P. 425),
Speaks Of "The Light Troops Whom We Call Basmuls." Thus It Would Seem
That, As In The Analogous Case Of The Turcopuli, Sprung From Turk
Fathers And Greek Mothers, Their Name Had Come To Be Applied Technically
To A Class Of Troops.
According to Buchon, the laws of the Venetians in
Candia mention, as different races in that island, the Vasmulo, Latino,
Blaco, and Griego.
Ducange, in one of his notes on Joinville, says: "During the time that the
French possessed Constantinople, they gave the name of Gas-moules to
those who were born of French fathers and Greek mothers; or more probably
Gaste-moules, by way of derision, as if such children by those irregular
marriages ... had in some sort debased the wombs of their mothers!" I have
little doubt (pace tanti viri) that the word is in a Gallicized form the
same with the surviving Italian Guazzabuglio, a hotch-potch, or
mish-mash. In Davanzati's Tacitus, the words "Colluviem illam nationum"
(Annal. II. 55) are rendered "quello guazzabuglio di nazioni," in
which case we come very close to the meaning assigned to Guasmul. The
Italians are somewhat behind in matters of etymology, and I can get no
light from them on the history of this word. (See Buchon, Chroniques
Etrangeres, p. xv.; Ducange, Gloss. Graecitatis, and his note on
Joinville, in Bohn's Chron. of the Crusades, 466.)
NOTE 5. - It has often been cast in Marco's teeth that he makes no mention
of the Great Wall of China, and that is true; whilst the apologies made
for the omission have always seemed to me unsatisfactory. [I find in Sir
G. Staunton's account of Macartney's Embassy (II. p. 185) this most
amusing explanation of the reason why Marco Polo did not mention the wall:
"A copy of Marco Polo's route to China, taken from the Doge's Library at
Venice, is sufficient to decide this question. By this route it appears
that, in fact, that traveller did not pass through Tartary to Pekin, but
that after having followed the usual track of the caravans, as far to the
eastward from Europe as Samarcand and Cashgar, he bent his course to the
south-east across the River Ganges to Bengal (!), and, keeping to the
southward of the Thibet mountains, reached the Chinese province of
Shensee, and through the adjoining province of Shansee to the capital,
without interfering with the line of the Great Wall." - H. C.] We shall see
presently that the Great Wall is spoken of by Marco's contemporaries
Rashiduddin and Abulfeda. Yet I think, if we read "between the lines," we
shall see reason to believe that the Wall was in Polo's mind at this
point of the dictation, whatever may have been his motive for withholding
distincter notice of it.[7] I cannot conceive why he should say: "Here is
what we call the country of Gog and Magog," except as intimating "Here we
are beside the GREAT WALL known as the Rampart of Gog and Magog," and
being there he tries to find a reason why those names should have been
applied to it.
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