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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
1
~
'l
ii
466
MARCO POLO BOOK IV.
suspecting that this lady with a Turkish name in the Indian Archipelago is a bit of fiction. Possibly Ibn Batuta had heard the legend of King Kaidu's daughter.
The story of Kaidu's daughter, and still more the parallel one from Ibn Batuta, recall what Herodotus tells of the Sauromatae, who had married the Amazons ; that no girl was permitted to marry till she had killed an enemy (IV. 117). They recall still more closely Brunhild, in the Nibelungen : -
a royal maiden who reigned beyond the sea :
From sunrise to the sundown no paragon had she.
All boundless as her beauty was her strength was peerless too, And evil plight hung o'er the knight who dared her love to woo. For he must try three bouts with her ; the whirling spear to fling ; To pitch the massive stone ; and then to follow with a spring ; And should he beat in every feat his wooing well has sped,
But he who fails must lose his love, and likewise lose his head."
CHAPTER V.
How APAGA SENT HIS SON ARGON IN COMMAND AGAINST KING CAIDU.
ABAGA the Lord of the Levant had many districts and
provinces bordering on King Caidu's territories. These
lay in the direction of the Arbre Sol, which the Book of
Alexander calls the Arbre Sec, about which I have told
you before. And Abaga, to watch against forays by
Caidu's people sent his son Argon with a great force of
horsemen, to keep the marches between the Arbre Sec
and the River Jon. So there tarried Argon with all his
host.'
Now it came to pass that King Caidu assembled a
great army and made captain thereof a brother of his
called Barac, a brave and prudent man, and sent his host
under his brother to fight with Argon.'
(Barac and his army cross the Jon or Oxus and
are totally routed by Argon, to whose history the
traveller now turns.)
Noi'E 1.—The Government of this frontier, from Kazwin or Rei to the banks of the Oxus, was usually, under the Mongol sovereigns of Persia, confided to the heir of the throne. Thus, under Iiulaku it was held by Ábáká, under Abálá by Arghtín, and under Arghún by Gházán. (See Hammer, passim.)
We have already spoken amply of the Arbre Sol (vol. i. p. 128 segq.).
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