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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD, THE GREAT TARTAR KAN •68.
against a castle which had Caagiu for name, and there while he was besieging it he was LT hit by an arrow in the knee, and of that blow he died after a few days, & he was buried i on the great mount Altai. From this there was great loss, for he was a prudent man and wise and a man of war. Now I have described to you how the Tartars first have a LT lord, and who was their first lord, and that was Cinghis Kan, & he set them free from LT V servitude; and again I have told you how they first conquered Prester Johan. Now I wish to tell you the many other lords •who reigned afterwards and of their customs and of y FB
their habits as you shall learn.' y
HERE HE TELLS OF THE KAN WHO REIGN AFTER THE DEATH OF CINGHIS KAN. . 6~
You may know quite truly that after the death of Cinghis Kan first lord of LT V •
the Tartars Cui Kane was second lord, the third lord named Batu Kan R VA reigned, & after him reigned the fourth Ulau3 Kan, after Ulau Kan reigned the fifth v v
Mongu Kan, after Mongu Kan reigned the sixth [28a] Cublai Kan who now reigns &' V L
is greater and more powerful than was any of the others. For if all the other five
were together they will not have so much power as this Cublai, for he inherited what R
the others had, and then obtained as it were the rest of the world; for he lived about sixty years
in his rule. And again I tell you a greater thing than I am telling you: that all the
emperors of the world and all the kings both of Christians and of Saracens also, if L FB
they were all together, would not have so much power nor could they do so much as
this Cublai great Kaan could do, who is lord of all the Tartars of the world, both of those FB
of the sunrising and of those of the sunsetting, for all are his men and subject to him. • And this R
name Kaan means Emperor in our tongue. And I will show you this his great power. in its FB LT
own place in this our book quite clearly. And you may know truly that such a custom v L
is observed; for all the great Kaan and the great lords of the Tartars who are descended y LT
from the line of their first lord Cinghis Kan are carried for burial when they are dead FB V
to a very great mountain which is called Altai. And wherever the great lords of L
the Tartars die, if they die a good hundred days marches' away from that mountain, v
they must be carried there to the said mountain for burial with the others, • nor are they v FB VB
willing to be buried in another place. Moreover I tell you another great wonder, that they FB VB
have this custom that when the bodies of these great Kaan of the Tartars are carried to LT
that mountain to bury, though they may be distant forty days marches or more or v
1 This story (chapters 64-68) is translated from VB on pp. 494-498 below as an example of the way in which that version deals with the text, adding many words but no facts, & actually omitting several interesting details.
2 An old note in the margin of V adds hoccata can.
3 Alton and most texts have something similar; but see PN.
4 TA3: c° mtgla
167
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