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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
272
MARCO POLO BOOK I.
are ridden upon, and from this motive mis-renders " li gual' azzche cavalcano," as, " which they make use of for the purpose of travelling." Yet he might have found in Witsen that the Reindeer are ridden by various Siberian Tribes, but especially by the Tunguses. Erman is very full on the reindeer-riding of the latter people, having himself travelled far in that way in going to Okhotsk, and gives a very detailed description of the saddle, etc., employed. The reindeer of the Tunguses are stated by the same traveller to be much larger and finer animals than those of Lapland. They are also used for pack-carriage and draught. Old I:ichard Eden says that the " olde wryters " relate that "certayne Scythians doe ryde on Hartes." I have not traced to what he refers, but if the statement be in any ancient author it is very remarkable. Some old editions of Olaus Magnus have curious cuts of Laplanders and others riding on reindeer, but I find nothing in the text appropriate. We hear from travellers of the Lapland deer being occasionally mounted, but only it would seem in sport, not as a practice. (Erdma;m, 189, 191 ; D' Olzssotz, I. 103 ; D'Avezac, 534 seqq. ; J. As. sér. II. tom. xi. ; sér. IV. tom. xvii. 107 ; N. et E. XIII. i. 274-276 ; Witsen, II. 670, 671, 6So ; Ernzan, II. 321, 374, 429, 449 seqq., and original German, II. 347 seqq. ; notes on Russia, I f ac. Soc. II. 224 ; J. A. S. B. XXIX. 379.)
The numerous lakes and marshes swarming with water-fowl are very characteristic of the country between Yakutsk and the Kolyma. It is evident that Marco had his information from an eye-witness, though the whole picture is compressed. Wrangell, speaking of Nijni Kolyma, says : " It is at the moulting season that the great bird-hunts take place. The sportsmen surround the nests, and slip their dogs, which drive the birds to the water, on which they are easily knocked over with a gun or arrow, or even with a stick. . . . This chase is divided into several periods. They begin with the ducks, which moult first ; then come the geese ; then the swans. . . . In each case the people take care to choose the time when the birds have lost their feathers." The whole calendar with the Yakuts and Russian settlers on the Kolyma is a succession of fishing and hunting seasons which the same author details. (I. 149, iso; 119-I2I.)
NOTE 3.—What little is said of the Barguerlac points to some bird of the genus Pierocles, or Sand Grouse (to which belong the so-called Rock Pigeons of India), or to the allied Tetrao paradoxes of Pallas, now known as Syrrhaptes Pallasii. Indeed, we find in Zenker's Dictionary that Bog hurtlák (or Baghirtlák, as it is in Pavet de Courteille's) in Oriental Turkish is the Kata, i.e. I presume, the Pterocles alchata of Linnaeus, or Large Pin-tailed Sand Grouse. Mr. Gould, to whom I referred the point, is clear that the Syrrhaptes is Nlarco's bird, and I believe there can be no question of it.
[Passing through Ch'ang-k'ou, Mr. Rockhill found the people praying for rain.
The people told me," he says, in his Journey (p. 9), " that they knew long ago the year would be disastrous, for the sand grouse had been more numerous of late than for years, and the saying goes Sha-clz'i kuo, mai lao po, ` when the sand grouse fly by, wives will be for sale.' "—II. C.]
The chief difficulty in identification with the Syrrhaptes or any known bird, would be " the feet like a parrot's." The feet of the Syrrhaptes are not indeed like a parrot's, though its awkward, slow, and waddling gait on the ground, may have suggested the comparison ; and though it has very odd and anomalous feet, a circumstance which the Chinese indicate in another way by calling the bird (according to Hue) Lung Kio, or " Dragon-foot." [Mr. Rockhill (Journey) writes in a note (p. 9) : " I, for my part, never heard any other name than sha-ch'i, `sand-fowl,' given them. This name is used, however, for a variety of birds, among others the partridge."—II. C.] The hind-toe is absent, the toes are unseparated, recognisable only by the broad flat nails, and fitted below with a callous couch, whilst the whole foot is covered with short dense feathers like hair, and is more like a quadruped's paw than a bird's foot.
The home of the Syrrhaptes is in the Altai, the Kirghiz Steppes, and the country round Lake Baikal, though it also visits the North of China in
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