The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 78

King Haython (Brosset's ed. p. 181) mentions the statue in clay, of an extraordinary height, of a G.o.d (Buddha) aged 3040 years, who is to live 370,000 years more, when he will be superseded by another G.o.d called _Madri_ (Maitreya).--H. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Great Lama Monastery]

NOTE 3.--Marco is now speaking of the Lamas, or clergy of Tibetan Buddhism. The customs mentioned have varied in details, both locally and with the changes that the system has pa.s.sed through in the course of time.

The inst.i.tutes of ancient Buddhism set apart the days of new and full moon to be observed by the _Sramanas_ or monks, by fasting, confession, and listening to the reading of the law. It became usual for the laity to take part in the observance, and the number of days was increased to three and then to four, whilst Hiuen Tsang himself speaks of "the six fasts of every month," and a Chinese authority quoted by Julien gives the days as the 8th, 14th, 15th, 23rd, 29th, and 30th. Fabian says that in Ceylon preaching took place on the 8th, 14th, and 15th days of the month. Four is the number now most general amongst Buddhist nations, and the days may be regarded as a kind of Buddhist Sabbath. In the southern countries and in Nepal they occur at the moon's changes. In Tibet and among the Mongol Buddhists they are not at equal intervals, though I find the actual days differently stated by different authorities. Pallas says the Mongols observed the 13th, 14th, and 15th, the three days being brought together, he thought, on account of the distance many Lamas had to travel to the temple--just as in some Scotch country parishes they used to give two sermons in one service for like reason! Koeppen, to whose work this note is much indebted, says the Tibetan days are the 14th, 15th, 29th, 30th, and adds as to the manner of observance: "On these days, by rule, among the Lamas, nothing should be tasted but farinaceous food and tea; the very devout refrain from all food from sunrise to sunset. The Temples are decorated, and the altar tables set out with the holy symbols, with tapers, and with dishes containing offerings in corn, meal, tea, b.u.t.ter, etc., and especially with small pyramids of dough, or of rice or clay, and accompanied by much burning of incense-sticks. The service performed by the priests is more solemn, the music louder and more exciting, than usual. The laity make their offerings, tell their beads, and repeat _Om mani padma hom_," etc. In the _concordat_ that took place between the Dalai-Lama and the Altun Khaghan, on the reconversion of the Mongols to Buddhism in the 16th century, one of the articles was the entire prohibition of hunting and the slaughter of animals on the monthly fast days. The practice varies much, however, even in Tibet, with different provinces and sects--a variation which the Ramusian text of Polo implies in these words: "For five days, or _four days_, or _three_ in each month, they shed no blood," etc.

In Burma the Wors.h.i.+p Day, as it is usually called by Europeans, is a very gay scene, the women flocking to the paG.o.das in their brightest attire.

(_H. T. Memoires_, I. 6, 208; _Koeppen_, I. 563-564, II. 139, 307-308; _Pallas, Samml._ II. 168-169).

NOTE 4.--These matrimonial customs are the same that are afterwards ascribed to the Tartars, so we defer remark.

NOTE 5.--So Pauthier's text, "_en legation_." The G. Text includes Nicolo Polo, and says, "on business of theirs that is not worth mentioning," and with this Ramusio agrees.

CHAPTER XLV.

OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.

When you leave the city of Campichu you ride for twelve days, and then reach a city called ETZINA, which is towards the north on the verge of the Sandy Desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut.[NOTE 1] The people are Idolaters, and possess plenty of camels and cattle, and the country produces a number of good falcons, both Sakers and Lanners. The inhabitants live by their cultivation and their cattle, for they have no trade. At this city you must needs lay in victuals for forty days, because when you quit Etzina, you enter on a desert which extends forty days'

journey to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor baiting-place.[NOTE 2] In the summer-time, indeed, you will fall in with people, but in the winter the cold is too great. You also meet with wild beasts (for there are some small pine-woods here and there), and with numbers of wild a.s.ses.[NOTE 3] When you have travelled these forty days across the Desert you come to a certain province lying to the north. Its name you shall hear presently.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wild a.s.s of Mongolia.]

NOTE 1.--Deguignes says that YETSINA is found in a Chinese Map of Tartary of the Mongol era, and this is confirmed by Pauthier, who reads it _Itsinai_, and adds that the text of the Map names it as one of the seven _Lu_ or Circuits of the Province of Kansuh (or Tangut). Indeed, in D'Anville's Atlas we find a river called _Etsina Pira_, running northward from Kanchau, and a little below the 41st parallel joining another from Suhchau. Beyond the junction is a town called _Hoa-tsiang_, which probably represents Etzina. Yetsina is also mentioned in Gaubil's History of Chinghiz as taken by that conqueror in 1226, on his last campaign against Tangut. This capture would also seem from Petis de la Croix to be mentioned by Ras.h.i.+duddin. Gaubil says the Chinese Geography places Yetsina north of Kanchau and north-east of Suhchau, at a distance of 120 leagues from Kanchau, but observes that this is certainly too great. (_Gaubil_, p.

49.)

[I believe there can be no doubt that Etzina must be looked for on the river _Hei-shui_, called _Etsina_ by the Mongols, east of Suhchau. This river empties its waters into the two lakes Soho-omo and Sopo-omo. Etzina would have been therefore situated on the river on the border of the Desert, at the top of a triangle whose bases would be Suhchau and Kanchau.

This river was once part of the frontier of the kingdom of Tangut. (Cf.

_Deveria, Notes d'epigraphie mongolo-chinoise_, p. 4.) Reclus (_Geog.

Univ., Asie Orientale_, p. 159) says: "To the east [of Hami], beyond the Chukur Gobi, are to be found also some permanent villages and the remains of cities. One of them is perhaps the 'cite d'Etzina' of which Marco Polo speaks, and the name is to be found in that of the river Az-sind."

"Through Kanchau was the shortest, and most direct and convenient road to _I-tsi-nay_.... I-tsi-nay, or _Echine_, is properly the name of a lake.

Khubila, disquieted by his factious relatives on the north, established a military post near lake I-tsi-nay, and built a town, or a fort on the south-western sh.o.r.e of this lake. The name of I-tsi-nay appears from that time; it does not occur in the chronicle of the Tangut kingdom; the lake had then another name. Vestiges of the town are seen to this day; the buildings were of large dimensions, and some of them were very fine. In Marco Polo's time there existed a direct route from I-tsi-nay to Karakorum; traces of this road are still noticeable, but it is no more used. This circ.u.mstance, i.e. the existence of a road from I-tsi-nay to Karakorum, probably led Marco Polo to make an excursion (a mental one, I suppose) to the residence of the Khans in Northern Mongolia."

(_Palladius_, l.c. pp. 10-11.)--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--"_Erberge_" (G. T.). Pauthier has _Herbage_.

NOTE 3.--The Wild a.s.s of Mongolia is the _Ds.h.i.+ggetai_ of Pallas (_Asinus hemionus_ of Gray), and identical with the Tibetan _Kyang_ of Moorcroft and Trans-Himalayan sportsmen. It differs, according to Blyth, only in shades of colour and unimportant markings from the _Ghor Khar_ of Western India and the Persian Deserts, the _Kulan_ of Turkestan, which Marco has spoken of in a previous pa.s.sage (_supra_, ch. xvi.; _J. A. S. B._ XXVIII.

229 seqq.). There is a fine Kyang in the Zoological Gardens, whose portrait, after Wolf, is given here. But Mr. Ney Elias says of this animal that he has little of the aspect of his nomadic brethren. [The wild a.s.s (Tibetan _Kyang_, Mongol _Holu_ or _Hulan_) is called by the Chinese _yeh ma_, "wild horse," though "every one admits that it is an a.s.s, and should be called _yeh lo-tzu_." (_Rockhill, Land of the Lamas_, 151, note.)--H.

C.]

[Captain Younghusband (1886) saw in the Alta Mountains "considerable numbers of wild a.s.ses, which appeared to be perfectly similar to the Kyang of Ladak and Tibet, and wild horses too--the _Equus Prejevalskii_--roaming about these great open plains." (_Proc. R. G. S._ X. 1888, p. 495.) Dr.

Sven Hedin says the _habitat_ of the _Kulan_ is the heights of Tibet as well as the valley of the Tarim; it looks like a mule with the mane and tail of an a.s.s, but shorter ears, longer than those of a horse; he gives a picture of it.--H. C.]

CHAPTER XLVI.

OF THE CITY OF CARACORON.

Caracoron is a city of some three miles in compa.s.s. [It is surrounded by a strong earthen rampart, for stone is scarce there. And beside it there is a great citadel wherein is a fine palace in which the Governor resides.]

'Tis the first city that the Tartars possessed after they issued from their own country. And now I will tell you all about how they first acquired dominion and spread over the world.[NOTE 1]

Originally the Tartars[NOTE 2] dwelt in the north on the borders of CHORCHA.[NOTE 3] Their country was one of great plains; and there were no towns or villages in it, but excellent pasture-lands, with great rivers and many sheets of water; in fact it was a very fine and extensive region.

But there was no sovereign in the land. They did, however, pay tax and tribute to a great prince who was called in their tongue UNC CAN, the same that we call Prester John, him in fact about whose great dominion all the world talks.[NOTE 4] The tribute he had of them was one beast out of every ten, and also a t.i.the of all their other gear.

Now it came to pa.s.s that the Tartars multiplied exceedingly. And when Prester John saw how great a people they had become, he began to fear that he should have trouble from them. So he made a scheme to distribute them over sundry countries, and sent one of his Barons to carry this out. When the Tartars became aware of this they took it much amiss, and with one consent they left their country and went off across a desert to a distant region towards the north, where Prester John could not get at them to annoy them. Thus they revolted from his authority and paid him tribute no longer. And so things continued for a time.

NOTE 1.--KARaKORUM, near the upper course of the River Orkhon, is said by Chinese authors to have been founded by Buku Khan of the Hoei-Hu or Uigurs, in the 8th century, In the days of Chinghiz, we are told that it was the headquarters of his ally, and afterwards enemy, Togrul w.a.n.g Khan, the Prester John of Polo. ["The name of this famous city is Mongol, _Kara_, 'black,' and _Kuren_, 'a camp,' or properly 'pailing.'" It was founded in 1235 by Okkodai, who called it Ordu Balik, or "the City of the Ordu," otherwise "The Royal City." Mohammedan authors say it took its name of Karakorum from the mountains to the south of it, in which the Orkhon had its source. (_D'Ohsson_, ii. 64.) The Chinese mention a range of mountains from which the Orkhon flows, called _Wu-te kien shan_. (_T'ang shu_, bk. 43b.) Probably these are the same. Ras.h.i.+duddin speaks of a tribe of Utikien Uigurs living in this country. (_Bretschneider, Med. Geog._ 191; _D'Ohsson_, i. 437. _Rockhill, Rubruck_, 220, note.)--Karakorum was called by the Chinese _Ho-lin_ and was chosen by Chinghiz, in 1206, as his capital; the full name of it, _Ha-la Ho-lin_, was derived from a river to the west. (_Yuen s.h.i.+_, ch. lviii.) Gaubil (_Holin_, p. 10) says that the river, called in his days in Tartar _Karoha_, was, at the time of the Mongol Emperors, named by the Chinese _Ha-la Ho-lin_, in Tartar language _Ka la Ko lin_, or _Cara korin_, or _Kara Koran_. In the spring of 1235, Okkodai had a wall raised round Ho-lin and a palace called _w.a.n.g an_, built inside the city. (_Gaubil, Gentchiscan_, 89.) After the death of Kublai, _Ho-lin_ was altered into _Ho-Ning_, and, in 1320, the name of the province was changed into _Ling-pe_ (mountainous north, i.e. the _Yin-shan_ chain, separating China Proper from Mongolia). In 1256, Mangu Kaan decided to transfer the seat of government to Kaiping-fu, or Shangtu, near the present Dolonnor, north of Peking. (_Supra_ in Prologue, ch. xiii.

note 1.) In 1260, Kublai transferred his capital to _Ta-Tu_ (Peking).

Plano Carpini (1246) is the first Western traveller to mention it by name which he writes _Caracoron_; he visited the Sira Orda, at half a day's journey from Karakorum, where Okkodai used to pa.s.s the summer; it was situated at a place Ormektua. (_Rockhill, Rubruck_, 21, III.) Rubruquis (1253) visited the city itself; the following is his account of it: "As regards the city of Caracoron, you must understand that if you set aside the Kaan's own Palace, it is not as good as the Borough of St. Denis; and as for the Palace, the Abbey of St. Denis is worth ten of it! There are two streets in the town; one of which is occupied by the Saracens, and in that is the marketplace. The other street is occupied by the Cathayans, who are all craftsmen. Besides these two streets there are some great palaces occupied by the court secretaries. There are also twelve idol temples belonging to different nations, two Mahummeries in which the Law of Mahomet is preached, and one church of the Christians at the extremity of the town. The town is enclosed by a mud-wall and has four gates. At the east gate they sell millet and other corn, but the supply is scanty; at the west gate they sell rams and goats; at the south gate oxen and waggons; at the north gate horses.... Mangu Kaan has a great Court beside the Town Rampart, which is enclosed by a brick wall, just like our priories. Inside there is a big palace, within which he holds a drinking-bout twice a year;... there are also a number of long buildings like granges, in which are kept his treasures and his stores of victual"

(345-6; 334).

Where was Karakorum situated?

The Archimandrite Palladius is very prudent (l.c. p. 11): "Everything that the studious Chinese authors could gather and say of the situation of Karakhorum is collected in two Chinese works, _Lo fung low wen kao_ (1849), and _Mungku yew mu ki_ (1859). However, no positive conclusion can be derived from these researches, chiefly in consequence of the absence of a tolerably correct map of Northern Mongolia."

Abel Remusat (_Mem. sur Geog. Asie Centrale_, p. 20) made a confusion between Karabalgasun and Karakorum which has misled most writers after him.

Sir Henry Yule says: "The evidence adduced in Abel Remusat's paper on Karakorum (_Mem. de l' Acad. R. des Insc._ VII. 288) establishes the site on the north bank of the Orkhon, and about five days' journey above the confluence of the Orkhon and Tula. But as we have only a very loose knowledge of these rivers, it is impossible to a.s.sign the geographical position with accuracy. Nor is it likely that ruins exist beyond an outline perhaps of the Kaan's Palace walls."

In the _Geographical Magazine_ for July, 1874 (p. 137), Sir Henry Yule has been enabled, by the kind aid of Madame Fedtchenko in supplying a translation from the Russian, to give some account of Mr. Paderin's visit to the place, in the summer of 1873, along with a sketch-map.

"The site visited by Mr. Paderin is shown, by the particulars stated in that paper, to be sufficiently identified with Karakorum. It is precisely that which Remusat indicated, and which bears in the Jesuit maps, as published by D'Anville, the name of _Talarho Hara Palha.s.soun_ (i.e. Kara Balghasun), standing 4 or 5 miles from the left bank of the Orkhon, in lat. (by the Jesuit Tables) 47 32' 24". It is now known as Kara-Kharam (Rampart) or Kara Balghasun (city). The remains consist of a quadrangular rampart of mud and sun-dried brick, of about 500 paces to the side, and now about 9 feet high, with traces of a higher tower, and of an inner rampart parallel to the other. But these remains probably appertain to the city as re-occupied by the descendants of the Yuen in the end of the 14th century, after their expulsion from China."

Dr. Bretschneider (_Med. Res._ I. p. 123) rightly observes: "It seems, however, that Paderin is mistaken in his supposition. At least it does not agree with the position a.s.signed to the ancient Mongol residence in the Mongol annals _Erdenin erikhe_, translated into Russian, in 1883, by Professor Pozdneiev. It is there positively stated (p. 110, note 2) that the monastery of _Erdenidsu_, founded in 1585, was erected on the ruins of that city, which once had been built by order of Ogotai Khan, and where he had established his residence; and where, after the expulsion of the Mongols from China, Togontemur again had fixed the Mongol court. This vast monastery still exists, one English mile, or more, east of the Orkhon. It has even been astronomically determined by the Jesuit missionaries, and is marked on our maps of Mongolia. Pozdneiev, who visited the place in 1877, obligingly informs me that the square earthen wall surrounding the monastery of Erdenidsu, and measuring about an English mile in circ.u.mference, may well be the very wall of ancient Karakorum."

Recent researches have fully confirmed the belief that the Erdeni Tso, or Eideni Chao, Monastery occupies the site of Karakorum, near the bank of the Orkhon, between this river and the Kokchin (old) Orkhon. (See map in _Inscriptions de l'Orkhon_, Helsingfors, 1892; a plan of the vicinity and of the Erdeni Tso is given (plate 36) in _W. Radloff's Atlas der Alterthumer der Mongolei_, St. Pet., 1892.)

[Ill.u.s.tration]

According to a work of the 13th century quoted by the late Professor G.

Deveria, the distance between the old capital of the Uighur, Kara Balgasun, on the left bank of the Orkhon, north of Erdeni Tso, and the Ho-lin or Karakorum of the Mongols, would be 70 _li_ (about 30 miles), and such is the s.p.a.ce between Erdeni Tso and Kara Balgasun. M. Marcel Monnier (_Itineraires_, p. 107) estimates the bird's-eye distance from Erdeni Tso to Kara Balgasun at 33 kilom. (about 20-1/2 miles). "When the brilliant epoch of the power of the Chinghizkhanides," says Professor Axel Heikel, "was at an end, the city of Karakorum fell into oblivion, and towards the year 1590 was founded, in the centre of this historically celebrated region of the Orkhon, the most ancient of Buddhist monasteries of Mongolia, this of Erdeni Tso [Erdeni Chao]. It was built, according to a Mongol chronicle, on the ruins of the town built by Okkoda, son of Chinghiz Khan, that is to say, on the ancient Karakorum. (_Inscriptions de l'Orkhon_.)" So Professor Heikel, like Professor Pozdneiev, concludes that Erdeni Tso was built on the site of Karakorum and cannot be mistaken for Karabalgasun. Indeed it is highly probable that one of the walls of the actual convent belonged to the old Mongol capital. The travels and researches by expeditions from Finland and Russia have made these questions pretty clear. Some most interesting inscriptions have been brought home and have been studied by a number of Orientalists: G.

Schlegel, O. Donner, G. Deveria, Vasiliev, G. von der Gabelentz, Dr.

Hirth, G. Huth, E. H. Parker, W. Bang, etc., and especially Professor Vilh. Thomsen, of Copenhagen, who deciphered them (_Dechiffrement des Inscriptions de l'Orkhon et de l'Ienissei, Copenhague_, 1894, 8vo; _Inscriptions de l'Orkhon dechiffrees, par_ V. Thomsen, Helsingfors, 1894, 8vo), and Professor W. Radloff of St. Petersburg (_Atlas der Alterthumer der Mongolei_, 1892-6, fol.; _Die altturkischen Inschriften der Mongolei_, 1894-7, etc.). There is an immense literature on these inscriptions, and for the bibliography, I must refer the reader to _H. Cordier, Etudes Chinoises_ (1891-1894), Leide, 1895, Id. (1895-1898), Leide, 1898, 8vo.

The initiator of these discoveries was N. Iarindsev, of Irkutsk, who died at Barnaoul in 1894, and the first great expedition was started from Finland in 1890, under the guidance of Professor Axel Heikel.

(_Inscriptions de l'Orkhon recueillies par l'expedition finnoise, 1890, et publiees par la Societe Finno-Ougrienne_, Helsingfors, 1892, fol.) The Russian expedition left the following year, 1891, under the direction of the Academician W. Radloff.

M. Chaffanjon (_Nouv. Archiv. des Missions Scient._ IX., 1899, p. 81), in 1895, does not appear to know that there is a difference between Kara Korum and Kara Balgasun, as he writes: "Forty kilometres south of Kara Korum _or_ Kara Balgasun, the convent of Erdin Zoun."