The aboriginal People on the Burmese Frontier who received from the
Western officers of the Mongols the Persian name (translated from that
applied by the Chinese) of Zardandan, or Gold-Teeth, appear in the
Pauthier MSS.
Most accurately as Zardandan, but in the Pipinian as
Ardandan (still further corrupted in some copies into Arcladam). Now
both forms are found in the Geographic Text. Other examples might be
given, but these I think may suffice to prove that this Text was the
common source of both classes.
In considering the question of the French original too we must remember
what has been already said regarding Rusticien de Pise and his other
French writings; and we shall find hereafter an express testimony borne in
the next generation that Marco's Book was composed in vulgari Gallico.
[Sidenote: Greatly diffused employment of French in that age.]
54. But, after all, the circumstantial evidence that has been adduced from
the texts themselves is the most conclusive. We have then every reason to
believe both that the work was written in French, and that an existing
French Text is a close representation of it as originally committed to
paper. And that being so we may cite some circumstances to show that the
use of French or quasi-French for the purpose was not a fact of a very
unusual or surprising nature. The French language had at that time almost
as wide, perhaps relatively a wider, diffusion than it has now.
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