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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. XLV.
THE CITY OF ETZINA 2 23
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is the number now most general amongst Buddhist nations, and the days may be regarded as a kind of Buddhist Sabbath. In the southern countries and in Nepal they occur at the moon's changes. In Tibet and among the Mongol Buddhists they are not at equal intervals, though I find the actual days differently stated by different authorities. Pallas says the Mongols observed the 13th, 14th, and 15th, the three days being brought together, he thought, on account of the distance many Lamas had to travel to the temple just as in some Scotch country parishes they used to give two sermons in one service for like reason ! Koeppen, to whose work this note is much indebted, says the Tibetan days are the 14th, 15th, 29th, 3oth, and adds as to the manner of observance : " On these days, by rule, among the Lamas, nothing should be tasted but farinaceous food and tea; the very devout refrain from all food from sunrise to sunset. The Temples are decorated, and the altar tables set out with the holy symbols, with tapers, and with dishes containing offerings in corn, meal, tea, butter, etc., and especially with small pyramids of dough, or of rice or clay, and accompanied by much burning of incense-sticks. The service performed by the priests is more solemn, the music louder and more exciting, than usual. The laity make their offerings, tell their beads, and repeat Om mani j5adnza horn," etc. In the concordat that took place between the Dalai-Lama and the Altun Khaghan, on the reconversion of the Mongols to Buddhism in the 16th century, one of the articles was the entire prohibition of hunting and the slaughter of animals on the monthly fast days. The practice varies much, however, even in Tibet, with different provinces and sects—a variation which the Ramusian text of Polo implies in these words : " For five days, or four days, or three in each month, they shed no blood," etc.
In Burma the Worship Day, as it is usually called by Europeans, is a very gay scene, the women flocking to the pagodas in their brightest attire. (H. T. Ménzoires, I. 6, 208 ; Koeppen, I. 563-564, II. 139, 307-308; Pallas, Samml. II. 168-169).
NOTE 4.—These matrimonial customs are the same that are afterwards ascribed to the Tartars, so we defer remark.
NOTE 5.—So Pauthier's text, " en legation?." The G. Text includes Nicolo Polo, and says, " on business of theirs that is not worth mentioning," and with this Ramusio agrees.
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CHAPTER XLV.
OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.
WHEN you leave the city of Campichu you ride for
twelve days, and then reach a city called ETZINA, which
is towards the north on the verge of the Sandy Desert
it belongs to the Province of Tangut.' The people are
Idolaters, and possess plenty of camels and cattle, and
the country produces a number of good falcons, both
Sakers and Lanners. The inhabitants live by their
cultivation and their cattle, for they have no trade,
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