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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. LIX.
REVIEW OF POLO'S TRACK I 2 9
which I have laid down on your map (viz. extending a few miles north-east of Homi). There are scarcely any roads in those mountains, and easy lines of communication begin only after you have got to the Lin-ngan territory. In Marco Polo's days things were certainly not better, but the reverse. All that has been done of consequence in the way of roads, posts, and organisation in the part of Yun-nan between Lin-ngan and Xieng Hung, dates in some degree from the Yuen, but in a far greater degree from K'ang-hi." Hence, even with the Ramusian reading of the itinerary, we cannot place Auxin much beyond the position indicated already.
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Script Mai of Xieng-hung.
Koloman.—We have seen that the position of this region is probably near the western frontier of Kwei-chau. Adhering to Hor;ai as the representative of Anin, and to the 8 days' journey of the text, the most probable position of Koloman would be about Loping, which lies about ioo English miles in a straight line north-east fr.om Homi. The first character of the name here is again the same as the Lo of the
Kolo tribes.
Beyond this point the difficulties of devising an interpretation, consistent at once
with facts and with the text as it stands, become insuperable.
The narrative demands that from Koloman we should reach Fungul, a great and
noble city, by travelling 12 days along a river, and that Fungul should be within
twelve days' journey of Ch'êng-tu fu, along the same river, or at least along rivers
connected with it.
In advancing from the south-west guided by the data afforded by the texts, we have
yS;► not been able to carry the position of Fungul (Sinugul, or what not of G. T. and
other MSS.) further north than Phungan. But it is impossible that Ch'êng-tu fu should have been reached in 12 days from this point. Nor is it possible that a new
0 post in a secluded position, like Phungan, could have merited to be described as
á~ `` a great and noble city."
l0$ Baron v. Richthofen has favoured me with a note in which he shows that in
reality the only place answering the more essential conditions of Fungul is Siu-chau fu at the union of the two great branches of the Yang-tzű, viz. the Kin-sha Kiang, and
VOL. II. I
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