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0568 The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1
マルコ=ポーロ卿の記録 : vol.1
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / 568 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000269
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266   MARCO POLO   BooK I.

give them chase, for as they flee they shoot back over their heads, and do great

execution among their pursuers. They keep very close rank, so that you would not guess them for half their real strength." Carpini speaks to the same effect. Baber, himself of Mongol descent, but heartily hating his kindred, gives this account of their military usage in his day : " Such is the uniform practice of these wretches the

Moghuls ; if they defeat the enemy they instantly seize the booty ; if they are defeated, they plunder and dismount their own allies, and, betide what may, carry off the spoil." (Erdmann, 364, 383, 620 ; Gold. Horde, 77, 8o ; Elliot, II. 388 ; Hayton

in Ram. eh. xlviii. ; Baber, 93 ; Carpini, p. 694. )

NOTE 7.—" The Scythians " (i.e. in the absurd Byzantine pedantry, Tartars), says Nicephorus Gregoras, "from converse with the Assyrians, Persians, and Chaldxans, in time acquired their manners and adopted their religion, casting off their ancestral

atheism    And to such a degree were they changed, that though in former
days they had been wont to cover the head with nothing better than a loose felt cap, and for other clothing had thought themselves well off with the skins of wild beasts or ill-dressed leather, and had for weapons only clubs and slings, or spears, arrows, and bows extemporised from the oaks and other trees of their mountains and forests, now, forsooth, they will have no meaner clothing than brocades of silk and gold ! And their luxury and delicate living came to such a pitch that they stood far as the poles asunder from their original habits " (II. v. 6).

CHAPTER LV.

CONCERNING THE ADMINISTERING OF JUSTICE AMONG THE TARTARS.

THE way they administer justice is this. When any

one has committed a petty theft, they give him, under

the orders of authority, seven blows of a stick, or

seventeen, or twenty-seven, or thirty-seven, or forty-

seven, and so forth, always increasing by tens in propor-

tion to the injury done, and running up to one hundred

and seven. Of these beatings sometimes they die.'

But if the offence be horse-stealing, or some other

great matter, they cut the thief in two with a sword.

Howbeit, if he be able to ransom himself by paying

nine times the value of the thing stolen, he is let off.

Every Lord or other person who possesses beasts has

them marked with his peculiar brand, be they horses,

mares, camels, oxen, cows, or other great cattle, and

then they are sent abroad to graze over thep lains

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