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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
b•
CHAP. LIV. THE TARTAR CUSTOMS OF WAR
263
r
and in a very short time the enemy are routed. In truth
they are stout and valiant soldiers, and inured to war.
And you perceive that it is just when the enemy sees
them run, and imagines that he has gained the battle,
that he has in reality lost it ; for the Tartars wheel round
in a moment when they judge the right time has come.
And after this fashion they have won many a fight.
All this that I have been telling you is true of the
manners and customs of the genuine Tartars. But I
must add also that in these days they are greatly de-
generated ; for those who are settled in Cathay have
taken up the practices of the Idolaters of the country,
and have abandoned their own institutions ; whilst those
who have settled in the Levant have adopted the customs
of the Saracens.?
ii
NOTE I.—The bow was the characteristic weapon of the Tartars, insomuch that the Armenian historians often call them " The Archers." (St. Martin, II. 133.) " CUIRBOULY, leather softened by boiling, in which it took any form or impression required, and then hardened." ( Wright's Dict.) The English adventurer among the Tartars, whose account of them is given by Archbishop No of Narbonne, in Matthew Paris (sub. 1243), says : " De coriis bullitis sibi arma levia quidem, sed tarnen impenetrabilia coaptarunt." This armour is particularly described by Plano Carpini (p. 685). See the tail-piece to Book IV.
[Mr. E. H. Parker (China Review, XXIV. iv. p. 205) remarks that " the first coats of mail were made in China in 1288 : perhaps the idea was obtained from the Malays or Arabs."—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—M. Pauthier has judiciously pointed out the omissions that have occurred here, perhaps owing to Rusticiano's not properly catching the foreign terms applied to the various grades. In the G. Text the passage runs : "Et sachiéss que les cent
nzille est un Tut (read tuc) et les clix niille un Toman, et les per milier et por
centenier et por desme." In Pauthier's (uncorrected) text one of the missing words is supplied : " Et appellent les C.M. un Tuc ; et les X. M. un Toman ; et un millier Guz por centenier et por disenier." The blanks he supplies thus from Abulghazi :
Et un »zillier : [un Miny] ; Guz, por centenier et [Un] por disenier." The words supplied are Turki, but so is the Guz, which appears already in Pauthier's text, whilst Toman and Tuc are common to Turki and Mongol. The latter word, TO or T úgh, is the horse-tail or yak-tail standard which among so many Asiatic nations has marked the supreme military command. It occurs as Taka in ancient Persian, and Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of it as Tupha. The Nine Orloks or Marshals under Chinghiz were entitled to the Tuk, and theirs is probably the class of command here indicated as of Ioo,000, though the figure must not be strictly taken. Timur ordains that every Amir who should conquer a kingdom or command in a victory should receive a title of honour, the Tug la and the llrakkárá. (Infra, Bk. II. ch. iv. note 3.) Baber on several occasions speaks of conferring the Tukh upon his generals for dis-
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