- The Expressions About The Sable Run In The G. T., "Et L'apellent
Les Tartarz Les Roi Des Pelaines," Etc.
This has been curiously
misunderstood both in versions based on Pipino, and in the Geog.
Latin and
Crusca Italian. The Geog. Latin gives us "vocant eas Tartari Lenoidae
Pellonae"; the Crusca, "chiamanle li Tartari Leroide Pelame"; Ramusio in
a very odd way combines both the genuine and the blundered interpretation:
"E li Tartari la chiamano Regina delle Pelli; e gli animali si
chiamano Rondes." Fraehn ingeniously suggested that this Rondes (which
proves to be merely a misunderstanding of the French words Roi des) was
a mistake for Kunduz, usually meaning a "beaver," but also a "sable."
(See Ibn Foszlan, p. 57.) Condux, no doubt with this meaning, appears
coupled with vair, in a Venetian Treaty with Egypt (1344), quoted by
Heyd. (II. 208.)
Ibn Batuta puts the ermine above the sable. An ermine pelisse, he says,
was worth in India 1000 dinars of that country, whilst a sable one was
worth only 400 dinars. As Ibn Batuta's Indian dinars are Rupees, the
estimate of price is greatly lower than Polo's. Some years ago I find the
price of a Sack, as it is technically called by the Russian traders, or
robe of fine sables, stated to be in the Siberian market about 7000 banco
rubels, i.e. I believe about 350l. The same authority mentions that in
1591 the Tzar Theodore Ivanovich made a present of a pelisse valued at the
equivalent of 5000 silver rubels of modern Russian money, or upwards of
750l. Atkinson speaks of a single sable skin of the highest quality,
for which the trapper demanded 18l. The great mart for fine sables is at
Olekma on the Lena. (See I. B. II. 401-402; Baer's Beitraege, VII. 215
seqq.; Upper and Lower Amoor, 390.)
NOTE 9. - Hawking is still common in North China. Petis de la Croix the
elder, in his account of the Yasa, or institutes of Chinghiz, quotes one
which lays down that between March and October "no one should take stags,
deer, roebucks, hares, wild asses, nor some certain birds," in order that
there might be ample sport in winter for the court. This would be just the
reverse of Polo's statement, but I suspect it is merely a careless
adoption of the latter. There are many such traps in Petis de la Croix.
(Engl. Vers. 1722, p. 82.)
CHAPTER XXI.
REHEARSAL OF THE WAY THE YEAR OF THE GREAT KAAN IS DISTRIBUTED.
On arriving at his capital of Cambaluc,[NOTE 1] he stays in his palace
there three days and no more; during which time he has great court
entertainments and rejoicings, and makes merry with his wives. He then
quits his palace at Cambaluc, and proceeds to that city which he has
built, as I told you before, and which is called Chandu, where he has that
grand park and palace of cane, and where he keeps his gerfalcons in mew.
There he spends the summer, to escape the heat, for the situation is a
very cool one.
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