The Travels of Marco Polo Volume I Part 82

The marriage customs of Tartars are as follows. Any man may take a hundred wives an he so please, and if he be able to keep them. But the first wife is ever held most in honour, and as the most legitimate [and the same applies to the sons whom she may bear]. The husband gives a marriage payment to his wife's mother, and the wife brings nothing to her husband.

They have more children than other people, because they have so many wives. They may marry their cousins, and if a father dies, his son may take any of the wives, his own mother always excepted; that is to say the eldest son may do this, but no other. A man may also take the wife of his own brother after the latter's death. Their weddings are celebrated with great ado.[NOTE 5]

NOTE 1.--The word here in the G. T. is "_fennes_," which seems usually to mean _ropes_, and in fact Pauthier's text reads: "_Il ont mesons de verges et les cueuvrent de cordes_." Ramusio's text has _feltroni_, and both Muller and the Latin of the S. G. have _filtro_. This is certainly the right reading. But whether _fennes_ was ever used as a form of _feltres_ (as _pennes_ means _peltry_) I cannot discover. Perhaps some words have dropped out. A good description of a Kirghiz hut (35 feet in diameter), and exactly corresponding to Polo's account, will be found in _Atkinson's Siberia_, and another in _Vambery's Travels_. How comfortable and civilised the aspect of such a hut may be, can be seen also in Burnes's account of a Turkoman dwelling of this kind. This description of hut or tent is common to nearly all the nomade tribes of Central Asia. The trellis-work forming the skeleton of the tent-walls is (at least among the Turkomans) loosely pivoted, so as to draw out and compress like "lazy-tongs."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dressing up a tent.]

Rubruquis, Pallas, Timkowski, and others, notice the custom of turning the door to the south; the reason is obvious. (_Atkinson_, 285; _Vamb._ 316; _Burnes_, III. 51; _Conolly_, I. 96) But throughout the Altai, Mr. Ney Elias informs me, K'alkas, Kirghiz, and Kalmaks all pitch their tents facing _east_. The prevailing winter wind is there _westerly_.

[Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 56, note) says that he has often seen Mongol tents facing east and south-east. He adds: "It is interesting to find it noted in the _Chou Shu_ (Bk. 50, 3) that the Khan of the Turks, who lived always on the Tu-kin mountains, had his tent invariably facing south, so as to show reverence to the sun's rising place."--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--Aeschylus already knows the

"wandering Scyths who dwell In latticed huts high-poised on easy wheels."

(_Prom. Vinct._ 709-710.)

And long before him Hesiod says Phineus was carried by the Harpies--

"To the Land of the Milk-fed nations, whose houses are waggons."

(_Strabo_, vii. 3-9.)

Ibn Batuta describes the Tartar waggon in which he travelled to Sarai as mounted on four great wheels, and drawn by two or more horses:--

"On the waggon is put a sort of pavilion of wands laced together with narrow thongs. It is very light, and is covered with felt or cloth, and has latticed windows, so that the person inside can look out without being seen. He can change his position at pleasure, sleeping or eating, reading or writing, during the journey." These waggons were sometimes of enormous size. Rubruquis declares that he measured between the wheel-tracks of one and found the interval to be 20 feet. The axle was like a ship's mast, and twenty-two oxen were yoked to the waggon, eleven abreast. (See opposite cut.) He describes the huts as not usually taken to pieces, but carried all standing. The waggon just mentioned carried a hut of 30 feet diameter, for it projected beyond the wheels at least 5 feet on either side. In fact, Carpini says explicitly, "Some of the huts are speedily taken to pieces and put up again; such are packed on the beasts. Others cannot be taken to pieces, but are carried bodily on the waggons. To carry the smaller tents on a waggon one ox may serve; for the larger ones three oxen or four, or even more, according to the size." The carts that were used to transport the Tartar valuables were covered with felt soaked in tallow or ewe's milk, to make them waterproof. The tilts of these were rectangular, in the form of a large trunk. The carts used in Kashgar, as described by Mr. Shaw, seem to resemble these latter. (_I. B._ II. 381-382; _Rub._ 221; _Carp._ 6, 16.)

The words of Herodotus, speaking generally of the Scyths, apply perfectly to the Mongol hordes under Chinghiz: "Having neither cities nor forts, and carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go; accustomed, moreover, one and all, to shoot from horseback; and living not by husbandry but on their cattle, their waggons the only houses that they possess, how can they fail of being unconquerable?" (Bk. IV. ch. 46, p. 41, _Rawlins._) Scythian prisoners in their waggons are represented on the Column of Theodosius at Constantinople; but it is difficult to believe that these waggons, at least as figured in Banduri, have any really Scythian character.

It is a curious fact that the practice of carrying these _yurts_ or felt tents upon waggons appears to be entirely obsolete in Mongolia. Mr. Ney Elias writes: "I frequently showed your picture [that opposite] to Mongols, Chinese, and Russian border-traders, but none had ever seen anything of the kind. The only cart I have ever seen used by Mongols is a little low, light, roughly-made bullock-dray, _certainly_ of Chinese importation." The old system would, however, appear to have been kept up to our own times by the Nogai Tartars, near the Sea of Azof. (See note from Heber, in _Clark's Travels_, 8vo ed. I. 440, and Dr. Clark's vignette at p. 394 in the same volume.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mediaeval Tartar Huts and Waggons.]

NOTE 3.--_Pharaoh's Rat_ was properly the Gerboa of Arabia and North Africa, which the Arabs also regard as a dainty. There is a kindred animal in Siberia, called _Alactaga_, and a kind of Kangaroo-rat (probably the same) is mentioned as very abundant on the Mongolian Steppe. There is also the _Zieselmaus_ of Pallas, a Dormouse, I believe, which he says the Kalmaks, even of distinction, count a delicacy, especially cooked in sour milk. "They eat not only the flesh of all their different kinds of cattle, including horses and camels, but also that of many wild animals which other nations eschew, e.g. marmots and _zieselmice_, beavers, badgers, otters, and lynxes, leaving none untouched except the dog and weasel kind, and also (unless _very_ hard pressed) the flesh of the fox and the wolf."

(_Pallas, Samml._ I. 128; also _Rubr._ 229-230.)

["In the Mongol biography of Chinghiz Khan (Mongol text of the _Yuan ch'ao pi shi_), mention is made of two kinds of animals (mice) used for food; the tarbagat (_Aritomys Bobac_) and _kuchugur_." (_Palladius_, l.c. p.

14.) Regarding the marmots called _Sogur_ by Rubruquis, Mr. Rockhill writes (p. 69): "Probably the _Mus citillus_, the _Suslik_ of the Russians.... M. Grenard tells me that _Soghur_, more usually written _sour_ in Turki, is the ordinary name of the marmot."--H. C.]

NOTE 4.--"Their wives are chaste; nor does one ever hear any talk of their immodesty," says Carpini;--no Boccaccian and Chaucerian stories.

NOTE 5.--"The Mongols are not prohibited from having a plurality of wives; the first manages the domestic concerns, and is the most respected."

(_Timk._ II. 310.) Naturally Polygamy is not so general among the Mongols as when Asia lay at their feet. The Buraets, who seem to retain the old Mongol customs in great completeness, are polygamists, and have as many wives as they choose. Polygamy is also very prevalent among the Yakuts, whose lineage seems to be Eastern Turk. (_Ritter_, III. 125; _Erman_, II.

346.)

Of the custom that ent.i.tled the son on succeeding to take such as he pleased of his deceased father's wives, we have had some ill.u.s.tration (see _Prologue_, ch. xvii. note 2), and many instances will be found in Hammer's or other Mongol Histories. The same custom seems to be ascribed by Herodotus to the Scyths (IV. 78). A number of citations regarding the practice are given by Quatremere. (_Q. R._ p. 92.) A modern Mongol writer in the _Melanges Asiatiques_ of the Petersburg Academy, states that the custom of taking a deceased brother's wives is now obsolete, but that a proverb preserves its memory (II. 656). It is the custom of some Mahomedan nations, notably of the Afghans, and is one of those points that have been cited as a supposed proof of their Hebrew lineage.

"The Kalin is a present which the Bridegroom or his parents make to the parents of the Bride. All the Pagan nations of Siberia have this custom; they differ only in what const.i.tutes the present, whether money or cattle." (_Gmelin_, I. 29; see also _Erman_, II. 348.)

CHAPTER LIII.

CONCERNING THE G.o.d OF THE TARTARS.

This is the fashion of their religion. [They say there is a Most High G.o.d of Heaven, whom they worship daily with thurible and incense, but they pray to Him only for health of mind and body. But] they have [also] a certain [other] G.o.d of theirs called NATIGAY, and they say he is the G.o.d of the Earth, who watches over their children, cattle, and crops. They show him great worship and honour, and every man hath a figure of him in his house, made of felt and cloth; and they also make in the same manner images of his wife and children. The wife they put on the left hand, and the children in front. And when they eat, they take the fat of the meat and grease the G.o.d's mouth withal, as well as the mouths of his wife and children. Then they take of the broth and sprinkle it before the door of the house; and that done, they deem that their G.o.d and his family have had their share of the dinner.[NOTE 1]

Their drink is mare's milk, prepared in such a way that you would take it for white wine; and a right good drink it is, called by them _Kemiz_.[NOTE 2]

The clothes of the wealthy Tartars are for the most part of gold and silk stuffs, lined with costly furs, such as sable and ermine, vair and fox-skin, in the richest fashion.

NOTE 1.--There is no reference here to Buddhism, which was then of recent introduction among the Mongols; indeed, at the end of the chapter, Polo speaks of their new adoption of the Chinese idolatry, i.e. Buddhism. We may add here that the Buddhism of the Mongols decayed and became practically extinct after their expulsion from China (1368-1369). The old Shamanism then apparently revived; nor was it till 1577 that the great reconversion of Mongolia to Lamaism began. This reconversion is the most prominent event in the Mongol history of Sanang Setzen, whose great-grandfather Khutuktai Setzen, Prince of the Ordos, was a chief agent in the movement.

The Supreme Good Spirit appears to have been called by the Mongols _Tengri_ (Heaven), and _Khormuzda_, and is identified by Schmidt with the Persian Hormuzd. In Buddhist times he became identified with Indra.

Plano Carpini's account of this matter is very like Marco's: "They believe in one G.o.d, the Maker of all things, visible and invisible, and the Distributor of good and evil in this world; but they worship Him not with prayers or praises or any kind of service. Natheless, they have certain idols of felt, imitating the human face, and having underneath the face something resembling teats; these they place on either side of the door.

These they believe to be the guardians of the flocks, from whom they have the boons of milk and increase. Others they fabricate of bits of silk, and these are highly honoured;... and whenever they begin to eat or drink, they first offer these idols a portion of their food or drink."

The account agrees generally with what we are told of the original Shamanism of the Tunguses, which recognizes a Supreme Power over all, and a small number of potent spirits called _Ongot_. These spirits among the Buraets are called, according to one author, _Nougait_ or _Nogat_, and according to Erman _Ongotui_. In some form of this same word, _Nogait, Ongot, OngG.o.d, Ongotui_, we are, I imagine, to trace the _Natigay_ of Polo. The modern representative of this Shamanist _Lar_ is still found among the Buraets, and is thus described by Pallas under the name of _Immegiljin_: "He is honoured as the tutelary G.o.d of the sheep and other cattle. Properly, the divinity consists of _two_ figures, hanging side by side, one of whom represents the G.o.d's wife. These two figures are merely a pair of lanky flat bolsters with the upper part shaped into a round disk, and the body hung with a long woolly fleece; eyes, nose, b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and navel, being indicated by leather k.n.o.bs st.i.tched on. The male figure commonly has at his girdle the foot-rope with which horses at pasture are fettered, whilst the female, which is sometimes accompanied by smaller figures representing her children, has all sorts of little nicknacks and sewing implements." Galsang Czomboyef, a recent Russo-Mongol writer already quoted, says also: "Among the Buryats, in the middle of the hut and place of honour, is the _Dsaiagachi_ or 'Chief Creator of Fortune.' At the door is the _Emelgelji_, the Tutelary of the Herds and Young Cattle, made of sheepskins. Outside the hut is the _Chandaghatu_, a name implying that the idol was formed of a white hare-skin, the Tutelary of the Chase and perhaps of War. All these have been expelled by Buddhism except Dsaiagachi, who is called _Tengri_, and introduced among the Buddhist divinities."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tartar Idols and k.u.mis Churn.]

[Dorji Banzaroff, in his dissertation _On the Black Religion_, i.e.

Shamanism, 1846, "is disposed to see in Natigay of M. Polo, the Ytoga of other travellers, i.e. the Mongol _Etugen_--'earth,' as the object of veneration of the Mongol Shamans. They look upon it as a divinity, for its power as _Delegei in echen_, i.e. 'the Lord of Earth,' and on account of its productiveness, _Altan delegei_, i.e. 'Golden Earth.'" Palladius (l.c.

pp. 14-16) adds one new variant to what the learned Colonel Yule has collected and set forth with such precision, on the Shaman household G.o.ds.

"The Dahurs and Barhus have in their dwellings, according to the number of the male members of the family, puppets made of straw, on which eyes, eyebrows, and mouth are drawn; these puppets are dressed up to the waist.

When some one of the family dies, his puppet is taken out of the house, and a new puppet is made for every newly-born member of the family. On New Year's Day offerings are made to the puppets, and care is taken not to disturb them (by moving them, etc.), in order to avoid bringing sickness upon the family." (_He lung kiang wai ki_.)

(Cf. _Rubruck_, 58-59, and Mr. Rockhill's note, 59-60.)--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--KIMIZ or k.u.mIZ, the habitual drink of the Mongols, as it still is of most of the nomads of Asia. It is thus made. Fresh mare's milk is put in a well-seasoned bottle-necked vessel of horse-skin; a little _kurut_ (see note 5, ch. liv.) or some sour cow's milk is added; and when acetous fermentation is commencing it is violently churned with a peculiar staff which constantly stands in the vessel. This interrupts fermentation and introduces a quant.i.ty of air into the liquid. It is customary for visitors who may drop in to give a turn or two at the churn-stick. After three or four days the drink is ready.

k.u.miz keeps long; it is wonderfully tonic and nutritious, and it is said that it has cured many persons threatened with consumption. The tribes using it are said to be remarkably free from pulmonary disease; and indeed I understand there is a regular _Galactopathic_ establishment somewhere in the province of Orenburg for treating pulmonary patients with k.u.miz diet.

It has a peculiar fore- and after-taste which, it is said, everybody does not like. Yet I have found no confession of a dislike to k.u.miz. Rubruquis tells us it is pungent on the tongue, like _vinum raspei_ (_vin rape_ of the French), whilst you are drinking it, but leaves behind a pleasant flavour like milk of almonds. It makes a man's inside feel very cosy, he adds, even turning a weak head, and is strongly diuretic. To this last statement, however, modern report is in direct contradiction. The Greeks and other Oriental Christians considered it a sort of denial of the faith to drink k.u.miz. On the other hand, the Mahomedan converts from the nomad tribes seem to have adhered to the use of k.u.miz even when strict in abstinence from wine; and it was indulged in by the early Mamelukes as a public solemnity. Excess on such an occasion killed Bibars Bundukdari, who was pa.s.sionately fond of this liquor.

The intoxicating power of k.u.miz varies according to the _brew_. The more advanced is the vinous fermentation the less acid is the taste and the more it sparkles. The effect, however, is always slight and transitory, and leaves no unpleasant sensation, whilst it produces a strong tendency to refreshing sleep. If its good qualities amount to half what are ascribed to it by Dr. W. F. Dahl, from whom we derive some of these particulars, it must be the pearl of all beverages. "With the nomads it is the drink of all from the suckling upwards, it is the solace of age and illness, and the greatest of treats to all!"

There was a special kind called _Kara k.u.miz_, which is mentioned both by Rubruquis and in the history of Wa.s.saf. It seems to have been strained and clarified. The modern Tartars distil a spirit from k.u.miz of which Pallas gives a detailed account. (_Dahl, Ueber den k.u.myss_ in _Baer's Beitrage_, VII.; _Lettres sur le Caucase et la Crimee_, Paris, 1859, p. 81; _Makrizi_, II. 147; _J. As._ XI. 160; _Levchine_, 322-323; _Rubr._ 227-228, 335; _Gold. Horde_, p. 46; _Erman_, I. 296; _Pallas, Samml._ I.

132 seqq.)

[In the _Si yu ki_, Travels to the West of Ch'ang ch'un, we find a drink called _tung lo_. "The Chinese characters, _tung lo_," says Bretschneider (_Med. Res._ I. 94), "denote according to the dictionaries preparations from mare's or cow's milk, as k.u.mis, sour milk, etc. In the _Yuan shi_ (ch. cxxviii.) biography of the Kipchak prince _Tu-tu-ha_, it is stated that 'black mare's milk' (evidently the cara cosmos of Rubruck), very pleasant to the taste, used to be sent from Kipchak to the Mongol court in China." (On the drinks of the Mongols, see Mr. Rockhill's note, _Rubruck_, p. 62.)--The Mongols indulge in sour milk (_tarak_) and distilled mare's milk (_arreki_), but Mr. Rockhill (_Land of the Lamas_, 130) says he never saw them drink _k.u.miz_.--H. C.]

The mare's-milk drink of Scythian nomads is alluded to by many ancient authors. But the manufacture of k.u.miz is particularly spoken of by Herodotus. "The (mare's) milk is poured into deep wooden casks, about which the blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred round.

That which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the best part; the under portion is of less account." Strabo also speaks of the nomads beyond the Cimmerian Chersonesus, who feed on horse-flesh and other flesh, mare's-milk cheese, mare's milk, and sour milk ([Greek: oxygalakta]) "_which they have a particular way of preparing_." Perhaps Herodotus was mistaken about the wooden tubs. At least all modern attempts to use anything but the orthodox skins have failed. Priscus, in his narrative of the mission of himself and Maximin to Attila, says the Huns brought them a drink made from _barley_ which they called [Greek: Kamos]. The barley was, no doubt, a misapprehension of his. (_Herod._ Bk. iv. p. 2, in _Rawl._; _Strabo_, VII. 4, 6; _Excerpta de Legationibus_, in _Corp. Hist. Byzant._ I. 55.)