But I have a story to relate which you
shall now hear[NOTE 2].
NOTE 1. - In all the Shan towns visited by Major Sladen on this frontier he
found markets held every fifth day. This custom, he says, is borrowed
from China, and is general throughout Western Yun-nan. There seem to be
traces of this five-day week over Indo-China, and it is found in Java; as
it is in Mexico. The Kakhyens attend in great crowds. They do not now
bring gold for sale to Momein, though it is found to some extent in their
hills, more especially in the direction of Mogaung, whence it is exported
towards Assam.
Major Sladen saw a small quantity of nuggets in the possession of a
Kakhyen who had brought them from a hill two days north of Bhamo. (MS.
Notes by Major Sladen.)
NOTE 2. - I confess that the indications in this and the beginning of the
following chapter are, to me, full of difficulty. According to the general
style of Polo's itinerary, the 2-1/2 days should be reckoned from
Yung-ch'ang; the distance therefore to the capital city of Mien would be
17-1/2 days. The real capital of Mien or Burma at this time was, however,
Pagan, in lat. 21 deg. 13', and that city could hardly have been reached by
a land traveller in any such time. We shall see that something may be said
in behalf of the supposition that the point reached was Tagaung or Old
Pagan, on the upper Irawadi, in lat. 23 deg. 28'; and there was perhaps
some confusion in the traveller's mind between this and the great city.
The descent might then be from Yung-ch'ang to the valley of the Shweli,
and that valley then followed to the Irawadi. Taking as a scale Polo's 5
marches from Tali to Yung-ch'ang, I find we should by this route make just
about 17 marches from Yung-ch'ang to Tagaung. We have no detailed knowledge
of the route, but there is a road that way, and by no other does the plain
country approach so near to Yung-ch'ang. (See Anderson's Report on
Expedition to Western Yunnan, p. 160.)
Dr. Anderson's remarks on the present question do not in my opinion remove
the difficulties. He supposes the long descent to be the descent into the
plains of the Irawadi near Bhamo; and from that point the land journey to
Great Pagan could, he conceives, "easily be accomplished in 15 days." I
greatly doubt the latter assumption. By the scale I have just referred to
it would take at least 20 days. And to calculate the 2-1/2 days with which
the journey commences from an indefinite point seems scarcely admissible.
Polo is giving us a continuous itinerary; it would be ruptured if he
left an indefinite distance between his last station and his "long
descent." And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between
Carajan (or Tali) and Vochan (Yung-ch'ang), the result would be nonsense.
