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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. IV. KING CAIDU'S VALIANT DAUGHTER
465
on the palace pavement. And when he found himself
thus thrown, and her standing over him, great indeed
was his shame and discomfiture. He gat him up
straightway, and without more ado departed with all his
company, and returned to his father, full of shame and
vexation, that he who had never yet found a man that
could stand before him should have been thus worsted by
a girl ! And his woo horses he left behind him.
As to King Caidu and his wife they were greatly an-
noyed, as I can tell you ; for if they had had their will
this youth should have won their daughter.
And ye must know that after this her father never
went on a campaign but she went with him. And gladly
he took her, for not a knight in all his train played such
feats of arms as she did. Sometimes she would quit
her father's side, and make a dash at the host of the
enemy, and seize some man thereout, as deftly as a hawk
pounces on a bird, and carry him to her father ; and this
she did many a time.
Now I will leave this story and tell you of a great
battle that Caidu fought with Argon the son of Abaga,
Lord of the Tartars of the Levant.
NOTE 1.—The name of the lady is in Pauthier's MSS. Agiaint, Agyanie; in the Bern, Agyanic ; in the MS. of the G. T., distinctly Aigiaruc, though printed in the edition of 1 824 as Aigiarm. It is Oriental Turkish, AI-YÁRÚ K, signifying precisely Lucent Lune, as Marco explains it. For this elucidation I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Vámbéry, who adds that the name is in actual use among the Uzbek women.
Kaidu had many sons, but only one daughter, whom Rashidud.din (who seems to be Hammer's authority here) calls Kutulun. Her father loved her above all his sons ; she used to accompany him to the field, and aid in state affairs. Letters were exchanged between her and Ghazan Khan, in which she assured him she would marry no one else ; but her father refused her hand to all suitors. After Kaidu's death, this ambitious lady made some attempt to claim the succession. (Hammer's Ilklians,
II. 143-144.)
The story has some resemblance to what Ibn Batuta relates of another warlike Princess, Urdúja, whom he professes to have visited in the questionable kingdom of Tawálisi on his way to China : " I heard . . . that various sons of kings had sought Urduja's hand, but she always answered, ` I will marry no one but him who shall fight and conquer me ' ; so they all avoided the trail, for fear of the shame of being beaten by her." (I. B. IV. 253-254.) I have given reasons (Cathay, p. 52o) for
VOL, II. 2 G
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