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0620 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 620 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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604   197. ÇARDANDAN

HALLBERG, 568-569); Fra Mauro, « Çardandam » (not « Zardandam » as in HALLBERG). The identification was first proposed by KLAPROTH (JA, Febr. 1828, 119); QUATREMÈRE must have overlooked it when he put forward the same solution as his own discovery eight years later (Histoire des Mongols, xcvi).

The earliest notice of the « Gold-teeth n occurs in the W.   Man shu (Chien-hsi-ts'un-shê

ed. 20 b, 21 a), written in 864 (cf. BEFEO, iv, 132), from which it is quoted (under the alternative title « Description of the Southern Barbarians », Nan-i chili) in the T'ai-p'ing yü-lan, 789, 19 b, and was partly copied in Hsin T'ang shu, 222 A, 4 b; the gist of the passage in the Hsin T'ang shu is in its turn summed up, though not very accurately, in YS, 61, 12 b, and this is translated (with many errors) in Pa, 397. The text of the Man shu has been poorly established, and I cannot undertake to publish here a critical edition of the passage. But in the following provisional translation I take account of the various relevant texts :

The Barbarians (Man) ' Black Teeth ' (ffl, 1 Hei-ch'ih), the Barbarians ' Gold Teeth '

* Chin-ch'ih), the Barbarians ' Silver Teeth ' (   Yin-ch'ih), the Barbarians ' Embroidered

Legs ' (la )141 Hsiu-chiao), and the Barbarians ' Embroidered Faces ' (   jj Hsiu-mien) are all

south of the barrier (1 kuan; now altered to PFj k'ai in the Man shu, giving an apparent

K'ai-nan which did not exist before the Mongols) of 7n   Yung-ch'ang (see « Uncian »); they
belong to various races. The Black Teeth Barbarians varnish their teeth with lacquer (jj ch'i). The Gold Teeth Barbarians carve gold slips with which they sheathe their teeth; the Silver Teeth Barbarians do the same with silver. When they go out to see people on business, they use these as ornaments; they take them off to sleep and to eat. They all tie their hair in a knot at the top of the head. With a blue (ch'ing) cloth, they make a one-piece lower garment (A , : t'ung-shên-k'u) and also throw a strip of blue cloth obliquely over the shoulder. The Embroidered Leg Barbarians cut the skin all around [their legs] from the ankle to the calf thus making designs; they dress in purple cloth. The Embroidered Face Barbarians, one month

after birth, have their face pricked with a needle, and then indigo (*   ch'ing-tai) is applied
over it, giving it the appearance of embroidery... ». I leave out the long text of the Man shu which comes almost immediately afterwards and which is devoted to the various tribes of the M Mang Barbarians. It has been wrongly combined with the above in the Hsin T'ang shu and consequently in YS, 61, 12 b; but, in the original redaction, the only common points are that the Mang also lived « south of the Barrier of Yung-ch'ang », and that some of them had lacquered teeth; there is no mention in the Man shu of their having « gold teeth ».

It will not be without interest here to quote, after the text of the Man shu, what Raid has to say of the Zar-dandàn. Once he mentions them when giving the boundaries of the QaraJang (KLAPROTH, in JA, x [1828], 113; Bl, II, 378). The Zar-dandàn again appear along with Tibet and are located, inaccurately enough, to the north-west of Northern China (QUATRE-MÈRE, Histoire des Mongols, xcvi; Oh, II, 640; Bl, II, 500). In the land itinerary from India to Yün-nan, Raid speaks of the «Zar-dandàn, [who are] so called because these people cover their teeth with gold. They puncture their hands and colour them with indigo ... » (ELLIOT, Hist. of India, 12, 72-73; P, III, 131; YULE, in JRAS, NS, iv [1870], 354, 355). A last passage is quoted by QUATREMÈRE (loc. cit. xcvi), and it was moreover copied from Raid by