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DOORWAY OF MARCO POLOS HOUSE 
 
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 CORTE SABBIONERA AT VENICE. 
 
THE BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 SER MARCO POLO, 
 
 THE VENETIAN, 
 
 Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels 
 of the East . 
 
 NEWLY TRANSLATED AND EDITED, WITH NOTES. 
 
 By COLONEL HENRY YULE, C.B., 
 
 LATE OF THE ROYAL ENGINEERS (BENGAL), 
 
 HON. FELLOW OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF ITALY. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES.— Vol. I. 
 
 WITH MAPS, AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS . 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1871. 
 
 The right 0/ Translation is reserved. 
 
"AvBpa fioi evverre Niovaa TToXvrpoTrov 09 puaXa 7 roXka 
 
 II \arfgSrj .. 
 
 XloWcov S’ dvOpomwv cBev da-rea real voov eyveo. 
 
 Odyssey, I. 
 
 “ A SEDER Cl PON EM MO IVI AMP ODDI 
 
 VOLTI A LEV ANTE OND ’ ERAVAM SALITIj 
 
 Che suole a riguardar giovare altruip 
 
 Dante, Purgatory, IV. 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, 
 
TO 
 
 HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, 
 
 MAEGHEEITA, 
 
 Princess of Piedmont , 
 
 THIS ENDEAVOUR TO ILLUSTRATE THE LIFE AND WORK 
 OF A RENOWNED ITALIAN 
 
 BY HER ROYAL 
 
 IS, 
 
 HIGHNESS’S GRACIOUS PERMISSION, 
 
 
 ®cbrnitct) 
 
 WITH THE DEEPEST RESPECT 
 BY 
 
 H. YULE 
 

 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Getty Research Institute 
 
 https://archive.org/details/bookofsermarcopo01polo_0 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The amount of appropriate material, and of acquaintance 
 with the medieval geography of some parts of Asia, which 
 was acquired during the compilation of a work of kindred 
 character for the Hakluyt Society, # could hardly fail to 
 suggest as a fresh labour in the same field the preparation 
 of a new English edition of Marco Polo. Indeed one 
 kindly critic (in the Examiner) laid it upon the writer as a 
 duty to undertake that task. 
 
 Though at least one respectable English edition has 
 appeared since Marsden’s,^ the latter has continued to be 
 the standard edition, and maintains not only its reputation 
 but its market value. It is indeed the work of a sagacious, 
 learned, and right-minded man, which can never be spoken 
 of otherwise than with respect. But since Marsden pub¬ 
 lished his quarto (1818) vast stores of new knowledge have 
 become available in elucidation both of the contents of 
 Marco Polo’s book and of its literary history. The works 
 of writers such as Klaproth, Abel-Remusat, D’Avezac, 
 Reinaud, Quatremere, Julien, I. J. Schmidt, Gilde- 
 meister, Ritter, Hammer-Purgstall, Erdmann, D’Ohsson, 
 Defremery, Elliot, Erskine, and many more, which throw 
 light directly or incidentally on Marco Polo, have, for the 
 
 * Cathay and The IVay Thither , being a Collection of Minor Medieval Notices of 
 China. London, 1866. The necessities of the case have required the repetition in 
 the present work of the substance of some notes already printed (but hardly published) 
 in the other. 
 
 f Viz. Mr. Hugh Murray’s. I mean no disrespect to Mr. T. Wright’s edition, but 
 it is, and professes to be, scarcely other than a reproduction of Marsden’s, with abridg¬ 
 ment of his notes. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 viii 
 
 most part, appeared since then. Nor, as regards the 
 literary history of the book, were any just views possible at 
 a time when what may be called the Fontal MSS. (in 
 French) were unpublished and unexamined. 
 
 Besides the works which have thus occasionally or inci¬ 
 dentally thrown light upon the Traveller’s book, various 
 editions of the book itself have since Marsden’s time been 
 published in foreign countries, accompanied by comments 
 of more or less value. All have contributed something to 
 the illustration of the book or its history ; the last and 
 most learned of the editors, M. Pauthier, has so contri¬ 
 buted in large measure. I had occasion some years ago # 
 to speak freely my opinion of the merits and demerits of 
 M. Pauthier’s work ; and to the latter at least I have no 
 desire to recur here. 
 
 Another of his critics, a much more accomplished as 
 well as more favourable one,*j* seems to intimate the opinion 
 that there would scarcely be room in future for new com¬ 
 mentaries. Something of the kind was said of Marsden’s 
 at the time of its publication. I imagine, however, that 
 whilst our libraries endure the Iliad will continue to find 
 new translators, and Marco Polo—though one hopes not 
 so plentifully—new editors. 
 
 The justification of the book’s existence must however 
 be looked for, and it is hoped may be found, in the book 
 itself, and not in the Preface. The work claims to be 
 judged as a whole, but it may be allowable, in these days of 
 scanty leisure, to indicate below a few instances of what is 
 believed to be new matter in an edition of Marco Polo; by 
 which however it is by no means intended that all such 
 matter is claimed by the editor as his own.J 
 
 * In the Quarterly Review for July, 1868. f M. Nicolas Khanikoff. 
 
 X In the Preliminary Notices will be found new matter on the Personal and Family 
 History of the Traveller, illustrated by documents ; and a more elaborate attempt 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 From the commencement of the work it was felt that 
 the task was one which no man, though he were far better 
 equipped and much more conveniently situated than the pre¬ 
 sent writer, could satisfactorily accomplish from his own re¬ 
 sources, and help was sought on special points wherever it 
 seemed likely to be found. In scarcely any quarter was 
 the application made in vain. Some who have aided most 
 materially are indeed very old and valued friends ; but to 
 many others who have done the same the applicant was 
 unknown; and some of these again, with whom the editor 
 began correspondence on this subject as a stranger, he is 
 happy to think that he may now call friends. 
 
 To none am I more indebted than to the Cavaliere 
 Guglielmo Berchet, of Venice, for his ample, accurate, 
 and generous assistance in furnishing me with Venetian 
 documents, and in many other ways. Especial thanks are 
 
 than I have seen elsewhere to classify and account for the different texts of the work, 
 and to trace their mutual relation. 
 
 As regards geographical elucidations, I may point to the explanation of the name 
 Ghcluchelan (I. p. 55), to the discussion of the route from Kerman to Hormuz, and 
 the identification of the sites of Old Hormuz, of Cobinan and Dogana, the establishment 
 of the position and continued existence of Keshm , the note on Pein and Charchan , on 
 Gog and Magog , on the geography of the route from Sindafu to Carajan, on Anin 
 and Coloman , on Mutafili , Call, and Ely. 
 
 As regards historical illustrations, I would cite the notes regarding the Queens 
 Bolgana and Cocachin , on the Karaunahs , &c., on the title of King of Bengal 
 applied to the K. of Burma, and those bearing upon the Malay and Abyssinian 
 chronologies. 
 
 In the interpretation of outlandish phrases, I may refer to the notes on Ondanique , 
 Nono , Barguerlac, A rgon, Semin , Keshican, Toseaol, Bularguchi , Gat-paul, &c. 
 
 Among miscellaneous elucidations, to the disquisition on the Arbre Sol or Sec 
 in vol. i., and to that on Medieval Military Engines in vol. ii. 
 
 In a variety of cases it has been necessary to refer to Eastern languages for pertinent 
 elucidations or etymologies. The editor would however be sorry to fall under the ban 
 of the medieval adage :— 
 
 “ Vir qui docet quod 71 on sapit 
 Dejinitur Bestia ! ” 
 
 and may as well reprint here what was written in the Preface to Cathay :— 
 
 “ I am painfully sensible that in regard to many subjects dealt with in the follow- 
 ing pages, nothing can make up for the want of genuine Oriental learning. A fair 
 familiarity with Hindustani for many years, and some reminiscences of elementary 
 Persian, have been useful in their degree ; but it is probable that they may sometimes 
 also have led me astray, as such slender lights are apt to do.” 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 also due to Dr. William Lockhart, who has supplied 
 the materials for some of the most valuable illustrations; 
 to Lieutenant Francis Garnier, of the French Navy, the 
 gallant and accomplished leader (after the death of Captain 
 Doudart de la Gree) of the memorable expedition up the 
 Mekong to Yunnan; to the Rev. Dr. Caldwell, of 
 the S. P. G. Mission in Tinnevelly, for copious and valu¬ 
 able notes on Southern India; to my friends Col. Robert 
 Maclagan, R.E., Sir Arthur Phayre, and Col. Henry 
 Man, for very valuable notes and other aid; to Professor 
 A. Schiefner, of St. Petersburg, for his courteous com¬ 
 munication of very interesting illustrations not otherwise 
 accessible ; to Major-General Alexander Cunningham, of 
 my own corps, for several valuable letters; to my friends 
 Dr. Thomas Oldham, Director of the Geological Survey 
 of India, Mr. Daniel Hanbury, F.R.S., Mr. Edward 
 Thomas, Mr. James Fergusson, F.R.S., Sir Bartle 
 Frere, and Dr. Hugh Cleghorn, for constant interest in 
 the work and readiness to assist its progress; to Mr. A. 
 Wylie, the learned Agent of the B. and F. Bible Society 
 at Shanghai, for valuable help; to the Hon. G. P. Marsh, 
 U. S. Minister at the Court of Italy, for untiring kindness 
 in the communication of his ample stores of knowledge, 
 and of books. I have also to express my obligations to 
 Dr. Nicolo Barozzi, Director of the City Museum at 
 Venice, and to Professor A. S. Minotto, of the same city; 
 to Professor Arminius Vambery, the eminent traveller; 
 to Professor Fluckiger, of Bern; to the Rev. H. A. 
 Jaeschke, of the Moravian Mission in British Tibet; 
 to Colonel Lewis Pelly, British Resident in the Persian 
 Gulf; to Pandit Manphul, C. S. I. (for a most interesting 
 communication on Badakhshan); to my brother officer, 
 Major T. G. Montgomerie, R.E., of the Indian Tri¬ 
 gonometrical Survey; to Commendatore Negri, the in- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xi 
 
 defatigable President of the Italian Geographical Society ; to 
 Dr. Zotenberg, of the Great Paris Library, and to M. Ch. 
 Maunoir, Secretary-General of the Societe de Geographic ; 
 to Professor Henry Giglioli, at Florence; to my old 
 friend Major-General Albert Fytche, Chief Commissioner 
 of British Burma; to Dr. Rost and Dr. Forbes-Watson, 
 of the India Office Library and Museum; to Mr. R. H. 
 Major, and Mr. R. K. Douglas, of the British Museum; 
 to Mr. N. B. Dennys, of Hongkong; and to Mr. C. 
 Gardner, of the Consular Establishment in China. There 
 are not a few others to whom my thanks are equally due; 
 but it is feared that the number of names already mentioned 
 may seem ridiculous, compared with the result, to those 
 who do not appreciate from how many quarters the facts 
 needful for a work which in its course intersects so many 
 fields required to be collected, one by one. I must not 
 however omit acknowledgments to the present Earl of 
 Derby for his courteous permission, when at the head of 
 the Foreign Office, to inspect Mr. Abbott’s valuable un¬ 
 published Report upon some of the Interior Provinces of 
 Persia; and to Mr. T. T. Cooper, one of the most 
 adventurous travellers of modern times, for leave to quote 
 some passages from his unpublished diary. 
 
 Palermo, December 31, 1870. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Dedication . v 
 
 Preface . vii 
 
 Explanatory List of Illustrations . xiii 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTICES 
 
 REGARDING MARCO POLO AND HIS BOOK. 
 
 I. Obscurities in the History of his Life and Book. 
 
 Ramusio’s Statements .xxxiii 
 
 § i. Obscurities, &c. 2. Ramusio his earliest Biographer; his Account 
 
 of Polo. 3. He vindicates Polo’s Geography. 4. Compares him 
 with Columbus. 5. Recounts a Tradition of the Traveller’s 
 Return to Venice. 6. Recounts Marco’s Capture by the 
 Genoese. 7. His statements about Marco’s liberation and 
 
 marriage. 8. His account of the Family Polo and its ter¬ 
 mination. 
 
 II. Sketch of the State of the East at the Time of the 
 
 Journeys of the Polo Family . xl 
 
 § 9. State of the Levant. 10. The various Mongol Sovereignties in 
 Asia and Eastern Europe. 11. China. 12. India and Indo- 
 China. 
 
 III. The Polo Family. Personal History of the Travel¬ 
 lers TILL THEIR FINAL RETURN FROM THE EAST .. xliv 
 
 § 13. Alleged origin of the Polos. 14. Claims to Nobility. 15. The 
 Elder Marco Polo. 16. Nicolo and Maffeo Polo commence 
 their Travels. 17. Their Intercourse with Kublai Kaan. 18. 
 
 Their return home, and Marco’s appearance on the scene. 19. 
 
 Second Journey of the Polo Brothers, accompanied by Marco. 
 
 20. Marco’s Employment by Kublai Kaan; and his Journeys. 
 
 21. Circumstances of the departure of the Polos from the Kaan’s 
 Court. 22. They pass by Persia to Venice. Their relations 
 there. 
 
xiv CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 IV. Digression concerning the Mansion of the Polo 
 
 Family at S. Giovanni Grisostomo . lv 
 
 § 23. Probable period of their establishment at S. Giovanni Grisostomo. 
 
 24. Relics of the Casa Polo in the Corte Sabbionera. 24^. 
 
 Recent corroboration as to traditional site of the Casa Polo. 
 
 V. Digression concerning the War-Galleys of the Medi¬ 
 terranean States in the Middle Ages . lx 
 
 § 25. Arrangement of the Rowers in Medieval Galleys ; a separate Oar 
 to every Man. 26. Change of System in 16th Century. 27. 
 
 Some details of 13th-Century Galleys. 28. Fighting Arrange¬ 
 ments. 29. Crew of a Galley and Staff of a Fleet. 30. Music 
 and miscellaneous particulars. 
 
 VI. The Jealousies and Naval Wars of Venice and 
 Genoa. Lamba Doria’s Expedition to the 
 Adriatic ; Battle of Curzola ; and Imprisonment 
 of Marco Polo by the Genoese . lxx 
 
 § 31. Growing Jealousies and Outbreaks between the Republics. 32. 
 
 Battle in Bay of Ayas in 1294. 33. Lamba Doria’s Expedition 
 
 to the Adriatic. 34. The Fleets come in sight of each other 
 at Curzola. 35. The Venetians defeated, and Marco Polo a 
 Prisoner. 36. Marco Polo in Prison dictates his Book to 
 Rusticiano of Pisa. Release of Venetian Prisoners. 37. 
 Grounds on which the story of Marco Polo’s capture at Curzola 
 rests. 
 
 VII. Rusticiano or Rustichello of Pisa, Marco Polo’s 
 Fellow-Prisoner at Genoa, the Scribe who wrote 
 down his Travels .lxxxiii 
 
 § 38. Rusticiano, perhaps a Prisoner from Meloria. 39. A Person 
 known from other Sources. 40. Character of his Romance 
 Compilations. 41. Identity of the Romance Compiler with 
 Polo’s Fellow - prisoner. 42. Further particulars regarding 
 Rusticiano. 
 
 VIII. Notices of Marco Polo’s History after the Ter¬ 
 mination of his Imprisonment at Genoa .. .. xcii 
 
 § 43. Death of Marco’s Father before 1300. Will of his Brother Maffeo. 
 
 44. Documentary Notices of Polo at this time. The Sobriquet 
 of Milione. 45. Polo’s relations with Thibault de Cepoy. 46. 
 
 His Marriage, and his Daughters. Marco as a Merchant. 47. 
 
 His Last Will; and Death. 48. Place of Sepulture. Professed 
 Portraits of Polo. 49. Further History of the Polo Family. 
 
 IX. Marco Polo’s Book ; and the Language in which it 
 
 WAS FIRST WRITTEN . Cvi 
 
 § 50. General Statement of what the Book contains. 51. Language of 
 the original Work. 52. Old French Text of the Societe de 
 Geographic. 53. Conclusive proof that the Old French Text is 
 the source of all the others. 54. Greatly diffused employment 
 of French in that age. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 xv 
 
 Page 
 
 X. Various Types of Text of Marco Polo’s Book .. .. cxv 
 
 § 55. Four Principal Types of Text. First, that of the Geographic or 
 Oldest French. 56. Second, the Remodelled French Text ; 
 followed by Pauthier. 57. The Bern MS. and two others form 
 a sub-class of this Type. 58. Third, Friar Pipino’s Latin. 59. 
 
 The Latin of Grynaeus, a Translation at Fifth hand. 60. Fourth, 
 Ramusio’s Italian. 61. Injudicious Tamperings in Ramusio. 
 
 62. Genuine Statements peculiar to Ramusio. 63. Hypothesis 
 of the Sources of the Ramusian Version. 64. Summary in 
 regard to Text of Polo. 65. Notice of a Curious Irish Version. 
 
 XI. Some Estimate of the Character of Polo and his 
 
 Book .cxxix 
 
 § 66. Grounds of Polo’s Pre-eminence among Medieval Travellers. 67. 
 
 His true claims to glory. 68. Plis personal attributes seen but 
 dimly. 69. Absence of scientific notions. 70. Map constructed 
 on Polo’s data. 71. Singular omissions of Polo in regard to 
 China; historical inaccuracies. 72. Was Polo’s Book materi¬ 
 ally affected by the Scribe Rusticiano? 73. Marco’s reading 
 embraced the Alexandrian Romances. Examples. 74. In¬ 
 justice long done to Polo. Singular Modern Example. 
 
 XII. Contemporary Recognition of Polo and his Book .. cxl 
 
 § 75. How far was there diffusion of his Book in his own day ? 76. 
 Contemporary References to Polo. T. de Cepoy; Pipino; 
 
 Jacopo d’Acqui; Giov. Villani. 77. Pietro d’Abano; Jean le 
 Long of Ypres. 78. Curious borrowings from Polo in the 
 Romance of Bauduin de Sebourg. 
 
 XIII. Nature of Polo’s Influence on Geographical Know¬ 
 
 ledge . cli 
 
 § 79. Tardy operation, and causes thereof. 80. General characteristics 
 of Medieval Cosmography. 81. Roger Bacon as a Geographer. 
 
 82. Marino Sanuto the Elder. 83. The Catalan Map of 1375, 
 the most complete medieval embodiment of Polo’s Geography. 
 
 84. Fra Mauro’s Map. Confusions in Cartography of the 16th 
 Century from the endeavour to combine new and old informa¬ 
 tion. 85. Gradual disappearance of Polo’s nomenclature. 
 
 86. Alleged introduction of Block-printed Books into Europe 
 by Marco Polo. 87. Frequent opportunities for such introduc¬ 
 tion in the Age following Polo’s. 
 
 XIV. Explanations regarding the Basis adopted for the 
 
 present Translation . clix 
 
 § 88. Texts followed by Marsden and by Pauthier. 89. Eclectic 
 Formation of the English Text of this Translation. 90. Mode 
 of rendering Proper Names. 
 
XVI 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 THE BOOK OF MARCO POLO. 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 Page 
 
 Preliminary Address of Rusticiano of Pisa .. .. i 
 
 Chap. 
 
 I. — How the Two Brothers Polo set forth from Con¬ 
 
 stantinople TO TRAVERSE THE WORLD . 2 
 
 Notes. —i. Chronology. 2. “ The Great Seal' The Port of Soldaia. 
 
 II. — How the Two Brothers went on beyond Soldaia .. 4 
 
 Notes. —1. Site and Rums of Sarai. 2. City of Bolghar. 3. Alau 
 Lord of the Levant (i.e., Hulaku). 4. Ucaca on the Wolga. 
 
 5. River Tigeri. 
 
 III.—How the Two Brothers, after crossing a Desert, 
 came to the City of Bocara, and fell in with 
 
 certain Envoys there. 9 
 
 Notes. —1. “ Bocara a City of Persia." 2. The Great Kaan's 
 
 Envoys. 
 
 IV. — How the Two Brothers took the Envoys’ counsel, 
 
 AND WENT TO THE COURT OF THE GREAT KAAN .. II 
 
 V. — How the Two Brothers arrived at the Court of 
 
 the Great Kaan . 11 
 
 VI. — How the Great Kaan asked all about the manners 
 
 of the Christians, and particularly about the 
 Pope of Rome .. .. .. .. .. 11 
 
 N OTE. — Apostoille. 
 
 VII. — How the Great Kaan sent the Two Brothers as 
 
 his Envoys to the Pope . 12 
 
 Notes. —1. The Great Kaan's Letter. 2. The Seven Arts. 3. Re¬ 
 ligious Lndijference of the Mongol Princes. 
 
 VIII.— How the Great Kaan gave them a Tablet of Gold, 
 
 BEARING HIS ORDERS IN THEIR BEHALF . 14 
 
 Notes. —1. The Tablet. 2. The Port of Ay as. 
 
 IX.— How the Two Brothers came to the City of Acre ; 
 
 AND THENCE TO VENICE . 16 
 
 Notes. —1. Names of the deceased Pope and of the Legate. 2. Negro- 
 pont. 3. Mark's age. 
 
 X. — How the Two Brothers again departed from 
 Venice, on their Way back to the Great Kaan, 
 
 AND TOOK WITH THEM MARK, THE SON OF MESSER 
 
 Nicolas. 18 
 
 Note. —Oil from the LLoly Sepulchre. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xvii 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 XI.—How the Two Brothers set out from Acre, and 
 
 Mark along with them. 19 
 
 Note. —Pope Gregory X. and his Election. 
 
 XII.— How the Two Brothers presented themselves 
 
 BEFORE THE NEW POPE . 21 
 
 Notes.—I. William of Tripoli. 2. Powers conceded to Missionary 
 Friars. 3. Bundukdar and his Invasion of Armenia. 
 
 4. The Templars in Cilician Armenia. 
 
 XIII. — How Messer Nicolas and Messer Maffeo Polo, 
 
 ACCOMPANIED BY MARK, TRAVELLED TO THE COURT 
 
 of the Great Kaan. 24 
 
 Note.— The City of Kemenfu, Summer Residence of Kublai. 
 
 XIV. —How Messer Nicolo and Messer Maffeo Polo and 
 
 Marco presented themselves before the Great 
 
 Kaan . 25 
 
 Notes. — 1. Verbal. 2. “ Vostre Homme! 
 
 XV. — How the Lord sent Mark on an Embassy of his 27 
 
 Notes. —i. The four Characters learned by Marco, what ? 2. Ma¬ 
 
 ture of his employment. 
 
 XVI.— How Mark returned from the Mission whereon 
 
 HE HAD BEEN 'SENT . 29 
 
 XVII. — How Messer Nicolo, Messer Maffeo, and Messer 
 Marco, asked Leave of the Great Kaan to go 
 their Way . 30 
 
 Notes.—1. Risks to Foreigners on a change of Sovereign. 2. The 
 Lady Bolgana. 3. Passage from Ramusio. 
 
 XVIII.—How the Two Brothers and Messer Marco took 
 Leave of the Great Kaan, and returned to their 
 
 own Country . 32 
 
 Notes.—1. Mongol Royal Messengers. 2. Mongol communication 
 with the Xing of England. 3. Medieval Ships of China. 
 
 4. Passage from China to Sumatra. 5. Mortality among the 
 party. 6. The Lady Cocachin in Persian History. 7. Death 
 of the Kaan. 8. The Princess of Manzi. 
 
 BOOK FIRST. 
 
 Account of Regions Visited or heard of on the Journey from the 
 Lesser Armenia to the Court of the Great Kaan at Chandu. 
 
 I.— Here the Book begins ; and first it speaks of 
 
 the Lesser Hermenia .. .. .. .. . 41 
 
 Notes. — 1 . Little Armenia. 2. Meaning of Chasteaux. 3. Sickliness 
 of Cilician Coast. 4. The phrase “ fra terre.” 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 b 
 
xviii CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 II.— Concerning the Province of Turcomania. 43 
 
 Notes. — 1. Brutality of the people. 2. Application of name Turco¬ 
 mania. 
 
 III. — Description of the Greater Hermenia. 45 
 
 Notes. —1. Erzingan. Buckrams, what were they 1 2. Erzrum. 
 
 3. Baiburt. 4. Ararat. 5. Oil zuells of Baku. 
 
 IV. — Of Georgiania and the Kings thereof. 49 
 
 Notes. — 1. Georgian Kings. 2. The Georgians. 3. The Iron Gates 
 and Wall of Alexander. 4. Box forests. 5. Goshawks. 6. 
 
 Fish Miracle. 7. Sea of Ghel or Ghelan. 8. Names of the 
 Caspian, and Navigation thereon. 
 
 V. — Of the Kingdom of Mausul. 57 
 
 Notes. — 1. Atabeks of Mosul. 2. Nestorian and Jacobite Christians. 
 
 3. Mosolins. 4. The Kurds. 5. Mush and Mar din. 
 
 VI.— Of the Great City of Baudas, and how it was taken 60 
 
 Notes.—1. Baudas, or Baghdad. 2. Island of Kish. 3. Basra. 
 
 4. Baldachins and other silk textures; Animal patterns. 
 
 5. Chronology. 6 . The Death of the Khalif Mostdsim. 
 
 VII.— How the Calif of Baudas took counsel to slay all 
 
 the Christians in his Land. 65 
 
 Notes. —1. Chronology. 2. “ Ses Regisles et ses Casses.” 
 
 VIII.—How the Christians were in Great Dismay because 
 
 OF WHAT THE CALIF HAD SAID . 66 
 
 Note. — The word “ cralantur.” 
 
 IX.— How the One-eyed Cobler was desired to pray for 
 
 the Christians. 67 
 
 X.— How the Prayer of the One-eyed Cobler caused 
 
 the Mountain to move. 68 
 
 Note. — The Mountain Miracle. 
 
 XI.— Of the Noble City of Tauris. 70 
 
 Notes. — 1. Tabriz. 2. Cremesor. 3. Traffic at Tabriz. 4. The 
 Torizi. 5. Character of City and People. 
 
 XII.— Of the Monastery of Saint Barsamo on the Borders 
 
 of Tauris . .. .. 72 
 
 Note. — The Monastery of Barsauma. 
 
 XIII. — Of the Great Country of Persia ; with some account 
 
 of the Three Kings.. .. .. .. . 73 
 
 Notes. — 1. Kala'a Atishparastan. 2. The Three Kings. 
 
 XIV. — How the Three Kings returned to their own 
 
 Country. 75 
 
 Notes. — 1. The three mystic Gifts. 2. The Worshipped Fire. 3. 
 
 Savah and Avail. The legend in Mas’udi. Embellishments 
 of the Story of the Magi. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xix 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 XV.— Of the Eight Kingdoms of Persia, and how 
 
 THEY ARE NAMED . 78 
 
 Notes. —1. The Eight Kingdoms. 2. Export of Horses , and 
 Prices. 3. Persian brigands. 4. Persian wine. 
 
 XVI.— Concerning the Great City of Yasdi . 84 
 
 Notes. —1. Yezd. 2. Yezd to Kerman. The Woods spoken of. 
 
 XVII.— Concerning the Kingdom of Kerman . 86 
 
 Notes. —1. City and Province of Kerman. 2. Turquoises. 3. On- 
 danique or Indian Steel. 4. Manufactures of Kerman. 
 
 5. Ealcons. 
 
 XVIII. — Of the City of Camadi and its Ruins ; also 
 
 TOUCHING THE CARAUNA ROBBERS . 91 
 
 Notes. —i. Products of the warmer plains. 2 . Humped oxen and 
 fat-tailed sheep. 3. Scarani. 4. The Karaunahs and Nigu- 
 darian Bands. 5. Canosalmi. 
 
 XIX. — Of the Descent to the City of Hormos. ioi 
 
 Notes. —1. Site of Old Hormuz and Geography of the Route from 
 Kerman to Hormuz. 2. Dates and Fish Diet. 3. Stitched 
 Vessels. “ One rudder,” why noticed as peculiar. 4. Great 
 heat at Hormuz. 5. The Simiim. 6. History of Hormuz , 
 and Polo's Ruomedan Acomat. 7. Second Route betzveen 
 Hormuz and Kerman. 
 
 XX. — Of the Wearisome and Desert Road that has 
 
 NOW TO BE TRAVELLED . 11 5 
 
 Notes. —1. Desert of Lilt. Subterraneous Canals. 
 
 XXI. — Concerning the City of Cobinan and the things 
 
 THAT ARE MADE THERE ..' . 117 
 
 Notes. —1. Koh-Bandn. 2. Production of Tutia. 
 
 XXII. — Of a certain Desert that continues for eight 
 
 days’ Journey . 119 
 
 Notes. — 1. Deserts of Khorasan. 2. The Arbre Sol or Arbre Sec. 
 
 XXIII. — Concerning the Old Man of the Mountain.. .. 132 
 
 Notes. — 1. The Assassins, Hashishin, or Mulahidah. 2. Apparent 
 allusion in Boccaccio to this story. 
 
 XXIV. — How the Old Man used to train his Assassins .. 134 
 
 Notes. —1. The story widely spread. Notable murders by the 
 Sectaries. 2. Their different branches. 
 
 XXV. — How the Old Man came by his End .. .. .. .. 138 
 
 Note. —History of the Destruction of the Sect by Ilulaku. Castles of 
 Alamut and Girdknh. 
 
 XXVI. — Concerning the City of Sapurgan .. . . 140 
 
 Note. — Shibrgdn, and the route followed. Dried Melons. 
 
 b 2 
 
xx CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 XXVII.— Of the City of Balc .. .. 142 
 
 Notes. — 1. Balkh. 2. Country meant by Dogana. 3. Lions in the 
 Oxus Valley. 
 
 XXVIII.— Of Taican, and the Mountains of Salt. Also of 
 
 the Province of Casem . 144 
 
 Notes. — 1. Talikan. 2. Mines . of Rock-salt. .3. Ethnological 
 characteristics. 4. Kishm. 5. Porcupines. 6. Old Capital 
 of Badakhshan. 7. New Capital. 
 
 XXIX.— Of the Province of Badashan. 149 
 
 Notes. —1. Dialects of Badakhshan. Alexandrian lineage of the 
 Princes. 2. Badakhshan and the Balas Ruby. 3. Azure 
 Mines. 4. Naked barley. 5. Wild sheep. 6. Scenery of 
 Badakhshan. 7. Repeated devastation of the Country from 
 
 War. 8. Amplitude of feminine garments. 
 
 XXX.—Of the Province of Pashai. 155 
 
 Note.— On the country intended by this name. 
 
 XXXI.— Of the Province of Keshimur . 157 
 
 Notes. — 1. Kashmir language. 2. Kashmir Conjurors. 3. Im¬ 
 
 portance of Kashmir in History of Buddhism. 4. Character 
 of the People. 5. Vicissitudes of Buddhism in Kashmir. 6. 
 Buddhist practice as to slaughter of animals. 7. Coral. 
 
 XXXII.— Of the Great River of Badashan ; and Plain of 
 
 Pamier . 162 
 
 Notes. — 1. The Upper Oxus and Wakhan. The title Nono. 2. 
 
 The Plateau of Pamer. The Great Wild Sheep. Fire at 
 great altitudes. 3. Bo lor. 
 
 XXXIII. — Of the Kingdom of Cascar. ... .. 169 
 
 N ote. — Kashgar. 
 
 XXXIV. — Of the Great City of Samarcan .. .. 170 
 
 Notes. —1. Christians in Samarkand. 2. ChagataVs relation to 
 Kublai mis-stated. 3. The Miracle of the Stone. 
 
 XXXV.— Of the Province of Yarcan . .. .. 173 
 
 Note. — Yarkand. Goitre prevalent there. 
 
 XXXVI. — Of a Province called Cotan . 173 
 
 Notes. — 1. “ Adoration of MahommetT 2. Khotan. 
 
 XXXVII. — Of the Province of Pein . .. 175 
 
 Notes. —1. Position of Pein. 2. The Yu or jade. 3. Temporary 
 marriages. 
 
 XXXVIII.— Of the Province of Charchan. 178 
 
 Note.— Position of Charchan and Lop. 
 
 XXXIX. — Of the City of Lop, and the Great Desert .. 180 
 
 Notes.— 1. Geographical discrepancy. 2. Superstitions as to Deserts; 
 their wide diffusion. The Sound of Drums in certain sandy 
 acclivities. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xxi 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 XL.—Concerning the Great Province of Tangut ... 184 
 
 Notes. — 1. Tangut. 2. Buddhism encountered here. 3. Kajmak 
 superstition , the “Heaven’s Ram.” 4. Chinese customs de¬ 
 scribed here. 5. Mongol disposal of the Dead. 6. Super¬ 
 stitious practice of avoiding to carry out the dead by the house- 
 door ; its wide diffusion. 
 
 XLI.— Of the Province of Camul. 189 
 
 Notes. — 1 . Kamul. 2. Character of the people. 3. Shameless 
 custom. 4. Parallel. 
 
 XLIL—Of the Province of Chingintalas .. .. .. .. 191 
 
 Notes. — 1 . The Country intended. 2. Asbestos Mountain. 3. The 
 four Elements. 4. and 5. The Story of the Salamander. 
 Asbestos fabrics. 
 
 XLIIL— Of the Province of Sukchur .. 195 
 
 Notes.—1. Explanatory. 2. The City of Suhchau. 3. Rhubarb 
 country. 4. Poisonous Pasture. 
 
 XLIV.— Of the City of Campichu . 197 
 
 Notes. — 1. The City of' Kanchau. 2. Recumbent Buddhas. 3. Bud¬ 
 dhist Days of Special Worship. 4. Matrimonial customs. 
 
 5 . Textual. 
 
 XLV.— Of the City of Etzina. 202 
 
 Notes. — 1 . Position of Yetsina. 2. Textual. 3. The Wild Ass of 
 Mongolia. 
 
 XLVI.— Of the City of Caracoron. 203 
 
 Notes.— 1. Karakorum. 2. Chorcha. 3. Prester John. 
 
 XLVIL—Of Chinghis, and how he became the First Kaan 
 
 of the Tartars . 209 
 
 Notes. — 1 . Chronology. 2. Relations between Chinghiz and Aung 
 Khan , the Prester John of Polo. 
 
 XLVIII.— How Chinghis mustered his People to march 
 
 against Prester John. 211 
 
 XLIX.— How Prester John marched to meet Chinghis.. 212 
 Notes. — 1. Plain of Tenduc. 2. Divination by Twigs and Arrows. 
 
 L.— The Battle between Chinghis Kaan and Prester 
 
 John. Death of Chinghis . 215 
 
 Note.— Real circumstances and date of the Death of Chinghiz. 
 
 LI.— Of those who did Reign after Chinghis Kaan, 
 
 AND OF THE CUSTOMS OF THE TARTARS. 216 
 
 Notes. — 1 . Origin of the Cambuscan of Chaucer. 2. Historical 
 errors. 3. The Place of Sepulture of Chinghiz. 4. Bar¬ 
 barous Funeral Superstition. 
 
 LII.— Concerning the Customs of the Tartars .. .. 219 
 
 Notes. — 1. Tartar Huts. 2. Tartar Waggons. 3. Pharaoh's Rat. 
 
 4. Chastity of the Women. 5. Polygamy and Marriage 
 Customs. 
 
XXII 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Chap. 
 
 LI 11 —Concerning the God of the Tartars 
 Notes. —i. The old Tartar idols. 2. Kumiz. 
 
 Page 
 
 224 
 
 LIV — Concerning the Tartar Customs of War .. .. 228 
 
 Notes. — 1. Tartar Arms. 2. The Decimal Division of their Troops. 
 
 3. Textual. 4. Blood-drinking. 5. Kurut, or Tartar Curd. 
 
 6. The Mongol military rapidity and terrorism. 7. Corrup¬ 
 tion of their Nomade simplicity. 
 
 LV — Concerning the Administration of Justice among 
 
 the Tartars. 2 34 
 
 Notes.—1. The Cudgel. 2. Punishment of Theft. 3. Marriage 
 of the Dead. 4. Textual. 
 
 LVI.—Sundry Particulars of the Plain beyond Cara- 
 
 coron .236 
 
 Notes. — 1. Textual. 2. Bargu, the Mecrit, the Reindeer, and Chase 
 of Water fowl. 3. The bird Barguerlac, the Syrrhaptes. 4. 
 Gerfalcons. 
 
 LVI I.—Of the Kingdom of Erguiul, and Province of 
 
 SlNJU . 241 
 
 Notes. —1. Erguiul. 2. Siningfu. 3. The Yak. 4. The Musk 
 Deer. 5. The Reeves's Pheasant. 
 
 LVIIL—Of the Kingdom of Egrigaia. 247 
 
 Notes. — 1. Egrigaia. 2. Calachan. 3. White Camels, and Camlets ; 
 Siclatoun. 
 
 LIX. — Concerning the Province of Tenduc, and the 
 
 Descendants of Prester John . 249 
 
 Notes. — 1. The name and place Tenduc. King George. 2. Standing 
 Marriage Compact. The title Gurgan. 3. Azure. 4. The 
 terms Argon and Guasmul. The Dungens. 5. The Rampart 
 of Gog and Magog. 6. Tartary cloths. 7. Siwanhwafu. 
 
 LX. — Concerning the Kaan’s Palace of Chagannor .. 260 
 
 Notes. —1. The word Sesnes. 2. Chagan-nor. 3. The five species 
 of Crane described by Polo. 4. The word Cator. 
 
 LXI.—Of the City of Chandu, and the Kaan’s Palace 
 
 THERE . 263 
 
 Notes. — 1. Chandu, properly Shangtu. 2. The Bamboo Palace. 
 
 Uses of the Bamboo. 3. Kublai's Annual Migration to 
 Shangtu. 4. The White Horses. The Oirad Tribe. 5. The 
 Mare's Milk Festival. 6. Weather Conjuring. 7. Ascription 
 of Cannibalism to Tibetans, &c. 8. The term Bacsi. 9. 
 
 Magical Feats ascribed to the Lamas. 10. Vast extent of Lama 
 Convents. 11. Married Lamas. 12. Patarins. 13. The 
 Ascetics called Sensin. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xxiii 
 
 BOOK SECOND. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 I.— Of Cublay Kaan, the Great Kaan now reigning, and 
 
 of his Great Puissance.295 
 
 Note. —Eulogies of Kublai. 
 
 II. — Concerning the Revolt of Nayan, who was Uncle 
 
 to the Great Kaan Cublay. 296 
 
 Notes — 1 .Chronology. 2. Kublais Age. 3. His Wars. 4. Nayan, 
 and his true relationship to Kublai. 
 
 III. — How the Great Kaan marched against Nayan.. .. 298 
 
 Note. —Addition from Ramusio. 
 
 IV. — Of the Battle that the Great Kaan fought with 
 
 Nayan .300 
 
 Notes. — 1. The word Bretesche. 2. Explanatory. 3. TheNakkara. 
 
 4. Parallel Passages. 5. Verbal. 6. The Story of Nayan. 
 
 V.— How the Great Kaan caused Nayan to be put to 
 
 Death .306 
 
 Notes. — 1. The Shedding of Royal Blood avoided. 2. Chore ha , 
 
 Kaoli, Bar skill, Sikintinju. 3. fews in China. 
 
 VI.— How the Great Kaan went back to the City of 
 
 Cambaluc . 309 
 
 Note. — Passage from Ramusio respecting the Kaan's views of Re¬ 
 ligion. Remarks. 
 
 VII.— How the Kaan rewarded the Valour of his 
 
 Captains.312 
 
 Notes. — 1. Parallelfrom Sanang Setzen. 2. The Golden Honorary 
 Tablets or Paizah of the Mongols. 3. Umbrellas. 4. The 
 Gerfalcon Tablets. 
 
 VIII. — Concerning the Person of the Great Kaan .. .. 318 
 
 Notes.-— 1. Colour of his Eyes. His Wives. 3. The Kungurat 
 Tribe. Competitive Examination in Beauty. 
 
 IX. — Concerning the Great Kaan’s Sons . 321 
 
 Notes. — 1. Kublai's intended Heir. 2. His other Sons. 
 
 X. —Concerning the Palace of the Great Kaan .. .. 324 
 
 Notes. — 1. The word Tarcasci. 2. Arsenals of the Palace. 3. The 
 Gates. 4. Various Readings. 5. Wide diffusion of the kind 
 of Palace here described. 6. Parallel description. 7. Modern 
 account of the Lake, &=c. 8. “ Roze de l’ajur.” 9. The 
 
 Green Mount. 10. Textual. 
 
XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 XI.— Concerning the City of Cambaluc . 331 
 
 Notes.- —1. Chronology , Crc. of Peking. 2. The City Wall. 3. 
 Changes hi the extent of the 'City. 4. Its ground plan. 5. 
 A larm Tozvers. 6. Uneasiness of the Mongol rulers respecting 
 
 the Chinese. 
 
 XII.— How the Great Kaan maintains a Guard of 
 Twelve Thousand Horse, which are called 
 
 Keshican . 336 
 
 Note.- —The term Quescican. 
 
 XIII.— The Fashion of the Great Kaan’s Table at his 
 
 High Feasts. .. 338 
 
 Notes. — 1. Order of the Tables. 2. The word Vernique. 3. The 
 Buffet of Liquors. 4. The superstition of the Threshold. 5. 
 Chinese Etiquettes. 6. Jugglers at the Banquet. 
 
 XIV.—Concerning the Great Feast held by the Grand 
 
 Kaan every year on his Birthday. 343 
 
 Notes.—1. The Chinese Year. 2. “ Beaten Gold.'’ 3. Textual. 
 
 Festal changes of costume. 
 
 XV.—Of the Great Festival which the Kaan holds 
 
 on New Year’s Day .. . 346 
 
 Notes.—1. The White Month. 2. Mystic value of the number 9. 
 
 3. Elephants at Peking. 4. Adoration of Tablets. Kow-tow. 
 
 XVI.—Concerning the Twelve Thousand Barons who 
 receive Robes of Cloth of Gold from the 
 Emperor on the Great Festivals, thirteen 
 
 changes a-piece .. .. .. . .. 349 
 
 Notes. — 1. Textual. 2. The'words Camut and Borgal. 3. Tame 
 Lions. 
 
 XVII.— How the Great Kaan enjoineth his People to 
 
 supply him with Game. 352 
 
 Note .—Parallel Passage. " 
 
 XVIII.— Of the Lions and Leopards and Wolves that 
 
 the Kaan keeps for the Chase .. 353 
 
 Notes.—1. The 'Cheeta or Hunting Leopard. 2. Lynxes. 3. The 
 Tiger , termed Lion by Polo. 4. The Barkut Eagle. 
 
 XIX.— Concerning the Two Brothers who have charge 
 
 of the Kaan’s Hounds .. .. .. 356 
 
 Note.— The Masters of the Hounds, and their title. 
 
 XX.— How the Emperor goes on a Hunting Expedi- 
 
 TI0N •• . 357 
 
 Notes. — 1. Direction of the Tour. 2. LLawking Establishments. 3. 
 
 The word Toskaul. 4. The word Bularguchi. 5. Kublai’s 
 Litter. 6. Kachar Modern. 7. The Kaaris Great Tents. 8. 
 
 The Sable and Ermine. 9. Pet is de la Croix. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xxv 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 XXI.—How the Great Kaan, on returning from his 
 Hunting Expedition, holds a Great Court and 
 Entertainment .. ..365 
 
 Note. — This chapter peculiar to the 2nd Type of MSS. 
 
 XXII.— Concerning the- City of Cambaluc, and its 
 
 . great Traffic and Population . 367 
 
 Notes. —1. Suburbs of Peking. 2. The word Fondaco. 
 
 XXIII.— [Concerning the Oppressions of Achmath the 
 Bailo, and the Plot that was formed against 
 
 him] . .. ..370 
 
 Notes.'—1. Chapter peculiar to Ramusio. 2. KublaPs Administra¬ 
 tion. The Rise of Ahmad. 3. The term Bailo. 4. The Con¬ 
 spiracy against Ahmad as related by Gaubil from the Chinese. 
 
 5. Marco's presence and upright conduct commemorated in the 
 Chinese A nnals. The Kaan's prejudice against Mahomedans. 
 
 XXIV.— How the Great Kaan causeth the Bark of Trees, 
 
 MADE INTO SOMETHING LIKE PAPER, TO PASS FOR 
 
 Money over all his Country. 378 
 
 Note.— Chinese Paper Currency. 
 
 XXV.— Concerning the Twelve Barons who are set 
 
 OVER ALL THE AFFAIRS OF THE GREAT KAAN .. 385 
 
 Note.— The Ministers of the Mongol Dynasty. The term Sing. 
 
 XXVI.— How the Kaan’s Posts and Runners are sped 
 
 THROUGH MANY LANDS AND PROVINCES . 388 
 
 Notes. —i. Textual. 2. The word Yam. 3. Government Hostelries. 
 
 4. Digression from Ramusio. 5. Posts Extraordinary. 6. 
 Discipline of the Posts. 7. Antiquity of Posts in China , &c. 
 
 XXVII.—How the Emperor bestows help on his People, 
 
 WHEN THEY ARE AFFLICTED WITH DEARTH OR 
 
 Murrain .393 
 
 Note. —KublaVs remissions, and justice. 
 
 XXVIII.— How the Great Kaan causes Trees to be planted 
 
 by the Highways . 394 
 
 XXIX. — Concerning the Rice-Wine drunk by the People 
 
 of Cathay.394 
 
 Note. —Rice wine. 
 
 XXX. — Concerning the Black Stones that are dug in 
 
 Cathay, and are burnt for Fuel. 395 
 
 Note.— Consumption of Coal in China. 
 
 XXXI.—How the Great Kaan causes Stores of Corn to 
 
 BE MADE, TO HELP HIS PEOPLE WITHAL IN TIME 
 
 of Dearth. 396 
 
 Note. — The Chinese Public Granaries. 
 
XXVI 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 XXXII. — Of the Charity of the Emperor to the Poor .. 397 
 
 Note. — Buddhist influence, and Chinese charities. 
 
 XXXIII. — [Concerning the Astrologers in the City of 
 
 Cambaluc].399 
 
 Notes. —1. The word Tacuin. The Chinese Almanacs. 2. The 
 Chinese and Mongol Cycle. 
 
 XXXIV.— [Concerning the Religion of the Cathayans ; 
 
 THEIR VIEWS AS TO THE SOUL ; AND THEIR 
 
 Customs] .404 
 
 Notes.—1. Textual. 2. Do. 3. Exceptions to the general charge 
 of Irreligion brought against the Chinese. 4. Politeness. 5. 
 
 Filial Piety. 
 
EXPLANATORY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 TO VOLUME I. 
 
 INSERTED PLATES AND MAPS. 
 
 To face Title . . . Doorway of the House of Marco Polo in the Corte Sab- 
 
 bionera at Venice (see p. lvii). Woodcut from a drawing by 
 Signor L. Rosso, Venice. 
 
 ,, page c. Reduced Facsimile of the Will of Marco Polo, preserved in 
 St. Mark’s Library. On half the scale of the original. Photo¬ 
 lithography, from a negative taken under the superintendence 
 of Cavaliere G. Berchet. 
 
 ,, ,, cviii. Facsimile of Handwriting from the Crusca Italian MS. of 
 
 Polo’s Book, and of the indorsement upon it. Lithograph 
 from a tracing by the Editor. 
 
 ,, ,, cxxxiv. Probable view of Marco Polo’s own Geography : a Map 
 
 of the World, formed as far as possible from the Traveller’s 
 own data. Drawn by the Editor. 
 
 ,, ,, i. Marco Polo’s Itineraries, No. I. Western Asia. 
 
 ( Map illustrating the geographical position of the City of Sarai. 
 Plan of part of the remains of the same city. Reduced from a 
 Russian plan published by M. Grigorieff. 
 
 ,, ,, 28. Reduced Facsimile of part of the Buddhist Inscription of 
 
 the Mongol Era, on the Archway at Keu-yung-KWAN in the 
 Pass of Nankau, north-west of Peking, showing four of the 
 characters in use under the Mongol Dynasty. Photolithograph 
 from original impressions taken by, and in the possession 
 of, Mr. A. Wylie. See an Article by Mr. Wylie in the 
 f . R . A . S.for 1870 , p . 14. 
 
 { Plan of Ayas, the Laias of Polo. From an Admiralty Chart . 
 Plan of position of Dilawar, the supposed site of the Dilavar 
 of Polo. Ext . from a Survey by Lt .- Col . D . G . Robinson , R . E . 
 ,, ,, 108. Marco Polo’s Itineraries, No. II. Routes between Kerman 
 
 and Hormuz. 
 
 ,, ,, 168. Do. do. No. III. Regions on and near the 
 
 Upper Oxus. 
 
 ,, ,, 316. “ Table d'Or de Commandement the Paiza of the Mongols, 
 
 from a specimen found in Siberia. Reduced to one-half the scale 
 of the original , from an engraving in a Paper by I. J. Schmidt. 
 in the Bulletin de la Classe historico-philologique de l’Acad. 
 imp. des Sciences, St.-Petersbourg, tom. iv. No. 9. 
 
 ,, ,, 332. Plan of Peking as it is, and as it was about a.d. 1290. 
 
 ,, ,, 378. Bank-note of the Ming Dynasty, on one-half the scale of the 
 
 original. Reduced from a genuine note in the possession of 
 W. Lockhart, Esq., F.R.G.S. N.B .—The facsimile is as exact 
 as could be effected , with these exceptions : (1) that the colour of 
 the original is considerably darker ; (2) that the vermilion seal - 
 impressions , of which only the slightest traces remained , have 
 been restored from other sources . 
 
 ,, ,, 384. Facsimile of a Modern Peking Bank-note ; from a specimen 
 
 in the possession of Mr. Lockhart. 
 
 ,, last page . Marco Polo’s Itineraries, No. IV. Eastern Asia. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. 
 
 xxviii 
 
 WOODCUTS PRINTED WITH THE TEXT. 
 
 Introductory Notices. 
 
 Page xl. Arms of the Polo family, according to Marco Barbara. 
 
 ,, xlviii. The Piazzetta at Venice in the 14th century. From the Frontispiece 
 Miniature of the MS. of Marco Polo in the Bodleian. (Borrowed 
 from the National Miscellany , published^by J. H. Parker, Oxford, 
 for 1853—55, and see Street’s Brick and Marble , &c., 1855, P- I 5 0_ 
 I5I-) 
 
 ,, lvi. Three extracts from maps of Venice, showing the site of the Ca’ Polo 
 at three different periods. (1) From the great woodcut Map or View 
 of Venice, dated 1500, and commonly called Albert Dtirer’s. (2) 
 From a Plan by Cav. Lodovico Ughi, 1729. (3) From the Modern 
 
 Official Plan of the City. 
 
 ,, lxii. Extract from a fresco by Spinello Aretini, in the Municipal Palace at 
 Siena, representing a galley-fight between the Venetians and the fleet 
 of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and illustrating the arrange¬ 
 ments of medieval galleys. Drawn from a very dim and imperfect 
 photograph, after personal inspection of the original. 
 
 ,, lxiv. Diagram of arrangement of oars in galleys. 
 
 ,, lxvi. Extract from a picture by Domenico Tintoretto in the Ducal Palace at 
 Venice, representing the same galley-fight. After an engraving in 
 
 the Theatrum Venetum. 
 
 ,, lxxvii. Marco Polo’s Galley going into action at Curzola. Drawn by Signor Q. 
 Cenni, 15 Via S. Antonio, Milan, from a design by the Editor. 
 
 ,, lxxviii. Map to illustrate the sea-fight at Curzola, where Marco Polo was taken 
 prisoner. 
 
 ,, lxxxv. Seal of the Pisan Prisoners in Genoa, after the battle of Meloria (1284). 
 
 From Manni , Osservazioni Storiche sopra Sigilli Antichi , tom. xii. 
 
 ,, cii. The Convent and Church of S. Lorenzo, the burial-place of Marco 
 Polo, as it existed in the 15th century. From the Map of 1500 
 (see above). 
 
 ,, ciii. Figure of Marco Polo, from the first printed edition of his Book, pub¬ 
 lished in German at Nuremberg, 1477. Traced from a copy in the 
 Berlin Library. 
 
 ,, cxliii. Tailed Star near the Antarctic, as Marco Polo drew it for Pietro 
 d’ Abano. From the Conciliator of Pietro d’ Abano. 
 
 Prologue. 
 
 Page 3. Remains of the castle of Soldaia or Sudak. After Dubois de Montpereux , 
 Voyage autour du Caucase , Atlas, 3d s. PI. 64. 
 
 ,, 7. Ruins of Bolghar. After Demidoff, Voyage dans la Russie meridionale , 
 
 PI. 75 - 
 
 ,, 14. The Great Kaan delivering a golden tablet to the two elder Polos. From 
 
 a miniature in the Livre des Merveilles du Monde (Fr. 2810) in the 
 Library at Paris, fol. 3 verso. 
 
 ,, 16. Castle of Ay as. After Langlois, Voyage en Cilicie. 
 
 ,, 17. Plan of Acre as it was when lost (a.d. 1291). Reduced and translated 
 
 from the contemporary plan in the Secreta Fidelium Crucis of Marino 
 Sanuto the Elder, engraved in Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos , vol! ii. 
 
H 
 
 9 9 
 
 9 9 
 
 9 9 
 
 99 
 
 9 9 
 
 99 
 
 9 9 
 
 99 
 
 9 9 
 
 99 
 
 9 9 
 
 99 
 
 9 9 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. xxix 
 
 20. Portrait of Pope Gregory X. After J B. de Cavaleriis Pontificum Ro- 
 manorum Effigies, &c. Romoe, 1580. 
 
 37. Ancient Chinese war-vessel. From the Chinese Encyclopaedia called 
 San- Thsai- Tliou-Hoei. 
 
 Book First. 
 
 42. Coin of King Hethum I. and Queen Isabel of Little Armenia. From an 
 original in the British Museum. 
 
 48. Castle of Baiburt. After Texier, U Armenie, PI. 3. 
 
 53. View of Derbend. After a cut from a drawing by M. Moynet in the 
 Tour du Monde , vol. I. 
 
 58. Coin of Badruddin Lolo of Mosul (A.H. 620). After Marsden's Numis- 
 mata Orientalia, No. 164. 
 
 71. Ghazan Khan’s Mosque at Tabriz. Borrowed from Fergusson's History 
 of Architecture. 
 
 90. Kashmir scarf with animals, &c. After photograph from the scarf in 
 the India Museum. 
 
 hi. Illustrations of the use of the double rudder in the Middle Ages. 6 figures, 
 viz., Nos. 1 and 2, from Pertz, Serif tores, tom. xviii. after a Genoese 
 Chronicle; No. 3, Sketch from fresco of Spinello Aretini at Siena; No. 4, 
 Seal of Port of Winchilsea, from Sussex Archceological Collections, vol. i. 
 1848; No. 5, Sculpture on Leaning Tower at Pisa, after Jal, Archeologie 
 Navale; No. 6, from the Monument of Peter Martyr, the persecutor 
 of the Lombard Patarini , in the church of St. Eustorgius at Milan, 
 after Le Tombc ed i Monumenti Illustri d' Italia, Mil. 1822-23. 
 
 127. The Arbre Sec, and Arbres du Soleil et de la Lune. From a miniature in 
 the Prose Romance of Alexander, in the B. Museum MS. called the 
 Shrewsbury Book (Reg. xv. e. 6). 
 
 131. The Chinar or Oriental Plane, viz., that called the Tree of Godfrey of 
 Boulogne at Buyukdere, near Constantinople. Borrowed from Le 
 Monde Vegetal of Figuier. 
 
 158. Ancient Buddhist Temple at Pandrethan in Kashmir. Borrowed from 
 Fergussori’s History of Architecture. 
 
 167. Horns of the Ovis Poli, or Great Sheep of Pamer. Drawn by the Editor 
 from the specimen belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society. 
 
 200. Great Lama Monastery, viz., that at Jehol. After Staunton’s Narrative 
 of Lord Macartney 1 s Embassy. 
 
 203. The Kyang, or Wild Ass of Mongolia. After a plate by Wolf in the 
 Journal of the Royal Zoological Society. 
 
 223. Medieval Tartar Huts and Waggons. Drawn by Sig. Quinto Cenni, on 
 a design compiled by the Editor from the descriptions of medieval and 
 modern travellers. 
 
 226. Tartar idols and Kumiz churn. Drawn by the Editor after data in 
 Pallas and Zaleski. 
 
 240. The Syrrhaptes Pallasii; Bargherlac of Marco Polo. From a plate by 
 Wolf in the Ibis for April, i860. 
 
 246. Reeves’s Pheasant. After an engraving in Wood's Illustrated Natural 
 History. 
 
 258. The Rampart of Gog and Magog. From a photograph of the Great 
 Wall of China. Borrowed from Dr. Rennie's Peking and the Pekingese. 
 
 270. A Pavilion at Yuen Min Yuen, to illustrate the probable style of Kublai 
 Kaan’s Summer Palace. Borrowed from Michie's Siberian Overland 
 Route. 
 
XXX 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 99 
 
 99 
 
 99 
 
 281. Chinese Conjuring Extraordinary. Extracted from an engraving in Edward 
 Melton's Zeldzaame Reizen , &c. Amsterdam, 1702. 
 
 284. A Monastery of Lamas. Borrowed from the Tour du Monde. 
 
 291. A Tibetan Bacsi. Sketched from the life by the Editor. 
 
 303. Nakkaras. From a Chinese original in the Lois des Empereurs Mandchous 
 
 ( Thai-Thsing-Hoei-Tien-Thou ), in the Paris Library. 
 
 304. Nakkaras. After one of the illustrations to Blochmann’s edition of the 
 
 Ain-i-Akbari. 
 
 314. Seljukian coin, with the Lion and the Sun (a.h. 640). After Marsden's 
 Numismata Orientalia , No. 98. 
 
 319. Portrait of the Great Kaan Kublai. From a Chinese engraving in the 
 Encyclopaedia called San-Thsai-Thou-Hoei; in the Paris Library. 
 
 329. The Winter Palace at Peking. Borrowed from Fergusson's History of 
 
 Architechire. 
 
 330. Distant view of the “Green Mount.” Borrowed from the Tour du Monde. 
 335. South gate of the “Imperial City” at Peking. From an original sketch 
 
 belonging to W. Lockhart , Esq. 
 
 355. The Barkut Eagle. After Atkinson's Oriental and Western Siberia. 
 
 364. The tents of the Emperor Kienlung. From a drawing in the Staunton 
 Collection in the British Museum. 
 
 369. Plain of Cambaluc; the City in the distance; from the hills on the north¬ 
 west. From a photograph. Borrowed from Dr. Rennie's Peking. 
 
 402. Court of the Observatory at Peking, with ancient instruments of the 
 Mongol era. Borrowed from the Tour du Monde. 
 
 409. Marble Archway at Keu-yung-kwan in the Nankau Pass. From a photo¬ 
 graph lent by W. Lockhart , Esq. 
 
MARCO POLO AND HIS BOOK. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTICES. 
 
MARCO POLO AND HIS BOOK. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTICES. 
 
 I. Obscurities in the History of his Life and Book. 
 
 Ramusio’s Statements. 
 
 i. With all the intrinsic interest of Marco Polo’s Book, it 
 may perhaps be doubted if it would have continued to exer¬ 
 cise such fascination on many minds through succes- obscurities 
 
 • . . , 1 • /'/'•, • of P°^°’ s 
 
 sive generations were it not for the difficult questions Book, and 
 which it suggests. It is a great book of puzzles, History, 
 whilst our confidence in the man’s veracity is such that we 
 feel certain every puzzle has a solution. 
 
 And such difficulties have not attached merely to the 
 identification of places, the interpretation of outlandish terms, 
 or the illustration of obscure customs ; for strange entangle¬ 
 ments have perplexed also the chief circumstances of the 
 Traveller’s life and authorship. The time of the dictation of 
 his Book and of the execution of his Last Will have been 
 almost the only undisputed epochs in his biography. The 
 year of his birth has been contested, and the date of his death 
 has not been recorded ; the critical occasion of his capture by 
 the Genoese, to which we seem to owe the happy fact that he 
 did not go down mute to the tomb of his fathers, has been 
 made the subject of chronological difficulties ; there are in the 
 various texts of his story variations hard to account for ; the 
 very tongue in which it was written down has furnished a 
 > question, solved only in our own age, and in a most un¬ 
 expected manner. 
 
 2. The first person who attempted to gather and string 
 the facts of Marco Polo’s personal history was his Ramusio, 
 countryman, the celebrated John Baptist Ramusio. biographer. 
 
 T T • , - . , - - His account 
 
 tiis essay abounds in what we now know to be errors of Polo, 
 of detail, but, prepared as it was when traditions of the Tra- 
 VOL. i. 
 
 c 
 
XXXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 veller were still rife in Venice, a genuine thread runs through 
 it which could never have been spun in later days, and its 
 presentation seems to me an essential element in any full 
 discourse upon the subject. 
 
 Ramusio’s preface to the Book of Marco Polo, which opens 
 the second volume of his famous Collection of Voyages and 
 Travels, and is addressed to his learned friend Jerome Fra- 
 castoro, after referring to some of the most noted geographers 
 of antiquity, proceeds :*— 
 
 “ Of all that I have named, Ptolemy, as the latest, possessed the greatest 
 extent of knowledge. Thus, towards the North, his knowledge carries 
 him beyond the Caspian, and he is aware of its being shut in all round 
 like a lake,—a fact which was unknown in the days of Strabo and Pliny, 
 though the Romans were already lords of the world. But though his know¬ 
 ledge extends so far, a tract of 15 degrees beyond that sea he can describe 
 only as Terra Incognita ; and towards the South he is fain to apply the 
 same character to all beyond the Equinoxial. In these unknown regions, 
 as regards the South, the first to make discoveries have been the Portu¬ 
 guese captains of our own age ; but as regards the North and North- 
 East the discoverer was the Magnifico Messer Marco Polo, an honoured 
 nobleman of Venice, nearly 300 years since, as may be read more fully in 
 his own Book. And in truth it makes one marvel to consider the immense 
 extent of the journeys made, first by the Father and Uncle of the said 
 Messer Marco, when they proceeded continually towards the East-North- 
 East, all the way to the Court of the Great Can and the Emperor of the 
 Tartars ; and afterwards again by the three of them when, on their return 
 homeward, they traversed the Eastern and Indian Seas. Nor is that all, 
 for one marvels also how the aforesaid gentleman was able to give such 
 an orderly description of all that he had seen; seeing that such an accom¬ 
 plishment was possessed by very few in his day, and he had had a large 
 part of his nurture among those uncultivated Tartars, without hny regular 
 training in the art of composition. His Book indeed, owing to the endless 
 errors and inaccuracies that had crept into it, had come for many years 
 to be regarded as fabulous ; and the opinion prevailed that the names of 
 cities and provinces contained Therein were all fictitious and imaginary? 
 without any ground in fact, or were (I might rather say) mere dreams. 
 
 “ 3. Howbeit, during the last hundred years, persons acquainted with 
 Persia have begun to recognize the existence of Cathay. The 
 vindicates voyages of the Portuguese also towards the North-East, beyond 
 graphy Ge ° Golden Chersonese, have brought to knowledge many cities 
 and provinces of India, and many islands likewise, with those 
 very names which our Author applies to them ; and again, on reaching 
 the Land of China, they have ascertained from the people of that region 
 (as we are told by Sign. John De Barros, a Portuguese gentleman, in his 
 
 * The Preface is dated Venice, 7th July, 1553. Fracastorius died in the same 
 year, and Ramusio erected a statue of him at Padua. Ramusio himself died in 
 
 Jdy» 1557. 
 
RAMUSIO’S BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS. xxxv 
 
 Geography) that Canton, one of the chief cities of that kingdom, is in 3o|° of 
 latitude, with the coast running N.E. and S.W. ; that after a distance of 275 
 leagues the said coast turns towards the N.W. ; and that there are three 
 provinces along the sea-board, Mangi, Zanton, and Quinzai, the last of 
 which is the principal city and the King’s Residence, standing in 46° of 
 latitude. And proceeding yet further the coast attains to 50 0 .* Seeing 
 then how many particulars are in our day becoming known of that part 
 of the world concerning which Messer Marco has written, I have deemed 
 it reasonable to publish his book, with the aid of several copies written 
 (as I judge) more than 200 years ago, in a perfectly accurate form, and 
 one vastly more faithful than that in which it has been heretofore read. 
 And thus the world shall not lose the fruit that may be gathered from so 
 much diligence and industry expended upon so honourable a branch of 
 knowledge.” 
 
 4. Ramusio, then, after a brief apologetic parallel of the 
 marvels related by Polo with those related by the Ancients 
 and by the modern discoverers in the West, such as Columbus 
 and Cortes, proceeds :— 
 
 “ And often in my own mind, comparing the land explorations of these 
 our Venetian gentlemen with the sea explorations of the aforesaid Signor 
 Don Christopher, I have asked myself which of the two were 
 really the more marvellous. And if patriotic prejudice delude ^r^ares 
 me not, methinks good reason might be adduced for setting 
 the land journey above the sea voyage. Consider only what a 
 height of courage was needed to undertake and carry through so 
 difficult an enterprise, over a route of such desperate length and hard¬ 
 ship, whereon it was sometimes necessary to carry food for the supply of 
 man and beast, not for days only but for months together. Columbus, on 
 the other hand, going by sea, readily carried with him all necessary pro¬ 
 vision, and after a voyage of some 30 or 40 days was conveyed by the 
 wind whither he desired to go. The Venetians again took a whole year’s 
 time to pass all those great deserts and mighty rivers. Indeed that the 
 difficulty of travelling to Cathay was.so much greater than that of reach¬ 
 ing the New World, and the route so much longer and more perilous, may 
 be gathered from the fact that, since those gentlemen twice made this 
 journey, no one from Europe has dared to repeat it,f whereas in the very 
 year following the discovery of the Western Indies many ships imme¬ 
 diately retraced the voyage thither, and up to the present day continue to 
 do so, habitually and in countless numbers. Indeed those regions are 
 now so well known, and so thronged by commerce, that the traffic between 
 Italy, Spain, and England is not greater.” 
 
 5. Ramusio goes on to explain the light regarding the first 
 part or prologue of Marco Polo’s book that he had derived 
 
 * The Geography of De Barros, from which this is quoted, has never been 
 printed. The passage does not seem to occur in the Decades, 
 f A grievous error of Ramusio’s. 
 
 C 2 
 
XXXVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from a recent piece of luck which had made him partially 
 Recounts a acquainted with the geography of Abulfeda, and 
 
 tradition of . i i i r 
 
 the travel- to make a running commentary on the whole ot 
 
 ler’s return „ .. ~ 
 
 to Venice. the preliminary narrative until the final return ot 
 the travellers to Venice :— 
 
 “ And when they got thither the same fate befel them as befel Ulysses, 
 who, when he returned, after his twenty years wanderings, to his native 
 Ithaca, was recognized by nobody. Thus also those three gentlemen 
 who had been so many years absent from their native city were recog¬ 
 nized by none of their kinsfolk, who were under the firm belief that they 
 had all been dead for many a year past, as indeed had been reported. 
 Through the long duration and the hardships of their journeys, and 
 through the many worries and anxieties that they had undergone, they 
 were quite changed in aspect, and had got a certain indescribable smack 
 of the Tartar both in air and accent, having indeed all but forgotten their 
 Venetian tongue. Their clothes too were coarse and shabby, and of a 
 Tartar cut. They proceeded on their arrival to their house in this city in 
 the confine of St. John Chrysostom, where you may see it to this day. 
 The house, which was in those days a very lofty and handsome palazzo, 
 is now known by the name of the Corte del Millioni for a reason that I 
 will tell you presently. Going thither they found it occupied by some of 
 their relatives, and they had the greatest difficulty in making the latter 
 understand who they should be. For these good people, seeing them to 
 be in countenance so unlike what they used to be, and in dress so shabby, 
 flatly refused to believe that they were those very gentlemen of the Ca’ 
 Polo whom they had been looking upon for ever so many years as among 
 the dead. So these three gentlemen,—this is a story I have often heard 
 when I was a youngster from the illustrious Messer Gasparo Malpiero, 
 a gentleman of very great age, and a Senator of eminent virtue and 
 integrity, whose house was on the Canal of Santa Marina, exactly at the 
 corner over the mouth of the Rio di S. Giovanni Chrisostomo, and just 
 midway among the buildings of the aforesaid Corte del Millioni, and he 
 said he had heard the story from his own father and grandfather, and 
 from other old men among the neighbours,— the three gentlemen, I say, 
 devised a scheme by which they should at once bring about their recog¬ 
 nition by their relatives, and secure the honourable notice of the whole 
 city ; and this was it :— 
 
 “ They invited a number of their kindred to an entertainment, which 
 they took care to have prepared with great state and splendour in that 
 house of theirs ; and when the hour arrived for sitting down to table they 
 came forth of their chamber all three clothed in crimson satin, fashioned 
 in long robes reaching to the ground, such as people in those days wore 
 within doors. And when water for the hands had been served, and the 
 guests were set, they took off those robes and put on others of crimson 
 damask, whilst the first suits were by their orders cut up and divided 
 among the servants. Then after partaking of some of the dishes they 
 went out again and came back in robes of crimson velvet, and when they 
 had again taken their seats, the second suits were divided as before. 
 When dinner was over they did the like with the robes of velvet, after 
 
RAMUSIO’S BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS, xxxvil 
 
 they had put on dresses of the ordinary fashion worn by the rest of the 
 company. These proceedings caused much wonder and amazement 
 among the guests. But when the cloth had been drawn, and all the 
 servants had been ordered to retire from the dining-hall, Messer Marco, 
 as the youngest of the three, rose from table, and, going into another 
 chamber, brought forth the three shabby dresses of coarse stuff which 
 they had worn when they first arrived. Straightway they took sharp 
 knives and began to rip up some of the seams and welts, and to take out 
 of them jewels of the greatest value in vast quantities, such as rubies, 
 sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds and emeralds, which had all been 
 stitched up in those dresses in so artful a fashion that nobody could have 
 suspected the fact. For when they took leave of the Great Can they had 
 changed all the wealth that he had bestowed upon them into this mass 
 of rubies, emeralds, and other jewels, being well aware of the impossi¬ 
 bility of carrying with them so great an amount in gold over a journey of 
 such extreme length and difficulty. Now this exhibition of such a huge 
 treasure of jewels and precious stones, all tumbled out upon the table, 
 threw the guests into fresh amazement, insomuch that they seemed 
 quite bewildered and dumbfounded. And now they recognized that in 
 spite of all former doubts these were in truth those honoured and worthy 
 gentlemen of the Ca’ Polo that they claimed to be ; and so all paid them 
 the greatest honour and reverence. And when the story got wind in 
 Venice, straightway the whole city, gentle and simple, flocked to the house 
 to embrace them, and to make much of them, with every conceivable 
 demonstration of affection and respect. On Messer Maffio, who was the 
 eldest, they conferred the honours of an office that was of great dignity 
 in those days ; whilst the young men came daily to visit and converse 
 with the ever polite and gracious Messer Marco, and to ask him questions 
 about Cathay and the Great Can, all which he answered with such kindly 
 courtesy that every man felt himself in a manner in his debt. And as 
 it happened that in the story, which he was constantly called on to repeat, 
 of the magnificence of the Great Can, he would speak of his revenues 
 as amounting to ten or fifteen millions of gold ; and in like manner, 
 when recounting other instances of great wealth in those parts, would 
 always make use of the term millions , so they gave him the nickname of 
 Messer Marco Millioni : a thing which I have noted also in the 
 Public Books of this Republic where mention is made of him.* The 
 Court of his House, too, at S. Giovanni Chrisostomo, has always from 
 that time been popularly known as the Court of the Millioni. 
 
 6. “ Not many months after the arrival of the travellers at Venice, news 
 came that Lamp A Doria, Captain of the Genoese Fleet, had advanced 
 with 70 galleys to the Island of Curzola, upon which orders 
 were issued by the Prince of the Most Illustrious Signory for Marco’scap- 
 the arming of 90 galleys with all the expedition possible, and b y the 
 Messer Marco Polo for his valour was put in charge of one of 
 these. So he with the others, under the command of the Most Illustrious 
 Messer Andrea Dandolo, Procurator of St. Mark’s, as Captain General, 
 
 * This curious statement is confirmed by a passage in the Records of the Great 
 Council, which, on a late visit to Venice, I was enabled to extract, through an 
 obliging communication from Professor Minotto. See below, p. xcv. 
 
XXXV111 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a very brave and worthy gentleman, set out in search of the Genoese 
 Fleet. They fought on the September feast of Our Lady, and, as is the 
 common hazard of war, our fleet was beaten, and Polo was made prisoner. 
 For, having pressed on in the vanguard of the attack, and fighting with high 
 and worthy courage in defence of his country and his kindred, he did not 
 receive due support, and being wounded, he was taken, along with Dandolo, 
 and immediately put in irons and sent to Genoa. 
 
 “ When his rare qualities and marvellous travels became known there, 
 the whole city gathered to see him and to speak with him, and he was no 
 longer entreated as a prisoner but as a dear friend and honoured gentle¬ 
 man. ' Indeed they showed him such honour and affection that at all 
 hours of the day he was visited by the noblest gentlemen of the city, and 
 was continually receiving presents of every useful kind. Messer Marco 
 finding himself in this position, and witnessing the general eagerness to 
 hear all about Cathay and the Great Can, which indeed compelled him 
 daily to repeat his story till he was weary, was advised to put the matter 
 in writing. So having found means to get a letter written to his father 
 here at Venice, in which he desired the latter to send the notes and 
 memoranda which he had brought home with him, after the receipt of 
 these, and assisted by a Genoese gentleman, who was a great friend of his, 
 and who took great delight in learning about the various regions of the 
 world, and used on that account to spend many hours daily in the prison 
 with him, he wrote this present book (to please him) in the Latin tongue. 
 
 “To this day the Genoese for the most part write what they have to 
 write in that language, for there is no possibility of expressing their 
 natural dialect with the pen.* Thus then it came to pass that the Book 
 was put forth at first by Messer Marco in Latin ; but as many copies were 
 taken, and as it was rendered into our vulgar tongue, all Italy became 
 filled with it, so much was this story desired and run after. 
 
 7. “ The captivity of Messer Marco greatly disturbed the minds of 
 Messer Maffio and his father Messer Nicolo. They had decided, whilst 
 Ramusio’s still on their travels, that Marco should marry as soon as they 
 
 Mateo’s should get to Venice ; but now they found themselves in this 
 
 and''mar - 1 unlucky pass, with so much wealth and nobody to inherit it. 
 
 riage. Fearing that Marco’s imprisonment might endure for many 
 
 years, or, worse still, that he might not live to quit it (for many assured 
 them that numbers of Venetian prisoners had been kept in Genoa a score 
 of years before obtaining liberty) ; seeing too no prospect of being able 
 to ransom him,—a thing which they had attempted often and by various 
 channels,—they took counsel together, and came to the conclusion that 
 Messer Nicolo, who, old as he was, was still hale and vigorous, should 
 take to himself a new wife. This he did ; and at the end of four years he 
 found himself the father of three sons, Stefano, Maffio, and Giovanni. 
 Not many years after, Messer Marco aforesaid, through the great favour 
 that he had acquired in the eyes of the first gentlemen of Genoa, and 
 indeed of the whole city, was discharged from prison and set free. Re¬ 
 turning home he found that his father had in the meantime had those 
 
 * I his rather preposterous skit at the Genoese dialect naturally excites a 
 remonstrance from the Abate Spotorno (Sioria Letter aria della Liguria , II. 217). 
 
RAMUSIO’S BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS. xxxix 
 
 three other .sons. Instead of taking this amiss, wise and discreet man 
 that he was, he agreed also to take a wife of his own. He did so accord¬ 
 ingly, but he never had any son, only two girls, one called Moreta and 
 the other Fantina. 
 
 “ When at a later date his father died, like a good and dutiful son he 
 caused to be erected for him a tomb of very honourable kind for those 
 days, being a great sarcophagus cut from the solid stone, which to this 
 day may be seen under the portico before the church of St. Lorenzo in 
 this city, on the right hand as you enter, with an inscription denoting it to 
 be the tomb of Messer Nicolo Polo of the contrada of S. Gio. Chrisostomo. 
 The arms of his family consist of a Beitd with three birds on it, and the 
 colours, according to certain books of old histories in which you see all 
 the coats of the gentlemen of this city emblazoned, are the field azure, 
 the bend argent , and the three birds sable. These last are birds of that 
 kind vulgarly termed Pole , or, as the Latins call them, Gracculi* 
 
 8 . “ As regards the after duration of this noble and worthy family, I 
 find that Messer Andrea Polo of San Felice had three sons, the first of 
 whom was Messer Marco, the second Maffio, the third Nicolo. 
 
 The two last were those who went to Constantinople first, and Ramusi °’s 
 
 A 7 account of 
 
 afterwards to Cathay, as has been seen. Messer Marco the the Family 
 elder being dead, the wife of Messer Nicolo who had been left termination 5 
 at home with child, gave birth to a son, to whom she gave the 
 name of Marco in memory of the deceased, and this is the Author of our 
 Book. Of the brothers who were bom from his father’s second marriage, 
 viz., Stephen, John, and Matthew, I do not find that any of them had 
 children except Matthew. He had five sons and one daughter called 
 Maria ; and she, after the death of her brothers without offspring, in¬ 
 herited in 1417 all the property of her father and her brothers. She was 
 honourably married to Messer Azzo Trevisano of the parish of Santo 
 Stazio in this city, and from her sprung the fortunate and honoured stock 
 of the Illustrious Messer Domenico Trevisano, Procurator of St. Mark’s, 
 and valorous Captain General of the Sea Forces of the Republic, whose 
 virtue and singular good qualities are represented with augmentation in 
 
 * Jackdaws I believe, in spite of some doubt from the imbecility of ordinary 
 dictionaries in such matters. 
 
 They are under this name made the object of a similitude by Dante (surely a 
 most unhappy one) in reference to the resplendent spirits flitting on the celestial 
 stairs in the sphere of Saturn :— 
 
 “ E come per lo natural costume 
 
 Le Pole insieme, al cominciar del giorno. 
 
 Si muovono a scaldar le fredde piume ; 
 
 Poi alcre vanno vik senza ritorno, 
 
 Altre rivolgon se, onde son mosse, 
 
 Ed altre roteando fan soggiorno.”— Farad. XXI. 34. 
 
 There is some difference among authorities as to the details of the Polo blazon. 
 According to a MS. concerning the genealogies of Venetian families written by 
 Marco Barbara in 1566, and of which there is a copy in the Museo Civico, the 
 field is gules , the bend or. And this I have followed in the cut. But a note 
 by S. Stefani of Venice, with which I have been favoured since the cut was made, 
 informs me that a fine fifteenth century MS. in his possession gives the field as 
 argent , with no bend , and the three birds sable with beaks gules , disposed thus ***. 
 
xl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the person of the Most Illustrious Prince Ser Marc’ Antonio Trevi¬ 
 sano, his son.* 
 
 “ Such has been the history of this noble family of the Ca’ Polo, which 
 lasted as we see till the year of our Redemption 1417, in which year died 
 childless Marco Polo, the last of the five sons of Maffeo, and so it came 
 to an end. Such be the chances and changes of human affairs ! ” 
 
 Arms of the Ca’ Polo. 
 
 II. Sketch of the State of the East at the time of the 
 Journeys of the Polo Family. 
 
 9. The story of the travels of the Polo family opens in 
 1260. 
 
 Christendom had recovered from the alarm into which it 
 had been thrown some 18 years before when the Tartar cata- 
 Sta^e of the c ly sm had threatened to engulph it. The Tartars 
 Levant. themselves were already becoming an object of curi¬ 
 osity rather than of fear, and soon became an object of 
 hope, as a possible help against the old Mahomedan foe. 
 The frail Latin throne in Constantinople was still standing, 
 but tottering to its fall. The successors of the Crusaders 
 still heid the Coast of Syria from Antioch to Jaffa, though 
 a deadlier brood of enemies than they had yet encountered 
 was now coming to maturity in the Dynasty of the Mame¬ 
 lukes. The jealousies of the commercial republics of Italy 
 were daily waxing greater. The position of Genoese trade 
 on the coasts of the Aegean was greatly depressed, by the 
 predominance which Venice had acquired there by her part 
 in the expulsion of the Greek Emperors, and which won for 
 
 * Marco Antonio Trevisano was elected Doge, 4th June, 1553, but died on 
 the 31st of May following. We do not here notice Ramusio’s numerous errors, 
 which will be corrected in the sequel. 
 
SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE EAST. 
 
 xli 
 
 the Doge the proud title of Lord of Three-Eighths of the 
 Empire of Romania. But Genoa was biding her time for an 
 early revenge, and year by year her naval strength and skill 
 were increasing. Both these republics held possessions and 
 establishments in the ports of Syria, which were often the 
 scene of sanguinary conflicts between their citizens. Alex¬ 
 andria was still largely frequented in the intervals of war as 
 the great emporium of Indian wares, but the facilities afforded 
 by the Mongol conquerors who now held the whole tract from 
 the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Caspian and of the 
 Black Sea, or nearly so, were beginning to give a great 
 advantage to the caravan routes which debouched at the ports 
 of Cilician Armenia in the Mediterranean and at Trebizond 
 on the Euxine. Tana (or Azov) had not as yet become the 
 outlet of a similar traffic; the Venetians had apparently fre¬ 
 quented to some extent the coast of the Crimea for local 
 trade, but their rivals appear to have been in great measure 
 excluded from this commerce, and the Genoese establishments 
 which so long flourished on that coast are first heard of some 
 years after a Greek dynasty was again in possession of Con¬ 
 stantinople.* 
 
 io. In Asia and Eastern Europe scarcely a dog might 
 bark without Mongol leave, from the borders of Poland and 
 the coast of Cilicia to the Amur and the Yellow 
 
 1 he various 
 
 Sea. The vast empire which Chinghiz had con- ^"fe/gn- 
 quered still owned a nominally supreme head in the ^dEaftem 
 Great Kaan, but practically it was splitting up into Europe - 
 several great monarchies under the descendants of the four 
 sons of Chinghiz, Juji, Chagatai, Okkodai, and Tuli; and 
 wars on a vast scale were already brewing between them. 
 Hulaku, third son of Tuli, and brother of two Great Kaans, 
 Mangu and Kublai, had become practically independent as 
 ruler of Persia, Babylonia, Mesopotamia and Armenia, though 
 he and his sons, and his sons’ sons, continued to stamp the 
 name of the Great Kaan upon their coins, and to use the 
 Chinese seals of state which he bestowed upon them. 
 
 Barka, son of Juji, the first ruling prince of the Plouse of 
 Chinghiz to turn Mahomedan, reigned on the steppes of the 
 Wolga, where a standing camp, which eventually became a 
 
 See Heyd, Le Colonie Commerciali degli Italiani, &c., passim. 
 
xlii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great city under the name of Sarai, had been established by 
 his brother and predecessor Batu. 
 
 The House of Chagatai had settled upon the pastures of 
 the Ili and the valley of the Jaxartes, and ruled the wealthy 
 cities of Sogdiana. 
 
 Kaidu, the grandson of Okkodai who had been the 
 successor of Chinghiz in the Kaanship, refused to acknowledge 
 the transfer of the supreme authority to the House of Tuli, 
 and was through the long life of Kublai a thorn in his side, 
 perpetually keeping his north-western frontier in alarm. His 
 immediate authority was exercised over some part of what we 
 should now call Eastern Turkestan and Southern Central 
 Siberia; whilst his hordes of horsemen, force of character, and 
 close neighbourhood brought the Kaans of Chagatai under 
 his influence, and they generally acted in concert with him. 
 
 The chief throne of the Mongol Empire had just been 
 ascended by Kublai, the most a}de of its occupants after the 
 Founder. Before the death of his brother and predecessor 
 Mangu, who died in 1259 before an obscure fortress of Western 
 China, it had been intended to remove the seat of government 
 from Kara Korum on the northern verge of the Mongolian 
 Desert to the more populous regions that had been conquered 
 in the further East, and this step, which in the end converted 
 the Mongol Kaan into a Chinese Emperor, was carried out 
 by Kublai. 
 
 11. For about three centuries the Northern provinces of 
 China had been detached from native rule, and subject to 
 foreign dynasties ; first To the Khitan , a people sup¬ 
 posed to have been akin to the Tunguses, whose rule 
 subsisted for 200 years, and originated the name of Khitai, 
 Khata, or Cathay, by which for nearly 1000 years China has 
 been known to the nations of Inner Asia, and to those whose 
 acquaintance with it was got by that channel. The Khitan, 
 whose dynasty is known in Chinese history as the Liao or 
 “Iron,” had been displaced in 1123 by the Churches or 
 Nyuche, another race of Eastern Tartary, of the same blood 
 as the modern Manchus, whose Emperors in their brief period 
 of prosperity were known by the Chinese name of Tai -Kin, 
 by the Mongol name of the Altuii Kaans, both signifying 
 “ Golden.” Already in the life-time of Chinghiz himself the 
 northern Provinces of China Proper, including their capital, 
 
SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE EAST. 
 
 xliii 
 
 known as Chung-tu or Yen-King, now Peking, had been 
 wrenched from them, and the conquest of the dynasty was 
 completed by Chinghiz’s successor Okkodai in 1234. 
 
 Southern China still remained in the hands of the native 
 dynasty of the Sung, who had their capital at the great city 
 now well known as Hangchau-fu. Their dominion was still 
 substantially untouched, but its subjugation was a task to 
 which Kublai before many years turned his attention, and 
 which became the most prominent event of his reign. 
 
 12. In India the most powerful sovereign was the Sultan 
 of Delhi, Nassir-uddin Mahmud of the Turki house of Alt- 
 mish; but, though both Sind and Bengal acknow¬ 
 ledged his supremacy, no part of Peninsular India and 
 had yet been invaded, and throughout the long period 
 of our Traveller’s residence in the East the Kings of Delhi 
 had their hands too full, owing to the incursions of the Mon¬ 
 gols across the Indus, to venture on extensive campaigning 
 in the south.' Hence the Dravidian Kingdoms of Southern 
 India were as yet untouched by foreign conquest, and the 
 accumulated gold of ages lay in their temples and trea¬ 
 suries, an easy prey for the coming invader. 
 
 In the Indo-Chinese Peninsula and the Eastern Islands a 
 variety of kingdoms and dynasties were expanding and con¬ 
 tracting, of which we have at best but dim and shifting 
 glimpses. That they were advanced in wealth and art, far 
 beyond what the present state of those regions would suggest, 
 is attested by vast and magnificent remains of Architecture, 
 nearly all dating, so far as dates can be ascertained, from 
 the 12th to the 14th centuries, (that epoch during which an 
 architectural afflatus seems to have descended on the human 
 race), and which are found at intervals over both the Indo- 
 Chinese continent and the Islands, as at Pagan in Burma, at 
 Yuthia in Siam, at Ongkor in Kamboja, at Borobodor and 
 Brambanan in Java. All these remains are deeply marked by 
 Hindu influence, and, at the same time, by strong peculiarities, 
 both generic and individual. 
 
xliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 III. The Polo Family. Personal History of the Travellers 
 
 DOWN TO THEIR FINAL RETURN FROM THE EAST. 
 
 13. In days when History and Genealogy were allowed to 
 draw largely on the imagination for the origines of states and 
 families, it was set down by one Venetian Antiquary 
 
 Alleged . ^ J 
 
 origin of that among the companions of King Venetus, or 
 of Prince Antenor of Troy, when they settled on 
 the northern shores of the Adriatic, there was one LUCIUS 
 POLUS, who became the progenitor of our Traveller’s Family ;* * * § 
 whilst another deduces it from PAOLO the first Doge,')' (Paulus 
 Lucas Anafestus of Heraclea, A.D. 696). 
 
 More trustworthy traditions, recorded among the Family 
 Histories of Venice, but still no more it is believed than 
 traditions, represent the Family of Polo as having come from 
 Sebenico in Dalmatia, in the nth century, f Before the 
 middle of the following century they had taken seats in the 
 Great Council of the Republic; for the name of Pietro Polo 
 is said to be subscribed to an act of the time of the Doge 
 Domenico Michiele in 1122, and that of Domenico Polo to an 
 acquittance granted by the Doge Domenico Morosini and his 
 Council in 1153. § 
 
 The ascertained genealogy of the Traveller, however, begins 
 only with his grandfather, who lived in the early part of the 
 13th century. 
 
 Two branches of the Polo Family were then recognized, 
 distinguished by the confini or Parishes in which they lived, as 
 
 * Zurla , I. 42, quoting a MS. entitled Petrus Ciera S. R. E. Card, de Origine 
 Venetorum et de Civitate Venetiarum. Cicogna says he could not find this MS. as 
 it had been carried to England ; and then breaks into a diatribe against foreigners 
 who purchase and carry away such treasures, “not to make a serious study of 
 them, but for mere vainglory . . . . or in order to write books contradicting the 
 very MSS. that they have bought, and with that dishonesty and untruth which 
 are so notorious ! ” (IV. 227). 
 
 f Campidoglio Veneto of Capellari (MS. in St. Mark’s Lib.) quoting “the 
 Venetian Annals of Giulio Faroldi.” 
 
 % The Genealogies of Marco Barbaro specify 1033 as the year of the migration to 
 Venice ; on what authority does not appear (MS. copy in Museo Civico at Venice). 
 
 § Capellari u. s. and Barbaro. In the same century we find (1125, 1195) indi¬ 
 cations of Polos at Torcello, and of others (1160) at Equileo, and (1179, 1206) 
 Lido Maggiore ; in 1154 a Marco Polo of Rialto. Contemporary with these is a 
 family of Polos (1139, 1183, 1193, 1201) at Chioggia {Documents and Lists oj 
 Documents from various Archives at Venice). 
 
THE POLO FAMILY. 
 
 xlv 
 
 Polo of S. Geremia, and Polo of S. Felice. Andrea Polo of 
 S. Felice was the father of three sons, Marco, Nicolo, and 
 Maffeo. And Nicolo was the Father of our Marco. 
 
 14. Till quite recently it had never been precisely ascer¬ 
 tained whether the immediate family of our Traveller be¬ 
 longed to the Nobles of Venice properly so called, 
 
 who had seats in the Great Council and were en- belied 
 rolled in the Libro d’Oro. Ramusio indeed styles 
 our Marco Nobile and Magnifico , and Rusticiano the actual 
 scribe of the Traveller’s recollections calls him “ sajes et noble 
 citaiens de Venece ,” but Ramusio’s accuracy and Rustician’s 
 precision were scarcely to be depended on. Very recently, 
 however, since the subject has been discussed with accomplished 
 students of the Venice Archives, proofs have been found 
 establishing Marco’s personal claim to nobility, inasmuch as 
 both in judicial decisions and in official resolutions of the Great 
 Council, he is designated Nobilis Vir , a formula which would 
 never have been used in such documents (I am assured) had 
 he not been technically noble * * * § 
 
 15. Of the three sons of Andrea Polo of S. Felice, Marco 
 seems to have been the eldest, and Maffeo the youngest.! 
 They were all engaged in commerce, and appa¬ 
 rently in a partnership, which to some extent held e^ 04116 
 good even when the two younger had been many 
 
 years absent in the Far East.! Marco seems to have been 
 established for a time at Constantinople^ and also to have 
 had a house (no doubt of business) at Soldaia, in the Crimea, 
 where his son and daughter, Nicolo and Maroca by name, 
 
 * See Appendix C, Nos. 4, 5, and 10. It was supposed that an autograph of 
 Marco as member of the Great Council had been discovered, but this proves to 
 be a mistake, as will be explained further on. In those days the demarcation 
 between Patrician and non-Patrician at Venice, where all classes shared in 
 commerce, all were (generally speaking) of one race, and where there were 
 neither castles, domains, nor trains of horsemen, formed no wide gulf. Still 
 it is interesting to establish the verity of the old tradition of Marco’s technical 
 nobility. 
 
 f Marco’s seniority rests only on the assertion of Ramusio, who also calls Maffeo 
 older than Nicolo. But in Marco the Elder’s will these two are always (3 times) 
 specified as “ Nicolaus et Mat hensP 
 
 % This seems implied in the Elder Marco’s Will (1280) : “ Item de bonis quce me 
 habere contingunt de fraterna Compagnia a suprascriptis Nicolao et Matheo Paulo” 
 &c. 
 
 § In his Will he terms himself “Ego Marcus Paulo quondam de Constan- 
 tinopoli.” 
 
xlvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 were living in 1280. This year is the date of the Elder 
 Marco’s Will, executed at Venice, and when he was “weighed 
 down by bodily ailment.” Whether he survived for any 
 length of time we do not know. 
 
 16. Nicolo Polo, the second of the Brothers, had two legi¬ 
 timate sons, Marco the Author of our Book, born in 1254,* 
 
 . , , and Maffeo, of whose place in the family we shall 
 
 Nicolo and L 
 
 Maffeotjoin- h ave a few words to say presently. The story opens 
 travels. as we h ave said, in 1260, when we find the two 
 brothers, Nicolo, and Maffeo the Elder, at Constantinople. 
 How long they had been absent from Venice we are not dis¬ 
 tinctly told. Nicolo had left his wife there behind him ; 
 Maffeo apparently was a bachelor. In the year named they 
 started on a trading venture to the Crimea, whence a succes¬ 
 sion of openings and chances, recounted in the Introductory 
 chapters of Marco’s work, carried them far north along the 
 Wolga, and thence first to Bokhara and then to the Court of 
 the Great Kaan Kublai in the far East, on or within the 
 borders of Cathay. That a great and civilized country so 
 called existed in the extremity of Asia had already been 
 reported in Europe by the Friars Plano Carpini (1246) and 
 William Rubruquis (1253), who had not indeed reached its 
 frontiers, but had met with its people at the Court of the 
 Great Kaan in Mongolia ; whilst the latter of the two had 
 been shrewd enough to see that they were identical with the 
 Seres of classic fame. 
 
 17. Kublai had never before fallen in with European 
 gentlemen. He was delighted with these Venetians, listened 
 Their inter- with strong interest to all that they had to tell him 
 Kubiai WUh the Latin World, and determined to send them 
 Kaan - back as his ambassadors to the Pope, accompanied 
 by an officer of his own court. His letters to the Pope, as the 
 Polos represent them, were mainly to desire the despatch of a 
 large body of educated missionaries to convert his people to 
 Christianity. It is not likely that religious motives influenced 
 Kublai in this, but he probably desired religious aid in 
 softening and civilizing his rude kinsmen of the Steppes, and 
 judged, from what he saw in the Venetians and heard from 
 
 * There is no real ground for doubt as to this. All the extant MSS. agree in 
 making Marco fifteen years old when his father returned to Venice in 1269. 
 
PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE TRAVELLERS. xlvii 
 
 them, that Europe could afford such aid of a higher quality 
 than the degenerate Oriental Christians with whom he was 
 familiar, or the Tibetan Lamas on whom his patronage even¬ 
 tually devolved when Rome so deplorably failed to meet his 
 advances. 
 
 18. The Brothers arrived at Acre in April,* 1269, an d 
 found that no Pope existed, for Clement IV. was dead the 
 year before, and no new election had taken place. 
 
 So they went home to Venice to see how things homeland™ 
 stood there after their absence of so many years. pearance on 
 The wife of Nicolas was no longer among the living, 
 but he found his son Marco a fine lad of fifteen. 
 
 The best and most authentic MSS. tell us no more than 
 this. But one class of copies, consisting of the Latin version 
 made by our Traveller’s contemporary, Francesco Pipino, and 
 of the numerous editions based indirectly upon it, represents 
 that Nicolas had left Venice when Marco was as yet unborn, 
 and consequently had never seen him till this return from the 
 East in 1269.! 
 
 We have mentioned that Nicolo Polo had another legiti¬ 
 mate son, by name Maffeo, and him we infer to have been 
 younger than Marco, because he is named last (Marcus et 
 Matheus) in the Testament of their uncle Marco the Elder. 
 We do not know if they were by the same mother. They 
 could not have been so if we are right in supposing Maffeo 
 to have been the younger, and if Pipino’s version of the 
 
 * Baldello and Lazari say that the Bern MS. specifies 30th April; but this is 
 a mistake. 
 
 f Pipino’s version runs : “ Invenit Nicolaus Paulus uxorem suam defunctam, 
 quae in recessu ejus praegnans fuerat. Invenitque filium, Marcum nomine, qui 
 jam annos xv. habebat aetatis, qui post decessum ipsius de Venetiis natus fuerat 
 de uxore praefata.” To this Ramusio adds the further particular that the mother 
 died in giving birth to Mark. 
 
 The interpolation is older even than Pipino’s version, for we find in the rude 
 Latin published by the Societe de Geographic “quam cum Venetiis primo recessit 
 praegnantem dimiserat.” But the statement is certainly an interpolation , for it 
 does not exist in any of the older texts ; nor have we any good reason for believing 
 that it was an authorized interpolation. I suspect it to have been introduced to 
 harmonize with an erroneous date for the commencement of the travels of the two 
 brothers. 
 
 Lazari prints: “Messer Nicolo trovo che la sua donna era morta, e n’era 
 rimasto un fanciullo di doclici anni per nome Marco, che il padre non avea veduto 
 mai, perche non era ancor nato quando egliparti.” These words have no equivalent 
 in the French Texts, but are taken from one of the Italian MSS. in the Magliabec- 
 chian Library, and are I suspect also interpolated. The dodici is pure error ; (see 
 p. 18, infra). 
 
xlviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 history be genuine. If however we reject the latter, as I 
 incline to do, no ground remains for supposing that Nicolo 
 went to the East much before we find him there, viz., in 1260, 
 and Maffeo may have been born of the same mother during the 
 
 interval between 1254 and 1260. If on the other hand Pipino’s 
 version be held to, we must suppose that Maffeo (who is 
 named by his uncle in 1280, during his father’s second absence 
 in the East) was born of a marriage contracted during Nicolo’s 
 
PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE TRAVELLERS. xlix 
 
 residence at home after his first journey, a residence which 
 lasted from 1269 to 1271.* 
 
 19. The Papal interregnum was the longest known, at 
 least since the dark ages. Those two years passed, and yet 
 the Cardinals at Viterbo had come to no agree- c , 
 ment. The brothers were unwilling to let the Great /hePoio° f 
 Kaan think them faithless, and perhaps they han- accompanied 
 kered after the virgin field of speculation that they b y Marco - 
 had discovered ; so they started again for the East, taking 
 young Mark with them. At Acre they took counsel with an 
 eminent churchman, TEDALDO (or Tebaldo) VISCONTI Arch¬ 
 deacon of Liege, whom the Book represents to have been 
 Legate in Syria, and who in any case was a personage of 
 much gravity and influence. From him they got letters to 
 authenticate the causes of the miscarriage of their mission, 
 and started for the further East. But they were still at the 
 port of Ayas on the Gulf of Scanderoon, which was then 
 becoming one of the chief points of arrival and departure for 
 the inland trade of Asia, when they were overtaken by the 
 news that a Pope was at last elected, and that the choice had 
 fallen upon their friend Archdeacon Tedaldo. They imme¬ 
 diately returned to Acre, and at last were able to execute the 
 Kaan’s commission, and to obtain a reply. But instead of the 
 hundred able teachers of science and religion whom Kublai 
 is said to have asked for, the new Pope, Gregory X., could 
 supply but two Dominicans ; and these lost heart and drew 
 back when they had barely taken the first step of the journey. 
 
 * The last view is in substance, I find, suggested by Cicogna (ii. 389). 
 
 The matter is of some interest, because in the Will of the younger Mafifeo, 
 which is extant, he makes a bequest to his uncle ( Avunculus ) Jordan Trevisan. 
 This seems an indication that his mother’s name may have been Trevisan. The 
 same Mafifeo had a daughter Fiordelisa. And Marco the Elder, in his Will (1280), 
 appoints as his executors, during the absence of his brothers, the same Jordan 
 Trevisan and his own sister-in-law; Fiordelisa (“ Jordanum Trevisanum de confinio 
 S. Antonini et Flordelisam cognatam meam.” Hence I conjecture that this cognata 
 Fiordelisa (Trevisan ?) was the wife of the absent Nicolo, and the mother of 
 Mafifeo. In that case of course Mafifeo and Marco were the sons of different 
 mothers. With reference to the above suggestion of Nicolo’s second marriage in 
 1269 there is a curious variation in a fragmentary Venetian Polo in the Barberini 
 Library at Rome. It runs, in the passage corresponding to the latter part of 
 chapter ix. of Prologue : “ i qual do fratelli steteno do anni in Veniezia aspettando 
 la elletion de nuovo Papa, nel qual tempo Mess. Nicolo si tolse moier et si lo lash 
 gravedaP I believe, however, that it is only a careless misrendering of Pipino’s 
 statement about Marco’s birth. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 d 
 
1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Judging- from certain indications we conceive it probable 
 that the three Venetians, whose second start from Acre took 
 place about November 1271, proceeded by Ayas and Sivas, 
 and then by Mardin, Mosul, and Baghdad, to Hormuz at the 
 mouth of the Persian Gulf, with the view of going on by sea, 
 but that some obstacle arose which compelled them to 
 abandon this project and turn north again from Hormuz. 
 They then traversed successively Kerman and Khorasan, Balkh 
 and Badakhshan, whence they ascended the upper Oxus to 
 the Plateau of Pamer, a route not known to have been since 
 followed by any European traveller except Benedict Goes, till 
 the spirited expedition of Captain John Wood of the Indian 
 Navy in 1838.* Crossing the Pamer steppe the travellers 
 descended upon Kashgar, whence they proceeded by Yarkand 
 and Khotan, and the vicinity of Lake Lob, and eventually 
 across the Great Gobi Desert to Tangut, the name then 
 applied by Mongols and Persians to territory at the extreme 
 North-west of China, both within and without the Wall. 
 Skirting the northern frontier of China they at last reached 
 the presence of the Kaan, who was at his usual summer 
 retreat at Kaipingfu, near the base of the Khingan Mountains, 
 and about 50 miles north of the Great Wall. If there be no 
 mistake in the time (three years and a half) ascribed to this 
 journey in all the existing texts, the travellers did not reach 
 the Court till about May of 1275.+ 
 
 20. Kublai received the Venetians with great cordiality, 
 and took kindly to young Mark, who must have been by this 
 ' 5 time one-and-twenty. The Joenne Bachelor, as the 
 
 employment story calls him, applied himself to the acquisition of 
 Kaan: and the languages and written characters in chief use 
 
 his journeys. 
 
 among the multifarious nationalities included in the 
 Kaan’s Court and administration ; and Kublai after a time, 
 seeing his discretion and ability, began to employ him in 
 the public service. M. Pauthier has found a record in the 
 Chinese Annals of the Mongol Dynasty, which states that in 
 the year 1277, a certain POLO was nominated a second-class 
 
 * It is stated by Neumann that Captain Wood once intended to have devoted 
 a special work to the elucidation of Marco’s chapters on the Oxus Provinces, and 
 it is much to be regretted that this intention has never been fulfilled. 
 
 f Or, perhaps half a year earlier, if we suppose the three years and a half to 
 count from Venice rather than Acre. 
 
PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE TRAVELLERS. 
 
 li 
 
 commissioner or agent attached to the Privy Council, a 
 passage which we are happy to believe to refer to our young 
 traveller.* 
 
 His first mission apparently was that which carried him 
 through the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, and Ssechuen, and the 
 wild country on the East of Tibet, to the remote province of 
 Yunnan, called by the Mongols Karajang, and which had 
 been partially conquered by an army under Kublai himself in 
 1253, before his accession to the throne.t Mark, during his 
 stay at court, had observed the Kaan’s delight in hearing of 
 strange countries, their marvels, manners, and oddities, and 
 had heard his Majesty’s frank expressions of disgust at the 
 stupidity of his commissioners when they could speak of 
 nothing but the official business on which they had been sent. 
 Profiting by these observations, he took care to store his 
 memory or his note books with all curious facts that were 
 likely to interest Kublai, and related them with vivacity on 
 his return to Court. This first journey, which led him through 
 a region which is still very nearly a terra incognita , and in 
 which there existed and still exists, among the deep valleys 
 of the Great Rivers flowing down from Eastern Tibet, and in 
 the rugged mountain ranges bordering Yunnan and Kweichau, 
 a vast Ethnological Garden, as it were, of tribes of various 
 race and in every stage of uncivilization, afforded him an 
 acquaintance with many strange products and eccentric traits 
 of manners, wherewith to delight the Emperor. 
 
 Mark rose rapidly in favour, and was often employed again 
 on distant missions, as well as in domestic administration, but 
 we gather few details as to his employments. At one time 
 we know that he held for three years the government of the 
 great city of Yangchau, though we need not try to magnify this 
 
 * Pauthier , p. ix, and p. 361. 
 
 f That this was Marco’s first mission is positively stated in the Ramusian 
 edition ; and though this may be only an editor’s gloss it seems well-founded. 
 The French texts say only that the Great Kaan, “ l’envoia en un message en une 
 terre ou bien avoit vj. mois de chemin.” The traveller’s actual Itinerary affords to 
 Vochan (Yungchang), on the frontier of Burma, 147 days’ journey, which with 
 halts might well be reckoned six months in round estimate. And we are enabled 
 by various circumstances to fix the date of the Yunnan journey between 1277 and 
 1280. The former limit is determined by Polo’s account of the battle with the Bur¬ 
 mese, near Vochan, which took place according to the Chinese Annals in 1277. 
 The latter is fixed by his mention of Kublai’s son, Mangalai, as governing at Ken- 
 janfu (Singan-fu), a prince who died in 1280. (See vol. ii. p. 17, also pp. 48, 49). 
 
lii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 office, as some commentators have done, into the viceroyalty of 
 one of the great provinces of the Empire; on another occasion 
 we find him with his uncle Maffeo, passing a year at Kanchau 
 in Tangut; again, it would appear, visiting Kara Korum, the 
 old capital of the Kaans in Mongolia; on another occasion 
 in Champa or Southern Cochin China; and again, or perhaps 
 as a part of the last expedition, on a mission to the Indian 
 Seas, when he appears to have visited several of the southern 
 states of India. We are not informed whether his father and 
 uncle shared in such employments *; and the story of their 
 services rendered to the Kaan in promoting the capture of the 
 city of Siangyang, by the construction of powerful engines of 
 attack, is too much perplexed by difficulties of chronology to 
 be cited with confidence. Anyhow they were gathering wealth, 
 and after years of exile they began to dread what might 
 follow old Kublai’s death, and longed to carry their gear and 
 their own grey heads safe home to the Lagoons. The aged 
 Emperor growled refusal to all their hints, and but for a 
 happy chance we should have lost our medieval Herodotus. 
 
 21. Arghun Kaan of Persia, Kublai’s great-nephew, had 
 in 1286 lost his favourite wife the Khatun Bulughan; and, 
 Circum- mourning her sorely, took steps to fulfil her dying 
 
 stances of 111 Jo 
 
 the Depar- injunction that her place should be filled only by a 
 Pogrom lady of her own kin, the Mongol Tribe of Bayaut. 
 Court. Ambassadors were despatched to the Court of Kaan- 
 baligh to seek such a bride. The message was courteously 
 received, and the choice fell on the Lady Kukachin, a maiden 
 of 17, “ moult bele dame et avenantd The overland road from 
 Peking to Tabriz was not only of portentous length for such a 
 tender charge, but was imperilled by war, so the envoys 
 desired to return by sea. Tartars in general were strangers 
 to all navigation ; and the envoys, much taken with the Vene¬ 
 tians, and eager to profit by their experience, especially as 
 Marco had just then returned from his Indian mission, begged 
 the Kaan as a favour to send the three Firinghis in their 
 company. He consented with reluctance, but, having done so, 
 fitted the party out nobly for the voyage, charging the Polos 
 
 * Excepting in the doubtful case of Kanchau, where one reading says that the 
 three Polos were there on business of their own not necessary to mention, and 
 another, that only Maffeo and Marco were there “ en legation 
 
PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE TRAVELLERS. 
 
 liii 
 
 with friendly messages for the potentates of Europe, including 
 •the King of England. They appear to have sailed from the 
 port of Zayton (as the Westerns called Thsiuanchau or Chin- 
 chau in Fokien) in the beginning of 1292. It was an ill-starred 
 voyage, and involved long detentions on the coast of Sumatra, 
 and in the South of India, to which, however, we are indebted 
 for some of the best chapters in the book ; and two years or 
 upwards passed before they arrived at their destination in 
 Persia.* The three hardy Venetians survived all perils, and 
 so did the lady, who had come to look on them with filial 
 regard ; but two of the three envoys, and a vast proportion of 
 the suite, had perished by the way. Arghun Kaan too had 
 been dead even before they quitted China t ; his brother 
 Kaikhatu reigned in his stead ; and his son Ghazan succeeded 
 to the lady’s hand. We are told by one who knew both the 
 princes well that Arghun was one of the handsomest men 
 of his time, whilst Ghazan was, among all his host, one of 
 the most insignificant in appearance. But in other respects the 
 lady’s change was for the better. Ghazan had some of the 
 highest qualities of a soldier, a legislator and a king, adorned 
 by many and varied accomplishments ; though his reign was 
 too short for the full development of his fame. 
 
 22. The princess, whose enjoyment of her royalty was 
 brief, wept as she took leave of the kindly and noble Vene- 
 
 * Persian history seems to fix the arrival of the Lady Kukachin in the North of 
 Persia to the winter of 1293-4. The voyage to Sumatra occupied three months 
 (vol. i. p. 33) ; they were five months detained there (ii. 235) ; and the remainder 
 of the voyage extended to eighteen more (i. 33),—twenty-six months in all. 
 
 The data are too slight for unexceptionable precision, but the following adjust¬ 
 ment will fairly meet the facts. Say that they sailed from Fokien in January 
 1292. In April they would be in Sumatra, and find the S.W. Monsoon too near 
 to admit of their crossing the Bay of Bengal. They remain in port till September 
 (five months), and then proceed, touching (perhaps) at Ceylon, at Kayal, and at 
 several ports of Western India. In one of these, e.g. Kayal or Tana, they pass 
 the S.W. Monsoon of 1293, and then proceed to the Gulf. They reach Hormuz 
 in the winter, and the camp of the Persian Prince Ghazan, the son of Arghun, 
 in March, twenty-six months from their departure. 
 
 I have been unable to trace Hammer’s authority (not Wassaf I find), which 
 perhaps gives the precise date of the Lady’s arrival in Persia (see infra, p. 36). 
 From his narrative, however ( Gesch . der Ilchane , ii. 20), March 1294 is perhaps 
 too late a date. But the five month’s stoppage in Sumatra must have been in the 
 S.W. Monsoon ; and if the arrival in Persia is put earlier, Polo’s numbers can 
 scarcely be held to. Or, the eighteen months mentioned at vol. i. p. 33, must 
 include the five months’ stoppage. We may then suppose that they reached Hor¬ 
 muz about November, 1293, and Ghazan’s camp a month or two later. 
 
 f Died 12th March, 1291. 
 
liv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tians. They went on to Tabriz, and after a long halt there 
 They pass proceeded homewards, reaching Venice, according to 
 t 0 y Venice, all the texts, some time in 1295.* 
 
 don^there. We have related Ramusio’s interesting tradition, 
 like a bit out of the Arabian Nights, of the reception that the 
 Travellers met with from their relations, and of the means 
 that they took to establish their position with those relations, 
 and with Venetian society, t Of the relations, Marco the 
 Elder had probably been long dead % \ Maffeo the brother of 
 
 * All dates are found so corrupt that even in this one I do not feel absolute 
 confidence. Marco in dictating the book is aware that Ghazan had attained the 
 throne of Persia (see vol. i. p. 34, and ii. pp. 32 and 408), an event which did not 
 occur till October, 1295. The date assigned to it, however, by Marco (ii. 408) is 
 1294, or the year before that assigned to the return home. 
 
 The travellers may have stopped some time at Constantinople on their way, or 
 even may have visited the northern shores of the Black Sea; otherwise, indeed, 
 how did Marco acquire his knowledge of that Sea (ii. 418) and of events in Kipchak 
 (ii. 421, seqq .) ? If 1296 was the date of return, moreover, the six-and-twenty years 
 assigned in the preamble as the period of Marco’s absence (p. 2) would be nearer 
 accuracy. For he left Venice in the spring or summer of 1271. 
 
 f Marco Barbara, in his account of the Polo family, tells what seems to be the 
 same tradition in a different and more mythical version :— 
 
 “ From ear to ear the story has past till it reached mine, that when the three 
 Kinsmen arrived at their home they were dressed in the most shabby and sordid 
 manner, insomuch that the wife of one of them gave away to a beggar that came to 
 the door one of those garments of his, all torn, patched, and dirty as it was. The next 
 day he asked his wife for that mantle of his, in order to put away the jewels that 
 were sewn up in it ; but she told him she had given it away to a poor man, whom 
 she did not know. Now, the stratagem he employed to recover it was this. He 
 went to the Bridge of Rialto, and stood there turning a wheel, to no apparent pur¬ 
 pose, but as if he were a madman, and to all those who crowded round to see what 
 prank was this, and asked him why he did it, he answered : ‘ He’ll come if God 
 pleases.’ So after two or three days he recognized his old coat on the back of one 
 of those who came to stare at his mad proceeding, and got it back again. Then, 
 indeed, he was judged to be quite the reverse of a madman ! And from those 
 jewels he built in the contrada of S. Giovanni Grisostomo, a very fine palace for 
 those days ; and the family got among the vulgar the name of the Ca ’ Million , 
 because the report was that they had jewels to the value of a million of ducats ; 
 and the palace has kept that name to the present day— viz. , 1566.” ( Genealogies , 
 
 MS. copy in Mtiseo Civico ; quoted also by Baldello Boni , Vita, p. xxxi). 
 
 % The Will of the Elder Marco, to which we have several times referred, is 
 dated at Rialto 5 th August, 1280. 
 
 The testator describes himself as formerly of Constantinople, but now dwelling 
 in the confine of S. Severo. 
 
 His brothers Nicolo and Maffeo , if at Venice, are to be his sole trustees and 
 executors, but in case of their continued absence he nominates Jordano Trevisano , 
 and his sister-in-law Fiordelisa of the confine of S. Severo. 
 
 The proper tithe to be paid. All his clothes and furniture to be sold, and from 
 the proceeds his funeral to be defrayed, and the balance to purchase masses for his 
 soul at the discretion of his trustees. 
 
 Particulars of money due to him from his partnership with Donato Grasso, now 
 
THE CORTE DEL MILLIONE. 
 
 lv 
 
 our Marco was alive, and we hear also of a cousin (consan- 
 guineus ) Felice Polo, and his wife Fiordelisa, without being 
 able to fix their precise position in the family. We know also 
 that Nicolo, who died before the end of the century, left 
 behind him two illegitimate sons, Stefano and Zannino. It is 
 not unlikely that these were born from some connexion en¬ 
 tered into during the long residence of the Polos in Cathay, 
 though naturally their presence in the travelling company is 
 not commemorated in Marco’s Prologue.* 
 
 IV. Digression concerning the Mansion of the Polo Family 
 
 at Venice. 
 
 23. We have seen that Ramusio places the scene of the 
 story recently alluded to at the mansion in the parish of 
 S. Giovanni Grisostomo, the court of which was „ . 
 
 .Probable 
 
 known in his time as the Corte del Millione ; and in- P, er . iodof 
 deed he speaks of the Travellers as at once on their s^GiAvannf 
 arrival resorting to that mansion as their family resi- Gnsostomo - 
 dence. Ramusio’s details have so often proved erroneous that 
 I should not be surprised if this also should be a mistake. 
 
 of Justinople (Capo d’Istria), 1200 lire in all. (Fifty-two lire due by said partner¬ 
 ship to Angelo di Tumba of S. Severe). 
 
 The above money bequeathed to his son Nicolo , living at Soldachia , or failing 
 him, to his beloved brothers Nicolo and Maffeo. Failing them, to the sons of his 
 said brothers (sic) Marco and Maffeo. Failing them, to be spent for the good of 
 his soul at the discretion of his trustees. 
 
 To his son Nicolo he bequeaths a silver-wrought girdle of vermilion silk, two 
 silver spoons, a silver cup without handle, his desk, two pair of sheets, a velvet 
 quilt, a counterpane, a feather-bed—all on the same conditions as above, and to 
 remain with the trustees till his son returns to Venice. 
 
 Meanwhile the trustees are to invest the money at his son’s risk and benefit, but 
 only here in Venice (investiant seu investire faciant). 
 
 From the proceeds to come in from his partnership with his brothers Nicolo 
 and Maffeo, he bequeaths 200 lire to his daughter Maroca. 
 
 From same source 100 lire to his natural son Antony. 
 
 Has in his desk (capsella) two hyperperae (Byzantine gold coins), and three 
 golden florins, which he bequeaths to the sister-in-law Fiordelisa. 
 
 Gives freedom to all his slaves and handmaidens. 
 
 Leaves his house in Soldachia to the Minor Friars of that place, reserving life- 
 occupancy to his son Nicolo and daughter Maroca. 
 
 The rest of his goods to his son Nicolo. 
 
 * The terms in which the younger Maffeo mentions these half-brothers in his 
 Will (1300) seem to indicate that they were still young. 
 
THE CORTE DEL MILLIONE. 
 
 lvii 
 
 At least we find (so far as I can learn) no previous intimation 
 that the family were connected with that locality. The grand¬ 
 father Andrea is styled of San Felice. The will of Maffeo 
 Polo the younger, made in 1300, which we shall give hereafter 
 in abstract, appears to be the first document that connects the 
 family with S. Giovanni Grisostomo. It indeed styles the 
 testator’s father “ the late Nicolo Paulo of the confine of 
 St. John Chrysostom,” but that only shows what is not dis¬ 
 puted, that the Travellers after their return from the East 
 settled in this locality. And the same will appears to indicate 
 a surviving connexion with S. Felice, for the priests and clerks 
 who draw it up and witness it are all of the church of S. Felice, 
 and it is to the parson of S. Felice and his successor that Maffeo 
 bequeaths an annuity to procure their prayers for the souls of 
 his father, his mother, and himself, though after the successor 
 the annuity is to pass on the same condition to the senior 
 priest of S. Giovanni Grisostomo. Marco Polo the Elder is 
 in his will described as of .S'. Severo , as is also his sister-in- 
 law Fiordelisa, and the document contains no reference to 
 S. Giovanni. On the whole therefore it seems probable that 
 the Palazzo in the latter parish was purchased by the Tra¬ 
 vellers after their return from the East.* 
 
 24. The Court which was known in the 16th century as the 
 Corte del Millione has been generally understood to be that 
 now known as the Corte Sabbionera, and here is still 
 pointed out a relic of Marco Polo’s mansion. casaPoKn 
 
 M. Pauthier’s edition is embellished with a good c he u f orte 
 
 o babbionera. 
 
 engraving which purports to represent the House 
 of Marco Polo. But he has been misled. His engraving in 
 fact exhibits, at least as the prominent feature, an embellished 
 representation of a small house which exists on the west side 
 of the Sabbionera, and which had at one time perhaps that 
 pointed style of architecture which his engraving shows, 
 
 * Marco Barbaro’s story related at p. liv speaks of the Ca’ Million as built by 
 the travellers. 
 
 From a list of parchments existing in the archives of the Casa di Ricovero, or 
 Great Poor House, at Venice, Signor Berchet obtained the following indication 
 “ No. 94. Marco Galletti invests Marco Polo S. 0/Nicolo with the ozvnership of 
 his possessions (beni) in S. Giovanni Grisostomo; 10 September, 1319; drawn up 
 by the Notary Nicolo, priest of S. CancianoC 
 
 This document would perhaps have thrown light on the matter, but unfor¬ 
 tunately recent search by several parties has failed to trace it. 
 
lviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 though its present decoration is paltry and unreal. But it is 
 on the noi'th side of the Court, and on the foundations now 
 occupied by the Malibran Theatre, that Venetian tradition, and 
 the investigations of Venetian antiquaries concur in indicating 
 the site of the Casa Polo. At the end of the 16th century 
 a great fire destroyed the Palazzo,* * * § and under the description 
 of “ an old mansion ruined from the foundation ” it passed 
 into the hands of one Stefano Vecchia, who sold it in 1678 
 to Giovanni Carlo Grimani. He built on the site of the 
 ruins a theatre which was in its day one of the largest in 
 Italy, and was called the Theatre of S. Giovanni Grisostomo; 
 afterwards the Teatro Emeronitio. When modernized in our 
 own day the proprietors gave it the name of Malibran, in 
 honour of that famous singer, and this it still bears.j 
 
 There is still to be seen on the north side of the Court an 
 arched doorway in Italo-Byzantine style, richly sculptured 
 with scrolls, disks, and symbolical animals, and on the wall 
 above the doorway is a cross similarly ornamented. J The 
 style and the decorations are those which were usual in 
 Venice in the 13th century. The arch opens into a passage 
 from which a similar doorway at the other end, also retain¬ 
 ing some Scantier relics of decoration, leads to the entrance 
 of the Malibran Theatre. Over the archway in the Corte 
 Sabbionera the building rises into a kind of tower. This, as 
 well as the sculptured arches and cross, Signor Casoni, who 
 gave a good deal of consideration to the subject, believed to 
 be a relic of the old Polo House. But the tower (which 
 Pauthier’s view does show) is now entirely modernized. § 
 
 Other remains of Byzantine sculpture, which are probably 
 fragments of the decoration of the same mansion, are found 
 imbedded in the walls of neighbouring houses. || It is im- 
 
 * -“ Sua casa die era posta nel confin di S. Giovanni Chrisostonio, che hor 
 
 fa V anno s'abbrugio totalmente, con gran danno di mold.” ( Doglioni , Hist. Venetiana, 
 Yen. 1598, p. 161-2.) 
 
 f See a paper by G. C. (the Engineer Giovanni Casoni) in Teatro Emeronitio, 
 Almanacco per VAnno 1835. 
 
 X This Cross is engraved by Mr. Ruskin in vol. ii. of the Stones of Venice; see 
 p. 139, and PI. xi. Fig. 4. 
 
 § Casoni’s only doubt was whether the Corte del Millione was what is now the 
 Sabbionera, or the interior area of the theatre. The latter seems most probable. 
 
 Our Frontispiece to this volume shows the archway in the Corte Sabbionera, 
 and also the decorations of the soffit. 
 
 || See Ruskin , iii. 320. 
 
THE CORTE DEL MILLIONE. 
 
 lix 
 
 possible to determine anything further as to the form or 
 extent of the house of the time of the Polos, but some slight 
 idea of its appearance about the year 1500 maybe seen in 
 the extract (fig. a) which we give from the famous map of 
 Venice attributed erroneously to Albert Diirer. The state of 
 the buildings in the last century is shown in (fig. B) an extract 
 from the fine Map of Ughi; and their present condition in 
 one (fig. c) reduced from the Modern Official Map of the 
 Municipality. 
 
 In the year 1827 the Abate Zenier caused a Tablet to be 
 put up between the Corte Sabbionera and the Theatre, with 
 this inscription :— 
 
 AEDES PROXIMA THALIAE CVLTV 1 MODO ADDICTA 
 MARCI POLO P.V. ITINERVM FAMA PRAECLARI 
 JAM HABITATIO FVIT. 
 
 24 a. I believe that of late years some doubts have been 
 thrown on the tradition of the site indicated as that of the 
 Casa Polo, though I am not aware of the grounds of Recent cor _ 
 such doubts. But a document recently discovered as^thetra- 
 at Venice by Signor Barozzi, one of a series relating oSTcas? 
 to the testamentary estate of Marco Polo, goes far Pol °' 
 to confirm the tradition. This is the copy of a technical 
 definition of two pieces of house property adjoining the pro¬ 
 perty of Marco Polo and his brother Stephen, which were sold 
 to Marco Polo by his wife Donata* in June 1321. Though the 
 definition is not decisive, from the rarity of topographical re¬ 
 ferences and absence of points of the compass, the description 
 of Donata’s tenements as standing on the Rio (presumably 
 that of S. Giovanni Grisostomo) on one side, opening by 
 certain porticoes and stairs on the other to the Court and 
 common alley leading to the Church of S. Giovanni Grisostomo, 
 and abutting in two places on the Ca’ Polo the property of 
 her husband and Stefano, will apply perfectly to a building 
 occupying the western portion of the area on which now stands 
 the Theatre, and perhaps forming the western side of a Court 
 of which Casa Polo formed the other three sides.f 
 
 * Sig. Barozzi writes: “Among us, contracts between husband and wife are 
 and were very common, and recognized by law. The wife sells to the husband 
 property not included in dowry, or that she may have inherited, just as any third 
 person might.” 
 
 t See an abstract of the document in Appendix C, No. 10. 
 
lx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 We know nothing more of Polo till we find him appearing 
 a year or two later in rapid succession as the Captain of a 
 Venetian Galley, as a prisoner of war, and as an author. 
 
 Medieval 
 Galleys; a 
 separate oar 
 to every 
 man. 
 
 V. Digression concerning the War-Galleys of the Medi¬ 
 terranean States in the Middle Ages. 
 
 25. And before entering on this new phase of the Traveller’s 
 biography it may not be without interest that we say some- 
 Arrange thing regarding the equipment of those galleys which 
 Rowers in e are so prominent in the medieval history of the 
 Mediterranean.* 
 
 Eschewing that “ Serbonian Bog, where armies 
 whole have sunk ” of Books and Commentators, the 
 theory of the classification of the Biremes and Triremes of the 
 Ancients, we can at least assert on secure grounds that in 
 medieval armament, up to the middle of the 16th century or 
 thereabouts, the characteristic distinction of galleys of different 
 calibres, so far as such differences existed, was based on the 
 number of rowers that sat on one bench pulling each his separate 
 oar , but through one portella or rowlock-port . t And to the 
 classes of galleys so distinguished the Italians, of the later 
 Middle Age at least, did certainly apply, rightly or wrongly, 
 the classical terms of Bireme , Trireme , and Quinqitereme , in 
 the sense of galleys having two men and two oars to a bench, 
 three men and three oars to a bench, and five men and five 
 oars to a bench. J 
 
 That this was the medieval arrangement is very certain 
 from the details afforded by Marino Sanuto the Elder, con¬ 
 firmed by later writers and by works of art. Previous to 
 1290, Sanuto tells us, almost all the galleys that went to the 
 
 * I regret not to have had access to Jal’s learned memoirs (Archeologie Navale , 
 Paris, 1839), whilst writing this section. Since doing so I have just been able to 
 look hastily through his Essay on the difficult subject of the oar arrangements, and 
 I see that he does not admit so great a number of oars as I have deduced from the 
 statements of Sanuto and others. 
 
 f It seems the more desirable to elucidate this, because writers on medieval 
 subjects so accomplished as Buchon and Capmany have (it would seem) entirely 
 misconceived the matter, assuming that all the men on one bench pulled at one oar. 
 
 X See Coronelli , Atlante Venelo , I. 139, 140. Maidno Sanuto the Elder, though 
 not using the term trireme, says it was well understood from ancient authors that 
 the Romans employed their rowers three to a bench (p. 59). 
 
ON MEDIEVAL WAR-GALLEYS. 
 
 lxi 
 
 Levant had but two oars and men to a bench ; but as it had 
 been found that three oars and men to a bench could be em¬ 
 ployed with great advantage, after that date nearly all galleys 
 adopted this arrangement, which was called ai Terzaruoli * 
 
 Moreover experiments made by the Venetians in 1316 had 
 shown that four rowers to a bench could be employed still 
 more advantageously. And where the galleys could be used 
 on inland waters, and could be made more bulky, Sanuto would 
 even recommend five to a bench, or have gangs of rowers on 
 two decks with either three or four men to the bench on each 
 deck. 
 
 26. This system of grouping the oars, and putting only 
 one man to an oar, continued down to the 16th century, 
 during the first half of which came in the more changeof 
 modern system of using great oars, equally spaced, f h y e s ^ 6 ™ h in 
 and requiring from four to seven men each to ply century - 
 them, in the manner which endured till late in the last cen¬ 
 tury, when galleys became altogether obsolete. Captain 
 Pantero Pant era, the author of a work on Naval Tactics 
 (1616), says he had heard, from veterans who had commanded 
 galleys equipped in the antiquated fashion, that three men to 
 a bench, with separate oars, answered better than three men 
 to one great oar, but four men to one great oar (he says) were 
 certainly more efficient than four men with separate oars. 
 The new-fashioned great oars, he tells us, were styled Remi 
 di Scaloccio, the old grouped oars Remi a Zenzile ,—terms the 
 etymology of which I cannot explain.! 
 
 It may be doubted whether the four-banked and five- 
 banked galleys, of which Marino Sanuto speaks, really then 
 came into practical use. A great five-banked galley on this 
 system, built in 1529 in the Venice Arsenal by Vettor Fausto, 
 was the subject of so much talk and excitement, that it must 
 
 * “ Ad terzarolos ” (Secreta Fidelium Cruets, p. 57). The Catalan Worthy, 
 Ramon de Muntaner, indeed constantly denounces the practice of manning all the 
 galleys with terzaruoli, or tersols, as his term is. But his reason is that these 
 thirdsmen were taken from the oar when crossbowmen were wanted, to act in that 
 capacity, and as such they were good for nothing; the crossbowmen, he insists, 
 should be men specially enlisted for that service and kept to that. He would have 
 some 10 or 20 per cent, only of the fleet built very light and manned in threes. 
 He does not seem to have contemplated oars three-banked, and crossbowmen 
 besides, as Sanuto does (see below ; and Muntaner, pp. 288, 323, 525, &c.) 
 f IdArmata Navale , Roma, 1616, pp. 150-151. 
 
Galley-Fight from a Medieval Fresco at Siena. 
 
ON MEDIEVAL WAR-GALLEYS. 
 
 lxiii 
 
 evidently have been something quite new and unheard of.* * * § 
 So late as 1567 indeed the King of Spain built at Barcelona 
 a galley of thirty-six benches to the side, and seven men to 
 the bench, with a separate oar to each in the old fashion. But 
 it proved a failure.f 
 
 Down to the introduction of the great oars the usual 
 system appears to have been three oars to a bench for the 
 larger galleys, and two oars for lighter ones. The fuste or 
 lighter galleys of the Venetians even to about the middle of 
 the 16th century had their oars in pairs from the stern to the 
 mast, and single oars only from the mast forward. J 
 
 27. Returning then to the three-banked and two-banked 
 galleys of the latter part of the 13th century, the number of 
 benches on each side seems to have run from twenty- Some detaiIs 
 five to twenty-eight, at least as I interpret Sanuto’s clntury 3th 
 calculations. The 100-oared vessels often mentioned GalIeys ' 
 
 (e. g. by Muntaner , p. 419) were probably two-banked vessels 
 with twenty-five benches to a side. 
 
 The galleys were very narrow, only 15 J feet in beam.§ 
 But to give room for the play of the oars and the passage of 
 the fighting-men, &c., this width was largely augmented by 
 an opera-morta , or outrigger deck, projecting much beyond the 
 ship’s sides and supported by timber brackets. |] I do not find 
 it stated how great this projection was in the medieval galleys, 
 but in those of the 17th century it was on each side as much 
 as §ths of the true beam. And if it was as great in the 13th 
 century galleys the total width between the false gunnels 
 would be about 22 \ feet. 
 
 In the centre line of the deck ran, the whole length of 
 the vessel, a raised gangway called the corsia , for passage 
 clear of the oars. 
 
 * See a work to which I am indebted for a good deal of light and information, 
 the Engineer Giovanni Casoni’s Essay “ Dei Navigli Poliremi usati nella Marina 
 dagli Antichi Veneziani, ” in “ Esercitazioni delV Ateneo Veneto , vol. ii. p. 338. 
 This great Quinquereme , as it was styled, is stated to have been struck by a fire- 
 arrow and blown up, in January 1570. 
 
 f Pan ter a, p. 22. 
 
 X Lazarus Bayfius de Re Navali Veterum, in Gronovii Thesaurus , Ven. 1737, 
 vol. xi. p. 581. This writer also speaks of the Quinquereme mentioned above 
 (P- 577 )- 
 
 § Marino Sanuto, p. 65. 
 
 j| See the woodcuts opposite, and at p. lxvi; also Pantera , p. 46 (who is here, 
 however, speaking of the great-oared galleys), and Coronelli , i. 140. 
 
lxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The benches were arranged as in this diagram. The part 
 of the bench next the gunnel was at right angles to it, but 
 the other two-thirds of the bench were 
 thrown forward obliquely, a, b , c, in¬ 
 dicate the position of the three rowers. 
 The shortest oar a was called Ter- 
 licchio , the middle one b Posticcio, the 
 
 Fore 
 
 long oar c Piamero * 
 
 I do not find any information as to 
 how the oars worked on the gunnels. 
 The Siena fresco (see p. lxii) appears to 
 show them attached by loops and pins, 
 which is the usual practice in boats 
 of the Mediterranean now. In the cut 
 from Tintoretto (p. lxvi) the groups 
 of oars protrude through regular ports in the bulwarks, but 
 this probably represents the use of a later day. In any case 
 the oars of each bench must have worked in very close prox¬ 
 imity. Sanuto states the length of the galleys of his time 
 (1300-1320) as 117 feet. This was doubtless length of keel, 
 for that is specified (“ da rnoda a rnoda ’) in other Venetian 
 measurements, but the whole oar space could scarcely have 
 been so much, and with twenty-eight benches to a side there 
 could not have been more than 4 feet gunnel-space to each 
 bench. But as one of the objects of the grouping of the oars 
 was to allow room between the benches for the action of cross¬ 
 bowmen, &c., it is plain that the rowlock space for the three 
 oars must have been very much compressed.! 
 
 * Casoni, p. 324. He obtains these particulars from a manuscript work of the 
 16th century by Cristoforo Canale. 
 
 + Signor Casoni (p. 324) expresses his belief that no galley of the 14th century 
 had more, than 100 oars. I hesitate to differ from him, and still more as I find 
 M. Jal takes a like view. I will state the grounds on which I had come to a 
 different conclusion. (1) Marino Sanute assigns 180 rowers for a galley equipped 
 ai Terzaruoli (p. 75). This seemed to imply something near 180 oars, for I do not 
 find any allusion to reliefs being provided. In the French galleys of last century 
 there were no reliefs except in this way, that in long runs without urgency only half 
 the oars were pulled (see Mem. Fun Protestant condamne aux Galeres , &c., Reim- 
 primes, Paris, 1865, p. 447). If four men to a bench were to be employed, then 
 Sanuto seems to calculate for his smaller galleys 220 men actually rowing (see 
 pp. 75-78). This seems to assume 55 benches, i. e., 28 on one side and 27 on the 
 other, which with 3-banked oars would give 165 rowers. (2) Cassoni himself 
 refers to Pietro Martire d’Anghieria’s account of a Great Galley of Venice in which 
 he was sent ambassador to Egypt from the Spanish Court in 1503. The crew 
 
ON MEDIEVAL WAR-GALLEYS. 
 
 lxv 
 
 The rowers were divided into three classes, with graduated 
 pay. The highest class, who pulled the poop or stroke oars, 
 were called Portolati; those at the bow, called Prodieri , 
 formed the second class.* 
 
 Some elucidation of the arrangements that we have tried 
 to describe will be found in our cuts. That at p. lxii is from 
 a drawing, by the aid of a very imperfect photograph, of part 
 of one of the frescoes of Spinello Aretini in the Municipal 
 Palace at Siena, representing the victory of the Venetians over 
 the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa’s fleet, commanded by his 
 son Otho, in 1176; but no doubt the galleys, &c., are of the 
 artist’s own age, the middle of the 14th century, f In this we 
 see plainly the projecting opera-morta , and the rowers sitting 
 two to a bench, each with his oar, for these are two-banked. 
 We can also discern the Latin rudder on the quarter (see this 
 volume, p. 111). In a picture in the Uffizj, at Florence, of about 
 the same date, by Pietro Laurato (it is in the corridor near the 
 entrance), may be seen a small figure of a galley with the oars 
 also very distinctly coupled. X Casoni has engraved, after 
 Cristoforo Canale, a pictorial plan of a Venetian trireme of 
 
 amounted to 200, of whom 150 were for working the sails and oars, that being the 
 mimber of oars in each galley , one man to each oar and three to each bench. 
 Casoni assumes that this vessel must have been much larger than the galleys of the 
 14th century ; but, however that may have been, Sanuto to his galley assigns the 
 larger crew of 250, of whom almost exactly the same proportion (180) were rowers. 
 And in the galeazza described by Pietro Martire the oars were used only as an occa¬ 
 sional auxiliary (see his Legationis Babylonicae Libri Tres, appended to his 3 Decads 
 concerning the New World; Basil. 1533, f. 77 ver.). (3) The galleys of the last 
 century, with their great oars 50 feet long pulled by 6 or 7 men each, had 25 
 benches to the side, and only 4' 6" (French) gunnel-space to each oar (see Mem. 
 d'un Protest, p. 434). I imagine that a smaller space would suffice for the 3 light 
 oars of the medieval system, so that this need scarcely be a difficulty in the face of 
 the preceding evidence. Note also the three hundred rowers in Joinville’s descrip¬ 
 tion quoted at p. lxix. 
 
 * Marino Sanuto , p. 78. These titles occur also in the Documenti <BAmove of 
 Fr. Barberino referred to at p. no of this volume :— 
 
 “ Convienti qui manieri 
 ' Portolatti e prodieri 
 
 E presti galeotti 
 Aver, e forti e dotti.” 
 
 (Quoted in the Vocab. It at. Universale.) 
 
 f Spinello’s works, according to Vasari, extended from 1334 till late in the 
 century. A religious picture of his at Siena is assigned to 1385, so the frescoes 
 may probably be of about the same period. 
 
 + This is engraved in Jal’s Archeologie Navale, i. 330; as are some other 
 medieval illustra lions of the same circumstances. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 e 
 
lxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the 16th century, which shows the arrangement of the oars in 
 triplets very plainly. 
 
 The following cut has been sketched from an engraving of a 
 picture by Domenico Tintoretto in the Doge’s palace, repre¬ 
 senting, I believe, the same action as Spinello’s fresco, but with 
 the costume and construction of a later date. It shows how¬ 
 ever, very plainly, the projecting opera-morta , and the arrange¬ 
 ment of the oars in fours, issuing through row-ports in high 
 bulwarks. 
 
 Part of a Sea Fight, after Dom. Tintoretto. 
 
 28. Midships in the medieval galley a castle was erected, 
 of the width of the ship, and some 20 feet in length ; its plat¬ 
 form being elevated sufficiently to allow of free pas- 
 
 Fighting 
 
 arrange- sage under it and over the benches. At the bow 
 ments - . .. 
 
 was the battery, consisting of mangonels (see vol. 11. 
 
 pp. 121, seqq.) and great cross-bows with winding gear,* whilst 
 
 * To these Casoni adds Sifoni for discharging Greek fire ; but this he seems to 
 take from the Greek treatise of the Emperor Leo. Though I have introduced it 
 in the cut at p. lxxvii, I doubt if there is evidence of its use by the Italians in the 
 thirteenth century. Joinville describes it like something strange and new. 
 
 Great beams, hung like battering rams, are mentioned by Sanuto, as well as 
 iron crow’s-feet with fire attached, to shoot among the rigging, and jars of quick¬ 
 lime and soft soap to fling in the eyes of the enemy. The lime is said to have 
 been used by Doria against the Venetians at Curzola {infra, p. lxxvi), and seems 
 to have been a usual provision. Francesco Barberini specifies among the stores 
 for his galley:—“ Calcina, con lancioni, Pece, pietre, e ronconi ” (p. 259). And 
 Christine de Pisan, in her Faiz du Sage Roy Charles (V. of France) explains also 
 
ON MEDIEVAL WAR-GALLEYS. 
 
 lxvii 
 
 there were shot ports * for smaller cross-bows along the 
 gunnels in the intervals between the benches. Some of the 
 larger galleys had openings to admit horses at the stern, 
 which were closed and caulked for the voyage, being under 
 water when the vessel was at sea. t 
 
 It seems to have been a very usual piece of tactics, in 
 attacking as well as in awaiting attack, to connect a large 
 number of galleys by hawsers, and sometimes also to link the 
 oars together, so as to render it difficult for the enemy to 
 break the line or run aboard. We find this practised by the 
 Genoese on the defensive at the battle of Ayas {infra, p. lxxi), 
 and it is constantly resorted to by the Catalans in the battles 
 described by Ramon de Muntaner.J 
 
 Sanuto says the toil of rowing in the galleys was excessive, 
 almost unendurable. Yet it seems to have been performed by 
 freely-enlisted men, and therefore it was probably less severe 
 than that of the great-oared galleys of more recent times, 
 which it was found impracticable to work by free enlistment, 
 or otherwise than by slaves under the most cruel driving. § I 
 am not well enough read to say that war-galleys were never 
 rowed by slaves in the Middle Ages, but the only doubtful 
 allusion to such a class that I have met with is in one passage 
 of Muntaner, where he says, describing the Neapolitan and 
 Catalan fleets drawing together for action, that the gangs 
 of the galleys had to toil like “ formats ” (p. 313). Indeed, as 
 regards Venice at least, convict rowers are stated to have been 
 first introduced in 1549, previous to which the gangs were of 
 galeotti assoldati . || 
 
 29. We have already mentioned that Sanuto requires for 
 his three-banked galley a ship’s company of 250 men. oSkylnd 
 They are distributed as follows fieft° fa 
 
 tlie use of the soap : “ Item, on doit avoir plusieurs vaisseaulx legiers a rompre, 
 comme poz plains de chaulx ou poudre, et gecter dedens ; et par ce seront comme 
 avuglez au brisier des poz. Item, on doit avoir autres poz de mol savon et teeter 
 es nefs des adversaires, et quant les vaisseaulx brisent, le savon est glissant, si ne 
 se peuent en piez sous tenir, et chieent en l’eaue ” (pt. ii. ch. 38). 
 
 * Balistarice, whence no doubt our Balustrade. Wedgwood’s etymology is far¬ 
 fetched. 
 
 t Sanuto, p. 53 ; Joinville, p. 40 ; Muntaner, 316, 403. 
 
 % See pp. 270, 288, 324, and especially 346. 
 
 § See the Protestant, cited above, pp. 441 , et seqq. 
 
 || Venezia e le sue Lagune, ii. 52. 
 
 e 2 
 
lxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Comito or Master. i 
 
 Quartermasters. 8 
 
 Carpenters. 2 
 
 Caulkers . 2 
 
 In charge of stores and arms. 4 
 
 Orderlies . 2 
 
 Cook . 1 
 
 Arblasteers.50 
 
 Rowers.180 
 
 250* 
 
 This does not include the Sopracomito , or Gentleman-Com¬ 
 mander, who was expected to be valens homo et probus , a 
 soldier and a gentleman, fit to be consulted on occasion by the 
 captain-general. In the Venetian fleet he was generally a 
 noble, t 
 
 The aggregate pay of such a crew, not including the sopra¬ 
 comito, amounted monthly to 60 lire de ’ grossi , or 600 florins, 
 equivalent to 280/. at modern gold value ; and the cost for a 
 year to nearly 3160/., exclusive of the victualling of the vessel 
 and the pay of the gentleman-commander. The build or 
 purchase of a galley complete is estimated by the same author 
 at 15,000 florins, or 7012/. 
 
 We see that war cost a good deal in money even then. 
 
 Besides the ship’s own complement Sanuto gives an estimate 
 for the general staff of a fleet of 60 galleys. This consists of 
 a captain-general, two (vice) admirals, and the following:—- 
 
 6 Probi homines , or gentlemen of 
 character, forming a council to the 
 Captain-General; 
 
 4 Commissaries of Stores ; 
 
 2 Commissaries over the Arms ; 
 
 3 Physicians ; 
 
 3 Surgeons ; 
 
 5 Master Engineers and Carpenters ; 
 
 15 Master Smiths ; 
 
 12 Master Fletchers ; 
 
 5 Cuirass men and Helmet-makers ; 
 15 Oar-makers and Shaft-makers ; 
 
 10 Stone-cutters for stone shot ; 
 
 10 Master Arblast-makers ; 
 
 20 Musicians ; 
 
 20 Orderlies, &c. 
 
 30. The musicians formed an important part of the equip¬ 
 ment. Sanuto says that in going into action every vessel should 
 make the greatest possible display of colours ; p-on- 
 
 Music; and 1 53 
 
 other par- falons and broad banners should float from stem to 
 
 ticulars. 
 
 stern, and gay pennons all along the bulwarks ; whilst 
 it was impossible to have too much of noisy music, of pipes, ~ 
 
 * Mar. Sanuto, p. 75. 
 
 f Ibid. p. 30. 
 
ON MEDIEVAL WAR-GALLEYS. 
 
 lxix 
 
 trumpets, kettle-drums, and what not, to put heart into the 
 crew and strike fear into the enemy. * * * § 
 
 So Joinville, in a glorious passage, describes the galley of 
 his kinsman, the Count of Jaffa, at the landing of St. Lewis in 
 Egypt 
 
 “ That galley made the most gallant figure of them all, for it was 
 painted all over, above water and below, with scutcheons of the count’s 
 arms, the field of which was or with a cross patee gules.\ He had a good 
 300 rowers in his galley, and every man of them had a target blazoned 
 with his arms in beaten gold. And, as they came on, the galley looked to 
 be some flying creature, with such spirit did the rowers spin it along ;— 
 or rather, with the rustle of its flags, and the roar of its nacaires and 
 drums and Saracen horns, you might have taken it for a rushing bolt of 
 heaven.” J 
 
 The galleys, which were very low in the water,§ could not 
 keep the sea in rough weather, and in winter they never 
 willingly kept the sea at night, however fair the weather might 
 be. Yet Sanuto mentions that he had been with armed gal¬ 
 leys to Sluys in Flanders. 
 
 I will mention two more particulars before concluding this 
 digression. When captured galleys were towed into port it 
 was stern foremost, and with their colours dragging on the 
 surface of the sea. || And the custom of saluting at sunset 
 (probably by music) was in vogue on board the galleys of the 
 13th century. 
 
 We shall now sketch the circumstances that led to the 
 appearance of our Traveller in the command of a war-galley. 
 
 * The Catalan Admiral Roger de Loria, advancing at daybreak to attack the 
 Proven£al Fleet of Charles of Naples (1283) in the harbour of Malta, “did a 
 thing which should be reckoned to him rather as an act of madness,” says 
 Muntaner, “ than of reason. He said, ‘God forbid that I should attack them, all 
 asleep as they are ! Let the trumpets and nacaires sound to awaken them, and 
 I will tarry till they be ready for action. No man shall have it to say, if I beat 
 them, that it was by catching them asleep.’ ” {Muni. p. 287.) 
 
 f A cross patee, is one with the extremities broadened out into feet as it were. 
 
 J Page 50. 
 
 § The galley at p. lxxvii is somewhat too high ; and I believe it should have 
 had no shrouds. 
 
 || See Muntaner , passim, e.g. 271, 286, 315, 349. 
 
 If Ibid. 346. 
 
lxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 VI. The Jealousies and Naval Wars of Venice and Genoa. 
 Lamba Doria’s Expedition to the Adriatic ; Battle of 
 Curzola I and Imprisonment of Marco Polo by the 
 Genoese. 
 
 31. Jealousies, too characteristic of the Italian commu¬ 
 nities, were, in the case of the three great trading republics 
 Growing °f Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, aggravated by com- 
 jeaiousies mercial rivalries, whilst, between the two first of 
 breaks be- those states, and also between the two last, the 
 Republics, bitterness of such feelings had been augmenting 
 during the whole course of the 13th century. * 
 
 The brilliant part played by Venice in the conquest of 
 Constantinople (1204), and the preponderance she thus ac¬ 
 quired on the Greek shores, stimulated her arrogance and 
 the resentment of her rivals. The three states no longer stood 
 on a level as bidders for the shifting favour of the Emperor of 
 the East. By treaty, not only was Venice established as the 
 most important ally of the empire and as mistress of a large 
 fraction of its territory, but all members of nations at war 
 with her were prohibited from entering its limits. Though the 
 Genoese colonies continued to exist, they stood at a great 
 disadvantage, where their rivals were so predominant and 
 enjoyed exemption from duties, to which the Genoese re¬ 
 mained subject. Hence jealousies and resentments reached 
 a climax in the Levantine settlements, and this colonial 
 exacerbation re-acted on the mother States. 
 
 A dispute which broke out at Acre in 1255 came to a head 
 in a war which lasted for years, and was felt all over Syria. 
 It began in a quarrel about a very old church called St. 
 Sabba’s, which stood on the common boundary of the Venetian 
 and Genoese estates in Acre,f and this flame was blown by 
 other unlucky occurrences. Acre suffered grievously. J Venice 
 
 * In this part of these notices I am repeatedly indebted to Heyd,; see supra , 
 p. xli. 
 
 f On or close to the Hill called Monjoie ; see the plan from Marino Sanuto at 
 
 p. 17. 
 
 X “Throughout that year there were not less than 40 machines all at work 
 upon the city of Acre, battering its houses and its towers, and smashing and 
 overthrowing everything within their range. There were at least ten of those 
 engines that shot stones so big and heavy that they weighed a good 1500 lbs. by 
 
WARS OF VENICE AND GENOA. 
 
 lxxi 
 
 at this time generally kept the upper hand, beating Genoa by 
 land and sea, and driving her from Acre altogether. Two 
 ancient pillars from St. Sabba’s were sent in triumph to Venice, 
 and with their strange devices still stand at the door of 
 St. Mark’s towards the Ducal Palace.* 
 
 But no number of defeats could extinguish the spirit of 
 Genoa, and the tables were turned when in her wrath she 
 allied herself with Michael Palaeologus to upset the feeble and 
 tottering Latin Dynasty, and with it the preponderance of 
 Venice on the Bosphorus. The new emperor handed over to 
 his allies the castle of their foes, which they tore down with 
 jubilations, and now it was their turn to send its stones as 
 trophies to Genoa. Mutual hate waxed fiercer than ever; no 
 merchant fleet of either state could go to sea without convoy, 
 and wherever their ships met they fought, f It was something- 
 like the state of things between Spain and England in the 
 days of Drake. 
 
 The energy and capacity of the Genoese seemed to rise with 
 their success, and both in seamanship and in splendour they 
 began almost to surpass their old rivals. The fall of Acre 
 (1291), and the total expulsion of the Franks from Syria, in 
 great measure barred the southern routes of Indian trade, 
 whilst the predominance of Genoa in the Euxine more or less 
 obstructed the free access of her rival to the northern routes 
 by Trebizond and Tana. 
 
 32. Truces were made and renewed, but the old fire still 
 smouldered. In the spring of 1294 it broke into flame, in 
 consequence of the seizure in the Grecian seas of 
 
 - 1 . Battle in 
 
 three Genoese vessels by a Venetian fleet. This Bay of Ayas 
 
 J in 1294. 
 
 led to an action with a Genoese convoy which sought 
 redress. The fight took place off Ayas in the Gulf of Scan- 
 deroon,J and though the Genoese were inferior in strength by 
 one-third they gained a signal victory, capturing all but three 
 
 the weight of Champagne ; insomuch that nearly all the towers and forts of Acre 
 were destroyed, and only the religious houses were left. And there were slain in 
 this same war good 20,000 men on the two sides, but chiefly of Genoese and 
 Spaniards.” [Lettre de Jean Pierre Sarrasin , in Michel's Joinville, p. 308.) 
 
 * The origin of these columns is however somewhat uncertain, 
 f In 1262, when a Venetian squadron was taken by the Greek fleet in alliance 
 with the Genoese, the whole of the survivors of the captive crews were blinded by 
 order of Palaeologus [Roman, ii. 272). 
 
 X See pp. 15, 41, and Plan of Ayas. 
 
lxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the Venetian galleys, with rich cargoes, including that of 
 Marco Basilio (or Basegio), the commodore. 
 
 This victory over their haughty foe was in its completeness 
 evidently a surprise to the Genoese, as well as a source of 
 immense exultation, which is vigorously expressed in a ballad 
 of the day, written in a stirring salt-water rhythm,* It re¬ 
 presents the Venetians, as they enter the bay, in arrogant 
 mirth reviling the Genoese with very unsavoury epithets as 
 having deserted their ships to sculk on shore. They are 
 described as saying :— 
 
 “ 1 Off they’ve slunk ! and left us nothing ; 
 
 We shall get nor prize nor praise ; 
 
 Nothing save those crazy timbers 
 Only fit to make a blaze.’ ” 
 
 So they advance carelessly— 
 
 “ On they come ! But lo their blunder ! 
 
 When our lads start up anon, 
 
 Breaking out like unchained lions, 
 
 With a roar, ‘ Fall on ! Fall on ! ’ ” f 
 
 After relating the battle and the thoroughness of the 
 victory, ending in the conflagration of five and twenty captured 
 galleys, the poet concludes by an admonition to the enemy to 
 moderate his pride and curb his arrogant tongue, harping 
 on the obnoxious epithet porci leproxi , which seems to have 
 galled the Genoese. He concludes :— 
 
 “ Nor can I at all remember 
 
 Ever to have heard the story 
 Of a fight wherein the Victors 
 
 Reaped so rich a meed of glory ! ” % 
 
 * See Archivio Storico Italiano , Appendice, tom. iv. 
 
 f Niente ne resta a ftrender 
 Se no li corfti de li legni: 
 Preixi som senza difinder ; 
 De bruxar som tute degni! 
 * * * 
 
 Como li fom aftroximai 
 Queli si levan lantor 
 Como leon descaenai 
 
 Tuti criando “ Alor! Alor ! ” 
 
 This Alor! Alor! (“Up, Boys, and at ’em”), or something similar, appears to 
 have been the usual war-cry of both parties. In a galley fight at Tyre in 1258, ac¬ 
 cording to a Latin narrative, the Genoese shout “Ad arma, ad arma! ad ipsos , ad 
 ipsos /” The cry of the Venetians before engaging the Greeks is represented by 
 Martino da Canale, in his old French, as “ or cl yaus! or d yaus /” that of the 
 Genoese on another occasion as Aur! Aur! and this last is the shout of the Catalans 
 also in Ramon de Muntaner. (A rchiv. Stor. Ital. viii. 364, 506 ; Pertz , Script, xviii. 
 239 ; Muntaner , 269, 287.) 
 
 % E no me ftosso aregordar 
 
 . Dalcuno romanzo vertade 
 
 Donde oyse tincha cointar 
 A Icun triumfo si sobre l 
 
DORIA’S EXPEDITION TO THE ADRIATIC. lxxiii 
 
 The community of Genoa decreed that the victory should 
 be commemorated by the annual presentation of a golden pall 
 to the monastery of St. German’s, the saint on whose feast 
 (28th May) it had been won.* 
 
 The startling news was received at Venice with wrath and 
 grief, for the flower of their navy had perished, and all energies 
 were bent at once to raise an overwhelming force, f The Pope 
 (Boniface VIII.) interfered as arbiter, calling for plenipo¬ 
 tentiaries from both sides. But spirits were too much in¬ 
 flamed, and this mediation came to nought. 
 
 Further outrages on both sides occurred in 1296. The 
 Genoese residences at Pera were fired, their great alum works 
 on the coast of Anatolia were devastated, and Cafla was 
 stormed and sacked ; whilst on the other hand a number of 
 the Venetians at Constantinople were massacred by the 
 Genoese, and Marco Bembo their Bailo was flung from a 
 house-top. Amid such events the fire of enmity between the 
 cities waxed hotter and hotter. 
 
 33. In 1298 the Genoese made elaborate preparations for 
 a great blow at the enemy, and fitted out a powerful fleet 
 which they placed under the command of Lamb A LambaDo _ 
 Doria, a younger brother of Uberto of that illus- JiSifufthe 
 trious house, under whom he had served fourteen Adnatlc - 
 years before in the great rout of the Pisans at Meloria. 
 
 The rendezvous of the fleet was in the Gulf of Spezia, as 
 we learn from the same pithy Genoese poet who celebrated 
 Ayas. This time the Genoese were bent on bearding St. 
 Mark’s Lion in his own den; and after touching at Messina 
 they steered straight for the Adriatic :— 
 
 “ Now, as astern Otranto bears, 
 
 Pull with a will! and, please the Lord, 
 
 Let them who bragged, with fire and sword, 
 
 To waste our homesteads, look to theirs ! ” % 
 
 * Stella in Muratori, xvii. 984. f Dandolo, Ibid. xii. 404-5. 
 
 J Or entrant con gran vigor, 
 
 En De sperando aver triumpho, 
 
 Queli zerchando inter lo Gorfo 
 Chi menazeram zercha lor l 
 
 And in the next verse note the pure Scotch use of the word bra :— 
 
 Sicke da Otranto se partim 
 Quella bra compagnia. 
 
 Per passar in Ihavonia, 
 
 D’ Avosto a vinte nove dl. 
 
lxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On their entering the gulf a great storm dispersed the fleet. 
 The admiral with twenty of his galleys got into port at 
 Antivari on the Albanian coast, and next day was rejoined by 
 fifty-eight more, with which he scoured the Dalmatian shore, 
 plundering all Venetian property. Some sixteen of his gal¬ 
 leys were still missing when he reached the island of Curzola, 
 or Scurzola as the more popular name seems to have been, 
 the Black Corcyra of the Ancients—the chief town of which, 
 a rich and flourishing place, the Genoese took and burned.* 
 Thus they were engaged when word came that the Venetian 
 fleet was in sight. 
 
 Venice, on first hearing of the Genoese armament, sent 
 Andrea Dandolo with a large force to join and supersede 
 Mafleo Quirini, who was already cruizing with a squadron in 
 the Ionian sea; and, on receiving further information of the 
 strength of the hostile expedition, the Signory hastily equipped 
 thirty-two more galleys in Chioggia and the ports of Dal¬ 
 matia, and despatched them to join Dandolo, making the 
 whole number under his command up to something like 
 ninety-five. Recent drafts had apparently told heavily upon 
 the Venetian sources of enlistment, and it is stated that many 
 of the complements were made up of rustics swept in haste 
 from the Euganean hills. To this the Genoese poet seems to 
 allude, alleging that the Venetians, in spite of their haughty 
 language, had to go begging for men and money up and 
 down Lombardy. “ Did we do like that think you ? ” he 
 adds :— 
 
 “ Beat up for aliens ? We indeed ? 
 
 When lacked we homeborn Genoese ? 
 
 Search all the seas, no salts like these, 
 
 For Courage, Seacraft, Wit at need.”f 
 
 Of one of the Venetian galleys, probably in the fleet 
 
 * The island of Curzola now contains about 4000 inhabitants ; the town half 
 the number. It was probably reckoned a dependency of Venice at this time. 
 The King of Hungary had renounced his claims on the Dalmatian coasts by treaty 
 in 1244 (. Romanin , ii. 235). 
 
 Ma se si gran colmo avea 
 Perche andava mendigando 
 
 Per terra de Lombardia 
 Peccunia, gente a sodi ? 
 Pone mente tu che V odi 
 Se noi tegnamo questa via ? 
 
 No, ma’’ piu ! ajamo omi nostrar 
 Destri, valenti, e avisti, 
 
 Che maipar de lor n’ o visti 
 In ttiti ojficj de mar . 
 
BATTLE OF CURZOLA. 
 
 lxxv 
 
 which sailed under Dandolo’s immediate command, went 
 Marco Polo as Sopracomito or Gentleman-Commander.* 
 
 34. It was on the afternoon of Saturday the 6th Sep¬ 
 tember that the Genoese saw the Venetian fleet approaching, 
 but, as sunset was not far off, both sides tacitly The Fleets 
 agreed to defer the engagement.! 0? eaVholfS 
 
 The Genoese would appear to have occupied a atCurzola - 
 position near the eastern end of the Island of Curzola, with 
 the Peninsula of Sabbioncello behind them, and Meleda on 
 their left, whilst the Venetians advanced along the south side 
 of Curzola (see map on p. xlvi). 
 
 According to Venetian accounts the Genoese were stag¬ 
 gered at the sight of the Venetian armaments, and sent more 
 than once to seek terms, offering finally to surrender galleys 
 and munitions of war, if the crews were allowed to depart. 
 This is an improbable story, and that of the Genoese ballad 
 seems more like truth. Doria, it says, held a council of his 
 captains in the evening at which they all voted for attack, 
 whilst the Venetians, with that overweening sense of superiority 
 which at this time is reflected in their own annals as distinctly 
 as in those of their enemies, kept scout-vessels out to watch 
 
 * In July, 1294, a Council of Thirty decreed that galleys should be equipped by 
 the richest families in proportion to their wealth. Among the families held to 
 equip one galley each, or one galley among two or more, in this list, is the Ca’ 
 Polo. But this was before the return of the travellers from the East, and just 
 after the battle of Ayas ( Romanin , ii. 332 ; this author misdates Ayas, however). 
 When a levy was required in Venice for any expedition the heads of each contrada 
 divided the male inhabitants, between the ages of twenty and sixty, into groups of 
 twelve each, called duodene. The dice were thrown to decide who should go 
 first on service. He who went received five lire a month from the State, and one 
 lira from each of his colleagues in the duodena. Hence his pay was sixteen lire a 
 month, about 2s. a day, if these were lire a grossi, or is. 4 d. if lire dei piccoli 
 (see Romanin , i. 321). 
 
 Money on such occasions was frequently raised by what was called an Estimo 
 or Facion , which was a forced loan levied on the citizens in proportion to their 
 estimated wealth ; and for which they were entitled to interest from the State. 
 
 f Several of the Italian chroniclers, as Ferreto of Vicenza and Navagiero, 
 whom Muratori has followed in his ‘ Annals,’ say the battle was fought on the 8th 
 September, the so-called Birthday of the Madonna. But the inscription on the 
 Church of St. Matthew at Genoa, cited further on, says the 7th, and with this 
 agree both Stella and the Genoese poet. For the latter, though not specifying the 
 day of the month, says it was on a Sunday :— 
 
 “ Lo di de Pomenga era 
 
 Passa prima en 1 ’ora bona 
 Stormezam fin provo nona 
 Con bataio forte e fera.” 
 
 Now the 7th September 1298 fell on a Sunday. 
 
lxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that the Genoese fleet, which they looked on as already their 
 own, did not steal away in the darkness. A vain imagination, 
 says the poet:— 
 
 “ Blind error of vainglorious men 
 
 To dream that we should seek to flee 
 After those weary leagues of sea 
 Crossed, but to hunt them in their den ! ” * 
 
 35. The battle began early on Sunday and lasted till the 
 afternoon. The Venetians had the wind in their favour, but 
 the morning sun in their eyes. They made the 
 
 The Vene- . . , 
 
 tiansde- attack, and with great impetuosity, capturing ten 
 
 feated, and 
 
 Marco Polo Genoese galleys; but they pressed on too wildly, 
 
 a prisoner. . 
 
 •and some of their vessels ran aground. One of 
 their galleys too, being taken, was cleared of her crew and 
 turned against the Venetians. These incidents caused con¬ 
 fusion among the assailants ; the Genoese, who had begun to 
 give way, took fresh heart, formed a close column, and ad¬ 
 vanced boldly through the Venetian line, already in disorder. 
 The sun had begun to decline when there appeared on the 
 Venetian flank the fifteen or sixteen missing galleys of Doria’s 
 fleet, and fell upon it with fresh force. This decided the action. 
 The Genoese gained a complete victory, capturing all but a 
 few of the Venetian galleys, and including the flagship with 
 Dandolo. The Genoese themselves lost heavily, especially in 
 the early part of the action, and Lamba Doria’s eldest son 
 Octavian is said to have fallen on board his father’s vessel.! 
 
 * Ma lipensavam grande error 
 
 Che in fuga. se fussem tuti metui 
 Che de si lonzi erci 7 n vegnui 
 Per cerchali a casa lor ! 
 
 t “ Note here that the Genoese generally, commonly, and by nature, are the 
 most covetous of Men, and the Love of Gain spurs them to every Crime. Yet are 
 they deemed also the most valiant Men in the World. Such an one was Lampa, of 
 that very Doria family, a man of an high Courage truly. For when he was engaged 
 in a Sea-Fight against the Venetians, and was standing on the Poop of his Galley, 
 his Son, fighting valiantly at the Forecastle, was shot by an Arrow in the Breast, 
 and fell wounded to the Death ; a Mishap whereat his Comrades were sorely 
 shaken, and Fear came upon the whole Ship’s Company. But Lampa, hot with the 
 Spirit of Battle, and more mindful of his Country’s Service and his own Glory than 
 of his Son, ran forward to the spot, loftily rebuked the agitated Crowd, and ordered 
 his Son’s Body to be cast into the Deep, telling them for their Comfort that the 
 Land could never have afforded his Boy a nobler Tomb. And then, renewing the 
 Fight more fiercely than ever, he achieved the Victory.” {Benvenuto of Imola , in 
 Comment, on Dante, in Afuratori, Antiq. i. 1146.) 
 
BATTLE OF CURZOLA. 
 
 lxxvii 
 
 Marco Polo’s Galley going into action at Curzola. 
 
lxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The number of prisoners taken was over 7000, and among 
 these was Marco Polo.* 
 
 The prisoners, even of the highest rank, appear to have 
 been chained. Dandolo, in despair at his defeat, and at the 
 prospect of being carried captive into Genoa, refused food, 
 and ended by dashing his head against a bench.f A Genoese 
 account asserts that a noble funeral was given him after the 
 arrival of the fleet at Genoa, which took place on the evening 
 of the 16th October.J It was received with great rejoicing, 
 
 and the City voted the annual presentation of a pallium of 
 gold brocade to the altar of the Virgin in the Church of 
 St. Matthew, on every 8th of September, the Madonna’s day, 
 on the eve of which the Battle had been won. To the admiral 
 himself a Palace was decreed. It still stands, opposite the 
 Church of S. Matthew, though it has passed from the posses- 
 
 * The particulars of the battle are gathered from Ferretus Vicentinus, in Murat. 
 ix. 985 seqq. ; And. Dandulo , in xii. 407-8 ; Navagiero, in xxiii. 1009-10 ; and the 
 Genoese Poem as before. 
 
 f Navagiero , u. s. Dandulo says, “after a few days he died of grief:” 
 Ferretus, that he was killed in the action and buried at Curzola. 
 
 X For the funeral, a MS. of Cibo Recco quoted by Jacopo Doria in La chiesa 
 di San Matteo descritta, &c., Genova, i860, p. 26. For the date of arrival the 
 poem so often quoted :— 
 
 “ De Oitover, a zoia, a seze di 
 Lo nostro ostel, con gran festa 
 En nostro porto, a or di sesta 
 Domine De restitui.” 
 
CAPTIVITY OF MARCO POLO. 
 
 lxxix 
 
 sion of the Family. On the striped marble fa£ades, both of the 
 Church and of the Palace, inscriptions of that age, in excellent 
 preservation, still commemorate Lamba’s achievement.* 
 
 The latter died at Savona 17th October, 1323, a few 
 months before the most illustrious of his prisoners, and his 
 bones were laid in a sarcophagus which may still be seen 
 formirig the sill of one of the windows of S. Matteo (on the 
 right as you enter). Over this sarcophagus stood the Bust of 
 Lamba till 1797, when the mob of Genoa, in idiotic imitation 
 of the French proceedings of that age, threw it down. All of 
 Lamba’s six sons had fought with him at Meloria. In 1291 
 one of them, Tedisio, went forth into the Atlantic in company 
 with Ugolino Vivaldi on a voyage of discovery, and never 
 returned. Through Caesar, the youngest, this branch of the 
 Family still survives, bearing the distinctive surname of 
 Lamba-Doria.X 
 
 As to the treatment of the prisoners, accounts differ ; a 
 thing usual in such cases. The Genoese Poet asserts that the 
 hearts of his countrymen were touched, and that the captives 
 were treated with compassionate courtesy. Navagiero the 
 Venetian, on the other hand, declares that most of them 
 died of hunger.^ 
 
 * S. Matteo was built by Martin Doria in 1125, but pulled down and rebuilt 
 by the family in a slightly different position in 1278. On this occasion is recorded 
 a remarkable anticipation of the feats of American engineering : ‘ ‘ As there was 
 an ancient and very fine picture of Christ upon the apse of the Church, it was 
 thought a great pity that so fine a work should be destroyed. And so they con¬ 
 trived an ingenious method by which the apse bodily was transported without 
 injury, picture and all, for a distance of 25 ells, and firmly set upon the foundations 
 where it now exists.” {Jacopo de Varagine in Muratori , vol. ix. 36.) 
 
 The inscription on S. Matteo regarding the battle is as follows :—Ad Honorem 
 Dei et Beate Virginis Marie Anno MCCLXXXXVIII Die Dominico VII Septem- 
 bris iste Angelas captus fuit in Gulfo Venetiarum in Civitate Scursole et ibidem fuit 
 prelium Galearam LXXVI Januensium cum Galeis LXXXXVI Veneciarum. 
 Capte fuerunt LXXXIIIIper Nobilem Virum Dominum Lambam Aurie Capi- 
 taneum et Armiratum tunc Comunis et Populi Janue am omnibus existentibus in 
 eisdem, de quibus conduxit Janue homines vivos carceratos VII cccc et Galeas XVIII, 
 reliquas LX VI fecit cumburi in dido Gulfo Veneciarum. Qui obiit Sagone I. 
 MCCCXXIII. ” It is not clear to what the Angelus refers. 
 
 f Jacopo Doria , p. 280. 
 
 X Murat, xxiii. 1010. I learn from a Genoese gentleman, through my friend 
 Prof. Henry Giglioli (to whose kindness I owe the transcript of the inscription 
 just given), that a faint tradition exists as to the place of our traveller’s imprison¬ 
 ment. It is alleged to have been a massive building standing between the Grazie 
 and the Mole, and bearing the name of the Malapaga, which is now a barrack 
 for Doganieri, but continued till comparatively recent times to be used as a civil 
 prison. “ It is certain,” says my informant, “ that men of fame in arms who had 
 
lxxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 36. Howsoever they may have been treated, here was 
 Marco Polo one of those many thousand prisoners in Genoa ; 
 Marco Polo and here, before long, he appears to have made ac- 
 
 in prison . . - r 1 • • • 
 
 dictates his quamtance with a man ot literary propensities, 
 Rustidano whose destiny had brought him into the like plight, 
 
 of Pisa. Re- ^ _ 
 
 lease of by name RUSTICIANO or Rustichello of Pisa. It 
 prisoners. was this person perhaps who persuaded the Tra¬ 
 veller to defer no longer the reduction to writing of his 
 notable experiences ; but in any case it was he who wrote 
 down those experiences at Marco’s dictation; it is he therefore to 
 whom we owe the preservation of this record, and possibly even 
 that of the Traveller’s very memory. This makes the Genoese 
 imprisonment so important an episode in Polo’s biography. 
 
 To Rusticiano we shall presently recur. But let us first 
 bring to a conclusion what may be gathered as to the dura¬ 
 tion of Polo’s imprisonment. 
 
 It does not appear whether Pope Boniface made any new 
 effort for accommodation between the Republics ; but other 
 Italian princes did interpose, and Matteo Visconti, Captain- 
 General of Milan, styling himself Vicar-General of the Holy 
 Roman Empire in Lombardy, was accepted as Mediator, 
 along with the community of Milan. Ambassadors from both 
 States presented themselves at that city, and on the 25th 
 May, 1299, they signed the terms of a Peace. 
 
 These terms were perfectly honourable to Venice, being 
 absolutely equal and reciprocal; from which one is apt to 
 conclude that the damage to the City of the Sea was rather 
 to her pride than to her power; the success of Genoa, in fact, 
 having been followed up by no systematic attack upon Vene¬ 
 tian commerce.* Among the terms was the mutual release 
 of prisoners on a day to be fixed by Visconti after the corn- 
 
 fallen into the power of the Genoese were imprisoned there, and among others is 
 recorded the name of the Corsican Giudice dalla Rocca and Lord of Cinarca, who 
 died there in 1312 a date so near that of Marco’s imprisonment as to give some 
 interest to the hypothesis, slender as are its grounds. Another Genoese, however, 
 indicates as the scene of Marco’s captivity certain old prisons near the Old Arsenal, in 
 a site still known as the Vico degli Schiavi ( Celesia , Dante in Liguria , 1865, p. 43). 
 
 * The Treaty and some subsidiary documents are printed in the Genoese Liber 
 Jurium , forming a part of the Monumenta Historiae Patriae , published at Turin 
 (see Lib. Jur. II. 344, seqq.). Muratori in his Annals has followed John Villani 
 (bk. viii. ch. 27) in representing the terms as highly unfavourable to Venice. But 
 for this there is no foundation in the documents. And the terms are stated with 
 substantial accuracy in Navagiero [Murat. Script, xxiii. ion). 
 
CAPTIVITY OF MARCO POLO. 
 
 lxxxi 
 
 pletion of all formalities. This day is not recorded, but as the 
 Treaty was ratified by the Doge of Venice on the 1st July, 
 and the latest extant document connected with the formalities 
 appears to be dated 18th July, we may believe that before the 
 end of August Marco Polo was restored to the family mansion 
 in S. Giovanni Grisostomo. 
 
 37. Something further requires to be said before quitting 
 this event in our Traveller’s life. For we confess that a criti¬ 
 cal reader may have some justification in asking what Grounds on 
 evidence there is that Marco Polo ever fought at story of 
 
 ^ - ... , /-> Marco Polo’s 
 
 Curzola, and ever was carried a prisoner to Genoa capture at 
 
 r , _ . . Curzola 
 
 from that unfortunate action ? rests. 
 
 A learned Frenchman, whom we shall have to quote freely 
 in the immediately ensuing pages, does not venture to be 
 more precise in reference to the meeting of Polo and Rusti- 
 ciano than to say of the latter: “In 1298, being in durance 
 in the Prison of Genoa, he there became acquainted with 
 Marco Polo, whom the Genoese had deprived of his liberty 
 from motives equally unknown!' * 
 
 To those who have no relish for biographies that round the 
 meagre skeleton of authentic facts with a plump padding of 
 what might have been , this sentence of M. Paulin-Paris is quite 
 refreshing in its stern limitation to positive knowledge. And 
 certainly no contemporary authority has yet been found for 
 the capture of our Traveller at Curzola. Still I think that the 
 fact is beyond reasonable doubt. 
 
 Ramusio’s biographical notices certainly contain many 
 errors of detail ; and some, such as the many years’ interval 
 which he sets between the Battle of Curzola and Marco’s 
 return, are errors which a very little trouble would have 
 enabled him to eschew. But still it does seem reasonable to 
 believe that the main fact of Marco’s command of a galley 
 at Curzola, and capture there, was derived from a genuine 
 tradition, if not from documents. 
 
 Let us then turn to the words which close Rusticiano’s 
 preamble (see post, p. 2) :—“ Lequel (Messire Marc) puis demo- 
 rant en le charthre de Jene fist retraire toutes cestes chouses a 
 Messire Rustacians de Pise que en celle meissme charthre 
 
 * Paulin-Paris , Les Manuscrits Francois de la Bibliotheque du Roi, ii. 355. 
 
 VOL. I. f 
 
lxxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 estoit, au tens qu’il avoit 1298 anz que Jezu eut vesqui.” These 
 words are at least thoroughly consistent with Marco’s capture 
 at Curzola, as regards both the position in which they present 
 him, and the year in which he is thus presented. 
 
 There is however another piece of evidence, though it is 
 curiously indirect. 
 
 The Dominican Friar Jacopo of Acqui was a contem¬ 
 porary of Polo’s, and was the author of a somewhat obscure 
 Chronicle called Imago Mundi* Now this Chronicle does 
 contain mention of Marco’s capture in action by the Genoese, 
 but attributes it to a different action from Curzola, and one 
 fought at a time when Polo could not have been present. The 
 passage runs as follows in a manuscript of the Ambrosian 
 Library, according to an extract given by Baldello Boni :— 
 
 “ In the year of Christ MCCLXXXXVI, in the time of Pope Boniface 
 VI., of whom we have spoken above, a battle was fought in Arminia, at the 
 place called Layaz, between xv. galleys of Genoese merchants and xxv. of 
 Venetian merchants ; and after a great fight the galleys of the Venetians 
 were beaten, and (the crews) all slain or taken ; and among them was 
 taken Messer Marco the Venetian, who was in company with those 
 merchants, and who was called Milono , which is as much as to say e a 
 thousand thousand pounds,’ for so goes the phrase in Venice. So this 
 Messer Marco Milono the Venetian, with the other Venetian prisoners, is 
 carried off to the prison of Genoa, and there kept for a long time. This 
 Messer Marco was a long time with his father and uncle in Tartary, and 
 he there saw many things, and made much wealth, and also learned many 
 things, for he was a man of ability. And so, being in prison at Genoa, he 
 made a Book concerning the great wonders of the World, i. e ., concerning 
 such of them as he had seen. And what he told in the Book was not as 
 much as he had really seen, because of the tongues of detractors, who, 
 being ready to impose their own lies on others, are over hasty to set down 
 as lies what they in their perversity disbelieve, or do not understand. 
 And because there are many great and strange things in that Book, which 
 are reckoned past all credence, he was asked by his friends on his death¬ 
 bed to correct the Book by removing everything that went beyond the 
 facts. To which his reply was that he had not told one-half of what he 
 had really seen ! ” f 
 
 * Though there is no precise information as to the birth or death of this writer, 
 who belonged to a noble family of Lombardy, the Bellingeri, he can be traced with 
 tolerable certainty as in life in 1289, 1320, and 1334 (see the Introduction to his 
 Chronicle in the Turin Monument a, Scriptores III.). 
 
 f There is another MS. of the Imago Mundi at Turin, which has been printed 
 in the Momimenta. The passage about Polo in that copy differs widely in wording, 
 is much shorter, and contains no date. But it relates his capture as having taken 
 place at La Glaza, which I think there can be no doubt is also intended for Ayas 
 (sometimes called Giazza), a place which in fact is called Glaza in three of the MSS. 
 of which various readings are given in the edition of the Societe de Geographic 
 (P- 535). 
 
CAPTIVITY OF MARCO POLO. 
 
 lxxxiii 
 
 This statement regarding the capture of Marco at the 
 Battle of Ayas is one which cannot be true, for we know that 
 he did not reach Venice till 1295, travelling from Persia by 
 way of Trebizond and the Bosphorus, whilst the Battle of 
 Ayas, of which we have purposely given some detail, was 
 fought in May, 1294. The date MCCLXXXXVI assigned to 
 it in the preceding extract has given rise to some unprofitable 
 discussion. Could that date be accepted, no doubt it would 
 enable us also to accept this, the sole statement from the 
 Traveller’s own age of the circumstances which brought him 
 into a Genoese prison ; it would enable us to place that im¬ 
 prisonment within a few months of his return from the East, 
 and to extend its duration to three years, points which would 
 thus accord better with the general tenor of Ramusio’s tradi¬ 
 tion than the capture at Curzola. But the matter is not open 
 to such a solution. The date of the Battle of Ayas is not 
 more doubtful than that of the Battle of the Nile. It is 
 clearly stated by several independent chroniclers, and is care¬ 
 fully established in the Ballad that we have quoted above. 
 We shall see repeatedly in the course of this Book how uncer¬ 
 tain are the transcriptions of dates in Roman numerals, and in 
 the present case the LXXXXVI is as certainly a mistake for 
 LXXXXIV, as is Boniface VI. in the same quotation a mistake 
 for Boniface VIII. 
 
 But though we cannot accept the statement that Polo was 
 taken prisoner at Ayas , in the spring of 1294, we may accept 
 the passage as evidence from a contemporary source that he 
 was taken prisoner in some sea-fight with the Genoese , and thus 
 admit it in corroboration of the Ramusian Tradition of his 
 capture in a sea-fight at Curzola in 1298, which is perfectly 
 consistent with all other facts in our possession. 
 
 VII. Rusticiano or Rustichello of Pisa, Marco Polo’s Fellow- 
 Prisoner at Genoa, the Scribe who wrote down the 
 Travels. 
 
 38. We have now to say something of that Rusticiano to 
 whom all who value Polo’s book are so much indebted. 
 
 The relations between Genoa and Pisa had long- Rusticiano, 
 
 a perhaps a 
 
 been so hostile that it was only too natural in 1298 Meiorf a rfrom 
 
lxxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to find a Pisan in the gaol of Genoa. An unhappy multitude 
 of such prisoners had been carried thither fourteen years 
 before, and the survivors still lingered there in vastly dwindled 
 numbers. In the summer of 1284 was fought the battle from 
 which Pisa had to date the commencement of her long decay. 
 In July of that year the Pisans, at a time when the Genoese 
 had no fleet in their own immediate waters, had advanced to 
 the very port of Genoa and shot their defiance into the proud 
 city in the form of silver-headed arrows, and stones belted 
 with scarlet* They had to pay dearly for this insult. The 
 Genoese, recalling their cruizers, speedily mustered a fleet of 
 eighty-eight galleys, which were placed under the command 
 of another of that illustrious House of Doria, the Scipios of 
 Genoa, as they have been called, Uberto, the elder brother of 
 Lamba. Lamba himself with his six sons, and another 
 brother, was in the fleet, whilst the whole number of Dorias 
 who fought in the ensuing action amounted to 250, most of 
 them on board one great galley bearing the name of the 
 family patron St. Matthew.f 
 
 The Pisans, more than one-fourth inferior in strength, came 
 out boldly, and the battle was fought off the Porto Pisano, in 
 fact close in front of Leghorn, where a lighthouse on a re¬ 
 markable arched basement still marks the islet of Meloria, 
 whence the battle got its name. The day was the 6th of 
 August, the feast of St. Sixtus, a day memorable in the Pisan 
 Fasti for several great victories. But on this occasion the 
 defeat of Pisa was overwhelming. Forty of their galleys were 
 taken or sunk, and upwards of 9000 prisoners carried to 
 Genoa. In fact so vast a sweep was made of the flower of 
 Pisan manhood, that it was a common saying then : “ Che 
 vnol veder Pisa, vada a Genova! ” Many noble ladies of 
 Pisa went in large companies on foot to Genoa to seek their 
 
 * B. Marangone, Croniche della C. di Pisa , in Rerum Ital. Script, of Tartini, 
 Florence, 1748, i. 563 ; Dal Borgo , Dissert, sopra VIstoria Pisana , ii. 287. 
 
 f The list of the whole number is preserved in the Doria archives, and has been 
 published by Sign. Jacopo Doria. Many of the baptismal names are curious, and 
 show how far sponsors wandered from the Church Calendar. Assan, Aiton, Turco , 
 Soldan seem to come of the constant interest in the East. Alaone, a name which 
 remained in the family for several generations, I had thought certainly borrowed 
 from the fierce conqueror of the Khalif [infra, p. 60). But as one Alaone, present 
 at this battle, had a son also there, he must surely have been christened before the 
 fame of Hulaku could have reached Genoa (see La chiesa di S. Matieo , pp. 250, seqq.). 
 
RUSTICIEN DE PISE. 
 
 Ixxxv 
 
 husbands or kinsmen : “ And when they made enquiry of the 
 Keepers of the Prisons the reply would be, ‘Yesterday there 
 died thirty of them, to-day there have died forty ; all of whom 
 we have cast into the sea ; and so it is daily.’ ” * 
 
 A body of prisoners so numerous and important natu¬ 
 rally exerted themselves in the cause of peace, and through 
 their efforts, after many months of negotiation, a formal peace 
 was signed (15th April, 1288). 
 
 But through the influence, as 
 was alleged, of Count Ugo- 
 lino (Dante’s) who was then 
 in power at Pisa, the peace 
 became abortive ; war almost 
 immediately recommenced, 
 and the prisoners had no re- 
 lease.f And, when the 6000 
 or 7000 Venetians were 
 thrown into the prisons of 
 Genoa in October 1298, they 
 
 would find there the scanty Seal of the Pisan Prisoners, 
 
 surviving remnant of the 
 
 Pisan Prisoners of Meloria, and would gather from them 
 dismal forebodings of the fate before them. 
 
 It is a fair conjecture that to that remnant Rusticiano of 
 Pisa may have belonged. 
 
 We have seen Ramusio’s representation of the kindness 
 shown to Marco during his imprisonment by a certain Genoese 
 gentleman, who also assisted him to reduce his travels to 
 writing. We may be certain that this Genoese gentleman is 
 only a distorted image of Rusticiano, the Pisan prisoner in the 
 gaol of Genoa, whose name and part in the history of his hero’s 
 book Ramusio so strangely ignores. Yet patriotic Genoese 
 
 * Memorial. Potestat. Regiens. in Mur atari , viii. 1162. 
 
 f See Fragm. Hist. Pisan, in Muratori , xxiv. 651, seqq. ; and Caffaro , id. vi. 
 588, 594-5. The cut in the text represents a striking memorial of those Pisan 
 Prisoners which perhaps still survives, but which at any rate existed last century in 
 a collection at Lucca. It is the seal of the Prisoners as a body corporate: Sigillum 
 Universitatis Carceratorum Pisanorum Janue detentorum, and was 
 doubtless used in their negotiations for peace with the Genoese Commissioners. 
 It represents two of the prisoners imploring the Madonna, Patron of the Duomo 
 at Pisa. It is from Manni , Osserv. Stor. sopra Sigilli Antichi , &c., Firenze, 1739, 
 tom. xii. The seal is also engraved in Dal Boigo, op. cit. ii. 316. 
 
lxxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 writers in our own times have striven to determine the 
 identity of this their imaginary countryman ! * 
 
 39. Who, then, was Rusticiano, or, as the name actually 
 is read in the oldest type of MS., “ Messire Rustacians de 
 
 Rusticiano, Pise ?” 
 
 known*from Our knowledge of him is but scanty. Still some- 
 
 sources. thing is known of him besides the few words con¬ 
 cluding his preamble to our Traveller’s Book, which you may 
 read at p. 1-2 of this volume. 
 
 In Sir Walter Scott’s “ Essay on Romance,” when he speaks 
 of the new mould in which the subjects of the old metrical 
 stories were cast by the school of prose romancers which arose 
 in the 13th century, we find the following words :— 
 
 “ Whatever fragments or shadows of true history may yet remain 
 hidden under the mass of accumulated fable which had been heaped upon 
 them during successive ages, must undoubtedly be sought in the metrical 
 
 romances.But those prose authors who wrote under the imaginary 
 
 names of Rusticien de Pise, Robert de Borron, and the like, usually 
 seized upon the subject of some old minstrel ; and recomposing the whole 
 narrative after their own fashion, with additional character and adventure, 
 totally obliterated in that operation any shades which remained of the 
 original and probably authentic tradition,” &c.t 
 
 Evidently, therefore, Sir Walter regarded Rustician of 
 Pisa as a person belonging to the same ghostly company as 
 his own Cleishbothams and Dryasdusts. But in this we see 
 that he was wrong. 
 
 In the great Paris Library and elsewhere there are manu¬ 
 script volumes containing the stories of the Round Table 
 abridged and somewhat clumsily combined from the various 
 Prose Romances of that cycle, such as Sir Tristan , Lancelot , 
 Palamedes , Giron le Courtois , &c., which had been composed, 
 it would seem, by various Anglo-French gentlemen at the 
 court of Henry III., styled Gasses le Blunt, Luces de Gast, 
 Robert de Borron, and Helye de Borron. And these abridg¬ 
 ments or recasts are professedly the work of Maistre 
 
 * The Abate Spotorno in his Storia Letter aria della Liguria , II. 219, fixes on a 
 Genoese philosopher called Andalo del Negro, mentioned by Boccaccio. 
 
 t I quote from Galignani’s ed. of Prose Works, v. 712. This has “Rusticien de 
 PuiseP In this view of the fictitious character of the names of Rusticien and the 
 rest, Sir Walter seems to have been following Ritson, as I gather from a quotation 
 in Dunlop's H. of Fiction (Liebrechfs German version, p. 63). 
 
RUSTICIEN DE PISE. 
 
 lxxxvii 
 
 Rusticien de Pise. Several of them were printed at Paris in 
 the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries as the 
 works of Rusticien de Pise ; and as the preambles and the 
 like, especially as they are exhibited in those printed editions, 
 appear to be due sometimes to the original composers (as 
 Robert and Helye de Borron) and sometimes to Rusticien de 
 Pise the recaster, there would seem to have been a good deal 
 of confusion made in regard to their respective personalities. 
 
 From a preamble to one of those compilations which 
 undoubtedly belongs to Rustician, and which we shall quote 
 at length by and bye, we learn that Master Rustician “trans¬ 
 lated” (or perhaps transferred ?) his compilation from a book 
 belonging to King Edward of England, at the time when that 
 prince went beyond seas to recover the Holy Sepulchre. Now 
 Prince Edward started for the Holy Land in 1270, spent the 
 winter of that year in Sicily, and arrived in Palestine in May 
 1271. He quitted it again in August 1272, and passed again 
 by Sicily, where in January 1273 he heard of his father’s death 
 and his own consequent accession. M. Paulin-Paris supposes 
 that Rustician was attached to the Sicilian Court of Charles 
 of Anjou, and that Edward “may have deposited with that 
 king the Romances of the Round Table, of which all the world 
 was talking, but the manuscripts of which were still very rare, 
 especially those of the work of Helye de Borron * . . . . 
 whether by order, or only with permission, of the King of 
 Sicily, our Rustician made haste to read, abridge, and re-ar¬ 
 range the whole, and when Edward returned to Sicily he 
 recovered possession of the book from which the indefatigable 
 Pisan had extracted the contents.” 
 
 But this I believe is, in so far as it passes the facts stated 
 in Rustician’s own preamble, pure hypothesis, for nothing is 
 cited that connects Rustician with the King of Sicily. And 
 if there be not some such confusion of personality as we have 
 alluded to in another of the preambles, which is quoted by 
 Dunlop as an utterance of Rustician’s, that personage would 
 seem to claim to have been a comrade in arms of the two de 
 Borrons. We might, therefore, conjecture that Rustician him¬ 
 self had accompanied Prince Edward to Syria. | 
 
 * Giron le Courtois , and the conclusion of Tristan. 
 
 f The passage runs thus as quoted (from the preamble of the Meliadus - — I 
 suspect in one of the old printed editions) : — 
 
lxxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 40. Rustician’s literary work appears from the extracts and 
 remarks of M. Paulin-Paris to be that of an industrious simple 
 Character of man > without method or much judgment. “The 
 Romance' 5 haste with which he worked is too perceptible; the 
 compilations, adventures are told without connexion ; you find 
 long stories of Tristan followed by adventures of his father 
 Meliadus.” For the latter derangement of historical sequence 
 we find a quaint and ingenuous apology offered in Rustician’s 
 epilogue to Giron le Courtois :— 
 
 “ Cy fine le Maistre Rusticien de Pise son conte en louant et regraciant 
 le Pere le Filz et le Saint Esperit, et ung mesme Dieu, Filz de la Benoite 
 Vierge Marie, de ce qu’il m’a done grace, sens, force, et memoire, temps 
 et lieu, de me mener a fin de si haulte et si noble matiere come ceste-cy 
 dont j’ay traicte les faiz et les proesses recitez et recordez a mon livre. 
 Et se aucun me demandeoit pourquoy j’ay parle de Tristran avant que 
 de son pere le Roy Meliadus, le respons que ma matiere n’estoist pas 
 congneue. Car je ne puis pas scavoir tout, ne mettre toutes mes paroles 
 par ordre. Et ainsi fine mon conte. Amen.” * 
 
 In a passage of these compilations the Emperor Char¬ 
 lemagne is asked whether in his judgment King Meliadus or 
 his son Tristan were the better man ? The Emperor’s answer 
 is : “I should say that the King Meliadus was the better man, 
 and I will tell you why I say so. As far as I can see, every¬ 
 thing that Tristan did was done for Love, and his great feats 
 would never have been done but under the constraint of Love 
 which was his spur and goad. Now that never can be said of 
 King Meliadus! For what deeds he did, he did them not by 
 dint of Love, but by dint of his strong right arm. Purely out 
 
 “ Aussi Luces de Jau (Gast?) translata en langue Franjoise une partie de 
 l’Hystoire de Monseigneur Tristan, et moins assez qu’il ne deust. Moult commenfa 
 bien son livre et si ny mist tout les faicts de Tristan, ains la greigneur partie. 
 Apres s’en entremist Messire Gasse le Blond, qui estoit parent au Roy Henry, et 
 divisa l’Hystoire de Lancelot du Lac, et d’autre chose ne parla il mye grandement 
 en son livre. Messire Robert de Borron s’en entremist et Helye de Borron, par 
 la priere du dit Robert de Borron, ct pource que compaignons feusmes (Pannes 
 longuement , je commencay monjivre,” &c. {Liebrecht's Dunlop , p. 80.) If this 
 passage be authentic it would set beyond doubt the age of the de Borrons and the 
 other writers of Anglo-French Round Table Romances, who are placed by the 
 Hist. Litteraire de la France , and apparently by Fr. Michel, under Henry II. I 
 have no means of pursuing the matter, and have preferred to follow M. Paulin- 
 Paris, who places them under Henry III. I notice moreover that the Hist. Litt. 
 (xv. p. 498) puts not only the de Borrons but Rustician himself under Henry II. ; 
 and, as the last view is certainly an error, the first is probably so too. 
 
 * Transc. from MS. 6975 (Fr. 355) of Paris Library. 
 
RUSTICIEN DE PISE. 
 
 lxxxix 
 
 of his own goodness he did good, and not by constraint of 
 Love.” “ It will be seen,” remarks on this M. Paulin-Paris, 
 “that we are here a long way removed from the ordinary 
 principles of Round-Table Romances. And one thing 
 besides will be manifest, viz., that Rusticien de Pise was 
 no Frenchman ! ” * 
 
 The same discretion is shown even more prominently in 
 a passage of one of his compilations, which contains the 
 romances of Arthur, Gyron, and Meliadus (No. 6975—see 
 last note but one) :— 
 
 “No doubt,” Rustician says, “other books tell the story of 
 the Queen Ginevra and Lancelot differently from this ; and 
 there were certain passages between them of which the Master, 
 in his concern for the honour of both those personages, will 
 say not a word.” Alas, says the French Bibliographer, that 
 the copy of Lancelot, which fell into the hands of poor 
 Francesca of Rimini, was not one of those expurgated by 
 our worthy friend Rustician ! | 
 
 41. A question may still occur to an attentive reader as to 
 the identity of this Romance compiler Rusticien de Pise with 
 the Messire Rustacians de Pise , of a solitary MS. Identityof 
 of Polo’s work (though the oldest and most authen- coiSikr 1106 
 tic), a name which appears in other copies as Rust a ^j£ w p °T s 
 Pisan , Rasta Pysau, Rustichelus Civis Pis aims, soner - 
 Rustico , Restazio da Pisa , Stazio da Pisa , and who is 
 stated in the preamble to have acted as the Traveller’s scribe 
 at Genoa. 
 
 M. Pauthier indeed J asserts that the French of the MS. 
 Romances of Rusticien de Pise is of the same barbarous 
 character as that of the early French MS. of Polo’s Book to 
 which we have just alluded, and which we shall show to be 
 the nearest presentation of the work as originally dictated by 
 the Traveller. The language of the latter MS. is so peculiar 
 that this would be almost perfect evidence of the identity of 
 the writers, if it were really the fact. A cursory inspection 
 which I have made of two of those MSS. in Paris, and the 
 extracts which I have given and am about to give, do not, 
 however, by any means support M. Pauthier’s view. Nor 
 
 * MSS. Francois, iii. 60-61. 
 
 X Introd. pp. lxxxvi-vii, note. 
 
 f Ibid. 56-59. 
 
xc 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 would that view be consistent with the judgment of so com¬ 
 petent an authority as M. Paulin-Paris, implied in his calling 
 Rustician a nom recommandable in old French literature, and 
 his speaking of him as “ versed in the secrets of the French 
 Romance Tongue.” * In fact the difference of language in the 
 two cases would really be a difficulty in the way of identifi¬ 
 cation, if there were room for doubt. This, however, M. 
 Paulin-Paris seems to have excluded finally, by calling atten¬ 
 tion to the peculiar formula of preamble which is common to 
 the Book of Marco Polo and to one of the Romance com¬ 
 pilations of Rusticien de Pise. 
 
 The former will be found in English at pp. I, 2, of our 
 Translation ; but we give a part of the original below f for 
 comparison with the preamble to the Romances of Meliadus, 
 Tristan, and Lancelot, as taken from MS. 6961 (Fr. 340) of 
 the Paris Library :— 
 
 “ Seigneurs Empereurs et Princes, Dues et Contes et Barons et 
 Chevaliers et Vavasseurs et Bourgeois, et tons les preudommes de cestui 
 monde qui avez talent de vous deliter en rommans, siprenez cestui {livre) 
 et le faites lire de chief en chief \ si orrez toutes les grans aventure qui 
 advindrent entre les Chevaliers errans du temps au Roy Uter Pendragon, 
 jusques h le temps au Roy Artus son fils, et des compaignons de la Table 
 Ronde. Et sachiez tout vraiment que cist livres fust translatez du livre 
 Monseigneur Edouart le Roy d’Engleterre en cellui temps qu’il passa 
 oultre la mer- au service nostre Seigneur Damedieu pour conquester le 
 Sant Sepulcre, et Maistre Rusticiens de Pise, lequel est ymaginez yci 
 dessus,f compila ce rommant, car il en translata toutes les merveilleuses 
 nouvelles et aventures qu’il trouva en celle livre et traita tout certainement 
 de toutes les aventures du monde, et si sachiez qu’il traitera plus de Mon¬ 
 seigneur Lancelot du Lac, et Mons r Tristan le fils au Roy Meliadus de 
 Leonnoie que d’autres, porcequ’ilz furent sans faille les meilleurs chevaliers 
 qui a ce temps furent en terre ; et li Maistres en dira de ces deux pluseurs 
 choses et pluseurs nouvelles que l’en treuvera escript en tous les autres 
 livres ; et porce que le Maistres les trouva escript au Livre d’Engleterre.” 
 
 “ Certainly,” M. Paulin-Paris observes, “ there is a singular 
 analogy between these two prefaces. And it must be re- 
 
 * See Jour. As. Ser. II. tom. xii. p. 251. 
 
 f “ Seignors Enperaor et Rois, Dux et Marquois , Cuens , Chevaliers et Borgions 
 [for Borgiois] et toutes gens qe voles savoir les diverses jenerasions des homes, et les 
 deversites des deverses region dou monde, siprennes cestui livre et le feites lire et chi 
 troveres toutes les grandismes merveillesf &c. 
 
 X The portrait of Rustician here referred to would have been a precious illus¬ 
 tration for our book. But unfortunately it has not been transferred to MS. 6961, 
 nor apparently to any other noticed by M. Paulin-Paris. 
 
RUSTICIEN DE PISE. 
 
 xci 
 
 marked that the formula is not an ordinary one with trans¬ 
 lators, compilers, or authors of the 13th and 14th centuries. 
 Perhaps you would not find a single other example of it.” * * * § 
 
 This seems to place beyond question the identity of the 
 Romance compiler of Prince Edward’s suite in 1270, and the 
 Prisoner of Genoa in 1298. 
 
 42. In Dunlop’s History of Fiction a passage is quoted 
 from the preamble of Meliadus , as set forth in the Paris printed 
 edition of 1528, which gives us to understand that Further par- 
 Rusticien de Pise had received as a reward for some cemhlj con " 
 of his compositions from King Henry III. the pro- Rustlcian * 
 digal gift of two chateaux. I gather, however, from passages 
 in the work of M. Paulin-Paris that this must certainly be one 
 of those confusions of persons to which I have referred before, 
 and that the recipient of the chateaux was in reality Helye de 
 Borron, the author of some of the originals which Rustician 
 manipulated.! This supposed incident in Rustician’s scanty 
 history must therefore be given up. 
 
 We call this worthy Rustician or Rusticiano , as the nearest 
 probable representation in Italian form of the Rusticien of the 
 Round-Table MSS. and the Rustacians of the old text of Polo. 
 But it is highly probable that his real name was Rustichello , 
 as is suggested by the form Rustichclus in the'early Latin 
 version published by the Societe de Geographic. The change 
 of one liquid for another never goes for much in Italy,J and 
 Rustichello might easily Gallicize himself as Rusticien. In a 
 very long list of Pisan officials during the Middle Ages I find 
 * several bearing the name of Rustichello or Rustichelli , but no 
 Rusticiano or Rustigiano.\ 
 
 Respecting him we have only to add that the peace be¬ 
 tween Genoa and Venice was speedily followed by a treaty 
 between Genoa and Pisa. On the 31st July, 1299, a truce for 
 twenty-five years was signed between those two Republics. 
 It was a very different matter from that between Genoa and 
 Venice, and contained much that was humiliating and detri- 
 
 * y. As. as above. 
 
 t See LiebrechCs Dunlop , p. 77 ; and MSS. Francois , &c. II. 349, 353. The 
 alleged gift to Rustician is also put forth by D’Israeli the Elder in his Amenities of 
 Literature , 1841, I. p. 103. 
 
 X E. g. Geronimo, Girolamo ; and garofalo, garofano ; Cristoforo, Cristovalo; 
 gonfalone, gonfanone , &c. 
 
 § See the List in Archivio Stor. Ital. VI. pp. 64, scqq. 
 
XC11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mental to Pisa. But it embraced the release of prisoners ; 
 and those of Meloria, reduced it is said to less than one tithe 
 of their original number, had their liberty at last. Among the 
 prisoners then released no doubt Rustician was one. But we 
 hear of him no more. 
 
 VIII. Notices of Marco Polo’s History, after the Termination 
 of his Imprisonment at Genoa. 
 
 43. A very few disconnected notices are all that can be 
 collected of matter properly biographical in relation to the 
 Death of quarter century during which Marco Polo survived 
 Father 5 the Genoese captivity. 
 
 wm r of 1 his°’ We have seen that he would probably reach 
 Maffeo. Venice in the course of August, 1299. Whether he 
 found his aged father alive is not known ; but we know at 
 least that a year later (31st August, 1300) Messer Nicolo was 
 no longer in life. 
 
 This we learn from the Will of the younger Maffeo, Marco’s 
 brother, which bears the date just named, and of which we 
 give an abstract below.* It seems to imply strong regard for 
 
 * 1. The will is made in prospect of his voyage to Crete. 
 
 2. He had drafted.his will with his own hand, sealed the draft, and made it over 
 to Pietro Pagano, priest of St. Felice and Notary, to draw out a formal testament 
 in faithful accordance therewith in case of the Testator’s death; and that which „ 
 follows is the substance of the said draft rendered from the vernacular into Latin. 
 (“ Ego Matheus Paulo . . . volens ire in Cretam, ne repentinus casus hujus vite 
 fragilis me subreperet intestatum, mea propria manu meum scripsi et condidi testa- 
 mentum, rogans Petrum Paganum ecclesie Scti. Felicis presbiterum et Notarium, 
 sana mente et integro consilio, ut, secundum ipsius scripturam quam sibi tunc dedi 
 meo sigillo munitam, meum scriberet testamentum, si me de hoc seculo contigeret 
 perti-ansire ; cujus scripture tenor translato vulgari in latinum per omnia talis est.”) 
 
 3. Appoints as Trustees Messer Maffeo Polo his uncle, Marco Polo his brother, 
 Messer Nicolo Secreto (or Sagredo) his father-in-law, and Felix Polo his cousin 
 ( consanguineum ) . 
 
 4. Leaves 20 soldi to each of,.the Monasteries from Grado to Capo d’Argine ; 
 and 150 lire to all the congregations of Rialto, on condition that the priests of 
 these maintain an annual service in behalf of the souls of his father, mother, and 
 self. 
 
 5. To his daughter Fiordelisa 2000 lire to marry her withal. To be invested in 
 safe mortgages in Venice, and the interest to go to her. 
 
 Also leaves her the interest from 1000 lire of his investments to provide for her 
 till she marries. After her marriage this 1000 lire and its interest shall go to his 
 male heir if he has one, and failing that to his brother Marco. 
 
WILL OF MAFFEO POLO THE YOUNGER. xciii 
 
 the testator’s brother Marco, who is made inheritor of the 
 bulk of the property, failing the possible birth of a son. I 
 have already indicated some conjectural deductions from this 
 document. I may add that the terms of the second clause, 
 as quoted in the note, seem to me to throw considerable doubt 
 on the genealogy which bestows a large family of sons upon 
 this brother Maffeo. If he lived to have such a family it 
 seems improbable that the draught which he thus left in the 
 hands of a notary, to be converted into a Will in the event of 
 
 6. To his wife Catharine 400 lire and all her clothes as they stand now. To 
 the Lady Maroca 100 lire. 
 
 7. To his natural daughter Pasqua 400 lire to marry her withal. Or, if she likes 
 to be a nun, 200 lire shall go to her convent and the other 200 shall purchase 
 securities for her benefit. After her death these shall come to his male heir, or 
 failing that be sold, and the proceeds distributed for the good of the souls of his 
 father, mother, and self. 
 
 8. To his natural brothers Stephen and Giovannino he leaves 500 lire. If one 
 dies the whole to go to the other. If both die before marrying, to go to his male 
 heir; failing such to his brother Marco or his male heir. 
 
 9. To his uncle Giordano Trevisano 200 lire. To Marco Tumba 100. To 
 Fiordelisa, wife of Felix Polo, 100. To Maroca, the daughter of the late Pietro 
 Trevisano, living at Negropont, 100. 
 
 10. To buy securities producing an annual 20 lire ai grossi to be paid yearly to 
 Pietro Pagano, Priest of S. Felice, who shall pray for the souls aforesaid ; on death 
 of said Pietro the income to go to Pietro’s cousin Lionardo, Clerk of St. Felice ; 
 and after him always to the senior priest of S. Giovanni Grisostomo with the same 
 obligation. 
 
 11. Should his wife prove with child and bear a son or sons they shall have his 
 whole property not disposed of. If a daughter, she shall have the same as 
 Fiordelisa. 
 
 12. If he have no male heir his Brother Marco shall have the Testator’s share of 
 his Father’s bequest, and 2000 lire besides. Cousin Nicolo shall have 500 lire, and 
 Uncle Maffeo 500. 
 
 13. Should Daughter Fiordelisa die unmarried her 2000 lire and interest to go 
 to his male heir, and failing such to Brother Marco and his male heir. But in that 
 case Marco shall pay 500 lire to Cousin Nicolo or his male heir. 
 
 14. Should his wife bear him a male heir or heirs, but these should die under 
 age, the whole of his undisposed property shall go to Brother Marco or his male 
 heir. But in that case 500 lire shall be paid to Cousin Nicolo. 
 
 15. Should his wife bear a daughter and she die unmarried, her 2000 lire and 
 interest shall go to Brother Marco, with the same stipulation in behalf of Cousin 
 Nicolo. 
 
 16. Should the whole amount of his property between cash and goods not 
 amount to 10,000 lire (though he believes he has fully as much), his bequests are 
 to be ratably diminished, except those to his own children which he does not 
 wish diminished. 
 
 17. Should any legatee die before receiving the bequest, its amount shall fall to 
 the Testator’s heir male, and failing such, the half to go to Brother Marco or his 
 male heir, and the other half to be distributed for the good of the souls aforesaid. 
 
 The witnesses are Lionardo priest of S. Felice, Lionardo clerk of the same, 
 and the Notary Pietro Pagano priest of the same. 
 
XC1V 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 his death (a curious example of the validity attaching to all 
 acts of notaries in those days), should never have been super¬ 
 seded, but should actually have been so converted after his 
 death, as the existence of the parchment seems to prove. 
 
 Messer Maffeo, the uncle, was, we see, alive at this time. 
 We do not know the year of his death. But it is alluded to 
 by Friar Pipino in the Preamble to his Translation of the 
 Book, supposed to have been executed about 1315-1320. 
 
 44. In 1302 occurs what was at first supposed to be a 
 glimpse of Marco as a citizen, slight and quaint enough ; being 
 Documen- a resolution on the Books of the Great Council to 
 of r p 0 ?oat es exempt the respectable Marco Polo from the penalty 
 The sobri- incurred by him on account of the omission to have 
 Sone. his water-pipe duly inspected. But since our Marco’s 
 claims to the designation of Nobilis Vir have been esta¬ 
 blished, there is a doubt whether the providus vir or pmd ’- 
 homme here spoken of may not have been rather his namesake 
 Marco Polo of Cannareggio or S. Geremia, of whose existence 
 we learn from another entry of the same year.* It is however 
 possible that Marco the Traveller was called to the Great 
 Council after the date of the document in question. 
 
 We have seen that the Traveller, and after him his House 
 and his Book, acquired from his contemporaries the surname, 
 or nick-name rather, of II Milione. Different writers have 
 given different explanations of the origin of this name ; some, 
 beginning with his contemporary Fra Jacopo d’Acqui (supra, 
 p. Ixxxii), ascribing it to the family’s having brought home a 
 fortune of a million of lire, in fact to their being millionaires . 
 This is the explanation followed by Sansovino, Marco Bar- 
 baro, Coronelli, and others.f More far-fetched is that of 
 Fontanini who supposes the name to have been given to the 
 
 * “(Resolved) That grace be granted to the respectable Marco Paulo, relieving 
 him of the penalty he has incurred for neglecting to have his water-pipe examined, 
 seeing that he was ignorant of the order on that subject.” (See the original reso¬ 
 lution in Appendix C, No. 3.) 
 
 The other reference, to M. Polo of S. Geremia, runs as follows :— 
 
 “ That grace be granted to William the Goldsmith relieving him of the penalty 
 which he is stated to have incurred on account of a spontoon (spontono, a loaded 
 bludgeon) found upon him near the house of Marco Paulo of Cannareggio, where 
 he had landed to drink on his way from Mestre.” (See Cicogna, V. p. 606.) 
 
 f Sansovino , Venezia, Citta Nobilisswia e Singolare, Descritta, &c., Ven. 1581, 
 f. 236 v. ; Barbaro, Alberi; Coronelli, Atlante Veneto , I. 19. 
 
NOTICES OF MARCO IN LATER LIFE. 
 
 xcv 
 
 Book as containing a great number of stories, like the Cento 
 Novelle or the Thousand and One Nights ! But there can be 
 no doubt that Ramusio’s is the true, as it is the natural, expla¬ 
 nation ; and that the name was bestowed on Marco by the 
 young wits of his native city, because of his frequent use of a 
 word which appears to have been then unusual, in his attempts 
 to convey an idea of the vast wealth and magnificence of the 
 Kaan’s Treasury and Court. * Ramusio has told us {supra, 
 p. xxxvii) that he had seen Marco styled by this sobriquet in the 
 Books of the Signory ; and it is pleasant to be able to confirm 
 this by the next document which we cite. This is an extract 
 from the Books of the Great Council under ioth April, 1305, 
 condoning the offence of a certain Bonocio of Mestre in 
 smuggling wine, for whose penalty one of the sureties had 
 been the Nobilis Vir Marchus Paulo MiLioNi.t 
 
 It is alleged that long after our Traveller’s death there was 
 always, in the Venetian Masques, one individual who assumed 
 the character of Marco Milioni, and told Munchausenlike 
 stories to divert the vulgar. Such, if this be true, was the 
 honour of our prophet among the populace of his own 
 country. J 
 
 45. A little later we hear of Marco once more, as present¬ 
 ing a copy of his Book to a noble Frenchman in the service of 
 Charles of Valois. 
 
 * The word Millio occurs several times in the Chronicle of the Doge Andrea 
 Dandolo, who wrote about [342 ; and Milion occurs at least once (besides the 
 application of the term to Polo) in the History of Giovanni Villani ; viz. when he 
 speaks of the Treasury of Avignon :— “ diciotto milioni difiorini d' oro ec. che ogni 
 milione e mille migliaja di fiorini dl oro la valuta ” (xi. 20, § i ; Ducange , and 
 Vocab. Univ. Ital.). But the definition, thought necessary by Villani, in itself 
 points to the use of the word as rare. Domilion occurs in the estimated value of 
 houses at Venice in 1367, recorded in the Cronaca Magna in St. Mark’s Library 
 (Rornanin , III. 385). 
 
 f “Also ; that pardon be granted to Bonocio of Mestre for that 152 lire in 
 which he stood condemned by the Captains of the Posts, on account of wine 
 smuggled by him, in such wise : to wit, that he was to pay the said fine in 4 years 
 by annual instalments of one fourth, to be retrenched from the pay due to him on 
 his journey in the suite of our ambassadors, with assurance that anything then 
 remaining deficient of his instalments should be made good by himself or his 
 securities. And his securities are the Nobles Pietro Morosini and Marco Paulo 
 Milion.” Under Milioil is written in an ancient hand “ mortuusP (See Ap¬ 
 pendix C, No. 4.) 
 
 % Humboldt tells this {Examen, II. 221), alleging Jacopo d’Acqui as authority ; 
 and .Libri {H. des Sciences Mathematiques , II. 149), quoting Doglioni , Historia 
 Veneziana. But neither authority bears out the citations. The story seems really 
 to come from Amoretti’s commentary on the Voyage du Cap. L. F. Maldonado , 
 Plaisance, 1812, p. 67. Amoretti quotes as authority Pignoria, Degli Dei Antichi . 
 
XCV1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This Prince, brother of Philip the Fair, in 1301 had married 
 Catharine, daughter and heiress of Philip de Courtenay, titular 
 Polo’s rek- Emperor of Constantinople, and on the strength of 
 Thibauifde this marriage had at a later date set up his own 
 Cepoy. claim to the Empire of the East. To this he was 
 
 prompted by Pope Clement V., who in the beginning of 1306 
 wrote to Venice, stimulating that Government to take part in 
 the enterprise. In the same year, Charles and his wife sent 
 as their Envoys to Venice, in connexion with this matter, 
 a noble knight called Thibault DE Cepoy, along with an 
 ecclesiastic of Chartres called Pierre le Riche, and these two 
 succeeded in executing a treaty of alliance with Venice, of 
 which the original, dated 14th December 1306, exists at Paris. 
 Thibault de Cepoy eventually went on to Greece with a 
 squadron of Venetian Galleys, but accomplished nothing of 
 moment, and returned to his master in 1310.* 
 
 During the stay of Thibault at Venice he seems to have 
 made acquaintance with Marco Polo, and to have received from 
 him a copy of his Book. This is recorded in a curious note 
 which appears on two existing MSS. of Polo’s Book, viz., that 
 of the Paris Library (10,270 or Fr. 5649), and that of Bern, 
 which is substantially identical in its text with the former, and 
 is, as I believe, a copy of it. t The note runs as follows :— 
 
 “ Here you have the Book of which My Lord Thiebault, Knight 
 and Lord OF Cepoy (whom may God assoil !) requested a copy from 
 Sire Marc Pol Burgess and Resident of the City of Venice. And the 
 said Sire Marc Pol, being a very honourable Person, of high character 
 and respect in many countries, because of his desire that what he had 
 witnessed should be known throughout the World, and also for the honour 
 and reverence he bore to the most excellent and puissant Prince my Lord 
 Charles, Son of the King of France and Count of Valois, gave and 
 presented to the aforesaid Lord of Cepoy the first copy (that was taken) 
 of his said Book after he had made the same. And very pleasing it was 
 to him that his Book should be carried to the noble country of France 
 and there made known by so worthy a gentleman. And from that copy 
 
 * Thibault, according to Dueange, was in 1307 named Grand Master of the 
 Arblasteers of France ; and Buchon says his portrait is at Versailles among the 
 Admirals (No. 1170). Ramon de Muntaner fell in with the Seigneur de Cepoy 
 in Greece, and speaks of him as “ but a Captain of the Wind, as his Master was 
 King of the Wind ” (See Dueange , H. de VEmpire de Const, sous les Emp. Francois, 
 Venice ed. 1729, pp. 109, no ; Buchon , Chroniques Etrangeres, pp. lv, 467-470). 
 
 f The note is not found in the Bodleian MS. which is the third known one of 
 this precise type. 
 
NOTICES OF MARCO IN LATER LIFE. 
 
 XCVll 
 
 which the said Messire Thibault, Sire de Cepoy above-named, did carry 
 into France, Messire John, who was his eldest son and is the present Sire 
 de Cepoy,* after his Father’s decease did have a copy made, and that 
 very first copy that was made of the Book after its being carried into 
 France he did present to his very dear and dread Lord Monseigneur de 
 Valois. Thereafter he gave copies of it to such of his friends as asked 
 for them. 
 
 “ And the copy above-mentioned was presented by the said Sire Marc 
 Pol to the said Lord de Cepoy when the latter went to Venice, on the part 
 of Monseigneur de Valois and of Madame the Empress his wife, as Vicar 
 General for them both in all the Territories of the Empire of Constanti¬ 
 nople. And this happened in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ one thousand three hundred and seven, and in the month of 
 August.” 
 
 Of the bearings of this memorandum on the literary his¬ 
 tory of Polo’s Book we shall speak in a following section. 
 
 46. When Marco married we have not been able to ascer¬ 
 tain, but it was no doubt early in the 14th century, for in 1324 
 we find that he had two married daughters besides 
 one unmarried. His wife’s Christian name was Do- riage and 
 iiata, but of her family we have as yet found no ters. Marco 
 
 T , as a mer- 
 
 assurance. 1 suspect, however, that her name may chant, 
 have been Loredano {vide infra , p. cv). 
 
 Under 1311 we find a document which is of considerable 
 interest, because it is the only one yet discovered which exhibits 
 Marco under the aspect of a practical trader. It is the judg¬ 
 ment of the Court of Requests upon a suit brought by the 
 Noble Marco Polo of the parish of S. Giovanni Grisostomo 
 against one Paulo Girardo of S. Apollinare. It appears that 
 Marco had entrusted to the latter as a commission agent for 
 sale, on an agreement for half profits, a pound and a half of 
 musk, priced at six lire of grossi (about 22/. 10 s. in value of silver). 
 Gerardo had sold half a pound at that rate, and the remaining \ 
 pound which he brought back was deficient of a saggio , or 
 one-sixth of an ounce, but he had accounted for neither the 
 sale nor the deficiency. Hence Marco sues him for three 
 lire of Grossi , the price of the half-pound sold, and for twenty 
 grossi as the value of the saggio. And the Judges cast the 
 defendant in the amount with costs, and the penalty of im- 
 
 * Messire Jean, the son of Thibault, is mentioned in the accounts of the latter 
 in the Chambre des Comptes at Paris, as having been with his Father in Romania. 
 And in 1344 he commanded a confederate Christian armament sent to check the 
 rising power of the Turks, and beat a great Turkish fleet in the Greek seas {Heyd. 
 I. 377 ; Buckon , 468). 
 
 VOL. I. g 
 
XCV111 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 prisonment in the common gaol of Venice if the amounts were 
 not paid within a suitable term.* 
 
 Again in May, 1323, probably within a year of his death, 
 Ser Marco appears (perhaps only by attorney), before the Doge 
 and his judicial examiners, to obtain a decision respecting a 
 question touching the rights to certain stairs and porticoes in 
 contact with his own house property, and that obtained from 
 his wife, in S. Giovanni Grisostomo. To this allusion has 
 been already made (supra, p. lix). 
 
 47. We catch sight of our Traveller only once more. It is 
 Marco on the 9^h °f January, 1324 ; he is labouring with 
 wm s a nd St disease, under which he is sinking day by day; and 
 Death - he has sent for Giovanni Giustiniani, Priest of S. 
 Proculo and Notary, to make his Last Will and Testament. 
 It runs thus :— 
 
 “ In the Name of the Eternal God Amen ! 
 
 “ In the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1323, on 
 the 9th day of the month of January, in the first half of the 7th Indiction,f 
 at Rialto. 
 
 “ It is the counsel of Divine Inspiration as well as the judgment of a 
 provident mind that every man should take thought to make a disposition 
 of his property before death become imminent, lest in the end it should 
 remain without any disposition : 
 
 “ Wherefore I Marcus Paulo of the parish of St. John Chrysostom, 
 finding myself to grow daily feebler through bodily ailment, but being by 
 the grace of God of a sound mind, and of senses and judgment unimpaired, 
 have sent for John Giustiniani, Priest of S. Proculo and Notary, and 
 have instructed him to draw out in complete form this my Testament : 
 
 “ Whereby I constitute as my Trustees Donata my beloved wife, and 
 my dear daughters Fantina, Bellela, and Moreta,$ in order that after 
 my decease they may execute the dispositions and bequests which I am 
 about to make herein. 
 
 * The document is given in Appendix C, No. 5. It was found by Signor Barozzi, 
 the Director of the Museo Civico, when he had most kindly accompanied me to 
 aid in the search for certain other documents in the archives of the Casa di Ricovero, 
 or Poor House of Venice. These archives contain a great mass of testamentary 
 and other documents, which probably have come into that singular depository in 
 connexion with bequests to public charities. 
 
 The document next mentioned was found in as strange a site, viz,, the Casa 
 degli Esposii or Foundling Hospital, which possesses similar muniments. This also 
 I owe to Signor Barozzi, who had noted it some years before, when commencing 
 an arrangement of the archives of the Institution. 
 
 f The Legal Year at Venice began on the 1st of March. And 1324 was 7th 
 of the Indiction. Hence the date is, according to the modern Calendar, 1324. 
 
 X Marsden says of Moretta and Fantina, the only daughters named by Ramusio, 
 that these may be thought rather familiar terms of endearment than baptismal 
 
MARCO POLO’S LAST WILL. 
 
 XC1X 
 
 “ First of all : I will and direct that the proper Tithe be paid.* And 
 over and above the said tithe I direct that 2000 lire of Venice denari be 
 distributed as follows : f 
 
 “ viz.y 20 soldi of Venice grossi to the Monastery of St. Lawrence 
 where I desire to be buried. 
 
 “ Also 300 lire of Venice denari to my sister-in-law Ysabeta Quirino, 
 that she owes me. 
 
 “ Also 40 soldi to each of the Monasteries and Hospitals all the way 
 from Grado to Capo d’Argine.J 
 
 “ Also I bequeath to the Convent of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, of the 
 Order of Preachers, that which it owes me, and also 10 lire to Friar 
 Renier, and 5 lire to Friar Benvenuto the Venetian, of the Order of 
 Preachers, in addition to the amount of his debt to me. 
 
 “ I also bequeath 5 lire to every Congregation in Rialto, and 4 lire to 
 every Guild or Fraternity of which I am a member. § 
 
 “ Also I bequeath 20 soldi of Venetian grossi to the Priest Giovanni 
 Giustiniani the Notary, for his trouble about this my Will, and in order 
 that he may pray the Lord in my behalf. 
 
 names. This is a mistake however. Fantina is from one of the parochial saints 
 of Venice, S. Fantino, and the male name was borne by sundry Venetians, among 
 others by a son of Henry Dandolo’s. Moreta is perhaps a variation of Maroca, 
 which seems to have been a family name among the Polos. We find also the male 
 name of Bellela, written Bellello , Bellero , Belletto. 
 
 * The Decbna went to the Bishop of Castello (eventually converted into Patriarch 
 of Venice) to divide between himself, the Clergy, the Church, and the Poor. It 
 became a source of much bad feeling, which came to a head after the plague of 
 1348, when some families had to pay the tenth three times within a very short 
 space. The existing bishop agreed to a composition, but his successor Paolo Fos- 
 cari (1367) claimed that on the death of every citizen an exact inventory should be 
 made, and a full tithe levied. The Signory fought hard with the Bishop, but he 
 fled to the Papal Court and refused all concession. After his death in 1376 a 
 composition was made for 5500 ducats yearly ( Romanin , II. 406 ; III. 161, 165). 
 
 f There is a difficulty about estimating the value of these sums from the variety 
 of Venice pounds or lire. Thus the Lira dei piccoli was reckoned 3 to the ducat 
 or zecchin, the Lira ai grossi 2 to the ducat, but the LJra dei grossi or Lira dlini- 
 prestidi was equal to 10 ducats, or (allowing for higher value of silver then) about 
 3/. 15^. ; a little more than the equivalent of the then Pound sterling. This last 
 money is specified in some of the bequests, as in the 20 soldi (or 1 lira) to St. Lorenzo, 
 and in the annuity of 8 lire to Polo’s wife; but it seems doubtful what money is 
 meant when libra only or libra denariorum venetorum is used. And this doubt is 
 not new. Gallicciolli relates that in 1232 Giacomo Menotto left to the church of 
 S. Cassiano as an annuity libras denariorum venetorum qnatuor. Till 1427 the 
 church received the income as of lire dei piccoli, but on bringing a suit on the subject 
 it was adjudged that lire ai grossi were to be understood [Delle Mem. Venet. Ant. II. 
 18). This story however cuts both ways, and does not decide our doubt. 
 
 X L.e., the extent of what was properly called the Dogado, all along the Lagoons 
 from Grado on the extreme east to Capo d’Argine (Cavarzere at the mouth of the 
 Adige) on the extreme west. 
 
 § The word rendered Guilds is “ ScholarumL The crafts at Venice were 
 united in corporations called Fragile or Scholae, each of which had its statutes, its 
 head called the Gastald, and its place of meeting under the patronage of some saint. 
 These acted as societies of mutual aid, gave dowries to poor girls, caused masses to 
 be celebrated for deceased members, joined in public religious processions, &c., nor 
 could any craft be exercised except by members of such a guild [Romanin, I. 390). 
 
 g 2 
 
c 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 “ Also I release Peter the Tartar, my servant, from all bondage, as 
 completely as I pray God to release mine own soul from all sin and guilt. 
 And I also remit him whatever he may have gained by work at his own 
 house ; and over and above I bequeath him ioo lire of Venice denari.* 
 
 “ And the residue of the said 2000 lire, free of tithe, I direct to be dis¬ 
 tributed for the good of my soul, according to the discretion of my trustees. 
 
 “ Out of my remaining property I bequeath to the aforesaid Donata, 
 my Wife and Trustee, 8 lire of Venetian grossi annually during her life, 
 for her own use, over and above her settlement, and the linen and all the 
 household utensils,f with 3 beds garnished. 
 
 “ And all my other property movable and immovable that has not 
 been disposed of [here follow some lines of mere technicality] I specially 
 and expressly bequeath to my aforesaid Daughters Fantina, Bellela, and 
 Moreta, freely and absolutely, to be divided equally among them. And I 
 constitute them my heirs as regards all and sundry my property movable 
 and immovable, and as regards all rights and contingencies tacit and 
 expressed, of whatsoever kind as hereinbefore detailed, that belong to 
 me or may fall to me. Save and except that before division my said 
 daughter Moreta shall receive the same as each of my other daughters 
 hath received for dowry and outfit [here follow many lines of technicalities, 
 ending] 
 
 “ And if any one shall presume to infringe or violate this Will, may 
 he incur the malediction of God Almighty, and abide bound under the 
 anathema of the 318 Fathers; and farthermore he shall forfeit to my 
 
 * It is not unnatural to suppose, as M. Pauthier does, that this Peter the Tartar 
 was a faithful servant who had accompanied Messer Marco from the East 30 years 
 before ; but this is probably quite a mistake. Slavery and slave-trade were very 
 prevalent at Venice in the Middle Ages, and V. Lazari, a writer who examined a 
 great many records connected therewith, found that by far the greater number of 
 slaves were described as Tartars. There does not seem to be any dear informa¬ 
 tion as to how they were imported, but probably from the factories on the Black 
 Sea, especially Tana after its establishment. 
 
 A tax of 5 ducats per head was set on the export of slaves in 1379, and as the 
 revenue so received under the Doge Tommaso Mocenigo (1414-1423) amounted 
 (so says Lazari) to 50,000 ducats, the startling conclusion is that 10,000 slaves 
 yearly were exported ! This it is difficult to accept. The slaves were chiefly 
 employed in domestic service, and the records indicate the women to have been 
 about twice as numerous as the men. The highest price recorded is 87 ducats paid 
 for a Russian girl sold in 1429. All the higher prices are for young women; a 
 significant circumstance. With the existence of this system we may safely connect 
 the extraordinary frequence of mention of illegimate children in Venetian wills and 
 genealogies (see Lazari, Del Traffico degli Schiavi in Venezia , &c., in Miscellanea 
 di Storia Italiana, I. 463 seqq.). In 1308 the Khan Tolctai of Kipchak (see Polo, 
 II. 426) hearing that the Genoese and other Franks were in the habit of carrying 
 off Tartar children to sell, sent a force against Caffa, which was occupied without 
 resistance, the people taking refuge in their ships. The Khan also seized the 
 Genoese property in Sarai ( Heyd . II. 27). 
 
 t ‘ ‘Stracium et omne capud massariciornm; ’ in Scotch phrase “ napery and 
 plenishing .” A Venetian statute of 1242 prescribes that a bequest of massariticum 
 shall be held to carry to the legatee all articles of common family use except those 
 of gold and silver plate or jeweller’s work (see Ducange, sub voce). Stracci is still 
 used technically in Venice for “household linen.” 
 
RCO POLOS LAST WILL 
 
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MARCO POLO’S LAST WILL. 
 
 Cl 
 
 Trustees aforesaid five pounds of gold ;* and so let this my Testament 
 abide in force. The signature of the above named Messer Marco Paulo 
 who gave instructions for this deed. 
 
 “ f I Peter Grifon, Priest, Witness. 
 
 “ f I Humfrey Barberi, Witness. 
 
 “ | I John Giustiniani, Priest of S. Proculo, and Notary, 
 have completed and authenticated (this testament).”! 
 
 We do not know, as has been said, how long Marco 
 survived the making of this will, but we know, from a scanty 
 series of documents commencing in June of the following year 
 (1325), that he had then been some time dead.f 
 
 48. He was buried, no doubt, according to his declared 
 
 * In the original anreas libras quinque. According to Marino Sanuto the 
 Younger ( Vite dei Dogi in Muratori, xxii. 521) this should be pounds or lire of 
 aureole , the name of a silver coin struck by and named after the Doge Aurio 
 Mastropietro (1178-1192) : “ Ancora fu fatta una Moneta d’argento che si chia- 
 mava Aureola per la casata del Doge ; e quella Moneta che i Notai de Venezia 
 mettevano di pena sotto i loro instrumentiP But this was a vulgar error. An 
 example of -the penalty of 5 pounds of gold is quoted from a decree of 960 ; and 
 the penalty is sometimes expressed “ auripurissimi librae 5.” A coin called the 
 lira d ’ oro or redonda is alleged to have been in use before the ducat was introduced 
 (see Gallicciolli , II. 16). But another authority seems to identify the lira a oro 
 with the lira dei grossi (see Zanetti , Nuova Race, delle Monete &=c. d’Italia, 1775, 
 L 308). 
 
 f We give opposite a photo-lithographic reduction of the original document. 
 This, and the other two Polo Wills already quoted, had come into the possession 
 of the Noble Filippo Balbi, and were by him presented in our own time to the 
 St. Mark’s Library. They are all on parchment, in writing of that age, and have 
 been officially examined and declared to be originals. They were first published 
 by Cicogjta, Iscrizioni Veneziane , III. 489-493. We give Marco’s in the original 
 language, line for line with the facsimile, in Appendix C, No. 8. 
 
 There is no signature, as may be seen, except those of the Witnesses and the 
 Notary. The sole presence of a Notary was held to make a deed valid, and from 
 about the middle of the 13th century in Italy it is common to find no actual sig¬ 
 nature (even of witnesses) except that of the Notary. The peculiar flourish before 
 the Notary’s name is what is called the Tabellionato, a fanciful distinctive monogram 
 which each Notary adopted. Marco’s Will is unfortunately written in a very 
 cramp hand with many contractions. The other two Wills (of Marco the Elder 
 and Maffeo) are in beautiful and clear penmanship. 
 
 x We have noticed formerly (p. xiii) the recent discovery of a document bearing 
 what was supposed to be the autograph signature of our Traveller. The document 
 in question is the Minute of a Resolution of the Great Council, attested by the 
 signatures of three members, of whom the last is Marcus Paullo. But the date 
 alone, nth March, 1324, is sufficient to raise'the gravest doubts as to this signature 
 being that of our Marco. And further examination, as I learn from a friend at 
 Venice, has shown that the same name occurs in connexion with analogous entries 
 on several subsequent occasions up to the middle of the century. I presume that 
 this Marco Polo is the same that is noticed in our Appendix B, II. as a voter in 
 the elections of the Doges Marino Faliero and Giovanni Gradenigo. I have not 
 been able to ascertain his relation to either branch of the Polo family ; but I 
 suspect that he belonged to that of S. Geremia, of which there was certainly a 
 Marco about the middle of the century. 
 
Cll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 wish, in the church of S. Lorenzo ; and indeed Sansovino 
 bears testimony to the fact in a confused notice of our 
 Place of Traveller.* But there does not seem to have been 
 Professed" any monument to Marco, though the sarcophagus 
 Polo. which had been erected to his father Nicolo, by his 
 own filial care, existed till near the end of the 16th century 
 in the porch or corridor leading to the old church of S. 
 Lorenzo, and bore the inscription: “ SEPULTURA Domini 
 
 S. Lorenzo, as it was in the 15th century. 
 
 Nicolai Paulo de contrata S. Ioannis Grisostemi.” 
 The church was renewed from its foundations in 1592, and 
 then, probably, the sarcophagus was cast aside and lost, and 
 with it all certainty as to the position of the tomb.f 
 
 . There is no portrait of Marco Polo in existence with any 
 claim to authenticity. The quaint figure which we give on the 
 next page, extracted from the earliest printed edition of his 
 book, can certainly make no such pretension. The oldest one 
 
 * “Under the angiporta (of S. Lorenzo) is buried that Marco Polo surnamed 
 Milione, who wrote the Travels in the New World, and who was the first before 
 Christopher Columbus to discover new countries. No faith was put in him because 
 of the extravagant things that he recounted ; but in the days of our Fathers 
 Columbus augmented belief in him, by discovering that part of the world, which 
 eminent men had heretofore judged to be uninhabited ” (Venezia .... Descritta , 
 &c. f. 25 v.). Marco Barbaro attests the same inscription in his Genealogies (copy 
 in Museo Civico at Venice), 
 f Cicegna, II. 385. 
 
LAST NOTICES OF THE FAMILY. 
 
 cm 
 
 ift tier eDel &ftter*n)ardjo |nlo uon^ 
 
 Buylijjnu uMWCH D fl uuaijjpfi .ujjaj 4a aiQ g? 
 
 “ This is the Noble Knight Marco Polo of Venice, the Great Traveller, who describes to us the 
 Great Wonders of the World that he himself hath seen, from the Rising to the Setting of the Sun; 
 the like of which were never heard before .”—From the First Printed Edition , Nuremberg, 1477. 
 
CIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 after this is probably a picture in the collection of Monsignor 
 Badia at Rome, which I have seen. It seems to be a work of 
 the latter part of the 16th century or thereabouts, and repre¬ 
 sents a burly, vigorous personage, with a bushy white beard, 
 and a red mantle, inscribed “ Marcvs Polvs Venetvs Totivs 
 Orbis et Indie Pere,grator Primus .” * * * § Its history unfortunately 
 cannot be traced, but I believe it came from a collection at 
 Urbino. A marble statue was erected in his honour by a 
 family at Venice in the 17th century, and is still to be seen 
 in the Palazzo Morosini-Gattemburg in the Campo S. Ste- 
 fano in that city. The medallion portrait on the wall of 
 the Sala dello Scudo in the ducal palace, and which was 
 engraved in Bettoni’s “ Collection of Portraits of Illustrious 
 Italians,” is a work of imagination painted by Francesco 
 Griselini in 1761.! From this, however, was taken the medal 
 by Fabris, which was struck in 1847 in honour of the last 
 meeting of the Italian Congresso Scientifico ; and from the 
 medal again is copied, I believe, the elegant woodcut which 
 adorns the introduction to M. Pauthier’s edition, though with¬ 
 out a hint of its history. A handsome bust, by Augusto 
 Gamba, has lately been placed among the illustrious Venetians 
 in the inner arcade of the Ducal Palace. J 
 
 49. From the short series of documents recently alluded 
 to, § we gather all that we know of the remaining history of 
 Marco Polo’s immediate family. We have seen in Further 
 his will an indication that the two elder daughters, t hl s pof 0 of 
 Fantina and Bellela, were married before his death. Family - 
 In 1333 we find the youngest, Moreta, also a married woman, 
 and Bellela deceased. In 1336 we find that their mother 
 Donata had died in the interval. We learn, too, that Fantina’s 
 husband was MARCO Bragadino, and Moreta’s, Ranuzzo 
 Dolfino. || The name of Bellela’s husband does not appear. 
 
 * Of this I had hoped to present an engraving, and had obtained the owner’s 
 permission, but circumstances have prevented my taking advantage of it. 
 
 f Lazari , xxxi. 
 
 J I have recently learned that, in the “ Temple of the 500 Gods” at Canton, 
 there is a figure in a foreign costume which, from the name attached, has been sup¬ 
 posed to represent Marco Polo ! I regret that there is not now time to ascertain 
 further particulars. 
 
 § These documents are noted in Appendix C, Nos. 9 to 12. 
 
 || I can find no Ranuzzo Dolfino among the Venetian genealogies, but several 
 Reniers. And I suspect Ranuzzo may be a form of the latter name. 
 
LAST NOTICES OF THE FAMILY. 
 
 cv 
 
 Fantina’s husband is probably the Marco Bragadino, son 
 of Pietro, who in 1346 is mentioned to have been sent as 
 Provveditore-Generale to act against the Patriarch of Acqui- 
 leia.* * * § And in 1379 we find Donna Fantina herself, pre¬ 
 sumably in widowhood, assessed as a resident of S. Giovanni 
 Grisostomo, on the Estimo or forced loan for the Genoese war, 
 at 1300 lire , whilst Pietro Bragadino of the same parish—her 
 son as I imagine—is assessed at 1500 lire .t 
 
 It will have been seen that there is nothing in the amounts 
 mentioned in Marco’s Will to bear out the large reports as to 
 his wealth, though at the same time there is no positive ground 
 for a deduction to the contrary 4 
 
 The mention in these last documents of Agnes Loredano 
 as the sister of the Lady Donata suggests that the latter may 
 have belonged to the Loredano family, but as it does not 
 appear whether Agnes was maid or wife this remains 
 uncertain. § 
 
 Respecting the further history of the family there is 
 nothing certain to be added to Ramusio’s statement that the 
 last male descendant of the Polos of S. Giovanni Grisostomo 
 was Marco, who died Castellano of Verona in 1417 (according 
 to others, 1418, or 1425), || and that the family property 
 then passed to Maria (or Anna, as she is styled in a MS. 
 statement furnished to me from Venice), who was married in 
 1401 to Benedetto Cornaro, and again in 1414 to Azzo Trevi- 
 san. H er descendant in the fourth generation by the latter 
 was Marc Antonio Trevisano IT who was chosen Doge in 1553. 
 
 * Capellari as below, under Bragadino. 
 
 f Ibid, and Gallicciolli, II. 146. 
 
 % Yet, if the family were so wealthy as tradition represents, it is strange that 
 Marco’s brother Mafifeo, after receiving a share of his father’s property, should 
 have possessed barely 10,000 lire , probably equivalent to 5000 ducats at most (see 
 p. lxi, supra). 
 
 § An Agnes Loredano, Abbess of S. Maria delle Vergini, died in 1397 
 (Cicogna, Y. 91 and 629). But Donata’s sister could scarcely have lived so long. 
 
 || In the Museo Civico (No. 2271 of the Cicogna collection) there is a com¬ 
 mission addressed by the Doge Michiel Steno in 1408, “ Nobili Viro Marcho 
 Paulof nominating him Podesta of Arostica (a Castello of the Vicentino). This 
 is probably the same Marco. 
 
 IT The descent runs : (1) Azzo = Maria Polo ; (2) Febo, Captain at Padua; 
 (3) Zaccaria, Senator ; (4) Domenico, Procurator of St. Marks : (5) Marc’ Antonio, 
 Doge ( Capellari , Campidoglio Veneto , MS. St. Mark’s Lib.). 
 
 Marc’ Antonio nolebat ducari and after election desired to renounce. His 
 friends persuaded him to retain office, but he lived scarcely a year after ( Cicogna , 
 IV. 566). 
 
CV1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The genealogy recorded by Marco Barbara, as drawn up 
 from documents by Ramusio, makes the Castellano of Verona 
 a grandson of our Marco by a son Maffeo, whom we may 
 safely pronounce not to have existed, and makes Maria the 
 daughter of Maffeo, Marco’s brother—that is to say, makes a 
 lady marry in 1414 and have children, whose father was born 
 in 1271 at the very latest! The genealogy is given in several 
 other ways, but as I have satisfied myself that they all (except 
 perhaps this of Barbara’s, which we see to be otherwise erro¬ 
 neous) confound together the two distinct families of Polo of 
 S. Geremia and Polo of S. Giov. Grisostomo, I reserve my 
 faith, and abstain from presenting them. I have met with no 
 positive proof that any descendant in the male line of old 
 Andrea of San Felice survived Marco himself; and from a 
 study of the links in the professed genealogies I think it not 
 unlikely that both Marco the Castellano of Verona and Maria 
 Trevisan belonged to the branch of S. Geremia.t 
 
 IX. Marco Polo’s Book ; and the Language in which it was 
 
 FIRST WRITTEN. 
 
 50. The Book itself consists essentially of Two Parts. 
 First , of a Prologue, as it is termed, the only part which is 
 General actual personal narrative, and which relates, in a very 
 
 statement of . . . . 
 
 what the interesting but far too brief manner, the circum- 
 tains. stances which led the two elder Polos to the Kaan’s 
 Court, and those of their second journey with Mark, and of 
 their return to Persia through the Indian Seas. Secondly , of a 
 long series of chapters of very unequal length, descriptive of 
 notable sights and products, of curious manners, and remark¬ 
 able events relating to the different nations and states of Asia, 
 but, above all, to the Emperor Kublai, his court, wars, and 
 administration. A series of chapters near the close treats in a 
 verbose and monotonous manner of sundry wars that took 
 place between the various branches of the House of Chinghiz 
 in the latter half of the 13th century. This last series is either 
 
 f In Appendix B will be found tabulated all the facts that seem to be positively 
 ascertained as to the Polo genealogies. 
 
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF THE BOOK. 
 
 evil 
 
 omitted or greatly curtailed in all the copies and versions 
 except one; a circumstance perfectly accounted for by the ab¬ 
 sence of interest as well as value in the bulk of these chapters. 
 Indeed, desirous though I have been to give the Traveller’s 
 work complete, and sharing the dislike that every man who 
 uses books must bear to abridgments, I have felt that it 
 would be sheer waste and dead-weight to print these chapters 
 in full. 
 
 This second and main portion of the Work is in its oldest 
 forms undivided, the chapters running on consecutively to 
 the end.* In some very early Italian or Venetian version, 
 which Friar Pipino translated into Latin, it was divided into 
 three Books, and this convenient division has generally been 
 adhered to. We have adopted M. Pauthier’s suggestion in 
 making the final series of chapters, chiefly historical, into a 
 Fourth. 
 
 51. As regards the language in which Marco’s Book was 
 first committed to writing, we have seen that Ramusio assumed, 
 somewhat arbitrarily, that it was Latin; Marsden Language 
 supposed it to have been the Venetian dialect; Bal- original 
 dello Boni first showed, in his elaborate edition Work * 
 Florence, 1827), by arguments that have been illustrated and 
 corroborated by learned men since, that it was French. 
 
 That the work was originally written in some Italian dialect 
 was a natural presumption, and slight contemporary evidence 
 can be alleged in its favour; for Fra Pipino, in the Latin 
 version of the work, executed whilst Marco still lived, describes 
 his task as a translation de vulgari. And in one MS. copy of 
 the same Friar Pipino’s Chronicle, existing in the library at 
 Modena, he refers to the said version as made 11 ex vulgari 
 idiomate Lombardico.” But though it may seem improbable 
 that at so early a date a Latin version should have been made 
 at second hand, I believe this to have been the case, and that 
 some internal evidence also is traceable that Pipino trans¬ 
 lated not from the original but from an Italian version of the 
 original. 
 
 The oldest MS. (it is supposed) in any Italian dialect is 
 one in the Magliabecchian Library at Florence, which is known 
 
 * 232 chapters in the oldest French which we quote as the Geographic Text (or 
 G. T.), 200 in Pauthier’s Text, 183 in the Crusca Italian. 
 
CV111 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in Italy as V Ottima, on account of the purity of its Tuscan, 
 and as Della Crusca from its being one of the authorities cited 
 by that body in their Vocabulary.* It bears on its face the 
 following note in Italian 
 
 “ This Book called the Navigation of Messer Marco Polo, a noble 
 Citizen of Venice, was written in Florence by Michael Ormanni my great 
 grandfather by the Mother’s side, who died in the Year of Grace One 
 Thousand Three Hundred and Nine ; and my mother brought it into our 
 Family of Del Riccio, and it belongs to me Pier del Riccio and to my 
 Brother ; 1452.” 
 
 As far as I can learn, the age which this note implies is 
 considered to be supported by the character of the MS. itself.f 
 If it be accepted, the latter is a performance going back to 
 within eleven years at most of the first dictation of the Travels. 
 At first sight, therefore, this would rather argue that the 
 original had been written in pure Tuscan. But when Baldello 
 came to prepare it for the press he found manifest indications 
 of its being a Translation from the French. Some of these he 
 has noted ; others have followed up the same line of com¬ 
 parison. We give some detailed examples in a note.J 
 
 * The MS. has been printed by Baldello as above, and again by Bartoli in 1863. 
 
 f This is somewhat peculiar. I have traced a few lines of it, which with Del 
 Riccio’s note I give in facsimile opposite. The passage of the MS. represented 
 is the following :— 
 
 “ Di Baudac come fu presa. Bandac e una grande cittade one lo Chaliffo di 
 tutti gli Saracini del mondo chosi chome a Roma il Papa di tutti gli Cristiani. Per 
 mezzo la eitta passa un fiume molto grande perloquale si puote andare in sino nel 
 mare d' India ’ 1 ' 1 . . . 
 
 X The Crusca is cited from Bartoli’s edition. 
 
 French idioms are frequent, as V nomo for the French on; quattro-vinti 
 instead of ottanta ; &c. 
 
 We have at p. 35, “ Qnesto piano e molto cavo,” which is nonsense, but is 
 explained by reference to the French (G. T.) “ Voz di qilil est celle plaingne piout 
 chaue” ( chaude ). 
 
 The bread in Kerman is bitter, says the G. T. “ porceque Veiue hi est amer,” 
 because the water there is bitter. The Crusca mistakes the last word and renders 
 (p. 40) “ e qnesti eper lo mare che vi vienel 
 
 “ Sachies de voir qe endementier,” know for a truth that whilst-, by some 
 
 misunderstanding of the last word becomes (p. 129) “ Sappiate di vero sanza mentire.” 
 
 “ Mes de sel font il monoie ”—“ they make money of salt,” becomes (p. 168) 
 “ ma fannole da loro,” sel being taken for a pronoun, whilst in another place sel is 
 transferred bodily without translation. 
 
 “ Chevoils,” “ hair” of the old French, appears in the Tuscan (p. 20) as cavagli , 
 “horses.” “ La Grande Provence jeneraus,” the great general province, appears 
 (p. 68) as a province whose proper name is Ienaraus. In describing Kublai’s ex¬ 
 pedition against Mien or Burma, Polo has a story of his calling on the Jugglers 
 at his court to undertake the job, promising them a Captain and other help, 
 
1 Fxauenfelder , Palermo 
 
THE OLD FRENCH TEXT. 
 
 cix 
 
 52. The French Text that we have been quoting, published 
 by the Geographical Society of Paris in 1824, affords on the 
 other hand the strongest corresponding proof that it 0Id French 
 is an original and not a Translation. Rude as is the j^he/by 
 language of the manuscript (Fr. 1116, formerly No. 
 
 7367, of Paris Library), it is in the correctness of the graphie - 
 proper names, and the intelligible exhibition of the itineraries, 
 much superior to any form of the Work previously published. 
 
 The language is very peculiar. We are obliged to call it 
 French, “but it is not “Frenche of Paris.” “Its style,” says 
 M. Paulin-Paris, “ is about as like that of good French authors 
 of the age, as in our day the natural accent of a German, an 
 Englishman, or an Italian, is like that of a citizen of Paris or 
 Blois.” The author is at war with all the practices of French 
 grammar; subject and object, numbers, moods, and tenses, are 
 in consummate confusion. Even readers of his own day must 
 at times have been fain to guess his meaning. Italian words 
 are constantly introduced, either quite in the crude or rudely 
 Gallicized.* And words also, we may add, sometimes slip in 
 which appear to be purely Oriental, just as is apt to happen 
 with Anglo-Indians in these days.f All this is perfectly con- 
 
 “ Chievetain et aide” This has fairly puzzled the Tuscan who converts these 
 (p. 186) into two Tartar tribes, “ quegli <2?’Aide e quegli di Caveita.” 
 
 So also we have lievre for hare transferred without change ; lait, milk, appear¬ 
 ing as laido instead of latte ; tres, rendered as “three ;” hue , “ mud,” Italianized as 
 baoi, “oxen,” and so forth. Finally, in various places when Polo is explaining 
 oriental terms we find in the Tuscan MS. “ cioe a dire in Francesco.” 
 
 The blunders mentioned are intelligible enough as in a version from the French ; 
 but in the account of the Indian Pearl fishery we have a startling one not so easy to 
 account for. The French says, “the divers gather the sea-oysters (,hostrige de 
 Afer), and in these the pearls are found.” This appears in the Tuscan in the extra¬ 
 ordinary form that the divers catch those fishes called Herrings (Aringhe), and in 
 those Herrings are found the Pearls ! 
 
 * As examples of these Italianisms : “Ft ont del olio de la lanpe dou sepolchro 
 de Crist” ; “ Id Angel ven en vision pour mesajes de Deu a un Veschevo qe mout 
 estoient home de sante vite ” ; “ E certes il estoit bien beizongno ” ; “ ne trop caut ne 
 trop fredo ” ; “la crense ” (credenza) ; “ remort ” for noise {rumore); “ inverno ”; 
 “jorno ” ; “dementique ” ( dimenticato ) ; “ enferme ” for sickly ; “ leign” {legno) ; 
 “devisee” (dovizia); “ammalaide” ( ammalaio ), &c., & c. 
 
 Professor Bianconi points out that there are also traces of Venetian dialect, as 
 Pare for pere; Mojer for wife ; Zabater, cobbler ; cazaor, huntsman, &c. 
 
 t As examples of such Orientalisms : Bonus , “ebony,” and calamanz , “pen- 
 cases,” seem to represent the Persian abniis and kalamdan ; the dead are mourned 
 by les meres et les Araines,” the Harems; in speaking of the land of the Ismaelites 
 or Assassins, called Mulhete, i.e., the Arabic Muldhidah, “Heretics,” he explains 
 this term as meaning “des Aram ” {Hardm/ya, “the reprobates or malefactors”). 
 Speaking of the Viceroys of Chinese Provinces we are told that they rendered their 
 
cx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sistent with the supposition that we have in this MS. a copy 
 at least of the original words as written down by Rusticiano a 
 Tuscan, from the dictation of Marco an Orientalized Venetian, 
 in French, a language foreign to both. 
 
 But the character of the language as French is not its only 
 peculiarity. There is in the style, apart from grammar or 
 vocabulary, a rude angularity, a rough dramatism like that of 
 oral narrative ; there is a want of proportion in the style of 
 different parts, now over curt, now diffuse and wordy, with at 
 times even a hammering reiteration ; a constant recurrence of 
 pet colloquial phrases (in which, however, other literary works 
 of the age partake) ; a frequent change in the spelling of the 
 same proper names, even when recurring within a few lines, as 
 if caught by ear only ; a literal following to and fro of the 
 hesitations of the narrator ; a more general use of the third 
 person in speaking of the Traveller, but an occasional lapse 
 into the first. All these characteristics are strikingly indicative 
 of the unrevised product of dictation, and many of them would 
 necessarily disappear either in translation or in a revised copy. 
 
 Of changes in representing the same proper name, take 
 as an example that of the Kaan of Persia whom Polo calls 
 Qniacatn (Kaikhatu), but also Acatit , Catu, and the like. 
 
 As an example of the literal following of dictation take 
 the following :— 
 
 “ Let us leave Rosia, and I will tell you about the Great Sea (the 
 Euxine), and what provinces and nations lie round about it, all in detail ; 
 
 and we will begin with Constantinople-First, however, I should tell 
 
 you about a province, &c. . . . 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.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. 
 
 “ At the Straits leading into the Great Sea, on the West Side, there is a 
 
 hill called the Faro.-But since beginning 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.” (See vol. II. pp. 418 seqq.) 
 
 And so on. 
 
 As a specimen of tautology and hammering reiteration the 
 
 accounts yearly to the Safators of the Great Kaan. This is certainly an Oriental 
 word, and probably represents Hisabdar “an accountant.” 
 
THE OLD FRENCH TEXT. 
 
 cxi 
 
 following can scarcely be surpassed. The Traveller is speak¬ 
 ing of the Chughi , i.e. y the Indian Jogis :— 
 
 “ And there are among them certain devotees, called Chughij these 
 are longer-lived than the other people, for they live from 150 to 200 years ; 
 and yet they are so hale of body that they can go and come wheresoever 
 they please, and do all the service needed for their monastery or their 
 idols, and do it just as well as if they were younger ; and that comes of 
 the great abstinence that they practise, in eating little food and only what 
 is wholesome ; for they use to eat rice and milk more than anything else. 
 And again I tell you that these Chughi who live such a long time as I have 
 told you, do also eat what I am going to tell you, and you will think it a 
 great matter. For I tell you that they take quicksilver and sulphur, and 
 mix them together, and make a drink of them, and then they drink this, 
 and they. say that it adds to their life ; and in fact they do live much 
 longer for it ; and I tell you that they do this twice every month. And 
 let me tell you that these people use this drink from their infancy in order 
 to live longer, and without fail those who live so long as I have told you 
 use this drink of sulphur and quicksilver.” (See G. T. p. 213.) 
 
 Such talk as this does not survive the solvent of trans¬ 
 lation ; and we may be certain that we have here the nearest 
 approach to the Traveller’s reminiscences as they were taken 
 down from his lips in the prison of Genoa. 
 
 53. Another circumstance, heretofore I believe unnoticed, is 
 in itself enough to demonstrate the Geographic Text to be the 
 source of all other versions of the Work. It is this. Conclusive 
 
 In reviewing the various classes or types of texts the°oid at 
 of Polo’s Book, which we shall hereafter attempt to is the source 
 
 ,. . . . . G . 1 ofaUthe 
 
 discriminate, there are certain proper names which others, 
 we find in the different texts to take very different forms, 
 each class adhering in the main to one particular form. 
 
 Thus the names of the Mongol ladies introduced at p. 30, 
 31 of this volume, which are in proper Oriental form Bulughan 
 and Kukachin , appear in the class of MSS. which Pauthier 
 has followed as Bolgara and Cogatra; in the MSS. of Pipino’s 
 version, and those founded on it, including Ramusio, the names 
 appear in the correcter forms Bolgana or Balgana and Cogacin. 
 Now all the forms Bolgana, Balgana, Bolgara, and Cogatra, 
 Cocacin appear in the Geographic Text. 
 
 Kaikhatu Kaan appears in the Pauthier MSS. as Chiato , 
 in the Pipinian as Acatu , in the Ramusian as Chiacato. All 
 three forms , Chiato, Achatu, and Quiacatu are found in the 
 Geographic Text. 
 
 The city of Koh-banan appears in the Pauthier MSS. as 
 
CX11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Cabanant , in the Pipinian and Ramusian editions as Cobinam 
 or Cobinan. Both forms are found in the Geographic Text. 
 
 The city of the Great Kaan (Khanbalig) is called in the 
 Pauthier MSS. Cambaluc , in the Pipinian and Ramusian less 
 correctly Cambalu. Both forms appear in the Geographic Text. 
 
 The aboriginal People on the Burmese Frontier who re¬ 
 ceived from the Western officers of the Mongols the Persian 
 name (translated from that applied by the Chinese) of Zar- 
 danddn , or Gold-Teeth, appear in the Pauthier MSS. most 
 accurately as Zardandan, but in the Pipinian as Ardandan 
 (still further corrupted in some copies into Arcladam). Now 
 both forms are found in the Geographic Text. Other examples 
 might be given, but these I think may suffice to prove that 
 this Text was the common source of both classes. 
 
 In considering the question of the French original too we 
 must remember what has been already said regarding Rusti- 
 cien de Pise and his other French writings ; and we shall find 
 hereafter an express testimony borne in the next generation 
 that Marco’s Book was composed in Vulgari Gallico. 
 
 54. But, after all, the circumstantial evidence that has been 
 adduced from the texts themselves is the most conclusive. We 
 Greatly dif- have then every reason to believe both that the work 
 pioyment of was written in French, and that an existing French 
 
 French in . . . .... 
 
 that age. I ext is a close representation 01 it as originally 
 committed to paper. And that being so we may cite some 
 circumstances to show that the use of French or quasi-French 
 for the purpose was not a fact of a very unusual or surprising 
 nature. The French language had at that time almost as 
 wide, perhaps relatively a wider, diffusion than it has now. 
 It was still spoken at the Court of England, and still used by 
 many English writers, of whom the authors or translators of 
 the Round Table romances at Henry Ill’s Court are exam¬ 
 ples.* At certain of the Oxford Colleges as late as 1328 it 
 was an order that the students should converse colloquio latino 
 
 * Luces de Gast, one of the first of these introduces himself thus :—“ Je Luces, 
 Chevaliers et Sires du Chastel du Gast, voisins prochains de Salebieres, comrae 
 chevaliers amoureus enprens a translater du Latin en Frangois une partie de cette 
 estoire ; non mie pour ce que je sache gramrnent de Francis, ainz appartient plus 
 ma langue et ma parleure a la maniere de l’Engleterre que a celle de France, 
 comme cel qui fu en Engleterre nez, mais tele est ma volentez et mon proposement, 
 que je en langue franfoise le translaterai ” [Hist. Litt. de la France , xv. 494). 
 
EMPLOYMENT OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 
 
 CXlll 
 
 vel saltern gallico. * Late in the same century Gower had not 
 ceased to use French, composing many poems in it, though 
 apologizing for his want of skill therein :—- 
 
 “ Et si jeo nai de Francois la faconde 
 
 * v * * 
 
 Jeo suis Englois ; si quier par tiele voie 
 
 Estre excuse.” f 
 
 Indeed down to nearly 1385 boys in the English grammar- 
 schools were taught to construe their Latin lessons into 
 French. J St. Francis of Assisi is said by some of his bio¬ 
 graphers to have had his original name changed to Francesco 
 because of his early mastery of that language as a qualifica¬ 
 tion for commerce. French had been the prevalent tongue of 
 the Crusaders, and was that of the numerous Frank Courts 
 which they established in the East, including Jerusalem and 
 the states of the Syrian coast, Cyprus, Constantinople during 
 the reign of the Courtenays, and the principalities of the 
 Morea. The Catalan soldier and chronicler Ramon de Mun- 
 taner tells us that it was commonly said of the Morean 
 chivalry that they spoke as good French as at Paris. § Quasi- 
 French at least was still spoken half a century later by the 
 numerous Christians settled at Aleppo, as John Marignolli tes¬ 
 tifies ; || and if we may trust Sir John Maundevile the Soldan 
 of Egypt himself and four of his chief Lords “ spak Frensche 
 righte wel!”*\ Ghazan Kaan, the accomplished Mongol 
 Sovereign of Persia, to whom our Traveller conveyed a bride 
 from Cambaluc, is said by the historian Rashiduddin to have 
 known something of the Frank tongue, probably French.** 
 Nay, if we may trust the author of the Romance of Richard 
 Coeur-de-Lion, French was in his day the language of still 
 higher spheres ! tt 
 
 * Hist. Litt. de la France , xv. 500. f Ibid. 508. 
 
 X Tyrwhitt’s Essay on Lang., <&c. of Chaucer, p. xxii. (Moxon’s Ed. 1852.) 
 
 § Chroniques Etrangeres, p. 5 ° 2 - 
 
 I] ‘* Loquuntur linguam quasi Gallicam, scilicet quasi de Cipro .' 1 ' 1 (See Cathay, 
 p. 352). 1 P. 138. ** Hammer’s Ilchan. II. 148. 
 
 tf After the capture of Acre, Richard orders 60,000 Saracen prisoners to be 
 executed :— 
 
 ‘ They wer brought out off the toun 
 Save twenty he heeld to raunsoun. 
 They wer led into the Place full evene ; 
 Ther they herden Aungels off Hevene, 
 
 They sayde: ‘ Seynyors, tuez, tuez ! 
 
 ‘ Spares hem nought! Behedith these ! ’ 
 King Rycharde herde the Aungelys voys 
 And thankyd God and the Holy Croys.” 
 
 — Weber, II. 144. 
 
 Note that, from the rhyme, the Angelic French was apparently pronounced 
 “ Too-eese ! Too-eese ! ” 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 k 
 
CXV1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Text of which we have already said so much. This is 
 found nowhere complete except in the unique MS. of the 
 Paris Library, to which it is stated to have come from 
 the old Library of the French Kings at Blois. But the Ita¬ 
 lian Crusca , and the old Latin version (No. 3195 of the Paris 
 Library) published with the Geographic Text are evidently 
 derived entirely from it, though both are considerably abridged. 
 It is also demonstrable that neither of these copies has been 
 translated from the other, for each has passages which the 
 other omits, but that both have been taken, the one as a copy 
 more or less loose, the other as a translation, from an inter¬ 
 mediate Italian copy.* A special difference lies in the fact 
 
 * In the following citations, the Geographic Text (G.T.) is quoted by page 
 from the printed edition (1824) ; the Latin published in the same volume (G.L.) 
 also by page ; the Crusca, as before, from Bartoli’s edition of 1863. References 
 in parentheses are to the present translation :— 
 
 A. Passages showing the G.L. to be a translation from the Italian, and derived from 
 the same Italian text as the Crusca. 
 
 Page 
 
 (1) . G.T. 17 (I. 43 )- 
 
 Crusca, 17 
 G.L. 311 
 
 (2) . G.T. 23 („ 65). 
 
 
 Crusca, 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 G.L. 
 
 316 
 
 
 ( 3 ). 
 
 G.T. 
 
 198 
 
 (II. 254). 
 
 
 Crusca, 
 
 253 
 
 
 
 G.L. 
 
 448 
 
 
 ( 4 ). 
 
 Crusca, 
 
 52 
 
 (I. 150). 
 
 
 G.L. 
 
 332 
 
 
 ( 5 ). 
 
 G.T. 
 
 124 
 
 (II. 22). 
 
 
 Crusca, 
 
 162- 
 
 -3 •• 
 
 
 G.L. 
 
 396 
 
 
 (6). 
 
 G.T. 
 
 146 
 
 („ 82). 
 
 
 Crusca, 
 
 , 189 
 
 
 
 G.L. 
 
 411 
 
 
 11 hi se laborent le souran tapis dou monde. 
 
 E quivi si fanno i sovrani tappeti del mondo. 
 
 Et ibi hunt soriani et tapeti pulcriores de mundo. 
 
 Et adonc le calif mande partuit les cristienz . . . 
 qui en sa tere estoient. 
 
 Ora mando lo califfo per tutti gli Cristiani clterano 
 di la. 
 
 Or misit califfus pro Cristianis qui erant ultra fluvium 
 (the last words being clearly a misunderstanding 
 of the Italian di la. 
 
 Ont sosimain (sesamum) de coi il font le olio. 
 
 Hanno sosimani onde fanno 1 ’ olio. 
 
 Habeiit turpes manus (taking sosimani for sozze mani 
 “ dirty hands ” !) 
 
 Cacciare et uccellare v’ e lo migliore del mondo. 
 
 Et est ibi optimum caciare et uccellare. 
 
 Adonc treuve . . . . un Provence qe est encore de le 
 confin dou Mangi. 
 
 L’ uomo truova una Provincia clt e chiamata ancora 
 delle confine di Mangi. 
 
 Invenit unam Provinciam quae vacatur Anchota de 
 confmibus Mangi. 
 
 Les dames portent as jambes et es braces braciaus 
 d’or et d’argent de grandisme vaillance. 
 
 Le donne portano alle braccia e alle gambe bracciali 
 dPro e d’ariento di gran valuta. 
 
 Dominae eorum portant ad bracia et ad gambas brazalia 
 de auro et de argento magni valoris. 
 
VARIOUS TYPES OF THE TEXT. 
 
 cxvii 
 
 that the Latin version is divided into three Books, whilst the 
 Crusca has no such division. I shall show in a tabular form 
 the filiation of the texts which these facts seem to demon¬ 
 strate (see Appendix G). 
 
 There are other Italian MSS. of this type, some of which 
 show signs of having been derived independently from the 
 French ;* but I have not been able to examine any of them with 
 the care needful to make specific deductions regarding them. 
 
 56. II. The next Type is that of the French MSS. on 
 which M. Pauthier’s Text is based, and for which he claims 
 the highest authority, as having had the mature re- SeC ond; 
 vision and sanction of the Traveller. There are, as modelled 
 far as I know, five MSS. which may be classed to- Texlffoi- 
 gether under this type, three in the Great Paris pa^lhie? 
 Library, one at Bern, and one in the Bodleian. 
 
 The high claims made by Pauthier on behalf of this class 
 of MSS. (on the first three of which his Text is formed) rest 
 mainly upon the kind of certificate which two of them bear 
 regarding the presentation of a copy by Marco Polo to Thi- 
 bault de Cepoy, which we have already quoted {supra, p. xcvi). 
 This certificate is held by Pauthier to imply that the original 
 of the copies which bear it, and of those having a general 
 
 B. Passages showing additionally the errors, or other pecitliarities of a translation 
 from a French original , common to the Italian and the Latin. 
 
 Page 
 
 (7) . G.T. 32 ( I. 91). 
 
 Crusca, 35 
 G.L. 322 
 
 (8) . G.T. 32 (,,104). 
 
 Crusca, 40 
 G.L. 324 
 
 (9) . G.T. 18 („ 49 ). 
 
 Crusca, 20 
 G.L. 312 
 
 Est celle plaingne mout chaue (chaude). 
 
 Questo piano e molto cavo. 
 
 Ista planities est multum cava. 
 
 Avent porceque I’eiue hi est amer. 
 
 E questo e per lo mare che vi viene. 
 
 Istud est propter mare quod est ibi. 
 
 Un roi qi est apeles par tout tens Davit Melic qi veut 
 a dire en fransois Davit Roi. 
 
 Uno re il quale si chiama sempre David Melic, cio e 
 a dire in francesco David Re. 
 
 Rex qui sejnper vocatur David Mellic quod sonat in 
 gallic0 David Rex. 
 
 These passages, and many more that might be quoted, seem to me to demon¬ 
 strate (1) that the Latin and the Crusca have had a common original, and (2) that 
 this original was an Italian version from the French. 
 
 * Thus the Pucci MS. at Florence, in the passage regarding the Golden King 
 (vol. ii. p. 8) which begins in G. T. ‘ ‘ Leqnel fist faire jadis un rois qe fu appeles 
 Roi d'Or, renders “ Lo quale fa fare Jaddis uno ref a mistake which is not in the 
 Crusca nor in the Latin, and seems to imply derivation from the French directly, 
 or by some other channel ( Baldello-Boni ). 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxviii 
 
 correspondence with them, had the special seal of Marco’s 
 revision and approval. To some considerable extent their 
 character is corroborative of such a claim, but they are far 
 from having the perfection which Pauthier attributes to them, 
 and which leads him into many paradoxes. 
 
 It is not possible to interpret rigidly the bearing of this so- 
 called certificate, as if no copies had previously been taken of 
 any form of the Book ; nor can we allow it to impugn the 
 authenticity of the Geographic Text, which demonstratively 
 represents an older original, and has been (as we have seen) 
 the parent of all other versions, including some very old ones, 
 Italian and Latin, which certainly owe nothing to this revision. 
 
 The first idea apparently entertained by M. D’Avezac and 
 M. Paulin-Paris was that the Geographic Text was itself the 
 copy given to the Sieur de Cepoy, and that the differences 
 in the copies of the class which we describe as Type II. 
 merely resulted from the modifications which would naturally 
 arise in the process of transcription into purer French. But 
 closer examination showed the differences to be too great and 
 too marked to admit of this explanation. These differences 
 consist not only in the conversion of the rude, obscure, and 
 half Italian language of the original into good French of the 
 period. There is also very considerable curtailment, generally 
 of tautology, but also extending often to circumstances of 
 substantial interest; whilst we observe the omission of a few 
 notably erroneous statements or expressions ; and a few in¬ 
 sertions of small importance. None of the MSS. of this class 
 contain more than a few of the historical chapters which we 
 have formed into Book IV. 
 
 The only addition of any magnitude is that chapter which 
 in our Translation forms chapter xxi. of Book II. It will be 
 seen that it contains no new facts, but is only a tedious recapi¬ 
 tulation of circumstances already stated, though scattered over 
 several chapters. There are a few minor additions. I have 
 not thought it worth while to collect them systematically 
 here, but two or three examples are given in a note.* 
 
 * In the Prologue (vol. i. p. 32) this class of MSS. alone names the King of 
 England. 
 
 In the account of the Battle with Nayan (i. p. 301) this class alone speaks of 
 the two-stringed instruments which the Tartars played whilst awaiting the signal 
 for battle. But the circumstance appears elsewhere in the G. T. (p. 250). In 
 
VARIOUS TYPES OF THE TEXT. 
 
 CX1X 
 
 There are also one or two corrections of erroneous state¬ 
 ments in the G. T. which seem not to be accidental and to 
 indicate some attempt at revision. Thus a notable error in 
 the account of Aden, which seems to conceive of the Red Sea 
 as a river , disappears in Pauthier’s MSS. A and BA And we 
 find in these MSS. one or two interesting names preserved 
 which are not found in the older Text.j 
 
 But on the other hand this class of MSS. contains many- 
 erroneous readings of names, either adopting the worse of two 
 forms occurring in the G. T. or originating blunders of its 
 own.J 
 
 M. Pauthier lays great stress on the character of these 
 MSS. as the sole authentic form of the work, from their claim 
 to have been specially revised by Marco Polo. It is evident, 
 however, from what has been said, that this revision can have 
 been only a very careless and superficial one, and must have 
 been done in great measure by deputy, being almost entirely 
 confined to curtailment and to the improvement of the ex¬ 
 pression, and that it is by no means such as to allow an editor 
 to dispense with a careful study of the Older Text. 
 
 57. There is another curious circumstance about the MSS. 
 of this type, viz., that they clearly divide into two distinct re¬ 
 censions, of which both have so many peculiarities TheBern 
 and errors in common that they must necessarily Mothers 
 have been both derived from one modification of the cSofthis 
 original text, whilst at the same time there are such Type ' 
 
 In the chapter on Malabar (vol. ii. p; 325), it is said that the ships which go 
 with cargoes towards Alexandria are not one-tenth of those that go to the further 
 East. This is not in the older French. 
 
 In the chapter on Coilun (II. p. 312), we have a notice of the Columbine ginger 
 so celebrated in the middle ages, which is also absent from the older text. 
 
 * See vol. ii. p. 374. It is however remarkable that a like mistake is made 
 about the Persian Gulf (see I. 60, 61). Perhaps Polo thought in Persian, in which 
 the word darya means either sea or a large river . The same habit and the ambi¬ 
 guity of the Persian sher led him probably to his confusion of lions and tigers 
 (see I. 354). 
 
 t Such are Pasciai-Z>/> and Ariora Kesciemur (I. p. 93). 
 
 X Thus the MSS. of this type have elected the erroneous readings Bolgara, 
 Cogatra, Chiato , Cabanant , &c., instead of the correcter Bolgana , Cocacin , 
 Quiacatu , Cobinan , where the G.T. presents both (. supra , p. lxxviii). They read 
 Esanar for the correct Etzina ; Chascun for Casvin; Achalet for Acbalec; 
 Sardansu for Sindafu; Kayteu , Kayton , Sarcon for Zaiton or Caiton ; Soucat for 
 Locac,; Falec for Ferlec, and so on, the worse instead of the better. They make 
 the Mer Occeane into Mer Occident ; the wild asses ( asnes) of the Kerman Desert 
 into wild geese [oes;) the escoillez of Bengal (II. p. 79) into escoliers ; the giraffes 
 of Africa into girofles , or cloves, &c. &c. 
 
cxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 differences between the two as cannot be set down to the acci¬ 
 dents of transcription. Pauthier’s MSS. A and B (Nos. 16 and 
 15 of the List in Appendix F) form one of these subdivisions : 
 his C (No. 17 of the same list), Bern (No. 56), and Oxford 
 (No. 6), the other. Between A and B the differences are only 
 such as seem constantly to have arisen from the whims of 
 transcribers or their dialectic peculiarities. But between A 
 and B on the one side, and C on the other the differences are 
 much greater. The readings of proper names in C are often 
 superior, sometimes worse; but in the latter half of the work 
 especially it contains a number of substantial passages * which 
 are to be found in the G. T., but are altogether absent from 
 the MSS. A and B ; whilst in one case at least (the history of 
 the Siege of Saianfu, vol. ii. p. 121) it diverges considerably 
 from the G. T. as well as from A and B. t 
 
 I gather from the facts that the MS. C represents an older 
 form of the work than A and B. I should judge that the 
 latter had been derived from that older form but intentionally 
 modified from it. And as it is the MS. C, with its, copy at 
 Bern, that alone presents the certificate of derivation from the 
 Book given to the Sieur de Cepoy, there can be no doubt 
 that it is the true representative of that recension. 
 
 58. The next Type of Text is that found in Friar Pipino’s 
 Latin version. It is the type of which MSS. are by far the 
 most numerous. In it condensation and curtailment 
 are carried a good deal further than in Type II. The 
 work is also divided into three Books. But this divi¬ 
 sion does not seem to have originated with Pipino, as we find 
 it in the ruder and perhaps older Latin version of which we 
 have already spoken under Type I. And we have demon¬ 
 strated that this ruder Latin is a translation from an Italian 
 copy. It is probable therefore that an Italian version simi¬ 
 larly divided was the common source of what we call the 
 Geographic Latin and of Pipino’s more condensed version.^: 
 
 Third : 
 
 Friar Pi¬ 
 pino’s Latin. 
 
 * There are about five and thirty such passages altogether, 
 f The Bern MS. I have satisfied myself is an actual copy of the Paris MS. C. 
 The Oxford MS. closely resembles both, but I have not made the comparison 
 minutely enough to say if it is an exact copy of either. 
 
 J The following comparison will also show that these two Latin versions have 
 probably had a common source, such as is here suggested. 
 
 At the end of the Prologue the Geographic Text reads simply :— “ Or 
 
VARIOUS TYPES OF THE TEXT. 
 
 cxxi 
 
 Pipino’s version appears to have been executed in the later 
 years of Polo’s life.* But I can see no ground for the idea 
 entertained by Baldello-Boni and Professor Bianconi that it 
 was executed with Polo’s cognizance and retouched by him. 
 
 59. The absence of effective publication in the Middle Ages 
 led to a curious complication of translation and retranslation. 
 Thus the Latin version published by Grynaeus in the The Latirf 
 Novus Orbis f is different from Pipino’s, and yet is ^tSfsktlon 
 clearly traceable to it as a foundation. In fact it is a atfifthhand - 
 retranslation into Latin from some version (Marsden thinks 
 the printed Portuguese one) of Pipino. It introduces many 
 minor modifications, omitting specific statements of numbers 
 and values, generalizing the names and descriptions of specific 
 animals, exhibiting frequent sciolism and self-sufficiency in 
 modifying statements which the Editor supposed to be fic¬ 
 tions. | It is therefore utterly worthless as a Text, and it is 
 curious that Andreas Muller, who in the 17th century devoted 
 himself to the careful editing of Polo, should have made so un¬ 
 fortunate a choice as to reproduce this fifth-hand Translation. 
 I may add that the French editions published in the middle of 
 the 16th century are translations from Grynaeus. Hence they 
 complete this curious circle of translation : French—Italian— 
 Pipino’s Latin—Portuguese ?—Grynaeus’s Latin—French ! 
 
 60. IV. We now come to a Type of Text which deviates 
 
 “ Or puis que je voz ai contez tot le fat dou prolegue ensi con voz aves 01, 
 adonc (comencerai) le Livre.” 
 
 Whilst the Geographic Latin has :— 
 
 ‘ ‘ Post quam recitavimus et diximus facta et conditiones nostrorum itinerum, 
 et ea quae nobis contigerunt per vias, incipiemus dicere ea quae vidimus. Et primo 
 de Minori HarmeniaP 
 And Pipino :— 
 
 ‘ ‘ Narratione facta nostri itineris , nunc ad ea narranda quae vidimus acceda- 
 mus. Primo autem Armeniam Minorem describemus breviter. ” 
 
 * Friar Francesco Pipino of Bologna, a Dominican, is known also as the 
 author of a lengthy chronicle from the time of the Frank Kings down to 1314 ; of 
 a Latin Translation of the French History of the Conquest of the Holy Land, by 
 Bernard the Treasurer; and of a short Itinerary of a Pilgrimage to Palestine in 
 1320. Extracts from the Chronicle, and the version of Bernard, are printed in 
 Muratori’s Collection. As Pipino states himself to have executed the translation 
 of Polo by order of his Superiors, it is probable that the task was set him at a 
 general chapter of the order which was held at Bologna in 1315 (see Muratori , IX. 
 583 ; and Quetif Script. Ord. Praed. I. 539 )- We do not know what ground 
 Ramusio had for assigning the translation specifically to 1320, but he may have 
 had authority, 
 f Basle, 1532. 
 
 J See Bianconi , 1st Mem. 29 seqq. 
 
CXX11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 largely from any of those hitherto spoken of, and the history 
 and true character of which are involved in a cloud 
 
 Ramusio’s of difficulty. 
 
 We mean that Italian version prepared for the 
 press by G. B. Ramusio, with most interesting, though, as we 
 have seen, not always accurate preliminary dissertations, and 
 published at Venice two years after his death, in the second 
 volume of the Navigationi e Viaggi * 
 
 The peculiarities of this version are very remarkable. 
 Ramusio seems to imply that he used as one basis at least the 
 Latin of Pipino ; and many circumstances, such as the division 
 into Books, the absence of the terminal historical chapters and 
 of those about the Magi, and the form of many proper names, 
 confirm this. But also many additional circumstances and 
 anecdotes are introduced, many of the names assume a new 
 form, and the whole style is more copious and literary in 
 character than in any other form of the work. 
 
 Whilst some of the changes or interpolations seem to carry 
 us further from the truth, others contain facts of Asiatic 
 nature or history, as well as of Polo’s own experiences, which 
 it is extremely difficult to ascribe to any hand but the Tra¬ 
 veller’s own. This was the view taken by Baldello, Klaproth, 
 and Neumann ;f but Hugh Murray, Lazari, and Bartoli regard 
 the changes as interpolations by another hand ; and Lazari 
 is rash enough to ascribe the whole to a rifacimento of Ramu¬ 
 sio’s own age, asserting it to contain interpolations not merely 
 from Polo’s own contemporary Hayton, but also from tra¬ 
 vellers of later centuries, such as Conti, Barbosa, and Pigafetta. 
 
 * The Ramusios were a family of note in literature for several generations. 
 Paulo, the father of Gian Battista, came originally from Rimini to Venice in 1458, 
 and had a great repute as a jurist, besides being a litterateur of some eminence, as 
 was also his younger brother Girolamo. G. B. Ramusio was born at Treviso in 1485, 
 and early entered the public service. In 1533 he became one of the Secretaries of 
 the Council of X. He was especially devoted to geographical studies, and had 
 a school for such studies in his house. He retired eventually from public duties, 
 and lived at his Villa Ramusia, near Padua. He died in the latter city, 10th July, 
 1557, but was buried at Venice in the Church of S. Maria dell’ Orto. There was 
 a portrait of him by Paul Veronese in the Hall of the Great Council, but it 
 perished in the fire of 1577 ; and that which is now seen in the Sala dello Scudo 
 is, like the companion portrait of Marco Polo, imaginary. Paulo Ramusio, his 
 son, was the author of the well-known History of the Capture of Constantinople 
 ( Cicogna , II. 310 seqq.). 
 
 f The old French texts were unknown in Marsden’s time. Hence this cjuestion 
 did not present itself to him. 
 
RAMUSIO’S ITALIAN VERSION. 
 
 CXX1U 
 
 The grounds for these last assertions have not been cited, nor 
 can I trace them. But I admit to a certain extent indications 
 of modern tampering with the text, especially in cases where 
 proper names seem to have been identified and more modern 
 forms substituted. In days, however, where an Editor’s 
 duties were ill understood this was natural. 
 
 61. Thus we find substituted for the Bastra (or Baser a) of 
 the older texts the more modern and incorrect Balsora , dear 
 to memories of the Arabian Nights ; among the pro¬ 
 vinces of Persia we have Spaan (Ispahan) where older tamperings 
 texts read Istanit; for Cormos we have Ormus; for 
 Herminia and Laias, Armenia and Giazza ; Coulam for the 
 older Coilum; Socotera for Scotra. With these changes may 
 be classed the chapter-headings, which are undisguisedly 
 modern, and probably Ramusio’s own. In some other cases 
 this editorial spirit has been over meddlesome and has gone 
 astray. Thus Malabar is substituted wrongly for Maabar in 
 one place, and by a still grosser error for Dalivar in another. 
 The age of young Marco, at the time of his father’s first return 
 to Venice, has been arbitrarily altered from 15 to 19, in order 
 to correspond wfith a date which is itself erroneous. Thus 
 also Polo is made to describe Ormus as on an island, con¬ 
 trary to the old texts and to the fact ; for the city of Hormuz 
 was not transferred to the island, afterwards so famous, for 
 some years after Polo’s return from the East. It is probably 
 also the editor who in the notice of the oil-springs of Caucasus 
 (I. p. 46) has substituted camel-loads for ship-loads, in ignorance 
 that the site of those alluded to was probably Baku on the 
 Caspian. 
 
 Other erroneous statements, such as the introduction of 
 window glass as one of the embellishments of the palace 
 at Cambaluc, are probably due only to accidental misunder¬ 
 standing. 
 
 62. Of circumstances certainly genuine, which are peculiar 
 to this edition of Polo’s work, and which it is difficult to assign 
 to any one but himself, we may note the specification Genuine 
 of the woods east of Yezd as composed of date-trees 
 
 (vol. i. pp. 84, 85) ; the unmistakable allusion to the Ramusl °- 
 subterranean irrigation channels of Persia (p. 115) ; the accurate 
 explanation of the term Mulehet applied to the sect of Assassins 
 (p. 133); the mention of the Lake (Sirikul) on the plateau of 
 
CXX1V 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Pamer, of the wolves that prey on the wild sheep, and of the 
 piles of wild ram’s horns used as landmarks in the snow (pp. 
 163-167). To the description of the Tibetan Yak, which is in 
 all the texts, Ramusio’s version alone adds a fact probably not 
 recorded again till the present century, viz., that it is the prac¬ 
 tice to cross the Yak with the common cow (p. 241). Ramusio 
 alone notices the prevalence of goitre at Yarkand, confirmed 
 by recent travellers (I. p. 173) ; the vermilion seal of the 
 Great Kaan imprinted on the paper currency, which may be 
 seen in our plates of Chinese notes (p. 379) ; the variation in 
 Chinese dialects (II. p. 186) ; the division of the hulls of junks 
 into water-tight compartments (II. p. 195) ; the introduction 
 into China from Egypt of the art of refining sugar (II. p. 180). 
 Ramusio’s account of the position of the city of Sindafu 
 (Chingtufu) encompassed and intersected by many branches of 
 a great river (II. p. 15), is much more just than that in the old 
 texts which speaks of but one river through the middle of the 
 city. The intelligent notices of the Kaan’s charities as 
 originated by his adoption of “ idolatry ” or Buddhism ; of the 
 astrological superstitions of the Chinese, and of the manners 
 and character of the latter nation, are found in Ramusio alone. 
 To whom but Marco himself, or one of his party, can we refer 
 the brief but vivid picture of the delicious atmosphere and 
 scenery of the Badakhshan plateaux (I. pp. 150, 151), and of 
 the benefit that Messer Marco’s health derived from a visit to 
 them ? In this version alone again we have an account of the 
 oppressions exercised by Kublai’s Mahomedan Minister 
 Ahmad, telling how the Cathayans rose against him and 
 murdered him, with the addition that Messer Marco was on 
 the spot when all this happened. Now not only is the whole 
 story in substantial accordance with the Chinese Annals, even 
 to the name of the chief conspirator,* but those annals also 
 
 * IVangcheu in the Chinese Annals ; Vanchu in Ramusio. I assume that 
 Polo’s Vanchu was pronounced as in English ; for in Venetian the ch very often 
 has that sound. But I confess that I can adduce no other instance in Ramusio 
 where I suppose it to have this sound, except the doubtful ones Chinchintalas and 
 Choiach (see II. 300). 
 
 Professor Bianconi who has treated the questions connected with the Texts of 
 Polo with honest enthusiasm and laborious detail, will admit nothing genuine in 
 the Ramusian interpolations beyond the preservation of some oral traditions of 
 Polo’s supplementary recollections. But such a theory is out of the question in 
 face of a chapter like that on Ahmad. 
 
RAMUSIO’S ITALIAN VERSION. 
 
 cxxv 
 
 tell of the courageous frankness of “ Polo, assessor of the Privy 
 Council,” in opening the Kaan’s eyes to the truth. 
 
 Many more such examples might be adduced, but these 
 will suffice. It is true that many of the passages peculiar to 
 the Ramusian version, and indeed the whole version, show a 
 freer utterance and more of a literary faculty than we should 
 attribute to Polo, judging from the earlier texts. It is possible, 
 however, that this may be almost, if not entirely, due to the 
 fact that the version is the result of a double translation, and 
 probably of an editorial fusion of several documents ; processes 
 in which angularities of expression would be dissolved.* 
 
 63. Though difficulties will certainly remain,! the most 
 
 * Old Purchas appears to have greatly relished Ramusio’s comparative 
 lucidity : “I found (says he) this Booke translated by Master Hakluyt out of the 
 Latine ( i.e . among Hakluyt’s MS. collections). But where the blind leade the blind 
 both fall: as here corrupt Latine could not but yeeld a corruption of truth in 
 English. Ramusio, Secretarie to the Decemviri in Venice, found a better copie 
 and published the same, whence you have the worke in manner new : so renewed 
 that I have found the Proverbe true, that it is better to pull downe an old house 
 and to build it anew, than to repaire it; as I also should have done, had I knowne 
 that which in the event I found. The Latine is Latten, compared to Ramusio’s 
 Gold. And hee which hath the Latine hath but Marco Polo’s carkasse or not so 
 much, but a few bones, yea sometimes stones rather than bones : things divers, 
 
 averse, adverse, perverted in matter, disjoynted in manner, beyond beliefe. I have 
 
 seene some authors maymed, but never any so mangled and so mingled, so present 
 and so absent, as the vulgar Latine of Marco Polo ; not so like himselfe as the 
 
 Three Polo’s were at their returne to Venice where none knew them. 
 
 Much are wee beholden to Ramusio for restoring this Pole and Load-starre of Asia 
 out of the mirie poole or puddle in which he lay drouned.” (III. p. 65.) 
 
 f Of these difficulties the following are some of the more prominent :— 
 
 1. The mention of the death of Kublai (see note 7, p. 36 of this volume!, whilst 
 throughout the book Polo speaks of Kublai as if still reigning. 
 
 2. Mr. Hugh Murray objects that whilst in the old texts Polo appears to look 
 on Kublai with reverence as a faultless Prince, in the Ramusian we find passages 
 of an opposite tendency, as in the chapter about Ahmad. 
 
 3. The same editor points to the manner in which one of the Ramusian 
 additions represents the traveller to have visited the Palace of the Chinese Kings 
 at Kinsay, which he conceives to be inconsistent with Marco’s position as an 
 official of the Mongol Government (see vol. ii. p. 165). 
 
 If we could conceive the Ramusian additions to have been originally notes 
 written by old Maffeo Polo on his nephew’s book, this hypothesis would remove 
 almost all difficulty. 
 
 One passage in Ramusio seems to bear a reference to the date at which these 
 interpolated notes were amalgamated with the original. In the chapter on Sa¬ 
 markand (I. p. 170) the conversion of the Prince Chagatai is said in the old texts 
 to have occurred “not a great while ago ” (il ne a encoregrament de tens). But in 
 Ramusio the supposed event is fixed at “ one hundred and twenty-five years since.” 
 This number could not have been uttered with reference to 1298, the year of the 
 dictation at Genoa, nor to any year of Polo’s own life. Hence it is probable that 
 the original note contained a date or definite term which was altered by the 
 compiler to suit the date of his own compilation, some time in the 14th century. 
 
CXXV1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 probable explanation of the origin of this text seems to me to 
 
 be some such hypothesis as the following :—I suppose 
 Hypo thesis that p 0 l 0 i n his latter years added with his own hand 
 
 sources of , , . . -it 
 
 the Ramu- supplementary notes and reminiscences, marginally 
 
 sian Version. . .... i 
 
 or otherwise, to a copy of his book ; that these, per¬ 
 haps in his lifetime, more probably after his death, were 
 digested and translated into Latin ;* and that Ramusio, or 
 some friend of his, in retranslating and fusing them with Pipino’s 
 version for the Navigationi, made those minor modifications 
 in names and other matters which we have already noticed. 
 The mere facts of digestion from memoranda and double 
 translation would account for a good deal of unintentional 
 corruption. 
 
 That more than one version was employed in the com¬ 
 position of Ramusio’s edition we have curious proof in at least 
 one passage of the latter. We have pointed out at p. 364 of 
 this volume a curious example of misunderstanding of the old 
 French Text, a passage in which the term Roi des Pelaines, or 
 “ King of Furs,” is applied to the Sable, and which in the 
 Crusca has been converted into an imaginary Tartar phrase 
 Leroide pelame , or as Pipino makes it Rondes (another indica¬ 
 tion that Pipino’s Version and the Crusca passed through a 
 common medium). But Ramusio exhibits both the true reading 
 and the perversion : “ E li Tartari la chiamano Regina delle 
 pelli ” (there is the true reading) “ E gli animali si chiamano 
 Rondes ” (and there the perverted one). 
 
 We may further remark that Ramusio’s version betrays 
 indications that one of its bases either was in the Venetian 
 dialect, or had passed through that dialect; for a good many 
 of the names appear in Venetian forms, eg., substituting the z 
 for the sound of ch,j, or soft g, as in Goza, Zorzania, Zagatay , 
 Gonza (for Giogiu), Quenzanfu , Coiganzu , Tapinzu , Zipangu , 
 Z iamb a. 
 
 64. To sum up. It is, I think, beyond reasonable dispute 
 
 * In the first edition of Ramusio the preface contained the following passage, 
 which is omitted from the succeeding editions ; but as even the first edition was 
 issued after Ramusio’s own death, I do not see that any stress can be laid on this : 
 “ A copy of the Book of Marco Polo, as it was originally written in Latin, mar¬ 
 vellously old, and perhaps directly copied from the original as it came from 
 M. Marco’s own hand, has been often consulted by me and compared with that 
 which we now publish, having been lent me by a nobleman of this city, belonging 
 to the Ca’ Ghisi.” 
 
RAMUSIO’S ITALIAN VERSION. 
 
 CXXVll 
 
 that we have, in what we call the Geographic Text, as nearly 
 as may be an exact transcript of the Traveller’s Summary 
 words as originally taken down in the prison of jjjT«tof 
 Genoa. We have again in the MSS. of the second Pol °- 
 type an edition pruned and refined, probably under instructions 
 from Marco Polo, but not with any critical exactness. And 
 lastly, I believe, that we have, imbedded in the Ramusian 
 edition, the supplementary recollections of the Traveller, noted 
 down at a later period of his life, but perplexed by repeated 
 translation, compilation, and editorial mishandling. 
 
 And the most important remaining problem in regard to 
 the text of Polo’s work is the discovery of the supplemental 
 manuscript from which Ramusio derived those passages which 
 are found only in his edition. It is possible that it may still 
 exist, but no trace of it in any thing like completeness has yet 
 been found ; though when my task was all but done I dis¬ 
 covered a small part of the Ramusian peculiarities in a MS. 
 at Venice.* 
 
 * For a moment I thought I had been lucky enough to light on a part of the 
 missing original of Ramusio in the Barberini Library at Rome. A fragment of a 
 Venetian version in that library (No. 49 in our list of MSS.) bore on the fly leaf 
 the title “ Alcuniprimi capi del Libro di S. Marco Polo , copiate daW esemplare mano- 
 scritto di PAOLO RANNUSIOP But it proved to be of no importance. One 
 brief passage of those which have been thought peculiar to Ramusio ; viz., the 
 reference to the Martyrdom of St. Blaize at Sebaste (see p. 44 of this volume), is 
 found also in the Geographic Latin. 
 
 And I have pointed out at p. 59, after Lazari, that another passage, of those 
 otherwise peculiar to Ramusio, is found in a somewhat abridged Latin version in a 
 MS. which belonged to the late eminent antiquary Emanuel Cicogna (see List in 
 Appendix F, No. 29). This fact induced me when recently at Venice to examine 
 the MS. throughout, and, though I could give little time to it, the result was very 
 curious. 
 
 I find that this MS. contains, not one only, but at least seveii of the passages 
 otherwise peculiar to Ramusio, and must have been one of the elements that went 
 to the formation of his text. Yet of his more important interpolations, such as the 
 chapter on Ahmad’s oppressions and the additional matter on the City of Kinsay, 
 there is no indication. The seven passages alluded to are as follows ; the words 
 corresponding to Ramusian peculiarities are in italics, the references are to my 
 own volumes. 
 
 1. In the chapter on Georgia : 
 
 “ Mare quod dicitur Gheluchelan vel ABACI/” . . . 
 
 “ Est ejus stricta via et dubia. Ab una parte est mare quod dixi de ABACU 
 et ab alia nemora invia,” &c. (See i. 50, 51, and note 8 at p. 56). 
 
 2. “ Et ibi optimi austures dicti A VIGI ” (i. 50). 
 
 3. After the chapter on Mosul is another short chapter, already alluded to : 
 
 “ Prope hanc civitatem [est) alia provincia dicta MUS e MEREDIEN in qud 
 nascitur magna quantitas boinbacis, et hie fiunt bocharini et alia multa , et sunt mer- 
 catores homines et artiste ” (see i. p. 59)* 
 
 4. In the chapter on Tarcan (for Carcan, i. e., Yarkand) : 
 
 “Et 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxviii 
 
 65. Whilst upon this subject of manuscripts of our Author, 
 
 I will give some particulars regarding a very curious one, con¬ 
 taining a version in the Irish language. 
 
 XT . , This remarkable document is found in the Book 
 
 Notice of a 
 
 Version o r f sh °f Lismore , belonging to the Duke of Devonshire. 
 Pdo. That magnificent book, finely written on vellum of 
 the largest size, was discovered in 1814, enclosed in a wooden 
 box, along with a superb crozier, on opening a closed doorway 
 in the castle of Lismore. It contained Lives of the Saints, 
 the (Romance) History of Charlemagne, the History of the 
 Lombards, histories and tales of Irish wars, &c., &c., and 
 among the other matter this version of Marco Polo. A full 
 account of the Book and its mutilations will be found in 
 O’Curry’s Lectures on the MS. Materials of Irish History, 
 pp. 196 seqq. The Book of Lismore was written about 1460 
 for Finghin MacCarthy and his wife Catharine Fitzgerald, 
 daughter of Gerald, Eighth Earl of Desmond. 
 
 The date of the Translation of Polo is not known, but it 
 may be supposed to have been executed about the above date, 
 probably in the Monastery of Lismore (county Waterford). 
 
 From the extracts that have been translated for me, it is 
 obvious that the version was made, with an astounding 
 freedom certainly, from Friar Francesco Pipino’s Latin. 
 
 Both beginning and end are missing. But what remains 
 opens thus ; compare it with Friar Pipino’s real prologue as 
 we give it in the Appendix ! * 
 
 “ tii5ujb 1 ©Ajffctf m cwdifi % b 4 i fvc 4 W 5 U 1 4 i) 4 ibj < c r^V tbter if) 
 cwctjft trj'Cd \)f . b4 eoluc *04 jf tydlplbeiiUib . bujt 
 
 tm 4 it)b 4 : g tm TT) 4 i , ce ncu-c icurr)5j'G p 4 ^)le 4 bo 2 'coclo'6 pcul 4 
 o , c[r) 54 i '6 r) 4 'C 4 'C 4 Rif '6 05 mzh )5 Ui'&dij'oo.” &e. 
 
 “ Et maior pars horum habent unum ex pedibus grossum et habent gosum hi 
 guld; et est hie fertilis contracta” (see I. p. 173). 
 
 5. In the Desert of Lop : 
 
 ‘ ‘ Homines trasseuntes appendunt bestiis suis capanullas [z. e. campanellas] ut 
 ipsas senciantet ne deviarepossint ” (I. p. 180). 
 
 6. “ Ciagannor, quod sonat in Latino STAGNUM ALBUM ” (I. p. 260). 
 
 7. “ Et in medio hujus viridarii est palacium sive logia, tota super columpnas. 
 Et in summitate cujuslibet columnce est draco magnus circundans totam columpnam , 
 et hie substinet eoruin cohoperturam cum ore et pedibus; et est cohopertura tota de 
 cannis hoc modo,” &c. (see I. p. 264). 
 
 * My valued friend Sir Arthur Phayre made known to me the passage in 
 O’Curry’s Lectures. I then procured the extracts and further particulars from 
 Mr. J. Long, Irish Transcriber and Translator in Dublin, who took them from the 
 Transcript of the Book of Lismore, in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy. 
 
IRISH VERSION OF POLO’S BOOK. 
 
 CXX1X 
 
 -“ Kings and chieftains of that city. There was then in the 
 
 city a princely Friar in the habit of St. Francis, named Franciscus, who 
 was versed in many languages. He was brought to the place where 
 those nobles were, and they requested of him to translate the book from 
 the Tartar (!) into the Latin language. ‘ It is an abomination to me,’ 
 said he, Ho devote my mind or labour to works of Idolatry and Irre- 
 ligion.’ They entreated him again. ‘ It shall be done,’ said he ; ‘ for 
 though it be an irreligious narrative that is related therein, yet the things 
 are miracles of the True God ; and every one who hears this much against 
 the Holy Faith shall pray fervently for their conversion. And he who 
 will not pray shall waste the vigour of his body to convert them.’ I am 
 not in dread of this Book of Marcus, for there is no lie in it. My eyes 
 beheld him bringing the relics of the holy Church with him, and he left 
 [his testimony], whilst tasting of death, that it was true. And Marcus 
 was a devout man. What is there in it, then, but that Franciscus trans¬ 
 lated this Book of Marcus from the Tartar into Latin ; and the years of 
 the Lord at that time were fifteen years, two score, two hundred, and one 
 thousand” (1255). 
 
 It then describes Armein Bee (Little Armenia), Armein 
 Mor (Great Armenia), Musul, Taurisius , Persida , Camandi , 
 and so forth. The last chapter is that on A baschia :— 
 
 “ Abaschia also is an extensive country, under the government of 
 Seven Kings, four of whom worship the true God, and each of' them 
 wears a golden cross on the forehead ; and they are valiant in battle, 
 having been brought up fighting against the Gentiles of the other three 
 kings, who are Unbelievers and Idolaters. And the kingdom of Aden ; 
 a Soudan rules over them. 
 
 “ The king of Abaschia once took a notion to make a pilgrimage to 
 the Sepulchre of Jesus. ‘ Not at all,’ said his nobles and warriors to him, 
 ‘for we should be afraid lest the infidels through whose territories you 
 would have to pass, should kill you. There is a Holy Bishop with you,’ 
 said they; ‘send him to the Sepulchre of Jesus, and much gold with 
 him’”-. 
 
 The rest is wanting. 
 
 XI. Some Estimate of the Character of Polo and his Book. 
 
 66. That Marco Polo has been so universally recognized 
 as the King of Medieval Travellers is due rather to the width 
 of his experience, the vast compass of his journeys, Groundsof 
 and the romantic nature of his personal history, than em°nince~ 
 to transcendent superiority of character or capacity. ^Silvai 
 The generation immediately preceding his own travellers - 
 has bequeathed to us, in the Report of the French Friar 
 vol. 1. i 
 
cxxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 William de Rubruquis,* on the Mission with which St. Lewis 
 charged him to the Tartar Courts, the narrative of one great 
 journey, which, in its rich detail, its vivid pictures, its acuteness 
 of observation and strong good sense, seems to me to form a 
 Book of Travels of much higher claims than any one series of 
 Polo’s chapters ; a book, indeed, which has never had justice 
 done to it, for it has few superiors in the whole Library of 
 Travel. 
 
 Enthusiastic Biographers, beginning with Ramusio, have 
 placed Polo on the same platform with Columbus. But where 
 has our Venetian Traveller left behind him any trace of the 
 genius and lofty enthusiasm, the ardent and justified pre¬ 
 visions which mark the great Admiral as one of the lights of 
 the human race ? t It is a juster praise that the spur which 
 his Book eventually gave to geographical studies, and the 
 beacons which it hung out at the Eastern extremities of the 
 Earth helped to guide the aims, though scarcely to kindle the 
 fire, of the greater son of the rival Republic. His work was 
 at least a link in the Providential chain which at last dragged 
 the New World to light.J 
 
 * M. D’Avezac has convincingly refuted the common supposition that this 
 Friar was a Fleming rather than a Frenchman. But I cannot give the reference. 
 
 f High as Marco’s name deserves to be set, his place is not beside the writer 
 of such burning words as these addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella ; “ From the 
 most tender age I went to sea, and to this day I have continued to do so. Who¬ 
 soever devotes himself to this craft must desire to know the secrets of Nature here 
 below. For 40 years now have I thus been engaged, and wherever man has sailed 
 hitherto on the face of the sea, thither have I sailed also. I have been in constant 
 relation with men of learning, whether ecclesiastic or secular, Latins and Greeks, 
 Jews and Moors, and men of many a sect besides. To accomplish this my longing 
 (to know the Secrets of the World) I found the Lord favourable to my purposes ; 
 it is He who hath given me the needful disposition and understanding. He 
 bestowed upon me abundantly the knowledge of seamanship ; and of Astronomy 
 
 he gave me enough to work withal, and so with Geometry and Arithmetic. 
 
 In the days of my youth I studied works of all kinds, history, chronicles, philo¬ 
 sophy, and other arts, and to apprehend these the Lord opened my understanding. 
 Under His manifest guidance I navigated hence to the Indies ; for it was the Lord 
 who gave me the will to accomplish that task, and it was in the ardour of that will 
 that I came before your Highnesses. All those who heard of my project scouted 
 and derided it; all the acquirements I have mentioned stood me in no stead ; and 
 if in your Highnesses, and in you alone, Faith and Constancy endured, to Whom 
 are due the Lights that have enlightened you as well as me, but to the Holy 
 Spirit?” (Quoted in Humboldt 1 s Ex amen Critique , I. 17, 18.) 
 
 % M. Libri however speaks too strongly when he says : "‘The finest of all the 
 results due to the influence of Marco Polo is that of having stirred Columbus to 
 the discovery of the New World. Columbus, jealous of Polo’s laurels, spent his 
 life in preparing means to get to that Zipangu of which the Venetian traveller had 
 
SOME ESTIMATE OF POLO AND HIS BOOK. cxxxi 
 
 67. Surely Marco’s real, indisputable, and, in their kind, 
 unique claims to glory may suffice! He was the first Tra¬ 
 veller to trace a route across the whole longitude 
 of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after king- ckL^to 
 dom which he had seen with his own eyes ; the Deserts §I ° ry * 
 of Persia, the flowering plateaux and wild gorges of Badakh- 
 SHAN, the jade-bearing rivers of Khotan, the MONGOLIAN 
 Steppes, cradle of the power that had so lately threatened to 
 swallow up Christendom, the new and brilliant Court that had 
 been established at CAMBALUC : The first Traveller to reveal 
 China m all its wealth and vastness, its mighty rivers, its huge 
 cities, its rich manufactures , its swarming population, the incon¬ 
 ceivably vast fleets that quickened its seas and its inland waters ; 
 to tell us of the nations on its borders with all their eccentricities 
 of manners and worship , of Tibet with its sordid devotees, of 
 Burma with its golden pagodas and their tinkling crowns , 
 of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin China, of Japan, the Eastern 
 Thule, with its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces ; the first 
 to speak of that Museum of Beauty and Wonder, still so imper¬ 
 fectly ransacked, the INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, source of those 
 aromatics then so highly prized and whose origin was so dark ; 
 of Java the Pearl of Islands; of Sumatra with its many 
 kings, its strange costly products, and its cannibal races ; of the 
 naked savages of Nicobar and Andaman/ of Ceylon 
 the Isle of Gems with its Sacred Mountain and its Tomb of 
 Adam ; of INDIA THE GREAT, not as a dream-land of Alex¬ 
 andrian fables but as a country seen and partially explored, with 
 its virtuous Brahmans, its obscene ascetics, its diamonds and the 
 
 told such great things ; his desire was to reach China by sailing westward, and in 
 his way he fell in with America” (H. des Sciences Mathem. &c. II. 150). 
 
 The fact seems to be that Columbus knew of Polo’s revelations only at second 
 hand, from the letters of the Florentine Toscanelli and the like ; and I cannot find 
 that he ever refers to Polo by name. Though to the day of his death he was full of 
 imaginations about Zipangu and the land of the Great Kaan as being in immediate 
 proximity to his discoveries, these were but accidents of his great theory. It was 
 the intense conviction he had acquired of the absolute smallness of the Earth, of 
 the vast extension of Asia eastward, and of the consequent narrowness of the 
 Western Ocean on which his life’s project was based. This conviction he seems 
 to have derived chiefly from the works of the Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly. But the 
 latter borrowed his collected arguments from Roger Bacon, who has stated them, 
 erroneous as they are, very forcibly in his Opus Majus (p. 137), as Humboldt has 
 noticed in his Examen (vol. i. p. 64). The Spanish historian Mariana makes a 
 strange jumble of the alleged guides of Columbus, saying that some ascribed his 
 convictions to “ the information given by one Marco Polo , a Florentine physician /” 
 (Quoted in Markham?s Garcilasso de la Vega, p. 26.) 
 
 I 2 
 
CXXX11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 strange tales of their acquisition , its sea-beds of pearl , and its 
 powerful sun ; the first in medieval times to give any distinct 
 account of the secluded Christian Empire of ABYSSINIA, and 
 the semi-Christian Island of SOCOTRA ; to speak , though indeed 
 dimly , of ZANGIBAR with its negroes and its ivory , and of the 
 vast and distant MADAGASCAR, bordering on the Dark Ocean of 
 the South, with its Rue and other monstrosities; and , in a 
 remotely opposite region , of Siberia and the ARCTIC OCEAN, 
 of dog-sledges, white bears , and reindeer-riding Tunguses. 
 
 That all this rich catalogue of discoveries should belong to 
 the revelations of one Man and one Book is surely ample 
 enough to account for and to justify the Author’s high place 
 in the roll of Fame,* and there can be no need to exaggerate 
 his greatness, or to invest him with imaginary attributes.* 
 
 68 . What manner of man was Ser Marco ? It is a question 
 hard to answer. Some critics cry out against personal detail 
 , in books of Travel; but as regards him who would 
 attributes no t welcome a little more egotism! In his Book 
 
 seen but o 
 
 dimiy. impersonality is carried to excess ; and we are often 
 driven to discern by indirect and doubtful indications alone, 
 whether he is speaking of a place from personal knowledge or 
 only from hearsay. In truth, though there are delightful 
 exceptions, and nearly every part of the book suggests inter¬ 
 esting questions, a desperate meagreness and baldness does 
 extend over considerable tracts of the story. In fact his book 
 reminds us sometimes of his own description of Khorasan :—• 
 “ On chevauche par beaus plains et belles costieres, la oil il a moult 
 beaus herbages et bonne pasture et fruis asses , .... et aucune 
 fois y treuve ten un desert de soixante milles ou de mains , esquel 
 desers ne treuve ten point d'eaue: mais la convient porter o lui !” 
 
 Still, some shadowy image of the man may be seen in the 
 Book ; a practical man, brave, shrewd, prudent, keen in affairs, 
 and never losing his interest in mercantile details, very fond of 
 the chase, sparing of speech ; with a deep wondering respect for 
 Saints, even though they be Pagan Saints, and their asceticism, 
 but a contempt for Patarins and such like, whose consciences 
 would not run in customary grooves, and on his own part a keen 
 appreciation of the World’s pomps and vanities. See, on the 
 
 * “ C’est diminuer l’expression d’un eloge que de l’exaggerer” {Humboldt, 
 Ex amen. III. 13). 
 
SOME ESTIMATE OF POLO AND HIS BOOK. CXXXlll 
 
 one hand, his undisguised admiration of the hard life and long 
 fastings of Sakya Muni; and on the other how enthusiastic he 
 gets in speaking of the great Kaan’s command of the good 
 things of the world, but above all of his matchless oppor¬ 
 tunities of sport !* 
 
 Of humour there are hardly any signs in his Book. His 
 almost solitary joke (I know but one more, and it pertains to the 
 ov/c avrjKovra) occurs in speaking of the Kaan’s paper-money, 
 when he observes that Kublai might be said to have the true 
 Philosopher’s Stone, for he made his money at pleasure out of 
 the bark of Trees.f Even the oddest eccentricities of out¬ 
 landish tribes scarcely seem to disturb his gravity ; as when 
 he relates in his brief way of the people called Gold-Teeth on 
 the frontier of Burma, that ludicrous custom which Mr. Tylor 
 has so well illustrated under the name of the Couvade. There 
 is more savour of laughter in the few lines of a Greek Epic, 
 which relate precisely the same custom of a people on the 
 Euxine:— 
 
 -“In the Tibarenian Land 
 
 When some good woman bears her lord a babe, 
 
 Tis he is swathed and groaning put to bed ; 
 
 Whilst she , arising, tends his baths, and serves 
 Nice possets for her husband in the straw.” J 
 
 69. Of scientific notions, such as we find in the unvera- 
 cious Maundevile, we have no trace in truthful Marco. The 
 former, “lying with a circumstance,” tell us boldly 
 that he was in 33 0 of South Latitude ; the latter is scientific 
 full of wonder that some of the Indian Islands 
 where he had been lay so far to the south that you lost sight 
 of the Pole Star. When it rises again on his horizon he esti¬ 
 mates the Latitude by the Pole-star’s being so many cubits 
 high. So the gallant Baber speaks of the sun having mounted 
 spear-high when the onset of battle began at Paniput. Such 
 expressions convey no notion at all to such as have had their 
 ideas sophisticated by angular perceptions of altitude, but 
 similar expressions are common among Orientals, and indeed 
 I have heard them from educated Englishmen. I11 another 
 place Marco states regarding certain islands in the Northern 
 
 * See vol. ii. p. 258, and vol. i. p. 359. f Vol. i. p. 378. 
 
 % Vol. ii. p. 52, and Apollonius Rhodius , Argonaut. II. 1012. 
 
CXXX1V 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ocean that they lie so very far to the north that in going 
 thither one actually leaves the Pole-star a trifle behind towards 
 the south ; a statement to which we know only one parallel, 
 to wit in the voyage of that adventurous Dutch skipper who 
 told Master Moxon, King Charles II.’s Hydrographer, that he 
 had sailed two degrees beyond the Pole ! 
 
 70. The Book, however, is full of bearings and distances, 
 and I have thought it worth while to construct a map from its 
 indications, in order to get some approximation to 
 stnicSTon Polo’s own idea of the face of that world which he 
 
 Polo’s data. . ., 
 
 had traversed so extensively. I here are three allu¬ 
 sions to maps in the course of his work.* 
 
 In his own bearings, at least on land journeys, he usually 
 carries us along a great general traverse line, without much 
 caring about small changes of direction. Thus on the great 
 outward journey from the frontier of Persia to that of China, 
 the line runs almost continuously “ entre Levant et Grec ” or 
 E.N.E. In his journey from Cambaluc or Peking to Mien or 
 Burma, it is always Ponent or W. ; and in that from Peking to 
 Zayton in Fokien, the port of embarkation for India, it is 
 Sceloc or S.E. The line of bearings in which he deviates most 
 widely from truth is that of the cities on the Arabian Coast 
 from Aden to Hormuz, which he makes to run steadily vers 
 Maistre or N.W., a conception which it has not been very easy 
 to realize on the map. t 
 
 * See vol. ii. pp. 192, 253, and 356. 
 
 f The map, perhaps, gives too favourable an idea of Marco’s geographical 
 conceptions. For in such a construction much has to be supplied for which there 
 are no data, and that is apt to take mould from modern knowledge. Just as in 
 the book-illustrations of sixty years ago we find that Princesses of Abyssinia, 
 damsels of Otaheite, and Beauties of Mary Stuart’s Court have all somehow a 
 savour of the high waists, low foreheads, and tight garments of 1810. 
 
 We are told that Prince Pedro of Portugal in 1426 received from the Signory 
 of Venice a map which was supposed to be either an original or a copy of one by 
 Marco Polo’s own hand (. Major's P. Henry, p. 62). There is no evidence to justify 
 any absolute expression of disbelief; and if any map-maker with the spirit of the 
 author of the Carta Catalana then dwelt in Venice, Polo certainly could not have 
 gone to his grave uncatechized. But I should suspect the map to have been a copy 
 of the old one that existed in the Sala dello Scudo of the Ducal Palace. 
 
 The maps now to be seen painted on the walls of that Hall, and on which 
 Polo’s route is marked, are not of any great interest. But in the middle of the 
 fifteenth century there was an old Descriptio Orbis sive Mappamundus in the Hall, 
 and when the apartment was renewed in 1459 a decree of the Senate ordered that 
 such a map should be repainted on the new walls. This also perished by a fire in 
 1483. On the motion of Ramusio, in the next century, four new maps were 
 painted. These had become dingy and ragged, when, in 1762, the Doge Marco 
 
Ponent 
 
 Probable View 
 
 OF 
 
 Marco Polo s ownOeooraphy 
 
 Levant 
 
SOME ESTIMATE OF POLO AND HIS BOOK, cxxxv 
 
 71. In the early part of the Book we are told that Marco 
 acquired several of the languages current in the Mongol 
 Empire, and no less than four written characters, singular 
 We have discussed what these are likely to have ofPdK 
 been (I. p. 27), and have given a decided opinion chma^Hb- 
 
 . torical inac- 
 
 that Chinese was not one of them. Besides intrinsic curacies, 
 improbability, and positive indications of Marco’s ignorance 
 of Chinese, in no respect is his book so defective as in regard 
 to Chinese manners and peculiarities. The use of Tea, though 
 he travelled through the Tea districts of Fokien, is never 
 mentioned; the compressed feet of the women and the 
 employment of the fishing cormorant, both mentioned by Friar 
 Odoric, the contemporary of his later years, artificial egg¬ 
 hatching, printing of books (though the notice of this art seems 
 positively challenged in his account of paper-money), besides a 
 score of remarkable arts and customs which one would have 
 expected to recur to his memory, are never alluded to. 
 Neither does he speak of the great characteristic of the 
 Chinese writing. It is difficult to account for these omissions, 
 especially considering the comparative fullness with which he 
 treats the manners of the Tartars and of the Southern Hin¬ 
 doos; but the impression remains that his associations in China 
 were chiefly with foreigners. Wherever the place he speaks 
 of had a Tartar or Persian name he uses that rather than the 
 Chinese one. Thus Cathay, Cambaluc, Pulisanghin, Tangut, 
 Chagannur, Saianfu, Kenjanfu, Tendue, Acbalec, Carajan, Zar- 
 dandan , Z ay ton, Kemenfu, Brins, Car amor an, Chorcha, Juju, 
 are all Mongol, Turki, or Persian forms, though all have 
 Chinese equivalents.* 
 
 In reference to the then recent history of Asia, Marco is 
 
 Foscarini caused them to be renewed by the painter Francesco Grisellini. He 
 professed to have adhered closely to the old maps, but he certainly did not, as 
 Morelli testifies. Eastern Asia looks as if based on a work of Ramusio’s age, 
 but Western Asia is of undoubtedly modern character (see Operetti di Iacopo 
 Morelli, Ven. 1820, I. 299). 
 
 * It is probable that Persian, which had long been the language of Turanian 
 courts, was also the common tongue of foreigners at that of the Mongols. Puli¬ 
 sanghin and Zardandan, in the preceding list, are pure Persian. So are several of 
 the Oriental phrases noted at p. cix. See also notes on Ondanique and Vernique 
 at pp. 87 and 340 of this volume, on Tacuin at p. 400, and a note at p. cxix, 
 supra. The narratives of Odoric, and others of the early travellers to Cathay, 
 afford corroborative examples. Lord Stanley of Aiderley, in one of his contribu¬ 
 tions to the Hakluyt Series, has given evidence from experience that Chinese 
 Mahomedans still preserve the knowledge of numerous Persian words. 
 
CXXXV1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 often inaccurate, e.g ., in his account of the death of Chinghiz, 
 in the list of his successors, and in his statement of the relation¬ 
 ship between notable members of that House. But the most 
 perplexing knot in the whole book lies in the interesting 
 account which be gives of the Siege of Sayanfu or Siangyang, 
 during the subjugation of Southern China by Kublai. I have 
 entered on this matter in the notes (vol. ii. p. 129), and will 
 only say here that M. Pauthier’s solution of the difficulty is no 
 solution, being absolutely inconsistent with the story as told 
 by Marco himself, and that I see none ; though I have so 
 much faith in Marco’s veracity that I am loath to believe that 
 the facts admit of no reconciliation. 
 
 Our faint attempt to appreciate some of Marco’s qualities, 
 as gathered from his work, will seem far below the very high 
 estimates that have been pronounced, not only by some who 
 have delighted rather to enlarge upon his fame than to make 
 themselves acquainted with his work,* but also by persons 
 whose studies and opinions have been worthy of all respect. 
 Our estimate, however, does not abate a jot of our intense 
 interest in his Book and affection for his memory. And we 
 have a strong feeling that, owing partly to his reticence, and 
 partly to the. great disadvantages under which the Book was 
 committed to writing, we have in it a singularly imperfect 
 image of the Man. 
 
 72. A question naturally suggests itself, how far Polo’s 
 narrative, at least in its expression, was modified by passing 
 under the pen of a professed litterateur of somewhat 
 
 Was Polo’s , . - „ . . 
 
 Book mate- humble claims, such as Kusticiano was. the case 
 fectedby is not a singular one, and in our own day the ill- 
 
 the Scribe & 
 
 Rusticiano? judged use of such assistance has been fatal to the 
 reputation of an adventurous Traveller. * 
 
 We have, however, already expressed our own view that in 
 the Geographic Text we have the nearest possible approach 
 
 * An example is seen in the voluminous A nnali Musulmani of G. B. Rampoldi , 
 Milan, 1825. This writer speaks of the Travels of Marco Polo with his brother and 
 uncle; declares that he visited Tipango (sic), Java, Ceylon, and the Maldives , col¬ 
 lected all the geographical notions of his age, traversed the two peninsulas of the 
 Indies, examined the islands of Socotra , Madagascar , Sofala, and traversed with 
 philosophic eye the regions of Zanguebar, Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt ! and so 
 forth (ix. 174). And whilst Malte-Brun bestows on Marco the sounding and 
 ridiculous title of “ the Hrimboldt of the 13 th century he shows no real acquaint¬ 
 ance with his Book (see his Precis, ed. of 1836, I. 551 seqq.). 
 
SOME ESTIMATE OF POLO AND HIS BOOK, cxxxvil 
 
 to a photographic impression of Marco’s oral narrative. If 
 there be an exception to this we should seek it in the descrip¬ 
 tions of battles, in which we find the narrator to fall constantly 
 into a certain vein of bombastic commonplaces, which look 
 like the stock phrases of a professed romancer, and which 
 indeed have a strong resemblance to the actual phraseology 
 of certain metrical romances.* Whether this feature be due 
 to Rusticiano I cannot say, but I have not been able to trace 
 anything of the same character in a cursory inspection of 
 some of his romance-compilations. Still one finds it im¬ 
 possible to conceive of our sober and reticent Messer Marco 
 pacing the floor of his Genoese dungeon, and seven times over 
 rolling out this magniloquent bombast, with sufficient delibera¬ 
 tion to be overtaken by the pen of the faithful amanuensis ! 
 
 73. On the other hand, though Marco, who had left home 
 at fifteen years of age, naturally shows very few signs of read¬ 
 ing, there are indications that he had read romances, Marco » s 
 especially those dealing with the fabulous adven- {JScedtST 
 tures of Alexander. Romanced 
 
 To these he refers explicitly or tacitly in his Exam P les * 
 notices of the Irongate and of Gog and Magog, in his allu¬ 
 sions to the marriage of Alexander with Darius’s daughter, 
 and to the battle between those two heroes, and in his repeated 
 mention of the Arbre Sol or Arbre Sec on the Khorasan 
 frontier. 
 
 The key to these allusions is to be found in that Legen¬ 
 dary History of Alexander, entirely distinct from the true 
 history of the Macedonian Conqueror, which in great measure 
 took the place of the latter in the imagination of East and 
 West for a thousand years. This fabulous history is believed 
 to be of Graeco-Egyptian origin, and in its earliest extant 
 compiled form, in the Greek of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, can 
 be traced back to at least about A.D. 200. From the Greek 
 its marvels spread eastward at an early date ; some part at 
 least of their matter was known to Moses of Chorene, in the 
 5th century ; they were translated into Armenian, Arabic, 
 Hebrew, and Syriac; and were reproduced in the verses of 
 
 * See for example vol. i. pp. 301, 302, and note 4 at p. 305 ; also vol. ii. 
 p. 67. The descriptions in the style referred to recur in all seven times; but most 
 of them (which are in Book IV.) have been omitted in this edition. 
 
CXXXV111 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Firdusi and various other Persian Poets ; spreading eventually 
 even to the Indian Archipelago, and finding utterance in 
 Malay and Siamese. At an early date they had been ren¬ 
 dered into Latin by Julius Valerius; but this work had pro¬ 
 bably been lost sight of, and it was in the tenth century that 
 they were re-imported from Byzantium to Italy by the Arch¬ 
 priest Leo, who had gone as Envoy to the Eastern Capital 
 from John Duke of Campania.* Romantic histories on this 
 foundation, in verse and prose, became diffused in all the 
 languages of Western Europe, from Spain to Scandinavia, 
 rivalling in popularity the romantic cycles of the Round Table 
 or of Charlemagne. Nor did this popularity cease till the 
 16th century was well advanced. 
 
 The heads of most of the Medieval Travellers were 
 crammed with these fables as genuine history, f And by the 
 help of that community of legend on this subject which they 
 found wherever Mahomedan literature had spread, Alexander 
 Magnus was to be traced everywhere in Asia. Friar Odoric 
 found Tana, near Bombay, to be the veritable City of King 
 Porus ; John Marignolli’s vain glory led him to imitate King 
 Alexander in setting up a marble column “ in the corner of 
 the world over against Paradise,” i. e., somewhere on the coast 
 of Travancore ; whilst Sir John Maundevile, with a cheaper 
 ambition, borrowed wonders from the Travels of Alexander 
 to adorn his own. 
 
 Prominent in all these stories is the tale of Alexander’s 
 shutting up a score of impure nations, at the head of which 
 were Gog and Magog, within a barrier of impassable moun¬ 
 tains, there to await the latter days, a legend with which the 
 disturbed mind of Europe not unnaturally connected that 
 cataclysm of unheard-of Pagans that seemed about to deluge 
 Christendom in the first half of the thirteenth century. In 
 these stories also the beautiful Roxana, who becomes the 
 bride of Alexander, is Dariuss daughter, bequeathed to his 
 arms by the dying monarch. Conspicuous among them again 
 is the Legend of the Oracular Trees of the Sun and Moon, 
 
 * Zacher, Forschungen zur Critik, &c., der Alexandersage, Halle, 1867, 
 p. 108. 
 
 f Even so sagacious a man as Roger Bacon quotes the fabulous letter of 
 Alexander to Aristotle as authentic (Opus Majus, p. 137). 
 
SOME ESTIMATE OF POLO AND HIS BOOK, cxxxix 
 
 which with audible voice foretel the place and manner of 
 Alexander’s death. With this Alexandrian legend some of 
 the later forms of the story had mixed up one of Christian 
 origin about the Dry Tree, LArbre Sec. And they had also 
 adopted the Oriental story of the Land of Darkness and the 
 mode of escape from it, which Polo relates at p. 416 of vol. ii. 
 
 74. We have seen in the most probable interpretation of 
 the nickname Milioni that Polo’s popular reputation in his 
 lifetime was of a questionable kind ; and a contem- injustice 
 
 long done to 
 
 porary chronicler, already quoted, has told us how on Polo. sin- 
 
 J x _ gular modern 
 
 his death-bed the Traveller was begged by anxious instance, 
 friends to retract his extraordinary stories.* * * § A little later one 
 who copied the Book “per passare tempo e malinconia ” says 
 frankly that he puts no faith in iff Sir Thomas Brown is 
 content “to carry a wary eye” in reading “ Paulus Venetus 
 but others of our countrymen in the last century express 
 strong doubts whether he ever was in Tartary or China. J 
 Marsden’s edition might well have extinguished the last 
 sparks of scepticism. Hammer meant praise in calling Polo 
 “ der Vater orientalischer Hodogetik ,” in spite of the uncouth¬ 
 ness of the eulogy. But another grave German writer, ten 
 years after Marsden’s publication, put forth in a serious book 
 that the whole story was a clumsy imposture! § 
 
 * See passage from Jacopo d’Acqui, supra, p. lxxxii. 
 
 t It is the transcriber of one of the Florence MSS. who appends this terminal 
 note :—-“Here ends the Book of Messer M. P. of Venice, written with mine own 
 hand by me Amalio Bonaguisi when Podesta of Cierreto Guidi, to get rid of time 
 and ennui. The contents seem to me incredible things, not lies so much as 
 miracles ; and it may be all very true what he says, but I don’t believe it ; though 
 to be sure throughout the world very different things are found in different coun¬ 
 tries. But these things, it has seemed to me in copying, are entertaining enough, 
 but not things to believe or put any faith in ; that at least is my opinion. And 
 I finished copying this at Cierreto aforesaid, 12th November, a.d. 1392.” 
 
 X Vulgar Errors, Bk. I. ch. viii. ; Astley's Voyages, IV. 583. 
 
 § See Stddtewesen des Mittelalters, by K. D. Hiillmann, Bonn, 1829, vol. iv. 
 
 After speaking of the Missions of Pope Innocent IV. and St. Lewis, this author 
 sketches the Travels of the Polos, and then proceeds :—“ Such are the clumsily 
 compiled contents of this ecclesiastical fiction disguised as a Book of Travels, a 
 thing devised generally in the spirit of the age, but specially in the interests of the 
 
 Clergy and of Trade. This compiler’s aim was analogous to that of the 
 
 inventor of the Song of Roland, to kindle enthusiasm for the conversion of 
 the Mongols, and so to facilitate commerce through their dominions. As¬ 
 
 suredly the Poli never got further than Great Bucharia, which was then reached 
 by many Italian Travellers. What they have related of the regions of the Mongol 
 Empire lying further east consists merely of recollections of the bazaar and travel- 
 lalk of traders from those countries ; whilst the notices of India, Persia, Arabia, 
 
cxl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XII. Contemporary Recognition of Polo and his Book. 
 
 75. But we must return for a little to Polo’s own times. 
 Ramusio states, as we have seen, that immediately after the 
 How far fi rs t comm i s sion °f Polo’s narrative to writing, (in 
 diffuskTnof Latin as he imagined), many copies of it were made, 
 his own day ? L was t rans l a t e d into the vulgar tongue, and in a 
 few months all Italy was full of it. 
 
 The few facts that we can collect seem scarcely to justify 
 this view of the rapid and diffused renown of the Traveller 
 and his Book. The number of MSS. of the latter dating 
 from the 14th century is no doubt considerable, but a large 
 proportion of these are of Pipino’s condensed Latin Transla¬ 
 tion, which was not put forth, if we can trust Ramusio, till 
 1320, and certainly not much earlier. The whole number of 
 MSS. in various languages that we have been able to register, 
 amounts to about seventy-five. I find it difficult to obtain 
 statistical data as to the comparative number of copies of dif¬ 
 ferent works existing in manuscript. With Dante’s great Poetry 
 of which there are reckoned close upon 500 MSS.,* comparison 
 would be inappropriate. But of the Travels of Friar Odoric, 
 a poor work indeed beside Marco Polo’s, I reckoned thirty- 
 nine MSS., and could now add at least three more to the list. 
 Also I find that of the nearly contemporary work of Brunetto 
 Latini, the Tresor , a sort of condensed Encyclopaedia of know¬ 
 ledge, but a work which one would scarcely have expected to 
 approach the popularity of Polo’s Book, the Editor enumerates 
 some fifty MSS. And from the great frequency with which 
 one encounters in Catalogues both MSS. and early printed edi¬ 
 tions of Sir John Maundevile, I should suppose that the lying 
 wonders of our English Knight had a far greater popularity 
 and more extensive diffusion than the veracious and more 
 sober marvels of Polo.f To Southern Italy Polo’s popularity 
 
 and Ethiopia, are borrowed from Arabic Works. The compiler no doubt carries 
 his audacity in fiction a long way, when he makes his hero Marcus assert that he 
 had been seventeen years in Kublai’s service,” &c.,'&c. (pp. 360-362). 
 
 * See Ferrazzi, Manuele Dantesca, Bassano, 1865, p. 729. 
 
 f In Quaritch’s last catalogue (Nov. 1870) there is only one old edition of 
 Polo ; there are nine of Maundevile. In 1839 there were nineteen MSS. of the 
 latter author catalogued in the British Museum Library. There are now only five 
 of Marco Polo. At least twenty-five editions of Maundevile and only five of Polo 
 were printed in the 15th century. 
 
CONTEMPORARY RECOGNITION. 
 
 cxli 
 
 certainly does not seem at any time to have extended. I can¬ 
 not learn that any MS. of his Book exists in any Library of 
 Naples or Sicily.* 
 
 Dante, who lived for twenty-three years after Marco’s 
 work was written, and who touches so many things in the 
 seen and unseen Worlds, never alludes to Polo, nor I think 
 to anything that can be connected with his Book. I believe 
 that no mention of Cathay occurs in the Divina Commedia. 
 That distant region is indeed mentioned more than once in 
 the poems of a humbler contemporary, Francesco da Bar- 
 berino, but there is nothing in his allusions besides this name 
 to suggest any knowledge of Polo’s work.t 
 
 Neither can I discover any trace of Polo or his work in 
 that of his contemporary and countryman, Marino Sanuto the 
 Elder, though this worthy is well acquainted with the some¬ 
 what later work of Hay ton, and many of the subjects which 
 
 * I have made personal inquiry at the National Libraries of Naples and Palermo, 
 at the Communal Library in the latter city, and at the Benedictine Libraries of Monte 
 Cassino, Monreale, S. Martino, and Catania. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, when Polo’s Book had become more generally diffused, 
 we find, three copies of it in the Catalogue of the Library of Charles VI. of France, 
 made at the Louvre in 1423, by order of the Duke of Bedford. 
 
 The estimates of value are curious. They are in sols parisis , of which ten, or 
 half a livre, may be reckoned equal to 9 s. 2d .:— 
 
 “ No. 295. Item Marcus Paulus; en ting cahier escript de lettre formee en 
 francois a deux coulombes. Commt. au ii. fo. ‘deux freres prescheurs,’ et ou 
 derrenier ‘ que sa arrieres.’ Xs. p. 
 
 * * * 
 
 “No. 334. Item Marcus Paulus. Convert de drap dor , Hen escript et enlu - 
 mine de lettre de forme francois , a deux coulombes. Commt. ou ii. fol. ‘ il fut 
 Roys, ’ et ou derrenier ‘ propremen. ’ A deux fermouers de laton. XV s. p. , 
 * * * 
 
 “ No. 336. Item Marcus Paulus, non enlumine escript en francois de lettre de 
 forme. Commt. ou ii.fo. ‘ vocata moult grant ’ et ou derrenier ‘ ilec dist il.’ 
 Couvert de cuir blanc. A deux fermouers de laton. XIIs.p. .” 
 
 {Inventaire de la Bibl. , &c., Paris, 1867.) 
 
 f See Del Regimento e de ’ Costumi delle Donne, di Messer Francesco da Barberino , 
 
 Roma, 1815, pp. 166 and 271. 
 
 This author was born the year before Dante (1264), and though he lived to 
 1348 it is probable that the poems in question were written in his earlier years. 
 Cathay was no doubt known by dim repute long before the final return of the Polos, 
 both through the original journey of Nicolo and Maffeo, and by information 
 gathered by the Missionary Friars. Indeed, in 1278 Pope Nicolas III., in con¬ 
 sequence of information said to have come from Abaka Khan of Persia, that 
 Kublai was a baptized Christian, sent a party of Franciscans with a long letter to 
 the Kaan Quobley , as he is termed. They never seem to have reached their 
 destination. And in 1289 Nicolas IV. intrusted a similar mission to Friar John of 
 Monte Corvino, which eventually led to very tangible results. Neither of the 
 Papal letters, however, mention Cathay (see Mosheim , App. pp. 76 and 94). 
 
cxlii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 he touches in his own book would seem to challenge a refer¬ 
 ence to Marco’s labours. 
 
 76. Of contemporary or nearly contemporary references to 
 Conten.po- our Traveller by name, the following are all that I 
 ence S re to er ' can produce, and none of them are new. 
 
 First there is the notice regarding his presenta¬ 
 tion of his book to Thibault de Cepoy, of which we need say 
 no more {supra, p. xcvi). 
 
 Next there is the Preface to Friar Pipino’s Translation, 
 which we give at length in the Appendix (E) to these 
 notices. The phraseology of this appears to imply that 
 Marco was still alive, and this agrees with the date as¬ 
 signed to the work by Ramusio. Pipino was also the author 
 of a Chronicle, of which a part was printed by Muratori, 
 and this contains chapters on the Tartar wars, the destruc¬ 
 tion of the Old Man of the Mountain, &c., derived from 
 Polo. A passage not printed by Muratori has been extracted 
 by Prof. Bianconi from a MS. of this Chronicle in the Modena 
 Library, and runs as follows :— 
 
 “ The matters which follow, concerning the magnificence of the Tartar 
 Emperors, whom in their language they call Cham as we have said, are 
 related by Marcus Paulus the Venetian in a certain Book of his which 
 has been translated by me into Latin out of the Lombardic Vernacular. 
 Having gained the notice of the Emperor himself and become attached 
 to his service, he passed nearly 27 years in the Tartar countries.”* 
 
 Again we have that mention of Marco by Friar Jacopo 
 d’Acqui, which we have quoted in connection with his capture 
 by the Genoese, at p. Ixxxii. And the Florentine historian 
 GIOVANNI Villani,! when alluding to the Tartars, says :— 
 
 “ Let him who would make full acquaintance with their history exa¬ 
 mine the book of Friar Hayton, Lord of Colcos in Armenia, which he 
 made at the instance of Pope Clement V., and also the Book called 
 Milione which was made by Messer Marco Polo of Venice, who tells 
 much about their power and dominion, having spent a long time among 
 them. And so let us quit the Tartars and return to our subject, the 
 History of Florence.” f 
 
 * See Muratori, IX. 583, seqq.; Bianconi, Mem. I. p. 37. 
 f G. Villani died in the great plague of 1348. But his book was begun soon 
 after Marco’s was written, for he states that it was the sight of the memorials of 
 greatness which he witnessed at Rome, during the Jubilee of 1300, that put it into 
 his head to write the history of the rising glories of Florence, and that he began 
 the work after his return home (Bk. VIII. ch. 36). J Book V. ch. 29. 
 
CONTEMPORARY RECOGNITION. 
 
 cxliii 
 
 77 - Lastly, we learn from a curious passage in a medical 
 work by PlETRO OF Abano, a celebrated physician and philo¬ 
 sopher, and a man of Polo’s own generation, that he 
 was personally acquainted with the Traveller. In a temporary"" 
 discussion on the old notion of the non-habitability of references - 
 the Equatorial regions, which Pietro controverts, he says :* 
 
 “ In the country of the Zingi there is seen a star as big as a sack. I 
 know a man who has seen it, and he told me it had a faint light like 
 a piece of a cloud, and is always in the south.f I have been told of this 
 and other matters by Marco the Venetian, the most extensive traveller 
 and the most diligent inquirer whom 
 I have ever known. He saw this same 
 star under the Antarctic ; he described 
 it as having a great tail, and drew a 
 figure of it thus. He also told me 
 that he saw the Antarctic Pole at an 
 altitude above the earth apparently 
 equal to the length of a soldier’s lance, 
 whilst the Arctic Pole was as much 
 below the horizon. ’Tis from that place, 
 he says, that they export to us camphor, 
 lign-aloes, and brazil. He says the 
 heat there is intense, and the habita¬ 
 tions few. And these things he witnessed in a certain Island at which 
 he arrived by Sea. He tells me also that there are (wild?) men there, 
 and also certain very great rams that have very coarse and stiff wool just 
 like the bristles of our pigs.” % 
 
 * Petri Aponensis Medici ac Philosophi Celeberrhni , Conciliator , Venice, 1521, 
 fol. 97. Peter was born in 1250 at Abano, near Padua, and was Professor of 
 Medicine at the University in the latter city. He twice fell into the claws of the 
 Unholy Office, and only escaped them by death in 1316. 
 
 f The great Magellanic cloud? In the account of Vincent Yanez Pinzon’s 
 Voyage to the S.W. in 1499 as given in Ramusio (III. 15) after Pietro Martire 
 d’Anghieria, it is said :—“ Taking the astrolabe in hand, and ascertaining the 
 Antarctic Pole, they did not see any star like our Pole Star ; but they related that 
 they saw another manner of stars very different from ours, and which they could 
 not clearly discern because of a certain dimness which diffused itself about those 
 stars, and obstructed the view of them.” 
 
 The great Magellan cloud is mentioned by an old Arab writer as a white blotch 
 at the foot of Canopus, visible in the Tehama along the Red Sea, but not in Nejd 
 or ’Irak. Humboldt, in quoting this, calculates that in a . d . 1000 the Great 
 Magellan would have been visible at Aden some degrees above the horizon 
 ( Exa?nen , V. 235). 
 
 X This passage contains points that are omitted in Polo’s book, besides the 
 drawing implied to be from Marco’s own hand ! The Island is of course Sumatra. 
 The animal is perhaps the peculiar Sumatran wild-goat, figured by Marsden, the 
 hair of which on the back is “ coarse and strong, almost like bristles ” ( Sumatra, 
 P- ii 5 )- 
 
cxliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In addition to these five I know no other contemporary 
 references to Polo, nor indeed any other within the 14th 
 century, though such there must surely be, excepting in a 
 Chronicle written after the middle of that century by John of 
 Ypres, Abbot of St. Bertin, otherwise known as Friar John 
 the Long, and himself a person of very high merit in the 
 history of Travel, as a precursor of the Ramusios Hakluyts 
 and Purchases, for he collected together and translated (when 
 needful) into French all of the most valuable works of 
 Eastern Travel and Geography produced in the age imme¬ 
 diately preceding his own* In his Chronicle the Abbot 
 speaks at some length of the adventures of the Polo Family, 
 concluding with a passage to which we have already had occa¬ 
 sion to refer: 
 
 “And so Messers Nicolaus and Maffeus, with certain Tartars were 
 sent a second time to these parts ; but Marcus Pauli was retained by 
 the Emperor and employed in his military service, abiding with him for a 
 space of 27 years. And the Cham, on account of his ability despatched 
 him upon affairs of his to various parts of Tartary and India and the 
 Islands, on which journeys he beheld many of the marvels of those 
 regions. And concerning these he afterwards composed a book in the 
 French vernacular, which said Book of Marvels, with others of the same 
 kind, we do possess.” ( Thesaur . Nov , Anecdot. III. 747.) 
 
 78. There is, however, a notable work which is ascribed to 
 a rather early date in the 14th century, and which, though it 
 contains no reference to Polo by name, shows a thorough 
 
 * A splendid example of Abbot John’s Collection is the Livre des Merveilles 
 of the Great French Library (No. 15 in our Appendix F). This contains Polo, 
 Odoric, William of Boldensel, the Book of the Estate of the Great Kaan by 
 the Archbishop of Soltania, Maundevile, Hayton, and Ricold of Montecroce, 
 of which all but Polo and Maundevile are French versions by this excellent 
 Long John. 
 
 It is a question for which there is sufficient ground, whether the Persian 
 Historians Rashiduddin and Wassaf, one or other or both, did not derive certain 
 information that appears in their histories, from Marco Polo personally, he having 
 spent many months in Persia, and at the Court of Tabriz, when either or both 
 may have been there. Such passages as that about the Cotton-trees of Guzerat 
 (vol. ii. p. 328, and note), those about the horse-trade with Maabar (ib. p. 276, 
 and note), about the brother-kings of that country (ib. p. 267), about the naked 
 savages of Necuveram (ib. pp. 248, 250), about the wild people of Sumatra calling 
 themselves subjects of the Great Kaan (ib. pp. 227, 235, 236, 241, 242), have so 
 strong a resemblance to parallel passages in one or both of the above historians, 
 as given in the first and third volumes of Elliot, that the probability, at least, 
 of the Persian writers having derived their information from Polo, might be fairly 
 maintained. 
 
CONTEMPORARY RECOGNITION. 
 
 cxlv 
 
 acquaintance with his book, and borrows themes largely from 
 it. This is the poetical Romance of Bauduin de Curious 
 Sebourg, an exceedingly clever and vivacious pro- fromPoiT 
 duction, partaking largely of that bantering, half- Romance of 
 mocking spirit which is, I believe, characteristic of de SeWg. 
 many of the later medieval French Romances.* Bauduin is 
 a knight who, after a very wild and loose youth, goes through 
 an extraordinary series of adventures, displaying great faith 
 and courage, and eventually becomes King of Jerusalem. I 
 will cite some of the traits evidently derived from our Traveller, 
 which I have met with in a short examination of this curious 
 work. 
 
 Bauduin, embarked on a dromond in the Indian Sea, is 
 wrecked in the territory of Baudas, and near a city called 
 Falise, which stands on the River of Baudas. The people of 
 this city were an unbelieving race. 
 
 “ II ne creoient Dieu, ne Mahon, ne Tervogant, 
 
 Ydole, cruchdfis, diable, ne tirant.” 
 
 Their only belief was this, that when a man died a great fire 
 should be made beside his tomb, in which should be burned 
 all his clothes, arms, and necessary furniture, whilst his horse 
 and servant should be put to death, and then the dead man 
 would have the benefit of all these useful properties in the 
 other world.t Moreover, if it was the king that died— 
 
 “ Se li Rois de la terre i aloit trespassant 
 ***** 
 
 Si fasoit on tuer viii. jour en un tenant, 
 
 Tout chiaus c’on encontroit par la chite passant 
 Pour tenir compaignie leur Signor soffisant; 
 
 Telle estoit le creanche au pais dont je cant! ” f 
 
 Bauduin arrives when the king has been dead three days, and 
 through dread of this custom all the people of the city are 
 
 * Li Romans de Bauduin de Sebourg, III. Roy de Jherusalem; Poeme du 
 XIV e Siecle j Valenciennes, 1841. 2 vols. I was indebted to two references of 
 
 M. Pauthier’s for knowledge of the existence of this work. He cites the legends 
 of the Mountain, and of the Stone of the Saracens from an abstract, but does not 
 seem to have consulted the work itself, nor to have been aware of the extent of its 
 borrowings from Marco Polo. M. Genin, from whose account Pauthier quotes, 
 ascribes the poem to an early date after the death of Philip the Fair (1314). See 
 Pauthier , pp. 57, 58, and 140. 
 
 f See Polo. vol. i. p. 185, and vol. ii. p. 151. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 X See Polo, vol. i. p. 217. 
 
 k 
 
cxlvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 shut up in their houses. He enters an inn, and helps himself 
 to a vast repast, having been fasting for three days. He is 
 then seized and carried before the king, Polibans by name. 
 We might have quoted this prince at p. ciii, as an instance of 
 the diffusion of the French tongue : 
 
 “ Polibans sot Fransois, car on le doctrina ; 
 j. renoies de Franche vij. ans i demora 
 Qui li aprist Fransois, si que bel en parla.” 
 
 Bauduin exclaims against their barbarous belief, and declares 
 the Christian doctrine to the king, who acknowledges good 
 points in it, but concludes : 
 
 “ Vassaus, dist Polibans, h la chiere hardie, 
 
 Ja ne crerrai vou Dieux, h nul jour de ma vie, 
 
 Ne vostre Loy ne vaut une pomrne pourie !” 
 
 Bauduin proposes to prove his Faith by fighting the prince, 
 himself unarmed, the latter with all his arms. The prince 
 agrees, but is rather dismayed at Bauduin’s confidence, and 
 desires his followers, in case of his own death, to burn with- 
 him horses, armour, &c., asking at the same time which of 
 them would consent to burn along with him, in order to be his 
 companions in the other world : 
 
 “ La en ot ii-c. dont chascuns s’dcria : 
 
 Nous morons volentiers, quant vo corps mort sara ! ” * 
 
 Bauduin’s prayer for help is miraculously granted ; Polibans 
 is beaten, and converted'by a vision. He tells Bauduin that 
 in his neighbourhood, beyond Baudas— 
 
 “ ou v. liewes ou vi. 
 
 Che un felles prinches, orgoeilleus et despis, 
 
 De la Rouge Montaingne est Prinches et Marchis. 
 
 Or vous dirai comment il a ses gens nouris. 
 
 Je vous dis que chius Roys a fait un Paradis 
 
 Tant noble et gratieus, et plains de tels delis 
 ***** 
 
 Car en che Paradis est un riex establis 
 Qui se partist en trois, en che noble pourpris ; 
 
 En l’un coert li clards, d’espises bien garnis ; 
 
 Et en 1 ’autre li mids, qui les a ressouffis ; 
 
 Et li vins di pieument i queant par droit avis— 
 
 »{s 5k sf; 
 
 See Polo, vol. ii. p. 276. 
 
CONTEMPORARY RECOGNITION. 
 
 cxlvii 
 
 II n’ i vente ne g£le. Che lids est de samis 
 De riches dras de soie, bien ouvrds a devis. 
 
 Et aveukes tout che que je chi vous devis, 
 
 I a ij-c. puchelles qui moult ont cler le vis 
 Carolans et tresquans, menans gales et ris ; 
 
 Et si est li Dieuesse, dame et suppellatis, 
 
 Qui doctrine les autres et en fais et en dis ; 
 
 Celle est la fille au Roy c’ on dist des Hans Assist * 
 
 This Lady Ivorine, the Old Mards daughter, is described 
 among other points as having— 
 
 11 Les iex vairs com faucons, nobles et agentis.” t 
 
 The King of the Mountain collects all the young male 
 children of the country, and has them brought up for nine or 
 ten years : 
 
 “ Dedens un lieu oscur : Ik les met-on toudis 
 Aveukes males bestes, kiens et cas et soris 
 Culo&res et lisaerdes, escorpions petis. 
 
 La endroit ne peut nuls avoir joie ne ris.” 
 
 And after this dreary life they are shown the Paradise, and 
 told that such shall be their portion if they do their Lord’s 
 behests : 
 
 “ S’il disoit k son homme : 4 Va ten droit a Paris ! 
 
 Si me her d’un coutel le Roy de Saint Denis ! ’ 
 
 Jamais n'aresteroit, ne par nuit ne par dis, 
 
 S’aroit tue le Roy, voiant tous ches marchis, 
 
 Et deuist estre a fources trainds et mal mis.” 
 
 Bauduin determines to see this Paradise and the lovely 
 Ivorine. The road led by Baudas : 
 
 “Or avoit a che tamps se l’histoire ne ment 
 En le chit de Baudas Kristiens, jusqu’h cent, 
 
 Qui manoient illoec par treu d’argent 
 Que cascuns cristiens au Roy-Calife rent. 
 
 Li peres du Calife, qui regna longement, 
 
 Ama les Crestiens, et Dieu premierement: 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Et lor fist establir j. monstier noble et gent, 
 
 Ou Crestien faisoient faire lor sacrement. 
 
 Une mout noble pierre lor donna proprement 
 Ou on avoit pose Mahon moult longement.f 
 
 * See Polo, vol. i. p. 132. Hashishi has got altered into Haus Assis. 
 t See vol. i. p. 319, note. % See vol. i. p. 174, note 1. 
 
cxlviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The story is, in fact, that which Marco relates of Samar¬ 
 kand* The Caliph dies. His son hates the Christians. His 
 people complain of the toleration of the Christians and their 
 minister; but he says his father had pledged him not to 
 interfere, and he dared not forswear himself. If, without 
 doing so, he could do them an ill turn, he would gladly. The 
 people then suggest their claim to the stone : 
 
 “ Or leur donna vos peres, dont che fu mesprisons. 
 
 Ceste pidrre, biaus Sire, Crestiens demandons : 
 
 II ne porront rendre, pour vrai le vous disons, 
 
 Si le monstiers n’est mis et par pieches et. par mons ; 
 
 Et s’il estoit desfais, jamais ne le larons 
 Refaire chi endroit. Ensement averons 
 Faites et acomplies nostres ententions.” 
 
 The Caliph accordingly sends for Maistre Thumas, the Priest 
 of the Christians, and tells him the stone must be given up : 
 
 “ II a c. ans et plus c’on i mist a solas 
 Mahon le nostre Dieu : dont che n’est mie estas 
 Que li vous monstiers soit fais de nostre harnas ! ” 
 
 Master Thomas, in great trouble, collects his flock, mounts the 
 pulpit, and announces the calamity. Bauduin and his convert 
 Polibans then arrive. Bauduin recommends confession, fast¬ 
 ing, and prayer. They follow his advice, and on the third day 
 the miracle occurs : 
 
 u L’escripture le dist, qui nous a chertifie 
 Que le pierre Mahon, qui ou mur fut fiquie, 
 
 Salit hors du piler, coi que nul vous en die, 
 
 Droit en mis le moustier, c’onques ne fut brisie, 
 
 Et demoura li traus, dont le piere ert widie, 
 
 Sans pierre est sans quailliel, a cascune partie 
 Chou deseure soustient par divine maistrie 
 Tout en air proprement, n’el tends a failie. 
 
 Encore le voit-on en ichelle partie 
 Qui croire ne m’en voelt, si voist: car je l’en prie ! ” 
 
 The Caliph comes to see, and declares it to be the Devil’s 
 doing. Seeing Polibans, who is his cousin, he hails him, but 
 Polibans draws back, avowing his Christian faith. The Caliph 
 in a rage has him off to prison. Bauduin becomes very ill, 
 and has to sell his horse and arms. His disease is so offensive 
 that he is thrust out of his hostel, and in his wretchedness 
 
 * Vol. i. pp. 170, 171. 
 
CONTEMPORARY RECOGNITION. 
 
 cxlix 
 
 sitting on a stone he still avows his faith, and confesses that 
 even then he has not received his deserts. He goes to beg in 
 the Christian quarter, and no one gives to him ; but still his 
 faith and love to God hold out: 
 
 “ Ensement Bauduins chelle rue cherqua 
 Tant qu’a un chavetier Bauduins s’arresta 
 Qui chavates cousoit; son pain en garigna. 
 
 Jones fu et plaisans, apertement ouvra. 
 
 Bauduin le regarde, c’onques mot ne parla.” 
 
 The cobler is charitable, gives him bread, shoes, and a grey¬ 
 coat that was a foot too short. He then asks Bauduin if he 
 will not learn his trade; but that is too much for the knightly 
 stomach: 
 
 “ Et Bauduin respont, li preus et li membrus, 
 
 J’ameroie trop miex que je fusse pendus ! ” 
 
 The Caliph now in his Council expresses his vexation about 
 the miracle, and says he does not know how to disprove the 
 faith of the Christians. A very sage old Saracen who knew 
 Hebrew, and Latin, and some thirty languages, makes a sug¬ 
 gestion, which is, in fact that about the moving of the Moun¬ 
 tain, as related by Marco Polo.* Master Thomas is sent for 
 again, and told that they must transport the high mountain of 
 Thir to the valley of Joaquin, which lies to the westward. 
 He goes away in new despair and causes his clerk to sonner le 
 clocke for his people. Whilst they are weeping and wailing in 
 the church, a voice is heard desiring them to seek a certain 
 Holy man who is at the good cobler’s, and to do him honour. 
 God at his prayer will do a miracle. They go in procession 
 to Bauduin, who thinks they are mocking him. They treat 
 him as a saint, and strive to touch his old coat. At last he 
 consents to pray, along with the whole congregation. 
 
 The Caliph-is in his palace with his princes, taking his ease 
 at a window. Suddenly he starts up exclaiming : 
 
 “ i Seignour ! Par Mahoumet que j’aoure et tieng cher, 
 
 Le Mont de Thir enportent le deable d’enfer ! ’ 
 
 Li Calife s’ecrie : ‘ Seignour, franc palasin, 
 
 Voies le Mont de Thir qui ch’est mis au chemin ! 
 
 Ves-le-la tout en air, par mon Dieu Apolin ! 
 
 Ja bientot le verrons ens ou val Joaquin ! ’” 
 
 * Vol. i. pp. 65, seqq. The virtuous cobler is not left out, but is made to play 
 second fiddle to the hero Bauduin. 
 
cl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Caliph is converted, releases Polibans, and is baptized, 
 taking the name of Bauduin, to whom he expresses his fear of 
 the Viex de la Montagne with his Hauts-Assis , telling anew 
 the story of the Assassin’s Paradise, and so enlarges on the 
 beauty of Ivorine that Bauduin is smitten, and his love heals 
 his malady. Toleration is not learned however: 
 
 “ Bauduin, li Califes, fist baptiser sa gent 
 Et qui ne voilt Dieu croire li teste on li pourfent! ” 
 
 The Caliph gives up his kingdom to Bauduin, proposing to 
 follow him to the Wars of Syria. And Bauduin presents the 
 Kingdom to the Cobler. 
 
 Bauduin, the Caliph, and Prince Polibans then proceed to 
 visit the Mountain of the Old Man. The Caliph professes to 
 him that they want help against Godfrey of Bouillon. The 
 Viex says he does not give a bouton for Godfrey; he will send 
 one of his Hauts-Assis straight to his tent, and give him a 
 great knife of steel between fie et pou 7 non ! 
 
 After dinner they go out and witness the feat of devotion 
 which we have quoted elsewhere.* They then see the Paradise 
 and the lovely Ivorine, with whose beauty Bauduin is struck 
 dumb. The lady had never smiled before ; now she declares 
 that he for whom she had long waited was come. Bauduin 
 exclaims : 
 
 “ £ Madame, fu-jou chou qui sui le vous subgis ?’ 
 
 Quant la puchelle l’ot, lors si geta j. ris, 
 
 Et li dist : ‘ Bauduins, vous estes mes amis ! ’ ” 
 
 The Old One is vexed, but speaks pleasantly to his daughter, 
 who replies with frightfully bad language, and declares herself 
 to be a Christian. The father calls out to the Caliph to kill 
 her. The Caliph pulls out a big knife and gives him a blow 
 that nearly cuts him in two. The amiable Ivorine says she 
 will go with Bauduin : 
 
 “ 1 Se mes peres est mors, n’en donne un paresis ! ’ ” 
 
 We need not follow the story further, as I did not trace 
 beyond this point any distinct derivation from our Traveller, 
 with the exception of that allusion to the incombustible covering 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 137. 
 
POLO’S INFLUENCE ON GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 cli 
 
 of the napkin of St. Veronica, which I have quoted at pp. 194, 
 195 of this volume. But including this, here are at least 
 seven different themes borrowed from Marco Polo’s book, on 
 which to be sure his poetical contemporary plays the most 
 extraordinary variations. 
 
 XIII. Nature of Polo’s Influence on Geographical 
 Knowledge. 
 
 79. Marco Polo contributed such a vast amount of new 
 facts to the knowledge of the Earth’s surface, that one might 
 have expected his book to have had a sudden effect „ , 
 
 x lardy ope- 
 
 upon the Science of Geography: but no such result and 
 occurred speedily, nor was its beneficial effect of any thereof - 
 long duration. 
 
 No doubt several causes contributed to the slowness of its 
 action upon the notions of Cosmographers, of which the unreal 
 character attributed to the Book, as a collection of romantic 
 marvels rather than of geographical and historical facts, may 
 have been one, as Santarem urges. But the essential causes 
 were no doubt the imperfect nature of publication before the 
 invention of the press ; the traditional character which clogged 
 geography as well as all other branches of knowledge in the 
 Middle Ages ; and the entire absence of scientific principle in 
 what passed for geography, so that there was no organ equal 
 to the assimilation of a large mass of new knowledge. 
 
 Of the action of the first cause no examples can be more 
 striking than we find in the false conception of the Caspian as 
 a gulf of the Ocean, entertained by Strabo, and the opposite 
 error in regard to the Indian Sea held by Ptolemy, who regards 
 it as an enclosed basin, when we contrast these with the cor¬ 
 rect ideas on both subjects possessed by Herodotus. 
 
 80. As regards the second cause alleged, we may say that 
 down nearly to the middle of the 15th century cosmographers, 
 as a rule, made scarcely any attempt to reform their General cha- 
 
 , r , racteristics 
 
 maps by any elaborate search for new matter, or by of Medieval 
 lights that might be. collected from recent travellers, phy. 
 
 Their world was in its outline that handed down by the tradi¬ 
 tions of their craft, and sanctioned by some Father of the church, 
 
clii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 such as Orosius or Isidore, and sprinkled with a combination of 
 classical and medieval legend. Almost universally the earth’s 
 surface is represented as filling the greater part of a circular 
 disk, rounded by the ocean. Jerusalem occupies the central 
 point, because it was found written in the Prophet Ezekiel : 
 “ Haec dicit Dominus Dens: Ista est Jerusalem , in medio gentium 
 posui earn , et in circuitu ejus terras .” The Terrestrial Paradise 
 was represented as occupying the extreme East, because it was 
 found in Genesis that the Lord planted a garden eastward in 
 Eden.* Gog and Magog were set in the far north or north¬ 
 east, because it was said again in Ezekiel: “ Ecce Ego super te 
 Gog Principem capitis Mosoch et Timbal . . . et ascendere te 
 faciam de lateribus AquilonisJ whilst probably the topography 
 of those mysterious nationalities was completed by a girdle of 
 mountains out of the Alexandrian Fables. The loose and 
 scanty nomenclature was mainly borrowed from Pliny or 
 Mela through such Fathers as we have named; whilst vacant 
 spaces were occupied by Amazons, Arimaspians, and the realm 
 of Prester John. A favourite representation of the inhabited 
 
 earth was this ; a great O enclosing a J, which thus 
 divides the circle in three parts; the greater or half-circle 
 being Asia, the two quarter circles Europe and Africa.f 
 
 81. Even Ptolemy seems to have been almost unknown ; 
 and indeed had his Geography been studied it might have 
 r tended to some greater endeavours after accuracy. 
 
 Bacon as a And Roger Bacon, whilst lamenting the exceeding 
 
 geographer. • _ 
 
 deficiency of geographical knowledge in the Latin 
 world, and purposing to essay an exacter distribution of 
 countries, says he will not attempt to do so by latitude and 
 longitude, for that is a system of which the Latins have learned 
 nothing. He himself, whilst still somewhat burdened by the 
 authoritative dicta of “saints and sages” of past times, ven¬ 
 tures at least to criticize some of the latter, such as Pliny and 
 Ptolemy, and declares his intention to have recourse to the 
 
 * This circumstance does not however show in the Vulgate. 
 
 -j- “ Veggiamo in prima in general la terra 
 Come resiede, e come il mar la serra. 
 
 Un T dentro ad un O mostra il disegno 
 Come in tre parti fu diviso il Mondo, 
 E la superiore e il maggior regno 
 
 Asia chiamata: il gambo ritto e segno 
 Che parte il terzo nome dal secondo : 
 Affrica, dico, da Europa : il mare 
 Mediterran tra esse in mezzo appare. 
 —La Sfera, del Dati, Lib. iii. st. 
 
POLO’S INFLUENCE ON GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 cliii 
 
 information of those who have travelled most extensively over 
 the Earth’s surface. And judging from the good use he makes, 
 in his description of the northern parts of the world, of the 
 Travels of Rubruquis, whom he had known and questioned, 
 besides diligently studying his narrative, we might have 
 expected much in Geography from this great man, had similar 
 materials been available to him for other parts of the earth. 
 I do not gather, however, that he actually constructed any 
 map.* 
 
 82. The Map of Marino Sanuto the Elder, constructed 
 between 1300 and 1320, may be regarded as an exceptionally 
 favourable specimen of the cosmography in vogue, m 
 
 for the author was a diligent investigator and com- Sanuto the 
 
 b Elder. 
 
 piler, and evidently took a considerable interest in 
 Geography. Nor is the map without some result of these cha¬ 
 racteristics. His representation of Europe, Northern Africa, 
 Syria, Asia Minor, Arabia and its two gulfs, is a fair approxi¬ 
 mation to general facts ; his collected knowledge has enabled 
 him to locate, with more or less of general truth, Georgia, the 
 Iron Gates, Cathay, the Plain of Moghan, Euphrates and 
 Tigris, Persia, Bagdad, Kais, Aden (though on the wrong side 
 of the Red Sea), Abyssinia (. Habesh ), Zangibar (. Zinz ), Jidda, 
 ( Zede ), &c. But after all the traditional forms are too strong 
 for him. Jerusalem is still the centre of the disk of the habit¬ 
 able earth, so that the distance is as great from Syria to Gades 
 in the extreme West, as from Syria to the India Interior of 
 Prester John which terminates the extreme East. And Africa 
 beyond the Arabian Gulf is carried, according to the Arabian 
 modification of Ptolemy’s misconception, far to the Eastward 
 until it almost meets the prominent shores of India. 
 
 83. The first genuine medieval attempt at a geographical 
 construction that I know of, free from the traditional idola, is the 
 Map of the known World from the Portulano Mediceo The Catalan 
 (in the Laurentian Library), of which an extract is en- Almost 375 ’ 
 graved in the atlas of Baldello-Boni’s Polo. I need not ISfivSem- 
 describe it, however, because I cannot satisfy myself Po?o™ entot 
 that it makes much use of Polo’s contributions, and Ge °s ra P h y- 
 its facts have been embodied in a more ambitious work of the 
 next generation, the celebrated Catalan Map of 1375 in the 
 
 * See Opus Majus , Venice ed. pp. 142, scqq. 
 
cliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great Library of Paris. This also, but on a larger scale and 
 in a more comprehensive manner, is an honest endeavour to 
 represent the known world on the basis of collected facts, 
 casting aside all theories pseudo-scientific or pseudo-theolo¬ 
 gical ; and a very remarkable work it is. In this map it seems 
 to me Marco Polo’s influence, I will not say on geography, but 
 on map-making, is seen to the greatest advantage. His Book 
 is the basis of the Map as regards Central and Further Asia, 
 and partially as regards India. His names are often sadly per¬ 
 verted, and it is not always easy to understand the view that 
 the compiler took of his itineraries. Still we have Cathay 
 admirably placed in the true position of China, as a great 
 Empire filling the south east of Asia. The Eastern Peninsula 
 of India is indeed absent altogether, but the Peninsula of 
 Hither India is for the first time in the History of Geography 
 represented with a fair approximation to its correct form and 
 position, and Sumatra also ( Jaua :) is not badly placed. Cara- 
 jan, Vocian, Mien, and Bangala, are located with a just con¬ 
 ception of their relation to Cathay and to India. Many details 
 in India foreign to Polo’s book, and some in Cathay (as well 
 as in Turkestan and Siberia, which have been entirely derived 
 from other sources) have been embodied in the Map. But the 
 study of his Book has, I conceive, been essentially the basis of 
 those great portions which I have specified, and the additional 
 matter has not been in mass sufficient to perplex the compiler. 
 Hence we really see in this Map something like the idea of 
 Asia that the Traveller himself would have presented had he 
 bequeathed a Map to us. 
 
 84. In the following age we find more frequent indications 
 that Polo’s book was diffused and read. And now that the 
 spirit of discovery began to stir, it was apparently 
 regarded in a juster light as a Book of Facts, and not 
 as a mere Romman du Grant Kaan * But in fact 
 this age produced new supplies of crude information 
 in greater abundance than the knowledge of geogra¬ 
 phers was prepared to digest or co-ordinate, and the 
 consequence is that the magnificent Work of Fra Mauro (1459), 
 
 Confusions 
 in Carto¬ 
 graphy of 
 the 16th 
 century, 
 from the 
 endeavour 
 to combine 
 new and old 
 information. 
 
 * In or about 1426, Prince Pedro of Portugal, the elder brother of the illus¬ 
 trious Prince Henry, being on a visit to Venice was presented by the Signory with 
 a copy of Marco Polo’s book, together with a map already alluded to {Major's 
 P. Henry , pp. 61, 62). 
 
POLO’S INFLUENCE ON GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 civ 
 
 though the result of immense labour in the collection of facts 
 and the endeavour to combine them, really gives a consider¬ 
 ably less accurate idea of Asia than that which the Catalan 
 Map had afforded.* 
 
 And when at a still later date the great burst of discovery 
 eastward and westward took effect, the results of all attempts 
 to combine the new knowledge with the old was most un¬ 
 happy. The first and crudest forms of such combinations 
 attempted to realize the ideas of Columbus regarding the 
 identity of his discoveries with the regions of the Great Kaan’s 
 dominion ;f but even after AMERICA had vindicated its inde¬ 
 pendent position on the surface of the globe, and the new 
 knowledge of the Portuguese had introduced CHINA where 
 the Catalan map of the 14th century had presented CATHAY, 
 the latter country, with the whole of Polo’s nomenclature, was 
 shoved away to the north, forming a separate system. Hence¬ 
 forward the influence of Polo’s work on maps was simply 
 injurious ; and when to his nomenclature was added a 
 sprinkling of Ptolemy’s, as was usual throughout the 16th 
 century, the result was a most extraordinary hotch-potch, 
 conveying no approximation to any consistent representation 
 of facts. 
 
 Thus, in a map of 1522,^ running the eye along the north 
 of Europe and Asia from West to East, we find the following 
 succession of names : Groenlandia, or Greenland, as a great 
 peninsula overlapping that of Norvegia and Suecia ; Livonia, 
 Plescovia and Moscovia, Tartaria bounded on the South by 
 
 * This is partly due also to Fra Mauro’s reversion to the fancy of the circular 
 disc limiting the inhabited portion of the earth. 
 
 f An early graphic instance of this is Ruysch’s famous map (1508). The 
 following extract of a work printed as late as 1533 is an example of the like con¬ 
 fusion in verbal description: “The Territories which are beyond the limits of 
 Ptolemy’s Tables have not yet been described on certain authority. Behind the 
 Sinae and the Seres, and beyond 180° of East Longitude, many countries were dis¬ 
 covered by one Marco Polo a Venetian and others, and the sea coasts of those 
 countries have now recently again been explored by Columbus the Genoese and 
 Amerigo Vespucci in navigating the Western Ocean .... To this part (of Asia) 
 belong the territory called that of the Bachalaos [or Codfish, Newfoundland], 
 Florida , the Desert of Lop , Tangut , Cathay , the realm of Mexico (wherein is the 
 vast city of Temistitan , built in the middle of a great lake, but which the older 
 travellers styled Quinsay), besides Paria , Uraba , and the countries of the CanibalsP 
 (Joannis Schoneri Carolostadtii Opus Geogr. quoted by Humboldt, Examen , V. 
 I 7 L 172). 
 
 X Totius Europae et Asiae Tabula Geographic a , Auctore Thoma D. Aucupario. 
 Edita Argentorati , mdxxii.” Copied in Witsen. 
 
clvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Scithia extra Imaum , and on the East, by the Rivers Ochardes 
 and Bautisis (out of Ptolemy), which are made to flow into 
 the Arctic Sea. South of these are Aureacithis and Asmirea 
 (Ptolemy’s Auxacitis and Asmirced), and Serica Regio. Then 
 following the northern coast Balor Regio (?), Judei Clausi (the 
 Shut-up Nations) who impinge upon the River Polisacus, flow¬ 
 ing into the Northern Ocean in Lat. 75° but which is in fact 
 no other than Polo’s Pulisanghin !* Immediately south of 
 this is Tholomon Provincia (Polo’s again), and on the coast 
 Tangut , Cathay a, the Rivers Car amor an and Oman (a misread¬ 
 ing of Polo’s Qnian :), Quinsay and Mangi. 
 
 85. The Maps of Mercator (1587) and Magini (1597) are 
 similar in character, but more elaborate, introducing China as 
 a separate system. Such indeed also is Blaeu’s Map 
 disappear- (i 663) excepting that Ptolemy’s contributions are 
 
 ance of 
 
 Polo’s no- reduced to one or two. 
 
 menclature 
 
 In Sanson s Map (1659) the data of Polo and the 
 medieval Travellers are more cautiously handled, but a new 
 element of confusion is introduced in the form of numerous 
 features derived from Edrisi. 
 
 It is scarcely worth while to follow the matter further. 
 With the increase of knowledge of Northern Asia from the 
 Russian side, and that of China from the Maps of Martini, 
 followed by the surveys of the Jesuits, and with the real 
 science brought to bear on Asiatic Geography by such men 
 as De l’lsle and D’Anville, mere traditional nomenclature gra¬ 
 dually disappeared. And the task which the study of Polo 
 has provided for the geographers of later days has been chiefly 
 that of determining the true localities that his book describes 
 
 under obsolete or corrupted names. 
 
 86. Before concluding it may be desirable to say a few 
 words on the subject of important knowledge other than 
 geographical, which various persons have supposed 
 that Marco Polo must have introduced from Eastern 
 Asia to Europe. 
 
 Respecting the mariner’s compass and gunpowder 
 I shall say nothing, as no one now, I believe, imagines 
 Marco to have had anything to do with their introduction. 
 But from a highly respectable source in recent years we have 
 
 Alleged in¬ 
 troduction 
 of Block- 
 printed 
 Books 
 into Europe 
 by Marco 
 Polo. 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. I. 
 
ALLEGED IMPORTATION OF BLOCK-BOOKS. 
 
 clvii 
 
 seen the introduction of Block-printing into Europe connected 
 with the name of our Traveller. The circumstances are stated 
 as follows :* 
 
 “ In the beginning of the 15th century a man named Panfilo Castaldi, 
 of Feltre .... was employed by the Government of the Republic to 
 engross deeds and public edicts of various kinds .... the initial letters 
 at the commencement of the writing being usually ornamented with red 
 ink, or illuminated in gold and colours. 
 
 “ According to Sansovino, certain stamps or types had been invented 
 some time previously by Pietro di Natale, Bishop of Aquileia.f These 
 were made of Murano glass, and were used to stamp or print the outline 
 of the large initial letters of public documents, which were afterwards 
 filled up by hand .... Panfilo Castaldi improved on these glass types 
 by having others made of wood or metal; and having seen several Chinese 
 Books, which the famous traveller Marco Polo had brought from China, 
 and of which the entire text was printed with wooden blocks, he caused 
 moveable wooden types to be made, each type containing a single letter, 
 and with these he printed several broadsides and single leaves at Venice, 
 in the year 1426. Some of these single sheets are said to be preserved 
 among the archives at Feltre .... 
 
 “The tradition continues that John Faust of Mayence .... became 
 acquainted with Castaldi, and passed some time with him in his Scrip¬ 
 torium at Feltre 
 
 and in short developed from the knowledge so acquired the 
 great invention of printing. Mr. Curzon goes on to say that 
 Panfilo Castaldi was born in 1398, and died in 1490, and 
 that he gives the story as he found it in an article written 
 by Dr. Jacopo Facen, of F'eltre, in a (Venetian?) newspaper 
 called II Gondoliere, No. 103, of December 27th, 1843. 
 
 In a later paper Mr. Curzon thus recurs to the subject 
 
 “ Though none of the early block-books have dates affixed to them, 
 many of them are with reason supposed to be more ancient than any 
 books printed with moveable types. Their resemblance to Chinese block- 
 books is so exact that they would almost seem to be copied from the 
 books commonly used in China. The impressions are taken off on one 
 side of the paper only , and in binding both the Chinese and ancient German 
 or Dutch block-books, the blank sides of the pages are placed opposite each 
 other , and sometimes pasted together .... The impressions are not 
 taken off with printer’s ink, but with a brown paint or colour , of a much 
 thinner description , more in the nature of Indian ink , as we call it , which 
 
 * A Short Account of Libraries in Italy, by the Hon. R. Curzon ; in Bibliog. 
 and Hist. Miscellanies; Philobiblon Society , vol. i. 
 
 f P. dei Natali was Bishop of Equilio, a city of the Venetian Lagoons, in the 
 latter quarter of the 14th century (see Ughelli, Italia Sacra, X. 87). There is no 
 ground for connecting him with these inventions (see App. L). 
 
 X Early History of Printing, in Philobiblon, vol. vi. p. 23. 
 
clviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is used in printing Chinese books. Altogether the German and Oriental 
 block-books are so precisely alike, in almost every respect, that we must 
 suppose that the process of printing them must have been copied from 
 ancient Chinese specimens, brought from that country by some early 
 travellers, whose names have not been handed down to our times.” 
 
 The writer then refers to the tradition about Guttemberg (so it 
 is stated on this occasion, not Faust) having learned Castaldi’s 
 art, &c., mentioning a circumstance which he supposes to 
 indicate that Guttemberg had relations with Venice; and 
 appears to assent to the probability of the story of the art 
 having been founded on specimens brought home by Marco 
 Polo. 
 
 As regards the alleged invention of Panfilo Castaldi, the 
 story as related in the first of the preceding extracts is scarcely 
 other than a flight of patriotic fancy; and I shall show in a 
 separate notice* from how slender a nucleus of record it has 
 been spun. 
 
 87. But Mr. Curzon’s own observations, which I have 
 italicized, about the resemblance of the two systems are very 
 Frequent striking, and seem clearly to indicate the derivation 
 of the art from China. I should suppose, however, 
 that in the tradition, if there be any genuine tra¬ 
 dition of the kind at Feltre, the name of Marco 
 Polo was introduced merely because it was so pro¬ 
 minent a name in Eastern Travel. The fact has been gene¬ 
 rally overlooked and forgotten that, for many years in the 
 course of the 14th century, not only were missionaries of 
 the Roman Church and Houses of the Franciscan Order 
 established in the chief cities of China, but a regular trade 
 was carried on overland between Italy and China, by way of 
 Tana (or Azov), Astracan, Otrar and Kamul, insomuch that 
 instructions for the Italian merchant following that route form 
 the two first chapters in the Mercantile Handbook of Balducci 
 Pegolotti (circa i34o).f Many a traveller besides Marco Polo 
 might therefore have brought home the block-books. And 
 this is the less to be ascribed to him because he so curiously 
 omits to speak of the art of printing, when his subject seems 
 absolutely to challenge its description. 
 
 opportu¬ 
 nities for 
 such intro¬ 
 duction in 
 the age 
 following 
 Polo’s. 
 
 * See Appendix L. 
 
 t This subject has been fully treated in Cathay and the Way Thither. 
 
BASIS OF PRESENT TRANSLATION. 
 
 clix 
 
 XIV. Explanations regarding the Basis adopted for the 
 present Translation. 
 
 88. It remains to say a few words regarding the basis 
 adopted for our English version of the Traveller’s record. 
 
 Ramusio’s recension was that which Marsden selected for 
 translation. But at the date of his most meritorious publica¬ 
 tion nothing was known of the real literary history of 
 Polo’s Book, and no one was aware of the peculiar lowed by 
 
 # 1 Marsden 
 
 value and originality of the French manuscript texts, and 
 nor had Marsden seen any of them. A translation 
 from one of those texts is a translation at first hand ; a trans¬ 
 lation from Ramusio’s Italian is, as far as I can judge, the 
 translation of a translated compilation from two or more 
 translations, and therefore, whatever be the merits of its 
 matter, inevitably carries us far away from the spirit and 
 style of the original narrator. M. Pauthier, I think, did well 
 in adopting for the text of his edition the MSS. which I have 
 classed as of the second Type, the more as there had hitherto 
 been no publication from those texts. But editing a text in 
 the original language, and translating, are tasks different in 
 their demands. 
 
 89. It will be clear from what has been said in the pre¬ 
 ceding pages that I should not regard as a fair or full repre¬ 
 sentation of Polo’s Work, a version on which the 
 Geographic Text did not exercise a material influ- formation of 
 ence. But to adopt that Text, with all its awkward- Textof this 
 
 , , iii . - Translation. 
 
 nesses and tautologies, as the absolute subject of 
 translation, would have been a mistake. What I have done 
 has been, in the first instance, to translate from Pauthier’s 
 Text. The process of abridgment in this text, however it 
 came about, has been on the whole judiciously executed, get¬ 
 ting rid of the intolerable prolixities of manner which belong 
 to many parts of the Original Dictation, but as a general rule 
 preserving the matter. Having translated this,—not always 
 from the Text adopted by Pauthier himself, but with the 
 exercise of my own judgment on the various readings which 
 that Editor lays before us,—I then compared the translation 
 with the Geographic Text, and transferred from the latter not 
 only all items of real substance that had been omitted, but 
 
clx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 also all expressions of special interest and character, and occa¬ 
 sionally a greater fullness of phraseology where condensation 
 in Pauthier’s text seemed to have been carried too far. And 
 finally I have introduced between brackets everything pecu¬ 
 liar to Ramusio’s version that seemed to me to have a just 
 claim to be reckoned authentic, and that could be so intro¬ 
 duced without harshness or mutilation. Many passages from 
 the same source which were of interest in themselves, but 
 failed to meet one or other of these conditions, have been 
 given in the notes. 
 
 90. As regards the reading of proper names and foreign 
 words, in which there is so much variation in the different 
 MSS. and editions, I have done my best to select 
 rendering what seemed to be the true reading from the G. T. 
 names. and Pauthier’s three MSS., only in some rare in¬ 
 stances transgressing this limit. 
 
 Where the MSS. in the repetition of a name afforded a 
 choice of forms, I have selected that which came nearest the 
 real name when known. Thus the G. T. affords Baldasciain , 
 Badascian , Badasciam , Badausiam , Balasia 7 i. I adopt Badas- 
 CIAN, or in English spelling BADASHAN, because it is closest 
 to the real name Badakhshan. Another place appears as COBI- 
 NAN, Cabanat , Cobian. I adopt the first because it is the 
 truest expression of the real name Koh-bendn. In chapters 
 23, 24 of Book I., we have in the G. T. Asisim , Asciscin, 
 Asescin, and in Pauthier’s MSS. Hasisins, Harsisins, &c. I 
 adopt ASCISCIN, or in English spelling Ashishin, for the 
 same reason as before. So with Creman, Overman , Crer- 
 main , QUERMAN, Anglice Kerman ; Cormos, HORMOS, and 
 many more.* 
 
 I11 two or three cases I have adopted a reading which I 
 cannot show literatim in any authority, but because such a 
 form appears to be the just resultant from the variety of 
 readings which are presented, as one takes the mean of a 
 number of observations in surveying when no one can claim 
 an absolute preference. 
 
 * In Polo’s diction C not unfrequently represents H, e. g., Cormos — Hormuz; 
 Camadi probably = Hamadi; Caagiu probably = Hochau ; Cacianfu = Hochangfu, 
 and so on. This is perhaps attributable to Rusticiano’s Tuscan ear. A true Pisan 
 will absolutely contort his features in the intensity of his efforts to aspirate suffi¬ 
 ciently the letter C. 
 
BASIS OF PRESENT TRANSLATION. 
 
 clxi 
 
 Polo’s proper names, even in the French Texts, are in the 
 main formed on an Italian fashion of spelling.* I see no 
 object in preserving such spelling in an English book, so after 
 selecting the best reading of the name I express it in English 
 spelling, printing Badashan, Pashai , Kenjanfu , instead of 
 Badascian, Pasciai , Quengianfu, and so on. 
 
 And when a little trouble has been taken to ascertain the 
 true form and force of Polo’s spelling of Oriental names and 
 technical expressions, it will be found that they are in the 
 main as accurate as Italian lips and orthography will admit, 
 and not justly liable to those exegetical distortions which 
 have been too often applied to them. Thus, for example, 
 Cocacin, Ghel or Ghelan , Tonocain , Cobinan, Ondanique , Bar- 
 guerlac, Argon, Sensin, Quescican , Toscaol, Bularguci y Zardan- 
 dan, Anin , Caugigu , Coloman , Gauenispola , Mutfili, Avarian, 
 Choiach , are not, it will be seen, the ignorant blunderings 
 which the interpretations affixed by some commentators would 
 imply them to be, but are on the contrary all but perfectly 
 accurate utterances of the names and words intended. 
 
 The chapter-headings I have generally taken from Pau- 
 thier’s Text, but they are no essential part of the original 
 work, and they have been slightly modified or enlarged where 
 it seemed desirable.t 
 
 * In the Venetian dialect ch,j, and c are often sounded as in English, not as in 
 Italian. Some traces of such pronunciation I think there are, as in Coja , Carajan, 
 Cerazi, and in the Chinese name Vanchu {supra, p. cxxiv). But the scribe of the 
 original work being a Tuscan, the spelling is in the main Tuscan. The sound of 
 the Qu is however French, as in Quescican, Quinsai. 
 
 f I should have pointed out at pp. xxxvi, xxxvii, the verisimilitude of the 
 tradition there related by Ramusio, when regarded by the light of genuine Mongol 
 practice, such as is quoted in the last paragraph of p. 345 of this volume. 
 
 NOTA BENE. —The Appendices frequently referred to in the course of 
 these Introductory Notices will be found at the end of Vol. II. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 I 
 

 
 
 
 
THE 
 
 BOOK OF MARCO POLO. 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 Great Princes, Emperors, and Kings, Dukes and Mar¬ 
 quises, Counts, Knights and Burgesses! and People of all 
 degrees who desire to get knowledge of the various races of 
 mankind and of the diversities of the sundry regions of the 
 World, take this Book and cause it to be read to you. For 
 ye shall find therein all kinds of wonderful things, and the 
 divers histories of the Great Hermenia, and of Persia, and 
 of the Land of the Tartars, and of India, and of many 
 another country of which our Book doth speak, particularly 
 and in regular succession, according to the description of 
 Messer Marco Polo, a wise and noble citizen of Venice, as 
 he saw them with his own eyes. Some things indeed there 
 be therein which he beheld not; but these he heard from 
 men of credit and veracity. And we shall set down things 
 seen as seen, and things heard as heard only, so that no jot 
 of falsehood may mar the truth of our Book, and that all 
 who shall read it or hear it read may put full faith in the 
 truth of all its contents. 
 
 For let me tell you that since our Lord God did mould 
 with his hands our first Father Adam, even until this 
 day, never hath there been Christian, or Pagan, or Tartar, 
 or Indian, or any man of any nation, who in his own per¬ 
 son hath had so much knowledge and experience of the 
 divers parts of the World and its Wonders as hath had this 
 Messer Marco! And for that reason he bethought himself 
 
 VOL. i. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 that it would be a very great pity did he not cause to be 
 put in writing all the great marvels that he had seen, or 
 on sure information heard of, so that other people who 
 had not these advantages might, by his Book, get such 
 knowledge. And I may tell you that in acquiring this 
 knowledge he spent in those various parts of the World 
 good six-and-twenty years. Now, being thereafter an 
 inmate of the Prison at Genoa, he caused Messer Rusti- 
 ciano of Pisa, who was in the said Prison likewise, to 
 reduce the whole to writing; and this befel in the year 
 1298 from the birth of Jesus. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 How the Two Brothers Polo set forth from Constantinople 
 
 TO TRAVERSE THE WORLD. 
 
 It came to pass in the year of Christ 1260, when Baldwin 
 was reigning at Constantinople, 1 that Messer Nicolas Polo, 
 the father of my lord Mark, and Messer Maffeo Polo, the 
 brother of Messer Nicolas, were at the said city of Con¬ 
 stantinople, whither they had gone from Venice with 
 their merchant’s wares. Now these two Brethren, men 
 singularly noble, wise, and provident, took counsel together 
 to cross the Greater Sea on a venture of trade; so they 
 laid in a store of jewels and set forth from Constantinople, 
 crossing the Sea to Soldaia . 2 
 
 Note 1 . — Baldwin II. (de Courtenay), the last Latin Emperor of 
 Constantinople, reigned from 1237 to 1261, when he was expelled by 
 Michael Palaeologus. 
 
 The date in the text is, as we see, that of the Brothers’ voyage across 
 the Black Sea. It stands 1250 in all the chief texts. But the figure is 
 certainly wrong. We shall see that, when the Brothers return to Venice 
 in 1269, they find Mark, who, according to Ramusio’s version, was born 
 after their departure , a lad of fifteen. Hence, if we rely on Ramusio, 
 they must have left Venice about 1253-54. And we shall see also 
 
Chap. I. VENTURE OF THE TWO BROTHERS POLO, 
 
 3 
 
 that they reached the W T olga in 1261. Hence their start from Con¬ 
 stantinople may well have occurred in 1260, and this I have adopted as 
 the most probable correction. Where they spent the interval between 
 1254 (if they really left Venice so early) and 1260, nowhere appears. 
 But as their brother, Mark the Elder, in his Will styles himself “ whilom 
 of Constantinople ” their head-quarters were probably there. 
 
 Castle of Soldaia or Sudak. 
 
 Note 2.—In the Middle Ages the Black Sea, though that name {Mare 
 Maurum v. Nigrum) was by no means unknown, was generally called 
 Mare Magnum or Majus. Thus Chaucer :— 
 
 “ In the Grete See, 
 
 At many a noble Armee hadde he be.” 
 
 Soldaia or Soldachia , called by Orientals Sudak , stands on the S.E. 
 coast of the Crimea, west of Kaffa. It had belonged to the Greek 
 Empire, and had a considerable Greek population. After the events 
 of 1204, it apparently fell to Trebizond. It was taken by the Mongols 
 in 1222, and during that century was the great port of intercourse with 
 what is now Russia. At an uncertain date, but about the middle of the 
 century, the Venetians established a factory there, which in 1287 became 
 the seat of a consul. In 1323 we find Pope John XXII. complaining to 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 Uzbek Khan of Sarai that the Christians had been ejected from Soldaia 
 and their churches turned into mosques. Ibn Batuta, who alludes to 
 this strife, counts Sudak as one of the four great ports of the World. 
 The Genoese got Soldaia in 1365 and built strong defences, still to be 
 seen. Some of the Arab Geographers call the Sea of Azov the Sea of 
 Sudak. 
 
 The Elder Marco Polo in his Will (1280) bequeaths to the Francis¬ 
 can Friars of the place a house of his in Soldachia , reserving life occu¬ 
 pation to his own son and daughter then residing in it. Probably this 
 establishment already existed when the two Brothers went thither. 
 (E/ie de Laprimaudaie , passim; Gold. Horde , 87 ; Mosheim , App. 148 ; 
 Ibn Bat. I. 28, II. 414; Cathay , 231-33; Heyd , II. passim.) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 How the Two Brothers went on beyond Soldaia. 
 
 Having stayed a while at Soldaia, they considered the 
 matter, and thought it well to extend their journey further. 
 So they set forth from Soldaia and travelled till they came to 
 the court of a certain Tartar Prince, Barca Kaan by name, 
 whose residences were at Sara 1 and at Bolgara, [and who 
 was esteemed one of the most liberal and courteous Princes 
 that ever was among the Tartars ]. 2 This Barca was 
 delighted at the arrival of the Two Brothers, and treated 
 them with great honour ; so they presented to him the 
 whole of the jewels that they had brought with them. The 
 Prince was highly pleased with these, and accepted the 
 offering most graciously, causing the Brothers to receive at 
 least twice its value. 
 
 After they had spent a twelvemonth at the court of this 
 Prince there broke out a great war between Barca and 
 Alau, the Lord of the Tartars of the Levant, and great 
 hosts were mustered on either sided 
 
 But in the end Barca, the Lord of the Tartars of the 
 Ponent, was defeated, though on both sides there was great 
 slaughter. And by reason of this war no one could travel 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 JOURNEY BEYOND SOLDAIA. 
 
 5 
 
 without peril of being taken; thus it was at least on the 
 road by which the Brothers had come, though there was no 
 obstacle to their travelling forward. So the Brothers, finding 
 they could not retrace their steps, determined to go for¬ 
 ward. Quitting Bolgara, therefore, they proceeded to a city 
 called Ucaca, which was at the extremity of the kingdom 
 of the Lord of the Ponent ; 4 and thence departing again, 
 and passing the great River Tigris, they travelled across a 
 Desert which extended for seventeen days’ journey, and 
 wherein they found neither town nor village, falling in only 
 with the tents of Tartars occupied with their cattle at 
 pasture . 5 
 
 Note 1 . —Barka Khan, third son of Juji the first-born of Chinghiz, 
 ruled the Ulus of Juji and Empire of Kipchak. (Southern Russia) from 
 1257 to 1265. He was the first Musulman sovereign of his race. His 
 chief residence was at Sarai (Sara of the text) a city founded by his 
 brother and predecessor Batu, on the banks of the Akhtuba branch of 
 the Wolga. In the next century Ibn Batuta describes Sarai as a very 
 handsome and populous city, so large that it made half a day’s journey 
 to ride through it. The inhabitants were Mongols, Aas (or Alans), 
 Kipchaks, Circassians, Russians, and Greeks, besides the foreign Moslem 
 merchants who had a walled quarter. Another Mahomedan traveller of 
 the same century says the city itself was not walled, but, “ The Khan’s 
 Palace was a great edifice surmounted by a golden crescent weighing two 
 kantars of Egypt, and encompassed by a wall flanked with towers,” &c. 
 
 Sarai became the seat of both a Latin and a Russian metropolitan, 
 and of more than one Franciscan convent. It was destroyed by Timur 
 on his second invasion of Kipchak (1395-6), and extinguished by the 
 Russians a century later. It is the scene of Chaucer’s half-told tale of 
 Cambuscan :— 
 
 “ At Sarra , in the Londe of Tartarie, 
 
 There dwelt a King that werried Russie.” 
 
 Several sites exhibiting extensive ruins near the banks of the Akhtuba 
 have been identified with Sarai; two in particular. One of these is not 
 far from the great elbow of the Wolga at Tzaritzyn : the other much 
 lower down, at Selitrennoi Gorodok or “ Saltpetre-Town,” not far above 
 Astracan. 
 
 The tipper site exhibits by far the most extensive traces of former 
 population, and is declared unhesitatingly to be the sole site of Sarai by 
 M. Gregorieff, who carried on excavations among the remains for four 
 years, though with what precise results I have not been able to learn. 
 
6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 The most dense part of the remains, consisting of mounds and earth¬ 
 works, traces of walls, buildings, cisterns, dams, and innumerable canals, 
 extends for about 7J miles in the vicinity of the town of Tzarev, but a 
 tract of 66 miles in length and 300 miles in circuit, commencing from 
 near the head of the Akhtuba, presents remains of like character, though 
 of less density, marking the ground occupied by the villages which en¬ 
 circled the capital. About 2 J miles to the N.W. of Tzarev a vast mass 
 of such remains, surrounded by the traces of a brick rampart, points out 
 the presumable position of the Imperial Palace. 
 
 M. Gregorielf appears to admit no alternative. Yet it seems certain 
 that the indications of Abulfeda, Pegolotti, and others, with regard to the 
 position of the capital in the early part of the 14th century, are not con¬ 
 sistent with a site so far from the Caspian. Moreover, F. H. Muller 
 states that the site near Tsarev is known to the Tartars as the “ Sarai 
 of Janibek Khan.” Now it is worthy of note that in the coinage of 
 Janibek we repeatedly find as the place of mintage, New Sarai. Is it 
 not possible, therefore, that both the sites which we have mentioned 
 were successively occupied by the Mongol capital; that the original 
 Sarai of Batu was at Selitrennoi Gorodok, and that the New Sarai of 
 Janibek was established by him or one of his immediate predecessors 
 on the upper Akhtuba ? 
 
 (Four Years of Archaeological Researches among the Ruins of Sarai 
 [in Russian], by M. Gregorieff [who appears to have also published a 
 pamphlet specially on the site, but this has not been available]; Historisch- 
 geographische Darstellung des Stromsystems der Wolga, von Ferd. Heinr. 
 Muller , Berlin, 1839, 568-77 ; Ibn Bat. II. 447 ; Not. et Extraits, XIII. 
 i. 286; Pallas , Voyages; Cathay , 231, &c.; Erdmann , Numi Asiatici, 
 pp. 362 seqq.) 
 
 Note 2.—Bolghar, our author’s Bolgara, was the capital of the 
 region sometimes called Great Bulgaria, by Abulfeda Inner Bulgaria , 
 and stood a few miles from the left bank of the Wolga, in latitude about 
 54 0 54', and 90 miles below Kazan. The old Arab writers regarded it as 
 nearly the limit of the habitable world, and told wonders of the cold, 
 the brief summer nights, and the fossil ivory that was found in its vicinity. 
 This was exported, and with peltry, wax, honey, hazel-nuts, and Russia 
 leather, formed the staple articles of trade. The last item derived from 
 Bolghar the name which it still bears all over Asia. Bolghar seems to 
 have been the northern limit of Arab travel, and was visited by the 
 curious (by Ibn Batuta among others) in order to witness the phenomena 
 of the short summer night, as travellers now visit Hammerfest to witness 
 its entire absence. 
 
 Russian chroniclers speak of an earlier capital of the Bulgarian 
 kingdom, Brakhimov near the mouth of the Kama, destroyed by Andrew, 
 Grand Duke of Rostov and Susdal, about 1160; and this may have been 
 the city referred to in the earlier Arabic accounts. The fullest of these 
 is by Ibn Fozlan, who accompanied an embassy from the Court of 
 
MARCO POLO 
 
 To face Prologue,Chap.2. 
 
 Map to illustrate the Geographical Position 
 of tive City of Sarai. 
 
 20 30 40 SO 
 
 Scale of ' English JVLiles 
 
 Part of the Remains of the CITYoi SARAI ii earTZAREY 
 Vorlh of theAKHTUBA Branch of the VOLGA. 
 
 i_ i ' i_i, J , .1._i_i_i 
 
 8 Furlongs 
 
 .glisH Mil < 
 
 c YTraccs of Constructions 
 
 Z. . Z.Z. ) of sorts. 
 
 & 0.. Barrows. 
 
 1 Fains. 
 
 Traces of Canals. 
 
 "Lit slercm 
 

Chap. II. 
 
 BOLGHAR. 
 
 7 
 
 Baghdad to Bolghar, in a.d. 921. The King and people had about 
 this time been converted to Islam, having previously, as it would seem, 
 professed Christianity. Nevertheless a Mahomedan writer of the 14th 
 century says the people had then long renounced Islam for the worship 
 of the Cross. (Not. et Extr. XIII. i. 270.) 
 
 Bolghar was first captured by the Mongols in 1225. It seems to have 
 perished early in the 15 th century, after which Kazan practically took 
 its place. Its position is still marked by a village called Bolgari, where 
 ruins of Mahomedan character remain, and where coins and inscriptions 
 have been found. Coins of the Kings of Bolghar, struck in the 10th 
 century, have been described by Fraehn, as well as coins of the Mongol 
 period struck at Bolghar. Its latest known coin is of a.h. 818 
 (a.d. 1415-16). A history of Bolghar was written in the first half of the 
 12th century by Yakub Ibn Noman, Kadhi of the city, but this is not 
 known to be extant. 
 
 Ruins of Bolghar. 
 
 Fraehn shows ground for believing the people to have been a mixture 
 of Fins, Slavs, and Turks. Nicephorus Gregoras supposes that they 
 took their name from the great river on which they dwelt (BovAya). 
 
 The severe and lasting winter is spoken of by Ibn Fozlan and other 
 old writers in terms that seem to point to a modern mitigation of climate. 
 It is remarkable, too, that Ibn Fozlan speaks of the aurora as of very 
 frequent occurrence, which is not now the case in that latitude. We 
 may suspect this frequency to have been connected with the greater cold 
 indicated, and perhaps with a different position of the magnetic pole. 
 Ibn Fozlan’s account of the aurora is very striking:—“Shortly before 
 sunset the horizon became all very ruddy, and at the same time I heard 
 sounds in the upper air, with a dull rustling. I looked up and beheld 
 sweeping over me a fire-red cloud, from which these sounds issued, and 
 in it movements as it were of men and horses; the men grasping bows, 
 lances, and swords. This I saw, or thought I saw. Then there 
 appeared a white cloud of like aspect ; in it also I beheld armed horse¬ 
 men, and these rushed against the former as one squadron of horse 
 
8 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 charges another. We were so terrified at this that we turned with 
 humble prayer to the Almighty, whereupon the natives about us won¬ 
 dered and broke into loud laughter. We, however, continued to gaze, 
 seeing how one cloud charged the other, remained confused with it a 
 while, and then sundered again. These movements lasted deep into the 
 night, and then all vanished.” 
 
 ( Fraehn , Ueber die Wolga-Bulgaren , Petersb. 1832 ; Gold. Horde , 8, 
 9, 423-4; Not. et Extr. II. 541; Ibn Bat. II. 398; Biischings Mag. V. 
 492; Erdmann, Numi Asiat. I. 315-318, 333-4? 5 2 °“535 > Niceph. 
 Gregor as, II. 2, 2.) 
 
 Note 3.—Alau is Polo’s representation of the name of Hulaku, 
 brother of the Great Kaans Mangu and Kublai, and founder of the 
 Mongol dynasty in Persia. In the Mongol pronunciation, guttural and 
 palatal consonants are apt to be elided, hence this spelling. The same 
 name is written by Pope Alexander IV., in addressing the Khan, Olao, 
 by Pachymeres and Gregoras XaXav and XaXaov, by H^ton Haolon, 
 by Ibn Batuta Hulaun , as well as in a letter of Hulaku’s own, as given 
 by Makrizi. 
 
 The war in question is related in Rashiduddm’s history, and by 
 Polo himself towards the end of the work. It began in the summer of 
 1262, and ended about eight months later. Hence the Polos must 
 have reached Barka’s Court in 1261. 
 
 Marco always applies to the Mongol Khans of Persia the title of 
 “Lords of the East” {Levant), and to the Khans of Kipchak that of 
 “Lords of the West” ( Ponent ). We use the term Leva?it still with a 
 similar specific application, and in another form Anatolia. I think it 
 best to preserve the terms Levant and Ponent when used in this way. 
 
 Note 4 .—Ukaka or Ukek was a town on the right bank of the 
 Wolga, nearly equidistant between Sarai and Bolghar, and about six 
 miles south of the modern Saratov, where a village called Uwek still 
 exists. Ukek is not mentioned before the Mongol domination, and is 
 supposed to have been of Mongol foundation, as the name Ukek is said 
 in Mongol to signify a dam of hurdles. The city is mentioned by Abul- 
 feda as marking the extremity of “ the empire of the Barka Tartars,” 
 and Ibn Batuta speaks of it as “ one day distant from the hills of the 
 Russians.” Polo therefore means that it was the frontier of the Ponent 
 towards Russia. Ukek was the site of a Franciscan convent in the 
 14th century; it is mentioned several times in the campaigns of Timur, 
 and was destroyed by his army. It is not mentioned under the form 
 Ukek after this, but appears as Uwek and Uwesh in Russian documents 
 of the 16th century. Perhaps this was always the Slavonic form, for it 
 already is written Ugnech ( = Uwek) in Wadding’s 14th century catalogue 
 of convents. Anthony Jenkinson, in Hakluyt, gives an observation of 
 its latitude, as Oweke (51 0 40'), and Christopher Burrough, in the same 
 collection, gives a description of it as Oneak, and the latitude as 51 0 30'. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 THE CITY OF BOCARA. 
 
 9 
 
 In his time (1579) there were the remains of a “very faire stone castle ” 
 and city, with old tombs exhibiting sculptures and inscriptions. All 
 these have long vanished. Burrough was told by the Russians that the 
 town “was swallowed into the earth by the justice of God, for the wicked- 
 nesse of the people that inhabited the same.” Lepechin in 1769 found 
 nothing remaining but part of an earthen rampart and some under¬ 
 ground vaults of large bricks, which the people dug out for use. He 
 speaks of coins and other relics as frequently found, and the like have 
 been found more recently. Coins with Mongol-Arab inscriptions, 
 struck at Ukek by Tuktugai Khan in 1306, have been described by 
 Fraehn and Erdmann. 
 
 ( Fraehn , Ueber die ehemalige Mong. Stadt Ukek , crc., Petersb. 1835 j 
 Gold. Horde; Ibn. Bat. II. 414 ; Abulfeda , in Busching, , V. 365 ; Ann. 
 Minor um, sub anno, 1400; Petis de la Croix , II. 355, 383, 388; Hak¬ 
 luyt , ed. 1809, I. 375 and 472; Lepechin, Tagebuch der Reise , &=c., 
 
 i- 235-7-) 
 
 Note 5 . —The great River Tigeri or Tigris is the Wolga, as Pauthier 
 rightly shows. It receives the same name from the Monk Pascal of 
 Vittoria in 1338 ( Cathay , p. 234). Perhaps this rose out of some 
 legend that the Tigris was a reappearance of the same river. The 
 ecclesiastical historian, Nicephorus Callistus, appears to imply that the 
 Tigris coming from Paradise flows under the Caspian to emerge in 
 Kurdistan (see IX. 19). 
 
 The “17 days ” applies to one stretch of desert. The whole journey 
 from Ukek to Bokhara would take some 60 days at least. Ibn Batuta 
 is 58 days from Sarai to Bokhara, and of the last section he says “we 
 entered the Desert which extends between Khwarizm and Bokhara, and 
 which has an extent of 18 days' journey (III. 19). 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 How the Two Brothers, after crossing a Desert, came to the 
 City of Bocara, and fell in with certain Envoys there. 
 
 After they had passed the desert, they arrived at a very 
 great and noble city called Bocara, the territory of which 
 belonged to a king whose name was Barac, and is also 
 called Bocara. The city is the best in all Persia . 1 And 
 when they had got thither, they found they could neither 
 proceed further forward, nor yet turn back again ; wherefore 
 
IO 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 they abode in that city of Bocara for three years. And 
 whilst they were sojourning in that city, there came from 
 Alau, Lord of the Levant, Envoys on their way to the 
 Court of the Great Kaan, the Lord of all the Tartars in 
 the world. And when the Envoys beheld the Two Brothers 
 they were amazed, for they had never before seen Latins in 
 that part of the world. And they said to the Brothers: 
 “ Gentlemen, if ye will take our counsel, ye will find great 
 honour and profit shall come thereof.” So they replied, 
 that they would be right glad to learn how. “ In truth,” 
 said the Envoys, “ the Great Kaan hath never seen any 
 Latins, and he hath a great desire so to do. Wherefore, 
 if ye will keep us company to his Court, ye may depend 
 upon it that he will be right glad to see you, and will 
 treat you with great honour and liberality ; whilst in our 
 company ye shall travel with perfect security, and need 
 fear to be molested by nobody .” 2 
 
 Note 1 . — Hay ton also calls Bokhara a city of Persia, and I see 
 Vambery says that, up till the conquest by Chinghiz, Bokhara, Samar¬ 
 kand, Balkh, &c., were considered to belong to Persia. ( Travels , p. 377.) 
 
 King Barac is Borrak Khan, great grandson of Chagatai, and sove¬ 
 reign of the Ulus of Chagatai, from 1264 to 1270. The Polos, no 
 doubt, reached Bokhara before 1264, but Borrak must have been sove¬ 
 reign some time before they left it. 
 
 Note 2 . —The language of the envoys seems rather to imply that 
 they were the Great Kaan’s own people returning from the Court of 
 Hulaku. And Rashid mentions that Sartak, the Kaan’s ambassador to 
 Hulaku, returned from Persia in the year that the latter prince died. It 
 may have been his party that the Venetians joined, for the year almost 
 certainly was the same, viz. 1265. If so, another of the party was 
 Bayan, afterwards the greatest of Kublai’s captains, and much celebrated 
 in the sequel of this book (see Erdmann! s Temudschin , p. 214). 
 
 Marsden justly notes that Marco habitually speaks of Latins , never 
 of Franks. Yet I suspect his own mental expression was Farangi. 
 
Chaps. IV.—VI. THE COURT OF THE GREAT KAAN. U 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 How the Two Brothers took the Envoys’ counsel, and went 
 to the Court of the Great Kaan. 
 
 So when the Two Brothers had made their arrangements, 
 they set out on their travels, in company with the Envoys, 
 and journeyed for a whole year, going northward and 
 north-eastward, before they reached the Court of that 
 Prince. And on their journey they saw many marvels of 
 divers and sundry kinds, but of these we shall say nothing 
 at present, because Messer Mark, who has likewise seen 
 them all, will give you a full account of them in the Book 
 which follows. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 How the Two Brothers arrived at the Court of the 
 Great Kaan. 
 
 When the Two Brothers got to the Great Kaan, he re¬ 
 ceived them with great honour and hospitality, and showed 
 much pleasure at their visit, asking them a great number of 
 questions. First he asked about the emperors, how they 
 maintained their dignity, and administered justice in their 
 dominions ; and how they went forth to battle, and so 
 forth. And then he asked the like questions about the 
 kings and princes and other potentates. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 How the Great Kaan asked all about the manners of the 
 Christians, and particularly about the Pope of Rome. 
 
 And then he inquired about the Pope and the Church, 
 and about all that is done at Rome, and all the customs of 
 
12 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 the Latins. And the Two Brothers told him the truth in 
 all its particulars, with order and good sense, like sensible 
 men as they were ; and this they were able to do as they 
 knew the Tartar language well . 1 
 
 Note 1 .—The word generally used for Pope in the original is 
 Apostoille ( Apostolicus ), the usual French expression of that age. 
 
 It is remarkable that for the most part the text edited by Pauthier 
 has the correcter Oriental form Tatar , instead of the usual Tartar . 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 How the Great Kaan sent the Two Brothers as his Envoys to 
 
 the Pope. 
 
 When that Prince, whose name was Cublay Kaan, Lord 
 of the Tartars all over the earth, and of all the kingdoms 
 and provinces and territories of that vast quarter of the 
 world, had heard all that the Brothers had to tell him about 
 the ways of the Latins, he was greatly pleased, and he took 
 it into his head that he would send them on an Embassy to 
 the Pope. So he urgently desired them to undertake this 
 mission along with one of his Barons; and they replied that 
 they would gladly execute all his commands as those of 
 their Sovereign Lord. Then the Prince sent to summon 
 to his presence one of his Barons whose name was Cogatal, 
 and desired him to get ready, for it was proposed to send 
 him to the Pope along with the Two Brothers. The Baron 
 replied that he would execute the Lord’s commands to the 
 best of his ability. 
 
 After this the Prince caused letters from himself to the 
 Pope to be indited in the Tartar tongue , 1 and committed 
 them to the Two Brothers and to that Baron of his own, 
 and charged them with what he wished them to say to the 
 Pope. Now the contents of the letter were to this pur- 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 EMBASSY TO THE POPE. 
 
 3 
 
 port: He begged that the Pope would send as many as an 
 hundred persons of our Christian faith; intelligent men, 
 acquainted with the Seven Arts , 2 well qualified to enter 
 into controversy, and able clearly to prove by force of 
 argument to idolaters and other kinds of folk, that the Law 
 of Christ was best, and that all other religions were false 
 and naught; and that if they would prove this, he and 
 all under him would become Christians and the Church’s 
 liegemen. Finally he charged his Envoys to bring back to 
 him some Oil of the Lamp which burns on the Sepulchre 
 of our Lord at Jerusalem . 3 
 
 Note 1 . —The appearance of the Great Kaan’s letter may be illus¬ 
 trated by two letters preserved in the French archives; one from Arghun 
 Khan of Persia (1289), and the other from his son Oljaitu (1305), to 
 Philip the Fair. These are both in the Mongol language, and, according 
 to Abel Remusat, in the Uigur character, the parent of the present 
 Mongol writing. Facsimiles of the letters are given in Remusat’s paper 
 on intercourse with Mongol Princes, in Mem. de VAcad, des Inscript. 
 vols. vii. and viii. 
 
 Note 2 .—The “Seven Arts,” from a date reaching nearly back to 
 classical times, and down through the Middle Ages, expressed the whole 
 circle of a liberal education, and it is to these Seven Arts that the 
 degrees in arts were understood to appty. They were divided into the 
 Trivium of Rhetoric, Logic, and Grammar, and the Qiiadrivinm of 
 Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music, and Geometry. The 38th epistle of 
 Seneca was in many MSS. (according to Lipsius) entitled “ L. Annaei 
 Scnecae Liber de Septem Artibus liberalibus.” I do not find, however, 
 that Seneca there mentions categorically more than five, viz., Grammar, 
 Geometry, Music, Astronomy, and Arithmetic. In the 5 th century we 
 find the Seven Arts to form the successive subjects of the last seven 
 books of the work of Martianus Capella, much used in the schools 
 during the early Middle Ages. The Seven Arts will be found enume¬ 
 rated in the verses of Tzetzes ( Chil. XI. 525), and allusions to them in 
 the medieval romances are endless. Thus, in one of the “ Gestes 
 d’Alexandre,” a chapter is headed “ Comment Aristotle aprent a Alix- 
 andre les Sept Arts I In the tale of the Seven Wise Masters, Diocletian 
 selects that number of tutors for his son, each to instruct him in one of 
 the Seven Arts. In the romance of Erec and Eneide we have a dress 
 on which the fairies had pourtrayed the Seven Arts {Franc-Michel, 
 Recherches , &*c. II. 82); in the Roman de Mahommet the young impostor 
 is master of all the seven. See also Dante, Convito , Trat. II. c. 14. 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 14 
 
 Note 3 . —The Chinghizide Princes were eminently liberal—or indif¬ 
 ferent—in religion, and even after they became Mahomedan, which, 
 however, the Eastern Branch never did, they were rarely and only by 
 brief fits persecutors. Hence there was scarcely one of the non- 
 Mahomedan Khans of whose conversion to Christianity there were not 
 stories spread. The first rumours of Chinghiz in the West were as of a 
 Christian conqueror; tales maybe found of the Christianity of Chagatai, 
 Hulaku, Abaka, Arghun, Baidu, Ghazan, Sartak, Kuyuk, Mangu, Kublai, 
 and one or two of the latter’s successors in China, all probably false, 
 with one or two doubtful exceptions. 
 
 The Great Kaan delivering a Golden Tablet to the Brothers. From a miniature of the 14th century. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 How the Great Kaan gave them a Tablet of Gold, bearing his 
 
 ORDERS IN THEIR BEHALF. 
 
 When the Prince had charged them with all his commis¬ 
 sion, he caused to be given them a Tablet of Gold, on 
 which was inscribed that the three Ambassadors should be 
 supplied with everything needful in all the countries 
 through which they should pass—with horses, with escorts, 
 and, in short, with whatever they should require. And 
 when they had made all needful preparations, the three 
 Ambassadors took their leave of the Emperor and set out. 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 THE GOLDEN TABLET. 
 
 15 
 
 When they had travelled I know not how many days, 
 the Tartar Baron fell sick, so that he could not ride, and 
 being very ill, and unable to proceed further, he halted at 
 a certain city. So the Two Brothers judged it best that 
 they should leave him behind and proceed to carry out 
 their commission; and, as he was well content that they 
 should do so, they continued their journey. And I can 
 assure you, that whithersoever they went they were honour¬ 
 ably provided with whatever they stood in need of, or 
 chose to command. And this was owing to that Tablet of 
 Authority from the Lord which they carried with them . 1 
 
 So they travelled on and on until they arrived at Layas 
 in Hermenia, a journey which occupied them, I assure you, 
 for three years . 2 It took them so long because they could 
 not always advance, being stopped sometimes by snow, 
 or by heavy rains falling, or by great torrents which they 
 found in an impassable state. 
 
 Note 1 .— On these Tablets, see a note under Book II. chap, vii.. 
 
 Note .—Ayas, called also Ayacio, Aiazzo, Giazza, Glaza, La Jazza, 
 and Layas, occupied the site of ancient Aegae, and was the chief port 
 of Cilician Armenia, on the Gulf of Scanderoon. It became in the latter 
 part of the 13th century one of the chief places for the shipment of 
 Asiatic wares arriving through Tabriz, and was much frequented by the 
 vessels of the Italian Republics. It was the seat of a bishop, and the 
 Venetians had a Bailo resident there. 
 
 Ayas is the Leyes of Chaucer’s Knight:— 
 
 (“At Leyes was he and at Satalie ”) 
 
 and the Layas of Froissart (Bk. III. ch. xxii.). The Gulf of Layas is 
 described in the xixth Canto of Ariosto, where Marfisa and Astolfo find 
 on its shores a country of barbarous Amazons :— 
 
 # “ Fatto e ’1 porto a sembranza d’ una luna,” &c. 
 
 Marino Sanuto says of it: “ Laiacio has a haven, and a shoal in front 
 of it that we might rather call a reef, and to this shoal the hawsers of 
 vessels are moored whilst the anchors are laid out towards the land” 
 (II. IV. ch. xxvi.). 
 
 The present Ayas is a wretched village of some 15 huts, occupied 
 by poor Turkmans, and standing inside the ruined walls of the castle. 
 The latter was built by the Armenian kings from the remains of the 
 
6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 ancient city, and fragments of old columns are embedded in its walls of 
 cut stone. The castle formerly communicated by a causeway with an 
 advanced work on an island before the harbour. The ruins of the city 
 occupy a large space. ( Langlois , V. en Cilicie , p. 429-31; see also 
 Beaufort's Karamania, near the end.) 
 
 Castle of Ayas. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 How the Two Brothers came to the city of Acre. 
 
 They departed from Layas and came to Acre, arriving 
 there in the month of April, in the year of Christ 1269, 
 and then they learned that the Pope was dead. And when 
 they found that the Pope was dead (his name was Pope 
 * * ),* they went to a certain wise churchman who was 
 Legate for the whole kingdom of Egypt, and a man of 
 great authority, by name Theobald of Piacenza, and 
 told him of the mission on which they were come. When 
 the Legate heard their story, he was greatly surprised, and 
 deemed the thing to be of great honour and advantage 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 THE BROTHERS VISIT VENICE. 
 
 7 
 
 for the whole of Christendom. So his answer to the two 
 Ambassador Brothers was this: “ Gentlemen, ye see that 
 the Pope is dead ; wherefore ye must needs have patience 
 until a new Pope be made, and then shall ye be able to 
 execute your charge/’ Seeing well enough that what the 
 Legate said was just, they observed : “ But while the Pope 
 is a-making, we may as well go to Venice and visit our 
 households.” So they departed from Acre and went to 
 
 ClVITAsAcON SIVE PTOLOMAYDA. 
 
 Negropont, and from Negropont they continued their 
 voyage to Venice. 2 On their arrival there, Messer Nicolas 
 found that his wife was dead, and that she had left behind 
 her a son of fifteen years of age, whose name was Marco ; 
 and ’tis of him that this Book tells/ The Two Brothers 
 abode at Venice a couple of years, tarrying until a Pope 
 should be made. 
 
 Note 1 . — The deceased Pope’s name is omitted both in the Geog. 
 Text and in Pauthier’s, clearly because neither Rusticiano nor Polo 
 remembered it. It is supplied correctly in the Crusca Italian as Clement , 
 and in Ramusio as Clement IV. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 c 
 
i8 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 It is not clear that Theobald , though generally adopted, is the 
 ecclesiastic’s proper name. It appears in different MSS. as Teald 
 (G. T.), Ceabo for Teabo (Pauthier), Odoaldo (Crusca), and in the 
 Riccardian as Thebaldus de Vice-comitibus de Placentia , which corre¬ 
 sponds to Ramusio’s version. Most of the ecclesiastical chroniclers call 
 him Tedaldus, some Thealdus. Tedaldo is a real name, occurring in 
 Boccaccio (3d Day, Novel 7). 
 
 Note 2 .—After the expulsion of the Venetians from Constantinople, 
 Negropont was the centre of their influence in Romania. On the final 
 return of the travellers they again take Negropont on their way. 
 
 Note 3 .—The edition of the Soc. de Geographic makes Mark’s age 
 twelve , but I have verified from inspection the fact noticed by Pauthier 
 that the manuscript has distinctly xv. like all the other old texts. In 
 Ramusio it is nineteen , but this is doubtless an arbitrary correction to 
 suit the mistaken date (1250) assigned for the departure of the father 
 from Constantinople. 
 
 There is nothing in the old French texts to justify the usual state¬ 
 ment that Marco was born after the departure of his father from 
 Venice. All that the G. T. says is : “ Meser Nicolau treuve que sa 
 fame estoit morte, et les remes un filz de xv. anz que avoit a nom 
 Marc,” and Pauthier’s text is to the same effect. Ramusio, indeed, has : 
 “ M. Niccolo trovo che sua moglie era morta, la quale nella sua partita 
 aveva partorito un figlio,” and the other versions that are based on 
 Pepino’s seem all to have like statements. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 How the Two Brothers again departed from Venice, on their 
 
 WAY BACK TO THE GREAT KAAN, AND TOOK WITH THEM MARK, 
 
 the son of Messer Nicolas. 
 
 When the Two Brothers had tarried as long as I have told 
 you, and saw that never a Pope was made, they said that 
 their return to the Great Kaan must be put off no longer. 
 So they set out from Venice, taking Mark along with 
 them, and went straight back to Acre, where they found 
 the Legate of whom we have spoken. They had a good 
 deal of discourse with him concerning the matter, and asked 
 his permission to go to Jerusalem to get some Oil from 
 
Chap. XI. DEPARTURE FROM ACRE WITH MARK. 
 
 19 
 
 the Lamp on the Sepulchre, to carry with them to the 
 Great Kaan, as he had enjoined. 1 The Legate giving them 
 leave, they went from Acre to Jerusalem and got some of the 
 Oil, and then returned to Acre, and went to the Legate and 
 said to him: “ As we see no sign of a Pope’s being made, 
 we desire to return to the Great Kaan; for we have already 
 tarried long, and there has been more than enough delay.” 
 To which the Legate replied: “ Since ’tis your wish to go 
 back, I am well content.” Wherefore he caused letters to 
 be written for delivery to the Great Kaan, bearing testi¬ 
 mony that the Two Brothers had come in all good faith to 
 accomplish his charge, but that as there was no Pope they 
 had been unable to do so. 
 
 Note 1 .—In a Pilgrimage of date apparently earlier than this, the 
 Pilgrim says of the Sepulchre : “ The Lamp which had been placed by 
 His head (when He lay there) still burns on the same spot day and 
 night. We took a blessing from it ( i.e . apparently took some of the oil 
 as a beneficent memorial), and replaced it” (Itinerarium Antonini Pla- 
 centini in Bollandists , May, vol. ii. p. xx). 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 How the Two Brothers set out from Acre, and Mark along 
 
 WITH THEM. 
 
 When the Two Brothers had received the Legate’s letters, 
 they set forth from Acre to return to the Grand Kaan, and 
 got as far as Layas. But shortly after their arrival there 
 they had news that the Legate aforesaid was chosen Pope, 
 taking the name of Pope Gregory of Piacenza; news which 
 the Two Brothers were very glad indeed to hear. And 
 presently there reached them at Layas a message from 
 the Legate, now the Pope, desiring them, on the part 
 of the Apostolic See, not to proceed further on their 
 journey, but to return to him incontinently. And what 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 shall I tell you ? The King of Hermenia caused a galley 
 to be got ready for the Two Ambassador Brothers, and 
 despatched them to the Pope at Acre. 1 
 
 Note 1 . — The death of Pope Clement IV. occurred on St. Andrew’s 
 day (29th Nov.), 1268 ; the election of Tedaldo or Tebaldo of Piacenza, 
 a member of the Visconti family, and Archdeacon of Liege, did not 
 take place till 1st September, 1271, owing to the factions among the 
 
 cardinals. And it is said that 
 some of them, anxious only to 
 get away, voted for Theobald 
 in full belief that he was dead. 
 The conclave, in its inability 
 to agree, had named a com¬ 
 mittee of six with full powers, 
 which the same day elected 
 Theobald, on the recommend¬ 
 ation of the Cardinal Bishop 
 of Portus (John de Toleto, 
 said, in spite of his name, to 
 have been an Englishman). 
 This facetious dignitary had 
 suggested that the roof should 
 be taken off the Palace at 
 Viterbo where they sat, to 
 allow the divine influences to 
 descend more freely on their 
 counsels {quia nequeunt ad nos 
 per tot tecta ingredi ). Accord¬ 
 ing to some, these doggrel 
 verses, current on the occasion, were extemporized by Cardinal John 
 in the pious exuberance of his glee : 
 
 ‘ ‘ Papatus munus tulit Archidiaconus unus 
 
 Quem Patrem Patrum fecit discordia Fratrum.” 
 
 The Archdeacon, a man of great weight and gravity of character, 
 had gone to the Holy Land in consequence of differences with his 
 Bishop (of Liege), who was a disorderly liver, and during his stay there 
 he contracted great intimacy with Prince Edward of England (Edward 
 I.). Some authors, e.g. John Villani (VIII. 39), say that he was Legate 
 in Syria; others, as Rainaldus, deny this ; but Polo’s statement, and the 
 authority which the Archdeacon took on himself in writing to the Kaan, 
 seem to show that he had some such position. 
 
 He took the name of Gregory X., and before his departure from 
 
Chap. XII. 
 
 RETURN TO THE POPE 
 
 21 
 
 Acre, preached a moving sermon on the text, 11 If I forget thee , O Jeru¬ 
 salem? &c. Prince Edward fitted him out for his voyage. 
 
 Gregory reigned barely four years, dying at Arezzo ioth January, 
 1276. His character stood high to the last, and some of the Northern 
 Martyrologies enrolled him among the saints, but there has never been 
 canonization by Rome. The people of Arezzo used to celebrate his 
 anniversary with torch-light gatherings at his tomb, and plenty of 
 miracles were alleged to have occurred there. The tomb still stands in 
 the Duomo at Arezzo, a handsome work by Margaritone, an artist in 
 all branches, who was the Pope’s contemporary. There is an engraving 
 of it in Gonnelli, Mon. Sepolc. di Toscana. 
 
 (Fra Pipino in Muratori IX. 700; Rainaldi Annal. III. 252 seqq.; 
 Waddings sub. an. 1271 ; Pol/andists, ioth January; Palatii, Gesta 
 Pontif. Roman, vol. iii., and Fasti Cardinalium , I. 463, &c.) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 How the Two Brothers presented themselves before the 
 
 new Pope. 
 
 And when they had been thus honourably conducted to 
 Acre they proceeded to the presence of the Pope, and paid 
 their respects to him with humble reverence. He received 
 them with great honour and satisfaction, and gave them 
 his blessing. He then appointed two Friars of the Order 
 of Preachers to accompany them to the Great Kaan, and 
 to do whatever might be required of them. These were 
 unquestionably as learned Churchmen as were to be found 
 in the Province at that day—one being called Friar Nicolas 
 of Vicenza, and the other Friar William of Tripoli. 1 He 
 delivered to them also proper credentials, and letters in reply 
 to the Great Kaan’s messages [and gave them authority 
 to ordain priests and bishops, and to give every kind of 
 absolution, as if given by himself in proper person ; sending 
 by them also many fine vessels of crystal as presents to the 
 Great Kaan]. 2 So when they had got all that was needful, 
 they took leave of the Pope, receiving his benediction; 
 
22 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 and the four set out together from Acre, and went to Layas, 
 accompanied always by Messer Nicolas’s son Marco. 
 
 Now, about the time that they reached Layas, Ben- 
 docquedar, the Soldan of Babylon, invaded Hermenia with 
 a great host of Saracens, and ravaged the country, so that 
 our Envoys ran a great peril of being taken or slain.* And 
 when the Preaching Friars saw this they were greatly 
 frightened, and said that go they never would. So they 
 made over to Messer Nicolas and Messer Maffeo all their* 
 credentials and documents, and took their leave, departing 
 in company with the Master of the Temple. 4 
 
 Note 1. —Friar William, of Tripoli, of the Dominican convent at 
 Acre, appears to have served there as early as 1250. He is known as the 
 author of a book, De Statu Saracenorum post Ludovici Regis de Syria 
 redition , dedicated to Theoldus, Archdeacon of Liege ( i.e . Pope Gregory). 
 Of this some extracts are printed in Duchesne’s Hist. Francorum 
 Scriptores. There are two MSS. of it with different titles, in the Paris 
 Library, and a French version in that of Berne. A MS. in Cambridge 
 Univ. library, which contains among other things a copy of Pepino’s 
 Polo, has also the work of Friar William:—“ Willelmus Tripolitanus 
 Aconensis Conventus , de Egressu Machometi et Saracenorum , atque pro- 
 gressu eorumdam , de Statu Saracenorum ,” &c. It is imperfect; it is 
 addressed Theobaldo Ecclesiarcho digno Sancte Terre Peregrino Sancto. 
 And from a cursory inspection I imagine that the Tract appended to one 
 of the Polo MSS. in the British Museum (Addl. MSS., No. 19,952) is 
 the same work or part of it. To the same author is ascribed a tract 
 called Clades Damiatae . (Duchesne , V. 432 ; DAvezac in Rec. de 
 Voyages, IV. 406 ; Quetif Script. Ord. Praed. I. 264-5 1 Catal. of MSS. 
 in Camb. Univ. Library , I. 22.) 
 
 Note 2 .—I presume that the powers stated in this passage from 
 Ramusio to have been conferred on the Friars are exaggerated. In 
 letters of authority granted in like cases by Pope Gregory’s successors, 
 Nicolas III. (in 1278) and Boniface VIII. (in 1299) the missionary friars 
 to remote regions are empowered to absolve from excommunication and 
 release from vows, to settle matrimonial questions, to found churches 
 and appoint idoneos rectores , to authorize Oriental clergy who should 
 publicly submit to the Apostolic See to enjoy the privilegium clericale , 
 whilst in the absence of bishops those among the missionaries who were 
 priests might consecrate cemeteries, altars, palls, &c., admit to the Order 
 of Acolytes, but nothing beyond (see Mosheim , Hist. Tartar. Eccles. 
 App. Nos. 23 and 42). 
 
Chap. XII. BUNDUKDAR’S INVASION OF ARMENIA. 
 
 23 
 
 Note 3.— The statement here about Bundukdir’s invasion of Cilician 
 Armenia is a difficulty. He had invaded it in 1266, and his second 
 devastating invasion, during which he burnt both Layas and Sis, the 
 king’s residence, took place in 1275, a point on which Marino Sanuto is 
 at one with the Oriental Historians. Now we know from Rainaldus that 
 Pope Gregory left Acre in November or December, 1271, and the text 
 appears to imply that our travellers left Acre before him. The utmost 
 corroboration that I can find lies in the following facts stated by Makrizi. 
 
 On the 13th Safar >.h. 670 (20th September, 1271), Bundukdar 
 arrived unexpectedly at Damascus, and after a brief raid against the 
 Ismaelians he returned to that city. In the middle of Rabi I. (about 
 20-25 October) the Tartars made an incursion in northern Syria, and 
 the troops of Aleppo retired towards Hamah. There was great alarm at 
 Damascus; the Sultan sent orders to Cairo for reinforcements, and these 
 arrived at Damascus on the 9th November. The Sultan then advanced 
 on Aleppo, sending corps likewise towards Marash (which was within 
 the Armenian frontier) and Harran. At the latter place the Tartars 
 were attacked and those in the town slaughtered ; the rest retreated. 
 The Sultan was back at Damascus, and off on a different expedition by 
 7 th December. Hence, if the travellers arrived at Ayas towards the 
 latter part of November they would probably find alarm existing at the 
 advance of Bundukdar, though matters did not turn out so serious as 
 they imply. 
 
 “ Babylon,” of which Bundukdar is here styled Sultan, means Cairo, 
 commonly so styled (.Bambellonia d’Egitto) in that age. Babylon 
 of Egypt is mentioned by Diodorus quoting Ctesias, by Strabo, and 
 by Ptolemy; it was the station of a Roman Legion in the days of 
 Augustus, and still survives in the name of Babul, close to Old Cairo. 
 
 Malik Dahir Ruknuddin Bibars Bundukdari, a native of Kipchak, 
 was originally sold at Damascus for 800 dirhems (about 18/.), and 
 returned by his purchaser because of a blemish. He was then bought 
 by the Amir Alauddin Aidekin Bundukdar (“ The Arblasteer ”) whose 
 surname he afterwards adopted. He became the fourth of the Mame¬ 
 luke Sultans, and reigned from 1259 to 1276. The two great objects of 
 his life were the repression of the Tartars and the expulsion of the 
 Christians from Syria, so that his reign was one of constant war and 
 enormous activity. William of Tripoli, in the work above mentioned, 
 says : “ Bondogar, as a soldier, was not inferior to Julius Caesar, nor in 
 malignity to Nero.” He admits,however, that the Sultan was sober, chaste, 
 just to his own people, and even kind to his Christian subjects; whilst 
 Makrizi calls him one of the best princes that ever reigned over Musul- 
 mans. Yet if we take Bibars as painted by this admiring historian and 
 by other Arabic documents, the second of Friar William’s comparisons is 
 justified, for he seems almost a Devil in malignity as well as in activity. 
 More than once he played tennis at Damascus and Cairo within the 
 same week. A strange sample of the man is the letter which he wrote 
 
24 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 to Boemond, Prince of Antioch and Tripoli, to announce to him the 
 capture of the former city. After an ironically polite address to Boemond 
 as having by the loss of his great city had his title changed from Prince- 
 ship (. Al-Brensiyah) to Countship (Al-Komasiyali ), and describing his own 
 devastations round Tripoli, he comes to the attack of Antioch: “We 
 carried the place, sword in hand, at the 4th hour of Saturday, the 4th 
 
 day of Ramadhan. Hadst thou but seen thy Knights trodden 
 
 under the hoofs of the horses ! thy palaces invaded by plunderers and 
 ransacked for booty ! thy treasures weighed out by the hundredweight! 
 thy ladies ( Damdtaka , - tes Dames ’) bought and sold with thine own 
 gear, at four for a dinar ! hadst thou but seen thy churches demolished, 
 thy crosses sawn in sunder, thy garbled Gospels hawked about before 
 the sun, the tombs of thy nobles cast to the ground; thy foe the 
 Moslem treading thy Holy of Holies; the monk, the priest, the deacon 
 slaughtered on the Altar; the rich given up to misery; princes of royal 
 blood reduced to slavery ! Couldst thou but have seen the flames 
 devouring thy halls ; thy dead cast into the fires temporal with the fires 
 eternal hard at hand; the churches of Paul and of Cosmas rocking and 
 
 going down-, then wouldst thou have .said, 1 Would God that I 
 
 were dust!’.... As not a man hath escaped to tell thee the tale, 
 
 I TELL IT THEE ! ” 
 
 (Quatrentere's Makrizi , II. 92-101, and 190 seqq. ; D’Ohsson, III. 
 459-474 ; Marino Sannto in Bongars, 224-226, &c., &c.) 
 
 Note 4 . —The ruling Master of the Temple was Thomas Berard, but 
 there is little detail about the Order in the East at this time. They had 
 however considerable possessions and great influence in Cilician Armenia, 
 and how much they were mixed up in its affairs is shown by a circum¬ 
 stance related by Makrizi. In 1285, when Sultan Mansur, the successor 
 of Bundukdar, was besieging the Castle of Markab, there arrived in 
 Camp the Commander of the Temple (. Kamandiir-ul Dewet ) of the 
 Country of Armenia, charged to negotiate on the part of the king of Sis 
 (i.e. of Lesser Armenia), and bringing presents from him and from the 
 Master of the Temple, Berard’s successor William de Beaujeu. (III. 
 201.) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 How Messer Nicolas and Messer Maffeo Polo, accompanied by 
 Mark, travelled to the Court of the Great Kaan. 
 
 So the Two Brothers, and Mark along with them, proceeded 
 on their way, and journeying on, summer and winter, came 
 at length to the Great Kaan, who was then at a certain rich 
 
Chap. XIV. ARRIVE AT THE GREAT KAAN’S COURT. 
 
 25 
 
 and great city, called Kemenfu . 1 As to what they met 
 with on the road, whether in going or coming, we shall 
 give no particulars at present, because we are going to tell 
 you all those details in regular order in the after part of 
 this Book. Their journey back to the Kaan occupied 
 a good three years and a half, owing to the bad weather 
 and severe cold that they encountered. And let me tell 
 you in good sooth that when the Great Kaan heard that 
 Messers Nicolas and Maffeo Polo were on their way back, 
 he sent people a journey of full 40 days to meet them ; and 
 on this journey, as on their former one, they were honourably 
 entertained upon the road, and supplied with all that they 
 required. 
 
 Note 1 . —The French texts read Clemeinfu , Ramusio Clemenfu. The 
 Pucci MS. guides us to the correct reading, having Chemensu (. Kemensu) 
 for Chemenfu. Kaipingfu, meaning something like “ City of Peace,” 
 and called by Rashiduddin Kaiminfu (whereby we see that Polo as 
 usual adopted the Persian form of the name) was a city founded in 1256, 
 four years before Kublai’s accession, some distance to the north of the 
 Chinese wall. It became Kublai’s favourite summer residence, and 
 was styled from 1264 Shangtu or “Upper Court” (see infra , Book I. 
 chap. lxi.). It was known to the Mongols, apparently by a combination 
 of the two names, as Shangdu Keibung. It appears in the maps, since 
 D’Anville’s, under the modern name of Djao-Naiman Sume , the Tolon- 
 nur of Pere Hue, and according to Kiepert’s Asia is about 180 miles in 
 a direct line north of Peking. 
 
 (See Klafroth in J As. XI. 365 ; Gaubil,\ p. 115 ; Cathay , p. 260.) 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 How Messer Nicolo and Messer Maffeo Polo and Marco 
 
 PRESENTED THEMSELVES BEFORE THE GREAT KAAN. 
 
 And what shall I tell you ? when the Two Brothers and 
 Mark had arrived at that great city, they went to the Imperial 
 Palace, and there they found the Sovereign attended by 
 a great company of Barons. So they bent the knee before 
 
26 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Frol. 
 
 him, and paid their respects to him with all possible rever¬ 
 ence [prostrating themselves on the ground]. Then the 
 Lord bade them stand up, and treated them with great 
 honour, showing great pleasure at their coming, and asked 
 many questions as to their welfare, and how they had sped. 
 They replied that they had in verity sped well, seeing that 
 they found the Kaan well and safe. Then they presented 
 the credentials and letters which they had received from the 
 Pope, which pleased him right well; and after that they 
 he produced the Oil from the Sepulchre, and at that also 
 was very glad, for he set great store thereby. And next, 
 spying Mark, who was then a young gallant , 1 he asked who 
 was that in their company ? u Sire,” said his father, Messer 
 Nicolo, u ’tis my son and your liegeman .” 2 “Welcome is 
 he too,” quoth the Emperor. And why should I make a 
 long story ? There was great rejoicing at the Court because 
 of their arrival; and they met with attention and honour 
 from everybody. So there they abode at the Court with 
 the other Barons. 
 
 Note 1 .—“ Joenne Bacheler .” 
 
 Note 2.—“ Sire , il estmon jilz et vostre homme.” The last word in 
 the sense which gives us the word homage . Thus in the miraclep lay of 
 Theophilus (13th century), the Devil says to Theophilus :— 
 
 “ Or joing 
 
 Tes mains et si devien mes hom. 
 
 Theoph. Vez-ci que je vous faz hommagel 
 
 So infra (Book I. ch. xlvii.) Ung Khan is made to say of Chinghiz : 
 u II est mon homes et mon serf I (See also Bk. II. ch. iv. note). St. 
 Lewis said of the peace he had made with Henry III: “ II m’est mout 
 grant honneur en la paix que je foiz au Roy d’Angleterre pour ce qu’il 
 est mon home , ce que n’estoit pas devant.” And Joinville says with 
 regard to the king, “ Je ne voz faire point de serement, car je n’estoie 
 pas son home ” (being a vassal of Champagne). ( Theatre Fran$ais au 
 Moyen Age , p. 145 ; Joinville , p. 21, 37.) 
 
Chap. XV. 
 
 MARK SENT ON AN EMBASSY. 
 
 2; 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 How the Lord sent Mark on an Embassy of his. 
 
 Now it came to pass that Marco, the son of Messer Nicolo, 
 sped wondrously in learning the customs of the Tartars, as 
 well as their language, their manner of writing, and their 
 practice of war; in fact he came in brief space to know 
 several languages, and four sundry written characters. And 
 he was discreet and prudent in every way, insomuch that 
 the Emperor held him in great esteem . 1 And so when he 
 discerned Mark to have so much sense, and to conduct him¬ 
 self so well and beseemingly, he sent him on an ambassage 
 of his, to a country which was a good six months’ journey 
 distant. The young gallant executed his commission well 
 and with discretion. Now he had taken note on several 
 occasions that when the Prince’s ambassadors returned from 
 different parts of the world, they were able to tell him about 
 nothing except the business on which they had gone, and 
 that the Prince in consequence held them for no better than 
 fools and dolts, and would say : “ I had far liever hearken 
 about the strange things, and the manners of the different 
 countries you have seen, than merely be told of the business 
 you went upon ; ”—for he took great delight in hearing of 
 the affairs of strange countries. Mark therefore, as he 
 went and returned, took great pains to learn about all kinds 
 of different matters in the countries which he visited, in 
 order to be able to tell about them to the Great Kaan . 2 
 
 Note 1 . — The word Seigneur is often rendered “ Emperor,” as Lord 
 is equivocal. 
 
 What the four characters acquired by Marco were is open to indefinite 
 discussion. 
 
 The Chronicle of the Mongol Emperors rendered by Gaubil mentions 
 as characters used in their Empire, the Uighur, the Persian and Arabic, 
 that of the Lamas (Tibetan), that of the Nyuche, introduced by the Kin 
 Dynasty (of which some account by Mr. Wylie will be found in the 
 
28 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 Jour. R. As. Soc. XVII. p. 331), the Khitan, and the Passepa or Baspa 
 character, a syllabic character arranged on the basis of the Tibetan and 
 Sanskrit letters chiefly, by a learned chief Lama so-called, under the 
 orders of Kublai, and established by edict in 1269, as the official 
 character. The Nyuche and Khitan were apparently imitations of Chinese 
 writing. 
 
 Chinghiz and his first successors used the Uighur, and sometimes 
 the Chinese character. 
 
 On a remarkable Buddhist monument of the age of the Mongol rule 
 in China, at the pass of Nankau, 40 miles from Peking, there is a long 
 invocation inscribed in the Chinese, Nyuche, Sanskrit, Uighur, Tibetan, 
 and Baspa Mongol characters. I hope to present a specimen of this. 
 
 The orders of the Great Kaan are stated to have been published 
 habitually in six languages, viz., Mongol, Uighur (a branch of Oriental 
 Turkish), Arabic, Persian, Tangutan (probably Tibetan or a dialect 
 thereof) and Chinese. 
 
 Ghazan Khan of Persia is said to have understood Mongol, Arabic, 
 Persian, something of Kashmiri, of Tibetan, of Chinese, and a little of 
 the Frank tongue (probably French). 
 
 The annals of the Ming Dynasty, which succeeded the Mongols 
 in China, mention the establishment in 1407 of a linguistic office for 
 diplomatic purposes. The languages to be studied were Nyuche, Mongol, 
 Tibetan, Sanskrit, Bokharan (Persian ?), Uighur, Burmese, and Siamese. 
 To these were added by the Manchu dynasty two languages called Papeh 
 and Pehyih , both Shan dialects of the S.W. frontier—see infra , Bk. II. 
 ch. lvi.-lvii., and notes. ( Gaubil, ', p. 148; Gold. Horde , 184 ; Ilchan. II. 
 147 ; Lockhart in J. R. G. S., XXXVI. 152; Koeppen , Buddhaismus , 
 II. 99.) 
 
 Marsden supposes Mark’s four acquisitions to have been Mongol , 
 Uighur , Manchu , and Chinese; Baldello, Mongol , Arabic , Turkish , and 
 Chinese; Pauthier, Baspa Mongol , Arabic , Uighur , and Chinese. I en¬ 
 tirely reject the Chinese. We shall see no reason to believe that he 
 knew either language or character. Pauthier’s other three seem highly 
 probable. The fourth may have been Tangutan or Tibetan. But it is 
 likely enough that he counted separately two varieties of the same 
 character (e.g. of the Arabic and Persian) as two “ lettres de leur 
 escriptures.” 
 
 Note 2,— From the context no doubt Marco’s employments were 
 honourable and confidential; but Commissioner would perhaps better 
 express them than .Ambassador in the modern sense. The word lie hi, 
 which was probably in his mind, was applied to a large variety of classes 
 employed on the Commissions of Government, as we may see from 
 a passage of Rashiduddin in D’Ohsson, which says that “ there were 
 always to be found in every city from one to two hundred Ilchis , who 
 forced the citizens to furnish them with free quarters,” &c. (III. 404, see 
 also 485). 
 
JlePure^ fac-szTnzZe/ vP 
 
 Part rf aryJnscTTpt^rTv th& JPrTtraZ era;, ztt/ rarzriir cTiara^ters, cvr tiZies JircTrprazt ats 
 ZPi7 -yuri^-/ f jm77 / PZWrfJ&Zzrty, /r<?77t 77?7prtjsir7zs tizst&t Zy;<Z7itZ77t Pi&prjstsszrr/ rfJPA. WrZt&. 
 
NYUCHE CHINESE 
 
Chap. XVI. 
 
 MARCO GROWS IN FAVOUR. 
 
 29 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 How Mark returned from the Mission whereon he had been sent. 
 
 When Mark returned from his ambassage he presented 
 himself before the Emperor, and after making his report 
 of the business with which he was charged, and its suc¬ 
 cessful accomplishment, he went on to give an account in 
 a pleasant and intelligent manner of all the novelties and 
 strange things that he had seen and heard; insomuch that 
 the Emperor and all such as heard his story were surprised, 
 and said: “ If this young man live, he will assuredly come 
 to be a person of great worth and ability.” And so from 
 that time forward he was always entitled Messer Marco 
 Polo, and thus we shall style him henceforth in this Book 
 of ours, as is but right. 
 
 Thereafter Messer Marco abode in the Kaan’s employ¬ 
 ment some 17 years, continually going and coming, hither 
 and thither, on the missions that were entrusted to him 
 by the Lord [and sometimes, with the permission and 
 authority of the Great Kaan, on his own private affairs]. 
 And, as he knew all the Sovereign’s ways, like a sensible 
 man he always took much pains to gather knowledge of 
 anything that would be likely to interest him, and then on 
 his return to Court he would relate everything in regular 
 order, and thus the Emperor came to hold him in great 
 love and favour. And for this reason also he would employ 
 him the oftener on the most weighty and most distant of 
 his missions. These Messer Marco ever carried out with 
 discretion and success, God be thanked. So the Emperor 
 became ever more partial to him, and treated him with 
 the greater distinction, and kept him so close to his person 
 that some of the Barons waxed very envious thereat. And 
 thus it came about that Messer Marco Polo had know¬ 
 ledge of, or had actually visited, a greater number of the 
 different countries of the World than any other man; 
 
30 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol, 
 
 the more that he was always giving his mind to get know¬ 
 ledge, and to spy out and enquire into everything, in order 
 to have matter to relate to the Lord. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 How Messer Nicolo, Messer Maffeo, and Messer Marco, asked 
 
 LEAVE OF THE GREAT KAAN TO GO THEIR WAY. 
 
 When the Two Brothers and Mark had abode with the 
 Lord all that time that you have been told [having mean¬ 
 while acquired great wealth in jewels and gold], they began 
 among themselves to have thoughts about returning to 
 their own country; and indeed it was time. [For, to say 
 nothing of the length and infinite perils of the way, when 
 they considered the Kaan’s great age, they doubted whether, 
 in the event of his death before their departure, they would 
 ever be able to get home. 1 ] They applied to him several 
 times for leave to go, presenting their request with great 
 respect, but he had such a partiality for them, and liked so 
 much to have them about him, that nothing on earth 
 would persuade him to let them go. 
 
 Now it came to pass in those days, that the Queen Bol- 
 gana, wife of Argon Lord of the Levant, departed this 
 life. And in her Will she had desired that no Lady should 
 take her place, or succeed her as Argon’s wife, except one 
 of her own family [which existed in Cathay]. Argon 
 therefore despatched three of his Barons, by name respect¬ 
 ively Oulatay, Apusca, and Coja, as ambassadors to the 
 Great Kaan, attended by a very gallant company, in order 
 to bring back as his bride a lady of the family of Queen 
 Bolgana his late wife. 2 
 
 When these three Barons had reached the Court of the 
 Great Kaan, they delivered their message explaining where¬ 
 fore they were come. The Kaan received them with all 
 
Chap. XVII. THE POLOS WISH TO RETURN HOME. 
 
 31 
 
 
 honour and hospitality, and then sent for a lady whose 
 name was Cocachin, who was of the family of the deceased 
 Queen Bolgana. She was a maiden of 17, a very beautiful 
 and charming person, and on her arrival at Court she was 
 presented to the three Barons as the Lady chosen in com¬ 
 pliance with their demand. They declared that the Lady 
 pleased them well/ 
 
 Meanwhile, Messer Marco chanced to return from 
 India, whither he had gone as the Lord’s ambassador, and 
 made his report of all the different things that he had seen 
 in his travels, and of the sundry seas over which he had 
 voyaged. And the three Barons, having seen that Messer 
 Nicolo, Messer MafFeo, and Messer Marco were not only 
 Latins, but men of marvellous good sense withal, took 
 thought among themselves to get the three to travel with 
 them, their intention being to return to their country by 
 sea, on account of the great fatigue of that long land 
 journey for a lady. And the ambassadors were the more 
 desirous to have their company, as being aware that those 
 three had great knowledge and experience of the Indian 
 Sea and the countries by which they would have to pass, 
 and especially Messer Marco. So they went to the Great 
 Kaan, and begged as a favour that he would send the three 
 Latins with them, as it was their desire to return home 
 by sea. 
 
 The Lord, having that great regard that I have men¬ 
 tioned for those three Latins, was very loath to do so [and 
 his countenance showed great dissatisfaction]. But at last 
 he did give them permission to depart, enjoining them to 
 accompany the three Barons and the Lady. 
 
 -- 
 
 Note 1 . — Pegolotti, in his chapters on mercantile ventures to Cathay, 
 refers to the dangers to which foreigners were always liable on the death 
 j of the reigning sovereign. (See Cathay , p. 292.) 
 
 Note 2. —Several ladies of the name of Bulughan (“ Zibellina”) have 
 a place in Mongol-Persian history. The one here indicated, a Lady of 
 
32 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 great beauty and ability, was known as the Great Khatun (or Lady) 
 Bulughan, and was (according to strange Mongol custom) successively 
 the wife of Abaka and of his son Arghtjn, the Argon of the text, Mongol 
 sovereign of Persia. She died on the banks of the Kur in Georgia, 
 7th April, 1286. She belonged to the Mongol tribe of Bayaut, and was 
 the daughter of Hulaku’s Chief Secretary Gugah. (. Tlchan. I. 374 et 
 passim; Erdmann's Temudschin , p. 216.) 
 
 The names of the Envoys, Uladai, Apushka, and Koja, are all 
 names met with in Mongol history. And Rashiduddin speaks of an 
 Apushka of the Mongol Tribe of Urnaut, who on some occasion was 
 sent as Envoy to the Great Kaan from Persia,—possibly the very person 
 (see Erdmann, 205). 
 
 Of the Lady Cocachin we shall speak below. 
 
 Note 3. —Ramusio here has the following passage, genuine no doubt: 
 “ So everything being ready, with a great escort to do honour to the bride 
 of King Argon, the Ambassadors took leave and set forth. But after 
 travelling eight months by the same way that they had come, they found 
 the roads closed, in consequence of wars lately broken out among certain 
 Tartar Princes; so being unable to proceed, they were compelled to 
 return to the Court of the Great Kaan.” 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 How the Two Brothers and Messer Marco took leave of the 
 Great Kaan, and returned to their own Country. 
 
 And when the Prince saw that the Two Brothers and Messer 
 Marco were ready to set forth, he called them all three to 
 his presence, and gave them two golden Tablets of Au¬ 
 thority, which should secure them liberty of passage through 
 all his dominions, and by means of which, whithersoever 
 they should go, all necessaries would be provided for them, 
 and for all their company, and whatever they might choose 
 to order. 1 He charged them also with messages to the 
 King of France, the King of England, 2 the King of Spain, 
 and the other kings of Christendom. He then caused 
 thirteen ships to be equipt, each of which had four masts, 
 and often spread twelve sails. 3 And I could easily give you 
 all particulars about these, but as it would be so long an 
 
Chap. XVIII. VOYAGE THROUGH THE SEA OF INDIA. 
 
 33 
 
 affair I will not enter upon this now, but hereafter, 
 
 when time and place are suitable. [Among the said 
 ships were at least four or five that carried crews of 250 
 or 260 men.] 
 
 And when the ships had been equipt, the Three 
 Barons and the Lady, and the Two Brothers and 
 
 Messer Marco, took leave of the Grand Kaan, and went 
 on board their ships with a great company of people, 
 and with all necessaries provided for two years by the 
 Emperor. They put forth to sea, and after sailing for 
 some three months they arrived at a certain Island 
 
 towards the South, which is called Java , 4 and in which 
 
 there are many wonderful things which we shall tell you 
 all about by and bye. Quitting this Island they con¬ 
 tinued to navigate the Sea of India for 18 months 
 more before they arrived whither they were bound, 
 meeting on their way also with many marvels of which 
 we shall tell hereafter. 
 
 And when they got thither they found that Argon was 
 dead, so the Lady was delivered to Casan, his son. 
 
 But I should have told you that it is a fact that, when 
 they embarked, they were in number some 600 persons, 
 without counting the mariners; but nearly all died by the 
 way, so that only eight survived. 5 
 
 The sovereignty when they arrived was held by Kia- 
 catu, so they commended the Lady to him, and executed 
 all their commission. And when the Two Brothers and 
 Messer Marco had executed their charge in full, and done 
 all that the Great Kaan had enjoined on them in regard to 
 the Lady, they took their leave and set out upon their 
 journey. 6 And before their departure, Kiacatu gave them 
 four golden tablets of authority, two of which bore ger¬ 
 falcons, one bore lions, whilst the fourth was plain, and 
 having on them inscriptions which directed that the 
 three Ambassadors should receive honour and service all 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol. 
 
 through the land as if rendered to the Prince in person, 
 and that horses and all provisions, and everything neces¬ 
 sary, should be supplied to them. And so they found 
 in fact; for throughout the country they received ample 
 and excellent supplies of everything needful; and many 
 a time, indeed, as I may tell you, they were furnished 
 with 200 horsemen, more or less, to escort them on their 
 way in safety. And this was all the more needful because 
 Kiacatu was not the legitimate Lord, and therefore the 
 people had less scruple to do mischief than if they had 
 had a lawful prince. 7 
 
 Another thing too must be mentioned, which does 
 credit to those three Ambassadors, and shows for what 
 great personages they were held. The Great Kaan re¬ 
 garded them with such trust and affection, that he had 
 confided to their charge the Queen Cocachin, as well as 
 the daughter of the King of Manzi, 8 to conduct to Argon 
 the Lord of all the Levant. And those two great ladies 
 who were thus entrusted to them they watched over and 
 guarded as if they had been daughters of their own, until 
 they had transferred them to the hands of their Lord; 
 whilst the ladies, young and fair as they were, looked on 
 each of those three as a father, and obeyed them accord¬ 
 ingly. Indeed, both Casan, who is now the reigning prince, 
 and the Queen Cocachin his wife, have such a regard for 
 the Envoys that there is nothing they would not do for 
 them. And when the three Ambassadors took leave of that 
 Lady to return to their own country, she wept for sorrow 
 at the parting. 
 
 What more shall I say ? Having left Kiacatu they 
 travelled day by day till they came to Trebizond, and 
 thence to Constantinople, from Constantinople to Negro- 
 pont, and from Negropont to Venice. And this was in the 
 year 1295 of Christ’s Incarnation. 
 
 And now that I have rehearsed all the Prologue as 
 you have heard, we shall begin the Book of the Description 
 
Chap. XVIII. 
 
 CHINESE WAR VESSELS. 
 
 35 
 
 of the Divers Things that Messer Marco met with in his 
 Travels. 
 
 Note 1 .—On these plates or tablets, which have already been spoken 
 of, a note will be found further on (Book II. chap. vii.). Plano Carpini 
 says of the Mongol practice in reference to royal messengers: “Nun¬ 
 cios, quoscunque et quotcunque, et ubicunque transmittit, oportet quod 
 dent eis sine mora equos subductitios et expensas ” (669). 
 
 Note 2. —The mention of the King of England appears for the first 
 time in Pauthier’s Text. Probably we shall never know if the commu¬ 
 nication reached him. But we have the record of several embassies in 
 preceding and subsequent years from the Mongol Khans of Persia to 
 the Kings of England ; all with the view of obtaining co-operation in 
 attack on the Egyptian Sultan. Such messages came from Abaka in 
 1277; from Arghun in 1289 and 1291; from Ghazan in 1302; from 
 Oljaitu in 1307 (see Remus at in Mem. de FAcad. VII.;. 
 
 Note 3 .—Ramusio has u nine sails.” Marsden thinks even this 
 lower number an error of Ramusio’s, as “it is well known that Chinese 
 vessels do not carry any kind of topsail.” This is, however, a mistake, 
 for they do sometimes carry a small topsail of cotton cloth (and formerly, 
 it would seem from Lecomte, even a topgallant sail at times), though 
 only in quiet weather. And the evidence as to the number of sails 
 carried by the great Chinese junks of the Middle Ages, which evidently 
 made a great impression on Western foreigners, is irresistible. Friar 
 Jordanus, who saw them in Malabar, says, “With a fair wind they carry 
 ten sails ; ” Ibn Batuta, “ One of these great junks carries from three 
 sails to twelve;” Joseph, the Indian, speaking of those that traded to 
 India in the 15th century, “They were very great, and had sometimes 
 twelve sails with innumerable rowers” (Lecomte, I. 389; Fr. Jordanus , 
 Hak. Soc. p. 55 ; Ibn Batuta , IV. 91; Novus Or bis, p. 148).’ A fuller 
 account of these vessels is given at the beginning of Book III. 
 
 Note 4. — i.e. in this case Sumatra, as will appear hereafter. “ It is 
 quite possible for a fleet of fourteen junks which required to keep 
 together to take three months at the present time to accomplish a 
 similar voyage. A Chinese trader, who has come annually to Singapore 
 in junks for many years, tells us that he has had as long a passage as 
 sixty days, although the average is eighteen or twenty days” ( Logan in 
 J. Ind. Archip. II. 609). 
 
 Note 5 .—Ramusio’s version here varies widely, and looks more 
 probable: “ From the day that they embarked until their arrival there 
 died of mariners and others on board 600 persons; and of the three 
 ambassadors only one survived, whose name was Goza (Coja); but of 
 the ladies and damsels died but one.” 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Prol 
 
 It is worth noting that in the case of an embassy sent to Cathay a 
 few years later by Ghazan Khan, on the return by this same route to 
 Persia, the chief of the two Persian ambassadors, and the Great Kaan’s 
 envoy, who was in company, both died by the way (see Wassaf in 
 Elliot , III. 47). 
 
 Note 6.—Ramusio’s version states that on learning Arghun’s death 
 (which they probably did on landing at Hormuz), they sent word of 
 their arrival to Kiacatu, who directed them to conduct the lady to 
 Casan, who was then in the region of the Arbre Sec (the Province of 
 Khorasan) guarding the frontier passes with 60,000 men, and that they 
 did so, and then turned back to Kiacatu (probably at Tabriz) and 
 stayed at his Court nine months. Even the Geog. Text seems to imply 
 that they had become personally known to Casan, and I have no doubt 
 that Ramusio’s statement is an authentic expansion of the original nar¬ 
 rative by Marco himself, or on his authority. 
 
 Argbun Khan died 10th March, 1291. He was succeeded (23rd 
 July) by his brother Kaikhatu ( Quiacatu of Polo), who was put to death 
 24th March, 1295. 
 
 We learn from Hammers History of the Ilkhans that when Ghazan, 
 the son of Arghun ( Casan of Polo), who had the government of the 
 Khorasan frontier, was on his return to his post from Tabriz, where his 
 uncle Kaikhatu had refused to see him, “ he met at Abher the ambas¬ 
 sador whom he had sent to the Great Kaan to obtain in marriage a 
 relative of the Great Lady Bulghan. This envoy brought with him the 
 Lady Kukajin (our author’s Cocachin ), with presents from the Emperor, 
 and the marriage was celebrated with due festivity.” Abher lies a little 
 west of Kazwin. 
 
 Hammer seems to be here copying from Wassaf, but I have not been 
 able to procure a reference to that author. As well as the date can be 
 made out from the History of the Ilkhans, Ghazan must have met his 
 bride towards the end of 1293, or quite the beginning of 1294. Rashid- 
 uddin also mentions the fair lady from Cathay: “The ordu (or esta¬ 
 blishment) of Tukiti Khatun was given to Kukaji Khatun, who had 
 been brought from the Kaan’s Court, and who was a kinswoman of 
 the late chief Queen Bulghan. Kukaji, the wife of the Padshah of 
 Islam, Ghazan Khan, died in the month of Shaban, 695,” i.e. in June 
 1296, so that the poor girl did not long survive her promotion (see 
 Hammer's Ilkh. II. 20, and 8, and I. 273 ; and Quatremerds Rashiduddin , 
 
 p- 97). 
 
 Note 7 .—Here Ramusio’s text says : “ During this journey Messers 
 Nicolo, Maffeo, and Marco heard the news that the Great Khan had 
 departed this life; and this caused them to give up all hope of returning 
 to those parts.” 
 
 Note 8. —This Princess of Manzi, or Southern China, is mentioned 
 only in the Geog. Text and in the Crusca which is based thereon. I find 
 no notice of her among the wives of Ghazan or otherwise. 
 
Chap. XVIII. 
 
 QUEEN COCACHIN. 
 
 37 
 
 On the fall of the capital of the Sung Dynasty—the Kinsay of Polo 
 —in 1276, the Princesses of that Imperial family were sent to Peking, 
 and were graciously treated by Kublai’s favourite Queen, the Lady 
 Jamui. This young lady was, no doubt, one of those captive princesses 
 who had been brought up at the Court of Khanbalig (see Demailla , IX. 
 376, and infra Book II. ch. lxv., note). 
 
 Ancient Chinese War Vessel. 
 
BOOK FIRST. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF REGIONS VISITED OR HEARD OF 
 ON THE JOURNEY FROM THE LESSER ARMENIA 
 TO THE COURT OF THE GREAT KAAN AT 
 CHANDU. 
 
MARCO POLO 
 
 T o fac e C h ap lei* 1 of Book I. 
 
BOOK I 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Here the Book begins ; and first it speaks of the Lesser 
 
 Hermenia. 
 
 There are two Hermenias, the Greater and the Less. The 
 Lesser Hermenia is governed by a certain King, who main¬ 
 tains a just rule in his dominions, but is himself subject to 
 the Tartar. 1 The country contains numerous towns and 
 villages, 2 and has everything in plenty; moreover, it is 
 a great country for sport in the chase of all manner of 
 beasts and birds. It is, however, by no means a healthy 
 region, but grievously the reversed In days of old the 
 nobles there were valiant men, and did doughty deeds of 
 arms ; but now-a-days they are poor creatures, and good 
 at nought, unless it be at boozing; they are great at that. 
 Howbeit, they have a city upon the sea, which is called 
 Lay as, at which there is a great trade. For you must know 
 that all the spicery, and the cloths of silk and gold, and 
 the other valuable wares that come from the interior, are 
 brought to that city. - And the merchants of Venice and 
 Genoa, and other countries, come thither to sell their goods, 
 and to buy what they lack. And whatsoever persons would 
 travel to the interior (of the East), merchants or others, 
 they take their way by this city of Layas. 4 
 
 Having now told you about the Lesser Hermenia, we 
 shall next tell you about Turcomania. 
 
 Note 1 .—The Petite Hermenie of the Middle Ages was quite distinct 
 rom the Armenia Minor of the ancient geographers, which name 
 
42 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 the latter applied to the western portion of Armenia, west of the 
 Euphrates, and immediately north of Cappadocia. 
 
 But when the old Armenian monarchy was broken up (1079-80), 
 Rupen, a kinsman of the Bagratid Kings, with many of his countrymen, 
 took refuge in the Taurus. His first descendants ruled as barons, a 
 title adopted apparently from the Crusaders, but still preserved in 
 Armenia. Leon, the great-great-grandson of Rupen, was consecrated 
 King under the supremacy of the Pope and the Western Empire in 1198. 
 
 The kingdom was at its zenith 
 under Hetum or Hayton I., hus¬ 
 band of Leon’s daughter Isabel 
 (1224-1269) ; he was, however, 
 prudent enough to make an early 
 submission to the Mongols, and 
 remained ever staunch to them, 
 
 Coin of King Hetum and his Queen Isabel. wWch bought hi S territory COn- 
 
 stantly under the flail of Egypt. 
 It included at one time all Cilicia, with many cities of Syria and the 
 ancient Armenia Minor, of Isauria and Cappadocia. The male line 
 of Rupen becoming extinct in 1342, the kingdom passed to John de 
 Lusignan, of the royal house of Cyprus, and in 1375 it was put an 
 end to by the Sultan of Egypt. Leon VI., the ex-king, into whose 
 mouth Froissart puts some extraordinary geography, had a pension of 
 1000/. a year granted him by Richard II., and died at Paris in 1398. 
 
 The chief remaining vestige of this little monarchy is the continued 
 existence of a Catholicos of part of the Armenian Church at Sis, which 
 was the royal residence. Some Armenia!? communities still remain 
 both in hills and plains; and the former, the more independent and 
 industrious, still speak a corrupt Armenian. 
 
 Polo’s contemporary, Marino Sanuto, compares the kingdom of the 
 Pope’s faithful Armenians to one between the teeth of four fierce 
 beasts, the Lion Tartar, the Panther Soldan, the Turkish Wolf, the 
 Corsair Serpent. 
 
 (. Dulaurier, in J. As. ser. 5, tom. xvii. ; St. Martin, Arm.; Mar. 
 San. p. 32 ; Froissart, Book II. ch. xxii. seqq.; Langlois, V. en Cilicie, 
 1861, p. 19.) 
 
 Note 2. — “ Maintes villes et maint chasteaux .” This is a constantly 
 recurring phrase, and I have generally translated it as here, believing 
 chasteaux (castelli) to be used in the frequent old Italian sense of a 
 walled village or small walled town. Martini, in his Atlas Sinensis, uses 
 “ Urbes, oppida, castella,” to indicate the three classes of Chinese ad¬ 
 ministrative cities. 
 
 Note 3 .— “ Enferme durementS So Marino Sanuto objects to Lesser 
 Armenia as a place of debarkation for a crusade, “ quia terra est 
 infir ma.” Langlois, speaking of the Cilician plain : “In this region 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 LESSER HERMENIA — TURCOMAN I A. 
 
 43 
 
 once so fair, now covered with swamps and brambles, fever decimates 
 a population which is yearly diminishing, has nothing to oppose to the 
 scourge but incurable apathy, and will end by disappearing altogether,” 
 &c. (Voyage, p. 65.) Cilician Armenia retains its reputation for sport, 
 and is much frequented by our naval officers for that object. 
 
 Note 4 . — The phrase twice used in this passage for the Interior is 
 Fra terre , an Italianism (Fra terra , or, as it stands in the Geog. Latin 
 “infra terram Orient is ”), which, however, Murray and Pauthier have 
 read as an allusion to the Euphrates, an error based apparently on a 
 marginal gloss in the published edition of the Soc. de Geographic. It 
 is true that the province of Comagene under the Greek Empire got the 
 name of Euphratesia, or in Arabic Furatiyah, but that was not in 
 question here. The great trade of Ayas was with Tabriz via Sivas, 
 Erzingan, and Erzrum, as we see in Pegolotti. Elsewhere, too, in Polo 
 we find the phrase fra terre used where Euphrates could possibly have 
 no concern, as in relation to India and Oman (see Book III. chs. xxix. 
 and xxxviii., and notes in each case). 
 
 With regard to the phrase spicery here and elsewhere, it should be 
 noted that the Italian spezerie included a vast deal more than ginger 
 and other “ things hot i' the mouth.” In one of Pegolotti’s lists of 
 spezerie we find drugs, dye-stuffs, metals, wax, cotton, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the Province of Turcomania. 
 
 In Turcomania there are three classes of people. First, 
 there are the Turcomans ; these are worshippers of Ma- 
 hommet, a rude people with an uncouth language of their 
 own. 1 They dwell among mountains and downs where 
 they find good pasture, for their occupation is cattle¬ 
 keeping. Excellent horses, known as Tttrquans , are reared 
 in their country, and also very valuable mules. The other 
 two classes are the Armenians and the Greeks, who live 
 mixt with the former in the towns and villages, occupying 
 themselves with trade and handicrafts. They weave the 
 finest and handsomest carpets in the world, and also a great 
 quantity of fine and rich silks of cramoisy and other colours, 
 
44 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 and plenty of other stuffs. Their chief cities are Conia, 
 Sayast [where the glorious Messer Saint Blaise suffered 
 martyrdom], and Casaria, besides many other towns and 
 bishops’ sees, of which we shall not speak at present, 
 for it would be too long a matter. These people are 
 subject to the Tartar of the Levant as their Suzerain. 2 
 We will now leave this province, and speak of the Greater 
 Armenia. 
 
 Note 1 .—Ricold of Montecroce, a contemporary of Polo, calls the 
 Turkmans homines bestiales. In our day Ainsworth notes of a Turk¬ 
 man village : “The dogs were very ferocious . . . the people only a 
 little better” (/. R. G. S. X. 292). 
 
 Note 2 .—In Turcomania Marco perhaps embraces a great part of 
 Asia Minor, but he especially means the territory of the decaying 
 Seljukian monarchy, usually then called by Asiatics Rum , as the Otto¬ 
 man Empire is now, and the capital of which was Iconium, Kuniyah, 
 the Conia of the Text, and Coyne of Joinville. Ibn Batuta calls the 
 whole country Turkey (Al-Turhiyah), and the people Turk?ndn; exactly 
 likewise does Ricold ( Thurchia and Thurchimanni). Hayton’s account 
 of the various classes of inhabitants is quite the same in substance as 
 Polo’s. The migratory and pastoral Turkmans still exist in this region, 
 but the Kurds of like habits have taken their places to a large extent. 
 The fine carpets and silk fabrics appear to be no longer produced here, 
 any more than the excellent horses of which Polo speaks, which must 
 have been the remains of the famous old breed of Cappadocia. 
 
 A grant of privileges to the Genoese by Leon II., king of Lesser 
 Armenia, dated Dec. 23, 1288, alludes to the export of horses and mules, 
 &c., from Ayas, and specifies the duties upon them. The horses now 
 of repute in Asia as Turkman come from the east of the Caspian. 
 
 {Pereg. Quat. p. 114; I. B. II. 255 seqq.; Hay ton, ch. xiii.; 
 Liber Jurium Reip. Januensis, II. 184.) 
 
 Though the authors quoted above seem to make no distinction 
 between Turks and Turkmans, that which we still understand does 
 appear to have been made in the 12th century: “ That there may be 
 some distinction, at least in name, between those who made themselves 
 a king, and thus achieved such glory, and those who still abide in their 
 primitive barbarism and adhere to their old way of life, the former are 
 now-a-days termed Turks , the latter by their old name of Turcomans ” 
 ( William of Tyre , i. 7). 
 
 Casaria is Kaisariya, the ancient Caesarea of Cappadocia, close to 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 GREATER HERMENIA. 
 
 45 
 
 the foot of the great Mount Argaeus. Savast is the Armenian form 
 (,Sevasd) of Sebaste, the modern Siwas. The three cities, Iconium, 
 Caesarea, and Sebaste, were metropolitan sees under the Catholicos of 
 Sis. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Description of the Greater Hermenia. 
 
 This is a great country. It begins at a city called 
 Arzinga, at which they weave the best buckrams in the 
 world. It possesses also the best baths from natural 
 springs that are anywhere to be found . 1 The people of 
 the country are Armenians, and are subject to the Tartar. 
 There are many towns and villages in the country, but 
 the noblest of their cities is Arzinga, which is the See of an 
 Archbishop, and then Arziron and Arzizi . 2 
 
 The country is indeed a passing great one, and in the 
 summer it is frequented by the whole host of the Tartars 
 of the Levant, because it then furnishes them with such 
 excellent pasture for their cattle. But in winter the cold 
 is past all bounds, so in that season they quit this country 
 and go to a warmer region, where they find other good 
 pastures. [At a castle called Paipurth, that you pass in 
 going from Trebizond to Tauris, there is a very good silver 
 mine.*] 
 
 And you must know that it is in this country of Arme¬ 
 nia that the Ark of Noah exists on the top of a certain great 
 mountain [on the summit of which snow is so constant 
 that no one can ascend ; 4 for the snow never melts, and is 
 constantly added to by new falls. Below, however, the 
 snow does melt, and runs down, producing such rich and 
 abundant herbage that in summer cattle are sent to pasture 
 from a long way round about, and it never fails them. 
 The melting snow also causes a great amount of mud on 
 the mountain]. 
 
4 6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 The country is bounded on the south by a kingdom 
 called Mosul, the people of which are Jacobite and Nesto- 
 rian Christians, of whom I shall have more to tell you 
 presently. On the north it is bounded by the Land of the 
 Georgians, of whom also I shall speak. On the confines 
 towards Georgiania there is a fountain from which oil springs 
 in great abundance, insomuch that a hundred shiploads 
 might be taken from it at one time. This oil is not 
 good to use with food, but ’tis good to burn, and is 
 also used to anoint camels that have the mange. People 
 come from vast distances to fetch it, for in all the countries 
 round about they have no other oil . 5 
 
 Now, having done with Great Armenia, we will tell you 
 of Georgiania. 
 
 Note 1.—Erzingan, an ancient Armenian city, and still a place of 
 some prosperity for a town under Turkish rule. I do not find mention 
 of its hot springs by modern travellers, but Lazari says Armenians 
 assured him of their existence. There are plenty of others in Polo’s 
 route through the country, as at Ilija, close to Erzrum, and at ITassan 
 Kala’a. 
 
 The Buckrams of Arzinga are mentioned both by Pegolotti (circa 
 1340) and by Giov. d’Uzzano (1442). But what were they? 
 
 Buckram in the modern sense is a coarse open texture of cotton 
 or hemp, loaded with gum, and used to stiffen certain articles of dress. 
 But this was certainly not the medieval sense. Nor is it easy to bring 
 the medieval uses of the term under a single explanation. Indeed 
 Mr. Marsh suggests that probably two different words have coalesced. 
 Fr.-Michel says that Bouqueran was at first applied to a light cotton 
 stuff of the nature of muslin, and afterwards to linen, but I do not 
 see that he makes out this history of the application. Douet d’Arcq, 
 in his Comptes de TArgenterie, &c. explains the word simply in the modern 
 sense, but there seems nothing in his text to bear this out. 
 
 A quotation in Raynouard’s Romance Dictionary has “ Vestirs de 
 polpra e de bisso que est bocaran,” where Raynouard renders bisso as 
 tin; a quotation in Ducange also makes Buckram the equivalent of 
 Bissus ; and Michel quotes from an inventory of 1365, u unam culcitram 
 pinctam (qu. punctam ?) albam factam de bisso aliter boquerant.” 
 
 Mr. Marsh again produces quotations, in which the word is used as 
 a proverbial example of whiteness , and inclines to think that it was a 
 bleached cloth with a lustrous surface. 
 
 It certainly was not necessarily linen. Giovanni Villani, in a passage 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 ERZINGAN —BUCKRAM. 
 
 47 
 
 which is curious in more ways than one, tells how the citizens of 
 Florence established races for their troops, and, among other prizes, 
 was one which consisted of a Bucherame di bambagine (of cotton). 
 Polo, near the end of the Book (Book III. ch. xxxiv.), speaking of Abys¬ 
 sinia, says, according to Pauthier’s text: “ Et si y fait on moult beaux 
 bouquerans et autres draps de coton.” The G. T. is, indeed, more 
 ambiguous: “ II hi se font maint biaus dras banbacin e bocaran” 
 (cotton and buckram). When, however, he uses the same expression 
 with reference to the delicate stuffs woven on the coast of Telingana, 
 there can be no doubt that a cotton texture is meant, and apparently 
 a fine muslin (see Book III. chap, xviii.). Buckram is generally named 
 as an article of price, chier bouquerant , rice boquerans , &c., but not 
 always, for Polo in one passage (Book II. ch. xlv.) seems to speak of it 
 as the clothing of the poor people of Eastern Tibet. 
 
 Plano Carpini says the tunics of the Tartars were either of buckram 
 (bukeranum ), of purpura (a texture, perhaps velvet), or of baudekin , a 
 cloth of gold (p. 614-15). When the envoys of the Old Man of the 
 Mountain tried to bully Saint Lewis, one had a case of daggers to be 
 offered in defiance, another a bouqueran for a winding sheet ( foinville , 
 p. 136). 
 
 In accounts of materials for the use of Anne Boleyn in the time of 
 her prosperity, bokeram frequently appears for “ lyning and taynting ” (?) 
 gowns, lining sleeves, cloaks, a bed, &c., but it can scarcely have been 
 for stiffening, as the colour of the buckram is generally specified as the 
 same as that of the dress. 
 
 A number of passages seem to point to a quilted material. Boccaccio 
 (Day viii. Nov. 10) speaks of a quilt ( coltre ) of the whitest buckram of 
 Cyprus, and Uzzano enters Buckram Quilts (< coltre di Bucher ame) in a 
 list of Linajuoli , or linen-draperies. Both his handbook and Pego- 
 lotti’s state repeatedly that buckrams were sold by the piece or the 
 half-score pieces—never by measure. In one of Michel’s quotations 
 (from Baudouin de Sebourg) we have : 
 
 “ Gaufer li fist premiers armer d’un auqueton 
 Qui fu de bougherant et plaine de bon coton I 
 
 Mr. Hewitt would appear to take the view that Buckram meant a 
 quilted material; for, quoting from a roll of purchases made for the 
 Court of Edward I.; an entry for Ten Buckrams to make sleeves of, he 
 remarks, “ The sleeves appear to have been of pourpointerie? i.e. 
 quilting {Ancient Armour, I. 240). 
 
 This signification would embrace a large number of passages in which 
 the term is used, though certainly not all. It would account for the mode 
 of sale by the piece, and frequent use of the expression a buckram, for 
 its habitual application to coltre or counterpanes, its use in the auqueton 
 of Baudouin, and in the jackets of Falstaff’s “ men in buckram,” as well 
 as its employment in the frocks of the Mongols and Tibetans. The 
 
48 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 winter chapkan , or long tunic, of Upper India, a form of dress which, I 
 believe, correctly represents that of the Mongol hosts, and is probably 
 derived from them, is almost universally of quilted cotton. This signifi¬ 
 cation would also facilitate the transfer of meaning to the substance now 
 called buckram, for that is used as a kind of quilting. 
 
 The derivation of the word is very uncertain. Reiske says it is 
 Arabic, Abu-Kairdm , “ Pannus cum intextis figuris;” Wedgwood, at¬ 
 taching the modern meaning, that it is from It., bucherare , to pierce full 
 of holes, which might be if bucherare could be used in the sense of 
 puntare , or the French piquer; Marsh connects it with the bucking of 
 linen; and D’Avezac thinks it was a stuff that took its name from 
 Bokhara. If the name be local, as so many names of stuffs are, the 
 French form rather suggests Bulgaria. 
 
 (Della Decima, III. 18,149, 65, 74, 212, &c. ; IV. 4, 5 , 6 ; 212 \ Reiskds 
 Notes to Const. Porphyrogen. II.; D' Avezac, p. 5 2 4 i Vocab. Univ. Ital.; 
 Franc.-Michel, Recherches , &c. II. 29 seqq.; Bhilobiblon Soc. Miscell. VI. ; 
 Marsh's Wedgwood's Etym. Diet, sub voce.) 
 
 Note 2. —Arziron is Erzrum, which, even in Tournefort’s time, the 
 Franks called Erzeron (III. 126). Arzizi is Arjish, on Lake Van, the 
 ancient Arsissa, which gave the lake one of its names. It is now little 
 more than a decayed castle, with a village inside. 
 
 Notices of Kuniyah, Kaisariya, Si was, Arzan-ar-Rumi, Arzangan, 
 and Arjish, will be found in Polo’s contemporary Abulfeda (see Biisching, 
 IV. 303-311). 
 
 Castle of Baiburt. 
 
Chap. IV. GEORGIANIA AND THE KINGS THEREOF. 
 
 49 
 
 Note 3 .—Paipurth, or Baiburt, on the high road between Trebizond 
 and Erzrum, was, according to Neumann, an Armenian fortress in the 
 first century, and, according to Ritter, the castle Bciiberdon fortified 
 by Justinian. It stands on a peninsular hill, encircled by the windings 
 of the R. Charok.. The Russians, in retiring from it in 1829, blew up 
 the greater part of the defences. The nearest silver mines of which we 
 find modern notice, are those of Gumish-Khdnah (“ Silverhouse”) about 
 35 m. N.W. of Baiburt; they are more correctly mines of lead rich in 
 silver, and were once largely worked. But the Masdlak-al-absdr (14th 
 century), besides these, speaks of two others in the same province, one 
 of which was near Bajert . This Quatremere reasonably would read 
 Baber tor Baiburt. (Not. et Extraits , XIII. i. 337; Texier , Armenie , I. 59.) 
 
 Note 4. —Josephus alludes to the belief that Noah’s Ark still existed, 
 and that pieces of the pitch were used as amulets. (Ant. I. 3. 6.) 
 
 Ararat (16,953 feet) W 4 S ascended, first by Prof. Parrot, Sept., 1829; 
 by Spasski Aotonomoff, Aug., 1834; by Behrens, 1835 ; byAbich, 1845; 
 by Seymour in 1848; by Khodzko, Khanikoff, and others, for trigono¬ 
 metrical and other scientific purposes, in August, 1850. It is charac¬ 
 teristic of the account from which I take these notes (Longrimoff, in 
 Bull. Soc. Geog. Paris , ser. 4. tom. i. p. 54) that whilst the writer’s 
 countrymen, Spasski and Behrens, were “ moved by a noble curiosity,” 
 the Englishman is only admitted to have “ gratified a tourist’s whim ”! 
 
 Note 5 .—Though Mr. Khanikoff points out that springs of naphtha 
 are abundant in the vicinity of Tiflis, the mention of ship-loads (in 
 Ramusio indeed altered, but probably by the Editor, to camel-loads ), and 
 the vast quantities spoken of, point to the naphtha-wells of the Baku 
 Peninsula on the Caspian. Ricold speaks of their supplying the whole 
 country as far as Baghdad, and Barbaro alludes to the practice of 
 anointing camels with the oil. The quantity collected from the springs 
 about Baku was in 1819 estimated at 241,000 poods (nearly 4000 tons), 
 the greater part of which went to Persia. (Pereg. Quat. p. 122 ; Ramusio, 
 II. 109; El. de Laprim. 276; V. du Chev. Gamba, I. 298.) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 I i 
 
 Of Georgiania and the Kings thereof. 
 
 In Georgiania there is a King called David Melic, which 
 is as much as to say “ David Kinghe is subject to 
 the Tartar . 1 In old times all the kings were born with the 
 figure of an eagle upon the right shoulder. The people 
 are very handsome, capital archers, and most valiant soldiers. 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 They are Christians of the Greek Rite, and have a fashion 
 of wearing their hair cropped, like Churchmen . 2 
 
 This is the country beyond which Alexander could not 
 pass when he wished to penetrate to the region of the 
 Ponent, because that the defile was so narrow and perilous, 
 the sea lying on the one hand, and on the other lofty 
 mountains impassable to horsemen. The strait extends 
 like this for four leagues, and a handful of people might 
 hold it against all the world. Alexander caused a very 
 strong tower to be built there, to prevent the people be¬ 
 yond from passing to attack him, and this got the name 
 of the Iron Gate. This is the place that the Book of 
 Alexander speaks of, when it tells us how he shut up the 
 Tartars between two mountains ; not that they were really 
 Tartars however, for there were no Tartars in those days, 
 but they consisted of a race of people called Comanians 
 and many besides . 3 
 
 [In this province all the forests are of box-wood. 4 ] 
 There are numerous towns and villages, and silk is pro¬ 
 duced in great abundance. They also weave cloths of 
 gold, and all kinds of very fine silk stuffs. The country 
 produces the best goshawks in the world, [which are called 
 Avigi ~\. 5 It has indeed no lack of anything, and the 
 people live by trade and handicrafts. ’Tis a very moun¬ 
 tainous region, and full of strong defiles, insomuch that the 
 Tartars have never been able to subdue it out and out. 
 
 There is in this country a certain Convent of Nuns 
 called St. Leonard’s, about which I have to tell you a very 
 wonderful circumstance. Near the church in question 
 there is a great lake at the foot of a mountain, and in 
 this lake are found no fish great or small throughout the 
 year till Lent come. On the first day of Lent they find in 
 it the finest fish in the world, and great store too thereof; 
 and these continue to be found till Easter Eve. After 
 that they are found no more till Lent come round again; 
 and so ’tis every year. ’Tis really a passing great miracle ! 6 
 
Chap. IV. GEORGIANIA AND THE KINGS THEREOF. 
 
 51 
 
 That sea whereof I spoke as coming so near the moun¬ 
 tains is called the Sea of Ghel or Ghelan, and extends 
 about 700 miles. 7 It is twelve days’ journey distant from 
 any other sea, and into it flows the great River Euphrates 
 and many others, whilst it is surrounded by mountains. 
 Of late the merchants of Genoa have begun to navigate 
 this sea, carrying ships across and launching them thereon. 
 It is from the country on this sea also that the silk called 
 Ghelld is brought. 8 [The said sea produces quantities 
 of fish, especially sturgeon, at the river-mouths salmon, 
 and other big kinds of fish.] 
 
 Note 1 . —The G. T. says the King was always called David. The 
 Georgian Kings of the family of Bagratidae claimed descent from King 
 David through a prince Shampath, said to have been sent north by 
 Nebuchadnezzar; a descent which was usually asserted in their public 
 documents. Timur’s Institutes mention a suit of armour given him 
 by the King of Georgia as forged by the hand of the Psalmist King. 
 David is a very frequent name in their royal lists. There were two of 
 that name who shared Georgia between them under the decision of the 
 Great Kaan in 1246, and one of them, who survived to 1269, is probably 
 meant here. The name of David was borne by the last titular King of 
 Georgia, who ceded his rights to Russia in 1801. (. Khanikojj; Jour. As. 
 IX. 370, XI. 291, &c. ; Tim. Instit. p. 143.) 
 
 Note 2 .—This fashion of tonsure is mentioned by Barbaro and 
 Chardin. The latter speaks strongly of the beauty of both sexes, as 
 does Della Valle, and most modern travellers concur. 
 
 Note 3. —This refers to the Pass of Derbend, still called in Turkish 
 Demir-Kapi or the Iron Gate, and to the ancient Wall that runs from 
 the castle of Derbend along the ridges of Caucasus, called in the East 
 Sadd-i-Iskandar, the Rampart of Alexander. Bayer thinks the wall was 
 probably built originally by one of the Antiochi, and renewed by the 
 Sassanian Kobad or his son Naoshirwan. It is ascribed to the latter 
 by Abulfeda; and according to Klaproth’s extracts from the £)erbend 7 
 Ndmah , Naoshirwan completed the fortress of Derbend in a.d. 542, 
 but he and his father together had erected 360 towers upon the Cau¬ 
 casian Wall which extended to the Gate of the Alans (i.e. the Pass of 
 Dariel). The Russians must have gained some knowledge as to the 
 actual existence and extent of the remains of this great work, but I have 
 not been able to meet with any modern information of a very precise 
 kind. According to a quotation from Reineggs Kaukasus (I. 120, a 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I 
 
 work which I have not been able to consult) the remains of defences 
 can be traced for many miles, and are in some places as much as 
 120 feet high. M. Moynet indeed, in the Tour du Monde (I. 122), states 
 that he traced the wall to a distance of 27 versts (18 miles) from Derbend, 
 but unfortunately, instead of describing remains of such high interest from 
 his own observation, he cites a description written by Alex. Dumas, 
 which he says is quite accurate. 
 
 There is another wall claiming the title of Sadd-i-Iskandar at the 
 S.E. angle of the Caspian. This has been particularly spoken of by 
 Vambery, who followed its traces from S.W. to N.E. for upwards of 40 
 miles (see his Travels in C. Asia , 54 seqq. , and Julius Braun in the 
 Ausland , No. 22, of 1869). 
 
 The story alluded to by Polo is found in the medieval romances of 
 Alexander, and in the Pseudo-Callisthenes on which they are founded. 
 The hero chases a number of impure cannibal nations within a mountain 
 barrier, and prays that they may be shut up therein. The mountains 
 draw together within a few cubits, and Alexander then builds up the 
 gorge and closes it with gates of brass or iron. There were in all 
 22 nations with their kings, and the names of the nations were Goth, 
 Magoth, Anugi, Eges, Exenach, &c. &c. Godfrey of Viterbo speaks of 
 them in his rhyming verses :— 
 
 “ Finibus Indorum species fuit una virorum ; 
 
 Goth erat atque Magoth dictum cognomen eorum 
 * * * * * * 
 
 Narrat Esaias, Isidorus et Apocalypsis, 
 
 Tangit et in titulis Magna Sibylla suis. 
 
 Patribus ipsorum tumulus fuit venter eoru n,” &c. 
 
 Among the questions that the Jews are said to have put, in order to 
 test Mahommed’s prophetic character, was one series : “ Who are Gog 
 and Magog ? Where do they dwell ? What sort of rampart did Zu’l- 
 karnain build between them and men ? ” And in the Koran we find 
 (chap, xviii. “ The Cavern”) : “They will question thee, O Mohammed, 
 regarding Zu’lkarnain. Reply : I will tell, you his history ”—and then 
 follows the story of the erection of the Rampart of Yajuj and Majuj. 
 In chapter xxi. again there is an allusion to their expected issue at the 
 latter day. This last expectation was one of very old date. Thus 
 the Cosmography of Aethicus, a work believed to have been abridged by 
 St. Jerome, and therefore to be as old at least as the 4th century, says 
 that the Turks of the race of Gog and Magog, a polluted nation, eating 
 human flesh and feeding on all abominations, never washing and never 
 using wine, salt, nor wheat, shall come forth in the Day of Antichrist from 
 where they lie shut up behind the Caspian Gates, and make horrid devas¬ 
 tation. No wonder that the eruption of the Tartars was connected with 
 this prophetic legend ! The Emperor Frederic II., writing to Henry III. 
 of England, says of the Tartars : “ ’Tis said they are descended from 
 he Ten Tribes who abandoned the Law of Moses and worshipped the 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 VIEW OF DERBEND 
 
 53 
 
 View of Derbend, 
 
54 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Golden Calf. They are the people whom Alexander Magnus shut up 
 in the Caspian Mountains.” 
 
 According to some chroniclers, the Emperor Heraclius had already 
 let loose the Shut-up Nations to aid him against the Persians, but it 
 brought him no good, for he was beaten in spite of their aid, and died 
 of grief 
 
 The theory that the Tartars were Gog and Magog led to the Ram¬ 
 part of Alexander being confounded with the Wall of China (see infra , 
 Book I. chap, lix.), or being relegated to the extreme N.E. of Asia, as 
 we find it in the Carta Catalana. 
 
 These legends are referred to by Rabbi Benjamin, Hayton, Rubru- 
 quis, Ricold, Matthew Paris, and many more. Josephus indeed speaks 
 of the Pass which Alexander fortified with gates of steel. But his saying 
 that the King of Hyrcania was Lord of this pass points to the Hyrcanian 
 Gates of Northern Persia, or perhaps to the Wall of Gomushtapah, 
 described by Vambery. 
 
 Edrisi relates how the Khalif Wathek sent one Salem the Dragoman 
 to explore the Rampart of Gog and Magog. His route lay by Tiflis, the 
 Alan country, and that of the Bashkirds to the far north or north-east, 
 and back by Samarkand. But the report of what he saw is pure fable. 
 
 At Gelath in Imeretia there still exists one valve of a large iron gate, 
 traditionally said to be the relic of a pair brought as a trophy from 
 Derbend by David King of Georgia, called the Restorer (1089-1130). 
 M. Brosset however has shown it to be the gate of Ganja, carried off 
 in 1139. 
 
 (Bayer in Comment. Petropol. I. 401 seqq.; Pseudo-Callisth. by 
 Muller , p. 138; Gott. Viterb. in Pistorii Nidani Scriptt. Germ. II. 228; 
 Alexandriade , p. 310-11 ; Zotenberfs Tabari , quoted in Athenceum , Jan. 
 18th, 1868; Acad, des Insc. Divers Savans , II. 483; Edrisi , II. 416- 
 420, &c.) 
 
 Note 4 .—The box-wood of the Abkhasian forests was so abundant, 
 and formed so important an article of Genoese trade, as to give the 
 name of Chao de Bux (Cavo di Bussi) to the bay of Bambor, N.W. of 
 Sukum Kala’a, where the traffic was carried on (see Elie de Lafrim. 
 
 243)- 
 
 Note 5. —Jerome Cardan notices that “the best and biggest gos¬ 
 hawks come from Armenia,” a term often including Georgia and Cau¬ 
 casus. The name of the bird is perhaps the same as 'Affi, a Falco 
 montanus” (see Casiri , I. 320). Haxthausen in our own day speaks of 
 the admirably-trained hawks of the Georgian princes. (Cardan, de Per. 
 Varietate , VII. 35 ; Transcaucasia, 25.) 
 
 Note 6.—A letter of Warfen Hastings written shortly before his 
 death, and after reading Marsden’s Marco Polo, tells how a fish-breeder 
 of Banbury warned him against putting pike into his fish-pond, saying, 
 “ If you should leave them where they are till Shrove Tuesday they will 
 be sure to spawn, and then you will never get any other fish to breed in 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 CONVENT OF ST. LEONARD. 
 
 55 
 
 it” (Romance of Travel, I. 255). Edward Webbe in his Travels (1590, 
 reprinted 1868) tells us that in the “ Land of Siria there is a River 
 having great store of fish like unto Samon-trouts, but no Jew can catch 
 them, though either Christian and Turk shall catch them in abundance 
 with great ease.” The circumstance of fish being got only for a limited 
 time in spring is noticed with reference to Lake Van both by Tavernier 
 and Mr. Brant. 
 
 But the exact legend here reported is related (as M. Pauthier has 
 already noticed) by Wilibrand of Oldenburg of a stream under the castle 
 of Adamodana belonging to the Hospitallers, near Naversa (the ancient 
 Anazarbus), in Cilicia under Taurus. And Khanikoff was told the 
 same story of a lake in the district of Akhaltzike in Western Georgia, in 
 regard to which he explains the substance of the phenomenon as a result 
 of the rise of the lake’s level by the melting of the snows, which often 
 coincides with Lent. I may add that Moorcroft was told respecting a 
 sacred pond near Sir-i-Chashma, on the road from Kabul to Bamian, 
 that the fish in the pond were not allowed to be touched, but that they 
 were accustomed to desert it for the rivulet that ran through the valley 
 regularly every year on the day of the vernal equinox , and it was then 
 lawful to catch them. 
 
 Like circumstances would produce the same effect in a variety of 
 lakes, and I have not been able to identify the convent of St. Leonard’s. 
 Indeed Leonard (Sant Lienard, G. T.) seems no likely name for an 
 Armenian saint; and the patroness of the convent (as she is of many 
 others in that country) was perhaps Saint Nina , an eminent personage 
 in the Armenian Church, whose tomb is still a place of pilgrimage; or 
 possibly St. Helena , for I see that the Russian maps show a place called 
 Elenovka on the shores of Lake Sevan, N. E. of Erivan. Ramusio’s text, 
 moreover, says that the lake was four days in compass , and this description 
 will apply, I believe, to none but the lake just named. This is, according 
 to Monteith, 47 m. in length and 21 m. in breadth, and as far as I can 
 make out he travelled round it in three very long marches. Convents 
 and churches on its shores are numerous, and a very ancient one 
 occupies an island on the lake. The lake is noted for its fish, especially 
 magnificent trout. 
 
 (Tavern., Bk. III. ch. iii .; J. R. G. S., X. 897 ; Pereg. Quat. p. 179 ; 
 Khanikoff, 15 ; Moorcroft, II. 382 ; f. R. G. S., III. 40 seqq.) 
 
 Note 7.— The name assigned by Marco to the Caspian, “ Mer de 
 Gheluchelan ” or “ Ghelachelan,” has puzzled commentators. I have 
 no doubt that the interpretation adopted above is the correct one. I 
 suppose that Marco said that the sea was called “ La Mer de Ghel ou 
 (de) Ghelan,” a name taken from the districts of the ancient Gelae on 
 its south-western shores, called indifferently Gil or Gilan, just as many 
 other regions of Asia have like duplicate titles (singular and plural), arising, 
 I suppose, from the change of a gentile into a local name. Such are 
 Lar, Laran, Khutl, Khutlan, &c., a class to which Badakhshan, Wakhan, 
 
56 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Shaghnan, and others have formerly belonged, as the adjectives Ba- 
 dakhshi, &c. show. Abulfeda, speaking of this territory, uses exactly 
 Polo’s phrase, saying that the districts in question are properly called 
 Kil-o-KUcm , but by the Arabs Jil-o-Jilan. Teixeira gives the Persian 
 name of the sea as Darya Ghilani (see Abulf. in Biisching , v. 329). 
 
 The province of Gil gave name to the silk for which it was and is 
 still famous, mentioned as Ghelle (Gilt) at the end of this chapter. 
 This Seta Ghella is mentioned also by Pegolotti (pp. 212, 238, 301), 
 and by Uzzano, with an odd transposition, as Seta Leggi , along with 
 Seta Masandroni , i.e. from the adjoining province of Mazanderan 
 (p. 192). May not the Spanish Geliz “a silk dealer,” which seems to 
 have been a puzzle to etymologists, be connected with this ? (see Dozy 
 and Engelmann, 2nd ed. p. 275). 
 
 The dimensions assigned to the Caspian in the text would be very 
 correct if length were meant, but the Geog. Text with the same figure 
 specifies circuit ( zire ). Ramusio again has “ a circuit of 2800 miles.” 
 Possibly the original reading was 2700; but this would be in excess. 
 
 Note 8. —The Caspian is termed by Vincent of Beauvais Mare 
 Seruanicum , the Sea of Shirwan, another of its numerous Oriental names, 
 rendered by Marino Sanuto as Mare Salvanicum (III. xi. ch. ix.). But 
 it was generally known to the Franks in the Middle Ages as the Sea of 
 Bacu. Thus Berni:— 
 
 “ Fuor del deserto la diritta strada 
 Lungo il Mar di Bacu miglior pareva.” 
 
 ( Orl . Innam. xvii. 60.) 
 
 And in the Sfera of Lionardo Dati (circa 1390) :— 
 
 “ Da Tramontana di quest” Asia Grande 
 Tartari son sotto la fredda Zona, 
 
 Gente bestial di bestie e vivande, 
 
 Fin dove t Onda di Baccu risuona,” &c. (p. 10.) 
 
 This name is introduced in Ramusio, but probably by interpolation, as 
 well as the correction of the statement regarding Euphrates, which is 
 perhaps a branch of the notion alluded to in Prologue , ch. ii. note 5 . 
 In a later chapter Marco calls it the Sea of Sarai , a title also given in 
 the Carta Catalan a. 
 
 We have little information as to the Genoese navigation of the 
 Caspian, but the great number of names exhibited along its shores in 
 the map just named (1374) shows how familiar such navigation had 
 become by that date (see also Cathay , p. 50, where an account is given 
 of a remarkable enterprise by Genoese buccaneers on the Caspian about 
 that time.) 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF MAUSUL. 
 
 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the Kingdom of Mausul. 
 
 On the frontier of Armenia towards the south-east is the 
 kingdom of Mausul. It is a very great kingdom, and 
 inhabited 1 by several different kinds of people whom we 
 shall now describe. 
 
 First there is a kind of people called Arabi, and these 
 worship Mahommet. Then there is another description of 
 people who are Nestorian and Jacobite Christians. These 
 have a Patriarch whom they call the Jatolic, and this 
 Patriarch creates Archbishops, and Abbots, and Prelates of 
 all other degrees, and sends them into every quarter, as to 
 India, to Baudas, or to Cathay, just as the Pope of Rome 
 does in the Latin countries. For you must know that 
 though there is a very great number of Christians in those 
 countries, they are all Jacobites and Nestorians; Christians 
 indeed, but not in the fashion enjoined by the Pope of 
 Rome, for they come short in several points of the Faith. 2 
 
 All the cloths of gold and silk that are called Mosolins 
 are made in this country; and those great Merchants called 
 Mosolins who carry for sale such quantities of spicery and 
 pearls and cloths of silk and gold, are also from this 
 kingdom. 3 
 
 There is yet another race of people who inhabit the 
 mountains in that quarter, and are called Curds. Some 
 of them are Christians, and some of them are Saracens; 
 but they are an evil generation, whose delight it is to 
 plunder merchants. 4 
 
 [Near this province is another called Mus and Merdin, 
 producing an immense quantity of cotton, from which they 
 make a great deal of buckram and other cloth. The people 
 are craftsmen and traders, and all are subject to the Tartar 
 King. 5 ] 
 
58 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 1 . — Polo could scarcely have been justified in calling Mosul 
 a very great kingdom. This is a bad habit of his, as we shall have to 
 notice again. Badruddin Lulu, the Atabeg of Mosul, had at the age 
 of 96 taken sides with Hulaku, and stood high 
 in his favour. His son Malik Salih, having 
 revolted, surrendered to the Mongols in 1261 
 on promise of life ; which promise they kept in 
 Mongol fashion by torturing him to death. 
 Since then the kingdom had ceased to exist 
 as such. Coins of Badruddin remain with the 
 name and titles of Mangu Kaan on their re¬ 
 verse, and some of his and of other atabegs 
 exhibit curious imitations of Greek art. ( Quat\ 
 Rash. p. 389 ; Jour. As. IV. VI. 141.) 
 
 Note 2 .—The Nestorian Church was at this time and in the pre¬ 
 ceding centuries diffused over Asia to an extent of which little con¬ 
 ception is generally entertained, having a chain of Bishops and 
 Metropolitans from Jerusalem to Peking. The Church derived its name 
 from Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who was deposed by the 
 Council of Ephesus in 431. The chief “point of the Faith” wherein 
 they came short, was (at least in its most tangible form) the doctrine 
 that in Our Lord there were two Persons, one of the Divine Word, 
 the other of the Man J esus; the former dwelling in the latter as in a 
 Temple, or uniting with the latter “as fire with iron.” Nestorin , the 
 term used by Polo, is almost a literal transcript of the Arab form Nas- 
 turi. A notice of the Metropolitan sees, with a map, will be found in 
 Cathay , p. ccxliv. 
 
 Jdthalik , written in our text (from G. T.) Jatolic , by Fr. Burchard and 
 Ricold Jaselic , is the title of the Patriarch, representing KatfoAtKo?. No 
 doubt it was originally Gathalik , but altered in pronunciation by the 
 Arabs. The Nestorian Patriarch at this time resided at Baghdad. 
 
 (Assemani , vol. iii. pt. 2 ; Per. Quat 91, 127.) 
 
 The Jacobites, or Jacobins as they are called by writers of that age 
 (Ar. Yd’ktibty), received their name from Jacob Baradaeus, Bishop of 
 Edessa (so called, Mas’udi says, because he was a maker of Barddat or 
 saddle-cloths), who gave a great impulse to their doctrine in the 6th 
 century. They formed a church, which at one time spread over the 
 East at least as far as Sijistan, where they had a see under the Sassanian 
 Kings. Their distinguishing tenet was Monofthysitism, viz., that Our 
 Lord had but one Nature, the Divine. It was in fact a rebound from 
 Nestorian doctrine, but, as might be expected in such a case, there was 
 a vast number of shades of opinion among both bodies. The chief 
 locality of the Jacobites was in the districts of Mosul, Tekrit, and 
 Jazirah, and their Patriarch was at this time settled at the Monastery 
 of St. Matthew, near Mosul, but afterwards, and to the present day, 
 at or near Mardin. The Armenian, Coptic, Abyssinian, and Malabar 
 
 Coin of Badruddin of Mausul. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF MAUSUL. 
 
 59 
 
 Churches all hold some shade of the Jacobite doctrine, though they 
 have, except the last, Patriarchs apart. 
 
 ( Assemani , vol. ii.; Le Quien , II. 1596 ; Mas'udi , II. 329-30; Per. 
 Quat . 124-9.) 
 
 Note 3 .—We see here that mosolin or muslin had a very different 
 meaning from what it has now. A quotation from Ives by Marsden shows 
 it to have been applied in the middle of last century to a strong cotton 
 cloth made at Mosul. Dozy says the Arabs use Mau^ili in the sense of 
 muslin, and refers to passages in the ‘ Arabian Nights.’ But do they in¬ 
 dicate more than some texture ? (p. 323). I have found no elucidation of 
 Polo’s application of mosolini to a class of merchants. But in a letter of 
 Pope Innocent IV. (1244) to the Dominicans in Palestine, we find classed 
 as different bodies of Oriental Christians, “ Jacobitae, Nestoritae, Georgiani, 
 Graeci , Armeni , Maronitae , et Mosolini.” (Le Quien, III. 1342.) 
 
 Note 4 .—“ The Curds,” says Ricold, “ exceed in malignant ferocity 
 all the barbarous nations that I have seen. . . . They are called Curti , 
 not because they are curt in stature, but from the Persian word for 
 Wolves. . . . They have three principal vices, viz., Murder, Robbery, 
 and Treachery.” Some say they have not mended since, but his etymo¬ 
 logy is doubtful. Kurt is Turkish for a wolf, not Persian, which is Gurg; 
 but the name (Karduchi, Kordiaei , &c.) is older, I imagine, than the 
 Turkish language in that part of Asia. Quatremere refers it to the 
 Persian gurd, “strong, valiant, hero.” As regards the statement that 
 some of the Kurds were Christians, Mas’udi states that the Jacobites and 
 certain other Christians in the territory of Mosul and Mount Judi were 
 reckoned among the Kurds. (AZot. et Ext. XIII. i. 304.) 
 
 Note 5 .—This passage is notable as being the only one, so far as 
 I know, of those peculiar to Ramusio among the printed texts, which 
 is found in a known MS. It occurs in a Latin MS. of 1401, which 
 belonged to the late Sign. Cicogna at Venice. The word rendered 
 buckrams is there Bocharini, for which Ramusio, as in all passages 
 where other texts have Bucherami and the like, puts Boccassini. I see 
 both Bochayrani and Bochasini coupled, in a Genoese fiscal statute of 
 I 339 ? quoted by Pardessus. (Lois Maritimes , IV. 456.) 
 
 Mush and Mardin are in very different regions, but as their actual 
 interval is only about 120 miles, they may have been under one pro¬ 
 vincial government. Mush is essentially Armenian, and, though the 
 seat of a Pashalik, is now a wretched place. Mardin, on the verge of 
 the Mesopotamian Plain, rises in terraces on a lofty hill, and there, says 
 Hammer, “Sunnis and Shias, Catholic and Schismatic Armenians, 
 Jacobites, Nestorians, Chaldaeans, Sun-, Fire-, Calf-, and Devil-worshippers 
 dwell one over the head of the other.” (Llchan. I. 191.) 
 
6o 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Of the great city of Baudas, and how it was taken. 
 
 Baudas is a great city, which used to be the seat of the 
 Calif of all the Saracens in the world, just as Rome is the 
 seat of the Pope of all the Christians. 1 A very great river 
 flows through the city, and by this you can descend to the 
 Sea of India. There is a great traffic of merchants with 
 their goods this way ; they descend some eighteen days from 
 Baudas, and then come to a certain city called Kisi, where 
 they enter the Sea of India. 2 There is also on the river, as 
 you go from Baudas to Kisi, a great city called Bastra, 
 surrounded by woods, in which grow the best dates in the 
 world.* 
 
 In Baudas they weave many different kinds of silk stuffs 
 and gold brocades, such as nasich , and nac , and cramoisy , 
 and many another beautiful tissue richly wrought with 
 figures of beasts and birds. It is the noblest and greatest 
 city in all those regions. 4 
 
 Now it came to pass on a day in the year of Christ 
 1255, that the Lord of the Tartars of the Levant, whose 
 name was Alau, brother to the Great Kaan now reigning, 
 gathered a mighty host and came up against Baudas and 
 took it by storm. 5 It was a great enterprise! for in Baudas 
 there were more than 100,000 horse, besides foot soldiers. 
 And when Alaii had taken the place he found therein a 
 tower of the Calif’s, which was full of gold and silver and 
 other treasure ; in fact the greatest accumulation of treasure 
 in one spot that ever was known. When he beheld that 
 great heap of treasure he was astonished, and, summoning 
 the Calif to his presence, he said to him; “ Calif, tell me 
 now why thou hast gathered such a huge treasure ? What 
 didst thou mean to do therewith ? Knewest thou not that 
 I was thine enemy, and that I was coming against thee with 
 so great an host to cast thee forth of thine heritage ? 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 THE GREAT CITY OF BAUDAS. 
 
 61 
 
 Wherefore didst thou not take of thy gear and employ it 
 in paying knights and soldiers to defend thee and thy city ?” 
 
 The Calif wist not what to answer, and said never a 
 word. So the Prince continued, “ Now then, Calif, since I 
 see what a love thou hast borne thy treasure, I will e’en 
 give it thee to eat!” So he shut the Calif up in the Trea¬ 
 sure Tower, and bade that neither meat nor drink should 
 be given him, saying, u Now Calif, eat of thy treasure as 
 much as thou wilt, since thou art so fond of it; for never 
 shalt thou have aught else to eat! ” 
 
 So the Calif lingered in the tower four days, and then 
 died like a dog. Truly his treasure would have been of 
 more service to him had he bestowed it upon men who 
 would have defended his kingdom and his people, rather 
 than let himself be taken and deposed and put to death as 
 he was. 6 Howbeit, since that time, there has been never 
 another Calif, either at Baudas or anywhere else. 7 
 
 Now I will tell you of a great miracle that befel at 
 Baudas, wrought by God on behalf of the Christians. 
 
 Note 1 . — This form of the medieval Frank name of Baghdad, 
 Baudas , is curiously like that used by the Chinese historians, Paota 
 {Pauthier; Gaubil), and both are probably due to the Mongol habit of 
 slurring gutturals (see Prologue , ch. ii. note 8). 
 
 Note 2 .—Polo is here either speaking without personal knowledge, 
 or is so brief as to convey an erroneous impression that the Tigris flows 
 to Kisi, whereas three-fourths of the length of the Persian Gulf intervene 
 between the river mouth and Kisi. The latter is the island and city of 
 Kish or Kais, about 200 miles from the mouth of the Gulf, and for a 
 long time one of the chief ports of trade with India and the East. The 
 island, the Cataea of Arrian, now called Ghes or Kenn, is singular among 
 the islands of the Gulf as being wooded and well supplied with fresh 
 water. The ruins of a city exist on the north side. According to 
 Wassaf, the island derived its name from one Kais, about the 10th 
 century, the son of a poor widow of Siraf (then a great port of Indian 
 trade on the northern shore of the Gulf), who on a voyage to India made 
 a fortune precisely as Dick Whittington did. The proceeds of the cat 
 were invested in an establishment on this island. Modern attempts to 
 rationalize Whittington may surely be given up ! It is one of the tales 
 which, like Tell’s shot, the dog Gellert, and many others, are common to 
 
62 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 many regions. [Hammer's llch. I. 239; Ouseley's Travels , I. 170; 
 Notes and Queries , 2nd s. XI. 372.) 
 
 Note 3 .—The name is Bascra in the MSS., but this is almost cer¬ 
 tainly the common error of c for t. Basra is still noted for its vast date- 
 groves. “ The whole country from the confluence of the Euphrates and 
 Tigris to the sea, a distance of thirty leagues, is covered with these 
 trees.” (Tav. Bk. II. ch. iii.). 
 
 Note 4 .—From Baudas, or Baldac, i.e. Baghdad, certain of these 
 rich silk and gold brocades were called Baldachini. , or in English Bau- 
 dekins. From their use in the state canopies and umbrellas of Italian 
 dignitaries, the word Baldacchino has come to mean a canopy, even 
 when architectural. The stuffs called Nasich and Nac are again men¬ 
 tioned by our traveller below (ch. lix.). We only know that they were 
 of silk, and gold, as he implies here, and as Ibn Batuta tells us, who 
 mentions Nakh several times and Nasij once. The latter is also men¬ 
 tioned by Rubruquis ( Nasic ) as a present made to him at the Kaan’s 
 court. And Pegolotti speaks of both nacchi and nacchetti of silk and 
 gold, the latter apparently answering to Nasich. Nac , Nacques , Nachiz , 
 Naciz, Nasis , appear in accounts and inventories of the 14th century, 
 French and English. (See Dictionnaire des Tissus , II. 199, and Douet 
 d'Arcq , Comptes de I'Argenterie des Rois de France , &c., p. 334.) We 
 find no mention of Nakh or Nasij among the stuffs detailed in the Ain 
 Akbari , so they must have been obsolete in the 16th century. Quermesis 
 or Cramoisy derived its name from the Kermes insect (Ar. Kirmiz ) 
 found on Quercus Coccifera , now supplanted by cochineal. The stuff so 
 called is believed to have been originally a crimson velvet, but apparently 
 like the medieval Purpura , if not identical with it, it came to indicate 
 a tissue rather than^a colour. Thus Fr.-Michel quotes velvet of vermeil 
 cramoisy, of violet, and of blue cramoisy, and pourpres of a variety of 
 colours, though he says he has never met with pourpre blanche. I may, 
 however, point to Plano Carpini (p. 755), who describes the courtiers 
 at Karakorum as clad in white purpura. • 
 
 The London prices of Chermisi and Baldacchini in the early part of 
 the 15 th century will be found in Uzzano’s work, but they are hard to 
 elucidate. 
 
 Babylon, of which Baghdad was the representative, was famous for 
 its variegated textures in very early days. We do not know the nature 
 of the goodly Babylonish garment which tempted Achan in Jericho, but 
 Josephus speaks of the affluence of rich stuffs carried in the triumph of 
 Titus, “ gorgeous with life-like designs from the Babylonian loom,” and 
 he also describes the memorable Veil of the Temple as a 7re7rA.os 
 Ba/hAiovios of varied colours marvellously wrought. Pliny says King 
 Attalus invented the intertexture of cloth with gold; but the weaving of 
 damasks of a variety of colours was perfected at Babylon, and thence 
 they were called Babylonian. 
 
 The brocades wrought with figures of animals in gold, of which 
 
Chap. VI. 
 
 THE GREAT CITY OF BAUDAS. 
 
 63 
 
 Marco speaks, are still a speciality at Benares, where they are known by 
 the name of Shikargdh or hunting-grounds, which is nearly a translation 
 of.the name Thard-wahsh , “beast-hunts,” by which they were known to 
 the medieval Saracens (see Q. Makrizi , IV. 69-70). Plautus speaks of 
 such patterns in carpets, the produce of Alexandria —“Alexandrina 
 belluata conchyliata tapetiaP In the 4th century Asterius, Bishop ot 
 Amasia in Pontus, rebukes the Christians who indulge in such attire : 
 “You find upon them lions, panthers, bears, huntsmen, woods and 
 rocks; whilst the more devout display Christ and his disciples, with the 
 stories of his miracles,” &c. And Sidonius alludes to upholstery of like 
 character:— 
 
 “ Peregrina det supellex 
 * * * * 
 
 Ubi torvus, et per artem 
 Resupina flexus ora 
 It equo reditque telo 
 Simulacra bestiarum 
 
 Fugiens fugansque Parthus.” {Epist. ix. 13.) 
 
 A modern Cashmere example of such work is shown under Ch. xvii. 
 
 {U Avezac, p. 524; Pegolotti , in Cathay , 295, 306 ; I. B. II. 309, 388, 
 422 ; III. 81; Della Decima , IV. 125-6 ; Fr.-Michel, Recherches , &c., II. 
 10-16, 204-206; Joseph. Bell. Jud. VII. 5, 5, and V. 5, 4; Pliny , VIII. 
 74 (or 48); Plautus , Pseudolus , I. 2'; Mongez in Mem. Acad. IV. 275-6.) 
 
 Note 5 .—Hulaku started from Karakorum on his expedition against 
 Persia, in February, 1254, but he did not enter Persia till 1256, and 
 Baghdad was not attacked till 1258. 
 
 Note 6.— 
 
 “ ‘I said to the Kalif: Thou art old; 
 
 Thou hast no need of so much gold. 
 
 Thou shouldst not have heaped and hidden it here 
 Till the breath of Battle was hot and near, 
 
 But have sown through the land these useless hoards, 
 
 To spring into shining blades of swords, 
 
 And keep thine honour sweet and clear. 
 ****** 
 
 Then into his dungeon I locked the drone, 
 
 And left him there to feed all alone 
 In the honey-cells of his golden hive : 
 
 Never a prayer nor a cry nor a groan 
 Was heard from those massive walls of stone, 
 
 Nor again was the Kalif seen alive.’ 
 
 This is the story, strange and true, 
 
 That the great Captain Alaii 
 Told to his brother, the Tartar Khan, 
 
 When he rode that day into Cambalu 
 
 By the road that leadeth to Ispahan.” {Longfellow.)* 
 
 The story of the death of Mosta’sim Billah, the last of the Abbaside 
 Khalifs, is told in much the same way by Hayton, Ricold, Pachymeres, 
 and Joinville. The memory of the last glorious old man must have 
 
 * Not that Alaii {pace Mr. Longfellow) ever did see Cambalu. 
 
64 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 failed him, when he says the facts were related by some merchants who 
 came to King Lewis, when before Saiette (or Sidon), viz. in 1253, for the 
 capture of Baghdad occurred five years later. Mar. Sanuto says melted 
 gold was poured down the Khalif’s throat—a transfer no doubt from the 
 old story of Crassus and the Parthians. Contemporary Armenian his¬ 
 torians assert that Hulaku slew him with his own hand. 
 
 All that Rashiduddin says is : “The evening of Wednesday the 14th 
 of Safar, 656 (20th Feb. 1258), the Khalif was put to death in the village 
 ofWakf, with his eldest son and five eunuchs who had never quitted 
 him.” Later writers say that he was wrapt in a carpet and trodden to 
 death by horses. . . 
 
 The foundation of the story so widely received among the Christians 
 is to be found also in the narrative of Nikbi (and Mirkhond), which is 
 cited by D’Ohsson. When the Khalif surrendered, Hulaku put before 
 him a plateful of gold, and told him to eat it. “ But one does not eat 
 gold,” said the prisoner. “ Why then,” replied the Tartar, “ did you 
 hoard it, instead of expending it in keeping up an army ? Why did you 
 not meet me at the Oxus?” The Khalif could only say, “Such was 
 God’s will!” “And that which has befallen you was also God’s will,” 
 said Hulaku. 
 
 Wassaf’s narrative is interesting:—-“ Two days after his capture the 
 Khalif was at his morning prayer, arid began with the verse (Koran, III. 
 25) ‘Say God is the Possessor of Dominion! It shall be given to 
 whom He will; it shall be taken from whom He will: whom He will 
 He raiseth to honour; whom He will He casteth to the ground.’ Having 
 finished the regular office he continued still in prayer with tears and 
 importunity. Bystanders reported to the Ilkhan the deep humiliation of 
 the Khalif’s prayers, and the text which seemed to have so striking an 
 application to those two princes. Regarding what followed there are 
 different stories. Some say that the Ilkhan ordered food to be withheld 
 from the Khalif, and that when he asked for food the former bade a dish 
 of gold be placed before him, &c. Eventually, after taking counsel with 
 his chiefs, the Padishah ordered the execution of the Khalif. It was 
 represented that the blood-drinking sword ought not to be stained with 
 the gore of Mosta’sim. He was therefore rolled in a carpet, just as 
 carpets are usually rolled up, insomuch that his limbs were crushed.” 
 
 The avarice of the Khalif was proverbial. When the Mongol army 
 was investing Miafarakain, the chief, Malik Kamal, told his people that 
 everything he had should be at the service of those in need: “ Thank 
 God I am not like Mosta’sim, a worshipper of silver and gold !” 
 
 (Hayton in Ram. ch. xxvi.; Per. Quat. 121; Pachym. Mic. Palaeol. 11 . 
 24; Joinville, p. 182 ; Sanuto , p. 238; J.As. ser. 5. tom. xi. 490, and XVI. 
 291 ; jy Ohs son, III. 243 ; Hammer's Wassdf, 75-76 ; Quat. Rashid. 305.) 
 
 Note 7. —Nevertheless Froissart brings the Khalif to life again 
 one hundred and twenty years later, as “ Le Galifre de Bandas'" (Bk. III. 
 ch. xxiv.). 
 
Chap. VII. THE CALIF’S PLOT AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS. 65 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 How the Calif of Baudas took counsel to slay all the 
 Christians in his Land. 
 
 I will tell you then this great marvel that occurred be¬ 
 tween Baudas and Mausul. 
 
 It was in the year of Christ 1 . . . that there was a Calif 
 at Baudas who bore a great hatred to Christians, and was 
 taken up day and night with the thought how he might 
 either bring those that were in his kingdom over to his own 
 faith, or might procure them all to be slain. And he used 
 daily to take counsel about this with the devotees and 
 priests of his faith, 2 for they all bore the Christians like 
 malice. And, indeed, it is a fact, that the whole body of 
 Saracens throughout the world are always most malignantly 
 disposed towards the whole body of Christians. 
 
 Now it happened that the Calif, with those shrewd 
 priests of his, got hold of that passage in our Gospel which 
 says, that if a Christian had faith as a grain of mustard 
 seed, and should bid a mountain be removed, it would be 
 removed. And such indeed is the truth. But when they 
 had got hold of this text they were delighted, for it seemed 
 to them the very thing whereby either to force all the 
 Christians to change their faith, or to bring destruction 
 upon them all. The Calif therefore called together all the 
 Christians in his territories, who were extremely numerous. 
 And when they had come before him, he showed them the 
 Gospel, and made them read the text which I have men¬ 
 tioned.. And when they had read it he asked them if that 
 was the truth ? The Christians answered that it assuredly 
 was so. “Well,” said the Calif, “since you say that it is 
 the truth, I will give you a choice. Among such a number 
 of you there must needs surely be this small amount of 
 faith ; so you must either move that mountain there,”— 
 and he pointed to a mountain in the neighbourhood—“ or 
 
 VOL 1. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 you shall die an ill death ; unless you choose to eschew 
 death by all becoming Saracens and adopting our Holy 
 Law. To this end I give you a respite of ten days; if the 
 thing be not done by that time, you shall die or become 
 Saracens.” And when he had said this he dismissed them, 
 to consider what was to be done in this strait wherein they 
 were. 
 
 Note 1 . — The date in the G. Text and Pauthier is 1275, which of 
 course cannot have been intended. Ramusio has 1225. 
 
 Note 2.—“ Cum sez regisles et cum sez casses ” (G. T.). I suppose 
 the former expression to be a form of Regules , which is used in Polo’s 
 book for persons of a religious rule or order, whether Christian or 
 Pagan. The latter word ([casses ) I take to be the Arabic Kashish , pro¬ 
 perly a Christian Presbyter, but frequently applied by old travellers, and 
 habitually by the Portuguese ( caxiz , caxix ) to Mahomedan Divines (see 
 Cathay , p. 568). 
 
 Pauthier’s Text has simply “a ses prestres de la Loi.” 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 How the Christians were in great dismay because of what the 
 
 Calif had said. 
 
 The Christians on hearing what the Calif had said, were in 
 great dismay, but they lifted all their hopes to God their 
 Creator, that he would help them in this their strait. All 
 the wisest of the Christians took counsel together, and 
 among them were a number of bishops and priests, but 
 they had no resource except to turn to Him from whom 
 all good things do come, beseeching Him to protect them 
 from the cruel hands of the Calif. 
 
 So they were all gathered together in prayer, both men 
 and women, for eight days and eight nights. And whilst 
 they were thus engaged in prayer it was revealed in a vision 
 by a Holy Angel of Heaven to a certain Bishop who was a 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 DISMAY OF THE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 67 
 
 very good Christian, that he should desire a certain Chris¬ 
 tian Cobler, 1 who had but one eye, to pray to God; and 
 that God in His goodness would grant such prayer because 
 of the Cobler’s holy life. 
 
 Now I must tell you what manner of man this Cobler 
 was. He was one who led a life of great uprightness and 
 chastity, and who fasted and kept from all sin, and went 
 daily to church to hear Mass, and gave daily a portion of 
 his gains to God. And the way how he came to have but 
 one eye was this. It happened one day that a certain 
 woman came to him to have a pair of shoes made, and she 
 showed him her foot that he might take her measure. Now r 
 she had a very beautiful foot and leg; and the Cobler in 
 taking her measure was conscious of sinful thoughts. And 
 he had often heard it said in the Holy Evangel, that if thine 
 eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee rather 
 than sin. So, as soon as the woman had departed, he took 
 the awl that he used in stitching, and drove it into his eye 
 and destroyed it. And this is the way he came to lose his 
 eye. So you can judge what a holy, just, and righteous 
 man he was. 
 
 Note 1 . —Here the G. T. uses a strange word : “ Or te vais a tel 
 cralantur.” It does not occur again, being replaced by chabitier (save- 
 tier). It has an Oriental look, but I can make no satisfactory sugges¬ 
 tion as to the word meant. Kalandar is the term applied to a religious 
 order among the Mahomedans who profess not only detachment from 
 the world, but also strict chastity. 
 
 The nearest word meaning shoemaker that I can suggest is (Pers.) 
 charmdoz. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 How the One-eyed Cobler was desired to pray for the 
 Christians. 
 
 Now when this vision had visited the Bishop several times, 
 he related the whole matter to the Christians, and they 
 
 f 2 
 
68 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 agreed with one consent to call the Cobler before them. 
 And when he had come they told him it was their wish that 
 he should pray, and that God had promised to accomplish 
 the matter by his means. On hearing their request he 
 made many excuses, declaring that he was not at all so good 
 a man as they represented. But they persisted in their 
 request with so much sweetness, that at last he said he 
 would not tarry, but do what they desired. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 How the Prayer of the One-eyed Cobler caused the Mountain 
 
 to MOVE. 
 
 And when the appointed day was come, all the Christians 
 got up early, men and women, small and great, more than 
 100,000 persons, and went to church, and heard the Holy 
 Mass. And after Mass had been sung, they all went forth 
 together in a great procession to the plain in front of the 
 mountain, carrying the precious cross before them, loudly 
 singing and greatly weeping as they went. And when 
 they arrived at the spot, there they found the Calif with 
 all his Saracen host armed to slay them if they would not 
 change their faith; for the Saracens believed not in the 
 least that God would grant such favour to the Christians. 
 These latter stood indeed in great fear and doubt, but never¬ 
 theless they rested their hope on their God Jesus Christ. 
 
 So the Cobler received the Bishop’s benison, and then 
 threw himself on his knees before the Holy Cross, and 
 stretched out his hands towards Heaven, and made this 
 prayer: “ Blessed Lord God Almighty, I pray thee by 
 Thy goodness that Thou wilt grant this grace unto Thy 
 people insomuch that they perish not, nor Thy faith be 
 cast down, nor abused nor flouted. Not that I am in the 
 least worthy to prefer such request unto Thee ; but for Thy 
 
THE MIRACLE OF THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 Chap. X. 
 
 69 
 
 great power and mercy I beseech thee to hear this prayer 
 from me Thy servant full of sin.” 
 
 And when he had ended this his prayer to God the 
 Sovereign Father and Giver of all grace, and whilst the 
 Calif and all the Saracens, and other people there, were 
 looking on, the mountain rose out of its place and moved 
 to the spot which the Calif had pointed out! And when 
 the Calif and all his Saracens beheld, they stood amazed at 
 the wonderful miracle that God had wrought for the 
 Christians, insomuch that a great number of the Saracens 
 became Christians. And even the Calif caused himself to 
 be baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and 
 of the Holy Ghost, Amen, and became a Christian, but in 
 secret. Howbeit, when he died they found a little cross 
 hung round his neck; and therefore the Saracens would 
 not bury him with the other Califs, but put him in a place 
 apart. The Christians exulted greatly at this most holy 
 miracle, and returned to their homes full of joy, giving 
 thanks to their Creator for that which he had done. 1 
 
 And now you have heard in what wise took place this 
 great miracle. And marvel not that the Saracens hate the 
 Christians ; for the accursed law that Mahommet gave them 
 commands them to do all the mischief in their power to all 
 other descriptions of people, and especially to Christians; 
 to strip such of their goods, and do them all manner of evil, 
 because they belong not to their law. See then what an 
 evil law, and what naughty commandments they have ! But 
 in such fashion the Saracens act, throughout the world. 
 
 Now I have told you something of Baudas. I could 
 easily indeed have told you first of the affairs and the 
 customs of the people there. But it would be too long a 
 business, looking to the great and strange things that I 
 have got to tell you, as you will find detailed in this book. 
 
 So now I will tell you of the noble city of Tauris. 
 
7 o 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 1 . — We may remember that at a date only three years before 
 Marco related this story (viz. in 1295), the cottage of Loreto is asserted 
 to have changed its locality for the third and last time by moving to the 
 site which it now occupies. 
 
 Some of the old Latin copies place the scene at Tauris. And I 
 observe that a missionary of the 16th century does the same. The 
 mountain, he says, is between Tauris and Nakhshiwan, and is called 
 Manhuc. (Grcivina , Christianity ?ielV Armenia, &c., Roma, 1605, p. 91.) 
 
 The moving of a mountain is one of the miracles ascribed to Gregory 
 Thaumaturgus. Such stories are rife among the Mahomedans them¬ 
 selves. “ I know,” says Khanikoff, “ at least half a score of mountains 
 which the Musulmans allege to have come from the vicinity of Mecca.” 
 
 Ramusio’s text adds here: “All the Nestorian and Jacobite Chris¬ 
 tians from that time forward have maintained a solemn celebration of 
 the day on which the miracle occurred, keeping a fast also on the eve 
 thereof.” 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Of the Noble City of Tauris. 
 
 Tauris is a great and noble city, situated in a great 
 province called Yrac, in which are many other towns and 
 villages. But as Tauris is the most noble I will tell you. 
 about it . 1 
 
 The men of Tauris get their living by trade and handi¬ 
 crafts, for they weave many kinds of beautiful and valuable 
 stuffs of silk and gold. The city has such a good position 
 that merchandize is brought thither from India, Baudas, 
 Cremesor , 2 and many other regions ; and that attracts many 
 Latin merchants, especially Genoese, to buy goods and 
 transact other business there; the more as it is also a great 
 market for precious stones. It is a city in fact where mer¬ 
 chants make large profits . 3 
 
 The people of the place are themselves poor creatures; 
 and are a great medley of different classes. There are 
 Armenians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Georgians, Persians, and 
 finally the natives of the city themselves, who are wor¬ 
 shippers of Mahommet. These last are a very evil genera¬ 
 tion ; they are known as Taurizi . 4 The city is all girt 
 
Chap. XI. 
 
 THE NOBLE CITY OF TAURIS. 
 
 7 
 
 round with charming gardens, full of many varieties of 
 large and excellent fruits . 5 
 
 Now we will quit Tauris, and speak of the great country of 
 Persia. [From Tauris to Persia is a journey of twelve days.] 
 
 Note 1 .—Abulfecla notices that Tabriz was vulgarly pronounced 
 Tauriz , and this appears to have been adopted by the Franks. In 
 Pegolotti the name is always Torissi. 
 
 Tabriz is often reckoned to belong to Armenia, as by Hayton. 
 Properly it is the chief city of Adherbaijan , which never was included 
 in ’Irak. But it may be observed that Ibn Batuta generally calls the 
 Mongol Ilkhan of Persia Sahib or Malik tillIrak, and as Tabriz was 
 the capital of that sovereign we can account for the mistake, whilst' 
 admitting it to be one. 
 
 Ghazan Khan’s Mosque at Tabriz.—From Fergusson. 
 
 Note 2. — Cremesor , as Baldello points out, is Garmsir, meaning a 
 hot region, a term which in Persia has acquired several specific applica¬ 
 tions, and especially indicates the coast-country on the N.E. side of the 
 Persian Gulf, including Hormuz and the ports in that quarter. 
 
 Note 3 .—At a later date (1341) the Genoese had a factory at 
 Tabriz headed by a consul with a council of twenty-four merchants, and 
 in 1320 there is evidence of Venetian settlement there. (Elie de la Prim. 
 161 ; Heyd , II. 82.) 
 
72 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book L 
 
 Rashiduddin says of Tabriz that there were gathered there under 
 the eyes of the Padishah of Islam “ philosophers, astronomers, scholars, 
 historians, of all religions, of all sects; people of Cathay, of Machm, 
 of India, of Kashmir, of Tibet, of the Uighur and other Turkish nations, 
 Arabs and Franks.” Ibn Batuta : “ I traversed the bazaar of the jewellers, 
 and my eyes were dazzled by the varieties of precious stones which I 
 beheld. Handsome slaves, superbly dressed, and girdled with silk, 
 offered their gems for sale to the Tartar ladies, who bought great 
 numbers.” Tabriz maintained a large population and prosperity down 
 to the 17 th century, as may be seen in Chardin. It is now greatly fallen, 
 though still a place of importance. ( Qucit . Rash. p. 39 ; /. B. II. 130.) 
 
 Note 4 .— In Pauthier’s text this is Touzi , a mere clerical error I 
 doubt not for Torizi , in accordance with the G. Text (“ le peuftle de la 
 cite que sunt afteles Tauriz”), with the Latin, and with Ramusio. All that 
 he means to say is that the people are called Tahrizis. Not recondite 
 information, but ’tis his way. Just so he tells us in Chap. iii. that the 
 people of Hermenia are called Hermins, and elsewhere that the people 
 of Tebet are called Tebet. So Hayton thinks it not inappropriate to 
 say that the people of Catay are called Cataini, that the people of 
 Corasmia are called Corasmins, and that the people of the cities of 
 Persia are called Persians. 
 
 Note 5 .—Hamdalla Mastufi, the Geographer, not long after Polo’s 
 time, gives an account of Tabriz, quoted in Barbier de Meynard’s Diet, 
 de la Perse. This also notices the extensive gardens round the city, the 
 great abundance and cheapness of fruits, the vanity, insolence, and 
 faithlessness of the Tabnzis, &c. (p. 132 seqq.). Our cut shows a relic 
 of the Mongol Dynasty at Tabriz. 
 
 [CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Of the Monastery of Saint Barsamo on the Borders of Tauris. 
 
 On the borders of (the territory of) Tauris there is a 
 monastery called after Saint Barsamo, a most devout Saint. 
 There is an Abbot, with many Monks, who wear a habit 
 like that of the Carmelites, and these to avoid idleness are 
 continually knitting woollen girdles. These they place 
 upon the altar of St. Barsamo during the service, and when 
 they go begging about the province (like the Brethren of 
 the Holy Spirit) they present them to their friends and to 
 the gentlefolks, for they are excellent things to remove 
 bodily pain; wherefore every one is devoutly eager to 
 possess them. 1 ] 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 PERSIA AND THE THREE KINGS. 
 
 73 
 
 Note 1 . — Barsauma (“The Son of Fasting”) was a native of Sa- 
 mosata, and an Archimandrite of the Asiatic Church. He opposed the 
 Nestorians, but became himself still more obnoxious to the orthodox as 
 a spreader of the Monophysite Heresy. He was condemned by the 
 Council of Chalcedon (451), and died in 458. He is a Saint of fame 
 in the Jacobite and Armenian Churches, and several monasteries were 
 dedicated to him ; but by far the most celebrated, and doubtless that 
 meant here, was near Malatia. It must have been famous even among 
 the Mahomedans, for it has an article in Bakui’s Geog. Dictionary ( Dir- 
 Barsumci, see N. et Ext. II. 515). This monastery possessed relics of 
 Barsauma and of St. Peter, and was sometimes the residence of the 
 Jacobite Patriarch, and the meeting-place of the Synods. 
 
 A more marvellous story than Marco’s is related of this monastery 
 by Vincent of Beauvais : “ There is in that kingdom (Armenia) a place 
 called St. Brassamus, at which there is a monastery for 300 monks. 
 And ’tis said that if ever an enemy attacks it, the defences of the 
 monastery move of themselves, and shoot back the shot against the 
 besieger.” 
 
 (Assemani in vol. ii. passim; Tournefort , III. 260; Vin. Bell. Spec. 
 Historiale , Lib. XXX. c. cxlii. ; see also Mar. Sanut. III. xi. c. 16.) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Of the Great Country of Persia ; with some account of the 
 
 Three Kings. 
 
 Persia is a great country, which was in old times very 
 illustrious and powerful; but now the Tartars have wasted 
 and destroyed it. 
 
 In Persia is the city of Saba, from which the Three 
 Magi set out when they went to worship Jesus Christ; and 
 in this city they are buried, in three very large and beautiful 
 monuments, side by side. And above them there is a square 
 building, carefully kept. The bodies are still entire, with 
 the hair and beard remaining. One of these was called 
 Jaspar, the second Melchior, and the third Balthazar. 
 Messer Marco Polo asked a great many questions of the 
 people of that city as to those Three Magi, but never one 
 could he find that knew aught of the matter^ except that 
 these were three kings who were buried there in days of old. 
 
74 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 However, at a place three days’ journey distant lie heard of 
 what I am going to tell you. He found a village there 
 which goes by the name of Gala Ataperistan , 1 which is 
 as much as to say, “The Castle of the Fire-Worshippers.” 
 And the name is rightly applied, for the people there do 
 worship fire, and I will tell you why. 
 
 They relate that in old times three kings of that country 
 went away to worship a Prophet that was born, and they 
 carried with them three manner of offerings, Gold, and 
 Frankincense, and Myrrh; in order to ascertain whether 
 that Prophet were God, or an earthly King, or a Physician. 
 For, said they, if he take the Gold, then he is an earthly 
 King; if he take the Incense he is God; if he take the 
 Myrrh he is a Physician. 
 
 So it came to pass when they had come to the place 
 where the child was born, the youngest of the Three Kings 
 went in first, and found the Child apparently just of his 
 own age ; so he went forth again marvelling greatly. The 
 middle one entered next, and like the first he found the 
 Child seemingly of his own age; so he also went forth 
 again and marvelled greatly. Lastly, the eldest went in, 
 and as it had befallen the other two, so it befel him. And 
 he went forth very pensive. And when the three had 
 rejoined one another, each told what he had seen; and then 
 they all marvelled the more. So they agreed to go in all 
 three together, and on doing so they beheld the Child with 
 the appearance of its actual age, to wit, some thirteen days . 2 
 Then they adored, and presented their Gold and Incense 
 and Myrrh. And the Child took all the three offerings, 
 and then gave them a small closed box; whereupon the 
 Kings departed to return into their own land. 
 
 Note 1 . — Kala'a Atishparastan , meaning as in the Text {Marsden). 
 
 Note 2. —According to the Collectanea ascribed to Bede, Melchior 
 was a hoary old man; Balthazar in his prime, with a beard; Gaspar 
 young and beardless. {Inchofer, Tres Magi Evan gelid, Romae, 1639.) 
 
Chap. XIV. 
 
 THE THREE MAGI. 
 
 7 5 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 How the Three Kings returned to their own Country. 
 
 And when they had ridden many days they said they would 
 see what the Child had given them. So they opened the 
 little box, and inside it they found a stone. On seeing this 
 they began to wonder what this might be that the Child 
 had given them, and what was the import thereof. Now 
 the signification was this: when they presented their 
 offerings, the Child had accepted all three, and when they 
 saw that they had said within themselves that He was the 
 True God, and the True King, and the True Physician . 1 
 And what the gift of the stone implied was that this Faith 
 which had begun in them should abide firm as a rock. For 
 He well knew what was in their thoughts. Howbeit, they 
 had no understanding at all of this signification of the gift 
 of the stone ; so they cast it into a well. Then straightway 
 a fire from Heaven descended into that well wherein the 
 stone had been cast. 
 
 And when the Three Kings beheld this marvel they 
 were sore amazed, and it greatly repented them that they 
 had cast away the stone; for well they then perceived that 
 it had a great and holy meaning. So they took of that fire, 
 and carried it into their own country, and placed it in 
 a rich and beautiful church. And there the people keep it 
 continually burning, and worship it as a God, and all the 
 sacrifices they offer are kindled with that fire. And if ever 
 the fire becomes extinct they go to other cities round about 
 where the same faith is held, and obtain of that fire from 
 them, and carry it to the church. And this is the reason 
 why the people of this country worship fire. They will 
 often go ten days’ journey to get of that fire . 2 
 
 Such then was the story told by the people of that Castle 
 to Messer Marco Polo ; they declared to him for a truth 
 that such was their history, and that one of the three kings 
 
76 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 was of the city called Saba, and the second of Ava, and the 
 third of that very Castle where they still worship fire, with 
 the people of all the country round about . 3 
 
 Having related this story, I will now tell you of the 
 different provinces of Persia, and their peculiarities. 
 
 Note 1 .—“ Mire .” This was in old French the popular word for 
 a Leech; the politer word was Physicien. (N. et E. V. 505.) 
 
 Chrysostom says that the Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense were 
 mystic gifts indicating King, Man, God ; and this interpretation was the 
 usual one. Thus Prudentius :— 
 
 “ Regem, Deumque adnunciant 
 Thesaurus et fragrans odor 
 Thuris Sabaei, at myrrheus 
 
 Pulvis sepulchrum praedocet.” ( Hymnus Epiphanius .) 
 
 And the Paris Liturgy :— 
 
 Offert Aurum Caritas, 
 
 Et Myriham Austeritas , 
 
 Et Thus Desiderium. 
 
 Auro Rex agnoscitur, 
 
 Hovio Myrrha, colitur 
 Thure Dens gentium. 
 
 And in the “ Hymns, Ancient and Modern ” :— 
 
 ‘ * Sacred gifts of mystic meaning : 
 
 Incense doth their God disclose, 
 
 Gold the King of Kings proclaim eth, 
 
 Myrrh His sepulchre foreshows.” 
 
 Note 2 .—“ Feruntque (Magi), si justum est credi, etiam ignem 
 coelitus lapsum, apud se sempiternis foculis custodiri, cujus portionem 
 exiguam ut faustam praeesse quondam Asiaticis Regibus dicunt.” (Am- 
 mian. Mar cell. XXIII. 6.) 
 
 Note 3 . —Saba or Sava still exists as Savah about 50 m. S.W. of 
 Tehran. It is described by Mr. Consul Abbott, who visited it in 1849, 
 as the most ruinous town he had ever seen, and as containing about 
 1000 families. The people retain a tradition, mentioned by Hamdallah 
 Mastufi, that the city stood on the shores of a Lake which dried up 
 miraculously at the birth of Mahommed. Savah is said to have pos¬ 
 sessed one of the greatest Libraries in the East, until its destruction by 
 the Mongols on their first invasion of Persia. Both Savah and Avah 
 (or Abah) are mentioned by Abulfeda as cities ofjibal. We are told 
 that the two cities were always at loggerheads, the former being Sunni 
 and the latter Shiya. 
 
Chap. XIV. 
 
 THE THREE MAGI. 
 
 77 
 
 As regards the position of Avah, Abbott says that a village still 
 stands upon the site, about 16 m. S.S.E. of Savah. He did not visit it, 
 but took a bearing to it. He was told there was a mound there on 
 which formerly stood a Gueber Castle. At Savah he could find no 
 trace of Marco Polo’s legend. Chardin, in whose time Savah was not 
 quite so far gone to decay, heard of an alleged tomb of Samuel, at four 
 leagues from the city. This is alluded to by Hamdallah. 
 
 Keith Johnstone and Kiepert put Avah some 60 m. W.N.W. of 
 Savah, on the road between Kazwin and Hamadan. There seems to 
 be some great mistake here. 
 
 Friar Odoric puts the locality of the Magi at Kashan , though one 
 version of his Itinerary, perhaps corrected in this, puts it at Saba. 
 
 We have no means of fixing the Kalda Atishparastdn. It is pro¬ 
 bable however that the story was picked up on the homeward journey, 
 and as it seems to be implied that this castle was reached three days 
 after leaving Savah, I should look for it between S^vah and Abher. 
 
 As regards the Legend itself, which shows such a curious mixture 
 of Christian and Parsi elements, it is related some 350 years earlier 
 by Mas’udi: “ In the Province of Fars they tell you of a Well called 
 
 the Well of Fire, near which there was a temple built. When the 
 Messiah was born the King Koresh sent three messengers to him, the 
 first of whom carried a bag of Incense, the second a bag of Myrrh, and 
 the third a bag of Gold. They set out under the guidance of the Star 
 which the king had described to them, arrived in Syria, and found the 
 Messiah with Mary his Mother. This story of the three messengers is 
 related by the Christians with sundry exaggerations; it is also found in 
 the Gospel. Thus, they say that the star appeared to Koresh at the 
 moment of Christ’s birth ; that it went on when the messengers went on, 
 and stopped when they stopped. More ample particulars will be found 
 in our Historical Annals, where we have given the versions of this 
 legend as current among the Guebers and among the Christians. It 
 will be seen that Mary gave the king’s messengers a round loaf, and 
 this, after different adventures, they hid under a rock in the province of 
 Fars. The loaf disappeared underground, and there they dug a well, 
 on which they beheld two columns of fire to start up flaming at the 
 surface ; in short, all the details of the legend will be found in our 
 Annals.” The Editors say that Mas’udi had carried the story to Fars 
 by mistaking Shiz in Adherbaijan (the Atropatenian Ecbatana of 
 Sir H. Rawlinson) for Shiraz. A rudiment of the same legend is 
 contained in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. This says that Mary 
 gave the Magi one of the bands in which the Child was swathed. On 
 their return they cast this into their sacred fire; though wrapt in the 
 flame it remained unhurt. 
 
 We may add that there was a Christian tradition that the Star 
 descended into a well between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Gregory of 
 Tours also relates that in a certain well, at Bethlehem, from which Mary 
 had drawn water, the star was sometimes seen, by devout pilgrims who 
 
78 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 looked carefully for it, to pass from one side to the other. But only 
 such as merited the boon could see it. 
 
 (SeeAbbottm J. R. G. S. XXV. 4-6; Assemani, III.pt. 2, 750; Chardin, 
 II. 407 ; N. et. Ext. II. 465 ; Diet, de la Perse, 2. 56, 298; Cathay, p. 
 51; Mas’udi, IV. 80 ; Greg. Turon. Libri Miraculorum, Paris, 1858, 1 . 8.) 
 
 Several of the fancies that legend has attached to the brief story of 
 the Magi in St. Matthew, such as the royal dignity of the persons; 
 their location, now in Arabia, now (as here) at Saba in Persia, and 
 again (as in Hay ton and the Catalan Map) in Tarsia or Eastern 
 Turkestan; the notion that one of them was a Negro, and so on, pro¬ 
 bably grew out of the arbitrary application of passages in the Old Testa¬ 
 ment, such as : “ Venient legati ex Aegypto: Aethiopia praevenit manus 
 ejns Deo ” (Ps. lxviii. 31). This produced the Negro who usually is 
 painted as one of the Three. “ Reges Tharsis et Insulae munera offerent: 
 Reges Arabum et Saba dona adducent ” (lxxii. 10). This made the Three 
 into kings, and fixed them in Tarsia, Arabia, and Sava. “ Mundatio 
 Camelorum operiet te, dromedarii Madian et Epha : omnes de Saba 
 venient aurum etthus deferentes et laudem Dommo annunciantes ” (Is. lx. 6). 
 Here were Ava and Sava coupled, as well as the gold and frankincense. 
 
 One form of the old Church Legend was that the Three were buried 
 at Sessania Adrumetorum in Arabia, whence the Empress Helena had 
 the bodies conveyed to Constantinople. Thence they were carried to 
 Milan, and from Milan Frederic Barbarossa transferred them to Cologne. 
 
 The names given by Polo, Gaspar Melchior and Balthazar, have 
 been accepted from an old date by the Roman Church; but an abundant 
 variety of other names has been assigned to them. Hyde quotes a 
 Syriac writer who calls them Aruphon, Hurmon, and Tachshesh, but 
 says that some call them Gudphorbus, Artachshasht, and Labudo; 
 whilst in Persian they were termed Amad, Zad-Amad, Drust-Amad, i.e. 
 Venit, Cito Venit, Sincerus Venit. Some called them in Greek, Apellius, 
 Amerus, and Damascus, and in Hebrew, Magaloth, Galgalath, and 
 Saracia, but otherwise Ator, Sator and Petatoros! The Armenian 
 Church used the same names as the Roman, but in Chaldee they were 
 Kaghba, Badadilma, Badada Kharida. (Hyde, Rel. Vet. Pers. 382-3; 
 Inchofer ut supra; J. As. ser. 6, IX. 160.) 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Of the Eight Kingdoms of Persia, and how they are named. 
 
 Now you must know that Persia is a very great country, 
 and contains eight kingdoms. I will tell you the names of 
 them all. 
 
Chap. XV. THE EIGHT KINGDOMS OF PERSIA. 
 
 7 9 
 
 The first kingdom is that at the beginning of Persia, and 
 it is called Casvin ; the second is further to the south, and 
 is called Curdistan ; the third is called Lor ; the fourth 
 [Suolstan] ; the fifth Istanit ; the sixth Serazy ; the 
 seventh Soncara; the eighth Tunocain, which is at the 
 further extremity of Persia. All these kingdoms lie in a 
 southerly direction except one, to wit, Tunocain ; that lies 
 towards the east, and borders on the (country of the) Arbre 
 Sol. 1 
 
 In this country of Persia there is a great supply of fine 
 horses ; and people take them to India for sale, for they 
 are horses of great price, a single one being worth as much 
 of their money as is equal to 200 livres Tournois; some 
 will be more, some less, according to the quality. 2 Here 
 also are the finest asses in the world, one of them being 
 worth full 30 marks of silver, for they are very large and 
 fast, and acquire a capital amble. Dealers carry their 
 horses to Kisi and Curmosa, two cities on the shores of the 
 Sea of India, and there they meet with merchants who take 
 the horses on to India for sale. 
 
 In this country there are many cruel and murderous 
 people, so that no day passes but there is some homicide 
 among them. Were it not for the Government, which is 
 that of the Tartars of the Levant, they would do great 
 mischief to merchants; and indeed, maugre the Govern¬ 
 ment, they often succeed in doing such mischief. Unless 
 merchants be well armed they run the risk of being 
 murdered, or at least robbed of everything; and it some¬ 
 times happens that a whole party perishes in this way when 
 not on their guard. The people are all Saracens, i.e. 
 followers of the Law of Mahommetd 
 
 In the cities there are traders and artizans who live by 
 their labour and crafts, weaving cloths of gold, and silk stuffs 
 of sundry kinds. They have plenty of cotton produced in 
 the country; and abundance of wheat, barley, millet, 
 panick, and wine, with fruit of all kinds. 
 
8o 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 [Some one may say, “ But the Saracens don’t drink 
 wine, which is prohibited by their law.” The answer is 
 that they gloss their text in this way, that if the wine be 
 boiled, so that a part is dissipated and the rest becomes 
 sweet, they may drink without breach of the command¬ 
 ment; for it is then no longer called wine, the name being 
 changed with the change of flavour. 4 ] 
 
 Note 1.—The following appear to be Polo’s Eight Kingdoms :— 
 
 I. Kazwin ; then a flourishing city, though I know not why he calls 
 it a kingdom. Persian ’Irak, or the northern portion thereof, seems 
 intended. Previous to Hulaku’s invasion Kazwin seems to have been 
 in the hands of the Ismaelites or Assassins. 
 
 II. Kurdistan. I do not understand the difficulties of Marsden, 
 followed by Lazari and Pauthier, which lead them to put forth that 
 Curdistan is not Curdistan but something else. The boundaries of 
 Kurdistan according to Hamdallah were Arabian ’Irak, Khuzistan, 
 Persian ’Irak, Adherbaijan and Diarbekr (Diet, de la P. 480). Persian 
 Kurdistan, in modern as in medieval times, extends south beyond 
 Kirmanshah to the immediate border of Polo’s next kingdom, viz. : 
 
 III. Lur or Luristan. This was divided into two principalities, 
 Great Lur and Little Lur, distinctions still existing. The former was 
 ruled by a Dynasty called the Fasluyah Atabegs, which endured from 
 about 1155 to 1424. Their territory lay in the mountainous district im¬ 
 mediately west of Ispahan, and extended to the river of Dizful, which 
 parted it from Little Lur. The stronghold of the Atabegs was the 
 extraordinary hill fort of Mungasht, and they had a residence also 
 at Aidhej or Mal-Amir in the mountains south of Shushan, where 
 Ibn Batuta visited the reigning Prince in 1327. Sir H. Rawlinson has 
 described Mungasht, and Mr. Layard and Baron de Bode have visited 
 other parts, but the country is still very imperfectly known. Little 
 Luristan lay west of the R. Dizful, extending nearly to the Plain of 
 Babylonia. Its Dynasty called Kurshid existed from the middle of the 
 12th to the end of the 16th century. 
 
 The Lurs in language and otherwise appear to be akin to the Kurds. 
 They were noted in the Middle Ages for their agility and their dexterity 
 in thieving. The tribes of Little Lur “ do not affect the slightest 
 veneration for Mahommed or the Koran; their only general object of 
 worship is their great Saint Baba Buzurg,” and particular disciples regard 
 with reverence little short of adoration holy men looked on as living 
 representatives of the Divinity. (Ilchan. I. 70 seqq.; Rawlinson in 
 J. R. G. S. IX; Layard in Do. XVI. 75, 94; N. et. E. XIII. i. 330; 
 /. B. II. 31 ; D’Ohsson, IV. 171-2.) 
 
 IV. Shulistan, best represented by Ramusio’s Suolslan, whilst the 
 
Chap. XV. THE EIGHT KINGDOMS OF PERSIA. 
 
 81 
 
 old French texts have Cielstan (i.e. Shelstan) ; the name applied to the 
 country of the Skills, or Shauls , a people who long occupied a part 
 of Luristan, but were expelled by the Lurs in the 12 th century, and 
 settled in the country between Shiraz and Khuzistan (now that of the 
 Mamaseni, whom Colonel Pelly’s information identifies with the Shuls), 
 their central points being Naobanjan and the fortress called Kala’a 
 Safed or “White Castle.” Ibn Batuta, going from Shiraz to Kazerun, 
 encamped the first day in the country of the Shuls, “ a Persian desert 
 tribe which includes some pious persons.” (Q. B. p. 385 ; N. et E. 
 XIII. i. 332-3 ; lick. I. 71 ;f.R.G.S. XIII. Map; /. B . II. 88.) 
 
 V. Ispahan ? The name is in Ramusio Spaan , showing at least that 
 he or some one before him had made this identification. The unusual 
 combination ff in manuscript would be so like the frequent one ft that 
 the change from Isfan to Istan would be easy. Another possible ex¬ 
 planation is suggested by a passage in Abulfeda, who says that one of 
 the cities which composed Isfahan was called Shahristan. As Shahr 
 by itself signifies “ city,” it is just possible that Polo might take Istan 
 for a proper name. (See Rciske , Abulf. III. 535.) But why Istan//? 
 
 VI. Shiraz, representing the province of Fars or Persia Proper, of 
 which it has been for ages the chief city. The last dynasty that had 
 reigned in Fars was that of the Salghur Atabegs, founded about the 
 middle of the 12th century. Under Abubakr (1226-1260) this kingdom 
 attained considerable power, embracing Fars, Kirman, the islands of 
 the Gulf and its Arabian shores ; and Shiraz then flourished in arts and 
 literature. From about 1262, though a Salghurian princess, married to 
 a son of Hulaku, had the nominal title of Atabeg, the province of Fars 
 was under Mongol administration, (Itch. passim.) 
 
 VII. Shawankara or Shabankara. The G. T. has Soucara, but 
 the Crusca gives the true reading Soncara. It is the country of the 
 Shawankars, a people coupled with the Shuls and Lurs in medieval 
 Persian history, and like them of Kurd affinities. Their princes, of a 
 family Fasluyah, are spoken of as influential before the Mahomedan 
 conquest, but the name of the people comes prominently forward only 
 during the Mongol era of Persian history. Their country lay to the 
 south of the great salt lake east of Shiraz, and included Niriz and 
 Darabjird, Fassa, Forg, and Tarem. Their capital was I'g or I'j, called 
 also Irej, about 45 m. north of Darab, with a great mountain fortress; 
 it was taken by Hulaku in 1259. The son of the prince was continued 
 in nominal authority with Mongol administrators. In consequence of 
 a rebellion in 13 n the dynasty seems to have been extinguished. A 
 descendant attempted to revive their authority about the middle of the 
 same century. The latest historical mention of the name that I have 
 found is in Abdurrazzak’s History of Shah Rukh, under the year H. 
 807 (1404). (See Jour. As. 3d s. vol. ii. 355.) But a note by Colonel 
 Pelly informs me that the name Shabankara is still applied (1) to the 
 district round the towns of Runiz and Gauristan near Bandar Abbas ; 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 (2), to a village near Maiman, in the old country of the tribe ; (3), to a 
 tribe and district of Dashtistan, 38 farsakhs west of Shiraz. 
 
 With reference to the form in the text, Soncara, 1 may notice that in 
 two passages of the Masdlak-id-Absdr, translated by Quatremere, the 
 name occurs as Shankdrah. ( Q. R. p. 380, 440 seqq.\ N. et E. XIII. ; 
 Itch. I. 71 and passim; Ouse ley's Travels , II. 158 seqq.) 
 
 VIII. TCn-o-Kain, the eastern Kuhistan or Hill country of Persia, 
 of which Tun and Kain are chief cities. The practice of indicating a 
 locality by combining two names in this way is common in the East. 
 Elsewhere in this book we find Ariora-Keshemur and Kes-macoran (Kij- 
 Makran). Upper Sind is often called in India by the Sepoys Rori - 
 Bakkar , from two adjoining places on the Indus ; whilst in former days 
 Lower Sind was often called Diul-Sind. Karra-Mdnikpur, Uch-Multan, 
 Kunduz-Baghlan are other examples. 
 
 The exact expression Tun-o- Kain for the province here in question 
 is used by Baber, and probably also by some of Hammer’s authorities, 
 judgingfrom his mode of expression. {Baber, p. 204 ; see Ilch. II. 190 ; 
 I. 95, 104, and Hist, de lOrdre des Assassins, p. 245.) 
 
 I may note that the identification of Suolstan is due to Quatremere 
 (see N. et E. XIII. i. circa p. 332); that of Soncara to Defremery (J As. 
 ser. 4, tom. xi. p. 44 r); and that of Tunocain to M. Pauthier. It 
 is one of the latter’s happiest contributions to the elucidation of Polo.* 
 I may add that the Lurs, the Skills, and the Shabankdras are the sub¬ 
 jects of three successive sections in the Masalak-al-Absar of Shahabuddin 
 Dimishki, a work which reflects much of Polo’s geography (see N. et 
 E. XIII. i. 330-333). 
 
 Note 2 .—The horses exported to India, of which we shall hear 
 more hereafter, were probably the same class of “ Gulf Arabs ” that are 
 now carried thither. But the Turkman horses of Persia are also very 
 valuable, especially for endurance. Kinneir speaks of one accomplish¬ 
 ing 900 miles in n days, and Ferrier states a still more extraordinary 
 feat from his own knowledge. In that case one of those horses went 
 from Tehran to Tabriz, returned, and went again to Tabriz, within 12 
 days, including two days’ rest. The total distance is about 1100 miles. 
 
 The livre tournois at this period was equivalent to a little over 18 
 francs of modern French silver. But in bringing the value to our modern 
 gold standard we must add one-third, as the ratio of silver to gold 
 was then 1:12 instead of 1 :16. Hence the equivalent in gold of the 
 livre tournois is very little less than il. sterling, and the price of the 
 horse would be about 193/. The Encyc. Britann., article “Money,” 
 gives the livre tournois of this period as 18-17 Lancs. A French paper 
 in Notes and Queries (4th S. IV. 485) gives it under St. Lewis and 
 
 * The same explanation was given in a note kindly sent for my use from Tabriz 
 by Consul-General Abbott, evidently without having seen M. Pauthier’s work. 
 
Chap. XV. 
 
 THE EIGHT KINGDOMS OF PERSIA. 
 
 83 
 
 Philip III. as equivalent to 18*24 fr., and under Philip IV. to 17*95. 
 And lastly, experiment at the British Museum, made by the kind inter¬ 
 vention of my friend Mr. Thomas, gave the weights of the sols of St. 
 Lewis (1226-1270) and Philip IV. (1285-1314) respectively as 63 grains 
 and 61J grains of remarkably pure silver. These trials would give the 
 livres (20 sols) as equivalent to 18*14 fr. and 17*70 fr. respectively. 
 
 Mr. Wright quotes an ordinance of Philip III. of France (1270-1285) 
 fixing the maximum price that might be given for a palfrey at 60 livres 
 tournois , and for a squire’s roncin at 20 livres. Joinville, however, 
 speaks of a couple of horses presented to St. Lewis in 1254 by the 
 Abbot of Cluny, which he says would at the time of his writing (1309) 
 have been worth 500 livres (the pair, it would seem). Hence it may 
 be concluded in a general way that the ordinary price of imported 
 horses in India approached that of the highest class of horses in Europe. 
 (Hist, of Dom. Manners , p. 317 ; Joinville , p. 205.) 
 
 Twenty years ago a very fair Arab could be purchased in Bombay 
 for 60/. or even less, but prices are much higher now. 
 
 With regard to the donkeys, according to Tavernier the fine ones 
 used by merchants in Persia were imported from Arabia. The mark 
 of silver was equivalent to about 44^. of our silver money, and allowing 
 as before for the lower relative value of gold, 30 marks would be equiva¬ 
 lent to 881 . sterling. 
 
 Kisi or Kish we have already heard of. Cnrmosa is Hormuz, of 
 which we shall hear more. With a Pisan, as Rusticiano was, the sound 
 of c is purely and strongly aspirate. Giovanni d’Empoli, in the beginning 
 of the 16th century, another Tuscan, also calls it Cormus (see Archiv. 
 Stor. Ital. Append. III. 81). 
 
 Note 3 .—The character of the nomade and semi-nomade tribes of 
 Persia in those days—Kurds, Lurs, Shuls, Karaunas, &c.—probably 
 deserved all that Polo says, and it is not changed now. Take as an 
 example Rawlinson’s account of the Bakhtiyaris of Luristan : “ I believe 
 them to be individually brave, but of a cruel and savage character; 
 they pursue their blood feuds with the most inveterate and exterminating 
 spirit. ... It is proverbial in Persia that the Bakhtiyaris have been 
 compelled to forego altogether the reading of the Fatihah or prayer for 
 the dead, for otherwise they would have no other occupation. They 
 are also most dextrous and notorious thieves.” (J. F. G. S. IX. 105.) 
 
 Note 4 .—The Persians have always been lax in regard to the 
 abstinence from wine. 
 
 In the preparation of some of the sweet wines of the Levant, such as 
 that of Cyprus, the must is boiled, but I believe this is not the case 
 generally in the East. Baber notices it as a peculiarity among the 
 Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. Tavernier, however, says that at Shiraz, 
 besides the wine for which that city was so celebrated, a good deal of 
 boiled wine was manufactured, and used among the poor and by tra- 
 
 G 2, 
 
84 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 vellers. No doubt what is meant is the sweet liquor or syrup called 
 Bushdb , which Della Valle says is just the Italian Mostocotto , but better, 
 clearer, and not so mawkish (I. 689). (Baber, p. 145 ; Tavernier , 
 Book V. ch. xxi.) 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Concerning the Great City of Yasdi. 
 
 Yasdi also is properly in Persia; it is a good and noble 
 city, and has a great amount of trade. They weave there 
 quantities of a certain silk tissue known as Yasdi, which 
 merchants carry into many quarters to dispose of. The 
 people are worshippers of Mahommet. 1 
 
 When you leave this city to travel further, you ride for 
 seven days over great plains, Ending cover to receive you 
 at three places only. There are many fine woods [pro¬ 
 ducing dates] upon the way, such as one can easily rfide 
 through; and in them there is great sport to be had in 
 hunting and hawking, there being partridges and quails 
 and abundance of other game, so that the merchants who 
 pass that way have plenty of diversion. There are also 
 wild asses, handsome creatures. At the end of those seven 
 marches over the plain you come to a fine kingdom which 
 is called Kerman. 2 
 
 Note 1.—Yezd, an ancient city, supposed by D’Anville to be the 
 Isatichae of Ptolemy, is not called by Marco a kingdom, though having 
 a better title to the distinction than some which he classes as such. 
 The atabegs of Yezd dated from the middle of the nth century, and 
 their dynasty was permitted by the Mongols to continue till the end of 
 the 13th, when it was extinguished by Ghazan, and the administration 
 made over to the Mongol Dewan. 
 
 Yezd, in pre-Mahomedan times, was a great sanctuary of the Gueber 
 worship, though now it is a seat of fanatical Mahomedanism. It is, 
 however, one of the few places where the old religion lingers. In 1859 
 there were reckoned 850 families of Guebers in Yezd and fifteen adjoin¬ 
 ing villages, but they diminish rapidly. 
 
 The silk manufactures still continue, and with other weaving employ 
 
Chap. XVI. 
 
 THE GREAT CITY OF YASDI. 
 
 85 
 
 a large part of the population. The Yazdi which Polo mentions, finds 
 a place in the Persian dictionaries, and is spoken of by D’Herbelot as 
 Kumash-i-Yezdi , “Yezd stuff.” Yezd is still a place of important trade, 
 and carries on a thriving commerce with India by Bandar Abbasi. A 
 visitor in the end of 1865 says : “The external trade appears to be 
 very considerable, and the merchants of Yezd are reputed to be amongst 
 the most enterprising and respectable of their class in Persia. Some 
 of their agents have lately gone, not only to Bombay, but to the Mau¬ 
 ritius, Java, and China.” 
 
 (Ilch. I. 67-8 ; Khanikoff, Mem. p. 202 ; Report by Major R. M. 
 Smith, R.E.) 
 
 Yezd was visited by Friar Odoric, who calls it the third best city of * 
 the Persian emperor. 
 
 Note 2. —I fancy Della Valle correctly generalizes when he says of 
 Persian travelling that “ you always travel in a plain, but you always 
 have mountains on either hand ” (I. 462). The distance from Yezd to 
 Kerman is, according to KhanikofFs survey, 314 kilometres, or about 
 195 miles. Ramusio makes the time eight days, which is probably the 
 better reading, giving a little over 24 m. a day. Westergaard in 1844 
 and Khanikoff in 1859, took ten days; Col. Goldsmid and Major Smith 
 in 1865 twelve. 
 
 Khanikoff observes on this passage : “ This notice of woods easy to 
 ride through, covering the plain of Yezd, is very curious. Now you 
 find it a plain of great extent indeed from N.W. to S.E., but narrow 
 and arid; indeed I saw in it only thirteen inhabited spots, counting 
 two caravanserais. Water for the inhabitants is brought from a great 
 distance by subterraneous conduits, a practice which may have tended 
 to desiccate the soil, for every trace of wood has completely dis¬ 
 appeared.” 
 
 Abbott travelled from Yezd to Kirman in 1849, by a road through 
 Bafk, east of the usual road, which Khanikoff followed, and parallel to 
 it; and it is worthy of note that he found circumstances more accord¬ 
 ant with Marco’s description. Before getting to Bafk he says of the 
 plain that it “ extends to a great distance north and south, and is pro¬ 
 bably twenty miles in breadth; ” whilst Bafk “ is remarkable for its 
 groves of date-trees, in the midst of which it stands, and which occupy a 
 considerable space.” Further on he speaks of “wild tufts and bushes 
 growing abundantly,” and then of “ thickets of the Ghez tree.” He 
 heard of the wild asses, but did not see any. In his report to the 
 Foreign Office, alluding to Marco Polo’s account, he says “ It is still 
 true that wild asses and other game are found in the wooded spots on 
 the road.” This is the Asians Onager, the Gor Khar of Persia, or 
 Kulan of the Tartars. (Khan. Mem. p. 200; Id. sur Marco Rolo, p. 21 ; 
 J. R. G. S. XXV. 20-29 ; Mr. Abbott's M.S. Report in Foreign Office.) 
 
86 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Concerning the Kingdom of Kerman. 
 
 Kerman is a kingdom which is also properly in Persia, 
 and formerly it had a hereditary prince. Since the Tartars 
 conquered the country the rule is no longer hereditary, 
 but the Tartar sends to administer whatever lord he pleases. 1 
 In this kingdom are produced the stones called turquoises 
 in great abundance; they are found in the mountains, 
 where they are extracted from the rocks. 2 There are also 
 plenty of veins of steel and Ondanique? The people are 
 very skilful in making harness of war; their saddles, bridles, 
 spurs, swords, bows, quivers, and arms of every kind, are 
 very well made indeed according to the fashion of those 
 parts. The ladies of the country and their daughters 
 also produce exquisite needlework in the embroidery of 
 silk stuffs in different colours, with figures of beasts and 
 birds, trees and flowers, and a variety of other patterns. 
 They work hangings for the use of noblemen so deftly that 
 they are marvels to see, as well as cushions, pillows, quilts, 
 and all sorts of things. 4 
 
 In the mountains of Kerman are found the best falcons 
 in the world. They are inferior in size to the Peregrine, 
 red on the breast, under the neck, and between the thighs; 
 their flight so swift that no bird can escape them. 5 
 
 On quitting the city you ride on for seven days, always 
 finding towns, villages, and handsome dwelling-houses, so 
 that it is very pleasant travelling; and there is excellent 
 sport also to be had by the way in hunting and hawking. 
 When you have ridden those seven days over a plain 
 country, you come to a great mountain; and when you 
 have got to the top of the pass you find a great descent 
 which occupies some two days to go down. All along you 
 find a variety and abundance of fruits; and in former days 
 there were plenty of inhabited places on the road, but now 
 there are none ; and you meet with only a few people looking 
 
Chap. XVII. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF KERMAN. 
 
 8; 
 
 after their cattle at pasture. From the city of Kerman to 
 this descent the cold in winter is so great that you can 
 scarcely abide it, even with a great quantity of clothing. 6 
 
 Note 1.—Kerman is mentioned by Ptolemy, and also by Ammi- 
 anus amongst the cities of the country so called ( Carmania ) : “ inter 
 quas nitet Carmana omnium mater ” (XXIII. 6). 
 
 M. Pauthier’s supposition that Sirjan, and not the city now known 
 as Kerman, was then the capital, is incorrect. (See as to this, passages 
 from Abdurazzak in N. et E. XIV. 208, 290.) Our author’s Kerman 
 is the city still so called. According to Khanikoff’s observations it 
 stands at 5535 feet above the sea. 
 
 Kerman, on the fall of the Beni Biiya dynasty in the middle of the 
 nth century, came into the hands of a branch of the Seljukian Turks, 
 who retained it till the conquests of the Kings of Khwarizm, which 
 just preceded the Mongol invasion. In 1226 the Amir Borrak, a Kara 
 Khitaian, who was governor on behalf of Jalaluddin of Khwarizm, be¬ 
 came independent under the title of Kutlugh Sultan. The Mongols 
 allowed this family to retain the immediate authority, and at the time 
 when Polo returned from China the representative of the house was a 
 lady known as the Padishah Khatun , the wife successively of the Ilkhans 
 Abaka and Kaikhatu; an ambitious, clever, and masterful woman, who 
 put her own brother Siyurgutmish to death as a rival, and was herself, 
 after the decease of Kaikhatu, put to death by her brother’s widow and 
 daughter. The dynasty continued, nominally at least, to the reign of 
 the Ilkhan Khodabanda (1304-13), when it was extinguished. 
 
 Kerman was a Nestorian see under the Metropolitan of Fars. (I/ch. 
 passim.; Weil, III. 454; Lequien , II. 1256.) 
 
 Note 2.—A MS. treatise on precious stones cited by Ouseley men¬ 
 tions Shebavek in Kerman as the site of a Turquoise mine. This is 
 probably Shahr-i-Babek, about 100 miles west of the city of Kerman, 
 and not far from Parez, where Abbott tells us there is a mine of these 
 stones, now abandoned. Goebel, one of Khanikoff’s party, found a 
 deposit of turquoises at Taft near Yezd. (Ouseley's Travels, I. 211 ; J. R. 
 G. S. XXVI. 63-65 ; Khan . Mem. 203.) 
 
 Note 3. —Iron mines are not noticed by modern travellers in Ker¬ 
 man. Edrisi, however, says that excellent iron was produced in the 
 “Cold Mountains,” N.W. of Jiruft, i.e. somewhere south of the capital; 
 and the Jihdn Numd, or Great Turkish Geography, says that the steel 
 mines of Niriz on the borders of Kerman were famous. These are 
 also spoken of by Teixeira. (Edrisi, vol. i. p. 430 ; Hammer, Mem. sur 
 la Perse, p. 275 ; Teixeira, Relaciones, p. 378.) 
 
 Ondaniquc of the Geog. Text, Andaine of Pauthier’s, Andanicum of 
 
88 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 the Latin, is an expression on which no light has been thrown since 
 Ramusio’s time. The latter tells us that he had often asked the Persian 
 merchants who visited Venice, and they all agreed in stating that it 
 was a sort of steel of such surpassing value and excellence, that in the 
 days of yore a man who possessed a mirror, or sword, of Andanic 
 regarded it as he would some precious jewel. This seems to me excel¬ 
 lent evidence. 
 
 Avicenna, in his 5 th book De Anima , according to Roger Bacon, 
 distinguishes three very different species of iron. 1st. Iron which is 
 good for striking or bearing heavy strokes, and for being forged by 
 hammer and fire, but not for cutting-tools. Of this hammers and 
 anvils are made, and this is what we commonly call Iron simply. 2nd. 
 That which is purer, has more heat in it, and is better adapted to take 
 an edge and to form cutting-tools, but is not so malleable, viz. Steel. 
 And the 3rd is that which is called Andena. This is less known 
 among the Latin nations. Its special character is that like silver it 
 is malleable and ductile under a very low degree of heat. In other 
 properties it is intermediate between iron and steel ( Fr . R. Baconis 
 Opera Inedita , 1859, p. 382-3). The same passage, apparently, of 
 Avicenna is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais, but with considerable dif¬ 
 ferences (see Speculum Naturale , VII. ch. lii., lx., and Specul. Doctrinale , 
 XV. ch. Ixiii.). 
 
 The Andena here corresponds precisely to the Andaine of Pauthier’s 
 Text, and to the Gndanique of the G. T. I have retained the latter 
 form because it points most distinctly to what I believe to be the real 
 word, viz. Hundwdniy , “Indian Steel” (see Johnsods Pers. Diet, and 
 De Sacy’s Crestomathie Arabe , II. 148). 
 
 The same expression found its way into Spanish in the shapes of 
 Alhinde , Alfinde, Alinde , first with the meaning of steel , then assuming, it 
 would seem, that of steel mirror , and finally that of the metallic foil of a 
 glass mirror (see Dozy and Engelmann 2d. ed. p. 144-145). 
 
 The sword-blades of India had a great fame over the East, and Indian 
 steel continued to be imported into Persia till days quite recent, perhaps 
 still continues. The fame of Indian steel goes back to very old times. 
 Ctesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got 
 from the King of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps the fernun can- 
 didum of which the Malli and Oxydracae sent 100 talents weight as a 
 present to Alexander. Indian Iron and Steel (crb LSikos koli aro- 
 fuo/x«) are mentioned in the ‘Periplus ’ as imports into the Abyssinian 
 ports. Ferrum Indicum appears (at least according to one reading) 
 among the Oriental species subject to duty in the Law of Marcus Aurelius 
 and Commodus on that matter. Salmasius notes that among surviving 
 Greek chemical treatises there was one 7 repl / 3 acf)r }<? IvSikov o-cSypov, ‘ On 
 the Tempering of Indian Steel.’ Edrisi says on this subject: “The 
 Hindus excel in the manufacture of iron, and in the preparation of 
 those ingredients along with which it is fused to obtain that kind of mal- 
 
Chap. XVII. THE KINGDOM OF KERMAN. 89 
 
 leable Iron which is usually styled Indian Steel. They also have work¬ 
 shops wherein are forged the most famous sabres in the world.It 
 
 is impossible to find anything to surpass the edge that you get from 
 Indian Steel.” 
 
 Klaproth in his ‘Asia Polyglotta’ gives Andun as the Ossetish and 
 Andan as the Wotiak, for Steel. Probably these are substantially the 
 same word with Andaine and Hundwdmy , pointing to India as the original 
 source of supply. 
 
 The popular view at least, in the Middle Ages, seems to have regarded 
 Steel as a distinct natural species, the product of a necessarily different 
 ore from iron; and some such view is I suspect still common in the 
 East. An old Indian officer told me of the reply of a native friend to 
 whom he had tried to explain the conversion of iron into steel—“ What? 
 You would have me believe that if I put an ass into the furnace it will 
 come forth a horse?” And Indian Steel again seems to have been 
 regarded as a distinct natural species from ordinary steel. It is in fact 
 made by a peculiar but simple process by which the iron is converted 
 directly into cast-steel, without passing through any intermediate stage 
 analogous to that of blister-steel. When specimens were first examined 
 by chemists in England, several of them concluded that the steel was 
 made direct from the ore, and had never been in the state of wrought- 
 iron. The Ondanique of Marco, if really wrought from mines in Ker¬ 
 man, had no doubt some peculiar resemblance to the Indian article. 
 (Mullers Ctesias, p. 80; Curtms , IX. 24; Midler's Geog. Gr. Min. I. 262; 
 Digest. Novum , Lugd. 1551, Lib. XXXIX. Tit. 4; Salmas. Ex. Plinian. 
 II. 763 ; Edrisi , I. 65-66 ; J. R. A. S. V. 387 seqq.) 
 
 Note 4 .—Paulus Jovius in the 16th century says, I know not on 
 what authority, that Kerman was then celebrated for the fine temper of 
 its steel in scymetars and lance-points. These were eagerly bought at 
 high prices by the Turks, and their quality was such that one blow of a 
 Kerman sabre would cleave an European helmet without turning the 
 edge. (Hist, of his own Time, Bk. XIV.) 
 
 There is, or was in Pottinger’s time, still a great manufacture of match¬ 
 locks at Kerman; but rose-water, shawls, and carpets are the staples of 
 the place now. Polo says nothing that points to shawl-making, but it 
 would seem from Edrisi that some such manufacture already existed in 
 the adjoining district of Bamm. It is possible that the “hangings” 
 (cortines) spoken of by Polo may refer to the carpets. I have seen a 
 genuine Kerman carpet in the house of my friend Sir Bartle Frere. It 
 is of very short pile, very even and dense; the design unlike any other 
 carpet I have seen; a combination of vases, birds, and floral tracery, 
 closely resembling the illuminated frontispiece of some Persian MSS. 
 
 The shawls are inferior to those of Kashmir in fineness, but not in 
 colour. In 1850, their highest quality did not exceed 30 tomans (14/.) in 
 price. About 2200 looms were employed on the fabric. A good deal 
 of Kerman wool, called Kurk, goes via Bandar Abbas and Karachi to 
 
9<5 
 
 MARCO POLa 
 
 Book I 
 
 Texture, with Animals, &c., from a Cashmere Scarf in the India Museum. 
 
Chap. XVIII. 
 
 THE CITY OF CAMADI. 
 
 91 
 
 Amritsar, where it is mixed with the genuine Tibetan wool in the shawl 
 manufacture. The silk embroidery, of which Marco speaks, is still per¬ 
 formed with great skill and beauty at Kerman. Our cut illustrates the 
 textures figured with animals, already noticed at p. 63. 
 
 The Guebers were numerous here at the end of last century, but 
 they are rapidly disappearing now. The Mussulman of Kerman is, 
 according to Khanikoff, an epicurean gentleman, and even in regard to 
 wine, which is strong and plentiful, his divines are liberal. “ In other 
 parts of Persia you find the scribblings on the walls of Serais to consist 
 of philosophical axioms, texts from the Koran, or abuse of local autho¬ 
 rities. From Kerman to Yezd you find only rhymes in praise of fair 
 ladies or good wine.” 
 
 (Pottinger's Travels; Khanik. Mem. 186 seqq ., and Notice , p. 21 ; 
 Major Smiths Report; Abbott's MS. Report in F. O.) 
 
 Note 5 .—Parez is famous for its falcons still, and so are the districts 
 of Aktar and Sirjan for those of the species called Terla?i , esteemed the 
 finest in Persia, and which Mr. Abbott identifies with those described in 
 the text. Both he and Major Smith were entertained with hawking by 
 Persian hosts in this neighbourhood. (/. R. G. S. XXV. 50, 63, and 
 Reports by Abbott and Smith as above.) 
 
 Note 6.—We defer geographical remarks till the traveller reaches 
 Hormuz. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Of the City of Camadi and its Ruins ; also touching the 
 Carauna Robbers. 
 
 After you have ridden down hill those two days, you find 
 yourself in a vast plain, and at the beginning thereof there 
 is a city called Camadi, which formerly was a great and 
 noble place, but now is of little consequence, for the Tartars 
 in their incursions have several times ravaged it. The plain 
 whereof I speak is a very hot region; and the province that 
 we now enter is called Reobarles. 
 
 The fruits of the country are dates, pistachioes, and 
 apples of Paradise, with others of the like not found in our 
 cold climate. [There are vast numbers of turtle-doves, 
 attracted by the abundance of fruits, but the Saracens 
 
92 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 never take them, for they hold them in abomination.] 
 And on this plain there is a kind of bird called francolin, 
 but different from the francolin of other countries, for their 
 colour is a mixture of black and white, and the feet and 
 beak are vermilion colour. 1 
 
 The beasts also are peculiar; and first I will tell you of 
 their oxen. These are very large, and all over white as 
 snow ; the hair is very short and smooth, which is owing to 
 the heat of the country. The horns are short and thick, 
 not sharp in the point; and between the shoulders they 
 have a round hump some two palms high. There are no 
 handsomer creatures in the world. And when they have 
 to be loaded, they kneel like the camel; once the load is 
 adjusted, they rise. Their load is a heavy one, for they are 
 very strong animals. Then there are sheep here as big as 
 asses; and their tails are so large and fat, that one tail shall 
 weigh some 30 lbs. They are fine fat beasts, and afford 
 capital mutton. 2 
 
 In this plain there are a number of villages and towns 
 which have lofty walls of mud, made as a defence against 
 the banditti, 1 who are very numerous, and are called Ca- 
 raonas. This name is given them because they are the 
 sons of Indian mothers by Tartar fathers. And you must 
 know that when these Caraonas wish to make a plundering 
 incursion, they have certain devilish enchantments whereby 
 they do bring darkness over the face of day, insomuch that 
 you can scarcely discern your comrade riding beside you; 
 and this darkness they will cause to extend over a space of 
 seven days’ journey. They know the country thoroughly, 
 and ride abreast, keeping near one another, sometimes to 
 the number of 10,000, at other times more or fewer. In 
 this way they extend across the whole plain that they a 'e 
 going to harry, and catch every living thing that is found 
 outside of the towns and villages; man, woman, or beast, 
 nothing can escape them! The old men whom they take 
 in this way they butcher ; the young men and the women 
 
Chap. XVIII. 
 
 THE CARAUNA ROBBERS. 
 
 93 
 
 they sell for slaves in other countries; thus the whole land 
 is ruined, and has become well nigh a desert. 
 
 The King of these scoundrels is called Nogodar. This 
 Nogodar had gone to the Court of Chagatai, who was own 
 brother to the Great Kaan, with some 10,000 horsemen of 
 his, and abode with him ; for Chagatai was his uncle. And 
 whilst there this Nogodar devised a most audacious enter¬ 
 prise, and I will tell you what it was. He left his uncle 
 who was then in Greater Armenia, and fled with a great 
 body of horsemen, cruel unscrupulous fellows, first through 
 Badashan, and then through another province called 
 Pashai-Dir, and then through another called Ariora- 
 Keshemur. There he lost a great number of his people 
 and of his horses, for the roads were very narrow and 
 perilous. And when he had conquered all those provinces, 
 he entered India at the extremity of a province called 
 Dalivar. He established himself in that city and govern¬ 
 ment which he took from the King of the country, Asedix 
 Soldan by name, a man of great power and wealth. And 
 there abideth Nogodar with his army, afraid of nobody, 
 and waging war with all the Tartars in his neighbour¬ 
 hood. 4 
 
 Now that I have told you of those scoundrels and their 
 history, I must add the fact that Messer Marco himself 
 was all but caught by their bands in such a darkness as 
 that I have told you of; but, as it pleased God, he got off 
 and threw himself into a village that was hard by, called 
 Cono salmi. Howbeit he lost his whole company except 
 seven persons who escaped along with him. The rest were 
 caught, and some of them sold, some put to death. 5 
 
 Note 1 . — The apples of Paradise are plantains. Ramusio has 
 “ Adam’s apple.” This was some kind of Citrus, though Lindley thinks 
 it impossible to say precisely what. According to Jacques de Vitry it 
 was a beautiful fruit of the Citron kind, in which the bite of human 
 teeth was plainly discernible (Note to Vulgar Errors, II. 211 ; Bongars, 
 I. 1099). Mr. Abbott speaks of this tract as “ the districts (of Kerman) 
 
94 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 lying towards the South, which are termed the Ghermseer or Hot Region, 
 where the temperature of winter resembles that of a charming spring, 
 and where the palm, orange, and lemon-tree flourish.” (MS. Report; see 
 also J. R. G. S. XXV. 56). 
 
 The Francolin here spoken of is, as Major Smith tells me, the 
 Darrd* of the Persians, the Black Partridge of English sportsmen, some¬ 
 times called the Red-legged Francolin. The Darraj is found in some 
 parts of Egypt where its peculiar call is interpreted by the peasantry 
 into certain Arabic words, meaning “ Sweet are the corn-ears ! Praised 
 be the Lord!” In India, Baber tells us, the call of the Black Partridge 
 was less piously rendered “ Shir ddram shakrak “ I’ve got milk and 
 sugar !” 
 
 (Crestomathie Arabe , II. 295 ; Baber , 320.) 
 
 Note 2 .—Abbott mentions the humped (though small) oxen in this 
 part of Persia, and that in some of the neighbouring districts they are 
 taught to kneel to receive the load, an accomplishment which seems to 
 have struck Mas’udi (III. 27), who says he saw it exhibited by oxen at 
 Rai (near modern Tehran). The Ain Akbari also ascribes it to a very 
 fine breed in Bengal. The whimsical name Zebu, given to the humped 
 or Indian ox in books of Zoology, was taken by Buffon from the 
 exhibitors of such a beast at a French Fair. 
 
 The fat-tailed sheep is well known in many parts of Asia, and 
 part of Africa. It is mentioned by Ctesias, and by ZElian, who says 
 the shepherds used to extract the tallow from the live animal, sewing 
 up the tail again. Marco’s statements as to size do not surpass those 
 of the admirable Kampfer : “In size they so much surpass the com¬ 
 mon sheep that it is not unusual to see them as tall as a donkey, 
 whilst all are much more than three feet; and as to the tail I shall not 
 exceed the truth, though I may exceed belief, if I say that it sometimes 
 reaches 40 lbs. in weight.” (AElia?i, Nat. An. III. 3, IV. 32; Amoen. 
 Exoticae.) 
 
 Note 3 .—The word rendered banditti is in Pauthier Carans, in 
 G. Text Caraunes, in the Latin “ a scaranis et malandrinisP The last 
 is no doubt correct, standing for the old Italian Scherani, bandits or 
 troopers (see Cathay , p. 287 note). 
 
 Note 4.—This is a knotty subject, and needs a long note. 
 
 The Karaunahs or Karawinahs, are mentioned often in the histories 
 of the Mongol regime in Persia, first as a Mongol tribe forming a 
 Tuman , i. e. a division or corps of 10,000 in the Mongol army (and I 
 suspect it was the phrase the Tuman of the Karaunahs in Marco’s mind 
 that suggested his repeated use of the number 10,000 in speaking of 
 them); and afterwards as daring and savage freebooters, scouring the 
 Persian provinces, and having their head-quarters on the Eastern fron¬ 
 tiers of Persia. They are described as having had their original seats 
 on the mountains north of the Chinese wall near Karaun Jidun or 
 
Chap. XVIII. 
 
 THE CARAUNA ROBBERS. 
 
 95 
 
 Khidun; and their special accomplishment in war was the use of 
 Naphtha Fire. Rashiduddin mentions the Karanut as a branch of the 
 great Mongol tribe of the Kunkurats, who certainly had their seat in 
 the vicinity named, so these may possibly be connected with the Karau- 
 nahs. The same author says that the Tuman of the Karaunahs formed 
 the Inhi or peculium of Arghun Khan. Wassaf calls them “a kind of 
 goblins rather than human beings, the most daring of all the Mongols,” 
 and Mirkhond speaks in like terms. 
 
 Dr. Bird of Bombay, in discussing some of the Indo-Scythic coins 
 which bear the word Korano attached to the prince’s name, asserts this 
 to stand for the name of the Karaunah “ who were a Grseco-Indo-Scythic 
 tribe of robbers in the Punjab, who are mentioned by Marco Polo,” a 
 somewhat hasty conclusion which Pauthier adopts. There is, Qua- 
 tremere observes, no mention of the Karaunahs before the Mongol inva¬ 
 sion, and this he regards as the great obstacle to any supposition of their 
 having been a people previously settled in Persia. Reiske, with no 
 reference to the present subject, quotes a passage from Hamza of 
 Ispahan, a writer of the tenth century, in which mention is made of 
 certain troops called Karaunahs. But it seems certain that in this and 
 other like cases the real reading was Kazawinah , people of Kazwin. 
 (See Reiske's Constant. Porphyrog. Bonn, ed. II. 674; Gottwaldfs Hamza 
 Ispahanensis , p. 161; and Quatremere in J. A. ser. 5, tom. xv. 173.) Ibn 
 Batuta only once mentions the name, saying that Tughlak Shah of 
 Dehli, was “ one of those Turks called Karaimas who dwell in the 
 mountains between Sind and Turkestan.” Hammer has suggested the 
 derivation of the word Carbine from Kardwinah , and a link in such an 
 etymology is furnished by the fact that in the 16th century the word 
 Carbine was used for some kind of irregular horseman. 
 
 (Gold. Horde, 214; Ilch. I. 17, 344, &c.; Erdmann , 168, 199, &c. ; 
 Q. R. 130 ; Not. et Ext. XIV. 282 ; I. B. III. 201; Ed. Webbe, his Tra- 
 vailes , p. 17, 1590, Reprinted 1868.) 
 
 As regards the account given by Marco of the origin of the Caraonas, 
 it seems almost necessarily a mistaken one. As Khanikoff remarks, he 
 might have confounded them with the Biluchis, whose Turanian aspect 
 (at least as regards the Brahuis) shows a strong infusion of Turki 
 blood, and who might be rudely described as a cross between Tartars 
 and Indians. It is indeed an odd fact that the word Karani (vulgo 
 Cramiy) is commonly applied in India at this day to the mixed race 
 sprung from European fathers and Native mothers, and this might be 
 cited in corroboration of Marsden’s reference to the Sanskrit Karana , 
 but I suspect the coincidence arises in another way. Karana is, accord¬ 
 ing to Wilson, the son of a Sudra woman by a Vaisya (or as Gen. Cun¬ 
 ningham maintains, a mongrel Kshatriya). An occupation of this class 
 was writing and keeping accounts, and hence the word came to mean a 
 writer or scribe. In this sense we find Karani applied in Ibn Batuta’s 
 day to a ship’s clerk, and it is used in the same sense in the Ain Akbari. 
 
9 6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Clerkship is also the predominant occupation of the East-Indians, and 
 hence the term Karani is applied to them from their business, and not 
 from their mixed blood. We shall see hereafter that there is a Tartar 
 term Arghun, applied to fair children born of a Mongol mother and 
 white father • it is possible that there may have been a correlative word 
 like Kardun applied to dark children born of Mongol father and black 
 mother, and that this led Marco to a false theory. 
 
 Let us turn now to the name of Nogodar. Contemporaneously with 
 the Karaunahs we have frequent mention of predatory bands known as 
 Nigudaris , who seem to be distinguished from the Karaunahs, but had a 
 like character for truculence. Their head-quarters were about Sijistan, 
 and Quatremere seems disposed to look upon them as a tribe indigenous 
 in that quarter. Hammer says they were originally the troops of Prince 
 Nigudar, grandson of Chaghatai, and that they were a rabble of all sorts, 
 Mongols, Turkmans, Kurds, Shuls, and what not. We hear of their 
 revolts and disorders down to 1319, under which date Mirkhond says 
 that there had been one-and-twenty fights with them in four years. 
 Again we hear of them in 1336 about Herat, whilst in Baber’s time they 
 turn up as Nukdari , fairly established as tribes in the mountainous tracts 
 of Karnud and Ghur, west of Kabul, and coupled with the Hazaras, who 
 still survive both in name and character. “Among both,” says Baber, 
 “there are some who speak the Mongol language.” The Hazaras are 
 eminently Mongol in feature to this day, and it is very probable that 
 they or some part of them are the descendants of the Karaunahs or the 
 Nigudaris, or of both, and that the origination of the bands so called 
 from the scum of the Mongol inundation is thus in degree confirmed. 
 It is worthy of notice that Abul Fazl, who also mentions the Nukdaris 
 among the nomad tribes of Kabul, says the Hazaras were the remains of 
 the Chaghataian army which Mangu Kaan sent to the aid of Hulaku 
 under the command of Nigudar Oghlan. (Not. et Ext. XIV. 284 ; Itch. 
 I. 284, 309, &c.; Baber , 134, 136, 140 ; J. As. ser. 4, tom. iv. 98 ; Ayeen 
 Akbery , II. 192-3.) 
 
 So far, excepting as to the doubtful point of the relation between 
 Karaunahs and Nigudaris, and as to the origin of the former, we have a 
 general accordance with Polo’s representations. But it is not very easy 
 to identify with certainty the inroad on India to which he alludes, or the 
 person intended by Nogodar, nephew of Chaghatai. It seems as if two 
 persons of that name had each contributed something to Marco’s history. 
 
 We find in Hammer and D’Ohsson that one of the causes which 
 led to the war between Barka Khan and Hulaku in 1262 (see above, 
 Prologue , chap, ii.) was the violent end that had befallen three princes of 
 the House of Juji, who had accompanied Hulaku to Persia in command 
 of the contingent of that House. When war actually broke out, the 
 contingent made their escape from Persia. One party gained Kipchak 
 by way of Derbend; another, in greater force, led by Nigudar and 
 Onguja, escaped to Khorasan, pursued by the troops of Plulaku, and 
 
Chap. XVIII. 
 
 THE CARAUNA ROBBERS. 
 
 97 
 
 thence eastward, where they seized upon Ghazni and other districts 
 upon the borders of India. 
 
 But again : Nigudar Aghul, or Oghlan, son of (the younger) Juji, son 
 of Chaghatai, was the leader of the Chaghataian contingent in Hulaku’s 
 expedition, and was still attached to the Mongol-Persian army in 1269, 
 when Borrak Khan, of the House of Chaghatai, was meditating war against 
 his kinsman, Abaka of Persia. Borrak sent to the latter an ambassador 
 who was the bearer of a secret message to Prince Nigudar, begging him 
 not to serve against the head of his own House. Nigudar, upon this, 
 made a pretext of retiring to his own head-quarters in Georgia , hoping 
 to reach Borrak’s camp by way of Derbend. He was, however, inter¬ 
 cepted, and lost many of his people. With 1000 horse he took refuge 
 in Georgia, but was refused an asylum, and was eventually captured by 
 Abaka’s commander on that frontier. His officers were executed, his 
 troops dispersed among Abaka’s army, and his own life spared under 
 surveillance. I find no more about him. In 1278 Hammer speaks of 
 him as dead, and of the Nigudarian bands as having been formed out 
 of his troops. But authority is not given. 
 
 The second Nigudar is evidently the one to whom Abu’l Fazl 
 alludes. Khanikoff assumes that the Nigudar who went off towards 
 India about 1260 (he puts the date earlier) was Nigudar the grandson of 
 Chaghatai, but he takes no notice of the second story just quoted. 
 
 In the former story we have bands under Nigudar going off by 
 Ghazni, and conquering country on the Indian frontier. In the latter we 
 have Nigudar, a descejidant of Chaghatai, trying to escape from his camp 
 on the frontier of Great Armenia. Supposing the Persian historians to 
 be correct, it looks as if Marco had rolled two stories into one. 
 
 Some other passages may be cited before quitting this part of the 
 subject. A chronicle of Herat, translated by Barbier de Meynard, says, 
 under 1298 : “The King Fakhruddin (of Herat) had the imprudence 
 to authorize the Amir Nigudar to establish himself in a quarter of 
 the city, with 300 adventurers from ’Irak. This little troop made 
 frequent raids in Kuhistan, Sijistan, Farrah, &c., spreading terror. 
 Khodabunda, at the request of his brother Ghazan Khan, came from 
 Mazanderan to demand the immediate surrender of these brigands,” &c. 
 And in the account of the tremendous foray of the Chaghataian Prince 
 Kotlogh Shah on the east and south of Persia in 1299, we find one of 
 his captains called Nigudar Bahadur. (Gold. Horde, 146, 157, 164; 
 HOhsson, IV. 378 seqq., 433 seqq., 513 seqq.; Ilch. I. 216, 261, 284; 
 II. 104 ; J. A. ser. 5, tom. xvii. 455-6, 507 ; Khan. Notice, 31.) 
 
 As regards the route taken by Prince Nogodar in his incursion into 
 India, we have no difficulty with Badakhshan. Pashai-Dir is a copu¬ 
 late name, the former part, as we shall see reason to believe hereafter, 
 representing the country between the Hindu Kush and the Kabul River 
 (see infra, chap, xxx.), the latter (as Pauthier already has pointed out), 
 Dir, the chief town of Panjkora, in the hill country north of Peshawar. 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 In Ariora-Keshemur the first portion only is perplexing. I will men¬ 
 tion the most probable of the solutions that have occurred to me, and 
 a second, due to that eminent archaeologist, Gen. A. Cunningham, 
 (i) Ariora may be some corrupt or Mongol form of Aryavartta, a 
 sacred name applied to the Holy Lands of Indian Buddhism, of which 
 Kashmir was eminently one to the Northern Buddhists. Oron, in 
 Mongol, is a Region or Realm, and may have taken the place of Vartta, 
 giving Aryoron or Ariora. (2) “ Ariora ,” Gen. Cunningham writes, 
 “ I take to be the Harhaura of Sanscrit— i.e. the Western Panjab. 
 Harhaura was the North-Western Division of the Nava-Khanda , or 
 Nine Divisions of Ancient India. It is mentioned between Sindhu- 
 Sauvira in the west {i.e. Sind), and Madra in the north {i.e. the Eastern 
 Panjab, which is still called Madar-Des). The name of Harhaura is, I 
 think, preserved in the Haro River. Now, the Sind-Sagor Doab formed 
 a portion of the kingdom of Kashmir, and the joint names, like those 
 of Sindhu-Sauvira, describe only one State.” The names of the nine 
 divisions in question are given by the celebrated astronomer Varaha 
 Mihira, who lived in the beginning of the 6th century, and are repeated 
 by A 1 Biruni (see Reinaud , Mem. sur VInde, p. 116). The only objection 
 to this happy solution seems to lie in A 1 Biruni’s remark, that the names 
 in question were in general no longer used even in his time (a.d. 1030). 
 This however is not conclusive, for the joint title may have remained 
 attached to the State of Kashmir in neighbouring countries long after 
 one portion of it had ceased in India itself to be a living name. Sodor 
 and Man is a parallel case. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Asidin So/dan is, as Khanikoff has said, 
 Ghaiassuddin Balban, Sultan of Dehli from 1266 to 1286, and for years 
 before that a man of great power in India, and especially in the Panjab, 
 of which he had in the reign of Ruknuddin (1236) held independent 
 possession. His name is sometimes written hzuddin (see Elliot, II. 343, 
 
 35°y _ 
 
 Firishta records several inroads of Mongols in the Panjab during the 
 reign of Ghaiassuddin, in withstanding one of which that King’s eldest 
 son was slain, and there are constant indications of their presence in 
 Sind till the end of the century. But we find in that historian no hint 
 of the chief circumstances of this part of the story, viz., the conquest of 
 Kashmir and the occupation of Dilavar, evidently (whatever its identity) 
 a place in the plains of India. I do find, however, in the history of 
 Kashmir, as given by Lassen (III. 1138), that, in the end of 1259, 
 Lakshamana Deva, King of Kashmir, was killed in a campaign against 
 the Turushka (Turks or Tartars), and that their leader, who is called 
 Kajjala, got hold of the country and held it till 1287. It is difficult not 
 to connect this both with Polo’s story and with the escapade of Nigudar 
 about 1260, noting also that this occupation of Kashmir extended 
 through the whole reign of Ghaiassuddin. 
 
 We still have to account for the occupation and locality of Dilavar; 
 
Chap. XVIII. 
 
 THE CARAUNA ROBBERS. 
 
 99 
 
 Marsden supposed it to be Lahore; Khanikoff considers it to be 
 Dirawal or Dilawar , in the modern state of Bhawalpur. Such length¬ 
 ened occupation as Marco implies seems, as regards the former, never 
 to have occurred; as regards the latter solution, we have scarcely 
 data for making the same objection. But another has been suggested 
 by Gen. Cunningham’s ample stores of knowledge. He says, in a note 
 with which he has favoured me : “ I traced the coins of Hasan Karluk 
 and his son Mahomed (supposed to have ruled about the middle of the 
 13th century) to Dilawar as their chief seat. This Dilawar is on the 
 west bank of the Jelam, close to Darapur, which was visited by Burnes 
 and Court. I visited the place myself in 1834, and I was satisfied that 
 Dilawar and Darapur must have been the capital of the Western 
 Panjab. I think also that it must have been the Bukephala of Alex¬ 
 ander. It is opposite Mung” (which Gen. C. identifies with Nikaia ) 
 “ but a little higher up the river.” It is, in fact, just opposite to the 
 battlefield of Chilianwala. The spot has been recently visited (Dec. 
 15th, 1868) at my request, by my friend Col. R. Maclagan, R.E. He 
 writes : “ The present village of Dilawar stands a little above the town 
 of Darapur (I mean on higher ground), looking down on Darapur and 
 on the river, and on the cultivated and wooded plain along the river 
 bank. The remains of the Old Dilawar, in the form of quantities of 
 large bricks, cover the low round-backed spurs and knolls of the broken 
 rocky hills around the present village, but principally on the land side. 
 They cover a large area of very irregular character, and may clearly be 
 held to represent a very considerable town. There are no indications 
 of the form of buildings . . . but simply large quantities of large bricks, 
 which for a long time have been carried away and used for modern 
 buildings. . . . After rain coins are found on the surface. We got 
 some of them from the people of the village, all small, of copper, with 
 old Arabic characters, two of them having something like a rude 
 outline of a horse, but this is not quite certain. . . . There can be no 
 doubt of a very large extent of ground, of very irregular and uninviting 
 character, having been covered at some time with buildings. The 
 position on the Jelam would answer well for the Dilawar which the 
 Mongol invaders took and held. . . . The strange thing is that the 
 name should not be mentioned (I believe it is not) by any of the 
 well-known Mohammedan historians of India. So much for Dilawar. 
 
 . . . The people have no traditions. But there are the remains; and 
 there is the name, borne by the existing village on part of the old site.” 
 I had come to the conclusion that this was almost certainly Polo’s 
 Dilavar, and had mapped it as such, before I read certain passages in 
 the History of Ziyauddfn Barni, which have been translated by Pro¬ 
 fessor Dowson for the third volume of Elliot’s 4 India.’ When the 
 comrades of Ghaiassuddin Balban urged him to conquests, the Sultan 
 pointed to the constant danger from the Mongols, saying: “ These 
 accursed wretches have heard of the wealth and condition of Hindustan, 
 
 H 2 
 
IOO 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 and have set their hearts upon conquering and plundering it. They 
 have taken and plundered Labor within my territories , and no year passes 
 that they do not come here and plunder the villages. . . . They even 
 talk about the conquest and sack of Dehli.” And under a later date 
 the historian says: “ The Sultan . . . marched to Lahor, and ordered 
 the rebuilding of the fort which the Mughals had destroyed in the 
 reigns of the sons of Shamsuddin. The towns and villages of Lahor 
 which the Mughals had devastated and laid waste he repeopled.” 
 Considering these passages, and the fact that Polo had no personal 
 knowledge of Upper India, I now think it possible that Marsden was 
 right, and that Dilivar is really a misunderstanding of “ Citta di Livar” 
 for Lahawar or Lahore. 
 
 The Magical darkness which Marco ascribes to the evil arts of the 
 Caraunas is explained by Khanikoff from the phenomenon of Dry Fog 
 which he has often experienced in Khorasan, combined with the Dust 
 Storm with which we are familiar in Upper India. In Sind these 
 phenomena often produce a great degree of darkness. During a battle 
 fought between the armies of Sindh and Kachh in 1762, such a fog 
 came on, obscuring the light of day for some six hours, during which 
 the armies were intermixed with one another and fighting desperately. 
 When the darkness dispersed they separated, and the consternation of 
 both parties was so great at the events of the day that both made 
 a precipitate retreat. In 1844 this battle was still spoken of with 
 wonder. ( JBomb. Br. R.A.S. I. 423.) 
 
 The belief that such opportune phenomena were produced by 
 enchantment was a thoroughly Tartar one. D’Herbelot relates (art. 
 Giagathai ) that in an action with a rebel called Mahomed Tarabi, the 
 Mongols were encompassed by a dust-storm which they attributed to 
 enchantment on the part of the enemy, and it so discouraged them that 
 they took to flight. 
 
 Note 5 .—The specification that only seven were saved from Marco’s 
 company is peculiar to Pauthier’s Text, not appearing in the G.T. 
 
 Several names compounded of Salm or Salmi occur on the dry 
 lands on the borders of Kerman. Edrisi, however (I. p. 428), names 
 a place called KanAt-ul-Sham. as the first march in going from Jiruft 
 to Walashjird. Walashjird is, I imagine, represented by Galashkird. 
 Major R. Smith’s third march from Jiruft (see my map of routes from 
 Kerman to Hormuz); and as such an indication agrees perfectly with 
 the view taken below of Polo’s route, I am strongly disposed to identify 
 Kanat-ul-Sham with his castello or walled village of Ca 7 iosalmi. 
 
 The raids of the Mekranis and Biluchis long preceded those of the 
 Caraunas, for they were notable even in the time of Mahmud of 
 Ghazni, and they have continued to our own day to be prosecuted 
 nearly on the same stage and in the same manner. About 1721, 4000 
 horsemen of this description plundered the town of Bander Abbasi, 
 whilst Capt. Alex. Hamilton was in the port; and Abbott, in 1850, 
 
Chap. XIX. THE DESCENT TO THE CITY OF HORMOS. IOI 
 
 found the dread of Biluch robbers to extend almost to the gates of 
 Ispahan (see Hamilton , I. 109; J.R.G.S. XXV.; Khanikoff's Memoirc; 
 Macd. Kinneir, 196). 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Of the Descent to the City of Hormos. 
 
 The Plain of which we have spoken extends in a southerly 
 direction for five days’ journey, and then you come to 
 another descent some twenty miles in length, where the 
 road is very bad and full of peril, for there are many 
 robbers and bad characters about. When you have got 
 to the foot of this descent you find another beautiful plain 
 called the Plain of Formosa. This extends for two days’ 
 journey; and you find in it fine streams of water with 
 plenty of date-palms and other fruit-trees. There are also 
 many beautiful birds, francolins, popinjays, and other kinds 
 such as we have none of in our country. When you 
 have ridden these two days, you come to the Ocean Sea, 
 and on the shore you find a city with a harbour which 
 is called Hormos. 1 Merchants come thither from India, 
 with ships loaded with spicery and precious stones, pearls, 
 cloths of silk and gold, elephants’ teeth, and many other 
 wares, which they sell to the merchants of Hormos, and 
 which these in turn carry all over the world to dispose of 
 again. In fact, ’tis a city of immense trade. There are 
 plenty of towns and villages under it, but it is the capital. 
 The King is called Ruomedam Ahomet. It is a very 
 sickly place, and the heat of the sun is tremendous. If 
 any foreign merchant dies there, the King takes all his 
 property. 
 
 In this country they make a wine of dates mixt 
 with spices, which is very good. When any one not used 
 to it first drinks this wine, it causes repeated and violent 
 
102 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 purging, but afterwards he is all the better for it and gets 
 fat upon it. The people never eat meat and wheaten bread 
 except when they are ill, and if they take such food when 
 they are in health it makes them ill. Their food when in 
 health consists of dates and salt-fish (tunny, to wit) and 
 onions, and this kind of diet they maintain in order to 
 preserve their health . 2 
 
 Their ships are wretched affairs, and many of them get 
 lost; for they have no iron fastenings, and are only stitched 
 together with twine made from the husk of the Indian nut. 
 They beat this husk until it becomes like horse-hair, and 
 from that they spin twine, and with this stitch the planks 
 of the ships together. It keeps well, and is not corroded 
 by the sea-water, but it will not stand well in a storm. 
 The ships are not pitched, but are rubbed with fish-oil. 
 They have one mast, one sail, and one rudder, and have no 
 deck, but only a cover spread over the cargo when loaded. 
 This cover consists of hides, and on the top of these hides 
 they put the horses which they take to India for sale. 
 They have no iron to make nails of, and for this reason 
 they use only wooden trenails in their shipbuilding, and 
 then stitch the planks with twine as I have told you. 
 Hence ’tis a perilous business to go a voyage in one of 
 those ships, and many of them are lost, for in that Sea 
 of India the storms are often terribled 
 
 The people are black, and are worshippers of Mahommet. 
 The residents avoid living in the cities, for the heat in 
 summer is so great that it would kill them. Hence they 
 go out (to sleep) at their gardens in the country, where 
 there are streams and plenty of water. For all that they 
 would not escape but for one thing that I will mention. 
 The fact is, you see, that in summer a wind often blows 
 across the sands which encompass the plain, so intolerably 
 hot that it would kill everybody were it not that when 
 they perceive that wind coming they plunge into water 
 up to the neck, and so abide until the wind have ceased . 4 
 
Chap. XIX. 
 
 THE CITY OF HORMOS. 
 
 103 
 
 [And to prove the great heat of this wind, Messer Mark 
 related a case that befel when he was there. The Lord 
 of Hormos, not having paid his tribute to the King of 
 Kerman, the latter resolved to claim it at the time when 
 the people of Hormos were residing away from the city. 
 So he caused a force of 1600 horse and 5000 foot to 
 be got ready, and sent them by the route of Reobarles 
 to take the others by surprise. Now, it happened one 
 day that through the fault of their guide they were not 
 able to reach the place appointed for their night’s halt, 
 and were obliged to bivouac in a wilderness not far from 
 Hormos. In the morning as they were starting on their 
 march they were caught by that wind, and every man of 
 them was suffocated, so that not one survived to carry the 
 tidings to their Lord. When the people of Hormos heard 
 of this they went forth to bury the bodies lest they should 
 breed a pestilence. But when they laid hold of them by 
 the arms to drag them to the pits, the bodies proved to 
 be so baked , as it were, by that tremendous heat, that the 
 arms parted from the trunks, and in the end the people 5 
 had to dig graves hard by each where it lay, and so cast 
 them in.] 
 
 The people sow their wheat and barley and other corn 
 in the month of November, and reap it in the month of 
 March. The dates are not gathered till May, but other¬ 
 wise there is no grass nor any other green thing, for the 
 excessive heat dries up everything. 
 
 When any one dies they make a great business of the 
 mourning, for women mourn their husbands four years. 
 During that time they mourn at least once a day, gathering 
 together their kinsfolk and friends and neighbours for the 
 purpose, and making a great weeping and wailing. [And 
 they have women who are mourners by trade, and do it for 
 hire.] 
 
 Now, we wiil quit this country. I shall not, however, 
 now go on to tell you about India; but when time and 
 
104 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 place shall suit we shall come round from the north and 
 tell you about it. For the present, let us return by 
 another road to the aforesaid city of Kerman, for we 
 cannot get at those countries that I wish to tell you about 
 except through that city. 
 
 I should tell you first, however, that King Ruomedam 
 Ahomet of Hormos, which we are leaving, is a liegeman of 
 the King of Kerman. 6 
 
 On the road by which we return from Hormos to 
 Kerman you meet with some very fine plains, and you 
 also find many natural hot baths; you find plenty of 
 partridges on the road; and there are towns where victual 
 is cheap and abundant, with quantities of dates and other 
 fruits. The wheaten bread, however, is so bitter, owing 
 to the bitterness of the water, that no one can eat it who 
 is not used to it. The baths that I mentioned have excel¬ 
 lent virtues; they cure the itch and several other diseases. 7 
 
 Now, then, I am going to tell you about the countries 
 towards the north, of which you shall hear in regular order. 
 Let us begin. 
 
 Note 1 .—Having now arrived at Hormuz, it is time to see what can 
 be made of the geography of the route from Kerman to that port. 
 
 The port of Hormuz at this time stood upon the main land. A few 
 years later it was transferred to the island which became so famous, 
 under circumstances which are concisely related by Abulfeda :—“ Hormuz 
 is the port of Kerman, a city rich in palms, and very hot. One who has 
 visited it in our day tells me that the ancient Hormuz was devastated by 
 the incursions of the Tartars, and that its people transferred their abode 
 to an island in the sea called Zarun, near the continent, and lying west 
 of the old city. At Hormuz itself no inhabitants remain, but some of 
 the lowest order” (in Busching ; IV. 261-2). Friar Odoric, about 1321, 
 found Hormuz “ on an island some five miles distant from the main.” 
 Ibn Batuta, some eight or nine years later, discriminates between Hor¬ 
 muz or Moghistan on the mainland, and New Hormuz on the Island of 
 Jeraun, but describes only the latter, already a great and rich city. 
 
 The site of the Island Hormuz has often been visited and described; 
 but I could find no published trace of any traveller having verified the 
 site of the more ancient city. An application to Colonel Pelly, the very 
 able British Resident at Bushire, brought me from his own personal 
 
Chap. XIX. THE DESCENT TO THE CITY OF HORMOS. 105 
 
 knowledge the information that I sought, and the following particulars 
 are compiled from the letters with which he has favoured me :— 
 
 “ The ruins of Old Hormuz, well known as such, stand several miles 
 up a creek, and in the centre of the present district of Minao. They are 
 extensive, though in large part obliterated by long cultivation over the 
 site, and the traces of a long pier or Bandar were pointed out to Colonel 
 Pelly. They are about six or seven miles from the fort of Minao, and 
 the Minao river, or its stony bed, winds down towards them. The 
 creek is quite traceable, but is silted up, and to embark goods you have 
 to go a farsakh towards the sea, where there is a custom-house on that 
 part of the creek which is still navigable. Colonel Pelly collected a few 
 bricks from the ruins. From the mouth of the Old Hormuz creek to 
 the New Hormuz town, or town of Turumpak on the island of Hormuz, is 
 a sail of about three farsakhs. It may be a trifle more, but any native 
 tells you at once that it is three farsakhs from Hormuz island to the 
 creek where you land to go up to Minao. Hormuzdia was the name of 
 the region in the days of its prosperity. Some people say that Hor¬ 
 muzdia was known as Jerunia , and Old Hormuz town as Jerun .” (In this 
 I suspect tradition has gone astray). “ The town and fort of Minao lie to 
 the N.E. of the ancient city, and are built upon the lowest spur of the 
 Bashkurd mountains, commanding a gorge through which the Rudbar 
 river debouches on the plain of Hormuzdia.” In these new and inter¬ 
 esting particulars it is pleasing to find such precise corroboration both 
 of Edrisi and of Ibn Batuta. The former, writing in the 12 th century, 
 says that Hormuz stood on the banks of a canal or creek from the Gulf, 
 by which vessels came up to the city. The latter specifies the breadth 
 of sea between Old and New Hormuz as three farsakhs. ( Edrisi , I. 424 ; 
 /. B. II. 230.) 
 
 I now proceed to recapitulate the main features of Polo’s Itinerary 
 from Kerman to Hormuz. We have :— 
 
 Marches. 
 
 1. From Kerman across a plain to the top of a mountain-pass, where 
 
 extreme cold zuas experienced .. .. .. 7 
 
 2. A descent, occupying .2 
 
 3. A great plain, called Reobarles , in a much warmer climate, abounding 
 
 in francolin partridge, and in dates and tropical fruit, with a ruined 
 city of former note, called Camadi , near the head of the plain, which 
 extends for.5 
 
 4. A second very bad pass, descending for 20 miles, say. 1 
 
 5. A well-watered fruitful plain, which is crossed to Hormuz , on the 
 
 shores of the Gulf .2 
 
 Total .17 
 
 No European traveller, so far as I know, has in modern times fol¬ 
 lowed the most direct road from Kerman to Hormuz, or rather to its 
 nearest modern representative Bander Abbasi, I mean the road by Baft. 
 But a line to the eastward of this, and leading through the plain of 
 
io 6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Jiruft, was followed partially by Mr. Abbott in 1850, and completely by 
 Major R. M. Smith, R.E., in 1866. The details of this route correspond 
 so closely in essentials with those given by our author, that I feel little 
 doubt of its being his very route. In any case it amply illustrates the 
 features of that route. 
 
 Major Smith (accompanied at first by Colonel Goldsmid who 
 diverged to Mekran) left Kerman on the 15th of January, and reached 
 Bander Abbasi on the 3rd of February, but, as three halts have to be 
 deducted, his total number of marches was exactly the same as Marco’s, 
 viz. 17. They divide as follows :— 
 
 Marches. 
 
 1. From Kerman to the caravanserai of Deh Bakri in the pass so called. 
 
 “The ground as I ascended became covered with snow, and the 
 weather bitterly cold” ( Report ) .6 
 
 2. Two miles over very deep snow brought him to the top of the pass ; he 
 
 then descended 14 miles to his halt. 2 miles to the south of the crest 
 he passed a 2nd caravanserai: ‘ ‘ The two are evidently built so near 
 one another to afford shelter to travellers who may be unable to cross 
 the ridge during heavy snow-storms.” The next march continued the 
 descent for 14 miles, and then carried him 10 miles along the banks 
 of the Rudkhanah-i-Shor. The approximate height of the pass above 
 the sea is estimated at 8000 feet. We have thus for the descent the 
 greater part of .2 
 
 3. “ Clumps of date-palms growing near the village showed that I had 
 now reached a totally different climate” [Smith's Report ). And Mr. 
 
 Abbott says of the same region: “Partly wooded . . . and with 
 thickets of reeds abounding with francolin and Jirnfti partridge . . . 
 
 The lands yield grain, millet, pulse, French- and horse-beans, rice, 
 cotton, henna, Palma Christi, and dates, and in part are of great fertility. 
 
 . . . Rainy season from January to March, after which a luxuriant 
 crop of grass.” Across this plain (districts of Jiruft and Rudbar), the 
 height of which above the sea is something under 2000 feet .. .. 6 
 
 4. 6J hours, “nearly the whole way over a most difficult mountain-pass,” 
 
 called the Pass of Nevergu. 1 
 
 5. Two long marches over a plain, part of which is described as “con¬ 
 
 tinuous cultivation for some 16 miles,” and the rest as a “most unin¬ 
 teresting plain” .2 
 
 Total as before.17 
 
 The only point of importance missing in the abstract of Major 
 Smith’s Itinerary as we have given it, is Polo’s City of Camadi. Major 
 Smith writes to me, however, that this is probably to be sought in “ the 
 ruined city, the traces of which I observed in the Plain of Jiruft near 
 Kerimabad. The name of the city is now apparently lost.” It is, how¬ 
 ever, known to the natives as the City of Dakianus, as Mr. Abbott, who 
 visited the site, informs us. This is a name analogous only to the 
 Arthur’s ovens or Merlin’s caves of our own country, for all over 
 Mahomedan Asia there are old sites to which legend attaches the 
 name of Dakiatms or the Emperor Decius, the persecuting tyrant of the 
 Seven Sleepers. “ The spot,” says Abbott, “is an elevated part of the 
 plain on the right bank of the Hali Rud, and is thickly strewn with 
 
Chap. XIX. THE DESCENT TO THE CITY OF HORMOS. 107 
 
 kiln-baked bricks, and shreds of pottery and glass.After heavy 
 
 rain the peasantry search amongst the mins for ornaments of stone, and 
 rings and coins of gold, silver, and copper. The popular tradition con¬ 
 cerning the city is that it was destroyed by a flood long before the birth 
 of Mahomed.” The name Camadi in Polo probably represents Hamadi 
 or Ahmad 1, the latter a very common name in Persia. There is an 
 Ahmadi on the road followed by Mr. Abbott, but it is at least some 
 forty miles too far to the south for our data.* The locality of the 
 Shahr-i-Dakianus appears to me to agree well with that of Edrisi’s 
 City of Jiruft , of which he speaks as a populous place extending over 
 a space of two miles, and surrounded by irrigated fields and gardens : 
 100 mans of dates here cost but two dirhems. The city was two long 
 days’ march from Bamm {Ed. I. 421-2). The actual distance from 
 Bamm to the City of Dakianus is by Abbott’s Journal about sixty-six miles. 
 
 The name of Reobarles, which Marco applies to the plain inter¬ 
 mediate between the two descents, has given rise to many conjectures. 
 Marsden pointed to Rudbar , a name frequently applied in Persia to a 
 district on a river, or intersected by streams—a suggestion all the hap¬ 
 pier that he was not aware of the fact that there is a district of Rudbar 
 exactly in the required position. The last syllable still requires expla¬ 
 nation. I venture to suggest that it is the Arabic Lass, or as Marco 
 would certainly have written it Les , a robber. Reobarles will then be 
 Rudbar-i-Lass, “ Robber’s River District.” The appropriateness of the 
 name Marco has amply illustrated; but in fact it appears to survive in 
 that of one of the rivers of the plain, which is mentioned by both Abbott 
 and Smith under the title of Rudkhanah-i-Dnzdi or Robber’s River, a 
 name also applied to a village and old fort on the banks of the stream.| 
 
 Till the direct road from Kerman has been explored, we must remain 
 in doubt whether that would not answer Marco’s description as perfectly 
 as this route by Jiruft does; it could scarcely answer more perfectly. 
 It will be seen that Marco speaks in strong terms of the cold at the top 
 of the first descent. Such impressions are of course partly dependent 
 on accident; thus Major Smith speaks of it as bitter at Deh Bakri, 
 whilst Mr. Abbott at the same time of year found the climate “ com¬ 
 paratively mild.” The mountains on the direct route are certainly 
 higher and colder, for it was the fact that they were impassable from snow , 
 which obliged Goldsmid and Smith to take the other line. We may 
 
 * Mr. Abbott, to whom we owe so much valuable illustration, has discussed Marco 
 Polo’s route, and has himself started the identity of Camadi with the ruins which he 
 saw, but only to reject the idea. He has in fact made a fatal oversight in his treat¬ 
 ment of the route by assuming Camadi to be at the foot of the second descent. (See 
 J. R. G. S. XXV. p. 47 and 56.) 
 
 f Col. Goldsmid, to whom I referred this, writes: “I think it very probable 
 indeed .... there is no doubt that these Arab-Persian combinations constantly 
 occur, and my own impression is that I have often heard, in my travels, the word 
 1 less' used for ‘robber 
 
io8 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 also note the title of “ the Cold Mountains” applied by Edrisi to these 
 very mountains. And Mr. Abbott’s MS. Report mentions in this direc¬ 
 tion, Sardu, said to be a cold country (as its name seems to express), 
 which its population (Iliyats) abandon in winter for the lower plains. 
 
 Marco’s description of the “Plain of Formosa” does not apply, now 
 at least, to the whole plain, for towards Bander Abbasi it is barren. But 
 to the eastward, about Minao, and therefore about Old Hormuz, it has 
 not fallen off. Colonel Pelly writes : “ The district of Minao is still for 
 those regions singularly fertile. Pomegranates, oranges, pistachio-nuts, 
 and various other fruits grow in profusion. The source of its fertility 
 is of course the river, and you can walk for miles among lanes and 
 cultivated ground, partially sheltered from the sun.” And Lieutenant 
 Kempthorne, in his notes on that coast, says of the same tract: “ It is 
 termed by the natives the Paradise of Persia. It is certainly most beau¬ 
 tifully fertile, and abounds in orange-groves, and orchards containing 
 apples, pears, peaches, and apricots; with vineyards producing a delicious 
 grape, from which was at one time made a wine called amber-rosolli ”— 
 qu. ’ Ambar-i-Rasul, “the Prophet’s Bouquet!” a bold name even for 
 Persia ? 
 
 When Nearchus beached his fleet on the shore of Harmozeia at the 
 mouth of the Anamis (the River of Minao), Arrian tells us he found the 
 country a kindly one, and very fruitful in every way except that there 
 were no olives. The weary mariners landed and enjoyed this pleasant 
 rest from their toils. ( Indica , 33 ; J R. G. S. V. 274.) 
 
 The name Formosa may be a corruption of some lost Persian name, 
 such as Faramosh (forgetfulness), but it is more probably only Rus- 
 ticiano’s misunderstanding of Harmuza , aided, perhaps, by Polo’s picture 
 of the beauty of the plain. We have the same change in the old 
 Mafomet for Mahomet, and the converse one in the Spanish hermosa 
 for formosa. Teixeira’s Chronicle says that the city of Hormuz was 
 founded by Xa Mahamed Dramku, i.e. Shah Mahomed Dirhem-Ko, in 
 “ a plain of the same name.” 
 
 The statement in Ramusio that Hormuz stood upon an island, is, I 
 doubt not, an interpolation by himself or some earlier transcriber. 
 
 When the ships of Nearchus launched again from the mouth of 
 the Anamis, their first day’s run carried them past a certain desert 
 and bushy island to another which was large and inhabited. The 
 desert isle was called Organa; the large one by which they anchored 
 Oar acta (Indica, 37). Neither name is quite lost: the latter greater 
 island is Kishm or BrakJit; the former Jenin , probably in old Persian 
 Gerun or Gerdn, now again desert though no longer bushy, after having 
 been for three centuries the site of a city which became a poetic type of 
 wealth and splendour. An Eastern saying ran, “ Were the world a ring, 
 Hormuz would be the jewel in it.” 
 
 Note 2 .—A spirit is still distilled from dates in Persia, Mekran, 
 Sind, and some places in the west of India. It is mentioned by Strabo 
 
56 ° 
 
 57 ° 
 
 58 ° 
 
 56 ° 57 ° 
 
 XoniLon,: John Murray. Atbanuo-Le Street . 
 
Chap. XIX. 
 
 STITCHED BOATS. 
 
 109 
 
 and Dioscorides, according to Kampfer, who says it was in his time 
 made under the name of a medicinal stomachic; the rich added Radix 
 Chinae , ambergris, and aromatic spices; the poor liquorice and Persian 
 absinth. (Sir B. Frere; Amoen. Exot. 750; Macd. Kinneir, 220.) 
 
 The date and dry-fish diet of the Gulf people is noticed by most 
 travellers. Ibn Batuta says the people of Hormuz had a saying, 
 “ Khorma wa mahi lut-i-Pddshdhi ” i. e. “ dates and fish make an 
 Emperor’s dish !” A fish, exactly like the tunny of the Mediterranean 
 in general appearance and habits, is one of the great objects of fishery 
 off the Sind and Mekran coasts. It comes in pursuit of shoals of 
 anchovies, very much like the Mediterranean fish also. (I. B. II. 231; 
 Sir B. Frere.) 
 
 Note 3.— The stitched vessels of Kerman (irXouxpia pamd ) are 
 noticed in the ‘ Periplus.’ Similar accounts to those of our text are given 
 of the ships of the Gulf and of Western India by Jordanus and John of 
 Montecorvino (Jord. p. 53 ; Cathay , p. 217). “Stitched vessels,” Sir B. 
 Frere writes, “are still used. I have seen them of 200 tons burden; 
 but they are being driven out by iron-fastened vessels, as iron gets 
 cheaper, except where (as on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts) the 
 pliancy of a stitched boat is useful in a surf. Till the last few years, 
 when steamers have begun to take all the best horses, the Arab horses 
 bound to Bombay almost all came in the way Marco Polo describes.” 
 Some of them do still, standing over a date cargo, and the result of this 
 combination gives rise to an extraordinary traffic in the Bombay bazaar. 
 From what Colonel Pelly tells me, the stitched build in the Gulf is now 
 confined to fishing-boats, and is disused for sea-going craft. 
 
 The fish-oil used to rub the ships was whale-oil. The old Arab 
 voyagers of the 9th century describe the fishermen of Siraf in the Gulf 
 as cutting up the whale-blubber and drawing the oil from it, which was 
 mixed with other stuff, and used to rub the joints of ships’ planking. 
 (Reinaud, I. 146.) 
 
 Both Montecorvino, and Polo in this passage, specify one rudder, as 
 if it was a peculiarity of these ships worth noting. The fact is that, in 
 the Mediterranean at least, the double rudders of the ancients kept their 
 place to a great extent through the Middle Ages. A Marseilles MS. of 
 the 13th century, quoted in Ducange, says : “ A ship requires three 
 rudders, two in place, and one to spare.” Another: “ Every two-rud- 
 dered bark shall pay a groat each voyage; every one-ruddered bark 
 shall,” &c. (see Due. under Timonus and Temo). Numerous proofs of the 
 use of two rudders in the 13th century will be found in “ Documenti 
 inediti reguardanti le due Crociate di S. Ludovico IX., Re di Francia, 
 &c., da L. T. Belgrano, Genova, 1859.” Thus in a specification of 
 ships to be built at Genoa for the king (p. 7), each is to have “ Timoi 7 es 
 duo , affaiticos, grossitudinis palmorum viiii et dimidiae, longitudinis cubi- 
 lorum xxiiii.” Extracts given by Capmany, regarding the equipment of 
 galleys, shew the same thing, for he is probably mistaken in saying that 
 
110 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 one of the dos timones specified was a spare one. Joinville (p. 205) gives 
 incidental evidence of the same : “ Those Marseilles ships have each 
 two rudders, with each a tiller (? tison) attached to it in such an ingenious 
 way that you can turn the ship right or left as fast as you would turn a 
 horse. So on the Friday the king was sitting upon one of these tillers, 
 when he called me and said to me,” &c.* Francesco da Barberino, a poet 
 of the 13th century, in the 7th part of his Document}, d’Amove (printed 
 at Rome in 1640), which instructs the lover to whose lot it may fall to 
 escort his lady on a sea-voyage (instructions carried so far as to provide 
 even for the case of her death at sea!), alludes more than once to these 
 plural rudders. Thus— 
 
 --se vedessi avenire 
 
 Che vento ti rompesse 
 
 Timoni . 
 
 In luogo di timoni 
 
 Fa speref e in aqua poni” (p. 272-3). 
 
 And again, when about to enter a port, it is needful to be on the alert 
 and ready to run in case of a hostile reception, so the galley should enter 
 stern foremost—a movement which he reminds his lover involves the 
 reversal of the ordinary use of the two rudders :— 
 
 D un timon leva suso 
 
 D altro leggier tien giuso ; 
 
 Ma convien levar mano 
 Non mica com soleano, 
 
 Ma per contraro, e face 
 
 Cosi ’1 guidar verace (p. 275). 
 
 A representation of a vessel over the door of the Leaning Tower 
 at Pisa shows this arrangement, which is also discernible in the 
 frescoes of galley-fights by Spinello Aretini, in the municipal palace at 
 Siena. 
 
 The midship-rudder seems to have been the more usual in the 
 western seas, and the double quarter-rudders in the Mediterranean. The 
 former are sometimes styled Navarresques and the latter Latins. Yet 
 early seals of some of the Cinque Ports show vessels with the double 
 rudder; one of which (that of Winchelsea) is given in the cut. 
 
 In the Mediterranean the latter was still in occasional use late in the 
 16th century. Captain Pantero Pantera in his book, DArmata Navale 
 (Rome, 1614, p. 44) says that the Galeasses, or great galleys, had the 
 helm alia Navarresca, but also a great oar on each side of it to assist in 
 turning the ship. And I observe that the great galeasses which precede 
 the Christian line of battle at Lepanto, in one of the frescoes by Vasari 
 in the Royal Hall leading to the Sistine Chapel, have the quarter-rudder 
 very distinctly. 
 
 * This tison can be seen in the cuts from the tomb of St. Peter Martyr, and the 
 seal of Winchelsea. f Sperc , bundles of spars, &c., dragged overboard. 
 
Chap. XIX. 
 
 DOUBLE RUDDERS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The Chinese appear occasionally to employ it, as seems to be indi¬ 
 cated in a woodcut of a vessel of war which I have traced from a 
 Chinese book in the Imperial Library at Paris (see above, p. 37). It is 
 
 12th Century Illumination. (After Pertz.) Seal of Winchelsea. 
 
 From Monument of St. Peter Martyr. 
 
 Illustrations of the Double Rudder of the Middle Ages. 
 
 also used by certain craft of the Indian Archipelago, as appears from 
 Mr. Wallace’s description of the Prau in which he sailed from Macassar 
 to the Aru Islands. And on the Caspian, it is stated in Smith’s Diet, of 
 
1 12 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Antiquities (art. Gubernaculum ), the practice remained in force till late 
 times. A modern traveller was nearly wrecked on that sea, because the 
 two rudders were in the hands of two pilots who spoke different lan¬ 
 guages, and did not understand each other! 
 
 (Besides the works quoted see Jal , Archeologie Navale, II. 437-8, and 
 Capmany , Memorias , III. 61). 
 
 Note 4 .—So also at Bander Abbas Tavernier says it was so un¬ 
 healthy that foreigners could not stop there beyond March; everybody 
 left it in April. Not a hundredth part of the population, says Kampfer, 
 remained in the city. Not a beggar would stop for any reward ! The 
 rich went to the towns of the interior or to the cool recesses of the 
 mountains, the poor took refuge in the palm-groves at the distance of a 
 day or two from the city. A place called ’Ishin, some twelve miles 
 north of the city, was a favourite resort of the European and Hindu 
 merchants. Here were fine gardens, spacious baths, and a rivulet of 
 fresh and limpid water. 
 
 The custom of lying in water is mentioned also by Sir John Maun- 
 devile, and it was adopted by the Portuguese when they occupied 
 Insular Hormuz, as P. della Valle and Linschoten relate. The custom 
 is still common during great heats, in Sind and Mekran (Sir B. F.). 
 
 An anonymous ancient geography (Liber Junior is Philosophi ) speaks 
 of a people in India who live in the Terrestrial Paradise, and lead the 
 life of the Golden Age. . . . The sun is so hot that they remain all 
 day in the river ! 
 
 The heat in the Straits of Hormuz drove Abdurrazzak into an anti¬ 
 cipation of a verse familiar to English schoolboys: “ Even the bird of 
 rapid flight was burnt up in the heights of heaven, as well as the fish in 
 the depths of the sea ! ” (Tavern. Bk. V. ch. xxiii.; Am. Exot. 716, 762 ; 
 Muller , Geog. Gr. Min. II. 514; India in XV. cent. p. 49.) 
 
 Note 5 .—Alike description of the effect of the Simum on the human 
 body is given by Ibn Batuta, Chardin, A. Hamilton, Tavernier, Theve- 
 not, &c., but I have met with no reasonable account of its poisonous 
 action. I will quote Chardin, already quoted at greater length by 
 Marsden, as the most complete parallel to the text: “ The most sur¬ 
 prising effect of the wind is not the mere fact of its causing death, but 
 its operation on the bodies of those who are killed by it. It seems as if 
 they became decomposed without losing shape, so that you would think 
 them to be merely asleep, when they are not merely dead, but in such a 
 state that if you take hold of any part of the body it comes away in 
 your hand. And the finger penetrates such a body as if it were so much 
 dust” (III. 286). 
 
 Burton, on his journey to Medina, says : “ The people assured me 
 that this wind never killed a man in their Allah-favoured land. I doubt 
 the fact. At Bir Abbas the body of an Arnaut was brought in swollen, 
 and decomposed rapidly, the true diagnosis of death by the poison- 
 
Chap. XIX. 
 
 HISTORY OF HORMUZ. 
 
 13 
 
 wind.” Khanikoff is very distinct as to the immediate fatality of the 
 desert wind at Khabis, near Kerman, but does not speak of the effect 
 on the body after death. (/. R. G. S. XXVI. 217 ; Khan. Mem. 210.) 
 
 Note 6. —The History of Hormuz is very imperfectly known. What 
 I have met with on the subject consists of (1) An abstract by Teixeira 
 of a chronicle of Hormuz written by Thuran SMh, who was himself 
 sovereign of Hormuz, and died in 1377 ; (2) some contemporary notices 
 by Wassdf, which are extracted by Hammer in his History of the II- 
 khans; (3) some notices from Persian sources in the 2nd Decade of De 
 Barros (ch. ii.). 
 
 One of Teixeira’s Princes is called Ruknuddin Mahmud, and with 
 him Marsden and Pauthier have identified Polo’s Ruomedam Acomet, or 
 as he is called on another occasion in the Geog. Text, Maimodi Acomet. 
 This, however, is out of the question, for the death of Ruknuddin is 
 assigned to a.h. 676 (a.d. 1277), whilst there can, I think, be no doubt 
 that Marco’s account refers to the period of his return from China, viz., 
 1293 or thereabouts. 
 
 We find in Teixeira that the ruler who succeeded in 1290 was Amir 
 Musdud, who obtained the Government by the murder of his brother 
 Saifuddin Nazrat. Musa’ud was cruel and oppressive ; most of the 
 influential people withdrew to BaMuddin Ayaz, whom Saifuddin had 
 made Wazir of Kalhdt on the Arabian coast. This Wazir assembled a 
 force and drove out Musa’ud after he had reigned three years. He fled 
 to Kerman and died there some years afterwards. 
 
 Bahauddin, who had originally been a slave of Saifuddin Nazrat’s, 
 succeeded in establishing his authority. But about 1300 great bodies 
 of Turks ( i.e. Tartars) issuing from Turkestan ravaged many provinces 
 of Persia, including Kerman and Hormuz. The people, unable to 
 bear the frequency of such visitations, retired first to the island of 
 Kishm, and then to that of Jenin, on which last was built the city of 
 New Hormuz, afterwards so famous. This is Teixeira’s account from 
 Thuran Shah, so far as we are concerned with it. As regards the transfer 
 of the city it agrees substantially with Abulfeda’s, which we have already 
 quoted {supra, note 1). 
 
 Hammer’s account from Wassaf is frightfully confused, chiefly I 
 should suppose from Hammer’s own fault; for among other things he 
 assumes that Hormuz was always on an island, and he distinguishes 
 between the Island of Hormuz and the Island of Jerun ! We gather, how¬ 
 ever, that Hormuz before the Mongol time formed a government sub¬ 
 ordinate to the Salghur Atabegs of Fars (see note 1, chap, xv.), and when 
 the power of that dynasty was falling, the governor Mahmud Kalhati, 
 established himself as Prince of Hormuz, and became the founder of a 
 petty dynasty, being evidently identical with Teixeira’s Ruknuddin 
 Mahmud above-named, who is represented as reigning from 1246 to 
 1277. In Wassaf we find, as in Teixeira, Mahmud’s son Masa’ud kill¬ 
 ing his brother Nazrat, and Bahauddin expelling Masa’ud. It is true 
 
 VOL. T. 
 
 I 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 114 
 
 that Hammer’s incomparable muddle makes Nazrat kill Masa’ud ; how¬ 
 ever as a few lines lower we find Masa’ud alive and Nazrat dead, we 
 may safely venture on this correction. But we find also that Masa’ud 
 appears as Ruknuddin Masa’ud, and that Bahauddin does not assume 
 the princely authority himself, but proclaims that of Fakhmddin Ahmed 
 Ben Ibrahim At-Thaibi, a personage who does not appear in Teixeira 
 at all. A MS. history, quoted by Ouseley, does mention Fakhruddin, 
 and ascribes to him the transfer to Jerun. Wassaf seems to allude to 
 Bahauddin as a sort of Sea Rover, occupying the islands of Larek and 
 Jerun, whilst Fakhruddin reigned at Hormuz. It is difficult to under¬ 
 stand the relation between the two. 
 
 It is possible that Polo’s memory made some confusion between the 
 names of Ruknuddin Masa’ud and Fakhruddin Ahmed, but I incline 
 to think the latter is his Ruomedan Ahmed. For Teixeira tells us that 
 Masa’ud took refuge at the court of Kerman, and Wassaf represents 
 him as supported in his claims by the Atabeg of that province, whilst 
 we see that Polo seems to represent Ruomedan Acomat as in hostility 
 with that prince. To add to the imbroglio I find in the 3rd vol. of Elliot 
 (yet unpublished) Malik Fakhruddin Ahmed at-Thaibi, sent by Ghazan 
 Khan in 1297 as ambassador to Khanbalig, staying there some years, 
 and dying off the coast of Ma’bar on his return in 1305 (see pp. 45-47). 
 
 Masa’ud’s seeking help from Kerman to reinstate him is not the first 
 case of the same kind that occurs in Teixeira’s chronicle, so there may 
 have been some kind of colour for Marco’s representation of the Prince 
 of Hormuz as the vassal of the Atabeg of Kerman. M. Khanikoff 
 indeed denies that Marco’s expression “ Thotnme- de cest roy de Creman ” 
 does mean a vassal, or liegeman, but it is the constant meaning of that 
 expression in our author’s time and in his pages (see Prologue , chap. xiv. 
 note 2). M. Khanikoff also denies the possibility of the existence of 
 any royal dynasty at Hormuz at this period. That there was a dynasty 
 of Maliks of Hormuz however at this period we must be content to 
 believe on the concurring testimony of Marco, of Wassaf, and of Thuran 
 Shah. [Hammer's licit. II. 50, 51; Teixeira , Relacion de los Reyes de 
 Hormuz; Khan. Notice, p. 34.) 
 
 The ravages of the Tartars which drove the people of Hormuz 
 from their city may have begun with the incursions of the Nigudaris and 
 Caraunahs, but they probably came to a climax in the great raid in 
 1299 of the Chaghataian Prince Kotlogh Shah, son of Dua Khan, a 
 part of whose bands besieged the city itself, though they are said to have 
 been repulsed by Bahauddin Ayas. 
 
 Note 7 .—The indications of this alternative route to Kerman are 
 very vague, but I think it may probably be that through Finn, Tarum, 
 and the Sirjan district, passing out of the plain of Hormuz by the 
 eastern flank of the Ginao mountain. This road would pass near the 
 hot springs at the base of the said mountain, Sarga, Khurkhu, and Ginao, 
 which are described by Kampfer. Being more or less sulphureous 
 
Chap XX. 
 
 THE DESERT OF KERMAN. 
 
 US 
 
 they are likely to be useful in skin-diseases; indeed, Hamilton speaks 
 of their efficacy in these (I. 95). The salt-streams are numerous on 
 this line, and dates are abundant. The bitterness of the bread was how¬ 
 ever in all probability due to another cause, as Major Smith has kindly 
 pointed out to me : “Throughout the mountains in the south of Persia, 
 which are generally covered with dwarf oak, the people are in the habit 
 of making bread of the acorns, or of the acorns mixed with wheat or 
 barley. It is dark in colour, and very hard, bitter, and unpalatable.” 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Of the Wearisome and Desert Road that has now to be 
 
 TRAVELLED. 
 
 On departing from the city of Kerman you find the road 
 for seven days most wearisome ; and I will tell you how 
 this is. The first three days you meet with no water, or 
 next to none. And what little you do meet with is bitter 
 green stuff, so salt that no one can drink it; and in fact 
 if you drink a drop of it, it will set you purging ten times 
 at least by the way. It is the same with the salt which is 
 made from those streams ; no one dares to make use of it, 
 because of the excessive purging which it occasions. Hence 
 it is necessary to carry water for the people to last these three 
 days ; as for the cattle, they must needs drink of the bad 
 water I have mentioned, as there is no help for it, and their 
 great thirst makes them do so. But it scours them to such 
 a degree that sometimes they die of it. In all those three 
 days you meet with no human habitation; it is all desert, 
 and the extremity of drought. Even of wild beasts there 
 are none, for there is nothing for them to eat. 1 
 
 After those three days of desert [you arrive at a stream 
 of fresh water running underground, but along which there 
 are holes broken in here and there, perhaps undermined by 
 the stream, at which you can get sight of it. It has an 
 abundant supply, and travellers worn with the hardships of 
 the desert here rest and refresh themselves and their beasts.] 2 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 116 
 
 You then enter another desert which extends for four 
 days; it is very much like the former except that you do 
 see some wild asses. And at the termination of these four 
 days of desert you find another city which is called Cobinan. 
 
 Note 1 . —This description of the Desert of Kerman, says M. Kha- 
 nikoff, “ is very correct. As the only place in the Desert of Lut where 
 water is found is the dirty, salt, bitter, and green water of the rivulet 
 called Shor-Riid (the Salt River) we can have no doubt of the direction 
 of Marco Polo’s route from Kerman so far.” Nevertheless I do not 
 agree with Khanikoff that the route lay N.E. in the direction of Ambar 
 and Kain, for a reason which will appear under the next chapter. I 
 imagine the route to have been nearly due north from Kerman, in the 
 direction of Tabbas or of Tun. And even such a route would, accord¬ 
 ing to Khanikoff’s own map, pass the Shor-Riid, though at a higher 
 point. 
 
 I extract a few lines from Khanikoff’s own narrative : “ In proportion 
 as we got deeper into the desert, the soil became more and more arid; 
 at daybreak I could still discover a few withered plants of Caligonum 
 and Salsola, and not far from the same spot I saw a lark and another 
 bird of a whitish colour, the last living things that we beheld in this 
 dismal solitude. . . . The desert had now completely assumed the 
 character of a land accursed, as the natives call it. Not the smallest 
 blade of grass, no indication of animal life vivified the prospect; no 
 sound but such as came from our own caravan broke the dreary silence 
 of the void.” (Mhn. p. 176.) 
 
 Note 2.—I can have no doubt of the genuineness of this passage 
 from Ramusio. Indeed some such passage is necessary ; otherwise why 
 distinguish between three days of desert and four days more of desert ? 
 The underground stream was probably a subterraneous canal (called 
 Kanat or Kdrez), such as is common in Persia; often conducted from a 
 great distance. Here it may have been a relic of abandoned cultivation. 
 Khanikoff, on the road between Kerman and Yezd, not far west of that 
 which I suppose Marco to be travelling, says : “ At the fifteen inhabited 
 spots marked upon the map, they have water which has been brought 
 from a great distance, and at considerable cost, by means of subterra¬ 
 nean galleries to which you descend by large and deep wells. Although 
 the water flows at some depth, its course is tracked upon the surface by 
 a line of more abundant vegetation ” (lb. p. 200). Elphinstone says he 
 has heard of such subterranean conduits thirty-six miles in length (I. 
 398 ). 
 
Chap. XXI. 
 
 THE CITY OF COBINAN. 
 
 1 7 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Concerning the City of Cobinan and the things that are 
 
 MADE THERE. 
 
 Cobinan is a large town. 1 The people worship Mahommet. 
 There is much Iron and Steel and Ondanique , and they 
 make steel mirrors of great size and beauty. They also 
 prepare both Tutia (a thing very good for the eyes) and 
 Spodium ; and I will tell you the process. 
 
 They have a vein of a certain earth which has the 
 required quality, and this they put into a great flaming 
 furnace, whilst over the furnace there is an iron grating. 
 The smoke and moisture expelled from the earth of which 
 I speak, adhere to the iron grating, and thus form Tutia , 
 whilst the slag that is left after burning is the Spodium. 2 
 
 Note 1.—Koh-Banan is mentioned byMokaddasi (a.d. 985) as one 
 of the cities of Bardesir, the most northerly of the five circles into which 
 he divides Kerman (see Spre?iger , Post- und Reise-Route des Orients , p. 77). 
 It is the subject of an article in the Geog. Dictionary of Yakut, though 
 it has been there mistranscribed into Kubiydn and Kikiyan (see Leipzig 
 ed. 1869, iv. p. 316, and Barbier de Meynard, Diet, de la Perse , p. 498). 
 And it is also indicated by Mr. Abbott (/. R. G. S. XXV. 25) as the name 
 of a district of Kerman, lying some distance to the east of his route 
 when somewhat less than halfway between Yezd and Kerman. It would 
 thus, I apprehend, be on or near the route between Kerman and Tabbas; 
 one which I believe has been traced by no modern traveller. We may 
 be certain that there is now no place at Kuh-Banan deserving the title of 
 u?te cite grant , nor is it easy to believe that there was in Polo’s time ; he 
 applies such terms too profusely. The meaning of the name is perhaps 
 ‘ Hill of the Terebinths, or Wild Pistachioes,’ “ a tree which grows abun¬ 
 dantly in the recesses of bleak, stony and desert mountains, e.g about 
 Shamakhi, about Shiraz, and in the deserts of Luristan and Lar.” 
 (.Kdmpfer , 409, 413.) 
 
 I had thought my identification of Cobinan original, but a communi¬ 
 cation from Mr. Abbott, and the opportunity which this procured me of 
 seeing his MS. Report already referred to, showed that he had anti¬ 
 cipated me many years ago. The following is an extract: “ Districts of 
 Kerman * * * Kooh Benan. This is a hilly district abounding in 
 fruits, such as grapes, peaches, pomegranates, sinjid (sweet-willow), wal- 
 
ii 8 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 nuts, melons. A great deal of madder and some assafoetida is produced 
 there. This is no doubt the country alluded to by Marco Polo , under the 
 name of Cobinam , as producing iron, brass, and tutty, and which is still 
 said to produce iron, copper, and tootea.” There appear to be lead- 
 mines also in the district, as well as asbestos and sulphur. Mr. Abbott 
 adds the names of nine villages, which he was not able to verify by 
 comparison. These are Pooz, Terz, Goojerd, Aspuj, Kooh-e-Guevre, 
 Dehneh, Boogheen, Bassab, Radk. The position of Kuh Banan is 
 stated to lie between Bahabad (a place also mentioned by Yakut as pro¬ 
 ducing Tutia) and Ravee, but this does not help us, and for approximate 
 position we can only fall back on the note in Mr. Abbott’s field-book as 
 published in the J. R. G. S., viz. that the District lay in the mountains 
 E.S.E. from a caravanserai ten miles S.E. of Gudran. To get the seven 
 marches of Polo’s itinerary we must carry the Town of Kuh Banan as 
 far north as this indication can possibly admit, for Abbott made only five 
 and a half marches from the spot where this observation was made to 
 Kerman. Perhaps Polo’s route deviated for the sake of the fresh water. 
 That a district, such as Mr. Abbott’s Report speaks of, should lie un¬ 
 noticed, in a tract which our maps represent as part of the Great Desert, 
 shows how very defective our geography of Persia still is. 
 
 Note 2.— Tutty (i.e. Tutia) is in modern English an impure oxide of 
 zinc, collected from the flues where brass is made; and this appears to 
 be precisely what Polo describes, unless it be that in his account the 
 production of tutia from an ore of zinc is represented as the object and 
 not an accident of the process. What he says reads almost like a con¬ 
 densed translation of Galen’s account of Pompholyx and Spodos : “ Pom- 
 pholyx is produced in copper-smelting as Cadifiia is; and it is also 
 produced from Cadmia (carbonate of zinc) when put in the furnace, as 
 is done (for instance) in Cyprus. The master of the works there, 
 having no copper ready for smelting, ordered some pompholyx to be 
 prepared from cadmia in my presence. Small pieces of cadmia were 
 thrown into the fire in front of the copper-blast. The furnace-top was 
 covered, with no vent at the crown, and intercepted the soot of the 
 roasted cadmia. This, when collected, constitutes Pompholyx , whilst 
 that which falls on the hearth is called Spodos , a great deal of which is 
 got in copper-smelting.” Pompholyx, he adds, is an ingredient in salves 
 for eye-discharges and pustules (Galen, De Simpl. Medic, p. ix. in Latin 
 ed., Venice, 1576). Matthioli, after quoting this, says that Pompholyx 
 was commonly known in the laboratories by the Arabic name of Tutia. 
 I see that pure oxide of zinc is stated to form in modern practice a 
 valuable eye-ointment. Zinc is called in the Ain Akbari Ruh-i-Tutiya 
 “ Spirit of Tutty.” 
 
 Teixeira speaks of tutia as found only in Kerman, in a range of 
 mountains twelve parasangs from the capital. The ore got here was 
 kneaded with water, and set to bake in crucibles in a potter’s kiln. 
 When well baked the crucibles were lifted and emptied, and the tutia 
 
Chap. XXII. 
 
 THE ARBRE SEC. 
 
 1 19 
 
 carried in boxes to Hormuz for sale. This corresponds with a modern 
 account in Milburne, which says that the tutia imported to India from 
 the Gulf is made from an argillaceous ore of zinc which is moulded into 
 tubular cakes, and baked to a moderate hardness. The accurate Garcias 
 da Horto is wrong for once, in saying that the tutia of Kerman is no 
 mineral, but the ash of a certain tree called Goa?i. 
 
 (.Matth. on Dioscorides, Yen. 1565, p. 1338-40; Teixeira , Relation de 
 Persia , p. 121; Milburne's Or. Commerce , I. 139 ; Garcias , f. 21 v.; Eng. 
 Cyc ., art. Zinc ; Ain Akbari , Bl. 40, 41). 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Of a certain Desert that continues for eight days’ Journey. 
 
 When you depart from this City of Cobinan, you find 
 yourself again in a Desert of surpassing aridity which lasts 
 for some eight days; here are neither fruits nor trees to be 
 seen, and what water there is is bitter and bad, so that you 
 have to carry both food and water. The cattle must needs 
 drink the bad water, will they nill they, because of their 
 great thirst. At the end of those eight days you arrive at 
 a Province which is called Tonocain. It has a good many 
 towns and villages, and forms the extremity of Persia 
 towards the North . 1 It also contains an immense plain on 
 which is found the Arbre Sol, which we Christians call 
 the Arbre Sec ; and I will tell you what it is like. It is a 
 tall and thick tree, having the bark on one side green and 
 the other white ; and it produces a rough husk like that of 
 a chesnut, but without anything in it. The wood is yellow 
 like box, and very strong, and there are no other trees near it 
 nor within a hundred miles of it, except on one side where 
 you find trees within about ten miles’ distance. And there, 
 the people of the country tell you, was fought the battle 
 between Alexander and King Darius . 2 
 
 The towns and villages have great abundance of every¬ 
 thing good, for the climate is extremely temperate, being 
 
120 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 neither very hot nor very cold. The natives all worship 
 Mahommet, and are a very fine-looking people, especially 
 the women, who are surpassingly beautiful. 
 
 Note 1 . — All that region has been described as “a country divided 
 into deserts that are salt, and deserts that are not salt” ( Vigne, I. 16). 
 Tonocain, as we have seen (chap. xv. note 1 ), is the Eastern Kuhistan 
 of Persia, but extended by Polo, it would seem, to include the whole of 
 Khorasan. No city in particular is indicated as visited by the traveller, 
 but the view I take of the position of the Arbre Sec, as well as his route 
 through Koh-Banan, would lead me to suppose that he reached the Pro¬ 
 vince of Tun-o-Kain about Tabbas. 
 
 Note 2 .—This is another subject on which a long and somewhat 
 discursive note is inevitable. 
 
 One of the Bulletins of the Soc. de Geographic (ser. 3. tom. iii. 
 p. 187) contains a perfectly inconclusive endeavour by M. Roux de 
 Rochelle, to identify the Arbre Sec or Arbre Sol with a manna-bearing 
 oak alluded to by Q. Curtius as growing in Hyrcania. There can be 
 no doubt that the tree described is, as Marsden points out, a Chinar or 
 Oriental Plane. Mr. Ernst Meyer, in his learned Geschichte der Botanik 
 (Konigsberg, 1854-57, IV. 123), objects that Polo’s description of the 
 wood does not answer to that tree. But, with due allowance, compare 
 with his whole account that which Olearius gives of the Chinar, and say 
 if the same tree be not meant. “ The trees are as tall as the pine, and 
 have very large leaves, closely resembling those of the vine. The fruit 
 looks like a chesnut, but has no kernel, so it is not eatable. The wood 
 is of a very brown colour, and full of veins; the Persians employ it for 
 doors and window-shutters, and when these are rubbed with oil they are 
 incomparably handsomer than our walnut-wood joinery” (I. 526). The 
 Chinar-wood is used in Kashmir for gunstocks. 
 
 The whole tenor of the passage seems to imply that some eminent 
 individual Chinar is meant. The appellations given to it vary in the 
 different texts. In the G. Text it is styled in this passage “ The Arbre 
 Settle which the Christians call the Arbre Sec,'” whilst in ch. cci. of the 
 same (infra Book IV. chap, v.) it is called “ Id Arbre Sol, which in the 
 Book of Alexander is called LArbre Seche Pauthier has here “ B Arbre 
 Solque, que nous appelons IArbre Sec” and in the later passage 
 “B Arbre Seul, que le Livre Alexandre apelle Arbre Sec;” whilst 
 Ramusio has here “ BAlbero del Sole che si chiama per i Cristiani 
 BAlbor Secco ,” and does not contain the later passage. So also I think 
 all the old Latin and French printed texts, which are more or less based 
 on Pipino’s version, have “ The Tree of the Sun, which the Latins call 
 the Dry Tree.” 
 
 Pauthier, building as usual on the reading of his own text {Solque), 
 
Chap. XXII. 
 
 THE ARBRE SEC. 
 
 121 
 
 endeavours to show that this odd word represents Thoulk , the Arabic 
 name of a tree to which Forskal gave the title of Ficus Vasta, and this 
 Ficus Yasta he will have to be the same as the Chinar. Ficus Vasta 
 would be a strange name surely to give to a Plane-tree, but Forskal may 
 be acquitted of such an eccentricity. The Tholak (for that seems to be 
 the proper vocalization) is a tree of Arabia Felix, very different from 
 the Chinar, for it is the well-known Indian Banyan, or a closely-allied 
 species, as may be seen in Forskal’s description. The latter indeed 
 says that the Arab botanists called it Delb, and that (or Dulb) is really a 
 synonyme for the Chinar. But De Sacy has already commented upon 
 this supposed application of the name Delb to the Tholak as almost 
 certainly an error (see Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica, p. cxxiv and 179; 
 Abdallatif Rel. de lEgypte , p. 80; J. R. G. S. VIII. 275 ; Ritter, VI. 
 662, 679). 
 
 The fact is that the Solque of Pauthier’s text is a mere copyist’s error 
 in the reduplication of the pronoun que. In his chief MS. which he 
 cites as A (No. 10,260 of Bibl. Imperiale, now Fr. 5631) we can even 
 see how this might easily happen, for one line ends with Solque and the 
 next begins with que. The true reading is I doubt not that which this 
 MS. points to, and which the G. Text gives us in the second passage 
 quoted above, viz., Arbre Sol, occurring in Ramusio as Albero del Sole. 
 To make this easier of acceptation I must premise two remarks : first, 
 that Sol is “the Sun” in both Venetian and Provenqal; and, secondly, 
 that in the French of that age the prepositional sign is not necessary to 
 the genitive. Thus, in Pauthier’s own text we find in one of the pas¬ 
 sages quoted above, “ Le Livre Alexandre elsewhere, “ Cazan le fils 
 Argon? “ a la mere sa femme? “Le corps Monseigneur Saint Thomas si 
 est en ceste Province in Joinville, “ le commandemant Mahommet? 
 “ ceux de la Haulequa estoient logiez entour les heberges le soudanc , et 
 establiz pour le cors le soudanc garden /” in Baudouin de Sebourg, “ De 
 l'amour Bauduin esprise et enflambeed 
 
 Moreover it is the Tree of the Sun that is prominent in the 
 legendary History of Alexander, a fact sufficient in itself to rule the 
 reading. A character in an old English play says :— 
 
 “ Peregrine. Drake was a didapper to Mandevill: 
 
 Candish and Hawkins, Frobisher, all our Voyagers 
 Went short of Mandevil. But had he reached 
 To this place—here—yes, here—this wilderness, 
 
 And seen the Trees of the Sun and Moon , that speak 
 And told King Alexander of his death ; 
 
 He then 
 
 Had left a passage ope to Travellers 
 
 That now is kept and guarded by Wild Beasts.” 
 
 — Broome’s Antipodes , in Lambe’s Specimens. 
 
 The same trees are alluded to in an ancient Low German Poem in 
 honour of St. Anno of Cologne. Speaking of the Four Beasts of Daniel’s 
 Vision: — 
 
122 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 “ Daz dritte Dier was ein Lebarte 
 Vier arin* Vederich her havite ; 
 
 Der beceichnote den Criechiskin Alexanderin, 
 
 Der mit vier Herin vur aftir Landin, 
 
 Unz her die Werilt einde, 
 
 Bi guldinin Siulin bikante. 
 
 In India her die Wusti durchbrach, 
 
 Mit zwein Boumin her sick da gesprach ,” &c. 
 
 —In Schilteri Thesaurus Antiq. Teuton, tom. i. 
 
 These oracular Trees of the Sun and Moon, somewhere on the con¬ 
 fines of India, appear in all the fabulous histories of Alexander from the 
 Pseudo-Callisthenes downwards. Thus Alexander is made to tell the 
 story: “Then came some of the townspeople and said, ‘We have to 
 show thee something passing strange, O King, and worth thy visiting; 
 for we can show thee trees that talk with human speech.’ So they led 
 me to a certain park, in the midst of which were the Sun and Moon, 
 and round about them a guard of priests of the Sun and Moon. And 
 there stood the two trees of which they had spoken, like unto cypress 
 trees; and round about them were trees like the myrobolans of Egypt, 
 and with similar fruit. And I addressed the two trees that were in the 
 midst of the park, the one which was male in the Masculine gender, and 
 the one that was female in the Feminine gender. And the name of 
 the Male Tree was the Sun, and of the Female Tree the Moon, names 
 which were in that language Muthu and Emaiisae. And the stems were 
 clothed with the skins of animals; the male tree with the skins of he- 
 beasts, and the female tree with the skins of she-beasts. . . And at the 
 setting of the Sun, a voice, speaking in the Indian tongue, came forth 
 from the (Sun) Tree; and I ordered the Indians who were with me to 
 interpretit. But they were afraid and would not,” &c. ( Pseudo-Callisth . 
 
 ed. Muller, III. 17.) 
 
 The story as related by Firdusi keeps very near to the Greek as just 
 quoted, but does not use the term Tree of the Sun. The chapter of the 
 Shah Nameh containing it is entitled Didan Sikandar dirakht-i-goyara , 
 “ Alexander’s interview with the Speaking Tree.” ( Livre des Rois , V. 
 229.) 
 
 In the Chanson d'Alixandre of Lambert le Court and Alex. Bernay, 
 these trees are introduced as follows :— 
 
 “ ‘ Signor,’ fait Alixandre, ‘ je vus voel demander, 
 
 Se des merveilles d’Inde me saves rien conter.’ 
 
 Cil li ont respondu : 1 Se tu vius escouter 
 Ja te dirons merveilles, s’es poras esprover. 
 
 La sus en ces desers pues ii Arbres trover 
 Qui c pies ont de haut, et de grossor sunt per. 
 
 Li Solaus et La Lune les ont fait si serer 
 
 Que sevent tous langages et entendre et parler.’ ” 
 
 — Ed. 1861, Dinan, p. 357. 
 
 “ Aquilinas.” 
 
Chap. XXII. 
 
 THE ARBRE SEC. 
 
 2 3 
 
 Maundevile informs us precisely where these trees are : “a 15 
 journeys in lengthe, goynge be the Deserts of the tother side of the 
 Ryvere Beumare,” if one could only tell where that is ! A medieval 
 chronicler also tells us that Ogerus the Dane ( temp. Caroli Magni) con¬ 
 quered all the parts beyond sea from Hierusalem to the Trees of the 
 Sun. In the old Italian romance also of Guerino detto il Meschi/10, still 
 a chap-book in S. Italy, the Hero (chap, lxiii.) visits the Trees of the 
 Sun and Moon. But this is mere imitation of the Alexandrian story, 
 and has nothing of interest. ( Maundevile , p. 297-8; Fasciculus Tem- 
 porum in Germ. Script. Pistorii Nidani , II.) 
 
 It will be observed that the letter ascribed to Alexander describes 
 the two oracular trees as resembling two cypress-trees. As such the 
 Trees of the Sun and Moon are represented on several extant ancient 
 medals, e.g. on two struck at Perga in Pamphylia in the time of Aurelian. 
 And Eastern story tells us of two vast cypress-trees, sacred among the 
 Magians, which grew in Khorasan, one at Kashmar near Turshiz, and 
 the other at Farmad near Tuz, and which were said to have risen from 
 shoots that Zoroaster brought from Paradise. The former of these was 
 sacrilegiously cut down by the order of the Khalif Motawakkil, in the 
 9th century. The trunk was dispatched to Baghdad on rollers at a vast 
 expense, whilst the branches alone formed a load for 1300 camels. The 
 night that the convoy reached within one stage of the palace the Khalif 
 was cut in pieces by his own guards. This tree was said to be 1450 
 years old, and to measure 33 1 cubits in girth. The locality of this 
 “Arbor Sol” we see was in Khorasan, and possibly its fame may have 
 been transferred to a representative of another species. The plane as 
 well as the cypress was one of the distinctive trees of the Magian 
 Paradise. 
 
 In the Peutingerian Tables we find in the N.E. of Asia the rubric 
 “ Hie Alexander Responsum accepit ,” which looks very like an allusion to 
 the tale of the Oracular Trees. If so it is remarkable as a suggestion 
 of the antiquity of the Alexandrian Legends, though the rubric may of 
 course be an interpolation. The Trees of the Sun and Moon appear as 
 located in India Ultima to the East of Persia, in a map which is found in 
 MSS. (12 th century) of the Floridus of Lambertus; and they are indi¬ 
 cated more or less precisely in several maps of the succeeding centuries. 
 (Ousele/s Travels , I. 387 ; Dabistan, I. 307-8 ; Santarem , H. de la 
 Cosmog. II. 189, III. 506-513, &c.) 
 
 Marco has mixt up this legend of the Alexandrian Romance, on the 
 authority, as we shall see reason to believe, of some of the recompilers 
 of that Romance, with a famous subject of Christiaii Legend in that age, 
 the Arbre Sec or Dry Tree, one form of which is related by Maundevile 
 and by Johan Schiltberger. “A lytille fro Ebron,” says the former, “is 
 the Mount of Mambre, of the whyche the Valeye taketh his Name. And 
 there is a Tree of Oke that the Saracens clepen Dirpe , that is of 
 Abraham’s Tyme, the which men clepen the Drye Tree ” [Schilt- 
 
124 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 berger adds that the heathen call it Kurru Thereck , i.e. (Turkish) Kiiru 
 Dirakht= Dry Tree]. “And theye seye that it hathe ben there sithe 
 the beginnynge of the World; and was sumtyme grene and bare Leves, 
 unto the Tyme that Oure Lord dyede on the Cros; and thanne it 
 dryede; and so dyden alle the Trees that weren thanne in the World. 
 And summe seyn be hire Prophecyes that a Lord, a Prynce of the West 
 syde of the World, shalle wynnen the Lond of Promyssioun, i.e. the Holy 
 Lond, withe Helpe of Cristene Men, and he schalle do synge a Masse 
 under that Drye Tree, and than the Tree shall wexen grene and bere 
 both Fruyt and Leves. And thorghe that Myracle manye Sarazines 
 and Jewes schulle ben turned to Cristene Feithe. And, therfore, they 
 dou gret Worschipe thereto, and kepen it fulle besyly. And alle be it 
 so that it be drye, natheless yit he berethe great vertue,” &c. 
 
 The tradition seems to have altered with circumstances, for a traveller 
 of nearly two centuries later (Friar Anselmo, 1509) describes the oak of 
 Abraham at Hebron as a tree of dense and verdant foliage: “The 
 Saracens make their devotions at it, and hold it in great veneration, for 
 it has remained thus green from the days of Abraham until now; and 
 they tie scraps of cloth on its branches inscribed with some of their 
 writing, and believe that if any one were to cut a piece off that tree he 
 would die within the year.” Indeed even before Maundevile’s time 
 Friar Burchard (1283) had noticed that though the famous old tree 
 was dry, another had sprung from its roots. And it still has a repre¬ 
 sentative. 
 
 As long ago as the time of Constantine a fair was held under the 
 Terebinth of Mamre, which was the object of many superstitious rites 
 and excesses. The Emperor ordered these to be put a stop to, and a 
 church to be erected at the spot. In the time of Arculph (end of 7th 
 century) the dry trunk still existed under the roof of this church. 
 
 It is evident that the story of the Dry Tree had got a great vogue 
 in the 13th century. In the Jus du Pelerin , a French drama of Polo’s 
 age, the Pilgrim says :— 
 
 * ‘ J’ai puis en maint bon lieu et a maint saint este, 
 
 J’ai este au Sec Arbre et dusqu’au Dareste.” 
 
 And in another play of slightly earlier date (Le Jus de St. Nicolas ), the 
 King of Africa, invaded by the Christians, summons all his allies and 
 feudatories, among whom appear the Admirals of Coine ( Iconium ) and 
 Orkenie ( Hyrcania ), and the Amiral doutre le Sec Arbre (as it were of 
 “ the Back of Beyond ”) in whose country the only current coin is mill¬ 
 stones ! Friar Odoric tells us that he heard at Tabriz that the Arbor 
 Secco existed in a mosque of that city; and Clavijo relates a confused 
 story about it in the same locality. Of the Diirre Baum at Tauris there 
 is also a somewhat pointless legend in a Cologne MS. of the 14th 
 century, professing to give an account of the East. There are also 
 some curious verses concerning a mystical Diirre Bom quoted by Fabri- 
 
Chap. XXII. 
 
 THE ARBRE SEC. 
 
 25 
 
 cius from an old Low German Poem; and we may just allude to that 
 other mystic Arbor Secco of Dante— 
 
 -- “ una pianta dispogliata 
 
 Di fiori e d’altra fronda in ciascun ramo,” 
 
 though the dark symbolism in the latter case seems to have a different 
 bearing. 
 
 {Maundevile, p. 68; Schiltberger, p. 113 : Anselm, in Canisii The¬ 
 saurus, IV. 781 ; Per eg. Quat. p. 81; Niceph. Callist. VIII. 30; Theatre 
 Fran^ais au Moyen Age, p. 97, 173; Cathay, p. 48; Clavijo, p. 90; 
 Orient u?id Occident, Gottingen, 1867, vol. i.; Fabricii, Vet. Test. Pseud., 
 &c., I. 1133; Dante, Pur gat. xxxii. 35.) 
 
 But why does Polo bring this Arbre Sec into connexion with the Sun 
 Tree of the Alexandrian Legend? I cannot answer this to my own 
 entire satisfaction, but I can show that such a connexion had been 
 imagined in his time. 
 
 M. Paulin-Paris, in a notice of MS. No. 6985 ( Fonds Ancien) of the 
 Imperial Library, containing a version of the Chansons de Geste d'Alix- 
 andre, based upon the work of L. Le Court and Alex. Bernay, but with 
 additions of later date, notices amongst these latter the visit of Alexander 
 to the Valley Perilous, where he sees a variety of wonders, among others 
 the Arbre des Pucelles. Another tree at a great distance from the last 
 is called the Arbre Sec, and reveals to Alexander the secret of the fate 
 which attends him in Babylon (Les MSS. Fran<;ais de la Bibl. du Roi, 
 III. 105).* Again the English version of King Alisaundre , published 
 in Weber’s Collection, shows clearly enough that in its French original 
 the term Arbre Sec was applied to the Oracular Trees, though the word 
 has been miswritten, and misunderstood by Weber. The King, as in 
 the Greek and French passages already quoted, meeting two old churls, 
 asks if they know of any marvel in those parts :— 
 
 “ ‘Ye, par ma fay,’ quoth heo, 
 
 ‘ A great merveille we wol telle the ; 
 
 That is hennes in even way 
 The mountas of ten daies journey,- 
 Thou shalt finde trowes f two : 
 
 Seyntes and holy they buth bo ; 
 
 Higher than in othir countray all. 
 
 Arbeset men heom callith.’ 
 
 ***** 
 
 ‘ Sire Kyng,’ quod on, ‘by myn eyghe 
 Either Trough is an hundrod feet hygh, 
 
 * It is right to notice that there may be some error in the reference of M. Paulin- 
 Paris ; at least I could not trace the Arbre Sec in the MS. which he cites, nor in the 
 celebrated Bodleian Alexander,which appears to contain the same version of the story, 
 f Trees. 
 
126 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 They stondith up into the skye ; 
 
 That on to the Sonne, sikirlye ; 
 
 That othir, we tellith the nowe, 
 
 Is sakret in the Mone vertue.’ ” 
 
 — Weber, I. 277. 
 
 Weber’s glossary gives u Arbeset = Strawberry Tree, arbous , arbousier , 
 arbutus /” but that is nonsense. 
 
 Further, in the French Prose Romance of Alexander, which is con¬ 
 tained in the fine volume in the British Museum known as the Shrews-, 
 bury Book (Reg. XV. e. 6), though we do not find the Arbre Sec so 
 named, we find it described and pictorially represented. The Romance 
 (fob xiiii. v.) describes Alexander and his chief companions as ascending 
 a certain mountain by 2500 steps which were attached to a golden chain. 
 At the top they find the golden Temple of the Sun and an old man 
 asleep within. It goes on :— 
 
 44 Quant le viellart les vit si leur demanda s’ils vouloient veoir les 
 Arbres sacrez de la Lune et du Soleil que nous annuncent les choses 
 qui sont a avenir. Quant Alexandre ouy ce si fut rempli de mult grant 
 ioye. Si lui respondirent, 4 Ouye sur, nous les voulons veoir.’ Et cil lui 
 dist, 4 Se tu es nez de prince malle et de femelle il te convient entrer en 
 celui lieu.’ Et Alexandre lui respondi, 4 Nous somes nez de compagne 
 malle et de femelle.’ Dont se leve le viellart du lit ou il gesoit, et leur 
 dist, 4 Hostez vos vestemens et vos chauces.’ Et Tholomeus et Anti- 
 gonus et Perdiacas le suivrent. Lors comencerent k aler parmy la 
 forest qui estoit enclose en merveilleux labour. Illec trouverent les 
 arbres semblables a loriers et oliviers. Et estoient de cent pies de 
 haults, et decouroit d’eulz incens ypobaume* a grant quantite. Apres 
 entrerent plus avant en la forest, et trouverent une arbre durement hault 
 qui riavoit tie fueille ne fruit . Si seoit sur cet arbre une grant oysel qui 
 avoit en son chief une creste qui estoit semblable au paon, et les plumes 
 du col resplendissants come fin or. Et avoit la couleur de rose. Dont 
 lui dist le viellart, 4 Cet oysel dontvous vous merveillez est appeles Fenis, 
 lequel na nul pared en tout le monde.’ Dont passerent outre, et 
 allerent aux Arbres du Soleil et de la Lune. Et quant ils y furent 
 venus, si leur dist le viellart, 4 Regardez en haut, et pensez en votre 
 coeur ce que vous vouldrez demander, et ne le dites de la bouche. 
 Alisandre luy demanda en quel language donnent les Arbres response 
 aux gens. Et il lui respondit, 4 L’Arbre du Soleil commence a parler 
 Indien.’ Dont baisa Alexandre les arbres, et comenga en son ceur a 
 penser s’il conquesteroit tout le monde et retourneroit en Macedonie 
 atout son ost. Dont lui respondit l’Arbre du Soleil, 4 Alexandre tu 
 seras Roy de tout le monde, mais Macedonie tu ne verras jamais,’ ” &c. 
 
 The appearance of the Arbre Sec in Maps of the 15th century, 
 such as those of Andrea Bianco (1436) and Fra Mauro (1459), may 
 
 Opobalsamum. 
 
Chap. XXII. 
 
 THE ARBRE SEC. 
 
 127 
 
 be ascribed to the influence of Polo’s own work; but a more genuine 
 evidence of the prevalence of the legend is found in the celebrated 
 Hereford Map constructed in the 13th century by Richard de Halding- 
 ham. This, in the vicinity of India and the Terrestrial Paradise, exhibits 
 a Tree with the rubric “ Albor Balsami est Arbor Sicca” 
 
 The legends of the Dry Tree were probably spun out of the words 
 of the Vulgate in Ezekiel xvii. 24 : “ Humiliavi lignum sublime et exaltavi 
 lignum humile; etsiccavi lignum viride et frondescere feci lignum aridum.” 
 
 eommmtie* ar bze& lu f0 feiX ct afutt£ pzopl 
 
 ttfermt jfa mcxt adp atioze. 
 
 Whether the Rue de VArbre Sec in Paris derives its name from the legend 
 I know not. 
 
 The actual tree to which Polo refers in the text was probably one 
 of those so frequent in Persia, to which age, position, or accident has 
 attached a character of sanctity, and which are styled Dirakht-i-Fazl, 
 Trees of Excellence or Grace, and often receive titles appropriate to 
 Holy Persons. Vows are made before them, and pieces torn from the 
 clothes of the votaries are hung upon the branches or nailed to the 
 trunks. To a Tree of such a character, imposing in decay, Lucan 
 compares Pompey :— 
 
128 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 “ Stat magni nominis umbra. 
 
 Qualis frugifero quercus sublimis in agro, 
 
 Exuvias veteres populi sacrataqne gestans 
 Dona ducum ***** 
 
 - Quamvis primo nutet casura sub Euro, 
 
 Tot circum silvae firmo se robore tollant, 
 
 Sola tamen colitur.” — Pharsalia, I. 135. 
 
 The Tree of Mamre was evidently precisely one of this class ; and those 
 who have crossed the Suez Desert before railway days will remember 
 such a Dirakht-i-Fazl , an aged mimosa, a Veritable Arbre Seul (could 
 we accept that reading) that stood just halfway across the Desert, 
 streaming with the exuviae veteres of Mecca Pilgrims. The majority 
 of such holy trees in Persia appear to be Plane-trees. Admiration for 
 the beauty of this tree seems to have occasionally risen into superstitious 
 veneration from a very old date. Herodotus tells how Xerxes on his 
 march to Greece decorated a beautiful Chinar with golden ornaments. 
 Pliny rises to enthusiasm in speaking of some noble individuals of the 
 species in Lycia and elsewhere. Chardin describes one grand and 
 sacred specimen, called King Hosain’s Chinar, and said to be more 
 than 1000 years old, in a suburb of Ispahan, and another hung with 
 amulets, rags, and tapers in a garden at Shiraz.* One sacred tree 
 mentioned by the Persian geographer Hamdallah as distinguishing the 
 grave of a holy man at Bostam in Khorasan (the species is not named, 
 at least by Ouseley from whom I borrow this) comes into striking 
 relation with the passage in our text. The story went that it had been 
 the staff of Mahomed; as such it had been transmitted through many 
 generations, until it was finally deposited in the grave of Abu Abdallah 
 Dasitani, where it struck root and put forth branches. And it is ex¬ 
 plicitly called Dirakht-i-Khushk , i.e. literally LARBRE SEC. 
 
 This last legend belongs to a large class. The staff of Adam, which 
 was created in the twilight of the approaching Sabbath, was bestowed 
 on him in Paradise and handed down successively to Enoch and the 
 line of Patriarchs. After the death of Joseph it was set in Jethro’s 
 garden, and there grew untouched till Moses came and got his rod from 
 it. In another form of the legend it is Seth who gets a. branch of the 
 Tree of Life, and from this Moses afterwards obtains his rod of power. 
 These Rabbinical stories seem afterwards to have been developed into 
 the Christian legends of the wood destined to form the Cross, such as 
 they are told in the Golden Legend or by Godfrey of Viterbo, and 
 elaborated in Calderon’s Sibila del Oriente. Indeed, as a valued friend 
 who has consulted the latter for me suggests, probably all the Arbre 
 Sec Legends of Christendom bore mystic reference to the Cross. In 
 
 * A recent traveller in China gives a perfectly similar description of sacred trees 
 in Shansi. Many bore inscriptions in large letters, “ If you pray, you will certainly be 
 heard.”— Rev. A. Williamson , in J. R. C. Br. of R. A. S. 1866 : p. 61. 
 
Chap. XXII. THE ARBRE SEC. 129 
 
 Calderon’s play the Holy Rood, seen in vision, is described as a 
 Tree:— 
 
 “ cuyas hojas, 
 
 Secas mustias y marchitas, 
 
 Desnudo el tronco dejaban, 
 
 Que, entre mil copas floridas 
 De los arboles, el solo 
 Sin pompa y sin bizaria 
 Era cadaver del prado.” 
 
 There are several Dry Tree stories among the wonders of Buddhism; 
 one is that of a sacred tree visited by the Chinese pilgrims to India, 
 which had grown from the twig which Sakya in Hindu fashion had used 
 as a tooth-brush; and I think there is a like story in our own country 
 of the Glastonbury Thorn having grown from the staff of Joseph of 
 Arimathea. 
 
 (Santarem , III. 380, II. 348 ; Ouseley, I. 359 seqq. and 391 ; Hero¬ 
 dotus, VII. 31 ; Pliny , XII. 5 ; Chardin, VII. 410, VIII. 44 and 426 ; 
 Fabricius, Vet. Test. Pseud. I. 80 seqq.; Cathay, p. 365 ; Beads Fah- 
 Hian, 72 and 78 ; Pelerins Bouddhistes, II. 292 ; Della Valle, II. 276-7.) 
 
 He who injured the holy tree of Bostam, we are told, perished the 
 same day; a general belief in regard to those Trees of Grace of which 
 we have already seen instances in regard to the sacred trees of Zoro¬ 
 aster and the Oak of Hebron. We find the same belief in Eastern 
 Africa, where certain trees, regarded by the natives with superstitious 
 reverence,’ which they express by driving in votive nails and suspending 
 rags, are known to the European residents by the vulgar name of Devil 
 Trees. Burton relates a case of the verification of the superstition in 
 the death of an English merchant who had cut down such a tree, and 
 of four members of his household. It is the old story which Ovid tells, 
 and the tree which Erisichthon felled was a Dirakht-i-Fazl :■— 
 
 “ Vittae mediam, memoresque tabellae 
 Sertaque cingebant voti argumenta potentis.” 
 
 — Metamorph. VIII. II. 
 
 Though the coincidence with our text of Hamdallah’s Dry Tree is 
 very striking, I am not prepared to lay stress on it as an argument for 
 the geographical determination of Marco’s Arbre Sec. His use of the 
 title more than once to characterize the whole frontier of Khorasan 
 can hardly have been a mere whim of his own : and possibly some 
 explanation of that circumstance will yet be elicited from the Persian 
 historians or geographers of the Mongol era. 
 
 Meanwhile it is in the vicinity of Bostam or Damghan that I should 
 incline to place this landmark. If no one very cogent reason points 
 to this, a variety of minor ones do so ; such as the direction of the 
 traveller’s journey from Kerman through Koh Banan; the apparent 
 vicinity of a great Ismaelite fortress, as will be noticed in the next 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 chapter ; the connexion twice indicated (see Prologue , ch. xviii. note 6, 
 and Book IV. ch. v.) of the Arbre Sec with the head-quarters of Ghazan 
 Khan in watching the great passes, of which the principal ones debouche 
 at Bostam, at which place also buildings erected by Ghazan still exist; 
 and the statement that the decisive battle between Alexander and 
 Darius was placed there by local tradition. For though no such battle 
 took place in that region, we know that Darius was murdered near 
 Hecatompylos. Some place this city west of Bostam, near Damghan ; 
 others east of it, about Jah Jerm; Ferrier has strongly argued for the 
 vicinity of Bostam itself. Firdusi indeed places the final battle on the 
 confines of Kerman, and the death of Darius within that province. But 
 this could not have been the tradition Polo met with. 
 
 I may add that the temperate climate of Bostam is noticed in words 
 almost identical with Polo’s by both Fraser and Ferrier. 
 
 The Chinar abounds in Khorasan (as far as any tree can be said to 
 abound in Persia), and even in the Oases of Tun-o-Kain wherever there 
 is water. A traveller quoted by Ritter notices Chinars of great size and 
 age at Shahrud, near Bostam. Other remarkable specimens are men¬ 
 tioned at Meyomid, and at Mehr, west of Sabzawar, which last are said 
 to date from the time of Naoshirwan (7th century). There is a town to 
 the N.W. of Meshid called Chinaran, “The Planes.” 
 
 The following note by De Sacy regarding the Chinar has already 
 been quoted by Marsden, and though it may be doubtful whether the 
 term Arbre Sec had any relation to the idea expressed, it seems to 
 me too interesting to be omitted : “ Its sterility seems to have become 
 proverbial among certain people of the East. For in a collection of 
 sundry moral sentences pertaining to the Sabaeans or Christians of 
 St. John .... we find the following: ‘The vain-glorious man is like 
 a showy Plane Tree, rich in boughs but producing nothing, and afford¬ 
 ing no fruit to its owner.’ ” And I add from Khanikoff another passage, 
 though put forward in special illustration of what I believe to be a 
 mistaken reading {Arbre Seul) : “Where the Chinar is of spontaneous 
 growth, or occupies the centre of a vast and naked plain, this tree is 
 even in our own day invested with a quite exceptional veneration, and 
 the locality often comes to be called ‘ The Place of the Solitary Tree.’ ” 
 (J P. G. S. XXIX. 345; Ferrier , 69-76; Fraser , 343; Ritter , VIII. 
 332, XL 512 seqq.; De Sacfs Abdallatif p. 81; Khanikoff, Not. 
 P- 3 8 -) 
 
Chap. XXII. 
 
 THE ARBRE SEC. 
 
 131 
 
 K 2 - 
 
 Chinar or Oriental Plane. 
 
132 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Concerning the Old Man of the Mountain. 
 
 Mulehet is a country in which the Old Man of the 
 Mountain dwelt in former days; and the name means 
 “ Place of the Aram .” I will tell you his whole history as 
 related by Messer Marco Polo, who heard it from several 
 natives of that region . 1 
 
 The Old Man was called in their language Aloadin. 
 He had caused a.certain valley between two mountains to 
 be enclosed, and had turned it into a garden, the largest 
 and most beautiful that ever was seen, filled with every 
 variety of fruit. In it were erected pavilions and palaces 
 the most elegant that can be imagined, all covered with 
 gilding and exquisite painting. And there were runnels 
 too, flowing freely with wine and milk and honey and 
 water ; and numbers of ladies, and of the most beautiful 
 damsels in the world, who could play on all manner of 
 instruments, and sung most sweetly, and danced in a 
 manner that it was charming to behold. For the Old Man 
 desired to make his people believe that this was actually 
 Paradise. So he had fashioned it after the description that 
 Mahommet gave of his Paradise, to wit, that it should be 
 a beautiful garden running with conduits of wine and milk 
 and honey and water, and full of lovely women for the 
 delectation of all its inmates. And sure enough the Saracens 
 of those parts believed that it was Paradise ! 
 
 Now no man was allowed to enter the Garden save 
 those whom he intended to be his Ashishin. There was 
 a Fortress at the entrance to the Garden, strong enough 
 to resist all the world, and there was no other way to get 
 in. He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the 
 country, from 12 to 20 years of age, such as had a taste 
 for soldiering, and to these he used to tell tales about 
 Paradise, just as Mahommet had been wont to do, and they 
 
Chap. XXIII. THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 133 
 
 believed in him just as the Saracens believe in Mahommet. 
 Then he would introduce them into his garden, some four, 
 or six, or ten at a time, having first made them drink a 
 certain potion which cast them into a deep sleep, and then 
 causing them to be lifted and carried in. So when they 
 awoke, they found themselves in the Garden . 2 
 
 Note 1. — Marco in this chapter speaks of the Dynasty of the 
 Ismaelites, a heretical secession from Islam, the chiefs of which were 
 established in the mountainous districts of Northern Persia for about 
 170 years; and before their extinction by the Mongols had spread their 
 dominion over the Eastern Kohistan, at least as far as Kafn. Their 
 head-quarters were at Alamut (“ Eagle’s Nest”), about 32 miles north¬ 
 east of Kazwin, and all over the territory which they held they esta¬ 
 blished fortresses of great strength. De Sacy seems to have proved 
 that they were called Hashishiya or Hashishin, from their use of the 
 preparation of hemp called Hashish ; and thence through their system 
 of murder and terrorism came the modern application of the word 
 Assassin. I have adopted in the text one of the readings of the G. 
 Text Asciscin , as expressing the original word with the greatest accuracy 
 that Italian spelling admits. In another author we find it as Chazisii 
 (see Bollaiidists , May, vol. ii. p. xi); Joinville calls them Assads; whilst 
 Nangis and others corrupt the name into Harsaddae , and what not. 
 
 The explanation of the name Mulehet as it is in Ramusio, or 
 Mulcete as it is in the G. Text (the last expressing in Rusticiano’s Pisan 
 tongue the strongly aspirated Mulhete ), is given by the former : “ This 
 name of Mulehet is as much as to say in the Saracen tongue ‘ The Abode 
 of Heretics ,’ ” the fact being that it does represent the Arabic term 
 Mulhid , pi. Muldhidah , “ Impii, heretici,” which is in the Persian histories 
 (as of Rashiduddin and Wassaf) the title most commonly used to indi¬ 
 cate this community. The curious reading of the G. Text which we 
 have preserved “ vaut a dire Des Aram,” should be read as we have 
 rendered it. I conceive that Marco was here unconsciously using one 
 Oriental term to explain another, and that Aram stands for Harami , 
 pi. Haramiya, “ Impii, scelerati,” where Freytag adds the example 
 Din-ul-Haramiya , “ Impiorum religio,” seeming to point its application 
 to heretics and the like. 
 
 In Pauthier’s Text, instead of Desaram , we find “ veult dire en fran- 
 fois Diex Terrien,” or Terrestrial God. This may have been substituted 
 by a transcriber for des Aram , because he naturally could make nothing 
 of the latter, and perhaps because he found the Diex Terrien in another 
 part of the book as descriptive of a Tartar idol (see ch. liii.). But the 
 error is of very early date. For in the romance of Bauduin de Sebourg, 
 which I believe dates early in the 14th century, the Caliph, on witness- 
 
34 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 ing the extraordinary devotion of the followers of the Old Man (see 
 note 1, ch. xxiv.), exclaims : 
 
 “ Par Mahon. 
 
 Yous estes Diex en terre, autre coze n’i a ! ”■—J. p. 360. 
 
 So also Fr. Jacopo d’Aqui in the Imago Mundi , says of the Assassins : 
 “ Dicitur iis quod sunt in Paradiso magno Dei Terreni Expressions, 
 no doubt, taken in both cases from Polo’s book. 
 
 Khanikoff, and before him J. R. Forster, have supposed that the 
 name Mulehet represents Alamiit. But the resemblance is much closer 
 and more satisfactory to Mulhid or Muldhidah. Mulhet is precisely the 
 name by which the kingdom of the Ismaelites is mentioned in Armenian 
 history, and Mulihet is already applied in the same way by Rabbi 
 Benjamin in the 12th century, and by Rubruquis in the 13th. The 
 Chinese narrative of Hulaku’s expedition calls it the kingdom of Mulahi . 
 (J'. As. ser. 2, tom. xii. 285 ; Benj. Tudela , p. 106; Rub. p. 265 ; 
 Remus at, Nouv. Melanges , I. 176; Gaubil , p. 128; Pauthier , pp. 
 cxxxix-cxli; Mon. Hist. Patr. Scriptorum , III. 1559, Turin, 1848.) 
 
 “ Old Man of the Mountain ” was the title applied by the Crusaders 
 to the chief of that branch of the sect which was settled in the moun ¬ 
 tains north of Lebanon, being a translation of his popular Arabic title 
 Shaikh-ul-Jibal. Whether the latter was really applied to the Prince of 
 Alamut, I have not ascertained; but it is probable, as his territory was 
 known as the Balad-ul-Jibal. (. Abulf. in Biiselling, V. 319.) 
 
 Note 2. —Boccaccio had perhaps read Marco. In the Decameron 
 Day III. Nov. 8, we find a profligate abbot administering to an incon¬ 
 venient personage “ a powder of marvellous efficacy, which in the East 
 he had got from a great Prince, who declared it to be the same that the 
 Old Man of the Mountain used to employ when he wished to transport 
 any one in sleep into or out of his Paradise.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 How the Old Man used to train his Assassins. 
 
 When therefore they awoke, and found themselves in a 
 place so charming, they deemed that it was Paradise in very 
 truth. And the ladies and damsels dallied with them to 
 their heart’s content, so that they had what young men 
 would have ; and with their own good will they never would 
 have quitted the place. 
 
Chap. XXIV. 
 
 THE OLD MAN’S ASSASSINS. 
 
 35 
 
 Now this Prince whom we call the Old One kept his 
 Court in grand and noble style, and made those simple 
 hill-folks about him believe firmly that he was a great Pro¬ 
 phet. And when he wanted one of his Ashishin to send 
 on any mission, he would cause that potion whereof I 
 spoke to be given to one of the youths in the garden, and 
 then had him carried into his Palace. So when the young 
 man awoke, he found himself in the Castle, and no longer 
 in that Paradise ; whereat he was not over well pleased. 
 He was then conducted to the Old Man’s presence, and 
 bowed before him with great veneration as believing him¬ 
 self to be in the presence of a true Prophet. The Prince 
 would then ask whence he came, and he would reply that 
 he came from Paradise! and that it was exactly such as 
 Mahommet had described it in the Law. This of course 
 gave the others who stood by, and who had not been ad¬ 
 mitted, the greatest desire to enter therein. 
 
 So when the Old Man would have any Prince slain, he 
 would say to such a youth : “ Go thou and slay So and 
 So ; and when thou returnest my Angels shall bear thee 
 into Paradise. And shouldst thou die, natheless even so 
 will I send my Angels to carry thee back into Paradise.” 
 So he caused them to believe; and thus there was no order 
 of his that they would not affront any peril to execute, for 
 the great desire they had to get back into that Paradise of 
 his. And in this manner the Old One got his people to 
 murder any one whom he desired to get rid of. Thus, too, 
 the great dread that he inspired all Princes withal, made 
 them become his tributaries in order that he might abide 
 at peace and amity with them . 1 
 
 I should also tell you that the Old Man had certain 
 others under him, who copied his proceedings and acted 
 exactly in the same manner. One of these was sent into 
 the Territory of Damascus, and the other into Curdistan. 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 136 
 
 Note 1 . —Romantic as this story is, it seems to be precisely the 
 same that was current over all the East. It is given by Odoric at 
 length, more briefly by a Chinese author, and again from an Arabic 
 source by Hammer in the Mines de /’ Orient. 
 
 The following is the Chinese account as rendered by Remusat: 
 
 “ The soldiers of this country (Mulahi) are veritable brigands. When 
 they see a lusty youth, they tempt him with the hope of gain, and bring 
 him to such a point that he will be ready to kill his father or his elder 
 brother with his own hand. After he is enlisted, they intoxicate him, 
 and carry him in that state into a secluded retreat, where he is charmed 
 with delicious music and beautiful women. All his desires are satisfied 
 for several days, and then (in sleep) he is transported back to his 
 original position. When he awakes, they ask what he has seen ? He 
 is then informed that if he will become an Assassin, he will be rewarded 
 with the same happiness. And with the texts and prayers that they 
 teach him they heat him to such a pitch that whatever commission be 
 given him he will brave death without regret in order to execute it.” 
 
 The Arabic narrative is too long to extract. It is from a kind of 
 historical romance called The Memoirs of Hakim , the date of which 
 Hammer unfortunately omits to give. Its close coincidence in sub¬ 
 stance with Polo’s story is quite remarkable. After a detailed descrip¬ 
 tion of the Paradise, and the transfer into it of the aspirant under the 
 influence of bang ,, on his awaking and seeing his chief enter, he says, 
 “ O chief! am I awake or am I dreaming?” To which the chief: “ O 
 such an One, take heed that thou tell not the dream to any stranger. 
 Know that Ali thy Lord hath vouchsafed to show thee the place destined 
 for thee in Paradise. . . . Hesitate not a moment therefore in the 
 service of the Imam who thus deigns to intimate his contentment with 
 thee,” and so on. 
 
 William de Nangis thus speaks of the Syrian Shaikh who alone was 
 known to the Crusaders, though one of their historians (Jacques de 
 Vitry , in Bongars , I. 1062) shows knowledge that the head-quarters of 
 the sect was in Persia : “ He was much dreaded far and near, by both 
 Saracens and Christians, because he so often caused princes of both 
 classes indifferently to be murdered by his emissaries. For he used to 
 bring up in his palace youths belonging to his territory, and had them 
 taught a variety of languages, and above all things to fear their Lord 
 and obey him unto death, which would thus become to them an entrance 
 into the joys of Paradise. And whosoever of them thus perished in 
 carrying out his Lord’s behests was worshipped as an angel.” As an 
 instance of the implicit obedience rendered by the Fidawi or devoted 
 disciples of the Shaikh, Fra Pipino and Marino Sanuto relate that when 
 Henry Count of Champagne (titular King of J erusalem) was on a visit 
 to the Old Man of Syria, one day as they walked together they saw 
 some lads in white sitting on the top of a high tower. The Shaikh, 
 turning to the Count, asked if he had any subjects as obedient as his 
 
Chap. XXIV. 
 
 THE OLD MAN’S ASSASSINS. 
 
 137 
 
 own? and without giving time for reply made a sign to two of the 
 boys, who immediately leapt from the tower, and were killed on the 
 spot. The same story is told in the Cento Novelle Antiche, as happening 
 when the Emperor Frederic was on a visit (imaginary) to the Veglio. 
 And it is introduced likewise as an incident in the Romance of Bauduin 
 de Sebourg : 
 
 “ Voiles veioir merveilles? dist li Rois Seignouris” 
 
 to Bauduin and his friends, and on their assenting he makes the signal 
 to one of his men on the battlements, and in a twinkling 
 
 “ Quant le vinrent en l’air salant de tel avis, 
 
 Et aussi liement, et aussi esjois, 
 
 Qu’il deust conquester mil livres de parisis ! 
 
 Ains qu’il venist a tiere il fut mors et fenis, 
 
 Sur les roches agues desrompis corps et pis,” &c. 
 
 (Cathay , 153; Remusat, Nouv. Mel. I. 178; Mines de VOrient, III. 
 201 seqq. ; Nangis in Duchesne , V. 332 ; Pipino in Muratori, IX. 705 ; 
 Defremery in J. As. ser. 5, tom. v. 34 seqq.; Cent. Nov. Antiche , 
 Firenze, 1572, p. 91 ; Bauduin de Sebourg, I. 359.) 
 
 The following are some of the more notable murders or attempts at 
 murder ascribed to the Ismaelite emissaries either from Syria or from 
 Persia :— 
 
 a.d. 1092. Nizam-ul-Mulk, formerly the powerful minister of Malik 
 Shah, Seljukian sovereign of Persia, and a little later his two sons. 
 1102. The Prince of Homs, in the chief Mosque of that city. 1113. 
 Maudud, Prince of Mosul, in the chief Mosque of Damascus. About 
 1114. Abul Muzafar ’Ali, Wazir of Sanjar Shah, and Chakar Beg, grand¬ 
 uncle of the latter, it 16. Ahmed Yel, Prince of Maragha, at Baghdad, 
 in the presence of Mahomed, Sultan of Persia. 1121. The Amir Afdhal, 
 the powerful Wazir of Egypt, at Cairo. 1126. Kasim Aksonkor, Prince 
 of Mosul and Aleppo, in the Great Mosque at Mosul. 1127. Moyin- 
 uddin, Wazir of Sanjar Shah of Persia. 1129. Amir Billah, Khalif of 
 Egypt. 1131. Taj-ul Muluk Buri, Prince of Damascus. 1134. Shams- 
 ul-Muluk, son of the preceding. 1135-38. The Khalif Mostarshid, 
 the Khalif Rashid, and Daiid, Seljukian Prince of Adherbaijan. 1149. 
 Raymond, Count of Tripoli. 1191. Kizil Arzlan, Prince of Adher¬ 
 baijan. 1192. Conrad of Montferrat, titular King of Jerusalem. 
 
 Add in 1174 and 1176 attempts to murder the great Saladin. 1271. 
 Attempt to murder Ala’uddin Juwaini, Governor of Baghdad and his¬ 
 torian of the Mongols. 1272. The attempt to murder Prince Edward 
 of England at Acre. 
 
 In latter years the Fidawi or Ismaelite adepts appear to have let 
 out their services simply as hired assassins. Bibars, in a letter to his 
 court at Cairo, boasts of using them when needful. A Mahomedan 
 
138 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 author ascribes to Bibars the instigation of the attempt on Prince 
 Edward. ( Makrizi , II. ioo; J. As. XI. 150.) 
 
 Note 2. —Hammer mentions as “Grand Priors” under the Shaikh 
 or Grand Master at Alamut, the chief in Syria, one in the Kuhistan of 
 E. Persia (Tun-o-Kain), one in Kumis (the country about Damghan 
 and Bostam), and one in Irak; he does not speak of any in Kurdistan. 
 Colonel Monteith however says, though without stating authority or 
 particulars, “ There were several divisions of them (the Assassins) scat¬ 
 tered throughout Syria, Kurdistan (near the Lake of Wan), and Asia 
 Minor, but all acknowledging as Imaum or High Priest the Chief 
 residing at Alamut.” And it may be noted that Odoric puts the Old 
 Man at Millescorte, which looks like Malas gird, north of Lake Van. 
 (H. des Assass. p. 104; J. R. G. S. III. 16; Cathay , p. ccxliii.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 How the Old Man came by His End. 
 
 Now it came to pass, in the year of Christ’s Incarnation 
 1252, that Alaii, Lord of the Tartars of the Levant, heard 
 tell of these great crimes of the Old Man, and resolved to 
 make an end of him. So he took and sent one of his 
 Barons with a great Army to that Castle, and they besieged 
 it for three years, but they could not take it, so strong was 
 it. And indeed if they had had food within it never would 
 have been taken. But after being besieged those three 
 years they ran short of victual, and were taken. The Old 
 Man was put to death with all his men [and the Castle 
 with its Garden of Paradise was levelled with the ground"]. 
 And since that time he has had no successor ; and there 
 was an end to all his villainies. 1 
 
 Now let us go back to our journey. 
 
 Note 1 . —The date in Pauthier is 1242 ; in the G. T. and in 
 Ramusio 1262. Neither is right, nor certainly could Polo have meant 
 the former. 
 
 When Mangu Kaan, after his enthronement (1251), determined at a 
 
Chap. XXV. 
 
 DEATH OF THE OLD MAN. 
 
 139 
 
 great Kurultai or Diet, on perfecting the Mongol conquests, he entrusted 
 his brother Kublai with the completion of the subjugation of China and 
 the adjacent countries, whilst his brother Hulaku received the command 
 of the army destined for Persia and Syria. The complaints that came 
 from the Mongol officers already in Persia determined him to com¬ 
 mence with the reduction of the Ismaelites, and Hulaku set out from 
 Karakorum in February 1254. He proceeded with great deliberation, 
 and the Oxus was not crossed till January 1256. But an army had been 
 sent long in advance under “ one of his Barons,” Kitubuka Noyan, and 
 in 1253 it was already actively engaged in besieging the Ismaelite for¬ 
 tresses. In 1255, during the progress of the war, Ala’uddin Mahomed, 
 the reigning Prince of the Assassins (mentioned by Polo as Alaodin), 
 was murdered at the instigation of his son Ruknuddin Khurshah, who 
 succeeded to the authority. A year later (Nov. 1256) Ruknuddin sur¬ 
 rendered to Hulaku. The fortresses given up, all well furnished with 
 provisions and artillery engines, were 100 in number. Two of them, 
 however, Lembeser and Girdkuh, refused to surrender. The former fell 
 after a year; the latter is stated to have held out for twenty years, 
 actually, as it would seem, about fourteen, or till December 1270. Ruk¬ 
 nuddin was well treated by Hulaku, and despatched to the Court of the 
 Kaan. The accounts of his death differ, but that most commonly 
 alleged,'according to Rashiduddin, is that Mangu Kaan was irritated at 
 hearing of his approach, asking why his post-horses should be fagged to 
 no purpose, and sent executioners to put Ruknuddin to death on the 
 road. Alamut had been surrendered without any substantial resistance. 
 Some survivors of the sect got hold of it again in 1275-6, and held 
 out for a time. The dominion was extinguished but the sect remained, 
 though scattered indeed and obscure. Traces of them exist in Persia 
 still. Early in this century at least their Shaikh resided at Yezd, and 
 more recently Abbott mentions the sect as still existing in Kerman. The 
 Bohrahs of Western India are said to be an offshoot of the Ismaelites. 
 
 A Chinese account of the expedition of Hulaku will be found in 
 Remusat’s Nouveaux Melanges (I.), and in Pauthier’s Introduction. 
 ( Q . R. 115-219, esp. 213; Ilch . vol. I. ; Fraser , 376-7.) 
 
 There is some account of the rock of Alamut and its exceedingly 
 slender traces of occupancy, by Col. Monteith, in J. R. G. S. III. 15, and 
 again by Sir Justin Shiel in vol. VIII. p. 431. There does not seem 
 to be any specific authority for assigning the Paradise of the Shaikh to 
 Alamut; and it is at least worthy of note that another of the castles of 
 the Mulfihidah, destroyed by Hulaku, was called Firdus , i.e. Paradise. 
 In any case I see no reason to suppose that Polo visited Alamut, which 
 would have been quite out of the road that he is following. 
 
 It is possible that “ the Castle,” to which he alludes at the beginning 
 of next chapter, and which set him off upon this digression, was Girdkuh. 
 It has not, as far as I know, been identified by modern travellers, but it 
 stood within 10 or 12 miles of Damghan (to the west or north-west). It 
 
140 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 is probably the Tigado of Hayton, of which he thus speaks: “ The 
 Assassins had an impregnable castle called Tigado, which was furnished 
 with all necessaries, and was so strong that it had no fear of attack on 
 any side. Howbeit, Haloon commanded a certain captain of his that he 
 should take 10,000 Tartars who had been left in garrison in Persia, and 
 with them lay siege to the said castle, and not leave it till he had taken 
 it. Wherefore the said Tartars continued besieging it for seven whole 
 years, winter and summer, without being able to take it. At last the 
 Assassins surrendered, from sheer want of clothing, but not of victuals or 
 other necessaries.” This is Ramusio’s version, but in other copies the 
 length of siege is called 27 years, and in any case it is a general con¬ 
 firmation of the fact that Girdkuh was said to have held out for an 
 extraordinary length of time. If Rashiduddin is right in naming 1270 
 as the date of its surrender, it would be quite a recent event when the 
 Polo party passed, and draw special attention to the spot. (/. As. 
 ser. 4, tom. xiii. 48; Ilch . I. 93, 104, 274; Q. R. p. 278; Ritter , 
 VIII. 336.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Concerning the City of Sapurgan. 
 
 On leaving the Castle, you ride over fine plains and 
 beautiful valleys, and pretty hillsides producing excellent 
 grass-pasture, and abundance of fruits, and all other pro¬ 
 ducts. Armies are glad to take up their quarters here on 
 account of the plenty that exists. This kind of country 
 extends for six days’ journey, with a goodly number of 
 towns and villages, in which the people are worshippers 
 of Mahommet. Sometimes also you meet with a tract of 
 desert extending for 50 or 60 miles, or somewhat less, and 
 in these deserts you find no water, but have to carry it along 
 with you. The beasts do without drink until you have 
 got across the desert tract and come to watering places. 
 
 So after travelling for six days as I have told you, you 
 come to a city called Sapurgan. It has great plenty of 
 everything, but especially of the very best melons in the 
 world. They preserve them by paring them round and 
 
Chap. XXVI. 
 
 THE CITY OF SAPURGAN. 
 
 141 
 
 round into strips, and drying them in the sun. When 
 dry they are sweeter than honey, and are carried off for 
 sale all over the country. There is also abundance of 
 game here, both of birds and beasts. 1 
 
 Note 1 . —Sapurgan probably closely expresses the pronunciation 
 of the name of the city which the old Arabic writers call Saburkdn and 
 Shabiirkan, now called Shibrgan, lying some 90 miles west of Balkh ; 
 containing now some 12,000 inhabitants, and situated in a plain still 
 richly cultivated. But I have seen no satisfactory solution of the dif¬ 
 ficulties as to the time assigned. This in the G. T. and in Ramusio is 
 clearly six days. The point of departure is indeed uncertain, but even 
 if we were to place that at Sharakhs on the extreme verge of cultivated 
 Khorasan, which would be quite inconsistent with other data, it would 
 have taken the travellers something like double the time to reach 
 Shibrgan. Where I have followed the G. T. in its reading “ quant Fen a 
 chevauch'es six jornee telche je vos ai contes , adunc treuve Fen une cite ” &c., 
 Pauthier’s text has “ Et quant Fen a chevauchie les vi cites si treuve Fen 
 une cite qui a nom Sapurgan ” and to this that editor adheres. But I 
 suspect that cites is a mere lapsus for journees , as in the reading in one 
 of his three MSS. What could be meant by “ les vi cites"l What kind 
 of French, old or new, is “ chevauchier vi cites ” ? 
 
 Whether the true route be, as I suppose, by Nishapur and Meshid, 
 or, as Khanikoff supposes, by Herat and Badghis, it is strange that no 
 one of those famous cities is mentioned. And we feel constrained to 
 assume that something has been misunderstood in the dictation, or has 
 dropt out of it. As a probable conjecture I should apply the six days 
 to the extent of pleasing country described in the first lines of the 
 chapter, and identify it with the tract between Sabzawur and the ces¬ 
 sation of fertile country beyond Meshid. The distance would agree 
 well, and a comparison with Fraser or Ferrier will show that even now 
 the description, allowing for the compression of an old recollection, 
 would be well founded; e.g. on the first march beyond Nishapur: “ Fine 
 villages, with plentiful gardens full of trees, that bear fruit of the highest 
 flavour, may be seen all along the foot of the hills, and in the little 
 recesses formed by the ravines whence issues the water that irrigates 
 them. It was a rich and pleasing scene, and out of question by far the 
 most populous and cultivated tract that I had seen in Persia. . . . Next 
 morning we quitted Derrood ... by a very indifferent but interesting 
 road, the glen being finely wooded with walnut, mulberry, poplar, and 
 willow-trees, and fruit-tree gardens rising one above the other upon the 
 mountain-side, watered by little rills. . . . These gardens extended for 
 several miles up the glen; beyond them the bank of the stream con¬ 
 tinued to be fringed with white sycamore, willow, ash, mulberry, poplar, 
 
142 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 and woods that love a moist situation,” and so on, describing a style of 
 scenery not common in Persia, and expressing diffusely (as it seems to 
 me) the same picture as Polo’s two lines. (See Fraser , 405, 432-3, 434, 
 43 6 -) 
 
 With reference to the dried melons of Shibrgan, Quatremere cites a 
 history of Herat, which speaks of them almost in Polo’s words. Ibn 
 Batuta gives a like account of the melons of Khwarizm: “ The sur¬ 
 prising thing about these melons is the way the people have of slicing 
 them, drying them in the sun, and then packing them in baskets, just as 
 Malaga figs are treated in our part of the world. In this state they are 
 sent to the remotest parts of India and China. There is no dried fruit 
 so delicious, and all the while I lived at Dehli, when the travelling 
 dealers came in, I never missed sending for these dried strips of melon.” 
 (Q. F. 169; /. B. III. 15.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Of the City of Balc. 
 
 Balc is a noble city and a great, though it was much 
 greater in former days. But the Tartars and other nations 
 have greatly ravaged and destroyed it. There were for¬ 
 merly many fine palaces and buildings of marble, and the 
 ruins of them still remain. The people of the city te]l 
 that it was here that Alexander took to wife the daughter 
 of Darius. 
 
 Here, you should be told, is the end of the empire of 
 the Tartar Lord of the Levant. And this city is also the 
 limit of Persia in the direction between east and north-east/ 
 
 Now, let us quit this city, and I will tell you of another 
 country called Dogana . 2 
 
 When you have quitted the city of which I have been 
 speaking, you ride some 12 days between north-east and 
 east, without finding any human habitation, for the people 
 have all taken refuge in fastnesses among the mountains, 
 on account of the banditti and armies that harassed them. 
 There is plenty of water on the road, and abundance of 
 game; there are lions too. You can get no provisions on 
 
Chap. XXVII. 
 
 THE CITY OF BALC. 
 
 143 
 
 the road, and must carry with you all that you require for 
 these 12 days.* 
 
 Note 1.—Balkh, “the mother of cities/’ suffered mercilessly from 
 Chinghiz. Though the city had yielded without resistance, the whole 
 population was marched by companies into the plain, on the usual 
 Mongol pretext of counting them, and then brutally massacred. The 
 city and its gardens were fired, and all buildings capable of defence 
 were levelled. The province long continued to be harried by the 
 Chaghataian inroads. Ibn Batuta, sixty years after Marco’s visit, 
 describes the city as still in ruins, and as uninhabited : “ The remains of 
 its mosques and colleges,” he says, “are still to be seen, and the painted 
 walls traced with azure.” It is no doubt the Vaeq ( Valq ) of Clavijo, 
 “ very large, and surrounded by a broad earthen wall, thirty paces 
 across, but breached in many parts.” He describes a large portion of 
 the area within as sown with cotton. The account of its modern state 
 in Burnes and Ferrier is much the same as Ibn Batuta’s, except that 
 there is now some population, two separate towns within the walls 
 according to the latter. Burnes estimates the circuit of the ruins at 
 twenty miles. 
 
 (Erdmann, 404-5 ; I. B. III. 59 ; Clavijo , p. 117 ; Burnes , II. 204-6 ; 
 Ferrier , 206-7.) 
 
 According to the legendary history of Alexander, the beautiful 
 Roxana was the daughter of Darius, and her father in a dying inter¬ 
 view with Alexander requested the latter to make her his wife :— 
 
 “ Une fille ai mult bele ; se prendre le voles, 
 
 Vus en seres de l’mont tout li mius maries,” &c. 
 
 — Lambert Le Court , p. 256. 
 
 Note 2.—The country called Dogana in the G. Text is a puzzle. 
 At one time I supposed it might be Kataghcin , the name sometimes 
 applied to the country round Kunduz. But there seems reason to believe 
 this to be a modern Uzbek appellation. 
 
 Wassaf says that in the year 700 (a.d. 1300) an invasion of Chagha¬ 
 taian Mongols subjugated all Ghazni, Sistan, and Balkh, with its 
 dependencies Shaburgan , Jusgana, Badakhshan , Kishm , Taikan , &c. 
 This juxtaposition certainly looks very like our traveller’s Sapurgan , 
 Bale , Dogana, Taican , Casern , Badashan. Juzgdn , Juzgana, or Juz- 
 jand , the Hushikien of the Chinese traveller Hwen Thsang, was a part 
 of the province of Balkh, which included Andkhoi, Shibrgan, and appa¬ 
 rently the hill-country south of Balkh. It was net , therefore, the country 
 traversed by the traveller on leaving Balkh for Badakhshan. But it is 
 possible that, having said “ Now let us tell of another country called 
 Dogana,” he does no such thing, but breaks off and proceeds with his 
 journey. Something like this occurs in Book III. (ch. ix.) with reference 
 
144 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 to the Island of Gavenispola, and ’tis an easy accident of dictation. 
 But it is a confessed difficulty, and these are merely suggestions of a 
 possible solution. 
 
 I may add that I believe Juzgana to be the Tagiguinea of Clavijo. 
 ( Sprenger , P. und R. Route , p. 39 and Map ; Anderson in J. A. S. B. 
 XXII. 161 ; Ilch. II. 93.) 
 
 Note 3 .—Though Burnes speaks of a part of the road that we 
 suppose necessarily to have been here followed from Balkh towards 
 Taican, as barren and dreary, he adds that the ruins of aqueducts and 
 houses proved that the land had at one time been peopled, though now 
 destitute of water, and consequently of inhabitants. The country would 
 seem to have reverted at the time of Burnes’ journey, from like causes, 
 nearly to the state in which Marco found it after the Mongol devastations. 
 
 Lions seem to mean here the real kings of beasts, and not tigers, as 
 hereafter in the book. Tigers, though found on the S. and W. shores of 
 the Caspian, do not seem to exist in the Oxus valley. On the other 
 hand, Rashiduddin tells us that, when Hulaku was reviewing his army 
 after the passage of the river, several lions were started, and two were 
 killed. The lions are also mentioned by Sidi ’Ali, the Turkish Admiral, 
 further down the valley towards Hazarasp: “We were obliged to fight 
 with the lions day and night, and no man dared to go alone for water.” 
 And Moorcroft says of the plain between Kunduz and the Oxus : “ Deer, 
 foxes, wolves, hogs, and lions are numerous, the latter resembling those 
 in the vicinity of Hariana” (in Upper India). Q. Curtius tells how 
 Alexander killed a great lion in the country north of the Oxus towards 
 Samarkand. ( Burnes , II. 200 ; Q. R. 1 55 ; Ilch. I. 90; J. As. IX. 217 ; 
 Moore, II. 430; Q. C. VII. 2.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Of Taican, and the Mountains of Salt. Also of the Province 
 
 of Casem. 
 
 After those twelve days’ journey you come to a fortified 
 place called Taican, where there is a great corn market . 1 
 It is a fine place, and the mountains that you see towards 
 the south are all composed of salt. People from all the 
 countries round, to some thirty days’ journey, come to fetch 
 this salt, which is the best in the world, and is so hard that 
 it can only be broken with iron picks. ’Tis in such abun- 
 
Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 THE MOUNTAINS OF SALT. 
 
 145 
 
 dance that it would supply the whole world to the end of 
 time. [Other mountains there grow almonds and pista- 
 chioes, which are exceedingly cheap .] 2 
 
 When you leave this town and ride three days further 
 between north-east and east, you meet with many fine 
 tracts full of vines and other fruits, and with a goodly 
 number of habitations, and everything to be had very 
 cheap. The people are worshippers of Mahommet, and 
 are an evil and a murderous generation, whose great delight 
 is in the wine shop; for they have good wine (albeit it be 
 boiled), and are great topers; in fact, they are constantly 
 getting drunk. They wear nothing on the head but a 
 cord some ten palms long twisted round it. They are 
 excellent huntsmen, and take a great deal of game; in fact, 
 they wear nothing but the skins of the beasts they have 
 taken in the chase, for they make of them both coats and 
 shoes. Indeed, all of them are acquainted with the art of 
 dressing skins for these purposes . 3 
 
 When you have ridden those three days, you find a 
 town called Casem , 4 which is subject to a count. His 
 other towns and villages are on the hills, but through this 
 town there flows a river of some size. There are a great 
 many porcupines hereabouts, and very large ones too. 
 When hunted with dogs, several of them will get together 
 and huddle close, shooting their quills at the dogs, which 
 get many a serious wound thereby . 5 
 
 This town of Casem is at the head of a very great pro¬ 
 vince, which is also called Casem. The people have a 
 peculiar language. The peasants who keep cattle abide in 
 the mountains, and have their dwellings in caves, which 
 form fine and spacious houses for them, and are made with 
 ease, as the hills are composed of earth . 6 
 
 After leaving the town of Casem, you ride for three 
 days without finding a single habitation, or anything to eat 
 or drink, so that you have to carry with you everything 
 that you require. At the end of those three days you 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 L 
 
4 6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 reach a province called Badashan, about which we shall 
 now tell you . 7 
 
 Note 1.— The Taican of Polo is the still existing Talikan in the 
 province of Kataghan or Kunduz, but it bears the former name 
 (Thaihan ) in the old Arab geographers. Both names are . used by- 
 Baber, who says it lay in the Ulugh Bdgh, or Great Garden, a name 
 perhaps acquired by the Plains of Talikan in happier days, but illus¬ 
 trating what Polo says of the next three days’ march. The Castle of 
 Talikan, called Nukra Kuh , or “Silver Hill,” resisted Chinghiz for 
 seven months, and met with the usual fate (1221). Wood speaks of 
 Talikan thirty years ago as a poor place of some 300 or 400 houses, 
 mere hovels. Market days are not usual in Upper India or Kabul, but 
 are universal in Badakhshan and the Oxus provinces. The bazaars 
 are only open on those days, and the people from the surrounding 
 country then assemble to exchange goods, generally by barter. Wood 
 chances to note : “ A market was held at Talikan . . . the thronged 
 state of the roads leading into it soon apprized us that the day was no 
 ordinary one.” (Abulf. in Buschmg, ;• V. 352 ; Sprenger , p. 50; P. de la 
 Croix , I. 63 ; Baber , 38, 130; Burnes , IV. 8; Wood , 241-2; Pandit 
 Manphul's Report.) 
 
 The distance of Talikan from Balkh is about 170 miles, which gives 
 very short marches, if twelve days be the correct reading. Ramusio has 
 two days, which is certainly wrong. XII. is easily miswritten for VII., 
 which would be a just number. 
 
 Note 2 .—In our day, as I learn from Pandit Manphul, the mines 
 of rock salt are at Ak Bulak, near the Lataband Pass, and at Daruna, in 
 the Karligh, or Kallakh Tract, and these supply the whole of Badakh¬ 
 shan, as well as Kunduz and Chitral. The former site certainly (and I 
 believe the latter also) is due east of Talikan. But the name of a river 
 that flows from the mountains on the south— Shor-Ab, or Salt River— 
 may indicate deposits also in that direction which may formerly have 
 been worked. There are also mines of rock salt in Kulab, north of the 
 Oxus. (See Wood, 399, and Burnes , III. 144.) 
 
 Both pistachioes and wild almonds are mentioned by Pandit Man¬ 
 phul; and see Wood (p. 383) on the beauty and profusion of the latter. 
 
 Note 3 .—Wood thinks that the Tajik inhabitants of Badakhshan 
 and the adjoining districts are substantially of the same race as the 
 Kafir tribes of Hindu Kush. At the time of Polo’s visit it would seem 
 that their conversion to Islam was imperfect. They were probably in 
 that transition state which obtains in our own day for some of the Hill 
 Mahomedans adjoining the Kafirs on the south side of the mountains 
 the reproachful title of Nimchi Musulmdn , or Half-and-halfs. Thus 
 they would seem to have retained sundry Kafir characteristics; among 
 others, that love of wine which is so strong among the Kafirs. The 
 
Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF CASEM. 
 
 147 
 
 boiling of the wine is noted by Baber (a connoisseur) as the custom of 
 Nijrao, adjoining, if not then included in, Kafir-land; and Elphinstone 
 implies the continuance of the custom when he speaks of the Kafirs as 
 having wine of the consistence of jelly , and very strong. The cord 
 twisted round the head was probably also a relic of Kafir costume: 
 “Few of the Kafirs cover the head, and when they do, it is with a 
 narrow band or fillet of goat’s hair . . . about a yard or a yard and 
 a half in length, wound round the head.” Something very similar, i.e. 
 a scanty turban cloth twisted into a mere cord, and wound two or three 
 times round the head is often seen in the Panjab to this day. 
 
 The Postin or sheepskin coat is almost universal on both sides of 
 the Hindu Kush; and Wood notes : “The shoes in use resemble half¬ 
 boots, made of goatskin, and mostly of home manufacture.” (Baber, 
 145 ; J. A. S. B. XXVIII. 348, 364; Elphinst. II. 384; Wood, 274, 
 333 ; / R. A. S. XIX. 2.) 
 
 Note 4. —Maisden was right in identifying Seas sent or Casern with 
 the Kechem of D’Anville’s Map, but wrong in confounding the latter 
 with the Kishmabad of Elphinstone—properly, I believe, Kishnabad — 
 in the Anderab Valley. Kashm, or Keshm, found its way into maps 
 through Petis de la Croix, from whom probably D’Anville adopted it; 
 but as it was ignored by Elphinstone (or by Macartney, who constructed 
 his map), and by Burnes, it dropped out of our geography. Indeed 
 Wood does not notice it except as giving name to a high hill called the 
 Hill of Kishm, and the position even of that he omits to indicate. The 
 frequent mention of Kishm in the histories of Timur and Humayun 
 (e.g. P. de la Croix, I. 167 ; N. et E. XIV. 223, 491; Erskine's Baber 
 and Humayun, II. 330, 355, &c.) had enabled me to determine its 
 position within tolerably narrow limits; but, desiring to fix it definitely, 
 I applied through Col. Maclagan to Pandit Manphul, C.S.I., a very 
 intelligent Hindu gentleman, who resided for some time in Badakhshan 
 as agent of the Panjab Government, and from him I received a special 
 note and sketch, and afterwards a MS. copy of a Report, which set the 
 position of Kishm at rest. 
 
 Kishm is now a small town or large village on the right bank of the 
 river of Mashhad, a tributary of the Kokcha. It was in 1866 the seat of a 
 district ruler under the Mir of Badakhshan, who was styled the Mir of 
 Kishm, and corresponded in recent times to Marco’s Quens or Count. 
 The modern caravan-road between Kunduz and Badakhshan does not 
 pass through Kishm, which is left some five miles to the right, but through 
 the town of Mashhad, which stands on the banks of the same river. 
 Kishm is the warmest district of Badakhshan. Its fruits are abundant, 
 and ripen a month earlier than those at Faizabad, the capital of that 
 country. The Mashhad river is Marco’s “ Flum auques grants Wood 
 (247) calls it “the largest stream we had yet forded in Badakhshan.” 
 
 M. Pauthier’s location of Kishm near Taish Khan is not very far 
 from the truth, but the latter lies in a different valley. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 It is very notable that in Ramusio, in Pipino, and in one passage of 
 the G. Text, the name is written Scasem , which has led some to suppose 
 the Ish-Kashm of Wood to be meant. That place is much too far east 
 —in fact, beyond the city which forms the subject of next chapter. 
 The apparent hesitation, however, between the forms Casein and Scasem 
 suggests that the Kishm of our note may formerly have been termed 
 S’kashm or Ish-Kashm, a form frequent in the Oxus Valley, e.g. Ish- 
 Kimish , Ish-Kashm , Ishtrakh , Ishpingao. Gen. Cunningham judiciously 
 suggests (. Ladak , 34) that this form is merely a vocal corruption of the 
 initial S before a consonant, a combination which always troubles the 
 Musulman in India, and converts every Mr. Smith or Mr. Sparks into 
 Ismit or Ispak Sahib. 
 
 Note 5. —The belief that the porcupine projected its quills at its 
 assailants was an ancient and persistent one—“ cum intendit cutem 
 missiles ,” says Pliny (VIII. 35, and see also Aelian. de Nat. An. I. 31), 
 and is held by the Chinese as it was held by the ancients, but is univer¬ 
 sally rejected by modern zoologists. The huddling and coiling appears 
 to be a true characteristic, for the porcupine always tries to shield its 
 head. 
 
 Note 6. —The description of Kishm as a “ very great” province is an 
 example of a bad habit of Marco’s, which recurs in the next chapter. 
 What he says of the cave-dwellings may be illustrated by Burnes’s 
 account of the excavations at Bamian, in a neighbouring district. These 
 “ still form the residence of the greater part of the population. . . . 
 The hills at Bamian are formed of indurated clay and pebbles, which 
 renders this excavation a matter of little difficulty.” Similar occupied 
 excavations are noticed by Moorcroft at Heibak and other places 
 towards Khulm. 
 
 Curiously, Pandit Manphul says of the districts about the Kokcha: 
 “ Both their hills and plains are productive, the former being mostly 
 composed of earth, having very little of rocky substance .” 
 
 Note 7 .—The capital of Badakhshan is now Faizabad, on the right 
 bank of the Kokcha, founded by Yarbeg, the first Mir of the recent 
 dynasty.* When this family was displaced by Murad Beg of Kunduz 
 in the early part of this century, the place was abandoned for years, 
 but is now reoccupied. The ancient capital of Badakhshan, and pre¬ 
 sumably the city so called' by our Traveller, stood in the Dasht (or 
 Plain) of Baharak, one of the most extensive pieces of level in Badakh¬ 
 shan, in which the rivers Vardoj, Zardeo, and Sarghalan unite with the 
 Kokcha. As far as I can estimate, by the help of Wood and the map 
 I have compiled, this will be from 100 to no miles distant from Talikan, 
 and will therefore .suit fairly with the six marches that Marco lays down. 
 
 * Manphul. He assigns Faizabad to the 17 th century, but I suspect means 1 %th, 
 as in another passage he dates the recent dynasty from only 125 years back. 
 
Chap. XXIX. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF BADASHAN. 
 
 149 
 
 Wood, in 1838, found the whole country between Talikan and 
 Faizabad nearly as depopulated as Marco found that between Kishm 
 and Badakhshan. The modem depopulation was due—in part, at 
 least—to the recent oppressions and razzias of the Uzbegs of Kunduz. 
 On their expulsion the native Mirs were reinstated, and these again 
 have very recently been expelled by the Afghans. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Of the Province of Badashan. 
 
 Badashan is a Province inhabited by people who worship 
 Mahommet, and have a peculiar language. It forms a 
 very great kingdom, and the royalty is hereditary. All 
 those of the royal blood are descended from King Alex¬ 
 ander and the daughter of King Darius, who was Lord of 
 the vast Empire of Persia. And all these kings call 
 themselves in the Saracen tongue Zulcarniain, which is 
 as much as to say Alexander; and this out of regard for 
 Alexander the Great . 1 
 
 It is in this province that those fine and valuable gems 
 the Balas Rubies are found. They are got in certain 
 rocks among the mountains, and in the search for them 
 the people dig great caves underground, just as is done by 
 miners for silver. There is but one special mountain that 
 produces them, and it is called Syghinan. The stones are 
 dug on the king’s account, and no one else dares dig in 
 that mountain on pain of forfeiture of life as well as goods ; 
 nor may any one carry the stones out of the kingdom. 
 But the king amasses them all, and sends them to other 
 kings when he has tribute to render, or when he desires 
 to offer a friendly present; and such only as he pleases 
 he causes to be sold. Thus he acts in order to keep 
 the Balas at a high value; for if he were to allow 
 everybody to dig, they would extract so many that the 
 world would be glutted with them, and they would cease 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 150 
 
 to bear any value. Hence it is that he allows so few to be 
 taken out, and is so strict in the matter. 2 
 
 There is also in the same country another mountain, in 
 which azure is found; ’tis the finest in the world, and is 
 got in a vein like silver. There are also other mountains 
 which contain a great amount of silver ore, so that the 
 country is a very rich one; but it is also (it must be said) 
 a very cold one. 5 It produces numbers of excellent horses, 
 remarkable for their speed. They are not shod at all, 
 although constantly used in mountainous country, and on 
 very bad roads. [They go at a great pace even down 
 steep descents, where other horses neither would nor could 
 do the like. And Messer Marco was told that not long 
 ago they possessed in that province a breed of horses from 
 the strain of Alexander’s horse Bucephalus, all of which 
 had from their birth a particular mark on the forehead. 
 This breed was entirely in the hands of an uncle of the 
 king’s; and in consequence of his refusing to let the king 
 have any of them, the latter put him to death. The widow 
 then, in despite, destroyed the whole breed, and it is now 
 extinct.] 
 
 The mountains of this country also supply Saker falcons 
 of excellent flight, and plenty of Lanners likewise. Beasts 
 and birds for the chase there are in great abundance. 
 Good wheat is grown, and also barley without husk. They 
 have no olive oil, but make oil from sesame, and also from 
 walnuts. 4 
 
 [In the mountains there are vast numbers of sheep— 
 400, 500, or 600 in a single flock, and all of them wild ; 
 and though many of them are taken, they never seem to 
 get aught the scarcer. 5 
 
 Those mountains are so lofty that ’tis a hard day’s 
 work, from morning till evening, to get to the top of 
 them. On getting up, you find an extensive plain, with 
 great abundance of grass and trees, and copious springs of 
 pure water running down through rocks and ravines. In 
 
Chap. XXIX. THE PROVINCE OF BADASHAN. 151 
 
 those brooks are found trout and many other fish of 
 dainty kinds; and the air in those regions is so pure, and 
 residence there so healthful, that when the men who dwell 
 below in the towns, and in the valleys and plains, find 
 themselves attacked by any kind of fever or other ailment 
 that may hap, they lose no time in going to the hills; and 
 after abiding there two or three days, they quite recover 
 their health through the excellence of that air. And 
 Messer Marco said he had proved this by experience: for 
 when in those parts he had been ill for about a year, but as 
 as soon as he was advised to visit that mountain, he did so 
 and got well at once. 6 ] 
 
 In this kingdom there are many strait and perilous 
 passes, so difficult to force that the people have no fear of 
 invasion. Their towns and villages also are on lofty hills, 
 and in very strong positions. 7 They are excellent archers, 
 and much given to the chase; indeed, most of them are 
 dependent for clothing on the skins of beasts, for stuffs 
 are very dear among them. The great ladies, however, are 
 arrayed in stuffs, and I will tell you the style of their dress! 
 They all wear drawers made of cotton cloth, and into the 
 making of these some will put 60, 80, or even ioo ells of 
 stuff. This they do to make themselves look large in the 
 hips, for the men of those parts think that to be a great 
 beauty in a woman. 8 
 
 Note 1 .—“ The population of Badakhshan Proper is composed of 
 Tajiks, Turks, and Arabs, who are all Sunnis, following the orthodox 
 doctrines of the Mahomedan law, and speak Persian and Turki, whilst 
 the people of the more mountainous tracts are Tajiks of the Shia creed, 
 having separate provincial dialects or languages of their own, the inha¬ 
 bitants of the principal places combining therewith a knowledge of 
 Persian. Thus, the Skighnani is spoken in Shignan and Roshan, the 
 Ishkashami in Ishkasham, the Wakhi in Wakhan, the Sanglichi in Sang- 
 lich and Zebak, and the Minjdni in Minjan. All these dialects mate¬ 
 rially differ from each other” {Pand. Manphul). It may be considered 
 almost certain that Badakhshan proper also had a peculiar dialect in 
 Polo’s time. 
 
 The Legend of the Alexandrian pedigree of the Kings of Badakh- 
 
152 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 shan is spoken of by Baber, and by earlier Eastern authors. This pe¬ 
 digree is, or was, claimed also by the chiefs of Darwaz, Kulab, Shighnan, 
 Wakhan, Chitral, Gilgit, Swat, and Balti. Some samples of those gene¬ 
 alogies may be seen in that strange document called Gardner’s Travels. 
 
 In Badakhshan Proper the story seems now to have died out. 
 Pandit Manphul states that the modern family of Mirs is not connected 
 with the old Princes of Badakhshan. 
 
 Zu-lkarnain , “ the Two Horned,” is an Arabic epithet of Alexander, 
 with which legends have been connected, but which probably arose from 
 the horned portraits on his coins. The term appears in Chaucer (Troil. 
 and Cress. III. 931) in the sense of non plus :— 
 
 ‘ ‘ I am, till God me better minde send, 
 
 At dulcarnon , right at my wittes end.” 
 
 And it is said to have still colloquial existence in that sense in some 
 corners of England. This use is said to have arisen from the Arabic 
 application of the term ( Bicorne ) to the 47th Proposition of Euclid. 
 (Baber, 13, N. et E. XIV. 490; N. An. des. V. xxvi, 296; Burnes, 
 III. 186 seqq.: Wood, 241, 371: T. A. S. B. XXII. 300 : Ayeen Akbery, 
 II. 185 see N. and Q. 1st S. vol. V.) 
 
 Note 2. —I have adopted in the text for the name of the country 
 that one of the several forms in the G. Text which comes nearest to 
 the correct name, viz. Badascian. But Balacian also appears both in 
 that and in Pauthier’s text. This represents Balakhshdn, a form also 
 sometimes used in the East. Hay ton has Balaxcen, Clavijo Balaxia, 
 the Catalan Map Baldassia. From the form Balakhsh the Balas Ruby 
 got its name. As Ibn Batuta says : “ The Mountains of Badakhshan 
 have given their name to the Badakhshi Ruby, vulgarly called Al Ba- 
 laksh .” Albertus Magnus says the Balagius is the female of the Car¬ 
 buncle or Ruby Proper, “ and some say it is his house, and hath thereby 
 got the name, quasi Palatium Carbunculi ” ! The Balais or Balas Ruby 
 is, like the Spinel, a kind inferior to the real Ruby of Ava. The author 
 of the Masalak al Absdr says the finest Balas ever seen in the Arab 
 countries was one presented to Malek ’Adil Ketboga, at Damascus ; it 
 was of a triangular form and weighed 50 drachms. The prices of Ba- 
 lasci in Europe in that age may be found in Pegolotti, but the needful 
 problems are hard to solve. 
 
 “No sapphire in Inde, no Rubie rich of price, 
 
 There lacked than, nor Emeraud so grene, 
 
 Batis, Turkes, ne thing to my device.” 
 
 — Chaucer , Court of Love. 
 
 Some account of the Balakhsh from Oriental sources will be found 
 in J. As. 5th ser. tom. xi. 109. 
 
Chap. XXIX. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF BADASHAN. 
 
 153 
 
 (I. B. III. 59, 394; Alb. Mag. de Mineralibus; Pegol. p. 307 ; N. 
 et E. XIII. i. 246.) 
 
 The account of the royal monopoly in working the mines, &c., has 
 continued accurate down to our own day. When Murad Beg of Kun- 
 duz conquered Badakhshan some 40 years ago, in disgust at the small 
 produce of the mines he abandoned working them, and sold nearly all 
 the population of the place into slavery ! They continue still unworked, 
 unless clandestinely. The reigning Mir, in 1866, had one of them 
 opened at the request of Pandit Manphul, but without much result. 
 
 The locality of the mines is on the right bank of the Oxus, in the 
 district of Ish Kasham, and on the borders of Shighnan, the Syghinan of 
 the Text. (P. Majiph.; Wood, 315-16, 378; N. Ann. des V. xxvi. 300.) 
 
 Note 3 .—The mines of Ldjwurd (whence tAzur and Lazuli ) have 
 been, like the Ruby-mines, celebrated for ages. They lie in the Upper 
 Valley of the Kokcha, within the Tract called Yamga?i , of which the 
 popular etymology is Hamah-Kdn, or “ All-Mines,” and were visited by 
 Wood in 1838. The produce now is said to be of very inferior quality, 
 and in quantity from 30 to 60 poods (36 lbs. each) annually. The best 
 quality sells at Bokhara at 30 to 60 tillas, or 12/. to 24/. the pood 
 (.Manphul ). Surely it is ominous when a British agent writing of Ba¬ 
 dakhshan products, finds it natural to express weights in Russian 
 poods! 
 
 The Yamgan Tract also contains mines of iron, lead, alum, sal- 
 ammoniac, sulphur, ochre, and copper. The last are not worked. But 
 I do not learn of any silver mines nearer than those of Paryan in the 
 Valley of Panjshir, south of the crest of the Hindu-Kush. (See Cathay, 
 P- S 9 S-) 
 
 Note 4 .—The huskless barley of the text is thus mentioned by 
 Burnes in the vicinity of the Hindu-Kush : “ They rear a barley in this 
 elevated country which has no husk, and grows like wheat; but it is 
 barley.” It is not properly huskless , but when ripe it bursts the husk 
 and remains so loosely attached as to be dislodged from it by a slight 
 shake. It is grown abundantly in Ladak and the adjoining Hill States. 
 Moorcroft details six varieties of it cultivated there. The kind men¬ 
 tioned by Marco and Burnes is probably that named by Royle Hordeum 
 AEgiceras , and which has been sent to England under the name of Tar¬ 
 tarian Wheat, though it is a genuine barley. Naked barley is mentioned 
 by Galen as grown in Cappadocia; and Matthioli speaks of it as grown 
 in France in his day (middle of 16th century). It is also known to the 
 Arabs, for they have a name for it, Suit. (.Burnes , III. 205 ; Moore. II. 
 148 seqq.; Galen , de Ali 7 ne?it. Facult. Lat. ed. 13 ; Matthioli, Ven. 1585, 
 p. 420; Eng. Cyc. Art. Hordeum.) 
 
 Sesame is mentioned by P. Manphul as one of the products of Ba¬ 
 dakhshan ; linseed is another, which is also used for oil. Walnut-trees 
 abound, but neither he nor Wood mention the oil. We know that 
 walnut oil is largely manufactured in Kashmir. {Moorcroft, II. 148.) 
 
154 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 5. —These wild sheep are probably the kind called Kachkar , 
 mentioned by Baber, and described by Mr. Blyth in his Monograph of 
 Wild Sheep, under the name of Ovis Vignei. It is extensively diffused 
 over all the ramifications of Hindu-Kush, and westward perhaps to the 
 Persian Elburz. “ It is gregarious,” says Wood, “ congregating in herds 
 of several hundreds .” In a later chapter Polo speaks of a wild sheep 
 apparently different and greater. (See J. A. S. B., X. 858 seqq .) 
 
 Note 6.— This pleasant passage is only in Ramusio, but it would be 
 heresy to doubt its genuine character. Mark’s recollection of the delight 
 of convalescence in such a climate seems to lend an unusual enthu¬ 
 siasm and felicity to his description of the scenery. Such a region as 
 he speaks of is probably the cool Plateau of Shewa, of which we are told 
 as extending about 25 miles eastward from near Faizabad, and forming 
 one of the finest pastures in Badakhshan. It contains a large lake 
 called by the frequent name Sar-i-Kul. No European traveller in 
 modern times (unless Mr. Gardner) has been on those glorious Table¬ 
 lands. Burnes says that at Kunduz both natives and foreigners spoke 
 rapturously of the vales of Badakhshan, its rivulets, romantic scenes 
 and glens, its fruits, flowers, and nightingales. Wood is reticent on 
 scenery, naturally, since nearly all his journey was made in winter. 
 When approaching Faizabad on his return from the Upper Oxus how¬ 
 ever, he says : “ On entering the beautiful lawn at the gorge of its valley, 
 I was enchanted at the quiet loveliness of the scene. Up to this time, 
 from the day we left Talikan, we had been moving in snow; but now it 
 had nearly vanished from the valley, and the fine sward was ena¬ 
 melled with crocuses, daffodils, and snowdrops.” (P. Manphul; Burnes , 
 III. 176; Wood , 383.) 
 
 Note 7 .—Yet scarcely any country in the world has suffered so 
 terribly and repeatedly from invasion. “ Enduring decay probably com¬ 
 menced with the wars of Chinghiz, for many an instance in Eastern 
 History shows the permanent effect of such devastations. And here 
 wave after wave of war passed over a little country, isolated on three 
 sides by wild mountains and barbarous tribes, destroying the apparatus 
 of culture which represented the accumulated labour of generations, 
 and the springs of recovery. Century after century saw only progress 
 in decay. Even to our own time the progress of depopulation and 
 deterioration has continued. About 1760, two of the Khwajas of Kash¬ 
 gar, escaping from the dominant Chinese, took refuge in Badakhshan, 
 and were treacherously slain by Sultan Shah, who then ruled the country. 
 The holy men are said in their dying moments to have invoked curses 
 on Badakhshan, and prayed, that it might be three times depopulated. 
 And, in fact, since then it has been at least three times ravaged; first, a 
 few years after the outrage, by Ahmed Shah Durani of Kabul, when the 
 treacherous Sultan Shah was put to death; in the beginning of this 
 century by Kokan Beg of Kunduz; and again, in 1829, by his successor 
 
Chap. XXX. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF PASHAI. 
 
 155 
 
 Murad Beg, who swept away the bulk of the remaining inhabitants, 
 and set them down to die in the marshy plains of Kunduz.” ( Cathay , 
 p. 542.) 
 
 Note 8. —This “ bombasticall dissimulation of their garments,” as 
 the author of Anthropometcunorphosis calls such a fashion, is no longer 
 affected by the ladies of Badakhshan. But a friend in the Panjab 
 observes that it still survives there. “ There are ladies’ trowsers here 
 which might almost justify Marco’s very liberal estimate of the quantity 
 of stuff required to make them.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Of the Province of Pashai. 
 
 You must know that ten days’ journey to the south of 
 Badashan there is a Province called Pashai, the people of 
 which have a peculiar language, and are Idolaters, of a 
 brown complexion. They are great adepts in sorceries 
 and the diabolic arts. The men wear earrings and brooches 
 of gold and silver set with stones and pearls. They are a 
 pestilent people and a crafty ; and they live upon flesh and 
 rice. Their country is very hot. 1 
 
 Now let us proceed and speak of another country which 
 is seven days’ journey from this one towards the south-east, 
 and the name of which is Keshimur. 
 
 Note 1 .—The name of Pashai has already occurred (see chap, xviii.) 
 linked with Dir, as indicating a tract, apparently of very rugged and 
 difficult character, through which the partizan leader Nigudar passed 
 in making an incursion from Badakhshan towards Kashmir.' The diffi¬ 
 culty here lies in the name Pashai , which points to the south-west, 
 whilst Dir and all other indications point to the south-east. But 
 Pashai seems to me clearly the reading to which all texts tend, whilst it 
 is clearly expressed in the G. T. ( Pasciai ), and it is contrary to all my 
 experience of the interpretation of Marco Polo to attempt to torture the 
 name in the way which has been common with commentators professed 
 and occasional. But dropping this name for a moment, let us see to 
 what the other indications do point. 
 
156 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 In the meagre statements of this and the next chapter, interposed as 
 they are among chapters of detail unusually ample for Polo, there is 
 nothing to lead us to suppose that the Traveller ever personally visited 
 the countries of which these two chapters treat. I believe we have 
 here merely an amplification of the information already sketched of the 
 country penetrated by the Nigudarian bands whose escapade is related 
 in Chapter xviii., information which was probably derived from a Mongol 
 source. And these countries are in my belief both regions famous in the 
 legends of the Northern Buddhists, viz. UdyAna and Kashmir. 
 
 Udyana lay to the north of Peshawar on the Swat River, but from 
 the extent assigned to it by Hwen Thsang, the name probably covered 
 the whole hill-region south of the Hindu Kush and the Dard country, 
 from Chitral to the Indus, as indeed it is represented in the Map of 
 Vivien St. Martin (Pelerins Bouddhistes, II.). It is regarded by Fahian 
 as the most northerly Province of India, and in his time the food and 
 clothing of the people were similar to those of Gangetic India. It was 
 the native country of Padma Sambhava, one of the chief apostles of 
 Lamaism, i.e. of Tibetan Buddhism, and a great master of enchant¬ 
 ments. The doctrines of Sakya, as they prevailed in Udyana in old 
 times, were probably strongly tinged with Sivaitic magic, and the 
 Tibetans still regard that locality as the classic ground of sorcery and 
 witchcraft. 
 
 Hwen Thsang says of the inhabitants : “ The men are of a soft and 
 pusillanimous character, naturally mclined to craft and trickery. They 
 are fond of study, but pursue it with no ardour. The science of magical 
 formulae is become a regidarprofessional business with them . They gene¬ 
 rally wear clothes of white cotton, and rarely use any other stuff. Their 
 spoken language, in spite of some differences, has a strong resemblance 
 to that of India.” 
 
 These particulars suit well with the slight description in our text, and 
 the Indian atmosphere that it suggests; and the direction and distance 
 ascribed to Pashai suit well with Chitral, which may be taken as repre¬ 
 senting Udyana when approached from Badakhshan. For it would be 
 quite practicable for a party to reach the town of Chitral in ten days 
 from the position assigned to the old Capital of Badakhshan. And from 
 Chitral the road towards Kashmir would lie over the high passes of the 
 Laspur, or Laspisar range to Dir, which from its mention in Chap, xviii. 
 we must consider an obligatory point. ( Fah-hian , p. 26 ; Koeppen , I, 70 ; 
 Pelerins Boud. II. 131-2.) 
 
 We must now turn to the name Pashai. The Pashai Tribe are now 
 Mahomedan, but are reckoned among the aboriginal inhabitants of 
 the country, which the Afghans are not. Baber mentions them several 
 times, and counts their language as one of the dozen that were spoken 
 at Kabul in his time. Burnes says it resembles that of the Kafirs. 
 A small vocabulary of it was published by Leech, in the 7th volume of 
 the J. A. S. B., and has been repeated, with scarcely any modification, 
 
Chap. XXXI. THE PROVINCE OF KESHIMUR. 
 
 157 
 
 by Raverty in vol. xxxiii., alongside of a vocabulary of the Siah-posh 
 Kafir language. Both seem to be Indo-Germanic, but not very close 
 to one another. 
 
 Ibn Batuta, after crossing the Hindu Kush by one of the passes at 
 the head of the Panjshir Valley, reaches the Mountain Bashai (Pashai). 
 And it is still in the neighbourhood of Panjshir that the tribe is most 
 numerous, though they have other settlements in the hill-country about 
 Nijrao, and on the left bank of the Kabul River between Kabul and 
 Jalalabad. Pasha and Pasha-g ar is also named as one of the chief divi¬ 
 sions of the Kafirs, and it seems a fair conjecture that it represents 
 those of the Pashais who resisted or escaped conversion to Islam. (See 
 Leech!s Reports in Collection pub. at Calcutta in 1839; Baber , 140; 
 Elphinstone , I. 411 ; J A. S. B. VII. 329, 731, XXVIII. 317 seqq., 
 XXXIII. 271-2 ; /. B. III. 86.) 
 
 My first impression was that the route indicated by Polo lay by the 
 Panjshir passes, and the Pashai districts in that quarter; but I am satis¬ 
 fied that this is irreconcileable with the other data. The difficulty there¬ 
 fore remains as to how he came to apply the name Pashai to the country 
 south-east of Badakhshan. I cannot tell. But it is at least possible 
 that the Pashai tribe (of which the branches even now are spread over 
 a considerable extent of country) may have been once more important, 
 and that their name may have had a wide application over the southern 
 spurs of the Hindu Kush. In the Tabakat-i-Nasri (Elliot, II. 317) we 
 find mention of the Highlands of Pasha-Afroz, but nothing to define 
 their position. Our Author is speaking here, as we consider, from hear¬ 
 say, and hearsay geography without maps is much given to generalizing. 
 I apprehend that, along with characteristics specially referable to the 
 Tibetan and Mongol traditions of Udyana, the term Pashai as Polo 
 uses it vaguely covers the whole tract from the southern boundary of 
 Badakhshan to the Indus and the Kabul River. 
 
 But even by extending its limits to Attok, we shall not get within 
 seven marches of Kashmir. It is 234 miles by road from Attok to 
 Srinagar; greatly more than seven marches in such a country. And, 
 according to Polo’s usual system, the marches should be counted from 
 Chitral or some point thereabouts. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Of the Province of Keshimur. 
 
 Keshimur also is a Province inhabited by a people who 
 are Idolaters and have a language of their own. 1 They 
 have an astonishing acquaintance with the devilries of 
 
i 5 8 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 enchantment; insomuch that they make their idols to 
 speak. They can also by their sorceries bring on changes 
 of weather and produce darkness, and do a number of 
 things so extraordinary that no one without seeing them 
 would believe them. 2 Indeed, this country is the very 
 original source from which Idolatry has spread abroad.* 
 
 In this direction you can proceed further till you come 
 to the Sea of India. 
 
 The men are brown and lean, but the women, taking 
 them as brunettes, are very beautiful. The food of the 
 
 Ancient Buddhist Temple at Pandrethan in Kashmir. 
 
 people is flesh, and milk, and rice. The clime is finely 
 tempered, being neither very hot nor very cold. There 
 are numbers of towns and villages in the country, but also 
 forests and desert tracts, and strong passes, so that the 
 people have no fear of anybody, and keep their inde¬ 
 pendence, with a king of their own to rule and do justice. 4 
 
 There are in this country Eremites (after the fashion 
 of those parts), who dwell in seclusion and practise great 
 
Chap. XXXI. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF KESHIMUR. 
 
 159 
 
 abstinence in eating and drinking. They observe strict 
 chastity, and keep from all sins forbidden in their law, so 
 that they are regarded by their own folk as very holy 
 persons. They live to a very great age. 5 
 
 There are also a number of idolatrous abbeys and 
 monasteries. [The people of the province do not kill 
 animals nor spill blood; so if they want to eat meat they 
 get the Saracens who dwell among them to play the 
 butcher. 6 ] The coral which is carried from our parts 
 of the world has a better sale there than in any other 
 country. 7 
 
 Now we will quit this country, and not go any further 
 in the same direction; for if we did so we should enter 
 India; and that I do not wish to do at present. For on 
 our return journey I mean to tell you about India, all in 
 regular order. Let us go back therefore to Badashan, for 
 we cannot otherwise proceed on our journey. 
 
 Note 1. — I apprehend that in this chapter Marco represents 
 Buddhism (which is to be understood by his expression Idolatry , not 
 always, but usually) as in a position of greater life and prosperity than 
 we can believe it to have enjoyed in Kashmir at the end of the 13th 
 century, and I suppose that his knowledge of it was derived in great part 
 from tales of the Mongol and Tibetan Buddhists about its past glories. 
 
 I know not if the spelling Kesciemur represents any peculiar Mongol 
 pronunciation of the name. Plano Carpini, probably the first modern 
 European to mention this celebrated region, calls it Casmir (p. 708). 
 
 “ The Cashmeerians,” says Abul Fazl, “ have a language of their 
 own, but their books are written in the Shanskrit tongue, although the 
 character is sometimes Cashmeerian. They write chiefly upon Tooz 
 [birch-bark], which is the bark of a tree ; it easily divides into leaves, and 
 remains perfect for many years” (Ayeen Akbery , II. 147). A sketch of 
 Kashmiri Grammar by Mr. Edgeworth will be found in Vol. X. of the 
 J. A. S. B ., and a fuller one by Major Leech in Vol. XIII. The latter 
 says the language is without doubt of Sanscrit origin. 
 
 Note 2.— The Kashmirian conjurors had made a great impression 
 on Marco, who had seen them at the Court of the Great Khan, and he 
 recurs in a later chapter to their weather-sorceries and other enchant¬ 
 ments, when we shall make some remarks. Meanwhile let us cite a 
 passage from Bernier, already quoted by M. Pauthier. When crossing 
 
i6o 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 the Pir Panjal (the mountain crossed on entering Kashmir from Lahore) 
 with the camp of Aurangzfb, he met with “ an old Hermit who had 
 dwelt upon the summit of the Pass since the days of Jehangir, and 
 whose religion nobody knew, although it was said that he could work 
 miracles, and used at his pleasure to produce extraordinary thunder¬ 
 storms, as well as hail, snow, rain, and wind. There was something 
 wild in his countenance, and in his long spreading and tangled hoary 
 beard. He asked alms fiercely, allowing* the travellers to drink from 
 earthen cups that he had set out upon a great stone, but signing to 
 them to go quickly by without stopping. He scolded those who made 
 a noise, ‘ for,’ said he to me (after I had entered his cave and smoothed 
 him down with a half rupee which I put in his hand with all humility), 
 ‘ noise here raises furious storms. Aurangzib has done well in taking 
 my advice and prohibiting it. Shah Jahan always did the like. But 
 Jahangir once chose to laugh at what I said, and made his drums and 
 trumpets sound ; the consequence was he nearly lost his life.’ ” ( Bernier , 
 Amst. ed. 1699, II. 290.) A successor of this hermit was found in the 
 same spot by P. Desideri in 1713, and another by Vigne in 1837. 
 
 Note 3. —Though the earliest entrance of Buddhism into Tibet 
 was from India Proper, yet Kashmir twice in the history of Tibetan 
 Buddhism played a most important part. It was in Kashmir that was 
 gathered under the patronage of the great King Kanishka, in the cen¬ 
 tury before our era, the Fourth Buddhistic Council, which marks the 
 point of separation between Northern and Southern Buddhism. Nu¬ 
 merous missionaries went forth from Kashmir to spread the doctrine 
 in Tibet and in Central Asia. Many of the Pandits who laboured at 
 the translation of the sacred books into Tibetan were Kashmiris, and 
 it was even in Kashmir that several of the translations were made. But 
 these were not the only circumstances that made Kashmir a holy land 
 to the Northern Buddhists. In the end of the ninth century the religion 
 was extirpated in Tibet by the Julian of the Lamas, the great persecutor 
 Langdarma, and when it was restored, a century later, it was from 
 Kashmir in particular that fresh missionaries were procured to reinstruct 
 the people in the forgotten Law. (See Koefifien , II. 12-13, 78; J. As ., 
 ser. 6, tom. vi. 540.) 
 
 “ The spread of Buddhism to Kashmir is an event of extraordinary 
 importance in the history of that religion. Thenceforward that country 
 became a mistress in the Buddhist Doctrine and the head-quarters of a 
 
 particular school.The influence of Kashmir was very marked, 
 
 especially in the spread of Buddhism beyond India. From Kashmir it 
 
 penetrated to Kandahar and Kabul .... and thence over Bactria. 
 
 Tibetan Buddhism also had its essential origin from Kashmir .... so 
 great is the importance of this region in the History of Buddhism.” 
 ( Vassilyev, Der Buddhismus , I. 44.) 
 
 It is thus very intelligible how Marco learned from the Mongols and 
 
Chap. XXXI. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF KESH1MUR. 
 
 61 
 
 the Lamas with whom he came in contact to regard Kashmir as “ the 
 very original source from which their Religion had spread abroad.” The 
 feeling with which they looked to Kashmir must have been nearly the 
 same as that with which the Buddhists of Burma look to Ceylon. But 
 this feeling towards Kashmir does not now, I am informed, exist in 
 Tibet. The reverence for the holy places has reverted to Bahar and the 
 neighbouring “cradle-lands” of Buddhism. 
 
 Note 4 .—The people of Kashmir retain their beauty, but they 
 are morally one of the most degraded races in Asia. Long oppres¬ 
 sion, now under the Lords of Jamu as great as ever, has no doubt 
 aggravated this. Yet it would seem, that twelve hundred years ago the 
 evil elements were there as well as the beauty. The Chinese traveller 
 says : “Their manners are light and volatile, their characters effeminate 
 
 and pusillanimous.They are very handsome, but their natural 
 
 bent is to fraud and trickery” (Pel. Boud. II. 167-8). Vigne’s account 
 is nearly the same (II. 142-3). 
 
 Note 6.—In the time of Hwen Thsang, who spent two years study¬ 
 ing in Kashmir in the first half of the 7th century, though there were 
 many Brahmans in the country, Buddhism was in a flourishing state ; 
 there were 100 convents with about 5000 monks. In the end of the 
 nth century a King (Harshadewa, 1090-1102) is mentioned exceptionally 
 as a protector of Buddhism. The supposition has been intimated above 
 that Marco’s picture refers to a traditional state of things, but I must 
 notice that a like picture is presented in the Chinese account of Hu- 
 laku’s war. One of the thirty kingdoms subdued by the Mongols was 
 “ The kingdom of Fo (Buddha) called Kishimi. It lies to the N.W. of 
 India. There are to be seen the men who are counted the successors 
 of Shakia; their ancient and venerable air recalls the countenance of 
 Bodi-dharma as one sees it in pictures. They abstain from wine, and 
 content themselves with a gill of rice for their daily food, and are occu¬ 
 pied only in reciting the prayers and litanies of Fo ” (Rem. N. Mel. 
 Asiat. I. 179). Abul Fazl says that on his third visit with Akbar to 
 Kashmir he discovered some old men of the religion of Buddha, but 
 none of them were literati. The Rishis of whom he speaks as abstaining 
 from meat and from female society, as charitable and unfettered by 
 traditions, were perhaps a modified remnant of the Buddhist Eremites. 
 (Vie et V. deH. T. p. 390 ; Lassen, III. 709; Ayee?i Akb. II. 147, III. 151.) 
 
 We see from the Dabistan that in the 17th century Kashmir con¬ 
 tinued to be a great resort of Magian mystics and sages of various 
 sects, professing great abstinence, and credited with preternatural powers. 
 And indeed Vambery tells us that even in our own day the Kashmiri 
 Dervishes are pre-eminent among their Mahomedan brethren for cunning, 
 secret arts, skill in exorcisms, &c. (Dab. I. 113 seqq., II. 147-8 ; Vamb. 
 Sk. of Cent. Asia, 9.) 
 
 Note 6.—The first precept of the Buddhist Decalogue, or Ten Obli- 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 162 
 
 gations of the Religious Body, is not to take life. But animal food is 
 not forbidden, though restricted. Indeed it is one of the circumstances 
 in the Legendary History of Sakya Muni, which looks as if it must be 
 true, that he is related to have aggravated his fatal illness by eating a 
 dish of pork set before him by a hospitable goldsmith. Giorgi says the 
 butchers in Tibet are looked on as infamous; and people selling sheep 
 or the like will make a show of exacting an assurance that these are 
 not to be slaughtered. In Burma when a British party wanted beef 
 the owner of the bullocks would decline to make one over, but would 
 point one out that might be shot by the foreigners. 
 
 In Tibetan history it is told of the persecutor Lang-darma that he 
 compelled members of the highest orders of the clergy to become 
 hunters and butchers. A Chinese collection of epigrams, dating from 
 the 9th century, gives a facetious List of Inco?igruous Cojiditions , among 
 which we find a poor Parsi, a sick Physician, a fat Bride, a Teacher who 
 does not know his letters, and a Butcher who ] reads the Scriptures (of 
 Buddhism) ! (Alph. Tib. 445 ; Koeppen , I. 74; N. and Q ., C. and J. 
 III. 34.) 
 
 Note 7.— Coral is still a very popular adornment in the Himalayan 
 countries. The Merchant Tavernier says the people to the north of 
 the Great Mogul’s territories, and in the mountains of Assam and Tibet 
 were the greatest purchasers of coral. (Tr. in India , Bk. II. ch. xxiii.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Of the Great River of Badashan. 
 
 In leaving Badashan you ride twelve days between east 
 and north-east, ascending a river that runs through land 
 belonging to a brother of the Prince of Badashan, and con¬ 
 taining a good many towns and villages and scattered habi¬ 
 tations. The people are Mahommetans, and valiant in war. 
 At the end of those twelve days you come to a province 
 of no great size, extending indeed no more than three 
 days’ journey in any direction, and this is called Vokhan. 
 The people worship Mahommet, and they have a peculiar 
 language. They are gallant soldiers, and they have a chief 
 whom they call None, which is as much as to say Count , 
 and they are liegemen to the Prince of Badashan. 1 
 
Chap. XXXII. THE GREAT RIVER OF BADASHAN. 163 
 
 There are numbers of wild beasts of all sorts in this 
 region. And when you leave this little country, and ride 
 three days north-east, always among mountains, you get 
 to such a height that ’tis said to be the highest place in 
 the world! And when you have got to this height you 
 find [a great lake between two mountains, and out of it] 
 a fine river running through a plain clothed with the finest 
 pasture in the world ; insomuch that a lean beast there will 
 fatten to your heart’s content in ten days. There are great 
 numbers of all kinds of wild beasts ; among others, wild 
 sheep of great size, whose horns are good six palms in 
 length. From these horns the shepherds make great bowls 
 to eat from, and they use the horns also to enclose folds for 
 their cattle at night. [Messer Marco was told also that the 
 wolves were numerous, and killed many of those wild sheep. 
 Hence quantities of their horns and bones were found, 
 and these were made into great heaps by the way-side, in 
 order to guide travellers when snow was on the ground.] 
 
 The Plain is called Pamier, and you ride across it for 
 twelve days together, finding nothing but a desert without 
 habitations or any green thing, so that travellers are obliged 
 to carry with them whatever they have need of. The 
 region is so lofty and cold that you do not even see any 
 birds flying. And I must notice also that because of this 
 great cold, fire does not burn so brightly, nor give out so 
 much heat as usual, nor does it cook food so effectually. 2 
 
 Now, if we go on with our journey towards the east- 
 north-east, we travel a good forty days, continually passing 
 over mountains and hills, or through valleys, and crossing 
 many rivers and tracts of wilderness. And in all this way 
 you find neither habitation of man, nor any green thing, 
 but must carry with you whatever you require. The 
 country is called Bolor. The people dwell high up in 
 the mountains, and are savage idolaters, living only by the 
 chase, and clothing themselves in the skins of beasts. They 
 are in truth an evil race. J 
 
 m 2 
 
164 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 1 .—The river along which Marco travels from Badakhshan is 
 no doubt the upper stream of the Oxus, known locally as the Panja, 
 along which Wood also travelled. It is true that the river is reached 
 from Badakhshan Proper by ascending another river (the Vardoj) and 
 crossing the Pass of Ishkashm (10,000 ft.), but in the brief style of our 
 narrative we must expect such condensation. 
 
 Wakhan was restored to geography by Macartney, in the able map 
 which he compiled for Elphinstone’s Caubul , and it has been made 
 known more accurately by Wood’s journey through it. It embraces the 
 Panja valley above Ishkashm and some tributary Darahs or Yales. 
 Wood estimated the total popualtion of the province at only 1000 souls, 
 though it might be capable of supporting 5000. He saw it, however, in 
 the depth of winter. As to the peculiar language see note 1 , ch. xxix. 
 
 We appear to see in the indications of this paragraph precisely the 
 same system of government that now prevails in the Oxus valleys. The 
 central districts of Faizabad and Jerm were, before the late Afghan 
 conquest, under the immediate administration of Mir Jahandar Shah, 
 the Prince of Badakhshan, whilst fifteen other districts, such as Kishm , 
 Rustak , Shighndn , Ishkashm , Wakhan , were dependencies “held by 
 the relations of the Mir, or hereditary rulers, on a feudal tenure, con¬ 
 ditional on fidelity and military service in time of need, the holders 
 possessing supreme authority in their respective territories, and paying 
 little or no tribute to the paramount power.” {Pandit Manphul. ) The 
 first part of the valley of which Marco speaks as belonging to a brother 
 of the Prince may correspond to Ishkashm; the second, Wakhan, seems 
 to have had a hereditary ruler; but both were vassals of the Prince of 
 Badakhshan, and therefore are styled Counts , not kings or Seigneurs. 
 
 The native title which Marco gives as the equivalent of Count is 
 remarkable. Non or None , as it is variously written in the texts, would 
 in French form represent Nono in Italian. Pauthier refers this title to 
 the “ Waw-nana (or nano) Rao ,” which figures as the style of Kanerkes in 
 the Indo-Scythic coinage. But Wilson ( Ariana Antiqua , p. 358) inter¬ 
 prets Raonano as most probably a genitive plural of Rao, whilst the 
 whole inscription answers precisely to the Greek one BA^IAEY^ BA- 
 ^IAEQN KANHPKOY which is found on other coins of the same prince. 
 Gen. Cunningham, a very competent authority, adheres to this view and 
 writes : “ I do not think None or Non can have any connection with the 
 Nana of the coins.” 
 
 We find in the published Timur’s Institutes (p. 329) “the Beglerbegs, 
 the Amirs, and the Nunian.” If the last word were a genuine term we 
 might be satisfied to regard it as the plural of Polo’s None. But it is 
 probably an error for Nuinan, Niiin or Noyan being a prince of the 
 blood in Mongol. 
 
 It is remarkable, however, that Nono (said to signify “ younger,” or 
 lesser) is in Tibet the title given to a younger brother, deputy, or sub¬ 
 ordinate prince. In Cunningham’s Ladak (259), we read: “ No-no is 
 
Chap. XXXII. 
 
 THE PLATEAU OF PAMER. 
 
 165 
 
 the usual term of respect which is used in addressing any young man of 
 the higher ranks, and when prefixed to Kahlon it means the younger or 
 deputy minister. Moorcroft (I. p. 334-5) gives the term without the 
 title, as the usual designation of the deputy minister, just as we should 
 say ‘ the deputy,’ instead of £ the deputy chairman.’ ” And again (p. 352): 
 “ No-no is the title given to a younger brother. Nono Sungnam was the 
 younger brother of Chang Raphtan the Kahlon of Bazgo.” There is a 
 slight error in the reference to Moorcroft; for though the latter speaks 
 of the Nu?ia-Khalun, I cannot find that he uses Nuna simply (see I. 
 248, 253, 334). But I have recently encountered the word used 
 independently, and precisely in Marco’s application of it. An old friend 
 in speaking of a journey that he had made in our Tibetan provinces, 
 said incidentally that he had accompanied the commissioner to the in¬ 
 stallation of a new Nono (I think in Spiti). The term here corresponds 
 so precisely with the explanation which Marco gives of None as a Count 
 subject to a superior sovereign, that it is difficult to regard the coinci¬ 
 dence as accidental. The Yuechi or Indo-Scyths who long ruled the 
 Oxus countries are said to have been of Tibetan origin. Can this title 
 have been a trace of their rule ? Or is it rather Indian ? for Gen. Cun¬ 
 ningham writes to me that he regards the word as “ the same as the 
 Hindi Nanml” (qu. Nannhd of J. Shakespear, “small, diminutive”?). 
 
 Note 2.— This chapter is one of the most interesting in the book, 
 and contains one of its most splendid anticipations of modern explora¬ 
 tion, whilst conversely Captain John Wood’s narrative presents the most 
 brilliant confirmation in detail of Marco’s narrative. 
 
 We have very old testimony to the recognition of the great altitude 
 of the Plateau of Pamer (the name which Marco gives it and which it 
 still retains), and to the existence of the lake upon its surface. The 
 Chinese pilgrims Hwui Seng and Sung Yun, who passed this way, a.d. 
 518, inform us that these high lands of the Tsung Ling were commonly 
 said to be midway between heaven and earth. The more celebrated 
 Hwen Thsang, who came this way nearly 120 years later (about 644) on 
 his return to China, “after crossing the mountains for 700 //, arrived at 
 the valley of Pomilo (Pamer). This valley is 1000 li (about 200 miles) 
 from east to west, and 100 li (20 m.) from north to south, and lies 
 between two snowy ranges in the centre of the Tsung Ling mountains. 
 The traveller is annoyed by sudden gusts of wind, and the snow-drifts 
 never cease, spring or summer. As the soil is almost constantly frozen, 
 you see but a few miserable plants, and no crops can live. The whole 
 tract is but a dreary waste, without a trace of human kind. In the 
 middle of the valley is a great lake 300 li (60 m.) from east to west, and 
 500 li from north to south. This stands in the centre of Jambudwipa 
 (the Buddhist oIkov/xIvy]) on a plateau of prodigious elevation. An end¬ 
 less variety of creatures peoples its waters. When you hear the murmur 
 and clash of its waves you think you are listening to the noisy hum of a 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 166 
 
 great market in which vast crowds of people are mingling in excitement. 
 
 . . . The lake discharges to the west, and a river runs out of it in that 
 direction and joins the Potsu (Oxus). . . . The lake likewise discharges 
 to the east, and a great river runs out, which flows eastward to the 
 western frontier of Kiesha (Kashgar) where it joins the river Sita, and 
 runs eastward with it into the sea.” The story of an eastern outflow 
 from the lake is no doubt legend, connected with an ancient Hindu 
 belief (see Cathay , p. 347), but Burnes in modern times heard much the 
 same story. 
 
 ‘‘After quitting the (frozen) surface of the river,” says Wood, “we 
 . . . ascended a low hill which apparently bounded the valley to the 
 eastward. On surmounting this, at 3 p.m. of the 19th February, 1838, 
 we stood, to use a native expression, upon the Bdm-i-Duniah or ‘ Roof 
 of the World,’ while before us lay stretched a noble, but frozen sheet of 
 water, from whose western end issued the infant river of the Oxus. 
 This fine lake (Sirikul) lies in the form of a crescent, about 14 miles long 
 from east to west, by an average breadth of one mile. On three sides 
 it is bordered by swelling hills about 500 feet high, while along its 
 southern bank they rise into mountains 3500 feet above the lake, or 
 19,000 feet above the sea, and covered with perpetual snow, from which 
 never-failing source the lake is supplied. ... Its elevation, measured 
 by the temperature of boiling water, is 15,600 feet.” 
 
 The absence of birds, noticed by Marco, probably shows that he 
 passed very late or early in the season. Hwen Thsang, we see, gives a 
 different account; Wood was there in winter, but heard that in summer 
 the lake swarmed with water-fowl. 
 
 The Pamer Steppe was crossed by Benedict Goes late in the autumn 
 of 1603, and the narrative speaks of the great cold and desolation, and 
 the difficulty of breathing. We have also an abstract of the journey of 
 Abdul Mejid, a British agent, who passed Pamer on his way to Kokan 
 in 1861 :—“ Fourteen weary days were occupied in crossing the steppe; 
 the marches were long, depending on uncertain supplies of grass and 
 water, which sometimes wholly failed them; food for man and beast 
 had to be carried with the party, for not a trace of human habitation is 
 to be met with in those inhospitable wilds. . . . The steppe is inter¬ 
 spersed with tamarisk jungle and the wild willow, and in the summer 
 with tracts of high grass.” (Neumann, Pilgerfahrten Buddh. Prtester , p. 
 50; V et V de H. V 271-2 ; Wood , 354; Proc. R. G. S ., X. 150). 
 
 We may observe chat Severtsof asserts Pamer to be a generic term, 
 applied to all high plateaux in the Thian Shan. 
 
 Wood speaks of the numerous wolves in this region. And the great 
 sheep is that to which Blyth, in honour of our traveller, has given the 
 name of Ovis Poli. A pair of horns, sent by Wood to the Royal Asiatic 
 Society, and of which a representation is given below, affords the follow¬ 
 ing dimensions :—Length of one horn on the curve, 4 feet 8 inches; round 
 the base 14^ inches; distance of tips apart 3 feet 9 inches. This sheep 
 
Chap. XXXII. 
 
 THE OVIS POLL 
 
 167 
 
 appears to be the same as the Rass , of which Burnes heard that the 
 horns were so big that a man could not lift a pair, and that foxes bred 
 in them; also that the carcase formed a load for two horses. Wood 
 says that these horns supply shoes for the Kirghiz horses, and also a 
 good substitute for stirrup-irons. “ We saw numbers of horns strewed 
 about in every direction, the spoils of the Kirghiz hunter. Some of 
 these were of an astonishingly large size, and belonged to an animal of a 
 species between a goat and a sheep, inhabiting the steppes of Pamir. 
 The ends of the horns projecting above the snow often indicated the direction 
 of the road; and wherever they were heaped in large quantities and 
 disposed in a semicircle, there our escort recognized the site of a Kir¬ 
 ghiz summer encampment. ... We came in sight of a rough-looking 
 building, decked out with the horns of the wild sheep, and all but buried 
 amongst the snow. It was a Kirghiz burying-ground.” (pp. 340, 350, 
 353 -) 
 
 In 1867 this great sheep was shot by M. Severtsof on the Plateau 
 of Aksai in the western Thianshan. He reports these animals to go in 
 great herds, and to be very difficult to kill. However he brought back 
 
 Horns of Ovis Poli. 
 
 two specimens. The Narin River is stated to be the northern limit of 
 the species. Severtsof also states that the enemies of the Ovis Poli are 
 the wolves. 
 
 As to the pasture, Timkowski heard that “ the pasturage of Pamir 
 is so luxuriant and nutritious, that if horses are left on it for more than 
 forty days they die of repletion” (I. 421). And Wood : “ The grass of 
 Pamer, they tell you, is so rich that a sony horse is here brought into 
 good condition in less than twenty days; and its nourishing qualities are 
 evidenced in the productiveness of their ewes, which almost invariably 
 bring forth two lambs at a birth” (p. 365). 
 
 With regard to the effect upon fire ascribed to the “ great cold,” 
 Ramusio’s version inserts the expression “ gli fu affermato per miracolof 
 “ it was asserted to him as a wonderful circumstance.” And Humboldt 
 thinks it so strange that Marco should not have observed this personally 
 that he doubts whether Polo himself passed the Pamer. “ How is it that 
 he does not say that he himself had seen how the flames disperse and 
 leap about, as I myself have so often experienced at similar altitudes in 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 168 
 
 the Cordilleras of the Andes, especially when investigating the boiling- 
 point of water?” ( Cent . Asia , Germ. Transl. I. 588.) But the words 
 quoted from Ramusio do not exist in the old texts, and they are pro¬ 
 bably an editorial interpolation indicating disbelief in the statement. 
 
 Major Montgomerie, R.E., of the Indian Survey, who has probably 
 passed more time nearer the heavens than any man living, sends me the 
 following note on this passage : “ What Marco Polo says as to fire at 
 great altitudes not cooking so effectually as usual is perfectly correct as 
 far as anything boiled is concerned, but I doubt if it is as to anything 
 roasted. The want of brightness in a fire at great altitudes is I think 
 altogether attributable to the poorness of the fuel, which consists of 
 either small sticks or bits of roots, or of argots of dung, all of which give 
 out a good deal of smoke, more especially the latter if not quite dry; 
 but I have often seen a capital blaze made with the argols when per¬ 
 fectly dry. As to cooking, we found that rice, dal, and potatoes would 
 never soften properly, no matter how long they were boiled. This of 
 course was due to the boiling-point being only from 170° to 180°. Our 
 tea, moreover, suffered from the same cause, and was never good when 
 we were over 15,000 feet. This was very marked. Some of my natives 
 made dreadful complaints about the rice and dal that they got from the 
 village-heads in the valleys, and vowed that they only gave them what 
 was very old and hard, as they could not soften it!” 
 
 Note 3.— According to Gen. Cunningham the Tibetan kingdom of 
 Balti is called Balor by the Dards of Gilgit, and the same high authority 
 considers Balti to be th q Polulo or Bolor of Hwen Thsang, and the 
 Bolor of Polo. I cannot concur as to the latter, though very possibly 
 (as indeed Gen. Cunningham seems to intimate) the term Bolor had at 
 one time an extension which included both Balti and the mountains 
 adjoining Pamer. Some corroboration of this supposed wide extension 
 of the term is found in the account which the Tdrikh Rashidi , a work 
 written in Eastern Turkestan in the 16th century, gives of Malaur 
 (Balaur or Bolor) : “ It is a country with few level spots. It has a cir¬ 
 cuit of four months’ march. The eastern frontier borders on Kashgar 
 and Yarkand ; it has Badakhshan to the north, Kabul to the west, and 
 Kashmir to the south.” Also in a Pushtu poem of the 17th century, 
 translated by Raverty, we find the mountains of Bilaur- istan assigned as 
 the northern boundary of Swat. But there can, I think, be no rea¬ 
 sonable doubt of the existence of a place and small mountain state called 
 Bolor (perhaps a relic of the extension just alluded to) immediately west 
 of Pamer. This, according to V. St. Martin, is the Puliho of Hwen 
 Thsang; it appears as a geographical position in the Tables of Nasir- 
 uddin, and reappears in the Chinese tables of last century with precisely 
 the same latitude. These last I fancy form the chief authority for the 
 position assigned in our modern maps to a place called Bolor, which the 
 
 questionable traveller George Ludwig Yon-claims to have visited. 
 
 The state of Bolor is described in the great Chinese geography, of which 
 
Jjdndon: JohnKio'ray.Alb&rfuuie Street. 
 
Chap. XXXIII. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF CASCAR. 
 
 169 
 
 Klaproth has given extracts, as situated to the south-west of Yarkand and 
 east of Badakhshan, and as containing, when it submitted to the Chinese 
 in 1749, 30,000 families. This of course could not be Balti. Another 
 Chinese extract speaks of the Foolurh (Bolor?) people as a race of 
 Mahomedans west of Yarkand, who live in a very uncivilized state with¬ 
 out books or writing, not understanding the language of other Maho¬ 
 medans, and dwelling pell-mell, men and women, like herds of cattle. 
 This probably refers to the Kirghiz. 
 
 The J. A. S. Bengal , for 1853 (Vol. XXII.), contains extracts from 
 the diary of a Mr. Gardner in those central regions of Asia. These 
 read more like the memoranda of a dyspeptic dream than anything else, 
 and the only passage I can find illustrative of our traveller is the follow¬ 
 ing ; the region alluded to must be in or near' the Bolor country, for it is 
 described as lying twenty days south-west of Kashgar : “ The Akaas 
 are short, stout, and hardy; but few Mahomedans, except the tribe 
 Oojuem near Andejan ; women not handsome; dress, skins. The Keiaz 
 tribe live in caves on the highest peaks, subsist by hunting, keep no 
 flocks, said to be anthropophagous, but have handsome women; eat 
 their flesh raw” (p. 295 ; Pelerins Bond. III. 316, 421, &c. ; Ladak , 34, 
 45, 47 ; Mag. Asiatique , I. 92, 96-7 ; Not. et Ext. II. 475, XIV. 492 ; 
 J. A. S. B. XXXI. 279 ; Chin. Repos. IX. 129). 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Of the Kingdom of Cascar. 
 
 Cascar is a region lying between north-east and east, 
 and constituted a kingdom in former days, but now it is 
 subject to the Great Kaan. The people worship Mahommet. 
 There are a good number of towns and villages, but the 
 greatest and finest is Cascar itself. The inhabitants live by 
 trade and handicrafts; they have beautiful gardens and 
 vineyards, and fine estates, and grow a great deal of cotton. 
 From this country many merchants go forth about the 
 world on trading journeys. The natives are a wretched 
 niggardly set of people; they eat and drink in miserable 
 fashion. There are in the country many Nestorian Christians 
 who have churches of their own. The people of the country 
 have a peculiar language, and the territory extends for five 
 days’ journey . 1 
 
170 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 1. —It would seem that Polo’s party, instead of crossing the 
 Pamer from west to east, and then descending by the rugged country 
 above Yarkand upon that city (as Benedict Goes did), travelled north 
 in the length of the steppe for twelve days, probably following so far 
 the route of Abdul Mejid in our day, and then descended upon Kashgar. 
 
 The name of this city is generally pronounced by the people, as 
 ’Izzat Ullah tells us, Kashkar. Goes also spells it Cciscar. 
 
 It is not easy to understand how Kashgar should have been subject 
 to the Great Kaan, except in the sense in which all territories under 
 Mongol rule owed him homage. Yarkand Polo acknowledges to have 
 belonged to Kaidu, and the boundary between Kaidu’s territory and the 
 Kaan’s lay between Karashahar and Kamul, much further east. 
 
 Kashgar was at this time a metropolitan See of the Nestorian 
 Church. ( Cathay , &c., 275, ccxlv.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Of the Great City of Samarcan. 
 
 Samar can is a great and noble city towards the north-west, 
 inhabited by both Christians and Saracens, who are subject 
 to the Great Kaan’s nephew, Caidou by name; he is how 
 ever, at bitter enmity with the Kaan . 1 I will tell you 
 of a great marvel that happened at this city. 
 
 It is not a great while ago that Sigatay, own brother 
 to the Great Kaan, who was Lord of this country and of 
 many an one besides, became a Christian . 2 The Christians 
 rejoiced greatly at this, and they built a great church in the 
 city, in honour of John the Baptist; and by his name the 
 church was called. And they took a very fine stone which 
 belonged to the Saracens, and placed it as the pedestal of 
 a column in the middle of the Church, supporting the roof. 
 It came to pass, however, that Sigatay died. Now the 
 Saracens were full of rancour about that stone that had 
 been theirs, and which had been set up in the church of the 
 Christians ; and when they saw that the Prince was dead, 
 they said one to another that now was the time to get back 
 
Chap. XXXIV. THE GREAT CITY OF SAMARCAN. 
 
 71 
 
 their stone, by fair means or by foul. And that they might 
 well do, for they were ten times as many as the Christians. 
 So they gat together and went to the church and said that 
 the stone they must and would have. The Christians 
 acknowledged that it was theirs indeed, but offered to pay 
 a large sum of money and so be quit. Howbeit, the others 
 replied that they never would give up the stone for anything 
 in the world. And words ran so high that the Prince heard 
 thereof, and ordered the Christians either to arrange to 
 satisfy the Saracens, if it might be, with money, or to give 
 up the stone. And he allowed them three days to do either 
 the one thing or the other. 
 
 What shall I tell you? Well, the Saracens would on 
 no account agree to leave the stone where it was, and this 
 out of pure despite to the Christians, for they knew well 
 enough that if the stone were stirred the church would come 
 down by the run. So the Christians were in great trouble 
 and wist not what to do. But they did do the best tiling- 
 possible ; they besought Jesus Christ that he would con¬ 
 sider their case, so that the holy church should not come 
 to destruction, nor the name of its Patron Saint, John the 
 Baptist, be tarnished by its ruin. And so when the day 
 fixed by the Prince came round, they went to the church 
 betimes in the morning, and lo, they found the stone 
 removed from under the column ; the foot of the column 
 was without support, and yet it bore the load as stoutly 
 as before ! Between the foot of the column and the ground 
 there was a space of three palms. So the Saracens had 
 away their stone, and mighty little joy withal. It was 
 a glorious miracle, nay, it is so, for the column still so 
 standeth, and will stand as long as God pleasethd 
 
 Now let us quit this and continue our journey. 
 
 Note 1.— -Of Kaidu, Kublai Kaan’s kinsman and rival, and their long 
 wars, we shall have to speak later. He had at this time a kind of joint 
 occupancy of Samarkand and Bokhara with the Khans of Chagatai, his 
 cousins. 
 
172 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Marco evidently never was at Samarkand, though doubtless it was 
 visited by his Father and Uncle on their first journey, when we know 
 they were long at Bokhara. Having therefore little to say descriptive of 
 a city he had not seen, he tells us a story:— 
 
 “ So geographers, in Afric maps, 
 
 With savage pictures fill their gaps, 
 
 And o’er unhabitable downs 
 Place elephants for want of towns.” 
 
 As regards the Christians of Samarkand, who figure in the following 
 story, we may note that the city had been one of the Metropolitan Sees 
 of the Nestorian Church since the beginning of the 8th century, and had 
 been a bishopric perhaps two centuries earlier. Prince Sempad, High 
 Constable of Armenia, in a letter written from Samarkand in 1246 or 
 1247, mentions several circumstances illustrative of the state of things 
 indicated in this story : “ I tell you that we have found many Christians 
 scattered all over the East, and many fine churches, lofty, ancient, and 
 of good architecture, which have been spoiled by the Turks. Hence, 
 the Christians of this country came to the presence of the reigning Kaan’s 
 grandfather (i.e. Chinghiz); he received them most honourably, and 
 granted them liberty of worship, and issued orders to prevent their 
 having any just cause of complaint by word or deed. And so the Saracens, 
 who used to treat them with contempt, have now the like treatment in double 
 measure .” 
 
 Shortly after Marco’s time, viz. in 1328, Thomas of Mancasola, a 
 Dominican, who had come from Samarkand with a Mission to the Pope 
 (John XXII.) from Ilchigadai Khan of Chagatai, was appointed Latin 
 Bishop of that city. (Mosheim, p. no, &c. ; Cathay , p. 192.) 
 
 Note 2 . —Chagatai, here called Sigatay, was Uncle, not Brother, to 
 the Great Kaan (Kublai). Nor was Kaidu either Chagatai’s son or 
 Kublai’s nephew, as Marco here and elsewhere represents him to be (see 
 Book IV. ch. i.). The term used to describe Chagatai’s relationship is 
 frere charnel, which excludes ambiguity, cousinship or the like (such 
 as is expressed by the Italian fratello cugino), and corresponds I believe 
 to the brother germati of Scotch law documents. 
 
 Note 3 . — One might say, these things be an allegory! We take the 
 fine stone that belongs to the Saracens (or Papists) to build our church 
 on, but the day of reckoning comes at last, and our (Protestant) Christians 
 are afraid that the Church will come about their ears. May it stand, 
 and better than that of Samarkand has done ! 
 
 There is a story somewhat like this in D’Herbelot, about the 
 Karmathian Heretics carrying off the Black Stone from Mecca, and 
 being obliged years after to bring it back across the breadth of Arabia; 
 on which occasion the stone conducted itself in a miraculous manner. 
 
 There is a remarkable Stone at Samarkand, the Kok-Tash or Green 
 
Chs. XXXV.-VI. PROVINCES OF YARCAN AND COTAN. 
 
 173 
 
 Stone, on which Timur’s throne was set. Tradition says it was brought 
 by him from Brusa (180 cubic feet of it!) but tradition may be wrong 
 (see Vambery's Travels , p. 206). 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Of the Province of Yarcan. 
 
 Yarcan is a province five days’ journey in extent. The 
 people follow the Law of Mahommet, but there are also 
 Nestorian and Jacobite Christians. They are subject to the 
 same Prince that I mentioned, the Great Kaan’s nephew. 
 They have plenty of everything [particularly of cotton. 
 The inhabitants are also great craftsmen, but a large pro¬ 
 portion of them have swoln legs, and great crops at the 
 throat, which arises from some quality in their drinking- 
 water]. As there is nothing else worth telling we may 
 pass on . 1 
 
 Note 1 .—Yarkan or Yarken seems to be the general pronunciation 
 of the name to this day, though we write Yarkand. 
 
 Mir Tzzat Ullah in modern days speaks of the prevalence of goitre 
 at Yarkand. And Mr. Shaw informs me that during his recent visit to 
 Yarkand he had numerous applications for iodine as a remedy for that 
 disease. The theory which connects it with the close atmosphere 
 of valleys will not hold at Yarkand. (J. R. Al S.> VII. 303.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Of a Province called Cotan. 
 
 Cotan is a province lying between north-east and east, 
 and is eight days’ journey in length. The people are subject 
 to the Great Kaan, and are all worshippers of Mahommet . 1 
 There are numerous towns and villages in the country, but 
 
174 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Cotan, the capital, is the most noble of all, and gives its 
 name to the kingdom. Everything is to be had there 
 in plenty, including abundance of cotton [with flax, hemp, 
 wheat, wine, and the like]. The people have vineyards and 
 gardens and estates. They live by commerce and manu¬ 
 factures, and are no soldiers . 2 
 
 Note 1 .—“ Aourent Mahommet .” Though this is Marco’s usual 
 formula to define Mahomedans,,we can scarcely suppose that he meant 
 it literally. But in other cases it was very literally interpreted. Thus 
 in Baudouin de Sebourg. , the Dame de Pontieu, a passionate lady who 
 renounces her faith before Saladin ; says :— 
 
 “ ‘ Et je renoie Dieu et le povoir qu’il a, 
 
 Et Marie sa Mere qu’on dist que le porta ! 
 
 Mahom voel aourer , aportez-le-moi cha ! ’ 
 
 * * * * Li Soudans commanda 
 
 Qu’on aportasi Mahom ; et celle Vaoura .”—I. p. 72. 
 
 And this notion gave rise to the use of Mawmet for an idol in general ; 
 whilst from the Mahommerie or place of Islamite worship the name of 
 mummery came to be applied to idolatrous or unmeaning rituals; both 
 very unjust etymologies. Thus of mosques in Richard Coeur de Lion : — 
 
 “ Kyrkes they made of Crystene Lawe, 
 
 And her Mawmettes lete downe drawe.”— Weber , II. 228. 
 
 So Correa calls a golden idol, which was taken by Da Gama in a ship of 
 Calicut, “ an image of Mahomed ” (372). Don Quixote too, who ought 
 to have known better, cites with admiration the feat of Rinaldo in 
 carrying off, in spite of forty Moors, a golden image of Mahomed. 
 
 Note 2.- —800 li (160 miles) east of Chokiuka or Yarkand, Hwen 
 Thsang comes to Kiustanna (Kustana) or Khotan. “ The country 
 chiefly consists of plains covered with stones and sand. The remainder 
 however, is favourable to agriculture and produces everything abundantly. 
 From this country are got woollen carpets, fine felts, well woven taffetas, 
 white and black jade.” Chinese authors of the 10th century speak of 
 the abundant grapes and excellent wine of Khotan. 
 
 Ilchi, the modern capital, was visited by Mr. Johnson of the Indian 
 Survey in 1865. The country, after the revolt against the Chinese in 
 1863, came first under the rule of Habib-ullah, an aged chief calling 
 himself Khan Badshah of Khotan ; and since the defeat and death of 
 that chief about 1867, it has formed a part of the kingdom of Ya’kub 
 Beg of Kashgar, which now embraces the whole basin of Eastern 
 Turkestan to Karashahr. 
 
Chap. XXXVII. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF PEIN. 
 
 75 
 
 Mr. Johnson says : “The chief grains of the country are Indian corn, 
 wheat, barley of two kinds, bajra,jowar (two kinds of holcus ), buckwheat 
 and rice, all of which are superior to the Indian grains, and are of 
 
 a very fine quality. The country is certainly superior to India, 
 
 and in every respect equal to Kashmir, over which it has the advantage 
 of being less humid, and consequently better suited to the growth of 
 fruits. Olives (?), pears, apples, peaches, apricots, mulberries, grapes, 
 currants, and melons, all exceedingly large in size and of a delicious 
 
 flavour, are produced in great variety and abundance. Cotton of 
 
 valuable quality, and raw silk are produced in very large quantities.” 
 
 Mr. Johnson reports the whole country to be rich in soil, and very 
 much under-peopled. Ilchi the capital has a population of about 
 40,000, and is a great place for manufactures. The chief articles pro¬ 
 duced are silks, felts, carpets (both silk and woollen), coarse cotton 
 cloths, and paper from the mulberry fibre. The people are strict 
 Mahomedans and speak a Turki dialect. Both sexes are good-looking, 
 with a slightly Tartar cast of countenance. ( V. et V. de H T. 278; 
 Remus at, H. dela V. de Khotan, 73-84 ; Chin. Repos. IX. 128 ; J. R.G. S. 
 XXXVII. 6 seqq.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Of the Province of Pein. 
 
 Pein is a province five days in length, lying between east 
 and north-east. The people are worshippers of Mahommet, 
 and subjects of the Great Kaan. There are a good number 
 of towns and villages, but the most noble is Pein, the 
 capital of the kingdom . 1 There are rivers in this country, 
 in which quantities of Jasper and Chalcedony are found . 2 
 The people have plenty of all products, including cotton. 
 They live by manufactures and trade. But they have 
 a custom that I must relate. If the husband of any woman 
 go away upon a journey and remain away for more than 20 
 days, as soon as that term is past the woman may marry 
 another man, and the husband also may then marry whom 
 he pleases . 3 
 
 I should tell you that all the provinces that I have been 
 
176 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 speaking of, from Cascar forward, and those I am going to 
 mention [as far as the city of Lop] belong to Great 
 Turkey. 
 
 Note 1 .—There have been considerable differences of opinion as to 
 where Pein is to be sought. 
 
 “ In old times,” says the Haft-Iklim , “ travellers used to go from 
 Khotan to Cathay in 14 (?) days, and found towns and villages all along 
 the road, so that there was no need to travel in caravans. In later days 
 the fear of the Kalmaks caused this line to be abandoned, and the cir¬ 
 cuitous one occupied 100 days.” This directer route between Khotan 
 and China appears to have been followed by Fahian on his way to India; 
 by Hwen Thsang on his way back ; and by Shah Rukh’s ambassadors 
 on their return from China in 1421. The main question as to Polo’s 
 route is whether he took this, or the circuitous route alluded to in the 
 extract just quoted. The latter appears to have gone north from Kho¬ 
 tan, crossed the Tarimgol, and fallen into the road along the base of 
 the Thian Shan, eventually crossing the Desert southward from Kamul. 
 
 Marsden is here very vague. Neumann would seem to prefer the 
 southern route by his suggested identification of Charchan with Chira 
 east of Khotan, were it not that he had just before identified Pein with 
 Pijan , some 700 miles to the N.E. of Chira. Such random zigzag 
 geography is of no aid or value. Murray suggested that Pein was the 
 Bai of our maps, a town and district of Eastern Turkestan lying about 
 350 miles nearly due north of Ilchi, near the foot of the Thian Shan. 
 He also identified the Charchan of the following chapter with Kara- 
 shahr , and thus assigned to Polo what we have spoken of as the northern 
 or circuitous route. This scheme has been followed by Pauthier. 
 
 Several circumstances had led me to doubt this view. First (though 
 on this I lay little, stress), we go on upon the old bearing of E.N.E. 
 There is no indication of a change to due north such as would be in¬ 
 volved in the journey to Bai. Next, we have no ground that I can learn 
 for believing that the rivers flowing south from the Thian Shan afford 
 Jasper , i.e. Jade. This is the product of rivers flowing north from the 
 Kuen Lun and Karakorum. Professor Vambery also has favoured me 
 with a note, in which he expresses a strong opinion that Polo’s Pein 
 “must have existed on the way from Khotan to Komul along the 
 Khotan Deria (River), a road which is even now much frequented. 
 Marco Polo speaks of cotton growing in Pein. I know for certain that 
 cotton begins to grow only south of Aksu, and Bai has almost the 
 coldest climate of the Six Towns ” (i.e. of Eastern Turkestan). 
 
 Since reading Johnson’s Report of his Journey to Khotan I am able 
 to feel tolerable certainty as to the position of Charchan, and as to the 
 fact that Marco followed a direct route from Khotan to the vicinity of 
 
Chap. XXXVII. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF PEIN. 
 
 177 
 
 Lake Lop. Pein, then, I have little doubt, was identical with Pima,* 
 which was the first city reached by Hwen Thsang on his return to China 
 after quitting Khotan, and which lay 300 li east of the latter city. The 
 Si-yu-ki , followed by St. Martin in his map, puts Pima 7 vest of Khotan, 
 but this is quite inconsistent both with the direction of the returning 
 pilgrims’ route, and with other notices of Pima quoted in Re'musat’s 
 History of Khotan. These place Pima 330 li to the eastward of 
 Khotan, on the banks of a river flowing from the east and entering the 
 Sandy Desert. Johnson found Khotan rife with stories of former cities 
 overwhelmed by the shifting sands of the Desert, and these sands appear 
 to have been advancing for ages; for far to the north-east of Pima, 
 even in the 7 th century, were to be found the deserted and ruined cities 
 of the ancient kingdoms of Tuholo and Shemathona. “ Where anciently 
 were the seats of flourishing cities and prosperous communities,” says a 
 Chinese author, speaking of this region, “is nothing now to be seen but 
 a vast desert; all has been buried in the sands, and the wild camel is 
 hunted on those arid plains.” 
 
 Pima cannot have been far from Kiria , visited by Johnson, if it were 
 not practically identical therewith. This is a town of 7000 houses lying 
 east of Ilchi, and about 69 miles distant from it. The road for the 
 most part lies through a highly cultivated and irrigated country, flanked 
 by the sandy desert at 3 or 4 miles to the left. 
 
 (N. et E. XIV. 477 ; V. et V. de H. T. 288 ; H. de la Ville de 
 Khoten , 63-66 ; Klap . Tabl. Historiques , p. 182.) 
 
 Note 2. —The Jasper and Chalcedony of our author are probably only 
 varieties of the semi-precious mineral called by us popularly Jade , by the 
 Chinese Yu, by the Eastern Turks Kash , by the Persians Yashm , which 
 last is no doubt th^ same word with lacnns and therefore with Jasper. 
 The Greek Jaspis was in reality, according to Mr. King, a green Chal¬ 
 cedony. 
 
 The Jade of Turkestan is chiefly derived from water-rolled boulders 
 fished up by divers in the rivers of Khotan, but it is also got from mines 
 in the Karakorum range. “Some of the Jade,” says Timkowski, “is 
 as white as snow, some dark green, like the most beautiful emerald (?) 
 others yellow, vermilion, and jet black. The rarest and most esteemed 
 varieties are the wfiite speckled with red, and the green veined with 
 gold” (I. 395). The Jade of Khotan appears to be first mentioned by 
 Chinese authors in the time of the Han Dynasty under Wuti (b.c. 140- 
 86). In a.d. 541 an image of Buddha sculptured in Jade was sent as 
 an offering from Khotan; and in 632 the process of fishing for the 
 material in the rivdrs of Khotan, as practised down to modern times, is 
 mentioned. The importation of Jade or Yu from this quarter probably 
 gave the name of Kia-yu-Kuan or “ Jade Gate ” to the fortified Pass look¬ 
 ing in this direction on the extreme N.W. of China Proper, between 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 * Pein may easily have been miscopied for Fern. 
 
 N 
 
i/8 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Shachau and Suchau. {H. de la V. de Khoten , 2, 17, 23; also see 
 J. R. G. S. XXXVI. 165, and Cathay , 130, 564; Ritter , II. 213.) 
 
 Note 3. —Possibly this may refer to the custom of temporary mar¬ 
 riages which seems to prevail in most towns of Central Asia which are 
 the halting-places of caravans, and the morals of which are much 
 on a par with those of seaport towns, from analogous causes. Thus 
 at Meshid Khanikoff speaks of the large population of young and 
 pretty women ready, according to the accommodating rules of Shiah 
 Mahomedanism, to engage in marriages which are perfectly lawful, for a 
 month, a week, or even twenty-four hours. Kashgar is also noted in 
 the East for its chaukans , young women, with whom the traveller may 
 readily form an alliance for the period of his stay, be it long or short. 
 {Khan. Mem. p. 98; Russ, hi Central Asia, 52 ; J A. S. B. XXVI. 
 262; Burnes , III. 195; Vigne , II. 201.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Of the Province of Charchan. 
 
 Charchan is a Province of Great Turkey, lying between 
 north-east and east. The people worship Mahommet. There 
 are numerous towns and villages, and the chief city of 
 the kingdom bears its name, Charchan. The Province con¬ 
 tains rivers which bring down jasper and chalcedony, and 
 these are carried for sale into Cathay where they fetch 
 great prices. The whole of the Province is sandy, and so 
 is the road all the way from Pein, and much of the water 
 that you find is bitter and bad. However at some places 
 you do find fresh and sweet water. When an army passes 
 through the land, the people escape with their wives, 
 children, and cattle a distance of two or three days’ journey 
 into the sandy waste ; and knowing the spots where water 
 is to be had they are able to live there, and to keep their 
 cattle alive, whilst it is impossible to discover them; for 
 the wind immediately blows the sand over their track. 
 
 Quitting Charchan, you ride some five days through 
 the sands, finding none but bad and bitter water, and then 
 
Chap. XXXVIII. THE PROVINCE OF CHARCHAN. 
 
 179 
 
 you come to a place where the water is sweet. And now 
 I will tell you of a province called Lop, in which there 
 is a city also called Lop, which you come to at the end 
 of those five days. It is at the entrance of the great 
 Desert, and it is here that travellers repose before entering 
 on the Desert. 1 
 
 Note 1 . —Though the Lake of Lob or Lop appears on all our maps, 
 from Chinese authority, the latter does not seem to have supplied infor¬ 
 mation as to a town so called. We have, however, indications of the 
 existence of such a place, both medieval and recent. The Persian 
 geography called Haft Iklim (the Seven Climates) describing the Great 
 Basin of Eastern Turkestan, says: “To the S.E. reigns a vast desert, 
 presenting only arid tracts, and hills of shifting sand. Formerly there 
 were here several cities, of which two only have preserved their names, 
 viz. Tob and Kank. All the rest are buried in sand.” Here Quatremere 
 happily suggests that Tob should be read Lob , and identified with the 
 Lop of our text. Again in the short notices of the cities of Turkestan 
 which Mr. Wathen collected at Bombay from pilgrims of those regions 
 on their way to Mecca, we find the following : “ Lopp. Lopp is situated 
 at a great distance from Yarkand. The inhabitants are principally 
 Chinese; but a few Uzbeks reside there. Lopp is remarkable for a salt 
 water Lake in its vicinity.” And in Johnson’s account of his observa¬ 
 tions in Khotan, speaking of a road from Tibet into Khotan alleged to 
 be passable by wheeled carriages, he says : “ This route .... leads not 
 only to Ilchi and Yarkand, but also via Lob to the large and important 
 city of Karashahr.” And among the routes attached to Mr. Johnson’s 
 original Report, we have :— 
 
 “ Route No. VII. Kiria (see note 2 to last chapter) to Chachan 
 and Lob (from native information ),” as follows : 
 
 I. 
 
 Kiria to 
 
 Usalun Langar . 
 
 Estimated distance 
 in Miles. 
 
 . l 6 . 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 .. .. A Posthouse. 
 
 2 . 
 
 Nia . 
 
 . 17 . 
 
 ... Village, 50 Houses. 
 
 3 - 
 
 4 - 
 
 5 - 
 
 Kumrabad Langar . 
 
 Khadalak . 
 
 Akmaran . 
 
 . l 6 . 
 
 _ 10 Houses. 
 
 . 20 . 
 
 . 1 7 . 
 
 . ... Encampment and Gold Mine. 
 
 . ... Do. do. 
 
 6 . 
 
 Kukmaran . 
 
 . 16 . 
 
 . ... Do. do. 
 
 7 * 
 
 8 . 
 
 Egar . 
 
 Chakalak . 
 
 . 19 . 
 
 . 17 . 
 
 . ... Do. do. and Well. 
 
 .... Grazing Ground. 
 
 9 - 
 
 Chachan . 
 
 . 16 . 
 
 (Village, 500 Houses, and Cul- 
 l tivation. 
 
 <-n | O 
 
 Encampment . 
 
 Do. do . 
 
 Lob 
 
 . 20 . 
 
 .. 21, 18, 17, 19 . 
 
 . 20 . 
 
 .... Shepherds’ Tents. 
 
 .... Do. 
 
 (Village, and large Lake with 
 
 
 
 1 fish in it. 
 
 269 miles. 
 
 N 2 
 
8o 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 I cannot doubt that in the Chachan and Lob of this itinerary we 
 have Marco’s Charchan and Lop ; and that his route to the verge of the 
 Great Desert is thus made clear. He omits the usual estimate of the 
 extent of “ the province of Charchan,” but the five days’ journey from 
 Charchan to Lop is fairly represented by Mr. Johnson’s report of six 
 marches averaging 19 miles each, from Chachan to Lob. 
 
 Nia, 33 miles from Kiria, is possibly a vestige of the ancient city of 
 Ni-jang of the old Chinese Itineraries, which lay 200 li (from 30 to 
 40 miles) on the China side of Pima, in the middle of a great marsh, 
 and formed the eastern frontier of Khotan bordering on the Desert. 
 (/. R. G. S. XXXVII. pp. 13 and 44; N. et Ext. XIV. 474 ;/ A. 
 S. B. IV. 656 ; H. delaV.de Kohten , u.s.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Of the City of Lop and the Great Desert. 
 
 Lop is a large town at the edge of the Desert which is 
 called the Desert of Lop, and is situated between east and 
 north-east. It belongs to the Great Kaan, and the people 
 worship Mahommet. Now, such persons as propose to 
 cross the Desert take a week’s rest in this town to refresh 
 themselves and their cattle; and then they make ready for 
 the journey, taking with them a month’s supply for man 
 and beast. On quitting this city they enter the Desert. 
 
 The length of this Desert is so great that ’tis said it 
 would take a year and more to ride from one end of it to 
 the other. And here, where its breadth is least, it takes 
 a month to cross it. ’Tis all composed of hills and valleys 
 of sand, and not a thing to eat is to be found on it. But 
 after riding for a day and a night you find fresh water, 
 enough mayhap for some 50 or 100 persons with their 
 beasts, but not for more. And all across the Desert you 
 will find water in like manner, that is to say, in some 28 
 places altogether you will find good water, but in no great 
 quantity ; and in four places also you find brackish water. 1 
 
 Beasts there are none ; for there is nought for them to 
 
Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 THE GREAT DESERT. 
 
 181 
 
 eat. But there is a marvellous thing related of this Desert, 
 which is that when travellers are on the move by night, 
 and one of them chances to lag behind or to fall asleep or 
 the like, when he tries to gain his company again he will 
 hear spirits talking, and will suppose them to be his com¬ 
 rades. Sometimes the spirits will call him by name ; and 
 thus shall a traveller ofttimes be led astray so that he never 
 finds his party. And in this way many have perished. 
 [Sometimes the stray travellers will hear as it were the 
 tramp and hum of a great cavalcade of people away from 
 the real line of road, and taking this to be their own com¬ 
 pany they will follow the sound; and when day breaks 
 they find that a cheat has been put on them and that they 
 are in an ill plight. 2 ] Even in the day time one hears 
 those spirits talking. And sometimes you shall hear the 
 sound of a variety of musical instruments, and still more 
 commonly the sound of drums. [Hence in making this 
 journey ’tis customary for travellers to keep close together. 
 All the animals too have bells at their necks, so that they 
 cannot easily get astray. And at sleeping time a signal is 
 put up to show the direction of the next march.] 
 
 So thus it is that the Desert is crossed. 
 
 Note 1 . — It is difficult to reconcile with our maps the statement 
 of a 30 days’ journey across the Desert from Lop to Shachau. Ritter’s 
 extracts indeed regarding this Desert shew that the constant occurrence 
 of sandhills and deep drifts makes the passage extremely difficult for 
 carts and cattle (III. 375). But I suspect that there is some material 
 error in the longitude of Lake Lop as represented in our maps, and 
 that it should be placed considerably more to the westward than we 
 find it therein. By Kiepert’s Map of Asia Khotan is not far short of 
 600 miles from the western extremity of Lake Lop. By Johnson’s 
 itinerary (including his own journey to Kiria) it is only 338 miles from 
 Ilchi to Lob. And our text is in accordance with Johnson for that 
 part of the distance that we can compare (assuming my identification of 
 Charchan of course). 
 
 Note 2.—“ The waste and desert places of the Earth are, so to speak, 
 the characters which sin has visibly impressed on the outward creation ; 
 
182 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 its signs and symbols there.Out of a true feeling of this, men 
 
 have ever conceived of the Wilderness as the haunt of evil spirits. In 
 the old Persian religion Ahriman and his evil Spirits inhabit the steppes 
 and wastes of Turan, to the north of the happy Iran, which stands 
 under the dominion of Ormuzd ; exactly as with the Egyptians, the evil 
 Typhon is the Lord of the Libyan sand-wastes, and Osiris of the fertile 
 Egypt” (.Archbp . Trench , Studies in the Gospels , p. 7). Terror and the 
 seeming absence of a beneficent Providence are surely the suggestions 
 of the Desert which led men to associate it with evil spirits, rather than 
 the figure with which this passage begins; no spontaneous conception 
 surely, however appropriate as a moral image. 
 
 “According to the belief of the nations of Central Asia,” says 
 I. J. Schmidt, “ the earth and its interior, as well as the encompassing 
 atmosphere, are filled with Spiritual Beings, which exercise an influence 
 partly beneficent, partly malignant, on the whole of organic and inorganic 
 nature. . . . Especially are Deserts and other wild or uninhabited 
 tracts, or regions in which the influences of nature are displayed on a 
 gigantic and terrible scale, regarded as the chief abode or rendezvous of 
 evil Spirits. . . . And hence the steppes of Turan, and in particular the 
 great sandy Desert of Gobi have been looked on as the dwelling-place 
 of malignant beings, from days of hoar antiquity.” 
 
 The Chinese historian Matwanlin informs us that there were two 
 roads from China into the Uighur country (towards Karashahr). The 
 longest but easiest road was by Kamul. The other was much shorter, 
 and apparently corresponded, as far as Lop, to that described in this 
 chapter. “ By this you have to cross a plain of sand, extending for more 
 than 100 leagues. . You see nothing in any direction but the sky and 
 the sands, without the slightest trace of a road; and travellers find 
 nothing to guide them but the bones of men and beasts, and the drop¬ 
 pings of camels. During the passage of this wilderness you hear sounds, 
 sometimes of singing, sometimes of wailing ; and it has often happened 
 that travellers going aside to see what those sounds might be have 
 strayed from their course and been entirely lost; for they were voices of 
 spirits and goblins. Tis for these reasons that travellers and merchants 
 often prefer the much longer route by Kamul.” (Visdelou, p. 139.) 
 
 “ In the Desert” (this same desert), says Fahian, “ there are a great 
 many evil demons; there are also sirocco winds, which kill all who 
 encounter them. There are no birds or beasts to be seen; but so far as 
 the eye can reach, the route is marked out by the bleached bones of 
 men who have perished in the attempt to cross.” 
 
 Hwen Thsang in his passage of the Desert, both outward and home¬ 
 ward, speaks of visual illusions; such as visions of troops marching and 
 halting, with gleaming arms and waving banners, constantly shifting, 
 vanishing and reappearing, “imagery created by demons.” A voice 
 behind him calls “ Fear not! fear not! ” Troubled by these fantasies on 
 one occasion he prays to Kwanin (a Buddhist divinity); still he could 
 
Chap. XXXIX. 
 
 THE GREAT DESERT. 
 
 83 
 
 not entirely get rid of them ; but as soon as he had pronounced a few 
 words from the Prajna (a holy book) they vanished in the twinkling of 
 an eye. 
 
 These goblins are not peculiar to the Gobi, though that appears to 
 be their most favoured haunt. The awe of the vast and solitary Desert 
 raises them in all similar localities. Pliny speaks of the phantoms that 
 appear and vanish in the deserts of Africa ; Mas’udi tells of the Ghuls , 
 which in the deserts appear to travellers by night and in lonely hours; 
 the traveller taking them for comrades follows and is led astray. But 
 the wise revile them and the Ghuls vanish. Thus also Apollonius of 
 Tyana and his companions, in a desert near the Indus by moonlight, see 
 an Empusa or Ghul, taking many forms. They revile it, and it goes off 
 uttering shrill cries. Mas’udi also speaks of the mysterious voices heard 
 by lone wayfarers in the Desert, and he gives a rational explanation of 
 them. Ibn Batuta relates a like legend of the Western Sahara : “ If the 
 messenger be solitary the demons sport with him and fascinate him, so 
 that he strays from his course and perishes.” The Afghan and Persian 
 wildernesses also have their Ghul-i-Bedban or Goblin of the Waste, a 
 gigantic and fearful spectre which devours travellers ; and even the Gael 
 of the West Highlands have the Direach Ghlinn Eitidh, the Desert 
 Creature of Glen Eiti which, one-handed, one-eyed, one-legged, seems 
 exactly to answer to the Arabian Nesnas or Empusa. Nicolo Conti in 
 the Chaldaean Desert is aroused at midnight by a great noise, and sees 
 a vast multitude pass by. The merchants tell him that these are demons 
 who are in the habit of traversing these deserts. (Schmidt’s San. Setzen, 
 p. 352 ; V. et V. deH. T. 23, 28, 289 ; Pliny , VII. 2 ; Philostratus , Bk. II. 
 ch. iv.; Prairies d’ Or , III. 315, 324; Beats Fah-hian; Campbell’s Popu¬ 
 lar Tales of the W. Highlands , IV. 326; I. B. IV. 382 ; E Ip bins tone, I. 
 291 ; Chodzko’s Pop. Poetry of Persia, p. 48; Conti, p. 4.) 
 
 The sound of musical instruments, chiefly of Drums, is a pheno¬ 
 menon of another class, and is really produced in certain situations 
 among sandhills when the sand is disturbed. A very striking account 
 of a phenomenon of this kind regarded as supernatural is given by Friar 
 Odoric, whose experience I fancy I have traced to the Peg Ruwan or 
 “ Flowing Sand ” north of Kabul. Besides this celebrated example, 
 which has been described also by the Emperor Baber, I have noted that 
 equally well-known one of the fibal Nakus or “ Hill of the Bell ” in the 
 Sinai Desert; Wadi Hamade in the vicinity of the same Desert; the 
 fibal-ul-Thabul, or “ Hill of the Drums,” between Medina and Mecca ; 
 one on the Island of Eigg in the Hebrides, discovered by Hugh Miller ; 
 one among the Medanos or Sandhills of Arequipa, described to me by 
 Mr. C. Markham; the Bramador or rumbling mountain of Tarapaca; 
 one in hills between the Ulba and the Irtish in the vicinity of the Altai, 
 called the Almanac Hills, because the sounds are supposed to prognos¬ 
 ticate weather-changes; and a remarkable example near Kolberg on the 
 shore of Pomerania. (See Cathay, p. ccxliv. 156, 398; Ritter, II. 204; 
 Aus der Natur, Leipzig, No. 47 [of 1868], p. 752.) 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I- 
 
 184 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Concerning the Great Province of Tangut. 
 
 After you have travelled thirty days through the Desert 
 as I have described, you come to a city called Sachiu lying 
 between north-east and east; it belongs to the Great 
 Kaan, and is in a province called Tangut . 1 The people 
 are for the most part Idolaters, but there are also some 
 Nestorian Christians and some Saracens. The Idolaters 
 have a peculiar language, and are no traders, but live by 
 their agriculture. 2 They have a great many abbeys and 
 minsters full of idols of sundry fashions, to which they pay 
 great honour and reverence, worshipping them and sacri¬ 
 ficing to them with much ado. For example, such as have 
 children will feed up a sheep in honour of the idol, and at 
 the New Year, or on the day of the Idol’s Feast, they will 
 take their children and the sheep along with them into the 
 presence of the idol with great ceremony. Then they will 
 have the sheep slaughtered and cooked, and again present 
 it before the idol with like reverence, and leave it there 
 before him, whilst they are reciting the offices of their 
 worship, and their prayers for the idol’s blessing on their 
 children. And if you will believe them the idol feeds on 
 the meat that is set before it! After these ceremonies they 
 take up the flesh and carry it home, and call together all 
 their kindred, to eat it with them in great festivity [the 
 idol-priests receiving for their portion the head, feet, entrails, 
 and skin, with some part of the meat]. After they have 
 eaten they collect the bones that are left and store them 
 carefully in a hutch. 3 
 
 And you must know that all the Idolaters in the world 
 burn their dead. And when they are going to carry a 
 body to the burning the kinsfolk build a wooden house on 
 the way to the spot, and drape it with cloths of silk and 
 gold. When the body is going past this building they 
 
Chap. XL. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF TANGUT. 
 
 185 
 
 call a halt and set before it wine and meat and other eat¬ 
 ables ; and this they do with the assurance that the defunct 
 will be received with the like attentions in the other world. 
 All the minstrelsy in the town goes playing before the 
 body; and when it reaches the burning-place the kinsfolk 
 are prepared with figures cut out of parchment and paper 
 in the shape of men and horses and camels, and also with 
 round pieces of paper like gold coins, and all these they 
 burn along with the corpse. For they say that in the 
 other world the defunct will be provided with slaves and 
 cattle and money, just in proportion to the amount of 
 such pieces of paper that has been burnt along with 
 him. 4 
 
 But they never burn their dead until they have [sent 
 for the astrologers, and told them the year, the day, and 
 the hour of the deceased person’s birth, and when the astro¬ 
 logers have ascertained under what constellation, planet, 
 and sign he was born, they declare the day on which by 
 the rules of their art he ought to be burnt]. And till that 
 day arrive they keep the body, so that ’tis sometimes a 
 matter of six months, more or less, before it comes to be 
 burnt. 5 
 
 Now the way they keep the body in the house is this. 
 They make a coffin first of a good span in thickness, very 
 carefully joined, and daintily painted. This they fill up 
 with camphor and spices to keep off corruption [stopping 
 the joints with pitch and lime], and then they cover it 
 with a fine cloth. Every day as long as the body is kept, 
 they set a table before the dead covered with food; and 
 they will have it that the soul comes and eats and drinks ; 
 wherefore they leave the food there as long as would be 
 necessary in order that one should partake. Thus they do 
 daily. And worse still! Sometimes those soothsayers shall 
 tell them that ’tis not good luck to carry out the corpse 
 by the door, so they have to break a hole in the wall, and 
 to draw it out that way when it is taken to the burning. 6 
 
186 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 And these, I assure you, are the practices of all the Idolaters 
 of those countries. 
 
 However, we will quit this subject, and I will tell you 
 of another city which lies towards the north-west at the 
 extremity of the desert. 
 
 Note 1 . — Tangut ( Tangkut) is a name very conspicuous in the 
 Mongol era. The word ( Tanggod) is properly a Mongol plural, desig¬ 
 nating certain tribes of Tibetan blood, called by the Chinese Tanghiang, 
 who established an independent kingdom on the N.W. frontier of China, 
 with their capital at Ninghia on the Yellow River, during the confusion 
 that prevailed at the end of the ioth century. This kingdom, called 
 by the Chinese Hia, and by the Mongols Tangut, was several times 
 invaded by Chinghiz, and it was on the campaign of its final conquest 
 that he died in 1227. In a general way Tangut corresponded to the 
 modern province of Kansuh, and, indeed, as Pauthier shews, the latter 
 name was under the Mongol emperors the official Chinese designation 
 of the provincial government popularly called Tangut. It was some¬ 
 times considered to embrace Kamul and Turfan on the one hand and 
 Singanfu on the other. The name is no longer used in China, but is 
 still known to the Mongols, who, however, now apply it to Tibet. In 
 this sense it is often used by Pallas and other Russian or quasi-Russian 
 writers. 
 
 Sachiu is Shachau, “Sand-district,” an outpost of China Proper, at 
 the eastern verge of the worst part of the Sandy Desert. It is recorded 
 to have been fortified in the 1st century as a barrier against the Hiongnu. 
 
 (.Ritter , II. 205 ; Neumann , p. 616; Cathay , 269, 274; Erdmann , 
 155 ; Erman , II. 267.) 
 
 Note 2 .—By Idolaters Polo here means Buddhists, as generally. 
 We do not know whether the Buddhism here was a recent introduction 
 from Tibet, or a relic of the old Buddhism of Khotan and other Central 
 Asian kingdoms, but most probably it was the former, and the u peculiar 
 language” ascribed to them may have been, as Neumann supposes, 
 Tibetan. This language in modern Mongolia answers to the Latin of 
 the Mass Book, indeed with a curious exactness, for in both cases the 
 holy tongue is not that of the original propagators of the respective 
 religions, but that of the hierarchy which has assumed their govern¬ 
 ment. In the Lamaitic convents of China and Manchuria also the 
 Tibetan only is used in worship, except at one privileged temple at 
 Peking (. Koeppen , II. 288). The language intended by Polo may how¬ 
 ever have been a Chinese dialect, (see note 4 ). The Nestorians in Tan¬ 
 gut must have been tolerably numerous, for it formed a metropolitan 
 province of their Church. 
 
Chap. XL. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF TANGUT. 
 
 187 
 
 Note 3 .—A practice resembling this is mentioned by Pallas as 
 existing among the Buddhist Kalmaks, a relic of their old Shaman 
 superstitions, which the Lamas profess to decry, but sometimes take 
 part in. “ Rich Kalmaks select from their flock a ram for dedication, 
 which gets the name of Tengri Tockho , “ Heaven’s Ram.” It must be 
 a white one with a yellow head. He must never be shorn or sold, but 
 when he gets old, and the owner chooses to dedicate a fresh one, then 
 the old one must be sacrificed. This is usually done in autumn when 
 the sheep are fattest, and the neighbours are called together to eat the 
 sacrifice. A fortunate day is selected, and the ram is slaughtered amid 
 the cries of the sorcerer directed towards the sunrise, and the diligent 
 sprinkling of milk for the benefit of the Spirits of the Air. The flesh is 
 eaten, but the skeleton with a part of the fat is burnt on a turf altar 
 erected on four pillars of an ell and a half high, and the skin, with the 
 head and feet, are then hung up in the way practised by the Buraets.” 
 (Sammlungen , II. 346.) 
 
 Note 4. —Several of the customs of Tangut mentioned in this 
 chapter are essentially Chinese, and are perhaps introduced here because 
 it was on entering Tangut that the traveller first came in contact with 
 Chinese peculiarities. This is true of the manner of forming coffins, 
 and keeping them with the body in the house, serving food before the 
 coffin whilst it is so kept, the burning of paper and papier-mache figures 
 of slaves, horses, &c., at the tomb. Chinese settlers were very nume¬ 
 rous at Shachau and the neighbouring Kwachau, even in the 10th 
 century (Ritter, II. 213). Even as regards the South of China many of 
 the circumstances mentioned here are strictly applicable, as may be 
 seen in Doolittle’s Social Life of the Chmese (see for example p. 1353 
 also Astley, IV. 93-5, or Marsden’s quotations from Duhalde). The 
 custom of burning the dead has been for several centuries disused in 
 China, but we shall see hereafter that Polo represents it as general in 
 his time. On the custom of burning gilt paper in the form of gold 
 coin, as well as of paper clothing, paper houses, furniture, slaves, &c., 
 see also Medhurst, p. 213, and Kidd, 177-8. The manufacture of mock 
 money is a large business in Chinese cities. In Fuhchau there are more 
 than 30 large establishments where it is kept for sale (Doolittle, 541). 
 There can be little doubt that these latter customs are symbols of the 
 ancient sacrifices of human beings and valuable property on such occa¬ 
 sions. Even when the present Manchu dynasty first occupied the 
 throne of China, they still retained such practices. At the death of 
 Kanghi’s mother, however, in 1718, when four young girls offered them¬ 
 selves for sacrifice on the tomb of their mistress, the emperor would 
 not allow it, and prohibited for the future the sacrifice of life or the 
 destruction of valuables on such occasions. (Degidgnes, Voy. I. 304.) 
 
 Note 5 . — Even among the Tibetans and Mongols burning is only 
 one of the modes of disposing of the dead. “ They sometimes bury 
 
188 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 their dead ; often they leave them exposed in their coffins, or cover 
 them with stones, paying regard to the sign under which the deceased 
 was born, his age, the day and hour of his death, which determine the 
 mode in which he is to be interred (or otherwise disposed of). For 
 this purpose they consult some books which are explained to them by 
 the Lamas” ( Timk . II. 312). The extraordinary and complex absurdi¬ 
 ties of the books in question are given in detail by Pallas, and curiously 
 illustrate the paragraph in the text (see Sammlungen , II. 254 seqq.). 
 
 Note 6. —The Chinese have also, according to Duhalde, a custom 
 of making a new opening in the wall of a house by which to carry out 
 the dead; and in their prisons a special hole in the wall is provided for 
 this office. This same custom exists among the Esquimaux, as well as, 
 according to Sonnerat, in Southern India, and it used to exist in certain 
 parts both of Holland and of Central Italy. In the “ clean village of 
 Broek,” near Amsterdam, those special doors may still be seen. And 
 in certain towns of Umbria, such as Perugia, Assisi, and Gubbio, this 
 opening was common, elevated some feet above the ground, and known 
 as the “ Door of the Dead.” 
 
 I find in a list of popular French superstitions, amounting to 479 
 in number, condemned by Maupas du Tour, Bishop of Evreux in 1664, 
 the following: “ When a woman lies in of a dead child, it must not be 
 taken out by the door of the chamber but by the window, for if it were 
 taken out by the door the woman would never lie in of any but dead 
 children.” 
 
 And the Rev. Mr. Jaeschke writes to me from Lahoul, in British 
 Tibet: “ Our Lama (from Central Tibet) tells us that the owner of a 
 house and the members of his family when they die are carried through 
 the house-door; but if another person dies in the house his body is 
 removed by some other aperture, such as a window, or the smokehole 
 in the roof, or a hole in the wall dug expressly for the purpose. Or a 
 wooden frame is made, fitting into the doorway, and the body is then 
 carried through; it being considered that by this contrivance the evil 
 consequences are escaped that might ensue, were it carried through the 
 ordinary, and, so to say, undisguised house-door! Here, in Lahoul and 
 the neighbouring countries, we have not heard of such a custom.” 
 
 (Duhalde, quoted by Marsden; Semedo , p. 175 ; Mr. Sala in N. 
 and Q., 2nd S. XI. 322; Lubbock, p. 500; Sonnerat, I. 86; Liebrechfs 
 Gervasius of Tilbury, Hannover, 1856, p. 224.) 
 
Chap. XLI. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF CAMUL. 
 
 189 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Of the Province of Camul. 
 
 Camul is a province which in former days was a kingdom. 
 It contains numerous towns and villages, but the chief city 
 bears the name of Camul. The province lies between 
 two deserts; for on the one side is the Great Desert of 
 Lop, and on the other side is a small desert of three days’ 
 journey in extent. 1 The people are all Idolaters, and have 
 a peculiar language. They live by the fruits of the earth, 
 which they have in plenty, and dispose of to travellers. 
 They are a people who take things very easily, for they 
 mind nothing but playing and singing and dancing and 
 enjoying themselves. 2 
 
 And it is the truth that if a foreigner comes to the 
 house of one of these people to lodge, the host is delighted, 
 and desires his wife to put herself entirely at the guest’s 
 disposal, whilst he himself gets out of the way, and comes 
 back no more until the stranger shall have taken his de¬ 
 parture. The guest may stay and enjoy the wife’s society 
 as long as he lists, whilst the husband has no shame in the 
 matter, but indeed considers it an honour. And all the 
 men of this province are made wittols of by their wives in 
 this wayd The women themselves are fair and wanton. 
 
 Now it came to pass during the reign of Mangu Kaan, 
 that as lord of this province he came to hear of this custom, 
 and he sent forth an order commanding them under 
 grievous penalties to do so no more [but to provide public 
 hostelries for travellers]. And when they heard this order 
 they were much vexed thereat. [For about three years’ 
 space they carried it out. But then they found that their 
 lands were no longer fruitful, and that many mishaps befel 
 them.] So they collected together and prepared a grand 
 present which they sent to. their Lord, praying him gra¬ 
 ciously to let them retain the custom which they had 
 
MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 190 
 
 inherited from their ancestors; for it was by reason of this 
 usage that their gods bestowed upon them all the good 
 things that they possessed, and without it they saw not 
 how they could continue to exist. 4 When the Prince had 
 heard their petition his reply was: “ Since ye must needs 
 keep your shame, keep it then,” and so he left them at 
 liberty to maintain their naughty custom. And'they always 
 have kept it up, and do so still. 
 
 Now let us quit Camul and I will tell you of another 
 province which lies between north-west and north, and 
 belongs to the Great Kaan. 
 
 Note 1 . —Kamul (or Komul) does not fall into the great line of 
 travel towards Cathay which Marco is following. His notice of it, and 
 of the next province, forms a digression like that which he has already 
 made to Samarkand. It does not appear even that Marco himself had 
 visited it; his father and uncle may have done so on their first journey, 
 as one of the chief routes to Northern China from Western Asia lies 
 through this city and has done so for many centuries. This was the 
 route described by Pegolotti as that of the Italian traders in the century 
 following Polo ; it was that followed by Marignolli, by the envoys of 
 Shah Rukh at a later date, and at a much later by Benedict Goes. 
 The people were in Polo’s time apparently Buddhist, as the Uighurs 
 inhabiting this region had been from an old date ; in Shah Rukh’s time 
 (1420) we find a mosque and a great Buddhist Temple cheek by jowl; 
 whilst Ramusio’s friend Hajji Mahommed speaks of Kamul as the first 
 Mahommedan city met with in travelling from China. 
 
 Kamul stands on an oasis carefully cultivated by aid of reservoirs 
 for irrigation, and is noted in China for its rice and for some of its 
 fruits, especially melons and grapes. It is still a place of some con¬ 
 sequence, standing near the bifurcation of two great roads from China, 
 one passing north and the other south of the Thian Shan, and it was 
 the site of the Chinese commissariat depots for the garrisons to the 
 westward. It was lost to the Chinese in 1865. 
 
 Kamul appears to have been the see of a Nestorian bishop. A 
 Bishop of Kamul is mentioned as present at the inauguration of the 
 Catholicos Denhain 1266. (. Russians in Ce?it. Asia, 129 ; Riiter, II. 357 
 seqq.; Cathay, passim; Assemani, II. 455-6.) 
 
 Note 2 .—Expressed almost in the same words is the character 
 attributed by a Chinese writer to the people of Kuche in the same 
 region. ( Chin . Repos. IX. 126.) 
 
Chap. XLII. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF CHINGINTALAS. 
 
 I 9 l 
 
 Note 3.—Pauthier’s text has “ sont si honni de leur moliers comme 
 vous avez ouy” Here the Crusca has “ sono bozzi delle loro moglie ” and 
 the Lat. Geog. “ sunt bezzi de suis uxoribus .” The Crusca Vocab. has 
 inserted bozzo with the meaning we have given, on the strength of this 
 passage. It occur also in Dante, Paradiso , xix. 137, in the general sense 
 of disgraced. 
 
 The shameful custom here spoken of is ascribed by Polo also to a 
 province of Eastern Tibet, and by popular report in modern times to 
 the Hazaras of the Hindu Kush, a people of Mongolian blood, as well 
 as to certain nomade tribes of Persia, to say nothing of the like accusa¬ 
 tion against our own ancestors which has been drawn from Laonicus 
 Chalcondylas. The old Arab traveller Ibn Muhalhal (10th century) 
 also relates the same of the Hazlakh (probably Kharlikli) Turks: 
 “ Ducis alicujus uxor vel filia vel soror, quum mercatorum agmen in 
 terram venit, eos adit, eorumque lustrat faciem. Quorum siquis earum 
 afficit admiratione hunc domum suam ducit, eumque apud se hospitio 
 excipit, eique benigne facit. Atque marito suo et filio fratrique rerum 
 necessariarum curam demandat; nequedum hospes apud earn habitat, 
 nisi necessarium est, maritus earn adit.” A like custom prevails among 
 the Chukchis and Koryaks in the vicinity of Kamtchatka. (Elphinstonds 
 Caabul; Wood, p. 201; Burnes , who discredits, II. 153, III. 195 ; Laon. 
 Chalcond. 1650, p. 48-49 ; Kurd de Schloezer , p. 13 ; Erman , II. 530.) 
 
 Note 4.—So the Jewish rabble to Jeremiah : “ Since we left off to 
 burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings 
 to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the 
 sword and by famine” ( ferern . xliv. 18). 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Of the Province of Chingintalas. 
 
 Chingintalas is also a province at the verge of the Desert, 
 and lying between north-west and north. It has an extent 
 of sixteen days’ journey, and belongs to the Great Kaan, 
 and contains numerous towns and villages. There are three 
 different races of people in it—Idolaters, Saracens, and 
 some Nestorian Christians . 1 At the northern extremity of 
 this province there is a mountain in which are excellent 
 veins of steel and ondanique. And you must know that 
 in the same mountain there is a vein of the substance from 
 
192 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 which Salamander is made . 2 For the real truth is that the 
 Salamander is no beast, as they allege in our part of the 
 world, but is a substance found in the earth; and I will tell 
 you about it. 
 
 Everybody must be aware that it can be no animal’s 
 nature to live in fire, seeing that every animal is composed 
 of all the four elements.* Now I, Marco Polo, had a 
 Turkish acquaintance of the name of Zurficar, and he 
 was a very clever fellow. And this Turk related to Messer 
 Marco Polo how he had lived three years in that region on 
 behalf of the Great Kaan, in order to procure those Sala¬ 
 manders for him . 4 He said that the way they got them 
 was by digging in that mountain till they found a certain 
 vein. The substance of this vein was then taken and 
 crushed, and when so treated it divides as it were into 
 fibres of wool, which they set forth to dry. When dry, 
 these fibres were pounded in a great copper mortar, and 
 then washed, so as to remove all the earth and to leave only 
 the fibres like fibres of wool. These were then spun, and 
 made into napkins. When first made these napkins are 
 not very white, but by putting them into the fire for a 
 while they come out as white as snow. And so again 
 whenever they become dirty they are bleached by being 
 put in the fire. 
 
 Now this, and nought else, is the truth about the 
 Salamander, and the people of the country all say the 
 same. Any other account of the matter is fabulous non¬ 
 sense. And I may add that they have at Rome a napkin 
 of this stuff, which the Grand Kaan sent to the Pope to 
 make a wrapper for the Holy Sudarium of Jesus Christ . 5 
 
 We will now quit this subject, and I will proceed with 
 my account of the countries lying in the direction between 
 north-east and east. 
 
Chap. XLII. THE PROVINCE OF CHINGINTALAS. 
 
 193 
 
 Note 1 .—The identification of this province is a difficulty, because 
 the geographical definition is vague, and the name assigned to it has 
 not been traced in other authors. It is said to lie between north- 7 vest 
 and north , whilst Kamul was said to lie towards the north-west. The 
 account of both provinces forms a digression, as is clear from the last 
 words of the present chapter, where the traveller returns to take up his 
 regular route “in the direction between north-east and east.” The 
 point from which he digresses, and to which he reverts, is Shachau, and 
 ’tis presumably from Shachau that he assigns bearings to the two pro¬ 
 vinces forming the subject of the digression. Hence, as Kamul lies 
 vers maistre , i.e. north-west, and Chingintalas entre maistre et tramon¬ 
 tane ’, i.e. nor-nor-west, Chingintalas must lie somewhat east of Kamul. 
 And I cannot accept Pauthier’s confident identification of the former 
 with an obscure place called Saiyintala , in the territory of Urumtsi, 
 lying far to the west of Kamul. Moreover, the province is said to 
 belong to the Great Kaan. Now, Urumtsi or Bishbalik belonged not 
 to the Great Kaan but to the empire of Chagatai, or possibly at this 
 time to Kaidu. Rashiduddin, speaking of the frontier between the 
 Kaan and Kaidu, says “ From point to point are posted bodies of 
 troops under the orders of princes of the blood or other generals, 
 and they often come to blows with the troops of Kaidu. Five of these 
 are cantoned on the verge of the Desert; a sixth in Tangut, near 
 Chagan-Naur (White Lake); a seventh in the vicinity of Karakhoja, a 
 city of the Uighurs, which lies between the two states, and maintains 
 neutrality.” 
 
 Karakhoja, this neutral town, is near Turfan, to the south-east of 
 Urumtsi, which thus would lie without the Kaan’s boundary; Kamul 
 and the country north-east of it, in which lies the Chagan-Naur, would 
 lie within it. This country, to the north and north-east of Kamul, 
 unexplored by any modern traveller, unless we put faith in Mr. Atkin¬ 
 son’s somewhat hazy narrative (the authenticity of which, as regards his 
 excursion into this part of Chinese Tartary, has been strenuously 
 impugned by Khanikolf), is what I apprehend to be meant by Chin¬ 
 gintalas. 
 
 Several possible explanations of this name have suggested themselves 
 or been suggested to me. I will mention two. 
 
 1. Klaproth states that the Mongols applied to Tibet the name of 
 Baron-tala, signifying the “ Right Side,” i.e. the south-west or south 
 quarter, whilst Mongolia was called Dzdhn (or Dzegiui) Tala, i.e . the 
 “ Left,” or north-east side. It is possible that Chigin-talas might repre¬ 
 sent Dsegim Tala in some like application. The etymology of Dzun¬ 
 garia, a name which in modern times covers the territory of which we 
 are speaking, is similar. 
 
 2. Professor Vambery thinks that it is probably Chingin Tala, “ The 
 Vast Plainand this seems the most probable suggestion of the two, 
 though nothing can be absolutely satisfactory in such a case except 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 O 
 
194 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 historical evidence of the application of the name. It is possible that 
 light of this kind may still occur. (See Chingin in Kovalefskls Mongol 
 Did., No. 2134; and for Barontala, &c., see DellaPemia, Breve Notizia 
 del Regno del Thibet, with Klaproth’s notes, p. 6; D'Avezac, p. 568; 
 Relation prefixed to D’Anville’s Atlas, p. 11; and Kircher , China Illus- 
 trata, p. 65.) 
 
 Note 2 .—The Altai, or one of its ramifications, is probably the 
 mountain of the text, but so little is known of this part of the Chinese 
 territory that we can learn scarcely anything of its mineral products. 
 Still Martini does mention that asbestos is found “ in the Tartar country 
 of Tangu" which no doubt is the Tan gnu Oola branch of the Altai to 
 the south of the Upper Yenisei, and in the very region we have indi¬ 
 cated as Chingintalas. 
 
 Note 3.— 
 
 “ Degli elementi quattro principali, 
 
 Che son la Terra, e l’Acqua, e l’Aria, e ’1 Foco, 
 
 Composti sono gli universi Animali, 
 
 Pigliando di ciascuno assai o poco.” 
 
 — Dati, La Sjera, p. 9 . 
 
 Zui'ficar in the next sentence is a Mahomedan name, Zu'lfikar, the 
 title of Ali’s sword. 
 
 Note 4 .—Here the G. Text adds : “ Et je meisme le vi,” intimating, 
 I conceive, his having himself seen specimens of the asbestos—not to 
 his having been at the place. 
 
 Note 5. —The story of the Salamander passing unhurt through fire 
 is at least as old as Aristotle. But I cannot tell when the fable arose 
 that asbestos was a substance derived from the animal. This belief, 
 however, was general in the middle ages, both in Asia and Europe. 
 “ The fable of the Salamander,” says Sir Thomas Browne, “ hath been 
 much promoted by stories of incombustible napkins and textures which 
 endure the fire, whose materials are called by the name of Salamander’s 
 wool, which many, too literally apprehending, conceive some investing 
 part or integument of the Salamander. . . . Nor is this Salamander’s 
 wool desumed from any animal, but a mineral substance, metaphorically 
 so called for this received opinion.” 
 
 Those who knew that the Salamander was a lizard-like animal were 
 indeed perplexed as to its woolly coat. Thus the Cardinal de Vitry is 
 fain to say the creature “ profert ex cute quasi quandam lanam de qua 
 zonae contextae comburi non possunt igne.” A Bestiary, published by 
 Cahier and Martin, says of it: “ De lui naist une cose qui Rest ne soie ne 
 lin ne laine .” Jerome Cardan looked in vain, he says, for hair on the 
 Salamander! Albertus Magnus calls the incombustible fibre pluma 
 Salamandri; and accordingly Bold Baudouin de Sebourg finds the 
 Salamander in the Terrestrial Paradise a kind of bird covered with the 
 
Chap. XLIII. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF SUKCHUR. 
 
 195 
 
 whitest plumage; of this he takes some, which he gets woven into a 
 cloth; this he presents to the Pope, and the Pontiff applies it to the 
 purpose mentioned in the text, viz., to cover the holy napkin of St. 
 Veronica. 
 
 Gervase of Tilbury writes: “ I saw, when lately at Rome, a broad 
 strap of Salamander skin, like a girdle for the loins, which had been 
 brought thither by Cardinal Peter of Capua. When it had become 
 somewhat soiled by use, I myself saw it cleaned perfectly, and without 
 receiving harm, by being put in the fire. 
 
 In Persian the creature is called Samandar , Samandal , &c., and 
 some derive the word from Sam , “fire,” and Andar , “within.” Doubt¬ 
 less it is a corruption of the Greek ^aXa fxdvSpa, whatever be the origin of 
 that. Bakui says the animal is found at Ghur, near Herat, and is like a 
 mouse . Another author, quoted by D’Herbelot, says it is like a marten. 
 
 Interesting details regarding the fabrication of cloth and paper from 
 amianth or asbestos are contained in a report presented to the French 
 Institute by M. Sage (date not stated), of which large extracts are given 
 in the Diction, des Tissus. He mentions that a Sudarium of this 
 material is still shown at the Vatican; we hope it is that which 
 Kublai sent. 
 
 M. Sage exhibited incombustible paper made from this material, and 
 had himself seen a small furnace of Chinese origin made from it. 
 Madame Perpente, an Italian lady, who experimented much with 
 asbestos, found that from a crude mass of that substance threads could 
 be elicited which were ten times the length of the mass itself, and were 
 indeed sometimes several metres in length, the fibres seeming to be 
 involved, like silk in a cocoon. Her process of preparation was much 
 like that described by Marco. She succeeded in carding and reeling 
 the material, made gloves and the like, as well as paper, from it, and 
 sent to the Institute a work printed on such paper. 
 
 The Rev. A. Williamson mentions asbestos as found in Shantung. 
 The natives use it for making stoves, crucibles, and so forth. 
 
 (Sir T. Browne , I. 293; Bongars , I. 1104; Cahier et Martin , III. 
 271; Cardan, de Rer. Vaj'ietale , VII. 33; Alb. Mag. Opera , 1551, II. 
 227, 233 ; Fr. Michel, R'echerches, &c., II. 91; Gerv. of Tilbury, p. 13 ; 
 N. et. E. II. 493 ; D. des Tissus, II. 1-12 ; J. N. China Branch, R. A. S., 
 Dec. 1867, p. 70.) 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 Of the Province of Sukchur. 
 
 On leaving the province of which I spoke before , 1 you ride 
 ten days between north-east and east, and in all that way 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 you find no human dwelling, or next to none, so that there 
 is nothing for our book to speak of. 
 
 At the end of those ten days you come to another 
 province called Sukchur, in which there are numerous 
 towns and villages. The chief city is called Sukchu . 2 
 The people are partly Christians and partly Idolaters, and 
 all are subject to the Great.Kaan. 
 
 The great General Province to which all these three 
 provinces belong is called Tangut. 
 
 Over all the mountains of this province rhubarb is 
 found in great abundance, and thither merchants come to 
 buy it, and carry it thence all over the world.* [Travellers, 
 however, dare not visit those mountains with any cattle but 
 those of the country, for a certain plant grows there which 
 is so poisonous that cattle which eat it lose their hoofs. 
 The cattle of the country know it and eschew it. 4 ]' The 
 people live by agriculture, and have not much trade. 
 [They are of a brown complexion. The whole of the pro¬ 
 vince is healthy.] 
 
 Note 1 . — Referring apparently to Shachau; see Note 1 and the 
 closing words of last chapter. 
 
 Note 2. —There is no doubt that the province and city are those of 
 Suhchau, but there is a great variety in the readings, and several texts 
 have a marked difference between the name of the province and that of 
 the city, whilst others give them as the same. I have adopted those to 
 which the resultants of the readings of the best texts seem to point, viz., 
 Succiur and Succiu, though with considerable doubt whether they should 
 not be identical. Pauthier declares that Suctur, which is the reading of 
 his favourite MS., is the exact pronunciation, after the vulgar Mongol 
 manner of Suh-chau-lu , the Lu or circuit of Suhchau, whilst Neumann 
 says that the Northern Chinese constantly add an euphonic particle or 
 to the end of words. I confess to little faith in such refinements, when 
 no evidence is produced. 
 
 Suhchau is called by Rashiduddin, and by Shah Rukh’s ambassadors 
 Sukchu, in exact correspondence with the reading we have adopted for 
 the name of the city, whilst the Russian Envoy Boikoff, in the 17th 
 century, calls it “ Suktsey , where the rhubarb grows f and Anthony 
 Jenkinson, in Hakluyt, by a slight metathesis, Sowchick. Suhchau lies 
 
Chap. XLIV. 
 
 THE CITY OF CAMPICHU. 
 
 197 
 
 just within the extreme N. W. angle of the Great Wall. It was at Suhchau 
 that Benedict Goes was detained, waiting for leave to go on to Peking, 
 eighteen weary months, and there he died just as aid reached him. 
 
 Note 3 .—All the authorities point to the mountainous region south 
 of Suhchau and Kanchau, as pre-eminently the source of the real China 
 rhubarb; but it is also produced in Shensi, Shansi, Honan, and Szechuen. 
 Till recently it was almost all exported by Kiakhta and Russia, but 
 some now comes via Hankau and Shanghai. I believe the exact 
 species producing the drug has not been botanically ascertained. There 
 is a dissertation on rhubarb in Ritter , II. 179, and (only known to me 
 by report) a paper by Dr. Farre, in the Pharmaceutical Journal for 
 January, 1866. 
 
 Note 4 .— Erba is the title applied to the poisonous growth, which 
 may be either “plant” or “grass.” It is not unlikely that it was a 
 plant akin to the Andromeda ovalifolia , the tradition of the poisonous 
 character of which prevails everywhere along the Himalaya from Nepal 
 to the Indus. It is notorious for poisoning sheep and goats at Simla 
 and other hill sanitaria; and Dr. Cleghorn notes the same circumstance 
 regarding it that Polo heard of the plant in Tangut, viz., that its effects on 
 flocks imported from the plains are highly injurious, whilst those of the 
 hills do not appear to suffer, probably because they shun the young 
 leaves, which alone are deleterious. Mr. Marsh attests the like fact 
 regarding the Kalmia angustifolia of New England, a plant of the same 
 order (Ericaceae). Sheep bred where it abounds almost always avoid 
 browsing on its leaves, whilst those brought from districts where it 
 is unknown feed upon it and are poisoned. 
 
 Perhaps the same plant, or one of the same family, is alluded to by 
 Firishta, quoting from the Zafar-Namah: “ On the road from Kashmir 
 towards Tibet there is a plain on which no other vegetable grows but a 
 poisonous grass that destroys all the cattle that taste of it, and therefore 
 no horsemen venture to travel that route.” (Dr. Hugh Cleghorn in 
 J. Agricultural a?id Hortic. Society of India, XIV. Part 4; Marshs Man 
 and Nature, p. 40; Briggs's Firishta, IV. 449.) 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 Of the City of Campichu. 
 
 Campichu is also a city of Tangut, and a very great and 
 noble one. Indeed it is the capital and place of govern¬ 
 ment of the whole province of Tangut . 1 The people are 
 
198 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Idolaters, Saracens, and Christians, and the latter have 
 three very fine churches in the city, whilst the Idolaters 
 have many minsters and abbeys after their fashion. In 
 these they have an enormous number of idols, both small 
 and great, certain of the latter being a good ten paces in 
 stature; some of them being of wood, others of clay, and 
 others yet of stone. They are all highly polished, and then 
 covered with gold. The great idols of which I speak lie at 
 length . 2 And round about them there are other figures of 
 considerable size, as if adoring and paying homage before 
 them. 
 
 Now, as I have not yet given you particulars about the 
 customs of these Idolaters, I will proceed to tell you about 
 them. 
 
 You must know that there are among them certain 
 religious recluses who lead a more virtuous life than the 
 rest. These abstain from all lechery, though they do not 
 indeed regard it as a deadly sin; howbeit if any one sin 
 against nature they condemn him to death. They have an 
 Ecclesiastical Calendar as we have; and there are five days 
 in the month that they observe particularly; and on these 
 five days they would on no account either slaughter any 
 animal or eat flesh meat. On those days, moreover, they 
 observe much greater abstinence altogether than on other 
 days . 3 
 
 Among these people a man may take thirty wives, more 
 or less, if he can but afford to do so, each having wives in 
 proportion to his wealth and means; but the first wife is 
 always held in highest consideration. The men endow 
 their wives with cattle, slaves, and money, according to 
 their ability. And if a man dislikes any one of his wives, 
 he just turns her off* and takes another. They take to wife 
 their cousins and their fathers’ widows (always excepting 
 the man’s own mother), holding to be no sin many things 
 that we think grievous sins, and, in short, they live like 
 beasts . 4 
 
Chap. XLIV. 
 
 THE CITY OF CAMPICHU. 
 
 99 
 
 Messer MafFeo and Messer Marco Polo dwelt a whole 
 year in this city when on a mission . 5 
 
 Now we will leave this and tell you about other pro¬ 
 vinces towards the north, for we are going to take you 
 a sixty days’ journey in that direction. 
 
 Note 1. — Campichiu is undoubtedly Kanchau, which was at this 
 time, as Pauthier tells us, the chief city of the administration of Kansuh , 
 corresponding to Polo’s Tangut. Kansuh itself is a name compounded 
 of the names of the two cities Kan- chau and Suh- chau. 
 
 The difficulties that have been made about the form of the name 
 Campiciou , &c.) in Polo, and the attempts to explain these, are probably 
 alike futile. Quatremere writes the Persian form of the name after 
 Abdurrazzak as Kamtcheou , but I see that Erdmann writes it after 
 Rashid, I presume on good grounds, as Ckamidschu , i.e. Camiju or 
 Camichu. And that this was the Western pronunciation of the name 
 is shown by the form which Pegolotti uses, Camexu , i.e. Camechu. 
 The p in Polo’s spelling is probably only a superfluous letter, as in the 
 old spelling of dampnum , contempnere , sompnour , tirampnus. In fact, 
 Marignolli writes Polo’s Quinsai as Campsay. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that though Ramusio’s text prints the names 
 of these two cities as Succuir and Campion , his own pronunciation of 
 them appears to have been quite well understood by the Persian tra¬ 
 veller Hajji Mahomed, for it is perfectly clear that the latter recognized 
 in these names Suhchau and Kanchau. (See Ram. II. f. 14 v.) The 
 second volume of the Navigationi , containing Polo, was published after 
 Ramusio’s death, and it is possible that the names as he himself read 
 them were more correct (e. g. Succiur, Capiou ). 
 
 Note 2 .—This is the meaning of the phrase in the G.T. : “ Ceste 
 grande ydre gigent,” as may be seen from Ramusio’s giaciono distesi. 
 Lazari renders the former expression, “giganteggia un idolo,” &c., a 
 phrase very unlike Polo. The circumstance is interesting, because this 
 recumbent Colossus at Kanchau is mentioned both by Hajji Mahomed 
 and by Shah Rukh’s people. The latter say : “ In this city of Kanchu 
 there is an Idol-Temple 500 cubits square. In the middle is an idol 
 lying at length which measures 50 paces. The sole of the foot is nine 
 paces long, and the instep is 21 cubits in girth. Behind this image and 
 overhead are other idols of a cubit (?) in height, besides figures of 
 Bakshis as large as life. The action of all is hit off so admirably that 
 you would think they were alive.” Those great recumbent figures are 
 favourites in Buddhist countries still, e.g. in Siam, Burma, and Ceylon. 
 They symbolize Sakya Buddha in the state of Nirwana. Such a recum¬ 
 bent figure, perhaps the prototype of these, was seen by Hwen Thsang 
 
200 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 in a Yihara close to the Sal Grove at Kusinagara, where Sakya entered 
 that state, i.e. died. The stature of Buddha was, we are told, 12 cubits; 
 but Brahma, Indra, and the other gods vainly tried to compute his 
 dimensions. Some such rude metaphor is probably embodied in these 
 large images. I have described one 69 feet long in Burma, but others 
 exist of much greater size, though probably none equal to that which 
 Hwen Thsang, in the 7th century, saw near Bamian, which was 1000 
 feet in length! ( Cathay , &c. pp. cciii, ccxviii; Mission to Ava, p. 52; 
 V. et V. de H T. p. 374 ) 
 
 Great Lama Monastery. 
 
 Note 3.— Marco is now speaking of the Lamas, or clergy of Tibetan 
 Buddhism. The customs mentioned have varied in details, both locally 
 and with the changes that the system has passed through in the course 
 of time. 
 
 The institutes of ancient Buddhism set apart the days of new and 
 full moon to be observed by the Sramanas or monks, by fasting, confes¬ 
 sion, and listening to the reading of the law. It became usual for the 
 laity to take part in the observance, and the number of days was increased 
 to three and then to four. Fahian says that in Ceylon preaching took 
 place on the 8th, 14th, and 15th days of the month. Four is the 
 number now most general amongst Buddhist nations, and the days may 
 
Chap. XLIV. 
 
 THE LAMAS. 
 
 201 
 
 be regarded as a kind of Buddhist Sabbath. In the southern countries 
 and in Nepal they occur at the moon’s changes. In Tibet and among 
 the Mongol Buddhists they are not at equal intervals, though I find the 
 actual days differently stated by different authorities. Pallas says the 
 Mongols observed the 13 th, 14th, and 15 th, the three days being 
 brought together, he thought, on account of the distance many Lamas 
 had to travel to the temple—just as in some Scotch country parishes 
 they used to give two sermons in one service for like reason ! Koeppen, 
 to whose work this note is much indebted, says the Tibetan days are 
 the 14th, 15 th, 29th, and 30th, and adds as to the manner of observ¬ 
 ance : “ On these days, by rule, among the Lamas, nothing should be 
 tasted but farinaceous food and tea; the very devout refrain from all 
 food from sunrise to sunset. The Temples are decorated, and the 
 altar tables set out with the holy symbols, with tapers, and with dishes 
 containing offerings in corn, meal, tea, butter, &c., and especially with 
 small pyramids of dough, or of rice or clay, and accompanied by much 
 burning of incense-sticks. The service performed by the priests is more 
 solemn, the music louder and more exciting, than usual. The laity 
 make their offerings, tell their beads, and repeat Om mani padmci hom , 
 &c.” In th z concordat that took place between the Dalai-Lama and the 
 Altun Khaghan, on the reconversion of the Mongols to Buddhism in the 
 16th century, one of the articles was the entire prohibition of hunting 
 and the slaughter of animals on the monthly fast days. The practice 
 varies much, however, even in Tibet, with different provinces and 
 sects—a variation which the Ramusian text of Polo implies in these 
 words : “ For five days, or four days , or three in each month, they shed 
 no blood,” &c. The days which Mr. Jaeschke names to me differ from 
 the above, and he has not known them to be kept by fasting, whilst the 
 number observed in the remote west, where he is (Lahaul), is very small. 
 
 In Burma the Worship Day, as it is usually called by Europeans, is 
 a very gay scene, the women flocking to the pagodas in their brightest 
 attire. ( Koeppen , I. 563-4, II. 139, 307-8 ; Pallas , Samml. II. 168-9.) 
 
 Note 4 .—These matrimonial customs are the same that are after¬ 
 wards ascribed to the Tartars, so we defer remark. 
 
 Note 5 . — So Pauthier’s text, “ en legation .” The G. Text includes 
 Nicolo Polo, and says, “ on business of theirs that is not worth men¬ 
 tioning,” and with this Ramusio agrees. 
 
202 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 CHAPTER X L V. 
 
 Of the City of Etzina. 
 
 When you leave the city of Campichu you ride for twelve 
 days, and then reach a city called Etzina, which is towards 
 the north on the verge of the Sandy Desert; it belongs to 
 the Province of Tangut . 1 The people are Idolaters, and 
 possess plenty of camels and cattle, and the country pro¬ 
 duces a number of good falcons, both Sakers and Lanners. 
 The inhabitants live by their cultivation and their cattle, 
 for they have no trade. At this city you must needs lay 
 in victuals for forty days, because when you quit Etzina 
 you enter on a Desert which extends forty days’ journey 
 to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor 
 baiting-place . 2 In the summer-time, indeed, you will fall 
 in with people, but in the winter the cold is too great. 
 You also meet with wild beasts (for there are some small 
 pine-woods here and there), and with numbers of wild 
 asses . 3 When you have travelled these forty days across 
 the Desert you come to a certain province lying to the 
 north. Its name you shall hear presently. 
 
 Note 1 . — Deguignes says that Yetsina is found in a Chinese Map 
 of Tartary of the Mongol era, and this is confirmed by Pauthier, who 
 reads it Itsinai , and adds that the text of the Map names it as one 
 of the seven Lu or Circuits of the Province of Kansuh (or Tangut). 
 Indeed, in D’Anville’s Atlas we find a river called Etsina Pira , running 
 northward from Kanchau, and a little below the 41st parallel joining 
 another from Suhchau. Beyond the junction is a town called Hoa- 
 tsiang .; which probably represents Etzina. Yetsina is also mentioned 
 in Gaubil’s History of Chinghiz as taken by that conqueror in 1226, on 
 his last campaign against Tangut. This capture would also seem from 
 Petis de la Croix to be mentioned by Rashiduddin. Gaubil says the 
 Chinese Geography places Yetsina north of Kanchau and north-east of 
 Suhchau, at a distance of 120 leagues from Kanchau, but observes that 
 this is certainly too great ( Gaubil , p. 49). 
 
 Note 2 . — “ Erberge ” (G. T.). Pauthier has Herbage, which is not 
 preferable. 
 
Chap. XLVI. WILD ASS—CITY OF CARACORON. 203 
 
 Note 3 . —The Wild Ass of Mongolia is the Dshiggetai of Pallas 
 (Ashuts hemionus of Gray), and identical with the ? Tibetan Kyang of 
 Moorcroft and Trans-himalayan sportsmen. It differs, according to 
 Blyth, only in shades of colour and unimportant markings, from the 
 Ghor Khar of Western India and the Persian Deserts, the Kulan of 
 Turkestan, which Marco has spoken of in a previous passage (supra 
 Ch. xvi. ]/. A. S. B. XXVIII. 229 seqq.). There is a fine Kyang in 
 the Zoological Gardens. 
 
 Wild Ass of Mongolia. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Of the City of Caracoron. 
 
 Caracoron is a city of some three miles in compass. [It 
 is surrounded by a strong earthen rampart, for stone is 
 scarce there. And beside it there is a great citadel wherein 
 is a fine palace in which the Governor resides.] ’Tis the 
 first city that the Tartars possessed after they issued from 
 
204 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 their own country. And now I will tell you all about how 
 they first acquired dominion and spread over the world . 1 
 
 Originally the Tartars dwelt in the north on the borders 
 of Chorcha . 2 Their country was one of great plains; and 
 there were no towns or villages in it, but excellent pasture- 
 lands, with great rivers and many sheets of water ; in fact 
 it was a very fine and extensive region. But there was no 
 sovereign in the land. They did, however, pay tax and 
 tribute to a great prince who was called in their tongue 
 Unc Can, the same that we call Prester John, him in fact 
 about whose great dominion all the world talks.* The 
 tribute he had of them was one beast out of every ten, and 
 also a tithe of all their other gear. 
 
 Now it came to pass that the Tartars multiplied ex¬ 
 ceedingly. And when Prester John saw how great a people 
 they had become, he began to fear that he should have 
 trouble from them. So he made a scheme to distribute 
 them over sundry countries, and sent one of his Barons to 
 carry this out. When the Tartars became aware of this 
 they took it much amiss, and with one consent they left 
 their country and went off across a desert to a distant 
 region towards the north, where Prester John could not 
 get at them to annoy them. Thus they revolted from his 
 authority and paid him tribute no longer. And so things 
 continued for a time. 
 
 Note 1 . — Karakorum, near the upper course of the River Orkhon, 
 is said by Chinese authors to have been founded by Buku Khan of the 
 Hoei-Hu or Uigurs, in the 8th century. In the days of Chinghiz we are 
 told that it was the head-quarters of his ally, and afterwards enemy, Togrul 
 Wang Khan, the Prester John of Polo. Okkodai, the successor of Chin¬ 
 ghiz established his capital at Karakorum, and founded the walls and 
 palace in 1234. It continued to be the Mongol head-quarters till 1256, 
 when Mangu Kaan decided to transfer the seat of government to Kaipingfu 
 north of Peking (supra in Prologue, chap. xiii. note 1). The Chinese 
 make the compass of the walls only 5 li, or about a mile. The city, or 
 the Imperial Camp in its vicinity, was visited by Plano Carpini (1246), 
 and by Rubruquis (1253). The following is the latter’s account of it: 
 
Chap. XLVI. 
 
 PRESTER JOHN. 
 
 205 
 
 “As regards the city of Caracaron, you must understand that if you set 
 aside the Kaan’s own Palace, it is not as good as the Borough of 
 St. Denis; and as for the Palace, the Abbey of St. Denis is worth ten 
 of it! There are two streets in the town ; one of which is occupied by 
 the Saracens, and in that is the market-place. The other street is occu¬ 
 pied by the Cathayans, who are all craftsmen. Besides these two 
 streets there are some great palaces occupied by the court secretaries. 
 There are also twelve idol temples belonging to different nations, two 
 Mahummeries in which the Law of Mahomet is preached, and one 
 church of the Christians at the extremity of the town. The town is 
 enclosed by a mud-wall, and has four gates. At the east gate they sell 
 millet and other corn, but the supply is scanty; at the west gate they 
 sell rams and goats; at the.south gate oxen and waggons; at the north 
 gate horses. . . . Mangu Kaan has a great Court beside the Town 
 Rampart, which is enclosed by a brick wall, just like our priories. 
 Inside there is a big palace, within which he holds a drinking-bout twice 
 a year; . . . . there are also a number of long buildings like granges, 
 in which are kept his treasures and his stores of victual” (345-6 ; 334). 
 
 Note 2 .— Chorcha ( Ciorcia ) is the Manchu country, whose people 
 were at that time called by the Chinese Yuche or Niuch'e , and by the 
 Mongols Churche, or as it is in Sanang Setzen Jurchid. The country 
 in question is several times mentioned by Rashiduddin as Churche. The 
 founders of the Kin Dynasty, which the Mongols superseded in Northern 
 China, were of Churche race. 
 
 Note 3 .—A note on Prester John might easily spread over many 
 pages. It is impossible to treat it without some expansion, even though 
 omitting many interesting though not essential points. 
 
 The idea that a Christian potentate of enormous wealth and power, 
 and bearing this title, ruled over vast tracts in the far East, was universal 
 in Europe from the middle of the 12th to the end of the 13th century, 
 after which time the Asiatic story seems gradually to have died away, 
 whilst the Royal Presbyter was assigned to a locus in Abyssinia; the 
 equivocal application of the term India to the East of Asia and the East 
 of Africa facilitating this transfer. Indeed I have a suspicion, contrary 
 to the view now generally taken, that the term may from the first have 
 belonged to the Abyssinian Prince, though circumstances led to its being 
 applied in another quarter for a time. 
 
 Be that as it may, the inordinate report of Prester John’s magni¬ 
 ficence became especially diffused from about the year 1165, when a 
 letter full of the most extravagant details was circulated, which purported 
 to have been addressed by this potentate to the Greek Emperor Manuel, 
 the Roman Emperor Frederick, the Pope, and other Christian sovereigns. 
 By the circulation of this letter, glaring fiction as it is, the idea of this 
 Christian Conqueror was planted deep in the mind of Europe, and 
 twined itself round every rumour of revolution in further Asia. Even 
 
20 6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 when the din of the conquests of Chinghiz began to be audible in the 
 West, he was invested with the character of a Christian King, and more 
 or less confounded with the mysterious Prester John. 
 
 The first notice of a conquering Asiatic potentate so styled, had 
 been brought to Europe by the Syrian Bishop of Gabala ( Jihal , south 
 of Laodicea in Northern Syria), who came in 1145 to lay various 
 grievances before Pope Eugene III. He reported that not long before 
 a certain John, inhabiting the extreme East, king and Nestorian priest, 
 and claiming descent from the Three Wise Kings, had made war 
 on the Samiard Kings of the Medes and Persians, and had taken 
 Ecbatana their capital. He was then proceeding to the deliverance of 
 Jerusalem, but was stopped by the Tigris which he could not cross, and 
 compelled by disease in his host to retire. 
 
 M. d’Avezac first showed to whom this account must apply, and 
 the subject has more recently been set forth with great completeness 
 and learning by Dr. Gustavus Oppert. The conqueror in question was 
 the Founder of Kara Khitai, which existed as a great Empire in Asia 
 during the last two-thirds of the 12th century. This chief was a prince 
 of the Khitan dynasty of Liao, who escaped with a body of followers 
 from Northern China, Q n the overthrow of that dynasty by the Kin or 
 Niuche about 1125. He is called by the Chinese historians Yeliu 
 Tashi; by Abulghazi, Nuzi Taigri Hi; and by Rashiduddin, Nushi (or 
 Fushi) Taifu. Being well received by the Uigurs and other tribes west 
 of the Desert who had been subject to the Khitan Empire, he gathered 
 an army and commenced a course of conquest which eventually ex¬ 
 tended over Eastern and Western Turkestan, including Kliwarizm, 
 which became tributary to him. He took the title of Gurkhan , said 
 to mean Universal or Suzerain Khan, and fixed at Bala Sagun, north 
 of the Thian Shan, the capital of his Empire, which became known 
 as Kara (Black) Khitai.* In 1141 he came to the aid of the King 
 of Khwarizm against Sanjar the Seljukian sovereign of Persia (whence 
 the Samiard of the Syrian Bishop), who had just taken Samarkand, 
 and defeated that prince with great slaughter. Though the Gurkhan 
 himself is not described to have extended his conquests into Persia, the 
 King of Khwarizm followed up the victory by an invasion of that 
 country, in which he plundered the treasury and cities of Sanjar. 
 
 This Karacathayan prince is undoubtedly the first conqueror (in 
 Asia at all events) to whom the name of Prester John was applied, 
 though how that name arose remains obscure. Oppert supposes that 
 Gurkhan or Kurkhan , softened in W. Turkish pronunciation into 
 Yurkan , was confounded with Yochanan or Johannes; but he finds no 
 evidence of the conqueror’s, profession of Christianity except the fact, 
 notable certainly, that the daughter of the last of his brief dynasty is 
 
 * According to Mirkhond, Bala Sagun seems to have been the same as Bish- 
 bdlik (now Urumtsi: see Erdmann , 532 ). 
 
Chap. XLVI. 
 
 PRESTER JOHN. 
 
 207 
 
 recorded to have been a Christian. Indeed, D’Ohsson says that the 
 first Gurkhan was a Buddhist, though on what authority is not clear. 
 There seems a probability at least that it was an error in the original 
 ascription of Christianity to the Karacathayan prince, which caused 
 the confusions as to the identity of Prester John which appear in the 
 next century, of which we shall presently speak. Leaving this doubtful 
 point, it has been plausibly suggested that the title of Presbyter Johannes 
 was connected with the legends of the immortality of John the Apostle 
 (6 7 rpeo-fivTepos, as he calls himself in the 2nd and 3rd epistles), and the 
 belief referred to by some of the Fathers that he would be the Forerunner 
 of our Lord’s second coming as John the Baptist had been of His first. 
 
 When the Mongol conquests threw Asia open to Frank travellers in 
 the middle of the 13th century, their minds were full of Prester John; 
 they sought in vain for an adequate representative, but it was not in the 
 nature of things but they should find some representative. In fact they 
 found several. Apparently no real tradition existed among the Eastern 
 Christians of any such personage, but the persistent demand produced 
 a supply, and the honour of identification with Prester John, after 
 hovering over one head and another, settled finally upon that of the 
 King of the Keraits, whom we find to play the part in our text. 
 
 Thus in Plano Carpini’s single mention of Prester John as the King 
 of the Christians of India the Greater, who defeats the Tartars by an 
 elaborate stratagem, Oppert recognizes Sultan Jalaluddm of Khwarizm 
 and his temporary success over the Mongols in Afghanistan. In the 
 Armenian Prince Sempad’s account, on the other hand, this Christian 
 King of India is aided by the Tartars to defeat and harass the neigh¬ 
 bouring Saracens his enemies, and becomes the Mongol’s vassal. In 
 the statement of Rubruquis, though distinct reference is made to the 
 conquering Gurkhan (under the name of Coir Cham of Caracatay), 
 the title of King John is assigned to the Naiman Prince (. Kushluk ), who 
 had married the daughter of the last lineal sovereign of Karakhitai, 
 and usurped his power, whilst with a strange complication of confusion, 
 Unc Prince of the Crit and Merkit (Kerait and Merkit, two great 
 tribes of Mongolia), and Lord of Caracorum, is made the brother and 
 successor of this Naiman Prince. His version of the story, as it pro¬ 
 ceeds, has so much resemblance to Polo’s, that we shall quote the 
 words. The Crit and Merkit, he says, were Nestorian Christians. 
 “ But their Lord had abandoned the worship of Christ to follow idols, 
 and kept by him those priests of the idols who are all devil-raisers 
 and sorcerers. Beyond his pastures, at the distance of 10 or 15 days’ 
 journey, were the pastures of the Moal (Mongol), who were a very 
 poor people without a leader and without any religion except sorceries 
 and divinations, such as all the people of those parts put so much 
 faith in. Next to Moal was another poor tribe called Tartar. King 
 John having died without an heir, his brother Unc got his wealth, and 
 caused himself to be proclaimed Cham, and sent out his flocks and 
 
208 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 herds even to the borders of Moal. At that time there was a certain 
 blacksmith called Chinghis among the tribe of Moal, and he used to 
 lift the cattle of Unc Chan as often as he had a chance, insomuch that 
 the herdsmen of Unc Chan made complaint to their master. The 
 latter assembled an army, and invaded the land of the Moal in search 
 of Chinghis, but he fled and hid himself among the Tartars. So Unc, 
 having plundered the Moal and Tartars, returned home. And Chinghis 
 addressed the Tartars and Moal, saying : 4 It is because we have no 
 leader that we are thus oppressed by our neighbours.’ So both Tartars 
 and Moal made Chinghis himself their leader and captain. And having 
 got a host quietly together, he made a sudden onslaught upon Unc and 
 conquered him, and compelled him to flee into Cathay. On that occa¬ 
 sion his daughter was taken, and given by Chinghis to one of his sons, 
 
 to whom she bore Mangu, who now reigneth.The land in which 
 
 they (the Mongols) first were, and where the residence of Chinghis 
 still exists, is called Onan Kernle. But because Caracoran is in the 
 country which was their first conquest, they regard it as a royal city, 
 and there hold the elections of their Chan.” 
 
 Here we see plainly that the Unc Chan of Rubruquis is the Unc 
 Can or Unecan of Polo. In the narrative of the former, Unc is only 
 connected with King or Prester John ; in that of the latter, rehearsing 
 the story as heard some 20 or 25 years later, the two are identified. The 
 shadowy role of Prester John has passed from the Ruler of Kara Khitai 
 to the Chief of the Keraits. This transfer brings us to another history. 
 
 We have already spoken of the extensive diffusion of Nestorian 
 Christianity in Asia during the early and middle ages. The Christian 
 historian Gregory Abulfaraj relates a curious history of the con¬ 
 version, in the beginning of the nth century, of the King of Kerith 
 with his people, dwelling in the remote north-east of the land of the 
 Turks. And that the Keraits continued to profess Christianity down to 
 the time of Chinghiz is attested by Rashiduddin’s direct statement, as 
 well as by the numerous Christian princesses from that tribe of whom 
 we hear in Mongol history. It is the chief of this tribe of whom 
 Rubruquis and Polo speak under the name of Unc Khan, and whom 
 the latter identifies with Prester John. His proper name is called Tuli 
 by the Chinese, and Togrul by the Persian historians, but the Kin 
 sovereign of Northern China had conferred on him the title of Wang or 
 King, from which his people gave him the slightly corrupted cognomen 
 of which some scholars read Awang, and Avenk Khan, but 
 
 which the spelling of Rubruquis and Polo shows probably to have 
 been pronounced as Aung ox Ung Khan. The circumstance stated by 
 Rubruquis of his having abandoned the profession of Christianity, is 
 not alluded to by Eastern writers; but in any case his career is not a 
 credit to the Faith. I cannot find any satisfactory corroboration of 
 the claims of supremacy over the Mongols which Polo ascribes to Aung 
 Khan. But that his power and dignity were considerable, appears from 
 
Chap. XLVII. 
 
 CHINGHIS KAAN. 
 
 209 
 
 the term Padshah which Rashiduddin applies to him. He had at first 
 obtained the sovereignty of the Keraits by the murder of two of his 
 brothers and several nephews. Yessugai, the father of Chinghiz, had 
 been his staunch friend and had aided him effectually to recover his 
 dominion from which he had been expelled. After a reign of many 
 years he was again ejected, and in the greatest necessity sought the 
 help of Temujin (afterwards called Chinghiz Khan), by whom he was 
 treated with the greatest consideration. This was in 1196. For some 
 years the two chiefs conducted their forays in alliance, but differences 
 sprang up between them ; the son of Aung Khan entered into a plot 
 to kill Temujin, and in 1202-3 they were in open war. The result will 
 be related in connexion with the next chapters. 
 
 We may observe that the idea which Joinville picked up in the East 
 about Prester John corresponds pretty closely with that set forth by 
 Marco. He represents him as one of the princes to whom the Tartars 
 were tributary in the days of their oppression and as “ their ancient 
 enemyone of their first acts, on being organized under a king of their 
 own, was to attack him and conquer him, slaying all that bore arms, but 
 sparing all monks and priests. The expression used by Joinville in 
 speaking of the original land of the Tartars, “ une grande berrie de 
 sablon ,” has not been elucidated in any edition that I have seen. It is 
 the Arabic Bdriya , “ a Desert.” No doubt Joinville learned the 
 
 word in Palestine (see Joinville, p. 143 seqq. ; see also Oppert, Der 
 Presb. Johannes in Sage und Geschichte, and Cathay, &c., pp. 173-182). 
 I had not seen Oppert when the latter work was printed. It appears to 
 me almost certain that the letter of Pope Alexander III., written in 
 I1[ 77 ( Oppert , p. 2; Cathay , p. 175) to the Rex Indorum, Sacerdos 
 Sanctissimus, was meant for the king of Abyssinia. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 Of Chinghis, and how he became the First Kaan of the 
 
 Tartars. 
 
 Now it came to pass in the year of Christ’s Incarnation 
 1187 that the Tartars made them a King whose name was 
 Chinghis Kaan . 2 He was a man of great worth, and of 
 great ability [eloquence], and valour. And as soon as the 
 news that he had been chosen King was spread abroad 
 through those countries, all the Tartars in the world came 
 to him and owned him for their Lord. And right well did 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 he maintain the Sovereignty they had given him. What 
 shall I say ? The Tartars gathered to him in astonishing 
 multitude, and when he saw such numbers he made a great 
 furniture of spears and arrows and such other arms as they 
 used, and set about the conquest of all those regions till 
 he had conquered eight provinces. When he conquered 
 a province he did no harm to the people or their property, 
 but merely established some of his own men in the country 
 along with a proportion of theirs, whilst he led the re¬ 
 mainder to the conquest of other provinces. And when 
 those whom he had conquered became aware how well and 
 safely he protected them against all others, and how they 
 suffered no ill at his hands, and saw what a noble prince 
 he was, then they joined him heart and soul and became 
 his devoted followers. And when he had thus gathered 
 such a multitude that they seemed to cover the earth, he 
 began to think of conquering a great part of the world. 
 Now in the year of Christ 1200 he sent an embassy to 
 Prester John, and desired to have his daughter to wife. 
 But when Prester John heard that Chinghis Kaan demanded 
 his daughter in marriage he waxed very wroth, and said 
 to the Envoys, “What impudence is this, to ask my 
 daughter to wife! Wist he not well that he was my 
 liegeman and serf? Go ye back to him and tell him that 
 I had liever set my daughter in the fire than give her 
 in marriage to him, and that he deserves death at my 
 hand, rebel and traitor that he is!” So he bade the 
 Envoys begone at once, and never come into his presence 
 again. The Envoys, on receiving this reply, departed 
 straightway, and made haste to their master, and related 
 all that Prester John had ordered them to say, keeping 
 nothing back. 2 
 
 Note 1 . — Temujin was born in the year 1155 according to all the 
 Persian historians, who are probably to be relied on; the Chinese put 
 the event in 1162. 1187 does not appear to be a date of special import- 
 
Chap. XLVIII. CHINGHIS KAAN AND PRESTER JOHN. 211 
 
 ance in his history. His inauguration as sovereign under the name 
 of Chinghiz Kaan was in 1202 according to the Persian authorities, in 
 1206 according to the Chinese. 
 
 Note 2. —Several historians, among others Abulfaraj, represent 
 Chinghiz as having married a daughter of Aung-Khan ; and this is 
 current among some of the medieval European writers, such as Vincent 
 of Beauvais. It is also adopted by Petis de la Croix in his history of 
 Chinghiz, apparently from a comparatively late Turkish historian; and 
 both D’Herbelot and St. Martin state the same ; but there seems to be 
 no foundation for it in the best authorities, either Persian or Chinese 
 (see Abulfaragius, p. 285 ; Speculum Historiale , Bk. XXIX. ch. lxix.; 
 Hist, of Genghiz Can, p. 29; and Golden Horde, p. 61-2). But there is 
 a real story at the basis of Polo’s, which seems to be this. About 1202, 
 when Aung Khan and Chinghiz were still acting in professed alliance, a 
 double union was proposed between Aung Khan’s daughter Jaur Bigi 
 and Chinghiz’s son Juji, and between Chinghiz’s daughter Kijin Bigi and 
 Togrul’s grandson Kush Buka. From certain circumstances this union 
 fell through, and this was one of the circumstances which opened the 
 breach between the two chiefs. There were, however, several marriages 
 between the families. [Erdmann, 283 ; others are quoted under Chap, 
 lix., Note 2.) 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 How Chinghis mustered his People to march against 
 Prester John. 
 
 When Chinghis Kaan heard the brutal message that 
 Prester John had sent him, such rage seized him that his 
 heart came nigh to bursting within him, for he was a man 
 of a very lofty spirit. At last he spoke, and that so loud 
 that all who were present could hear him: u Never more 
 might he be prince if he took not revenge for the brutal 
 message of Prester John, and such revenge that insult never 
 in this world was so dearly paid for. And before long 
 Prester John should know whether he were his serf or no!” 
 
 So then he mustered all his forces, and levied such a 
 host as never before was seen or heard of, sending word 
 to Prester John to be on his defence. And when Prester 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 John had sure tidings that Chinghis was really coming 
 against him with such a multitude, he still professed to 
 treat it as a jest and a trifle, for, quoth he, “ these be no 
 soldiers.” Natheless he marshalled his forces and mustered 
 his people, and made great preparations, in order that if 
 Chinghis did come, he might take him and put him to 
 death. In fact he marshalled such an host of many dif¬ 
 ferent nations that it was a world’s wonder. 
 
 And so both sides gat them ready to battle. And why 
 should I make a long story of it? Chinghis Kaan with 
 all his host arrived at a vast and beautiful plain which 
 was called Tanduc, belonging to Prester John, and there 
 he pitched his camp; and so great was the multitude of 
 his people that it was impossible to number them. And 
 when he got tidings that Prester John was coming, he 
 rejoiced greatly, for the place afforded a fine and ample 
 battle-ground, so he was right glad to tarry for him there, 
 and greatly longed for his arrival. 
 
 But now leave we Chinghis and his host, and let us 
 return to Prester John and his people. 
 
 CHAPTER X LI X. 
 
 How Prester John marched to meet Chinghis. 
 
 Now the story goes that when Prester John became aware 
 that Chinghis with his host was marching against him, he 
 went forth to meet him with all his forces, and advanced 
 until he reached the same plain of Tanduc, and pitched his 
 camp over against that of Chinghis Kaan at a distance of 
 20 miles. And then both armies remained at rest for two 
 days that they might be fresher and heartier for battle. 1 
 
 So when the two great hosts were pitched on the plains 
 of Tanduc as you have heard, Chinghis Kaan one day sum- 
 
Chap. XLIX. CHINGHIS KAAN AND PRESTER JOHN. 
 
 213 
 
 moned before him his astrologers, both Christians and 
 Saracens, and desired them to let him know which of the 
 two hosts would gain the battle, his own or Prester John’s. 
 The Saracens tried to ascertain, but were unable to give a 
 true answer ; the Christians however did give a true answer, 
 and showed manifestly beforehand how the event should be. 
 For they got a cane and split it lengthwise, and laid one 
 half on this side and one half on that, allowing no one to 
 touch the pieces. And one piece of cane they called Chin¬ 
 ghis Kaan , and the other piece they called Prester John. 
 And then they said to Chinghis: “Now mark! and you 
 will see the event of the battle, and who shall have the best 
 of it; for whose cane soever shall get above the other, to 
 him shall victory be.” He replied that he would fain see 
 it, and bade them begin. Then the Christian astrologers 
 read a Psalm out of the Psalter, and went through other 
 incantations. And lo! whilst all were beholding, the cane 
 that bore the name of Chinghis Kaan, without being 
 touched by anybody, advanced to the other that bore the 
 name of Prester John, and got on the top of it. When 
 the Prince saw that, he was greatly delighted, and seeing 
 how in this matter he found the Christians to tell the truth, 
 he always treated them with great respect, and held them 
 for men of truth for ever after. 2 
 
 Note 1 .—Polo in the preceding chapter has stated that this plain 
 of Tanduc was in Prester John’s country. He plainly regards it as 
 identical with the Tanduc of which he speaks more particularly in Ch. lix. 
 as belonging to Prester John’s descendants, and which must be located 
 near the Chinese wall. He is no doubt wrong in placing the battle 
 there. Sanang Setzen puts the battle between the two, the only one 
 which he mentions, “ at the outflow of the Onon near Kulen Buira.” 
 The same action is placed by Demailla’s authorities at Calantschan, by 
 P. Hyacinth at Kharakchin Schatu, by Erdmann after Rashid in the 
 vicinity of Hulun Barkat and Kalanchinalt, which latter was on the 
 borders of the Churche or Manchus. All this points to the vicinity of 
 Buir Nur and Hulan or Kalon Nur (though the Onon is far from these). 
 But this was not the final defeat of Aung Khan or Prester John, which 
 
214 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 took place some time later (in 1203) at a place called the Chacher 
 Ondur (or Heights), which Gaubil places between the Tula and the 
 Kerulon, therefore near the modern Urga. Aung Khan was wounded, 
 and fled over the frontier of the Naiman ; the officers of that tribe seized 
 and killed him. ( Schmidt , 87, 383 ; Erdmann , 297 ; Gaubil , p. 10.) 
 
 Note 2.— A Tartar divination by twigs, but different from that here 
 employed, is older than Herodotus, who ascribes it to the Scythians. 
 We hear of one something like the last among the Alans, and (from 
 Tacitus) among the Germans. The words of Hosea (iv. 12), “My 
 people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them,” 
 are thus explained by Theophylactus : “ They stuck up a couple of 
 sticks, whilst murmuring certain charms and incantations; the sticks 
 then, by the operation of devils, direct or indirect, would fall over, and 
 the direction of their fall was noted,” &c. The Chinese method of 
 divination comes still nearer to that in the text. It is conducted by 
 tossing in the air two symmetrical pieces of wood or bamboo of a pecu¬ 
 liar form. It is described by Mendoza, and more particularly, with 
 illustrations, by Doolittle. 
 
 But Rubruquis would seem to have witnessed nearly the same pro¬ 
 cess that Polo describes. He reprehends the conjuring practices of the 
 Nestorian priests among the Mongols, who seem to have tried to rival 
 the indigenous Kams or Medicine-men. Visiting the Lady Kuktai, a 
 Christian Queen of Mangu Kaan, who was ill, he says: “The Nesto- 
 rians were repeating certain verses, I know not what (they said it was 
 part of a Psalm), over two twigs which were brought into contact in the 
 hands of two men. The monk stood by during the operation” (p. 326). 
 Petis de la Croix quotes from Thevenot’s travels a similar mode of 
 divination as much used, before a fight, among the Barbary corsairs. 
 Two men sit on the deck facing one another and each holding two 
 arrows by the points, and hitching the notches of each pair of arrows 
 into the other pair. Then the ship’s writer reads a certain Arabic 
 formula, and it is pretended that whilst this goes on, the two sets of 
 arrows, of which one represents the Turks and the other the Christians , 
 struggle together in spite of the resistance of the holders, and finally 
 one rises over the other. This is perhaps the divination by arrows 
 which is prohibited in the Koran. 
 
 P. della Valle describes the same process, conducted by a Maho- 
 medan conjuror of Aleppo : “ By his incantations he made the four 
 points of the arrows come together without any movement of the holders, 
 and by the way the points spontaneously placed themselves, obtained 
 answers to interrogatories.” 
 
 And Mr. Jaeschke writes from Lahaul: “There are many different 
 ways of divination practised among the Buddhists; and that also men¬ 
 tioned by Marco Polo is known to our Lama, but in a slightly different 
 way, making use of two arrows instead of a cane split up, wherefore this 
 
Chap. L. DEFEAT AND DEATH OF PRESTER JOHN. 
 
 215 
 
 kind is called da-mo 1 Arrow-divination.’ ” Indeed the practice is not 
 extinct in India, for in 1833 Mr. Yigne witnessed its application to 
 detect the robber of a government chest at Lodiana. 
 
 As regards Chinghiz’s respect for the Christians there are other 
 stories. Abulfaragius has one about Chinghiz seeing in a dream a 
 religious person who promised him success. He told the dream to his 
 wife, Aung Khan’s daughter, who said the description answered to that 
 of the bishop who used to visit her father. Chinghiz then enquired for 
 a bishop among the Uigur Christians in his camp, and they indicated 
 Mar Denha. Chinghiz thenceforward was milder towards the Christians, 
 and showed them many distinctions (p. 285). Vincent of Beauvais also 
 speaks of Rabbanta, a Nestorian monk, who lived in the confidence 
 of Chinghiz’s wife, daughter of “ the Christian King David or Prester 
 John,” and who used by divination to make many revelations to the 
 Tartars. We have already said that there seems no ground for assign¬ 
 ing a daughter of Aung Khan as wife to Chinghiz. But there was a 
 niece of the former, named Abika, among the wives of Chinghiz. And 
 Rashiduddin does relate a dream of the Kaan’s in relation to her. But 
 it was to the effect that he was divinely commanded to give her away; 
 and this he did next morning ! 
 
 {Rawlins. Herod. IV. 67 ; Amm. Mar cell. XXXI. 2 ; Delvio , Disq. 
 Magic. 558; Mendoza , Hak. Soc. I. 47 ; Doolittle , 435-6 ; Hist, of 
 Genghizcan , p. 52-53 ; P. della V. II. 865-6 ; Vigne , I. 46 ; D’Ohsson , 
 
 I. 418-19.) 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 The Battle between Chinghis Kaan and Prester John. 
 
 And after both sides had rested well those two days, they 
 armed for the fight and engaged in desperate combat; and 
 it was the greatest battle that ever was seen. The numbers 
 that were slain on both sides were very great, but in the 
 end Chinghis Kaan obtained the victory. And in the 
 battle Prester John was slain. And from that time for¬ 
 ward, day by day, his kingdom passed into the hands of 
 Chinghis Kaan till the whole was conquered. 
 
 I may tell you that Chinghis Kaan reigned six years 
 after this battle, engaged continually in conquest, and 
 
216 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 taking many a province and city and stronghold. But at 
 the end of those six years he went against a certain castle 
 that was called Caaju, and there he was shot with an arrow 
 in the knee, so that he died of his wound. A great pity it 
 was, for he was a valiant man and a wise. 1 
 
 I will now tell you who reigned after Chinghis, and 
 then about the manners and customs of the Tartars. 
 
 Note 1 . —Chinghiz in fact survived Aung Khan some 24 years, 
 dying during his third expedition against Tangut, 18th August, 1227, 
 aged 66. Sanang Setzen says that Kurbeljin Goa Khatun, the beau¬ 
 tiful Queen of Tangut, who had passed into the tents of the conqueror, 
 did him some bodily mischief (it is not said what), and then went and 
 drowned herself in the Karamuren (or Hoang-ho), which thenceforth was 
 called by the Mongols the Khatun-gol , or Lady’s River, a name which it 
 in fact still bears. Carpini relates that Chinghiz was killed by lightning. 
 The Persian and Chinese historians, however, agree in speaking of his 
 death as natural. Gaubil calls the place of his death Lou-pan, which 
 he says was in lat. 38°. Rashiduddin calls it Leung-Shan, which appears 
 to be the mountain range still so called in the heart of Shensi. 
 
 The name of the place before which Polo represents him as mortally 
 wounded is very variously given. According to Gaubil, Chinghiz was in 
 reality dangerously wounded by an arrow-shot at the siege of Taitongfu 
 in 1212. And it is possible that Polo’s account of his death before 
 Caagiu (as I prefer the reading), arose out of a confusion between this 
 circumstance and those of the death of Mangu Kaan , which is said to 
 have occurred at the assault of Hochau in Ssechuen, a name which 
 Polo would write Caagiu , or nearly so. Abulfaragius specifically says 
 that Mangu Kaan died by an arroiv; though it is true that other authors 
 say he died of disease, and Haiton that he was drowned; all which 
 shows how excusable were Polo’s errors as to events occurring 50 to 100 
 years before his time. (See Opperfs Presbyter Johannes , p. 76 ; De 
 Mailla , IX. 275, and note ; Gaubil ’ 18, 50, 52, 121 ; Erdmann , 443 ; 
 Ss. Ssetzen, 103.) 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 Of those who did Reion after Chinghis Kaan, and of the 
 Customs of the Tartars. 
 
 Now the next that reigned after Chinghis Kaan, their first 
 Lord, 1 was Cuy Kaan, and the third Prince was Batuy 
 
Chap. LI. INTERMENT OF THE TARTAR KAANS. 
 
 217 
 
 Kaan, and the fourth was Alacou Kaan, the fifth Mon- 
 gou Kaan, the sixth Cublay Kaan, who is the sovereign 
 now reigning, and is more potent than any of the five who 
 went before him ; in fact, if you were to take all those 
 five together, they would not be so powerful as he is . 2 
 Nay, I will say yet more ; for if you were to put together 
 all the Christians in the world, with their Emperors and 
 their Kings, the whole of these Christians,-—-aye, and throw 
 in the Saracens to boot,—would not have such power, or 
 be able to do so much as this Cublay, who is the Lord of 
 all the Tartars in the world, those of the Levant and of the 
 Ponent included; for these are all his liegemen and sub¬ 
 jects. I mean to show you all about this great power of 
 his in this book of ours. 
 
 You should be told also that all the Grand Kaans, and 
 all the descendants of Chinghis their first Lord, are carried 
 to a mountain that is called Altay to be interred. Where¬ 
 soever the Sovereign may die, he is carried to his burial 
 in that mountain with his predecessors; no matter, if the 
 place of his death were 100 days’journey distant, thither 
 must he be carried to his buriald 
 
 Let me tell you a strange thing too. When they are 
 carrying the body of any Emperor to be buried with the 
 others, the convoy that goes with the body doth put to 
 the sword all whom they fall in with on the road, saying: 
 “ Go and wait upon your Lord in the other world! ” 
 For they do in sooth believe that all such as they slay in 
 this manner do go to serve their Lord in the other world. 
 They do the same too with horses ; for when the Emperor 
 dies, they kill all his best horses, in order that he may have 
 the use of them in the other world, as they believe. And 
 I tell you as a certain truth, that when Mongou Kaan died, 
 more than 20,000 persons, who chanced to meet the body 
 on its way, were slain in the manner I have told . 4 
 
2 I 8 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 1 . — Before parting with Chinghis let me point out what has 
 not to my knowledge been suggested before, that the name of “ Cam- 
 buscan bold ” in Chaucer’s tale is only a corruption of the name of 
 Chinghiz. The name of the conqueror appears in Fr. Ricold as Camius- 
 can, from which the transition to Cambuscan presents no difficulty. 
 Camius was, I suppose, a clerical corruption out of Canjus or Cianjus . 
 In the chronicle of St. Antonino, however, we have him called “ Chingis- 
 can rectius Tamgius Cam ” (XIX. c. 8). If this is not merely the usual 
 blunder of t for c, it presents a curious analogy to the form Tankiz Kha?i 
 always used by Ibn Batuta. I do not know the origin of the latter, 
 unless it was suggested by tankis (Ar.) “ Turning upside down.” (See 
 Pereg. Quat. p. 119 ; I. B. III. 22, &c.) 
 
 Note 2 .—Polo’s history here is inadmissible. He introduces into 
 the list of the supreme Kaans Batu who was only Khan of Kipchak 
 (the Golden Horde), and Hulaku who was Khan of Persia, whilst he 
 omits Okkodai the immediate successor of Chinghiz. It is also remark¬ 
 able that he uses the form Alacou here instead of Alaii as elsewhere ; 
 nor does he seem to mean the same person, for he was quite well aware 
 that Alaii was Lord of the Levant, who sent ambassadors to the Great 
 Kaan Cublay, and could not therefore be one of his predecessors. The 
 real succession ran : 1. Chinghiz; 2. Okkodai; 3. Kuyuk; 4. Mangku; 
 5. Kublai. 
 
 There are quite as great errors in the history of Haiton, who had 
 probably greater advantages in this respect than Marco. And I may 
 note that in Teixeira’s abridgment of Mirkhond Hulaku is made to suc¬ 
 ceed Mangu Kaan on the throne of Chinghiz. (. Relaciones , p. 338.) 
 
 Note 3. —The Altai here certainly does not mean the Great South 
 Siberian Range to which the name is now applied. The names Altai and 
 Altan-Khan , appears sometimes to be applied by Sanang Setzen to the 
 Khingan of the Chinese, or range running north of and parallel to, 
 the Great Wall near Kalgan. And in reference to this very matter 
 of the burial of Chinghiz, he describes the place as “ the district of 
 Yeke Utek, between the shady side of the Altai-Khan and the sunny 
 side of the Kentei-Khan.” 
 
 According to Rashiduddin, Chinghiz was buried at a place called 
 Burkan Kdldun (“ God’s Hill ”), or Yekeh Kuruk (“ The Great Sacred 
 or Tabooed Place ”); in another passage he calls the spot Budah Undur 
 (which means, I fancy, the same as Burkan Kaldun), near the River 
 Selenga. Burkan Kaldun is often mentioned by Sanang Setzen, and 
 Pallas speaks of Burgin Galdat as the mountain in which the Onon 
 rises. Quatremere seems to demonstrate the identity of this place with 
 the mountain called by Pallas (and Timkowski) Khanoolla. This is a 
 lofty mountain near Urga, covered with dense forest, and is indeed the 
 first woody mountain reached in travelling from Peking. It is still 
 held sacred by the Mongols, and guarded from access, though the tradi- 
 
Chap. LI I. 
 
 THE CUSTOMS OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 219 
 
 tion of Chinghiz’s grave seems to be extinct. As the Kentai, mentioned 
 in the quotation from S. Setzen, is immediately north of the Khanoola, 
 this agrees fairly with his statement on the supposition that the Khan¬ 
 oola is the Altai of the same quotation from him. The Khan-oolla 
 (oola means mountain) appears also to be the Han mountain which 
 Mongol chiefs claiming descent from Chinghiz named to Gaubil as the 
 burial place of that conqueror. 
 
 Erdmann relates, apparently after Rashiduddin, that Chinghiz was 
 buried at the foot of a tree which had taken his fancy on a hunting 
 expedition, and which he had then pointed out as the place where he 
 desired to be interred. It was then conspicuous, but afterwards the 
 adjoining trees shot up so rapidly, that a dense wood covered the whole 
 locality, and it became impossible to identify the spot. (Q. R. 117 seqq.; 
 Timk. I. 115 seqq., II. 475-6; San. Setz. 103, 114-15, 108-109; Gaubil , 
 54; Erd. 444.) 
 
 Note 4. —Rashiduddin relates, that in carrying Chinghiz to his 
 burial, the escort slew all whom they met, and that forty noble and beau¬ 
 tiful girls were despatched to serve him in the other world, as well as superb 
 horses. As Mangu Kaan died in the heart of China, any attempt to 
 carry out the barbarous rule in his case would involve great slaughter. 
 {Erd. 443; D Ohs son, I. 381, II. 13 ; and see Cathay, 507-8.) 
 
 Sanang Setzen ignores these barbarities. He describes the body of 
 Chinghiz as removed to his native land on a two-wheeled waggon, the 
 whole host escorting it, and wailing as they went: “ And Kiluken Ba¬ 
 hadur of the Sunid Tribe (one of the Khan’s old comrades) lifted up his 
 voice and sang :— 
 
 ‘ Whilom Thou didst swoop like a Falcon : A rumbling waggon now trundles thee off: 
 
 O My King ! 
 
 Hast Thou in truth then forsaken thy wife and thy children and the Diet of thy People ? 
 
 O My King ! 
 
 Circling in pride like an Eagle whilom Thou didst lead us, 
 
 O My King ! 
 
 But now Thou hast stumbled and fallen, like an unbroken Colt, 
 
 O My King !’ ”—p. 108. 
 
 CHAPTER L11. 
 
 Concerning the Customs of the Tartars. 
 
 Now that we have began to speak of the Tartars, I have 
 plenty to tell you on that subject. 
 
 The Tartar custom is to spend the winter in warm 
 
220 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 plains where they find good pasture for their cattle, whilst 
 in summer they betake themselves to a cool climate among 
 the mountains and valleys, where water is to be found as 
 well as woods and pastures. 
 
 Their houses are circular, and are made of wands 
 covered with felts . 1 These are carried along with them 
 whithersoever they go ; for the wands are so strongly bound 
 together, as well as so well combined, that the frame can 
 be made very light. Whenever they erect these huts the 
 door is always to the south. They also have waggons 
 covered with black felt so efficaciously that no rain can 
 get in. These are drawn by oxen and camels, and the 
 women and children travel in them . 2 The women do the 
 buying and selling, and whatever is necessary to provide 
 for the husband and household ; for the men all lead the 
 life of gentlemen, troubling themselves about nothing but 
 hunting and hawking, and looking after their goshawks 
 and falcons, unless it be the practice of warlike exercises. 
 
 They live on the milk and meat which their herds 
 supply, and on the produce of the chase; and they eat all 
 kinds of flesh, including that of horses and dogs, and Pha¬ 
 raoh’s rats, of which last there are great numbers in burrows 
 on those plains . 3 Their drink is mare’s milk. 
 
 They are very careful not to meddle with each other’s 
 wives, and will not do so on any account, holding that to 
 be an evil and abominable thing. The women too are 
 very good and loyal to their husbands, and notable house¬ 
 wives withal . 4 [Ten or twenty of them will dwell together 
 in charming peace or unity, and you never shall hear an 
 ill word among them.] 
 
 The marriage customs of Tartars are as follows. Any 
 man may take a hundred wives an he so please, and if he 
 be able to keep them. But the first wife is ever held 
 most in honour, and as the most legitimate [and the same 
 applies to the sons whom she may bear]. The husband 
 gives a marriage payment to his wife’s mother, and the 
 
Chap. LI I. 
 
 THE CUSTOMS OF THE TARTARS. 
 
 22 
 
 wife brings nothing to her husband. They have more 
 children than other people, because they have so many 
 wives. They may marry their cousins, and if a father dies, 
 his son may take any of the wives, his own mother always 
 excepted; that is to say the eldest son may do this, but no 
 other. A man may also take the wife of his own brother 
 after the latter’s death. Their weddings are celebrated with 
 great ado . 5 
 
 Note 1 .— The word here in the G. T. is “ fennes which seems usually 
 to mean ropes; and in fact Pauthier’s text reads : “ IIont mesons de verges 
 et les cueuvrent de cordesP Ramusio’s text has feltroni , and both Muller 
 and the Latin of the S. G. have filtro. This is certainly the right read¬ 
 ing. But whether fennes was ever used as a form of feltres (as pennes 
 means peltry ) I cannot discover. Perhaps some words have dropped out. 
 A good description of a Kirghiz hut (35 feet in diameter), and exactly cor¬ 
 responding to Polo’s account, will be found in Atkinson’s ‘ Siberia,’ and 
 another in Vambery’s Travels. How comfortable and civilized the aspect 
 of such a hut may be, can be seen also in Burnes’s account of a Turko¬ 
 man dwelling of this kind. This description of hut or tent is common 
 to nearly all the nomade tribes of Central Asia. The trellis-work form¬ 
 ing the skeleton of the tent-walls is (at least among the Turkmans) 
 loosely pivoted, so as to draw out and compress like “ lazy-tongs.” 
 
 Rubruquis, Pallas, Timkowski, and others, notice the custom of 
 turning the door to the south; the reason is obvious. (Atkinson, 285 ; 
 Vamb. 316; Burnes, III. 51 ; Conolly , I. 96.) 
 
 Note 2 .— Hischylus already knows the 
 
 “ wandering Scyths who dwell 
 In latticed huts high-poised on easy wheels.” 
 
 — Prom. Vinct. 709-10. 
 
 And long before him Hesiod says Phineus was carried by the Harpies— 
 
 “ To the Land of the Milk-fed nations, whose houses are waggons.” 
 
 — Strabo,\ ii. 3-9. 
 
 “ On the waggon,” says Ibn Batuta, “ is put a sort of pavilion of wands 
 laced together with narrow thongs. It is very light, and is covered with 
 felt or cloth, and has latticed windows, so that the person inside can 
 look out without being seen. He can change his position at pleasure, 
 sleeping or eating, reading or writing during the journey.” These 
 waggons were sometimes of enormous size. Rubruquis declares that 
 he measured between the wheel-tracks of one and found the interval to 
 be 20 feet. The axle was like a ship’s mast, and 22 oxen were yoked 
 
222 
 
 marco polo. 
 
 Book 1. 
 
 to the waggon, it abreast (see opposite cut). He describes the huts as 
 not usually taken to pieces, but carried all standing. The waggon just 
 mentioned carried a hut of 30 feet diameter, for it projected beyond the 
 wheels at least 5 feet on either side. In fact, Carpini says explicitly, 
 “ Some of the huts are speedily taken to pieces and put up again ; such 
 are packed on the beasts. Others cannot be taken to pieces, but are 
 carried bodily on the waggons.” The carts that were used to transport 
 the Tartar valuables were covered with felt soaked in tallow or ewe’s milk, 
 to make them waterproof. (I. B. II. 381-2 ; Rub. 221; Carp. 6 16.) 
 
 The words of Herodotus, speaking generally of the Scyths, apply per¬ 
 fectly to the Mongol hordes under Chinghiz : “ Having neither cities nor 
 forts, and carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go; accus¬ 
 tomed moreover, one and all, to shoot from horseback, and living not 
 by husbandry but on their cattle, their waggons the only houses they 
 possess, how can they fail of being unconquerable?” (IV. 36, Rawlins.) 
 
 Note 3 .— Pharaolls Rat was properly the Gerboa of Arabia and North 
 Africa, which the Arabs also regard as a dainty. There is a kindred 
 animal in Siberia called Alactaga , and a kind of Kangaroo-rat (probably 
 the same) is mentioned as very abundant on the Mongolian Steppe. 
 There is also the Zieselmaus of Pallas, a Dormouse, I believe, which he 
 says the Kalmaks, even of distinction, count a delicacy, especially 
 cooked in sour milk. “ They eat not only the flesh of all their different 
 kinds of cattle, including horses and camels, but also that of many wild 
 animals which other nations eschew, e. g. marmots and zieselmice , beavers, 
 badgers, otters, and lynxes, leaving none untouched except the dog and 
 weasel kind, and also (unless very hard pressed) the flesh of the fox 
 and the wolf.” ( Pallas , Samml. I. 128; also Ruhr. 229-30.) 
 
 Note 4 .—“ Their wives are chaste ; nor does one ever hear any talk of 
 their immodesty,” says Carpini;—no Boccaccian and Chaucerian stories. 
 
 Note 5. —“ The Mongols are not prohibited from having a plurality 
 of wives; the first manages the domestic concerns, and is the most re¬ 
 spected” ( Timk. II. 310). Naturally Polygamy is not so general among 
 the Mongols as when Asia lay at their feet. The Buraets, who seem to 
 retain the old Mongol customs in great completeness, are polygamists, 
 and have as many wives as they choose. Polygamy is also very pre-, 
 valent among the Yakuts, whose lineage seems to be Eastern Turk. 
 (.Ritter , III. 125 ; Erman , II. 346.) 
 
 Of the custom that entitled the son on succeeding to take such as he 
 pleased of his deceased father’s wives, we have had some illustration (see 
 Prologue , ch. xvii. note 2), and many instances will be found in Hammer’s 
 or other Mongol Histories. The same custom seems to be ascribed by 
 Herodotus to the Scyths (IV. 78). A number of citations regarding the 
 practice are given by Quatremere ( Q. R. p. 92). A modern Mongol 
 writer in the Melanges Asiatiques of the Petersburg Academy, states that 
 
Chap. LI I 
 
 THE CUSTOMS OF THE TARTARS 
 
 223 
 
 Medieval Tartar Huts and Waggons. 
 
224 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Rook I. 
 
 the custom of taking a deceased brother’s wives is now obsolete, but 
 that a proverb preserves its memory (II. 656). 
 
 “ The Kalin is a present which the Bridegroom or his parents make 
 to the parents of the Bride. All the Pagan nations of Siberia have this 
 custom j they differ only in what constitutes the present, whether money 
 or cattle.” ( Gindin , I. 29; see also Erman , II. 348.) 
 
 CHAPTER L111. 
 
 Concerning the God of the Tartars. 
 
 This is the fashion of their religion. [They say there is a 
 Most High God of Heaven, whom they worship daily with 
 thurible and incense, but they pray to Him only for health 
 of mind and body. But] they have [also] a certain [other] 
 god of theirs called Natigay, and they say he is the God 
 of the Earth, who watches over their children, cattle, and 
 crops. They show him great worship and honour, and 
 every man hath a figure of him in his house, made of 
 felt and cloth; and they also make in the same manner 
 images of his wife and children. The wife they put on the 
 left hand, and the children in front. And when they eat, 
 they take the fat of the meat and grease the god’s mouth 
 withal, as well as the mouths of his wife and children. 
 Then they take of the broth and sprinkle it before the door 
 of the house; and that done, they deem that their god and 
 his family have had their share of the dinner . 1 
 
 Their drink is mare’s milk, prepared in such a way that 
 you would take it for white wine; and a right good drink 
 it is, called by them Kemiz . 2 
 
 The clothes of the wealthy Tartars are for the most 
 part of gold and silk stuffs, lined with costly furs, such as 
 sable and ermine, vair and fox-skin, in the richest fashion. 
 
Chap. LIII. 
 
 OBJECTS OF TARTAR WORSHIP. 
 
 225 
 
 Note 1 . —There is no reference here to Buddhism, which was then 
 of recent introduction among the Mongols; indeed at the end of the 
 chapter Polo speaks of their new adoption of the Chinese idolatry, i.e. 
 Buddhism. We may add here that the Buddhism of the Mongols 
 decayed and became practically extinct after their expulsion from China 
 (1368-9). The old Shamanism then apparently revived; nor was it till 
 1577 that the great reconversion of Mongolia to Lamaism began. This 
 reconversion is the most prominent event in the Mongol history of 
 Sanang Setzen, whose great-grandfather Khutuktai Setzen, Prince of the 
 Ordos, was a chief agent in the movement. 
 
 The Supreme Good Spirit appears to have been called by the 
 Mongols Tengri (Heaven), and Khormuzda , and is identified by Schmidt 
 with the Persian Hormuzd. In Buddhist times he became identified 
 with Indra. 
 
 Plano Carpini’s account of this matter is very like Marco’s : “ They 
 believe in One God, the Maker of all things, visible and invisible, and 
 the Distributor of good and evil in this world ; but they worship Him 
 not with prayers or praises or any kind of service. Natheless they have 
 certain idols of felt, imitating the human face, and having underneath the 
 face something resembling teats; these they place on either side the door. 
 These they believe to be the guardians of the flocks, from whom they 
 have the boons of milk and increase. Others they fabricate of bits of 
 silk, and these are highly honoured; . . . . and whenever they begin to 
 eat or drink, they first offer these idols a portion of their food or drink.” 
 
 The account agrees generally with what we are told of the original 
 Shamanism of the Tunguses, which recognizes a Supreme Power over 
 all, and a small number of potent spirits called Ongot. These spirits 
 among the Buraets are called, according to one author, Nougait or Nogat, 
 and according to Erman Ongotui. In some form of this same word, 
 Nogait, Ongot, Onggod, Ongotui , we are, I imagine, to trace the Natigay 
 of Polo. The modern representative of this Shamanist Lar is still 
 found among the Buraets, and is thus described by Pallas under the 
 name of Immegiljin: “ He is honoured as the tutelary god of the 
 sheep and other cattle. Properly the divinity consists of two figures, 
 hanging side by side, one of whom represents the god’s wife. These two 
 figures are merely a pair of lanky flat bolsters with the upper part shaped 
 into a round disk, and the body hung with a long woolly fleece ; eyes, 
 nose, breasts, and navel, being indicated by leather knobs stitched on. 
 The male figure commonly has at his girdle the foot-rope with which 
 horses at pasture are fettered, whilst the female, which is sometimes accom¬ 
 panied by smaller figures representing her children, has all sorts of little 
 nicknacks and sewing implements.” Galsang Czomboyev, a recent 
 Russo-Mongol writer already quoted, says also: “ Among the Buryats, 
 in the middle of the hut and place of honour, is the Dsaiaga^hi or ‘ Chief 
 Creator of Fortune.’ At the door is the E??ielgelji , the Tutelary of the 
 Herds and Young Cattle, made of sheep-skins. Outside the hut is 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 the Chandaghatu , a name implying that the idol was formed of a white 
 hare-skin, the Tutelary of the Chase and perhaps of War. All these 
 have been expelled by Buddhism except Dsaiagachi, who is called 
 Tengeri , and introduced among the Buddhist divinities.” 
 
 Note 2.—Kimiz or Kumiz, the habitual drink of the Mongols, as 
 it still is of most of the nomades of Asia. It is thus made. Fresh 
 mare’s milk is put in a well-seasoned bottle-necked vessel of horse- 
 skin ; a little kunit (see note 5 , ch. liv.) or some sour cow’s milk is 
 added ; and when acetous fermentation is commencing it is violently 
 churned with a peculiar staff which constantly stands in the vessel. This 
 
 Tartar Idols and Kumis Churn. 
 
 interrupts fermentation and introduces a quantity of air into the liquid. 
 It is customary for visitors who may drop in to give a turn or two at the 
 churn-stick. After three or four days the drink is ready. 
 
 Kumiz keeps long; it is wonderfully tonic and nutritious, and it is 
 said that it has cured many persons threatened with consumption. The 
 tribes using it are said to be remarkably free from pulmonary disease; 
 and indeed I understand there is a regular Galactopathic establishment 
 somewhere in the province of Orenburg for treating pulmonary patients 
 with Kumiz diet. 
 
 It has a peculiar fore and after-taste which, it is said, everybody 
 does not like. Yet I have found no confession of a dislike to Kumiz. 
 Rubruquis tells us it is pungent on the tongue, like vinum raspei (pin 
 rape of the French) whilst you are drinking it, but leaves behind a pleasant 
 flavour like milk of almonds. It makes a man’s inside feel very cozy, 
 
Chap. LI 11. 
 
 THE DRINK OF THE MONGOLS. 
 
 227 
 
 he adds, even turning a weak head, and is strongly diuretic. To this 
 last statement, however, modern report is in direct contradiction. The 
 Greeks and other Oriental Christians considered it a sort of denial of 
 the faith to drink Kumiz. On the other hand the Mahomedan converts 
 from the nomade tribes seem to have adhered to the use of Kumiz 
 even when strict in abstinence from wine; and it was indulged in by the 
 early Mamelukes as a public solemnity. Excess on such an occasion 
 killed Bibars Bundukdari, who was passionately fond of this liquor. 
 
 The intoxicating power of Kumiz varies according to the brew. The 
 more advanced is the vinous fermentation the less acid is the taste and 
 the more it sparkles. The effect, however, is always slight and transitory, 
 and leaves no unpleasant sensation, whilst it produces a strong ten¬ 
 dency to refreshing sleep. If its good qualities amount to half what are 
 ascribed to it by Dr. W. F. Dahl, from whom we derive some of these 
 particulars, it must be the pearl of all beverages. “ With the nomads it is 
 the drink of all from the suckling upwards, it is the solace of age and 
 illness, and the greatest of treats to all!” 
 
 There was a special kind called Kara Kumiz , which is mentioned 
 both by Rubruquis and in the history of Wassaf. It seems to have been 
 strained and clarified. The modern Tartars distil a spirit from Kumiz 
 of which Pallas gives a detailed account. (Dahl, Ueber den Kumyss in 
 Baer's Beitrage , VII.; Lettres sur le Caucase et la Crimee , Paris, 1859, 
 p. 81 ; Makrizi , II. 147 ; J. As. XI. 160; Levchine , 322-3 ; Rubr. 227-8, 
 335 i Gold. Horde , p. 46 ; Erman, I. 296 ; Pallas, Samml. I. 132 seqq.) 
 
 The mare’s-milk drink of Scythian nomads is alluded to by many 
 ancient authors. But the manufacture of Kumiz is particularly spoken of 
 by Herodotus. “ The (mare’s) milk is poured into deep wooden casks 
 about which the blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred round. 
 That which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the best part; 
 the under portion is of less account.” Strabo also speaks of the nomads 
 beyond the Cimmerian Chersonesus, who feed on horse-flesh and other 
 flesh, mare’s-milk cheese, mare’s milk, and sour milk (otvydXaKTa) “ which 
 they have a particular way of preparing, Perhaps Herodotus was mis¬ 
 taken about the wooden tubs. At least all modern attempts to use 
 anything but the orthodox skins have failed. Priscus, in his narrative 
 of the mission of himself and Maximin to Attila, says the Huns brought 
 them a drink made from barley which they called Kd/xos. The barley 
 was, no doubt, a misapprehension of his. (Herod. IV. 2, in Rawl.; 
 Strabo, VII. 4. 6 ; Excerpta de Legationibus, in Corp. Hist. Byzant. I. 55.) 
 
 a 2 
 
228 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 Concerning the Tartar Customs of War. 
 
 All their harness of war is excellent and costly. Their 
 arms are bow and arrows, sword and mace; but above all 
 the bow, for they are capital archers, indeed the best that 
 are known. On their backs they wear armour of cuir- 
 bouly prepared from buffalo and other hides, which is very 
 strong . 1 They are excellent soldiers and passing valiant in 
 battle. They are also more capable of hardship than other 
 nations; for many a time, if need be, they will go for a 
 month without any supply of food, living only on the milk 
 of their mares and on such game as their bows may win 
 them. Their horses also will subsist entirely on the grass 
 of the plains, so that there is no need to carry store of 
 barley or straw or oats; and they are very docile to their 
 riders. These, in case of need, will abide on horseback the 
 livelong night, armed at all points, while the horse will be 
 continually grazing. 
 
 Of all troops in the world these are they which endure 
 the greatest hardship and fatigue, and which cost the least; 
 and they are the best of all for making wide conquests of 
 country. And this you will perceive from what you have 
 heard and shall hear in this book ; and (as a fact) there can 
 be no manner of doubt that now they are the masters of 
 the biggest half of the world. Their troops are admirably 
 ordered in the manner that I shall now relate. 
 
 You see, when a Tartar prince goes forth to war, he 
 takes with him, say, 100,000 horse. Well, he appoints an 
 officer to every ten men, one to every hundred, one to 
 every thousand, and one to every ten thousand, so that his 
 own orders have to be given to ten persons only, and each 
 of these ten persons has to pass the orders only to other 
 ten, and so on ; no one having to give orders to more than 
 ten. And every one in turn is responsible only to the 
 
Chap. L1V. 
 
 THE TARTAR CUSTOMS OF WAR. 
 
 229 
 
 officer immediately over him ; and the discipline and order 
 that comes of this method is marvellous, for they are a 
 people very obedient to their chiefs. Further, they call 
 the corps of 100,000 men a Tuc; that of 10,000 they call 
 a Toman ; the thousand they call . . . . ; the hundred Guz; 
 the ten . . . . 2 And when the army is on the march they 
 have always 200 horsemen, very well mounted, who are 
 sent a distance of two marches in advance to reconnoitre, 
 and these always keep a-head. They have a similar party 
 detached in the rear, and on either flank, so that there is a 
 good look-out kept on all sides against a surprise. When 
 they are going on a distant expedition they take no gear 
 with them except two leather bottles for milk, and a little 
 earthenware pot to cook their meat in, and a little tent to 
 shelter them from raind And in case of great urgency 
 they will ride ten days on end without lighting a fire or 
 taking a meal. On such an occasion they will sustain 
 themselves on the blood of their horses, opening a vein and 
 letting the blood jet into their mouths, drinking till they 
 have had enough, and then staunching it . 4 
 
 They also have milk dried into a kind of paste to carry 
 with them ; and when they need food they put this in 
 water, and beat it up till it dissolves, and then drink it. 
 [It is prepared in this way; they boil the milk, and when 
 the rich part floats on the top they skim it into another 
 vessel, and of that they make butter ; for the milk will not 
 become solid till this is removed. Then they put the milk 
 in the sun to dry. And when they go on an expedition, 
 every man takes some ten pounds of this dried milk with 
 him. And of a morning he will take a half pound of it 
 and put it in his leather bottle, with as much water as he 
 pleases. So, as he rides along, the milk-paste and the water 
 in the bottle get well churned together into a kind of pap, 
 and that makes his dinner. 5 ] 
 
 When they come to an engagement with the enemy, 
 they will gain the victory in this fashion. [They never let 
 
230 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 themselves get into a regular medley, but keep perpetually 
 riding round and shooting into the enemy. And] as they 
 do not count it any shame to run away in battle, they will 
 [sometimes pretend to] do so, and in running away they 
 turn in the saddle and shoot hard and strong at the foe, 
 and in this way make great havoc. Their horses are trained 
 so perfectly that they will double hither and thither, just like 
 a dog, in a way that is quite astonishing. Thus they fight 
 to as good purpose in running away as if they stood and 
 faced the enemy, because of the vast volleys of arrows that 
 they shoot in this way, turning round upon their pursuers, 
 who are fancying that they have won the battle. But when 
 the Tartars see that they have killed and wounded a good 
 many horses and men, they wheel round bodily, and return 
 to the charge in perfect order, and with loud cries; and in 
 a very short time the enemy are routed. In truth they are 
 stout and valiant soldiers, and inured to war. And you 
 perceive that it is just when the enemy sees them run, and 
 imagines that he has gained the battle, that he has in reality 
 lost it; for the Tartars wheel round in a moment when 
 they judge the right time has come. And after this fashion 
 they have won many a fight . 6 
 
 All this that I have been telling you is true of the ' 
 manners and customs of the genuine Tartars. But I must 
 add also that in these days they are greatly degenerated; 
 for those who are settled in Cathay have taken up the 
 practices of the Idolaters of the country, and have aban¬ 
 doned their own institutions; whilst those who have settled 
 in the Levant have adopted the customs of the Saracens . 7 
 
 Note 1 .—The bow was the characteristic weapon of the Tartars, 
 insomuch that the Armenian historians often call them “ The Archers ” 
 (A/. Martin , II. 133). “ Cuirbouly, leather softened by boiling, in 
 
 which it took any form or impression required, and then hardened ” 
 ( Wright's Diet.). The English adventurer among the Tartars, whose 
 account of them is given by Archbishop Ivo of Narbonne, in Matthew 
 Paris {sub. 1243), says: “De coriis bullitis sibi arma levia quidem, sed 
 
Chap. LIV. 
 
 THE TARTAR CUSTOMS OF WAR. 
 
 231 
 
 tamen impenetrabilia coaptarunt.” This armour is particularly described 
 by Plano Carpini (p. 685). 
 
 Note 2 .— M. Pauthier has judiciously pointed out the omissions 
 that have occurred here, perhaps owing to Rusticiano’s not properly 
 catching the foreign terms applied to the various grades. In the G. 
 Text the passage runs : “ Et sac hies que les cent mille est apelle un Tut 
 (read tuc) et les dix mille un Toman, et les por milier et por centenier et 
 por desme.” In Pauthier’s (uncorrected) text one of the missing words 
 is supplied: “ Et appellent les C.M. un Tuc; et les X.M. un Toman; 
 et un millier Guz por centenier et por disenierP The blanks he supplies 
 thus from Abulghazi: “ et un millier [un Miny]; Guz por centenier et 
 [Un] por disenierP The words supplied are Turki, but so is the Guz , 
 which appears already in Pauthier’s text, whilst Toman and Tuc are 
 common to Turki and Mongol. The latter word, Tuk or Tugh, is the 
 horse-tail or yak-tail standard which among so many Asiatic nations 
 has marked the supreme military command. It occurs as Taka in 
 ancient Persian, and Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of it as Tupha. 
 The Nine Orloks or Marshals under Chinghiz were entitled to the Tuk , 
 and theirs is probably the class of command here indicated as of 
 100,000, though the figure must not be strictly taken. Timur ordains 
 that every Amir who should conquer a kingdom or command in a 
 victory should receive a title of honour, the Tugh and the Nakkdra 
 (infra Bk. II., ch. iv., note 3 ). Baber on several occasions speaks of con¬ 
 ferring the Tugh upon his generals for distinguished service. One of the 
 military titles at Bokhara is still Tokhsabai , a corruption of Tugh-Sahibi 
 (Master of the Tugh). (Erdman, 576; UAvezac , 577-8; Remusat, 
 Langues Tar tares, 303 ; Pallas, Samml. I. 283 ; Schmidt, 379, 381 ; 
 Baber , 260, &c. ; Vambery , 374; Timour Inst. p. 283 and 292-3.) 
 
 The decimal division of the army was already made by Chinghiz at 
 an early period of his career, and was probably much older than his 
 time. From the Tartars it passed into nearly all the Mussulman States 
 of Asia, and the titles Min-bashi or Bimbashi, Yuzbashi, Onbashi, still 
 subsist in Turkestan, and even in Turkey and Persia. The term Tman 
 or Tma was, according to Herberstein, still used in Russia in his day 
 for 10,000. (Ramus. II. 159.) 
 
 Note 3.— Ramusio’s edition says that what with horses and mares 
 there will be an average of 18 beasts (?) to every man. 
 
 Note 4 .—See the Oriental account quoted below in Note 6. 
 
 So Dionysius, combining this practice with that next described, 
 relates of the Massagetse that they have no delicious bread nor native 
 wine: 
 
 “ But with horse’s blood 
 
 And white milk mingled set their banquets forth.” 
 
 — Orbis Desc. 743-4. 
 
232 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 And Sidonius : 
 
 “ Solitosque cruentum 
 Lac potare Getas, et pocula tingere venas.” 
 
 — Parag. ad Avitum. 
 
 “ When in lack of food they bleed a horse and suck the vein. If they 
 need something more solid, they put a sheep’s pudding full of blood 
 under the saddle; this in time gets coagulated and cooked by the heat, 
 and then they devour it” (Georg. Pachymeres , V. 4). The last is a 
 well-known story, but is strenuously denied and ridiculed by Bergmann 
 (Streifereien , &c. I. 15). Botero had “heard from a trustworthy source 
 that a Tartar of Perekop, travelling on the steppes, lived for some days 
 on the blood of his horse, and then, not daring to bleed it more, cut 
 off and ate its ears T (Relazione Univers. p. 93). 
 
 Note 5 . — Rubruquis thus describes this preparation, which is called 
 Kurut: “The milk that remains after the butter has been made, they 
 allow to get as sour as sour can be, and then boil it. In boiling, it 
 curdles, and that curd they dry in the sun; and in this way it becomes 
 as hard as iron-slag. And so it is stored in bags against the winter. 
 I 11 the winter time, when they have no milk, they put that sour curd, 
 which they call Griut , into a skin, and pour warm water on it, and 
 then shake it violently till the curd dissolves in the water, to which it 
 gives an acid flavour; that water they drink in place of milk. But above 
 all things they eschew drinking plain water.” From Pallas’s account 
 of the modern practice, which is substantially the same, these cakes are 
 also made from the leavings of distillation in making milk-arrack. The 
 Kurut is frequently made of ewe-milk. Wood speaks of it as an 
 indispensable article in the food of the people of Badakhshan. (Ruhr. 
 229; Samml. I. 136; Dahl , u. s.; Wood, 311.) 
 
 Note 6.—Compare with Marco’s account the report of the Mongols, 
 which was brought by the spies of Mahomed, Sultan of Khwarizm, when 
 invasion was first menaced by Chinghiz: “The army of Chinghiz is 
 countless, as a swarm of ants or locusts. Their warriors are matchless 
 in lion-like valour, in obedience, and endurance. They take no rest, 
 and flight or retreat is unknown to them. On their expeditions they 
 are accompanied by oxen, sheep, camels, and horses, and sweet or sour 
 milk suffices them for food. Their horses scratch the earth with their 
 hoofs and feed on the roots and grasses they dig up, so that they 
 need neither straw nor oats. They themselves reck nothing of the 
 clean or the unclean in food, and eat the flesh of all animals, even of 
 dogs, swine, and bears. 'They will open a horse’s vein, draw blood, and 
 drink it. . . . In victory they leave neither small nor great alive; they 
 cut up women great with child and cleave the fruit of the womb. If 
 they come to a great river, as they know nothing of boats, they sew 
 skins together, stitch up all their goods therein, tie the bundle to their 
 
Chap. LIV. 
 
 THE TARTAR CUSTOMS OF WAR. 
 
 233 
 
 horses’ tails, mount with a hard grip of the mane, and so swim over.” 
 This passage is an absolute abridgment of many chapters of Carpini. 
 Still more terse was the sketch of Mongol proceedings drawn by a 
 fugitive from Bokhara after Chinghiz’s devastations there. It was set 
 forth in one unconscious hexameter : 
 
 “ Amdand u khandand u sokhtand u kushtand u burdand u raftand /” 
 
 “ They came and they sapped, they fired and they slew, trussed up their loot and 
 were gone !” 
 
 Juwaini, the historian, after telling the story, adds: “The cream and 
 essence of whatever is written in this volume might be represented in 
 these few words.” 
 
 A Mussulman author quoted by Hammer, Najmuddin of Rei, gives 
 an awful picture of the Tartar devastations, “ Such as had never been 
 heard of, whether in the lands of unbelief or of Islam, and can only 
 be likened to those which the Prophet announced as signs of the Last 
 Day, when he said : ‘ The Hour of Judgment shall not come until ye 
 shall have fought with the Turks, men small of eye and ruddy of coun¬ 
 tenance, whose noses are. flat, and their faces like hide-covered shields. 
 Those shall be Days of Horror !’ ‘And what meanest thou by horror?’ 
 said the Companions; and he replied, ‘Slaughter! Slaughter!’ 
 This beheld the Prophet in vision 600 years ago. And could there 
 well be worse slaughter than there was in Rei, where I, wretch that I 
 am, was born and bred, and where the whole population of five hundred 
 thousand souls was either butchered or dragged into slavery?” 
 
 Marco habitually suppresses or ignores the frightful brutalities of the 
 Tartars, but these were somewhat less, no doubt, in Kublai’s time. 
 
 This is Hayton’s account of the Parthian tactics of the Tartars : 
 “ They will run away, but always keeping their companies together; 
 and it is very dangerous to give them chase, for as they flee they shoot 
 back over their heads, and do great execution among their pursuers. 
 They keep very close rank, so that you would not guess them for half 
 their real strength.” Carpini speaks to the same effect. Baber, himself 
 of Mongol descent, but heartily hating his kindred, gives this account 
 of their military usage in his day: “ Such is the uniform practice of 
 these wretches the Moghuls; if they defeat the enemy they instantly 
 seize the booty; if they are defeated they plunder and dismount their 
 own allies; and, betide what may, carry off the spoil.” (Erdmann, 364, 
 383, 620; Gold. Horde , 77, 80; Elliot , II. 388; Hayton in Ram. ch. 
 xlviii.; Baber, 93 ; Carpini, p. 694.) 
 
 Note 7 .—“ The Scythians” (i.e. in the absurd Byzantine pedantry, 
 Tartars), says Nicephorus Gregoras, “ from converse with the Assyrians, 
 Persians, and Chaldseans, in time acquired their manners and adopted 
 their religion, casting off their ancestral atheism. . . . And to such a 
 degree were they changed, that though in former days they had been 
 
234 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 wont to cover the head with nothing better than a loose felt cap, and 
 for other clothing had thought themselves well off with the skins of wild 
 beasts or ill-dressed leather, and had for weapons only clubs and slings, 
 or spears, arrows, and bows extemporised from the oaks and other trees 
 of their mountains and forests, now, forsooth, they will have no meaner 
 clothing than brocades of silk and gold! And their luxury and delicate 
 living came to such a pitch that they stood far as the poles asunder 
 from their original habits ” (II. v. 6). 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 Concerning the administering of Justice among the Tartars. 
 
 The way they administer justice is this. When any one 
 has committed a petty theft, they give him, under the 
 orders of authority, seven blows of a stick, or seventeen, or 
 twenty-seven, or thirty-seven, or forty-seven, and so forth, 
 always increasing by tens in proportion to the injury done, 
 and running up to one hundred and seven. Of these 
 beatings sometimes they die . 1 But if the offence be horse¬ 
 stealing, or some other great matter, they cut the thief in 
 two with a sword. Howbeit, if he be able to ransom 
 himself by paying nine times the value of the thing stolen, 
 he is let off. Every Lord or other person who possesses 
 beasts has them marked with his peculiar brand, be they 
 horses, mares, camels, oxen, cows, or other great cattle, and 
 then they are sent abroad to graze over the plains without 
 any keeper. They get all mixt together, but eventually 
 every beast is recovered by means of its owner’s brand, 
 which is known. For their sheep and goats they have 
 shepherds. All their cattle are remarkably fine, big, and 
 in good condition . 2 
 
 They have another notable custom, which is this. If 
 any man have a daughter who dies before marriage, and 
 another man have had a son also die before marriage, the 
 parents of the two arrange a grand wedding between the 
 
Chap. LV. TARTAR ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 235 
 
 dead lad and lass. And marry them they do, making a 
 regular contract! And when the contract papers are made 
 out they put them in the fire, in order (as they will have 
 it) that the parties in the other world may know the fact, 
 and so look on each other as man and wife. And the 
 parents thenceforward consider themselves sib to each other 
 just as if their children had lived and married. Whatever 
 may be agreed on between the parties as dowry, those who 
 have to pay it cause to be painted on pieces of paper and 
 then put these in the fire, saying that in that way the dead 
 person will get all the real articles in the other world . 3 
 
 Now I have told you all about the manners and 
 customs of the Tartars; but you have heard nothing yet 
 of the great state of the Grand Kaan, who is the Lord of all 
 the Tartars and of the Supreme Imperial Court. All that 
 I will tell you in this book in proper time and place, but 
 meanwhile I must return to my story which I left off in 
 that great plain when we began to speak of the Tartars . 4 
 
 Note 1 . — The cudgel among the Mongols was not confined to thieves 
 and such like. It was the punishment also of military and state offences, 
 and even princes were liable to it without fatal disgrace. “ If they give 
 any offence,” says Carpini, “ or omit to obey the slightest beck, the 
 Tartars themselves are beaten like donkeys.” The number of blows 
 administered was, according to Wassaf, always odd, 3, 5, and so forth, 
 up to 77. ( Carp . 712; Ilchan. I. 37.) 
 
 Note 2 .—“They have no herdsmen or others to watch their cattle, 
 because the laws of the Turks (i.e. Tartars) against theft are so severe. 
 ... A man in whose possession a stolen horse is found is obliged to 
 restore it to its owner, and to give nine of the same value; if he cannot, 
 his children are seized in compensation; if he have no children, he is 
 slaughtered like a mutton.” (Ibn Batuta , II. 364.) 
 
 Note 3 .—This is a Chinese custom, though no doubt we may trust 
 Marco for its being a Tartar one also. “ In the province of Shansi they 
 have a ridiculous custom, which is to marry dead folks to each other. 
 F. Michael Trigautius, a Jesuit, who lived several years in that province, 
 told it us whilst we were in confinement. It falls out that one man’s 
 son and another man’s daughter die. Whilst the coffins are in the 
 house (and they use to keep them two or three years, or longer) the 
 
236 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 parents agree to marry them; they send the usual presents, as if the 
 pair were alive, with much ceremony and music. After this they put 
 the two coffins together, hold the wedding dinner in their presence, and 
 lastly, lay them together in one tomb. The parents, from this time 
 forth, are looked on not merely as friends but as relatives—just as they 
 would have been had their children been married when in life.” (. Navar- 
 rete, quoted by Marsden.) Kidd likewise, speaking of the Chinese 
 custom of worshipping at the tombs of progenitors, says : “ So strongly 
 does veneration for this tribute after death prevail that parents, in order 
 to secure the memorial of the sepulchre for a daughter who has died 
 during her betrothal, give her in marriage after her decease to her 
 intended husband, who receives with nuptial ceremonies at his own 
 house a paper effigy made by her parents, and after he has burnt it, 
 erects a tablet to her memory—an honour which usage forbids to be 
 rendered to the memory of unmarried persons. The law seeks without 
 effect to abolish this absurd custom.” ( China , &c. p. 179-80.) 
 
 The Ingushes of the Caucasus, according to Klaproth, have the 
 same custom : “If a man’s son dies, another who has lost his daughter 
 goes to the father and says, ‘ Thy son will want a wife in the other 
 world; I will give him my daughter; pay me the price of the bride.’ 
 Such a demand is never refused, even though the purchase of the bride 
 amount to 30 cows.” ( Travels , Eng. Trans. 345.) 
 
 Note 4 . —There is a little doubt about the reading of this last para¬ 
 graph. The G. T. has—“ Mis desormes volnn retorner a nostre conte en 
 la grant plaingne ou nos estion quant nos comechames des fais des Tartars ,” 
 whilst Pauthier’s text has “ Mais desormais vueil retourner a mon conte 
 que je lessai d’or plain quant nous commentaries des faiz des Tatarsd The 
 former reading looks very like a misunderstanding of one similar to the 
 latter, where d'or plain seems to be an adverbial expression, with some 
 such meaning as “just now,” “a while ago.” I have not, however, 
 been able to trace the expression elsewhere. Cotgrave has or primes , 
 “ but even now,” &c.; and has also de plain , “ presently, immediately, 
 out of hand.” It seems quite possible that d'or plain should have had 
 the meaning suggested. 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 Sundry particulars of the Plain beyond Caracoron. 
 
 And when you leave Caracoron and the Altay, in which 
 they bury the bodies of the Tartar Sovereigns, as I told 
 you, you go north for forty days till you reach a country 
 
Chap. LVI. 
 
 THE PLAIN BEYOND CARACORON. 
 
 237 
 
 called the Plain of Bargu . 1 The people there are called 
 Mescript ; they are a very wild race, and live by their 
 cattle, the most of which are stags, and these stags, I assure 
 you, they use to ride upon. Their customs are like those 
 of the Tartars, and they are subject to the Great Kaan. 
 They have neither corn nor wine. [They get birds for 
 food, for the country is full of lakes and pools and marshes, 
 which are much frequented by the birds when they are 
 moulting, and when they have quite cast their feathers and 
 can’t fly, those people catch them. They also live partly 
 on fish. 2 ] 
 
 And when you have travelled forty days over this great 
 plain you come to the ocean, at the place where the moun¬ 
 tains are in which the Peregrine falcons have their nests. 
 And in those mountains it is so cold that you find neither 
 man nor woman nor beast nor bird, except one kind of 
 bird called Barguerlac , on which the falcons feed. They 
 are as big as partridges, and have feet like those of parrots, 
 and a tail like a swallow’s, and are very strong in flight. And 
 when the Grand Kaan wants Peregrines from the nest he 
 sends thither to procure them . 3 It is also on islands in that 
 sea that the Gerfalcons are bred. You must know that the 
 place is so far to the north that you leave the North Star 
 somewhat behind you towards the south ! The gerfalcons 
 are so abundant there that the Emperor can have as many 
 as he likes to send for. And you must not suppose that 
 those gerfalcons which the Christians carry into the Tartar 
 dominions go to the Great Kaan; they are carried only to 
 the Prince of the Levant . 4 
 
 Now I have told you all about the provinces northward 
 as far as the Ocean Sea, beyond which there is no more 
 land at all; so I shall proceed to tell you of the other pro¬ 
 vinces on the way to the Great Kaan. Let us, then, return 
 to that province of which I spoke before, called Campichu. 
 
238 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 1 . —The readings differ as to the length of the journey. In 
 Pauthier’s text we seem to have first a journey of 40 days from near 
 Karakorum to the Plain of Bargu, and then a journey of 40 days more 
 across the plain to the Northern Ocean. The G. T. seems to present 
 only one journey of 40 days (Ramusio, of 60 days), but leaves the 
 interval from Karakorum undefined. I have followed the former, though 
 with some doubt. 
 
 Note 2 .— This paragraph from Ramusio replaces the following in 
 Pauthier’s text. “ In summer they get abundance of game, both beasts 
 and birds, but in winter there is none to be had because of the great cold.” 
 
 Marco is here dealing, I apprehend, with hearsay geography, and, as 
 is common in like cases, there is great compression of circumstances 
 and characteristics, analogous to the like compression of little-known 
 regions in medieval maps. 
 
 The name Bargu appears to be the same with that often mentioned 
 in Mongol history as Barguchin Tugrum or Barguti, and which 
 Rashiduddin calls the northern limit of the inhabited earth. This com¬ 
 menced about Lake Baikal, where the name still survives in that of a 
 river ( Barguzin ) falling into the Lake on the east side, and of a town on 
 its banks (Barguzmsk). Indeed, according to Rashid himself, Bargu 
 was the name of one of the tribes occupying the plain; and a quotation 
 from Father Hyacinth would seem to show that the country is still called 
 Barakhu. 
 
 Mescript , or Mecri , as in G. T. The Merkit , a great tribe to the 
 S.E. of the Baikal, were also called Mekrit , and sometimes Megrin. The 
 Mekrit are spoken of also by Carpini and Rubruquis. D’Avezac thinks 
 that the Kerait , and not the Merkit , are intended by all three travellers. 
 As regards Polo, I see no reason for this view. The name he uses 
 is Mekrit , and the position which he assigns to them agrees fairly with 
 that assigned on good authority to the Merkit or Mekrit. Only, as in 
 other cases, where he is rehearsing hearsay information, it does not follow 
 that the identification of the name involves the correctness of all the 
 circumstances that he connects with that name. We saw in chapter 
 xxx. that under Pashai he seemed to lump circumstances belonging to 
 various parts of the region from Badakhshan to the Indus; so here under 
 Mekrit he embraces characteristics belonging to tribes extending far 
 beyond the Mekrit, and which in fact are appropriate to the Tunguses. 
 Rashiduddin seems to describe the latter under the name of Uriangkut 
 of the Woods, a people dwelling beyond the frontier of Barguchin, and 
 in connexion with whom he speaks of their Reindeer obscurely, as well 
 as of their tents of birch bark, and their hunting on snow shoes. 
 
 The mention of the Reindeer by Polo in this passage, is one of 
 the interesting points which Pauthier’s text omits. Marsden objects to 
 the statement that the stags are ridden upon, and from this motive mis- 
 renders “ li quaF anche cavalcano,” as, “ which they make use of for 
 the purpose of travelling.” Yet he might have found in Witsen that the 
 
Chap. LVI. THE PLAIN BEYOND CARACORON. 
 
 239 
 
 Reindeer are ridden by various Siberian Tribes, but especially by the Tun- 
 guses. Erman is very full on the reindeer-riding of the latter people, 
 having himself travelled far in that way in going to Okhotsk, and gives 
 a very detailed description of the saddle, &c. employed. The reindeer 
 of the Tunguses are stated by the same traveller to be much larger and 
 finer animals than those of Lapland. They are also used for pack- 
 carriage and draught. Old Richard Eden says that the “olde wryters” 
 relate that “certayne Scythians doe ryde on Hartes.” I have not traced 
 to what he refers, but if the statement be in any ancient author it is very 
 remarkable. Some old editions of Olaus Magnus have curious cuts of 
 Laplanders and others riding on reindeer, but I find nothing in the text 
 appropriate. (. Erdmann , 189, 191 ; N Ohsson, I. 103; DAvezac , 
 534 seqq.; J. As. ser. 2, tom. xi., ser. 4, tom. xvii. 107; N. et E. 
 XIII. i. 274-6; Witsen , II. 670, 671, 680; Erman, II. 321, 374, 429, 
 449 seqq., and original German, II. 347 seqq.; Notes on Russia , Hac. 
 Soc. II. 224.) 
 
 The numerous lakes and marshes swarming with water-fowl are very 
 characteristic of the country between Yakutsk and the Kolyma. It is 
 evident that Marco had his information from an eye-witness, though the 
 whole picture is compressed. Wrangell, speaking of Nijni Kolyma, 
 says : “ It is at the moulting-season that the great bird-hunts take place. 
 The sportsmen surround the nests, and slip their dogs which drive the 
 birds to the water, on which they are easily knocked over with a gun or 
 arrow, or even with a stick. . . . This chase is divided into several 
 periods. They begin with the ducks, which moult first; then come the 
 geese; then the swans. ... In each case the people take care to choose 
 the time when the birds have lost their feathers.” The whole calendar 
 with the Yakuts and Russian settlers on the Kolyma is a succession of 
 fishing and hunting seasons which the same author details (I. 149, 150; 
 119-121). 
 
 Note 3. —What little is said of the Barguerlac points to some bird of 
 the genus Pterocles , or Sand Grouse (to which belong the so-called Rock 
 Pigeons of India), or to the allied Tetrao Paradoxics of Pallas, now 
 known as Syrrhaptes Pallasii. Indeed, we find in Zenker’s Dictionary* 
 that Boghurtldk (or B aghirtldk, as it is in Pavet de Courteille’s) in 
 Oriental Turkish is the Kata , i.e. I presume, the Pterocles Alchata of 
 Linnaeus, or Large Pin-tailed Sand Grouse. Mr. Gould, to whom I 
 referred the point, is clear that the Syrrhaptes is Marco’s bird, and 
 I believe there can be no question of it. 
 
 The chief difficulty in identification with the Syrrhaptes or any 
 known bird, would be “ the feet like a parrot’s.” The feet of the Syr¬ 
 rhaptes are not indeed like a parrot’s, though its awkward, slow and tod¬ 
 dling gait on the ground, may have suggested the comparison; and though 
 it has very odd and anomalous feet, a circumstance which the Chinese 
 indicate in another way by calling the bird (according to Hue) Lung-Kio , 
 or “ Dragon-foot.” The hind-toe is absent, the toes are unseparated, 
 
240 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 recognizable only by the broad flat nails, and fitted below with a callous 
 couch, whilst the whole foot is covered with short dense feathers like 
 hair, and is more like a quadruped’s paw than a bird’s foot. 
 
 The home of the Syrrhaptes is in the Altai, the Kirghiz Steppes, and 
 the country round Lake Baikal; though it also visits the north of China 
 in great flights. “ On plains of grass and sandy deserts,” says Gould 
 (Birds of Great Britain , Part IV.), “ at one season covered with snow, 
 and at another sun-burnt and parched by drought, it finds a congenial 
 home ; in these inhospitable and little-known regions it breeds, and, 
 when necessity compels it to do so, wings its way . . . over incredible 
 distances to obtain water or food.” Hue says, speaking of the bird on 
 the northern frontier of China : “ They generally arrive in great flights 
 from the north, especially when much snow has fallen, flying with asto¬ 
 nishing rapidity, so that the movement of their wings produces a noise 
 like hail.” It is said to be very delicate eating. The bird owes its 
 place in Gould’s Birds of Great Britain to the fact—strongly illustrative 
 
 Syrrhaptes Pallasii. 
 
 of its being moult volant , as Polo says it is—that it appeared in England 
 in 1859, and since then, at least up to 1863, continued to arrive annually 
 in pairs or companies in nearly all parts of our island, from Penzance to 
 Caithness. And Gould states that it was breeding in the Danish 
 islands. A full account by Mr. A. Newton of this remarkable immigration, 
 is contained in the Ibis for April, 1864, and many details in Stevenso?ls 
 Birds of Norfolk , I. 376 seqq. There are plates of Syrrhaptes in 
 Radde's Reisen im Siiden vo?i Ost-Sibirien, Bd. II. * in vol. v. of Tem- 
 minck , Planches Coloriees, PI. 95; in Gould , as above; in Gray, Genera 
 of Birds, vol. iii. p. 517 (life size); and in the Ibis for April, i860. 
 From the last our cut is taken; but the head and neck are here too dark. 
 
 Note 4 . —Gerfalcons (Shonkar) were objects of high estimation in the 
 Middle Ages, and were frequent presents to and from royal personages. 
 Thus among the presents sent with an embassy from King James II. of 
 Aragon to the Sultan of Egypt, in 1314, we find three white gerfalcons. 
 They were sent in homage to Chinghiz and to Kublai, by the Kirghiz, 
 but I cannot identify the mountains where they or the Peregrines were 
 found. The Peregrine falcon was in Europe sometimes termed Faucon 
 Tartare (see Menage s. v. Sahin). The Peregrine of Northern Japan, 
 
Chap. LVII. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF ERGUIUL. 
 
 241 
 
 and probably therefore that of Siberia, is identical with that of Europe. 
 Witsen speaks of an island in the Sea of Tartary, from which falcons 
 were got, apparently referring to a Chinese map as his authority ; but 
 I know nothing more of it. ( Capmany , IV. 64-5; Ibis , 1862, p. 314; 
 Witsen , II. 656.) 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 Of the Kingdom of Erguiul, and Province of Sinju. 
 
 On leaving Campichu, then, you travel five days across a 
 tract in which many spirits are heard speaking in the night 
 season; and at the end of those five marches, towards the 
 east, you come to a kingdom called Erguiul, belonging 
 to the Great Kaan. It is one of the several kingdoms 
 which make up the great Province of Tangut. The 
 people consist of Nestorian Christians, Idolaters, and wor¬ 
 shippers of Mahommet . 1 
 
 There are plenty of cities in this kingdom, but the 
 capital is Erguiul. You can travel in a south-easterly 
 direction from this place into the province of Cathay. 
 Should you follow that road to the south-east, you come 
 to a city called Sinju, belonging also to Tangut, and 
 subject to the Great Kaan, which has under it many towns 
 and villages . 2 The population is composed of Idolaters, 
 and worshippers of Mahommet, but there are some Chris¬ 
 tians also. There are wild cattle in that country [almost] 
 as big as elephants, splendid creatures, covered everywhere 
 but on the back with shaggy hair a good four palms long. 
 They are partly black, partly white, and really wonderfully 
 fine creatures [and the hair or wool is extremely fine and 
 white, finer and whiter than silk. Messer Marco brought 
 some to Venice as a great curiosity, and so it was reckoned 
 by those who saw it]. There are also plenty of them tame, 
 which have been caught young. [They also cross these 
 with the common cow, and the cattle from this cross are 
 
 VOL. 1. R 
 
242 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 wonderful beasts, and better for work than other animals.] 
 These the people use commonly for burden and general 
 work, and in the plough as well; and at the latter they will 
 do full twice as much work as any other cattle, being such 
 very strong beasts. 3 
 
 In this country too is found the best musk in the 
 world; and I will tell you how ’tis produced. There exists 
 in that region a kind of wild animal like a gazelle. It has 
 feet and tail like the gazelle’s, and stag’s hair of a very 
 coarse kind, but no horns. It has four tusks, two below, 
 and two above, about three inches long, and slender in 
 form, one pair growing upwards, and the other downwards. 
 It is a very pretty creature. The musk is found in this 
 way. When the creature has been taken, they find at the 
 navel between the flesh and the skin something like an 
 impostume full of blood, which they cut out and remove 
 with all the skin attached to it. And the blood inside this 
 impostume is the musk that produces that powerful perfume. 
 There is an immense number of these beasts in the country 
 we are speaking of. [The flesh is very good to eat. Messer 
 Marco brought the dried head and feet of one of these 
 animals to Venice with him. 4 ] 
 
 The people are traders and artizans, and also grow 
 abundance of corn. The province has an extent of 26 
 days’ journey. Pheasants are found there twice as big as 
 ours, indeed nearly as big as a peacock, and having tails of 
 7 to 10 palms in length ; and besides them other pheasants 
 in aspect like our own, and birds of many other kinds, and 
 of beautiful variegated plumage. 5 The people, who are 
 Idolaters, are fat folks with little noses and black hair, and 
 no beard, except a few hairs on the upper lip. The women 
 too have very smooth and white skins, and in every respect 
 are pretty creatures. The men are very sensual, and marry 
 many wives, which is not forbidden by their religion. No 
 matter how base a woman’s descent may be, if she have 
 beauty she may find a husband among the greatest men in 
 
Chap. LVII. 
 
 THE YAK OF TARTARY. 
 
 243 
 
 the land, the man paying the girl’s father and mother a 
 great sum of money, according to the bargain that may 
 be made. 
 
 Note 1.— No approximation to the name of Erguiul in an appropriate 
 position has yet been elicited from Chinese, or other Oriental sources. We 
 cannot go widely astray as to its position, five days east of Kancheu. 
 Klaproth identifies it with Liangcheu-fu ; Pauthier with the neighbouring 
 city of Yungchang, on the ground that the latter was in the time of 
 Kublai, the head of one of the Lus , or Circles of Kansuh or Tangut, 
 which he has shown some reason for believing to be the “ kingdoms ” of 
 Marco. 
 
 It is probable, however, that the town called by Polo Erguiul lay 
 north of both the cities named, and more in line with the position 
 assigned below to Egrigaya (see note 1, ch. lviii.). 
 
 I may notice that the structure of the name Ergui-ul or Ergiu-ul, has 
 a look of analogy to that of Tang-keu-ul , named in the next note. 
 
 Note 2. —No doubt Marsden is right in identifying this with Sining- 
 chau, now Sining-fu, the Chinese city nearest to Tibet and the Kokonur 
 frontier. Grueber and Dorville, who passed it on their way to Lhasa, in 
 1661, call it urbs ingens. Sining was visited also by Hue and Gabet, 
 who are unsatisfactory, as usually on geographical matters. They also 
 call it “ an immense town,” but thinly peopled, its commerce having 
 been in part transferred to Tang-keu-ul, a small town closer to the 
 frontier. 
 
 Sining is called by the Tibetans Ziling or Jiling, by the Mongols 
 Seling Khoto. A shawl wool texture apparently made in this quarter, is 
 imported into Kashmir and Ladak, under the name of S'ling. (.Kircher , 
 p. 64, 66 ; Della Penna , 27 ; Davies's Report , App. p. ccxxix ; Vigne, II. 
 no, 129.) 
 
 Note 3 .—The Dong, ; or Wild Yak, has till late years only been known 
 by vague rumour. It has always been famed in native reports for its great 
 fierceness. The Haft Iklim says that “ it kills with its horns, by its 
 kicks, by treading under foot, and by tearing with its teeth,” whilst the 
 Emperor Humayun himself told Sidi ’Ali, the Turkish admiral, that 
 when it had knocked a man down it skinned him from head to heels by 
 licking him with its tongue ! Dr. Campbell states, in the Journal of the 
 As. Soc. of Bengal, that it was said to be four times the size of the do¬ 
 mestic Yak. The horns are said sometimes to be three feet long, and 
 of immense girth; they are handed round full of strong drink at the 
 festivals of Tibetan grandees, as the Urus horns were in Germany, 
 according to Caesar. Dr. Jerdan (. Mammals of India, p. 300) gives the 
 dimensions of a specimen that was shot:— 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book L 
 
 Length of Head and Body . 9' 6" 
 
 ,, of Tail . 3' 4" 
 
 ,, of Horns . 2' 6" 
 
 Girth of „ 1' 3 " 
 
 Height of Animal. 16J Hands 
 
 and a note, with which I have been favoured by Dr. Campbell (long the 
 respected Superintendent of British Sikkim) says : “ Captain Smith, of 
 the Bengal Army, who had travelled in Western Tibet, told me that he 
 had shot many wild Yaks in the neighbourhood of the Mansarawar Lake, 
 and that he measured a bull which was 18 hands high, i.e. 6 feet. All 
 that he saw were black all over. He also spoke to the fierceness of the 
 animal. He was once charged by a bull that he had wounded, and 
 narrowly escaped being killed. Perhaps my statement( above referred 
 to) in regard to the relative size of the Wild and Tame Yak, may require 
 modification if applied to all the countries in which the Yak is found. 
 At all events the finest specimen of the tame Yak I ever saw, was not 
 in Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, or Bootan, but in the Jardin des Plantes , at 
 Paris; and that one, a male, was brought from Shanghai. The best 
 drawing of a Yak I know is that in Turner’s ‘Tibet.’” 
 
 The tame yaks are never, I imagine, “ caught young,” as Marco says; 
 it is a domesticated breed, , though possibly, as with buffaloes in Bengal, 
 the breed may occasionally be refreshed by a cross of wild blood. They 
 are employed for riding, as beasts of burden, and in the plough. In the 
 higher parts of our Himalayan provinces, and in Tibet, the Yak itself is 
 most in use ; but in the less elevated tracts several breeds crossed with 
 the common Indian cattle are more used. They have a variety of 
 names according to their precise origin. The inferior Yaks used in the 
 plough are ugly enough, and “have more the appearance of large shaggy 
 bears than of oxen,”, but the Yak used for riding, says Hoffmeister, “ is 
 an infinitely handsomer animal. It has a stately hump, a rich silky 
 hanging tail nearly reaching the ground, twisted horns, a noble bearing, 
 and an erect head.” Cunningham too, says that the Pso, one of the 
 mixed breeds, is “ a very handsome animal, with long shaggy hair, gene¬ 
 rally black and white.” Many of the various tame breeds appear to 
 have the tail and back white, and also the fringe under the body, but 
 black and red are the prevailing colours. Some of the crossbred cows 
 are excellent milkers, better than either parent stock. 
 
 Notice in this passage the additional and interesting particulars 
 given by Ramusio, e.g. the use of the mixed breeds. “ Finer than silk,” 
 is an exaggeration, or say an hyberbole , as is the following expression, 
 “ As big as elephants,” even with Ramusio’s apologetic quasi. Caesar 
 says the Hercynian Urus was magnitudine paullo infra elephantos. 
 
 The Tame Yak is used across the breadth of Mongolia. Rubruquis 
 saw them at Karakorum, and describes them well. 
 
 The animal had been noticed by Cosmas in the 6th century, and by 
 Hdian in the 3rd. The latter speaks of them as black cattle with white 
 
Chap. LVII. 
 
 MUSK DEER. 
 
 245 
 
 tails, from which fly-flappers were made , for Indian kings. And the great 
 Kalidasa thus sang of the Yak, according to a learned (if somewhat rugged) 
 .version ascribed to Dr. Mill. The poet personifies the Himalaya :— 
 
 “For Him the large Yaks in his cold plains that bide 
 Whisk here and there, playful, their tails’ bushy pride, 
 
 And evermore flapping those fans of long hair 
 
 Which borrowed moonbeams have made splendid and fair, 
 
 Proclaim at each stroke (what our flapping men sing) 
 
 His title of Honour, ‘ The Dread Mountain King.’ ” 
 
 (N. etE. XIV. 478; J. As. IX. 199; J. A. S. B. IX. 566-, XXIV. 
 225 : Ladak, p. 210 ; Hoffmeister's Travels , p. 441 : Ruhr. 288 : ALL 
 De Nat An. XV. 14; / A. S. B. I. 342.) 
 
 Note 4. —Ram. adds that the hunters seek the animal at New Moon, 
 at which time the musk is secreted. 
 
 The description is good except as to the four tusks, for the musk 
 deer has canine teeth only in the upper jaw, slender and prominent as 
 he describes them. The flesh of the animal is eaten by the Chinese, 
 and in Siberia by both Tartars and Russians, but that of the males has 
 a strong musk flavour. 
 
 The “ immense number ” of these animals that existed in the Hima¬ 
 layan countries may be conceived from Tavernier’s statement, that on one 
 visit to Patna, then the great Indian mart for this article, he purchased 
 7673 pods of musk. These presumably came by way of Nepal; but 
 musk pods of the highest class were also imported from Khotan via 
 Yarkand and Leh, and the lowest price such a pod fetched at Yarkand 
 was 250 tankas, or upwards of 4/. This import has long been extinct, 
 and indeed the trade in the article, except towards China, has altogether 
 greatly declined, probably (says Mr. Hodgson) because its repute as a 
 medicine is becoming fast exploded. In Sicily it is still so used, but 
 apparently only as a sort of decent medical rite, for when it is said “the 
 Doctors have given him musk,” it is as much as to say that they have 
 given up the patient. 
 
 Three species of the Moschus are found in the Mountains of Tibet, 
 and M. Chrysogaster , which Mr. Hodgson calls “ the loveliest,” and 
 which chiefly supplies the highly-prized pod called Kaghazi , or “ Thin- 
 as-paper,” is almost exclusively confined to the Chinese frontier. Like 
 the Yak, the Moschus is mentioned by Cosmas, circa a.d. 545, and musk 
 appears in a Greek prescription by Aetius of Amida, a physician prac¬ 
 tising at Constantinople about the same date. 
 
 (Martini, p. 39; Tav. Des Indes , Bk. II. ch. xxiv. ;J A. S. B. XI. 
 285; Davies's Rep. App. p. ccxxxvii; Dr. Fluckiger in Schweiz. 
 Wochensch. fur Pharmacie, 1867.) 
 
 Note 5 .—The China pheasant answering best to the indications in 
 the text, appears to be Reeves's Pheasant. Mr. Gould has identified 
 this bird with Marco’s in his magnificent Birds of Asia, and has been 
 
246 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 kind enough to show me a specimen which, with the body, measured 
 6 ft. 8 in. The tail- 
 feathers alone, however, 
 are said to reach to 6 
 and 7 ft., so that Marco’s 
 ten palms was scarcely 
 an exaggeration. These 
 tail - feathers are often 
 seen on the Chinese stage 
 in the cap of the hero 
 of the drama, and deco¬ 
 rate the hats of certain 
 functionaries. 
 
 Size is the point in 
 which the bird fails to 
 meet Marco’s descrip¬ 
 tion. In that respect 
 the latter would rather 
 apply to the Crossoptilon 
 A iiritu?n , which is nearly 
 as big as a turkey (but 
 that pheasant, I believe, 
 has only been procured 
 in Manchuria), or to the 
 glorious Munal ( Lopo- 
 phorus I?npeyanus ), but 
 then that has no length 
 of tail. The latter seems 
 to be the bird described 
 by^Elian : “ Magnificent 
 cocks which have the 
 crest variegated and or 
 nate like a crown of 
 flowers, and the tail 
 feathers not curved like 
 a cock’s, but broad and 
 carried in a train like a 
 peacock’s; the feathers 
 are partly golden, and 
 partly azure or emerald- 
 coloured.” — ( Wood’s 
 Birds , 610, from which 
 I have copied the illus¬ 
 tration ; Williams, M. K. 
 
 I. 261 ; sEl. De Nat. 
 
 An. XVI. 2.) 
 
 Reeves's Pheasant. 
 
Chap. LVIII. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF EGRIGAIA. 
 
 247 
 
 CHAPTER LVIII. 
 
 Of the Kingdom of Egrigaia. 
 
 Starting again from Erguiul you ride eastward for eight 
 days, and then come to a province called Egrigaia, con¬ 
 taining numerous cities and villages, and belonging to 
 Tangut. 1 The capital city is called Calachan. 2 The 
 people are chiefly Idolaters, but there are fine churches 
 belonging to the Nestorian Christians. They are all sub¬ 
 jects of the Great Kaan. They make in this city great 
 quantities of camlets of camel’s wool, the finest in the 
 world; and some of the camlets that they make are white, 
 for they have white camels, and these are the best of all. 
 Merchants purchase these stufls here, and carry them over 
 the world for sale. 3 
 
 We shall now proceed eastward from this place and 
 enter the territory that was formerly Prester John’s. 
 
 Note 1.— Chinghiz invaded Tangut in all five times, viz. in 1205, 
 1207, 1209 (or according to Erdmann, 1210-n), 1218, and 1226-7, on 
 which last expedition he died. 
 
 A. In the third invasion, according to D’Ohsson’s Chinese guide 
 (Father Hyacinth), he took the town of Uiraca , and the fortress of Imen, 
 and laid siege to the capital, then called Chung-sing or Chung-hing, now 
 Ninghia. 
 
 Rashid in a short notice of this campaign, calls the first city Erica , 
 Erlaca , or as Erdmann has it Artacki. In Demailla it is Ulahai. 
 
 B. On the last invasion (1226), D’Ohsson’s Chinese authority says 
 that Chinghiz took Kancheu and Suhcheu, Cholo and Khola in the 
 province of Liangcheu, and then proceeded to the Yellow River and 
 invested Lingcheu, south of Ninghia. 
 
 Erdmann, following his reading of Rashiduddin, says Chinghiz took 
 the cities of Tangut, called Arucki , Kachu , Sichu , and Kamichu , and 
 besieged Deresgai (D’Ohsson, Eerssekai), whilst Shidergu the King of 
 Tangut betook himself to his capital Artackin. 
 
 D’Ohsson, also professing to follow Rashid, calls this “ his capital 
 Irghai , which the Mongols call Ircaya .” Klaproth, illustrating Polo, 
 reads “ Eyircai, which the Mongols call Eyircaya .” 
 
 Petis de la Croix relating the same campaign and professing to follow 
 Fadlallah, i.e. Rashiduddin, says the king “retired to his fortress of ArbacaA 
 
248 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 C. Sanang Setzen several times mentions a city called Irghai, appa¬ 
 rently in Tan gut; but all we can gather as to its position is that it seems 
 to have lain east of Kancheu. 
 
 We perceive that the Arbaca of P. de la Croix, the Eyircai of Klap¬ 
 roth, the Uiraca of D’Ohsson, the Artacki or Artackin of Erdmann, 
 are all various readings or forms of the same name, and are the same 
 with the Chinese form Ulahai of Demailla, and mest probably the place 
 is the Egrigaia of Polo. 
 
 We see also that Erdmann mentions another place Arucki 
 in connection with Kancheu and Suhcheu. This is, I suspect, the 
 Erguiul of Polo, and perhaps the Irghai of Sanang Setzen. 
 
 It would seem that Rashiduddin is wrong in calling Ircaya the 
 capital of the king, a circumstance which leads Klaproth to identify it 
 with Ninghia. Pauthier, identifying Ulahai with Egrigaya, shows that 
 the former was one of the circles of Tan gut, but not that of Ninghia. 
 Its position, he says, is uncertain. Klaproth, however, inserts it in his 
 map of Asia in the era of Kublai ( Tabl ,. Hist., pi. 22), as Ulakhai to 
 the north of Ninghia, near the great bend eastward of the Hoang-Ho. 
 Assuming that he had ground for giving it this position, we may place 
 Egrigaia in that direction. And it is otherwise probable that Polo’s 
 route cleared the Hoang-Ho to the north, for he takes no notice of 
 crossing it. 
 
 Note 2 .—As regards Calachan , the chief town of Egrigaia, we know 
 nothing except that, according to Klaproth, Rashiduddin mentions 
 Kalajan among the cities of Tangut. And it is worthy of note that 
 there is a mountain called by the Mongols Khala'an or Khaljan , just 
 in the position we have assigned to Egrigaia (Khaldjan-burgontu of 
 Kiepert’s Asia , Alajan Alin of Gerbillon.) 
 
 Note 3 . — Among the Buraets and Chinese at Kiaklita snow-white 
 camels, without Albino character, are often seen, and probably in other 
 parts of Mongolia (see Ermann II. 261). 
 
 Cammellotti appear to have been fine woollen textures, by no means 
 what are now called camlets, nor were they necessarily of camel’s wool, 
 for those of Angora goat’s wool were much valued. M. Douet d’Arcq 
 calls it “ a fine stuff of wool approaching to our Cashmere, and some¬ 
 times to silk.” Indeed, as Mr. Marsh points out, the word is of Arabic 
 origin, and has nothing to do with Camel. Khamlat is defined in F. 
 Johnson’s Diet. : “ Camelot, silk and camel’s hair; also all silk or velvet, 
 especially pily and plushy,” and Khaml is “ pile or plush.” Camelin 
 was a different and inferior material. There was till recently a con¬ 
 siderable import of different kinds of woollen goods from this part of 
 China into Ladakh, Kashmir, and the northern Punjab. Among the 
 names of these were Sling, Shirun, Gurun, and Khoza , said to be the 
 names of the towns in China where the goods were made. We have 
 identified Sling above (note 2, ch. lvii.), but I can make nothing of the 
 
Chap. LIX. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF TENDUC. 
 
 249 
 
 others. Cunningham also mentions “ camlets of camel’s hair,” under 
 the name of Suklat , among imports from the same quarter. The term 
 Sukldt is, however, applied in the Punjab trade returns to broadcloth. 
 Does not this point to the real nature of the siclatoun of the Middle 
 Ages ? It is, indeed, often spoken of as used for banners, which im¬ 
 plies that it was not a heavy woollen : 
 
 “ There was mony gonfanoun 
 Of gold, sendel, and siclatoun.” 
 
 —King Alisaundre, in Weber, I. 85. 
 
 But it was also a material for ladies’ robes, for quilts, leggings, housings, 
 pavilions. Michel does not decide what it was, only that it was gene¬ 
 rally red and wrought with gold. Dozy renders it “ silk stuff brocaded 
 with gold,” but this seems conjectural. Dr. Rock says it was a thin 
 glossy silken stuff, often with a woof of gold thread, and seems to derive 
 it from the Arabic sakl, “polishing” (a sword), which is improbable. 
 Perhaps the name is connected with ijikiliyat, “ Sicily.” 
 
 ( Marsh on Wedgwood, and on Webster in N. Y. Nation , 1867; 
 Douet DArcq, p. 355; Punjab Trade Rep., App. ccxix-xx; Ladak, 
 242 ; Fr.-Michel, Rech. I. 221 seqq.; Dozy, Diet, des Vetements, &=c. ; 
 Dr. Rock's Kens. Catal. xxxix-xl) 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. 
 
 Concerning the Province of Tenduc, and the Descendants of 
 
 Prester John. 
 
 Tenduc is a province which lies towards the east, and con¬ 
 tains numerous towns and villages ; among which is the 
 chief city also called Tenduc. The king of the province 
 is of the lineage of Prester John, George by name, and he 
 holds the land under the Great Kaan ; not that he holds 
 anything like the whole of what Prester John possessed. 1 
 It is a custom,! may tell you, that these kings of the 
 lineage of Prester John always obtain to wife either 
 daughters of the Great Kaan or other princesses of his 
 family. 2 
 
 In this province is found the stone from which Azure 
 is made. It is obtained from a kind of vein in the earth, 
 and is of very fine quality. 3 There is also a great manu- 
 
250 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 facture of fine camlets of different colours from camel’s 
 hair. The people get their living by their cattle and till¬ 
 age, as well as by trade and handicraft. 
 
 The rule of the province is in the hands of the Christians 
 as I have told you; but there are also plenty of Idolaters 
 and worshippers of Mahommet. And there is also here a 
 class of people called Argons , which is as much as to say 
 in French Guasmul, or, in other words, sprung from two 
 different races ; to wit, of the race of the Idolaters of 
 Tenduc and of that of the worshipper^ of Mahommet. 
 They are handsomer men than the other natives of the 
 country, and having more ability they come to have autho¬ 
 rity ; and they are also capital merchants. 4 
 
 You must know that it was in this same capital city of 
 Tenduc that Prester John had the seat of his government 
 when he ruled over the Tartars, and his heirs still abide 
 there ; for as I have told you this King George is of his 
 line, in fact, he is the sixth in descent from Prester John. 
 
 Here also is what we call the country of Gog and 
 Magog ; they, however, call it Ung and Mungul, after 
 the names of two races of people that existed in that Pro¬ 
 vince before the migration of the Tartars. Ung was the 
 title of the people of the country, and Mungul a name 
 sometimes applied to the Tartars. 5 
 
 And when you have ridden seven days eastward through 
 this province you get near the provinces of Cathay. You 
 find throughout those seven days’ journey plenty of towns 
 and villages, the inhabitants of which are Mahommetans, 
 but with a mixture also of Idolaters and Nestorian Christians. 
 They get their living by trade and manufactures ; weaving 
 those fine cloths of gold which are called Nasich and 
 Naques , besides silk stuffs of many other kinds. For just 
 as we have cloths of wool in our country, manufactured in 
 a great variety of kinds, so in those regions they have stuffs 
 of silk and gold in like variety. 6 
 
 All this region is subject to the Great Kaan. There is 
 
Chap. LIX. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF TENDUC. 
 
 251 
 
 a city you come to called Sindachu, where they carry on 
 a great many crafts such as provide for the equipment of 
 the Emperor’s troops. In a mountain of the province 
 there is a very good silver mine, from which much silver 
 is got; the place is called Ydifu. The country is well 
 stocked with game, both beast and bird. 7 
 
 Now we will quit that province and go three days’ 
 journey forward. 
 
 Note 1. —Marco’s own errors led commentators much astray about 
 Tanduc or Tenduc till Klaproth put the matter in its true light. 
 
 Our traveller says that Tenduc had been the seat of Aung Khan’s 
 sovereignty; he has already said that it had been the scene of his final 
 defeat, and he tells us that it was still the residence of his descendants 
 in their reduced state. To the last piece of information he can speak 
 as a witness, and he is corroborated by other evidence; but the second 
 statement we have seen to be erroneous, and there can be little doubt 
 that the first is so likewise. 
 
 Klaproth pointed out the true position of Tenduc in the vicinity of 
 the great northern bend of the Hoang-Ho, quoting Chinese authorities 
 to show that Thiante or Thiante-Kiun was the name of a district or 
 group of towns to the north of that bend, a name which he supposes to 
 be the original of Polo’s Tenduc. The general position entirely agrees 
 with Marco’s indications ; it lies on his way eastward from Tangut to¬ 
 wards Chagannur and Shangtu (see chapters lx., lxi.), whilst in a later 
 passage (Book II. chap, lxiv.) he speaks of the Caramoran or Hoang-Ho 
 in its lower course, as “ coming from the lands of Prester John.” 
 
 M. Pauthier finds severe fault with Klaproth’s identification of 
 the ncune Tenduc with the Thiante of the Chinese, belonging to a 
 city which had been destroyed 300 years before, whilst he himself will 
 have that name to be a corruption of Tathung. The latter is still the 
 name of a city and Fu of northern Shansi, but in Mongol time its circle 
 of administration extended beyond the Chinese wall, and embraced a 
 good deal of the external territory on the left of the Hoang-Ho. being in 
 fact the first Lu , or circle, entered on leaving Tangut, and therefore, 
 Pauthier urges, the “ Kingdom of Tanduc ” of our text. These facts 
 and many more concerning the district are stated by him in great detail. 
 But by referring to PI. 22 of Klaproth’s Tableaux Historiques , it will be 
 found Klaproth was perfectly aware of the facts about Tathung; and a 
 further reference to Spriiner’s Historical Atlas (ed. 1853, No. 80) affords 
 us the indications “ Kerait, Tathung, (Tenduch),” three words, which in 
 this juxtaposition really convey all the essentials of M. Pauthier’s long 
 controversial note. 
 
252 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 I find it hard to believe that Marco could get no nearer Tathung 
 than in the form Tanduc or Tenduc. The original of the last may have 
 been some Mongol name, not recovered. But it is at least conceivable 
 that a name based on the old Thiante-kiun might have been retained 
 among the Tartars, from whom, and not from the Chinese, Polo took 
 his nomenclature. Thiante had been, according to Pauthier’s own 
 quotations, the military post of Tathung; Klaproth cites a Chinese 
 author of the Mongol era, who describes the Hoang-Ho as passing 
 through the territory of the ancient Chinese city of Thiante; and M. 
 Pauthier himself (p. 221) quotes from the Modem Imperial Geography 
 a passage which appears to indicate that a chief place in that very terri¬ 
 tory is still known as Fung-cheu -Thiante-Kiun. 
 
 In the absence of preciser indications, it is reasonable to suppose 
 that the Plain of Tenduc, with its numerous towns and villages, was 
 the extensive and well-cultivated plain which stretches from the Hoang 
 Ho past the city of Kuku-Khotan, or “ Blue Town.” This tract abounds 
 in the remains of cities attributed to the Mongol era. And it is not 
 improbable that the city of Tenduc was Kuku-Khotan itself, now called 
 by the Chinese Kwei-hwa-ching, but which was known to them in the 
 Middle Ages as Tsmg-cheu , and to which we find the Kin Emperor of 
 Northern China sending an envoy in 1210 to demand tribute from 
 Chinghiz. The city is still an important mart, and a centre of Lamaitic 
 Buddhism; being the residence of a Khutukhtu , or personage com¬ 
 bining the characters of cardinal and voluntarily re-incarnate saint, as 
 well as the site of five great convents said to contain nearly 2000 monks 
 each, besides 15 smaller ones. Gerbillon notes that Kuku Khotan had 
 been a place of great trade and population during the Mongol dynasty. 
 
 A passage in Rashiduddin does seem to intimate that the Kerait, 
 the tribe of Aung Khan, alias Prester John, did occupy territory close to 
 the borders of Cathay or Northern China; but neither from Chinese 
 nor from other Oriental sources has any illustration yet been produced 
 of the existence of Aung Khan’s descendants as rulers in this territory 
 under the Mongol emperors. There is, however, very positive evidence 
 to that effect supplied by other European travellers, to whom the fables 
 prevalent in the West had made the supposed traces of Prester John a 
 subject of strong interest. 
 
 Thus John of Monte Corvino, afterwards Archbishop of Cambaluc 
 or Peking, in his letter from that city of January, 1305, speaks of Polo’s 
 King George in these terms : “ A certain king of this part of the world, 
 by name George, belonging to the sect of the Nestorian Christians, and 
 of the illustrious lineage of that great king who was called Prester John 
 of India, in the first year of my arrival here [circa 1295-6] attached 
 himself to me, and, after he had been converted by me to the verity of 
 the Catholic faith, took the Lesser Orders, and when I celebrated mass 
 used to attend me wearing his royal robes. Certain others of the Nes- 
 torians on this account accused him of apostacy, but he brought over a 
 
Chap. LIX. THE DESCENDANTS OF PRESTER JOHN. 
 
 253 
 
 great part of his people with him to the true Catholic faith, and built 
 a church of royal magnificence in honour of Our God, of the Holy 
 Trinity, and of Our Lord the Pope, giving it the name of the Roman 
 Church . This King George, six years ago, departed to the Lord a 
 true Christian, leaving as his heir a son scarcely out of the cradle, and 
 who is now nine years old. And after King George’s death his brothers, 
 perfidious followers of the errors of Nestorius, perverted again all those 
 whom he had brought over to the Church, and carried them back to 
 their original schismatical creed. And being all alone, and not able 
 to leave his Majesty the Cham, I could not go to visit the church above- 
 mentioned, which is 20 days’ journey distant. ... I had been in treaty 
 with the late King George, if he had lived, to translate the whole Latin 
 ritual, that it might be sung throughout the extent of his territory; and 
 whilst he was alive I used to celebrate mass in his church according to 
 the Latin rite.” The distance mentioned, 20 days’journey from Peking, 
 suits quite well with the position assigned to Tenduc, and no doubt the 
 Roman Church was in the city to which Polo gives that name. 
 
 Friar Odoric travelling from Peking towards Shensi, about 1326-27, 
 also visits the country of Prester John, and gives to its chief city the 
 name of Tozan , in which perhaps we may trace Tathung. He speaks 
 as if the family still existed in authority. 
 
 King George appears again in Marco’s own book (Book IV. 
 chap, ii.), as one of Kublai’s generals against Kaidu, in a battle fought 
 near Karakorum. ( < fourn. As. IX. 299 seqq.; D' Ohsson,\. 123 ; Hue's 
 Tartary, 6rc. I. 55 seqq.; Koeppen, II. 381; Erdmann's Temudschin; 
 Gerhillon in Astley , IV. 670 ; Cathay , p. 146 and 199 seqq.) 
 
 Note 2 .— Such a compact is related to have existed reciprocally 
 between the family of Chinghiz and that of the chief of the Kungurats; 
 but I have not found it alleged of the Kerait family except by Friar 
 Odoric. We find, however, many princesses of this family married into 
 that of Chinghiz. Thus three nieces of Aung Khan became wives 
 respectively of Chinghiz himself, and of his sons Juji and Tuluij she 
 who was the wife of the latter, Serkukteni Bigi, being the mother of 
 Mangu, Hulaku, and Kublai. Dukuz Khatun, the Christian wife of 
 Hulaku, was a grand-daughter of Aung Khan. 
 
 The name George , of Prester John’s representative, may have been 
 actually Jirjis, Yurji, or some such Oriental form of Georgius. But it 
 is possible that the title was really Gurgdn, “ Son-in-Law,” a title of 
 honour conferred on those who married into the imperial blood, and 
 that this title may have led to the statements of Marco and Odoric 
 about the nuptial privileges of the family. Gurgan in this sense was 
 one of the titles borne by Timur.* 
 
 * I should mention that Oppert, in his very interesting monograph, Der Presbyter 
 Johannes, refuses to recognize the Kerait chief at all in that character, and supposes 
 Polo’s King George to be the representative of a prince of the Liao {supra, p. 205), who, 
 
254 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 3 . —“ The Lapis Armenus , or Azure, ... is produced in the 
 district of Tayton-fu (i.e. Tathung) belonging to Shansi.” (Duhalde in 
 Astley, IV. 309 ; see also Martini , p. 36.) 
 
 Note 4 .—This is a highly interesting passage, but difficult, from 
 being corrupt in the G. Text, and over-curt in Pauthier’s MSS. In the 
 former it runs as follows : “ Hil hi a une jenerasion de jens que sunt ap- 
 pell'es Argon, qe vaut a dire en framqois Guasmul, ce est a dire qilil sunt 
 tie del deus generasions de la lengnee des celz Argon Tenduc et des celz 
 reduc et des celz que aorent Maomet. II sunt biaus homes plus que le 
 autre dou pais et plus sa-'es et plus mercaantP Pauthier’s text runs thus : 
 “// ont une generation de gens, ces Crestiens qui ont la Seigneurie, qui 
 s appellent Argon, qui vaut a dire Gasmul ; et sont plus beaux homines 
 que les autres mescreans et plus sages. Et pour ce ont il la seigneurie et 
 sont bons mar chans I And Ramusio : “ Vi e anche una sorte di gente che 
 si chiamano Argon, per che sono nati di due generazioni, cioe da quella di 
 Tenduc che adorano gl’ idoli, e da quella che osservano la legge di Maco- 
 metto. E questi sono ipiu belli uomini che si trovino in quelpaese epiu 
 savi, e piu accorti nella mercanziaP 
 
 In the first quotation the definition of the Argon as sprung de 
 la lengnee, &c., is not intelligible as it stands, but seems to be a corrup¬ 
 tion of the same definition that has been rendered by Ramusio, viz., 
 that the Argon were half-castes between the race of the Tenduc Bud¬ 
 dhists and that of the Mahomedan settlers. These two texts do not 
 assert that the Argon were Christians. Pauthier’s text at first sight 
 seems to assert this, and to identify them with the Christian rulers 
 of the province. But I doubt if it means more than that the Christian 
 rulers have under them a people called Argon, &c. The passage has 
 been read with a bias, owing to an erroneous interpretation of the word 
 Argon in the teeth of Polo’s explanation of it. 
 
 Klaproth, I believe, first suggested that Argon represents the term 
 Arkhaiun, which is found repeatedly applied to Oriental Christians or 
 their clergy, in the histories of the Mongol era.* No quite satisfactory 
 
 as we learn from Demailla’s History, after the defeat of the Kin, in which he had 
 assisted Chinghiz, settled in Liaotong, and received from the conqueror the title of 
 King of the Liao. This seems to me geographically and otherwise quite inadmissible. 
 
 * The term Arkaiun, or Arkaun , in this sense, occurs in the Armenian History 
 of Stephen Orpelian, quoted by St. Martin. The author of the Tarikh Johan Kushai ,' 
 cited by D’Ohsson, says that Christians were called by the Mongols Arkaiin. When 
 Hulaku invested Baghdad we are told that he sent a letter to the Judges, Shaikhs, 
 Doctors, and Arkauns , promising to spare such as should act peaceably. And in the 
 subsequent sack we hear that no houses were spared except those of a few Arkauns 
 and foreigners. In Rashiduddin’s account of the Council of State at Peking, we are 
 told that the four Fanchan , or Ministers of the 2d class, were taken from the four 
 nations of Tajiks, Cathayans, Uighurs, and Arkaun. Sabadin Arkaim was the name 
 of one of the Envoys sent by Arghun Khan of Persia to the Pope in 1288. Traces 
 of the name appear also in Chinese documents of the Mongol era, as denoting some 
 
Chap. LIX. 
 
 THE ARGONS. 
 
 255 
 
 explanation has been given of the orgin of that term. It is barely pos¬ 
 sible that it may be connected with that which Polo uses here ; but he 
 tells us as plainly as possible that he means by the term, not a Christian, 
 but a half-breed. 
 
 And in this sense the word is still extant in Tibet, probably also in 
 Eastern Turkestan, precisely in Marco’s form, Argon. It is applied in 
 Ladak, as General Cunningham tells us, specifically to the mixt race 
 produced by the marriages of Kashmirian immigrants with Bot (Tibetan) 
 women. And it was apparently to an analogous cross between Cau¬ 
 casians and Turanians that the term was applied in Tenduc. Moorcroft 
 also speaks of this class in Ladak, calling them Argauds. And the 
 author of the Dabistan, speaking of the Tibetan Lamas, says : “ Their 
 king, if his mother be not of royal blood, is by them called Arghun , and 
 not considered their true king.” Cunningham says the word is probably 
 Turki, Arghun , ‘ Fair,’ “ not white? as he writes to me, 
 
 “but ‘ruddy’ or ‘pink,’ and therefore ‘fair.’ Arghun is both Turki 
 and Mogholi, and is applied to all fair children, both male and female, 
 as Arghun Beg ,; Arghuna Khaiun, &c.” Zenker has Arghawan, “ the 
 Judas tree, lilac colour, red,” &c. We find an Arghun tribe named in 
 Timur’s Institutes, which probably derived its descent from such half- 
 breeds. And though the Arghun dynasty of Kandahar and Sind claimed 
 their descent and name from Arghun Khan of Persia, this may have 
 had no other foundation. 
 
 There are some curious analogies between these Argons of whom 
 Marco speaks, and those Mahomedans of Northern China and Chinese 
 Turkestan, lately revolted against Chinese authority, who are called 
 Tungani , or as the Russians write it Dun gen, a word signifying, accord¬ 
 ing to Professor Vambery, in Turki, “ a convert.” These Tungani are 
 said by one account to trace their origin to a large body of L T igurs, who 
 were transferred to the vicinity of the Great Wall during the rule of the 
 Thang dynasty (7th to 10th century). Another tradition derives their 
 origin from Samarkand. And it is remarkable that Rashiduddin speaks 
 of a town to the west or north-west of Peking, “ most of the inhabitants 
 of which are natives of Samarkand, and have planted a number of 
 gardens in the Samarkand style.” The former tradition goes on to say 
 
 religious body. Some of these have been quoted by Mr. Wylie ; but I have seen no 
 notice taken of a very curious extract given by Visdelou. This states that Kublai 
 in 1289 established a Board of 19 chief officers to have surveillance of the affairs 
 of the Religion of the Cross, of the Mar ha, the Siliepan, and the Yelikhawen. This 
 Board was raised to a higher rank in 1315 : and at that time 72 minor courts pre¬ 
 siding over the religion of the Yelikhawen existed under its supervision. Here we 
 evidently have the word Arkhaiun in a Chinese form ; and we may hazard the 
 suggestion that Mar ha, Siliepan, and Yelikhawen meant respectively the Armenian, 
 Syrian or Jacobite, and Nestorian Churches. fS?. Marlin, Mem. II. 133, 143, 279 ; 
 D’Ohsson, II. 264; Ilchan, I. 150, 152; Cathay, 264; Acad. VII. 359; Wylie in 
 J. As. V. xix. 466 ; Suppt. to Z>’ Herbelot, 142.) 
 
256 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 that marriages were encouraged between the western settlers and the 
 Chinese women. In after days these people followed the example of 
 their kindred in becoming Mahomedans, but they still retained the 
 practice of marrying Chinese wives, though bringing up their children in 
 Islam. The Tungani are stated to be known in Central Asia for their 
 commercial integrity; and they were generally selected by the Chinese 
 for police functionaries. They are passionate and ready to use the 
 knife; but are distinguished from both Manchus and Chinese by their 
 strength of body and intelligent countenances. Their special feature is 
 their predilection for mercantile speculations. 
 
 Looking to the many common features of the two accounts ; the 
 origin as a half-breed between Mahomedans of Western extraction and 
 Northern Chinese, the position in the vicinity of the Great Wall, the 
 superior physique, intelligence, and special capacity for trade, it seems 
 highly probable that the Tungani of our day are the descendants of 
 Marco’s Argons. Otherwise we may at least point to these analogies as 
 a notable instance of like results produced by like circumstances on the 
 same scene ; in fact, of history repeating itself. (See The Dungens , 
 by Mr. H. K Heins , in the Russian Military Journal for August, 1866, 
 and Western China in the Ed. Review for April, 1868 * ; Cathay , p. 261.) 
 
 Our author gives the odd word Guasmul as the French equivalent 
 of Argon. M. Pauthier has first, of Polo’s editors, given the true 
 explanation from Ducange. The word appears to have been in use in 
 the Levant among the Franks as a name for the half-breeds sprung from 
 their own unions with Greek women. It occurs three times in the his¬ 
 tory of George Pachymeres. Thus he says {Mich. Pal. III. 9), that the 
 Emperor Michael “depended upon the Gasmuls , or mixt-breeds {a-vfx- 
 [xlktol), which is the sense of this word of the Italian tongue, for these 
 were born of Greeks and Italians, and sent them to man his ships ; for 
 the race in question inherited at once the military wariness and quick 
 wit of the Greeks, and the dash and pertinacity of the Latins.” Again 
 (IV. 26) he speaks of these “Gasmuls, whom a Greek would call Siyems, 
 men sprung from Greek mothers and Italian fathers.” Nicephorus Gre- 
 goras also relates how Michael Palaeologus, to oppose the projects of 
 Baldwin for the recovery of his fortunes, manned 60 galleys, chiefly with 
 the tribe of Gasmuls (yeVos rod Fao-juiovXiKov), to whom he assigns the 
 same characteristics as Pachymeres (IV. v. 5, also VI. iii. 3, and XIV. 
 x. n). One MS. of Nicetas Choniates also, in his annals of Manuel 
 Comnenus (see Paris ed. p. 425), speaks of “ the light troops whom we 
 call Basmuls .” Thus it would seem that, as in the analogous case of 
 the Turcopuli , sprung from Turk fathers and Greek mothers, their name 
 had come to be applied technically to a class of troops. According to 
 Buchon, the laws of the Venetians in Candia mention as different races 
 in that island the Vasmulo , Latino, Blaco, and Griego. 
 
 * A translation of Heins was kindly lent me by the author of this article, the 
 lamented Mr. J. W. S. Wyllie. 
 
Chap. LIX. 
 
 THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 
 
 257 
 
 Ducange, in one of his notes on Joinville, says : “ During the time 
 that the French possessed Constantinople, they gave the name of Gas- 
 moules to those who were born of French fathers and Greek mothers ; 
 or more probably Gaste-moules, by way of derision, as if such children 
 by those irregular marriages . . . had in some sort debased the wombs 
 of their mothers ! ” I have little doubt {pace tanti viri) that the word 
 is in a Gallicized form the same with the surviving Italian Guazzabuglio, 
 a gallimawfrey, hotch-potch, or mishmash. In one of the examples 
 cited by the Vocabulario Universale from Davanzati’s Tacitus, the words 
 “ Colluviem illam nationum ” ( AnnaL II. 55) are rendered “ quello 
 guazzabuglio di nazioni ,” in which case we come very close to the 
 meaning assigned to Guasmul. The Italians are somewhat behind 
 in matters of etymology, and I can get no light from them on the 
 history of this word (see Buchon, Chroniques Etrangeres, p. xv; Ducange, 
 Gloss. Graecitatis , and his note on Joinville, in Bohn's Chron. of the 
 Crusades , 466). 
 
 Note 5. —It has often been cast in Marco’s teeth that he makes no 
 mention of the great wall of China, and that is true; whilst the apologies 
 made for the omission have always seemed to me unsatisfactory. We 
 shall see presently that the Great Wall is spoken of by his contempo¬ 
 raries Rashiduddin and Abulfeda. Yet I think if we read “ between 
 the lines,” we shall see reason to believe that the Wall was in Polo’s 
 mind at this point of the dictation, whatever may have been his motive 
 for withholding distincter notice of it.* I cannot conceive why he 
 should say : “ Here is what we call the country of Gog and Magog,” 
 except as intimating “ Here we are beside the Great Wall known as 
 the Rampart of Gog and Magog,” and being there he tries to find a 
 reason why those names should have been applied to it. Why they 
 were really applied to it we have already seen {supra, chapter iv., note 
 3 ). Abulfeda says : “ The Ocean turns northward along the east of 
 China, and then expands in the same direction till it passes China, and 
 comes opposite to the Rampart of Yajuj and Majuj;” whilst the same 
 geographer’s definition of the boundaries of China exhibits that country 
 as bounded on the west by the Indo-Chinese wildernesses; on the 
 south, by the seas; on the east, by the Eastern Ocean; on the north, 
 by the land of Yajuj and Majuj, and other countries unknown. Ibn 
 Batuta, with less accurate geography in his head than Abulfeda, maugre 
 his travels, asks about the Rampart of Gog and Magog {Sadd Yajuj wa 
 Majuj ) when he is at Sin Kalan, i.e. Canton, and, as might be expected, 
 gets little satisfaction. 
 
 Apart from this interesting point Marsden seems to be right in the 
 general bearing of his explanation of the passage, and I conceive that 
 
 * I owe the suggestion of this to a remark in Oppert’s Presbyter Johannes, p. 77. 
 VOL. I. S 
 
258 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 The Rampart of Gog and Magog. 
 
Chap. LIX. 
 
 GOG AND MAGOG. 
 
 259 
 
 the two classes of people whom Marco tries to identify with Gog and 
 Magog do substantially represent the two genera or species, Turks 
 and Mongols, or, according to another nomenclature used by Rashid- 
 uddin, the White and Black Tartars. To the latter class belonged 
 Chinghiz and his Mongols proper, with a number of other tribes 
 detailed by Rashiduddin, and these I take to be in a general way the 
 Mungul of our text. The Ung on the other hand are the Ung -kut, 
 the latter form being presumably only the Mongol plural of Ung. The 
 Ung-kut were a Turk tribe who were vassals of the Kin Emperors of 
 Cathay, and were intrusted with the defence of the Wall of China, or an 
 important portion of it, which was called by the Monguls Ungu , a name 
 which some connect with that of the tribe. Erdmann indeed asserts 
 that the wall by which the Ung-kut dwelt was not the Great Wall, but 
 some other. There are traces of other great ramparts in the steppes 
 north of the present wall. But Erdmann’s arguments seem to me weak 
 in the extreme. 
 
 Vincent of Beauvais has got from some of his authorities a con¬ 
 ception of the distinction of the Tartars into two races, to which however 
 he assigns no names: “ Sunt autem duo genera Tartarorum , divers a 
 quidem habentia idiomata, sed unicam legem ac ritum , sicut Fraud et 
 TheutoniciP But the result of his effort to find a realization of Cog and 
 Magog is that he makes Guyuk Kaan into Gog, and Mangu Kaan into 
 Magog. Even the intelligent Friar Ricofd says of the Tartars : “ They 
 say themselves that they are descended from Gog and Magog : and on 
 this account they are called Mogoli, as if from a corruption 0 f'Magogoli.” 
 (Abulfeda in Buschmg, ; IV. 140, 274-5 ; I. B. IV. 274; Golden Blorde , 
 34, 68; Erdmann , 241-2, 257-8; Timk. I. 259, 263, 268; Vine. Bellov. 
 Spec. Hist. XXIX. 73, XXXI. 32-34; Pereg. Quat. 118.) 
 
 Note 6 .— The towns and villages were probably those immediately 
 north of the Great Wall, between 112° and 115 0 E. long., of which many 
 remains exist, ascribed to the time of the Yuan or Mongol dynasty. 
 
 Of the cloths called nakh and hasij we have spoken before {supra, 
 chap. vi. note 4 ). These stuffs or some such as these were, I believe, 
 what the medieval writers called Tartary cloth , not because they were 
 made in Tartary, but because they were brought from China and its 
 borders through the Tartar dominions; as we find that for like reason 
 they were sometimes called stuffs of Russia. Dante alludes to the 
 supposed skill of Turks and Tartars in weaving . gorgeous stuffs, and 
 Boccaccio, commenting thereon, says that Tartarian cloths are so skil¬ 
 fully woven that no painter with his brush could equal them. Maundevile 
 often speaks of cloths of Tartary (e. g., p. 175, 247). So also Chaucer: 
 
 “ On every trumpe hanging a broad banere 
 Of fine Tartariumd 
 
 Again, in the French Inventory of the Garde-Meuble of 1353 we find 
 
 S 2 
 
26o 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 two pieces of Tartary, one green and the other red, priced at 15 crowns 
 each. [Flower and Leaf, 211; Dante, Inf. XVII. 17, and Longfellow, 
 p. 159; Douet d’Arcq, p. 328; Fr.-Michel, Rech. I. 315, II. 166 seqq.) 
 
 Note 7 .— Sindachu (Sindacui, Suidatui, &c. of the MSS.), there 
 can be little doubt, is Siwanhoa-fu, called under the Kin dynasty 
 Siwante-chau , more than once besieged and taken by Chinghiz. It is 
 said to have been a summer residence of the later Mongol Emperors, 
 and fine parks full of grand trees remain on the western side. It is 
 still a large town and the capital of a department or Fu, about 25 m. 
 south of the Gate station on the Great Wall at Chang Kia Kau which 
 the Mongols and Russians call Kalgan. There is still a considerable 
 manufacture of felt and other woollen articles here. 
 
 Ydifu has not been identified. Mr. Grant, however, mentions ex¬ 
 tensive mines of silver and copper as formerly worked near Kalgan, and 
 Hedde and Rondot speak of the chief production of silver in China 
 as being in the north of Shansi near the Wall. [Biot. p. 183 ; J. R. G. S. 
 XXXIII. 171 ; Etude Pratique, &c. p. 13.) 
 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 Concerning the Kaan’s Palace of Chagannor. 
 
 At the end of those three days you find a city called 
 Chagan Nor [which is as much as to say White Pool], 
 at which there is a great Palace of the Grand Kaan’s; and 
 he likes much to reside there on account of the Lakes 
 and Rivers in the neighbourhood, which are the haunt of 
 swans 1 and of a great variety of other birds. The adjoin¬ 
 ing plains too abound with cranes, partridges, pheasants, 
 and other game birds, so that the Emperor takes all the 
 more delight in staying there, in order to go a-hawking 
 with his gerfalcons and other falcons, a sport of which he 
 is very fond. 2 
 
 There are five different kinds of cranes found in those 
 tracts, as I shall tell you. First, there is one which is very 
 big, and all over as black as a crow; the second kind again 
 is all white, and is the biggest of all; its wings are really 
 
Chap. LX. THE KAAN’S PALACE OF CHAGANNOR. 
 
 261 
 
 beautiful, for they are adorned with round eyes like those 
 of a peacock, but of a resplendent golden colour, whilst the 
 head is red and black on a white ground. The third kind 
 is the same as ours. The fourth is a small kind, having at 
 the ears beautiful long pendent feathers of red and black. 
 The fifth kind is grey all over and of great size, with a 
 handsome head, red and black. 3 
 
 Near this city there is a valley in which the Emperor 
 has had several little houses erected in which he keeps in 
 mew a huge number of cators , which are what we call the 
 Great Partridge. You would be astonished to see what a 
 quantity there are, with men to take charge of them. So 
 whenever the Kaan visits the place he is furnished with as 
 many as he wants. 4 
 
 Note 1.—“ Ou demeurent sesnes.” Sesnes , Cesnes, Cecini , Cesanae, 
 is a medieval form of cygnes , cigni , which seems to have escaped the 
 dictionary-makers. It occurs in the old Italian version of Brunetto 
 Latini’s Tresor , Bk. V. ch. xxv., as cecino; and for other examples see 
 Cathay , p. 125. 
 
 Note 2 .—The city called by Polo Chagan-Nor (meaning in Mongol, 
 as he says, “ White Lake”) is probably the same as Chaghan Balghassun, 
 mentioned by Timkowski as an old city of the Mongol era, the ruined 
 rampart of which he passed about 30 m. north of the Great Wall at 
 Kalgan, and some 55 m. from Siwanhoa, adjoining the Imperial pas¬ 
 tures. “ A short distance to the north of Tsagan Balghassun the Narin- 
 gol falls into a lake which is connected with the Angouli-Nor, a great 
 lake to the north-west of a vast plain. Game is very plentiful in these 
 parts, especially swans , which are much esteemed by the Mongols.” 
 
 A Russian map of the route between Kiakhta and Peking, of 
 which I have seen a translation printed from wooden blocks by the 
 missionaries at Peking, shows close to the west of Chagan Balghassun 
 (“ White-Town”) a lake called Chagil Chaghan Nor . 
 
 The town appears as Tchahan Toloho in D’Anville. It is also, I 
 imagine, the Arulun Tsaghan Balghassun which S. Setzen says Kublai 
 built about the same time with Shangtu and another city “ on the shady 
 side of the Altai,” by which here he seems to mean the Khingan range 
 adjoining the Great Wall. ( Timk . II. 374, 378-9; S. Setz. 115.) 
 
 I see Ritter has made the same identification of Chaghan-Nor 
 (II. 141). 
 
262 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Note 3 .—The following are the best results I can arrive at in the 
 identification of these five cranes. 
 
 1. Radde mentions as a rare crane in South Siberia Gms Monachus, 
 called by the Buraits Kara Togoru , or “ Black Crane.” Atkinson also 
 speaks of “ a beautiful black variety of crane,” probably the same. The 
 Grus Monachus is not, however, jet black, but brownish rather. (Radde, 
 Reisen, Bd. II. p. 318 ; Atkinson , Or. and W. Sib. 548.) 
 
 2. Grus Leucogeranus (?) whose chief habitat is Siberia, but which 
 sometimes comes as far south as the Punjab. It is the largest of the 
 genus, snowy white, with red face and beak ; the ten largest quills are 
 black, but this barely shows as a narrow black line when the wings are 
 closed. The resplendent golden eyes on the wings remain unaccounted 
 for; no naturalist whom I have consulted has any knowledge of a crane 
 or crane-like bird with such decorations. When ’tis discovered, let it 
 be the Grus Poli! 
 
 3. Grus cinerea. 
 
 4. The colour of the pendants varies in the texts. Pauthier’s and 
 the G. Text have red and black; the Lat. S. G. black only, the Crusca 
 black and white, Ramusio feathers red and blue (not pendants). The 
 red and black may have slipt in from the preceding description. I 
 incline to believe it to be the Demoiselle, Anthropoides Virgo, which is 
 frequently seen as far north as Lake Baikal. It has a tuft of pure white 
 from the eye, and a beautiful black pendant ruff or collar ; the general 
 plumage purplish-grey. 
 
 5. Certainly the Indian Saras (vulgo Cyrus), or Grus Antigone, which 
 answers in colours and grows to 52 inches high. 
 
 Note 4 .— Cator occurs only in the G. Text and the Crusca, in the 
 latter with the interpolated explanation a cioe contornici” (i.e. quails), 
 whilst the S. G. Latin has coturnices only. I suspect this impression has 
 assisted to corrupt the text, and that it was originally written or dictated 
 ciacor or $acor, viz. chakor, a term applied in the East to more than one 
 kind of “ Great Partridge.” Its most common application in India is 
 to the Himalayan red-legged partridge, much resembling on a somewhat 
 larger scale the bird so called in Europe. It is the “ Francolin ” of Moor- 
 croft’s Travels, and the Caccabis Chukor of Gray. According to Cunning¬ 
 ham the name is applied in Ladak to the bird sometimes called the 
 Snow-pheasant, Jerdan’s Snow-cock, Tetraogallus Himalayensis of Gray. 
 And it must be the latter which Moorcroft speaks of as “ the gigantic 
 Chukor, much larger than the common partridge, found in large coveys 
 on the edge of the snow .... one plucked and drawn weighed 5 lbs.” 
 From the extensive diffusion of the term, which seems to be common to 
 India, Tibet, and Persia (for the latter, see Abbott in J. R. G. S. 
 XXV. 41), it is likely enough to be of Mongol origin, not improbably 
 “ Tsokhor, dappled or pied.” (. Kovalevsky , No. 2196, and Strahlenberg's 
 
Chap. LXI. THE CITY AND PALACE OF CHANDU. 263 
 
 Vocabulary; see also Ladak , 205 ; Moorcr. I. 313, 432 ; Jerdaris Birds 
 of India, III. 549, 572 ; JDunlop, Hunting in Himalaya, 178.) 
 
 The keeping of partridges for the table is alluded to by Chaucer in 
 his portrait of the Franklin : 
 
 “ It snewed in his hous of mete and drinke, 
 
 Of alle deyntees that men could of thinke ; 
 
 After the sondry sesons of the yere 
 So changed he his mete and his soupere. 
 
 Full many a fat partrich hadde he in mewe. 
 
 And many a hreme and many a luce in stewe.” 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 Of the City of Chandu, and the Kaan’s Palace there. 
 
 And when you have ridden three days from the city last 
 mentioned, between north-east and north, you come to a 
 city called Chandu, which was built by the Kaan now 
 reigning. There is at this place a very fine marble Palace, 
 the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of 
 men and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and 
 flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard 
 them with delight and astonishment. 1 
 
 Round this Palace a wall is built, inclosing a compass 
 of 16 miles, and inside the Park there are fountains and 
 rivers and brooks, and beautiful meadows, with all kinds of 
 wild animals (excluding such as are of ferocious nature), 
 which the Emperor has procured and placed there to 
 supply food for his gerfalcons and hawks which he keeps 
 there in mew. Of these there are more than 200 gerfalcons 
 alone, without reckoning the other hawks. The Kaan 
 himself goes every week to see his birds sitting in mew, 
 and sometimes he rides through the park with a leopard 
 behind him on his horse’s croup; and then if he sees any 
 animal that takes his fancy, he slips his leopard at it, and 
 
264 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 the game when taken is made over to feed the hawks in 
 mew. This he does for diversion. 
 
 Moreover [at a spot in the Park where there is a 
 charming wood] he has another Palace built of cane, of 
 which I must give you a description. It is gilt all over, and 
 most elaborately finished inside. [It is stayed on gilt and 
 lackered columns, on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the 
 tail of which is attached to the column whilst the head 
 supports the architrave, and the claws likewise are stretched 
 out right and left to support the architrave.] The roof, like 
 the rest, is formed of canes, covered with a varnish so strong 
 and excellent that no amount of rain will rot them. These 
 canes are a good 3 palms in girth, and from 10 to 15 paces 
 in length. [They are cut across at each knot, and then 
 the pieces are split so as to form from each two hollow 
 tiles, and with these the house is roofed; only every such 
 tile of cane has to be nailed down to prevent the wind 
 from lifting it.] In short, the whole Palace is built of 
 these canes, which (I may mention) serve also for a great 
 variety of other useful purposes. The construction of the 
 Palace is so devised that it can be taken down and put 
 up again with great celerity ; and it can all be taken to 
 pieces and removed whithersoever the Emperor may com¬ 
 mand. When erected, it is stayed [against mishaps from 
 the wind] by more than 200 cords of silk. 2 
 
 The Lord abides at this Park of his, dwelling sometimes 
 in the Marble Palace and sometimes in the Cane Palace for 
 three months of the year, to wit June, July, and August; 
 preferring this residence because it is by no means hot; in 
 fact it is a very cool place. When the 28th day of [the 
 Moon of] August arrives he takes his departure, and the 
 Cane Palace is taken to pieces.* But I must tell you what 
 happens when he goes' away from this Palace every year on 
 the 28th of the August [Moon]. 
 
 You must know that the Kaan keeps an immense stud 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 THE KAAN’S PALACE AT CHANDU. 
 
 265 
 
 of white horses and mares ; in fact more than 10,000 of 
 them, and all pure white without a speck. The milk 
 of these mares is drunk by himself and his family, and by 
 none else, except by those of one great tribe that have also 
 the privilege of drinking it. This privilege was granted 
 them by Chinghis Kaan, on account of a certain victory 
 that they helped him to win long ago. The name of the 
 tribe is Horiad. 4 
 
 Now when these mares are passing across the country, 
 and any one falls in with them, be he the greatest lord in 
 the land, he must not presume to pass until the mares 
 have gone by; he must either tarry where he is, or go a 
 half-day’s journey round if need so be, so as not to come 
 nigh them ; for they are to be treated with the greatest 
 respect. Well, when the Lord sets out from the Park on 
 the 28th of August, as I told you, the milk of all those 
 mares is taken and sprinkled on the ground. And this is 
 done on the injunction of the Idolaters and Idol-priests, 
 who say that it is an excellent thing to sprinkle that milk 
 on the ground every 28th of August, so that the Earth 
 and the Air and the False Gods shall have their share of it, 
 and the Spirits likewise that inhabit the Air and the Earth. 
 And thus those beings will protect and bless the Kaan and 
 his children and his wives and his folk and his gear, and his 
 cattle and his horses, his corn and all that is his. After 
 this is done, the Emperor is off and away. 5 
 
 But I must now tell you a strange thing that hitherto 
 I have forgotten to mention. During the three months 
 of every year that the Lord resides at that place, if it should 
 happen to be bad weather, there are certain crafty en¬ 
 chanters and astrologers in his train, who are such adepts 
 in necromancy and the diabolic arts, that they are able to 
 prevent any cloud or storm from passing over the spot on 
 which the Emperor’s Palace stands. The sorcerers who 
 do this are called Tebet and Kesimur, which are the 
 
266 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 names of two nations of Idolaters. Whatever they do in 
 this way is by the help of the Devil, but they make those 
 people believe that it is compassed by dint of their own 
 sanctity and the help of God . 6 [They always go in a state 
 of dirt and uncleanness, devoid of respect for themselves, or 
 for those who see them, unwashed, unkempt, and sordidly 
 attired.] 
 
 These people also have a custom which I must tell you. 
 If a man is condemned to death and executed by the lawful 
 authority, they take his body and cook and eat it. But 
 if any one die a natural death then they will not eat the 
 body . 7 
 
 There is another marvel performed by those Bacsi, 
 of whom I have been speaking as knowing so many en¬ 
 chantments . 8 For when the Great Kaan is at his capital 
 and in his great Palace, seated at his table, which stands on 
 a platform some eight cubits above the ground, his cups 
 are set before him [on a great buffet] in the middle of the 
 hall pavement, at a distance of some ten paces from his 
 table, and filled with wine, or other good spiced liquor 
 such as they use. Now when the Lord desires to drink, 
 these enchanters by the power of their enchantments cause 
 the cups to move from their place without being touched 
 by anybody, and to present themselves to the Emperor! 
 This every one present may witness, and there are oft- 
 times more than 10,000 persons thus present. ’Tis a truth 
 and no lie! and so will tell you the sages of our own 
 country who understand necromancy, for they also can per¬ 
 form it . 9 
 
 And when the Idol Festivals come round, these Bacsi 
 go to the Prince and say: “ Sire, the Feast of such a god 
 is come” (naming him). “My Lord, you know,” the 
 enchanter will say, “ that this god, when he gets no offer¬ 
 ings, always sends bad weather and spoils our seasons. 
 So we pray you to give us such and such a number of 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 THE K A AN’S PALACE AT CHANDU. 
 
 267 
 
 black-faced sheep,” naming whatever number they please. 
 “ And we beg also, good my lord, that we may have 
 such a quantity of incense, and such a quantity of lign- 
 aloes, and ”—so much of this, so much of that, and so 
 much of t’other, according to their fancy—“ that we may 
 perform a solemn service and a great sacrifice to our Idols, 
 and that so they may be induced to protect us and all 
 that is ours.” 
 
 The Bacsi say these things to the Barons entrusted with 
 the Stewardship, who stand round the Great Kaan, and 
 these repeat them to the Kaan, and he then orders the 
 Barons to give everything that the Bacsi have asked for. 
 And when they have got the articles they go and make 
 a great feast in honour of their god, and hold great 
 ceremonies of worship with grand illuminations and quan¬ 
 tities of incense of a variety of odours, which they make 
 up from different aromatic spices. And then they cook 
 the meat, and set it before the idols, and sprinkle the broth 
 hither and thither, saying that in this way the idols get 
 their bellyful. Thus it is that they keep their festivals. 
 You must know that each of the idols has a name of 
 his own, and a feast-day, just as our Saints have their 
 anniversaries. 
 
 They have also immense Minsters and Abbeys, some of 
 them as big as a small town, with more than two thousand 
 monks (Y. e. after their fashion) in a single abbey . 10 These 
 monks dress more decently than the rest of the people, and 
 have the head and beard shaven. There are some among 
 these Bacsi who are allowed by their rule to take wives, 
 and who have plenty of children . 11 
 
 Then there is another kind of devotees called Sensin, 
 who are men of extraordinary abstinence after their fashion, 
 and lead a life of such hardship as I will describe. All their 
 life long they eat nothing but bran, which they take mixt 
 with hot water. That is their food, bran and nothing but 
 
268 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 bran, and water for their drink. ’Tis a lifelong fast! so 
 that I may well say their life is one of extraordinary asce¬ 
 ticism. They have great idols, and plenty of them ; but 
 they sometimes also worship fire. The other Idolaters who 
 are not of this sect call these people heretics —Patarins as 
 we should say 12 —because they do not worship their idols 
 in their own fashion. Those of whom I am speaking 
 would not take a wife on any consideration. 1 * They wear 
 dresses of hempen stuff, black and blue , 14 and sleep upon 
 mats; in fact their asceticism is something astonishing. 
 Their idols are all feminine, that is to say, they have 
 women’s names. 
 
 Now let us have done with this subject, and let me tell 
 you of the great state and wonderful magnificence of the 
 Great Lord of Lords; I mean that great Prince who is 
 the Sovereign of the Tartars, Cublay by name, that most 
 noble and puissant Lord. 
 
 Note 1.— Chandu , called more correctly in Ramusio Xandu, i.e. 
 Shandu, and by Fr. Odorico Sandu, viz. Shangtu or “ Upper Court,” 
 the Chinese title of Kublai’s summer residence at Kaipingfu (see chap, 
 xiii. of Prologue). The ruins of the palace and city existed at the 
 end of the 17 th century, when they were seen by Gerbillon ; and the 
 Imperial Geography of the existing dynasty mentions that these ruins 
 contained an inscription of the reign of Kublai. 
 
 In the wail which Sanang Setzen, the poetical historian of the 
 Mongols, puts, perhaps with some traditional basis, into the mouth of 
 Toghon Temur, the last of the Chinghizide dynasty in China, when 
 driven from his throne, the changes are rung on the lost glories of 
 his capital Dditu (see infra , Book II. chap, xi.) and his summer palace 
 Shangtu; thus (I translate from Schott’s amended German rendering 
 of the Mongol) : 
 
 “ My vast and noble Capital, My Dai'tu, My splendidly adorned ! 
 
 And Thou my cool and delicious Summer-seat, my Shangtu-Keibung ! 
 
 Ye also, yellow plains of Shangtu, Delight of my godlike Sires ! 
 
 I suffered myself to drop into dreams,—and lo ! my Empire was gone ! 
 
 Ah Thou my Dai'tu, built of the nine precious substances ! 
 
 Ah my Shangtu-Keibung, Union of all perfections ! 
 
 Ah my Fame ! Ah my Glory, as Khagan and Lord of the Earth ! 
 
Chap. LXI. THE CITY AND PALACE OF CHANDU. 269 
 
 When I used to awake betimes and look forth, how the breezes blew loaded 
 with fragrance ! 
 
 And turn which way I would all was glorious perfection of beauty ! 
 ***** 
 
 Alas for my illustrious name as the Sovereign of the World ! 
 
 Alas for my Dai'tu, seat of Sanctity, Glorious work of the Immortal Kublai ! 
 
 All, all is rent from me ! ” 
 
 The site of Shangtu-Keibung (the latter word being the Mongol 
 form of the Chinese Kciiping-iw, the Kemen-fu of Polo) is marked on 
 the Jesuit maps Djao Naiman Sume (“The 108 Temples”), but it is 
 now represented by Tolon-Nur, which M. Hue describes as a large, busy, 
 bustling, dirty town, with a great manufactory of images of Buddha. It 
 stands about 100 m. on a N.E. bearing from the site we have assigned 
 to Chaghan-Nur. The river that runs by the place retains, or did retain 
 in Gerbillon’s time, the name of Shangtu. 
 
 It was whilst reading this passage of Marco’s narrative in old Purchas 
 that Coleridge fell asleep, and dreamt the dream of Kublai’s Paradise, 
 beginning : 
 
 “ In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
 
 A stately pleasure dome decree : 
 
 Where Alph, the sacred River, ran, 
 
 By caverns measureless to man, 
 
 Down to a sunless sea. 
 
 So twice five miles of fertile ground 
 With walls and towers were girdled round : 
 
 And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 
 
 Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; 
 
 And here were forests, ancient as the hills, 
 
 Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.” 
 
 It would be a singular coincidence in relation to this poem were 
 Klaproth’s reading correct of a passage in Rashiduddin which he renders 
 as saying that the palace at Kaiminfu was “called Langtin, and was 
 built after a plan that Kublai had seen in a dream, and had retained in 
 his memory.” But I suspect D’Ohsson’s reading is more accurate, which 
 runs : “ Kublai caused a Palace to be built for him east of Kaipingfu, 
 called Lengten; but he abandoned it in consequence of a drearn .” For 
 we see from Sanang Setzen that the palaces of Lengten and Kaiming or 
 Shangtu were distinct: “Between the year of the Rat (1264), when 
 Kublai was fifty years old, and the year of the Sheep (1271), in the 
 space of eight years he built four great cities, viz. for Summer Residence 
 Shangtu Keibung Kiirdu Balghassun, for Winter Residence Yeke 
 Daitu Khotan, and on the shady side of the Altai (see ch. li. note 3, 
 supra) Arulun Tsaghan Balghassun, and Erchiigin Langting Bal¬ 
 ghassun.” ( Gerbillon in Astley, IV. 701-716 ; J. As. ser. 2, tom. xi. 
 345-50 ; Schott , Die letzten Jahre der Mongolenherrschaft in China (Berl. 
 Acad. d. Wissensch. 1850, p. 502-3); Hue's Tartary , &c., p. 14 seqq.; 
 Cathay , 134, 261; S. Setzen , p. 115.) 
 
 One of the pavilions of the celebrated Yuen-min-Yuen may give 
 
270 
 
 MARCO POLO, 
 
 Book I 
 
 some idea of the probable style, though not of the scale, of Kublai’s 
 Summer Palace. 
 
 PaviLon at Yuen-min-Yuen. 
 
 Note 2. —Ramusio is here so much more lucid than the other texts, 
 that I have adhered mainly to his account of the building. The roof 
 described is of a kind in use in the Indian Archipelago, and in some 
 other parts of Transgangetic India, in which the semi-cylinders of 
 bamboo are laid just like Roman tiles. 
 
 Rashiduddin gives a curious account of the way in which the 
 foundations of the terrace on which this palace stood were erected in a 
 lake. He says, too, in accord with Polo : “ Inside the city itself a 
 second palace was built, about a bowshot from the first; but the Kaan 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 THE KAAN’S WHITE MARES. 
 
 271 
 
 generally takes up his residence in the palace outside the town,” i.e., as I 
 imagine, in Marco’s Cane Palace. ( Cathay , p. 261-2.) 
 
 Marco might well say of the bamboo that “ it serves also a great 
 variety of other purposes.” An intelligent native of Arakanwho accom¬ 
 panied me in wanderings on duty in the forests of the Burmese frontier 
 in the beginning of 1853, and who used to ask many questions about 
 Europe, seemed able to apprehend almost everything except the possi¬ 
 bility of existence in a country without bamboos ! “ When I speak of 
 
 bamboo huts, I mean to say that posts and walls, wall-plates and rafters, 
 floor and thatch, and the withes that bind them, are all of bamboo. In 
 fact, it might almost be said that among the Indo-Chinese nations the 
 staff" of life is a bamboo ! Scaffolding and ladders, landing-jetties, fishing 
 apparatus, irrigation wheels and scoops, oars, masts, and yards [add in 
 China, sails, cables, and caulking, asparagus, medicine, and works of 
 fantastic art], spears and arrows, hats and helmets, bow, bowstring and 
 quiver, oil-cans, water-stoups and cooking-pots, pipe-sticks [tinder and 
 means of producing fire], conduits, clothes-boxes, pawn-boxes, dinner- 
 trays, pickles, preserves, and melodious musical instruments, torches, 
 footballs, cordage, bellows, mats, paper; these are but a few of the 
 articles that are made from the bambooand in China, to sum up the 
 whole, as Barrow observes, it maintains order throughout the Empire ! 
 (Ava Mission , p. 153 ; and see also Wallace , Ind. Arch. I. 120 seqq.) 
 
 Note 8.—-“The Emperor . . . began this year (1264) to depart 
 from Yenking (Peking) in the 2nd or 3rd month for Shangtu, not return¬ 
 ing until the 8th month. Every year he made this passage, and all the 
 Mongol emperors who succeeded him followed his example.” ( Gaubil , 
 p. 144.) Thus Odoric, speaking of Kublai’s great-grandson Yesun 
 Temur, says: “Now this Lord passeth the summer at a certain place, 
 which is called Sandu, situated towards the North, and the coolest 
 habitation in the world. But in the winter season he abideth at Cam- 
 balec” (p. 134). 
 
 Note 4 .—White horses were presented in homage to the Kaan on 
 New-year’s Day ( the White Feast), as we shall see below (Bk. II. 
 ch. xv.). Odoric also mentions this practice; and, according to Hue, 
 the Mongol chiefs continued it at least to the time of the Emperor 
 Kanghi. Indeed Timkowski speaks of annual tributes of white camels 
 and white horses from the Khans of the Kalkas and other Mongol 
 dignitaries, in the present century. (Muds Tartary , &c.; Tim. II. 33.) 
 
 By the Horiad are no doubt intended the Uirad or Oirad, a 
 name signifying the “ Closely Allied,” or Confederates. They were not 
 of the tribes properly called Mongol, but after their submission to 
 Chinghiz they remained closely attached to him. In Chinghiz’s victory 
 over Aung-Khan, as related by S. Setzen, we find Turulji Taishi, the 
 son of the chief of the Oirad, one of Chinghiz’s three chief captains; 
 perhaps that is the victory alluded to. The seats of the Oirad appear 
 to have been about the head waters of the Kem, or Upper Yenisei. 
 
272 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 In a.d. 1295 there took place a curious desertion from the service of 
 Ghazan Khan of Persia of a vast corps of the Oirad, said to amount to 
 18,000 tents. They made their way to Damascus, where they were well 
 received by the Mameluke Sultan. But their heathenish practices gave 
 dire offence to the Faithful. They were settled in the Sahil ' or coast 
 districts of Palestine. Many died speedily; the rest embraced Islam, 
 spread over the country, and gradually became absorbed in the general 
 population. Their sons and daughters were greatly admired for their 
 beauty. (S. Setz. p. 87; Erdmann , 187; Pallas, Samml. I. 5 seqq. ; 
 Makrizi , III. 29.) 
 
 Note 5. —Rubruquis assigns such a festival to the month of May. 
 “ On the 9th day of the May Moon they collect all the white mares of 
 their herds and consecrate them. The Christian priests also must then 
 assemble with their thuribles. They then sprinkle new cosmos (. Kumiz ) 
 on the ground, and make a great feast that day, for according to their 
 calendar, it is their time of first drinking new cosmos, just as we reckon 
 of our new wine at the feast of St. Bartholomew (Aug. 25), or that of 
 St. Sixtus (Aug. 6), or of our fruit on the feast of St. James and St. 
 Christopher” (July 25). The Yakuts also hold such a festival in June 
 or July, when the mares foal, and immense wooden goblets of Kumiz 
 are emptied on that occasion. They also pour out Kumiz for the 
 Spirits to the four quarters of heaven. 
 
 Baber tells that among the ceremonies of a Mongol Review the 
 Khan and his staff took Kumiz and sprinkled it towards the standards. 
 An Armenian author of the Mongol era says that it was the custom of 
 the Tartars, before drinking, to sprinkle drink towards heaven, and 
 towards the four quarters. Mr. Atkinson notices the same practice 
 among the Kirghiz : and I found the like in old days among the Kasias 
 of the eastern frontier of Bengal. 
 
 The time of year assigned by Polo for the ceremony implies some 
 change. Perhaps it had been made to coincide with the Festival of 
 Water Consecration of the Lamas, with which the time named in the 
 text seems to correspond. On that occasion the Lamas go in proces¬ 
 sion to the rivers and lakes and consecrate them by benediction and 
 by casting in offerings, attended by much popular festivity. 
 
 Rubruquis seems to intimate that the Nestorian priests were em¬ 
 ployed to consecrate the white mares by incensing them. In the rear 
 of Lord Canning’s camp in India I once came upon the party of his 
 Shutr Suwdrs, or dromedary express riders, busily engaged in incensing 
 with frankincense the whole of the dromedaries, which were kneeling in 
 a circle. I could get no light on the practice, but it was very probably 
 a relic of the old Mongol custom. [Ruhr. 363 ; Erman , II. 397 ; 
 Billings' Journey, Fr. Tr. I. 217; Baber, 103; J. As. ser. 5, tom. xi. 
 p. 249; Atk. Amoor , p. 47 ; J. A. S. B. XIII. 628 ; Koeppei2, II. 313.) 
 
 Note G. —The practice of weather-conjuring was in great vogue 
 among the Mongols, and is often alluded to in their history. 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 WEATHER-CONJURING. 
 
 273 
 
 The operation was performed by means of a stone of magical virtues, 
 called Yadah or Jadah-Tash , which was placed in or hung over a basin 
 of water with sundry ceremonies. The possession of such a stone is 
 ascribed by the early Arab traveller Ibn Mohalhal to the Kimak , a great 
 tribe of the Turks. In the war raised against Chinghiz and Aung Khan, 
 when still allies, by a great confederation of the Naiman and other 
 tribes in 1202, we are told that Sengun, the son of Aung-Khan, when 
 sent to meet the enemy, caused them to be enchanted, so that all their 
 attempted movements against him were defeated by snow and mist. 
 The fog and darkness were indeed so dense that many men and horses 
 fell over precipices, and many also perished with cold. In another 
 account of (apparently) the same matter, given by Mir-Khond, the 
 conjuring is set on foot by the Yadachi of Buyruk Khan, Prince of the 
 Naiman, but the mischief all rebounds on the conjuror’s own side. 
 
 In Tului’s invasion of Honan in 1231-2, Rashiduddin describes him, 
 when in difficulty, as using the Jadah stone with success. 
 
 Timur, in his Memoirs, speaks of the Jets using incantations to 
 produce heavy rains wffiich hindered his cavalry from acting against 
 them. A Yadachi was captured, and when his head had been taken off 
 the storm ceased. 
 
 Baber speaks of one of his early friends, Khwaja Ka Mulai, as 
 excelling in falconry and acquainted with Yadagiri or the art of bringing 
 on rain and snow by means of, enchantment. When the Russians 
 besieged Kazan in 1552 they suffered much from the constant heavy 
 rains, and this annoyance was universally ascribed to the arts of the 
 Tartar Queen, who was celebrated as an enchantress. Shah Abbas 
 believed he had learned the Tartar secret, and put much confidence in 
 it. (P. della V. I. 869.) 
 
 An edict of the Emperor Shi-tsung, of the reigning dynasty, addressed 
 in 1724-5 to the Eight Banners of Mongolia, warns them against this 
 rain-conjuring: “ If I,” indignantly observes the Emperor, “ offering 
 prayer in sincerity have yet room to fear that it may please Heaven to 
 leave my prayer unanswered, it is truly intolerable that mere common 
 people wishing for rain should at their own caprice set up altars of 
 earth, and bring together a rabble of Hoshang (Buddhist Bonzes) and 
 Taosse to conjure the spirits to gratify their wishes.” 
 
 The practice of weather-conjuring still continues in Tartary, Tibet, 
 and the adjoining countries. And I may note that the word denoting 
 the art has passed into modern Hindustani for conjuring in general 
 (Jadii and Jadugiri ), and that by an odd freak in the history of words 
 Jadiighar , “ The Conjuring House,” has come to be the name by which 
 a freemason’s lodge is generally known in India. 
 
 Weather-conjuring stories were also rife in Europe during the Middle 
 Ages. One such is conspicuously introduced in connection with a 
 magical fountain in the romance of the Chevalier an Lyon : 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 * ‘ Et si pant uns bacins de fer 
 A line si longue chaaine, 
 
 Qui dure jusqu’an la fontainne. 
 
 Lez la fontainne trouveras 
 i perron, tel com tu verras 
 * * * * 
 
 S’au bacin viex de l’eue prandre 
 Et desus le perron espandre 
 La verras une tete tanpeste, 
 
 Qu’an ceste bois ne remanra beste,” 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 The effect foretold in these lines is the subject of a woodcut illus¬ 
 trating a Welsh version of the same tale in the first volume of the 
 Mabinogion. And the existence of such a fountain is alluded to by 
 Alexander Neckam. {De Ncituris Rerum , Bk. II. ch. vii.) 
 
 In the Cento Novelle Antiche also certain necromancers exhibit their 
 craft before the Emperor Frederic (Barbarossa apparently): “ The 
 weather began to be overcast, and lo ! of a sudden rain began to fall 
 with continued thunders and lightnings, as if the world were come to an 
 end, and hailstones that looked like steel-caps,” &c. Various other 
 European legends of like character will be found in Liebrechfs Gervasius 
 von Tilbury , pp. 147-8. 
 
 Rain-makers there are in many parts of the world; but it is remark¬ 
 able that those also of Samoa in the Pacific operace by means of a rain- 
 stone. 
 
 Such weather conjurings as we have spoken of are ascribed by Ovid 
 to Circe:— 
 
 “ Concipit ilia preces et verba venefica dicit 
 Tgnotosque Deos ignoto carmine adorat 
 * * * * 
 
 Tunc quoque cantato densatur carmine coelum 
 Et nebulas exhalat humus.” — Metam. XIV. 365. 
 
 And to Medea :— 
 
 -“ Cum volui ripis mirantibus amnes 
 
 In fontes rediere suos .... (another feat of the Lamas) 
 
 .... Nubila petto 
 
 Nubilaque induco, ventos abigoque vocoqueP — lb. VII. 299. 
 
 And by Tibullus to the Saga {Eleg. I. 2. 45); whilst Empedocles, in 
 verses ascribed to him by Diogenes Laertius, claims power to com¬ 
 municate like secrets of potency :— 
 
 “ By my spells thou may’st 
 To timely sunshine turn the purple rains, 
 
 And parching droughts to fertilizing floods ”— 
 
 (See Cathay , p. clxxxvii; Erdm. 282; Oppert , 102, seqq.; Erman , I. 
 
Chap. LXI. CHINESE AND TIBETAN CANNIBALISM. 
 
 275 
 
 153; Pallas , Samml. II. 348 seqq.; Timk. I. 402; f. R. A. S., VII. 
 305-6; HOhssofi , II. 614; and for many interesting particulars, Q. R. 
 p. 428 seqq., and Hammer’s Golden Horde , 207 and 435 seqq.) 
 
 Note 7. —It is not clear whether Marco attributes this cannibalism 
 to the Tibetans and Kashmirians, or brings it in as a particular of 
 Tartar custom which he had forgotten to mention before. 
 
 The accusations of cannibalism indeed against the Tibetans in old 
 accounts are frequent, and I have elsewhere (see Cathay) p. 151), re¬ 
 marked on some singular Tibetan practices which go far to account for 
 such charges. Della Penna, too, makes a statement which bears curi¬ 
 ously on the present passage. Remarking on the great use made by 
 certain classes of the Lamas of human skulls for magical cups, and of 
 human thigh bones for flutes and whistles, he says that to supply them 
 with these the bodies of executed criminals were stored up at the disposal 
 of the Lamas ; and a Hindu account of Tibet in the Asiatic Researches 
 asserts that when one is killed in a fight both parties rush forward and 
 struggle for the liver, which they eat (vol. xv.). 
 
 But like charges of cannibalism are brought against both Chinese 
 and Tartars very positively. Thus, without going back to the Anthro¬ 
 pophagous Scythians of Ptolemy and Mela, we read in the relation of 
 the Arab travellers of the 9th century : “In China it occurs sometimes 
 that the governor of a province revolts from his duty to the emperor. 
 In such a case he is slaughtered and eaten. In fact) the Chinese eat the 
 flesh of all tnen who are executed by the sword.” Dr. Rennie mentions a 
 superstitious practice, the continued existence of which in our own day he 
 has himself witnessed, and which might perhaps have given rise to some 
 such statement as that of the Arab travellers, if it be not indeed a relic, 
 in a mitigated form, of the very practice they assert to have prevailed. 
 After an execution at Peking certain large pith balls are steeped in the 
 blood, and under the name of blood-bread are sold as a medicine for 
 consumption. It is only to the blood of decapitated criminals that any 
 such healing power is attributed. It has been asserted in the annals of 
 the Propagation de la Foi that the Chinese executioners of M. Chapde- 
 laine, a missionary who was martyred in Yunnan in our own day, were 
 seen to eat the heart of their victim; and M. Huot, a missionary in the 
 same province, recounts a case of cannibalism which he witnessed. 
 Bishop Chauveau, at Tathsianlu, told Mr. Cooper that he had seen men 
 in one of the cities of Yunnan eating the heart and brains of a celebrated 
 robber who had been executed. 
 
 Hayton, the Armenian, after relating the treason of a Saracen, called 
 Parwana (he was an Iconian Turk), against Abaka Khan, says : “ He 
 was taken and cut in two, and orders were issued that in all the food 
 eaten by Abaka there should be put a portion of the traitor’s flesh. Of 
 this Abaka himself ate, and caused all his barons to partake. And this 
 was in accordance with the custom of the Tartars.” The same story is 
 related independently and differently by Friar Ricold, thus : “ When the 
 
 T 2 
 
2/6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I 
 
 army of Abaga ran away from the Saracens in Syria, a certain great 
 Tartar baron was arrested who had been guilty of treason. And when 
 the Emperor Khan was giving the order for his execution the Tartar 
 ladies and women interposed, and begged that he might be made over 
 to them. Having got hold of the prisoner they boiled him alive, and 
 cutting his body up into mince-meat gave it to eat to the whole army, 
 as an example to others.” Vincent of Beauvais makes a like statement: 
 “ When they capture any one who is at bitter enmity with them, they 
 gather together and eat him in vengeance of his revolt, and like infernal 
 leeches suck his blood,” a custom of which a modern Mongol writer 
 thinks that he finds a trace in a surviving proverb. Among more remote 
 and ignorant Franks the cannibalism of the Tartars was a general belief. 
 Ivo of Narbonne, in his letter written during the great Tartar invasion 
 of Europe (1242), declares that the Tartar chiefs, with their dog’s-head 
 followers and other Lotophagi (!), ate the bodies of their victims like so 
 much bread, whilst a Venetian chronicler, speaking of the council of 
 Lyons in 1274, says there was discussion about making a general move 
 against the Tartars, “porce qiiil manjuent la char humaineP These 
 latter writers no doubt rehearsed mere popular beliefs, but Hayton and 
 Ricold were both intelligent persons well-acquainted with the Tartars, 
 and Hayton at least not prejudiced against them. 
 
 The old belief was revived in Prussia during the Seven Years’ War, 
 in regard to the Kalmaks of the Russian army; and Bergmann says the 
 old Kalmak warriors confessed to him that they had done what they 
 could to encourage it by cutting up the bodies of the slain in presence 
 of their prisoners, and roasting them ! 
 
 There is some reason to believe that cannibalism was in the Middle 
 Ages generally a less strange and unwonted horror than we should at 
 first blush imagine, and especially that it was an idea tolerably familiar 
 in China. M. Bazin, in the 2nd part of Chine Moderne, p. 461, after 
 sketching a Chinese drama of the Mongol era (“ the Devotion of 
 Chaoli”). the plot of which turns on the acts of a body of cannibals, 
 quotes several other passages from Chinese authors which indicate this. 
 Nor is this wonderful in the age that had experienced the horrors of the 
 Mongol wars. 
 
 That was no doubt a fable which Carpini heard in the camp of the 
 Great Kaan, that in one of the Mongol sieges in Cathay, when the army 
 was without food, one man in ten of their own force was sacrificed to 
 feed the remainder. But we are told in sober history that the force of 
 Tului in Honan, in 1231-2, was' reduced to such straits as to eat grass 
 and human flesh. At the siege of the Kin capital Kaifongfu, in 1233, 
 the besieged were reduced to the like extremity; and the same occurred 
 the same year at the siege of Tsaichau; and in 1262, when the rebel 
 general Litan was besieged in Tsinanfu. The Taiping wars the other 
 day revived the same horrors in all their magnitude. 
 
 Probably however nothing of the kind in history equals what Abdal- 
 latif, a sober and scientific physician, describes as having occurred 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 STORIES OF CANNIBALISM. 
 
 277 
 
 before his own eyes in the great Egyptian famine of A. H. 597 (1200). 
 The horrid details fill a chapter of some length, and we need not quote 
 from them. 
 
 Nor was Christendom without the rumour of such barbarities. The 
 story of King Richard’s banquet in presence of Saladin’s ambassadors, 
 on the head of a Saracen curried (for so it surely was),— 
 
 “ soden full hastily 
 With powder and with spysory, 
 
 And with saffron of good colour,” 
 
 fable as it is, is told with a zest that makes one shudder; but the tale 
 in the Chanson d' Antioche, of how the licentious bands of ragamuffins 
 who hung on to the army of the first crusade, and were known as the 
 Tafurs * ate the Turks whom they killed at the siege, looks very like 
 an abominable truth, corroborated as it is by the prose chronicle ot 
 worse deeds at the ensuing siege of Marra 
 
 “A lor cotiaus qu’il ont tranchans et afiles 
 Escorchoient les Turcs a val parmi les pres. 
 
 Voiant Paiens les ont par pieces decoupes ; 
 
 En l’iaue et el charbon les ont bien quisines ; 
 
 Volontiers les manjuent, sans pain et dessales.” 
 
 {Della Penna, p. 76; Reinaud, Rel. I. 52 ; Rennie's Peking, II. 244; 
 Ann. de la Pr. de la F. XXIX. 353, XXI. 298; Hayton in Ram. 
 ch. xvii. ; Per. Quat. p. 116; M. Paris , sub. 1243; Mel. Asiat. Acad. 
 St. Petersb. II. 659; Canale in Arch. St or. Ital. VIII.; Bergm. Nomad. 
 Streifereien , I. 14; Carp ini, 638 ; D' Ohsson, II. 30, 43, 52; Wilson's 
 Ever Victorious Army, 74; Abdallatif p. ^67, seqq.; Weber, II. 135; 
 Littre, H. de la Langue Fran$. I. 191; Gesta Tancredi in Thes. Nov. 
 Anecd. III. 172.) 
 
 Note 8. —Bakhshi is generally believed to be a corruption of Bhikshu, 
 the proper Sanscrit term for a religious mendicant, and in particular for 
 the Buddhist devotees of that character. Bakhshi was probably applied 
 to a class only of the Lamas, but among the Turks and Persians it 
 became a generic name for them all. In this sense it is habitually used 
 by Rashiduddin, and thus also in the Ain Akbari: “ The learned 
 among the Persians and Arabians call the priests of this (Buddhist) 
 religion Bukshee, and in Tibbet they are styled Lamas.” 
 
 According to Pallas the word among the modern Mongols is used in 
 the sense of Teacher, and is applied to the oldest and most learned 
 priest of a community, who is the local ecclesiastical chief. Among the 
 Kirghiz Kazzaks again, who profess Mahomedanism, the word also 
 survives, but conveys among them just the idea that Polo seems to have 
 associated with it, that of a mere conjuror or “ medicine-man whilst 
 in Western Turkestan it has come to mean a Bard. 
 
 * Ar. Tapir, a sordid squalid fellow. 
 
278 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 The word Bakhshi has however wandered much further from its 
 original meaning. From its association with persons who could read 
 and write, and who therefore occasionally acted as clerks, it came in 
 Persia to mean a clerk or secretary. In the Petrarchian Vocabulary, 
 published by Klaproth, we find scriba rendered in Comanian , i.e. Turkish 
 of the Crimea, by Bacsi. The transfer of meaning is precisely parallel 
 to that in regard to our Clerk. Under the Mahomedan sovereigns of 
 India, Bakhshi was applied to an officer performing something like the 
 duties of a quartermaster-general; and finally, in our Indian army, it 
 has come to mean a paymaster. In the latter sense, I imagine it has 
 got associated in the popular mind with the Persian bakhshidan , to 
 bestow, and Bakhshish (see a note in Q. B, p. 184 seqq.; Cathay , p. 
 474; Ayeen Akbery , III. 150; Pallas , Samml. II. 126; Lev chine, p. 
 355 ; Klap. Mem. III.; Vdmbery , Sketches , p. 81). 
 
 The sketch from the life, on p. 291, of a wandering Tibetan devotee, 
 whom I met once at Hardwar, may give an idea of the sordid Bacsis 
 spoken of by Polo. 
 
 Note 9 .—This feat is related more briefly by Odoric : “ And jugglers 
 cause cups of gold full of good wine to fly through the air, and to offer 
 themselves to all who list to drink” ( Cathay , p. 143). In the note 
 on that passage I have referred to a somewhat similar story in the Life 
 of Apollonius. “Such feats,” says M. Jaeschke, “ are often mentioned 
 in ancient as well as modern legends of Buddha and other saints; 
 and our Lamas have heard of things very similar performed by con¬ 
 juring Bonpos” (see p. 287). The moving of cups and the like is one 
 of the sorceries ascribed in old legends to Simon Magus : “ He made 
 statues to walk; leapt into the fire without being burnt; flew in the 
 air; made bread of stones; changed his shape; assumed two faces at 
 once ; converted himself into a pillar; caused closed doors to fly open 
 spontaneously; made the vessels in a house seem to move of them¬ 
 selves,” &c. The Jesuit Delrio laments that credulous princes, other¬ 
 wise of pious repute, should have allowed diabolic tricks to be played 
 before them, “ as, for example, things of iron, and silver goblets, or other 
 heavy articles, to be moved by bounds from one end of a table to the 
 other, without the use of a magnet or of any attachment.” The pious 
 prince appears to have been Charles IX., and the conjuror a certain 
 Cesare Maltesio. 
 
 The profession and practice of exorcism and magic in general is 
 greatly more prominent in Lamaism or Tibetan Buddhism than in any 
 other known form of that religion. Indeed, the old form of Lamaism 
 as it existed in our traveller’s day, and till the reforms of Tsongkhapa 
 (1357-1419), and as it is still professed by the Red sect in Tibet, seems 
 to be a kind of compromise between Indian Buddhism and the old indi¬ 
 genous Shamanism. Even the reformed doctrine of the Yellow sect recog¬ 
 nizes an orthodox kind of magic, which is due in great measure to the 
 combination of Sivaism with the Buddhist doctrines, and of which the 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 TIBETAN JUGGLERS. 
 
 279 
 
 institutes are contained in the vast collection of the Jud or Tantras, 
 recognized among the holy books. The magic arts of this code open 
 even a short road to the Buddhahood itself. To attain that perfection 
 of power and wisdom, culminating in the cessation of sensible existence, 
 requires, according to the ordinary paths, a period of three ascinkhyas 
 (or say Uncountable Time x 3), whereas by means of the magic arts of 
 the Tantras it may be reached in the course of three rebirths only, nay, 
 of one! But from the Tantms also can be learned how to acquire 
 miraculous powers for objects entirely selfish and secular, and how to 
 exercise these by means of Dharani or mystic Indian charms. 
 
 Still the orthodox Yellow Lamas professedly repudiate and despise 
 the grosser exhibitions of common magic and charlatanism which the 
 Reds still practise, such as knife-swallowing, blowing-fire, cutting off 
 their own heads, &c. But as the vulgar will not dispense with these 
 marvels, every great orthodox monastery in Tibet keeps a co?tjuror who 
 is a member of the unreformed, and does not belong to the brotherhood 
 of the convent, but lives in a particular part of it, bearing the name of 
 Choichong, ; or protector of religion, and is allowed to marry. The magic 
 of these Choichong is in theory and practice different from the orthodox 
 Tantrist magic. The practitioners possess no literature, and hand down 
 their mysteries only by tradition. Their fantastic equipments, their 
 frantic bearing, and their cries and howls, seem to identify them with 
 the grossest Shamanist devil dancers. 
 
 Sanang Setzen enumerates a variety of the wonderful acts which 
 could be performed through the Dharani. Such were, sticking a peg 
 into solid rock; restoring the dead to life ; turning a dead body into 
 gold ; penetrating everywhere as air does ; flying; catching wild beasts 
 with the hand; reading thoughts ; making water flow backwards ; eating 
 tiles ; sitting in the air with the legs doubled under, &c. Some of these 
 are precisely the powers ascribed to Medea, Empedocles, and Simon 
 Magus, in passages already cited. Friar Ricold says on this subject: 
 “ There are certain men whom the Tartars honour above all in the 
 world, viz., the Baxitae (,i.e . Bakhshis ), who are a kind of idol-priests. 
 These are men from India, persons of deep wisdom, well-conducted, 
 and of the gravest morals. They are usually acquainted with magic 
 arts, and depend on the counsel and aid of demons; they exhibit many 
 illusions, and predict some future events. For instance, one of eminence 
 among them was said to fly ; the truth, however, was (as it proved), that 
 he did not fly, but did walk close to the surface of the ground without 
 touching it; and would seem to sit down without having any substance to 
 support him? This last performance was witnessed by Ibn Batuta at 
 Dehli, in the presence of Sultan Mahomed Tughlak; and it was pro¬ 
 fessedly exhibited by a Brahmin at Madras in the present century. It 
 is also described by the worthy Francis Yalentyn, as a performance 
 known and practised in his own day in India. It is related, he says, 
 that “ a man will first go and sit on three sticks put together so as to 
 
28 o 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 form a tripod ; after which, first one stick, then a second, then the third 
 shall be removed from under him, and the man shall not fall but shall still 
 remain sitting in the air ! Yet I have spoken with two friends who had 
 seen this at one and the same time ; and one of them, I may add, mis¬ 
 trusting his own eyes, had taken the trouble to feel about with a long 
 stick if there were nothing on which the body rested; yet, as the gentle¬ 
 man told me, he could neither feel nor see any such thing. Still, I could 
 only say that I could not believe it, as a thing too manifestly contrary 
 to reason.” 
 
 Akin to these performances, though exhibited by professed jugglers 
 without claim to religious character, is a class of feats which might be 
 regarded as simply inventions if told by one author only, but which 
 seem to deserve prominent notice from their being recounted by a 
 series of authors, certainly independent of one another, and writing at 
 long intervals of time and place. Our first witness is Ibn Batuta, and it 
 will be necessary to quote him as well as the others in full, in order 
 to show how closely their evidence tallies. The Arab Traveller was 
 present at a great entertainment at the court of the Viceroy of Khansa 
 (Kinsay of Polo, or Hangchaufu) : 44 That same night a juggler, who 
 was one of the Kan’s slaves, made his appearance, and the Amir said 
 to him, 4 Come and show us some of your marvels.’ Upon this he 
 took a wooden ball, with several holes in it through which long thongs 
 were passed, and (laying hold of one of these) slung it into the air. It 
 went so high that we lost sight of it altogether. (It was the hottest 
 season of the year, and we were outside in the middle of the palace 
 court). There now remained only a little of the end of a thong in the 
 conjuror’s hand, and he desired one of the boys who assisted him to lay 
 hold of it and mount. He did so, climbing by the thong, and we lost 
 sight of him also ! The conjuror then called to him three times, but 
 getting no answer he snatched up a knife as if in a great rage, laid hold 
 of the thong, and disappeared also ! By and bye he threw down one of 
 the boy’s hands, then a foot, then the other hand, and then the other 
 foot, then the trunk, and last of all the head ! Then he came down 
 himself, all puffing and panting, and with his clothes all bloody kissed 
 the ground before the Amir, and said something to him in Chinese. The 
 Amir gave some order in reply, and our friend then took the lad’s limbs, 
 laid them together in their places, and gave a kick, when, presto ! there 
 was the boy who got up and stood before us ! All this astonished me 
 beyond measure, and I had an attack of palpitation like that which 
 overcame me once before in the presence of the Sultan of India, when 
 he showed me something of the same kind. They gave me a cordial, 
 however, which cured the attack. The Kazi Afkharuddin was next to 
 me, and quoth he, 4 Wallah / ’tis my opinion there has been neither 
 going up nor coming down, neither marring nor mending; ’tis all hocus 
 pocus !’ ” 
 
 Now let us compare with this, which Ibn Batuta the Moor says he 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 TIBETAN AND CHINESE JUGGLERS. 
 
 281 
 
 saw in China about the year 1348, the account which is given us by 
 Edward Melton, an Anglo-Dutch traveller, of the performances of a 
 Chinese gang of conjurors, which he witnessed at Batavia about the 
 year 1670 (I have forgotten to note the year). After describing very 
 vividly the basket-murder trick, which is well known in India, and now 
 also in Europe, and some feats of bamboo balancing similar to those 
 which were recently shown by Japanese performers in England, only 
 more wonderful, he proceeds : “ But now I am going to relate a thing 
 
 which surpasses all belief, and which I should scarcely venture to insert 
 here had it not been witnessed by thousands before my own eyes. One 
 of the same gang took a ball of cord, and grasping one end of the cord 
 in his hand slung the other up into the air with such force that its 
 extremity was beyond reach of our sight. He then immediately climbed 
 up the cord with indescribable swiftness, and got so high that we could 
 no longer see him. I stood full of astonishment, not conceiving what 
 was to come of this ; when lo ! a leg came tumbling down out of the 
 
282 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 air. One of the conjuring company instantly snatched it up and threw 
 it into the basket whereof I have formerly spoken. A moment later 
 a hand came down, and immediately on that another leg. And in short 
 all the members of the body came thus successively tumbling from the 
 air and were cast together into the basket. The last fragment of all 
 that we saw tumble down was the head, and no sooner had that touched 
 the ground than he who 4 had snatched up all the limbs and put them 
 in the basket turned them all out again topsy turvy. Then straightway 
 we saw with these eyes all those limbs creep together again, and in short 
 form a whole man, who at once could stand and go just as before, 
 without showing the least damage! Never in my life was I so asto¬ 
 nished as when I beheld this wonderful performance, and I doubted now 
 no longer that these misguided men did it by the help of the Devil. For 
 it seems to me totally impossible that such things should be accomplished 
 by natural means.” The same performance is spoken of by Yalentyn, 
 in a passage also containing curious notices of the basket-murder 
 trick, the mango trick, the sitting in the air (quoted above), and others : 
 but he refers to Melton, and I am not sure whether he had any other 
 authority for it. The cut on previous page is taken from Melton’s plate. 
 
 Again we have in the Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangir a detail of 
 the wonderful performances of seven jugglers from Bengal who exhibited 
 before him. Two of their feats are thus described : “ Ninth. They pro¬ 
 duced a man whom they divided limb from limb, actually severing his 
 head from the body. They scattered these mutilated members along 
 the ground, and in this state they lay for some time. They then ex¬ 
 tended a sheet or curtain over the spot, and one of the men putting 
 himself under the sheet, in a few minutes came from below, followed by 
 the individual supposed to have been cut into joints, in perfect health 
 and condition, and one might have safely sworn that he had never 
 
 received wound or injury whatever. Twenty-third. They produced 
 
 a chain of 50 cubits in length, and in my presence threw one end of it 
 towards the sky, where it remained as if fastened to something in the air. 
 A dog was then brought forward, and being placed at the lower end of 
 the chain, immediately ran up, and reaching the other end, immediately 
 disappeared in the air. In the same manner a hog, a panther, a lion, 
 and a tiger were successively sent up the chain and all equally dis¬ 
 appeared at the upper end of the chain. At last they took down the 
 chain and put it into a bag, no one ever discovering in what way the 
 different animals were made to vanish into the air in the mysterious 
 manner above described.” 
 
 (Philostratus, Fr. Transl. Bk. III. ch. xxvii.; Mich. Glycas, Ann. II. 
 156, Paris ed.; Delrio, Disquis. Magic, pp. 34, 100; Koeppen, I. 31, 
 II. 82, 114-15, 260, 2b2, 280; Vassilyev , 156; Della Penna, 36; S. 
 Setzen , 43, 353; Per eg. Quat. 117 ; I.B. IV. 39 and 290 seqq.; Asiat. 
 Researches, NYU. 186; Valentyn,Y. 52-54; Edward Meltons, Engelsch 
 Edelmans, Zeldzaame en Gedenkwaardige Zee en Land Reizen , crc., 
 
TIBETAN MONKS —LAMAISM. 
 
 Chap. LXI. 
 
 283 
 
 aangevangen in den Jaare 1660 en geendigd in den Jaare 1677, Amster¬ 
 dam, 1702, p. 468; Mem. of the Emp. Jcihcingueir, pp. 99, 102.) 
 
 Note 10.—There is no exaggeration in this number. Turner speaks 
 of 2500 monks in one Tibetan convent. Hue mentions Chorchi, north 
 of the Great Wall, as containing 2000, and Kunbum, where he and Gabet 
 spent several months, on the borders of Shensi and Tibet, had nearly 
 4000. The missionary itinerary from Nepal to L’hasa given by Giorgi, 
 speaks of a group of convents at a place called Brephung, which 
 formerly contained 10,000 inmates, and at the time of the journey (about 
 1700) still contained 5000, including attendants. Dr. Campbell gives 
 a list of twelve chief convents in L’hasa and its vicinity (not including 
 the Potala or Residence of the Grand Lama), of which one is said to 
 have 7500 members, resident and itinerary. Captain Montgomerie’s 
 Pandit gives the same convent 7700 Lamas. In the great monastery 
 at L’hasa called Labratig , they show a copper kettle holding more than 
 100 buckets, which was used to make tea for the Lamas who performed 
 the daily temple service. The monasteries are usually, as the text says, 
 like small towns, clustered round the great temples. That represented 
 at p. 199 is at Jehol, and is an. imitation of the Potala at L’hasa. ( Hue's 
 Tartary , &*c. p. 45, 208, &c.; Alph. Tibetan , 453; J. A. S. B. XXIV. 
 219 ; / R. G. S. XXXVIII. 168 ; Koeppen, , II. 338.) 
 
 Note 11.—There were many anomalies in the older Lamaism, and 
 it permitted, at least in some sects of it which still subsist, the marriage 
 of the clergy under certain limitations and conditions. One of Giorgi’s 
 missionaries speaks of a Lama of high hereditary rank as a spiritual 
 prince who marries, but separates from his wife as soon as he has a son 
 who after certain trials is deemed worthy to be his successor. One Oi 
 the “ reforms ” of Tsongkhapa was the absolute prohibition of marriage 
 to the clergy, and in this he followed the institutes of the oldest 
 Buddhism. Even the red lamas , or unreformed, cannot now marry 
 without a dispensation. 
 
 But even the oldest orthodox Buddhism had its Lay-brethren and 
 Lay-sisters ( Upasaka and Upasika ), and these are to be found in Tibet 
 and Mongolia (Bones au bla?ic, as it were). They are called by the 
 Mongols in a corrupt form of the Sanscrit Ubashi and Ubashanza. 
 Their vows extend to the strict keeping of the five great commandments 
 of the Buddhist Law, and they diligently ply the rosary and the prayer- 
 wheel, but they are not pledged to celibacy, nor do they adopt the 
 tonsure. As a sign of their amphibious position, they commonly wear 
 a red or yellow girdle. These are what some travellers speak of as the 
 lowest order of Lamas, permitted to marry ; and Polo may have re¬ 
 garded them in the same light. 
 
 (Koeppen, II. 82, 113, 276, 291 ; Timk. II. 354; Erman, II. 304; 
 Alph. Tibet , 449.) 
 
 Note 12.—Marco’s contempt for Patarins slips out in a later passage 
 
28 4 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Monastery of Lamas. 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 ASCETICS CALLED SENSIN. 
 
 285 
 
 (Book III. ch. xx.). The name originated in the eleventh century in 
 Lombardy, where it came to be applied to the “ heretics,” otherwise 
 called “ Cathari.” Muratori has much on the origin of the name 
 Patarini, and mentions a monument, which still exists, in the Piazza 
 de’ Mercanti at Milan, in honour of Oldrado, Podesta of that city in 
 1233, and which thus, with more pith than grammar, celebrates his 
 meritorious acts :— 
 
 “ Qui solium struxit Catharos ut debuit uxit.” 
 
 Other cities were as piously Catholic. A Mantuan chronicler records 
 under 1276: “ Captum fuit Sermionum seu redditum fuit Ecclesiae, et 
 capti fuerunt cercha cl Patarini contra fidem, inter masculos et feminas ; 
 qui omnes ducti fuerunt Veronam, et ibi incarcerati, et pro magna parte 
 combusti.” (Murat. Dissert. III. 238; Archiv. Stor. Ital. N. S. I. 49.) 
 
 Note 13.—Marsden, followed by Pauthier, supposes these unorthodox 
 ascetics to be Hindu Sanyasis, and the latter editor supposes even the 
 name Sensi or Sensin to represent that denomination. Such wanderers 
 do occasionally find their way to Tartary; Gerbillon mentions having 
 encountered five of them at Kuku Khotan (supra, p. 252), and I think 
 John Bell speaks of meeting one still further north. But what is said 
 of the great and numerous idols of the Sensin is inconsistent with such 
 a notion, as is indeed, it seems to me, the whole scope of the passage. 
 Evidently no occasional vagabonds from a far country, but some indi¬ 
 genous sectaries, are in question. Nor would bran and hot water be a 
 Hindu regimen. The staple diet of the Tibetans is Chamba , the meal of 
 toasted barley, mixed sometimes with warm water, but more frequently 
 with hot tea, and I think it is probable that these were the elements of 
 the ascetic diet rather than the mere bra?i which Polo speaks of. 
 Semedo indeed says that some of the Buddhist devotees professed 
 never to take any food but tea ; knowing people said they mixed with 
 it pellets of sun-dried beef. The determination of the sect intended in 
 the text is, I conceive, to be sought in the history of Chinese or Tibetan 
 Buddhism and their rivals. 
 
 Both Baldello and Neumann have indicated a general opinion that 
 the Taosse or some branch of that sect is meant, but they have entered 
 into no particulars, except in a reference by the former to Shien-sien, 
 a title of perfection affected by that sect, as the origin of Polo’s term 
 Sensin. In the substance of this I think they are right. But I believe 
 that in the text this Chinese sect are, rightly or wrongly, identified with 
 the ancient Tibetan sect of Bonpo , and that part of the characters 
 assigned belong to each. 
 
 First with regard to the Taosse. These were eminently the Patarini 
 of the Buddhists in China at this time, and Polo was probably aware of 
 the persecution which the latter had stirred up Kublai to direct against 
 them in 1281—persecution at least it is called, though it was but a 
 mild proceeding in comparison with the thing simultaneously practised 
 
286 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 in Christian Lombardy, for in heathen Cathay books and not human 
 creatures were the subjects doomed to burn, and even that doom was 
 not carried out. 
 
 The term which Polo writes as Sensin appears to have been that 
 popularly applied to the Taosse sect at the Mongol Court. Thus we are 
 told by Rashiduddm in his History of Cathay: “ In the reign of Din- 
 Wang, the 20th king of this (the nth) dynasty, Tai Shang Lai Kun 
 was born. This person is stated to have been accounted a prophet by 
 the people of Khita ; his father’s name was Han ; like Shak-muni he is 
 said to have been conceived by light, and it is related that his mother 
 bore him in her womb no less a period than 80 years. The people who 
 embraced his doctrine were called ^ ^ (Shan-shdn or Shinshin)” 
 This is a correct epitome of the Chinese story of Laokiun or Lao-tse, 
 born in the reign of Ting Wang of the Cheu dynasty. The whole title 
 used by Rashiduddm, Tai Shang Lao Kiwi , “ The Great Supreme 
 Venerable Ruler,” is that formally applied by the Chinese to this phi¬ 
 losopher. 
 
 Further, in a Mongol inscription of the year 1314 from the depart¬ 
 ment of Singanfu, which has been interpreted and published by Mr. 
 Wylie, the Taosse priests are termed Sens king. 
 
 Seeing then that the very term used by Polo is that applied by both 
 Mongol and Persian authorities of the period to the Taosse, we can 
 have no doubt that the latter are indicated, whether the facts stated 
 about them be correct or not. 
 
 The word Senshing-ud (the Mongol plural) is represented in the 
 Chinese version of Mr. Wylie’s inscription by Sin-sdng ; a conventional 
 title applied to literary men, and this perhaps is sufficient to determine 
 the Chinese word which Sensin represents. I should otherwise have 
 supposed it to be the Shin-sian alluded to by Baldello, and mentioned 
 in the quotations which follow; and indeed it seems highly probable 
 that two terms so much alike should have been confounded by foreigners. 
 Semedo says of the Taosse: “ They pretend that by means of certain 
 exercises and meditations one shall regain his youth, and others shall 
 attain to be Shin-sien , i.e. “ Terrestrial Beati,” in whose state every 
 desire is gratified, whilst they have the power to transport themselves 
 from one place to another, however distant, with speed and facility.” 
 Schott, on the same subject, says : “ By Sian or Shin-sian are under¬ 
 stood in the old Chinese conception, and particularly in that of the 
 Tao-Kiao [or Taosse] sect, persons who withdraw to the hills to lead the 
 life of anchorites, and who have attained, either through their ascetic 
 observances or by the power of charms and elixirs, to the possession 
 of miraculous gifts and of terrestrial immortality.” And M. Pauthier 
 himself, in his translation of the Journey of Khieu, an eminent doctor 
 of this sect, to the camp of the Great Chinghiz, in Turkestan, has re¬ 
 lated how Chinghiz bestowed upon this personage “ a seal with a tiger’s 
 head and a diploma” (surely a lion’s head P'aizafi and Yarligh; see 
 
Chap. LXI. TAOSSE AND BONPO SECTS. 287 
 
 infra , Book II. ch. vii. note 2), “ wherein he was styled Shin-Sien or 
 Divine Anchorite.” 
 
 One class of the Tao priests or devotees does marry, but another 
 class never does. Many of them lead a wandering life, and derive a 
 precarious subsistence from the sale of charms and medical nostrums. 
 They shave the sides of the head, and coil the remaining hair in a tuft 
 on the crown, in the ancient Chinese manner; moreover, says Williams, 
 they “ are recognised by their slate-coloured robes.” On the feast of one 
 of their divinities whose title Williams translates as “ High Emperor of 
 the Sombre Heavens,” they assemble before his temple, “ and having 
 made a great fire, about 15 or 20 feet in diameter, go over it barefoot, 
 preceded by the priests and bearing the gods in their arms. They firmly 
 assert that if they possess a sincere mind they will not be injured by the 
 fire; but both priests and people get miserably burnt on these occa¬ 
 sions.” Escayrac de Lauture says that on those days they leap, dance, 
 and whirl round the fire, striking at the devils with a straight Roman¬ 
 like sword, and sometimes wounding themselves as the priests of Baal 
 and Moloch used to do. 
 
 ( Astley , IV. 671; Morley in J. R. A. S. VI. 24; Semedo , hi, 114; 
 Demailla, IX. 410 ; J. As. ser. 5, tom. viii. 138 ; Schott, iiber den 
 Buddhismus , &c. 71 ; Voyage de Khieou in J. As. ser. 6, tom. ix. 41’; 
 Middle Kingdom , II. 247 ; Doolittle , 192 ; Esc. de Lauture , Mem. sur la 
 Chine , Religion , 87, 102.) 
 
 Let us now turn to the Bon-po. Of this form of religion and its 
 sectaries not much is known, for it is now confined to the eastern and 
 least known part of Tibet. It is, however, believed to be a remnant 
 of the old pre-Buddhistic worship of the powers of nature, though 
 much modified by the Buddhistic worship with which it has so long 
 been in contact Mr. Hodgson also pronounces a collection of 
 drawings of Bonpo divinities, which were made for him by a men¬ 
 dicant friar of the sect from the neighbourhood of Tachindu, to 
 be saturated with Sakta attributes, i.e. with the spirit of the Tantrika 
 worship, a worship which he tersely defines as “a mixture of lust, fero¬ 
 city, and mummery,” and which he believes to have originated in an 
 incorporation with the Indian religions of the rude superstitions of the 
 primitive Turanians. Mr. Hodgson was told that the Bonpo sect still 
 possessed numerous and wealthy Vihars (or abbeys) in Tibet. But 
 from the information of the Catholic missionaries in Eastern Tibet, who 
 have come into closest contact with the sect, it appears to be now in a 
 state of great decadence, “ oppressed by the Lamas of other sects, the 
 Peunbo (Bonpo), think only of shaking off the yoke, and getting deliver¬ 
 ance from the vexations which the smallness of their number forces 
 them to endure.” In June, 1863, apparently from such despairing 
 motives, the Lamas of Tsodam, a Bonpo convent in the vicinity of the 
 mission settlement of Bonga in E. Tibet, invited the Rev. Gabriel 
 Durand to come and instruct them. “ In this temple,” he writes, “ are 
 
288 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 the monstrous idols of the sect of Peunbo, horrid figures, whose fea¬ 
 tures only Satan could have inspired. They are disposed about the 
 enclosure according to their power and their seniority. Above the 
 pagoda is a loft, the nooks of which are crammed with all kinds 
 of diabolical trumpery; little idols of wood or copper, hideous masques 
 of men and animals, superstitious Lama vestments, drums, trumpets 
 of human bones, sacrificial vessels, in short, all the utensils with 
 which the devil’s servants in Tibet honour their master. And what 
 will become of it all ? The Great River, whose waves roll to Martaban 
 (the Lu-kiang or Salwen), is not more than 200 or 300 paces distant. . . . 
 Besides the infernal paintings on the walls, eight or nine monstrous 
 idols, seated at the inner end of the pagoda, were calculated by their 
 size and aspect to inspire awe. In the middle was Tamba-Shi-Rob , the 
 great doctor of the sect of the Peunbo, squatted with his right arm out¬ 
 side his red scarf, and holding in his left the vase of knowledge. . . . 
 On his right hand sat Keumta-Zon-B 0 , ‘ the All-Good ’ . . . with ten 
 hands and three heads, one over the other. . . At his right is Dreuma , 
 the most celebrated goddess of the sect. On the left of Tamba-Shi-Rob 
 was another goddess, whose name they never could tell me. On the 
 left again of this anonymous goddess appeared Tam-pla-mi-ber ... a 
 monstrous dwarf environed by flames, and his head garnished with a 
 diadem of skulls. He trod with one foot on the head of Shakia-tupa 
 \Shakya Thubba , i.e. ‘ the Mighty Shakya,’ the usual Tibetan appella¬ 
 tion of Sakya Buddha himself.] . . . The idols are made of a coarse 
 composition of mud and stalks kneaded together, on which they 
 put first a coat of plaster and then various colours, or even silver or 
 gold. . . . Four oxen would scarcely have been able to draw one of the 
 idolsd Mr. Emilius Schlagintweit, in a paper on the subject of this 
 sect, has explained some of the names used by the missionary. Tamba- 
 Shi-Rob is “ Artanpa ^Shen-rabs,” i.e. the doctrine of Shen-rabs, who is 
 regarded as the founder of the Bon religion. Keun-iu-zon-bo is “ Kun- 
 tu-Azang-po,” “ the All-bestP 
 
 There is an indication in Koeppen’s references that the followers of 
 the Bon doctrine are sometimes called in Tibet Nag-choi , or “ Black 
 Sect,” as the old and the reformed Lamas are called respectively the 
 “ Red ” and the “ Yellow.” If so, it is reasonable to conclude that the 
 first appellation, like the two last, has a reference to the colour of 
 clothing affected by the priesthood. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Jaeschke writes from Lahaul: “There are no Bonpos in 
 our part of the country, and as far as we know there cannot be many of 
 them in the whole of Western Tibet, i.e. in Ladak, Spiti, and all the non- 
 Chinese provinces together; we know,therefore, not much more of*them 
 than has been made known to the European public by different writers 
 on Buddhism in Tibet, and lately collected by Emil de Schlagintweit. . . 
 Whether they can be with certainty identified with the Chinese Taoss'e 
 I cannot decide, as I don’t know if anything like historical evidence 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 ASCETICS CALLED SENSIN. 
 
 289 
 
 about their Chinese origin has been detected anywhere, or if it is merely 
 a conclusion from the similarity of their doctrines and practices. . . . 
 But the Chinese author of the Wei-tsang-tu-Shi , translated by Klaproth, 
 under the title of Description du Tibet (Paris, 1831), renders Bonpo by 
 Taosse. So much seems to be certain that it was the ancient religion of 
 Tibet, before Buddhism penetrated into the country, and that even at 
 later periods it several times gained the ascendancy when the secular 
 power was of a disposition averse to the Lamaitic hierarchy. Another 
 opinion is that the Bon religion was originally a mere fetishism, and 
 related to or identical with Shamanism; this appears to me very pro¬ 
 bable and easy to reconcile with the former supposition, for it may 
 afterwards, on becoming acquainted with the Chinese doctrine of the 
 ‘ Taosse,’ have adorned itself with many of its tenets. . . . With 
 regard to the following particulars, I have got most of my informa¬ 
 tion from our Lama, a native of the neighbourhood of Tashi Lhunpo, 
 whom we consulted about all your questions. The extraordinary 
 asceticism which struck Marco Polo so much is of course not to be 
 understood as being practised by all members of the sect, but exclu¬ 
 sively, or more especially, by the priests. That these never marry, and 
 are consequently more strictly celibatary than many sects of the Lamaitic 
 priesthood, was confirmed by our Lama.” (Mr. Jaeschke then remarks 
 upon the bran to much the same effect as I have done above.) “ The 
 Bonpos are by all Buddhists regarded as heretics. Though they worship 
 idols partly the same, at least in name, with those of the Buddhists . . . 
 their rites seem to be very different. The most conspicuous and most 
 generally known of their customs, futile in itself, but in the eyes of the 
 common people the greatest sign of their sinful heresy, is that they per¬ 
 form the religious ceremony of making a turn round a sacred object in 
 the opposite direction to that prescribed by Buddhism. As to their dress, 
 our Lama said that they had no particular colour of garments, but their 
 priests frequently wore red clothes, as some sects of the Buddhist priest¬ 
 hood do. Mr. Heyde, however, once on a journey in our neighbouring 
 county of Langskar, saw a man clothed in black with blue borders , who 
 the people said was a Bonpo.” 
 
 The identity of the Bonpo and Taosse seems to have been accepted 
 by Csoma de Koros, who identifies the Chinese founder of the latter, 
 Laotseu, with the Shen-rabs of the Tibetan Bonpos. Klaproth also 
 says, “ Bhonbp’o, Bhanpo, and Shen , are the names by which are com¬ 
 monly designated (in Tibetan) the Taoszu, or follower of the Chinese 
 philosopher Laotseu.”* Schlagintweit refers to Schmidt’s Tibetan 
 Grammar (p. 209) and to the Calcutta edition of the Fo-koue-ki (p. 218) 
 for the like identification, but I do not know how far any two of these 
 are independent testimonies. General Cunningham, however, fully 
 
 * Sheri, or, coupled with jin “people,” Shenjin, in this sense affords another possible 
 origin of the word Sensin; but it may in fact be at bottom, as regards the first 
 syllable, the same with the etymology we have preferred. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book I. 
 
 accepts the identity, and writes to me : “ Fahian (ch. xxiii.) calls the 
 heretics who assembled at Ramagrama Taossk.'* thus identifying them 
 with the Chinese Finitimists. The Taosse are, therefore, the same as 
 the Swastikas, or worshippers of the mystic cross Swasti , who are also 
 Tirthakaras , or “ Pure-doers.” The synonymous word Punya is pro¬ 
 bably the origin of Port or Bon , the Tibetan Finitimists. From the 
 same word comes the Burmese P'ungyi or PungiP I may add that the 
 Chinese envoy to Cambodia in 1296, whose narrative Remusat has 
 translated, describes a sect which he encountered there, apparently 
 Brahminical, as Taosse. And even if the Bonpo and the Taosse were 
 not fundamentally identical, it is extremely probable that the Tibetan 
 and Mongol Buddhists should have applied to them one name and 
 character. Each played towards them the same part in Tibet and in 
 China respectively; both were heretic sects and hated rivals; both 
 made high pretensions to asceticism and supernatural powers; both, I 
 think we see reason to believe, affected the dark clothing which Polo 
 assigns to the Sensin; both, we may add, had “ great idols and plenty 
 of them.” We have seen in the account of the Taosse the ground that 
 certain of their ceremonies afford for the allegation that they “ sometimes 
 also worship fire,” whilst the whole account of that rite and of others 
 mentioned by Duhalde,t shows what a powerful element of the old 
 devil-dancing Shamanism there is in their practice. The French mis¬ 
 sionary on the other hand shows us what a prominent place female 
 divinities occupied in the Bon-po Pantheon, though we cannot say of 
 either sect that “ their idols are all feminine.A strong symptom of 
 relation between the two religions, by the way, occurs in M. Durand’s 
 account of the Bon Temple. We see there that Shen-rabs , the great 
 doctor of the sect, occupies a chief and central place among the idols. 
 Now in the Chinese temples of the Taosse the figure of their Doctor 
 Laotseu is one member of the triad called the “ Three Pure Ones,” 
 which constitute the chief objects of worship. This very title recalls 
 General Cunningham’s etymology of Bonpo. 
 
 (. Hodgson in J. R. A. S. XVIII. 396 seqq.; Ann. de la Prop, de la 
 Foi , XXXVII. 301-2, 424-27; E. Schlagintweit , Ueber die B on-pa Sekte 
 in Tibet , in the Sitzensberichte of the Munich Acad, for 1866, Heft I., 
 pp. j-12 ; Koeppen , II. 260 ; Ladak , p. 358 ; J. As. ser. 2, tom. i. 
 411-12 ; Remusat , Nouv. Mel. Asiat. I. 112; Astley, IV. 205; Doo¬ 
 little , 191.) 
 
 * I do not find this allusion in Mr. Beal’s new version of Fahian, and the older one 
 I cannot refer to. 
 
 f Apparently they had at their command the whole encyclopaedia of modern “ Spi¬ 
 ritualists.” Duhalde mentions among their sorceries the art of producing by their 
 invocations the figures of the Laotseu and their divinities in the air, and of making a 
 pencil to write answers to questions without anybody touching it. 
 
 J It is possible that this may point to some report of the mystic impurities of 
 the Tantrists. The Saktidn , or Tantrists, according to the Dabistan, hold that the 
 worship of a female divinity affords a greater recompense (II. 155). 
 
Chap. LXI. 
 
 TIBETAN BACSI. 
 
 291 
 
 Note 14. —Pauthier’s text has blons , no doubt an error for blous. In 
 the G. Text it is bloies. Pauthier interprets the latter term as “ blond 
 ardent,” whilst the glossary to the G. Text explains it as both blue and 
 white . Raynouard’s Romance Did. explains Bloi as “ Blond.” Ramusio 
 has biave, , and I have no doubt that blue is the meaning. The same 
 word (bloie) is used in the G. T., where Polo speaks of the bright colours 
 of the Palace tiles at Cambaluc, and where Pauthier’s text has “ vermeil 
 et jaune et vert et blou,” and again (infra, Book II. ch. xix.) where the 
 two corps of huntsmen are said to be clad respectively in vermeil and in 
 bloie. Here, again, Pauthier’s text has bleu. The Crusca in the descrip¬ 
 tion of the Sensin omits the colours altogether; in the two other passages 
 referred to it has bioda , biodo. 
 
 Tibetan Bacsi. 
 
 U 2 
 
BOOK SECOND. 
 
 (i.) ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT KAAN CUBLAY; 
 OF HIS PALACES AND CAPITAL; HIS COURT, 
 GOVERNMENT, AND SPORTS. 
 
 (2.) CITIES AND PROVINCES VISITED BY THE 
 TRAVELLER ON ONE JOURNEY WESTWARD 
 FROM THE CAPITAL TO THE FRONTIERS OF 
 MIEN IN THE DIRECTION OF INDIA. 
 
 (3.) AND ON ANOTHER SOUTHWARD FROM THE 
 CAPITAL TO FUCHU AND ZAYTON. 
 

 
 ..0 C 
 
 ' 
 
 > 
 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 Part I.—THE KAAN, HIS COURT AND CAPITAL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of Cublay Kaan, the Great Kaan now Reigning, and of his 
 great Puissance. 
 
 Now am I come to that part of our Book in which I shall 
 tell you of the great and wonderful magnificence of the 
 Great Kaan now reigning, by name Cublay Kaan ; Kaan 
 being a title which signifieth “ The Great Lord of Lords,” 
 or Emperor. And of a surety he hath good right to such 
 a title, for all men know for a certain truth that he is the 
 most potent man, as regards forces and lands and treasure, 
 that existeth in the world, or ever hath existed from the 
 time of our First Father Adam until this day. All this 
 I will make clear to you for truth, in this book of ours, 
 so that every one shall be fain to acknowledge that he is 
 the greatest Lord that is now in the world, or ever hath 
 been. And now ye shall hear how and wherefore . 1 
 
 Note 1. —According to Sanang Setzen, Chinghiz himself discerned 
 young Kublai’s superiority. On his deathbed he said : “ The words of 
 the lad Kublai are well worth attention; see, all of you, that ye heed 
 what he says ! One day he will sit in my seat and bring you good 
 fortune such as you have had in my day ! ” (p. 105). 
 
 The Persian history of Wassaf thus exalts Kublai: “Although from 
 the frontiers of this country (’Irak) to the Centre of Empire, the Focus 
 of the Universe, the genial abode of the Ever-Fortunate Emperor and 
 Just Kaan, is a whole year’s journey, yet the stories that have been 
 spread abroad, even in these parts, of his glorious deeds, his institutes, 
 his decisions, his justice, the largeness and acuteness of his intellect, his 
 
296 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II 
 
 correctness of judgment, his great powers of administration, from the 
 mouths of credible witnesses, of well-known merchants and eminent 
 travellers, are so surpassing, that one beam of his glories, one fraction of 
 his great qualities, suffices to eclipse all that history tells of the Caesars 
 of Rome, of the Chosroes of Persia, of the Khagans of China, of the 
 (Himyarite) Kails of Arabia, of the Tobbas of Yemen, and the Rajas of 
 India, of the monarchs of the houses of Sassan and Buya, and of the 
 Seljukian Sultans.” (. Hammer's Wassaf, orig. p. 37.) 
 
 Some remarks on Kublai and his government by a Chinese author, 
 in a more rational and discriminative tone, will be found below under 
 chapter xxiii., note 2. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the Revolt of Nayan, who was Uncle to the Great 
 
 Kaan Cublay. 
 
 Now this Cublay Kaan is of the right Imperial lineage, 
 being descended from Chinghis Kaan, the first sovereign 
 of all the Tartars. And he is the sixth Lord in that suc¬ 
 cession, as I have already told you in this book. He came 
 to the throne in the year of Christ 1256, and the Empire 
 fell to him because of his ability and valour and great 
 worth, as was right and reason. 1 His brothers, indeed, and 
 other kinsmen disputed his claim, but his it remained, 
 both because maintained by his great valour, and because it 
 was in law and right his, as being directly sprung of the 
 Imperial line. 
 
 Up to the year of Christ now running, to wit 1298, he 
 hath reigned two and forty years, and his age is about 
 eighty-five, so that he must have been about forty-three 
 years of age when he first came to the throne. 2 Before 
 that time he had often been to the wars, and had shown 
 himself a gallant soldier and an excellent captain. But 
 after coming to the throne he never went to the wars in 
 person save onced This befel in the year of Christ 1286, 
 and I will tell you why he went. 
 
 There was a great Tartar Chief^ whose name was Nayan, 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 THE REVOLT OF NAYAN. 
 
 29; 
 
 a young man [of thirty], Lord over many lands and many 
 provinces ; and he was Uncle to the Emperor Cublay Kaan 
 of whom we are speaking. And when he found himself in 
 authority this Nayan waxed proud in the insolence of his 
 youth and his great power; for indeed he could bring into 
 the field 300,000 horsemen, though all the time he was 
 liegeman to his nephew the Great Kaan Cublay as was right 
 and reason. Seeing then what great power he had, he 
 took it into his head that he would be the Great Kaan’s 
 vassal no longer; nay more, he would fain wrest his empire 
 from him if he could. So this Nayan sent envoys to 
 another Tartar Prince called Caidu, also a great and potent 
 Lord, who was a kinsman of his, and who was a nephew of 
 the Great Kaan and his lawful liegeman also, though he 
 was in rebellion and at bitter enmity with his Sovereign 
 Lord and Uncle. Now the message that Nayan sent was 
 this : That he himself was making ready to march against 
 the Great Kaan with all his forces (which were great), and 
 he begged Caidu to do likewise from his side, so that by at¬ 
 tacking Cublay on two sides at once with such great forces 
 they would be able to wrest his dominion from him. 
 
 And when Caidu heard the message of Nayan, he was 
 right glad thereat, and thought the time was come at last 
 to gain his object. So he sent back answer that he would 
 do as requested; and got ready his host, which mustered 
 a good hundred thousand horsemen. 
 
 Now let us go back to the Great Kaan, who had news 
 of all this plot. 
 
 Note 1 . — There is no doubt that Kublai was proclaimed Kaan in 
 1260 (4th month), his brother Mangu Kaan having perished during the 
 siege of Hochau in Ssechuen in August of the preceding year. But 
 Kublai had come into Cathay some years before as his brother’s 
 Lieutenant. 
 
 He was the fifth , not sixth, Supreme Kaan, as we have already 
 noticed (Book I. ch. li. note 2 ). 
 
 Note 2 .—Kublai was born in the eighth month of the year corre¬ 
 sponding to 1216. He was the fourth son of Tuli, who was the youngest 
 
298 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 of Chinghiz’s four sons by his favourite wife Burte Fujin (see Demailla , 
 IX. 255, &c.). 
 
 Note 3 .—This is not literally true ; for soon after his accession (in 
 1261) Kublai led an army against his brother and rival Arikbuga, and 
 defeated him. And again in his old age, if we credit the Chinese 
 annalist, in 1289, when his grandson Kanmala was beaten on the 
 northern frontier by Kaidu, Kublai took the field himself, though on his 
 approach the rebels disappeared. 
 
 Kublai and his brother Hulaku, young as they were, commenced 
 their military career on Chinghiz’s last expedition (1226-27). His most 
 notable campaign was the conquest of Yunnan in 1253-54. ( Demailla , 
 
 IX. 298, 441.) 
 
 Note 4 . —Nayan was no “uncle” of Kublai’s, but a cousin in a 
 junior generation. For Kublai was the grandson of Chinghiz, and Nayan 
 was the great-great-grandson of Chinghiz’s brother Uchegin, called in the 
 Chinese annals Pilgutai. On this brother, the great-uncle of Kublai, and 
 the commander of the latter’s forces against Arigbuga in the beginning 
 of the reign, both Chinghiz and Kublai had bestowed large territories 
 in Eastern Tartary towards the frontier of Corea, and north of Leaotong 
 towards the Manchu country. Nayan had added to his inherited terri¬ 
 tory, and become very powerful. Kaidu had gained influence over 
 Nayan, and persuaded him to rise against Kublai. A number of the 
 other Mongol princes took part with him. Kublai was much disquieted 
 at the rumours, and sent his great lieutenant Bayan to reconnoitre. 
 Bayan was nearly captured, but escaped to court and reported to his 
 master the great armament that Nayan was preparing. Kublai suc¬ 
 ceeded by diplomacy in detaching some of the princes from the enter¬ 
 prise, and resolved to march in person to the scene of action, whilst 
 despatching Bayan to the Karakorum frontier to intercept Kaidu. This 
 was in the summer of 1287. What followed will be found in a sub¬ 
 sequent note (chap. iv. note 6). For Nayan’s descent, see the Genealo¬ 
 gical Table appended to the Introduction. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 How the Great Kaan marched against Nayan. 
 
 When the Great Kaan heard what was afoot, he made his 
 preparations in right good heart, like one who feared not 
 the issue of an attempt so contrary to justice. Confident 
 in his own conduct and prowess, he was in no degree dis¬ 
 turbed, but vowed that he would never wear crown again if 
 
Chap. III. THE KAAN MARCHES AGAINST NAYAN. 
 
 299 
 
 he brought not those two traitorous and disloyal Tartar 
 chiefs to an ill end. So swiftly and secretly were his pre¬ 
 parations made that no one knew of them but his Privy 
 Council, and all were completed within ten or twelve days. 
 In that time he had assembled good 360,000 horsemen and 
 100,000 footmen,—but a small force indeed for him, and 
 consisting only of those that were in the vicinity. For the 
 rest of his vast and innumerable troops were too far off to 
 answer so hasty a summons, being engaged under orders 
 from him on distant expeditions to conquer divers countries 
 and provinces. If he had waited to summon all his forces, 
 the multitude assembled would have been beyond all belief, 
 a multitude such as never was heard of or told of, past all 
 counting ! In fact, those 360,000 horsemen that he got 
 together consisted merely of the falconers and whippers-in 
 that were about the court! 1 
 
 And when he had got ready this handful (as it were) of 
 his troops, he ordered his astrologers to declare whether he 
 should gain the battle and get the better of his enemies. 
 After they had made their observations, they told him to 
 go on boldly, for he would conquer and gain a glorious 
 victory : whereat he greatly rejoiced. 
 
 So he marched with his army, and after advancing for 
 20 days they arrived at a great plain where Nayan lay with 
 all his host, amounting to some 400,000 horse. Now the 
 Great Kaan’s forces arrived so fast and so suddenly that 
 the others knew nothing of the matter. For the Kaan 
 had caused such strict watch to be made in every direction 
 for scouts that every one that appeared was instantly cap¬ 
 tured. Thus Nayan had no warning of his coming and 
 was completely taken by surprise; insomuch that when the 
 Great Kaan’s army came up, he was asleep in the arms of 
 a wife of his of whom he was extravagantly fond. So thus 
 you see why it was that the Emperor equipped his force 
 with such speed and secresy. 
 
300 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Note 1 .—I am afraid Marco, in his desire to impress on his readers 
 the great power of the Kaan, is here giving the reins to exaggeration on 
 a great scale. 
 
 Ramusio has here the following explanatory addition :—“ You must 
 know that in all the Provinces of Cathay and Mangi, and throughout 
 the Great Kaan’s dominions, there are too many disloyal folk ready to 
 break into rebellion against their Lord, and hence it is needful in every 
 province containing large cities and much population, to maintain gar¬ 
 risons. These are stationed four or five miles from the cities, and the 
 latter are not allowed to have walls or gates by which they might 
 obstruct the entrance of the troops at their pleasure. These garrisons 
 as well as their commanders the Great Kaan causes to be relieved every 
 two years ; and bridled in this way the people are kept quiet, and can 
 make no disturbance. The troops are maintained not only by the pay 
 which the Kaan regularly assigns from the revenues of each province, 
 but also by the vast quantities of cattle which they keep, and by the 
 sale of milk in the cities, which furnishes the means of buying what 
 they require. They are scattered among their different stations, at 
 distances of 30, 40, or 60 days (from the capital); and had Cublay 
 decided to summon but the half of them, the number would have been 
 incredible,” &c. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of the Battle that the Great Kaan fought with Nayan. 
 
 What shall I say about it ? When day had well broken, 
 there was the Kaan with all his host upon a hill overlooking 
 the plain where Nayan lay in his tent, in all security, without 
 the slightest thought of any one coming thither to do him 
 hurt. In fact, this confidence of his was such that he 
 kept no vedettes whether in front or in rear; for he knew 
 nothing of the coming of the Great Kaan, owing to all the 
 approaches having been completely occupied as I told you. 
 Moreover the place was in a remote wilderness, more than 
 thirty marches from the Court, though the Kaan had made 
 the distance in twenty, so eager was he to come to battle 
 with Nayan. 
 
 And what shall I tell you next ? The Kaan was there 
 
Chap. IV. BATTLE BETWEEN THE KAAN AND NAYAN. 30 1 
 
 on the hill, mounted on a great wooden bartizan, 1 which 
 was borne by four well-trained elephants, and over him was 
 hoisted his standard, so high aloft that it could be seen 
 from all sides. His troops were ordered in battles of 
 30,000 men apiece; and a great part of the horsemen had 
 each a foot-soldier armed with a lance set on the crupper 
 behind him (for it was thus that the footmen were disposed 
 of); 2 and the whole plain seemed to be covered with his 
 forces. So it was thus that the Great Kaan’s army was 
 arrayed for battle. 
 
 When Nayan and his people saw what had happened, 
 they were sorely confounded, and rushed in haste to arms. 
 Nevertheless they made them ready in good style and 
 formed their troops in an orderly manner. And when all 
 were in battle array on both sides as I have told you, and 
 nothing remained but to fall to blows, then might you 
 have heard a sound arise of many instruments of various 
 music, and of the voices of the whole of the two hosts 
 loudly singing. For this is a custom of the Tartars that 
 before they join battle they all unite in singing and playing 
 on a certain two-stringed instrument of theirs, a thing right 
 pleasant to hear. And so they continue in their array of 
 battle, singing and playing in this pleasing manner, until 
 the great Naccara of the Prince is heard to sound. As 
 soon as that begins to sound the fight also begins on both 
 sides ; and in no case before the Prince’s Naccara sounds 
 dare any commence fighting. 3 
 
 So then, as they were thus singing and playing, though 
 ordered and ready for battle, the great Naccara of the Great 
 Kaan began to sound. And that of Nayan also began to 
 sound. And thenceforward the din of battle began to be 
 heard loudly from this side and from that. And they 
 rushed to work so doughtily with their bows and their maces, 
 with their lances and swords, and with the arblasts of the 
 footmen, that it was a wondrous sight to see. Now might 
 you behold such flights of arrows from this side and from 
 
302 MARCO POLO. Book II. 
 
 that, that the whole heaven was canopied with them and 
 they fell like rain. Now might you see on this side and 
 on that full many a cavalier and man-at-arms fall slain, 
 insomuch that the whole field seemed covered with them. 
 From this side and from that such cries arose from the 
 crowds of the wounded and dying that had God thundered, 
 you would not have heard Him ! For fierce and furious 
 was the battle, and quarter there was none given. 4 
 
 But why should I make a long story of it? You must 
 know that it was the most parlous and fierce and fearful 
 battle that ever has been fought in our day. Nor have 
 there ever been such forces in the field in actual fight, 
 especially of horsemen, as were then engaged—for, taking 
 both sides, there were not fewer than 760,000 horsemen, a 
 mighty force! and that without reckoning the footmen, 
 who were also very numerous. The battle endured with 
 various fortune on this side and on that from morning 
 till noon. But at the last, by God’s pleasure and the 
 right that was on his side, the Great Kaan had the vic¬ 
 tory, and Nay an lost the battle and was utterly routed. 
 For the army of the Great Kaan performed such feats 
 of arms that Nayan and his host could stand against 
 them no longer, so they turned and fled. But this availed 
 nothing for Nayan ; for he and all the barons with him 
 were taken prisoners, and had to surrender to the Kaan 
 with all their arms. 
 
 Now you must know that Nayan was a baptized Chris¬ 
 tian, and bore the cross on his banner; but this nought 
 availed him, seeing how grievously he had done amiss in 
 rebelling against his Lord. For he was the Great Kaan’s 
 liegeman, 5 and was bound to hold his lands of him like 
 all his ancestors before him. 6 
 
 Note 1 . —1| Une grande bretesche.” Bretesche , Bertisca (whence 
 old English Brattice , and Bartizan ), was a term applied to any boarded 
 structure of defence or attack, but especially to the timber parapets 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 NAKKARAS OR KETTLE-DRUMS. 
 
 303 
 
 and roofs often placed on the top of the flanking-towers in medieval 
 fortifications; and this use quite explains the sort of structure here 
 intended. The term and its derivative Bartizan came later to be 
 applied to projecting gu'erites or watch-towers of masonry. Brattice in 
 English is now applied to a fence round a pit or dangerous machinery. 
 (See Muratori , Dissert. I. 334; Wedgwood's Diet, of Etym. sub v. Brat¬ 
 tice ; Viollet le Due , by Macderniott, p. 40.) 
 
 Note 2 .—This circumstance is mentioned in the extract below from 
 Gaubil. He may have taken it from Polo, as it is not in Pauthier’s 
 Chinese extracts; but Gaubil has other facts not noticed in these. 
 
 Note 3.— The specification of the Tartar instrument of two strings 
 is peculiar to Pauthier’s texts. 
 
 I cannot find that this very striking circumstance of the whole host 
 of Tartars playing and singing in chorus, when ordered for battle and 
 waiting the signal from the boom of the Big Drum, is mentioned by any 
 other author. Hammer states it in his account of Mongol customs, but 
 his reference is only to Polo. 
 
 The Nakkdrah or Nagdrah was a great kettle-drum, formed like a 
 brazen cauldron, tapering to the bottom and covered with buffalo-hide— 
 often 3^ or 4 feet in diameter. The Tartar Nakkarahs were usually, I 
 presume, carried on a camel; but as Kublai had begun to use ele¬ 
 phants, his may have been carried on an elephant, as is sometimes the 
 case in India. Thus, too, P. della Valle describes those of an Indian 
 embassy at Ispahan: “ The Indian ambassador was also accompanied 
 by a variety of warlike instruments of music of strange kinds, and 
 particularly by certain Naccheras of such immense size that each pair 
 had an elephant to carry them, whilst an Indian astride upon the 
 elephant between the two Naccheras played upon them with both 
 hands, dealing strong blows on this one and on that; what a din was 
 
304 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 made by these vast drums, and what a spectacle it was, I leave you to 
 imagine.” 
 
 Joinville also speaks of the Nakkara as the signal for action : “So 
 he was setting his host in array till noon, and then he made those 
 drums of theirs to sound that they call Nacaires , and then they set upon 
 us horse and foot.” The Great Nakkara of the Tartars appears from 
 several Oriental histories to have been called Kurkah. I cannot find 
 this word in any dictionary accessible to me, but it is in the Ain Akbari 
 {.Kawargah ) as distinct from the Nakkarah. Abulfazl tells us that 
 Akbar not only had a rare knowledge of the science of music, but was 
 likewise an excellent performer—especially on the Nakkarah / 
 
 The privilege of employing the Nakkara in personal state was one 
 granted by the sovereign as a high honour and reward. 
 
 The crusades naturalized the word in some form or other in most 
 European languages, but in our own apparently with a transfer of 
 meaning. Wright defines Naker as “a cornet or horn of brass.” And 
 Chaucer’s use seems to countenance this :— 
 
 “ Pipes, Trompes, Nakeres, and Clariounes, 
 
 That in the Bataille blowen blody sounes.” 
 
 •—The Knight's Tale. 
 
 On the other hand, Nacchera, in Italian, seems always to have retained 
 the meaning of kettle-drum , with the slight exception of a local applica¬ 
 tion at Siena to a metal circle or triangle struck with a rod. The fact 
 seems to be that there is a double origin, for the Arabic dictionaries 
 not only have Nakkarah , but Nakir, and Nakur, “ cornu, tuba.” The 
 orchestra of Bibars Bundukdari, we are told, consisted of 40 pairs of 
 kettle-drums, 4 drums, 4 hautbois, and 20 trumpets {Nakir). {Sir B. 
 Frere; Della Valle , II. 21 ; Joinville , p. 83 ; N. et E. XIV. 129, and 
 following note; Blochmann’s Ain-i-Akbari, p. 50-51; Ducange, by 
 Haenschel, s.v. ; Makrizi, I. 173.) 
 
 NakKaras from an Indian original. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 BATTLE-DESCRIPTION. 
 
 305 
 
 Note 4.— This description of a fight will recur again and again till 
 we are very tired of it. It is difficult to say whether the style is 
 borrowed from the historians of the East or the romancers of the West. 
 Compare the two following parallels. First from an Oriental history:— 
 “ The Ear of Heaven was deafened with the din of the great 
 Kurkahs and Drums, and the Earth shook at the clangour of the 
 Trumpets and Clarions. The shafts began to fall like the rain-drops of 
 spring, and blood flowed till the field looked like the Oxus.” (J. A. S. 
 ser. 4, tom. xix. 256.) 
 
 Next from an Occidental Romance :— 
 
 “Now rist grete tabour betyng, 
 
 Blaweyng of pypes, and ek trumpyng, 
 
 Stedes lepyng, and ek arnyng 
 Of sharp speres, and avalyng 
 Of stronge knighttes, and wyghth metyng ; 
 
 Launces breche and increpyng ; 
 
 Knighttes fallyng, stedes lesyng ; 
 
 Herte and hevedes thorough kervyng ; 
 
 Swerdes draweyng, lymes lesyng 
 Hard assaylyng, strong defendyng, 
 
 Stiff withstondyng and wighth fleigheyng. 
 
 Sharp of takyng armes spoylyng ; 
 
 So gret bray, so gret crieyng, 
 
 Ifor the folk there was dyeyng ; 
 
 So muche dent, noise of siveord, 
 
 The thondur blast no myghte beo hirde, 
 
 No the sunne hadde beo seye, 
 
 For the dust of the poudre ! 
 
 No the weolkyn seon be myght, 
 
 So was areaves and quarels flyghtP 
 
 — King Alisaunder, in Weber, I. 93-4. 
 
 And again :—- 
 
 “ The eorthe quaked heom undur, 
 
 No scholde mon have herd the thondur. ” 
 
 — Ib. 142. 
 
 Note 5 .—“ Car il estoit homme au Grant Kaati ” (see note 2 , ch. 
 xiv., in Prologue). 
 
 Note 6.—In continuation of note 4 , chap, ii., we give Gaubil’s 
 conclusion of the story of Nayan : “ The Emperor had gone ahead with 
 a small force, when Nayan’s General came forward with 100,000 men to 
 make a reconnaissance. The Sovereign, however, put on a bold front 
 and though in great danger of being carried off, showed no trepidation. 
 It was night, and an urgent summons went to call troops to the 
 Emperor’s aid. They marched at once, the horsemen taking the foot 
 soldiers on the crupper behind them. Nayan all this while was taking 
 it quietly in his camp, and his generals did not venture to attack the 
 Emperor, suspecting an ambuscade. Liting then took ten resolute 
 men, and on approaching the General’s camp caused a fir e-Pao to 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 X 
 
3 ° 6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 be discharged; the report caused a great panic among Nayan’s troops, 
 who were very ill-disciplined at the best. Meanwhile the Chinese and 
 Tartar troops had all come up, and Nayan was attacked on all sides: 
 by Liting at the head of the Chinese, by Yusitemur at the head of the 
 Mongols, by Tutuha and the Emperor in person at the head of his 
 guards and the troops of Kincha (Kipchak). The presence of the 
 Emperor rendered the army invincible, and Nayan’s forces were com¬ 
 pletely defeated. That prince himself was taken, and afterwards put to 
 death. The battle took place in the vicinity of the river Leao, and the 
 Emperor returned in triumph to Shangtu” (207). The Chinese record 
 given in detail by Pauthier is to the like effect, except as to the Kaan’s 
 narrow escape, of which it says nothing. 
 
 As regards the Fire-Fao (the latter word seems to have been applied 
 to military machines formerly, and now to artillery), I must refer to 
 Fave and Reinaud’s very curious and interesting treatise on the Greek 
 Fire {du Feu Gregeois). They do not seem to assent to the view that 
 the arms of this description which are mentioned in the Mongol wars 
 were cannon, but rather of the nature of rockets. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 How the Great Kaan caused Nayan to be put to Death. 
 
 And when the Great Kaan learned that Nayan was taken 
 right glad was he, and commanded that he should be 
 put to death straightway and in secret, lest endeavours 
 should be made to obtain pity and pardon for him, because 
 he was of the Kaan’s own flesh and blood. And this was 
 the way in which he was put to death: he was wrapt in a 
 carpet, and tossed to and fro so mercilessly that he died. 
 And the Kaan caused him to be put to death in this 
 way because he would not have the blood of his Line 
 Imperial spilt upon the ground or exposed in the eye 
 of Heaven and before the Sun. 1 
 
 And when the Great Kaan had gained this battle, as 
 you have heard, all the Barons and people of Nayan’s 
 provinces renewed their fealty to the Kaan. Now these 
 provinces that had been under the Lordship of Nayan were 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DEFEAT AND DEATH OF NAYAN. 
 
 307 
 
 four in number; to wit, the first called Chorcha ; the 
 second Cauly ; the third Barscol ; the fourth Sikintinju. 
 Of all these four great provinces had Nayan been Lord; it 
 was a very great dominion. 2 
 
 And after the Great Kaan had conquered Nayan, as 
 you have heard, it came to pass that the different kinds of 
 people who were present, Saracens and Idolaters and Jews, 3 
 and many others that believed not in God, did gibe those 
 that were Christians because of the cross that Nayan had 
 borne on his standard, and that so grievously that there 
 was no bearing it. Thus they would say to the Christians: 
 “ See now what precious help this God’s Cross of yours 
 hath rendered Nayan, who was a Christian and a wor¬ 
 shipper thereof.” And such a din arose about the matter 
 that it reached the Great Kaan’s own ears. When it did 
 so, he sharply rebuked those who cast these gibes at the 
 Christians; and he also bade the Christians be of good 
 heart, “ for if the Cross had rendered no help to Nayan, 
 in that It had done right well; nor could that which was 
 good, as It was, have done otherwise; for Nayan was a 
 disloyal and traitorous Rebel against his Lord, and well 
 deserved that which had befallen him. Wherefore the 
 Cross of your God did well in that It gave him no help 
 against the right.” And this he said so loud that everybody 
 heard him. The Christians then replied to the Great 
 Kaan: “ Great King, you say the truth indeed, for our 
 Cross can render no one help in wrong-doing; and there¬ 
 fore it was that It aided not Nayan, who was guilty of 
 crime and disloyalty, for It would take no part in his 
 evil deeds.” 
 
 And so thenceforward no more was heard of the flout- 
 ings of the unbelievers against the Christians; for they 
 heard very well what the Sovereign said to the latter about 
 the Cross on Nayan’s banner, and its giving him no help. 
 
 x 2 
 
308 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Note 1 .—Friar Ricold mentions this Tartar maxim : “ One Khan 
 will put another to death, to get possession of the throne, but he takes 
 great care that the blood be not spilt For they say that it is highly 
 improper that the blood of the Great Khan should be spilt upon the 
 ground ; so they cause the victim to be smothered somehow or other.” 
 The like feeling prevails at the Court of Burma, where a peculiar mode 
 of execution without bloodshed is reserved for Princes of the Blood. 
 And Kaempfer, relating the conspiracy of Faulcon at the Court of 
 Siam, says that two of the king’s brothers, accused of participation, were 
 beaten to death with clubs of sandal-wood, “ for the respect entertained 
 for the blood-royal forbids its being shed.” See also Note 6, Chap, 
 vi. Book I.; on the death of the Khalif Mosta’sim Billah. (Pereg. 
 Quat. p. 115 ; Mission to Ava, p. 229 ; Kaempfer , I. 19.) 
 
 Note 2.—Chorcha is the Manchu country, Nyuche of the Chinese 
 (supra Note 2, Chap. xlvi. Book I.). Kauli is properly Corea, 
 probably here a district on the frontier thereof, as it is improbable that 
 Nayan had any rule over Corea. Barskul, “ Leopard-Lake,” is named 
 in Sanang Setzen (p. 217), but seems there to indicate some place in 
 the west of Mongolia, perhaps the Barkul of our maps. This Barskul 
 must have been on the Manchu frontier. The reading of the fourth 
 name is doubtful, Sichuigiu , Sichingiu , (G. T.) Sichmtingiu, &c. The 
 Chinese name of Mukden is Shinking, but I know not if it be so old as 
 our author’s time. I think it very possible that the real reading is 
 Sinchin-tingin , and that it represents Shangking-Tungking, expressing 
 the two capitals of the Khitan dynasty in this region, the position of 
 which will be found indicated in the map of this part of Polo’s itinerary. 
 (See Schott , Aelteste Nachrichten von Mongolen und. Tartare?i , Berlin Acad. 
 1845, p. n-12.) 
 
 We learn from Gaubil that the rebellion did not end with the 
 capture of Nayan. In the summer of T288 several of the princes of 
 Nayan’s league, under Hatan (apparently the Ahkan of Erdmann’s 
 genealogies), the grandson of Chinghiz’s brother Kajyun, threatened 
 the provinces north-east of the wall. Kublai sent his grandson and 
 designated heir, Teimur, against them, accompanied by some of his best 
 generals. After a two days’ fight on the banks of the river Kweilei, the 
 rebels were completely beaten. The territories on the said river 
 Kweilei , the Tiro or Torro , and the Liao , are mentioned both by 
 Gaubil and Demailla as among those which had belonged to Nayan. 
 As the Kweilei and Toro appear on our maps as well as the better- 
 known Liao, we are thus enabled to determine with tolerable precision 
 Nayan’s country. (See Gaubil , p. 209, and Demailla , 431 seqq.) 
 
 Note 3. —This passage, and the extract from Ramusio’s version 
 attached to the following chapter, contain the only allusions by Marco 
 to Jews in China. John of Monte Corvino alludes to them, and so 
 does Marignolli, who speaks of having held disputations with them at 
 
Chap. VI. RETURN OF THE KAAN TO CAMBALUC. 
 
 309 
 
 Cambaluc; Ibn Batuta also speaks of them at Khansa or Hangchau. 
 Much has been written about the ancient settlement of Jews at Kai- 
 fungfu, in Honan. One of the most interesting papers on the subject is 
 in the Chinese Repository, vol. xx. It gives the translation of a 
 Chinese-Jewish Inscription, which in some respects forms a singular 
 parallel to the celebrated Christian Inscription of Singanfu, though it 
 is of far more modern date (1511). It exhibits, as that inscription does, 
 the effect of Chinese temperament or language, in modifying or diluting 
 doctrinal statements. Here is a passage: “ With respect to the 
 Israelitish religion, we find on enquiry that its first ancestor, Adam, 
 came originally from India, and that during the (period of the) Chau 
 State the Sacred Writings were already in existence. The Sacred 
 Writings, embodying Eternal Reason, consist of 53 sections. The prin¬ 
 ciples therein contained are very abstruse, and the Eternal Reason 
 therein revealed is very mysterious, being treated with the same venera¬ 
 tion as Heaven. The founder of the religion is Abraham, who is 
 considered the first teacher of it. Then came Moses, who established 
 the Law, and handed down the sacred writings. After his time, during 
 the Han dynasty (b.c 200 to a.d. 226), this religion entered China. In 
 a.d. 1164 a synagogue was built at Pien. In a.d. 296 the old Temple 
 was rebuilt, as a place in which the sacred writings might be deposited 
 with veneration.” 
 
 The synagogue at Kaifungfu has recently been demolished for the 
 sake of its materials by the survivors of the Jewish community them¬ 
 selves, who were too poor to repair it. The tablet that once adorned 
 its entrance, bearing in gilt characters the name Eszloyih (Israel), has 
 been appropriated by a mosque. The 300 or 400 survivors seem in 
 danger of absorption into the Mahomedan or heathen population. The 
 last Rabbi and possessor of the sacred tongue died some 30 or 40 years 
 ago, the worship has ceased, and their traditions have almost died away. 
 
 ( Cathay , 225, 341, 497 ; Ch. Rep. XX. 436; Dr. Martin , in J. N. 
 China Br. R.A.S. 1866, p. 32-33.) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 How the Great Kaan went back to the City of Cambaluc. 
 
 And after the Great Kaan had defeated Nay an in the way 
 you have heard, he went back to his capital city of Cam¬ 
 baluc and abode there, taking his ease and making 
 festivity. And the other Tartar Lord called Caydu was 
 greatly troubled when he heard of the defeat and death of 
 
3io 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Nayan, and held himself in readiness for war; but he stood 
 greatly in fear of being handled as Nayan had been. 1 
 
 I told you that the Great Kaan never went on a 
 campaign but once, and it was on this occasion; in all 
 other cases of need he sent his sons or his barons into the 
 field. But this time he would have none go in command 
 but himself, for he regarded the presumptuous rebellion of 
 Nayan as far too serious and perilous an affair to be other¬ 
 wise dealt with. 
 
 Note 1 . — Here Ramusio has a long and curious addition. Kublai, 
 it says, remained at Cambaluc till March, “ in which our Easter occurs; 
 and learning that this was one of our chief festivals, he summoned all 
 the Christians, and bade them bring with them the Book of the Four 
 Gospels. This he caused to be incensed many times with great 
 ceremony, kissing it himself most devoutly, and desiring all the barons 
 and lords who were present to do the same. And he always acts in 
 this fashion at the chief Christian festivals, such as Easter and Christ¬ 
 mas. And he does the like at the chief feasts of the Saracens, Jews, 
 and Idolaters. On being asked why, he said: “ There are Four 
 Prophets worshipped and revered by all the world. The Christians 
 say their God is Jesus Christ; the Saracens, Mahommet; the Jews, 
 Moses; the Idolaters, Sogomon Borcan \Sakya-Muni Burkhan or 
 Buddha], who was the first god among the idols; and I worship and 
 pay respect to all four, and pray that he among them who is greatest 
 in heaven in very truth may aid me.” But the Great Kaan let it be 
 seen well enough that he held the Christian Faith to be the truest and 
 best—for, as he says, it commands nothing that is not perfectly good 
 and holy. But he will not allow the Christians to carry the Cross before 
 them, because on it was scourged and put to death a person so great and 
 exalted as Christ. 
 
 “ Some one may say: ‘ Since he holds the Christian faith to be best, 
 why does he not attach himself to it, and become a Christian?’ Well, 
 this is the reason that he gave to Messer Nicolo and Messer Maffeo, 
 when he sent them as his envoys to the Pope, and when they sometimes 
 took occasion to speak to him about the faith of Christ. He said : 
 
 ‘ How would you have me to become a Christian ? You see that the 
 Christians of these parts are so ignorant that they achieve nothing and 
 can achieve nothing, whilst you see the Idolaters can do anything they 
 please, insomuch that when I sit at table the cups from the middle of 
 the hall come to me full of wine or other liquor without being touched 
 by anybody, and I drink from them. They control storms, causing them 
 to pass in whatever direction they please, and do many other marvels; 
 
Chap. VI. RELIGIOUS TOLERATION OF THE KAANS. 311 
 
 whilst, as you know, their idols speak, and give them predictions on 
 whatever subjects they choose. But if I were to turn to the faith of 
 Christ and become a Christian, then my barons and others who are not 
 converted would say : “ What has moved you to be baptized and to take 
 up the faith of Christ ? What powers or miracles have you witnessed 
 on His part ?” (You know the Idolaters here say that their wonders are 
 performed by the sanctity and powers of their idols.) Well, I should 
 not know what answer to make ; so they would only be confirmed in 
 their errors, and the Idolaters who are adepts in such surprising arts, 
 would easily compass my death. But now you shall go to your Pope, 
 and pray him on my part to send hither an hundred men skilled in your 
 law, who shall be capable of rebuking the practices of the Idolaters to 
 their faces, and of telling them that they too know how to do such 
 things but will not, because they are done by the help of the devil and 
 other evil spirits, and shall so control the Idolaters that these shall have 
 no power to perform such things in their presence. When we shall 
 witness this we will denounce the Idolaters and their religion, and then 
 I will receive baptism; and when I shall have been baptized, then all 
 my barons and chiefs shall be baptized also, and their followers shall do 
 the like, and thus in the end there will be more Christians here than 
 exist in your part of the world !’ 
 
 “ And if the Pope, as was said in the beginning of this book, had 
 sent men fit to preach our religion, the Grand Kaan would have turned 
 Christian; for it is an undoubted fact that he greatly desired to do so.” 
 
 In the simultaneous patronage of different religions Kublai followed 
 the practice of his house. Thus Rubruquis writes of his predecessor 
 Mangu Kaan : “ It is his custom, on such days as his diviners tell him 
 to be festivals, or any of the Nestorian priests declare to be holydays, 
 to hold a court. On these occasions the Christian priests enter first 
 with their paraphernalia, and pray for him, and bless his cup. They 
 retire, and then come the Saracen priests and do likewise; the priests of 
 the Idolaters follow. He all the while believes in none of them, though 
 they all follow his court as flies follow honey. He bestows his gifts on 
 all of them, each party believes itself to be his favourite, and all pro¬ 
 phesy smooth things to him.” Abulfaragius calls Kublai “ a just prince 
 and a wise, who loved Christians and honoured physicians of learning, 
 whatsoever their nation.” 
 
 There is a good deal in Kublai that reminds us of the greatest prince 
 of that other great Mongol house, Akbar. And if we trusted the first 
 impression of the passage just quoted from Ramusio, we might suppose 
 that the grandson of Chinghiz too had some of that real wistful regard 
 towards the Lord Jesus Christ, of which we seem to see traces in the 
 grandson of Baber. But with Kublai, as with his predecessors, religion 
 seems to have been only a political matter; and this aspect of the thing 
 will easily be recognized in a re-perusal of his conversation with Messer 
 Nicolas and Messer Maffeo. The Kaan must be obeyed; how man 
 
312 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 shall worship God is indifferent; this was the constant policy of his 
 house in the days of its greatness. Kublai, as Koeppen observes, the 
 first of his line to raise himself above the natural and systematic bar¬ 
 barism of the Mongols, probably saw in the promotion of Tibetan 
 Buddhism, already spread to some extent among them, the readiest 
 means of civilizing his countrymen. But he may have been quite 
 sincere in saying what is here ascribed to him in this sense, viz. : that 
 if the Latin Church, with its superiority of character and acquirement, 
 had come to his aid as he had once requested, he would gladly have 
 used its missionaries as his civilizing instruments instead of the Lamas 
 and their trumpery. {Ruhr. 313 ; Assemani , III. pt. ii. 107 ; Koeppen , 
 11. 89,96.) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 How the Kaan rewarded the Valour of his Captains. 
 
 So we will have done with this matter of Nay an, and go 
 on with our account of the great state of the Great Kaan. 
 
 We have already told you of his lineage and of his age ; 
 but now I must tell you what he did after his return, in 
 regard to those Barons who had behaved well in the battle. 
 Him who was before captain of 100 he made captain of 
 1000; and him who was captain of 1000 men he made to 
 be captain of 10,000, advancing every man according to 
 his deserts and to his previous rank. Besides that, he also 
 made them presents of fine silver plate and other rich 
 appointments ; gave them Tablets of Authority of a higher 
 degree than they held before; and bestowed upon them 
 fine jewels of gold and silver, and pearls and precious 
 stones; insomuch that the amount that fell to each of them 
 was something astonishing. And yet ’twas not so much 
 as they had deserved ; for never were men seen who did 
 such feats of arms for the love and honour of their Lord, 
 as these had done on that day of the battle. 1 
 
 Now those Tablets of Authority, of which I have spoken, 
 are ordered in this way. The officer who is a captain of 
 
Chap. VII. THE KAAN’S REWARDS TO HIS CAPTAINS. 3*3 
 
 ioo hath a tablet of silver; the captain of 1000 hath a 
 tablet of gold or silver-gilt; the commander of 10,000 
 hath a tablet of gold, with a lion’s head on it. And I will 
 tell you the weight of the different tablets, and what they 
 denote. The tablets of the captains of 100 and 1000 weigh 
 each of them 120 saggi; and the tablet with the lion’s 
 head engraven on it, which is that of the commander of 
 10,000, weighs 220 saggi. And on each of the tablets is 
 inscribed a device, which runs: “ By the strength of the 
 great God ,' and of the great grace ivhich He hath accorded 
 to our Emperor , may the name of the Kaan be blessed; 
 and let all such as will not obey him be slain and be de¬ 
 stroyed. ” And I tell you besides that all who hold these 
 tablets likewise receive warrants in writing, declaring all 
 their powers and privileges. 
 
 I should mention too that an officer who holds the 
 chief command of 100,000 men, or who is general-in-chief 
 of a great host, is entitled to a tablet that weighs 300 saggi. 
 It has an inscription thereon to the same purport that I 
 have told you already, and below the inscription there is 
 the figure of a lion, and below the lion the sun and moon. 
 They have warrants also of their high rank, command, and 
 power. 2 Every one, moreover, who holds a tablet of this 
 exalted degree is entitled, whenever he goes abroad, to have 
 a little golden canopy, such as is called an umbrella, carried 
 on a spear over his head in token of his high command. 
 And whenever he sits, he sits in a silver chair. 3 
 
 To certain very great lords also there is given a tablet 
 with gerfalcons on it; this is only to the very greatest of 
 the Kaan’s barons, and it confers on them his own full 
 power and authority; so that if one of those chiefs wishes 
 to send a messenger any whither, he can seize the horses 
 of any man, be he even a king, and any other chattels at 
 his pleasure. 4 
 
3*4 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Note 1 . —So Sanang Setzen relates that Chinghiz, on returning from 
 one of his great campaigns, busied himself in reorganizing his forces 
 and bestowing rank and title, according to the deserts of each, on his 
 nine Orlok , or marshals, and on all who had done good service. “ He 
 named commandants over hundreds, over thousands, over ten thousands, 
 over hundred thousands, and opened his treasury to the multitude of the 
 people ” (p. 91). 
 
 Note 2.— We have several times already had mention of these 
 tablets (see Prologue, chapters viii. and xviii.). The earliest European 
 allusion to them is in Rubruquis : “ And Mangu gave to the Moghul 
 (whom he was going to send to the King of France) a bull of his, that 
 is to say, a golden plate of a palm in breadth and half a cubit in length, 
 on which his orders were inscribed. Whosoever is the bearer of that 
 may order what he pleases, and his order shall be executed straightway.” 
 
 These golden bulls of the Mongol Kaans appear to have been 
 originally tokens of high favour and honour, though afterwards they 
 became more frequent and conventional. They are often spoken of by 
 the Persian historians of the Mongols under the name of Paizah , and 
 sometimes Paizah Sir-i-S'her,, or “Lion’s Head Paizah.” Thus, in a 
 firman of Ghazan Khan, naming a viceroy to his conquests in Syria, 
 the Khan confers on the latter “ the sword, the august standard, the 
 drum, and the Lion's Head Paizah." Most frequently the grant of this 
 honour is coupled with Yarligh; “ to such an one were granted Yarligh 
 and Paizah ,” the former word (which is still applied in Turkey to the 
 Sultan’s rescripts) denoting the written patent which accompanies the 
 grant of the tablet, just as the sovereign’s warrant accompanies the 
 badge of a modern Order. Of such written patents also Marco speaks 
 in this passage, and as he uttered it no doubt the familiar words Yarligh 
 u Paizah were in his mind. The Armenian history of the Orpelians, 
 relating the visit of Prince Sempad, brother of King Hayton, to the 
 court of Mangu Kaan, says : “ They gave him also a P'haiza of gold, 
 i.e. a tablet whereon the name of God is written by the Great Kaan 
 himself; and this constitutes the greatest honour known among the 
 Mongols. Farther, they drew up for him a sort of patent, which the 
 Mongols call Iarlekh" &c. 
 
 Under the Persian branch of the house at least the degree of honour 
 was indicated by the number of lions’ heads upon 
 the plate, which varied from 1 to 5. The Lion and 
 Sun, a symbol which survives, or has been revived, 
 in the modern Persian decoration so called, formed 
 the emblem of the Sun in Leo, i.e. in highest power. 
 It had already been used on the coins of the Sel- 
 jukian sovereigns of Persia and Iconium; it ap¬ 
 pears on coins of the Mongol Ilkhans Ghazan, 
 Oljaitu, and Abusaid, and it is also found on some 
 of those of Mahomed Uzbek Khan of Kipchak. 
 
 Seljukian Coin with the 
 Lion and Sun. 
 
Chap. VII. 
 
 TABLETS OF AUTHORITY. 
 
 315 
 
 Hammer gives regulations of Ghazan Khan’s on the subject of the 
 Paizah, from which it is seen that the latter were of different kinds as 
 well as degrees. Some were held by great governors and officers of 
 state, and these were cautioned against letting the Paizah out of their 
 own keeping; others were for officers of inferior order; and, again, “ for 
 persons travelling on state commissions with post-horses, particular 
 paizah (which Hammer says were of brass) are appointed, on which 
 their names are inscribed.” These last would seem therefore to be 
 merely such permissions to travel by the Government post-horses as are 
 still required in Russia, perhaps in lineal derivation from Mongol prac¬ 
 tice. The terms of Ghazan’s decree and other contemporary notices 
 show that great abuses were practised with the Paizah, as an authority 
 for living at free quarters and making other arbitrary exactions. 
 
 The word Paizah is said to be Chinese, Pai-tseu, “ a tablet.” A 
 trace of the name and the thing still survives in Mongolia. The horse- 
 Bai is the name applied to a certain ornament on the horse caparison, 
 which gives the rider a title to be furnished with horses and provisions 
 on a journey. 
 
 Where I have used the Venetian term saggio , the French texts have 
 here and elsewhere sales and saies, and sometimes pois. Saic points to 
 saiga , which, according to Duprd de St. Maur, is in the Salic laws the 
 equivalent of a denier or the twelfth part of a sol. Saggio is presumably 
 the same word, but the saggio was a recognized Venetian weight equal 
 to ^ of an ounce. We shall see hereafter that Polo appears to use it 
 to indicate the miskal , a weight which may be taken at 74 grains Troy. 
 On that supposition the smallest tablet specified in the text would weigh 
 18J ozs. Troy. 
 
 I do not know if any gold Paizah has been discovered, but several 
 of silver have been found in the Russian dominions; one near the 
 Dnieper, and two in Eastern Siberia. We give a plate of one of these, 
 which was found in the Minusinsk circle of the Government of Yenisei 
 in 1846, and is now in the Asiatic Museum of the Academy of St. 
 Petersburg. For the sake of better illustration of our text, I have taken 
 the liberty to represent the tablet as of gold, instead of silver with the 
 inscription only gilt. The moulded ring inserted in the orifice, to suspend 
 the plate by, is of iron. On the reverse side the ring bears some 
 Chinese characters engraved, which are interpreted as meaning “ Pub¬ 
 lication No. 42.” The inscription on the plate itself is in the Mongol 
 language and Baspa character (supra, Prologue, note 1 , ch. xv.), and its 
 purport is a remarkable testimony to the exactness of Marco’s account, and 
 almost a proof of his knowledge of the language and character in which 
 the inscriptions were engraved. It runs, according to Schmidt’s version : 
 “ By the strength of the eternal Heaven ! May the name of the Khagan 
 be holy ! Who pays him not reverence is to be slain, and must die ! ” 
 The inscriptions on the other plates discovered were essentially similar 
 in meaning. One was in the Uighur character. 
 
316 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 The superficial dimensions of the Yenisei tablet, as taken from 
 Schmidt’s full-size drawing, are 12*2 in. by 3*65 in. The weight is not 
 given. 
 
 In the French texts nothing is said of the size of the tablets. But 
 Ramusio’s copy, in the Prologue where the tablets given by Kiacatu are 
 mentioned (supra, p. 33), says that they were a cubit in length and 5 
 fingers in breadth, and weighed 3 to 4 marks each, i.e. 24 to 32 ounces. 
 
 (Dupre de St. Maur, Essai sur les Monnoies , &c., 1746, p. viii; also 
 (on saiga) see Pertz, Script. XVII. 357; Rubruq. 312; Gold. Hord. 
 219-20; Ilch. II. 166 seqq., 355-6; D Ohs son, III. 412-13; Q. P. 
 177-180; Ha?n. Was sap,] 154, 176; Makrizi, IV. 158; St. Martin, 
 Mem. sur TArmenie, II. 137, 169; J. As. ser. 5, tom. xvii. 536 seqq.; 
 Schmidt, iiber eine Mongol. Quadratinschrift, &c., Acad. St. P., 1847 i 
 Russian paper by Grigorieff on same subject, 1846.) 
 
 Note 3. — Umbrella. The phrase in Pauthier’s text is “ Palieque 
 que on dit ombrel.” The Latin text of the Soc. de Geographic has 
 “ unum pallium de auro,” which I have adopted as probably correct, 
 looking to Burma, where the old etiquettes as to umbrellas are in full 
 force. These etiquettes were probably in both countries of old Hindu 
 origin. Pallium, according to Muratori, was applied in the Middle 
 Ages to a kind of square umbrella, but by that is probably meant rather 
 a canopy on four staves, which was sometimes assigned by authority as 
 an honourable privilege. 
 
 But the genuine umbrella would seem to have been used also, for 
 Polo’s contemporary, Martino da Canale, says that, when the Doge goes 
 forth of his palace, “ si vait apres lui un damoiseau qui porte une umbrele 
 de dras a or sur son chief” which umbrella had been given by “ Mon- 
 seigneur VApostoille.” There is a picture by Girolamo Gambarota, in 
 the Sala del Gran Consiglio, at Venice, which represents the investiture 
 of the Doge with the umbrella by Pope Alexander III. and Frederick 
 Barbarossa (concerning which see Sanuto Junior, in Mitratori XXII. 
 5 12 )- 
 
 The word Parasol also occurs in the Petrarchian vocabulary (14th 
 century) as the equivalent of saioual (Pers. sdyaban or sdiwan, an 
 umbrella). Carpini notices that umbrellas (solinum vel tentoriolum in 
 hasta) were carried over the Tartar nobles and their wives, even on 
 horseback; and a splendid one, covered with jewels, was one of the 
 presents made to Kuyuk Kaan on his enthronement. 
 
 With respect to the honorary character attaching to umbrellas in 
 China, I may notice that recently an English resident of Ningpo, on his 
 departure for Europe, was presented by the Chinese citizens, as a token 
 of honour, with a pair of Wanmin san, umbrellas of enormous size. 
 
 The umbrella must have gone through some curious vicissitudes; 
 for at one time we find it familiar, at a later date apparently unknown, 
 and then reintroduced as some strange novelty. Arrian speaks of the 
 cr/aaSia, or umbrellas, as used by all Indians of any consideration ; but 
 
To face Chapter 1 of Book 11 
 
 Half tne Length and Breadth of the Original ' 
 
 u Table dor de Common dement,” 
 The Pa'IZA of the MONGOLS; 
 
 from a Specimen found in E. Siberia 
 

Chap. VII. 
 
 UMBRELLAS. 
 
 317 
 
 the thing of which he spoke was familiar to the use of Greek and 
 Roman ladies, and many examples of it, borne by slaves behind their 
 mistresses, are found on ancient vase-paintings. An unmistakeable 
 umbrella, copied from a Saxon MS. in the Harleian collection, is 
 engraved in Wright’s History of Domestic Manners , p. 75. The fact 
 that the gold umbrella is one of the paraphernalia of high church digni¬ 
 taries in Italy seems to presume acquaintance wfith the thing from a 
 remote period. A decorated umbrella also accompanies the host when 
 sent out to the sick, at least where I write, in Palermo. Ibn Batuta 
 says that in his time all the people of Constantinople, civil and military, 
 great and small, carried great umbrellas over their heads, summer and 
 winter. Ducange quotes, from a MS. of the Paris Library, the Byzantine 
 court regulations about umbrellas, which are of the genuine Pan-Asiatic 
 spirit — -crKidSux xpvcroKOKKiva extend from the Hypersebastus to the Grand 
 Stratopedarchus, and so on. And yet it is curious that John Marignolli, 
 Ibn Batuta’s contemporary in the middle of the 14th century, and 
 Barbosa in the 16th century, are alike at pains to describe the umbrella 
 as some strange object. And in our own country it is commonly stated 
 that the umbrella was first used in the last century, and that Jonas 
 Hanway (died 1786) was one of the first persons who made a practice 
 of carrying one. The word umbrello is, however, in Minsheu’s dic¬ 
 tionary. 
 
 {Murat. Dissert. II. 229; Archiv. Storic. Ital. VIII. 274, 560; 
 Klapr. Mem. III. ; Carp. 759 ; N. and Q., C. and J. II. 180; Arrian, 
 Indica , XVI.; Smiths Diet., G. and R. Ant., s. v. umbraculum; I. B. 
 II. 440 ; Cathay, 381 ; Ramus. I. f. 301.) 
 
 The silver chair has come down to our own day in India, and is 
 much affected by native princes. 
 
 Note 4 . — I have not been able to find any allusion, except in our 
 author, to tablets with gerfalcons (shonkdr). The shonkar appears, how¬ 
 ever, according to Erdmann, on certain coins of the Golden Horde, 
 struck at Sarai. 
 
 There is a passage in Wassaf used by Hammer, which I regret that 
 I cannot refer to in the original. In Hammer’s words it runs that the 
 Sayd Imamuddin, appointed (a.d. 683) governor of Shiraz by Arghun 
 Khan, “ was invested with both the Mongol symbols of delegated sove¬ 
 reignty, the golden Lion’s Head, and the golden Cat's Head.” It 
 would certainly have been more satisfactory (and more natural ?) to find 
 “ Gerfalcon’s Head ” in lieu of the latter ! {Erdmann, Numi Asiatici, I. 
 339 ; Ibh- I- 37 °-) 
 
318 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Concerning the Person of the Great Kaan. 
 
 The personal appearance of the Great Kaan, Lord of Lords, 
 whose name is Cublay, is such as I shall now tell you. He 
 is of a good stature, neither tall nor short, but of a middle 
 height. He has a becoming amount of flesh, and is very 
 shapely in all his limbs. His complexion is white and red, 
 the eyes black and fine, 1 the nose well formed and well set 
 on. He has four wives, whom he retains permanently as 
 his legitimate consorts; and the eldest of his sons by those 
 four wives ought by rights to be emperor;—I mean when 
 his father dies. Those four ladies are called empresses, but 
 each is distinguished also by her proper name. And each 
 of them has a special court of her own, very grand and 
 ample ; no one of them having fewer than 300 fair and 
 charming damsels. They have also many pages and 
 eunuchs, and a number of other attendants of both sexes; 
 so that each of these ladies has not less than 10,000 persons 
 attached to her court. 2 
 
 When the Emperor desires the society of one of these 
 four consorts he will sometimes send for the lady to his 
 apartment, and sometimes visit her at her own. He has 
 also a great number of concubines, and I will tell you how 
 he obtains them. 
 
 You must know that there is a tribe of Tartars called 
 Ungrat, who are noted for their beauty. Now every 
 year a hundred of the most beautiful maidens of this 
 tribe are sent to the Great Kaan, who commits them to 
 the charge of certain elderly ladies dwelling in his palace. 
 And these old ladies make the girls sleep with them, in 
 order to ascertain if they have sweet breath [and do not 
 snore], and are sound in all their limbs. Then such of 
 them as are of approved beauty, and are good and sound 
 in all respects, are appointed to attend on the Emperor by 
 
Chap. VIII. 
 
 PERSON OF KUBLAI KAAN. 
 
 319 
 
 turns. Thus six of these damsels take their turn for three 
 days and nights, and wait on him when he is in his chamber 
 and when he is in his bed, to serve him in anv way, and to 
 be entirely at his orders. At the end of the three days and 
 nights they are relieved by other six. And so throughout 
 the year, there are reliefs of maidens by six and six, 
 changing every three days and nights. 3 
 
 Note 1 . —We are left in some doubt as to the colour of Kublai’s 
 eyes, for some of the MSS. read vairs and votrs, and others noirs. The 
 former is a very common epithet for eyes in the medieval romances. 
 And in the ballad on the death of St. Lewis, we are told of his son 
 Tristram :— 
 
 “ Droiz fu comme un rosel, iex vairs comme faucon, 
 
 Des le tens Moysel ne nasqui sa fajon.” 
 
320 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 The word has generally been interpreted bluish-grey, but in the passage 
 just quoted Fr.-Michel explains it by briilans. However, the evidence 
 for noirs here seems strongest. Rashiduddin says that when Kublai 
 was born Chinghiz expressed surprise at the child’s being so brown . as 
 its father and all his other sons were fair. Indeed, we are told that the 
 descendants of Yesugai (the father of Chinghiz) were in general dis¬ 
 tinguished by blue eyes and reddish hair. ( Michel’s Joinville , p. 324; 
 D Ohsson, II. 475 ; Erdmann , 252.) 
 
 Note 2 .—According to Hammer’s authority (Rashid?) Kublai had 
 seven wives; Gaubil’s Chinese sources assign him five, with the title of 
 empress (Hoang-heu). Of these the best beloved was the beautiful Ja- 
 mui Khatun (Lady or Empress Jamui, illustrating what the text says of 
 the manner of styling these ladies), who bore him four sons and five 
 daughters. Rashiduddin adds that she was called Kun Ku , or the great 
 consort, evidently the term Hoang-heu. (Gen. Tables in Hammer's 
 Ilkhans; Gaubil , 223 ; Erdmann, 200.) 
 
 Note 3. — Ungrat, the reading of the Crusca, seems to be that to 
 which the others point, and I doubt not that it represents the great 
 Mongol tribe of Kungurat, which gave more wives than any other to 
 the princes of the house of Chinghiz; a conclusion in which I find I 
 have been anticipated by Demailla or his editor (IX. 426). To this 
 tribe belonged Burteh Fujin, the favourite wife of Chinghiz himself, and 
 mother of his four heirs j to the same tribe belonged the two wives of 
 Chagatai, two of Hulaku’s seven wives, one of Mangu Kaan’s, two at 
 least of Kublai’s including the beloved Jamui Khatun, one at least of 
 Abaka’s, two of Ahmed Tigudar’s, two of Arghun’s, and two of Ghazan’s. 
 
 The seat of the Kungurats was near the Great Wall. Their name is 
 still applied to one of the tribes of the Uzbeks of Western Turkestan, 
 whose body appears to have been made up of fractions of many of the 
 Turk and Mongol tribes. Kungurat is also the name of a town near 
 the Sea of Aral, perhaps borrowed from the Uzbek clan. 
 
 The conversion of Kungurat into Ungrat is due, I suppose, to that 
 Mongol tendency to soften gutturals which has been before noticed. 
 (.Erdm . 199-200 ; Hammer, passim ; Burnes, III. 143, 225.) 
 
 The Ramusian version adds here these curious and apparently 
 genuine particulars :— 
 
 “ The Great Kaan sends his commissioners to the Province to select 
 four or five hundred, or whatever number may be ordered, of the most 
 beautiful young women, according to the scale of beauty enjoined upon 
 them. And they set a value upon the comparative beauty of the damsels 
 in this way. The commissioners on arriving assemble all the girls of 
 the province, in presence of appraisers appointed for the purpose. 
 These carefully survey the points of each girl in succession, as (for 
 example) her hair, her complexion, eyebrows, mouth, lips, and the 
 proportion of all her limbs. They will then set down some as estimated 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 THE GREAT KAAN’S SONS. 
 
 321 
 
 at 16 carats, some at 17, 18, 20, or more or less, according to the sum 
 of the beauties or defects of each. And whatever standard the Great 
 Kaan may have fixed for those that are to be brought to him, whether 
 it be 20 carats or 21, the commissioners select the required number from 
 those who have attained that standard, and bring them to him. And 
 when they reach his presence he has them appraised anew by other 
 parties, and has a selection made of 30 or 40 of those who then get 
 the highest valuation.” 
 
 Marsden and Murray miss the meaning of this curious statement in 
 a surprising manner, supposing the carat to represent some absolute 
 value, 4 grains of gold according to the former, whence the damsel of 
 20 carats was estimated at 13L 4 d. ! This is sad nonsense; but Marsden 
 would not have made the mistake had he not’ been fortunate enough 
 to live before the introduction of Competitive Examinations. This 
 Kungurat business was in fact a competitive examination in beauty; 
 total marks attainable 24; no candidate to pass who did not get 20 or 
 21. Carat expresses n ~ 24, not any absolute value. 
 
 Apart from the mode of valuation, it appears that a like system of 
 selection was continued by the Ming, and that some such selection from 
 the daughters of the Manchu nobles has been maintained till recent times. 
 Herodotus tells that the like custom prevailed among the Adyrmachidae, 
 the Libyan tribe next Egypt. Old Eden too relates it of the “ Princes 
 of Moscovia.” (Middle Km. I. 318; Herod. IV. 168, Rawl.; Notes on 
 Russia , Hak. Soc. II. 253.) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Concerning the Great Kaan’s Sons. 
 
 The Emperor hath by those four wives of his twenty-two 
 male children; the eldest of whom was called Chinkin for 
 the love of the good Chinghis Kaan, the first Lord of the 
 Tartars. And this Chinkin, as the Eldest Son of the Kaan, 
 was to have reigned after his father’s death; but, as it came 
 to pass, he died. He left a son behind him, however, whose 
 name is Temur, and he is to be the Great Kaan and 
 Emperor after the death of his Grandfather, as is but 
 right; he being the child of the Great Kaan’s eldest son. 
 And this Temur is an able and brave man, as he hath 
 already proven on many occasions. 1 
 
 VOL 1. 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 The Great Kaan hath also twenty-five other sons by 
 his concubines; and these are good and valiant soldiers, 
 and each of them is a great chief. I tell you moreover 
 that of his children by his four lawful wives there are seven 
 who are kings of vast realms or provinces, and govern them 
 well; being all able and gallant men, as might be expected. 
 For the Great Kaan their sire is, I tell you, the wisest and 
 most accomplished man, the greatest Captain, the best to 
 govern men and rule an Empire, as well as the most valiant, 
 that ever has existed among all the Tribes of Tartars. 2 
 
 Note 1 . — Kublai had a son older than Chimkin or Chingkim, to 
 whom Hammer’s Genealogical Table gives the name of Jurji , and attri¬ 
 butes a son called Ananda. The Chinese authorities of Gaubil and 
 Pauthier call him Turchi or Tor chi, i.e. Dorje , “ Noble Stone,” the Tibetan 
 name of a sacred Buddhist emblem in the form of a dumb-bell, repre¬ 
 senting the Vajra or Thunderbolt. Probably Dorje died early, as in 
 the passage we shall quote from Wassaf also Chingkim is styled the 
 Eldest Son : Marco is probably wrong in connecting the name of the 
 latter with that of Chinghiz. Schmidt says that he does not know what 
 Chingkim means. 
 
 Chingkim died in the 12th moon of 1284-5, aged 43 - He had 
 received a Chinese education, and the Chinese Annals ascribe to him 
 all the virtues which so often pertain in history to heirs apparent who 
 have not reigned. 
 
 “When Kublai approached his 70th year,” says Wassdf, “he desired 
 to raise his eldest son Chimkin to the position of his representative and 
 declared successor, during his own lifetime; so he took counsel with 
 the chiefs, in view to giving the Prince a share of his authority and a 
 place on the Imperial Throne. The chiefs, who are the Pillars of 
 Majesty and Props of the Empire, represented that His Majesty’s pro¬ 
 posal to invest his Son, during his own lifetime, with Imperial authority, 
 was not in accordance with the precedents and Institutes ( Yasa) of the 
 World-conquering Padshah Chinghiz Khan; but still they would consent 
 to execute a solemn document securing the Kaanship to Chimkin, and 
 pledging themselves to lifelong obedience and allegiance to him. It 
 was however the Divine Fiat that the intended successor should pre¬ 
 decease him who bestowed the nomination.The dignitaries of 
 
 the Empire then united their voices in favour of Teimur the son 
 of Chimkin.” 
 
 Teimur, according to the same authority, was the third son of 
 Chimkin; but the eldest, Kambala, squinted; the second, Tarmah (pro- 
 
Chap. IX. 
 
 THE GREAT K A AN’S SONS. 
 
 323 
 
 perly Tarmabala for Dharmaphala, a Buddhist Sanscrit name) was 
 rickety in constitution ; and on the death of the old Kaan (1294) Teimur 
 was unanimously named to the Throne, after some opposition from 
 Kambala, which was put down by the decided bearing of the great 
 soldier Bayan. ( Schmidt , p. 399; Deniailla, IX. 424; Gaubil ' 203 ; 
 Was sap 46.) 
 
 Note 2 .—The Chinese Annals, according to Pauthier and Gaubil, 
 give only te?i sons to Kublai, at least by his legitimate wives; Hammer’s 
 Table gives twelve. It is very probable that xxii. was an early clerical 
 error in the texts of Polo for xii. Dodeci indeed occurs in one MS. 
 (that cited by Baldello as Magliab. II.), though not one of much weight. 
 
 Of these legitimate sons Polo mentions, in different parts of his 
 work, five by name. The following is the list from Hammer and 
 D’Ohsson, with the Chinese forms from Pauthier in parentheses. The 
 seven whose names are in capitals had the title of Wang or “King” 
 of particular territories, as M. Pauthier has shown from the Chinese 
 Annals, thus confirming Marco’s accuracy on that point. 
 
 I. Jurji or Dorje (Torchi). II. Chimkin or Chingkim (Yutsung, 
 King of Yen, i.e. Old Peking). III. Mangalai (Mankola, “ King of 
 the Pacified West”), mentioned by Polo (infra, chap, xli.) as King 
 of Kenjanfu or Shensi. IV. Numugan (Numukan, “ Pacifying King of 
 the North”) mentioned by Polo (Bk. IV. chap, ii.) as with King George 
 joint leader of the Kaan’s Army against Kaidu. V. Kuridai (not in 
 Chinese List). VI. Hukaji (Hukochi, “ King of Yunnan ”) mentioned 
 by Polo (infra, chap, xlix.) as King of Carajan. VII. Aghrukji or 
 Ukuruji (Gaoluchi, “King of Siping” or Tibet). VIII. Abaji (Gai- 
 yachi ?). IX. Kukju or Geukju (Khokhochu, “ King of Ning ” or 
 Tangut). X. Kutuktemur (Hutulu Temurh). XI. Tukan (Thohoan, 
 “ King of Chinnan ”). His command lay on the Tungking frontier, 
 where he came to great grief in 1288, in consequence of which he was 
 disgraced (see Cathay, p. 272). XII. Temkan (not in Chinese List). 
 Gaubil’s Chinese List omits Hutulu Temurh, and introduces a prince 
 called Gantanpouhoa as 4th son. 
 
 M. Pauthier lays great stress on Polo’s intimate knowledge of the 
 Imperial affairs (p. 263) because he knew the name of the Hereditary 
 Prince to be Teimur; this being, he says, the private name which could 
 not be known until after the owner’s death, except by those in the 
 most confidential intimacy. The public only then discovered that, like 
 the Irishman’s dog, his real name was Turk though he had always been 
 called Toby ! But M. Pauthier’s learning has misled him. At least the 
 secret must have been very badly kept, for it was known in Teimur’s 
 lifetime not only to Marco, but to Rashiduddin in Persia, and to Hayton 
 in Armenia; to say nothing of the circumstance that the name Temur 
 Khaghan is also used during that Emperor’s life by Oljaitu Khan of 
 Persia in writing to the King of France a letter which M. Pauthier has 
 himself republished and commented upon (see his book, p. 780). 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Concerning the Palace of the Great Kaan. 
 
 You must know that for three months of the year, to wit 
 December, January, and February, the Great Kaan resides 
 in the capital city of Cathay, which is called Cambaluc, 
 and which is at the north-eastern extremity of the country. 
 In that city stands his great Palace, and now I will tell you 
 what it is like. 
 
 It is enclosed all round by a great wall forming a 
 square, each side of: which is a mile in length ; that is to 
 say, the whole compass thereof is four miles. This you 
 may depend on; it is also very thick, and a good ten paces 
 in height, whitewashed and loop-holed all round. At each 
 angle of the wall there is a very fine and rich palace in 
 which the war-harness of the Emperor is kept, such as 
 bows and quivers, 1 saddles and bridles, and bowstrings, and 
 everything needful for an army. Also midway between 
 every two of these Corner Palaces there is another of the 
 like; so that taking the whole compass of the enclosure 
 you find eight vast palaces stored with the Great Lord’s 
 harness of war. And you must understand that each Palace 
 is assigned to only one kind of article ; thus one is stored 
 with bows, a second with saddles, a third with bridles, and 
 so on in succession right round. 2 
 
 The great wall has five gates on its southern face, the 
 middle one being the great gate which is never opened on 
 any occasion except when the Great Kaan himself goes 
 forth or enters. Close on either side of this great gate is a 
 smaller one by which all other people pass; and then towards 
 each angle is another great gate, also open to people in 
 general; so that on that side there are five gates in all. 3 
 
 Inside of this wall there is a second, enclosing a space 
 that is somewhat greater in length than in breadth. This 
 enclosure also has eight palaces corresponding to those of 
 
Chap. X. THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KAAN. 3^5 
 
 the outer wall, and stored like them with the Lord’s harness 
 of war. This wall also hath five gates on the southern 
 face, corresponding to those in the outer wall, and has one 
 gate on each of the other faces as the outer wall hath also. 
 In the middle of the second enclosure is the Lord’s Great 
 Palace, and I will tell you what it is like. 4 
 
 You must know that it is the greatest Palace that ever 
 was. [Towards the north it is in contact with the outer 
 wall, whilst towards the south there is a vacant space which 
 the Barons and the soldiers are constantly traversing. The 
 Palace itself] hath no upper story, but is all on the ground 
 floor, only the basement is raised some ten palms above the 
 surrounding soil, [and this elevation is retained by a wall 
 of marble raised to the level of the pavement, two paces in 
 width and projecting beyond the base of the Palace so as 
 to form a kind of terrace-walk, by which people can pass 
 round the building, and which is exposed to view, whilst on 
 the outer edge of the wall there is a very fine pillared 
 balustrade; and up to this the people are allowed to come]. 
 The roof is very lofty, and the walls of the Palace are all 
 covered with gold and silver. They are also adorned with 
 representations of dragons [sculptured and gilt], beasts and 
 birds, knights and idols, and sundry other subjects. And 
 on the ceiling too you see nothing but gold and silver 
 and painting. [On each of the four sides there is a great 
 marble staircase leading to the top of the marble wall, and 
 forming the approach to the Palace.] 5 
 
 The Hall of the Palace is so large that it could easily 
 dine 6000 people ; and it is quite a marvel to see how 
 many rooms there are besides. The building is altogether 
 so vast, so rich, and. so beautiful, that no man on earth 
 could design anything superior to it. The outside of the 
 roof also is all coloured with vermilion and yellow and green 
 and blue and other hues, which are fixed with a varnish so 
 fine and exquisite that they shine like crystal, and lend a 
 resplendent lustre to the Palace as seen for a great way 
 
326 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 round. 6 This roof is made too with such strength and 
 solidity that it is fit to last for ever. 
 
 [On the interior side of the Palace are large buildings 
 with halls and chambers, where the Emperor’s private pro¬ 
 perty is placed, such as his treasures of gold, silver, gems, 
 pearls, and gold plate, and in which reside the ladies and 
 concubines. There he occupies himself at his own conve¬ 
 nience, and no one else has access.] 
 
 Between the two walls of the enclosure which I have 
 described, there are fine Parks and beautiful trees bearing a 
 variety of fruits. There are beasts also of sundry kinds, 
 such as white stags and fallow deer, gazelles and roebucks, 
 and fine squirrels of various sorts, with numbers also of the 
 animal that gives the musk, and all manner of other beau¬ 
 tiful creatures, insomuch that the whole place is full of 
 them and no spot remains void except where there is traffic 
 of people going and coming. [The parks are covered with 
 abundant grass; and the roads through them being all 
 paved and raised two cubits above the surface, they never 
 become muddy, nor does the rain lodge on them, but flows 
 off into the meadows, quickening the soil and producing 
 that abundance of herbage.] 
 
 From that corner of the enclosure which is towards the 
 north-west there extends a fine Lake, containing foison of 
 fish of different kinds which the Emperor hath caused to be 
 put in there, so that whenever he desires any he can have 
 them at his pleasure. A River enters this Lake and issues 
 from it, but there is a grating of iron or brass put up 
 so that the fish cannot escape in that way. 7 
 
 Moreover on the north side of the Palace, about a bow¬ 
 shot off, there is a hill which has been made by art [from 
 the earth dug out of the Lake] ; it is a good hundred paces 
 in height and a mile in compass. This hill is entirely 
 covered with trees that never lose their leaves, but remain 
 ever green. And I assure you that wherever a beautiful 
 tree may exist, and the Emperor gets news of it, he sends 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 THE PALACE OF THE GREAT KAAN. 
 
 327 
 
 for it and has it transported bodily with all its roots and 
 the earth attached to them, and planted on that hill of 
 his. No matter how big the tree may be, he gets it carried 
 by his elephants; and in this way he has got together the 
 most beautiful collection of trees in all the world. And he 
 has also caused the whole hill to be covered with the ore of 
 azure, 8 which is very green. And thus not only are the 
 trees all green, but the hill itself is all green likewise; and 
 there is nothing to be seen on it that is not green ; and 
 hence it is called the Green Mount ; and in good sooth 
 ’tis named well. 9 
 
 On the top of the hill again there is a fine big palace 
 which is all green inside and out; and thus the hill, 
 and the trees, and the palace form together a charming 
 spectacle ; and it is marvellous to see their uniformity of 
 colour ! Everybody who sees them is delighted. And the 
 Great Kaan has caused this beautiful prospect to be formed 
 for the comfort and solace and delectation of his heart. 
 
 You must know that beside the Palace (that we have 
 been describing), i.e. the Great Palace, the Emperor has 
 caused another to be built just like his own in every respect, 
 and this he hath done for his son when he shall reign and 
 be Emperor after him. 10 Hence it is made just in the same 
 fashion and of the same size, so that everything can be car¬ 
 ried on in the same manner after his own death. [It stands 
 on the other side of the Lake from the Great Kaan’s Palace, 
 and there is a bridge crossing the water from one to the 
 other.] The Prince in question holds now a Seal of 
 Empire, but not with such complete authority as the Great 
 Kaan, who remains supreme as long as he lives. 
 
 Now I am going to tell you of the Chief City of Cathay, 
 in which these Palaces stand; and why it was built, and 
 how. 
 
 Note 1 . — Tarcasci (G. T.). This word is worthy of note as the 
 proper form of what has become in modern French carquois. The former 
 is a transcript of the Persian Tarkdsh ; the latter appears to be merely 
 
328 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 a corruption of it, arising perhaps clerically from the constant confusion 
 of c and t in MSS. (see Defremery , quoted by Pauthier, in loco). 
 
 Note 2.— The corresponding stores are now outside the walls of the 
 “ Prohibited City,” corresponding to Polo’s Palace-Wall, but within the 
 walls of the “ Imperial City” (Middle Kingdom , I. 61). See the cut at 
 P- 335 - 
 
 Note 3 .—The two gates near the corners apparently do not exist 
 in the Palace as it now stands. “ On the south side there are three gates 
 to the Palace, both in the inner and the outer walls. The middle one 
 is absolutely reserved for the entrance or exit of the Emperor; all other 
 people pass in and out by the gate to the right or left of it” ( Trigautius , 
 B. I. ch. vii.). This custom is not in China peculiar to Royalty. In 
 private houses it is usual to have three doors leading from the court to 
 the guest-rooms, and there is a great exercise of politeness in reference 
 to these; the guest after much pressing is prevailed on to enter the 
 middle door, whilst the host enters by the side (see JDeguignes , Voyages, 
 I. 262). 
 
 Note 4 . — Ramusio’s version, in the dimensions of the palace, 
 diverges enormously from the old MSS. It makes the inner enclosure 
 a mile square; outside of this it puts another of six miles square, and at 
 a mile interval, a third of eight miles square. It is extremely difficult to 
 suggest how such statements should have got into the version. But it 
 is curious that Pauthier’s text (which I have corrected by the G. T.), 
 after describing the outer inclosure to be a mile every way , says that the 
 inner inclosure lay at an hiterval of a mile within it l 
 
 Note 5.— This description of palace (see opposite cut), an ele¬ 
 vated basement of masonry with a superstructure of timber (in general 
 carved and gilded), is still found in Burma, Siam, and Java, as well as in 
 China. If we had any trace of the palaces of the ancient Asokas and 
 Vikramadityas of India, we should probably find that they were of the 
 same character. It seems to be one of those things that belonged to 
 some ancient Panasiatic fashion, as the palaces of Nineveh were of a 
 somewhat similar construction. In the Audience Halls of the Moguls 
 at Delhi and Agra we can trace the ancient form, though the super¬ 
 structure has there become an arcade of marble instead of a pavilion 
 on timber columns. 
 
 Note 6.—“ As all that one sees of these palaces is varnished in 
 those colours, when you catch a distant view of them at sunrise, as I 
 have done many a time, you would think them all made of, or at least 
 covered with, pure gold enamelled in azure and green, so that the 
 spectacle is at once majestic and charming” (. Magaillans , p. 353). 
 
 Note 7 .—“ On the west side, where the space is amplest, there is a 
 lake very full of fish. It is in the form of a fiddle, and is an Italian mile 
 and a quarter in length. It is crossed at the narrowest part, which 
 
Chap. X. 
 
 ROZE DE L’AZUR. 
 
 329 
 
 corresponds to gates in the walls, by a handsome bridge, the extremities 
 of which are adorned by two triumphal arches of 3 openings each. . . . 
 The lake is surrounded by palaces and pleasure houses, built partly in 
 the water and partly on shore, and charming boats are provided on it 
 for the use of the Emperor when he chooses to go a-fishing or to take 
 an airing” (lb. 282-3). The marble bridge, as it now exists, consists of 
 nine arches, and is 600 feet long. ( Rennie's Peking, II. 57.) 
 
 Ramusio specifies another lake in the city, fed by the same stream 
 before it enters the palace, and used by the public for watering cattle. 
 
 Note 8. —The expression here is in the Geog. Text, “ Roze de 
 I’afur” and in Pauthier’s, “ de rose et de. Vasur .” Rose Minerale, in the 
 
 Winter Palace at Peking. 
 
 terminology of the alchemists, was a red powder produced in the 
 sublimation of gold and mercury, but I can find no elucidation of the 
 term Rose of Azure. The Crusca Italian has in the same place Terra 
 dello Azzurro. Having ventured to refer the question to the high 
 authority of Mr. C. W. King, he expresses the opinion that Roze here 
 stands for Roche, and that probably the term Roche de Vazur may 
 have been used loosely for blue-stone, i.e. carbonate of copper, which 
 would assume a green colour through moisture. He adds: “Nero, 
 according to Pliny, actually used chrysocolla , the siliceous carbonate of 
 copper, in powder, for strewing the circus, to give the course the colour 
 of his favourite faction, the prasine (or green). There may be some 
 analogy between this device and that of Kublai Khan.” This parallel 
 is a very happy one. 
 
330 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Note 9.— Friar Odoric gives a description, short, but closely agree¬ 
 ing in substance with that in the Text, of the Palace, the Park, the Lake, 
 and the Green Mount. 
 
 A green mount, answering to the description, and about 160 feet in 
 height, stands immediately in rear of the palace buildings. It is called 
 by the Chinese King-Shan , “ Court Mountain,” Wan-su-Shan, “ Ten 
 Thousand Year Mount,” and Mei-Shan , “Coal Mount,” the last from 
 the material of which it is traditionally said to be composed (as a pro¬ 
 vision of fuel in case of siege).* Whether this is Kublai’s Green Mount 
 does not seem to be quite certain. Dr. Lockhart tells me that, accord¬ 
 ing to the information he collected when living at Peking, it is not so, 
 
 
 Distant View of the Green Mount. 
 
 but was formed by the Ming Emperors from the excavation of the 
 existing lake on the site which the Mongol Palace had occupied. There 
 is another mount, he adds, adjoining the east shore of the lake, which 
 must be of older date even than Kublai, for a Dagoba standing on it is 
 ascribed to the Kin. 
 
 In a plate attached to next chapter, I have drawn, on a small scale, the 
 
 * Some years ago, in Calcutta, I learned that a large store of charcoal existed 
 under the soil of Fort William, deposited there I believe in the early days of that 
 fortress. 
 
Chap. XI. 
 
 THE CITY OF CAMBALUC. 
 
 331 
 
 existing cities of Peking, as compared with the Mongol and Chinese cities 
 in the time of Kublai. The plan of the latter has been constructed (1) 
 from existing traces, as exhibited in the Russian Survey republished by our 
 War Office; (2) from information kindly afforded by Dr. Lockhart; and 
 (3) from Polo’s description and a few slight notices by Gaubil and others. 
 It will be seen, even on the small scale of these plans, that the general 
 arrangement of the palace, the park, the lakes (including that in the 
 city, which appears in Ramusio’s version), the bridge, the mount, &c., 
 in the existing Peking, very closely correspond with Polo’s indications; 
 and I think the strong probability is that the Ming really built on 
 the old traces, and that the lake, mount, &c., as they now stand, are 
 substantially those of the Great Mongol, though Chinese policy or 
 patriotism may have spread the belief that the foreign traces were 
 obliterated. 
 
 Note 10.—For son, read grandson. But the G. T. actually names 
 the Emperor’s son Chingkim, whose death our traveller has himself 
 already mentioned. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Concerning the City of Cambaluc. 
 
 Now there was on that spot in old times a great and noble 
 city called Cambaluc, which is as much as to say in our 
 tongue “The City of the Emperor.” 1 But the Great 
 Kaan was informed by his Astrologers that this city would 
 prove rebellious, and raise great disorders against his impe¬ 
 rial authority. So he caused the present city to be built 
 close beside the old one, with only a river between them. 
 And he caused the people of the old city to be removed 
 to the new town that he had founded; and this is called 
 Taidu. [However, he allowed a portion of the people 
 which he did not suspect to remain in the old city, because 
 the new one could not hold the whole of them, big as it is.] 
 As regards the size of this (new) city you must know 
 that it has a compass of 24 miles, for each side of it hath 
 a length of 6 miles, and it is four-square. And it is 
 all walled round with walls of earth which have a thickness 
 of full ten paces at bottom, and a height of more than 
 
332 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 io paces; 2 but they are not so thick at top, for they 
 diminish in thickness as they rise, so that at top they 
 are only about 3 paces thick. And they are provided 
 throughout with loop-holed battlements, which are all 
 whitewashed. 
 
 There are 12 gates, and over each gate there is a 
 great and handsome palace, so that there are on each sids 
 of the square three gates and five palaces; for (I ought to 
 mention) there is at each angle also a great and handsome 
 palace. In those palaces are vast halls in which are kept 
 the arms of the city garrison. 3 
 
 The streets are so straight and wide that you can see 
 right along them from end to end and from one gate 
 to the other. And up and down the city there are beauti¬ 
 ful palaces, and many great and fine hostelries, and fine 
 houses in great numbers. [All the plots of ground on 
 which the houses of the city are built are four-square, and 
 laid out with straight lines; all the plots being occupied 
 by great and spacious palaces, with courts and gardens of 
 proportionate size. All these plots were assigned to differ¬ 
 ent heads of families. Each square plot is encompassed 
 by handsome streets for traffic; and thus the whole city is 
 arranged in squares just like a chess-board, and disposed 
 in a manner so perfect and masterly that it is impossible to 
 give a description that should do it justice.] 4 
 
 Moreover, in the middle of the city there is a great 
 clock—that is to say, a bell—which is struck at night. 
 And after it has struck three times no one must go out in 
 the city, unless it be for the needs of a woman in labour, 
 or of the sick. 5 And those who go about on such errands 
 are bound to carry lanterns with them. Moreover, the 
 established guard at each gate of the city is 1000 armed 
 men ; not that you are to imagine this guard is kept up 
 for fear of any attack, but only as a guard of honour for 
 the Sovereign, who resides there, and to prevent thieves 
 from doing mischief in the town. 6 
 
MARCO POLO 
 
 T< 
 
 
 » 
 
Chap. XI. 
 
 THE CITY OF CAMBALUC. 
 
 333 
 
 Note 1 . — The history of the city on the site of Peking goes back 
 to very old times, for it had been the capital of the kingdom of Yen 
 previous to b.c. 222, when it was captured by the Prince of the Thsin 
 Dynasty. It became one of the capitals of the Khitans in a.d. 936, 
 and of the Kin sovereigns in 1125. Under the name of Yenking it has 
 a conspicuous place in the wars of Chinghiz against the latter dynasty. 
 He captured it in 1215. In 1264 Kublai adopted it as his chief 
 residence, and founded the new city of Tatu (“Great Court”), called 
 by the Mongols Taidu or Daitu (see Bk. I. ch. lxi. note 1 ), at a little 
 distance—Odoric says half a mile—to the north-east of the old Yenking. 
 Tatu was completed in the summer of 1267. The river that ran between 
 the old and new city must have been the little river Yu, which still runs 
 through the modern Tartar city, and fills the city ditches. 
 
 Old Yenking had, when occupied by the Kin, a circuit of 27 li 
 (commonly estimated at 9 miles, but in early works the li is not more 
 than ~ of a mile), afterwards increased to 30 li. But there was some 
 kind of outer wall about the city and its suburbs, the circuit of which is 
 called 75 li. {Lockhart; and see Amyot, II. 553.) 
 
 Polo correctly explains the name Cambaluc , i.e. Kaan-baligh, “ The 
 City of the Kaan.” 
 
 Note 2 .—This height is fiom Pauthier’s Text; the G. Text has, 
 “ twenty paces,” i. e. 100 feet. A recent French paper states the dimen¬ 
 sions of the existing walls as 14 metres (45 \ feet) high, and 14*50 (47 \ 
 feet) thick, “ the top forming a paved promenade, unique of its kind, 
 and recalling the legendary walls of Thebes and Babylon.” {Ann. d'Hy- 
 gienne Publique, 2nd s. tom. xxxii. for 1869, p. 21.) 
 
 Note 3 .— Our attempted plan of Cambaluc, as in 1290, differs 
 considerably from this description, but there is no getting over certain 
 existing facts. 
 
 The existing Tartar city of Peking (technically Neiching ; “ The 
 Interior City,” or King-ching, “ City of the Court”) stands on the site 
 of Taidu, and represents it. After the expulsion of the Mongols (1368) 
 the new native Dynasty of Ming established their capital at Nanking. 
 But this was found so inconvenient that the second sovereign of the 
 dynasty re-occupied Taidu or Cambaluc, the repairs of which began in 
 1409. He reduced it in size by cutting off nearly a third part of the 
 city at the north end. The remains of the original north wall are 
 however stili in existence, varying from 10 to 20 feet in height; the 
 traces are much less perfect on the east and west. This old wall is 
 called by the Chinese The Wall of the Yuen {i.e. the Mongol Dynasty), 
 and it is laid down in the Russian Survey. The existing walls were 
 built, or restored rather (the north wall being in any case, of course* 
 entirely new), in 1437. There seems to be no doubt that the present 
 south front of the Tartar city was the south front of Taidu. The 
 whole outline of Taidu is therefore still extant, and easily measur- 
 
334 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 able. If the scale on the War Office edition of the Russian Survey be 
 correct, the long sides measure close upon 5 miles and 500 yards ; the 
 short sides, 3 miles and 1200 yards. Hence the whole perimeter was 
 just about 18 English miles, or less than 16 Italian miles. If, however, 
 a pair of compasses be run round Taidu and Yenking (as we have laid 
 the latter down from such data as could be had) together , the circuit 
 will be something like 24 Italian miles, and this may have to do with 
 Pojo’s error. 
 
 Polo, again, says that there were 12 gates—3 to every side. Both 
 Gaubil and Martini also say that there were 12 gates. But I believe 
 that both are trusting to Marco. There are 9 gates in the present 
 Tartar city—viz., 3 on the south side and 2 on each of the other 
 sides. The old Chinese accounts say there were n gates in Taidu 
 (see Amyot. Mem. II. 553). I have in my plan, therefore, assumed 
 that one gate on the east and one on the west were obliterated in the 
 reduction of the enceinte by the Ming. But I must observe that Mr. 
 Lockhart tells me he did not find the traces of gates in those positions, 
 whilst the two gates on the north side of the old Mongol rampart are 
 quite distinct, with the barbicans in front, and the old Mongol bridge 
 over the ditch still serving for the public thoroughfare. 
 
 When the Ming established themselves on the old Mongol site, 
 population seems to have gathered close about the southern wall, 
 probably using material from the remains of Yenking. This excrescence 
 was enclosed by a new wall in 1554, and was called the “Outer Town.” 
 It is what is called by Europeans the Chinese City. Its western wall 
 exhibits in the base sculptured stones, which seem to have belonged to 
 the old palace of Yenking. Some traces of Yenking still existed in 
 Gaubil’s time ; the only relic of it now pointed out is a pagoda outside 
 of the Kwang-An-Man, or western gate of the Outer City, marked in the 
 War Office edition of the Russian Map as “ Tower.” (Information from 
 Dr. Lockhart.) 
 
 The “Great Palaces” over the gates and at the corner bastions are 
 no doubt well illustrated by the buildings which still occupy those 
 positions. There are two such lofty buildings at each of the gates of the 
 modern city, the outer one forming an elevated redoubt. (See cut on 
 next page.) 
 
 Note 4 .— The French writer cited under Note 2 says of the city as 
 it stands : “ La ville est de la sorte coupee en echiquier a peu pres 
 regulier dont les quadres circonscrits par des larges avenues sont perces 
 eux-memes d’une multitude de rues et ruelles . . . qui toutes a peu pres 
 sont orientees N. et S., E. et O. Une seule volonte a evidemment 
 preside a ce plan, et jamais edilite n’a eu a executer d’un seul coup 
 aussi vaste entreprise.” 
 
 Note 5 .— Martini speaks of the public clock-towers in the Chinese 
 cities, which in his time were furnished with water-clocks. A watchman 
 
Chap. XI. 
 
 THE CITY OF CAMBALUC. 
 
 335 
 
 struck the hour on a great gong, at the same time exhibiting the hour in 
 large characters. The same person watched for fires, and summoned 
 the public with his gong to aid in extinguishing them. 
 
 The tower indicated by Marco appears still to exist. It occupies 
 the place which I have marked as Alarm Tower in the plan of Taidu. 
 It was erected in 1272, but probably rebuilt on the Ming occupation of 
 the city. In the Court of the Old • Observatory at Peking there is 
 preserved, with a few other ancient instruments, which I believe date 
 from the Mongol era, a very elaborate water-clock, provided with 4 
 copper basins embedded in brickwork, and rising in steps one above the 
 other. A cut of this court-yard, with its instruments and aged trees, 
 also ascribed to the Mongol time, will be inserted below, in Chapter 
 xxxiii. The instruments on the terrace of the Observatory are those 
 supplied in later years under the supervision of the Jesuits. (Atlas 
 Sinensis , p. 10; Magaillans , 149-151; Chine Moderne , p. 26; Tour 
 du Monde for 1864, vol. ii. p. 34.) 
 
 Note G.—“ Nevertheless,” adds the Ramusian, “ there does exist I 
 know not what uneasiness about the people of Cathay.” 
 
 South Gate of Imperial City at Peking. 
 
336 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 How the Great Kaan maintains a Guard of Twelve Thousand 
 Horse, which are called Keshican. 
 
 You must know that the Great Kaan, to maintain his state, 
 hath a guard of twelve thousand horsemen, who are styled 
 Keshican, which is as much as to say “ Knights devoted 
 to their Lord.” Not that he keeps these for fear of any 
 man whatever, but merely because of his own exalted 
 dignity. These 12,000 men have four captains, each of 
 whom is in command of 3000 ; and each body of 3000 
 takes a turn of three days and nights to guard the palace, 
 where they also take their meals. After the expiration of 
 three days and nights they are relieved by another 3000, 
 who mount guard for the same space of time, and then 
 another body takes its turn, so that there are always 3000 
 on guard. Thus it goes until the whole j 2,000, who 
 are styled (as I said) Keshican, have been on duty; and 
 then the tour begins again, and so runs on from year’s end 
 to year’s end. 1 
 
 Note 1.—I have deduced a reading for the word Quescican (Keshi¬ 
 can), which is not found precisely in any text. Pauthier reads Questiau 
 and Quesitau; the G. Text has Quesitam and Quecitain; the Crusca 
 Questi Tan ; Ramusio, Casitan; the Riccardiana, Quescitam. Recollect¬ 
 ing the constant clerical confusion between c and /, what follows will 
 leave no doubt I think that the true reading to which all these variations 
 point is Quescican.* 
 
 In the Institutes of Ghazan Khan, we find established among other 
 formalities for the authentication of the royal orders, that they should be 
 stamped on the back, in black ink, with the seals of the Four Com¬ 
 manders of the Four Kiziks , or Corps of the Life Guard. 
 
 Wassaf also, in detailing the different classes of the great dignitaries 
 of the Mongol monarchy, names (1) the Noyans of the Ulus, or princes 
 of the blood; (2) the great chiefs of the tribes; (3) the Amirs of the 
 Four Keshik , or Corps of the Body Guard; (4) the officers of the army, 
 commanding ten thousands, thousands, and so on. 
 
 * One of the nearest readings is that of the Brandenburg Latin collated by Muller, 
 which has Quaesicam. 
 
Chap. XII. 
 
 THE GREAT KAAN’S BODY-GUARD. 
 
 337 
 
 Moreover, in Rashiduddin, we find the identical plural form used by 
 our author. He says that, after the sack of Baghdad, Hulaku, who had 
 escaped from the polluted atmosphere of the city, sent “ Ilka Noy^n 
 and Karabuga, with 3000 Moghul horse, into Baghdad, in order to 
 have the buildings repaired, and to put things generally in order. 
 These chiefs posted sentries from the Kishikan ( ULkJ*), and from 
 their own followings in the different quarters of the town, had the car¬ 
 cases of beasts removed from the streets, and caused the bazaars to be 
 rebuilt.” 
 
 We find Kishik still used at the court of Hindustan, under the great 
 kings of Timur’s House, for the corps on tour of duty at the palace ; and 
 even for the sets of matchlocks and sabres, which were changed weekly 
 from Akbar’s armoury for the royal use. The royal guards in Persia, 
 who watch the king’s person at night, are termed Keshikchi , and their 
 captain Keshikchi Bashi. 
 
 Friar Odoric speaks of the four barons who kept watch by the Great 
 Kaan’s side as the Cuthe , which probably represents the Chinese form 
 Kiesie (as in Demailla), or Kuesie (as in Gaubil). 'The latter applies 
 the term to four devoted champions of Chinghiz, and their descendants, 
 who were always attached to the Kaan’s body guard, and he identifies 
 them with the Quesitan of Polo, or rather with the captains of the 
 latter; adding expressly that the word Kuesie is Mongol. 
 
 I see Kishik is a proper name among the Kalmuk chiefs, but I have 
 not succeeded in ascertaining its interpretation. In Kovalevsky, how¬ 
 ever, I find the following :— 
 
 (No. 2459) u Keshik, grace, favour, bounty, benefit, good fortune, 
 charity.” 
 
 (No. 2461) “ Keshikten , fortunate, happy, blessed.” 
 
 (No. 2541) u Kichyeku, to be zealous, assiduous, devoted.” 
 
 (No. 2588) “ Kushiku , to hinder, to bar the way to,” &c. 
 
 The third of these corresponds closely with Polo’s etymology of 
 “ knights devoted to their lord,” but perhaps either the first or the last 
 may afford the real derivation. 
 
 In spite of the different initials (<J instead of S )» it can scarcely be 
 doubted that the Kalchi and Kalakchi of Timur’s Institutes are mere 
 mistranscriptions of the sfme word, e.g. : “ I ordered that 12,000 Kalchi, 
 men of the sword completely armed, should be cantoned in the Palace; 
 to the right and to the left, to the front, and in the rear of the imperial 
 diwan; thus, that 1000 of those 12,000 should be every night upon 
 guard,” &c. The translator’s note says of Kalchi, “A Mogul word sup¬ 
 posed to mean guards.” We see that even the traditional number of 
 12,000, and its division into four brigades, are maintained (see Timour's 
 Inst.,]). 299 and 235, 237). 
 
 I must add that Professor Vambery does not assent to the form 
 Keshikan, on the ground that this Persian plural is impossible in an old 
 Tartar dialect, and he supposes the true word to be Kechilan or 
 VOL. I. Z 
 
33^ 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Kechiklen , “ the night-watchers,” from Kiche or Kichek (Chag. and 
 Uighur), = “ night.” 
 
 I believe, however, that Persian was the colloquial language of foreign¬ 
 ers at the Kaan’s court, who would not scruple to make a Persian plural 
 when wanted; whilst Rashid has exemplified the actual use of this one. 
 
 (DOhsson, IV. 410; Gold. Horde , 228, 238; Ilch. II. 184; Q. P. 
 p. 308-9 ; Ayeen Akb. I. 270, and Blochmanri s , p. 115 ; J. As. ser. 4, 
 tom. xix. 276; Olearius, ed. 1659, I. 656; Cathay , 135; Demailla , 
 ix. 106 ; Gaubil, p. 6 ; Pallas , Samml. I. 35.) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Fashion of the Great Kaan’s Table at his High Feasts. 
 
 And when the Great Kaan sits at table on any great court 
 occasion, it is in this fashion. His table is elevated a good 
 deal above the others, and he sits at the north end of the 
 hall, looking towards the south, with his chief wife beside 
 him on the left. On his right sit his sons and his nephews, 
 and other kinsmen of the Blood Imperial, but lower, so 
 that their heads are on a level with the Emperor’s feet. 
 And then the other Barons sit at other tables lower still. So 
 also with the women ; for all the wives of the Lord’s sons, and 
 of his nephews and other kinsmen, sit at the lower table to 
 his right; and below them again the ladies of the other 
 Barons and Knights, each in the place assigned by the Lord’s 
 orders. The tables are so disposed that the Emperor can 
 see the whole of them from end to end, many as they are. 1 
 [Further, you are not to suppose that everybody sits at 
 table; on the contrary, the greater part of the soldiers and 
 their officers sit at their meal in the hall on the carpets.] 
 Outside the hall will be found more than 40,000 people ; 
 for there is a great concourse of folk bringing presents to 
 the Lord, or come from foreign countries with curiosities. 
 
 In a certain part of the hall near where the Great Kaan 
 holds his table, there [is set a large and very beautiful piece 
 of workmanship in the form of a square coffer, or buffet, 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 THE GREAT KAAN’S FEASTS. 
 
 339 
 
 about three paces each way, exquisitely wrought with 
 figures of animals, finely carved and gilt. The middle is 
 hollow, and in it] stands a great vessel of pure gold, holding 
 as much as an ordinary butt; and at each corner of the 
 great vessel is one of smaller size [of the capacity of a fir¬ 
 kin], and from the former the wine or beverage flavoured 
 with fine and costly spices is drawn off into the latter. 
 [And on the buffet aforesaid are set all the Lord’s drinking 
 vessels, among which are certain pitchers of the finest gold,] 
 which are called verniques, 2 and are big enough to hold 
 drink for eight or ten persons. And one of these is put 
 between every two persons, besides a couple of golden cups 
 with handles, so that every man helps himself from the 
 pitcher that stands between him and his neighbour. And 
 the ladies are supplied in the same way. The value of these 
 pitchers and cups is something immense; in fact, the Great 
 Kaan has such a quantity of this kind of plate, and of gold 
 and silver in other shapes, as no one ever before saw or 
 heard tell of, or could believed 
 
 [There are certain Barons specially deputed to see that 
 foreigners, who do not know the customs of the Court, are 
 provided with places suited to their rank; and these Barons 
 are continually moving to and fro in the hall, looking to 
 the wants of the guests at table, and causing the servants 
 to supply them promptly with wine, milk, meat, or what¬ 
 ever they lack. At every door of the hall (or, indeed, 
 wherever the Emperor may be) there stand a couple of big- 
 men like giants, one.on each side, armed with staves. Their 
 business is to see that no one steps upon the threshold in 
 entering, and if this does happen, they strip the offender of 
 his clothes, and he must pay a forfeit to have them back 
 again; or in lieu of taking his clothes, they give him a 
 certain number of blows. If they are foreigners ignorant 
 of the order, then there are Barons appointed to introduce 
 them, and explain it to them. They think, in fact, that it 
 brings bad luck if any one touches the threshold. How- 
 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 beit, they are not expected to stick at this in going forth 
 again, for at that time some are like to be the worse for 
 liquor, and incapable of looking to their steps. 4 ] 
 
 And you must know that those who wait upon the 
 Great Kaan with his dishes and his drink are some of the 
 great Barons. They have the mouth and nose muffled 
 with fine napkins of silk and gold, so that no breath nor 
 odour from their persons should taint the dish or the goblet 
 presented to the Lord. And when the Emperor is going 
 to drink, all the musical instruments, of which he has vast 
 store of every kind, begin to play. And when he takes the 
 cup all the Barons and the rest of the company drop on 
 their knees and make the deepest obeisance before him, and 
 then the Emperor doth drink. But each time that he does 
 so the whole ceremony is repeated. 5 
 
 I will say nought about the dishes, as you may easily 
 conceive that there is a great plenty of every possible kind. 
 But you should know that in every case where a Baron or 
 Knight dines at those tables, their wives also dine therewith 
 the other ladies. And when all have dined and the tables 
 have been removed, then come in a great number of players 
 and jugglers, adepts at all sorts of wonderful feats, 6 and 
 perform before the Emperor and the rest of the company, 
 creating great diversion and mirth, so that everybody is 
 full of laughter and enjoyment. And when the performance 
 is over, the company breaks up and every one goes to his 
 quarters. 
 
 Note 1 . —We are to conceive of rows of small tables, at each of 
 which were set probably but two guests. This seems to be the modern 
 Chinese practice, and to go back to some very old accounts of the 
 Tartar nations. Such tables we find in use in the ioth century, at the 
 court of the King of Bolghar (see Prologue , note 2, chap, ii.), and at the 
 Chinese entertainments to Shah Rukh’s embassy in the 15th century. 
 
 Note 2 .—This word (G. T. and Ram.) is in the Crusca Italian trans¬ 
 formed into an adjective, “ vaselle vernicate dloro ,” and both Marsden 
 and Pauthier have substantially adopted the same interpretation, which 
 
Chap. XIII. 
 
 THE GREAT KAAN’S TABLE. 
 
 341 
 
 seems to me in contradiction with the text. In Pauthier’s text the word 
 is vernigal , pi. vernigaux , which he explains, I know not on what 
 authority, as “ coupes sans anses vernies ou laquees d'or.” There is, 
 indeed, a Venetian sea-term Vernegal , applied to a wooden bowl in 
 which the mess of the ship’s company is put, and it seems possible that 
 this word may have been substituted for the unknown Vernique. I 
 suspect the latter was some Oriental term, but I can find nothing nearer 
 than the Persian Barni , Ar. Al-barmya , “ vas fictile in quo quid recon- 
 dunt,” whence the Spanish word Albornia , 4 1 a great glazed vessel in the 
 shape of a bowl, with handles.” So far as regards the form, the change 
 of Barniya into Vernique would be quite analogous to that change of 
 Hundwdniy into Ondanique , which we have already met with. (See 
 Dozy et Engelmann , Glos. des Mots Espagnols , &c., 2nd ed., 1867, p. 73 ; 
 and Boerio , Diz. del. Dial. Venez.) 
 
 A few lines above we have “ of the capacity of a firkin .” The word 
 is bigoncio , which is explained in the Vocab. Univ. Ital. as a kind of tub 
 used in the vintage, and containing 3 mine each of half a stajo. This 
 seems to point to the Tuscan mina, or half stajo, which is = J of a 
 bushel. Hence the bigoncio would = a bushel, or, in old liquid measure, 
 about a firkin. 
 
 Note 3.— A buffet, with flagons of liquor and goblets, was an 
 essential feature in the public halls or tents of the Mongols and other 
 Asiatic races of kindred manners. The ambassadors of the Emperor 
 Justin relate that in the middle of the pavilion of Dizabulus, the Khan 
 of the Turks, there were set out drinking-vessels, and flagons and great 
 jars, all of gold; corresponding to the coupes (or lianas a mances), the 
 verniques, and the grant peitere and petietes peiteres of Polo’s account. 
 Rubruquis describes in Batu Khan’s tent a buffet near the entrance, 
 where Kumiz was set forth with great goblets of gold and silver, &c., 
 and the like at the tent of the Great Kaan. At a festival a t the court 
 of Oljaitu, we are told, “ Before the throne stood golden buffets . . . 
 set out with full flagons and goblets.” Even in the private huts of the 
 Mongols there was a buffet of a humbler kind exhibiting a skin of 
 Kumiz , with other kinds of drink, and cups standing ready; and in a 
 later age at the banquets of Shah Abbas we find the great buffet in 
 a slightly different form, and the golden flagon set to every two persons, 
 though it no longer contained the liquor, which was handed round. 
 (Cathay, clxiv, cci ; Rubr. 224, 268, 305; Ilch. II. 183; DeTa Valle , I. 
 654 and 750-1.) 
 
 Odoric describes the great jar of liquor in the middle of the palace 
 hall, but in his time it was made of a great mass of jade (p. 130). 
 
 Note 4 .—This etiquette is specially noticed also by Odoric, as 
 well as by Makrizi, by Rubruquis, and by Plano Carpini. According 
 to the latter the breach of it was liable to be punished with death. The 
 prohibition to tread on the threshold is also specially mentioned in a 
 
342 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Mahomedan account of an embassy to the court of Barka Khan. And 
 in regard to the tents, Rubruquis says he was warned not to touch the 
 ropes, for these were regarded as representing the threshold. A Russo- 
 Mongol author of our day says that the memory of this etiquette or 
 superstition is still preserved by a Mongol proverb : “ Step not on the 
 threshold; it is a sin ! ” But among some of the Mongols more than 
 this survives, as is evident from a passage in Mr. Michie’s narrative : 
 “ There is a right and a wrong way of approaching a yourt also. Out¬ 
 side the door there are generally ropes lying on the ground, held down 
 by stakes, for the purpose of tying up the animals when they want to 
 keep them together. There is a way of getting over or round these 
 ropes that I never learned, but on one occasion the ignorant breach of 
 the rule on our part excluded us from the hospitality of the family.” 
 The feeling or superstition was in full force in Persia some centuries ago, 
 at least in regard to the threshold of the king’s palace. It was held a sin 
 to tread upon it in entering. ( Cathay , 132; Ruhr. 255, 268, 319; Plan. 
 Carp. 625, 741; Makrizi , I. 214; Mel. Asiat. Ac. St. Petersb. II. 660; 
 The Siberian Overland Route , p. 97 ; P. Pella Valle , II. 171.) 
 
 Note 5.— Some of these etiquettes were probably rather Chinese 
 than Mongol, for the regulations of the court of Kublai apparently com¬ 
 bined the two. In the visit of Shah Rukh’s ambassadors to the court of 
 the Emperor Chingtsu of the Ming dynasty in 1421, we are told that by 
 the side of the throne, at an imperial banquet, “ there stood two eunuchs, 
 each having a band of thick paper over his mouth, and extending to the 
 tips of his ears . . . Every time that a dish, or a cup of darassun (rice- 
 wine) was brought to the emperor, all the music sounded.” (JV. et Ext. 
 XIV. 408, 409.) 
 
 Note 6.— “ Jougleours et entregetours de maintesplusieurs manieres 
 de granz experimenz ” (P.); “ de Giuculer et de Tregiteor ” (G. T.). Ital. 
 Tragettatore , a juggler ; Romance, Trasjitar , Tragitar , to juggle. Thus 
 Chaucer :— 
 
 And again :— 
 
 “ There saw I playing Jogelours, 
 
 Magiciens, and Tragetours, 
 
 And Phetonisses, Charmeresses, 
 
 Old Witches, Sorceresses,” &c. 
 
 —House of Fame , III. 169. 
 
 “ For oft at festes have I wel heard say 
 That Tregetours within an halle large 
 Plave made come in a water and a barge, 
 
 And in the halle rowen up and down ; 
 
 Somtime hath semed come a grim Leoun. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Somtime a Castel al of lime and ston, 
 
 And whan hem liketh, voideth it anon.” 
 
 *—The Franklin's Tale , II. 454. 
 
 Performances of this kind at Chinese festivities have already been 
 
Chap. XIV. THE GREAT KAAN’S BIRTHDAY FEAST. 
 
 343 
 
 spoken of in note 9 to ch. lxi. of Book I. Shah Rukh's people, Odoric, 
 and Ysbrandt Ides, &c., describe them also. The practice of introducing 
 such artistes into the dining-hall after dinner seems in that age to have 
 been usual also in Europe. See, for example, Wright's Domestic Man¬ 
 ners, p. 165 -6, and the Court of the Emperor Frederick II., in Kington's 
 Life of that prince, I. 470. (See also N. et E. XIV. 410; Cathay , 
 143; Ysb. Ides, p. 95.) 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Concerning the Great Feast held by the Grand Kaan every 
 
 YEAR ON HIS BIRTHDAY. 
 
 You must know that the Tartars keep high festival yearly 
 on their birthdays. And the Great Kaan was born on the 
 28th day of the September moon, so on that day is held the 
 greatest feast of the year at the Kaan’s Court, always except¬ 
 ing that which he holds on New Year’s Day, of which I 
 shall tell you afterwards. 1 
 
 Now, on his birthday, the Great Kaan dresses in the 
 best of his robes, all wrought with beaten gold ; 2 and full 
 12,000 Barons and Knights on that day come forth dressed 
 in robes of the same colour, and precisely like those of the 
 Great Kaan, except that they are not so costly; but still 
 they are all of the same colour as his, and are also of silk 
 and gold. Every man so clothed has also a girdle of gold ; 
 and this as well as the dress is given him by the Sovereign. 
 And I will aver that there are some of these suits decked 
 with so many pearls and precious stones that a single suit 
 shall be worth full 10,000 golden bezants. 
 
 And of such raiment there are several sets. For you 
 must know that the Great Kaan, thirteen times in the year* 
 presents to his Barons and Knights such suits of raiment as 
 I am speaking of. 3 And on each occasion they wear the 
 same colour that he does, a different colour being assigned 
 to each festival. Hence you may see what a huge business 
 
344 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 it is, and that there is no prince in the world but he alone 
 who could keep up such customs as these. 
 
 On his birthday also, all the Tartars in the world, and 
 all the countries and governments that owe allegiance to 
 the Kaan, offer him great presents according to their several 
 ability, and as prescription or orders have fixed the amount. 
 And many other persons also come with great presents to 
 the Kaan, in order to beg for some employment from him. 
 And the Great Kaan has chosen twelve Barons on whom is 
 laid the charge of assigning to each of these supplicants a 
 suitable answer. 
 
 On this day likewise all the Idolaters, all the Saracens, 
 and all the Christians and other descriptions of people 
 make great and solemn devotions, with much chaunting 
 and lighting of lamps and burning of incense, each to the 
 God whom He doth worship, praying that He would save 
 the Emperor, and grant him long life and health and 
 happiness. 
 
 And thus, as I have related, is celebrated the joyous 
 feast of the Kaan’s birthday. 
 
 Now I will tell you of another festival which the Kaan 
 holds at the New Year, and which is called the White 
 Feast. 
 
 Note 1.—The Chinese Year commences, according to Duhalde, 
 with the New Moon nearest to the Sun’s Passage of the middle point 
 of Aquarius ; according to Pauthier, with the new moon immediately 
 preceding the Sun’s entry into Pisces. (These would almost always be 
 identical, but not always.) Generally speaking, the first month will 
 include part of February and part of March. The eighth month will 
 then be September-October, and we learn from Polo that the Kaan was 
 born on the 28th of that month ( ante , ch. ii. note 2). 
 
 Note 2. —The expression il a or batuz” as here applied to robes, is 
 common among the medieval poets and romance-writers, e.g. Chaucer :— 
 
 “Full yong he was and merry of thought, 
 
 And in samette with birdes wrought 
 And with gold beaten full fetously, 
 
 His bodig was clad full richely.’ 5 — Rom. of the Rose , 836-839. 
 
 M. Michel thinks that in a stuff so termed the gold wire was beaten out 
 
Chap. XIV. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF DRESSES. 
 
 345 
 
 after the execution of the embroidery, a process which widened the 
 metallic surface and gave great richness of appearance. The fact was 
 rather however, according to Dr. Rock, that the gold used in weaving 
 such tissues was not wire but beaten sheets of gold cut into narrow 
 strips. This would seem sufficient to explain the term “ beaten gold,” 
 though Dr. Rock in another passage refers it to a custom which he 
 alleges of sewing goldsmith’s work upon robes. (Fr. Michel , Recherches , 
 II. 389, also I. 371; Rock's Catalogue , pp. xxv, xxix, xxxviii, cvi.) 
 
 Note 3.— The number of these festivals and distributions of dresses 
 is thirteen in all the old texts, except the Latin of the Geog. Soc., which 
 has twelve. Thirteen would seem therefore to have been in the original 
 copy. And the Ramusian version expands this by saying, “ Thirteen 
 great feasts that the Tartars keep with much solemnity to each of the 
 thirteen moons of the year.” * It is possible, however, that this latter 
 sentence is an interpolated gloss; for, besides the improbability of muni¬ 
 ficence so frequent, Pauthier has shown some good reasons why thirteen 
 should be regarded as an error for three. The official History of the 
 Mongol Dynasty, which he quotes, gives a detail of raiment distributed 
 in presents on great state occasions three times a year. Such a mistake 
 might easily have originated in the first dictation, treize substituted 
 for trois , or rather for the old form Ires; but we must note that 
 the number 13 is repeated and corroborated in Chapter xvi. Odoric 
 speaks of four great yearly festivals, but there are obvious errors in what 
 he says on this subject. Hammer says the great Mongol Feasts were 
 three, viz. New Year’s Day, the Kaan’s Birthday, and the Feast of the 
 Herds. 
 
 Something like the changes of costume here spoken of is mentioned 
 by Rubruquis at a great festival of four days’ duration at the court of 
 Mangu Kaan: “ Each day of the four they appeared in different 
 raiment, suits of which were given them for each day of a- different 
 colour, but everything on the same day of one colour, from the boots to 
 the turban.” So also Carpini says regarding the assemblies of the 
 Mongol nobles at the inauguration of Kuyuk Kaan : “ The first day 
 they were all clad in white pourpre (? albis purpuris , see Bk. I. ch. vi. 
 note 4 ), the second day in ruby pourpre, the third day in blue pourpre, 
 the fourth day in the finest baudekins.” ( Cathay , 141; Rubr. 368; 
 PI. Car. 755.) 
 
 * There are thirteen months to the Chinese year in seven years out of every 
 nineteen. 
 
346 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Of the Great Festival which the Kaan holds on New Year’s Day. 
 
 The beginning of their New Year is the month of 
 February, and on that occasion the Great Kaan and all 
 his subjects make such a Feast as I now shall describe. 
 
 It is the custom that on this occasion the Kaan and all 
 his subjects should be clothed entirely in white; so, that 
 day, everybody is in white, men and women, great and small. 
 And this is done in order that they may thrive all through 
 the year, for they deem that white clothing is lucky. 1 On 
 that day also all the people of all the provinces and govern¬ 
 ments and kingdoms and countries that own allegiance to 
 the Kaan bring him great presents of gold and silver, and 
 pearls and gems, and rich textures of divers kinds. And 
 this they do that the Emperor throughout the year may 
 have abundance of treasure and enjoyment without care. 
 And the people also make presents to each other of white 
 things, and embrace and kiss and make merry, and wish 
 each other happiness and good luck for the coming year. 
 On that day, I can assure you, among the customary 
 presents there shall be offered to the Kaan from various 
 quarters more than 100,000 white horses, beautiful animals, 
 and richly caparisoned. [And you must know ’tis their 
 custom in offering presents to the Great Kaan (at least 
 when the province making the present is able to do so), to 
 present nine times nine articles. For instance, if a province 
 sends horses, it sends nine times nine or 81 horses; of gold, 
 nine times nine pieces of gold, and so with stuffs or what¬ 
 ever else the present may consist of.] 2 
 
 On that day also, the whole of the Kaan’s elephants, 
 amounting fully to 5000 in number, are exhibited, all 
 covered with rich and gay housings of inlaid cloth repre¬ 
 senting beasts and birds, and each of them carries on his 
 back two splendid coffers; all of these being filled with 
 
Chap. XV. 
 
 NEW YEAR’S DAY FESTIVAL. 
 
 347 
 
 the Emperor’s plate and other costly furniture required 
 for the Court on the occasion of the White Feastd And 
 these are followed by a vast number of camels which are 
 likewise covered with rich housings and laden with things 
 needful for the Feast. All these are paraded before the 
 Emperor, and it makes the finest sight in the world. 
 
 Moreover, on the morning of the Feast, before the 
 tables are set, all the Kings, and all the Dukes, Marquesses, 
 Counts, Barons, Knights and Astrologers, and Philosophers, 
 and Leeches, and Falconers, and other officials of sundry 
 kinds from all the places roundabout, present themselves in 
 the Great Hall before the Emperor; whilst those who can 
 find no room to enter stand outside in such a position that 
 the Emperor can see them all well. And the whole company 
 is marshalled in this wise. First are the Kaan’s sons, and 
 his nephews, and the other Princes of the Blood Imperial; 
 next to them all Kings; then Dukes, and then all others 
 in succession according to the degree of each. And when 
 they are all seated, each in his proper place, then a great 
 prelate rises and says with a loud voice : “ Bow and adore! ” 
 And as soon as he has said this, the company bow down 
 until their foreheads touch the earth in adoration towards 
 the Emperor as if he were a god. And this adoration they 
 repeat four times, and then go to a highly decorated altar, 
 on which is a vermilion tablet with the name of the Grand 
 Kaan inscribed thereon, and a beautiful censer of gold. 
 So they incense the tablet and the altar with great rever¬ 
 ence, and then return each man to his seat. 4 
 
 When all have performed this, then the presents are 
 offered, of which I have spoken as being so rich and costly. 
 And after all have been offered and been seen by the 
 Emperor, the tables are set, and all take their places at 
 them with perfect order as I have already told you. And 
 after dinner the jugglers come in and amuse the Court as 
 you have heard before; and when that is over, every man 
 goes to his quarters. 
 
34§ 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Note 1.—The first Aonth of the year is still called by the Mongols 
 Chaghan or Chaghan Sara, 44 the White” or “the White Month;” and 
 the white clothing worn on this festive occasion must have been purely 
 a Mongol custom. For when Shah Rukh’s ambassadors were present 
 at the New Year’s Feast at the Court of the succeeding Chinese Dynasty 
 (2nd February, 1421) they were warned that no one must wear white, as 
 that among the Chinese was the colour of mourning. (. Koeppen , I. 574, 
 II. 309 ; Cathay , p. ccvii.) 
 
 Note 2 .—On the mystic importance attached to the number 9 on all 
 such occasions among the Mongols, see Hammer's Golden Horde, p. 208, 
 Hayton, ch. iii. in Ramusio II. and Strahlenberg (II. 210 of Amsterd. 
 ed. 1 757 )- Vambery, speaking of the Kalin or marriage price among 
 the Uzbegs, says : “ The question is always how many times nine sheep, 
 cows, camels, or horses, or how many times nine ducats (as is the 
 custom in a town), the father is to receive for giving up his daughter.” 
 ( Sketches of Cent. Asia, p. 103.) 
 
 Note 3 .—The elephant stud of the Son of Heaven has dwindled till 
 in 1862 Dr. Rennie found but one animal remaining. It is worth 
 noticing that the housings of cut cloth or applique work (“ draps en- 
 taillez ”) are still in fashion in India for the caparison of elephants. 
 
 Note 4 .—In 1263 Kublai adopted the Chinese fashion of worship¬ 
 ping the tablets of his own ancestors, and probably at the same time the 
 adoration of his own tablet by his subjects was introduced. Van Braam 
 ingenuously relates how he and the rest of the Dutch Legation of 1794 
 performed the adoration of the Emperor’s Tablet on first entering China, 
 much in the way described in the text. 
 
 There is a remarkable amplification in the last paragraph of the 
 chapter as given by Ramusio : “ When all are in their proper places, a 
 certain great personage, or high prelate as it were, gets up and says with 
 a loud voice : £ Bow yourselves and adore ! ’ On this immediately all 
 bend and bow the forehead to the ground. Then the prelate says 
 again : 4 God save and keep our Lord the Emperor, with length of years 
 and with mirth and happiness.’ And all answer : 4 So may it be ! ’ And 
 then again the prelate says: 4 May God increase and augment his 
 Empire and its prosperity more and more, and keep all his subjects in 
 peace and goodwill, and may all things go well throughout his Do¬ 
 minion ! ’ And all again respond : 4 So may it be ! ’ And this adoration 
 is repeated four times.” 
 
 One of Pauthier’s most interesting notes is a long extract from the 
 official Directory of Ceremonial under the Mongol Dynasty, which 
 admirably illustrates the chapters we have last read. I borrow a passage 
 regarding this adoration : 44 The Musician’s Song having ceased, the 
 Ministers shall recite with a loud voice the following Prayer : 4 Great 
 Heaven, that extendest over all! Earth which art under the guidance 
 of Heaven ! We invoke You and beseech You to heap blessings upon 
 
Chap. XVI. 
 
 THE KOW-TOW. 
 
 349 
 
 the Emperor and the Empress ! Grant that they may live ten thousand, 
 a hundred thousand years ! ’ 
 
 “ Then the First Chamberlain shall respond: ‘ May it be as the 
 Prayer hath said ! ’ The Ministers shall then prostrate themselves, and 
 when they rise return to their places, and take a cup or two of wine.” 
 
 The Kowtow ( Kheu-thbu ) which appears repeatedly in this cere¬ 
 monial, and which in our text is indicated by the four prostrations, was, 
 Pauthier alleges, not properly a Chinese form, but only introduced by 
 the Mongols. Baber indeed speaks of it as the Kornish , a Moghul 
 ceremony, in which originally “the person who performed it kneeled 
 nine times and touched the earth with his brow each time.” He de¬ 
 scribes it as performed very elaborately (nine times twice) by his younger 
 uncle in visiting the elder. But in its essentials the ceremony must have 
 been of old date at the Chinese Court. For the Annals of the Thang 
 Dynasty, in a passage cited by M. Pauthier himself,* mention that 
 ambassadors from the famous Harun al Rashid in 798 had to perform 
 “ the ceremony of kneeling and striking the forehead against the ground.” 
 And M. Pauthier can scarcely be right in saying that the practice was 
 disused by the Ming Dynasty and only reintroduced by the Manchus. 
 For in the story of Shah Rukh’s embassy the performance of the Kowtow 
 occurs repeatedly. 
 
 ( Gaubil , 142; Van Braam , I. 20-21 ; Baber , 106 ; N. et E. XIV. 
 Pt. I. 405, 407, 418.) 
 
 The enumeration of four prostrations in the text is, I fancy, quite 
 correct. There are several indications that this number was used instead 
 of the three times three of later days. Thus Carpini, when introduced 
 to the Great Kaan, “ bent the left knee four times.” And in the Chinese 
 bridal ceremony of “ Worshipping the Tablets,” the genuflexion is made 
 four times. At the court of Shah Abbas an obeissance evidently iden¬ 
 tical was repeated four times. {Carp. 759; Doolittle , p. 60; P. della 
 Valle , I. 646.) 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Concerning the Twelve Thousand Barons who receive Robes of 
 Cloth of Gold from the Emperor on the Great Festivals, 
 
 THIRTEEN CHANGES A-PIECE. 
 
 Now you must know that the Great Kaan hath set apart 
 12,000 of his men who are distinguished by the name of 
 Keshican , as I have told you before ; and on each of these 
 
 * Gaubil cited in Pauthier’s Hist, des Relations Politiques de la Chine, 8 cc., p. 226. 
 
350 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 12,000 Barons he bestows thirteen changes of raiment, 
 which are all different from one another; I mean that in one 
 set the 12,000 are all of one colour; the next 12,000 of 
 another colour, and so on; so that they are of thirteen 
 different colours. These robes are garnished with gems 
 and pearls and other precious things in a very rich and 
 costly manner. 1 And along with each of these changes of 
 raiment, i.e. 13 times in the year, he bestows on each of 
 those 12,000 Barons a fine golden girdle of great richness 
 and yalue, and likewise a pair of boots of Camut , that is to 
 say of Borgal , curiously wrought with silver thread; inso¬ 
 much that when they are clothed in these dresses every man 
 of them looks like a king! 2 And there is an established 
 order as to which dress is to be worn at each of those 
 thirteen feasts. The Emperor himself also has his thirteen 
 suits corresponding to those of his Barons; in colour , I 
 mean (though his are grander, richer, and costlier), so that 
 he is always arrayed in the same colour as his Barons, who 
 are, as it were, his comrades. And you may see that all this 
 costs an amount which it is scarcely possible to calculate. 
 
 Now I have told you of the thirteen changes of raiment 
 received from the Prince by those 12,000 Barons, amount¬ 
 ing in all to 156,000 suits of so great cost and value, to 
 say nothing of the girdles and the boots which are also 
 worth a great sum of money. All this the Great Lord 
 hath ordered, that he may attach the more of grandeur and 
 dignity to his festivals. 
 
 And now I must mention another thing that I had 
 forgotten, but which you will be astonished to learn from 
 this Book. You must know that on the Feast Day a great 
 Lion is led to the Emperor’s presence, and as soon as it 
 sees him it lies down before him with every sign of the 
 greatest veneration, as if it acknowledged him for its lord; 
 and it remains there lying before him, and entirely un¬ 
 chained. Truly this must seem a strange story to those 
 who have not seen the thing ! 3 
 
Chap. XVI. 
 
 RUSSIA-LEATHER. 
 
 351 
 
 Note 1 .—On the Keshican, see note 1 to chap, xii., and on the 
 changes of raiment note 3 to chap, xiv., and the remarks there as to the 
 number of distributions. I confess that the stress laid upon the number 
 13 in this chapter makes the supposition of error more difficult. But 
 there is something odd and unintelligible about the whole of the chapter 
 except the last paragraph. For the 12,000 Keshican are here all ele¬ 
 vated to Barons; and at the same time the statement about their 
 changes of raiment seems to be merely that already made in chapter 
 xiv. This repetition occurs only in the French MSS., but as it is in all 
 these we cannot reject it. 
 
 Note 2. —The words Gamut and Borgal appear both to be used here 
 for what we call Russia-Leather. The latter word in one form or 
 another, Bolghar, Borghali, or Butkdl, is the term applied to that ma¬ 
 terial to this day nearly all over Asia. Ibn Batuta says that in travelling 
 during winter from Constantinople to the Wolga he had to put on three 
 pairs of boots, one of wool (which we should call stockings), a second of 
 wadded linen, and a third of Borghali, “ i. e. of horse-leather lined with 
 wolf-skin.” Horse-leather seems to be still the favourite material for 
 boots among all the Tartar nations. The name was undoubtedly taken 
 rom Bolghar on the Wolga, the people of which are traditionally said 
 to have invented the art of preparing skins in that manner. This 
 manufacture is still one of the staple trades of Kazan, the city which in 
 position and importance is the nearest representative of Bolghar now. 
 
 Camut is explained by Klaproth to be “leather made from the 
 back-skin of a camel.” It appears in Johnson’s Persian Dictionary as 
 Kdmu , but I do not know from what language it originally comes. The 
 word is in the Latin column of the Petrarchian Vocabulary with the 
 Persian rendering Sagri. This shows us what is meant, for Saghri is 
 just our word Shagreen , and is applied to a fine leather granulated in 
 that way which is much used for boots and the like by the people of 
 Central Asia. In the commercial lists of our Indian N.W. frontier we 
 find as synonymous Saghri or Kimukht, “ Horse or Ass-hide.” No 
 doubt this latter word is a form of Kdmu or Camut. It appears (as 
 Keimukht, “ a sort of leather ”) in a detail of imports to Aden given by 
 Ibn al Wardi , a geographer of the 13th century. 
 
 Instead of Camut, Ramusio has Camoscia , i.e. Chamois, and the same 
 seems to be in all the editions based on Fra Pepino’s version. It may 
 be a misrendering of camutum or camutium; or is there any real con¬ 
 nexion between the Oriental Kdmu, Kimukht, and the Italian camoscia ? 
 (I. B. II. 445 ; Klapr. Mem. vol. III.; Davies's Trade Report, App. 
 p. ccxx; Vambery's Travels, 423 ; Not. et Ext. II. 43.) 
 
 Fraehn (writing in 1832) observes that he knew no use of the word 
 Bolghar, in the sense of Russian leather, older than the 17th century. 
 But we see that both Marco and Ibn Batuta use it. (F. on the Wolga 
 Bulghars, p. 8-9.) 
 
 Pauthier in a note (p. 285) gives a list of the garments issued to 
 
352 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 certain officials on these ceremonial occasions under the Mongols, and 
 sure enough this list includes “ pairs of boots in red leather.” Odoric 
 particularly mentions the broad golden girdles worn at the Kaan’s 
 court. 
 
 Note 3. —“ Then come mummers leading lions, which they cause 
 to salute the Lord with a reverence” ( Odoric , p. 143). A lion sent 
 by Mirza Baisangar, one of the Princes of Timur’s House, accom¬ 
 panied Shah Rukh’s embassy as a present to the Emperor; and like 
 presents were frequently repeated (see Amyot\ XIV. 37, 38). 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 How the Great Kaan enjoineth his People to supply him with 
 
 Game. 
 
 The three months of December, January, and February, 
 during which the Emperor resides at his Capital City, are 
 assigned for hunting and fowling, .to the extent of some 
 40 days’journey round the city; and it is ordained that 
 the larger game taken be sent to the Court. To be more 
 particular : of all the larger beasts of the chase, such as 
 boars, roebucks, bucks, stags, lions, bears, &c., the greater 
 part of what is taken has to be sent, and feathered game 
 likewise. The animals are gutted and despatched to the 
 Court on carts. This is done by all the people within 20 
 or 30 days’ journey, and the quantity so despatched is im¬ 
 mense. Those at a greater distance cannot send the game, 
 but they have to send the skins after tanning them, and 
 these are employed in the making of equipments for the 
 Emperor’s army. 1 
 
 Note 1. —So Magaillans : “Game is so abundant, especially at the 
 Capital, that every year during the three winter months you see at 
 different places, intended for despatch thither, besides great piles of 
 every sort of wildfowl, lines of four-footed game of a gunshot or two 
 in length : the animals being all frozen and standing on their feet. 
 Among other species you see three sundry kinds of bears .... and 
 great abundance of other animals, as stags and deer of different sorts, 
 boars, elks, hares, rabbits, squirrels, wild-cats, rats, geese, ducks, very- 
 
Chap. XVIII. 
 
 THE KAAN’S LIONS AND LEOPARDS. 
 
 353 
 
 fine-jungle fowl, &c. &c., and all so cheap that I never could have 
 believed it” (p. 177-8). As this writer mentions wild-cats, we may pre¬ 
 sume that the “ Lions ” of Polo also were destined to be eaten. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Of the Lions and Leopards and Wolves that the Kaan keeps 
 
 for the Chase. 
 
 The Emperor hath numbers of leopards trained to the 
 chase, 1 and hath also a great many lynxes taught in like 
 manner to catch game, and which afford excellent sport. 2 
 He hath also several great Lions, bigger than those of 
 Babylonia, beasts whose skins are coloured in the most 
 beautiful way, being striped all along the sides with black, 
 red, and white. These are trained to catch boars and wild 
 cattle, bears, wild asses, stags, and other great or fierce 
 beasts. And ’tis a rare sight, I can tell you, to see those 
 lions giving chase to such beasts as I have mentioned ! 
 
 ' When they are to be so employed the Lions are taken out 
 in a covered cart, and every Lion has a little doggie with 
 him. [They are obliged to approach the game against the 
 wind, otherwise the animals would scent the approach of 
 the Lion and be off.]* 
 
 There are also a great number of eagles, all broken to 
 catch wolves, foxes, deer, and wild-goats, and they do 
 catch them in great numbers. But those especially that 
 are trained to wolf-catching are very large and powerful 
 birds, and no wolf is able to get away from them. 4 
 
 Note 1 .—The Cheeta or Hunting-Leopard, still kept for the chase 
 by native noblemen in India, is an animal very distinct from the true 
 leopard. It is much more lanky and long-legged than the pure felines, 
 is unable to climb trees, and has claws only partially retractile. Wood 
 calls it a link between the feline and canine races. One thousand 
 Cheetas were attached to Akbar’s hunting-establishment; and the chief 
 
 2 A 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
354 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book 11 
 
 one, called Semend-Manik, was carried to the field in a palankin with a 
 kettle-drum beaten before him. Boldensel in the first half of the 14th 
 century speaks of the Cheeta as habitually used in Cyprus; but, indeed, 
 a hundred years before, these animals had been constantly employed by 
 the Emperor Frederic II. in Italy, and accompanied him on all his 
 marches. They were carried on the horse’s crupper like Kublai’s ( supra 
 Book I. ch. lxi.); “they knew how to ride,” Frederic used to say. This 
 way of taking the cheeta to the field had been first employed by the 
 Khalif Yazid, son of Moawiyah. The Cheeta often appears in the 
 pattern of silk damasks of the 13th and 14th centuries, both Asiatic and 
 Italian. (Ayeen Akbery , I. 304, &c.; Boldensel , in Canisii Thesaurus , by 
 Basnage , vol. IV. p. 339; Kington's Fred. II. I. 472, II. 156; Bochart , 
 Hierozoica , 797 ; Rock's Catalogue passim.) 
 
 Note 2 .—The word rendered Lynxes is Leu cervers (G. Text), Louz 
 serviers of Pauthier’s MS. C, though he has adopted from another Loups 
 simply, which is certainly wrong. The Geog. Latin has “ Linceos, i.e. 
 lupos cerverios. ” There is no doubt that the Loup-cervier is the Lynx. 
 Thus Brunetto Latini, describing the Loup-cervier, speaks of its remark¬ 
 able powers of vision, and refers to its agency in the production of the 
 precious stone called Liguire (i.e. Ligurium , which the ancients fancied 
 to come from Lync-urium; the tale is in Theophrastus). Yet the quaint 
 Bestiary of Philip de Thaun, published by Mr. Wright, identifies it with 
 the Greek Hyena 
 
 “ Hyena e Griu num, que mis beste apellum, 
 
 Ceo est Liccervere , oler fait et mult est fere.” 
 
 Lynxes were used at the Court of Akbar in hunting hares, foxes, and 
 antelopes. They are also mentioned by A. Hamilton, as so used in 
 Sind in'the beginning of last century. This author calls the animal 
 a Shoe-goose.' i.e. Siya-gosh (Black-ear), the Persian name of the Lynx. 
 It is still occasionally used in the chase by natives of rank in India. 
 (Brunetto Lat. Tresor , p. 248 ; Popular Treatises on Science written 
 during Mid. Ages , 94; Ayeen Akbery , u. s.; Hainilt. E. Lndies , I. 125 ; 
 Vigne, I. 42.) 
 
 Note 3.— The conception of a Tiger seems almost to have dropt 
 out of the European mind during the middle ages. Thus in a medieval 
 Bestiary, a chapter on the Tiger begins : “ line Beste est qui est apel'ee 
 Tigre , c'est une maniere de Serpent.” Hence Polo can only call the 
 Tigers, whose portrait he draws here not incorrectly, Lions. So also 
 nearly 200 years later Barbaro gives a like portrait, and calls the animal 
 Leoitza. Marsden supposes judiciously that the confusion may have 
 been promoted by the ambiguity of the Persian Sher. 
 
 The Chinese pilgrim, Sing-Yun (a.d. 318), saw two young lions at 
 the Court of Gandhara. He remarks that the pictures of these animals 
 common in China, were not at all good likenesses. (Beal, p. 200.) 
 
355 
 
 Chap. XVIII. THE BARKUT EAGLE. 
 
 We do not hear in modem times of Tigers trained to the chase, but 
 Chardin says of Persia : “ In hunting the larger animals they make use 
 of beasts of prey trained for the purpose, lions , leopards, tigers , panthers, 
 ounces.” 
 
 Note 4 .— This is perfectiy correct. In Eastern Turkestan, and 
 among the Kirghiz to this day, eagles termed Barkut are tamed and 
 trained to fly at wolves, foxes, deer, wild goats, &c. A Kirghiz will 
 give a good horse for an eagle in which he recognises capacity for 
 training. Pallas says the bird is the Golden Eagle, and Mr. Gould 
 informs me that he has no doubt it is so. Mr. Atkinson gives vivid de¬ 
 scriptions and illustrations of this eagle (which he calls “ Bear coote ”), 
 attacking both deer and wolves. In both cases he represents the bird 
 as striking one claw into the neck, and the other into the back of its 
 large prey, and then tearing out the liver with its beak. Some things 
 in these passages seem open to criticism, but Mr. Atkinson is no more. 
 (Timkowski , I. 414 ; Lev chine, p. 77; Pallas , Voyages, I. 421 ; Izzet-Ullah 
 in J. R. A. S. VII. 305 ; Atkinson’s Or. and W. Siberia , 493; and Tra¬ 
 vels in Regions of the A moor, 146-7.) 
 
 The Barkut Eagle, after Atkinson. 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Concerning the Two Brothers who have charge of the Kaan’s 
 
 Hounds. 
 
 The Emperor hath two Barons who are own brothers, one 
 called Baian and the other Mingan; and these two are 
 styled Chinuchi (or Cunichi ) which is as much as to say, 
 “ The Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs.” 1 Each of these 
 brothers hath 10,000 men under his orders; each body of 
 10,000 being dressed alike, the one in red and the other in 
 blue, and whenever they accompany the Lord to the chase, 
 they wear this livery, in order to be recognized. Out of 
 each body of 10,000 there are 2000 men who are each in 
 charge of one or more great mastiffs, so that the whole 
 number of these is very large. And when the Prince goes 
 a-hunting, one of those Barons, with his 10,000 men and 
 something like 5000 dogs, goes towards the right, whilst 
 the other goes towards the left with his party in like manner. 
 They move along, all abreast of one another, so that the 
 whole line extends over a full day’s journey, and no animal 
 can escape them. Truly it is a glorious sight to see the 
 working of the dogs and the huntsmen on such an occa¬ 
 sion ! And as the Lord rides a-fowling across the plains, 
 you will see these big hounds coming tearing up, one pack 
 after a bear, another pack after a stag, or some other beast, 
 as it may hap, and running the game down now on this side 
 and now on that, so that it is really a most delightful sport 
 and spectacle. 
 
 [The Two Brothers I have mentioned are bound by 
 the tenure of their office to supply the Kaan’s Court from 
 October to the end of March with 1000 head of game 
 daily, whether of beasts or birds, and not counting quails; 
 and also with fish to the best of their ability, allowing fish 
 enough for three persons to reckon as equal to one head of 
 game.] 
 
Chap. XX. HOW THE EMPEROR GOES HUNTING. 
 
 357 
 
 Now I have told you of the Masters of the Hounds 
 and all about them, and next will I tell you how the Lord 
 goes off on an expedition for the space of three months. . 
 
 Note 1 . — Though this particular Bayan and Mingan are not likely 
 to be mentioned in history, the names are both good Mongol names; 
 Bayan that of a great soldier under Kublai, of whom we shall hear after¬ 
 wards ; and Mingan that of one of Chinghiz’s generals. 
 
 The title of “ Master of the Mastiffs ” belonged to a high Court 
 official at Constantinople in former days, Sdmsunji Bashi , and I have 
 no doubt Marco has given the exact interpretation of the title of the 
 two Barons; though it is difficult to trace its elements. It is read 
 variously Cnnici (i. e. Kunichi ) and Cinuci (i.e. Chinuchi). It is evi¬ 
 dently a word of analogous structure to Kushchi , the Master of the 
 Falcons; Pars chi, the Master of the Leopards. Professor Schiefner 
 thinks it is probably corrupted from Noghaichi , which appears in Kova- 
 levski’s Mongol Diet, as “ chasseur qui a soins des chiens courants .” The 
 word occurs, he points out, in Sanang Setzen, where Schmidt translates 
 it Aufseher iiber Hunde. (See S. S. p. 39.) 
 
 The metathesis of Noghai- chi into Kuni- chi is the only drawback to 
 this otherwise apt solution. We generally shall find Polo’s Oriental 
 words much more accurately expressed than this would imply. I have 
 hazarded a suggestion of (Or. Turkish) Cho 7 ig-It-chi , “ Keeper of the Big 
 Dogs,” which Professor Vambery thinks possible (see “ chong. ; big, 
 strong,” in his Tschagataische Sprachstudien , p. 282, and note in Lord 
 Strangford's Selected Writings , II. 169). This would exactly corre¬ 
 spond to the rendering of Pipino’s Latin translation, u hoc est canum mag- 
 norum Praefecti.” Chinuchi again would be (in Mongol) “Wolf-keepers.” 
 It is at least possible that the great dogs which Polo terms mastiffs may 
 have been known by such a name. We apply the term Wolf-dog to 
 several varieties, and in Macbeth’s enumeration we have— 
 
 - “ Hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
 
 Shoughs, water-rugs, and Demi-Wolves.” 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 How the Emperor goes on a Hunting Expedition. 
 
 After he has stopped at his capital city those three 
 months that I mentioned, to wit, December, January, 
 
358 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 February, he starts off on the ist day of March, and travels 
 southward towards the Ocean Sea, a journey of two days. 1 
 He takes with him full 10,000 falconers, and some 500 
 gerfalcons besides peregrines, sakers, and other hawks in 
 great numbers; and goshawks also to fly at the water-fowl. 2 
 But do not suppose that he keeps all these together by him; 
 they are distributed about, hither and thither, one hundred 
 together, or two hundred at the utmost, as he thinks 
 proper. But they are always fowling as they advance, and 
 the most part of the quarry taken is carried to the Em¬ 
 peror. And let me tell you when he goes thus a-fowling 
 with his gerfalcons and other hawks, he is attended by full 
 10,000 men who are disposed in couples ; and these are 
 called Toscaol , which is as much as to say, “ Watchers.” 
 And the name describes their business. 3 They are posted 
 from spot to spot, always in couples, and thus they cover 
 a great deal of ground ! Every man of them is provided 
 with a whistle and hood, so as to be able to call in a hawk 
 and hold it in hand. And when the Emperor makes a 
 cast, there is no need that he follow it up, for those men 
 I speak of keep so good a look out that they never lose 
 sight of the birds, and if these hawks have need of help they 
 are ready to render it. 
 
 All the Emperor’s hawks, and those of the Barons as 
 well, have a little label attached to the leg to mark them, 
 on which is written the names of the owner and the keeper 
 of the bird. And in this way the hawk, when caught, is at 
 once identified and handed over to its owner. But if not, 
 the bird *it carried to a certain Baron who is styled the 
 Bitlargiichi , which is as much as to say “ The Keeper of 
 Lost Property.” And I tell you that whatever may be 
 found without a known owner, whether it be a horse, or a 
 sword, or a hawk, or what not, it is carried to that Baron 
 straightway, and he takes charge of it. And if the finder 
 neglects to carry his trover to the Baron, the latter punishes 
 him. Likewise the loser of any article goes to the Baron, 
 
Chap. XX. HOW THE EMPEROR GOES HUNTING. 
 
 359 
 
 and if the thing be in his hands it is immediately given up 
 to the owner. Moreover, the said Baron always pitches 
 on the highest spot of the camp, with his banner displayed, 
 in order that those who have lost or found anything may 
 have no difficulty in finding their way to him. Thus 
 nothing can be lost but it shall be straightway found and 
 restored. 4 
 
 And so the Emperor follows this road that I have men¬ 
 tioned, leading along in the vicinity of the Ocean Sea (which 
 is within two days’ journey of his capital city Cambaluc), 
 and as he goes there is many a fine sight to be seen, and 
 plenty of the very best entertainment in hawking; in fact, 
 there is no sport in the world to equal it! 
 
 The Emperor himself is carried upon four elephants in 
 a fine chamber made of timber, lined inside with plates of 
 beaten gold, and outside with lion’s skins [for he always 
 travels in this way on his fowling expeditions, because he is 
 troubled with gout]. He always keeps beside him a dozen 
 of his choicest gerfalcons, and is attended by several of 
 his Barons who ride on horseback alongside. And some¬ 
 times, as they may be going along, and the Emperor from 
 his chamber is holding discourse with the Barons, one 
 of the latter shall exclaim: “ Sire! Look out for Cranes!” 
 Then the Emperor instantly has the top of his chamber 
 thrown open, and having marked the cranes he casts one of 
 his gerfalcons, whichever he pleases; and often the quarry 
 is struck within his view, so that he has the most exquisite 
 sport and diversion, there as he sits in his chamber or lies on 
 his bed; and all the Barons with him get the enjoyment of 
 it likewise ! So it is not without reason I tell you that I do 
 not believe there ever existed in the world or ever will exist, 
 a man with such sport and enjoyment as he has, or with 
 such rare opportunities. 5 
 
 And when he has travelled till he reaches a place called 
 Cachar Modun , 6 there he finds his tents pitched, with the 
 tents of his Sons, and his Barons, and those of his Ladies and 
 
360 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 theirs, so that there shall be full 10,000 tents in all, and all 
 fine and rich ones. And I will tell you how his own 
 quarters are disposed. The tent in which he holds his 
 courts is large enough to give cover easily to a thousand 
 souls. It is pitched with its door to the south, and the 
 Barons and Knights remain in waiting in it, whilst the Lord 
 abides in another close to it on the west side. When he 
 wishes to speak with any one he causes the person to be 
 summoned to that other tent. Immediately behind the 
 great tent there is a fine large chamber where the Lord 
 sleeps; and there are also many other tents and chambers, 
 but they are not in contact with the Great Tent as these 
 are. The two audience-tents and the sleeping-chamber are 
 constructed in this way. Each of the audience-tents has 
 three poles, which are of spice-wood, and are most artfully 
 covered with lion’s skins, striped with black and white and 
 red, so that they do not suffer from any weather. All 
 three apartments are also covered outside with similar 
 skins of striped lions, a substance that lasts for ever. 7 And 
 inside they are all lined with ermine and sable, these two 
 being the finest and most costly furs in existence. For a 
 robe of sable, large enough to line a mantle, is worth 2000 
 bezants of gold, or 1000 at least, and this kind of skin is 
 called by the Tartars “The King of Furs.” The beast 
 itself is about the size of a marten. 8 These two furs of 
 which I speak are applied and inlaid so exquisitely, that it 
 is really something worth seeing. All the tent-ropes are of 
 silk. And in short I may say that those tents, to wit the 
 two audience-halls and the sleeping-chamber, are so costly 
 that it is not every king could pay for them. 
 
 Round about these tents are others, also fine ones and 
 beautifully pitched, in which are the Emperor’s ladies, and 
 the ladies of the other princes and officers. And then there 
 are the tents for the hawks and their keepers, so that alto¬ 
 gether the number of tents there on the plain is something 
 wonderful. To see the many people that are thronging to 
 
Chap. XX. HOW THE EMPEROR GOES HUNTING. 3^1 
 
 and fro on every side and every day there, you would take 
 •the camp for a good big city. For you must reckon the 
 Leeches, and the Astrologers, and the Falconers, and all the 
 other attendants on so great a company; and add that 
 everybody there has his whole family with him, for such 
 is their custom. 
 
 The Lord remains encamped there until the spring, and 
 all that time he does nothing but go hawking round about 
 among the canebrakes along the lakes and rivers that 
 abound in that region, and across fine plains on which are 
 plenty of cranes and swans, and all sorts of other fowl. 
 The other gentry of the camp also are never done with hunt¬ 
 ing and hawking, and every day they bring home great store 
 of venison and feathered game of all sorts. Indeed, without 
 having witnessed it, you would never believe what quantities 
 of game are taken, and what marvellous sport and diversion 
 they all have whilst they are in camp there. 
 
 There is another thing I should mention ; to wit, that 
 for 20 days’ journey round the spot nobody is allowed, be he 
 who he may, to keep hawks or hounds, though anywhere else 
 whosoever list may keep them. And furthermore through¬ 
 out all the Emperor’s territories, nobody however audacious 
 dares to hunt any of these four animals, to wit, hare, stag, 
 buck, and roe, from the month of March to the month of 
 October. Anybody who should do so would rue it bitterly. 
 But those people are so obedient to their Lord’s commands, 
 that even if a man were to find one of those animals asleep 
 by the roadside he would not touch it for the world! And 
 thus the game multiplies at such a rate that the whole 
 country swarms with it, and the Emperor gets as much as 
 he could desire. Beyond the term I have mentioned, how¬ 
 ever, to wit that from March to October, everybody may 
 take these animals as he list. 9 
 
 After the Emperor has tarried in that place, enjoying 
 his sport as I have related, from March to the middle of 
 May, he moves with all his people, and returns straight to 
 
362 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 his capital city of Cambaluc (which is also the capital of 
 Cathay as you have been told), but all the while continuing 
 to take his diversion in hunting and hawking as he goes 
 along. 
 
 Note 1. — “ Vait vers midi jusques a la Mer Occeane , on ily a deux 
 journeesd It is not possible in any way to reconcile this description as 
 it stands with truth, though I do not see much room for doubt as to the 
 direction of the excursion. Peking is ioo miles as the crow flies from 
 the nearest point of the coast, at least 6 or 7 days’ march for such a 
 camp, and the direction is south-east, or nearly so. The last circum¬ 
 stance would not be very material as Polo’s compass-bearings are not 
 very accurate. We shall find that he makes the general line of bearing 
 from Peking towards Kiangnan, Sciloc or S. East, hence his Midi ought 
 in consistency to represent S. JVesl, an impossible direction for the 
 Ocean. It is remarkable that Ramusio has Greco , or N. East , which 
 would by the same relative correction represent East. And other cir¬ 
 cumstances point to the frontier of Liautong as the direction of this 
 excursion. Leaving the two days out of question therefore, I should 
 suppose the “ Ocean Sea ” to be struck at Shan-hai-kwan near the ter¬ 
 minus of the Great Wall, and that the site of the standing hunting- 
 camp is in the country to the north of that point. The Jesuit Verbiest 
 accompanied the Emperor Kanghi on a tour in this direction in 1682, 
 and almost immediately after passing the Wall the Emperor and his 
 party seem to have struck off to the left for sport. 
 
 Baldello Boni and H. Murray object to the view that the journey 
 led in this direction, and suppose it to have been confined to the coast 
 of Pecheli. Nothing that I can learn of that vicinity shows any proba¬ 
 bility of its being selected for sport. They urge the improbability of 
 “ an excursion into the frozen mountains of Tartary ” in the beginning 
 of March. We find, however, that the Emperor Kanghi started from 
 Peking on the 23rd of March, on the hunting-journey just referred to. 
 
 Note 2.—We are told that Bajazet had 7000 falconers and 6000 dog- 
 keepers ; whilst Sultan Mahomed Tughlak of India in the generation 
 following Polo’s, is said to have had 10,000 falconers, and 3000 other 
 attendants as beaters. {Not. et Ext. XIII. p. 185.) 
 
 The Oriental practice seems to have assigned one man to the attend¬ 
 ance on every hawk. This Kaempfer says was the case at the Court of 
 Persia at the beginning of last century. There were about 800 hawks, and 
 each had a special keeper. The same was the case with the Emperor 
 Kanghi’s hawking-establishment according to Gerbillon. {Am. Exot. p. 
 83 ; Gerb. 1st Journey, in Duhalde.) 
 
 Note 3. —The French MSS. read Toscaor: the reading in the text 
 
Chap. XX. HOW THE EMPEROR GOES HUNTING. • 3^3 
 
 I take from Ramusio. It is Turki, Toskaul , defined as “ Gardien 
 
 surveillant de la route ; Wachter, Wache, Wegehuter ” (see Zenker, and 
 Pavet de Courteille ). The word is perhaps also Mongol, for Remusat has 
 Tosiyal- “ Veille” (Mel. As. I. 231). Such an example of Polo’s correct¬ 
 ness both in the form and meaning of a Turki word is worthy of especial 
 note, and shows how little he merits the wild and random treatment 
 which has been often applied to the solution of like phrases in his book. 
 
 Note 4 .—The remark in the previous note might be repeated here. 
 The Bularguji was an officer of the Mongol camp, whose duties are 
 thus described by Mahomed Hindu Shah in a work on the offices of the 
 Perso-Mongol Court. “ He is an officer appointed by the Council of 
 State, who, at the time when the camp is struck, goes over the ground 
 with his servants, and collects slaves of either sex, or cattle, such as 
 horses, camels, oxen, and asses, that have been left behind, and retains 
 them until the owners appear and prove their claim to the property, 
 when he makes it over to them. The Bularguji sticks up a flag by his 
 tent or hut to enable people to find him, and so recover their lost pro¬ 
 perty” (Golden Horde , p. 245). And in the Appendix to that work 
 (p. 476) there is a copy of a warrant to such a Bularguji or Provost 
 Marshal. The derivation appears therein as from Bularghu , “ Lost pro¬ 
 perty.” Here again it was impossible to give both form and meaning of 
 the word more exactly than Polo has done. Though Hammer writes 
 these terminations in ji (dschi), I believe chi (tschi) is preferable. 
 
 Note 5 .—A like description is given by Odoric of the mode in 
 which a successor of Kublai travelled between Cambaluc and Shangtu, 
 with his falcons also in the chamber beside him. What Kublai had 
 adopted as an indulgence to his years and gout, his successors probably 
 followed as a precedent without these excuses. 
 
 Note 6.—Marsden is inclined to identify this place, Kachar Modun, 
 with Tchakiri Mondou, or Moudon , which appears in D’Anville’s atlas as 
 the title of a “ Levee de terre naturelle,” in the extreme east of Man¬ 
 churia, and in lat. 44 0 , between the Khinga Lake and the sea ; Pauthier 
 adopts the identification. 
 
 This position is out of the question. It is more than 900 miles, in a 
 straight line , from Peking, and the journey thither and back would have 
 taken Kublai’s camp something like six months, without any allowance 
 for the long halt implied in the text. The name Kachar Modun is pro¬ 
 bably Mongol, and as Katzar appears to == “ land, region,” and Modun 
 — “ wood ” or “ tree,” a fair interpretation lies on the surface. Such a 
 name indeed has little individuality. But we may notice that the Jesuit 
 maps have a Modun Khotan (“ Wood-ville ”) just about the locality 
 where we have supposed this hunting excursion, viz., in the region north 
 of the eastern extremity of the Great Wall. 
 
 Note 7 .—I suppose the best accessible illustration of the Kaan’s 
 
364 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 great tent may be that in which the Emperor Kienlung received Lord 
 Macartney in the same region in 1793, of which one view is given in 
 Staunton’s plates. Another exists in the Staunton Collection in the 
 B. M., of which I give a reduced sketch. 
 
 Kublai’s great tent after all was but a fraction of the size of Akbar’s 
 audience-tents, the largest of which we are told could hold 10,000 
 people, and took 1000 farrashes a week’s work to pitch it, with the help 
 of machines. But perhaps the manner of holding people is differently 
 estimated. (. A'm A kb. 53.) 
 
 The Tents of the Emperor Kienlung. 
 
 In the description of the tent-poles, Pauthier’s text has “ trois cou- 
 lombes de fust de pieces moult bie?i enciderees ,” &c. The G. T. has “ de 
 A///gd’especies mout bien cures? &c. The Crusca, “ di spezie molto belle? 
 and Ramusio going off at a tangent, “ di legno intagliate con grandissimo 
 artificio e indorate .” Without feeling certain, I believe the translation in 
 the text to indicate the true reading. It might mean camphor-wood, or 
 the like. 
 
 Note 8.—The expressions about the sable run in the G. T., “ et 
 Vapellent les Tartarz les roi des pelaines,” &c. This has been curiously 
 misunderstood both in versions based on Pipino, and in the Geog. 
 Latin and Crusca Italian. The Geog. Latin gives us “ vocant eas Tar- 
 tari Lenoidae Pellonaethe Crusca, “ chiamanle li Tartari Leroide 
 Pelame ; ” Ramusio in a very odd way combines both the genuine and 
 the blundered interpretation: U E li Tartari la chiamano Regina delle 
 Pelli; e gli animali si chiamano Rondes.” Fraehn ingeniously suggested 
 that this Rondes (which proves to be merely a misunderstanding of the 
 French words Roi des) was a mistake for Kunduz , usually meaning a 
 “beaver,” but also a “sable” (see Ibn Foszlan, p. 57). Condux , no 
 doubt with this meaning, appears coupled with vair, in a Venetian 
 Treaty with Egypt (1344)? quoted by Heyd (II. 208.) 
 
 Ibn Batuta puts the ermine above the sable. An ermine pelisse, he 
 
Chap. XXI. THE KAAN’S RETURN FROM HUNTING. 
 
 365 
 
 says, was worth in India 1000 dinars of that country, whilst a sable 
 one was worth only 400 dinars. As Ibn Batuta’s Indian dinars are 
 Rupees, the estimate of price is greatly lower than Polo’s. Some years 
 ago I find the price of a Sack , as it is technically called by the Russian 
 traders, or robe of fine sables, stated to be in the Siberian market about 
 7000 banco rubels, i.e. I believe about 350/. The same authority men¬ 
 tions that in 1591 the Czar Theodore Ivanovich made a present of a 
 pelisse valued at the equivalent of 5000 silver rubels of modern Russian 
 money, or upwards of 750/. Atkinson speaks of a single sable skin of 
 the highest quality, for which the trapper demanded 18/. The great 
 mart for fine sables is at Olekma on the Lena. (See I. B. II. 401-2 ; 
 Baer’s Beitrdge , VII. 215 seqq. ; Upper and Lower Amoor, 390.) 
 
 Note 9 .—Hawking is still commonly practised in North China. 
 Petis de la Croix the elder, in his account of the Yasa, or Institutes of 
 Chinghiz, quotes, seemingly as from Mirkbond, one which lays down that 
 between March and October “ no one should take stags, deer, roebucks, 
 hares, wild asses, nor some certain birds,” in order that there might be 
 ample sport in winter for the court and soldiers. This would be just 
 the reverse of Polo’s statement, but I suspect it is merely a careless 
 adoption of the latter. There are many such traps in Petis de la Croix. 
 (Engl. Vers. 1722, p. 82.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 How the Great Kaan, on returning from his Hunting Expedi¬ 
 tion, HOLDS A GREAT COURT AND ENTERTAINMENT. REHEARSAL 
 OF THE WAY HIS YEAR IS DISTRIBUTED. 
 
 On arriving at his capital of Cambaluc, 1 he stays in his 
 palace there three days and no more; during which time 
 he has great court entertainments and rejoicings, and makes 
 merry with his wives. He then quits his palace at Cam¬ 
 baluc, and proceeds to that city which he has built, as I told 
 you before, and which is called Chandu, where he has that 
 grand park and palace of cane, and where he keeps his 
 gerfalcons in mew. There he spends the summer, to escape 
 the heat, for the situation is a very cool one. After stop¬ 
 ping there from the beginning of May to the 28th of 
 August, he takes his departure (that is the time when they 
 sprinkle the white mares’ milk as I told you), and returns 
 
366 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 to his capital Cambaluc. There he stops, as I have told 
 you also, the month of September, to keep his Birthday 
 Feast, and also throughout October, November, December, 
 January, and February, in which last month he keeps the 
 grand feast of the New Year, which they call the White 
 Feast, as you have heard already with all particulars. He 
 then sets out on his march towards the Ocean Sea, hunting 
 and hawking, and continues out from the beginning of 
 March to the middle of May ; and then comes back for 
 three days only to the capital, during which he makes 
 merry with his wives, and holds a great court and grand 
 entertainments. In truth, ’tis something astonishing, the 
 magnificence displayed by the Emperor in those three 
 days; and then he starts off again as you know. 
 
 Thus his whole year is distributed in the following 
 manner : six months at his chief palace in the royal city of 
 Cambaluc, to wit, September , October, November , December , 
 yanuary , February ; 
 
 Then on the great hunting-expedition towards the sea, 
 March , April , May ; 
 
 Then back to his palace at Cambaluc for three days ; 
 
 Then off to the city of Chandu which he has built, and 
 where the Cane Palace is, where he stays June , July, 
 A ugust; 
 
 Then back again to his capital city of Cambaluc. 
 
 So thus the whole year is spent; six months at the 
 capital, three months in hunting, and three months at the 
 Cane Palace to avoid the heat. And in this way he passes 
 his time with the greatest enjoyment; not to mention occa¬ 
 sional journeys in this or that direction at his own plea¬ 
 sure. 
 
 Note 1 . —This recapitulatory chapter, with its wearisome and whim¬ 
 sical reiteration, reminding one of a game of forfeits, is peculiar to that 
 class of MSS. which claims to represent the copy given to Thibault de 
 Cepoy by Marco Polo. It was first published in Lazarfs Italian edition, 
 translated from the Bern MS. 
 
Chap. XXII. 
 
 THE TRAFFIC OF CAMBALUC. 
 
 367 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Concerning the City of Cambaluc, and its great Traffic and 
 
 Population. 
 
 You must know that the city of Cambaluc hath such a 
 multitude of houses, and such a vast population inside the 
 walls and outside, that it seems quite past all possibility. 
 There is a suburb outside each of the gates, which are 
 twelve in number ; 1 and these suburbs are so great that 
 they contain more people than the city itself [for the 
 suburb of one gate spreads in width till it meets the suburb 
 of the next, whilst they extend in length some three or four 
 miles]. In those suburbs lodge the foreign merchants and 
 travellers, of whom there are always great numbers who 
 have come to bring presents to the Emperor, or to sell 
 articles at Court, or because the city affords so good a mart 
 to attract traders. [There are in each of the suburbs, to a 
 distance of a mile from the city, numerous fine hostelries 2 
 for the lodgment of merchants from different parts of the 
 world, and a special hostelry is assigned to each description 
 of people, as if we should say there is one for the Lombards, 
 another for the Germans, and a third for the Frenchmen.] 
 And thus there are as many good houses outside of the 
 city as inside, without counting those that belong to the 
 great lords and barons, which are very numerous. 
 
 You must know that it is forbidden to bury any dead 
 body inside the city. If the body be that of an Idolater it 
 is carried out beyond the city and suburbs to a remote 
 place assigned for the purpose, to be burnt. And if it be 
 of one belonging to a religion the custom of which is to 
 bury, such as the Christian, the Saracen, or what not, it is 
 also carried out beyond the suburbs to a distant place 
 assigned for the purpose. And thus the city is preserved 
 in a better and more healthy state. 
 
 Moreover, no public woman resides inside the city, but 
 
368 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 all such abide outside in the suburbs. And ’tis wonderful 
 what a vast number of these there are for the foreigners; 
 it is a certain fact that there are more than 20,000 of them 
 living by prostitution. And that so many can live in this 
 way will show you how vast is the population. 
 
 [Guards patrol the city every night in parties of 30 or 
 40, looking out for any persons who may be abroad at 
 unseasonable hours, i.e. after the great bell hath stricken 
 thrice. If they find any such person he is immediately 
 taken to prison, and examined next morning by the proper 
 officers. If these find him guilty of any misdemeanour 
 they order him a proportionate beating with the stick. 
 Under this punishment people sometimes die ; but they 
 adopt it in order to eschew bloodshed; for their Bacsis 
 say that it is an evil thing to shed man’s blood.] 
 
 To this city also are brought articles of greater cost and 
 rarity, and in greater abundance of all kinds, than to any 
 other city in the world. For people of every description, 
 and from every region, bring things (including all the costly 
 wares of India, as well as the fine and precious goods of 
 Cathay itself with its provinces), some for the sovereign, 
 some for the court, some for the city which is so great, 
 some for the crowds of Barons and Knights, some for the 
 great hosts of the Emperor which are quartered round 
 about; and thus between court and city the quantity 
 brought in is endless. 
 
 As a sample, I tell you, no day in the year passes that 
 there do not enter the city 1000 cart-loads of silk alone, 
 from which are made quantities of cloth of silk and gold, 
 and of other goods. And this is not to be wondered at; 
 for in all the countries round about there is no flax, so that 
 everything has to be made of silk. It is true, indeed, that 
 in some parts of the country there is cotton and hemp, 
 but not sufficient for their wants. This, however, is not 
 of much consequence, because silk is so abundant and 
 cheap, and is a more valuable substance than either flax 
 or cotton. 
 
Chap. XXII. 
 
 PLAIN OF CAMBALUC. 
 
 369 
 
 2 B 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Plain of Cambaluc; the City in the distance ; from the Hills on the north-west. 
 
37° 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Round about this great city of Cambaluc there are 
 some 200 other cities at various distances, from which 
 traders come to sell their goods and buy others for their 
 lords ; and all find means to make their sales and purchases, 
 so that the traffic of the city is passing great. 
 
 Note 1 . — It would seem to have been usual to reckon twelve 
 suburbs to Peking down to modern times; see Deguignes , III. 38. 
 
 Note 2.—The word here used is Fondaco , often employed in me¬ 
 dieval Italian in the sense nearly of what we call a factory. The word 
 is from the Greek 7 ravSoK€iov, but through the Arabic Fanduk. The 
 latter word is used by Ibn Batuta in speaking of the hostelries at which 
 the Mussulman merchants put up in China. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 [Concerning the Oppressions of Achmath the Bailo, and the 
 Plot that was formed against Him. 1 
 
 You will hear further on how that there are twelve persons 
 appointed, who have authority to dispose of lands, offices, 
 and everything else at their discretion. Now one of these 
 was a certain Saracen named Achmath, a shrewd and able 
 man, who had more power and influence with the Grand 
 Kaan than any of the others; and the Kaan held him in 
 such regard that he could do what he pleased. The fact 
 was, as came out after his death, that Achmath had so 
 wrought upon the Kaan with his sorcery, that the latter 
 had the greatest faith and reliance on everything he said, 
 and in this way did everything that Achmath wished him 
 to do. 
 
 This person disposed of all governments and offices, 
 and passed sentence on all malefactors; and whenever he 
 desired to have any one whom he hated put to death, 
 whether with justice or without it, he would go to the 
 
Chap. XXIII. THE OPPRESSIONS OF ACHMATH. 371 
 
 Emperor and say: 44 Such an one deserves death, for he 
 hath done this or that against your imperial dignity.” 
 Then the Lord would say: “ Do as you think right,” and so 
 he would have the man forthwith executed. Thus when 
 people saw how unbounded were his powers, and how 
 unbounded the reliance placed by the Emperor on every¬ 
 thing that he said, they did not venture to oppose him in 
 anything. No one was so high in rank or power as to be 
 free from the dread of him. If any one was accused by him 
 to the Emperor of a. capital offence, and desired to defend 
 himself, he was unable to bring proofs in his own exculpa¬ 
 tion, for no one would stand by him, as no one dared to 
 oppose Achmath. And thus the latter caused many to 
 perish unjustly. 2 
 
 Moreo ver, there was no beautiful woman whom he might 
 desire, but he got hold of her ; if she were unmarried, forcing 
 her to be his wife, if otherwise, compelling her to consent 
 to his desires. Whenever he knew of any one who had a 
 pretty daughter, certain ruffians of his would go to the 
 father, and say: 44 What say you ? Here is this pretty 
 daughter of yours; give her in marriage to the Bailo 
 Achmath (for they called him 4 the Bailo,’ or, as we should 
 say, 4 the Vicegerent ’), 3 and we will arrange for his giving you 
 such a government or such an office for three years.” And 
 so the man would surrender his daughter. And Achmath 
 would go to the Emperor, and say: 44 Such a government 
 is vacant, or will be vacant on such a day. So-and-So is a 
 proper man for the post.” And the Emperor would reply: 
 44 Do as you think best;” and the father of the girl was 
 immediately appointed to the government. Thus either 
 through the ambition of the parents, or through fear of the 
 Minister, all the beautiful women were at his beck, either 
 as wives or mistresses. Also he had some five-and-twenty 
 sons who held offices of importance, and some of these, 
 under the protection of their father’s name, committed 
 scandals like his own, and many other abominable iniquities. 
 
 2 B 2 
 
372 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 This Achmath also had amassed great treasure, for every¬ 
 body who wanted office sent him a heavy bribe. 
 
 In such authority did this man continue for two and 
 twenty years. At last the people of the country, to wit the 
 Cathayans, utterly wearied with the endless outrages and 
 abominable iniquities which he perpetrated against them, 
 whether as regarded their wives or their own persons, con¬ 
 spired to slay him and revolt against the government. 
 Amongst the rest there was a certain Cathayan named 
 Chenchu, a commander of a thousand, whose mother, 
 daughter, and wife had all been dishonoured by Achmath. 
 Now this man, full of bitter resentment, entered into parley 
 regarding the destruction of the Minister with another 
 Cathayan whose name was Vanchu, who was a commander 
 of 10,000. They came to the conclusion that the time to 
 do the business would be during the Great Kaan’s absence 
 from Cambaluc. For after stopping there three months 
 he used to go to Chandu and stop there three months; 
 and at the same time his son Chinkin used to go away 
 to his usual haunts, and this Achmath remained in charge 
 of the city; sending to obtain the Kaan’s orders from 
 Chandu when any emergency arose. 
 
 So Vanchu and Chenchu, having come to this con¬ 
 clusion, proceeded to communicate it to the chief people 
 among the Cathayans, and then by common consent sent 
 word to their friends in many other cities that they had 
 determined on such a day, at the signal given by a beacon, 
 to massacre all the men with beards, and that the other 
 cities should stand ready to do the like on seeing the signal 
 fires. The reason why they spoke of massacring the 
 bearded men was that the Cathayans naturally have no 
 beard, whilst beards are worn by the Tartars, Saracens, and 
 Christians. And you should know that all the Cathayans 
 detested the Grand Kaan’s rule because he set over them 
 governors who were Tartars, or still more frequently Sara¬ 
 cens, and these they could not endure, for they were 
 
Chap. XXIII. 
 
 THE PLOT AGAINST ACHMATH. 
 
 373 
 
 treated by them just like slaves. You see the Great Kaan 
 had not succeeded to the dominion of Cathay by heredi¬ 
 tary right, but held it by conquest; and thus having no 
 confidence in the natives, he put all authority into the 
 hands of Tartars, Saracens, or Christians, who were attached 
 to his household and devoted to his service, and were 
 foreigners in Cathay. 
 
 Wherefore, on the day appointed, the aforesaid Vanchu 
 and Chenchu having entered the palace at night, Vanchu 
 sat down and caused a number of lights to be kindled 
 before him. He then sent a messenger to Achmath the 
 Bailo, who lived in the old City, as if to summon him to 
 the presence of Chinkin, the Great Kaan’s son, who (it 
 was pretended) had arrived unexpectedly. When Achmath 
 heard this he was much surprised, but made haste to go, 
 for he feared the PrinCe greatly. When he arrived at the 
 gate he met a Tartar called Cogatai, who was Captain of 
 the 12,000 that formed the standing garrison of the City; 
 and the latter asked him whither he was bound so late r 
 “To Chinkin, who is just arrived.” Quoth Cogatai, “How 
 can that be ? How could he come so privily that I know 
 nought of it ? ” So he followed the Minister with a certain 
 number of his soldiers. Now the notion of the Cathayans 
 was that, if they could make an end of Achmath, they 
 would have nought else to be afraid of. So as soon as 
 Achmath got inside the palace, and saw all that illumina¬ 
 tion, he bowed down before Vanchu, supposing him to be 
 Chinkin, and Chenchu who was standing ready with a 
 sword straightway cut his head off. As soon as Cogatai, 
 who had halted at the entrance, beheld this, he shouted 
 “Treason!” and instantly discharged an arrow at Vanchu 
 and shot him dead as he sat. At the same time he called 
 his people to seize Chenchu, and sent a proclamation 
 through the city that any one found in the streets would 
 be instantly put to death. The Cathayans saw that the 
 Tartars had discovered the plot, and that they had no 
 
374 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 longer any leader, since Vanchu was killed and Chenchu 
 was taken. So they kept still in their houses, and were 
 unable to pass the signal for the rising of the other cities 
 as had been settled. Cogatai immediately dispatched mes¬ 
 sengers to the Great Kaan giving an orderly report of the 
 whole affair, and the Kaan sent back orders for him to 
 make a careful investigation, and to punish the guilty as 
 their misdeeds deserved. In the morning Cogatai examined 
 all the Cathayans, and put to death a number whom he 
 found to be ringleaders in the plot. The same thing was 
 done in the other cities, when it was found that the plot 
 extended to them also. 
 
 After the Great Kaan had returned to Cambaluc he 
 was very anxious to discover what had led to this affair, 
 and he then learned all about the endless iniquities of that 
 accursed Achmath and his sons. It was proved that he 
 and seven of his sons (for they were not all bad) had forced 
 no end of women to be their wives, besides those whom 
 they had ravished. The Great Kaan then ordered all the 
 treasure that Achmath had accumulated in the Old City 
 to be transferred to his own treasury in the New City, and 
 it was found to be of enormous amount. He also ordered 
 the body of Achmath to be dug up and cast into the 
 street for the dogs to tear; and commanded those of his 
 sons that had followed the father’s evil example to be flayed 
 alive . 4 
 
 These circumstances called the Kaan’s attention to the 
 accursed doctrines of the Sect of the Saracens, which 
 excuse every crime, and even murder itself when committed 
 on such as are not of their religion. And seeing that this 
 doctrine had led the accursed Achmath and his sons to act 
 as they did without any sense of guilt, the Kaan was led to 
 entertain the greatest disgust and abomination for it. So 
 he summoned the Saracens and prohibited their doing 
 many things which their religion enjoined. Thus, he or¬ 
 dered them to regulate their marriages by the Tartar Law, 
 
Chap. XXIII. 
 
 THE OPPRESSIONS OF ACHMATH. 
 
 375 
 
 and prohibited their cutting the throats of animals killed 
 for food, ordering them to rip the stomach in the Tartar 
 way. 
 
 Now when all this happened Messer Marco was upon 
 the spot .] 5 
 
 Note 1. —This narrative is from Ramusio’s version, and constitutes 
 one of the most notable passages peculiar to that version. 
 
 The name of the oppressive Minister is printed in Ramusio’s Col¬ 
 lection Achmach. But the c and t are so constantly interchanged in 
 MSS. that I think there can be no question this was a mere clerical 
 error for Achmath , and so I write it. I have also for consistency changed 
 the spelling of Xandu , Chingis , &c. to that hitherto adopted in our text 
 of Chandu , Chinkin , &c. 
 
 Note 2. —The remarks of a Chinese historian on Kublai’s adminis¬ 
 tration may be appropriately quoted here : “ Hupilai Han must certainly 
 be regarded as one of the greatest princes that ever existed, and as one 
 of the most successful in all that he undertook. This he owed to his 
 judgment in the selection of his officers, and to his talent for command¬ 
 ing them. He carried his arms into the most remote countries, and 
 rendered his name so formidable that not a few nations spontaneously 
 submitted to his supremacy. Nor was there ever an Empire of such 
 vast extent. He cultivated literature, protected its professors, and even 
 thankfully received their advice. Yet he never placed a Chinese in his 
 cabinet, and he employed foreigners only as Ministers. These, however, 
 he chose with discernment, always excepting the Mmisters of Finance. 
 He really loved his subjects ; and if they were not always happy under 
 his government, it is because they took care to conceal their sufferings. 
 There were in those days no Public Censors whose duty it is to warn 
 the Sovereign of what is going on : and no one dared to speak out for 
 fear of the resentment of the Ministers who were the depositaries of the 
 Imperial authority, and the authors of the oppressions under which 
 the people laboured. Several Chinese, men of letters and of great 
 ability, who lived at Hupilai’s court, might have rendered that prince 
 the greatest service in the administration of his dominions, but they 
 never were intrusted with any but subordinate offices, and they were 
 not in a position to make known the malversations of those public 
 bloodsuckers.” (. Demailla , IX. 459-460.) 
 
 Ahmad was a native of Fenaket (afterwards Shah-Rukhia) near the 
 Jaxartes, and obtained employment under Kublai through the Empress 
 Jamui Khatun, who had known him before her marriage. To her Court 
 he was originally attached, but we find him already employed in high 
 financial office in 1264. Kublai’s demands for money must have been 
 very large, and he eschewed looking too closely into the character of his 
 
376 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 financial agents or the means by which they raised money for him. 
 Ahmad was very successful in this, and being a man of great talent and 
 address, obtained immense influence over the Emperor, until at last 
 nothing was done save by his direction, though he always appeared to be 
 acting under the orders of Kublai. The Chinese authorities in Gaubil 
 and Demailla speak strongly of his oppressions, but only in general 
 terms, and without affording such particulars as we derive from the text. 
 
 The Hereditary Prince Chingkim was strongly adverse to Ahmad; 
 and some of the high Chinese officials on various occasions made remon¬ 
 strance against the Minister’s proceedings : but Kublai turned a deaf 
 ear to them, and Ahmad succeeded in ruining most of his opponents. 
 (Gaubi 7 , 141, 143, 151; Demailla, IX. 316-17; DOhsson, II. 468-9.) 
 
 Note 3 .—This term Bailo was the designation of the representative 
 of Venetian dignity at Constantinople, called Podesta during the period 
 of the Latin rule there, and it has endured throughout the Turkish 
 Empire to our own day in the form B alios as the designation of a Frank 
 Consul. But that term itself could scarcely have been in use at Cam- 
 baluc, even among the handful of Franks, to designate the powerful 
 Minister, and it looks as if Marco had confounded the word in his own 
 mind with some Oriental term of like sound, possibly the Arabic Wali, “ a 
 Prince, Governor of a Province, .... a chief Magistrate ” ( F. Johnson). 
 I11 the Roteiro of the Voyage of Vasco da Gama (2nd ed. Lisbon, 1861, 
 p. 53-4) it is said that on the arrival of the ships at Calicut the King sent 
 “a man who was called the Bale which is much the same as AlquaideP 
 And the Editor gives the same explanation that I have suggested. 
 
 Note 4 . — The story, as related in Demailla and Gaubil, is as follows. 
 It contains much less detail than the text, and it differs as to the 
 manner of the chief conspirator’s death, whilst agreeing as to his name 
 and the main facts of the episode. 
 
 In the spring of 1282 (Gaubil, 1281) Kublai and Prince Chingkim 
 had gone off as usual to Shangtu, leaving Ahmad in charge at the 
 Capital. The whole country was at heart in revolt against his oppres¬ 
 sions. Kublai alone knew, or would know, nothing of them. 
 
 Wangchu, a chief officer of the City, resolved to take the oppor¬ 
 tunity of delivering the Empire from such a curse, and was joined in 
 his enterprise by a certain sorcerer called Kao-Hoshang. They sent 
 two Lamas to the Council Board with a message that the Crown Prince 
 was returning to the Capital to take part in certain Buddhist ceremonies, 
 but no credit was given to this. Wangchu then, pretending to have 
 received orders from the Prince, desired an officer called Chang-y 
 (perhaps the Chenchu of Polo’s narrative) to go in the evening with a 
 guard of honour to receive him. Late at night a message was sent to 
 summon the Ministers, as the Prince (it was pretended) had already 
 arrived. They came in haste with Ahmad at their head, and as he 
 entered the Palace Wangchu struck him heavily with a copper mace 
 
Chap. XXIII. 
 
 THE PLOT AGAINST ACHMATH. 
 
 377 
 
 and stretched him dead. Wangchu was arrested, or according to one 
 account surrendered, though he might easily have escaped, confident 
 that the Crown Prince would save his life. Intelligence was sent off to 
 Kublai, who received it at Chaghan-Nur (see Book I. ch. lx.). He 
 immediately dispatched officers to arrest the guilty and bring them 
 to justice. Wangchu, Chang-y, and Kao-Hoshang were publicly exe¬ 
 cuted at the Old City ; Wangchu dying like a hero, and maintaining 
 that he had done the Empire an important service which would yet be 
 acknowledged. (. Demailla ,, IX. 412-13; Gaubil , 193-4; D'Ohs son , II. 
 47 o.) 
 
 Note 5 .—And it is a pleasant fact that Messer Marco’s presence, 
 and his upright conduct upon this occasion, have not been forgotten in 
 the Chinese Annals : “ The Emperor having returned from Chaghan- 
 Nur to Shangtu, desired Polo, Assessor of the Privy Council, to explain 
 the reasons which had led Wangchu to commit this murder. Polo 
 spoke with boldness of the crimes and oppressions of Ahama (Ahmad), 
 which had rendered him an object of detestation throughout the Empire. 
 The Emperor’s eyes were opened, and he praised the courage of Wang¬ 
 chu. He complained that those who surrounded him, in abstaining 
 from admonishing him of what was going on, had thought more of their 
 fear of displeasing the Minister than of the interests of the State.” By 
 Kublai’s order, the body of Ahmad was taken up, his head was cut off 
 and publicly exposed, and his body cast to the dogs. His son also 
 was put to death with all his family, and his immense wealth confiscated. 
 714 persons were punished, one way or other, for their share in Ahmad’s 
 malversations. (. Demailla , IX. 413-14.) 
 
 What is said near the end of this chapter about the Kaan’s resent¬ 
 ment against the Saracens, has some confirmation in circumstances 
 related by Rashiduddin. The refusal of some Musulman merchants, on 
 a certain occasion at Court, to eat of the dishes sent them by the Empe¬ 
 ror, gave great offence, and led to the revival of an order of Chinghiz, 
 which prohibited, under pain of death, the slaughter of animals by cutting 
 their throats. This endured for seven years, and was then removed on 
 the strong representation made to Kublai of the loss caused by the ces¬ 
 sation of the visits of the Mahomedan merchants. On a previous occa¬ 
 sion also the Mahomedans had incurred disfavour, owing to the ill-will 
 of certain Christians, who quoted to Kublai a text of the Koran enjoin¬ 
 ing the killing of polytheists. The Emperor sent for the Mullahs, and 
 asked them why they did not act on the Divine injunction? All they 
 could say was that the time was not yet come ! Kublai ordered them 
 for execution, and was only appeased by the intercession of Ahmad, 
 and the introduction of a divine with more tact, who smoothed over ob¬ 
 noxious applications of the text. (D' Ohsson, II. 492-3.) 
 
378 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 How the Great Kaan causeth the Bark of Trees, made into some¬ 
 thing like Paper, to pass for Money over all his Country. 
 
 Now that I have told you in detail of the splendour of 
 this City of the Emperor’s, I shall proceed to tell you of 
 the Mint which he hath in the same city, in the which he 
 hath his money coined and struck, as I shall relate to you. 
 And in doing so I shall make manifest to you how it is that 
 the Great Lord may well be able to accomplish even much 
 more than I have told you, or am going to tell you, in this 
 Book. For, tell it how I might, you never would be satisfied 
 that I was keeping within truth and reason! 
 
 The Emperor’s Mint then is in this same City of Cam- 
 baluc, and the way it is wrought is such that you might 
 say he hath the Secret of Alchemy in perfection, and you 
 would be right! For he makes his money after this 
 fashion. 
 
 He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in 
 fact of the Mulberry Tree, the leaves of which are the food 
 of the silkworms,—these trees being so numerous that 
 whole districts are full of them. What they take is a 
 certain fine white bast or skin which lies between the wood 
 of the tree and the thick outer bark, and this they make 
 into something resembling sheets of paper, but black. 
 When these sheets have been prepared they are cut up 
 into pieces of different sizes. The smallest of these sizes 
 is worth a half tornesel; the next, a little larger, one tor- 
 nesel; one, a little larger still, is worth half a silver groat 
 of Venice; another a whole groat; others yet two groats, 
 five groats, and ten groats. There is also a kind worth 
 one Bezant of gold, and others of three Bezants, and so up 
 to ten. All these pieces of paper are [issued with as 
 much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold 
 or silver ; and on every piece a variety of officials, whose 
 
To face Chapter 24 of BooMI, 
 
 Bank-Note oftheMinq Dynasty. 
 
 (Half the Length, and Breadth of the Original) 
 
 Lit .Lrauenfeldei .Palermo 
 
Chap. XXIV. 
 
 THE KAAN’S PAPER-CURRENCY. 
 
 379 
 
 duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals. 
 And when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by 
 the Kaan smears the Seal entrusted to him with vermilion, 
 and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the Seal 
 remains stamped upon it in red; the Money is then au¬ 
 thentic. Any one forging it would be punished with death]. 
 And the Kaan causes every year to be made such a vast 
 quantity of this money, which costs him nothing, that it 
 must equal in amount all the treasure in the world. 
 
 With these pieces of paper, made as I have described, 
 he causes all payments on his own account to be made; 
 and he makes them to pass current universally over all his 
 kingdoms and provinces and territories, and whithersoever 
 his power and sovereignty extends. And nobody, however 
 important he may think himself, dares to refuse them on 
 pain of death. And indeed everybody takes them readily, 
 for wheresoever a person may go throughout the Great 
 Kaan’s dominions he shall find these pieces of paper current, 
 and shall be able to transact all sales and purchases of goods 
 by means of them just as well as if they were coins of pure 
 gold. And all the while they are so light than ten bezants’ 
 worth does not weigh one golden bezant. 
 
 Furthermore all merchants arriving from India or other 
 countries, and bringing with them gold or silver or gems 
 and pearls, are prohibited from selling to any one but the 
 Emperor. He has twelve experts chosen for this business, 
 men of shrewdness and experience in such affairs; these 
 appraise the articles, and the Emperor then pays a liberal 
 price for them in those pieces of paper. The merchants 
 accept his price readily, for in the first place they would 
 not get so good an one from anybody else, and secondly 
 they are paid without any delay. And with this paper- 
 money they can buy what they like anywhere over the 
 Empire, whilst it is also vastly lighter to carry about on 
 their journeys. And it is a truth that the merchants will 
 several times in the year bring wares to the amount of 
 
380 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 400,000 bezants, and the Grand Sire pays for all in that 
 paper. So he buys such a quantity of those precious things 
 every year that his treasure is endless, whilst all the time the 
 money he pays away costs him nothing at all. Moreover 
 several times in the year proclamation is made through the 
 city that any one who may have gold or silver or gems or 
 pearls, by taking them to the Mint shall get a handsome 
 price for them. And the owners are glad to do this, 
 because they would find no other purchaser give so large a 
 price. Thus the quantity they bring in is marvellous, 
 though those who do not choose to do so may let it alone. 
 Still, in this way, nearly all the valuables in the country 
 come into the Kaan’s possession. 
 
 When any of those pieces of paper are spoilt—not that 
 they are so very flimsy neither—the owner carries them to 
 the Mint, and by paying 3 per cent, on the value he gets 
 new pieces in exchange. And if any Baron, or any one 
 else soever, hath need of gold or silver or gems or pearls, 
 in order to make plate, or girdles or the like, he goes to 
 the Mint and buys as much as he list, paying in this paper- 
 money. 1 
 
 Now you have heard the ways and means whereby the 
 Great Kaan may have, and in fact has , more treasure than 
 all the Kings in the World; and you know all about it 
 and the reason why. And now I will tell you of the great 
 Dignitaries which act in this city on behalf of the Em¬ 
 peror. 
 
 Note 1 . —It is surprising to find that, nearly two centuries ago, 
 Magaillans, a missionary who had lived many years in China, and was 
 presumably a Chinese scholar, should have utterly denied the truth of 
 Polo’s statements about the paper-currency of China. Yet the fact even 
 then did not rest on Polo’s statement only. The same thing had been 
 alleged in the printed works of Rubruquis, Roger Bacon, Hayton, Friar 
 Odoric, the Archbishop of Soltania, and Josaphat Barbaro, to say 
 nothing of other European authorities that remained in manuscript, 
 or of the numerous Oriental records of the same circumstance. 
 
 The issue of paper-money in China is at least as old as the beginning 
 
Chap. XXIV. 
 
 THE KAAN’S PAPER-CURRENCY. 
 
 381 
 
 of the 9th century. In 1160 the system had gone to such excess that 
 government paper equivalent in nominal value to 43,600,000 ounces of 
 silver had been issued in six years, and there were local notes besides; 
 so that the Empire was flooded with rapidly depreciating paper. 
 
 The Kin or “Golden” Dynasty of Northern Invaders who imme¬ 
 diately preceded the Mongols took to paper, in spite of their title, as 
 kindly as the native sovereigns. Their notes had a course of seven 
 years, after which new notes were issued to the holders, with a deduction 
 of 15 per cent. 
 
 The Mongols commenced their issues of paper-money in 1236, long 
 before they had transferred the seat of their government to China. 
 Kublai made such an issue in the first year of his reign (1260), and 
 continued to issue notes copiously till the end. In 1287 he put out 
 a complete new currency, one note of which was to exchange against 
 jive of the previous series of equal nominal value ! In both issues the 
 paper-money was, in official valuation, only equivalent to half its nominal 
 value in silver. The paper-money was called Chao. 
 
 The notes of Kublai’s first issue (1260-1287) with which Polo may 
 be supposed most familiar, were divided into 3 classes ; (r) Notes of 
 Tens , viz. of 10, 20, 30, and 50 tsien or cash; (2) Notes of Hundreds , 
 viz., of 100, 200, and 500 tsien; and (3) Notes of Strings or Thousands 
 of cash, or in other words of Liangs or ounces of silver (otherwise Tael ), 
 viz. of 1000 and 2000 tsien. There were also notes printed on silk for 
 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 ounces each, valued at par in silver, but these would 
 not circulate. In 1275, it should be mentioned, there had been a sup¬ 
 plementary issue of small notes for 2, 3, and 5 cash each. 
 
 Marsden states an equation between Marco’s values of the Notes 
 and the actual Chinese currency, to which Biot seems to assent. I 
 doubt its correctness, for his assumed values of the groat or grosso and 
 tornesel are surely wrong. The grosso ran at that time 18 to the gold 
 ducat or sequin, and allowing for the then higher relative value of silver, 
 should have contained about 4! d. of silver. The ducat was also 
 equivalent to 2 lire , and the tornese (.Romanin , III. 343) was 4 deniers. 
 Now the denier is always, I believe, of the lira. Hence the tornese 
 would be ^0 °f the grosso. 
 
 But we are not to look for exact correspondences, when we see Polo 
 applying round figures in European coinage to Chinese currency. 
 
 His bezant notes, I agree with Marsden, here represent the Chinese 
 notes for one and more ounces of silver. And here the correspondence 
 of value is much nearer than it seems at first sight. The Chinese Hang 
 or ounce of silver is valued commonly at 6 s. 7 d., say roundly 80 d. 
 But the • relation of gold and silver in civilized Asia was then (see 
 Cathay , p. ccl, and 442) as 10 to 1, not, as with us now, more than 
 15 to 1. Wherefore the liang ’m relation to gold would be worth 120 
 pence or 10 shillings, a little over the Venetian ducat and somewhat 
 less than the bezant or dinar. We shall then find the table of Chinese 
 issues, as compared with Marco’s equivalents, to stand thus :— 
 
382 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Chinese Issues, as recorded 
 
 For io ounces of silver (viz., the'! 
 
 Chinese Ting) ./ 
 
 For i ounce of silver, i.e. I liang, \ 
 
 or 1000 tsien (cash)./ 
 
 For 500 tsien . 
 
 200 ,, . 
 
 100 ,, . 
 
 50 » . 
 
 30 >, . 
 
 20 ,, 
 
 10 „ 
 
 5 „ 
 
 Pauthier has given from the Chinese Annals of the Mongol Dynasty 
 a complete Table of the Issues of Paper-Money during every year of 
 Kublai’s reign (1260-1294), estimated at their nominal value in Ting or 
 tens of silver ounces. The lowest issue was in 1269, of 228,960 ounces , 
 which at the rate of 120 d. to the ounce (see above) = 114,480/., and the 
 highest was in 1290, viz., 50,002,500 ounces, equivalent at the same 
 estimate to 25,001,250/! whilst the total amount in the 34 years was 
 249,654,290 ounces or 124,827,144/ in nominal value. Well might 
 Marco speak of the vast quantity of such notes that the Great Kaan 
 issued annually! 
 
 To complete the history of the Chinese paper-currency so far as we can : 
 
 In 1309, a new issue took place with the same provision as in 
 Kublai’s last issue, i.e. each note of the new issue was to exchange 
 against 5 of the last of the same nominal value. And it was at the same 
 time prescribed that the notes should exchange at par with metals, 
 which of course it was beyond the power of Government to enforce, and 
 so the notes were abandoned. Issues continued from time to time to 
 the end of the Mongol Dynasty. The paper-currency is spoken of by 
 Odoric (1320-30), by Pegolotti (1330-40), and by Ibn Batuta (1348), 
 as still the chief, if not sole, currency of the Empire. According to the 
 Chinese authorities, the credit of these issues was constantly diminishing, 
 as ’tis easy to suppose. But it is odd that all the Western Travellers 
 speak as if the notes were as good as gold. Pegolotti, writing for mer¬ 
 cantile men, and from the information (as we may suppose) of mercantile 
 men, says explicitly that there was no depreciation. 
 
 The Ming Dynasty for a time carried on the system of paper-money; 
 with the difference that while under the Mongols no other currency had 
 been admitted, their successors made payments in notes, but accepted 
 only hard cash from their people ! In 1448 the chao of 1000 cash was 
 worth but 3. Barbaro still heard talk of the Chinese paper-currency 
 from travellers whom he met at Azov about this time ; but after 1455 
 there is said to be no more mention of it in Chinese history. 
 
 Marco Polo’s Statement. 
 
 10 bezants. 
 
 1 „ 
 
 10 groats. 
 
 5 ,, (should have been 4). 
 
 2 „ 
 
 1 „ 
 
 J ,, (but the proportionate equivalent 
 of a half groat would be 25 
 
 tsien). 
 
 1 tornesel (but the prop, equivalent would 
 be tsien). 
 
 J ,, (but prop, equivalent 3! tsien). 
 
Chap. XXIV. 
 
 THE KAAN’S PAPER-CURRENCY. 
 
 383 
 
 I have never heard of the preservation of any note of the Mongols ; 
 but some of the Ming survive and are highly valued as curiosities in 
 China. The late Sir G. T. Staunton appears to have possessed one; 
 Dr. Lockhart formerly had two, of which he gave one to Sir Harry 
 Parkes, and retains the other. The paper is so dark as to explain 
 Marco’s description of it as black. By Dr. Lockhart’s kindness I am 
 enabled to give a reduced representation of this note, as near a facsimile 
 as we have been able to render it, but with some restoration , e.g. of the 
 seals, of which on the original there is the barest indication remaining. 
 
 Notwithstanding the disuse of Government issues of paper-money 
 from that time till recent years, there had long been in some of the 
 cities of China a large use of private and local promissory notes as 
 currency. In Fuchau this was especially the case; bullion was almost 
 entirely displaced, and the banking-houses in that city were counted by 
 hundreds. These were under no government control; any individual 
 or company having sufficient capital or credit could establish a bank 
 and issue their bills, which varied in amount from 100 cash to 1000 
 dollars. Some fifteen years ago the Imperial Government seems to 
 have been induced by the exhausted state of the Treasury, and these 
 large examples of the local use of paper-currency, to consider projects 
 for resuming that system after the disuse of four centuries. A curious 
 report by a committee of the Imperial Supreme Council, on a project 
 for such a currency, appears among the papers published by the Russian 
 Mission at Peking. It is unfavourable to the particular project, but we 
 gather from other sources that the Government not long afterwards did 
 open banks in the large cities of the Empire for the issue of a new paper- 
 currency, but that it met with bad success. At Fuchau, in 1858, I 
 learn from one notice, the dollar was worth from 18,000 to 20,000 cash 
 in Government Bills. Dr. Rennie, in 1861, speaks of the dollar at 
 Peking as valued at 15,000 and later at 25,000 paper cash. Sushun 
 the Regent had issued a vast number of notes through banks of his own 
 in various parts of Peking. These he failed to redeem, causing the 
 failure of all the banks, and great consequent commotion in the city. 
 The Regent had led the Emperor systematically into debauched habits 
 which ended in paralysis. On the Emperor’s death the Empress caused 
 the arrest and execution of Sushun. His conduct in connexion with 
 the bank failures was so bitterly resented that when the poor wretch 
 was led to execution (Nov. 8, 1861), as I learn from an eye-witness, the 
 defrauded creditors lined the streets and cheered. 
 
 I owe to the same kind aid that lent the Ming Note the example of 
 this unlucky Minister’s Notes, of which I give a facsimile over leaf. 
 
 The Japanese also had a paper-currency in the 14th century. It is 
 different in form from that of China. That figured by Siebold is a strip 
 of strong paper doubled, 6i in. long by if in. wide, bearing a repre¬ 
 sentation of the tutelary god of riches, with long inscriptions in Chinese 
 characters, seals in black and red, and an indication of value in ancient 
 
3 §4 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Japanese characters. I do not learn whether notes of considerable 
 amount are still used in Japan; but Sir R. Alcock speaks of bank-notes 
 for small change from 30 to 500 cash and more, as in general use in the 
 interior. 
 
 Two notable and disastrous attempts to imitate the Chinese system 
 of currency took place in the middle ages; one of them in Persia, appa¬ 
 rently in Polo’s very presence, the other in India some 36 years later. 
 
 The first was initiated in 1294 by the worthless Kaikhatu Khan, 
 when his own and his minister’s extravagance had emptied the Treasury, 
 on the suggestion of a financial officer called Tzzuddfn Muzaffar. The 
 notes were direct imitations of Kublai’s, even the Chinese characters 
 being imitated as part of the device upon them; the Chinese name 
 Chao was applied to them, and the Mongol Resident at Tabriz, Pulad 
 Chingsang, was consulted in carrying out the measure. Expensive pre¬ 
 parations were made for this object; offices called Chao-Khanahs were 
 erected in the principal cities of the provinces, and a numerous staff 
 appointed to carry out the details. Ghazan Khan in Khorasan, however, 
 would have none of it, and refused to allow any of these preparations to 
 be made within his government. After the constrained use of the Chao 
 for two or three days Tabriz was in an uproar; the markets were closed; 
 the people rose and murdered ’Izzuddin; and the whole project had to 
 be abandoned. Marco was in Persia at this time, or just before, and 
 Sir John Malcolm not unnaturally suggests that he might have had 
 something to do with the scheme; a suggestion which excites a needless 
 commotion in the breast of M. Pauthier. We may draw from the story 
 the somewhat notable conclusion that Block-printing was practised, at 
 least for this one purpose, at Tabriz in 1294. 
 
 The other like enterprize was that of Sultan Mahomed Tughlak of 
 Dehli, in 1330-31. This also was undertaken for like reasons, and was 
 in professed imitation of the Chao of Cathay. Mahomed, however, 
 used copper tokens instead of paper; the copper being made apparently 
 of equal weight to the gold or silver coin which it represented. The 
 system seems to have had a little more vogue than at Tabriz, but was 
 speedily brought to an end by the ease with which forgeries on an 
 enormous scale were practised. The Sultan, in hopes of reviving the 
 credit of his currency, ordered that every one bringing copper tokens to 
 the Treasury should have them cashed in gold or silver. “ The people 
 who in despair had flung aside their copper coins like stones and bricks 
 in their houses, all rushed to the Treasury and exchanged them for gold 
 and silver. In this way the Treasury soon became empty, but the 
 copper coins had as little circulation as ever, and a very grievous blow 
 was given to the State.” 
 
 An odd issue of currency, not of paper, but of leather, took place in 
 Italy a few years before Polo’s birth. The Emperor Frederic II., at the 
 siege of Faenza in 1241, being in great straits for money, issued pieces 
 of leather stamped with the mark of his mint at the value of his Golden 
 

 To foil ow Chapter - 4 , o f B o ok 
 
 
 ——•I 1 j 
 
 —.«. 4^ 
 
 —f—i - 
 
 zd fp c ^n ■' 
 
 5^4 
 
 
 Uc?j=j 
 fl M_V_ 
 
 3 idEEHr 
 
 gjgj 
 
 lit li auenfelder , Palei rtio 
 
THE KAAN’S TWELVE BARONS. 
 
 Chap. XXV. 
 
 385 
 
 Augustals. This leather coinage was very popular, especially at Florence, 
 and it was afterwards honourably redeemed by Frederic’s Treasury. 
 
 (Klapr. in Mem. Rel. a VAsie , I. 375 seqq.; Biot, in J. As. ser. 3, 
 tom. iv. ; Marsden and Pauthier , in loco ; Parkes , in J. R. A. S. XIII. 
 179 ; Doolittle, 452 seqq. ; Wylie, J. of Shanghai Lit. and Scient. Soc. No. 
 
 I. ; Arbeiten der kais. russ. Gesandsch. zu Peking, I. p. 48 ; Rennie, 
 Peking, &c., I. 296, 347 ; Birch, in Num. Chron. XII. 169; Informa¬ 
 tion from Dr. Lockhart; Alcock, II. 86; D' Ohs son, IV. 53 ; Cowell , in 
 
 J. A. S. B. XXIX. 183 seqq.; Thomas, Coins of Pat an Sovs. of Hind. 
 (from Numism. Chron. 1852), p. 139 seqq. ; Kington's Fred. II. II. 195.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Concerning the Twelve Barons who are set over all the 
 Affairs of the Great Kaan. 
 
 You must know that the Great Kaan hath chosen twelve 
 great Barons to whom he hath committed all the necessary 
 affairs of thirty-four great provinces; and now I will tell 
 you particulars about them and their establishments. 
 
 You must know that these twelve Barons reside all 
 together in a very rich and handsome palace, which is inside 
 the city of Cambaluc, and consists of a variety of edifices, 
 with many suites of apartments. To every province is 
 assigned a judge and several clerks, and all reside in this 
 palace, where each has his separate quarters. These judges 
 and clerks administer all the affairs of the provinces to 
 which they are attached, under the direction of the twelve 
 Barons. Howbeit, when an affair is of very great import¬ 
 ance, the twelve Barons lay it before the Emperor, and he 
 decides as he thinks best. But the power of those twelve 
 Barons is so great that they choose the governors for all 
 those 34 great provinces that I have mentioned, and only 
 after they have chosen do they inform the Emperor of 
 their choice. This he confirms, and grants to the person 
 nominated a tablet of gold such as is appropriate to the 
 rank of his government. 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 2 c 
 
386 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Those twelve Barons also have such authority that they 
 can dispose of the movements of the forces, and send them 
 whither, and in such strength as, they please. This is done 
 indeed with the Emperor’s cognizance, but still the orders 
 are issued on their authority. They are styled Shieng, 
 which is as much as to say “ The Supreme Court,” and the 
 palace where they abide; js also called Shieng. This body 
 forms the highest authority at the Court of the Great 
 Kaan ; and indeed they can favour and advance whom they 
 will. I will not now name the 34 provinces to you, because 
 they will be spoken of in detail in the course of this Book. 1 
 
 Note 1. —Pauthier’s extracts from the Chinese annals of the dynasty, 
 in illustration of this subject, are interesting. These, as he represents 
 them, show the council of ministers usually to have consisted of twelve 
 high officials, viz. : 2 Ching-siang or (chief) ministers of state, one 
 styled, “of the Right,” and the other “of the Left;” 4 called P'ing- 
 chang ching-sse , which seems to mean something like ministers in charge 
 of special departments ; 4 Assistant ministers; 2 Counsellors. 
 
 Rashiduddin, however, limits the council to the two first classes : 
 “ Strictly speaking, the council of state is composed of four Chingsang 
 ( Ching-siang ) or great officers ( Wazirs , he afterwards terms them), and 
 four Fanchan (P’ing-chang) or associated members, taken from the 
 nations of the Tajiks, Cathayans, Ighurs, and Arkaun.” 
 
 In a later age we find the twelve Barons reappearing in the pages of 
 Mendoza: “ The King hath in this city of Tabin (Peking), where he is 
 resident, a royal council of twelve counsellors and a president, chosen 
 men throughout al the kingdom, and such as have had experience in 
 government many yeares.” And also in the early centuries of the 
 Christian era we hear that the Khan of the Turks had his twelve 
 grandees, divided into those of the Right and those of the Left, pro¬ 
 bably a copy from a Chinese order then also existing. 
 
 But to return to Rashiduddin: “As the Kaan generally resides at 
 the capital, he has erected a place for the sittings of the Great Council, 
 called Sing .... The dignitaries mentioned above are expected to 
 attend daily at the Sing, and to make themselves acquainted with all 
 that passes there.” 
 
 The Sing of Rashid is evidently the Shieng or Sheng (Scieng) of 
 Polo. M. Pauthier is on this point somewhat contemptuous towards 
 Neumann, who, he says, confounds Marco Polo’s twelve barons or 
 ministers of state with the chiefs of the twelve great provincial govern¬ 
 ments called Sing, who had their residence at the chief cities of those 
 
Chap. XXV. 
 
 THE KAAN’S TWELVE BARONS. 
 
 38; 
 
 governments; whilst in fact Polo’s Scieng (he asserts) has nothing to do 
 with the Sing, but represents the Chinese word Siang “ a minister,” 
 and “the office of a minister.” 
 
 It is very probable that two different words, Siang and Sing ; got con¬ 
 founded by the non-Chinese attaches of the imperial court; but it seems 
 to me quite certain that they applied the same word, Sing or Sheng, to 
 both institutions, viz., to the high council of state, and to the provincial 
 governments. It also looks as if Marco Polo himself had made that 
 very confusion with which Pauthier charges Neumann. For whilst here 
 he represents the twelve Barons as forming a council of state at the 
 capital, we find further on, when speaking of the city of Yangcheu, he 
 says : “ Et si siet en ceste cite uns des xii Barojis du Grant Kaan ; car 
 elle est esleue pour un des xii sieges ,” where the last word is probably a 
 mistranscription of sciengs or sings, and in any case the reference is to 
 a distribution of the empire into twelve governments. 
 
 To be convinced that Sing was used by foreigners in the double 
 sense that I have said, we have only to proceed with Rashiduddin’s 
 account of the administration. After what we have already quoted, he 
 goes on : “ The Sing of Khanbaligh is the most eminent, and the build¬ 
 ing is very large . . . Sings do not exist in all the cities, but only in 
 the capitals of great provinces ... In the whole empire of the Kaan 
 there are twelve of these Sings; but that of Khanbaligh is the only one 
 which has Ching-sangs amongst its members.” Wassaf again, after 
 describing the greatness of Khanzai (Kinsay of Polo), says: “ These 
 circumstances characterize the capital itself, but 400 cities of note, and 
 embracing ample territories, are dependent on its jurisdiction, insomuch 
 that the most inconsiderable of those cities surpasses Baghdad and 
 Shiraz. In the number of these cities are Lankinfu and Zaitun, and 
 Chinkalan ; for they call Khanzai a Shing, i.e. a great city in which the 
 high and mighty council of administration holds its meetings.” Friar 
 Odoric again says : “ This empire hath been divided by the Lord thereof 
 into twelve parts, each one whereof is termed a Singo 
 
 Polo, it seems evident to me, knew nothing of Chinese. His Shieng 
 is no direct attempt to represent any Chinese word, but simply the term 
 that he had been used to employ in talking Persian or Turki, in the way 
 that Rashiduddin and Wassaf employ it. 
 
 I find no light as to the 34 provinces into which Polo represents the 
 empire as divided. 
 
 (' Cathay , 263 seqq. , and 137; Mendoza , I. 96 ; Erdmann , 142 ; Ham¬ 
 mer s Wassaf, p. 42, but corrected.) 
 
 2 C 2 
 
3 88 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 How the Kaan’s Posts and Runners are sped through many 
 Lands and Provinces. 
 
 Now you must know that from this city of Cambaluc 
 proceed many roads and highways leading to a variety of 
 provinces, one to one province, another to another; and 
 each road receives the name of the province to which it 
 leads ; and it is a very sensible thing. 1 And the messengers 
 of the Emperor in travelling from Cambaluc, be the road 
 whichsoever they will, find at every 25 miles of the journey 
 a station which they call Yamb , 2 or, as we should say, the 
 “ Horse-Post-House.” And at each of those stations used 
 by the messengers there is a large and handsome building 
 for them to put up at, in which they find all the rooms 
 furnished with fine beds and all other necessary articles in 
 rich silk, and where they are provided with everything they 
 can want. If even a king were to arrive at one of these, 
 he would find himself well lodged. 
 
 At some of these stations, moreover, there shall be 
 posted some 400 horses standing ready for the use of the 
 messengers; at others there shall be 200, according to the 
 requirements, and to what the Emperor has established in 
 each case. At every 25 miles, as I said, or any how at every 
 30 miles, you find one of these stations, on all the principal 
 highways leading to the different provincial governments; 
 and the same is the case throughout all the chief provinces 
 subject to the Great Kaand Even when the messengers 
 have to pass through a roadless tract where neither house 
 nor hostel exists, still there the station-houses have been 
 established just the same, excepting that the intervals are 
 somewhat greater, and the day’s journey is fixed at 33 to 
 45 miles, instead of 25 to 30. But they are provided with 
 horses and all the other necessaries just like those we have 
 described, so that the Emperor’s messengers, come they 
 
Chap. XXVI. THE KAAN’S POSTS AND RUNNERS. 3^9 
 
 from what region they may, find everything ready for 
 them. 
 
 And in sooth this is a thing done on the greatest scale 
 of magnificence that ever was seen. Never had emperor, 
 king, or lord, such wealth as this manifests! For it is a 
 fact that on all these posts ta*ken together there are more 
 than 300,000 horses kept up, specially for the use of the 
 messengers. And the great buildings that I have men¬ 
 tioned are more than 10,000 in number, all richly furnished 
 as I told you. The thing is on a scale so wonderful and 
 costly that it is hard to bring oneself to describe it. 4 
 
 But now I will tell you another thing that I had for¬ 
 gotten, but which ought to be told whilst I am on this 
 subject. You must know that by the Great Kaan’s orders 
 there has been established between those post-houses at every 
 interval of 3 miles, a little fort with some 40 houses round 
 about it, in which dwell the people who act as the Emperor’s 
 foot-runners. Every one of those runners wears a great 
 wide belt, set all over with bells, so that as they run the 
 3 miles from post to post their bells are heard jingling a 
 long way off. And thus on reaching the post the runner 
 finds another man similarly equipt, and all ready to take 
 his place, who instantly takes over whatsoever he has in 
 charge, and with it receives a slip of paper from the clerk 
 who is always at hand for the purpose; and so the new 
 man sets off and runs his 3 miles. At the next station he 
 finds his relief ready in like manner ; and so the post pro¬ 
 ceeds, with a change at every 3 miles. And in this way the 
 Emperor, who has an immense number of these runners, 
 receives despatches with news from places 10 days’journey 
 off in one day and night; or, if need be, news from a 
 hundred days off in ten days and nights; and that is no 
 small matter! [In fact in the fruit season many a time 
 fruit shall be gathered one morning in Cambaluc, and the 
 evening of the next day it shall reach the Great Kaan at 
 Chandu, a distance of ten days'’journey. 5 The clerk at each 
 
390 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 of the posts notes the time of each courier’s arrival and 
 departure; and there are often other officers whose business 
 it is to make monthly visitations of all the posts, and to 
 punish those runners who have been slack in their work. 6 "] 
 The Emperor exempts these men from all tribute, and pays 
 them besides. 
 
 Moreover, there are also at those stations other men 
 equipt similarly with girdles hung with bells, who are 
 employed for expresses when there is a call for great haste 
 in sending despatches to any governor of a province, or to 
 give news when any Baron has revolted, or in other such 
 emergencies; and these men travel a good 200 or 250 
 miles in the day, and as much in the night. I’ll tell you 
 how it stands. They take a horse from those at the station 
 which are standing ready saddled, all fresh and in wind, 
 and mount and go at full speed, as hard as they can ride in 
 fact. And when those at the next post hear the bells they 
 get ready another horse and a man equipt in the same way, 
 and he takes over the letter or whatever it be, and is off full- 
 speed to the third station, where again a fresh horse is 
 found all ready, and so the despatch speeds along from 
 post to post, always at full gallop with regular change of 
 horses. And the speed at which they go is marvellous. 
 [By night, however, they cannot go so fast as by day, be¬ 
 cause they have to be accompanied by footmen with 
 torches, who could not keep up with them at full speed.] 
 
 Those men are highly prized; and they could never do 
 it did they not bind hard the stomach, chest, and head 
 with strong bands. And each of them carries with him a 
 gerfalcon tablet, in sign that he is bound on an urgent 
 express; so that if perchance his horse break down, or he 
 meet with other mishap, whomsoever he may fall in with 
 on the road, he is empowered to make him dismount and 
 give up his horse. Nobody dares refuse in such a case; 
 so that the courier hath always a good fresh nag to carry 
 him. 7 
 
Chap. XXVI. THE KAAN’S POSTS AND RUNNERS. 
 
 39 1 
 
 Now all these numbers of post-horses cost the Emperor 
 nothing at all; and I will tell you the how and the why. 
 Every city, or village, or hamlet, that stands near one of 
 those post-stations, has a fixed demand made on it for as 
 many horses as it can supply, and these it must furnish to 
 the post. And in this way are provided all the posts of the 
 cities, as well as the towns and villages round about them; 
 only in uninhabited tracts the horses are furnished at the 
 expense of the Emperor himself. 
 
 [Nor do the cities maintain the full number, say of 
 400 horses, always at their station, but month by month 200 
 shall be kept at the station, and the other 200 at grass, 
 coming in their turn to relieve the first 200. And if there 
 chance to be some river or lake to be passed by the runners 
 and horse-posts, the neighbouring cities are bound to keep 
 3 or 4 boats in constant readiness for the purpose.] 
 
 And now I will tell you of the great bounty exercised 
 by the Emperor towards his people twice a year. 
 
 Note 1 .—The G. Text has “ et ce est mout s$ne chouse Pauthier’s 
 Text, “ mais il est moult cele .” The latter seems absurd. I have no 
 doubt, that s$ue is correct, and is an Italianism, saputo having sometimes 
 the sense of prudent or judicious. Thus P. della Valle (II. 26) speak¬ 
 ing of Shah Abbas : “ Ma noti V. S. i tiri di questo re, saputo insieme 
 e bizzarro,” “ acute with all his eccentricity.” 
 
 Note 2 .—Both Neumann and Pauthier seek Chinese etymologies 
 of this Mongol word, which the Tartars carried with them all over Asia. 
 It survives in Persian and Turki in the senses both of a post-house and 
 a post-horse. The ambassadors of Shah Rukh on arriving at Sukchu 
 were lodged in the Yam-Khana , or post-house, by the city gate; and 
 they found 99 such Yams between Sukchu and Khanbaligh, at each 
 of which they were supplied with provisions, servants, beds, night¬ 
 clothes, &c. Odoric likewise speaks of the hostelries called Yam , and 
 Rubruquis applies the same term to quarters in the imperial camp, 
 which were assigned for the lodgment of ambassadors. ( Cathay , ccii, 137 ; 
 Ruhr . 310.) 
 
 Note 3. —Martini and Magaillans in the 17th century give nearly 
 the same account of the government hostelries. 
 
 Note 4 . — Here Ramusio has this digression: “Should any one 
 find it difficult to understand how there should be such a population as 
 
39 2 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 all this implies, and how they can subsist, the answer is that all the 
 Idolaters, and Saracens as well, take six, eight, or ten wives apiece 
 when they can afford it, and beget an infinity of children. In fact, you 
 shall find many men who have each more than 30 sons who form an 
 armed retinue to their father, and this through the fact of his having so 
 many wives. With us, on the other hand, a man hath but one wife; 
 and if she be barren, still he must abide by her for life, and have no pro¬ 
 geny ; thus we have not such a population as they have. 
 
 “ And as regards food, they have abundance ; for they generally 
 consume rice, panic, and millet (especially the Tartars, Cathayans, and 
 people of Manzi); and these three crops in those countries render an 
 hundred-fold. Those nations use no bread, but only boil those kinds 
 of grain with milk or meat for their victual. Their wheat, indeed, does 
 not render so much, but this they use only to make vermicelli, and 
 pastes of that description. No spot of arable land is left untilled; and 
 their cattle are infinitely prolific, so that when they take the field every 
 man is followed by six, eight, or more horses for his own use. Thus you 
 may clearly perceive how the population of those parts is so great, and 
 how they have such an abundance of food.” 
 
 Note 5 .—The Burmese kings used to have the odoriferous Durian 
 transmitted by horse-posts from Tenasserim to Ava. But the most 
 notable example of the rapid transmission of such dainties, and the 
 nearest approach I know of to their despatch by telegraph, was that 
 practised for the benefit of the Fatimite Khalif Aziz (latter part of 10th 
 century), who had a great desire for a dish of cherries of Balbek. The 
 Wazir Yakub-ben Kilis caused 600 pigeons to be despatched from 
 Balbek to Cairo, each of which carried attached to either leg a small 
 silk bag containing a cherry ! ( Quat . Makrizi , IV. 118.) 
 
 Note 6.—“ Note is taken at every post,” says Amyot, in speaking of 
 the Chinese practice of last century, “ of the time of the courier’s arrival, 
 in order that it may be known at what point delays have occurred.” 
 {Mem. VIII. 185.) 
 
 Note 7 .—The post-system is described almost exactly as in the 
 text by Friar Odoric and the Archbishop of Soltania, in the generation 
 after Polo, and very much in the same way by Magaillans in the 17 th 
 century. Posts had existed in China from an old date. They are 
 spoken of by Mas’udi and the Relations of the 9th century. They were 
 also in use in India at least in the generation after Polo. The Mongols, 
 too, carried the institution wherever they went. 
 
Chap. XXVII. HOW THE KAAN HELPS HIS PEOPLE. 
 
 393 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 How the Emperor bestows help on his People, when they are 
 
 AFFLICTED WITH DEARTH OR MURRAIN. 
 
 Now you must know that the Emperor sends his Mes¬ 
 sengers over all his Lands and Kingdoms and Provinces, 
 to ascertain from his officers if the people are afflicted by 
 any dearth through unfavourable seasons, or storms or 
 locusts, or other like calamity ; and from those who have 
 suffered in this way no taxes are exacted for that year; nay 
 more, he causes them to be supplied with corn of his own 
 for food and seed. Now this is undoubtedly a great bounty 
 on his part. And when winter comes, he causes inquiry to 
 be made as to those who have lost their cattle, whether by 
 murrain or other mishap, and such persons not only go 
 scot free, but get presents of cattle. And thus, as I tell 
 you, the Lord every year helps and fosters the people sub¬ 
 ject to him. 
 
 [There is another trait of the Great Kaan I should tell 
 you ; and that is, that if a chance shot from his bow strike 
 any herd or flock, whether belonging to one person or to 
 many, and however big the flock may be, he takes no tithe 
 thereof for three years. In like manner if the arrow strike 
 a boat full of goods, that boat-load pays no duty ; for it is 
 thought unlucky that an arrow strike any one’s property ; 
 and the Great Kaan says it would be an abomination before 
 God, were such property, that has been struck by the divine 
 wrath, to enter into his Treasury. 1 ] 
 
 Note 1 .—The Chinese author already quoted as to Kublai’s character 
 (Note 2 , chap, xxiii. supra) says : “This Prince, at the sight of some evil 
 prognostic, or when there was dearth, would remit taxation, and cause 
 grain to be distributed to those who were in destitution. He would often 
 complain that there never lacked informers if balances were due, or if 
 corvees had to be ordered, but when the necessities of the people required 
 to be reported, not a word was said.” 
 
394 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Wassaf tells a long story in illustration of Kublai’s justice and con¬ 
 sideration for the peasantry. One of his sons, with, a handful of followers, 
 had got separated from the army, and halted at a village in the territory 
 of Bishbaligh, where the people gave them a sheep and wine. Next 
 year two of the party came the same way and demanded a sheep and 
 a stoup of wine. The people gave it, but went to the Kaan and told the 
 story, saying they feared it might grow into a perpetual exaction. Kublai 
 sharply rebuked the Prince, and gave the people compensation and an 
 order in their favour. (. Demailla , IX. 460; Hammer's Wassaf, 38-9.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 How the Great Kaan causes Trees to be planted by the 
 
 Highways. 
 
 The Emperor moreover hath taken order that all the high¬ 
 ways travelled by his messengers and the people generally 
 should be planted with rows of great trees a few paces apart; 
 and thus these trees are visible a long way off, and no one 
 can miss the way by day or night. Even the roads through 
 uninhabited tracts are thus planted, and it is the greatest 
 possible solace to travellers. And this is done on all the 
 ways where it can be of service. [The Great Kaan plants 
 these trees all the more readily, because his astrologers and 
 diviners tell him that he who plants trees lives long. 
 
 But where the ground is so sandy and desert that trees 
 will not grow, he causes other landmarks, pillars or stones, to 
 be set up to show the way.] 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Concerning the Rice-Wine drunk by the People of Cathay. 
 
 Most of the people of Cathay drink wine of the kind that 
 I shall now describe. It is a liquor which they brew of rice 
 with a quantity of excellent spice, in such fashion that it 
 
Chap. XXX. 
 
 RICE-WINE — STONE-FUEL. 
 
 395 
 
 makes better drink than any other kind of wine ; it is not 
 only good, but clear and pleasing to the eye. 1 And being 
 very hot stuff, it makes one drunk sooner than any other 
 wine. 
 
 Note 1.— The mode of making Chinese Rice-wine is described in 
 Amyot’s Memoires , V. 468 seqq. A kind of yeast is employed, with 
 which is often mixed a flour prepared from fragrant herbs, almonds, 
 pine-seeds, dried fruits, &c. Rubruquis says this liquor was not dis¬ 
 tinguishable, except by smell, from the best wine of Auxerre; a wine so 
 famous in the Middle Ages, that the Historian Friar, Salimbene, went 
 from Lyons to Auxerre on purpose to drink it. # Ysbrand Ides com¬ 
 pares the Rice-wine to Rhenish; John Bell to Canary; a modern 
 traveller quoted by Davis, “ in colour, and a little in taste, to Madeira.” 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Concerning the Black Stones that are dug in Cathay, and are 
 
 BURNT FOR FUEL. 
 
 It is a fact that all over the country of Cathay there is 
 a kind of black stone existing in beds in the mountains, 
 which they dig out and burn like firewood. If you supply 
 the fire with them at night, and see that they are well 
 kindled, you will find them still alight in the morning; and 
 they make such capital fuel that no other is used throughout 
 the country. It is true that they have plenty of wood also, 
 but they do not burn it, because those stones burn better 
 and cost less. 1 
 
 [Moreover with that vast number of people, and the 
 number of hot-baths that they maintain—for every one has 
 such a bath at least 3 times a week, and in winter if possible 
 every day, whilst every nobleman and man of wealth has 
 a private bath for his own use—the wood would not suffice 
 for the purpose.] 
 
 Kington's Fred . II ., II. 457. 
 
396 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 Note 1 . — There is a great consumption of coal in Northern China, 
 especially in the brick stoves which are universal even in poor houses. 
 Coal seems to exist in nearly every province of China. It abounds in 
 the hills near Peking and along the road to Kalgan, but the best brought 
 to the capital is from Pingtingcheu in Shansi; a province which is nearly 
 all productive of coal. It is also found in Manchuria, and abundantly 
 in Shantung. It is wrought in various parts of the valley of the Great 
 Kiang, and at the highest point reached by Sarel and Blakiston they 
 found mines on the cliffs over the river, from which the coal was sent 
 down by long bamboo cables, the loaded baskets drawing up the empty 
 ones. The kind in most demand in Central China is the Kwang coal, 
 a sort of anthracite. There are numerous varieties in Kiangsi, and the 
 porcelain furnaces of Kingteching in that province are chiefly heated 
 with coal from the adjoining mountains. 
 
 In various parts of China, as in Chekiang, Ssechuen, and at Peking, 
 they form powdered coal, mixed with mud, into bricks somewhat like our 
 “patent fuel.” This practice is noticed by Ibn Batuta, as well as the 
 use of coal in making porcelain, though this he seems to have misunder¬ 
 stood. Rashiduddin also mentions the use of coal in China. It was in 
 use, according to citations of Pauthier’s, before the Christian era. It is 
 a popular belief in China that every provincial capital is bound to be 
 established over a coal-field, so as to have a provision in case of siege. 
 It is said that during the British siege of Canton mines were opened to 
 the north of the city. 
 
 (' Macgowan in Ch. Repos. XIX. 385-7 ; Blakiston , 133, 265 ; Mid. 
 Kingdom , I. 73, 78 ; Amyot, XI. 334; Cathay , 261, 478, 482 ; Notes by 
 Rev. A. Williamson in J. N. Ch. Br. R.A.S., Dec. 1867 ; Hedde and 
 Rondot , p. 63.) 
 
 Aeneas Sylvius relates as a miracle that took place before his eyes 
 in Scotland, that poor and almost naked beggars, when stones were given 
 them as alms at the church doors, went away quite delighted; for stones 
 of that kind were imbued either with brimstone or with some oily matter, 
 so that they could be burnt instead of wood, of which the country was 
 destitute. (Quoted by Jos. Robertson , Statnta Eccles. Scotic. I. xciii.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 How the Great Kaan causes Stores of Corn to be made, to 
 help his People withal in time of Dearth. 
 
 You must know that when the Emperor sees that corn is 
 cheap and abundant, he buys up large quantities, and has 
 
Chap. XXXI. 
 
 THE KAAN’S STORES OF CORN. 
 
 397 
 
 it stored in all his provinces in great granaries, where it is 
 so well looked after that it will keep for three or four years. 1 
 
 And this applies, let me tell you, to all kinds of corn, 
 whether wheat, barley, millet, rice, panic, or what not, and 
 when there is any scarcity of a particular kind of corn he 
 causes that to be issued. And if the price of the corn is at 
 one bezant the measure, he lets them have it at a bezant for 
 four measures, or at whatever price will produce general 
 cheapness; and every one can have food in this way. And 
 by this providence of the Emperor’s, his people can never 
 suffer from dearth. He does the same over his whole Em¬ 
 pire ; causing these supplies to be stored everywhere accord¬ 
 ing to calculation of the wants and necessities of the people. 
 
 Note 1.—“ Le fait si bien estuier que il dure bien trois ans ouquatre ” 
 (Pauthier) : “ si bien estudier ” (G. T.). I half suspect it should be 
 estuver in the sense of “kiln-dry,” but both the Geog. Latin and the 
 Crusca render it gubernare\ Le Comte says : “ Rice is always stored 
 in the public granaries for three or four years in advance. It keeps 
 long if care be taken to air it and stir it about; and although not so 
 good to the taste or look as new rice, it is said to be more wholesome.” 
 
 The Archbishop of Soltania speaks of these stores : “ The said 
 Emperor is very pitiful and compassionate; . . . . and so when there is 
 dearth in the land he openeth his garners, and giveth forth of his 
 wheat and his rice for half what others are selling it at.” Kublai Kaan’s 
 measures of this kind are recorded in the annals of the Dynasty as 
 quoted by Pauthier. The same practice is ascribed to the sovereigns 
 of the Thang Dynasty by the old Arab Relations. In later days a mis¬ 
 sionary gives in the Lettres Edifiantes an unfavourable account of the 
 action of these public granaries, and of the rascality that occurred in 
 connexion with them. ( Lecomte , II. ioi ; Cathay , 240; Relat. I. 39 ; 
 Let. Ed. XXIV. 76.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Of the Charity of the Emperor to the Poor. 
 
 I have told you how the Great Kaan provides for the 
 distribution of necessaries to his people in time of dearth, 
 
398 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 by making store in time of cheapness. Now I will tell 
 you of his alms and great charity to the poor of his city 
 of Cambaluc. 
 
 You see he causes selection to be made of a number 
 of families in the city which are in a state of indigence, 
 and of such families some may consist of six in the house, 
 some of eight, some of ten, more or fewer in each as it may 
 hap, but the whole number being very great. And each 
 family he causes annually to be supplied with wheat and 
 other corn sufficient for the whole year. And this he 
 never fails to do every year. Moreover, all those who 
 choose to go to the daily almose at the Court receive a 
 great loaf apiece hot from the baking, and nobody is 
 denied; for so the Lord hath ordered. And so some 
 30,000 people go for it every day from years end to year’s 
 end. Now this is a great goodness in the Emperor to 
 take pity of his poor people thus! And they benefit so 
 much by it that they worship him as he were God. 
 
 [He also provides the poor with clothes. For he lays 
 a tithe upon all wool, silk, hemp, and the like, from which 
 clothing can be made ; and he has these woven and laid 
 up in a building set apart for the purpose; and as all 
 artizans are bound to give a day’s labour weekly, in this 
 way the Kaan has these stuffs made into clothing for those 
 poor families, suitable for summer or winter according to 
 the time of yeai. He also provides the clothing for his 
 troops, and has woollens woven for them in every city, the 
 material for which is furnished by the tithe aforesaid. You 
 should know that the Tartars, before they were converted 
 to the religion of the Idolaters, never practised almsgiving. 
 Indeed when any poor man begged of them they would 
 tell him, “ Go with God’s curse, for if He loved you as 
 He loves me He would have provided for you! ” But 
 the sages of the Idolaters, and especially the Bacsis men¬ 
 tioned before, told the Great Kaan that it was a good work 
 to provide for the poor, and that his idols would be greatly 
 
Chap. XXXIII. THE ASTROLOGERS OF CAMBALUC. 
 
 399 
 
 pleased if he did so. And since then he has taken to do 
 for the poor so much as you have heard. 1 ] 
 
 Note 1 . — This is a curious testimony to an ameliorating effect of 
 Buddhism on rude nations. The general establishment of medical aid 
 for men and animals is alluded to in the edicts of Asoka; and hospitals 
 for the diseased and destitute were found by Fahian at Palibothra. The 
 Archbishop of Soltania bears like testimony to that in this chapter 
 regarding the charities of the Great Kaan; and Friar Jordanus had also 
 heard of his unexampled almsgiving. Various examples of a charitable 
 spirit in Chinese Institutions will be found in a letter by Pere d’Entre- 
 colles in the XVth Recueil of Lettres Edijia 7 ites ; and a similar detail in 
 Nevius's China arid the Chinese, ch. xv. (See Prinsefts Essays , II. 15 ; 
 Beads Fah-hian, 107.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 [Concerning the Astrologers in the City of Cambaluc.] 
 
 [There are in the city of Cambaluc, what with Christians, 
 Saracens, and Cathayans, some 5000 astrologers and sooth¬ 
 sayers, whom the Great Kaan provides with annual main¬ 
 tenance and clothing, just as he provides the poor of whom 
 we have spoken, and they are in the constant exercise of 
 their art in this city. 
 
 They have a kind of Astrolabe on which are inscribed 
 the planetary signs, the hours and critical points of the whole 
 year. And every year these Christian, Saracen, and Cath- 
 ayan astrologers, each sect apart, investigate by means of 
 this astrolabe the course and character of the whole year, 
 according to the indications of each of its Moons, in order 
 to discover by the natural course and disposition of the 
 planets, and the other circumstances of the heavens, what 
 shall be the nature of the weather, and what peculiarities 
 shall be produced by each Moon of the year; as for ex¬ 
 ample, under which Moon there shall be thunderstorms 
 and tempests, under which there shall be disease, murrain, 
 
400 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 wars, disorders, and treasons, and so on according to the 
 indications of each; but always adding that it lies with 
 God to do less or more according to his pleasure. And 
 they write down the results of their examination in certain 
 little pamphlets for the year, which are called Tacuin , and 
 these are sold for a groat to all who desire to know what 
 is coming. Those of the astrologers, of course, whose pre¬ 
 dictions are found to be most exact, are held to be the 
 greatest adepts in their art, and get the greater fame. 1 
 
 And if any one having some great matter in hand, 
 or proposing to make a long journey for traffic or other 
 business, desires to know what will be the upshot, he goes 
 to one of these astrologers and says; “ Turn up your books 
 and see what is the present aspect of the heavens, for I am 
 going away on such and such a business.” Then the astro¬ 
 loger will reply that the applicant must also tell the year, 
 month, and hour of his birth; and when he has got that 
 information he will see how the horoscope of his nativity 
 combines with the indications of the time when the ques¬ 
 tion is put, and then he predicts the result, good or bad, 
 according to the aspect of the heavens. 
 
 You must know, too, that the Tartars reckon their years 
 by twelves; the sign of the first year being the Lion, of 
 the second the Ox, of the third the Dragon, of the fourth 
 the Dog, and so forth up to the twelfth ; 2 so that when one 
 is asked the year of his birth he answers that it was in the 
 year of the Lion (let us say) on such a day or night, at 
 such an hour, and such a moment. And the father of a 
 child always takes care to write these particulars down in 
 a book. When the twelve yearly symbols have been gone 
 through, then they come back to the first, and go through 
 with them again in the same succession.] 
 
 Note 1 .— It is odd that Marsden should have sought a Chinese 
 explanation of the Arabic word Takwim , even with Tavernier before him : 
 “ They sell in Persia an annual almanac called Tacuim , which is pro- 
 
Chap. XXXIII. THE ASTROLOGERS OF CAMBALUC. 401 
 
 perly an ephemeris containing the longitude and latitude of the planets, 
 their conjunctions and oppositions, and other such matter. The Tacuim 
 is full of predictions regarding war, pestilence, and famine; it indicates 
 the favourable time for putting on new clothes, for getting bled or 
 purged, for making a journey, and so forth. They put entire faith in it, 
 and whoever can afford one governs himself in all things by its rules.” 
 (Bk. V. ch. xiv.) 
 
 The use of the term by Marco may possibly be an illustration of 
 what I have elsewhere propounded, viz. that he was not acquainted with 
 Chinese, but that his intercourse and conversation lay chiefly with the 
 foreigners at the Kaan’s Court, and probably was carried on in the 
 Persian language. But not long after the date of our Book we find the 
 word used in Italian by Jacopo Alighieri (Dante’s son) :— 
 
 “ A voler giudicare 
 Si conviene adequare 
 Inprima il Taccuino , 
 
 Per vedere il pammino 
 Come i Pianeti vanno 
 Per tutto quanto l'anno.” 
 
 —Rime Antiche Toscane, III. 10. 
 
 Marco does not allude to the fact that almanacs were published by 
 the Government, as they were then and still are. Pauthier (515 seqq.) 
 gives some very curious details on this subject from the Annals of the 
 Yuen. In the accounts of the year 1328, it appears that no less than 
 3,123,185 copies were printed in three different sizes at different prices, 
 besides a separate almanac for the Hwei-Hwei or Mahomedans. Had 
 Polo not omitted to touch on the issue of almanacs by Government he 
 could scarcely have failed to enter on the subject of printing, on which 
 he has kept a silence so singular and unaccountable. 
 
 The Chinese Government still “ considers the publication of a Ca¬ 
 lendar of the first importance and utility. It must do everything in its 
 power, not only to point out to its numerous subjects the distribution 
 of the seasons, .... but on account of the general superstition it must 
 mark in the almanac the lucky and unlucky days, the best days for being 
 married, for undertaking a journey, for making their dresses, for buying 
 or building, for presenting petitions to the Emperor, and for many other 
 cases of ordinary life. By this means the Government keeps the people 
 within the limits of humble obedience; it is for this reason that the 
 Emperors of China established the Academy of Astronomy ” ( Timk . I. 
 358). The acceptance of the Imperial Almanac by a foreign Prince is 
 considered an acknowledgment of vassalage to the Emperor. 
 
 It is a penal offence to issue a pirated or counterfeit edition of the 
 Government Almanac. No one ventures to be without one, lest he 
 become liable to the greatest misfortunes by undertaking important 
 measures on black-balled days. 
 
 The price varies now, according to Williams, from 1 id. to 5^. a copy. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 D 
 
402 
 
 OBSERVATORY AT PEKING. 
 
 Chap. XXIII 
 
 Court of the Observatory at Peking, with ancient Instruments of the Mongol Era. 
 
Chap. XXXIII. 
 
 THE MONGOL CALENDAR. 
 
 403 
 
 The price in 1328 was 1 tsien or cash for the cheapest edition, and 
 1 liang or tael of silver for the edition de luxe; but as these prices were 
 in paper-money it is extremely difficult to say, in the varying depreciation 
 of that currency, what the price really amounted to. 
 
 We may note that in Polo’s time one of the principal officers of the 
 Mathematical Board was Gaisue , a native of Folin or the Byzantine 
 Empire, who was also in charge of the medical department of the Court. 
 Regarding the Observatory, of which we here give a cut, see note at 
 p. 333 supra. On the importance attached by the Chinese to these 
 auguries in all the affairs of life, and on the public diviners and fortune¬ 
 tellers, see Semedo, p. 118 seqq. ; Kidd , p. 313 (also for preceding 
 references, Mid. Kingdom , II. 152 ; Gaubil , 136). 
 
 Note 2 . —The real cycle of the Mongols, which was also that of 
 the Chinese, runs: 1. Rat; 2. Ox; 3. Tiger; 4. Hare; 5. Dragon; 6. 
 Serpent; 7. Horse; 8. Sheep; 9. Ape; 10. Cock; n. Dog; 12. Swine. 
 But as such a cycle is too short to avoid confusion, it is combined with 
 a coefficient cycle of ten epithets in such wise as to produce a 60-year 
 cycle of compound names before the same shall recur. These coefficient 
 epithets are found in three different forms : (1) From the Elements, 
 Wood, Fire, Earth, Iron, Water, attaching to each a masculine and 
 feminine attribute so as to make ten epithets. (2) From the Colours, 
 Blue, Red, Yellow, White, Black, similarly treated. (3) By terms without 
 meaning in Mongol, directly adopted or imitated from the Chinese, Ga, 
 Yi, Bing, Ting, &c. Thus 1864 was the first year of a 60-year cycle : — 
 
 1864 = (Masc.) Wood-Rat Year = (Masc.) Blue-Rat Year. 
 
 1865 = (Fern.) Wood-Ox Year = (Fem.) Blue-Ox Year. 
 
 1866 — (Masc.) Fire-Tiger Year = (Masc.) Red—Tiger Year. 
 
 1867 = (Fem.) Fire-Hare Year - (Fem.) Red-Hare Year. 
 
 I 9 2 3 — (Fem.) Water-Swine Year = (Fem.) Black-Szuine Year. 
 
 And then a new cycle commences just as before. 
 
 This Calendar was carried by the Mongols into all their dominions, 
 and it would appear to have long survived them in Persia. Thus a 
 document issued in favour of Sir John Chardin by the Shaikh-ul-Isla? 7 i 
 of Ispahan, bears the strange date for a Mahomedan luminary of “ The 
 year of the Swine.” The Hindus also had a 60-year cycle, but with them 
 each year had an independent name. 
 
 The Mongols borrowed their system from the Chinese, who attribute 
 its invention to the Emperor Hwang-ti, and its initiation to the 61st year 
 of his reign, corresponding to b.c. 2637. The characters representing 
 what we have called the ten coefficient epithets, are called by the Chinese 
 the “ Heavenly Stems;” those equivalent to the twelve animal symbols 
 are the “ Earthly Branches,” and they are applied in their combinations 
 not to years only, but to cycles of months, days, and hours, such hours 
 being equal to two of ours. Thus every year, month, day, and hour will 
 have two appropriate characters, and the four pairs belonging to the 
 
 2 D 2 
 
404 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 time of any man’s birth constitute what the Chinese call the “ Eight 
 Characters” of his age, to which constant reference is made in some of 
 their systems of fortune-telling, and in the selection of propitious days 
 for the transaction of business. To this system the text alludes. A 
 curious account of the principles of. prognostication on such a basis will 
 be found in Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese (p. 579 seqq.; on the 
 Calendar, see Schmidt’s Preface to S. Setzen; Pallas , Sammlungen , II. 
 228 seqq. ; Prinsefis Essays , Useful Tables , 146.) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 [Concerning the Religion of the Cathayans ; 1 their views as 
 to the Soul ; and their Customs. 
 
 As we have said before, these people are Idolaters, and as 
 regards their gods, each has a tablet fixed high up on the 
 wall of his chamber, on which is inscribed a name which 
 represents the Most High and Heavenly God; and before 
 this they pay daily worship, offering incense from a thurible, 
 raising their hands aloft, and gnashing their teeth 2 three 
 times, praying Him to grant them health of mind and 
 body; but of Him they ask nought else. And below on 
 the ground there is a figure which they call Natigai , which 
 is the god of things terrestrial. To him they give a wife 
 and children, and they worship him in the same manner, 
 with incense, and gnashing of teeth, 2 and lifting up of 
 hands; and of him they ask seasonable weather, and the 
 fruits of the earth, children, and so forth. 1 
 
 Their view of the immortality of the soul is after this 
 fashion. They believe that as soon as a man dies, his soul 
 enters into another body, going from a good to a better, 
 or from a bad to a worse, according as he hath conducted 
 himself well or ill. That is to say, a poor man, if he have 
 passed through life good and sober, shall be born again of a 
 gentlewoman, and shall be a gentleman; and on a'second 
 occasion shall be born of a princess and shall be a prince, and 
 
Chap. XXXIV. RELIGION OF THE CATHAYANS. 405 
 
 so on, always rising, till he be absorbed into the Deity. But 
 if he have borne himself ill, he who was the son of a gentle¬ 
 man shall be reborn as the son of a boor, and from a boor 
 shall become a dog, always going down lower and lower. 
 
 The people have an ornate style of speech; they salute 
 each other with a cheerful countenance, and with great 
 politeness ; they behave like gentlemen, and eat with great 
 propriety. 4 They show great respect to their parents ; and 
 should there be any son who offends his parents, or fails to 
 minister to their necessities, there is a public office which 
 has no other charge but that of punishing unnatural 
 children, who are proved to have acted with ingratitude 
 towards their parents. 5 
 
 Criminals of sundry kinds who have been imprisoned, 
 are released at a time fixed by the Great Kaan (which 
 occurs every three years), but on leaving prison they are 
 branded on one cheek that they may be recognized. 
 
 The Great Kaan hath prohibited all gambling and 
 sharping, things more prevalent there than in any other 
 part of the world. In doing this, he said: “ I have con¬ 
 quered you by force of arms, and all that you have is mine ; 
 if, therefore, you gamble away your property, it is in fact 
 my property that you are gambling away.” Not that he 
 took anything from them however. 
 
 I must not omit to tell you of the orderly way in which 
 the Kaan’s Barons and others conduct themselves in coming 
 to his presence. In the first place, within a half mile of 
 the place where he is, out of reverence for his exalted 
 majesty, everybody preserves a mien of#the greatest meek¬ 
 ness and quiet, so that no noise of shrill voices or loud 
 talk shall be heard. And every one of the chiefs and 
 nobles carries always with him a handsome little vessel to 
 spit in whilst he remains in the Hall of Audience—for no 
 one dares spit on the floor of the hall,—and when he hath 
 spitten he covers it up and puts it aside. So also they 
 all have certain handsome buskins of white leather, which 
 
40 6 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 they carry with them, and, when summoned by the sove¬ 
 reign, on arriving at the entrance to the hall, they put on 
 these white buskins, and give their others in charge to the 
 servants, in order that they may not foul the fine carpets 
 of silk and gold and divers colours.] 
 
 Note 1 .—Ramusio’s heading has 'Tartars , but it is manifestly of the 
 Cathayans or Chinese that the author speaks throughout this chapter. 
 
 Note 2.—“ Sbattono i denti .” This is almost certainly, as Marsden 
 has noticed, due to some error of transcription. Probably Battono i 
 fronti , or something similar, was the true reading. 
 
 Note 3.— The latter part of this passage has, I doubt not, been 
 more or less interpolated, seeing that it introduces again as a Chinese 
 divinity the rude object of primitive Tartar worship, of which we have 
 already heard in Book I. ch. liii. And regarding the former part of the 
 passage, one cannot but have some doubt whether what was taken for 
 the symbol of the Most High, was not the ancestral tablet, which is 
 usually placed in one of the inner rooms of the house, and before which 
 worship is performed at fixed times, and according to certain established 
 forms. Something, too, may have been known of the emperor’s worship 
 of heaven at the great circular temple at Peking, where incensed offer¬ 
 ings are made before a tablet, on which is inscribed the name Yuh- 
 Hwang-Shang-ti, which some interpret as “ The Supreme Ruler of the 
 Imperial Heavens,” and regard as the nearest approach to pure Theism 
 of which there is any indication in Chinese worship (see Doolittle , pp. 
 17°, 625). 
 
 The charge of irreligion against the Chinese is an old one, and is 
 made by Hayton in nearly the same terms as it often is by modern 
 missionaries : “ And though these people have the acutest intelligence 
 in all matters wherein material things are concerned, yet you shall never 
 find among them any knowledge or perception of spiritual things.” 
 Yet it is a mistake to suppose that this insensibility has been so universal 
 as it is often represented. To say nothing of the considerable numbers 
 who have adhered faijhfully to the Roman Catholic Church, the large 
 number of Mahomedans in China, of whom many must have been 
 proselytes, indicates an interest in religion; and that Buddhism itself 
 was in China once a spiritual power of no small energy will, I think, be 
 plain to any one who reads the very interesting extracts in Schott’s essay 
 on Buddhism in Upper Asia and China (. Berlin Acad, of Sciences, 1846). 
 These seem to be so little known that I will translate two or three of 
 them. “ In the years Yuan-yeu of the Sung (a.d. 1086-1093), a pious 
 matron with her two servants lived entirely to the Land of Enlighten¬ 
 ment. One of the maids said one day to her companion : £ To-night I 
 
Chap. XXXIV. RELIGION OF THE CATHAYANS. 
 
 407 
 
 shall pass over to the Realm of Amita.’ The same night a balsamic 
 odour filled the house, and the maid died without any preceding illness. 
 On the following day the surviving maid said to the lady: ‘ Yesterday 
 my deceased companion appeared to me in a dream, and said to me : 
 * Thanks to the persevering exhortations of our mistress, I am become 
 a partaker of Paradise, and my blessedness is past all expression in 
 words.’ The matron replied: ‘ If she will appear to me also then I 
 will believe what you say.’ Next night the deceased really appeared to 
 her, and saluted her with respect. The lady asked : ‘ May I, for once, 
 visit the Land of Enlightenment?’ ‘Yes,’ answered the Blessed Soul, 
 ‘ thou hast but to follow thy handmaiden.’ The lady followed her (in 
 her dream), and soon perceived a lake of immeasurable expanse, over¬ 
 spread with innumerable red and white lotus flowers, of various sizes, 
 some blooming, some fading. She asked what those flowers might 
 signify ? The maiden replied : ‘ These are all human beings on the 
 earth whose thoughts are turned to the Land of Enlightenment. The 
 very first longing after the Paradise of Amita produces a flower in the 
 Celestial Lake, and this becomes daily larger and more glorious, as the 
 self-improvement of the person whom it represents advances; in the 
 contrary case, it loses in glory and fades away.’ The matron desired to 
 know the name of an enlightened one who reposed on one of the 
 flowers, clad in a waving and wondrously glistering raiment. Her 
 whilom maiden answered: ‘ That is Yangkie.’ Then asked she the 
 name of another, and was answered : ‘ That is Mahu.’ The lady then 
 said : ‘ At what place shall I hereafter come into existence.’ Then the 
 Blessed Soul led her a space further, and showed her a hill that gleamed 
 with gold and azure. ‘Here,’ said she, ‘is your future abode. You 
 will belong to the first order of the blessed.’ When, the matron awoke 
 she sent to enquire for Yangkie and Mahu. The first was already 
 departed ; the other still alive and well. And thus the lady learned 
 that the soul of one who advances in holiness and never turns back, may 
 be already a dweller in the Land of Enlightenment, even though the 
 body still sojourn in this transitory world” (p. 55-56). 
 
 What a singular counterpart the striking conclusion here forms to 
 Dante’s tremendous assault on a still living villain,—or enemy! 
 
 -“ che per sua opra 
 
 In anima in Cocito gia si bagna, 
 
 Ed in corpo par vivo ancor di sopra.” 
 
 —Infern ., xxxiii. 155. 
 
 Again : “ I knew a man who during his life had killed many living 
 beings, and was at last struck with an apoplexy. The sorrows in store 
 for his sin-laden soul pained me to the heart; I visited him, and exhorted 
 him to call on the Amita; but he obstinately refused, and spoke only 
 of indifferent matters. His illness clouded his understanding; in con¬ 
 sequence of his misdeeds he had become hardened. What was before 
 
408 
 
 MARCO POLO. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 such a man when once his eyes were closed? Wherefore let men be 
 converted while there is yet time ! In this life the night followeth the 
 day, and the winter followeth the summer; that, all men are aware of. 
 But that life is followed by death, no man will consider. Oh, what 
 blindness and obduracy is this !” (p. 93). 
 
 Again: “ Hoang-ta-tie, of T’ancheu (Changshu-fu in Honan), who 
 lived under the Sung, followed the craft of a blacksmith. Whenever he 
 was at his work he used to call without intermission on the name of 
 Amita Buddha. One day he handed to his neighbours the following 
 verses of his own composing to be spread about:— 
 
 “ Ding dong ! The Hammer strokes fall long and fast, 
 
 Until the Iron turns to Steel at last ! 
 
 Now shall the long long Day of Rest begin, 
 
 The Land of Bliss Eternal calls me in.” 
 
 Thereupon he died. But his verses spread all over Honan, and many 
 learned to call upon Buddha” (103). 
 
 Once more : “ In my own town there lived a physician by name 
 Chang-yan-ming. He was a man who never took payment for his treat¬ 
 ment from any one in poor or indifferent circumstances; nay, he would 
 often make presents to such persons of money or corn to lighten their 
 lot. If a rich man would have his advice and paid him a fee, he never 
 looked to see whether it were much or little. If a patient lay so 
 dangerously ill that Yanming despaired of his recovery, he would still 
 give him good medicine to comfort his heart, but never took payment 
 for it. I knew this man for many a year, and I never heard the word 
 Money pass his lips ! One day fire broke out in the town, and laid the 
 whole of the houses in ashesj only that of the physician was spared. 
 His sons and grandsons reached high dignities ” (p. no). 
 
 Note 4 .—'“True politeness cannot of course be taught by rules 
 merely, but a great degree of urbanity and kindness is everywhere 
 shown, whether owing to the naturally placable disposition of the people, 
 or to the effects of their early instruction in the forms of politeness ” 
 (Mid. Kingdom , II. 68). As regards the “ ornate style of speech,” a 
 well-bred Chinaman never says I or You , but for the former, “ the little 
 person,” “ the disciple,” “ the inferior,” and so on; and for the latter, 
 “ the learned man,” “ the master,” or even “ the emperor.” These 
 phrases, however, are not confined to China, most of them having exact 
 parallels in Hindustani courtesy. On this subject and the courteous 
 disposition of the Chinese, see Fontaney , in Lett. Edif. VII. 287 seqq., 
 also XI. 287 seqq. ; Semedo , 36; Lecomte , II. 48 seqq. There are, 
 however, strong differences of opinion expressed on this subject; there 
 is, apparently, much more courtesy in the north than in the south. 
 
 Note 5 .—“ Filial piety is the fundamental principle of the Chinese 
 polity” ( Amyot , V. 129). “ In cases of extreme unfilial conduct, parents 
 
Chap. XXXIV. CHINESE FILIAL DISCIPLINE. 
 
 409 
 
 sometimes accuse their children before the magistrate, and demand his 
 official aid in controlling or punishing them; but such instances are 
 comparatively rare. ... If the parent require his son to be publicly 
 whipped by the command of the magistrate, the latter is obliged to order 
 the infliction of the whipping. ... If after punishment the son remain 
 undutiful and disobedient, and his parents demand it at the hands of 
 the magistrate, the latter must, with the consent of the maternal uncles 
 of the son, cause him to be taken out to the high wall in front of the 
 yamun, and have him there publicly whipped to death” (. Doolittle , 
 102-3). 
 
 Archway erected under the Mongol Dynasty, in the Nankau Pass, N.W. of Peking. * 
 
 * On the walls of this archway is engraved the inscription in six characters of 
 which a representation accompanies ch. xv. of Prologue, note 1. 
 
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