Note 1 — Chapter XLVIII
Henry Yule translation
[Baber writes (p. 107): “The river is never called locally by any other name than
Kin-ho
, or ‘Gold River.’
[A]
The term
Kin-sha-Kiang
should in strictness be confined to the Tibetan course of the stream; as applied to other parts it is a mere book name. There is no great objection to its adoption, except that it is unintelligible to the inhabitants of the banks, and is liable to mislead travellers in search of indigenous information, but at any rate it should not be supposed to asperse Marco Polo’s accuracy.
Gold River
is the local name from the junction of the Yalung to about P’ing-shan; below P’ing-shan it is known by various designations, but the Ssu-ch’uanese naturally call it ‘the River,’ or, by contrast with its affluents, the ‘Big River’ (
Ta-ho
).” I imagine that Baber here makes a slight mistake, and that they use the name
kiang
, and not
ho
, for the river.—H. C.]
[Mr. Rockhill remarks (Land of the Lamas, p. 196 note) that “Marco Polo speaks of the Yang-tzŭ as the Brius, and Orazio della Penna calls it Biciu, both words representing the Tibetan Dré ch’u. This last name has been frequently translated ‘Cow yak River,’ but this is certainly not its meaning, as cow yak is dri-mo, never pronounced dré, and unintelligible without the suffix, mo. Dré may mean either mule, dirty, or rice, but as I have never seen the word written, I cannot decide on any of these terms, all of which have exactly the same pronunciation. The Mongols call it Murus osu, and in books this is sometimes changed to Murui osu, ‘Tortuous river.’ The Chinese call it Tung t’ien ho, ‘River of all Heaven.’ The name Kin-sha kiang, ‘River of Golden Sand,’ is used for it from Bat’ang to Sui-fu, or thereabouts.” The general name for the river is Ta-Kiang (Great River), or simply Kiang, in contradistinction to Ho, for Hwang-Ho (Yellow River) in Northern China.—H. C.]