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
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD THE KING OF THE NORTH •2 I 5.
from Abaga until Caçan as you have heard. And again you may know that Ulau who conquered Baudac and who was brother to Cublai the great Kaan was the head & beginning of all these whom I have named to you above, for he was father L of Abaga and Abaga was father of Argon and Argon was father of Caçan who now reigns. Now since we [Io4d] have told you of these Tartars of the Sunrising then we will leave them for you and will turn again to tell about the great Turquie so as you will be able to hear clearly. But it is truth that we have told you in the z book above all the facts of the great Turquie and how Caidu is king of it, and so y we have nothing more to tell of it. And so we will leave it and will tell you of the z provinces and of the people who are to tramontaine.
HERE HE TELLS OF KING CONCI WHO IS TO TRAMONTAINE. Now I wish that LT • 216
you may know that in certain parts of the north beyond the arctic pole, that LT is beyond tramontaine at the time of Master Marc Pol is a king who is called L the king Conci. He is a Tartar and all his people are called true & correct Tartars TA P
and they keep up the true Tartar law and customs of their ancient predecessors which is P
very brutish; but they keep it up all the same as Cinghis Can did and the other
true Tartars,' and so I will tell you something about it. And all these Tartars are LT
idolaters. Now you may know that they make one of their gods of felt, as was said LT
above of other Tartars in the[ fifty-sixth]chapter of the first book,2 and call him Natigai, and
they also make him a wife. And these two are their gods, that is Natigai and his VB
wife, who they say & believe that they are the gods of earth and those who watch VB LT
over them and their wives, the animals and the corn and all their earthly goods for them. vB
And to these two idols they do great honour and reverence, • and thus do all the other Tartars. VB TA
And they worship them, and when they come where they eat any good food they
anoint the mouth of their god with it and say that he has eaten, • as we have told above. VB TA
And indeed they lead lives like animals. This king Conci, he is subject to none. Yet TA
it is true that he is of the line of Cinghis Can, that is of the imperial lineage, and
is a very near relation of the great Kaan . This king has no city nor village, but they z
live always in tents in great plains and in great valleys and in great mountains and L R
in the forests• of those provinces, • which are very many, . according to the seasons. • And his LT R VB V
people they live on the animals and on milk, and they have not [Io5a] any kind of v L
corn to eat . • And he has a very great people' but makes war or battle with none, LT v
but they live in very great peace, and the reason is that their king whom all well and very LT
1 VB: "not however that they observe the laws and the customs of the descendants of Cinghis Can."
2 See chapter 70 above.
3 TA: essono grandi persone
469
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