars, i. 85;/,

ii. 348^2
Ibrahim, and Mahomed, engineers

employed by Kublai, ii. i6Sn
Abu'l Abbas Ahmed VII., Khalif of

Baghdad, i. 6gn

Fazl, i. I03«, i6Sn, 169;/, ii.

367, 374'?

Abulfeda, his geography, ^, i. 3«, 6;/,
9'^, 53'^5 57'^j 58^, 75«, 8in, iio«,
385^, ii. 237«, 286;/, 367;/, 377;/,
486;?, 489;? ; at the siege of Acre,
165;?

Abulfiez Khan, king of Bokhara, i. 88;/

Abu Nasr Mohammed IX., Khahf of
Baghdad, i. 6gn

Said, i. S6n, ii. 347«

Abyssinia (Abash), ii. 427 se(/g., 431;/ ; its
king's punishment of Soldan of Aden,
428-430 ; dominion on the coast, mediae-
val history and chronology, 434;/-
437;z ; table of kings, 435;/ ; wars with
Mahomedan states, 436;/

Acbalec Manzi, "White City of the
Manzi frontier," ii. 33, 34;;, 35;/

Acbalec or Acbaluc (Cheng-ting fu), ii.
13, 14;/

Accambale, king of Champa, ii. 267,
270;/

Achan, i. 66n

Achin, Acheh, Achem, ii. 283;/, 286^,
295;/, 296^, 300;;, 303;/, 305;/, 307;/ ; its
gold and lign-aloes, 287;/ ; conversion
of, 288;z ; its great power at one time,
289;/ ; elephants at, 2Sgn

Head, ii. 300;/, 307??

Achmath, the Bailo, see Ahmad

Acomat Soldan (Ahmad Sultan), seizes

. throne of Tabriz, ii. 467 ; goes to
encounter Argon, 468; rejects his
remonstrance, 469 ; defeats and takes
him, 470 ; hears of Argon's escape, is
taken and put to death, 473 ; notes on
the history, 470;/, 474;^

Acorn bread, i. I22n

Acqui, Friar Jacopo d', his notice of Polo,
S4, 6y, 119

Acre, i. 17, 22 ; Broils at, between Vene-
tians and Genoese, 42 ; plan of, i8;/ ;
captured by Saracens, ii. 165;;, 441;/ ;
wickedness of, 442;/ ; Polos at, $93^

Adam, Bishop and Pope of China,
ii. 28;/

Seth, and the Tree of Life,

legend of, i. 135;/

Adamodana, Castle of, i. 58^
Adam's Apple, i. 99;/

sepulchre on mountain (Adam's

Peak) in Ceylon, ii. 316, 328;/; rubies,
316;/; his teeth, hair, etc., 319-320;
the footmark, 32i;z-322;?

Adel, apparently confused with Aden,

ii- 433^, 435«, 44°/^

Aden, Horse and other Trade with
India, ii. 340, 348;/, 390, 407, 427,
431, 438; Soldan's treatment of a
bishop, 428 ; Vengeance of King of
Abyssinia on him, 430 ; confused with
Adel, 433« ; account of Kingdom, 438,
439;z-440;/ ; the Sultan, 438-439, 440;/ ;
intercourse and trade with China,
tanks, 440;/ ; view of, 441

Adoration of the Emperor, i. 391
607

6o8

ADULIS

INDEX

AMIIARA

Adult's, ii. 432;* ; inscription of, 434«
Aegae, Ayas on the site of ancient,
i. i6«

Aepyornis and its eggs, ii. ^iSn-^iyn
Aetius, his prescription of musk, i. 279;/,

ii. 302« ; of camphor, 302;/
Afghans, their use of the fat-tailed sheep,

i. lOOn
Africa, Sea surrounding to the South,

ii. 4i5«
Agassiz, Professor, i. 100//
Agathocles, Coins of, i. i6^n
'Ayadou 8ai/xovo$, island, ii. 310;?
Agha Ali Shah, present representative of

the Old Man of the Mountain, i. 148;?
Khan Mehelati, late representative

of the Old Man, i. 147^
Aghrukji or Ukuruji, Kublai's son, i.

36i«
Agricola, Governor of Cappadocia, etc.,

i. 45«
Aguil, Mongol general, ii. 136, 138;;
Ahmad (Achmath), the Bailo, of Fenaket,

his power, oppressions, death, etc.,

i. 415 se(/i/., 42in

Sultan, Khan of Persia, see Acomat

Ahwaz, province, i. 6^n

Aidhab, ii. 439«

Aidhej, or Mai- Amir, i. S^n

Aijaruc, Kaidu's daughter, ii. 463 ; her

strength and prowess, 463 sec/q. ; her

name, 463
Aikah Nowin, Engineer in Chief of

Chinghiz, ii. i68;?
Ai-lao (afterwards Nan-chao), ancient

name of the Shans, ii. ygn
Ain Akbari {Ayeen Akbery)^ i. 65/2, 99;/,

ioi;z, 103;?, 4097?, ii. ii6;z
Ajmir, ii. 426^2

Akbar and Kublai, a parallel, i. 349//
Ak Bulak salt mines, i. I54«
Akhaltzike (Western Georgia), i. 58^
Akhtuba River, i. ^n, 6n
Ak-khoja, ii. 470^
Aksarai, or Ghori River, i. 152^
Aksu River, i. 172^, 175^2
Aktar, i. 96;?

Aktash Valley, i. 172/7, ly^n
Alabastri, ii, 43 2«
Alacou, see Hulakvi
Aladja, striped cotton cloth, i. 44;^
Alamut, Castle of the Ismailites, i. 141//,

142;^, I45«, 148;?
Alan country, Alania, i. 57;?, ii. 490, 491^
Alans, or Aas, massacre at Chang-chau

of, ii. 178; employed under Mongols,

179;?
Alaone, the name, ^6
Alarm Tower, at Cambaluc, i. 375,

378^ ; at Kinsay, ii. 189
Alatcha, cotton stuff with blue and red

stripes, i. 190;/
Alau, see Hulaku

Ala'uddin (Alaodin), see Old Man of the
Mountain

(Alawating of Mufali), an engineer

in Kiibldi's service, ii. 167^

— — Khilji, Sultan of Delhi, i. 104;^,
ii. 163/2, 169//, 333/^, 398/2 400/2

Albenigaras, Mt., ii. 362/2

Al Biruni, i. 104/2, 174/2, ii. 400/2

Albuquerque, see D'Alboquerque.

Alchemy, Kiibldi's, i. 423

Aleppo, i. 23/2

Alexander the Great, allusions to legends
and romances about, //j, i. 14/2,
129/2-133/2, ii. 322/2, 485/2; his ram-
part (Iron Gate), i. 50, 53/7, 56/2, 57/2;
the curtains at a banquet given by,
66/2 ; and the ferriim candidum,
93/2; site of his battle with Darius,
128, 138/2; his wife Roxana, 151;
kills a lion, 152/2 ; Princes claiming
descent from (Zulcarniain), 157,
160/2; his horse Bucephalus, 158;
fixes chains on Adam's Peak, ii. 322/2 ;
said to have colonised Socotra, 409/2;
his tower on the border of Darkness,
• 485/2

Alexander III., Pope, i. 231/2

Alexander IV., Pope, i. 8/2

Alexandria, 9, ii. 235 ; trade from India
to, 390, 438

Alhinde, Aljinde, Alinde, Al-hmt, i. 93/2

'Ali and Aliites, i. 140/2-141/2

Alidada, i. 452/2

Alihaiya, Kublai's general, ii. 167/2

Alinak, ii. 474/2

Alligator, in Carajan, ii. ^6, 81/2 ; mode
of killing, 77; eaten, 78, 81/2; pro-
phecy of Bhartpur about, 149/2

Almalik, ii, 462/2

Almanacs, Chinese (Tacuin), i. 447, 448/2

Almonds, i. 153, 155/2

Aloes, Socotrine, ii. 409/2

wood, see Lign-aloes

AIo}', war cry, 4j

Al-Ramni, Al-Ramin, see Sumatra

Altai (Altay) Mountains, i. 212, 215/2 ;
the Khan's burial-place, 246, 269 ;
used for the Khingan range, 247/2,
306/2

Altun-Khan, Mountain, i. 247^

sovereign, ii. 19/2

Amazons, fable of, ii. 405/2

Ambergris, ii. 308/2, 406, 41 1, 423,
424/2 ; how got, 408/2

Ainber-rosolli, i. I T4/2

Amda Zion, king of Abyssinia, his wars
V. Mahomedans, ii. 435/2 seqq ; not the
king mentioned by Polo, 436/2

Ament, Rev. W. S., i. 361/2, 421/2,
ii. 6, II, 12

A/neri, a kind of Brazil wood, ii. 301//,
380/2

Amhara, ii. 436/2

INDEX

ARJISH

609

Amien, Mien (Burma), ii. 98, ggn
Amita Buddha, i. 460W
Ammianus Marcellinus, ii. iSon
Amoy, ii. 23 1?;, 232^ ; harbour, ii. 240^,

241 w ; languages, 244^2
Amphora,^ Anfora, ii. 41 7;;
Amu, Aniu, see Anin
Amuki, devoted comrades of the king,

ii. 347??
^«a//zzj- (Minao) River, i. 114/?
Ananda, Kiiblai's grandson, ii. 29^, 31^
Anar, i. 90;?

Anaurahta, king of Burma, ii. 99;?, 329^
Ancestor Worship, ii. 85, 96??
Anchors, Wooden, ii. 386, 388;?
Andaine, andena, andanicum^ see

Ondanique
Andaman (Angamanain) islands, ii. 306 ;

described, 307 w, 309-312;?; people,

3o8«, 309, 31 1«; form of the word,

3io«
Andan, andun, Wotiak for steel, i. 94;?
Andragiri, ii. 301;?
Andreas, king of Abyssinia, ii. 435//,

436^
Andrew, Bishop of Zayton, ii. 237^

Grand Duke of Rostof and

Susdal, i. 7«

Andromeda ovalifolia, poisonous, i. 21 8;?

Angamanain, see Andaman

Angan, or Hamjam, i. ii5«

^Angka, gryphon, see Rue

Angkor, ruins of, /"j

Ani in Armenia, i., 234;?

Animal Patterns, see Patterns

Anin, province, ii. 119, I20n, I2in, 123,

i2Sn, I2gn, 266;?
Annals of the Indo-Chinese States, ii.

io6n
'An-nam, or Tong-king, ii. I20n
Anselmo, Friar, i. 131/^
Anthropoides Virgo, the demoiselle, i.

297/2
Antioch, i. 24/?

Antongil Bay, Madagascar, ii, 414;/
Aotonomoff, Spasski, his ascent of

Ararat, i. 49/2
Apostoille, word used for Pope, i. I2n
Apples of Paradise (Konars), i. 97, 99;?,

ii- 365
Apricots, ii. 210;?
^Aptihota (Kapukada?), ii. 380;?
Apushka (Apusca), Tartar envoy from

Persia, i. 32, 33/2
Arababni, ii. 436;?
Arab geography, 132

colonies in Madagascar, ii. 414/?

horses, early literary recognition of,

ii. 349« ; trade in, see Horses

merchants, in Southern India,

ii. 376

Seamen's Traditions about Java,

ii. 274;?

VOL. II,

Arabi (Arabs), i. 60

Arabia, ii. 438-451

Arabic character, i. 2gn

Arachosia, arachoti, ii. 329;?, 402//

Araines, ii. 461, 462^

Arakan, ii. lOOn, 2%6n, 290;?, 298;?

Aram (Haram), Place of the, i. 139,
I4IW

Ararat, Mount, i. 46 ; ascents of, 49/2

Arblasts, crossbows, ii. 78, 2>2rt, ibm

Arbre Sol, or Arbre Sec, Region of the
(Khorasan), 11 j, i. 38/2, 83, 127, 128/2-
139/?, ii. 466, 474, 475 ; tree described
— CJiindr or Oriental plane, i. 127,
128/2-138/2; various readings, 129/2;
Arbre seul, a wrong reading, i. 129/2,
138/2 ; Tree of the Sun legend, 129/2-
131/2; Christian legend of the Dry
Tree, 131/2; engrafted on legends of
Alexander, 132/2 ; Trees of Grace in
Persia, 134/2; Dry Trees in Mahomedan
legend, 135/2 ; in Rabbinical and Budd-
hist stories, and legends of the Wood
of the Cross, 135/2-136/2; VoXo^s Arbre
Sec to be sought near Damghan, 138/2 ;
Sabaean apologue, 138/2; clue to the
term Arbre Sec, i^Sn

Arcali, Arculin, see Erculin

Architectural remains in Indo-China, ij

Ardeshfr Babekan, first Sassanian king,
i. 91/2

Ardeshfr, last sovereign of Shabankara,
i. 86/2

Areca, ii. 309/2, 374/2

Areng Saccharifera, ii. 297/^

Arezzo, i. 21/2

Argaeus, Mount, i. 44/2

Argali, ii. 483/2

Arghun, Khan of Persia (Polo's Argon,
Lord of the Levant), .s-j-^^, i. 14/2,
ii. 50, 466-467 ; sends an embassy to
Kublai for a wife, i. 32, 33/2 ; is
dead when she arrives, 35, 36/2, 38/2,
101/2 ; his unhappy use of the elixir
vitae, ii. 369/2 ; advances against his
uncle Ahmad, 467 ; harangues his
chiefs, 468 ; sends Ahmad a remon-
strance, 469 ; is taken prisoner, 470 ;
released by certain chiefs, 471 ; obtains
sovereignty, 472 ; his death, 474 ; his
beauty, 478/2

Argons (Arghun), half-breeds, i. ioi/2,
284, 290/2

Arii, Ariana, ii. 402/2

Arikbuga, Kiiblai's brother, i. 334/2

Arimaspia, ii. 419/2

Arimaspian gold, ii. 4 1 9/2

Ariora - Keshimur, i. 86/2, 98, 104/2 ;
meaning of Ariora, 104/2

Ariosto, i. 17/2

Aripo, ii. 335/2, 337/2

Aristotle, 130, i. 87/2, 130/2, ii. 409«

Arjish (Arzizi), i. 45, 49/2

2 Q

6io

ARKASUN NOIAN

INDEX

Arkasun Noian, ii. 474^

Arkhaiun^ applied to Oriental Christians

or their Clergy, i. 290^
Armenia, Greater, i. 45, 98
Armenia (Hermenia), Lesser or Cilician,

JO, i. 16, 20, 22, 23W, 41
Armenian Christians, i. 290;?
Armenians, i. 43, 45, 75
Armillary Zodiacal Sphere, i. 45o«
Armour of boiled leather, see Cuirbouly
Arms of Kerman, i. 90, 96/2 ; of the

Tartars, i. 260, 263;?, ii. 460
Arredon River, i. 54;?
Arrow Divination, i. 243??
Arrows, Tartar, ii. 460
Artacki, i. 2'6in
Arts, the Seven, i. 13, \\n
Aru, Cumaha, ii. 303W
Arucki, i. 281;?
Aruk, ii. 474W
Arulun Tsaghan Balghasun (Chagan-

Nor), i. 297/;, 306/?
Arya Chakravarti, ii. 316/2
Aryavartta, the Holy Lands of Indian

Buddhism, i. 104??
Arzinga (Erzingan), i. 45, ifin
Arziron (Erzrum), i. 45, 48;?
Arzizi (Arjfsh), i. 45, 49;^
Asbestos, and the Salamander, i. 212,

2i6;z-2i7;z
Asceticism of the Sensin, i. 303 ; of the

Jogis, ii. 365
Asedin Soldan (Ghaiassuddin Balban,

Sultan of Delhi), i. 99, iOA,n, 105;?
Ashar (Asciar), king of Cail, ii. 370,

373'^
Ashishin, see Assassins
Ashod, founder of the Bagratid dynasty,

Ashurada, i. 59;?

Asikan, Mongol general, ii. 260/2

Asoka, ii. 328

Asper, or akch^, about a groat, ii. 22,

Assai River, i. 54/2

Assassins (Ashishin, Hashishin), Ismai-
lites, i. 84/2, 140 ; how the Old Man
trained them, 142 ; murders by, 144/2 ;
their destruction, 145 ; survival and
recent circumstances of the sect,
146/2

Asses, in Persia, i. 83, 87/2, 88, 89/2 123,
225/2 ; in Mongolia, 224, 225/2, 397 ;
in Madagascar, ii. 413, 421/2; in
Abyssinia, 431 ; in Far North, 479,
481/2

Asterius, Bishop of Amasia in Pontus,
i. 66/2

Astrakhan (Gittarchan), i. ^n, 6n

Astrolabe, i. 446

Astrology, -ers, in Tangut, i. 205 ; of
Chinghiz, 241 ; at Kublai's Court, 301,
391 ; at Cambaluc, 446 ; of Tibet, ii.

49; at Kinsay, 191, 203; in Maabar,
344 ; in Coilum, 376

Astronomical instruments, ancient Chi-
nese, i. 378/2, 449/2-454/2

Atabegs, of Mosul, i. 61/2 ; of Lur, 85/2 ;
of Fars, 85/2, izm ; of Yezd, 88 ; of
Kerman, 91/2

Atjeh, see Achin

Atkinson's Narratives, and their credi-
bility, i. 214/2, 215/2

Atlas, Chinese, in Maglia])ecchian
Library, ii. 193/2

'Arrdyas (Black Partridge), i. 99

Attalus, King, i. 66/2

At-Thaibi family, i. 121/2

Auberoche, Siege of, ii. 163/2, 165/2

Audh (Oudh), ii. 427/2

Aufat, Ifat, ii. 435/2

Augury, see Omens

Aung Khan (Unc Can), see Prester John

Aurangzib, i. 168/2

Aurora, Ibn Fozlan's account of, i. 8/2

Aussa, ii. 435/2

'Avah, Abah, Ava, one of the cities of
the Magi, i. 80, 81/2

Avarian, epithet of S. Thomas, ii. 353,
355/2-356/2

Avebury, Lord, on cotivade, ii. 93/2

Avicenna's classification of Iron, i. 94/2

Avigi, 'afp {falco tnontanus), i. 50, 57/2

Axum, Inscription, ii. 432/2 ; Church of.
433/2 ; Court of, 434/2

Ayas (Layas, Aiazzo, etc.), port of
Cilician Armenia, ig, i. 16, 17/2, 20,
22, 41 ; Sea fight at, 4j, 46, S4

Ayuthia, /j, ii. 278/2, 279/2

Azuniiti^ ii. 432/2

Azure, Ultramarine {lapis armemis) Mines
in Badakhshan, i. 157, 162/2 ; in
Tenduc, 284 ; ore, 365, 370/2

Bab A Buzurg, worshipped by the Lurs,
i. 85/2

Baber, E. C. , on Ch'eng-tu, ii. 38/2 ; on
wild oxen of Tibet, 52/2 ; Lolos, 61/2-
63/2 ; Gold River (Brius), 67/2 ; the
word Caindu, 70/2 ; Talifu, 80/2 ;
Mekong River, 88/2 ; Zardandan, 89/2 ;
site of battle between Kiiblai and king
of Mien, 105/2 ; descent of Mien, 108/2

Baboons, etymology, ii. 385/2, 431

Bab-ul-abwah, "The Gate of Gates,"
Pass of Derbend, i. 53/2

Babylon, Babylonia (Cairo or Egypt),
i. 22, 24/2, ii. 226, 230/2; Sultan of,
i. 22, ii. 439, 473

Babylonish garments, i. 66n

Baccadeo, indigo, ii. 382/2

Baccanor, ii. 386/2

Bacon, Roger, i. 94/2, 426/2 ; as geo-
grapher, 114, 131

Bacsi, see Bakhshi

Bactria, its relation to Greece, i. 160/2

BACU

INDEX

6ll

Bacu, Sea of (Caspian), i. 59«

Badakhshan (Badashan), i. 98, 104^, 154,
157; its population, IS5«, i6o«;
capitals of, 156;? ; Mirs of, 156^,
i6o;z ; legend of Alexandrian pedigree
of its kings, 157, i6o;z ; depopulation
of, i^6n, i6^n ; scenery, 158^; dia-
lects, i6on; forms of the name, i6iw;
great river of (Upper Oxus), 170

Badaun, ii. 427^

Badger, Rev. Dr, G. P., i. S^n, ii. 444//

Badghfs, i. f50;z, ii. 467

Badgir, Wind-catchers, ii. 452, 45 3 w

Badruddin Lii-lu, last Atabeg of Mosul,
i. dm

Bdfk (Baft), i. 89W, iiiw, \22n

Baghdad (Baudas), Baldac, taken by
Alaix, Hulaku, i. 63 ; its Khalif, 63,
64 ; the miracle of the mountain, 69

Archbishop of, ii. 407

its indigo {baccadeo), ii. 382;^

Bagratidae, of Armenia, i. 42^ ; of
Georgia, $2n

Bagration-Mukransky, Prince, i. $2>n

Bahar, ii. 427;?

Baharak, plain, i. 156;^

Baha-uddin Ayaz, Wazir of Kalhat, i.
120^

Baha-ul-hakh, the Saint of Multan, ii.

82/Z

Bahramabad, i. gon, 12211

Bahranjird Village, i. ii^n

Balirein, ii. 348;^

Baiberdon, i. 49«

Baiburt (Paipurth), Castle of, i. 48^, 49^

Baidu Khan, i. 14^, ii. 475^^5 seizes

throne of Persia, 476 ; displaced and

killed by Ghazan, 476 ; alleged to be

a Christian, 476, 477;?
Bailo, the title, i. 417 ; etymology of,

421//
Bakhshi(Bacsi), Lamas, i. 414, 445 ; their

enchantments, 301, 302, 3i4w-3i8;z;

various meanings of the word, 3i4;z
Bakhtyaris of Luristan, the, i. 87^2
Baku, oil fields of, i. 46, 49;; ; Sea of

(Caspian), i. $()n
Balad-ul- Falfal {yi3\3Joa.x), ii. 377/?
Baladi, ii. 38i;«

Balalaika, a two-stringed Tartar instru-
ment, i. 339W
Baldnjariyah, devoted lieges , ii. 347''
Bala-Sagun, i. 232;?
Balas rubies, i. 157, 161 w, ii. 362;;
Baldac, see Baghdad
Baldacchini {Batidekins), brocades made

at Baghdad, i. 63, 65/2
Baldwin H. (de Courtenay), last Latin

Emperor of Constantinople, i. 2, 3?/
Bali, Island of, ii. 287^

in Abyssinia, ii. 436;2

B alios, i. 421;?

Balish (a money of account), ii. 218//

VOL. H.

Balista, always a crossbow in mediaeval
times, ii. i6iw

Balkh (Bale), i. 151

Balkhash Lake, ii. 459/2

Ballads, Genoese, on sea-fights at Ayas
and Curzola, 4^ seqq.

Ballard, Mr., ii. 382;?, 387^

Balor, Balaur, Bilaur, Malaur, Bolor,
i. 172, I78«-I79;2

Bdlos, Malacca boats with two rudders,
i. 119;?

Balsamodendron Mukul, ii. 397«

Balthazar, of the Magi, i. 78, ?>2n

Balti, i. idon, i'j2>n

Balustrade^ etymology of the word,
3S

Bamboo (always called canes by Polo) its
multifarious uses, i. 299, 307^ ; Kiiblai's
Chandu Palace made of, 299, 306/2 ;
great, on banks of Caramoran river,
ii. 220 ; explode loudly when burning,
42, 43, 46/2 ; large in Tibet, 48/2 ; ropes
of, 171, I74«; in Che kiang, 221/2

Bamian, caves at, i. 156/2; huge re-
cumbent image at, 221/2

Bdm-i-Duniah, " Roof of the World,"
i. 171, 174/2

Bamm, i. 113/2

Bandar Abbas (Bandar-Abbasi), i. 86/2,

89/2, I06/2, 122/2

Bandith, i. 98, 100/2, 151

Bangala, see Bengal

Banzaroif, Dorji, on Shamanism, i. 258/2

Baptism, accompanied by branding, in

Abyssinia, ii. 427, 432/2
Bara, ii. 305/2
Barac (Borrak), Khan of Chagatai, i. 9,

10/2, 103/2 ; his war with ArghAn, ii.

458/2, 467
Baradaeus, Jacob, or James Zanzale,

Bishop of Edessa, i. 61/2
Barbaro, Josafat, i. 49/2, 53/2, 100/2, 426/z,

427/2
Barbarossa, Frederic, j^, i. 82/2
Barberino, Francesco da, ^6, 118^ i.

1 17/2
Barda'at, saddle-cloths, i. 61/2
Bardesir, i. 11 2/2
Bardshir, Bardsir, Bard-i-Ardeshfr, i.

92/2
Bargu (Barguchin Tugrum, or Barguti),

plain, i. 269, 270/2
Bai'gtterlac, Syrrhaptes Pallasii, a kind of

sand grouse, i. 269, 272/2 ; its migra-
tion into England, 273/2
Barguzinsk, i. 270/2
Bar in, Mongol tribe, ii. 148/2
Bark, money made from, 108, i. 423 ;

fine clothes from, ii. 124, 127/2
Barka (Barca), Khan, ruler of Kipchak,

i. 4, 5/2, 103/2, ii. 491 ; his war with

Hulaku, i. 4, ii. 494 seqq.
Barkul, i. 345/2

2 Q 2

6l2

barkOt

INDEX

BERCHET

Bark^ty b^rg^t {bearcoote), eagle trained

to the chase, i. 397, 399W
Barlaam and Josaphat, Story of Saints,

from Legend of Buddha, ii. 323^ scgq.
Barley, huskless, i. 158, 162;/
Baroch, ii. 367^
Baron-tala, name applied by Mongols

to Tibet, i. 2i^n
Barons (Shieng or Sing), Kaan's twelve,

430
Barozzi, Nicolo, jo, 70
Barros, John de, i. lion, i20«; geography

of, J
Barsauma (St. Barsamo), 1. 77
Barskul (Barscol), " Leopard Lake," i.

343, 345^^
Bartizan, Kublai's wooden, i. 337, 339?^
Barus, Barros (Sumatra), its camphor,

ii. 302^-303??, 304/?
Barussae insulae, ii. 310^2
Barygaza, ii. 397^, 408??
Bashai (Pashai), i. 165^
Bashkirds, (Hungarians), i. ^^n; ii, 492/2
Bashpah, Lama, and the Mongol char-
acter called after him, i. 2%n, 353^,

ii. Af^n
Basma, see Pasei
Basjfttch (Guasmuls), half-breeds, i. 284,

292?/
Basra (Bastra), noted for its date-groves,

i. 63, 6sn
Bathang, ii. 45;^, 48/2, $6n, 6jn, "jon
Baths, natural hot, near Hormuz, i. iio-

I22n', in Cathay, 442; public at

Kinsay, ii. 189, 198??
Batigala, Batticalla, ii. 426/2, 443W
Batochina, ii. 302;?
Bats, large, in India, ii. 345
Battas of Sumatra, and cannibalism, ii.

288/2, 298/2
Batthala, Bettelar (Patlam in Ceylon),

ii. 337/2
Battles, Kiiblai v. Nayan, i. 336 ; Tartars

V. king of Mien, ii. loi ; Caidu v.

Khan's forces, 461 ; Borrak and

Arghiin, 467 ; Arghiin and Ahmad,

470/2 ; Hulaku and Barka, 496 ; Toktai

and Nogai, 499
Batu, Khan of Kipchak, founder of Sarai,

//, i. 5/2, 6n, 245, 247/^ ; invades

Russia, 490, 493/? ; made by Polo

into two kings — Sain and Patu, 491,

492/2 ; his character and cruelty, 492/2
Baudas, see Baghdad
Baudekins (baldacchini), brocades made

at Baghdad, i. 63, 65/2
Bauduin de Sebourc, 121 seqq., ii. 141,

144, 189, 216
Bavaria, Duke Ernest of, a mediaeval

Romance, ii. 418/2
Bawarij, corsairs, ii. 410/2
Bayau Chingsian, Kublai's greatest

Captain, i. 10/2, 334/z, 361/2, ii. 138/2,

208/2, 462^ J prophecy connected with
his name, 145, 150/2; his conquest of
Manzi or South China, 146; his history
and character, 148/2, 149/2 ; his excep-
tional cruelty at Chang-chau, 179,
180/2

Bayan, Khagan of the Avars, ii. 148/2

Bayan (Baian), Kublai's Master of the
Hounds, i. 400, 401/2

Bayan, son of Nasruddin, ii. 104/2

Bayezid Ilderim, i. 45/2

Bdellium, ii. 397/2

Beads, Hindu, ii. 338, 347/^

Bears, i. 396, 397, 401, ii. 31, 37, 42,
78, 382, 41 1, 431 ; white in Far North,
479, 481/2

Beast and bird patterns, see Patterns

Beaten gold, i. 387, 388/2

Beaujeu, William de, Master of the
Temple, i. 25/2

Beauty of — Georgians, i. 50, 53/2;
Khorasan women, 1 28 ; Kashmir
women, 166 ; Sinju women, 276 ;
Argons, or half-breeds, 284 ; the
Ungrat or Kungurat tribe, 357 ;
people of Coloman, ii. 122 ; Kinsay
women, 186; Kaidu's daughter, 463;
Arghun Khan, 478; the Russians, 487

Beds, their arrangement in India, ii. 346,

352^
Beef, not eaten in Maabar, except by the

Govi, ii. 341, 350/2 ; formerly eaten in

India, 350/2
Bejas of the Red Sea Coast, ii. 425, 432/2,

434/2
Belgutai, Chinghiz's stepbrother, i. 334/2
"Belie" for "Melic," ii. 470/^
Bell at Cambaluc, great, i. 375, 378/2,

414
Belial Rajas, ii. 367/2
Belledi, balladi, ginger so called, ii. 381/2;

Spanish use of the word, it.
Benares, brocades of, i. 66/2
Bendocquedar, see Bundukdari, Bibars
Benedict XII., Pope, ii. 179/2
Bengal (Bangala), 12, king of Mien

(Burma) and, ii. 98 ; why Polo couples

these, 99/2 ; relations between Burma

and, 99/2, 114; claim asserted by

king of Burma to, 100/2 ; alleged

Mongol invasion of, 1 1 5/2 ; its distance

from Caugigu, 120 ; its currency, 123 ;

confused with Pegu by Polo, 128/2,

131/2^
Beni Buya dynasty, i. 91/2
Benjamin of Tudela, on Alexander's

Rampart, i. 54/2 ; on the Gryphon, ii.

418/2
Benzoin, etymology of, ii. 286/2, 396/^
Berard, Thos., Master of the Temple,

i. 23, 24/2
Berbera, Sea of, ii. 415^^
Berchet, G,, ^7, ii. 507/2

BEREKE

INDEX

613

Berek^, Batu Khan's brother, i. 5«
Bernier, on Kashmir women's beauty, i.

i6gn
Berrie, the Arabic Bariya, a desert, i.

237W
Bettelar, rendezvous of Pearl Fishers, ii.

331, 337«
Beyamini, wild oxen of Tibet, ii. 50, 52^
Bezant, i. 405, 424, 425, 426^2, 427??,

444, ii. 4i«, 186, 2i8w, 346^, 349;?,

479 ; value of, 592^
Bhagavata, ii. 346^
Bhamo, and River of, ii. 70;?, 105^, io7«,

Bhartpur, prophecy about, ii. 149^

Bhattis, the, i. 104W

Bhawalpiir, i. 104??

"Bhim's Baby," colossal idol at Dhamnar

caves, i. 22 1«
Bianco's, Andrea, maps, i. I33«
Biar, ii. 305?^

Bibars Bundiikdari, see Bundiikdari
Bielo Osero, ii. 486^
Bigoncio, a firkin, i. 384W
Biluchis, i. lom ; their robber raids,

io6n', Lumri or Numri, 114;?
Binh Thuan (Champa), ii. 268;?
Binkin, ii. 230W
Bin tang (Pentam), ii. 280, 284
Birch-bark vessels, i. 309^ ; books, ii.

124, I27«
Bir-dhul, or Bujardawal, cap. of Ma'bar,

ii. 335'^
Bird -hunts, i. 269, 272??
Birdwood, Sir G., ii. 396^, 446^, 449^^
Birhors of Chuta Nagpur, ii. 298^
Bir-Pandi, or Pira-Bandi, ii. 333^2, 334«
Birthday, celebration of Kublai's, i. 387
Bishbalik (Urumtsi), i. 214??, 440;^
Bishop, of Male Island, ii. 404 ; story of

an Abyssinian, 428
Bitter bread, i. no, I22w,

water, i. no, I22;z, 194

Blac, Blachia (Lac, Wallach), ii. 489^
Black-bone, Chinese name for Lolos, ii.

ezn

Black Crane (Kara Togorii), i. 296, 297;?
Saints, White Devils in India, ii.

355, 359^
Sea, M. Maurum v. Nigrum, i. 2,

Z^h 57^2

Sect of Tibet, i. 324;/

Blacker, the more beautiful, ii. 355

Blaeuw, map, i. I02;z

Blochmann, Professor H., i. II4«, ii.

ii6n
Block-books, supposed to have been

introduced from China, ijg
Block-printing in Persia, i. 429;;
Blood-sucking, Tartar, i. 261, 264/2
Blous, bloies, i. 327;^
Boar's tusks, huge (Hipp.), ii. 413
Boccassini, i. 62n

Bode, Baron de, i. 85^

Bodhisatva Avalok. , ii. 265/2

Bodleian MS. of Polo, 18, gs, g4 ; list

of miniatures in, ii. 528/2
Boeach, mistake for Locac, and its sup-
posed position, ii. 280/2
Boemond, Prince of Antioch and Tripoli,

letter of Bibar to, i. 24/2
Boga (Buka), a great Mongol officer,

delivers Arghiin, ii. 471, 472, 474/2
Boghra Khan, i. 188/2
Bohea country, ii. 222/2, 224/2
Bohra, sect of W. India, i. 148/2
Boikoff, Russian Envoy, i. 218/2
Bokhara (Bocara), i. 9, lo
Boleyn, Anne, her use of buckram, i. 47/2
Bolgana, Queen, see Bulughan
Bolgarskoze (called also Uspenskoze), i. ']n
Bolghar, borgal, borgkal, Russia leather,

i. 6/2, 394, 395/2
Bolghar (Bolgara), on the Volga, i. 4, 6n,

ii. 481/2, 486/2, 493/2 ; ruins of, i. 7/2;

court of, 384/2
Bolivar, Padre, S.J., his account of the

Condor {Rukh) of Africa, ii. 420/2,

597«
Bolor, i. 172, 178/2, 179/2
Bombay, ii. 396/2, 449/2
Bonaparte, Prince Roland, Recueil des

Documents de VEpoque Mongole, i.

14/2, 28/2
Bonga, ii. 96/2
Bonheur, Rosa, i. 277/2
Boniface VIII., Pope, 44, £2,54^ i. 23/2
Bonin, C. E., i. 203/2, 249/2, 276/2, 282/2,

286/2
Bonoccio di Mestro, 6y
Bonpos, old Tibetan Sect, i. 314/2, 321/2,

323^2

Bonus, ebony, ii. 268, 272/^

Bonvalot, i. 200/2

Book of Marco Polo, its contents, 80 ;
original language, French, 81 ; oldest
Italian MS., 82 ; " Geographic Text,"
in rude French, 83 seqq. ; various types
of Text— (i) "Geographic," 90; (2)
Pauthier'sMSS.,9^; (3) Pipino's Latin,
gS ; Preface to, ii. 525/2 ; Grynseus'
Latin, g£ ; Miillers' reprint, g6 ; (4) Ra-
musio's Italian edition, its peculiarities,
gb-ioi ; probable truth about it, gg ;
bases of it, 100 ; MS. and some of its
peculiarities, loi ; general view of the
relations of the texts, loi ; notice of
an old Irish version, 102 ; geographical
data, log ; how far influenced in form
by Rustician, 112 ; perhaps in descrip-
tion of battles, iij ; diffusion and num-
ber of MSS., 116; basis of present
version, 141 seqq. ; specimens of dif-
ferent recensions of text, ii. 522/2-524/2 ;
distribution of MSS. 526/2 : miniatures
in, 527/2, 529/2; list of MSS., 532/2-

6i4

BOOK

INDEX

BUKA BOSHA

Book of Marco Polo {continued) —

552W ; Tabular view of the filiation of
chief MSS., 552 ; Bibliography, 553;z-
582^ ; titles of works cited, 582«-
590W ; Spanish edition, 598^

Bore in Hang-chau Estuary, ii. 202>n

JBorgaly see Bolghar

Bormans, Stanislas, ii. 6o2w, 603^

Born, Bertram de, ^f4

Borneo, camphor, see Camphor

tailed men of, ii. 302;?

Boro Bodor, Buddhist Monument, Java,
/J, ii. 275«

Borrak, Amir, Prince of Kerman (Kutlugh
Sultan?), i. 91W

Khan of Chaghatai, see Barac

Borus, the, ii. 310^

Bostam, i. 138^

Boswellia thurifera, ii. 396;?, 446^, 448;? ;
serrata, 446^ ; Carterii, 448^ ; Bhaicda-
jiana, 44Sn ; papyri/era, 448^ ;
Frereana^ 44Sn ; glabra, 396^

Bouqueran, see Buckram

Bourne, F. S. A., ii. 6o;z, i^in

Boxwood forests in Georgia, i. 50, 57;/

Bozzi, i. 212;?

Bra, the word, 4^

Bracelets, in Anin, ii. 119

Bragadino, Marco, husband of Marco
Polo's daughter, Fantina, yb

Pietro, 76

Brahmanical thread, ii. 363

Brahmans (Abraiaman), fish-charmers to
the pearl fishery, ii. 332, 337« ; their
character and virtues, 363,367;/; their
king, 364 ; their omens, 364, 368;/,
369^; longevity, 365; Chughi, 365;
Palladian legend of, 405?/

Brahma's temple, Hang-chau, ii. 212;?,
213;?

Brahuis, i. lom

Brakhimof, early capital of Bulgaria, i. 7;/

Brambanan, ruins at, zj

Bran (Tibetan tsnmba), parched barley,
i. 303, Z^in

Brazil wood, in Locac, ii. 276, 279;/ ; in
Sumatra, 299 ; manner of growth, ib. ,
309^ ; in Ceylon, 313, 315^; in Coilum
{Coilmnitt), 375, 380^ ; different kinds,
ib. ; vicissitudes of the word, 380^ ; its
use prohibited by Painters' Guild, 382//

Bread, bitter, i. IIO, i22n

Brephung monastery, i. 319;/

Bretesche, i. 339«

Bretschneider, Dr. Emil {Medical Re-
searches), ruins of Bolghar, i. 7« ; the
Ufghur character, 28w ; Caucasian
Wall, 54« ; use of muslin in Samarkand,
62W ; on nakh and nachetti, 65^ ;
Hulaku's expedition to West Asia,
()(yn, 85^, 146;/, 148^ ; an extract from
the Yuan Siy 115^; Badakhshan,
161W ; Kashgar, 183^ ; Shachau, 2o6« ;

Kamul, 211W; Chingintalas, 214^;
the Sltpa inebrians, 2ign ; the Utiken
Ufgiirs, 227;^ ; Erdenidso Monastery,
228;? ; Belasagun, 232^ ; death of
Chinghiz, 248^ ; tung lo or kumiz^
259« ; Kiiblai's death, 334^ ; Peking,
366;?, 368«, 370;^, 372;?, 376«-378«, ii.
5^, 6n, Sn ; verniqiies, i. 384?? ; clepsy-
dra, 385^ ; the Bularguchi, 408^ ;
Achmath's biography, 421;? ; paper-
money, 430/2 ; post stations, 437^ ;
Chinese intoxicating drinks, 441 n ;
regulations for time of dearth, 444^ ;
Lu-Ku-K'iao Bridge, ii. Sn ; introduc-
tion of plants from Asia into China,
i6n ; morns alba, 2%n ; Tibet, 46;? ;
bamboo explosions, djon ; the Si-fans,
don ; Cara-jang and Chagan-jang,
73;?; Nasr-uddin, lo^n-, ihe Alans,
i8o« ; rhubarb in Tangut, 183;? ;
Polo's " large pears," 2io;z ; on galan-
gal, 229;^ ; on sugar, 230?? ; on Zay-
ton, 238/2 ; on wood-oil, 252;? ; on
ostrich, 437^; on Si-la-ni, 3i6n; on
frankincense, 449;? ; on Magyars, 492/2;
on Mongol invasion of Poland and
Silesia, 493/2

Brichu (Brius, the Upper Kiang), ii. 67/2

Bridges of Pulisanghin, ii. 3 ; Sindafu
(Ch'engtu), 37 ; Suchau, 181 ; Kinsay,
185, 187, 194/2, 201, 212; Kien-ningfu,
225, 228/2 ; Fuchau, 233/2, 234/2 ;
Zayton, or Chinchau, 241/2

Brine-wells, see Salt

Brius River (Kin-sha Kiang, Gold River),
ii. 36, 40/2, 56, Syn

Brown, G. G., ii. 35/2

Sir Thomas, ii. 420/2, 424// ; on

Polo, IIJ

Bruce's Abyssinian Chronology, ii. 435/2
se^^.

Brunetto Latini's Book, Li Tresor, 88, iiy

Brunhilda, ii. 466/2

Bruun, Professor Ph., of Odessa, i. 6n,
54/2, 232/2-235/2

Bucephala, of Alexander, i. 105/2

Bucephalus, breed of, i. 158, 162/2

Buckrams, of Arzinga, i. 45 ; described,
47/2; etymology, 48/2 ; at Mardin, 61,
62/2 ; in Tibet, ii. 45; at Mutfili, 361,
363/2; Malabar, 389, 395, 398, 431

Buddha, see Sakya Muni

Buddhism, Buddhists, see Idolatry,
Idolaters

Buddhist Decalogue, i. 170/2

Buffaloes in Anin, ii. 119

Buffet and vessels of Kiiblai's table, i.
382, 384/2

Btigaei, ii. 432/2

Buka (Boga), a great Mongol chief, ii.
471, 472, A7An

Buka Bosha, 1st Mongolian Governor of
Bokhara, i. 10/2

bUjk^j khan

INDEX

CAMEXU

615

Bukii Khan, of the Hoei-Hu, or Uighurs,

i. 22'jn
Bularguji (Bularguchi), "The Keeper of

Lost Property," i. 403, 407^
Bulgaria, Great, ii. 2S6n
Bulughan (Bolgana), Queen, 3j, i. 32,

33«, sSn, ii. 474^

another, ii. 475/2

Bundukdar, Amfr Alauddin Aidekin

("The Arblaster"), i. 24;^
Bundukdari, Malik Dahir Ruknuddin

Bibars (Bendocquedar), Mameluke

Sultan of Egypt, i. 22, 2^n-2^n, 145;^,

ii. 424;?, 433«, 436^, 494W ; killed by

kumiz, 259«
Buraets, or Burgals, the, i. 258;;, 2S^n
Burkan Kaldiin, i. 247;?
Burma (or Ava), King of, ii. 98, 99^. {See

also Mien. )
Burnell, Arthur, ii. 335^2, 359«, 386^
Burning the Dead, see Cremation

heretical books, i. 321^

paper-money, etc., at funerals, i.

204, 2o8«, 267, 26Sn, ii. 191
Widows in South India, ii. 341,

349^^

Burrough, Christopher, i. gn

Burton, Captain R. F., ii. 597^

Bushell, Dr. S. W., his visit to Shang-tu,
i. 26n, 304//, 305^, 412/2 ; on the
Khitan Scripts, 2Sn ; Tangut rulers,
205/2 ; orders for post-horses, 353«

Butchers, in Kashmir, i. 167 ; Tibet,
170/2 ; S. India, ii. 342

Butiflis (Mutfili), ii. 362/2

Butler, Hudibras, ii. 92/2

Buyid dynasty, i. 86/2

Ca' Polo, Ca' Milion, Corte del
MiLLiONi, the house of the Polos at
Venice, 4, 26 seqq., SS, 70> 77

Caaju, castle of, i. 244

Cabs, Peking, ii. 211/2

Cacanfu (Hokiang-fu), ii. 127, 132

Cachanfu (P'uchau-fu, Ho-chung-fu), ii.
22, 25/2

Cachar Modun, i. 404, 408/2

Cachilpatnam, ii. 387/2

Cadmia, i. 126/2

Caesalpinia, ii. 380/2 ; and see iJrazil

Caesarea of Cappadocia (Casaria, Kaisa-
rfya), i. 43, 44/2 _

Caichu, castle of (Kiai-chau, or Hiai-
chau ?), ii. 17, 19/2, 26/2

Caidu, see Kaidu

Caiju, on the H .vang-Ho, ii. 142

on the Kiang, Kwachau, ii. 171, 174

Cail (Kayal), ii. 370, 372/2,-273/2; a great
port of Commerce, 370, 373/2 ; the
king, ib. ; identified, 372 ; meaning of
name, ib. ; remains of, ib.

Caindu (K'ien-ch'ang), a region of
Eastern Tibet, ii. 53, 70/2

Caingan (Ciangan, Kiahing), ii. 184/2,
185/2

Cairo, ii. 439/2 ; museum at, 424/2 ;
ventilators at, 452/2. {See Babylon.)

Caiton, see Zayton

Cala Ataperistan (Kala' Atishparastan),
"Castle of the Fire Worshippers," i, 78

Calachan (Kalajan), i. 281, 282/2

Calaiate, Calatu, see Kalhat

Calamanz, the word, ii. 272/2

Calamina, city, ii. 357/2

Caldwell, Rev. Dr. R., on devil-dancing
among the Shanars, ii. 97/2; on name
of Ceylon, 314/2 ; on Shahr-Mandi
and Sundara Pandi, 333/2 ; on the
Tower at Negapatam, 336/2 ; etymology
of Chilaw, 337/2 ; on Pacauta, 346/2 ;
Govis, 349/2 ; singular custom of arrest,
350^^-351^ ; rainy season, 351/2 ; food
of horses, ib. ; Shanar devil-images,
359/2; choiachy 368/2; Cail, or Kayal
city, 372/2, 373/2 ; Kolkhoi, 373/2 ; King
Ashar of Cail, ib. ; Kolla^n, 377/2 ;
Pinati, 380/2 ; etymology of Sapong,
ib. ; Cape Comorin, 383/2

Calendar, Ecclesiastical Buddhist, i. 220,
222/2 ; the Tartar, 447, 448/2 ; of
Brahmans, ii. 368/2-369/2 ; of Docu-
ments relating to Marco Polo and his
family, 505/2 segq.

Calicut, ii. 380/2, 381/2, 388/2, 391/2, 440/2 ;
King of, and his costume, 346/2

Calif, see Khalif

Caligine, Calizene (Khdlij, a canal from
Nile), ii. 439/2

Camadi (City of Dakianus) ruined, i. 97
1 13/2

Cambaluc (Khanbaligh, or Peking),
capital of Cathay, 12, i. 38/2, ii. 3,
132, 213/2, 320; Kublai's return
thither after defeating Nayan, i. 348 ;
the palace, 362 ; the city, 374 ; its
size, walls, gates, and streets, the
Bell Tower, etc., 375/2-378/2 ; period of
khan's stay there, 411 ; its suburbs and
hostelries, 412; cemeteries, women,
patrols, 414 ; its traffic, 415 ; the
Emperor's Mint, 423 ; palace of the
Twelve Barons, 431 ; roads radiating
from, 433 ; astrologers of, 446

Cambay (Cambaet, Cambeth, Kun-
bayat), kingdom of, ii. 394/2, 397, 398/2,
403/2, 426/2, 440/2, 443/2

Cambuscan, of Chaucer, corruption of
Chinghiz, i. 247/2

Camel-bird, see Ostrich

Camels, mange treated with oil, i. 46 ;
camlets from wool of, 281, 284 ;
white, 281, 283/2; incensing, 309/2;
alleged to be eaten in Madagascar, ii.
411 ; really eaten in Magadoxo, 413/2;
ridden in war, 423, 425/2

Camexu, Kamichu, see Campichu

6i6

CAMLEtS

INDEX

CAVO DE DIAB

Camlets (cammellotti), i. 281, 283;^, 284

Camoens, ii. 266«

Camphor {Laurus Camphora) trees in
Fo-kien, ii. 234, 237W

of Sumatra, ii. 287^ ; Fansuri,

299, 302« ; earliest mention of, 302^ ;
superstitions regarding, 303^ ; descrip-
tion of the tree, Dryabalanops Cam-
phora, 303«-304w ; value attached by
Chinese to, 304;? ; recent prices of, ib. ;
its use with betel, 371, 374?/

oil, ii. 304?^

Campichu (Kanchau), city of, i. 219,

220W

Camul (Kamul), province, i. 209, 21 1«,

214;?
Ca??mt, fine shagreen leather, i. 394,

395«

Canal, Grand, of China, ii. 132, 139,
140, 141 w, I43«, 152^, I54«, 209/?,
222W; construction of, 174, 175^2

Canale, Cristoforo, MS. by, ^4, ^y

Martino da, French Chronicle of

Venice by, 88

Cananor, kingdom, ii. 388^

Cananore, ii. 386;/, 38 7 w

Canara, ii. 390W, 397^

Cancamum, ii. Z^^n

Canela brava, ii. 390^

Canes, Polo's name for bamboos, q.v.

Cannibalism, ii. 293, 294, 298?/, 31 1«,
3I2«; ascribed to Tibetans, Kash-
miris, etc., i. 301, 312W, 313?/;
to Hill-people in Fo-kien, ii. 225,
228« ; to islanders in Seas of China
and India, 264 ; in Sumatra, 284,
28S« ; regulations of the Battas, 288^,
ascribed to Andaman islanders, 309,
31 1«

Cannibals, i.e. Caribs, ii. 31 1/^, 405^

Canonical Hours, ii. 368-369??

Cansay, see Kinsay

Canton, j, ii. 199^, 237^

Cape Comorin, see Comari ; Temple at,

Corrientes (of Currents), ii. 41 5??,

417;?, 426;?

Delgado, ii. 424^

of Good Hope, ii. 417;?

Capidoglio [Capdoille], sperm-whale, ii.

414??
Cappadocian horses, i. 44;/
Capus, G., i. 129?/, 162;^
Caracoron (Kara Korum), i. 66n, 226,

227^, 269, ii. 460, 462^
Carajan (Caraian, Karajang, or Yun-nan),

province, 21, ii. 64, 66, 67^, 72;/, 76,

86
Caramoran River (Hwang-Ho), ii. 142,

143^, I44«, 151
Carans, or Scarans, i. lOOn
Caraonas (Karaunahs), a robber tribe,

i. 98, loin, I2in

Carats, i. 359^

Carbine, etymology of, i. 10 im

Cardinal's Wit, i. 2i;z

Caribs, i.e. cannibals, ii. 31 1«, 405;?

Carpets, of Turcomania (Turkey), i,

43, 44« ; Persian, 66;? ; Kerman,

96;^
Carriages, at Kinsay, ii. 205, 206 ;

Chinese, 2iin
Carrion, shot from engines, ii. 163;?
Carta Catalana, Catalan Map of 1375,

^34i i« 57'^ 59^^j 82;?, i6i«, ii.

22 1 w, 243«, 286/?, 362^, 386, 396W,

494^
Carte, h la, ii. 486;?
Carts, Mongol, i. 254;?
Casan, see Ghazan Khan
Casaria (Caesarea of Cappadocia), i. 43,

44«
Cascar (Kashgar), i. 180, 182;?;

Chaukans of, I93«
Casem, see Kishm
Caspian Sea (Sea of Ghel or Ghelan),

ancient error about, 2, i2g', its numerous

names, i, 52, 58;/, 59;?, ii. 494/2
Cassay, see Kinsay
Cassia, ii. 59;?, 6on, 390;/, 39i«

buds, ii. 59;?, 39 1 «

fistula, ii. 3987?

Castaldi, Panfilo, his alleged invention

of movable types, ijg-140
Castambol, i. ^$n

Castelli, P. Cristoforo di, i. 52^, 53;?
Casvin (Kazvin), a kingdom of Persia, i.

83, 84^, lom, i^m
Catalan Navy, 3^-39
Cathay (Northern China), j>; origin of

name, //, /j, i. 60, 76^, 285, 414,

418, 441, ii. 10, 127, 132, 135, 139,

140, 192, 39i;z, 457 ; coal in, i. 442 ;

idols, ii. 263 ; Cambaluc, the capital

of, see Cambaluc
Cathayans, v. Ahmad, i. 403 et seqq.-,

their wine, 441 ; astrologers, 446 ;

religion, 456 ; politeness, filial duty,

gaol deliveries, gambling, 457
Catholics, ii. 407 ; Catholicos, of Sis, i.

42« ; of the Nestorians, 6i«, 62«
Cators {ckakors), great partridges, i.

296, 29772
Cat's Head Tablet, i. 35672
Cats in China, ii. 35072
Caucasian Wall, i. 5377, 5472
Caugigu, province, ii. 116, 120, 123,

12872, 13172
Caulking, of Chinese ships, ii. 250, 25172
Cauly, Kauli (Corea), i. 343, 34572
Causeway, south of the Yellow River, ii,

Cauterising children's heads, ii. 43272
Cave-houses, i. 154, 15672, ii. 15072
Cavo de Eli, ii. 38622
de Diab, ii. 41722

CAYU

INDEX

CHINCHAU

617

Cayu (Kao-yu), ii, 152

Celtic Church, ii. 370^

Census, of houses in Kiiisay, ii. 192 ;
tickets, ib.

Ceremonial of Mongol Court, see
Etiquette

Ceylon (Seilan), ii. 312-314; circuit of,
310;/ ; etymology of, 314;^ ; customs of
natives, 315; mountain of Adam's
{aiias Sagamoni Borcan's) Sepulchre,
316, 321W ; history of Buddha, 317 ;
origin of idolatry, 318 segq.; subject
to China, 392;?

Ceylon, King of, his pearl-ponds, ii. 337;?

Chachan (Charchan, Charchand), i. 192;?,
194, 195^, iQ6n

Chagatai (Sigatay), Kublai's uncle, son
of Chinghiz, 10, i. ion, i^n, 98, I02«,
183, iS6n, ii. 457, 458W, 459

Chaghan-Jang, ii. 72;?, 73W

Chaghan-Kuren, ii. 23/2

Chaghan-Nor ("White Lake"), N.E. of
Kamul, i. 214;/

(Chaghan, or Tsaghan Balghasun),

site of Kublai's palace, i. 296, 2g'jn,
306W, 422«, ii. i^n

Chairs, silver, i. 351, 355^

Chakor {cator), great partridges, i. 296,
297W

Chalcedony and jasper, i. 191, 193^

Chalukya Malla kings, ii. 336??

Champa (Chamba), kingdom of, ii. 266,
268w, 424, 426;?, 596?? ; Kublai's ex-
pedition v., 267 ; the king and his
wives, 268, 271;?; products, 268, 271/2-
272^ ; locality, 26()-2'jon ; invaded by
king of Lukyn, 279^

Chandra Banu, ii. 315^

Chandu (Shangtu), city of peace of
Kiiblai, i. 25, 298, 304^, 410-41 1,

435
Changan, ii. 182, 184^
Chang-chau (Chinginju), ii. 17S, 179^
in Fo-kien, ii. 233^, 238^; Zayton (?),

238^ ; Christian remains at. 240^-241;?
Ch'ang Ch'un, travels, i. Gin
Changgan (Chang-ngan), ii. 27-29^
Chang-kia-Kau, the gate in the Great

Wall, i. 56^
Chang K'ien, ii. i6w
Chang-shan (Chanshan), ii. 198/2, 199W,

219, 221/2, 2227/, 224W

Ch'ang Te (the Chinese traveller), Si

Shi Ki, i. 64/2, 66/2
Chang Te-hui, a Chinese teacher, i.

30922
Chang-y (Chenchu), i. 417-419, 42222
Chang Yao, Chinese general, i. 21122
Chdo de Bux {Cava di Bussi), boxwood,

i. 5722
Chaohien, Sung Prince, ii. 15022
C/ido - Khdnahs, bank - note offices in

Persia, i. 42922

Chao Naiman Sume Khotan, or Shangtu,
'* city of the 108 temples," i. 30422

Chdo, paper-money, i. 42622, 42922

Chdo, title of Siamese and Shan Princes,
ii. 7322

Chaotong, ii. 13022

Chapu, ii. 19922

Characters, written, four acquired by
Marco Polo, i. 27 ; one in Manzi, but
divers spoken dialects, ii. 236

Charchan (Chachan of Johnson, Char-
chand), i. 19222, 194, 195/?, 19622

Charcoal, store in Peking, palace garden
of, i. 37022 ^

Charities, Kublai's, i. 439, 443, 444 ;
Buddhistic and Chinese, 44622 ; at
Kinsay, ii. 188, 19822

Charles VIII., of France, i. 39822

Chau dynasty, i. 34722

Chaucer, quoted, i. 322, 522, 1722, 16122,
247^^5 38622, ii. II;?

Chaukaits, temporary wives at Kashgar,

i. 193.
Chaul, ii. 36722
Cheapness in China, ii. 202
Cheetas, or hunting leopards, i. 397, 39822
Cheh-kiang, cremation common during
Sung dynasty in, ii. 13522; roads into
Fo-kien from, 22422
Cheinan, Gulf of, ii. 266
Chenchau, or Iching hien, ii. 17322, 17422
Chenching (Cochin-China), ii. 26822-26922,

27722
Chenchu (Chang-y), conspires with

Vanchu v. Ahmad, i. 417-419, 42222
Ch'eng-ting fu, ii. 13, 1422
Ch'eng-Tsu (Yung-lo), Emperor, ii.

39222
Ch'eng-tu (Sze-ch'wan), ii. 3222, 3422, 3522
Ch'engtu-fu (Sindafu), ii. 36, 3722
Cheu, the Seven, ii. 27722
Chibai and Chiban, ii. 459, 46222
Chichiklik Pass, i. 17222, 17522
Chien-ch'ang (Caindu), ii. ^on. {See

K'ien ch'ang.)
Chihli, plain of, ii. 1422
Chilaw, ii. 33722

Chilianwala, battlefield of, i. 10522
Chilu-ku, last Karakhitai king, ii. 2022
Chin, Sea of, ii. 264, 265, 26622, 27022
China, rj4 ; Imperial Maritime Customs^
Returns for igoo, ii. 17322 ; Do-
minicans in, 24022; paved roads in,
189, 19822 ; relations with Korea and
Japan, 26222 ; the name, 26522 ; king of
Malacca at Court of, 28222 ; trade from
Arabia to, 34822 ; from Sofala in
Africa, 40022. {See also Cathay and
Manzi.
Chinangli (T'sinan-fu), ii. 133, 135, 13722
Chindr, Oriental planes, i. 12822, 13822
Chinchau, Chincheo, Chinchew, Chwan-
chew, Tswanchau, see Zayton

6i8

CHINESE

INDEX

CHRONOLOGY

Chinese, Polo ignorant of the languages,
JTOy i. 29« ; epigrams, 170;?; funeral
and mourning customs, 207^, ii.
191 ; feeling towards Kiibldi, i. 481,
42i« ; religion and irreligion, 456,
458^ ; their politeness and filial
piety, 457, 462W ; gambling, 457 ;
character for integrity, ii. 204, 2ion ;
written character and varieties of
dialect, 236 ; ships, 249 se^^^. ; pagodas
at Negapatam and elsewhere, 336;? ;
coins found in Southern India, 337« ;
pottery, 372^^-373;? ; trade and inter-
course with Southern India, 37Sn,
378;z, 386, 390, 392«

Chinghian-fu (Chinkiang-fu), ii. 175, 176,

Chinghiz IChan, 10, 11, i. 5«, ion, I2n,
ii. 458^, 479, 481W ; reported to be a
Christian, i. 14^ ; Aung Khan's saying
of, zyn ; his use of Ufghiir character,
2Sn ; Erzrum taken by, 49;? ; harries
Balkh, 151;?; captures Talikan, 154^;
ravages Badakhshan, 163W ; his respect
for Christians, i86«, 242n, 543/2 ;
subjugates Kutchluk Khan, 189^ ; his
campaigns in Tangut, 2o6n, 2i8«,
225^, 2Sin ; Rubruquis' account of,
237;?, 239W ; made king of the Tartars,
238 ; his system of conquests, 238 ; and
Prester John, 239-241 ; divining by
twigs — presage of victory, 241 ; defeats
and slays Prester John, 244 ; his death
and burial-place, 244, 245;/, 249?? ; his
aim at conquest of the world, 245^ ;
his funeral, 250^ ; his army, 262, 265^ ;
defeats the Merkits, 270;? ; relations
between Prester John's and his families,
284, 2S8n ; the Horiad tribe, 300,
3o8« ; his prophecy about Kubkii,
33i« ; rewards his captains, 35i/z ;
captures Peking, ii. 8« ; defeats and
slays Taiyang Khan, 20n ; his alleged
invasion of Tibet, 46;z ; his mechanical
artillery, i68n ; his cruelty, iSiu ;
Table of Genealogy of his House, 505W

Chinghiz Tora, ii. 481W

Ching-hoang tower at Plangchau-fu, ii.
21 4n

Chinginju (Chang-chau), ii. 178

Chingintalas, province, i. 212 ; its identifi-
cation, 214?^, 215W

Chingkim, Chinkin, Chimkin, Kublai's
favourite son and heir-apparent, i. 38;/,
359, 360^, 418, 422n ; his palace, 366,
372n

Chingsang, Ching-siang (Chinisan), title
of a Chief Minister of State, i. 432/2,
ii. 145, 148/2, 150/2, 218/2

Chingting-fu (Acbaluc), ii. 13, 14/2

Chingtsu, or Yung-lo, Emperor, ii. 392/2

CMni, coarse sugar, ii. 230/2

Chinju (Tinju), ii. 153, 154/2

Chin-tatiy or Chlnasthdna, Chinese ety-
mology of, ii. 119/2

Chinuchi, Cunichi, Kublai's Masters of
the Hounds, i. 400, 401 /2

Chipangu (Japan), ii. 253, 256/2; account
of Kublai's expedition v., 255, 258;
its disasters, 255-256 ; history of ex-
pedition, 260/2 seqq. ; relations with
China and Korea, 262/2

Chitral, i. 1 54/2, i6o/2, 165/2, i66n

Chloroxylon JDupada, ii. 397/2

Cho-chau (Juju), ii. 10, 11/2, 131/2

Choiach, the term, ii. 364, 368/2

Chola, or Sola-desam (Soli, Tanjore), ii.
335^^, 336^. 364, 368/2

Chonka (Fo-kien), kingdom of, ii. 231,
232/2, 236 ; explanation of name, 232/2

Chonkwe, ii. 232/2

Chorcha, see Churchin

Christian, astrologers, i. 241,446 ; churches
in China, early, ii. 27/2 ; inscription of
Singanfu, 28/2 ; Alans in the Mongol
service, ii. 178, 179/2

Christianity, attributed to Chinghizide
princes, i. 14/2, ii. 476, 477/2 ; Kub-
lai's views on, i. 344/2

former, of Socotra, ii. 410/2

Christians, of the Greek rite, Georgians,
i. 50 ; and Russians, ii. 486 ; Jacobite
and Nestorian, at Mosul, i. 46, 60,
6i/2 ; among the Kurds, 60, 62/2 ;
and the Khalif of Baghdad — the
miracle of the mountain and the one-
eyed cobbler, 68-73 '■> Kashgar, 182,
183/2; in Samarkand, 183, 186/2; the
miracle of the stone removed, 185 ;
Yarkand, 187; Tangut, 203, 207/2;
Chingintalas, 212; Suh-chau, 217;
Kan-chau, 219; in Chinghiz's camp,
241 ; Erguiul and Sinju, 274 ; Egrigaia,
281 ; Tenduc, 285 ; Nayan and the
Khan's decision, 339, 344 ; at Kublai's
Court, 388 ; in Yun-nan, ii. 66, 74/2 ;
Cacanfu, 132; Yang-chau, 154/2;
churches at Chin-kiang fu, 177 ; at
Kinsay, 192; St. Thomas', 353-354;
Coilum, 375 ; Male and Female Islands,
404; Socotra, 406; Abyssinia and fire
baptism, 427, 432/2 ; of the Girdle,
432/2 ; in Lac (Wallachia), 487

Chrocho, the Rukh {q.v.)^ ii. 415/2 seqq.

Chronology and chronological data dis-
cussed, first journey of the Polos, i. 3/2 ;
war between Barka and Hulakii, 8n ;
Polos' stay at Bokhara, 10/2 ; their
departure and their second journey
from Acre, 23/2 ; their return voyage
and arrival in Persia, 38/2 ; story of
Nigudar, 103/2; Hormuz princes, 120/2;
destruction of Ismailites, 146/2 ; his-
tory of Chinghiz, 239/2, 242/2, 247/2 ;
Kublai's birth and accession, 334/2 ;
Nayan' rebellion, 334/2, 346/2 ; Polo's

CHRONOLOGY

INDEX

CONJEVERAM

619

Chronology [continued) —

visit to Yun-nan, ii. 8i« ; battle with
the king of Mien, lo^n ; wars between
China and Burma, l04?z-io6;z, iii;z,
114W; value of Indo-Chinese, io6n ;
conquest of S. China, 148^, 149;? ;
capture of Siang-yang, 167^2; Kiiblai's
dealings with Japan, 26o;?-26i;z ; with
Champa, 270;? ; Marco's visit to Japan,
271^ ; Kiiblai's Java expedition, 275^ ;
review of the Malay, 282;? ; events in
Ma'bar, 33 3« ; King Gondophares,
357?? ; cessation of Chinese navigation
to India, 391 w ; Abyssinia, 434/2 j-<?^<7. ;
Kaidu's wars, 462^, 467/2 ; Mongol
revolutions in Persia, notes from, 470;?-
475/2 ; wars of Toktai and Noghai, 497.
{See also Dates. )

Chrysostom, i. Sin

Chuchu, in Kiang-si, ii. 224^2, 229/2

Chughis, see Jogis

Chung-Kiang, ii. 40/2

Chungkwe, " Middle Kingdom," ii. 232/2

Chung-tu, or Yen-King (Peking, see Cam-
baluc)

Ck'ura, i. 265/2

Churches, Christian, in Kashgar, i. 182 ;
Samarkand, 185 ; Egrigaia, 281 ; Ten-
due, 287/2 ; early, in China, ii.
27/2; Yang-chau, 154/2; Chin-kiang
fu, 177 ; Kinsay, 192 ; Zayton, 238/2,
240/2; St. Thomas's, 354-355, 356/2;
Coilum, 377« ; Socotra, 409/2-410/2

Churchin, or Niuche, Churche, Chorcha
(the Manchu Country), i. 231/2, 343,

344^^
Cielstan, Suolstan (Shulistan), i. 83, 85/2
Cinnamon, Tibet, ii. 49, 52/2 ; Caindu,
56, 59/2; Ceylon, 315/2; story in Hero-
dotus of, 363/2 ; Malabar, 389, 390/2
Circumcision of Socotrans, ii. 409/2 ; for-
cible, of a bishop, 429 ; of Abyssinians,
432/2
Cirophanes, or Syrophenes, story of, ii.

328/2
Civet, of Sumatra, ii. 295/2
Clement IV., Pope, i. 17, 18/2, 21/2
Clepsydra, i. 378/2, 385/2, ii. 214
Cloves, ii. 272, 306 ; in Caindu, 56, 59/2
Coal (Polo's blackstone), i. 442 ; in Scot-
land in Middle Ages, 443^ ; in Kinsay,
ii. 216
Cobbler, the one-eyed, and the miracle

of the mountain, i. 70
Cobinan(Koh-Banan), i. 125
Cocachin (Kukachin), the Lady, 2^-24,

i- 32, 33«. 36, 38^
Cochin - China, the mediaeval Champa

{q.v.)
Coco-nut (Indian nut), i. 108, ii. 293,

306, 308/2, 309/2, 354, 389
Coco Islands, of Hiuen T'sang, ii. 307/2
Cocos Islands, ii. 309/2

Coeur de Lion, his mangonels, ii. 165/2,
1 66/2

Coffins, Chinese, in Tangut, i. 205, 209/*

Cogachin (Hukaji), Kiiblai's son, King
of Carajan, i. 361/2, ii. 76

Cogatai, i. 419

Cogatal, a Tartar envoy to the Pope, i.
13, IS

Coiganju (Hwaingan-fu), ii. 142, 148, 151

Coilum (Kollam, Kaulam, Quilon), king-
dom of, ii. 375j 382/2, 403/2, 413/2, 426/2,
440/2 ; identity of meaning of name,
377/2 ; Church of St. George at, 377/2 ;
modern state of, 377/2 ; Kublai's inter-
course with, 378/2

Coilumin, columbino, colomni, so-called
Brazil-wood, ii. 375 ; ginger, 375, 381/2

Coins of Cilician Armenia, i. 42/2 ; of
Mosul, 61/2; Agathocles and Panta-
leon, 163/2; Seljukian with Lion and
Sun, 352/2 ; found at Siang-Yang, ii.
169/2 ; King Gondophares, 357/2 ; Tar-
tar heathen princes with Mahomedan
and Christian formulae, 477/2

Coja (Koja), Tartar envoy from Persia to
the Khan, i. 32-33/2, 38/2

Cold, intense, in Kerman, i. 91, 111/2,
1 13/2 ; in Russia, ii. 487

"Cold Mountains," i. 114/2

Coleridge, verses on Kublai's Paradise, i,

305^^
Coloman, province, ii. 122, 128/2-131/2
Colombino, see Coilumin
Colon, see Coilum
Colossal Buddhas, recumbent, i. 219,

221/2

Columbum, see Coilum
Columbus, Polo paralleled with, j> ; re-
marks on, 10J-J06
Comania, Comanians, i. 50, ii. 382,

383/2, 490, 491/2
Comari, Comori (Cape Comorin, Tra-

vancore), ii. 333/2, 382, 384, 385, 403/2

426/2 ; temple at, 383/2
Combermere, Lord, prophecy applied to,

ii. 149/2
Comercque, Khan's custom-house, ii. 37,

41/2
Compartments, in hulls of ships, ii. 249,

251/2
Compass, Mariner's, 138
Competitive Examinations in beauty, i.

359«
Conchi, King of the North, ii. 479
Concubines, how the Khan selects, i.

357
Condor, its habits, ii. 417/2; Temples

account of, 417/2 ; Padre Bolivar's of the

African, 420/2
Condur and Sondur, ii. 276, 277/2
Condux, sable or beaver, i, 410/2
Cqnia, Coyne (Iconium), i. 43
Conjeveram, ii. 334/2

620

CONJURERS

INDEX

DALAI LAMA

Conjurers, the Kashmirian, i. i66, iC8« ;
weather-, 98, lo^n, 166, i68«, 301,
309«-3iiw ; Lamas' ex-feats, 3I5«-
3i8«. {See also Sorcerers.)

Conosalmi (Kamasal), i. 99, io6n

Constantinople, i. 2, ign, 36, ii. 165;/,
487 ; Straits of, 488, 490

Convents, see Monasteries

Cookery, Tartar horse-, i, 264^

Cooper, T. T., traveller on Tibetan
frontier, ii. 45;/, 48;^/, 52^, 59;/, 67^

Copper, token currency of Mahomed
Tughlak, i. 429;? ; imported to Mala-
bar, ii. 390 ; to Cambay, 398

Coral, valued in Kashmir, Tibet, etc., i,
167, 170;?, ii. 49, 52«

Corea (Kauli), i. 343, 345/2

Corn, Emperor's store and distribution
of, i. 443

Coromandel (Maabar), see Mabar

Corsairs, see Pirates

Corte del Milione, see Ca' Polo.

Sabbionera at Venice, ^7 se^^.

Cosmography, mediaeval, ijo

Costus, ii. 397 ?z

Cotan, see Khotan

Cotton, stuffs of, i. 44/2, 45, 47;/, 48;?,
60, ii. 225, 228/z, 361, 363?^, 395,
398, 431 ; at Merdin, i. 60; in Persia,
84 ; at Kashgar, 181 ; Yarkand, 187 ;
IChotan, 188, 190/2; Pein, 191; Ben-
gal, ii. 115; bushes of gigantic size,

393. 394^
Counts in Vokhan, i. 171, i73'^; at

Dofar, ii. 444
Courts of Justice, at Kinsay, ii. 203
Couvade, custom of, ii. 85, 91/2-95;/, 596/2
Cow-dung, its use in Maabar, ii. 341,

365
Co well. Professor, i. 105/^
Cowries (porcelain shells, pig shells), used

for money, etc., ii. 66, 74/2, 76, 123 ;

procured from Locac, 276, 279/2
Cralanhir, its meaning (?), i. 71/2
Cramoisy (quermesis), i. 44/2, 63, 65/2
Cranes, five kinds of, i. 296, 297/2
Crawfurd, John, ii. 277/2
Cremation, i. 204, 208/2, ii. 122, 132,

134'^ 135. 140, 141, 151, 152, 191,

218, 221/2 ; in Middle Ages, ii. 133/2
Cremesor, Ilot Region (Garmsir), i, 75,

99/2, 1 1 2/2, 114/2
Cribhoja (^ribh6dja), country, ii. 283/2
Crocodiles, see Alligators
Cross, legend of the Tree of the, i, 135 ;

gibes against, on Nayan's defeat, 343 ;

on monument at Singanfu, ii, 27/2
Crossbows, ii. 78, 82/2, 161/2
Cruelties, Tartar, i, 15 1//, 265/2, 266/2,

ii. i8o/2
Crusca MS. of Polo, 82, i. 18/2, 38/2, 85/2,

297^2, 358?^, 384^, ii- 34«, 72«
Cubeb pepper, ii. 272, 391/2

Cubits, astronomical altitude estimated

by, ii. 382, 389, 392
Culjlay, see Kubldi
Cucintana, ii. 396/2
Cudgel, Tartars' use of, i. 266, 267/2,

Cuiju(Kwei-chau), province, ii. 124, 127/2
Cuinet, Vital, on Turkman villages, i.

44/2 ; on Mosul Kurds, 62/2
Cuirbouly, i. 260, 263/2, 'ii. 78, 82/2
Cuju, ii. 219, 221/2, 224/2
Cuncun (Han-Chung) province, ii. 31,

32/2
Cunningham, General A., i. 12/2, 104,

156/2, 173/2, 178/2, 283/2, 290/2, ii.

357'^
Cups, flymg, 1. 301, 314/2, 349/2
Curds and Curdistan, i. 9/2, 60, 62/2, 83/^,

84/2, 85//, 102/2, 143/2, 145/2
Currency, copper token, in India, i.

429/2 ; salt, ii. 45, 54, 57/2 ; leather,

i. 429/2 ; Cowrie, see Cowries
Currency, paper, in China, i. 423, 426/2 ;

attempt to institute in Persia, 428/2 ;

alluded to, ii. 124, 127, 132, 135, 138,

140, 141, 152, 154, 170, 174, 176, 178,

181, 187, 218
Current, strong south along East Coast of

Africa, ii. 412, 415/2
Currents, Cape of, or Corrientes, ii. 415^^,

417/2, 426/2
Curtains, Persian, i. 66/2
Curzola Island, Genoese victory at, 6, 4s

seqq. ; Polo's galley at, 4g ; map of, 50
Curzon, Lord, i. 64/2, 84/2, 86/2, 128/2 ;

list of Pamirs, ii. 594/2
Hon. R,, on invention of printing.

Customs, Custom-houses, ii. 37, 41/2, 170,

204, 215, 216
Cutch pirates, ii. 410/2
Cuxstac, Kuhestec, i. 110/2
Cuy Khan (Kuyuk), i. 14/2, 245, 247/2
Cycle, Chinese, i. 447, 454/2
Cynocephali, the, ii. 228/2, 309, 311//
Cypresses, sacred, of the Magians, i. I'^m
Cyprus, i. 65/2
Cyrus, his use of camels in battle near

Sardis, ii. 104/2

Dabul, ii. 443/^

Dadidn, title of Georgian kings, i. 53/2

Da Gama, ii. 386/2, 391/2

Dagroian, kingdom of, in Sumatra, ii.

293; probable position of, 297/2
Dailiu (Tali), ii. 81/2
Daitu, Taidu, Tatu (Peking), Kublai's

new city of Cambaluc, i. 305^, 306/2,

374, 375^^
Dakianus, city of (Camadi), i. II3«
Dalada, tooth relique of Buddha, ii. 329/2-

330/2
Dalai Lama, with four hands, ii. 265/2

d'alboquerque

INDEX

DIMITRI II.

621

D'AIboquerque, ii. 28in, 382^, 409;^,

45i«
Dalivar, Dilivar, Dilawar (Lahore), a

province of India, i. 99, 104^, lo^n
Dalmian, ii. 297^
Damas, i. 65^

Damascus, i. 2yi, 143 ; siege of, ii. i66n
Damasks, with cheetas in them, i. 398^ ;

with giraffes, ii. 424^. {See also

Patterns.)
Damghan, i. 138;^, 148^
Dancing dervishes, ii. 97;?
Dancing girls, in Hindu temples, ii. 345,

Dandolo, Andrea, Admiral of Venetian
fleet at Curzola, ^, 46 ; his captivity
and suicide, 4S ; funeral at Venice, 50

D'Anghieria, Pietro Martire, j6, 120

Dantapura, ii. 329^

Dante, number of MSS. J17 ; does not
allude to Polo, 118 ; Convito, i, 14^

D'Anville's Map, i. 2^11, 88;^, 155^,
224^2, 228«, 297«, 408/2, ii. 69;/, 72«,
141^

Darabjird, i. 86;z

Darah, ii. 436;?

Darapur, i. 104W, 105W

Dardas, stuff embroidered in gold, i. 6yt

Dariel, Pass of (Gate of the Alans), i.
53W, 54W

Darius, i. 128, 138^, 151, 157 ; the
Golden King, ii. 17

Dark Ocean of the South, ii. 417/2

Darkness, magical, i. 98, 105;/, 166

land of, ii. 484, 485/2 ; how the

Tartars find their way out, 484 ; the
peopleandtheirpeltry, 484; Alexander's
legendary entrance into, 485 ; Dumb
trade of, 486/^

DarrdJ, black partridge, its peculiar
call, i. 99/2

Daruna, salt mines, i. 154/2

Darwaz, i. 160/2

Dasht, or Plain, of Baharak, i. 156/2

Dash tab, hot springs, i. 122/2

Dasht-i-Lut (Desert of Lut), i. 124/2, 127,
128/2

Dashtistan tribe and district, i. 86/2

Dates (chronology) in Polo's book,
generally erroneous, i. 2, 17, 36, 63,
145, 238, 332, ii. 98, 114, 145, 177,
259, 267, 268, 319, 354, 428, 459, 464,

474, 494
(trees or fruit), Basra, 63, 65/2.;

Bafk, 88, 89/2 ; Reobarles, province,

97, 111/2 ; Formosa Plain, 107; Hor-

mos, 109, 1x6/2; wine of, 107, 115/2;

diet of fish, etc., 107, 116/2, ii. 450
Daughters of Marco Polo, 6g, 71, 7J,

76, ii. 506/2
D'Avezac, M., i. 23/2, 48/2, 66/2, 231/2,

271/2
David, king of Abyssinia, ii. 435/2, 436/2

David, king of Georgia (Dawith), i. 50,

53«
Davids, Professor T. W. Rhys, Btiddhist

Birth Stories, ii. 326/2
Davis, Sir John F., ii. 139/2, 142/2, 152/2,

^IV^i 175^^ 176/2, 182/2
Dawaro, ii. 435/2, 436/2
Daya, ii. 300/2, 305/2
Dead, disposal of the, in Tangut, i. 205,

209/2 ; at Cambaluc, 414 ; in Coloman,

ii. 122; in China, 133/2; in Dagroian,

293 ; by the Battas, 298/2
burning of the, see Cremation ; eating

the, see Cannibalism
De Barros, ii. 239/2, 283/2 287/2, 300^2,

410/2; on Java, 274/2; Singhapura,

2Sin ; Janifs, 286/2
Debt, singular arrest for, ii. 343, 350/2
Decima, or Tithe on bequest, yi
Decimal organisation of Tartar armies, i.

261, 264/2
Decius, Emperor, i. 113/2
Deghans, Dehgans, i. 152/2
Dehanah, village, i. 152/2
Deh Bakri, i. iii;2, 11 2/2
De la Croix, Petis, i. 9/2, 155/2, 183/2,

239/2, 243/2, 281/2, 41C/2
Delhi, Sultans of, 12, ii. 426/2
D'Ely, Mount, see Eli
Demoiselle Crane, anthropoides virgo, i.

297/2
Deogir, ii. 426/2
Derbend, Wall of, i. 53/2, ii. 495. [See

also Iron Gate of.)
Deserts, haunted, i. 197, 201/2, 274
Deserts of Kerman or of Liit, i. 123,

124/2; of Khorasan, 149; of Char-

chan, 194 ; Lop (Gobi), 196, 197,

198/2-203/2, 210, 212, 214/2, 223,

Kharakorum, 224, 226, 237/2
Desgodins, Abbe, ii. 57/2
Despina Khatun, ii. 477/2
Devadasi, ii. 351/2
Devapattan, ii. 400/2
Deveria, G., i. 29/2, 225/2, 291/2, ii. 60/2,

63/2, 70/2, 89/2, 108/2, 122/2, 124/2
Devil-dancing, i. 315/2, ii. 86, 97/2
Devil trees, i. 136/2
Devils, White, ii. 355, 359/2
D'Evreux, Father Yves, ii. 94/2
Dhafar (Dofar, Thafar), ii. 340, 348/2,

444 ; its incense, 445 ; two places of

the name, 445/2-446/2
Dhdi'atti, mystic charms, i. 315
Dhulkarnain (Alex.), see Zulkarnain
Dialects, Chinese, ii. 236, 243/2-244;2
Diamonds in India, how found, ii. 360-

361 ; mines of, 362/2 ; diffusion of

legend about, ib.
"Diex Terrien," i. 141/2
Dilawar, Polo's Dihar, i. 104/2
Dimitri II., Thawdadebuli, king of

Georgia, i. 53/2

622

dInXr

INDEX

ELEPHANTS

Dfndr, see Bezant

Dindr of Red Gold, ii. 348«, 349/;

Dinh Ti^n-hw^ng, king of An-nam, i.

264^
Diocletian, i. \/^n
Dioscorides insula, ii. 4o8«
Dir, chief town of Panjkora, i. 104;/,

i64«, 165W
Dirakht-i-Fazl, i. I35«, 138^
Dirakht-i-Kush, i. I35«
Dirawal, ancient capital of the Bhattis,

i. I04«
Dirhem-Kub, Shah Mahomed, founder

of Hormuz dynasty, i. II5«, 121?^
Dish of Sakya or of Adam, ii. 328^, 330?^
Diu City, ii. 392«
Diul-Sind, Lower Sind, i. ^6n
Divination by twigs or arrows, i. 241,

242W
Dixan, branding with cross at, ii. 433«
Dizabulus, pavilion of, i. 384^
Dizful River, i. ^$n
Djao (Chao) Namian Sume (Kaipingfu),

i. 25;?
Djaya, turquoises, ii. 56^2
Doctors at Kinsay, ii. 203
Dofar, see Dhafar
Dogana, i. 151 j conjectures as to,

152^, 156^
Doghabah River, i. 152;^
Dog-headed races, ii. 309, 31 1«
Dogs, the Khan's mastiffs, i. 400 ; of

Tibet, ii. 45, 49, $2n ; fierce in Cuiju,

126
Dog-sledging in Far North, ii. 480, 481^,

482 ; notes on dogs, 483^2
Dolfino, Ranuzzo, husband of Polo's

daughter, Moreta, 76
Dolonnur, i. 26«
Dominicans, sent with Polos but turn

back, i. 22, 23
Z)' or plain, the expression, i. 269//
Dorah Pass, i. 165^
Doria, family at Meloria, _^6
• Lampa, 6 ; Admiral of Genoese

Fleet sent to Adriatic, 4^ ; his

victory, 48 ; his tomb and descendants,

5/ ; at Meloria with six sons, 56

Octaviano, death of, 48

Tedisio, exploring voyage of, 5/

Dorje, i. 360^2

D'Orleans, Prince Henri, i. 200n, 277^

Douglas, Rev. Dr. C, ii. 232;/, 237;/,

240;^^, 241??, 244W
Doyley, Sir Fulke, ii. i66n
Dragoian (Ta-hua-Mien), ii. 297/2, 306/2
Draps entailkz, i. 392
Drawers, enormous, of Badakhshan

women, i. 160, i63«
Dreams, notable, i. 305^
Drums, sound of in certain sandy districts,

197, Q-oin
Dryabalanops Camphora, ii. 303//

Dua Khan, i. 12 1«, ii. 459«, 462^
Du Bose, Rev. II. C., ii. i82«-i84«
Ducat, or sequin, i. 426/2, 591W
Dudley, Arcano del Mare, ii. 266«
Duel, mode in S. India of, ii. 371
Dufour, on mediaeval artillery, ii. i6i«,

163/2
Duhalde, Plan of Ki-chau, ii. 26/2 ; or

T'si-ning chau, ii. 139/2
Dukuz Khatun, i. 288/2
Dulcarnon (Zulkarnain), i. 161/2
Dulites, ii. 432/2
Dumas, Alexander, i. 53/2
Dumb trade, ii. 486/2
Duncan, Rev. Moir, ii. 28/2
Dungen {Tungdni), or converts, i. 291/2
Duplicates in geography, ii. 409/2
Dupu, ii. 397/2

Diirer's Map of Venice, so-called, 2g, 30
Durga Temple, ii. 383/2
Dursamand, ii. 427/2
Dushdb, sweet liquor or syrup, i. %']n
Dust-storms, i. 105/2
Duties, on Great Kiang, ii. 170; on

goods at Kinsay and Zayton, 189, 215,

216, 235 ; on horses, 438 ; at Hormuz,

450. (See also Customs.)
Dutthagamini, king of Ceylon, i. 169/2
Dwara Samudra, ii. 294/2, 367/^, 427/2
Dzegun-tala, name applied to Mongolia,

i. 214/2
Dzungaria, i. 214/2

Eagle mark on shoulder of Georgian

kings, i. 50
Eagles, trained to kill large game, i.

397, 399^ .
white, in the Diamond Country,

ii. 360-361
Eagle- wood, origin of the name, ii. 271/2.

{^See Lign-aloes.)
Earth honoured, ii. 341
East, its state, circa, 1260, 8 et seqq.
Ebony (bonus), ii. 268, 272/2
Edkins, Rev., ii. 199/2
Edward I., 59, 62, 6j, i. 21/2, ii. S93«
Edward II., correspondence with Tartar

princes, i. 36/2, ii. 477/2
Effeminacy, in Chinese palaces, ii. 17,

20/2, 145, 207, 208
Eggs of Rue and Aepyornis, ii. 416/2,

417^ . .00

Egrigaia, provmce, 1. 281, 282/2
Ela (cardamom), ii. 388/2
Elchidai, ii. 471, 474/2
Elenovka, i. 58/2

Elephantiasis, i. 187, 188/2, ii. 350/2
Elephants, Kiiblai carried on a timber
bartizan by four, i. 337, 404, 408/2 ;
Kublai's, 391, 392/2, ii. 104; the
king of Mien's, 99 ; numbers of men
alleged to be carried by, 100/2 ; how
the Tartars routed, 102 ; wild, 107,

ELEPHANTS

INDEX

EUPHRATES

623

Elephants [continued) —

III, 117, ii9«; in Caugigu, 117;
Champa, 268, 2'jin', Locac, 276, 279;/;
Sumatra, 285, 289^, 290;? ; Mada-
gascar and Zanghibar, 411, 422 ; trade
in teeth of, ib. ; carried off by the
Rue, 412, 417^, 419^^, 42in ; in
Zanghibar, 422, 423 ; used in war,
429,, 433^^-434'^; an error, 433^;
Nubian, 424^ ; fable about, id. ; not
bred in Abyssinia, 431 ; training of
African, 434W ; war of the, id.

Eli, Ely, Elly (Hili), kingdom of, ii.
3S5, 386^ segg'.y 403W, 426;?

Elias, Ney, i. 215??, 225^, 278;/, 288«,
291;^, ii. 23^, I44«

Elixir vitae of the Jogis, ii. 365, 369W

Elliot, Sir Walter, i. 38^, 48^, 56;/, 65??,
96;?, I02«, 104/?, io$n, i2in, i6$n,
26sn, ii. 295;/, 333«, 334^, 336^,
35o^j 367^^, 369/^, 370;/, 372W, 4oo«,
4io«, 4i9?z

Emad, Ed-dui Abu Thaher, founder of
the Kurd dynasty, i. 85^

Embroidery of silk at Kerman, i. 90,
96« ; leather in Guzerat, ii. 394, 395/?

Empoli, Giovanni d', ii. 239W

Efupusa, the Arabian Nesnas, i. 202«

Enchanters, at Socotra, ii. 407

Enchantments, of the Caraonas, i. 98.
{See also Conjurers, Socerers.)

Engano Island, legend, ii. 406;?

Engineering feat, ^o

Engineers, their growing importance in
Middle Ages, ii. i66«

England, Kublai's message to king of,
i. 34 ; correspondence of Tartar
princes with kings of, 36/2, ii. 477'^

English trade and character in Asia, ii.
368;?

Enlightenment, Land of, i. 460^

Erba, poisonous plant or grass, i. 217,
2i^n

Erculin, Arculin (an animal), ii, 481,
483?^, 484, 487

Erdeni Tso (Erdenidsu), or Erdeni Chao
Monastery, i. 228^2-230??

Eremites (Rishis), of Kashmir, i. 166,
169??

Erguiul, province, i. 274, 282;;

Erivan, i. ^%n

Erkeun, ( Ye Ii ke tin), Mongol for
Christians, i. 29 1«

Ermine, i. 257, 405, 410^, ii. 481, 484,

487 ...

Erzinjan, Erzinga, Eriza (Arzinga), 1. 45

Erzrum (Arziron), i. 45, 48^

Eschiel, the word, ii. 390/2

Esher (Shehr, Es-shehr), ii. 442 ; trade
with India, incense, Ichthyophagi, 442,
443, 444« ; singular sheep, 443, 444^?

Essentemur (Isentimur), Kublai's grand-
son, king of Carajan, ii. 64, Sow 98

EstimOf Venetian, or forced loan, ^7, 76
Etchmiadzin Monastery, i. 6in
Ethiopia and India, confused, ii. 432^
Ethiopian sheep, ii. 422, 424^
Etiquette of the Mongol Court, i. 382,

385^, 391, 393'^, 457

Etymologies, Balustrade, 38 ; buckram,
i. 47«-48« ; Avigi, 57^ ; Geliz (Ghelle),
59^; Jatolic, 6i«; muslin, 62«; bau-
dekins, 65^ ; cramoisy, 65^ ; onda-
nique, 93« ; zebu, 99^ ; carbine, loin ;
Dulcarnon, 161 w; balas, i6i«; azure
and lazuli, 162^; None, I73«; Maw-
met and Mummery, 189^; salamander,
2i6«; berrie, 237^; barguerlac, 272^;
S'ling, 276W, 283^ ; siclatoun, 283^ ;
Argon, 290^ ; Tungani, 291 ; Guasmul,
292/2 ; chakor, 297^ ; Jadu and Yadah,
309/2- 3 1 o«; Tafur, 313^; Bacsi, 314^2;
Sensin, 321 w ; P'ungyi, 325/2; carquois
366/2 ; Keshikan, 380/2 ; vernique,
384/2 ; camut, borgal, shagreen, 395/2 ;
Chihuchi or Chunichi, 401/2; Toscaol,
407/2 ; Bularguchi, 407/2 ; Fondaco,
415/2; Bailo, 421/2; comerque, ii.
41/2 ; porcelain, 74/2 ; Sangon, 138/2 ;
Faghfur, 148/2 ; Manjanik, mangonel,
mangle, etc., 163/2-164/2; galingale,
229/2 ; Chini and Misri, 230/2 ; Satin,
241/2, 242/2 ; eagle-wood, aloes-woodi
271/2-272/2; Bonus, Calamanz, ib.\
benzoni, 286/2 ; china pagoda, 336/2 ;
Pacauca, 346/2 ; Balanjar, a-muck,
347/2-348/2 ; Pariah, 349/2 ; Govi, ib. ;
Avarian, 355/2-356/2 ; Abraiaman, 367^ ;
Choiach, 368^ ; proques, 370/2 ; Tem-
bul and Betel, 374/2 ; Sappan and
Brazil, 380/2-381/2; Balladi, ib.; Bel-
ledi, 381/2 ; Indigo baccadeo, 382/2 ;
Gatpaul, baboon, 383/2-385/2; Salami
cinnamon, 391/2 ; K<S}ixaKov, ib. ; rook
(in chess), ^i^n; Aranie, 462/2 ; Erculin
and Vair, 483/2 ; Miskal, 592/2

(of Proper Names), Curd, i.

62/2; Dzungaria, 214/2; Chingintalas,
ib. ; Cambuscan, 247/2 ; Oirad, 308/2 ;
Kungurat, 358/2; Manzi, ii. 144/2;
Bayan, 148/2; Kinsay, 193/2; Japan,
256/2 ; Sornau, 279/2 ; Narkandam,
312/2 ; Ceylon, 314/2 ; Ma'bar, 332/2 ;
Chilaw, 337/2 ; Mailapur, 359/2 ; S6na-
garpattanam, 372/2 ; Punnei - Kayal,
KayalV ib. ; Kollam (Coilum), 377 ;
Hili (Ely), 386/2; Cambaet, 398/2;
Mangla and Nebila, 405/2 ; Socotra,
408^; Colesseeah, 410/2; Caligine,
439/2 ; Aijaruc, 463 ; Nemej, 493/2

Chinese, ii. 119/2

Etzina, i. 223

Eunuchs, i. 356 ; procured from Bengal,
ii. 1 1 5/2

Euphrates, i. 43/2 ; said to flow into the
Caspian, 52, 59/2

624

EUPHRATESIA

INDEX

FREDERIC II.

EuphratesiUy i. 43«

Euxine, see Black Sea

Evelyn's Diary, i. 1 36;/

Execution of Princes of the Blood, mode

of, i. ()^n, 343, 344W
Eyircayd, i. 281;/

Facen, Dr J. , ijg

P^aghfur (Facfur, Emperor of Soutlicrn

China), ii. 145 ; meaning of title,

148;/ ; his effeminate diversions, 207 ;

decay of his palace, 208
Faizabad in Badakhshan, i. 156;^, 163^,

I73«, i75«
Fakanur, ii. 440/;
Fakata, ii. 260^
Fakhruddin Ahmad, Prince of Hormuz,

i. \2\n, ii. 333/2
Falconers, Kiiblai's, i. 335, 402, 407;?
Falcons, of Kerman, i. 90, 96/2 ; Saker

and Lanner, 158, 162?^ ; peregrine,
^6q^ Kublai's, 402
Famme, horrors, 313??
Fanchdn, F' ingchang, title of a second

class Cabinet Minister, i. 432;/, ii.

I79«
Fanchan Lake, ii, 29^
Fan-ching, siege of, ii. i67;2
Fandaraina, ii. 386/2, 391/2, 440^
Fang, see Squares
Fansur, in Sumatra, kingdom of, ii. 299,

302«

Fansuri camphor, ii. 299, 302/2

Fan Wen-hu, or Fan-bunko, a General in

Japanese Expedition, ii. 260/2, 261/2
Fariab, or Pariab, i. 106/2
Faro of Constantinople, ii. 490
Farriers, none in S. India, ii. 340, 450
Fars, province, i. 85/2, 92/2, ii. 333?/,

348/2, 377;/, 402/2
Fashiyah, Atabeg dynasty, i. 85/2, 86/2
Fassa, i. 86/2

Fasting days, Buddhist, i. 220, 222/2
Fattan, in Ma'bar, ii. 333/2, 336/2
Fatteh, 'Ali Shah, i. 146//, 179/2
Fausto, Vettor, his Quinquereme, jj
Fazl, Ibn Hassan (Fazluieh-Hasuni'eh),

i. 86/2
Feili, Lurs dynasty, i. 84/2
Female attendants on Chinese Emperors,

ii, 17, 20/2, 147, 207, 208
Ferlec, in Sumatra, kingdom of (Parlak),

ii. 284, 287/2, 294/2, 295/2, 305/2; Hill

people, 284, 288/2
Fernandez, or Moravia, Valentine, ii.

295/2
Ferrier, General, i. 68/2, 100/2, 106/2
Festivals, Order of the Kaan's, i. 386,

388/2
Flag, or Pog River, i. 54/2
Ficus Vasta, i. 129/2
Fiddwi, Ismailite adepts, i. 144/2, 145/2
Filial Piety in China, i. 457, 462/2

Filippi, Professor F. de. Silk industry in

Ghfldn, i. 59/2
Finn, i. 122/2
Fiordelisa, daughter of younger Maffeo

Polo, //, 6j
supposed to be Nicolo Polo's second

wife, 77, 26, 27

wife of Felice Polo, ^7, 6j

Firando Island, ii. 260/2

Firdus, Ismailite Castle, i. 148/?

Firdusf, i, 93/2, 130/2

Fire, affected by height of Pamir Plain,

i. 171, 178/2 J regulations at Kinsay,

ii, 189
Fire-baptism, ascribed to Abyssinians, ii.

427, 432/2
¥ue-Fao (cannon?), i, 342/2, ii. 596/2
Fire-worship, or rockets, in Persia, i.

78, 80; by the Sensin in Cathay,

.303, 325^^
Firishta, the historian, i. 104/2, 169/2
Fish miracle in Georgia, i. 52, 57/2, 58/2 ;

in the Caspinn, 59/2 ; and date diet,

107, 116/2, ii. 450; supply at Kinsay,

202 ; food for cattle, 443, 444/2 ; stored

for man and beast, 443
Fish-oil, used for rubbing ships, i. 108,

II 7/2
Florin, or ducat, ii. 215, 591/2
Flour (Sago), trees producing, ii. 300,

304/2, 305/2
Fliickiger, Dr., ii. 226/2
Fog, dry, i. 105/2
Fo-kien, see Fu-chau
Folin (Byzantine Empire), ii. 405/2
Fondaco, i. 415/2, ii. 238/2
Foot-mark on Adam's Peak, q.v.
Foot-posts in Cathay, i. 435
Forg, i. 86/2
Formosa, Plain (Plarmuza), i. 107,

1 15/2
Forsyth, Sir T. Douglas, i. 193/2, 194/2

216/2, 400/2
Fortune, R., ii. 182/2, 198, 220/2, 222/2,

224/2, 229/2, 233/2
Foundlings, provision for, ii. 147, 151/2
Four-horned sheep, ii. 443, 444/2
Fowls with hair, ii. 126, 129/2
Foxes, black, ii. 479, 481/2, 484, 487
Fozlan, Ibn, i, 7/2, 8/2, ii, 348/2, 488/2
Fra terre (Interior), i. 43/2
Fracastoro^ Jerome, 2
Franciscan converts, in Volga region, i.

5/2 9/2, ii, 491/2; at Yang-chau, 154/2;

Zayton, 237/2
Francolin (darraj of the Persians), black

partridge, i, 97, 99/2, 107, 297/2
Frankincense, see Incense
Frederic IL, Emperor, his account of the

Tartars, i, 56/2; story of implicit

obedience, 144/2 ; his cheetas, 398/2; his

leather money, 429/2 ; his giraffe, ii.

424/2

FRENCH

INDEX

GERINI

625

French, the original language of Polo's
Book, 81 seqq. ; its large diffusion in
that age, 86 seqq. , 122

French Expedition up theKamboja River,
ii. 57??, 67«, %on, goji, i2on

Frenchmen, riding long like, ii, 78

French mission and missionaries in China,
ii. 38^, 48;?, 52^, 57^, 63/?, g6n, gyn,
12'jn

Frh-e charnel, i. 187^

Frere, Sir B., i. g6n, iijn, \\Tn, ii.
395«, 424^2

Froissart, i. \']n, 42^, 68«

Fu-chau (Fo-kien, Fuju), ii. 22011-22211,
224;?, 226, 230, 231, 232/z, 233/?, 238/?,
2^in ; paper-money at, i. 428;^; wild
hill people of, 225, 228^ ; its identity,
2327^, 238/? ; language of, 243/2 ; tooth
relique at, 330;?

Fuen (Fen) ho River, ii. ijn

Funeral rites, Chinese, in Tangut, i.
204 ; of the Kaans, 246, 250/2 ; at
Kinsay, ii. 191. {See also Dead.)

Fungul, city of, ii. 124, 127;/

Furs, of the Northern Regions, i. 257,
405, 410/2, ii. 481, 483/2, 484, 487

Fusang, Mexico (?), ii. 405/2

Fuyang, ii. 220/2

Fuzo, see Fu-chau

Gabala, Bishop of, i. 231/2

Gagry, maritime defile of, i. 54/2

Gaisue, officer of Kiiblai's Mathematical
Board, i. 449/2

Galeasse, Venetian gallery, j>6, i. 1 19/2

Galingale, ii. 225, 229/2, 272

Galletti, Marco, ^7, 512/2

Galleys of the Middle Ages, war, j/
seqq. ; arrangement of rowers, 31-32 ;
number of oars, 32, 311 ; dimen-
sions, 33 34', tactics in fight, 38;
toil in rowing, ib. ; strength and cost
of crew, 3g ; staff of fleet, 39-40 ;
Joinville's description of, 40 ; customs
of, 41

Galley-slaves not usual in Middle Ages,

39 . . , ,. .

Gambling, prohibited by Kublai, i. 457
Game, see Sport
Game Laws, Mongol, i. 396, 406, ii.

^3
Game, supplied to Court of Cambaluc, i.

396, 401
Ganapati Kings, ii. 362/2
Gandar, Father, ii. 139/2, 153/2
Gandhara, ii, 114^2, 329/2, 330/2; Buddhist

name for Yun-nan, ii. 73/2
Ganfu, port of Kinsay, ii. 189
Ganja, gate of, i, 57/2
Gan-p'u, ii. 238/2

Gantanpouhoa, Kiiblai's son, i. 361/2
Gantiir, ii. 362/2
Gardenia, fruit and dyes, ii, 226/2

VOL. IL

Gardiner's (misprinted Gardner's)

Travels, i. 160/2, 179/2
Gardner, C., ii. 196/2, 198/2
Garmsir, Ghermseer (Cremesor), Hot

Region, i. 75/2, 99/^, 112/2, 114/2
Gamier, Lieut. Francis (journey to Talifu),

ii. 38/2, 48/2, 57/2, 58//, 6o/2, 64/2, 67/2,

74/2, 80/2, 90/2, 91/2, 95/2, 99/2, 117/2,

I20/2, 122/2,^123/2, 128/2, 130/2, 198/2,

278/2
Garrisons, Mongol, in Cathay and

Manzi, i. 336/2, ii. 190, 200/2 ; disliked

by the people, 205
Garuda, ii. 35122, 415/2, 419/2
Gate of Iron, ascribed to Derbend, i. 57/2
Gates, of Kaan's palace, i. 363, 368/2 ;

of Cambaluc, 374, 377/2 ; of Somnath,

ii. 400-401
Gat-pauls, Gatopaul, Gatos-paulas, ii.

382, 383/2, 385/2
Gatto maimone, ii. 383/2
Gauenispola Island, ii. 300, 307/*
Gaur {Bos Gaurus^ etc.), ii. 114/*
Gauristan, i. 86/2
Gavraz villages, 45/2
Gazaria, ii. 490, 492/2
Gedrosi, ii. 402/2

Gelath in Imeretia, Iron Gate at, i. 57«
Geliz, Spanish for silk dealer, i. 59/2
Genealogy of Polos, 13 ; errors as

given by Barbaro, etc., in, 77-78;

tabular, ii. 506/2; of House of Chinghiz,

Genoa, Polo's captivity at, 6, 48-SS

and Pisa, rivalry, and wars of,

41, 56 seqq.

and Venice, rivalry and wars of,

41 seqq.

Genoese, their growth in skill and
splendour, 42 ; character as seamen
by poet of their own, 43 ; character
by old Italian author, 48', capture of
Soldaia, i, 4/2 ; their navigation of the
Caspian, 52, 59/2 ; trade in box-wood,
57/2 ; their merchants at Tabriz, 75 ;
in Fo-kien, ii. 238/2

Gentile Plural names converted into
local singulars, i. 58/2

Geographical Text of Polo's Book con-
stantly quoted, its language, 83; proofs
that it is the original, 84 seqq, ; taut-
ology, 8^ ; source of other texts, ib.

George (Jirjis, Yurji, Gurgan), king of
Tenduc, of the time of Prester John, i.
284, 287/2 ; a possible descendant of,
288/2, ii 460

Georgia (Georgiana), beauty of, and its
inhabitants, i. 50-53/2 ; their kings, 50,
52/2

Gerfalcons (Shonkar), i. 270, 273/2, 299,
^402, \|.04 ; tablets engraved with, 35,

351, 355«> "• 487
Gerini, Colonel, ii, 596/2

2 R

626

INDEX

GREEK FIRE

German Follower of the Polos, ii. 159
Ghaissuddin Balban (Asedin vSoldan),

Sultan of Delhi, i. 99, 104^, io5«
Ghdran country, ruby mines in, i. i6i«
Ghdzdn (Casan) Khan of Persia, son of
Arghiin, i. 14W, 29?;, 88;/, 103;/, I2in,
i^Sn, 429;?, ii. 50, 166;/, 466« ; his
regard for the Polos, i. 35 ; marries
the Lady Kukachin, 36, 38;/, ii.
465W ; his mosque at Tabriz, i. 76?/;
set to watch the Khorasan frontier,
474, 475« ; obtains the throne, 476 ;
his object and accomplishments, 478;?
Ghel, or Ghelan (Ghel-u-chelan), Sea of,

Caspian Sea, i. 52, 58^
Ghelle (Gilf), silk of the Gfl province, i.

52, 59«

Ghes, or Kenn (formerly Kish or Kais), i.
63, 64« _

GAez tree, i. 89;/

Ghiuju, ii. 219, 22I«, 222«

Ghiyas ed-din, last Prince of Kurd
dynasty, i. 85^

Ghori, or Aksarai River, i. 152^

Ghuls, goblins, i. 202«

Ghiir, i. \02n

Giglioli, Professor H., 5/

Gil, or Gilan, province, i. 59^

Gilgit, i. i6o;z

Gill, Captain {River of Golden Sand), i.
4087/, ii. 40;z, 57;/, 59;/, 8o«-82;z, 84;/
88;/, 91;/, 109;/, i6^n, 22in

Ginao, Mt. and Hot Springs, i. 122;?

Gindanes of Herodotus, ii. 48

Ginger, ii. 22; Shan-si, 33; Caindu, 56;
alleged to grow in Kiangnan, 181,
183;?; Fuju, 224, 325; Coilum,
375, 381;/ ; different qualities and
prices of, 381;/; Ely, 385, 388;/;
Malabar, 389 ; Guzerat, 393

Giraffes, ii. 413, 421;/, 422, 431; mediaeval
notices of, 424;?

Girardo, Paul, 70, ii. 51 1;/

Girdkuh, an Ismailite fortress, its long
defence, i. 146;/, 148;?

Girls, consecrated to idols in India, ii.
345-346

Gittarchan, see Astrakhan

Glaza (Ayas, q.v.), ^4

Gleemen and jugglers, conquer Mien, ii.
no

Goa, ii. 358;/, 45i;z

Gobernador, Straits of, ii. 28i;z

Goes, Benedict, 20, i. 175;?, 2i8;z

Gog and Magog (Ung and Mungul),
legend of, i. 56;/, 57;/ ; rampart of,
57;/ ; country of, 285 ; name sug-
gested by Wall of China, 292;/

Gogo, ii. 398;/

Goitre at Yarkand, i. 187, 188;/

Golconda diamond mines, ii. 362;/

Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh, their
mystic meaning, i. 79, 8i;/

Gold dust in Tibet, ii. 49, 52;/ ; ex-
changed for salt in Caindu, ^4, 57^ ;
Brius River, 56 ; in Kin-shia-Kiang,
72;/ ; and nuggets in Carajan, 76 ;
abundant in Yun-nan, 95;^, 106 ; Cau-
gigu, 116; Coloman, 123; infinite in
Chipangu, 253, 256 ; in Sea of Chin
Islands, 264 ; dust in Gulf of Cheinan .
Islands, 266 ; not found in Java, 274;/;
in Locac, 276 ; the Malayo-Siamese
territories, 179;/; Sumatra, 284, 287;/;
vast accumulations in South India, 12,
340, 348;/; imported into Malabar,
390 ; and into Cambay, 398 ; pur-
chased in Socotra, 407

Gold and silver towers of Mien, ii. no

cloths of, i. 41, 50, 60, 63, 65^,

75, 84, 285, 387, ii. 23. {See Silk and
Gold.)

of the Gryphons in Herodotus, ii.

419;/

Teeth (Zardandan), Western Yun-
nan, ii. 84, SSn-gm
to silver, relative value of, i. 426^,

ii. 95;/, 256;/, 591;/
Golden King and Prester John, tale of

the, ii. 17-22

Island, ii. 174;/, 175, 176;/, 310;/

Horde (kings of the Ponent), ii.

486;/, 492W
Go/fo, Indigo di, ii. 382^
Gom'ispola, Gomispoda, see Gauenispola
Gomushtapah, Wall of, i. 57;/
Gomuti palm, ii. 297;?
Gondophares, a king in the St.

Thomas legends, ii. 357;/
Gordon's "Ever Victorious Army," ii.

179;/
Gordun Shah, i. i2o;/
Goring, F., i. 74;/
Goriosan, ii. 260;/
Gor KJiar, wild ass, i. 89;/
Goshawks, i. 50, 57;/, <^6n, 252, 402 ;

black, ii. 285, 345
Gothia (Crimean), ii. 490 ; its limit and

language, 492;/
Govy, a low caste in Maabar, ii. 341,

349^, 355
Goza, i. 38;/
Gozurat, see Guzerat
Grail, Buddhist parallel to the Holy, ii.

328;/, 330;/
Granaries, Imperial, i. 443
Grapes in Shan-si, ii. 13, i^^n, i6n
Grass-cloths, ii. 127;/
Grasso, Donato, 2j
Great Bear (Meistre), ii. 292, 296;/ ; and

Little, force of, and application of these

epithets, 286;/
Great, or Greater Sea (Black Sea), i. 3;;,

ii. 487, 488, 490
Greece, Bactria's relation to, i. i6on
Greek fire, j^, ii. 165;/

GREEKS

INDEX

627

Greeks, in Turcomania, i. 43 ; and Greek

tongue in Socotra, ii. 408^2, 409?? ; pos-
sible relic of, 4 low
Green, Rev. D. D., ii. 193W

Island, legendary, ii. 381;^

Islands, ii. 417;?

Mount, Cambaluc, i. 365, 370//

R. , see Tsien Tang

Gregorieff, his excavations at Sarai, i. 6;z
Gregory X., Pope, see Theobald of Pia-

cenza
Grenard, i. 189^, 190W, I93«, I9S«, 200«,

203;?, 276;/, 310;/, 324?z, 409^, ii. 5«,

27??
Grioni, Zanino, ii. 51 7''
Griut {kurut), sour-curd, i. 265^
Groat, Venetian grosso, i. 424, 426^, ii.

22, 66, 153, 181, 201, 225, 236, 354,

591;?
Groot, Professor, J. J. M. de, i. 209/?,

251?/, 268/?, ii. 135/2
Grote, Arthur, ii. 444^2
Grueber and Dorville, Jesuit travellers, i.

276/?
Grtcs, cinerea, antigone, leucogeramis,

monachzis, i. 297^
Gryphon, see Rue
Guasmul (Basmul), half-breeds, i. 284,

292;?
Guchluk, i. i6in
Gudar (village), i. II3«
Gudderi, musk animals, Tibet, ii. 45, 49;?
Gudran, i. i26n
Guebers, the, i. 88;z, 96;?
Gujah, Hulaku's chief secretary, i. 33;'^
Gugal, bdellum, ii. 397^
Guilds of craftsmen at Kinsay, ii. 186

Venetian, 7.2

Guinea-fowl, ii. 431, 43 7 ^^

Guions, a quasi-Tibetan tribe, ii. 6011

Gumish-Khanak, silver mines, i. 49;^

Gunpowder, ij8

Gurgan, a Tartar chief, ii. 474'^

Gwgafi, son-in-law, a title, i. 288«

Gur-Khan of Karacathay, i. 233^

Gutturals, Mongol elision of, i. %n, 6^n

Guz=ioo,\. 261, 263^

Guzerat (Gozurat), ii. 389, 390, 392,

394« ; products, mediseval architecture

and dress, 393 ; work, 393-394) 395^^

Haast, Dr., discovers a fossil Rue, ii.

417W
Habib-uUah of Khotan, i. 189/2
Habsh (Abash), see Abyssinia
Pladhramaut {Sessania Adrumetorum), i.

82/2
Hadiah, ii. 436/2
Haffer, ii. 445^
Hai-nan, Gulf of, ii. 266/2

language of, ii. 244/2

Hairy men in Sumatra, ii. 301/2

Hajji Mahomed, i. 211/2, 221/2

VOL. II.

Hakeddin, ii. 436^

Half-breeds, see Argon

Hamd Allah Mastaufi, the geographer, i.

']6n^ Sin, 84/2, 92/2, 135/2
Hamilton, Captain Alexander, i. 106/2,

122/2

Hammer-Purgstall on Marco Polo, iij

Hamiim Arabs, ii. 443/2

Hamza of Ispahan, i. 101/2

Hamza Pantsuri, or Fantsiiri, ii. 303/2

Hanbury, D., ii. 183/2, 226/2, 229/2

Han-chung (Cuncun), ii. 31, 32/2, 34/2,

Hang-chau fu, see Kinsay

Han dynasty, i. 193/2, 347/2, ii. 32/2,
35/2, 70/2

River, ii. 34/2, 35/2, 149/2, 167/2

Hanjam, i. 115/2

Han-kau, ii. 183/2

Hansi, ii. 427/2

Han Yii, ii. 81/2

JIardm, i. 141/2

Harhaura, W. Panjab, i. 104^

Harlez, Mgr. de, i. 305/2

Hdr7nozeia, i. 1 14/2

Harpagornis, fossil Rue, ii. 417/2

Harran, i. 23/2

Harshadeva, king of Kashmir, i. 169^

Harsuddi, temple of, ii. 349/2

Haru, or Aru, ii. 303/2

Hashfshin, see Assassins

Hasik, ii. 444/2

Hassan Kala, hot springs at, i. 47/2

Hassan, son of Sabah, founder of the
Ismailites, i. 141/2

Hastings, Warren, letter of, i. 57/2

Hatan, rebellion of, i. 346/2

Haunted deserts, i. 197, 201/2, 274

Havret, Father H., ii. I55«, 212/2

HawdHy (Avarian), the term, ii. 356/2

Hawks, hawking in Georgia, i. 50, 57/2 ;
Yezd and Kerman, 88, 90, 96/2 ; Bad-
akhshan, 158, 162/2 ; Etzina, 223 ;
among the Tartars, 252 ; on shores
and islands of Northern Ocean, 269,
273/2 ; Kublai's sport at Chagannor,
296 ; in mew at Chandu, 299 ; trained
eagles, 397, 399^ ; Kiibldi's establish-
ment of, 402, 403, 407/2, ii. 13 ; in
Tibet, 50 ; Sumatra, 285 ; Maabar,

345
Hayton I. (Hethum), king of Lesser

Armenia, //, i. 25/2, 42/2, ii. 592/2 ;

his autograph, /j>
Hazaras, the, Mongol origin of, i. 102/2 ;

lax custom ascribed to, 212/2, ii. 56/2
Plazbana, king of Abyssinia, ii. 436/2
Heat, great at Hormuz, i. 108, 109,

1 19/2, ii. 452 ; in India, 343, 375-376
Pleaven, City of (Kinsay), ii. 182, 184/2,

185, 203
Hedin, Dr. Sven, i. 188/2, 190/2, 193/2,

198/2, 203/2, 225/2, 276/2

2 R 2

628

HEIBAK

INDEX

HOURS

Heibak, caves at, i. 1 56W

Height, effects on fire of great, i. 171,

i78«
Heikel, Professor Axel, on Buddhist

monasteries in the Orkhon, i. 22Sn
Hei-shui (Mongol Etsina) River, i. 225;^
Hel, Ela (Cardamom), ii. 388^
Helena, Empress, i. 82«
Helli, see Eli
He -lung Kiang, ii. 35«
Hemp of Kwei-chau, ii. 127
Henry H., Duke of Silesia, ii. 493^
Henry IH., i. 27;^, ^6n
Heraclius, Emperor, said to have loosed

the shut-up nations, i. ^Gn
Herat, i. 150^, ii. 402^
Hereditary trades, ii. 186, 196;^
Hereford, Map, ij^, i. 134^
Hermenia, see Armenia
Hermits of Kashmir, i. 166, 169^
Herodotus, i. 135^, ii. 104^, I09;z
Hethum, see Hayton
Hiai- or Kiai-chau (Caichu?), ii. ign
Hides, ii. 398. {See Leather.)
HiH, Hili-Marawi, see Ely
Hill-people of Fo-kien, w^ild, ii. 225, 228«
Hinaur, see Hunawar
Hind, ii. 402n
Hindu character, remarks on frequent

eulogy of, ii. 367

Kush, i. 104//, iGpt, i6^n, ii. 594;/

Hindus, their steel and iron, i. 93;?

in Java, ii. 283;^

Hing-hwa, language of, ii. 244??
Hippopotamus' teeth, ii. 413, 421^
Hips, admiration of large, i. 160
Hirth, Dr. F., ii. 27^, 2Sn, Sgn, ig^n,

iggn
Hiuan-Tsung, Emperor, ii. 2Sn
Hiuen Tsang, Dr., a Buddhist monk, i.

16471- iS^n, i6gn, 174W, iSgn-ig^n,

igyn, 202;z, 22in, 222«, 306;?, 446;/,

ii. 28;/, 6on, 594?z, 595«
Hochau, in Sze-chwan, Mangku Khan's

death at, i. 24^/1

in Kansuh, ii. 29;/

Hochung-fu (Cachanfu), ii. 2^n

Hodgson, Mr., ii. ii6u

Hoernle, Dr., i. igon

Hojos, ii. 262n

Hokien-fu (Cacanfu), ii. 133/?

Hokow, or Hokeu, ii. 224;;

Holcombe, Rev. C, on Hwai-lu, ii. 15 ;

on Yellow River, 23 ; on Pia-chau fu,

25 ; on road from T'ung-kwan to Si-

ngan fu, 27
Hollingworth, H. G., ii. 144;?
Holy Sepulchre, ii. 429 ; oil from lamp

of, i. 14, 19, 26
Homeritae, ii. 432/^
Homi-cheu, or Ngo-ning, ii. I22«, 128;/,

129;/, 131;?
Homme, its technical use, i. 27;;, 342^

Hondius map, i. I02n

Ho-nhi, or Ngo-ning (Anin) tribe, ii.
i2on, I2in. {See Homi-cheu.)

Hooker, Sir Joseph, on bamboo ex-
plosion, ii. 46n

Horiad (Oirad, or Uirad) trilie, i. 300,
3o8«

Hormuz (Hormos, Curmosa), i. 83, 107,
lion, ii. 340, 348«, 370, 402^, 449,
451 ; trade with India, a sickly place,
the people's diet, i. 107, ii. 4c;o : ships,
108 ; great heat and fatal wind, 108,
109, 119;?, I20n; crops, mourning cus-
toms, i. 109 ; the king of, no ; another
road to Kerman from, no, I22« ;
route from Kerman to, now; site of
the old city, ib. ; foundation of,
Ii5«; history of, i20n ; merchants,
ii. 340 ; horses exported to India from,
348?? ; the Melik of, 449, 450, 451

Island, or Jerun, i. iion, iim, ii.

451W ; Organa of Arian, i. ii^n, I2ln

Hormuzdia, i. iim

Horns of Ovzs Poll, i. 171, I'^dn

Horoscopes, in China, i. 447, ii. 191 ;
in Maabar, 344

Horse-posts and Post-houses, i. 433, 437^2

Horses, Turkish, i. 43, 44;; ; Persian,
83, %(in ; of Badakhshan, strain of
Bucephalus, 158, i62n ; sacrificed at
Kaans' tombs, 246 ; Tartar, 260, 264;-/ ;
and white mares, 300, 308;? ; presented
to Kaan on New Year's Day, 390 ; of
Carajan, ii. 64, 78, Sm; their tails
docked, 82;^; of Anin, 119; tracking
by, 174^ ; decorated with Yaks' tails,
355 ; now bred in S. India, 340, 342,
348«, sson, 438, 450^

great trade and prices in importing

to India from Persia, i. 8^, 86« ; modes
of shipment, 108, iiyn ; from Carajan,
ii. 78; from Anin, 119; from Kis,
Hormuz, Dofar, Soer, and Aden, 340,
348^, 370, 395, 438; Esher, 442;
Dofar, 444; Calatu, 450, 451;?

duty on, 438 ; captured by pirates,

395 ; their extraordinary treatment and
diet in India, 340, 345, 348;2-349;2,
35^^h 450

Horse-stealing, Tartar laws v., i. 266

Hosie, A., ii. I3i«; on Ch'eng-tu, 40;/;
brine-wells of Pai-yen-ching, 58^ ; on
the Si-fan, 60;?, 6in ; on Caindu Lake,
72n

Hospitals, Buddhist, i. 446;?

Ilostelries, at Cambaluc, i. 412 ; on the
Cathay post-roads, 434 ; ii. 32;? ; at
Kinsay, 193

Hot springs in Armenia, i. 45, 46^ ; near
Hormuz, no, 122//

Hounds, Masters of Kaan's, i. 400-40IW

Hours, struck from Cambaluc bell-tower,
i- 3735 414 J at Kinsay, ii. 188; un-

HOURS

INDEX

ILKHAN

029

Hours [continued) —
lucky, 364, 368« ; canonical, 368;?,
369^

Hsi Hsia dynasty, i. 205^

Hsiang-chin, Hsiang, wood, ii. 30 1 w

Hu-chau fu (Vuju), ii. 184;^

Hui-hui, white and black capped, two
Mohammedan sects, ii. 30/2

Hukaji (Hogachi, Cogachin), Kiiblai's
son, i. 361;^?, ii. 76, 2>on

Hukwan-hien, ii. 230^2

Hiilakii Khan (Alau, Alacon), Kublai's
brother, and founder of Mongol dynasty
in Persia, 10, i. 5, 10, Gut, 64;?, 334/^ ;
war with Barka Khan, 8«, 103^ ; takes
Baghdad and puts Khalif to death,
63, 66;z, 85??, 86;z ; the ismaiUtes
and the Old Man, 145, 245, 247?*

his treachery, ii. i8i« ; his de-
scendants, 477; battle with Barca, 494 ;
his followers, 495

Hullukluk, village, near Sivas, i. 45;?

Human fat, used for combustion in war,
ii. I Sow

sacrifices, i. 208;/

Humayun, Emperor, i. I55«, 277^

Humboldt, 106, 107, no, 120, i. i78»

Hunawar(Onore, Hinaur), ii. 390W, 440;/

Hundred Eyes, prophecy of the, ii. 145,
146, I49«

Htmdwdniy (ondanique), Indian steel, i.
93;z

Hungary, Hungarians, ii. 286;/, 492^

Hung Hao, Chinese author, i. 2i2;z

Hun-ho (Sanghin River), ii. 5/2, Gn

Hunting equipment and Expedition,
Kublai's, i. 397, 398??, 404 ; Kang-hi's,
407^

preserves, ii. 13. {See also Sport.)

Hutton, Captain, i. loo/z

Hwa-chau, ii. 29;^.

Hwai-lu, or Hwo-lu-h'ien (Khavailu), the
Birmingham of N. Shansi, ii. I ^n

Hwai-ngan-fu (Coiganju), ii. 152;/

Hwai River, ii. 143??, \^2n

Hwang-ho (Yellow River), i. 245??, 282^,
286^, ii. 23;?, 25;?, 27;^ ; changes in
its courses, 137/2, 142;?, 143/2; its em-
bankments, I43«

Hwan-ho, ii. dn

Hyena, i. 378/2

Hyrcania, king of, i. 57«

lABADIU, ii. 286W

Ibn-al-Furat, i. 67/2

Ibn Batuta (Moorish traveller, circa A.D.
1330-1350)5 i- An-c^n, 37/2, 44/2, 46/2,
65/2, 75/2, 76/2, 8522, 101/2, 110/2, 1 1 1/2,
1 1 6/2, I20/2, 148/2, 150/2, 1 5 1/2, l6l/2,

165/2, 202/2, 247//, 294/?, 346/2, 396/2-

4io«, ii. ii6/z, 163/2, 214/2, 282/2, 286/2,
312/2, 322/2, 337/2, 346/2, 380/2, 391/2,
413/2, 440/2, 444/2, 445/2, 465/2 ; his

account of Chinese juggling, i. 316/2 ;
his account of Khansa (Kinsay), ii.
214/2; of Zayton, 238/2; in Sumatra,
289/2, 294/2 ; on Camphor, 303/2 ; in
Ceylon, 315/2, 322/2, 337/2 ; at Kaulam,
377/2, 380/2 ; in Malabar, 391/2 ; sees
Rukh, 419/2 ; his account of Maldives,
425/2 ; dog-sledges, 481/2, 483/2 ;
Market in Land of Darkness, 486/2;
on Silver Mines of Russia, 488/2

Ibn Fozlan, see Fozlan

Ichin-hien, ii. 154/2, 168/2, 173/2

Ichthyophagous cattle and people, ii.
442, 443, 444'^

Icon Amlac, king of Abyssinia, ii. 434/2-
436/2

Iconium (Kuniyah, Conia), i. 43, 44/2

Idolatry (Buddhism) and Idolaters, in
Kashmir, i. 166, 168/2; their decalogue,
167, 170/2; Pashai, 172; Tangut, 203,
207/2; Kamul, 210; Kanchau, 219,
221/2; Chingintalas, 212; Suhchau,
217 ; Etzina, their fasting days, 220,
222/2, 223 ; Tartars and Cathayans,
263, 343j 445> 456; Erguiul, 274;
Egrigaia, 281 ; Tenduc, 284, 285 ;
Chandu, 300-303 ; at Kublai's birthday
feast, 387 ; Cachanfu, ii. 23 ; Kenjanfu,
24 ; Acbalec Manzi, 33 ; Sindafu, 37 ;
Tibet, 45, 49 ; Caindu, 53 ; Yachi, 66 ;
Carajan, 76 ; Zardandan, 84 ; Mien,
109; Caugigu, 116; Coloman, 122;
Cuiju, 124 ; Cacanfu, 132 ; Chinangli,
135; Sinjumatu, 138; Coiganju, 151 ;
Paukin, 152 ; Tiju, 153 ; Nanghin,
157 ; Chinghianfu, 176 ; Tanpiju,
218; Chipangu, 253; Chamba, 266;
Sumatra, 284, 292, 299 ; Nicobars,
306 ; Mutfili, 360 ; Coilum, 375 ; Eli,
385 ; Malabar, 389 ; Tana, 395 ;
Cambaet, 397 ; Semenat, 398 ; Far
North, 479

Origin of, ii. 318, 319; of Brah-

mans, 364; of Jogis, 365

Idols, Tartar, i. 257, 258/2, 456, ii. 479 ;
Tangut, 203-207/2 ; colossal, 219,
221/2; of Cathay, 263; of Bacsi
or Lamas, 302; of Sensin, 303, 323/2-
326/2 ; of East generally, 263, 265/2 ;
in India, 340, 345

\ep6hov\oi, ii. 351/2

leu. Gnostics of, ii. 321/*

Ifat, Aufat, ii. 435/2

Ig, Ij, or Irej, capital of the Shawankars,
i. 86

Igba Zion, lakba Siun, king of Abyssinia,
ii. 435/2

Ilchi, commissioner, i. 30/2

Ilchi, modern capital of Khotan, i. 189/2,
190/2

Ilchigadai Khan, i. 186/2

Ilija, hot springs at, i. 47/*

Ilkhan, the title, jo

630

ilyAts

INDEX

JAPAN

Ilydts, nomads of Persia, i. 85
Imdms of the Ismailites, i. I46«
Im Thurn, Everard, on Couvade, ii. 94«
Incense, Sumatran, ii. 286 ; brown in

West India, 395, 396« ; white {i.e.

frankincense), in Arabia, 396^, 442,

443«. 445. 446«-449«

India, 12, i. i, 107, 109, 167, 414, ii.
76, 78, 107, 115, 119, 236, 249; horse
trade to, i. 83, 86« ; trade to Manzi or
China from, ii. 190, 216, 390, 395 ;
believed to breed no hcnrses, 340, 342,
438, 450 ; trade with Persia and
Arabia, 370; western limits of, 401,
402« ; islands of, 423, 425^ ; division of,
424 ; sundry lists of States, 426«-427« ;
trade with Aden and Egypt, 438 ; with
Arabian ports, 442, 444, 450 ; con-
fusion of Ethiopia and, 432^

India, the Greater, ii. 331 seqq.y 401,
424

its extent, ii. 425^, 426;/

the Lesser, ii. 424, ^2^ii-/^26n

Middle (Abyssinia), ii. 423, 427

remarks on this title, ii. 43 1^^

Maxima, ii. 426/2

Tertia, ii. 425?/

■ Superior, ii. 426;?

Sea of, i. 35, 63, 108, 166, ii. 265,

424

Indian drugs to prolong life, ii. 37o«

geography, dislocation of Polo's,

ii- 377^^, Z90fh 396«, 403^2, 426«

nuts, see Cocoa-nuts

steel (ondanique), i. 93«

Indies, the Three, and their distribution,
ii. 424, 426;?

Indifference, religious, of Mongol

i Emperors, i. 14/2, 349«

Indigo, mode of manufacture at Coilum,
ii- 375> 38i«, 3^2n ; in Guzerat, 393 ;
Cambay, 398 ; prohibited by London
Painters' Guild, 382W

Indo-China, ii. 426?? ; States, 42-123,
266-277

Indragiri River, ii. 283W

Infants, exposure of, ii. 147, i^in

Ingushes of Caucasus, i. 268«

Innocent IV., Pope, i. 62n

Inscription, Jewish, at Kaifungfu, i.
346^

Insult, mode of, in South India, ii. 371

Intramural interment prohibited, i. 414

Invulnerability, devices for, ii. 259,
263^

'Irak, i. 74, 84^, ^6n, 145;?

Irghai, i. 28i?z

Irish, accused of eating their dead kin,
ii. 298;?

M.S. version of Polo's Book, 102-

103

Iron, in Kerman, i. 90, 92;/, 93;?, 94^2 ;
in Cobinan, 125

Iron Gate (Derbend Pass), said to have

been built by Alexander, i. 53^, 54^ ;

gate ascribed to, 57^, ii. 494
Irtish River, ii. 493«
Isaac, king of Abyssinia, ii. 432^, 433«
Isabel, queen of Little Armenia, i. 42W
Isabeni, ii. 432;^
Isentemur (Sentemur, Esscntemur),

Kiiblai's grandson, ii. 64, 8ow
Ish, the prefix, i. 156^
'Ishin, i. 119;?
Ish-Kashm, i. 156//, I72«; dialect, i6o«,

173W
Iskandar, Shah of Malacca, ii. 282/2
Islands, of the Indian Sea, ii. 249, 424,

426/2 ; of China, 251, 264 ; in the

Gulf of Cheinan, 266/2 ; Male and

Female, 404 seqq.
Isle d'Orleans, ii. 277/2
Isle of Rubies (Ceylon), ii. 314/2
Ismail, Shah of Persia, i. 61/2
Ismailites, see Assassins
Ispahan (Istanit, Istan, Spaan), kingdom

of Persia, i. 83/2, 85/2
Israel in China, see Jews
Iteration, wearisome, ii. 133/2
I'tsing, ii. 283/2
Ivongo, ii. 414/2
Ivory trade, ii. 423, 424/2
Izzuddin Muzaffar, suggests paper-money

in Persia, i. 428/2, 429/2

Jacinth, ii. 362/2

Jacobite Christians, at Mosul, i. 46, 60,

61/2, ii. 409/2, 432/2-433/2; at Tauris, i.

75j 77^ j Yarkand, 187; perhaps in

China, 291/2
Jacobs, Joseph, Barlaam and Josaphat,

ii. 327/2
Jadah, or Yadah-Tdsh, i. 309/2
Jade stone (jasper) of Khotan, i. 191,

193/2, 194
Jaeschke, Rev. II. A., i. 209/2, 243/2,

314/2, 324/2
Jaffa, Count of, his galley, 40^ 4g
Jaipal, Raja, ii. 346/2
Jajnagar, ii. 427/2

Jalaluddin of Khwarizm, i. 91/2, 236/2
Jamaluddin-al-Thaibi, Lord of Kais, i.

65/2, ii. 333^^. 348«
Jamaluddin, envoy from Ma'bar to

Khanbaligh, ii. 337/2
Jambi River, ii. 283/2
James of Aragon, king, i. 273/2, ii.

163/2
Jamisfulah (Gauenispola), ii. 307/2
Jamui Khatun, Kiiblai's favourite Queen,

her kindness to the captured Chinese

princesses, i. 38/2, 358/2, ii. 151/2
Jangama sect, ii. 370/2
Janibeg, Khan of Sarai, i. (m, 264/2,

352«
Japan, see Chipangu

JAPANESE

INDEX

kala' safed

631

Japanese paper-money, i. 428;/

Jaroslavvl, ii. 489/;

Jase^ stitched vessel, i. \\']n

Jaspar (Gaspar), one of the Magi, i. 78,

82W

Jasper and chalcedony, i. 191, 193^
Jatolic, Jathalik, Jaselic, Gathalik

(KadoXiKos), i. 60, 6ln
Jauchau, ii, 243^
Jaiizgiin, former captain of Badakhshan,

i. 156;^
Java, the Great, ij ; described, ii. 272 ;

circuit, empires in, 275?/ ; Kiiblai's

expedition against, z'd.
Java, the Greater and Lesser, meaning

of these terms, ii. 286/2
Java, the Less, sge Sumatra
Jawa, Jawi, applied by Arabs to islands

and products of the Archipelago

generally, ii. 286/2
Jaya-Sinhavarman IL, king of Champa,

ii. 271;?
Jazirah, i. 6in

Jehangir (Jehan, Shah), i. i6Sn
Jenkinson, Anthony, i. gn, 2iSn
Jeriin (Zarun), island, site of the later

Hormuz, i, lion, ill;/, 115/2, I2in
Jerusalem, ijo, i. 19
Jesuit maps, i. 408/2
Jesujabus, Nestorian Patriarch, ii. 377/2,

409/2
Jews, their test of Mahomed's prophetic

character, i. 56/2 ; shut up by Alex-
ander, id. ; their connection with the

Tartars, 57/2 ; in China, their inscrip-
tion at Kaifungfu, 343, 346/2, 347/2 ;

in Coilum, ii. 375; in Abyssinia, 427,

431/2, 434/2
Jibal, i. 8 1/2
Nakus, or *' Hill of the Bell,"

Sinai desert, i. 202/2
Jibal-ul-Thabul, "Hill of Drums," near

Mecca, i. 202/2
Jiruft, i. 92/2, 106/2, 1 1 1/2, 1 12/2
Jogis (Chughi), ii. 365, 369/2
JohnXXn., JPope, i. 4/2, 5/2, 186/2
Johnson, his visit to Khotan, i. 189/2

190/2, 192/2, 195/2, 198/2
Johnston, Keith, i. 81/2, ii. 67/2
Johore, Sultan of, ii. 281/2, 282/2
Jon (Jihon, or Oxus) River, ii. 458, 466
Jordanus, Friar, i. 37/2
Jor-fattan (Baliapatan), ii. 386//
Josephus, i. 49/2, ^yn, 66/2
Jubb River, ii. 424/2
Judi, Mount, i. 62/2
Jugglers, at Khan's feasts, i. 383, 386/2,

392 ; and gleemen conquer Mien, ii.

no, 1 14/2
Juggling extraordinary, i. 316/2, ^iSe^se^.
Juji, eldest son of Chinghiz, 10, i. 5/2,

239/2
Juju (Cho-chau), ii. 10, 11/2, 127, 131/2

Julman, ii. 485/2

Junghuhu, on Batta cannibalism, ii. 288/2 ;

on camphor trees, 303/2
Junks, ii. 252/2, 333/2. {See also Ships.)
Jupar, i, 1 1 3/2

Justice, administration of Tartar, i. 266
Justinian, Emperor, i. 49/2
Juzgana (Dogana), i. 152/2

Kaan, and Khan, the titles, 10

Kaan, the Great, see Kublai

Kaans, the series of, and their burial
place, i. 245, 247/2-250/2 ; massacre
of all met by funeral party, 246, 250/2

Kabul, i. 104/2, 165/2, ii. 402/2

Kachkdr {Ovis Vignei), wild sheep, i.
158, 163/2

Kadapah, ii. 362/2

Kafchi-kue, ii. 128/2

Kafirs of Hindu Kush, i. 165/2 ; their wine,
87/2, 155/2

Kahgyur, Tibetan Scripture, ii. 347/2

Kahn-i-Panchur, i. 106/2

Kaidu (Caidu) Khan, Kublai's cousin
and life-long opponent, //, i. 183,
186/2, 187, 214/2, ii. 148/2 ; plots with
Nayan, i. 333, 334/2, 348 ; his differ-
ences with Kublai, ii. 457 ; and con-
stant aggressions, 457-458 ; his death,
459/2 ; his victorious expedition v,
Kublai, 459 ; Kublai's resentment,
463 ; his daughter's valour, 463 seqq.y
465/2 ; sends a host v. Abaga, 467

Kaifung-fu, Jews and their synagogues
there, i. 346/2, 347/2 ; siege of, ii. 158/2

Kaikhatu (Kiacatu), Khan of Persia,
seizes throne, i. 35, 38/2 ; his paper-
money scheme, 428/2 ; his death, 428,
ii. 475 ; his dissolute character, i. 9I/2,

ii- 475
Kaikhosru I. and IIL, Seljukian dynasty,

i. 44/2
Ka'ikobad I. and HI., i. 44/2
Kaikus, Izz ed-din, i. 44/2
Kail, see Call
Kain (Ghain), a city of Persia, i. 86/2,

124/2, 141/2
Kaipingfu (Keibung, Kaiminfu, Kemen-

fu), i. 25, 227/2, 304/2, 306/2
Kairat-ul-Arab, i. 112/2
Kais, see Kish
Kaisariya (Caesarsea, Casaria), i. 43,

44/2, 49/2
Kajjala, or Khajlak, a Mongol leader,

i. 104/2
Kakateya, dynasty, ii. 362/2
Kakhyens, Kachyens, tribe in Western

Yun-nan, ii. 74/2, 82/2, 90/2, 120/2
Kakula, ii. 279/2
Kala' Atishparastan (Cala Ataperistan),

"The Castle of the Fire-Worship-
pers"),!. 78, 82/2
Kala' Safed, i. 85/2

632

KALAJAN

INDEX

KEMENFU

Kalajan (Calachan), i. 281, 282;/

Kaldmiir, ii. 427W

Kalantan, ii. 279/?

Kalchi, Kalakchi, i. 380;^

Kales Devar, king of Ma'bar, ii. 333«,

335« ; his enormous wealth, 333«
Kalgan, or Chang-kia-keu, i. 295^
KaMt (Kalhatu, Calatu, Calaiate), i.

J20n, ii. 348^ ; described, 449-450,

451;/ ; idiom of, 45 1«
Kalidasa, the poet, on the Yak, i. 278;?
Kdlikiit, ii. 386;?, 391//, 440^
Kdlin, marriage prices, i. 256;?, 392;^
Kalinga, ii. 329^, 330W
Kalinjar, ii. 426?/

Kalniia angustifolia, poisonous, i. 219^
Kamal Malik, i. 68«
Kamarah, Komar, ii. 279;?
Kamasal (Conosalmi), Kahn-i-asal, "The

honey canal," i. 99, io6n
Kambala, Kiiblai's grandson, i. 36 1/^
Kambayat (Cambay), ii. 398/2
Kamboja (Chinla), ii. 134W, 278//, 374«
Kampar, district and River, Buddhist

ruins, ii. 283^
Kamul (Komal, Caniul), the Mongol

Khamil, Chinese Hami, i. 209, 21 1«,

214;?
Kanat, or Karez^ underground stream,

i. 123, 124W
Kanat-ul-Sham (Conosalmi), i. io6n
Kanauj, ii. 427^
Kanbalu Island, ii. 414;/
Kanchau (Campichu), i. 219, 22011
Kandahar, Kandar, Ghandhara, ii. 72;/,

73«, 329W, 402;?
Kandy, ii. 328/2
Kanerkes, or Kanishka, king, i. i68/? ;

coins of, 173/2
Kang-hi, Emperor, i. 251/2, 407/2, ii.

8/2, 182/2
Kank, i. 194/2, 195/2
Kanp'u (Ganpu), old Port of Hang-chau,

ii. 198/2, 199/2
Kansan, see Shensi
Kansuh, i. 206/2, 220/2
Kao Hoshang, i. 422/2
Kao-Tsung, Emperor, ii. 28/2
Kao-yu (Cayu), ii. 153/2
Kapilavastu, ii. 322/2
Kapukada, Capucate, ii. 380/2
Kardbughd, Carabya^ Calabra^ a military

engine, ii. 168/2
Kara Hulun, ii. 485/2
Karajang (Carajan, or Yun-nan), ii. 64,

67/2, 72/2, 73/2, 80/2
Karakash ("black jade") River, i.

193/2
Karakhitaian Empire, i. 231/2

Princes of Kerman, i. 91/2

Kara Khoja, i. 214/2

Karakorum (Caracoron), i. 66/2, 226,

227/2, 269, ii. 460

Kara Kiimiz, special kind of Kutniz,
i. 259/2

Kardmiiren (Caramoran) River, Mongol
name for the Hwang-ho, or Yellow
River, i. 245/2, 282/2, 286/2, ii. 22, 23/2

Karana, meaning of, i. 101/2

Kardni (vulgo Cranny), i. 101/2

Karanut, a Mongol sept, i. 101/2

Karaun Jidun, or Khidun, i. 101/2

Karaunahs (Caraonas), a robber tribe,
i. 98, 101/2, 121/2

Karavat, an instrument for self-decolla-
tion, ii. 349/2

Karens, ii. 74/2

Karmathian, heretics, i. 187/2

Karnul, ii. 362/2

Karrah, ii. 427/2

Karra-Manikpiir, i. 86/2

Kartazonon, Karkaddan, rhinoceros, ii.
291/2

Kasaidi Arabs, ii. 443/2

Kash, jade, i. 193/2

Kashan, i. 81/2

Kashgar (Cascar), i. 180, 182/2; Chan-
kans of, 193/2, ii. 594/2

Kashish {Casses), i. 70/2, ii. 409/2

Kashmir (Keshimur), i. 104/2, 164/2, 166;
Buddhism, 166, 168/2; beauty of the
women, 166, 169/2 ; conjurers, 166,
1 68/2 ; the language of, 1 68/2 ; sorcery
in, ii. 593

Kashmiris, i. 76/2, 166

Kasia, people and hills, ii. 59/2

Kasyapa Buddha, ii. 356/2

Kataghan, breed of horses, i. 162/2

Katar pirates, ii. 409/2

Katif, ii. 348/2

Kattiawar, ii. 395/2 ; pirates, 400/2

Kaulam, see Coilum

Kaulam-Male, ii. 377/2

Kauli (Cauly), Corea, i. 343, 345/2

Kaunchi (Conchi), Khan, ii. 479, 481/2

Kaveripattanam, ii. 335/2

Kaveri River, delta of, ii. 335/2

Kavir, saline swamp, i. 124/2

Kavvayi, ii. 388/2

Kayal, Kail, see Cail

Pattanam, ii. 372/2

Punnei-, ii. 372/2

Kayten, ii. 234/2

Kazan, i. dn, 'jn

Kazawinah, i. 101/2

Kazbek, i. 54/2

Kazvin (Casvin), i. 83, 84/2, 101/2, 141/2

Keary, C. F., i. 429/2

Kebteul, night-watch, i. 381/2

Kehran, ii. 426/2

Keiaz tribe, i. 179/2

Keibung (Kaipingfu), i. 25, 227/2, 304/2,
306/2

Kelinfu (Kienning-fu), City, its bridges,
ii. 225, 228/2, 229/2, 234/2

Kemenfu, see Kaipingfu

KENJANFU

INDEX

KIMING SHAN

^33

Kenjanfu (Si-ngan fu), ii. 24, 25;/, 27^-
2gn

Keraits, a great Tartar tribe, i. 236//,
237;?., 271;?, 287;?, 288;/

Kerala, ii. 390;^

Keria, see Kiria

Keriza River, ii. 595??

Kerman, i. 89^, 90, 109, 1 10, ii. 452 ;
route to Hormus from, i. 91, 107, no ;
steel manufacture, its industries, 96?; ;
king of, Atabeg of, 107, no; stitched
vessels of, ii7;2; desert of, 123,
1247?

Kerulen (K'i-lien) valley, the Khans'
burial-ground, i. 248;^

Keshican (Keshikten), Kiiblai's life-guard,
i. 379, 380;^, 381;?, 394;2_

Kcsmacoran (Kij Makran), i. S6n, ii. 401,
402« ; Kij -Makran, 402;/

Keuyung Kwan, village, i. 28/2

Khakan, the word, 10

Khalif (Calif) Mosta'Sim Billah of Bagh-
dad, i. 63 ; taken by Ilulakii and
starved to death, 64 ; plot v. the
Christians laid by a former — the
miracle of the mountain, 69-73 ; be-
comes secretly a Christian, 73

Khdlij, ii. 439;/

Khhvi, stuff made with cotton thread, i.
190;^

Khambavati (Cambay), ii. 398^

Khanabad (Dogana ?), i. 156;^

Khan Badshah of Khotan, i. 189;/

Khanbalik, see Cambaluc

Khanfu, ii. 199^

Khanikoff, N. de (travels in Persia), i.
49'^ SVh 58«, 74«, 89;?, 91W, 92^,
96;?, loi;/, io6w, 114;?, I2i«, I24«,
141;?, 150;?, 193/2

KhanJdr-i-IIundwdn, hanger of Indian
steel, i. 93/2

Khdn-khdndn, a title, 10

Khanoolla (Mount Royal), site of Ching-
hiz's tomb, i. 247;?

Khansa, ii. 199;?, 214;?

Kharesem, Mount, i. I55«

Khato-tribe, ii. \2on

Khatun-gol, or " Lady's River," i.e.
Hwang-ho, i. 245;/, 249;?

Khahin, title of Khan's wives, 10

Khavailu (Hwo-lu h'ien), ii. i^n

Khazars, the, i. 7;^, ii. 492;?

Khilak, i. 54;^

Khimka, ii. 238;?

Khinsa, Khingsai, Khinzai, ii. 144/2,
175;/, 214;/. (5^^Kinsay.)

Khitan, Khitai, //

character, i. 28/2

dynasty of Liao, i. 232/2, 288/2, ii.

20/2

Khmer, ii. 279/2

Khodabanda, Ilkhan of Kerman, i. 91/2
103/2

Khojas, name of modern Ismailite sect,
i. 146/2, 163/2

Khorasan, province, i. 38/2, 128/2, 131/2,
^ZS^h 150'^, ii- 467/2, 474/2; tur-
quoises of, i. 92/2

Khormuzda, supreme deity of the Tartars,
i. 257/2

Khotan (Cotan), i. 188, 195/2, 197/2, ii.
594/2, 595/2 ; fruits, i. 1 90/2 ; routes
between China and, 191/2 ; buried
cities of, 192/2; its jade, 193/2

Khumbavati (Cambay), ii. 398/2

Khumdan, ii. 27/2

Khusru, Amfr, Indian poet, i. 48/2, 96/2,
104/2

Khutuktai Setzen, Prince of the Ordos, i.
257/2

Khwarizm, i. 9/2

Kiacatu, see Kaikhatu

Kiahing (Ciangan, Canigan), ii. 185/2

Kiai- or Hiai-chau (Caichu), ii. 19/2

Kiakhta, i. 56/2, 218/2

Kia-k'ing, Emperor, ii. 143/2

Kiang, the Great (Kian and Kian-Suy,
and in its highest course Brius, the Kin-
sha Kiang), ii. 36, 56, 59/2, 60/2, 64,
d'jny 69/2, 70/2, 72/2, 129/2-131/2, 149/2,
154/2 ; its vastness, and numerous craft,
170, 171, 173/2 ; steamers on, 173/2,
1 74/2 ; its former debouchure to the
south, and changes, i. 199/2

Kiang-Che, ii. 157/2, 217/2, 224/2; limits
of, 2 1 8/2

Kiang-Hung, Xieng-Hung, ii. 117//,
1 27/2- 1 29/2, 1 3 1/2

Kiangka, ii. 48/2

Kiang-mai, Xieng-mai, Zimme, ii. 1 17/2,
128/2, 279/2

Kiangshan, ii. 224/2

Kiangsi, ii. 228/2

Kiang-su, ii. 135/2

Kiang-suy (-shui) River, ii. 36, 40/2

Kiangtheu, ii. 105/2, 111/2, 1 13/2

Kiang-Tung, ii. 117/2, 279/2

Kiao-chi (Tungking), Chinese etymology
of, ii. 119/2, 128/2

Kia Tsing, Emperor, a great bridge
builder, ii. 6/2

Kichau Castle, ii. 26/2

Kieh-Ch'a, ii. 283/2

K'ien-ch'ang, Kiung-tu (Caindu), ii. 70/2-
72/2

Kien-chau, ii. 232/2

Kien-kwe, ii. 232/2

Kien-lung, Emperor, ii. 8/2, 196/2

Kien-ning fu (Kelinfu), ii. 228/2

Kiepert, Map of Asia, i. 197/2

Kij -Makran (Kesmacoran), i. 86/2

Kila'-i-Gabr, "Gueber Castle," i. 81/2,
82/2

Kilimanchi River, ii. 424/2

Kiming shan Mountains, gold and silver
mines, i. 295/2

634

INDEX

KONKAN

Kiinizy kumiz {keiniz), mare's milk,
— Tartar beverage, i. 257, 259;?

Kin, or Golden Dynasty in N. China, 12,
i. 2Sn, 231W, 288«, ii. 8;/, 19;?, 168;/,
190^; their paper-money, i. 426;/,
430/; ; story of their Golden King, ii.
17-22

Kincha, Chinese name for Kipchak, ii.
179A/

Kin-Chi, or Gold-Teeth (Zardandan), ii.
84-90W

King of the Abraiaman, ii. 364

of England, Kiiblai's message to,

i. 34 ; intercourse with Mongol princes,
2,6n, ii. 177/2

of France, Kiiblai's message to, i.

34
of Spain, Kublai's message to, i. 34,

ii. 477^2

Rev. C. W., i. 370;;

Kings of Maabar, the five brothers, ii.

331, 333«, 334^, 337^2, 338-339, 37o

371 ; their mother's efforts to check

their broils, 371
subordinate, or Viceroys, in China,

i' 360, 361;?, ii. 24, 64, 76, 79«, 190,

199/2

Tartar, of the Ponent, ii. 490, 492/2

Kingsmill, T. W., ii. 154/2, 184/2, 194/2,

220/2

King-te-chen, porcelain manufacture, ii.

243^

K'ing-yiian (Ning-po), ii. 238/2

Kin-hwa fu, ii. 222/2

Kinki, I-Cimkha, ii. 238/2

Kinsay (King-sze, or "Capital," Khansa,
Khinsa, Khingsai, Khanzai, Cansay,
Campsay), formerly Lin-ngan now
Hang-chau fu, 11, ii. 146, 149/2, 193/2 ;
its surrender to Bayan, 146, 149/2; ex-
treme public security, 147 ; alleged
meaning of the name, 182, 184/2, 185 ;
described, 185-208; bridges, 185, 187,
194/2 ; hereditary trades, guilds and
wealthy craftsmen and their dainty
wives, 186, 196/2; the lake, islands
and garden-houses, 186, 187, 196/2 ;
stone-towers — inhabitants' clothing and
food, 187, 197/2-198/2; guards and
police regulations, 187-188; fires, 188 ;
alarm towers, paved streets, 189 ;
revenue, 189, 190, 215, 216, 217/2,
218/2 ; pavements, public baths, port
of Ganfu, 189, 198/2, 199/2 ; the
province and other provinces of
Manzi, garrisons, 190, 200/2 ; horo-
scopes, funeral rites, 191, 200/2 ; palace
of the expelled king, 192 ; church,
house registers, 192, 200/2 ; hostel regu-
lations, 193 ; canals, 200; markets and
squares, 201, 209/2 ; fruits and fish
shops, 202, 210/2 ; women of the town,
physicians and astrologers, courts of

justice, 203 ; vast consumption of
pepper, 204, 210/2; inhabitants' cliar-
acter — their behaviour to women and
foreigners, 204, 210/2, 211/2; hatred of
soldiers, 205 ; pleasures on the lake
and in carriage excursions, 205, 211/2;
palace of the king, 206 ; the king's
effeminacy and ruin, 207-208, 211/2;
tides, 2o8/2 ; plan of, 209/2 ; notices by
various writers of, 213/2; wealth of,
245/2 ; ships, 255, 260/2

Kin-sha Kiang, "River of Golden Sands "
(upper branch of Great Kiang, Brius),
ii. 36, 565 64, 67/2, 69/2, 70/2, 72/2

Kinshan, see Golden Island

Kinto, or Ilintu, Mongol general, ii. 260/2

Kipchak (Ponent), Southern Russia,
events related by Polo in, 2j, i. 5, 6/2,
ii. 490 seqq. ; sovereigns, 492/2 ; people
of, 493/2 ; extent of empire, ib.

Kirghiz Kazak, i, 313/2

Kirghiz, the, i. 162/2, 176/2, 309/2, ii. 362/2

Kiria, i. 192/2, 195/2, ii. 595/2

Kirk, Sir John, and Raphia palm, ii.

Kis, Kish, or Kais (Kisi), now Ghes, or
Kem, island in Persian Gulf, i. 63,
64/2, 83, 452 ; merchants, ii. 340 ; de-
scribed, 453/2

Kishik, Kishikan, Kizik, Keshikchi, see
Keshican

Kishm (Casern), i. 153, 155/2, 156/2, 173/2

or Brakht (Oaracta), island in the

Persian Gulf, i. 115/2, 121/2

Kistna River, ii. 362/2

Kitubuka, General, i. 85/2

Kliu-chau, ii. 222/2

Kiulan (Quilon), see Coilum

Kizil Irmak, the, i. 45/2

Kizil River, i. 54/2

Kneeling oxen, i. 97, 99/2

Kobad, the Sassanian, i. 53/2

Kobdo, i. 215/2

Koh-Banan (Cobinan), i. 125

Koja (Coja), a Tartar envoy from Persia,
i- 32, 33f^, 38f^

Kokcha River, i. 154/2- 156/2, 162/2

Kok-Tash, greenstone of Samarkand, i.
187/2

Kolastri, or Kolatiri Rajas, ii. 387/2

Ko-li-ki-sze, i. 289/2

Kolkhoi of Ptolemy, identified, ii. 373/2

Kollam, see Coilum

Koloman, see Coloman

Kolyma, bird-hunting at, i. 272/2

KdjfjLaKov, ii. 39 1 /2

Komar, ii. 279/2, 383/2

Kofxdpia &Kpov, ii. 382/2

Konar tree, Marco Polo's apples of
Paradise, i. 99/2

Kondachi, ii. 337/2

Konkan, Konkan-Tana, ii. 367/2, 390/2,
396/2

INDEX

635

Korano, epithet on Indo-Scythic coins, i.

\o\n
Korea, History of, ii. 262W
Koresh king, i. 82;?
Kornish, or K'o-tow (Khen-theu), i. 391,

393^

Kosakio, a general against Japan, ii. 260W

Kosseir, ii. 439«

Kotcheres, Kurds of Mosul, i. 62n

Kotlogh, or Kutlugh, Sultan of Kerman,
i. <)in

Kotlogh Shah, the Chaghataian prince, i.
104//, 121/;

Kotrobah Island, ii. 409/2

Kouyunjik, sculptures at, i. loo;;

Kozlov, Lieutenant K. P., on the Lob-
nor, i. 199/2

Kuang-chou, ii. 239/2

Kubenan (Cobinan), a Kuh-banan "Hill
of the Terebinths or Wild Pistachios,"
i. 123, 124/2

Kublai (Cublay), Kaan, the Great Kiian,
i. 8/2, 10, II, 12, 15 ; his envoys meet
the two elder Polos, 10 ; receives and
questions the Polos, 11, 12; sends
them as envoys to the Pope, 13 ; his
desire for Christian teachers, and for
oil from the lamp in the Holy
Sepulchre, 13, 14; gives them a
Golden Tablet, 15 ; his reception of
the three Polos, 26 ; sends Marco on
an embassy, 27 ; Marco grows in
favour, 30 ; allows the Polos to depart
with Tablets of Authority, 33-35 ;
rumour of his death, 38/2 ; sends a
napkin of asbestos to the Pope, 213 :
his greatness and power, 246, 247/2,
331; his milk libations, 300; his in-
scription at Shangtu, 304/2 ; Chinghiz's
prophecy, 331/2; his lineage, age, and
accession, 332 ; Nayan's revolt, 333 ;
Nayan's defeat and death, 336-343 ;
rebukes anti-Christian gibes, 344 ; re-
turns to Cambaluc, 348 ; treats four
religions with equal respect, 348/2 ; his
views on Christianity, 349/2 ; how he
rewards his captains, 350 ; his personal
appearance, 356 ; his wives and ladies-
in-waiting, 356-358; his palace at Cam-
baluc, 362 ; builds Cambaluc city, 374;
his bodyguard, 379 ; order of his
feasts, 381 ; celebration of his birth-
day, 387 ; his distribution of robes,
387? 394 ; his New Year's feast, 390 ;
his elephants, 391 ; the ICo-tow, 391,
393/2; adopts Chinese ancestor-worship,
392/2; his game laws, 396 ; his hunt-
ing establishment, 397 ; his masters of
hounds, 400 ; how he goes a-hunting,
402 ; how his year is spent, 410 ;
Ahmad's influence, oppression, and
death, 416-420 ; his treatment of
Mahomedans, 422/2 ; his mint and

paper-money, 423 ; his purchase of
valuables, 425 ; his twelve great
Barons, 430 ; his posts and runners,
433 ; remission of taxes, 439, 443 ;
his justice, 440/2 ; a tree planter, 440 ;
his store of corn, 443 ; charity to
the poor, 445 ; his astrologers, 446 ;
gaol dehveries, and prohibition of
gambling, 457 ; his early campaign in
Yun-nan, ii. 46//, 79, 80/2 ; and the
king of Mien and Bangala, 98, no,
114/2; Litan's plot, 136; sends Bayan
to invade Manzi, 145 ; his dealings
with Bayan, 148/2, 149/2 ; satisfied with
the Polo's mangonels, 159; appoints
Mar Sarghis governor of Chinghian-
fu, 177; the city of Kinsay, 186-190;
his revenue from Kinsay, 215; from
Zayton, 235 ; his expedition against
Chipangu (Japan), 255 ; sends force
against Chamba, 267, 270/2 ; attempts
to gain Java, 272, 275/2; his death,
275/2 ; sends to buy Ceylon ruby, 313,
315/2; sends for religions of Sakya,
319; testifies to miraculous powers of
Sakya's dish, 320; intercourse with
Ma'bar, 337^2 ; with Kaulam, 378/2 ;
missions to Madagascar, 412-413 ;
Kaidu's wars with him, 457 seqq.

Khan, territories and people

subject to (Turkistan), i. 180, 188, 191,
196 ; (Tangut and Mongolia), 203, 212,
217, 269, 274, 281, 284, 285 ; (Tibetan
frontier and Yun-nan), ii. 50, 53, 64,
109, 116, 119, 122; (Western China),
124, 127; (N. Eastern China), 132, 135,
138, 140, 141; (Manzi), 151-153;
(Sinju), 170; (Caiju), 174; Chinghian-
fu, 176; (Chinginju), 178; (Suju),
181 ; (Tanpigu), 218; (Chonka), 231 ;
(Zayton), 234 ; (Chamba), 267 ;
(Sumatra), 272, 285, 292, 299

Kuche character, i. 21 1/2

Kudatku Bilik, an Ufghur poem, i. 28/2

Kuhistan, or Hill country of Persia, i.
86/2

Kvikachin, see Cocachin

Kukin-Tana, ii. 396/2

Kukju (Genkju), Kiiblai's son, i. 361/2

Kuku-Khotan (Blue Town), depot for
Mongolian trade with China, i. 278^2,.
286/2, 287/2

Ku-kwan, Customs' Barrier, ii. 14/2

Kulab, lions in, i. 152/2; Salt Mines,
154/2

Kulan, Asinus Onager^ the Gor Khar of
Persia, i. 89/2

Kulasaikera, ii. 335/2

Kumar, see Komar

Kumhari, Kumari, see Comari

Kumiz, kimiz (kemiz), Mare's milk,
Tartar beverage, i. 257, 259/2, 300 ;
sprinkling of, 308/2, 309/2 385/2, 41 1

636

kummA/ar

INDEX

LEVANT

Kummdjar, ii. 49i«

Kunbiirn Monastery, i. 3I9«

Kunduz, i. 152;/, 154^

Kunduz (beaver or sable), i. 410/;

Kunduz- Baghldn, i. 86«

Kung-ki-cheng (Fei-ch'eng), ii. 6«, Zn

Kungurats, Knnkurats (Ungrat), a Mongol

tribe, i. 38/?, \oiii, 359^, 360
Kunichi (Cunichi, or Chinuchi), " The

Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs," i. 400
Kuniyah (Conia), Iconium, Koniah, i.

43. 44«. 356«
Kunlun (Pulo Condore), ii. 27 7;^
Kurd dynasty, i. 85;/
Kurdistan (Curdistan),i. 9«,62«,83, %\n,
Kurds, the, i. 60, 62^, 85^
Kiireh-i-Ardeshfr (Kuwashfr), i. 91;/
Kuria Maria Islands, ii. 405/2
Kuridai, Kublai's son, i. 36 iw
Kurkah, great drum, i. 340;?, 341//
Kurmishi, ii. 474;?
Kurshids of Luristan, i. 85/2
Kurut (Curd), i. 262, 265;^
Kus, Cos (in Egypt), ii. 439;;
Kushluk, the Naiman, ii. ion
Kutan, son of Okkodai, ii. 32^
Kutchluk Khan (Buddhist), Chief of the

Naimans, i. 188;^
Kutuktemur, Kublai's son, i. 36172
Kutulun, Princess, ii. 465;?
Kuwinji, see Kaunchi
Kuyuk Khan, i. 14;?, 245, i^yn
Kwa-chau (Caiju), at mouth of Great

Canabon Yang-tse-Kiang, ii. 144/2,

175/2
Kwan Hsien, ii. 41/2
Kwansinfu, ii. 221/2, 224/2
Kwawa, i.e. Java, etymology, ii. 119/2
Kvi^ei-chau (Cuiju), ii. 82/2, 124/2, 127/2,-

129/2
Kwei-hwa-ch'eng, or Kuku Khotan, i.

278/2, 286/2, 287/2
Kweilei River, i. 345/2
Kyung-sang province, ii. 262/2

Lac (Wallachia), Lacz, i. 54/2, ii. 487,

489/2, 490, 491/2
Ladies' dresses in Badakhshan, i. 160,

163/2
Ladies of Kinsay, ii. 186
Lagong, ii. 279/2
Lahore (Dalivar, Dilivar), i. 99, 104/2,

105/2, ii. 426/2, 427/2
Lahsa, ii. 348/2
Lajwurd mines, i. 162/2
Lake, Caindu, ii. 53, 72/2

Fanchau, ii. 29/2

Kinsay, ii. 186, 196/2, 200, 214/2

of Palace at Cambaluc, i. 365, 370/2

■ Pleasure parties on, ii. 205, 211/2

Talifu, ii. 80

Yunnan -fu, ii. 66

Laknaoti, ii. 427/2

Lakshamana Deva, king of Kashmir, i.

104/2
Lamas of Tibetan Buddhism, i. 28/2 ;

their superstitions and rites, 204, 207«,

220, 221/2-223/2, 301, 302, 314/2,

315/2; their monasteries, 303, 319/2;

marriage, 303, 319/2. {See also

Bakhshi.)
Lambri, kingdom of, ii. 299, 300/2, 306,

307/2 ; situation of, 301/2
Lances of Sago Palm, ii. 305/2
Lanchang, ii. 279/2
Land of Darkness, ii. 484 seqq. ; market

in, 486/2
Langdarma, i. 168/2, 170/2
Langting Balghasun, i. 306/2
Languages used in Mongol Court and

administration, i. 27, 28/2-30/2
Lan-Ho, i. 305

Lanja Balus, or Lankha balus, ii. 308/2
Lanka (Ceylon), ii. 320/2
Lan Ki Hien (Nan-Che-hien), ii. 22272,

224/2
Lanner Falcons, i. 158, 162/2, ii. 50
Lan-tsangkiang (Mekong) River, ii. 8872,

128/2
Lao-Kiun, or Lao-Tseu, the Philosopher,

i. 322/2, 325/2, 326/2
Laos, people of, ii. 91/2, 117/2, 120/2, 128/2
Lar, or Lat-Desa, ii. 367/2

province, ii. 363, 367/2, 403/2

Latin version of Polo's Book, 65", (?/, 90,

95, 700

Latins, the term, i. 10, 12, 32

Latse, Tibetan for musk, i. 279/2

Lauredano, Agnes, ii. 520/2

Laurtis Camplioi-a, ii. 237/2

Lawek, Lawdki, ii. 278/2-279/2

Laxities of marriage customs, see

Marriage
Layard, Mr., i. 85/2
Layas, see Ay as

Gulf of, i. 17/2

Leather, i. 395,

embroidered mats

of Guzerat, 393-394, 395«

Leaves, used for plates, ii. 365 ; green
leaves said to have a soul, 366

Lecomte on Chinese war vessels, i. 37/2

Lembeser, Ismaelite fortress, i. 146/2

Lenzin, ii. 141/2

Leon I., king of Lesser Armenia, i. 42/2

Leon II., king of Lesser Armenia, i. 44/2

Leon III., king of Lesser Armenia, i. 25/2

Leon VI. , last king of Lesser Armenia, i.
42/2

Leopards, ii. 282, 411, 431 ; taught to sit
on horseback, i. 299 ; (Cheetas) kept
for the Chase by Kublai, 397

Lepechin, Professor, i. 9/2

Le Strange, Guy, i. 67/2, 92/2

Leung Shan, i. 245/2

Levant, term applied by Polo to the king-
dom of the Mongol Khans, i. i, 5, 8/2

LEVANT

INDEX

^Z1

Levant {continued) —

lo, 32, 36, 44, ()T^, 84, 246, 270, ii.

50, 376, 466, 477, 491, 494
Lewchevv, ii. 39 1«
Lewis, see St. Lewis
Lewis XL and XIL (France), i. 398;;
Lew-sha, old Chinese name for Lop

Desert, i. 198^, 20\n
Leyes, see Ayas
Lhasa, ii. 45??, ^on, 74;/ ; Labrang

Monastery at, i. 319;?
Li, Chinese measure, supposed to be con-
founded with miles, ii. 193/2, 194?^,

209;z
Liampo (Ningpo), ii. 228;?, 239;?
Liang, or tael, i. 426;/, 427^
Liang-chau in Kansuh, i. 29^, 276^,

28i;z
Liao dynasty, 12, i. 232//, 288;^,
Liao-tong, i. 289;?, 334??, 345«
Libanos, KL§avo(()6pos and Xt^avcoro^opos

Xc6/)a, ii. 44^n-4^6n
Libro dOro, 14
Licinius, Emperor, i. 45;;
Lide (Liti), ii. 297?;, 305^
Lieuli Ho, ii. 6w
Lign-aloes (eagle-wood), ii. 87, 268;

etymology, 27 1«; in Sumatra, 284,

287^
Ligor, ii. 278^
Ligurium, the precious stone, Liguire, i.

398«
Li H'ien, Tartar ruler of Tangut, i. lodn
Likamankwas of Abyssinian kings, ii.

348/2
Li-kiang fu, ii. 73;/, 90^
Limyrica, ii. 408//
Lindley, i. 99/2

Lindsay, Hon. R., ii. 46/2, 74«
Linga, ii. 370/2
Linju, ii. 140, 141/2
Lin-ngan (Hang-chau), ii. 149/2, 195/2
Lin-ngan in Yun-nan, ii. 120/2, 121/;,

129/2
Lintching-y, or Linchinghien, ii. 14 1/2
Lin-t'sing chau, ii. 139/2
Lion and Sun, i. 352/2
Lions, black, ii. 376, 382/2, 422
on the Oxus, i. 151 ; Chinese

notion of, i. 399/2
(apparently for tigers) kept for the

chase by Kiiblai, i. 397, ii. 31, 42,

56, 214, 219; skins of striped, i. 405 ;

how hunted with dogs, ii. 126. (S^^

also Tigers. )
Lion's Head Tablets, i. 35, 350, 352/2
Lii-e, various Venetian, 66, 7/, ii. 591/2-

592/2

of gold, 73

Lisbon, ii. 391/2

Lissu, or Lisau tribe, ii. 60/2, 90/2

Litai, ii. 301 /2

Litan, rebellion of, i. 313/2, ii. 136, 138/2

Lithang, ii. 48/2, 56/2, 67/2

Little Orphan Rock, ii. 174/2

Liu Pang, founder of ist Han dynasty,

ii. 32/2
Liu Pei (Luo Pe), of the Han dynasty,

ii. 32/2, 38/2
Livre des Merveille, 121, ii. 527/2
Livres of gold, ii. 442

Parisis, go, ii. 590/2

Tournois, i. 83, 86/2, ii. 590/2

Li Yuan-hao, founder of the Hsi Hsia

dynasty, Tangut, i. 206/2
Lo, tribes of S.W. China so-called, ii.

123/2, 124/2, 129/2
Chinese name of part of Siam, ii.

278/2
Lob, see Lop

Locac, kingdom of, ii. 276, 277/2-280/2
Lockhart, Dr. W., i. 372/2, 377/2, ii. ^n,

27/2, 82/2, 124/2
Lokok, ii. 278/2-280/2
Lolo tribes, ii. 60/2-63/2, 69/2, ']on, 123/2
Longevity of Brahmins and Jogis, ii. 365,

369/2
Longfellow, i. 67/2
Lop, city and lake, i. 194, 196 ; desert,

196, 197
Lophaburi, ii. 278/2
Loping, ii. 1 29/2, 130
Lor, see Luristan
Lord, Dr. Percival, i. 160/2
Loss, brownish-yellow loam, ii. 14/2
Loups cerviers (lynx), i. 398/2
Low castes, ii. 349-350/2
Lowatong River, ii. 130/2
Loyang, Bridge of, ii. 241/2
Luban, ii. 446/2, 449/2
Luban-Jawi, ii. 286/2
Luban-Shehri, ii. 449/2
Lubbies, ii. 372/2
Lucky and unlucky hours and days, ii.

364, 368/2
Luddur Deo, ii. 362/2
Luh-ho-ta Pagoda, Hang-chau, ii. I93«,

194/2
Lukon-Kiao (Hun-ho, Pulisanghin River),

ii. 5/2, 6/2, 8/2
Lukyn Port, ii. 279/2, 280/2
Lung-yin, ii. 224/2
Luristan (Lor, Lur), kingdom of Persia,

i. 83, 84/2 ; Great and Little, 85/2 ;

character of Lurs or people of, 87/2
Lusignan, John de, i. 42/2
Liit, Desert of (Dasht-i-Lut), i. 124;/,

127, 128/2
Lu-tzu tribe, ii. 82/2
Lynxes, trained to hunt, i. 397, 398/2 ; in

Cuncun, ii. 31

Ma Twan-lin, the Chinese Pliny, i.

100/2, 201/2
Maaden, turquoise mines at, i. 92/2
Maatum, or Nubia, ii. 431/2

638

ma'hak

INDEX

MALACCA

Ma'bar (Maabar, i.e, Coromandel coast),
province of India, ii. 331, 332^, 338;
Its brother kings, 331, 333//, 335^, 370,
371; pearl fishery, 331, 335^, 337^;
etymology, 332;? ; limits, 333;/ ; ob-
scurity of history, 334;? ; port visited
by I'olo, 335« ; nakedness of people,
king, his jewels, 338-346 ; his wives,
" Trusty Lieges," treasure, 339, 347« ;
horses imported, 340; superstitious
customs, 340; ox-worship, 341 ; Govis,
ib.\ no horses bred, 342, 350^ ; other
customs, 342 ; mode of arrest for debt,
343. 350^^ ; great heat, 343 ; regard
for omens, 344, 351^; astrology,
treatment of boys, 344 ; birds, girls
consecrated to idols, 345, 35i«;
customs in sleeping, 346, 352;^ ; ships
at Madagascar, 412

Macartney's Map, i. 173?^, 292^/

Macgregor, Sir C, "Journey through
Khorasan," i. 86w, 89;;

Machin, city of (Canton), ii. 175;/

Machin, Mahachin (Great China), used
by Persian writers as synonymous with
Manzi, ii. 35^, 144^, 175;?

Maclagan, Major-General (R.E.), i.
105??, 155;?

Madagascar (Madeigascar), ii. 411, 413;/;
confused with Magadoxo, 414;/. ; ety-
mology, 4i.4«; traces of ancient Arab
colonisation, 414;?

Madai, Madavi, Maudoy, ii, 387;/, 388;?

Madjgars, ii. 491^2-492;?

Madar-Des, Eastern Panjab, i. \o\n

Madras, ii. 355;?, 403??

Madura, ii. 333;?, 334^, 335/2 *

Maestro, or Great Bear, said to be in-
visible in Sumatra, ii. 292, 296;?

Magadha, ii. 356^

Magadoxo, confused with Madagascar,
ii. 414??

Magapatana, near Ceylon, ii. 283;?

Magi, the three, i. 78-80 ; legend as told
by Mas'udi, 82;/ ; source of fancies
about, 82;z ; names assigned to, 83^2

Magic, of Udyana, i. 164/2 ; Lamaitic,
301, 3I4«. {See also Sorcerers.)

Magical darkness (dry fog and dust
storms), i. 98, 105;?

Magnet, Mount, ii. 418/2

Magyars, ii. 49i;2-492;2

Mahar Amlak, king of Abyssinia, ii. 436/2

Mahavan, ii. 426/2

Mahmiid Kalhati, prince of Hormuz, i.

I2I/2

Mahmud of Ghazni, i. 106/2

Mahmudiah Canal, ii, 439/2

Mahomed (Mahommet), his account of
Gog and Magog, i. 56/2 ; his Paradise,
140 ; his alleged prophecy of the
Mongols, 265/2 ; his use of mangonels,
ii. 164/2

Mahomed, supposed worship of idols of,
i. 189/2

H., uses the old engines of war, ii.

163/2, 166/2

Tarahi, i. 106/2

Tughlak of Delhi, his copper token

currency, 429/2

Shah of Malacca, ii. 282/2

Mahomedan revolts in China, ii. 29/2,
74/2, 8o/2

conversion of Malacca, 282/2

conversion of states in Sumatra, 284,

288/2, 294/2, 295/2, 30o;2-303/2

butchers in Kashmir, i. 167

butchers in Maabar, ii. 342

king of Kayal, 374/2

merchants at Kayal, 372/2

settlements on Abyssinian coast,

434«
Mahomedans (Saracens), i. 414, 418 ;
in Turcomania, 43 ; in and near
Mausul, 60 ; their universal hatred of
Christians, 68, 72 ; in Tauris, 75 ; in
Persia, 84; their hypocrisy about
wine, '^'jjt ; at Yezd, 88 ; Hormuz,
108 ; Cobinan, 125 ; Tonocain, 128 ;
Sapurgan, 149 ; Taican, 153 ; Badakh-
shan, 157; Wakhan, etc., 170; Kash-
gar, 180; strife with Christians in
Samarkand, 183 ; Yarkand, 187 ;
Khotan, 188; Pein, 191; Charchan,
194 ; Lop, 196 ; Tangut, 203 ; Chin-
gintalas, 212; Kanchau, 219, 263;
Sinju, 274; Egrigaia, 281 ; Tenduc,
their half-breed progeny, 284 ; in
northern frontier of China, alleged
origin of, 288/2 : their gibes at
Christians, 343 ; Kublai's dislike of,
420, 422/2 ; in Yun-nan, ii. 66, 67/2,
74/2 ; in Champa, 268/2 ; in Sumatra,
284, 288/2, 294/2, 295/2, 300/2, 303/2 ;
troops in Ceylon, 314; pilgrims to-
Adam's Peak, 319 ; honour St.
Thomas, 353 ; in Kesmacoran, 401 ;
in Madagascar, 411; in Abyssinia,

427 ; in Aden, 428, 438 ; outrage by,

428 se^^. ; at Esher, 442 ; Dufar, 444;
Calatu, 449 ; Hormuz, 452 ; Ahmad
Sultan one, 467

Mailapur (Shrine of St. Thomas), ii. 355/2

Maiman, i. 86/2

Maistr^, the word, ii. 296/2

Maitreya Buddha, ii. 330/2

Majapahit, empire of (Java), ii, 275/2

Majar (Menjar), ii, 491/2

Major, R. H,, on Australia, ii. 280/2

Makdashan, see Magadoxo

Malabar, Melibar, Malibar, Manibar, ii.

389, 390; fleets, 389; products, 389,

390/2 ; imports, Chinese ships in, 390,

391/2
Malacca, ii. 281;^ ; foundation of, 282/2 ;.

chronology, 282/2

INDEX

marsden's

639

Malacca, Straits of, ii. 281^2

Malaiur, island and city, ii. 280, 28i«,
283^, 305-3o6«

Mai- Amir, or Aidhej, i. 85^

Malasgird, i, 145/2

Malay Peninsula, ii. 277;? ; invasion of
Ceylon, 215/2 ; chronicle, 279?/, 282W,
287^, 288«, 294;/, 300;^ ; language,
286« ; origin of many geographical
names, 314"

Malayo, or Tana Malayu, ii. 28i«, 283^

Malcolm, Sir John, ii. 351/2

Maldive Islands, ii. 425/2

Male in Burma, ii. 113/2

Male and Female Islands, ii. 401, 404
seqq.', legend widely diffused, 405/2-
406/2, 415/2

Malifattan, ii. 333/2

Malik al Dhahir, king of Samudra, ii.
288/2, 294/2

al Mansiir, ii. 288/2, 294/2

al Salih, king of Samudra, ii. 28S/2,

294/2, 295/2

Kafur, ii. 333/2

Malli, the, i. 93/2

Malpiero, Gasparo, 4

Malte-Brun, 112^ i. 86/2, ii. 602/2

Malwa, ii. 426/2, 427/2

Mamaseni, i. 85/2

Mamre, tree of, i. 131/2, 132/2, 135/2

Man, barbarians, ii. 60/2, 123/2, 144/2, 228/2

Man, Col. Henry, ii. 308/2, 312/2

Manchu dynasty, i. 29/2

Mancopa, ii. 300/2, 305/2

Mandale in Burma, ii. 329/2

Mandarin language, ii. 243/2

Mangalai, third son of Kublai, 21, i. 361/2,
ii. 24; his palace, 24, 25, 31/2

Mangalore, ii. 386/2

Mangla and Nebila Islands, ii. 405/2

Mangonels made by Polos for attack of
Saianfu, ii. 159; etymology, 164/2; ac-
count of, 168/2; a barbarous lubricant
for, 180/2

Mangu (Mangku, Mongu) Khan, Kublai's
elder brother, 10, 11, i. 8/2, 14/2, 61/2,
103/2, 146/2, 210, 227/2, ii. 32/2, 42,
46/2 ; his death, i. 245/2 ; reign,
massacre at his funeral, 246, 250/2,
334/2

Mangu-Temur (Mungultemur), ii. 491,
496, 497/2

Manjanik (Manjaniki), ii. 164/2

Kumgha, ii. 168/2

Manjanikis (Mangonellas), ii. 168/2. [See
Mangonels.)

Manji, see Manzi

Manjushri, Bodhisatva, ii. 265/2

Manphul, Pandit, i. 154/2, 156/2, 160/2,
162/2, 163/2

Mansur Shah, i. 25/2

Mantze, Man-tzu, Mantszi, Aborigines,
ii. 60/?, 64/;, 144/2

Manuel, Comnenus, Emperor, i. 82/2
Manufactures, Kublai's, i. 412, 415/2
Manuscripts of Polo's Book, 81 seqq., go

seqq. ii. 526/2-552/2
Manzi (Facfur), king of, i. 36, ii. 145,

148 ; his flight, 146 ; his charity,

147, 207-208 ; his effeminacy, 147 ; his
death, 148 ; his palace at Kinsay, 191-
192, 206-207. {See Faghfur.)

(Mangi) province, j, ii. 10; White

City of the Frontier, 33, 34/2, 36, 49,
139, 141, 144/2, 151, 176; entrance
to, 142, 152; conquest of, 145-146,

148, 158, 178; character of the
people, 181, 204; its nine kingdoms,
1200 cities and squares, 190, 213 ; its
bamboos, 219 ; no sheep in, 219 ;
dialects, 236, 243/2 ; called Chin,
264, 265/2 ; ships and merchants in
India, 386, 390, 391/2

queen of, surrenders, ii. 146, 150/2 ;

her report of Kinsay, 185

Map, constructed on Polo's data, log,
no ; Hereford, 7^7 ; Roger Bacon's,
j^2 ; Marino Sanudo's, /jj; Medicean,
1J4 ; Catalan, 75-5, jj6 ; Fra Mauro's,
ijS ; Ruysch's, /J5 ; Mercator's, /j/ ;
Sanson's, ijy

Mapillas, or Moplahs, ii. 372/2, 380/2

Maps, allusions to, in Polo's book, ii.
245/2, 312, 424; early mediaeval, 132',
of the Arabs, ij2 ; in the palace at
Venice, no

Marabia, Maravia, Maravi, ii. '^2>6n-2)^'jn

Marah Silu, ii. 294/2

Maramangalam, site of Kolkhoi, ii. 373/2

Marash, i. 23/2

Maratha, ii. 426/2

Mardin (Merdin), i. 60, 62n

Mare's milk, see Kumiz

Margaritone, i. 22/2

Marignolli, John, ii. 23/2, 144/2, 180/2,
193/2, 194/2, 213/2, 239/2, 321/2, 356/2,

358^^
Market days, i. 154/2, ii. 106, 107/2
Markets in Kinsay, ii. 201, 202
Squares in Kinsay, ii. 201, 210/2,

213/2
Marks of Silver, i. 83, ii. 394, 591/2
Marriage customs in Khotan, i. 191,

193/2

customs in Kanchau, 1. 220, .223/2

customs of the Tartars, 252-253,

256/2
(posthumous) amongst Tartars 267,

268/2
laxities of different peoples, i. 191,

193/2
"laxities in Thibet, ii. 44, /\&n, 53-54,

56/2, 66, 'j6n
Mar Sarghis, ii. 157/2, 177
Marsden's edition of Polo, iij and

passim

640

INDEX

MIOUS

Marlin, Dr. Ernest, of PVench Legation

at Pekin, ii. 93;?
Martini, ii. 5«, 15;/, 29^, 32^, 35;/, 137^,

znn, 22Sn, 229^, 237^; his A//as

Sinensis, i. 42^, ii. 6gn ; his account

ofKinsay, ii. 2ipi a.nd/>assun
Martyrs, Franciscan, ii. 396/2
Masdlak-al-Absdry i. ^n S6n, ii. 214,

348«
Mashhad (Meshed), or Varsach River,

i. I son, I55«, is6n, 193;?
Mashiz, i. 92/2
Maskat, ii. 451;?
Mastiff Dogs, Keepers of the, i. 400,

401 f I
Mastiffs of Tibet, see Dogs
Mastodon, bogged, ii. 290;^
Mas'ud II., Ghiath ed-din-Seljuk

dynasty, i. 44;^
Mas'udi, i. 53?? 59;?, 62;?, 82;?, 99;;
Masulipatam, ii. 363^
Matchlocks, manufacture at Kerman, i.

90 ; at Taianfu, ii. 15;?
Ma-t'eu (Matu), ii. 139/2
Mati Dhivaja, see Bashpah Lama
Matitanana, ii. 41491
Matityna (Martinique), ii. 405;^
Matzner, Eduard, ii. 60191
Maundevile, Sir John (John a Beard),

on lying in water, i. 11 gn, 604/2 ;

Cloths of Tartary, 295/2 ; Trees of the

Sun, 130/2 ; Dry Tree, 131/2 ; his Book

of Travels, ii. 598/2, 605/2 ; English

version, 601/2 ; his tomb, 604/2
Maung Maorong, or Pong, Shan kingdom,

ii. 79/2, 113/2
Mauro, Era, his map, i. 6, 133, ii. 128/2
Mausul (Mosul), kingdom of, i. 46, 60,

61/2, 62/2
Mativenu (Malvennez), the phrase, ii.

21/2, 473/2
Mayers, W. F., ii. 150/2, 596/2
Mayhew, A. L., on Coiwade, ii. 93/2
Mazanderan, province, i. 59/2
Mecckino, Ginger, ii. 381/2
Medressehs at Sivas, i. 45/2
Mekhitar, i. 45/2
Mekong River (Lan-tsang kiang), ii. 88/2,

128/2, 278/2
Mekran, often reckoned part of India,

ii. 402/2, 403/2, 405/2
Mekranis, i. 106/2

Melchior, one of the Magi, i. 'j'^, 82/2
Melibar, see Malabar
Melic, the title, ii. 449, 450, 470/2
Melons, dried, of Shibrgan, i. 149, 150/2
Menangkabau, ii. 286/2, 301/2
Mendoza, i. 8/2
Menezes, Duarte, ii. 358/2
Mengki, envoy to Java, ii. 75/2
Menjar (Majar?), ii. 490, 491/2
Menuvair and Grosvair, ii. 4S3/2
INIerghuz Boiriik Khan, ii. 19/2

Merkit (Mecrit, Mescript), a Tartar tribe,

i. 236/2, 269, 271/2
Meshid (more correctly Mashhad), i. 150/2

^ss^h 156?^ 193^'

Messengers, Royal Mongol, i. 36/2

Mexico, ii. 405/2

Meyer, Paul, Alexandre le Grand, i.
56/2

Miafarakain, i. 68/2

Miau-tzu, ii. 82/2

Mien, Amien, Ava (Burma), king of, his
battle with Tartars, ii. 98/2 ; City of,
99/2, 109 ; its gold and silver towers,
no ; how it was conquered, no, 111/2;
communications and war with Mongols,
104 ; Chinese notices, 104/2

Mikado, ii. 262

Military engines of the Middle Ages,
dissertation on, ii. 161/2 ; two classes,
1 6 1/2 ; Tribuchets, 161/2, 163/2, 164/2 ;
Balista, i6in ; shot used, carrion,
live men, bags of gold, 163/2 ;
Mangonel, i6yi, 169/2 ; Napoleon's
experiments with heavy shot, 164/2,
165/2; size and accuracy, 165/2; length
of range (Sanudo on), 166/2 ; effect of
Mangonel on Saracens, 166/2 ; procured
by Kiiblaifor siege of Siang-yang, 167/2;
Chinese and Persian histories on, 167/2-
169/2 ; known to Mongols and Chinese,
168/2; the Karabugha, or Calabi-a,
168/2 ; the P'ao, 169/2

Milk, portable, or curd, i. 262, 265/2,

Milk, rite of sprinkling Mare's, i. 300,
309/2,411

Million, use of the numeral, 67, ii. 215,
217/2

Millione, Millioni, nickname for Polo
and his book, 6, S4, 119^ ii' 217/2

Millioni, Corte del, 4

Milne, ii. 222/2

Minao district, i. I10/2, 114/2

Mines and Minerals, see Iron, Silver, etc.

Minever, see Menuvair

Ming, the Chinese dynasty which ousted
the Mongols, a.d. 1368, i. 29/2, ii. 15/2,
238/2 ; their changes in Peking, i. 342/2 ;
their paper-money, 427/2 ; their effem-
inate customs, ii. 20 ; expeditions to
India, 392/2 ; annals, 413/2, 439^,

Mingan, Khan's Master of Hounds, i.

400
Ming-ti, Emperor, i. 347/2
Minjan, dialect of, i. 160/2
Minotto, Professor A. S., 6, ii. 511/2
Min River (in Fokien), ii. 228/2, 230/2,

233/2, 234/2
River (in Szech'wan), ii. 40/2, 70/2,

130/2
Mint, the Khan's, i. 423
Mintsing-hien, ii, 230/2
Mious River, ii. 488/2

MIRACLE

INDEX

MUNGUL-TEMUR

641

Miracle Stories, fish in Lent, i. 52-

57« ; Mountain moved, 68-73 > ^t*

Barsamo's girdles, 77 ; Iloly Fire, 80 ;

Stone at Samarkand, 185 ; at St.

Thomas' Shrine, ii. 354, 356^ 358W
Mfrat, ii. 426W

Mire, French for leech, i. 8i«
Mirkhond, ii. 180/2
Mirobolans, ii. 388^
Miskdl, a weight, i. 353^, ii. 4i«, 217W,

592/z. {See also Saggio.)
Misri, sugar-candy, ii. 230;/
Missionary Friars, powers conferred on,

i. 22, lyi ; in China in r4th century,

140, ii. 154/2, 237W, 240W

Martyrs, i. 312^, ii. 396/2

Moa of New Zealand, ii. 417/2, 418/2

Modhafiferians, the, i. 86/2

Modun Khotan (" Wood-ville"), i. 408/2

Moghistan, i. 11 0/2

Mohammed, son of Yusuf Kelefi, founder

of Shiraz, i. 85/2
Mohammerah, ii. 444/2
Mohiuddin, i. 24/2
Mokli, the Jelair, ii. 462/2
Molayu, ii. 283/2
Molebar, see Malabar
Molephatan, ii. 426/2
Moliere, Pastorale Comique, i. 341/2
Moluccas, ii. 265/2
Mombasa, ii. 424/2
Momein, ii. 57/2, 80/2, 81/2
Monasteries of Idolaters (Buddhists), i.

167, 219, 286/2, 303, 319/2, ii. 171,

174/2, 175, 176/2, 213/2
Money, paper, i. 423-425, 426/2-430/2

values, i. 426/2, ii. 590/2-592/2

Mongol conquests, g, lo; capture Soldaia,

i. 4/2 ; Bolghar, 7/2, 8/2 ; treachery and

cruelty, 61/2, 151/2, 265/2, ii. 181/2 ;

their inroads, i. 105/2; Bakh city, 151/2 ;

invade Balakhshan, 161/2 ; invasion of

Poland and Silesia, ii. 493/2
Mongon Khan, see Mangu
Mongotay (Mangkutai), a Mongol officer,

ii. 136, 138/2
Monkeys, ii. 285, 382, 431 ; passed off as

pygmies, 285, 383/2-385/2
Monks, idolatrous, i. 303. {See Monas-
teries.)
Monnier, Marcel, his visit to Karakorum,

i. 230/2 ; on the Ch'eng-tu Suspension

Bridge, ii. 41/2
Monoceros and Maiden, legend of, ii.

285, 291/2
Monophysitism, i. 61/2
Monsoons, 3j, ii. 264-265
Montecorvino, John, Archbishop of

Cambaluc, i. 1 17/2, 287/2, 289/2, 346/2,

ii. 180/2
Monte d'Ely, ii. 386/2, 387/2
Montgomerie, Major T. G. (R.E.)

(Indian Survey), on fire at great alti-

VOL. II.

tudes, i. 178/2; position of Kashgar

and Yarkund, 182/2
Monument at Si-ngan fu. Christian, ii.

27/2, 28/2
Moon, Mountains of the, ii. 415/2, 420/2,

421/2
Moore, Light of the Harem ^ i. 115/2 ,
Moplas, see Mapillas
Morgan, E. Delmar, i, 176/2, 198/2,

207/2
Mortagne, siege of, ii. 165/2
Morus alba, silk-worm tree, ii. 25/2
Moscow, Tartar Massacre at, ii. 493/2
Mosolin, or Muslin (Mosolini), Mo-sze,

Arab Mau9ili, i. 60, 62/2, ii. 363/2, 408/2
Mossos, a tribe, ii. 60/2, 63/2
Mosta'sim Billah, last Abbaside Khalif

of Baghdad, story of his avarice and

death, i. 63-64, 67/2
Mostocotto, i. 87/2

Mosul (Mausul), i. 46, 60, 61/2, 62/2
Motapalle, see Mutfili
Motawakkil, Khalif, i. 131/2
Moule, Bishop G. E., ii. 194/2- 198/2,

209/2-213/2, 215/2
Mount, Green, in Palace grounds at

Peking, i. 365, 370/2, 372/2,

St Thomas, ii. 356/2, 358/2

D'Ely, see Monte d'Ely

Mountain, Old Man of the, see Old Man

of the

Miracle of the, i. 68-73

Road in Shensi, extraordinary, ii.

32/2
Mourning customs, at Hormuz, i. 109 ;

in Tangut, 204 ; at Kinsay, ii. 191 ;
Mozambique Channel, ii. 415/2
Muang, term applied in Shan countries

(Laos and W. Yunnan) to fortified

towns, as : —
Muang-Chi, ii. 67/2

Muang, or Maung Maorong, ii. 79/2, 1 1 3/2
Muang Shung, ii. 120/2
Muang Yong, ii. 57/2, 117/2, I28/2
Mulahidah (Mulehet, Alamut, Chinese

Mulahi), epithet of Ismaelites, i. 139,

141/2, 142/2, 146/2
Mulberry Trees, i. 423, ii. 13, 24
Mul-Java, ii. 349/2
Miiller, F. W. K., ii. 89/2
Muller, Professor Max, i. 65/2 ; on

Couvade, ii. 93/2 ; on stories of Buddha

and St. Josafat, 323/2, 325/2, 326/2, 328/2
Multan, ii. 426/2
Miinal pheasant {Lopophoriis iuipeyanus),

described by ^lian, i. 280/2
Mung {Nicaea\ i. 104/2
Mungasht, hill fort, stronghold of the

Atabegs, i. 85/2
Mungul, name applied to Tartars, i. 285.

{See Mongol.)
Mungul-Temur and Mongo-Temur, see

Mangu-Temur

2 S

642

MURAD BEG

INDEX

NICOLAS

Murad Beg, of Kunduz, i. I56«, i6in,

i63«
Murghab River, i. 172^, ly^n
Murray, Dr. J. A. H., on Coiivade^ ii. 93^
Hugh, ii. I33«, I4i«, I75«, 208;/,

2I2W, 486;?
Murus Ussu (-Brius, Upper Kiang), ii. d'jn
Mus, Merdin (Mush, Mardin), i. 60, 62«
Musa'ud, Prince of Hormuz, i. I20«,

12IW
Musk, animal (Moschus), i. 275, 279^,

364, ii. 34, 35«, 45, 54
earliest mention of and use in

medicine, i. 279^
Muslin, see Mosolin
Mutfili (Motapalle for Telingana), ii.

359, 362^, 403;?, 424 ; its diamonds,

360-361, 362;?; identified, 362;^
Muza, ii. 408^
Mynibar, ii. 426^
Mysore, ii. 427^
Mystic number, see Numbers

Nac, Nasich, Naques (Nakh), a kind of
brocade, i. 63, 65;?, 285, 295;?

Nachetti, silk stuff interwoven with gold,
i. d^n

Nakkut, gold brocade, i. 65^2

Nakkara (Naccara, Nacaires), the great
kettledrum signalling action, i. 338,
339/Z-34IW, ii. 461

Ndkshatra, ii. 368;?

Nalanda, i. 306^

Nan-Chao, formerly Ai- Lao, Shan dynasty
in Yun-nan, ii. 73^, 79W

Nancouri, ii. 308^

Nanghin (Ngan-king), ii. 154, 157, \']in

Nangiass, Mongol name of Manzi, ii.
144/*

Nankau, archway in Pass of, with poly-
glot inscription, i. 28^

Nanking, not named by Polo, ii. 158;/

Nanwuli, ii. 301??

Naobanjan, i. 85^

Naoshirwan, i. 53;?

Naphtha in the Caucasian country, i. 46,

Fire used in w^ar by the Karaunahs,

i. \o\n

Napier, Sir C, i. 147^2

Napoleon III., his researches and ex-
periments on mediaeval engines of war,
ii. 164^, i65«

Narikela-Dvipa, ii. 307^

Narin-Kaleh, fortress, i. 53/2

Narkandam, volcanic island, ii. 312/2

Narsinga, King of, ii. 347?^

Narwhal tusk, mediaeval Unicorn's Horn,
ii. 29 1 «

Nasich, see Nac

Nasruddin (Nescradin), officer in the
Mongol Service, ii. loi, 104^, iiiw,

Nassir-uddin, Mahmud, Sultan of Delhi,

Natigay, Tartar idol, i. 257, 258^, 456,
479

Nava-Khanda, or Nine Divisions of
Ancient India, i. 104«

N^vapa (Lop?), i. 197^

Naversa (ancient Anazarbus), in Cilicia,
under Taurus, i. 58^

Nayan, Kubldi's kinsman, his revolt, i.
333> 334^ ; Kubldi marches against,
335 ; routed in battle, 337 ; put to
death by Kublai, 343

Nearchus at Hormuz, i. i \^n

Nebila and Mangla islands, ii. 405«

Nebuchadnezzar, i. 52;^

Necklaces, precious, ii. 338, 346^

Necuveran, see Nicobar

Negapatam, Chinese Pagoda at, ii. 336;/

Negroes described, ii. 422

Negropont, i. 18, 19^, 36

Nellore, ii. 333/?

Nemej, Niemicz ("Dumb"), applied to
Germans by Slavs, ii. 493W

Nerghi, Plain of, ii. 499

Neri (pigs), ii. 2.\on

Nescradin, see Nasruddin

Nesnds (a goblin), i. 202n

Nestorian Christians, at Mosul, i. 46, 60,
dm ; Tauris, 75 77^ ; Kashgar, 182 ;
Samarkand, 182, i86w ; Yarkand,
187 ; Tangut, 203, 207;/ ; Kamul,
iiin-, Chingintalas, 212; Sukchur,
217; Kampichu, Kan-chau, 219; their
diffusion in Asia, 237^ ; among the
Mongols, 241, 243^; Erguiul and
Sinju, 274 ; Egrigaia, 281 ; Tenduc,
284, 285, 287^2 ; China, 291;? ; Yachi,
or Yun-nan fu, ii. 66, 74«; Cacanfu,
132; Yang-chau, 154^; one in Polo's
suite, 159; churches at Chinghianfu,
177; church at Kinsay, 192; at St.
Thomas, 358;? ; Patriarch of, 377/2,
407 ; Metropolitan, 377/2, 409/2

Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
i. 61/2

Nevergun Pass, i. 112/2

New Year Festival at Kublai's Court, i.
390

Neza Tash Pass, i. 172/2

Ngan-king (Nanghin), ii. 154, 157, 171/2

Ngan-ning-ho River, ii. 69/2

Ngantung, J^Iongol general, ii. 462/2

Ngo-ning, or Ho-nhi, ii. 120/2, 1 2 1/2

Nia (ancient Ni-jang), in Khotan, i. 195/2

Nias Island, ii. 298/2

Nibong Palm, ii. 305/2

Nicaea of Alexander, i. 105/2

Nicholson, Edward B., ii. 604/2

Nicobar (Necuveran) Islands, ii. 306,
307/2, 315/2; etymology and people,
308/2

Nicolas of Pistoia, ii. 356/2

NICOLAS

INDEX

ORGANA

64,

Nicolas, Christian name of Ahmad Sultan,

ii. 468;?

Friar, of Vicenza, i. 22

Nicolas IV., Pope, ii. 474;?

Nieuhoff, ii. 139;?, 14171

Nigudar (Nogodar), Mongol princes, i.

98, I02n
Nigudarian bands, i. 98, I02n, I2in,

164U
Nilawar (Nellore), ii. 333?^
Nile, sources of, ii. 41 5«, 438, 439;z
Nileshwaram, ii. 388;^
Nimchah Musulmdn, " Half-and-Halfs,"

.i. 155^^ .
Nine, auspicious number among Tartars,

'}• 390j 392^2
Nine Provinces (India), i. 104;? (China),

ii. 190, 199;/
Ning-hsia, or hia (Egrigaia), i. 282;?, ii.

23«

Ningpo, ii. 224;?

Ning-yuan fu, ii. 69^, ^on

Niriz, steel mines of, i. 86«, 92;/

Nirvana, figures of Buddha in, i. 22in

Nishapiir, i. 150;^

Niuche (Yuche), Chinese name for the

Churches or race of Kin Empire, 12,

i. 22>n, 2T,in
Noah's Ark in Armenia, i. 46, 49;?
Nobles of Venice, 14; Polo's claim to

be one, ib.
Nochdarizari, mountains north of Kabul,

i. I02n
Nogai Khan, ii. 496 ; his intrigues and

wars, 496-497 ; his history, 497« ;

wars with Toctai, 498
Nogodar (Nigudar), King of the Carao-

nas, story of, i. 98
Nomad tribes of Persia, i. 87;?
Nomogan (Numughan), Kublai's son, i.

361;?, ii. 460, 462/?
None, Nono^ Nuna, title given to

younger brothers or subordinate

princes, i. 171, iT^n
North, regions of the Far, ii. 479
North Star, see Pole-Star
Note Book, Polo's, ii. 193??
Novgorod, ii. 489//
Nubia, St. Thomas in, ii. 355 ; alleged

use of elephants in, 434^
Nukdaris, tribe west of Kabul, i. I02n
Nuksan Pass, i. 165?^
Numbers, mystic or auspicious, ii. io8«,

347;z; %ine, i. 390, 392//; one hundred

and eight, ii. 347«
Nuna, see None
Nusi-Ibrahim, ii. 414W
Nutmegs, ii. 272, 309;?
Nyuche, or Churche, race of Kin

Emperors, see Niuche.

Oak of Hebron, see Terebinth
Oaracta (Kishm, or Brakht), i. ii5«

VOL. II.

Obedience of Ismaelites, extraordinary,
i. I44«

Obi River, ii. 481??, 484;?

Observatory at Peking, i. 378;?, 449^

Ocean Sea, i. 107, 270, ii. 3, 22, 36, 56,
146, 153, 189, 237^z, 251, 487 ; other
seas, parts of, 265

Ocoloro Island, ii. 406;^

Odoric, Friar, 777, i. 49;^, 59;?^ 76«,
8i;z, 89^, now, 117;/, 202«, 288«,
314;^, 37o;z, 375«, 384;/, 385^, 426^,
437^«, 441 «, \i- 237«, 599?z, 6o2n,
60411; on Kinsay, 2i2n ; on Fu-
chau, 232;? ; Zayton, 237/2 ; Java,
263;?, 275« ; Champa, 2'jin; Sumatra,
294/2, 297/2 ; on sago tree, 304/2 ; on
products of Ceylon, 315/2; St.
Thomas's, 358/2; Pepper Forest, 377/2;
brazil-wood, 380/2 ; Thana, 396/2

Oger, the Dane, i. 131/2

Ogotai Khan, see Okkodai

Oil from the Holy Sepulchre, i. 14, 19,
26 ; fountain of (Naphtha) at Baku,
46, 49/2; whale, 108, 1 17/2

head (Capidoglio, or Sperm whale),

ii. 411, 414/2

walnut and Sesame, 158, 162/2

Oirad, or Uirad (Horiad), a great Tartar
tribe, i. 300, 308/2

Okkodai Khan, third son of Chinghiz, 10,
i. 65/2, 2o6/2, 227/2, 228/2, 236/2, 247/2,

Olak, lUuk, Aulak, see Lac

Old Man of the Mountain (Aloadin),

124, 127, i. 139-146 ; his envoys to

St. Lewis, 47/2; account of, 139;

how he trained his Assassins, 142 ; the

Syrian, 144 ; his subordinate chiefs,

143, 145/2 ; his end, 145 ; modern

representative, 147/2
Oljaitu Khan, his correspondence with

European princes, i. 14/2, 36/2, 362/2 ;

his tomb, ii. 478/2
Oman, ii. 348/2, 452/2
Omens, much regarded in Maabar, ii.

344, 351/2; by the Brahmans, 364,

368/2, 369/2
Onan Kerule, near Baikal, i. 236/2
Ondanique (fine kind of steel), Andaine,

Andanicum, Hundwanfy, i. 90, 93/2,

125/2; in Kerman, 90 ; Chingintalas,

212, 215/2
Oppert, Dr, Gustavus, Book on Prester

John, Der Presbyter Johannes in Sage

und Geschichte, i. 231/2-233/2, 235/2,

236/2, 245/2, 288/2
Orang Gugu, ii. 301/2
Orang Malayu River, ii. 28 1 /2
Or Batuz, i. 388/2
Orbelian, John, identified by Bruun with

Prester John, i. 233/2-235/2
Ordos, the Mongols of, i. 249/2
Organa (Jerun), Persian Gerun, i. 115/2

2 8 2

644

ORIENTAL

INDEX

Oriental phrases in Polo's dictation, 84.
Orissa, ii. 426^
Orkhon River, i. 227;/
Orleans, defence of, ii. 165^

Isle d', ii. 277W

Orloks, or Marshals of the Mongol Host,

i. 263, ii. 462^
Oroech, ii. 487, 489^
Oron, Mongol for a region or realm, i.

I04«
Orphani, strange customs of the, ii. 298//
Osci, the word, ii. 350;?
Ostriches, ii. 431, 437«
Ostyaks, ii. 484^
Otto, Bishop of Freisingen, i. 233;/,

234«
Oulatay (Uladai), Tartar envoy from

Persia, i. 32, 33;?
Ovis Poll, see Sheep
Oweke, see Ucaca
Owen, Professor, ii. /^ijn
Owen, Rev. Gray, on the Lolos, ii. 6gn
Owo, Mongol for Musk, i. 279;?
Oxen, humped, in Kerman, i. 97, 9972 ;

wild, shaggy (Yaks), 274, 2j'jn
wild {Beyatnini), in East Tibet, ii.

50; Burma, ill, 1147/; in Bengal, 115,

Ii6«; Anin, 119; worshipped, 341,

365* 3707Z ; figures of, worn, 365,

37o«
Oxenham, Atlas y i. 433//, ii. I2/^, 14^,

67«, I57«
Oxydracae, the, i. 93;/
Oxyrhynchus, ii. 434^
Oxus Valley and River, i. 152^, i6in,

I72«, l^2>n, ii. 594W
Ozene, ii. 397??

Pacamuria (Baccanor), ii. 386^

Pacauta ! (an invocation), ii. 338, 346;?

Pacem, see Pasei

Paddle-wheel barges, ii. 211;/

Paderin, Mr., visits Karakorum, i. 228«

Padishah Khatun of Kerman, i. 9172

Padma Sambhava, i. 164W

Pagan (in Burma), ii. loo;^, io7«, 109/7,

11377, 11472; ruins at, /j ; empire of,

ii. 27977

Old (Tagaung), ii. 10777, 11377

Pagaroyang, inscriptions from, ii. 28677

Paggi Islands, ii. 29877

Pagodas, Burmese, ii. no, 11477;

alleged Chinese in India, 33677-

337^^» 39i«
Pahang, ii. 27977
Pai, or Peyih tribe, ii. 6077, 12077
Paipurth (Baiburt), i. 46, 4977
Pai-yen-ching, ii. 5877
Faizah, or Golden Tablet of Honour, i.

352«, 353'^

and Yarligh, i. 32277, 35272

Pakwiha, China ware, ii. 24377
Pala, a bird, ii. 35 1«

Palace of Khan at Chagannor, i. 296 ;
at Chandu (Shangtu), 298 ; of cane,
299; at Langlin, 306; Cambaluc,
362 ; on Green Mount, 370 ; at
Kenjanfu (Si-ngan fu), ii. 24, 29« ; of
the Empire of Manzi at Kinsay, 191,
192, 206, 21277; in Chipangu, paved
and roofed with gold, 253, 25677, 27577

Palembang, ii. 28177, 28377

Paliolle, Or de, for gold dust, ii. 52^

Palladius, the Archimandrite, i. 18777,
19877, 21577, 22577, 22777, 24877, 25177,
25672, 27077, 27677, 27977, 28277, 28777,
28877, 29177, 30477, 30677, 30877, 31077,
31977, 32777, 33477, 33677, 34477-34777,
35877, 38977, 39777, 40277, 40777, 40877,
43072, 45672, 46177, ii. 17877

Palm (Measure), ii, 59277

Palm Wine, see Wine of Palm

Pamier (Pamir), Plain of, i. 171 ; its wild
sheep, 171, 17672; great height, 17477;
pasture, etc., 17477, 17577 ; described
by Hiuen Tsang, Wood, Goes,
Abdul Mejid, Colonel Gordon and
others, 17477- 1 7677; Dr. M. A. Stein
on, ii. 593^^-594^ ; Lord Curzon on
number of, 59477

Pan-Asiatic usages, i. 32477, 32677, ii.
359«

Pandarani, or Fandaraina, ii. 38672, 39172

Pandit Manphul, i. 16277, 16372, 17372,
15477-15677, 16077, i6i77, 42277, 43872

Pandrethan in Kashmir, Buddhist temple
at, i. 167

Pandyan kings, ii. 333^^-335^^5 373^^-374'^

Panja River, or Upper Oxus, i. 170,
1 7277- 1 7477

Panjab, i. 10472

Panjkora, i. 10477

Panjshir, i. 16277, 16577, ii. 48877

Pantaleon, coins of, i. 16377

Panthe, or Mahomedan Kingdom in
Yun-nan, ii. 8072

Panya (or Pengya), in Burma, ii. 1 1 377

Pao-ki h'ien, ii. 3277, 3472

Paonano Pao, i. 17377, ii. 59377

Pape, Papesifu, ii. 11772, 12877

Paper-money (Chao), Kiiblai's made
from bark, i. 423-425, 42677-43077
modern, 42877. {See Aso Currency.)

Papien River, ii. 12877

Paquier, Professor, i. 17277, 18377

Paradise, Apples of, 97, 9977

in legend of the Cross, 13672

of Persia, 1 1477

of the Old Man of the Mountain, i.

140, 142 ; destroyed, 145

Rivers of, 972

Parakrama Bahu I., ii. 334«

Paramisura, founder of Malacca, ii. 28272

Parapomisadae^ ii. 40277

Parasol, i. 35477

Paravas, ii. 37272

INDEX

PICCOLI

645

Parez, Pariz, turquoise mines of, i. 92^

falcons of, 96^

Pariahs {Paraiyar), ii. 228« ; etymology
of, ii. 34 9«

Parker, E. H., i. 263?/, 29 1 w, 312;?, 345??,
360;?, 381;?, 433;/, ii. 6o;?, 74«, 88«,
104;/, 148;?, iSin, i6gn, 207 n ; on
Pasei, 296??

Parlak, or Perlak, see Ferlec

Tanjong, ii. 287^

Parliament, Tartar, ii. 495

Parpa iron mines, i. 93??

Parrot, Professor, first to ascend Mount
Ararat, i. 49^

Parrots, ii. 376, 431

Partridges, i. 88 ; black, 99^, Jiruft\,
liin; great (Chakors), 296, 297/2; in
mew, 298^. (6"^^ also Francolin.)

Parwana, a traitor eaten by the Tartars,
i. 3I2W

Paryan silver mines, i. i62n

Pascal of Vittoria, Friar, i. gn

Pasei, Pacem (Basma), a kingdom of Su-
matra, ii. 284-285, 288«-289«, 292,

296'^, 305^2

Bay of, 296;?

History of, 288;z-289«

Pasha- Afroz, i. 165;/

Pasha and Pashagar tribes, i. l6$n

Pashai, i. 164 ; what region intended,

164, 165;?

Dir, i. 98, I04«

Passo (or Pace), Venetian, ii. 280, 28 iw,

592W
Patarins, heretics, loS, i. 303, 321;/, ii.

342«
Patera, debased Greek, from Badakh-

shan, i. 159, i6ow
Patlam, ii. 337?^
Patra, or Alms-dish of Buddha, ii. 320,

328;? ; miraculous properties, 330/2 ;

Holy Grail of Buddhism, 330/2
Patriarchs of Eastern Christians, i. 60,

6in, ii. 407, 409/2. {See also Catholicos

and Nestorian.)
Patteik-Kara, ii. 99/2, 100/2
Patterns, beast and bird, on silk, etc., i.

66/2, 90, 95, 96/2, 398/2, ii. 424/2
Patu, see Batu
Paukin (Pao-ying), ii. 152
Pauthier, G., remarks on text of Polo,

g2 seqq. , et passim
Paved roads in China, ii. 189, 198/2

streets of Kinsay, ii. 189

Pay an, see Bay an

Payangadi, ii. 387/2

Pa-yi writing, specimen of, ii. 65/2

Peaches, yellow and white (apricots), ii.

202, 210
Peacocks at St. Thomas's, ii. 355 ; special

kind in Coilum, ii. 376
Pearls, i. 60, 107, 350, 387, 390, 394,

424, ii. 338, 373// ; in Caindu, 53, 56/2,

231* 235; rose-coloured in Chipangu,
254, 257/2; fishery of, 331, 332, 337/2,
344. 372^ ; pearls and precious stones
of kingdom of Maabar, 338, 364, 368/1

Pears, enormous, ii. 202, 210/2

Pedir, ii. 289/2

Pedro, Prince of Portugal, no, jj^

Pegu and Bengal confounded, ii. 99/2,
1 15/2, 128/2

Pei-chau (Piju), ii. 141

Pein (Pim), province, i. 191, 192/2; site
of, ii. 595/2

Peking, white pagoda at, ii. 347/2. {See
Cambaluc. )

Pelly, Col. Sir Lewis, British Resident
at Bushire, i. 85/2, 86/2, 110/2, 114/2,
117/2

Pema-ching, ii. 35/2

Pemberton, Captain R., ii. 79/2

Pentam (Bintang), ii. 280/2, 284

Pepper, daily consumption of, at Kinsay,
ii. 204; change in Chinese use of,
210/2 ; great importation at Zayton,
duty on, 235, 242/2 ; white and black,
264, 272 ; in Coilum, 375 ; Eli and
Cananore, 385, 388/2 ; Melibar, 389 ;
Guzerat, 393, 394/2 ; trade in, to Alex-
andria, 235, 389, 438

Pepper Country, ii. 377/2

Peregrine falcons, i. 269, ii. 487

Perla (Ferlec), ii. 287/2

Persia, extent of name to Bokhara, i.
ion ; spoken of, 75, 78 ; three Magi of
78 ; its eight kingdoms, 83

Persia and India, boundary of, ii. 402/2

Persian applied to language of foreigners
at Mongol Court, i. 380/2, ii. 5/2

Persian Gulf (Sea of India?), i. 63, 64/2

Peshawar, ii. 330/2

Peter, Tartar slave of Marco Polo's, 72

Pharaoh's rats (Gerboa), i. 252, 254/2,
ii. 480, 517/2

Phayre, Major-General Sir Arthur, ii.
IOO/2, 105/2, 1 13/2, 1 14/2

Pheasants, large and long tailed, i. 275,
ii. 22, 153 ; Reeves's, i. 280/2

Pheng (the Rukh), ii. 421/2

Phihp the Fair, i. 14/2, 87^

Philip III. and IV. of France, i. 87/2

Philippine Islands, ii. 265/2, 266/2

Phillips, G., ii. 220/2-222/2, 224/2,228/2,
230/2, 232/2, 233/2, 238/2, 239/2, 240/2-
241/2, 278/2, 279/2, 296^, 297/2, 308/2,
314/2, 315/2, 596/2

Phipps, Captain, ii. 373«

Phra Rama, Siamese kings so-called, ii.
278/2

Phungan, Phungan-lu (Fungul ?), ii.
127/2, 129/2

Physician, a virtuous, i. 46l«

Physicians, ii. 203, 376

Pianfu (P'ing-yang fu), ii. 13, 16/2, 25^

Piccoli, ii. 66, 74/2

646

PICHALOK

INDEX

POLO, MARCO

Pichalok, ii. 279«

Pievtsov, General, i. i88« ; expedition,

200W
Pigeon posts, i. 438«
Pig-shells, ii. 85
Piju (Pei-chau), ii. 141
Pilgrimage, to Adam's Sepulchre in

Ceylon, ii. 319 ; to Shrine of St.

Thomas, 353
'• Pillar Road," ii. 32W
Pima (Pim), i. 191, 192^
Pinati, king of Kaulam, ii. 380^
Pine woods in Mongolian desert, i. 224

in South China, ii. 251;/

P'ing-chang, Fanchan, or second class

ISIinister, i. 432^
P'ing-yang fu (Pianfu), ii. 13, i6«, 25;/
Pinna-Cael (Punnei-Kayal), ii. 372/2
Pipino, Friar Francesco, 66, 81, gj,

loj, i. I9«, 22n, 23/2, I44«, 156^,

395;?, ii. i2on, ^lyn
Pirabandi or Bir Pandi (Vira Pandi), ii.

Pirada, ii. 305«

Pirates of Malabar, ii. 389-390;/ ; Guzerat,

392 ; Tana, 395 ; Somnath, 400^ ; So-

cotra, 407, 4ion
Piratical customs at Eli, ii. 385, 390W
Pistachioes, i. 97, ii4n, 125/2, 153, 155/2
Plane, Oriental or Chinar, i. 127, 128//,

i3i^> I35«» 138'^
Piano Carpini, ij, passim
Pog, or Fiag River, i. 54/2
Poison, antidote to, ii. 79
Poisoning guests, custom of, ii. 84/2
Poisonous pasturage, i. 217, 218/2
Poison wind, i. 108, 120/2
Poland, Mongol invasion of, ii. 493/2
Pole, or Jackdaw on Polo's scutcheon.

Pole-star, invisible in Java the Less, ii.
284, 292 ; visible again in India, 382,

389, 392, 397
Police; of Cambaluc, i. 414 ; Kinsay, ii.

187, 188
Politeness of Chinese, i. 457, 462/2
Polo, Andrea, grandfather of Marco, 8,

14, 26
Antonio, illegitimate son of Elder

Marco, 26
Beliela, second daughter, 6g, ji ;

died before 1333, 76, ii. 506/2
Donata, wife of Traveller, 6g, 7/ ;

sale of property to her husband, jo, ii.

507, 512; death between 1333-1336,

76 ', before Council, 77 ; may have

been Loredano, 69, 77, 510/2, 512/2,

518/2, 520/2
or Bragadino, Fantina, eldest

daughter of Traveller, 6g, 71, 76, ii.

506/2, 513/2

Felice, a cousin, 2^, 64

Fiordelisa, wife of last, 2j, 6j

Polo, Fiordelisa, daughter of Mafifeo the

Younger, 77, 64
Maffeo, brother of Nicolo, 14, 75,

64 ; in Kan-chau, i. 220 ; time of death

between 1309 and 131 8, 66

Maffeo, brother of Traveller, 75,

j6', probabilities as to birth, 77, 18,
2^', will of, 26, ii. 510/2; abstract
from, 64-66

Marco, the elder son of Andrea,

Uncle of the Traveller, 14 ; his will,
77, 2S, 26, i. 4, ii. 510/2

Marco, the Traveller, veracity, per-
plexities in his biography, i ; Ramusio's
notices, extracts from, 2 seqq. ; recog-
nition of his names of places, paralleled
with Columbus, j, 705; nicknamed
Millioni, 6, 67 ; story of his capture at
Curzola, 6 ; writes his book in prison
at Genoa, 6 ; release and marriage,
7 ; arms, 7 ; claim to nobility, 14 ;
supposed autograph, ib. ; his birth,
circumstances of, ij ; is taken to East,
j8; employed by Kublai, mentioned
in Chinese Records, 21, see i. 420 ;
mission to Yun-nan, 2t ; governor of
Yang-chau, 22; employed at Kan-chau,
Kara Korum, Champa and Indian
Seas, 22 ; returns home, 2J-24 ; men-
tioned in his Uncle Marco's will, 2_^ ;
commands a galley at Curzola, 46 ;
taken prisoner and carried to Genoa, 48',
his imprisonment there, ^2 ; dictates
his book to Rusticiano, ^2 ; release
and return to Venice, ^2 ; evidence as
to story of capture, SJSS J dying
vindication of his book, 5^ ; executor
to his brother Mafifeo, 64 ; record of
exemption from municipal penalty, 66;
gives copy of book to T. de Cepoy,
68 ; marriage and daughters, 6g ; law-
suit with Paulo Girardo, proceeding
regarding house property, 70 ; illness
and last will, 70-74 ; probable date of
death, 74 ; place of burial, 74 ; pro-
fessed portraits of, 7S-7^ ', alleged
wealth, 77 ; estimate of him and of his
book, 104 seqq. ; true claims to glory,
706 ; faint indications of personality,
707 ; rare indications of humour, jo8 ;
absence of scientific notions, log ; geo-
graphical data in book, log ; his
acquisition of languages, ignorance of
Chinese, deficiencies in Chinese notices,
770 ; historical notices, 777 ; allusions
to Alexander, 77j ; incredulity about
his stories, 775 ; contemporary recog-
nition, 116 seqq. ; by T. de Cepoy,
Friar Pipino, 118', J. d'Acqui, Giov.
Villani, and P. d'Abano, iig ; notice
by John of Ypres, 7.?7 ; borrowings in
poem of Bauduin de Sebourc, 121
seqq. ; Chaucer and, 128', influence

POLO, MARCO

INDEX

POPULATION

647

Polo Marco {contmuect) —

on geography, obstacles to its effect,
J2g ; character of mediaeval cosmo-
graphy, I JO ; Roger Bacon as geo-
grapher, iji ; Arab maps, ij2 ; Marino
Sanudo's map, ijj ; Medicean, IJ4 ;
Carta Catalana largely based on Polo's,
ij^ ; increased appreciation of Polo's
book, ijj ; confusions of nomenclature,
jj6 ; introduction of block-printing
into Europe and Polo, 138-141 ; dic-
tates his narrative, i. 2 ; found at
• Venice, 18; his age, 19??, 22, 26;
noticed and employed by Kiiblai, 27 ;
grows in favour, many missions, 30,
31 ; returns from one to India, 32 ;
escapes from the Karaunas, 99, io6/z ;
hears of breed of Bucephalus, 158 ;
recovers from illness in hill climate,
159 ; hears from Zulficar about Sala-
mander, 213; at Kan-chau, 220; brings
home hair of yak, 274 ; and head and
feet of musk deer, 275 ; witnesses
events connected with Ahmad's death,
420, 422/2 ; noticed in Chinese annals,
422« ; whether he had to do with
Persian scheme of paper currency in
1294, 428;^; sent by Khan into Western
provinces, ii. 3 ; governor of Yang-
chau, 154 ; probable extent of his
authority, 157?^ : aids in constructing
engines for siege of Siang-yang, 159
seqq. ; difficulties as to this statement,
i67« seqq. ; on number of vessels on
Great Kiang, 170 ; ignorant of Chinese,
183 ; on greatness of Kinsay, 185 ; his
notes, I93« ; sent to inspect amount
of revenue from Kinsay, 216 ; his great
experience, 236 ; never in islands of
Sea of Chin, 265 ; in kingdom of
Chamba, 268, 27 1;^; historical anec-
dotes, 270^ ; detained five months in
Sumatra, stockade party against wild
people, 292 ; brings Brazil seed to
Venice, 299 ; partakes of tree-flour
(sago), 300 ; takes some to Venice,
305/2 ; in six kingdoms of Sumatra,
300 ; witnesses arrest for debt in
Maabar, 343 ; his erroneous view of
Arabian coast, no, ii. 452;? ; Indian
geography, 403/2 ; his unequalled
travels, 501 ; Venetian documents
about him, 5 10/2-52 1 ;?

Marco, called Marcolino, son of

Nicolo the Younger, 6^, 77, /<?, ii. 510/2

Marco, last male survivor, c?, y8, yg,

ii. 510/2

Marco, others of this name, 66, 79,

<?o, ii. 508/2, 509/2

Maroca, sister of Nicolo the

Younger, /j-, ^5, i. 4/2

or Delfino, Moreta, youngest

daughter, 6g, 71, 76, ii. 506/2, 513/2

Polo, Nicolo and Maffeo, sons of Andrea,
their first journey, tj" seqq. ; cross
Black Sea to Soldaia, i. 2 ; visit Volga
country, etc., 4; go to Bokhara, 9;
join envoys to Khan's Court, 10 ;
Kublai's reception of, 11 ; sent back
as envoys to Pope, 13 ; receive a
Golden Tablet, 15; reach Ayas, 16;
Acre, 17; Venice, 18; find young
Marco there, ib.

Nicolo, Maffeo and Marco, proceed

to Acre, i. 19; set out for East,
recalled from Ayas, 20 ; set out again
with Pope's letters, etc., 22 ; reach
Kublai's Court, 25 ; are welcomed, 26 ;
see on their journey outward, ig ; their
alleged service in capture of Siang-yang,
22, ii. 158, 159; Khan refuses them
permission to return home, i. 32;
allowed to go with ambassadors, 33 ;
receive Golden Tablets, 34 ; on return
see also 2j, 24 ; story of their arrival at
Venice, 4\ scheme to assert their
identity, 5

Nicolo, his alleged second marriage

and sons, 7, 75 ; probable truth as to
time of, // ; his illegitimate sons, 2^ ;
approximate time of his death, 64',
his tomb, 7, J4

Nicolo the Younger, cousin of

traveller, i^, 2^, 65, i. 4/2

Stefano and Giovannino, illegiti-
mate brothers of Traveller, 2^, jo,

(?), or Trevisano (?), Fiordelisa,

perhaps second wife of Nicolo Polo
the Elder, and mother of Maffeo the
Younger, 77, 2^, 27

or Trevisano, Maria, last survivor

of the family, 8, 78, 79 ; doubts as to
her kindred, 79, ii. 510/2

Family, its duration and end, ac-
cording to Ramusio, 7-8; origin, ij;
last notices of, 76 seqq. (For relation-
ship of different Polos, see table, ii.
506/2).

Family, branch of S. Geremia, 14,

66, ii. 507/2-509/2

Po-lut (Pa-lut), incense, ii. 304/2

Polygamy, i. 220, 252, 276, ii. 371 ;
supposed effect on population, i. 437«-
438/2, ii. 268, 339

Poniilo{^2ss\\x),\. 174/2

Pompholyx, i. 126/2

Ponent, or West, term applied by Polo to
Kipchak, the Mongol Khanate of the
Volga, see Kipchak

Pong (Mediaeval Shan State), ii. 79/2,
113/2

Poods, Russian, i. 162/2

Popinjays, i. 107

Population, vast, of Cathay, i. 437/2-
438/2

648

PORCELAIN

INDEX

RE DOR

Porcelain manufacture, ii. 235, 242;? ;

fragments found at Kaydl, 373« ;

Chinese, 595«

shells, see Cowries

Porcupines, i. 154, i$6n
Pork, mention of, omitted, ii. 2io;z
Postin^ sheep-skin coat, i. 153, I55«
Posts, post-houses and runners, i. 433 et

seqq. , 438^ ; in Siberia, ii. 480
Po-sz (Persia), ii. 437«
Potala at L'hasa, i. 319W
Pottinger, i. 94^, 96/2
Poultry, kind of, in Coilum, ii. 376 ;

in Abyssinia (guinea-fowl?), 431,

437«

Pound, sterling, 77, ii. 591;/

Pourpre, or Purpura, i. 66w, 389^

P'o-yang Lake, ii. 243;^

Pozdneiev, Professor, i. 228^

Precious stones or gems, 5, i. 75, *]6n,
107, 350, 390, 394, 424, ii- 202, 231,
235, 236, 254, 264, 313, 315??, 338,
361, 362« ; how discovered by pirates,
392

Prester John (Unc Can, Aung or Ung
Khan), i. Z'jn, 239 ; Tartar tribute
to, 226 ; account of, 2'^in-2i']n ; mar-
riage relations with Chinghiz, 239 ;
insults Chinghiz' envoys, 239; "these
be no soldiers," 240; marches to meet
Chinghiz, 241 ; real site of battle with
Chinghiz, 242 ; his real fate, ib.; slain
in battle, 244 ; his lineage in Tenduc,
284, 288;^ ; and the Golden King, ii.
17-22

Prices of horses, see Horses

Printing, imaginary connection of Polo's
name with introduction of, /jp seqq.

Private names supposed, i. 361^

Prjevalsky, Colonel N. M., i. 198^, 2o6«,
2\(in, 24gn, 2y6n, 2yyn, ii. 23^, 2()n,
6in

Probation of Jogis, ii. 366 ; parallel,
37on

Prophecy regarding Bay an, ii. 145, 149^

Proques, the word, ii. 370^

Prostitutes; at Cambaluc, i. 414; Kinsay,
ii. 202-203

Provinces, thirty-four of Kiiblai's Empire,
i. 430

Pseudo-Callisthenes, iij, i. ^6n, ^"jn

Ptolemies' trained African elephants, ii.

434^
Ptolemy, 2, I2g, iji, i. 24^, 8Sn, gm ;

Sarmatic Gates, i. 53^2
P'u-chau fu, ii. 2^n, 26n
Pu-ch'eng, ii. 224«
Puer and Esmok, ii. ^yn, iiyn
Pukan Mien-Wang, ii. 113;?
Pulad Chingsang, ii. 2 1 8/?
Pulisanghin, River and Bridge, iii, ij6,

ii. 3-4, S^
Pulo Bras, ii. 307^

Pulo Condore (Sondur and Condur), ii.

276, 2yyn
Pulo Gommes (Gauenispola), ii. 307W
Pulo Nankai, or Ndsi, ii. 307W
Pulo We, Wai, or Wey, ii. 307
Punnei-Kayal, ii. 372W
Purdnas, the, i. 58/2
Purpura, see Pourpre
Putchok, ii. Tjgyn
Putu-ho, "Grape R.," ii. i6«
Pygmies, factitious (?), ii. 285

Qal'ah Asgher, hot springs at, i. I22«
Qara Ars-ldn Beg, king of Kermdn, i. 92^
Quails in India, ii. 345
Queen of Mutfili, ii. 360
Quicksilver and sulphur potion, ii. 365,
369W

as regarded by alchemists, 369«

Quills of the Rue, see Rue
Quilon, Kaulam, etc., see Coilum
Qumadin (Camadi), i. 113W

Rabelais, i. loow

Rabbanta, a Nestorian monk, i. 243^

Radloff, Dr. W., i. 2%n', map, 229^,

230^2
Rain, i. iiyi

Rainald, of Dassel, Archbishop, i. 82«
Rain-makers, see Conjurers
Rainy season, ii. 343, 35 1 «
Rajkot leather-work, ii. 395
Rakka, Rakshasas, ii'. 298^, 308;/,

3I2W

Rama Kamheng, king, ii. 278;?

Rameshwaram, ii. 335^2

Ramnad, ii. 335^

Rampart of Gog and Magog, i. $yn, 292^

Ramusio, Giov. Battista, passim ; his
biographical notices of Polo, 2 et seqq. ,
^2 ; his edition of Polo, gb-ioi, ii.
2o8«, 2\2n, 374^z

Rana Paramita's Woman Country, ii.

405^
Ranking, John, i. 339«
Raonano-Rao, i. 173;^, ii. 593«
Rapson, E. J., ii. 595^
Ras Haili, ii. 386;?

Kumhari, ii. 383^2

Rashfduddfn, alias Fazl-ulla Rashid,

Persian statesman and historian of the

Mongols, 121 ; frequently quoted in

the Notes.
Ravenala tree {Urania speciosd), ii. 42 1«,

597«
Raw meat eaten, ii. 66, 76^, 85
Rawlinson, Sir PI., i. 58^, 82«, 85^,

Zyn, i\\n, Ii5«, 152W, i66«, 192^,

195^
Reclus, Asie russe, i. 54^ ; on Caspian

Sea fisheries, z^gn
Red gold and red Tangas, ii. 349«
Re Dor, ii. ign

INDEX

RUBRA DEVA

649

Red Sea, trade from India to Egypt by,

ii. 438 ; described in some texts as a

river, 439^ ; possible origin of mistake,

93
Red sect of Lamas, i. 315^, 3I9«
Refraction, abnormal, ii. 419^
Reg Ruwdn, of Kabul, i. 202«

of Seistan i. 202;^

Reindeer ridden, i. 269, 27 1«

Religion, indifference of Chinghizide

Princes to, i. 14W, 349;/, ii. 4777/ ;

occasional power of among Chinese, i.

460;/ seqq.
Remission of taxation by Kiiblai, i. 439
Rennell, Major James, ii. 402^
Reobarles (Riidbar, etc.), i. 97, 109,

iii«, Ii4«
Revenue of Kinsay, ii. 189, 190, 215 et

seqq.
Rhinoceros (Unicorn), in Sumatra, ii.

285, 290W ; habits, 290^ ; four Asiatic

species, 289^

Tichorimt.s, ii. 4197;

Rhins, Dutreuil de, i. 190;?, 192;?, 276;/
Rhubarb, Rhetwi palmatum^ i. 217, 2i8«,

279«, ii. 181, 183;/
Riant, Comte, ii. 593^
Ricci, Matteo, i. 347«, 45 1«, 454«
Rice, ii. 33, 56, 85, 115, 117, 123, 174,

202, 292, 300, 313, 342, 354, 360,401,

404, 423, 431
Rice-wine, i. 44 1«; at Yachi, ii. 66

trade on Grand Canal, ii. 174

Richard II., i. 42^

Richthofen, Baron F. von, i. io6/z, 198^,

2i8w, 295W, ii. 14/2-16/2, I9«, 23/2,

26«, 27«, 29«, 32«, 34«, 35/2, 38;/,

40«, 42«, 45^, 48/2, 57;z, 6o«, 67^,

80/2; on Fungul, 129;?; on Tanpiju,

220W

Right and Left, ministers of the, i. 432/2

Rio Marabia, ii. 387/2

Rishis (Eremites) of Kashmir, i. 166,

169/2
"River of China," ii. 222/2, 243/2
Roads radiating from Cambaluc, i. 433
Robbers in Persia, i. 84, 87/2, 98, 99,

101/2
Robbers' River, i. 114/2
Robes distributed by Kublai, i. 387, 388/2,

394

Roborovsky, Lieutenant, i. 188/2

Rochefort, "faire la couvade," ii. 94/2

Rockets, i. 342/2

Rockhill {Riibrnck and Diary of a
Journey), i. 5/2, 8/2, 9/2, 277/2, 279/7,
282/2, 283/2, 294/2, 295/2, 306/2, 308/7-
310/2, 312/7, 319/7, 321/2, 324/2, 325/7,

353^. 354", 384^^^ 385^^ 389^^ 393^^5
429/2, 437/7, ii. 491 ; on the titles
Khan, Khatun, etc., lO', on horn
horse-shoes, i. 177/2; earliest mention
of name Mongol in Oriental works,

294/2 ; Mongol storm-dispellers, 310/2 ;
charge of cannibalism against Tibetans,
312/2 ; on Bonbo Lamas, 325/2 ;
Tablets {hu), 354/2; mechanical con-
trivances at E. Court, 385/2; Mon-
gol etiquette, 393/2; Chinese leather-
money, 429/2; Mongol post-stations,
437/2 ; pocket-spittoons, 462/2 ; from
Peking to Si-ngan fu, ii. 5/2 ; descent
of Yellow River, 23/2 ; road between
T'ung-kwan and Si-ngan fu, 27/2 ; two
famous Uigur Nestorians, 28/2 ; on the
word Salar, 29/2 ; on the Hui-hui sects,
30/2; on the Alans, 180/2; on branch
of Volga Bulgars, 489/2

Rofia palm {sagus rtiffia), ii. 597/2

Roiatis dereusse (?), ii. 395/2

Rome, the Sudarium at, i. 213

Rondes, ingenious but futile explanation
of, i. 410/2

Rook, in Chess, ii. 419/2

Rori-Bakkar, Sepoy name for Upper
Sind, i. 86/2

Rosaries, Hindu, ii. 338, 347/2

Rostof and Susdal, Andrew, Grand Duke
of, i. 7/2

Roth, H. Ling, on couvade, ii. 596/2

Rouble, ii. 488/2

Roxana, daughter of Darius, wife of
Alexander, i. 151, 152/2, 157

Roze de I'Agur, i. 370/2

Rubies, Balas, 5, i. 157, 161/2 ; of
Ceylon, ii. 313, 315/2; of Adam's
Peak, 316/2

Rubruquis, or Rubruc, Friar William de,
IS, 104, 132, i. 57/2, 65/2, 227/2, 230/2,
239/2, 242/2, 253/2, 264/2, 278/2, 308/2,
309/2, 354/2, 384/2, 385/2, 389/2, 426/2,

437« .
Ruby mines in Badakhshan, i. 161/2
Rue (Rukh), or Gryphon, bird called,
described, ii. 412-413; its feathers and
quills, 413, 420/2, 596/2-598/2; wide
diffusion and various forms of fable,
415/2 ; eggs of the Aepyornis, 416/2 ;
Fra Mauro's story, 417/2; genus of
that bird, condor, 417/2, 420/2; dis-
■ covery of bones of Harpagornis in
New Zealand, 418/2 ; Sindbad, Rabbi
Benjamin, romance of Duke Ernest,
418/2 ; Ibn Batuta's sight of Rue, 419/2 ;
rook in chess, 419^ ; various notices
of, 420/2-421/2
Riidbar-i-Lass, Robbers' River, i. ii4«

(Reobaries), district and River, i.

97, 109, 1 1 1/2, 1 14/2
Rudder, single, noted by Polo as peculiar,
i. 108 ; double, used in Mediterranean,
1 1 7/2
Riidkhanah-i-Duzdi (Robbers' River), i.

114/2
Rudkhdnah-i-Shor (Salt River), i. 111/2
Rudra Deva, King of Telingana, ii. 362/2

650

RUDRAMA DEVI

INDEX

sAlih

Rudrama Devi, Queen of Telingana, ii.

362W
Rukh, Shah, i. 86n, igm, 2iin, 2i8«,

392«, 396^
Rukhnuddin, Mahmud, Prince of

Hormuz, i. I20//

Masa'iid, i. I20n

Khurshah, son of Alaodin, Prince

of the Ismaelites, i. 146^
Rum, i. 44W
Runiz, i. S6n
Ruomedam-Ahomet, King of Hormuz, i.

no, I2in
Rupen, Bagratid, founder of Armenian

State in Cilicia, i. 42;?
Rupert, Prince, ii. 486;/
Ruppell's Table of Abyssinian kings, ii.

Russia (Rosia), annexes Georgia, i. 53^2,
ii. 486 ; great cold, Arab accounts of,
487 ; silver mines, 488/? ; subject to
Tartars, 489^ ; conquered by Batu,
489/?

leather, i. 6;z, 394, 395^ ; clothes

of, 295W

Russians, trusty lieges of king, ii. 348/^

Rustak, i. 173W

Rusticiano of Pisa, introduces himself in
prologue, i. i, i^m, 263;?; writes
down Polo's book, 5^, 55 sec^^., 84,
J 12', extracts and character of his
compilation, 61 seqq. , 143 ; his real
name, 61 ; his other writings, 8g

Ruysch's map, /jjr

Saadi, i. 85??

Saba (Sava, Savah), city of the Magi, i.

78, 80, 8i«
Sabaste, see Sivas
Sable, its costliness, i. 405, 409«-4io;z,

ii. 479, 481, 484, 486^, 487
Sabred din, ii. 437«
Sabzawur, i. 150W
Sachiu (Sha-chau), i. 203, 2o6«
Sacrifices of people of Tangut, i. 204

human, i. 2o8«, ii. 303/2

Sadd-i-Iskandar, rampart of Alexander,

i. 53«. 54'^> 57^
Saffron, fruit-serving purposes of, ii.

225, 226/2
Sagacity of sledge-dogs, ii. 483/2
Sagamon Borcan, see Sakyamuni Buddha
Sagatu, general of Kublai's, ii. 267, 270/2
Saggio [l oz.), i. 350, 353/2, ii. 54, 57/2,

76, 215, 216, 217/2, 339, 347/2, 592/2
Sago, ii. 300, 304/2, 305/2
Saianfu, see Siang-yang-fu
Saif Arad, king of Abyssinia, ii. 437/2
Saifuddin Nazrat, ruler of Hormuz, i.

I20/2

Saimur (Chaul), ii. ■iS'jn

Sain Khan (or Batu), ii. 490, 491

St. Anno of Cologne, i. 130/2

St. Barlaam and St. Josafat, story of a
Buddhist christianised, ii. 323/2 seqq.

St. Barsauma (Barsamo, Brassamus), and
monastery of, i. 77

St. Blasius (Blaise), Church at Sivas, i.

43, 45«
St. Brandon, ii. 312/2
St. Buddha ! ii. 325/2 seqq.
St. Epiphanius, ii. 362/2
St. George, Church of, in Sivas, i. 45/2 ;

at Quilon, ii. 377/2
St. Helena, i.. 58/2
St. James' Shrine, Gallicia, ii. 319
St. John the Baptist, Church of, in

Samarkand, i. 185
Major Oliver, i. 57/2, 92/2, 96/2,

105/2, 1 1 2/2, 1 14/2, 120/2
St. Leonard's Convent in Georgia, and

the fish miracle, i. 52, 58/2
St. Lewis, i. 27/2, 47/2, 67/2, 87/2 ; his

campaign on the Nile, ii. 165/2, 593/2
St. Martin, Vivien de. Map, i. 164/2,

192/2
St. Mary's Island, Madagascar, ii. 414/2
St. Matthew, Monastery near Mosul, i.

6l/2

St. Matthew's Gospel, story of the Magi,
i. 82/2

St. Nina, i. 58/2

St. Sabba's at Acre, 42

St. Thomas, the Apostle, ii. 321/2, 323/2,
325/2; his shrine in India, 341, 353,
355/2 ; his murderers, and their here-
ditary curse, 350/2 ; reverenced by
Saracens and heathen, 353 ; miracles
in India, 354, 356/2 ; story of his
death, 355, 357/2 ; tradition of his
preaching in India, 356/2 ; translation
of remains to Edessa, 357/2 ; King
Gondopharus of legend a real king,
357/2 ; Roman Martyrology, 357/2 ;
the localities, 358/2 ; alleged discovery
of reliques, 358/2 seqq. ; the Cross,
358/2 ; church ascribed to, 378/2 ; in
Abyssinia, 427

St. Thomas's Isle, ii. 403/2

Mounts, ii. 358/2

Saker falcons, i. 158, 162/2, 223, ii. 50

Sakta doctrines, i. 323/2

Sakya Muni (Sagamon Borcan) Buddha,
i. 164/2, 324/2, 348/2, ii. 265/2, 308/2 ;
death of, i. 170/2 ; recumbent figures
of, 219, 221/2; story of, ii. 2)'^6 seqq. ;
his footmark on Adam's Peak, 321/2 ;
Alms dish, Holy Grail, 328/2-330/2 ;
tooth relique, 319-320, 330/2

Salamander, the, i. 213, 216/2

Salar (Ho-chau), ii. 29/2

Salem, dragoman, explores Rampart of
Gog, i. 57«

Salghur, Atabegs of Ears, 1. 85/2, 121/2 ^

Salih, Malik, son of Badruddin Liilu, i.
61/2

SALSETTE ISLAND

INDEX

SEN I

651

Salsette Island, ii. 325^, 396^

Salt, H., his version of Abyssinian
chronology, ii. 435??

rock, in Badakhshan, i. 153, IS4« ;

used for currency, ii. 45, 54, 57« ; ex-
tracted from deep wells, 58;/, 66, yfm ;
in Carajan province, 66, jdn ; manu-
factured in Eastern China, 133 ; manu-
facture, revenue and traffic in, 152,
153, 155W, 215, 216, 217/2; trade on
the Kiang, 171 ; junks employed there-
in, 174/2

stream, i. 124/2

Salwen River, or Lu-Kiang, i. 323/2

Samagar, ii. 471, 474«

Samana, ii. 427/2

Samara, kingdom of, see Sumatra

Samarkand (Samarcan), i. 57/2, 62/2, ii.
458, 462 ; story of a miracle at, i. 183,
186/2; colony near Peking from, 291/2

Sampson, Theos., on grapes in China, ii.
16/2

Sdmsunji Bdshi, i. /\oin

Samudra, see Sumatra

Samuel, his alleged tomb at Savah, i.

8l/2

San Giovanni Grisostomo, parish in

Venice where the Ca' Polo was, 4, 26,

S3, 70 y 71, 76 ; theatre, 28
San Lorenzo, Venice, burial place of

Marco and his father, 7, 7/, 74
Sandu, see Chandu
Sanf, see Champa
Sangfn, Sangkan River, ii. 5/2, 6n
Sanglich, dialect of, i. 160/2
Sang-Miau, tribe of Kwei-chau, ii. 82/2
Sangon, the Title (Tsiang-kiun), ii. 136,

138/2
Sanitary effects of Mountain air, i. 158
Sanjar, sovereigns of Persia, i. 233/2
Sankin Hoto, Dalai, i. 215/2
Sanuto of Torcelli, Marino, 118, i. 17/2,

23/2, 24/2, 42/2, 59/2, 67/2, 7711, 144/2 ;

his World Map, ijj ; on long range,

ii. 166/2
Sappan wood, see Brazil
Sapta-Shaila, ii. 386/2
Sapurgan (Sabiirkan, Shaburkan, Shibr-

gan), i. 149, 150/2
Saputa, Sfue, peculiar use of, i. 437/2
Saracanco (Saraichik), on the Yaik, i. 6n
Saracens, see Mahomedans
Sarai (Sara), capital of Kipchak, i. 4 ;

city and its remains, 5/2 ; perhaps

occupied successive sites, 6n

Sea of (Caspian), i. 59/2, ii. 494

Saras, crane {^rus Antigone), i. 297/2

Saratov, i. 9/2

Sarbizan Pass, i. 113/2

Sardines, ii. 44422

Sardu Pass, i. 113/2

Sarghalan River, i. 156/2

Sarha, Port of Sumatra, ii. 294/2

Sarhadd River, i. 175/2

Sar-i-kol, Lakes, i. 163/2, 172/2

Sarsati, ii. 427/2

Sartak, the Great Khan's ambassador to

Hulakii, i. 10/2, 14/2
Sassanian dynasty, i. 61/2
Sati, see Suttee

Satin, probable origin of word, ii. 241/2
Satwi, Sommo, silver ingots used in Kip-
chak, ii. 488/2 ; apparently the original

rouble, 488/2
Satcromatae, ii. 466/2
Savah (Saba), i. 78, 80, 81/2
Savast (Siwas), i. 43, 44/2
Scanderoon, Gulf of, i. 16/2
Scasem, i. 156/2
Scherani, bandits, i. 101/2
Schiltberger, Hans, i. 131/2
Schindler, General Houtum-, i. 89/2, 96/2,

99/2, 100/2, 105/2, 106/2, 112/2-115/2,

122/2, 126/2, 30S/2, 310/2, 314/2
Schlegel, Dr. G., i. 342/2, 437/2, 441/2,

ii. 281/2, 596/2
Schmidt, Professor I. J., i. 201/2, 294/2
Schonborn, Carl, ii. 601/2
Schuyler, Eugene, i. 54/2
Scidmore, Miss E., on the Tide, ii. 209/2
Scotra, see Socotra
Sea of Chin, ii. 264, 265, 266/2, 270/2

England, ii. 265

Ghel, or Ghelan, i. 52

India, i. 35, 63, 108, 166, ii. 265, 424

Rochelle, ii. 265

Sarain, i. 59, ii. 494

Seal, Imperial, i. 366, 424

Sebaste, see Sivas

Sebourc, Bauduin de, see Bauduin de

Sebotirc
Sees of Latin Church, 186/2, ii. 237/2,

377/2
Nestorian Church, i. 91/2, 183/2,

186/2, 207/2, 21 1/2
Sefaviehs, the, i. 90/2
Seilan, see Ceylon
Self- decapitation, ii. 349^
Selitrennoye Gorodok (Saltpetre Town),

i. 5/2, 6/2
Seljukian dynasty, i. 44/2

Turks, i. 91/2

Selles, chevaux d, deux, the phrase, ii.

440/2
Semal tree, ii. 394/2
Semedo, ii. 21 1/2
Semenat, see Somnath
Sempad, Prince, High Constable of

Armenia, i. 186/2, 352/2
Sendal, a silk texture, ii. 10/2, 37, 132,

182, 390, 464
Sendaus, generally Taffetas, ii. 10/2
Sendemain, king of Seilan, ii. 313
Seneca, Epistles, i. 14/2
Senecherim, king of Armenia, i. 45/2
Seni, Verzino, ii. 380/2

652

SENSHING

INDEX

SllfRAz

Senshing, i. 332«

Sensin, ascetics, devotees living on bran,

i. 303, 32i«-327«
Sentemur, ii. 98
Sepulchre of Adam, see Adam's

Sepulchre
of our Lord, i, 19 ; oil from, 14,

19, 26
Serano, Juan de, ii. 295^
Serazi (Shfraz), kingdom of Persia, i. 83,

85«
Serendib, ii. 314W
Seres, Sinae, 12', their tree wool, ii. 137^;

ancient character of the, 21 1«
Serpents, great, z'.^. alligators, ii. 'j6secjq.,

Sm, 360
Sertorius, ii. 348^
Sesame, i. 158, i62«, ii. 431
Sesnes, mediaeval form of cygnes, eigne, i.

297«
Seta Gkella, seta Leggi (Ghelle), silk, i.

Seth's mission to Paradise, i. 136^
Sevan Lake, i. 58^
Seven Arts, the, i. 13, 14?/
Severtsoff, shoots the Ovis Poll, i. I75«,

177W; on the name Bolor, i79?z
Seyyed Barghash, Sultan of Zanzibar, ii.

420;^
Shabankara, or Shawankara (Soncara),

i. 83, 85;z-86;z
Shabar, son of Kaidu, ii. 459^
Sha-chau (Sachin), "Sand-district," i.

203, 206«
Shadow, augury from length of, ii. 364
Shah Abbas, i. 310;? ; his Court, 385^

Jahan, i. i68;;

Shahr-i-Babek, turquoise mine at, i. 92?/
Shahr-i-Nao (Siam), ii. 279;?
Shahr Mandi, or Pandi, ii. 333W
Shah Werdy, last of the Kurshid dynasty,

i. 85W
Shaibani Khan, ii, 48 1«
Shaikh-ul-Jibal, i. 142;?, 144^, I45«
Shaikhs (Esheks), in Madagascar, ii.

411, 4I3«
Shakespeare, on relation of gold to

silver, ii. 95??
Shaliat, ii. 440^2
Shamanism, i. 257W, 315^2, 324?/, 325??,

ii. 97/2. (6'<?^ also Devil-Dancing. )
Shampath, ancestor of Georgian kings, i.

Shamsuddin Shamatrani, ii. 303;?

Shamuthera, see Sumatra

Shan (Laotian, or Thai), ii. 74«, 90^,

<^^n, ii3«, 278??

race and country, ii. ii7;z, 128^

dynasty in Yun-nan, ii. 73^, 79/2

ponies, ii. 82W

state of Pong, see Pong

Shanars of Tinnevelly, ii. 97W ; their

devil-worship, 359«

Shang-hai, ii. 238^

Shangking-Fungking, i. 345«

Shangtu, Shangdu (Chandu), i. 25« ;
Kubldi's City and Summer Palace,
298, 304« ; Dr. Bushell's description
of, 304W ; Kubldi's annual visit to,
308W, 410

Shangtu Keibung, i. 306^, 3o8»

Shan-hai-kwan, i. 407^

Shankarah, Shabankara (Soncara), i. 83,
%$n, 86w

Shan-si, ii. I2W, 14W, \^n, 23^, 25W, 32;?,
I35«, 143/?, 167W

Shan-tung, ii. 137^, I4i«, 143^ ; silk in,
136, 137^2; pears from, 2io«

Shao-hing-fu, ii. 220«-222«

Shao-ling, pariah caste of, ii. 228«

Sharakhs, i. I49«

Shara-ul-buks (Forest of box on the
Black Sea), i. 57^

Sharks and shark charmers, ii. 332-337«

Shauls, or Shuls, the, i. 85^, %']n

Shawankara (Soncara), i. 83, 85/2, 86«

Shaw, R. B., i. i69«, 178??, 195^, 276^,
315W, ii. i6w

Shawls of Kerman, i. 96^

Sheep, fat-tailed in Kerman, i. 97, ioo«

four-horned at Shehr, ii. 443, 494"

large Indian, ii. 361

none in Manzi, ii. 219

of Pamir {Ovis Poli), i. 171, 176^

wild, of Badakhshan (Kachkar,

Ovis Vignei), i. 158, 162W

with trucks behind, loon

Zanghibar, ii. 422, 424^2

Sheep's head given to horses, ii. 35 1«

Shehr, or Shihr, see Esher

Shehrizor (Kerkuk), i. 6211

Shenrabs, i. 324^

Shen-si, ii. 23/?, 2$n, 26n, 31;/, 32^,
167W, 237«

Shentseu tribe, ii. I20«

Sheuping, ii. i2on

Shewa, cool plateau of, i. 163^

Shibrgan (Sapurgan), i. 149, 150^

Shieng, Sheng, or Sing, the Supreme
Board of Administration, i. 431, 432^,
ii. 154, I57«

Shien-sien, Shin-sien, i. 322;^

Shighnan (Syghinan), ruby mines, i. 157,
161;^, 172;?

Shijarat Malayu, or Malay Chronicle,
ii. 287^, 288«, 294;?, 296^, 300«,
302;?

Shikargah, applied to animal pattern
textures, Benares brocades, i. 66«

Shing-king, or Mukden, i. 345^

Ships, of the Great Khan, ii. 142 ; of
India at Fuju, 231 ; of Manzi de-
scribed, 249-251 ; medigeval, accounts
of, 252w-253« ; in Japan, 264 ; in
Java Seas, 274/2 ; at Eli, 386

Shfrdz (Cerazi), i. 83, 85^

SHIREGHI

INDEX

SIVA

653

Shireghi, ii. 462^

Shirha, ii. 436;?

Shirwan, ii. 495;^

Shi-tsung, Emperor, i. 310^

Shoa, ii. 434^, 436;^

Shob'aengs of Nicobar, ii. 308^

Shodja ed-din Kurshid, Kurd, i. S^n

Shor-Rud (Salt River), i. 124^

Shot of Military Engines, ii. 159, 163^,

i64«-i68;?
Shpilevsky, i. 8«
Shulistan (Suo'.stan), i. 83, 85^
Shuls of Shauls, people of Persia, i. 83^,

Shut up nations, legend of the, 11^, /j6,

^- 57« .

Shweli River, ii. loyn

Siam, ii. 2'jyn-28on ; king of, 2'jSn

Siang-yang-fu (Saianfu), Kiiblai's siege of,
Polo's aid in taking, 22, 112, ii. 158,
159; difficulties in Polo's account,
167W ; not removed by Pauthier,
notice by Wassaf, Chinese account,
Rashiduddin's, i68w; treasure buried,
169^

Siberia, ii. 479-48i«

Sibree, on rofia palm, ii. 597«

Sick men put to death and eaten by their
friends, ii. 293, 298^

Siclatoun, kind of texture, i. 283^

Siddharta, ii. 322^

Sidi Ali, i. 152^, i65«, 277^, ii. 5;/,
402«, 444?z, 453«

Sien, Sien-Lo, Sien-Lo-Kok (Siam, Lo-
cac), ii. 277^-280;?

Sifan, ii. don, 6in, 'jon

Sigatay, see Chagatai

Sighelm, envoy from King Alfred to
India, ii. 357^

Si Hia, language of Tangut, i. 29;?

Si-hu, Lake of Kinsay or Hang-chau, ii.
186, 196;/, 205«-207«, 21 iw, 214;?

Sijistan, i. loin

Siju (Suthsian), ii. 141

Sikintinju (Kien-chow), i. 343, 345^

Silesia, Mongol invasion of, ii. 493^

Silk, called Ghelle (of Gilan), i. 52;
manufacture at Yezd, 82>n ; at Taianfu,
ii. 13 ; in Shan-si and Shen-si, 22, 23?? ;
in Kenjanfu, 24; Cuncun, 31; Sinda-
fu, 42« ; Kwei-chau, 126, I28n ; Ta-
sinfu, 136, I37« ; Piju, 14I'; Pao-ying-
Hien, 152 ; Nanghin, 157 ; Chinhiang-
fu, 176; Chinginju, 178; Suju, iSm ;
Vughin, 182; Kinsay, 187, 198^, 216;
Ghiuju, 219

• cotton tree, ii. 394W

duty on, ii. 216

and gold stuffs, i. 41, 60, 63, 75,

107, 257, 285, 383, 387, 415, ii. 10,
24, 132, 152, 157, 176, 181, 206, 238«,
390,411

stuffs and goods, Turcomania, i.

43 ; Georgia, 50 ; Baghdad, 6^ ; Yezd,

88; Kerman, 90; Tenduc province,

285; Cambaluc, 415; Juju, ii. 10;

Sindafu, 37 ; Cacanfu, 132 ; Chinangli,

135; Suju, 181; Vughin, 182; Kin-
say, 187 ; in animal patterns, 63, 90;

with Cheetas, i. 398/2 ; of Kelinfu, ii.

225 ; with giraffes, 424/^
Silk, tent ropes, i. 405 ; bed furniture,

434
trade at Cambaluc, i. 415 ; at

Kinsay, ii. 187

worms, ii. 13, 24

Silver chairs, i. 351, 35 5«

— - imported into Malabar, ii. 390 ;

Cambay, 398

Island, ii. 174^

mines at Baiburt, i. 46 ; Gumish-

Khanah, 49;/ ; in Badakhshan, 157 ; ia

N. Shansi, 285, 295^ ; Yun-nan, ii.

95« ; Russian, 487, 488/2
plate in Chinese taverns, ii. 187,

196/2
Simon, Metropolitan of Fars, ii. 377/2

Magus, i. 314/2

Simum, effects of, i. 109, 120/2

Simurgh, ii. 415/^, 419/2

Sinbad, his story of the diamonds, ii.

362/2; of the Rukh, 418/2
Sind (Sindhu-Sauvira), 12, i. 104/2, 105/2
Sindabiir (Goa), ii. 390/2, 440/2
Sindachu (Siuen-hwa fu), i. 285, 295/2
Sindafu (Chengtu-fu), ii. 36, 38/2, 127,

128/2
Sindhu-Sauvira (Sindh-Sagor), i. 104/2
Si-ngan fu (Kenjanfu), ii. 24/2, 25/2, 29/2,

34/2 ; Christian inscription at, 27/2, 29/2
Singapore, Singhapura, i. 37/2, ii. 279/2,

281/2, 305/2
Singkel, ii. 300/2
Singphos, ii. 82/2, 90/2
Sings, ii. 238/2

Singtur, Mongol Prince, ii. 1 1 1/2
Singuyli (Cranganor), ii. 426/2
Sinhopala (Accambale), king of Chamba,

ii. 267
Sinju (Si-ning fu), i. 274, 276/2

(Ichin-hien), ii. 170

Sinju-matu, ii. 137, 138

Sinkalan, Sfn-ul-Sfn, Maha-chin, or

Canton, i. 294/2, ii. 175/2, 243/2, 252/2
Sinope, i. 45/2

Siraf (Kish, or Kais?), i. 65/2
Sir-i-Chashma, i. 58/2
Sirikol, Lake and River, i. 174/2, 176/2,

182/2
Sfrjan or Shirjan, i. 92/2, 122/2
Sis, i. 42/2
Sfstan, i. 61/2

Sitting in air, i. 315/2, 316/2
Siu-chau, ii. 129/2-131/2
Siuen-hwa-fu, see Sindachu
Siva, ii. 321/2, 334/2

654

SIVAS

INDEX

SUDARIUM

Sivas, Siwas, Sebaste, Sevasd (Savast),

i. 43, 44«, 45W
Siwastan, ii. 427?;
Siwi, gigantic cotton in, ii. 394^
Sixtus v., Pope, ii. 326;?
Siya-gosh, or lynx, i. 399«
Siyurgutmish, i. giw
S laden. Major, ii. 82«, 90^, 95^, 107;/,

I98«
Slaves in Bengal, ii. 115
Sledges, dog-, ii. 480, 48i;z-483;;
Sleeping-mats, leather, ii. 394, 395«
Sluices of Grand Canal, ii. 175;^
Smith, G., Bishop of Hongkong, i. 347«
Smith (R.E.), Major R. M., i. 89;/, 96^,

99«, io6;z, iii«-ii4«
Sneezing, omen from, ii. 364;^
Socotra (Scotra), island of, ii. 404, 406,

4o8« ; history of, 4o8w-4io« ; Christian

Archbishop, 406 ; aloes of, 409;?
Soer (Suhar), ii. 340, 348/2
Sofala, trade to China from, ii. 400^
Sogoman Borcan, see Sakya Muni
Sol, Arbre, see Arbre
Soldaia, Soldachia, Sodaya (the Oriental

Sudak), 75, 26, i. 2, yi, 4
Soldan, a Melic, ii. 470, 472
Soldurii, trusty lieges of Celtic kings, ii.

348«
Soli, Solli [Chola, or Tanjore), kingdom

of> ii- 2>3S^h 3645 368^, 403^^
Solomon, house of, in Abyssinia, ii.

434'f
Soltania, Archbishop of, ii. 213;/. {See

Sultaniah.)
Somnath (Semenat), ii. 398, 400;^; gates

of, 399, 40on-40in
Sonagar-pattanam, ii. 372;?
Soncara (Shawankara), i. 83, S^i
Sonder Bandi Davar, see Sundara Pandi
Sondur and Condur (Pulo Condore

Group), ii. 276, 277^
Sorcerers, sorceries of Pashai (Udyana),

i. 164; Kashmir, 166, i68«, 301, ii.

593W ; Lamas and Tibetans, z'd., 3I4«-

SiSn
Dagroian, ii. 293, 298;? ; Socotra,

407, 4io«. (See also Conjurers.)
Sornau (Shahr-i-Nau), Siam, ii. 279;?
Sotiates, tribe of Aquitania, ii. 348^
Soucat, ii. 277

Southey, Si Romtiald, ii. 84;?
Spaan, Ispahan, i. 85;?
Sposk, district, i. 7«
Spezerie, i. 43^
Spice, Spicery, i. 41, 60, 107, 205, 302,

382, 441, ii. 49, S^^ 66, 115, 116, 123,

202, 216, 234, 264, 272, 284, 389,

390«, 423, 438, 450
Spice wood, i. 405, 409^
Spices in China, duty on, ii. 216
Spikenard, ii. 115, 272, 284, 287;^, 390
Spinello Aretini, fresco by, i. Ii8«

209«,

49,

252,

Spirit drawings and spiritual flowers, i

46o«
Spirits haunting deserts, i. 197

274
Spiritualism in China, i. 325/2
Spittoons, pocket, i. 458, 462/2
Spodium (Spodos), i. 125, 126/2
Sport and game, i. 41, 88, 91,

I5i» 153, 158, 160, 171, 223,

260, 275, 285, 296, 299, 397, 400-406,

411 ; in Shan-si, ii. 22 ; Cachanfu, 24 ;

Cuncun, 31 ; Acbalec Manzi, 34; Tibet,

50 ; Caindu, 56 ; Zardandan, 85 ;

Mien, III; Linju, 140; Cagu, 153;

Nanghin, 157; Saianfu, 158; Ching-

hiang-fu, 176; Chinginju, 178; Chan-

gan, 182; Kinsay, 201, 207, 219;

Fuju, 225, 226, 234 ; Lambri, 299 ;

Maabar, 345 ; Comari, 382 ; Eli, 386
Springolds, ii. i6in
Springs, hot, i. no, 122/2
Sprinkling of drink, a Tartar rite, i.

300, 308/2
Squares at Kinsay, ii. 201, 209/2
Sri-Thammarat, ii. 278/2
Sri-Vaikuntham, ii. 374/2
Sse River, ii. 139/2
Stack, E., visits Kuh Banan, i. 126/2
Star Chart, ii. 314/2
Star of Bethlehem, traditions about, i.

82/2
Steamers on Yangtse-kiang, ii. 173/2
Steel mines at Kerman, i. 90, 92/2 ; in

Chingintalas, 212; Indian, 93/2, 94/2;

Asiatic view of, 94/2
Stefani, Signor, 7, ii. 507/2
Stein, Dr. M. A., on Sorcery in Kashmir,

ii. 593/2 ; on Paonano Pao, 593/2 ; on

Pamirs, 593«-594?z ; on site of Pein,

Stiens of Cambodia, ii. 82/2, 97/2
Stirrups, short and long, ii. 78, 82/2
Stitched vessels, i. 108, 117/2
Stockade erected by Polo's party in

Sumatra, ii. 292
Stone, miracle of the, at Samarkand, i.

185, 187/2

the green, i. 187/2

towers in Chinese cities, ii. 189

umbrella column, ii. 212/2

Stones giving invulnerability, ii. 259,

263/2
Suakin, ii. 439^z
Submersion of part of Ceylon, ii. 313,

314/2
Subterraneous irrigation, i. 89/2, 123,

124/2
Suburbs of Cambaluc, i. 412
Subutai, Mongol general, i. 8/2, ii. 168/2
Su-chau (Suju), ii. 179, 181, 199/2; plan

of, 183/2, 184/2
Suchnan River, i. 172/2
Sudarium, the Holy, i. 213

SUDDHODHANA

INDEX

TAIKUNG

655

Suddhodhana, ii. 322;?

Sugar, Bengal, ii. 115; manufactured,
215, 231 ; art of refining, 226, 230«;
of Egypt and China, 23 1

Suh-chau (Sukchur), i. 217, 2i8«, 282^

Suicides before an idol, ii. 340, 349^

Sukchur, province Sukkothai, i. 217

Sukkothai, ii. 278/?, 279^

Sukldty broadcloth, i. 283^

Sukum Kala', i. 57^

Suleiman, Sultan, i. i7«, 44??, ii. 74^, 8ow

Sulphur and quicksilver, potion of
longevity, ii. 365, 369/2

Sultaniah, Monument at, ii. 478;?. {See
Soltania.)

Sultan Shah, of Badakhshan, i. 163/2

Sumatra (Java the Less), 2j, 120, i. 34,
it. 288w, 300«-30i«; described, its
kingdoms, 284, 286«, 287/2; circuit,
284, 286/2

Sumatra, Samudra, city and kingdom of
(Samara for Samatra), ii. 292, 306/2 ;
legend of origin, 294/2 ; Ibn Batuta
there, 294/2 ; its position, 295/2 ; latest
mention of, 296/2 ; wine-pots, 297/2

Sumbawa, ii. 287/2

Summers, Professor, ii. 277/2

Sumutala, Sumuntala, see Sumatra

Sun and moon, trees of the, i. 130/2

Sundara Pandi Devar, Sondar Bandi
Davar), king in Ma'bar, ii. 331 ; his
death, 333/2 ; Dr. Caldwell's views
about, 333/2, 334/2

Sundar Fulat (Pulo Condore Group), ii.
277/2

Sung, a native dynasty reigning in S.
China till Kiiblai's conquest, 12, i.
38/2, ii. 135, 1 5 1/2, 194/2 ; their paper-
money, effeminacy, 20/2, 150/2, 207,
208, 21 1/2 ; cremation, 135/2; Kublai's
war against, 148/2, 149/2; end of them,
167/2, 168/2

Sunnis and Shias, i. 160/2

Suolstan (Shulistan), a kingdom in Persia,
83, 85/2

Superstitions in Tangut, the devoted
sheep or ram [Tengri Tockho), i. 204,
207/2 ; the dead man's door, 205, 209/2 ;
as to chance shots, 439 ; in Carajan, ii.
79, 82/2, 84/2 ; devil-dancing, 86 ;
property of the dead, iii ; Sumatran,
293, 298/2 ; Malabar, 339 seqq. ; as to
omens, 343-344, 364-365

Sur-Raja, ii. 374/2

Survival, instances of, ii. 93/2

Sushun, Regent of China, execution of
(1861), i. 428/2

Su-tash, the Jadek, i. 193/2

Suttees in S. India, ii. 341, 349/2 ; of
men, 340

Svastika, sacred symbol of the Bonpos, i.
324/2

Swans, wild, at Chagan-Nor, i. 296

Swat, i. 178/2

River, i. 164/2

Swi-fu, ii. 131/2

Sword blades of India, i. 93/2, 96/2

Syghinan, see Shighnan

Sykes, Major P. Molesworth, i. 102/2,

106/2, 1 1 3/2, 114/2, 1 19/2, 124/2, 126/2,

127/2, 128/2
Sylen (Ceylon), ii. 426/2
Symbolical messages, Scythian and

Tartar, ii. 497/2-498/2
Syrian Christians, ii. 377/2 seqq., 433/2
Syrrhaptes Pallasii, see Barguerlac
Szechenyi, Count, i. 207/2
Sze-ch'wan (Ch'eng-tu), ii. 32/2, 34/2, 35/2,

37/2, 40/2, 42/2, 45/2, 46/2, 48/^, 58/2,

60/2,69/2, 128/2, 1 3 1/2, 134/2; aborigines,

60/2

Tabashir, ii. 263/2, 396/2

Tabbas, i. 124/2

Table of the Great Khan, i. 381

Tables, how disposed at Mongol feasts,

i. 384/2
Tablet, Emperor's, adored with incense,

i- 391, 393«
Tablets of Authority, Golden {Pdizah),

presented by Khan to Polos, i. 15, 16,

34, 35 ; lion's head and gerfalcon,

35> 351 > bestowed on distinguished

captains, inscription, 350, 35i«-354«;

cat's head, 356/2 ; granted to governors

of different rank, 431
worshipped by Cathayans, i. 456,

458/2
Tabriz (Tauris), i. 17/2, 74, 76/2
Tachindo, see Ta-ts'ien-lu
Tacitus, Claustra Caspiorum, Pass of

Derbend, i. 53/2
Tactics, Tartar, i. 262, 265//, ii. 460
Tacuin, i. 447, 448/2
Tadinfu, ii. 136
Taeping Insurrection and Devastations,

ii. 154/2, 158/2, 173/2, 176/2, 177/2, 179/2,

184/2, 196/2, 222/2
Taeping, or Taiping, Sovereigns' effemi-
' nate customs, ii. 20/2
Taffetas, ii. 10/2

Taft, near Yezd, turquoise at, i. 92/2
Tafurs, i. 313/2
Tagachar, ii. 471, 474^
Tagaung, ii. 107/2, 111/2, 113/2
Tagharma Pass, i. 172/2, ii. 594/2
Taghdungbash River, i. 175/2
Taianfu (T'ai-yuan-fu), king of T^. China,

ii. 12, 14/2, 15/2
Taiani, ii. 432/2
Taican, see Talikan
Taichau (Tigu), ii. 154/2
T'aiching-Kwan, ii. 26/2
Taidu, Daitu, Tatu, KubUi's new city of

Cambaluc, i. 305/2, 306/2, 374, 375/2
Taikung, see Tagaung

656

TAILED MEN

INDEX

TEA-HOUSES

Tailed men, in Sumatra, ii. 299, yun ;

elsewhere, 30i«-302«; English, 302«
Tailors, none in Maabar, ii. 338
Taimiini tribe, i. loon
Taiting-fu (Tadinfu), or Yenchau, ii.

I37«
Taitong-fu, see Tathung
Tai-tsu, Emperor, i. 428^
T'ai Tsung, Emperor, ii. I5«, 28^
Taiyang Khan (Great King), king of the

Naimans, ii. 20«
Tajiks of Badakhshan, great topers, i.

153, I55«
Takfur, ii. 148^
Takhtapul, i. 152^

Taki-uddin, Abdu-r Rahman, ii. 333«
Takla-Makan, i. igow
Talains, ii. 74^
Talas River, ii. 459;/
Tali, gold mines, ii. 81 w
Talifu (Carajan), ii. 67«, 76;/, 79;^, 8o«,

io5«, io7«, iiiw
Talikan, Thaikan (Taican), i. 153, I54«,

i63«
Tallies, record by, ii. 86, ()6n
Tamarind, pirates use of, ii. 392, 394«
Tamerlan, i. 8w

Tana (Azov), 9, ^j>, 7^, i. 4^, 6n, ign
near Bombay, kingdom of, ii. 395,

396^, 403;?, 426W, 440«
Tana-Maiambu, ii, 396??
Tana-Malayu, ii. 281??, 283^
Tanasi cloth, ii. 396^
Tanduc, see Tenduc
T'ang dynasty, ii. 2Sn, ig^n, 278^
Tangnu Oola, branch of Altai, i. 215^
Tangut province, Chinese Si Hia, or Ho

Si, i. 2gn, 203, 214^, 217, 219, 22on,

223, 224;/, 245W, 274, 276W, 281 ; five

invasions of, 281;?
Tangutan, term applied to Tibetan

speaking people round the Koko-nor,

i. 2o6n
Tanjore, ii. 334;?, 335^2 ; Suttee at, 349^ ;

Pagoda at^ 352^ ; fertility of, 368^
Tankiz Khan, applied to Chinghiz, i.

247«
Tanpiju (Shaohing?), ii. 218
Tantras, Tantrika, Tantrists, i. 3I5«,

323^, 326«
Tao-lin, a Buddhist monk, i. 165^
Tao-sze (Taosse), sect, i. 32i;^-325w ;

female idols of the, 303, 327;?
Ta-pa-Shan range, ii. 34«, 35«
Taprobana, mistakes about, ii. 295^
Tarakai, ii. 47 5«
Tarantula, ii. 346, 364
Tarcasci, i. 366«
Tarem, or Tarum, i. 86«, I22»
Tares of the parable, i. I22w
Tarikh-i-Rashidi, i. 194W
Tarmabala, Kublai's grandson, i. 36 1 «
Tarok, Burmese name for Chinese, ii. 113//

Tarok Man and Tarok Myo, ii. ii3«

Tartar language, i. 12; on Tartar, its
correct form, I2« ; misuse by Ra-
musio, 458«

Tartars, i. i, 4, 5, 10, 13, 50, 90, 97,
99, lion, 121W, 151 ; different char-
acters used by, 28w ; identified with
Gog and Magog, 57« ; ladies, 'j6n ;
their first city, 226 ; original country,
tributary to Prester John, ib. ; revolt
and migration, 227 ; earliest mention
of the word, 230 ; make Chinghiz
their king, 238 ; his successors, 245 ;
their customs and religion, 249^, 251,
256 ; houses, 252, 253^ ; waggons,
252, 254;; ; chastity of their women,
252, 256?^ ; polygamy, etc., 252, 256^ ;
their gods and idols, 256 ; their drink
(Kumiz), 257, 259;?; cloths, 257, 295^;
arms, horses, and war customs, 260-
263 ; military organization, 261, 263W ;
sustenance on rapid marches, 261 ;
blood-sucking, 261, 264??; portable
curd, 262, 265;? ; tactics in war, 262,
265^ ; degeneracy, 263, 266« ; ad-
ministration of justice, 266 ; laws
against theft, 266, 268w ; posthumous
marriage, 267, 268;? ; the cudgel, 266,
267;; ; Rubruquis' account of^ 236^;
Joinville's, 237?^; custom before a
fight, 337 ; want of charity to the
poor, 445 ; conquerors of China, history
of, ii. 20 ; excellence in archery, 102 ;
objection to meddling with things per-
taining to the dead, 1 1 1 ; admiration
of the Polo mangonels, 160 ; employ-
ment of military engines, l68« ; their
cruelties, i8o« ; arrows, 460 ; marriage
customs, i. 33«, 252-253, ii. 467

in the Far North, ii. 479

of the Levant, see Levant

of the Ponent, see Ponent

Tartary cloths, i. 257, 295^

Tarungares, tribe, ii. 298;^

Tash Kurgan, i. I'jin, ii. 594^

Tatariya coins, i. I2n

Tathung, or Taitongfu, i. 245^, 286w,
289^

Ta-t'sien-lu, or Tachindo, Tartsedo, ii.
45«, 48^, 49«, 52W, 6on, bjn, jon

Ta Tsing River, ii. 137^, 143^

Tattooing, ii. 84, gon, 117, 119?/, 131;^,
235, 242;?, 297;; ; artists in, 235, 242«

Tatu (Taichu), i. 374

River, ii. 6in

Tauris, see Tabriz

Taurizi, Torissi, i. 74, 75«

Tawalisi, ii. 465^

Taxes, see Customs, Duties

Tchakiri Mondou (Modun), i. 404, 408^

Tchekmen, thick coarse cotton stuff, i.
igon

Tea-houses at Kingsze, ii. ig(>n

TEA TREES

INDEX

TOKTAI KHAN

657

Tea trees in E. Tibet, ii. 59/2

Tebet, see Tibet

Tedaldo, see Theobald

Teeth, custom of casing in gold, ii. 84,

88^-9 1 ;e
of Adam or of Buddha, ii. 319,

conservation of, by Brahmans, ii. 365

Tegana, ii. 471

Teghele, Atabeg of Lur, i. 85«

Teimur (Temur), Kublai's grandson and

successor, i. 360, ii. 149, 459«
Tekla, Hamainot, ii. 356
Tekrit, i. 61 w
Telingana, see Tilinga
Telo Samawe, ii. 295^
Tembul (Betel), chewing, ii. 371, 374^
Temkan, Kublai's son, i. 36 1«
Temple, connection of Cilician Armenia

with Order of, i. 24^

Master of the, i. 23, 24^

Temple's account of the Condor, ii. 417//

Temujin, see Chinghiz

Tenduc, or Tanduc, plain of, i. 240, 241 ;

province of, 284, 286«
Tengri, Supreme deity of Tartars, i. 257;^-

258^
Tennasserim, ii. 279?/ ; (Tanasari), 314^
Tents, the Khan's, i. 404, 40972
Terebinth, i. I25« ; of Mamre, 132;/,

Terldn^ goshawk, i. 57;/

Teroa Mountains, ii. 420W

Terra Australis, ii. 2747/

Te-Tsung, Emperor, ii. 28w

Thai, Great and Little, ii. 287^ ; race,

278;z
Thaigin, ii. 25//, 267?
Thai-yuanfu (Taianfu), ii. 12, I4«-I7«
Thard-wahsh, see Patterns, Beast and

Bird
Theft, Tartar punishment of, i. 266, 268;^
Theistic worship, i. 456, 458^
Thelasar, ii. 43 1«
Theobald, or Tedaldo of Piacenza, i. 17,

20, 2171, ii. 593^ ; chosen Pope as

Gregory X., i. 20; sends friars with

the Polos and presents, 22, 23?/
Theodorus, king of Abyssinia, ii. 436W
Theodosius the Great, i. 49;?
Theophilus, Emperor of Constantinople,

i. 385^

missionary, ii. 409^

Thevenot, Travels, \. ?>in

Thian Shan, i. 175/2, i77«, i^m

Thiante-Kiun, i. 286«

Thin I'Eveque, siege of, ii. 163^, 165^

Thinae of Ptolemy, ii. ^^n

Tholoman, see Coleman

T;homas, Edward, i, 87/2, ii. ii5«, 164^

of Mancasola, Bishop of Samar-

cand, i. i86«
Thread, Brahmanical, ii. 363

VOL. II.

Three kingdoms (San-Kw^), ii. 38^
Threshold, a great offence to step on the,

i. 383, 385^^
Thuran Shah's History of Hormuz, i. \20n
Tibet (Tebet) province, ii. 42, 49 ;

boundary of, 49, 52^ ; its acquisition

by Mongols, 46^; organisation under

Kublai, \(>n\ dogs of, 45, 49, 52/2
Tibetan language and character, i. 29^ ;

origin of the Yue-chi, i74«
Tibetans, i. 165^ ; superstitions of, 2o8«,

209«; and Kashmiris (Tebet and

Keshimur), sorceries of, 301, 3I5« ;

accused of cannibalism, 301, 312^
Tides in Hang-chau estuary, ii. i^on,2oSn
Tierce, half tierce, etc., hours of, ii. 364,

368n
Tiflis, i. 49W, ^yn, 58^
Tigado, Castle of, i. i^Sn
Tigers (called lions by Polo), ii. 225,

231^, 411 ; trained to the chase, i.

397 > 399^^ > in Cuncun, ii, 31 ; in

Caindu, 56 ; Kwei-chau, 127^. {See

also Lions.)
Tigris River (Volga), i. 5, gn ; at

Baghdad, 63, 64;?
Tigudar (Acomat Soldan), ii. 468^
Tiju, ii. 153, 154^
Tiles, enamelled, i. 364, 370«
Tilinga, Telingana, Tiling, Telenc, ii.

362^, 427;/
Tiling, ii. 427^
Timur of Toumen, chief of the

Nikoudrians, i. I02n
Timur the Great, i. 5«, gn, 45^, 49W,

52«, Gut, S6n, 152/2, I55«, i87«, ii.

i66n
Timurids, the, i. 85/2
Ting, 10 taels of silver = tael of gold, i.

427/2, ii. 217/2, 218/2
Tinju, ii. 153, 154/2
Tinnevelly, ii. 359/2, 373/2, 403/2
Tithe on clothing material, i. 445
Tithing men, Chinese {Pao-kia), ii. 200/2
Titus, Emperor, i. 66/2
Tjajya, see Choiach
Toba race, i. 205/2
Toctai, king, see Toktai
Tod, Colonel James, i. 104/?, 114/?, 169/2,

183/2
Toddy, see Wine of Palm
Togan, ii. 471, 474«
Toghontemur, last Mongol Emperor, 1.

228/2 ; his wail, 305/2
Toghrul I., i. 49/2

Shah of Kermdn, i. 113/2

Togrul Wang Khan, see Prester John

Toka Tumir, i. 8/2

Tokat, i. 45/2

Toktai Khan (Toctai, Lord of the

Ponent), 72, ii. 487, 491, 496; wars

with Noghai, 499; his symbolic

message, 497^> 498«

658

TOLAN-NUR

INDEX

TURNER

Tolan-nur (Dolonnur), i. 26«

Toleto, John de, Cardinal Bishop of

Portus, i. 2i«
Tolobuga, ii. 496, 6ffjn
Toman (Tuman, etc. ), Mongol word for

10,000, i. 261, 263«, ii. 192, 200W,

2i7«, 2i8«, 462W
Tongking, Tungking, ii. Ii9«, I20«,

I28«, I3i«
Tooth-reUque of Buddha, ii. 319-320 ;

history of, 329«-33o;z
Torchi, Dorj6, Kiiblai's first-born, i. 36i«
Tornesel, i. 423, 426^
Toro River, i. 345«
Torshok, ii. 489^
Torture by constriction in raw hide, i.

262W
Toscaul, ioskd^l {toscaol), watchman, i.

403, 407W
Tournefort, on cold at Erzrum, i. 49^
Tower and Bell Alarm at Peking, i. 375,

378«; at Kinsay, ii. 189
Toyan (Tathung?), i. 286^
Trade at Layas, i. 41 ; by Baghdad, 63 ;

at Tauris, 75 ; at Cambaluc, 415 ; in

Shan-si, ii. 22 ; on the Great Kiang,

36, 170; at Chinangli, 135; at Sinju

Matu, 138 ; Kinsay, 187, 190, 202,

216 ; Fu-chau, 231 ; Zayton, 234 ;

Java, 272 ; Malaiur, 280 ; Cail, 370 ;

Coilum, 375 ; Melibar, 389 ; Tana,

395; Cambaet, 398 ; Kesmacoran, 401 ;

Socotra, 407
of India with Hormuz, i. 107 ;

with Egypt by Aden, ii. 438, 439^ ;

with Esher, 442 ; with Dofar, 444 ;

with Calatu, 450
Trades in Manzi, alleged to be hereditary,

ii. 186, 196W
Tramontaine, ii. 296«
Transmigration, i. 456, ii. 213W, 318-319
Traps for fur animals, ii. 481, 483??
Travancore, ii. 383^, 403^; Rajas of, 380^
Treasure of Maabar kings, ii. 340, 348^-

349«
Trebizond, ^j, i. l^n, 36, 46 ; Emperors

of, and their tails, ii. 302^
Trebuchets, ii. 159, i6on, 161 n
Trees, of the Sun and Moon, i. i2gn,

130^; superstitions about, I3i«-I35;? ;

by the highways, 440 ; camphor, ii.

234, 237^ ; producing wine, 292, 297^,

300, 313 ; producing flour (sago), 300,

304«-305«
Tregetoures^ i. 386^
Trench, Archbishop, i. 20 1«, ii. 82^
Trevisano, Azzo, <?, 77, ^JT, 65

Marc' Antonio, Doge, <?, /(?

Trincomalee, ii. 337^

Tringano, ii. 279^

Trinkat, ii. 308;?

'Trusty lieges,' devoted comrades of

king of Maabar, ii. 339, 347;^

T'sang-chau, ii. I33«, I37«
Vsiang-kiun ('General'), ii. I38«, 26 [«
T'sien T'ang River, ii. 194^, 198^, 208;;,

2I4«, 220«-222»; bore in, i5o«, 2o8«
T'si-nan-fu (Chinangli), ii. I37«, I38«
T'sing-chau, ii. 138;/
T'sing-ling range, ii. 35«
T'si-ning-chau, ii. I37«, I39«
Tsin-tsun, ii. 229^

Tsiuan-chau, T'swanchau, see Zayton
Tsongkhapa, Tibetan Reformer, i. 3i5«
Ts'uan-chou, see Zayton
Tsukuzi in Japan, ii. 260W
Tsung-ngan-hien, ii. 224^
Tsushima, Island, ii. 26o«
Tuan, Prince, chief of the Boxers, i. 282^
Tuc, tuky tughy commanders of 100,000,

horse-tail or yak-tail standard, i. 261,

263«
Tudai, Ahmad Khan's wife, ii. 47 1«
Tudai-Mangku (Totamangu or Tota-

mangul), ii. 491, 492^, 496, 497;?, 499
Tu-fan, ancient name of Tibet, ii. 46W
Tughan, Tukan, Kiibldi's son, i. 36 1«,

ii. 27o«
Tughlak Shah, of Delhi (a Karaunah), i.

\Q)\n
Tuktuyai Khan, i. 9«
Tu-ku-hun, i. 193^
Tuli, or Tulin, fourth son of Chinghiz, ii.

32W
Tuman, see Toman
Tumba, Angelo di, 2^ ; Marco di, 6^
Tun, city of E. Persia, i. 86;^, I24«
Tung-'an in Fokien, ii. 243W
Tungani, or Converts, Mahomedans in

N. China and Chinese Turkestan, i.

29IW

Tung-chau (Tinju), ii. i^\n
Tung-hwang-hien, ancient Shachau, i.

2o6«
Tung-kwan, fortress of the Kin sovereigns,

ii. I4«, 25;/, 27;^
Tung-lo (Kumiz), i. 259^
Tunguses, i. 271?/
Tunny fish, i. 108, 416^, ii. 442
Tun-o-kain (Tunocain), kingdom of

Persia, i. 83, 86«, 127, I28«, 138^,

I45«
Turbit (radex Turpethi), ii. 389, 391W
Turcomania (Anatolian Turkey), i. 43
Turgaut, day- watch, i. 38 1«
Turkey, Great (Turkestan), i. 191, ii.

286;?, 452, 457, 458, 462, 477
Turkistan chiefs send mission to kings

of India, ii. 370W
Turkmans and Turks, distinction be-
tween, i. 44«, lom; horses, 43, 44^
Turks, ancient mention of, i. 56 ; friend

of Polo's, 213; and Mongols, 294/2
Turmeric, ii. 226^
Turner, Lieutenant Samuel, describes

Yak of Tartary, i. 277«

TURQUANS

INDEX

VIKRAMPeR

659

Turquans, Turkish horses, i. 43

Turquoises in Kerman, i. 90, 92^ ; in
Caindu, ii. 53

Turtle doves, i. 97, 99^

Turumpak, Hormuz, i. iiin

Tutia (Tutty), preparation of, i. 125,
126;?, ii. 398

Tuticorin, ii. 372^

Tu T'song, Sung Emperor of China, ii.
i5o«, 21 1«

Tver, ii. 489^

Twelve, a favourite round number, ii.
426;?

Barons over Khan's Administra-
tion, i. 430, ii. 154

Twigs or arrows, divination by, i. 241,

242«

Tyuman, ii. 48 1«

Tyunju, porcelain manufacture, ii. 235,

242«

Tylor, Dr. E. B., on Cotivade, ii. 93//,

94«
Tzarev, i. 6«
Tzaritzyn, i. 6«, 57«

UCACA (Ukak, Ukek, Uwek), i. 5, 8«,
9«; Ukdk of Ibn Batuta, a different
place, ii. 488^

Uch-baligh, /j^

Uch-Multan, i. 86«

Udoe country, ii. 420^, 598/?

Udong, ii. 279/2

Udyana, i. i64«

Ughuz, legend of, ii. 485^

Uighiir character, parent of present
Mongol writing, i. I4«, 28«, i6o«,

353«
Uighurs, the, i. 'jdn^ 2i4n, 22yn, ii. i79«,

462W
Uiraca, i. 282^
Uirad, see Oirad
Ujjain, legend of, ii. 349^ ; {Ozejte),

397«, 426W
Ukak, ii. 488^. {See Ucaca.)
Ulatai (Oulatay), Tartar envoy from

Persia, i. 32, 33^, ii. 471, 474/2
Ulakhai, i. 282/2

Ulan Muren (Red River), i. 250/2
Ulugh Bagh, on Badakhshan border, i.

154/2

Mohammed, i. 8/2

Ulus, the, i. ion

U-man and Pe-man (Black and White

Barbarians), ii. T^n
Umbrellas, i. 35i» 354'^j 355^^
Unc Can (Aung Khan), see Prester John
Ung (Ungkiit), Tartar tribe, i. 285, 294/2
Ungrat (Kungurat), Tartar tribe, i. 357,

358^

Unicorn (Rhinoceros), in Burma, ii. 107 ;
Sumatra, 285, 289, 299 ; legend of
Virgin and, 285, 290/2 ; horns of, 291/2

Unken, City, ii. 226, 229/2, 230/2, 233/2

VOL. II.

Unlucky hours, ii. 364

U-nya-Mwezi superstition, i. 130/2

Urduja, Princess, ii. 465/2

Uriangkadai, ii. 46/2

Uriangkut (Tunguses), i. 271/2

Urianhai, the, i. 271/2

Urumtsi, i. 201/2, 214^

Urzii, i. 122/2

Uspenskoye (called also Bolgarskoye),

i. 7/2
Uttungadeva, king of Java, ii. 275/2
Uwek, see Ucaca

Uzbeg Khan of Sarai, i. 4/2, Sn, 352/2
Uzbegs of Kunduz, i. 156/2, 163/2
Uzun Tati, coins, Chinese porcelain from,

ii- 59S«

Vair, the fur and animal, i. 257, ii. 479,

483/2, 484/2, 486/2, 487

as an epithet of eyes, 124

Valaghir district, i. 54/2

Vambery, Prof. Hermann, i. 10/2, 28/2,

54«, 57«, 170/2, 214/2, 237/2, 401/2,

n. 465
Vanchu (Wangchu), conspires with

Chenchu against Ahmad, i. 417-419,

422/2
Van Lake, i. 57/2
Varaegian, Varangian, ii. 490/2
Varaha Mihira, astronomer, i. 104/2
Vardoj River, i. 156/2, 172/2
Varini, ii. 490/2

Varsach, or Mashhad River, i. 155/2, 156/2
Vasmulo, i. 292/2
Vateria Indica, ii. 396/2
Veil of the Temple, tt^ttXos /Sa/SuXcSytoj,

i. 66
Vellalars, ii. 372/2
Venadan, title of king of Kaulam, ii.

380/2
Venetians, factory at Soldaia, i. 4/2 ;

expelled from Constantinople, 19/2
Venice, 2, ij, 16, i. 2, 18, 19, ^6, 41 ;

return of Polos to, 4, 24, ^4, i. 36 ;

its exaltation after Latin conquest of

Constantinople, 9 ; its nobles, 14 ;

Polo's mansion at, 2j seqq. ; galleys, 32

seqq. ; archives at, 70 seqq. ; articles

brought from East by Marco to, i. 274,

ii. 299, 305/2
Ventilators at Hormuz, ii. 452, 453/2
Verlinden, Belgian missionary, i. 249/2
Vermques, i. 382, 384/2
Verzino Colombino, ii. 380/2. {See also

Brazil.)
Vessels, war, i. 34, 37/2 ; stitched of

Kerman (TrXoid/Jta paTrrd), i. 108,

1 17/2, ii. 415/2; on the Kiang, 170,

171,173/2. (5'i?<? also Ships. )
Vial, Paul, French missionary, ii. 6^n
Vijayanagar, ii. 362/2
Vikramajit, legend of, ii. 349/2
Vikrampur, ii. 99/2

2 T 2

660 VILLARD DE HONNECOURT INDEX

WINB

Villard de lionnecourt, Album of, ii.

i64«
Vincent of Beauvais, ii. 325^
Vincenzo, P., ii. 4io«
Vineyards, in Taican, i. 153 ; Kashgar,

181; Khotan, 188; in N. China, ii.

10, iin, 13, I5»
Vinson, Prof., on Couvade^ ii. 9i«
Virgin of Cape Comorin, ii. 382;?
Visconti, Tedaldo, or Tebaldo, see

Theobald of Piacenza
Vissering, on Chinese Currency, i. 428^,

429«
Vochan (Unchan, Yungchan), ii. 84, 86,

89^; battle there, 98, loi, i04«-io6«
Vogels, J., ii. 6oi«, 6o2«
Vokhan, see Wakhan
Volga, called Tigris, i. 5, 7«, 9«, ii.

485^, 488^
Vos, Belgian Missionary, i. 249^
Vughin, ii. 182
Vuju in Kiangnan, ii. 182
in Chekiang, ii. 219

Wadoe tribe, ii. 420W

Wakf, i. 67^

Wakhan (Vokhan), dialect, i. i62«, 171,

Mountains, i. i62«, i75«

Wakhjir Pass, i. 175^?, ii. 594^

Wakhijrui Pass, see Wakhjir Pass

Wakhsh, branch of the Oxus, ii. ^n

Wakhtang II., king of Georgia, i. 53^

Walashjird, i. io6w

Wallachs, ii. 489;?, 49 1 w

Wall of Alexander (or Caucasian), i. 50,

of Gog and Magog {i.e. China),

777, i. 285, 292^

Walnut-oil, i. 158, 162W

Wami River, ii. 420^

Wang, Chinese silk, i. 237^, 36 1«, ii.
ii3«

Wang, king of Djungar, i. 250^

Wangchu, see Vanchu

Wapila, i. 54^

Warangol Ku, ii. 362^

Warangs, ii. 490W

Warner, Dr., ii. 604^

War vessels, Chinese, i. 34, 37^

Wassaf, the historian, i. 68« ; his char-
acter of the Karaunahs, ioi« ; notices of
Hormuz, I20«, \i\n; eulogy of
Kublai, 332« ; story of Kublai, 440^ ;
his style, ii. 150^ ; account of taking
of Siang-yang, 150^, 167^; of Kinsay,
213W; Maabar, 333^; horse trade to
India, 348^ ; treatment of them there,
351W ; extract from his history, 495^

Water, bitter, i. no, I22«, 194

custom of lying in, i. 108, 119?/;

consecration by Lamas, 309;/

Clock, i. 378«

Wathek, Khalif, i. 57»

Wa-tzu, Lolo slaves, ii. 63^

Weather-conjuring, i. 301, 309«-3ii«

Wei dynasty, i. 205 «, ii. \y]n

Weights and measures, ii. 590«-592w

Wei-ning, ii. 130^

Wei River in Shen-si, ii. 27«, 29;^, 35«

in Shan-tung, ii. I39«

Wen River, ii. 139^

Wen-chow, ii. ly-^n

Westermarck, Human Marriage, ii. 48^,
93^

Whale oil, including spermaceti, i. 108,
Wjn, ii. 407, 4o8w

Whales, ii. 249 ; in Socotra, 407 ; Mada-
gascar, 411, 41471; species of Indian
Ocean, 408^2; sperm (Capdoille), 411,
41 4n

Wheaten bread not eaten, i. 438^ ; at
Yachi, ii. 66, 74^

White bears, ii. 479

bone, Chinese for Lolos, ii. 63^

camels, i. 281

City, meaning of term among

Tartars, i. 2g'jn, ii. I4n

City, of Manzi frontier, ii. 34^

Devils, ii. 355, 359^

Feast at KulDlai's City, i. 390,

392W

Horde, ii. 48 1 w

horses and mares, i. 300, 390 ;

offered to Khan, ^oSn

Whittington and his cat in Persia, i.

Wild asses and oxen, see Asses and Oxen

William of Tripoli, Friar, i. 22 ; his
writings, 23;?, 24^2

Williams, Dr. S. W., on the Chinese
year, i. 388;/ ; on elephants at Peking,
392^

Williamson, Rev. A., i. 135^2, 217;?, ii.
Sn, im, I2n, i^n, i6n, lyjn

Wilson, General Sir C, i. 45^

Wind, poison (Simum), i. 108, \2on ;
monsoons, ii. 264-265

Wine, of the vine, Persians lax in ab-
staining from, i. 84, 87/2, 96^

boiled, i. 84, 87^, 153;?, I55«

of ancient Kapisa, i. 155/2; Khotan,

188; at Taianfu, ii. 13, l6«; im-
ported at Kinsay, 202

rice {Sajnshu or dardsiin), i. 441 ;

and of wheat, ii. 56, $()n ; at Yachi, 66,
85 ; spices, etc., in Caindu, 56 ; Kien-
ch'ang, 59?z, 85 ; Cangigu, 117 ; Colo-
man, 123 ; Kinsay, 202, 204, 216

Palm (toddy), ii. 292, 2<)'jn, 376

from sugar, ii. 376, 442

date, i. 107, II5«, ii. 292, 297^,

442

(unspecified), at Khan's table, i.

382 ; not used in Ma'bar, ii. 342 ; nor
by Brahmans, 363

INDEX

YUNG LO

66 1

"Winter" used for "rainy season," ii.
39 1 «

Wo-fo-sze, " Monastery of the lying
Buddha," i, 22 iw

Wolves in Pamir, i. 171, 176^

Women, Island of, ii. 405«-4o6w

Women, of Kerman, their embroidery,
i. 90 ; mourners, 109 ; of Khorasan,
their beauty, 128; of Badakhshan, 160;
Kashmir, 166 ; Khotan, 191 ; Kamul,
fair and wanton, 210 ; Tartar good
and loyal, 252 ; Erguiul, pretty
creatures, 276 ; of the town, 414,
ii. 202 ; of Tibet, evil customs, 44 ;
Caindu, 53 ; Carajan, 66 ; Zardandan,
couvade, 85; Anin, 116; Kinsay,
charming, 186 ; respectful treatment
of, 204 ; Kelinfu, beautiful, 225 ;
Zanghibar, frightful, 423

Wonders performed by the Bacsi, i. 314
et seqq.

Wood, Lieutenant John, Indian Navy,
20^ i. 156^; his elucidations of Polo
in Oxus regions, i. 174^

Wood-oil, ii. 251^, 252;?

Wool, Salamander's, i. 213, 2i6«

Worship of Mahomet (supposed), i. 188,
189??

of fire, 303 ; Tartar, 256, 257 ;

Chinese, 456

of first object seen in the day, ii.

284, 288«

Worshipping the tablets, i. 391, 392^

Wu-chau (Vuju), ii. 222 w

Wukiang-hien (Vughin), ii. i84«

Wiisus, or Wesses, people of Russia, ii.
486«

Wu-ti, Emperor, ii. 437«

Wylie, Alexander, 76, i. in, 8n, 322^,
377«, 4Sin, 454«, ii. ign, 28M, 38^,
169?/, i84«, I94«, 2ogn, 212W

Xanadu, i. 305^

Xavicr, at Socotra, ii. 409^
Xerxes, i. 135^

Ya-chau, ii. 45«, 48^, 7o«

Yachi (Yun-nan-fu), city, ii. 66, 67«, 72«,

74«, 8o«, iiiw
Yadah, Jadagari^ Jadah-tdsh, science

and stone of weather-conjurer, i. 309^
Yaik River, i. 6n

Yajii, and Majuj, see Gog and Magog
Yak (dong), i. 274, 277/2; their tails

carried to Venice, 274 ; used in India

for military decorations, ii. 355,

359«
Ya'kub Beg of Kasghar, i. 189^
Yakuts, i. 309^, 446^, ii. 484^
Yalung River, ii. Gjn, 69;/, 72«
Yam, or Yamb (a post-stage or post-
house), i. 433, 43 7 w, ii. 2I3«
Yamgan, i. i62«

Yang-chau (Yanju), city, i. 29«, 432^, ii.

154^^ 173^^ ; Marco's government

there, 22, ii. 154, 157/2
Yarbeg of Badakhshan, i. i$6n
Yarkand (Yarcan), i. 187
Yarligh and P'aizah, i. 322W, '\^2n
Yasdi (Yezd), i. 88

silk tissue, i. 88

Yashm, jade, i. 193/2
Yasodhara, bride of Sakya Sinha, ii.

323«
Yavanas, ii. 372/2
Yazdashir, i. 92/2
Ydifu, i. 285, 295/2
Year, Chinese, i. 388 ; Mongol and

Chinese cycle, 447, 454/2
Yelimala, see Monte d'Ely
Yeliu Chutsai, statesman and astronomer,

ii. 17/2
Yellow, or orthodox Lamas, i. 315/?,

324W
Yemen, ii. 432/2, 433/2, 440/2, 441//,

445/2. {See also Aden. )
Yeng-chau (in Shan-tung), ii. 137/2,

139/2

(in Che-kiang), ii. 222/2

Yen-king (Old Peking), i. 375/2, 376/2

Yen-Ping, ii. 230/2

Yenshan, ii. 224/2

Yesubuka, ii. 474/2

Yesudar, ii. 459

Yesugai, father of Chinghiz, i. 237/2

Yetsina (Etzina), i. 223

Yezd (Yasdi), i. 88 ; silk fabrics of, ii.

II
Yiu-ki River, ii. 230/2
Yoritomo, descendants of, ii. 262/2
Yonting Ho River, ii. 6/2
Yotkan, village, i. 190/2
Youth, Island of, ii. 381/2
Yrac, province, i. 74
Ysemain of Hiulie, western engineer, ii.

167/2
Yu, see Jade
Yuan Ho, i. 29/2

Yu-chow, gold and silver mines, i. 295/f
Yue-chi, i. 174/2
Yuen, Mongol Imperial dynasty, so

styled, i. 29/2, 377/2
Yuen-hao, kingdom of Tangut, i. 282/2
Yuen ming-yuen, palace, i. 307/2
Yuen shi. History of Mongol Dynasty in

China, i. 115/2, 248/2, 295/2, ii. 95/2
Yugria, or Yughra, in the Far North, ii.

483/2, 485/2, 493«
Yuh-shan, ii. 222/2, 224/2
Yule, Sir Henry, ii. 602/2 ; on Ravenala,

597/2; on Maundeville, 604/2
Yun-Hien, a Buddhist Abbot, i. 304/2
Yung-chang fu (Shen-si), i. 276/2
(Yun-nan, Vochan), ii. 84, 89/2,

104/2, 105/2, 107/2-109/2
Yung Lo, Emperor, ii. 596/2

662

YUN-NAN

INDEX

ZURFICAR

Yun-nan (Carajan), province, ii. 40«, 45«,
56«, 57^, 59«-62w, 64, 67«, 72«, 8o«,
81W, 82«, 90«, 95«, io4«, io7«, ii5«,
I20«, 124W, I27«-I29«; conquerors of,
46«, Sow ; Mahomedans, 74 «

Yun-nan-fu city, see Yachi

Yurungkdsh (white Jade) River, i. I93«

YusufKekfi, i. 85^

Yuthia, Ayuthia (Ayodhya), mediaeval
capital of Siam, /j, ii. 278^, 279«

Yvo of Narbonne, i. I2«

Zabedj, ii. 283W

Zaila, ii. 41 3«, 435«, 436«

Zaituniah, probable origin of satin, ii.
24 1 «

Zampa, see Champa

Zanghibar (Zangibar, Zanjibar, Zanzibar),
ii. 405«, 412, 422, 424W; currents off,
415W ; Ivory trade, 423, 424^ ; its
blacks, women, 423, 424^

Zanton (Shantung?), j

Zanzale, James, or Jacob Baradaeus,
Bishop of Edessa, \. dm

Zapharan, monastery near Baghdad, i.
dm

Zardandan, or " Gold Teeth," a people of
W. Yun-nan, ii. 84, 98 ; identity doubt-
ful, 88« ; characteristic customs, 90^

Zarncke, Fr., i. 139W

Zayton, Zaitun, ^ton, Cayton (T'swan-
chau, Chwan-^au, or Chinchew of

modern charts), the great mediaeval
port of China, ii. i75«, 231, 232W-
233«> 234, 237«-243« ; Khan's revenue
from, 235 ; porcelain, 235, 242n ; lan-
guage, 236^, 243«-244«; etymology,
237W ; mediaeval notices, 237 seqq. ;
identity, 239W, 240^ ; Chinchew, a
name misapplied, 239^ ; Christian
churches at, 240^, 24i« ; ships of,
264

Zayton, Andrew, Bishop of, ii. 237«

Zebak Valley, i. 165W

Zebu, humped oxen, i. 99^

Zedoary, ii. 388W

Zenghi, i. 6i«

Zerms (Jerms), ii. 439« -.'

Zerumbet, ii. 388^

Zettani, ii. 24 1«

Zhafar, see Dhafar

Zic (Circassia), ii. 490, 492^

Zikas, ii. 228^, 309«, 31 iw

Zimme, see Kiang-mai

Zinc, i. 126W

Zinj, Zinjis, ii. 424^, 426W

Zobeidah, the lady, i. 1 56«

Zorza, see Chorcha

Zu-'lkarnain ^Zulcarniain), "the Two
Horned," an epithet of Alexander, L
56«, 157, i6o«

Zurficar (Zurpica, Zulficar), a Turkish
friend of Marco Polo's, i. 213

BINDING LlCTJULi

1929