The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 10

_Ethnology_.--The Chinese at Ch'eng-tu fu, according to Richthofen, cla.s.sify the aborigines of the Sze-ch'wan frontier as _Man-tzu, Lolo, Si-fan_, and _Tibetan_. Of these the Si-fan are furthest north, and extend far into Tibet. The Man-tzu (properly so called) are regarded as the remnant of the ancient occupants of Sze-ch'wan, and now dwell in the mountains about the parallel 30, and along the Lhasa road, Ta-t'sien lu being about the centre of their tract. The Lolo are the wildest and most independent, occupying the mountains on the left of the Kin-sha Kiang where it runs northwards (see above p. 48, and below p. 69) and also to some extent on its right. The Tibetan tribes lie to the west of the Man-tzu, and to the west of Kien-ch'ang. (See next chapter.)

Towards the Lan-ts'ang Kiang is the quasi-Tibetan tribe called by the Chinese _Mossos_, by the Tibetans _Guions_, and between the Lan-ts'ang and the Lu-Kiang or Salwen are the _Lissus_, wild hill-robbers and great musk hunters, like those described by Polo at p. 45. Garnier, who gives these latter particulars, mentions that near the confluence of the Yalung and Kin-sha Kiang there are tribes called _Pa-i_, as there are in the south of Yun-nan, and, like the latter, of distinctly Shan or Laotian character. He also speaks of _Si-fan_ tribes in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu, and coming south of the Kin-sha Kiang even to the east of Ta-li. Of these are told such loose tales as Polo tells of _Tebet_ and _Caindu_.

[In the _Topography of the Yun-nan Province_ (edition of 1836) there is a catalogue of 141 cla.s.ses of aborigines, each with a separate name and ill.u.s.tration, without any attempt to arrive at a broader cla.s.sification.

Mr. Bourne has been led to the conviction that exclusive of the Tibetans (including Si-fan and Ku-tsung), there are but three great non-Chinese races in Southern China: the Lolo, the Shan, and the Miao-tzu. (_Report, China_, No. 1, 1888, p. 87.) This cla.s.sification is adopted by Dr.

Deblenne. (_Mission Lyonnaise_.)

_Man-tzu, Man_, is a general name for "barbarian" (see my note in _Odoric de Pordenone_, p. 248 seqq.); it is applied as well to the Lolo as to the Si-fan.

Mr. Parker remarks (_China Review_, XX. p. 345) that the epithet of _Man-tzu_, or "barbarians," dates from the time when the Shans, Annamese, Miao-tzu, etc., occupied nearly all South China, for it is essentially to the Indo-Chinese that the term Man-tzu belongs.

Mr. Hosie writes (_Three years in W. China_, 122): "At the time when Marco Polo pa.s.sed through Caindu, this country was in the possession of the Si-fans.... At the present day, they occupy the country to the west, and are known under the generic name of Man-tzu."

"It has already been remarked that _Si-fan_, convertible with _Man-tzu_, is a loose Chinese expression of no ethnological value, meaning nothing more than Western barbarians; but in a more restricted sense it is used to designate a people (or peoples) which inhabits the valley of the Yalung and the upper T'ung, with contiguous valleys and ranges, from about the twenty-seventh parallel to the borders of Koko-nor. This people is sub-divided into eighteen tribes." (_Baber_, p. 81.)

Si-fan or Pa-tsiu is the name by which the Chinese call the Tibetan tribes which occupy part of Western China. (_Deveria_, p. 167.)

Dr. Bretschneider writes (_Med. Res._ II. p. 24): "The north-eastern part of Tibet was sometimes designated by the Chinese name Si-fan, and Hyacinth [b.i.t.c.hurin] is of opinion that in ancient times this name was even applied to the whole of Tibet. _Si-fan_ means, 'Western Barbarians.' The biographer of Hiuen-Tsang reports that when this traveller, in 629, visited Liang-chau (in the province of Kan-Suh), this city was the entrepot for merchants from _Si-fan_ and the countries east of the Ts'ung-ling mountains. In the history of the Hia and Tangut Empire (in the _Sung-shi_) we read, _s.a._ 1003, that the founder of this Empire invaded _Si-fan_ and then proceeded to _Si-liang_ (Liang-chau). The _Yuen-shi_ reports, _s.a._ 1268: 'The (Mongol) Emperor ordered _Meng-gu-dai_ to invade _Si-fan_ with 6000 men.'

The name Si-fan appears also in ch. ccii., biography of _Dan-ba_." It is stated in the _Ming-shi_, "that the name _Si-fan_ is applied to the territory situated beyond the frontiers of the Chinese provinces of Shen-si (then including the eastern part of present Kan-Suh) and Sze-ch'wan, and inhabited by various tribes of Tangut race, anciently known in Chinese history under the name of _Si Kiang_.... The _Kuang yu ki_ notices that _Si-fan_ comprises the territory of the south-west of Shen-si, west of Sze-ch'wan and north-west of Yun-nan.... The tribute presented by the Si-fan tribes to the Emperor used to be carried to the court at Peking by way of Ya-chau in Sze-ch'wan." (_Bretschneider_, 203.) The Tangutans of Prjevalsky, north-east of Tibet, in the country of Ku-ku nor, correspond to the Si-fan.

"The Ta-tu River may be looked upon as the southern limit of the region inhabited by Sifan tribes, and the northern boundary of the Lolo country which stretches southwards to the Yang-tzu and east from the valley of Kien-ch'ang towards the right bank of the Min." (_Hosie_, p. 102.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Black Lolo.]

To Mr. E.C. Baber we owe the most valuable information regarding the Lolo people:

"'Lolo' is itself a word of insult, of unknown Chinese origin, which should not be used in their presence, although they excuse it and will even sometimes employ it in the case of ignorant strangers. In the report of Governor-General Lo Ping-chang, above quoted, they are called 'I,' the term applied by Chinese to Europeans. They themselves have no objection to being styled 'I-chia' (I families), but that word is not their native name. Near Ma-pien they call themselves 'Lo-su'; in the neighbourhood of Lui-po T'ing their name is 'No-su' or 'Ngo-su' (possibly a mere variant of 'Lo-su'); near Hui-li-chou the term is 'Le-su'--the syllable Le being p.r.o.nounced as in French. The subject tribes on the T'ung River, near Mount Wa, also name themselves 'Ngo-su.' I have found the latter people speak very disrespectfully of the Le-su, which argues an internal distinction; but there can be no doubt that they are the same race, and speak the same language, though with minor differences of dialect." (_Baber, Travels_, 66-67.)

"With very rare exceptions the male Lolo, rich or poor, free or subject, may be instantly known by his _horn_. All his hair is gathered into a knot over his forehead and there twisted up in a cotton cloth so as to resemble the horn of a unicorn. The horn with its wrapper is sometimes a good nine inches long. They consider this _coiffure_ sacred, so at least I was told, and even those who wear a short pig-tail for convenience in entering Chinese territory still conserve the indigenous horn, concealed for the occasion under the folds of the Sze-ch'wan turban." (_Baber_, p. 61.) See these horns on figures, Bk. II. ch. lviii.

[Ill.u.s.tration: White Lolo.]

"The princ.i.p.al clothing of a Lolo is his mantle, a capacious sleeveless garment of grey or black felt gathered round his neck by a string, and reaching nearly to his heels. In the case of the better cla.s.ses the mantle is of fine felt--in great request among the Chinese--and has a fringe of cotton-web round its lower border. For journeys on horseback they have a similar cloak differing only in being slit half-way up the back; a wide lappet covering the opening lies easily along the loins and croup of the horse. The colour of the felt is originally grey, but becomes brown-black or black, in process of time. It is said that the insects which haunt humanity never infest these gabardines. The Lolo generally gathers this garment closely round his shoulders and crosses his arms inside. His legs, clothed in trousers of Chinese cotton, are swathed in felt bandages bound on with strings, and he has not yet been super-civilised into the use of foot-gear. In summer a cotton cloak is often subst.i.tuted for the felt mantle. The hat, serving equally for an umbrella, is woven of bamboo, in a low conical shape, and is covered with felt. Crouching in his felt mantle under this roof of felt the hardy Lolo is impervious to wind or rain."

(_Baber, Travels_, 61-62.)

"The word, 'Black-bone,' is generally used by the Chinese as a name for the independent Lolos, but in the mouth of a Lolo it seems to mean a 'freeman' or 'n.o.ble,' in which sense it is not a whit more absurd than the 'blue-blood,' of Europeans. The 'White-bones,' an inferior cla.s.s, but still Lolo by birth, are, so far as I could understand, the va.s.sals and retainers of the patricians--the people, in fact. A third cla.s.s consists of Wa-tzu, or slaves, who are all captive Chinese. It does not appear whether the servile cla.s.s is sub-divided, but, at any rate, the slaves born in Lolodom are treated with more consideration than those who have been captured in slave-hunts." (_Baber, Travels_, 67.)

According to the French missionary, Paul Vial (_Les Lolos_, Shang-hai, 1898) the Lolos say that they come from the country situated between Tibet and Burma. The proper manner to address a Lolo in Chinese is _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 ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script 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 princ.i.p.ality 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-nga, 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. Muller, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sing hard to understand. At the end of those five days' journey you come to the capital, which is called YACHI, a very great and n.o.ble 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 sh.e.l.ls that are found in the sea, such as are sometimes put on dogs' collars; and 80 of these porcelain sh.e.l.ls pa.s.s 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 a.s.sure you, gets a great revenue from this salt.[NOTE 5]

There is a lake in this country of a good hundred miles in compa.s.s, in which are found great quant.i.ties 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-kw.a.n.g, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Garden-House on the Lake at Yun-nan-fu, Yachi of Polo.

(From Garnier).