I. 112; Astley, IV. 205;
Doolittle, 191.)
NOTE 18. - Pauthier's text has blons, no doubt an error for blous. In
the G. Text it is bloies. Pauthier interprets the latter term as "blond
ardent," whilst the glossary to the G. Text explains it as both blue and
white. Raynouard's Romance Dict. explains Bloi as "Blond." Ramusio
has biave, and I have no doubt that blue is the meaning. The same word
(bloie) is used in the G. Text, where Polo speaks of the bright colours
of the Palace tiles at Cambaluc, and where Pauthier's text has "vermeil
et jaune et vert et blou," and again (infra, Bk. II. ch. xix.), where the
two corps of huntsmen are said to be clad respectively in vermeil and in
bloie. Here, again, Pauthier's text has bleu. The Crusca in the
description of the Sensin omits the colours altogether; in the two other
passages referred to it has bioda, biodo.
["The Tao-sze, says Marco Polo, wear dresses of black and blue linen; i.e.
they wear dresses made of tatters of black and blue linen, as can be seen
also at the present day." (Palladius, 30.) - H. C.]
NOTE 19. - ["The idols of the Tao-sze, according to Marco Polo's statement,
have female names; in fact, there are in the pantheon of Taoism a great
many female divinities, still enjoying popular veneration in China; such
are Tow Mu (the 'Ursa major,' constellation), Pi-hia-yuen Kiun (the
celestial queen), female divinities for lying-in women, for children, for
diseases of the eyes; and others, which are to be seen everywhere. The
Tao-sze have, besides these, a good number of male divinities, bearing the
title of Kiun in common with female divinities; both these circumstances
might have led Marco Polo to make the above statement." (Palladius, p.
30.) - H. C.]
[1] This distance is taken from a tracing of the map prepared for Dr.
Bushell's paper quoted below. But there is a serious discrepancy
between this tracing and the observed position of Dolon-nor, which
determines that of Shang-tu, as stated to me in a letter from Dr.
Bushell. [See Note 1.]
[2] These particulars were obtained by Dr. Bushell through the
Archimandrite Palladius, from the MS. account of a Chinese traveller
who visited Shangtu about two hundred years ago, when probably the
whole inscription was above ground. The inscription is also mentioned
in the Imp. Geography of the present Dynasty, quoted by Klaproth. This
work gives the interior wall 5 li to the side, instead of a li,
and the outer wall 10 li, instead of 4 li. By Dr. Bushell's
kindness, I give a reduction of his sketch plan (see Itinerary Map,
No. IV. at end of this volume), and also a plate of the heading of the
inscription. The translation of this is: "Monument conferred by the
Emperor of the August Yuen (Dynasty) in memory of His High Eminence
Yun Hien (styled) Chang-Lao (canonised as) Shou-Kung (Prince of
Longevity)." [See Missions de Chine et du Congo No. 28, Mars, 1891,
Bruxelles.]
[3] Ramusio's version runs thus: "The palace presents one side to the
centre of the city and the other to the city wall. And from either
extremity of the palace where it touches the city wall, there runs
another wall, which fetches a compass and encloses a good 16 miles of
plain, and so that no one can enter this enclosure except by passing
through the palace."
[4] This narrative, translated from Chinese into Russian by Father
Palladius, and from the Russian into English by Mr. Eugene Schuyler,
Secretary of the U.S. Legation at St. Petersburg, was obligingly sent
to me by the latter gentleman, and appeared in the Geographical
Magazine for January, 1875, p. 7.
[5] See Bk. II. chap. xiv. note 3.
[6] In the first edition I had supposed a derivation of the Persian words
Jadu and Jadugari, used commonly in India for conjuring, from the
Tartar use of Yadah. And Pallas says the Kirghiz call their witches
Jadugar. (Voy. II. 298.) But I am assured by Sir H. Rawlinson that
this etymology is more than doubtful, and that at any rate the Persian
(Jadu) is probably older than the Turkish term. I see that M. Pavet
de Courteille derives Yadah from a Mongol word signifying "change of
weather," etc.
[7] [See W. Foerster's ed., Halle, 1887, p. 15, 386. - H. C.]
[8] A young Afghan related in the presence of Arthur Conolly at Herat that
on a certain occasion when provisions ran short the Russian General
gave orders that 50,000 men should be killed and served out as
rations! (I. 346.)
[9] Ar. Tafir, a sordid, squalid fellow.
[10] [Cf. Paulin Paris's ed., 1848, II. p. 5. - H. C.]
[11] Shen, or coupled with jin "people," Shenjin, in this sense
affords another possible origin of the word Sensin; but it may in
fact be at bottom, as regards the first syllable, the same with the
etymology we have preferred.
[12] I do not find this allusion in Mr. Beal's new version of Fahian. [See
Remusat's ed. p. 227; Klaproth says (Ibid. p. 230) that the Tao-szu
are called in Tibetan Bonbo and Youngdhroungpa. - H. C.]
[13] Apparently they had at their command the whole encyclopaedia of
modern "Spiritualists." Duhalde mentions among their sorceries the art
of producing by their invocations the figures of Lao-tseu and their
divinities in the air, and of making a pencil to write answers to
questions without anybody touching it.
[14] It is possible that this may point to some report of the mystic
impurities of the Tantrists. The Saktian, or Tantrists, according to
the Dabistan, hold that the worship of a female divinity affords a
greater recompense. (II. 155.)
BOOK SECOND.
(1.) ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT KAAN CUBLAY; OF HIS PALACES AND CAPITAL; HIS
COURT, GOVERNMENT, AND SPORTS.
(2.) CITIES AND PROVINCES VISITED BY THE TRAVELLER ON ONE JOURNEY WESTWARD
FROM THE CAPITAL TO THE FRONTIERS OF MIEN IN THE DIRECTION OF INDIA.
