The King has a vast number
of people, but he carries on no war with anybody, and his people live in
great tranquillity. They have enormous numbers of cattle, camels, horses,
oxen, sheep, and so forth.
You find in their country immense bears entirely white, and more than 20
palms in length. There are also large black foxes, wild asses, and
abundance of sables; those creatures I mean from the skins of which they
make those precious robes that cost 1000 bezants each. There are also
vairs in abundance; and vast multitudes of the Pharaoh's rat, on which the
people live all the summer time. Indeed they have plenty of all sorts of
wild creatures, for the country they inhabit is very wild and trackless.
[NOTE 2]
And you must know that this King possesses one tract of country which is
quite impassable for horses, for it abounds greatly in lakes and springs,
and hence there is so much ice as well as mud and mire, that horses cannot
travel over it. This difficult country is 13 days in extent, and at the
end of every day's journey there is a post for the lodgement of the
couriers who have to cross this tract. At each of these post-houses they
keep some 40 dogs of great size, in fact not much smaller than donkeys,
and these dogs draw the couriers over the day's journey from post-house to
post-house, and I will tell you how. You see the ice and mire are so
prevalent, that over this tract, which lies for those 13 days' journey in
a great valley between two mountains, no horses (as I told you) can
travel, nor can any wheeled carriage either. Wherefore they make sledges,
which are carriages without wheels, and made so that they can run over the
ice, and also over mire and mud without sinking too deep in it. Of these
sledges indeed there are many in our own country, for 'tis just such that
are used in winter for carrying hay and straw when there have been heavy
rains and the country is deep in mire. On such a sledge then they lay a
bear-skin on which the courier sits, and the sledge is drawn by six of
those big dogs that I spoke of. The dogs have no driver, but go straight
for the next post-house, drawing the sledge famously over ice and mire.
The keeper of the post-house however also gets on a sledge drawn by dogs,
and guides the party by the best and shortest way. And when they arrive at
the next station they find a new relay of dogs and sledges ready to take
them on, whilst the old relay turns back; and thus they accomplish the
whole journey across that region, always drawn by dogs.[NOTE 3]
The people who dwell in the valleys and mountains adjoining that tract of
13 days' journey are great huntsmen, and catch great numbers of precious
little beasts which are sources of great profit to them. Such are the
Sable, the Ermine, the Vair, the Erculin, the Black Fox, and many
other creatures from the skins of which the most costly furs are prepared.
They use traps to take them, from which they can't escape.[NOTE 4] But in
that region the cold is so great that all the dwellings of the people are
underground, and underground they always live.[NOTE 5]
There is no more to say on this subject, so I shall proceed to tell you of
a region in that quarter, in which there is perpetual darkness.
NOTE 1. - There are two KUWINJIS, or KAUNCHIS, as the name, from Polo's
representation of it, probably ought to be written, mentioned in
connection with the Northern Steppes, if indeed there has not been
confusion about them; both are descendants of Juji, the eldest son of
Chinghiz. One was the twelfth son of Shaibani, the 5th son of Juji.
Shaibani's Yurt was in Siberia, and his family seem to have become
predominant in that quarter. Arghun, on his defeat by Ahmad (supra p.
470), was besought to seek shelter with Kaunchi. The other Kaunchi was the
son of Sirtaktai, the son of Orda, the eldest son of Juji, and was, as
well as his father and grandfather, chief of the White Horde, whose
territory lay north-east of the Caspian. An embassy from this Kaunchi is
mentioned as having come to the court of Kaikhatu at Siah-Kuh (north of
Tabriz) with congratulations, in the summer of 1293. Polo may very
possibly have seen the members of this embassy, and got some of his
information from them. (See Gold. Horde, 149, 249; Ilkhans, I. 354,
403; II. 193, where Hammer writes the name of Kandschi.)
It is perhaps a trace of the lineage of the old rulers of Siberia that the
old town of Tyuman in Western Siberia is still known to the Tartars as
Chinghiz Tora, or the Fort of Chinghiz. (Erman, I. 310.)
NOTE 2. - We see that Polo's information in this chapter extends over the
whole latitude of Siberia; for the great White Bears and the Black Foxes
belong to the shores of the Frozen Ocean; the Wild Asses only to the
southern parts of Siberia. As to the Pharaoh's Rat, see vol. i. p. 254.
[Illustration: The Siberian Dog-sledge.
"E sus ceste treies hi se mete sus un cuir d'ors, e puis hi monte sus un
mesaje; e ceste treies moinent six chiens de celz grant qe je vos ai
contes; et cesti chienz ne les moine nulz, mes il vont tout droit jusque a
l'autre poste, et trainent la treies mout bien."]
NOTE 3.
