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

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["Supposing that M. Polo mentions this place on his way from Sha-chow to
Su-chow, it is natural to think that it is _Chi-kin-talas_, i.e. 'Chi-kin
plain' or valley; Chi-kin was the name of a lake, called so even now, and
of a defile, which received its name from the lake. The latter is on the
way from Kia-yue kwan to Ansi chow." (_Palladius_, l.c. p. 7.) "_Chikin_,
or more correctly _Chigin_, is a Mongol word meaning 'ear.'" (Ibid.)
Palladius (p. 8) adds: "The Chinese accounts of Chi-kin are not in
contradiction to the statements given by M. Polo regarding the same
subject; but when the distances are taken into consideration, a serious
difficulty arises; Chi-kin is two hundred and fifty or sixty _li_ distant
from Su-chow, whilst, according to M. Polo's statement, ten days are
necessary to cross this distance. One of the three following explanations
of this discrepancy must be admitted: either Chingintalas is not Chi-kin,
or the traveller's memory failed, or, lastly, an error crept into the
number of days' journey. The two last suppositions I consider the most
probable; the more so that similar difficulties occur several times in
Marco Polo's narrative." (L.c. p. 8.)--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--[_Ondanique_.--We have already referred to this word, _Kerman_,
p. 90. _Cobinan_, p. 124. La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (_Dict._), F. Godefroy
(_Dict._), Du Cange (_Gloss._), all give to _andain_ the meaning of
_enjambee_, from the Latin _andare_. Godefroy, _s.v. andaine_, calls it
_sorte d'acier ou de fer_, and quotes besides Marco Polo:

"I. espiel, ou ot fer d'andaine,
Dont la lamele n'iert pas trouble."

(Huon de Mery, _Le Tornoiement de l'Antechrist_, p. 3, Tarbe.)

There is a forest in the department of Orne, arrondissement of Domfront,
which belonged to the Crown before 1669, and is now State property, called
Foret d'Andaine; it is situated near some bed of iron. Is this the origin
of the name?--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--The Altai, or one of its ramifications, is probably the mountain
of the text, but so little is known of this part of the Chinese territory
that we can learn scarcely anything of its mineral products. Still Martini
does mention that asbestos is found "in the Tartar country of _Tangu_,"
which probably is the _Tangnu Oola_ branch of the Altai to the south of
the Upper Yenisei, and in the very region we have indicated as
Chingintalas. Mr. Elias tells me he inquired for asbestos by its Chinese
name at Uliasut'ai, but without success.

NOTE 4.--

"Degli elementi quattro principali,
Che son la Terra, e l'Acqua, e l'Aria, e'l Foco,
Composti sono gli universi Animali,
Pigliando di ciascuno assai o poco."
(_Dati_, _La Sfera_, p. 9.)

_Zurficar_ in the next sentence is a Mahomedan name, _Zu'lfikar_, the
title of [the edge of] Ali's sword.

NOTE 5.--Here the G. Text adds: "_Et je meisme le vi_," intimating, I
conceive, his having himself seen specimens of the asbestos--not to his
having been at the place.

NOTE 6.--The story of the Salamander passing unhurt through fire is at
least as old as Aristotle. But I cannot tell when the fable arose that
asbestos was a substance derived from the animal. This belief, however,
was general in the Middle Ages, both in Asia and Europe. "The fable of the
Salamander," says Sir Thomas Browne, "hath been much promoted by stories
of incombustible napkins and textures which endure the fire, whose
materials are called by the name of Salamander's wool, which many, too
literally apprehending, conceive some investing part or integument of the
Salamander.... Nor is this Salamander's wool desumed from any animal, but
a mineral substance, metaphorically so called for this received opinion."

Those who knew that the Salamander was a lizard-like animal were indeed
perplexed as to its woolly coat. Thus the Cardinal de Vitry is fain to say
the creature "_profert ex cute_ quasi quamdam lanam _de qua zonae
contextae comburi non possunt igne._" A Bestiary, published by Cahier and
Martin, says of it: "_De lui naist une cose qui n'est ne soie ne lin ne
laine._" Jerome Cardan looked in vain, he says, for hair on the
Salamander! Albertus Magnus calls the incombustible fibre _pluma
Salamandri_; and accordingly Bold Bauduin de Sebourc finds the Salamander
in the Terrestrial Paradise _a kind of bird covered with the whitest
plumage_; of this he takes some, which he gets woven into a cloth; this he
presents to the Pope, and the Pontiff applies it to the purpose mentioned
in the text, viz. to cover the holy napkin of St. Veronica.

Gervase of Tilbury writes: "I saw, when lately at Rome, a broad strap of
Salamander skin, like a girdle for the loins, which had been brought
thither by Cardinal Peter of Capua. When it had become somewhat soiled by
use, I myself saw it cleaned perfectly, and without receiving harm, by
being put in the fire."

In Persian the creature is called _Samandar, Samandal_, etc., and some
derive the word from _Sam_, "fire," and _Andar_, "within." Doubtless it is
a corruption of the Greek [Greek: Salamandra], whatever be the origin of
that. Bakui says the animal is found at Ghur, near Herat, and is _like a
mouse_. Another author, quoted by D'Herbelot, says it is _like a marten_.

[Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, in his _Introductory Remarks_ to Prjevalsky's
_Travels to Lob-nor_ (p. 20), at Aksu says: "The asbestos mentioned by
Marco Polo as a utilized product of this region is not even so known in
this country."--H. C.]

+ Interesting details regarding the fabrication of cloth and paper from
amianth or asbestos are contained in a report presented to the French
Institute by M. Sage (_Mem. Ac. Sciences_, 2e Sem., 1806, p. 102), of
which large extracts are given in the _Diction. general des Tissus_, par
M. Bezon, 2e ed. vol. ii. Lyon, 1859, p. 5. He mentions that a _Sudarium_
of this material is still shown at the Vatican; we hope it is the cover
which Kublai sent.

[This hope is not to be realized. Mgr. Duchesne, of the Institut de
France, writes to me from Rome, from information derived from the keepers
of the Vatican Museum, that there is no sudarium from the Great Khan, that
indeed part of a sudarium made of asbestos is shown (under glass) in this
Museum, about 20 inches long, but it is ancient, and was found in a Pagan
tomb of the Appian Way.--H. C.]

M. Sage exhibited incombustible paper made from this material, and had
himself seen a small furnace of Chinese origin made from it. Madame
Perpente, an Italian lady, who experimented much with asbestos, found that
from a crude mass of that substance threads could be elicited which were
ten times the length of the mass itself, and were indeed sometimes several
metres in length, the fibres seeming to be involved, like silk in a
cocoon. Her process of preparation was much like that described by Marco.
She succeeded in carding and reeling the material, made gloves and the
like, as well as paper, from it, and sent to the Institute a work printed
on such paper.

The Rev. A. Williamson mentions asbestos as found in Shantung. The natives
use it for making stoves, crucibles, and so forth.

(_Sir T. Browne_, I. 293; _Bongars_, I. 1104; _Cahier et Martin_, III.
271; _Cardan, de Rer. Varietate_, VII. 33; _Alb. Mag. Opera_, 1551, II.
227, 233; _Fr. Michel, Recherches_, etc., II. 91; _Gerv. of Tilbury_, p.
13; _N. et E._ II. 493; _D. des Tissus_, II. 1-12; _J. N. China Branch R.
A. S._, December, 1867, p. 70.) [_Berger de Xivrey, Traditions
teratologiques_, 457-458, 460-463.--H. C.]

[1] The late Mr. Atkinson has been twice alluded to in this note. I take
the opportunity of saying that Mr. Ney Elias, a most competent judge,
who has travelled across the region in question whilst admitting, as
every one must, Atkinson's vagueness and sometimes very careless
statements, is not at all disposed to discredit the truth of his
narrative.

CHAPTER XLIII.

OF THE PROVINCE OF SUKCHUR.

On leaving the province of which I spoke before,[NOTE 1] you ride ten days
between north-east and east, and in all that way you find no human
dwelling, or next to none, so that there is nothing for our book to speak
of.

At the end of those ten days you come to another province called SUKCHUR,
in which there are numerous towns and villages. The chief city is called
SUKCHU.[NOTE 2] The people are partly Christians and partly Idolaters, and
all are subject to the Great Kaan.

The great General Province to which all these three provinces belong is
called TANGUT.

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.[NOTE 3] [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 lose their
hoofs. The cattle of the country know it and eschew it.[NOTE 4]] The
people live by agriculture, and have not much trade. [They are of a brown
complexion. The whole of the province is healthy.]

NOTE 1.--Referring apparently to Shachau; see Note 1 and the closing words
of last chapter.

NOTE 2.--There is no doubt that the province and city are those of
SUHCHAU, but there is a great variety in the readings, and several texts
have a marked difference between the name of the province and that of the
city, whilst others give them as the same. I have adopted those to which
the resultants of the readings of the best texts seem to point, viz.
_Succiur_ and _Succiu_, though with considerable doubt whether they should
not be identical. Pauthier declares that _Suctur_, which is the reading of
his favourite MS., is the exact pronunciation, after the vulgar Mongol
manner, of _Suh-chau-lu_, the _Lu_ or circuit of Suhchau; whilst Neumann
says that the Northern Chinese constantly add an euphonic particle _or_ to
the end of words. I confess to little faith in such refinements, when no
evidence is produced.

[Suhchau had been devastated and its inhabitants massacred by Chinghiz
Khan in 1226.--H. C.]

Suhchau is called by Rashiduddin, and by Shah Rukh's ambassadors,
_Sukchu_, in exact correspondence with the reading we have adopted for the
name of the city, whilst the Russian Envoy Boikoff, in the 17th century,
calls it "_Suktsey_, where the rhubarb grows"; and Anthony Jenkinson, in
Hakluyt, by a slight metathesis, _Sowchick_. Suhchau lies just within the
extreme north-west angle of the Great Wall. It was at Suhchau that
Benedict Goes was detained, waiting for leave to go on to Peking, eighteen
weary months, and there he died just as aid reached him.

NOTE 3.--The real rhubarb [_Rheum palmatum_] grows wild, on very high
mountains. The central line of its distribution appears to be the high
range dividing the head waters of the Hwang-Ho, Yalung, and Min-Kiang. The
chief markets are Siningfu (see ch. lvii.), and Kwan-Kian in Szechwan. In
the latter province an inferior kind is grown in fields, but the genuine
rhubarb defies cultivation. (See _Richthofen_, Letters, No. VII. p. 69.)
Till recently it was almost all exported by Kiakhta and Russia, but some
now comes via Hankau and Shanghai.

["See, on the preparation of the root in China, Gemelli-Careri.
(_Churchill's Collect._, Bk. III. ch. v. 365.) It is said that when
Chinghiz Khan was pillaging Tangut, the only things his minister, Yeh-lue
Ch'u-ts'ai, would take as his share of the booty were a few Chinese books
and a supply of rhubarb, with which he saved the lives of a great number
of Mongols, when, a short time after, an epidemic broke out in the army."
(_D'Ohsson_, I. 372.--_Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 193, note.)

"With respect to rhubarb ... the _Suchowchi_ also makes the remark, that
the best rhubarb, with golden flowers in the breaking, is gathered in this
province (district of _Shan-tan_), and that it is equally beneficial to
men and beasts, preserving them from the pernicious effects of the heat."
(_Palladius_, l.c. p. 9.)--H. C.]

NOTE 4.--_Erba_ is the title applied to the poisonous growth, which may be
either "plant" or "grass." It is not unlikely that it was a plant akin to
the _Andromeda ovalifolia_, the tradition of the poisonous character of
which prevails everywhere along the Himalaya from Nepal to the Indus.

It is notorious for poisoning sheep and goats at Simla and other hill
sanitaria; and Dr. Cleghorn notes the same circumstance regarding it that
Polo heard of the plant in Tangut, viz. that its effects on flocks
imported from the plains are highly injurious, whilst those of the hills
do not appear to suffer, probably because they shun the young leaves,
which alone are deleterious. Mr. Marsh attests the like fact regarding the
_Kalmia angustifolia_ of New England, a plant of the same order
(_Ericaceae_). Sheep bred where it abounds almost always avoid browsing on
its leaves, whilst those brought from districts where it is unknown feed
upon it and are poisoned.

Firishta, quoting from the _Zafar-Namah_, says: "On the road from Kashmir
towards Tibet there is a plain on which no other vegetable grows but a
poisonous grass that destroys all the cattle that taste of it, and
therefore no horsemen venture to travel that route." And Abbe Desgodins,
writing from E. Tibet, mentions that sheep and goats are poisoned by
rhododendron leaves. (_Dr. Hugh Cleghorn_ in _J. Agricultural and Hortic.
Society of India_, XIV. part 4; _Marsh's Man and Nature_, p. 40; _Briggs
Firishta_, IV. 449; _Bul. de la Soc. de Geog._ 1873, I. 333.)

["This poisonous plant seems to be the _Stipa inebrians_ described by the
late Dr. Hance in the _Journal of Bot._ 1876, p. 211, from specimens sent
to me by Belgian Missionaries from the Ala Shan Mountains, west of the
Yellow River." (_Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc._ I. p. 5.)

"M. Polo notices that the cattle not indigenous to the province lose their
hoofs in the Suh-chau Mountains; but that is probably not on account of
some poisonous grass, but in consequence of the stony ground."
(_Palladius_, l.c. p. 9.)--H. C.]

CHAPTER XLIV.

OF THE CITY OF CAMPICHU.

Campichu is also a city of Tangut, and a very great and noble one. Indeed
it is the capital and place of government of the whole province of
Tangut.[NOTE 1] The people are Idolaters, Saracens, and Christians, and
the latter have three very fine churches in the city, whilst the Idolaters
have many minsters and abbeys after their fashion. 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.[NOTE 2]
And round about them there are other figures of considerable size, as if
adoring and paying homage before them.

Now, as I have not yet given you particulars about the customs of these
Idolaters, I will proceed to tell you about them.

You must know that there are among them certain religious recluses who
lead a more virtuous life than the rest. These abstain from all lechery,
though they do not indeed regard it as a deadly sin; howbeit if any one
sin against nature they condemn him to death. They have an Ecclesiastical
Calendar as we have; and there are five days in the month that they
observe particularly; and on these five days they would on no account
either slaughter any animal or eat flesh meat. On those days, moreover,
they observe much greater abstinence altogether than on other days.[NOTE
3]

Among these people a man may take thirty wives, more or less, if he can
but afford to do so, each having wives in proportion to his wealth and
means; but the first wife is always held in highest consideration. The men
endow their wives with cattle, slaves, and money, according to their
ability. And if a man dislikes any one of his wives, he just turns her off
and takes another. They take to wife their cousins and their fathers'
widows (always excepting the man's own mother), holding to be no sin many
things that we think grievous sins, and, in short, they live like
beasts.[NOTE 4]

Messer Maffeo and Messer Marco Polo dwelt a whole year in this city when
on a mission.[NOTE 5]

Now we will leave this and tell you about other provinces towards the
north, for we are going to take you a sixty days' journey in that
direction.

NOTE 1.--Campichiu is undoubtedly Kanchau, which was at this time, as
Pauthier tells us, the chief city of the administration of _Kansuh_
corresponding to Polo's Tangut. _Kansuh_ itself is a name compounded of
the names of the two cities _Kan_-chau and _Suh_-chau.

[Kanchau fell under the Tangut dominion in 1208. (_Palladius_, p. 10.) The
Musulmans mentioned by Polo at Shachau and Kanchau probably came from
Khotan.--H. C.]

The difficulties that have been made about the form of the name
_Campiciou_, etc., in Polo, and the attempts to explain these, are
probably alike futile. Quatremere writes the Persian form of the name
after Abdurrazzak as _Kamtcheou_, but I see that Erdmann writes it after
Rashid, I presume on good grounds, as _Ckamidschu_, i.e. _Kamiju_ or
_Kamichu_. And that this _was_ the Western pronunciation of the name is
shown by the form which Pegolotti uses, _Camexu_, i.e. Camechu. The _p_ in
Polo's spelling is probably only a superfluous letter, as in the
occasional old spelling of _dampnum_, _contempnere_, _hympnus_,
_tirampnus_, _sompnour_, _Dampne Deu_. In fact, Marignolli writes Polo's
_Quinsai_ as _Campsay_.

It is worthy of notice that though Ramusio's text prints the names of
these two cities as _Succuir_ and _Campion_, his own pronunciation of them
appears to have been quite well understood by the Persian traveller Hajji
Mahomed, for it is perfectly clear that the latter recognized in these
names Suhchau and Kanchau. (See _Ram._ II. f. 14v.) The second volume of
the _Navigationi_, containing Polo, was published after Ramusio's death,
and it is possible that the names as he himself read them were more
correct (e.g. _Succiur, Campjou_).

[Illustration: Colossal Figure, Buddha entering Nirvana.
"Et si voz di qu'il ont de ydres que sunt grant dix pas.... Ceste grant
ydres gigent."...]

NOTE 2.--This is the meaning of the phrase in the G. T.: "_Ceste grande
ydre_ gigent," as may be seen from Ramusio's _giaciono distesi_. Lazari
renders the former expression, "giganteggia un idolo," etc., a phrase very
unlike Polo. The circumstance is interesting, because this recumbent
Colossus at Kanchau is mentioned both by Hajji Mahomed and by Shah Rukh's
people. The latter say: "In this city of Kanchu there is an Idol-Temple
500 cubits square. In the middle is an idol lying at length which measures
50 paces. The sole of the foot is nine paces long, and the instep is 21
cubits in girth. Behind this image and overhead are other idols of a cubit
(?) in height, besides figures of _Bakshis_ as large as life. The action
of all is hit off so admirably that you would think they were alive."
These great recumbent figures are favourites in Buddhist countries still,
e.g. in Siam, Burma, and Ceylon. They symbolise Sakya Buddha entering
_Nirvana_. Such a recumbent figure, perhaps the prototype of these, was
seen by Hiuen Tsang in a Vihara close to the Sal Grove at Kusinagara,
where Sakya entered that state, i.e. died. The stature of Buddha was, we
are told, 12 cubits; but Brahma, Indra, and the other gods vainly tried to
compute his dimensions. Some such rude metaphor is probably embodied in
these large images. I have described one 69 feet long in Burma
(represented in the cut), but others exist of much greater size, though
probably none equal to that which Hiuen Tsang, in the 7th century, saw
near Bamian, which was 1000 feet in length! I have heard of but one such
image remaining in India, viz. in one of the caves at Dhamnar in Malwa.
This is 15 feet long, and is popularly known as "Bhim's Baby." (_Cathay_,
etc., pp. cciii., ccxviii.; _Mission to Ava_, p. 52; _V. et V. de H. T._,
p. 374: _Cunningham's Archael. Reports_, ii. 274; _Tod_, ii. 273.)

["The temple, in which M. Polo saw an idol of Buddha, represented in a
lying position, is evidently _Wo-fo-sze_, i.e. 'Monastery of the lying
Buddha.' It was built in 1103 by a Tangut queen, to place there three
idols representing Buddha in this posture, which have since been found in
the ground on this very spot." (_Palladius_, l.c. p. 10.)

Rubruck (p. 144) says, "A Nestorian, who had come from Cathay told me that
in that country there is an idol so big that it can be seen from two days
off." Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 144, _note_) writes, "The largest stone
image I have seen is in a cave temple at Yung kan, about 10 miles
north-west of Ta t'ung Fu in Shan-si. Pere Gerbillon says the Emperor K'ang
hsi measured it himself and found it to be 57 _chih_ high (61 feet).
(_Duhalde, Description_, IV. 352.) I have seen another colossal statue in a
cave near Pinchou in north-west Shan-si, and there is another about 45
miles south of Ning hsia Fu, near the left bank of the Yellow River.
(_Rockhill, Land of the Lamas_, 26, and _Diary_, 47.) The great recumbent
figure of the 'Sleeping Buddha' in the Wo Fo ssu, near Peking, is of clay."

King Haython (Brosset's ed. p. 181) mentions the statue in clay, of an
extraordinary height, of a God (Buddha) aged 3040 years, who is to live
370,000 years more, when he will be superseded by another god called
_Madri_ (Maitreya).--H. C.]

[Illustration: Great Lama Monastery]

NOTE 3.--Marco is now speaking of the Lamas, or clergy of Tibetan
Buddhism. The customs mentioned have varied in details, both locally and
with the changes that the system has passed through in the course of time.

The institutes of ancient Buddhism set apart the days of new and full moon
to be observed by the _Sramanas_ or monks, by fasting, confession, and
listening to the reading of the law. It became usual for the laity to take
part in the observance, and the number of days was increased to three and
then to four, whilst Hiuen Tsang himself speaks of "the six fasts of every
month," and a Chinese authority quoted by Julien gives the days as the
8th, 14th, 15th, 23rd, 29th, and 30th. Fabian says that in Ceylon
preaching took place on the 8th, 14th, and 15th days of the month. Four is
the number now most general amongst Buddhist nations, and the days may be
regarded as a kind of Buddhist Sabbath. In the southern countries and in
Nepal they occur at the moon's changes. In Tibet and among the Mongol
Buddhists they are not at equal intervals, though I find the actual days
differently stated by different authorities. Pallas says the Mongols
observed the 13th, 14th, and 15th, the three days being brought together,
he thought, on account of the distance many Lamas had to travel to the
temple--just as in some Scotch country parishes they used to give two
sermons in one service for like reason! Koeppen, to whose work this note
is much indebted, says the Tibetan days are the 14th, 15th, 29th, 30th,
and adds as to the manner of observance: "On these days, by rule, among
the Lamas, nothing should be tasted but farinaceous food and tea; the very
devout refrain from all food from sunrise to sunset. The Temples are
decorated, and the altar tables set out with the holy symbols, with
tapers, and with dishes containing offerings in corn, meal, tea, butter,
etc., and especially with small pyramids of dough, or of rice or clay, and
accompanied by much burning of incense-sticks. The service performed by
the priests is more solemn, the music louder and more exciting, than
usual. The laity make their offerings, tell their beads, and repeat _Om
mani padma hom_," etc. In the _concordat_ that took place between the
Dalai-Lama and the Altun Khaghan, on the reconversion of the Mongols to
Buddhism in the 16th century, one of the articles was the entire
prohibition of hunting and the slaughter of animals on the monthly fast
days. The practice varies much, however, even in Tibet, with different
provinces and sects--a variation which the Ramusian text of Polo implies
in these words: "For five days, or _four days_, or _three_ in each month,
they shed no blood," etc.

In Burma the Worship Day, as it is usually called by Europeans, is a very
gay scene, the women flocking to the pagodas in their brightest attire.
(_H. T. Memoires_, I. 6, 208; _Koeppen_, I. 563-564, II. 139, 307-308;
_Pallas, Samml._ II. 168-169).

NOTE 4.--These matrimonial customs are the same that are afterwards
ascribed to the Tartars, so we defer remark.

NOTE 5.--So Pauthier's text, "_en legation_." The G. Text includes Nicolo
Polo, and says, "on business of theirs that is not worth mentioning," and
with this Ramusio agrees.

CHAPTER XLV.

OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.

When you leave the city of Campichu you ride for twelve days, and then
reach a city called ETZINA, which is towards the north on the verge of the
Sandy Desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut.[NOTE 1] The people are
Idolaters, and possess plenty of camels and cattle, and the country
produces a number of good falcons, both Sakers and Lanners. The
inhabitants live by their cultivation and their cattle, for they have no
trade. At this city you must needs lay in victuals for forty days, because
when you quit Etzina, you enter on a desert which extends forty days'
journey to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor
baiting-place.[NOTE 2] In the summer-time, indeed, you will fall in with
people, but in the winter the cold is too great. You also meet with wild
beasts (for there are some small pine-woods here and there), and with
numbers of wild asses.[NOTE 3] When you have travelled these forty days
across the Desert you come to a certain province lying to the north. Its
name you shall hear presently.