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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

798   306. OUCACA

II, 357; Mo, 11), and Polo probably heard some such story, at least for the last named people. Cf. also Vol. I, 435.

I retain the usual reading, although I suspect that Rustichello wrote « Ougac », and that the final of « Oucacca », or «Oucaca» is due to copyists, and of the same nature as for instance «Laccha» instead of « Lac » in TAi.

On the place meant, an ancient town on the right bank of the Volga, about six miles south of Saratov, on the site of the present village of Uvek, cf. the excellent note of Y, I, 8-9. The name in Abû-l-Fidà is aYI, which has been transcribed by REINAUD as « Alokak » (= Al-Okak), with an equivalence « Oukak » (Géogr. d'Aboulféda, II, I, 81, 323, 324), and all scholars, from FRÄHN to YULE, have spoken of «Ukek»; but this is wrong, and we must read Cgäk. The Mongol word meaning « a dam of hurdles », which YULE adduces as a possible etymology, is ügäk. YULE has supposed that the Slav form of the name, Uvek, was already represented by the name of the convent of «Uguech» in a list of Wadding; but « Uguech » is Ügäk itself, not Uvek; on the other hand, the Slav form can be accounted for by starting from Ügäk, not from *Ükäk. The pronunciation can moreover be ascertained from the different spellings in the Franciscan lists : « Ugek » in 1320 and 1334, « Uguech » in 1390 (cf. GOLUBOVICH, Bibl. bio-bibi. ii, 266, 570). In Polo's « Oucaca » (; *« Ougac» ?), ou has the French value, as in « Oulatai », « Saciou », etc.

307.  OULATAI

dulatai VB   oulatai F, L, P   oulaurai TAi, TA3

onbatai VA   oulatam LT   vlatai V

onlarai VL   oulatay FA, FB, L, P5   vlatay R

It is most likely that, in both places where the name occurs, the same man is meant. « Oulatai », with the « French » spelling ou of u, transcribes a Mongol name Ulatai (and Uladai). Hai, I, 347 says that Wassàf mentions, amongst Aryun's emirs, « Oladai Kadaghan », but in Hat, 241, we read

« Oladai, Kadughan »; his Ms. gives   SI.)Y5I; there are certainly two names, Uladai and
Qadayan (> Qadàn ?; not « Kadughan »). I have no doubt that this is the Uladai who helped in releasing Aryun, and, very probably also, he is one of the envoys from Persia with whom the Polos returned from China to the West. Uladai, in his talks with Polo during the long journey, may have magnified the importance of the part he played in aiding Aryun to ascend the throne.