[The flesh is very good to eat. Messer Marco brought the
dried head and feet of one of these animals to Venice with him.[NOTE 4]]
The people are traders and artizans, and also grow abundance of corn. The
province has an extent of 26 days' journey. Pheasants are found there
twice as big as ours, indeed nearly as big as a peacock, and having tails
of 7 to 10 palms in length; and besides them other pheasants in aspect
like our own, and birds of many other kinds, and of beautiful variegated
plumage.[NOTE 5] The people, who are Idolaters, are fat folks with little
noses and black hair, and no beard, except a few hairs on the upper lip.
The women too have very smooth and white skins, and in every respect are
pretty creatures. The men are very sensual, and marry many wives, which is
not forbidden by their religion. No matter how base a woman's descent may
be, if she have beauty she may find a husband among the greatest men in
the land, the man paying the girl's father and mother a great sum of
money, according to the bargain that may be made.
NOTE 1. - No approximation to the name of Erguiul in an appropriate
position has yet been elicited from Chinese or other Oriental sources. We
cannot go widely astray as to its position, five days east of Kanchau.
Klaproth identifies it with Liangchau-fu; Pauthier with the neighbouring
city of Yungchang, on the ground that the latter was, in the time of
Kublai, the head of one of the Lus, or Circles, of Kansuh or Tangut,
which he has shown some reason for believing to be the "kingdoms" of
Marco.
It is probable, however, that the town called by Polo Erguiul lay north
of both the cities named, and more in line with the position assigned
below to Egrigaya. (See note 1, ch. lviii.)
I may notice that the structure of the name Ergui-ul or Ergiu-ul, has a
look of analogy to that of Tang-keu-ul, named in the next note.
["Erguiul is Erichew of the Mongol text of the Yuen ch'ao pi shi,
Si-liang in the Chinese history, the modern Liang chow fu. Klaproth, on
the authority of Rashid-eddin, has already identified this name with that
of Si-liang." (Palladius, p. 18.) M. Bonin left Ning-h'ia at the end of
July, 1899, and he crossed the desert to Liangchau in fifteen days from
east to west; he is the first traveller who took this route: Prjevalsky
went westward, passing by the residence of the Prince of Alashan, and
Obrutchev followed the route south of Bonin's. - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - No doubt Marsden is right in identifying this with SINING-CHAU,
now Sining-fu, the Chinese city nearest to Tibet and the Kokonor frontier.
Grueber and Dorville, who passed it on their way to Lhasa, in 1661, call
it urbs ingens.
