[Uriang Kadai], The Conqueror Of Yun-Nan, It Is Stated That The Capital Of The Black Barbarians Was Called Yach'i. It Is Described There As A City Surrounded By Lakes From Three Sides." - H.C.]

[Illustration: A Saracen of Carajan, being a portrait of a Mahomedan Mullah in Western Yun-nan.

(From Garnier's Work.)

"Les sunt des plosors maineres, car il hi a jens qe aorent Maomet." ]

Regarding Rashiduddin's application of the name Kandahar or Gandhara to Yun-nan, and curious points connected therewith, I must refer to a paper of mine in the J.R.A.Society (N.S. IV. 356). But I may mention that in the ecclesiastical translation of the classical localities of Indian Buddhism to Indo-China, which is current in Burma, Yun-nan represents Gandhara,[5] and is still so styled in state documents (Gandalarit).

What has been said of the supposed name Caraian disposes, I trust, of the fancies which have connected the origin of the Karens of Burma with it. More groundless still is M. Pauthier's deduction of the Talains of Pegu (as the Burmese call them) from the people of Ta-li, who fled from Kublai's invasion.

NOTE 2. - The existence of Nestorians in this remote province is very notable [see Bonin, J. As. XV. 1900, pp. 589-590. - H.C.] and also the early prevalence of Mahomedanism, which Rashiduddin intimates in stronger terms. "All the inhabitants of Yachi," he says, "are Mahomedans." This was no doubt an exaggeration, but the Mahomedans seem always to have continued to be an important body in Yun-nan up to our own day. In 1855 began their revolt against the imperial authority, which for a time resulted in the establishment of their independence in Western Yun-nan under a chief whom they called Sultan Suleiman. A proclamation in remarkably good Arabic, announcing the inauguration of his reign, appears to have been circulated to Mahomedans 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.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 79 of 701
Words from 40476 to 40977 of 370046