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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

nications between Fu-chou on the one hand and Chiang-hsi province and Hang-chou on the other,
cf. Yung-lo ta-tien, 19423, 22-26, and 19426, 10 a. The notation of ning by lin has been put to the
account of the local dialect (cf. B¹, 440), but it is of fairly common occurrence in many parts of
China; most Hunanese pronounce l- for n-, and the Hsi-ning (Si-ning) of Western China has become
Silin and Siling in Central Asian speech (see « Silingiu »). On « Quenlinfu », cf. Y, II, 228; Ch,
III, 105; the « Kelinfu » adopted by YULE is not a correct reading.

321. QUESITAN

casitan, quiecitari R qitan, quescitan TA¹ quesitani P
chisitani VL quecitain F, L quesitarie, quitaiti TA²
chontani, quasitan V quesitam F, FAt, VA questiaus FA
ispini VA quesitan FA, FB, L quiato, quesitan LT

Sic in FA, FB; the « Quesitam » of F is probably due to a copyist's wrong reading of a form
*quesitā. Pe, 199, still keeps the wrong correction « quesican » (given in B, 78, 84). I published
the true explanation in TP, 1930, 27-29; and RR, 424, and B¹, 452, are correct. Polo's « Quesitan »
(for *Quesictan misread as *Quesittan > Quesitan?) represents the regular plural form kāšiktān
of the singular kāšiktū and kāšiktāi; the three forms occur in Chinese transcriptions; kāšiktū
and kāšiktāi are the regular adjectives derived from kāšik, « watch », and mean « those who have
to do the watch ». The turns of watch of the four kāšik are more or less imitated from the turns
of watch which existed already under the T'ang for the four 衛 wei, or divisions of the Imperial
guard. [For the four kāšik (仗 蔚 ch'ieh-hsieh) in command of the kāšiktāi (仗 蔚 歹 ch'ieh-
hsieh-tai) in the days of Cinghis, and for their turns of duty, see YS, 99, 1 a-b; and for the relief
of the four kāšik suffering from famine on April 13, 1339, YS, 40, 2 b, A.C.M.]. Rašidu-'d-Dīn
writes kāzik and kāziktānān (-ān is the Persian plural), but also sometimes kāšik. I could add
much to my note of 1930, but it is not the place to write a monograph on the kāšiktān. I want
only to call attention to the fact that Kāšγarī (ed. BROCKELMANN, 106, 107), in 1073 or 1076, distin-
guishes in Turkish between kāzik, « turn » and « [recurrent] fever » (secondary meaning of kāzik,
« turn »), and kāšik, « watch-station »; this will have to be taken into consideration when studying
again the relation of Mongol kāšik to Turkish kāzik. Odoric's « çuthe » or « zuche » cannot easily
be reconciled palaeographically with kāšik, in spite of Y¹, II, 229 (where the last line of n. 6 must
be suppressed), followed by Wy, 475; see also « Cuiuci ».