_Lao-pen-kia_. The book of Father Vial contains a very valuable chapter on the writing of the Lolos. Mr. F.S.A. Bourne writes (_Report, China_, No. I. 1888, p. 88):–“The old Chinese name for this race was ‘Ts’uan Man’– ‘Ts’uan barbarians,’ a name taken from one of their chiefs. The _Yun-nan Topography_ says:–‘The name of “Ts’uan Man” is a very ancient one, and originally the tribes of Ts’uan were very numerous. There was that called “Lu-lu Man,” for instance, now improperly called “Lo-Lo.”‘ These people call themselves ‘Nersu,’ and the vocabularies show that they stretch in scattered communities as far as Ssu-mao and along the whole southern border of Yun-nan. It appears from the _Topography_ that they are found also on the Burmese border.”
The _Moso_ call themselves _Nashi_ and are called _Djiung_ by the Tibetans; their ancient capital is Li-kiang fu which was taken by their chief Meng-ts’u under the Sung Dynasty; the Mongols made of their country the kingdom of Chaghan-djang. Li-kiang is the territory of Yue-si Chao, called also Mo-sie (Moso), one of the six Chao of Nan-Chao. The Moso of Li-kiang call themselves _Ho_. They have an epic styled _Djiung-Ling_ (Moso Division) recounting the invasion of part of Tibet by the Moso. The Moso were submitted during the 8th century, by the King of Nan-Chao. They have a special hieroglyphic scrip, a specimen of which has been given by Deveria. (_Frontiere_, p. 166.) A manuscript was secured by Captain Gill, on the frontier east of Li-t’ang, and presented by him to the British Museum (_Add_ SS. Or. 2162); T. de Lacouperie gave a facsimile of it. (Plates I., II. of _Beginnings of Writing_.) Prince Henri d’Orleans and M. Bonin both brought home a Moso manuscript with a Chinese explanation.
Dr. Anderson (_Exped. to Yunnan_, Calcutta, p. 136) says the _Li-sus_, or _Lissaus_ are “a small hill-people, with fair, round, flat faces, high cheek bones, and some little obliquity of the eye.” These Li-su or Li-sie, are scattered throughout the Yunnanese prefectures of Yao-ngan, Li-kiang, Ta-li and Yung-ch’ang; they were already in Yun-Nan in the 4th century when the Chinese general Ch’u Chouang-kiao entered the country. (_Deveria, Front._, p. 164.)
The _Pa-y_ or _P’o-y_ formed under the Han Dynasty the principality of P’o-tsiu and under the T’ang Dynasty the tribes of Pu-hiung and of Si-ngo, which were among the thirty-seven tribes dependent on the ancient state of Nan-Chao and occupied the territory of the sub-prefectures of Kiang-Chuen (Ch’eng-kiang fu) and of Si-ngo (Lin-ngan fu). They submitted to China at the beginning of the Yuen Dynasty; their country bordered upon Burma (Mien-tien) and Ch’e-li or Kiang-Hung (Xieng-Hung), in Yun-Nan, on the right bank of the Mekong River. According to Chinese tradition, the Pa-y descended from Muong Tsiu-ch’u, ninth son of Ti Muong-tsiu, son of Piao-tsiu-ti (Asoka). Deveria gives (p. 105) a specimen of the Pa-y writing (16th century). (_Deveria, Front._, 99, 117; _Bourne, Report_, p. 88.) Chapter iv. of the Chinese work, _Sze-i-kwan-k’ao_, is devoted to the _Pa-y_, including the sub-divisions of Muong-Yang, Muong-Ting, Nan-tien, Tsien-ngai, Lung-chuen, Wei-yuan, Wan-tien, Chen-k’ang, Ta-how, Mang-shi, Kin-tung, Ho-tsin, Cho-lo tien. (_Deveria, Mel. de Harlez_, p. 97.) I give a specimen of Pa-yi writing from a Chinese work purchased by Father Amiot at Peking, now in the Paris National Library (Fonds chinois, No. 986). (See on this scrip, _F.W.K. Mueller, T’oung-Pao_, III. p. 1, and V. p. 329; _E.H. Parker, The Muong Language, China Review_, I. 1891, p. 267; _P. Lefevre-Pontalis, Etudes sur quelques alphabets et vocab. Thais, T’oung Pao_, III. pp. 39-64.)–H.C.
[Illustration: Pa-y script.]
These ethnological matters have to be handled cautiously, for there is great ambiguity in the nomenclature. Thus _Man-tzu_ is often used generically for aborigines, and the _Lolos_ of Richthofen are called Man-tzu by Garnier and Blakiston; whilst _Lolo_ again has in Yun-nan apparently a very comprehensive generic meaning, and is so used by Garnier. (_Richt. Letter_ VII. 67-68 and MS. notes; _Garnier_, I. 519 seqq. [_T.W. Kingsmill, Han Wu-ti, China Review_, XXV. 103-109.])
[1] Ramusio alone has “a great _salt_ lake.”
CHAPTER XLVIII.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CARAJAN.
When you have passed that River you enter on the province of CARAJAN, which is so large that it includes seven kingdoms. It lies towards the west; the people are Idolaters, and they are subject to the Great Kaan. A son of his, however, is there as King of the country, by name ESSENTIMUR; a very great and rich and puissant Prince; and he well and justly rules his dominion, for he is a wise man, and a valiant.
After leaving the river that I spoke of, you go five days’ journey towards the west, meeting with numerous towns and villages. The country is one in which excellent horses are bred, and the people live by cattle and agriculture. They have a language of their own which is passing hard to understand. At the end of those five days’ journey you come to the capital, which is called YACHI, a very great and noble city, in which are numerous merchants and craftsmen.[NOTE 1]
The people are of sundry kinds, for there are not only Saracens and Idolaters, but also a few Nestorian Christians.[NOTE 2] They have wheat and rice in plenty. Howbeit they never eat wheaten bread, because in that country it is unwholesome.[NOTE 3] Rice they eat, and make of it sundry messes, besides a kind of drink which is very clear and good, and makes a man drunk just as wine does.
Their money is such as I will tell you. They use for the purpose certain white porcelain shells that are found in the sea, such as are sometimes put on dogs’ collars; and 80 of these porcelain shells pass for a single weight of silver, equivalent to two Venice groats, i.e. 24 piccoli. Also eight such weights of silver count equal to one such weight of gold. [NOTE 4]
They have brine-wells in this country from which they make salt, and all the people of those parts make a living by this salt. The King, too, I can assure you, gets a great revenue from this salt.[NOTE 5]
There is a lake in this country of a good hundred miles in compass, in which are found great quantities of the best fish in the world; fish of great size, and of all sorts.
They reckon it no matter for a man to have intimacy with another’s wife, provided the woman be willing.
Let me tell you also that the people of that country eat their meat raw, whether it be of mutton, beef, buffalo, poultry, or any other kind. Thus the poor people will go to the shambles, and take the raw liver as it comes from the carcase and cut it small, and put it in a sauce of garlic and spices, and so eat it; and other meat in like manner, raw, just as we eat meat that is dressed.[NOTE 6]
Now I will tell you about a further part of the Province of Carajan, of which I have been speaking.
NOTE 1.–We have now arrived at the great province of CARAJAN, the KARAJANG of the Mongols, which we know to be YUN-NAN, and at its capital YACHI, which–I was about to add–we know to be YUN-NAN-FU. But I find all the commentators make it something else. Rashiduddin, however, in his detail of the twelve Sings or provincial governments of China under the Mongols, thus speaks: “10th, KARAJANG. This used to be an independent kingdom, and the Sing is established at the great city of YACHI. All the inhabitants are Mahomedans. The chiefs are Noyan Takin, and Yakub Beg, son of ‘Ali Beg, the Beluch.” And turning to Pauthier’s corrected account of the same distribution of the empire from authentic Chinese sources (p. 334), we find: “8. The administrative province of Yun-nan…. Its capital, chief town also of the canton of the same name, was called _Chung-khing_, now YUN-NAN-FU,” Hence Yachi was Yun-nan-fu. This is still a large city, having a rectangular rampart with 6 gates, and a circuit of about 6 1/2 miles. The suburbs were destroyed by the Mahomedan rebels. The most important trade there now is in the metallic produce of the Province. [According to _Oxenham, Historical Atlas_, there were _ten_ provinces or _sheng_ (Liao-yang, Chung-shu, Shen-si, Ho-nan, Sze-ch’wan, _Yun-nan_, Hu-kwang, Kiang-che, Kiang-si and Kan-suh) and _twelve_ military governorships.–H.C.]
_Yachi_ was perhaps an ancient corruption of the name _Yichau_, which the territory bore (according to Martini and Biot) under the Han; but more probably _Yichau_ was a Chinese transformation of the real name _Yachi_. The Shans still call the city Muang _Chi_, which is perhaps another modification of the same name.
We have thus got Ch’eng-tu fu as one fixed point, and Yun-nan-fu as another, and we have to track the traveller’s itinerary between the two, through what Ritter called with reason a _terra incognita_. What little was known till recently of this region came from the Catholic missionaries. Of late the veil has begun to be lifted; the daring excursion of Francis Garnier and his party in 1868 intersected the tract towards the south; Mr. T.T. Cooper crossed it further north, by Ta-t’sien lu, Lithang and Bathang; Baron v. Richthofen in 1872 had penetrated several marches towards the heart of the mystery, when an unfortunate mishap compelled his return, but he brought back with him much precious information.
[Illustration: Garden-House on the Lake at Yun-nan-fu, Yachi of Polo. (From Garnier).
“Je boz di q’il ont un lac qe gire environ bien cent miles.”]
Five days forward from Ch’eng-tu fu brought us on Tibetan ground. Five days backward from Yun-nan fu should bring us to the river Brius, with its gold-dust and the frontier of Caindu. Wanting a local scale for a distance of five days, I find that our next point in advance, Marco’s city of Carajan undisputably _Tali-fu_, is said by him to be ten days from Yachi. The direct distance between the cities of Yun-nan and Ta-li I find by measurement on Keith Johnston’s map to be 133 Italian miles. [The distance by road is 215 English miles. (See _Baber_, p. 191.)–H.C.] Taking half this as radius, the compasses swept from Yun-nan-fu as centre, intersect near its most southerly elbow the great upper branch of the Kiang, the _Kin-sha Kiang_ of the Chinese, or “River of the Golden Sands,” the MURUS USSU and BRICHU of the Mongols and Tibetans, and manifestly the auriferous BRIUS of our traveller.[1] Hence also the country north of this elbow is CAINDU.
I leave the preceding paragraph as it stood in the first edition, because it shows how _near_ the true position of Caindu these unaided deductions from our author’s data had carried me. That paragraph was followed by an erroneous hypothesis as to the intermediate part of that journey, but, thanks to the new light shed by Baron Richthofen, we are enabled now to lay down the whole itinerary from Ch’eng-tu fu to Yun-nan fu with confidence in its accuracy.
The Kin-sha Kiang or Upper course of the Great Yang-tzu, descending from Tibet to Yun-nan, forms the great bight or elbow to which allusion has just been made, and which has been a feature known to geographers ever since the publication of D’Anville’s atlas. The tract enclosed in this elbow is cut in two by another great Tibetan River, the Yarlung, or Yalung-Kiang, which joins the Kin-sha not far from the middle of the great bight; and this Yalung, just before the confluence, receives on the left a stream of inferior calibre, the Ngan-ning Ho, which also flows in a valley parallel to the meridian, like all that singular _fascis_ of great rivers between Assam and Sze-ch’wan.
This River Ngan-ning waters a valley called Kien-ch’ang, containing near its northern end a city known by the same name, but in our modern maps marked as Ning-yuan fu; this last being the name of a department of which it is the capital, and which embraces much more than the valley of Kien-ch’ang. The town appears, however, as Kien-ch’ang in the _Atlas Sinensis_ of Martini, and as _Kienchang-ouei_ in D’Anville. This remarkable valley, imbedded as it were in a wilderness of rugged highlands and wild races, accessible only by two or three long and difficult routes, rejoices in a warm climate, a most productive soil, scenery that seems to excite enthusiasm even in Chinamen, and a population noted for amiable temper. Towns and villages are numerous. The people are said to be descended from Chinese immigrants, but their features have little of the Chinese type, and they have probably a large infusion of aboriginal blood. [Kien-ch’ang, “otherwise the Prefecture of Ning-yuan, is perhaps the least known of the Eighteen Provinces,” writes Mr. Baber. (_Travels_, p. 58.) “Two or three sentences in the book of Ser Marco, to the effect that after crossing high mountains, he reached a fertile country containing many towns and villages, and inhabited by a very immoral population, constitute to this day the only description we possess of _Cain-du_, as he calls the district.” Baber adds (p. 82): “Although the main valley of Kien-ch’ang is now principally inhabited by Chinese, yet the Sifan or Menia people are frequently met with, and most of the villages possess two names, one Chinese, and the other indigenous. Probably in Marco Polo’s time a Menia population predominated, and the valley was regarded as part of Menia. If Marco had heard that name, he would certainly have recorded it; but it is not one which is likely to reach the ears of a stranger. The Chinese people and officials never employ it, but use in its stead an alternative name, _Chan-tu_ or _Chan-tui_, of precisely the same application, which I make bold to offer as the original of Marco’s Caindu, or preferably Ciandu.” –H.C.]
This valley is bounded on the east by the mountain country of the Lolos, which extends north nearly to Yachau (supra, pp. 45, 48, 60), and which, owing to the fierce intractable character of the race, forms throughout its whole length an impenetrable barrier between East and West. [The Rev. Gray Owen, of Ch’eng-tu, wrote (_Jour. China B.R.A.S._ xxviii. 1893-1894, p. 59): “The only great trade route infested by brigands is that from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan fu, where Lo-lo brigands are numerous, especially in the autumn. Last year I heard of a convoy of 18 mules with Shen-si goods on the above-mentioned road captured by these brigands, muleteers and all taken inside the Lo-lo country. It is very seldom that captives get out of Lo-lo-dom, because the ransom asked is too high, and the Chinese officials are not gallant enough to buy out their unfortunate countrymen. The Lo-los hold thousands of Chinese in slavery; and more are added yearly to the number.”–H.C.] Two routes run from Ch’eng-tu fu to Yun-nan; these fork at Ya-chau and thenceforward are entirely separated by this barrier. To the east of it is the route which descends the Min River to Siu-chau, and then passes by Chao-tong and Tong-chuan to Yun-nan fu: to the west of the barrier is a route leading through Kien-ch’ang to Ta-li fu, but throwing off a branch from Ning-yuan southward in the direction of Yun-nan fu.
This road from Ch’eng-tu fu to Ta-li by Ya-chau and Ning-yuan appears to be that by which the greater part of the goods for Bhamo and Ava used to travel before the recent Mahomedan rebellion; it is almost certainly the road by which Kublai, in 1253, during the reign of his brother Mangku Kaan, advanced to the conquest of Ta-li, then the head of an independent kingdom in Western Yun-nan. As far as Ts’ing-k’i hien, 3 marches beyond Ya-chau, this route coincides with the great Tibet road by Ta-t’sien lu and Bathang to L’hasa, and then it diverges to the left.
We may now say without hesitation that by this road Marco travelled. His _Tibet_ commences with the mountain region near Ya-chau; his 20 days’ journey through a devastated and dispeopled tract is the journey to Ning-yuan fu. Even now, from Ts’ing-k’i onwards for several days, not a single inhabited place is seen. The official route from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan lays down 13 stages, but it generally takes from 15 to 18 days. Polo, whose journeys seem often to have been shorter than the modern average,[2] took 20. On descending from the highlands he comes once more into a populated region, and enters the charming Valley of Kien-ch’ang. This valley, with its capital near the upper extremity, its numerous towns and villages, its cassia, its spiced wine, and its termination southward on the River of the Golden Sands, is CAINDU. The traveller’s road from Ningyuan to Yunnanfu probably lay through Hwei-li, and the Kin-sha Kiang would be crossed as already indicated, near its most southerly bend, and almost due north of Yun-nan fu. (See _Richthofen_ as quoted at pp. 45-46.)
As regards the _name_ of CAINDU or GHEINDU (as in G.T.), I think we may safely recognise in the last syllable the _do_ which is so frequent a termination of Tibetan names (Amdo, Tsiamdo, etc.); whilst the _Cain_, as Baron Richthofen has pointed out, probably survives in the first part of the name _Kien_chang.
[Baber writes (pp. 80-81): “Colonel Yule sees in the word _Caindu_ a variation of ‘Chien-ch’ang,’ and supposes the syllable ‘du’ to be the same as the termination ‘du,’ ‘do,’ or ‘tu,’ so frequent in Tibetan names. In such names, however, ‘do’ never means a district, but always a confluence, or a town near a confluence, as might almost be guessed from a map of Tibet…. Unsatisfied with Colonel Yule’s identification, I cast about for another, and thought for a while that a clue had been found in the term ‘Chien-t’ou’ (sharp-head), applied to certain Lolo tribes. But the idea had to be abandoned, since Marco Polo’s anecdote about the ‘caitiff,’ and the loose manners of his family, could never have referred to the Lolos, who are admitted even by their Chinese enemies to possess a very strict code indeed of domestic regulations. The Lolos being eliminated, the Si-fans remained; and before we had been many days in their neighbourhood, stories were told us of their conduct which a polite pen refuses to record. It is enough to say that Marco’s account falls rather short of the truth, and most obviously applies to the Si-fan.”
[Illustration: Road descending from the Table-Land of Yun-nan into the Valley of the Kin-sha Kiang (the _Brius_ of Polo).
(After Garnier.)]
Deveria (_Front._ p. 146 note) says that Kien-ch’ang is the ancient territory of Kiung-tu which, under the Han Dynasty, fell into the hands of the Tibetans, and was made by the Mongols the march of Kien-ch’ang (_Che-Kong-t’u_); it is the _Caindu_ of Marco Polo; under the Han Dynasty it was the Kiun or division of Yueh-sui or Yueh-hsi. Deveria quotes from the _Yuen-shi-lei pien_ the following passage relating to the year 1284: “The twelve tribes of the Barbarians to the south-west of _Kien-tou_ and _Kin-Chi_ submitted; Kien-tou was administered by Mien (Burma); Kien-tou submits because the Kingdom of Mien has been vanquished.” Kien-tou is the _Chien-t’ou_ of Baber, the Caindu of Marco Polo. (_Melanges de Harlez_, p. 97.) According to Mr. E.H. Parker (_China Review_, xix. p. 69), Yueh-hsi or Yueh-sui “is the modern Kien-ch’ang Valley, the Caindu of Marco Polo, between the Yalung and Yang-tzu Rivers; the only non-Chinese races found there now are the Si-fan and Lolos.”–H.C.]
Turning to minor particulars, the Lake of Caindu in which the pearls were found is doubtless one lying near Ning-yuan, whose beauty Richthofen heard greatly extolled, though nothing of the pearls. [Mr. Hosie writes (_Three Years_, 112-113): “If the former tradition be true (the old city of Ning-yuan having given place to a large lake in the early years of the Ming Dynasty), the lake had no existence when Marco Polo passed through Caindu, and yet we find him mentioning a lake in the country in which pearls were found. Curiously enough, although I had not then read the Venetian’s narrative, one of the many things told me regarding the lake was that pearls are found in it, and specimens were brought to me for inspection.” The lake lies to the south-east of the present city.–H.C.] A small lake is marked by D’Anville, close to Kien-ch’ang, under the name of _Gechoui-tang_. The large quantities of gold derived from the Kin-sha Kiang, and the abundance of musk in that vicinity, are testified to by Martini. The Lake mentioned by Polo as existing in the territory of Yachi is no doubt the _Tien-chi_, the Great Lake on the shore of which the city of Yun-nan stands, and from which boats make their way by canals along the walls and streets. Its circumference, according to Martini, is 500 _li_. The cut (p. 68), from Garnier, shows this lake as seen from a villa on its banks. [Deveria (p. 129) quotes this passage from the _Yuen-shi-lei pien_: “Yachi, of which the _U-man_ or Black Barbarians made their capital, is surrounded by Lake _Tien-chi_ on three sides.” Tien-chi is one of the names of Lake Kwen-ming, on the shore of which is built Yun-nan fu.–H.C.]
Returning now to the Karajang of the Mongols, or Carajan, as Polo writes it, we shall find that the latter distinguishes this great province, which formerly, he says, included seven kingdoms, into two Mongol Governments, the seat of one being at Yachi, which we have seen to be Yun-nan fu, and that of the other at a city to which he gives the name of the Province, and which we shall find to be the existing Ta-li fu. Great confusion has been created in most of the editions by a distinction in the form of the name as applied to these two governments. Thus Ramusio prints the province under Yachi as _Carajan_, and that under Ta-li as _Carazan_, whilst Marsden, following out his system for the conversion of Ramusio’s orthography, makes the former _Karaian_ and the latter _Karazan_. Pauthier prints _Caraian_ all through, a fact so far valuable as showing that his texts make no distinction between the names of the two governments, but the form impedes the recognition of the old Mongol nomenclature. I have no doubt that the name all through should be read _Carajan_, and on this I have acted. In the Geog. Text we find the name given at the end of ch. xlvii. _Caragian_, in ch. xlviii. as _Carajan_, in ch. xlix. as _Caraian_, thus just reversing the distinction made by Marsden. The Crusca has _Charagia(n)_ all through.
The name then was _Kara-jang_, in which the first element was the Mongol or Turki _Kara_, “Black.” For we find in another passage of Rashid the following information:[3]–“To the south-west of Cathay is the country called by the Chinese _Dailiu_ or ‘Great Realm,’ and by the Mongols _Karajang_, in the language of India and Kashmir _Kandar_, and by us _Kandahar_. This country, which is of vast extent, is bounded on one side by Tibet and Tangut, and on others by Mongolia, Cathay, and the country of the Gold-Teeth. The King of Karajang uses the title of _Mahara_, i.e. Great King. The capital is called Yachi, and there the Council of Administration is established. Among the inhabitants of this country some are black, and others are white; these latter are called by the Mongols _Chaghan-Jang_ (‘White Jang’).” _Jang_ has not been explained; but probably it may have been a Tibetan term adopted by the Mongols, and the colours may have applied to their clothing. The dominant race at the Mongol invasion seems to have been Shans;[4] and black jackets are the characteristic dress of the Shans whom one sees in Burma in modern times. The Kara-jang and Chaghan-jang appear to correspond also to the _U-man_ and _Pe-man_, or Black Barbarians and White Barbarians, who are mentioned by Chinese authorities as conquered by the Mongols. It would seem from one of Pauthier’s Chinese quotations (p. 388), that the Chaghan-jang were found in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu. (_D’Ohsson_, II. 317; _J. R. Geog. Soc._ III. 294.) [Dr. Bretschneider (_Med. Res._ I. p. 184) says that in the description of Yun-nan, in the _Yuen-shi_, “_Cara-jang_ and _Chagan-jang_ are rendered by _Wu-man_ and _Po-man_ (Black and White Barbarians). But in the biographies of _Djao-a-k’o-p’an_, _A-r-szelan_ (_Yuen-shi_, ch. cxxiii.), and others, these tribes are mentioned under the names of _Ha-la-djang_ and _Ch’a-han-djang_, as the Mongols used to call them; and in the biography of _Wu-liang-ho t’ai_. [Uriang kadai], the conqueror of Yun-nan, it is stated that the capital of the Black Barbarians was called _Yach’i_. It is described there as a city surrounded by lakes from three sides.”–H.C.]
[Illustration: A Saracen of Carajan, being a portrait of a Mahomedan Mullah in Western Yun-nan. (From Garnier’s Work.)
“Les sunt des plosors maineres, car il hi a jens qe aorent Maomet.” ]
Regarding Rashiduddin’s application of the name _Kandahar_ or Gandhara to Yun-nan, and curious points connected therewith, I must refer to a paper of mine in the _J.R.A.Society_ (N.S. IV. 356). But I may mention that in the ecclesiastical translation of the classical localities of Indian Buddhism to Indo-China, which is current in Burma, Yun-nan represents Gandhara,[5] and is still so styled in state documents (_Gandalarit_).
What has been said of the supposed name _Caraian_ disposes, I trust, of the fancies which have connected the origin of the _Karens_ of Burma with it. More groundless still is M. Pauthier’s deduction of the _Talains_ of Pegu (as the Burmese call them) from the people of Ta-li, who fled from Kublai’s invasion.
NOTE 2.–The existence of Nestorians in this remote province is very notable [see _Bonin, J. As._ XV. 1900, pp. 589-590.–H.C.] and also the early prevalence of Mahomedanism, which Rashiduddin intimates in stronger terms. “All the inhabitants of Yachi,” he says, “are Mahomedans.” This was no doubt an exaggeration, but the Mahomedans seem always to have continued to be an important body in Yun-nan up to our own day. In 1855 began their revolt against the imperial authority, which for a time resulted in the establishment of their independence in Western Yun-nan under a chief whom they called Sultan Suleiman. A proclamation in remarkably good Arabic, announcing the inauguration of his reign, appears to have been circulated to Mahomedans in foreign states, and a copy of it some years ago found its way through the Nepalese agent at L’hasa, into the hands of Colonel Ramsay, the British Resident at Katmandu.[6]
NOTE 3.–Wheat grows as low as Ava, but there also it is not used by natives for bread, only for confectionery and the like. The same is the case in Eastern China. (See ch. xxvi. note 4, and _Middle Kingdom_, II. 43.)
NOTE 4.–The word _piccoli_ is supplied, doubtfully, in lieu of an unknown symbol. If correct, then we should read “24 piccoli _each_” for this was about the equivalent of a grosso. This is the first time Polo mentions cowries, which he calls _porcellani_. This might have been rendered by the corresponding vernacular name “_Pig-shells_,” applied to certain shells of that genus (_Cypraea_) in some parts of England. It is worthy of note that as the name _porcellana_ has been transferred from these shells to China-ware, so the word _pig_ has been in Scotland applied to crockery; whether the process has been analogous, I cannot say.
Klaproth states that Yun-nan is the only country of China in which cowries had continued in use, though in ancient times they were more generally diffused. According to him 80 cowries were equivalent to 6 _cash_, or a half-penny. About 1780 in Eastern Bengal 80 cowries were worth 3/8th of a penny, and some 40 years ago, when Prinsep compiled his tables in Calcutta (where cowries were still in use a few years ago, if they are not now), 80 cowries were worth 3/10 of a penny.
At the time of the Mahomedan conquest of Bengal, early in the 13th century, they found the currency exclusively composed of cowries, aided perhaps by bullion in large transactions, but with no coined money. In remote districts this continued to modern times. When the Hon. Robert Lindsay went as Resident and Collector to Silhet about 1778, cowries constituted nearly the whole currency of the Province. The yearly revenue amounted to 250,000 rupees, and this was entirely paid in cowries at the rate of 5120 to the rupee. It required large warehouses to contain them, and when the year’s collection was complete a large fleet of boats to transport them to Dacca. Before Lindsay’s time it had been the custom to _count_ the whole before embarking them! Down to 1801 the Silhet revenue was entirely collected in cowries, but by 1813, the whole was realised in specie. (_Thomas_, in _J.R.A.S._ N.S. II. 147; _Lives of the Lindsays_, III. 169, 170.)
Klaproth’s statement has ceased to be correct. Lieutenant Garnier found cowries nowhere in use north of Luang Prabang; and among the Kakhyens in Western Yun nan these shells are used only for ornament. [However, Mr. E. H. Parker says (_China Review_, XXVI. p. 106) that the porcelain money still circulates in the Shan States, and that he saw it there himself.–H.C.]
[Illustration: The Canal at Yun nan fu.]
NOTE 5.–See ch. xlvii. note 4. Martini speaks of a great brine-well to the N.E. of Yaogan (W.N.W. of the city of Yun-nan), which supplied the whole country round.
NOTE 6.–Two particulars appearing in these latter paragraphs are alluded to by Rashiduddin in giving a brief account of the overland route from India to China, which is unfortunately very obscure: “Thence you arrive at the borders of Tibet, where they _eat raw meat_ and worship images, _and have no shame respecting their wives_.” (Elliot, I. p. 73.)
[1] Baber writes (p. 107): “The river is never called locally by any other name than _Kin-ke_ or ‘Gold River.'[A] The term _Kin-sha-Kiang_ should in strictness be confined to the Tibetan course of the stream; as applied to other parts it is a mere book name. There is no great objection to its adoption, except that it is unintelligible to the inhabitants of the banks, and is liable to mislead travellers in search of indigenous information, but at any rate it should not be supposed to asperse Marco Polo’s accuracy. _Gold River_ is the local name from the junction of the Yalung to about P’ing-shan; below P’ing-shan it is known by various designations, but the Ssu-ch’uanese naturally call it ‘the River,’ or, by contrast with its affluents, the ‘Big River’ (_Ta-ho_).” I imagine that Baber here makes a slight mistake, and that they use the name _kiang_, and not _ho_, for the river.–H.C.
[Mr. Rockhill remarks (_Land of the Lamas_, p. 196 note) that “Marco Polo speaks of the Yang-tzu as the _Brius_, and Orazio della Penna calls it _Biciu_, both words representing the Tibetan _Dre ch’u_. This last name has been frequently translated ‘Cow yak River,’ but this is certainly not its meaning, as cow yak is _dri-mo_, never pronounced _dre_, and unintelligible without the suffix, _mo_. _Dre_ may mean either mule, dirty, or rice, but as I have never seen the word written, I cannot decide on any of these terms, all of which have exactly the same pronunciation. The Mongols call it _Murus osu_, and in books this is sometimes changed to _Murui osu_, ‘Tortuous river.’ The Chinese call it _Tung t’ien ho_, ‘River of all Heaven.’ The name _Kin-sha kiang_, ‘River of Golden Sand,’ is used for it from Bat’ang to Sui-fu, or thereabouts.” The general name for the river is _Ta-Kiang_ (Great River), or simply _Kiang_, in contradistinction to _Ho_, for _Hwang-Ho_ (Yellow River) in Northern China.–H.C.]
[A] Marco Polo nowhere calls the river “Gold River,” the name he gives it is _Brius_.–H.Y.
[2] Baron Richthofen, who has travelled hundreds of miles in his footsteps, considers his allowance of time to be generally from 1/4 to 1/9 greater than that now usual.
[3] See _Quatremere’s Rashiduddin_, pp. lxxxvi.-xcvi. My quotation is made up from _two_ citations by Quatremere, one from his text of Rashiduddin, and the other from the History of Benakeli, which Quatremere shows to have been drawn from Rashiduddin, whilst it contains some particulars not existing in his own text of that author.
[4] The title _Chao_ in _Nan-Chao_ (infra, p. 79) is said by a Chinese author (Pauthier, p. 391) to signify _King_ in the language of those barbarians. This is evidently the _Chao_ which forms an essential part of the title of all Siamese and Shan princes.
[Regarding the word _Nan-Chao_, Mr. Parker (_China Review_, XX. p. 339) writes “In the barbarian tongue ‘prince is _Chao_,” says the Chinese author; and there were six _Chao_, of which the _Nan_ or Southern was the leading power. Hence the name Nan-Chao … it is hardly necessary for me to say that _chao_ or _kyiao_ is still the Shan-Siamese word for ‘prince.’ Pallegoix (_Dict._ p. 85) has _Chao_, Princeps, rex.–H.C.]
[5] _Gandhara_, Arabice _Kandahar_, is properly the country about Peshawar, _Gandaritis_ of Strabo.
[6] This is printed almost in full in the French _Voyage d’Exploration_, I. 564.
CHAPTER XLIX.
CONCERNING A FURTHER PART OF THE PROVINCE OF CARAJAN.
After leaving that city of Yachi of which I have been speaking, and travelling ten days towards the west, you come to another capital city which is still in the province of Carajan, and is itself called Carajan. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan; and the King is COGACHIN, who is a son of the Great Kaan.[NOTE 1]
In this country gold-dust is found in great quantities; that is to say in the rivers and lakes, whilst in the mountains gold is also found in pieces of larger size. Gold is indeed so abundant that they give one _saggio_ of gold for only six of the same weight in silver. And for small change they use porcelain shells as I mentioned before. These are not found in the country, however, but are brought from India.[NOTE 2]
In this province are found snakes and great serpents of such vast size as to strike fear into those who see them, and so hideous that the very account of them must excite the wonder of those to hear it. I will tell you how long and big they are.
You may be assured that some of them are ten paces in length; some are more and some less. And in bulk they are equal to a great cask, for the bigger ones are about ten palms in girth. They have two forelegs near the head, but for foot nothing but a claw like the claw of a hawk or that of a lion. The head is very big, and the eyes are bigger than a great loaf of bread. The mouth is large enough to swallow a man whole, and is garnished with great [pointed] teeth. And in short they are so fierce-looking and so hideously ugly, that every man and beast must stand in fear and trembling of them. There are also smaller ones, such as of eight paces long, and of five, and of one pace only.
The way in which they are caught is this. You must know that by day they live underground because of the great heat, and in the night they go out to feed, and devour every animal they can catch. They go also to drink at the rivers and lakes and springs. And their weight is so great that when they travel in search of food or drink, as they do by night, the tail makes a great furrow in the soil as if a full ton of liquor had been dragged along. Now the huntsmen who go after them take them by certain gyn which they set in the track over which the serpent has past, knowing that the beast will come back the same way. They plant a stake deep in the ground and fix on the head of this a sharp blade of steel made like a razor or a lance-point, and then they cover the whole with sand so that the serpent cannot see it. Indeed the huntsman plants several such stakes and blades on the track. On coming to the spot the beast strikes against the iron blade with such force that it enters his breast and rives him up to the navel, so that he dies on the spot [and the crows on seeing the brute dead begin to caw, and then the huntsmen know that the serpent is dead and come in search of him].
This then is the way these beasts are taken. Those who take them proceed to extract the gall from the inside, and this sells at a great price; for you must know it furnishes the material for a most precious medicine. Thus if a person is bitten by a mad dog, and they give him but a small pennyweight of this medicine to drink, he is cured in a moment. Again if a woman is hard in labour they give her just such another dose and she is delivered at once. Yet again if one has any disease like the itch, or it may be worse, and applies a small quantity of this gall he shall speedily be cured. So you see why it sells at such a high price.
They also sell the flesh of this serpent, for it is excellent eating, and the people are very fond of it. And when these serpents are very hungry, sometimes they will seek out the lairs of lions or bears or other large wild beasts, and devour their cubs, without the sire and dam being able to prevent it. Indeed if they catch the big ones themselves they devour them too; they can make no resistance.[NOTE 3]
[Illustration: “Riding long like Frenchmen.”
“Et encore sachie qe ceste gens chebauchent lonc come franchois.”]
[Illustration: Suspension Bridge, neighbourhood of Tali]
In this province also are bred large and excellent horses which are taken to India for sale. And you must know that the people dock two or three joints of the tail from their horses, to prevent them from flipping their riders, a thing which they consider very unseemly. They ride long like Frenchmen, and wear armour of boiled leather, and carry spears and shields and arblasts, and all their quarrels are poisoned.[NOTE 4] [And I was told as a fact that many persons, especially those meditating mischief, constantly carry this poison about with them, so that if by any chance they should be taken, and be threatened with torture, to avoid this they swallow the poison and so die speedily. But princes who are aware of this keep ready dog’s dung, which they cause the criminal instantly to swallow, to make him vomit the poison. And thus they manage to cure those scoundrels.]
I will tell you of a wicked thing they used to do before the Great Kaan conquered them. If it chanced that a man of fine person or noble birth, or some other quality that recommended him, came to lodge with those people, then they would murder him by poison, or otherwise. And this they did, not for the sake of plunder, but because they believed that in this way the goodly favour and wisdom and repute of the murdered man would cleave to the house where he was slain. And in this manner many were murdered before the country was conquered by the Great Kaan. But since his conquest, some 35 years ago, these crimes and this evil practice have prevailed no more; and this through dread of the Great Kaan who will not permit such things.[NOTE 5]
NOTE 1.–There can be no doubt that this second chief city of Carajan is TALI-FU, which was the capital of the Shan Kingdom called by the Chinese Nan-Chao. This kingdom had subsisted in Yun-nan since 738, and probably had embraced the upper part of the Irawadi Valley. For the Chinese tell us it was also called _Maung_, and it probably was identical with the Shan Kingdom of Muang Maorong or of _Pong_, of which Captain Pemberton procured a Chronicle. [In A.D. 650, the Ai-Lao, the most ancient name by which the Shans were known to the Chinese, became the Nan-Chao. The Meng family ruled the country from the 7th century; towards the middle of the 8th century, P’i-lo-ko, who is the real founder of the Thai kingdom of Nan-Chao, received from the Chinese the title of King of Yun-Nan and made T’ai-ho, 15 _lis_ south of Ta-li, his residence; he died in 748. In A.D. 938, Twan Sze-ying, of an old Chinese family, took Ta-li and established there an independent kingdom. In 1115 embassies with China were exchanged, and the Emperor conferred (1119) upon Twan Ch’eng-ya the title of King of Ta-li (_Ta-li Kwo Wang_). Twan Siang-hing was the last king of Ta-li (1239-1251). In 1252 the Kingdom of Nan-Chao was destroyed by the Mongols; the Emperor She Tsu (Kublai) gave the title of Maharaja (_Mo-ho Lo-tso_) to Twan Hing-che (son of Twan Siang-hing), who had fled to Yun-Nan fu and was captured there. Afterwards (1261) the Twan are known as the eleven _Tsung-Kwan_ (governors); the last of them, Twan Ming, was made a prisoner by an army sent by the Ming Emperors, and sent to Nan-King (1381). (_E. H. Parker, Early Laos and China, China Review_, XIX. and the _Old Thai or Shan Empire of Western Yun-Nan_, Ibid., XX.; _E. Rocher, Hist. des Princes du Yunnan, T’oung Pao_, 1899; _E. Chavannes, Une Inscription du roy de Nan Tchao, J.A._, November-December, 1900; _M. Tchang, Tableau des Souverains de Nan-Tchao, Bul. Ecole Franc. d’Ext. Orient_, I. No. 4.)–H.C.] The city of Ta-li was taken by Kublai in 1253-1254. The circumstance that it was known to the invaders (as appeals from Polo’s statement) by the name of the province is an indication of the fact that it was the capital of Carajan before the conquest. [“That _Yachi_ and _Carajan_ represent Yuennan-fu and Tali, is proved by topographical and other evidence of an overwhelming nature. I venture to add one more proof, which seems to have been overlooked.
“If there is a natural feature which must strike any visitor to those two cities, it is that they both lie on the shore of notable lakes, of so large an extent as to be locally called seas; and for the comparison, it should be remembered that the inhabitants of the Yuennan province have easy access to the ocean by the Red River, or Sung Ka. Now, although Marco does not circumstantially specify the fact of these cities lying on large bodies of water, yet in both cases, two or three sentences further on, will be found mention of lakes; in the case of Yachi, ‘a lake of a good hundred miles in compass’–by no means an unreasonable estimate.
“Tali-fu is renowned as the strongest hold of Western Yuennan, and it certainly must have been impregnable to bow and spear. From the western margin of its majestic lake, which lies approximately north and south, rises a sloping plain of about three miles average breadth, closed in by the huge wall of the Tien-tsang Mountains. In the midst of this plain stands the city, the lake at its feet, the snowy summits at its back. On either flank, at about twelve and six miles distance respectively, are situated Shang-Kuan and Hsia-Kuan (upper and lower passes), two strongly fortified towns guarding the confined strip between mountain and lake; for the plain narrows at the two extremities, and is intersected by a river at both points.” (_Baber_, _Travels_ 155.)–H.C.]
The distance from Yachi to this city of Karajang is ten days, and this corresponds well with the distance from Yun-nan fu to Tali-fu. For we find that, of the three Burmese Embassies whose itineraries are given by Burney, one makes 7 marches between those cities, specifying 2 of them as double marches, therefore equal to 9, whilst the other two make 11 marches; Richthofen’s information gives 12. Ta-li-fu is a small old city overlooking its large lake (about 24 miles long by 6 wide), and an extensive plain devoid of trees. Lofty mountains rise on the south side of the city. The Lake appears to communicate with the Mekong, and the story goes, no doubt fabulous, that boats have come up to Ta-li from the Ocean. [Captain Gill (II. pp. 299-300) writes: “Ta-li fu is an ancient city … it is the Carajan of Marco Polo…. Marco’s description of the lake of Yun-Nan may be perfectly well applied to the Lake of Ta-li…. The fish were particularly commended to our notice, though we were told that there were no oysters in this lake, as there are said to be in that of Yun-Nan; if the latter statement be true, it would illustrate Polo’s account of another lake somewhere in these regions in which are found pearls (which are white but not round).”–H.C.]
Ta-li fu was recently the capital of Sultan Suleiman [Tu Wen-siu]. It was reached by Lieutenant Garnier in a daring detour by the north of Yun-nan, but his party were obliged to leave in haste on the second day after their arrival. The city was captured by the Imperial officers in 1873, when a horrid massacre of the Mussulmans took place [19th January]. The Sultan took poison, but his head was cut off and sent to Peking. Momein fell soon after [10th June], and the _Panthe_ kingdom is ended.
We see that Polo says the King ruling for Kublai at this city was a son of the Kaan, called COGACHIN, whilst he told us in the last chapter that the King reigning at Yachi was also a son of the Kaan, called ESSENTIMUR. It is probably a mere lapsus or error of dictation calling the latter a son of the Kaan, for in ch. li. infra, this prince is correctly described as the Kaan’s grandson. Rashiduddin tells us that Kublai had given his son HUKAJI (or perhaps _Hogachi_, i.e. Cogachin) the government of Karajang,[1] and that after the death of this Prince the government was continued to his son ISENTIMUR. Klaproth gives the date of the latter’s nomination from the Chinese Annals as 1280. It is not easy to reconcile Marco’s statements perfectly with a knowledge of these facts; but we may suppose that, in speaking of Cogachin as ruling at Karajang (or Tali-fu) and Esentimur at Yachi, he describes things as they stood when his visit occurred, whilst in the second reference to “Sentemur’s” being King in the province and his father dead, he speaks from later knowledge. This interpretation would confirm what has been already deduced from other circumstances, that his visit to Yun-nan was prior to 1280. (_Pemberton’s Report on the Eastern Frontier_, 108 seqq.; _Quat. Rashid._ pp. lxxxix-xc.; _Journ. Asiat._ ser. II. vol. i.)
NOTE 2.–[Captain Gill writes (II. p. 302): “There are said to be very rich gold and silver mines within a few days’ journey of the city” (of Ta-li). Dr. Anderson says (_Mandalay to Momien_, p. 203): “Gold is brought to Momein from Yonephin and Sherg-wan villages, fifteen days’ march to the north-east; but no information could be obtained as to the quantity found. It is also brought in leaf, which is sent to Burma, where it is in extensive demand.”–H.C.]
NOTE 3.–It cannot be doubted that Marco’s serpents here are crocodiles, in spite of his strange mistakes about their having only two feet and one claw on each, and his imperfect knowledge of their aquatic habits. He may have seen only a mutilated specimen. But there is no mistaking the hideous ferocity of the countenance, and the “eyes bigger than a fourpenny loaf,” as Ramusio has it. Though the actual _eye_ of the crocodile does not bear this comparison, the prominent _orbits_ do, especially in the case of the _Ghariyal_ of the Ganges, and form one of the most repulsive features of the reptile’s physiognomy. In fact, its presence on the surface of an Indian river is often recognisable only by three dark knobs rising above the surface, viz. the snout and the two orbits. And there is some foundation for what our author says of the animal’s habits, for the crocodile does sometimes frequent holes at a distance from water, of which a striking instance is within my own recollection (in which the deep furrowed track also was a notable circumstance).
The Cochin Chinese are very fond of crocodile’s flesh, and there is or was a regular export of this dainty for their use from Kamboja. I have known it eaten by certain classes in India. (_J.R.G.S._ XXX. 193.)
The term _serpent_ is applied by many old writers to crocodiles and the like, e.g. by Odoric, and perhaps allusively by Shakspeare (“_Where’s my Serpent of Old Nile_?”). Mr. Fergusson tells me he was once much struck with the _snake-like_ motion of a group of crocodiles hastily descending to the water from a high sand-bank, without apparent use of the limbs, when surprised by the approach of a boat.[2]
Matthioli says the gall of the crocodile surpasses all medicines for the removal of pustules and the like from the eyes. Vincent of Beauvais mentions the same, besides many other medical uses of the reptile’s carcass, including a very unsavoury cosmetic. (_Matt._ p. 245; _Spec. Natur._ Lib. XVII. c. 106, 108.)
[“According to Chinese notions, Han Yue, the St. Patrick of China, having persuaded the alligators in China that he was all-powerful, induced the stupid saurians to migrate to Ngo Hu or ‘Alligators’ Lake’ in the Kwang-tung province.” (_North-China Herald_, 5th July, 1895, p. 5.)
Alligators have been found in 1878 at Wu-hu and at Chen-kiang (Ngan-hwei and Kiang-Su). (See _A. A. Fauvel, Alligators in China_, in _Jour. N. China B.R.A.S._ XIII. 1879, 1-36.)–H.C.]
NOTE 4.–I think the _great_ horses must be an error, though running through all the texts, and that _grant quantite de chevaus_ was probably intended. Valuable _ponies_ are produced in those regions, but I have never heard of large horses, and Martini’s testimony is to like effect (p. 141). Nor can I hear of any race in those regions in modern times that uses what we should call long stirrups. It is true that the Tartars rode _very short–“brevissimas habent strepas,”_ as Carpini says (643); and the Kirghiz Kazaks now do the same. Both Burmese and Shans ride what we should call short; and Major Sladen observes of the people on the western border of Yun-nan: “Kachyens and Shans ride on ordinary Chinese saddles. The stirrups are of the usual average length, but the saddles are so constructed as to rise at least a foot above the pony’s back.” He adds with reference to another point in the text: “I noticed a few Shan ponies _with docked tails_. But the more general practice is to loop up the tail in a knot, the object being to protect the rider, or rather his clothes, from the dirt with which they would otherwise be spattered from the flipping of the animal’s tail.” (_MS. Notes_.)
[After Yung-ch’ang, Captain Gill writes (II. p. 356): “The manes were hogged and the tails cropped of a great many of the ponies these men were riding; but there were none of the docked tails mentioned by Marco Polo.”–H.C.]
Armour of boiled leather–“_armes cuiraces de cuir bouilli_”; so Pauthier’s text; the material so often mentioned in mediaeval costume; e.g. in the leggings of Sir Thopas:–
“His jambeux were of cuirbouly,
His swerdes sheth of ivory,
His helme of latoun bright.”
But the reading of the G. Text which is “_cuir de bufal_,” is probably the right one. Some of the Miau-tzu of Kweichau are described as wearing armour of buffalo-leather overlaid with iron plates. (_Ritter_, IV. 768-776.) Arblasts or crossbows are still characteristic weapons of many of the wilder tribes of this region; e.g. of some of the Singphos, of the Mishmis of Upper Assam, of the Lu-tzu of the valley of the Lukiang, of tribes of the hills of Laos, of the Stiens of Cambodia, and of several of the Miau-tzu tribes of the interior of China. We give a cut copied from a Chinese work on the Miau-tzu of Kweichau in Dr. Lockhart’s possession, which shows _three_ little men of the Sang-Miau tribe of Kweichau combining to mend a crossbow, and a chief with _armes cuiraces_ and _jambeux_ also. [The cut (p. 83) is well explained by this passage of _Baber’s Travels_ among the Lolos (p. 71): “They make their own swords, three and a half to five spans long, with square heads, and have bows which it takes three men to draw, but no muskets.”–H.C.]
NOTE 5.–I have nowhere met with a _precise_ parallel to this remarkable superstition, but the following piece of Folk-Lore has a considerable analogy to it. This extraordinary custom is ascribed by Ibn Fozlan to the Bulgarians of the Volga: “If they find a man endowed with special intelligence then they say: ‘This man should serve our Lord God;’ and so they take him, run a noose round his neck and hang him on a tree, where they leave him till the corpse falls to pieces.” This is precisely what Sir Charles Wood did with the Indian Corps of Engineers;–doubtless on the same principle.
Archbishop Trench, in a fine figure, alludes to a belief prevalent among the Polynesian Islanders, “that the strength and valour of the warriors whom they have slain in battle passes into themselves, as their rightful inheritance.” (_Fraehn, Wolga-Bulgaren_, p. 50; _Studies in the Gospels_, p. 22; see also _Lubbock_, 457.)
[Illustration: The Sangmiau Tribe of Kweichau, with the Crossbow. (From a Chinese Drawing.)
“Ont armes corases de cuir de bufal, et ont lances et scuz et ont balestres.”]
There is some analogy also to the story Polo tells, in the curious Sindhi tradition, related by Burton, of Baha-ul-hakk, the famous saint of Multan. When he visited his disciples at Tatta they plotted his death, in order to secure the blessings of his perpetual presence. The people of Multan are said to have murdered two celebrated saints with the same view, and the Hazaras to “make a point of killing and burying in their own country any stranger indiscreet enough to commit a miracle or show any particular sign of sanctity.” The like practice is ascribed to the rude Moslem of Gilghit; and such allegations must have been current in Europe, for they are the motive of _Southey’s St. Romuald_:
“‘But,’ quoth the Traveller, ‘wherefore did he leave A flock that knew his saintly worth so well?’
“‘Why, Sir,’ the Host replied,
‘We thought perhaps that he might one day leave us; And then, should strangers have
The good man’s grave,
A loss like that would naturally grieve us; For he’ll be made a saint of, to be sure. Therefore we thought it prudent to secure His relics while we might;
And so we meant to strangle him one night.'”
(See _Sindh_, pp. 86, 388; _Ind. Antiq._ I. 13; _Southey’s Ballads_, etc., ed. Routledge, p. 330.)
[Captain Gill (I. p. 323) says that he had made up his mind to visit a place called Li-fan Fu, near Ch’eng-tu. “I was told,” he writes, “that this place was inhabited by the Man-Tzu, or Barbarians, as the Chinese call them; and Monseigneur Pinchon told me that, amongst other pleasing theories, they were possessed of the belief that if they poisoned a rich man, his wealth would accrue to the poisoner; that, therefore, the hospitable custom prevailed amongst them of administering poison to rich or noble guests; that this poison took no effect for some time, but that in the course of two or three months it produced a disease akin to dysentery, ending in certain death.”–H.C.]
[1] Mr. E.H. Parker writes (_China Review_, XXIV. p. 106): “Polo’s Kogatin is _Hukoch’ih_, who was made King of Yun-nan in 1267, with military command over Ta-li, Shen-shen, Chagan Chang, Golden-Teeth, etc.”–H.C.
[2] Though the bellowing of certain American crocodiles is often spoken of, I have nowhere seen allusion to the roaring of the _ghariyal_, nor does it seem to be commonly known. I have once only heard it, whilst on the bank of the Ganges near Rampur Boliah, waiting for a ferry-boat. It was like a loud prolonged snore; and though it seemed to come distinctly from a crocodile on the surface of the river, I made sure by asking a boatman who stood by: “It is the ghariyal speaking,” he answered.
CHAPTER L.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF ZARDANDAN.
When you have left Carajan and have travelled five days westward, you find a province called ZARDANDAN. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan. The capital city is called VOCHAN.[NOTE 1]
The people of this country all have their teeth gilt; or rather every man covers his teeth with a sort of golden case made to fit them, both the upper teeth and the under. The men do this, but not the women[NOTE 2] [The men also are wont to gird their arms and legs with bands or fillets pricked in black, and it is done thus; they take five needles joined together, and with these they prick the flesh till the blood comes, and then they rub in a certain black colouring stuff, and this is perfectly indelible. It is considered a piece of elegance and the sign of gentility to have this black band.] The men are all gentlemen in their fashion, and do nothing but go to the wars, or go hunting and hawking. The ladies do all the business, aided by the slaves who have been taken in war.[NOTE 3]
And when one of their wives has been delivered of a child, the infant is washed and swathed, and then the woman gets up and goes about her household affairs, whilst the husband takes to bed with the child by his side, and so keeps his bed for 40 days; and all the kith and kin come to visit him and keep up a great festivity. They do this because, say they, the woman has had a hard bout of it, and ’tis but fair the man should have his share of suffering.[NOTE 4]
They eat all kinds of meat, both raw and cooked, and they eat rice with their cooked meat as their fashion is. Their drink is wine made of rice and spices, and excellent it is. Their money is gold, and for small change they use pig-shells. And I can tell you they give one weight of gold for only five of silver; for there is no silver-mine within five months’ journey. And this induces merchants to go thither carrying a large supply of silver to change among that people. And as they have only five weights of silver to give for one of fine gold, they make immense profits by their exchange business in that country.[NOTE 5]
These people have neither idols nor churches, but worship the progenitor of their family, “for ’tis he,” say they, “from whom we have all sprung.” [NOTE 6] They have no letters or writing; and ’tis no wonder, for the country is wild and hard of access, full of great woods and mountains which ’tis impossible to pass, the air in summer is so impure and bad; and any foreigners attempting it would die for certain.[NOTE 7] When these people have any business transactions with one another, they take a piece of stick, round or square, and split it, each taking half. And on either half they cut two or three notches. And when the account is settled the debtor receives back the other half of the stick from the creditor. [NOTE 8]
And let me tell you that in all those three provinces that I have been speaking of, to wit Carajan, Vochan, and Yachi, there is never a leech. But when any one is ill they send for their magicians, that is to say the Devil-conjurors and those who are the keepers of the idols. When these are come the sick man tells what ails him, and then the conjurors incontinently begin playing on their instruments and singing and dancing; and the conjurors dance to such a pitch that at last one of them shall fall to the ground lifeless, like a dead man. And then the devil entereth into his body. And when his comrades see him in this plight they begin to put questions to him about the sick man’s ailment. And he will reply: “Such or such a spirit hath been meddling with the man,[NOTE 9] for that he hath angered the spirit and done it some despite.” Then they say: “We pray thee to pardon him, and to take of his blood or of his goods what thou wilt in consideration of thus restoring him to health.” And when they have so prayed, the malignant spirit that is in the body of the prostrate man will (mayhap) answer: “The sick man hath also done great despite unto such another spirit, and that one is so ill-disposed that it will not pardon him on any account;”–this at least is the answer they get, an the patient be like to die. But if he is to get better the answer will be that they are to bring two sheep, or may be three; and to brew ten or twelve jars of drink, very costly and abundantly spiced.[NOTE 10] Moreover it shall be announced that the sheep must be all black-faced, or of some other particular colour as it may hap; and then all those things are to be offered in sacrifice to such and such a spirit whose name is given. [NOTE 11] And they are to bring so many conjurors, and so many ladies, and the business is to be done with a great singing of lauds, and with many lights, and store of good perfumes. That is the sort of answer they get if the patient is to get well. And then the kinsfolk of the sick man go and procure all that has been commanded, and do as has been bidden, and the conjuror who had uttered all that gets on his legs again.
So they fetch the sheep of the colour prescribed, and slaughter them, and sprinkle the blood over such places as have been enjoined, in honour and propitiation of the spirit. And the conjurors come, and the ladies, in the number that was ordered, and when all are assembled and everything is ready, they begin to dance and play and sing in honour of the spirit. And they take flesh-broth and drink and lign-aloes, and a great number of lights, and go about hither and thither, scattering the broth and the drink and the meat also. And when they have done this for a while, again shall one of the conjurors fall flat and wallow there foaming at the mouth, and then the others will ask if he have yet pardoned the sick man? And sometimes he shall answer yea! and sometimes he shall answer no! And if the answer be _no_, they shall be told that something or other has to be done all over again, and then he will be pardoned; so this they do. And when all that the spirit has commanded has been done with great ceremony, then it shall be announced that the man is pardoned and shall be speedily cured. So when they at length receive such a reply, they announce that it is all made up with the spirit, and that he is propitiated, and they fall to eating and drinking with great joy and mirth, and he who had been lying lifeless on the ground gets up and takes his share. So when they have all eaten and drunken, every man departs home. And presently the sick man gets sound and well.[NOTE 12]
Now that I have told you of the customs and naughty ways of that people, we will have done talking of them and their province, and I will tell you about others, all in regular order and succession.
NOTE 1.–[Baber writes (_Travels_, p. 171) when arriving to the Lan-tsang kiang (Mekong River): “We were now on the border-line between Carajan and Zardandan: ‘When you have travelled five days you find a province called Zardandan,’ says Messer Marco, precisely the actual number of stages from Tali-fu to the present boundary of Yung-ch’ang. That this river must have been the demarcation between the two provinces is obvious; one glance into that deep rift, the only exit from which is by painful worked artificial zigzags which, under the most favourable conditions, cannot be called safe, will satisfy the most sceptical geographer. The exact statement of distance is a proof that Marco entered the territory of Yung-ch’ang.” Captain Gill says (II. p. 343-344) that the five marches of Marco Polo “would be very long ones. Our journey was eight days, but it might easily have been done in seven, as the first march to Hsia-Kuan was not worthy of the name. The Grosvenor expedition made eleven marches with one day’s halt–twelve days altogether, and Mr. Margary was nine or ten days on the journey. It is true that, by camping out every night, the marches might be longer; and, as Polo refers to the crackling of the bamboos in the fires, it is highly probable that he found no ‘_fine hostelries_’ on this route. This is the way the traders still travel in Tibet; they march until they are tired, or until they find a nice grassy spot; they then off saddles, turn their animals loose, light a fire under some adjacent tree, and halt for the night; thus the longest possible distance can be performed every day, and the five days from Ta-li to Yung-Ch’ang would not be by any means an impossibility.”–H.C.]
NOTE 2.–Ramusio says that both men and women use this gold case. There can be no better instance of the accuracy with which Polo is generally found to have represented Oriental names, when we recover his _real_ representation of them, than this name _Zardandan_. In the old Latin editions the name appeared as _Ardandan_, _Ardadam_, etc.; in Ramusio as _Cardandan_, correctly enough, only the first letter should have been printed C. Marsden, carrying out his systematic conversion of the Ramusian spelling, made this into _Kardandan_, and thus the name became irrecognizable. Klaproth, I believe, first showed that the word was simply the Persian ZAR-DANDAN, “Gold-Teeth,” and produced quotations from Rashiduddin mentioning the people in question by that identical name. Indeed that historian mentions them several times. Thus: “North-west of China is the frontier of Tibet, and of the ZARDANDAN, who lie between Tibet and Karajang. These people cover their teeth with a gold case, which they take off when they eat.” They are also frequently mentioned in the Chinese annals about this period under the same name, viz. _Kin-Chi_, “Gold-Teeth,” and some years after Polo’s departure from the East they originated a revolt against the Mongol yoke, in which a great number of the imperial troops were massacred. (_De Mailla_, IX. 478-479.)
[Baber writes (p. 159): “In Western Yuennan the betel-nut is chewed with prepared lime, colouring the teeth red, and causing a profuse expectoration. We first met with the practice near Tali-fu.
“Is it not possible that the red colour imparted to the teeth by the practice of chewing betel with lime may go some way to account for the ancient name of this region, ‘Zar-dandan,’ ‘Chin-Ch’ih,’ or ‘Golden-Teeth’? Betel-chewing is, of course, common all over China; but the use of lime is almost unknown and the teeth are not necessarily discoloured.
“In the neighbourhood of Tali, one comes suddenly upon a lime-chewing people, and is at once struck with the strange red hue of their teeth and gums. That some of the natives used formerly to cover their teeth with plates of gold (from which practice, mentioned by Marco Polo, and confirmed elsewhere, the name is generally derived) can scarcely be considered a myth; but the peculiarity remarked by ourselves would have been equally noticeable by the early Chinese invaders, and seems not altogether unworthy of consideration. It is interesting to find the name ‘Chin-Ch’ih’ still in use.
“When Tu Wen-hsiu sent his ‘Panthay’ mission to England with tributary boxes of rock from the Tali Mountains, he described himself in his letter ‘as a humble native of the golden-teeth country.'”–H.C.]
_Vochan_ seems undoubtedly to be, as Martini pointed out, the city called by the Chinese YUNG-CH’ANG-FU. Some of the old printed editions read _Unciam_, i.e. Uncham or Unchan, and it is probable that either this or _Vocian_, i.e. VONCHAN, was the true reading, coming very close to the proper name, which is WUNCHEN. (See _J.A.S.B._ VI. 547.) [In an itinerary from Ava to Peking, we read on the 10th September, 1833: “Slept at the city Wun-tsheng (Chinese Yongtchang fu and Burmese _Wun-zen_).” (_Chin. Rep._ IX. p. 474):–Mr. F.W.K. Mueller in a study on the Pa-yi language from a Chinese manuscript entitled _Hwa-i-yi-yue_ found by Dr. F. Hirth in China, and belonging now to the Berlin Royal Library, says the proper orthography of the word is _Wan-chang_ in Pa-yi. (_T’oung Pao_, III. p. 20.) This helps to find the origin of the name _Vochan_.–H.C.] This city has been a Chinese one for several centuries, and previous to the late Mahomedan revolt its population was almost exclusively Chinese, with only a small mixture of Shans. It is now noted for the remarkable beauty and fairness of the women. But it is mentioned by Chinese authors as having been in the Middle Ages the capital of the Gold-Teeth. These people, according to Martini, dwelt chiefly to the north of the city. They used to go to worship a huge stone, 100 feet high, at Nan-ngan, and cover it annually with gold-leaf. Some additional particulars about the Kin-Chi, in the time of the Mongols, will be found in Pauthier’s notes (p. 398).
[In 1274, the Burmese attacked Yung ch’ang, whose inhabitants were known under the name of _Kin-Chi_ (Golden-Teeth). (_E. Rocher, Princes du Yun-nan_, p. 71.) From the Annals of Momein, translated by Mr. E.H. Parker (_China Review_, XX. p. 345), we learn that: “In the year 1271, the General of Ta-li was sent on a mission to procure the submission of the Burmese, and managed to bring a Burmese envoy named Kiai-poh back with him. Four years later Fu A-pih, Chief of the Golden-Teeth, was utilised as a guide, which so angered the Burmese that they detained Fu A-pih and attacked Golden-Teeth: but he managed to bribe himself free. A-ho, Governor of the Golden-Teeth, was now sent as a spy, which caused the Burmese to advance to the attack once more, but they were driven back by Twan Sin-cha-jih. These events led to the Burmese war,” which lasted till 1301.
According to the _Hwang-tsing Chi-kung t’u_ (quoted by Deveria, _Front._ p. 130), the _Pei-jen_ were _Kin-chi_ of Pa-y race, and were surnamed Min-kia-tzu; the Min-kia, according to F. Garnier, say that they come from Nan-king, but this is certainly an error for the Pei-jen. From another Chinese work, Deveeria (p. 169) gives this information: The Piao are the Kin-Chi; they submitted to the Mongols in the 13th century; they are descended from the people of Chu-po or Piao Kwo (Kingdom of Piao), ancient Pegu; P’u-p’iao, in a little valley between the Mekong and the Salwen Rivers, was the place through which the P’u and the Piao entered China.
The Chinese geographical work _Fang-yu-ki-yao_ mentions the name of Kin-Chi Ch’eng, or city of Kin-Chi, as the ancient denomination of Yung-ch’ang. A Chinese Pa-y vocabulary, belonging to Professor Deveria, translates Kin-Chi by Wan-Chang (Yung-ch’ang). (_Deveria, Front._ p. 128.)–H.C.]
It has not been determined who are the representatives of these Gold-Teeth, who were evidently distinct from the Shans, not Buddhist, and without literature. I should think it probable that they were _Kakhyens_ or _Singphos_, who, excluding Shans, appear to form the greatest body in that quarter, and are closely akin to each other, indeed essentially identical in race.[1] The Singphos have now extended widely to the west of the Upper Irawadi and northward into Assam, but their traditions bring them from the borders of Yunnan. The original and still most populous seat of the Kakhyen or Singpho race is pointed out by Colonel Hannay in the Gulansigung Mountains and the valley of the eastern source of the Irawadi. This agrees with Martini’s indication of the seat of the Kin-Chi as north of Yung-ch’ang. One of Hannay’s notices of Singpho customs should also be compared with the interpolation from Ramusio about tattooing: “The men tattoo their limbs slightly, and all married females are tattooed on both legs from the ankle to the knee, in broad horizontal circular bands. Both sexes also wear rings below the knee of fine shreds of rattan varnished black” (p. 18). These rings appear on the Kakhyen woman in our cut.
[Illustration: Kakhyens. (From a Photograph.)]
The only other wild tribe spoken of by Major Sladen as attending the markets on the frontier is that of the _Lissus_ already mentioned by Lieutenant Garnier (supra, ch. xlvii. note 6), and who are said to be the most savage and indomitable of the tribes in that quarter. Garnier also mentions the Mossos, who are alleged once to have formed an independent kingdom about Li-kiang fu. Possibly, however, the Gold-Teeth may have become entirely absorbed in the Chinese and Shan population.
The characteristic of casing the teeth in gold should identify the tribe did it still exist. But I can learn nothing of the continued existence of such a custom among any tribe of the Indo-Chinese continent. The insertion of gold studs or spots, which Buerck confounds with it, is common enough among Indo-Chinese races, but that is quite a different thing. The actual practice of the Zardandan is, however, followed by some of the people of Sumatra, as both Marsden and Raffles testify: “The great men sometimes set their teeth in gold, by casing with a plate of that metal the under row … it is sometimes indented to the shape of the teeth, but more usually quite plain. They do not remove it either to eat or sleep.” The like custom is mentioned by old travellers at Macassar, and with the substitution of _silver_ for gold by a modern traveller as existing in Timor; but in both, probably, it was a practice of Malay tribes, as in Sumatra. (_Marsden’s Sumatra_, 3rd ed., p. 52; _Raffles’s Java_, I. 105; _Bickmore’s Ind. Archipelago_.)
[In his second volume of _The River of Golden Sand_, Captain Gill has two chapters (viii. and ix.) with the title: _In the footsteps of Marco Polo and of Augustus Margary_ devoted to _The Land of the Gold-Teeth_ and _The Marches of the Kingdom of Mien_.–H.C.]
NOTE 3.–This is precisely the account which Lieutenant Garnier gives of the people of Laos: “The Laos people are very indolent, and when they are not rich enough to possess slaves they make over to their women the greatest part of the business of the day; and ’tis these latter who not only do all the work of the house, but who husk the rice, work in the fields, and paddle the canoes. Hunting and fishing are almost the only occupations which pertain exclusively to the stronger sex.” (_Notice sur le Voyage d’Exploration_, etc., p. 34.)
NOTE 4.–This highly eccentric practice has been ably illustrated and explained by Mr. Tylor, under the name of the _Couvade_, or “Hatching,” by which it is known in some of the Bearn districts of the Pyrenees, where it formerly existed, as it does still or did recently, in some Basque districts of Spain. [In a paper on _La Couvade chez les Basques_, published in the _Republique Francaise_, of 19th January, 1877, and reprinted in _Etudes de Linguistique et a’ Ethnographie par A. Hovelacque et Julien Vinson_, Paris, 1878, Prof. Vinson quotes the following curious passage from the poem in ten cantos, _Luciniade_, by Sacombe, of Carcassonne (Paris and Nimes, 1790):
“En Amerique, en Corse, et chez l’Iberien, En France meme encor chez le Venarnien, Au pays Navarrois, lorsqu’une femme accouche, L’epouse sort du lit et le mari se couche; Et, quoiqu’il soit tres sain et d’esprit et de corps, Contre un mal qu’il n’a point l’art unit ses efforts. On le met au regime, et notre faux malade, Soigne par l’accouchee, en son lit fait _couvade_: On ferme avec grand soin portes, volets, rideaux; Immobile, on l’oblige a rester sur le dos, Pour etouffer son lait, qui gene dans sa course, Pourrait en l’etouffant remonter vers sa source. Un mari, dans sa couche, au medecin soumis, Recoit, en cet etat, parents, voisins, amis, Qui viennent l’exhorter a prendre patience Et font des voeux au ciel pour sa convalescence.”
Professor Vinson, who is an authority on the subject, comes to the conclusion that it is not possible to ascribe to the Basques the custom of the _couvade_.
Mr. Tylor writes to me that he “did not quite begin the use of this good French word in the sense of the ‘man-child-bed’ as they call it in Germany. It occurs in Rochefort, _Iles Antilles_, and though Dr. Murray, of the English Dictionary, maintains that it is spurious, if so, it is better than any genuine word I know of.”–H.C.] “In certain valleys of Biscay,” says Francisque-Michel, “in which the popular usages carry us back to the infancy of society, the woman immediately after her delivery gets up and attends to the cares of the household, whilst the husband takes to bed with the tender fledgeling in his arms, and so receives the compliments of his neighbours.”
The nearest people to the Zardandan of whom I find this custom elsewhere recorded, is one called _Langszi_,[2] a small tribe of aborigines in the department of Wei-ning, in Kweichau, but close to the border of Yun-nan: “Their manners and customs are very extraordinary. For example, when the wife has given birth to a child, the husband remains in the house and holds it in his arms for a whole month, not once going out of doors. The wife in the mean time does all the work in doors and out, and provides and serves up both food and drink for the husband, she only giving suck to the child.” I am informed also that, among the Miris on the Upper Assam border, the husband on such occasions confines himself strictly to the house for forty days after the event.
The custom of the Couvade has especially and widely prevailed in South America, not only among the Carib races of Guiana, of the Spanish Main, and (where still surviving) of the West Indies, but among many tribes of Brazil and its borders from the Amazons to the Plate, and among the Abipones of Paraguay; it also exists or has existed among the aborigines of California, in West Africa, in Bouro, one of the Moluccas, and among a wandering tribe of the Telugu-speaking districts of Southern India. According to Diodorus it prevailed in ancient Corsica, according to Strabo among the Iberians of Northern Spain (where we have seen it has lingered to recent times), according to Apollonius Rhodius among the Tibareni of Pontus. Modified traces of a like practice, not carried to the same extent of oddity, are also found in a variety of countries besides those that have been named, as in Borneo, in Kamtchatka, and in Greenland. In nearly all cases some particular diet, or abstinence from certain kinds of food and drink, and from exertion, is prescribed to the father; in some, more positive and trying penances are inflicted.
Butler had no doubt our Traveller’s story in his head when he made the widow in _Hudibras_ allude in a ribald speech to the supposed fact that
–“Chineses go to bed
And lie in, in their ladies’ stead.”
The custom is humorously introduced, as Pauthier has noticed, in the Mediaeval Fabliau of _Aucasin and Nicolete_. Aucasin arriving at the castle of Torelore asks for the king and is told he is in child-bed. Where then is his wife? She is gone to the wars and has taken all the people with her. Aucasin, greatly astonished, enters the palace, and wanders through it till he comes to the chamber where the king lay:–
“En le canbre entre Aucasins
Li cortois et li gentis;
Il est venus dusqu’au lit
Alec u li Rois se gist.
Pardevant lui s’arestit
Si parla, Oes que dist;
Diva fau, que fais-tu ci?
Dist le Rois, Je gis d’un fil,
Quant mes mois sera complis,
Et ge serai bien garis,
Dont irai le messe oir
Si comme mes ancessor fist,” etc.
Aucasin pulls all the clothes off him, and cudgels him soundly, making him promise that never a man shall lie in again in his country.
This strange custom, if it were unique, would look like a coarse practical joke, but appearing as it does among so many different races and in every quarter of the world, it must have its root somewhere deep in the psychology of the uncivilised man. I must refer to Mr. Tylor’s interesting remarks on the rationale of the custom, for they do not bear abridgment. Professor Max Mueller humorously suggests that “the treatment which a husband receives among ourselves at the time of his wife’s confinement, not only from mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and other female relations, but from nurses, and from every consequential maid-servant in the house,” is but a “survival,” as Mr. Tylor would call it, of the _couvade_; or at least represents the same feeling which among those many uncivilised nations thus drove the husband to his bed, and sometimes (as among the Caribs) put him when there to systematic torture.
(_Tylor Researches_, 288-296; _Michel, Le Pays Basque_, p. 201; _Sketches of the Meau-tsze_, transl. by _Bridgman_ in _J. of North China Br. of R. As. Soc._, p. 277; _Hudibras_, Pt. III., canto I. 707; _Fabliaus et Contes par Barbazan, ed. Meon_, I. 408-409; _Indian Antiq._ III. 151; _Mueller’s Chips_, II. 227 seqq.; many other references in TYLOR, and in a capital monograph by Dr. H.H. Ploss of Leipzig, received during revision of this sheet: ‘_Das Mannerkindbett_.’ What a notable example of the German power of compounding is that title!)
[This custom seems to be considered generally as a survival of the matriarchate in a society with a patriarchal regime. We may add to the list of authorities on this subject: _E. Westermarck, Hist. of Human Marriage_, 106, seqq.; _G. A. Wilken, De Couvade bij de Volken v.d. Indischen Archipel, Bijdr. Ind. Inst._, 5th ser., iv. p. 250. Dr. Ernest Martin, late physician of the French Legation at Peking, in an article on _La Couvade en Chine_ (_Revue Scientifique_, 24th March, 1894), gave a drawing representing the couvade from a sketch by a native artist.
In the _China Review_ (XI. pp. 401-402), “Lao Kwang-tung” notes these interesting facts: “The Chinese believe that certain actions performed by the husband during the pregnancy of his wife will affect the child. If a dish of food on the table is raised by putting another dish, or anything else below it, it is not considered proper for a husband, who is expecting the birth of a child, to partake of it, for fear the two dishes should cause the child to have two tongues. It is extraordinary that the caution thus exercised by the Chinese has not prevented many of them from being double-tongued. This result, it is supposed, however, will only happen if the food so raised is eaten in the house in which the future mother happens to be. It is thought that the pasting up of the red papers containing antithetical and felicitous sentences on them, as at New Year’s time, by a man under similar circumstances, and this whether the future mother sees the action performed or not, will cause the child to have red marks on the face or any part of the body. The causes producing _naevi materni_ have probably been the origin of such marks, rather than the idea entertained by the Chinese that the father, having performed an action by some occult mode, influences the child yet unborn. A case is said to have occurred in which ill effects were obviated, or rather obliterated, by the red papers being torn down, after the birth of the infant, and soaked in water, when as the red disappeared from the paper, so the child’s face assumed a natural hue. Lord Avebury also speaks of _la couvade_ as existing among the Chinese of West Yun-Nan. (_Origin of Civilisation and Primitive Condition of Man_, p. 18).”
Dr. J.A.H. Murray, editor of the _New English Dictionary_, wrote, in _The Academy_, of 29th October, 1892, a letter with the heading of _Couvade, The Genesis of an Anthropological Term_, which elicited an answer from Dr. E.B. Tylor (_Academy_, 5th November): “Wanting a general term for such customs,” writes Dr. Tylor, “and finding statements in books that this male lying-in lasted on till modern times, in the south of France, and was there called _couvade_, that is brooding or hatching (_couver_), I adopted this word for the set of customs, and it has since become established in English.” The discussion was carried on in _The Academy_, 12th and 19th November, 10th and 17th December; Mr. A.L. Mayhew wrote (12th November): “There is no doubt whatever that Dr. Tylor and Professor Max Mueller (in a review of Dr. Tylor’s book) share the glory of having given a new technical sense to an old provincial French word, and of seeing it accepted in France, and safely enshrined in the great Dictionary of Littre.”
Now as to the origin of the word; we have seen above that Rochefort was the first to use the expression _faire la couvade_. This author, or at least the author (see _Barbier, Ouvrages anonymes_) of the _Histoire naturelle … des Iles Antilles_, which was published for the first time at Rotterdam, in 1658, 4to., writes: “C’est qu’au meme tems que la femme est delivree le mary se met au lit, pour s’y plaindre et y faire l’acouchee: coutume, qui bien que Sauvage et ridicule, se trouve neantmoins a ce que l’on dit, parmy les paysans d’vne certaine Province de France. Et ils appellent cela _faire la couvade_. Mais ce qui est de facheus pour le pauvre Caraibe, qui s’est mis au lit au lieu de l’acouchee, c’est qu’on luy fait faire diete dix on douze jours de suite, ne luy donnant rien par jour qu’vn petit morceau de Cassave, et un peu d’eau dans la quelle on a aussi fait boueillir un peu de ce pain de racine…. Mais ils ne font ce grand jeusne qu’a la naissance de leur premier enfant …” (II. pp. 607-608).
Lafitau (_Maeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains_, I. pp. 49-50) says on the authority of Rochefort: “Je la trouve chez les Iberiens ou les premiers Peuples d’Espagne … elle est aujourd’hui dans quelques unes de nos Provinces d’Espagne.”
The word _couvade_, forgotten in the sense of lying-in bed, recalled by Sacombe, has been renovated in a happy manner by Dr. Tylor.
As to the custom itself, there can be no doubt of its existence, in spite of some denials. Dr. Tylor, in the third edition of his valuable _Early History of Mankind_, published in 1878 (Murray), since the last edition of _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_, has added (pp. 291 seqq.) many more proofs to support what he had already said on the subject.
There may be some strong doubts as to the _couvade_ in the south of France, and the authors who speak of it in Bearn and the Basque Countries seem to have copied one another, but there is not the slightest doubt of its having been and of its being actually practised in South America. There is a very curious account of it in the _Voyage dans le Nord du Bresil_ made by Father Yves d’Evreux in 1613 and 1614 (see pp. 88-89 of the reprint, Paris, 1864, and the note of the learned Ferdinand Denis, pp. 411-412). Compare with _Durch Central-Brasilien … im Jahre_ 1884 _von K.v. den Steinen_. But the following extract from _Among the Indians of Guiana_…. _By Everard im Thurn_ (1883), will settle, I think, the question:
“Turning from the story of the day to the story of the life, we may begin at the beginning, that is, at the birth of the children. And here, at once, we meet with, perhaps, the most curious point in the habits of the Indians; the _couvade_ or male child-bed. This custom, which is common to the uncivilized people of many parts of the world, is probably among the strangest ever invented by the human brain. Even before the child is born, the father abstains for a time from certain kinds of animal food. The woman works as usual up to a few hours before the birth of the child. At last she retires alone, or accompanied only by some other women, to the forest, where she ties up her hammock; and then the child is born. Then in a few hours–often less than a day–the woman, who, like all women living in a very unartificial condition, suffers but little, gets up and resumes her ordinary work. According to Schomburgk, the mother, at any rate among the Macusis, remains in her hammock for some time, and the father hangs his hammock, and lies in it, by her side; but in all cases where the matter came under my notice, the mother left her hammock almost at once. In any case, no sooner is the child born than the father takes to his hammock and, abstaining from every sort of work, from meat and all other food, except weak gruel of cassava meal, from smoking, from washing himself, and, above all, from touching weapons of any sort, is nursed and cared for by all the women of the place. One other regulation, mentioned by Schomburgk, is certainly quaint; the interesting father may not scratch himself with his finger-nails, but he may use for this purpose a splinter, specially provided, from the mid-rib of a cokerite palm. This continues for many days, and sometimes even weeks. _Couvade_ is such a wide-spread institution, that I had often read and wondered at it; but it was not until I saw it practised around me, and found that I was often suddenly deprived of the services of my best hunters or boat-hands, by the necessity which they felt, and which nothing could persuade them to disregard, of observing _couvade_, that I realized its full strangeness. No satisfactory explanation of its origin seems attainable. It appears based on a belief in the existence of a mysterious connection between the child and its father-far closer than that which exists between the child and its mother,–and of such a nature that if the father infringes any of the rules of the _couvade_, for a time after the birth of the child, the latter suffers. For instance, if he eats the flesh of a water-haas (_Capybara_), a large rodent with very protruding teeth, the teeth of the child will grow as those of the animal; or if he eats the flesh of the spotted-skinned labba, the child’s skin will become spotted. Apparently there is also some idea that for the father to eat strong food, to wash, to smoke, or to handle weapons, would have the same result as if the new-born babe ate such food, washed, smoked, or played with edged tools” (pp. 217-219.)
I have to thank Dr. Edward B. Tylor for the valuable notes he kindly sent me.–H.C.]
NOTE 5.–“The abundance of gold in Yun-nan is proverbial in China, so that if a man lives very extravagantly they ask if his father is governor of Yun-nan.” (_Martini_, p. 140.)
Polo has told us that in Eastern Yun-nan the exchange was 8 of silver for one of gold (ch. xlviii.); in the Western division of the province 6 of silver for one of gold (ch. xlix.); and now, still nearer the borders of Ava, only 5 of silver for one of gold. Such discrepancies within 15 days’ journey would be inconceivable, but that in both the latter instances at least he appears to speak of the rates at which the gold was purchased from secluded, ignorant, and uncivilised tribes. It is difficult to reconcile with other facts the reason which he assigns for the high value put on silver at Vochan, viz., that there was no silver-mine within five months’ journey. In later days, at least, Martini speaks of many silver-mines in Yun-nan, and the “Great Silver Mine” (_Bau-dwen gyi_ of the Burmese) or group of mines, which affords a chief supply to Burma in modern times, is not far from the territory of our Traveller’s Zardandan. Garnier’s map shows several argentiferous sites in the Valley of the Lan-t’sang.
In another work[3] I have remarked at some length on the relative values of gold and silver about this time. In Western Europe these seem to have been as 12 to 1, and I have shown grounds for believing that in India, and generally over civilised Asia, the ratio was 10 to 1. In Pauthier’s extracts from the _Yuen-shi_ or Annals of the Mongol Dynasty, there is an incidental but precise confirmation of this, of which I was not then aware. This states (p. 321) that on the issue of the paper currency of 1287 the official instructions to the local treasuries were to issue notes of the nominal value of two strings, i.e. 2000 _wen_ or cash, for every ounce of flowered silver, and 20,000 cash for every ounce of gold. Ten to 1 must have continued to be the relation in China down to about the end of the 17th century if we may believe Lecomte; but when Milburne states the same value in the beginning of the 19th he must have fallen into some great error. In 1781 Sonnerat tells us that _formerly_ gold had been exported from China with a profit of 25 per cent., but at that time a profit of 18 to 20 per cent, was made by _importing_ it. At present[4] the relative values are about the same as in Europe, viz. 1 to 15-1/2 or 1 to 16; but in Canton, in 1844, they were 1 to 17; and Timkowski states that at Peking in 1821 the finest gold was valued at 18 to 1. And as regards the precise territory of which this chapter speaks I find in Lieutenant Bower’s Commercial Report on Sladen’s Mission that the price of pure gold at Momein in 1868 was 13 times its weight in silver (p. 122); whilst M. Garnier mentions that the exchange at Ta-li in 1869 was 12 to 1 (I. 522).
Does not Shakspeare indicate at least a memory of 10 to 1 as the traditional relation of gold to silver when he makes the Prince of Morocco, balancing over Portia’s caskets, argue:
“Or shall I think in silver she’s immured, Being ten times undervalued to tried gold? O sinful thought.”
In Japan, at the time trade was opened, we know from Sir R. Alcock’s work the extraordinary fact that the proportionate value set upon gold and silver currency by authority was as 3 to 1.
(_Cathay_, etc., p. ccl. and p. 442; _Lecomte_, II. 91; _Milburne’s Oriental Commerce_, II. 510; _Sonnerat_, II. 17; _Hedde, Etude, Pratique_, etc., p. 14; _Williams, Chinese Commercial Guide_, p. 129; _Timkowski_, II. 202; _Alcock_, I. 281; II. 411, etc.)
NOTE 6.–Mr. Lay cites from a Chinese authority a notice of a tribe of “Western Miautsze,” who “in the middle of autumn sacrifice to the Great Ancestor or Founder of their Race.” (_The Chinese as they are_, p. 321.)
NOTE 7.–Dr. Anderson confirms the depressing and unhealthy character of the summer climate at Momein, though standing between 5000 and 6000 feet above the sea (p. 41).
NOTE 8.–“Whereas before,” says Jack Cade to Lord Say, “our forefathers had no books but score and tally, thou hast caused printing to be used.” The use of such tallies for the record of contracts among the aboriginal tribes of Kweichau is mentioned by Chinese authorities, and the French missionaries of Bonga speak of the same as in use among the simple tribes in that vicinity. But, as Marsden notes, the use of such rude records was to be found in his day in higher places and much nearer home. They continued to be employed as records of receipts in the British Exchequer till 1834, “and it is worthy of recollection that the fire by which the Houses of Parliament were destroyed was supposed to have originated in the over-heating of the flues in which the discarded tallies were being burnt.” I remember often, when a child, to have seen the tallies of the colliers in Scotland, and possibly among that class they may survive. They appear to be still used by bakers in various parts of England and France, in the Canterbury hop-gardens, and locally in some other trades. (_Martini_, 135; _Bridgman_, 259, 262; _Eng. Cyclop._ sub v. _Tally; Notes and Queries_, 1st ser. X. 485.)
[According to Father Crabouillet (_Missions Cath._ 1873, p. 105), the Lolos use tallies for their contracts; Dr. Harmand mentions (_Tour du Monde_, 1877, No. VII.) the same fact among the Khas of Central Laos; and M. Pierre Lefevre-Pontalis _Populations du nord de l’Indo-Chine_, 1892, p. 22, from the _J. As._ says he saw these tallies among the Khas of Luang-Prabang.–H.C.]
“In Illustration of this custom I have to relate what follows. In the year 1863 the Tsaubwa (or Prince) of a Shan Province adjoining Yun-nan was in rebellion against the Burmese Government. He wished to enter into communication with the British Government. He sent a messenger to a British Officer with a letter tendering his allegiance, and accompanying this letter was a piece of bamboo about five inches long. This had been split down the middle, so that the two pieces fitted closely together, forming a tube in the original shape of the bamboo. A notch at one end included the edges of both pieces, showing that they were a pair. The messenger said that if the reply were favourable one of the pieces was to be returned and the other kept. I need hardly say the messenger received no written reply, and both pieces of bamboo were retained.” (_MS. Note by Sir Arthur Phayre_.)
NOTE 9.–Compare Mr. Hodgson’s account of the sub-Himalayan Bodos and Dhimals: “All diseases are ascribed to supernatural agency. The sick man is supposed to be possessed by one of the deities, who racks him with pain as a punishment for impiety or neglect of the god in question. Hence not the mediciner, but the exorcist, is summoned to the sick man’s aid.” (_J.A.S.B._ XVIII. 728.)
NOTE 10.–Mr. Hodgson again: “Libations of fermented liquor always accompany sacrifice–because, to confess the whole truth, sacrifice and feast are commutable words, and feasts need to be crowned with copious potations.” (Ibid.)
NOTE 11.–And again: “The god in question is asked what sacrifice he requires? a buffalo, a hog, a fowl, or a duck, to spare the sufferer; … anxious as I am fully to illustrate the topic, I will not try the patience of my readers by describing all that vast variety of black victims and white, of red victims and blue, which each particular deity is alleged to prefer.” (Ibid. and p. 732.)
NOTE 12.–The same system of devil-dancing is prevalent among the tribes on the Lu-kiang, as described by the R.C. Missionaries. The conjurors are there called _Mumos_. (_Ann. de la Prop. de la Foi_, XXXVI. 323, and XXXVII. 312-313.)
“Marco’s account of the exorcism of evil spirits in cases of obstinate illness exactly resembles what is done in similar cases by the Burmese, except that I never saw animals sacrificed on such occasions.” (_Sir A. Phayre._)
Mouhot says of the wild people of Cambodia called _Stiens_: “When any one is ill they say that the Evil Spirit torments him; and to deliver him they set up about the patient a dreadful din which does not cease night or day, until some one among the bystanders falls down as if in a syncope, crying out, ‘I have him,–he is in me,–he is strangling me!’ Then they question the person who has thus become possessed. They ask him what remedies will save the patient; what remedies does the Evil Spirit require that he may give up his prey? Sometimes it is an ox or a pig; but too often it is a human victim.” (_J.R.G.S._ XXXII. 147.)
See also the account of the Samoyede _Tadibei_ or Devil-dancer in Klaproth’s _Magasin Asiatique_ (II. 83).
In fact these strange rites of Shamanism, devil-dancing, or what not, are found with wonderful identity of character among the non-Caucasian races over parts of the earth most remote from one another, not only among the vast variety of Indo-Chinese Tribes, but among the Tamulian tribes of India, the Veddahs of Ceylon, the races of Siberia, and the red nations of North and South America. Hinduism has assimilated these “prior superstitions of the sons of Tur” as Mr. Hodgson calls them, in the form of Tantrika mysteries, whilst, in the wild performance of the Dancing Dervishes at Constantinople, we see perhaps again the infection of Turanian blood breaking out from the very heart of Mussulman orthodoxy.
Dr. Caldwell has given a striking account of the practice of devil-dancing among the Shanars of Tinnevelly, which forms a perfect parallel in modern language to our Traveller’s description of a scene of which he also had manifestly been an eye-witness: “When the preparations are completed and the devil-dance is about to commence, the music is at first comparatively slow; the dancer seems impassive and sullen, and he either stands still or moves about in gloomy silence. Gradually, as the music becomes quicker and louder, his excitement begins to rise. Sometimes, to help him to work himself up into a frenzy, he uses medicated draughts, cuts and lacerates himself till the blood flows, lashes himself with a huge whip, presses a burning torch to his breast, drinks the blood which flows from his own wounds, or drains the blood of the sacrifice, putting the throat of the decapitated goat to his mouth. Then, as if he had acquired new life, he begins to brandish his staff of bells, and to dance with a quick but wild unsteady step. Suddenly the afflatus descends; there is no mistaking that glare, or those frantic leaps. He snorts, he stares, he gyrates. The demon has now taken bodily possession of him, and though he retains the power of utterance and motion, both are under the demon’s control, and his separate consciousness is in abeyance. The bystanders signalise the event by raising a long shout, attended with a peculiar vibratory noise, caused by the motion of the hand and tongue, or the tongue alone. The devil-dancer is now worshipped as a present deity, and every bystander consults him respecting his diseases, his wants, the welfare of his absent relatives, the offerings to be made for the accomplishment of his wishes, and in short everything for which superhuman knowledge is supposed to be available.” (_Hodgson, J.R.As.Soc._ XVIII. 397; _The Tinnevelly Shanars_, by the _Rev. R. Caldwell, B.A._, Madras, 1849, pp. 19-20.)
[1] “_Singpho_,” says Colonel Hannay, “signifies in the Kakhyen language ‘a man,’ and all of this race who have settled in Hookong or Assam are thus designated; the reason of their change of name I could not ascertain, but so much importance seems to be attached to it, that the Singphos, in talking of their eastern and southern neighbours, call them Kakhyens or Kakoos, and consider it an insult to be called so themselves.” (_Sketch of the Singphos, or the Kakhyens of Burma_, Calcutta, 1847, pp. 3-4.) If, however, the Kakhyens, or _Kachyens_ (as Major Sladen calls them), are represented by the _Go-tchang_ of Pauthier’s Chinese extracts, these seem to be distinguished from the Kin-Chi, though associated with them. (See pp. 397, 411.)
[2] [Mr. E.H. Parker (_China Review_, XIV. p. 359) says that Colonel Yule’s _Langszi_ are evidently the _Szilang_, one of the six _Chao_, but turned upside down.–H.C.]
[3] _Cathay_, etc., pp. ccl. seqq. and p. 441.
[4] Written in 1870.
CHAPTER LI.
WHEREIN IS RELATED HOW THE KING OF MIEN AND BANGALA VOWED VENGEANCE AGAINST THE GREAT KAAN.
But I was forgetting to tell you of a famous battle that was fought in the kingdom of Vochan in the Province of Zardandan, and that ought not to be omitted from our Book. So we will relate all the particulars.
You see, in the year of Christ, 1272,[NOTE 1] the Great Kaan sent a large force into the kingdoms of Carajan and Vochan, to protect them from the ravages of ill-disposed people; and this was before he had sent any of his sons to rule the country, as he did afterwards when he made Sentemur king there, the son of a son of his who was deceased.
Now there was a certain king, called the king of Mien and of Bangala, who was a very puissant prince, with much territory and treasure and people; and he was not as yet subject to the Great Kaan, though it was not long after that the latter conquered him and took from him both the kingdoms that I have named.[NOTE 2] And it came to pass that when this king of Mien and Bangala heard that the host of the Great Kaan was at Vochan, he said to himself that it behoved him to go against them with so great a force as should insure his cutting off the whole of them, insomuch that the Great Kaan would be very sorry ever to send an army again thither [to his frontier].
So this king prepared a great force and munitions of war; and he had, let me tell you, 2000 great elephants, on each of which was set a tower of timber, well framed and strong, and carrying from twelve to sixteen well-armed fighting men.[NOTE 3] And besides these, he had of horsemen and of footmen good 60,000 men. In short, he equipped a fine force, as well befitted such a puissant prince. It was indeed a host capable of doing great things.
And what shall I tell you? When the king had completed these great preparations to fight the Tartars, he tarried not, but straightway marched against them. And after advancing without meeting with anything worth mentioning, they arrived within three days of the Great Kaan’s host, which was then at Vochan in the territory of Zardandan, of which I have already spoken. So there the king pitched his camp, and halted to refresh his army.
NOTE 1.–This date is no doubt corrupt. (See note 3, ch. lii.)
NOTE 2.–MIEN is the name by which the kingdom of Burma or Ava was and is known to the Chinese. M. Garnier informs me that _Mien-Kwe_ or _Mien-tisong_ is the name always given in Yun-nan to that kingdom, whilst the Shans at Kiang Hung call the Burmese _Man_ (pronounced like the English word).
The title given to the sovereign in question of King of BENGAL, as well as of Mien, is very remarkable. We shall see reason hereafter to conceive that Polo did more or less confound Bengal with _Pegu_, which was subject to the Burmese monarchy up to the time of the Mongol invasion. But apart from any such misapprehension, there is not only evidence of rather close relations between Burma and Gangetic India in the ages immediately preceding that of our author, but also some ground for believing that he may be right in his representation, and that the King of Burma may have at this time arrogated the title of “King of Bengal,” which is attributed to him in the text.
Anaurahta, one of the most powerful kings in Burmese history (1017-1059), extended his conquests to the frontiers of India, and is stated to have set up images within that country. He also married an Indian princess, the daughter of the King of _Wethali_ (i. e, _Vaicali_ in Tirhut).
There is also in the _Burmese Chronicle_ a somewhat confused story regarding a succeeding king, Kyan-tsittha (A.D. 1064), who desired to marry his daughter to the son of the King of _Patteik-Kara_, a part of Bengal.[1] The marriage was objected to by the Burmese nobles, but the princess was already with child by the Bengal prince; and their son eventually succeeded to the Burmese throne under the name of Alaungtsi-thu. When king, he travelled all over his dominions, and visited the images which Anaurahta had set up in India. He also maintained intercourse with the King of Patteik Kara and married his daughter. Alaungtsi-thu is stated to have lived to the age of 101 years, and to have reigned 75. Even then his death was hastened by his son Narathu, who smothered him in the temple called Shwe-Ku (“Golden Cave”), at Pagan, and also put to death his Bengali step-mother. The father of the latter sent eight brave men, disguised as Brahmans, to avenge his daughter’s death. Having got access to the royal presence through their sacred character, they slew King Narathu and then themselves. Hence King Narathu is known in the Burmese history as the _Kala-Kya Meng_ or “King slain by the Hindus.” He was building the great Temple at Pagan called _Dhammayangyi_, at the time of his death, which occurred about the year 1171. The great-grandson of this king was Narathihapade (presumably _Narasinha-pati_), the king reigning at the time of the Mongol invasion.
All these circumstances show tolerably close relations between Burma and Bengal, and also _that the dynasty then reigning in Burma was descended from a Bengal stock_. Sir Arthur Phayre, after noting these points, remarks: “From all these circumstances, and from the conquests attributed to Anaurahta, it is very probable that, after the conquest of Bengal by the Mahomedans in the 13th century, the kings of Burma would assume the title of _Kings of Bengal_. This is nowhere expressly stated in the Burmese history, but the course of events renders it very probable. We know that the claim to Bengal was asserted by the kings of Burma in long after years. In the Journal of the Marquis of Hastings, under the date of 6th September, 1818, is the following passage: ‘The king of Burma favoured us early this year with the obliging requisition that we should cede to him Moorshedabad and the provinces to the east of it, which he deigned to say were all natural dependencies of his throne.’ And at the time of the disputes on the frontier of Arakan, in 1823-1824, which led to the war of the two following years, the Governor of Arakan made a similar demand. We may therefore reasonably conclude that at the close of the 13th century of the Christian era the kings of Pagan called themselves kings of Burma and of Bengala.” (_MS. Note by Sir Arthur Phayre_; see also his paper in _J.A.S.B._ vol. XXXVII. part I.)
NOTE 3.–It is very difficult to know what to make of the repeated assertions of old writers as to the numbers of men carried by war-elephants, or, if we could admit those numbers, to conceive how the animal could have carried the enormous structure necessary to give them space to use their weapons. The Third Book of Maccabees is the most astounding in this way, alleging that a single elephant carried 32 stout men, besides the Indian _Mahaut_. Bochart indeed supposes the number here to be a clerical error for 12, but this would even be extravagant. Friar Jordanus is, no doubt, building on the Maccabees rather than on his own Oriental experience when he says that the elephant “carrieth easily more than 30 men.” Philostratus, in his _Life of Apollonius_, speaks of 10 to 15; Ibn Batuta of about 20; and a great elephant sent by Timur to the Sultan of Egypt is said to have carried 20 drummers. Christopher Borri says that in Cochin China the elephant did ordinarily carry 13 or 14 persons, 6 on each side in two tiers of 3 each, and 2 behind. On the other hand, among the ancients, Strabo and Aelian speak of _three_ soldiers only in addition to the driver, and Livy, describing the Battle of Magnesia, of _four_. These last are reasonable statements.
(_Bochart_, _Hierozoicon_, ed. 3rd, p. 266; _Jord._, p. 26; _Philost._ trad. par _A. Chassaing_, liv. II. c. ii.; _Ibn Bat._ II. 223; _N. and E._ XIV. 510; _Cochin China_, etc., London, 1633, ed. 3; _Armandi, Hist. Militaire des Elephants_, 259 seqq. 442.)
[1] Sir A. Phayre thinks this may have been _Vikrampur_, for some time the capital of Eastern Bengal before the Mahomedan conquest. Vikrampur was some miles east of Dacca, and the dynasty in question was that called _Vaidya_. (See _Lassen_, III. 749.) _Patteik-Kara_ is apparently an attempt to represent some Hindi name such as _Patthargarh_, “The Stone-Fort.”
CHAPTER LII.
OF THE BATTLE THAT WAS FOUGHT BY THE GREAT KAAN’S HOST AND HIS SENESCHAL, AGAINST THE KING OF MIEN.
And when the Captain of the Tartar host had certain news that the king aforesaid was coming against him with so great a force, he waxed uneasy, seeing that he had with him but 12,000 horsemen. Natheless he was a most valiant and able soldier, of great experience in arms and an excellent Captain; and his name was NESCRADIN.[NOTE 1] His troops too were very good, and he gave them very particular orders and cautions how to act, and took every measure for his own defence and that of his army. And why should I make a long story of it? The whole force of the Tartars, consisting of 12,000 well-mounted horsemen, advanced to receive the enemy in the Plain of Vochan, and there they waited to give them battle. And this they did through the good judgment of the excellent Captain who led them; for hard by that plain was a great wood, thick with trees. And so there in the plain the Tartars awaited their foe. Let us then leave discoursing of them a while; we shall come back to them presently; but meantime let us speak of the enemy.
After the King of Mien had halted long enough to refresh his troops, he resumed his march, and came to the Plain of Vochan, where the Tartars were already in order of battle. And when the king’s army had arrived in the plain, and was within a mile of the enemy, he caused all the castles that were on the elephants to be ordered for battle, and the fighting-men to take up their posts on them, and he arrayed his horse and his foot with all skill, like a wise king as he was. And when he had completed all his arrangements he began to advance to engage the enemy. The Tartars, seeing the foe advance, showed no dismay, but came on likewise with good order and discipline to meet them. And when they were near and nought remained but to begin the fight, the horses of the Tartars took such fright at the sight of the elephants that they could not be got to face the foe, but always swerved and turned back; whilst all the time the king and his forces, and all his elephants, continued to advance upon them.[NOTE 2]
And when the Tartars perceived how the case stood, they were in great wrath, and wist not what to say or do; for well enough they saw that unless they could get their horses to advance, all would be lost. But their Captain acted like a wise leader who had considered everything beforehand. He immediately gave orders that every man should dismount and tie his horse to the trees of the forest that stood hard by, and that then they should take to their bows, a weapon that they know how to handle better than any troops in the world. They did as he bade them, and plied their bows stoutly, shooting so many shafts at the advancing elephants that in a short space they had wounded or slain the greater part of them as well as of the men they carried. The enemy also shot at the Tartars, but the Tartars had the better weapons, and were the better archers to boot.
And what shall I tell you? Understand that when the elephants felt the smart of those arrows that pelted them like rain, they turned tail and fled, and nothing on earth would have induced them to turn and face the Tartars. So off they sped with such a noise and uproar that you would have trowed the world was coming to an end! And then too they plunged into the wood and rushed this way and that, dashing their castles against the trees, bursting their harness and smashing and destroying everything that was on them.
So when the Tartars saw that the elephants had turned tail and could not be brought to face the fight again, they got to horse at once and charged the enemy. And then the battle began to rage furiously with sword and mace. Right fiercely did the two hosts rush together, and deadly were the blows exchanged. The king’s troops were far more in number than the Tartars, but they were not of such metal, nor so inured to war; otherwise the Tartars who were so few in number could never have stood against them. Then might you see swashing blows dealt and taken from sword and mace; then might you see knights and horses and men-at-arms go down; then might you see arms and hands and legs and heads hewn off: and besides the dead that fell, many a wounded man, that never rose again, for the sore press there was. The din and uproar were so great from this side and from that, that God might have thundered and no man would have heard it! Great was the medley, and dire and parlous was the fight that was fought on both sides; but the Tartars had the best of it.[NOTE 3]
In an ill hour indeed, for the king and his people, was that battle begun, so many of them were slain therein. And when they had continued fighting till midday the king’s troops could stand against the Tartars no longer; but felt that they were defeated, and turned and fled. And when the Tartars saw them routed they gave chase, and hacked and slew so mercilessly that it was a piteous sight to see. But after pursuing a while they gave up, and returned to the wood to catch the elephants that had run away, and to manage this they had to cut down great trees to bar their passage. Even then they would not have been able to take them without the help of the king’s own men who had been taken, and who knew better how to deal with the beasts than the Tartars did. The elephant is an animal that hath more wit than any other; but in this way at last they were caught, more than 200 of them. And it was from this time forth that the Great Kaan began to keep numbers of elephants.
So thus it was that the king aforesaid was defeated by the sagacity and superior skill of the Tartars as you have heard.
NOTE 1.–_Nescradin_ for Nesradin, as we had _Bascra_ for Basra.
This NASRUDDIN was apparently an officer of whom Rashiduddin speaks, and whom he calls governor (or perhaps commander) in Karajang. He describes him as having succeeded in that command to his father the Sayad Ajil of Bokhara, one of the best of Kublai’s chief Ministers. Nasr-uddin retained his position in Yun-nan till his death, which Rashid, writing about 1300, says occurred five or six years before. His son Bayan, who also bore the grandfather’s title of Sayad Ajil, was Minister of Finance under Kublai’s successor; and another son, Hala, is also mentioned as one of the governors of the province of Fu-chau. (See _Cathay_, pp. 265, 268, and _D’Ohsson_, II. 507-508.)
Nasr-uddin (_Nasulating_) is also frequently mentioned as employed on this frontier by the Chinese authorities whom Pauthier cites.
[Na-su-la-ding [Nasr-uddin] was the eldest of the five sons of the Mohammedan Sai-dien-ch’i shan-sze-ding, Sayad Ajil, a native of Bokhara, who died in Yun-nan, where he had been governor when Kublai, in the reign of Mangu, entered the country. Nasr-uddin “has a separate biography in ch. cxxv of the _Yuen-shi_. He was governor of the province of Yun-nan, and distinguished himself in the war against the southern tribes of _Kiao-chi_ (Cochin-China) and _Mien_ (Burma). He died in 1292, the father of twelve sons, the names of five of which are given in the biography, viz. _Bo-yen-ch’a-rh_ [Bayan], who held a high office, Omar, Djafar, Hussein, and Saadi.” (_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ I. 270-271). Mr. E.H. Parker writes in the _China Review_, February-March, 1901, pp. 196-197, that the Mongol history states that amongst the reforms of Nasr-uddin’s father in Yun-nan, was the introduction of coffins for the dead, instead of burning them.–H.C.]
[NOTE 2.–In his battle near Sardis, Cyrus “collected together all the camels that had come in the train of his army to carry the provisions and the baggage, and taking off their loads, he mounted riders upon them accoutred as horsemen. These he commanded to advance in front of his other troops against the Lydian horse…. The reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to the enemy’s horse was, because the horse has a natural dread of the camel, and cannot abide either the sight or the smell of that animal…. The two armies then joined battle, and immediately the Lydian warhorses, seeing and smelling the camels, turned round and galloped off.” (_Herodotus_, Bk. I. i. p. 220, _Rawlinson’s_ ed.)–H.C.]
NOTE 3.–We are indebted to Pauthier for very interesting illustrations of this narrative from the Chinese Annalists (p. 410 seqq.). These latter fix the date to the year 1277, and it is probable that the 1272 or MCCLXXII of the Texts was a clerical error for MCCLXXVII. The Annalists describe the people of Mien as irritated at calls upon them to submit to the Mongols (whose power they probably did not appreciate, as their descendants did not appreciate the British power in 1824), and as crossing the frontier of Yung-ch’ang to establish fortified posts. The force of Mien, they say, amounted to 50,000 men, with 800 elephants and 10,000 horses, whilst the Mongol Chief had but _seven hundred_ men. “When the elephants felt the arrows (of the Mongols) they turned tail and fled with