The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 - Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
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[On the _Falco peregrinus_, Lin., and other Falcons, see Ed. Blanc's paper
mentioned on p. 162. The _Falco Saker_ is to be found all over Central
Asia; it is called by the Pekingese _Hwang-yng_ (yellow falcon), (_David
et Oustalet_, _Oiseaux de la Chine_, 31-32.)--H. C.]
CHAPTER LVII.
OF THE KINGDOM OF ERGUIUL, AND PROVINCE OF SINJU.
On leaving Campichu, then, you travel five days across a tract in which
many spirits are heard speaking in the night season; and at the end of
those five marches, towards the east, you come to a kingdom called
ERGUIUL, belonging to the Great Kaan. It is one of the several kingdoms
which make up the great Province of Tangut. The people consist of
Nestorian Christians, Idolaters, and worshippers of Mahommet.[NOTE 1]
There are plenty of cities in this kingdom, but the capital is ERGUIUL.
You can travel in a south-easterly direction from this place into the
province of Cathay. Should you follow that road to the south-east, you
come to a city called SINJU, belonging also to Tangut, and subject to the
Great Kaan, which has under it many towns and villages.[NOTE 2] The
population is composed of Idolaters, and worshippers of Mahommet, but
there are some Christians also. There are wild cattle in that country
[almost] as big as elephants, splendid creatures, covered everywhere but
on the back with shaggy hair a good four palms long. They are partly
black, partly white, and really wonderfully fine creatures [and the hair
or wool is extremely fine and white, finer and whiter than silk. Messer
Marco brought some to Venice as a great curiosity, and so it was reckoned
by those who saw it]. There are also plenty of them tame, which have been
caught young. [They also cross these with the common cow, and the cattle
from this cross are wonderful beasts, and better for work than other
animals.] These the people use commonly for burden and general work, and
in the plough as well; and at the latter they will do full twice as much
work as any other cattle, being such very strong beasts.[NOTE 3]
In this country too is found the best musk in the world; and I will tell
you how 'tis produced. There exists in that region a kind of wild animal
like a gazelle. It has feet and tail like the gazelle's, and stag's hair
of a very coarse kind, but no horns. It has four tusks, two below and two
above, about three inches long, and slender in form, one pair growing
upwards, and the other downwards. It is a very pretty creature. The musk
is found in this way. When the creature has been taken, they find at the
navel between the flesh and the skin something like an impostume full of
blood, which they cut out and remove with all the skin attached to it. And
the blood inside this impostume is the musk that produces that powerful
perfume. There is an immense number of these beasts in the country we are
speaking of. [The flesh is very good to eat. Messer Marco brought the
dried head and feet of one of these animals to Venice with him.[NOTE 4]]
The people are traders and artizans, and also grow abundance of corn. The
province has an extent of 26 days' journey. Pheasants are found there
twice as big as ours, indeed nearly as big as a peacock, and having tails
of 7 to 10 palms in length; and besides them other pheasants in aspect
like our own, and birds of many other kinds, and of beautiful variegated
plumage.[NOTE 5] The people, who are Idolaters, are fat folks with little
noses and black hair, and no beard, except a few hairs on the upper lip.
The women too have very smooth and white skins, and in every respect are
pretty creatures. The men are very sensual, and marry many wives, which is
not forbidden by their religion. No matter how base a woman's descent may
be, if she have beauty she may find a husband among the greatest men in
the land, the man paying the girl's father and mother a great sum of
money, according to the bargain that may be made.
NOTE 1.--No approximation to the name of Erguiul in an appropriate
position has yet been elicited from Chinese or other Oriental sources. We
cannot go widely astray as to its position, five days east of Kanchau.
Klaproth identifies it with Liangchau-fu; Pauthier with the neighbouring
city of Yungchang, on the ground that the latter was, in the time of
Kublai, the head of one of the _Lus_, or Circles, of Kansuh or Tangut,
which he has shown some reason for believing to be the "kingdoms" of
Marco.
It is probable, however, that the _town_ called by Polo Erguiul lay north
of both the cities named, and more in line with the position assigned
below to _Egrigaya_. (See note 1, ch. lviii.)
I may notice that the structure of the name Ergui-ul or Ergiu-ul, has a
look of analogy to that of _Tang-keu-ul_, named in the next note.
["Erguiul is Erichew of the Mongol text of the _Yuen ch'ao pi shi_,
Si-liang in the Chinese history, the modern _Liang chow fu_. Klaproth, on
the authority of Rashid-eddin, has already identified this name with that
of Si-liang." (_Palladius_, p. 18.) M. Bonin left Ning-h'ia at the end of
July, 1899, and he crossed the desert to Liangchau in fifteen days from
east to west; he is the first traveller who took this route: Prjevalsky
went westward, passing by the residence of the Prince of Alashan, and
Obrutchev followed the route south of Bonin's.--H. C.]
NOTE 2.--No doubt Marsden is right in identifying this with SINING-CHAU,
now Sining-fu, the Chinese city nearest to Tibet and the Kokonor frontier.
Grueber and Dorville, who passed it on their way to Lhasa, in 1661, call
it _urbs ingens_. Sining was visited also by Huc and Gabet, who are
unsatisfactory, as usually on geographical matters. They also call it "an
immense town," but thinly peopled, its commerce having been in part
transferred to Tang-keu-ul, a small town closer to the frontier.
[Sining belonged to the country called Hwang chung; in 1198, under the
Sung Dynasty, it was subjugated by the Chinese, and was named Si-ning
chau; at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (from 1368), it was named
Si-ning wei, and since 1726 Si-ning fu. (Cf. Gueluy, _Chine_, p. 62.) From
Liangchau, M. Bonin went to Sining through the Lao kou kau pass and the
Ta-Tung ho. Obrutchev and Grum Grijmailo took the usual route from Kanchau
to Sining. After the murder of Dutreuil de Rhins at Tung bu _m_do, his
companion, Grenard, arrived at Sining, and left it on the 29th July, 1894.
Dr. Sven Hedin gives in his book his own drawing of a gate of Sining-fu,
where he arrived on the 25th November, 1896.--H. C.]
Sining is called by the Tibetans _Ziling_ or Jiling, by the Mongols
_Seling Khoto_. A shawl wool texture, apparently made in this quarter, is
imported into Kashmir and Ladak, under the name of _S'ling_. I have
supposed Sining to be also the _Zilm_ of which Mr. Shaw heard at Yarkand,
and am answerable for a note to that effect on p. 38 of his _High
Tartary_. But Mr. Shaw, on his return to Europe, gave some rather strong
reasons against this. (See _Proc. R. G. S._ XVI. 245; _Kircher_, pp. 64,
66; _Della Penna_, 27; _Davies's Report_, App. p. ccxxix.; _Vigne_, II.
110, 129.) [At present Sining is called by the Tibetans Seling K'ar or
Kuar, and by the Mongols, Seling K'utun, _K'ar_ and _K'utun_ meaning
"fortified city." (_Rockhill, Land of the Lamas_, 49, note.)--H. C.]
[Mr. Rockhill (_Diary of a Journey_, 65) writes: "There must be some
Scotch blood in the Hsi-ningites, for I find they are very fond of oatmeal
and of cracked wheat. The first is called _yen-mei ch'en_, and is eaten
boiled with the water in which mutton has been cooked, or with neat's-foot
oil (_yang-t'i yu_). The cracked wheat (_mei-tzue fan_) is eaten prepared
in the same way, and is a very good dish."--H. C.]
NOTE 3.--The _Dong_, or Wild Yak, has till late years only been known by
vague rumour. It has always been famed in native reports for its great
fierceness. The _Haft Iklim_ says that "it kills with its horns, by its
kicks, by treading under foot, and by tearing with its teeth," whilst the
Emperor Humayun himself told Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish admiral, that when it
had knocked a man down it skinned him from head to heels by licking him
with its tongue! Dr. Campbell states, in the _Journal of the As. Soc. of
Bengal_, that it was said to be four times the size of the domestic Yak.
The horns are alleged to be sometimes three feet long, and of immense
girth; they are handed round full of strong drink at the festivals of
Tibetan grandees, as the Urus horns were in Germany, according to Caesar.
A note, with which I have been favoured by Dr. Campbell (long the
respected Superintendent of British Sikkim) says: "Captain Smith, of the
Bengal Army, who had travelled in Western Tibet, told me that he had shot
many wild Yaks in the neighbourhood of the Mansarawar Lake, and that he
measured a bull which was 18 hands high, i.e. 6 feet. All that he saw were
_black_ all over. He also spoke to the fierceness of the animal. He was
once charged by a bull that he had wounded, and narrowly escaped being
killed. Perhaps my statement (above referred to) in regard to the relative
size of the Wild and Tame Yak, may require modification if applied to all
the countries in which the Yak is found. At all events, the finest
specimen of the tame Yak I ever saw, was not in Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, or
Bootan, but in the _Jardin des Plantes_ at _Paris_; and that one, a male,
was brought from Shanghai. The best drawing of a Yak I know is that in
Turner's _Tibet_."
[Lieutenant Samuel Turner gave a very good description of the Yak of
Tartary, which he calls _Soora-Goy_ or the Bushy-tailed Bull of Tibet.
(_Asiat. Researches_, No. XXIII, pp. 351-353, with a plate.) He says with
regard to the colour: "There is a great variety of colours amongst them,
but black or white are the most prevalent. It is not uncommon to see the
long hair upon the ridge of the back, the tail, tuft upon the chest, and
the legs below the knee white, when all the rest of the animal is jet
black." A good drawing of "an enormous" Yak is to be found on p. 183 of
Captain Wellby's _Unknown Tibet_. (See also Captain Deasy's work on
_Tibet_, p. 363.) Prince Henri d'Orleans brought home a fine specimen,
which he shot during his journey with Bonvalot; it is now exhibited in the
galleries of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Some Yaks were brought to
Paris on the 1st April, 1854, and the celebrated artist, Mme. Rosa
Bonheur, made sketches after them. (See _Jour. Soc. Acclimatation_, June,
1900, 39-40.)--H. C.]
Captain Prjevalsky, in his recent journey (1872-1873), shot twenty wild
Yaks south of the Koko Nor. He specifies one as 11 feet in length
exclusive of the tail, which was 3 feet more; the height 6 feet. He speaks
of the Yak as less formidable than it looks, from apathy and stupidity,
but very hard to kill; one having taken eighteen bullets before it
succumbed.
[Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, 151, note) writes: "The average load carried by
a Yak is about 250 lbs. The wild Yak bull is an enormous animal, and the
people of Turkestan and North Tibet credit him with extraordinary
strength. Mirza Haidar, in the _Tarikhi Rashidi_, says of the wild Yak or
_kutas_: 'This is a very wild and ferocious beast. In whatever manner it
attacks one it proves fatal. Whether it strikes with its horns, or kicks,
or overthrows its victim. If it has no opportunity of doing any of these
things, it tosses its enemy with its tongue twenty _gaz_ into the air, and
he is dead before reaching the ground. One male _kutas_ is a load for
twelve horses. One man cannot possibly raise a shoulder of the animal.'"
--Captain Deasy (_In Tibet_, 363) says: "In a few places on lofty ground in
Tibet we found Yaks in herds numbering from ten to thirty, and sometimes
more. Most of the animals are black, brown specimens being very rare. Their
roving herds move with great agility over the steep and stony ground,
apparently enjoying the snow and frost and wind, which seldom fail.... Yaks
are capable of offering formidable resistance to the sportsman....'"--H.
C.]
The tame Yaks are never, I imagine, "caught young," as Marco says; it is a
domesticated _breed_, though possibly, as with buffaloes in Bengal, the
breed may occasionally be refreshed by a cross of wild blood. They are
employed for riding, as beasts of burden, and in the plough. [Lieutenant
S. Turner, l.c., says, on the other hand: "They are never employed in
agriculture, but are extremely useful as beasts of burthen."--H. C.] In
the higher parts of our Himalayan provinces, and in Tibet, the Yak itself
is most in use; but in the less elevated tracts several breeds crossed
with the common Indian cattle are more used. They have a variety of names
according to their precise origin. The inferior Yaks used in the plough
are ugly enough, and "have more the appearance of large shaggy bears than
of oxen," but the Yak used for riding, says Hoffmeister, "is an infinitely
handsomer animal. It has a stately hump, a rich silky hanging tail nearly
reaching the ground, twisted horns, a noble bearing, and an erect head."
Cunningham, too, says that the _Dso_, one of the mixed breeds, is "a very
handsome animal, with long shaggy hair, generally black and white." Many
of the various tame breeds appear to have the tail and back white, and
also the fringe under the body, but black and red are the prevailing
colours. Some of the crossbred cows are excellent milkers, better than
either parent stock.
Notice in this passage the additional and interesting particulars given by
Ramusio, e.g. the use of the mixed breeds. "Finer than silk," is an
exaggeration, or say an _hyberbole_, as is the following expression, "As
big as elephants," even with Ramusio's apologetic _quasi_. Caesar says the
Hercynian Urus was _magnitudine paullo infra elephantos_.
The tame Yak is used across the breadth of Mongolia. Rubruquis saw them at
Karakorum, and describes them well. Mr. Ney Elias tells me he found Yaks
common everywhere along his route in Mongolia, between the Tui river
(long. circa 101 deg.) and the upper valleys of the Kobdo near the Siberian
frontier. At Uliasut'ai they were used occasionally by Chinese settlers
for drawing carts, but he never saw them used for loads or for riding, as
in Tibet. He has also seen Yaks in the neighbourhood of Kwei-hwa-ch'eng.
(_Tenduc_, see ch. lix. note 1.) This may be taken as the eastern limit of
the employment of the Yak; the western limit is in the highlands of
Khokand.
These animals had been noticed by Cosmas [who calls them _agriobous_] in
the 6th century, and by Aelian in the 3rd. The latter speaks of them as
black cattle with white tails, from which fly-flappers were made for
Indian kings. And the great Kalidasa thus sang of the Yak, according to a
learned (if somewhat rugged) version ascribed to Dr. Mill. The poet
personifies the Himalaya:--
"For Him the large Yaks in his cold plains that bide
Whisk here and there, playful, their tails' bushy pride,
And evermore flapping those fans of long hair
Which borrowed moonbeams have made splendid and fair,
Proclaim at each stroke (what our flapping men sing)
His title of Honour, 'The Dread Mountain King.'"
Who can forget Pere Huc's inimitable picture of the hairy Yaks of their
caravan, after passing a river in the depth of winter, "walking with their
legs wide apart, and bearing an enormous load of stalactites, which hung
beneath their bellies quite to the ground. The monstrous beasts _looked
exactly as if they were preserved in sugar-candy_." Or that other, even
more striking, of a great troop of wild Yaks, caught in the upper waters
of the Kin-sha Kiang, as they swam, in the moment of congelation, and thus
preserved throughout the winter, gigantic "flies in amber."
(_N. et E._ XIV. 478; _J. As._ IX. 199; _J. A. S. B._ IX. 566, XXIV. 235;
_Shaw_, p. 91; _Ladak_, p. 210; _Geog. Magazine_, April, 1874;
_Hoffmeister's Travels_, p. 441; _Rubr._ 288; _Ael. de Nat. An._ XV. 14;
_J. A. S. B._ I. 342; _Mrs. Sinnett's Huc_, pp. 228, 235.)
NOTE 4.--Ramusio adds that the hunters seek the animal at New Moon, at
which time the musk is secreted.
The description is good except as to the _four_ tusks, for the musk deer
has canine teeth only in the upper jaw, slender and prominent as he
describes them. The flesh of the animal is eaten by the Chinese, and in
Siberia by both Tartars and Russians, but that of the males has a strong
musk flavour.
The "immense number" of these animals that existed in the Himalayan
countries may be conceived from Tavernier's statement, that on one visit
to Patna, then the great Indian mart for this article, he purchased 7673
pods of musk. These presumably came by way of Nepal; but musk pods of the
highest class were also imported from Khotan via Yarkand and Leh, and the
lowest price such a pod fetched at Yarkand was 250 tankas, or upwards of
4_l._ This import has long been extinct, and indeed the trade in the
article, except towards China, has altogether greatly declined, probably
(says Mr. Hodgson) because its repute as a medicine is becoming fast
exploded. In Sicily it is still so used, but apparently only as a sort of
decent medical _viaticum_, for when it is said "the Doctors have given him
musk," it is as much as to say that they have given up the patient.
["Here Marco Polo speaks of musk; musk and rhubarb (which he mentions
before, Sukchur, ch. xliii.) are the most renowned and valuable of the
products of the province of Kansu, which comparatively produces very
little; the industry in both these articles is at present in the hands of
the Tanguts of that province [_Su chow chi_]." (_Palladius_, p. 18.)
Writing under date 15th February, 1892, from Lusar (coming from Sining),
Mr. Rockhill says: "The musk trade here is increasing, Cantonese and
Ssu-ch'uanese traders now come here to buy it, paying for good musk four
times its weight in silver (_ssu huan_, as they say). The best test of its
purity is an examination of the colour. The Tibetans adulterate it by
mixing tsamba and blood with it. The best time to buy it is from the
seventh to the ninth moon (latter part of August to middle of November)."
Mr. Rockhill adds in a note: "Mongols call musk _owo_; Tibetans call it
_latse_. The best musk they say is 'white musk,' _tsahan owo_ in Mongol,
in Tibetan _latse karpo_. I do not know whether white refers to the colour
of the musk itself or to that of the hair on the skin covering the musk
pouch." (_Diary of a Journey_, p. 71.)--H. C.]
Three species of the _Moschus_ are found in the Mountains of Tibet, and
_M. Chrysogaster_ which Mr. Hodgson calls "the loveliest," and which
chiefly supplies the highly-prized pod called _Kaghazi_, or
"Thin-as-paper," is almost exclusively confined to the Chinese frontier.
Like the Yak, the _Moschus_ is mentioned by Cosmas (circa A.D. 545), and
_musk_ appears in a Greek prescription by Aetius of Amida, a physician
practising at Constantinople about the same date.
(_Martini_, p. 39; _Tav., Des Indes_, Bk. II. ch. xxiv.; _J. A. S. B._ XI.
285; _Davies's Rep._ App. p. ccxxxvii.; _Dr. Flueckiger in Schweiz.
Wochenschr. fuer Pharmacie_, 1867; _Heyd, Commerce du Levant_, II.
636-640.)
NOTE 5.--The China pheasant answering best to the indications in the text,
appears to be _Reeves's Pheasant_. Mr. Gould has identified this bird with
Marco's in his magnificent _Birds of Asia_, and has been kind enough to
show me a specimen which, with the body, measured 6 feet 8 inches. The
tail feathers alone, however, are said to reach to 6 and 7 feet, so that
Marco's ten palms was scarcely an exaggeration. These tail-feathers are
often seen on the Chinese stage in the cap of the hero of the drama, and
also decorate the hats of certain civil functionaries.
[Illustration: Reeves's Pheasant]
_Size_ is the point in which the bird fails to meet Marco's description.
In that respect the latter would rather apply to the _Crossoptilon
auritum_, which is nearly as big as a turkey, or to the glorious _Munal
(Lopophorus impeyanus)_, but then that has no length of tail. The latter
seems to be the bird described by Aelian: "Magnificent cocks which have
the crest variegated and ornate like a crown of flowers, and the tail
feathers not curved like a cock's, but broad and carried in a train like a
peacock's; the feathers are partly golden, and partly azure or
emerald-coloured." (_Wood's Birds_, 610, from which I have copied the
illustration; _Williams, M. K._ I. 261; _Ael. De Nat. An._ XVI. 2.) A
species of _Crossoptilon_ has recently been found by Captain Prjevalsky in
Alashan, the Egrigaia (as I believe) of next chapter, and one also by Abbe
Armand David at the Koko Nor.
[See on the Phasianidae family in Central and Western Asia, _David et
Oustalet, Oiseaux de la Chine_, 401-421; the _Phasianus Reevesii_ or
_veneratus_ is called by the Chinese of Tung-lin, near Peking, _Djeu-ky_
(hen-arrow); the _Crossoptilon auritum_ is named _Ma-ky_.--H. C.]
CHAPTER LVIII.
OF THE KINGDOM OF EGRIGAIA.
Starting again from Erguiul you ride eastward for eight days, and then
come to a province called EGRIGAIA, containing numerous cities and
villages, and belonging to Tangut.[NOTE 1] The capital city is called
CALACHAN.[NOTE 2] The people are chiefly Idolaters, but there are fine
churches belonging to the Nestorian Christians. They are all subjects of
the Great Kaan. They make in this city great quantities of camlets of
camel's wool, the finest in the world; and some of the camlets that they
make are white, for they have white camels, and these are the best of all.
Merchants purchase these stuffs here, and carry them over the world for
sale.[NOTE 3]
We shall now proceed eastward from this place and enter the territory that
was formerly Prester John's.
NOTE 1.--Chinghiz invaded Tangut in all five times, viz. in 1205, 1207,
1209 (or according to Erdmann, 1210-1211), 1218, and 1226-1227, on which
last expedition he died.
A. In the third invasion, according to D'Ohsson's Chinese guide (Father
Hyacinth), he took the town of _Uiraca_, and the fortress of Imen, and
laid siege to the capital, then called Chung-sing or Chung-hing, now
Ning-hsia.
Rashid, in a short notice of this campaign, calls the first city _Erica_,
_Erlaca_, or, as Erdmann has it, _Artacki_. In De Mailla it is _Ulahai_.
B. On the last invasion (1226), D'Ohsson's Chinese authority says that
Chinghiz took Kanchau and Suhchau, Cholo and Khola in the province of
Liangcheu, and then proceeded to the Yellow River, and invested Lingchau,
south of Ning-hsia.
Erdmann, following his reading of Rashiduddin, says Chinghiz took the
cities of Tangut, called _Arucki_, _Kachu_, _Sichu_, and _Kamichu_, and
besieged Deresgai (D'Ohsson, _Derssekai_), whilst Shidergu, the King of
Tangut, betook himself to his capital _Artackin_.
D'Ohsson, also professing to follow Rashid, calls this "his capital
_Irghai_, which the Mongols call _Ircaya_." Klaproth, illustrating Polo,
reads "Eyircai, which the Mongols call _Eyircaya_."
Petis de la Croix, relating the same campaign and professing to follow
Fadlallah, i.e. Rashiduddin, says the king "retired to his fortress of
_Arbaca_."
C. Sanang Setzen several times mentions a city called _Irghai_,
_apparently_ in Tangut; but all we can gather as to his position is that
it seems to have lain east of Kanchau.
We perceive that the _Arbaca_ of P. de la Croix, the _Eyircai_ of
Klaproth, the _Uiraca_ of D'Ohsson, the _Artacki_ or _Artackin_ of
Erdmann, are all various readings or forms of the same name, and are the
same with the Chinese form _Ulahai_ of De Mailla, and most probably the
place is the _Egrigaia_ of Polo.
We see also that Erdmann mentions another place _Aruki_ ([Arabic]) in
connection with Kanchau and Suhchau. This is, I suspect, the _Erguiul_ of
Polo, and perhaps the Irghai of Sanang Setzen.
Rashiduddin seems wrong in calling Ircaya the capital of the king, a
circumstance which leads Klaproth to identify it with Ning-hsia. Pauthier,
identifying Ulahai with Egrigaya, shows that the former was one of the
circles of Tangut, but _not_ that of Ning-hsia. Its position, he says, is
uncertain. Klaproth, however, inserts it in his map of Asia, in the era of
Kublai (_Tabl. Hist._ pl. 22), as _Ulakhai_ to the north of Ning-hsia,
near the great bend eastward of the Hwang-Ho. Though it may have extended
in this direction, it is probable, from the name referred to in next note,
that Egrigaia or Ulahai is represented by the modern principality of
ALASHAN, visited by Prjevalsky in 1871 and 1872.
[New travels and researches enable me to say that there can be no doubt
that _Egrigaia = Ning-hsia_. Palladius (l.c. 18) says: "_Egrigaia_ is
Erigaia of the Mongol text. Klaproth was correct in his supposition that
it is modern Ning-h'ia. Even now the Eleuths of Alashan call Ning-h'ia,
_Yargai_. In M. Polo's time this department was famous for the cultivation
of the Safflower (_carthamus tinctorius_). [_Siu t'ung kien_, A.D. 1292.]"
Mr. Rockhill (cf. his _Diary of a Journey_) writes to me that Ning-hsia is
still called _Irge Khotun_ by Mongols at the present day. M. Bonin (_J.
As._, 1900. I. 585) mentions the same fact.
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