IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
NOTICES OF THE LAND ROUTE TO CATHAY, ETC. 287
CHAPTER I.
Information regarding the journey to Cathay, for such as will go by Tana and come back with goods.
IN the first place, from TANA to GINTARCHAN1 may be twenty-five days with an ox-waggon, and from ten to twelve days with a horse-waggon. On the road you will find plenty of Moccols, that is to say, of gems d'armes.2 And from Gittarchan to SARA may be a day by river, and from Sara to SARACANC0,3 also by river, eight days. You can do this either by land or by water ; but by water you will be at less charge for your merchandize.
From Saracanco to ORGANCI may be twenty days' journey in camel-waggon. It will be well for anyone travelling with
1 Gintarchan, or as below less incorrectly Gittarchan, is Astracan, though according to Sprengel the old city destroyed by Timur in 1395 was further from the Caspian than the present one. It is mentioned by Rubruquis in the preceding century as Summerkeur or Summerkent, most probably a clerical error for Sittarkent, and in this century it was the seat of a Minorite convent. The original name was Haj-, or HajjiTarkhan. Ibn Batuta says it was so called after a devout Haj who established himself there, in consideration of which the prince exempted the place from all duties, Tarkhan, he says, signifying a placè free from duties. This is a mistake, however, for Tarkhan among the Mongols denoted a person, the member of an order enjoying nigh privileges, such as freedom from all exactions, the right to enter the sovereign's presence unsummoned, and exemption from punishment for crime till a ninth time con victed. D'Ohsson quotes the mention of this title by a Greek author as old as the time of the Emperor Justin. (Ibn Batuta, ii, 410, and Edr's. note, 458; D' Ohsson, i, 45, etc.) In the Carta Catalana and Portulano Mediceo the place appears as Agitarcharn ; in Fra Mauro's Map as Azetrechan ; by Barbaro and others, up to the middle of the sixteenth century, we find it called Citracan.
2 Moccoli are in another passage explained by Pegolotti to be Tartari scherani, bandits or troopers. The word is, I suppose, simply Mongols, or rather as called in Western Asia 1t Ioghols, which will be almost the Tuscan pronunciation of Moccol. Indeed the word is called by the Armenians Muchal (Neumann's Chron. of Vahram, p. 88).
8 On Sarai see supra, p. 231. Saracanco appears to be unquestionably Sarachik, on which, and on Organci or Urghanj, see pp. 232, 234.
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