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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
122
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
•
oxen, and of sheep as well. It was the first locality in which the latter were seen. The plateau of Lin-ngan affords pasture-grounds which are exceptionally good for that part of the world.
" Beyond Lin-ngan we find the Ho-nhi, properly so called, no longer. But ought one to lay much stress on mere names which bave undergone so many changes, and of which so many have been borne in succession by all those places and peoples ? . . . I will content myself with reminding you that the town of llomi-cheat near Lin-ngan in the days of the Yuen bore the name of Ngo-ning"
Notwithstanding M. Garnier's caution, I am strongly inclined to believe that ANIN represents either Ho-NHI or NGO-NING, if indeed these names be not identical. For on reference to Biot I see that the first syllable of the modern name of the town which M. Garnier writes Horí, is expressed by the same character as the first syllable of NGOning
[The Wo-nhi are also called Ngo-ni, Kan-ni, Ho-ni, Lou-mi, No-pi, Ko-ni and Wa-heh ; they descend from the southern barbarians called Ho-nhi. At the time of the kingdom of Nan-Chao, the Ho-nhi, called In-yuen, tribes were a dependence of the Kiang (Xieng) of Wei-yuen (Prefecture of P'u-erh). They are now to be found in the Yunnanese prefectures of Lin-ngan, King-tung, Chen-yuen, Yuen-kiang and Yun-nan. (See Devéria, p. 135.)—H. C.]
We give one of M. Garnier's woodcuts representing some of the races in this vicinity. Their dress, as he notices, has, in some cases, a curious resemblance to costumes of Switzerland, or of Brittany, popular at fancy balls.* Coloured figures of some of these races will be found in the Atlas to Garnier's work ; see especially Plate 35.
NOTE 2. —All the French MSS. and other texts except Ramusio's read 15. We adopt Ramusio's reading, 25, for reasons which will appear below.
CHAPTER LVIII.
01.
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF COLOMAN.
COLOMAN is a province towards the east, the people of
which are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and
are subject to the Great Kaan. They are a [tall and]
very handsome people, though in complexion brown
rather than white, and are good soldiers.' They have
a good many towns, and a vast number of villages, among
great mountains, and in strong positions.'
When any of them die, the bodies are burnt, and then
they take the bones and put them in little chests.
* There is a little uncertainty in the adjustment of names and figures of some of these tribes, between the illustrations and the incidental notices in Lieutenant Garnier's work. But all the figures
in the present cut certainly belong to the tract to which we point as Anin ; and the two middle figures answer best to what is said of the Ho-nhi.
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