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

M >> Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa >> The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1

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The clothes of the wealthy Tartars are for the most part of gold and silk
stuffs, lined with costly furs, such as sable and ermine, vair and
fox-skin, in the richest fashion.


NOTE 1.--There is no reference here to Buddhism, which was then of recent
introduction among the Mongols; indeed, at the end of the chapter, Polo
speaks of their new adoption of the Chinese idolatry, i.e. Buddhism. We
may add here that the Buddhism of the Mongols decayed and became
practically extinct after their expulsion from China (1368-1369). The old
Shamanism then apparently revived; nor was it till 1577 that the great
reconversion of Mongolia to Lamaism began. This reconversion is the most
prominent event in the Mongol history of Sanang Setzen, whose
great-grandfather Khutuktai Setzen, Prince of the Ordos, was a chief agent
in the movement.

The Supreme Good Spirit appears to have been called by the Mongols
_Tengri_ (Heaven), and _Khormuzda_, and is identified by Schmidt with the
Persian Hormuzd. In Buddhist times he became identified with Indra.

Plano Carpini's account of this matter is very like Marco's: "They believe
in one God, the Maker of all things, visible and invisible, and the
Distributor of good and evil in this world; but they worship Him not with
prayers or praises or any kind of service. Natheless, they have certain
idols of felt, imitating the human face, and having underneath the face
something resembling teats; these they place on either side of the door.
These they believe to be the guardians of the flocks, from whom they have
the boons of milk and increase. Others they fabricate of bits of silk, and
these are highly honoured;... and whenever they begin to eat or drink,
they first offer these idols a portion of their food or drink."

The account agrees generally with what we are told of the original
Shamanism of the Tunguses, which recognizes a Supreme Power over all, and
a small number of potent spirits called _Ongot_. These spirits among the
Buraets are called, according to one author, _Nougait_ or _Nogat_, and
according to Erman _Ongotui_. In some form of this same word, _Nogait,
Ongot, Onggod, Ongotui_, we are, I imagine, to trace the _Natigay_ of
Polo. The modern representative of this Shamanist _Lar_ is still found
among the Buraets, and is thus described by Pallas under the name of
_Immegiljin_: "He is honoured as the tutelary god of the sheep and other
cattle. Properly, the divinity consists of _two_ figures, hanging side by
side, one of whom represents the god's wife. These two figures are merely
a pair of lanky flat bolsters with the upper part shaped into a round
disk, and the body hung with a long woolly fleece; eyes, nose, breasts,
and navel, being indicated by leather knobs stitched on. The male figure
commonly has at his girdle the foot-rope with which horses at pasture are
fettered, whilst the female, which is sometimes accompanied by smaller
figures representing her children, has all sorts of little nicknacks and
sewing implements." Galsang Czomboyef, a recent Russo-Mongol writer
already quoted, says also: "Among the Buryats, in the middle of the hut
and place of honour, is the _Dsaiagachi_ or 'Chief Creator of Fortune.' At
the door is the _Emelgelji_, the Tutelary of the Herds and Young Cattle,
made of sheepskins. Outside the hut is the _Chandaghatu_, a name implying
that the idol was formed of a white hare-skin, the Tutelary of the Chase
and perhaps of War. All these have been expelled by Buddhism except
Dsaiagachi, who is called _Tengri_, and introduced among the Buddhist
divinities."

[Illustration: Tartar Idols and Kumis Churn.]

[Dorji Banzaroff, in his dissertation _On the Black Religion_, i.e.
Shamanism, 1846, "is disposed to see in Natigay of M. Polo, the Ytoga of
other travellers, i.e. the Mongol _Etugen_--'earth,' as the object of
veneration of the Mongol Shamans. They look upon it as a divinity, for its
power as _Delegei in echen_, i.e. 'the Lord of Earth,' and on account of
its productiveness, _Altan delegei_, i.e. 'Golden Earth.'" Palladius (l.c.
pp. 14-16) adds one new variant to what the learned Colonel Yule has
collected and set forth with such precision, on the Shaman household gods.
"The Dahurs and Barhus have in their dwellings, according to the number of
the male members of the family, puppets made of straw, on which eyes,
eyebrows, and mouth are drawn; these puppets are dressed up to the waist.
When some one of the family dies, his puppet is taken out of the house,
and a new puppet is made for every newly-born member of the family. On New
Year's Day offerings are made to the puppets, and care is taken not to
disturb them (by moving them, etc.), in order to avoid bringing sickness
upon the family." (_He lung kiang wai ki_.)

(Cf. _Rubruck_, 58-59, and Mr. Rockhill's note, 59-60.)--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--KIMIZ or KUMIZ, the habitual drink of the Mongols, as it still is
of most of the nomads of Asia. It is thus made. Fresh mare's milk is put
in a well-seasoned bottle-necked vessel of horse-skin; a little _kurut_
(see note 5, ch. liv.) or some sour cow's milk is added; and when acetous
fermentation is commencing it is violently churned with a peculiar staff
which constantly stands in the vessel. This interrupts fermentation and
introduces a quantity of air into the liquid. It is customary for visitors
who may drop in to give a turn or two at the churn-stick. After three or
four days the drink is ready.

Kumiz keeps long; it is wonderfully tonic and nutritious, and it is said
that it has cured many persons threatened with consumption. The tribes
using it are said to be remarkably free from pulmonary disease; and indeed
I understand there is a regular _Galactopathic_ establishment somewhere in
the province of Orenburg for treating pulmonary patients with Kumiz diet.

It has a peculiar fore- and after-taste which, it is said, everybody does
not like. Yet I have found no confession of a dislike to Kumiz. Rubruquis
tells us it is pungent on the tongue, like _vinum raspei_ (_vin rape_ of
the French), whilst you are drinking it, but leaves behind a pleasant
flavour like milk of almonds. It makes a man's inside feel very cosy, he
adds, even turning a weak head, and is strongly diuretic. To this last
statement, however, modern report is in direct contradiction. The Greeks
and other Oriental Christians considered it a sort of denial of the faith
to drink Kumiz. On the other hand, the Mahomedan converts from the nomad
tribes seem to have adhered to the use of Kumiz even when strict in
abstinence from wine; and it was indulged in by the early Mamelukes as a
public solemnity. Excess on such an occasion killed Bibars Bundukdari, who
was passionately fond of this liquor.

The intoxicating power of Kumiz varies according to the _brew_. The more
advanced is the vinous fermentation the less acid is the taste and the
more it sparkles. The effect, however, is always slight and transitory,
and leaves no unpleasant sensation, whilst it produces a strong tendency
to refreshing sleep. If its good qualities amount to half what are
ascribed to it by Dr. W. F. Dahl, from whom we derive some of these
particulars, it must be the pearl of all beverages. "With the nomads it is
the drink of all from the suckling upwards, it is the solace of age and
illness, and the greatest of treats to all!"

There was a special kind called _Kara Kumiz_, which is mentioned both by
Rubruquis and in the history of Wassaf. It seems to have been strained and
clarified. The modern Tartars distil a spirit from Kumiz of which Pallas
gives a detailed account. (_Dahl, Ueber den Kumyss_ in _Baer's Beitraege_,
VII.; _Lettres sur le Caucase et la Crimee_, Paris, 1859, p. 81;
_Makrizi_, II. 147; _J. As._ XI. 160; _Levchine_, 322-323; _Rubr._
227-228, 335; _Gold. Horde_, p. 46; _Erman_, I. 296; _Pallas, Samml._ I.
132 seqq.)

[In the _Si yu ki_, Travels to the West of Ch'ang ch'un, we find a drink
called _tung lo_. "The Chinese characters, _tung lo_," says Bretschneider
(_Med. Res._ I. 94), "denote according to the dictionaries preparations
from mare's or cow's milk, as Kumis, sour milk, etc. In the _Yuan shi_
(ch. cxxviii.) biography of the Kipchak prince _Tu-tu-ha_, it is stated
that 'black mare's milk' (evidently the cara cosmos of Rubruck), very
pleasant to the taste, used to be sent from Kipchak to the Mongol court in
China." (On the drinks of the Mongols, see Mr. Rockhill's note, _Rubruck_,
p. 62.)--The Mongols indulge in sour milk (_tarak_) and distilled mare's
milk (_arreki_), but Mr. Rockhill (_Land of the Lamas_, 130) says he never
saw them drink _kumiz_.--H. C.]

The mare's-milk drink of Scythian nomads is alluded to by many ancient
authors. But the manufacture of Kumiz is particularly spoken of by
Herodotus. "The (mare's) milk is poured into deep wooden casks, about
which the blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred round.
That which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the best part;
the under portion is of less account." Strabo also speaks of the nomads
beyond the Cimmerian Chersonesus, who feed on horse-flesh and other flesh,
mare's-milk cheese, mare's milk, and sour milk ([Greek: oxygalakta])
"_which they have a particular way of preparing_." Perhaps Herodotus was
mistaken about the wooden tubs. At least all modern attempts to use
anything but the orthodox skins have failed. Priscus, in his narrative of
the mission of himself and Maximin to Attila, says the Huns brought them a
drink made from _barley_ which they called [Greek: Kamos]. The barley was,
no doubt, a misapprehension of his. (_Herod._ Bk. iv. p. 2, in _Rawl._;
_Strabo_, VII. 4, 6; _Excerpta de Legationibus_, in _Corp. Hist. Byzant._
I. 55.)




CHAPTER LIV.

CONCERNING THE TARTAR CUSTOMS OF WAR.


All their harness of war is excellent and costly. Their arms are bows and
arrows, sword and mace; but above all the bow, for they are capital
archers, indeed the best that are known. On their backs they wear armour
of cuirbouly, prepared from buffalo and other hides, which is very
strong.[NOTE 1] They are excellent soldiers, and passing valiant in
battle. They are also more capable of hardships than other nations; for
many a time, if need be, they will go for a month without any supply of
food, living only on the milk of their mares and on such game as their
bows may win them. Their horses also will subsist entirely on the grass of
the plains, so that there is no need to carry store of barley or straw or
oats; and they are very docile to their riders. These, in case of need,
will abide on horseback the livelong night, armed at all points, while the
horse will be continually grazing.

Of all troops in the world these are they which endure the greatest
hardship and fatigue, and which cost the least; and they are the best of
all for making wide conquests of country. And this you will perceive from
what you have heard and shall hear in this book; and (as a fact) there can
be no manner of doubt that now they are the masters of the biggest half of
the world. Their troops are admirably ordered in the manner that I shall
now relate.

You see, when a Tartar prince goes forth to war, he takes with him, say,
100,000 horse. Well, he appoints an officer to every ten men, one to every
hundred, one to every thousand, and one to every ten thousand, so that his
own orders have to be given to ten persons only, and each of these ten
persons has to pass the orders only to other ten, and so on; no one having
to give orders to more than ten. And every one in turn is responsible only
to the officer immediately over him; and the discipline and order that
comes of this method is marvellous, for they are a people very obedient to
their chiefs. Further, they call the corps of 100,000 men a _Tuc_; that of
10,000 they call a _Toman_; the thousand they call...; the hundred _Guz_;
the ten....[NOTE 2] And when the army is on the march they have always 200
horsemen, very well mounted, who are sent a distance of two marches in
advance to reconnoitre, and these always keep ahead. They have a similar
party detached in the rear, and on either flank, so that there is a good
look-out kept on all sides against a surprise. When they are going on a
distant expedition they take no gear with them except two leather bottles
for milk; a little earthenware pot to cook their meat in, and a little
tent to shelter them from rain.[NOTE 3] And in case of great urgency they
will ride ten days on end without lighting a fire or taking a meal. On
such an occasion they will sustain themselves on the blood of their
horses, opening a vein and letting the blood jet into their mouths,
drinking till they have had enough, and then staunching it.[NOTE 4]

They also have milk dried into a kind of paste to carry with them; and
when they need food they put this in water, and beat it up till it
dissolves, and then drink it. [It is prepared in this way; they boil the
milk, and when the rich part floats on the top they skim it into another
vessel, and of that they make butter; for the milk will not become solid
till this is removed. Then they put the milk in the sun to dry. And when
they go on an expedition, every man takes some ten pounds of this dried
milk with him. And of a morning he will take a half pound of it and put it
in his leather bottle, with as much water as he pleases. So, as he rides
along, the milk-paste and the water in the bottle get well churned
together into a kind of pap, and that makes his dinner.[NOTE 5]]

When they come to an engagement with the enemy, they will gain the victory
in this fashion. [They never let themselves get into a regular medley, but
keep perpetually riding round and shooting into the enemy. And] as they do
not count it any shame to run away in battle, they will [sometimes pretend
to] do so, and in running away they turn in the saddle and shoot hard and
strong at the foe, and in this way make great havoc. Their horses are
trained so perfectly that they will double hither and thither, just like a
dog, in a way that is quite astonishing. Thus they fight to as good
purpose in running away as if they stood and faced the enemy, because of
the vast volleys of arrows that they shoot in this way, turning round upon
their pursuers, who are fancying that they have won the battle. But when
the Tartars see that they have killed and wounded a good many horses and
men, they wheel round bodily, and return to the charge in perfect order
and with loud cries; and in a very short time the enemy are routed. In
truth they are stout and valiant soldiers, and inured to war. And you
perceive that it is just when the enemy sees them run, and imagines that
he has gained the battle, that he has in reality lost it; for the Tartars
wheel round in a moment when they judge the right time has come. And after
this fashion they have won many a fight.[NOTE 6]

All this that I have been telling you is true of the manners and customs
of the genuine Tartars. But I must add also that in these days they are
greatly degenerated; for those who are settled in Cathay have taken up the
practices of the Idolaters of the country, and have abandoned their own
institutions; whilst those who have settled in the Levant have adopted the
customs of the Saracens.[NOTE 7]


NOTE 1.--The bow was the characteristic weapon of the Tartars, insomuch
that the Armenian historians often call them "The Archers." (_St. Martin_,
II. 133.) "CUIRBOULY, leather softened by boiling, in which it took any
form or impression required, and then hardened." (_Wright's Dict._) The
English adventurer among the Tartars, whose account of them is given by
Archbishop Ivo of Narbonne, in Matthew Paris (_sub._ 1243), says: "De
coriis bullitis sibi arma levia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia
coaptarunt." This armour is particularly described by Plano Carpini
(p. 685). See the tail-piece to Book IV.

[Mr. E. H. Parker (_China Review_, XXIV. iv. p. 205) remarks that "the
first coats of mail were made in China in 1288: perhaps the idea was
obtained from the Malays or Arabs."--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--M. Pauthier has judiciously pointed out the omissions that have
occurred here, perhaps owing to Rusticiano's not properly catching the
foreign terms applied to the various grades. In the G. Text the passage
runs: "_Et sachies que les cent mille est apelle un_ Tut (read _tuc_) _et
les dix mille un_ Toman, _et les por milier et por centenier et por
desme_." In Pauthier's (uncorrected) text one of the missing words is
supplied: "_Et appellent les C.M. un_ Tuc; _et les X.M. un_ Toman; _et un
millier_ Guz _por centenier et por disenier_." The blanks he supplies thus
from Abulghazi: "_Et un millier_: [un Miny]; _Guz, por centenier et_ [Un]
_por disenier_." The words supplied are Turki, but so is the _Guz_, which
appears already in Pauthier's text, whilst _Toman_ and _Tuc_ are common to
Turki and Mongol. The latter word, _Tuk_ or _Tugh_, is the horse-tail or
yak-tail standard which among so many Asiatic nations has marked the
supreme military command. It occurs as _Taka_ in ancient Persian, and
Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of it as _Tupha_. The Nine Orloks or Marshals
under Chinghiz were entitled to the _Tuk_, and theirs is probably the
class of command here indicated as of 100,000, though the figure must not
be strictly taken. Timur ordains that every Amir who should conquer a
kingdom or command in a victory should receive a title of honour, the
_Tugh_ and the _Nakkara_. (Infra, Bk. II. ch. iv. note 3.) Baber on
several occasions speaks of conferring the _Tugh_ upon his generals for
distinguished service. One of the military titles at Bokhara is still
_Tokhsabai_, a corruption of _Tugh-Sahibi_, (Master of the Tugh).

We find the whole gradation except the _Tuc_ in a rescript of Janibeg,
Khan of Sarai, in favour of Venetian merchants dated February 1347. It
begins in the Venetian version: "_La parola de Zanibeck allo puovolo di
Mogoli, alli_ Baroni di Thomeni,[1] delli miera, delli centenera, delle
dexiene." (_Erdmann_, 576; _D'Avezac_, 577-578; _Remusat, Langues
Tartares_, 303; _Pallas, Samml._ I. 283; _Schmidt_, 379, 381; _Baber_,
260, etc.; _Vambery_, 374; _Timour Inst._ pp. 283 and 292-293; _Bibl. de
l'Ec. des Chartes_, tom. lv. p. 585.)

The decimal division of the army was already made by Chinghiz at an early
period of his career, and was probably much older than his time. In fact
we find the Myriarch and Chiliarch already in the Persian armies of Darius
Hystaspes. From the Tartars the system passed into nearly all the Musulman
States of Asia, and the titles _Min-bashi_ or _Bimbashi_, _Yuzbashi_,
_Onbashi_, still subsist not only in Turkestan, but also in Turkey and
Persia. The term _Tman_ or _Tma_ was, according to Herberstein, still used
in Russia in his day for 10,000. (_Ramus._ II. 159.)

[The King of An-nam, Dinh Tien-hoang (A.D. 968) had an army of 1,000,000
men forming 10 corps of 10 legions; each legion forming 10 cohorts of 10
centuries; each century forming 10 squads of 10 men.--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--Ramusio's edition says that what with horses and mares there will
be an average of eighteen beasts (?) to every man.

NOTE 4.--See the Oriental account quoted below in Note 6.

So Dionysius, combining this practice with that next described, relates of
the Massagetae that they have no delicious bread nor native wine:

"But with horse's blood
And white milk mingled set their banquets forth."
(_Orbis Desc._ 743-744.)

And Sidonius:

"Solitosque cruentum
Lac potare Getas, et pocula tingere venis."
(_Parag. ad Avitum._)

["The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows in
battle." (_Herodotus_, _Rawlinson_, Bk. IV. ch. 64, p. 54.)--H. C.] "When
in lack of food, they bleed a horse and suck the vein. If they need
something more solid, they put a sheep's pudding full of blood under the
saddle; this in time gets coagulated and cooked by the heat, and then they
devour it." (_Georg. Pachymeres_, V. 4.) The last is a well-known story,
but is strenuously denied and ridiculed by Bergmann. (_Streifereien_, etc.
I. 15.) Joinville tells the same story. Hans Schiltberger asserts it very
distinctly: "Ich hon och gesehen wann sie in reiss ylten, das sie ein
fleisch nemen, und es dunn schinden und legents unter den sattel, und
riten doruff; und essents wann sie hungert" (ch. 35). Botero had "heard
from a trustworthy source that a Tartar of Perekop, travelling on the
steppes, lived for some days on the blood of his horse, and then, not
daring to bleed it more, cut off and ate its _ears_!" (_Relazione
Univers._ p. 93.) The Turkmans speak of such practices, but Conolly says
he came to regard them as hyperbolical talk (I. 45).

[Abul-Ghazi Khan, in his History of Mongols, describing a raid of Russian
(_Ourous_) Cossacks, who were hemmed in by the Uzbeks, says: "The Russians
had in continued fighting exhausted all their water. They began to drink
blood; the fifth day they had not even blood remaining to drink."
(_Transl. by Baron Des Maisons_, St. Petersburg, II. 295.)]

NOTE 5.--Rubruquis thus describes this preparation, which is called
_Kurut_: "The milk that remains after the butter has been made, they allow
to get as sour as sour can be, and then boil it. In boiling, it curdles,
and that curd they dry in the sun; and in this way it becomes as hard as
iron-slag. And so it is stored in bags against the winter. In the winter
time, when they have no milk, they put that sour curd, which they call
_Griut_, into a skin, and pour warm water on it, and they shake it
violently till the curd dissolves in the water, to which it gives an acid
flavour; that water they drink in place of milk. But above all things they
eschew drinking plain water." From Pallas's account of the modern
practice, which is substantially the same, these cakes are also made from
the leavings of distillation in making milk-arrack. The Kurut is
frequently made of ewe-milk. Wood speaks of it as an indispensable article
in the food of the people of Badakhshan, and under the same name it is a
staple food of the Afghans. (_Rubr._ 229; _Samml._ I. 136; _Dahl_, u.s.;
_Wood_, 311.)

[It is the _ch'ura_ of the Tibetans. "In the Kokonor country and Tibet,
this _krut_ or _chura_ is put in tea to soften, and then eaten either
alone or mixed with parched barley meal (_tsamba_)." (_Rockhill, Rubruck_,
p. 68, note.)--H. C.]

NOTE 6.--Compare with Marco's account the report of the Mongols, which was
brought by the spies of Mahomed, Sultan of Khwarizm, when invasion was
first menaced by Chinghiz: "The army of Chinghiz is countless, as a swarm
of ants or locusts. Their warriors are matchless in lion-like valour, in
obedience, and endurance. They take no rest, and flight or retreat is
unknown to them. On their expeditions they are accompanied by oxen, sheep,
camels, and horses, and sweet or sour milk suffices them for food. Their
horses scratch the earth with their hoofs and feed on the roots and
grasses they dig up, so that they need neither straw nor oats. They
themselves reck nothing of the clean or the unclean in food, and eat the
flesh of all animals, even of dogs, swine, and bears. They will open a
horse's vein, draw blood, and drink it.... In victory they leave neither
small nor great alive; they cut up women great with child and cleave the
fruit of the womb. If they come to a great river, as they know nothing of
boats, they sew skins together, stitch up all their goods therein, tie the
bundle to their horses' tails, mount with a hard grip of the mane, and so
swim over." This passage is an absolute abridgment of many chapters of
Carpini. Still more terse was the sketch of Mongol proceedings drawn by a
fugitive from Bokhara after Chinghiz's devastations there. It was set
forth in one unconscious hexameter:

"_Amdand u khandand u sokhtand u kushtand u burdand u raftand!_"
"They came and they sapped, they fired and they slew, trussed up their
loot and were gone!"

Juwaini, the historian, after telling the story, adds: "The cream and
essence of whatever is written in this volume might be represented in
these few words."

A Musulman author quoted by Hammer, Najmuddin of Rei, gives an awful
picture of the Tartar devastations, "Such as had never been heard of,
whether in the lands of unbelief or of Islam, and can only be likened to
those which the Prophet announced as signs of the Last Day, when he said:
'The Hour of Judgment shall not come until ye shall have fought with the
Turks, men small of eye and ruddy of countenance, whose noses are flat,
and their faces like hide-covered shields. Those shall be Days of Horror!'
'And what meanest thou by horror?' said the Companions; and he replied,
'SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER!' This beheld the Prophet in vision 600 years ago.
And could there well be worse slaughter than there was in Rei, where I,
wretch that I am, was born and bred, and where the whole population of
five hundred thousand souls was either butchered or dragged into slavery?"

Marco habitually suppresses or ignores the frightful brutalities of the
Tartars, but these were somewhat less, no doubt, in Kublai's time.


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