Such Are The
Sable, The Ermine, The Vair, The Erculin, The Black Fox, And Many
Other Creatures From The Skins
Of which the most costly furs are prepared.
They use traps to take them, from which they can't escape.[NOTE
4] But in
that region the cold is so great that all the dwellings of the people are
underground, and underground they always live.[NOTE 5]
There is no more to say on this subject, so I shall proceed to tell you of
a region in that quarter, in which there is perpetual darkness.
NOTE 1. - There are two KUWINJIS, or KAUNCHIS, as the name, from Polo's
representation of it, probably ought to be written, mentioned in
connection with the Northern Steppes, if indeed there has not been
confusion about them; both are descendants of Juji, the eldest son of
Chinghiz. One was the twelfth son of Shaibani, the 5th son of Juji.
Shaibani's Yurt was in Siberia, and his family seem to have become
predominant in that quarter. Arghun, on his defeat by Ahmad (supra p.
470), was besought to seek shelter with Kaunchi. The other Kaunchi was the
son of Sirtaktai, the son of Orda, the eldest son of Juji, and was, as
well as his father and grandfather, chief of the White Horde, whose
territory lay north-east of the Caspian. An embassy from this Kaunchi is
mentioned as having come to the court of Kaikhatu at Siah-Kuh (north of
Tabriz) with congratulations, in the summer of 1293.
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