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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
s
410
MARCO POLO
BOOK IL
7 artarz les roi des pelaines," etc. This has been curiously misunderstood both in versions based on Pipino, and in the Geog. Latin and Crusca Italian. The Geog. Latin gives us " vocant eas Tartari Lenoidae Pellonae " ; the Crusca, " clziainanle li T artari Leroide Pelame " ; Ramusio in a very odd way combines both the genuine and the blundered interpretation : "E li Tartari la chiamano Regina delle Pelli ; e li animali si chiamano Rondes." Fraehn ingeniously suggested that this Roizdes ( which proves to be merely a misunderstanding of the French words Roi des) was a mistake for Kiznduz, usually meaning a " beaver," but also a " sable." (See Ibn Foszlan, p. 57.) Conflux, no doubt with this meaning, appears coupled with vair, in a Venetian Treaty with Egypt (i344), quoted by Heyd. (II. 208.)
Ibn Batuta puts the ermine above the sable. An ermine pelisse, he says, was worth in India moo dinárs of that country, whilst a sable one was worth only 400 dinőrs. As Ibn Batuta's Indian dinárs are Rupees, the estimate of price is greatly lower than Polo's. Some years ago I find the price of a Sack, as it is technically called by the Russian traders, or robe of fine sables, stated to be in the Siberian market about 7000 banco rubels, i.e. I believe about 3501. The same authority mentions that in 1591 the Tzar Theodore Ivanovich made a present of a pelisse valued at the equivalent of 5000 silver rubels of modern Russian money, or upwards of 750/. Atkinson speaks of a single sable skin of the highest quality, for which the trapper demanded 1S1. The great mart for fine sables is at Olekma on the Lena. (bee L B. II. 401-402 ; Baer's Beiträb e, VII. 215 sell. ; Upper and Lower z1 moor, 39o.)
NoTi•, cj.—IIawking is still common in North China. Pétis de la Croix the elder, in his account of the Vasa, or institutes of Chinghiz, quotes one which lays down that between March and October " no one should take stags, deer, roebucks, hares, wild asses, nor some certain birds," in order that there might be ample sport in winter for the court. This would be just the reverse of Polo's statement, but I suspect it is merely a careless adoption of the latter. There are many such traps in Pétis de la Croix. (Engl. Vers. 1722, p. 82.)
CHAPTER XXI.
R IE:IIEARSAL OIS TILE WAY THE YEAR OF THE GREAT KAAN IS
DISTRII',UTED. .
ON arriving at his capital of Cambaluc,1 he stays in his
palace there three days and no more ; during which time
he has great court entertainments and rejoicings, and
makes merry with his wives. He then quits his palace
at Cambaluc, and proceeds to that city which he has
built, as I told you before, and which is called Chandu,
where he has that p
d ran
g - park and palace of cane, and
where he g
keeps ~ s his gerfalcons in mew. There he
spends the summer, to escape the heat, for the situation
is a very cool one. After stopping there from the
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