The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 52

According to some chroniclers, the Emperor Heraclius had already let loose the Shut-up Nations to aid him against the Persians, but it brought him no good, for he was beaten in spite of their aid, and died of grief.

The theory that the Tartars were Gog and Magog led to the Rampart of Alexander being confounded with the Wall of China (see infra, Bk. I. ch.

lix.), or being relegated to the extreme N.E. of Asia, as we find it in the Carta Catalana.

These legends are referred to by Rabbi Benjamin, Hayton, Rubruquis, Ricold, Matthew Paris, and many more. Josephus indeed speaks of the Pa.s.s which Alexander fortified with gates of steel. But his saying that the King of Hyrcania was Lord of this Pa.s.s points to the Hyrcanian Gates of Northern Persia, or perhaps to the Wall of Gomushtapah, described by Vambery.

Ricold of Montecroce allows two arguments to connect the Tartars with the Jews who were shut up by Alexander; one that the Tartars hated the very name of Alexander, and could not bear to hear it; the other, that their manner of writing was very like the Chaldean, meaning apparently the Syriac (_ante_, p. 29). But he points out that they had no resemblance to Jews, and no knowledge of the law.

Edrisi relates how the Khalif Wathek sent one Salem the Dragoman to explore the Rampart of Gog and Magog. His route lay by Tiflis, the Alan country, and that of the Bashkirds, to the far north or north-east, and back by Samarkand. But the report of what he saw is pure fable.

In 1857, Dr. Bellew seems to have found the ancient belief in the legend still held by Afghan gentlemen at Kandahar.

At Gelath in Imeretia there still exists one valve of a large iron gate, traditionally said to be the relic of a pair brought as a trophy from Derbend by David, King of Georgia, called the Restorer (1089-1130). M.

Brosset, however, has shown it to be the gate of Ganja, carried off in 1139.

(_Bayer in Comment. Petropol._ I. 401 seqq.; _Pseudo-Callisth._ by _Muller_, p. 138; _Gott. Viterb._ in _Pistorii Nidani Script. Germ._ II.

228; _Alexandriade_, pp. 310-311; _Pereg._ IV. p. 118; _Acad. des Insc.

Divers Savans_, II. 483; _Edrisi_, II. 416-420, etc.)

NOTE 4.--The box-wood of the Abkhasian forests was so abundant, and formed so important an article of Genoese trade, as to give the name of _Chao de Bux_ (Cavo di Bussi) to the bay of Bambor, N.W. of Suk.u.m Kala', where the traffic was carried on. (See _Elie de Laprim._ 243.) Abulfeda also speaks of the Forest of Box (_Shara' ul-buks_) on the sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea, from which box-wood was exported to all parts of the world; but his indication of the exact locality is confused. (_Reinaud's Abulf._ I. 289.)

At the present time "Boxwood abounds on the southern coast of the Caspian, and large quant.i.ties are exported from near Resht to England and Russia.

It is sent up the Volga to Tsaritzin, from thence by rail to the Don, and down that river to the Black Sea, from whence it is s.h.i.+pped to England."

(_MS. Note_, H. Y.)

[Cf. V. Helm's _Cultivated Plants_, edited by J. S. Stallybra.s.s, Lond., 1891, _The Box Tree_, pp. 176-179.--H. C.]

NOTE 5.--Jerome Cardan notices that "the best and biggest goshawks come from Armenia," a term often including Georgia and Caucasus. The name of the bird is perhaps the same as _'Afci_, "Falco monta.n.u.s." (See _Casiri_, I. 320.) Major St. John tells me that the _Terlan_, or goshawk, much used in Persia, is still generally brought from Caucasus. (_Cardan, de Rer.

Varietate_, VII. 35.)

NOTE 6.--A letter of Warren Hastings, written shortly before his death, and after reading Marsden's Marco Polo, tells how a fish-breeder of Banbury warned him against putting pike into his fish-pond, saying, "If you should leave them where they are _till Shrove Tuesday_ they will be sure to sp.a.w.n, and then you will never get any other fish to breed in it."

(_Romance of Travel_, I. 255.) Edward Webbe in his Travels (1590, reprinted 1868) tells us that in the "Land of Siria there is a River having great store of fish like unto Salmon-trouts, but no Jew can catch them, though either Christian and Turk shall catch them in abundance with great ease." The circ.u.mstance of fish being got only for a limited time in spring is noticed with reference to Lake Van both by Tavernier and Mr.

Brant.

But the exact legend here reported is related (as M. Pauthier has already noticed) by Wilibrand of Oldenburg of a stream under the Castle of Adamodana, belonging to the Hospitallers, near Naversa (the ancient _Anazarbus_), in Cilicia under Taurus. And Khanikoff was told the same story of a lake in the district of Akhaltzike in Western Georgia, in regard to which he explains the substance of the phenomenon as a result of the rise of the lake's level by the melting of the snows, which often coincides with Lent. I may add that Moorcroft was told respecting a sacred pond near Sir-i-Chashma, on the road from Kabul to Bamian, that the fish in the pond were not allowed to be touched, but that they were accustomed to desert it for the rivulet that ran through the valley regularly every year _on the day of the vernal equinox_, and it was then lawful to catch them.

Like circ.u.mstances would produce the same effect in a variety of lakes, and I have not been able to identify the convent of St. Leonard's. Indeed Leonard (_Sant Lienard_, G. T.) seems no likely name for an Armenian Saint; and the patroness of the convent (as she is of many others in that country) was perhaps Saint _Nina_, an eminent personage in the Armenian Church, whose tomb is still a place of pilgrimage; or possibly St.

_Helena_, for I see that the Russian maps show a place called _Elenovka_ on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Sevan, N.E. of Erivan. Ramusio's text, moreover, says that the lake was _four days in compa.s.s_, and this description will apply, I believe, to none but the lake just named. This is, according to Monteith, 47 miles in length and 21 miles in breadth, and as far as I can make out he travelled round it in three very long marches. Convents and churches on its sh.o.r.es are numerous, and a very ancient one occupies an island on the lake. The lake is noted for its fish, especially magnificent trout.

(_Tavern._ Bk. III. ch. iii.; _J. R. G. S._ X. 897; _Pereg. Quat._ p. 179; _Khanikoff_, 15; _Moorcroft_, II. 382; _J. R. G. S._ III. 40 seqq.)

Ramusio has: "In this province there is a fine city called TIFLIS, and round about it are many castles and walled villages. It is inhabited by Christians, Armenians, Georgians, and some Saracens and Jews, but not many."

NOTE 7.--The name a.s.signed by Marco to the Caspian, "Mer de Gheluchelan"

or "Ghelachelan," has puzzled commentators. I have no doubt that the interpretation adopted above is the correct one. I suppose that Marco said that the sea was called "La Mer de Ghel ou (de) Ghelan," a name taken from the districts of the ancient _Gelae_ on its south-western sh.o.r.es, called indifferently _Gil_ or _Gilan_, just as many other regions of Asia have like duplicate t.i.tles (singular and plural), arising, I suppose, from the change of a _gentile_ into a _local_ name. Such are Lar, Laran, Khutl, Khutlan, etc., a cla.s.s to which Badakhshan, Wakhan, s.h.a.ghnan, Mungan, Chag-hanian, possibly Bamian, and many others have formerly belonged, as the adjectives in some cases surviving, _Badakhs.h.i.+, s.h.a.ghni, Wakhi_, etc., show[2] The change exemplified in the induration of these _gentile plurals_ into _local singulars_ is everywhere traced in the pa.s.sage from earlier to later geography. The old Indian geographical lists, such as are preserved in the Puranas, and in Pliny's extracts from Megasthenes, are, in the main, lists of _peoples_, not of provinces, and even where the real name seems to be local a _gentile_ form is often given. So also _Tochari_ and _Sogdi_ are replaced by _Tokharistan_ and _Sughd_; the _Veneti_ and _Taurini_ by Venice and Turin; the _Remi_ and the _Parisii_, by Rheims and Paris; _East-Saxons_ and _South-Saxons_ by Ess.e.x and Suss.e.x; not to mention the countless _-ings_ that mark the tribal settlement of the Saxons in Britain.

Abulfeda, speaking of this territory, uses exactly Polo's phrase, saying that the districts in question are properly called _Kil-o-Kilan_, but by the Arabs _Jil-o-Jilan_. Teixeira gives the Persian name of the sea as _Darya Ghilani_. (See _Abulf._ in _Busching_, v. 329.)

[The province of Gil (Gilan), which is situated between the mountains and the Caspian Sea, and between the provinces of Azerbaijan and Mazanderan (H. C.)], gave name to the silk for which it was and is still famous, mentioned as _Gh.e.l.le_ (_Gili_) at the end of this chapter. This _Seta Gh.e.l.la_ is mentioned also by Pegolotti (pp. 212, 238, 301), and by Uzzano, with an odd transposition, as Seta _Leggi_, along with Seta _Masandroni_, i.e. from the adjoining province of Mazanderan (p. 192). May not the Spanish _Geliz_, "a silk-dealer," which seems to have been a puzzle to etymologists, be connected with this? (See _Dosy and Engelmann_, 2nd ed.

p. 275.) [Prof. F. de Filippi (_Viaggo in Persia nel_ 1862,... Milan, 1865, 8vo) speaks of the silk industry of Ghilan (pp. 295-296) as the princ.i.p.al product of the entire province.--H. C]

The dimensions a.s.signed to the Caspian in the text would be very correct if length were meant, but the Geog. Text with the same figure specifies _circuit_ (_zire_). Ramusio again has "a circuit of 2800 miles." Possibly the original reading was 2700; but this would be in excess.

NOTE 8.--The Caspian is termed by Vincent of Beauvais _Mare Seruanic.u.m_, the Sea of s.h.i.+rwan, another of its numerous Oriental names, rendered by Marino Sanuto as _Mare Salvanic.u.m_. (III. xi. ch. ix.) But it was generally known to the Franks in the Middle Ages as the SEA OF BACU. Thus Berni:--

"Fuor del deserto la diritta strada Lungo il Mar di Bacu miglior pareva."

(_Orl. Innam._ xvii. 60.)

And in the _Sfera_ of Lionardo Dati (circa 1390):--

"Da Tramontana di quest' Asia Grande Tartari son sotto la fredda Zona, Gente b.e.s.t.i.a.l di bestie e vivande, Fin dove _l'Onda di Baccu_ risuona," etc. (p. 10.)

This name is introduced in Ramusio, but probably by interpolation, as well as the correction of the statement regarding Euphrates, which is perhaps a branch of the notion alluded to in _Prologue_, ch. ii. note 5. In a later chapter Marco calls it the _Sea of Sarai_, a t.i.tle also given in the Carta Catalana. [Odorico calls it Sea of _Bacuc_ (_Cathay_) and Sea of _Bascon_ (Cordier). The latter name is a corruption of Abeskun, a small town and island in the S.E. corner of the Caspian Sea, not far from Ashurada.--H.

C.]

We have little information as to the Genoese navigation of the Caspian, but the great number of names exhibited along its sh.o.r.es in the map just named (1375) shows how familiar such navigation had become by that date.

See also _Cathay_, p. 50, where an account is given of a remarkable enterprise by Genoese buccaneers on the Caspian about that time. Mas'udi relates an earlier history of how about the beginning of the 9th century a fleet of 500 Russian vessels came out of the Volga, and ravaged all the populous southern and western sh.o.r.es of the Caspian. The unhappy population was struck with astonishment and horror at this unlooked-for visitation from a sea that had hitherto been only frequented by peaceful traders or fishermen. (II. 18-24.)

NOTE 9.--[The enormous quant.i.ty of fish found in the Caspian Sea is ascribed to the ma.s.s of vegetable food to be found in the shallower waters of the North and the mouth of the Volga. According to Reclus, the Caspian fisheries bring in fish to the annual value of between three and four millions sterling.--H. C.]

[1] See Letter of Frederic to the Roman Senate, of 20th June, 1241, in _Breholles_. Mahommedan writers, contemporary with the Mongol invasions, regarded these as a manifest sign of the approaching end of the world. (See Elliot's _Historians_, II. p. 265.)

[2] When the first edition was published, I was not aware of remarks to like effect regarding names of this character by Sir H. Rawlinson in the _J. R. As. Soc._ vol. xi. pp. 64 and 103.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE KINGDOM OF MAUSUL.

On the frontier of Armenia towards the south-east is the kingdom of MAUSUL. It is a very great kingdom, and inhabited[NOTE 1] by several different kinds of people whom we shall now describe.

First there is a kind of people called ARABI, and these wors.h.i.+p Mahommet.

Then there is another description of people who are NESTORIAN and JACOBITE Christians. These have a Patriarch, whom they call the JATOLIC, and this Patriarch creates Archbishops, and Abbots, and Prelates of all other degrees, and sends them into every quarter, as to India, to Baudas, or to Cathay, just as the Pope of Rome does in the Latin countries. For you must know that though there is a very great number of Christians in those countries, they are all Jacobites and Nestorians; Christians indeed, but not in the fas.h.i.+on enjoined by the Pope of Rome, for they come short in several points of the Faith.[NOTE 2]

All the cloths of gold and silk that are called _Mosolins_ are made in this country; and those great Merchants called _Mosolins_, who carry for sale such quant.i.ties of spicery and pearls and cloths of silk and gold, are also from this kingdom.[NOTE 3]

There is yet another race of people who inhabit the mountains in that quarter, and are called CURDS. Some of them are Christians, and some of them are Saracens; but they are an evil generation, whose delight it is to plunder merchants.[NOTE 4]

[Near this province is another called MUS and MERDIN, producing an immense quant.i.ty of cotton, from which they make a great deal of buckram[NOTE 5]

and other cloth. The people are craftsmen and traders, and all are subject to the Tartar King.]

NOTE 1.--Polo could scarcely have been justified in calling MOSUL a very great kingdom. This is a bad habit of his, as we shall have to notice again. Badruddin Lulu, the last Atabeg of Mosul of the race of Zenghi had at the age of 96 taken sides with Hulaku, and stood high in his favour.

His son Malik Salih, having revolted, surrendered to the Mongols in 1261 on promise of life; which promise they kept in Mongol fas.h.i.+on by torturing him to death. Since then the kingdom had ceased to exist as such. Coins of Badruddin remain with the name and t.i.tles of Mangku Kaan on their reverse, and some of his and of other atabegs exhibit curious imitations of Greek art. (_Quat. Rash._ p. 389 _Jour. As._ IV. VI. 141.).--H. Y. and H. C.