The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 18

Yun-nan (supposed to be the Anin country of Marco Polo). (From Garnier's Work)]

"Beyond Lin-ngan we find the Ho-nhi, properly so called, no longer. But ought one to lay much stress on mere names which have undergone so many changes, and of which so many have been borne in succession by all those places and peoples?.. I will content myself with reminding you that the town of _Homi-cheu_ near Lin-ngan in the days of the Yuen bore the name of _Ngo-ning_."

Notwithstanding M. Garnier's caution, I am strongly inclined to believe that ANIN represents either HO-NHI or NGO-NING, if indeed these names be not identical. For on reference to Biot I see that the first syllable of the modern name of the town which M. Garnier writes Ho_mi_, is expressed by the same character as the first syllable of NGO_ning_.

[The Wo-nhi are also called Ngo-ni, Kan-ni, Ho-ni, Lou-mi, No-pi, Ko-ni and Wa-heh; they descend from the southern barbarians called Ho-nhi. At the time of the kingdom of Nan-Chao, the Ho-nhi, called In-yuen, tribes were a dependence of the Kiang (Xieng) of Wei-yuen (Prefecture of P'u-erh). They are now to be found in the Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, King-tung, Chen-yuen, Yuen-kiang and Yun-nan. (See _Deveria_, p.

135.)--H.C.]

We give one of M. Garnier's woodcuts representing some of the races in this vicinity. Their dress, as he notices, has, in some cases, a curious resemblance to costumes of Switzerland, or of Brittany, popular at fancy b.a.l.l.s.[1] Coloured figures of some of these races will be found in the Atlas to Garnier's work; see especially Plate 35.

NOTE 2.--All the French MSS. and other texts except Ramusio's read 15. We adopt Ramusio's reading, 25, for reasons which will appear below.

[1] There is a little uncertainty in the adjustment of names and figures of some of these tribes, between the ill.u.s.trations and the incidental notices in Lieutenant Garnier's work. But all the figures in the present cut certainly belong to the tract to which we point as Anin; and the two middle figures answer best to what is said of the _Ho-nhi_.

CHAPTER LVIII.

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF COLOMAN.

Coloman is a province towards the east, the people of which are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They are a [tall and] very handsome people, though in complexion brown rather than white, and are good soldiers.[NOTE 1] They have a good many towns, and a vast number of villages, among great mountains, and in strong positions.[NOTE 2]

When any of them die, the bodies are burnt, and then they take the bones and put them in little chests.

These are carried high up the mountains, and placed in great caverns, where they are hung up in such wise that neither man nor beast can come at them.

A good deal of gold is found in the country, and for petty traffic they use porcelain sh.e.l.ls such as I have told you of before. All these provinces that I have been speaking of, to wit Bangala and Caugigu and Anin, employ for currency porcelain sh.e.l.ls and gold. There are merchants in this country who are very rich and dispose of large quant.i.ties of goods. The people live on flesh and rice and milk, and brew their wine from rice and excellent spices.

NOTE 1.--The only MSS. that afford the reading _Coloman_ or _Choloman_ instead of _Toloman_ or _Tholoman_, are the Bern MS., which has _Coloman_ in the initial word of the chapter, Paris MS. 5649 (Pauthier's C) which has _Coloman_ in the Table of Chapters, but not in the text, the Bodleian, and the Brandenburg MS. quoted in the last note. These variations in themselves have little weight. But the confusion between _c_ and _t_ in mediaeval MSS., when dealing with strange names, is so constant that I have ventured to make the correction, in strong conviction that it is the right reading. M. Pauthier indeed, after speaking of tribes called _Lo_ on the south-west of China, adds, "on les nommait _To-lo-man_ ('les nombreux Barbares Lo')." Were this latter statement founded on actual evidence we might retain that form which is the usual reading. But I apprehend from the manner in which M. Pauthier produces it, without corroborative quotation, that he is rather hazarding a conjecture than speaking with authority. Be that as it may, it is impossible that Polo's Toloman or Coloman should have been in the south of Kw.a.n.gsi, where Pauthier locates it.

On the other hand, we find tribes of both _Kolo_ and _Kihlau_ Barbarians (i.e. _Man_, whence KOLO-MaN or _Kihlau-man_) very numerous on the frontier of Kweichau. (See _Bridgman's transl. of Tract on Meautsze_, pp.

265, 269, 270, 272, 273, 274, 275, 278, 279, 280.) Among these the _Kolo_, described as No. 38 in that Tract, appear to me from various particulars to be the most probable representatives of the Coloman of Polo, notwithstanding the sentence with which the description opens: "_Kolo_ originally called _Luluh_; the modern designation _Kolo_ is incorrect."[1]

They are at present found in the prefecture of Tating (one of the departments of Kweichau towards the Yun-nan side). "They are _tall, of a dark complexion_, with sunken eyes, aquiline nose, wear long whiskers, and have the beard shaved off above the mouth. They pay great deference to demons, and on that account are sometimes called 'Dragons of Lo.' ... At the present time these Kolo are divided into 48 clans, the elders of which are called Chieftains (lit. 'Head-and-Eyes') and are of nine grades....

The men bind their hair into a tuft with blue cloth and make it fast on the forehead like a horn. Their upper dresses are short, with large sleeves, and their lower garments are fine blue. When one of the chieftains dies, all that were under him are a.s.sembled together clad in armour and on horseback. Having dressed his corpse in silk and woollen robes, they burn it in the open country; then, invoking the departed spirit, they inter the ashes. Their attachment to him as their sole master is such that nothing can drive or tempt them from their allegiance. Their large bows, long spears, and sharp swords, are strong and well-wrought.

They train excellent horses, love archery and hunting; and so expert are they in tactics that _their soldiers rank as the best among all the uncivilized tribes_. There is this proverb: 'The Lo Dragons of Shwui-si rap the head and strike the tail,' which is intended to indicate their celerity in defence." (_Bridgman_, pp. 272-273.)

The character _Lo_, here applied in the Chinese Tract to these people, is the same as that in the name of the Kw.a.n.gsi _Lo_ of M. Pauthier.

I append a cut (opposite page) from the drawing representing these Kolo-man in the original work from which Bridgman translated, and which is in the possession of Dr. Lockhart.

[I believe we must read _To-lo-man. Man_, barbarian, _T'u-lao_ or _Shan-tzu_ (mountaineers) who live in the Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, Cheng-kiang, etc. T'u-la-Man or T'u-la barbarians of the Mongol Annals. (_Yuen-s.h.i.+ lei-pien_, quoted by Deveria, p. 115.)--H.C.]

NOTE 2.--Magaillans, speaking of the semi-independent tribes of Kwei-chau and Kw.a.n.g-si, says: "Their towns are usually so girt by high mountains and scarped rocks that it seems as if nature had taken a pleasure in fortifying them" (p. 43). (See cut at p. 131.)

[1] On the other hand, M. Garnier writes: "I do not know any name at all like _Kolo_, except _Lolo_, the generic name given by the Chinese to the wild tribes of Yun-nan." Does not this look as if _Kolo_ were really the old name, _Luluh_ or Lolo the later?

CHAPTER LIX.

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CUIJU.

Cuiju is a province towards the East.[NOTE 1] After leaving Coloman you travel along a river for 12 days, meeting with a good number of towns and villages, but nothing worthy of particular mention. After you have travelled those twelve days along the river you come to a great and n.o.ble city which is called FUNGUL.

The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan, and live by trade and handicrafts. You must know they manufacture stuffs of the bark of certain trees which form very fine summer clothing.[NOTE 2] They are good soldiers, and have paper-money. For you must understand that henceforward we are in the countries where the Great Kaan's paper-money is current.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Koloman after a Chinese drawing

"Coloman est une provence vers levant El sunt mult belles jens et ne sunt mie bien blances mes biunz El sunt bien homes d'armes"]

The country swarms with lions to that degree that no man can venture to sleep outside his house at night.[NOTE 3] Moreover, when you travel on that river, and come to a halt at night, unless you keep a good way from the bank the lions will spring on the boat and s.n.a.t.c.h one of the crew and make off with him and devour him. And but for a certain help that the inhabitants enjoy, no one could venture to travel in that province, because of the mult.i.tude of those lions, and because of their strength and ferocity.

But you see they have in this province a large breed of dogs, so fierce and bold that two of them together will attack a lion.[NOTE 4] So every man who goes a journey takes with him a couple of those dogs, and when a lion appears they have at him with the greatest boldness, and the lion turns on them, but can't touch them for they are very deft at eschewing his blows. So they follow him, perpetually giving tongue, and watching their chance to give him a bite in the rump or in the thigh, or wherever they may. The lion makes no reprisal except now and then to turn fiercely on them, and then indeed were he to catch the dogs it would be all over with them, but they take good care that he shall not. So, to escape the dogs' din, the lion makes off, and gets into the wood, where mayhap he stands at bay against a tree to have his rear protected from their annoyance. And when the travellers see the lion in this plight they take to their bows, for they are capital archers, and shoot their arrows at him till he falls dead. And 'tis thus that travellers in those parts do deliver themselves from those lions.

They have a good deal of silk and other products which are carried up and down, by the river of which we spoke, into various quarters.[NOTE 5]

You travel along the river for twelve days more, finding a good many towns all along, and the people always Idolaters, and subject to the Great Kaan, with paper-money current, and living by trade and handicrafts. There are also plenty of fighting men. And after travelling those twelve days you arrive at the city of Sindafu of which we spoke in this book some time ago.[NOTE 6]

From Sindafu you set out again and travel some 70 days through the provinces and cities and towns which we have already visited, and all which have been already particularly spoken of in our Book. At the end of those 70 days you come to Juju where we were before.[NOTE 7]

From Juju you set out again and travel four days towards the south, finding many towns and villages. The people are great traders and craftsmen, are all Idolaters, and use the paper-money of the Great Kaan their Sovereign. At the end of those four days you come to the city of Cacanfu belonging to the province of Cathay, and of it I shall now speak.

NOTE 1.--In spite of difficulties which beset the subject (see Note 6 below) the view of Pauthier, suggested doubtingly by Marsden, that the Cuiju of the text is KWEI-CHAU, seems the most probable one. As the latter observes, the reappearance of paper money shows that we have got back into a province of China Proper. Such, Yun nan, recently conquered from a Shan prince, could not be considered. But, according to the best view we can form, the traveller could only have pa.s.sed through the extreme west of the province of Kwei-chau.

The name of _Fungul_, if that be a true reading, is suggestive of _Phungan_, which under the Mongols was the head of a district called PHUNGAN-LU. It was founded by that dynasty, and was regarded as an important position for the command of the three provinces Kwei-chau, Kw.a.n.g-si, and Yun-nan. (_Biot_, p. 168; _Martini_, p. 137.) But we shall explain presently the serious difficulties that beset the interpretation of the itinerary as it stands.

NOTE 2.--Several Chinese plants afford a fibre from the bark, and some of these are manufactured into what we call _gra.s.s-cloths_. The light smooth textures so called are termed by the Chinese _Hiapu_ or "summer cloths." Kwei-chau produces such. But perhaps that specially intended is a species of hemp (_Urtica Nivea?_) of which M. Perny of the R.C. Missions says, in his notes on Kwei-chau: "It affords a texture which may be compared to _batiste_. This has the notable property of keeping so cool that many people cannot wear it even in the hot weather.

Generally it is used only for summer clothing." (_Dict. des Tissus_, VII. 404; _Chin. Repos._ XVIII. 217 and 529; _Ann. de la Prop. de la Foi_, x.x.xI. 137.)

NOTE 3.--Tigers of course are meant. (See supra, vol. i. p. 399.) M. Perny speaks of tigers in the mountainous parts of Kwei-chau. (Op.

cit. 139.)

NOTE 4.--These great dogs were noticed by Lieutenant (now General) Macleod, in his journey to Kiang Hung on the great River Mekong, as accompanying the caravans of Chinese traders on their way to the Siamese territory. (See _Macleod's Journal_, p. 66.)

NOTE 5.--The trade in wild silk (i.e. from the oak-leaf silkworm) is in truth an important branch of commerce in Kwei-chau. But the chief seat of this is at Tsuni-fu, and I do not think that Polo's route can be sought so far to the eastward. (_Ann. de la Prop._ x.x.xI. 136; _Richthofen_, Letter VII. 81.)

NOTE 6.--We have now got back to Sindafu, i.e. Ch'eng-tu fu in Sze-ch'wan, and are better able to review the geography of the track we have been following. I do not find it possible to solve all its difficulties.

The different provinces treated of in the chapters from lv. to lix. are strung by Marco upon an easterly, or, as we must interpret, _north-easterly_ line of travel, real or hypothetical. Their names and intervals are as follows: (1) Bangala; whence 30 marches to (2) Caugigu; 25 marches to (3) Anin; 8 marches to (4) Toloman or Coloman; 12 days in Cuiju along a river to the city of (5) Fungul, Sinugul (or what not); 12 days further, on or along the same river, to (6) Ch'eng-tu fu. Total from Bangala to Ch'eng-tu fu 87 days.

I have said that the line of travel is real _or hypothetical_, for no doubt a large part of it was only founded on hearsay. We last left our traveller at Mien, or on the frontier of Yun-nan and Mien. _Bangala_ is reached _per sallum_ with no indication of interval, and its position is entirely misapprehended. Marco conceives of it, not as in India, but as being, like Mien, a province _on the confines_ of India, as being under the same king as Mien, as lying to the south of that kingdom, and as being at the (south) western extremity of a great traverse line which runs (north) east into Kwei-chau and Sze-ch'wan. All these conditions point consistently to one locality; that, however, is not Bengal but _Pegu_. On the other hand, the circ.u.mstances of manners and products, so far as they go, _do_ belong to Bengal. I conceive that Polo's information regarding these was derived from persons who had really visited Bengal by sea, but that he had confounded what he so heard of the Delta of the Ganges with what he heard on the Yun-nan frontier of the Delta of the Irawadi. It is just the same kind of error that is made about those great Eastern Rivers by Fra Mauro in his Map. And possibly the name of Pegu (in Burmese _Bagoh_) may have contributed to his error, as well as the probable fact that the Kings of Burma did at this time _claim_ to be Kings of Bengal, whilst they actually _were_ Kings of Pegu.