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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
3 1
MARCO POLO BOOK I.
ments against him were defeated by snow and mist. The fog and darkness were indeed so dense that many men and horses fell over precipices, and many also perished with cold. In another account of (apparently) the same matter, given by Mir-Khond, the conjuring is set on foot by the Yadachi of Buyruk Khan, Prince of the Naiman, but the mischief all rebounds on the conjurer's own side.
In Tului's invasion of Honan in 1231-1232, Rashiduddin describes him, when in difficulty, as using the fadah stone with success.
Timur, in his Memoirs, speaks of the Jets using incantations to produce heavy rains which hindered his cavalry from acting against them. A Yadachi was captured, and when his head had been taken off the storm ceased.
Baber speaks of one of his early friends, Khwaja Ka Mulai, as excelling in falconry and acquainted with Yada' arl or the art of bi inging on rain and snow by means of enchantment. When the Russians besieged Kazan in 1552 they suffered much from the constant heavy rains, and this annoyance was universally ascribed to the arts of the Tartar Queen, who was celebrated as an enchantress. Shah Abbas believed he had learned the Tartar secret, and put much confidence in it, (P. Della V. I. 869.)
[Grenard says (II. p. 256) the most powerful and most feared of sorcerers [in Chinese Turkestan] is the djduger, who, to produce rain or fine weather, uses a jade stone, given by Noah to Japhet. Grenard adds (II. 406-407) there are sorcerers (Ngag-pa-snags-pa) whose specialty is to make rain fall ; they are similar to the Turkish Yadachi and like them use a stone called " water cristal," chu shel; probably jade stone.
Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, p. 245, note) writes : " Rashideddin states that when the Urianghit wanted to bring a storm to an end, they said injuries to the sky, the lightning and thunder. I have seen this done myself by Mongol storm-dispellers. (See Diary, 201, 203.) ' The other Mongol people,' he adds, ` do the contrary. When the storm rumbles, they remain shut up in their huts, full of fear.' The subject of storm-making, and the use of stones for that purpose, is fully discussed by ( )uatremère, Histoire, 438-440." (Cf. also Rockhill, 1. c. p. 254.)—H. C. ]
An edict of the Emperor Shi-tsung, of the reigning dynasty, addressed in 17241725 to the Eight Banners of Mongolia, warns them against this rain-conjuring : " If I," indignantly observes the Emperor, " offering prayer in sincerity have yet room to fear that it may please Heaven to leave MY prayer unanswered, it is truly intolerable that mere common people wishing for rain should at their own caprice set up altars of earth, and bring together a rabble of Hoshang (Buddhist Bonzes) and Taossé to conjure the spirits to gratify their wishes."
[ " Lamas were of various extraction ; at the time of the great assemblies, and of the Khan's festivities in Shangtu, they erected an altar near the Khan's tent and prayed for fine weather ; the whistling of shells rose up to heaven." These are the words in which Marco Polo's narrative is corroborated by an eye-witness who has celebrated the remarkable objects of Shangtu (Loan king tsa yun ). These Lamas, in spite of the prohibition by the Buddhist creed of bloody sacrifices, used to sacrifice sheep's hearts to Mahakala. It happened, as it seems, that the heart of an executed criminal was also considered an agreeable offering ; and as the offerings could be, after the ceremony, eaten by the sacrificing priests, Marco Polo had some reason to accuse the Lamas of cannibalism." (Palladius, 28.)—H. C.]
The practice of weather-conjuring is not yet obsolete in Tartary, Tibet, and the adjoining countries.
Weather-conjuring stories were also rife in Europe during the Middle Ages. One
* In the first edition I had supposed a derivation of the Persian words Jádú and J'ídúgari, used commonly in India for conjuring, from the Tartar use of Vadak. And Pallas says the Kirghiz call their witches Jádugar. (Voy. II. 298.) But I am assured by Sir H. Rawlinson that this etymology is more than doubtful, and that at any rate the Persian (Jádú) is probably older than the Turkish term. I see that M. Pavet de Courteille derives Yadalc from a Mongol word signifying "change of weather," etc.
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