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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
IOó
MARCO POLO BooK II.
no other does the plain country approach so near to Yung-ch'ang. (See Anderson's Report on Expedition to Western n Yunnan, p. 16o.)
Dr. Anderson's remarks on the present question do not in my opinion remove the difficulties. He supposes the long descent to be the descent into the plains of the Irawadi near Bhamo ; and from that point the land journey to Great Pagán could, he conceives, " easily be accomplished in t 5 days." I greatly doubt the latter assumption. By the scale I have just referred to it would take at least 20 days. And to calculate the 2i days with which the journey commences from an indefinite point seems scarcely admissible. Polo is giving us a continuous itinerary ; it would be ruptured if he left an indefinite distance between his last station and his " long descent." And if the same principle were applied to the 5 days between Carajan (or Tali) and Vochan (Yung-ch'ang), the result would be nonsense.
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Temple of Gaudapalén (in the city of Mien), erected circa A. D. 1160.
[Mien-lien, to which is devoted eh. vii. of the Chinese work Sze-i-kwan-k'ao, appears to have included much more than Burma proper. (See the passage supra, pp. 70-71, quoted by Devéria from the Yuen-slii lei pies regarding Kiena-tou and KinChi.)—H. C.]
The hypothesis that I have suggested would suit better with the traveller's representation of the country traversed as wild and uninhabited. In a journey to Great Pagán the most populous and fertile part of Burma would be passed through.
[Baker writes (p. 18o) : " ` The generally received theory that ` the great descent which leads towards the Kingdom of Mien,' on which ` you ride for two days and a half continually downhill,' was the route from Yung-ch'ang to T'eng-Yueh, must be at once abandoned. Marco was, no doubt, speaking from hearsay, or rather, from a recollection of hearsay, as it does not appear that he possessed any notes ; but there is good reason for supposing that he had personally visited Yung-ch'ang. Weary of the interminable mountain-paths, and encumbered with much baggage — for a magnate of Marco's court influence could never, in the Fast, have travelled without a considerable state—impeded, in addition, by a certain quantity of merchandise, for he was ` discreet and prudent in every way,' he would have listened longingly to the report of an easy ride of two and a half days downhill, and would never have forgotten it. That such a route exists I am well satisfied. Where is it ? The stream
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