The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 96

NOTE 3.--_Umbrella_. The phrase in Pauthier's text is "_Palieque que on dit_ ombrel." The Latin text of the Soc. de Geographie has "_unum pallium_ de auro," which I have adopted as probably correct, looking to Burma, where the old etiquettes as to umbrellas are in full force. These etiquettes were probably in both countries of old Hindu origin. _Pallium_, according to Muratori, was applied in the Middle Ages to a kind of square umbrella, by which is probably meant rather a canopy on four staves, which was sometimes a.s.signed by authority as an honourable privilege.

But the genuine umbrella would seem to have been used also, for Polo's contemporary, Martino da Ca.n.a.le, says that, when the Doge goes forth of his palace, "_si vait apres lui un damoiseau qui porte une umbrele de dras a or sur son chief_," which umbrella had been given by "_Monseigneur l'Apostoille_." There is a picture by Girolamo Gambarota, in the Sala del Gran Consiglio, at Venice, which represents the invest.i.ture of the Doge with the umbrella by Pope Alexander III., and Frederick Barbarossa (concerning which see _Sanuto_ Junior, in _Muratori_, XXII. 512).

The word _Parasol_ also occurs in the Petrarchian vocabulary, (14th century) as the equivalent of _saioual_ (Pers. _sayaban_ or _saiwan_, an umbrella). Carpini notices that umbrellas (_solinum vel tentoriolum in hasta_) were carried over the Tartar n.o.bles and their wives, even on horseback; and a splendid one, covered with jewels, was one of the presents made to Kuyuk Kaan on his enthronement.

With respect to the honorary character attaching to umbrellas in China, I may notice that recently an English resident of Ningpo, on his departure for Europe, was presented by the Chinese citizens, as a token of honour, with a pair of _Wan min san_, umbrellas of enormous size.

The umbrella must have gone through some curious vicissitudes; for at one time we find it familiar, at a later date apparently unknown, and then reintroduced as some strange novelty. Arrian speaks of the [Greek: skiadia], or umbrellas, as used by all Indians of any consideration; but the thing of which he spoke was familiar to the use of Greek and Roman ladies, and many examples of it, borne by slaves behind their mistresses, are found on ancient vase-paintings. Athenaeus quotes from Anacreon the description of a "beggar on horseback" who

"like a woman bears An ivory parasol over his delicate head."

An Indian prince, in a Sanskrit inscription of the 9th century, boasts of having wrested from the King of Marwar the two umbrellas pleasing to Parvati, and white as the summer moonbeams. Prithi Raj, the last Hindu king of Delhi, is depicted by the poet Chand as shaded by a white umbrella on a golden staff. An unmistakable umbrella, copied from a Saxon MS. in the Harleian collection, is engraved in _Wright's History of Domestic Manners_, p. 75. The fact that the gold umbrella is one of the paraphernalia of high church dignitaries in Italy seems to presume acquaintance with the thing from a remote period. A decorated umbrella also accompanies the host when sent out to the sick, at least where I write, in Palermo. Ibn Batuta says that in his time all the people of Constantinople, civil and military, great and small, carried great umbrellas over their heads, summer and winter. Ducange quotes, from a MS.

of the Paris Library, the Byzantine court regulations about umbrellas, which are of the genuine Pan-Asiatic spirit;--[Greek: skiadia chrysokokkina] extend from the Hypersebastus to the grand Stratopedarchus, and so on; exactly as used to be the case, with different t.i.tles, in Java.

And yet it is curious that John Marignolli, Ibn Batuta's contemporary in the middle of the 14th century, and Barbosa in the 16th century, are alike at pains to describe the umbrella as some strange object. And in our own country it is commonly stated that the umbrella was first used in the last century, and that Jonas Hanway (died 1786) was one of the first persons who made a practice of carrying one. The word _umbrello_ is, however, in Minsheu's dictionary. [See _Hobson-Jobson_, s.v. _Umbrella_.--H. C.]

(_Murat. Dissert._ II. 229; _Archiv. Storic. Ital._ VIII. 274, 560; _Klapr. Mem._ III.; _Carp._ 759; _N. and Q., C. and J._ II. 180; _Arrian, Indica_, XVI.; _Smith's Dict., G. and R. Ant._, s. v. _umbraculum_; _J. R.

A. S._ v. 351; _Ras Mala_, I. 221; _I. B._ II. 440; _Cathay_, 381; _Ramus._ I. f. 301.)

Alexander, according to Athenaeus, feasted his captains to the number of 6000, and made them all sit upon silver chairs. The same author relates that the King of Persia, among other rich presents, bestowed upon Entimus the Gortynian, who went up to the king in imitation of Themistocles, _a silver chair and a gilt umbrella_. (Bk. I. Epit. ch. 31, and II. 31.)

The silver chair has come down to our own day in India, and is much affected by native princes.

NOTE 4.--I have not been able to find any allusion, except in our author, to tablets, with gerfalcons (_shonkar_). The _shonkar_ appears, however, according to Erdmann, on certain coins of the Golden Horde, struck at Sarai.

There is a pa.s.sage from Wa.s.saf used by Hammer, in whose words it runs that the Sayad Imamuddin, appointed (A.D. 683) governor of s.h.i.+raz by Arghun Khan, "was invested with _both_ the Mongol symbols of delegated sovereignty, the Golden Lion's Head, and the golden _Cat's Head_." It would certainly have been more satisfactory to find "Gerfalcon's Head" in lieu of the latter; but it is probable that the same object is meant. The cut below exhibits the conventional effigy of a gerfalcon as sculptured over one of the gates of Iconium, Polo's Conia. The head might easily pa.s.s for a conventional representation of a cat's head, and is indeed strikingly like the grotesque representation that bears that name in mediaeval architecture. (_Erdmann, Numi Asiatici_, I. 339; _Ilch._ I.

370.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sculptured Gerfalcon. (From the Gate of Iconium.)]

[1] "In anno Simiae, octava luna, die quarto exeunte, juxta fluvium Cobam (_the Kuban_), apud Ripam Rubeam existentes scripsimus." The original was in _lingua Persayca_.

[2] See _Golden Horde_, p. 218.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONCERNING THE PERSON OF THE GREAT KAAN.

The personal appearance of the Great Kaan, Lord of Lords, whose name is Cublay, is such as I shall now tell you. He is of a good stature, neither tall nor short, but of a middle height. He has a becoming amount of flesh, and is very shapely in all his limbs. His complexion is white and red, the eyes black and fine,[NOTE 1] the nose well formed and well set on. He has four wives, whom he retains permanently as his legitimate consorts; and the eldest of his sons by those four wives ought by rights to be emperor;--I mean when his father dies. Those four ladies are called empresses, but each is distinguished also by her proper name. And each of them has a special court of her own, very grand and ample; no one of them having fewer than 300 fair and charming damsels. They have also many pages and eunuchs, and a number of other attendants of both s.e.xes; so that each of these ladies has not less than 10,000 persons attached to her court.[NOTE 2]

When the Emperor desires the society of one of these four consorts, he will sometimes send for the lady to his apartment and sometimes visit her at her own. He has also a great number of concubines, and I will tell you how he obtains them.

You must know that there is a tribe of Tartars called UNGRAT, who are noted for their beauty. Now every year an hundred of the most beautiful maidens of this tribe are sent to the Great Kaan, who commits them to the charge of certain elderly ladies dwelling in his palace. And these old ladies make the girls sleep with them, in order to ascertain if they have sweet breath [and do not snore], and are sound in all their limbs. Then such of them as are of approved beauty, and are good and sound in all respects, are appointed to attend on the Emperor by turns. Thus six of these damsels take their turn for three days and nights, and wait on him when he is in his chamber and when he is in his bed, to serve him in any way, and to be entirely at his orders. At the end of the three days and nights they are relieved by other six. And so throughout the year, there are reliefs of maidens by six and six, changing every three days and nights.[NOTE 3]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait of Kublai Kaan. (From a Chinese Engraving.)]

NOTE 1.--We are left in some doubt as to the colour of Kublai's eyes, for some of the MSS. read _vairs_ and _voirs_, and others _noirs_. The former is a very common epithet for eyes in the mediaeval romances. And in the ballad on the death of St. Lewis, we are told of his son Tristram:--

"Droiz fu comme un rosel, _iex vairs comme faucon_, Des le tens Moysel ne nasqui sa facon."

The word has generally been interpreted _bluish-grey_, but in the pa.s.sage just quoted, Fr.-Michel explains it by _brillans_. However, the evidence for _noirs_ here seems strongest. Ras.h.i.+duddin says that when Kublai was born Chinghiz expressed surprise at the child's being so _brown_, as its father and all his other sons were fair. Indeed, we are told that the descendants of Yesugai (the father of Chinghiz) were in general distinguished by blue eyes and reddish hair. (_Michel's Joinville_, p.

324; _D'Ohsson_, II. 475; _Erdmann_, 252.)

NOTE 2.--According to Hammer's authority (Ras.h.i.+d?) Kublai had _seven_ wives; Gaubil's Chinese sources a.s.sign him _five_, with the t.i.tle of empress (_Hw.a.n.g-heu_). Of these the best beloved was the beautiful Jamui Khatun (Lady or Empress Jamui, ill.u.s.trating what the text says of the manner of styling these ladies), who bore him four sons and five daughters. Ras.h.i.+duddin adds that she was called _Kun Ku_, or the great consort, evidently the term _Hw.a.n.g-heu_. (Gen. Tables in _Hammer's Ilkhans_; _Gatibil_, 223; _Erdmann_, 200.)

["Kublai's four wives, i.e. the empresses of the first, second, third, and fourth _ordos_. _Ordo_ is, properly speaking, a separate palace of the Khan, under the management of one of his wives. Chinese authors translate therefore the word _ordo_ by 'harem.' The four _Ordo_ established by Chingis Khan were destined for the empresses, who were chosen out of four different nomad tribes. During the reign of the first four Khans, who lived in Mongolia, the four _ordo_ were considerably distant one from another, and the Khans visited them in different seasons of the year; they existed nominally as long as China remained under Mongol domination. The custom of choosing the empress out of certain tribes, was in the course of time set aside by the Khans. The empress, wife of the last Mongol Khan in China, was a Corean princess by birth; and she contributed in a great measure to the downfall of the Mongol Dynasty." (_Palladius_, 40.)

I do not believe that Ras.h.i.+duddin's _Kun Ku_ is the term _Hw.a.n.g-keu_; it is the term _Kiun Chu_, King or Queen, a sovereign.--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--_Ungrat_, the reading of the Crusca, seems to be that to which the others point, and I doubt not that it represents the great Mongol tribe of KUNGURAT, which gave more wives than any other to the princes of the house of Chinghiz; a conclusion in which I find I have been antic.i.p.ated by De Mailla or his editor (IX. 426). To this tribe (which, according to Vambery, took its name from (Turki) _Kongur-At_, "Chestnut Horse") belonged Burteh Fujin, the favourite wife of Chinghiz himself, and mother of his four heirs; to the same tribe belonged the two wives of Chagatai, two of Hulaku's seven wives, one of Mangku Kaan's, two at least of Kublai's including the beloved Jamui Khatun, one at least of Abaka's, two of Ahmed Tigudar's, two of Arghun's, and two of Ghazan's.

The seat of the Kungurats was near the Great Wall. Their name is still applied to one of the tribes of the Uzbeks of Western Turkestan, whose body appears to have been made up of fractions of many of the Turk and Mongol tribes. Kungurat is also the name of a town of Khiva, near the Sea of Aral, perhaps borrowed from the Uzbek clan.

The conversion of _Kungurat_ into _Ungrat_ is due, I suppose, to that Mongol tendency to soften gutturals which has been before noticed.

(_Erdm._ 199-200; _Hammer, pa.s.sim; Burnes_, III. 143, 225.)

The Ramusian version adds here these curious and apparently genuine particulars:--

"The Great Kaan sends his commissioners to the Province to select four or five hundred, or whatever number may be ordered, of the most beautiful young women, according to the scale of beauty enjoined upon them. And they set a value upon the comparative beauty of the damsels in this way. The commissioners on arriving a.s.semble all the girls of the province, in presence of appraisers appointed for the purpose. These carefully survey the points of each girl in succession, as (for example) her hair, her complexion, eyebrows, mouth, lips, and the proportion of all her limbs.

They will then set down some as estimated at 16 carats, some at 17, 18, 20, or more or less, according to the sum of the beauties or defects of each. And whatever standard the Great Kaan may have fixed for those that are to be brought to him, whether it be 20 carats or 21, the commissioners select the required number from those who have attained that standard, and bring them to him. And when they reach his presence he has them appraised anew by other parties, and has a selection made of 30 or 40 of those, who then get the highest valuation."

Marsden and Murray miss the meaning of this curious statement in a surprising manner, supposing the carat to represent some absolute value, 4 grains of gold according to the former, whence the damsel of 20 carats was estimated at 13_s._ 4_d._! This is sad nonsense; but Marsden would not have made the mistake had he not been fortunate enough to live before the introduction of Compet.i.tive Examinations. This Kungurat business was in fact a compet.i.tive examination in beauty; total marks attainable 24; no candidate to pa.s.s who did not get 20 or 21. _Carat_ expresses _n_ 24, not any absolute value.

Apart from the mode of valuation, it appears that a like system of selection was continued by the Ming, and that some such selection from the daughters of the Manchu n.o.bles has been maintained till recent times.

Herodotus tells that the like custom prevailed among the Adyrmachidae, the Libyan tribe next Egypt. Old Eden too relates it of the "Princes of Moscovia." (_Middle Km._ I. 318; _Herod._ IV. 168, Rawl.; _Notes on Russia_, Hak. Soc. II. 253.)

CHAPTER IX.

CONCERNING THE GREAT KAAN'S SONS.

The Emperor hath, by those four wives of his, twenty-two male children; the eldest of whom was called c.h.i.n.kIN for the love of the good Chinghis Kaan, the first Lord of the Tartars. And this c.h.i.n.kin, as the Eldest Son of the Kaan, was to have reigned after his father's death; but, as it came to pa.s.s, he died. He left a son behind him, however, whose name is TEMUR, and he is to be the Great Kaan and Emperor after the death of his Grandfather, as is but right; he being the child of the Great Kaan's eldest son. And this Temur is an able and brave man, as he hath already proven on many occasions.[NOTE 1]

The Great Kaan hath also twenty-five other sons by his concubines; and these are good and valiant soldiers, and each of them is a great chief. I tell you moreover that of his children by his four lawful wives there are seven who are kings of vast realms or provinces, and govern them well; being all able and gallant men, as might be expected. For the Great Kaan their sire is, I tell you, the wisest and most accomplished man, the greatest Captain, the best to govern men and rule an Empire, as well as the most valiant, that ever has existed among all the Tribes of Tartars.[NOTE 2]

NOTE 1.--Kublai had a son older than CHIMKIN or CHINGKIM, to whom Hammer's Genealogical Table gives the name of _Jurji_, and attributes a son called Ananda. The Chinese authorities of Gaubil and Pauthier call him _Turchi_ or _Torchi_, i.e. _Dorje_, "n.o.ble Stone," the Tibetan name of a sacred Buddhist emblem in the form of a dumb-bell, representing the _Vajra_ or Thunderbolt. Probably Dorje died early, as in the pa.s.sage we shall quote from Wa.s.saf also Chingkim is styled the Eldest Son: Marco is probably wrong in connecting the name of the latter with that of Chinghiz. Schmidt says that he does not know what _Chingkim_ means.

[Mr. Parker says that Chen kim was the _third_ son of Kublai (_China Review_, xxiv. p. 94.) Teimur, son of Chen kim, wore the temple name (_miao-hao_) of _Ch'eng Tsung_ and the t.i.tle of reign (_nien-hao_) of _Yuen Cheng_ and _Ta Teh._--H. C.]

Chingkim died in the 12th moon of 1284-1285, aged 43. He had received a Chinese education, and the Chinese Annals ascribe to him all the virtues which so often pertain in history to heirs apparent who have not reigned.