IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
►
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD, FUNERALS IN QUINSAI • I S ' •
be celebrated unless the astrologer told them his opinion.. Also if a wedding illust be celebrated z
between any, it is examined by their astrologers whether the future groom and bride are born
under concordant planets or not; if under concordant, the marriage is completed; if under
opposing, it is broken off. They burn the corpses of the dead. And again I tell you that they R
have likewise for a habit that when any great rich master dies, when the dead bodies are
carried to burn, all the relations and the friends make very great mourning,- and the relations, FB
women and men, dress themselves cheaply in hemp for mourning and go behind TA FB
with the body which is carried to the place where they wish to burn him, and take with R
them their instruments many and different and go playing and singing idol prayers z z z
aloud. And when they are come to the • said • place where the body must be burned z z R z
they stop themselves and cause horses to be made and slaves or servants, male and z
women, and camels, saddles, trappings, and cloth of gold and of silk • and money • of gold FA R z R
and of silver in very great abundance. And all these things they snake [68a] to be z z
painted on sheets of cotton paper. And when they have done all this they make the R
great fire and burn the body with these things and say that that dead man will have
all those things in the other world alive of flesh and of bones and the money of
gold, cloths of gold and of silk. And the burning finished, they sound all the instruments R R
together with great cheerfulness continually singing; for they say that all the honour which
they do him when he is being burned, just such another will be done him in the
other world by their gods and by the idols, and that the instruments which they have FA
sounded and the songs of the idols will come to meet them in the other world and that the idol
himself will come to do him honour, • and that he is born again in the other world & begins a life R
anew. . And because of this sort of faith they fear not nor care about death, provided that honour z
be shown them in it as is said before, firmly trusting to be honoured in like manner in the other world. And so the men of the province of Mangi are more passionate than other people, and for
anger and grief some very often kill themselves. For if it shall happen that some one of these
shall give a blow to some other or pull out his hair or inflict some injury or harm upon hirn, and the offender may be so powerful and great that he is powerless to take vengeance; the
sufferer of the injury will hang himself from excess of grief at the door of the offender by night
& die, doing this to him for the greater blame and contempt; and so when the offender has been discovered by the witness of the neighbours they condemn him for compensation of the injury
to be obliged at the burning of the corpse to honour him with instruments & servers and the
other things, as has been said, according to their customs with active festivity. And this will
be the greater reason why he hung himself, namely that this rich and powerful man should
honour hint at death in order that he may be likewise honoured in the other world; so that they
keep up this custom. And in this city of Quinsai • again is the royal palace of the king z FB Z
Fa fur who fled, who was lord of the province of Mangi, which is the most beautiful z z
337
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.