OF THE PROVINCE OF PASHAI
You must know that ten days' journey to the south of Badashan there is a
Province called PASHAI, the people of which have a peculiar language,
and are Idolaters, of a brown complexion. They are great adepts in
sorceries and the diabolic arts. The men wear earrings and brooches of
gold and silver set with stones and pearls. They are a pestilent people
and a crafty; and they live upon flesh and rice. Their country is very
hot.[NOTE 1]
Now let us proceed and speak of another country which is seven days'
journey from this one towards the south-east, and the name of which is
KESHIMUR.
NOTE 1. - The name of PASHAI has already occurred (see ch. xviii.) linked
with DIR, as indicating a tract, apparently of very rugged and difficult
character, through which the partizan leader Nigudar passed in making an
incursion from Badakhshan towards Kashmir. The difficulty here lies in the
name Pashai, which points to the south-west, whilst Dir and all other
indications point to the south-east. But Pashai seems to me the reading to
which all texts tend, whilst it is clearly expressed in the G. T.
(Pasciai), and it is contrary to all my experience of the interpretation
of Marco Polo to attempt to torture the name in the way which has been
common with commentators professed and occasional. But dropping this name
for a moment, let us see to what the other indications do point.
In the meagre statements of this and the next chapter, interposed as they
are among chapters of detail unusually ample for Polo, there is nothing to
lead us to suppose that the Traveller ever personally visited the
countries of which these two chapters treat. I believe we have here merely
an amplification of the information already sketched of the country
penetrated by the Nigudarian bands whose escapade is related in chapter
xviii., information which was probably derived from a Mongol source. And
these countries are in my belief both regions famous in the legends of
the Northern Buddhists, viz. UDYANA and KASHMIR.
Udyana lay to the north of Peshawar on the Swat River, but from the extent
assigned to it by Hiuen Tsang, the name probably covered a large part of
the whole hill-region south of the Hindu-Kush from Chitral to the Indus,
as indeed it is represented in the Map of Vivien de St. Martin (Pelerins
Bouddhistes, II.). It is regarded by Fahian as the most northerly
Province of India, and in his time the food and clothing of the people
were similar to those of Gangetic India. It was the native country of
Padma Sambhava, one of the chief apostles of Lamaism, i.e. of Tibetan
Buddhism, and a great master of enchantments. The doctrines of Sakya, as
they prevailed in Udyana in old times, were probably strongly tinged with
Sivaitic magic, and the Tibetans still regard that locality as the classic
ground of sorcery and witchcraft.
