The Practice Varies Much, However, Even In Tibet, With Different
Provinces And Sects - A Variation Which The Ramusian Text Of Polo Implies
In These Words:
"For five days, or four days, or three in each month,
they shed no blood," etc.
In Burma the Worship Day, as it is usually called by Europeans, is a very
gay scene, the women flocking to the pagodas in their brightest attire.
(H. T. Memoires, I. 6, 208; Koeppen, I. 563-564, II. 139, 307-308;
Pallas, Samml. II. 168-169).
NOTE 4. - These matrimonial customs are the same that are afterwards
ascribed to the Tartars, so we defer remark.
NOTE 5. - So Pauthier's text, "en legation." The G. Text includes Nicolo
Polo, and says, "on business of theirs that is not worth mentioning," and
with this Ramusio agrees.
CHAPTER XLV.
OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.
When you leave the city of Campichu you ride for twelve days, and then
reach a city called ETZINA, which is towards the north on the verge of the
Sandy Desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut.[NOTE 1] The people are
Idolaters, and possess plenty of camels and cattle, and the country
produces a number of good falcons, both Sakers and Lanners. The
inhabitants live by their cultivation and their cattle, for they have no
trade. At this city you must needs lay in victuals for forty days, because
when you quit Etzina, you enter on a desert which extends forty days'
journey to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor
baiting-place.[NOTE 2] In the summer-time, indeed, you will fall in with
people, but in the winter the cold is too great. You also meet with wild
beasts (for there are some small pine-woods here and there), and with
numbers of wild asses.[NOTE 3] When you have travelled these forty days
across the Desert you come to a certain province lying to the north. Its
name you shall hear presently.
[Illustration: Wild Ass of Mongolia.]
NOTE 1. - Deguignes says that YETSINA is found in a Chinese Map of Tartary
of the Mongol era, and this is confirmed by Pauthier, who reads it
Itsinai, and adds that the text of the Map names it as one of the seven
Lu or Circuits of the Province of Kansuh (or Tangut). Indeed, in
D'Anville's Atlas we find a river called Etsina Pira, running northward
from Kanchau, and a little below the 41st parallel joining another from
Suhchau. Beyond the junction is a town called Hoa-tsiang, which probably
represents Etzina. Yetsina is also mentioned in Gaubil's History of
Chinghiz as taken by that conqueror in 1226, on his last campaign against
Tangut. This capture would also seem from Petis de la Croix to be
mentioned by Rashiduddin. Gaubil says the Chinese Geography places Yetsina
north of Kanchau and north-east of Suhchau, at a distance of 120 leagues
from Kanchau, but observes that this is certainly too great. (Gaubil, p.
49.)
[I believe there can be no doubt that Etzina must be looked for on the
river Hei-shui, called Etsina by the Mongols, east of Suhchau.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 420 of 655
Words from 219146 to 219672
of 342071
