National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

130 .   MARCO POLO.   VOL. II. BK. IV.

•

military colony. We read again in the same chapter that they

were furnished with implements of agriculture, and were bound to

present for the imperial table every kind of game, fish, etc.,

found in the forests, rivers, and lakes of the country where their

camp was situated. This Russian regiment is again mentioned

in chap. XXXV.

" In chapter XXXVI. it is recorded that in the year 1332 the

prince Djang-ghi presented 170 Russian prisoners and received a

pecuniary reward. On the same page we read that clothes and

corn were bestowed on a thousand Russians. In the same year

the prince Yen t'ie-mu-rh presented 1500 Russian prisoners to

the Chinese emperor, and another prince, A-rh-ghia-shi-li,

presented thirty.

" Finally, in the biography of Bo yen, chap. C X X XV I I I., he

is stated to have been appointed in 1334 commander of the

emperor's life-guard, composed of Mongols, Kipchaks, and

Russians." (E. BRETSCHNEIDER, Mediæval Researches, II.,

PP. 79-81.)

Prof. Parker (Asiatic Q. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 148) mentions the

appointment of a Russian Governor in 1337, and says : " It was the

practice of Princes in the West to send ` presents ' of Russian

captives. In one case Yen Temur sent as many as 2500 in one

batch."