In foreign states, and a copy of it
some years ago found its way through the Nepalese agent at L'hasa, into
the hands of Colonel Ramsay, the British Resident at Katmandu.[6]
NOTE 3. - Wheat grows as low as Ava, but there also it is not used by
natives for bread, only for confectionery and the like. The same is the
case in Eastern China. (See ch. xxvi. note 4, and Middle Kingdom,
II. 43.)
NOTE 4. - The word piccoli is supplied, doubtfully, in lieu of an unknown
symbol. If correct, then we should read "24 piccoli each" for this was
about the equivalent of a grosso. This is the first time Polo mentions
cowries, which he calls porcellani. This might have been rendered by the
corresponding vernacular name "Pig-shells," applied to certain shells of
that genus (Cypraea) in some parts of England. It is worthy of note that
as the name porcellana has been transferred from these shells to
China-ware, so the word pig has been in Scotland applied to crockery;
whether the process has been analogous, I cannot say.
Klaproth states that Yun-nan is the only country of China in which cowries
had continued in use, though in ancient times they were more generally
diffused. According to him 80 cowries were equivalent to 6 cash, or a
half-penny. About 1780 in Eastern Bengal 80 cowries were worth 3/8th of a
penny, and some 40 years ago, when Prinsep compiled his tables in Calcutta
(where cowries were still in use a few years ago, if they are not now), 80
cowries were worth 3/10 of a penny.
At the time of the Mahomedan conquest of Bengal, early in the 13th
century, they found the currency exclusively composed of cowries, aided
perhaps by bullion in large transactions, but with no coined money. In
remote districts this continued to modern times. When the Hon. Robert
Lindsay went as Resident and Collector to Silhet about 1778, cowries
constituted nearly the whole currency of the Province. The yearly revenue
amounted to 250,000 rupees, and this was entirely paid in cowries at the
rate of 5120 to the rupee. It required large warehouses to contain them,
and when the year's collection was complete a large fleet of boats to
transport them to Dacca. Before Lindsay's time it had been the custom to
count the whole before embarking them! Down to 1801 the Silhet revenue
was entirely collected in cowries, but by 1813, the whole was realised in
specie. (Thomas, in J.R.A.S. N.S. II. 147; Lives of the Lindsays,
III. 169, 170.)
Klaproth's statement has ceased to be correct. Lieutenant Garnier found
cowries nowhere in use north of Luang Prabang; and among the Kakhyens in
Western Yun nan these shells are used only for ornament. [However, Mr. E.
H. Parker says (China Review, XXVI. p. 106) that the porcelain
money still circulates in the Shan States, and that he saw it there
himself. - H.C.]
[Illustration: The Canal at Yun nan fu.]
NOTE 5. - See ch. xlvii. note 4. Martini speaks of a great brine-well to
the N.E. of Yaogan (W.N.W. of the city of Yun-nan), which supplied the
whole country round.
NOTE 6. - Two particulars appearing in these latter paragraphs are alluded
to by Rashiduddin in giving a brief account of the overland route from
India to China, which is unfortunately very obscure: "Thence you arrive at
the borders of Tibet, where they eat raw meat and worship images,
and have no shame respecting their wives." (Elliot, I. p. 73.)
[1] Baber writes (p. 107): "The river is never called locally by any other
name than Kin-ke or 'Gold River.'[A] The term Kin-sha-Kiang should
in strictness be confined to the Tibetan course of the stream; as
applied to other parts it is a mere book name. There is no great
objection to its adoption, except that it is unintelligible to the
inhabitants of the banks, and is liable to mislead travellers in
search of indigenous information, but at any rate it should not be
supposed to asperse Marco Polo's accuracy. Gold River is the local
name from the junction of the Yalung to about P'ing-shan; below
P'ing-shan it is known by various designations, but the Ssu-ch'uanese
naturally call it 'the River,' or, by contrast with its affluents, the
'Big River' (Ta-ho)." I imagine that Baber here makes a slight
mistake, and that they use the name kiang, and not ho, for the
river. - H.C.
[Mr. Rockhill remarks (Land of the Lamas, p. 196 note) that "Marco
Polo speaks of the Yang-tzu as the Brius, and Orazio della Penna
calls it Biciu, both words representing the Tibetan Dre ch'u. This
last name has been frequently translated 'Cow yak River,' but this is
certainly not its meaning, as cow yak is dri-mo, never pronounced
dre, and unintelligible without the suffix, mo. Dre may mean
either mule, dirty, or rice, but as I have never seen the word
written, I cannot decide on any of these terms, all of which have
exactly the same pronunciation. The Mongols call it Murus osu, and
in books this is sometimes changed to Murui osu, 'Tortuous river.'
The Chinese call it Tung t'ien ho, 'River of all Heaven.' The name
Kin-sha kiang, 'River of Golden Sand,' is used for it from Bat'ang
to Sui-fu, or thereabouts." The general name for the river is
Ta-Kiang (Great River), or simply Kiang, in contradistinction to
Ho, for Hwang-Ho (Yellow River) in Northern China. - H.C.]
[A] Marco Polo nowhere calls the river "Gold River," the name he
gives it is Brius.
