The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 161

LXI., p. 305, n. Harlez's inscription is a miserable scribble of the facsimile from Dr. Bush.e.l.l. (PELLIOT.)

LXI., p. 308, n. 5. The _Yuan Shi_, ch. 77, f 7 _v._, says that: "Every year, [the Emperor] resorts to Shang tu. On the 24th day of the 8th moon, the sacrifice called 'libation of mare's milk' is celebrated." (PELLIOT.)

[1] The eight stages would be:--(1) Hasanabad, 21 miles; (2) Darband, 28 miles; (3) Chehel Pai, 23 miles; (4) Naiband, 39 miles; (5) Zenagan, 47 miles; (6) Duhuk, 25 miles; (7) Chah Khushab, 36 miles; and (8) Tun, 23 miles.

[2] _Genom Khorasan och Turkestan_, I., pp. 123 seq.

BOOK SECOND.

PART I.--THE KAAN, HIS COURT AND CAPITAL.

II., p. 334.

NAYAN.

It is worthy of note that Nayan had given up Buddhism and become a Christian as well as many of his subjects. Cf. PELLIOT 1914, pp. 635-6.

VII., pp. 352, 353.

Instead of _Sir-i-Sher_, read _Sar-i-Sher_. (PELLIOT.)

_P'AI TZU_.

"Dr. Bush.e.l.l's note describes the silver _p'ai_, or tablets (not then called _p'ai tsz_) of the Cathayans, which were 200 (not 600) in number.

But long before the Cathayans used them, the T'ang Dynasty had done so for exactly the same purpose. They were 5 inches by 1-1/2 inches, and marked with the five words, 'order, running horses, silver _p'ai_,' and were issued by the department known as the _men-hia-sheng_. Thus, they were not a Tartar, but a Chinese, invention. Of course, it is possible that the Chinese must have had the idea suggested to them by the ancient wooden orders or tallies of the Tartars." (E.H. PARKER, _As. Quart. Review_, Jan., 1904, p. 146.)

Instead of "Publication No. 42" read only No. 42, which is the number of the _pai tzu_. (PELLIOT.)

VIII., p. 358, n. 2.

_Kun ku = hon hu_ may be a transcription of _hw.a.n.g heu_ during the Mongol Period, according to Pelliot.

IX. p. 360.

MONGOL IMPERIAL FAMILY.

"Marco Polo is correct in a way when he says Kublai was the sixth Emperor, for his father Tu li is counted as a _Divus_ (Jwei Tsung), though he never reigned; just as his son Chin kin (Yu Tsung) is also so counted, and under similar conditions. Chin kin was appointed to the _chung shu_ and _shu-mih_ departments in 1263. He was entrusted with extensive powers in 1279, when he is described as 'heir apparent.' In 1284 Yun Nan, Chagan-jang, etc., were placed under his direction. His death is recorded in 1285. Another son, Numugan, was made Prince of the Peking region (Peh-p'ing) in 1266, and the next year a third son, Hukaji, was sent to take charge of Ta-li, Chagan-jang, Zardandan, etc. In 1272 Kublai's son, Mangalai, was made Prince of An-si, with part of Shen Si as his appanage.

One more son, named Ai-ya-ch'ih, is mentioned in 1284, and in that year yet another, Tu kan, was made Prince of Chen-nan, and sent on an expedition against Ciampa. In 1285 Essen Temur, who had received a _chung-shu_ post in 1283, is spoken of as Prince of Yun Nan, and is stated to be engaged in Kara-jang; in 1286 he is still there, and is styled 'son of the Emperor.' I do not observe in the Annals that Hukaji ever bore the t.i.tle of Prince of Yun Nan, or, indeed, any princely t.i.tle. In 1287 Ai-ya-ch'ih is mentioned as being at Shen Chou (Mukden) in connection with Kublai's 'personally conducted' expedition against Nayen. In 1289 one more son, Geukju, was patented Prince of Ning Yuan. In 1293 Kublai's _third son_ c.h.i.n.kin, received a posthumous t.i.tle, and c.h.i.n.kin's son Temur was declared heir-apparent to Kublai.

"The above are the only sons of Kublai whose names I have noticed in the Annals. In the special table of Princes Numugan is styled Peh-an (instead of Peh-p'ing) Prince. Aghrukji's name appears in the table (chap. 108, p.

107), but though he is styled Prince of Si-p'ing, he is not there stated to be a son of Kublai; nor in the note I have supplied touching Tibet is he styled a _hw.a.n.g-tsz_ or 'imperial son.' In the table Hukaji is described as being in 1268 Prince of Yun Nan, a t.i.tle 'inherited in 1280 by Essen Temur.' I cannot discover anything about the other alleged sons in Yule's note (Vol. I., p. 361). The Chinese count Kublai's years as eighty, he having died just at the beginning of 1294 (our February); this would make him seventy-nine at the very outside, according to our mode of reckoning, or even seventy-eight if he was born towards the end of a year, which indeed he was (eighth moon). If a man is born on the last day of the year he is two years old the very next day according to Chinese methods of counting, which, I suppose, include the ten months which they consider are spent in the womb." (E.H. PARKER, _As. Quart. Rev._, Jan., 1904, pp.

137-139.)

XI., p. 370, n. 13.

The character _King_ in _King-shan_ is not the one representing Court [Chinese] but [Chinese].--Read "Wan-_sui_-Shan" instead of _Wan-su-Shan_.

XII., p. 380.

_Keshikten_ has nothing to do with _Kalchi_. (PELLIOT.)

XVIII., p. 398.

THE CHEETA, OR HUNTING LEOPARD.

Cf. Chapters on Hunting Dogs and Cheetas, being an extract from the "_Kitab'u' l-Bazyarah_," a treatise on Falconry, by _Ibn Kustrajim_, an Arab writer of the Tenth Century. By Lieut.-Colonel D.C. Phillott and Mr.

R.F. Azoo (_Journ. and Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, Jan., 1907, pp.

47-50):

"The cheeta is the offspring of a lioness, by a leopard that coerces her, and, for this reason, cheetas are sterile like mules and all other hybrids. No animal of the same size is as weighty as the cheeta. It is the most somnolent animal on earth. The best are those that are 'hollow-bellied,' roach backed, and have deep black spots on a dark tawny ground, the spots on the back being close to each other; that have the eyes bloodshot, small and narrow; the mouth 'deep and laughing'; broad foreheads; thick necks; the black line from the eyes long; and the fangs far apart from each other. The fully mature animal is more useful for sporting purposes than the cub; and the females are better at hunting than are the males, and such is the case with all beasts and birds of prey."

See Hippolyte Boussac, _Le Guepard dans l'Egypte ancienne_ (_La Nature_, 21st March, 1908, pp. 248-250).

XIX., p. 400 n. Instead of _Hoy tiao_, read _Hey tiao_ (_Hei tiao_).

XIX., p. 400. "These two are styled _Chinuchi_ (or _Cunichi_), which is as much as to say, 'The Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs.'"

Dr. Laufer writes to me: "The word _chinuchi_ is a Mongol term derived from Mongol _cinoa_ (p.r.o.nounced _cino_ or _cono_ which means 'wolf,' with the possessive suffix _-ci_, meaning accordingly a 'wolf-owner' or 'wolf-keeper).' One of the Tibetan designations for the mastiff is _cang-k'i_ (written _spyang-k'yi_), which signifies literally 'wolf-dog.'

The Mongol term is probably framed on this Tibetan word. The other explanations given by Yule (401-402) should be discarded."

Prof. Pelliot writes to me: "J'incline a croire que les _Cunichi_ sont a lire _Cuiuci_ et repondent au _kouei-tch'e_ ou _kouei-yeou-tch'e_, 'censeurs,' des textes chinois; les formes chinoises sont transcrites du mongol et se rattachent au verbe _guyu_, ou _guyi_, 'courir'; on peut songer a rest.i.tuer _guyukci_. Un _Ming-ngan_ (= _Minghan_), chef des _kouei-tch'e_, vivait sous Kublai et a sa biographie au ch. 135 du _Yuan Che_; d'autre part, peut-etre faut-il lire, par deplacement de deux points diacritiques, _Bayan guyukci_ dans Rashid ed-Din, ed. BLOCHET, II., 501."

XX., p. 408, n. 6. _Cachar Modun_ must be the place called _Ha-ch'a-mu-touen_ in the _Yuan Shi_, ch. 100, f. 2 r. (PELLIOT.)

XXIV., pp. 423, 430. "Bark of Trees, made into something like Paper, to pa.s.s for Money over all his Country."

Regarding Bretschneider's statement, p. 430, Dr. B. Laufer writes to me: "This is a singular error of Bretschneider. Marco Polo is perfectly correct: not only did the Chinese actually manufacture paper from the bark of the mulberry tree (_Morus alba_), but also it was this paper which was preferred for the making of paper-money. Bretschneider is certainly right in saying that paper is made from the _Broussonetia_, but he is a.s.suredly wrong in the a.s.sertion that paper is not made in China from mulberry trees. This fact he could have easily ascertained from S. Julien,[1] who alludes to mulberry tree paper twice, first, as 'papier de racines et d'ecorce de murier,' and, second, in speaking of the bark paper from _Broussonetia:_ 'On emploie aussi pour le meme usage l'ecorce d'_Hibiscus Rosa sinensis_ et de murier; ce dernier papier sert encore a recueillir les graines de vers a soie,' What is understood by the latter process may be seen from Plate I. in Julien's earlier work on sericulture,[2] where the paper from the bark of the mulberry tree is likewise mentioned.

"The _Chi p'u_, a treatise on paper, written by Su I-kien toward the close of the tenth century, enumerates among the various sorts of paper manufactured during his lifetime paper from the bark of the mulberry tree (_sang p'i_) made by the people of the north.[3]

"Chinese paper-money of mulberry bark was known in the Islamic World in the beginning of the fourteenth century; that is, during the Mongol period.

Accordingly it must have been manufactured in China during the Yuan Dynasty. Ahmed Shibab Eddin, who died in Cairo in 1338 at the age of 93, and left an important geographical work in thirty volumes, containing interesting information on China gathered from the lips of eye-witnesses, makes the following comment on paper-money, in the translation of Ch.

Schefer:[4]

"'On emploie dans le Khita, en guise de monnaie, des morceaux d'un papier de forme allongee fabrique avec des filaments de muriers sur lesquels est imprime le nom de l'empereur. Lorsqu'un de ces papiers est use, on le porte aux officiers du prince et, moyennant une perte minime, on recoit un autre billet en echange, ainsi que cela a lieu dans nos hotels des monnaies, pour les matieres d'or et d'argent que l'on y porte pour etre converties en pieces monnayees.'

"And in another pa.s.sage: 'La monnaie des Chinois est faite de billets fabriques avec l'ecorce du murier. Il y en a de grands et de pet.i.ts....

Ou les fabrique avec des filaments tendres du murier et, apres y avoir oppose un sceau au nom de l'empereur, on les met en circulation.'[5]

"The banknotes of the Ming Dynasty were likewise made of mulberry pulp, in rectangular sheets one foot long and six inches wide, the material being of a greenish colour, as stated in the Annals of the Dynasty.[6] It is clear that the Ming Emperors, like many other inst.i.tutions, adopted this practice from their predecessors, the Mongols. Klaproth[7] is wrong in saying that the a.s.signats of the Sung, Kin, and Mongols were all made from the bark of the tree _cu (Broussonetia)_, and those of the Ming from all sorts of plants.

"In the _Hui kiang chi_, an interesting description of Turkistan by two Manchu officials, Surde and Fusambo, published in 1772,[8] the following note headed 'Mohamedan Paper' occurs: