The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 - Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
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NOTE 3.--A practice resembling this is mentioned by Pallas as existing
among the Buddhist Kalmaks, a relic of their old Shaman superstitions,
which the Lamas profess to decry, but sometimes take part in. "Rich
Kalmaks select from their flock a ram for dedication, which gets the name
of _Tengri Tockho_, 'Heaven's Ram.' It must be a white one with a yellow
head. He must never be shorn or sold, but when he gets old, and the owner
chooses to dedicate a fresh one, then the old one must be sacrificed. This
is usually done in autumn, when the sheep are fattest, and the neighbours
are called together to eat the sacrifice. A fortunate day is selected, and
the ram is slaughtered amid the cries of the sorcerer directed towards the
sunrise, and the diligent sprinkling of milk for the benefit of the
Spirits of the Air. The flesh is eaten, but the skeleton with a part of
the fat is burnt on a turf altar erected on four pillars of an ell and a
half high, and the skin, with the head and feet, is then hung up in the
way practised by the Buraets." (_Sammlungen_, II. 346.)
NOTE 4.--Several of the customs of Tangut mentioned in this chapter are
essentially Chinese, and are perhaps introduced here because it was on
entering Tangut that the traveller first came in contact with Chinese
peculiarities. This is true of the manner of forming coffins, and keeping
them with the body in the house, serving food before the coffin whilst it
is so kept, the burning of paper and papier-mache figures of slaves,
horses, etc., at the tomb. Chinese settlers were very numerous at Shachau
and the neighbouring Kwachau, even in the 10th century. (_Ritter_, II.
213.) ["Keeping a body unburied for a considerable time is called _khng
koan_, 'to conceal or store away a coffin,' or _thing koan_, 'to detain a
coffin.' It is, of course, a matter of necessity in such cases to have the
cracks and fissures, and especially the seam where the case and the lid
join, hermetically caulked. This is done by means of a mixture of chunam
and oil. The seams, sometimes even the whole coffin, are pasted over with
linen, and finally everything is varnished black, or, in case of a
mandarin of rank, red. In process of time, the varnishing is repeated as
many times as the family think desirable or necessary. And in order to
protect the coffin still better against dust and moisture, it is generally
covered with sheets of oiled paper, over which comes a white pall." (_De
Groot_, I. 106.)--H. C.] Even as regards the South of China many of the
circumstances mentioned here are strictly applicable, as may be seen in
_Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese_. (See, for example, p. 135; also
_Astley_, IV. 93-95, or Marsden's quotations from _Duhalde_.) The custom
of burning the dead has been for several centuries disused in China, but
we shall see hereafter that Polo represents it as general in his time. On
the custom of burning gilt paper in the form of gold coin, as well as of
paper clothing, paper houses, furniture, slaves, etc., see also
_Medhurst_, p. 213, and _Kidd_, 177-178. No one who has read Pere Huc will
forget his ludicrous account of the Lama's charitable distribution of
paper horses for the good of disabled travellers. The manufacture of mock
money is a large business in Chinese cities. In Fuchau there are more than
thirty large establishments where it is kept for sale. (_Doolittle_, 541.)
[The Chinese believe that sheets of paper, partly tinned over on one side,
are, "according to the prevailing conviction, turned by the process of
fire into real silver currency available in the world of darkness, and
sent there through the smoke to the soul; they are called _gun-tsoa_,
'silver paper.' Most families prefer to previously fold every sheet in the
shape of a hollow ingot, a 'silver ingot,' _gun-kho_ as they call it. This
requires a great amount of labour and time, but increases the value of the
treasure immensely." (_De Groot_, I. 25.) "Presenting paper money when
paying a visit of condolence is a custom firmly established, and
accordingly complied with by everybody with great strictness.... The paper
is designed for the equipment of the coffin, and, accordingly, always
denoted by the term _koan-thao-tsoa_, 'coffin paper.' But as the
receptacle of the dead is, of course, not spacious enough to hold the
whole mass offered by so many friends, it is regularly burned by lots by
the side of the corpse, the ashes being carefully collected to be
afterwards wrapped in paper and placed in the coffin, or at the side of
the coffin, in the tomb." (_De Groot_, I. 31-32.)--H. C.] There can be
little doubt that these latter customs are symbols of the ancient
sacrifices of human beings and valuable property on such occasions; so
Manetho states that the Egyptians in days of yore used human sacrifices,
but a certain King Amosis abolished them and substituted images of wax.
Even when the present Manchu Dynasty first occupied the throne of China,
they still retained the practice of human sacrifice. At the death of
Kanghi's mother, however, in 1718, when four young girls offered
themselves for sacrifice on the tomb of their mistress, the emperor would
not allow it, and prohibited for the future the sacrifice of life or the
destruction of valuables on such occasions. (_Deguignes, Voy._ I. 304.)
NOTE 5.--Even among the Tibetans and Mongols burning is only one of the
modes of disposing of the dead. "They sometimes bury their dead: often
they leave them exposed in their coffins, or cover them with stones,
paying regard to the sign under which the deceased was born, his age, the
day and hour of his death, which determine the mode in which he is to be
interred (or otherwise disposed of). For this purpose they consult some
books which are explained to them by the Lamas." (_Timk._ II. 312.) The
extraordinary and complex absurdities of the books in question are given
in detail by Pallas, and curiously illustrate the paragraph in the text.
(See _Sammlungen_, II. 254 seqq.) ["The first seven days, including that
on which the demise has taken place, are generally deemed to be lucky for
the burial, especially the odd ones. But when they have elapsed, it
becomes requisite to apply to a day-professor.... The popular almanac
which chiefly wields sway in Amoy and the surrounding country, regularly
stigmatises a certain number of days as _ting-sng jit_: 'days of
reduplication of death,' because encoffining or burying a dead person on
such a day will entail another loss in the family shortly afterwards."
(_De Groot_, I. 103, 99-100.)--H. C.]
NOTE 6.--The Chinese have also, according to Duhalde, a custom of making a
new opening in the wall of a house by which to carry out the dead; and in
their prisons a special hole in the wall is provided for this office. This
same custom exists among the Esquimaux, as well as, according to Sonnerat,
in Southern India, and it used to exist in certain parts both of Holland
and of Central Italy. In the "clean village of Broek," near Amsterdam,
those special doors may still be seen. And in certain towns of Umbria,
such as Perugia, Assisi, and Gubbio, this opening was common, elevated
some feet above the ground, and known as the "Door of the Dead."
I find in a list, printed by Liebrecht, of popular French superstitions,
amounting to 479 in number, condemned by Maupas du Tour, Bishop of Evreux
in 1664, the following: "When a woman lies in of a dead child, it must not
be taken out by the door of the chamber but by the window, for if it were
taken out by the door the woman would never lie in of any but dead
children." The Samoyedes have the superstition mentioned in the text, and
act exactly as Polo describes.
["The body [of the Queen of Bali, 17th century] was drawn out of a large
aperture made in the wall to the right hand side of the door, in the
absurd opinion of _cheating the devil_, whom these islanders believe to
lie in wait in the ordinary passage." (_John Crawfurd, Hist. of the Indian
Archipelago_, II. p. 245.)--H. C.]
And the Rev. Mr. Jaeschke writes to me from Lahaul, in British Tibet: "Our
Lama (from Central Tibet) tells us that the owner of a house and the
members of his family when they die are carried through the house-door;
but if another person dies in the house his body is removed by some other
aperture, such as a window, or the smokehole in the roof, or a hole in the
wall dug expressly for the purpose. Or a wooden frame is made, fitting
into the doorway, and the body is then carried through; it being
considered that by this contrivance the evil consequences are escaped that
might ensue, were it carried through the ordinary, and, so to say,
_undisguised_ house-door! Here, in Lahaul and the neighbouring countries,
we have not heard of such a custom."
(_Duhalde_, quoted by Marsden; _Semedo_, p. 175; _Mr. Sala_ in _N. and
Q._, 2nd S. XI. 322; _Lubbock_, p. 500; _Sonnerat_ I. 86; _Liebrecht's
Gervasius of Tilbury_, Hanover, 1856, p. 224; _Mag. Asiat._ II. 93.)
[1] M. Bonin visited in 1899 these caves which he calls "Grottoes of
Thousand Buddhas" (_Tsien Fo tung_). (_La Geographie_, 15th March,
1901, p. 171.) He found a stele dated 1348, bearing a Buddhist prayer
in six different scripts like the inscription at Kiu Yung Kwan. (_Rev.
Hist. des Religions_, 1901, p. 393.)--H. C.
CHAPTER XLI.
OF THE PROVINCE OF CAMUL.
Camul is a province which in former days was a kingdom. It contains
numerous towns and villages, but the chief city bears the name of CAMUL.
The province lies between the two deserts; for on the one side is the
Great Desert of Lop, and on the other side is a small desert of three
days' journey in extent.[NOTE 1] The people are all Idolaters, and have a
peculiar language. They live by the fruits of the earth, which they have
in plenty, and dispose of to travellers. They are a people who take things
very easily, for they mind nothing but playing and singing, and dancing
and enjoying themselves.[NOTE 2]
And it is the truth that if a foreigner comes to the house of one of these
people to lodge, the host is delighted, and desires his wife to put
herself entirely at the guest's disposal, whilst he himself gets out of
the way, and comes back no more until the stranger shall have taken his
departure. The guest may stay and enjoy the wife's society as long as he
lists, whilst the husband has no shame in the matter, but indeed considers
it an honour. And all the men of this province are made wittols of by
their wives in this way.[NOTE 3] The women themselves are fair and wanton.
Now it came to pass during the reign of MANGU KAAN, that as lord of this
province he came to hear of this custom, and he sent forth an order
commanding them under grievous penalties to do so no more [but to provide
public hostelries for travellers]. And when they heard this order they
were much vexed thereat. [For about three years' space they carried it
out. But then they found that their lands were no longer fruitful, and
that many mishaps befell them.] So they collected together and prepared a
grand present which they sent to their Lord, praying him graciously to let
them retain the custom which they had inherited from their ancestors; for
it was by reason of this usage that their gods bestowed upon them all the
good things that they possessed, and without it they saw not how they
could continue to exist.[NOTE 4] When the Prince had heard their petition
his reply was "Since ye must needs keep your shame, keep it then," and so
he left them at liberty to maintain their naughty custom. And they always
have kept it up, and do so still.
Now let us quit Camul, and I will tell you of another province which lies
between north-west and north, and belongs to the Great Kaan.
NOTE 1.--Kamul (or Komul) does not fall into the great line of travel
towards Cathay which Marco is following. His notice of it, and of the next
province, forms a digression like that which he has already made to
Samarkand. It appears very doubtful if Marco himself had visited it; his
father and uncle may have done so on their first journey, as one of the
chief routes to Northern China from Western Asia lies through this city,
and has done so for many centuries. This was the route described by
Pegolotti as that of the Italian traders in the century following Polo; it
was that followed by Marignolli, by the envoys of Shah Rukh at a later
date, and at a much later by Benedict Goes. The people were in Polo's time
apparently Buddhist, as the Uighurs inhabiting this region had been from
an old date: in Shah Rukh's time (1420) we find a mosque and a great
Buddhist Temple cheek by jowl; whilst Ramusio's friend Hajji Mahomed
(circa 1550) speaks of Kamul as the first Mahomedan city met with in
travelling from China.
Kamul stands on an oasis carefully cultivated by aid of reservoirs for
irrigation, and is noted in China for its rice and for some of its fruits,
especially melons and grapes. It is still a place of some consequence,
standing near the bifurcation of two great roads from China, one passing
north and the other south of the Thian Shan, and it was the site of the
Chinese Commissariat depots for the garrisons to the westward. It was lost
to the Chinese in 1867.
Kamul appears to have been the see of a Nestorian bishop. A Bishop of
Kamul is mentioned as present at the inauguration of the Catholicos Denha
in 1266. (_Russians in Cent. Asia_, 129; _Ritter_, II. 357 seqq.; _Cathay,
passim_; _Assemani_, II. 455-456.)
[_Kamul_ is the Turkish name of the province called by the Mongols
_Khamil_, by the Chinese _Hami_; the latter name is found for the first
time in the _Yuen Shi_, but it is first mentioned in Chinese history in
the 1st century of our Era under the name of _I-wu-lu_ or _I-wu_
(_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ II. p. 20); after the death of Chinghiz, it
belonged to his son Chagatai. From the Great Wall, at the Pass of Kia Yue,
to Hami there is a distance of 1470 _li_. (_C. Imbault-Huart. Le Pays de
Hami ou Khamil_ ... d'apres les auteurs chinois, _Bul. de Geog. hist. et
desc._, Paris, 1892, pp. 121-195.) The Chinese general Chang Yao was in
1877 at Hami, which had submitted in 1867 to the Athalik Ghazi, and made
it the basis of his operations against the small towns of Chightam and
Pidjam, and Yakub Khan himself stationed at Turfan. The Imperial Chinese
Agent in this region bears the title of _K'u lun Pan She Ta Ch'en_ and
resides at K'urun (Urga); of lesser rank are the agents (_Pan She Ta
Ch'en_) of Kashgar, Kharashar, Kuche, Aksu, Khotan, and Hami. (See a
description of Hami by Colonel M. S. Bell, _Proc. R. G. S._ XII. 1890, p.
213.)--H. C.]
NOTE 2.--Expressed almost in the same words is the character attributed by
a Chinese writer to the people of Kuche in the same region. (_Chin.
Repos._ IX. 126.) In fact, the character seems to be generally applicable
to the people of East Turkestan, but sorely kept down by the rigid Islam
that is now enforced. (See _Shaw, passim_, and especially the
Mahrambashi's lamentations over the jolly days that were no more, pp. 319,
376.)
NOTE 3.--Pauthier's text has "_sont si_ honni _de leur moliers comme vous
avez ouy_." Here the Crusca has "_sono_ bozzi _delle loro moglie_," and
the Lat. Geog. "_sunt_ bezzi _de suis uxoribus_." The Crusca Vocab. has
inserted _bozzo_ with the meaning we have given, on the strength of this
passage. It occurs also in Dante (_Paradiso_, XIX. 137), in the general
sense of _disgraced_.
The shameful custom here spoken of is ascribed by Polo also to a province
of Eastern Tibet, and by popular report in modern times to the Hazaras of
the Hindu-Kush, a people of Mongolian blood, as well as to certain nomad
tribes of Persia, to say nothing of the like accusation against our own
ancestors which has been drawn from Laonicus Chalcondylas. The old Arab
traveller Ibn Muhalhal (10th century) also relates the same of the Hazlakh
(probably _Kharlikh_) Turks: "Ducis alicujus uxor vel filia vel soror,
quum mercatorum agmen in terram venit, eos adit, eorumque lustrat faciem.
Quorum siquis earum afficit admiratione hunc domum suam ducit, eumque apud
se hospitio excipit, eique benigne facit. Atque marito suo et filio
fratrique rerum necessariarum curam demandat; neque dum hospes apud eam
habitat, nisi necessarium est, maritus eam adit." A like custom prevails
among the Chukchis and Koryaks in the vicinity of Kamtchatka.
(_Elphinstone's Caubul; Wood_, p. 201; _Burnes_, who discredits, II. 153,
III. 195; _Laon. Chalcond._ 1650, pp. 48-49; _Kurd de Schloezer_, p. 13;
_Erman_, II. 530.)
["It is remarkable that the Chinese author, _Hung Hao_, who lived a
century before M. Polo, makes mention in his memoirs nearly in the same
words of this custom of the Uighurs, with whom he became acquainted during
his captivity in the kingdom of the _Kin_. According to the chronicle of
the Tangut kingdom of Si-hia, Hami was the nursery of Buddhism in Si-hia,
and provided this kingdom with Buddhist books and monks." (_Palladius_,
l.c. p. 6.)--H. C.]
NOTE 4.--So the Jewish rabble to Jeremiah: "Since we left off to burn
incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, we
have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by
famine." (_Jerem._ xliv. 18.)
CHAPTER XLII.
OF THE PROVINCE OF CHINGINTALAS.
Chingintalas is also a province at the verge of the Desert, and lying
between north-west and north. It has an extent of sixteen days' journey,
and belongs to the Great Kaan, and contains numerous towns and villages.
There are three different races of people in it--Idolaters, Saracens, and
some Nestorian Christians.[NOTE 1] At the northern extremity of this
province there is a mountain in which are excellent veins of steel and
ondanique.[NOTE 2] And you must know that in the same mountain there is a
vein of the substance from which Salamander is made.[NOTE 3] For the real
truth is that the Salamander is no beast, as they allege in our part of
the world, but is a substance found in the earth; and I will tell you
about it.
Everybody must be aware that it can be no animal's nature to live in fire,
seeing that every animal is composed of all the four elements.[NOTE 4] Now
I, Marco Polo, had a Turkish acquaintance of the name of Zurficar, and he
was a very clever fellow. And this Turk related to Messer Marco Polo how
he had lived three years in that region on behalf of the Great Kaan, in
order to procure those Salamanders for him.[NOTE 5] He said that the way
they got them was by digging in that mountain till they found a certain
vein. The substance of this vein was then taken and crushed, and when so
treated it divides as it were into fibres of wool, which they set forth to
dry. When dry, these fibres were pounded in a great copper mortar, and
then washed, so as to remove all the earth and to leave only the fibres
like fibres of wool. These were then spun, and made into napkins. When
first made these napkins are not very white, but by putting them into the
fire for a while they come out as white as snow. And so again whenever
they become dirty they are bleached by being put in the fire.
Now this, and nought else, is the truth about the Salamander, and the
people of the country all say the same. Any other account of the matter is
fabulous nonsense. And I may add that they have at Rome a napkin of this
stuff, which the Grand Kaan sent to the Pope to make a wrapper for the
Holy Sudarium of Jesus Christ.[NOTE 6]
We will now quit this subject, and I will proceed with my account of the
countries lying in the direction between north-east and east.
NOTE 1.--The identification of this province is a difficulty, because the
geographical definition is vague, and the name assigned to it has not been
traced in other authors. It is said to lie _between north-west and north_,
whilst Kamul was said to lie _towards the north-west_. The account of both
provinces forms a digression, as is clear from the last words of the
present chapter, where the traveller returns to take up his regular route
"in the direction between north-east and east." The point from which he
digresses, and to which he reverts, is Shachau, and 'tis presumably from
Shachau that he assigns bearings to the two provinces forming the subject
of the digression. Hence, as Kamul lies _vers maistre_, i.e. north-west,
and Chingintalas _entre maistre et tramontaine_, i.e. nor'-nor'-west,
Chingintalas can scarcely lie due west of Kamul, as M. Pauthier would
place it, in identifying it with an obscure place called _Saiyintala_, in
the territory of Urumtsi. Moreover, the province is said to belong to the
Great Kaan. Now, _Urumtsi_ or Bishbalik seems to have belonged, not to the
Great Kaan, but to the empire of Chagatai, or possibly at this time to
Kaidu. Rashiduddin, speaking of the frontier between the Kaan and Kaidu,
says:--"From point to point are posted bodies of troops under the orders
of princes of the blood or other generals, and they often come to blows
with the troops of Kaidu. Five of these are cantoned on the verge of the
Desert; a sixth in Tangut, near Chagan-Nor (White Lake); a seventh in the
vicinity of Karakhoja, a city of the Uighurs, which lies between the two
States, and maintains neutrality."
Karakhoja, this neutral town, is near Turfan, to the south-east of
Urumtsi, which thus would lie _without_ the Kaan's boundary; Kamul and the
country north-east of it would lie within it. This country, to the north
and north-east of Kamul, has remained till quite recently unexplored by
any modern traveller, unless we put faith in Mr. Atkinson's somewhat hazy
narrative. But it is here that I would seek for Chingintalas.
Several possible explanations of this name have suggested themselves or
been suggested to me. I will mention two.
1. Klaproth states that the Mongols applied to Tibet the name of
_Baron-tala_, signifying the "Right Side," i.e. the south-west or south
quarter, whilst Mongolia was called _Dzoehn_ (or _Dzegun_) _Tala_, i.e. the
"Left," or north-east side. It is possible that _Chigin-talas_ might
represent _Dzegun Tala_ in some like application. The etymology of
_Dzungaria_, a name which in modern times covers the territory of which we
are speaking, is similar.
2. Professor Vambery thinks that it is probably _Chingin Tala_, "The Vast
Plain." But nothing can be absolutely satisfactory in such a case except
historical evidence of the application of the name.
I have left the identity of this name undecided, though pointing to the
general position of the region so-called by Marco, as indicated by the
vicinity of the Tangnu-Ola Mountains (p. 215). A passage in the Journey of
the Taouist Doctor, Changchun, as translated by Dr. Bretschneider
(_Chinese Recorder and Miss. Journ._, Shanghai, Sept.-Oct., 1874, p. 258),
suggests to me the strong probability that it may be the _Kem-kem-jut_ of
Rashiduddin, called by the Chinese teacher _Kien-kien_-chau.
Rashiduddin couples the territory of the Kirghiz with Kemkemjut, but
defines the country embracing both with some exactness: "On one side
(south-east?), it bordered on the Mongol country; on a second
(north-east?), it was bounded by the Selenga; on a third (north), by the
'great river called Angara, which flows on the confines of Ibir-Sibir'
(i.e. of Siberia); on a fourth side by the territory of the Naimans. This
great country contained _many towns and villages_, as well as many nomad
inhabitants." Dr. Bretschneider's Chinese Traveller speaks of it as a
country where _good iron was found_, where (grey) squirrels abounded, and
wheat was cultivated. Other notices quoted by him show that it lay to the
south-east of the Kirghiz country, and had its name from the _Kien_ or
_Ken_ R. (i.e. the Upper Yenisei).
The name (_Kienkien_), the general direction, the existence of good iron
("steel and ondanique"), the many towns and villages in a position where
we should little look for such an indication, all point to the identity of
this region with the Chingintalas of our text. The only alteration called
for in the Itinerary Map (No. IV.) would be to spell the name _Hinkin_, or
_Ghinghin_ (as it _is_ in the Geographic Text), and to shift it a very
little further to the north.
(See _Chingin_ in _Kovalevski's Mongol Dict._, No. 2134; and for
_Baron-tala_, etc., see _Della Penna, Breve Notizia del Regno del Thibet_,
with Klaproth's notes, p. 6; _D'Avezac_, p. 568; _Relation_ prefixed to
D'Anville's Atlas, p. 11; _Alphabetum Tibetanum_, 454; and _Kircher, China
Illustrata_, p. 65.)
Since the first edition was published, Mr. Ney Elias has traversed the
region in question from east to west; and I learn from him that at Kobdo
he found the most usual name for that town among Mongols, Kalmaks, and
Russians to be SANKIN-hoto. He had not then thought of connecting this
name with Chinghin-talas, and has therefore no information as to its
origin or the extent of its application. But he remarks that Polo's
bearing of between north and north-west, if understood to be _from Kamul_,
would point exactly to Kobdo. He also calls attention to the Lake
_Sankin_-dalai, to the north-east of Uliasut'ai, of which Atkinson gives a
sketch. The recurrence of this name over so wide a tract may have
something to do with the Chinghin-talas of Polo. But we must still wait
for further light.[1]
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