The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 - Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
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The Hindustani poet Amir Khosru gives a picture of the Mongols more
forcible than elegant, which Elliot has translated (III. 528).
This is Hayton's account of the Parthian tactics of the Tartars: "They
will run away, but always keeping their companies together; and it is very
dangerous to give them chase, for as they flee they shoot back over their
heads, and do great execution among their pursuers. They keep very close
rank, so that you would not guess them for half their real strength."
Carpini speaks to the same effect. Baber, himself of Mongol descent, but
heartily hating his kindred, gives this account of their military usage in
his day: "Such is the uniform practice of these wretches the Moghuls; if
they defeat the enemy they instantly seize the booty; if they are
defeated, they plunder and dismount their own allies, and, betide what
may, carry off the spoil." (_Erdmann_, 364, 383, 620; _Gold. Horde_, 77,
80; _Elliot_, II. 388; _Hayton_ in _Ram._ ch. xlviii.; _Baber_, 93;
_Carpini_, p. 694.)
NOTE 7.--"The Scythians" (i.e. in the absurd Byzantine pedantry,
_Tartars_), says Nicephorus Gregoras, "from converse with the Assyrians,
Persians, and Chaldaeans, in time acquired their manners and adopted their
religion, casting off their ancestral atheism.... And to such a degree
were they changed, that though in former days they had been wont to cover
the head with nothing better than a loose felt cap, and for other clothing
had thought themselves well off with the skins of wild beasts or
ill-dressed leather, and had for weapons only clubs and slings, or spears,
arrows, and bows extemporised from the oaks and other trees of their
mountains and forests, now, forsooth, they will have no meaner clothing
than brocades of silk and gold! And their luxury and delicate living came
to such a pitch that they stood far as the poles asunder from their
original habits" (II. v. 6).
[1] This is _Chomeni_ in the original, but I have ventured to correct it.
CHAPTER LV.
CONCERNING THE ADMINISTERING OF JUSTICE AMONG THE TARTARS.
The way they administer justice is this. When any one has committed a
petty theft, they give him, under the orders of authority, seven blows of
a stick, or seventeen, or twenty-seven, or thirty-seven, or forty-seven,
and so forth, always increasing by tens in proportion to the injury done,
and running up to one hundred and seven. Of these beatings sometimes they
die.[NOTE 1] But if the offence be horse-stealing, or some other great
matter, they cut the thief in two with a sword. Howbeit, if he be able to
ransom himself by paying nine times the value of the thing stolen, he is
let off. Every Lord or other person who possesses beasts has them marked
with his peculiar brand, be they horses, mares, camels, oxen, cows, or
other great cattle, and then they are sent abroad to graze over the plains
without any keeper. They get all mixt together, but eventually every beast
is recovered by means of its owner's brand, which is known. For their
sheep and goats they have shepherds. All their cattle are remarkably fine,
big, and in good condition.[NOTE 2]
They have another notable custom, which is this. If any man have a
daughter who dies before marriage, and another man have had a son also die
before marriage, the parents of the two arrange a grand wedding between
the dead lad and lass. And marry them they do, making a regular contract!
And when the contract papers are made out they put them in the fire, in
order (as they will have it) that the parties in the other world may know
the fact, and so look on each other as man and wife. And the parents
thenceforward consider themselves sib to each other, just as if their
children had lived and married. Whatever may be agreed on between the
parties as dowry, those who have to pay it cause to be painted on pieces
of paper and then put these in the fire, saying that in that way the dead
person will get all the real articles in the other world.[NOTE 3]
Now I have told you all about the manners and customs of the Tartars; but
you have heard nothing yet of the great state of the Grand Kaan, who is
the Lord of all the Tartars and of the Supreme Imperial Court. All that I
will tell you in this book in proper time and place, but meanwhile I must
return to my story which I left off in that great plain when we began to
speak of the Tartars.[NOTE 4]
NOTE 1.--The cudgel among the Mongols was not confined to thieves and such
like. It was the punishment also of military and state offences, and even
princes were liable to it without fatal disgrace. "If they give any
offence," says Carpini, "or omit to obey the slightest beck, the Tartars
themselves are beaten like donkeys." The number of blows administered was,
according to Wassaf, always odd, 3, 5, and so forth, up to 77. (_Carp._
712; _Ilchan._ I. 37.)
["They also punish with death grand larceny, but as for petty thefts, such
as that of a sheep, so long has one has not repeatedly been taken in the
act, they beat him cruelly, and if they administer an hundred blows they
must use an hundred sticks." (_Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 80.)--H. C.]
NOTE 2.--"They have no herdsmen or others to watch their cattle, because
the laws of the Turks (i.e. Tartars) against theft are so severe.... A man
in whose possession a stolen horse is found is obliged to restore it to
its owner, _and to give nine of the same value_; if he cannot, his
children are seized in compensation; if he have no children, he is
slaughtered like a mutton." (_Ibn Batuta_, II. 364.)
NOTE 3.--This is a Chinese custom, though no doubt we may trust Marco for
its being a Tartar one also. "In the province of Shansi they have a
ridiculous custom, which is to marry dead folks to each other. F. Michael
Trigault, a Jesuit, who lived several years in that province, told it us
whilst we were in confinement. It falls out that one man's son and another
man's daughter die. Whilst the coffins are in the house (and they used to
keep them two or three years, or longer) the parents agree to marry them;
they send the usual presents, as if the pair were alive, with much
ceremony and music. After this they put the two coffins together, hold the
wedding dinner in their presence, and, lastly, lay them together in one
tomb. The parents, from this time forth, are looked on not merely as
friends but as relatives--just as they would have been had their children
been married when in life." (_Navarrete_, quoted by _Marsden._) Kidd
likewise, speaking of the Chinese custom of worshipping at the tombs of
progenitors, says: "So strongly does veneration for this tribute after
death prevail that parents, in order to secure the memorial of the
sepulchre for a daughter who has died during her betrothal, give her in
marriage after her decease to her intended husband, who receives with
nuptial ceremonies at his own house a paper effigy made by her parents,
and after he has burnt it, erects a tablet to her memory--an honour which
usage forbids to be rendered to the memory of unmarried persons. The law
seeks without effect to abolish this absurd custom." (_China_, etc., pp.
179-180.)
[Professor J. J. M. de Groot (_Religious System of China_) gives several
instances of marriages after death; the following example (II. 804-805)
will illustrate the custom: "An interesting account of the manner in which
such _post-mortem_ marriages were concluded at the period when the Sung
Dynasty governed the Empire, is given by a contemporary work in the
following words: 'In the northern parts of the Realm it is customary, when
an unmarried youth and an unmarried girl breathe their last, that the two
families each charge a match-maker to demand the other party in marriage.
Such go-betweens are called match-makers for disembodied souls. They
acquaint the two families with each other's circumstances, and then cast
lots for the marriage by order of the parents on both sides. If they augur
that the union will be a happy one, (wedding) garments for the next world
are cut out, and the match-makers repair to the grave of the lad, there to
set out wine and fruit for the consummation of the marriage. Two seats are
placed side by side, and a small streamer is set up near each seat. If
these streamers move a little after the libation has been performed, the
souls are believed to approach each other; but if one of them does not
move, the party represented thereby is considered to disapprove of the
marriage. Each family has to reward its match-maker with a present of
woven stuffs. Such go-betweens make a regular livelihood out of these
proceedings.'"--H. C.]
The Ingushes of the Caucasus, according to Klaproth, have the same custom:
"If a man's son dies, another who has lost his daughter goes to the father
and says, 'Thy son will want a wife in the other world; I will give him my
daughter; pay me the price of the bride.' Such a demand is never refused,
even though the purchase of the bride amount to thirty cows." (_Travels,
Eng. Trans._ 345.)
NOTE 4.--There is a little doubt about the reading of this last paragraph.
The G. T. has--"_Mes desormes volun retorner a nostre conte en_ la grant
plaingne _ou nos estion quant nos comechames des fais des Tartars_,"
whilst Pauthier's text has "_Mais desormais vueil retourner a mon conte
que Je lessai_ d'or plain _quant nous commencames des faiz des Tatars."_
The former reading looks very like a misunderstanding of one similar to
the latter, where _d'or plain_ seems to be an adverbial expression, with
some such meaning as "just now," "a while ago." I have not, however, been
able to trace the expression elsewhere. Cotgrave has _or primes_, "but
even now," etc.; and has also _de plain_, "presently, immediately, out of
hand." It seems quite possible that _d'or plain_ should have had the
meaning suggested.
CHAPTER LVI.
SUNDRY PARTICULARS OF THE PLAIN BEYOND CARACORON.
And when you leave Caracoron and the Altay, in which they bury the bodies
of the Tartar Sovereigns, as I told you, you go north for forty days till
you reach a country called the PLAIN OF BARGU.[NOTE 1] The people there
are called MESCRIPT; they are a very wild race, and live by their cattle,
the most of which are stags, and these stags, I assure you, they used to
ride upon. Their customs are like those of the Tartars, and they are
subject to the Great Kaan. They have neither corn nor wine.[They get birds
for food, for the country is full of lakes and pools and marshes, which
are much frequented by the birds when they are moulting, and when they
have quite cast their feathers and can't fly, those people catch them.
They also live partly on fish.[NOTE 2]]
And when you have travelled forty days over this great plain you come to
the ocean, at the place where the mountains are in which the Peregrine
falcons have their nests. And in those mountains it is so cold that you
find neither man or woman, nor beast nor bird, except one kind of bird
called _Barguerlac_, on which the falcons feed. They are as big as
partridges, and have feet like those of parrots and a tail like a
swallow's, and are very strong in flight. And when the Grand Kaan wants
Peregrines from the nest, he sends thither to procure them.[NOTE 3] It is
also on islands in that sea that the Gerfalcons are bred. You must know
that the place is so far to the north that you leave the North Star
somewhat behind you towards the south! The gerfalcons are so abundant
there that the Emperor can have as many as he likes to send for. And you
must not suppose that those gerfalcons which the Christians carry into the
Tartar dominions go to the Great Kaan; they are carried only to the Prince
of the Levant.[NOTE 4]
Now I have told you all about the provinces northward as far as the Ocean
Sea, beyond which there is no more land at all; so I shall proceed to tell
you of the other provinces on the way to the Great Kaan. Let us, then,
return to that province of which I spoke before, called Campichu.
NOTE 1.--The readings differ as to the length of the journey. In
Pauthier's text we seem to have first a journey of forty days from near
Karakorum to the Plain of Bargu, and then a journey of forty days more
across the plain to the Northern Ocean. The G. T. seems to present only
_one_ journey of forty days (Ramusio, of sixty days), but leaves the
interval from Karakorum undefined. I have followed the former, though with
some doubt.
NOTE 2.--This paragraph from Ramusio replaces the following in Pauthier's
text: "In the summer they got abundance of game, both beasts and birds,
but in winter, there is none to be had because of the great cold."
Marco is here dealing, I apprehend, with hearsay geography, and, as is
common in like cases, there is great compression of circumstances and
characteristics, analogous to the like compression of little-known regions
in mediaeval maps.
The name _Bargu_ appears to be the same with that often mentioned in
Mongol history as BARGUCHIN TUGRUM or BARGUTI, and which Rashiduddin calls
the northern limit of the inhabited earth. This commenced about Lake
Baikal, where the name still survives in that of a river (_Barguzin_)
falling into the Lake on the east side, and of a town on its banks
(_Barguzinsk_). Indeed, according to Rashid himself, BARGU was the name of
one of the tribes occupying the plain; and a quotation from Father
Hyacinth would seem to show that the country is still called _Barakhu_.
[The Archimandrite Palladius (_Elucidations_, 16-17) writes:--"In the
Mongol text of Chingis Khan's biography, this country is called Barhu and
Barhuchin; it is to be supposed, according to Colonel Yule's
identification of this name with the modern Barguzin, that this country
was near Lake Baikal. The fact that Merkits were in Bargu is confirmed by
the following statement in Chingis Khan's biography: 'When Chingis Khan
defeated his enemies, the Merkits, they fled to Barhuchin tokum.' _Tokum_
signifies 'a hollow, a low place,' according to the Chinese translation of
the above-mentioned biography, made in 1381; thus Barhuchin tokum
undoubtedly corresponds to M. Polo's Plain of Bargu. As to M. Polo's
statement that the inhabitants of Bargu were Merkits, it cannot be
accepted unconditionally. The Merkits were not indigenous to the country
near Baikal, but belonged originally,--according to a division set forth
in the Mongol text of the _Yuan ch'ao pi shi_,--to the category of tribes
_living in yurts_, i.e. nomad tribes, or tribes of the desert. Meanwhile
we find in the same biography of Chingis Khan, mention of a people called
Barhun, which belonged to the category of tribes _living in the forests_;
and we have therefore reason to suppose that the Barhuns were the
aborigines of Barhu. After the time of Chingis Khan, this ethnographic
name disappears from Chinese history; it appears again in the middle of
the 16th century. The author of the _Yyu_ (1543-1544), in enumerating the
tribes inhabiting Mongolia and the adjacent countries, mentions the Barhu,
as a strong tribe, able to supply up to several tens of thousands (?) of
warriors, armed with steel swords; but the country inhabited by them is
not indicated. The Mongols, it is added, call them Black Ta-tze (Khara
Mongols, i.e. 'Lower Mongols').
"At the close of the 17th century, the Barhus are found inhabiting the
western slopes of the interior Hing'an, as well as between Lake Kulon and
River Khalkha, and dependent on a prince of eastern Khalkhas, Doro beile.
(Manchu title.)
"At the time of Galdan Khan's invasion, a part of them fled to Siberia
with the eastern Khalkhas, but afterwards they returned. [_Mung ku yew mu
ki_ and _Lung sha ki lio_.] After their rebellion in 1696, quelled by a
Manchu General, they were included with other petty tribes (regarding
which few researches have been made) in the category _butkha_, or hunters,
and received a military organisation. They are divided into Old and New
Barhu, according to the time when they were brought under Manchu rule. The
Barhus belong to the Mongolian, not to the Tungusian race; they are
sometimes considered even to have been in relationship with the Khalkhas.
(_He lung kiang wai ki_ and _Lung sha ki lio_.)
"This is all the substantial information we possess on the Barhu. Is there
an affinity to be found between the modern Barhus and the Barhuns of
Chingis Khan's biography?--and is it to be supposed, that in the course of
time, they spread from Lake Baikal to the Hing'an range? Or is it more
correct to consider them a branch of the Mongol race indigenous to the
Hing'an Mountains, and which received the general archaic name of Bargu,
which might have pointed out the physical character of the country they
inhabited [_Kin Shi_], just as we find in history the Urianhai of Altai
and the Urianhai of Western Manchuria? It is difficult to solve this
question for want of historical data."--H. C.]
_Mescript_, or _Mecri_, as in G. T. The _Merkit_, a great tribe to the
south-east of the Baikal, were also called _Mekrit_ and sometimes
_Megrin_. The Mekrit are spoken of also by Carpini and Rubruquis. D'Avezac
thinks that the _Kerait_, and not the _Merkit_, are intended by all three
travellers. As regards Polo, I see no reason for this view. The name he
uses is _Mekrit_, and the position which he assigns to them agrees fairly
with that assigned on good authority to the Merkit or Mekrit. Only, as in
other cases, where he is rehearsing hearsay information, it does not
follow that the identification of the name involves the correctness of all
the circumstances that he connects with that name. We saw in ch. xxx. that
under _Pashai_ he seemed to lump circumstances belonging to various parts
of the region from Badakhshan to the Indus; so here under _Mekrit_ he
embraces characteristics belonging to tribes extending far beyond the
Mekrit, and which in fact are appropriate to the Tunguses. Rashiduddin
seems to describe the latter under the name of _Uriangkut_ of the Woods, a
people dwelling beyond the frontier of Barguchin, and in connection with
whom he speaks of their Reindeer obscurely, as well as of their tents of
birch bark, and their hunting on snow-shoes.
The mention of the Reindeer by Polo in this passage is one of the
interesting points which Pauthier's text omits. Marsden objects to the
statement that the stags are ridden upon, and from this motive mis-renders
"_li qual' anche_ cavalcano," as, "which they make use of for the purpose
of travelling." Yet he might have found in Witsen that the Reindeer are
_ridden_ by various Siberian Tribes, but especially by the Tunguses. Erman
is very full on the reindeer-riding of the latter people, having himself
travelled far in that way in going to Okhotsk, and gives a very detailed
description of the saddle, etc., employed. The reindeer of the Tunguses
are stated by the same traveller to be much larger and finer animals than
those of Lapland. They are also used for pack-carriage and draught. Old
Richard Eden says that the "olde wryters" relate that "certayne Scythians
doe ryde on Hartes." I have not traced to what he refers, but if the
statement be in any ancient author it is very remarkable. Some old
editions of Olaus Magnus have curious cuts of Laplanders and others riding
on reindeer, but I find nothing in the text appropriate. We hear from
travellers of the Lapland deer being occasionally mounted, but only it
would seem in sport, not as a practice. (_Erdmann_, 189, 191; _D'Ohsson_,
I. 103; _D'Avezac_, 534 seqq.; _J. As._ ser. II. tom. xi.; ser. IV. tom.
xvii. 107; _N. et E._ XIII. i. 274-276; _Witsen_, II. 670, 671, 680;
_Erman_, II. 321, 374, 429, 449 seqq., and original German, II. 347 seqq.;
_Notes on Russia_, Hac. Soc. II. 224; _J. A. S. B._ XXIX. 379.)
The numerous lakes and marshes swarming with water-fowl are very
characteristic of the country between Yakutsk and the Kolyma. It is
evident that Marco had his information from an eye-witness, though the
whole picture is compressed. Wrangell, speaking of Nijni Kolyma, says: "It
is at the moulting season that the great bird-hunts take place. The
sportsmen surround the nests, and slip their dogs, which drive the birds
to the water, on which they are easily knocked over with a gun or arrow,
or even with a stick.... This chase is divided into several periods. They
begin with the ducks, which moult first; then come the geese; then the
swans.... In each case the people take care to choose the time when the
birds have lost their feathers." The whole calendar with the Yakuts and
Russian settlers on the Kolyma is a succession of fishing and hunting
seasons which the same author details. (I. 149, 150; 119-121.)
NOTE 3.--What little is said of the _Barguerlac_ points to some bird of
the genus _Pterocles_, or Sand Grouse (to which belong the so-called Rock
Pigeons of India), or to the allied _Tetrao paradoxus_ of Pallas, now
known as _Syrrhaptes Pallasii_. Indeed, we find in Zenker's Dictionary
that _Boghurtlak_ (or _Baghirtlak_, as it is in Pavet de Courteille's) in
Oriental Turkish is the _Kata_, i.e. I presume, the _Pterocles alchata_ of
Linnaeus, or Large Pin-tailed Sand Grouse. Mr. Gould, to whom I referred
the point, is clear that the _Syrrhaptes_ is Marco's bird, and I believe
there can be no question of it.
[Passing through Ch'ang-k'ou, Mr. Rockhill found the people praying for
rain. "The people told me," he says, in his Journey (p. 9), "that they
knew long ago the year would be disastrous, for the sand grouse had been
more numerous of late than for years, and the saying goes _Sha-ch'i kuo,
mai lao-po_, 'when the sand grouse fly by, wives will be for sale.'"--H.
C.]
The chief difficulty in identification with the Syrrhaptes or any known
bird, would be "the feet like a parrot's." The feet of the Syrrhaptes are
not indeed like a parrot's, though its awkward, slow, and waddling gait on
the ground, may have suggested the comparison; and though it has very odd
and anomalous feet, a circumstance which the Chinese indicate in another
way by calling the bird (according to Hue) _Lung Kio_, or "Dragon-foot."
[Mr. Rockhill (_Journey_) writes in a note (p. 9): "I, for my part, never
heard any other name than _sha-ch'i_, 'sand-fowl,' given them. This name
is used, however, for a variety of birds, among others the partridge."--H.
C.] The hind-toe is absent, the toes are unseparated, recognisable only by
the broad flat nails, and fitted below with a callous couch, whilst the
whole foot is covered with short dense feathers like hair, and is more
like a quadruped's paw than a bird's foot.
The home of the Syrrhaptes is in the Altai, the Kirghiz Steppes, and the
country round Lake Baikal, though it also visits the North of China in
great flights. "On plains of grass and sandy deserts," says Gould (_Birds
of Great Britain_, Part IV.), "at one season covered with snow, and at
another sun-burnt and parched by drought, it finds a congenial home; in
these inhospitable and little-known regions it breeds, and when necessity
compels it to do so, wings its way ... over incredible distances to obtain
water or food." Hue says, speaking of the bird on the northern frontier of
China: "They generally arrive in great flights from the north, especially
when much snow has fallen, flying with astonishing rapidity, so that the
movement of their wings produces a noise like hail." It is said to be very
delicate eating. The bird owes its place in Gould's _Birds of Great
Britain_ to the fact--strongly illustrative of its being _moult volant_,
as Polo says it is--that it appeared in England in 1859, and since then,
at least up to 1863, continued to arrive annually in pairs or companies in
nearly all parts of our island, from Penzance to Caithness. And Gould
states that it was breeding in the Danish islands. A full account by Mr.
A. Newton of this remarkable immigration is contained in the _Ibis_ for
April, 1864, and many details in _Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk_, I. 376
seqq. There are plates of _Syrrhaptes_ in _Radde's Reisen im Sueden von
Ost-Sibirien_, Bd. II.; in vol. v. of _Temminck_, Planches Coloriees, Pl.
95; in _Gould_, as above; in _Gray, Genera of Birds_, vol. iii. p. 517
(life size); and in the _Ibis_ for April, 1860. From the last our cut is
taken.
[See _A. David et Oustalet_, _Oiseaux de la Chine_, 389, on _Syrrhaptes
Pallasii_ or _Syrrhaptes Paradoxus_.--H. C.]
[Illustration: Syrrhaptes Pallasii.]
NOTE 4.--Gerfalcons (_Shonkar_) were objects of high estimation in the
Middle Ages, and were frequent presents to and from royal personages. Thus
among the presents sent with an embassy from King James II. of Aragon to
the Sultan of Egypt, in 1314, we find three white gerfalcons. They were
sent in homage to Chinghiz and to Kublai, by the Kirghiz, but I cannot
identify the mountains where they or the Peregrines were found. The
Peregrine falcon was in Europe sometimes termed _Faucon Tartare_. (See
_Menage_ s. v. _Sahin_.) The Peregrine of Northern Japan, and probably
therefore that of Siberia, is identical with that of Europe. Witsen speaks
of an island in the Sea of Tartary, from which falcons were got,
apparently referring to a Chinese map as his authority; but I know nothing
more of it. (_Capmany_, IV. 64-65; _Ibis_, 1862, p. 314; _Witsen_, II.
656.)
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