The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 72

NOTE 1.--Of Kaidu, Kublai Kaan's kinsman and rival, and their long wars, we shall have to speak later. He had at this time a kind of joint occupancy of SAMARKAND and Bokhara with the Khans of Chagatai, his cousins.

[On Samarkand generally see: _Samarqand_, by W. Radloff, translated into French by L. Leger, _Rec. d'Itin. dans l'Asie Centrale_, Ecole des Langues Orient., Paris, 1878, p. 284 et seq.; _A travers le royaume de Tamerlan (Asie Centrale)_ ... par Guillaume Capus ... Paris, 1892, 8vo.--H. C.]

Marco evidently never was at Samarkand, though doubtless it was visited by his Father and Uncle on their first journey, when we know they were long at Bokhara. Having, therefore, little to say descriptive of a city he had not seen, he tells us a story:--

"So geographers, in Afric maps, With savage pictures fill their gaps, And o'er unhabitable downs Place elephants for want of towns."

As regards the Christians of Samarkand who figure in the preceding story, we may note that the city had been one of the Metropolitan Sees of the Nestorian Church since the beginning of the 8th century, and had been a bishopric perhaps two centuries earlier. Prince Sempad, High Constable of Armenia, in a letter written from Samarkand in 1246 or 1247, mentions several circ.u.mstances ill.u.s.trative of the state of things indicated in this story: "I tell you that we have found many Christians scattered all over the East, and many fine churches, lofty, ancient, and of good architecture, which have been spoiled by the Turks. Hence, the Christians of this country came to the presence of the reigning Kaan's grandfather (i.e. Chinghiz); he received them most honourably, and granted them liberty of wors.h.i.+p, and issued orders to prevent their having any just cause of complaint by word or deed. _And so the Saracens, who used to treat them with contempt, have now the like treatment in double measure._"

Shortly after Marco's time, viz. in 1328, Thomas of Mancasola, a Dominican, who had come from Samarkand with a Mission to the Pope (John XXII.) from Ilchigadai, Khan of Chagatai, was appointed Latin Bishop of that city. (_Mosheim_, p. 110, etc.; _Cathay_, p. 192.)

NOTE 2.--CHAGATAI, here called Sigatay, was Uncle, not Brother, to the Great Kaan (Kublai). Nor was Kaidu either Chagatai's son or Kublai's nephew, as Marco here and elsewhere represents him to be. (See Bk. IV. ch.

i.) The term used to describe Chagatai's relations.h.i.+p is _frere charnel_, which excludes ambiguity, cousins.h.i.+p, or the like (such as is expressed by the Italian _fratello cugino_), and corresponds, I believe, to the _brother german_ of Scotch law doc.u.ments.

NOTE 3.--One might say, These things be an allegory! We take the fine stone that belongs to the Saracens (or Papists) to build our church on, but the day of reckoning comes at last, and our (Irish Protestant) Christians are afraid that the Church will come about their ears. May it stand, and better than that of Samarkand has done!

There is a story somewhat like this in D'Herbelot, about the Karmathian Heretics carrying off the Black Stone from Mecca, and being obliged years after to bring it back across the breadth of Arabia; on which occasion the stone conducted itself in a miraculous manner.

There _is_ a remarkable Stone at Samarkand, the _Kok-Tash_ or Green Stone, on which Timur's throne was set. Tradition says that, big as it is, it was brought by him from Brusa;--but tradition may be wrong. (See _Vambery's Travels_, p. 206.) [Also _H. Moser, A travers l'Asie centrale_, 114-115.

--H. C.]

[The Archimandrite Palladius (_Chinese Recorder_, VI. p. 108) quotes from the _Chi shun Chin-kiang chi_ (Description of Chin-Kiang), 14th century, the following pa.s.sage regarding the pillar: "There is a temple (in Samarcand) supported by four enormous wooden pillars, each of them 40 feet high. One of these pillars is in a hanging position, and stands off from the floor more than a foot."--H. C.]

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

OF THE PROVINCE OF YARCAN.

Yarcan is a province five days' journey in extent. The people follow the Law of Mahommet, but there are also Nestorian and Jacobite Christians.

They are subject to the same Prince that I mentioned, the Great Kaan's nephew. They have plenty of everything, [particularly of cotton. The inhabitants are also great craftsmen, but a large proportion of them have swoln legs, and great crops at the throat, which arises from some quality in their drinking-water.] As there is nothing else worth telling we may pa.s.s on.[NOTE 1]

NOTE 1.--Yarkan or Yarken seems to be the general p.r.o.nunciation of the name to this day, though we write YARKAND.

[A Chinese traveller, translated by M. Gueluy (_Desc. de la Chine occidentales_, p. 41), says that the word _Yarkand_ is made of _Iar_, earth, and _Kiang_ (_Kand?_), large, vast, but this derivation is doubtful. The more probable one is that Yarkand is made up of _Yar_, new, and _Kand, Kend_, or _Kent_, city.--H. C.]

Mir 'Izzat Ullah in modern days speaks of the prevalence of goitre at Yarkand. And Mr. Shaw informs me that during his recent visit to Yarkand (1869) he had numerous applications for iodine as a remedy for that disease. The theory which connects it with the close atmosphere of valleys will not hold at Yarkand. (_J. R. A. S._ VII. 303.)

[Dr. Sven Hedin says that three-fourths of the population of Yarkand are suffering from goitre; he ascribes the prevalence of the disease to the bad quality of the water, which is kept in large basins, used indifferently for bathing, was.h.i.+ng, or draining. Only Hindu and "Andijdanlik" merchants, who drink well water, are free from goitre.

Lieutenant Roborovsky, the companion of Pievtsov, in 1889, says: "In the streets one meets many men and women with large goitres, a malady attributed to the bad quality of the water running in the town conduits, and drunk by the inhabitants in its natural state. It appears in men at the age of p.u.b.erty, and in women when they marry." (_Proc. R. G. S._ 2 ser. XII. 1890, p. 36.)

Formerly the Mirza (_J. R. G. S._ 1871, p. 181) said: "Goitre is very common in the city [of Yarkund], and in the country round, but it is unknown in Kashgar."

General Pievtsov gives to the small oasis of Yarkand (264 square miles) a population of 150,000, that is, 567 inhabitants per square mile. He, after Prjevalsky's death, started, with V. L. Roborovsky (botanist) and P. K.

Kozlov (zoologist), who were later joined by K. I. Bogdanovich (geologist), on his expedition to Tibet (1889-1890). He followed the route Yarkand, Khotan, Kiria, Nia, and Charchan.--H. C.]

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

OF A PROVINCE CALLED COTAN.

Cotan is a province lying between north-east and east, and is eight days'

journey in length. The people are subject to the Great Kaan,[NOTE 1] and are all wors.h.i.+ppers of Mahommet.[NOTE 2] There are numerous towns and villages in the country, but Cotan, the capital, is the most n.o.ble of all, and gives its name to the kingdom. Everything is to be had there in plenty, including abundance of cotton, [with flax, hemp, wheat, wine, and the like]. The people have vineyards and gardens and estates. They live by commerce and manufactures, and are no soldiers.[NOTE 3]

NOTE 1.--[The Buddhist Government of Khotan was destroyed by Boghra Khan (about 980-990); it was temporarily restored by the Buddhist Kutchluk Khan, chief of the Namans, who came from the banks of the Ili, destroyed the Mahomedan dynasty of Boghra Khan (1209), but was in his turn subjugated by Chinghiz Khan.

The only Christian monument discovered in Khotan is a bronze cross brought back by Grenard (III. pp. 134-135); see also Deveria, _Notes d'Epigraphie Mongole_, p. 80.--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--"_Aourent Mahommet_". Though this is Marco's usual formula to define Mahomedans, we can scarcely suppose that he meant it literally. But in other cases it was _very_ literally interpreted. Thus in _Baudouin de Sebourc_, the Dame de Pontieu, a pa.s.sionate lady who renounces her faith before Saladin, says:--

"'Et je renoie Dieu, et le pooir qu'il a; Et Marie, sa Mere, qu'on dist qui le porta; _Mahom voel aourer_, aportez-le-moi cha!'

* * * * Li Soudans commanda _Qu'on aportast Mahom; et celle l'aoura_." (I. p. 72.)

The same romance brings in the story of the Stone of Samarkand, adapted from ch. x.x.xiv., and accounts for its sanct.i.ty in Saracen eyes because it had long formed a pedestal for Mahound!

And this notion gave rise to the use of _Mawmet_ for an idol in general; whilst from the _Mahommerie_ or place of Islamite wors.h.i.+p the name of _mummery_ came to be applied to idolatrous or unmeaning rituals; both very unjust etymologies. Thus of mosques in _Richard Coeur de Lion_:

"Kyrkes they made of Crystene Lawe, And her _Mawmettes_ lete downe drawe." (_Weber_, II. 228.)

So Correa calls a golden idol, which was taken by Da Gama in a s.h.i.+p of Calicut, "an image of Mahomed" (372). Don Quixote too, who ought to have known better, cites with admiration the feat of Rinaldo in carrying off, in spite of forty Moors, a golden image of Mahomed.

NOTE 3.--800 _li_ (160 miles) east of _Chokiuka_ or Yarkand, Hiuen Tsang comes to _Kiustanna_ (Kustana) or KHOTAN. "The country chiefly consists of plains covered with stones and sand. The remainder, however, is favourable to agriculture, and produces everything abundantly. From this country are got woollen carpets, fine felts, well woven taffetas, white and black jade." Chinese authors of the 10th century speak of the abundant grapes and excellent wine of Khotan.

Chinese annals of the 7th and 8th centuries tell us that the people of Khotan had chronicles of their own, a glimpse of a lost branch of history.

Their writing, laws, and literature were modelled upon those of India.

Ilchi, the modern capital, was visited by Mr. Johnson, of the Indian Survey, in 1865. The country, after the revolt against the Chinese in 1863, came first under the rule of Habib-ullah, an aged chief calling himself _Khan Badshah_ of Khotan; and since the treacherous seizure and murder of Habib-ullah by Ya'kub Beg of Kashgar in January 1867, it has formed a part of the kingdom of the latter.

Mr. Johnson says: "The chief grains of the country are Indian corn, wheat, barley of two kinds, _bajra, jowar_ (two kinds of _holcus_), buckwheat and rice, all of which are superior to the Indian grains, and are of a very fine quality.... The country is certainly superior to India, and in every respect equal to Kashmir, over which it has the advantage of being less humid, and consequently better suited to the growth of fruits. _Olives_ (?), pears, apples, peaches, apricots, mulberries, grapes, currants, and melons, all exceedingly large in size and of a delicious flavour, are produced in great variety and abundance.... Cotton of valuable quality, and raw silk, are produced in very large quant.i.ties."

[Khotan is the chief place of Turkestan for cotton manufactures; its _kham_ is to be found everywhere. This name, which means raw in Persian, is given to a stuff made with cotton thread, which has not undergone any preparation; they manufacture also two other cotton stuffs: _alatcha_ with blue and red stripes, and _tchekmen_, very thick and coa.r.s.e, used to make dresses and sacks; if _kham_ is better at Khotan, _alatcha_ and _tchekmen_ are superior at Kashgar. (_Grenard_, II. pp. 191-192.)

Grenard (II. pp. 175-177), among the fruits, mentions apricots (_ourouk_), ripe in June, and so plentiful that to keep them they are dried up to be used like garlic against mountain sickness; melons (_koghoun_) water-melons (_tarbouz_, the best are from Hami); vine (_tal_)--the best grapes (_uzum_) come from Boghaz langar, near Keria; the best dried grapes are those from Turfan; peaches (_shaptalou_); pomegranates (_anar_, best from Kerghalyk), etc.; the best apples are those of Nia and Sadju; pears are very bad; cherries and strawberries are unknown. Grenard (II. p. 106) also says that grapes are very good, but that Khotan wine is detestable, and tastes like vinegar.

The Chinese traveller, translated by M. Gueluy (_Desc. de la Chine occidentale_, p. 45), says that all the inhabitants of Khotan are seeking for precious stones, and that melons and fruits are more plentiful than at Yarkand.--H. C.]

Mr. Johnson reports the whole country to be rich in soil and very much under-peopled. Ilchi, the capital, has a population of about 40,000, and is a great place for manufactures. The chief articles produced are silks, felts, carpets (both silk and woollen), coa.r.s.e cotton cloths, and paper from the mulberry fibre. The people are strict Mahomedans, and speak a Turki dialect. Both s.e.xes are good-looking, with a slightly Tartar cast of countenance. (_V. et V. de H. T._ 278; _Remusat, H. de la V. de Khotan_, 37, 73-84; _Chin. Repos._ IX. 128; _J. R. G. S._ x.x.xVII. 6 seqq.)

[In 1891, Dutreuil de Rhins and Grenard at the small village of Yotkan, about 8 miles to the west of the present Khotan, came across what they considered the most important and probably the most ancient city of southern Chinese Turkestan. The natives say that Yotkan is the site of the old Capital. (Cf. _Grenard_, III. p. 127 et seq. for a description and drawings of coins and objects found at this place.)