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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
314
MARCO POLO BOOK L
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the siege, looks very like an abominable truth, corroborated as it is by the prose chronicle of worse deeds at the ensuing siege of Marrha :-
" A for cotiaus qu'il ont trenchans et afilés Escorchoient les Turs, aval parmi les près. Voiant Paiens, les ont par pièces découpés. En l'iave et el carbon les ont bien quisinés, Volontiers les menjuent sans pain et dessalés."
(Della Perzna, p. 76 ; Reinaud, Rel. I. 52 ; Rerznie's Peking;, II. 244 ; Ann. de la Pr. de la F XXIX. 353, XXI. 298 ; Hayton in Ram. eh. xvii. ; Per. Qua/. p. 116 ; M. Paris, sub. 1243 ; Mél. Asiat. Acad. St. Pétersb. II. 659 ; Canale in Arch. Stor. Ital. VIII. ; Bergm. Nomad. Streifereien, I. 14 ; Carpini, 638 ; D'Ohsson, II. 3o, 43, 52 ; Wilson's Ever Victorious Army, 74 ; Shaw, p. 48 ; Abdallatif, p. 363 seqq. ; Weber, II. 135 ; Littré, H. de la Lan$ ue Frazzf. I. 191 ; Gesta Tancredi in Thes. Nov. Anecd III. 172.)
NOTE I0.—Bakhshi is generally believed to be a corruption of Blzikshu, the proper Sanscrit term for a religious mendicant, and in particular for the Buddhist devotees of that character. Bakhshi was probably applied to a class only of the Lamas, but among the Turks and Persians it became a generic name for them all. In this sense it is habitually used by Rashiduddin, and thus also in the Ain Akbari :
The learned among the Persians and Arabians call the priests of this (Buddhist) religion Bukshee, and in Tibbet they are styled Lamas."
According to Pallas the word among the modern Mongols is used in the sense of Teacher, and is applied to the oldest and most learned priest of a community, who is the local ecclesiastical chief. Among the Kirghiz Kazzaks again, who profess Mahomedanism, the word also survives, but conveys among them just the idea that Polo seems to have associated with it, that of a mere conjuror or " medicine-man" ; whilst in Western Turkestan it has come to mean a Bard.
The word Bakhshi has, however, wandered much further from its original meaning. From its association with persons who could read and write, and who therefore occasionally acted as clerks, it came in Persia to mean a clerk or secretary. In the Petrarchian Vocabulary, published by Klaproth, we find scriba rendered in Conzanian, i.e. Turkish of the Crimea, by Bacsi. The transfer of meaning is precisely parallel to that in regard to our Clerk. Under the Mahomedan sovereigns of India, Bakhshi was applied to an officer performing something like the duties of a quartermaster-general ; and finally, in our Indian army, it has come to mean a paymaster. In the latter sense, I imagine it has got associated in the popular mind with the Persian bakhshldan, to bestow, and baklzshíslz. (See a note in Q. R. p. 184 seqq. ; Cathay, P. 474 Ayeeu Akbery, III. 150 ; Pallas, Santnzl. II. 126 ; Levch irze, p. 355 ; A lap, lj,érn. III. ; Vámbéry, Sketches, p. 8i. )
The sketch from the life, on p. 326, of a wandering Tibetan devotee, whom I met once at Hardwár, may give an idea of the sordid Bacsis spoken of by Polo.
NOTE I I.—This feat is related more briefly by Odoric : " And jugglers cause cups of gold full of good wine to fly through the air, and to offer themselves to all who list to drink." (Cathay, p. 143.) In the note on that passage I have referred to a somewhat similar story in the Life of Apollonius. " Such feats," says Mr. Jaeschke, " are often mentioned in ancient as well as modern legends of Buddha and other saints ; and our Lamas have heard of things very similar performed by conjuring Bonpos." (See p. 323.) The moving of cups and the like is one of the sorceries ascribed in old legends to Simon Magus : " He made statues to walk ; leapt into the fire without being burnt ; flew in the air ; made bread of stones ; changed his shape ; assumed two faces at once ; converted himself into a pillar ; caused closed doors to fly open spontaneously ; made the vessels in a house seem to move of themselves," etc. The
; [Cf. Paulin Paris's ed., 1848, II. p. 5.—H. C.]
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