There Are Merchants
In This Country Who Are Very Rich And Dispose Of Large Quantities Of
Goods.
The people live on flesh and rice and milk, and brew their wine
from rice and excellent spices.
NOTE 1. - The only MSS. that afford the reading Coloman or Choloman
instead of Toloman or Tholoman, are the Bern MS., which has Coloman
in the initial word of the chapter, Paris MS. 5649 (Pauthier's C) which
has Coloman in the Table of Chapters, but not in the text, the Bodleian,
and the Brandenburg MS. quoted in the last note. These variations in
themselves have little weight. But the confusion between c and t in
mediaeval MSS., when dealing with strange names, is so constant that I
have ventured to make the correction, in strong conviction that it is the
right reading. M. Pauthier indeed, after speaking of tribes called Lo on
the south-west of China, adds, "on les nommait To-lo-man ('les nombreux
Barbares Lo')." Were this latter statement founded on actual evidence we
might retain that form which is the usual reading. But I apprehend from
the manner in which M. Pauthier produces it, without corroborative
quotation, that he is rather hazarding a conjecture than speaking with
authority. Be that as it may, it is impossible that Polo's Toloman or
Coloman should have been in the south of Kwangsi, where Pauthier locates
it.
On the other hand, we find tribes of both Kolo and Kihlau Barbarians
(i.e. Man, whence KOLO-MAN or Kihlau-man) very numerous on the
frontier of Kweichau.
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