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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
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358
MARCO POLO Boos: II,
wait on him when he is in his chamber and when he is
in his bed, to serve hint in any way, and to be entirely
at his orders. At the end of the three days and nights
they are relieved by other six. And so throughout the
year, there are reliefs of maidens by six and six, chang-
ing every three days and nights.3
Noi'E r.—We are left in some doubt as to the colour of Kúblái's eyes, for some of the MSS. read vairs and voirs, and others noirs. The former is a very common epithet for eyes in the medieval romances. And in the ballad on the death of St. Lewis, we are told of his son Tristram :-
" Droiz fu comme un rosei, iex vairs comme faucon, Dès le tens Moysel ne nasqui sa façon."
The word has generally been interpreted bluish-grey, but in the passage just quoted, Fr.-Michel explains it by brillans. However, the evidence for noirs here seems strongest. Rashiduddin says that when Kúblái was born Chinghiz expressed surprise at the child's being so brown, as its father and all his other sons were fair. Indeed, we are told that the descendants of Vesugai (the father of Chinghiz) were in general distinguished by blue eyes and reddish hair. (Michel's Joinville, p. 324 ; D'Olzsson, II. 475 ; Erditzann, 252.)
J
NOTE 2.—According to Hammer's authority (Rashid ?) Kúbl íi had seven wives ; Gaubil's Chinese sources assign him five, with the title of empress (Hwang--hezt). Of these the best beloved was the beautiful Jamúi Khátún (Lady or Empress Jamúi, illustrating what the text says of the manner of styling these ladies), who bore him four sons and five daughters. Rashiduddin adds that she was called Kzín 4zí, or the great consort, evidently the term Hwang-km. (Gen. Tables in Hammer's Ilkhans; Gaubil, 223 ; Erdnzann, 200.)
E" Kúblái's four wives, i.e. the empresses of the first, second, third, and fourth ordos. Ordo is, properly speaking, a separate palace of the Khan, under the management of one of his wives. Chinese authors translate therefore the word ordo by ` harem.' The four Ordo established by Chingis Khan were destined for the empresses, who were chosen out of four different nomad tribes. During the reign of the first four Khans, who lived in Mongolia, the four ordo were considerably distant one from another, and the Khans visited them in different seasons of the year ; they existed nominally as long as China remained under Mongol domination. The custom of choosing the empress out of certain tribes, was in the course of time set aside by the Khans. The empress, wife of the last Mongol Khan in China, was a Corean princess by birth ; and she contributed in a great measure to the downfall of the Mongol Dynasty." (Palladius, 40. )
I do not believe that Rashiduddin's h'zín ./Cú is the term Hu ang -heu ; it is the term Kifi1z Chu, King or Queen, a sovereign.—H. C.]
NOTE 3.— Un rat, the reading of the Crusca, seems to be that to which the others point, and I doubt not that it represents the great Mongol tribe of hvnGUxA'r, which gave more wives than any other to the princes of the house of Chinghiz ; a conclusion in which I find I have been anticipated by De Mailla or his editor (IX. 426). To this tribe (which, according to Vámbéry, took its name from (Turki) Ko;z ur-At, "Chestnut Horse") belonged Burteh Fujin, the favourite wife of Chinghiz himself, and mother of his four heirs ; to the same tribe belonged the two wives of Chagata.i,
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