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| 0615 |
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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compared to the face of a zāngi (113, 3, and 177, 20). The meaning is confirmed in the second
case by the variant lḥabaš, «Abyssinian», of the Cairo ms.; the Uighur spelling sānggi or sāngi
given in RADLOV's edition in Uighur letters (p. 131, 216) and in his dictionary (IV, 448) is a
misreading, or a wrong form due to the late scribe who had to use the unfamiliar Uighur script.
The transcription in Latin letters accompanying Radlov's translation gives zāngi (p. 337) and
sānggi (p. 514); I have no doubt that the Cairo ms., written in Arabic script, correctly gives in
the first passage zāngi, which RADLOV adopted; but RADLOV retained in the second passage the
wrong form, sānggi, of the Uighur ms. (it ought, however, to be sāngi according to his edition
of that ms. in Uighur script) because this time the ms. in Arabic script had ḥabaš instead of
zāngi. We may safely conclude that in the 11th cent., the Turks of Central Asia had at least a
scholarly knowledge of zāngi as a word meaning «negro».
The same word occurs in Chinese sources. In 1904 (BEFEO, IV, 289-291) I called attention
to a few texts mentioning slave boys and girls called 僧 祇 sêng-ch'i (*sǝng-g'jie) or 僧 着 sêng-
ch'i (*sǝng-g'ji) who had been sent as tribute by some Indonesian kingdoms : two sêng-ch'i girls
in 724 by Śrīvijaya (= Palembang, or Palembang-Jambi; cf. Hsin-T'ang shu, 222 C, 4 a; Ts'ê-fu
yüan-kuei, 971, 6 a; 975, 4 b); four sêng-ch'i boys in 813 (Hsin-T'ang shu, 222 C, 3 a; T'ang
hui yao, 100, 2 b; in 815 according to Ts'ê-fu yüan-kuei, 972, 7 a) and two sêng-ch'i girls in 818
by Ho-ling (= Kalinga, Java; T'ang hui yao, 100, 2 b; Ts'ê-fu yüan-kuei, 972, 7 b). Already
in 1904, I had identified these sêng-ch'i as zāngi; the solution has been accepted, and I do not
think it can be doubted. There are, however, two difficulties. The first one is of a phonetic
nature, which I failed to notice in 1904 : sêng-ch'i normally renders an original *sāngi, not
zāngi. To account for such an anomaly, I can only suggest either that the Persian term reached
China through intermediaries who had no z and pronounced it as s, or that the transcription was
contaminated by the earlier existence of 僧 祇 sêng-ch'i as a ready-made Buddhist term transcrib-
ing sāṅghi[ka] and entering into transcriptions based on Prakrit forms of saṅkakṣika and
asaṅkhyeya (cf. ODA Tokuno's dictionary, 1072). But both explanations are mere hypotheses.
I alluded to the second difficulty in 1904 : 僧 着 sêng-ch'i occurs in the 蠻 書 Man shu
of c. 860 (6, 6 b) as the name of a «tribe» which there is no apparent reason to locate as far
away as Africa (cf. BEFEO, IV, 291). But in the Études asiatiques published in 1925 by the
École Française d'Extrême-Orient (II, 261-263), I have since translated another text which must
be mentioned in connection with that of the Man-shu. In one of the notes of his I-ch'ieh ching
yin-i, completed in 817, Hui-lin speaks of the 崑 崙 K'un-lun (*Kuǝn-luǝn) or 骨 論 Ku-lun
(*Kuǝt-luǝn) barbarians of the southern islands, very black, naked, capable of taming rhinoce-
roses and elephants and adds : «They are of several sorts : there are the 僧 祇 Sêng-ch'i, the
突 彌 T'u-mi (*D'uǝt-mjie), the 骨 棠 Ku-t'ang (*Kuǝt-d'āng), the 閩 蔑 Ko-mieh (*Kāp-miet)
and others; all are vile people, without rites or laws, living by pillage, and fond of eating men . . .
Their language is irregular and different from that of the [other] barbarians. They are accom-
plished in going into water (= for diving into it) and [can remain in it] a whole day without
dying».
Of the different names occuring in Hui-lin's text, T'u-mi and Ku-t'ang are unknown, but Ko-
mieh transcribes the name of the Khmêr or Cambodians, and K'un-lun is a general designation
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381
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391
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