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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. LX. TIlE KAAN'S PALACE OF CHAGANNOR
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NOTE I.—[According to the Sii' t'm'ng kien, quoted by Palladius, the palace in Chagannor was built in 1280. —H . C. ]
NO'I'E 2.—" Ou demeurent sesnes." Senses, Cesnes, Cecini, Cesanae, is a medieval form of cygnes, czçni, which seems to have escaped the dictionary-makers It occurs in the old Italian version of Brunetto Latini's Tresor, Bk. V. ch. xxv., as cecino; and for other examples, see Cathay, p. 125.
NOTE 3.—The city called by Polo CHAGAN-NOR (meaning in Mongol, as he says, " White Lake ") is the Chaghan Balghasun mentioned by Timkowski as an old city of the Mongol era, the ruined rampart of which he passed about 3o miles north of the Great Wall at Kalgan, and some 55 miles from Siuen-hwa, adjoining the Imperial pastures. It stands near a lake still called Chaghan-Nor, and is called by the Chinese Pe-ching-tzu, or White City, a translation of Chaghan Balghasun. Dr. Bushell says of one of the lakes (Ichi-Nor), a few miles east of Chaghan-Nor : " We . . . . found the water black with waterfowl, which rose in dense flocks, and filled the air with discordant noises. Swans, geese, and ducks predominated, and three different species of cranes were distinguished."
The town appears as Tchahan Toloho in D'Anville. It is also, I imagine, the Arulun Tsaghan Balghasun which S. Setzen says Ktíblái built about the same time with Shangtu and another city " on the shady side of the Altai," by which here he seems to mean the Khingan range adjoining the Great Wall. (Timmmk. II. 374, 378379 ; J. R. G. S. vol. xliii. ; S. Setz. 115.) I see Ritter has made the same identification of Chaghan-Nor (II. 141).
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NOTE 4.—Tile following are the best results I can arrive at in the identification of these five cranes.
z. Radde mentions as a rare crane in South Siberia Grus monachus, called by the Buraits Kard Tog-orü, or " Black Crane." Atkinson also speaks of " a beautiful black variety of crane," probably the same. The Grus momchus is not, however,
jet black, but brownish rather. (Radde, Iieisen, Bd. II. p. 318 ; Atkinson. Or. •
and W. Sib. 548.)
2. Grus leucogeranus (?) whose chief habitat is Siberia, but which sometimes comes as far south as the Punjab. It is the largest of the genus, snowy white, with
red face and beak ; the ten largest quills are black, but this barely shows as a narrow black line when the wings are dosed. The resplendent golden eyes on the wings
remain unaccounted for ; no naturalist whom I have consulted has any knowledge of d' '
a crane or crane-like bird with such decorations. When 'tis discovered, let it be the'` Grus Poli!
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3. Grus cinerea.
4. The colour of the pendants varies in the texts. Pauthier's and the G. Text . ' ••--
have red and black ; the Lat. S. G. black only, the Crusca black and white, Ramusio * ,fir 4. I
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feathers red and blue (not pendants). The red and black may have slipt in from the preceding description. I incline to believe it to be the Demoiselle, Anthropoides . ,
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Virgo, which is frequently seen as far north as Lake Baikal. It has a tuft of pure 4~ OE .
white from the eye, and a beautiful black pendent ruff or collar ; the general plumage . It 41 at
purplish-grey. ,. , ô 4.
5. Certainly the Indian Sdras (vulgo Cyrus), or Grus antone, which answers • • • yt
in colours and grows to 52 inches high. j . • ` r 111,
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NOTE 5.—Cator occurs only in the G. Text and the Crusca, in the latter with the •
interpolated explanation " clod contornici" (i.e. quails), whilst the S. G. Latin has coturnices only. I suspect this impression has assisted to corrupt the text, and .••.f that it was originally written or dictated ciacor or fator, viz. chakór, a term applied in ` the East to more than one kind of " Great Partridge." Its most common application
in India is to the Himalayan red-legged partridge, much resembling on a somewhat . '.
larger scale the bird so called in Europe. It is the " Francolin " of Moorcroft's
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