NOTE 1. - "Several of the (Chinese) gods have horns on the forehead, or
wear animals' heads; some have three eyes.... Some are represented in the
Indian manner with a multiplicity of arms. We saw at Yang-cheu fu a
goddess with thirty arms." (Deguignes, I. 364-366.)
The reference to any particular form of idolatry here is vague. But in
Tibetan Buddhism, with which Marco was familiar, all these extravagances
are prominent, though repugnant to the more orthodox Buddhism of the
South.
When the Dalai Lama came to visit the Altun Khan, to secure the
reconversion of the Mongols in 1577, he appeared as a manifest embodiment
of the Bodhisatva Avalokitecvara, with four hands, of which two were
always folded across the breast! The same Bodhisatva is sometimes
represented with eleven heads. Manjushri manifests himself in a golden
body with 1000 hands and 1000 Patras or vessels, in each of which were
1000 figures of Sakya visible, etc. (Koeppen, II. 137; Vassilyev,
200.)
NOTE 2. - Polo seems in this passage to be speaking of the more easterly
Islands of the Archipelago, such as the Philippines, the Moluccas, etc.,
but with vague ideas of their position.
NOTE 3. - In this passage alone Polo makes use of the now familiar name of
CHINA.
