Volume 2 / Part 3 — SER MARCO POLO (continued 2)

XXXVII., p. 190 n.

Stein has devoted a whole chapter of his Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, Chap. XVI., pp. 256 seq. to Yotkan, the Site of the Ancient Capital.

XXXVII., p. 191, n. 1.

PEIN.

“It is a mistake to suppose that the earlier pilgrim Fa-hien (A.D. 400) followed the ‘directer route’ from China; he was obliged to go to Kao ch’ang, and then turn sharp south to Khoten.” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 143.)

XXXVII., p. 192.

I have embodied, in Vol. II., p. 595, of Marco Polo, some of the remarks of Sir Aurel Stein regarding Pein and Uzun Tati. In Ancient Khotan, I., pp. 462–3, he has given further evidence of the identity of Uzun Tati and P’i mo, and he has discussed the position of Ulūg-Ziārat, probably the Han mo of Sung Yun.

XXXVII., p. 191; II., p. 595.

“Keriya, the Pein of Marco Polo and Pimo of Hwen Tsiang, writes Huntington, is a pleasant district, with a population of about fifteen thousand souls.” Huntington discusses (p. 387) the theory of Stein:

“Stein identifies Pimo or Pein, with ancient Kenan, the site ... now known as Uzun Tetti or Ulugh Mazar, north of Chira. This identification is doubtful, as appears from the following table of distances given by Hwen Tsiang, which is as accurate as could be expected from a casual traveller. I have reckoned the ‘li,’ the Chinese unit of distance, as equivalent to 0·26 of a mile.

Names of Places. True Distance. Distance according to Hwen Tsiang.

Khotan (Yutien) to Keriya (Pimo) 97 miles. 330 li. 86 miles.

Keriya (Pimo) to Niya (Niyang) 64 „ 200 „ 52 „

Niya (Niyang) to Endereh (Tuholo) 94 „ 400 „ 104 „

Endereh (Tuholo) to Kotāk Sheri? (Chemotona) 138? „ 600 „ 156 „

Kotak Sheri (Chemotona) to Lulan (Nafopo) 264? „ 1000 „ 260 „

“If we use the value of the ‘li’ 0·274 of a mile given by Hedin, the distances from Khotān to Keriya and from Keriya to Niya, according to Hwen Tsiang, become 91 and 55 miles instead of 86 and 52 as given in the table, which is not far from the true distances, 97 and 64.

“If, however, Pimo is identical with Kenan, as Stein thinks, the distances which Hwen Tsiang gives as 86 and 52 miles become respectively 60 and 89, which is evidently quite wrong.

“Strong confirmation of the identification of Keriya with Pimo is found in a comparison of extracts from Marco Polo’s and Hwen Tsiang’s accounts of that city with passages from my note-book, written long before I had read the comments of the ancient travellers. Marco Polo says that the people of Pein, or Pima, as he also calls it, have the peculiar custom ‘that if a married man goes to a distance from home to be about twenty days, his wife has a right, if she is so inclined, to take another husband; and the men, on the same principle, marry wherever they happen to reside.’ The quotation from my notes runs as follows: ‘The women of the place are noted for their attractiveness and loose character. It is said that many men coming to Keriya for a short time become enamoured of the women here, and remain permanently, taking new wives and abandoning their former wives and families.’

“Hwen Tsiang observed that thirty ‘li,’ seven or eight miles, west of Pimo, there is ‘a great desert marsh, upwards of several acres in extent, without any verdure whatever. The surface is reddish black.’ The natives explained to the pilgrim that it was the blood-stained site of a great battle fought many years before. Eighteen miles north-west of Keriya bazaar, or ten miles from the most westerly village of the oasis, I observed that ‘some areas which are flooded part of the year are of a deep rich red colour, due to a small plant two or three inches high.’ I saw such vegetation nowhere else and apparently it was an equally unusual sight to Hwen Tsiang.

“In addition to these somewhat conclusive observations, Marco Polo says that jade is found in the river of Pimo, which is true of the Keriya, but not of the Chira, or the other rivers near Kenan.” (Ellsworth Huntington, The Pulse of Asia, pp. 387–8.)

XXXVIII., p. 194. “The whole of the Province [of Charchan] is sandy, and so is the road all the way from Pein, and much of the water that you find is bitter and bad. However, at some places you do find fresh and sweet water.”

Sir Aurel Stein remarks (Ancient Khotan, I., p. 436): “Marco Polo’s description, too, ‘of the Province of Charchan’ would agree with the assumption that the route west of Charchan was not altogether devoid of settlements even as late as the thirteenth century.... [His] account of the route agrees accurately with the conditions now met with between Niya and Charchan. Yet in the passage immediately following, the Venetian tells us how ‘when an army passes through the land, the people escape with their wives, children, and cattle a distance of two or three days’ journey into the sandy waste; and, knowing the spots where water is to be had, they are able to live there, and to keep their cattle alive, while it is impossible to discover them.’ It seems to me clear that Marco Polo alludes here to the several river courses which, after flowing north of the Niya-Charchan route, lose themselves in the desert. The jungle belt of their terminal areas, no doubt, offered then, as it would offer now, safe places of refuge to any small settlements established along the route southwards.”

XXXIX., P. 197.

OF THE CITY OF LOP.

Stein remarks, Ruins of Desert Cathay, I., p. 343: “Broad geographical facts left no doubt for any one acquainted with local conditions that Marco Polo’s Lop, ‘a large town at the edge of the Desert’ where ‘travellers repose before entering on the Desert’ en route for Sha chou and China proper, must have occupied the position of the present Charklik. Nor could I see any reason for placing elsewhere the capital of that ‘ancient kingdom of Na-fo-po, the same as the territory of Lou-lan,’ which Hiuan Tsang reached after ten marches to the north-east of Chü-mo or Charchan, and which was the pilgrim’s last stage before his return to Chinese soil.”

In his third journey (1913–1916), Stein left Charchan on New Year’s Eve, 1914, and arrived at Charkhlik on January 8, saying: “It was from this modest little oasis, the only settlement of any importance in the Lop region, representing Marco Polo’s ‘City of Lop,’ that I had to raise the whole of the supplies, labour, and extra camels needed by the several parties for the explorations I had carefully planned during the next three months in the desert between Lop-nor and Tunhuang.”

“The name of Lob appears under the form Lo pou in the Yuan-shi, s.a. 1282 and 1286. In 1286, it is mentioned as a postal station near those of K’ie-t’ai, Che-ch’an and Wo-tuan. Wo-tuan is Khotan. Che-ch’an, the name of which reappears in other paragraphs, is Charchan. As to K’ie-t’ai, a postal station between those of Lob and Charchan, it seems probable that it is the Kätäk of the Tarikh-i-Rashidi.” (Pelliot.)

See in the Journ. Asiatique, Jan.–Feb., 1916, pp. 117–119, Pelliot’s remarks on Lob, Navapa, etc.

XXXIX., pp. 196–7.

THE GREAT DESERT.

After reproducing the description of the Great Desert in Sir Henry Yule’s version, Stein adds, Ruins of Desert Cathay, I., p. 518:

“It did not need my journey to convince me that what Marco here tells us about the risks of the desert was but a faithful reflex of old folklore beliefs he must have heard on the spot. Sir Henry Yule has shown long ago that the dread of being led astray by evil spirits haunted the imagination of all early travellers who crossed the desert wastes between China and the oases westwards. Fa-hsien’s above-quoted passage clearly alludes to this belief, and so does Hiuan Tsang, as we have seen, where he points in graphic words the impressions left by his journey through the sandy desert between Niya and Charchan.

“Thus, too, the description we receive through the Chinese historiographer, Ma Tuan-lin, of the shortest route from China towards Kara-shahr, undoubtedly corresponding to the present track to Lop-nor, reads almost like a version from Marco’s book, though its compiler, a contemporary of the Venetian traveller, must have extracted it from some earlier source. ‘You see nothing in any direction but the sky and the sands, without the slightest trace of a road; and travellers find nothing to guide them but the bones of men and beasts and the droppings of camels. During the passage of this wilderness you hear sounds, sometimes of singing, sometimes of wailing; and it has often happened that travellers going aside to see what these sounds might be have strayed from their course and been entirely lost; for they were voices of spirits and goblins.’...

“As Yule rightly observes, ‘these Goblins are not peculiar to the Gobi.’ Yet I felt more than ever assured that Marco’s stories about them were of genuine local growth, when I had travelled over the whole route and seen how closely its topographical features agree with the matter-of-fact details which the first part of his chapter records. Anticipating my subsequent observations, I may state here at once that Marco’s estimate of the distance and the number of marches on this desert crossing proved perfectly correct. For the route from Charklik, his ‘town of Lop,’ to the ‘City of Sachiu,’ i.e. Sha-chou or Tun-huang, our plane-table survey, checked by cyclometer readings, showed an aggregate marching distance of close on 380 miles.”

XXXIX., p. 196.

OF THE CITY OF LOP AND THE GREAT DESERT.

“In the hope of contributing something toward the solution of these questions [contradictory statements of Prjevalsky, Richthofen, and Sven Hedin],” writes Huntington, “I planned to travel completely around the unexplored part of the ancient lake, crossing the Lop desert in its widest part. As a result of the journey, I became convinced that two thousand years ago the lake was of great size, covering both the ancient and the modern locations; then it contracted, and occupied only the site shown on the Chinese maps; again, in the Middle Ages, it expanded; and at present it has contracted and occupies the modern site.

“Now, as in Marco Polo’s days, the traveller must equip his caravan for the desert at Charklik, also known as Lop, two days’ journey south-west of the lake.” (Ellsworth Huntington, The Pulse of Asia, pp. 240–1.)

XXXIX., pp. 197, 201.

NOISES IN THE GREAT DESERT.

As an answer to a paper by C. Tomlinson, in Nature, Nov. 28, 1895, p. 78, we find in the same periodical, April 30, 1896, LIII., p. 605, the following note by Kumagusu Minakata:

“The following passage in a Chinese itinerary of Central Asia—Chun Yuen’s Si-yih-kien-wan-luh, 1777 (British Museum, No. 15271, b. 14), tom. VII., fol. 13 b.—appears to describe the icy sounds similar to what Ma or Head observed in North America (see supra, ibid., p. 78).

“Muh-süh-urh-tah-fan (= Muzart), that is Ice Mountain [Snowy according to Prjevalsky], is situated between Ili and Ushi.... In case that one happens to be travelling there close to sunset, he should choose a rock of moderate thickness and lay down on it. In solitary night then, he would hear the sounds, now like those of gongs and bells, and now like those of strings and pipes, which disturb ears through the night: these are produced by multifarious noises coming from the cracking ice.”

Kumagusu Minakata has another note on remarkable sounds in Japan in Nature, LIV., May 28, 1896, p. 78.

Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, Buried Cities in the Shifting Sands of the Great Desert of Gobi, Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., Nov. 13, 1876, says, p. 29: “The stories told by Marco Polo, in his 39th chapter, about shifting sands and strange noises and demons, have been repeated by other travellers down to the present time. Colonel Prjevalsky, in pp. 193 and 194 of his interesting Travels, gives his testimony to the superstitions of the Desert; and I find, on reference to my diary, that the same stories were recounted to me in Kashgar, and I shall be able to show that there is some truth in the report of treasures being exposed to view.”

P. 201, Line 12. Read the Governor of Urumtsi founded instead of found.

XL., p. 203. Marco Polo comes to a city called Sachiu belonging to a province called Tangut. “The people are for the most part Idolaters.... The Idolaters have a peculiar language, and are no traders, but live by their agriculture. They have a great many abbeys and minsters full of idols of sundry fashions, to which they pay great honour and reverence, worshipping them and sacrificing to them with much ado.”

Sachiu, or rather Tun Hwang, is celebrated for its “Caves of Thousand Buddhas”; Sir Aurel Stein wrote the following remarks in his Ruins of Desert Cathay, II., p. 27: “Surely it was the sight of these colossal images, some reaching nearly a hundred feet in height, and the vivid first impressions retained of the cult paid to them, which had made Marco Polo put into his chapter on ‘Sachiu,’ i.e. Tun-huang, a long account of the strange idolatrous customs of the people of Tangut.... Tun-huang manifestly had managed to retain its traditions of Buddhist piety down to Marco’s days. Yet there was plentiful antiquarian evidence showing that most of the shrines and art remains at the Halls of the Thousand Buddhas dated back to the period of the T’ang Dynasty, when Buddhism flourished greatly in China. Tun-huang, as the westernmost outpost of China proper, had then for nearly two centuries enjoyed imperial protection both against the Turks in the north and the Tibetans southward. But during the succeeding period, until the advent of paramount Mongol power, some two generations before Marco Polo’s visit, these marches had been exposed to barbarian inroads of all sorts. The splendour of the temples and the number of the monks and nuns established near them had, no doubt, sadly diminished in the interval.”

XL., p. 205.

Prof. Pelliot accepts as a Mongol plural Tangut, but remarks that it is very ancient, as Tangut is already to be found in the Orkhon inscriptions. At the time of Chingiz, Tangut was a singular in Mongol, and Tangu is nowhere to be found.

XL., p. 206.

The Tangutans are descendants of the Tang-tu-chüeh; it must be understood that they are descendants of T’u Kiueh of the T’ang Period. (Pelliot.)

Lines 7 and 8 from the foot of the page: instead of T’ung hoang, read Tun hoang; Kiu-kaan, read Tsiu tsüan.

XL., p. 207, note 2. The “peculiar language” is si-hia (Pelliot).

XLI., pp. 210, 212, n. 3.

THE PROVINCE OF CAMUL.

See on the discreditable custom of the people of Qamul, a long note in the second edition of Cathay, I., pp. 249–250.

XLI., p. 211.

Prof. Parker remarks (Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 142) that: “The Chinese (Manchu) agent at Urga has not (nor, I believe, ever had) any control over the Little Bucharia Cities. Moreover, since the reconquest of Little Bucharia in 1877–1878, the whole of those cities have been placed under the Governor of the New Territory (Kan Suh Sin-kiang Sün-fu), whose capital is at Urumtsi. The native Mohammedan Princes of Hami have still left to them a certain amount of home rule, and so lately as 1902 a decree appointing the rotation of their visits to Peking was issued. The present Prince’s name is Shamu Hust, or Hussot.”

XLII., p. 215.

THE PROVINCE OF CHINGINTALAS.

Prof. E. H. Parker writes in the Journ. of the North China Branch of the Royal As. Soc., XXXVII., 1906, p. 195: “On p. 215 of Yule’s vol. I. some notes of Palladius’ are given touching Chingkintalas, but it is not stated that Palladius supposed the word Ch’ih kin to date after the Mongols, that is, that Palladius felt uncertain about his identification. But Palladius is mistaken in feeling thus uncertain: in 1315 and 1326 the Mongol History twice mentions the garrison starts at Ch’ih kin, and in such a way that the place must be where Marco Polo puts it, i.e. west of Kia-yüh Kwan.”

OF THE PROVINCE OF SUKCHUR.

XLIII., p. 217. “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. 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 loose their hoofs. The cattle of the country know it and eschew it.”

During his crossing of the Nan Shan, Sir Aurel Stein had the same experience, five of his ponies being “benumbed and refusing to touch grass or fodder.” The traveller notes that, Ruins of Desert Cathay, II., p. 303: “I at once suspected that they had eaten of the poisonous grass which infests certain parts of the Nan Shan, and about which old Marco has much to tell in his chapter on ‘Sukchur’ or Su-chou. The Venetian’s account had proved quite true; for while my own ponies showed all the effects of this inebriating plant, the local animals had evidently been wary of it. A little bleeding by the nose, to which Tila Bai, with the veterinary skill of an old Ladak ‘Kirakash,’ promptly proceeded, seemed to afford some relief. But it took two or three days before the poor brutes were again in full possession of their senses and appetites.”

“Wild rhubarb, for which the Nan-shan was famous in Marco Polo’s days, spread its huge fleshy leaves everywhere.” (Stein, Ruins of Desert Cathay, II., p. 305.)

XLIII., p. 218.

SUKCHUR.

The first character of Suchau was pronounced Suk at the time of the T’ang; we find a Sughčiu in von Le Coq’s MSS. from Turkestan and Sughču in the runnic text of W. Thomsen; cf. Pelliot, J. As., Mai–Juin, 1912, p. 591; the pronunciation Suk-chau was still used by travellers coming from Central Asia—for instance, by the envoys of Shah Rukh. See Cathay, III., p. 126 n.

OF THE CITY OF CAMPICHU.

XLIV., pp. 219 seq. “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. And round about them there are other figures of considerable size, as if adoring and paying homage before them.”

The ambassadors of Shah Rukh to China (1419–1422) wrote:

“In this city of Kamchau there is an idol temple five hundred cubits square. In the middle is an idol lying at length, which measures fifty paces. The sole of the foot is nine paces long, and the instep is twenty-one 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. Against the wall also are other figures of perfect execution. The great sleeping idol has one hand under his head, and the other resting on his thigh. It is gilt all over, and is known as Shakamuni-fu. The people of the country come in crowds to visit it, and bow to the very ground before this idol” (Cathay, I., p. 277).

XLV., p. 223.

OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.

I said, I., p. 225, that this town must be looked for on the river Hei-shui called Etsina by the Mongols, and would be situated on the river on the border of the Desert, at the top of a triangle, whose bases would be Suhchau and Kanchau. My theory seems to be fully confirmed by Sir Aurel Stein, who writes:

“Advantages of geographical position must at all times have invested this extensive riverine tract, limited as are its resources, with considerable importance for those, whether armed host or traders, who would make the long journey from the heart of Mongolia in the north to the Kansu oases. It had been the same with the ancient Lou-lan delta, without which the Chinese could not have opened up the earliest and most direct route for the expansion of their trade and political influence into Central Asia. The analogy thus presented could not fail to impress me even further when I proceeded to examine the ruins of Khara-khoto, the ‘Black Town’ which Colonel Kozloff, the distinguished Russian explorer, had been the first European to visit during his expedition of 1908–1909. There remained no doubt for me then that it was identical with Marco Polo’s ‘City of Etzina.’ Of this we are told in the great Venetian traveller’s narrative that it lay a twelve days’ ride from the city of Kan-chou, ‘towards the north on the verge of the desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut.’ All travellers bound for Kara-koram, the old capital of the Mongols, had here to lay in victuals for forty days in order to cross the great ‘desert which extends forty days’ journey to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor baiting place.’

“The position thus indicated was found to correspond exactly to that of Khara-khoto, and the identification was completely borne out by the antiquarian evidence brought to light. It soon showed me that though the town may have suffered considerably, as local tradition asserts, when Chingiz Khan with his Mongol army first invaded and conquered Kansu from this side about 1226 A.D., yet it continued to be inhabited down to Marco Polo’s time, and partially at least for more than a century later. This was probably the case even longer with the agricultural settlement for which it had served as a local centre, and of which we traced extensive remains in the desert to the east and north-east. But the town itself must have seen its most flourishing times under Tangut or Hsi-hsia rule from the beginning of the eleventh century down to the Mongol conquest.

“It was from this period, when Tibetan influence from the south seems to have made itself strongly felt throughout Kansu, that most of the Buddhist shrines and memorial Stupas dated, which filled a great portion of the ruined town and were conspicuous also outside it. In one of the latter Colonel Kozloff had made his notable find of Buddhist texts and paintings. But a systematic search of this and other ruins soon showed that the archæological riches of the site were by no means exhausted. By a careful clearing of the débris which covered the bases of Stupas and the interior of temple cellas we brought to light abundant remains of Buddhist manuscripts and block prints, both in Tibetan and the as yet very imperfectly known old Tangut language, as well as plenty of interesting relievos in stucco or terra-cotta and frescoes. The very extensive refuse heaps of the town yielded up a large number of miscellaneous records on paper in the Chinese, Tangut, and Uigur scripts, together with many remains of fine glazed pottery, and of household utensils. Finds of Hsi-hsia coins, ornaments in stone and metal, etc., were also abundant, particularly on wind-eroded ground.

“There was much to support the belief that the final abandonment of the settlement was brought about by difficulties of irrigation.” (A Third Journey of Exploration in Central Asia, 1913–16, Geog. Jour., Aug.–Sept., 1916, pp. 38–39.)

M. Ivanov (Isviestia Petrograd Academy, 1909) thinks that the ruined city of Kara Khoto, a part at the Mongol period of the Yi-tsi-nai circuit, could be its capital, and was at the time of the Si Hia and the beginning of the Mongols, the town of Hei shui. It also confirms my views.

Kozlov found (1908) in a stupa not far from Kara Khoto a large number of Si Hia books, which he carried back to Petrograd, where they were studied by Prof. A. Ivanov, Zur Kenntniss der Hsi-hsia Sprache (Bul. Ac. Sc. Pet., 1909, pp. 1221–1233). See The Si-hia Language, by B. Laufer (T’oung Pao, March, 1916, pp. 1–126).

XLVI., p. 226. “Originally the Tartars dwelt in the north on the borders of Chorcha.”

Prof. Pelliot calls my attention that Ramusio’s text, f. 13 v, has: “Essi habitauano nelle parti di Tramontana, cioè in Giorza, e Bargu, doue sono molte pianure grandi....”

XLVI., p. 230.

TATAR.

“Mr. Rockhill is quite correct in his Turkish and Chinese dates for the first use of the word Tatar, but it seems very likely that the much older eponymous word T’atun refers to the same people. The Toba History says that in A.D. 258 the chieftain of that Tartar Tribe (not yet arrived at imperial dignity) at a public durbar read a homily to various chiefs, pointing out to them the mistake made by the Hiung-nu (Early Turks) and ‘T’a-tun fellows’ (Early Mongols) in raiding his frontiers. If we go back still further, we find the After Han History speaking of the ‘Middle T’atun’; and a scholion tells us not to pronounce the final ‘n.’ If we pursue our inquiry yet further back, we find that T’ah-tun was originally the name of a Sien-pi or Wu-hwan (apparently Mongol) Prince, who tried to secure the shen-yü ship for himself, and that it gradually became (1) a title, (2) and the name of a tribal division (see also the Wei Chi and the Early Han History). Both Sien-pi and Wu-hwan are the names of mountain haunts, and at this very day part of the Russian Liao-tung railway is styled the ‘Sien-pi railway’ by the native Chinese newspapers.” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 141.)

Page 231, note 3. Instead of Yuché, read Juché.

XLVI., p. 232.

KARACATHAYANS.

“There seems to be no doubt that Kerman in South Persia is the city to which the Kara-Cathayan refugee fled from China in 1124; for Major Sykes, in his recent excellent work on Persia, actually mentions [p. 194] the Kuba Sabz, or ‘Green Dome,’ as having been (until destroyed in 1886 by an earthquake) the most conspicuous building, and as having also been the tomb of the Kara-Khitai Dynasty. The late Dr. Bretschneider (N. China B. R. As. Soc. Journal, Vol. X., p. 101) had imagined the Kara-Cathayan capital to be Kerminé, lying between Samarcand and Bokhara (see Asiatic Quart. Rev. for Dec., 1900, ‘The Cathayans’). Colonel Yule does not appear to be quite correct when he states (p. 232) that ‘the Gurkhan himself is not described to have extended his conquests into Persia,’ for the Chinese history of the Cathayan or Liao Dynasties distinctly states that at Samarcand, where the Cathayan remained for ninety days, the ‘King of the Mohammedans’ brought tribute to the emigrant, who then went West as far as K’i-r-man, where he was proclaimed Emperor by his officers. This was on the fifth day of the second moon in 1124, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and he then assumed the title of Koh-r-han” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, pp. 134–5.)

XLVI., p. 236.

KERAITS.

“In his note to Vol. I., p. 236, M. Cordier [read Mr. Rockhill], who seems to have been misled by d’Avezac, confuses the Ch’ih-lêh or T’ieh-lêh (who have been clearly proved to be identical with the Tölös of the Turkish inscriptions) with the much later K’êh-lieh or Keraits of Mongol history; at no period of Chinese history were the Ch’ih-lêh called, as he supposes, K’i-lê, and therefore the Ch’ih-lêh of the third century cannot possibly be identified with the K’ê-lieh of the thirteenth. Besides, the ‘value’ of lêh is ‘luck,’ whilst the ‘value’ of lieh is ‘leet,’ if we use English sounds as equivalents to illustrate Chinese etymology. It is remarkable that the Kin (Nüchen) Dynasty in its Annals leaves no mention whatever of the Kerait tribe, or of any tribe having an approximate name, although the Yüan Shï states that the Princes of that tribe used to hold a Nüchen patent. A solution of this unexplained fact may yet turn up.” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan. 1904, p. 139.)

Page 236, note [11]. Instead of Tura, read Tula. (Pelliot.)

LI., pp. 245, 248.

DEATH OF CHINGIZ KHAN.

“Gaubil’s statement that he was wounded in 1212 by a stray arrow, which compelled him to raise the siege of Ta-t’ung Fu, is exactly borne out by the Yüan Shï, which adds that in the seventh moon (August) of 1227 (shortly after the surrender of the Tangut King) the conqueror died at the travelling-palace of Ha-la T’u on the Sa-li stream at the age of sixty-six (sixty-five by our reckoning). As less than a month before he was present at Ts’ing-shui (lat. 34½°, long. 106½°), and was even on his dying bed, giving instructions how to meet the Nüchên army at T’ung-kwan (lat. 34½°, long. 110¼°), we may assume that the place of his death was on the Upper Wei River near the frontiers joining the modern Kan Suh and Shen Si provinces. It is true the Sa-li River (not stream) is thrice mentioned, and also the Sa-lê-chu River, both in Mongolia; on the other hand, the Sa-li Ouigours are frequently mentioned as living in West Kan Suh; so that we may take it the word Sali or Sari was a not uncommon Turkish word. Palladius’ identification of K’i-lien with ‘Kerulen’ I am afraid cannot be entertained. The former word frequently occurs in the second century B.C., and is stated to be a second Hiung-nu (Turkish) word for ‘sky’ or ‘heaven.’ At or about that date the Kerulen was known to the Chinese as the Lu-kü River, and the geographies of the present dynasty clearly identify it as such. The T’ien-Shan are sometimes called the K’i-lien Shan, and the word K’i-lien is otherwise well established along the line of the Great Wall.” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, pp. 136–7.)

Prof. Pelliot informs me that in No. 3 (Sept., 1918) of Vol. III of Chinese Social and Political Science Review there is an article on the Discovery of and Investigation concerning the Tomb of Gengis Khan. I have not seen it.

LI., p. 249.

TAILGAN.

“The táilgan, or autumn meeting of the Mongols, is probably the tái-lin, or autumn meeting, of the ancient Hiung-nu described on p. 10, Vol. XX. of the China Review. The Kao-ch’ê (= High Carts, Tölös, or early Ouigours) and the early Cathayans (Sien-pi) had very similar customs. Heikel gives an account of analogous ‘Olympic games’ witnessed at Urga in the year 1890.” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, pp. 140–1.)

LI., p. 251. Read T’ung hwo period (A.D. 992) instead of (A.D. 692).

LII., pp. 252, 254, n. 3. “[The Tartars] live on the milk and meat which their herds supply, and on the produce of the chase; and they eat all kinds of flesh, including that of horses and dogs, and Pharaoh’s rats, of which last there are great numbers in burrows on those plains.”

Pharaoh’s rat was the mangouste or ichneumon (Herpestes ichneumon) formerly found in this part of Asia as well as in Egypt where it was venerated. Cf. Cathay, II., p. 116.

LII., p. 254. Instead of “his tent invariably facing south,” read “facing east” according to the Chou Shu. (Pelliot.)

LII., p. 256 n.

MARRIAGE.

The China Review, Vol. XX. “gives numerous instances of marrying mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law amongst the Hiung nu. The practice was common with all Tartars, as, indeed, is stated by Yule.” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 141.)

LII., p. 257 n.

TENGRI (HEAVEN).

“The Mongol word Tengri (= Heaven) appears also in Hiung-nu times; in fact, the word shen yü is stated to have been used by the Hiung-nu alternatively with Tengri kudu (Son of Heaven).” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 141.)

LIV., p. 263 n.

COATS OF MAIL.

Parker’s note is erroneous.—See Laufer, Chinese Clay Figures, Part I.

LV., p. 267. “They [the Tartars] 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.”

Mr. Kumagusu Minakata writes on the subject in Nature, Jan. 7, 1897, pp. 224–5:

“As it is not well known whether or not there is a record of this strange custom earlier than the beginning of the dynasty of Yuen, I was in doubt whether it was originally common to the Chinese and Tartars until I lately came across the following passage in Tsoh-mung-luh (Brit. Mus. copy, 15297, a 1, fol. 11–12), which would seem to decide the question—‘In the North there is this custom. When a youth and a girl of marriageable ages die before marriage, their families appoint a match-maker to negotiate their nuptials, whom they call “Kwei-mei” (i.e. “Match-Maker of Ghosts”). Either family hands over to another a paper noticing all pre-requisites concerning the affair; and by names of the parents of the intended couple asks a man to pray and divine; and if the presage tells that the union is a lucky one, clothes and ornaments are made for the deceased pair. Now the match-maker goes to the burying-ground of the bridegroom, and, offering wine and fruits, requests the pair to marry. There two seats are prepared on adjoining positions, either of which having behind it a small banner more than a foot long. Before the ceremony is consecrated by libation, the two banners remain hanging perpendicularly and still; but when the libation is sprinkled and the deceased couple are requested to marry, the banners commence to gradually approach till they touch one another, which shows that they are both glad of the wedlock. However, when one of them dislikes another, it would happen that the banner representing the unwilling party does not move to approach the other banner. In case the couple should die too young to understand the matter, a dead man is appointed as a tutor to the male defunct, and some effigies are made to serve as the instructress and maids to the female defunct. The dead tutor thus nominated is informed of his appointment by a paper offered to him, on which are inscribed his name and age. After the consummation of the marriage the new consorts appear in dreams to their respective parents-in-law. Should this custom be discarded, the unhappy defuncts might do mischief to their negligent relatives.... On every occasion of these nuptials both families give some presents to the match-maker (“Kwei-mei”), whose sole business is annually to inspect the newly-deceased couples around his village, and to arrange their weddings to earn his livelihood.’”

Mr. Kumagusu Minakata adds:

“The passage is very interesting, for, besides giving us a faithful account of the particulars, which nowadays we fail to find elsewhere, it bears testimony to the Tartar, and not Chinese, origin of this practice. The author, Kang Yu-chi, describes himself to have visited his old home in Northern China shortly after its subjugation by the Kin Tartars in 1126 A.D.; so there is no doubt that among many institutional novelties then introduced to China by the northern invaders, Marriage of the Dead was so striking that the author did not hesitate to describe it for the first time.

“According to a Persian writer, after whom Pétis de la Croix writes, this custom was adopted by Jenghiz Kân as a means to preserve amity amongst his subjects, it forming the subject of Article XIX. of his Yasa promulgated in 1205 A.D. The same writer adds: ‘This custom is still in use amongst the Tartars at this day, but superstition has added more circumstances to it: they throw the contract of marriage into the fire after having drawn some figures on it to represent the persons pretended to be so marry’d, and some forms of beasts; and are persuaded that all this is carried by the smoke to their children, who thereupon marry in the other world’ (Pétis de la Croix, Hist. of Genghizcan, trans. by P. Aubin, Lond., 1722, p. 86). As the Chinese author does not speak of the burning of papers in this connection, whereas the Persian writer speaks definitely of its having been added later, it seems that the marriage of the dead had been originally a Tartar custom, with which the well-known Chinese paper-burning was amalgamated subsequently between the reigns of Genghiz and his grandson Kúblái—under the latter Marco witnessed the customs already mingled, still, perhaps, mainly prevailing amongst the Tartar descendants.”

LV., p. 266. Regarding the scale of blows from seven to 107, Prof. Pelliot writes to me that these figures represent the theoretical number of tens diminished as a favour made to the culprit by three units in the name of Heaven, Earth and the Emperor.

LV., p. 268, n. 2. In the Yuan Shi, XX. 7, and other Chinese Texts of the Mongol period, is to be found confirmation of the fact, “He is slaughtered like a sheep,” i.e. the belly cut open lengthwise. (Pelliot.)

LVI., p. 269. “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.”

B. Laufer, in the Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, Vol. IV., No. 2, 1917 (The Reindeer and its Domestication), p. 107, has the following remarks: “Certainly this is the reindeer. Yule is inclined to think that Marco embraces under this tribal name in question characteristics belonging to tribes extending far beyond the Mekrit, and which in fact are appropriate to the Tungus; and continues that Rashid-eddin 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 birchbark, and their hunting on snowshoes. As W. Radloff [Die Jakutische Sprache, Mém. Ac. Sc. Pet., 1908, pp. 54–56] has endeavoured to show, the Wooland Uryangkit, in this form mentioned by Rashid-eddin, should be looked upon as the forefathers of the present Yakut. Rashid-eddin, further, speaks of other Uryangkit, who are genuine Mongols, and live close together in the Territory Barguchin Tukum, where the clans Khori, Bargut, and Tumat, are settled. This region is east of Lake Baikal, which receives the river Barguchin flowing out of Lake Bargu in an easterly direction. The tribal name Bargut (–t being the termination of the plural) is surely connected with the name of the said river.”

LVII., p. 276.

SINJU.

“Marco Polo’s Sinju certainly seems to be the site of Si-ning, but not on the grounds suggested in the various notes. In 1099 the new city of Shen Chou was created by the Sung or ‘Manzi’ Dynasty on the site of what had been called Ts’ing-t’ang. Owing to this region having for many centuries belonged to independent Hia or Tangut, very little exact information is obtainable from any Chinese history; but I think it almost certain that the great central city of Shen Chou was the modern Si-ning. Moreover, there was a very good reason for the invention of this name, as this Shen was the first syllable of the ancient Shen-shen State of Lob Nor and Koko Nor, which, after its conquest by China in 609, was turned into the Shen-shen prefecture; in fact, the Sui Emperor was himself at Kam Chou or ‘Campichu’ when this very step was taken.” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 144.)

LVIII., p. 282. Alashan is not an abbreviation of Alade-Shan and has nothing to do with the name of Eleuth, written in Mongol Ögälät. Nuntuh (nuntük) is the mediæval Mongol form of the actual nutuk, an encampment. (Pelliot.)

LVIII., p. 283, n. 3.

GURUN.

Gurun = Kurun = Chinese K’u lun = Mongol Urga.

LVIII., p. 283, n. 3. The stuff sa-ha-la (= saghlat) is to be found often in the Chinese texts of the XIVth and XVth Centuries. (Pelliot.)

LIX., pp. 284 seq.

KING GEORGE.

King or Prince George of Marco Polo and Monte Corvino belonged to the Öngüt tribe. He was killed in Mongolia in 1298, leaving an infant child called Shu-ngan (Giòvanni) baptized by Monte Corvino. George was transcribed Körgüz and Görgüz by the Persian historians. See Pelliot, T’oung Pao, 1914, pp. 632 seq. and Cathay, III., p. 15 n.

LIX., p. 286.

TENDUC.

Prof. Pelliot (Journ. As., Mai–Juin, 1912, pp. 595–6) thinks that it might be Tien tö, 天 德, on the river So ling (Selenga).

LIX., p. 291.

CHRISTIANS.

In the Mongol Empire, Christians were known under the name of tarsa and especially under this of ärkägün, in Chinese ye-li-k’o-wen; tarsa, was generally used by the Persian historians. Cf. Pelliot, T’oung Pao, 1914, p. 636.

LIX., p. 295, n. 6. Instead of Ku-wei, read K’u-wai. (Pelliot.)

LXI., pp. 302, 310.

“The weather-conjuring proclivities of the Tartars are repeatedly mentioned in Chinese history. The High Carts (early Ouigours) and Jou-jan (masters of the Early Turks) were both given this way, the object being sometimes to destroy their enemies. I drew attention to this in the Asiatic Quart. Rev. for April, 1902 (‘China and the Avars’).” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 140.)

LXI., p. 305, n. Harlez’s inscription is a miserable scribble of the facsimile from Dr. Bushell. (Pelliot.)

LXI., p. 308, n. 5. The Yuan Shi, ch. 77, f^o 7 v., says that: “Every year, [the Emperor] resorts to Shang tu. On the 24th day of the 8th moon, the sacrifice called ‘libation of mare’s milk’ is celebrated.” (Pelliot.)

BOOK SECOND.

PART I.—THE KAAN, HIS COURT AND CAPITAL.

II., p. 334.

NAYAN.

It is worthy of note that Nayan had given up Buddhism and become a Christian as well as many of his subjects. Cf. Pelliot, 1914, pp. 635–6.

VII., pp. 352, 353.

Instead of Sir-i-Sher, read Sar-i-Sher. (Pelliot.)

P’AI TZŬ.

“Dr. Bushell’s note describes the silver p’ai, or tablets (not then called p’ai tsz) of the Cathayans, which were 200 (not 600) in number. But long before the Cathayans used them, the T’ang Dynasty had done so for exactly the same purpose. They were 5 inches by 1½ inches, and marked with the five words, ‘order, running horses, silver p’ai,’ and were issued by the department known as the mên-hia-shêng. Thus, they were not a Tartar, but a Chinese, invention. Of course, it is possible that the Chinese must have had the idea suggested to them by the ancient wooden orders or tallies of the Tartars.” (E. H. Parker, As. Quart. Review, Jan., 1904, p. 146.)

Instead of “Publication No. 42” read only No. 42, which is the number of the pai tzŭ. (Pelliot.)

VIII., p. 358, n. 2.

Kún ḳú = hon hu may be a transcription of hwang heu during the Mongol Period, according to Pelliot.

IX., p. 360.

MONGOL IMPERIAL FAMILY.

“Marco Polo is correct in a way when he says Kúblái was the sixth Emperor, for his father Tu li is counted as a Divus (Jwei Tsung), though he never reigned; just as his son Chin kin (Yü Tsung) is also so counted, and under similar conditions. Chin kin was appointed to the chung shu and shu-mih departments in 1263. He was entrusted with extensive powers in 1279, when he is described as ‘heir apparent.’ In 1284 Yün Nan, Chagan-jang, etc., were placed under his direction. His death is recorded in 1285. Another son, Numugan, was made Prince of the Peking region (Pêh-p’ing) in 1266, and the next year a third son, Hukaji, was sent to take charge of Ta-li, Chagan-jang, Zardandan, etc. In 1272 Kúblái’s son, Mangalai, was made Prince of An-si, with part of Shen Si as his appanage. One more son, named Ai-ya-ch’ih, is mentioned in 1284, and in that year yet another, Tu kan, was made Prince of Chên-nan, and sent on an expedition against Ciampa. In 1285 Essen Temur, who had received a chung-shu post in 1283, is spoken of as Prince of Yün Nan, and is stated to be engaged in Kara-jang; in 1286 he is still there, and is styled ‘son of the Emperor.’ I do not observe in the Annals that Hukaji ever bore the title of Prince of Yün Nan, or, indeed, any princely title. In 1287 Ai-ya-ch’ih is mentioned as being at Shên Chou (Mukden) in connection with Kúblái’s ‘personally conducted’ expedition against Nayen. In 1289 one more son, Géukju, was patented Prince of Ning Yüan. In 1293 Kúblái’s third son, Chinkin, received a posthumous title, and Chinkin’s son Temur was declared heir-apparent to Kúblái.

“The above are the only sons of Kúblái whose names I have noticed in the Annals. In the special table of Princes Numugan is styled Pêh-an (instead of Pêh-p’ing) Prince. Aghrukji’s name appears in the table (chap. 108, p. 107), but though he is styled Prince of Si-p’ing, he is not there stated to be a son of Kúblái; nor in the note I have supplied touching Tibet is he styled a hwang-tsz or ‘imperial son.’ In the table Hukaji is described as being in 1268 Prince of Yün Nan, a title ‘inherited in 1280 by Essen Temur.’ I cannot discover anything about the other alleged sons in Yule’s note (Vol. I., p. 361). The Chinese count Kúblái’s years as eighty, he having died just at the beginning of 1294 (our February); this would make him seventy-nine at the very outside, according to our mode of reckoning, or even seventy-eight if he was born towards the end of a year, which indeed he was (eighth moon). If a man is born on the last day of the year he is two years old the very next day according to Chinese methods of counting, which, I suppose, include the ten months which they consider are spent in the womb.” (E. H. Parker, As. Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, pp. 137–139.)

XI., p. 370, n. 13.

The character King in King-shan is not the one representing Court 京 but 景.—Read “Wan-sui-Shan” instead of Wan-su-Shan.

XII., p. 380.

Keshikten has nothing to do with Ḳalchi. (Pelliot.)

XVIII., p. 398.

THE CHEETA, OR HUNTING LEOPARD.

Cf. Chapters on Hunting Dogs and Cheetas, being an extract from the “Kitab^u’ l-Bazyarah,” a treatise on Falconry, by Ibn Kustrajim, an Arab writer of the Tenth Century. By Lieut.-Colonel D. C. Phillott and Mr. R. F. Azoo (Journ. and Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, Jan., 1907, pp. 47–50):

“The cheeta is the offspring of a lioness, by a leopard that coerces her, and, for this reason, cheetas are sterile like mules and all other hybrids. No animal of the same size is as weighty as the cheeta. It is the most somnolent animal on earth. The best are those that are ‘hollow-bellied,’ roach backed, and have deep black spots on a dark tawny ground, the spots on the back being close to each other; that have the eyes bloodshot, small and narrow; the mouth ‘deep and laughing’; broad foreheads; thick necks; the black line from the eyes long; and the fangs far apart from each other. The fully mature animal is more useful for sporting purposes than the cub; and the females are better at hunting than are the males, and such is the case with all beasts and birds of prey.”

See Hippolyte Boussac, Le Guépard dans l’Egypte ancienne (La Nature, 21st March, 1908, pp. 248–250).

XIX., p. 400 n. Instead of Hoy tiao, read Hey tiao (Hei tiao).

XIX., p. 400. “These two are styled Chinuchi (or Cunichi), which is as much as to say, ‘The Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs.’”

Dr. Laufer writes to me: “The word chinuchi is a Mongol term derived from Mongol činoa (pronounced čino or čono), which means ‘wolf,’ with the possessive suffix -či, meaning accordingly a ‘wolf-owner’ or ‘wolf-keeper.’ One of the Tibetan designations for the mastiff is čang-k’i (written spyang-k’yi), which signifies literally ‘wolf-dog.’ The Mongol term is probably framed on this Tibetan word. The other explanations given by Yule (401–402) should be discarded.”

Prof. Pelliot writes to me: “J’incline à croire que les Cunichi sont à lire Cuiuci et répondent au kouei-tch’e ou kouei-yeou-tch’e, ‘censeurs,’ des textes chinois; les formes chinoises sont transcrites du mongol et se rattachent au verbe güyü, ou güyi, ‘courir’; on peut songer à restituer güyükči. Un Ming-ngan (= Minghan), chef des kouei-tch’e, vivait sous Kúblái et a sa biographie au ch. 135 du Yuan Che; d’autre part, peut-être faut-il lire, par déplacement de deux points diacritiques, Bayan güyükči dans Rashid ed-Din, ed. Blochet, II., 501.”

XX., p. 408, n. 6. Cachar Modun must be the place called Ha-ch’a-mu-touen in the Yuan Shi, ch. 100, f^o. 2 r. (Pelliot.)

XXIV., pp. 423, 430. “Bark of Trees, made into something like Paper, to pass for Money over all his Country.”

Regarding Bretschneider’s statement, p. 430, Dr. B. Laufer writes to me: “This is a singular error of Bretschneider. Marco Polo is perfectly correct: not only did the Chinese actually manufacture paper from the bark of the mulberry tree (Morus alba), but also it was this paper which was preferred for the making of paper-money. Bretschneider is certainly right in saying that paper is made from the Broussonetia, but he is assuredly wrong in the assertion that paper is not made in China from mulberry trees. This fact he could have easily ascertained from S. Julien,[1] who alludes to mulberry tree paper twice, first, as ‘papier de racines et d’écorce de mûrier,’ and, second, in speaking of the bark paper from Broussonetia: ‘On emploie aussi pour le même usage l’écorce d’Hibiscus Rosa sinensis et de mûrier; ce dernier papier sert encore à recueillir les graines de vers à soie.’ What is understood by the latter process may be seen from Plate I. in Julien’s earlier work on sericulture,[2] where the paper from the bark of the mulberry tree is likewise mentioned.

“The Chi p’u, a treatise on paper, written by Su I-kien toward the close of the tenth century, enumerates among the various sorts of paper manufactured during his lifetime paper from the bark of the mulberry tree (sang p’i) made by the people of the north.[3]

“Chinese paper-money of mulberry bark was known in the Islamic World in the beginning of the fourteenth century; that is, during the Mongol period. Accordingly it must have been manufactured in China during the Yüan Dynasty. Ahmed Shibab Eddin, who died in Cairo in 1338 at the age of 93, and left an important geographical work in thirty volumes, containing interesting information on China gathered from the lips of eye-witnesses, makes the following comment on paper-money, in the translation of Ch. Schefer:[4]

“‘On emploie dans le Khita, en guise de monnaie, des morceaux d’un papier de forme allongée fabriqué avec des filaments de mûriers sur lesquels est imprimé le nom de l’empereur. Lorsqu’un de ces papiers est usé, on le porte aux officiers du prince et, moyennant une perte minime, on reçoit un autre billet en échange, ainsi que cela a lieu dans nos hôtels des monnaies, pour les matières d’or et d’argent que l’on y porte pour être converties en pièces monnayées.’

“And in another passage: ‘La monnaie des Chinois est faite de billets fabriqués avec l’écorce du mûrier. Il y en a de grands et de petits.... On les fabrique avec des filaments tendres du mûrier et, après y avoir apposé un sceau au nom de l’empereur, on les met en circulation.’[5]

“The banknotes of the Ming Dynasty were likewise made of mulberry pulp, in rectangular sheets one foot long and six inches wide, the material being of a greenish colour, as stated in the Annals of the Dynasty.[6] It is clear that the Ming Emperors, like many other institutions, adopted this practice from their predecessors, the Mongols. Klaproth[7] is wrong in saying that the assignats of the Sung, Kin, and Mongols were all made from the bark of the tree ču (Broussonetia), and those of the Ming from all sorts of plants.

“In the Hui kiang chi, an interesting description of Turkistan by two Manchu officials, Surde and Fusambô, published in 1772,[8] the following note headed ‘Mohamedan Paper’ occurs:

“‘There are two sorts of Turkistan paper, black and white, made from mulberry bark, cotton and silk refuse equally mixed, resulting in a coarse, thick, strong, and tough material. It is cut into small rolls fully a foot long, which are burnished by means of stones, and then are fit for writing.’

“Sir Aurel Stein[9] reports that paper is still manufactured from mulberry trees in Khotan. Also J. Wiesner,[10] the meritorious investigator of ancient papers, has included the fibres of Morus alba and M. nigra among the material to which his researches extended.

“Mulberry-bark paper is ascribed to Bengal in the Si yang ch’ao kung tien lu by Wu Kiën-hwang, published in 1520.[11]

“As the mulberry tree is eagerly cultivated in Persia in connection with the silk industry, it is possible also that the Persian paper in the banknotes of the Mongols was a product of the mulberry.[12] At any rate, good Marco Polo is cleared, and his veracity and exactness have been established again.”

XXIV., p. 427.

VALUE OF GOLD.

“L’or valait quatre fois son poids d’argent au commencement de la dynastie Ming (1375), sept ou huit fois sous l’empereur Wan-li de la même dynastie (1574), et dix fois à la fin de la dynastie (1635); plus de dix fois sous K’ang hi (1662); plus de vingt fois sous le règne de K’ien long; dix-huit fois au milieu du règne de Tao-koang (1840), quatorze fois au commencement du règne de Hien-fong (1850); dix-huit fois en moyenne dans les années 1882–1883. En 1893, la valeur de l’or augmenta considérablement et égala 28 fois celle de l’argent; en 1894, 32 fois; au commencement de 1895, 33 fois; mais il baissa un peu et à la fin de l’année il valait seulement 30 fois plus.” (Pierre Hoang, La Propriété en Chine, 1897, p. 43.)

XXVI., p. 432.

CH’ING SIANG.

Morrison, Dict., Pt. II, Vol. I., p. 70, says: “Chin-seang, a Minister of State, was so called under the Ming Dynasty.” According to Mr. E. H. Parker (China Review, XXIV., p. 101), Ching Siang were abolished in 1395.

In the quotation from the Masálak al Absár instead of Landjun (Lang Chang), read Landjun (Lang Chung).

XXXIII., pp. 447–8. “You must know, too, that the Tartars reckon their years by twelves; the sign of the first year being the Lion, of the second the Ox, of the third the Dragon, of the fourth the Dog, and so forth up to the twelfth; so that when one is asked the year of his birth he answers that it was in the year of the Lion (let us say), on such a day or night, at such an hour, and such a moment. And the father of a child always takes care to write these particulars down in a book. When the twelve yearly symbols have been gone through, then they come back to the first, and go through with them again in the same succession.”

“Ce témoignage, writes Chavannes (T’oung Pao, 1906, p. 59), n’est pas d’une exactitude rigoureuse, puisque les animaux n’y sont pas nommés à leur rang; en outre, le lion y est substitué au tigre de l’énumération chinoise; mais cette dernière différence provient sans doute de ce que Marco Polo connaissait le cycle avec les noms mongols des animaux; c’est le léopard dont il a fait le lion. Quoiqu’il en soit, l’observation de Marco Polo est juste dans son ensemble et d’innombrables exemples prouvent que le cycle des douze animaux était habituel dans les pièces officielles émanant des chancelleries impériales à l’époque mongole.”

XXXIII., p. 448.

PERSIAN.

With regard to the knowledge of Persian, the only oriental language probably known by Marco Polo, Pelliot remarks (Journ. Asiat., Mai-Juin, 1912, p. 592 n.): “C’est l’idée de Yule (cf. par exemple I., 448), et je la crois tout à fait juste. On peut la fortifier d’autres indices. On sait par exemple que Marco Polo substitue le lion au tigre dans le cycle des douze animaux. M. Chavannes (T’oung pao, II., VII., 59) suppose que ‘cette dernière différence provient sans doute de ce que Marco Polo connaissait le cycle avec les noms mongols des animaux: c’est le léopard dont il a fait le lion.’ Mais on ne voit pas pourquoi il aurait rendu par ‘lion’ le turco-mongol bars, qui signifie seulement ‘tigre.’ Admettons au contraire qu’il pense en persan: dans toute l’Asie centrale, le persan شير šīr a les deux sens de lion et de tigre. De même, quand Marco Polo appelle la Chine du sud Manzi, il est d’accord avec les Persans, par exemple avec Rachid ed-din, pour employer l’expression usuelle dans la langue chinoise de l’époque, c’est-à-dire Man-tseu; mais, au lieu de Manzi, les Mongols avaient adopté un autre nom, Nangias, dont il n’y a pas trace dans Marco Polo. On pourrait multiplier ces exemples.”

XXXIII., p. 456, n. Instead of Hui Heng, read Hiu Heng.

BOOK SECOND.

PART II.—JOURNEY TO THE WEST AND SOUTH-WEST OF CATHAY.

XXXVII, p. 13. “There grow here [Taianfu] many excellent vines, supplying great plenty of wine; and in all Cathay this is the only place where wine is produced. It is carried hence all over the country.”

Dr. B. Laufer makes the following remarks to me: “Polo is quite right in ascribing vines and wine to T’aï Yüan-fu in Shan Si, and is in this respect upheld by contemporary Chinese sources. The Yin shan cheng yao written in 1330 by Ho Se-hui, contains this account[1]: ‘There are numerous brands of wine: that coming from Qara-Khodja[2] (Ha-la-hwo) is very strong, that coming from Tibet ranks next. Also the wines from P’ing Yang and T’aï Yüan (in Shan Si) take the second rank. According to some statements, grapes, when stored for a long time, will develop into wine through a natural process. This wine is fragrant, sweet, and exceedingly strong: this is the genuine grape-wine.’ Ts’ao mu tse, written in 1378 par Ye Tse-k’i,[3] contains the following information: ‘Under the Yüan Dynasty grape-wine was manufactured in Ki-ning and other circuits of Shan Si Province. In the eighth month they went to the T’ai hang Mountain,[4] in order to test the genuine and adulterated brands: the genuine kind when water is poured on it, will float; the adulterated sort, when thus treated, will freeze.[5] In wine which has long been stored, there is a certain portion which even in extreme cold will never freeze, while all the remainder is frozen: this is the spirit and fluid secretion of wine.[6] If this is drunk, the essence will penetrate into a man’s armpits, and he will die. Wine kept for two or three years develops great poison.’” For a detailed history of grape-wine in China, see Laufer’s Sino-Iranica.

XXXVII., p. 16.

VINE.

Chavannes (Chancellerie chinoise de l’époque mongole, II., pp. 66–68, 1908) has a long note on vine and grape wine-making in China, from Chinese sources. We know that vine, according to Sze-ma Ts’ien, was imported from Farghânah about 100 B.C. The Chinese, from texts in the T’ai p’ing yu lan and the Yuan Kien lei han, learned the art of wine-making after they had defeated the King of Kao ch’ang (Turfan) in 640 A.D.

XLI., p. 27 seq.

CHRISTIAN MONUMENT AT SI-NGAN FU.

The slab King kiao pei, bearing the inscription, was found, according to Father Havret, 2nd Pt., p. 71, in the sub-prefecture of Chau Chi, a dependency of Si-ngan fu, among ancient ruins. Prof. Pelliot says that the slab was not found at Chau Chi, but in the western suburb of Si-ngan, at the very spot where it was to be seen some years ago, before it was transferred to the Pei lin, in fact at the place where it was erected in the seventh century inside the monastery built by Olopun. (Chrétiens de l’Asie centrale, T’oung pao, 1914, p. 625.)

In 1907, a Danish gentleman, Mr. Frits V. Holm, took a photograph of the tablet as it stood outside the west gate of Si-ngan, south of the road to Kan Su; it was one of five slabs on the same spot; it was removed without the stone pedestal (a tortoise) into the city on the 2nd October 1907, and it is now kept in the museum known as the Pei lin (Forest of Tablets). Holm says it is ten feet high, the weight being two tons; he tried to purchase the original, and failing this he had an exact replica made by Chinese workmen; this replica was deposited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the City of New York, as a loan, on the 16th of June, 1908. Since, this replica was purchased by Mrs. George Leary, of 1053, Fifth Avenue, New York, and presented by this lady, through Frits Holm, to the Vatican. See the November number (1916) of the Boll. della R. Soc. Geog. Italiana. “The Original Nestorian Tablet of A.D. 781, as well as my replica, made in 1907,” Holm writes, “are both carved from the stone quarries of Fu Ping Hien; the material is a black, sub-granular limestone with small oolithes scattered through it” (Frits V. Holm, The Nestorian Monument, Chicago, 1900). In this pamphlet there is a photograph of the tablet as it stands in the Pei lin.

Prof. Ed. Chavannes, who also visited Si-ngan in 1907, saw the Nestorian Monument; in the album of his Mission archéologique dans la Chine Septentrionale, Paris, 1909, he has given (Plate 445) photographs of the five tablets, the tablet itself, the western gate of the western suburb of Si-ngan, and the entrance of the temple Kin Sheng Sze.

Cf. Notes, pp. 105–113 of Vol. I. of the second edition of Cathay and the Way thither.

XLI., p. 27.

KHUMDAN.

Cf. Kumudana, given by the Sanskrit-Chinese vocabulary found in Japan (Max Müller, Buddhist Texts from Japan, in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan Series, t. I., part I., p. 9), and the Khumdan and Khumadan of Theophylactus. (See Tomaschek, in Wiener Z. M., t. III., p. 105; Marquart, Erānšahr, pp. 316–7; Osteuropäïsche und Ostasiatische Streifzüge, pp. 89–90.) (Pelliot.)

XLI., p. 29 n. The vocabulary Hwei Hwei (Mahomedan) of the College of Interpreters at Peking transcribes King chao from the Persian Kin-chang, a name it gives to the Shen-si province. King chao was called Ngan-si fu in 1277. (Devéria, Epigraphie, p. 9.) Ken jan comes from Kin-chang = King-chao = Si-ngan fu.

Prof. Pelliot writes, Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, IV., July–Sept., 1904, p. 29: “Cette note de M. Cordier n’est pas exacte. Sous les Song, puis sous les Mongols jusqu’en 1277, Si-ngan fou fut appelé King-tchao fou. Le vocabulaire houei-houei ne transcrit pas ‘King-tchao du persan kin-tchang,’ mais, comme les Persans appelaient alors Si-ngan fou Kindjanfou (le Kenjanfu de Marco Polo), cette forme persane est à son tour transcrite phonétiquement en chinois Kin-tchang fou, sans que les caractères choisis jouent là aucun rôle sémantique; Kin-tchang fou n’existe pas dans la géographie chinoise. Quant à l’origine de la forme persane, il est possible, mais non pas sûr, que ce soit King-tchao fou. La forme ‘Quen-zan-fou,’ qu’un écolier chinois du Chen Si fournit à M. von Richthofen comme le nom de Si-ngan fou au temps des Yuan, doit avoir été fautivement recueillie. Il me paraît impossible qu’un Chinois d’une province quelconque prononce zan le caractère 兆 tchao.”

XLI., p. 29 n. A clause in the edict also orders the foreign bonzes of Ta T’sin and Mubupa (Christian and Mobed or Magian) to return to secular life.

Mubupa has no doubt been derived by the etymology mobed, but it is faulty; it should be Muhupa. (Pelliot, Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, IV., July–Sept., 1904, p. 771.) Pelliot writes to me that there is now no doubt that it is derived from mu-lu hien and that it must be understood as the “[religion of] the Celestial God of the Magi.”

XLIII., p. 32.

“The chien-tao, or ‘pillar road,’ mentioned, should be chan-tao, or ‘scaffolding road.’ The picture facing p. 50 shows how the shoring up or scaffolding is effected. The word chan is still in common use all over the Empire, and in 1267 Kúblái ordered this identical road (‘Sz Ch’wan chan-tao’) to be repaired. There are many such roads in Sz Ch’wan besides the original one from Han-chung-Fu.” (E. H. Parker, As. Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 144.)

XLIV., p. 36. Sindafu (Ch’êng tu fu).—Through the midst of this great city runs a large river.... It is a good half-mile wide....

“It is probable that in the thirteenth century, when Marco Polo was on his travels, the ‘great river a good half-mile wide,’ flowing past Chengtu, was the principal stream; but in the present day that channel is insignificant in comparison to the one which passes by Ta Hsien, Yung-Chia Chong, and Hsin-Chin Hsien. Of course, these channels are stopped up or opened as occasion requires. As a general rule, they follow such contour lines as will allow gravitation to conduct the water to levels as high as is possible, and when it is desired to raise it higher than it will naturally flow, chain-pumps and enormous undershot water-wheels of bamboo are freely employed. Water-power is used for driving mills through the medium of wheels, undershot or overshot, or turbines, as the local circumstances may demand.” (R. Logan Jack, Back Blocks, p. 55.)

XLIV., p. 36.

SINDAFU.

“The story of the ‘three Kings’ of Sindafu is probably in this wise: For nearly a century the Wu family (Wu Kiai, Wu Lin, and Wu Hi) had ruled as semi-independent Sung or ‘Manzi’ Viceroys of Sz Ch’wan, but in 1206 the last-named, who had fought bravely for the Sung (Manzi) Dynasty against the northern Dynasty of the Nüchên Tartars (successors to Cathay), surrendered to this same Kin or Golden Dynasty of Nüchêns or Early Manchus, and was made King of Shuh (Sz Ch’wan). In 1236, Ogdai’s son, K’wei-t’eng, effected the partial conquest of Shuh, entering the capital, Ch’êng-tu Fu (Sindafu), towards the close of the same year. But in 1259 Mangu in person had to go over part of the same ground again. He proceeded up the rapids, and in the seventh moon attacked Ch’ung K’ing, but about a fortnight later he died at a place called Tiao-yü Shan, apparently near the Tiao-yü Ch’êng of my map (p. 175 of Up the Yangtsze, 1881), where I was myself in the year 1881. Colonel Yule’s suggestion that Marco’s allusion is to the tripartite Empire of China 1000 years previously is surely wide of the mark. The ‘three brothers’ were probably Kiai, Lin, and T’ing, and Wu Hi was the son of Wu T’ing. An account of Wu Kiai is given in Mayers’ Chinese Reader’s Manual.” (E. H. Parker, As. Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, pp. 144–5.)

Cf. Mayers, No. 865, p. 259, and Giles, Biog. Dict., No. 2324, p. 880.

XLIV., p. 38.

SINDAFU.

Tch’eng Tu was the capital of the Kingdom of Shu. The first Shu Dynasty was the Minor Han Dynasty which lasted from A.D. 221 to A.D. 263; this Shu Dynasty was one of the Three Kingdoms (San Kwo chi); the two others being Wei (A.D. 220–264) reigning at Lo Yang, and Wu (A.D. 222–277) reigning at Kien Kang (Nan King). The second was the Ts’ien Shu Dynasty, founded in 907 by Wang Kien, governor of Sze Chw’an since 891; it lasted till 925, when it submitted to the Hau T’ang; in 933 the Hau T’ang were compelled to grant the title of King of Shu (Hau Shu) to Mong Chi-siang, governor of Sze Chw’an, who was succeeded by Mong Ch’ang, dethroned in 965; the capital was also Ch’eng Tu under these two dynasties.

TIBET.

XLV., p. 44. No man of that country would on any consideration take to wife a girl who was a maid; for they say a wife is nothing worth unless she has been used to consort with men. And their custom is this, that when travellers come that way, the old women of the place get ready, and take their unmarried daughters or other girls related to them, and go to the strangers who are passing, and make over the young women to whomsoever will accept them; and the travellers take them accordingly and do their pleasure; after which the girls are restored to the old women who brought them....

Speaking of the Sifan village of Po Lo and the account given by Marco Polo of the customs of these people, M. R. Logan Jack (Back Blocks, 1904, pp. 145–6) writes: “I freely admit that the good looks and modest bearing of the girls were the chief merits of the performance in my eyes. Had the danseuses been scrubbed and well dressed, they would have been a presentable body of débutantes in any European ballroom. One of our party, frivolously disposed, asked a girl (through an interpreter) if she would marry him and go to his country. The reply, ‘I do not know you, sir,’ was all that propriety could have demanded in the best society, and worthy of a pupil ‘finished’ at Miss Pinkerton’s celebrated establishment.... Judging from our experience, no idea of hospitalities of the kind [Marco’s experience] was in the people’s minds.”

XLV., p. 45. Speaking of the people of Tibet, Polo says: “They are very poorly clad, for their clothes are only of the skins of beasts, and of canvas, and of buckram.”

Add to the note, I., p. 48, n. 5:—

“Au XIV^e siècle, le bougran [buckram] était une espèce de tissu de lin: le meilleur se fabriquait en Arménie et dans le royaume de Mélibar, s’il faut s’en rapporter à Marco Polo, qui nous apprend que les habitants du Thibet, qu’il signale comme pauvrement vêtus, l’étaient de canevas et de bougran, et que cette dernière étoffe se fabriquait aussi dans la province d’Abasce. Il en venait également de l’île de Chypre. Sorti des manufactures d’Espagne ou importé dans le royaume, à partir de 1442, date d’une ordonnance royale publiée par le P. Saez, le bougran le plus fin payait soixante-dix maravédis de droits, sans distinction de couleur” (Francisque-Michel, Recherches sur le commerce, la fabrication et l’usage des étoffes de soie, d’or et d’argent.... II., 1854, pp. 33–4). Passage mentioned by Dr. Laufer.

XLV., pp. 46 n., 49 seq.

Referring to Dr. E. Bretschneider, Prof. E. H. Parker gives the following notes in the Asiatic Quart. Review, Jan., 1904, p. 131: “In 1251 Ho-êrh-t’ai was appointed to the command of the Mongol and Chinese forces advancing on Tibet (T’u-fan). [In my copy of the Yüan Shï there is no entry under the year 1254 such as that mentioned by Bretschneider; it may, however, have been taken by Palladius from some other chapter.] In 1268 Mang-ku-tai was ordered to invade the Si-fan (outer Tibet) and Kien-tu [Marco’s Caindu] with 6000 men. Bretschneider, however, omits Kien-tu, and also omits to state that in 1264 eighteen Si-fan clans were placed under the superintendence of the an-fu-sz (governor) of An-si Chou, and that in 1265 a reward was given to the troops of the decachiliarch Hwang-li-t’a-rh for their services against the T’u-fan, with another reward to the troops under Prince Ye-suh-pu-hwa for their successes against the Si-fan. Also that in 1267 the Si-fan chieftains were encouraged to submit to Mongol power, in consequence of which A-nu-pan-ti-ko was made Governor-General of Ho-wu and other regions near it. Bretschneider’s next item after the doubtful one of 1274 is in 1275, as given by Cordier, but he omits to state that in 1272 Mang-ku-tai’s eighteen clans and other T’u-fan troops were ordered in hot haste to attack Sin-an Chou, belonging to the Kien-tu prefecture; and that a post-station called Ning-ho Yih was established on the T’u-fan and Si-Ch’wan [= Sz Ch’wan] frontier. In 1275 a number of Princes, including Chi-pi T’ie-mu-r, and Mang-u-la, Prince of An-si, were sent to join the Prince of Si-p’ing [Kúblái’s son] Ao-lu-ch’ih in his expedition against the Tu-fan. In 1276 all Si-fan bonzes (lamas) were forbidden to carry arms, and the Tu-fan city of Hata was turned into Ning-yüan Fu [as it now exists]; garrisons and civil authorities were placed in Kien-tu and Lo-lo-sz [the Lolo country]. In 1277 a Customs station was established at Tiao-mên and Li-Chou [Ts’ing-k’i Hien in Ya-chou Fu] for the purposes of Tu-fan trade. In 1280 more Mongol troops were sent to the Li Chou region, and a special officer was appointed for T’u-fan [Tibetan] affairs at the capital. In 1283 a high official was ordered to print the official documents connected with the süan-wei-sz [governorship] of T’u-fan. In 1288 six provinces, including those of Sz Chw’an and An-si, were ordered to contribute financial assistance to the süan-wei-shï [governor] of U-sz-tsang [the indigenous name of Tibet proper]. Every year or two after this, right up to 1352, there are entries in the Mongol Annals amply proving that the conquest of Tibet under the Mongols was not only complete, but fully narrated; however, there is no particular object in carrying the subject here beyond the date of Marco’s departure from China. There are many mentions of Kien-tu (which name dates from the Sung Dynasty) in the Yüan-shï; it is the Kien-ch’ang Valley of to-day, with capital at Ning-yüan, as clearly marked on Bretschneider’s Map. Baber’s suggestion of the Chan-tui tribe of Tibetans is quite obsolete, although Baber was one of the first to explore the region in person. A petty tribe like the Chan-tui could never have given name to Caindu; besides, both initials and finals are impossible, and the Chan-tui have never lived there. I have myself met Si-fan chiefs at Peking; they may be described roughly as Tibetans not under the Tibetan Government. The T’u-fan, T’u-po, or Tubot, were the Tibetans under Tibetan rule, and they are now usually styled ‘Si-tsang’ by the Chinese. Yaci [Ya-ch’ih, Ya-ch’ï] is frequently mentioned in the Yüan-shï, and the whole of Devéria’s quotation given by Cordier on p. 72 appears there [chap. 121, p. 5], besides a great deal more to the point, without any necessity for consulting the Lei pien. Cowries, under the name of pa-tsz, are mentioned in both Mongol and Ming history as being in use for money in Siam and Yung-ch’ang [Vociam]. The porcelain coins which, as M. Cordier quotes from me on p. 74, I myself saw current in the Shan States or Siam about ten years ago, were of white China, with a blue figure, and about the size of a Keating’s cough lozenge, but thicker. As neither form of the character pa appears in any dictionary, it is probably a foreign word only locally understood. Regarding the origin of the name Yung-ch’ang, the discussions upon p. 105 are no longer necessary; in the eleventh moon of 1272 [say about January 1, 1273] Kúblái ‘presented the name Yung-ch’ang to the new city built by Prince Chi-pi T’ie-mu-r.’”

XLVI., p. 49. They have also in this country [Tibet] plenty of fine woollens and other stuffs, and many kinds of spices are produced there which are never seen in our country.

Dr. Laufer draws my attention to the fact that this translation does not give exactly the sense of the French text, which runs thus:

“Et encore voz di qe en ceste provence a gianbelot [camelot] assez et autres dras d’or et de soie, et hi naist maintes especes qe unques ne furent veue en nostre païs.” (Ed. Soc. de Géog., Chap, cxvi., p. 128.)

In the Latin text (Ibid., p. 398), we have:

“In ista provincia sunt giambelloti satis et alii panni de sirico et auro; et ibi nascuntur multæ species quæ nunquam fuerunt visæ in nostris contractis.”

Francisque-Michel (Recherches, II., p. 44) says: “Les Tartares fabriquaient aussi à Aias de très-beaux camelots de poil de chameau, que l’on expédiait pour divers pays, et Marco Polo nous apprend que cette denrée était fort abondante dans le Thibet. Au XV^e siècle, il en venait de l’île de Chypre.”

XLVII., pp. 50, 52.

WILD OXEN CALLED BEYAMINI.

Dr. Laufer writes to me: “Yule correctly identifies the ‘wild oxen’ of Tibet with the gayal (Bos gavaeus), but I do not believe that his explanation of the word beyamini (from an artificially constructed buemini = Bohemian) can be upheld. Polo states expressly that these wild oxen are called beyamini (scil. by the natives), and evidently alludes to a native Tibetan term. The gayal is styled in Tibetan ba-men (or ba-man), derived from ba (‘cow’), a diminutive form of which is beu. Marco Polo appears to have heard some dialectic form of this word like beu-men or beu-min.”

XLVIII., p. 70.

KIUNG TU AND KIEN TU.

Kiung tu or Kiang tu is Caindu in Sze-Ch’wan; Kien tu is in Yun Nan. Cf. Pelliot, Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, July–Sept, 1904, p. 771. Caindu or Ning Yuan was, under the Mongols, a dependency of Yun Nan, not of Sze Ch’wan. (Pelliot.)

XLVIII., p. 72. The name Karájáng. “The first element was the Mongol or Turki Kárá.... Among the inhabitants of this country some are black, and others are white; these latter are called by the Mongols Chaghán-Jáng (‘White Jang’). Jang has not been explained; but probably it may have been a Tibetan term adopted by the Mongols, and the colours may have applied to their clothing.”

Dr. Berthold Laufer, of Chicago, has a note on the subject in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soc., Oct., 1915, pp. 781–4: “M. Pelliot (Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, IV., 1904, p. 159) proposed to regard the unexplained name Jang as the Mongol transcription of Ts’uan, the ancient Chinese designation of the Lo-lo, taken from the family name of one of the chiefs of the latter; he gave his opinion, however, merely as an hypothesis which should await confirmation. I now believe that Yule was correct in his conception, and that, in accordance with his suggestion, Jang indeed represents the phonetically exact transcription of a Tibetan proper name. This is the Tibetan ạ Jaṅ or ạ Jaṇs (the prefixed letter ạ and the optional affix -s being silent, hence pronounced Jang or Djang), of which the following precise definition is given in the Dictionnaire tibétain-latin français par les Missionnaires Catholiques du Tibet (p. 351): ‘Tribus et regionis nomen in N.-W. provinciae Sinarum Yun-nan, cuius urbs principalis est Sa-t’am seu Ly-kiang fou. Tribus vocatur Mosso a Sinensibus et Nashi ab ipsismet incolis.’ In fact, as here stated, Jaⁿ or Jang is the Tibetan designation of the Moso and the territory inhabited by them, the capital of which is Li-kiang-fu. This name is found also in Tibetan literature....”

XLVIII., p. 74, n. 2. One thousand Uighúr families (hou) had been transferred to Karajáng in 1285. (Yuan shi, ch. 13, 8v^o, quoted by Pelliot.)

L., pp. 85–6. Zardandan. “The country is wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains which ’tis impossible to pass, the air in summer is so impure and bad; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain.”

“An even more formidable danger was the resolution of our ‘permanent’ (as distinguished from ‘local’) soldiers and mafus, of which we were now apprised, to desert us in a body, as they declined to face the malaria of the Lu-Kiang Ba, or Salwen Valley. We had, of course, read in Gill’s book of this difficulty, but as we approached the Salwen we had concluded that the scare had been forgotten. We found, to our chagrin, that the dreaded ‘Fever Valley’ had lost none of its terrors. The valley had a bad name in Marco Polo’s day, in the thirteenth century, and its reputation has clung to it ever since, with all the tenacity of Chinese traditions. The Chinaman of the district crosses the valley daily without fear, but the Chinaman from a distance knows that he will either die or his wife will prove unfaithful. If he is compelled to go, the usual course is to write to his wife and tell her that she is free to look out for another husband. Having made up his mind that he will die, I have no doubt that he often dies through sheer funk.” (R. Logan Jack, Back Blocks of China, 1904, p. 205.)

L., pp. 84, 89.

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF ZARDANDAN.

We read in Huber’s paper already mentioned (Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, Oct.–Dec., 1909, p. 665): “The second month of the twelfth year (1275), Ho T’ien-tsio, governor of the Kien Ning District, sent the following information: ‘A-kouo of the Zerdandan tribe, knows three roads to enter Burma, one by T’ien pu ma, another by the P’iao tien, and the third by the very country of A-kouo; the three roads meet at the ‘City of the Head of the River’ [Kaung si] in Burma.’” A-kouo, named elsewhere A-ho, lived at Kan-ngai. According to Huber, the Zardandan road is the actual caravan road to Bhamo on the left of the Nam Ti and Ta Ping; the second route would be by the T’ien ma pass and Nam hkam, the P’iao tien route is the road on the right bank of the Nam Ti and the Ta Ping leading to Bhamo viâ San Ta and Man Waing.

The Po Yi and Ho Ni tribes are mentioned in the Yuan Shi, s.a. 1278. (Pelliot.)

L., p. 90.

Mr. H. A. Ottewill tells me in a private note that the Kachins or Singphos did not begin to reach Burma in their emigration from Tibet until last century or possibly this century. They are not to be found east of the Salwen River.

L., p. 91.

COUVADE.

There is a paper on the subject in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (1911, pp. 546–63) by Hugo Kunicke, Das sogennante “Männerkindbett,” with a bibliography not mentioning Yule’s Marco Polo, Vinson, etc. We may also mention: De la “Covada” en España. Por el Prof. Dr. Telesforo de Aranzadi, Barcelona (Anthropos, T. V., fasc. 4, Juli–August, 1910, pp. 775–8).

L., p. 92 n.

I quoted Prof. E. H. Parker (China Review, XIV., p. 359), who wrote that the “Langszi are evidently the Szi lang, one of the six Chao, but turned upside down.” Prof. Pelliot (Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, IV., July–Sept., 1904, p. 771) remarks: “Mr. Parker is entirely wrong. The Chao of Shi-lang, which was annexed by Nan Chao during the eighth century, was in the western part of Yun Nan, not in Kwei chau; we have but little information on the subject.” He adds: “The custom of Couvade is confirmed for the Lao of Southern China by the following text of the Yi wu chi of Fang Ts’ien-li, dating at least from the time of the T’ang dynasty: ‘When a Lao woman of Southern China has a child, she goes out at once. The husband goes to bed exhausted, like a woman giving suck. If he does not take care, he becomes ill. The woman has no harm.’”

L., pp. 91–95.

Under the title of The Couvade or “Hatching,” John Cain writes from Dumagudem, 31st March, 1874, to the Indian Antiquary, May, 1874, p. 151:

“In the districts in South India in which Telugu is spoken, there is a wandering tribe of people called the Erukalavandlu. They generally pitch their huts, for the time being, just outside a town or village. Their chief occupations are fortune-telling, rearing pigs, and making mats. Those in this part of the Telugu country observe the custom mentioned in Max Müller’s Chips from a German Workshop, Vol. II., pp. 277–284. Directly the woman feels the birth-pangs, she informs her husband, who immediately takes some of her clothes, puts them on, places on his forehead the mark which the women usually place on theirs, retires into a dark room where is only a very dim lamp, and lies down on the bed, covering himself up with a long cloth. When the child is born, it is washed and placed on the cot beside the father. Assafœtida, jaggery, and other articles are then given, not to the mother, but to the father. During the days of ceremonial uncleanness the man is treated as the other Hindus treat their women on such occasions. He is not allowed to leave his bed, but has everything needful brought to him.”

Mr. John Cain adds (l.c., April, 1879, p. 106): “The women are called ‘hens’ by their husbands, and the male and female children ‘cock children’ and ‘hen children’ respectively.”

LI., p. 99 n. “M. Garnier informs me that Mien Kwé or Mien Tisong is the name always given in Yun Nan to that kingdom.”

Mien Tisong is surely faulty, and must likely be corrected in Mien Chung, proved especially at the Ming Period. (Pelliot, Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, IV., July–Sept, 1904, p. 772.)

LI., LII., pp. 98 seq.

WAR AGAINST THE KING OF MIEN.

The late Edouard Huber of Hanoi, writing from Burmese sources, throws new light on this subject: “In the middle of the thirteenth century, the Burmese kingdom included Upper and Lower Burma, Arakan and Tenasserim; besides the Court of Pagan was paramount over several feudatory Shan states, until the valleys of the Yunnanese affluents of the Irawadi to the N.E., and until Zimmé at the least to the E. Narasīhapati, the last king of Pagan who reigned over the whole of this territory, had already to fight the Talaings of the Delta and the governor of Arakan who wished to be independent, when, in 1271, he refused to receive Kúblái’s ambassadors who had come to call upon him to recognize himself as a vassal of China. The first armed conflict took place during the spring of 1277 in the Nam Ti valley; it is the battle of Nga-çaung-khyam of the Burmese Chronicles, related by Marco Polo, who, by mistake, ascribes to Nasr ed-Din the merit of this first Chinese victory. During the winter of 1277–78, a second Chinese expedition with Nasr ed-Din at its head ended with the capture of Kaung sin, the Burmese stronghold commanding the defile of Bhamo. The Pagan Yazawin is the only Burmese Chronicle giving exactly the spot of this second encounter. During these two expeditions, the invaders had not succeeded in breaking through the thick veil of numerous small thai principalities which still stand to-day between Yun Nan and Burma proper. It was only in 1283 that the final crush took place, when a third expedition, whose chief was Siang-wu-ta-eul (Singtaur), retook the fort of Kaung sin and penetrated more into the south in the Irawadi Valley, but without reaching Pagan. King Narasīhapati evacuated Pagan before the impending advancing Chinese forces and fled to the Delta. In 1285 parleys for the establishment of a Chinese Protectorship were begun; but in the following year, King Narasīhapati was poisoned at Prome by his own son Sīhasūra. In 1287, a fourth Chinese expedition, with Prince Ye-sin Timur at its head, reached at last Pagan, having suffered considerable losses.... A fifth and last Chinese expedition took place during the autumn of 1300 when the Chinese army went down the Irawadi Valley and besieged Myin-Saing during the winter of 1300–1301. The Mongol officers of the staff having been bribed the siege was raised.” (Bul. Ecole franç. Extrême-Orient, Oct.–Dec., 1909, pp. 679–680; cf. also p. 651 n.)

Huber, p. 666 n., places the battle-field of Vochan in the Nam Ti Valley; the Burmese never reached the plain of Yung Ch’ang.

LII., p. 106 n.

BURMA.

We shall resume from Chinese sources the history of the relations between Burma and China:

1271. Embassy of Kúblái to Mien asking for allegiance.

1273. New embassy of Kúblái.

1275. Information supplied by A-kuo, chief of Zardandan.

1277. First Chinese Expedition against Mien—Battle of Nga-çaung-khyam won by Hu Tu.

1277. Second Chinese Expedition led by Naçr ed-Din.

1283. Third Chinese Expedition led by Prince Singtaur.

1287. Fourth Chinese Expedition led by Yisun Timur; capture of Pagan.

1300–1301. Fifth Chinese Expedition; siege of Myin-saing.

Cf. E. Huber, Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, Oct.–Dec., 1909, pp. 633–680.—Visdelou, Rev. Ext. Orient, II., pp. 72–88.

LIII.–LIV., pp. 106–108. “After leaving the Province of which I have been speaking [Yung ch’ang] you come to a great Descent. In fact you ride for two days and a half continually down hill.... After you have ridden those two days and a half down hill, you find yourself in a province towards the south which is pretty near India, and this province is called Amien. You travel therein for fifteen days.... And when you have travelled those 15 days ... you arrive at the capital city of this Province of Mien, and it also is called Amien....”

I owe the following valuable note to Mr. Herbert Allan Ottewill, H.M.’s Vice-Consul at T’eng Yueh (11th October, 1908):

“The indications of the route are a great descent down which you ride continually for two days and a half towards the south along the main route to the capital city of Amien.

“It is admitted that the road from Yung Ch’ang to T’eng Yueh is not the one indicated. Before the Hui jen Bridge was built over the Salween in 1829, there can be no doubt that the road ran to Ta tu k’ou—great ferry place—which is about six miles below the present bridge. The distance to both places is about the same, and can easily be accomplished in two days.

“The late Mr. Litton, who was Consul here for some years, once stated that the road to La-mêng on the Salween was almost certainly the one referred to by Marco Polo as the great descent to the kingdom of Mien. His stages were from Yung Ch’ang: (1) Yin wang (? Niu wang); (2) P’ing ti; (3) Chen an so; (4) Lung Ling. The Salween was crossed on the third day at La-mêng Ferry. Yung Ch’ang is at an altitude of about 5,600 feet; the Salween at the Hui jen Bridge is about 2,400, and probably drops 200–300 feet between the bridge and La-mêng. Personally I have only been along the first stage to Niu Wang, 5,000 feet; and although aneroids proved that the highest point on the road was about 6,600, I can easily imagine a person not provided with such instruments stating that the descent was fairly gradual. From Niu Wang there must be a steady drop to the Salween, probably along the side of the stream which drains the Niu Wang Plain.

“La-mêng and Chen an so are in the territory of the Shan Sawbwa of Mang Shih [Möng Hkwan].”

“It is also a well-known fact that the Shan States of Hsen-wi (in Burma) and Meng mao (in China) fell under Chinese authority at an early date. Mr. E. H. Parker, quoted by Sir G. Scott in the Upper Burma Gazetteer, states: ‘During the reign of the Mongol Emperor Kúblái a General was sent to punish Annam and passed through this territory or parts of it called Meng tu and Meng pang,’ and secured its submission. In the year 1289 the Civil and Military Governorship of Muh Pang was established. Muh Pang is the Chinese name of Hsen-wi.

“Therefore the road from Yung Ch’ang to La-mêng fulfils the conditions of a great descent, riding two and a half days continually down hill finding oneself in a (Shan) Province to the south, besides being on a well-known road to Burma, which was probably in the thirteenth century the only road to that country.

“Fifteen days from La-mêng to Tagaung or Old Pagan is not an impossible feat. Lung Ling is reached in 1½ days, Keng Yang in four, and it is possible to do the remaining distance about a couple of hundred miles in eleven days, making fifteen in all.

“I confess I do not see how any one could march to Pagan in Latitude 21° 13′ in fifteen days.”

LIV., p. 113.

NGA-TSHAUNG-GYAN.

According to the late E. Huber, Ngan chen kue is not Nga-çaung-khyam, but Nga Singu, in the Mandalay district. The battle took place, not in the Yung Ch’ang plain, but in the territory of the Shan Chief of Nan-tien. The official description of China under the Ming (Ta Ming yi t’ung che, k. 87, 38 v^o) tells us that Nan-tien before its annexation by Kúblái Khan, bore the name of Nan Sung or Nang Sung, and to-day the pass which cuts this territory in the direction of T’eng Yueh is called Nang-Sung-kwan. It is hardly possible to doubt that this is the place called Nga-çaung-khyam by the Burmese Chronicles. (Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, Oct.–Dec., 1909, p. 652.)

LVI., p. 117 n.

A Map in the Yun Nan Topography Section 9, “Tu-ssu” or Sawbwas, marks the Kingdom of “Eight hundred wives” between the mouths of the Irrawaddy and the Salween Rivers. (Note kindly sent by Mr. H. A. Ottewill.)

LIX., p. 128.

CAUGIGU.

M. Georges Maspero, L’Empire Khmèr, p. 77 n., thinks that Canxigu = Luang Prabang; I read Caugigu and I believe it is a transcription of Kiao-Chi Kwé, see p. 131.

LIX., pp. 128, 131.

“I have identified, II., p. 131, Caugigu with Kiao-Chi kwé (Kiao Chi), i.e. Tung King.” Hirth and Rockhill (Chau Ju-kua, p. 46 n.) write: “‘Kiáu chi’ is certainly the original of Marco Polo’s Caugigu and of Rashid-eddin’s Kafchi kué.”

BOOK SECOND.—CONTINUED.

PART III.—JOURNEY SOUTHWARD THROUGH EASTERN PROVINCES OF CATHAY AND MANZI.

LX., p. 133.

CH’ANG LU.

The Rev. A. C. Moule (T’oung Pao, July, 1915, p. 417) says that “Ciang lu [Ch’ang-lu] was not, I think, identical with Ts’ang chou,” but does not give any reason in support of this opinion.

CH’ANG LU SALT.

“To this day the sole name for this industry, the financial centre of which is T’ien Tsin, is the ‘Ch’ang-lu Superintendency.’” (E. H. Parker, As. Quart. Review, Jan., 1904, p. 147.) “The ‘Ch’ang-lu,’ or Long Reed System, derives its name from the city Ts’ang chou, on the Grand Canal (south of T’ientsin), once so called. In 1285 Kúblái Khan ‘once more divided the Ho-kien (Chih-li) and Shan Tung interests,’ which, as above explained, are really one in working principle. There is now a First Class Commissary at T’ientsin, with sixteen subordinates, and the Viceroy (who until recent years resided at Pao ting fu) has nominal supervision.” (Parker, China, 1901, pp. 223–4.)

“Il y a 10 groupes de salines, Tch’ang, situés dans les districts de Fou ning hien, Lo t’ing hien, Loan tcheou, Fong joen hien, Pao tch’e hien, T’ien tsin hien, Tsing hai hien, Ts’ang tcheou et Yen chan hien. Il y a deux procédés employés pour la fabrication du sel: 1^o On étale sur un sol uni des cendres d’herbes venues dans un terrain salé et on les arrose d’eau de mer; le liquide qui s’en écoule, d’une densité suffisante pour faire flotter un œuf de poule ou des graines de nénuphar, Che lien, est chauffé pendant 24 heures avec de ces mêmes herbes employées comme combustible, et le sel se dépose. Les cendres des herbes servent à une autre opération. 2^o L’eau de mer est simplement évaporée au soleil.... L’administrateur en chef de ce commerce est le Vice-roi même de la province de Tche-li.” (P. Hoang, Sel, Variétés Sinologiques, No. 15, p. 3.)