IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
.7
o. THE ORDERLY DIVISION OF THE TARTAR HOSTS rMARCO POLO
R of the Tartars goes to war he takes with him an army of a hundred thousand horsey men. He plans his business so as you shall hear; and he arranges his men in this way.
FB FB He snakes a chief to every ten, & to every hundred, to every thousand, and to
TA L LT every ten thousand, so that •the chief lord he has to take counsel with only ten men, the v captains of ten thousand men, •who are heads of a hundred thousand; and he who is lord of ten thousand men had only to do with ten men; and he who is lord of a thousand men had only to do with ten; and likewise he who is lord of a hundred has only R to do with ten . Thus as you have heard each answers to his chief; every ten heads of ten answer to the heads of a hundred, and every ten heads of a hundred answer to the heads of a thousand, and every ten heads of a thousand answer to the heads of ten thousand, and in this FB way each man or captain without other plan or trouble has only to find ten men, •so well and R orderly that it is a wonder. And when the lord of these hundred thousand wishes to V VA V send any of them or to go :for any reason in any direction he sends for and orders the head V P of ten thousand' men to give him a thousand of his men, and the head of ten thousand P v orders [29b] the head of a thousand, the tribune, • to put all his men in order and to give
him his share—to pick a hundred, and the head of a thousand orders the head of a
hundred, and each head of the hundreds orders the head of ten, that each give a R share, of that which comes to them, of the thousand men. And they—all the heads R of the tens—each know immediately the shares that touch them and give them so many, R a hundred head to the heads of a thousand and a thousand head to the heads of ten thousand, and
thus they settle it immediately. •And in this way a thousand of the ten thousand are chosen. This however is kept in so good order that all are sent by equal turns, and each one knows when he may be justly chosen. Everyone moreover obeys immediately when he is chosen. For each is obedient to that which is commanded them more than any people in the
L VB world.2 And you may know that the company of the hundred thousand men in their
VB P tongue is called a tuc and the ten thousand men a toman. And the whole army is thus
ordered by thousands and by hundreds and by tens; they observe the same way in a large
i x° for x"'
2 This elaborate arithmetical passage is omitted by the majority of texts, but is preserved by V,VA,P,R. In VA it reads: "And when the lord of i00000 wishes to send moo men for any reason to any place, he orders a captain of i0000 to give him moo men of his people; the which captain of i0000 orders each captain of i000 to give ioo men, and each captain of ioo orders each captain of io to give one man; so that in this way he has i000 men." The rather difficult sentence au chief de.x.qe chascun done parte de cel que les uienent des.m.homes is paraphrased by B.; and El Millón has y cada uno for qe chascun. V: et loro chomanda a li for homeni si the ognuno li da la sua parte de li orneni the li tocha
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