The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 92

(_Hodgson_, in _J. R. A. S._ XVIII. 396 seqq.; _Ann. de la Prop, de la Foi_, x.x.xVI. 301-302, 424-427; _E. Schlagintweit, Ueber die Bon-pa Sekte in Tibet_, in the _Sitzensberichte_ of the Munich Acad. for 1866, Heft I.

pp. 1-12; _Koeppen_, II. 260; _Ladak_, p. 358; _J. As._ ser. II. tom. i.

411-412; _Remusat. Nouv. Mel. Asiat._ I. 112; _Astley_, IV. 205; _Doolittle_, 191.)

NOTE 18.--Pauthier's text has _blons_, no doubt an error for _blous_. In the G. Text it is _bloies_. Pauthier interprets the latter term as "blond ardent," whilst the glossary to the G. Text explains it as both _blue_ and _white_. _Raynouard's Romance Dict._ explains _Bloi_ as "Blond." Ramusio has _biave_, and I have no doubt that _blue_ is the meaning. The same word (_bloie_) is used in the G. Text, where Polo speaks of the bright colours of the Palace tiles at Cambaluc, and where Pauthier's text has "_vermeil et jaune et vert_ et blou," and again (infra, Bk. II. ch. xix.), where the two corps of huntsmen are said to be clad respectively in _vermeil_ and in _bloie_. Here, again, Pauthier's text has _bleu_. The Crusca in the description of the _Sensin_ omits the colours altogether; in the two other pa.s.sages referred to it has _bioda, biodo_.

["The Tao-sze, says Marco Polo, wear dresses of black and blue linen; i.e.

they wear dresses made of tatters of black and blue linen, as can be seen also at the present day." (_Palladius_, 30.)--H. C.]

NOTE 19.--["The idols of the Tao-sze, according to Marco Polo's statement, have female names; in fact, there are in the pantheon of Taoism a great many female divinities, still enjoying popular veneration in China; such are _Tow Mu_ (the 'Ursa major,' constellation), _Pi-hia-yuen Kiun_ (the celestial queen), female divinities for lying-in women, for children, for diseases of the eyes; and others, which are to be seen everywhere. The Tao-sze have, besides these, a good number of male divinities, bearing the t.i.tle of _Kiun_ in common with female divinities; both these circ.u.mstances might have led Marco Polo to make the above statement." (_Palladius_, p.

30.)--H. C.]

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

Bush.e.l.l's paper quoted below. But there is a serious discrepancy between this tracing and the observed position of Dolon-nor, which determines that of Shang-tu, as stated to me in a letter from Dr.

Bush.e.l.l. [See Note 1.]

[2] These particulars were obtained by Dr. Bush.e.l.l through the Archimandrite Palladius, from the MS. account of a Chinese traveller who visited Shangtu about two hundred years ago, when probably the whole inscription was above ground. The inscription is also mentioned in the Imp. Geography of the present Dynasty, quoted by Klaproth. This work gives the interior wall 5 _li_ to the side, instead of a _li_, and the outer wall 10 _li_, instead of 4 _li_. By Dr. Bush.e.l.l's kindness, I give a reduction of his sketch plan (see _Itinerary Map_, No. IV. at end of this volume), and also a plate of the heading of the inscription. The translation of this is: "Monument conferred by the Emperor of the August Yuen (Dynasty) in memory of His High Eminence Yun Hien (styled) Chang-Lao (canonised as) Shou-Kung (Prince of Longevity)." [See _Missions de Chine et du Congo_ No. 28, Mars, 1891, Bruxelles.]

[3] Ramusio's version runs thus: "The palace presents one side to the centre of the city and the other to the city wall. And from either extremity of the palace where it touches the city wall, there runs another wall, which fetches a compa.s.s and encloses a good 16 miles of plain, and so that no one can enter this enclosure except by pa.s.sing through the palace."

[4] This narrative, translated from Chinese into Russian by Father Palladius, and from the Russian into English by Mr. Eugene Schuyler, Secretary of the U.S. Legation at St. Petersburg, was obligingly sent to me by the latter gentleman, and appeared in the _Geographical Magazine_ for January, 1875, p. 7.

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

[6] In the first edition I had supposed a derivation of the Persian words _Jadu_ and _Jadugari_, used commonly in India for conjuring, from the Tartar use of _Yadah_. And Pallas says the Kirghiz call their witches _Jadugar_. (_Voy._ II. 298.) But I am a.s.sured by Sir H. Rawlinson that this etymology is more than doubtful, and that at any rate the Persian (_Jadu_) is probably older than the Turkish term. I see that M. Pavet de Courteille derives _Yadah_ from a Mongol word signifying "change of weather," etc.

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

[8] A young Afghan related in the presence of Arthur Conolly at Herat that on a certain occasion when provisions ran short the Russian General gave orders that 50,000 men should be killed and served out as rations! (I. 346.)

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

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

[11] _Shen_, or coupled with _jin_ "people," _Shenjin_, in this sense affords another possible origin of the word _Sensin_; but it may in fact be at bottom, as regards the first syllable, the same with the etymology we have preferred.

[12] I do not find this allusion in Mr. Beal's new version of Fahian. [See Remusat's ed. p. 227; Klaproth says (Ibid. p. 230) that the _Tao-szu_ are called in Tibetan _Bonb_ and Youngdhroungpa.--H. C.]

[13] Apparently they had at their command the whole encyclopaedia of modern "Spiritualists." Duhalde mentions among their sorceries the art of producing by their invocations the figures of Lao-tseu and their divinities in the air, and of _making a pencil to write answers to questions without anybody touching it_.

[14] It is possible that this may point to some report of the mystic impurities of the Tantrists. The _Saktian_, or Tantrists, according to the Dabistan, hold that the wors.h.i.+p of a female divinity affords a greater recompense. (II. 155.)

BOOK SECOND.

(1.) ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT KAAN CUBLAY; OF HIS PALACES AND CAPITAL; HIS COURT, GOVERNMENT, AND SPORTS.

(2.) CITIES AND PROVINCES VISITED BY THE TRAVELLER ON ONE JOURNEY WESTWARD FROM THE CAPITAL TO THE FRONTIERS OF MIEN IN THE DIRECTION OF INDIA.

(3.) AND ON ANOTHER SOUTHWARD FROM THE CAPITAL TO FUCHU AND ZAYTON.

BOOK II.

PART I.--THE KAAN, HIS COURT AND CAPITAL.

CHAPTER I.

OF CUBLAY KAAN, THE GREAT KAAN NOW REIGNING, AND OF HIS GREAT PUISSANCE.

Now am I come to that part of our Book in which I shall tell you of the great and wonderful magnificence of the Great Kaan now reigning, by name CUBLAY KAAN; _Kaan_ being a t.i.tle which signifyeth "The Great Lord of Lords," or Emperor. And of a surety he hath good right to such a t.i.tle, for all men know for a certain truth that he is the most potent man, as regards forces and lands and treasure, that existeth in the world, or ever hath existed from the time of our First Father Adam until this day. All this I will make clear to you for truth, in this book of ours, so that every one shall be fain to acknowledge that he is the greatest Lord that is now in the world, or ever hath been. And now ye shall hear how and wherefore.[NOTE 1]

NOTE 1.--According to Sanang Setzen, Chinghiz himself discerned young Kublai's superiority. On his deathbed he said: "The words of the lad Kublai are well worth attention; see, all of you, that ye heed what he says! One day he will sit in my seat and bring you good fortune such as you have had in my day!" (p. 105).

The Persian history of Wa.s.saf thus exalts Kublai: "Although from the frontiers of this country ('Irak) to the Centre of Empire, the Focus of the Universe, the genial abode of the ever-Fortunate Emperor and Just Kaan, is a whole year's journey, yet the stories that have been spread abroad, even in these parts, of his glorious deeds, his inst.i.tutes, his decisions, his justice, the largeness and acuteness of his intellect, his correctness of judgment, his great powers of administration, from the mouths of credible witnesses, of well-known merchants and eminent travellers, are so surpa.s.sing, that one beam of his glories, one fraction of his great qualities, suffices to eclipse all that history tells of the Caesars of Rome, of the Chosroes of Persia, of the Khagans of China, of the (Himyarite) Kails of Arabia, of the Tobbas of Yemen, and the Rajas of India, of the monarchs of the houses of Sa.s.san and Buya, and of the Seljukian Sultans." (_Hammer's Wa.s.saf_, orig. p. 37.)

Some remarks on Kublai and his government by a Chinese author, in a more rational and discriminative tone, will be found below under ch. xxiii., note 2.

A curious Low-German MS. at Cologne, giving an account of the East, says of the "Keyser von Kathagien--syn recht Name is der groisse _Hunt!_"

(Magnus Canis, the Big Bow-wow as it were. See _Orient und Occident_, vol.

i. p. 640.)

CHAPTER II.

CONCERNING THE REVOLT OF NAYAN, WHO WAS UNCLE TO THE GREAT KAAN CUBLAY.

Now this Cublay Kaan is of the right Imperial lineage, being descended from Chinghis Kaan, the first sovereign of all the Tartars. And he is the sixth Lord in that succession, as I have already told you in this book. He came to the throne in the year of Christ, 1256, and the Empire fell to him because of his ability and valour and great worth, as was right and reason.[NOTE 1] His brothers, indeed, and other kinsmen disputed his claim, but his it remained, both because maintained by his great valour, and because it was in law and right his, as being directly sprung of the imperial line.