They are called by the Mongols, by a
corruption of the Sanskrit, Ubashi and Ubashanza. Their vows extend to
the strict keeping of the five great commandments of the Buddhist Law, and
they diligently ply the rosary and the prayer-wheel, but they are not
pledged to celibacy, nor do they adopt the tonsure. As a sign of their
amphibious position, they commonly wear a red or yellow girdle. These are
what some travellers speak of as the lowest order of Lamas, permitted to
marry; and Polo may have regarded them in the same light.
(Koeppen, II. 82, 113, 276, 291; Timk. II. 354; Erman, II. 304;
Alph. Tibet. 449.)
NOTE 15. - [Mr. Rockhill writes to me that "bran" is certainly Tibetan
tsamba (parched barley). - H. C.]
NOTE 16. - Marco's contempt for Patarins slips out in a later passage
(Bk. III. ch. xx.). The name originated in the eleventh century in
Lombardy, where it came to be applied to the "heretics," otherwise called
"Cathari." Muratori has much on the origin of the name Patarini, and
mentions a monument, which still exists, in the Piazza de' Mercanti at
Milan, in honour of Oldrado Podesta of that city in 1233, and which thus,
with more pith than grammar, celebrates his meritorious acts:
