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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
SOME ESTIMATE OF POLO AND HIS BOOK
107
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CHINA in all its wealth and vastness, its mighty rivers, its huge
cities, its rich manufactures, its swarming population, the incon-
ceivably vast fleets that quickened its seas and its inland waters;
to tell us of the nations on its borders with all their eccentricities
of manners and worship ; of TIBET with its sordid devotees; o~
BURMA with its golden pagodas and their tinkling crowns ;
of LAOS, of SIAM, of COCHIN CHINA, of JAPAN, the Eastern
Thule, with its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces ; the first
to speak of that Museum of Beauty and Wonder, still so imper-
fectly ransacked, the INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, source of those
aromatics then so highly prized and whose origin was so dark ;
of JAVA the Pearl of Islands ; of SUMATRA with its many
kings, its strange cost ÿ products, and its cannibal races ; of the
naked savages of NICOBAR and ANDAMAN ; of CEYLON
the Isle of Gems with its Sacred Mountain and its Tomb of
Adam ; of INDIA THE GREAT, not as a dream-land of Alex-
andrian fables, but as a country seen and partially explored, with
its virtuous Brahmans, its obscene ascetics, its diamonds and the
strange tales of their acquisition, its sea-beds of pearl, and its
powerful sun ; the first in medieval times to give any distinct
account of the secluded Christian Empire of ABYSSINIA, and
the semi-Christian Island of SOCOTRA ; to speak, though indeed
dimly, of ZANGIBAR with its neg roes and its ivory, and of the
vast and distant MADAGASCAR, bordering on the Dark Ocean of
the South, with its Ruc and other monstrosities; and, in a
remotely opposite region, of SIBERIA and the ARCTIC OCEAN,
of dog-sledges, white bears, and reindeer-riding Tunguses.
That all this rich catalogue of discoveries should belong to
the revelations of one Man and one Book is surely ample
ground enough to account for and to justify the Author's
high place in the roll of Fame, and there can be no need
to exaggerate his greatness, or to invest him with imaginary
attributes.*
68. What manner of man was Ser Marco ? It is a question
hard to answer. Some critics cry out against er-
y against per- personal
sonal detail in books of Travel ; but as regards him seen but
who would not welcome a little more egotism ' In dimly.
his Book impersonality is carried to excess ; and we are often
* " C'est diminuer l'expression dun éloge que de l'exagérer." (Humboldt, Examen,
III. t3.)
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VOL. I. 0 2
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