The Whole Of The Latter Account
Implies Belief In The Perpetuity Of The Darkness.
It resembles Pliny's
hazy notion of the northern regions:[1] "pars mundi damnata a rerum natura
et densa mersa caligine." Whether the fault is due to Rustician's
ignorance or is Polo's own, who can say?
We are willing to debit it to the
former, and to credit Marco with the improved version in Ramusio. In the
Masalak-al-Absar, however, we have the following passage in which the
conception is similar: "Merchants do not ascend (the Wolga) beyond
Bolghar; from that point they make excursions through the province of
Julman (supposed to be the country on the Kama and Viatka). The merchants
of the latter country penetrate to Yughra, which is the extremity of the
North. Beyond that you see no trace of habitation except a great Tower
built by Alexander, after which there is nothing but Darkness." The
narrator of this, being asked what he meant, said: "It is a region of
desert mountains, where frost and snow continually reign, where the sun
never shines, no plant vegetates, and no animal lives. Those mountains
border on the Dark Sea, on which rain falls perpetually, fogs are ever
dense, and the sun never shows itself, and on tracts perpetually covered
with snow." (N. et Ex. XIII. i. 285.)
NOTE 2. - This is probably a story of great antiquity, for it occurs in the
legends of the mythical Ughuz, Patriarch of the Turk and Tartar nations,
as given by Rashiduddin. In this hero's campaign towards the far north, he
had ordered the old men to be left behind near Almalik; but a very ancient
sage called Bushi Khwaja persuaded his son to carry him forward in a box,
as they were sure sooner or later to need the counsel of experienced age.
When they got to the land of Kara Hulun, Ughuz and his officers were
much perplexed about finding their way, as they had arrived at the Land of
Darkness. The old Bushi was then consulted, and his advice was that they
should take with them 4 mares and 9 she-asses that had foals, and tie up
the foals at the entrance to the Land of Darkness, but drive the dams
before them. And when they wished to return they would be guided by the
scent and maternal instinct of the mares and she-asses. And so it was
done. (See Erdmann Temudschin, p. 478.) Ughuz, according to the
Mussulman interpretation of the Eastern Legends, was the great-grandson of
Japhet.
The story also found its way into some of the later Greek forms of the
Alexander Legends. Alexander, when about to enter the Land of Darkness,
takes with him only picked young men. Getting into difficulties, the King
wants to send back for some old sage who should advise. Two young men had
smuggled their old father with them in anticipation of such need, and on
promise of amnesty they produce him. He gives the advice to use the mares
as in the text.
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