To the Geographical Society I have noticed the peculiar
Western appearance of Kwei-hwa-ch'eng, and the little gardens of
creepers and flowers in pots which are displayed round the porches in
the court-yards of the better class of houses, and which I have seen
in no other part of China. My attention was especially drawn to these
by your quotation from Rashiduddin."
[6] A translation of Heins' was kindly lent me by the author of this
article, the lamented Mr. J. W. S. Wyllie.
[7] I owe the suggestion of this to a remark in Oppert's Presbyter
Johannes, p. 77.
CHAPTER LX.
CONCERNING THE KAAN'S PALACE OF CHAGANNOR.
At the end of those three days you find a city called CHAGAN NOR [which is
as much as to say White Pool], at which there is a great Palace of the
Grand Kaan's;[NOTE 1] and he likes much to reside there on account of the
Lakes and Rivers in the neighbourhood, which are the haunt of swans[NOTE
2] and of a great variety of other birds. The adjoining plains too abound
with cranes, partridges, pheasants, and other game birds, so that the
Emperor takes all the more delight in staying there, in order to go
a-hawking with his gerfalcons and other falcons, a sport of which he is
very fond.[NOTE 3]
There are five different kinds of cranes found in those tracts, as I shall
tell you. First, there is one which is very big, and all over as black as
a crow; the second kind again is all white, and is the biggest of all; its
wings are really beautiful, for they are adorned with round eyes like
those of a peacock, but of a resplendent golden colour, whilst the head is
red and black on a white ground. The third kind is the same as ours. The
fourth is a small kind, having at the ears beautiful long pendent feathers
of red and black. The fifth kind is grey all over and of great size, with
a handsome head, red and black.[NOTE 4]
Near this city there is a valley in which the Emperor has had several
little houses erected in which he keeps in mew a huge number of cators
which are what we call the Great Partridge. You would be astonished to see
what a quantity there are, with men to take charge of them. So whenever
the Kaan visits the place he is furnished with as many as he wants.
[NOTE 5]
NOTE 1. - [According to the Siu t'ung kien, quoted by Palladius, the
palace in Chagannor was built in 1280. - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - "Ou demeurent sesnes." Sesnes, Cesnes, Cecini, Cesanae, is a
mediaeval form of cygnes, cigni, which seems to have escaped the
dictionary-makers. It occurs in the old Italian version of Brunetto
Latini's Tresor, Bk. V. ch. xxv., as cecino; and for other examples,
see Cathay, p. 125.
NOTE 3. - The city called by Polo CHAGAN-NOR (meaning in Mongol, as he
says, "White Lake") is the Chaghan Balghasun mentioned by Timkowski as
an old city of the Mongol era, the ruined rampart of which he passed about
30 miles north of the Great Wall at Kalgan, and some 55 miles from
Siuen-hwa, adjoining the Imperial pastures. It stands near a lake still
called Chaghan-Nor, and is called by the Chinese Pe-ching-tzu, or White
City, a translation of Chaghan Balghasun. Dr. Bushell says of one of the
lakes (Ichi-Nor), a few miles east of Chaghan-Nor: "We ... found the water
black with waterfowl, which rose in dense flocks, and filled the air with
discordant noises. Swans, geese, and ducks predominated, and three
different species of cranes were distinguished."
The town appears as Tchahan Toloho in D'Anville. It is also, I imagine,
the Arulun Tsaghan Balghasun which S. Setzen says Kublai built about the
same time with Shangtu and another city "on the shady side of the Altai,"
by which here he seems to mean the Khingan range adjoining the Great Wall.
(Timk. II. 374, 378-379; J. R. G. S. vol. xliii.; S. Setz. 115.)
I see Ritter has made the same identification of Chaghan-Nor (II. 141).
NOTE 4. - The following are the best results I can arrive at in the
identification of these five cranes.
1. Radde mentions as a rare crane in South Siberia Grus monachus, called
by the Buraits Kara Togorue, or "Black Crane." Atkinson also speaks of "a
beautiful black variety of crane," probably the same. The Grus monachus
is not, however, jet black, but brownish rather. (Radde, Reisen, Bd. II.
p. 318; Atkinson. Or. and W. Sib. 548.)
2. Grus leucogeranus (?) whose chief habitat is Siberia, but which
sometimes comes as far south as the Punjab. It is the largest of the
genus, snowy white, with red face and beak; the ten largest quills are
black, but this barely shows as a narrow black line when the wings are
closed. The resplendent golden eyes on the wings remain unaccounted for;
no naturalist whom I have consulted has any knowledge of a crane or
crane-like bird with such decorations. When 'tis discovered, let it be the
Grus Poli!
3. Grus cinerea.
4. The colour of the pendants varies in the texts. Pauthier's and the G.
Text have red and black; the Lat. S. G. black only, the Crusca black
and white, Ramusio feathers red and blue (not pendants). The red and
black may have slipt in from the preceding description. I incline to
believe it to be the Demoiselle, Anthropoides Virgo, which is frequently
seen as far north as Lake Baikal. It has a tuft of pure white from the
eye, and a beautiful black pendent ruff or collar; the general plumage
purplish-grey.
5.