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,{1}

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.{2}

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,{3} and 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 command. When erected, it is braced [against mishaps

from the wind] by more than 200 cords of silk.{4}

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.{5} 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 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.{6}

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.{7}

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 enchanters 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 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.{8}

[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.{9}

There is another marvel performed by those BACSI, of whom I have been

speaking as knowing so many enchantments.{10} 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 ofttimes 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 perform it.{11}

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 offerings, always sends bad weather and spoils our seasons. So we

pray you to give us such and such a number of 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

lignaloes, 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 quantities 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.{12}

They have also immense Minsters and Abbeys, some of them as big as

a small town, with more than two thousand monks (_i.e._ after their

fashion) in a single abbey.{13} 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.{14}

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,{15} which they take mixt with hot water. That is their food:

bran, and nothing but bran; and water for their drink. ’Tis a lifelong

fast! so that I may well say their life is one of extraordinary

asceticism. 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{16}—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.{17} They wear

dresses of hempen stuff, black and blue,{18} 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.{19}

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.—[There were two roads to go from Peking to Shangtu: the

eastern road through Tu-shi-k’ow, and the western (used for the

return journey) road by Ye-hu ling. Polo took this last road, which

ran from Peking to Siuen-te chau through the same places as now;

but from the latter town it led, not to Kalgan as it does now,

but more to the west, to a place called now Shan-fang pú where

the pass across the Ye-hu ling range begins. “On both these roads

_nabo_, or temporary palaces, were built, as resting-places for

the Khans; eighteen on the eastern road, and twenty-four on the

western.” (_Palladius_, p. 25.) The same author makes (p. 26) the

following remarks: “M. Polo’s statement that he travelled three

days from Siuen-te chau to Chagannor, and three days also from the

latter place to Shang-tu, agrees with the information contained

in the ‘Researches on the Routes to Shangtu.’ The Chinese authors

have not given the precise position of Lake Chagannor; there are

several lakes in the desert on the road to Shangtu, and their names

have changed with time. The palace in Chagannor was built in 1280”

(according to the _Siu t’ung kien_).—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—_Chandu_, called more correctly in Ramusio _Xandu_, _i.e._

SHANDU, and by Fr. Odorico _Sandu_, viz. SHANG-TU or “Upper Court,”

the Chinese title of Kúblái’s summer residence at Kaipingfu,

_Mongolicè_ Keibung (see ch. xiii. of Prologue) [is called also

_Loan king_, _i.e._ “the capital on the Loan River,” according to

Palladius, p. 26.—H. C.]. The ruins still exist, in about lat. 40°

22′, and a little west of the longitude of Peking. The site is 118

miles in direct line from Chaghan-nor, making Polo’s three marches

into rides of unusual length.[1] The ruins bear the Mongol name

of _Chao Naiman Sumé Khotan_, meaning “city of the 108 temples,”

and are about 26 miles to the north-west of Dolon-nor, a bustling,

dirty town of modern origin, famous for the manufactory of idols,

bells, and other ecclesiastical paraphernalia of Buddhism. The site

was visited (though not described) by Père Gerbillon in 1691, and

since then by no European traveller till 1872, when Dr. Bushell

of the British Legation at Peking, and the Hon. T. G. Grosvenor,

made a journey thither from the capital, by way of the Nan-kau Pass

(_supra_ p. 26), Kalgan, and the vicinity of Chaghan-nor, the route

that would seem to have been habitually followed, in their annual

migration, by Kúblái and his successors.

The deserted site, overgrown with rank weeds and grass, stands but

little above the marshy bed of the river, which here preserves the

name of Shang-tu, and about a mile from its north or left bank. The

walls, of earth faced with brick and unhewn stone, still stand,

forming, as in the Tartar city of Peking, a double _enceinte_, of

which the inner line no doubt represents the area of the “Marble

Palace” of which Polo speaks. This forms a square of about 2 _li_

(⅔ of a mile) to the side, and has three gates—south, east, and

west, of which the southern one still stands intact, a perfect

arch, 20 ft. high and 12 ft. wide. The outer wall forms a square of

4 _li_ (1⅓ mile) to the side, and has six gates. The foundations

of temples and palace-buildings can be traced, and both enclosures

are abundantly strewn with blocks of marble and fragments of lions,

dragons, and other sculptures, testifying to the former existence

of a flourishing city, but exhibiting now scarcely one stone upon

another. A broken memorial tablet was found, half buried in the

ground, within the north-east angle of the outer rampart, bearing

an inscription in an antique form of the Chinese character, which

proves it to have been erected by Kúblái, in honour of a Buddhist

ecclesiastic called Yun-Hien. Yun-Hien was the abbot of one of

those great minsters and abbeys of _Bacsis_, of which Marco

speaks, and the exact date (no longer visible) of the monument was

equivalent to A.D. 1288.[2]

[Illustration:

Heading

In the Old Chinese Seal-Character, of an INSCRIPTION

on a Memorial raised by KÚBLÁI-KAAN

to a Buddhist Ecclesiastic in the vicinity of his SUMMER-PALACE

at SHANG-TU in Mongolia.

Reduced from a facsimile obtained on the spot by Dr. _S. W. Bushell_,

1872.]

This city occupies the south-east angle of a more extensive

enclosure, bounded by what is now a grassy mound, and embracing,

on Dr. Bushell’s estimate, about 5 square miles. Further knowledge

may explain the discrepancy from Marco’s dimension, but this must

be the park of which he speaks.[3] The woods and fountains have

disappeared, like the temples and palaces; all is dreary and

desolate, though still abounding in the game which was one of

Kúblái’s attractions to the spot. A small monastery, occupied by

six or seven wretched Lamas, is the only building that remains in

the vicinity. The river Shangtu, which lower down becomes the Lan

[or Loan]-Ho, was formerly navigated from the sea up to this place

by flat grain-boats.

[Mgr. de Harlez gave in the _T’oung Pao_ (x. p. 73) an inscription

in _Chuen_ character on a _stele_ found in the ruins of Shangtu,

and built by an officer with the permission of the Emperor; it is

probably a token of imperial favour; the inscription means: _Great

Longevity_.—H. C.]

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 _Daïtu_ (see _infra_, Book II. ch. xi.) and his summer

palace _Shangtu_; thus (I translate from Schott’s amended German

rendering of the Mongol):

“My vast and noble Capital, My Daïtu, 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 Daïtu, 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!

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 Daïtu, seat of Sanctity, Glorious work of the

Immortal KÚBLÁI!

All, all is rent from me!”

It was, in 1797, whilst reading this passage of Marco’s narrative

in old Purchas that Coleridge fell asleep, and dreamt the dream of

Kúblái’s Paradise, beginning:

“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred River, ran

Through 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 Kúblái had seen in a dream, and

had retained in his memory.” But I suspect D’Ohsson’s reading is

more accurate, which runs: “Kúblái caused a Palace to be built for

him east of Kaipingfu, called Lengten; _but he abandoned it in

consequence of a dream._” 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 Kúblái 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

Kürdu Balgasun, for Winter Residence Yeke DAÏTU Khotan, and on

the shady side of the Altai (see ch. li. note 3, _supra_) Arulun

TSAGHAN BALGASUN, and Erchügin LANGTING Balgasun.” A valuable

letter from Dr. Bushell enables me now to indicate the position

of Langtin: “The district through which the river flows eastward

from Shangtu is known to the Mongolians of the present day by the

name of _Lang-tírh_ (_Lang-ting’rh_).... The ruins of the city are

marked on a Chinese map in my possession Pai-dseng-tzu, _i.e._

‘White City,’ implying that it was formerly an Imperial residence.

The remains of the wall are 7 or 8 _li_ in diameter, of stone, and

situated about 40 _li_ north-north-west from Dolon-nor.”

(_Gerbillon_ in _Astley_, IV. 701–716; Klaproth, in _J. As._

sér. II. tom. xi. 345–350; _Schott, Die letzten Jahre der

Mongolenherrschaft in China_ (Berl. Acad. d. Wissensch. 1850, pp.

502–503); _Huc’s Tartary_, etc., p. 14 _seqq._; _Cathay_, 134, 261;

_S. Setzen_, p. 115; _Dr. S. W. Bushell, Journey outside the Great

Wall_, in _J. R. G. S._ for 1874, and MS. notes.)

One of the pavilions of the celebrated Yuen-ming-Yuen may give some

idea of the probable style, though not of the scale, of Kúblái’s

Summer Palace.

Hiuen Tsang’s account of the elaborate and fantastic ornamentation

of the famous Indian monasteries at Nalanda in Bahár, where Mr.

Broadley has lately made such remarkable discoveries, seems to

indicate that these fantasies of Burmese and Chinese architecture

may have had a direct origin in India, at a time when timber was

still a principal material of construction there: “The pavilions

had pillars adorned with dragons, and posts that glowed with all

the colours of the rainbow, sculptured frets, columns set with

jade, richly chiselled and lackered, with balustrades of vermilion,

and carved open work. The lintels of the doors were tastefully

ornamented, and the roofs covered with shining tiles, the

splendours of which were multiplied by mutual reflection and from

moment to moment took a thousand forms.” (_Vie et Voyages_, 157.)

NOTE 3.—[Rubruck says (_Rockhill_, p. 248): “I saw also the envoy

of a certain Soldan of India, who had brought eight leopards and

ten _greyhounds_, taught to sit on horses’ backs, as leopards

sit.”—H. C.]

NOTE 4.—Ramusio’s 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 generally takes up his residence in the palace outside

the town,” _i.e._, as I imagine, in Marco’s Cane Palace. (_Cathay_,

pp. 261–262.)

[“The _Palace of canes_ is probably the Palm Hall, _Tsung tien_,

alias _Tsung mao tien_, of the Chinese authors, which was situated

in the western palace garden of Shangtu. Mention is made also in

the _Altan Tobchi_ of a cane tent in Shangtu.” (_Palladius_, p.

27.)—H. C.]

Marco might well say of the bamboo that “it serves also a great

variety of other purposes.” An intelligent native of Arakan who

accompanied 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 possibility 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 [and 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 bamboo;”

and 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._)

[Illustration: Pavilion at Yuen-ming-Yuen.]

NOTE 5.—“The Emperor ... began this year (1264) to depart from

Yenking (Peking) in the second or third month for Shangtu, not

returning until the eighth month. Every year he made this passage,

and all the Mongol emperors who succeeded him followed his

example.” (_Gaubil_, p. 144.)

[“The Khans usually resorted to Shangtu in the 4th moon and

returned to Peking in the 9th. On the 7th day of the 7th moon there

were libations performed in honour of the ancestors; a shaman, his

face to the north, uttered in a loud voice the names of Chingiz

Khan and of other deceased Khans, and poured mare’s milk on the

ground. The propitious day for the return journey to Peking was

also appointed then.” (_Palladius_, p. 26.)—H. C.]

NOTE 6.—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 Huc,

the Mongol chiefs continued it at least to the time of the Emperor

K’ang-hi. 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. (_Huc’s Tartary_, etc.;

_Tim._ II. 33.)

By the HORIAD are no doubt intended the UIRAD or OIRAD, a name

usually interpreted as signifying the “Closely Allied,” or

Confederates; but Vámbéry explains it as (Turki) _Oyurat_, “Grey

horse,” to which the statement in our text appears to lend colour.

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.

In A.D. 1295 there took place a curious desertion from the service

of Gházán 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 _Sáhil_, 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;

_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ II. p. 159 _seqq._)

[With reference to Yule’s conjecture, I may quote Palladius (_l.c._

p. 27): “It is, however, strange that the Oirats alone enjoyed the

privilege described by Marco Polo; for the highest position at the

Mongol Khan’s court belonged to the Kunkrat tribe, out of which the

Khans used to choose their first wives, who were called Empresses

of the first _ordo_.”—H. C.]

NOTE 7.—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

(_kumíz_) 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 (24th August), or that of St. Sixtus (6th August),

or of our fruit on the feast of St. James and St. Christopher”

(25th July). [With reference to this feast, Mr. Rockhill gives

(_Rubruck_, p. 241, note) extracts from _Pallas, Voyages_, IV. 579,

and _Professor Radloff, Aus Siberien_, I. 378.—H. C.] The Yakuts

also hold such a festival in June or July, when the mares foal, and

immense wooden goblets of kumíz are emptied on that occasion. They

also pour out kumíz for the Spirits to the four quarters of heaven.

The following passage occurs in the narrative of the Journey of

Chang Te-hui, a Chinese teacher, who was summoned to visit the

camp of Kúblái in Mongolia, some twelve years before that Prince

ascended the throne of the Kaans:[4]

“On the 9th day of the 9th Moon (October), the Prince, having

called his subjects before his chief tent, performed the libation

of the milk of a white mare. This was the customary sacrifice

at that time. The vessels used were made of birch-bark, not

ornamented with either silver or gold. Such here is the respect for

simplicity....

“At the last day of the year the Mongols suddenly changed their

camping-ground to another place, for the mutual congratulation

on the 1st Moon. Then there was every day feasting before the

tents for the lower ranks. Beginning with the Prince, all dressed

themselves in white fur clothing....[5]

“On the 9th day of the 4th Moon (May) the Prince again collected

his vassals before the chief tent for the libation of the milk of a

white mare. This sacrifice is performed twice a year.”

It has been seen (p. 308) that Rubruquis also names the 9th day

of the May moon as that of the consecration of the white mares.

The autumn libation is described by Polo as performed on the 28th

day of the August moon, probably because it was unsuited to the

circumstances of the Court at Cambaluc, where the Kaan was during

October, and the day named was the last of his annual stay in the

Mongolian uplands.

Baber tells that among the ceremonies of a Mongol Review the Khan

and his staff took kumíz 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 procession 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

employed 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 Suwárs_, 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. (_Rubr._

363; _Erman_, II. 397; _Billings’ Journey_, Fr. Tr. I. 217;

_Baber_, 103; _J. As._ sér. V. tom. xi. p. 249; _Atk. Amoor_, p.

47; _J. A. S. B._ XIII. 628; _Koeppen_, II. 313.)

NOTE 8.—The practice of weather-conjuring was in great vogue among

the Mongols, and is often alluded to in their history.

The operation was performed by means of a stone of magical virtues,

called _Yadah_ or _Jadah-Tásh_, 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

_Ḳímák_, 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 conjurer’s own side.

In Tului’s invasion of Honan in 1231–1232, 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 which 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 _Yadagarí_ 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. Sháh Abbás believed he had learned the Tartar secret,

and put much confidence in it. (_P. Della V._ I. 869.)

[Grenard says (II. p. 256) the most powerful and most feared of

sorcerers [in Chinese Turkestan] is the _djâduger_, who, to produce

rain or fine weather, uses a jade stone, given by Noah to Japhet.

Grenard adds (II. 406–407) there are sorcerers (Ngag-pa-snags-pa)

whose specialty is to make rain fall; they are similar to the

Turkish _Yadachi_ and like them use a stone called “water cristal,”

_chu shel_; probably jade stone.

Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 245, note) writes: “Rashideddin states

that when the Urianghit wanted to bring a storm to an end, they

said injuries to the sky, the lightning and thunder. I have seen

this done myself by Mongol storm-dispellers. (See _Diary_, 201,

203.) ‘The other Mongol people,’ he adds, ‘do the contrary. When

the storm rumbles, they remain shut up in their huts, full of

fear.’ The subject of storm-making, and the use of stones for that

purpose, is fully discussed by Quatremère, _Histoire_, 438–440.”

(Cf. also _Rockhill_, _l.c._ p. 254.)—H. C.]

An edict of the Emperor Shi-tsung, of the reigning dynasty,

addressed in 1724–1725 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 Taossé to conjure the

spirits to gratify their wishes.”

[“Lamas were of various extraction; at the time of the great

assemblies, and of the Khan’s festivities in Shangtu, they erected

an altar near the Khan’s tent and prayed for fine weather; the

whistling of shells rose up to heaven.” These are the words in

which Marco Polo’s narrative is corroborated by an eye-witness who

has celebrated the remarkable objects of Shangtu (_Loan king tsa

yung_). These Lamas, in spite of the prohibition by the Buddhist

creed of bloody sacrifices, used to sacrifice sheep’s hearts to

Mahakala. It happened, as it seems, that the heart of an executed

criminal was also considered an agreeable offering; and as the

offerings could be, after the ceremony, eaten by the sacrificing

priests, Marco Polo had some reason to accuse the Lamas of

cannibalism. (_Palladius_, 28.)—H. C.]

The practice of weather-conjuring is not yet obsolete in Tartary,

Tibet, and the adjoining countries.[6]

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 au Lyon_:

“Et s’i pant uns bacins d’or fin

A une si longue chaainne

Qui dure jusqu’a la fontainne.

Lez la fontainne troveras

Un perron tel con tu verras

* * * *

S’au bacin viaus de l’iaue prandre

Et dessor le perron espandre,

La verras une tel tanpeste

Qu’an cest bois ne remandra beste,”

etc. etc.[7]

The effect foretold in these lines is the subject of a woodcut

illustrating 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 Naturis 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,”

etc. Various other European legends of like character will be found

in _Liebrecht’s Gervasius von Tilbury_, pp. 147–148.

Rain-makers there are in many parts of the world; but it is

remarkable that those also of Samoa in the Pacific operate by means

of a _rain-stone_.

Such weather conjurings as we have spoken of are ascribed by Ovid

to Circe:

“Concipit illa preces, et verba venefica dicit;

Ignotosque Deos ignoto carmine adorat,

* * * *

_Tunc quoque cantato densetur carmine caelum,

Et nebulas exhalat humus_.”—_Metam._ XIV. 365.

And to Medea:—

————“Quum volui, ripis mirantibus, amnes

In fontes rediere suos ... (another feat of the Lamas)

... _Nubila pello,

Nubilaque induco; ventos abigoque, vocoque_.”—_Ibid._ VII. 199.

And by Tibullus to the _Saga_ (_Eleg._ I. 2, 45); whilst

Empedocles, in verses ascribed to him by Diogenes Laertius, claims

power to communicate like secrets of potency:—

“By my spells thou may’st

To timely sunshine turn the purple rains,

And parching droughts to fertilising floods.”

(See _Cathay_, p. clxxxvii.; _Erdm._ 282; _Oppert_, 182 _seqq._;

_Erman_, I. 153; _Pallas, Samml._ II. 348 _seqq._; _Timk._ I. 402;

_J. R. A. S._ VII. 305–306; _D’Ohsson_, II. 614; and for many

interesting particulars, _Q. R._ p. 428 _seqq._, and _Hammer’s

Golden Horde_, 207 and 435 _seqq._)

NOTE 9.—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)

remarked on some singular Tibetan practices which go far to account

for such charges. Della Penna, too, makes a statement which bears

curiously 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).

[Carpini says of the people of Tibet: “They are pagans; they have

a most astonishing, or rather horrible, custom, for, when any

one’s father is about to give up the ghost, all the relatives meet

together, and they eat him, as was told to me for certain.” Mr.

Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 152, note) writes: “So far as I am aware,

this charge [of cannibalism] is not made by any Oriental writer

against the Tibetans, though both Arab travellers to China in the

ninth century and Armenian historians of the thirteenth century say

the Chinese practised cannibalism. The Armenians designate China by

the name _Nankas_, which I take to be Chinese _Nan-kuo_, ‘southern

country,’ the _Manzi_ country of Marco Polo.”—H. C.]

But like charges of cannibalism are brought against both Chinese

and Tartars very positively. Thus, without going back to the

Anthropophagous Scythians of Ptolemy and Mela, we read in the

_Relations_ of the Arab travellers of the ninth 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 men 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. Chapdelaine, a missionary who

was martyred in Kwang-si in 1856 (28th February), were seen to eat

the heart of their victim; and M. Huot, a missionary in the Yun-nan

province, recounts a case of cannibalism which he witnessed. Bishop

Chauveau, at Ta Ts’ien-lu, told Mr. Cooper that he had seen men

in one of the cities of Yun-nan eating the heart and brains of a

celebrated robber who had been executed. Dr. Carstairs Douglas of

Amoy also tells me that the like practices have occurred at Amoy

and Swatau.

[With reference to cannibalism in China see _Medical Superstitions

an Incentive to Anti-Foreign Riots in China_, by _D. J. Macgowan,

North China Herald_, 8th July, 1892, pp. 60–62. Mr. E. H. Parker

(_China Review_, February–March, 1901, 136) relates that the

inhabitants of a part of Kwang-si boiled and ate a Chinese officer

who had been sent to pacify them. “The idea underlying this

horrible act [cannibalism] is, that by eating a portion of the

victim, especially the heart, one acquires the valour with which he

was endowed.” (_Dennys’ Folk-lore of China_, 67.)—H. C.]

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 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 a discussion about making a general move against the

Tartars, “_porce qu’il manjuent la char humaine._” 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! But Levchine

relates an act on the part of the Kirghiz Kazaks which was no jest.

They drank the blood of their victim if they did not eat his flesh.

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 second part of _Chine Moderne_,

p. 461, after sketching a Chinese drama of the Mongol era (“The

Devotion of Chao-li”), 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.[8] But we are told in sober

history that the force of Tului in Honan, in 1231–1232, 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. And savage acts of the same

kind by the Chinese and their Turk partisans in the defence of

Kashgar were related to Mr. Shaw.

Probably, however, nothing of the kind in history equals what

Abdallatif, a sober and scientific physician, describes as having

occurred 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 the army of the First Crusade, and were

known as the _Tafurs_,[9] ate the Turks whom they killed at the

siege, looks very like an abominable truth, corroborated as it

is by the prose chronicle of worse deeds at the ensuing siege of

Marrha:—

“A lor cotiaus qu’il ont trenchans et afilés

Escorchoient les Turs, aval parmi les près.

Voiant Paiens, les ont par pièces découpés.

En l’iave et el carbon les ont bien quisinés,

Volontiers les menjuent sans pain et dessalés.”[10]

(_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;

_Mél. Asiat. Acad. St. Pétersb._ II. 659; _Canale_ in _Arch. Stor.

Ital._ VIII.; _Bergm. Nomad. Streifereien_, I. 14; _Carpini_,

638; _D’Ohsson_, II. 30, 43, 52; _Wilson’s Ever Victorious Army_,

74; _Shaw_, p. 48; _Abdallatif_, p. 363 _seqq._; _Weber_, II. 135;

_Littré, H. de la Langue Franç._ I. 191; _Gesta Tancredi_ in _Thes.

Nov. Anecd._ III. 172.)

NOTE 10.—_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 Kazaks 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.

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 _bakhshídan_,

to bestow, and _bakhshísh_. (See a note in _Q. R._ p. 184 _seqq._;

_Cathay_, p. 474; _Ayeen Akbery_, III. 150; _Pallas, Samml._ II.

126; _Levchine_, p. 355; _Klap. Mém._ III.; _Vámbéry, Sketches_, p.

81.)

The sketch from the life, on p. 326, of a wandering Tibetan

devotee, whom I met once at Hardwár, may give an idea of the sordid

_Bacsis_ spoken of by Polo.

NOTE 11.—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 Mr. 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 conjuring _Bonpos_.” (See p. 323.) 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 themselves,” etc. The Jesuit

Delrio laments that credulous princes, otherwise 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. Another Jesuit author describes the veritable

mango-trick, speaking of persons who “within three hours’ space did

cause a genuine shrub of a span in length to grow out of the table,

besides other trees that produced both leaves and fruit.”

In a letter dated 1st December, 1875, written by Mr. R. B. Shaw,

after his last return from Kashgar and Lahore, this distinguished

traveller says: “I have heard stories related regarding a Buddhist

high priest whose temple is said to be not far to the east of

Lanchau, which reminds me of Marco Polo and Kúblái Khan. This high

priest is said to have the magic power of attracting cups and

plates to him from a distance, so that things fly through the air

into his hands.” (_MS. Note_.—H. Y.)

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 indigenous Shamanism. Even the reformed

doctrine of the Yellow sect recognises an orthodox kind of magic,

which is due in great measure to the combination of Sivaism with

the Buddhist doctrines, and of which the institutes are contained

in the vast collection of the _Jud_ or Tantras, recognised 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

_asankhyas_ (or say Uncountable Time × 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 Tantras also

can be learned how to acquire miraculous powers for objects

entirely selfish and secular, and how to exercise these by means of

_Dhárani_ 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, etc. But as the vulgar will not

dispense with these marvels, every great orthodox monastery in

Tibet _keeps a conjuror_, 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 _Dhárani_. 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, etc. 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 Delhi, in the presence of Sultan Mahomed Tughlak;

and it was professedly exhibited by a Brahmin at Madras in the

present century, a descendant doubtless of those Brahmans whom

Apollonius saw walking two cubits from the ground. It is also

described by the worthy Francis Valentyn 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

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, mistrusting 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 gentleman 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 Hang-chau fu): “That same night a juggler, who was one of

the Kán’s slaves, made his appearance, and the Amír said to him,

‘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 Amír, and said something to him in Chinese. The Amír 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, ‘_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

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 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 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 astonished 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 Valentyn, 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 this page is taken from Melton’s plate.

[Illustration: Chinese Conjuring Extraordinary.]

Again we have in the Memoirs of the Emperor Jahángir a detail

of the wonderful performances of seven jugglers from Bengal who

exhibited before him. Two of their feats are thus described:

“_Ninth_. They produced 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 extended 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 disappeared 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.”

[There would appear (says the _Times of India_, quoted by the

_Weekly Dispatch_, 15th September, 1889) to be a fine field of

unworked romance in the annals of Indian jugglery. One Siddeshur

Mitter, writing to the Calcutta paper, gives a thrilling account

of a conjurer’s feat which he witnessed recently in one of the

villages of the Hooghly district. He saw the whole thing himself,

he tells us, so there need be no question about the facts. On the

particular afternoon when he visited the village the place was

occupied by a company of male and female jugglers, armed with

bags and boxes and musical instruments, and all the mysterious

paraphernalia of the peripatetic _Jadugar_. While Siddeshur was

looking on, and in the broad, clear light of the afternoon, a man

was shut up in a box, which was then carefully nailed up and bound

with cords. Weird spells and incantations of the style we are

all familiar with were followed by the breaking open of the box,

which, “to the unqualified amazement of everybody, was found to be

perfectly empty.” All this is much in the usual style; but what

followed was so much superior to the ordinary run of modern Indian

jugglery that we must give it in the simple Siddeshur’s own words.

When every one was satisfied that the man had really disappeared,

the principal performer, who did not seem to be at all astonished,

told his audience that the vanished man had gone up to the heavens

to fight Indra. “In a few moments,” says Siddeshur, “he expressed

anxiety at the man’s continued absence in the aerial regions, and

said that he would go up to see what was the matter. A boy was

called, who held upright a long bamboo, up which the man climbed

to the top, whereupon we suddenly lost sight of him, and the boy

laid the bamboo on the ground. Then there fell on the ground before

us the different members of a human body, all bloody,—first one

hand, then another, a foot, and so on, until complete. The boy then

elevated the bamboo, and the principal performer, appearing on

the top as suddenly as he had disappeared, came down, and seeming

quite disconsolate, said that Indra had killed his friend before

he could get there to save him. He then placed the mangled remains

in the same box, closed it, and tied it as before. Our wonder and

astonishment reached their climax when, a few minutes later, on the

box being again opened, the man jumped out perfectly hearty and

unhurt.” Is not this rather a severe strain on one’s credulity,

even for an Indian jugglery story?]

In Philostratus, again, we may learn the antiquity of some juggling

tricks that have come up as novelties in our own day. Thus at

Taxila a man set his son against a board, and then threw darts

tracing the outline of the boy’s figure on the board. This feat was

shown in London some fifteen or twenty years ago, and humorously

commemorated in _Punch_ by John Leech.

(_Philostratus_, Fr. Transl. Bk. III. ch. xv. and xxvii.; _Mich.

Glycas_, Ann. II. 156, Paris ed.; _Delrio, Disquis. Magic._ pp. 34,

100; _Koeppen_, I. 31, II. 82, 114–115, 260, 262, 280; _Vassilyev_,

156; _Della Penna_, 36; _S. Setzen_, 43, 353; _Pereg. Quat._ 117;

_I. B._ IV. 39 and 290 _seqq._; _Asiat. Researches_, XVII. 186;

_Valentyn_, V. 52–54; _Edward Melton, Engelsch Edelmans, Zeldzaame

en Gedenkwaardige Zee en Land Reizen, etc., aangevangen in den

Jaare 1660 en geendigd in den Jaare 1677_, Amsterdam, 1702, p. 468;

_Mem. of the Emp. Jahangueir_, pp. 99, 102.)

[Illustration: CHO-KHANG

The Grand Temple of Buddha at LHASA]

NOTE 12.—[“The maintenance of the Lamas, of their monasteries,

the expenses for the sacrifices and for transcription of sacred

books, required enormous sums. The Lamas enjoyed a preponderating

influence, and stood much higher than the priests of other creeds,

living in the palace as if in their own house. The perfumes, which

M. Polo mentions, were used by the Lamas for two purposes; they

used them for joss-sticks, and for making small turrets, known

under the name of _ts’a-ts’a_; the joss-sticks used to be burned

in the same way as they are now; the _ts’a-ts’a_ were inserted in

_suburgas_ or buried in the ground. At the time when the _suburga_

was built in the garden of the Peking palace in 1271, there were

used, according to the Empress’ wish, 1008 turrets made of the

most expensive perfumes, mixed with pounded gold, silver, pearls,

and corals, and 130,000 _ts’a-ts’a_ made of ordinary perfumes.”

(_Palladius_, 29.)—H. C.]

NOTE 13.—There is no exaggeration in this number. Turner speaks

of 2500 monks in one Tibetan convent. Huc mentions Chorchi, north

of the Great Wall, as containing 2000; and Kúnbúm, 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. Major Montgomerie’s Pandit gives the same convent 7700

Lamas. In the great monastery at L’hasa called _Labrang_, 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.

224 is at Jehol, and is an imitation of the Potala at L’hasa.

(_Huc’s Tartary_, _etc._, pp. 45, 208, etc.; _Alph. Tibetan_, 453;

_J. A. S. B._ XXIV. 219; _J. R. G. S._ XXXVIII. 168; _Koeppen_,

II. 338.) [_La Géographie_, II. 1901, pp. 242–247, has an article

by Mr. J. Deniker, _La Première Photographie de Lhassa_, with a

view of _Potala_, in 1901, from a photograph by M. O. Norzunov;

it is interesting to compare it with the view given by Kircher in

1670.—H. C.]

[“The monasteries with numbers of monks, who, as M. Polo asserts,

behaved decently, evidently belonged to Chinese Buddhists,

_ho-shang_; in Kúblái’s time they had two monasteries in Shangtu,

in the north-east and north-west parts of the town.” (_Palladius_,

29.) Rubruck (_Rockhill’s_ ed. p. 145) says: “All the priests

(of the idolaters) shave their heads, and are dressed in saffron

colour, and they observe chastity from the time they shave their

heads, and they live in congregations of one or two hundred.”—H. C.]

NOTE 14.—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. [“A good number of Lamas were married,

as M. Polo correctly remarks; their wives were known amongst the

Chinese, under the name of _Fan-sao_.” (_Ch’ue keng lu_, quoted by

_Palladius_, 28.)—H. C.] One of 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 (_Upásaka_ and _Upásiká_), and these are to be found in

Tibet and Mongolia (_Voués au blanc_, as it were). They are called

by the Mongols, by a corruption of the Sanskrit, _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 regarded them in the same light.

(_Koeppen_, II. 82, 113, 276, 291; _Timk._ II. 354; _Erman_, II.

304; _Alph. Tibet._ 449.)

[Illustration: Monastery of Lamas.]

NOTE 15.—[Mr. Rockhill writes to me that “bran” is certainly

Tibetan _tsamba_ (parched barley).—H. C.]

NOTE 16.—Marco’s contempt for _Patarins_ slips out in a later

passage (Bk. 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 Podestà 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 Ecclesiæ, 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 17.—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. 286), 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 indigenous 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 _bran_ 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 Baldelli and Neumann have indicated a general opinion that

the _Taossé_ 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 _Bon-po_, and that part of the characters assigned belong to

each.

First with regard to the _Taossé_. These were evidently the

_Patarini_ of the Buddhists in China at this time, and Polo was

probably aware of the persecution which the latter had stirred up

Kúblái to direct against them in 1281—persecution at least it is

called, though it was but a mild proceeding in comparison with the

thing contemporaneously practised 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 Tao-sze,” says M. Polo, “were looked upon as heretics by

the other sects; that is, of course, by the Lamas and Ho-shangs;

in fact in his time a passionate struggle was going on between

Buddhists and Tao-sze, or rather a persecution of the latter by the

former; the Buddhists attributed to the doctrine of the Tao-sze a

pernicious tendency, and accused them of deceit; and in support

of these assertions they pointed to some of their sacred books.

Taking advantage of their influence at Court, they persuaded Kúblái

to decree the burning of these books, and it was carried out in

Peking.” (_Palladius_, 30.)—H. C.]

The term which Polo writes as _Sensin_ appears to have been that

popularly applied to the Taossé sect at the Mongol Court. Thus we

are told by Rashíduddín in his History of Cathay: “In the reign

of Din-Wang, the 20th king of this (the 11th) Dynasty, TAI SHANG

LÁI KÚN, was born. This person is stated to have been accounted a

prophet by the people of Khitá; his father’s name was Hán; like

Shák-múni 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 شن شن

(_Shăn-shăn_ or _Shinshin_).” This is a correct epitome of the

Chinese story of _Laokiun_ or _Lao-tsé_, born in the reign of _Ting

Wang_ of the Cheu Dynasty. The whole title used by Rashíduddín,

_Tai Shang Lao Kiun_, “The Great Supreme Venerable Ruler,” is that

formerly applied by the Chinese to this philosopher.

Further, in a Mongol [and Chinese] inscription of the year 1314

from the department of Si-ngan fu, which has been interpreted and

published by Mr. Wylie, the Taossé priests are termed _Senshing_.

[See _Devéria, Notes d’Épigraphie_, pp. 39–43, and Prince _R.

Bonaparte’s Recueil_, Pl. xii. No. 3.—H. C.]

Seeing then that the very term used by Polo is that applied by both

Mongol and Persian authorities of the period to the Taossé, 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 _Sín-săng_, 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 Baldelli, 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

Taossé: “They pretend that by means of certain exercises and

meditations one shall regain his youth, and others shall attain to

be _Shien-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 understood in the old Chinese conception, and

particularly in that of the Tao-Kiao [or Taossé] 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 related

how Chinghiz bestowed upon this personage “a seal with a tiger’s

head and a diploma” (surely a lion’s head, _P’aizah_ and _Yarligh_;

see _infra_, Bk. II. ch. vii. note 2), “wherein he was styled _Shin

Sien_ or Divine Anchorite.” _Sian-jin_ again is the word used by

Hiuen Tsang as the equivalent to the name of the Indian _Rishis_,

who attain to supernatural powers.

[“_Sensin_ is a sufficiently faithful transcription of _Sien-seng_

(Sien-shing in Pekingese); the name given by the Mongols in

conversation as well as in official documents, to the Tao-sze,

in the sense of preceptors, just as Lamas were called by them

_Bacshi_, which corresponds to the Chinese _Sien-seng_. M. Polo

calls them fasters and ascetics. It was one of the sects of

Taouism. There was another one which practised cabalistic and other

mysteries. The Tao-sze had two monasteries in Shangtu, one in the

eastern, the other in the western part of the town.” (_Palladius_,

30.) —H. C.]

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 occasions.” 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_,

111, 114; _De Mailla_, IX. 410; _J. As._ sér. V. tom. viii. 138;

_Schott über den Buddhismus_ etc. 71; _Voyage de Khieou_ in _J.

As._ sér. VI. tom. ix. 41; _Middle Kingdom_, II. 247; _Doolittle_,

192; _Esc. de Lauture, Mém. sur la Chine, Religion_, 87, 102;

_Pèler. Boudd._ II. 370, and III. 468.)

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 mendicant friar of the sect from the neighbourhood of

Tachindu, or Ta-t’sien-lu, 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, ferocity, 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 deliverance 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 the _monstrous idols_ of the sect

of Peunbo; horrid figures, whose features 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 outside his red scarf, and

holding in his left the vase of knowledge.... On his right hand

sat _Keumta-Zon-bo_, ‘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 appellation 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 idols_.” 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 “_bs_tanpa _g_Shen-rabs,” _i.e._

the doctrine of Shen-rabs, who is regarded as the founder of the

Bon religion. [Cf. _Grenard_, II. 407.—H. C.] _Keun-tu-zon-bo_ is

“Kun-tu-_b_zang-po,” “_the All Best_.”

[_Bon-po_ seems to be (according to Grenard, II. 410) a “coarse

naturism combined with ancestral worship” resembling Taoism. It

has, however, borrowed a good deal from Buddhism. “I noticed,”

says Mr. Rockhill (_Journey_, 86), “a couple of grimy volumes

of Bönbo sacred literature. One of them I examined; it was a

funeral service, and was in the usual Bönbo jargon, three-fourths

Buddhistic in its nomenclature.” The Bon-po Lamas are above all

sorcerers and necromancers, and are very similar to the _kam_

of the Northern Turks, the _bô_ of the Mongols, and lastly to

the _Shamans_. During their operations, they wear a tall pointed

black hat, surmounted by the feather of a peacock, or of a cock,

and a human skull. Their principal divinities are the White God

of Heaven, the Black Goddess of Earth, the Red Tiger and the

Dragon; they worship an idol called _Kye’-p’ang_ formed of a mere

block of wood covered with garments. Their sacred symbol is the

_svastika_ turned from right to left 卍. The most important of

their monasteries is Zo-chen gum-pa, in the north-east of Tibet,

where they print most of their books. The Bonpos Lamas “are very

popular with the agricultural Tibetans, but not so much so with the

pastoral tribes, who nearly all belong to the Gélupa sect of the

orthodox Buddhist Church.” A. K. says, “Buddhism is the religion of

the country; there are two sects, one named Mangba and the other

Chiba or Baimbu.” _Explorations made by A—— K——_, 34. _Mangba_ means

“Esoteric,” _Chiba_ (_p’yi-ba_), “Exoteric,” and _Baimbu_ is Bönbo.

_Rockhill, Journey_, 289, _et passim.; Land of the Lamas_, 217–218;

_Grenard, Mission Scientifique_, II. 407 _seqq._—H. C.]

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 _Taossé_ I cannot decide, as I don’t

know if anything like historical evidence 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 Tubet_ (Paris, 1831), renders

_Bonpo_ by _Taossé_. 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 probable and easy to reconcile

with the former supposition, for it may afterwards, on becoming

acquainted with the Chinese doctrine of the ‘Taossé,’ have adorned

itself with many of its tenets.... With regard to the following

particulars, I have got most of my information 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 exclusively, 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 perform 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

priesthood 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_.”

[Mr. Rockhill (_Journey _, 63) saw at Kao miao-tzŭ “a _red_-gowned,

long-haired Bönbo Lama,” and at Kumbum (p. 68), “was surprised to

see quite a large number of Bönbo Lamas, recognisable by their

huge mops of hair and their _red_ gowns, and also from their being

dirtier than the ordinary run of people.”—H. C.]

The identity of the Bonpo and Taossé seems to have been accepted by

Csoma de Körös, who identifies the Chinese founder of the latter,

Lao-tseu, with the Shen-rabs of the Tibetan Bonpos. Klaproth

also says, “Bhonbp’o, Bhanpo, and _Shen_, are the names by which

are commonly designated (in Tibetan) the Taoszu, or followers of

the Chinese philosopher Laotseu.”[11] Schlagintweit refers to

Schmidt’s Tibetan Grammar (p. 209) and to the Calcutta edition of

the _Fo-kouè-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 accepts the identity, and

writes to me: “Fahian (ch. xxiii.) calls the heretics who

assembled at Râmagrâma _Taossé_,[12] thus identifying them with

the Chinese Finitimists. The Taossé are, therefore, the same as

the _Swâstikas_, or worshippers of the mystic cross _Swasti_,

who are also _Tirthakaras_, or ‘Pure-doers.’ The synonymous word

_Punya_ is probably the origin of _Pon_ or _Bon_, the Tibetan

Finitimists. From the same word comes the Burmese _P’ungyi_ or

_Pungi_.” I may add that the Chinese envoy to Cambodia in 1296,

whose narrative Rémusat has translated, describes a sect which he

encountered there, apparently Brahminical, as _Taossé_. And even

if the Bonpo and the Taossé 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 Taossé 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,[13] shows what a powerful element of

the old devil-dancing Shamanism there is in their practice. The

French Jesuit, on the other hand, shows us what a prominent place

female divinities occupied in the Bon-po Pantheon,[14] 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

Taossé the figure of _their_ Doctor _Lao-tseu_ 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.

[Illustration: Tibetan Bacsi.]

[At the quarterly fair (_yueh kai_) of Ta-li (Yun-Nan), Mr. E.

C. Baber (_Travels_, 158–159) says: “A Fakir with a praying

machine, which he twirled for the salvation of the pious at the

price of a few cash, was at once recognised by us; he was our old

acquaintance, the Bakhsi, whose portrait is given in _Colonel

Yule’s Marco Polo_.”—H. C.]

(_Hodgson_, in _J. R. A. S._ XVIII. 396 _seqq._; _Ann. de la Prop.

de la Foi_, XXXVI. 301–302, 424–427; _E. Schlagintweit, Ueber die

Bon-pa Sekte in Tibet_, in the _Sitzensberichte_ of the Munich

Acad. for 1866, Heft I. pp. 1–12; _Koeppen_, II. 260; _Ladak_,

p. 358; _J. As._ sér. II. tom. i. 411–412; _Rémusat. Nouv. Mél.

Asiat._ I. 112; _Astley_, IV. 205; _Doolittle_, 191.)

NOTE 18.—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 Dict._

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. Text, 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_, Bk. 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 description of the _Sensin_ omits the colours

altogether; in the two other passages referred to it has _bioda,

biodo_.

[“The Tao-sze, says Marco Polo, wear dresses of black and blue

linen; _i.e._ they wear dresses made of tatters of black and blue

linen, as can be seen also at the present day.” (_Palladius_,

30.)—H. C.]

NOTE 19.—[“The idols of the Tao-sze, according to Marco Polo’s

statement, have female names; in fact, there are in the pantheon

of Taoism a great many female divinities, still enjoying popular

veneration in China; such are _Tow Mu_ (the ‘Ursa major,’

constellation), _Pi-hia-yuen Kiun_ (the celestial queen), female

divinities for lying-in women, for children, for diseases of the

eyes; and others, which are to be seen everywhere. The Tao-sze

have, besides these, a good number of male divinities, bearing

the title of _Kiun_ in common with female divinities; both

these circumstances might have led Marco Polo to make the above

statement.” (_Palladius_, p. 30.)—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] This distance is taken from a tracing of the map prepared for Dr.

Bushell’s paper quoted below. But there is a serious discrepancy

between this tracing and the observed position of Dolon-nor, which

determines that of Shang-tu, as stated to me in a letter from Dr.

Bushell. [See Note 1.]

[2] These particulars were obtained by Dr. Bushell through the

Archimandrite Palladius, from the MS. account of a Chinese

traveller who visited Shangtu about two hundred years ago, when

probably the whole inscription was above ground. The inscription is

also mentioned in the Imp. Geography of the present Dynasty, quoted

by Klaproth. This work gives the interior wall 5 _li_ to the side,

instead of 2 _li_, and the outer wall 10 _li_, instead of 4 _li_.

By Dr. Bushell’s kindness, I give a reduction of his sketch plan

(see _Itinerary Map_, No. IV. at end of this volume), and also a

plate of the heading of the inscription. The translation of this

is: “Monument conferred by the Emperor of the August Yuen (Dynasty)

in memory of His High Eminence Yun Hien (styled) Chang-Lao

(canonised as) Shou-Kung (Prince of Longevity).” [See _Missions de

Chine et du Congo_, No. 28, Mars, 1891, Bruxelles.]

[3] Ramusio’s version runs thus: “The palace presents one side to the

centre of the city and the other to the city wall. And from either

extremity of the palace where it touches the city wall, there runs

another wall, which fetches a compass and encloses a good 16 miles

of plain, and so that no one can enter this enclosure except by

passing through the palace.”

[4] This narrative, translated from Chinese into Russian by Father

Palladius, and from the Russian into English by Mr. Eugene

Schuyler, Secretary of the U.S. Legation at St. Petersburg, was

obligingly sent to me by the latter gentleman, and appeared in the

_Geographical Magazine_ for January, 1875, p. 7.

[5] See Bk. II. chap. xiv. note 3.

[6] In the first edition I had supposed a derivation of the Persian

words _Jádú_ and _Jádúgari_, used commonly in India for conjuring,

from the Tartar use of _Yadah_. And Pallas says the Kirghiz call

their witches _Jádugar_. (_Voy._ II. 298.) But I am assured by Sir

H. Rawlinson that this etymology is more than doubtful, and that at

any rate the Persian (_Jádú_) is probably older than the Turkish

term. I see that M. Pavet de Courteille derives _Yadah_ from a

Mongol word signifying “change of weather,” etc.

[7] [See W. Foerster’s ed., _Halle_, 1887, p. 15, 386.—H. C.]

[8] A young Afghan related in the presence of Arthur Conolly at Herat

that on a certain occasion when provisions ran short the Russian

General gave orders that 50,000 men should be killed and served out

as rations! (I. 346.)

[9] Ar. _Táfir_, a sordid, squalid fellow.

[10] [Cf. Paulin Paris’s ed., 1848, II. p. 5.—H. C.]

[11] _Shen_, 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.

[12] I do not find this allusion in Mr. Beal’s new version of Fahian.

[See Rémusat’s éd. p. 227; Klaproth says (_Ibid._ p. 230) that the

_Tao-szu_ are called in Tibetan _Bonbò_ and _Youngdhroungpa_.—H.

C.]

[13] Apparently they had at their command the whole encyclopædia of

modern “Spiritualists.” Duhalde mentions among their sorceries

the art of producing by their invocations the figures of Lao-tseu

and their divinities in the air, and of _making a pencil to write

answers to questions without anybody touching it_.

[14] It is possible that this may point to some report of the mystic

impurities of the Tantrists. The _Saktián_, or Tantrists, according

to the Dabistan, hold that the worship of a female divinity affords

a greater recompense. (II. 155.)

BOOK SECOND.

(1.) 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.

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 signifyeth “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 Kúblái’s superiority. On his deathbed he said: “The words of

the lad Kúblái 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 Wassáf thus exalts Kúblái: “Although from

the frontiers of this country (’Irák) 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 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 Cæsars 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

Búya, and of the Seljukian Sultans.” (_Hammer’s Wassaf_, orig. p.

37.)

Some remarks on Kúblái and his government by a Chinese author, in

a more rational and discriminative tone, will be found below under

ch. xxiii., note 2.

A curious Low-German MS. at Cologne, giving an account of the East,

says of the “Keyser von Kathagien—syn recht Name is der groisse

_Hunt!_” (Magnus Canis, the Big Bow-wow as it were. See _Orient und

Occident_, vol. i. p. 640.)

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 succession, 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 once.{3}

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,{4} 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 attacking 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 Kúblái was proclaimed Kaan in 1260

(4th month), his brother Mangku Kaan having perished during the

seige of Hochau in Szechwan in August of the preceding year. But

Kúblái 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. (Bk. I. ch. li. note 2.)

NOTE 2.—Kúblái was born in the eighth month of the year

corresponding to 1216, and had he lived to 1298 would have been

eighty-two years old. [According to Dr. E. Bretschneider (_Peking_,

30), quoting the _Yuen-Shi_, Kúblái died at Khanbaligh, in the

Tze-t’an tien in February, 1294.—H. C.] But by Mahomedan reckoning

he would have been close upon eighty-five. He was the fourth son of

Tuli, who was the youngest of Chinghiz’s four sons by his favourite

wife Burté Fujin. (See _De Mailla_, IX. 255, etc.)

NOTE 3.—This is not literally true; for soon after his accession

(in 1261) Kúblái 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 (or

Kambala) was beaten on the northern frontier by Kaidu, Kúblái took

the field himself, though on his approach the rebels disappeared.

Kúblái and his brother Hulaku, young as they were, commenced their

military career on Chinghiz’s last expedition (1226–1227). His most

notable campaign was the conquest of Yunnan in 1253–1254. (_De

Mailla_, IX. 298, 441.)

NOTE 4.—NAYAN was no “uncle” of Kúblái’s, but a cousin in a junior

generation. For Kúblái was the grandson of Chinghiz, and Nayan was

the great-great-grandson of Chinghiz’s brother Uchegin, called in

the Chinese annals Pilgutai. [Belgutai was Chinghiz’s step-brother.

(_Palladius_.)—H. C.] On this brother, the great-uncle of Kúblái,

and the commander of the latter’s forces against Arikbuga in the

beginning of the reign, both Chinghiz and Kúblái had bestowed large

territories in Eastern Tartary towards the frontier of Corea, and

north of Liaotong towards the Manchu country. [“The situation

and limits of his appanage are not clearly defined in history.

According to Belgutai’s biography, it was between the Onon and

Kerulen (_Yuen shi_), and according to Shin Yao’s researches (_Lo

fung low wen kao_), at the confluence of the Argun and Shilka.

Finally, according to Harabadur’s biography, it was situated in

Abalahu, which geographically and etymologically corresponds to

modern Butkha (_Yuen shi_); Abalahu, as Kúblái himself said, was

rich in fish; indeed, after the suppression of Nayan’s rebellion,

the governor of that country used to send to the Peking Court

fishes weighing up to a thousand Chinese pounds (_kin_.). It was

evidently a country near the Amur River.” (_Palladius_, _l.c._

31.)—H. C.] Nayan had added to his inherited territory, and become

very powerful. [“History has apparently connected Nayan’s appanage

with that of Hatan (a grandson of Hachiun, brother of Chinghiz

Khan), whose _ordo_ was contiguous to Nayan’s, on the left bank of

the Amur, hypothetically east of Blagovietschensk, on the spot,

where still the traces of an ancient city can be seen. Nayan’s

possessions stretched south to Kwang-ning, which belonged to his

appanage, and it was from this town that he had the title of prince

of Kwang-ning (_Yuen shi_).” (_Palladius_, _l.c._ 31.)—H. C.] Kaidu

had gained influence over Nayan, and persuaded him to rise against

Kúblái. A number of the other Mongol princes took part with him.

Kúblái 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. Kúblái succeeded by diplomacy in detaching

some of the princes from the enterprise, 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 subsequent note (ch. iv.

note 6). (For Nayan’s descent, see the Genealogical Table in the

Appendix (A).)

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 disturbed, but vowed that he would never wear crown again

if he brought not those two traitorous and disloyal Tartar chiefs to

an ill end. So swiftly and secretly were his preparations 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 forces 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 troops, 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 captured. 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 secrecy.

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 garrisons. 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,” etc.

[Palladius says (p. 37) that in the Mongol-Chinese documents, the

Mongol garrisons cantoned near the Chinese towns are mentioned

under the name of _Aolu_, but no explanation of the term is

given.—H. C.]

The system of controlling garrisons, quartered at a few miles from

the great cities, is that which the Chinese followed at Kashgar,

Yarkand, etc. It is, in fact, our own system in India, as at

Barrackpúr, Dinapúr, Sikandarábád, Mián Mír.

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 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 Khan 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 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 Khan had the victory, and

Nayan 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 Christian, 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.—“_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 and roofs often placed on the top of the

flanking-towers in mediæval 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

_guérites_ 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 Dict. of Etym._ sub. v.

_Brattice_; _Viollet le Duc_, by _Macdermott_, p. 40; _La Curne de

Sainte-Palaye, Dict._; _F. Godefroy, Dict._)

[John Ranking (_Hist. Res. on the Wars and Sports of the Mongols

and Romans_) in a note regarding this battle writes (p. 60): “It

appears that it is an old custom in Persia, to use four elephants

a-breast.” The Senate decreed Gordian III. to represent him

triumphing after the Persian mode, with chariots drawn with four

elephants. _Augustan Hist._ vol. ii. p. 65. See plate, p. 52.—H. C.]

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.

[Elephants came from the Indo-Chinese Kingdoms, Burma, Siam,

Champa. —H. C.]

NOTE 3.—The specification of the Tartar instrument of two strings

is peculiar to Pauthier’s texts. It was no doubt what Dr. Clarke

calls “the _balalaika_ or two-stringed lyre,” the most common

instrument among the Kalmaks.

The sounding of the Nakkára as the signal of action is an old

Pan-Asiatic custom, but 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.

The _Naḳḳárah_ or _Nagárah_ was a great kettledrum, formed

like a brazen caldron, tapering to the bottom and covered with

buffalo-hide—at least 3½ or 4 feet in diameter. Bernier, indeed,

tells of _Naḳḳáras_ in use at the Court of Delhi that were not

less than a fathom across; and Tod speaks of them in Rájpútána

as “about 8 or 10 feet in diameter.” The Tartar Naḳḳárahs were

usually, I presume, carried on a camel; but as Kúblái had begun to

use elephants, 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 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

_Ḳúrḳah_. I cannot find this word in any dictionary accessible to

me, but it is in the _Ain Akbari_ (_Kawargah_) as distinct from

the _Naḳḳárah_. 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 _Naḳḳárah!_

[Illustration: Nakkaras. (From a Chinese original.)]

The privilege of employing the Nakkara in personal state was one

granted by the sovereign as a high honour and reward.

The crusades naturalised the word in some form or other in most

European languages, but in our own apparently with a transfer of

meaning. For 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 application 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 _Naḳḳárah_, but _Naḳír_ and

_Náḳúr_, “cornu, tuba.” The orchestra of Bibars Bunduḳdári, we are

told, consisted of 40 pairs of kettle-drums, 4 drums, 4 hautbois,

and 20 trumpets (_Naḳír_). (_Sir B. Frere; Della Valle_, II. 21;

_Tod’s Rájasthán_, I. 328; _Joinville_, p. 83; _N. et E._ XIV.

129, and following note; Blochmann’s _Ain-i-Akbari_, pp. 50–51;

_Ducange_, by Haenschel, s.v.; _Makrizi_, I. 173.)

[Dozy (_Supp. aux Dict. Arabes_) has نقّارة [_naqqārè_] “petit

tambour ou timbale, bassin de cuivre ou de terre recouvert d’une

peau tendue,” and “grosses timbales en cuivre portées sur un

chameau ou un mulet.”—Devic (_Dict. Étym._) writes: “Bas Latin,

_nacara_; bas grec, ἀνάχαρα. Ce n’est point comme on l’a dit,

l’Arabe نقير _naqïr_ ou ناقور _náqör_, qui signifient _trompette_,

_clairon_, mais le persan نقاره, en arabe, نقارة _naqāra_,

_timbale_.” It is to be found also in Abyssinia and south of

Gondokoro; it is mentioned in the _Sedjarat Malayu_.

In French, it gives _nacaire_ and _gnacare_ from the Italian

_gnacare_. “Quatre jouent de la guitare, quatre des castagnettes,

quatre des gnacares.” (MOLIÈRE, _Pastorale Comique_.)—H. C.]

[Illustration: Nakkaras. (From an Indian original.)]

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._

sér. IV. 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 meetyng;

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 sweord,

The thondur blast no myghte beo hirde_,

No the sunne hadde beo seye,

For the dust of the poudré!

_No the weolkyn seon be myght,

So was arewes and quarels flyght_.”

—_King Alisaunder, in Weber_, I. 93–94.

And again:—

“The eorthe quaked heom undur,

_No scholde mon have herd the thondur_.”

—_Ibid._ 142.

Also in a contemporary account of the fall of Acre (1291):

“Renovatur ergo bellum terribile inter alterutros ... clamoribus

interjectis hinc et inde ad terrorem; _ita ut nec Deus tonans in

sublime coaudiri potuisset_.” (_De Excidio Acconis_, in _Martene et

Durand_, V. 780.)

NOTE 5.—“_Car il estoit_ homme _au Grant Kaan_.” (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 Fire-_Pao_ to 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 completely defeated. That

prince himself was taken, and afterwards put to death. The battle

took place in the vicinity of the river Liao, 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-_Pao_ (the latter word seems to have been

applied to military machines formerly, and now to artillery), I

must refer to Favé and Reinaud’s very curious and interesting

treatise on the Greek fire (_du Feu Grégeois_). 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.

[Dr. G. Schlegel (_T’oung Pao_, No. 1, 1902), in a paper entitled,

_On the Invention and Use of Fire-Arms and Gunpowder in China,

prior to the Arrival of Europeans_, says that “now, notwithstanding

all what has been alleged by different European authors against

the use of gunpowder and fire-arms in China, I maintain that not

only the Mongols in 1293 had cannon, but that they were already

acquainted with them in 1232.” Among his many examples, we quote

the following from the Books of the Ming Dynasty: “What were

anciently called _P’ao_ were all machines for hurling stones. In

the beginning of the Mongol Dynasty (A.D. 1260), _p’ao_ (catapults)

of the Western regions were procured. In the siege [in 1233] of the

city of _Ts’ai chow_ of the _Kin_ (Tatars), fire was for the first

time employed (in these _p’ao_), but the art of making them was not

handed down, and they were afterwards seldom used.”—H. C.]

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 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 worshipper 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 therefore 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 floutings 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.

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, ch. vi. Bk. 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, Niuché of the Chinese.

(_Supra_, note 2, ch. xlvi. Bk. I.) [“Chorcha is Churchin.—Nayan, as

vassal of the Mongol khans, had the commission to keep in obedience

the people of Manchuria (subdued in 1233), and to care for the

security of the country (_Yuen shi_); there is no doubt that he

shared these obligations with his relative Hatan, who stood nearer

to the native tribes of Manchuria.” (_Palladius_, 32.)—H. C.]

KAULI is properly Corea, probably here a district on the frontier

thereof, as it is improbable that Nayan had any rule over Corea.

[“The Corean kingdom proper could not be a part of the prince’s

appanage. Marco Polo might mean the northern part of Corea, which

submitted to the Mongols in A.D. 1269, with sixty towns, and

which was subordinated entirely to the central administration

in Liao-yang. As to the southern part of Corea, it was left to

the king of Corea, who, however, was a vassal of the Mongols.”

(_Palladius_, 32.) The king of Corea (_Ko rye, Kao-li_) was in 1288

Chyoung ryel wang (1274–1298); the capital was Syong-to, now Kăi

syeng (K’ai-ch’eng).—H. C.]

BARSKUL, “Leopard-Lake,” is named in Sanang Setsen (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. [There are in the _Yuen-shi_ the names of the department

of _P’u-yü-lu_, and of the place _Pu-lo-ho_, which, according to

the system of Chinese transcription, approach to Barscol; but it

is difficult to prove this identification, since our knowledge of

these places is very scanty; it only remains to identify Barscol

with Abalahu, which is already known; a conjecture all the more

probable as the two names of P’u-yü-lu and Pu-lo-ho have also some

resemblance to Abalahu. (_Palladius_, 32.) Mr. E. H. Parker says

(_China Review_, xviii. p. 261) that Barscol may be Pa-la ssŭ or

Bars Koto [in Tsetsen]. “This seems the more probable in that Cauly

and Chorcha are clearly proved to be Corea and Niuché or Manchuria,

so that Bars Koto would naturally fall within Nayan’s appanage.”

—H. C.]

The reading of the fourth name is doubtful, _Sichuigiu_,

_Sichingiu_ (G. T.), _Sichin-tingiu_, etc. The Chinese name of

Mukden is _Shing-king_, 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 No. IV. map of

Polo’s itineraries. (See _Schott, Aelteste Nachrichten von Mongolen

und Tartaren_, Berlin Acad. 1845, pp. 11–12.)

[Sikintinju is Kien chau “belonging to a town which was in Nayan’s

appanage, and is mentioned in the history of his rebellion. There

were two Kien-chow, one in the time of the Kin in the modern aimak

of Khorchin; the other during the Mongol Dynasty, on the upper

part of the river Ta-ling ho, in the limits of the modern aimak

of Kharachin (_Man chow yuen lew k’ao_); the latter depended

on Kuang-ning (_Yuen-shi_). Mention is made of Kien-chow, in

connection with the following circumstance. When Nayan’s rebellion

broke out, the Court of Peking sent orders to the King of Corea,

requiring from him auxiliary troops; this circumstance is mentioned

in the Corean Annals, under the year 1288 (_Kao li shi_, ch. xxx.

f. 11) in the following words:—‘In the present year, in the fourth

month, orders were received from Peking to send five thousand men

with provisions to Kien-chow, which is 3000 _li_ distant from the

King’s residence.’ This number of _li_ cannot of course be taken

literally; judging by the distances estimated at the present

day, it was about 2000 _li_ from the Corean K’ai-ch’eng fu (then

the Corean capital) to the Mongol Kien-chow; and as much to the

Kien-chow of the Kin (through Mukden and the pass of Fa-k’u mun in

the willow palisade). It is difficult to decide to which of these

two cities of the same name the troops were ordered to go, but at

any rate, there are sufficient reasons to identify Sikintinju of

Marco Polo with Kien-chow.” (_Palladius_, 33.)—H. C.]

We learn from Gaubil that the rebellion did not end with the

capture of Nayan. In the summer of 1288 several of the princes of

Nayan’s league, under Hatan (apparently the _Abkan_ of Erdmann’s

genealogies), the grandson of Chinghiz’s brother Kajyun [Hachiun],

threatened the provinces north-east of the wall. Kúblái 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 De Mailla as among

those which had belonged to Nayan. As the Kweilei and Toro appear

on our maps and also the better-known Liao, we are thus enabled to

determine with tolerable precision Nayan’s country. (See _Gaubil_,

p. 209, and _De Mailla_, 431 _seqq._)

[“The rebellion of Nayan and Hatan is incompletely and

contradictorily related in Chinese history. The suppression of both

these rebellions lasted four years. In 1287 Nayan marched from his

_ordo_ with sixty thousand men through Eastern Mongolia. In the 5th

moon (_var._ 6th) of the same year Khubilai marched against him

from Shangtu. The battle was fought in South-Eastern Mongolia, and

gained by Khubilai, who returned to Shangtu in the 8th month. Nayan

fled to the south-east, across the mountain range, along which a

willow palisade now stands; but forces had been sent beforehand

from Shin-chow (modern Mukden) and Kuang-ning (probably to watch

the pass), and Nayan was made prisoner.

“Two months had not passed, when Hatan’s rebellion broke out

(so that it took place in the same year 1287). It is mentioned

under the year 1288, that Hatan was beaten, and that the whole of

Manchuria was pacified; but in 1290, it is again recorded that

Hatan disturbed Southern Manchuria, and that he was again defeated.

It is to this time that the narratives in the biographies of

Liting, Yuesi Femur, and Mangwu ought to be referred. According to

the first of these biographies, Hatan, after his defeat by Liting

on the river Kui lui (Kuilar?), fled, and perished. According to

the second biography, Hatan’s dwelling (on the Amur River) was

destroyed, and he disappeared. According to the third, Mangwu and

Naimatai pursued Hatan to the extreme north, up to the eastern

sea-coast (the mouth of the Amur). Hatan fled, but two of his

wives and his son Lao-ti were taken; the latter was executed, and

this was the concluding act of the suppression of the rebellion in

Manchuria. We find, however, an important _variante_ in the history

of Corea; it is stated there that in 1290, Hatan and his son Lao-ti

were carrying fire and slaughter to Corea, and devastated that

country; they slew the inhabitants and fed on human flesh. The

King of Corea fled to the Kiang-hwa island. The Coreans were not

able to withstand the invasion. The Mongols sent to their aid in

1291, troops under the command of two generals, Seshekan (who was

at that time governor of Liao-tung) and Namantai (evidently the

above-mentioned Naimatai). The Mongols conjointly with the Coreans

defeated the insurgents, who had penetrated into the very heart of

the country; their corpses covered a space 30 _li_ in extent; Hatan

and his son made their way through the victorious army and fled,

finding a refuge in the Niuchi (Djurdji) country, from which Laotai

made a later incursion into Corea. Such is the discrepancy between

historians in relating the same fact. The statement found in the

Corean history seems to me more reliable than the facts given by

Chinese history.” (_Palladius_, 35–37.)—H. C.]

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 Cambaluc; Ibn Batuta also speaks of them at Khansa or

Hangchau. Much has been written about the ancient settlement of

Jews at Kaifungfu, 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 Si-ngan fu, 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 inquiry 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

principles therein contained are very abstruse, and the Eternal

Reason therein revealed is very mysterious, being treated with the

same veneration 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. 206 to A.D. 221), this religion

entered China. In (A.D.) 1164, a synagogue was built at P’ien. In

(A.D.) 1296, the old Temple was rebuilt, as a place in which the

Sacred Writings might be deposited with veneration.”

[According to their oral tradition, the Jews came to China from

_Si Yĭh_ (Western Regions), probably Persia, by Khorasan and

Samarkand, during the first century of our era, in the reign of

the Emperor Ming-ti (A.D. 58–75) of the Han Dynasty. They were at

times confounded with the followers of religions of India, _T’ien

Chu kiao_, and very often with the Mohammedans _Hwui-Hwui_ or

_Hwui-tzŭ_; the common name of their religion was _Tiao kin kiao_,

“Extract Sinew Religion.” However, three lapidary inscriptions,

kept at Kaï-fung, give different dates for the arrival of the Jews

in China: one dated 1489 (2nd year Hung Che, Ming Dynasty) says

that seventy Jewish families arrived at P’ien liang (Kaï-fung) at

the time of the Sung (A.D. 960–1278); one dated 1512 (7th year

Chêng Têh) says that the Jewish religion was introduced into China

under the Han Dynasty (B.C. 206–A.D. 221), and the last one dated

1663 (2nd year K’ang-hi) says that this religion was first preached

in China under the Chau Dynasty (B.C. 1122–255); this will not bear

discussion.

The synagogue, according to these inscriptions, was built in 1163,

under the Sung Emperor Hiao; under the Yuen, in 1279, the rabbi

rebuilt the ancient temple known as _Ts’ing Chen sse_, probably

on the site of a ruined mosque; the synagogue was rebuilt in 1421

during the reign of Yung-lo; it was destroyed by an inundation of

the Hwang-ho in 1642, and the Jews began to rebuild it once more in

1653.

The first knowledge Europeans had of a colony of Jews at K’aï-fung

fu, in the Ho-nan province, was obtained through the Jesuit

missionaries at Peking, at the beginning of the 17th century;

the celebrated Matteo Ricci having received the visit of a young

Jew, the Jesuits Aleni (1613), Gozani (1704), Gaubil and Domenge

who made in 1721 two plans of the synagogue, visited Kaï-fung

and brought back some documents. In 1850, a mission of enquiry

was sent to that place by the _London Society for promoting

Christianity among the Jews_; the results of this mission were

published at Shang-haï, in 1851, by Bishop G. Smith of Hongkong;

fac-similes of the Hebrew manuscripts obtained at the synagogue of

Kaï-fung were also printed at Shang-haï at the London Missionary

Society’s Press, in the same year. The Jewish merchants of London

sent in 1760 to their brethren of Kaï-fung a letter written in

Hebrew; a Jewish merchant of Vienna, J. L. Liebermann, visited the

Kaï-fung colony in 1867. At the time of the T’aï-P’ing rising,

the rebels marched against Kaï-fung in 1857, and with the rest of

the population, the Jews were dispersed. (_J. Tobar, Insc. juives

de Kaï-fong-fou_, 1900; _Henri Cordier_, _Les Juifs en Chine_,

and _Fung and Wagnall’s Jewish Encyclopedia_.) Palladius writes

(p. 38), “The Jews are mentioned for the first time in the _Yuen

shi_ (ch. xxxiii. p. 7), under the year 1329, on the occasion of

the re-establishment of the law for the collection of taxes from

dissidents. Mention of them is made again under the year 1354, ch.

xliii. fol. 10, when on account of several insurrections in China,

rich Mahommetans and Jews were invited to the capital in order to

join the army. In both cases they are named _Chu hu_ (Djuhud).”

—H. C.]

The synagogue at Kaifungfu has recently been demolished for the

sake of its materials, by the survivors of the Jewish community

themselves, 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 thirty or forty 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, pp. 32–33.)

CHAPTER VI.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN WENT BACK TO THE CITY OF CAMBALUC.

And after the Great Kaan had defeated Nayan in the way you have heard,

he went back to his capital city of Cambaluc 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 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 otherwise dealt

with.

NOTE 1.—Here Ramusio has a long and curious addition. Kúblái, 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 Christmas. 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 Khan 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; 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 baptised 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 power 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 baptised, then all my barons and chiefs

shall be baptised 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, Kúblái

followed the practice of his house. Thus Rubruquis writes of his

predecessor Mangku 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 prophesy

smooth things to him.” Abulfaragius calls Kúblái “a just prince and

a wise, who loved Christians and honoured physicians of learning,

whatsoever their nation.”

There is a good deal in Kúblái 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 Kúblái, as with

his predecessors, religion seems to have been only a political

matter; and this aspect of the thing will easily be recognised in

a re-perusal of his conversation with Messer Nicolas and Messer

Maffeo. The Kaan must be obeyed; how man shall worship God is

indifferent; this was the constant policy of his house in the days

of its greatness. Kúblái, as Koeppen observes, the first of his

line to raise himself above the natural and systematic barbarism

of the Mongols, probably saw in the promotion of Tibetan Buddhism,

already spread to some extent among them, the readiest means of

civilising 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 civilising instruments

instead of the Lamas and their trumpery. (_Rubr._ 313; _Assemani_,

III. pt. ii. 107; _Koeppen_, II. 89, 96.)

CHAPTER VII.

HOW THE KAAN REWARDED THE VALOUR OF HIS CAPTAINS.

So we will have done with this matter of Nayan, 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 100 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 which 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 destroyed_.” And I will 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}

NOTE 1.—So Sanang Setzen relates that Chinghiz, on returning from

one of his great campaigns, busied himself in reorganising his

forces and bestowing rank and title, according to the deserts of

each, on his nine _Orlok_, or marshals, and 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, ch. 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 _Páïzah_,

and sometimes _Páïzah Sir-i-Sher_, or “Lion’s Head Paizah.” Thus,

in a firmán 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 _Yarlígh_; “to such an

one were granted _Yarlígh_ and _Páïzah_,” 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 _Yarlígh u Páïzah_

were in his mind. The Armenian history of the Orpelians, relating

the visit of Prince Sempad, brother of King Hayton, to the court

of Mangku 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_,” etc. The Latin version of a grant by Uzbek

Khan of Kipchak to the Venetian Andrea Zeno, in 1333,[1] ends with

the words: “_Dedimus_ baisa _et_ privilegium _cum bullis rubeis_,”

where the latter words no doubt represent the _Yarlígh al-tamghá_,

the warrant with the red seal or stamp,[2] as it may be seen upon

the letter of Arghun Khan. (See plate at ch. xvii. of Bk. IV.)

So also Janibek, the son of Uzbek, in 1344, confers privileges on

the Venetians, “_eisdem dando_ baissinum _de auro_”; and again

Bardibeg, son, murderer, and successor of Janibeg, in 1358, writes:

“Avemo dado comandamento [_i.e._ Yarlíg] cum le bolle rosse, et lo

_paysam_.”

[Illustration: Seljukian Coin with the Lion and Sun.]

Under the Persian branch, at least, of the house 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 Seljukian sovereigns

of Persia and Iconium; it appears on coins of the Mongol Ilkhans

Ghazan, Oljaïtu, and Abusaid, and it is also found on some of those

of Mahomed Uzbek Khan of Kipchak.

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 practice. 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.

[Illustration: “TABLE D’OR DE COMMANDEMENT,”

THE PAÏZA OF THE MONGOLS

FROM A SPECIMEN FOUND IN

E. SIBERIA.]

Where I have used the Venetian term _saggio_, the French texts

have here and elsewhere _saics_ and _saies_, and sometimes _pois_.

_Saic_ points to _saiga_, which, according to Dupré de St. Maur, is

in the Salic laws the equivalent of a denier or the twelfth part of

a sol. _Saggio_ is possibly the same word, or rather may have been

confounded with it, but the saggio was a recognised Venetian weight

equal to ⅙ of an ounce. We shall see hereafter that Polo appears to

use it to indicate the _misḳál_, a weight which may be taken at 74

grains Troy. On that supposition the smallest tablet specified in

the text would weigh 18½ 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. The first of our plates

represents 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 only the inscription

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

“Publication 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.

Our second plate shows one of them with the inscription in the

Uighúr character.

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 tables given by Kiacatu

are mentioned (_supra_, p. 35), 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.

(_Dupré de St. Maur_, _Essai sur les Monnoies_, etc., 1746,

p. viii.; also (on _saiga_) see _Pertz_, _Script._ XVII. 357;

_Rubruq._ 312; _Golden Horde_, 219–220, 521; _Ilch._ II. 166

_seqq._, 355–356; _D’Ohsson_, III. 412–413; _Q. R._ 177–180; _Ham.

Wassáf_, 154, 176; _Makrizi_, IV. 158; _St. Martin_, _Mém. sur

l’Arménie_, II. 137, 169; _M. Mas Latrie_ in _Bibl. de l’Éc. des

Chartes_, IV. 585 _seqq._; _J. As._ sér. V. tom. xvii. 536 _seqq._;

_Schmidt, über eine Mongol. Quadratinschrift_, etc., Acad. St. P.,

1847; Russian paper by _Grigorieff_ on same subject, 1846.)

[“The History tells us (_Liao Shih_, Bk. LVII. f. 2) that the

official silver tablets _p’ai tzŭ_ of the period were 600 in

number, about a foot in length, and that they were engraved with an

inscription like the above [‘Our imperial order for post horses.

Urgent.’] in national characters (_kuo tzŭ_), and that when there

was important state business the Emperor personally handed the

tablet to the envoy, which entitled him to demand horses at the

post stations, and to be treated as if he were the Emperor himself

travelling. When the tablet was marked ‘Urgent,’ he had the right

to take private horses, and was required to ride, night and day,

700 _li_ in twenty-four hours. On his return he had to give back

the tablet to the Emperor, who handed it to the prince who had the

custody of the state tablets and seals.” (_Dr. S. W. Bushell, Actes

XI. Cong. Int. Orient._, Paris, p. 17.)

“The Kin, in the thirteenth century, used badges of office made

of silver. They were rectangular, bore the imperial seal, and an

inscription indicative of the duty of the bearer. (_Chavannes,

Voyageurs chez les Khitans_, 102.) The Nü-chên at an earlier

date used wooden _pai-tzŭ_ tied to each horseman and horse, to

distinguish them by. (_Ma Tuan-lin_, Bk. 327, 11.)” (_Rockhill,

Rubruck_, p. 181, note.)

“Tiger’s tablets—_Sinice Hu fu_, and _p’ai tsze_ in the common

language. The Mongols had them of several kinds, which differed

by the metal, of which they were made, as well as by the number

of pearls (one, two, or three in number), which were incrusted in

the upper part of the tablet. Falcon’s tablets with the figure of

a falcon were round, and used to be given only to special couriers

and envoys of the Khan. [_Yuen shi lui pien_ and _Yuen ch’ao tien

chang_.] The use of the _Hu-fu_ was adopted by the Mongols probably

from the Kin.” (_Palladius_, _l.c._ p. 39.)

Rubruquis (Rockhill’s ed. pp. 153–154) says:—“And whenever

the principal envoy [of Longa] came to court he carried a

highly-polished tablet of ivory about a cubit long and half a palm

wide. Every time he spoke to the chan or some great personage, he

always looked at that tablet as if he found there what he had to

say, nor did he look to the right or the left, nor in the face

of him with whom he was talking. Likewise, when coming into the

presence of the Lord, and when leaving it, he never looked at

anything but his tablet.” Mr. Rockhill observes: “These tablets

are called _hu_ in Chinese, and were used in China and Korea; in

the latter country down to quite recent times. They were made of

jade, ivory, bamboo, etc., according to the rank of the owner, and

were about three feet long. The _hu_ was originally used to make

memoranda on of the business to be submitted by the bearer to the

Emperor or to write the answers to questions he had had submitted

to them. Odoric also refers to ‘the tablets of white ivory which

the Emperor’s barons held in their hands as they stood silent

before him.’”

(Cf. the golden tablets which were of various classes with a tiger

for image and pearls for ornaments, _Devéria, Epigraphie_, p. 15 et

seq.) —H. C.]

NOTE 3.—_Umbrella_. The phrase in Pauthier’s text is “_Palieque

que on dit_ ombrel.” The Latin text of the Soc. de Géographie 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, by which 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 à or sur son chief_,” which umbrella had

been given by “_Monseigneur l’Apostoille_.” 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 _Muratori_, XXII. 512).

The word _Parasol_ also occurs in the Petrarchian vocabulary,

(14th century) as the equivalent of _saioual_ (Pers. _sáyában_ or

_sáiwán_, an umbrella). Carpini notices that umbrellas (_solinum

vel tentoriolum in hastâ_) 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 _Wan min sàn_, 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 σκιάδια, or umbrellas, as used by all Indians of

any consideration; but 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. Athenaeus quotes from Anacreon the description of a

“beggar on horseback” who

“like a woman bears

An ivory parasol over his delicate head.”

[Illustration: Second Example of a MONGOL PAÏZA, with

Superscription in the _Uighúr_ Character, found near the River

Dnieper, 1845.]

An Indian prince, in a Sanskrit inscription of the 9th century,

boasts of having wrested from the King of Márwár the two umbrellas

pleasing to Parvati, and white as the summer moonbeams. Prithi

Ráj, the last Hindu king of Delhi, is depicted by the poet Chand

as shaded by a white umbrella on a golden staff. An unmistakable

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

dignitaries in Italy seems to presume acquaintance with 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;—σκιάδια χρυσοκóκκινα

extend from the Hypersebastus to the grand Stratopedarchus, and

so on; exactly as used to be the case, with different titles, in

Java. 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

dictionary. [See _Hobson-Jobson_, s.v. _Umbrella_.—H. C.]

(_Murat. Dissert._ II. 229; _Archiv. Storic. Ital._ VIII. 274, 560;

_Klapr. Mém._ III.; _Carp._ 759; _N. and Q., C. and J._ II. 180;

_Arrian, Indica_, XVI.; _Smith’s Dict., G. and R. Ant._, s.v.

_umbraculum_; _J. R. A. S._ v. 351; _Rás Mála_, I. 221; _I. B._ II.

440; _Cathay_, 381; _Ramus._ I. f. 301.)

Alexander, according to Athenaeus, feasted his captains to the

number of 6000, and made them all sit upon silver chairs. The same

author relates that the King of Persia, among other rich presents,

bestowed upon Entimus the Gortynian, who went up to the king in

imitation of Themistocles, _a silver chair and a gilt umbrella_.

(Bk. I. Epit. ch. 31, and II. 31.)

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 (_shonḳár_). The _shonḳár_

appears, however, according to Erdmann, on certain coins of the

Golden Horde, struck at Sarai.

There is a passage from Wassáf used by Hammer, in whose words

it runs that the Sayad Imámuddín, appointed (A.D. 683) governor

of Shiraz by Arghun Khan, “was invested with _both_ the Mongol

symbols of delegated sovereignty, the Golden Lion’s Head, and

the golden _Cat’s Head_.” It would certainly have been more

satisfactory to find “Gerfalcon’s Head” in lieu of the latter;

but it is probable that the same object is meant. The cut below

exhibits the conventional effigy of a gerfalcon as sculptured over

one of the gates of Iconium, Polo’s Conia. The head might easily

pass for a conventional representation of a cat’s head, and is

indeed strikingly like the grotesque representation that bears that

name in mediæval architecture. (_Erdmann, Numi Asiatici_, I. 339;

_Ilch._ I. 370.)

[Illustration: Sculptured Gerfalcon. (From the Gate of Iconium.)]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] “In anno Simiae, octavâ lunâ, die quarto exeunte, juxta fluvium

Cobam (_the Ḳuban_), apud Ripam Rubeam existentes scripsimus.” The

original was in _linguâ Persaycâ_.

[2] See _Golden Horde_, p. 218.

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 an 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 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 any 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}

[Illustration: Portrait of Kúblái Kaan. (From a Chinese Engraving.)]

NOTE 1.—We are left in some doubt as to the colour of Kúblái’s

eyes, for some of the MSS. read _vairs_ and _voirs_, and others

_noirs_. The former is a very common epithet for eyes in the

mediæval 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_,

Dès le tens Moysel ne nasqui sa façon.”

The word has generally been interpreted _bluish-grey_, but in

the passage just quoted, Fr.-Michel explains it by _brillans_.

However, the evidence for _noirs_ here seems strongest. Rashiduddin

says that when Kúblái 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 distinguished 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?) Kúblái had

_seven_ wives; Gaubil’s Chinese sources assign him _five_, with the

title of empress (_Hwang-heu_). Of these the best beloved was the

beautiful Jamúi Khátún (Lady or Empress Jamúi, 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

_Ḳún Ḳú_, or the great consort, evidently the term _Hwang-heu_.

(Gen. Tables in _Hammer’s Ilkhans_; _Gaubil_, 223; _Erdmann_, 200.)

[“Kúblái’s four wives, _i.e._ the empresses of the first, second,

third, and fourth _ordos_. _Ordo_ is, properly speaking, a separate

palace of the Khan, under the management of one of his wives.

Chinese authors translate therefore the word _ordo_ by ‘harem.’

The four _Ordo_ established by Chingis Khan were destined for the

empresses, who were chosen out of four different nomad tribes.

During the reign of the first four Khans, who lived in Mongolia,

the four _ordo_ were considerably distant one from another, and the

Khans visited them in different seasons of the year; they existed

nominally as long as China remained under Mongol domination. The

custom of choosing the empress out of certain tribes, was in the

course of time set aside by the Khans. The empress, wife of the

last Mongol Khan in China, was a Corean princess by birth; and

she contributed in a great measure to the downfall of the Mongol

Dynasty.” (_Palladius_, 40.)

I do not believe that Rashiduddin’s _Kún Kú_ is the term

_Hwang-keu_; it is the term _Kiūn Chu_, King or Queen, a

sovereign.—H. C.]

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 ḲUNGURAT, 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 De Mailla or his editor

(IX. 426). To this tribe (which, according to Vámbéry, took its

name from (Turki) _Kongur-At_, “Chestnut Horse”) belonged Burteh

Fujin, the favourite wife of Chinghiz himself, and mother of his

four heirs; to the same tribe belonged the two wives of Chagatai,

two of Hulaku’s seven wives, one of Mangku Kaan’s, two at least

of Kúblái’s including the beloved Jamúi Khátún, one at least of

Abaka’s, two of Ahmed Tigudar’s, two of Arghun’s, and two of

Ghazan’s.

The seat of the Ḳungurats 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 of Khiva, near the Sea of Aral, perhaps borrowed from the

Uzbek clan.

The conversion of _Ḳungurat_ 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 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 13_s._ 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}

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.—Kúblái had a son older than CHIMKIN or CHINGKIM, to

whom Hammer’s Genealogical Table gives the name of _Jurji_, and

attributes a son called Ananda. The Chinese authorities of Gaubil

and Pauthier call him _Turchi_ or _Torchi_, _i.e._ _Dorjé_, “Noble

Stone,” the Tibetan name of a sacred Buddhist emblem in the form

of a dumb-bell, representing the _Vajra_ or Thunderbolt. Probably

Dorjé died early, as in the passage we shall quote from Wassáf

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.

[Mr. Parker says that Chen kim was the _third_ son of Kúblái

(_China Review_, xxiv. p. 94). Teimur, son of Chen kim, wore the

temple name (_miao-hao_) of _Ch’êng Tsung_ and the title of reign

(_nien-hao_) of _Yuen Chêng_ and _Ta Téh._—H. C.]

Chingkim died in the 12th moon of 1284–1285, 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 Kúblái approached his 70th year,” says Wassáf, “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 proposal 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 predecease 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

(properly _Tarmabala_ for _Dharmaphala_, a Buddhist Sanskrit 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; _De Mailla_, IX.

424; _Gaubil_, 203; _Wassáf_, 46.)

[The Rev. W. S. Ament (_Marco Polo in Cambaluc_, p. 106), makes

the following remarks regarding this young prince (Chimkin): “The

historians give good reasons for their regard for Chen Chin.

He had from early years exhibited great promise and had shown

great proficiency in the military art, in government, history,

mathematics, and the Chinese classics. He was well acquainted with

the condition and numbers of the inhabitants of Mongolia and China,

and with the topography and commerce of the Empire (Howorth).

He was much beloved by all, except by some of his father’s own

ministers, whose lives were anything but exemplary. That Kúblái had

full confidence in his son is shown by the fact that he put the

collecting of taxes in his hands. The native historians represent

him as economical in the use of money and wise in the choice of

companions. He carefully watched the officers in his charge, and

would tolerate no extortion of the people. After droughts, famines

or floods, he would enquire into the condition of the people and

liberally supply their needs, thus starting them in life again.

Polo ascribes all these virtues to the Khan himself. Doubtless he

possessed them in greater or less degree, but father and son were

one in all these benevolent enterprises.”—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—The Chinese Annals, according to Pauthier and Gaubil,

give only _ten_ sons to Kúblái, 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. (No. 37 of our Appendix F), 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 Dorjé (Torchi). II. CHIMKIN or CHINGKIM (Yu Tsung,

King of Yen, _i.e._ Old Peking). III. MANGALAI (Mankola, “King of

the Pacified West”), mentioned by Polo (_infra_, ch. xli.) as King

of Kenjanfu or Shensi. IV. NUMUGAN (Numukan, “Pacifying King of

the North”), mentioned by Polo (Bk. IV. ch. 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_, ch. xlix.) as King of Carajan. VII.

AGHRUKJI or UKURUJI (Gaoluchi, “King of Siping” or Tibet). VIII.

Abaji (Gaiyachi?). 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 himself republished and

commented upon. (See his book, p. 780.)

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.{1} 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,{2}

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.{3} 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.{4}

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.{5}

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 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 hath

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.{6}

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.{7} 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.]{8}

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 round.{9} 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 property 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

convenience, 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

beautiful creatures,{10} 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.{11}

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 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,{12}

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.{13}

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 had 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.{14} Hence it is made

just in the same fashion and of the same size, so that everything can

be carried 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.]{15} 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.—[According to the _Ch’ue keng lu_, translated by

Bretschneider, 25, “the wall surrounding the palace ... is

constructed of bricks, and is 35 _ch’i_ in height. The construction

was begun in A.D. 1271, on the 17th of the 8th month, between three

and five o’clock in the afternoon, and finished next year on the

15th of the 3rd month.”—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—_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 _Tărkăsh_; the latter appears

to be merely a corruption of it, arising perhaps clerically from

the constant confusion of _c_ and _t_ in MSS. (See _Defrémery_,

quoted by Pauthier, _in loco._) [Old French _tarquais_ (13th

century), Hatzfeldt and Darmesteter’s _Dict._ gives; “Coivres orent

ceinz et tarchais.” (WACE, _Rou_, III., 7698; 12th century).]

NOTE 3.—[“It seems to me [Dr. Bretschneider] that Polo took the

towers, mentioned by the Chinese author, in the angles of the

galleries and of the Kung-ch’eng for palaces; for further on he

states, that ‘over each gate [of Cambaluc] there is a great and

handsome palace.’ I have little doubt that over the gates of

Cambaluc, stood lofty buildings similar to those over the gates of

modern Peking. These tower-like buildings are called _lou_ by the

Chinese. It may be very likely, that at the time of Marco Polo,

the war harness of the Khan was stored in these towers of the

palace wall. The author of the _Ch’ue keng lu_, who wrote more than

fifty years later, assigns to it another place.” (_Bretschneider,

Peking_, 32.) —H. C.]

[Illustration: IDEAL PLAN of the ANCIENT PALACES of the MONGOL

EMPERORS AT KHANBALIGH according to Dʳ. Bretschneider]

NOTE 4.—The 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.

376.

NOTE 5.—The two gates near the corners apparently do not exist in

the Palace now. “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_, Bk. 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 _Deguignes, Voyages_, I. 262.)

[See also _H. Cordier’s Hist. des Relat. de la Chine_, III. ch. x.

_Audience Impériale_.]

[“It seems Polo took the three gateways in the middle gate

(_Ta-ming men_) for three gates, and thus speaks of five gates

instead of three in the southern wall.” (_Bretschneider, Peking_,

27, note.)—H. C.]

NOTE 6.—Ramusio’s version here diverges from the old MSS. It makes

the inner enclosure a mile square; and the second (the city of

Taidu) six miles square, as here, but adds, at a mile interval,

a third of eight miles square. Now it is remarkable that Mr. A.

Wylie, in a letter dated 4th December 1873, speaking of a recent

visit to Peking, says: “I found from various inquiries that there

are several remains of a very much larger city wall, inclosing the

present city; but time would not allow me to follow up the traces.”

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 interval of a mile within it_!

[Dr. Bretschneider observes “that in the ancient Chinese works,

three concentric inclosures are mentioned in connection with

the palace. The innermost inclosed the _Ta-nei_, the middle

inclosure, called _Kung-ch’eng_ or _Huang-ch’eng_, answering to

the wall surrounding the present prohibited city, and was about 6

_li_ in circuit. Besides this there was an outer wall (a rampart

apparently) 20 _li_ in circuit, answering to the wall of the

present imperial city (which now has 18 _li_ in circuit).” The

_Huang-ch’eng_ of the Yuen was measured by imperial order, and

found to be 7 _li_ in circuit; the wall of the Mongol palace was 6

_li_ in circuit, according to the _Ch’ue keng lu_. (_Bretschneider,

Peking_, 24.)—Marco Polo’s mile could be approximately estimated

= 2·77 Chinese _li_. (_Ibid._ 24, note.) The common Chinese _li_

= 360 _pu_, or 180 _chang_, or 1800 _ch’i_ (feet); 1 _li_ = 1894

English feet or 575 mètres; at least according to the old Venice

measures quoted in _Yule’s Marco Polo_, II., one pace = 5 feet.

Besides the common _li_, the Chinese have another _li_, used for

measuring fields, which has only 240 _pu_ or 1200 _ch’i_. This is

the _li_ spoken of in the _Ch’ue keng lu_. (_Ibid._ 13, note.)—H. C.]

NOTE 7.—[“Near the southern face of the wall are barracks for

the Life Guards.” (_Ch’ue keng lu_, translated by Bretschneider,

25.)—H. C.]

NOTE 8.—This description of palace (see opposite cut), an elevated

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 superstructure has there become an arcade of

marble instead of a pavilion on timber columns.

[“The _Ta-ming tien_ (Hall of great brightness) is without doubt

what Marco Polo calls ‘the Lord’s Great Palace.’... He states, that

it ‘hath no upper story’; and indeed, the palace buildings which

the Chinese call _tien_ are always of one story. Polo speaks also

of a ‘very fine pillared balustrade’ (the _chu lang_, pillared

verandah, of the Chinese author). Marco Polo states that the

basement of the great palace ‘is raised some ten palms above the

surrounding soil.’ We find in the _Ku kung i lu_: ‘The basement of

the Ta-ming tien is raised about 10 _ch’i_ above the soil.’ There

can also be no doubt that the Ta-ming tien stood at about the same

place where now the _T’ai-ho tien_, the principal hall of the

palace, is situated.” (_Bretschneider, Peking_, 28, note.)

[Illustration: _A. Housselin d._

Palace at Khan-baligh. (From the _Livre des Merveilles_.)]

[Illustration: Winter Palace at Peking.]

The _Ch’ue keng lu_, translated by Bretschneider, 25, contains long

articles devoted to the description of the palace of the Mongols

and the adjacent palace grounds. They are too long to be reproduced

here.—H. C.]

NOTE 9.—“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 10.—[This is the _Ling yu_ or “Divine Park,” to the east of

the _Wan-sui shan_, “in which rare birds and beasts are kept.

Before the Emperor goes to Shangtu, the officers are accustomed

to be entertained at this place.” (_Ch’ue keng lu_, quoted by

Bretschneider, 36.)—H. C.]

NOTE 11.—“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 corresponds to gates in the walls, by

a handsome bridge, the extremities of which are adorned by two

triumphal arches of three 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.” (_Ibid._ 282–283.) 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.

[“The lake which Marco Polo saw is the same as the _T’ai-yi ch’i_

of our days. It has, however, changed a little in its form. This

lake and also its name _T’ai-yi ch’i_ date from the twelfth

century, at which time an Emperor of the Kin first gave orders to

collect together the water of some springs in the hills, where now

the summer palaces stand, and to conduct it to a place north of

his capital, where pleasure gardens were laid out. The river which

enters the lake and issues from it exists still, under its ancient

name _Kin-shui_.” (_Bretschneider, Peking_, 34.)—H. C.]

NOTE 12.—The expression here is in the Geog. Text, “_Roze_ de

_l’açur_,” and in Pauthier’s “_de rose et de l’asur_.” _Rose

Minerale_, in the 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 l’azur_ 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 Kúblái Khan.” This parallel is a

very happy one.

NOTE 13.—Friar Odoric gives a description, short, but closely

agreeing 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 provision of fuel in case of siege).[1] Whether this is

Kúblái’s Green Mount does not seem to be quite certain. Dr.

Lockhart tells me that, according to the information he collected

when living at Peking, it is not so, 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 Kúblái, for a Dagoba standing on it is ascribed to the

_Kin_.

[Illustration: Mei Shan.]

[The “Green Mount” was an island called _K’iung-hua_ at the time

of the Kin; in 1271 it received the name of _Wan-sui shan_; it is

about 100 feet in height, and is the only hill mentioned by Chinese

writers of the Mongol time who refer to the palace grounds. It

is not the present _King-shan_, north of the palace, called also

_Wan-sui-shan_ under the Ming, and now the _Mei-shan_, of more

recent formation. “I have no doubt,” says Bretschneider (_Peking_,

_l.c._ 35), “that Marco Polo’s handsome palace on the top of the

Green Mount is the same as the _Kuang-han tien_” of the _Ch’ue

keng lu_. It was a hall in which there was a jar of black jade,

big enough to hold more than 30 piculs of wine; this jade had

white veins, and in accordance with these veins, fish and animals

have been carved on the jar. (_Ibid._ 35.) “The _Ku kung i lu_, in

describing the _Wan-sui-shan_, praises the beautiful shady green of

the vegetation there.” (_Ibid._ 37.) —H. C.]

[“Near the eastern end of the bridge (_Kin-ao yü-tung_ which

crosses the lake) the visitor sees a circular wall, which is called

_yüan ch’eng_ (round wall). It is about 350 paces in circuit.

Within it is an imperial building _Ch’eng-kuang tien_, dating from

the Mongol time. From this circular enclosure, another long and

beautifully executed marble bridge leads northwards, to a charming

hill, covered with shady trees, and capped by a magnificent white

_suburga_.” (_Bretschneider_, p. 22.)—H. C.]

In a plate attached to next chapter, I have drawn, on a small

scale, the existing cities of Peking, as compared with the Mongol

and Chinese cities in the time of Kúblái. 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, etc., 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,

etc., 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. Indeed, if that

belief were true, the Mongol Palace must have been very much out

of the axis of the City of Kúblái, which is in the highest degree

improbable. The _Bulletin de la Soc. de Géographie_ for September

1873, contains a paper on Peking by the physician to the French

Embassy there. Whatever may be the worth of the meteorological

and hygienic details in that paper, I am bound to say that the

historical and topographical part is so inaccurate as to be of no

value.

NOTE 14.—For son, read grandson. But the G. T. actually names the

Emperor’s son Chingkim, whose death our traveller has himself

already mentioned.

NOTE 15.—[“Marco Polo’s bridge, crossing the lake from one side to

the other, must be identified with the wooden bridge mentioned in

the _Ch’ue keng lu_. The present marble bridge spanning the lake

was only built in 1392.” “A marble bridge connects this island

(an islet with the hall _I-t’ien tien_) with the _Wan-sui shan_.

Another bridge, made of wood, 120 _ch’i_ long and 22 broad, leads

eastward to the wall of the Imperial Palace. A third bridge, a

wooden draw-bridge 470 _ch’i_ long, stretches to the west over the

lake to its western border, where the palace _Hing-sheng kung_

[built in 1308] stands.” (_Bretschneider_, _Peking_, 36.)—H. C.]

[Illustration: Yüan ch’eng.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] 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.

[“The _Jihia_ says that the name of _Mei shan_ (Coal hill) was

given to it from the stock of coal buried at its foot, as a

provision in case of siege.” (_Bretschneider, Peking_, 38.)—H. C.]

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

imperial authority. So he caused the present city to be built close

beside the old one, with only a river between them.{2} 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 10 paces;{3} 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 side 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.{4}

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 beautiful 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 different 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.]{5}

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.{6} 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.{7}

NOTE 1.—✛ The history of the city on the site of Peking goes back

to very old times, for it had been [under the name of _Ki_] the

capital of the kingdom of Yen, previous to B.C. 222, when it was

captured by the Prince of the T’sin Dynasty. [Under the T’ang

dynasty (618–907) it was known under the name of Yu-chau.] It

became one of the capitals of the Khitans in A.D. 936, and of the

Kin sovereigns, who took it in 1125, in 1151 under the name of

Chung-tu. Under the name of Yenking, [given to this city in 1013]

it has a conspicuous place in the wars of Chinghiz against the

latter dynasty. He captured it in 1215. In 1264, Kúblái adopted it

as his chief residence, and founded in 1267, the new city of TATU

(“Great Court”), called by the Mongols TAIDU or DAITU since 1271

(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.

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 ⅕ 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_. [“At the time of the Yuen the

walls still existed, and the ancient city of the Kin was commonly

called Nan-ch’eng (Southern city), whilst the Mongol capital was

termed the northern city.” _Bretschneider, Peking_, 10.—H. C.]

(_Lockhart_; and see _Amyot_, II. 553, and note 6 to last chapter.)

Polo correctly explains the name _Cambaluc_, _i.e._ _Kaan-baligh_,

“The City of the Kaan.”

NOTE 2.—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.

[Dr. Bretschneider (_Peking_, 49) thinks that there is a strong

probability that Polo speaks of the _Wen-ming ho_, a river which,

according to the ancient descriptions, ran near the southern wall

of the Mongol capital.—H. C.]

[Illustration: South Gate of Imperial City at Peking.

“=Elle a douze portes, et sor chascune porte a une grandisme palais

et biaus.=”]

NOTE 3.—This height is from Pauthier’s Text; the G. Text has,

“_twenty_ paces,” _i.e._ 100 feet. A recent French paper states the

dimensions of the existing walls as 14 mètres (45½ feet) high,

and 14·50 (47¼ feet) thick, “the top forming a paved promenade,

unique of its kind, and recalling the legendary walls of Thebes and

Babylon.” (_Ann. d’Hygiène Publique_, 2nd s. tom. xxxii. for 1869,

p. 21.)

[According to the French astronomers (Fleuriais and Lapied) sent

to Peking for the Transit of Venus in December, 1875, the present

Tartar city is 23 kil. 55 in circuit, viz. if 1 _li_ = 575 m., 41

_li_; from the north to the south 5400 mètres; from east to west

6700 mètres; the wall is 13 mètres in height and 12 mètres in

width.—H. C.]

NOTE 4.—Our attempted plan of Cambaluc, as in 1290, differs

somewhat from this description, but there is no getting over

certain existing facts.

[Illustration: PEKING As it is and As it was, about 1290]

[Illustration: A.D. 1290.]

The existing Tartar city of Peking (technically _Neï-ch’ing_, “The

Interior City,” or _King-ch’ing_, “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

third 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 this abandoned portion of wall are, however, still in existence,

approaching 30 feet in height all round. 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 capital of the Ming

was 40 _li_ in circuit, according to the _Ch’ang an k’o hua_.]

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 measurable. 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

Polo’s error.

[“The _Yuen shi_ states that _Ta-tu_ was 60 _li_ in circumference.

The _Ch’ue keng lu_, a work published at the close of the Yuen

Dynasty, gives the same number of _li_ for the circuit of the

capital, but explains that _li_ of 240 _pu_ each are meant. If this

statement be correct, it would give only 40 common or geographical

_li_ for the circuit of the Mongol town.” (_Bretschneider_,

_Peking_, 13.) Dr. Bretschneider writes (p. 20): “The outlines

of Khanbaligh, partly in contradiction with the ancient Chinese

records, if my view be correct, would have measured about 50 common

_li_ in circuit (13 _li_ and more from north to south, 11·64 from

east to west.”)—H. C.]

Polo [and Odoric] 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 11

gates in Taidu. (See _Amyot_, _Mém._ 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 2 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.[1]

[“The _Yuen shi_ as well as the _Ch’ue keng lu_, and other works

of the Yuen, agree in stating that the capital had eleven gates.

They are enumerated in the following order: Southern wall—(1) The

gate direct south (mid.) was called _Li-cheng men_; (2) the gate

to the left (east), _Wen-ming men_; (3) the gate to the right

(west), _Shun-ch’eng men_. Eastern wall—(4) The gate direct east

(mid.), _Ch’ung-jen men_; (5) the gate to the south-east, _Ts’i-hua

men_; (6) the gate to the north-east, _Kuang-hi men_. Western

wall—(7) The gate direct west (mid.), _Ho-i men_; (8) the gate to

the south-west, _P’ing-tse men_; (9) the gate to the north-west,

_Su-ts’ing men_. Northern Wall—(10) The gate to the north-west,

_K’ien-te men_; (11) the gate to the north-east, _An-chen men_.”

(_Bretschneider_, _Peking_, 13–14.)—H. C.]

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 inclosed 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-Măn, 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 (shown on p. 376) forming an

elevated redoubt.

NOTE 5.—The French writer cited under note 3 says of the city as it

stands: “La ville est de la sorte coupée en échiquier à peu près

régulier dont les quadres circonscrits par des larges avenues sont

percés eux-mêmes d’une multitude de rues et ruelles ... qui toutes

à peu près sont orientées N. et S., E. et O. Une seule volonté a

évidemment présidé à ce plan, et jamais édilité n’a eu à exécuter

d’un seul coup aussi vaste entreprise.”

NOTE 6.—Martini speaks of the public clock-towers in the Chinese

cities, which in his time were furnished with water-clocks.

A watchman 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 Rev. G. B. Farthing mentions (_North-China Herald_, 7th

September, 1884) at T’ai-yuen fu the remains of an object in

the bell-tower, which was, and is still known, as one of the

eight wonders of this city; it is a vessel of brass, a part of a

water-clock from which water formerly used to flow down upon a drum

beneath and mark off time into equal divisions.—H. C.]

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. [“The _Yuen yi t’ung chi_, or ‘Geography of the

Mongol Empire’ records: ‘In the year 1272, the bell-tower and the

drum-tower were built in the _middle_ of the capital.’ A bell-tower

(_chung-lou_) and a drum-tower (_ku-lou_) exist still in Peking,

in the northern part of the Tartar City. The _ku-lou_ is the same

as that built in the thirteenth century, but the bell-tower dates

only from the last century. The bell-tower of the Yuen was a little

to the east of the drum-tower, where now the temple _Wan-ning sse_

stands. This temple is nearly in the middle of the position I

(Bretschneider) assign to Khanbaligh.” (_Bretschneider, Peking_,

20.)—H. C.] In the Court of the Old Observatory at Peking there

is preserved, with a few other ancient instruments, which date

from the Mongol era, a very elaborate water-clock, provided with

four copper basins embedded in brickwork, and rising in steps one

above the other. A cut of this courtyard, with its instruments and

aged trees, also ascribed to the Mongol time, will be found in ch.

xxxiii. (_Atlas Sinensis_, p. 10; _Magaillans_, 149–151; _Chine

Moderne_, p. 26; _Tour du Monde_ for 1864, vol. ii. p. 34.)

NOTE 7.—“Nevertheless,” adds the Ramusian, “there does exist I know

not what uneasiness about the people of Cathay.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Mr. Wylie confirms my assumption: “Whilst in Peking I traced the

old mud wall, ... and found it quite in accordance with the outline

in your map. Mr. Gilmour (a missionary to the Mongols) and I rode

round it, he taking the outside and I the inside.... Neither of

us observed the arch that Dr. Lockhart speaks of.... _There_ are

_gate-openings about the middle of the east and west sides_, but no

barbicans.” (4th December 1873.)

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 12,000, 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_

(Keshican), 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_. Recollecting the constant clerical

confusion between _c_ and _t_, what follows will leave no doubt I

think that the true reading to which all these variations point is

_Quescican_.[1]

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 Commanders_ of the _Four Kiziks_, or _Corps of the Life

Guard_.

Wassáf also, in detailing the different classes of the great

dignitaries of the Mongol monarchy, names (1) the _Noyáns_ of the

Ulus, or princes of the blood; (2) the great chiefs of the tribes;

(3) the _Amírs of the four Keshik_, or _Corps of the Body Guard_;

(4) the officers of the army, commanding ten thousands, thousands,

and so on.

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

“Ilká Noyán and Ḳarábúgá, 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 KISHÍKÁN (كشي

كان), and from their own followings in the different quarters of

the town, had the carcases 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_. [“On the night

of the 11th of Jemady ul Sany, A.H. 1160 (or 8th June, 1747), near

the city of Khojoon, three days’ journey from Meshed, Mohammed

Kuly Khan Ardemee, who was of the same tribe with Nadir Shah, his

relation, and Kushukchee Bashee, with seventy of the _Kukshek_ or

guard, ... bound themselves by an oath to assassinate Nadir Shah.”

(_Memoirs of Khojeh Abdulkurreem ... transl. by F. Gladwin_,

Calcutta, 1788, pp. 166–167).]

Friar Odoric speaks of the four barons who kept watch by the Great

Kaan’s side as the _Cuthé_, which probably represents the Chinese

form _Kiesie_ (as in De Mailla), 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 Kalmak chiefs; and

_Keshikten_ also is the name of a Mongol tribe, whose territory

lies due north of Peking, near the old site of Shangtu. (Bk. I.

ch. lxi.) [_Keshikhteng_, a tribe (_pu_; mong. _aimak_) of the

Chao Uda League (_mêng_; mong. _chogolgân_) among the twenty-four

tribes of the _Nei Mung-ku_ (Inner Mongols). (See _Mayers’ Chinese

Government_, p. 81.)—H. C.] In Kovalevsky, I find the following:—

(No. 2459) “_Keshik_, grace, favour, bounty, benefit, good fortune,

charity.”

(No. 2461) “_Keshikten_, fortunate, happy, blessed.”

(No. 2541) “_Kichyeku_, to be zealous, assiduous, devoted.”

(No. 2588) “_Kushiku_, to hinder, to bar the way to,” etc.

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 (ق instead of ک), it can

scarcely be doubted that the _Ḳalchi_ and _Ḳalaḳchi_ of Timur’s

Institutes are mere mistranscriptions of the same word, _e.g._: “I

ordered that 12,000 _Ḳalchi_, 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 diwán; thus, that

1000 of those 12,000 should be every night upon guard,” etc. The

translator’s note says of _Ḳalchi_, “A Mogul word supposed 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._, pp. 299 and 235, 237.)

I must add that Professor Vámbéry does not assent to the form

_Keshikán_, on the ground that this Persian plural is impossible

in an old Tartar dialect, and he supposes the true word to be

_Kechilan_ or _Kechiklen_, “the night-watchers,” from _Kiche_ or

_Kichek_ (Chag. and Uighúr), = “night.”

I believe, however, that Persian was the colloquial language of

foreigners 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.

(_D’Ohsson_, IV. 410; _Gold. Horde_, 228, 238; _Ilch._ II. 184;

_Q. R._ pp. 308–309; _Ayeen Aḳb._ I. 270, and _Blochmann’s_, p.

115; _J. As._ sér. IV. tom. xix. 276; _Olearius_, ed. 1659, I. 656;

_Cathay_, 135; _De Mailla_, ix. 106; _Gaubil_, p. 6; _Pallas_,

_Samml._ I. 35.)

[“By _Keshican_ in _Colonel Yule’s Marco Polo_, _Keshikten_ is

evidently meant. This is a general Mongol term to designate

the Khan’s lifeguard. It is derived from the word _Keshik_,

meaning a guard by turns; a corps on tour of duty. _Keshik_ is

one of the archaisms of the Mongol language, for now this word

has another meaning in Mongol. Colonel Yule has brought together

several explanations of the term. It seems to me that among his

suppositions the following is the most consistent with the ancient

meaning of the word:—

“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.... The royal guards in Persia, who watch the King’s person

at night, are termed _Keshikchi_.”

“The Keshikten was divided into a day-watch called _Turgaut_ and

a night-watch _Kebteul_. The Kebte-ul consisted of pure Mongols,

whilst the Turgaut was composed of the sons of the vassal princes

and governors of the provinces, and of hostages. The watch of

the Khan was changed every three days, and contained 400 men. In

1330 it was reduced to 100 men.” (_Palladius_, 42–43.) Mr. E. H.

Parker writes in the _China Review_, XVIII. p. 262, that they “are

evidently the ‘body guards’ of the modern viceroys, now pronounced

Kashïha, but, evidently, originally _Kêshigha_.” —H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] One of the nearest readings is that of the Brandenburg Latin

collated by Müller, which has _Quaesicam_.

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, 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 firkin], 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 believe.{3}

[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 whatever

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. Howbeit, 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 there with 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 tenth century, at

the court of the King of Bolghar (see _Prologue_, note 2, ch. ii.),

and at the Chinese entertainments to Shah Rukh’s embassy in the

fifteenth century. Megasthenes described the guests at an Indian

banquet as having a table set before each individual. (_Athenaeus_,

IV. 39, _Yonge’s Transl._)

[Compare Rubruck’s account, Rockhill’s ed., p. 210: “The Chan sits

in a high place to the north, so that he can be seen by all....”

(See also Friar Odoric, _Cathay_, p. 141.)—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—This word (G. T. and Ram.) is in the Crusca Italian

transformed into an adjective, “_vaselle_ vernicate _d’oro_,” and

both Marsden and Pauthier have substantially adopted the same

interpretation, which seems to me in contradiction with the text.

In Pauthier’s text the word is _vernigal_, pl. _vernigaux_, which

he explains, I know not on what authority, as “_coupes sans anses

vernies ou laquées d’or_.” There is, indeed, a Venetian sea-term,

_Vernegal_, applied to a wooden bowl in which the food of a mess 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 _Bărni_, Ar.

_Al-Bărníya_, “vas fictile in quo quid recondunt,” whence the

Spanish word _Albornia_, “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 _Hundwáníy_ into _Ondanique_, which we have already met with.

(See _Dozy et Engelmann, Glos. des Mots Espagnols_, etc., 2nd ed.,

1867, p. 73; and _Boerio, Diz. del. Dial. Venez._)

[_F. Godefroy, Dict., s.v. Vernigal_, writes: “Coupe sans anse,

vernie ou laquée d’or,” and quotes, besides Marco Polo, the _Regle

du Temple_, p. 214, éd. Soc. Hist. de France:

“Les _vernigaus_ et les escuelles.”

About _vernegal_, cf. _Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 86, note. Rubruck

says (_Soc. de Géog._ p. 241): “Implevimus unum _veringal_ de

biscocto et platellum unum de pomis et aliis fructibus.” Mr.

Rockhill translates _veringal_ by _basket_.

Dr. Bretschneider (_Peking_, 28) mentions “a large jar made of wood

and _varnished_, the inside lined with silver,” and he adds in a

note “perhaps this statement may serve to explain Marco Polo’s

_verniques_ or _vaselle_ vernicate _d’oro_, big enough to hold

drink for eight or ten persons.”—H. C.]

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 = ⅓ 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 _hanas à 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, etc., and the like at the tent of the Great

Kaan. At a festival at 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 Sháh Abbás we find the great buffet in a slightly

different form, and the golden flagon still 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; _Della Valle_, I. 654 and 750–751.)

[Referring to the “large and very beautiful piece of workmanship,”

Mr. Rockhill, _Rubruck_, 208–209, writes: “Similar works of art

and mechanical contrivances were often seen in Eastern courts. The

earliest I know of is the golden plane-tree and grape vine with

bunches of grapes in precious stones, which was given to Darius by

Pythius the Lydian, and which shaded the king’s couch. (Herodotus,

IV. 24.) The most celebrated, however, and that which may have

inspired Mangu with the desire to have something like it at his

court, was the famous Throne of Solomon (Σολομώντεος Θρóνος) of the

Emperor of Constantinople, Theophilus (A.D. 829–842).... Abulfeda

states that in A.D. 917 the envoys of Constantine Porphyrogenitus

to the Caliph el Moktader saw in the palace of Bagdad a tree with

eighteen branches, some of gold, some of silver, and on them were

gold and silver birds, and the leaves of the tree were of gold

and silver. By means of machinery, the leaves were made to rustle

and the birds to sing. Mirkhond speaks also of a tree of gold and

precious stones in the city of Sultanieh, in the interior of which

were conduits through which flowed drinks of different kinds.

Clavijo describes a somewhat similar tree at the court of Timur.”

Dr. Bretschneider (_Peking_, 28, 29) mentions a clepsydra with a

lantern. By means of machinery put in motion by water, at fixed

times a little man comes forward exhibiting a tablet, which

announces the hours. He speaks also of a musical instrument which

is connected, by means of a tube, with two peacocks sitting on a

cross-bar, and when it plays, the mechanism causes the peacocks to

dance.—H. C.]

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 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. Outside 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 in the 17th

century, 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;

_Rubr._ 255, 268, 319; _Plan. Carp._ 625, 741; _Makrizi_, I. 214;

_Mél. Asiat. Ac. St. Petersb._ II. 660; _The Siberian Overland

Route_, p. 97; _P. Della Valle_, II. 171.)

[Mr. Rockhill writes (_Rubruck_, p. 104): “The same custom existed

among the Fijians, I believe. I may note that it also prevailed in

ancient China. It is said of Confucius ‘when he was standing he

did not occupy the middle of the gate-way; when he passed in or

out, he did not tread on the threshold.’ (_Lun-yü_, Bk. X. ch. iv.

2.) In China, the bride’s feet must not touch the threshold of the

bridegroom’s house. (Cf. _Dennys’ Folk-lore in China_, p. 18.)

“The author of the _Ch’ue keng lu_ mentions also the athletes with

clubs standing at the door, at the time of the khan’s presence in

the hall. He adds, that next to the Khan, two other life-guards

used to stand, who held in their hands ‘natural’ axes of jade (axes

found fortuitously in the ground, probably primitive weapons).”

(_Palladius_, p. 43.)—H. C.]

NOTE 5.—Some of these etiquettes were probably rather Chinese than

Mongol, for the regulations of the court of Kúblái apparently

combined the two. In the visit of Shah Rukh’s ambassadors to the

court of the Emperor Ch’êng Tsu 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.” (_N. et Ext._ XIV. 408, 409.) In

one of the Persepolitan sculptures, there stands behind the King an

eunuch bearing a fan, and with his mouth covered; at least so says

Heeren. (_Asia_, I. 178.)

NOTE 6.—“_Jongleours et entregetours de maintes plusieurs manieres

de granz experimenz_” (P.); “_de Giuculer et de Tregiteor_”

(G. T.). Ital. _Tragettatore_, a juggler; Romance, _Trasjitar,

Tragitar_, to juggle. Thus Chaucer:—

“There saw I playing Jogelours,

Magiciens, and _Tragetours_,

And Phetonisses, Charmeresses,

Old Witches, Sorceresses,” etc.

—_House of Fame_, III. 169.

And again:—

“For oft at festes have I wel herd say,

That _Tregetoures_, within an halle large,

Have made come in a water and a barge,

And in the halle rowen up and doun.

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

spoken of in note 9 to ch. lxi. of Book I. Shah Rukh’s people,

Odoric, Ysbrandt Ides, etc., 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 Manners_, pp. 165–166, and the Court of the

Emperor Frederic 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 excepting 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

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.{4}

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 (_v. ante_, ch. ii. note 2).

[According to Dr. S. W. Williams (_Middle Kingdom_, II. p. 70):

“The year is lunar, but its commencement is regulated by the sun.

New Year falls on the first new moon after the sun enters Aquarius,

which makes it come not before January 21st nor after February

19th.” “The beginning of the civil year, writes Peter Hoang

(_Chinese Calendar_, p. 13), depends upon the good pleasure of the

Emperors. Under the Emperor Hwang-ti (2697 B.C.) and under the Hsia

Dynasty (2205 B.C.), it was made to commence with the 3rd month

_yin-yüeh_ [Pisces]; under the Shang Dynasty (1766 B.C.) with the

2nd month _ch’ou-yüeh_ [Aquarius], and under the Chou Dynasty (1122

B.C.) with the 1st month _tzu-yüeh_ [Capricorn].”—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—The expression “_à or batuz_” as here applied to robes,

is common among the mediæval 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 bodie was clad full richely.”

—_Rom. of the Rose_, 836–839.

M. Michel thinks that in a stuff so termed the gold wire was

_beaten out_ 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.”[1] It is

possible, however, that this latter sentence is an interpolated

gloss; for, besides the improbability of munificence 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 _tres_; but we must note that the number 13 is repeated

and corroborated in ch. 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 Mangku 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; _Pl. Car._ 755.)

[Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 247, note) makes the following

remarks: “Odoric, however, says that the colours differed according

to the rank. The custom of presenting _khilats_ is still observed

in Central Asia and Persia. I cannot learn from any other authority

that the Mongols ever wore turbans. Odoric says the Mongols of the

imperial feasts wore ‘coronets’ (_in capite coronati_).”—H. C.]

NOTE 4.—[“The accounts given by Marco Polo regarding the feasts of

the Khan and the festival dresses at his Court, agree perfectly

with the statements on the same subject of contemporary Chinese

writers. Banquets were called in the common Mongol language

_chama_, and festival dresses _chisun_. General festivals used to

be held at the New Year and at the Birthday of the Khan. In the

_Mongol-Chinese Code_, the ceremonies performed in the provinces on

the Khan’s Birthday are described. One month before that day the

civil and military officers repaired to a temple, where a service

was performed to the Khan’s health. On the morning of the Birthday

a sumptuously adorned table was placed in the open air, and the

representatives of all classes and all confessions were obliged

to approach the table, to prostrate themselves and exclaim three

times: _Wan-sui_ (_i.e._ ‘Ten thousand years’ life to the Khan).

After that the banquet took place. In the same code (in the article

on the _Ye li ke un_ [Christians, _Erke-un_]) it is stated, that in

the year 1304,—owing to a dispute, which had arisen in the province

of Kiang-nan between the _ho-shang_ (Buddhist priests) and the

Christian missionaries, as to precedence in the above-mentioned

ceremony,—a special edict was published, in which it was decided

that in the rite of supplication, Christians should follow the

Buddhist and Taouist priests.” (_Palladius_, pp. 44–45.)—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] There are thirteen months to the Chinese year in seven out of every

nineteen.

[“This interval of 10 years comprises 235 lunar months, generally

125 _long_ months of 30 days, 110 _short_ months of 29 days, (but

sometimes 124 _long_ and 111 _short_ months), and 7 _intercalary_

months. The year of twelve months is called a common year, that

of thirteen months, an _intercalary_ year.” (_P. Hoang, Chinese

Calendar_, p. 12. —H. C.)]

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 made 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 governments 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 whatever 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 representing beasts and birds, whilst each of them

carries on his back two splendid coffers; all of these being filled

with the Emperor’s plate and other costly furniture required for the

Court on the occasion of the White Feast.{3} 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 round about, 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 reverence, 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.

NOTE 1.—The first month of the year is still called by the Mongols

_Chaghan_ or _Chaghan Sara_, “the White” or the “White Month”; and

the wearing of white clothing 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.; _Not. et Ext._ XIV. Pt. I.

32; and _Strahlenberg_ (II. 210 of Amsterd. ed. 1757). Vámbéry,

speaking of the _Ḳálín_ 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.) Sheikh Ibrahim of Darband,

making offerings to Timur, presented _nines_ of everything else,

but of slaves _eight_ only. “Where is the ninth?” enquired the

court official. “Who but I myself?” said the Sheikh, and so won the

heart of Timur. (_A. Arabsiadis ... Timuri Hist._ p. 357.)

NOTE 3.—The elephant stud of the Son of Heaven had dwindled till

in 1862 Dr. Rennie found but one animal; now none remain. [Dr. S.

W. Williams writes (_Middle Kingdom_, I. pp. 323–324): “Elephants

are kept at Peking for show, and are used to draw the state chariot

when the Emperor goes to worship at the Altars of Heaven and Earth,

but the sixty animals seen in the days of Kienlung, by Bell, have

since dwindled to one or two. Van Braam met six going into Peking,

sent thither from Yun-Nan.” These were no doubt carrying tribute

from Burmah.—H. C.] It is worth noticing that the housings of cut

cloth or _appliqué_ work (“_draps entaillez_”) are still in fashion

in India for the caparison of elephants.

NOTE 4.—In 1263 Kúblái adopted the Chinese fashion of worshipping

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: ‘God save and keep our Lord the Emperor, with

length of years and with mirth and happiness.’ And all answer: ‘So

may it be!’ And then again the prelate says: ‘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 Dominion!’ And all again respond: ‘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: “The Musician’s Song having

ceased, the Ministers shall recite with a loud voice the following

Prayer: ‘Great Heaven, that extendest over all! Earth which art

under the guidance of Heaven! We invoke You and beseech You to heap

blessings upon 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 K’o-tow (_Khéu-théu_) which appears repeatedly in this

ceremonial 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 _Ḳornish_, a Moghul ceremony, in which originally “the person

who performed it kneeled nine times and touched the earth with his

brow each time.” He describes 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,[1] mention that ambassadors

from the famous Hárún ar Rashíd 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

K’o-tow occurs repeatedly.

[“It is interesting to note,” writes Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p.

22), “that in A.D. 981 the Chinese Envoy, Wang Yen-tê, sent to the

Uigur Prince of Kao-chang, refused to make genuflexions (_pai_) to

him, as being contrary to the established usages as regards envoys.

The prince and his family, however, on receiving the envoy, all

faced eastward (towards Peking) and made an obeisance (_pai_) on

receiving the imperial presents (_shou-tzŭ_).” (_Ma Twan-lin_, Bk.

336, 13.)—H. C.]

(_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 Sháh Abbás an

obeisance evidently identical was repeated four times. (_Carp._

759; _Doolittle_, p. 60; _P. Della Valle_, I. 646.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] _Gaubil_, cited in _Pauthier’s Hist. des Relations Politiques de la

Chine_, etc., p. 226.

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 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 value, and likewise a pair of boots of _Camut_, that is to

say of _Borgal_, curiously wrought with silver thread; insomuch 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, amounting 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 unchained. Truly this must

seem a strange story to those who have not seen the thing!{3}

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 elevated 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 _Camut_ and _Borgal_ appear both to be used

here for what we call _Russia-Leather_. The latter word in one

form or another, _Bolghár, Borgháli_, or _Bulkál_, is the term

applied to that material 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 _Borgháli_, “_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 from

_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 _Kámú_, 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 _Saghrí_ 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

Turkish _ṣāghri_ or _saghri_ is the name both for the buttocks of

a horse and the leather called _shagreen_ prepared with them. (See

_Devic, Dict. Étym._)—H. C.] In the commercial lists of our Indian

north-west frontier we find as synonymous _Saghri_ or _Kímukht_,

“Horse or Ass-hide.” No doubt this latter word is a form of _Kámú_

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 Pipino’s version.

It may be a misrendering of _camutum_ or _camutium_; or is there

any real connexion between the Oriental _Kámú Kímukht_, and the

Italian _camoscia_? (_I. B._ II. 445; _Klapr. Mém._ vol. III.;

_Davies’s Trade Report_, App. p. ccxx.; _Vámbéry’s Travels_, 423;

_Not. et Ext._ II. 43.)

Fraehn (writing in 1832) observes that he knew no use of the word

_Bolghár_, 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_, pp. 8–9.)

Pauthier in a note (p. 285) gives a list of the garments issued to

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.

[La Curne, _Dict._, has _Bulga_, leather bag; old Gallic word from

which are derived _bouge_ et _bougete, bourse_; he adds in a note,

“Festus writes: ‘_Bulgas_ galli sacculos scorteos vocant.’”—H. C.]

NOTE 3.—“Then come mummers leading lions, which they cause to

salute the Lord with reverence.” (_Odoric_, p. 143.) A lion sent by

Mirza Baisangar, one of the Princes of Timur’s House, accompanied

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, etc., 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 immense. 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, rows 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 fine jungle-fowl, etc., and all

so cheap that I never could have believed it” (pp. 177–178). As

this writer mentions _wild-cats_, we may presume that the “lions”

of Polo also were destined to be eaten.

[“Kubilai Khan kept a whole army, 14,000 men, huntsmen, distributed

in Peking and other cities in the present province of Chili

(_Yuen-shi_). The Khan used to hunt in the Peking plain from the

beginning of spring, until his departure to Shang-tu. There are in

the Peking department many low and marshy places, stretching often

to a considerable extent and abounding in game. In the biography

of _Ai-sie_ (_Yuen shi_, chap. cxxxiv.), who was a Christian, it

is mentioned that Kubilai was hunting also in the department of

Pao-ting fu.” (_Palladius_, p. 45.)—H. C.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE LIONS AND LEOPARDS AND WOLVES THAT THE KAAN KEEPS

FOR THE CHASE.

The Emperor hath numbers of leopards{1} trained to the chase, 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.]{3}

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 one, called Semend-Manik, was carried

to the field in a palankin with a kettledrum 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 introduced into France in the latter part of the 15th century,

and frequently employed by Lewis XI., Charles VIII., and Lewis XII.

The leopards were kept in a ditch of the Castle of Amboise, and the

name still borne by a gate hard by, _Porte des Lions_, is supposed

to be due to that circumstance. The _Mœurs et Usages du Moyen

Age_ (Lacroix), from which I take the last facts, gives copy of a

print by John Stradanus representing a huntsman with the leopard

on his horse’s crupper, like Kúblái’s (_supra_, Bk. I. ch. lxi.);

Frederic II. used to say of his Cheetas, “they knew how to ride.”

This way of taking the Cheeta to the field had been first employed

by the Khalif Yazid, son of Moáwiyah. The Cheeta often appears in

the pattern of silk damasks of the 13th and 14th centuries, both

Asiatic and Italian. (_Ayeen Akbery_, I. 304, etc.; _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_.)

[The hunting equipment of the Sultan consisted of about thirty

falconers on horseback who carried each a bird on his fist. These

falconers were in front of seven horsemen, who had behind a kind

of tamed tiger at times employed by His Highness for hare-hunting,

notwithstanding what may be said to the contrary by those who are

inclined not to believe the fact. It is a thing known by everybody

here, and cannot be doubted except by those who admit that they

believe nothing of foreign customs. These tigers were each covered

with a brocade cloth—and their peaceful attitude, added to their

ferocious and savage looks, caused at the same time astonishment

and fear in the soul of those whom they looked upon. (_Journal

d’Antoine Galland_, trad. par Ch. Schefer, I. p. 135.) The Cheeta

(_Gueparda jubata_) was, according to Sir W. Jones, first employed

in hunting antelopes by Hushing, King of Persia, 865 B.C.—H. C.]

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 remarkable 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 nus beste apellum,

Ceo est _Lucervere_, oler fait et mult est fere.”

[The Abbé Armand David writes (_Missions Cathol._ XXI. 1889, p.

227) that there is in China, from the mountains of Manchuria to

the mountains of Tibet, a lynx called by the Chinese _T’u-pao_

(earth-coloured panther); a lynx somewhat similar to the

_loup-cervier_ is found on the western border of China, and has

been named _Lyncus Desgodinsi_.—H. C.]

Hunting Lynxes were used at the Court of Akbar. They are also

mentioned by A. Hamilton as so used in Sind at the end of the

17th 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.; _Hamilt. E.

Indies_, I. 125; _Vigne_, I. 42.)

NOTE 3.—The conception of a Tiger seems almost to have dropped

out of the European mind during the Middle Ages. Thus in a

mediæval Bestiary, a chapter on the Tiger begins: “_Une Beste

est qui est apelée Tigre c’est une manière 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 _Leonza_. Marsden supposes

judiciously that the confusion may have been promoted by the

ambiguity of the Persian _Sher_.

[Illustration: The Búrgút Eagle. (After Atkinson.)

“=Il a encore aiglies qe sunt afaités à prendre leus et voupes et

dain et chavriou, et en prennent assez.=”]

The Chinese pilgrim, Sung-Yun (A.D. 518), saw two young lions

at the Court of Gandhára. He remarks that the pictures of these

animals common in China, were not at all good likenesses. (_Beal_,

p. 200.)

We do not hear in modern 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 perfectly correct. In Eastern Turkestan, and among

the Kirghiz to this day, eagles termed _Búrgút_ (now well known to

be the Golden Eagle) are tamed and trained to fly at wolves, foxes,

deer, wild goats, etc. A Kirghiz will give a good horse for an

eagle in which he recognises capacity for training. Mr. Atkinson

gives vivid descriptions and illustrations of this eagle (which he

calls “Bear coote”), attacking both deer and wolves. 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. In justice both to Marco Polo and to Mr. Atkinson, I have

pleasure in adding a vivid account of the exploits of this bird, as

witnessed by one of my kind correspondents, the Governor-General’s

late envoy to Kashgar. And I trust Sir Douglas Forsyth will pardon

my quoting his own letter just as it stands[1]:—“Now for a story

of the _Burgoot_—Atkinson’s ‘Bearcoote.’ I think I told you it was

the Golden Eagle and supposed to attack wolves and even bears.

One day we came across a wild hog of enormous size, far bigger

than any that gave sport to the Tent Club in Bengal. The Burgoot

was immediately let loose, and went straight at the hog, which it

kicked, and flapped with its wings, and utterly _flabbergasted_,

whilst our Kashgaree companions attacked him with sticks and

brought him to the ground. As Friar Odoric would say, I, T. D.

F., have seen this with mine own eyes.”—Shaw describes the rough

treatment with which the Búrgút is tamed. Baber, when in the Bajaur

Hills, notices in his memoirs: “This day Búrgút took a deer.”

(_Timkowski_, I. 414; _Levchine_, p. 77; _Pallas_, _Voyages_,

I. 421; _J. R. A. S._ VII. 305; _Atkinson’s Siberia_, 493; and

_Amoor_, 146–147; _Shaw_, p. 157; _Baber_, p. 249.)

[The Golden Eagle (_Aquila chrysaetus_) is called at Peking _Hoy

tiao_ (black eagle). (_David et Oustalet_, _Oiseaux de la Chine_,

p. 8.)—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Dated Yangi Hissar, 10th April, 1874.

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 occasion! 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.]

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 Kúblái, of whom we shall hear

afterwards; 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, _Sámsúnji Báshi_, 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 _Cunici_ (_i.e._ _Kunichi_) and _Cinuci_ (_i.e._

_Chinuchi_). It is evidently a word of analogous structure to

_Kushchi_, the Master of the Falcons; _Parschi_, the Master of

the Leopards. Professor Schiefner thinks it is probably corrupted

from _Noghaichi_, which appears in Kovalevski’s Mongol Dict. as

“_chasseur qui a soins des chiens courants_.” This word occurs, he

points out, in Sanang Setzen, where Schmidt translates it _Aufseher

über 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—as in the next chapter. I have hazarded a suggestion of

(Or. Turkish) _Chong-It-chi_, “Keeper of the Big Dogs,” which

Professor Vámbéry thinks possible. (See “_chong_, big, strong,”

in his _Tschagataische Sprachstudien_, p. 282, and note in _Lord

Strangford’s Selected Writings_, II. 169.) In East Turkestan they

call the Chinese _Chong Káfir_, “The Big Heathen.” This would

exactly correspond to the rendering of Pipino’s Latin translation,

“_hoc est canum magnorum 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_.”

Lastly the root-word may be the Chinese _Kiuen_, “dog,” as Pauthier

says. The mastiffs were probably Tibetan, but may have come through

China, and brought a name with them, like _Boule-dogues_ in France.

[Palladius (p. 46) says that _Chinuchi_ or _Cunici_ “have no

resemblance with any of the names found in the _Yuen shi_, ch.

xcix., article _Ping chi_ (military organisation), and relating to

the hunting staff of the Khan, viz.: _Si pao ch’i_ (falconers), _Ho

r ch’i_ (archers), and _Ke lien ch’i_ (probably those who managed

the hounds).”—H. C.]

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, February, he starts off on

the 1st 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 Emperor. 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 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 is carried to a certain Baron, who is styled the _Bularguchi_,

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, 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 incontinently found and restored.{4}

And so the Emperor follows this road that I have mentioned, 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 lions’ 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 sometimes, 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 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 lions’ 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 altogether the number of tents there on

the plain is something wonderful. To see the many people that are

thronging to 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 hunting 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 throughout 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 command, 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, however, 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 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 à la Mer Occeane, ou il y a

deux journées._” 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 100

miles as the crow flies from the nearest point of the coast, at

least six or seven days’ march for such a camp, and the direction

is south-east, or nearly so. The last circumstance 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. West_, 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 circumstances point to the frontier of Liao-tong 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 terminus 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. Kúblái started on the “1st of March,”

probably however the 1st of the second Chinese month. 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

attendance 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

I take from Ramusio. It is Turki, _Tosḳáúl_, توسقاول, defined as

“Gardien, surveillant de la route; Wächter, Wache, Wegehüter.” (See

_Zenker_, and _Pavet de Courteille_.) The word is perhaps also

Mongol, for Rémusat has _Tosiyal_ = “Veille.” (_Mél. As._ I. 231.)

Such an example of Polo’s correctness 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.

[Palladius (p. 47) says that he has heard from men well acquainted

with the customs of the Mongols, that at the present day in

“battues,” the leaders of the two flanks which surround the game,

are called _toscaul_ in Mongol.—H. C.]

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 Hindú 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 property.” (_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 property.” 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. We

have this same word _Bularghu_ in a grant of privileges to the

Venetians by the Ilkhan Abusaid, 22nd December, 1320, which has

been published by M. Mas Latrie: “_Item, se algun cavalo_ bolargo

_fosse trovado apreso de algun vostro veneciano_,” etc.—“If any

stray horse shall be found in the possession of a Venetian,” etc.

(See _Bibl. de l’École des Chartes_, 1870—_tirage à part_, p. 26.)

[“There are two Mongol terms, which resemble this word

_Bularguchi_, viz. _Balagachi_ and _Buluguchi_. But the first was

the name used for the door-keeper of the tent of the Khan. By

Buluguchi the Mongols understood a hunter and especially sable

hunters. No one of these terms can be made consistent with the

accounts given by M. Polo regarding the Bularguchi. In the _Kui

sin tsa shi_, written by Chow Mi, in the former part of the 14th

century, interesting particulars regarding Mongol hunting are

found.” (_Palladius_, 47.) In chapter 101, _Djan-ch’i_, of the

_Yuen-shi_, Falconers are called _Ying fang pu lie_, and a certain

class of the Falconers are termed _Bo-lan-ghi_. (_Bretschneider,

Med. Res._ I. p. 188.)—H. C.]

NOTE 5.—A like description is given by Odoric of the mode in which

a successor of Kúblái travelled between Cambaluc and Shangtu, with

his falcons also in the chamber beside him. What Kúblái had adopted

as an indulgence to his years and gout, his successors probably

followed as a precedent without these excuses.

[With regard to the gout of Kúblái Khan, Palladius (p. 48) writes:

“In the Corean history allusion is made twice to the Khan’s

suffering from this disease. Under the year 1267, it is there

recorded that in the 9th month, envoys of the Khan with a letter

to the King arrived in Corea. Kubilai asked for the skin of the

_Akirho munho_, a fish resembling a cow. The envoy was informed

that, as the Khan suffered from swollen feet it would be useful for

him to wear boots made of the skin of this animal, and in the 10th

month, the king of Corea forwarded to the Khan seventeen skins of

it. It is further recorded in the Corean history, that in the 8th

month of 1292, sorcerers and _Shaman_ women from Corea were sent at

the request of the Khan to cure him of a disease of the feet and

hands. At that time the king of Corea was also in Peking, and the

sorcerers and Shaman women were admitted during an audience the

King had of the Khan. They took the Khan’s hands and feet and began

to recite exorcisms, whilst Kubilai was laughing.”—H. C.]

NOTE 6.—Marsden and Pauthier identify Cachar Modun with _Tchakiri

Mondou_, or _Moudon_, which appears in D’Anville’s atlas as the

title of a “Levée de terre naturelle,” in the extreme east of

Manchuria, and in lat. 44°, between the Khinga Lake and the sea.

This position is out of the question. It is more than 900 miles,

_in a straight line_ from Peking, and the mere journey thither and

back would have taken Kúblái’s camp something like six months. The

name _Kachar Modun_ is probably Mongol, and as _Katzar_ is = “land,

region,” and _Modun_ = “wood” or “tree,” a fair interpretation lies

on the surface. Such a name indeed has little individuality. But

the Jesuit maps have a _Modun Khotan_ (“Wood-ville”) just about

the locality supposed, viz. in the region north of the eastern

extremity of the Great Wall.

[Captain Gill writes (_River of Golden Sand_, I. p. 111): “This

country around Urh-Chuang is admirably described [in _Marco Polo_,

pp. 403, 406], and I should almost imagine that the Kaan must have

set off south-east from Peking, and enjoyed some of his hawking not

far from here, before he travelled to Cachar Modun, wherever that

may have been.”

“With respect to Cachar Modun, Marco Polo intends perhaps by

this name Ho-si wu, which place, together with Yang-ts’un, were

comprised in the general name _Ma t’ou_ (perhaps the _Modun_

of M. Polo). Ma-t’ou is even now a general term for a jetty in

Chinese. Ho-si in the Mongol spelling was Ha-shin. D’Ohsson, in his

translation of Rashid-eddin renders _Ho-si_ by _Co-shi_ (_Hist.

des Mongols_, I. p. 95), but Rashid in that case speaks not of

Ho-si wu, but of the Tangut Empire, which in Chinese was called

Ho-si, meaning west of the (Yellow) River. (See _supra_, p. 205).

Ho-si wu, as well as Yang-ts’un, both exist even now as villages

on the Pei-ho River, and near the first ancient walls can be seen.

Ho-si wu means: ‘Custom’s barrier west of the (Pei-ho) river.’”

(_Palladius_, p. 45.) This identification cannot be accepted on

account of the position of Ho-si wu. —H. C.]

NOTE 7.—I suppose the best accessible illustration of the Kaan’s

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.

Kúblái’s great tent, after all, was but a fraction of the size

of Akbar’s audience-tents, the largest of which held 10,000

people, and took 1000 _farráshes_ a week’s work to pitch it, with

machines. But perhaps the manner of _holding_ people is differently

estimated. (_Aín Akb._ 53.)

In the description of the tent-poles, Pauthier’s text has “_trois

coulombes de fust_ de pieces _moult bien encuierées_,” etc. The G.

T. has “_de leing_ d’especies _mout bien curés_,” etc. The Crusca,

“_di_ spezie _molto belle_,” and Ramusio going off at a tangent,

“_di legno intagliate con grandissimo artificio e indorate_.” I

believe the translation in the text to indicate the true reading.

It might mean camphor-wood, or the like. The tent-covering of

tiger-skins is illustrated by a passage in Sanang Setzen, which

speaks of a tent covered with panther-skins, sent to Chinghiz by

the Khan of the Solongos (p. 77).

[Illustration: The Tents of the Emperor Kienlung.]

[Grenard (pp. 160–162) gives us his experience of Tents in Central

Asia (Khotan). “These Tents which we had purchased at Tashkent

were the ‘tentes-abris’ which are used in campaign by Russian

military workshops, only we made them larger by a third. They were

made of grey Kirghiz felt, which cannot be procured at Khotan. The

felt manufactured in this town not having enough consistency or

solidity, we took Aksu felt, which is better than this of Khotan,

though inferior to the felt of Russian Turkestan. These felt tents

are extremely heavy, and, once damp, are dried with difficulty.

These drawbacks are not compensated by any important advantage; it

would be an illusion to believe that they preserve from the cold

any better than other tents. In fact, I prefer the Manchu tent in

use in the Chinese army, which is, perhaps, of all military tents

the most practical and comfortable. It is made of a single piece of

double cloth of cotton, very strong, waterproof for a long time,

white inside, blue outside, and weighs with its three tipped sticks

and its wooden poles, 25 kilog. Set up, it forms a ridge roof 7

feet high and shelters fully ten men. It suits servants perfectly

well. For the master who wants to work, to write, to draw,

occasionally to receive officials, the ideal tent would be one of

the same material, but of larger proportions, and comprising two

parallel vertical partitions and surmounted by a ridge roof. The

round form of Kirghiz and Mongol tents is also very comfortable,

but it requires a complicated and inconvenient wooden frame-work,

owing to which it takes some considerable time to raise up the

tent.”—H. C.]

NOTE 8.—The expressions about the sable run in the G. T., “_et

l’apellent les Tartarz les_ roi des pelaines,” etc. 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 Tartari_ Lenoidae Pellonae”; the Crusca, “_chiamanle

li Tartari_ Leroide Pelame”; Ramusio in a very odd way combines

both the genuine and the blundered interpretation: “_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 says, was worth in India 1000 dinárs of that country, whilst

a sable one was worth only 400 dinárs. As Ibn Batuta’s Indian

dinárs 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_l._ The same authority mentions that in 1591

the Tzar Theodore Ivanovich made a present of a pelisse valued at

the equivalent of 5000 _silver_ rubels of modern Russian money,

or upwards of 750_l._ Atkinson speaks of a _single_ sable skin of

the highest quality, for which the trapper demanded 18_l._ The

great mart for fine sables is at Olekma on the Lena. (See _I. B._

II. 401–402; _Baer’s Beiträge_, VII. 215 _seqq._; _Upper and Lower

Amoor_, 390.)

NOTE 9.—Hawking is still common in North China. Pétis de la Croix

the elder, in his account of the _Yasa_, or institutes of Chinghiz,

quotes 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. 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 Pétis de la Croix. (Engl. Vers. 1722, p. 82.)

CHAPTER XXI.

REHEARSAL OF THE WAY THE YEAR OF THE GREAT KAAN 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 Cambaluc, 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 stopping 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

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_, _January_, _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_, _August_;

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 occasional journeys in this or that direction at his own

pleasure.

NOTE 1.—This chapter, with its wearisome and whimsical

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.

Dr. Bushell has kindly sent me a notice of a Chinese document (his

translation of which he had unfortunately mislaid), containing a

minute contemporary account of the annual migration of the Mongol

Court to Shangtu. Having traversed the Kiu Yung Kwan (or Nankau)

Pass, where stands the great Mongol archway represented at the

end of this volume, they left what is now the Kalgan post-road at

Tumuyi, making straight for Chaghan-nor (_supra_, p. 304), and

thence to Shangtu. The return journey in autumn followed the same

route as far as Chaghan-nor, where some days were spent in fowling

on the lakes, and thence by Siuen-hwa fu (“_Sindachu_,” _supra_, p.

295) and the present post-road to Cambaluc.

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.

[Illustration: Plain of Cambaluc; the City in the distance; from the

Hills on the north-west.]

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 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.

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 mediæval

Italian in the sense nearly of what we call a _factory_. The word

is from the Greek πανδοκεῖον, but through the Arabic _Fandúḳ_. 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 Emperor and say: “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 everything 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 exculpation,

for no one would stand by him, as no one dared to oppose Achmath. And

thus the latter caused many to perish unjustly.{2}

Moreover, 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: “What say you? Here is this pretty daughter of

yours; give her in marriage to the Bailo Achmath (for they called him

‘the Bailo,’ or, as we should say, ‘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: “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: “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. This

Achmath also had amassed great treasure, for everybody 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, conspired 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 conclusion, 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 Saracens, and these they could

not endure, for they were treated by them just like slaves. You see the

Great Kaan had not succeeded to the dominion of Cathay by hereditary

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? “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 illumination, 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 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 messengers 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 streets 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,

yea 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 ordered them to regulate their

marriages by the Tartar Law, 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

Collection _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_, etc.,

to that hitherto adopted in our text of _Chandu_, _Chinkin_, etc.

NOTE 2.—The remarks of a Chinese historian on Kúblái’s

administration 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 commanding 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 Ministers

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

blood-suckers.” (_De Mailla_, IX. 459–460.)

AHMAD was a native of Fenáket (afterwards Sháh-Rúkhia), near the

Jaxartes, and obtained employment under Kúblái 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. Kúblái’s demands for money must

have been very large, and he eschewed looking too closely into

the character of his 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

Kúblái. The Chinese authorities in Gaubil and De Mailla 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

remonstrance against the Minister’s proceedings; but Kúblái turned

a deaf ear to them, and Ahmad succeeded in ruining most of his

opponents. (_Gaubil_, 141, 143, 151; _De Mailla_, IX. 316–317;

_D’Ohsson_, II. 468–469.)

[The Rev. W. S. Ament (_Marco Polo in Cambaluc_, 105) writes: “No

name is more execrated than that of Ah-ha-ma (called Achmath by

Polo), a Persian, who was chosen to manage the finances of the

Empire. He was finally destroyed by a combination against him while

the Khan was absent with Crown Prince Chen Chin, on a visit to

Shang Tu.” Achmath has his biography under the name of _A-ho-ma_

(Ahmed) in the ch. 205 of the _Yuen-shi_, under the rubric

“Villanous Ministers.” (_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ I. p. 272.)

—H. C.]

NOTE 3.—This term _Bailo_ was the designation of the representative

of Venetian dignity at Constantinople, called _Podestà_ during

the period of the Latin rule there, and it has endured throughout

the Turkish Empire to our own day in the form _Balios_ as the

designation of a Frank Consul. [There was also a Venetian _bailo_

in Syria.—H. C.] But that term itself could scarcely have been in

use at Cambaluc, 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 _Wáli_, “a Prince, Governor of a Province, ... a chief

Magistrate.” (_F. Johnson._) In the _Roteiro_ of the Voyage of

Vasco da Gama (2nd ed. Lisbon, 1861, pp. 53–54) 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 _Alquaide_.” And the

Editor gives the same explanation that I have suggested.

I observe that according to Pandit Manphul the native governor

of Kashgar, under the Chinese Amban, used to be called the _Baili

Beg_. [In this case _Baili_ stands for _beilêh_.—H. C.] (_Panjab

Trade Report_, App. p. cccxxxvii.)

NOTE 4.—The story, as related in De Mailla 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) Kúblái 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

oppressions. Kúblái alone knew, or would know, nothing of them.

WANGCHU, a chief officer of the city, resolved to take the

opportunity 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 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 Kúblái, who received

it at Chaghan-Nor. (See Book I. ch. lx.) He immediately despatched

officers to arrest the guilty and bring them to justice. Wangchu,

Chang-y, and Kao Hoshang were publicly executed 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. (_De

Mailla_, IX. 412–413; _Gaubil_, 193–194; _D’Ohsson_, II. 470.) [Cf.

_G. Phillips_, in _T’oung-Pao_, I. p. 220.—H. C.]

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-Nor

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

Wangchu. 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 Kúblái’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. (_De Mailla_, IX.

413–414.)

What is said near the end of this chapter about the Kaan’s

resentment against the Saracens has some confirmation in

circumstances related by Rashiduddin. The refusal of some Mussulman

merchants, on a certain occasion at Court, to eat of the dishes

sent them by the Emperor, 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 Kúblái of the loss caused by the cessation

of the visits of the Mahomedan merchants. On a previous occasion

also the Mahomedans had incurred disfavour, owing to the ill-will

of certain Christians, who quoted to Kúblái a text of the Koran

enjoining 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!

Kúblái 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 obnoxious applications of the text.

(_D’Ohsson_, II. 492–493.)

CHAPTER XXIV.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN CAUSETH THE BARK OF TREES, MADE INTO SOMETHING

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 Cambaluc, 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 tornesel; 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 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 printed upon it in red;

the Money is then authentic. 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 that 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 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 these 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 three

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 Emperor.

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 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 immediately

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.

Kúblái 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 _five_ 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; a circumstance not

very easy to understand. The paper-money was called _Chao_.

The notes of Kúblái’s first issue (1260–1287) with which Polo may be

supposed most familiar, were divided into three classes; (1) _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 supplementary 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 5_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 ¹⁄₂₄₀

of the _líra_. Hence the _tornese_ would be ⁹⁄₆₀ of the _grosso_.

But we are not to look for _exact_ correspondences, when we see

Polo applying round figures in European coinage to Chinese currency.

[Illustration: Bank-Note of the Ming Dynasty.]

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 _liang_ or ounce of silver is valued commonly

at 6_s._ 7_d._, say roundly 80_d._[1] But the relation of gold

and silver in civilized Asia was then (see ch. I. note 4, and

also _Cathay_, pp. ccl. and 442) as 10 to 1, not, as with us now,

more than 15 to 1. Wherefore the _liang_ in relation to gold would

be worth 120_d._ or 10_s._, a little over the Venetian ducat and

somewhat less than the bezant or dínár. We shall then find the

table of Chinese issues, as compared with Marco’s equivalents, to

stand thus:—

CHINESE ISSUES, AS RECORDED. MARCO POLO’S STATEMENT.

For 10 ounces of silver (viz. . }

the Chinese _Ting_)[2] . . } 10 bezants.

For 1 ounce of silver, _i.e._ 1 _liang_,}

or 1000 _tsien_ (cash) } 1 „

For 500 _tsien_ . . . . 10 groats.

200 „ . . . . . 5 „ (should have been 4).

100 „ . . . . . 2 „

50 „ . . . . . 1 „

30 „ . . . . . ½ „ (but the proportionate

equivalent of half a

groat would be 25

_tsien_).

20 „ . . . . .

10 „ . . . . . 1 tornesel (but the

proportionate

equivalent would be 7½

_tsien_).

5 „ . . . . . ½ „ (but prop. equivalent

3¾ _tsien_).

Pauthier has given from the Chinese Annals of the Mongol Dynasty a

complete Table of the Issues of Paper-Money during every year of

Kúblái’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_l._, and the highest was in 1290, viz. 50,002,500

ounces, equivalent at the same estimate to 25,001,250_l._! whilst

the total amount in the 34 years was 249,654,290 ounces or

124,827,144_l._ 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

Kúblái’s issue of 1287, _i.e._ each note of the new issue was to

exchange against 5 of the old 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 it is 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 mercantile 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![3] 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.

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.

[Mr. Vissering (_Chinese Currency_, Addenda, I.–III.) gives a

facsimile and a description of a Chinese banknote of the Ming

Dynasty belonging to the collection of the Asiatic Museum of the

Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. “In the eighth year of the

period _Hung-wu_ (1375), the Emperor Tai-tsu issued an order to

his minister of finances to make the _Pao-tsao_ (precious bills)

of the _Ta-Ming_ Dynasty, and to employ as raw material for the

composition of those bills the fibres of the mulberry tree.”—H. C.]

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 [Hien Fung]

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 connection with the bank failures was so

bitterly resented that when the poor wretch was led to execution

(8th November, 1861), as I learn from an eye-witness, the defrauded

creditors lined the streets and cheered.[4]

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, 6¼ in. long by 1¾ in. wide,

bearing a representation of the tutelary god of riches, with long

inscriptions in Chinese characters, seals in black and red, and an

indication of value in ancient Japanese characters. I do not learn

whether notes of considerable amount are still used in Japan; but

Sir R. Alcock speaks of banknotes 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,

apparently 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 ministers’ extravagance had emptied

the Treasury, on the suggestion of a financial officer called

’Izzuddín Muzaffar. The notes were direct copies of Kúblái’s,

even the Chinese characters being imitated as part of the device

upon them.[5] The Chinese name _Chao_ was applied to them, and

the Mongol Resident at Tabriz, Pulad Chingsang, was consulted in

carrying out the measure. Expensive preparations were made for this

object; offices called _Cháo-Khánahs_ 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 ’Izzuddín; 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 enterprise was that of Sultan Mahomed Tughlak of

Delhi, 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 Augustals. This leather coinage was very

popular, especially at Florence, and it was afterwards honourably

redeemed by Frederic’s Treasury. Popular tradition in Sicily

reproaches William the Bad among his other sins with having issued

money of leather, but any stone is good enough to cast at a dog

with such a surname.

[Ma Twan-lin mentions that in the fourth year of the period Yuen

Show (B.C. 119), a currency of white metal and _deer-skin_ was

made. Mr. Vissering (_Chinese Currency_, 38) observes that the

skin-tallies “were purely tokens, and have had nothing in common

with the leather-money, which was, during a long time, current

in Russia. This Russian skin-money had a truly representative

character, as the parcels were used instead of the skins from which

they were cut; the skins themselves being too bulky and heavy to be

constantly carried backward and forward, only a little piece was

cut off, to figure as a token of possession of the whole skin. The

ownership of the skin was proved when the piece fitted in the hole.”

Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, 201 note) says: “As early as B.C. 118,

we find the Chinese using ‘leather-money’ (_p’i pi_). These were

pieces of white deer-skin, a foot square, with a coloured border.

Each had a value of 40,000 cash. (_Ma Twan-lin_, Bk. 8, 5.)”

Mr. Charles F. Keary (_Coins and Medals_, by S. Lane Poole, 128)

mentions that “in the reign of Elizabeth there was a very extensive

issue of private tokens in lead, tin, latten, and _leather_.”—H. C.]

(_Klapr._ in _Mém. Rel. à l’Asie_, I. 375 _seqq._; _Biot_, in

_J. As._ sér. III. 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_, etc., I. 296, 347; _Birch_, in. _Num. Chron._ XII. 169;

Information from _Dr. Lockhart_; _Alcock_, II. 86; _D’Ohsson_, IV.

53; _Cowell_, in _J. A. S. B._ XXIX. 183 _seqq._; _Thomas, Coins

of Patan Sovs. of Hind._, (from _Numism. Chron._ 1852), p. 139

_seqq._; _Kington’s Fred. II._ II. 195; _Amari_, III. 816; _W.

Vissering, On Chinese Currency_, Leiden, 1877.)

[“Without doubt the Mongols borrowed the bank-note system from the

Kin. Up to the present time there is in Si-ngan-fu a block kept,

which was used for printing the bank-notes of the Kin Dynasty. I

have had the opportunity of seeing a print of those bank-notes,

they were of the same size and shape as the bank-notes of the Ming.

A reproduction of the text of the Kin bank-notes is found in the

_Kin shi ts’ui pien_. This copy has the characters _pao küan_

(precious charter) and the years of reign _Chêng Yew_, 1213–1216.

The first essay of the Mongols to introduce bank-notes dates from

the time of Ogodai Khan (1229–1242), but Chinese history only

mentions the fact without giving details. At that time silk in

skeins was the only article of a determinate value in the trade

and on the project of _Ye lü ch’u ts’ai_, minister of Ogodai, the

taxes were also collected in silk delivered by weight. It can

therefore be assumed that the name _sze ch’ao_ (_i.e._ bank-notes

referring to the weight of silk) dates back to the same time.

At any rate, at a later time, as, under the reign of Kubilai,

the issuing of banknotes was decreed, silk was taken as the

standard to express the value of silver and 1000 _liang_ silk was

estimated = 50 _liang_ (or 1 _ting_) silver. Thus, in consequence

of those measures, it gradually became a rule to transfer the

taxes and rents originally paid in silk, into silver. The wealth

of the Mongol Khans in precious metals was renowned. The accounts

regarding their revenues, however, which we meet with occasionally

in Chinese history, do not surprise by their vastness. In the year

1298, for instance, the amount of the revenue is stated in the _Siu

t’ung Kien_ to have been:—

19,000 _liang_ of gold = (190,000 _liang_ of silver, according to

the exchange of that time at the rate of 1 to 10).

60,000 _liang_ of silver.

3,600,000 _ting_ of silver in bank-notes (_i.e._ 180 millions

_liang_); altogether 180,250,000 _liang_ of silver.

The number seems indeed very high for that time. But if the

exceedingly low exchange of the bank-notes be taken into

consideration, the sum will be reduced to a modest amount.”

(_Palladius_, pp. 50–51.)—H. C.]

[Dr. Bretschneider (_Hist. Bot. Disc._, I. p. 4) makes the

following remark:—“Polo states (I. 409) that the Great Kaan causeth

the bark of great Mulberry-trees, made into something like paper,

to pass for money.” He seems to be mistaken. Paper in China is not

made from mulberry-trees but from the _Broussonetia papyrifera_,

which latter tree belongs to the same order of Moraceae. The same

fibres are used also in some parts of China for making cloth, and

Marco Polo alludes probably to the same tree when stating (II.

108) “that in the province of Cuiju (Kwei chau) they manufacture

stuff of the bark of certain trees, which form very fine summer

clothing.”—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Even now there are at least eight different _taels_ (or liangs) in

extensive use over the Empire, and varying as much as from 96 to

106; and besides these are many local _taels_, with about the same

limits of variation.—(_Williamson’s Journeys_, I. 60.)

[2] [The Archimandrite Palladius (_l.c._, p. 50, note) says that “the

_ting_ of the Mongol time, as well as during the reign of the Kin,

was a unit of weight equivalent to fifty _liang_, but not to ten

_liang_. Cf. _Ch’u keng lu_, and _Yuen-shi_, ch. xcv. The _Yuen

pao_, which as everybody in China knows, is equivalent to fifty

_liang_ (taels) of silver, is the same as the ancient _ting_,

and the character _Yuen_ indicates that it dates from the _Yuen_

Dynasty.”—H. C.]

[3] This is also, as regards Customs payments, the system of the

Government of modern Italy.

[4] The first edition of this work gave a facsimile of one of this

unlucky minister’s notes.

[5] On both sides, however, was the Mahomedan formula, and beneath

that the words _Yiranjín Túrjí_, a title conferred on the kings of

Persia by the Kaan. There was also an inscription to the following

effect: that the Emperor in the year 693 (A.H.) had issued these

auspicious _chao_, that all who forged or uttered false notes

should be summarily punished, with their wives and children, and

their property confiscated; and that when these auspicious notes

were once in circulation, poverty would vanish, provisions become

cheap, and rich and poor be equal (_Cowell_). The use of the term

_chao_ at Tabriz may be compared with that of _Bănklōt_, current in

modern India.

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 importance, the twelve Barons lay in 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

thirty-four 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.

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 is 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

thirty-four 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.: two _Ch’ing-siang_

[丞 相] or (chief) ministers of state, one styled, “of the

Right,” and the other “of the Left”; four called _P’ing-chang

ching-ssé_, which seems to mean something like ministers in charge

of special departments; four assistant ministers; two Counsellors.

Rashiduddin, however, limits the Council to the first two

classes: “Strictly speaking, the Council of State is composed of

four Ch’ing-sang (_Ch’ing-siang_) or great officers (_Wazírs_

he afterwards terms them), and four Fanchán (_P’ing-chang_)

or associated members, taken from the nations of the Tajiks,

Cathayans, Ighurs, and Arkaun” (_i.e._ Nestorian Christians).

(Compare p. 418, _supra_.)

[A Samarkand man, Seyyd Tadj Eddin Hassan ben el Khallal, quoted in

the _Masálak al Absár_, says: “Near the Khan are two amírs who are

his ministers; they are called _Djing San_ جينكصان (Ch’ing-siang).

After them come the two _Bidjan_ بجان (P’ing Chang), then the two

_Zoudjin_ زوجين (Tso Chen), then the two _Yudjin_ يوجين (Yu Chen),

and at last the _Landjun_ لنجون (Lang Chang), head of the scribes,

and secretary of the sovereign. The Khan holds a sitting every

day in the middle of a large building called _Chen_ شن (Sheng),

which is very like our Palace of Justice.” (_C. Schefer, Cent. Ec.

Langues Or._, pp. 18–19.)—H. C.]

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 all the kingdom, and such as

have had experience in government many years.” 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, probably 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

governments called _Sing_, who had their residence at the chief

cities of those 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.”

[There was no doubt a confusion between _Siang_ 相 and _Sheng_

省.—H. C.]

It is very probable that two different words, _Siang_ and _Sing_,

got confounded by the non-Chinese attachés 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 Yangchau, he says:

“_Et si siet en ceste cité uns des xii Barons 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

building 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.” Wassáf

again, after describing the greatness of Khanzai (Kinsay of Polo)

says: “These circumstances characterize the capital itself, but

four hundred 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 Chinkalán;

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 thereof 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 Wassáf employ it.

I find no light as to the thirty-four provinces into which Polo

represents the empire as divided, unless it be an enumeration of

the provinces and districts which he describes in the second and

third parts of Bk. II., of which it is not difficult to reckon

thirty-three or thirty-four, but not worth while to repeat the

calculation.

[China was then divided into twelve _Sheng_ or provinces:

Cheng-Tung, Liao-Yang, Chung-Shu, Shen-Si, Ling-Pe (Karakorum),

Kan-Suh, Sze-ch’wan, Ho-Nan Kiang-Pe, Kiang-Ché, Kiang-Si, Hu-Kwang

and Yun-Nan. Rashiduddin (_J. As._, XI. 1883, p. 447) says that of

the twelve Sing, Khanbaligh was the only one with _Chin-siang_. We

read in _Morrison’s Dict._ (Pt. II. vol. i. p. 70): “Chin-seang, a

Minister of State, was so called under the Ming Dynasty.” According

to Mr. E. H. Parker (_China Review_, xxiv. p. 101), _Ching Siang_

were abolished in 1395. I imagine that the thirty-four provinces

refer to the _Fu_ cities, which numbered however _thirty-nine_,

according to _Oxenham’s Historical Atlas_.—H. C.]

(_Cathay_, 263 _seqq._ and 137; _Mendoza_, I. 96; _Erdmann_, 142;

_Hammer’s Wassáf_, p. 42, but corrected.)

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 plan.{1} And

the messengers of the Emperor in travelling from Cambaluc, be the

road whichsoever they will, find at every twenty-five 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 four

hundred horses standing ready for the use of the messengers; at others

there shall be two hundred, according to the requirements, and to

what the Emperor has established in each case. At every twenty-five

miles, as I said, or anyhow at every thirty 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 Kaan.{3} 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 thirty-five to forty-five miles, instead

of twenty-five to thirty. 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 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 taken together

there are more than 300,000 horses kept up, specially for the use of

the messengers. And the great buildings that I have mentioned 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 forgotten, 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 three miles, a little fort with some

forty 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 three 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 three miles. At the next station he finds his relief ready in

like manner; and so the post proceeds, with a change at every three

miles. And in this way the Emperor, who has an immense number of these

runners, receives despatches with news from places ten 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 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 two hundred or two

hundred and fifty 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, because 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}

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

three or four 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 sçue chouse_”; Pauthier’s

Text, “_mais il est moult celé_.” The latter seems absurd. I have no

doubt that _sçue_ is correct, and is an Italianism, _saputo_ having

sometimes the sense of prudent or judicious. Thus P. della Valle

(II. 26), speaking of Sháh Abbás: “_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, and in Russia, in the former sense, is a relic

of the Mongol dominion. The ambassadors of Shah Rukh, on arriving

at Sukchu, were lodged in the _Yám-Khána_, or post-house, by the

city gate; and they found ninety-nine such Yams between Sukchu and

Khanbaligh, at each of which they were supplied with provisions,

servants, beds, night-clothes, etc. 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; _Rubr._ 310.)

[Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, 101, note) says that these post-stations

were established by Okkodai in 1234 throughout the Mongol empire.

(_D’Ohsson_, ii. 63.) Dr. G. Schlegel (_T’oung Pao_, II. 1891,

265, note) observes that _iam_ is not, as Pauthier supposed,

a contraction of _yi-mà_, horse post-house (_yi-mà_ means

post-horse, and Pauthier makes a mistake), but represents the

Chinese character 站, pronounced at present _chán_, which means

in fact a road station, a post. In Annamite, this character 站

is pronounced _trạm_, and it means, according to _Bonet’s Dict.

Annamite-Français_: “Relais de poste, station de repos.” (See

_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ I. p. 187 note.)—H. C.]

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

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 thirty

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 progeny; 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 six hundred 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.” (_Mém._ 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

17th 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 employed under the ancient Persian kings; and they

were in use in India, at least in the generation after Polo. The

Mongols, too, carried the institution wherever they went.

Polo describes the couriers as changed at short intervals, but more

usually in Asiatic posts the same man rides an enormous distance.

The express courier in Tibet, as described by “the Pandit,” rides

from Gartokh to Lhasa, a distance of 800 miles, travelling day and

night. The courier’s coat is _sealed_ upon him, so that he dares

not take off his clothes till the seal is officially broken on his

arrival at the terminus. These messengers had faces cracked, eyes

bloodshot and sunken, and bodies raw with vermin. (_J. R. G. S._

XXXVIII. p. 149.) The modern Turkish post from Constantinople to

Baghdad, a distance of 1100 miles, is done in twenty days by four

Tartars riding night and day. The changes are at Sivas, Diarbekir,

and Mosul. M. Tchihatcheff calculates that the night riding

accomplishes only one quarter of the whole. (_Asie Mineure_, 2ᵈᵉ

Ptie. 632–635.)—See I. p. 352, _paï tze_.

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 Messengers 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 subject 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 Kúblái’s character

(Note 2, ch. 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 _corvées_ had been ordered,

but when the necessities of the people required to be reported, not

a word was said.”

Wassáf tells a long story in illustration of Kúblái’s justice and

consideration 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

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. Kúblái sharply rebuked the Prince,

and gave the people compensation and an order in their favour. (_De

Mailla_, ix. 460; _Hammer’s Wassaf_, 38–39.)]

CHAPTER XXVIII.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN CAUSES TREES TO BE PLANTED BY THE

HIGHWAYS.

The Emperor moreover hath taken order that all the highways 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.{1}

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.]

NOTE 1.—In this Kúblái imitated the great King Asoka, or

Priyadarsi, who in his graven edicts (_circa_ B.C. 250) on the Delhi

Pillar, says: “Along the high roads I have caused fig-trees to be

planted, that they may be for shade to animals and men. I have

also planted mango-trees; and at every half-coss I have caused

wells to be constructed, and resting-places for the night. And how

many hostels have been erected by me at various places for the

entertainment of man and beast.” (_J. A. S. B._ IV. 604.) There are

still remains of the fine avenues of Kúblái and his successors in

various parts of Northern China. (See _Williamson_, i. 74.)

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 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 _Mémoires_, 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, etc. Rubruquis says this liquor

was not distinguishable, 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.[1] Ysbrandt Ides compares the rice-wine to Rhenish; John Bell

to Canary; a modern traveller quoted by Davis, “in colour, and

a little in taste, to Madeira.” [Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, i. p.

117) calls this wine _bigni_; Dr. Schlegel (_T’oung Pao_, ii. p.

264) says Odoric’s wine was probably made with the date _Mi-yin_,

pronounced _Bi-im_ in old days. But Marco’s wine is made of rice,

and is called _shao hsing chiu_. Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 166,

note) writes: “There is another stronger liquor distilled from

millet, and called _shao chiu_: in Anglo-Chinese, _samshu_; Mongols

call it _araka_, _arrak_, and _arreki_. Ma Twan-lin (Bk. 327) says

that the Moho (the early Nu-chên Tartars) drank rice wine (_mi

chiu_), but I fancy that they, like the Mongols, got it from the

Chinese.”

Dr. Emil Bretschneider (_Botanicon Sinicum_, ii. pp. 154–158)

gives a most interesting account of the use and fabrication of

intoxicating beverages by the Chinese. “The invention of wine or

spirits in China,” he says, “is generally ascribed to a certain I

TI, who lived in the time of the Emperor Yü. According to others,

the inventor of wine was TU K’ANG.” One may refer also to Dr.

Macgowan’s paper _On the “Mutton Wine” of the Mongols and Analogous

Preparations of the Chinese_. (_Jour. N. China Br. R. As. Soc._,

1871–1872, pp. 237–240.)—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] _Kington’s Fred. II._ II. 457. So, in a French play of the 13th

century, a publican in his _patois_ invites custom, with hot bread,

hot herrings, and wine of Auxerre in plenty:—

“Chaiens, fait bon disner chaiens;

Chi a caut pain et caus herens,

_Et vin d’Aucheurre_ à plain tonnel.”—

(_Théat. Franç. au Moyen Age_, 168.)

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 stones 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 three 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.]

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 every one of the eighteen provinces

of China, which in this respect is justly pronounced to be one

of the most favoured countries in the world. Near the capital

coal is mined at Yuen-ming-yuen, and in a variety of isolated

deposits among the hills in the direction of the Kalgan road, and

in the district round Siuen-hwa-fu. (_Sindachu_ of Polo, _ante_

ch. lix.) But the most important coal-fields in relation to the

future are those of Shan-tung Hu-nan, Ho-nan, and Shan-si. The

last is eminently _the_ coal and iron province of China, and its

coal-field, as described by Baron Richthofen, combines, in an

extraordinary manner, all the advantages that can enhance the

value of such a field except (at present) that of facile export;

whilst the quantity available is so great that from Southern

Shan-si alone he estimates the whole world could be supplied,

at the present rate of consumption, for several thousand years.

“Adits, miles in length, could be driven within the body of the

coal.... These extraordinary conditions ... will eventually give

rise to some curious features in mining ... if a railroad should

ever be built from the plain to this region ... branches of it will

be constructed within the body of one or other of these beds of

anthracite.” Baron Richthofen, in the paper which we quote from,

indicates the revolution in the deposit of the world’s wealth and

power, to which such facts, combined with other characteristics

of China, point as probable; a revolution so vast that its

contemplation seems like that of a planetary catastrophe.

In the coal-fields of Hu-nan “the mines are chiefly opened where

the rivers intersect the inclined strata of the coal-measures and

allow the coal-beds to be attacked by the miner immediately at

their out-croppings.”

At the highest point of the Great Kiang, 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.

[Many coal-fields have been explored since; one of the most

important is the coal-field of the Yun-nan province; the finest

deposits are perhaps those found in the bend of the Kiang; coal

is found also at Mong-Tzŭ, Lin-ngan, etc.; this rich coal region

has been explored in 1898 by the French engineer A. Leclère. (See

_Congrès int. Géog._, Paris, 1900, pp. 178–184.)—H. C.]

In various parts of China, as in Che-kiang, Sze-ch’wan, 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 misunderstood. 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.

(_The Distribution of Coal in China_, by Baron Richthofen, in

_Ocean Highways_, N.S., I. 311; _Macgowan_ in _Ch. Repos._ xix.

385–387; _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._, December, 1867; _Hedde and Rondot_, p.

63.)

Æneas 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,

Statuta 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 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 Empire; causing these supplies

to be stored everywhere, according to calculation of the wants and

necessities of the people.

NOTE 1.—“_Le fait si bien_ estuier _que il dure bien trois ans ou

quatre_” (Pauthier): “_si bien_ estudier” (G. T.). The word may be

_estiver_ (It. _stivare_), to stow, but I half suspect it should

be _estuver_ in the sense of “kiln-dry,” though both the Geog.

Latin and the Crusca render it _gubernare_.[1] Lecomte 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 (A.D. 1330) speaks of these stores. “The

said Emperor is very pitiful and compassionate ... and so when

there is a 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.” Kúblái 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 T’ang Dynasty by the old Arab

_Relations_. In later days a missionary gives in the _Lettres

Edifiantes_ an unfavourable account of the action of these public

granaries, and of the rascality that occurred in connection with

them. (_Lecomte_, II. 101; _Cathay_, 240; _Relat._ I. 39; _Let.

Ed._ xxiv. 76.)

[The _Yuen-shi_ in ch. 96 contains sections on dispensaries (_Hui

min yao kü_), granary regulations (_Shi ti_), and regulations for

a time of dearth (_Chen Sü_). (_Bretschneider_, _Med. Res._ I. p.

187.)—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Marsden observes incidentally (_Hist. of Sumatra_, 1st edition, p.

71) that he was told in Bengal they used to dry-kiln the rice for

exportation, “owing to which, or to some other process, it will

continue good for several years.”

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, 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 dole 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 year’s 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

year. 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_ mentioned before, told the Great Kaan that it was a good work

to provide for the poor, and that his idols would be greatly 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;[1]

and hospitals for the diseased and destitute were found by Fahian

at Palibothra, whilst Hiuen Tsang speaks of the distribution of

food and medicine at the _Punyasálás_ or “Houses of Beneficence,”

in the Panjáb. Various examples of a charitable spirit in Chinese

Institutions will be found in a letter by Père d’Entrecolles in

the XVth Recueil of _Lettres Edifiantes_; and a similar detail in

_Nevius’s China and the Chinese_, ch. xv. (See _Prinsep’s Essays_,

II. 15; _Beal’s Fah-hian_, 107; _Pèl. Boudd._ II. 190.) The Tartar

sentiment towards the poor survives on the Arctic shores:—“The

Yakuts regard the rich as favoured by the gods; the poor as

rejected and cast out by them.” (_Billings_, Fr. Tranls. I. 233.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] As rendered by J. Prinsep. But I see that Professor H. H. Wilson

did not admit the passage to bear that meaning.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

[CONCERNING THE ASTROLOGERS IN THE CITY OF CAMBALUC.]

[There are in the city of Cambaluc, what with Christians, Saracens, and

Cathayans, some five thousand astrologers and soothsayers, whom the

Great Kaan provides with annual maintenance 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 Cathayan 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 example, under which Moon there shall be thunderstorms

and tempests, under which there shall be disease, murrain, 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 predictions 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 astrologer 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 question 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 _Taḳwím_ even with Tavernier before

him: “They sell in Persia an annual almanac called _Tacuim_, which

is properly 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

Inprimo il _Taccuino_,

Per vedere il cammino

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

Calendar 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 the

important measures on black-balled days.

The price varies now, according to Williams, from 1½_d._ to 5_d._

a copy. The price in 1328 was 1 _tsien_ or cash for the cheapest

edition, and 1 _liang_ or tael of silver for the _édition 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.

[Illustration: Mongol “Compendium Instrument” _Keen-e_ in the

Observatory Garden.]

[Illustration: Mongol Armillary Sphere in the Observatory Garden.]

[“The Calendars for the use of the people, published by Imperial

command, are of two kinds. The first, _Wan-nien-shu, the Calendar

of Ten Thousand Years_, is an abridgment of the Calendar,

comprising 397 years, viz. from 1624 to 2020. The second and

more complete Calendar is the _Annual Calendar_, which, under

the preceding dynasties, was named _Li-je, Order of Days_, and

is now called _Shih-hsien-shu, Book of Constant Conformity (with

the Heavens)_. This name was given by the Emperor _Shun-chih_, in

the first year of his reign (1644), on being presented by Father

John Schall (_Tang Jo-wang_) with a new Calendar, calculated on

the principles of European science. This _Annual Calendar_ gives

the following indications: (1°) The cyclical signs of the current

year, of the months, and of all the days; (2°) the _long_ and

_short_ months, as well as the _intercalary_ month, as the case

may be; (3°) the designation of each day by the 5 _elements_, the

28 constellations, and the 12 _happy presages_; (4°) the day and

hour of the new moon, of the full moon, and of the two dichotomies,

_Shang-hsien_ and _Hsia-hsien_; (5°) the day and hour for the

_positions_ of the sun in the 24 zodiacal signs, calculated for the

various capitals of China as well as for Manchuria, Mongolia, and

the tributary Kingdoms; (6°) the hour of sunrise and sunset and the

length of day and night for the principal days of the month in the

several capitals; (7°) various superstitious indications purporting

to point out what days and hours are auspicious or not for such or

such affairs in different places. Those superstitious indications

are stated to have been introduced into the Calendar under the

_Yüan_ dynasty.” (_P. Hoang, Chinese Calendar_, pp. 2–3.)—H. C.]

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, see note at p. 378,

_supra_.

And I am indebted yet again to the generous zeal of Mr. Wylie of

Shanghai, for the principal notes and extracts which will, I trust,

satisfy others as well as myself that the instruments in the garden

of the Observatory belong to the period of Marco Polo’s residence

in China.[1]

The objections to the alleged age of these instruments were

entirely based on an inspection of photographs. The opinion was

given very strongly that no instrument of the kind, so perfect in

theory and in execution, could have been even imagined in those

days, and that nothing of such scientific quality could have been

made except by the Jesuits. In fact it was asserted or implied that

these instruments must have been made about the year 1700, and were

therefore not earlier in age than those which stand on the terraced

roof of the Observatory, and are well known to most of us from the

representation in Duhalde and in many popular works.

The only authority that I could lay hand on was Lecomte, and what

he says was not conclusive. I extract the most pertinent passages:

“It was on the terrace of the tower that the Chinese astronomers

had set their instruments, and though few in number they occupied

the whole area. But Father Verbiest, the Director of the

Observatory, considering them useless for astronomical observation,

persuaded the Emperor to let them be removed, to make way for

several instruments of his own construction. The instruments set

aside by the European astronomers are still in a hall adjoining the

tower, buried in dust and oblivion; and we saw them only through a

grated window. They appeared to us to be very large and well cast,

in form approaching our astronomical circles; that is all that we

could make out. There was, however, thrown into a back yard by

itself, a celestial globe of bronze, of about 3 feet in diameter.

Of this we were able to take a nearer view. Its form was somewhat

oval; the divisions by no means exact, and the whole work coarse

enough.

“Besides this in a lower hall they had established a gnomon....

This observatory, not worthy of much consideration for its ancient

instruments, much less for its situation, its form, or its

construction, is now enriched by several bronze instruments which

Father Verbiest has placed there. These are large, well cast,

adorned in every case with figures of dragons,” etc. He then

proceeds to describe them:

“(1). Armillary Zodiacal Sphere of 6 feet diameter. This sphere

reposes on the heads of four dragons, the bodies of which after

various convolutions come to rest upon the extremities of two

brazen beams forming a cross, and thus bear the entire weight of

the instrument. These dragons ... are represented according to the

notion the Chinese form of them, enveloped in clouds, covered above

the horns with long hair, with a tufted beard on the lower jaw,

flaming eyes, long sharp teeth, the gaping throat ever vomiting a

torrent of fire. Four lion-cubs of the same material bear the ends

of the cross beams, and the heads of these are raised or depressed

by means of attached screws, according to what is required. The

circles are divided on both exterior and interior surface into

360 degrees; each degree into 60 minutes by transverse lines, and

the minutes into sections of 10 seconds each by the sight-edge[2]

applied to them.”

Of Verbiest’s other instruments we need give only the names: (2)

Equinoxial Sphere, 6 feet diameter. (3) Azimuthal Horizon, same

diam. (4) Great Quadrant, of 6 feet radius. (5) Sextant of about 8

feet radius. (6) Celestial Globe of 6 feet diameter.

As Lecomte gives no details of the old instruments which he

saw through a grating, and as the description of this zodiacal

sphere (No. 1) corresponds in some of its main features with

that represented in the photograph, I could not but recognize

the _possibility_ that this instrument of Verbiest’s had for

some reason or other been removed from the Terrace, and that the

photograph might therefore possibly _not_ be a representation of

one of the ancient instruments displaced by him.[3]

The question having been raised it was very desirable to settle

it, and I applied to Mr. Wylie for information, as I had received

the photographs from him, and knew that he had been Mr. Thomson’s

companion and helper in the matter.

“Let me assure you,” he writes (21st August, 1874), “the Jesuits

had nothing to do with the manufacture of the so-called Mongol

instruments; and whoever made them, they were certainly on the

Peking Observatory before Loyola was born. They are not made

for the astronomical system introduced by the Jesuits, but are

altogether conformable to the system introduced by Kúblái’s

astronomer Ko Show-king.... I will mention one thing which is

quite decisive as to the Jesuits. _The circle is divided into 365¼

degrees_, each degree into 100 minutes, and each minute into 100

seconds. The Jesuits always used the sexagesimal division. Lecomte

speaks of the imperfection of the division on the Jesuit-made

instruments; but _those on the Mongol instruments are immeasurably

coarser_.

“I understand it is not the ornamentation your friend objects

to?[4] If it is, I would observe that there is no evidence of

progress in the decorative and ornamental arts during the Ming

Dynasty; and even in the Jesuit instruments that part of the

work is purely Chinese, excepting in one instrument, which I am

persuaded must have been made in Europe.

“I have a Chinese work called _Luh-King-t’oo-Kaou_, ‘Illustrations

and Investigations of the Six Classics.’ This was written in A.D.

1131–1162, and revised and printed in 1165–1174. It contains a

representation of an armillary sphere, which appears to me to be

much the same as the sphere in question. There is a solid horizon

fixed to a graduated outer circle. Inside the latter is a meridian

circle, at right angles to which is a graduated colure; then the

equator, apparently a double ring, and the ecliptic; also two

diametric bars. The cut is rudely executed, but it certainly shows

that some one imagined something more perfect. The instrument

stands on a cross frame, with 4 dragon supporters and a prop in the

centre.[5]

“It should be remembered that under the Mongol Dynasty the

Chinese had much intercourse with Central Asia; and among others

Yelewchootsae, as confidential minister and astronomer, followed

Chinghiz in his Western campaign, held intercourse with the

astronomers of Samarkand, and on his return laid some astronomical

inventions before the Emperor.

“I append a notice of the Observatory taken from a popular

description of Peking, by which it will be seen that the

construction of these instruments is attributed to Ko Show-king,

one of the most renowned astronomers of China. He was the chief

astronomer under Kúblái Kaan” [to whom he was presented in 1262; he

was born in 1231.—H. C.]

“It must be remembered that there was a special vitality among the

Chinese under the Yuen with regard to the arts and sciences, and

the Emperor had the choice of artizans and men of science from

all countries. From the age of the Yuen till the arrival of the

Jesuits, we hear nothing of any new instruments having been made;

and it is well known that astronomy was never in a lower condition

than under the Ming.”[6]

Mr. Wylie then draws attention to the account given by Trigault

of the instruments that Matteo Ricci saw at Nanking, when he went

(in the year 1599) to pay a visit to some of the _literati_ of

that city. He transcribes the account from the French _Hist. de

l’Expédition Chrestienne en la Chine_, 1618. But as I have the

Latin, which is the original and is more lucid, by me, I will

translate from that.[7]

“Not only at Peking, but in this capital also (Nanking) there is a

College of Chinese Mathematicians, and this one certainly is more

distinguished by the vastness of its buildings than by the skill

of its professors. They have little talent and less learning, and

do nothing beyond the preparation of the almanacs on the rules

of calculation made by the ancients; and when it chances that

events do not agree with their calculation they assert that what

they had calculated was the regular course of things, but that

the aberrant conduct of the stars was a prognostic from heaven of

something going to happen on the earth. This something they make

out according to their fancy, and so spread a veil over their

own blunders. These gentlemen did not much trust Father Matteo,

fearing, no doubt, lest he should put them to shame; but when at

last they were freed from this apprehension they came and amicably

visited the Father in hope of learning something from him. And when

he went to return their visit he saw something that really was new

and beyond his expectation.

“There is a high hill at one side of the city, but still within the

walls. On the top of the hill there is an ample terrace, capitally

adapted for astronomical observation, and surrounded by magnificent

buildings which form the residence of the Professors.... On this

terrace are to be seen astronomical instruments of cast-metal,

well worthy of inspection whether for size or for beauty; _and we

certainly have never seen or read of anything in Europe like them_.

For nearly 250 years they have stood thus exposed to the rain, the

snow, and all other atmospheric inclemencies, and yet they have

lost absolutely nothing of their original lustre. And lest I should

be accused of raising expectations which I do not justify, I will

do my best in a digression, probably not unwelcome, to bring them

before the eyes of my readers.

“The larger of these instruments were four in number. First

we inspected a great globe [A], graduated with meridians and

parallels; we estimated that three men would hardly be able to

embrace its girth.... A second instrument was a great sphere [B],

not less in diameter than that measure of the outstretched arms

which is commonly called a geometric pace. It had a horizon and

poles; instead of circles it was provided with certain double

hoops (_armillæ_), the void space between the pair serving the

purpose of the circles of our spheres. All these were divided into

365 degrees and some odd minutes. There was no globe to represent

the earth in the centre, but there was a certain tube, bored like

a gun-barrel, which could readily be turned about and fixed to

any azimuth or any altitude so as to observe any particular star

through the tube, just as we do with our vane-sights;[8]—not at all

a despicable device! The third machine was a gnomon [C], the height

of which was twice the diameter of the former instrument, erected

on a very large and long slab of marble, on the northern side of

the terrace. The stone slab had a channel cut round the margin, to

be filled with water in order to determine whether the slab was

level or not, and the style was set vertical as in hour-dials.[9]

We may suppose this gnomon to have been erected that by its aid the

shadow at the solstices and equinoxes might be precisely noted, for

in that view both the slab and the style were graduated. The fourth

and last instrument, and the largest of all, was one consisting

as it were of three or four huge astrolabes in juxtaposition [D];

each of them having a diameter of such a geometrical pace as I

have specified. The fiducial line, or _Alhidada_, as it is called,

was not lacking, nor yet the _Dioptra_.[10] Of these astrolabes,

one having a tilted position in the direction of the south,

represented the equator; a second, which stood crosswise on the

first, in a north and south plane, the Father took for a meridian;

but it could be turned round on its axis; a third stood in the

meridian plane with its axis perpendicular, and seemed to stand

for a vertical circle; but this also could be turned round so as

to show any vertical whatever. Moreover all these were graduated,

and the degrees marked by prominent studs of iron, so that in the

night the graduation could be read by the touch without a light.

All this compound astrolabe instrument was erected on a level

marble platform with channels round it for levelling. On each

of these instruments explanations of everything were given in

Chinese characters; and there were also engraved the 24 zodiacal

constellations which answer to our 12 signs, 2 to each.[11] There

was, however, one error common to all the instruments, viz. that,

in all, the elevation of the Pole was assumed to be 36°. Now there

can be no question about the fact that the city of Nanking lies in

lat. 32¼°; whence it would seem probable that these instruments

were made for another locality, and had been erected at Nanking,

without reference to its position, by some one ill versed in

mathematical science.[12]

[Illustration: Observatory Terrace.]

[Illustration: Observatory Instruments of the Jesuits.]

“Some years afterwards Father Matteo saw similar instruments at

Peking, or rather the same instruments, so exactly alike were

they, insomuch that they had unquestionably been made by the

same artist. And indeed it is known that they were cast at the

period when the Tartars were dominant in China; and we may without

rashness conjecture that they were the work of some foreigner

acquainted with our studies. But it is time to have done with these

instruments.”—(_Lib._ IV. _cap._ 5.)

In this interesting description it will be seen that the Armillary

Sphere [B] agrees entirely with that represented in illustration

facing p. 450. And the second of his photographs in my possession,

but not, I believe, yet published, answers _perfectly_ to the

curious description of the 4th instrument [D]. Indeed, I should

scarcely have been able to translate that description intelligibly

but for the aid of the photograph before me. It shows the three

_astrolabes_ or graduated circles with travelling indexes arranged

exactly as described, and pivoted on a complex frame of bronze; (1)

circle in the plane of the equator for measuring right ascensions;

(2) circle with its axis vertical to the plane of the last, for

measuring declinations: (3) circle with vertical axis, for zenith

distances? The Gnomon [A] was seen by Mr. Wylie in one of the lower

rooms of the Observatory (see below). Of the Globe we do not now

hear; and that mentioned by Lecomte among the ancient instruments

was inferior to what Ricci describes at Peking.

I now transcribe Mr. Wylie’s translation of an extract from a

Popular Description of Peking:

“The observatory is on an elevated stage on the city wall, in the

south-east corner of the (Tartar) city, and was built in the year

(A.D. 1279). In the centre was the _Tze-wei_[13] Palace, inside

of which were a pair of scrolls, and a cross inscription, by

the imperial hand. Formerly it contained the _Hwan-t’ien-e_ [B]

‘Armillary Sphere’; the _Keen-e_ [D?] ‘Transit Instrument’ (?);

the _Tung-kew_ [A] ‘Brass Globe’; and the _Leang-t’ien-ch’ih_,

‘Sector,’ which were constructed by Ko Show-king under the Yuen

Dynasty.

“In (1673) the old instruments having stood the wear of long past

years, had become almost useless, and six new instruments were

made by imperial authority. These were the _T’ien-t’ee_ ‘Celestial

Globe’ (6); _Chih-taoue_ ‘Equinoctial Sphere’ (2); _Hwang-taoue_

‘Zodiacal Sphere’ (1); _Te-p’ing kinge_ ‘Azimuthal Horizon’ (3);

_Te-p’ing weie_ ‘Altitude Instrument’ (4); _Ke-yene_ ‘Sextant’

(5). These were placed in the Observatory, and to the present

day are respectfully used. The old instruments were at the same

time removed, and deposited at the foot of the stage. In (1715)

the _Te-ping King-wei-e_ ‘Azimuth and Altitude Instrument’ was

made;[14] and in 1744 the _Ke-hang-foo-chin-e_ (literally ‘Sphere

and Tube instrument for sweeping the heavens’). All these were

placed on the Observatory stage.

“There is a wind-index-pole called the ‘Fair-wind-pennon,’ on which

is an iron disk marked out in 28 points, corresponding in number to

the 28 constellations.”[15]

✛ Mr. Wylie justly observes that the evidence is all in accord,

and it leaves, I think, no reasonable room for doubt that the

instruments now in the Observatory garden at Peking are those

which were cast aside by Father Verbiest[16] in 1673 (or 1668);

which Father Ricci saw at Peking at the beginning of the century,

and of which he has described the duplicates at Nanking; and which

had come down from the time of the Mongols, or, more precisely, of

Kúblái Khan.

Ricci speaks of their age as nearly 250 years in 1599; Verbiest

as nearly 300 years in 1668. But these estimates evidently point

to the _termination_ of the Mongol Dynasty (1368), to which the

Chinese would naturally refer their oral chronology. We have seen

that Kúblái’s reign was the era of flourishing astronomy, and that

the instruments are referred to his astronomer Ko Shéu-king; nor

does there seem any ground for questioning this. In fact, it being

once established that the instruments existed when the Jesuits

entered China, all the objections fall to the ground.

We may observe that the _number_ of the ancient instruments

mentioned in the popular Chinese account agrees with the number of

important instruments described by Ricci, and the titles of three

at least out of the four seem to indicate the same instruments. The

catalogue of the new instruments of 1673 (or 1668) given in the

native work also agrees _exactly_ with that given by Lecomte.[17]

And in reference to my question as to the _possibility_ that one

of Verbiest’s instruments might have been removed from the terrace

to the garden, it is now hardly worth while to repeat Mr. Wylie’s

assurance that there is no ground whatever for such a supposition.

The instruments represented by Lecomte are all still on the

terrace, only their positions have been somewhat altered to make

room for the two added in last century.

Probably, says Mr. Wylie, more might have been added from Chinese

works, especially the biography of Ko Shéu-king. But my kind

correspondent was unable to travel beyond the books on his own

shelves. Nor was it needful.

It will have been seen that, beautiful as the art and casting of

these instruments is, it would be a mistake to suppose that they

are entitled to equally high rank in scientific accuracy. Mr.

Wylie mentioned the question that had been started to Freiherr

von Gumpach, who was for some years Professor of Astronomy in the

Peking College. Whilst entirely rejecting the doubts that had been

raised as to the age of the Mongol instruments, he said that he had

seen those of Tycho Brahe, and the former are quite unworthy to be

compared with Tycho’s in scientific accuracy.

The doubts expressed have been useful in drawing attention to these

remarkable reliques of the era of Kúblái’s reign, and of Marco

Polo’s residence in Cathay, though I fear they are answerable for

having added some pages to a work that required no enlargement!

[Mr. Wylie sent a most valuable paper on _The Mongol Astronomical

Instruments at Peking_ to the Congress of Orientalists held at St.

Petersburg, which was reprinted at Shanghai in 1897 in _Chinese

Researches_. Some of the astronomical instruments have been removed

to Potsdam by the Germans since the siege of the foreign Legations

at Peking in 1900.—H. C.]

On these auguries, and on 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; 11. Dog; 12. Swine.

But as such a cycle [12 earthly branches, _Ti-chih_] is too short

to avoid confusion, it is combined with a co-efficient cycle of

_ten_ epithets [celestial Stems, _T’ien-kan_] in such wise as to

produce a 60-year cycle of compound names before the same shall

recur. These co-efficient epithets are found in four different

forms: (1) From the Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, 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, etc. (4) By the five Cardinal Points: East, South, Middle,

West, North. Thus 1864 was the first year of a 60-year cycle:—

1864 = (Masc.) _Wood-Rat_ Year = (Masc.) _Blue-Rat_ Year.

1865 = (Fem.) _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.

1923 = (Fem.) _Water-Swine_ Year = (Fem.) _Black-Swine_ 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-Islám_ 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. [“It was

Ta-nao, Minister to the Emperor Hwang-ti, who, by command of his

Sovereign, devised the sexagenary cycle. Hwang-ti began to reign

2697 B.C., and the 61st year of his reign was taken for the first

cyclical sign.” _P. Hoang_, _Chinese Calendar_, p. 11.—H. C.] The

characters representing what we have called the ten co-efficient

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 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._; _Prinsep’s Essays_, _Useful Tables_, 146).

[“Kubilai Khan established in Peking two astronomical boards

and two observatories. One of them was a Chinese Observatory

(_sze t’ien t’ai_), the other a Mohammedan Observatory (_hui

hui sze t’ien t’ai_), each with its particular astronomical and

chronological systems, its particular astrology and instruments.

The first astronomical and calendar system was compiled for the

Mongols by Ye-liu Ch’u-ts’ai, who was in Chingis Khan’s service,

not only as a high counsellor, but also as an astronomer and

astrologer. After having been convinced of the obsoleteness and

incorrectness of the astronomical calculations in the _Ta ming li_

(the name of the calendar system of the Kin Dynasty), he thought

out at the time he was at Samarcand a new system, valid not only

for China, but also for the countries conquered by the Mongols in

Western Asia, and named it in memory of Chingis Khan’s expedition

_Si ching keng wu yüan li_, _i.e._ ‘Astronomical Calendar

beginning with the year _Keng wu_, compiled during the war in the

west.’ Keng-wu was the year 1210 of our era. Ye-liu Ch’u-ts’ai

chose this year, and the moment of the winter solstice, for the

beginning of his period; because, according to his calculations,

it coincided with the beginning of a new astronomical or planetary

period. He took also into consideration, that since the year 1211

Chingis Khan’s glory had spread over the whole world. Ye-liu

Ch’u-ts’ai’s calendar was not adopted in China, but the system of

it is explained in the _Yuen-shi_, in the section on Astronomy and

the Calendar.

“In the year 1267, the Mohammedans presented to Kubilai their

astronomical calendar (_wan nien li_, _i.e._), the calendar of

ten thousand years. By taking this denomination in its literal

sense, we may conclude that the Mahommedans brought to China the

ancient Persian system, founded on the period of 10,000 years.

The compilers of the _Yuen-shi_ seem not to have had access to

documents relating to this system, for they give no details

about it. Finally by order of Kubilai the astronomers _Hui-Heng_

and _Ko Show-King_ composed a new calculation under the name

of _Shou-shi-li_, which came into use from the year 1280. It is

thoroughly explained in the _Yuen-shi_. Notwithstanding the fame

this system generally enjoyed, its blemishes came soon to light.

In the sixth month of 1302 an eclipse of the sun happened, and the

calculation of the astronomer proved to be erroneous (it seems

the calculation had anticipated the real time). The astronomers

of the Ming Dynasty explained the errors in the _Shou-shi-li_ by

the circumstance, that in that calculation the period for one

degree of precession of the equinox was taken too long (eighty-one

years). But they were themselves hardly able to overcome these

difficulties.” (_Palladius_, pp. 51–53.)—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Besides the works quoted in the text I have only been able to

consult Gaubil’s notices, as abstracted in Lalande; and the

Introductory Remarks to Mr. J. Williams’s _Observations of Comets

... extracted from the Chinese Annals_, London, 1871.

[2] _Pinnula_. The French _pinnule_ is properly a sight-vane at the end

of a traversing bar. The _transverse lines_ imply that minutes were

read by the system of our _diagonal scales_; and these I understand

to have been subdivided still further by aid of a divided edge

attached to the sight-vane; qu. a Vernier?

[3] Verbiest himself speaks of the displaced instruments thus ... “ut

nova instrumenta astronomica facienda mihi imponeret, quæ scilicet

more Europæo affabre facta, et in specula Astroptica Pekinensi

collocata, æternam Imperii Tartarici memoriam apud posteritatem

servarent, _prioribus instrumentis Sinicis rudioris Minervæ,

quæ jam a_ trecentis _proxime_ annis _speculam occupabant, inde

amotis_. Imperator statim annuit illorum postulatis, et totius

rei curam, publico diplomate mihi imposuit. Ego itaque intra

quadriennis spatium sex diversi generis instrumenta confeci.” This

is from an account of the Observatory written by Verbiest himself,

and printed at Peking in 1668 (_Liber Organicus Astronomiæ

Europææ apud Sinas Restitutæ_, etc.). My friend Mr. D. Hanbury

made the extract from a copy of this rare book in the London

Institution Library. An enlarged edition was published in Europe.

(Dillingen, 1687.)

[4] On the contrary, he considered the photographs interesting, as

showing to how late a period the art of fine casting had endured.

[5] This ancient instrument is probably the same that is engraved in

Pauthier’s _Chine Ancienne_ under the title of “The Sphere of the

Emperor Shun” (B.C. 2255!).

[6] After the death of Kúblái astronomy fell into neglect, and when

Hongwu, the first Ming sovereign, took the throne (1368) the

subject was almost forgotten. Nor was there any revival till the

time of Ching. The latter was a prince who in 1573 associated

himself with the astronomer Hing-yun-lu to reform the state of

astronomy. (_Gaubil_.)

What Ricci has recorded (in Trigautius) of the dense ignorance

of the Chinese _literati_ in astronomical matters is entirely

consistent with the preceding statements.

[7] I had entirely forgotten to look at Trigault till Mr. Wylie sent

me the extract. The copy I use (_De Christianâ Expeditione apud

Sinas ... Auct. Nicolao Trigautio_) is of _Lugdun_. 1616. The first

edition was published at _August. Vindelicorum_ (Augsburg) in 1615:

the French, at Lyons, in 1616.

[8] “Pinnulis.”

[9] “_Et stilus eo modo quo in horologiis ad perpendiculum collocatus_.”

[10] The _Alidada_ is the traversing index bar which carries the

_dioptra_, _pinnules_, or sight-vanes. The word is found in some

older English Dictionaries, and in France and Italy is still

applied to the traversing index of a plane table or of a sextant.

Littré derives it from (Ar.) _’adád_, enumeration; but it is really

from a quite different word, _al-iḍádat_ عضادة “a door-post,” which

is found in this sense in an Arabic treatise on the Astrolabe. (See

_Dozy and Engelmann_, p. 140.)

[11] This is an error of Ricci’s, as Mr. Wylie observes, or of his

reporter.

The Chinese divide their year into 24 portions of 15 days each.

Of these 24 divisions twelve called _Kung_ mark the twelve places

in which the sun and moon come into conjunction, and are thus in

some degree analogous to our 12 signs of the Zodiac. The names of

these _Kung_ are entirely different from those of our sign, though

since the 17th century the Western Zodiac, with paraphrased names,

has been introduced in some of their books. But besides that, they

divide the heavens into 28 stellar spaces. The correspondence of

this division to the Hindu system of the 28 Lunar Mansions, called

_Nakshatras_, has given rise to much discussion. The Chinese _sieu_

or stellar spaces are excessively unequal, varying from 24° in

equatorial extent down to 24′. (_Williams_, op. cit.) [See _P.

Hoang_, _supra_ p. 449.]

[12] Mr. Wylie is inclined to distrust the accuracy of this remark, as

the only city nearly on the 36th parallel is P’ing-yang fu.

But we have noted in regard to this (Polo’s Pianfu, vol. ii. p. 17)

that a college for the education of Mongol youth was instituted

here, by the great minister Yeliu Chutsai, whose devotion to

astronomy Mr. Wylie has noticed above. In fact, two colleges were

established by him, one at Yenking, _i.e._ Peking, the other at

P’ing-yang; and astronomy is specified as one of the studies to be

pursued at these. (See _D’Ohsson_, II. 71–72, quoting _De Mailla_.)

It seems highly probable that the two sets of instruments were

originally intended for these two institutions, and that one set

was carried to Nanking, when the Ming set their capital there in

1368.

[13] The 28 _sieu_ or stellar spaces, above spoken of, do not extend to

the Pole; they are indeed very unequal in extent on the meridian

as well as on the equator. And the area in the northern sky not

embraced in them is divided into three large spaces called _Yuen_

or enclosures, of which the field of circumpolar stars (or circle

of perpetual apparition) forms one which is called _Tze-Wei_.

(_Williams_.)

The southern circumpolar stars form a fourth space, beyond the 28

_sieu_. _Ibid._

[14] “This was obviously made in France. There is nothing Chinese about

it, either in construction or ornament. It is very different from

all the others.” (_Note by Mr. Wylie._)

[15] “There follows a minute description of the brass clepsydra, and

the brass gnomon, which it is unnecessary to translate. I have seen

both these instruments, in two of the lower rooms.”—Id.

[16] [Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J., was born at Pitthens, near Courtrai; he

arrived in China in 1659 and died at Peking on the 29th January,

1688.—H. C.]

[17] We have attached letters A, B, C, to indicate the correspondences

of the ancient instruments, and cyphers 1, 2, 3, to indicate the

correspondences of the modern instruments.

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.{3}

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 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 gentleman 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 conquered 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 meekness 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 remain

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.{6}

So also they all have certain handsome buskins of white leather, which

they carry with them, and, when summoned by the sovereign, 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.—“_Sbattendo 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. [See

following note, p. 461.—H. C.]

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 Bk. 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, called _T’ien-t’ân_, or Altar of

Heaven (see p. 459), where incensed offerings 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. 170,

625; and _Lockhart_ in _J. R. G. S._, xxxvi. 142). This worship is

mentioned by the Mahomedan narrator of Shah Rukh’s embassy (1421):

“Every year there are some days on which the Emperor eats no animal

food.... He spends his time in an apartment which contains no idol,

and says that he is worshipping the God of Heaven.”[1] (_Ind.

Antiquary_, II. 81.)

[Illustration: Great Temple of Heaven, Peking.]

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 faithfully

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 Enlightenment. One of the maids said one day to her

companion: ‘To-night I 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?’ ‘Yea,’ 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,

overspread 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.’[2] The matron desired to know the name of an

enlightened one who reposed on one of the flowers, clad in a waving

and wondrously glistening 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” (pp. 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 già 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 consequence of his misdeeds he had become

hardened. What was before 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

treatment 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

a fire broke out in the town, and laid the whole of the houses

in ashes; only that of the physician was spared. His sons and

grandsons reached high dignities” (p. 110).

Of such as this physician the apostle said: “Of a truth I perceive

that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that

feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.”

[“By the ‘Most High and Heavenly God,’ worshipped by the Chinese,

as Marco Polo reports, evidently the Chinese _T’ien_, ‘Heaven’ is

meant, _Lao t’ien ye_ in the common language. Regarding ‘the God

of things terrestrial,’ whose figure the Chinese, according to M.

Polo, ‘placed below on the ground,’ there can also be no doubt that

he understands the _T’u-ti_, the local ‘Lar’ of the Chinese, to

which they present sacrifices on the floor, near the wall under the

table.

“M. Polo reports, that the Chinese worship their God offering

incense, raising their hands aloft, and gnashing their teeth.

Of course he means that they placed the hands together, or held

kindled joss-stick bundles in their hands, according to the Chinese

custom. The statement of M. Polo _sbattendo i denti_ is very

remarkable. It seems to me, that very few of the Chinese are aware

of the fact, that this custom still exists among the Taouists.

In the rituals of the Taouists the _K’ow-ch’i_ (_K’ow_ = ‘to

knock against,’_ch’i_ = ‘teeth’) is prescribed as a comminatory

and propitiatory act. It is effected by the four upper and lower

foreteeth. The Taouists are obliged before the service begins to

perform a certain number of _K’ow-ch’i_, turning their heads

alternately to the left and to the right, in order to drive away

mundane thoughts and aggressions of bad spirits. The _K’ow-ch’i_

repeated three times is called _ming fa ku_ in Chinese, _i.e._ ‘to

beat the spiritual drum.’ The ritual says, that it is heard by the

Most High Ruler, who is moved by it to grace.

“M. Polo observed this custom among the lay heathen. Indeed, it

appears from a small treatise, written in China more than a hundred

years before M. Polo, that at the time the Chinese author wrote,

all devout men, entering a temple, used to perform the _K’ow-ch’i_,

and considered it an expression of veneration and devotion to

the idols. Thus this custom had been preserved to the time of M.

Polo, who did not fail to mention this strange peculiarity in the

exterior observances of the Chinese. As regards the present time it

seems to me, that this custom is not known among the people, and

even with respect to the Taouists it is only performed on certain

occasions, and not in all Taouist temples.” (_Palladius_, pp.

53–54.)—H. C.]

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 genuine courtesy in the north than

in the south.

NOTE 5.—“Filial piety is the fundamental principle of the Chinese

polity.” (_Amiot_, V. 129.) “In cases of extreme unfilial conduct,

parents 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_, 102–103.)

NOTE 6.—[Mr. Rockhill writes to me that pocket-spitoons are still

used in China.—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] “In the worship carried on here the Emperor acts as a high priest.

HE only worships; and no subject, however high in rank, can join

in the adoration.” (_Lockhart_.) The actual temple dates from

1420–1430; but the _Institution_ is very ancient, and I think

there is evidence that such a structure existed under the Mongols,

probably only _restored_ by the Ming. [It was built during the 18th

year of the reign of the third Ming Emperor Yung Loh (1403–1425);

it was entirely restored during the 18th year of K’ien Lung;

it was struck by lightning and burnt down in 1889; it is being

rebuilt.—H. C.]

[2] In 1871 I saw in Bond Street an exhibition of (so-called) “spirit”

drawings, _i.e._ drawings alleged to be executed by a “medium” under

extraneous and invisible guidance. A number of these extraordinary

productions (for extraordinary they were undoubtedly) professed to

represent the “Spiritual Flowers” of such and such persons; and the

explanation of this as presented in the catalogue was in substance

exactly that given in the text. It is highly improbable that the

artist had any cognizance of Schott’s Essay, and the coincidence

was assuredly very striking.

END OF VOL I.

[Illustration: Archway erected under the Mongol Dynasty, at Kiu Yung

Kwan, N.W. of Peking.[1]]

[Illustration: MARCO POLO’S ITINERARIES Nᵒ. IV. (Book I, Chapter 36 to

end & chief part of Book II.)

PLAN OF SHANGTU From an Eye-Sketch by Dʳ. S. W. Bushell, 1872

Crossing of the HWANG-HO on road to SINGAN-FU]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] On the walls of this archway is engraved the inscription in six

characters, of which a representation accompanies ch. xv. of

Prologue, note 1.

INDEX

Transcriber’s Note:

- Numbers in _italics_ refer to Prefatory Material in volume I

- ‘i.’ and ‘ii.’ indicate volume referred to

- ‘n’ indicates item is in Notes on that page

- Index has been duplicated from volume II to volume I

- Only links for this volume are enabled

Aás, Asu, _see_ Alans

Abacan, a Tartar general, ii. 255, 261n, 596n

Ábah, _see_ Ávah

Abaji, Kúblái’s son, i. 361n

Abáḳa (Abaga), Khan of Persia, i. 33n, 36n, 91n, 103n, ii. 465–467,

474, 475, 477n, 495n

Abano, Pietro of, his notice of Polo, _119_

Abash (Habsh), _see_ Abyssinia

Abba Gregory, ii. 433n

Abbás, Sháh, i. 90n

Abbott, Consul Keith E., i. 81n, 82n, 89n, 92n, 96n, 99n, 106n, 111n,

113n, 114n, 125n

Abdul Kuri islands, ii. 405n

—— Mejid, i. 175n

Abeskun (Baxon), on the Caspian, i. 59n

Abher, i. 38n, 82n

Abkashian forests, boxwood of the, i. 57n

_Abnús_, ebony, ii. 272n

Abraha, ruler of Yemen, ii. 434n

Abraiaman, _see_ Brahmans

Abubakr, Atabeg of Fars, i. 85n, ii. 348n

—— Ibrahim, and Mahomed, engineers employed by Kúblái, ii. 168n

Abu’l Abbas Ahmed VII., Khalif of Baghdad, i. 69n

—— Fázl, i. 103n, 168n, 169n, ii. 367, 374n

Abulfeda, his geography, _4_, i. 3n, 6n, 9n, 53n, 57n, 58n, 75n, 81n,

110n, 385n, ii. 237n, 286n, 367n, 377n, 486n, 489n;

at the siege of Acre, 165n

Abulfiez Khan, king of Bokhara, i. 88n

Abu Nasr Mohammed IX., Khalif of Baghdad, i. 69n

—— Saïd, i. 86n, ii. 347n

Abyssinia (Abash), ii. 427 _seqq._, 431n;

its king’s punishment of Soldan of Aden, 428–430;

dominion on the coast, mediæval history and chronology, 434n–437n;

table of kings, 435n;

wars with Mahomedan states, 436n

Acbalec Manzi, “White City of the Manzi frontier,” ii. 33, 34n, 35n

Acbalec or Acbaluc (Cheng-ting fu), ii. 13, 14n

Accambale, king of Champa, ii. 267, 270n

Achan, i. 66n

Achin, Acheh, Achem, ii. 283n, 286n, 295n, 296n, 300n, 303n, 305n,

307n;

its gold and lign-aloes, 287n;

conversion of, 288n;

its great power at one time, 289n;

elephants at, 289n

—— Head, ii. 300n, 307n

Achmath, the Bailo, _see_ Ahmad

Acomat Soldan (Ahmad Sultan), seizes throne of Tabriz, ii. 467;

goes to encounter Argon, 468;

rejects his remonstrance, 469;

defeats and takes him, 470;

hears of Argon’s escape, is taken and put to death, 473;

notes on the history, 470n, 474n

Acorn bread, i. 122n

Acqui, Friar Jacopo d’, his notice of Polo, _54_, _67_, _119_

Acre, i. 17, 22;

Broils at, between Venetians and Genoese, _42_;

plan of, 18n;

captured by Saracens, ii. 165n, 441n;

wickedness of, 442n;

Polos at, 593n

Adam, Bishop and Pope of China, ii. 28n

—— Seth, and the Tree of Life, legend of, i. 135n

Adamodana, Castle of, i. 58n

Adam’s Apple, i. 99n

—— sepulchre on mountain (Adam’s Peak) in Ceylon, ii. 316, 328n;

rubies, 316n;

his teeth, hair, etc., 319–320;

the footmark, 321n–322n

Adel, apparently confused with Aden, ii. 433n, 435n, 440n

Aden, Horse and other Trade with India, ii. 340, 348n, 390, 407, 427,

431, 438;

Soldan’s treatment of a bishop, 428;

Vengeance of King of Abyssinia on him, 430;

confused with Adel, 433n;

account of Kingdom, 438, 439n–440n;

the Sultan, 438–439, 440n;

intercourse and trade with China, tanks, 440n;

view of, 441

Adoration of the Emperor, i. 391

_Adulis_, ii. 432n;

inscription of, 434n

Aegae, Ayas on the site of ancient, i. 16n

Aepyornis and its eggs, ii. 416n–417n

Aëtius, his prescription of musk, i. 279n, ii. 302n;

of camphor, 302n

Afghans, their use of the fat-tailed sheep, i. 100n

Africa, Sea surrounding to the South, ii. 415n

Agassiz, Professor, i. 100n

Agathocles, Coins of, i. 163n

Ἀγαθοῦ δαίμονος, island, ii. 310n

Agha Ali Sháh, present representative of the Old Man of the Mountain,

i. 148n

—— Khan Meheláti, late representative of the Old Man, i. 147n

Aghrukji or Ukuruji, Kúblái’s son, i. 361n

Agricola, Governor of Cappadocia, etc., i. 45n

Aguil, Mongol general, ii. 136, 138n

Ahmad (Achmath), the Bailo, of Fenaket, his power, oppressions,

death, etc., i. 415 _seqq._, 421n

—— Sultan, Khan of Persia, _see_ Acomat

Ahwaz, province, i. 65n

Aidhab, ii. 439n

Aidhej, or Mal-Amir, i. 85n

Aijaruc, Kaidu’s daughter, ii. 463;

her strength and prowess, 463 _seqq._;

her name, 463

Aikah Nowin, Engineer in Chief of Chinghiz, ii. 168n

Ai-lao (afterwards Nan-chao), ancient name of the Shans, ii. 79n

_Aín Akbari_ (_Ayeen Akbery_), i. 65n, 99n, 101n, 103n, 409n, ii.

116n

Ajmir, ii. 426n

Akbar and Kúblái, a parallel, i. 349n

Ak Bulák salt mines, i. 154n

Akhaltziké (Western Georgia), i. 58n

Akhtuba River, i. 5n, 6n

Ak-khoja, ii. 470n

Aksarai, or Ghori River, i. 152n

Aksu River, i. 172n, 175n

Aktár, i. 96n

Áktásh Valley, i. 172n, 175n

_Alabastri_, ii. 432n

Alacou, _see_ Hulákú

_Aladja_, striped cotton cloth, i. 44n

Alamút, Castle of the Ismailites, i. 141n, 142n, 145n, 148n

Alan country, Alania, i. 57n, ii. 490, 491n

Alans, or Aas, massacre at Chang-chau of, ii. 178;

employed under Mongols, 179n

Alaone, the name, _56_

Alarm Tower, at Cambaluc, i. 375, 378n;

at Kinsay, ii. 189

_Alatcha_, cotton stuff with blue and red stripes, i. 190n

Alau, _see_ Hulákú

Alá’uddin (Alaodin), _see_ Old Man of the Mountain

—— (Alawating of Mufali), an engineer in Kúblái’s service, ii. 167n

—— Khilji, Sultan of Delhi, i. 104n, ii. 163n, 169n, 333n, 398n, 400n

Albenigaras, Mt., ii. 362n

Al Biruni, i. 104n, 174n, ii. 400n

Albuquerque, _see_ D’Alboquerque.

Alchemy, Kúblái’s, i. 423

Aleppo, i. 23n

Alexander the Great, allusions to legends and romances about, _113_,

i. 14n, 129n–133n, ii. 322n, 485n;

his rampart (Iron Gate), i. 50, 53n, 56n, 57n;

the curtains at a banquet given by, 66n;

and the _ferrum candidum_, 93n;

site of his battle with Darius, 128, 138n;

his wife Roxana, 151;

kills a lion, 152n;

Princes claiming descent from (Zulcarniain), 157, 160n;

his horse Bucephalus, 158;

fixes chains on Adam’s Peak, ii. 322n;

said to have colonised Socotra, 409n;

his tower on the border of Darkness, 485n

Alexander III., Pope, i. 231n

Alexander IV., Pope, i. 8n

Alexandria, _9_, ii. 235;

trade from India to, 390, 438

_Alhinde_, _Alfinde_, _Alinde_, _Al-hint_, i. 93n

’Ali and Aliites, i. 140n–141n

Alidada, i. 452n

Alihaiya, Kúblái’s general, ii. 167n

Alinak, ii. 474n

Alligator, in Carajan, ii. 76, 81n;

mode of killing, 77;

eaten, 78, 81n;

prophecy of Bhartpúr about, 149n

Almalik, ii. 462n

Almanacs, Chinese (Tacuin), i. 447, 448n

Almonds, i. 153, 155n

Aloes, Socotrine, ii. 409n

—— wood, _see_ Lign-aloes

_Alor_, war cry, _43_

Al-Ramni, Al-Ramin, _see_ Sumatra

Altai (Altay) Mountains, i. 212, 215n;

the Khan’s burial-place, 246, 269;

used for the Khingan range, 247n, 306n

Altun-Khan, Mountain, i. 247n

—— sovereign, ii. 19n

Amazons, fable of, ii. 405n

Ambergris, ii. 308n, 406, 411, 423, 424n;

how got, 408n

_Amber-rosolli_, i. 114n

Amda Zion, king of Abyssinia, his wars _v._ Mahomedans, ii. 435n

_seqq._;

not the king mentioned by Polo, 436n

Ament, Rev. W. S., i. 361n, 421n, ii. 6, 11, 12

_Ameri_, a kind of Brazil wood, ii. 301n, 380n

Amhara, ii. 436n

Amien, Mien (Burma), ii. 98, 99n

Amita Buddha, i. 460n

Ammianus Marcellinus, ii. 180n

Amoy, ii. 231n, 232n;

harbour, ii. 240n, 241n;

languages, 244n

_Amphora_, _Anfora_, ii. 417n

Amu, Aniu, _see_ Anin

_Amuki_, devoted comrades of the king, ii. 347n

_Anamis_ (Minao) River, i. 114n

Ananda, Kúblái’s grandson, ii. 29n, 31n

Anár, i. 90n

Anaurahta, king of Burma, ii. 99n, 329n

Ancestor Worship, ii. 85, 96n

Anchors, Wooden, ii. 386, 388n

_Andaine_, _andena_, _andanicum_, _see_ Ondanique

Andaman (Angamanain) islands, ii. 306;

described, 307n, 309–312n;

people, 308n, 309, 311n;

form of the word, 310n

_Andan_, _andun_, Wotiak for steel, i. 94n

Andragiri, ii. 301n

Andreas, king of Abyssinia, ii. 435n, 436n

Andrew, Bishop of Zayton, ii. 237n

—— Grand Duke of Rostof and Susdal, i. 7n

_Andromeda ovalifolia_, poisonous, i. 218n

Angamanain, _see_ Andaman

Angan, or Hanjám, i. 115n

_’Angka_, gryphon, _see_ Ruc

Angkor, ruins of, _13_

Ani in Armenia, i. 234n

Animal Patterns, _see_ Patterns

Anin, province, ii. 119, 120n, 121n, 123, 128n, 129n, 266n

Annals of the Indo-Chinese States, ii. 106n

’An-nam, or Tong-king, ii. 120n

Anselmo, Friar, i. 131n

_Anthropoides Virgo_, the demoiselle, i. 297n

Antioch, i. 24n

Antongil Bay, Madagascar, ii. 414n

Aotonomoff, Spasski, his ascent of Ararat, i. 49n

_Apostoille_, word used for Pope, i. 12n

Apples of Paradise (Konars), i. 97, 99n, ii. 365

Apricots, ii. 210n

_’Apuhota_ (Kapukada?), ii. 380n

Apushka (Apusca), Tartar envoy from Persia, i. 32, 33n

Arababni, ii. 436n

Arab geography, _132_

—— colonies in Madagascar, ii. 414n

—— horses, early literary recognition of, ii. 349n;

trade in, _see_ Horses

—— merchants, in Southern India, ii. 376

—— Seamen’s Traditions about Java, ii. 274n

Arabi (Arabs), i. 60

Arabia, ii. 438–451

Arabic character, i. 29n

_Arachosía, arachoti_, ii. 329n, 402n

_Araines_, ii. 461, 462n

Arakan, ii. 100n, 286n, 290n, 298n

Aram (Harám), Place of the, i. 139, 141n

Ararat, Mount, i. 46;

ascents of, 49n

Arblasts, crossbows, ii. 78, 82n, 161n

Arbre Sol, or Arbre Sec, Region of the (Khorasan), _113_, i. 38n, 83,

127, 128n–139n, ii. 466, 474, 475;

tree described—_Chínár_ or Oriental plane, i. 127, 128n–138n;

various readings, 129n;

_Arbre seul_, a wrong reading, i. 129n, 138n;

Tree of the Sun legend, 129n–131n;

Christian legend of the Dry Tree, 131n;

engrafted on legends of Alexander, 132n;

Trees of Grace in Persia, 134n;

Dry Trees in Mahomedan legend, 135n;

in Rabbinical and Buddhist stories, and legends of the Wood of the

Cross, 135n–136n;

Polo’s _Arbre Sec_ to be sought near Damghan, 138n;

Sabaean apologue, 138n;

clue to the term _Arbre Sec_, 148n

Arcali, Arculin, _see_ Erculin

Architectural remains in Indo-China, _13_

Ardeshír Bábekán, first Sassanian king, i. 91n

Ardeshír, last sovereign of Shabánkára, i. 86n

Areca, ii. 309n, 374n

_Areng Saccharifera_, ii. 297n

Arezzo, i. 21n

Argaeus, Mount, i. 44n

Argali, ii. 483n

Arghún, Khan of Persia (Polo’s Argon, Lord of the Levant), _23–24_,

i. 14n, ii. 50, 466–467;

sends an embassy to Kúblái for a wife, i. 32, 33n;

is dead when she arrives, 35, 36n, 38n, 101n;

his unhappy use of the elixir vitae, ii. 369n;

advances against his uncle Ahmad, 467;

harangues his chiefs, 468;

sends Ahmad a remonstrance, 469;

is taken prisoner, 470;

released by certain chiefs, 471;

obtains sovereignty, 472;

his death, 474;

his beauty, 478n

Argons (Arghún), half-breeds, i. 101n, 284, 290n

Arii, Ariana, ii. 402n

Arikbuga, Kúblái’s brother, i. 334n

Arimaspia, ii. 419n

Arimaspian gold, ii. 419n

Ariora-Keshimur, i. 86n, 98, 104n;

meaning of _Ariora_, 104n

Ariosto, i. 17n

Aripo, ii. 335n, 337n

Aristotle, _130_, i. 87n, 130n, ii. 409n

Arjish (Arzizi), i. 45, 49n

Arkasun Noian, ii. 474n

_Arkhaiun_, applied to Oriental Christians or their Clergy, i. 290n

Armenia, Greater, i. 45, 98

Armenia (Hermenia), Lesser or Cilician, _10_, i. 16, 20, 22, 23n, 41

Armenian Christians, i. 290n

Armenians, i. 43, 45, 75

Armillary Zodiacal Sphere, i. 450n

Armour of boiled leather, _see_ Cuirbouly

Arms of Kerman, i. 90, 96n;

of the Tartars, i. 260, 263n, ii. 460

Arredon River, i. 54n

Arrow Divination, i. 243n

Arrows, Tartar, ii. 460

Artacki, i. 281n

Arts, the Seven, i. 13, 14n

Aru, Cumahā, ii. 303n

Arucki, i. 281n

Aruk, ii. 474n

Arulun Tsaghan Balghasun (Chagan-Nor), i. 297n, 306n

Arya Chakravarti, ii. 316n

Aryavartta, the Holy Lands of Indian Buddhism, i. 104n

Arzinga (Erzingan), i. 45, 46n

Arziron (Erzrum), i. 45, 48n

Arzizi (Arjísh), i. 45, 49n

Asbestos, and the Salamander, i. 212, 216n–217n

Asceticism of the Sensin, i. 303;

of the Jogis, ii. 365

Asedin Soldan (Ghaiassuddin Balban, Sultan of Delhi), i. 99, 104n,

105n

Ashar (Asciar), king of Cail, ii. 370, 373n

Ashishin, _see_ Assassins

Ashod, founder of the Bagratid dynasty, i. 53n

Ashurada, i. 59n

Asikan, Mongol general, ii. 260n

Asoka, ii. 328

_Asper_, or _akché_, about a groat, ii. 22, 23n

Assai River, i. 54n

Assassins (Ashishin, Hashíshin), Ismailites, i. 84n, 140;

how the Old Man trained them, 142;

murders by, 144n;

their destruction, 145;

survival and recent circumstances of the sect, 146n

Asses, in Persia, i. 83, 87n, 88, 89n, 123, 225n;

in Mongolia, 224, 225n, 397;

in Madagascar, ii. 413, 421n;

in Abyssinia, 431;

in Far North, 479, 481n

Asterius, Bishop of Amasia in Pontus, i. 66n

Astrakhan (Gittarchan), i. 5n, 6n

Astrolabe, i. 446

Astrology, -ers, in Tangut, i. 205;

of Chinghiz, 241;

at Kúblái’s Court, 301, 391;

at Cambaluc, 446;

of Tibet, ii. 49;

at Kinsay, 191, 203;

in Maabar, 344;

in Coilum, 376

Astronomical instruments, ancient Chinese, i. 378n, 449n–454n

Atabegs, of Mosul, i. 61n;

of Lúr, 85n;

of Fars, 85n, 121n;

of Yezd, 88;

of Kerman, 91n

Atjeh, _see_ Achin

Atkinson’s Narratives, and their credibility, i. 214n, 215n

Atlas, Chinese, in Magliabecchian Library, ii. 193n

Ἀτταγὰς (Black Partridge), i. 99

Attalus, King, i. 66n

At-Thaibi family, i. 121n

Auberoche, Siege of, ii. 163n, 165n

Audh (Oudh), ii. 427n

Aufat, Ifat, ii. 435n

Augury, _see_ Omens

Aung Khan (Unc Can), _see_ Prester John

Aurangzíb, i. 168n

Aurora, Ibn Fozlán’s account of, i. 8n

Aussa, ii. 435n

Ávah, Abah, Ava, one of the cities of the Magi, i. 80, 81n

Avarian, epithet of S. Thomas, ii. 353, 355n–356n

Avebury, Lord, on _couvade_, ii. 93n

Avicenna’s classification of Iron, i. 94n

_Avigi, ′afçi (falco montanus)_, i. 50, 57n

Axum, Inscription, ii. 432n;

Church of, 433n;

Court of, 434n

Ayas (Layas, Aiazzo, etc.), port of

Cilician Armenia, _19_, i. 16, 17n, 20, 22, 41;

Sea fight at, _43_, _46_, _54_

Ayuthia, _13_, ii. 278n, 279n

_Azumiti_, ii. 432n

Azure, Ultramarine (_lapis armenus_) Mines in Badakhshan, i. 157,

162n;

in Tenduc, 284;

ore, 365, 370n

Baba Buzurg, worshipped by the Lurs, i. 85n

Baber, E. C., on Ch’êng-tú, ii. 38n;

on wild oxen of Tibet, 52n;

Lolos, 61n–63n;

Gold River (Brius), 67n;

the word Caindu, 70n;

Talifu, 80n;

Mekong River 88n;

Zardandan, 89n;

site of battle between Kúblái and king of Mien, 105n;

descent of Mien, 108n

Baboons, etymology, ii. 385n, 431

Báb-ul-abwáh, “The Gate of Gates,” Pass of Derbend, i. 53n

Babylon, Babylonia (Cairo or Egypt), i. 22, 24n, ii. 226, 230n;

Sultan of, i. 22, ii. 439, 473

Babylonish garments, i. 66n

_Baccadeo_, indigo, ii. 382n

Baccanor, ii. 386n

Bacon, Roger, i. 94n, 426n;

as geographer, _114_, _131_

Bacsi, _see_ Bakhshi

Bactria, its relation to Greece, i. 160n

Bacu, Sea of (Caspian), i. 59n

Badakhshan (Badashan), i. 98, 104n, 154, 157;

its population, 155n, 160n;

capitals of, 156n;

Mirs of, 156n, 160n;

legend of Alexandrian pedigree of its kings, 157, 160n;

depopulation of, 156n, 163n;

scenery, 158n;

dialects, 160n;

forms of the name, 161n;

great river of (Upper Oxus), 170

Badáún, ii. 427n

Badger, Rev. Dr. G. P., i. 65n, ii. 444n

Badghís, i. 150n, ii. 467

_Badgír_, Wind-catchers, ii. 452, 453n

Badruddín Lúlú, last Atabeg of Mosul, i. 61n

_Báfk_ (Báft), i. 89n, 111n, 122n

Baghdad (Baudas), Baldac, taken by Alaü, Hulákú, i. 63;

its Khalif, 63, 64;

the miracle of the mountain, 69

—— Archbishop of, ii. 407

—— its indigo (_baccadeo_), ii. 382n

Bagratidae, of Armenia, i. 42n;

of Georgia, 52n

Bagration-Mukransky, Prince, i. 53n

Bahár, ii. 427n

Bahárak, plain, i. 156n

Bahá-uddin Ayaz, Wazir of Kalhát, i. 120n

Bahá-ul-hakh, the Saint of Multán, ii. 82n

Bahrámábád, i. 90n, 122n

Bahrámjird Village, i. 113n

Bahrein, ii. 348n

Baiberdon, i. 49n

Baiburt (Paipurth), Castle of, i. 48n, 49n

Baidu Khan, i. 14n, ii. 475n;

seizes throne of Persia, 476;

displaced and killed by Gházán, 476;

alleged to be a Christian, 476, 477n

Bailo, the title, i. 417;

etymology of, 421n

Bakhshi (Bacsi), Lamas, i. 414, 445;

their enchantments, 301, 302, 314n–318n;

various meanings of the word, 314n

Bakhtyáris of Lúristán, the, i. 87n

Baku, oil fields of, i. 46, 49n;

Sea of (Caspian), i. 59n

_Balad-ul-Falfal_ (Malabar), ii. 377n

_Baladi_, ii. 381n

_Balalaika_, a two-stringed Tartar instrument, i. 339n

_Balânjaríyah, devoted lieges_, ii. 347n

Bala-Sagun, i. 232n

Balas rubies, i. 157, 161n, ii. 362n

Baldac, _see_ Baghdad

_Baldacchini_ (_Baudekins_), brocades made at Baghdad, i. 63, 65n

Baldwin II. (de Courtenay), last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, i.

2, 3n

Bali, Island of, ii. 287n

—— in Abyssinia, ii. 436n

_Balios_, i. 421n

_Balish_ (a money of account), ii. 218n

_Balista_, always a crossbow in mediæval times, ii. 161n

Balkh (Balc), i. 151

Balkhash Lake, ii. 459n

Ballads, Genoese, on sea-fights at Ayas and Curzola, _43_ _seqq._

Ballard, Mr., ii. 382n, 387n

Balor, Balaur, Bilaur, Malaur, Bolor, i. 172, 178n–179n

_Bâlos_, Malacca boats with two rudders, i. 119n

_Balsamodendron Mukul_, ii. 397n

Balthazar, of the Magi, i. 78, 82n

Bálti, i. 160n, 178n

_Balustrade_, etymology of the word, _38_

Bamboo (always called canes by Polo), its multifarious uses, i. 299,

307n;

Kúblái’s Chandu Palace made of, 299, 306n;

great, on banks of Caramoran river, ii. 220;

explode loudly when burning, 42, 43, 46n;

large in Tibet, 48n;

ropes of, 171, 174n;

in Che kiang, 221n

Bamian, caves at, i. 156n;

huge recumbent image at, 221n

_Bám-i-Duniah_, “Roof of the World,” i. 171, 174n

Bamm, i. 113n

Bandar Abbás (Bandar-Abbási), i. 86n, 89n, 106n, 122n

Bandith, i. 98, 100n, 151

Bangala, _see_ Bengal

Banzaroff, Dorji, on Shamanism, i. 258n

Baptism, accompanied by branding, in Abyssinia, ii. 427, 432n

Bara, ii. 305n

Barac (Borrak), Khan of Chagatai, i. 9, 10n, 103n;

his war with Arghún, ii. 458n, 467

Baradaeus, Jacob, or James Zanzale, Bishop of Edessa, i. 61n

Barbaro, Josafat, i. 49n, 53n, 100n, 426n, 427n

Barbarossa, Frederic, _36_, i. 82n

Barberino, Francesco da, _36_, _118_, i. 117n

_Barda’at_, saddle-cloths, i. 61n

Bardesir, i. 112n

Bardshír, Bardsír, Bard-i-Ardeshír, i. 92n

Bargu (Barguchin Tugrum, or Barguti), plain, i. 269, 270n

_Barguerlac, Syrrhaptes Pallasii_, a kind of sand grouse, i. 269,

272n;

its migration into England, 273n

Barguzinsk, i. 270n

Barin, Mongol tribe, ii. 148n

Bark, money made from, _108_, i. 423;

fine clothes from, ii. 124, 127n

Barka (Barca), Khan, ruler of Kipchak, i. 4, 5n, 103n, ii. 491;

his war with Hulákú, i. 4, ii. 494 _seqq._

Barkul, i. 345n

_Barkút, búrgút (bearcoote)_, eagle trained to the chase, i. 397,

399n

Barlaam and Josaphat, Story of Saints, from Legend of Buddha, ii.

323n _seqq._

Barley, huskless, i. 158, 162n

Baroch, ii. 367n

_Baron-tala_, name applied by Mongols to Tibet, i. 214n

Barons (Shieng or Sing), Kaan’s twelve, ii. 430

Barozzi, Nicolo, _30_, _70_

Barros, John de, i. 110n, 120n;

geography of, _3_

Barsauma (St. Barsamo), i. 77

Barskul (Barscol), “Leopard Lake,” i. 343, 345n

Bartizan, Kúblái’s wooden, i. 337, 339n

Barus, Barros (Sumatra), its camphor, ii. 302n–303n, 304n

_Barussae insulae_, ii. 310n

_Barygaza_, ii. 397n, 408n

Bashai (Pashai), i. 165n

Bashkirds (Hungarians), i. 57n, ii. 492n

Bashpah, Lama, and the Mongol character called after him, i. 28n,

353n, ii. 46n

Basma, _see_ Pasei

_Basmuls_ (Guasmuls), half-breeds, i. 284, 292n

Basra (Bastra), noted for its date-groves, i. 63, 65n

Bathang, ii. 45n, 48n, 56n, 67n, 70n

Baths, natural hot, near Hormuz i. 110–122n;

in Cathay, 442;

public at Kinsay, ii. 189, 198n

Batigala, Batticalla, ii. 426n, 443n

Batochina, ii. 302n

Bats, large, in India, ii. 345

Battas of Sumatra, and cannibalism, ii. 288n, 298n

Batthála, Bettelar (Patlam in Ceylon), ii. 337n

Battles, Kúblái _v._ Nayan, i. 336;

Tartars _v._ king of Mien, ii. 101;

Caidu _v._ Khan’s forces, 461;

Borrak and Arghún, 467;

Arghún and Ahmad, 470n;

Hulákú and Barka, 496;

Toktai and Nogai, 499

Bátú, Khan of Kipchak, founder of Sarai, _11_, i. 5n, 6n, 245, 247n;

invades Russia, 490, 493n;

made by Polo into two kings—Sain and Patu, 491, 492n;

his character and cruelty, 492n

Baudas, _see_ Baghdad

_Baudekins_ (baldacchini), brocades made at Baghdad, i. 63, 65n

_Bauduin de Sebourc_, _121_ _seqq._, ii. 141, 144, 189, 216

Bavaria, Duke Ernest of, a mediæval Romance, ii. 418n

Bawárij, corsairs, ii. 410n

Bayan Chingsian, Kúblái’s greatest Captain, i. 10n, 334n, 361n, ii.

138n, 208n, 462n;

prophecy connected with his name, 145, 150n;

his conquest of Manzi or South China, 146;

his history and character, 148n, 149n;

his exceptional cruelty at Chang-chau, 179, 180n

Bayan, Khagan of the Avars, ii. 148n

Bayan (Baian), Kúblái’s Master of the Hounds, i. 400, 401n

Bayan, son of Nasruddin, ii. 104n

Bayezid Ilderim, i. 45n

Bdellium, ii. 397n

Beads, Hindu, ii. 338, 347n

Bears, i. 396, 397, 401, ii. 31, 37, 42, 78, 382, 411, 431;

white in Far North, 479, 481n

Beast and bird patterns, _see_ Patterns

Beaten gold, i. 387, 388n

Beaujeu, William de, Master of the Temple, i. 25n

Beauty of—Georgians, i. 50, 53n;

Khorasan women, 128;

Kashmir women, 166;

Sinju women, 276;

_Argons_, or half-breeds, 284;

the Ungrat or Kungurat tribe, 357;

people of Coloman, ii. 122;

Kinsay women, 186;

Kaidu’s daughter, 463;

Arghún Khan, 478;

the Russians, 487

Beds, their arrangement in India, ii. 346, 352n

Beef, not eaten in Maabar, except by the Govi, ii. 341, 350n;

formerly eaten in India, 350n

Bejas of the Red Sea Coast, ii. 425, 432n, 434n

Belgutai, Chinghiz’s stepbrother, i. 334n

“Belic” for “Melic,” ii. 470n

Bell at Cambaluc, great, i. 375, 378n, 414

Bellál Rajas, ii. 367n

_Belledi, balladi_, ginger so called, ii. 381n;

Spanish use of the word, _ib._

Benares, brocades of, i. 66n

Bendocquedar, _see_ Bundúkdári, Bíbars

Benedict XII., Pope, ii. 179n

Bengal (Bangala), _12_;

king of Mien (Burma) and, ii. 98;

why Polo couples these, 99n;

relations between Burma and, 99n, 114;

claim asserted by king of Burma to, 100n;

alleged Mongol invasion of, 115n;

its distance from Caugigu, 120;

its currency, 123;

confused with Pegu by Polo, 128n, 131n

Beni Búya dynasty, i. 91n

Benjamin of Tudela, on Alexander’s Rampart, i. 54n;

on the Gryphon, ii. 418n

Benzoin, etymology of, ii. 286n, 396n

Berard, Thos., Master of the Temple, i. 23, 24n

Berbera, Sea of, ii. 415n

Berchet, G., _27_, ii. 507n

Bereké, Bátu Khan’s brother, i. 5n

Bernier, on Kashmir women’s beauty, i. 169n

_Berrie_, the Arabic Băríya, a desert, i. 237n

Bettelar, rendezvous of Pearl Fishers, ii. 331, 337n

_Beyamini_, wild oxen of Tibet, ii. 50, 52n

Bezant, i. 405, 424, 425, 426n, 427n, 444, ii. 41n, 186, 218n, 346n,

349n, 479;

value of, 592n

_Bhagavata_, ii. 346n

Bhamó, and River of, ii. 70n, 105n, 107n, 108n, 113n

Bhartpúr, prophecy about, ii. 149n