the platforms on their backs into a place that was set thickly with sharp bamboo-stakes, and these their riders laid hold of to prick them with.” This threw the Burmese army into confusion; they fled, and were pursued with great slaughter.
The Chinese author does not mention Nasr-uddin in connection with this battle. He names as the chief of the Mongol force _Huthukh_ (Kutuka?), commandant of Ta-li fu. Nasr-uddin is mentioned as advancing, a few months later (about December, 1277), with nearly 4000 men to Kiangtheu (which appears to have been on the Irawadi, somewhere near Bhamo, and is perhaps the Kaungtaung of the Burmese), but effecting little (p. 415).
[I have published in the _Rev. Ext. Orient_, II. 72-88, from the British Museum _Add. MS._ 16913, the translation by Mgr. Visdelou, of Chinese documents relating to the Kingdom of Mien and the wars of Kublai; the battle won by _Hu-tu_, commandant of Ta-li, was fought during the 3rd month of the 14th year (1277). (Cf. Pauthier, supra.)–H.C.]
These affairs of the battle in the Yung-ch’ang territory, and the advance of Nasr-uddin to the Irawadi are, as Polo clearly implies in the beginning of ch. li., quite distinct from the invasion and conquest of Mien some years later, of which he speaks in ch. liv. They are not mentioned in the Burmese Annals at all.
Sir Arthur Phayre is inclined to reject altogether the story of the battle near Yung-ch’ang in consequence of this absence from the _Burmese Chronicle_, and of its inconsistency with the purely defensive character which that record assigns to the action of the Burmese Government in regard to China at this time. With the strongest respect for my friend’s opinion I feel it impossible to assent to this. We have not only the concurrent testimony of Marco and of the Chinese Official Annals of the Mongol Dynasty to the facts of the Burmese provocation and of the engagement within the Yung-ch’ang or Vochan territory, but we have in the Chinese narrative a consistent chronology and tolerably full detail of the relations between the two countries.
[Baber writes (p. 173): “Biot has it that Yung-ch’ang was first established by the Mings, long subsequent to the time of Marco’s visit, but the name was well known much earlier. The mention by Marco of the Plain of Vochan (Unciam would be a perfect reading), as if it were a plain _par excellence_, is strikingly consistent with the position of the city on the verge of the largest plain west of Yuennan-fu. Hereabouts was fought the great battle between the ‘valiant soldier and the excellent captain Nescradin,’ with his 12,000 well-mounted Tartars, against the King of Burmah and a large army, whose strength lay in 2000 elephants, on each of which was set a tower of timber full of well-armed fighting men.
“There is no reason to suppose this ‘dire and parlous fight’ to be mythical, apart from the consistency of annals adduced by Colonel Yule; the local details of the narrative, particularly the prominent importance of the wood as an element of the Tartar success, are convincing. It seems to have been the first occasion on which the Mongols engaged a large body of elephants, and this, no doubt, made the victory memorable.
“Marco informs us that ‘from this time forth the Great Khan began to keep numbers of elephants.’ It is obvious that cavalry could not manoeuvre in a morass such as fronts the city. Let us refer to the account of the battle.
“‘The Great Khan’s host was at Yung-ch’ang, from which they advanced into the plain, and there waited to give battle. This they did through the good judgment of the captain, for hard by that plain was a great wood thick with trees.’ The general’s purpose was more probably to occupy the dry undulating slopes near the south end of the valley. An advance of about five miles would have brought him to that position. The statement that ‘the King’s army arrived in the plain, and was within a mile of the enemy,’ would then accord perfectly with the conditions of the ground. The Burmese would have found themselves at about that distance from their foes as soon as they were fairly in the plain.
“The trees ‘hard by the plain,’ to which the Tartars tied their horses, and in which the elephants were entangled, were in all probability in the corner below the ‘rolling hills’ marked in the chart. Very few trees remain, but in any case the grove would long ago have been cut down by the Chinese, as everywhere on inhabited plains. A short distance up the hill, however, groves of exceptionally fine trees are passed. The army, as it seems to us, must have entered the plain from its southernmost point. The route by which we departed on our way to Burmah would be very embarrassing, though perhaps not utterly impossible, for so great a number of elephants.”–H.C.]
Between 1277 and the end of the century the Chinese Annals record three campaigns or expeditions against MIEN; viz. (1) that which Marco has related in this chapter; (2) that which he relates in ch. liv.; and (3) one undertaken in 1300 at the request of the son of the legitimate Burmese King, who had been put to death by an usurper. The Burmese Annals mention only the two latest, but, concerning both the date and the main circumstances of these two, Chinese and Burmese Annals are in almost entire agreement. Surely then it can scarcely be doubted that the Chinese authority is amply trustworthy for the _first_ campaign also, respecting which the Burmese book is silent; even were the former not corroborated by the independent authority of Marco.
Indeed the mutual correspondence of these Annals, especially as to chronology, is very remarkable, and is an argument for greater respect to the chronological value of the Burmese Chronicle and other Indo-Chinese records of like character than we should otherwise be apt to entertain. Compare the story of the expedition of 1300 as told after the Chinese Annals by De Mailla, and after the Burmese Chronicle by Burney and Phayre. (See _De Mailla_, IX. 476 seqq.; and _J.A.S.B._ vol. vi. pp. 121-122, and vol. xxxvii. Pt. I. pp. 102 and 110.)
CHAPTER LIII.
OF THE GREAT DESCENT THAT LEADS TOWARDS THE KINGDOM OF MIEN.
After leaving the Province of which I have been speaking you come to a great Descent. In fact you ride for two days and a half continually down hill. On all this descent there is nothing worthy of mention except only that there is a large place there where occasionally a great market is held; for all the people of the country round come thither on fixed days, three times a week, and hold a market there. They exchange gold for silver; for they have gold in abundance; and they give one weight of fine gold for five weights of fine silver; so this induces merchants to come from various quarters bringing silver which they exchange for gold with these people; and in this way the merchants make great gain. As regards those people of the country who dispose of gold so cheaply, you must understand that nobody is acquainted with their places of abode, for they dwell in inaccessible positions, in sites so wild and strong that no one can get at them to meddle with them. Nor will they allow anybody to accompany them so as to gain a knowledge of their abodes.[NOTE 1]
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 to India, and this province is called AMIEN. You travel therein for fifteen days through a very unfrequented country, and through great woods abounding in elephants and unicorns and numbers of other wild beasts. There are no dwellings and no people, so we need say no more of this wild country, for in sooth there is nothing to tell. But I have a story to relate which you shall now hear[NOTE 2].
NOTE 1.–In all the Shan towns visited by Major Sladen on this frontier he found markets held _every fifth day_. This custom, he says, is borrowed from China, and is general throughout Western Yun-nan. There seem to be traces of this five-day week over Indo-China, and it is found in Java; as it is in Mexico. The Kakhyens attend in great crowds. They do _not_ now bring gold for sale to Momein, though it is found to some extent in their hills, more especially in the direction of Mogaung, whence it is exported towards Assam.
Major Sladen saw a small quantity of nuggets in the possession of a Kakhyen who had brought them from a hill two days north of Bhamo. (_MS. Notes by Major Sladen_.)
NOTE 2.–I confess that the indications in this and the beginning of the following chapter are, to me, full of difficulty. According to the general style of Polo’s itinerary, the 2-1/2 days should be reckoned from Yung-ch’ang; the distance therefore to the capital city of Mien would be 17-1/2 days. The real capital of Mien or Burma at this time was, however, Pagan, in lat. 21 deg. 13′, and that city could hardly have been reached by a land traveller in any such time. We shall see that something may be said in behalf of the supposition that the point reached was _Tagaung_ or _Old Pagan_, on the upper Irawadi, in lat. 23 deg. 28′; and there was perhaps some confusion in the traveller’s mind between this and the great city. The descent might then be from Yung-ch’ang to the valley of the Shweli, and that valley then followed to the Irawadi. Taking as a scale Polo’s 5 marches from Tali to Yung-ch’ang, I find we should by this route make just about 17 marches from Yung-ch’ang to Tagaung. We have no detailed knowledge of the route, but there is a road that way, and by no other does the plain country approach so near to Yung-ch’ang. (See _Anderson’s Report on Expedition to Western Yunnan_, p. 160.)
Dr. Anderson’s remarks on the present question do not in my opinion remove the difficulties. He supposes the long descent to be the descent into the plains of the Irawadi near Bhamo; and from that point the land journey to Great Pagan could, he conceives, “easily be accomplished in 15 days.” I greatly doubt the latter assumption. By the scale I have just referred to it would take at least 20 days. And to calculate the 2-1/2 days with which the journey commences from an indefinite point seems scarcely admissible. Polo is giving us a continuous _itinerary_; it would be ruptured if he left an indefinite distance between his last station and his “long descent.” And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between Carajan (or Tali) and Vochan (Yung-ch’ang), the result would be nonsense.
[Illustration: Temple of Gaudapalen (in the city of Mien), erected circa A.D. 1160.]
[_Mien-tien_, to which is devoted ch. vii. of the Chinese work _Sze-i-kwan-k’ao_, appears to have included much more than Burma proper. (See the passage supra, pp. 70-71, quoted by Deveria from the _Yuen-shi lei pien_ regarding _Kien-tou_ and _Kin-Chi_.)–H.C.]
The hypothesis that I have suggested would suit better with the traveller’s representation of the country traversed as wild and uninhabited. In a journey to Great Pagan the most populous and fertile part of Burma would be passed through.
[Baber writes (p. 180): “The generally received theory that ‘the great descent which leads towards the Kingdom of Mien,’ on which ‘you ride for two days and a half continually downhill,’ was the route from Yung-ch’ang to T’eng-Yueh, must be at once abandoned. Marco was, no doubt, speaking from hearsay, or rather, from a recollection of hearsay, as it does not appear that he possessed any notes; but there is good reason for supposing that he had personally visited Yung-ch’ang. Weary of the interminable mountain-paths, and encumbered with much baggage–for a magnate of Marco’s court influence could never, in the East, have travelled without a considerable state–impeded, in addition, by a certain quantity of merchandise, for he was ‘discreet and prudent in every way,’ he would have listened longingly to the report of an easy ride of two and a half days downhill, and would never have forgotten it. That such a route exists I am well satisfied. Where is it? The stream which drains the Yung-ch’ang plain communicates with the Salwen by a river called the ‘Nan-tien,’ not to be confounded with the ‘Nan-ting,’ about 45 miles south of that city, a fair journey of two and a half days. Knowing, as we now do, that it must descend some 3500 feet in that distance, does it not seem reasonable to suppose that the valley of this rivulet is the route alluded to? The great battle on the Yung-ch’ang plain, moreover, was fought only a few years before Marco’s visit, and seeing that the king and his host of elephants in all probability entered the valley from the south, travellers to Burma would naturally have quitted it by the same route.
“But again, our mediaeval Herodotus reports that ‘the country is wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains which ’tis impossible to pass, the air is so impure and unwholesome; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain.’
“This is exactly and literally the description given us of the district in which we crossed the Salwen.
“To insist on the theory of the descent by this route is to make the traveller ride downhill, ‘over mountains it is impossible to pass.’
“The fifteen days’ subsequent journey described by Marco need not present much difficulty. The distance from the junction of the Nan-tien with the Salwen to the capital of Burma (Pagan) would be something over 300 miles; fifteen days seems a fair estimate for the distance, seeing that a great part of the journey would doubtless be by boat.”
Regarding this last paragraph, Captain Gill says (II. 345): “An objection may be raised that no such route as this is known to exist; but it must be remembered that the Burmese capital changes its position every now and then, and it is obvious that the trade routes would be directed to the capital, and would change with it. Altogether, with the knowledge at present available, this certainly seems the most satisfactory interpretation of the old traveller’s story.”–H.C.]
CHAPTER LIV.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF MIEN, AND THE TWO TOWERS THAT ARE THEREIN, ONE OF GOLD AND THE OTHER OF SILVER.
And when you have travelled those 15 days through such a difficult country as I have described, in which travellers have to carry provisions for the road because there are no inhabitants, then you arrive at the capital city of this Province of Mien, and it also is called AMIEN, and is a very great and noble city.[NOTE 1] The people are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan.
And in this city there is a thing so rich and rare that I must tell you about it. You see there was in former days a rich and puissant king in this city, and when he was about to die he commanded that by his tomb they should erect two towers [one at either end], one of gold and the other of silver, in such fashion as I shall tell you. The towers are built of fine stone; and then one of them has been covered with gold a good finger in thickness, so that the tower looks as if it were all of solid gold; and the other is covered with silver in like manner so that it seems to be all of solid silver. Each tower is a good ten paces in height and of breadth in proportion. The upper part of these towers is round, and girt all about with bells, the top of the gold tower with gilded bells and the silver tower with silvered bells, insomuch that whenever the wind blows among these bells they tinkle. [The tomb likewise was plated partly with gold, and partly with silver.] The King caused these towers to be erected to commemorate his magnificence and for the good of his soul; and really they do form one of the finest sights in the world; so exquisitely finished are they, so splendid and costly. And when they are lighted up by the sun they shine most brilliantly and are visible from a vast distance.
Now you must know that the Great Kaan conquered the country in this fashion.
[Illustration: THE CITY OF MIEN WITH THE GOLD AND SILVER TOWERS]
You see at the Court of the Great Kaan there was a great number of gleemen and jugglers; and he said to them one day that he wanted them to go and conquer the aforesaid province of Mien, and that he would give them a good Captain to lead them and other good aid. And they replied that they would be delighted. So the Emperor caused them to be fitted out with all that an army requires, and gave them a Captain and a body of men-at-arms to help them; and so they set out, and marched until they came to the country and province of Mien. And they did conquer the whole of it! And when they found in the city the two towers of gold and silver of which I have been telling you, they were greatly astonished, and sent word thereof to the Great Kaan, asking what he would have them do with the two towers, seeing what a great quantity of wealth there was upon them. And the Great Kaan, being well aware that the King had caused these towers to be made for the good of his soul, and to preserve his memory after his death, said that he would not have them injured, but would have them left precisely as they were. And that was no wonder either, for you must know that no Tartar in the world will ever, if he can help it, lay hand on anything appertaining to the dead.[NOTE 2]
They have in this province numbers of elephants and wild oxen;[NOTE 3] also beautiful stags and deer and roe, and other kinds of large game in plenty.
Now having told you about the province of Mien, I will tell you about another province which is called Bangala, as you shall hear presently.
NOTE 1.–The name of the city appears as _Amien_ both in Pauthier’s text here, and in the G. Text in the preceding chapter. In the Bern MS. it is _Aamien_. Perhaps some form like _Amien_ was that used by the Mongols and Persians. I fancy it may be traced in the _Arman_ or _Uman_ of Rashiduddin, probably corrupt readings (in _Elliot_ I. 72).
NOTE 2.–M. Pauthier’s extracts are here again very valuable. We gather from them that the first Mongol communication with the King of Mien or Burma took place in 1271, when the Commandant of Tali-fu sent a deputation to that sovereign to demand an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Emperor. This was followed by various negotiations and acts of offence on both sides, which led to the campaign of 1277, already spoken of. For a few years no further events appear to be recorded, but in 1282, in consequence of a report from Nasruddin of the ease with which Mien could be conquered, an invasion was ordered under a Prince of the Blood called Siangtaur [called _Siam-ghu-talh_, by Visdelou.–H.C.]. This was probably _Singtur_, great-grandson of one of the brothers of Chinghiz, who a few years later took part in the insurrection of Nayan. (See _D’Ohsson_, II. 461.) The army started from Yun-nan fu, then called Chung-khing (and the _Yachi_ of Polo) in the autumn of 1283. We are told that the army made use of boats to descend the River _Oho_ to the fortified city of Kiangtheu (see supra, note 3, ch. lii.), which they took and sacked; and as the King still refused to submit, they then advanced to the “primitive capital,” _Taikung_, which they captured. Here Pauthier’s details stop. (Pp. 405, 416; see also _D’Ohsson_, II. 444 [and _Visdelou_].)
[Illustration: The Palace of the King of Mien in modern times]
It is curious to compare these narratives with that from the Burmese Royal Annals given by Colonel Burney, and again by Sir A. Phayre in the _J.A.S.B._ (IV. 401, and XXXVII. Pt. I. p. 101.) Those annals afford no mention of transactions with the Mongols previous to 1281. In that year they relate that a mission of ten nobles and 1000 horse came from the Emperor to demand gold and silver vessels as symbols of homage on the ground of an old precedent. The envoys conducted themselves disrespectfully (the tradition was that they refused to take off their boots, an old grievance at the Burmese court), and the King put them all to death. The Emperor of course was very wroth, and sent an army of 6,000,000 of horse and 20,000,000 of foot(!) to invade Burma. The Burmese generals had their _point d’appui_ at the city of _Nga tshaung gyan_, apparently somewhere near the mouth of the Bhamo River, and after a protracted resistance on that river, they were obliged to retire. They took up a new point of defence on the Hill of Male, which they had fortified. Here a decisive battle was fought, and the Burmese were entirely routed. The King, on hearing of their retreat from Bhamo, at first took measures for fortifying his capital Pagan, and destroyed 6000 temples of various sizes to furnish material. But after all he lost heart, and embarking with his treasure and establishments on the Irawadi, fled down that river to Bassein in the Delta. The Chinese continued the pursuit long past Pagan till they reached the place now called _Tarokmau_ or “Chinese Point,” 30 miles below Prome. Here they were forced by want of provisions to return. The Burmese Annals place the abandonment of Pagan by the King in 1284, a most satisfactory synchronism with the Chinese record. It is a notable point in Burmese history, for it marked the fall of an ancient Dynasty which was speedily followed by its extinction, and the abandonment of the capital. The King is known in the Burmese Annals as _Tarok-pye-Meng_, “The King who fled from the _Tarok_.”[1]
In Dr. Mason’s abstract of the Pegu Chronicle we find the notable statement with reference to this period that “the Emperor of China, having subjugated Pagan, his troops with the Burmese entered Pegu and invested several cities.”
We see that the Chinese Annals, as quoted, mention only the “capitale primitive” _Taikung_, which I have little doubt Pauthier is right in identifying with _Tagaung_, traditionally the most ancient royal city of Burma, and the remains of which stand side by side with those of _Old_ Pagan, a later but still very ancient capital, on the east bank of the Irawadi, in about lat. 23 deg. 28′. The Chinese extracts give no idea of the temporary completeness of the conquest, nor do they mention Great Pagan (lat. 21 deg. 13′), a city whose vast remains I have endeavoured partially to describe.[2] Sir Arthur Phayre, from a careful perusal of the Burmese Chronicle, assures me that there can be no doubt that _this_ was at the time in question the Burmese Royal Residence, and the city alluded to in the Burmese narrative. M. Pauthier is mistaken in supposing that Tarok-Mau, the turning-point of the Chinese Invasion, lay north of this city: he has not unnaturally confounded it with Tarok-_Myo_ or “China-Town,” a district not far below Ava. Moreover Male, the position of the decisive victory of the Chinese, is itself much to the south of Tagaung (about 22 deg. 55′).
Both Pagan and Male are mentioned in a remarkable Chinese notice extracted in _Amyot’s Memoires_ (XIV. 292): “Mien-Tien … had five chief towns, of which the first was _Kiangtheu_ (supra, pp. 105, 111), the second _Taikung_, the third _Malai_, the fourth Ngan-cheng-kwe (? perhaps the _Nga-tshaung gyan_ of the Burmese Annals), the fifth PUKAN MIEN-WANG (Pagan of the Mien King?). The Yuen carried war into this country, particularly during the reign of Shun-Ti, the last Mongol Emperor [1333-1368], who, after subjugating it, erected at Pukan Mien-Wang a tribunal styled _Hwen-wei-she-se_, the authority of which extended over Pang-ya and all its dependencies.” This is evidently founded on actual documents, for Panya or Pengya, otherwise styled Vijayapura, was the capital of Burma during part of the 14th century, between the decay of Pagan and the building of Ava. But none of the translated extracts from the Burmese Chronicle afford corroboration. From Sangermano’s abstract, however, we learn that the King of Panya from 1323 to 1343 was the _son of a daughter of the Emperor of China_ (p. 42). I may also refer to Pemberton’s abstract of the Chronicle of the Shan State of Pong in the Upper Irawadi valley, which relates that about the middle of the 14th century the Chinese invaded Pong and took Maung Maorong, the capital.[3] The Shan King and his son fled to the King of Burma for protection, but _the Burmese surrendered them_ and they were carried to China. (_Report on E. Frontier of Bengal_, p. 112.)
I see no sufficient evidence as to whether Marco himself visited the “city of Mien.” I think it is quite clear that his account of the _conquest_ is from the merest hearsay, not to say gossip. Of the absurd story of the jugglers we find no suggestion in the Chinese extracts. We learn from them that Nasruddin had represented the conquest of Mien as a very easy task, and Kublai may have in jest asked his gleemen if they would undertake it. The haziness of Polo’s account of the conquest contrasts strongly with his graphic description of the rout of the elephants at Vochan. Of the latter he heard the particulars on the spot (I conceive) shortly after the event; whilst the conquest took place some years later than his mission to that frontier. His description of the gold and silver pagodas with their canopies of tinkling bells (the Burmese _Hti_), certainly looks like a sketch from the life;[4] and it is quite possible that some negotiations between 1277 and 1281 may have given him the opportunity of visiting Burma, though he may not have reached the capital. Indeed he would in that case surely have given a distincter account of so important a city, the aspect of which in its glory we have attempted to realize in the plate of “the city of Mien.”
It is worthy of note that the unfortunate King then reigning in Pagan, had in 1274 finished a magnificent Pagoda called _Mengala-dzedi (Mangala Chaitya)_ respecting which ominous prophecies had been diffused. In this pagoda were deposited, besides holy relics, golden images of the Disciples of Buddha, golden models of the holy places, golden images of the King’s fifty-one predecessors in Pagan, and of the King and his Family. It is easy to suspect a connection of this with Marco’s story. “It is possible that the King’s ashes may have been intended to be buried near those relics, though such is not now the custom; and Marco appears to have confounded the custom of depositing relics of Buddha and ancient holy men in pagodas with the _supposed_ custom of the burial of the dead. Still, even now, monuments are occasionally erected over the dead in Burma, although the practice is considered a vain folly. I have known a miniature pagoda with a _hti_ complete, erected over the ashes of a favourite disciple by a _P’hungyi_ or Buddhist monk.” The latter practice is common in China. (_Notes by Sir A. Phayre; J.A.S.B._ IV. _u.s._, also V. 164, VI. 251; _Mason’s Burmah_, 2nd ed. p. 26; _Milne’s Life in China_, pp. 288, 450.)
NOTE 3.–The Gaur–_Bos Gaurus_, or _B. (Bibos) Cavifrons_ of Hodgson–exists in certain forests of the Burmese territory; and, in the south at least, a wild ox nearer the domestic species, _Bos Sondaicus_. Mr. Gouger, in his book _The Prisoner in Burma_, describes the rare spectacle which he once enjoyed in the Tenasserim forests of a herd of wild cows at graze. He speaks of them as small and elegant, without hump, and of a light reddish dun colour (pp. 326-327).
[1] This is the name now applied in Burma to the Chinese. Sir A. Phayre supposes it to be _Turk_, in which case its use probably began at this time.
[2] In the Narrative of Phayre’s Mission, ch. ii.
[3] Dr. Anderson has here hastily assumed a discrepancy of sixty years between the chronology of the Shan document and that of the Chinese Annals. But this is merely because he arbitrarily identifies the Chinese invasion here recorded with that of Kublai in the preceding century. (See _Anderson’s Western Yunnan_, p. 8.) We see in the quotation above from Amyot that the Chinese Annals also contain an obscure indication of the later invasion.
[4] Compare the old Chinese Pilgrims Hwui Seng and Seng Yun, in their admiration of a vast pagoda erected by the great King Kanishka in Gandhara (at Peshawur in fact): “At sunrise the gilded disks of the vane are lit up with dazzling glory, whilst the gentle breeze of morning causes the precious bells to tinkle with a pleasing sound.” (_Beal_, p. 204.)
CHAPTER LV.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF BANGALA.
Bangala is a Province towards the south, which up to the year 1290, when the aforesaid Messer Marco Polo was still at the Court of the Great Kaan, had not yet been conquered; but his armies had gone thither to make the conquest. You must know that this province has a peculiar language, and that the people are wretched Idolaters. They are tolerably close to India. There are numbers of eunuchs there, insomuch that all the Barons who keep them get them from that Province.[NOTE 1]
The people have oxen as tall as elephants, but not so big.[NOTE 2] They live on flesh and milk and rice. They grow cotton, in which they drive a great trade, and also spices such as spikenard, galingale, ginger, sugar, and many other sorts. And the people of India also come thither in search of the eunuchs that I mentioned, and of slaves, male and female, of which there are great numbers, taken from other provinces with which those of the country are at war; and these eunuchs and slaves are sold to the Indian and other merchants who carry them thence for sale about the world.
There is nothing more to mention about this country, so we will quit it, and I will tell you of another province called Caugigu.
NOTE 1.–I do not think it probable that Marco even touched at any port of Bengal on that mission to the Indian Seas of which we hear in the prologue; but he certainly never reached it from the Yun-nan side, and he had, as we shall presently see (infra, ch. lix. note 6), a wrong notion as to its position. Indeed, if he had visited it at all, he would have been aware that it was essentially a part of India, whilst in fact he evidently regarded it as an _Indo-Chinese_ region, like Zardandan, Mien, and Caugigu.
There is no notice, I believe, in any history, Indian or Chinese, of an attempt by Kublai to conquer Bengal. The only such attempt by the Mongols that we hear of is one mentioned by Firishta, as made by way of Cathay and Tibet, during the reign of Alauddin Masa’ud, king of Delhi, in 1244, and stated to have been defeated by the local officers in Bengal. But Mr. Edward Thomas tells me he has most distinctly ascertained that this statement, which has misled every historian “from Badauni and Firishtah to Briggs and Elphinstone, is founded purely on an erroneous reading” (and see a note in Mr. Thomas’s _Pathan Kings of Dehli_, p. 121).
The date 1290 in the text would fix the period of Polo’s final departure from Peking, if the dates were not so generally corrupt.
The subject of the last part of this paragraph, recurred to in the next, has been misunderstood and corrupted in Pauthier’s text, and partially in Ramusio’s. These make the _escuilles_ or _escoilliez_ (vide _Ducange_ in v. _Escodatus_, and _Raynouard, Lex. Rom._ VI. 11) into _scholars_ and what not. But on comparison of the passages in those two editions with the Geographic Text one cannot doubt the correct reading. As to the fact that Bengal had an evil notoriety for this traffic, especially the province of Silhet, see the _Ayeen Akbery_, II. 9-11, _Barbosa’s _chapter on Bengal, and _De Barros_ (_Ramusio_ I. 316 and 391).
On the cheapness of slaves in Bengal, see _Ibn Batuta_, IV. 211-212. He says people from Persia used to call Bengal _Duzakh pur-i ni’amat_, “a hell crammed with good things,” an appellation perhaps provoked by the official style often applied to it of _Jannat-ul-balad_ or “Paradise of countries.”
Professor H. Blochmann, who is, in admirable essays, redeeming the long neglect of the history and archaeology of Bengal Proper by our own countrymen, says that one of the earliest passages, in which the name _Bangalah_ occurs, is in a poem of Hafiz, sent from Shiraz to Sultan Gbiassuddin, who reigned in Bengal from 1367 to 1373. Its occurrence in our text, however, shows that the name was in use among the Mahomedan foreigners (from whom Polo derived his nomenclature) nearly a century earlier. And in fact it occurs (though corruptly in some MSS.) in the history of Rashiduddin, our author’s contemporary. (See _Elliot_, I. p. 72.)
NOTE 2.–“Big as elephants” is only a _facon de parler_, but Marsden quotes modern exaggerations as to the height of the _Arna_ or wild buffalo, more specific and extravagant. The unimpeachable authority of Mr. Hodgson tells us that the Arna in the Nepal Tarai sometimes does reach a height of 6 ft. 6 in. at the shoulder, with a length of 10 ft. 6 in. (excluding tail), and horns of 6 ft. 6 in. (_J.A.S.B._, XVI. 710.) Marco, however, seems to be speaking of _domestic_ cattle. Some of the breeds of Upper India are very tall and noble animals, far surpassing in height any European oxen known to me; but in modern times these are rarely seen in Bengal, where the cattle are poor and stunted. The _Ain Akbari_, however, speaks of Sharifabad in Bengal, which appears to have corresponded to modern Bardwan, as producing very beautiful white oxen, of great size, and capable of carrying a load of 15 _mans_, which at Prinsep’s estimate of Akbar’s _man_ would be about 600 lbs.
CHAPTER LVI.
DISCOURSES OF THE PROVINCE OF CAUGIGU.
Caugigu is a province towards the east, which has a king.[NOTE 1] The people are Idolaters, and have a language of their own. They have made their submission to the Great Kaan, and send him tribute every year. And let me tell you their king is so given to luxury that he hath at the least 300 wives; for whenever he hears of any beautiful woman in the land, he takes and marries her.
They find in this country a good deal of gold, and they also have great abundance of spices. But they are such a long way from the sea that the products are of little value, and thus their price is low. They have elephants in great numbers, and other cattle of sundry kinds, and plenty of game. They live on flesh and milk and rice, and have wine made of rice and good spices. The whole of the people, or nearly so, have their skin marked with the needle in patterns representing lions, dragons, birds, and what not, done in such a way that it can never be obliterated. This work they cause to be wrought over face and neck and chest, arms and hands, and belly, and, in short, the whole body; and they look on it as a token of elegance, so that those who have the largest amount of this embroidery are regarded with the greatest admiration.
NOTE 1.–No province mentioned by Marco has given rise to wider and wilder conjectures than this, _Cangigu_ as it has been generally printed.
M. Pauthier, who sees in it Laos, or rather one of the states of Laos called in the Chinese histories _Papesifu_, seems to have formed the most probable opinion hitherto propounded by any editor of Polo. I have no doubt that Laos or some part of that region is meant to be _described_, and that Pauthier is right regarding the general direction of the course here taken as being through the regions east of Burma, in a north-easterly direction up into Kwei-chau. But we shall be able to review the geography of this tract better, as a whole, at a point more advanced. I shall then speak of the name CAUGIGU, and why I prefer this reading of it.
I do not believe, for reasons which will also appear further on, that Polo is now following a route which he had traced in person, unless it be in the latter part of it.
M. Pauthier, from certain indications in a Chinese work, fixes on Chiangmai or Kiang-mai, the Zimme of the Burmese (in about latitude 18 deg. 48′ and long. 99 deg. 30′) as the capital of the Papesifu and of the Caugigu of our text. It can scarcely however be the latter, unless we throw over entirely all the intervals stated in Polo’s itinerary; and M. Garnier informs me that he has evidence that the capital of the Papesifu at this time was _Muang-Yong_, a little to the south-east of Kiang-Tung, where he has seen its ruins.[1] That the people called by the Chinese Papesifu were of the great race of Laotians, Shans, or _Thai_, is very certain, from the vocabulary of their language published by Klaproth.
[Illustration: Script _Pa-pe_.]
Pauthier’s Chinese authority gives a puerile interpretation of _Papesifu_ as signifying “the kingdom of the 800 wives,” and says it was called so because the Prince maintained that establishment. This may be an indication that there were popular stories about the numerous wives of the King of Laos, such as Polo had heard; but the interpretation is doubtless rubbish, like most of the so-called etymologies of proper names applied by the Chinese to foreign regions. At best these seem to be merely a kind of _Memoria Technica_, and often probably bear no more relation to the name in its real meaning than Swift’s _All-eggs-under-the-grate_ bears to Alexander Magnus. How such “etymologies” arise is obvious from the nature of the Chinese system of writing. If we also had to express proper names by combining monosyllabic words already existing in English, we should in fact be obliged to write the name of the Macedonian hero much as Swift travestied it. As an example we may give the Chinese name of Java, _Kwawa_, which signifies “gourd-sound,” and was given to that Island, we are told, because the voice of its inhabitants is very like that of a dry gourd rolled upon the ground! It is usually stated that Tungking was called _Kiao-chi_ meaning “crossed-toes,” because the people often exhibit that malformation (which is a fact), but we may be certain that the syllables were originally a phonetic representation of an indigenous name which has no such meaning. As another example, less ridiculous but not more true, _Chin-tan_, representing the Indian name of China, _Chinasthana_, is explained to mean “Eastern-Dawn” (_Aurore Orientale_). (_Amyot_, XIV. 101; _Klapr. Mem._ III. 268.)
The states of Laos are shut out from the sea in the manner indicated; they abound in domestic elephants to an extraordinary extent; and the people do tattoo themselves in various degrees, most of all (as M. Garnier tells me) about Kiang Hung. The _style_ of tattooing which the text describes is quite that of the Burmese, in speaking of whom Polo has omitted to mention the custom: “Every male Burman is tattooed in his boyhood from the middle to his knees; in fact he has a pair of breeches tattooed on him. The pattern is a fanciful medley of animals and arabesques, but it is scarcely distinguishable, save as a general tint, except on a fair skin.” (_Mission to Ava_, 151.)
[1] Indeed documents in Klaproth’s _Asia Polyglotta_ show that the _Pape_ state was also called _Muang-Yong_ (pp. 364-365). I observe that the river running to the east of Pu-eul and Ssemao (Puer and Esmok) is called _Papien_-Kiang, the name of which is perhaps a memorial of the Pape.
[The old Laocian kingdom of _Xieng-mai_ [Kiang-mai], called _Muong-Yong_ by the Pa-y, was inhabited by the _Pa-pe Si-fu_ or Bat-ba T’uc-phu; the inhabitants called themselves Thai-niai or great Thai. (_Deveria, Frontiere_, p. 100. Ch. ix. of the Chinese work _Sze-i-kwan-kao_ is devoted to Xieng-mai _Pa-pe_), which includes the subdivisions of Laos, Xieng Hung [Kiang Hung] and Muong-Ken. (_Deveria, Mel. de Harlez_, p. 97.)–H.C.]
CHAPTER LVII.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF ANIN.
Anin is a Province towards the east, the people of which are subject to the Great Kaan, and are Idolaters. They live by cattle and tillage, and have a peculiar language. The women wear on the legs and arms bracelets of gold and silver of great value, and the men wear such as are even yet more costly. They have plenty of horses which they sell in great numbers to the Indians, making a great profit thereby. And they have also vast herds of buffaloes and oxen, having excellent pastures for these. They have likewise all the necessaries of life in abundance.[NOTE 1]
Now you must know that between Anin and Caugigu, which we have left behind us, there is a distance of [25] days’ journey;[NOTE 2] and from Caugigu to Bangala, the third province in our rear, is 30 days’ journey. We shall now leave Anin and proceed to another province which is some 8 days’ journey further, always going eastward.
NOTE 1.–Ramusio, the printed text of the Soc. de Geographie, and most editions have _Amu_; Pauthier reads _Aniu_ and considers the name to represent Tungking or Annam, called also _Nan-yue_. The latter word he supposes to be converted into _Anyue_, _Aniu_. And accordingly he carries the traveller to the capital of Tungking.
Leaving the name for the present, according to the scheme of the route as I shall try to explain it below, I should seek for Amu or Aniu or _Anin_ in the extreme south-east of Yun-nan. A part of this region was for the first time traversed by the officers of the French expedition up the Mekong, who in 1867 visited Sheu-ping, Lin-ngan and the upper valley of the River of Tungking on their way to Yun-nan-fu. To my question whether the description in the text, of Aniu or Anin and its fine pastures, applied to the tract just indicated, Lieut. Garnier replied on the whole favourably (see further on), proceeding: “The population about Sheu-ping is excessively mixt. On market days at that town one sees a gathering of wild people in great number and variety, and whose costumes are highly picturesque, as well as often very rich. There are the _Pa-is_, who are also found again higher up, the _Ho-nhi_, the _Khato_, the _Lope_, the _Shentseu_. These tribes appear to be allied in part to the Laotians, in part to the Kakhyens…. The wilder races about Sheuping are remarkably handsome, and you see there types of women exhibiting an extraordinary regularity of feature, and at the same time a complexion surprisingly _white_. The Chinese look quite an inferior race beside them…. I may add that all these tribes, especially the Ho-nhi and the Pa-i, wear large amounts of silver ornament; great collars of silver round the neck, as well as on the legs and arms.”
Though the _whiteness_ of the people of Anin is not noticed by Polo, the distinctive manner in which he speaks in the next chapter of the _dark_ complexion of the tribes described therein seems to indicate the probable omission of the opposite trait here.
The prominent position assigned in M. Garnier’s remarks to a race called _Ho-nhi_ first suggested to me that the reading of the text might be ANIN instead of _Aniu_. And as a matter of fact this seems to my eyes to be clearly the reading of the Paris _Livre des Merveilles_ (Pauthier’s MS. B), while the Paris No. 5631 (Pauthier’s A) has _Auin_, and what may be either _Aniu_ or _Anin_. _Anyn_ is also found in the Latin Brandenburg MS. of Pipino’s version collated by Andrew Mueller, to which, however, we cannot ascribe much weight. But the two words are so nearly identical in mediaeval writing, and so little likely to be discriminated by scribes who had nothing to guide their discrimination, that one need not hesitate to adopt that which is supported by argument. In reference to the suggested identity of _Anin_ and _Ho-nhi_, M. Garnier writes again: “All that Polo has said regarding the country of Aniu, though not containing anything _very_ characteristic, may apply perfectly to the different indigenous tribes, at present subject to the Chinese, which are dispersed over the country from Talan to Sheuping and Lin-ngan. These tribes bearing the names (given above) relate that they in other days formed an independent state, to which they give the name of _Muang Shung_. Where this Muang was situated there is no knowing. These tribes have _langage par euls_, as Marco Polo says, and silver ornaments are worn by them to this day in extraordinary profusion; more, however, by the women than the men. They have plenty of horses, buffaloes and oxen, and of sheep as well. It was the first locality in which the latter were seen. The plateau of Lin-ngan affords pasture-grounds which are exceptionally good for that part of the world.
[Illustration: Ho-nhi and other Tribes in the Department of Lin-ngan in S. Yun-nan (supposed to be the Anin country of Marco Polo). (From Garnier’s Work)]
“Beyond Lin-ngan we find the Ho-nhi, properly so called, no longer. But ought one to lay much stress on mere names which have undergone so many changes, and of which so many have been borne in succession by all those places and peoples?.. I will content myself with reminding you that the town of _Homi-cheu_ near Lin-ngan in the days of the Yuen bore the name of _Ngo-ning_.”
Notwithstanding M. Garnier’s caution, I am strongly inclined to believe that ANIN represents either HO-NHI or NGO-NING, if indeed these names be not identical. For on reference to Biot I see that the first syllable of the modern name of the town which M. Garnier writes Ho_mi_, is expressed by the same character as the first syllable of NGO_ning_.
[The Wo-nhi are also called Ngo-ni, Kan-ni, Ho-ni, Lou-mi, No-pi, Ko-ni and Wa-heh; they descend from the southern barbarians called Ho-nhi. At the time of the kingdom of Nan-Chao, the Ho-nhi, called In-yuen, tribes were a dependence of the Kiang (Xieng) of Wei-yuen (Prefecture of P’u-erh). They are now to be found in the Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, King-tung, Chen-yuen, Yuen-kiang and Yun-nan. (See _Deveria_, p. 135.)–H.C.]
We give one of M. Garnier’s woodcuts representing some of the races in this vicinity. Their dress, as he notices, has, in some cases, a curious resemblance to costumes of Switzerland, or of Brittany, popular at fancy balls.[1] Coloured figures of some of these races will be found in the Atlas to Garnier’s work; see especially Plate 35.
NOTE 2.–All the French MSS. and other texts except Ramusio’s read 15. We adopt Ramusio’s reading, 25, for reasons which will appear below.
[1] There is a little uncertainty in the adjustment of names and figures of some of these tribes, between the illustrations and the incidental notices in Lieutenant Garnier’s work. But all the figures in the present cut certainly belong to the tract to which we point as Anin; and the two middle figures answer best to what is said of the _Ho-nhi_.
CHAPTER LVIII.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF COLOMAN.
Coloman is a province towards the east, the people of which are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They are a [tall and] very handsome people, though in complexion brown rather than white, and are good soldiers.[NOTE 1] They have a good many towns, and a vast number of villages, among great mountains, and in strong positions.[NOTE 2]
When any of them die, the bodies are burnt, and then they take the bones and put them in little chests.
These are carried high up the mountains, and placed in great caverns, where they are hung up in such wise that neither man nor beast can come at them.
A good deal of gold is found in the country, and for petty traffic they use porcelain shells such as I have told you of before. All these provinces that I have been speaking of, to wit Bangala and Caugigu and Anin, employ for currency porcelain shells and gold. There are merchants in this country who are very rich and dispose of large quantities of goods. The people live on flesh and rice and milk, and brew their wine from rice and excellent spices.
NOTE 1.–The only MSS. that afford the reading _Coloman_ or _Choloman_ instead of _Toloman_ or _Tholoman_, are the Bern MS., which has _Coloman_ in the initial word of the chapter, Paris MS. 5649 (Pauthier’s C) which has _Coloman_ in the Table of Chapters, but not in the text, the Bodleian, and the Brandenburg MS. quoted in the last note. These variations in themselves have little weight. But the confusion between _c_ and _t_ in mediaeval MSS., when dealing with strange names, is so constant that I have ventured to make the correction, in strong conviction that it is the right reading. M. Pauthier indeed, after speaking of tribes called _Lo_ on the south-west of China, adds, “on les nommait _To-lo-man_ (‘les nombreux Barbares Lo’).” Were this latter statement founded on actual evidence we might retain that form which is the usual reading. But I apprehend from the manner in which M. Pauthier produces it, without corroborative quotation, that he is rather hazarding a conjecture than speaking with authority. Be that as it may, it is impossible that Polo’s Toloman or Coloman should have been in the south of Kwangsi, where Pauthier locates it.
On the other hand, we find tribes of both _Kolo_ and _Kihlau_ Barbarians (i.e. _Man_, whence KOLO-MAN or _Kihlau-man_) very numerous on the frontier of Kweichau. (See _Bridgman’s transl. of Tract on Meautsze_, pp. 265, 269, 270, 272, 273, 274, 275, 278, 279, 280.) Among these the _Kolo_, described as No. 38 in that Tract, appear to me from various particulars to be the most probable representatives of the Coloman of Polo, notwithstanding the sentence with which the description opens: “_Kolo_ originally called _Luluh_; the modern designation _Kolo_ is incorrect.”[1] They are at present found in the prefecture of Tating (one of the departments of Kweichau towards the Yun-nan side). “They are _tall, of a dark complexion_, with sunken eyes, aquiline nose, wear long whiskers, and have the beard shaved off above the mouth. They pay great deference to demons, and on that account are sometimes called ‘Dragons of Lo.’ … At the present time these Kolo are divided into 48 clans, the elders of which are called Chieftains (lit. ‘Head-and-Eyes’) and are of nine grades…. The men bind their hair into a tuft with blue cloth and make it fast on the forehead like a horn. Their upper dresses are short, with large sleeves, and their lower garments are fine blue. When one of the chieftains dies, all that were under him are assembled together clad in armour and on horseback. Having dressed his corpse in silk and woollen robes, they burn it in the open country; then, invoking the departed spirit, they inter the ashes. Their attachment to him as their sole master is such that nothing can drive or tempt them from their allegiance. Their large bows, long spears, and sharp swords, are strong and well-wrought. They train excellent horses, love archery and hunting; and so expert are they in tactics that _their soldiers rank as the best among all the uncivilized tribes_. There is this proverb: ‘The Lo Dragons of Shwui-si rap the head and strike the tail,’ which is intended to indicate their celerity in defence.” (_Bridgman_, pp. 272-273.)
The character _Lo_, here applied in the Chinese Tract to these people, is the same as that in the name of the Kwangsi _Lo_ of M. Pauthier.
I append a cut (opposite page) from the drawing representing these Kolo-man in the original work from which Bridgman translated, and which is in the possession of Dr. Lockhart.
[I believe we must read _To-lo-man. Man_, barbarian, _T’u-lao_ or _Shan-tzu_ (mountaineers) who live in the Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, Cheng-kiang, etc. T’u-la-Man or T’u-la barbarians of the Mongol Annals. (_Yuen-shi lei-pien_, quoted by Deveria, p. 115.)–H.C.]
NOTE 2.–Magaillans, speaking of the semi-independent tribes of Kwei-chau and Kwang-si, says: “Their towns are usually so girt by high mountains and scarped rocks that it seems as if nature had taken a pleasure in fortifying them” (p. 43). (See cut at p. 131.)
[1] On the other hand, M. Garnier writes: “I do not know any name at all like _Kolo_, except _Lolo_, the generic name given by the Chinese to the wild tribes of Yun-nan.” Does not this look as if _Kolo_ were really the old name, _Luluh_ or Lolo the later?
CHAPTER LIX.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CUIJU.
Cuiju is a province towards the East.[NOTE 1] After leaving Coloman you travel along a river for 12 days, meeting with a good number of towns and villages, but nothing worthy of particular mention. After you have travelled those twelve days along the river you come to a great and noble city which is called FUNGUL.
The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan, and live by trade and handicrafts. You must know they manufacture stuffs of the bark of certain trees which form very fine summer clothing.[NOTE 2] They are good soldiers, and have paper-money. For you must understand that henceforward we are in the countries where the Great Kaan’s paper-money is current.
[Illustration: The Koloman after a Chinese drawing
“Coloman est une provence vers levant El sunt mult belles jens et ne
sunt mie bien blances mes biunz
El sunt bien homes d’armes”]
The country swarms with lions to that degree that no man can venture to sleep outside his house at night.[NOTE 3] Moreover, when you travel on that river, and come to a halt at night, unless you keep a good way from the bank the lions will spring on the boat and snatch one of the crew and make off with him and devour him. And but for a certain help that the inhabitants enjoy, no one could venture to travel in that province, because of the multitude of those lions, and because of their strength and ferocity.
But you see they have in this province a large breed of dogs, so fierce and bold that two of them together will attack a lion.[NOTE 4] So every man who goes a journey takes with him a couple of those dogs, and when a lion appears they have at him with the greatest boldness, and the lion turns on them, but can’t touch them for they are very deft at eschewing his blows. So they follow him, perpetually giving tongue, and watching their chance to give him a bite in the rump or in the thigh, or wherever they may. The lion makes no reprisal except now and then to turn fiercely on them, and then indeed were he to catch the dogs it would be all over with them, but they take good care that he shall not. So, to escape the dogs’ din, the lion makes off, and gets into the wood, where mayhap he stands at bay against a tree to have his rear protected from their annoyance. And when the travellers see the lion in this plight they take to their bows, for they are capital archers, and shoot their arrows at him till he falls dead. And ’tis thus that travellers in those parts do deliver themselves from those lions.
They have a good deal of silk and other products which are carried up and down, by the river of which we spoke, into various quarters.[NOTE 5]
You travel along the river for twelve days more, finding a good many towns all along, and the people always Idolaters, and subject to the Great Kaan, with paper-money current, and living by trade and handicrafts. There are also plenty of fighting men. And after travelling those twelve days you arrive at the city of Sindafu of which we spoke in this book some time ago.[NOTE 6]
From Sindafu you set out again and travel some 70 days through the provinces and cities and towns which we have already visited, and all which have been already particularly spoken of in our Book. At the end of those 70 days you come to Juju where we were before.[NOTE 7]
From Juju you set out again and travel four days towards the south, finding many towns and villages. The people are great traders and craftsmen, are all Idolaters, and use the paper-money of the Great Kaan their Sovereign. At the end of those four days you come to the city of Cacanfu belonging to the province of Cathay, and of it I shall now speak.
NOTE 1.–In spite of difficulties which beset the subject (see Note 6 below) the view of Pauthier, suggested doubtingly by Marsden, that the Cuiju of the text is KWEI-CHAU, seems the most probable one. As the latter observes, the reappearance of paper money shows that we have got back into a province of China Proper. Such, Yun nan, recently conquered from a Shan prince, could not be considered. But, according to the best view we can form, the traveller could only have passed through the extreme west of the province of Kwei-chau.
The name of _Fungul_, if that be a true reading, is suggestive of _Phungan_, which under the Mongols was the head of a district called PHUNGAN-LU. It was founded by that dynasty, and was regarded as an important position for the command of the three provinces Kwei-chau, Kwang-si, and Yun-nan. (_Biot_, p. 168; _Martini_, p. 137.) But we shall explain presently the serious difficulties that beset the interpretation of the itinerary as it stands.
NOTE 2.–Several Chinese plants afford a fibre from the bark, and some of these are manufactured into what we call _grass-cloths_. The light smooth textures so called are termed by the Chinese _Hiapu_ or “summer cloths.” Kwei-chau produces such. But perhaps that specially intended is a species of hemp (_Urtica Nivea?_) of which M. Perny of the R.C. Missions says, in his notes on Kwei-chau: “It affords a texture which may be compared to _batiste_. This has the notable property of keeping so cool that many people cannot wear it even in the hot weather. Generally it is used only for summer clothing.” (_Dict. des Tissus_, VII. 404; _Chin. Repos._ XVIII. 217 and 529; _Ann. de la Prop. de la Foi_, XXXI. 137.)
NOTE 3.–Tigers of course are meant. (See supra, vol. i. p. 399.) M. Perny speaks of tigers in the mountainous parts of Kwei-chau. (Op. cit. 139.)
NOTE 4.–These great dogs were noticed by Lieutenant (now General) Macleod, in his journey to Kiang Hung on the great River Mekong, as accompanying the caravans of Chinese traders on their way to the Siamese territory. (See _Macleod’s Journal_, p. 66.)
NOTE 5.–The trade in wild silk (i.e. from the oak-leaf silkworm) is in truth an important branch of commerce in Kwei-chau. But the chief seat of this is at Tsuni-fu, and I do not think that Polo’s route can be sought so far to the eastward. (_Ann. de la Prop._ XXXI. 136; _Richthofen_, Letter VII. 81.)
NOTE 6.–We have now got back to Sindafu, i.e. Ch’eng-tu fu in Sze-ch’wan, and are better able to review the geography of the track we have been following. I do not find it possible to solve all its difficulties.
The different provinces treated of in the chapters from lv. to lix. are strung by Marco upon an easterly, or, as we must interpret, _north-easterly_ line of travel, real or hypothetical. Their names and intervals are as follows: (1) Bangala; whence 30 marches to (2) Caugigu; 25 marches to (3) Anin; 8 marches to (4) Toloman or Coloman; 12 days in Cuiju along a river to the city of (5) Fungul, Sinugul (or what not); 12 days further, on or along the same river, to (6) Ch’eng-tu fu. Total from Bangala to Ch’eng-tu fu 87 days.
I have said that the line of travel is real _or hypothetical_, for no doubt a large part of it was only founded on hearsay. We last left our traveller at Mien, or on the frontier of Yun-nan and Mien. _Bangala_ is reached _per sallum_ with no indication of interval, and its position is entirely misapprehended. Marco conceives of it, not as in India, but as being, like Mien, a province _on the confines_ of India, as being under the same king as Mien, as lying to the south of that kingdom, and as being at the (south) western extremity of a great traverse line which runs (north) east into Kwei-chau and Sze-ch’wan. All these conditions point consistently to one locality; that, however, is not Bengal but _Pegu_. On the other hand, the circumstances of manners and products, so far as they go, _do_ belong to Bengal. I conceive that Polo’s information regarding these was derived from persons who had really visited Bengal by sea, but that he had confounded what he so heard of the Delta of the Ganges with what he heard on the Yun-nan frontier of the Delta of the Irawadi. It is just the same kind of error that is made about those great Eastern Rivers by Fra Mauro in his Map. And possibly the name of Pegu (in Burmese _Bagoh_) may have contributed to his error, as well as the probable fact that the Kings of Burma did at this time _claim_ to be Kings of Bengal, whilst they actually _were_ Kings of Pegu.
_Caugigu_.–We have seen reason to agree with M. Pauthier that the description of this region points to Laos, though we cannot with him assign it to Kiang-mai. Even if it be identical with the Papesifu of the Chinese, we have seen that the centre of that state may be placed at Muang Yong not far from the Mekong; whilst I believe that the limits of Caugigu must be drawn much nearer the Chinese and Tungking territory, so as to embrace Kiang Hung, and probably the _Papien_ River. (See note at p. 117.)
As regards the name, it is _possible_ that it may represent some specific name of the Upper Laos territory. But I am inclined to believe that we are dealing with a case of erroneous geographical perspective like that of Bangala; and that whilst the _circumstances_ belong to Upper Laos, the _name_, read as I read it, _Caugigu_ (or Cavgigu), is no other than the _Kafchikue_ of Rashiduddin, the name applied by him to Tungking, and representing the KIAOCHI-KWE of the Chinese. D’Anville’s Atlas brings Kiaochi up to the Mekong in immediate contact with Che-li or Kiang Hung. I had come to the conclusion that Caugigu was _probably_ the correct reading before I was aware that it is an _actual_ reading of the Geog. Text more than once, of Pauthier’s A more than once, of Pauthier’s C _at least_ once and possibly twice, and of the Bern MS.; all which I have ascertained from personal examination of those manuscripts.[1]
_Anin_ or _Aniu_.–I have already pointed out that I seek this in the territory about Lin-ngan and Homi. In relation to this M. Garnier writes: “In starting from Muang Yong, or even if you prefer it, from Xieng Hung (Kiang Hung of our maps), … it would be physically impossible in 25 days to get beyond the arc which I have laid down on your map (viz. extending a few miles north-east of Homi). There are scarcely any roads in those mountains, and easy lines of communication begin only _after_ you have got to the Lin-ngan territory. In Marco Polo’s days things were certainly not better, but the reverse. All that has been done of consequence in the way of roads, posts, and organisation in the part of Yun-nan between Lin-ngan and Xieng Hung, dates in some degree from the Yuen, but in a far greater degree from K’ang-hi.” Hence, even with the Ramusian reading of the itinerary, we cannot place _Anin_ much beyond the position indicated already.
[Illustration: Script _thai_ of Xieng-hung.]
_Koloman_.–We have seen that the position of this region is probably near the western frontier of Kwei-chau. Adhering to _Homi_ as the representative of Anin, and to the 8 days’ journey of the text, the most probable position of Koloman would be about _Lo-ping_ which lies about 100 English miles in a straight line north-east from Homi. The first character of the name here is again the same as the _Lo_ of the Kolo tribes.
Beyond this point the difficulties of devising an interpretation, consistent at once with facts and with the text as it stands, become insuperable.
The narrative demands that from Koloman we should reach _Fungul_, a great and noble city, by travelling 12 days along a river, and that Fungul should be within twelve days’ journey of Ch’eng-tu fu, along the same river, or at least along rivers connected with it.
In advancing from the south-west guided by the data afforded by the texts, we have not been able to carry the position of Fungul (_Sinugul_, or what not of G.T. and other MSS.) further north than Phungan. But it is impossible that Ch’eng-tu fu should have been reached in 12 days from this point. Nor is it possible that a new post in a secluded position, like Phungan, could have merited to be described as “a great and noble city.”
Baron v. Richthofen has favoured me with a note in which he shows that in reality the only place answering the more essential conditions of Fungul is Siu-chau fu at the union of the two great branches of the Yang-tzu, viz. the Kin-sha Kiang, and the Min-Kiang from Ch’eng-tu fu. (1) The distance from Siu-chau to Ch’eng-tu by land travelling is just about 12 days, and the road is along a river. (2) In approaching “Fungul” from the south Polo met with a good many towns and villages. This would be the case along either of the navigable rivers that join the Yang-tzu below Siu-chau (or along that which joins above Siu-chau, mentioned further on). (3) The large trade in silk up and down the river is a characteristic that could only apply to the Yang-tzu.
These reasons are very strong, though some little doubt must subsist until we can explain the name (Fungul, or Sinugul) as applicable to Siu-chau.[2] And assuming Siu-chau to be the city we must needs carry the position of _Coloman_ considerably further north than Lo-ping, and must presume the interval between _Anin_ and _Coloman_ to be greatly understated, through clerical or other error. With these assumptions we should place Polo’s Coloman in the vicinity of Wei-ning, one of the localities of Kolo tribes.
From a position near Wei-ning it would be quite possible to reach Siu-chau in 12 days, making use of the facilities afforded by one or other of the partially navigable rivers to which allusion has just been made.
“That one,” says M. Garnier in a letter, “which enters the Kiang a little above Siu-chau fu, the River of _Lowa-tong_, which was descended by our party, has a branch to the eastward which is navigable up to about the latitude of Chao-tong. Is not this probably Marco Polo’s route? It is to this day a line much frequented, and one on which great works have been executed; among others two iron suspension bridges, works truly gigantic for the country in which we find them.”
[Illustration: Iron Suspension Bridge at Lowatong. (From Garnier.)]
An extract from a Chinese Itinerary of this route, which M. Garnier has since communicated to me, shows that at a point 4 days from Wei-ning the traveller may embark and continue his voyage to any point on the great Kiang.
We are obliged, indeed, to give up the attempt to keep to a line of communicating rivers throughout the whole 24 days. Nor do I see how it is possible to adhere to that condition literally without taking more material liberties with the text.
[Illustration: MARCO POLO’S ITINERARIES No. V.
Indo Chinese Regions (Book II, Chaps. 44-59)]
My theory of Polo’s actual journey would be that he returned from Yun-nan fu to Ch’eng-tu fu through some part of the province of Kwei-chau, perhaps only its western extremity, but that he spoke of Caugigu, and probably of Anin, as he did of Bangala, from report only. And, in recapitulation, I would identify provisionally the localities spoken of in this difficult itinerary as follows: _Caugigu_ with Kiang Hung; _Anin_ with Homi; _Coloman_ with the country about Wei-ning in Western Kwei-chau; _Fungul_ or Sinugul with Siu-chau.
[This itinerary is difficult, as Sir Henry Yule says. It takes Marco Polo 24 days to go from Coloman or Toloman to Ch’eng-tu. The land route is 22 days from Yun-nan fu to Swi-fu, via Tung-ch’wan and Chao-t’ung. (_J. China B.R.A.S._ XXVIII. 74-75.) From the Toloman province, which I place about Lin-ngan and Cheng-kiang, south of Yun-nan fu, Polo must have passed a second time through this city, which is indeed at the end of all the routes of this part of South-Western China. He might go back to Sze-ch’wan by the western route, via Tung-ch’wan and Chao-t’ung to Swi-fu, or, by the eastern, easier and shorter route by Siuen-wei chau, crossing a corner of the Kwei-chau province (Wei-ning), and passing by Yun-ning hien to the Kiang, this is the route followed by Mr. A. Hosie in 1883 and by Mr. F.S.A. Bourne in 1885, and with great likelihood by Marco Polo; he may have taken the Yun-ning River to the district city of Na-ch’i hien, which lies on the right bank both of this river and of the Kiang; the Kiang up to Swi-fu and thence to Ch’eng-tu. I do not attempt to explain the difficulty about Fungul.
I fully agree with Sir H. Yule when he says that Polo spoke of Caugigu and of Bangala, probably of Anin, from report only. However, I believe that Caugigu is the _Kiao-Chi kwe_ of the Chinese, that Ani_n_ must be read Ani_u_, that Aniu is but a transcription of _Nan-yue_ that both Nan-yue and Kiao-Chi represent Northern Annam, i.e. the portion of Annam which we call Tung-king. Regarding the tattooed inhabitants of Caugigu, let it be remembered that tattooing existed in Annam till it was prohibited by the Chinese during the occupation of Tung-king at the beginning of the 15th century.–H.C.]
NOTE 7.–Here the traveller gets back to the road-bifurcation near Juju, i.e. Chochau (_ante_ p. 11), and thence commences to travel southward.
[Illustration: Fortified Villages on Western frontier of Kweichau. (From Garnier.)
“Chastians ont-il grant quantite en grandismes montagnes et fortres.”]
[1] A passing suggestion of the identity of Kafchi Kue and Caugigu is made by D’Ohsson, and I formerly objected. (See _Cathay_, p. 272.)
[2] Cuiju might be read _Ciuju_–representing _Siuchau_, but the difficulty about Fungul would remain.
BOOK II.–_Continued_.
PART III.–JOURNEY SOUTHWARD THROUGH EASTERN PROVINCES OF CATHAY AND MANZI.
CHAPTER LX.
CONCERNING THE CITIES OF CACANFU AND OF CHANGLU.
Cacanfu is a noble city. The people are Idolaters and burn their dead; they have paper-money, and live by trade and handicrafts. For they have plenty of silk from which they weave stuffs of silk and gold, and sendals in large quantities. [There are also certain Christians at this place, who have a church.] And the city is at the head of an important territory containing numerous towns and villages. [A great river passes through it, on which much merchandise is carried to the city of Cambaluc, for by many channels and canals it is connected therewith.[NOTE 1]]
We will now set forth again, and travel three days towards the south, and then we come to a town called CHANGLU. This is another great city belonging to the Great Kaan, and to the province of Cathay. The people have paper-money, and are Idolaters and burn their dead. And you must know they make salt in great quantities at this place; I will tell you how ’tis done.[NOTE 2]
A kind of earth is found there which is exceedingly salt. This they dig up and pile in great heaps. Upon these heaps they pour water in quantities till it runs out at the bottom; and then they take up this water and boil it well in great iron cauldrons, and as it cools it deposits a fine white salt in very small grains. This salt they then carry about for sale to many neighbouring districts, and get great profit thereby.
There is nothing else worth mentioning, so let us go forward five days’ journey, and we shall come to a city called Chinangli.
NOTE 1.–In the greater part of the journey which occupies the remainder of Book II., Pauthier is a chief authority, owing to his industrious Chinese reading and citation. Most of his identifications seem well founded, though sometimes we shall be constrained to dissent from them widely. A considerable number have been anticipated by former editors, but even in such cases he is often able to bring forward new grounds.
CACANFU is HO-KIEN FU in Pe Chih-li, 52 miles in a direct line south by east of Chochau. It was the head of one of the _Lu_ or circuits into which the Mongols divided China. (_Pauthier_.)
NOTE 2.–Marsden and Murray have identified Changlu with T’SANG-CHAU in Pe Chih-li, about 30 miles east by south of Ho-kien fu. This seems substantially right, but Pauthier shows that there was an old town actually called CH’ANGLU, separated from T’sang-chau only by the great canal. [Ch’ang-lu was the name of T’sang-chau under the T’ang and the Kin. (See _Playfair, Dict._, p. 34.)–H.C.]
The manner of obtaining salt, described in the text, is substantially the same as one described by Duhalde, and by one of the missionaries, as being employed near the mouth of the Yang-tzu kiang. There is a town of the third order some miles south-east of T’sang-chau, called _Yen-shan_ or “salt-hill,” and, according to Pauthier, T’sang-chau is the mart for salt produced there. (_Duhalde_ in _Astley_, IV. 310; _Lettres Edif._ XI. 267 seqq.; _Biot._ p. 283.)
Polo here introduces a remark about the practice of burning the dead, which, with the notice of the idolatry of the people, and their use of paper-money, constitutes a formula which he repeats all through the Chinese provinces with wearisome iteration. It is, in fact, his definition of the Chinese people, for whom he seems to lack a comprehensive name.
A great change seems to have come over Chinese custom, since the Middle Ages, in regard to the disposal of the dead. Cremation is now entirely disused, except in two cases; one, that of the obsequies of a Buddhist priest, and the other that in which the coffin instead of being buried has been exposed in the fields, and in the lapse of time has become decayed. But it is impossible to reject the evidence that it was a common practice in Polo’s age. He repeats the assertion that it was _the_ custom at every stage of his journey through Eastern China; though perhaps his taking absolutely no notice of the practice of burial is an instance of that imperfect knowledge of strictly Chinese peculiarities which has been elsewhere ascribed to him. It is the case, however, that the author of the Book of the Estate of the Great Kaan (circa 1330) also speaks of cremation as the usual Chinese practice, and that Ibn Batuta says positively: “The Chinese are infidels and idolaters, and they burn their dead after the manner of the Hindus.” This is all the more curious, because the Arab _Relations_ of the 9th century say distinctly that the Chinese bury their dead, though they often kept the body long (as they do still) before burial; and there is no mistaking the description which Conti (15th century) gives of the Chinese mode of sepulture. Mendoza, in the 16th century, alludes to no disposal of the dead except by burial, but Semedo in the early part of the 17th says that bodies were occasionally burnt, especially in Sze-ch’wan.
I am greatly indebted to the kindness of an eminent Chinese scholar, Mr. W.F. Mayers, of Her Majesty’s Legation at Peking, who, in a letter, dated Peking, 18th September, 1874, sends me the following memorandum on the subject:–
“_Colonel Yule’s Marco Polo_, II. 97 [First Edition], _Burning of the Dead_.
“On this subject compare the article entitled _Huo Tsang_, or ‘Cremation Burials,’ in Bk. XV of the _Jih Che Luh_, or ‘Daily Jottings,’ a great collection of miscellaneous notes on classical, historical, and antiquarian subjects, by Ku Yen-wu, a celebrated author of the 17th century. The article is as follows:–
“‘The practice of burning the dead flourished (or flourishes) most extensively in Kiang-nan, and was in vogue already in the period of the Sung Dynasty. According to the history of the Sung Dynasty, in the 27th year of the reign Shao-hing (A.D. 1157), the practice was animadverted upon by a public official.’ Here follows a long extract, in which the burning of the dead is reprehended, and it is stated that cemeteries were set apart by Government on behalf of the poorer classes.
“In A.D. 1261, Hwang Chen, governor of the district of Wu, in a memorial praying that the erection of cremation furnaces might thenceforth be prohibited, dwelt upon the impropriety of burning the remains of the deceased, for whose obsequies a multitude of observances were prescribed by the religious rites. He further exposed the fallacy of the excuse alleged for the practice, to wit, that burning the dead was a fulfilment of the precepts of Buddha, and accused the priests of a certain monastery of converting into a source of illicit gain the practice of cremation.”
[As an illustration of the cremation of a Buddhist priest, I note the following passage from an article published in the _North-China Herald_, 20th May, 1887, p. 556, on Kwei Hua Ch’eng, Mongolia: “Several Lamas are on visiting terms with me and they are very friendly. There are seven large and eight small Lamaseries, in care of from ten to two hundred Lamas. The principal Lamas at death are cremated. A short time ago, a friendly Lama took me to see a cremation. The furnace was roughly made of mud bricks, with four fire-holes at the base, with an opening in which to place the body. The whole was about 6 feet high, and about 5 feet in circumference. Greased fuel was arranged within and covered with glazed foreign calico, on which were written some Tibetan characters. A tent was erected and mats arranged for the Lamas. About 11:30 A.M. a scarlet covered bier appeared in sight carried by thirty-two beggars. A box 2 feet square and 2-1/2 feet high was taken out and placed near the furnace. The Lamas arrived and attired themselves in gorgeous robes and sat cross-legged. During the preparations to chant, some butter was being melted in a corner of the tent. A screen of calico was drawn round the furnace in which the cremator placed the body, and filled up the opening. Then a dozen Lamas began chanting the burial litany in Tibetan in deep bass voices. Then the head priest blessed the torches and when the fires were lit he blessed a fan to fan the flames, and lastly some melted butter, which was poured in at the top to make the whole blaze. This was frequently repeated. When fairly ablaze, a few pieces of Tibetan grass were thrown in at the top. After three days the whole cooled, and a priest with one gold and one silver chopstick collects the bones, which are placed in a bag for burial. If the bones are white it is a sign that his sin is purged, if black that perfection has not been attained.”–H.C.]
And it is very worthy of note that the Chinese envoy to Chinla (Kamboja) in 1295, an individual who may have personally known Marco Polo, in speaking of the custom prevalent there of exposing the dead, adds: “There are some, however, who burn their dead. _These are all descendants of Chinese immigrants._”
[Professor J.J.M. de Groot remarks that “being of religious origin, cremation is mostly denoted in China by clerical terms, expressive of the metamorphosis the funeral pyre is intended to effect, viz. ‘transformation of man’; ‘transformation of the body’; ‘metamorphosis by fire.’ Without the clerical sphere it bears no such high-sounding names, being simply called ‘incineration of corpses.’ A term of illogical composition, and nevertheless very common in the books, is ‘fire burial.'” It appears that during the Sung Dynasty cremation was especially common in the provinces of Shan-si, Cheh-kiang, and Kiang-su. During the Mongol Dynasty, the instances of cremation which are mentioned in Chinese books are, relatively speaking, numerous. Professor de Groot says also that “there exists evidence that during the Mongol domination cremation also throve in Fuhkien.” (_Religious System of China_, vol. iii. pp. 1391, 1409, 1410.) –H.C.]
(_Doolittle_, 190; _Deguignes_, I. 69; _Cathay_, pp. 247, 479; _Reinaud_, I. 56; _India in the XVth Century_, p. 23; _Semedo_, p. 95; _Rem. Mel. Asiat._ I. 128.)
CHAPTER LXI.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF CHINANGLI, AND THAT OF TADINFU, AND THE REBELLION OF LITAN.
Chinangli is a city of Cathay as you go south, and it belongs to the Great Kaan; the people are Idolaters, and have paper-money. There runs through the city a great and wide river, on which a large traffic in silk goods and spices and other costly merchandize passes up and down.
When you travel south from Chinangli for five days, you meet everywhere with fine towns and villages, the people of which are all Idolaters, and burn their dead, and are subject to the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, and live by trade and handicrafts, and have all the necessaries of life in great abundance. But there is nothing particular to mention on the way till you come, at the end of those five days, to TADINFU.[NOTE 1]
This, you must know, is a very great city, and in old times was the seat of a great kingdom; but the Great Kaan conquered it by force of arms. Nevertheless it is still the noblest city in all those provinces. There are very great merchants here, who trade on a great scale, and the abundance of silk is something marvellous. They have, moreover, most charming gardens abounding with fruit of large size. The city of Tadinfu hath also under its rule eleven imperial cities of great importance, all of which enjoy a large and profitable trade, owing to that immense produce of silk.[NOTE 2]
Now, you must know, that in the year of Christ, 1273, the Great Kaan had sent a certain Baron called LIYTAN SANGON,[NOTE 3] with some 80,000 horse, to this province and city, to garrison them. And after the said captain had tarried there a while, he formed a disloyal and traitorous plot, and stirred up the great men of the province to rebel against the Great Kaan. And so they did; for they broke into revolt against their sovereign lord, and refused all obedience to him, and made this Liytan, whom their sovereign had sent thither for their protection, to be the chief of their revolt.
When the Great Kaan heard thereof he straightway despatched two of his Barons, one of whom was called AGUIL and the other MONGOTAY;[NOTE 4] giving them 100,000 horse and a great force of infantry. But the affair was a serious one, for the Barons were met by the rebel Liytan with all those whom he had collected from the province, mustering more than 100,000 horse and a large force of foot. Nevertheless in the battle Liytan and his party were utterly routed, and the two Barons whom the Emperor had sent won the victory. When the news came to the Great Kaan he was right well pleased, and ordered that all the chiefs who had rebelled, or excited others to rebel, should be put to a cruel death, but that those of lower rank should receive a pardon. And so it was done. The two Barons had all the leaders of the enterprise put to a cruel death, and all those of lower rank were pardoned. And thenceforward they conducted themselves with loyalty towards their lord.[NOTE 5]
Now having told you all about this affair, let us have done with it, and I will tell you of another place that you come to in going south, which is called SINJU-MATU.
NOTE 1.–There seems to be no solution to the difficulties attaching to the account of these two cities (Chinangli and Tadinfu) except that the two have been confounded, either by a lapse of memory on the traveller’s part or by a misunderstanding on that of Rusticiano.
The position and name of CHINANGLI point, as Pauthier has shown, to T’SI-NAN FU, the chief city of Shan-tung. The second city is called in the G. Text and Pauthier’s MSS. _Candinfu_, _Condinfu_, and _Cundinfu_, names which it has not been found possible to elucidate. But adopting the reading _Tadinfu_ of some of the old printed editions (supported by the _Tudinfu_ of Ramusio and the _Tandifu_ of the Riccardian MS.), Pauthier shows that the city now called _Yen-chau_ bore under the Kin the name of TAI-TING FU, which may fairly thus be recognised. [Under the Sung Dynasty Yen-chau was named T’ai-ning and Lung-k’ing. (_Playfair’s Dict._ p. 388.)–H.C.]
It was not, however, Yen-chau, but _T’si-nan fu_, which was “the noblest city in all those provinces,” and had been “in old times the seat of a kingdom,” as well as recently the scene of the episode of Litan’s rebellion. T’si-nan fu lies in a direct line 86 miles south of T’sang-chau (_Changlu_), near the banks of the Ta-t’singho, a large river which communicates with the great canal near T’si-ning chau, and which was, no doubt, of greater importance in Polo’s time than in the last six centuries. For up nearly to the origin of the Mongol power it appears to have been one of the main discharges of the Hwang-Ho. The recent changes in that river have again brought its main stream into the same channel, and the “New Yellow River” passes three or four miles to the north of the city. T’si-nan fu has frequently of late been visited by European travellers, who report it as still a place of importance, with much life and bustle, numerous book-shops, several fine temples, two mosques, and all the furniture of a provincial capital. It has also a Roman Catholic Cathedral of Gothic architecture. (_Williamson_, I. 102.)
[Tsi-nan “is a populous and rich city; and by means of the river (Ta Tsing ho, Great Clear River) carries on an extensive commerce. The soil is fertile, and produces grain and fruits in abundance. Silk of an excellent quality is manufactured, and commands a high price. The lakes and rivers are well stored with fish.” (_Chin. Rep._ XI. p. 562.)–H.C.]
NOTE 2.–The Chinese Annals, more than 2000 years B.C., speak of silk as an article of tribute from Shan-tung; and evidently it was one of the provinces most noted in the Middle Ages for that article. Compare the quotation in note on next chapter from Friar Odoric. Yet the older modern accounts speak only of the _wild_ silk of Shan-tung. Mr. Williamson, however, points out that there is an extensive produce from the genuine mulberry silkworm, and anticipates a very important trade in Shan-tung silk. Silk fabrics are also largely produced, and some of extraordinary quality. (_Williamson_, I. 112, 131.)
The expressions of Padre Martini, in speaking of the wild silk of Shan-tung, strongly remind one of the talk of the ancients about the origin of silk, and suggest the possibility that this may not have been mere groundless fancy: “Non in globum aut ovum ductum, sed in longissimum filum paulatim ex ore emissum, albi coloris, quae arbustis dumisque, adhaerentia, atque a vento huc illucque agitata colliguntur,” etc. Compare this with Pliny’s “Seres lanitia silvarum nobiles, perfusam aqua depectentes frondium caniciem,” or Claudian’s “Stamine, quod molli tondent de stipite Seres, Frondea lanigerae carpentes vellera silvae; Et longum tenues tractus producit in aurum.”
NOTE 3.–The title _Sangon_ is, as Pauthier points out, the Chinese _Tsiang-kiun_, a “general of division”, [or better “Military Governor”. –H.C.] John Bell calls an officer, bearing the same title, “Merin _Sanguin_” I suspect _T’siang-kiun_ is the _Jang-Jang_ of Baber.
NOTE 4.–AGUL was the name of a distant cousin of Kublai, who was the father of Nayan (supra, ch. ii. and Genealogy of the House of Chinghiz in Appendix A). MANGKUTAI, under Kublai, held the command of the third Hazara (Thousand) of the right wing, in which he had succeeded his father Jedi Noyan. lie was greatly distinguished in the invasion of South China under Bayan. (_Erdmann’s Temudschin_, pp. 220, 455; _Gaubil_, p. 160.)
NOTE 5.–LITAN, a Chinese of high military position and reputation under the Mongols, in the early part of Kublai’s reign, commanded the troops in Shan-tung and the conquered parts of Kiang-nan. In the beginning of 1262 he carried out a design that he had entertained since Kublai’s accession, declared for the Sung Emperor, to whom he gave up several important places, put detached Mongol garrisons to the sword, and fortified T’si-nan and T’sing-chau. Kublai despatched Prince Apiche and the General Ssetienche against him. Litan, after some partial success, was beaten and driven into T’si-nan, which the Mongols immediately invested. After a blockade of four months, the garrison was reduced to extremities. Litan, in despair, put his women to death and threw himself into a lake adjoining the city; but he was taken out alive and executed. T’sing-chau then surrendered. (_Gaubil_, 139-140; _De Mailla_, IX. 298 seqq.; _D’Ohsson_, II. 381.)
Pauthier gives greater detail from the Chinese Annals, which confirm the amnesty granted to all but the chiefs of the rebellion.
The date in the text is wrong or corrupt, as is generally the case.
CHAPTER LXII.
CONCERNING THE NOBLE CITY OF SINJUMATU.
On leaving Tadinfu you travel three days towards the south, always finding numbers of noble and populous towns and villages flourishing with trade and manufactures. There is also abundance of game in the country, and everything in profusion.
When you have travelled those three days you come to the noble city of SINJUMATU, a rich and fine place, with great trade and manufactures. The people are Idolaters and subjects of the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, and they have a river which I can assure you brings them great gain, and I will tell you about it.
You see the river in question flows from the South to this city of Sinjumatu. And the people of the city have divided this larger river in two, making one half of it flow east and the other half flow west; that is to say, the one branch flows towards Manzi and the other towards Cathay. And it is a fact that the number of vessels at this city is what no one would believe without seeing them. The quantity of merchandize also which these vessels transport to Manzi and Cathay is something marvellous; and then they return loaded with other merchandize, so that the amount of goods borne to and fro on those two rivers is quite astonishing.[NOTE 1]
NOTE 1.–Friar Odoric, proceeding by water northward to Cambaluc about 1324-1325, says: “As I travelled by that river towards the east, and passed many towns and cities, I came to a certain city which is called SUNZUMATU, which hath a greater plenty of silk than perhaps any place on earth, for when silk is at the dearest you can still have 40 lbs. for less than eight groats. There is in the place likewise great store of merchandise,” etc. When commenting on Odoric, I was inclined to identify this city with Lin-t’sing chau, but its position with respect to the two last cities in Polo’s itinerary renders this inadmissible; and Murray and Pauthier seem to be right in identifying it with T’SI-NING CHAU. The affix _Matu_ (_Ma-t’eu_, a jetty, a place of river trade) might easily attach itself to the name of such a great depot of commerce on the canal as Marco here describes, though no Chinese authority has been produced for its being so styled. The only objection to the identification with T’si-ning chau is the difficulty of making 3 days’ journey of the short distance between Yen-chau and that city.
Polo, according to the route supposed, comes first upon the artificial part of the Great Canal here. The rivers _Wen_ and _Sse_ (from near Yen-chau) flowing from the side of Shan-tung, and striking the canal line at right angles near T’si-ning chau, have been thence diverted north-west and south-east, so as to form the canal; the point of their original confluence at Nan-wang forming, apparently, the summit level of the canal. There is a little confusion in Polo’s account, owing to his describing the river as coming from the _south_, which, according to his orientation, would be the side towards Hunan. In this respect his words would apply more accurately to the _Wei_ River at Lin-t’sing (see _Biot_ in _J. As._ ser. III. tom. xiv. 194, and _J.N.C.B.R.A.S._, 1866, p. ii; also the map with ch. lxiv.) [Father Gandar (_Canal Imperial_, p. 22, note) says that the remark of Marco Polo: “The river flows from the south to this city of Sinjumatu,” cannot be applied to the _Wen-ho_ nor to the _Sse-ho_, which are rivers of little importance and running from the east, whilst the _Wei-ho_, coming from the south-east, waters Lin-ts’ing, and answers well to our traveller’s text.–H.C.] Duhalde calls T’si-ning chau “one of the most considerable cities of the empire”; and Nieuhoff speaks of its large trade and population. [Sir John F. Davis writes that Tsi-ning chau is a town of considerable dimensions…. “The _ma-tow_, or platforms, before the principal boats had ornamental gateways over them…. The canal seems to render this an opulent and flourishing place, to judge by the gilded and carved shops, temples, and public offices, along the eastern banks.” (Sketches of China, I. pp. 255-257.)–H.C.]
CHAPTER LXIII.
CONCERNING THE CITIES OF LINJU AND PIJU.
On leaving the city of Sinju-matu you travel for eight days towards the south, always coming to great and rich towns and villages flourishing with trade and manufactures. The people are all subjects of the Great Kaan, use paper-money, and burn their dead. At the end of those eight days you come to the city of LINJU, in the province of the same name of which it is the capital. It is a rich and noble city, and the men are good soldiers, natheless they carry on great trade and manufactures. There is great abundance of game in both beasts and birds, and all the necessaries of life are in profusion. The place stands on the river of which I told you above. And they have here great numbers of vessels, even greater than those of which I spoke before, and these transport a great amount of costly merchandize[NOTE 1].
So, quitting this province and city of Linju, you travel three days more towards the south, constantly finding numbers of rich towns and villages. These still belong to Cathay; and the people are all Idolaters, burning their dead, and using paper-money, that I mean of their Lord the Great Kaan, whose subjects they are. This is the finest country for game, whether in beasts or birds, that is anywhere to be found, and all the necessaries of life are in profusion.
At the end of those three days you find the city of PIJU, a great, rich, and noble city, with large trade and manufactures, and a great production of silk. This city stands at the entrance to the great province of Manzi, and there reside at it a great number of merchants who despatch carts from this place loaded with great quantities of goods to the different towns of Manzi. The city brings in a great revenue to the Great Kaan.[NOTE 2]
NOTE 1.–Murray suggests that Lingiu is a place which appears in D’Anville’s Map of Shan-tung as _Lintching-y_ and in Arrowsmith’s Map of China (also in those of Berghaus and Keith Johnston) as _Lingchinghien_. The position assigned to it, however, on the west bank of the canal, nearly under the 35th degree of latitude, would agree fairly with Polo’s data. [_Lin-ch’ing, Lin-tsing_, lat. 37 deg. 03′, _Playfair’s Dict._ No. 4276; _Biot_, p. 107.–H.C.]
In any case, I imagine Lingiu (of which, perhaps, _Lingin_ may be the correct reading) to be the _Lenzin_ of Odoric, which he reached in travelling by water from the south, before arriving at Sinjumatu. (_Cathay_, p. 125.)
NOTE 2.–There can be no doubt that this is PEI-CHAU on the east bank of the canal. The abundance of game about here is noticed by Nieuhoff (in _Astley_, III. 417). [See _D. Gandar, Canal Imperial_, 1894.–H.C.]
CHAPTER LXIV.
CONCERNING THE CITY OF SIJU, AND THE GREAT RIVER CARAMORAN.
When you leave Piju you travel towards the south for two days, through beautiful districts abounding in everything, and in which you find quantities of all kinds of game. At the end of those two days you reach the city of SIJU, a great, rich, and noble city, flourishing with trade and manufactures. The people are Idolaters, burn their dead, use paper-money, and are subjects of the Great Kaan. They possess extensive and fertile plains producing abundance of wheat and other grain.[NOTE 1] But there is nothing else to mention, so let us proceed and tell you of the countries further on.
On leaving Siju you ride south for three days, constantly falling in with fine towns and villages and hamlets and farms, with their cultivated lands. There is plenty of wheat and other corn, and of game also; and the people are all Idolaters and subjects of the Great Kaan.
At the end of those three days you reach the great river CARAMORAN, which flows hither from Prester John’s country. It is a great river, and more than a mile in width, and so deep that great ships can navigate it. It abounds in fish, and very big ones too. You must know that in this river there are some 15,000 vessels, all belonging to the Great Kaan, and kept to transport his troops to the Indian Isles whenever there may be occasion; for the sea is only one day distant from the place we are speaking of. And each of these vessels, taking one with another, will require 20 mariners, and will carry 15 horses with the men belonging to them, and their provisions, arms, and equipments.[NOTE 2]
Hither and thither, on either bank of the river, stands a town; the one facing the other. The one is called COIGANJU and the other CAIJU; the former is a large place, and the latter a little one. And when you pass this river you enter the great province of MANZI. So now I must tell you how this province of Manzi was conquered by the Great Kaan.[NOTE 3]
NOTE 1.–SIJU can scarcely be other than Su-t’sien (_Sootsin_ of Keith Johnston’s map) as Murray and Pauthier have said. The latter states that one of the old names of the place was _Si-chau_, which corresponds to that given by Marco. Biot does not give this name.
The town stands on the flat alluvial of the Hwang-Ho, and is approached by high embanked roads. (_Astley_, III. 524-525.)
[Sir J.F. Davis writes: “From _Sootsien Hien_ to the point of junction with the Yellow River, a length of about fifty miles, that great stream and the canal run nearly parallel with each other, at an average distance of four or five miles, and sometimes much nearer.” (_Sketches of China_, I. p. 265.)–H.C.]
[Illustration: Sketch Map, exhibiting the VARIATIONS of the TWO GREAT RIVERS OF CHINA Within the Period of History]
NOTE 2.–We have again arrived on the banks of the Hwang-Ho, which was crossed higher up on our traveller’s route to Karajang.
No accounts, since China became known to modern Europe, attribute to the Hwang-Ho the great utility for navigation which Polo here and elsewhere ascribes to it. Indeed, we are told that its current is so rapid that its navigation is scarcely practicable, and the only traffic of the kind that we hear of is a transport of coal in Shan-si for a certain distance down stream. This rapidity also, bringing down vast quantities of soil, has so raised the bed that in recent times the tide has not entered the river, as it probably did in our traveller’s time, when, as it would appear from his account, seagoing craft used to ascend to the ferry north of Hwai-ngan fu, or thereabouts. Another indication of change is his statement that the passage just mentioned was only one day’s journey from the sea, whereas it is now about 50 miles in a direct line. But the river has of late years undergone changes much more material.
In the remotest times of which the Chinese have any record, the Hwang-Ho discharged its waters into the Gulf of Chih-li, by two branches, the most northerly of which appears to have followed the present course of the Pei-ho below Tien-tsing. In the time of the Shang Dynasty (ending B.C. 1078) a branch more southerly than either of the above flowed towards T’si-ning, and combined with the _T’si_ River, which flowed by T’si-nan fu, the same in fact that was till recently called the Ta-t’sing. In the time of Confucius we first hear of a branch being thrown off south-east towards the Hwai, flowing north of Hwai-ngan, in fact towards the embouchure which our maps still display as that of the Hwang-Ho. But, about the 3rd and 4th centuries of our era, the river discharged exclusively by the T’si; and up to the Mongol age, or nearly so, the mass of the waters of this great river continued to flow into the Gulf of Chih-li. They then changed their course bodily towards the Hwai, and followed that general direction to the sea; this they had adopted before the time of our traveller, and they retained it till a very recent period. The mass of Shan-tung thus forms a mountainous island rising out of the vast alluvium of the Hwang-Ho, whose discharge into the sea has alternated between the north and the south of that mountainous tract. (_See Map opposite_.)
During the reign of the last Mongol emperor, a project was adopted for restoring the Hwang-Ho to its former channel, discharging into the Gulf of Chih-li; and discontents connected with this scheme promoted the movement for the expulsion of the dynasty (1368).
A river whose regimen was liable to such vast changes was necessarily a constant source of danger, insomuch that the Emperor Kia-K’ing in his will speaks of it as having been “from the remotest ages China’s sorrow.” Some idea of the enormous works maintained for the control of the river may be obtained from the following description of their character on the north bank, some distance to the west of Kai-fung fu:
“In a village, apparently bounded by an earthen wall as large as that of the Tartar city of Peking, was reached the first of the outworks erected to resist the Hwang-Ho, and on arriving at the top that river and the gigantic earthworks rendered necessary by its outbreaks burst on the view. On a level with the spot on which I was standing stretched a series of embankments, each one about 70 feet high, and of breadth sufficient for four railway trucks to run abreast on them. The mode of their arrangement was on this wise: one long bank ran parallel to the direction of the stream; half a mile distant from it ran a similar one; these two embankments were then connected by another series exactly similar in size, height, and breadth, and running at right angles to them right down to the edge of the water.”
In 1851, the Hwang-Ho burst its northern embankment nearly 30 miles east of Kai-fung fu; the floods of the two following years enlarged the breach; and in 1853 the river, after six centuries, resumed the ancient direction of its discharge into the Gulf of Chih-li. Soon after leaving its late channel, it at present spreads, without defined banks, over the very low lands of South-Western Shan-tung, till it reaches the Great Canal, and then enters the Ta-t’sing channel, passing north of T’si-nan to the sea. The old channel crossed by Polo in the present journey is quite deserted. The greater part of the bed is there cultivated; it is dotted with numerous villages; and the vast trading town of Tsing-kiang pu was in 1868 extending so rapidly from the southern bank that a traveller in that year says he expected that in two years it would reach the northern bank.
The same change has destroyed the Grand Canal as a navigable channel for many miles south of Lin-t’sing chau. (_J.R.G.S._ XXVIII. 294-295; _Escayrac de Lauture, Mem. sur la Chine; Cathay_, p. 125; _Reports of Journeys in China_, etc. [by Consuls Alabaster, Oxenham, etc., Parl. Blue Book], 1869, pp. 4-5, 14; _Mr. Elias_ in _J.R.G.S._ XL. p. 1 seqq.)
[Since the exploration of the Hwang-Ho in 1868 by Mr. Ney Elias and by Mr. H.G. Hollingworth, an inspection of this river was made in 1889 and a report published in 1891 by the Dutch Engineers J.G.W. Fijnje van Salverda, Captain P.G. van Schermbeek and A. Visser, for the improvement of the Yellow River.–H.C.]
NOTE 3.–Coiganju will be noticed below. _Caiju_ does not seem to be traceable, having probably been carried away by the changes in the river. But it would seem to have been at the mouth of the canal on the north side of the Hwang-Ho, and the name is the same as that given below (ch. lxxii.) to the town (_Kwachau_) occupying the corresponding position on the Kiang.
“Khatai,” says Rashiduddin, “is bounded on one side by the country of Machin, which the Chinese call MANZI…. In the Indian language Southern China is called Maha-chin, i.e. ‘Great China,’ and hence we derive the word _Machin_. The Mongols call the same country _Nangiass_. It is separated from Khatai by the river called KARAMORAN, which comes from the mountains of Tibet and Kashmir, and which is never fordable. The capital of this kingdom is the city of _Khingsai_, which is forty days’ journey from Khanbalik.” (_Quat. Rashid._, xci.-xciii.)
MANZI (or Mangi) is a name used for Southern China, or more properly for the territory which constituted the dominion of the Sung Dynasty at the time when the Mongols conquered Cathay or Northern China from the Kin, not only by Marco, but by Odoric and John Marignolli, as well as by the Persian writers, who, however, more commonly call it _Machin_. I imagine that some confusion between the two words led to the appropriation of the latter name, also to _Southern_ China. The term _Man-tzu_ or _Man-tze_ signifies “Barbarians” (“Sons of Barbarians”), and was applied, it is said, by the Northern Chinese to their neighbours on the south, whose civilisation was of later date.[1] The name is now specifically applied to a wild race on the banks of the Upper Kiang. But it retains its mediaeval application in Manchuria, where _Mantszi_ is the name given to the Chinese immigrants, and in that use is said to date from the time of Kublai. (_Palladius_ in _J.R.G.S._ vol. xlii. p. 154.) And Mr. Moule has found the word, apparently used in Marco’s exact sense, in a Chinese extract of the period, contained in the topography of the famous Lake of Hang-chau (infra, ch. lxxvi.-lxxvii.)
Though both Polo and Rashiduddin call the Karamoran the boundary between Cathay and Manzi, it was not so for any great distance. Ho-nan belonged essentially to Cathay.
[1] Magaillans says the Southerns, in return, called the Northerns _Pe-tai_, “Fools of the North”!
CHAPTER LXV.
HOW THE GREAT KAAN CONQUERED THE PROVINCE OF MANZI.
You must know that there was a King and Sovereign lord of the great territory of Manzi who was styled FACFUR, so great and puissant a prince, that for vastness of wealth and number of subjects and extent of dominion, there was hardly a greater in all the earth except the Great Kaan himself. [NOTE 1] But the people of his land were anything rather than warriors; all their delight was in women, and nought but women; and so it was above all with the King himself, for he took thought of nothing else but women, unless it were of charity to the poor.
In all his dominion there were no horses; nor were the people ever inured to battle or arms, or military service of any kind. Yet the province of Manzi is very strong by nature, and all the cities are encompassed by sheets of water of great depth, and more than an arblast-shot in width; so that the country never would have been lost, had the people but been soldiers. But that is just what they were not; so lost it was.[NOTE 2]
Now it came to pass, in the year of Christ’s incarnation, 1268, that the Great Kaan, the same that now reigneth, despatched thither a Baron of his whose name was BAYAN CHINCSAN, which is as much as to say “Bayan Hundred Eyes.” And you must know that the King of Manzi had found in his horoscope that he never should lose his Kingdom except through a man that had an hundred eyes; so he held himself assured in his position, for he could not believe that any man in existence could have an hundred eyes. There, however, he deluded himself, in his ignorance of the name of Bayan.[NOTE 3]
This Bayan had an immense force of horse and foot entrusted to him by the Great Kaan, and with these he entered Manzi, and he had also a great number of boats to carry both horse and food when need should be. And when he, with all his host, entered the territory of Manzi and arrived at this city of COIGANJU–whither we now are got, and of which we shall speak presently–he summoned the people thereof to surrender to the Great Kaan; but this they flatly refused. On this Bayan went on to another city, with the same result, and then still went forward; acting thus because he was aware that the Great Kaan was despatching another great host to follow him up.[NOTE 4]
What shall I say then? He advanced to five cities in succession, but got possession of none of them; for he did not wish to engage in besieging them and they would not give themselves up. But when he came to the sixth city he took that by storm, and so with a second, and a third, and a fourth, until he had taken twelve cities in succession. And when he had taken all these he advanced straight against the capital city of the kingdom, which was called KINSAY, and which was the residence of the King and Queen.
And when the King beheld Bayan coming with all his host, he was in great dismay, as one unused to see such sights. So he and a great company of his people got on board a thousand ships and fled to the islands of the Ocean Sea, whilst the Queen who remained behind in the city took all measures in her power for its defence, like a valiant lady.
Now it came to pass that the Queen asked what was the name of the captain of the host, and they told her that it was Bayan Hundred-Eyes. So when she wist that he was styled Hundred-Eyes, she called to mind how their astrologers had foretold that a man of an hundred eyes should strip them of the kingdom.[NOTE 5] Wherefore she gave herself up to Bayan, and surrendered to him the whole kingdom and all the other cities and fortresses, so that no resistance was made. And in sooth this was a goodly conquest, for there was no realm on earth half so wealthy.[NOTE 6] The amount that the King used to expend was perfectly marvellous; and as an example I will tell you somewhat of his liberal acts.
In those provinces they are wont to expose their newborn babes; I speak of the poor, who have not the means of bringing them up. But the King used to have all those foundlings taken charge of, and had note made of the signs and planets under which each was born, and then put them out to nurse about the country. And when any rich man was childless he would go to the King and obtain from him as many of these children as he desired. Or, when the children grew up, the King would make up marriages among them, and provide for the couples from his own purse. In this manner he used to provide for some 20,000 boys and girls every year.[NOTE 7]
I will tell you another thing this King used to do. If he was taking a ride through the city and chanced to see a house that was very small and poor standing among other houses that were fine and large, he would ask why it was so, and they would tell him it belonged to a poor man who had not the means to enlarge it. Then the King would himself supply the means. And thus it came to pass that in all the capital of the kingdom of Manzi, Kinsay by name, you should not see any but fine houses.
This King used to be waited on by more than a thousand young gentlemen and ladies, all clothed in the richest fashion. And he ruled his realm with such justice that no malefactors were to be found therein. The city in fact was so secure that no man closed his doors at night, not even in houses and shops that were full of all sorts of rich merchandize. No one could do justice in the telling to the great riches of that country, and to the good disposition of the people. Now that I have told you about the kingdom, I will go back to the Queen.
You must know that she was conducted to the Great Kaan, who gave her an honourable reception, and caused her to be served with all state, like a great lady as she was. But as for the King her husband, he never more did quit the isles of the sea to which he had fled, but died there. So leave we him and his wife and all their concerns, and let us return to our story, and go on regularly with our account of the great province of Manzi and of the manners and customs of its people. And, to begin at the beginning, we must go back to the city of Coiganju, from which we digressed to tell you about the conquest of Manzi.
NOTE 1.–_Faghfur_ or _Baghbur_ was a title applied by old Persian and Arabic writers to the Emperor of China, much in the way that we used to speak of the _Great Mogul_, and our fathers of the _Sophy_. It is, as Neumann points out, an old Persian translation of the Chinese title _Tien-tzu_, “Son of Heaven”; _Bagh-Pur_ = “The Son of the Divinity,” as Sapor or _Shah-Pur_ = “The Son of the King.” _Faghfur_ seems to have been used as a proper name in Turkestan. (See _Baber_, 423.)
There is a word, _Takfur_, applied similarly by the Mahomedans to the Greek emperors of both Byzantium and Trebizond (and also to the Kings of Cilician Armenia), which was perhaps adopted as a jingling match to the former term; Faghfur, the great infidel king in the East; Takfur, the great infidel king in the West. Defremery says this is Armenian, _Tagavor_, “a king.” (_I.B._, II. 393, 427.)
[“The last of the Sung Emperors (1276) ‘Facfur’ (i.e. the Arabic for