国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

(Y¹, II, 204; Wy, 467-468); « Chilenfo » is probably 金 陵 府 Chin-ling-fu, a name of Nanking
which was only officially in use some time in the 10th cent., but which may have continued to be
in popular use. Nanking is perhaps also the « Nemnai » (read « Namtai » ?) of the Vie de Tamerlan
translated by PÉTIS DE LA CROIX from Šarafu-'d-Dīn, and the « Nemptai » of Nicolò Conti. These
forms seem to render 南 憙 Nan-t'ai (still pronounced *Nam-t'ai in the 15th cent.), but we have
until now no indication that Nanking was then popularly known under such a name (cf. TP, 1931,
91-92).

295. NATIGAI

atagai, natagai VB nacigai F, VA natigay R
fattighai TA¹ nacigay FA, L, P, VL, Z natygay FB
fattighu, natighai TA³ nacygai F ——
giangin, nagani V nacygay P (suo muier sono chiamata
naagai, naagay LT naçagay Z ditorniedi V)
nachigai VL natigai TA¹, VB

I have adopted this form of VB, because it is the one which comes nearest to what I believe
to be the true form of the word. According to Polo, this is the Earth-god among the Mongols.
I do not doubt that « Natigai » is the same as Plan Carpine's « Ytoga » (Wy, 41; var. « Itoga »,
« Vtoga »; read *Utoga ?), and that both are simply transcriptions of the name which we know
in Turkish from the T'ang period under the name Ötükän or Ütükän (the sacred mountain where
the Earth-god or rather Earth-goddess of the Turks resided). In Mongolian, that Earth-goddess
appears in the forms Ötögän, Ötägän, Ätügän, Ötögin. This explanation was suggested long ago
by Dorji BANZAROV, Černaya véra, 16-18. I have devoted a special note to the word in TP, 1929,
212-219; cf. also VLADIMIRCOV in Doklady Ak. nauk, 1929, 133-136; DE GROOT, Die Hunnen, I, 181,
is entirely mistaken in thinking that Yü-tu-chin of the Chinese texts is the Orkhon river. To my
note of 1929, I should like to add : (1) the note of Tzŭ-chih t'ung-chien, s. a. 646, 198, 5 b, on
Yü-tu-chün; (2) the mention of Ötükän (Ütükän ?) in Kāšγarī as a place in Mongolia (BROCKELMANN,
246); (3) an edict of the 14th cent. reproduced in Hua-i i-yü, II, 1 a, which begins with the mention
of the numerous living creatures which are covered by Heaven (Tängri) and supported by Earth
(Ötögän); the Mongolian words for « earth », in the material sense, are different (široi, etc.); (4) BLO-
CHET's explanation of Rubrouck's (read « Plan Carpine's ») « Ytoga » through an imaginary
« il-ogha(n) », « great god » (Moufazzal, 533), is absurd.
If we accept that « Natigai » is Ötögän, Ätügän, we may wonder that Polo, so accurate in his
Oriental names, should not have rendered this one more exactly. It may be that he said « *Atigai »,
but the word comes in different parts of his work, and begins always with n-. We might suppose
that it was once misread with an n belonging to the preceding word (the opposite of what occurred
with « Oroech » == « Noroech »), and that the wrong form was already substituted everywhere in
12.