- We are told that Bajazet had 7000 falconers and 6000 dog-keepers;
whilst Sultan Mahomed Tughlak of India in the generation following Polo's,
is said to have had 10,000 falconers, and 3000 other attendants as
beaters.
(Not. et Ext. XIII. p. 185.)
The Oriental practice seems to have assigned one man to the attendance on
every hawk. This Kaempfer says was the case at the Court of Persia at the
beginning of last century. There were about 800 hawks, and each had a
special keeper. The same was the case with the Emperor Kanghi's hawking
establishment, according to Gerbillon. (Am. Exot. p. 83; Gerb. 1st
Journey, in Duhalde.)
NOTE 3. - The French MSS. read Toscaor; the reading in the text I take
from Ramusio. It is Turki, Toskaul, [Arabic], defined as "Gardien,
surveillant de la route; Waechter, Wache, Wegehueter." (See Zenker, and
Pavet de Courteille.) The word is perhaps also Mongol, for Remusat has
Tosiyal = "Veille." (Mel. As. I. 231.) Such an example of Polo's
correctness both in the form and meaning of a Turki word is worthy of
especial note, and shows how little he merits the wild and random
treatment which has been often applied to the solution of like phrases in
his book.
[Palladius (p. 47) says that he has heard from men well acquainted with
the customs of the Mongols, that at the present day in "battues," the
leaders of the two flanks which surround the game, are called toscaul in
Mongol. - H. C.]
NOTE 4. - The remark in the previous note might be repeated here. The
Bularguji was an officer of the Mongol camp, whose duties are thus
described by Mahomed Hindu Shah in a work on the offices of the Perso-
Mongol Court. "He is an officer appointed by the Council of State, who, at
the time when the camp is struck, goes over the ground with his servants,
and collects slaves of either sex, or cattle, such as horses, camels,
oxen, and asses, that have been left behind, and retains them until the
owners appear and prove their claim to the property, when he makes it over
to them. The Bularguji sticks up a flag by his tent or hut to enable
people to find him, and so recover their lost property." (Golden Horde,
p. 245.) And in the Appendix to that work (p. 476) there is a copy of a
warrant to such a Bularguji or Provost Marshal. The derivation appears
therein as from Bularghu, "Lost property." Here again it was impossible
to give both form and meaning of the word more exactly than Polo has done.
Though Hammer writes these terminations in ji (dschi), I believe chi
(tschi) is preferable. We have this same word Bularghu in a grant of
privileges to the Venetians by the Ilkhan Abusaid, 22nd December, 1320,
which has been published by M. Mas Latrie: "Item, se algun cavalo
bolargo fosse trovado apreso de algun vostro veneciano," etc. - "If any
stray horse shall be found in the possession of a Venetian," etc. (See
Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1870 - tirage a part, p. 26.)
["There are two Mongol terms, which resemble this word Bularguchi, viz.
Balagachi and Buluguchi. But the first was the name used for the
door-keeper of the tent of the Khan. By Buluguchi the Mongols understood
a hunter and especially sable hunters. No one of these terms can be made
consistent with the accounts given by M. Polo regarding the Bularguchi.
In the Kui sin tsa shi, written by Chow Mi, in the former part of the
14th century, interesting particulars regarding Mongol hunting are found."
(Palladius, 47.) In chapter 101. Djan-ch'i, of the Yuen-shi,
Falconers are called Ying fang pu lie, and a certain class of the
Falconers are termed Bo-lan-ghi. (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I.
p. 188.) - H. C.]
NOTE 5. - A like description is given by Odoric of the mode in which a
successor of Kublai travelled between Cambaluc and Shangtu, with his
falcons also in the chamber beside him. What Kublai had adopted as an
indulgence to his years and gout, his successors probably followed as a
precedent without these excuses.
[With regard to the gout of Kublai Khan, Palladius (p. 48) writes: "In the
Corean history allusion is made twice to the Khan's suffering from this
disease. Under the year 1267, it is there recorded that in the 9th month,
envoys of the Khan with a letter to the King arrived in Corea. Kubilai
asked for the skin of the Akirho munho, a fish resembling a cow. The
envoy was informed that, as the Khan suffered from swollen feet it would
be useful for him to wear boots made of the skin of this animal, and in
the 10th month, the king of Corea forwarded to the Khan seventeen skins of
it. It is further recorded in the Corean history, that in the 8th month of
1292, sorcerers and Shaman women from Corea were sent at the request of
the Khan to cure him of a disease of the feet and hands. At that time the
king of Corea was also in Peking, and the sorcerers and Shaman women were
admitted during an audience the King had of the Khan. They took the Khan's
hands and feet and began to recite exorcisms, whilst Kubilai was
laughing." - H. C.]
NOTE 6. - Marsden and Pauthier identify Cachar Modun with Tchakiri
Mondou, or Moudon, which appears in D'Anville's atlas as the title of a
"Levee de terre naturelle," in the extreme east of Manchuria, and in lat.
44 deg., between the Khinga Lake and the sea. This position is out of the
question. It is more than 900 miles, in a straight line from Peking, and
the mere journey thither and back would have taken Kublai's camp something
like six months. The name Kachar Modun is probably Mongol, and as
Katzar is = "land, region," and Modun = "wood" or "tree," a fair
interpretation lies on the surface.
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