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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. LVIII. WHITE CAMELS
283
There is sufficient reason to suppose that this very residence is named (under the year 1226) in the Mongol text Alashai nuntuh ; and in the chronicles of the Tangut Kingdom, Halahaclzar, otherwise Halachar, apparently in the Tangut language. Thus M. Polo's Calachan can be identified with the Halachar of the Si hia slut ski, and can be taken to designate the Alashan residence of the Tangut kings."—H. C.]
NOTE 3.—Among the Buraets and Chinese at Kiakhta snow-white camels, without albino character, are often seen, and probably in other parts of Mongolia. (See Er d;nann, II. 261. ) Philostratus tells us that the King of Taxila furnished white camels to Apollonius. I doubt if the present King of Taxila, whom Anglo-Indians call the Commissioner of Ráwal Pindi, could do the like.
Cammellotti appear to have been fine woollen textures, by no means what are now called camlets, nor were they necessarily of camel's wool, for those of Angora goat's wool were much valued. M. Douet d'Arcq calls it " a fine stuff of wool approaching to our Cashmere, and sometimes of silk." Indeed, as Mr. Marsh points out, the word is Arabic, and has nothing to do with Camel in its origin ; though it evidently came to be associated therewith. h'Izanzlat is defined in F. Johnson's Dict. : " Camelot, silk and camel's hair ; also all silk or velvet, especially pily and plushy," and Khanzl is " pile or plush." Camelin was a different and inferior material. There was till recently a considerable import of different kinds of woollen goods from this part of China into Ladakh, Kashmir, and the northern Panjáb. [Leaving Ning-hsia, Mr. Rockhill writes (Diary, 1892, 44) : " We passed on the road a cart with Jardine and Matheson's flag, coming probably from Chung-Wei IIsien, where camel's wool is sold in considerable quantities to foreigners. This trade has fallen off very much in the last three or four years on account of the Chinese middlemen rolling the wool in the dirt so as to add to its weight, and practising other tricks on buyers."—H. C.] Among the names of these were Sling, Slzirum, Gurun, and Kkoza, said to be the names of the towns in China where the goods were made. We have supposed Sling to be Sining (note 2, ch. lvii. ), but I can make nothing of the others. Cunningham also mentions " camlets of camel's hair," under the name of Suhlát, among imports from the same quarter. The term Suklczt is, however, applied in the Panjáb trade returns to broadcloth. Does not this point to the real nature of the siclatoun of the Middle Ages ? It is, indeed, often spoken of as used for banners, which implies that it was not a Izeaay woollen :
„ There was mony gonfanoun
Of gold, sendel, and siclatoun."
(King Alisaundre, in Weber, I. 85.)
But it was also a material for ladies' robes, for quilts, leggings, housings, pavilions. Franc. Michel does not decide what it was, only that it was generally red and wrought with gold. Dozy renders it " silk stuff brocaded with gold " ; but this seems conjectural. Dr. Rock says it was a thin glossy silken stuff, often with a woof of gold thread, and seems to derive it from the Arabic sakl, " polishing" (a sword), which is improbable. Perhaps the name is connected with Sikiliyat, " Sicily."
(Marsh on Wedgwood, and on Webster in N. Y. Nation, 1867 ; Douet D'ArcL, p. 355 • Punjab Trade Rep., App. ccxix.-xx. ; Ladak, 242 ; Fr.-Michel Rech. I. 221 seal. ; Dosy, Dict. des V~&tenzeizts, etc. ; Dr. Rock'sh ens. Catal. xxxix. -xl. )
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