The Travels of Marco Polo
Chapter 270 : See on the discreditable custom of the people of Qamul, a long note in the second edit

See on the discreditable custom of the people of Qamul, a long note in the second edition of _Cathay_, I., pp. 249-250.

XLI., p. 211.

Prof. Parker remarks (_Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, p. 142) that: "The Chinese (Manchu) agent at Urga has not (nor, I believe, ever had) any control over the Little Bucharia Cities. Moreover, since the reconquest of Little Bucharia in 1877-1878, the whole of those cities have been placed under the Governor of the New Territory (Kan Suh Sin-kiang Sun-fu), whose capital is at Urumtsi. The native Mohammedan Princes of Hami have still left to them a certain amount of home rule, and so lately as 1902 a decree appointing the rotation of their visits to Peking was issued. The present Prince's name is _Shamu Hust_, or _Hussot_."

XLII., p. 215.

THE PROVINCE OF CHINGINTALAS.

Prof. E.H. PARKER writes in the _Journ. of the North China Branch of the Royal As. Soc._, x.x.xVII., 1906, p. 195: "On p. 215 of Yule's Vol. I. some notes of Palladius' are given touching Chingkintalas, but it is not stated that Palladius supposed the word _Ch'ih kin_ to date after the Mongols, that is, that Palladius felt uncertain about his identification. But Palladius is mistaken in feeling thus uncertain: in 1315 and 1326 the Mongol History twice mentions the garrison starts at _Ch'ih kin_, and in such a way that the place must be where Marco Polo puts it, i.e. west of Kia-yuh Kwan."

OF THE PROVINCE OF SUKCHUR.

XLIII., p. 217. "Over all the mountains of this province rhubarb is found in great abundance, and thither merchants come to buy it, and carry it thence all over the world. Travellers, however, dare not visit those mountains with any cattle but those of the country, for a certain plant grows there which is so poisonous that cattle which eat it loose their hoofs. The cattle of the country know it and eschew it."

During his crossing of the Nan Shan, Sir Aurel Stein had the same experience, five of his ponies being "benumbed and refusing to touch gra.s.s or fodder." The traveller notes that, _Ruins of Desert Cathay_, II., p.

303: "I at once suspected that they had eaten of the poisonous gra.s.s which infests certain parts of the Nan Shan, and about which old Marco has much to tell in his chapter on 'Sukchur' or Su-chou. The Venetian's account had proved quite true; for while my own ponies showed all the effects of this inebriating plant, the local animals had evidently been wary of it. A little bleeding by the nose, to which Tila Bai, with the veterinary skill of an old Ladak 'Kirakash,' promptly proceeded, seemed to afford some relief. But it took two or three days before the poor brutes were again in full possession of their senses and appet.i.tes."

"Wild rhubarb, for which the Nan-shan was famous in Marco Polo's days, spread its huge fleshy leaves everywhere." (STEIN, _Ruins of Desert Cathay_, II., p. 305.)

XLIII., p. 218.

SUKCHUR.

The first character of Suchau was p.r.o.nounced _Suk_ at the time of the T'ang; we find a _Sughciu_ in von Le Coq's MSS. from Turkestan and _Sughcu_ in the runnic text of W. Thomsen; cf. PELLIOT, _J. As._, Mai-Juin, 1912, p. 591; the p.r.o.nunciation _Suk_-chau was still used by travellers coming from Central Asia--for instance, by the envoys of Shah Rukh. See _Cathay_, III., p. 126 n.

OF THE CITY OF CAMPICHU.

XLIV., pp. 219 seq. "The Idolaters have many minsters and abbeys after their fas.h.i.+on. In these they have an enormous number of idols, both small and great, certain of the latter being a good ten paces in stature; some of them being of wood, others of clay, and others yet of stone. They are all highly polished, and then covered with gold. The great idols of which I speak lie at length. And round about them there are other figures of considerable size, as if adoring and paying homage before them."

The amba.s.sadors of Shah Rukh to China (1419-1422) wrote:

"In this city of Kamchau there is an idol temple five hundred cubits square. In the middle is an idol lying at length, which measures fifty paces. The sole of the foot is nine paces long, and the instep is twenty-one cubits in girth. Behind this image and overhead are other idols of a cubit (?) in height, besides figures of _Baks.h.i.+s_ as large as life.

The action of all is. .h.i.t off so admirably that you would think they were alive. Against the wall also are other figures of perfect execution. The great sleeping idol has one hand under his head, and the other resting on his thigh. It is gilt all over, and is known as _Shakamuni-fu_. The people of the country come in crowds to visit it, and bow to the very ground before this idol" (_Cathay_, I., p. 277).

XLV., p. 223.

OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.

I said, I., p. 225, that this town must be looked for on the river _Hei-shui_ called _Etsina_ by the Mongols, and would be situated on the river on the border of the Desert, at the top of a triangle, whose bases would be Suhchau and Kanchau. My theory seems to be fully confirmed by Sir Aurel Stein, who writes:

"Advantages of geographical position must at all times have invested this extensive riverine tract, limited as are its resources, with considerable importance for those, whether armed host or traders, who would make the long journey from the heart of Mongolia in the north to the Kansu oases.

It had been the same with the ancient Lou-lan delta, without which the Chinese could not have opened up the earliest and most direct route for the expansion of their trade and political influence into Central Asia.

The a.n.a.logy thus presented could not fail to impress me even further when I proceeded to examine the ruins of Khara-khoto, the 'Black Town' which Colonel Kozloff, the distinguished Russian explorer, had been the first European to visit during his expedition of 1908-1909. There remained no doubt for me then that it was identical with Marco Polo's 'City of Etzina.' Of this we are told in the great Venetian traveller's narrative that it lay a twelve days' ride from the city of Kan-chou, 'towards the north on the verge of the desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut.'

All travellers bound for Kara-koram, the old capital of the Mongols, had here to lay in victuals for forty days in order to cross the great 'desert which extends forty days' journey to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor baiting place.'

"The position thus indicated was found to correspond exactly to that of Khara-khoto, and the identification was completely borne out by the antiquarian evidence brought to light. It soon showed me that though the town may have suffered considerably, as local tradition a.s.serts, when Chingiz Khan with his Mongol army first invaded and conquered Kansu from this side about 1226 A.D., yet it continued to be inhabited down to Marco Polo's time, and partially at least for more than a century later. This was probably the case even longer with the agricultural settlement for which it had served as a local centre, and of which we traced extensive remains in the desert to the east and north-east. But the town itself must have seen its most flouris.h.i.+ng times under Tangut or Hsi-hsia rule from the beginning of the eleventh century down to the Mongol conquest.

"It was from this period, when Tibetan influence from the south seems to have made itself strongly felt throughout Kansu, that most of the Buddhist shrines and memorial Stupas dated, which filled a great portion of the ruined town and were conspicuous also outside it. In one of the latter Colonel Kozloff had made his notable find of Buddhist texts and paintings.

But a systematic search of this and other ruins soon showed that the archaeological riches of the site were by no means exhausted. By a careful clearing of the debris which covered the bases of Stupas and the interior of temple cellas we brought to light abundant remains of Buddhist ma.n.u.scripts and block prints, both in Tibetan and the as yet very imperfectly known old Tangut language, as well as plenty of interesting relievos in stucco or terra-cotta and frescoes. The very extensive refuse heaps of the town yielded up a large number of miscellaneous records on paper in the Chinese, Tangut, and Uigur scripts, together with many remains of fine glazed pottery, and of household utensils. Finds of Hsi-hsia coins, ornaments in stone and metal, etc., were also abundant, particularly on wind-eroded ground.

"There was much to support the belief that the final abandonment of the settlement was brought about by difficulties of irrigation." (_A Third Journey of Exploration in Central Asia_, 1913-16, _Geog. Jour._, Aug.-Sept., 1916, pp. 38-39.)

M. Ivanov (_Isviestia_ Petrograd Academy, 1909) thinks that the ruined city of Kara Khoto, a part at the Mongol period of the Yi-tsi-nai circuit, could be its capital, and was at the time of the Si Hia and the beginning of the Mongols, the town of Hei shui. It also confirms my views.

Kozlov found (1908) in a stupa not far from Kara Khoto a large number of Si Hia books, which he carried back to Petrograd, where they were studied by Prof. A. IVANOV, _Zur Kenntniss der Hsi-hsia Sprache_ (_Bul. Ac. Sc.

Pet._, 1909, pp. 1221-1233). See _The Si-hia Language_, by B. LAUFER (_T'oung Pao_, March, 1916, pp. 1-126).

XLVI., p. 226. "Originally the Tartars dwelt in the north on the borders of Chorcha."

Prof. Pelliot calls my attention that Ramusio's text, f. 13 _v_, has: "Essi habitauano nelle parti di Tramontana, cioe in Giorza, _e Bargu_, doue sono molte pianure grandi ..."

XLVI., p. 230.

TATAR.

"Mr. Rockhill is quite correct in his Turkish and Chinese dates for the first use of the word _Tatar_, but it seems very likely that the much older eponymous word _T'atun_ refers to the same people. The Toba History says that in A.D. 258 the chieftain of that Tartar Tribe (not yet arrived at imperial dignity) at a public durbar read a homily to various chiefs, pointing out to them the mistake made by the Hiung-nu (Early Turks) and 'T'a-tun fellows' (Early Mongols) in raiding his frontiers. If we go back still further, we find the _After Han History_ speaking of the 'Middle T'atun'; and a scholion tells us _not to p.r.o.nounce the final 'n.'_ If we pursue our inquiry yet further back, we find that _T'ah-tun_ was originally the name of a Sien-pi or Wu-hwan (apparently Mongol) Prince, who tried to secure the _shen-yu_ s.h.i.+p for himself, and that it gradually became (1) a t.i.tle, (2) and the name of a tribal division (see also the _Wei Chi_ and the _Early Han History_). Both _Sien-pi_ and _Wu-hwan_ are the names of mountain haunts, and at this very day part of the Russian Liao-tung railway is styled the 'Sien-pi railway' by the native Chinese newspapers." (E.H. PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, p.

141.)

Page 231, note 3. Instead of _Yuche_, read _Juche_.

XLVI., p. 232.

KARACATHAYANS.

"There seems to be no doubt that Kerman in South Persia is the city to which the Kara-Cathayan refugee fled from China in 1124; for Major Sykes, in his recent excellent work on Persia, actually mentions [p. 194] the Kuba Sabz, or 'Green Dome,' as having been (until destroyed in 1886 by an earthquake) the most conspicuous building, and as having also been the tomb of the Kara-Khitai Dynasty. The late Dr. Bretschneider (_N. China B.

R. As. Soc. Journal_, Vol. X., p. 101) had imagined the Kara-Cathayan capital to be Kermine, lying between Samarcand and Bokhara (see _Asiatic Quart. Rev._ for Dec., 1900, 'The Cathayans'). Colonel Yule does not appear to be quite correct when he states (p. 232) that 'the Gurkhan himself is not described to have extended his conquests into Persia,' for the Chinese history of the Cathayan or Liao Dynasties distinctly states that at Samarcand, where the Cathayan remained for ninety days, the 'King of the Mohammedans' brought tribute to the emigrant, _who then went West as far as K'i-r-man_, where he was proclaimed Emperor by his officers.

This was on the fifth day of the second moon in 1124, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and he then a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of _Koh-r-han_" (E.H.

Parker, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, pp. 134-5.)

XLVI., p. 236.

KERAITS.

"In his note to Vol. I., p. 236, M. Cordier [read Mr. Rockhill], who seems to have been misled by d'Avezac, confuses the Ch'ih-leh or T'ieh-leh (who have been clearly proved to be identical with the Tolos of the Turkish inscriptions) with the much later K'eh-lieh or Keraits of Mongol history; at no period of Chinese history were the Ch'ih-leh called, as he supposes, _K'i-le_ and therefore the Ch'ih-leh of the third century cannot possibly be identified with the K'e-lieh of the thirteenth. Besides, the 'value' of _leh_ is 'luck,' whilst the 'value' of _lieh_ is 'leet,' if we use English sounds as equivalents to ill.u.s.trate Chinese etymology. It is remarkable that the Kin (Nuchen) Dynasty in its Annals leaves no mention whatever of the Kerait tribe, or of any tribe having an approximate name, although the _Yuan Sh_ states that the Princes of that tribe used to hold a Nuchen patent. A solution of this unexplained fact may yet turn up." (E.H.

PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan. 1904, p. 139.)

Page 236, note [dagger] Instead of _Tura_, read _Tula_. (PELLIOT.)

LI., pp. 245, 248.

DEATH OF CHINGIZ KHAN.

"Gaubil's statement that he was wounded in 1212 by a stray arrow, which compelled him to raise the siege of Ta-t'ung Fu, is exactly borne out by the _Yuan Sh_, which adds that in the seventh moon (August) of 1227 (shortly after the surrender of the Tangut King) the conqueror died at the travelling-palace of Ha-la T'u on the Sa-li _stream_ at the age of sixty-six (sixty-five by our reckoning). As less than a month before he was present at Ts'ing-shui (lat. 34-1/2, long. 106-1/2), and was even on his dying bed, giving instructions how to meet the Nuchen army at T'ung-kwan (lat. 34-1/2, long. 110-1/4), we may a.s.sume that the place of his death was on the Upper Wei River near the frontiers joining the modern Kan Suh and Shen Si provinces. It is true the Sa-li _River_ (not stream) is thrice mentioned, and also the Sa-le-chu River, both in Mongolia; on the other hand, the Sa-li Ouigours are frequently mentioned as living in West Kan Suh; so that we may take it the word _Sali_ or _Sari_ was a not uncommon Turkish word. Palladius' identification, of _K'i-lien_ with 'Kerulen' I am afraid cannot be entertained. The former word frequently occurs in the second century B.C., and is stated to be a second Hiung-nu (Turkish) word for 'sky' or 'heaven.' At or about that date the Kerulen was known to the Chinese as the Lu-ku River, and the geographies of the present dynasty clearly identify it as such. The T'ien-Shan are sometimes called the K'i-lien Shan, and the word _K'i-lien_ is otherwise well established along the line of the Great Wall." (E.H. PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, pp. 136-7.)

Prof. Pelliot informs me that in No. 3 (Sept., 1918) of Vol. III of _Chinese Social and Political Science Review_ these is an article on the _Discovery of and Investigation concerning the Tomb of Gengis Khan_. I have not seen it.

LI., p. 249.