The Burmese Annals mention
only the two latest, but, concerning both the date and the main
circumstances of these two, Chinese and Burmese Annals are in almost
entire agreement. Surely then it can scarcely be doubted that the Chinese
authority is amply trustworthy for the first campaign also,
respecting which the Burmese book is silent; even were the former not
corroborated by the independent authority of Marco.
Indeed the mutual correspondence of these Annals, especially as to
chronology, is very remarkable, and is an argument for greater respect to
the chronological value of the Burmese Chronicle and other Indo-Chinese
records of like character than we should otherwise be apt to entertain.
Compare the story of the expedition of 1300 as told after the Chinese
Annals by De Mailla, and after the Burmese Chronicle by Burney and Phayre.
(See De Mailla, IX. 476 seqq.; and J.A.S.B. vol. vi. pp. 121-122,
and vol. xxxvii. Pt. I. pp. 102 and 110.)
CHAPTER LIII.
OF THE GREAT DESCENT THAT LEADS TOWARDS THE KINGDOM OF MIEN.
After leaving the Province of which I have been speaking you come to a
great Descent. In fact you ride for two days and a half continually down
hill. On all this descent there is nothing worthy of mention except only
that there is a large place there where occasionally a great market is
held; for all the people of the country round come thither on fixed days,
three times a week, and hold a market there. They exchange gold for
silver; for they have gold in abundance; and they give one weight of fine
gold for five weights of fine silver; so this induces merchants to come
from various quarters bringing silver which they exchange for gold with
these people; and in this way the merchants make great gain. As regards
those people of the country who dispose of gold so cheaply, you must
understand that nobody is acquainted with their places of abode, for they
dwell in inaccessible positions, in sites so wild and strong that no one
can get at them to meddle with them. Nor will they allow anybody to
accompany them so as to gain a knowledge of their abodes.[NOTE 1]
After you have ridden those two days and a half down hill, you find
yourself in a province towards the south which is pretty near to India,
and this province is called AMIEN. You travel therein for fifteen days
through a very unfrequented country, and through great woods abounding in
elephants and unicorns and numbers of other wild beasts. There are no
dwellings and no people, so we need say no more of this wild country, for
in sooth there is nothing to tell. But I have a story to relate which you
shall now hear[NOTE 2].
NOTE 1. - In all the Shan towns visited by Major Sladen on this frontier he
found markets held every fifth day. This custom, he says, is borrowed
from China, and is general throughout Western Yun-nan. There seem to be
traces of this five-day week over Indo-China, and it is found in Java; as
it is in Mexico. The Kakhyens attend in great crowds. They do not now
bring gold for sale to Momein, though it is found to some extent in their
hills, more especially in the direction of Mogaung, whence it is exported
towards Assam.
Major Sladen saw a small quantity of nuggets in the possession of a
Kakhyen who had brought them from a hill two days north of Bhamo. (MS.
Notes by Major Sladen.)
NOTE 2. - I confess that the indications in this and the beginning of the
following chapter are, to me, full of difficulty. According to the general
style of Polo's itinerary, the 2-1/2 days should be reckoned from
Yung-ch'ang; the distance therefore to the capital city of Mien would be
17-1/2 days. The real capital of Mien or Burma at this time was, however,
Pagan, in lat. 21 deg. 13', and that city could hardly have been reached by
a land traveller in any such time. We shall see that something may be said
in behalf of the supposition that the point reached was Tagaung or Old
Pagan, on the upper Irawadi, in lat. 23 deg. 28'; and there was perhaps
some confusion in the traveller's mind between this and the great city.
The descent might then be from Yung-ch'ang to the valley of the Shweli,
and that valley then followed to the Irawadi. Taking as a scale Polo's 5
marches from Tali to Yung-ch'ang, I find we should by this route make just
about 17 marches from Yung-ch'ang to Tagaung. We have no detailed knowledge
of the route, but there is a road that way, and by no other does the plain
country approach so near to Yung-ch'ang. (See Anderson's Report on
Expedition to Western Yunnan, p. 160.)
Dr. Anderson's remarks on the present question do not in my opinion remove
the difficulties. He supposes the long descent to be the descent into the
plains of the Irawadi near Bhamo; and from that point the land journey to
Great Pagan could, he conceives, "easily be accomplished in 15 days." I
greatly doubt the latter assumption. By the scale I have just referred to
it would take at least 20 days. And to calculate the 2-1/2 days with which
the journey commences from an indefinite point seems scarcely admissible.
Polo is giving us a continuous itinerary; it would be ruptured if he
left an indefinite distance between his last station and his "long
descent." And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between
Carajan (or Tali) and Vochan (Yung-ch'ang), the result would be nonsense.
