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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
308
MARCO POLO BOOK I.
stoups and cooking-pots, pipe-sticks [tinder and means of producing fire], conduits, clothes-boxes, pawn-boxes, dinner-trays, pickles, preserves, and melodious musical instruments, torches, footballs, cordage, bellows, mats, paper ; these are but a few of the articles that are made from the bamboo ; " and in China, to sum up the whole, as Barrow observes, it maintains order throughout the Empire ! (Ava Mission, h. 153 and see also Wallace, Ind. Arch. I. 120 seqq.)
NOTE 5.—" The Emperor . . . . began this year (1264) to depart from Yenking (Peking) in the second or third month for Shangtu, not returning until the eighth month. Every year he made this passage, and all the Mongol emperors who succeeded him followed his example." (Gaubil, p. 144.)
[ " The Khans usually resorted to Shangtu in the 4th moon and returned to Peking in the 9th. On the 7th day of the 7th moon there were libations performed in honour of the ancestors ; a shaman, his face to the north, uttered in a loud voice the names of Chingiz Khan and of other deceased Khans, and poured mare's milk on the ground. The propitious day for the return journey to Peking was also appointed then." (Palladius, p. 26.)—H. C.]
NOTE 6.—White horses were presented in homage to the Kaan on New Year's Day (the White Feast), as we shall see below. (Bk. II. eh. xv.) Odoric also mentions this practice ; and, according to Hue, the Mongol chiefs continued it at least to the time of the Emperor K'ang-hi. Indeed Timkowski speaks of annual tributes of white camels and white horses from the Khans of the Kalkas and other Mongol dignitaries, in the present century. (Hut's Tartary, etc. ; Tim. II. 33.)
By the Hoit1AD are no doubt intended the U1RAD or O1RAD, a name usually interpreted as signifying the " Closely Allied," or Confederates ; but Vámbéry explains it as (Turki) Oyurat, " Grey horse," to which the statement in our text appears to lend colour. They were not of the tribes properly called Mongol, but after their submission to Chinghiz they remained closely attached to him. In Chinghiz's victory over Aung-Khan, as related by S. Setzen, we find Turulji Taishi, the son of the chief of the Oirad, one of Chinghiz's three chief captains ; perhaps that is the victory alluded to. The seats of the Oirad appear to have been about the head waters of the Kern, or Upper Yenisei.
In A.D. 1295 there took place a curious desertion from the service of Gházán Khan of Persia of a vast corps of the Oirad, said to amount to 18,000 tents. They made their way to Damascus, where they were well received by the Mameluke Sultan. But their heathenish practices gave dire offence to the Faithful. They were settled in the Sdkil, or coast districts of Palestine. Alany died speedily ; the rest embraced Islam, spread over the country, and gradually became absorbed in the general population. Their sons and daughters were greatly admired for their beauty. (S. Setz. p. 87 ; Era'manmt, i 87 ; Pallas, Saninii. I. 5 seqq. ; lllakrizi, III. 29 ; Bretschneider, Med. Res. II. p. 159 seqq.)
[With reference to Yule's conjecture, I may quote Palladius (l.c. p. 27) : " It is, however, strange that the Oirats alone enjoyed the privilege described by Marco Polo ; for the highest position at the Mongol Khan's court belonged to the Kunkrat tribe, out of which the Khans used to choose their first wives, who were called Empresses of the first or do. "—H. C.]
NOTE 7.—Rubruquis assigns such a festival to the month of May : On the 9th day of the May Moon they collect all the white mares of their herds and consecrate them. The Christian priests also must then assemble with their thuribles. They then sprinkle new cosmos (kumíz) on the ground, and make a great feast that day, for according to their calendar, it is their time of first drinking new cosmos, just as we reckon of our new wine at the feast of St. Bartholomew (24th August), or that of St. Sixtus (6th August), or of our fruit on the feast of St. James and St. Christopher " (25th July). [With reference to this feast, Mr. Rockhill gives (Rubruck, p. 241, note) extracts from Pallas, Voyages, IV. 579, and Professor Radlof, Aus Siberien, I. 378,
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