The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 156

From Tebbes to Bahabad | From Fahanunch to Bahabad 1. Kurit ... ... . 4 | 2. Moghu ... ..... 4-1/2 2. Moghu ... ... . 9 | 3. Sefid-ab ... ... 6 3. Sefid-ab ..... 6 | 4. Belucha ... ... . 5 4. Burch ... ... . 5 | 5. G.o.d-i-shah-taghi . . 6 5. G.o.d ... ..... 5 | 6. Rizab ... ..... 5 6. Rizab ... ... . 6 | 7.{Teng-i-Tebbes ... . 4-1/2 7. Pudenum ... ... 8 | {Pudenun ... ... . 4-1/2 8. Ser-i-julge ... . 4 | 8. Kheirabad ... ... 4 9. Bahabad ... ... 4 | 9. Bahabad ... ... . 4 -- | -- Farsakh ..... 51 | Farsakh ... ... 43-1/2

_Map of Persia_.

2. Maga ... ... . Salt well.

3. Chashma Sufid . . " "

4.{Khudafrin ... . Sweet spring.

{Pir Moral ... . Salt well.

5. G.o.d Hashtaki ... " "

6. Rezu ... ... . " "

"These details are drawn from different authorities, but are in excellent agreement. That the total distances are different in the first two columns is because Fahanunch lies nearer than Tebbes to Bahabad. Two or three discrepancies in the names are of no importance. Burch denotes a castle or fort; Belucha is evidently Cha-i-beluch or the well of the Baluchi, and it is very probable that a small fort was built some time or other at this well which was visited by raiders from Baluchistan. Ser-i-julge and Kheirabad may be two distinct camping grounds very near each other. The Chasma Sufid or 'white spring' of the English map is evidently the same place as Sefid-ab, or 'white water.' Its G.o.d Hashtaki is a corruption of the Persian G.o.d-i-shah-taghi, or the 'hollow of the royal saxaul.'

Khudafrin, on the other hand, is very apocryphal. It is no doubt Khuda-aferin or 'G.o.d be praised!'--an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n very appropriate in the mouth of a man who comes upon a sweet spring in the midst of the desert. If an Englishman travelled this way he might have mistaken this e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n for the name of the place. But then 'Unsurveyed' would hardly be placed just in this part of the Bahabad Desert.

"The information I obtained about the road from Tebbes to Bahabad was certainly very scanty, but also of great interest. Immediately beyond Kurit the road crosses a strip of the Kevir, 2 farsakh broad, and containing a river-bed which is said to be filled with water at the end of February. Sefid-ab is situated among hillocks and Burch in an upland district; to the south of it follows Kevir barely a farsakh broad, which may be avoided by a circuitous path. At G.o.d-i-shah-taghi, as the name implies, saxaul grows (_Haloxylon Ammodendron_). The last three halting-places before Bahabad all lie among small hills.

"This desert route runs, then, through comparatively hilly country, crosses two small Kevir depressions, or offshoots of one and the same Kevir, has pasturage at at least one place, and presents no difficulties of any account. The distance in a direct line is 113 miles, corresponding to 51 Persian farsakh--the farsakh in this district being only about 2.2 miles long against 2.9 in the great Kevir. The caravans which go through the Bahabad desert usually make the journey in ten days, one at least of which is a rest day, so that they cover little more than 12 miles a day.

If water more or less salt were not to be found at all the eight camping-grounds, the caravans would not be able to make such short marches.

It is also quite possible that sweet water is to be found in one place; where saxaul grows driftsand usually occurs, and wells digged in sand are usually sweet.

"During my stay in Tebbes a caravan of about 300 camels, as I have mentioned before, arrived from Sebsevar. They were laden with _naft_ (petroleum), and remained waiting till the first belt of Kevir was dried after the last rain. As soon as this happened the caravan would take the road described above to Bahabad, and thence to Yezd. And this caravan route, Sebsevar, Turshiz, Bajistan, Tun, Tebbes, Bahabad, and Yezd, is considered less risky than the somewhat shorter way through the great Kevir. I myself crossed a part of the Bahabad desert where we did not once follow any of the roads used by caravans, and I found this country by no means one of the worst in Eastern Persia.

"In the above exposition I believe that I have demonstrated that it is extremely probable that Marco Polo travelled, not through Naibend to Tun, but through Bahabad to Tebbes, and thence to Tun and Kain. His own description accords in all respects with the present aspect and peculiarities of the desert route in question. And the time of eight days he a.s.signs to the journey between Kuh-benan and Tonocain renders it also probable that he came to the last-named province at Tebbes, even if he travelled somewhat faster than caravans are wont to do at the present day.

It signifies little that he does not mention the name Tebbes; he gives only the name of the province, adding that it contains a great many towns and villages. One of these was Tebbes."

XXII., p. 126.

TUTIA.

"It seems that the word is 'the Arabicized word _dudha_, being Persian for "smokes."' There can be little doubt that we have direct confirmation of this in the Chinese words _t'ou-t'ieh_ (still, I think, in use) and _t'ou-shik_, meaning '_tou_-iron' and '_t'ou_-ore.' The character _T'ou_ [Chinese] does not appear in the old dictionaries; its first appearance is in the History of the Toba (Tungusic) Dynasty of North China. This History first mentions the name 'Persia' in A.D. 455 and the existence there of this metal, which, a little later on, is also said to come from a State in the Cashmeer region. K'ang-hi's seventeenth-century dictionary is more explicit: it states that Termed produces this ore, but that 'the true sort comes from Persia, and looks like gold, but on being heated it turns carnation, and _not_ black.' As the Toba Emperors added 1000 new characters to the Chinese stock, we may a.s.sume this one to have been invented, for the specific purpose indicated.'" (E.H. PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, pp. 135-6.) Prof. Parker adds the following note, l.c., p. 149: "Since writing the above, I have come across a pa.s.sage in the 'History of the Sung Dynasty' (chap. 490, p. 17) stating that an Arab junk-master brought to Canton in A.D. 990, and sent on thence to the Chinese Emperor in Ho Nan, 'one vitreous bottle of _tutia_.' The two words mean 'metropolis-father,' and are therefore without any signification, except as a foreign word. According to Yule's notes (I., p. 126), _tutia_, or _dudha_, in one of its forms was used as an eye-ointment or collyrium."

XXII., pp. 127-139. The Province of Tonocain "contains an immense plain on which is found the ARBRE SOL, which we Christians call the _Arbre Sec_; and I will tell you what it is like. It is a tall and thick tree, having the bark on one side green and the other white; and it produces a rough husk like that of a chestnut, but without anything in it. The wood is yellow like box, and very strong, and there are no other trees near it nor within a hundred miles of it, except on one side, where you find trees within about ten miles distance."

In a paper published in the _Journal of the R. As. Soc._, Jan., 1909, Gen.

Houtum-Schindler comes to the conclusion, p. 157, that Marco Polo's tree is not the "Sun Tree," but the Cypress of Zoroaster; "Marco Polo's _arbre sol_ and _arbre seul_ stand for the Persian _dirakht i sol, i.e. the cypress-tree. If General Houtum Schindler had seen the third edition of the _Book of Ser Marco Polo_, I., p. 113, he would have found that I read his paper of the _J.R.A.S._, of January, 1898."

XXII., p. 132, l. 22. The only current coin is millstones.

Mr. T.B. CLARKE-THORNHILL wrote to me in 1906: "Though I can hardly imagine that there can be any connection between the Caroline Islands and the 'Amiral d'Outre l'Arbre Sec,' still it may interest you to know that the currency of 'millstones' existed up to a short time ago, and may do so still, in the island of Yap, in that group. It consisted of various-sized discs of quartz from about 6 inches to nearly 3 feet in diameter, and from 1/2 an inch to 3 or 4 inches in thickness."

XXV., p. 146.

OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN.

Regarding the reduction of the Ismaelites, the _Yuan Sh_ tells us that in 1222, on his way back after the taking of Nishapur, Tuli, son of Genghis, plundered the State of Mu-la-i, captured Herat, and joined his father at Talecan. In 1229 the King of Mu-lei presented himself at the Mongol Court.... The following statement is also found in the Mongol Annals: "In the seventh moon [1252] the Emperor ordered K'i-t'ah-t'eh Pu-ha to carry war against the Ma-la-hi.'" (E.H. PARKER, _Asiatic Quart.

Rev._, Jan., 1904, p. 136.)

XXVI., p. 149. "On leaving the Castle [of the Old Man], you ride over fine plains and beautiful valleys, and pretty hill-sides producing excellent gra.s.s pasture, and abundance of fruits, and all other products.... This kind of country extends for six days' journey, with a goodly number of towns and villages, in which the people are worshippers of Mahommet.

Sometimes also you meet with a tract of desert extending for 50 or 60 miles, or somewhat less, and in these deserts you find no water, but have to carry it along with you.... So after travelling for six days as I have told you, you come to a city called Sapurgan...."

Sven Hedin remarks: "From this it is apparent that the six days' journey of fine country were traversed immediately before Marco Polo reached Sapurgan. Sir Henry Yule says in a note: 'Whether the true route be, as I suppose, by Nishapur and Meshed, or, as Khanikoff supposes, by Herat and Badghis, it is strange that no one of those famous cities is mentioned.

And we feel constrained to a.s.sume that something has been misunderstood in the dictation, or has dropped out of it.' Yule removes the six days of fine country to the district between Sebsevar and Meshed, and considers that for at least the first day's marches beyond Nishapur Marco Polo's description agrees admirably with that given by Fraser and Ferrier.

"I travelled between Sebsevar and Meshed in the autumn of 1890, and I cannot perceive that Marco Polo's description is applicable to the country.

He speaks of six days' journey through beautiful valleys and pretty hillsides. To the east of Sebsevar you come out into desert country, which, however pa.s.ses into fertile country with many villages.[2] Then there comes a boundless dreary steppe to the south. At the village Seng-i-kal-i-deh you enter an undulating country with immense flocks of sheep. 'The first stretch of the road between Shurab and Nishapur led us through perfect desert..; but the landscape soon changed its aspect; the desert pa.s.sed by degrees into cultivated lands, and we rode past several villages surrounded by fields and gardens.... We here entered the most fertile and densely peopled region in Khorasan, in the midst of which the town of Nishapur is situated.' Of the tract to the east of Nishapur I say: 'Here are found innumerable villages. The plain and slopes are dotted with them. This district is extraordinarily densely inhabited and well cultivated.' But then all this magnificence comes to an end, and of the last day's journey between Kademgah and Meshed I write: 'The country rose and we entered a maze of low intricate hillocks.... The country was exceedingly dreary and bare. Some flocks of sheep were seen, however, but what the fat and sleek sheep lived on was a puzzle to me.... This dismal landscape was more and more enlivened by travellers.... To the east stretched an undulating steppe up to the frontier of Afghanistan.'

"The road between Sebsevar and Meshed is, in short, of such a character that it can hardly fit in with Marco Polo's enthusiastic description of the six days. And as these came just before Sapurgan, one cannot either identify the desert regions named with the deserts about the middle course of the Murgab which extend between Meshed and Shibirkhan. He must have crossed desert first, and it may be identified with the nemek-sar or salt desert east of Tun and Kain. The six days must have been pa.s.sed in the ranges Paropamisus, Firuz-kuh, and Bend-i-Turkestan. Marco Polo is not usually wont to scare his readers by descriptions of mountainous regions, but at this place he speaks of mountains and valleys and rich pastures. As it was, of course, his intention to travel on into the heart of Asia, to make a detour through Sebsevar was unnecessary and out of his way. If he had travelled to Sebsevar, Nishapur, and Meshed, he would scarcely call the province of Tun-o-Kain the extremity of Persia towards the north, even as the political boundaries were then situated.

"From Balkh his wonderful journey proceeded further eastwards, and therefore we take leave of him. Precisely in Eastern Persia his descriptions are so brief that they leave free room for all kinds of speculations. In the foregoing pages it has been simply my desire to present a few new points of view. The great value of Marco Polo's description of the Persian desert consists in confirming and proving its physical invariableness during more than six hundred years. It had as great a scarcity of oases then as now, and the water in the wells was not less salt than in our own days." (_Overland to India_, II., pp. 75-77.)

XXVII., p. 152 n.

DOGANA.

"The country of Dogana is quite certain to be the Chinese T'u-ho-lo or Tokhara; for the position suits, and, moreover, nearly all the other places named by Marco Polo along with Dogana occur in Chinese History along with Tokhara many centuries before Polo's arrival. Tokhara being the most important, it is inconceivable that Marco Polo would omit it. Thus, Poh-lo (Balkh), capital of the Eptals; Ta-la-kien (Talecan), mentioned by Hiuan Tsang; Ho-sim or Ho-ts'z-mi (Casem), mentioned in the _T'ang History_; Shik-nih or Sh-k'i-ni (Syghinan) of the _T'ang History_; Woh-k'an (Vochan), of the same work; several forms of Bolor, etc. (see also my remarks on the Pamir region in the _Contemporary Review_ for Dec., 1897)." (E.H. PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, p. 142.)

XIX., p. 160.

BADAKHSHAN.

"The Chinese name for 'Badakhshan' never appears before the Pa-ta-shan of Kublai's time." (E.H. PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, p. 143.)

x.x.x., pp. 164-166. "You must know that ten days' journey to the south of Badashan there is a province called PASHAI, the people of which have a peculiar language, and are Idolaters, of a brown complexion. They are great adepts in sorceries and the diabolic arts. The men wear earrings and brooches of gold and silver set with stones and pearls. They are a pestilent people and a crafty; and they live upon flesh and rice. Their country is very hot."

Sir A. STEIN writes (_Ancient Khotan_, I., pp. 14-15 n.): "Sir Henry Yule was undoubtedly right in a.s.suming that Marco Polo had never personally visited these countries and that his account of them, brief as it is, was derived from hearsay information about the tracts which the Mongol partisan leader Nigudar had traversed, about 1260 A.D., on an adventurous incursion from Badakhshan towards Kashmir and the Punjab. In Chapter XVIII., where the Venetian relates that exploit (see Yule, _Marco Polo_, I., p. 98, with note, p. 104), the name of Pashai is linked with _Dir_, the territory on the Upper Panjkora river, which an invader, wishing to make his way from Badakhshan into Kashmir by the most direct route, would necessarily have to pa.s.s through.

"The name _Pashai_ is still borne to this day by a Muhamadanized tribe closely akin to the Siah-posh, settled in the Panjshir Valley and in the hills on the west and south of Kafiristan. It has been very fully discussed by Sir Henry Yule (Ibid., I., p. 165), who shows ample grounds for the belief that this tribal name must have once been more widely spread over the southern slopes of the Hindu kush as far as they are comprised in the limits of Kafiristan. If the great commentator nevertheless records his inability to account for Marco Polo's application of 'the name Pashai to the country south-east of Badakhshan,' the reason of the difficulty seems to me to lie solely in Sir Henry Yule's a.s.sumption that the route heard of by the traveller, led 'by the Dorah or the Nuksan Pa.s.s, over the watershed of Hindu kush into Chitral and so to Dir.'

"Though such a route via Chitral would, no doubt, have been available in Marco Polo's time as much as now, there is no indication whatever forcing us to believe that it was the one really meant by his informants. When Nigudar 'with a great body of hors.e.m.e.n, cruel unscrupulous fellows' went off from Badakhshan towards Kashmir, he may very well have made his way over the Hindu kush by the more direct line that pa.s.ses to Dir through the eastern part of Kafiristan. In fact, the description of the Pashai people and their country, as given by Marco Polo, distinctly points to such a route; for we have in it an unmistakable reflex of characteristic features with which the idolatrous Siah-posh Kafirs have always been credited by their Muhammadan neighbours.

"It is much to be regretted that the Oriental records of the period, as far as they were accessible to Sir Henry Yule, seemed to have retained only faint traces of the Mongol adventurer's remarkable inroad. From the point of view of Indian history it was, no doubt, a mere pa.s.sing episode.

But some details regarding it would possess special interest as ill.u.s.trating an instance of successful invasion by a route that so far has not received its due share of attention." [See supra, pp. 4, 22-24.]

x.x.x., p. 164.

"The Chinese Toba Dynasty History mentions, in company with Samarcand, _K'a-shi-mih_ (Cashmeer), and Kapisa, a State called _Pan-she_, as sending tribute to North China along with the Persian group of States. This name _Pan-she_ [Chinese] does not, to the best of my belief, occur a second time in any Chinese record." (PARKER, _Asiatic Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, p. 135.)

x.x.x., p. 164. "Now let us proceed and speak of another country which is seven day's journey from this one [Pashai] towards the south-east, and the name of which is KESHIMUR."

This short estimate has perplexed Sir Henry Yule, l.c., p. 166. Sir Aurel Stein remarks in a note, _Serindia_, I., p. 12: "The route above indicated [Nigudar's route] permits an explanation. Starting from some point like Arnawal on the Kunar River which certainly would be well within 'Pashai,' lightly equipped hors.e.m.e.n could by that route easily reach the border of Agror on the Indus within seven days. Speaking from personal knowledge of almost the whole of the ground I should be prepared to do the ride myself by the following stages: Dir, Warai, Sado, Chakdara, Kin kargalai, Bajkatta, Kai or Darband on the Indus. It must be borne in mind that, as Yule rightly recognized, Marco Polo is merely reproducing information derived from a Mongol source and based on Nigudar's raid; and further that Hazara and the valley of the Jhelam were probably then still dependent on the Kashmir kingdom, as they were certainly in Kalhana's time, only a century earlier. As to the rate at which Mongols were accustomed to travel on 'Dak,' cf. Yule, _Marco Polo_, I., pp. 434 seq."

x.x.xII., pp. 170, 171. "The people [of Badashan] are Mahommetans, and valiant in war.... They [the people of Vokhan] are gallant soldiers."

In Afghan Wakhan, Sir Aurel Stein writes:

"On we cantered at the head of quite a respectable cavalcade to where, on the sandy plain opposite to the main hamlet of Sarhad, two companies of foot with a squad of cavalry, close on two hundred men in all, were drawn up as a guard of honour. Hardy and well set up most of them looked, giving the impression of thoroughly serviceable human material, in spite of a manifestly defective drill and the motley appearance of dress and equipment.

"They belonged, so the Colonel explained to me afterwards, to a sort of militia drafted from the local population of the Badakhshan valleys and Wakhan into the regiments permanently echeloned as frontier guards along the Russian border on the Oxus. Apart from the officers, the proportion of true Pathans among them was slight. Yet I could well believe from all I saw and heard, that, properly led and provided for, these st.u.r.dy Iranian hillmen might give a good account of themselves. Did not Marco Polo speak of the people of 'Badashan' as 'valiant in war' and of the men of 'Vokhan'

as gallant soldiers?" (_Ruins of Desert Cathay_, I., p. 66.)

x.x.xII., pp. 170 seq.