The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 13

[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 p.r.i.c.ked in black, and it is done thus; they take five needles joined together, and with these they p.r.i.c.k 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-sh.e.l.ls. 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 pa.s.s, 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 a.s.sembled 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 gra.s.sy 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 ma.s.sacred. (_De Mailla_, IX.

478-479.)

[Baber writes (p. 159): "In Western Yunnan 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. Muller in a study on the Pa-yi language from a Chinese ma.n.u.script ent.i.tled _Hwa-i-yi-yu_ 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 _Hw.a.n.g-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 a.s.sam, 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 s.e.xes 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 Burck 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 Maca.s.sar, and with the subst.i.tution 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 t.i.tle: _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 s.e.x." (_Notice sur le Voyage d'Exploration_, etc., p. 34.)

NOTE 4.--This highly eccentric practice has been ably ill.u.s.trated 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 pa.s.sage from the poem in ten cantos, _Luciniade_, by Sacombe, of Carca.s.sonne (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 a.s.sam 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'arest.i.t 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 or Si comme mes ancessor fist," etc.