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0353 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 353 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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158. CINGHIS   337

has unduly crept into the text between yoruq and buzurg in the first case, and that, in the other two cases, yosun is a corrupt form of yoruq; such a corruption, however, is not easy to explain. Moreover, in these two cases, the wording of the text would suggest something like « bones » rather than yoruq-i buzurg.

Rasid's « Uryanggät » is the plural of Uriyangqa, Uriyangqan, Uriyangqai > Uryangqai

(Uryangqai in the Secret History, § 9; Uryangqan, § 120; Uriyangqan in « Sanang Setsen », 861o, 19012); D'OHSSON's « Ourianguites » or « Orianguites » (Oh, i, 383, 425, 426) and BEREZIN's «Uryankhit» cannot be retained. Rand distinguishes the «Uryanggat» proper, and the « Uryanggat of the Woods» (Uryanggat-i bésä in Persian; Hôin-Uryanggat = Hoi-yin Uryanggat> Oi-yin Uryang-qat in Mongolian; the Mongolian form again occurs in Ber, I, 9, 86; cf. T'u Chi, 153, 57 b, where, however, the phonetic equivalence of « Hoi-yin » and of Oirat is of course wrong). From a comparison of Ber, I, 9 and 90, it is clear that more than once Raid has mixed up the two tribes which he in fact wished to distinguish. We may provisionally accept, however, that the

Uryangqai in charge of Chinghiz-khan's tomb were in fact « Uryangqai of the Woods ». They are Rubrouck's « Orengai », who used to ski (Wy, 269); the same is said by Ragid of the «Uryangqai of the Woods » (Not. et Extr., XIII, I, 275; Oh, I, 422; Ber, I, 91, where pânä is the Mong. pana, « ski »). ROCKHILL (Rubruck, 198, followed by Wy, 269) said that the « Uryangqai of the Woods » were Tungus, because, like QUATREMÈRE (Not. et Extr., XIII, I, 276), he identified the name Uryangqai (« Urianghit ») with that of the Orono or Oroèon, the « Reindeer-Breeders », which is of course impossible. Nor have they anything to do with the *Uryangqa of Manchuria of the Ming period. The Uryangqai proper must have been Mongols, and may have been the ancestors of some of the present Uryangqai tribes of the Republic of Tuva (on the complex and often uncertain question of the origin of the modern Uryangqai, cf. GRUMGR IMAÎLO, Zapadnaya Mongoliya ï Uryankhaiskii Kral, iii, 22-25, and add Meng-ku yüan-liu chien-chêng, 6, 9 a-b). As to the « Uryangqai of the Woods », they too were probably Mongols, although this is not certain (cf. Ber, I, 90, 141; and the emended version in a note to the Persian text, 186). We are not in a position to say why the « Uryangqai of the Woods » were in hereditary charge of the tomb of Chinghiz-khan. It may be worth noting, however, that the Mongol legend connects the name of Uryangqai with that of the Burgan-galdun at an early date. According to the Secret History (§ 9), the father of Alan-qo'a (Alan-yo'a), Qorilartaimärgän, resenting the fact that his territory to the south-east of the Baikal had been made into a taboo district where he could no longer hunt, moved to the region belonging to Burganbosgagsan and Sän6i-bayan, the Uryangqai lords of the Burgan-gaidun. In § 97 (cf. also § 211), the Uryangqadai (the ethnical derivative form of Uryangqai) Jarci'udai-äbügän comes from the Burgan-gaidun to bring his son Jäimä to Chinghiz-khan. So there must have been Uryangqai people at the Burgan-gaidun before the death of Chinghiz-khan. We do not know whether they were Uryangqai proper or « Uryangqai of the Woods ». On the other hand, Rasidu-'d-Din may have confused the two in the case of the tomb of Chinghiz-khan, as he did in other passages. That there actually were Uryangqai at the tomb of Chinghiz-khan and that they were real Mongols seems to be confirmed by the passage in «Sanang Setsen », where Dayan-l)an (i 1543), addressing various Mongol tribes, says : «And you, Uriangqan, who have

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