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

tory called Kandilli (Qandilli), which means « Which has the Lamp », or « Provided with lamps », but
hesitated because it is on the Asiatic coast. This consideration is enough to ruin the hypothesis;
the Far must be on the European side of the Bosphorus. There is a Fänär-qapusï, « Gate of the
Lantern », called by foreign historians of the siege of 1453 « Portha Phani » and « Porta del Pharo »,
and, in an earlier document (1351) τοποθεσία τοῦ φανάρι; but, although there must have been a
beacon there, it was located quite inside the Golden Horn (cf. A. VAN MILLINGEN, Byzantine Cons-
tantinople, London, 1899, 8vo, 206, and the map at the beginning of the book), and cannot come into
account here. But there was also in Constantinople a Pharos, and I think it must be the place meant
by Polo. According to Dr. PASPATES' researches, it was located « at Domus-Dama, a short distance
east of the Hippodrome, and to the west of the Seraglio enclosure » (VAN MILLINGEN, 189). On VAN
MILLINGEN's sketch map facing p. 269, there is an « old light-house », just east of the Mosque of
Kemal Pasha, at the north-eastern corner of the Palace of Justinian (north of the Bucoleon).
I think that this is Polo's Far; but, if so, his « mountain » was hardly more than a mound.

230. FEMELES (ISLAND OF WOMEN)

femeles F femena VA feminina P, V, Vl, Z
femella L femene VB femmina, femminina R
femelle FA, FB, FBt, femenina V femynina G
LT, TA¹, TA³ femes F, Fr, t fumele FAt
femelles, femenie FB

According to Polo (Vol. I, 424-425), there were two islands near together, one called «Male»
the other « Female », located 500 miles south of Kesmacoran, and another 500 miles south of these
islands was Socotra. The inhabitants of the Male Island (and of the Female) were « baptized Chris-
tians », with a bishop placed under the authority of the archbishop of Socotra. The men of the Male
Island only spent March, April, and May with the women of the Female Island. The women would
bring up the children, but boys, when they were fourteen years of age (or «twelve» according to Z,
VB, and R, a more likely age of puberty in tropical countries), were sent to the Male Island.
« Kesmacoran » (q. v.) is the Mekran or Persian Baluchistan of our maps, north of the Gulf
of Oman. Having reached that point in the account of his return journey, Polo embarks into a long
digression to describe countries to the west and south-west, of which he is only speaking by hearsay
from the accounts of Mussulman sailors. Socotra is not due south, but south-west of Mekran; the
only islands of any importance between the two are Masirah, and the group of islands in the Kurian
Murian Bay. Although the whole chapter clearly has a legendary character, Masirah seems to be
too much to the north-east to be possibly connected, even as a legend, with Socotra. The Kurian
Murian Bay is about 500 miles to the south-west of Mekran, and 350 miles to the north-east of
Socotra; and this is evidently why PAUTHIER (Pa, 669-671) located there the Male and Female Islands.