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Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 |
el f'R,TEELTM \TARY ESSAY.
And so on, bringing out the whole distance from the Fortunate Isles to the city of Sera to be 1771°. In chapters 13 and 14 he tries to estimate the longitude run by sea from Cape Cory in Southern India to Cattigara the port of the Sin, determining the latter to lie in 177° ; and as all were agreed that the metropolis of the Sinæ lay still further to the east, he puts that in 180°. The whole calculation is based on the loosest possible data, and made to bring out a foregone conclusion. The following is a specimen of the data :
Marinus does not exhibit the mileage from the Golden Chersonese to Cattigara. But he says that Alexander has described the land beyond (that Chersonese) to lie facing the south, and that after sailing by this for twenty days you reach the city of Zaba, and still sailing on for some days southward but rather to the left you reach Cattigara. lie exaggerates the distance, for the expression is some days not many days. IIe says indeed that no numerical statement of the days was made because they were so many : but this I take to be ridiculous," etc., etc.
In chapter 17, speaking of persons who had made the voyage to India and spent much time in those parts, he proceeds :
" From these persons also we have got more exact information about India and its kingdoms, as well as about the remoter' parts of the region extending to the Golden Chersonese and thence to Cattigara. For example they all agree in stating that in going thither your course is to the east, and in coming back again it is to the west, and they agree also in saying that no determinate time can be named for the accomplishment of the
no route in former use intermediate between the pass to Farghana and that to Badakshan, e.g. passing from Tashbalik towards Karateghin ? Kiumi, which is probably the country of Ptolemy's Comedi, is mentioned in Remusat's list of states tributary to China under the Thang. He says indeed it lay " among the mountains of Tokharestan south of the Oxus, towards Balk and Termedh," but north of the Oxus would be more consistent with the data, and it is north of the Oxus that the kingdom of Keumitho mentioned by Hiouen-Thsang appears to lie, which is doubtless the same (see Mem. de l'Acad. R. des Inscr., viii, 92-3 ; Vie de Hiouen Thsang, p. 464; and Chino-Japanese ancient Map, in Klaproth's Mémoires, tom. ii). I see that Kiepert in his map of Asia (1864) inserts Kumid above Karategin with a query (?). It seems possible, however, that we have the name of the Comedi in Kawadidn or Kabadidn, which Edrisi applies to the country between Termedh and Hissar, and which still survives as the name of a town or village.
Beyond the Stone Tower, and in Imaus itself, there was a dptcyrnplov or station for the traders to the Seres (bk. vi, ch. 13). This may have been about Tashbalik. Smith's Diet. of Gr. and Roman Geography, article Serica, states as a fact that in the ancient conduct of the silk trade the Seres deposited their bales of silk in the Stone Tower with the prices marked, and then retired, whilst the western merchants came forward to inspect. Where is the authority ? And if it were so, why did Maës send his agents seven months' journey further ? Or did the writer of the article find the dumb trade in Pliny and the Stone Tower in Ptolemy, and like a celebrated character of Dickens's " combine the information" ?
' Lit. " Interior."
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