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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. LXI. WEATHER-CONJURING
309
111
—H. C.] The Yakuts also hold such a festival in June or July, when the mares foal, and immense wooden goblets of kumiz are emptied on that occasion. They also pour out kumfz for the Spirits to the four quarters of heaven.
The following passage occurs in the narrative of the Journey of Chang Te-hui, a Chinese teacher, who was summoned to visit the camp of Kúblái in Mongolia, some twelve years before that Prince ascended the throne of the Kaans :
" On the 9th day of the 9th Moon (October), the Prince, having called his subjects before his chief tent, performed the libation of the milk of a white mare. This was the customary sacrifice at that time. The vessels used were made of birch-hark, not
ornamented with either silver or gold. Such here is the respect for simplicity
" At the last day of the year the Mongols suddenly changed their camping-ground to another place, for the mutual congratulation on the Ist Moon. Then there was every day feasting before the tents for the lower ranks. Beginning with the Prince,
all dressed themselves in white fur clothing t
" On the 9th day of the 4th Moon (May) the Prince again collected his vassals before the chief tent for the libation of the milk of a white mare. This sacrifice is performed twice a year."
It has been seen (p. 308) that Rubruquis also names the 9th day of the May moon as that of the consecration of the white mares. The autumn libation is described by Polo as performed on the 28th day of the August moon, probably because it was unsuited to the circumstances of the Court at Cambaluc, where the Kaan was during October, and the day named was the last of his annual stay in the Mongolian uplands.
Baber tells that among the ceremonies of a Mongol Review the Khan and his staff took kumiz and sprinkled it towards the standards. An Armenian author of the Mongol era says that it was the custom of the Tartars, before drinking, to sprinkle drink towards heaven, and towards the four quarters. Mr. Atkinson notices the sane practice among the Kirghiz : and I found the like in old days among the Kasias of the eastern frontier of Bengal.
The time of year assigned by Polo for the ceremony implies some change. Perhaps it had been made to coincide with the Festival of Water Consecration of the Lamas, with which the time named in the text seems to correspond. On that occasion the Lamas go in procession to the rivers and lakes and consecrate them by benediction and by casting in offerings, attended by much popular festivity.
Rubruquis seems to intimate that the Nestorian priests were employed to consecrate the white mares by incensing them. In the rear of Lord Canning's camp in India I once carne upon the party of his Shutr Suwdrs, or dromedary-express riders, busily engaged in incensing with frankincense the whole of the dromedaries, which were kneeling in a circle. I could get no light on the practice, but it was very probably a relic of the old Mongol custom. (ltitbr. 363 ; Erman, II. 397 ; Billings' Journey, Fr. Tr. I. 217 ; Baber, 103 ; J. As. sér. V. torn. xi. p. 249 ; Atk. Anwar, p. 47 ; J. A. S. B. XIII. 628 ; Koeppen, II. 313.)
NOTE 8.—The practice of weather-conjuring was in great vogue among the Mongols, and is often alluded to in their history.
The operation was performed by means of a stone of magical virtues, called Vadak or .%adah- Tásh, which was placed in or hung over a basin of water with sundry ceremonies. The possession of such a stone is ascribed by the early Arab traveller Ibn Mohalhal to the Kínaák, a great tribe of the Turks. In the war raised against Chinghiz and Aung Khan, when still allies, by a great confederation of the Naiman and other tribes in 1202, we are told that Sengun, the son of Aung Khan, when sent to meet the enemy, caused them to be enchanted, so that all their attempted move-
* This narrative, translated from Chinese into Russian by Father Palladius, and from the Russian into English by Mr. Eugene Schuyler, Secretary of the U.S. Legation at St. Petersburg, was obli 4-ingly sent to me by the latter gentleman, and appeared in the Geod ratshical Maw azine for January,
1875, P. 7.
t See I3k. II. chap. xiv. note 3.
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