De Harlez, p. 97.) I give
a specimen of Pa-yi writing from a Chinese work purchased by Father Amiot
at Peking, now in the Paris National Library (Fonds chinois, No. 986). (See
on this scrip, F.W.K. Mueller, T'oung-Pao, III. p. 1, and V. p. 329;
E.H. Parker, The Muong Language, China Review, I. 1891, p. 267; P.
Lefevre-Pontalis, Etudes sur quelques alphabets et vocab. Thais, T'oung
Pao, III. pp. 39-64.) - H.C.
[Illustration: Pa-y script.]
These ethnological matters have to be handled cautiously, for there is
great ambiguity in the nomenclature. Thus Man-tzu is often used
generically for aborigines, and the Lolos of Richthofen are called
Man-tzu by Garnier and Blakiston; whilst Lolo again has in Yun-nan
apparently a very comprehensive generic meaning, and is so used by Garnier.
(Richt. Letter VII. 67-68 and MS. notes; Garnier, I. 519 seqq. [T.W.
Kingsmill, Han Wu-ti, China Review, XXV. 103-109.])
[1] Ramusio alone has "a great salt lake."
CHAPTER XLVIII.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CARAJAN.
When you have passed that River you enter on the province of CARAJAN,
which is so large that it includes seven kingdoms. It lies towards the
west; the people are Idolaters, and they are subject to the Great Kaan. A
son of his, however, is there as King of the country, by name ESSENTIMUR;
a very great and rich and puissant Prince; and he well and justly rules
his dominion, for he is a wise man, and a valiant.
After leaving the river that I spoke of, you go five days' journey towards
the west, meeting with numerous towns and villages. The country is one in
which excellent horses are bred, and the people live by cattle and
agriculture. They have a language of their own which is passing hard to
understand. At the end of those five days' journey you come to the
capital, which is called YACHI, a very great and noble city, in which are
numerous merchants and craftsmen.[NOTE 1]
The people are of sundry kinds, for there are not only Saracens and
Idolaters, but also a few Nestorian Christians.[NOTE 2] They have wheat
and rice in plenty. Howbeit they never eat wheaten bread, because in that
country it is unwholesome.[NOTE 3] Rice they eat, and make of it sundry
messes, besides a kind of drink which is very clear and good, and makes a
man drunk just as wine does.
Their money is such as I will tell you. They use for the purpose certain
white porcelain shells that are found in the sea, such as are sometimes
put on dogs' collars; and 80 of these porcelain shells pass for a single
weight of silver, equivalent to two Venice groats, i.e. 24 piccoli.
Also eight such weights of silver count equal to one such weight of gold.
[NOTE 4]
They have brine-wells in this country from which they make salt, and all
the people of those parts make a living by this salt. The King, too, I can
assure you, gets a great revenue from this salt.[NOTE 5]
There is a lake in this country of a good hundred miles in compass, in
which are found great quantities of the best fish in the world; fish of
great size, and of all sorts.
They reckon it no matter for a man to have intimacy with another's wife,
provided the woman be willing.
Let me tell you also that the people of that country eat their meat raw,
whether it be of mutton, beef, buffalo, poultry, or any other kind. Thus
the poor people will go to the shambles, and take the raw liver as it
comes from the carcase and cut it small, and put it in a sauce of garlic
and spices, and so eat it; and other meat in like manner, raw, just as we
eat meat that is dressed.[NOTE 6]
Now I will tell you about a further part of the Province of Carajan, of
which I have been speaking.
NOTE 1. - We have now arrived at the great province of CARAJAN, the
KARAJANG of the Mongols, which we know to be YUN-NAN, and at its capital
YACHI, which - I was about to add - we know to be YUN-NAN-FU. But I find
all the commentators make it something else. Rashiduddin, however, in his
detail of the twelve Sings or provincial governments of China under the
Mongols, thus speaks: "10th, KARAJANG. This used to be an independent
kingdom, and the Sing is established at the great city of YACHI. All the
inhabitants are Mahomedans. The chiefs are Noyan Takin, and Yakub Beg, son
of 'Ali Beg, the Beluch." And turning to Pauthier's corrected account of
the same distribution of the empire from authentic Chinese sources (p.
334), we find: "8. The administrative province of Yun-nan.... Its capital,
chief town also of the canton of the same name, was called Chung-khing,
now YUN-NAN-FU," Hence Yachi was Yun-nan-fu. This is still a large city,
having a rectangular rampart with 6 gates, and a circuit of about 6 1/2
miles. The suburbs were destroyed by the Mahomedan rebels. The most
important trade there now is in the metallic produce of the Province.
[According to Oxenham, Historical Atlas, there were ten provinces or
sheng (Liao-yang, Chung-shu, Shen-si, Ho-nan, Sze-ch'wan, Yun-nan,
Hu-kwang, Kiang-che, Kiang-si and Kan-suh) and twelve military
governorships. - H.C.]
Yachi was perhaps an ancient corruption of the name Yichau, which the
territory bore (according to Martini and Biot) under the Han; but more
probably Yichau was a Chinese transformation of the real name Yachi.
The Shans still call the city Muang Chi, which is perhaps another
modification of the same name.
