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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XXIV. THE TARTARS OF THE PONENT
493
At Moscow he ordered a general massacre, and 270,00o right ears are said to have been laid before him in testimony to its accomplishment. It is odd enough that a mistake like that in the text is not confined to Polo. The chronicle of Kazan, according to a Russian writer, makes Sain succeed Batu. (Carlini, p. 746 ; J. As. sér. IV. tom. xvii. p. 109 ; Bnisching, V. 493 ; also Golden Horde, p. 142, note.)
Batu himself, in the great .invasion of the West, was with the southern host in Hungary ; the northern army which fought at Liegnitz was under Baidar, a son of Chaghatai.
According to the Masálak-al-Absar, the territory of Kipchak, over which this dynasty ruled, extended in length from the Sea of Istambul to the River Irtish, a journey of 6 months, and in breadth from Bolghar to the Iron Gates, 4 (?) months' journey. A second traveller, quoted in the same work, says the empire extended from the Iron Gates to Yughra (see p. 483 supra), and from the Irtish to the country of the Nemej. The last term is very curious, being the Russian Niemicz, " Dumb," a term which in Russia is used as a proper name of the Germans ; a people, to wit, unable to speak Slavonic. (N. et Ex. XIII. i. 282, 284.)
[` `An allusion to the Mongol invasion of Poland and Silesia is found in the Yuen-shi, ch. cxxi., biography of Wu-liang-ho t'ai (the son of Su-bu-t'ai). It is stated there that Wu-liang-ho t'ai [Uriangcadai] accompanied Badu when he invaded the countries of Kin-ch'a (Kipchak) and IVu-la-sz' (Russia). Subsequently he took part also in the expedition against the P'o-lie-rh and Nie-mi-sze." (Dr. Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. p. 322. ) With reference to these two names, Dr. Bretschneider says, in a note, that he has no doubt that the Poles and Germans are intended. " As to its origin, the Russian linguists generally derive it from nemoi, dumb,' i.e., unable to speak Slavonic. To the ancient Byzantine chroniclers the Germans were known under the same name. Cf. Muralt's Essai de Chr. onogr. Byzant., sub anno 882 : ` Les Slavons maltraités par les guerriers Nemetzi de Swiatopolc ' (King of Great Moravia, 870-894).. Sophocles' Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine periods from B.C. 146 to A.D. Imo : ` Nemitzi' Austrians, Germans. This name is met also in the Mohammedan authors. According to the Masálak-al-Absár, of the first half of the 14th century (transi. by Quatremère, N. et Ext. XXII. 284), the country of the Kipchaks extended (eastward) to the country of the Nemedj,.which separates the Franks from the Russians. The Turks still call the Germans Niemesi ; the Hungarians term them Nemet."—H. C.]
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Figure of a Tartar under the feet of Henry II., Duke of Silesia, Cracow, and Poland, from the tomb at Bre3lau of that Prince, killed in battle with the
Tartar host at Liegnitz, 9th April, 1241.
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