94-102; MS.
Note of Prof. A. Vissiere; The Tangut Script in the Nan-K'ou Pass, by
Dr. S. W. Bushell, China Review, xxiv. II. pp. 65-68.) - H. Y. and H. C.
Pauthier supposes Mark's four acquisitions to have been Bashpah-Mongol,
Arabic, Uighur, and Chinese. I entirely reject the Chinese. Sir H. Yule
adds: "We shall see no reason to believe that he knew either language or
character" [Chinese]. The blunders Polo made in saying that the name of
the city, Suju, signifies in our tongue "Earth" and Kinsay "Heaven" show
he did not know the Chinese characters, but we read in Bk. II. ch.
lxviii.: "And Messer Marco Polo himself, of whom this Book speaks, did
govern this city (Yanju) for three full years, by the order of the Great
Kaan." It seems to me [H. C.] hardly possible that Marco could have for
three years been governor of so important and so Chinese a city as
Yangchau, in the heart of the Empire, without acquiring a knowledge of the
spoken language. - H. C. The other three languages seem highly probable.
The fourth may have been Tibetan. But it is more likely that he counted
separately two varieties of the same character (e.g. of the Arabic and
Persian) as two "lettres de leur escriptures" - H. Y. and H. C.
NOTE 2. - [Ramusio here adds: "Ad und citta, detta Carazan," which, as we
shall see, refers to the Yun-nan Province.] - H. C.
