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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
BooK II.
MARCO POLO
64
ii
i~
thirty-seven tribes dependent on the ancient state of Nan-Chao and occupied the territory of the sub-prefectures of Kiang-Chuen (Ch'êng-kiang fu) and of Si-ngo (Lin-ngan fu). They submitted to China at the beginning of the Yuen Dynasty ; their country bordered upon Burma (Mien-tien) and Ch'ê-li or Kiang-Hung (Xieng-Bung), in Yun-Nan, on the right bank of the Mekong River. According to Chinese tradition, the Pa-y descended from Muong Tsiu-ch'u, ninth son of Ti Muong-tsiu, son of Piao-tsiu-ti (Asôka). Devéria gives (p. 105) a specimen of the Pa-y writing (16th century). (Devéria, Front., 99, 117; Bourne, Report, p. 88.) Chapter iv. of the Chinese work, Sze-i-kwan-k'ao, is devoted to the Pay, including the sub-divisions of Muong-Yang, Muong-Ting, Nan-tien, Tsien-ngaY, Lung-chuen, Wei-yuan, Wan-tien, Chen-k'ang, Ta-how, Mang-shi, Kin-tung, Ho-tsin, Cho-lo tien. (Devéria, Mél. de Harlez, p. 97.) I give a specimen of Pa-yi writing from a Chinese work purchased by Father Amiot at Peking, now in the Paris National Library (Fonds chinois, No. 986). (See on this scrip, F. W. K. Muller, T'oung-Pao, III. p. i, and V. p. 329; E. H. Parker, The Muong Language, China Review, I. 1891, p. 267 ; P. Lefe'vre-Pontalis, Etudes sur quelques alphabets et voeab. Thais, T'oung Pao, III. pp. 39-64.)—II. C.]
These ethnological matters have to be handled cautiously, for there is great ambiguity in the nomenclature. Thus Man-tzu is often used generically for aborigines, and the Lolos of Richthofen are called Man-tzil by Garnier and Blakiston ; whilst Lolo again has in Yun-nan apparently a very comprehensive generic meaning, and is so used by Garnier. (Richt. Letter VII. 67-68 and MS. notes ; Garnier, I. 519 seqq. [T. TV. I(i;igsmill, Han Wit-ti, China Reviezc', XXV. 103- I09. ] )
CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CARAJAN.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
When you have passed that River you enter on the pro-
vince of CARAJAN, which is so large that it includes
seven kingdoms. It lies towards the west ; the people
are Idolaters, and they are subject to the Great Kaan.
A son of his, however, is there as King of the country,
by name ESSENTIMUR ; a very great and rich and
puissant Prince ; and he well and justly rules his
dominion, for he is a wise man, and a valiant.
After leaving the river that I spoke of, you go five
days' journey towards the west, meeting with numerous
towns and villages. The country is one in which
excellent horses are bred, and the people live by cattle
and agriculture. They have a language of their own
which is passing hard to understand. At the end of
those five days' journey you come to the capital, which is
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