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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
596 MARCO POLO APP. L.
7.—FIRE-ARMS. (Vol. i. p. 342.)
From a paper on Siam's Intercourse with China, published by Lieutenant-Colonel Gerini in the Asiatic Quarterly Reziezv for October, 1902, it would appear that firearms were mentioned for the first time in Siamese Records during the Lau invasion and the siege of Swankhalôk (from I0S5 to 1097 A.D.) ; it is too early a date"for the introduction of fire-arms, though it would look " much more like an anachronism were the advent of these implements of warfare [were] placed, in blind reliance upon the Northern Chronicles, still a few centuries back. The most curious of it all is, however, the statement as to the weapons in question having been introduced into the country from China." Following W. F. Mayers in his valuable contributions to the Jour. North-China B. R. A. S., 1869-1870, Colonel Gerini," who, of course, did not know of Dr. Schlegel's paper, adds : " It was not until the reign of the Emperor Yung Lê, and on occasion of the invasion of Tonkin in A.D. 1407, that the Chinese acquired the knowledge of the propulsive effect of gunpowder, from their vanquished enemies."
Ptj
8.—LA COUVADE. (Vol. ii. p. 91.)
Mr. H. Ling Roth has given an interesting paper entitled On the Signification of
j Couvade, in the Jourrz. Anthropolob ical Institute, XXII. 1893, pp. 204-243. He writes (pp. 221-222) :—" From this survey it would seem in the first place that we want a great deal more information about the custom in the widely isolated cases where it has been reported, and secondly, that the authenticity of some of the reported cases is doubtful in consequence of authors repeating their predecessors' tales, as Colquhoun did Marco Polo's, and V. der Haart did Schouten's. I should not be at all surprised if ultimately both Polo's and Schouten's accounts turned out to be myths, both these travellers making their records at a time when the Old World was full of the tales of the New, so that in the end, we may yet find the custom is not, nor ever has been, so widespread as is generally supposed to have been the case."
I do not very well see how Polo, in the 13th and 14th centuries could make his record at a time when the Old World was full of the tales of the New, discovered at the end of the 15th century ! Unless Mr. Ling Roth supposes the Venetian Traveller acquainted with the various theories of the Pre-Columbian discovery of America ! !
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9.—ALACAN. (Vol. ii. pp. 255 and 261.)
Dr. G. Schlegel writes, in the T'oung Pao (May, 1898, p. 153) : "Abakan or Abaclzan ought to be written Alalzan. His name is written by the Chinese Ats'zehan and by the Japanese Asikan ; but this is because they have both confounded the character lah with the character ts'ze; the old sound of [the last] character [of the name] was kan and is always used by the Chinese when wanting to transcribe the title Kazan or Chan. Marco Polo's Abacan is a clerical error for Abacan."
1
Io.—CIIAmPA. (Vol. ii. p. 268.)
In Ma Huan's account of the Kingdom of Siam, transi. by Mr. Phillips (Jour. China B. R. A. S., XXI. 1886, pp. 35-36) we read : " Their marriage ceremonies are as follows :—They first invite the priest to conduct the bridegroom to the bride's house, and on arrival there the priest exacts the ` droit seigneurial,' and then she is introduced to the bridegroom."
II.—RUCK QUILLS. (Vol. H. p. 421.)
Regarding Ruck Quills, Sir II. Yule wrote in the Academy, 22nd March, 1884,
pp. 204-405 :-
" I suggested that this night possibly have been sonic vegetable production, such
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