The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 1 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa










































 -  This commenced about Lake
Baikal, where the name still survives in that of a river (Barguzin)
falling into the Lake - Page 468
The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 1 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa - Page 468 of 655 - First - Home

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This Commenced About Lake Baikal, Where The Name Still Survives In That Of A River (Barguzin) Falling Into The Lake On The East Side, And Of A Town On Its Banks (Barguzinsk).

Indeed, according to Rashid himself, BARGU was the name of one of the tribes occupying the plain; and a quotation from Father Hyacinth would seem to show that the country is still called Barakhu.

[The Archimandrite Palladius (Elucidations, 16-17) writes: - "In the Mongol text of Chingis Khan's biography, this country is called Barhu and Barhuchin; it is to be supposed, according to Colonel Yule's identification of this name with the modern Barguzin, that this country was near Lake Baikal. The fact that Merkits were in Bargu is confirmed by the following statement in Chingis Khan's biography: 'When Chingis Khan defeated his enemies, the Merkits, they fled to Barhuchin tokum.' Tokum signifies 'a hollow, a low place,' according to the Chinese translation of the above-mentioned biography, made in 1381; thus Barhuchin tokum undoubtedly corresponds to M. Polo's Plain of Bargu. As to M. Polo's statement that the inhabitants of Bargu were Merkits, it cannot be accepted unconditionally. The Merkits were not indigenous to the country near Baikal, but belonged originally, - according to a division set forth in the Mongol text of the Yuan ch'ao pi shi, - to the category of tribes living in yurts, i.e. nomad tribes, or tribes of the desert. Meanwhile we find in the same biography of Chingis Khan, mention of a people called Barhun, which belonged to the category of tribes living in the forests; and we have therefore reason to suppose that the Barhuns were the aborigines of Barhu. After the time of Chingis Khan, this ethnographic name disappears from Chinese history; it appears again in the middle of the 16th century. The author of the Yyu (1543-1544), in enumerating the tribes inhabiting Mongolia and the adjacent countries, mentions the Barhu, as a strong tribe, able to supply up to several tens of thousands (?) of warriors, armed with steel swords; but the country inhabited by them is not indicated. The Mongols, it is added, call them Black Ta-tze (Khara Mongols, i.e. 'Lower Mongols').

"At the close of the 17th century, the Barhus are found inhabiting the western slopes of the interior Hing'an, as well as between Lake Kulon and River Khalkha, and dependent on a prince of eastern Khalkhas, Doro beile. (Manchu title.)

"At the time of Galdan Khan's invasion, a part of them fled to Siberia with the eastern Khalkhas, but afterwards they returned. [Mung ku yew mu ki and Lung sha ki lio.] After their rebellion in 1696, quelled by a Manchu General, they were included with other petty tribes (regarding which few researches have been made) in the category butkha, or hunters, and received a military organisation. They are divided into Old and New Barhu, according to the time when they were brought under Manchu rule. The Barhus belong to the Mongolian, not to the Tungusian race; they are sometimes considered even to have been in relationship with the Khalkhas. (He lung kiang wai ki and Lung sha ki lio.)

"This is all the substantial information we possess on the Barhu.

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