The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 - Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

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Those mountains are so lofty that 'tis a hard day's work, from morning
till evening, to get to the top of them. On getting up, you find an
extensive plain, with great abundance of grass and trees, and copious
springs of pure water running down through rocks and ravines. In those
brooks are found trout and many other fish of dainty kinds; and the air in
those regions is so pure, and residence there so healthful, that when the
men who dwell below in the towns, and in the valleys and plains, find
themselves attacked by any kind of fever or other ailment that may hap,
they lose no time in going to the hills; and after abiding there two or
three days, they quite recover their health through the excellence of that
air. And Messer Marco said he had proved this by experience: for when in
those parts he had been ill for about a year, but as soon as he was
advised to visit that mountain, he did so and got well at once.[NOTE 7]]

[Illustration: Ancient Silver Patera of debased Greek art, formerly in the
possession of the Princes of Badakhshan, now in the India Museum.
(Four-ninths of the diameter of the Original.)]

In this kingdom there are many strait and perilous passes, so difficult to
force that the people have no fear of invasion. Their towns and villages
also are on lofty hills, and in very strong positions.[NOTE 8] They are
excellent archers, and much given to the chase; indeed, most of them are
dependent for clothing on the skins of beasts, for stuffs are very dear
among them. The great ladies, however, are arrayed in stuffs, and I will
tell you the style of their dress! They all wear drawers made of cotton
cloth, and into the making of these some will put 60, 80, or even 100 ells
of stuff. This they do to make themselves look large in the hips, for the
men of those parts think that to be a great beauty in a woman.[NOTE 9]

NOTE 1.--"The population of Badakhshan Proper is composed of Tajiks,
Turks, and Arabs, who are all Sunnis, following the orthodox doctrines of
the Mahomedan law, and speak Persian and Turki, whilst the people of the
more mountainous tracts are Tajiks of the Shia creed, having separate
provincial dialects or languages of their own, the inhabitants of the
principal places combining therewith a knowledge of Persian. Thus, the
_Shighnani_ [sometimes called _Shighni_] is spoken in Shignan and Roshan,
the _Ishkashami_ in Ishkasham, the _Wakhi_ in Wakhan, the _Sanglichi_ in
Sanglich and Zebak, and the _Minjani_ in Minjan. All these dialects
materially differ from each other." (_Pand. Manphul._) It may be
considered almost certain that Badakhshan Proper also had a peculiar
dialect in Polo's time. Mr. Shaw speaks of the strong resemblance to
_Kashmiris_ of the Badakhshan people whom he had seen.

The Legend of the Alexandrian pedigree of the Kings of Badakhshan is
spoken of by Baber, and by earlier Eastern authors. This pedigree is, or
was, claimed also by the chiefs of Karategin, Darwaz, Roshan, Shighnan,
Wakhan, Chitral, Gilgit, Swat, and Khapolor in Balti. Some samples of
those genealogies may be seen in that strange document called "Gardiner's
Travels."

In Badakhshan Proper the story seems now to have died out. Indeed, though
Wood mentions one of the modern family of Mirs as vaunting this descent,
these are in fact _Sahibzadahs_ of Samarkand, who were invited to the
country about the middle of the 17th century, and were in no way connected
with the old kings.

The traditional claims to Alexandrian descent were probably due to a
genuine memory of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, and might have had an
origin analogous to the Sultan's claim to be "Caesar of Rome"; for the
real ancestry of the oldest dynasties on the Oxus was to be sought rather
among the Tochari and Ephthalites than among the Greeks whom they
superseded.

The cut on p. 159 presents an interesting memorial of the real relation of
Bactria to Greece, as well as of the pretence of the Badakhshan princes to
Grecian descent. This silver patera was sold by the family of the Mirs,
when captives, to the Minister of the Uzbek chief of Kunduz, and by him to
Dr. Percival Lord in 1838. It is now in the India Museum. On the bottom is
punched a word or two in Pehlvi, and there is also a word incised in
Syriac or Uighur. It is curious that a _pair_ of paterae were acquired by
Dr. Lord under the circumstances stated. The other, similar in material
and form, but apparently somewhat larger, is distinctly Sassanian,
representing a king spearing a lion.

_Zu-'lkarnain_, "the Two-Horned," is an Arabic epithet of Alexander, with
which legends have been connected, but which probably arose from the
horned portraits on his coins. [Capus, l.c. p. 121, says, "Iskandr
Zoulcarnein or Alexander _le Cornu_, horns being the emblem of strength."
--H. C.] The term appears in Chaucer (_Troil. and Cress._ III. 931) in the
sense of _non plus_:--

"I am, till God me better minde send,
At _dulcarnon_, right at my wittes end."

And it is said to have still colloquial existence in that sense in some
corners of England. This use is said to have arisen from the Arabic
application of the term (_Bicorne_) to the 47th Proposition of Euclid.
(_Baber_, 13; _N. et E._ XIV. 490; _N. An. des V._ xxvi. 296; _Burnes_,
III. 186 seqq.; _Wood_, 155, 244; _J. A. S. B._ XXII. 300; _Ayeen Akbery_,
II. 185; see _N. and Q._ 1st Series, vol. v.)

NOTE 2.--I have adopted in the text for the name of the country that one
of the several forms in the G. Text which comes nearest to the correct
name, viz. _Badascian_. But _Balacian_ also appears both in that and in
Pauthier's text. This represents _Balakhshan_, a form also sometimes used
in the East. Hayton has _Balaxcen_, Clavijo _Balaxia_, the Catalan Map
_Baldassia_. From the form _Balakhsh_ the Balas Ruby got its name. As Ibn
Batuta says: "'The Mountains of Badakhshan have given their name to the
Badakhshi Ruby, vulgarly called _Al Balaksh_." Albertus Magnus says the
_Balagius_ is the female of the Carbuncle or Ruby Proper, "and some say it
is his house, and hath thereby got the name, quasi _Palatium_ Carbunculi!"
The Balais or Balas Ruby is, like the Spinel, a kind inferior to the real
Ruby of Ava. The author of the _Masalak al Absar_ says the finest Balas
ever seen in the Arab countries was one presented to Malek 'Adil Ketboga,
at Damascus; it was of a triangular form and weighed 50 drachms. The
prices of _Balasci_ in Europe in that age may be found in Pegolotti, but
the needful problems are hard to solve.

"No sapphire in Inde, no Rubie rich of price,
There lacked than, nor Emeraud so grene,
_Bales_, Turkes, ne thing to my device."
(_Chaucer, 'Court of Love.'_)

"L'altra letizia, che m'era gia nota,
Preclara cosa mi si fece in vista,
Qual fin _balascio_ in che lo Sol percuoto."
(_Paradiso_, ix. 67.)

Some account of the Balakhsh from Oriental sources will be found in _J.
As._ ser V. tom. xi. 109.

(_I. B._ III. 59, 394; _Alb. Mag. de Mineralibus; Pegol._ p. 307; _N. et
E._ XIII. i. 246.)

["The Mohammedan authors of the Mongol period mention Badakhshan several
times in connection with the political and military events of that period.
Guchluk, the 'gurkhan of Karakhitai,' was slain in Badakhshan in 1218
(_d'Ohsson_, I. 272). In 1221, the Mongols invaded the country (l.c. I.
272). On the same page, d'Ohsson translates a short account of Badakhshan
by Yakut (+ 1229), stating that this mountainous country is famed for its
precious stones, and especially rubies, called _Balakhsh_."
(Bretschneider, _Med. Res._ II. p. 66.)--H. C.]

The account of the royal monopoly in working the mines, etc., has
continued accurate down to our own day. When Murad Beg of Kunduz conquered
Badakhshan some forty years ago, in disgust at the small produce of the
mines, he abandoned working them, and sold nearly all the population of
the place into slavery! They continue still unworked, unless
clandestinely. In 1866 the reigning Mir had one of them opened at the
request of Pandit Manphul, but without much result.

The locality of the mines is on the right bank of the Oxus, in the
district of Ish Kashm and on the borders of SHIGNAN, the _Syghinan_ of the
text. (_P. Manph.; Wood_, 206; _N. Ann. des. V._ xxvi. 300.)

[The ruby mines are really in the Gharan country, which extends along both
banks of the Oxus. Barshar is one of the deserted villages; the boundary
between Gharan and Shignan is the Kuguz Parin (in Shighai dialect means
"holes in the rock"); the Persian equivalent is "Rafak-i-Somakh." (Cf.
Captain Trotter, _Forsyth's Mission_, p. 277.)--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--The mines of _Lajwurd_ (whence _l'Azur_ and _Lazuli_) have been,
like the Ruby mines, celebrated for ages. They lie in the Upper Valley of
the Kokcha, called Koran, within the Tract called _Yamgan_, of which the
popular etymology is _Hamah-Kan_, or "All-Mines," and were visited by Wood
in 1838. The produce now is said to be of very inferior quality, and in
quantity from 30 to 60 _poods_ (36 lbs each) annually. The best quality
sells at Bokhara at 30 to 60 tillas, or 12_l._ to 24_l._ the pood
(_Manphul_). Surely it is ominous when a British agent writing of
Badakhshan products finds it natural to express weights in Russian poods!

The Yamgan Tract also contains mines of iron, lead, alum, salammoniac,
sulphur, ochre, and copper. The last are not worked. But I do not learn of
any silver mines nearer than those of Paryan in the Valley of Panjshir,
south of the crest of the Hindu-Kush, much worked in the early Middle
Ages. (See _Cathay_, p. 595.)

NOTE 4.--The Kataghan breed of horses from Badakhshan and Kunduz has still
a high reputation. They do not often reach India, as the breed is a
favourite one among the Afghan chiefs, and the horses are likely to be
appropriated in transit. (_Lumsden, Mission to Kandahar_, p. 20.)

[The Kirghiz between the Yangi Hissar River and Sirikol are the only
people using the horse generally in the plough, oxen being employed in the
plains, and yaks in Sirikol. (Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, p. 222,
_Forsyth's Mission_.)--H. C.]

What Polo heard of the Bucephalid strain was perhaps but another form of a
story told by the Chinese, many centuries earlier, when speaking of this
same region. A certain cave was frequented by a wonderful stallion of
supernatural origin. Hither the people yearly brought their mares, and a
famous breed was derived from the foals. (_Rem. N. Mel. As._ I. 245.)

NOTE 5.--The huskless barley of the text is thus mentioned by Burnes in
the vicinity of the Hindu-Kush: "They rear a barley in this elevated
country which has no husk, and grows like wheat; but it is barley." It is
not properly _huskless_, but when ripe it bursts the husk and remains so
loosely attached as to be dislodged from it by a slight shake. It is grown
abundantly in Ladak and the adjoining Hill States. Moorcroft details six
varieties of it cultivated there. The kind mentioned by Marco and Burnes
is probably that named by Royle _Hordeum Aegiceras_, and which has been
sent to England under the name of Tartarian Wheat, though it is a genuine
barley. _Naked barley_ is mentioned by Galen as grown in Cappadocia; and
Matthioli speaks of it as grown in France in his day (middle of 16th
century). It is also known to the Arabs, for they have a name for it--
_Sult_. (_Burnes_, III. 205; _Moorc._ II. 148 seqq.; _Galen, de Aliment.
Facult._ Lat. ed. 13; _Matthioli_, Ven. 1585, p. 420; _Eng. Cyc._, art.
Hordeum.)

Sesame is mentioned by P. Manphul as one of the products of Badakhshan;
linseed is another, which is also used for oil. Walnut-trees abound, but
neither he nor Wood mention the oil. We know that walnut oil is largely
manufactured in Kashmir. (_Moorcroft_, II. 148.)

[See on Saker and Lanner Falcons (_F. Sakar_, Briss.; _F. lanarius_,
Schlegel) the valuable paper by Edouard Blanc, _Sur l'utilisation des
Oiseaux de proie en Asie centrale_ _in Rev. des Sciences natur.
appliquees_, 20th June, 1895.

"Hawking is the favourite sport of Central Asian Lords," says G. Capus.
(_A travers le royaume de Tamerlan_, p. 132. See pp. 132-134.)

The Mirza says (l.c. p. 157) that the mountains of Wakhan "are only noted
for producing a breed of hawks or falcons which the hardy Wakhanis manage
to catch among the cliffs. These hawks are much esteemed by the chiefs of
Badakhshan, Bokhara, etc. They are celebrated for their swiftness, and
known by their white colour."--H. C.]

NOTE 6.--These wild sheep are probably the kind called _Kachkar_,
mentioned by Baber, and described by Mr. Blyth in his Monograph of Wild
Sheep, under the name of _Ovis Vignei_. It is extensively diffused over
all the ramifications of Hindu-Kush, and westward perhaps to the Persian
Elburz. "It is gregarious," says Wood, "congregating in herds of _several
hundreds_." In a later chapter Polo speaks of a wild sheep apparently
different and greater. (See _J. A. S. B._, X. 858 seqq.)

NOTE 7.--This pleasant passage is only in Ramusio, but it would be heresy
to doubt its genuine character. Marco's recollection of the delight of
convalescence in such a climate seems to lend an unusual enthusiasm and
felicity to his description of the scenery. Such a region as he speaks of
is probably the cool Plateau of Shewa, of which we are told as extending
about 25 miles eastward from near Faizabad, and forming one of the finest
pastures in Badakhshan. It contains a large lake called by the frequent
name Sar-i-Kol. No European traveller in modern times (unless Mr. Gardner)
has been on those glorious table-lands. Burnes says that at Kunduz both
natives and foreigners spoke rapturously of the vales of Badakhshan, its
rivulets, romantic scenes and glens, its fruits, flowers, and
nightingales. Wood is reticent on scenery, naturally, since nearly all his
journey was made in winter. When approaching Faizabad on his return from
the Upper Oxus, however, he says: "On entering the beautiful lawn at the
gorge of its valley I was enchanted at the quiet loveliness of the scene.
Up to this time, from the day we left Talikan, we had been moving in snow;
but now it had nearly vanished from the valley, and the fine sward was
enamelled with crocuses, daffodils, and snowdrops." (_P. Manphul; Burnes_,
III. 176; _Wood_, 252.)

NOTE 8.--Yet scarcely any country in the world has suffered so terribly
and repeatedly from invasion. "Enduring decay probably commenced with the
wars of Chinghiz, for many an instance in Eastern history shows the
permanent effect of such devastations.... Century after century saw only
progress in decay. Even to our own time the progress of depopulation and
deterioration has continued." In 1759, two of the Khojas of Kashgar,
escaping from the dominant Chinese, took refuge in Badakhshan; one died of
his wounds, the other was treacherously slain by Sultan Shah, who then
ruled the country. The holy man is said in his dying moments to have
invoked curses on Badakhshan, and prayed that it might be three times
depopulated; a malediction which found ample accomplishment. The misery of
the country came to a climax about 1830, when the Uzbek chief of Kunduz,
Murad Beg Kataghan, swept away the bulk of the inhabitants, and set them
down to die in the marshy plains of Kunduz. (_Cathay_, p. 542; _Faiz
Bakhsh_, etc.)

NOTE 9.--This "bombasticall dissimulation of their garments," as the
author of _Anthropometamorphosis_ calls such a fashion, is no longer
affected by the ladies of Badakhshan. But a friend in the Panjab observes
that it still survives _there_. "There are ladies' trousers here which
might almost justify Marco's very liberal estimate of the quantity of
stuff required to make them;" and among the Afghan ladies, Dr. Bellew
says, the silken trousers almost surpass crinoline in amplitude. It is
curious to find the same characteristic attaching to female figures on
coins of ancient kings of these regions, such as Agathocles and Pantaleon.
(The last name is appropriate!)

CHAPTER XXX.

OF THE PROVINCE OF PASHAI

You must know that ten days' journey to the south of Badashan there is a
Province called PASHAI, the people of which have a peculiar language,
and are Idolaters, of a brown complexion. They are great adepts in
sorceries and the diabolic arts. The men wear earrings and brooches of
gold and silver set with stones and pearls. They are a pestilent people
and a crafty; and they live upon flesh and rice. Their country is very
hot.[NOTE 1]

Now let us proceed and speak of another country which is seven days'
journey from this one towards the south-east, and the name of which is
KESHIMUR.

NOTE 1.--The name of PASHAI has already occurred (see ch. xviii.) linked
with DIR, as indicating a tract, apparently of very rugged and difficult
character, through which the partizan leader Nigudar passed in making an
incursion from Badakhshan towards Kashmir. The difficulty here lies in the
name _Pashai_, which points to the south-west, whilst _Dir_ and all other
indications point to the south-east. But Pashai seems to me the reading to
which all texts tend, whilst it is clearly expressed in the G. T.
(_Pasciai_), and it is contrary to all my experience of the interpretation
of Marco Polo to attempt to torture the name in the way which has been
common with commentators professed and occasional. But dropping this name
for a moment, let us see to what the other indications do point.

In the meagre statements of this and the next chapter, interposed as they
are among chapters of detail unusually ample for Polo, there is nothing to
lead us to suppose that the Traveller ever personally visited the
countries of which these two chapters treat. I believe we have here merely
an amplification of the information already sketched of the country
penetrated by the Nigudarian bands whose escapade is related in chapter
xviii., information which was probably derived from a Mongol source. And
these countries are in my belief _both_ regions famous in the legends of
the Northern Buddhists, viz. UDYANA and KASHMIR.

Udyana lay to the north of Peshawar on the Swat River, but from the extent
assigned to it by Hiuen Tsang, the name probably covered a large part of
the whole hill-region south of the Hindu-Kush from Chitral to the Indus,
as indeed it is represented in the Map of Vivien de St. Martin (_Pelerins
Bouddhistes_, II.). It is regarded by Fahian as the most northerly
Province of India, and in his time the food and clothing of the people
were similar to those of Gangetic India. It was the native country of
Padma Sambhava, one of the chief apostles of Lamaism, i.e. of Tibetan
Buddhism, and a great master of enchantments. The doctrines of Sakya, as
they prevailed in Udyana in old times, were probably strongly tinged with
Sivaitic magic, and the Tibetans still regard that locality as the classic
ground of sorcery and witchcraft.

Hiuen Tsang says of the inhabitants: "The men are of a soft and
pusillanimous character, _naturally inclined to craft and trickery_. They
are fond of study, but pursue it with no ardour. _The science of magical
formulae is become a regular professional business with them_. They
generally wear clothes of white cotton, and rarely use any other stuff.
Their spoken language, in spite of some differences, has a strong
resemblance to that of India."

These particulars suit well with the slight description in our text, and
the Indian atmosphere that it suggests; and the direction and distance
ascribed to Pashai suit well with Chitral, which may be taken as
representing Udyana when approached from Badakhshan. For it would be quite
practicable for a party to reach the town of Chitral in ten days from the
position assigned to the old capital of Badakhshan. And from Chitral the
road towards Kashmir would lie over the high Lahori pass to DIR, which
from its mention in chapter xviii. we must consider an obligatory point.
(_Fah-hian_, p. 26; _Koeppen_, I. 70; _Pelerins Boud._ II. 131-132.)

["Tao-lin (a Buddhist monk like Hiuen Tsang) afterwards left the western
regions and changed his road to go to Northern India; he made a pilgrimage
to _Kia-che-mi-louo_ (Kashmir), and then entered the country of
_U-ch'ang-na_ (Udyana)...." (Ed. Chavannes, _I-tsing_, p. 105.)--H. C.]

We must now turn to the name _Pashai_. The Pashai Tribe are now Mahomedan,
but are reckoned among the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, which
the Afghans are not. Baber mentions them several times, and counts their
language as one of the dozen that were spoken at Kabul in his time. Burnes
says it resembles that of the Kafirs. A small vocabulary of it was
published by Leech, in the seventh volume of the _J. A. S. B._, which I
have compared with vocabularies of Siah-posh Kafir, published by Raverty
in vol. xxxiii. of the same journal, and by Lumsden in his _Report of the
Mission to Kandahar_, in 1837. Both are Aryan, and seemingly of Professor
Max Mueller's class _Indic_, but not very close to one another.[1]

Ibn Batuta, after crossing the Hindu-Kush by one of the passes at the head
of the Panjshir Valley, reaches the Mountain BASHAI (Pashai). In the same
vicinity the Pashais are mentioned by Sidi 'Ali, in 1554. And it is still
in the neighbourhood of Panjshir that the tribe is most numerous, though
they have other settlements in the hill-country about Nijrao, and on the
left bank of the Kabul River between Kabul and Jalalabad. _Pasha_ and
_Pasha_-gar is also named as one of the chief divisions of the Kafirs, and
it seems a fair conjecture that it represents those of the Pashais who
resisted or escaped conversion to Islam. (See _Leech's Reports_ in
Collection pub. at Calcutta in 1839; _Baber_, 140; _Elphinstone_, I. 411;
_J. A. S. B._ VII. 329, 731, XXVIII. 317 seqq., XXXIII. 271-272; _I. B._
III. 86; _J. As._ IX. 203, and _J. R. A. S._ N.S. V. 103, 278.)

The route of which Marco had heard must almost certainly have been one of
those leading by the high Valley of Zebak, and by the Dorah or the Nuksan
Pass, over the watershed of Hindu-Kush into Chitral, and so to Dir, as
already noticed. The difficulty remains as to how he came to apply the
name _Pashai_ to the country south-east of Badakhshan. I cannot tell. But
it is at least possible that the name of the Pashai tribe (of which the
branches even now are spread over a considerable extent of country) may
have once had a wide application over the southern spurs of the Hindu-
Kush.[2] Our Author, moreover, is speaking here from hearsay, and hearsay
geography without maps is much given to generalising. I apprehend that,
along with characteristics specially referable to the Tibetan and Mongol
traditions of Udyana, the term Pashai, as Polo uses it, vaguely covers the
whole tract from the southern boundary of Badakhshan to the Indus and the
Kabul River.

But even by extending its limits to Attok, we shall not get within seven
marches of Kashmir. It is 234 miles by road from Attok to Srinagar; more
than twice seven marches. And, according to Polo's usual system, the
marches should be counted from Chitral, or some point thereabouts.

Sir H. Rawlinson, in his _Monograph on the Oxus_, has indicated the
probability that the name _Pashai_ may have been originally connected with
_Aprasin_ or _Paresin_, the Zendavestian name for the Indian Caucasus, and
which occurs in the Babylonian version of the Behistun Inscription as the
equivalent of Gaddra in the Persian, i.e. _Gandhara_, there applied to the
whole country between Bactria and the Indus. (See _J. R. G. S._ XLII.
502.) Some such traditional application of the term Pashai might have
survived.

[1] The Kafir dialect of which Mr. Trumpp collected some particulars shows
in the present tense of the substantive verb these remarkable forms:--
_Ei sum_, _Tu sis_, _siga se_; _Ima simis_, _Wi sik_, _Sige sin_.

[2] In the _Tabakat-i-Nasiri_ (_Elliot_, II. 317) we find mention of the
Highlands of _Pasha-Afroz_, but nothing to define their position.

CHAPTER XXXI.

OF THE PROVINCE OF KESHIMUR.

Keshimur also is a Province inhabited by a people who are Idolaters and
have a language of their own.[NOTE 1] They have an astonishing
acquaintance with the devilries of enchantment; insomuch that they make
their idols to speak. They can also by their sorceries bring on changes of
weather and produce darkness, and do a number of things so extraordinary
that no one without seeing them would believe them.[NOTE 2] Indeed, this
country is the very original source from which Idolatry has spread
abroad.[NOTE 3]

In this direction you can proceed further till you come to the Sea of
India.

The men are brown and lean, but the women, taking them as brunettes, are
very beautiful. The food of the people is flesh, and milk, and rice. The
clime is finely tempered, being neither very hot nor very cold. There are
numbers of towns and villages in the country, but also forests and desert
tracts, and strong passes, so that the people have no fear of anybody, and
keep their independence, with a king of their own to rule and do
justice.[NOTE 4]