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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
{
176
MARCO POLO BOOK I.
the watershed must be held as extending from that Pámír, down the range dividing it from the Little Pámír, and along the Neza Tásh mountains to the Kizil Art Pass, leading to the Alái." (Colonel Gordon, Forsyth's Mission, p. 231.)
Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon (Forsyth's Mission, p. 231) says also : " Regarding the name ` Pámír,' the meaning appears to be wilderness—a place depopulated, abandoned, waste, yet capable of habitation. I obtained this information on the Great Pámír from one of our intelligent guides, who said in explanation—` In former days, when this part was inhabited by Kirghiz, as is shown by the ruins of their villages and burial-grounds, the valley was not all called Pámír, as it is now. It was known by its village names, as is the country beyond Sirikol, which being now occupied by Kirghiz is not known by one name, but partly as Chárling, Bas Robát, etc. If deserted it would be Pámír." In a note Sir T. D. Forsyth adds that the same explanation of the word was given to him at Yangi-Hissar, and that it is in fact a Khokandi-Turki word.—H. C.]
It would seem, from such notices as have been received, that there is not, strictly speaking, one steppe called Pamir, but a variety of Pamirs, which are lofty valleys between ranges of hills, presenting luxuriant summer pasture, and with floors more or less flat, but nowhere more than 5 or 6 miles in width and often much less.
[This is quite exact ; Mr. E. Delmar Morgan writes in the Scottish Geog. Mag. January, 1892, p. 17 : " Following the terminology of Yule adopted by geographers, and now well established, we have (i) Pamir Alichur ; (2) Pamir Khurd (or " Little " ) ;
i
(3) Pamir Kalan (or " Great " ) ; (4) Pamir Knargosi ( " of the hare " ) ; (5) Panl:r Sares ; (6) Pamir Rang-kul."—H. C.]
Wood speaks of the numerous wolves in this region. And the great sheep is that to which Blyth, in honour of our traveller, has given the name of Ovis Poli.'' A pair of horns, sent by Wood to the Royal Asiatic Society, and of which a representation is given above, affords the following dimensions :—Length of one horn on the curve, 4 feet 8 inches ; round the base 141 inches ; distance of tips apart 3 feet 9 inches. This sheep appears to be the same as the Ä'ass, of which Burnes heard that the horns were so big that a man could not lift a pair, and that foxes bred in them ; also that the carcass formed a load for two horses. Wood says that these horns supply shoes for the Kirghiz horses, and also a good substitute for stirrup-irons. "We saw numbers of horns strewed about in every direction, the spoils of the Kirghiz hunter. Some of these were of an astonishingly large size, and belonged to an animal of a species between a goat and a sheep, inhabiting the steppes of Pamir. The ends of the horns projecting above the snow often indicated the direction of the road; and wherever they were heaped in large quantities and disposed in a semi-
circle, there our escort recognised the site of a Kirghiz summer encampment
We came in sight of a rough-looking building, decked out with the horns of the wild sheep, and all but buried amongst the snow. It was a Kirghiz burying-ground." (Pp.
223, 229, 231.)
Usually written Po/ii, which is nonsense.
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Horns of Ovis Foil.
Hsi
4i
I fï
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