And you
perceive that it is just when the enemy sees them run, and imagines that
he has gained the battle, that he has in reality lost it; for the Tartars
wheel round in a moment when they judge the right time has come. And after
this fashion they have won many a fight.[NOTE 6]
All this that I have been telling you is true of the manners and customs
of the genuine Tartars. But I must add also that in these days they are
greatly degenerated; for those who are settled in Cathay have taken up the
practices of the Idolaters of the country, and have abandoned their own
institutions; whilst those who have settled in the Levant have adopted the
customs of the Saracens.[NOTE 7]
NOTE 1. - The bow was the characteristic weapon of the Tartars, insomuch
that the Armenian historians often call them "The Archers." (St. Martin,
II. 133.) "CUIRBOULY, leather softened by boiling, in which it took any
form or impression required, and then hardened." (Wright's Dict.) The
English adventurer among the Tartars, whose account of them is given by
Archbishop Ivo of Narbonne, in Matthew Paris (sub. 1243), says: "De
coriis bullitis sibi arma levia quidem, sed tamen impenetrabilia
coaptarunt." This armour is particularly described by Plano Carpini
(p. 685). See the tail-piece to Book IV.
[Mr. E. H. Parker (China Review, XXIV. iv. p. 205) remarks that "the
first coats of mail were made in China in 1288: perhaps the idea was
obtained from the Malays or Arabs." - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - M. Pauthier has judiciously pointed out the omissions that have
occurred here, perhaps owing to Rusticiano's not properly catching the
foreign terms applied to the various grades. In the G. Text the passage
runs: "Et sachies que les cent mille est apelle un Tut (read tuc) et
les dix mille un Toman, et les por milier et por centenier et por
desme." In Pauthier's (uncorrected) text one of the missing words is
supplied: "Et appellent les C.M. un Tuc; et les X.M. un Toman; et un
millier Guz por centenier et por disenier." The blanks he supplies thus
from Abulghazi: "Et un millier: [un Miny]; Guz, por centenier et [Un]
por disenier." The words supplied are Turki, but so is the Guz, which
appears already in Pauthier's text, whilst Toman and Tuc are common to
Turki and Mongol. The latter word, Tuk or Tugh, is the horse-tail or
yak-tail standard which among so many Asiatic nations has marked the
supreme military command. It occurs as Taka in ancient Persian, and
Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of it as Tupha. The Nine Orloks or Marshals
under Chinghiz were entitled to the Tuk, and theirs is probably the
class of command here indicated as of 100,000, though the figure must not
be strictly taken.
