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. - H.Y.
[2] Baron Richthofen, who has travelled hundreds of miles in his
footsteps, considers his allowance of time to be generally from 1/4 to
1/9 greater than that now usual.
[3] See Quatremere's Rashiduddin, pp. lxxxvi.-xcvi. My quotation is
made up from two citations by Quatremere, one from his text of
Rashiduddin, and the other from the History of Benakeli, which
Quatremere shows to have been drawn from Rashiduddin, whilst it
contains some particulars not existing in his own text of that author.
[4] The title Chao in Nan-Chao (infra, p. 79) is said by a Chinese
author (Pauthier, p. 391) to signify King in the language of those
barbarians. This is evidently the Chao which forms an essential part
of the title of all Siamese and Shan princes.
[Regarding the word Nan-Chao, Mr. Parker (China Review, XX. p.
339) writes "In the barbarian tongue 'prince is Chao," says the
Chinese author; and there were six Chao, of which the Nan or
Southern was the leading power. Hence the name Nan-Chao ... it is
hardly necessary for me to say that chao or kyiao is still the
Shan-Siamese word for 'prince.' Pallegoix (Dict. p. 85) has Chao,
Princeps, rex. - H.C.]
[5] Gandhara, Arabice Kandahar, is properly the country about
Peshawar, Gandaritis of Strabo.
[6] This is printed almost in full in the French Voyage d'Exploration,
I. 564.
