An Ermine Pelisse, He Says,
Was Worth In India 1000 Dinars Of That Country, Whilst A Sable One Was
Worth Only 400 Dinars.
As Ibn Batuta's Indian dinars are Rupees, the
estimate of price is greatly lower than Polo's. Some years ago
I find the
price of a Sack, as it is technically called by the Russian traders, or
robe of fine sables, stated to be in the Siberian market about 7000 banco
rubels, i.e. I believe about 350l. The same authority mentions that in
1591 the Tzar Theodore Ivanovich made a present of a pelisse valued at the
equivalent of 5000 silver rubels of modern Russian money, or upwards of
750l. Atkinson speaks of a single sable skin of the highest quality,
for which the trapper demanded 18l. The great mart for fine sables is at
Olekma on the Lena. (See I. B. II. 401-402; Baer's Beitraege, VII. 215
seqq.; Upper and Lower Amoor, 390.)
NOTE 9. - Hawking is still common in North China. Petis de la Croix the
elder, in his account of the Yasa, or institutes of Chinghiz, quotes one
which lays down that between March and October "no one should take stags,
deer, roebucks, hares, wild asses, nor some certain birds," in order that
there might be ample sport in winter for the court. This would be just the
reverse of Polo's statement, but I suspect it is merely a careless
adoption of the latter. There are many such traps in Petis de la Croix.
(Engl.
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