“Marcvs Polvs Venetvs Totivs Orbis et Indie Peregrator Primus.”

Copied by permission from a painting bearing the above inscription in the Gallery of Monsignore Badia in Rome.

xxi

Marco Polo in the Prison of Genoa.

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

CHAPTER XXXV.

Now you must know that the Emperor sent the aforesaid Messer Marco Polo, who is the author of this whole story, on business of his into the Western Provinces. On that occasion he travelled from Cambaluc a good four months’ journey towards the west.{1} And so now I will tell you all that he saw on his travels as he went and returned.

When you leave the City of Cambaluc and have ridden ten miles, you come to a very large river which is called Pulisanghin, and flows into the ocean, so that merchants with their merchandise ascend it from the sea. Over this River there is a very fine stone bridge, so fine indeed, that it has very few equals. The fashion of it is this: it is 300 paces in length, and it must have a good eight paces of width, for ten mounted men can ride across it abreast. It has 24 arches and 4as many water-mills, and ’tis all of very fine marble, well built and firmly founded. Along the top of the bridge there is on either side a parapet of marble slabs and columns, made in this way. At the beginning of the bridge there is a marble column, and under it a marble lion, so that the column stands upon the lion’s loins, whilst on the top of the column there is a second marble lion, both being of great size and beautifully executed sculpture. At the distance of a pace from this column there is another precisely the same, also with its two lions, and the space between them is closed with slabs of grey marble to prevent people from falling over into the water. And thus the columns run from space to space along either side of the bridge, so that altogether it is a beautiful object.{2}

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

Note 1.—[When Marco leaves the capital, he takes the main road, the “Imperial Highway,” from Peking to Si-ngan fu, viâ Pao-ting, Cheng-ting, Hwai-luh, Taï-yuan, Ping-yang, and T’ung-kwan, on the Yellow River. Mr. G. F. Eaton, writing from 5Han-chung (Jour. China Br. R. As. Soc. XXVIII. No. 1) says it is a cart-road, except for six days between Taï-yuan and Hwai-luh, and that it takes twenty-nine days to go from Peking to Si-ngan, a figure which agrees well with Polo’s distances; it is also the time which Dr. Forke’s journey lasted; he left Peking on the 1st May, 1892, reached Taï-yuan on the 12th, and arrived at Si-ngan on the 30th (Von Peking nach Ch’ang-an). Mr. Rockhill left Peking on the 17th December, 1888, reached T’aï-yuan on the 26th, crossed the Yellow River on the 5th January, and arrived at Si-ngan fu on the 8th January, 1889, in twenty-two days, a distance of 916 miles. (Land of the Lamas, pp. 372–374.) M. Grenard left Si-ngan on the 10th November and reached Peking on the 16th December, 1894 = thirty-six days; he reckons 1389 kilometres = 863 miles. (See Rev. C. Holcombe, Tour through Shan-hsi and Shen-hsi in Jour. North China Br. R. A. S. N. S. X. pp. 54–70.)—H. C.]

Note 2.—Pul-i-Sangín, the name which Marco gives the River, means in Persian simply (as Marsden noticed) “The Stone Bridge.” In a very different region the same name often occurs in the history of Timur applied to a certain bridge, in the country north of Badakhshan, over the Wakhsh branch of the Oxus. And the Turkish admiral Sidi ’Ali, travelling that way from India in the 16th century, applies the name, as it is applied here, to the river; for his journal tells us that beyond Kuláb he crossed “the River Pulisangin.”

A Housselin d.

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

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

[“By Sanghin, Polo renders the Chinese Sang-kan, by which name the River Hun-ho is already mentioned, in the 6th century of our era. Hun-ho is also an ancient name; and the same river in ancient books is often called Lu-Kou River also. All 6these names are in use up to the present time; but on modern Chinese maps, only the upper part of the river is termed Sang-Kan ho, whilst south of the inner Great Wall, and in the plain, the name of Hun-ho is applied to it. Hun ho means “Muddy River,” and the term is quite suitable. In the last century, the Emperor K’ien-lung ordered the Hun-ho to be named Yung-ting ho, a name found on modern maps, but the people always call it Hun ho.” (Bretschneider, Peking, p. 54.)—H. C.]

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

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

7

[The Rev. W. S. Ament (M. Polo in Cambaluc, p. 116–117) remarks regarding Yule’s quotation from Magaillans that “a glance at Chinese history would have explained to these gentlemen that there was no stone bridge over the Liu Li river till the days of Kia Tsing, the Ming Emperor, 1522 A.D., or more than one hundred and fifty years after Polo was dead. Hence he could not have confounded bridges, one of which he never saw. The Lu Kou Bridge was first constructed of stone by She Tsung, fourth Emperor of the Kin, in the period Ta Ting 1189 A.D., and was finished by Chang Tsung 1194 A.D. Before that time it had been constructed of wood, and had been sometimes a stationary and often a floating bridge. The oldest account [end of 16th century] states that the bridge was pu 200 in length, and specifically states that each pu was 5 feet, thus making the bridge 1000 feet long. It was called the Kuan Li Bridge. The Emperor, Kia Tsing of the Ming, was a great bridge builder. He reconstructed this bridge, adding strong embankments to prevent injury by floods. He also built the fine bridge over the Liu Li Ho, the Cho Chou Bridge over the Chü Ma Ho. What cannot be explained is Polo’s statement that the bridge had twenty-four arches, when the oldest accounts give no more than thirteen, there being eleven at the present time. The columns which supported the balustrade in Polo’s time rested upon the loins of sculptured lions. The account of the lions after the bridge was repaired by Kia Tsing says that there are so many that it is impossible to count them correctly, and gossip about the bridge says that several persons have lost their minds in making the attempt. The little walled city on the 8east end of the bridge, rightly called Kung Chi, popularly called Fei Ch’eng, is a monument to Ts’ung Chêng, the last of the Ming, who built it, hoping to check the advance of Li Tzu ch’eng, the great robber chief who finally proved too strong for him.”—H. C.]

Bridge of Lu-ku k’iao.

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

This bridge was begun, according to Klaproth, in 1189, and was five years a-building. On the 17th August, 1688, as Magaillans tells us, a great flood carried away two arches of the bridge, and the remainder soon fell. [Father Intorcetta, quoted by Bretschneider (Peking, p. 53), gives the 25th of July, 1668, as the date of the destruction of the bridge, which agrees well with the Chinese accounts.—H. C.] The bridge was renewed, but with only nine arches instead of thirteen, as appears from the following note of personal observation with which Dr. Lockhart has favoured me:

“At 27 li from Peking, by the western road leaving the gate of the Chinese city called Kwang-’an-măn, after passing the old walled town of Feuchen, you reach the bridge of Lo-Ku-Kiao. As it now stands it is a very long bridge of nine arches (real arches) spanning the valley of the Hwan Ho, and surrounded by beautiful scenery. The bridge is built of green sandstone, and has a good balustrade with short square pilasters crowned by small lions. It is in very good repair, and has a ceaseless traffic, being on the road to the coal-mines which supply the city. There is a pavilion at each end of the bridge with inscriptions, the one recording that K’ang-hi (1662–1723) built the bridge, and the other that Kienlung (1736–1796) repaired it.” These circumstances are strictly consistent with Magaillans’ account of the destruction of the mediæval bridge. Williamson describes the present bridge as about 700 feet long, and 12 feet wide in the middle part.

[Dr. Bretschneider saw the bridge, and gives the following description of it: “The bridge is 350 ordinary paces long and 18 broad. It is built of sandstone, and has on either side a stone balustrade of square columns, about 4 feet high, 140 on each side, each crowned by a sculptured lion over a foot high. Beside these there are a number of smaller lions placed irregularly on the necks, behind the legs, under the feet, or on the back of the larger ones. The space between the columns is closed by stone slabs. Four sculptured stone elephants lean with their foreheads against the edge of the balustrades. The bridge is supported by eleven arches. At each end of the bridge two pavilions with yellow roofs have been built, all with large marble tablets in them; two with inscriptions made by order of the Emperor K’ang-hi (1662–1723); and two with inscriptions of the time of K’ien-lung (1736–1796). On these tablets the history of the bridge is recorded.” Dr. Bretschneider adds that Dr. Lockhart is also right in counting nine arches, for he counts only the waterways, not the arches resting upon the banks of the river. Dr. Forke (p. 5) counts 11 arches and 280 stone lions.—H. C.]

(P. de la Croix, II. 11, etc.; Erskine’s Baber, p. xxxiii.; Timour’s Institutes, 70; J. As. IX. 205; Cathay, 260; Magaillans, 14–18, 35; Lecomte in Astley, III. 529; J. As. sér. II. tom. i. 97–98; D’Ohsson, I. 144.)

9

Bridge of Lu-ku k’iao.

10

CHAPTER XXXVI.

When you leave the Bridge, and ride towards the west, finding all the way excellent hostelries for travellers, with fine vineyards, fields, and gardens, and springs of water, you come after 30 miles to a fine large city called Juju, where there are many abbeys of idolaters, and the people live by trade and manufactures. They weave cloths of silk and gold, and very fine taffetas.{1} Here too there are many hostelries for travellers.{2}

After riding a mile beyond this city you find two roads, one of which goes west and the other south-east. The westerly road is that through Cathay, and the south-easterly one goes towards the province of Manzi.{3}

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

Note 1.—The word is sendaus (Pauthier), pl. of sendal, and in G. T. sandal. It does not seem perfectly known what this silk texture was, but as banners were made of it, and linings for richer stuffs, it appears to have been a light material, and is generally rendered taffetas. In Richard Cœur de Lion we find

“Many a pencel of sykelatoun

And of sendel of grene and broun,”

and also pavilions of sendel; and in the Anglo-French ballad of the death of William Earl of Salisbury in St. Lewis’s battle on the Nile—

“Le Meister du Temple brace les chivaux

Et le Count Long-Espée depli les sandaux.”

11

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

“In sanguin and in persë clad was allë,

Linëd with taffata and with sendallë.”

[La Curne, Dict., s.v. Sendaus has: Silk stuff: “Somme de la delivrance des sendaus.” (Nouv. Compt. de l’Arg. p. 19).—Godefroy, Dict., gives: “Sendain, adj., made with the stuff called cendal: Drap d’or sendains (1392, Test. de Blanche, duch d’Orl., Ste-Croix, Arch. Loiret).” He says s.v. Cendal, “cendau, cendral, cendel, ... sendail, ... étoffe légère de soie unie qui paraît avoir été analogue au taffetas.” “‘On faisait des cendaux forts ou faibles, et on leur donnait toute sorte de couleurs. On s’en servait surtout pour vêtements et corsets, pour doublures de draps, de fourrures et d’autres étoffes de soie plus précieuses, enfin pour tenture d’appartements.’ (Bourquelot, Foir. de Champ. I. 261).”

“J’ay de toilles de mainte guise,

De sidonnes et de cendaulx.

Soyes, satins blancs et vermaulx.”

—Greban, Mist. de la Pass., 26826, G. Paris.—H. C.]

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

Note 2.—Jújú is precisely the name given to this city by Rashiduddin, who notices the vineyards. Juju is Cho-chau, just at the distance specified from Peking, viz. 40 miles, and nearly 30 from Pulisanghin or Lu-kou K’iao. The name of the town is printed Tsochow by Mr. Williamson, and Chechow in a late Report of a journey by Consul Oxenham. He calls it “a large town of the second order, situated on the banks of a small river flowing towards the south-east, viz. the Kiu-ma-Ho, a navigable stream. It had the appearance of being a place of considerable trade, and the streets were crowded with people.” (Reports of Journeys in China and Japan, etc. Presented to Parliament, 1869, p. 9.) The place is called Jújú also in the Persian itinerary given by ’Izzat Ullah in J. R. A. S. VII. 308; and in one procured by Mr. Shaw. (Proc. R. G. S. XVI. p. 253.)

[The Rev. W. S. Ament (Marco Polo, 119–120) writes, “the historian of the city of Cho-chau sounds the praises of the people for their religious spirit. He says:—‘It was the custom of the ancients to worship those who were before them. Thus students worshipped their instructors, farmers worshipped the first husbandman, workers in silk, the original silk-worker. Thus when calamities come upon the land, the virtuous among the people make offerings to the spirits of earth and heaven, the mountains, rivers, streams, etc. All these things are profitable. These customs should never be forgotten.’ After such instruction, we are prepared to find fifty-eight temples of every variety in this little city of about 20,000 inhabitants. There is a temple to the spirits of Wind, Clouds, Thunder, and Rain, to the god of silk-workers, to the Horse-god, to the god of locusts, and the eight destructive insects, to the Five Dragons, to the King who quiets the waves. Besides these, there are all the orthodox temples to the ancient worthies, and some modern heroes. Liu Pei and Chang Fei, two of the three great heroes of the San Kuo Chih, being natives of Cho Chou, are each honoured with two temples, one in the native village, and one in the city. It is not often that one locality can give to a great empire two of its three most popular heroes: Liu Pei, Chang Fei, Kuan Yu.”

“Judging from the condition of the country,” writes the Rev. W. S. Ament 12(p. 120), “one could hardly believe that this general region was the original home of the silk-worm, and doubtless the people who once lived here are the only people who ever saw the silk-worm in his wild state. The historian of Cho-Chou honestly remarks that he knows of no reason why the production of silk should have ceased there, except the fact that the worms refused to live there.... The palmy days of the silk industry were in the T’ang dynasty.”—H. C.]

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

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

CHAPTER XXXVII.

After riding then those ten days from the city of Juju, you find yourself in a kingdom called Taianfu, and the city at which you arrive, which is the capital, is also called Taianfu, a very great and fine city. [But at the end of five days’ journey out of those ten, they say there is a city unusually large and handsome called 13Acbaluc, whereat terminate in this direction the hunting preserves of the Emperor, within which no one dares to sport except the Emperor and his family, and those who are on the books of the Grand Falconer. Beyond this limit any one is at liberty to sport, if he be a gentleman. The Great Kaan, however, scarcely ever went hunting in this direction, and hence the game, particularly the hares, had increased and multiplied to such an extent that all the crops of the Province were destroyed. The Great Kaan being informed of this, proceeded thither with all his Court, and the game that was taken was past counting.]{1}

Taianfu{2} is a place of great trade and great industry, for here they manufacture a large quantity of the most necessary equipments for the army of the Emperor. There grow here many excellent vines, supplying great plenty of wine; and in all Cathay this is the only place where wine is produced. It is carried hence all over the country.{3} There is also a great deal of silk here, for the people have great quantities of mulberry-trees and silk-worms.

From this city of Taianfu you ride westward again for seven days, through fine districts with plenty of towns and boroughs, all enjoying much trade and practising various kinds of industry. Out of these districts go forth not a few great merchants, who travel to India and other foreign regions, buying and selling and getting gain. After those seven days’ journey you arrive at a city called Pianfu, a large and important place, with a number of traders living by commerce and industry. It is a place too where silk is largely produced.{4}

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

14

Note 1.—Marsden translates the commencement of this passage, which is peculiar to Ramusio, and runs “E in capo di cinque giornate delle predette dieci,” by the words “At the end of five days’ journey beyond the ten,” but this is clearly wrong.[1] The place best suiting in position, as halfway between Cho-chau and T’ai-yuan fu, would be Cheng-ting fu, and I have little doubt that this is the place intended. The title of Ak-Báligh in Turki,[2] or Chaghán Balghásun in Mongol, meaning “White City,” was applied by the Tartars to Royal Residences; and possibly Cheng-ting fu may have had such a claim, for I observe in the Annales de la Prop. de la Foi (xxxiii. 387) that in 1862 the Chinese Government granted to the R. C. Vicar-Apostolic of Chihli the ruined Imperial Palace at Cheng-ting fu for his cathedral and other mission establishments. Moreover, as a matter of fact, Rashiduddin’s account of Chinghiz’s campaign in northern China in 1214, speaks of the city of “Chaghan Balghasun which the Chinese call Jintzinfu.” This is almost exactly the way in which the name of Cheng-ting fu is represented in ’Izzat Ullah’s Persian Itinerary (Jigdzinfu, evidently a clerical error for Jingdzinfu), so I think there can be little doubt that Cheng-ting fu is the place intended. The name of Hwai-luh’ien (see Note 2), which is the first stage beyond Cheng-ting fu, is said to mean the “Deer-lair,” pointing apparently to the old character of the tract as a game-preserve. The city of Cheng-ting is described by Consul Oxenham as being now in a decayed and dilapidated condition, consisting only of two long streets crossing at right angles. It is noted for the manufacture of images of Buddha from Shan-si iron. (Consular Reports, p. 10; Erdmann, 331.)

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

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

The traveller who quits the great plain of Chihli [which terminates at Fu-ch’eng-i, a small market-town, two days from Pao-ting.—H. C.] for “the kingdom of Taianfu,” i.e. Northern Shan-si, enters a tract in which predominates that very remarkable formation called by the Chinese Hwang-tu, and to which the German name Löss has been attached. With this formation are bound up the distinguishing characters of Northern Interior China, not merely in scenery but in agricultural products, dwellings, and means of transport. This Löss is a brownish-yellow loam, highly porous, spreading over low and high ground alike, smoothing over irregularities of surface, and often more than 1000 feet in thickness. It has no stratification, but tends to cleave vertically, and is traversed in every direction by sudden crevices, almost glacier-like, narrow, with vertical walls of great depth, and infinite ramification. Smooth as the löss basin looks in a bird’s-eye view, it is thus one of the most impracticable countries conceivable for military movements, and secures extraordinary value to fortresses in well-chosen sites, such as that of Tung-kwan mentioned in Note 2 to chap. xli.

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

[I do not agree with the theory of Baron von Richthofen, of the almost exclusive Eolian formation of loess; water has something to do with it as well as wind, and I think it is more exact to say that loess in China is due to a double action, Neptunian as well as Eolian. The climate was different in former ages from what it is now, and 15rain was plentiful and to its great quantity was due the fertility of this yellow soil. (Cf. A. de Lapparent, Leçons de Géographie Physique, 2^e éd. 1898, p. 566.)—H. C.]

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

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

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

Note 3.—Martini observes that the grapes in Shan-si were very abundant and the 16best in China. The Chinese used them only as raisins, but wine was made there for the use of the early Jesuit Missions, and their successors continue to make it. Klaproth, however, tells us that the wine of T’ai-yuan fu was celebrated in the days of the T’ang Dynasty, and used to be sent in tribute to the Emperors. Under the Mongols the use of this wine spread greatly. The founder of the Ming accepted the offering of wine of the vine from T’ai-yuan in 1373, but prohibited its being presented again. The finest grapes are produced in the district of Yukau-hien, where hills shield the plain from north winds, and convert it into a garden many square miles in extent. In the vintage season the best grapes sell for less than a farthing a pound. [Mr. Theos. Sampson, in an article on “Grapes in China,” writes (Notes and Queries on China and Japan, April, 1869, p. 50): “The earliest mention of the grape in Chinese literature appears to be contained in the chapter on the nations of Central Asia, entitled Ta Yuan Chwan, or description of Fergana, which forms part of the historical records (Sze-Ki) of Sze-ma Tsien, dating from B.C. 100. Writing of the political relations instituted shortly before this date by the Emperor Wu Ti with the nations beyond the Western frontiers of China, the historian dwells at considerable length, but unluckily with much obscurity, on the various missions despatched westward under the leadership of Chang K’ien and others, and mentions the grape vine in the following passage:—‘Throughout the country of Fergana, wine is made from grapes, and the wealthy lay up stores of wine, many tens of thousands of shih in amount, which may be kept for scores of years without spoiling. Wine is the common beverage, and for horses the mu-su is the ordinary pasture. The envoys from China brought back seeds with them, and hereupon the Emperor for the first time cultivated the grape and the mu-su in the most productive soils.’ In the Description of Western regions, forming part of the History of the Han Dynasty, it is stated that grapes are abundantly produced in the country of K’i-pin (identified with Cophene, part of modern Afghanistan) and other adjacent countries, and referring, if I mistake not, to the journeys of Chang K’ien, the same work says, that the Emperor Wu-Ti despatched upwards of ten envoys to the various countries westward of Fergana, to search for novelties, and that they returned with grape and mu-su seeds. These references appear beyond question to determine the fact that grapes were introduced from Western—or, as we term it, Central—Asia, by Chang K’ien.”

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

[Regarding the name of this river, the Rev. C. Holcombe (l.c. p. 56) writes: “Williamson states in his Journeys in North China that the name of this stream is, properly Poo-too Ho—‘Grape River,’ but is sometimes written Hu-t’ou River incorrectly. The above named author, however, is himself in error, the name given above [Hu-t’o] being invariably found in all Chinese authorities, as well as being the name by which the stream is known all along its course.”

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

Note 4.—✛In no part of China probably, says Richthofen, do the towns and villages consist of houses so substantial and costly as in this. Pianfu is undoubtedly, as Magaillans again notices, P’ing-yang fu.[3] It is the Bikan of Shah Rukh’s 17ambassadors. [Old P’ing yang, 5 lis to the south] is said to have been the residence of the primitive and mythical Chinese Emperor Yao. A great college for the education of the Mongols was instituted at P’ing-yang, by Yeliu Chutsai, the enlightened minister of Okkodai Khan. [Its dialect differs from the T’aï-yuan dialect, and is more like Pekingese.] The city, lying in a broad valley covered with the yellow löss, was destroyed by the T’aï-P’ing rebels, but it is reviving. [It is known for its black pottery.] The vicinity is noted for large paper factories. [“From T’ai-yuan fu to P’ing-yang fu is a journey of 185 miles, down the valley of the Fuen-ho.” (Colonel Bell, Proc. R. G. S. XII. 1890, p. 61.) By the way, Mr. Rockhill remarks (Land of the Lamas, p. 10): “Richthofen has transcribed the name of this river Fuen. This spelling has been adopted on most of the recent maps, both German and English, but Fuen is an impossible sound in Chinese.” (Read Fen ho.)—H. C.] (Cathay, ccxi.; Ritter, IV. 516; D’Ohsson, II. 70; Williamson, I. 336.)

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

On leaving Pianfu you ride two days westward, and come to the noble castle of Caichu, which was built in time past by a king of that country, whom they used to call the Golden King, and who had there a great and beautiful palace. There is a great hall of this palace, in which are pourtrayed all the ancient kings of the country, done in gold and other beautiful colours, and a very fine sight they make. Each king in succession as he reigned added to those pictures.{1}

[This Golden King was a great and potent Prince, and during his stay at this place there used to be in his service none but beautiful girls, of whom he had a great number in his Court. When he went to take the air about the fortress, these girls used to draw him about in a little carriage which they could easily move, and they would also be in attendance on the King for everything pertaining to his convenience or pleasure.{2}]

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

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

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

And when they had abode with that King nearly two years, conducting themselves like persons who thought of anything but treason, they one day accompanied the King on a pleasure party when he had very few else along with him: for in those gallants the King had perfect trust, and thus kept them immediately about his person. So after they had crossed a certain river that is about a mile from the castle, and saw that they were alone with the King, they said one to another that now was the time to achieve that they had come for. Then they all incontinently drew, and told the King that he must go with them and make no resistance, or they would slay him. The King at this was in alarm and great astonishment, and said: “How then, good 19my sons, what thing is this ye say? and whither would ye have me go?” They answered, and said: “You shall come with us, will ye, nill ye, to Prester John our Lord.”

Note 1.—The name of the castle is very doubtful. But of that and the geography, which in this part is tangled, we shall speak further on.

Whilst the original French texts were unknown, the king here spoken of figured in the old Latin versions as King Darius, and in Ramusio as Re Dor. It was a most happy suggestion of Marsden’s, in absence of all knowledge of the fact that the original narrative was French, that this Dor represented the Emperor of the Kin or Golden Dynasty, called by the Mongols Altun Khán, of which Roi D’Or is a literal translation.

The “Roi d’Or.” (From a MS. in the Royal Asiatic Society’s Collection.)

“Et en ceste chastiaus ha un mout biaus paleis en quel a une grandisme sale là ou il sunt portrait à mout belles pointures tout les rois de celes provences que furent ansienemant, et ce est mout belle viste à voir.”

Of the legend itself I can find no trace. Rashiduddin relates a story of the grandfather of Aung Khan (Polo’s Prester John), Merghuz Boirúk Khan, being treacherously made over to the King of the Churché (the Kin sovereign), and put to death by being nailed to a wooden ass. But the same author tells us that Aung Khan got his title of Aung (Ch. Wang) or king from the Kin Emperor of his day, so that no hereditary feud seems deducible.

Mr. Wylie, who is of opinion, like Baron Richthofen, that the Caichu which Polo makes the scene of that story, is Kiai-chau (or Hiai-chau as it seems to be pronounced), north of the Yellow River, has been good enough to search the histories of the Liao and Kin Dynasties,[1] but without finding any trace of such a story, or of the Kin Emperors having resided in that neighbourhood.

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

The Persian historians of the Mongols relate that when Chinghiz defeated and slew Taiyang Khan, the king of the Naimans, Kushluk, the son of Taiyang, fled to the Gur-Khan of Karakhitai and received both his protection and the hand of his daughter (see i. 237); but afterwards rose against his benefactor and usurped his throne. “In the Liao history I read,” Mr. Wylie says, “that Chih-lu-ku, the last monarch of the Karakhitai line, ascended the throne in 1168, and in the 34th year of his reign, when out hunting one day in autumn, Kushluk, who had 8000 troops in ambush, made him prisoner, seized his throne and adopted the customs of the Liao, while he conferred on Chih-lu-ku the honourable title of Tai-shang-hwang ‘the old emperor.’”[2]

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

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

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

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

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

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CHAPTER XXXIX.

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

And when Prester John beheld the King he was right glad, and greeted him with something like a malison.[1] The King answered not a word, as if he wist not what it behoved him to say. So Prester John ordered him to be taken forth straightway, and to be put to look after cattle, but to be well looked after himself also. So they took him and set him to keep cattle. This did Prester John of the grudge he bore the King, to heap contumely on him, and to show what a nothing he was, compared to himself.

And when the King had thus kept cattle for two years, Prester John sent for him, and treated him with honour, and clothed him in rich robes, and said to him: “Now Sir King, art thou satisfied that thou wast in no way a man to stand against me?” “Truly, my good Lord, I know well and always did know that I was in no way a man to stand against thee.” And when he had said this Prester John replied: “I ask no more; but 22henceforth thou shalt be waited on and honourably treated.” So he caused horses and harness of war to be given him, with a goodly train, and sent him back to his own country. And after that he remained ever friendly to Prester John, and held fast by him.

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

CHAPTER XL.

When you leave the castle, and travel about 20 miles westward, you come to a river called Caramoran,{1} so big that no bridge can be thrown across it; for it is of immense width and depth, and reaches to the Great Ocean that encircles the Universe,—I mean the whole earth. On this river there are many cities and walled towns, and many merchants too therein, for much traffic takes place upon the river, there being a great deal of ginger and a great deal of silk produced in the country.{2}

Game birds here are in wonderful abundance, insomuch that you may buy at least three pheasants for a Venice groat of silver. I should say rather for an asper, which is worth a little more.{3}

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

After passing the river and travelling two days westward you come to the noble city of Cachanfu, which we 23have already named. The inhabitants are all Idolaters. And I may as well remind you again that all the people of Cathay are Idolaters. It is a city of great trade and of work in gold-tissues of many sorts, as well as other kinds of industry.

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

Note 1.—Ḳará-Muren, or Black River, is one of the names applied by the Mongols to the Hwang Ho, or Yellow River, of the Chinese, and is used by all the mediæval western writers, e.g. Odoric, John Marignolli, Rashiduddin.

The River, where it skirts Shan-si, is for the most part difficult both of access and of passage, and ill adapted to navigation, owing to the violence of the stream. Whatever there is of navigation is confined to the transport of coal down-stream from Western Shan-si, in large flats. Mr. Elias, who has noted the River’s level by aneroid at two points 920 miles apart, calculated the fall over that distance, which includes the contour of Shan-si, at 4 feet per mile. The best part for navigation is above this, from Ning-hia to Chaghan Kuren (in about 110° E. long.), in which Captain Prjevalski’s observations give a fall of less than 6 inches per mile. (Richthofen, Letter VII. 25; Williamson, I. 69; J. R. G. S. XLIII. p. 115; Petermann, 1873, pp. 89–91.)

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

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

Note 3.—The asper or akché (both meaning “white”) of the Mongols at Tana or Azov I have elsewhere calculated, from Pegolotti’s data (Cathay, p. 298), to have contained about 0s. 2·8d. worth of silver, which is less than the grosso; but the name may have had a loose application to small silver coins in other countries of Asia. Possibly the money intended may have been the 50 tsien note. (See note 1, ch. xxiv. supra.)

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CHAPTER XLI.

And when you leave the city of Cachanfu of which I have spoken, and travel eight days westward, you meet with cities and boroughs abounding in trade and industry, and quantities of beautiful trees, and gardens, and fine plains planted with mulberries, which are the trees on the leaves of which the silkworms do feed.{1} The people are all Idolaters. There is also plenty of game of all sorts, both of beasts and birds.

And when you have travelled those eight days’ journey, you come to that great city which I mentioned, called Kenjanfu.{2} A very great and fine city it is, and the capital of the kingdom of Kenjanfu, which in old times was a noble, rich, and powerful realm, and had many great and wealthy and puissant kings.{3} But now the king thereof is a prince called Mangalai, the son of the Great Kaan, who hath given him this realm, and crowned him king thereof.{4} It is a city of great trade and industry. They have great abundance of silk, from which they weave cloths of silk and gold of divers kinds, and they also manufacture all sorts of equipments for an army. They have every necessary of man’s life very cheap. The city lies towards the west; the people are Idolaters; and outside the city is the palace of the Prince Mangalai, crowned king, and son of the Great Kaan, as I told you before.

This is a fine palace and a great, as I will tell you. It stands in a great plain abounding in lakes and streams and springs of water. Round about it is a massive and lofty wall, five miles in compass, well built, and all 25garnished with battlements. And within this wall is the king’s palace, so great and fine that no one could imagine a finer. There are in it many great and splendid halls, and many chambers, all painted and embellished with work in beaten gold. This Mangalai rules his realm right well with justice and equity, and is much beloved by his people. The troops are quartered round about the palace, and enjoy the sport (that the royal demesne affords).

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

Note 1.—[“Morus alba is largely grown in North China for feeding silkworms.” (Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc. I. p. 4.)—H. C.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plan of Ki-chau, after Duhalde.

The name in Ramusio’s form might be merely that of the Dynasty, viz. Tai-Kin 26= Great Golden. But we have seen that Thaigin is not the only reading. That of the MSS. seems to point rather to some name like Kaichau. A hypothesis which has seemed to me to call for least correction in the text is that the castle was at the Ki-chau of the maps, nearly due west of P’ing-yang fu, and just about 20 miles from the Hwang Ho; that the river was crossed in that vicinity, and that the traveller then descended the valley to opposite P’u-chau fu, or possibly embarked and descended the river itself to that point. This last hypothesis would mitigate the apparent disproportion in the times assigned to the different parts of the journey, and would, I think, clear the text of error. But it is only a hypothesis. There is near Ki-chau one of the easiest crossing places of the River, insomuch that since the Shen-si troubles a large garrison has been kept up at Ki-chau to watch it.[1] And this is the only direction in which two days’ march, at Polo’s rate, would bring him within 20 miles of the Yellow River. Whether there is any historic castle at Ki-chau I know not; the plan of that place in Duhalde, however, has the aspect of a strong position. Baron v. Richthofen is unable to accept this suggestion, and has favoured me with some valuable remarks on this difficult passage, which I slightly abridge:—

“The difficulties are, (1) that for either reading, Thaigin or Caichu, a corresponding place can be found; (2) in the position of Cachanfu, setting both at naught.

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

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

“May not the striking fact that there is a place corresponding to either name suggest that one of them was passed by Polo in going, the other in returning? and that, this being the only locality between Ch’êng-tu fu and Chu-chau where there was any deviation between the two journeys, his geographical ideas may have become somewhat confused, as might now happen to any one in like case and not provided with a map? Thus the traveller himself might have put into Ramusio’s text the name of Thaigin instead of Caichu. From Kiai-chau he would probably cross the River at T’ungkwan, whilst in returning by way of Taiching-kwan he would pass through 27P’uchau-fu (or vice versâ). The question as to Caichu may still be settled, as it must be possible to ascertain where the Kin resided.”[2]

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

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

[The Rev. C. Holcombe (l.c. p. 66) writes: “From T’ung-kwan to Si-ngan fu, the road runs in a direction nearly due west, through a most lovely section of country, having a range of high hills upon the south, and the Wei River on the north. The road lies through one long orchard, and the walled towns and cities lie thickly along, for the most part at a little distance from the highway.” Mr. Rockhill says (Land of the Lamas, pp. 19–20): “The road between T’ung-kwan and Si-ngan fu, a distance of 110 miles, is a fine highway—for China—with a ditch on either side, rows of willow-trees here and there, and substantial stone bridges and culverts over the little streams which cross it. The basin of the Wei ho, in which this part of the province lies, has been for thousands of years one of the granaries of China. It was the colour of its loess-covered soil, called ‘yellow earth’ by the Chinese, that suggested the use of yellow as the colour sacred to imperial majesty. Wheat and sorghum are the principal crops, but we saw also numerous paddy fields where flocks of flamingoes were wading, and fruit-trees grew everywhere.”—H. C.]

Kenjanfu, or, as Ramusio gives it, Quenzanfu, is Si-ngan fu, or as it was called in the days of its greatest fame, Chang-ngan, probably the most celebrated city in Chinese history, and the capital of several of the most potent dynasties. It was the metropolis of Shi Hwang-ti of the T’sin Dynasty, properly the first emperor and whose conquests almost intersected those of his contemporary Ptolemy Euergetes. It was, perhaps, the Thinae of Claudius Ptolemy, as it was certainly the Khumdán[3] of the early Mahomedans, and the site of flourishing Christian Churches in the 7th century, as well as of the remarkable monument, the discovery of which a thousand years later disclosed their forgotten existence.[4] Kingchao-fu was the name which 28the city bore when the Mongol invasions brought China into communication with the west, and Klaproth supposes that this was modified by the Mongols into Kenjanfu. Under the latter name it is mentioned by Rashiduddin as the seat of one of the Twelve Sings or great provincial administrations, and we find it still known by this name in Sharífuddin’s history of Timur. The same name is traceable in the Kansan of Odoric, which he calls the second best province in the world, and the best populated. 29Whatever may have been the origin of the name Kenjanfu, Baron v. Richthofen was, on the spot, made aware of its conservation in the exact form of the Ramusian Polo. The Roman Catholic missionaries there emphatically denied that Marco could ever have been at Si-ngan fu, or that the city had ever been known by such a name as Kenjan-fu. On this the Baron called in one of the Chinese pupils of the Mission, and asked him directly what had been the name of the city under the Yuen Dynasty. He replied at once with remarkable clearness: “Quen-zan-fu.” Everybody present was struck by the exact correspondence of the Chinaman’s pronunciation of the name with that which the German traveller had adopted from Ritter.

Reduced Facsimile of the celebrated Christian Inscription of Singanfu, in Chinese and Syriac Characters.

Photo-lithograph, from a Rubbing.

W. GRIGGS, PHOTO-LITH.

 

[The vocabulary Hweï Hwei (Mahomedan) of the College of Interpreters at Peking transcribes King chao from the Persian Kin-chang, a name it gives to the Shen-si province. King chao was called Ngan-si fu in 1277. (Devéria, Epigraphie, p. 9.) Ken-jan comes from Kin-chang = King-chao = Si-ngan fu.—H. C.]

Martini speaks, apparently from personal knowledge, of the splendour of the city, as regards both its public edifices and its site, sloping gradually up from the banks of the River Wei, so as to exhibit its walls and palaces at one view like the interior of an amphitheatre. West of the city was a sort of Water Park, enclosed by a wall 30 li in circumference, full of lakes, tanks, and canals from the Wei, and within this park were seven fine palaces and a variety of theatres and other places of public diversion. To the south-east of the city was an artificial lake with palaces, gardens, park, etc., originally formed by the Emperor Hiaowu (B.C. 100), and to the south of the city was another considerable lake called Fan. This may be the Fanchan Lake, beside which Rashid says that Ananda, the son of Mangalai, built his palace.

The adjoining districts were the seat of a large Musulman population, which in 1861–1862 [and again in 1895 (See Wellby, Tibet, ch. xxv.)—H. C.] rose in revolt against the Chinese authority, and for a time was successful in resisting it. The capital itself held out, though invested for two years; the rebels having no artillery. The movement originated at Hwachau, some 60 miles east of Si-ngan fu, now totally destroyed. But the chief seat of the Mahomedans is a place which they call Salar, identified with Hochau in Kansuh, about 70 miles south-west of Lanchau-fu, the capital of that province. [Mr. Rockhill (Land of the Lamas, p. 40) writes: “Colonel Yule, quoting a Russian work, has it that the word Salar is used to designate Ho-chou, but this is not absolutely accurate. Prjevalsky (Mongolia, II. 149) makes the following complicated statement: ‘The Karatangutans outnumber the Mongols in Koko-nor, but their chief habitations are near the sources of the Yellow River, where they are called Salirs; they profess the Mohammedan religion, and have rebelled against China.’ I will only remark here that the Salar have absolutely no connection with the so-called Kara-tangutans, who are Tibetans. In a note by Archimandrite Palladius, in the same work (II. 70), he attempts to show a connection between the Salar and a colony of Mohammedans who settled in Western Kan-Suh in the last century, but the Ming shih (History of the Ming Dynasty) already makes mention of the Salar, remnants of various Turkish tribes (Hsi-ch’iang) who had settled in the districts of Ho-chou, Huang-chou, T’ao-chou, and Min-chou, and who were a source of endless trouble to the Empire. (See Wei Yuen, Sheng-wu-ki, vii. 35; also Huang ch’ing shih kung t’u, v. 7.) The Russian traveller, Potanin, found the Salar living in twenty-four villages, near Hsün-hua t’ing, on the south bank of the Yellow River. (See Proc. R. G. S. ix. 234.) The Annals of the Ming Dynasty (Ming Shíh, ch. 330) say that An-ting wei, 1500 li south-west of Kan-chou, was in old times known as Sa-li Wei-wu-ehr. These 30Sari Uigurs are mentioned by Du Plan Carpin, as Sari Huiur. Can Sala be the same as Sari?”

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

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

Ho-chou, in Western Kan-Suh, about 320 li (107 miles) from Lan-chau, has a population of about 30,000 nearly entirely Mahomedans with 24 mosques; it is a “hot-bed of rebellion.” Salar-pa-kun means “the eight thousand Salar families,” or “the eight thousands of the Salar.” The eight kiun (Chinese t’sun? a village, a commune) constituting the Salar pa-kun are Kä-tzŭ, the oldest and largest, said to have over 1300 families living in it, Chang-chia, Némen, Ch’ing-shui, Munta, Tsu-chi, Antasu and Ch’a-chia. Besides these Salar kiun there are five outer (wai) kiun: Ts’a-pa, Ngan-ssŭ-to, Hei-ch’eng, Kan-tu and Kargan, inhabited by a few Salar and a mixed population of Chinese and T’u-ssŭ: each of these wai-wu kiun has, theoretically, fifteen villages in it. Tradition says that the first Salar who came to China (from Rúm or Turkey) arrived in this valley in the third year of Hung-wu of 31the Ming (1370). (Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, Journey; Grenard, II. p. 457)—H. C.] (Martini; Cathay, 148, 269; Pétis de la Croix, III. 218; Russian paper on the Dungen, see supra, vol. i. p. 291; Williamson’s North China, u.s.; Richthofen’s Letters, and MS. Notes.)

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

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

CHAPTER XLII.

On leaving the Palace of Mangalai, you travel westward for three days, finding a succession of cities and boroughs and beautiful plains, inhabited by people who live by trade and industry, and have great plenty of silk. At the end of those three days, you reach the great mountains and valleys which belong to the province of Cuncun.{1} There are towns and villages in the land, and the people live by tilling the earth, and by hunting in the great woods; for the region abounds in forests, wherein are many wild beasts, such as lions, bears, lynxes, bucks and 32roes, and sundry other kinds, so that many are taken by the people of the country, who make a great profit thereof. So this way we travel over mountains and valleys, finding a succession of towns and villages, and many great hostelries for the entertainment of travellers, interspersed among extensive forests.

Note 1.—The region intended must necessarily be some part of the southern district of the province of Shen-si, called Han-chung, the axis of which is the River Han, closed in by exceedingly mountainous and woody country to north and south, dividing it on the former quarter from the rest of Shen-si, and on the latter from Sze-ch’wan. Polo’s C frequently expresses an H, especially the Guttural H of Chinese names, yet Cuncun is not satisfactory as the expression of Hanchung.

The country was so ragged that in ancient times travellers from Si-ngan fu had to make a long circuit eastward by the frontier of Ho-nan to reach Han-chung; but, at an early date, a road was made across the mountains for military purposes; so long ago indeed that various eras and constructors are assigned to it. Padre Martini’s authorities ascribed it to a general in the service of Liu Pang, the founder of the first Han Dynasty (B.C. 202), and this date is current in Shan-si, as Baron v. Richthofen tells me. But in Sze-ch’wan the work is asserted to have been executed during the 3rd century, when China was divided into several states, by Liu Pei, of the Han family, who, about A.D. 226, established himself as Emperor [Minor Han] of Western China at Ch’êng-tu fu.[1] This work, with its difficulties and boldness, extending often for great distances on timber corbels inserted in the rock, is vividly described by Martini. Villages and rest-houses were established at convenient distances. It received from the Chinese the name of Chien-tao, or the “Pillar Road.” It commenced on the west bank of the Wei, opposite Pao-ki h’ien, 100 miles west of Si-ngan fu, and ended near the town of Paoching-h’ien, some 15 or 20 miles north-west from Han-chung.

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

This remarkable road was traversed by Baron v. Richthofen in 1872. To my questions, he replies: “The entire route is a work of tremendous engineering, and all of this was done by Liu Pei, who first ordered the construction. The hardest work consisted in cutting out long portions of the road from solid rock, chiefly where ledges project on the verge of a river, as is frequently the case on the He-lung Kiang.... It had been done so thoroughly from the first, that scarcely any additions had to be made in after days. Another kind of work which generally strikes tourists like Father Martini, or Chinese travellers, is the poling up of the road on the sides of steep cliffs[2].... Extensive cliffs are frequently rounded in this way, and imagination 33is much struck with the perils of walking on the side of a precipice, with the foaming river below. When the timbers rot, such passages of course become obstructed, and thus the road is said to have been periodically in complete disuse. The repairs, which were chiefly made in the time of the Ming, concerned especially passages of this sort.” Richthofen also notices the abundance of game; but inhabited places appear to be rarer than in Polo’s time. (See Martini in Blaeu; Chine Ancienne, p. 234; Ritter, IV. 520; D’Ohsson, II. 22, 80, 328; Lecomte, II. 95; Chin. Rep. XIX. 225; Richthofen, Letter VII. p. 42, and MS. Notes).

CHAPTER XLIII.

After you have travelled those 20 days through the mountains of Cuncun that I have mentioned, then you come to a province called Acbalec Manzi, which is all level country, with plenty of towns and villages, and belongs to the Great Kaan. The people are Idolaters, and live by trade and industry. I may tell you that in this province, there grows such a great quantity of ginger, that it is carried all over the region of Cathay, and it affords a maintenance to all the people of the province, who get great gain thereby. They have also wheat and rice, and other kinds of corn, in great plenty and cheapness; in fact the country abounds in all useful products. The capital city is called Acbalec Manzi [which signifies “the White City of the Manzi Frontier”].{1}

This plain extends for two days’ journey, throughout which it is as fine as I have told you, with towns and villages as numerous. After those two days, you again come to great mountains and valleys, and extensive forests, and you continue to travel westward through this kind of country for 20 days, finding however numerous towns and villages. The people are Idolaters, and live by agriculture, by cattle-keeping, and by the 34chase, for there is much game. And among other kinds, there are the animals that produce the musk, in great numbers.{2}

Note 1.—Though the termini of the route, described in these two chapters, are undoubtedly Si-ngan fu and Ch’êng-tu fu, there are serious difficulties attending the determination of the line actually followed.

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

In the plain of Kenjanfu	3	days.
In the mountains of Cuncun	20	„
In the plain of Acbalec	2	„
In mountains again	20	„
	—
	45	days.

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

It seems to me almost impossible to doubt that the Plain of Acbalec represents some part of the river-valley of the Han, interposed between the two ranges of mountains called by Richthofen T’sing-Ling-Shan and Ta-pa-Shan. But the time, as just stated, is extravagant for anything like a direct journey between the two termini.

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

But Pauthier’s MS. C (and its double, the Bern MS.) has viii. marches instead of xx., through the mountains of Cuncun. This reduces the time between Kenjanfu and the Plain to 11 days, which is just about a proper allowance for the whole journey, though not accurately distributed. Two days, though ample, would not be excessive for the journey across the Plain of Han-chung, especially if the traveller visited that city. And “20 days from Han-chung, to Ch’êng-tu fu would correspond with Marco Polo’s rate of travel.” (Richthofen).

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

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

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

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

35

It seems so likely that the latter part of the name Pe-Maching (“White Maching”) might have been confounded by foreigners with Máchín and Manzi (which in Persian parlance were identical), that I should be disposed to overlook the difficulty that we have no evidence produced to show that Pemaching was a place of any consequence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

36

CHAPTER XLIV.

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

You see the King of this Province, in the days of old, when he found himself drawing near to death, leaving three sons behind him, commanded that the city should be divided into three parts, and that each of his three sons should have one. So each of these three parts is separately walled about, though all three are surrounded by the common wall of the city. Each of the three sons was King, having his own part of the city, and his own share of the kingdom, and each of them in fact was a great and wealthy King. But the Great Kaan conquered the kingdom of these three Kings, and stripped them of their inheritance.{1}

Through the midst of this great city runs a large river, in which they catch a great quantity of fish. It is a good half mile wide, and very deep withal, and so long that it reaches all the way to the Ocean Sea,—a very long way, equal to 80 or 100 days’ journey. And the name of the River is Kian-suy. The multitude of vessels that navigate this river is so vast, that no one who should read or hear the tale would believe it. The 37quantities of merchandize also which merchants carry up and down this river are past all belief. In fact, it is so big, that it seems to be a Sea rather than a River!{2}

Let us now speak of a great Bridge which crosses this River within the city. This bridge is of stone; it is seven paces in width and half a mile in length (the river being that much in width as I told you); and all along its length on either side there are columns of marble to bear the roof, for the bridge is roofed over from end to end with timber, and that all richly painted. And on this bridge there are houses in which a great deal of trade and industry is carried on. But these houses are all of wood merely, and they are put up in the morning and taken down in the evening. Also there stands upon the bridge the Great Kaan’s Comercque, that is to say, his custom-house, where his toll and tax are levied.{3} And I can tell you that the dues taken on this bridge bring to the Lord a thousand pieces of fine gold every day and more. The people are all Idolaters.{4}

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

I should have mentioned that the people of Sindu itself live by manufactures, for they make fine sendals and other stuffs.{5}

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

Note 1.—We are on firm ground again, for Sindafu is certainly Ch’êng-tu fu, the capital of Sze-ch’wan. Probably the name used by Polo was Sindu-fu, as we find Sindu in the G. T. near the end of the chapter. But the same city is, I observe, called Thindafu by one of the Nepalese embassies, whose itineraries Mr. Hodgson has given in the J. A. S. B. XXV. 488.

38

A. The Great City.
B. The Little City.
C. The Imperial City.

The modern French missions have a bishop in Ch’êng-tu fu, and the city has been visited of late years by Mr. T. T. Cooper, by Mr. A. Wylie, by Baron v. Richthofen, [Captain Gill, Mr. Baber, Mr. Hosie, and several other travellers]. Mr. Wylie has kindly favoured me with the following note:—“My notice all goes to corroborate Marco Polo. The covered bridge with the stalls is still there, the only difference being the absence of the toll-house. I did not see any traces of a tripartite division of the city, nor did I make any enquiries on the subject during the 3 or 4 days I spent there, as it was not an object with me at the time to verify Polo’s account. The city is indeed divided, but the division dates more than a thousand years back. It is something like this, I should say [see diagram].[1]

“The Imperial City (Hwang Ching) was the residence of the monarch Lew Pé (i.e. Liu Pei of p. 32) during the short period of the ‘Three Kingdoms’ (3rd century), and some relics of the ancient edifice still remain. I was much interested in looking over it. It is now occupied by the Public Examination Hall and its dependencies.”

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

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

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

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

39

PLAN OF CHENG-TU.

Églises ou Établissements français des “Missions étrangères”

Reproduction d’une carte chinoise

 

[Mr. Baber (Travels, p. 26) gives the following information regarding the population of Ch’êng-tu: “The census of 1877 returned the number of families at about 70,000, and the total population at 330,000—190,000 being males and 140,000 40females; but probably the extensive suburb was not included in the enumeration. Perhaps 350,000 would be a fair total estimate.” It is the seat of the Viceroy of the Sze-ch’wan province. Mr. Hosie says (Three Years in Western China, p. 86): “It is without exception the finest city I have seen in China; Peking and Canton will not bear comparison with it.” Captain Gill writes (River of Golden Sand, II. p. 4): “The city of Ch’êng-Tu is still a rich and noble one, somewhat irregular in shape, and surrounded by a strong wall, in a perfect state of repair. In this there are eight bastions, four being pierced by gates.”

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

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

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

[In his Introductory Essay to Captain Gill’s River of Golden Sand, Colonel Yule (p. 37) writes: “Captain Gill has pointed out that, of the many branches of the river which ramify through the plain of Ch’êng-tu, no one now passes through the city at all corresponding in magnitude to that which Marco Polo describes, about 1283, as running through the midst of Sin-da-fu, ‘a good half-mile wide, and very deep withal.’ The largest branch adjoining the city now runs on the south side, but does not exceed a hundred yards in width; and though it is crossed by a covered bridge with huxters’ booths, more or less in the style described by Polo, it necessarily falls far short of his great bridge of half a mile in length. Captain Gill suggests that a change may have taken place in the last five (this should be six) centuries, owing to the deepening of the river-bed at its exit from the plain, and consequent draining of the latter. But I should think it more probable that the ramification of channels round Ch’êng-tu, which is so conspicuous even on a small general map of China, like that which accompanies this work, is in great part due to art; that the mass of the river has been drawn off to irrigate the plain; and that thus the wide river, which in the 13th century may have passed through the city, no unworthy representative of the mighty Kiang, has long since ceased, on that scale, to flow. And I have pointed out briefly that the fact, which Baron Richthofen attests, of an actual bifurcation of waters on a large scale taking place in the plain of Ch’êng-tu—one arm ‘branching east to form the To’ (as in the terse indication of the Yü-Kung)—viz. the To Kiang or Chung-Kiang flowing south-east to join the great river at Lu-chau, whilst another flows south to Sü-chau or Swi-fu, does render change in the distribution of 41the waters about the city highly credible.”] [See Irrigation of the Ch’eng-tu Plain, by Joshua Vale, China Inland Mission in Jour. China Br. R. A. S. Soc. XXXIII. 1899–1900, pp. 22–36.—H. C.]

[Above Kwan Hsien, near Ch’êng-tu, there is a fine suspension bridge, mentioned by Marcel Monnier (Itinéraires, p. 43), from whom I borrow the cut reproduced on this page. This bridge is also spoken of by Captain Gill (l.c. I. p. 335): “Six ropes, one above the other, are stretched very tightly, and connected by vertical battens of wood laced in and out. Another similar set of ropes is at the other side of the roadway, which is laid across these, and follows the curve of the ropes. There are three or four spans with stone piers.”—H. C.]

Bridge near Kwan-hsien (Ch’êng-tu).

Note 3.—(G. T.) “Hi est le couiereque dou Grant Sire, ce est cilz qe recevent la rente dou Seignor.” Pauthier has couvert. Both are, I doubt not, misreadings or misunderstandings of comercque or comerc. This word, founded on the Latin commercium, was widely spread over the East with the meaning of customs-duty or custom-house. In Low Greek it appeared as κομμέρκιον and κουμέρκιον, now κομέρκι; in Arabic and Turkish as قمرق and كمرك (ḳumruḳ and gyumruk), still in use; in Romance dialects as comerchio, comerho, comergio, etc.

Note 4.—The word in Pauthier’s text which I have rendered pieces of gold is pois, probably equivalent to saggi or misḳáls.[2] The G. T. has “is well worth 1000 bezants of gold,” no doubt meaning daily, though not saying so. Ramusio has “100 bezants daily.” The term Bezant may be taken as synonymous with Dínár, and the statement in the text would make the daily receipt of custom upwards of 500l., that in Ramusio upwards of 50l. only.

Note 5.—I have recast this passage, which has got muddled, probably in the original dictation, for it runs in the G. text: “Et de ceste cité se part l’en et 42chevauche cinq jornée por plain et por valée, et treve-l’en castiaus et casaus assez. Les homes vivent dou profit qu’il traient de la terre. Il hi a bestes sauvajes assez, lions et orses et autres bestes. Il vivent d’ars: car il hi se laborent des biaus sendal et autres dras. Il sunt de Sindu meisme.” I take it that in speaking of Ch’êng-tu fu, Marco has forgotten to fill up his usual formula as to the occupation of the inhabitants; he is reminded of this when he speaks of the occupation of the peasantry on the way to Tibet, and reverts to the citizens in the words which I have quoted in Italics. We see here Sindu applied to the city, suggesting Sindu-fu for the reading at the beginning of the chapter.

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

CHAPTER XLV.

After those five days’ march that I spoke of, you enter a province which has been sorely ravaged; and this was done in the wars of Mongu Kaan. There are indeed towns and villages and hamlets, but all harried and destroyed.{1}

In this region you find quantities of canes, full three palms in girth and fifteen paces in length, with some three palms’ interval between the joints. And let me tell you that merchants and other travellers through that country are wont at nightfall to gather these canes and make fires of them; for as they burn they make such loud reports that the lions and bears and other wild beasts are greatly frightened, and make off as fast as possible; in fact nothing will induce them to come nigh a fire of that sort. So you see the travellers make those fires to protect themselves and their cattle from 43the wild beasts which have so greatly multiplied since the devastation of the country. And ’tis this great multiplication of the wild beasts that prevents the country from being reoccupied. In fact but for the help of these canes, which make such a noise in burning that the beasts are terrified and kept at a distance, no one would be able even to travel through the land.

I will tell you how it is that the canes make such a noise. The people cut the green canes, of which there are vast numbers, and set fire to a heap of them at once. After they have been awhile burning they burst asunder, and this makes such a loud report that you might hear it ten miles off. In fact, any one unused to this noise, who should hear it unexpectedly, might easily go into a swound or die of fright. But those who are used to it care nothing about it. Hence those who are not used to it stuff their ears well with cotton, and wrap up their heads and faces with all the clothes they can muster; and so they get along until they have become used to the sound. ’Tis just the same with horses. Those which are unused to these noises are so alarmed by them that they break away from their halters and heel-ropes, and many a man has lost his beasts in this way. So those who would avoid losing their horses take care to tie all four legs and peg the ropes down strongly, and to wrap the heads and eyes and ears of the animals closely, and so they save them. But horses also, when they have heard the noise several times, cease to mind it. I tell you the truth, however, when I say that the first time you hear it nothing can be more alarming. And yet, in spite of all, the lions and bears and other wild beasts will sometimes come and do much mischief; for their numbers are great in those tracts.{2}

You ride for 20 days without finding any inhabited spot, so that travellers are obliged to carry all their provisions with them, and are constantly falling in with those wild beasts which are so numerous and so dangerous. 44After that you come at length to a tract where there are towns and villages in considerable numbers.{3} The people of those towns have a strange custom in regard to marriage which I will now relate.

No man of that country would on any consideration take to wife a girl who was a maid; for they say a wife is nothing worth unless she has been used to consort with men. And their custom is this, that when travellers come that way, the old women of the place get ready, and take their unmarried daughters or other girls related to them, and go to the strangers who are passing, and make over the young women to whomsoever will accept them; and the travellers take them accordingly and do their pleasure; after which the girls are restored to the old women who brought them, for they are not allowed to follow the strangers away from their home. In this manner people travelling that way, when they reach a village or hamlet or other inhabited place, shall find perhaps 20 or 30 girls at their disposal. And if the travellers lodge with those people they shall have as many young women as they could wish coming to court them! You must know too that the traveller is expected to give the girl who has been with him a ring or some other trifle, something in fact that she can show as a lover’s token when she comes to be married. And it is for this in truth and for this alone that they follow that custom; for every girl is expected to obtain at least 20 such tokens in the way I have described before she can be married. And those who have most tokens, and so can show they have been most run after, are in the highest esteem, and most sought in marriage, because they say the charms of such an one are greatest.{4} But after marriage these people hold their wives very dear, and would consider it a great villainy for a man to meddle with another’s wife; and thus though the wives have before marriage 45acted as you have heard, they are kept with great care from light conduct afterwards.

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

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

I should tell you also that in this country there are many of the animals that produce musk, which are called in the Tartar language Gudderi. Those rascals have great numbers of large and fine dogs, which are of great service in catching the musk-beasts, and so they procure great abundance of musk. They have none of the Great Kaan’s paper money, but use salt instead of money. They are very poorly clad, for their clothes are only of the skins of beasts, and of canvas, and of buckram.{5} They have a language of their own, and they are called Tebet. And this country of Tebet forms a very great province, of which I will give you a brief account.

Note 1.—The mountains that bound the splendid plain of Ch’êng-tu fu on the west rise rapidly to a height of 12,000 feet and upwards. Just at the skirt of this mountain region, where the great road to Lhása enters it, lies the large and bustling city of Yachaufu, forming the key of the hill country, and the great entrepôt of trade between Sze-ch’wan on the one side, and Tibet and Western Yunnan on the other. The present political boundary between China Proper and Tibet is to the west of Bathang and the Kin-sha Kiang, but till the beginning of last century it lay much further east, near Ta-t’sien-lu, or, as the Tibetans appear to call it, Tartsédo or Tachindo, which a Chinese Itinerary given by Ritter makes to be 920 li, or 11 marches from Ch’êng-tu fu. In Marco’s time we must suppose that Tibet was considered to extend several marches further east still, or to the vicinity of Yachau.[1] Mr. Cooper’s Journal describes the country entered on the 5th march from Ch’êng-tu as very mountainous, many of the neighbouring peaks being capped with snow. And he describes the people as speaking a language mixed with Tibetan for some distance before reaching Ta-t’sien-lu. Baron Richthofen also who, as we shall see, has thrown an entirely new light upon this part of Marco’s itinerary, was exactly five days in travelling through a rich and 46populous country, from Ch’êng-tu to Yachau. [Captain Gill left Ch’êng-tu on the 10th July, 1877, and reached Ya-chau on the 14th, a distance of 75 miles.—H. C.] (Ritter, IV. 190 seqq.; Cooper, pp. 164–173; Richthofen in Verhandl. Ges. f. Erdk. zu Berlin, 1874, p. 35.)

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

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

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

[Dr. Bretschneider (Hist. of Bot. Disc. I. p. 3) says: “In corroboration of Polo’s statement regarding the explosions produced when burning bamboos, I may adduce Sir Joseph Hooker’s Himalayan Journals (edition of 1891, p. 100), where in speaking of the fires in the jungles, he says: ‘Their triumph is in reaching a great bamboo clump, when the noise of the flames drowns that of the torrents, and as the great stem-joints burst, from the expansion of the confined air, the report is as that of a salvo from a park of artillery.’”—H. C.]

47

Mountaineers on the Borders of Sze ch’wan and Yun-nan.

48

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

Note 3.—M. Gabriel Durand, a missionary priest, thus describes his journey in 1861 to Kiangka, viâ Ta-t’sien-lu, a line of country partly coincident with that which Polo is traversing: “Every day we made a journey of nine or ten leagues, and halted for the night in a Kung-kuan. These are posts dotted at intervals of about ten leagues along the road to Hlassa, and usually guarded by three soldiers, though the more important posts have twenty. With the exception of some Tibetan houses, few and far between, these are the only habitations to be seen on this silent and deserted road.... Lytang was the first collection of houses that we had seen in ten days’ march.” (Ann. de la Propag. de la Foi, XXXV. 352 seqq.)

Note 4.—Such practices are ascribed to many nations. Martini quotes something similar from a Chinese author about tribes in Yunnan; and Garnier says such loose practices are still ascribed to the Sifan near the southern elbow of the Kin-sha Kiang. Even of the Mongols themselves and kindred races, Pallas asserts that the young women regard a number of intrigues rather as a credit and recommendation than otherwise. Japanese ideas seem to be not very different. In old times Ælian gives much the same account of the Lydian women. Herodotus’s Gindanes of Lybia afford a perfect parallel, “whose women wear on their legs anklets of leather. Each lover that a woman has gives her one; and she who can show most is the best esteemed, as she appears to have been loved by the greatest number of men.” (Martini, 142; Garnier, I. 520; Pall. Samml. II. 235; Æl. Var. Hist. III. 1; Rawl. Herod. Bk. IV. ch. clxxvi.)

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

Mr. Cooper’s Journal, when on the banks of the Kin-sha Kiang, west of Bathang, affords a startling illustration of the persistence of manners in this region: “At 12h. 30m. we arrived at a road-side house, near which was a grove of walnut-trees; here we alighted, when to my surprise I was surrounded by a group of young girls and two elderly women, who invited me to partake of a repast spread under the trees.... I thought I had stumbled on a pic-nic party, of which the Tibetans are so fond. Having finished, I lighted my pipe and threw myself on the grass in a state of castle-building. I had not lain thus many seconds when the maidens brought a young girl about 15 years old, tall and very fair, placed her on the grass beside me, and forming a ring round us, commenced to sing and dance. The little maid beside me, however, was bathed in tears. All this, I must confess, a little puzzled me, when Philip (the Chinese servant) with a long face, came to my aid, saying, ‘Well, Sir, this is a bad business ... they are marrying you.’ Good heavens! how startled I was.” For the honourable conclusion of this Anglo-Tibetan idyll I must refer to Mr. Cooper’s Journal. (See the now published Travels, ch. x.)

Note 5.—All this is clearly meant to apply only to the rude people towards the Chinese frontier; nor would the Chinese (says Richthofen) at this day think the description at all exaggerated, as applied to the Lolo who occupy the mountains to the south of Yachaufu. The members of the group at p. 47, from Lieutenant Garnier’s book, are there termed Man-tzŭ; but the context shows them to be of the race of these Lolos. (See below, pp. 60, 61.) The passage about the musk animal, both in 49Pauthier and in the G. T., ascribes the word Gudderi to the language “of that people,” i.e. of the Tibetans. The Geog. Latin, however, has “linguâ Tartaricâ,” and this is the fact. Klaproth informs us that Guderi is the Mongol word. And it will be found (Kuderi) in Kovalevski’s Dictionary, No. 2594. Musk is still the most valuable article that goes from Ta-t’sien-lu to China. Much is smuggled, and single travellers will come all the way from Canton or Si-ngan fu to take back a small load of it. (Richthofen.)

CHAPTER XLVI.

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

The country is, in fact, so great that it embraces eight kingdoms, and a vast number of cities and villages.{1} It contains in several quarters rivers and lakes, in which gold-dust is found in great abundance.{2} Cinnamon also grows there in great plenty. Coral is in great demand in this country and fetches a high price, for they delight to hang it round the necks of their women and of their idols.{3} They have also in this country plenty of fine woollens and other stuffs, and many kinds of spices are produced there which are never seen in our country.

Among this people, too, you find the best enchanters and astrologers that exist in all that quarter of the world; they perform such extraordinary marvels and sorceries by diabolic art, that it astounds one to see or even hear of them. So I will relate none of them in this book of ours; people would be amazed if they heard them, but it would serve no good purpose.{4}

These people of Tebet are an ill-conditioned race. They have mastiff dogs as bigs as donkeys, which are 50capital at seizing wild beasts [and in particular the wild oxen which are called Beyamini, very great and fierce animals]. They have also sundry other kinds of sporting dogs, and excellent lanner falcons [and sakers], swift in flight and well-trained, which are got in the mountains of the country.{5}

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

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

As regards Tebet, however, you should understand that it is subject to the Great Kaan. So, likewise, all the other kingdoms, regions, and provinces which are described in this book are subject to the Great Kaan, nay, even those other kingdoms, regions, and provinces of which I had occasion to speak at the beginning of the book as belonging to the son of Argon, the Lord of the Levant, are also subject to the Emperor; for the former holds his dominion of the Kaan, and is his liegeman and 52kinsman of the blood Imperial. So you must know that from this province forward all the provinces mentioned in our book are subject to the Great Kaan; and even if this be not specially mentioned, you must understand that it is so.

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

Note 1.—Here Marco at least shows that he knew Tibet to be much more extensive than the small part of it that he had seen. But beyond this his information amounts to little.

Note 2.—“Or de paliolle.” “Oro di pagliuola” (pagliuola, “a spangle”) must have been the technical phrase for what we call gold-dust, and the French now call or en paillettes, a phrase used by a French missionary in speaking of this very region. (Ann. de la Foi, XXXVII. 427.) Yet the only example of this use of the word cited in the Voc. Ital. Universale is from this passage of the Crusca MS.; and Pipino seems not to have understood it, translating “aurum quod dicitur Deplaglola”; whilst Zurla says erroneously that pajola is an old Italian word for gold. Pegolotti uses argento in pagliuola (p. 219). A Barcelona tariff of 1271 sets so much on every mark of Pallola. And the old Portuguese navigators seem always to have used the same expression for the gold-dust of Africa, ouro de pajola. (See Major’s Prince Henry, pp. 111, 112, 116; Capmany Memorias, etc., II. App. p. 73; also “Aurum de Pajola,” in Usodimare of Genoa, see Gräberg, Annali, II. 290, quoted by Peschel, p. 178.)

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

Note 4.—See supra, Bk. I. ch. lxi. note 11.

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

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

[Mr. Baber (Travels, pp. 39, 40) writes: “A special interest attaches to the wild oxen, since they are unknown in any other part of China Proper. From a Lolo chief and his followers, most enthusiastic hunters, I afterwards learnt that the cattle are 53met with in herds of from seven to twenty head in the recesses of the Wilderness, which may be defined as the region between the T’ung River and Yachou, but that in general they are rarely seen.... I was lucky enough to obtain a pair of horns and part of the hide of one of these redoubtable animals, which seem to show that they are a kind of bison.” Sir H. Yule remarks in a footnote (Ibid. p. 40): “It is not possible to say from what is stated here what the species is, but probably it is a gavœus, of which Jerdan describes three species. (See Mammals of India, pp. 301–307.) Mr. Hodgson describes the Gaur (Gavœus gaurus of Jerdan) of the forests below Nepaul as fierce and revengeful.”—H. C.]

CHAPTER XLVII.

Caindu is a province lying towards the west,{1} and there is only one king in it. The people are Idolaters, subject to the Great Kaan, and they have plenty of towns and villages. [The chief city is also called Caindu, and stands at the upper end of the province.] There is a lake here,[1] in which are found pearls [which are white but not round]. But the Great Kaan will not allow them to be fished, for if people were to take as many as they could find there, the supply would be so vast that pearls would lose their value, and come to be worth nothing. Only when it is his pleasure they take from the lake so many as he may desire; but any one attempting to take them on his own account would be incontinently put to death.

There is also a mountain in this country wherein they find a kind of stone called turquoise, in great abundance; and it is a very beautiful stone. These also the Emperor does not allow to be extracted without his special order.{2}

I must tell you of a custom that they have in this country regarding their women. No man considers himself wronged if a foreigner, or any other man, dishonour 54his wife, or daughter, or sister, or any woman of his family, but on the contrary he deems such intercourse a piece of good fortune. And they say that it brings the favour of their gods and idols, and great increase of temporal prosperity. For this reason they bestow their wives on foreigners and other people as I will tell you.

When they fall in with any stranger in want of a lodging they are all eager to take him in. And as soon as he has taken up his quarters the master of the house goes forth, telling him to consider everything at his disposal, and after saying so he proceeds to his vineyards or his fields, and comes back no more till the stranger has departed. The latter abides in the caitiff’s house, be it three days or be it four, enjoying himself with the fellow’s wife or daughter or sister, or whatsoever woman of the family it best likes him; and as long as he abides there he leaves his hat or some other token hanging at the door, to let the master of the house know that he is still there. As long as the wretched fellow sees that token, he must not go in. And such is the custom over all that province.{3}

The money matters of the people are conducted in this way. They have gold in rods which they weigh, and they reckon its value by its weight in saggi, but they have no coined money. Their small change again is made in this way. They have salt which they boil and set in a mould [flat below and round above],{4} and every piece from the mould weighs about half a pound. Now, 80 moulds of this salt are worth one saggio of fine gold, which is a weight so called. So this salt serves them for small change.{5}

55

The Valley of the Kin-Sha Kiang, near the lower end of Caindu, i.e. Kienchang. (From Garnier.)

The musk animals are very abundant in that country, and thus of musk also they have great store. They have likewise plenty of fish which they catch in the lake in which the pearls are produced. Wild animals, such 56as lions, bears, wolves, stags, bucks and roes, exist in great numbers; and there are also vast quantities of fowl of every kind. Wine of the vine they have none, but they make a wine of wheat and rice and sundry good spices, and very good drink it is.{6} There grows also in this country a quantity of clove. The tree that bears it is a small one, with leaves like laurel but longer and narrower, and with a small white flower like the clove.{7} They have also ginger and cinnamon in great plenty, besides other spices which never reach our countries, so we need say nothing about them.

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

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

Note 1.—Ramusio’s version here enlarges: “Don’t suppose from my saying towards the west that these countries really lie in what we call the west, but only that we have been travelling from regions in the east-north-east towards the west, and hence we speak of the countries we come to as lying towards the west.”

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

Note 3.—This alleged practice, like that mentioned in the last chapter but one, is ascribed to a variety of people in different parts of the world. Both, indeed, have a curious double parallel in the story of two remote districts of the Himalaya which was told to Bernier by an old Kashmiri. (See Amst. ed. II. 304–305.) Polo has told nearly the same story already of the people of Kamul. (Bk. I. ch. xli.) It is related by Strabo of the Massagetæ; by Eusebius of the Geli and the Bactrians; by Elphinstone of the Hazaras; by Mendoza of the Ladrone Islanders; by other 57authors of the Nairs of Malabar, and of some of the aborigines of the Canary Islands. (Caubul, I. 209; Mendoza, II. 254; Müller’s Strabo, p. 439; Euseb. Praep. Evan. vi. 10; Major’s Pr. Henry, p. 213.)

Note 4.—Ramusio has here: “as big as a twopenny loaf,” and adds, “on the money so made the Prince’s mark is printed; and no one is allowed to make it except the royal officers.... And merchants take this currency and go to those tribes that dwell among the mountains of those parts in the wildest and most unfrequented quarters; and there they get a saggio of gold for 60, or 50, or 40 pieces of this salt money, in proportion as the natives are more barbarous and more remote from towns and civilised folk. For in such positions they cannot dispose at pleasure of their gold and other things, such as musk and the like, for want of purchasers; and so they give them cheap.... And the merchants travel also about the mountains and districts of Tebet, disposing of this salt money in like manner to their own great gain. For those people, besides buying necessaries from the merchants, want this salt to use in their food; whilst in the towns only broken fragments are used in food, the whole cakes being kept to use as money.” This exchange of salt cakes for gold forms a curious parallel to the like exchange in the heart of Africa, narrated by Cosmas in the 6th century, and by Aloisio Cadamosto in the 15th. (See Cathay, pp. clxx–clxxi.) Ritter also calls attention to an analogous account in Alvarez’s description of Ethiopia. “The salt,” Alvarez says, “is current as money, not only in the kingdom of Prester John, but also in those of the Moors and the pagans, and the people here say that it passes right on to Manicongo upon the Western Sea. This salt is dug from the mountain, it is said, in squared blocks.... At the place where they are dug, 100 or 120 such pieces pass for a drachm of gold ... equal to ¾ of a ducat of gold. When they arrive at a certain fair ... one day from the salt mine, these go 5 or 6 pieces fewer to the drachm. And so, from fair to fair, fewer and fewer, so that when they arrive at the capital there will be only 6 or 7 pieces to the drachm.” (Ramusio, I. 207.) Lieutenant Bower, in his account of Major Sladen’s mission, says that at Momein the salt, which was a government monopoly, was “made up in rolls of one and two viss” (a Rangoon viss is 3 lbs. 5 oz. 5½ drs.), “and stamped” (p. 120).

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

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

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

Note 5.—Salt is still an object highly coveted by the wild Lolos already alluded to, and to steal it is a chief aim of their constant raids on Chinese villages. (Richthofen in Verhandlungen, etc., u.s. p. 36.) On the continued existence of the use of salt currency in regions of the same frontier, I have been favoured with the following note by M. Francis Garnier, the distinguished leader of the expedition of the great Kamboja River in its latter part: “Salt currency has a very wide diffusion from Muang Yong [in the Burman-Shan country, about lat. 21° 43′] to Sheu-pin [in Yun-nan, about lat. 23° 43′]. In the Shan markets, especially within the limits named, all purchases are made with salt. At Sse-mao and Pou-erl [Esmok and Puer of some of 58our maps], silver, weighed and cut in small pieces, is in our day tending to drive out the custom, but in former days it must have been universal in the tract of which I am speaking. The salt itself, prime necessity as it is, has there to be extracted by condensation from saline springs of great depth, a very difficult affair. The operation consumes enormous quantities of fuel, and to this is partly due the denudation of the country”. Marco’s somewhat rude description of the process, “Il prennent la sel e la font cuire, et puis la gitent en forme,” points to the manufacture spoken of in this note. The cut which we give from M. Garnier’s work illustrates the process, but the cakes are vastly greater than Marco’s. Instead of a half pound they weigh a picul, i.e. 133⅓ lbs. In Sze-ch’wan the brine wells are bored to a depth of 700 to 1000 feet, and the brine is drawn up in bamboo tubes by a gin. In Yun-nan the wells are much less deep, and a succession of hand pumps is used to raise the brine.

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

“Il prennent la sel e la font cuire, et puis la gitent en forme.”

[Mr. Hosie has a chapter (Three Years in W. China, VII.) to which he has given the title of Through Caindu to Carajan; regarding salt he writes (p. 121): “The brine wells from which the salt is derived lie at Pai yen ching, 14 miles to the south-west of the city [of Yen-yuan] ... [they] are only two in number, and comparatively shallow, being only 50 feet in depth. Bamboo tubes, ropes and buffaloes are here dispensed with, and small wooden tubs, with bamboos fixed to their sides as handles for raising, are considered sufficient. At one of the wells a staging was erected half-way down, and from it the tubs of brine were passed up to the workmen above. Passing from the wells to the evaporating sheds, we found a series of mud furnaces with round holes at the top, into which cone-shaped pans, manufactured from iron obtained in the neighbourhood, and varying in height from one to two and a half feet, were loosely fitted. When a pan has been sufficiently heated, a ladleful of the brine is poured into it, and, bubbling up to the surface, it 59sinks, leaving a saline deposit on the inside of the pan. This process is repeated until a layer, some four inches thick, and corresponding to the shape of the pan, is formed, when the salt is removed as a hollow cone ready for market. Care must be taken to keep the bottom of the pan moist; otherwise, the salt cone would crack, and be rendered unfit for the rough carriage which it experiences on the backs of pack animals. A soft coal, which is found just under the surface of the yellow-soiled hills seven miles to the west of Pai-yen-ching, is the fuel used in the furnaces. The total daily output of salt at these wells does not exceed two tons a day, and the cost at the wells, including the Government tax, amounts to about three half-pence a pound. The area of supply, owing to the country being sparsely populated, is greater than the output would lead one to expect.”—H. C.]

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

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

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

Williams says: “Cassia grows in all the southern provinces of China, especially Kwang-si and Yun-nan, also in Annam, Japan, and the Isles of the Archipelago. The wood, bark, buds, seeds, twigs, pods, leaves, oil, are all objects of commerce.... The buds (kwei-tz’) are the fleshy ovaries of the seeds; they are pressed at one end, so that they bear some resemblance to cloves in shape.” Upwards of 500 piculs (about 30 tons), valued at 30 dollars each, are annually exported to Europe and India. (Chin. Commercial Guide, 113–114).

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

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

[Captain Gill (River of Golden Sand, II. p. 263) writes: “There were chestnut trees ...; and the Kwei-Hua, a tree ‘with leaves like the laurel, and with a small white flower, like the clove,’ having a delicious, though rather a luscious smell. 60This was the Cassia, and I can find no words more suitable to describe it than those of Polo which I have just used.”—H. C.]

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

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

[In the Topography of the Yun-nan Province (edition of 1836) there is a catalogue of 141 classes of aborigines, each with a separate name and illustration, without any attempt to arrive at a broader classification. Mr. Bourne has been led to the conviction that exclusive of the Tibetans (including Si-fan and Ku-tsung), there are but three great non-Chinese races in Southern China: the Lolo, the Shan, and the Miao-tzŭ. (Report, China, No. 1, 1888, p. 87.) This classification is adopted by Dr. Deblenne. (Mission Lyonnaise.)

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

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

Mr. Hosie writes (Three years in W. China, 122): “At the time when Marco Polo passed through Caindu, this country was in the possession of the Si-fans.... At the present day, they occupy the country to the west, and are known under the generic name of Man-tzŭ.”

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

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

Black Lolo.

Dr. Bretschneider writes (Med. Res. II. p. 24): “The north-eastern part of Tibet was sometimes designated by the Chinese name Si-fan, and Hyacinth [Bitchurin] is of opinion that in ancient times this name was even applied to the whole of Tibet. Si-fan means, ‘Western Barbarians.’ The biographer of Hiuen-Tsang reports that when this traveller, in 629, visited Liang-chau (in the province of Kan-Suh), this city was the entrepôt for merchants from Si-fan and the countries east of the Ts’ung-ling mountains. In the history of the Hia and Tangut Empire (in the Sung-shi) we read, s. a. 1003, that the founder of this Empire invaded Si-fan and then proceeded to Si-liang (Liang-chau). The Yuen-shi reports, s. a. 1268: ‘The (Mongol) Emperor ordered Meng-gu-dai to invade Si-fan with 6000 men.’ The 61name Si-fan appears also in ch. ccii., biography of Dan-ba.” It is stated in the Ming-shi, “that the name Si-fan is applied to the territory situated beyond the frontiers of the Chinese provinces of Shen-si (then including the eastern part of present Kan-Suh) and Sze-ch’wan, and inhabited by various tribes of Tangut race, anciently known in Chinese history under the name of Si Kiang.... The Kuang yu ki notices that Si-fan comprises the territory of the south-west of Shen-si, west of Sze-ch’wan and north-west of Yun-nan.... The tribute presented by the Si-fan tribes to the Emperor used to be carried to the court at Peking by way of Ya-chau in Sze-ch’wan.” (Bretschneider, 203.) The Tangutans of Prjevalsky, north-east of Tibet, in the country of Ku-ku nor, correspond to the Si-fan.

“The Ta-tu River may be looked upon as the southern limit of the region inhabited by Sifan tribes, and the northern boundary of the Lolo country which stretches southwards to the Yang-tzŭ and east from the valley of Kien-ch’ang towards the right bank of the Min.” (Hosie, p. 102.)

To Mr. E. C. Baber we owe the most valuable information regarding the Lolo people:

“‘Lolo’ is itself a word of insult, of unknown Chinese origin, which should not be used in their presence, although they excuse it and will even sometimes employ it in the case of ignorant strangers. In the report of Governor-General Lo Ping-chang, above quoted, they are called ‘I,’ the term applied by Chinese to Europeans. They themselves have no objection to being styled ‘I-chia’ (I families), but that word is not their native name. Near Ma-pien they call themselves ‘Lo-su’; in the neighbourhood of Lui-po T’ing their name is ‘No-su’ or ‘Ngo-su’ (possibly a mere variant of ‘Lo-su’); near Hui-li-chou the term is ‘Lé-su’—the syllable Lé being pronounced as in French. The subject tribes on the T’ung River, near Mount Wa, also name themselves ‘Ngo-su.’ I have found the latter people speak very disrespectfully of 62the Lé-su, which argues an internal distinction; but there can be no doubt that they are the same race, and speak the same language, though with minor differences of dialect.” (Baber, Travels, 66–67.)

“With very rare exceptions the male Lolo, rich or poor, free or subject, may be instantly known by his horn. All his hair is gathered into a knot over his forehead and there twisted up in a cotton cloth so as to resemble the horn of a unicorn. The horn with its wrapper is sometimes a good nine inches long. They consider this coiffure sacred, so at least I was told, and even those who wear a short pig-tail for convenience in entering Chinese territory still conserve the indigenous horn, concealed for the occasion under the folds of the Sze-ch’wan turban.” (Baber, p. 61.) See these horns on figures, Bk. II. ch. lviii.

White Lolo.

“The principal clothing of a Lolo is his mantle, a capacious sleeveless garment of grey or black felt gathered round his neck by a string, and reaching nearly to his 63heels. In the case of the better classes the mantle is of fine felt—in great request among the Chinese—and has a fringe of cotton-web round its lower border. For journeys on horseback they have a similar cloak differing only in being slit half-way up the back; a wide lappet covering the opening lies easily along the loins and croup of the horse. The colour of the felt is originally grey, but becomes brown-black or black, in process of time. It is said that the insects which haunt humanity never infest these gabardines. The Lolo generally gathers this garment closely round his shoulders and crosses his arms inside. His legs, clothed in trousers of Chinese cotton, are swathed in felt bandages bound on with strings, and he has not yet been super-civilised into the use of foot-gear. In summer a cotton cloak is often substituted for the felt mantle. The hat, serving equally for an umbrella, is woven of bamboo, in a low conical shape, and is covered with felt. Crouching in his felt mantle under this roof of felt the hardy Lolo is impervious to wind or rain.” (Baber, Travels, 61–62.)

“The word, ‘Black-bone,’ is generally used by the Chinese as a name for the independent Lolos, but in the mouth of a Lolo it seems to mean a ‘freeman’ or ‘noble,’ in which sense it is not a whit more absurd than the ‘blue-blood,’ of Europeans. The ‘White-bones,’ an inferior class, but still Lolo by birth, are, so far as I could understand, the vassals and retainers of the patricians—the people, in fact. A third class consists of Wa-tzŭ, or slaves, who are all captive Chinese. It does not appear whether the servile class is sub-divided, but, at any rate, the slaves born in Lolodom are treated with more consideration than those who have been captured in slave-hunts.” (Baber, Travels, 67.)

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

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

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

The Pa-y or P’o-y formed under the Han Dynasty the principality of P’o-tsiu and under the T’ang Dynasty the tribes of Pu-hiung and of Si-ngo, which were among the 64thirty-seven tribes dependent on the ancient state of Nan-Chao and occupied the territory of the sub-prefectures of Kiang-Chuen (Ch’êng-kiang fu) and of Si-ngo (Lin-ngan fu). They submitted to China at the beginning of the Yuen Dynasty; their country bordered upon Burma (Mien-tien) and Ch’ê-li or Kiang-Hung (Xieng-Hung), in Yun-Nan, on the right bank of the Mekong River. According to Chinese tradition, the Pa-y descended from Muong Tsiu-ch’u, ninth son of Ti Muong-tsiu, son of Piao-tsiu-ti (Asôka). Devéria gives (p. 105) a specimen of the Pa-y writing (16th century). (Devéria, Front., 99, 117; Bourne, Report, p. 88.) Chapter iv. of the Chinese work, Sze-i-kwan-k’ao, is devoted to the Pa-y, including the sub-divisions of Muong-Yang, Muong-Ting, Nan-tien, Tsien-ngaï, Lung-chuen, Wei-yuan, Wan-tien, Chen-k’ang, Ta-how, Mang-shi, Kin-tung, Ho-tsin, Cho-lo tien. (Devéria, Mél. de Harlez, p. 97.) I give a specimen of Pa-yi writing from a Chinese work purchased by Father Amiot at Peking, now in the Paris National Library (Fonds chinois, No. 986). (See on this scrip, F. W. K. Müller, T’oung-Pao, III. p. 1, and V. p. 329; E. H. Parker, The Muong Language, China Review, I. 1891, p. 267; P. Lefèvre-Pontalis, Etudes sur quelques alphabets et vocab. Thais, T’oung Pao, III. pp. 39–64.)—H. C.]

65

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

CHAPTER XLVIII.

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

After leaving the river that I spoke of, you go five days’ journey towards the west, meeting with numerous towns and villages. The country is one in which excellent horses are bred, and the people live by cattle and agriculture. They have a language of their own which is passing hard to understand. At the end of those five days’ journey you come to the capital, which is 66called Yachi, a very great and noble city, in which are numerous merchants and craftsmen.{1}

Pa-y script.

The people are of sundry kinds, for there are not only Saracens and Idolaters, but also a few Nestorian Christians.{2} They have wheat and rice in plenty. Howbeit they never eat wheaten bread, because in that country it is unwholesome.{3} Rice they eat, and make of it sundry messes, besides a kind of drink which is very clear and good, and makes a man drunk just as wine does.

Their money is such as I will tell you. They use for the purpose certain white porcelain shells that are found in the sea, such as are sometimes put on dogs’ collars; and 80 of these porcelain shells pass for a single weight of silver, equivalent to two Venice groats, i.e. 24 piccoli. Also eight such weights of silver count equal to one such weight of gold.{4}

They have brine-wells in this country from which they make salt, and all the people of those parts make a living by this salt. The King, too, I can assure you, gets a great revenue from this salt.{5}

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

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

Let me tell you also that the people of that country eat their meat raw, whether it be of mutton, beef, buffalo, poultry, or any other kind. Thus the poor people will go to the shambles, and take the raw liver as it comes from the carcase and cut it small, and put it in a sauce of garlic and spices, and so eat it; and other meat in like manner, raw, just as we eat meat that is dressed.{6}

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

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Note 1.—We have now arrived at the great province of Carajan, the Karájáng of the Mongols, which we know to be Yun-nan, and at its capital Yachi, which—I was about to add—we know to be Yun-nan-fu. But I find all the commentators make it something else. Rashiduddin, however, in his detail of the twelve Sings or provincial governments of China under the Mongols, thus speaks: “10th, Karájáng. This used to be an independent kingdom, and the Sing is established at the great city of Yáchi. All the inhabitants are Mahomedans. The chiefs are Noyan Takin, and Yaḳub Beg, son of ’Ali Beg, the Belúch.” And turning to Pauthier’s corrected account of the same distribution of the empire from authentic Chinese sources (p. 334), we find: “8. The administrative province of Yun-nan.... Its capital, chief town also of the canton of the same name, was called Chung-khing, now Yun-nan-fu.” Hence Yachi was Yun-nan-fu. This is still a large city, having a rectangular rampart with 6 gates, and a circuit of about 6½ miles. The suburbs were destroyed by the Mahomedan rebels. The most important trade there now is in the metallic produce of the Province. [According to Oxenham, Historical Atlas, there were ten provinces or sheng (Liao-yang, Chung-shu, Shen-si, Ho-nan, Sze-ch’wan, Yun-nan, Hu-kwang, Kiang-che, Kiang-si and Kan-suh) and twelve military governorships.—H. C.]

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

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

Five days forward from Ch’êng-tu fu brought us on Tibetan ground. Five days backward from Yun-nan fu should bring us to the river Brius, with its gold-dust and the frontier of Caindu. Wanting a local scale for a distance of five days, I find that our next point in advance, Marco’s city of Carajan undisputably Tali-fu, is said by him to be ten days from Yachi. The direct distance between the cities of Yun-nan and Ta-li I find by measurement on Keith Johnston’s map to be 133 Italian miles. [The distance by road is 215 English miles. (See Baber, p. 191.)—H. C.] Taking half this as radius, the compasses swept from Yun-nan-fu as centre, intersect near its most southerly elbow the great upper branch of the Kiang, the Kin-sha Kiang of the Chinese, or “River of the Golden Sands,” the Murus Ussu and Brichu of the Mongols and Tibetans, and manifestly the auriferous Brius of our traveller.[1] Hence also the country north of this elbow is Caindu.

68

Garden-House on the Lake at Yun-nan-fu, Yachi of Polo. (From Garnier.)

“Je voz di q’il ont un lac qe gire environ bien cent miles.”

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

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

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

This valley is bounded on the east by the mountain country of the Lolos, which extends north nearly to Yachau (supra, pp. 45, 48, 60), and which, owing to the fierce intractable character of the race, forms throughout its whole length an impenetrable barrier between East and West. [The Rev. Gray Owen, of Ch’êng-tu, wrote (Jour. China B. R. A. S. xxviii. 1893–1894, p. 59): “The only great trade route infested by brigands is that from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan fu, where Lo-lo brigands are numerous, especially in the autumn. Last year I heard of a convoy of 18 mules with Shen-si goods on the above-mentioned road captured by these brigands, muleteers and all taken inside the Lo-lo country. It is very seldom that captives get out of Lo-lo-dom, because the ransom asked is too high, and the Chinese officials are not gallant enough to buy out their unfortunate countrymen. The Lo-los hold thousands of Chinese in slavery; and more are added yearly to 70the number.”—H. C.] Two routes run from Ch’êng-tu fu to Yun-nan; these fork at Ya-chau and thenceforward are entirely separated by this barrier. To the east of it is the route which descends the Min River to Siu-chau, and then passes by Chao-tong and Tong-chuan to Yun-nan fu: to the west of the barrier is a route leading through Kien-ch’ang to Ta-li fu, but throwing off a branch from Ning-yuan southward in the direction of Yun-nan fu.

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

We may now say without hesitation that by this road Marco travelled. His Tibet commences with the mountain region near Ya-chau; his 20 days’ journey through a devastated and dispeopled tract is the journey to Ning-yuan fu. Even now, from Ts’ing-k’i onwards for several days, not a single inhabited place is seen. The official route from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan lays down 13 stages, but it generally takes from 15 to 18 days. Polo, whose journeys seem often to have been shorter than the modern average,[2] took 20. On descending from the highlands he comes once more into a populated region, and enters the charming Valley of Kien-ch’ang. This valley, with its capital near the upper extremity, its numerous towns and villages, its cassia, its spiced wine, and its termination southward on the River of the Golden Sands, is Caindu. The traveller’s road from Ningyuan to Yunnanfu probably lay through Hwei-li, and the Kin-sha Kiang would be crossed as already indicated, near its most southerly bend, and almost due north of Yun-nan fu. (See Richthofen as quoted at pp. 45–46.)

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

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

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Devéria (Front. p. 146 note) says that Kien-ch’ang is the ancient territory of Kiung-tu which, under the Han Dynasty, fell into the hands of the Tibetans, and was made by the Mongols the march of Kien-ch’ang (Che-Kong-t’u); it is the Caindu of Marco Polo; under the Han Dynasty it was the Kiun or division of Yueh-sui or Yueh-hsi. Devéria quotes from the Yuen-shi-lei pien the following passage relating to the year 1284: “The twelve tribes of the Barbarians to the south-west of Kien-tou and Kin-Chi submitted; Kien-tou was administered by Mien (Burma); Kien-tou submits because the Kingdom of Mien has been vanquished.” Kien-tou is the 72Chien-t’ou of Baber, the Caindu of Marco Polo. (Mélanges de Harlez, p. 97.) According to Mr. E. H. Parker (China Review, xix. p. 69), Yueh-hsi or Yueh-sui “is the modern Kien-ch’ang Valley, the Caindu of Marco Polo, between the Yalung and Yang-tzŭ Rivers; the only non-Chinese races found there now are the Si-fan and Lolos.”—H. C.]

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

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

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

The name then was Ḳará-jáng, in which the first element was the Mongol or Turki Ḳárá, “Black.” For we find in another passage of Rashid the following information:[3]—“To the south-west of Cathay is the country called by the Chinese Dailiu or ‘Great Realm,’ and by the Mongols Ḳarájáng, in the language of India and Kashmir Ḳandar, and by us Ḳandahár. This country, which is of vast extent, is bounded on one side by Tibet and Tangut, and on others by Mongolia, Cathay, and the country of the Gold-Teeth. The King of Ḳarajang uses the title of Mahárá, i.e. Great King. The capital is called Yachi, and there the Council of Administration is established. Among the inhabitants of this country some are black, and others are white; these latter are called by the Mongols Chaghán-Jáng (‘White Jang’).” Jang has not been explained; but probably it may have been a Tibetan term adopted 73by the Mongols, and the colours may have applied to their clothing. The dominant race at the Mongol invasion seems to have been Shans;[4] and black jackets are the characteristic dress of the Shans whom one sees in Burma in modern times. The Kara-jang and Chaghan-jang appear to correspond also to the U-man and Pe-man, or Black Barbarians and White Barbarians, who are mentioned by Chinese authorities as conquered by the Mongols. It would seem from one of Pauthier’s Chinese quotations (p. 388), that the Chaghan-jang were found in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu. (D’Ohsson, II. 317; J. R. Geog. Soc. III. 294.) [Dr. Bretschneider (Med. Res. I. p. 184) says that in the description of Yun-nan, in the Yuen-shi, “Cara-jang and Chagan-jang are rendered by Wu-man and Po-man (Black and White Barbarians). But in the biographies of Djao-a-k’o-p’an, A-r-szelan (Yuen-shi, ch. cxxiii.), and others, these tribes are mentioned under the names of Ha-la-djang and Ch’a-han-djang, as the Mongols used to call them; and in the biography of Wu-liang-ho t’ai, [Uriang kadai], the conqueror of Yun-nan, it is stated that the capital of the Black Barbarians was called Yach’i. It is described there as a city surrounded by lakes from three sides.”—H. C.]

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

“Les sunt des plosors maineres, car il hi a jens qe aorent Maomet.”

Regarding Rashiduddin’s application of the name Ḳandahár or Gandhára to Yun-nan, and curious points connected therewith, I must refer to a paper of mine in the J. R. A. Society (N.S. IV. 356). But I may mention that in the ecclesiastical translation of the classical localities of Indian Buddhism to Indo-China, which is 74current in Burma, Yun-nan represents Gandhára,[5] and is still so styled in state documents (Gandálarít).

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

Note 2.—The existence of Nestorians in this remote province is very notable [see Bonin, J. As. XV. 1900, pp. 589–590.—H. C.]; and also the early prevalence of Mahomedanism, which Rashiduddin intimates in stronger terms. “All the inhabitants of Yachi,” he says, “are Mahomedans.” This was no doubt an exaggeration, but the Mahomedans seem always to have continued to be an important body in Yun-nan up to our own day. In 1855 began their revolt against the imperial authority, which for a time resulted in the establishment of their independence in Western Yun-nan under a chief whom they called Sultan Suleiman. A proclamation in remarkably good Arabic, announcing the inauguration of his reign, appears to have been circulated to Mahomedans in foreign states, and a copy of it some years ago found its way through the Nepalese agent at L’hasa, into the hands of Colonel Ramsay, the British Resident at Katmandu.[6]

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

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

Klaproth states that Yun-nan is the only country of China in which cowries had continued in use, though in ancient times they were more generally diffused. According to him 80 cowries were equivalent to 6 cash, or a half-penny. About 1780 in Eastern Bengal 80 cowries were worth ⅜th of a penny, and some 40 years ago, when Prinsep compiled his tables in Calcutta (where cowries were still in use a few years ago, if they are not now), 80 cowries were worth ³⁄₁₀ of a penny.

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

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

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The Canal at Yun-nan fu.

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

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

CHAPTER XLIX.

After leaving that city of Yachi of which I have been speaking, and travelling ten days towards the west, you come to another capital city which is still in the province of Carajan, and is itself called Carajan. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan; and the King is Cogachin, who is a son of the Great Kaan.{1}

In this country gold-dust is found in great quantities; that is to say in the rivers and lakes, whilst in the mountains gold is also found in pieces of larger size. Gold is indeed so abundant that they give one saggio of gold for only six of the same weight in silver. And for small change they use porcelain shells as I mentioned before. These are not found in the country, however, but are brought from India.{2}

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

You may be assured that some of them are ten paces in length; some are more and some less. And in bulk they are equal to a great cask, for the bigger ones are 77about ten palms in girth. They have two forelegs near the head, but for foot nothing but a claw like the claw of a hawk or that of a lion. The head is very big, and the eyes are bigger than a great loaf of bread. The mouth is large enough to swallow a man whole, and is garnished with great [pointed] teeth. And in short they are so fierce-looking and so hideously ugly, that every man and beast must stand in fear and trembling of them. There are also smaller ones, such as of eight paces long, and of five, and of one pace only.

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

This then is the way these beasts are taken. Those who take them proceed to extract the gall from the inside, and this sells at a great price; for you must know 78it furnishes the material for a most precious medicine. Thus if a person is bitten by a mad dog, and they give him but a small pennyweight of this medicine to drink, he is cured in a moment. Again if a woman is hard in labour they give her just such another dose and she is delivered at once. Yet again if one has any disease like the itch, or it may be worse, and applies a small quantity of this gall he shall speedily be cured. So you see why it sells at such a high price.

“Riding long like Frenchmen.”
“Et encore sachié qe ceste gens chevauchent lonc come franchois.”

They also sell the flesh of this serpent, for it is excellent eating, and the people are very fond of it. And when these serpents are very hungry, sometimes they will seek out the lairs of lions or bears or other large wild beasts, and devour their cubs, without the sire and dam being able to prevent it. Indeed if they catch the big ones themselves they devour them too; they can make no resistance.{3}

In this province also are bred large and excellent horses which are taken to India for sale. And you must know that the people dock two or three joints of the tail from their horses, to prevent them from flipping their riders, a thing which they consider very unseemly. They ride long like Frenchmen, and wear armour of boiled leather, and carry spears and shields and arblasts, and all their quarrels are poisoned.{4} [And I was told as a fact that many persons, especially those meditating mischief, constantly carry this poison about with them, so that if by any chance they should be taken, and be threatened with 79torture, to avoid this they swallow the poison and so die speedily. But princes who are aware of this keep ready dog’s dung, which they cause the criminal instantly to swallow, to make him vomit the poison. And thus they manage to cure those scoundrels.]

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

Suspension Bridge, neighbourhood of Tali.

I will tell you of a wicked thing they used to do before the Great Kaan conquered them. If it chanced that a man of fine person or noble birth, or some other quality that recommended him, came to lodge with those people, then they would murder him by poison, or otherwise. And this they did, not for the sake of plunder, but because they believed that in this way the goodly favour and wisdom and repute of the murdered man would cleave to the house where he was slain. And in this manner many were murdered before the country was conquered by the Great Kaan. But since his conquest, some 35 years ago, these crimes and this evil practice have prevailed no more; and this through dread of the Great Kaan who will not permit such things.{5}

Note 1.—There can be no doubt that this second chief city of Carajan is Tali-fu, which was the capital of the Shan Kingdom called by the Chinese Nan-Chao. This kingdom had subsisted in Yun-nan since 738, and probably had embraced the upper part of the Irawadi Valley. For the Chinese tell us it was also called Maung, and it probably was identical with the Shan Kingdom of Muang Maorong or of Pong, of which Captain Pemberton procured a Chronicle. [In A.D. 650, the Ai-Lao, the most ancient name by which the Shans were known to the Chinese, became the Nan-Chao. The Mêng family ruled the country from the 7th century; towards the middle of the 8th century, P’i-lo-ko, who is the real founder of the Thai kingdom of Nan-Chao, received from the Chinese the title of King of Yun-Nan and made T’ai-ho, 15 lis south of Ta-li, his residence; he died in 748. In A.D. 938, Twan Sze-ying, of an old Chinese family, took Ta-li and established there an independent kingdom. In 1115 embassies with China were exchanged, and the Emperor conferred (1119) upon Twan Ch’êng-yn the title of King of Ta-li (Ta-li Kwo Wang). Twan Siang-hing was the last king of Ta-li (1239–1251). In 1252 the Kingdom of Nan-Chao was destroyed by the Mongols; the Emperor She Tsu (Kúblái) gave the title of Maháraja (Mo-ho Lo-tso) to Twan Hing-che (son of Twan Siang-hing), who had fled to Yun-Nan fu and was captured there. Afterwards (1261) the Twan are known as the eleven Tsung-Kwan (governors); the last of them, Twan Ming, was made a prisoner by an army sent by the Ming Emperors, and sent to Nan-King (1381). (E. H. Parker, Early Laos and China, China Review, XIX. and the Old Thai or Shan Empire of Western Yun-Nan, Ibid., XX.; E. Rocher, Hist. des Princes du Yunnan, T’oung Pao, 1899; E. Chavannes, Une Inscription du roy. de Nan Tchao, J.A., November–December, 1900; M. Tchang, Tableau des Souverains de Nan-Tchao, Bul. Ecole Franç. d’Ext. Orient80, I. No. 4.)—H. C.] The city of Ta-li was taken by Kúblái in 1253–1254. The circumstance that it was known to the invaders (as appeals from Polo’s statement) by the name of the province is an indication of the fact that it was the capital of Carajan before the conquest. [“That Yachi and Carajan represent Yünnan-fu and Tali, is proved by topographical and other evidence of an overwhelming nature. I venture to add one more proof, which seems to have been overlooked.

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

“Tali-fu is renowned as the strongest hold of Western Yünnan, and it certainly must have been impregnable to bow and spear. From the western margin of its majestic lake, which lies approximately north and south, rises a sloping plain of about three miles average breadth, closed in by the huge wall of the Tien-tsang Mountains. In the midst of this plain stands the city, the lake at its feet, the snowy summits at its back. On either flank, at about twelve and six miles distance respectively, are situated Shang-Kuan and Hsia-Kuan (upper and lower passes), two strongly fortified towns guarding the confined strip between mountain and lake; for the plain narrows at the two extremities, and is intersected by a river at both points.” (Baber, Travels, 155.)—H. C.]

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

Ta-li fu was recently the capital of Sultan Suleiman [Tu Wen-siu]. It was reached by Lieutenant Garnier in a daring détour by the north of Yun-nan, but his party were obliged to leave in haste on the second day after their arrival. The city was captured by the Imperial officers in 1873, when a horrid massacre of the Mussulmans took place [19th January]. The Sultan took poison, but his head was cut off and sent to Peking. Momein fell soon after [10th June], and the Panthé kingdom is ended.

We see that Polo says the King ruling for Kúblái at this city was a son of the Kaan, called Cogachin, whilst he told us in the last chapter that the King reigning at Yachi was also a son of the Kaan, called Essentimur. It is probably a mere lapsus or error of dictation calling the latter a son of the Kaan, for in ch. li. infra, this prince is correctly described as the Kaan’s grandson. Rashiduddin tells us that Kúblái had given his son Hukáji (or perhaps Hogáchi, i.e. Cogachin) the government of Karajang,[1] and that after the death of this Prince the government was continued 81to his son Isentimur. Klaproth gives the date of the latter’s nomination from the Chinese Annals as 1280. It is not easy to reconcile Marco’s statements perfectly with a knowledge of these facts; but we may suppose that, in speaking of Cogachin as ruling at Karajang (or Tali-fu) and Esentimur at Yachi, he describes things as they stood when his visit occurred, whilst in the second reference to “Sentemur’s” being King in the province and his father dead, he speaks from later knowledge. This interpretation would confirm what has been already deduced from other circumstances, that his visit to Yun-nan was prior to 1280. (Pemberton’s Report on the Eastern Frontier, 108 seqq.; Quat. Rashid. pp. lxxxix-xc.; Journ. Asiat. sér. II. vol. i.)

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

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

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

The term serpent is applied by many old writers to crocodiles and the like, e.g. by Odoric, and perhaps allusively by Shakspeare (“Where’s my Serpent of Old Nile?”). Mr. Fergusson tells me he was once much struck with the snake-like motion of a group of crocodiles hastily descending to the water from a high sand-bank, without apparent use of the limbs, when surprised by the approach of a boat.[2]

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

[“According to Chinese notions, Han Yü, the St. Patrick of China, having persuaded the alligators in China that he was all-powerful, induced the stupid saurians to migrate to Ngo Hu or ‘Alligators’ Lake’ in the Kwang-tung province.” (North-China Herald, 5th July, 1895, p. 5.)

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

Note 4.—I think the great horses must be an error, though running through all 82the texts, and that grant quantité de chevaus was probably intended. Valuable ponies are produced in those regions, but I have never heard of large horses, and Martini’s testimony is to like effect (p. 141). Nor can I hear of any race in those regions in modern times that uses what we should call long stirrups. It is true that the Tartars rode very short—“brevissimas habent strepas,” as Carpini says (643); and the Kirghiz Kazaks now do the same. Both Burmese and Shans ride what we should call short; and Major Sladen observes of the people on the western border of Yun-nan: “Kachyens and Shans ride on ordinary Chinese saddles. The stirrups are of the usual average length, but the saddles are so constructed as to rise at least a foot above the pony’s back.” He adds with reference to another point in the text: “I noticed a few Shan ponies with docked tails. But the more general practice is to loop up the tail in a knot, the object being to protect the rider, or rather his clothes, from the dirt with which they would otherwise be spattered from the flipping of the animal’s tail.” (MS. Notes.)

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

Armour of boiled leather—“armes cuiracés de cuir bouilli”; so Pauthier’s text; the material so often mentioned in mediæval costume; e.g. in the leggings of Sir Thopas:—

“His jambeux were of cuirbouly,

His swerdës sheth of ivory,

His helme of latoun bright.”

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

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

Archbishop Trench, in a fine figure, alludes to a belief prevalent among the Polynesian Islanders, “that the strength and valour of the warriors whom they have slain in battle passes into themselves, as their rightful inheritance.” (Fraehn, Wolga-Bulgaren, p. 50; Studies in the Gospels, p. 22; see also Lubbock, 457.)

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

“Ont armes corasés de cuir de bufal, et ont lances et scuz et ont balestres.”

There is some analogy also to the story Polo tells, in the curious Sindhi tradition, related by Burton, of Bahá-ul-haḳḳ, the famous saint of Multán. When he visited his disciples at Tatta they plotted his death, in order to secure the blessings of his perpetual presence. The people of Multán are said to have murdered two celebrated saints with the same view, and the Hazáras to “make a point of killing and burying in their own country any stranger indiscreet enough to commit a miracle or show any 84particular sign of sanctity.” The like practice is ascribed to the rude Moslem of Gilghit; and such allegations must have been current in Europe, for they are the motive of Southey’s St. Romuald:

“‘But,’ quoth the Traveller, ‘wherefore did he leave

A flock that knew his saintly worth so well?’

•••••

“‘Why, Sir,’ the Host replied,

‘We thought perhaps that he might one day leave us;

And then, should strangers have

The good man’s grave,

A loss like that would naturally grieve us;

For he’ll be made a saint of, to be sure.

Therefore we thought it prudent to secure

His relics while we might;

And so we meant to strangle him one night.’”

(See Sindh, pp. 86, 388; Ind. Antiq. I. 13; Southey’s Ballads, etc., ed. Routledge, p. 330.)

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

CHAPTER L.

When you have left Carajan and have travelled five days westward, you find a province called Zardandan. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan. The capital city is called Vochan.{1}

The people of this country all have their teeth gilt; or rather every man covers his teeth with a sort of golden case made to fit them, both the upper teeth and the under. The men do this, but not the women.{2} [The men also are wont to gird their arms and legs with bands or fillets pricked in black, and it is done thus; they take five needles joined together, and with these 85they prick the flesh till the blood comes, and then they rub in a certain black colouring stuff, and this is perfectly indelible. It is considered a piece of elegance and the sign of gentility to have this black band.] The men are all gentlemen in their fashion, and do nothing but go to the wars, or go hunting and hawking. The ladies do all the business, aided by the slaves who have been taken in war.{3}

And when one of their wives has been delivered of a child, the infant is washed and swathed, and then the woman gets up and goes about her household affairs, whilst the husband takes to bed with the child by his side, and so keeps his bed for 40 days; and all the kith and kin come to visit him and keep up a great festivity. They do this because, say they, the woman has had a hard bout of it, and ’tis but fair the man should have his share of suffering.{4}

They eat all kinds of meat, both raw and cooked, and they eat rice with their cooked meat as their fashion is. Their drink is wine made of rice and spices, and excellent it is. Their money is gold, and for small change they use pig-shells. And I can tell you they give one weight of gold for only five of silver; for there is no silver-mine within five months’ journey. And this induces merchants to go thither carrying a large supply of silver to change among that people. And as they have only five weights of silver to give for one of fine gold, they make immense profits by their exchange business in that country.{5}

These people have neither idols nor churches, but worship the progenitor of their family, “for ’tis he,” say they, “from whom we have all sprung.”{6} They have no letters or writing; and ’tis no wonder, for the country is wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains which ’tis impossible to pass, the air in 86summer is so impure and bad; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain.{7} When these people have any business transactions with one another, they take a piece of stick, round or square, and split it, each taking half. And on either half they cut two or three notches. And when the account is settled the debtor receives back the other half of the stick from the creditor.{8}

And let me tell you that in all those three provinces that I have been speaking of, to wit Carajan, Vochan, and Yachi, there is never a leech. But when any one is ill they send for their magicians, that is to say the Devil-conjurors and those who are the keepers of the idols. When these are come the sick man tells what ails him, and then the conjurors incontinently begin playing on their instruments and singing and dancing; and the conjurors dance to such a pitch that at last one of them shall fall to the ground lifeless, like a dead man. And then the devil entereth into his body. And when his comrades see him in this plight they begin to put questions to him about the sick man’s ailment. And he will reply: “Such or such a spirit hath been meddling with the man,{9} for that he hath angered the spirit and done it some despite.” Then they say: “We pray thee to pardon him, and to take of his blood or of his goods what thou wilt in consideration of thus restoring him to health.” And when they have so prayed, the malignant spirit that is in the body of the prostrate man will (mayhap) answer: “The sick man hath also done great despite unto such another spirit, and that one is so ill-disposed that it will not pardon him on any account;”—this at least is the answer they get, an the patient be like to die. But if he is to get better the answer will be that they are to bring two sheep, or may be three; and to brew ten or twelve jars of drink, very costly and 87abundantly spiced.{10} Moreover it shall be announced that the sheep must be all black-faced, or of some other particular colour as it may hap; and then all those things are to be offered in sacrifice to such and such a spirit whose name is given.{11} And they are to bring so many conjurors, and so many ladies, and the business is to be done with a great singing of lauds, and with many lights, and store of good perfumes. That is the sort of answer they get if the patient is to get well. And then the kinsfolk of the sick man go and procure all that has been commanded, and do as has been bidden, and the conjuror who had uttered all that gets on his legs again.

So they fetch the sheep of the colour prescribed, and slaughter them, and sprinkle the blood over such places as have been enjoined, in honour and propitiation of the spirit. And the conjurors come, and the ladies, in the number that was ordered, and when all are assembled and everything is ready, they begin to dance and play and sing in honour of the spirit. And they take flesh-broth and drink and lign-aloes, and a great number of lights, and go about hither and thither, scattering the broth and the drink and the meat also. And when they have done this for a while, again shall one of the conjurors fall flat and wallow there foaming at the mouth, and then the others will ask if he have yet pardoned the sick man? And sometimes he shall answer yea! and sometimes he shall answer no! And if the answer be no, they shall be told that something or other has to be done all over again, and then he will be pardoned; so this they do. And when all that the spirit has commanded has been done with great ceremony, then it shall be announced that the man is pardoned and shall be speedily cured. So when they at length receive such a reply, they announce that it is all made up with the 88spirit, and that he is propitiated, and they fall to eating and drinking with great joy and mirth, and he who had been lying lifeless on the ground gets up and takes his share. So when they have all eaten and drunken, every man departs home. And presently the sick man gets sound and well.{12}

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

Note 1.—[Baber writes (Travels, p. 171) when arriving to the Lan-tsang kiang (Mekong River): “We were now on the border-line between Carajan and Zardandan: ‘When you have travelled five days you find a province called Zardandan,’ says Messer Marco, precisely the actual number of stages from Tali-fu to the present boundary of Yung-ch’ang. That this river must have been the demarcation between the two provinces is obvious; one glance into that deep rift, the only exit from which is by painful worked artificial zigzags which, under the most favourable conditions, cannot be called safe, will satisfy the most sceptical geographer. The exact statement of distance is a proof that Marco entered the territory of Yung-ch’ang.” Captain Gill says (II. p. 343–344) that the five marches of Marco Polo “would be very long ones. Our journey was eight days, but it might easily have been done in seven, as the first march to Hsia-Kuan was not worthy of the name. The Grosvenor expedition made eleven marches with one day’s halt—twelve days altogether, and Mr. Margary was nine or ten days on the journey. It is true that, by camping out every night, the marches might be longer; and, as Polo refers to the crackling of the bamboos in the fires, it is highly probable that he found no ‘fine hostelries’ on this route. This is the way the traders still travel in Tibet; they march until they are tired, or until they find a nice grassy spot; they then off saddles, turn their animals loose, light a fire under some adjacent tree, and halt for the night; thus the longest possible distance can be performed every day, and the five days from Ta-li to Yung-Ch’ang would not be by any means an impossibility.”—H. C.]

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

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[Baber writes (p. 159): “In Western Yünnan the betel-nut is chewed with prepared lime, colouring the teeth red, and causing a profuse expectoration. We first met with the practice near Tali-fu.

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

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

“When Tu Wên-hsiu sent his ‘Panthay’ mission to England with tributary boxes of rock from the Tali Mountains, he described himself in his letter ‘as a humble native of the golden-teeth country.’”—H. C.]

Vochan seems undoubtedly to be, as Martini pointed out, the city called by the Chinese Yung-ch’ang-fu. Some of the old printed editions read Unciam, i.e. Uncham or Unchan, and it is probable that either this or Võcian, i.e. Vonchan, was the true reading, coming very close to the proper name, which is Wunchen. (See J. A. S. B. VI. 547.) [In an itinerary from Ava to Peking, we read on the 10th September, 1833: “Slept at the city Wun-tsheng (Chinese Yongtchang fú and Burmese Wun-zen).” (Chin. Rep. IX. p. 474.)—Mr. F. W. K. Müller in a study on the Pa-yi language from a Chinese manuscript entitled Hwa-i-yi-yü found by Dr. F. Hirth in China, and belonging now to the Berlin Royal Library, says the proper orthography of the word is Wan-chang in Pa-yi. (T’oung Pao, III. p. 20.) This helps to find the origin of the name Vochan.—H. C.] This city has been a Chinese one for several centuries, and previous to the late Mahomedan revolt its population was almost exclusively Chinese, with only a small mixture of Shans. It is now noted for the remarkable beauty and fairness of the women. But it is mentioned by Chinese authors as having been in the Middle Ages the capital of the Gold-Teeth. These people, according to Martini, dwelt chiefly to the north of the city. They used to go to worship a huge stone, 100 feet high, at Nan-ngan, and cover it annually with gold-leaf. Some additional particulars about the Kin-Chi, in the time of the Mongols, will be found in Pauthier’s notes (p. 398).

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

According to the Hwang-tsing Chi-kung t’u (quoted by Devéria, Front. p. 130), the Pei-jen were Kin-chi, of Pa-y race, and were surnamed Min-kia-tzŭ; the Min-kia, according to F. Garnier, say that they come from Nan-king, but this is certainly an error for the Pei-jen. From another Chinese work, Devéria (p. 169) gives this information: The Piao are the Kin-Chi; they submitted to the Mongols in the 13th century; they are descended from the people of Chu-po or Piao Kwo (Kingdom of Piao), ancient Pegu; P’u-p’iao, in a little valley between the Mekong and the 90Salwen Rivers, was the place through which the P’u and the Piao entered China.

The Chinese geographical work Fang-yu-ki-yao mentions the name of Kin-Chi Ch’eng, or city of Kin-Chi, as the ancient denomination of Yung-ch’ang. A Chinese Pa-y vocabulary, belonging to Professor Devéria, translates Kin-Chi by Wan-Chang (Yung-ch’ang). (Devéria, Front. p. 128.)—H. C.]

It has not been determined who are the representatives of these Gold-Teeth, who were evidently distinct from the Shans, not Buddhist, and without literature. I should think it probable that they were Kakhyens or Singphos, who, excluding Shans, appear to form the greatest body in that quarter, and are closely akin to each other, indeed essentially identical in race.[1] The Singphos have now extended widely to the west of the Upper Irawadi and northward into Assam, but their traditions bring them from the borders of Yunnan. The original and still most populous seat of the Kakhyen or Singpho race is pointed out by Colonel Hannay in the Gulansigung Mountains and the valley of the eastern source of the Irawadi. This agrees with Martini’s indication of the seat of the Kin-Chi as north of Yung-ch’ang. One of Hannay’s notices of Singpho customs should also be compared with the interpolation from Ramusio about tattooing: “The men tattoo their limbs slightly, and all married females are tattooed on both legs from the ankle to the knee, in broad horizontal circular bands. Both sexes also wear rings below the knee of fine shreds of rattan varnished black” (p. 18). These rings appear on the Kakhyen woman in our cut.

Kakhyens. (From a Photograph.)

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

The characteristic of casing the teeth in gold should identify the tribe did it still exist. But I can learn nothing of the continued existence of such a custom among any tribe of the Indo-Chinese continent. The insertion of gold studs or spots, which Bürck confounds with it, is common enough among Indo-Chinese races, but that is quite a different thing. The actual practice of the Zardandan is, however, followed by some of the people of Sumatra, as both Marsden and Raffles testify: “The great men sometimes set their teeth in gold, by casing with a plate of 91that metal the under row ... it is sometimes indented to the shape of the teeth, but more usually quite plain. They do not remove it either to eat or sleep.” The like custom is mentioned by old travellers at Macassar, and with the substitution of silver for gold by a modern traveller as existing in Timor; but in both, probably, it was a practice of Malay tribes, as in Sumatra. (Marsden’s Sumatra, 3rd ed., p. 52; Raffles’s Java, I. 105; Bickmore’s Ind. Archipelago.)

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

Note 3.—This is precisely the account which Lieutenant Garnier gives of the people of Laos: “The Laos people are very indolent, and when they are not rich enough to possess slaves they make over to their women the greatest part of the business of the day; and ’tis these latter who not only do all the work of the house, but who husk the rice, work in the fields, and paddle the canoes. Hunting and fishing are almost the only occupations which pertain exclusively to the stronger sex.” (Notice sur le Voyage d’Exploration, etc., p. 34.)

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

“En Amérique, en Corse, et chez l’Ibérien,

En France même encor chez le Vénarnien,

Au pays Navarrois, lorsqu’une femme accouche,

L’épouse sort du lit et le mari se couche;

Et, quoiqu’il soit très sain et d’esprit et de corps,

Contre un mal qu’il n’a point l’art unit ses efforts.

On le met au régime, et notre faux malade,

Soigné par l’accouchée, en son lit fait couvade:

On ferme avec grand soin portes, volets, rideaux;

Immobile, on l’oblige à rester sur le dos,

Pour étouffer son lait, qui gêné dans sa course,

Pourrait en l’étouffant remonter vers sa source.

Un mari, dans sa couche, au médecin soumis,

Reçoit, en cet état, parents, voisins, amis,

Qui viennent l’exhorter à prendre patience

Et font des vœux au ciel pour sa convalescence.”

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

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

The nearest people to the Zardandan of whom I find this custom elsewhere 92recorded, is one called Langszi,[2] a small tribe of aborigines in the department of Wei-ning, in Kweichau, but close to the border of Yun-nan: “Their manners and customs are very extraordinary. For example, when the wife has given birth to a child, the husband remains in the house and holds it in his arms for a whole month, not once going out of doors. The wife in the mean time does all the work in doors and out, and provides and serves up both food and drink for the husband, she only giving suck to the child.” I am informed also that, among the Miris on the Upper Assam border, the husband on such occasions confines himself strictly to the house for forty days after the event.

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

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

————“Chineses go to bed

And lie in, in their ladies’ stead.”

The custom is humorously introduced, as Pauthier has noticed, in the Mediæval Fabliau of Aucassin and Nicolete. Aucassin arriving at the castle of Torelore asks for the king and is told he is in child-bed. Where then is his wife? She is gone to the wars and has taken all the people with her. Aucassin, greatly astonished, enters the palace, and wanders through it till he comes to the chamber where the king lay:—

“En le canbre entre Aucassins

Li cortois et li gentis;

Il est venus dusqu’au lit

Alec ú li Rois se gist.

Pardevant lui s’arestit

Si parla, Oès que dist;

Diva fau, que fais-tu ci?

Dist le Rois, Je gis d’un fil,

Quant mes mois sera complis,

Et ge serai bien garis,

Dont irai le messe oïr

Si comme mes ancessor fist,” etc.

Aucassin pulls all the clothes off him, and cudgels him soundly, making him promise that never a man shall lie in again in his country.

This strange custom, if it were unique, would look like a coarse practical joke, but appearing as it does among so many different races and in every quarter of the world, it must have its root somewhere deep in the psychology of the uncivilised man. I must refer to Mr. Tylor’s interesting remarks on the rationale of the custom, for 93they do not bear abridgment. Professor Max Müller humorously suggests that “the treatment which a husband receives among ourselves at the time of his wife’s confinement, not only from mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and other female relations, but from nurses, and from every consequential maid-servant in the house,” is but a “survival,” as Mr. Tylor would call it, of the couvade; or at least represents the same feeling which among those many uncivilised nations thus drove the husband to his bed, and sometimes (as among the Caribs) put him when there to systematic torture.

(Tylor, Researches, 288–296; Michel, Le Pays Basque, p. 201; Sketches of the Meau-tsze, transl. by Bridgman in J. of North China Br. of R. As. Soc., p. 277; Hudibras, Pt. III., canto I. 707; Fabliaus et Contes par Barbazan, éd. Méon, I. 408–409; Indian Antiq. III. 151; Müller’s Chips, II. 227 seqq.; many other references in Tylor, and in a capital monograph by Dr. H. H. Ploss of Leipzig, received during revision of this sheet: ‘Das Männerkindbett.’ What a notable example of the German power of compounding is that title!)

[This custom seems to be considered generally as a survival of the matriarchate in a society with a patriarchal régime. We may add to the list of authorities on this subject: E. Westermarck, Hist. of Human Marriage, 106, seqq.; G. A. Wilken, De Couvade bij de Volken v.d. Indischen Archipel, Bijdr. Ind. Inst., 5th ser., iv. p. 250. Dr. Ernest Martin, late physician of the French Legation at Peking, in an article on La Couvade en Chine (Revue Scientifique, 24th March, 1894), gave a drawing representing the couvade from a sketch by a native artist.

In the China Review (XI. pp. 401–402), “Lao Kwang-tung” notes these interesting facts: “The Chinese believe that certain actions performed by the husband during the pregnancy of his wife will affect the child. If a dish of food on the table is raised by putting another dish, or anything else below it, it is not considered proper for a husband, who is expecting the birth of a child, to partake of it, for fear the two dishes should cause the child to have two tongues. It is extraordinary that the caution thus exercised by the Chinese has not prevented many of them from being double-tongued. This result, it is supposed, however, will only happen if the food so raised is eaten in the house in which the future mother happens to be. It is thought that the pasting up of the red papers containing antithetical and felicitous sentences on them, as at New Year’s time, by a man under similar circumstances, and this whether the future mother sees the action performed or not, will cause the child to have red marks on the face or any part of the body. The causes producing naevi materni have probably been the origin of such marks, rather than the idea entertained by the Chinese that the father, having performed an action by some occult mode, influences the child yet unborn. A case is said to have occurred in which ill effects were obviated, or rather obliterated, by the red papers being torn down, after the birth of the infant, and soaked in water, when as the red disappeared from the paper, so the child’s face assumed a natural hue. Lord Avebury also speaks of la couvade as existing among the Chinese of West Yun-Nan. (Origin of Civilisation and Primitive Condition of Man, p. 18).”

Dr. J. A. H. Murray, editor of the New English Dictionary, wrote, in The Academy, of 29th October, 1892, a letter with the heading of Couvade, The Genesis of an Anthropological Term, which elicited an answer from Dr. E. B. Tylor (Academy, 5th November): “Wanting a general term for such customs,” writes Dr. Tylor, “and finding statements in books that this male lying-in lasted on till modern times, in the south of France, and was there called couvade, that is brooding or hatching (couver), I adopted this word for the set of customs, and it has since become established in English.” The discussion was carried on in The Academy, 12th and 19th November, 10th and 17th December; Mr. A. L. Mayhew wrote (12th November): “There is no doubt whatever that Dr. Tylor and Professor Max Müller (in a review of Dr. Tylor’s book) share the glory of having given a new technical sense to an old provincial French word, and of seeing it accepted in France, and safely enshrined in the great Dictionary of Littré.”

94

Now as to the origin of the word; we have seen above that Rochefort was the first to use the expression faire la couvade. This author, or at least the author (see Barbier, Ouvrages anonymes) of the Histoire naturelle ... des Iles Antilles, which was published for the first time at Rotterdam, in 1658, 4to., writes: “C’est qu’au méme tems que la femme est delivrée le mary se met au lit, pour s’y plaindre et y faire l’acouchée: coutume, qui bien que Sauvage et ridicule, se trouve neantmoins à ce que l’on dit, parmy les paysans d’vne certaine Province de France. Et ils appellent cela faire la couvade. Mais ce qui est de fâcheus pour le pauvre Caraïbe, qui s’est mis au lit au lieu de l’acouchée, c’est qu’on luy fait faire diéte dix ou douze jours de suite, ne luy donnant rien par jour qu’vn petit morceau de Cassave, et vn peu d’eau dans la quelle on a aussi fait boüillir un peu de ce pain de racine.... Mais ils ne font ce grand jeusne qu’à la naissance de leur premier enfant....” (II. pp. 607–608).

Lafitau (Mœurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, I. pp. 49–50) says on the authority of Rochefort: “Je la trouve chez les Ibériens ou les premiers Peuples d’Espagne ... elle est aujourd’hui dans quelques unes de nos Provinces d’Espagne.”

The word couvade, forgotten in the sense of lying-in-bed, recalled by Sacombe, has been renovated in a happy manner by Dr. Tylor.

As to the custom itself, there can be no doubt of its existence, in spite of some denials. Dr. Tylor, in the third edition of his valuable Early History of Mankind, published in 1878 (Murray), since the last edition of The Book of Ser Marco Polo, has added (pp. 291 seqq.) many more proofs to support what he had already said on the subject.

There may be some strong doubts as to the couvade in the south of France, and the authors who speak of it in Béarn and the Basque Countries seem to have copied one another, but there is not the slightest doubt of its having been and of its being actually practised in South America. There is a very curious account of it in the Voyage dans le Nord du Brésil made by Father Yves d’Evreux in 1613 and 1614 (see pp. 88–89 of the reprint, Paris, 1864, and the note of the learned Ferdinand Denis, pp. 411–412). Compare with Durch Central-Brasilien ... im Jahre 1884 von K.v. den Steinen. But the following extract from Among the Indians of Guiana.... By Everard im Thurn (1883), will settle, I think, the question:

“Turning from the story of the day to the story of the life, we may begin at the beginning, that is, at the birth of the children. And here, at once, we meet with, perhaps, the most curious point in the habits of the Indians; the couvade or male child-bed. This custom, which is common to the uncivilized people of many parts of the world, is probably among the strangest ever invented by the human brain. Even before the child is born, the father abstains for a time from certain kinds of animal food. The woman works as usual up to a few hours before the birth of the child. At last she retires alone, or accompanied only by some other women, to the forest, where she ties up her hammock; and then the child is born. Then in a few hours—often less than a day—the woman, who, like all women living in a very unartificial condition, suffers but little, gets up and resumes her ordinary work. According to Schomburgk, the mother, at any rate among the Macusis, remains in her hammock for some time, and the father hangs his hammock, and lies in it, by her side; but in all cases where the matter came under my notice, the mother left her hammock almost at once. In any case, no sooner is the child born than the father takes to his hammock and, abstaining from every sort of work, from meat and all other food, except weak gruel of cassava meal, from smoking, from washing himself, and, above all, from touching weapons of any sort, is nursed and cared for by all the women of the place. One other regulation, mentioned by Schomburgk, is certainly quaint; the interesting father may not scratch himself with his finger-nails, but he may use for this purpose a splinter, specially provided, from the mid-rib of a cokerite palm. This continues for many days, and sometimes even weeks. Couvade is such a wide-spread institution, that I had often read and wondered at it; but it was not until I saw it practised around me, and found that I was often suddenly 95deprived of the services of my best hunters or boat-hands, by the necessity which they felt, and which nothing could persuade them to disregard, of observing couvade, that I realized its full strangeness. No satisfactory explanation of its origin seems attainable. It appears based on a belief in the existence of a mysterious connection between the child and its father—far closer than that which exists between the child and its mother,—and of such a nature that if the father infringes any of the rules of the couvade, for a time after the birth of the child, the latter suffers. For instance, if he eats the flesh of a water-haas (Capybara), a large rodent with very protruding teeth, the teeth of the child will grow as those of the animal; or if he eats the flesh of the spotted-skinned labba, the child’s skin will become spotted. Apparently there is also some idea that for the father to eat strong food, to wash, to smoke, or to handle weapons, would have the same result as if the new-born babe ate such food, washed, smoked, or played with edged tools” (pp. 217–219.)

I have to thank Dr. Edward B. Tylor for the valuable notes he kindly sent me.—H. C.]

Note 5.—“The abundance of gold in Yun-nan is proverbial in China, so that if a man lives very extravagantly they ask if his father is governor of Yun-nan.” (Martini, p. 140.)

Polo has told us that in Eastern Yun-nan the exchange was 8 of silver for one of gold (ch. xlviii.); in the Western division of the province 6 of silver for one of gold (ch. xlix.); and now, still nearer the borders of Ava, only 5 of silver for one of gold. Such discrepancies within 15 days’ journey would be inconceivable, but that in both the latter instances at least he appears to speak of the rates at which the gold was purchased from secluded, ignorant, and uncivilised tribes. It is difficult to reconcile with other facts the reason which he assigns for the high value put on silver at Vochan, viz., that there was no silver-mine within five months’ journey. In later days, at least, Martini speaks of many silver-mines in Yun-nan, and the “Great Silver Mine” (Bau-dwen gyi of the Burmese) or group of mines, which affords a chief supply to Burma in modern times, is not far from the territory of our Traveller’s Zardandan. Garnier’s map shows several argentiferous sites in the Valley of the Lan-t’sang.

In another work[3] I have remarked at some length on the relative values of gold and silver about this time. In Western Europe these seem to have been as 12 to 1, and I have shown grounds for believing that in India, and generally over civilised Asia, the ratio was 10 to 1. In Pauthier’s extracts from the Yuen-shi or Annals of the Mongol Dynasty, there is an incidental but precise confirmation of this, of which I was not then aware. This states (p. 321) that on the issue of the paper currency of 1287 the official instructions to the local treasuries were to issue notes of the nominal value of two strings, i.e. 2000 wen or cash, for every ounce of flowered silver, and 20,000 cash for every ounce of gold. Ten to 1 must have continued to be the relation in China down to about the end of the 17th century if we may believe Lecomte; but when Milburne states the same value in the beginning of the 19th he must have fallen into some great error. In 1781 Sonnerat tells us that formerly gold had been exported from China with a profit of 25 per cent., but at that time a profit of 18 to 20 per cent. was made by importing it. At present[4] the relative values are about the same as in Europe, viz. 1 to 15½ or 1 to 16; but in Canton, in 1844, they were 1 to 17; and Timkowski states that at Peking in 1821 the finest gold was valued at 18 to 1. And as regards the precise territory of which this chapter speaks I find in Lieutenant Bower’s Commercial Report on Sladen’s Mission that the price of pure gold at Momein in 1868 was 13 times its weight in silver (p. 122); whilst M. Garnier mentions that the exchange at Ta-li in 1869 was 12 to 1 (I. 522).

Does not Shakspeare indicate at least a memory of 10 to 1 as the traditional 96relation of gold to silver when he makes the Prince of Morocco, balancing over Portia’s caskets, argue:—

“Or shall I think in silver she’s immured,

Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?

O sinful thought!”

In Japan, at the time trade was opened, we know from Sir R. Alcock’s work the extraordinary fact that the proportionate value set upon gold and silver currency by authority was as 3 to 1.

(Cathay, etc., p. ccl. and p. 442; Lecomte, II. 91; Milburne’s Oriental Commerce, II. 510; Sonnerat, II. 17; Hedde, Etude, Pratique, etc., p. 14; Williams, Chinese Commercial Guide, p. 129; Timkowski, II. 202; Alcock, I. 281; II. 411, etc.)

Note 6.—Mr. Lay cites from a Chinese authority a notice of a tribe of “Western Miautsze,” who “in the middle of autumn sacrifice to the Great Ancestor or Founder of their Race.” (The Chinese as they are, p. 321.)

Note 7.—Dr. Anderson confirms the depressing and unhealthy character of the summer climate at Momein, though standing between 5000 and 6000 feet above the sea (p. 41).

Note 8.—“Whereas before,” says Jack Cade to Lord Say, “our forefathers had no books but score and tally, thou hast caused printing to be used.” The use of such tallies for the record of contracts among the aboriginal tribes of Kweichau is mentioned by Chinese authorities, and the French missionaries of Bonga speak of the same as in use among the simple tribes in that vicinity. But, as Marsden notes, the use of such rude records was to be found in his day in higher places and much nearer home. They continued to be employed as records of receipts in the British Exchequer till 1834, “and it is worthy of recollection that the fire by which the Houses of Parliament were destroyed was supposed to have originated in the over-heating of the flues in which the discarded tallies were being burnt.” I remember often, when a child, to have seen the tallies of the colliers in Scotland, and possibly among that class they may survive. They appear to be still used by bakers in various parts of England and France, in the Canterbury hop-gardens, and locally in some other trades. (Martini, 135; Bridgman, 259, 262; Eng. Cyclop. sub v. Tally; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. X. 485.)

[According to Father Crabouillet (Missions Cath. 1873, p. 105), the Lolos use tallies for their contracts; Dr. Harmand mentions (Tour du Monde, 1877, No. VII.) the same fact among the Khas of Central Laos; and M. Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis (Populations du nord de l’Indo-Chine, 1892, p. 22, from the J. As.) says he saw these tallies among the Khas of Luang-Prabang.—H. C.]

“In Illustration of this custom I have to relate what follows. In the year 1863 the Tsaubwa (or Prince) of a Shan Province adjoining Yun-nan was in rebellion against the Burmese Government. He wished to enter into communication with the British Government. He sent a messenger to a British Officer with a letter tendering his allegiance, and accompanying this letter was a piece of bamboo about five inches long. This had been split down the middle, so that the two pieces fitted closely together, forming a tube in the original shape of the bamboo. A notch at one end included the edges of both pieces, showing that they were a pair. The messenger said that if the reply were favourable one of the pieces was to be returned and the other kept. I need hardly say the messenger received no written reply, and both pieces of bamboo were retained.” (MS. Note by Sir Arthur Phayre.)

Note 9.—Compare Mr. Hodgson’s account of the sub-Himalayan Bodos and Dhimals: “All diseases are ascribed to supernatural agency. The sick man is supposed to be possessed by one of the deities, who racks him with pain as a 97punishment for impiety or neglect of the god in question. Hence not the mediciner, but the exorcist, is summoned to the sick man’s aid.” (J. A. S. B. XVIII. 728.)

Note 10.—Mr. Hodgson again: “Libations of fermented liquor always accompany sacrifice—because, to confess the whole truth, sacrifice and feast are commutable words, and feasts need to be crowned with copious potations.” (Ibid.)

Note 11.—And again: “The god in question is asked what sacrifice he requires? a buffalo, a hog, a fowl, or a duck, to spare the sufferer; ... anxious as I am fully to illustrate the topic, I will not try the patience of my readers by describing all that vast variety of black victims and white, of red victims and blue, which each particular deity is alleged to prefer.” (Ibid. and p. 732.)

Note 12.—The same system of devil-dancing is prevalent among the tribes on the Lu-kiang, as described by the R. C. Missionaries. The conjurors are there called Mumos. (Ann. de la Prop. de la Foi, XXXVI. 323, and XXXVII. 312–313.)

“Marco’s account of the exorcism of evil spirits in cases of obstinate illness exactly resembles what is done in similar cases by the Burmese, except that I never saw animals sacrificed on such occasions.” (Sir A. Phayre.)

Mouhot says of the wild people of Cambodia called Stiens: “When any one is ill they say that the Evil Spirit torments him; and to deliver him they set up about the patient a dreadful din which does not cease night or day, until some one among the bystanders falls down as if in a syncope, crying out, ‘I have him,—he is in me,—he is strangling me!’ Then they question the person who has thus become possessed. They ask him what remedies will save the patient; what remedies does the Evil Spirit require that he may give up his prey? Sometimes it is an ox or a pig; but too often it is a human victim.” (J. R. G. S. XXXII. 147.)

See also the account of the Samoyede Tadibeï or Devil-dancer in Klaproth’s Magasin Asiatique (II. 83).

In fact these strange rites of Shamanism, devil-dancing, or what not, are found with wonderful identity of character among the non-Caucasian races over parts of the earth most remote from one another, not only among the vast variety of Indo-Chinese Tribes, but among the Tamulian tribes of India, the Veddahs of Ceylon, the races of Siberia, and the red nations of North and South America. Hinduism has assimilated these “prior superstitions of the sons of Tur” as Mr. Hodgson calls them, in the form of Tantrika mysteries, whilst, in the wild performance of the Dancing Dervishes at Constantinople, we see perhaps again the infection of Turanian blood breaking out from the very heart of Mussulman orthodoxy.

Dr. Caldwell has given a striking account of the practice of devil-dancing among the Shanars of Tinnevelly, which forms a perfect parallel in modern language to our Traveller’s description of a scene of which he also had manifestly been an eye-witness: “When the preparations are completed and the devil-dance is about to commence, the music is at first comparatively slow; the dancer seems impassive and sullen, and he either stands still or moves about in gloomy silence. Gradually, as the music becomes quicker and louder, his excitement begins to rise. Sometimes, to help him to work himself up into a frenzy, he uses medicated draughts, cuts and lacerates himself till the blood flows, lashes himself with a huge whip, presses a burning torch to his breast, drinks the blood which flows from his own wounds, or drains the blood of the sacrifice, putting the throat of the decapitated goat to his mouth. Then, as if he had acquired new life, he begins to brandish his staff of bells, and to dance with a quick but wild unsteady step. Suddenly the afflatus descends; there is no mistaking that glare, or those frantic leaps. He snorts, he stares, he gyrates. The demon has now taken bodily possession of him, and though he retains the power of utterance and motion, both are under the demon’s control, and his separate consciousness is in abeyance. The bystanders signalise the event by raising a long shout, attended with a peculiar vibratory noise, caused by the motion of the hand and 98tongue, or the tongue alone. The devil-dancer is now worshipped as a present deity, and every bystander consults him respecting his diseases, his wants, the welfare of his absent relatives, the offerings to be made for the accomplishment of his wishes, and in short everything for which superhuman knowledge is supposed to be available.” (Hodgson, J. R. As. Soc. XVIII. 397; The Tinnevelly Shanars, by the Rev. R. Caldwell, B.A., Madras, 1849, pp. 19–20.)

CHAPTER LI.

But I was forgetting to tell you of a famous battle that was fought in the kingdom of Vochan in the Province of Zardandan, and that ought not to be omitted from our Book. So we will relate all the particulars.

You see, in the year of Christ, 1272,{1} the Great Kaan sent a large force into the kingdoms of Carajan and Vochan, to protect them from the ravages of ill-disposed people; and this was before he had sent any of his sons to rule the country, as he did afterwards when he made Sentemur king there, the son of a son of his who was deceased.

Now there was a certain king, called the king of Mien and of Bangala, who was a very puissant prince, with much territory and treasure and people; and he was not as yet subject to the Great Kaan, though it was not long after that the latter conquered him and took from him both the kingdoms that I have named.{2} And it came to pass that when this king of Mien and Bangala heard that the host of the Great Kaan was at Vochan, he said to himself that it behoved him to go against them with so great a force as should insure his cutting off the whole of them, insomuch that the Great Kaan would be very sorry ever to send an army again thither [to his frontier].

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So this king prepared a great force and munitions of war; and he had, let me tell you, 2000 great elephants, on each of which was set a tower of timber, well framed and strong, and carrying from twelve to sixteen well-armed fighting men.{3} And besides these, he had of horsemen and of footmen good 60,000 men. In short, he equipped a fine force, as well befitted such a puissant prince. It was indeed a host capable of doing great things.

And what shall I tell you? When the king had completed these great preparations to fight the Tartars, he tarried not, but straightway marched against them. And after advancing without meeting with anything worth mentioning, they arrived within three days of the Great Kaan’s host, which was then at Vochan in the territory of Zardandan, of which I have already spoken. So there the king pitched his camp, and halted to refresh his army.

Note 1.—This date is no doubt corrupt. (See note 3, ch. lii.)

Note 2.—Mien is the name by which the kingdom of Burma or Ava was and is known to the Chinese. M. Garnier informs me that Mien-Kwé or Mien-tisong is the name always given in Yun-nan to that kingdom, whilst the Shans at Kiang Hung call the Burmese Man (pronounced like the English word).

The title given to the sovereign in question of King of Bengal, as well as of Mien, is very remarkable. We shall see reason hereafter to conceive that Polo did more or less confound Bengal with Pegu, which was subject to the Burmese monarchy up to the time of the Mongol invasion. But apart from any such misapprehension, there is not only evidence of rather close relations between Burma and Gangetic India in the ages immediately preceding that of our author, but also some ground for believing that he may be right in his representation, and that the King of Burma may have at this time arrogated the title of “King of Bengal,” which is attributed to him in the text.

Anaurahta, one of the most powerful kings in Burmese history (1017–1059), extended his conquests to the frontiers of India, and is stated to have set up images within that country. He also married an Indian princess, the daughter of the King of Wethali (i.e. Vaiçali in Tirhút).

There is also in the Burmese Chronicle a somewhat confused story regarding a succeeding king, Kyan-tsittha (A.D. 1064), who desired to marry his daughter to the son of the King of Patteik-Kará, a part of Bengal.[1] The marriage was objected to 100by the Burmese nobles, but the princess was already with child by the Bengal prince; and their son eventually succeeded to the Burmese throne under the name of Alaungtsi-thu. When king, he travelled all over his dominions, and visited the images which Anaurahta had set up in India. He also maintained intercourse with the King of Patteik-Kará and married his daughter. Alaungtsi-thu is stated to have lived to the age of 101 years, and to have reigned 75. Even then his death was hastened by his son Narathu, who smothered him in the temple called Shwé-Ku (“Golden Cave”), at Pagán, and also put to death his Bengali step-mother. The father of the latter sent eight brave men, disguised as Brahmans, to avenge his daughter’s death. Having got access to the royal presence through their sacred character, they slew King Narathu and then themselves. Hence King Narathu is known in the Burmese history as the Kalá-Ḳya Meng, or “King slain by the Hindus.” He was building the great Temple at Pagán called Dhammayangyi, at the time of his death, which occurred about the year 1171. The great-grandson of this king was Narathihapade (presumably Narasinha-pati), the king reigning at the time of the Mongol invasion.

All these circumstances show tolerably close relations between Burma and Bengal, and also that the dynasty then reigning in Burma was descended from a Bengal stock. Sir Arthur Phayre, after noting these points, remarks: “From all these circumstances, and from the conquests attributed to Anaurahta, it is very probable that, after the conquest of Bengal by the Mahomedans in the 13th century, the kings of Burma would assume the title of Kings of Bengal. This is nowhere expressly stated in the Burmese history, but the course of events renders it very probable. We know that the claim to Bengal was asserted by the kings of Burma in long after years. In the Journal of the Marquis of Hastings, under the date of 6th September, 1818, is the following passage: ‘The king of Burma favoured us early this year with the obliging requisition that we should cede to him Moorshedabad and the provinces to the east of it, which he deigned to say were all natural dependencies of his throne.’ And at the time of the disputes on the frontier of Arakan, in 1823–1824, which led to the war of the two following years, the Governor of Arakan made a similar demand. We may therefore reasonably conclude that at the close of the 13th century of the Christian era the kings of Pagán called themselves kings of Burma and of Bengala.” (MS. Note by Sir Arthur Phayre; see also his paper in J. A. S. B. vol. XXXVII. part I.)

Note 3.—It is very difficult to know what to make of the repeated assertions of old writers as to the numbers of men carried by war-elephants, or, if we could admit those numbers, to conceive how the animal could have carried the enormous structure necessary to give them space to use their weapons. The Third Book of Maccabees is the most astounding in this way, alleging that a single elephant carried 32 stout men, besides the Indian Mahaut. Bochart indeed supposes the number here to be a clerical error for 12, but this would even be extravagant. Friar Jordanus is, no doubt, building on the Maccabees rather than on his own Oriental experience when he says that the elephant “carrieth easily more than 30 men.” Philostratus, in his Life of Apollonius, speaks of 10 to 15; Ibn Batuta of about 20; and a great elephant sent by Timur to the Sultan of Egypt is said to have carried 20 drummers. Christopher Borri says that in Cochin China the elephant did ordinarily carry 13 or 14 persons, 6 on each side in two tiers of 3 each, and 2 behind. On the other hand, among the ancients, Strabo and Aelian speak of three soldiers only in addition to the driver, and Livy, describing the Battle of Magnesia, of four. These last are reasonable statements.

(Bochart, Hierozoicon, ed. 3rd, p. 266; Jord., p. 26; Philost. trad. par A. Chassaing, liv. II. c. ii.; Ibn Bat. II. 223; N. and E. XIV. 510; Cochin China, etc., London, 1633, ed. 3; Armandi, Hist. Militaire des Eléphants, 259 seqq. 442.)

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CHAPTER LII.

And when the Captain of the Tartar host had certain news that the king aforesaid was coming against him with so great a force, he waxed uneasy, seeing that he had with him but 12,000 horsemen. Natheless he was a most valiant and able soldier, of great experience in arms and an excellent Captain; and his name was Nescradin.{1} His troops too were very good, and he gave them very particular orders and cautions how to act, and took every measure for his own defence and that of his army. And why should I make a long story of it? The whole force of the Tartars, consisting of 12,000 well-mounted horsemen, advanced to receive the enemy in the Plain of Vochan, and there they waited to give them battle. And this they did through the good judgment of the excellent Captain who led them; for hard by that plain was a great wood, thick with trees. And so there in the plain the Tartars awaited their foe. Let us then leave discoursing of them a while; we shall come back to them presently; but meantime let us speak of the enemy.

After the King of Mien had halted long enough to refresh his troops, he resumed his march, and came to the Plain of Vochan, where the Tartars were already in order of battle. And when the king’s army had arrived in the plain, and was within a mile of the enemy, he caused all the castles that were on the elephants to be ordered for battle, and the fighting-men to take up their posts on them, and he arrayed his horse and his foot with all skill, like a wise king as he 102was. And when he had completed all his arrangements he began to advance to engage the enemy. The Tartars, seeing the foe advance, showed no dismay, but came on likewise with good order and discipline to meet them. And when they were near and nought remained but to begin the fight, the horses of the Tartars took such fright at the sight of the elephants that they could not be got to face the foe, but always swerved and turned back; whilst all the time the king and his forces, and all his elephants, continued to advance upon them.{2}

And when the Tartars perceived how the case stood, they were in great wrath, and wist not what to say or do; for well enough they saw that unless they could get their horses to advance, all would be lost. But their Captain acted like a wise leader who had considered everything beforehand. He immediately gave orders that every man should dismount and tie his horse to the trees of the forest that stood hard by, and that then they should take to their bows, a weapon that they know how to handle better than any troops in the world. They did as he bade them, and plied their bows stoutly, shooting so many shafts at the advancing elephants that in a short space they had wounded or slain the greater part of them as well as of the men they carried. The enemy also shot at the Tartars, but the Tartars had the better weapons, and were the better archers to boot.

And what shall I tell you? Understand that when the elephants felt the smart of those arrows that pelted them like rain, they turned tail and fled, and nothing on earth would have induced them to turn and face the Tartars. So off they sped with such a noise and uproar that you would have trowed the world was coming to an end! And then too they plunged into the wood and rushed this way and that, dashing their castles 103against the trees, bursting their harness and smashing and destroying everything that was on them.

So when the Tartars saw that the elephants had turned tail and could not be brought to face the fight again, they got to horse at once and charged the enemy. And then the battle began to rage furiously with sword and mace. Right fiercely did the two hosts rush together, and deadly were the blows exchanged. The king’s troops were far more in number than the Tartars, but they were not of such metal, nor so inured to war; otherwise the Tartars who were so few in number could never have stood against them. Then might you see swashing blows dealt and taken from sword and mace; then might you see knights and horses and men-at-arms go down; then might you see arms and hands and legs and heads hewn off: and besides the dead that fell, many a wounded man, that never rose again, for the sore press there was. The din and uproar were so great from this side and from that, that God might have thundered and no man would have heard it! Great was the medley, and dire and parlous was the fight that was fought on both sides; but the Tartars had the best of it.{3}

In an ill hour indeed, for the king and his people, was that battle begun, so many of them were slain therein. And when they had continued fighting till midday the king’s troops could stand against the Tartars no longer; but felt that they were defeated, and turned and fled. And when the Tartars saw them routed they gave chase, and hacked and slew so mercilessly that it was a piteous sight to see. But after pursuing a while they gave up, and returned to the wood to catch the elephants that had run away, and to manage this they had to cut down great trees to bar their passage. Even then they would not have been able to take them without the help of the king’s own men who had been taken, and who 104knew better how to deal with the beasts than the Tartars did. The elephant is an animal that hath more wit than any other; but in this way at last they were caught, more than 200 of them. And it was from this time forth that the Great Kaan began to keep numbers of elephants.

So thus it was that the king aforesaid was defeated by the sagacity and superior skill of the Tartars as you have heard.

Note 1.—Nescradin for Nesradin, as we had Bascra for Basra.

This Násruddin was apparently an officer of whom Rashiduddin speaks, and whom he calls governor (or perhaps commander) in Karájáng. He describes him as having succeeded in that command to his father the Sayad Ajil of Bokhara, one of the best of Kúblái’s chief Ministers. Nasr-uddin retained his position in Yun-nan till his death, which Rashid, writing about 1300, says occurred five or six years before. His son Bayan, who also bore the grandfather’s title of Sayad Ajil, was Minister of Finance under Kúblái’s successor; and another son, Ḥálá, is also mentioned as one of the governors of the province of Fu-chau. (See Cathay, pp. 265, 268, and D’Ohsson, II. 507–508.)

Nasr-uddin (Nasulating) is also frequently mentioned as employed on this frontier by the Chinese authorities whom Pauthier cites.

[Na-su-la-ding [Nasr-uddin] was the eldest of the five sons of the Mohammedan Sai-dien-ch’i shan-sze-ding, Sayad Ajil, a native of Bokhara, who died in Yun-nan, where he had been governor when Kúblái, in the reign of Mangu, entered the country. Nasr-uddin “has a separate biography in ch. cxxv of the Yuen-shi. He was governor of the province of Yun-nan, and distinguished himself in the war against the southern tribes of Kiao-chi (Cochin-China) and Mien (Burma). He died in 1292, the father of twelve sons, the names of five of which are given in the biography, viz. Bo-yen-ch’a-rh [Bayan], who held a high office, Omar, Djafar, Hussein, and Saadi.” (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. 270–271). Mr. E. H. Parker writes in the China Review, February–March, 1901, pp. 196–197, that the Mongol history states that amongst the reforms of Nasr-uddin’s father in Yun-nan, was the introduction of coffins for the dead, instead of burning them.—H. C.]

[Note 2.—In his battle near Sardis, Cyrus “collected together all the camels that had come in the train of his army to carry the provisions and the baggage, and taking off their loads, he mounted riders upon them accoutred as horsemen. These he commanded to advance in front of his other troops against the Lydian horse.... The reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to the enemy’s horse was, because the horse has a natural dread of the camel, and cannot abide either the sight or the smell of that animal.... The two armies then joined battle, and immediately the Lydian war-horses, seeing and smelling the camels, turned round and galloped off.” (Herodotus, Bk. I. i. p. 220, Rawlinson’s ed.)—H. C.]

Note 3.—We are indebted to Pauthier for very interesting illustrations of this narrative from the Chinese Annalists (p. 410 seqq.). These latter fix the date to the year 1277, and it is probable that the 1272 or mcclxxii of the Texts was a clerical error for mcclxxvii. The Annalists describe the people of Mien as irritated at calls upon them to submit to the Mongols (whose power they probably did not appreciate, as their descendants did not appreciate the British power in 1824), and as crossing the frontier of Yung-ch’ang to establish fortified posts. The force of Mien, they say, amounted to 50,000 men, with 800 elephants and 10,000 horses, whilst the Mongol 105Chief had but seven hundred men. “When the elephants felt the arrows (of the Mongols) they turned tail and fled with the platforms on their backs into a place that was set thickly with sharp bamboo-stakes, and these their riders laid hold of to prick them with.” This threw the Burmese army into confusion; they fled, and were pursued with great slaughter.

The Chinese author does not mention Nasr-uddin in connection with this battle. He names as the chief of the Mongol force Huthukh (Kutuka?), commandant of Ta-li fu. Nasr-uddin is mentioned as advancing, a few months later (about December, 1277), with nearly 4000 men to Kiangtheu (which appears to have been on the Irawadi, somewhere near Bhamó, and is perhaps the Kaungtaung of the Burmese), but effecting little (p. 415).

[I have published in the Rev. Ext. Orient, II. 72–88, from the British Museum Add. MS. 16913, the translation by Mgr. Visdelou, of Chinese documents relating to the Kingdom of Mien and the wars of Kúblái; the battle won by Hu-tu, commandant of Ta-li, was fought during the 3rd month of the 14th year (1277). (Cf. Pauthier, supra.)—H. C.]

These affairs of the battle in the Yung-ch’ang territory, and the advance of Nasr-uddin to the Irawadi are, as Polo clearly implies in the beginning of ch. li., quite distinct from the invasion and conquest of Mien some years later, of which he speaks in ch. liv. They are not mentioned in the Burmese Annals at all.

Sir Arthur Phayre is inclined to reject altogether the story of the battle near Yung-ch’ang in consequence of this absence from the Burmese Chronicle, and of its inconsistency with the purely defensive character which that record assigns to the action of the Burmese Government in regard to China at this time. With the strongest respect for my friend’s opinion I feel it impossible to assent to this. We have not only the concurrent testimony of Marco and of the Chinese Official Annals of the Mongol Dynasty to the facts of the Burmese provocation and of the engagement within the Yung-ch’ang or Vochan territory, but we have in the Chinese narrative a consistent chronology and tolerably full detail of the relations between the two countries.

[Baber writes (p. 173): “Biot has it that Yung-ch’ang was first established by the Mings, long subsequent to the time of Marco’s visit, but the name was well known much earlier. The mention by Marco of the Plain of Vochan (Unciam would be a perfect reading), as if it were a plain par excellence, is strikingly consistent with the position of the city on the verge of the largest plain west of Yünnan-fu. Hereabouts was fought the great battle between the ‘valiant soldier and the excellent captain Nescradin,’ with his 12,000 well-mounted Tartars, against the King of Burmah and a large army, whose strength lay in 2000 elephants, on each of which was set a tower of timber full of well-armed fighting men.

“There is no reason to suppose this ‘dire and parlous fight’ to be mythical, apart from the consistency of annals adduced by Colonel Yule; the local details of the narrative, particularly the prominent importance of the wood as an element of the Tartar success, are convincing. It seems to have been the first occasion on which the Mongols engaged a large body of elephants, and this, no doubt, made the victory memorable.

“Marco informs us that ‘from this time forth the Great Khan began to keep numbers of elephants.’ It is obvious that cavalry could not manœuvre in a morass such as fronts the city. Let us refer to the account of the battle.

“‘The Great Khan’s host was at Yung-ch’ang, from which they advanced into the plain, and there waited to give battle. This they did through the good judgment of the captain, for hard by that plain was a great wood thick with trees.’ The general’s purpose was more probably to occupy the dry undulating slopes near the south end of the valley. An advance of about five miles would have brought him to that position. The statement that ‘the King’s army arrived in the plain, and was within a mile of the enemy,’ would then accord perfectly with the conditions of the ground. The Burmese would have found themselves at about that distance from their foes as soon as they were fairly in the plain.

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“The trees ‘hard by the plain,’ to which the Tartars tied their horses, and in which the elephants were entangled, were in all probability in the corner below the ‘rolling hills’ marked in the chart. Very few trees remain, but in any case the grove would long ago have been cut down by the Chinese, as everywhere on inhabited plains. A short distance up the hill, however, groves of exceptionally fine trees are passed. The army, as it seems to us, must have entered the plain from its southernmost point. The route by which we departed on our way to Burmah would be very embarrassing, though perhaps not utterly impossible, for so great a number of elephants.”—H. C.]

Between 1277 and the end of the century the Chinese Annals record three campaigns or expeditions against Mien; viz. (1) that which Marco has related in this chapter; (2) that which he relates in ch. liv.; and (3) one undertaken in 1300 at the request of the son of the legitimate Burmese King, who had been put to death by an usurper. The Burmese Annals mention only the two latest, but, concerning both the date and the main circumstances of these two, Chinese and Burmese Annals are in almost entire agreement. Surely then it can scarcely be doubted that the Chinese authority is amply trustworthy for the first campaign also, respecting which the Burmese book is silent; even were the former not corroborated by the independent authority of Marco.

Indeed the mutual correspondence of these Annals, especially as to chronology, is very remarkable, and is an argument for greater respect to the chronological value of the Burmese Chronicle and other Indo-Chinese records of like character than we should otherwise be apt to entertain. Compare the story of the expedition of 1300 as told after the Chinese Annals by De Mailla, and after the Burmese Chronicle by Burney and Phayre. (See De Mailla, IX. 476 seqq.; and J. A. S. B. vol. vi. pp. 121–122, and vol. xxxvii. Pt. I. pp. 102 and 110.)

CHAPTER LIII.

After leaving the Province of which I have been speaking you come to a great Descent. In fact you ride for two days and a half continually down hill. On all this descent there is nothing worthy of mention except only that there is a large place there where occasionally a great market is held; for all the people of the country round come thither on fixed days, three times a week, and hold a market there. They exchange gold for silver; for they have gold in abundance; and they give one weight of fine gold for five weights of fine silver; so this induces merchants to come from various quarters 107bringing silver which they exchange for gold with these people; and in this way the merchants make great gain. As regards those people of the country who dispose of gold so cheaply, you must understand that nobody is acquainted with their places of abode, for they dwell in inaccessible positions, in sites so wild and strong that no one can get at them to meddle with them. Nor will they allow anybody to accompany them so as to gain a knowledge of their abodes.{1}

After you have ridden those two days and a half down hill, you find yourself in a province towards the south which is pretty near to India, and this province is called Amien. You travel therein for fifteen days through a very unfrequented country, and through great woods abounding in elephants and unicorns and numbers of other wild beasts. There are no dwellings and no people, so we need say no more of this wild country, for in sooth there is nothing to tell. But I have a story to relate which you shall now hear{2}.

Note 1.—In all the Shan towns visited by Major Sladen on this frontier he found markets held every fifth day. This custom, he says, is borrowed from China, and is general throughout Western Yun-nan. There seem to be traces of this five-day week over Indo-China, and it is found in Java; as it is in Mexico. The Kakhyens attend in great crowds. They do not now bring gold for sale to Momein, though it is found to some extent in their hills, more especially in the direction of Mogaung, whence it is exported towards Assam.

Major Sladen saw a small quantity of nuggets in the possession of a Kakhyen who had brought them from a hill two days north of Bhamó. (MS. Notes by Major Sladen.)

Note 2.—I confess that the indications in this and the beginning of the following chapter are, to me, full of difficulty. According to the general style of Polo’s itinerary, the 2½ days should be reckoned from Yung-ch’ang; the distance therefore to the capital city of Mien would be 17½ days. The real capital of Mien or Burma at this time was, however, Pagán, in lat. 21° 13′, and that city could hardly have been reached by a land traveller in any such time. We shall see that something may be said in behalf of the supposition that the point reached was Tagaung or Old Pagán, on the upper Irawadi, in lat. 23° 28′; and there was perhaps some confusion in the traveller’s mind between this and the great city. The descent might then be from Yung-ch’ang to the valley of the Shwéli, and that valley then followed to the Irawadi. Taking as a scale Polo’s 5 marches from Tali to Yung-ch’ang, I find we should by this route make just about 17 marches from Yung-ch’ang to Tagaung. We have no detailed knowledge of the route, but there is a road that way, and by 108no other does the plain country approach so near to Yung-ch’ang. (See Anderson’s Report on Expedition to Western Yunnan, p. 160.)

Dr. Anderson’s remarks on the present question do not in my opinion remove the difficulties. He supposes the long descent to be the descent into the plains of the Irawadi near Bhamo; and from that point the land journey to Great Pagán could, he conceives, “easily be accomplished in 15 days.” I greatly doubt the latter assumption. By the scale I have just referred to it would take at least 20 days. And to calculate the 2½ days with which the journey commences from an indefinite point seems scarcely admissible. Polo is giving us a continuous itinerary; it would be ruptured if he left an indefinite distance between his last station and his “long descent.” And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between Carajan (or Tali) and Vochan (Yung-ch’ang), the result would be nonsense.

Temple of Gaudapalén (in the city of Mien), erected circa A.D. 1160.

[Mien-tien, to which is devoted ch. vii. of the Chinese work Sze-i-kwan-k’ao, appears to have included much more than Burma proper. (See the passage supra, pp. 70–71, quoted by Devéria from the Yuen-shi lei pien regarding Kien-tou and Kin-Chi.)—H. C.]

The hypothesis that I have suggested would suit better with the traveller’s representation of the country traversed as wild and uninhabited. In a journey to Great Pagán the most populous and fertile part of Burma would be passed through.

[Baber writes (p. 180): “The generally received theory that ‘the great descent which leads towards the Kingdom of Mien,’ on which ‘you ride for two days and a half continually downhill,’ was the route from Yung-ch’ang to T’eng-Yueh, must be at once abandoned. Marco was, no doubt, speaking from hearsay, or rather, from a recollection of hearsay, as it does not appear that he possessed any notes; but there is good reason for supposing that he had personally visited Yung-ch’ang. Weary of the interminable mountain-paths, and encumbered with much baggage—for a magnate of Marco’s court influence could never, in the East, have travelled without a considerable state—impeded, in addition, by a certain quantity of merchandise, for he was ‘discreet and prudent in every way,’ he would have listened longingly to the report of an easy ride of two and a half days downhill, and would never have forgotten it. That such a route exists I am well satisfied. Where is it? The stream 109which drains the Yung-ch’ang plain communicates with the Salwen by a river called the ‘Nan-tien,’ not to be confounded with the ‘Nan-ting,’ about 45 miles south of that city, a fair journey of two and a half days. Knowing, as we now do, that it must descend some 3500 feet in that distance, does it not seem reasonable to suppose that the valley of this rivulet is the route alluded to? The great battle on the Yung-ch’ang plain, moreover, was fought only a few years before Marco’s visit, and seeing that the king and his host of elephants in all probability entered the valley from the south, travellers to Burma would naturally have quitted it by the same route.

“But again, our mediæval Herodotus reports that ‘the country is wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains which ’tis impossible to pass, the air is so impure and unwholesome; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain.’

“This is exactly and literally the description given us of the district in which we crossed the Salwen.

“To insist on the theory of the descent by this route is to make the traveller ride downhill, ‘over mountains it is impossible to pass.’

“The fifteen days’ subsequent journey described by Marco need not present much difficulty. The distance from the junction of the Nan-tien with the Salwen to the capital of Burma (Pagán) would be something over 300 miles; fifteen days seems a fair estimate for the distance, seeing that a great part of the journey would doubtless be by boat.”

Regarding this last paragraph, Captain Gill says (II. 345): “An objection may be raised that no such route as this is known to exist; but it must be remembered that the Burmese capital changes its position every now and then, and it is obvious that the trade routes would be directed to the capital, and would change with it. Altogether, with the knowledge at present available, this certainly seems the most satisfactory interpretation of the old traveller’s story.”—H. C.]

CHAPTER LIV.

And when you have travelled those 15 days through such a difficult country as I have described, in which travellers have to carry provisions for the road because there are no inhabitants, then you arrive at the capital city of this Province of Mien, and it also is called Amien, and is a very great and noble city.{1} The people are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan.

And in this city there is a thing so rich and rare that I must tell you about it. You see there was in former days a rich and puissant king in this city, and when he 110was about to die he commanded that by his tomb they should erect two towers [one at either end], one of gold and the other of silver, in such fashion as I shall tell you. The towers are built of fine stone; and then one of them has been covered with gold a good finger in thickness, so that the tower looks as if it were all of solid gold; and the other is covered with silver in like manner so that it seems to be all of solid silver. Each tower is a good ten paces in height and of breadth in proportion. The upper part of these towers is round, and girt all about with bells, the top of the gold tower with gilded bells and the silver tower with silvered bells, insomuch that whenever the wind blows among these bells they tinkle. [The tomb likewise was plated partly with gold, and partly with silver.] The King caused these towers to be erected to commemorate his magnificence and for the good of his soul; and really they do form one of the finest sights in the world; so exquisitely finished are they, so splendid and costly. And when they are lighted up by the sun they shine most brilliantly and are visible from a vast distance.

Now you must know that the Great Kaan conquered the country in this fashion.

You see at the Court of the Great Kaan there was a great number of gleemen and jugglers; and he said to them one day that he wanted them to go and conquer the aforesaid province of Mien, and that he would give them a good Captain to lead them and other good aid. And they replied that they would be delighted. So the Emperor caused them to be fitted out with all that an army requires, and gave them a Captain and a body of men-at-arms to help them; and so they set out, and marched until they came to the country and province of Mien. And they did conquer the whole of it! And when they found in the city the two towers of gold and 111silver of which I have been telling you, they were greatly astonished, and sent word thereof to the Great Kaan, asking what he would have them do with the two towers, seeing what a great quantity of wealth there was upon them. And the Great Kaan, being well aware that the King had caused these towers to be made for the good of his soul, and to preserve his memory after his death, said that he would not have them injured, but would have them left precisely as they were. And that was no wonder either, for you must know that no Tartar in the world will ever, if he can help it, lay hand on anything appertaining to the dead.{2}

THE CITY OF MIEN
WITH THE GOLD AND SILVER TOWERS

They have in this province numbers of elephants and wild oxen;{3} also beautiful stags and deer and roe, and other kinds of large game in plenty.

Now having told you about the province of Mien, I will tell you about another province which is called Bangala, as you shall hear presently.

Note 1.—The name of the city appears as Amien both in Pauthier’s text here, and in the G. Text in the preceding chapter. In the Bern MS. it is Aamien. Perhaps some form like Amien was that used by the Mongols and Persians. I fancy it may be traced in the Arman or Uman of Rashiduddin, probably corrupt readings (in Elliot I. 72).

Note 2.—M. Pauthier’s extracts are here again very valuable. We gather from them that the first Mongol communication with the King of Mien or Burma took place in 1271, when the Commandant of Tali-fu sent a deputation to that sovereign to demand an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Emperor. This was followed by various negotiations and acts of offence on both sides, which led to the campaign of 1277, already spoken of. For a few years no further events appear to be recorded, but in 1282, in consequence of a report from Násruddin of the ease with which Mien could be conquered, an invasion was ordered under a Prince of the Blood called Siangtaur [called Siam-ghu-talh, by Visdelou.—H. C.]. This was probably Singtur, great-grandson of one of the brothers of Chinghiz, who a few years later took part in the insurrection of Nayan. (See D’Ohsson, II. 461.) The army started from Yun-nan fu, then called Chung-khing (and the Yachi of Polo) in the autumn of 1283. We are told that the army made use of boats to descend the River Oho to the fortified city of Kiangtheu (see supra, note 3, ch. lii.), which they took and sacked; and as the King still refused to submit, they then advanced to the “primitive capital,” Taikung, which they captured. Here Pauthier’s details stop. (Pp. 405, 416; see also D’Ohsson, II. 444 [and Visdelou].)

The Palace of the King of Mien in modern times.

It is curious to compare these narratives with that from the Burmese Royal Annals given by Colonel Burney, and again by Sir A. Phayre in the J. A. S. B. (IV. 401, and XXXVII. Pt. I. p. 101.) Those annals afford no mention of 112transactions with the Mongols previous to 1281. In that year they relate that a mission of ten nobles and 1000 horse came from the Emperor to demand gold and silver vessels as symbols of homage on the ground of an old precedent. The envoys conducted themselves disrespectfully (the tradition was that they refused to take off their boots, an old grievance at the Burmese court), and the King put them all to death. The Emperor of course was very wroth, and sent an army of 6,000,000 of horse and 20,000,000 of foot (!) to invade Burma. The Burmese generals had their point d’appui at the city of Nga-tshaung-gyan, apparently somewhere near the mouth 113of the Bhamó River, and after a protracted resistance on that river, they were obliged to retire. They took up a new point of defence on the Hill of Malé, which they had fortified. Here a decisive battle was fought, and the Burmese were entirely routed. The King, on hearing of their retreat from Bhamó, at first took measures for fortifying his capital Pagán, and destroyed 6000 temples of various sizes to furnish material. But after all he lost heart, and embarking with his treasure and establishments on the Irawadi, fled down that river to Bassein in the Delta. The Chinese continued the pursuit long past Pagán till they reached the place now called Tarokmau or “Chinese Point,” 30 miles below Prome. Here they were forced by want of provisions to return. The Burmese Annals place the abandonment of Pagán by the King in 1284, a most satisfactory synchronism with the Chinese record. It is a notable point in Burmese history, for it marked the fall of an ancient Dynasty which was speedily followed by its extinction, and the abandonment of the capital. The King is known in the Burmese Annals as Tarok-pyé-Meng, “The King who fled from the Tarok.”[1]

In Dr. Mason’s abstract of the Pegu Chronicle we find the notable statement with reference to this period that “the Emperor of China, having subjugated Pagán, his troops with the Burmese entered Pegu and invested several cities.”

We see that the Chinese Annals, as quoted, mention only the “capitale primitive” Taikung, which I have little doubt Pauthier is right in identifying with Tagaung, traditionally the most ancient royal city of Burma, and the remains of which stand side by side with those of Old Pagán, a later but still very ancient capital, on the east bank of the Irawadi, in about lat. 23° 28′. The Chinese extracts give no idea of the temporary completeness of the conquest, nor do they mention Great Pagán (lat. 21° 13′), a city whose vast remains I have endeavoured partially to describe.[2] Sir Arthur Phayre, from a careful perusal of the Burmese Chronicle, assures me that there can be no doubt that this was at the time in question the Burmese Royal Residence, and the city alluded to in the Burmese narrative. M. Pauthier is mistaken in supposing that Tarok-Mau, the turning-point of the Chinese Invasion, lay north of this city: he has not unnaturally confounded it with Tarok-Myo or “China-Town,” a district not far below Ava. Moreover Malé, the position of the decisive victory of the Chinese, is itself much to the south of Tagaung (about 22° 55′).

Both Pagán and Malé are mentioned in a remarkable Chinese notice extracted in Amyot’s Mémoires (XIV. 292): “Mien-Tien ... had five chief towns, of which the first was Kiangtheu (supra, pp. 105, 111), the second Taikung, the third Malai, the fourth Ngan-cheng-kwé (? perhaps the Nga-tshaung gyan of the Burmese Annals), the fifth Pukan Mien-Wang (Pagán of the Mien King?). The Yuen carried war into this country, particularly during the reign of Shun-Ti, the last Mongol Emperor [1333–1368], who, after subjugating it, erected at Pukan Mien-Wang a tribunal styled Hwen-wei-she-sé, the authority of which extended over Pang-ya and all its dependencies.” This is evidently founded on actual documents, for Panya or Pengya, otherwise styled Vijáyapúra, was the capital of Burma during part of the 14th century, between the decay of Pagán and the building of Ava. But none of the translated extracts from the Burmese Chronicle afford corroboration. From Sangermano’s abstract, however, we learn that the King of Panya from 1323 to 1343 was the son of a daughter of the Emperor of China (p. 42). I may also refer to Pemberton’s abstract of the Chronicle of the Shan State of Pong in the Upper Irawadi valley, which relates that about the middle of the 14th century the Chinese invaded Pong and took Maung Maorong, the capital.[3] The Shan King and his son fled to the King of 114Burma for protection, but the Burmese surrendered them and they were carried to China. (Report on E. Frontier of Bengal, p. 112.)

I see no sufficient evidence as to whether Marco himself visited the “city of Mien.” I think it is quite clear that his account of the conquest is from the merest hearsay, not to say gossip. Of the absurd story of the jugglers we find no suggestion in the Chinese extracts. We learn from them that Násruddin had represented the conquest of Mien as a very easy task, and Kúblái may have in jest asked his gleemen if they would undertake it. The haziness of Polo’s account of the conquest contrasts strongly with his graphic description of the rout of the elephants at Vochan. Of the latter he heard the particulars on the spot (I conceive) shortly after the event; whilst the conquest took place some years later than his mission to that frontier. His description of the gold and silver pagodas with their canopies of tinkling bells (the Burmese Htí), certainly looks like a sketch from the life;[4] and it is quite possible that some negotiations between 1277 and 1281 may have given him the opportunity of visiting Burma, though he may not have reached the capital. Indeed he would in that case surely have given a distincter account of so important a city, the aspect of which in its glory we have attempted to realize in the plate of “the city of Mien.”

It is worthy of note that the unfortunate King then reigning in Pagán, had in 1274 finished a magnificent Pagoda called Mengala-dzedi (Mangala Chaitya) respecting which ominous prophecies had been diffused. In this pagoda were deposited, besides holy relics, golden images of the Disciples of Buddha, golden models of the holy places, golden images of the King’s fifty-one predecessors in Pagán, and of the King and his Family. It is easy to suspect a connection of this with Marco’s story. “It is possible that the King’s ashes may have been intended to be buried near those relics, though such is not now the custom; and Marco appears to have confounded the custom of depositing relics of Buddha and ancient holy men in pagodas with the supposed custom of the burial of the dead. Still, even now, monuments are occasionally erected over the dead in Burma, although the practice is considered a vain folly. I have known a miniature pagoda with a hti complete, erected over the ashes of a favourite disciple by a P’hungyi or Buddhist monk.” The latter practice is common in China. (Notes by Sir A. Phayre; J. A. S. B. IV. u.s., also V. 164, VI. 251; Mason’s Burmah, 2nd ed. p. 26; Milne’s Life in China, pp. 288, 450.)

Note 3.—The Gaur—Bos Gaurus, or B. (Bibos) Cavifrons of Hodgson—exists in certain forests of the Burmese territory; and, in the south at least, a wild ox nearer the domestic species, Bos Sondaicus. Mr. Gouger, in his book The Prisoner in Burma, describes the rare spectacle which he once enjoyed in the Tenasserim forests of a herd of wild cows at graze. He speaks of them as small and elegant, without hump, and of a light reddish dun colour (pp. 326–327).

CHAPTER LV.

Bangala is a Province towards the south, which up to the year 1290, when the aforesaid Messer Marco Polo 115was still at the Court of the Great Kaan, had not yet been conquered; but his armies had gone thither to make the conquest. You must know that this province has a peculiar language, and that the people are wretched Idolaters. They are tolerably close to India. There are numbers of eunuchs there, insomuch that all the Barons who keep them get them from that Province.{1}

The people have oxen as tall as elephants, but not so big.{2} They live on flesh and milk and rice. They grow cotton, in which they drive a great trade, and also spices such as spikenard, galingale, ginger, sugar, and many other sorts. And the people of India also come thither in search of the eunuchs that I mentioned, and of slaves, male and female, of which there are great numbers, taken from other provinces with which those of the country are at war; and these eunuchs and slaves are sold to the Indian and other merchants who carry them thence for sale about the world.

There is nothing more to mention about this country, so we will quit it, and I will tell you of another province called Caugigu.

Note 1.—I do not think it probable that Marco even touched at any port of Bengal on that mission to the Indian Seas of which we hear in the prologue; but he certainly never reached it from the Yun-nan side, and he had, as we shall presently see (infra, ch. lix. note 6), a wrong notion as to its position. Indeed, if he had visited it at all, he would have been aware that it was essentially a part of India, whilst in fact he evidently regarded it as an Indo-Chinese region, like Zardandan, Mien, and Caugigu.

There is no notice, I believe, in any history, Indian or Chinese, of an attempt by Kúblái to conquer Bengal. The only such attempt by the Mongols that we hear of is one mentioned by Firishta, as made by way of Cathay and Tibet, during the reign of Aláuddin Masa’úd, king of Delhi, in 1244, and stated to have been defeated by the local officers in Bengal. But Mr. Edward Thomas tells me he has most distinctly ascertained that this statement, which has misled every historian “from Badauni and Firishtah to Briggs and Elphinstone, is founded purely on an erroneous reading” (and see a note in Mr. Thomas’s Pathan Kings of Dehli, p. 121).

The date 1290 in the text would fix the period of Polo’s final departure from Peking, if the dates were not so generally corrupt.

The subject of the last part of this paragraph, recurred to in the next, has been misunderstood and corrupted in Pauthier’s text, and partially in Ramusio’s. These make the escuillés or escoilliez (vide Ducange in v. Escodatus, and Raynouard, Lex. Rom. VI. 11) into scholars and what not. But on comparison of the passages in 116those two editions with the Geographic Text one cannot doubt the correct reading. As to the fact that Bengal had an evil notoriety for this traffic, especially the province of Silhet, see the Ayeen Akbery, II. 9–11, Barbosa’s chapter on Bengal, and De Barros (Ramusio I. 316 and 391).

On the cheapness of slaves in Bengal, see Ibn Batuta, IV. 211–212. He says people from Persia used to call Bengal Dúzakh pur-i ni’amat, “a hell crammed with good things,” an appellation perhaps provoked by the official style often applied to it of Jannat-ul-balád or “Paradise of countries.”

Professor H. Blochmann, who is, in admirable essays, redeeming the long neglect of the history and archæology of Bengal Proper by our own countrymen, says that one of the earliest passages, in which the name Bangálah occurs, is in a poem of Hafiz, sent from Shiraz to Sultan Ghiássuddín, who reigned in Bengal from 1367 to 1373. Its occurrence in our text, however, shows that the name was in use among the Mahomedan foreigners (from whom Polo derived his nomenclature) nearly a century earlier. And in fact it occurs (though corruptly in some MSS.) in the history of Rashiduddin, our author’s contemporary. (See Elliot, I. p. 72.)

Note 2.—“Big as elephants” is only a façon de parler, but Marsden quotes modern exaggerations as to the height of the Arna or wild buffalo, more specific and extravagant. The unimpeachable authority of Mr. Hodgson tells us that the Arna in the Nepal Tarai sometimes does reach a height of 6 ft. 6 in. at the shoulder, with a length of 10 ft. 6 in. (excluding tail), and horns of 6 ft. 6 in. (J. A. S. B., XVI. 710.) Marco, however, seems to be speaking of domestic cattle. Some of the breeds of Upper India are very tall and noble animals, far surpassing in height any European oxen known to me; but in modern times these are rarely seen in Bengal, where the cattle are poor and stunted. The Aín Akbari, however, speaks of Sharífábád in Bengal, which appears to have corresponded to modern Bardwán, as producing very beautiful white oxen, of great size, and capable of carrying a load of 15 mans, which at Prinsep’s estimate of Akbar’s man would be about 600 lbs.

CHAPTER LVI.

Caugigu is a province towards the east, which has a king.{1} The people are Idolaters, and have a language of their own. They have made their submission to the Great Kaan, and send him tribute every year. And let me tell you their king is so given to luxury that he hath at the least 300 wives; for whenever he hears of any beautiful woman in the land, he takes and marries her.

They find in this country a good deal of gold, and they also have great abundance of spices. But they 117are such a long way from the sea that the products are of little value, and thus their price is low. They have elephants in great numbers, and other cattle of sundry kinds, and plenty of game. They live on flesh and milk and rice, and have wine made of rice and good spices. The whole of the people, or nearly so, have their skin marked with the needle in patterns representing lions, dragons, birds, and what not, done in such a way that it can never be obliterated. This work they cause to be wrought over face and neck and chest, arms and hands, and belly, and, in short, the whole body; and they look on it as a token of elegance, so that those who have the largest amount of this embroidery are regarded with the greatest admiration.

Note 1.—No province mentioned by Marco has given rise to wider and wilder conjectures than this, Cangigu as it has been generally printed.

M. Pauthier, who sees in it Laos, or rather one of the states of Laos called in the Chinese histories Papesifu, seems to have formed the most probable opinion hitherto propounded by any editor of Polo. I have no doubt that Laos or some part of that region is meant to be described, and that Pauthier is right regarding the general direction of the course here taken as being through the regions east of Burma, in a north-easterly direction up into Kwei-chau. But we shall be able to review the geography of this tract better, as a whole, at a point more advanced. I shall then speak of the name Caugigu, and why I prefer this reading of it.

I do not believe, for reasons which will also appear further on, that Polo is now following a route which he had traced in person, unless it be in the latter part of it.

M. Pauthier, from certain indications in a Chinese work, fixes on Chiangmai or Kiang-mai, the Zimmé of the Burmese (in about latitude 18° 48′ and long. 99° 30′) as the capital of the Papesifu and of the Caugigu of our text. It can scarcely however be the latter, unless we throw over entirely all the intervals stated in Polo’s itinerary; and M. Garnier informs me that he has evidence that the capital of the Papesifu at this time was Muang-Yong, a little to the south-east of Kiang-Tung, where he has seen its ruins.[1] That the people called by the Chinese Papesifu were of the great race of Laotians, Sháns, or Thai, is very certain, from the vocabulary of their language published by Klaproth.

118

Script Pa-pe.

Pauthier’s Chinese authority gives a puerile interpretation of Papesifu as signifying “the kingdom of the 800 wives,” and says it was called so because the Prince maintained that establishment. This may be an indication that there were popular 119stories about the numerous wives of the King of Laos, such as Polo had heard; but the interpretation is doubtless rubbish, like most of the so-called etymologies of proper names applied by the Chinese to foreign regions. At best these seem to be merely a kind of Memoria Technica, and often probably bear no more relation to the name in its real meaning than Swift’s All-eggs-under-the-grate bears to Alexander Magnus. How such “etymologies” arise is obvious from the nature of the Chinese system of writing. If we also had to express proper names by combining monosyllabic words already existing in English, we should in fact be obliged to write the name of the Macedonian hero much as Swift travestied it. As an example we may give the Chinese name of Java, Kwawa, which signifies “gourd-sound,” and was given to that Island, we are told, because the voice of its inhabitants is very like that of a dry gourd rolled upon the ground! It is usually stated that Tungking was called Kiao-chi, meaning “crossed-toes,” because the people often exhibit that malformation (which is a fact), but we may be certain that the syllables were originally a phonetic representation of an indigenous name which has no such meaning. As another example, less ridiculous but not more true, Chin-tan, representing the Indian name of China, Chínasthána, is explained to mean “Eastern-Dawn” (Aurore Orientale). (Amyot, XIV. 101; Klapr. Mém. III. 268.)

The states of Laos are shut out from the sea in the manner indicated; they abound in domestic elephants to an extraordinary extent; and the people do tattoo themselves in various degrees, most of all (as M. Garnier tells me) about Kiang Hung. The style of tattooing which the text describes is quite that of the Burmese, in speaking of whom Polo has omitted to mention the custom: “Every male Burman is tattooed in his boyhood from the middle to his knees; in fact he has a pair of breeches tattooed on him. The pattern is a fanciful medley of animals and arabesques, but it is scarcely distinguishable, save as a general tint, except on a fair skin.” (Mission to Ava, 151.)

CHAPTER LVII.

Anin is a Province towards the east, the people of which are subject to the Great Kaan, and are Idolaters. They live by cattle and tillage, and have a peculiar language. The women wear on the legs and arms bracelets of gold and silver of great value, and the men wear such as are even yet more costly. They have plenty of horses which they sell in great numbers to the Indians, making a great profit thereby. And they have also vast herds of buffaloes and oxen, having excellent pastures for these. They have likewise all the necessaries of life in abundance.{1}

120

Now you must know that between Anin and Caugigu, which we have left behind us, there is a distance of [25] days’ journey;{2} and from Caugigu to Bangala, the third province in our rear, is 30 days’ journey. We shall now leave Anin and proceed to another province which is some 8 days’ journey further, always going eastward.

Note 1.—Ramusio, the printed text of the Soc. de Géographie, and most editions have Amu; Pauthier reads Aniu, and considers the name to represent Tungking or Annam, called also Nan-yué. The latter word he supposes to be converted into Anyuë, Aniu. And accordingly he carries the traveller to the capital of Tungking.

Leaving the name for the present, according to the scheme of the route as I shall try to explain it below, I should seek for Amu or Aniu or Anin in the extreme south-east of Yun-nan. A part of this region was for the first time traversed by the officers of the French expedition up the Mekong, who in 1867 visited Sheu-ping, Lin-ngan and the upper valley of the River of Tungking on their way to Yun-nan-fu. To my question whether the description in the text, of Aniu or Anin and its fine pastures, applied to the tract just indicated, Lieut. Garnier replied on the whole favourably (see further on), proceeding: “The population about Sheu-ping is excessively mixt. On market days at that town one sees a gathering of wild people in great number and variety, and whose costumes are highly picturesque, as well as often very rich. There are the Pa-is, who are also found again higher up, the Ho-nhi, the Khato, the Lopé, the Shentseu. These tribes appear to be allied in part to the Laotians, in part to the Kakhyens.... The wilder races about Sheuping are remarkably handsome, and you see there types of women exhibiting an extraordinary regularity of feature, and at the same time a complexion surprisingly white. The Chinese look quite an inferior race beside them.... I may add that all these tribes, especially the Ho-nhi and the Pa-ï, wear large amounts of silver ornament; great collars of silver round the neck, as well as on the legs and arms.”

Though the whiteness of the people of Anin is not noticed by Polo, the distinctive manner in which he speaks in the next chapter of the dark complexion of the tribes described therein seems to indicate the probable omission of the opposite trait here.

The prominent position assigned in M. Garnier’s remarks to a race called Ho-nhi first suggested to me that the reading of the text might be Anin instead of Aniu. And as a matter of fact this seems to my eyes to be clearly the reading of the Paris Livre des Merveilles (Pauthier’s MS. B), while the Paris No. 5631 (Pauthier’s A) has Auin, and what may be either Aniu or Anin. Anyn is also found in the Latin Brandenburg MS. of Pipino’s version collated by Andrew Müller, to which, however, we cannot ascribe much weight. But the two words are so nearly identical in mediæval writing, and so little likely to be discriminated by scribes who had nothing to guide their discrimination, that one need not hesitate to adopt that which is supported by argument. In reference to the suggested identity of Anin and Ho-nhi, M. Garnier writes again: “All that Polo has said regarding the country of Aniu, though not containing anything very characteristic, may apply perfectly to the different indigenous tribes, at present subject to the Chinese, which are dispersed over the country from Talan to Sheuping and Lin-ngan. These tribes bearing the names (given above) relate that they in other days formed an independent state, to which they give the name of Muang Shung. Where this Muang was situated there is no knowing. These tribes have langage par euls, as Marco Polo says, and silver ornaments are worn by them to this day in extraordinary profusion; more, however, by the women than the men. They have plenty of horses, buffaloes and 122oxen, and of sheep as well. It was the first locality in which the latter were seen. The plateau of Lin-ngan affords pasture-grounds which are exceptionally good for that part of the world.

Ho-nhi and other Tribes in the Department of Lin-ngan in S. Yun-nan (supposed to be the Anin country of Marco Polo). (From Garnier’s Work.)

“Beyond Lin-ngan we find the Ho-nhi, properly so called, no longer. But ought one to lay much stress on mere names which have undergone so many changes, and of which so many have been borne in succession by all those places and peoples?... I will content myself with reminding you that the town of Homi-cheu near Lin-ngan in the days of the Yuen bore the name of Ngo-ning.”

Notwithstanding M. Garnier’s caution, I am strongly inclined to believe that Anin represents either Ho-nhi or Ngo-ning, if indeed these names be not identical. For on reference to Biot I see that the first syllable of the modern name of the town which M. Garnier writes Homí, is expressed by the same character as the first syllable of Ngoning.

[The Wo-nhi are also called Ngo-ni, Kan-ni, Ho-ni, Lou-mi, No-pi, Ko-ni and Wa-heh; they descend from the southern barbarians called Ho-nhi. At the time of the kingdom of Nan-Chao, the Ho-nhi, called In-yuen, tribes were a dependence of the Kiang (Xieng) of Wei-yuen (Prefecture of P’u-erh). They are now to be found in the Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, King-tung, Chen-yuen, Yuen-kiang and Yun-nan. (See Devéria, p. 135.)—H. C.]

We give one of M. Garnier’s woodcuts representing some of the races in this vicinity. Their dress, as he notices, has, in some cases, a curious resemblance to costumes of Switzerland, or of Brittany, popular at fancy balls.[1] Coloured figures of some of these races will be found in the Atlas to Garnier’s work; see especially Plate 35.

Note 2.—All the French MSS. and other texts except Ramusio’s read 15. We adopt Ramusio’s reading, 25, for reasons which will appear below.

CHAPTER LVIII.

Coloman is a province towards the east, the people of which are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They are a [tall and] very handsome people, though in complexion brown rather than white, and are good soldiers.{1} They have a good many towns, and a vast number of villages, among great mountains, and in strong positions.{2}

When any of them die, the bodies are burnt, and then they take the bones and put them in little chests. 123These are carried high up the mountains, and placed in great caverns, where they are hung up in such wise that neither man nor beast can come at them.

A good deal of gold is found in the country, and for petty traffic they use porcelain shells such as I have told you of before. All these provinces that I have been speaking of, to wit Bangala and Caugigu and Anin, employ for currency porcelain shells and gold. There are merchants in this country who are very rich and dispose of large quantities of goods. The people live on flesh and rice and milk, and brew their wine from rice and excellent spices.

Note 1.—The only MSS. that afford the reading Coloman or Choloman instead of Toloman or Tholoman, are the Bern MS., which has Coloman in the initial word of the chapter, Paris MS. 5649 (Pauthier’s C) which has Coloman in the Table of Chapters, but not in the text, the Bodleian, and the Brandenburg MS. quoted in the last note. These variations in themselves have little weight. But the confusion between c and t in mediæval MSS., when dealing with strange names, is so constant that I have ventured to make the correction, in strong conviction that it is the right reading. M. Pauthier indeed, after speaking of tribes called Lo on the south-west of China, adds, “on les nommait To-lo-man (‘les nombreux Barbares Lo’).” Were this latter statement founded on actual evidence we might retain that form which is the usual reading. But I apprehend from the manner in which M. Pauthier produces it, without corroborative quotation, that he is rather hazarding a conjecture than speaking with authority. Be that as it may, it is impossible that Polo’s Toloman or Coloman should have been in the south of Kwangsi, where Pauthier locates it.

On the other hand, we find tribes of both Kolo and Kihlau Barbarians (i.e. Mán, whence Kolo-mán or Kihlau-mán) very numerous on the frontier of Kweichau. (See Bridgman’s transl. of Tract on Meautsze, pp. 265, 269, 270, 272, 273, 274, 275, 278, 279, 280.) Among these the Kolo, described as No. 38 in that Tract, appear to me from various particulars to be the most probable representatives of the Coloman of Polo, notwithstanding the sentence with which the description opens: “Kolo originally called Luluh; the modern designation Kolo is incorrect.”[1] They are at present found in the prefecture of Tating (one of the departments of Kweichau towards the Yun-nan side). “They are tall, of a dark complexion, with sunken eyes, aquiline nose, wear long whiskers, and have the beard shaved off above the mouth. They pay great deference to demons, and on that account are sometimes called ‘Dragons of Lo.’... At the present time these Kolo are divided into 48 clans, the elders of which are called Chieftains (lit. ‘Head-and-Eyes’) and are of nine grades.... The men bind their hair into a tuft with blue cloth and make it fast on the forehead like a horn. Their upper dresses are short, with large sleeves, and their lower garments are fine blue. When one of the chieftains dies, all that were under him are assembled together clad in armour and on horseback. Having dressed his corpse in silk and woollen robes, they burn it in the open country; then, invoking the departed spirit, they inter the 124ashes. Their attachment to him as their sole master is such that nothing can drive or tempt them from their allegiance. Their large bows, long spears, and sharp swords, are strong and well-wrought. They train excellent horses, love archery and hunting; and so expert are they in tactics that their soldiers rank as the best among all the uncivilized tribes. There is this proverb: ‘The Lo Dragons of Shwui-si rap the head and strike the tail,’ which is intended to indicate their celerity in defence.” (Bridgman, pp. 272–273.)

The character Lo, here applied in the Chinese Tract to these people, is the same as that in the name of the Kwangsi Lo of M. Pauthier.

I append a cut (opposite page) from the drawing representing these Kolo-man in the original work from which Bridgman translated, and which is in the possession of Dr. Lockhart.

[I believe we must read To-lo-man. Man, barbarian, T’u-lao or Shan-tzŭ (mountaineers) who live in the Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, Cheng-kiang, etc. T’u-la-Man or T’u-la barbarians of the Mongol Annals. (Yuen-shi lei-pien, quoted by Devéria, p. 115.)—H. C.]

Note 2.—Magaillans, speaking of the semi-independent tribes of Kwei-chau and Kwang-si, says: “Their towns are usually so girt by high mountains and scarped rocks that it seems as if nature had taken a pleasure in fortifying them” (p. 43). (See cut at p. 131.)

CHAPTER LIX.

Cuiju is a province towards the East.{1} After leaving Coloman you travel along a river for 12 days, meeting with a good number of towns and villages, but nothing worthy of particular mention. After you have travelled those twelve days along the river you come to a great and noble city which is called Fungul.

The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan, and live by trade and handicrafts. You must know they manufacture stuffs of the bark of certain trees which form very fine summer clothing.{2} They are good soldiers, and have paper-money. For you must understand that henceforward we are in the countries where the Great Kaan’s paper-money is current.

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The country swarms with lions to that degree that no man can venture to sleep outside his house at night.{3} 126Moreover, when you travel on that river, and come to a halt at night, unless you keep a good way from the bank the lions will spring on the boat and snatch one of the crew and make off with him and devour him. And but for a certain help that the inhabitants enjoy, no one could venture to travel in that province, because of the multitude of those lions, and because of their strength and ferocity.

But you see they have in this province a large breed of dogs, so fierce and bold that two of them together will attack a lion.{4} So every man who goes a journey takes with him a couple of those dogs, and when a lion appears they have at him with the greatest boldness, and the lion turns on them, but can’t touch them for they are very deft at eschewing his blows. So they follow him, perpetually giving tongue, and watching their chance to give him a bite in the rump or in the thigh, or wherever they may. The lion makes no reprisal except now and then to turn fiercely on them, and then indeed were he to catch the dogs it would be all over with them, but they take good care that he shall not. So, to escape the dogs’ din, the lion makes off, and gets into the wood, where mayhap he stands at bay against a tree to have his rear protected from their annoyance. And when the travellers see the lion in this plight they take to their bows, for they are capital archers, and shoot their arrows at him till he falls dead. And ’tis thus that travellers in those parts do deliver themselves from those lions.

They have a good deal of silk and other products which are carried up and down, by the river of which we spoke, into various quarters.{5}

You travel along the river for twelve days more, finding a good many towns all along, and the people always Idolaters, and subject to the Great Kaan, with paper-money current, and living by trade and handicrafts. There are also plenty of fighting men. And after 127travelling those twelve days you arrive at the city of Sindafu of which we spoke in this book some time ago.{6}

From Sindafu you set out again and travel some 70 days through the provinces and cities and towns which we have already visited, and all which have been already particularly spoken of in our Book. At the end of those 70 days you come to Juju where we were before.{7}

From Juju you set out again and travel four days towards the south, finding many towns and villages. The people are great traders and craftsmen, are all Idolaters, and use the paper-money of the Great Kaan their Sovereign. At the end of those four days you come to the city of Cacanfu belonging to the province of Cathay, and of it I shall now speak.

Note 1.—In spite of difficulties which beset the subject (see Note 6 below) the view of Pauthier, suggested doubtingly by Marsden, that the Cuiju of the text is Kwei-chau, seems the most probable one. As the latter observes, the reappearance of paper money shows that we have got back into a province of China Proper. Such, Yun-nan, recently conquered from a Shan prince, could not be considered. But, according to the best view we can form, the traveller could only have passed through the extreme west of the province of Kwei-chau.

The name of Fungul, if that be a true reading, is suggestive of Phungan, which under the Mongols was the head of a district called Phungan-lu. It was founded by that dynasty, and was regarded as an important position for the command of the three provinces Kwei-chau, Kwang-si, and Yun-nan. (Biot, p. 168; Martini, p. 137.) But we shall explain presently the serious difficulties that beset the interpretation of the itinerary as it stands.

Note 2.—Several Chinese plants afford a fibre from the bark, and some of these are manufactured into what we call grass-cloths. The light smooth textures so called are termed by the Chinese Hiapu or “summer cloths.” Kwei-chau produces such. But perhaps that specially intended is a species of hemp (Urtica Nivea?) of which M. Perny of the R. C. Missions says, in his notes on Kwei-chau: “It affords a texture which may be compared to batiste. This has the notable property of keeping so cool that many people cannot wear it even in the hot weather. Generally it is used only for summer clothing.” (Dict. des Tissus, VII. 404; Chin. Repos. XVIII. 217 and 529; Ann. de la Prop. de la Foi, XXXI. 137.)

Note 3.—Tigers of course are meant. (See supra, vol. i. p. 399.) M. Perny speaks of tigers in the mountainous parts of Kwei-chau. (Op. cit. 139.)

Note 4.—These great dogs were noticed by Lieutenant (now General) Macleod, in his journey to Kiang Hung on the great River Mekong, as accompanying the caravans of Chinese traders on their way to the Siamese territory. (See Macleod’s Journal, p. 66.)

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Note 5.—The trade in wild silk (i.e. from the oak-leaf silkworm) is in truth an important branch of commerce in Kwei-chau. But the chief seat of this is at Tsuni-fu, and I do not think that Polo’s route can be sought so far to the eastward. (Ann. de la Prop. XXXI. 136; Richthofen, Letter VII. 81.)

Note 6.—We have now got back to Sindafu, i.e. Ch’êng-tu fu in Sze-ch’wan, and are better able to review the geography of the track we have been following. I do not find it possible to solve all its difficulties.

The different provinces treated of in the chapters from lv. to lix. are strung by Marco upon an easterly, or, as we must interpret, north-easterly line of travel, real or hypothetical. Their names and intervals are as follows: (1) Bangala; whence 30 marches to (2) Caugigu; 25 marches to (3) Anin; 8 marches to (4) Toloman or Coloman; 12 days in Cuiju along a river to the city of (5) Fungul, Sinugul (or what not); 12 days further, on or along the same river, to (6) Ch’êng-tu fu. Total from Bangala to Ch’êng-tu fu 87 days.

I have said that the line of travel is real or hypothetical, for no doubt a large part of it was only founded on hearsay. We last left our traveller at Mien, or on the frontier of Yun-nan and Mien. Bangala is reached per saltum with no indication of interval, and its position is entirely misapprehended. Marco conceives of it, not as in India, but as being, like Mien, a province on the confines of India, as being under the same king as Mien, as lying to the south of that kingdom, and as being at the (south) western extremity of a great traverse line which runs (north) east into Kwei-chau and Sze-ch’wan. All these conditions point consistently to one locality; that, however, is not Bengal but Pegu. On the other hand, the circumstances of manners and products, so far as they go, do belong to Bengal. I conceive that Polo’s information regarding these was derived from persons who had really visited Bengal by sea, but that he had confounded what he so heard of the Delta of the Ganges with what he heard on the Yun-nan frontier of the Delta of the Irawadi. It is just the same kind of error that is made about those great Eastern Rivers by Fra Mauro in his Map. And possibly the name of Pegu (in Burmese Bagóh) may have contributed to his error, as well as the probable fact that the Kings of Burma did at this time claim to be Kings of Bengal, whilst they actually were Kings of Pegu.

Caugigu.—We have seen reason to agree with M. Pauthier that the description of this region points to Laos, though we cannot with him assign it to Kiang-mai. Even if it be identical with the Papesifu of the Chinese, we have seen that the centre of that state may be placed at Muang Yong not far from the Mekong; whilst I believe that the limits of Caugigu must be drawn much nearer the Chinese and Tungking territory, so as to embrace Kiang Hung, and probably the Papien River. (See note at p. 117.)

As regards the name, it is possible that it may represent some specific name of the Upper Laos territory. But I am inclined to believe that we are dealing with a case of erroneous geographical perspective like that of Bangala; and that whilst the circumstances belong to Upper Laos, the name, read as I read it, Caugigu (or Cavgigu), is no other than the Ḳafchikúe of Rashiduddin, the name applied by him to Tungking, and representing the Kiaochi-kwê of the Chinese. D’Anville’s Atlas brings Kiaochi up to the Mekong in immediate contact with Che-li or Kiang Hung. I had come to the conclusion that Caugigu was probably the correct reading before I was aware that it is an actual reading of the Geog. Text more than once, of Pauthier’s A more than once, of Pauthier’s C at least once and possibly twice, and of the Bern MS.; all which I have ascertained from personal examination of those manuscripts.[1]

Anin or Aniu.—I have already pointed out that I seek this in the territory about Lin-ngan and Homi. In relation to this M. Garnier writes: “In starting from Muang Yong, or even if you prefer it, from Xieng Hung (Kiang Hung of our maps), ... it would be physically impossible in 25 days to get beyond the arc 129which I have laid down on your map (viz. extending a few miles north-east of Homi). There are scarcely any roads in those mountains, and easy lines of communication begin only after you have got to the Lin-ngan territory. In Marco Polo’s days things were certainly not better, but the reverse. All that has been done of consequence in the way of roads, posts, and organisation in the part of Yun-nan between Lin-ngan and Xieng Hung, dates in some degree from the Yuen, but in a far greater degree from K’ang-hi.” Hence, even with the Ramusian reading of the itinerary, we cannot place Anin much beyond the position indicated already.

Script thaï of Xieng-hung.

Koloman.—We have seen that the position of this region is probably near the western frontier of Kwei-chau. Adhering to Homi as the representative of Anin, and to the 8 days’ journey of the text, the most probable position of Koloman would be about Lo-ping, which lies about 100 English miles in a straight line north-east from Homi. The first character of the name here is again the same as the Lo of the Kolo tribes.

Beyond this point the difficulties of devising an interpretation, consistent at once with facts and with the text as it stands, become insuperable.

The narrative demands that from Koloman we should reach Fungul, a great and noble city, by travelling 12 days along a river, and that Fungul should be within twelve days’ journey of Ch’êng-tu fu, along the same river, or at least along rivers connected with it.

In advancing from the south-west guided by the data afforded by the texts, we have not been able to carry the position of Fungul (Sinugul, or what not of G. T. and other MSS.) further north than Phungan. But it is impossible that Ch’êng-tu fu should have been reached in 12 days from this point. Nor is it possible that a new post in a secluded position, like Phungan, could have merited to be described as “a great and noble city.”

Baron v. Richthofen has favoured me with a note in which he shows that in reality the only place answering the more essential conditions of Fungul is Siu-chau fu at the union of the two great branches of the Yang-tzŭ, viz. the Kin-sha Kiang, and 130the Min-Kiang from Ch’êng-tu fu. (1) The distance from Siu-chau to Ch’êng-tu by land travelling is just about 12 days, and the road is along a river. (2) In approaching “Fungul” from the south Polo met with a good many towns and villages. This would be the case along either of the navigable rivers that join the Yang-tzŭ below Siu-chau (or along that which joins above Siu-chau, mentioned further on). (3) The large trade in silk up and down the river is a characteristic that could only apply to the Yang-tzŭ.

These reasons are very strong, though some little doubt must subsist until we can explain the name (Fungul, or Sinugul) as applicable to Siu-chau.[2] And assuming Siu-chau to be the city we must needs carry the position of Coloman considerably further north than Lo-ping, and must presume the interval between Anin and Coloman to be greatly understated, through clerical or other error. With these assumptions we should place Polo’s Coloman in the vicinity of Wei-ning, one of the localities of Kolo tribes.

From a position near Wei-ning it would be quite possible to reach Siu-chau in 12 days, making use of the facilities afforded by one or other of the partially navigable rivers to which allusion has just been made.

Iron Suspension Bridge at Lowatong. (From Garnier.)

“That one,” says M. Garnier in a letter, “which enters the Kiang a little above Siu-chau fu, the River of Lowa-tong, which was descended by our party, has a branch to the eastward which is navigable up to about the latitude of Chao-tong. Is not this probably Marco Polo’s route? It is to this day a line much frequented, and one on which great works have been executed; among others two iron suspension bridges, works truly gigantic for the country in which we find them.”

An extract from a Chinese Itinerary of this route, which M. Garnier has since communicated to me, shows that at a point 4 days from Wei-ning the traveller may embark and continue his voyage to any point on the great Kiang.

We are obliged, indeed, to give up the attempt to keep to a line of communicating rivers throughout the whole 24 days. Nor do I see how it is possible to adhere to that condition literally without taking more material liberties with the text.

MARCO POLO’S ITINERARIES N^o. V.
Indo Chinese Regions (Book II, Chap^s. 44–59)

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My theory of Polo’s actual journey would be that he returned from Yun-nan fu to Ch’êng-tu fu through some part of the province of Kwei-chau, perhaps only its western extremity, but that he spoke of Caugigu, and probably of Anin, as he did of Bangala, from report only. And, in recapitulation, I would identify provisionally the localities spoken of in this difficult itinerary as follows: Caugigu with Kiang Hung; Anin with Homi; Coloman with the country about Wei-ning in Western Kwei-chau; Fungul or Sinugul with Siu-chau.

[This itinerary is difficult, as Sir Henry Yule says. It takes Marco Polo 24 days to go from Coloman or Toloman to Ch’êng-tu. The land route is 22 days from Yun-nan fu to Swi-fu, viâ Tung-ch’wan and Chao-t’ung. (J. China B. R. A. S. XXVIII. 74–75.) From the Toloman province, which I place about Lin-ngan and Cheng-kiang, south of Yun-nan fu, Polo must have passed a second time through this city, which is indeed at the end of all the routes of this part of South-Western China. He might go back to Sze-ch’wan by the western route, viâ Tung-ch’wan and Chao-t’ung to Swi-fu, or, by the eastern, easier and shorter route by Siuen-wei chau, crossing a corner of the Kwei-chau province (Wei-ning), and passing by Yun-ning hien to the Kiang; this is the route followed by Mr. A. Hosie in 1883 and by Mr. F. S. A. Bourne in 1885, and with great likelihood by Marco Polo; he may have taken the Yun-ning River to the district city of Na-ch’i hien, which lies on the right bank both of this river and of the Kiang; the Kiang up to Swi-fu and thence to Ch’êng-tu. I do not attempt to explain the difficulty about Fungul.

I fully agree with Sir H. Yule when he says that Polo spoke of Caugigu and of Bangala, probably of Anin, from report only. However, I believe that Caugigu is the Kiao-Chi kwé of the Chinese, that Anin must be read Aniu, that Aniu is but a transcription of Nan-yué, that both Nan-yué and Kiao-Chi represent Northern Annam, i.e. the portion of Annam which we call Tung-king. Regarding the tattooed inhabitants of Caugigu, let it be remembered that tattooing existed in Annam till it was prohibited by the Chinese during the occupation of Tung-king at the beginning of the 15th century.—H. C.]

Note 7.—Here the traveller gets back to the road-bifurcation near Juju, i.e. Chochau (ante p. 11), and thence commences to travel southward.

Fortified Villages on Western frontier of Kweichau. (From Garnier.)

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Part III.—JOURNEY SOUTHWARD THROUGH EASTERN PROVINCES OF CATHAY AND MANZI.

CHAPTER LX.

Cacanfu is a noble city. The people are Idolaters and burn their dead; they have paper-money, and live by trade and handicrafts. For they have plenty of silk from which they weave stuffs of silk and gold, and sendals in large quantities. [There are also certain Christians at this place, who have a church.] And the city is at the head of an important territory containing numerous towns and villages. [A great river passes through it, on which much merchandise is carried to the city of Cambaluc, for by many channels and canals it is connected therewith.{1}]

We will now set forth again, and travel three days towards the south, and then we come to a town called Changlu. This is another great city belonging to the Great Kaan, and to the province of Cathay. The people have paper-money, and are Idolaters and burn their 133dead. And you must know they make salt in great quantities at this place; I will tell you how ’tis done.{2}

A kind of earth is found there which is exceedingly salt. This they dig up and pile in great heaps. Upon these heaps they pour water in quantities till it runs out at the bottom; and then they take up this water and boil it well in great iron cauldrons, and as it cools it deposits a fine white salt in very small grains. This salt they then carry about for sale to many neighbouring districts, and get great profit thereby.

There is nothing else worth mentioning, so let us go forward five days’ journey, and we shall come to a city called Chinangli.

Note 1.—In the greater part of the journey which occupies the remainder of Book II., Pauthier is a chief authority, owing to his industrious Chinese reading and citation. Most of his identifications seem well founded, though sometimes we shall be constrained to dissent from them widely. A considerable number have been anticipated by former editors, but even in such cases he is often able to bring forward new grounds.

Cacanfu is Ho-kien fu in Pe Chih-li, 52 miles in a direct line south by east of Chochau. It was the head of one of the Lu or circuits into which the Mongols divided China. (Pauthier.)

Note 2.—Marsden and Murray have identified Changlu with T’sang-chau in Pe Chih-li, about 30 miles east by south of Ho-kien fu. This seems substantially right, but Pauthier shows that there was an old town actually called Ch’anglu, separated from T’sang-chau only by the great canal. [Ch’ang-lu was the name of T’sang-chau under the T’ang and the Kin. (See Playfair, Dict., p. 34.)—H. C.]

The manner of obtaining salt, described in the text, is substantially the same as one described by Duhalde, and by one of the missionaries, as being employed near the mouth of the Yang-tzŭ kiang. There is a town of the third order some miles south-east of T’sang-chau, called Yen-shan or “salt-hill,” and, according to Pauthier, T’sang-chau is the mart for salt produced there. (Duhalde in Astley, IV. 310; Lettres Edif. XI. 267 seqq.; Biot. p. 283.)

Polo here introduces a remark about the practice of burning the dead, which, with the notice of the idolatry of the people, and their use of paper-money, constitutes a formula which he repeats all through the Chinese provinces with wearisome iteration. It is, in fact, his definition of the Chinese people, for whom he seems to lack a comprehensive name.

A great change seems to have come over Chinese custom, since the Middle Ages, in regard to the disposal of the dead. Cremation is now entirely disused, except in two cases; one, that of the obsequies of a Buddhist priest, and the other that in which the coffin instead of being buried has been exposed in the fields, and in the lapse of time has become decayed. But it is impossible to reject the evidence that it was a common practice in Polo’s age. He repeats the assertion that it was the custom at every stage of his journey through Eastern China; though perhaps his taking absolutely no notice of the practice of burial is an instance of that imperfect knowledge of strictly Chinese peculiarities which has been elsewhere ascribed to him. It is the 134case, however, that the author of the Book of the Estate of the Great Kaan (circa 1330) also speaks of cremation as the usual Chinese practice, and that Ibn Batuta says positively: “The Chinese are infidels and idolaters, and they burn their dead after the manner of the Hindus.” This is all the more curious, because the Arab Relations of the 9th century say distinctly that the Chinese bury their dead, though they often kept the body long (as they do still) before burial; and there is no mistaking the description which Conti (15th century) gives of the Chinese mode of sepulture. Mendoza, in the 16th century, alludes to no disposal of the dead except by burial, but Semedo in the early part of the 17th says that bodies were occasionally burnt, especially in Sze-ch’wan.

I am greatly indebted to the kindness of an eminent Chinese scholar, Mr. W. F. Mayers, of Her Majesty’s Legation at Peking, who, in a letter, dated Peking, 18th September, 1874, sends me the following memorandum on the subject:—

“Colonel Yule’s Marco Polo, II. 97 [First Edition], Burning of the Dead.

“On this subject compare the article entitled Huo Tsang, or ‘Cremation Burials,’ in Bk. XV of the Jih Che Luh, or ‘Daily Jottings,’ a great collection of miscellaneous notes on classical, historical, and antiquarian subjects, by Ku Yen-wu, a celebrated author of the 17th century. The article is as follows:—

“‘The practice of burning the dead flourished (or flourishes) most extensively in Kiang-nan, and was in vogue already in the period of the Sung Dynasty. According to the history of the Sung Dynasty, in the 27th year of the reign Shao-hing (A.D. 1157), the practice was animadverted upon by a public official.’ Here follows a long extract, in which the burning of the dead is reprehended, and it is stated that cemeteries were set apart by Government on behalf of the poorer classes.

“In A.D. 1261, Hwang Chên, governor of the district of Wu, in a memorial praying that the erection of cremation furnaces might thenceforth be prohibited, dwelt upon the impropriety of burning the remains of the deceased, for whose obsequies a multitude of observances were prescribed by the religious rites. He further exposed the fallacy of the excuse alleged for the practice, to wit, that burning the dead was a fulfilment of the precepts of Buddha, and accused the priests of a certain monastery of converting into a source of illicit gain the practice of cremation.”

[As an illustration of the cremation of a Buddhist priest, I note the following passage from an article published in the North-China Herald, 20th May, 1887, p. 556, on Kwei Hua Ch’eng, Mongolia: “Several Lamas are on visiting terms with me and they are very friendly. There are seven large and eight small Lamaseries, in care of from ten to two hundred Lamas. The principal Lamas at death are cremated. A short time ago, a friendly Lama took me to see a cremation. The furnace was roughly made of mud bricks, with four fire-holes at the base, with an opening in which to place the body. The whole was about 6 feet high, and about 5 feet in circumference. Greased fuel was arranged within and covered with glazed foreign calico, on which were written some Tibetan characters. A tent was erected and mats arranged for the Lamas. About 11.30 A.M. a scarlet covered bier appeared in sight carried by thirty-two beggars. A box 2 feet square and 2½ feet high was taken out and placed near the furnace. The Lamas arrived and attired themselves in gorgeous robes and sat cross-legged. During the preparations to chant, some butter was being melted in a corner of the tent. A screen of calico was drawn round the furnace in which the cremator placed the body, and filled up the opening. Then a dozen Lamas began chanting the burial litany in Tibetan in deep bass voices. Then the head priest blessed the torches and when the fires were lit he blessed a fan to fan the flames, and lastly some melted butter, which was poured in at the top to make the whole blaze. This was frequently repeated. When fairly ablaze, a few pieces of Tibetan grass were thrown in at the top. After three days the whole cooled, and a priest with one gold and one silver chopstick collects the bones, which are placed in a bag for burial. If the bones are white it is a sign that his sin is purged, if black that perfection has not been attained.”—H. C.]

And it is very worthy of note that the Chinese envoy to Chinla (Kamboja) in 1295, 135an individual who may have personally known Marco Polo, in speaking of the custom prevalent there of exposing the dead, adds: “There are some, however, who burn their dead. These are all descendants of Chinese immigrants.”

[Professor J. J. M. de Groot remarks that “being of religious origin, cremation is mostly denoted in China by clerical terms, expressive of the metamorphosis the funeral pyre is intended to effect, viz. ‘transformation of man’; ‘transformation of the body’; ‘metamorphosis by fire.’ Without the clerical sphere it bears no such high-sounding names, being simply called ‘incineration of corpses.’ A term of illogical composition, and nevertheless very common in the books, is ‘fire burial.’” It appears that during the Sung Dynasty cremation was especially common in the provinces of Shan-si, Cheh-kiang, and Kiang-su. During the Mongol Dynasty, the instances of cremation which are mentioned in Chinese books are, relatively speaking, numerous. Professor de Groot says also that “there exists evidence that during the Mongol domination cremation also throve in Fuhkien.” (Religious System of China, vol. iii. pp. 1391, 1409, 1410.)—H. C.]

(Doolittle, 190; Deguignes, I. 69; Cathay, pp. 247, 479; Reinaud, I. 56; India in the XVth Century, p. 23; Semedo, p. 95; Rém. Mél. Asiat. I. 128.)

CHAPTER LXI.

Chinangli is a city of Cathay as you go south, and it belongs to the Great Kaan; the people are Idolaters, and have paper-money. There runs through the city a great and wide river, on which a large traffic in silk goods and spices and other costly merchandize passes up and down.

When you travel south from Chinangli for five days, you meet everywhere with fine towns and villages, the people of which are all Idolaters, and burn their dead, and are subject to the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, and live by trade and handicrafts, and have all the necessaries of life in great abundance. But there is nothing particular to mention on the way till you come, at the end of those five days, to Tadinfu.{1}

This, you must know, is a very great city, and in old times was the seat of a great kingdom; but the Great Kaan conquered it by force of arms. Nevertheless it is 136still the noblest city in all those provinces. There are very great merchants here, who trade on a great scale, and the abundance of silk is something marvellous. They have, moreover, most charming gardens abounding with fruit of large size. The city of Tadinfu hath also under its rule eleven imperial cities of great importance, all of which enjoy a large and profitable trade, owing to that immense produce of silk.{2}

Now, you must know, that in the year of Christ, 1273, the Great Kaan had sent a certain Baron called Liytan Sangon,{3} with some 80,000 horse, to this province and city, to garrison them. And after the said captain had tarried there a while, he formed a disloyal and traitorous plot, and stirred up the great men of the province to rebel against the Great Kaan. And so they did; for they broke into revolt against their sovereign lord, and refused all obedience to him, and made this Liytan, whom their sovereign had sent thither for their protection, to be the chief of their revolt.

When the Great Kaan heard thereof he straightway despatched two of his Barons, one of whom was called Aguil and the other Mongotay;{4} giving them 100,000 horse and a great force of infantry. But the affair was a serious one, for the Barons were met by the rebel Liytan with all those whom he had collected from the province, mustering more than 100,000 horse and a large force of foot. Nevertheless in the battle Liytan and his party were utterly routed, and the two Barons whom the Emperor had sent won the victory. When the news came to the Great Kaan he was right well pleased, and ordered that all the chiefs who had rebelled, or excited others to rebel, should be put to a cruel death, but that those of lower rank should receive a pardon. And so it was done. The two Barons had all the leaders of the enterprise put to a cruel death, and all those of lower 137rank were pardoned. And thenceforward they conducted themselves with loyalty towards their lord.{5}

Now having told you all about this affair, let us have done with it, and I will tell you of another place that you come to in going south, which is called Sinju-matu.

Note 1.—There seems to be no solution to the difficulties attaching to the account of these two cities (Chinangli and Tadinfu) except that the two have been confounded, either by a lapse of memory on the traveller’s part or by a misunderstanding on that of Rusticiano.

The position and name of Chinangli point, as Pauthier has shown, to T’si-nan fu, the chief city of Shan-tung. The second city is called in the G. Text and Pauthier’s MSS. Candinfu, Condinfu, and Cundinfu, names which it has not been found possible to elucidate. But adopting the reading Tadinfu of some of the old printed editions (supported by the Tudinfu of Ramusio and the Tandifu of the Riccardian MS.), Pauthier shows that the city now called Yen-chau bore under the Kin the name of Tai-ting fu, which may fairly thus be recognised. [Under the Sung Dynasty Yen-chau was named T’ai-ning and Lung-k’ing. (Playfair’s Dict. p. 388.)—H. C.]

It was not, however, Yen-chau, but T’si-nan fu, which was “the noblest city in all those provinces,” and had been “in old times the seat of a kingdom,” as well as recently the scene of the episode of Litan’s rebellion. T’si-nan fu lies in a direct line 86 miles south of T’sang-chau (Changlu), near the banks of the Ta-t’sing ho, a large river which communicates with the great canal near T’si-ning chau, and which was, no doubt, of greater importance in Polo’s time than in the last six centuries. For up nearly to the origin of the Mongol power it appears to have been one of the main discharges of the Hwang-Ho. The recent changes in that river have again brought its main stream into the same channel, and the “New Yellow River” passes three or four miles to the north of the city. T’si-nan fu has frequently of late been visited by European travellers, who report it as still a place of importance, with much life and bustle, numerous book-shops, several fine temples, two mosques, and all the furniture of a provincial capital. It has also a Roman Catholic Cathedral of Gothic architecture. (Williamson, I. 102.)

[Tsi-nan “is a populous and rich city; and by means of the river (Ta Tsing ho, Great Clear River) carries on an extensive commerce. The soil is fertile, and produces grain and fruits in abundance. Silk of an excellent quality is manufactured, and commands a high price. The lakes and rivers are well stored with fish.” (Chin. Rep. XI. p. 562.)—H. C.]

Note 2.—The Chinese Annals, more than 2000 years B.C., speak of silk as an article of tribute from Shan-tung; and evidently it was one of the provinces most noted in the Middle Ages for that article. Compare the quotation in note on next chapter from Friar Odoric. Yet the older modern accounts speak only of the wild silk of Shan-tung. Mr. Williamson, however, points out that there is an extensive produce from the genuine mulberry silkworm, and anticipates a very important trade in Shan-tung silk. Silk fabrics are also largely produced, and some of extraordinary quality. (Williamson, I. 112, 131.)

The expressions of Padre Martini, in speaking of the wild silk of Shan-tung, strongly remind one of the talk of the ancients about the origin of silk, and suggest the possibility that this may not have been mere groundless fancy: “Non in globum aut ovum ductum, sed in longissimum filum paulatim ex ore emissum, albi coloris, quæ arbustis dumisque, adhærentia, atque a vento huc illucque agitata colliguntur,” etc. Compare this with Pliny’s “Seres lanitia silvarum nobiles, perfusam 138aqua depectentes frondium caniciem,” or Claudian’s “Stamine, quod molli tondent de stipite Seres, Frondea lanigeræ carpentes vellera silvæ; Et longum tenues tractus producit in aurum.”

Note 3.—The title Sangon is, as Pauthier points out, the Chinese Tsiang-kiun, a “general of division,” [or better “Military Governor”.—H. C.] John Bell calls an officer, bearing the same title, “Merin Sanguin.” I suspect T’siang-kiun is the Jang-Jang of Baber.

Note 4.—Agul was the name of a distant cousin of Kúblái, who was the father of Nayan (supra, ch. ii. and Genealogy of the House of Chinghiz in Appendix A). Mangkutai, under Kúblái, held the command of the third Hazara (Thousand) of the right wing, in which he had succeeded his father Jedi Noyan. He was greatly distinguished in the invasion of South China under Bayan. (Erdmann’s Temudschin, pp. 220, 455; Gaubil, p. 160.)

Note 5.—Litan, a Chinese of high military position and reputation under the Mongols, in the early part of Kúblái’s reign, commanded the troops in Shan-tung and the conquered parts of Kiang-nan. In the beginning of 1262 he carried out a design that he had entertained since Kúblái’s accession, declared for the Sung Emperor, to whom he gave up several important places, put detached Mongol garrisons to the sword, and fortified T’si-nan and T’sing-chau. Kúblái despatched Prince Apiché and the General Ssetienché against him. Litan, after some partial success, was beaten and driven into T’si-nan, which the Mongols immediately invested. After a blockade of four months, the garrison was reduced to extremities. Litan, in despair, put his women to death and threw himself into a lake adjoining the city; but he was taken out alive and executed. T’sing-chau then surrendered. (Gaubil, 139–140; De Mailla, IX. 298 seqq.; D’Ohsson, II. 381.)

Pauthier gives greater detail from the Chinese Annals, which confirm the amnesty granted to all but the chiefs of the rebellion.

The date in the text is wrong or corrupt, as is generally the case.

CHAPTER LXII.

On leaving Tadinfu you travel three days towards the south, always finding numbers of noble and populous towns and villages flourishing with trade and manufactures. There is also abundance of game in the country, and everything in profusion.

When you have travelled those three days you come to the noble city of Sinjumatu, a rich and fine place, with great trade and manufactures. The people are Idolaters and subjects of the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, 139and they have a river which I can assure you brings them great gain, and I will tell you about it.

You see the river in question flows from the South to this city of Sinjumatu. And the people of the city have divided this larger river in two, making one half of it flow east and the other half flow west; that is to say, the one branch flows towards Manzi and the other towards Cathay. And it is a fact that the number of vessels at this city is what no one would believe without seeing them. The quantity of merchandize also which these vessels transport to Manzi and Cathay is something marvellous; and then they return loaded with other merchandize, so that the amount of goods borne to and fro on those two rivers is quite astonishing.{1}

Note 1.—Friar Odoric, proceeding by water northward to Cambaluc about 1324–1325, says: “As I travelled by that river towards the east, and passed many towns and cities, I came to a certain city which is called Sunzumatu, which hath a greater plenty of silk than perhaps any place on earth, for when silk is at the dearest you can still have 40 lbs. for less than eight groats. There is in the place likewise great store of merchandise,” etc. When commenting on Odoric, I was inclined to identify this city with Lin-t’sing chau, but its position with respect to the two last cities in Polo’s itinerary renders this inadmissible; and Murray and Pauthier seem to be right in identifying it with T’si-ning chau. The affix Matu (Ma-t’eu, a jetty, a place of river trade) might easily attach itself to the name of such a great depôt of commerce on the canal as Marco here describes, though no Chinese authority has been produced for its being so styled. The only objection to the identification with T’si-ning chau is the difficulty of making 3 days’ journey of the short distance between Yen-chau and that city.

Polo, according to the route supposed, comes first upon the artificial part of the Great Canal here. The rivers Wen and Sse (from near Yen-chau) flowing from the side of Shan-tung, and striking the canal line at right angles near T’si-ning chau, have been thence diverted north-west and south-east, so as to form the canal; the point of their original confluence at Nan-wang forming, apparently, the summit level of the canal. There is a little confusion in Polo’s account, owing to his describing the river as coming from the south, which, according to his orientation, would be the side towards Honan. In this respect his words would apply more accurately to the Wei River at Lin-t’sing (see Biot in J. As. sér. III. tom. xiv. 194, and J. N. C. B. R. A. S., 1866, p. 11; also the map with ch. lxiv.) [Father Gandar (Canal Impérial, p. 22, note) says that the remark of Marco Polo: “The river flows from the south to this city of Sinjumatu,” cannot be applied to the Wen-ho nor to the Sse-ho, which are rivers of little importance and running from the east, whilst the Wei-ho, coming from the south-east, waters Lin-ts’ing, and answers well to our traveller’s text.—H. C.] Duhalde calls T’si-ning chau “one of the most considerable cities of the empire”; and Nieuhoff speaks of its large trade and population. [Sir John F. Davis writes that Tsi-ning chau is a town of considerable dimensions.... “The ma-tow, 140or platforms, before the principal boats had ornamental gateways over them.... The canal seems to render this an opulent and flourishing place, to judge by the gilded and carved shops, temples, and public offices, along the eastern banks.” (Sketches of China, I. pp. 255–257.)—H. C.]

CHAPTER LXIII.

On leaving the city of Sinju-matu you travel for eight days towards the south, always coming to great and rich towns and villages flourishing with trade and manufactures. The people are all subjects of the Great Kaan, use paper-money, and burn their dead. At the end of those eight days you come to the city of Linju, in the province of the same name of which it is the capital. It is a rich and noble city, and the men are good soldiers, natheless they carry on great trade and manufactures. There is great abundance of game in both beasts and birds, and all the necessaries of life are in profusion. The place stands on the river of which I told you above. And they have here great numbers of vessels, even greater than those of which I spoke before, and these transport a great amount of costly merchandize{1}.

So, quitting this province and city of Linju, you travel three days more towards the south, constantly finding numbers of rich towns and villages. These still belong to Cathay; and the people are all Idolaters, burning their dead, and using paper-money, that I mean of their Lord the Great Kaan, whose subjects they are. This is the finest country for game, whether in beasts or birds, that is anywhere to be found, and all the necessaries of life are in profusion.

141

At the end of those three days you find the city of Piju, a great, rich, and noble city, with large trade and manufactures, and a great production of silk. This city stands at the entrance to the great province of Manzi, and there reside at it a great number of merchants who despatch carts from this place loaded with great quantities of goods to the different towns of Manzi. The city brings in a great revenue to the Great Kaan.{2}

Note 1.—Murray suggests that Lingiu is a place which appears in D’Anville’s Map of Shan-tung as Lintching-y, and in Arrowsmith’s Map of China (also in those of Berghaus and Keith Johnston) as Lingchinghien. The position assigned to it, however, on the west bank of the canal, nearly under the 35th degree of latitude, would agree fairly with Polo’s data. [Lin-ch’ing, Lin-tsing, lat. 37° 03′, Playfair’s Dict. No. 4276; Biot, p. 107.—H. C.]

In any case, I imagine Lingiu (of which, perhaps, Lingin may be the correct reading) to be the Lenzin of Odoric, which he reached in travelling by water from the south, before arriving at Sinjumatu. (Cathay, p. 125.)

Note 2.—There can be no doubt that this is Pei-chau on the east bank of the canal. The abundance of game about here is noticed by Nieuhoff (in Astley, III. 417). [See D. Gandar, Canal Impérial, 1894.—H. C.]

CHAPTER LXIV.

When you leave Piju you travel towards the south for two days, through beautiful districts abounding in everything, and in which you find quantities of all kinds of game. At the end of those two days you reach the city of Siju, a great, rich, and noble city, flourishing with trade and manufactures. The people are Idolaters, burn their dead, use paper-money, and are subjects of the Great Kaan. They possess extensive and fertile plains producing abundance of wheat and other grain.{1} But there is nothing else to mention, so let us proceed and tell you of the countries further on.

142

On leaving Siju you ride south for three days, constantly falling in with fine towns and villages and hamlets and farms, with their cultivated lands. There is plenty of wheat and other corn, and of game also; and the people are all Idolaters and subjects of the Great Kaan.

At the end of those three days you reach the great river Caramoran, which flows hither from Prester John’s country. It is a great river, and more than a mile in width, and so deep that great ships can navigate it. It abounds in fish, and very big ones too. You must know that in this river there are some 15,000 vessels, all belonging to the Great Kaan, and kept to transport his troops to the Indian Isles whenever there may be occasion; for the sea is only one day distant from the place we are speaking of. And each of these vessels, taking one with another, will require 20 mariners, and will carry 15 horses with the men belonging to them, and their provisions, arms, and equipments.{2}

Hither and thither, on either bank of the river, stands a town; the one facing the other. The one is called Coiganju and the other Caiju; the former is a large place, and the latter a little one. And when you pass this river you enter the great province of Manzi. So now I must tell you how this province of Manzi was conquered by the Great Kaan.{3}

Note 1.—Siju can scarcely be other than Su-t’sien (Sootsin of Keith Johnston’s map) as Murray and Pauthier have said. The latter states that one of the old names of the place was Si-chau, which corresponds to that given by Marco. Biot does not give this name.

The town stands on the flat alluvial of the Hwang-Ho, and is approached by high embanked roads. (Astley, III. 524–525.)

[Sir J. F. Davis writes: “From Sootsien Hien to the point of junction with the Yellow River, a length of about fifty miles, that great stream and the canal run nearly parallel with each other, at an average distance of four or five miles, and sometimes much nearer.” (Sketches of China, I. p. 265.)—H. C.]

Note 2.—We have again arrived on the banks of the Hwang-Ho, which was crossed higher up on our traveller’s route to Karájang.

No accounts, since China became known to modern Europe, attribute to the Hwang-Ho the great utility for navigation which Polo here and elsewhere ascribes to 143it. Indeed, we are told that its current is so rapid that its navigation is scarcely practicable, and the only traffic of the kind that we hear of is a transport of coal in Shan-si for a certain distance down stream. This rapidity also, bringing down vast quantities of soil, has so raised the bed that in recent times the tide has not entered the river, as it probably did in our traveller’s time, when, as it would appear from his account, seagoing craft used to ascend to the ferry north of Hwai-ngan fu, or thereabouts. Another indication of change is his statement that the passage just mentioned was only one day’s journey from the sea, whereas it is now about 50 miles in a direct line. But the river has of late years undergone changes much more material.

Sketch Map, exhibiting the VARIATIONS
of the Two Great Rivers of China
Within the Period of History.

In the remotest times of which the Chinese have any record, the Hwang-Ho discharged its waters into the Gulf of Chih-li, by two branches, the most northerly of which appears to have followed the present course of the Pei-ho below Tien-tsing. In the time of the Shang Dynasty (ending B.C. 1078) a branch more southerly than either of the above flowed towards T’si-ning, and combined with the T’si River, which flowed by T’si-nan fu, the same in fact that was till recently called the Ta-t’sing. In the time of Confucius we first hear of a branch being thrown off south-east towards the Hwai, flowing north of Hwai-ngan, in fact towards the embouchure which our maps still display as that of the Hwang-Ho. But, about the 3rd and 4th centuries of our era, the river discharged exclusively by the T’si; and up to the Mongol age, or nearly so, the mass of the waters of this great river continued to flow into the Gulf of Chih-li. They then changed their course bodily towards the Hwai, and followed that general direction to the sea; this they had adopted before the time of our traveller, and they retained it till a very recent period. The mass of Shan-tung thus forms a mountainous island rising out of the vast alluvium of the Hwang-Ho, whose discharge into the sea has alternated between the north and the south of that mountainous tract. (See Map opposite.)

During the reign of the last Mongol emperor, a project was adopted for restoring the Hwang-Ho to its former channel, discharging into the Gulf of Chih-li; and discontents connected with this scheme promoted the movement for the expulsion of the dynasty (1368).

A river whose regimen was liable to such vast changes was necessarily a constant source of danger, insomuch that the Emperor Kia-K’ing in his will speaks of it as having been “from the remotest ages China’s sorrow.” Some idea of the enormous works maintained for the control of the river may be obtained from the following description of their character on the north bank, some distance to the west of Kai-fung fu:

“In a village, apparently bounded by an earthen wall as large as that of the Tartar city of Peking, was reached the first of the outworks erected to resist the Hwang-Ho, and on arriving at the top that river and the gigantic earthworks rendered necessary by its outbreaks burst on the view. On a level with the spot on which I was standing stretched a series of embankments, each one about 70 feet high, and of breadth sufficient for four railway trucks to run abreast on them. The mode of their arrangement was on this wise: one long bank ran parallel to the direction of the stream; half a mile distant from it ran a similar one; these two embankments were then connected by another series exactly similar in size, height, and breadth, and running at right angles to them right down to the edge of the water.”

In 1851, the Hwang-Ho burst its northern embankment nearly 30 miles east of Kai-fung fu; the floods of the two following years enlarged the breach; and in 1853 the river, after six centuries, resumed the ancient direction of its discharge into the Gulf of Chih-li. Soon after leaving its late channel, it at present spreads, without defined banks, over the very low lands of South-Western Shan-tung, till it reaches the Great Canal, and then enters the Ta-t’sing channel, passing north of T’si-nan to the sea. The old channel crossed by Polo in the present journey is quite deserted. The greater part of the bed is there cultivated; it is dotted with numerous villages; and the vast trading town of Tsing-kiang pu was in 1868 extending so rapidly from the 144southern bank that a traveller in that year says he expected that in two years it would reach the northern bank.

The same change has destroyed the Grand Canal as a navigable channel for many miles south of Lin-t’sing chau. (J. R. G. S. XXVIII. 294–295; Escayrac de Lauture, Mém. sur la Chine; Cathay, p. 125; Reports of Journeys in China, etc. [by Consuls Alabaster, Oxenham, etc., Parl. Blue Book], 1869, pp. 4–5, 14; Mr. Elias in J. R. G. S. XL. p. 1 seqq.)

[Since the exploration of the Hwang-Ho in 1868 by Mr. Ney Elias and by Mr. H. G. Hollingworth, an inspection of this river was made in 1889 and a report published in 1891 by the Dutch Engineers J. G. W. Fijnje van Salverda, Captain P. G. van Schermbeek and A. Visser, for the improvement of the Yellow River.—H. C.]

Note 3.—Coiganju will be noticed below. Caiju does not seem to be traceable, having probably been carried away by the changes in the river. But it would seem to have been at the mouth of the canal on the north side of the Hwang-Ho, and the name is the same as that given below (ch. lxxii.) to the town (Kwachau) occupying the corresponding position on the Kiang.

“Khatai,” says Rashiduddin, “is bounded on one side by the country of Máchín, which the Chinese call Manzi.... In the Indian language Southern China is called Mahá-chín, i.e. ‘Great China,’ and hence we derive the word Machin. The Mongols call the same country Nangiass. It is separated from Khatai by the river called Karamoran, which comes from the mountains of Tibet and Kashmir, and which is never fordable. The capital of this kingdom is the city of Khingsai, which is forty days’ journey from Khanbalik.” (Quat. Rashid., xci.–xciii.)

Manzi (or Mangi) is a name used for Southern China, or more properly for the territory which constituted the dominion of the Sung Dynasty at the time when the Mongols conquered Cathay or Northern China from the Kin, not only by Marco, but by Odoric and John Marignolli, as well as by the Persian writers, who, however, more commonly call it Máchín. I imagine that some confusion between the two words led to the appropriation of the latter name, also to Southern China. The term Man-tzŭ or Man-tze signifies “Barbarians” (“Sons of Barbarians”), and was applied, it is said, by the Northern Chinese to their neighbours on the south, whose civilisation was of later date.[1] The name is now specifically applied to a wild race on the banks of the Upper Kiang. But it retains its mediæval application in Manchuria, where Mantszi is the name given to the Chinese immigrants, and in that use is said to date from the time of Kúblái. (Palladius in J. R. G. S. vol. xlii. p. 154.) And Mr. Moule has found the word, apparently used in Marco’s exact sense, in a Chinese extract of the period, contained in the topography of the famous Lake of Hang-chau (infra, ch. lxxvi.–lxxvii.)

Though both Polo and Rashiduddin call the Karamoran the boundary between Cathay and Manzi, it was not so for any great distance. Ho-nan belonged essentially to Cathay.

CHAPTER LXV.

You must know that there was a King and Sovereign lord of the great territory of Manzi who was styled 145Facfur, so great and puissant a prince, that for vastness of wealth and number of subjects and extent of dominion, there was hardly a greater in all the earth except the Great Kaan himself.{1} But the people of his land were anything rather than warriors; all their delight was in women, and nought but women; and so it was above all with the King himself, for he took thought of nothing else but women, unless it were of charity to the poor.

In all his dominion there were no horses; nor were the people ever inured to battle or arms, or military service of any kind. Yet the province of Manzi is very strong by nature, and all the cities are encompassed by sheets of water of great depth, and more than an arblast-shot in width; so that the country never would have been lost, had the people but been soldiers. But that is just what they were not; so lost it was.{2}

Now it came to pass, in the year of Christ’s incarnation, 1268, that the Great Kaan, the same that now reigneth, despatched thither a Baron of his whose name was Bayan Chincsan, which is as much as to say “Bayan Hundred Eyes.” And you must know that the King of Manzi had found in his horoscope that he never should lose his Kingdom except through a man that had an hundred eyes; so he held himself assured in his position, for he could not believe that any man in existence could have an hundred eyes. There, however, he deluded himself, in his ignorance of the name of Bayan.{3}

This Bayan had an immense force of horse and foot entrusted to him by the Great Kaan, and with these he entered Manzi, and he had also a great number of boats to carry both horse and food when need should be. And when he, with all his host, entered the territory of Manzi and arrived at this city of Coiganju—whither we now are got, and of which we shall speak presently—he 146summoned the people thereof to surrender to the Great Kaan; but this they flatly refused. On this Bayan went on to another city, with the same result, and then still went forward; acting thus because he was aware that the Great Kaan was despatching another great host to follow him up.{4}

What shall I say then? He advanced to five cities in succession, but got possession of none of them; for he did not wish to engage in besieging them and they would not give themselves up. But when he came to the sixth city he took that by storm, and so with a second, and a third, and a fourth, until he had taken twelve cities in succession. And when he had taken all these he advanced straight against the capital city of the kingdom, which was called Kinsay, and which was the residence of the King and Queen.

And when the King beheld Bayan coming with all his host, he was in great dismay, as one unused to see such sights. So he and a great company of his people got on board a thousand ships and fled to the islands of the Ocean Sea, whilst the Queen who remained behind in the city took all measures in her power for its defence, like a valiant lady.

Now it came to pass that the Queen asked what was the name of the captain of the host, and they told her that it was Bayan Hundred-Eyes. So when she wist that he was styled Hundred-Eyes, she called to mind how their astrologers had foretold that a man of an hundred eyes should strip them of the kingdom.{5} Wherefore she gave herself up to Bayan, and surrendered to him the whole kingdom and all the other cities and fortresses, so that no resistance was made. And in sooth this was a goodly conquest, for there was no realm on earth half so wealthy.{6} The amount that the King used to expend was perfectly marvellous; and as an 147example I will tell you somewhat of his liberal acts.

In those provinces they are wont to expose their new-born babes; I speak of the poor, who have not the means of bringing them up. But the King used to have all those foundlings taken charge of, and had note made of the signs and planets under which each was born, and then put them out to nurse about the country. And when any rich man was childless he would go to the King and obtain from him as many of these children as he desired. Or, when the children grew up, the King would make up marriages among them, and provide for the couples from his own purse. In this manner he used to provide for some 20,000 boys and girls every year.{7}

I will tell you another thing this King used to do. If he was taking a ride through the city and chanced to see a house that was very small and poor standing among other houses that were fine and large, he would ask why it was so, and they would tell him it belonged to a poor man who had not the means to enlarge it. Then the King would himself supply the means. And thus it came to pass that in all the capital of the kingdom of Manzi, Kinsay by name, you should not see any but fine houses.

This King used to be waited on by more than a thousand young gentlemen and ladies, all clothed in the richest fashion. And he ruled his realm with such justice that no malefactors were to be found therein. The city in fact was so secure that no man closed his doors at night, not even in houses and shops that were full of all sorts of rich merchandize. No one could do justice in the telling to the great riches of that country, and to the good disposition of the people. Now that I have told you about the kingdom, I will go back to the Queen.

148

You must know that she was conducted to the Great Kaan, who gave her an honourable reception, and caused her to be served with all state, like a great lady as she was. But as for the King her husband, he never more did quit the isles of the sea to which he had fled, but died there. So leave we him and his wife and all their concerns, and let us return to our story, and go on regularly with our account of the great province of Manzi and of the manners and customs of its people. And, to begin at the beginning, we must go back to the city of Coiganju, from which we digressed to tell you about the conquest of Manzi.

Note 1.—Faghfúr or Baghbúr was a title applied by old Persian and Arabic writers to the Emperor of China, much in the way that we used to speak of the Great Mogul, and our fathers of the Sophy. It is, as Neumann points out, an old Persian translation of the Chinese title Tien-tzŭ, “Son of Heaven”; Bagh-Púr = “The Son of the Divinity,” as Sapor or Sháh-Púr = “The Son of the King.” Faghfur seems to have been used as a proper name in Turkestan. (See Baber, 423.)

There is a word, Takfúr, applied similarly by the Mahomedans to the Greek emperors of both Byzantium and Trebizond (and also to the Kings of Cilician Armenia), which was perhaps adopted as a jingling match to the former term; Faghfur, the great infidel king in the East; Takfur, the great infidel king in the West. Defrémery says this is Armenian, Tagavor, “a king.” (I. B., II. 393, 427.)

[“The last of the Sung Emperors (1276) ‘Facfur’ (i.e. the Arabic for Tien Tzŭ) was freed by Kúblái from the (ancient Kotan) indignity of surrendering with a rope round his neck, leading a sheep, and he received the title of Duke. In 1288 he went to Tibet to study Buddhism, and in 1296 he and his mother, Ts’iuen T’aï How, became a bonze and a nun, and were allowed to hold 360 k’ing (say 5000 acres) of land free of taxes under the then existing laws.” (E. H. Parker, China Review, February, March 1901, p. 195.)—H. C.]

Note 2.—Nevertheless the history of the conquest shows instances of extraordinary courage and self-devotion on the part of Chinese officers, especially in the defence of fortresses—virtues often shown in like degree, under like circumstances, by the same class, in the modern history of China.

Note 3.—Bayan (signifying “great” or “noble”) is a name of very old renown among the Nomad nations, for we find it as that of the Khagan of the Avars in the 6th century. The present Bayan, Kúblái’s most famous lieutenant, was of princely birth, in the Mongol tribe called Barin. In his youth he served in the West of Asia under Hulaku. According to Rashiduddin, about 1265 he was sent to Cathay with certain ambassadors of the Kaan’s who were returning thither. He was received with great distinction by Kúblái, who was greatly taken with his prepossessing appearance and ability, and a command was assigned him. In 1273, after the capture of Siang-Yang (infra, ch. lxx.) the Kaan named him to the chief command in the prosecution of the war against the Sung Dynasty. Whilst Bayan was in the full tide of success, Kúblái, alarmed by the ravages of Kaidu on the Mongolian frontier, recalled him to take the command there, but, on the general’s remonstrance, he gave way, and made him a minister of state (Chingsiang). The essential part of his task 149was completed by the surrender of the capital King-szé (Lin-ngan, now Hang-chau) to his arms in the beginning of 1276. He was then recalled to court, and immediately despatched to Mongolia, where he continued in command for seventeen years, his great business being to keep down the restless Kaidu. [“The biography of this valiant captain is found in the Yuen-shi (ch. cxxvii.). It is quite in accordance with the biographical notices Rashid gives of the same personage. He calls him Bayan.” (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. p. 271, note).]

[“The inventory, records, etc., of Kinsai, mentioned by Marco Polo, as also the letter from the old empress, are undoubted facts: complete stock was taken, and 5,692,656 souls were added to the population (in the two Chêh alone). The Emperor surrendered in person to Bayan a few days after his official surrender, which took place on the 18th day of the 1st moon in 1276. Bayan took the Emperor to see Kúblái.” (E. H. Parker, China Review, XXIV. p. 105.)—H. C.]

In 1293, enemies tried to poison the emperor’s ear against Bayan, and they seemed to have succeeded; for Kúblái despatched his heir, the Prince Teimur, to supersede him in the frontier command. Bayan beat Kaidu once more, and then made over his command with characteristic dignity. On his arrival at court, Kúblái received him with the greatest honour, and named him chief minister of state and commandant of his guards and the troops about Cambaluc. The emperor died in the beginning of the next year (1294), and Bayan’s high position enabled him to take decisive measures for preserving order, and maintaining Kúblái’s disposition of the succession. Bayan was raised to still higher dignities, but died at the age of 59, within less than a year of the master whom he had served so well for 30 years (about January, 1295). After his death, according to the peculiar Chinese fashion, he received yet further accessions of dignity.

The language of Chinese historians in speaking of this great man is thus rendered by De Mailla; it is a noble eulogy of a Tartar warrior:—

“He was endowed with a lofty genius, and possessed in the highest measure the art of handling great bodies of troops. When he marched against the Sung, he directed the movements of 200,000 men with as much ease and coolness as if there had been but one man under his orders. All his officers looked up to him as a prodigy; and having absolute trust in his capacity, they obeyed him with entire submission. Nobody knew better how to deal with soldiers, or to moderate their ardour when it carried them too far. He was never seen sad except when forced to shed blood, for he was sparing even of the blood of his enemy.... His modesty was not inferior to his ability.... He would attribute all the honour to the conduct of his officers, and he was ever ready to extol their smallest feats. He merited the praises of Chinese as well as Mongols, and both nations long regretted the loss of this great man.” De Mailla gives a different account from Rashiduddin and Gaubil, of the manner in which Bayan first entered the Kaan’s service. (Gaubil, 145, 159, 169, 179, 183, 221, 223–224; Erdmann, 222–223; De Mailla, IX. 335, 458, 461–463.)

Note 4.—As regards Bayan personally, and the main body under his command, this seems to be incorrect. His advance took place from Siang-yang along the lines of the Han River and of the Great Kiang. Another force indeed marched direct upon Yang-chau, and therefore probably by Hwai-ngan chau (infra, p. 152); and it is noted that Bayan’s orders to the generals of this force were to spare bloodshed. (Gaubil, 159; D’Ohsson, II. 398.)

Note 5.—So in our own age ran the Hindu prophecy that Bhartpúr should never fall till there came a great alligator against it; and when it fell to the English assault, the Brahmans found that the name of the leader was Combermere = Kumhír-Mír, the Crocodile Lord!

——“Be those juggling fiends no more believed

That palter with us in a double sense;

That keep the word of promise to our ear

And break it to our hope!”

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It would seem from the expression, both in Pauthier’s text and in the G. T., as if Polo intended to say that Chincsan (Cinqsan) meant “One Hundred Eyes”; and if so we could have no stronger proof of his ignorance of Chinese. It is Pe-yen, the Chinese form of Bayan, that means, or rather may be punningly rendered, “One Hundred Eyes.” Chincsan, i.e. Ching-siang, was the title of the superior ministers of state at Khanbaligh, as we have already seen. The title occurs pretty frequently in the Persian histories of the Mongols, and frequently as a Mongol title in Sanang Setzen. We find it also disguised as Chyansam in a letter from certain Christian nobles at Khanbaligh, which Wadding quotes from the Papal archives. (See Cathay, pp. 314–315.)

But it is right to observe that in the Ramusian version the mistranslation which we have noticed is not so undubitable: “Volendo sapere come avea nome il Capitano nemico, le fu detto, Chinsambaian, cioè Cent’occhi.”

A kind of corroboration of Marco’s story, but giving a different form to the pun, has been found by Mr. W. F. Mayers, of the Diplomatic Department in China, in a Chinese compilation dating from the latter part of the 14th century. Under the heading, “A Kiang-nan Prophecy,” this book states that prior to the fall of the Sung a prediction ran through Kiang-nan: “If Kiang-nan fall, a hundred wild geese (Pê-yen) will make their appearance.” This, it is added, was not understood till the generalissimo Peyen Chingsiang made his appearance on the scene. “Punning prophecies of this kind are so common in Chinese history, that the above is only worth noticing in connection with Marco Polo’s story.” (N. and Q., China and Japan, vol. ii. p. 162.)

But I should suppose that the Persian historian Wassáf had also heard a bungled version of the same story, which he tells in a pointless manner of the fortress of Sináfúr (evidently a clerical error for Saianfu, see below, ch. lxx.): “Payan ordered this fortress to be assaulted. The garrison had heard how the capital of China had fallen, and the army of Payan was drawing near. The commandant was an experienced veteran who had tasted all the sweets and bitters of fortune, and had borne the day’s heat and the night’s cold; he had, as the saw goes, milked the world’s cow dry. So he sent word to Payan: ‘In my youth’ (here we abridge Wassáf’s rigmarole) ‘I heard my father tell that this fortress should be taken by a man called Payan, and that all fencing and trenching, fighting and smiting, would be of no avail. You need not, therefore, bring an army hither; we give in; we surrender the fortress and all that is therein.’ So they opened the gates and came down.” (Wassáf, Hammer’s ed., p. 41).

Note 6.—There continues in this narrative, with a general truth as to the course of events, a greater amount of error as to particulars than we should have expected. The Sung Emperor Tu Tsong, a debauched and effeminate prince, to whom Polo seems to refer, had died in 1274, leaving young children only. Chaohien, the second son, a boy of four years of age, was put on the throne, with his grandmother Siechi, as regent. The approach of Bayan caused the greatest alarm; the Sung Court made humble propositions, but they were not listened to. The brothers of the young emperor were sent off by sea into the southern provinces; the empress regent was also pressed to make her escape with the young emperor, but, after consenting, she changed her mind and would not move. The Mongols arrived before King-szé, and the empress sent the great seal of the empire to Bayan. He entered the city without resistance in the third month (say April), 1276, riding at the head of his whole staff with the standard of the general-in-chief before him. It is remarked that he went to look at the tide in the River Tsien Tang, which is noted for its bore. He declined to meet the regent and her grandson, pleading that he was ignorant of the etiquettes proper to such an interview. Before his entrance Bayan had nominated a joint-commission of Mongol and Chinese officers to the government of the city, and appointed a committee to take charge of all the public documents, maps, drawings, records of courts, and seals of all public offices, and to plant sentinels at necessary 151points. The emperor, his mother, and the rest of the Sung princes and princesses, were despatched to the Mongol capital. A desperate attempt was made, at Kwa-chau (infra, ch. lxxii.) to recapture the young emperor, but it failed. On their arrival at Ta-tu, Kúblái’s chief queen, Jamui Khatun, treated them with delicate consideration. This amiable lady, on being shown the spoils that came from Lin-ngan, only wept, and said to her husband, “So also shall it be with the Mongol empire one day!” The eldest of the two boys who had escaped was proclaimed emperor by his adherents at Fu-chau, in Fo-kien, but they were speedily driven from that province (where the local histories, as Mr. G. Phillips informs me, preserve traces of their adventures in the Islands of Amoy Harbour), and the young emperor died on a desert island off the Canton coast in 1278. His younger brother took his place, but a battle, in the beginning of 1279 finally extinguished these efforts of the expiring dynasty, and the minister jumped with his young lord into the sea. It is curious that Rashiduddin, with all his opportunities of knowledge, writing at least twenty years later, was not aware of this, for he speaks of the Prince of Manzi as still a fugitive in the forests between Zayton and Canton. (Gaubil; D’Ohsson; De Mailla; Cathay, p. 272.) [See Parker, supra, p. 148 and 149.—H. C.]

There is a curious account in the Lettres Édifiantes (xxiv. 45 seqq.) by P. Parrenin of a kind of Pariah caste at Shao-hing (see ch. lxxix. note 1), who were popularly believed to be the descendants of the great lords of the Sung Court, condemned to that degraded condition for obstinately resisting the Mongols. Another notice, however, makes the degraded body rebels against the Sung. (Milne, p. 218.)

Note 7.—There is much about the exposure of children, and about Chinese foundling hospitals, in the Lettres Édifiantes, especially in Recueil xv. 83, seqq. It is there stated that frequently a person not in circumstances to pay for a wife for his son, would visit the foundling hospital to seek one. The childless rich also would sometimes get children there to pass off as their own; adopted children being excluded from certain valuable privileges.

Mr. Milne (Life in China), and again Mr. Medhurst (Foreigner in Far Cathay), have discredited the great prevalence of infant exposure in China; but since the last work was published, I have seen the translation of a recent strong remonstrance against the practice by a Chinese writer, which certainly implied that it was very prevalent in the writer’s own province. Unfortunately, I have lost the reference. [See Father G. Palatre, L’Infanticide et l’Œuvre de la Ste. Enfance en Chine, 1878.—H. C.]

CHAPTER LXVI.

Coiganju is, as I have told you already, a very large city standing at the entrance to Manzi. The people are Idolaters and burn their dead, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They have a vast amount of shipping, as I mentioned before in speaking of the River Caramoran. And an immense quantity of merchandize comes hither, 152for the city is the seat of government for this part of the country. Owing to its being on the river, many cities send their produce thither to be again thence distributed in every direction. A great amount of salt also is made here, furnishing some forty other cities with that article, and bringing in a large revenue to the Great Kaan.{1}

Note 1.—Coiganju is Hwai-ngan chau, now -Fu, on the canal, some miles south of the channel of the Hwang-Ho; but apparently in Polo’s time the great river passed close to it. Indeed, the city takes its name from the River Hwai, into which the Hwang-Ho sent a branch when first seeking a discharge south of Shantung. The city extends for about 3 miles along the canal and much below its level. [According to Sir J. F. Davis, the situation of Hwai-ngan “is in every respect remarkable. A part of the town was so much below the level of the canal, that only the tops of the walls (at least 25 feet high) could be seen from our boats.... It proved to be, next to Tien-tsin, by far the largest and most populous place we had yet seen, the capital itself excepted.” (Sketches of China, I. pp. 277–278.)—H. C.]

The headquarters of the salt manufacture of Hwai-ngan is a place called Yen-ching (“Salt-Town”), some distance to the S. of the former city (Pauthier).

CHAPTER LXVII.

When you leave Coiganju you ride south-east for a day along a causeway laid with fine stone, which you find at this entrance to Manzi. On either hand there is a great expanse of water, so that you cannot enter the province except along this causeway. At the end of the day’s journey you reach the fine city of Paukin. The people are Idolaters, burn their dead, are subject to the Great Kaan, and use paper-money. They live by trade and manufactures and have great abundance of silk, whereof they weave a great variety of fine stuffs of silk and gold. Of all the necessaries of life there is great store.

When you leave Paukin you ride another day to the south-east, and then you arrive at the city of Cayu. 153The people are Idolaters (and so forth). They live by trade and manufactures and have great store of all necessaries, including fish in great abundance. There is also much game, both beast and bird, insomuch that for a Venice groat you can have three good pheasants.{1}

Note 1.—Paukin is Pao-ying-Hien [a populous place, considerably below the level of the canal (Davis, Sketches, I. pp. 279–280)]; Cayu is Kao-yu-chau, both cities on the east side of the canal. At Kao-yu, the country east of the canal lies some 20 feet below the canal level; so low indeed that the walls of the city are not visible from the further bank of the canal. To the west is the Kao-yu Lake, one of the expanses of water spoken of by Marco, and which threatens great danger to the low country on the east. (See Alabaster’s Journey in Consular Reports above quoted, p. 5 [and Gandar, Canal Impérial, p. 17.—H. C.].)

There is a fine drawing of Pao-ying, by Alexander, in the Staunton collection, British Museum.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

When you leave Cayu, you ride another day to the south-east through a constant succession of villages and fields and fine farms until you come to Tiju, which is a city of no great size but abounding in everything. The people are Idolaters (and so forth). There is a great amount of trade, and they have many vessels. And you must know that on your left hand, that is towards the east, and three days’ journey distant, is the Ocean Sea. At every place between the sea and the city salt is made in great quantities. And there is a rich and noble city called Tinju, at which there is produced salt enough to supply the whole province, and I can tell you it brings the Great Kaan an incredible revenue. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Kaan. Let us quit this, however, and go back to Tiju.{1}

Again, leaving Tiju, you ride another day towards 154the south-east, and at the end of your journey you arrive at the very great and noble city of Yanju, which has seven-and-twenty other wealthy cities under its administration; so that this Yanju is, you see, a city of great importance.{2} It is the seat of one of the Great Kaan’s Twelve Barons, for it has been chosen to be one of the Twelve Sings. The people are Idolaters and use paper-money, and are subject to the Great Kaan. And Messer Marco Polo himself, of whom this book speaks, did govern this city for three full years, by the order of the Great Kaan.{3} The people live by trade and manufactures, for a great amount of harness for knights and men-at-arms is made there. And in this city and its neighbourhood a large number of troops are stationed by the Kaan’s orders.

There is no more to say about it. So now I will tell you about two great provinces of Manzi which lie towards the west. And first of that called Nanghin.

Note 1.—Though the text would lead us to look for Tiju on the direct line between Kao-yu and Yang-chau, and like them on the canal bank (indeed one MS., C. of Pauthier, specifies its standing on the same river as the cities already passed, i.e. on the canal), we seem constrained to admit the general opinion that this is Tai-chau, a town lying some 25 miles at least to the eastward of the canal, but apparently connected with it by a navigable channel.

Tinju or Chinju (for both the G. T. and Ramusio read Cingui) cannot be identified with certainty. But I should think it likely, from Polo’s “geographical style,” that when he spoke of the sea as three days distant he had this city in view, and that it is probably Tung-chau, near the northern shore of the estuary of the Yang-tzŭ, which might be fairly described as three days from Tai-chau. Mr. Kingsmill identifies it with I-chin hien, the great port on the Kiang for the export of the Yang-chau salt. This is possible; but I-chin lies west of the canal, and though the form Chinju would really represent I-chin as then named, such a position seems scarcely compatible with the way, vague as it is, in which Tinju or Chinju is introduced. Moreover, we shall see that I-chin is spoken of hereafter. (Kingsmill in N. and Q. Ch. and Japan, I. 53.)

Note 2.—Happily, there is no doubt that this is Yang-chau, one of the oldest and most famous great cities of China. [Abulfeda (Guyard, II. ii. 122) says that Yang-chau is the capital of the Faghfûr of China, and that he is called Tamghâdj-khan.—H. C.] Some five-and-thirty years after Polo’s departure from China, Friar Odoric found at this city a House of his own Order (Franciscans), and three Nestorian churches. The city also appears in the Catalan Map as Iangio. Yang-chau suffered greatly in the T’aï-P’ing rebellion, but its position is an “obligatory point” for 155commerce, and it appears to be rapidly recovering its prosperity. It is the headquarters of the salt manufacture, and it is also now noted for a great manufacture of sweetmeats (See Alabaster’s Report, as above, p. 6.)

Yang chau: the three Cities Under the Sung.

[Through the kindness of the late Father H. Havret, S.J., of Zi-ka-wei, I am enabled to give two plans from the Chronicles of Yang-chau, Yang-chau fu ché (ed. 1733); one bears the title: “The Three Cities under the Sung,” and the other: “The Great City under the Sung.” The three cities are Pao yew cheng, built in 1256, Sin Pao-cheng or Kia cheng, built after 1256, and Tacheng, the “Great City,” built in 1175; 156in 1357, Ta cheng was rebuilt, and in 1557 it was augmented, taking the place of the three cities; from 553 B.C. until the 12th century, Yang-chau had no less than five enclosures; the governor’s yamen stood where a cross is marked in the Great City. Since Yang-chau has been laid in ruins by the T’aï-P’ing insurgents, these plans offer now a new interest.—H. C.]

Yang-chau: the Great City under the Sung.

Note 3.—What I have rendered “Twelve Sings” is in the G. T. “douze sajes,” and in Pauthier’s text “sieges.” It seems to me a reasonable conclusion that the 157original word was Sings (see I. 432, supra); anyhow that was the proper term for the thing meant.

In his note on this chapter, Pauthier produces evidence that Yang-chau was the seat of a Lu or circuit[1] from 1277, and also of a Sing or Government-General, but only for the first year after the conquest, viz. 1276–1277, and he seems (for his argument is obscure) to make from this the unreasonable deduction that at this period Kúblái placed Marco Polo—who could not be more than twenty-three years of age, and had been but two years in Cathay—in charge either of the general government, or of an important district government in the most important province of the empire.

In a later note M. Pauthier speaks of 1284 as the date at which the Sing of the province of Kiang-ché was transferred from Yang-chau to Hang-chau; this is probably to be taken as a correction of the former citations, and it better justifies Polo’s statement. (Pauthier, pp. 467, 492.)

I do not think that we are to regard Marco as having held at any time the important post of Governor-General of Kiang-ché. The expressions in the G. T. are: “Meser Marc Pol meisme, celui de cui trate ceste livre, seingneurie ceste cité por trois anz.” Pauthier’s MS. A. appears to read: “Et ot seigneurie, Marc Pol, en ceste cité, trois ans.” These expressions probably point to the government of the Lu or circuit of Yang-chau, just as we find in ch. lxxiii. another Christian, Mar Sarghis, mentioned as Governor of Chin-kiang fu for the same term of years, that city being also the head of a Lu. It is remarkable that in Pauthier’s MS. C., which often contains readings of peculiar value, the passage runs (and also in the Bern MS.): “Et si vous dy que ledit Messire Marc Pol, cellui meisme de qui nostre livre parle, sejourna, en ceste cité de Janguy .iii. ans accompliz, par le commandement du Grant Kaan,” in which the nature of his employment is not indicated at all (though séjourna may be an error for seigneura). The impression of his having been Governor-General is mainly due to the Ramusian version, which says distinctly indeed that “M. Marco Polo di commissione del Gran Can n’ebbe il governo tre anni continui in luogo di un dei detti Baroni,” but it is very probable that this is a gloss of the translator. I should conjecture his rule at Yang-chau to have been between 1282, when we know he was at the capital (vol. i. p. 422), and 1287–1288, when he must have gone on his first expedition to the Indian Seas.

CHAPTER LXIX.

Nanghin is a very noble Province towards the west. The people are Idolaters (and so forth) and live by trade and manufactures. They have silk in great abundance, and they weave many fine tissues of silk and gold. They have all sorts of corn and victuals very cheap, for the province is a most productive one. Game also is 158abundant, and lions too are found there. The merchants are great and opulent, and the Emperor draws a large revenue from them, in the shape of duties on the goods which they buy and sell.{1}

And now I will tell you of the very noble city of Saianfu, which well deserves a place in our book, for there is a matter of great moment to tell about it.

Note 1.—The name and direction from Yang-chau are probably sufficient to indicate (as Pauthier has said) that this is Ngan-king on the Kiang, capital of the modern province of Ngan-hwei. The more celebrated city of Nan-king did not bear that name in our traveller’s time.

Ngan-king, when recovered from the T’aï-P’ing in 1861, was the scene of a frightful massacre by the Imperialists. They are said to have left neither man, woman, nor child alive in the unfortunate city. (Blakiston, p. 55.)

CHAPTER LXX.

Saianfu is a very great and noble city, and it rules over twelve other large and rich cities, and is itself a seat of great trade and manufacture. The people are Idolaters (and so forth). They have much silk, from which they weave fine silken stuffs; they have also a quantity of game, and in short the city abounds in all that it behoves a noble city to possess.

Now you must know that this city held out against the Great Kaan for three years after the rest of Manzi had surrendered. The Great Kaan’s troops made incessant attempts to take it, but they could not succeed because of the great and deep waters that were round about it, so that they could approach from one side only, which was the north. And I tell you they never would have taken it, but for a circumstance that I am going to relate.

159

You must know that when the Great Kaan’s host had lain three years before the city without being able to take it, they were greatly chafed thereat. Then Messer Nicolo Polo and Messer Maffeo and Messer Marco said: “We could find you a way of forcing the city to surrender speedily;” whereupon those of the army replied, that they would be right glad to know how that should be. All this talk took place in the presence of the Great Kaan. For messengers had been despatched from the camp to tell him that there was no taking the city by blockade, for it continually received supplies of victual from those sides which they were unable to invest; and the Great Kaan had sent back word that take it they must, and find a way how. Then spoke up the two brothers and Messer Marco the son, and said: “Great Prince, we have with us among our followers men who are able to construct mangonels which shall cast such great stones that the garrison will never be able to stand them, but will surrender incontinently, as soon as the mangonels or trebuchets shall have shot into the town.”{1}

The Kaan bade them with all his heart have such mangonels made as speedily as possible. Now Messer Nicolo and his brother and his son immediately caused timber to be brought, as much as they desired, and fit for the work in hand. And they had two men among their followers, a German and a Nestorian Christian, who were masters of that business, and these they directed to construct two or three mangonels capable of casting stones of 300 lbs. weight. Accordingly they made three fine mangonels, each of which cast stones of 300 lbs. weight and more.{2} And when they were complete and ready for use, the Emperor and the others were greatly pleased to see them, and caused several stones to be shot in their presence; whereat they marvelled greatly and greatly praised the work. And 160the Kaan ordered that the engines should be carried to his army which was at the leaguer of Saianfu.{3}

And when the engines were got to the camp they were forthwith set up, to the great admiration of the Tartars. And what shall I tell you? When the engines were set up and put in gear, a stone was shot from each of them into the town. These took effect among the buildings, crashing and smashing through everything with huge din and commotion. And when the townspeople witnessed this new and strange visitation they were so astonished and dismayed that they wist not what to do or say. They took counsel together, but no counsel could be suggested how to escape from these engines, for the thing seemed to them to be done by sorcery. They declared that they were all dead men if they yielded not, so they determined to surrender on such conditions as they could get.{4} Wherefore they straightway sent word to the commander of the army that they were ready to surrender on the same terms as the other cities of the province had done, and to become the subjects of the Great Kaan; and to this the captain of the host consented.

So the men of the city surrendered, and were received to terms; and this all came about through the exertions of Messer Nicolo, and Messer Maffeo, and Messer Marco; and it was no small matter. For this city and province is one of the best that the Great Kaan possesses, and brings him in great revenues.{5}

Note 1.—Pauthier’s MS. C. here says: “When the Great Kaan, and the Barons about him, and the messengers from the camp ... heard this, they all marvelled greatly; for I tell you that in all those parts they know nothing of mangonels or trebuchets; and they were so far from being accustomed to employ them in their wars that they had never even seen them, nor knew what they were.” The MS. in question has in this narrative several statements peculiar to itself,[1] as indeed it has in various other passages of the book; and these often look very like the result of revision by 161Polo himself. Yet I have not introduced the words just quoted into our text, because they are, as we shall see presently, notoriously contrary to fact.

Note 2.—The same MS. has here a passage which I am unable to understand. After the words “300 lbs. and more,” it goes on: “Et la veoit l’en voler moult loing, desquelles pierres il en y avoit plus de lx routes qui tant montoit l’une comme l’autre.” The Bern has the same. [Perhaps we might read lx en routes, viz. on their way.—H. C.]

Note 3.—I propose here to enter into some detailed explanation regarding the military engines that were in use in the Middle Ages.[2] None of these depended for their motive force on torsion like the chief engines used in classic times. However numerous the names applied to them, with reference to minor variations in construction or differences in power, they may all be reduced to two classes, viz. great slings and great crossbows. And this is equally true of all the three great branches of mediæval civilisation—European, Saracenic, and Chinese. To the first class belonged the Trebuchet and Mangonel; to the second, the Winch-Arblast (Arbalète à Tour), Springold etc.

Whatever the ancient Balista may have been, the word in mediæval Latin seems always to mean some kind of crossbow. The heavier crossbows were wound up by various aids, such as winches, ratchets, etc. They discharged stone shot, leaden bullets, and short, square-shafted arrows called quarrels, and these with such force we are told as to pierce a six-inch post (?). But they were worked so slowly in the field that they were no match for the long-bow, which shot five or six times to their once. The great machines of this kind were made of wood, of steel, and very frequently of horn;[3] and the bow was sometimes more than 30 feet in length. Dufour calculates that such a machine could shoot an arrow of half a kilogram in weight to a distance of about 860 yards.

The Trebuchet consisted of a long tapering shaft or beam, pivoted at a short distance from the butt end on a pair of strong pyramidal trestles. At the other end of the shaft a sling was applied, one cord of which was firmly attached by a ring, whilst the other hung in a loop over an iron hook which formed the extremity of the shaft. The power employed to discharge the sling was either the strength of a number of men, applied to ropes which were attached to the short end of the shaft or lever, or the weight of a heavy counterpoise hung from the same, and suddenly released.

162

Mediæval Artillery Engines. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Chinese; Figs. 6, 7, 8, Saracenic; the rest Frank.

Supposing the latter force to be employed, the long end of the shaft was drawn down by a windlass; the sling was laid forward in a wooden trough provided for it, and charged with the shot. The counterpoise was, of course, now aloft, and was so maintained by a detent provided with a trigger. On pulling this, the counterpoise falls and the shaft flies upwards drawing the sling. When a certain point is reached the loop end of the sling releases itself from the hook, and the sling flies abroad 163whilst the shot is projected in its parabolic flight.[4] To secure the most favourable result the shot should have acquired its maximum velocity, and should escape at an angle of about 45°. The attainment of this required certain proportions between the different dimensions of the machine and the weight of the shot, for which, doubtless, traditional rules of thumb existed among the mediæval engineers.

The ordinary shot consisted of stones carefully rounded. But for these were substituted on occasion rough stones with fuses attached,[5] pieces of red-hot iron, pots of fused metal, or casks full of Greek fire or of foul matter to corrupt the air of the besieged place. Thus carrion was shot into Negropont from such engines by Mahomed II. The Cardinal Octavian, besieging Modena in 1249, slings a dead ass into the town. Froissart several times mentions such measures, as at the siege of Thin l’Evêque on the Scheldt in 1340, when “the besiegers by their engines flung dead horses and other carrion into the castle to poison the garrison by their smell.” In at least one instance the same author tells how a living man, an unlucky messenger from the Castle of Auberoche, was caught by the besiegers, thrust into the sling with the letters that he bore hung round his neck, and shot into Auberoche, where he fell dead among his horrified comrades. And Lipsius quotes from a Spanish Chronicle the story of a virtuous youth, Pelagius, who, by order of the Tyrant Abderramin, was shot across the Guadalquivir, but lighted unharmed upon the rocks beyond. Ramon de Muntaner relates how King James of Aragon, besieging Majorca in 1228, vowed vengeance against the Saracen King because he shot Christian prisoners into the besiegers’ camp with his trebuchets (pp. 223–224). We have mentioned one kind of corruption propagated by these engines; the historian Wassáf tells of another. When the garrison of Dehli refused to open the gates to Aláuddin Khilji after the murder of his uncle, Firúz (1296), he loaded his mangonels with bags of gold and shot them into the fort, a measure which put an end to the opposition.

Ibn Batuta, forty years later, describes Mahomed Tughlak as entering Dehli accompanied by elephants carrying small balistae (ra’ádát), from which gold and silver pieces were shot among the crowd. And the same king, when he had given the crazy and cruel order that the population of Dehli should evacuate the city and depart to Deogir, 900 miles distant, having found two men skulking behind, one of whom was paralytic and the other blind, caused the former to be shot from a mangonel. (I. B. III. 395, 315.)

Some old drawings represent the shaft as discharging the shot from a kind of spoon at its extremity, without the aid of a sling (e.g. fig. 13); but it may be doubted if this was actually used, for the sling was essential to the efficiency of the engine. The experiments and calculations of Dufour show that without the sling, other things remaining the same, the range of the shot would be reduced by more than a half.

In some of these engines the counterpoise, consisting of a timber case filled with stones, sand, or the like, was permanently fixed to the butt-end of the shaft. This seems to have been the Trebuchet proper. In others the counterpoise hung free on a pivot from the yard; whilst a third kind (as in fig. 17) combined both arrangements. The first kind shot most steadily and truly; the second with more force.

Those machines, in which the force of men pulling cords took the place of the counterpoise, could not discharge such weighty shot, but they could be worked more rapidly, and no doubt could be made of lighter scantling. Mr. Hewitt points out a curious resemblance between this kind of Trebuchet and the apparatus used on the Thames to raise the cargo from the hold of a collier.

The Emperor Napoleon deduces from certain passages in mediæval writers that the Mangonel was similar to the Trebuchet, but of lighter structure and power. But 164often certainly the term Mangonel seems to be used generically for all machines of this class. Marino Sanudo uses no word but Machina, which he appears to employ as the Latin equivalent of Mangonel, whilst the machine which he describes is a Trebuchet with moveable counterpoise. The history of the word appears to be the following. The Greek word μάγγανον, “a piece of witchcraft,” came to signify a juggler’s trick, an unexpected contrivance (in modern slang “a jim”), and so specially a military engine. It seems to have reached this specific meaning by the time of Hero the Younger, who is believed to have written in the first half of the 7th century. From the form μαγγανικὸν the Orientals got Manganíḳ and Manjániḳ,[6] whilst the Franks adopted Mangona and Mangonella. Hence the verbs manganare and amanganare, to batter and crush with such engines, and eventually our verb “to mangle.” Again, when the use of gunpowder rendered these warlike engines obsolete, perhaps their ponderous counterweights were utilised in the peaceful arts of the laundry, and hence gave us our substantive “the Mangle” (It. Mangano)!

The Emperor Napoleon, when Prince President, caused some interesting experiments in the matter of mediæval artillery to be carried out at Vincennes, and a full-sized trebuchet was constructed there. With a shaft of 33 feet 9 inches in length, having a permanent counterweight of 3300 lbs. and a pivoted counterweight of 6600 lbs. more, the utmost effect attained was the discharge of an iron 24-kilo. shot to a range of 191 yards, whilst a 12½-inch shell, filled with earth, ranged to 131 yards. The machine suffered greatly at each discharge, and it was impracticable to increase the counterpoise to 8000 kilos., or 17,600 lbs. as the Prince desired. It was evident that the machine was not of sufficiently massive structure. But the officers in charge satisfied themselves that, with practice in such constructions and the use of very massive timber, even the exceptional feats recorded of mediæval engineers might be realised.

Such a case is that cited by Quatremère, from an Oriental author, of the discharge of stones weighing 400 mans, certainly not less than 800 lbs., and possibly much more; or that of the Men of Bern, who are reported, when besieging Nidau in 1388, to have employed trebuchets which shot daily into the town upwards of 200 blocks weighing 12 cwt. apiece.[7] Stella relates that the Genoese armament sent against Cyprus, in 1373, among other great machines had one called Troja (Truia?), which cast stones of 12 to 18 hundredweights; and when the Venetians were besieging the revolted city of Zara in 1346, their Engineer, Master Francesco delle Barche, shot into the city stones of 3000 lbs. weight.[8] In this case the unlucky engineer was “hoist with his own petard,” for while he stood adjusting one of his engines, it went off, and shot him into the town.

With reference to such cases the Emperor calculates that a stone of 3000 lbs. weight might be shot 77 yards with a counterpoise of 36,000 lbs. weight, and a shaft 65 feet long. The counterpoise, composed of stone shot of 55 lbs. each, might be contained in a cubical case of about 5½ feet to the side. The machine would be preposterous, but there is nothing impossible about it. Indeed in the Album of Villard de Honnecourt, an architect of the 13th century, which was published at Paris in 1858, in the notes accompanying a plan of a trebuchet (from which 165Professor Willis restored the machine as it is shown in our fig. 19), the artist remarks: “It is a great job to heave down the beam, for the counterpoise is very heavy. For it consists of a chest full of earth which is 2 great toises in length, 8 feet in breadth, and 12 feet in depth”! (p. 203).

Such calculations enable us to understand the enormous quantities of material said to have been used in some of the larger mediæval machines. Thus Abulfeda speaks of one used at the final capture of Acre, which was entrusted to the troops of Hamath, and which formed a load for 100 carts, of which one was in charge of the historian himself. The romance of Richard Cœur de Lion tells how in the King’s Fleet an entire ship was taken up by one such machine with its gear:—

“Another schyp was laden yet

With an engyne hyghte Robinet,

(It was Richardys o mangonel)

And all the takyl that thereto fel.”

Twenty-four machines, captured from the Saracens by St. Lewis in his first partial success on the Nile, afforded material for stockading his whole camp. A great machine which cumbered the Tower of St. Paul at Orléans, and was dismantled previous to the celebrated defence against the English, furnished 26 cart-loads of timber. (Abulf. Ann. Muslem, V. 95–97; Weber, II. 56; Michel’s Joinville, App. p. 278; Jollois, H. du Siège d’Orléans, 1833, p. 12.)

The number of such engines employed was sometimes very great. We have seen that St. Lewis captured 24 at once, and these had been employed in the field. Villehardouin says that the fleet which went from Venice to the attack of Constantinople carried more than 300 perriers and mangonels, besides quantities of other engines required for a siege (ch. xxxviii). At the siege of Acre in 1291, just referred to, the Saracens, according to Makrizi, set 92 engines in battery against the city, whilst Abulfaraj says 300, and a Frank account, of great and small, 666. The larger ones are said to have shot stones of “a kantar and even more.” (Makrizi, III. 125; Reinaud, Chroniques Arabes, etc., p. 570; De Excidio Urbis Acconis, in Martène and Durand, V. 769.)

How heavy a mangonade was sometimes kept up may be understood from the account of the operations on the Nile, already alluded to. The King was trying to run a dam across a branch of the river, and had protected the head of his work by “cat-castles” or towers of timber, occupied by archers, and these again supported by trebuchets, etc., in battery. “And,” says Jean Pierre Sarrasin, the King’s Chamberlain, “when the Saracens saw what was going on, they planted a great number of engines against ours, and to destroy our towers and our causeway they shot such vast quantities of stones, great and small, that all men stood amazed. They slung stones, and discharged arrows, and shot quarrels from winch-arblasts, and pelted us with Turkish darts and Greek fire, and kept up such a harassment of every kind against our engines and our men working at the causeway, that it was horrid either to see or to hear. Stones, darts, arrows, quarrels, and Greek fire came down on them like rain.”

The Emperor Napoleon observes that the direct or grazing fire of the great arblasts may be compared to that of guns in more modern war, whilst the mangonels represent mortar-fire. And this vertical fire was by no means contemptible, at least against buildings of ordinary construction. At the sieges of Thin l’Evêque in 1340, and Auberoche in 1344, already cited, Froissart says the French cast stones in, night and day, so as in a few days to demolish all the roofs of the towers, and none within durst venture out of the vaulted basement.

The Emperor’s experiments showed that these machines were capable of surprisingly accurate direction. And the mediæval histories present some remarkable feats of this kind. Thus, in the attack of Mortagne by the men of Hainault and Valenciennes (1340), the latter had an engine which was a great annoyance to the garrison; there was a clever engineer in the garrison who set up another machine 166against it, and adjusted it so well that the first shot fell within 12 paces of the enemy’s engine, the second fell near the box, and the third struck the shaft and split it in two.

Already in the first half of the 13th century, a French poet (quoted by Weber) looks forward with disgust to the supercession of the feats of chivalry by more mechanical methods of war:—

“Chevaliers sont esperdus,

Cil ont auques leur tens perdus;

Arbalestier et mineor

Et perrier et engigneor

Seront dorenavant plus chier.”

When Gházán Khan was about to besiege the castle of Damascus in 1300, so much importance was attached to this art that whilst his Engineer, a man of reputation therein, was engaged in preparing the machines, the Governor of the castle offered a reward of 1000 dinars for that personage’s head. And one of the garrison was daring enough to enter the Mongol camp, stab the Engineer, and carry back his head into the castle!

Marino Sanudo, about the same time, speaks of the range of these engines with a prophetic sense of the importance of artillery in war:—

“On this subject (length of range) the engineers and experts of the army should employ their very sharpest wits. For if the shot of one army, whether engine-stones or pointed projectiles, have a longer range than the shot of the enemy, rest assured that the side whose artillery hath the longest range will have a vast advantage in action. Plainly, if the Christian shot can take effect on the Pagan forces, whilst the Pagan shot cannot reach the Christian forces, it may be safely asserted that the Christians will continually gain ground from the enemy, or, in other words, they will win the battle.”

The importance of these machines in war, and the efforts made to render them more effective, went on augmenting till the introduction of the still more “villanous saltpetre,” even then, however, coming to no sudden halt. Several of the instances that we have cited of machines of extraordinary power belong to a time when the use of cannon had made some progress. The old engines were employed by Timur; in the wars of the Hussites as late as 1422; and, as we have seen, up to the middle of that century by Mahomed II. They are also distinctly represented on the towers of Aden, in the contemporary print of the escalade in 1514, reproduced in this volume. (Bk. III. ch. xxxvi.)

(Etudes sur le Passé et l’Avenir de l’Artillerie, par L. N. Bonaparte, etc., tom. II.; Marinus Sanutius, Bk. II. Pt. 4, ch. xxi. and xxii.; Kington’s Fred. II., II. 488; Froissart, I. 69, 81, 182; Elliot, III. 41, etc.; Hewitt’s Ancient Armour, I. 350; Pertz, Scriptores, XVIII. 420, 751; Q. R. 135–7; Weber, III. 103; Hammer, Ilch. II. 95.)

Note 4.—Very like this is what the Romance of Cœur de Lion tells of the effects of Sir Fulke Doyley’s mangonels on the Saracens of Ebedy:—

“Sir Fouke brought good engynes

Swylke knew but fewe Sarazynes—

***

A prys tour stood ovyr the Gate;

He bent his engynes and threw thereate

A great stone that harde droff,

That the Tour al to roff

***

And slough the folk that therinne stood;

The other fledde and wer nygh wood,

And sayde it was the devylys dent,” etc.—Weber, II. 172.

167

Note 5.—This chapter is one of the most perplexing in the whole book, owing to the chronological difficulties involved.

Saianfu is Siang-yang fu, which stands on the south bank of the River Han, and with the sister city of Fan-ch’eng, on the opposite bank, commands the junction of two important approaches to the southern provinces, viz. that from Shen-si down the Han, and that from Shan-si and Peking down the Pe-ho. Fan-ch’eng seems now to be the more important place of the two.

The name given to the city by Polo is precisely that which Siang-yang bears in Rashiduddin, and there is no room for doubt as to its identity.

The Chinese historians relate that Kúblái was strongly advised to make the capture of Siang-yang and Fan-ch’eng a preliminary to his intended attack upon the Sung. The siege was undertaken in the latter part of 1268, and the twin cities held out till the spring [March] of 1273. Nor did Kúblái apparently prosecute any other operations against the Sung during that long interval.

Now Polo represents that the long siege of Saianfu, instead of being a prologue to the subjugation of Manzi, was the protracted epilogue of that enterprise; and he also represents the fall of the place as caused by advice and assistance rendered by his father, his uncle, and himself, a circumstance consistent only with the siege’s having really been such an epilogue to the war. For, according to the narrative as it stands in all the texts, the Polos could not have reached the Court of Kúblái before the end of 1274, i.e. a year and a half after the fall of Siang-yang, as represented in the Chinese histories.

The difficulty is not removed, nor, it appears to me, abated in any degree, by omitting the name of Marco as one of the agents in this affair, an omission which occurs both in Pauthier’s MS. B and in Ramusio. Pauthier suggests that the father and uncle may have given the advice and assistance in question when on their first visit to the Kaan, and when the siege of Siang-yang was first contemplated. But this would be quite inconsistent with the assertion that the place had held out three years longer than the rest of Manzi, as well as with the idea that their aid had abridged the duration of the siege, and, in fact, with the spirit of the whole story. It is certainly very difficult in this case to justify Marco’s veracity, but I am very unwilling to believe that there was no justification in the facts.

It is a very curious circumstance that the historian Wassáf also appears to represent Saianfu (see note 5, ch. lxv.) as holding out after all the rest of Manzi had been conquered. Yet the Chinese annals are systematic, minute, and consequent, and it seems impossible to attribute to them such a misplacement of an event which they represent as the key to the conquest of Southern China.

In comparing Marco’s story with that of the Chinese, we find the same coincidence in prominent features, accompanying a discrepancy in details, that we have had occasion to notice in other cases where his narrative intersects history. The Chinese account runs as follows:—

In 1271, after Siang-yang and Fan-ch’eng had held out already nearly three years, an Uighúr General serving at the siege, whose name was Alihaiya, urged the Emperor to send to the West for engineers expert at the construction and working of machines casting stones of 150 lbs. weight. With such aid he assured Kúblái the place would speedily be taken. Kúblái sent to his nephew Ábáká in Persia for such engineers, and two were accordingly sent post to China, Alawating of Mufali and his pupil Ysemain of Huli or Hiulie (probably Ala’uddin of Miafaraḳain and Ismael of Heri or Herat). Kúblái on their arrival gave them military rank. They exhibited their skill before the Emperor at Tatu, and in the latter part of 1272 they reached the camp before Siang-yang, and set up their engines. The noise made by the machines, and the crash of the shot as it broke through everything in its fall, caused great alarm in the garrison. Fan-ch’eng was first taken by assault, and some weeks later Siang-yang surrendered.

The shot used on this occasion weighed 125 Chinese pounds (if catties, then equal to about 166 lbs. avoird.), and penetrated 7 or 8 feet into the earth.

168

Rashiduddin also mentions the siege of Siang-yang, as we learn from D’Ohsson. He states that as there were in China none of the Manjaníks or Mangonels called Kumghá, the Kaan caused a certain engineer to be sent from Damascus or Balbek, and the three sons of this person, Abubakr, Ibrahim, and Mahomed, with their workmen, constructed seven great Manjaníks which were employed against Sayanfu, a frontier fortress and bulwark of Manzi.

We thus see that three different notices of the siege of Siang-yang, Chinese, Persian, and Venetian, all concur as to the employment of foreign engineers from the West, but all differ as to the individuals.

We have seen that one of the MSS. makes Polo assert that till this event the Mongols and Chinese were totally ignorant of mangonels and trebuchets. This, however, is quite untrue; and it is not very easy to reconcile even the statement, implied in all versions of the story, that mangonels of considerable power were unknown in the far East, with other circumstances related in Mongol history.

The Persian History called Tabaḳát-i-Násiri speaks of Aikah Nowin the Manjaníki Khás or Engineer-in-Chief to Chinghiz Khan, and his corps of ten thousand Manjaníkis or Mangonellers. The Chinese histories used by Gaubil also speak of these artillery battalions of Chinghiz. At the siege of Kai-fung fu near the Hwang-Ho, the latest capital of the Kin Emperors, in 1232, the Mongol General, Subutai, threw from his engines great quarters of millstones which smashed the battlements and watch-towers on the ramparts, and even the great timbers of houses in the city. In 1236 we find the Chinese garrison of Chinchau (I-chin-hien on the Great Kiang near the Great Canal) repelling the Mongol attack, partly by means of their stone shot. When Hulaku was about to march against Persia (1253), his brother, the Great Kaan Mangku, sent to Cathay to fetch thence 1000 families of mangonellers, naphtha-shooters, and arblasteers. Some of the crossbows used by these latter had a range, we are told, of 2500 paces! European history bears some similar evidence. One of the Tartar characteristics reported by a fugitive Russian Archbishop, in Matt. Paris (p. 570 under 1244), is: “Machinas habent multiplices, recte et fortiter jacientes.”

It is evident, therefore, that the Mongols and Chinese had engines of war, but that they were deficient in some advantage possessed by those of the Western nations. Rashiduddin’s expression as to their having no Kumghá mangonels, seems to be unexplained. Is it perhaps an error for Ḳarábughá, the name given by the Turks and Arabs to a kind of great mangonel? This was known also in Europe as Carabaga, Calabra, etc. It is mentioned under the former name by Marino Sanudo, and under the latter, with other quaintly-named engines, by William of Tudela, as used by Simon de Montfort the Elder against the Albigenses:—

“E dressa sos Calabres, et foi Mal Vezina

E sas autras pereiras, e Dona, e Reina;

Pessia les autz murs e la sala peirina.”[9]

(“He set up his Calábers, and likewise his Ill-Neighbours,

With many a more machine, this the Lady, that the Queen,

And breached the lofty walls, and smashed the stately Halls.”)

Now, in looking at the Chinese representations of their ancient mangonels, which are evidently genuine, and of which I have given some specimens (figs. I, 2, 3), I see none worked by the counterpoise; all (and there are six or seven different representations in the work from which these are taken) are shown as worked by man-ropes. Hence, probably, the improvement brought from the West was essentially the use of the counterpoised lever. And, after I had come to this conclusion, I found it to be the view of Captain Favé. (See Du Feu Grégeois, by MM. Reinaud and Favé, p. 193.)

In Ramusio the two Polos propose to Kúblái to make “mangani al modo di Ponente”;169 and it is worthy of note that in the campaigns of Aláuddin Khilji and his generals in the Deccan, circa 1300, frequent mention is made of the Western Manjaniks and their great power. (See Elliot, III. 75, 78, etc.)

Of the kind worked by man-ropes must have been that huge mangonel which Mahomed Ibn Kásim, the conqueror of Sind, set in battery against the great Dagoba of Daibul, and which required 500 men to work it. Like Simon de Montfort’s it had a tender name; it was called “The Bride.” (Elliot, I. 120.)

Before quitting this subject, I will quote a curious passage from the History of the Sung Dynasty, contributed to the work of Reinaud and Favé by M. Stanislas Julien: “In the 9th year of the period Hien-shun (A.D. 1273) the frontier cities had fallen into the hands of the enemy (Tartars). The Pao (or engines for shooting) of the Hwei-Hwei (Mahomedans) were imitated, but in imitating them very ingenious improvements were introduced, and pao of a different and very superior kind were constructed. Moreover, an extraordinary method was invented of neutralising the effects of the enemy’s pao. Ropes were made of rice-straw 4 inches thick, and 34 feet in length. Twenty such ropes were joined, applied to the tops of buildings, and covered with clay. In this manner the fire-arrows, fire-pao, and even the pao casting stones of 100 lbs. weight, could cause no damage to the towers or houses.” (Ib. 196; also for previous parts of this note, Visdelou, 188; Gaubil, 34, 155 seqq. and 70; De Mailla, 329; Pauthier in loco and Introduction; D’Ohsson, II. 35, and 391; Notes by Mr. Edward Thomas, F.R.S.; Q. Rashid., pp. 132, 136.) [See I. p. 342.]

[Captain Gill writes (River of Golden Sand, I. p. 148): “The word ‘P’ao’ which now means ‘cannon,’ was, it was asserted, found in old Chinese books of a date anterior to that in which gunpowder was first known to Europeans; hence the deduction was drawn that the Chinese were acquainted with gunpowder before it was used in the West. But close examination shows that in all old books the radical of the character ‘P’ao’ means ‘stone,’ but that in modern books the radical of the character ‘P’ao’ means ‘fire’; that the character with the radical ‘fire’ only appears in books well known to have been written since the introduction of gunpowder into the West; and that the old character ‘P’ao’ in reality means ‘Balista.’”—H. C.]

Coin from a treasure hidden at Siang-yang during the siege in 1268–73, lately discovered.

[“Wheeled boats are mentioned in 1272 at the siege of Siang-yang. Kúblái did not decide to ‘go for’ Manzi, i.e. the southern of the two Chinese Empires, until 1273. Bayan did not start until 1274, appearing before Hankow in January 1275. Wuhu and Taiping surrendered in April; then Chinkiang, Kien K’ang (Nanking), and Ning kwoh; the final crushing blow being dealt at Hwai-chan. In March 1276, the Manzi Emperor accepted vassaldom. Kiang-nan was regularly administered in 1278.” (E. H. Parker, China Review, xxiv. p. 105.)—H. C.]

Siang-yang has been twice visited by Mr. A. Wylie. Just before his first visit (I believe in 1866) a discovery had been made in the city of a quantity of treasure buried at the time of the siege. One of the local officers gave Mr. Wylie one of the copper coins, not indeed in itself of any great rarity, but worth engraving here on account of its connection with the siege commemorated in the text; and a little on the principle of Smith the Weaver’s evidence:—“The bricks are alive at this day to testify of it; therefore deny it not.”

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CHAPTER LXXI.

You must know that when you leave the city of Yanju, after going 15 miles south-east, you come to a city called Sinju, of no great size, but possessing a very great amount of shipping and trade. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan, and use paper-money.{1}

And you must know that this city stands on the greatest river in the world, the name of which is Kian. It is in some places ten miles wide, in others eight, in others six, and it is more than 100 days’ journey in length from one end to the other. This it is that brings so much trade to the city we are speaking of; for on the waters of that river merchandize is perpetually coming and going, from and to the various parts of the world, enriching the city, and bringing a great revenue to the Great Kaan.

And I assure you this river flows so far and traverses so many countries and cities that in good sooth there pass and repass on its waters a great number of vessels, and more wealth and merchandize than on all the rivers and all the seas of Christendom put together! It seems indeed more like a Sea than a River.{2} Messer Marco Polo said that he once beheld at that city 15,000 vessels at one time. And you may judge, if this city, of no great size, has such a number, how many must there be altogether, considering that on the banks of this river there are more than sixteen provinces and more than 200 great cities, besides towns and villages, all possessing vessels?

Messer Marco Polo aforesaid tells us that he heard from the officer employed to collect the Great Kaan’s duties on this river that there passed up-stream 200,000 171vessels in the year, without counting those that passed down! [Indeed as it has a course of such great length, and receives so many other navigable rivers, it is no wonder that the merchandize which is borne on it is of vast amount and value. And the article in largest quantity of all is salt, which is carried by this river and its branches to all the cities on their banks, and thence to the other cities in the interior.{3}]

The vessels which ply on this river are decked. They have but one mast, but they are of great burthen, for I can assure you they carry (reckoning by our weight) from 4000 up to 12,000 cantars each.{4}

Now we will quit this matter and I will tell you of another city called Caiju. But first I must mention a point I had forgotten. You must know that the vessels on this river, in going up-stream have to be tracked, for the current is so strong that they could not make head in any other manner. Now the tow-line, which is some 300 paces in length, is made of nothing but cane. ’Tis in this way: they have those great canes of which I told you before that they are some fifteen paces in length; these they take and split from end to end [into many slender strips], and then they twist these strips together so as to make a rope of any length they please. And the ropes so made are stronger than if they were made of hemp.{5}

[There are at many places on this river hills and rocky eminences on which the idol-monasteries and other edifices are built; and you find on its shores a constant succession of villages and inhabited places.{6}]

Note 1.—The traveller’s diversion from his direct course—sceloc or south-east, as he regards it—towards Fo-kien, in order to notice Ngan-king (as we have supposed) and Siang-yang, has sadly thrown out both the old translators and transcribers, and the modern commentators. Though the G. Text has here “quant l’en se part de la cité de Angui,” I cannot doubt that Iangui (Yanju) is the reading intended, and that Polo here comes back to the main line of his journey.

172

“Sono sopraquesto fiumein molti luoghi, colline e monticelli sassosi, sopra quali sono edificati monasteri d’Idoli, e altre stanze....”

173

I conceive Sinju to be the city which was then called Chên-chau, but now I-ching hien,[1] and which stands on the Kiang as near as may be 15 miles from Yang-chau. It is indeed south-west instead of south-east, but those who have noted the style of Polo’s orientation will not attach much importance to this. I-ching hien is still the great port of the Yang-chau salt manufacture, for export by the Kiang and its branches to the interior provinces. It communicates with the Grand Canal by two branch canals. Admiral Collinson, in 1842, remarked the great numbers of vessels lying in the creek off I-ching. (See note 1 to ch. lxviii. above; and J. R. G. S. XVII. 139.)

[“We anchored at a place near the town of Y-ching-hien, distinguished by a pagoda. The most remarkable objects that struck us here were some enormously large salt-junks of a very singular shape, approaching to a crescent, with sterns at least thirty feet above the water, and bows that were two-thirds of that height. They had ‘bright sides,’ that is, were varnished over the natural wood without painting, a very common style in China.” (Davis, Sketches, II. p. 13.)—H. C.]

Note 2.—The river is, of course, the Great Kiang or Yang-tzŭ Kiang (already spoken of in ch. xliv. as the Kiansui), which Polo was justified in calling the greatest river in the world, whilst the New World was yet hidden. The breadth seems to be a good deal exaggerated, the length not at all. His expressions about it were perhaps accompanied by a mental reference to the term Dalai, “The Sea,” which the Mongols appear to have given the river. (See Fr. Odoric, p. 121.) The Chinese have a popular saying, “Haï vu ping, Kiang vu ti,” “Boundless is the Ocean, bottomless the Kiang!”

Note 3.—“The assertion that there is a greater amount of tonnage belonging to the Chinese than to all other nations combined, does not appear overcharged to those who have seen the swarms of boats on their rivers, though it might not be found strictly true.” (Mid. Kingd. II. 398.) Barrow’s picture of the life, traffic, and population on the Kiang, excepting as to specific numbers, quite bears out Marco’s account. This part of China suffered so long from the wars of the T’ai-P’ing rebellion that to travellers it has presented thirty years ago an aspect sadly belying its old fame. Such havoc is not readily repaired in a few years, nor in a few centuries, but prosperity is reviving, and European navigation is making an important figure on the Kiang.

[From the Returns of Trade for the Year 1900 of the Imperial Maritime Customs of China, we take the following figures regarding the navigation on the Kiang. Steamers entered inwards and cleared outwards, under General Regulations at Chung-King: 1; 331 tons; sailing vessels, 2681; 84,862 tons, of which Chinese, 816; 27,684 tons. At Ichang: 314; 231,000 tons, of which Chinese, 118; 66,944 tons; sailing vessels, all Chinese, 5139; 163,320 tons. At Shasi: 606; 453,818 tons, of which Chinese, 606; 453,818 tons; no sailing vessels. At Yochow: 650; 299,962 tons, of which Chinese, 458; 148,112 tons; no sailing vessels; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 280 Chinese vessels, 20,958 tons. At Hankow: under General Regulation, Steamers, 2314; 2,101,555 tons, of which Chinese, 758; 462,424 tons; sailing vessels, 1137; 166,118 tons, of which Chinese, 1129; 163,724 tons; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 1682 Chinese vessels, 31,173 tons. At Kiu-Kiang: under General Regulation, Steamers, 2916; 3,393,514 tons, of which Chinese, 478; 697,468 tons; sailing vessels, 163; 29,996 tons, of which Chinese, 160; 27,797 tons; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 798 Chinese vessels; 21,670 tons. At Wu-hu: under General Regulation, Steamers, 3395; 3,713,172 tons, of which Chinese, 540; 678,362 tons; sailing vessels, 356; 48,299 tons, of which Chinese, 355; 47,848 tons; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 286 Chinese vessels; 4272 tons. At Nanking: 174under General Regulation, Steamers, 1672; 1,138,726 tons, of which Chinese, 970; 713,232 tons; sailing vessels, 290; 36,873 tons, of which Chinese, 281; 34,985 tons; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 30 Chinese vessels; 810 tons. At Chinkiang: under General Regulation, Steamers, 4710; 4,413,452 tons, of which Chinese, 924; 794,724 tons; sailing vessels, 1793; 294,664 tons, of which Chinese, 1771; 290,286 tons; under Inland Steam Navigation Rules, 2920; 39,346 tons, of which Chinese, 1684; 22,776 tons.—H. C.]

Note 4.—✛12,000 cantars would be more than 500 tons, and this is justified by the burthen of Chinese vessels on the river; we see it is more than doubled by that of some British or American steamers thereon. In the passage referred to under Note 1, Admiral Collinson speaks of the salt-junks at I-ching as “very remarkable, being built nearly in the form of a crescent, the stern rising in some of them nearly 30 feet and the prow 20, whilst the mast is 90 feet high.” These dimensions imply large capacity. Oliphant speaks of the old rice-junks for the canal traffic as transporting 200 and 300 tons (I. 197).

Note 5.—The tow-line in river-boats is usually made (as here described) of strips of bamboo twisted. Hawsers are also made of bamboo. Ramusio, in this passage, says the boats are tracked by horses, ten or twelve to each vessel. I do not find this mentioned anywhere else, nor has any traveller in China that I have consulted heard of such a thing.

Note 6.—Such eminences as are here alluded to are the Little Orphan Rock, Silver Island, and the Golden Island, which is mentioned in the following chapter. We give on the preceding page illustrations of those three picturesque islands; the Orphan Rock at the top, Golden Island in the middle, Silver Island below.

CHAPTER LXXII.

Caiju is a small city towards the south-east. The people are subject to the Great Kaan and have paper-money. It stands upon the river before mentioned.{1} At this place are collected great quantities of corn and rice to be transported to the great city of Cambaluc for the use of the Kaan’s Court; for the grain for the Court all comes from this part of the country. You must understand that the Emperor hath caused a water-communication to be made from this city to Cambaluc, in the shape of a wide and deep channel dug between stream and stream, between lake and lake, forming as it were a great river on which large vessels can ply. And thus there is a communication all the way from this city of Caiju to Cambaluc; so that great vessels with their loads can go the whole way. 175A land road also exists, for the earth dug from those channels has been thrown up so as to form an embanked road on either side.{2}

Just opposite to the city of Caiju, in the middle of the River, there stands a rocky island on which there is an idol-monastery containing some 200 idolatrous friars, and a vast number of idols. And this Abbey holds supremacy over a number of other idol-monasteries, just like an archbishop’s see among Christians.{3}

Now we will leave this and cross the river, and I will tell you of a city called Chinghianfu.

Note 1.—No place in Polo’s travels is better identified by his local indications than this. It is on the Kiang; it is at the extremity of the Great Canal from Cambaluc; it is opposite the Golden Island and Chin-kiang fu. Hence it is Kwa-chau, as Murray pointed out. Marsden here misunderstands his text, and puts the place on the south side of the Kiang.

Here Van Braam notices that there passed in the course of the day more than fifty great rice-boats, most of which could easily carry more than 300,000 lbs. of rice. And Mr. Alabaster, in 1868, speaks of the canal from Yang-chau to Kwa-chau as “full of junks.”

[Sir J. F. Davis writes (Sketches of China, II. p. 6): “Two ... days ... were occupied in exploring the half-deserted town of Kwa-chow, whose name signifies ‘the island of gourds,’ being completely insulated by the river and canal. We took a long walk along the top of the walls, which were as usual of great thickness, and afforded a broad level platform behind the parapet: the parapet itself, about six feet high, did not in thickness exceed the length of a brick and a half, and the embrasures were evidently not constructed for cannon, being much too high. A very considerable portion of the area within the walls consisted of burial-grounds planted with cypress; and this alone was a sufficient proof of the decayed condition of the place, as in modern or fully inhabited cities no person can be buried within the walls. Almost every spot bore traces of ruin, and there appeared to be but one good street in the whole town; this, however, was full of shops, and as busy as Chinese streets always are.”—H. C.]

Note 2.—Rashiduddin gives the following account of the Grand Canal spoken of in this passage. “The river of Khanbaligh had,” he says, “in the course of time, become so shallow as not to admit the entrance of shipping, so that they had to discharge their cargoes and send them up to Khanbaligh on pack-cattle. And the Chinese engineers and men of science having reported that the vessels from the provinces of Cathay, from Machin, and from the cities of Khingsai and Zaitún, could no longer reach the court, the Kaan gave them orders to dig a great canal into which the waters of the said river, and of several others, should be introduced. This canal extends for a distance of 40 days’ navigation from Khanbaligh to Khingsai and Zaitún, the ports frequented by the ships that come from India, and from the city of Machin (Canton). The canal is provided with many sluices ... and when vessels arrive at these sluices they are hoisted up by means of machinery, whatever be their size, and let down on the other side into the water. The canal has a width of more than 30 ells. Kúblái caused the sides of the embankments to be revetted 176with stone, in order to prevent the earth giving way. Along the side of the canal runs the high road to Machin, extending for a space of 40 days’ journey, and this has been paved throughout, so that travellers and their animals may get along during the rainy season without sinking in the mud.... Shops, taverns, and villages line the road on both sides, so that dwelling succeeds dwelling without intermission throughout the whole space of 40 days’ journey.” (Cathay, 259–260.)

The canal appears to have been [begun in 1289 and to have been completed in 1292.—H. C.] though large portions were in use earlier. Its chief object was to provide the capital with food. Pauthier gives the statistics of the transport of rice by this canal from 1283 to the end of Kúblái’s reign, and for some subsequent years up to 1329. In the latter year the quantity reached 3,522,163 shi or 1,247,633 quarters. As the supplies of rice for the capital and for the troops in the Northern Provinces always continued to be drawn from Kiang-nan, the distress and derangement caused by the recent rebel occupation of that province must have been enormous. (Pauthier, p. 481–482; De Mailla, p. 439.) Polo’s account of the formation of the canal is exceedingly accurate. Compare that given by Mr. Williamson (I. 62).

Note 3.—“On the Kiang, not far from the mouth, is that remarkably beautiful little island called the ‘Golden Isle,’ surmounted by numerous temples inhabited by the votaries of Buddha or Fo, and very correctly described so many centuries since by Marco Polo.” (Davis’s Chinese, I. 149.) The monastery, according to Pauthier, was founded in the 3rd or 4th century, but the name Kin-Shan, or “Golden Isle,” dates only from a visit of the Emperor K’ang-hi in 1684.

The monastery contained one of the most famous Buddhist libraries in China. This was in the hands of our troops during the first China war, and, as it was intended to remove the books, there was no haste made in examining their contents. Meanwhile peace came, and the library was restored. It is a pity now that the jus belli had not been exercised promptly, for the whole establishment was destroyed by the T’ai-P’ings in 1860, and, with the exception of the Pagoda at the top of the hill, which was left in a dilapidated state, not one stone of the buildings remained upon another. The rock had also then ceased to be an island; and the site of what not many years before had been a channel with four fathoms of water separating it from the southern shore, was covered by flourishing cabbage-gardens. (Gützlaff in J. R. A. S. XII. 87; Mid. Kingd. I. 84, 86; Oliphant’s Narrative, II. 301; N. and Q. Ch. and Jap. No. 5, p. 58.)

CHAPTER LXXIII.

Chinghianfu is a city of Manzi. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, and live by handicrafts and trade. They have plenty of silk, from which they make sundry kinds of stuffs of silk and gold. There are great and wealthy merchants in the place; plenty of game is to be had, and of all kinds of victual.

177

There are in this city two churches of Nestorian Christians which were established in the year of our Lord 1278; and I will tell you how that happened. You see, in the year just named, the Great Kaan sent a Baron of his whose name was Mar Sarghis, a Nestorian Christian, to be governor of this city for three years. And during the three years that he abode there he caused these two Christian churches to be built, and since then there they are. But before his time there was no church, neither were there any Christians.{1}

West Gate of Chin-kiang fu in 1842.

Note 1.—Chin-kiang fu retains its name unchanged. It is one which became well known in the war of 1842. On its capture on the 21st July in that year, the heroic Manchu commandant seated himself among his records and then set fire to the building, making it his funeral pyre. The city was totally destroyed in the T’ai-P’ing wars, but is rapidly recovering its position as a place of native commerce.

[Chên-kiang, “a name which may be translated ‘River Guard,’ stands at the point where the Grand Canal is brought to a junction with the waters of the Yang-tzŭ when the channel of the river proper begins to expand into an extensive tidal estuary.” (Treaty Ports of China, p. 421.) It was declared open to foreign trade by the Treaty of Tien-Tsin in 1858.—H. C.]

Mar Sarghis (or Dominus Sergius) appears to have been a common name among Armenian and other Oriental Christians. As Pauthier mentions, this very name is 178one of the names of Nestorian priests inscribed in Syriac on the celebrated monument of Si-ngan fu.

[In the description of Chin-kiang quoted by the Archimandrite Palladius (see vol. i. p. 187, note 3), a Christian monastery or temple is mentioned: “The temple Ta-hing-kuo-sze stands in Chin-kiang fu, in the quarter called Kia-t’ao h’eang. It was built in the 18th year of Chi-yuen (A.D. 1281) by the Sub-darugachi, Sie-li-ki-sze (Sergius). Liang Siang, the teacher in the Confucian school, wrote a commemorative inscription for him.” From this document we see that “Sie-mi-sze-hien (Samarcand) is distant from China 100,000 li (probably a mistake for 10,000) to the north-west. It is a country where the religion of the Ye-li-k’o-wen dominates.... The founder of the religion was called Ma-rh Ye-li-ya. He lived and worked miracles a thousand five hundred years ago. Ma Sie-li-ki-sze (Mar Sergius) is a follower of him.” (Chinese Recorder, VI. p. 108).—H. C.]

From this second mention of three years as a term of government, we may probably gather that this was the usual period for the tenure of such office. (Mid. Kingd., I. 86; Cathay, p. xciii.)

CHAPTER LXXIV.

Leaving the city of Chinghianfu and travelling three days south-east through a constant succession of busy and thriving towns and villages, you arrive at the great and noble city of Chinginju. The people are Idolaters, use paper-money, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They live by trade and handicrafts, and they have plenty of silk. They have also abundance of game, and of all manner of victuals, for it is a most productive territory.{1}

Now I must tell you of an evil deed that was done, once upon a time, by the people of this city, and how dearly they paid for it.

You see, at the time of the conquest of the great province of Manzi, when Bayan was in command, he sent a company of his troops, consisting of a people called Alans, who are Christians, to take this city.{2} They took it accordingly, and when they had made their 179way in, they lighted upon some good wine. Of this they drank until they were all drunk, and then they lay down and slept like so many swine. So when night fell, the townspeople, seeing that they were all dead-drunk, fell upon them and slew them all; not a man escaped.

And when Bayan heard that the townspeople had thus treacherously slain his men, he sent another Admiral of his with a great force, and stormed the city, and put the whole of the inhabitants to the sword; not a man of them escaped death. And thus the whole population of that city was exterminated.{3}

Now we will go on, and I will tell you of another city called Suju.

Note 1.—Both the position and the story which follows identify this city with Chang-chau. The name is written in Pauthier’s MSS. Chinginguy, in the G. T. Cingiggui and Cinghingui, in Ramusio Tinguigui.

The capture of Chang-chau by Gordon’s force, 11th May 1864, was the final achievement of that “Ever Victorious Army.”

Regarding the territory here spoken of, once so rich and densely peopled, Mr. Medhurst says, in reference to the effects of the T’ai-P’ing insurrection: “I can conceive of no more melancholy sight than the acres of ground that one passes through strewn with remains of once thriving cities, and the miles upon miles of rich land, once carefully parcelled out into fields and gardens, but now only growing coarse grass and brambles—the home of the pheasant, the deer, and the wild pig.” (Foreigner in Far Cathay, p. 94.)

Note 2.—The relics of the Alans were settled on the northern skirts of the Caucasus, where they made a stout resistance to the Mongols, but eventually became subjects of the Khans of Sarai. The name by which they were usually known in Asia in the Middle Ages was Aas, and this name is assigned to them by Carpini, Rubruquis, and Josafat Barbaro, as well as by Ibn Batuta. Mr. Howorth has lately denied the identity of Alans and Aas; but he treats the question as all one with the identity of Alans and Ossethi, which is another matter, as may be seen in Vivien de St. Martin’s elaborate paper on the Alans (N. Ann. des Voyages, 1848, tom. 3, p. 129 seqq.). The Alans are mentioned by the Byzantine historian, Pachymeres, among nations whom the Mongols had assimilated to themselves and adopted into their military service. Gaubil, without being aware of the identity of the Asu (as the name Aas appears to be expressed in the Chinese Annals), beyond the fact that they dwelt somewhere near the Caspian, observes that this people, after they were conquered, furnished many excellent officers to the Mongols; and he mentions also that when the Mongol army was first equipt for the conquest of Southern China, many officers took service therein from among the Uighúrs, Persians, and Arabs, Kincha (people of Kipchak), the Asu and other foreign nations. We find also, at a later period of the Mongol history (1336), letters reaching Pope Benedict XII. from several Christian Alans holding high office at the court of Cambaluc—one of them being a Chingsang or Minister of the First Rank, and another a Fanchang or Minister of the Second Order—in which they conveyed their urgent request for the nomination of an Archbishop 180in succession to the deceased John of Monte Corvino. John Marignolli speaks of those Alans as “the greatest and noblest nation in the world, the fairest and bravest of men,” and asserts that in his day there were 30,000 of them in the Great Kaan’s service, and all, at least nominally, Christians.[1] Rashiduddin also speaks of the Alans as Christians; though Ibn Batuta certainly mentions the Aas as Mahomedans. We find Alans about the same time (in 1306) fighting well in the service of the Byzantine Emperors (Muntaner, p. 449). All these circumstances render Marco’s story of a corps of Christian Alans in the army of Bayan perfectly consistent with probability. (Carpini, p. 707; Rub., 243; Ramusio, II. 92; I. B. II. 428; Gaubil, 40, 147; Cathay, 314 seqq.)

[Mr. Rockhill writes (Rubruck, p. 88, note): “The Alans or Aas appear to be identical with the An-ts’ai or A-lan-na of the Hou Han shu (bk. 88, 9), of whom we read that ‘they led a pastoral life N.W. of Sogdiana (K’ang-chü) in a plain bounded by great lakes (or swamps), and in their wanderings went as far as the shores of the Northern Ocean.’ (Ma Twan-lin, bk. 338.) Pei-shih (bk. 97, 12) refers to them under the name of Su-tê and Wen-na-sha (see also Bretschneider, Med. Geog., 258, et seq.). Strabo refers to them under the name of Aorsi, living to the north but contiguous to the Albani, whom some authors confound with them, but whom later Armenian historians carefully distinguish from them (De Morgan, Mission, i. 232). Ptolemy speaks of this people as the ‘Scythian Alans’ (Ἀλανοί Σκύθαι); but the first definite mention of them in classical authors is, according to Bunbury (ii. 486), found in Dionysius Periergetes (305), who speaks of the άλκήεντες Ἀλανοί. (See also De Morgan, i. 202, and Deguignes, ii. 279 et seq.)

“Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 348) says, the Alans were a congeries of tribes living E. of the Tanais (Don), and stretching far into Asia. ‘Distributed over two continents, all these nations, whose various names I refrain from mentioning, though separated by immense tracts of country in which they pass their vagabond existence, have with time been confounded under the generic appellation of Alans.’ Ibn Alathir, at a later date, also refers to the Alans as ‘formed of numerous nations.’ (Dulaurier, xiv. 455).

“Conquered by the Huns in the latter part of the fourth century, some of the Alans moved westward, others settled on the northern slopes of the Caucasus; though long prior to that, in A.D. 51, they had, as allies of the Georgians, ravaged Armenia. (See Yule, Cathay, 316; Deguignes, I., pt. ii. 277 et seq.; and De Morgan, I. 217, et seq.)

“Mirkhond, in the Tarikhi Wassaf, and other Mohammedan writers speak of the Alans and As. However this may be, it is thought that the Oss or Ossetes of the Caucasus are their modern representatives (Klaproth, Tabl. hist., 180; De Morgan, i. 202, 231.)” Aas is the transcription of A-soo (Yuen-shi, quoted by Devéria, Notes d’épig., p. 75). (See Bretschneider, Med. Res., II., p. 84.)—H. C.]

Note 3.—The Chinese histories do not mention the story of the Alans and their fate; but they tell how Chang-chau was first taken by the Mongols about April 1275, and two months later recovered by the Chinese; how Bayan, some months afterwards, attacked it in person, meeting with a desperate resistance; finally, how the place was stormed, and how Bayan ordered the whole of the inhabitants to be put to the sword. Gaubil remarks that some grievous provocation must have been given, as Bayan was far from cruel. Pauthier gives original extracts on the subject, which are interesting. They picture the humane and chivalrous Bayan on this occasion as demoniacal in cruelty, sweeping together all the inhabitants of the suburbs, forcing them to construct his works of attack, and then butchering the whole of them, boiling down their carcasses, and using the fat to grease his mangonels! Perhaps there is some misunderstanding as to the use of this barbarous lubricant. For Carpini relates that the 181Tartars, when they cast Greek fire into a town, shot with it human fat, for this caused the fire to rage inextinguishably.

Cruelties, like Bayan’s on this occasion, if exceptional with him, were common enough among the Mongols generally. Chinghiz, at an early period in his career, after a victory, ordered seventy great caldrons to be heated, and his prisoners to be boiled therein. And the “evil deed” of the citizens of Chang-chau fell far short of Mongol atrocities. Thus Hulaku, suspecting the Turkoman chief Nasiruddin, who had just quitted his camp with 300 men, sent a body of horse after him to cut him off. The Mongol officers told the Turkoman they had been ordered to give him and his men a parting feast; they made them all drunk and then cut their throats. (Gaubil, 166, 167, 170; Carpini, 696; Erdmann, 262; Quat. Rashid. 357.)

CHAPTER LXXV.

Suju is a very great and noble city. The people are Idolaters, subjects of the Great Kaan, and have paper-money. They possess silk in great quantities, from which they make gold brocade and other stuffs, and they live by their manufactures and trade.{1}

The city is passing great, and has a circuit of some 60 miles; it hath merchants of great wealth and an incalculable number of people. Indeed, if the men of this city and of the rest of Manzi had but the spirit of soldiers they would conquer the world; but they are no soldiers at all, only accomplished traders and most skilful craftsmen. There are also in this city many philosophers and leeches, diligent students of nature.

And you must know that in this city there are 6,000 bridges, all of stone, and so lofty that a galley, or even two galleys at once, could pass underneath one of them.{2}

In the mountains belonging to this city, rhubarb and ginger grow in great abundance; insomuch that you may get some 40 pounds of excellent fresh ginger for a Venice groat.{3} And the city has sixteen other great 182trading cities under its rule. The name of the city, Suju, signifies in our tongue, “Earth,” and that of another near it, of which we shall speak presently, called Kinsay, signifies “Heaven;” and these names are given because of the great splendour of the two cities.{4}

Now let us quit Suju, and go on to another which is called Vuju, one day’s journey distant; it is a great and fine city, rife with trade and manufactures. But as there is nothing more to say of it we shall go on and I will tell you of another great and noble city called Vughin. The people are Idolaters, &c., and possess much silk and other merchandize, and they are expert traders and craftsmen. Let us now quit Vughin and tell you of another city called Changan, a great and rich place. The people are Idolaters, &c., and they live by trade and manufactures. They make great quantities of sendal of different kinds, and they have much game in the neighbourhood. There is however nothing more to say about the place, so we shall now proceed.{5}

Note 1.—Suju is of course the celebrated city of Su-chau in Kiang-nan—before the rebellion brought ruin on it, the Paris of China. “Everything remarkable was alleged to come from it; fine pictures, fine carved-work, fine silks, and fine ladies!” (Fortune, I. 186.) When the Emperor K’ang-hi visited Su-chau, the citizens laid the streets with carpets and silk stuffs, but the Emperor dismounted and made his train do the like. (Davis, I. 186.)

[Su-chau is situated 80 miles west of Shang-hai, 12 miles east of the Great Lake, and 40 miles south of the Kiang, in the plain between this river and Hang-chau Bay. It was the capital of the old kingdom of Wu which was independent from the 12th to the 4th centuries (B.C.) inclusive; it was founded by Wu Tzŭ-sü, prime minister of King Hoh Lü (514–496 B.C.), who removed the capital of Wu from Mei-li (near the modern Ch’ang-chau) to the new site now occupied by the city of Su-chau. “Suchau is built in the form of a rectangle, and is about three and a half miles from North to South, by two and a half in breadth, the wall being twelve or thirteen miles in length. There are six gates.” (Rev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec., xix. p. 205.) It has greatly recovered since the T’ai-P’ing rebellion, and its recapture by General (then Major) Gordon on the 27th November 1863; Su-chau has been declared open to foreign trade on the 26th September 1896, under the provisions of the Japanese Treaty of 1895.

“The great trade of Soochow is silk. In the silk stores are found about 100 varieties of satin, and 200 kinds of silks and gauzes.... The weavers are divided into two guilds, the Nankin and Suchau, and have together about 7000 looms. Thousands of men and women are engaged in reeling the thread.” (Rev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec., xix. pp. 275–276.)—H. C.]

City of Suchau.

North

Lit. Frauenfelder, Palermo

Reduced to ⅒ the scale from a Rubbing of a PLAN incised on Marble A·D·MCCXLVII, & preserved in the Great Temple of Confucius at Suchau.

183

Note 2.—I believe we must not bring Marco to book for the literal accuracy of his statements as to the bridges; but all travellers have noticed the number and elegance of the bridges of cut stone in this part of China; see, for instance, Van Braam, II. 107, 119–120, 124, 126; and Deguignes, I. 47, who gives a particular account of the arches. These are said to be often 50 or 60 feet in span.

[“Within the city there are, generally speaking, six canals from North to South, and six canals from East to West, intersecting one another at from a quarter to half a mile. There are a hundred and fifty or two hundred bridges at intervals of two or three hundred yards; some of these with arches, others with stone slabs thrown across, many of which are twenty feet in length. The canals are from ten to fifteen feet wide and faced with stone.” (Rev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec., xix., 1888, p. 207).—H. C.]

South-West Gate and Water-Gate of Su-chau; facsimile on half the scale from a mediæval Map, incised on Marble, A.D. 1247.

Note 3.—This statement about the abundance of rhubarb in the hills near Su-chau is believed by the most competent authorities to be quite erroneous. Rhubarb is exported from Shang-hai, but it is brought thither from Hankau on the Upper Kiang, and Hankau receives it from the further west. Indeed Mr. Hanbury, in a note on the subject, adds his disbelief also that ginger is produced in Kiang-nan. And I see in the Shang-hai trade-returns of 1865, that there is no ginger among the exports. [Green ginger is mentioned in the Shang-hai Trade Reports for 1900 among the exports (p. 309) to the amount of 18,756 piculs; none is mentioned at Su-chau.—H. C.] Some one, I forget where, has suggested a confusion with Suh-chau in Kan-suh, the great rhubarb mart, which seems possible.

[“Polo is correct in giving Tangut as the native country of Rhubarb (Rheum palmatum), but no species of Rheum has hitherto been gathered by our botanists as far south as Kiang-Su, indeed, not even in Shan-tung.” (Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc., I. p. 5.)—H. C.]

Note 4.—The meanings ascribed by Polo to the names of Su-chau and King-szé (Hang-chau) show plainly enough that he was ignorant of Chinese. Odoric does not 184mention Su-chau, but he gives the same explanation of Kinsay as signifying the “City of Heaven,” and Wassáf also in his notice of the same city has an obscure passage about Paradise and Heaven, which is not improbably a corrupted reference to the same interpretation.[1] I suspect therefore that it was a “Vulgar Error” of the foreign residents in China, probably arising out of a misunderstanding of the Chinese adage quoted by Duhalde and Davis:—

“Shang yeu t’ien t’ang, Hia yeu Su Hang!”

“There’s Paradise above ’tis true,

But here below we’ve Hang and Su!”

These two neighbouring cities, in the middle of the beautiful tea and silk districts, and with all the advantages of inland navigation and foreign trade, combined every source of wealth and prosperity, and were often thus coupled together by the Chinese. Both are, I believe, now recovering from the effects of devastation by T’ai-P’ing occupation and Imperialist recapture; but neither probably is one-fifth of what it was.

The plan of Su-chau which we give is of high interest. It is reduced (⅒ the scale) from a rubbing of a plan of the city incised on marble measuring 6′ 7″ by 4′ 4″, and which has been preserved in the Confucian Temple in Su-chau since A.D. 1247. Marco Polo’s eyes have probably rested on this fine work, comparable to the famous Pianta Capitolina. The engraving on page 183 represents one of the gates traced from the rubbing and reduced to half the scale. It is therefore an authentic representation of Chinese fortification in or before the 13th century.[2]

[“In the southern part of Su-chau is the park, surrounded by a high wall, which contains the group of buildings called the Confucian Temple. This is the Dragon’s head;—the Dragon Street, running directly North, is his body, and the Great Pagoda is his tail. In front is a grove of cedars. To one side is the hall where thousands of scholars go to worship at the Spring and Autumn Festivals—this for the gentry alone, not for the unlettered populace. There is a building used for the slaughter of animals, another containing a map of the city engraved in stone; a third with tablets and astronomical diagrams, and a fourth containing the Provincial Library. On each side of the large courts are rooms where are placed the tablets of the 500 sages. The main temple is 50 by 70 feet, and contains the tablet of Confucius and a number of gilded boards with mottoes. It is a very imposing structure. On the stone dais in front, a mat-shed is erected for the great sacrifices at which the official magnates exercise their sacerdotal functions. As a tourist beheld the sacred grounds and the aged trees, she said: ‘This is the most venerable-looking place I have seen in China.’ On the gateway in front, the sage is called ‘The Prince of Doctrine in times Past and Present.’” (Rev. H. C. Du Bose, Chin. Rec., xix. p. 272).—H. C.]

Note 5.—The Geographic Text only, at least of the principal Texts, has distinctly the three cities, Vugui, Vughin, Ciangan. Pauthier identifies the first and third with Hu-chau fu and Sung-kiang fu. In favour of Vuju’s being Hu-chau is the fact mentioned by Wilson that the latter city is locally called Wuchu.[3] If this be the place, the Traveller does not seem to be following a direct and consecutive route from Su-chau to Hang-chau. Nor is Hu-chau within a day’s journey of Su-chau. Mr. Kingsmill observes that the only town at that distance is Wukiang-hien, once of some little importance but now much reduced. Wukiang, however, is suggestive 185of Vughin; and, in that supposition, Hu-chau must be considered the object of a digression from which the Traveller returns and takes up his route to Hang-chau viâ Wukiang. Kiahing would then best answer to Ciangan, or Caingan, as it is written in the following chapter of the G. T.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

When you have left the city of Changan and have travelled for three days through a splendid country, passing a number of towns and villages, you arrive at the most noble city of Kinsay, a name which is as much as to say in our tongue “The City of Heaven,” as I told you before.{1}

And since we have got thither I will enter into particulars about its magnificence; and these are well worth the telling, for the city is beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world. In this we shall speak according to the written statement which the Queen of this Realm sent to Bayan the conqueror of the country for transmission to the Great Kaan, in order that he might be aware of the surpassing grandeur of the city and might be moved to save it from destruction or injury. I will tell you all the truth as it was set down in that document. For truth it was, as the said Messer Marco Polo at a later date was able to witness with his own eyes. And now we shall rehearse those particulars.

First and foremost, then, the document stated the city of Kinsay to be so great that it hath an hundred miles of compass. And there are in it twelve thousand bridges of stone, for the most part so lofty that a great fleet could pass beneath them. And let no man marvel that there are so many bridges, for you see the whole city 186stands as it were in the water and surrounded by water, so that a great many bridges are required to give free passage about it. [And though the bridges be so high the approaches are so well contrived that carts and horses do cross them.{2}]

The document aforesaid also went on to state that there were in this city twelve guilds of the different crafts, and that each guild had 12,000 houses in the occupation of its workmen. Each of these houses contains at least 12 men, whilst some contain 20 and some 40,—not that these are all masters, but inclusive of the journeymen who work under the masters. And yet all these craftsmen had full occupation, for many other cities of the kingdom are supplied from this city with what they require.

The document aforesaid also stated that the number and wealth of the merchants, and the amount of goods that passed through their hands, was so enormous that no man could form a just estimate thereof. And I should have told you with regard to those masters of the different crafts who are at the head of such houses as I have mentioned, that neither they nor their wives ever touch a piece of work with their own hands, but live as nicely and delicately as if they were kings and queens. The wives indeed are most dainty and angelical creatures! Moreover it was an ordinance laid down by the King that every man should follow his father’s business and no other, no matter if he possessed 100,000 bezants.{3}

Inside the city there is a Lake which has a compass of some 30 miles: and all round it are erected beautiful palaces and mansions, of the richest and most exquisite structure that you can imagine, belonging to the nobles of the city. There are also on its shores many abbeys and churches of the Idolaters. In the middle of the Lake are two Islands, on each of which stands a rich, 187beautiful and spacious edifice, furnished in such style as to seem fit for the palace of an Emperor. And when any one of the citizens desired to hold a marriage feast, or to give any other entertainment, it used to be done at one of these palaces. And everything would be found there ready to order, such as silver plate, trenchers, and dishes [napkins and table-cloths], and whatever else was needful. The King made this provision for the gratification of his people, and the place was open to every one who desired to give an entertainment. [Sometimes there would be at these palaces an hundred different parties; some holding a banquet, others celebrating a wedding; and yet all would find good accommodation in the different apartments and pavilions, and that in so well ordered a manner that one party was never in the way of another.{4}]

The houses of the city are provided with lofty towers of stone in which articles of value are stored for fear of fire; for most of the houses themselves are of timber, and fires are very frequent in the city.

The people are Idolaters; and since they were conquered by the Great Kaan they use paper-money. [Both men and women are fair and comely, and for the most part clothe themselves in silk, so vast is the supply of that material, both from the whole district of Kinsay, and from the imports by traders from other provinces.{5}] And you must know they eat every kind of flesh, even that of dogs and other unclean beasts, which nothing would induce a Christian to eat.

Since the Great Kaan occupied the city he has ordained that each of the 12,000 bridges should be provided with a guard of ten men, in case of any disturbance, or of any being so rash as to plot treason or insurrection against him. [Each guard is provided with a hollow instrument of wood and with a metal basin, and with a 188time-keeper to enable them to know the hour of the day or night. And so when one hour of the night is past the sentry strikes one on the wooden instrument and on the basin, so that the whole quarter of the city is made aware that one hour of the night is gone. At the second hour he gives two strokes, and so on, keeping always wide awake and on the look out. In the morning again, from the sunrise, they begin to count anew, and strike one hour as they did in the night, and so on hour after hour.

Part of the watch patrols the quarter, to see if any light or fire is burning after the lawful hours; if they find any they mark the door, and in the morning the owner is summoned before the magistrates, and unless he can plead a good excuse he is punished. Also if they find any one going about the streets at unlawful hours they arrest him, and in the morning they bring him before the magistrates. Likewise if in the daytime they find any poor cripple unable to work for his livelihood, they take him to one of the hospitals, of which there are many, founded by the ancient kings, and endowed with great revenues.{6} Or if he be capable of work they oblige him to take up some trade. If they see that any house has caught fire they immediately beat upon that wooden instrument to give the alarm, and this brings together the watchmen from the other bridges to help to extinguish it, and to save the goods of the merchants or others, either by removing them to the towers above mentioned, or by putting them in boats and transporting them to the islands in the lake. For no citizen dares leave his house at night, or to come near the fire; only those who own the property, and those watchmen who flock to help, of whom there shall come one or two thousand at the least.]

Moreover, within the city there is an eminence on 189which stands a Tower, and at the top of the tower is hung a slab of wood. Whenever fire or any other alarm breaks out in the city a man who stands there with a mallet in his hand beats upon the slab, making a noise that is heard to a great distance. So when the blows upon this slab are heard, everybody is aware that fire has broken out, or that there is some other cause of alarm.

The Kaan watches this city with especial diligence because it forms the head of all Manzi; and because he has an immense revenue from the duties levied on the transactions of trade therein, the amount of which is such that no one would credit it on mere hearsay.

All the streets of the city are paved with stone or brick, as indeed are all the highways throughout Manzi, so that you ride and travel in every direction without inconvenience. Were it not for this pavement you could not do so, for the country is very low and flat, and after rain ’tis deep in mire and water. [But as the Great Kaan’s couriers could not gallop their horses over the pavement, the side of the road is left unpaved for their convenience. The pavement of the main street of the city also is laid out in two parallel ways of ten paces in width on either side, leaving a space in the middle laid with fine gravel, under which are vaulted drains which convey the rain water into the canals; and thus the road is kept ever dry.]{7}

You must know also that the city of Kinsay has some 3000 baths, the water of which is supplied by springs. They are hot baths, and the people take great delight in them, frequenting them several times a month, for they are very cleanly in their persons. They are the finest and largest baths in the world; large enough for 100 persons to bathe together.{8}

And the Ocean Sea comes within 25 miles of the city at a place called Ganfu, where there is a town and 190an excellent haven, with a vast amount of shipping which is engaged in the traffic to and from India and other foreign parts, exporting and importing many kinds of wares, by which the city benefits. And a great river flows from the city of Kinsay to that sea-haven, by which vessels can come up to the city itself. This river extends also to other places further inland.{9}

Know also that the Great Kaan hath distributed the territory of Manzi into nine parts, which he hath constituted into nine kingdoms. To each of these kingdoms a king is appointed who is subordinate to the Great Kaan, and every year renders the accounts of his kingdom to the fiscal office at the capital.{10} This city of Kinsay is the seat of one of these kings, who rules over 140 great and wealthy cities. For in the whole of this vast country of Manzi there are more than 1200 great and wealthy cities, without counting the towns and villages, which are in great numbers. And you may receive it for certain that in each of those 1200 cities the Great Kaan has a garrison, and that the smallest of such garrisons musters 1000 men; whilst there are some of 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000; so that the total number of troops is something scarcely calculable. The troops forming these garrisons are not all Tartars. Many are from the province of Cathay, and good soldiers too. But you must not suppose they are by any means all of them cavalry; a very large proportion of them are foot-soldiers, according to the special requirements of each city. And all of them belong to the army of the Great Kaan.{11}

I repeat that everything appertaining to this city is on so vast a scale, and the Great Kaan’s yearly revenues therefrom are so immense, that it is not easy even to put it in writing, and it seems past belief to one who merely hears it told. But I will write it down for you.

191

First, however, I must mention another thing. The people of this country have a custom, that as soon as a child is born they write down the day and hour and the planet and sign under which its birth has taken place; so that every one among them knows the day of his birth. And when any one intends a journey he goes to the astrologers, and gives the particulars of his nativity in order to learn whether he shall have good luck or no. Sometimes they will say no, and in that case the journey is put off till such day as the astrologer may recommend. These astrologers are very skilful at their business, and often their words come to pass, so the people have great faith in them.

They burn the bodies of the dead. And when any one dies the friends and relations make a great mourning for the deceased, and clothe themselves in hempen garments,{12} and follow the corpse playing on a variety of instruments and singing hymns to their idols. And when they come to the burning place, they take representations of things cut out of parchment, such as caparisoned horses, male and female slaves, camels, armour suits of cloth of gold (and money), in great quantities, and these things they put on the fire along with the corpse, so that they are all burnt with it. And they tell you that the dead man shall have all these slaves and animals of which the effigies are burnt, alive in flesh and blood, and the money in gold, at his disposal in the next world; and that the instruments which they have caused to be played at his funeral, and the idol hymns that have been chaunted, shall also be produced again to welcome him in the next world; and that the idols themselves will come to do him honour.{13}

Furthermore there exists in this city the palace of the king who fled, him who was Emperor of Manzi, and that is the greatest palace in the world, as I shall tell you more 192particularly. For you must know its demesne hath a compass of ten miles, all enclosed with lofty battlemented walls; and inside the walls are the finest and most delectable gardens upon earth, and filled too with the finest fruits. There are numerous fountains in it also, and lakes full of fish. In the middle is the palace itself, a great and splendid building. It contains 20 great and handsome halls, one of which is more spacious than the rest, and affords room for a vast multitude to dine. It is all painted in gold, with many histories and representations of beasts and birds, of knights and dames, and many marvellous things. It forms a really magnificent spectacle, for over all the walls and all the ceiling you see nothing but paintings in gold. And besides these halls the palace contains 1000 large and handsome chambers, all painted in gold and divers colours.

Moreover, I must tell you that in this city there are 160 tomans of fires, or in other words 160 tomans of houses. Now I should tell you that the toman is 10,000, so that you can reckon the total as altogether 1,600,000 houses, among which are a great number of rich palaces. There is one church only, belonging to the Nestorian Christians.

There is another thing I must tell you. It is the custom for every burgess of this city, and in fact for every description of person in it, to write over his door his own name, the name of his wife, and those of his children, his slaves, and all the inmates of his house, and also the number of animals that he keeps. And if any one dies in the house then the name of that person is erased, and if any child is born its name is added. So in this way the sovereign is able to know exactly the population of the city. And this is the practice also throughout all Manzi and Cathay.{14}

Hang-chau-Fu with The Lake
compiled from various Chinese Sources.

Lit. Frauenfelder, Palermo

Plan of the City of Si-ngan-fu
Reduced from one published under the Mongol Dynasty
(See Book II. Chap. XLI.)

“la très nobilissime cité de Quinsay

sans faille la plus noble cité et la

meillor qe soit au monde.”

And I must tell you that every hosteler who keeps 193an hostel for travellers is bound to register their names and surnames, as well as the day and month of their arrival and departure. And thus the sovereign hath the means of knowing, whenever it pleases him, who come and go throughout his dominions. And certes this is a wise order and a provident.

Note 1.—Kinsay represents closely enough the Chinese term King-sze, “capital,” which was then applied to the great city, the proper name of which was at that time Lin-ngan and is now Hang-chau, as being since 1127 the capital of the Sung Dynasty. The same term King-sze is now on Chinese maps generally used to designate Peking. It would seem, however, that the term adhered long as a quasi-proper name to Hang-chau; for in the Chinese Atlas, dating from 1595, which the traveller Carletti presented to the Magliabecchian Library, that city appears to be still marked with this name, transcribed by Carletti as Camse; very near the form Campsay used by Marignolli in the 14th century.

The ancient Lun-ho-ta Pagoda at Hang-chau.

Note 2.—✛The Ramusian version says: “Messer Marco Polo was frequently at this city, and took great pains to learn everything about it, writing down the whole in his notes.” The information being originally derived from a Chinese document, there might be some ground for supposing that 100 miles of circuit stood for 100 li. Yet the circuit of the modern city is stated in the official book called Hang-chau Fu-Chi, or topographical history of Hang-chau, at only 35 li. And the earliest record of the wall, as built under the Sui by Yang-su (before A.D. 606), makes its extent little more (36 li and 90 paces.)[1] But the wall was reconstructed by Ts’ien Kiao, feudal prince of the region, during the reign 194of Chao Tsung, one of the last emperors of the T’ang Dynasty (892), so as to embrace the Luh-ho-ta Pagoda, on a high bluff over the Tsien-tang River,[2] 15 li distant from the present south gate, and had then a circuit of 70 li. Moreover, in 1159, after the city became the capital of the Sung emperors, some further extension was given to it, so that, even exclusive of the suburbs, the circuit of the city may have been not far short of 100 li. When the city was in its glory under the Sung, the Luh-ho-ta Pagoda may be taken as marking the extreme S.W. Another known point marks approximately the chief north gate of that period, at a mile and a half or two miles beyond the present north wall. The S.E. angle was apparently near the river bank. But, on the other hand, the waist of the city seems to have been a good deal narrower than it now is. Old descriptions compare its form to that of a slender-waisted drum (dice-box or hour-glass shape).

Under the Mongols the walls were allowed to decay; and in the disturbed years that closed that dynasty (1341–1368) they were rebuilt by an insurgent chief on a greatly reduced compass, probably that which they still retain. Whatever may have been the facts, and whatever the origin of the estimate, I imagine that the ascription of 100 miles of circuit to Kinsay had become popular among Westerns. Odoric makes the same statement. Wassáf calls it 24 parasangs, which will not be far short of the same amount. Ibn Batuta calls the length of the city three days’ journey. Rashiduddin says the enceinte had a diameter of 11 parasangs, and that there were three post stages between the two extremities of the city, which is probably what Ibn Batuta had heard. The Masálak-al-Absár calls it one day’s journey in length, and half a day’s journey in breadth. The enthusiastic Jesuit Martini tries hard to justify Polo in this as in other points of his description. We shall quote the whole of his remarks at the end of the chapters on Kinsay.

[Dr. F. Hirth, in a paper published in the T’oung Pao, V. pp. 386–390 (Ueber den Schiffsverkehr von Kinsay zu Marco Polo’s Zeit), has some interesting notes on the maritime trade of Hang-chau, collected from a work in twenty books, kept at the Berlin Royal Library, in which is to be found a description of Hang-chau under the title of Mêng-liang-lu, published in 1274 by Wu Tzu-mu, himself a native of this city: there are various classes of sea-going vessels; large boats measuring 5000 liao and carrying from five to six hundred passengers; smaller boats measuring from 2 to 1000 liao and carrying from two to three hundred passengers; there are small fast boats called tsuan-fêng, “wind breaker,” with six or eight oarsmen, which can carry easily 100 passengers, and are generally used for fishing; sampans are not taken into account. To start for foreign countries one must embark at Ts’wan-chau, and then go to the sea of Ts’i-chau (Paracels), through the Tai-hsü pass; coming back he must look to Kwen-lun (Pulo Condor).—H. C.]

The 12,000 bridges have been much carped at, and modern accounts of Hang-chau (desperately meagre as they are) do not speak of its bridges as notable. “There is, indeed,” says Mr. Kingsmill, speaking of changes in the hydrography about Hang-chau, “no trace in the city of the magnificent canals and bridges described by Marco Polo.” The number was no doubt in this case also a mere popular saw, and Friar Odoric repeats it. The sober and veracious John Marignolli, alluding apparently to their statements, and perhaps to others which have not reached us, says: “When authors tell of its ten thousand noble bridges of stone, adorned with sculptures and statues of armed princes, it passes the belief of one who has not been there, and yet peradventure these authors tell us no lie.” Wassáf speaks of 360 bridges only, but 195they make up in size what they lack in number, for they cross canals as big as the Tigris! Marsden aptly quotes in reference to this point excessively loose and discrepant statements from modern authors as to the number of bridges in Venice. The great height of the arches of the canal bridges in this part of China is especially noticed by travellers. Barrow, quoted by Marsden, says: “Some have the piers of such an 196extraordinary height that the largest vessels of 200 tons sail under them without striking their masts.”

Plan of the Imperial City of Hangchow in the 13th Century. (From the Notes of the Right Rev. G. E. Moule.)
1–17, Gates; 18, Ta-nuy; 19, Woo-Foo; 20, T’aï Miao; 21, Fung-hwang shan; 22, Shĭh fŭh she; 23, Fan t’ien she; 24, Koo-shing Kwo she.

Mr. Moule has added up the lists of bridges in the whole department (or Fu) and found them to amount to 848, and many of these even are now unknown, their approximate sites being given from ancient topographies. The number represented in a large modern map of the city, which I owe to Mr. Moule’s kindness, is 111.

Note 3.—Though Rubruquis (p. 292) says much the same thing, there is little trace of such an ordinance in modern China. Père Parrenin observes: “As to the hereditary perpetuation of trades, it has never existed in China. On the contrary, very few Chinese will learn the trade of their fathers; and it is only necessity that ever constrains them to do so.” (Lett. Edif. XXIV. 40.) Mr. Moule remarks, however, that P. Parrenin is a little too absolute. Certain trades do run in families, even of the free classes of Chinese, not to mention the disfranchised boatmen, barbers, chair-coolies, etc. But, except in the latter cases, there is no compulsion, though the Sacred Edict goes to encourage the perpetuation of the family calling.

Note 4.—This sheet of water is the celebrated Si-hu, or “Western Lake,” the fame of which had reached Abulfeda, and which has raised the enthusiasm even of modern travellers, such as Barrow and Van Braam. The latter speaks of three islands (and this the Chinese maps confirm), on each of which were several villas, and of causeways across the lake, paved and bordered with trees, and provided with numerous bridges for the passage of boats. Barrow gives a bright description of the lake, with its thousands of gay, gilt, and painted pleasure boats, its margins studded with light and fanciful buildings, its gardens of choice flowering shrubs, its monuments, and beautiful variety of scenery. None surpasses that of Martini, whom it is always pleasant to quote, but here he is too lengthy. The most recent description that I have met with is that of Mr. C. Gardner, and it is as enthusiastic as any. It concludes: “Even to us foreigners ... the spot is one of peculiar attraction, but to the Chinese it is as a paradise.” The Emperor K’ien Lung had erected a palace on one of the islands in the lake; it was ruined by the T’ai-P’ings. Many of the constructions about the lake date from the flourishing days of the T’ang Dynasty, the 7th and 8th centuries.

Polo’s ascription of a circumference of 30 miles to the lake, corroborates the supposition that in the compass of the city a confusion had been made between miles and li, for Semedo gives the circuit of the lake really as 30 li. Probably the document to which Marco refers at the beginning of the chapter was seen by him in a Persian translation, in which li had been rendered by míl. A Persian work of the same age, quoted by Quatremère (the Nuzhát al-Ḳulúb), gives the circuit of the lake as six parasangs, or some 24 miles, a statement which probably had a like origin.

Polo says the lake was within the city. This might be merely a loose way of speaking, but it may on the other hand be a further indication of the former existence of an extensive outer wall. The Persian author just quoted also speaks of the lake as within the city. (Barrow’s Autobiog., p. 104; V. Braam, II. 154; Gardner in Proc. of the R. Geog. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 178; Q. Rashid, p. lxxxviii.) Mr. Moule states that popular oral tradition does enclose the lake within the walls, but he can find no trace of this in the Topographies.

Elsewhere Mr. Moule says: “Of the luxury of the (Sung) period, and its devotion to pleasure, evidence occurs everywhere. Hang-chow went at the time by the nickname of the melting-pot for money. The use, at houses of entertainment, of linen and silver plate appears somewhat out of keeping in a Chinese picture. I cannot vouch for the linen, but here is the plate.... ‘The most famous Tea-houses of the day were the Pa-seen (“8 genii”), the “Pure Delight,” the “Pearl,” the “House of the Pwan Family,” and the “Two and Two” and “Three and Three” houses (perhaps rather “Double honours” and “Treble honours”). In these places they always set out bouquets of fresh flowers, according to the season.... At the counter were sold “Precious thunder Tea,” Tea of fritters and onions, 197or else Pickle broth; and in hot weather wine of snow bubbles and apricot blossom, or other kinds of refrigerating liquor. Saucers, ladles, and bowls were all of pure, silver!’ (Si-Hu-Chi.)”

Plan of the Metropolitan City of Hangchow in the 13th Century. (From the Notes of the Right Rev. G. E. Moule.)
1–17, Gates; 18, Ta-nuy, Central Palace; 19, Woo-Foo, The Five Courts; 20, T’aï Miao, The Imperial Temple; 21, Fung-hwang shan, Phœnix Hill; 22, Shĭh fŭh she, Monastery of the Sacred Fruit; 25–30, Gates; 31, T’ien tsung yen tsang, T’ien tsung Salt Depot; 2, T’ien tsung tsew koo, T’ien tsung Wine Store; 33, Chang she, The Chang Monastery; 34, Foo che, Prefecture; Foo hio, Prefectural Confucian Temple.

Note 5.—This is still the case: “The people of Hang-chow dress gaily, and are 198remarkable among the Chinese for their dandyism. All, except the lowest labourers and coolies, strutted about in dresses composed of silk, satin, and crape.... ‘Indeed’ (said the Chinese servants) ‘one can never tell a rich man in Hang-chow, for it is just possible that all he possesses in the world is on his back.’” (Fortune, II. 20.) “The silk manufactures of Hang-chau are said to give employment to 60,000 persons within the city walls, and Hu-chau, Kia-hing, and the surrounding villages, are reputed to employ 100,000 more.” (Ningpo Trade Report, January 1869, comm. by Mr. N. B. Dennys.) The store-towers, as a precaution in case of fire, are still common both in China and Japan.

Note 6.—Mr. Gardner found in this very city, in 1868, a large collection of cottages covering several acres, which were “erected, after the taking of the city from the rebels, by a Chinese charitable society for the refuge of the blind, sick, and infirm.” This asylum sheltered 200 blind men with their families, amounting to 800 souls; basket-making and such work was provided for them; there were also 1200 other inmates, aged and infirm; and doctors were maintained to look after them. “None are allowed to be absolutely idle, but all help towards their own sustenance.” (Proc. R. G. Soc. XIII. 176–177.) Mr. Moule, whilst abating somewhat from the colouring of this description, admits the establishment to be a considerable charitable effort. It existed before the rebellion, as I see in the book of Mr. Milne, who gives interesting details on such Chinese charities. (Life in China, pp. 46 seqq.)

Note 7.—The paved roads of Manzi are by no means extinct yet. Thus, Mr. Fortune, starting from Chang-shan (see below, ch. lxxix.) in the direction of the Black-Tea mountains, says: “The road on which we were travelling was well paved with granite, about 12 feet in width, and perfectly free from weeds.” (II. 148). Garnier, Sladen, and Richthofen speak of well-paved roads in Yun-Nan and Sze-ch’wan.

The Topography quoted by Mr. Moule says that in the year 1272 the Governor renewed the pavement of the Imperial road (or Main Street), “after which nine cars might move abreast over a way perfectly smooth, and straight as an arrow.” In the Mongol time the people were allowed to encroach on this grand street.

Note 8.—There is a curious discrepancy in the account of these baths. Pauthier’s text does not say whether they are hot baths or cold. The latter sentence, beginning, “They are hot baths” (estuves), is from the G. Text. And Ramusio’s account is quite different: “There are numerous baths of cold water, provided with plenty of attendants, male and female, to assist the visitors of the two sexes in the bath. For the people are used from their childhood to bathe in cold water at all seasons, and they reckon it a very wholesome custom. But in the bath-houses they have also certain chambers furnished with hot water, for foreigners who are unaccustomed to cold bathing, and cannot bear it. The people are used to bathe daily, and do not eat without having done so.” This is in contradiction with the notorious Chinese horror of cold water for any purpose.

A note from Mr. C. Gardner says: “There are numerous public baths at Hang-chau, as at every Chinese city I have ever been in. In my experience natives always take hot baths. But only the poorer classes go to the public baths; the tradespeople and middle classes are generally supplied by the bath-houses with hot water at a moderate charge.”

Note 9.—The estuary of the Ts’ien T’ang, or river of Hang-chau, has undergone great changes since Polo’s day. The sea now comes up much nearer the city; and the upper part of the Bay of Hang-chau is believed to cover what was once the site of the port and town of Kanp’u, the Ganpu of the text. A modern representative of the name still subsists, a walled town, and one of the depôts for the salt which is so extensively manufactured on this coast; but the present port of Hang-chau, and till 199recently the sole seat of Chinese trade with Japan, is at Chapu, some 20 miles further seaward.

It is supposed by Klaproth that Kanp’u was the port frequented by the early Arab voyagers, and of which they speak under the name of Khánfú, confounding in their details Hang-chau itself with the port. Neumann dissents from this, maintaining that the Khanfu of the Arabs was certainly Canton. Abulfeda, however, states expressly that Khanfu was known in his day as Khansá (i.e. Kinsay), and he speaks of its lake of fresh water called Sikhu (Si-hu). [Abulfeda has in fact two Khânqû (Khanfû): Khansâ with the lake which is Kinsay, and one Khanfû which is probably Canton. (See Guyard’s transl., II., ii., 122–124.)—H. C.] There seems to be an indication in Chinese records that a southern branch of the Great Kiang once entered the sea at Kanp’u; the closing of it is assigned to the 7th century, or a little later.

[Dr. F. Hirth writes (Jour. Roy. As. Soc., 1896, pp. 68–69): “For centuries Canton must have been the only channel through which foreign trade was permitted; for it is not before the year 999 that we read of the appointment of Inspectors of Trade at Hang-chou and Ming-chou. The latter name is identified with Ning-po.” Dr. Hirth adds in a note: “This is in my opinion the principal reason why the port of Khanfu, mentioned by the earliest Muhammadan travellers, or authors (Soleiman, Abu Zeid, and Maçoudi), cannot be identified with Hang-chou. The report of Soleiman, who first speaks of Khanfu, was written in 851, and in those days Canton was apparently the only port open to foreign trade. Marco Polo’s Ganfu is a different port altogether, viz. Kan-fu, or Kan-pu, near Hang-chou, and should not be confounded with Khanfu.”—H. C.]

The changes of the Great Kiang do not seem to have attracted so much attention among the Chinese as those of the dangerous Hwang-Ho, nor does their history seem to have been so carefully recorded. But a paper of great interest on the subject was published by Mr. Edkins, in the Journal of the North China Branch of the R. A. S. for September 1860 [pp. 77–84], which I know only by an abstract given by the late Comte d’Escayrac de Lauture. From this it would seem that about the time of our era the Yang-tzŭ Kiang had three great mouths. The most southerly of these was the Che-Kiang, which is said to have given its name to the Province still so called, of which Hang-chau is the capital. This branch quitted the present channel at Chi-chau, passed by Ning-Kwé and Kwang-té, communicating with the southern end of a great group of lakes which occupied the position of the T’ai-Hu, and so by Shih-men and T’ang-si into the sea not far from Shao-hing. The second branch quitted the main channel at Wu-hu, passed by I-hing (or I-shin) communicating with the northern end of the T’ai-Hu (passed apparently by Su-chau), and then bifurcated, one arm entering the sea at Wu-sung, and the other at Kanp’u. The third, or northerly branch is that which forms the present channel of the Great Kiang. These branches are represented hypothetically on the sketch-map attached to ch. lxiv. supra.

(Kingsmill, u.s. p. 53; Chin. Repos. III. 118; Middle Kingdom, I. 95–106; Bürck. p. 483; Cathay, p. cxciii.; J. N. Ch. Br. R. A. S., December 1865, p. 3 seqq.; Escayrac de Lauture, Mém. sur la Chine, H. du Sol, p. 114.)

Note 10.—Pauthier’s text has: “Chascun Roy fait chascun an le compte de son royaume aux comptes du grant siège,” where I suspect the last word is again a mistake for sing or scieng. (See supra, Bk. II. ch. xxv., note 1.) It is interesting to find Polo applying the term king to the viceroys who ruled the great provinces; Ibn Batuta uses a corresponding expression, sultán. It is not easy to make out the nine kingdoms or great provinces into which Polo considered Manzi to be divided. Perhaps his nine is after all merely a traditional number, for the “Nine Provinces” was an ancient synonym for China proper, just as Nau-Khanda, with like meaning, was an ancient name of India. (See Cathay, p. cxxxix. note; and Reinaud, Inde, p. 116.) But I observe that on the portage road between Chang-shan and Yuh-shan 200(infra, p. 222) there are stone pillars inscribed “Highway (from Che-kiang) to Eight Provinces,” thus indicating Nine. (Milne, p. 319.)

Note 11.—We have in Ramusio: “The men levied in the province of Manzi are not placed in garrison in their own cities, but sent to others at least 20 days’ journey from their homes; and there they serve for four or five years, after which they are relieved. This applies both to the Cathayans and to those of Manzi.

“The great bulk of the revenue of the cities, which enters the exchequer of the Great Kaan, is expended in maintaining these garrisons. And if perchance any city rebel (as you often find that under a kind of madness or intoxication they rise and murder their governors), as soon as it is known, the adjoining cities despatch such large forces from their garrisons that the rebellion is entirely crushed. For it would be too long an affair if troops from Cathay had to be waited for, involving perhaps a delay of two months.”

Note 12.—“The sons of the dead, wearing hempen clothes as badges of mourning, kneel down,” etc. (Doolittle, p. 138.)

Note 13.—These practices have been noticed, supra, Bk. I. ch. xl.

Note 14.—This custom has come down to modern times. In Pauthier’s Chine Moderne, we find extracts from the statutes of the reigning dynasty and the comments thereon, of which a passage runs thus: “To determine the exact population of each province the governor and the lieutenant-governor cause certain persons who are nominated as Pao-kia, or Tithing-Men, in all the places under their jurisdiction, to add up the figures inscribed on the wooden tickets attached to the doors of houses, and exhibiting the number of the inmates” (p. 167).

Friar Odoric calls the number of fires 89 tomans; but says 10 or 12 households would unite to have one fire only!

CHAPTER LXXVII.

[The position of the city is such that it has on one side a lake of fresh and exquisitely clear water (already spoken of), and on the other a very large river. The waters of the latter fill a number of canals of all sizes which run through the different quarters of the city, carry away all impurities, and then enter the Lake; whence they issue again and flow to the Ocean, thus producing a most excellent atmosphere. By means of these channels, as well as by the streets, you can go all about the city. Both streets and canals are so wide and spacious that carts on the one and boats on the other can 201readily pass to and fro, conveying necessary supplies to the inhabitants.{2}

At the opposite side the city is shut in by a channel, perhaps 40 miles in length, very wide, and full of water derived from the river aforesaid, which was made by the ancient kings of the country in order to relieve the river when flooding its banks. This serves also as a defence to the city, and the earth dug from it has been thrown inwards, forming a kind of mound enclosing the city.{3}

In this part are the ten principal markets, though besides these there are a vast number of others in the different parts of the town. The former are all squares of half a mile to the side, and along their front passes the main street, which is 40 paces in width, and runs straight from end to end of the city, crossing many bridges of easy and commodious approach. At every four miles of its length comes one of those great squares of 2 miles (as we have mentioned) in compass. So also parallel to this great street, but at the back of the market places, there runs a very large canal, on the bank of which towards the squares are built great houses of stone, in which the merchants from India and other foreign parts store their wares, to be handy for the markets. In each of the squares is held a market three days in the week, frequented by 40,000 or 50,000 persons, who bring thither for sale every possible necessary of life, so that there is always an ample supply of every kind of meat and game, as of roebuck, red-deer, fallow-deer, hares, rabbits, partridges, pheasants, francolins, quails, fowls, capons, and of ducks and geese an infinite quantity; for so many are bred on the Lake that for a Venice groat of silver you can have a couple of geese and two couple of ducks. Then there are the shambles where the larger animals are slaughtered, such as calves, beeves, kids, and 202lambs, the flesh of which is eaten by the rich and the great dignitaries.{4}

Those markets make a daily display of every kind of vegetables and fruits; and among the latter there are in particular certain pears of enormous size, weighing as much as ten pounds apiece, and the pulp of which is white and fragrant like a confection; besides peaches in their season both yellow and white, of every delicate flavour.{5}

Neither grapes nor wine are produced there, but very good raisins are brought from abroad, and wine likewise. The natives, however, do not much care about wine, being used to that kind of their own made from rice and spices. From the Ocean Sea also come daily supplies of fish in great quantity, brought 25 miles up the river, and there is also great store of fish from the lake, which is the constant resort of fishermen, who have no other business. Their fish is of sundry kinds, changing with the season; and, owing to the impurities of the city which pass into the lake, it is remarkably fat and savoury. Any one who should see the supply of fish in the market would suppose it impossible that such a quantity could ever be sold; and yet in a few hours the whole shall be cleared away; so great is the number of inhabitants who are accustomed to delicate living. Indeed they eat fish and flesh at the same meal.

All the ten market places are encompassed by lofty houses, and below these are shops where all sorts of crafts are carried on, and all sorts of wares are on sale, including spices and jewels and pearls. Some of these shops are entirely devoted to the sale of wine made from rice and spices, which is constantly made fresh and fresh, and is sold very cheap.

Certain of the streets are occupied by the women of the town, who are in such a number that I dare not say 203what it is. They are found not only in the vicinity of the market places, where usually a quarter is assigned to them, but all over the city. They exhibit themselves splendidly attired and abundantly perfumed, in finely garnished houses, with trains of waiting-women. These women are extremely accomplished in all the arts of allurement, and readily adapt their conversation to all sorts of persons, insomuch that strangers who have once tasted their attractions seem to get bewitched, and are so taken with their blandishments and their fascinating ways that they never can get these out of their heads. Hence it comes to pass that when they return home they say they have been to Kinsay or the City of Heaven, and their only desire is to get back thither as soon as possible.{6}

Other streets are occupied by the Physicians, and by the Astrologers, who are also teachers of reading and writing; and an infinity of other professions have their places round about those squares. In each of the squares there are two great palaces facing one another, in which are established the officers appointed by the King to decide differences arising between merchants, or other inhabitants of the quarter. It is the daily duty of these officers to see that the guards are at their posts on the neighbouring bridges, and to punish them at their discretion if they are absent.

All along the main street that we have spoken of, as running from end to end of the city, both sides are lined with houses and great palaces and the gardens pertaining to them, whilst in the intervals are the houses of tradesmen engaged in their different crafts. The crowd of people that you meet here at all hours, passing this way and that on their different errands, is so vast that no one would believe it possible that victuals enough could be provided for their consumption, unless they should see 204how, on every market-day, all those squares are thronged and crammed with purchasers, and with the traders who have brought in stores of provisions by land or water; and everything they bring in is disposed of.

To give you an example of the vast consumption in this city let us take the article of pepper; and that will enable you in some measure to estimate what must be the quantity of victual, such as meat, wine, groceries, which have to be provided for the general consumption. Now Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan’s officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lbs.{7}

The houses of the citizens are well built and elaborately finished; and the delight they take in decoration, in painting and in architecture, leads them to spend in this way sums of money that would astonish you.

The natives of the city are men of peaceful character, both from education and from the example of their kings, whose disposition was the same. They know nothing of handling arms, and keep none in their houses. You hear of no feuds or noisy quarrels or dissensions of any kind among them. Both in their commercial dealings and in their manufactures they are thoroughly honest and truthful, and there is such a degree of good will and neighbourly attachment among both men and women that you would take the people who live in the same street to be all one family.{8}

And this familiar intimacy is free from all jealousy or suspicion of the conduct of their women. These they treat with the greatest respect, and a man who should presume to make loose proposals to a married woman would be regarded as an infamous rascal. They also treat the foreigners who visit them for the sake of trade with great cordiality, and entertain them in the 205most winning manner, affording them every help and advice on their business. But on the other hand they hate to see soldiers, and not least those of the Great Kaan’s garrisons, regarding them as the cause of their having lost their native kings and lords.

On the Lake of which we have spoken there are numbers of boats and barges of all sizes for parties of pleasure. These will hold 10, 15, 20, or more persons, and are from 15 to 20 paces in length, with flat bottoms and ample breadth of beam, so that they always keep their trim. Any one who desires to go a-pleasuring with the women, or with a party of his own sex, hires one of these barges, which are always to be found completely furnished with tables and chairs and all the other apparatus for a feast. The roof forms a level deck, on which the crew stand, and pole the boat along whithersoever may be desired, for the Lake is not more than 2 paces in depth. The inside of this roof and the rest of the interior is covered with ornamental painting in gay colours, with windows all round that can be shut or opened, so that the party at table can enjoy all the beauty and variety of the prospects on both sides as they pass along. And truly a trip on this Lake is a much more charming recreation than can be enjoyed on land. For on the one side lies the city in its entire length, so that the spectators in the barges, from the distance at which they stand, take in the whole prospect in its full beauty and grandeur, with its numberless palaces, temples, monasteries, and gardens, full of lofty trees, sloping to the shore. And the Lake is never without a number of other such boats, laden with pleasure parties; for it is the great delight of the citizens here, after they have disposed of the day’s business, to pass the afternoon in enjoyment with the ladies of their families, or perhaps with others less reputable, either in these barges or in driving about the city in carriages.{9}

206

Of these latter we must also say something, for they afford one mode of recreation to the citizens in going about the town, as the boats afford another in going about the Lake. In the main street of the city you meet an infinite succession of these carriages passing to and fro. They are long covered vehicles, fitted with curtains and cushions, and affording room for six persons; and they are in constant request for ladies and gentlemen going on parties of pleasure. In these they drive to certain gardens, where they are entertained by the owners in pavilions erected on purpose, and there they divert themselves the livelong day, with their ladies, returning home in the evening in those same carriages.{10}