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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
43
MARCO POLO BOOK H.
Richthofen remarks that nowhere in China does the bamboo attain such a size as in this region. Bamboos of three palms in girth (28 to 30 inches) exist, but are not ordinary, I should suppose, even in Sze-ch'wan. In 1855 I took some pains to procure in Pegu a specimen of the largest attainable bamboo. It was Io inches in
diameter.
NOTE 3.—M. Gabriel Durand, a missionary priest, thus describes his journey in 1861 to Kiangka, via Ta-t'sien-lu, a line of country partly coincident with that which Polo is traversing : "Every day we made a journey of nine or ten leagues, and halted for the night in a Kung-kuan. These are posts dotted at intervals of about ten leagues along the road to Hlassa, and usually guarded by three soldiers, though the more important posts have twenty. With the exception of some Tibetan houses, few and far between, these are the only habitations to be seen on this silent and deserted road. . . . Lytang was the first collection of houses that we had seen in ten days' march." (Ann. de la Propag. de la Foi, XXXV. 352 segq. )
NOTE 4.—Such practices are ascribed to many nations. Martini quotes something similar from a Chinese author about tribes in Yunnan ; and Garnier says such loose practices are still ascribed to the Sifan near the southern elbow of the Kin-sha Kiang. Even of the Mongols themselves and kindred races, Pallas asserts that the young women regard a number of intrigues rather as a credit and recommendation than otherwise. Japanese ideas seem to be not very different. In old times IElian gives much the same account of the Lydian women. Herodotus's Gindanes of Lybia afford a
perfect parallel, whose women wear on their legs anklets of leather. Each lover
that a woman has gives her one ; and she who can show most is the best esteemed, as she appears to have been loved by the greatest number of men." (Martini, 142 ; Gamier, I. 52o ; Pall. Sam;;il. II. 235 ; z'l. Var. Hist. III. I ; Rawl. Herod Bk. IV. ch. clxxvi.)
E" Among some uncivilised peoples, women having many gallants are esteemed better than virgins, and are more anxiously desired in marriage. This is, for instance, stated to be the case with the Indians of Quito, the Laplanders in Regnard's days, and the Hill Tribes of North Aracan. But in each of these cases we are expressly told that want of chastity is considered a merit in the bride, because it is held to be the best testimony to the value of her attractions." ( Westermarck, Human Marriage, p. 8r.)—H. C.]
Mr. Cooper's Journal, when on the banks of the Kin-sha Kiang, west of Bathang, affords a startling illustration of the persistence of manners in this region : " At i 2h. 30m. we arrived at a road-side house, near which was a grove of walnut-trees ; here we alighted, when to my surprise I was surrounded by a group of young girls and two elderly women, who invited me to partake of a repast spread under the trees. . . . I thought I had stumbled on a pic-nic party, of which the Tibetans are so fond. Having finished, I lighted my pipe and threw myself on the grass in a state of castle-building. I had not lain thus many seconds when the maidens brought a young girl about 15 years old, tall and very fair, placed her on the grass beside nie, and forming a ring round us, commenced to sing and dance. The little maid beside me, however, was bathed in tears. All this, I must confess, a little puzzled me, when Philip (the Chinese servant) with a long face, came to my aid, saying, ` Well, Sir, this is a bad business . . . . they are marrying you.' Good heavens ! how startled I was." For the honourable conclusion of this Anglo-Tibetan idyll I must refer to Mr. Cooper's Journal. (See the now published Travels, ch. x.)
NOTE 5.—All this is clearly meant to apply only to the rude people towards the Chinese frontier ; nor would the Chinese (says Richthofen) at this day think the description at all exaggerated, as applied to the Lolo who occupy the mountains to the south of Yachaufu. The members of the group at p. 47, from Lieutenant Garnier's book, are there termed Man-tzii ; but the context shows them to be of the race of these Lolos. (See below, pp. .60, 61.) The passage about the musk animal, both in
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