National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

30

MARCO POLO.

VOL. I. BK. I.

Bahabad desert usually make the journey in ten days, one at

least of which is a rest day, so that they cover little more than

I2 miles a day. If water more or less salt were not to be found

at all the eight camping-grounds, the caravans would not be able

to make such short marches. It is also quite possible that sweet

water is to be found in one place ; where saxaul grows driftsand

usually occurs, and wells digged in sand are usually sweet.

" During my stay in Tebbes a caravan of about 300 camels,

as I have mentioned before, arrived from Sebsevar. They were

laden with haft (petroleum), and remained waiting till the first

belt of Kevir was dried after the last rain. As soon as this

happened the caravan would take the road described above to

Bahabad, and thence to Yezd. And this caravan route, Sebsevar,

Turshiz, Bajistan, Tun, Tebbes, Bahabad, and Yezd, is con-

sidered less risky than the somewhat shorter way through the

great Kevir. I myself crossed a part of the Bahabad desert

where we did not once follow any of the roads used by caravans,

and I found this country by no means one of the worst in

Eastern Persia.

" In the above exposition I believe that I have demonstrated

that it is extremely probable that Marco Polo travelled, not

through Naibend to Tun, but through Bahabad to Tebbes, and

thence to Tun and Kain. His own description accords in all

respects with the present aspect and peculiarities of the desert

route in question. And the time of eight days he assigns to

the journey between Kuh-benan and Tonocain renders it also

probable that he came to the last-named province at Tebbes, even

if he travelled somewhat faster than caravans are wont to do at

the present day. It signifies little that he does not mention the

name Tebbes ; he gives only the name of the province, adding

that it contains a great many towns and villages. One of these

was Tebbes."

XXII., p. 126.

TUTIA.

" It seems that the word is ` the Arabicized word dúdhá,

being Persian for " smokes." ' There can be little doubt that we

have direct confirmation of this in the Chinese words t'ou-t'ieh

(still, I think, in use) and t'ou-shih, meaning ` tou-iron ' and

` t'ou-ore.' The character T'ou   does not appear in the

old dictionaries ; its first appearance is in the History of the

Toba (Tungusic) Dynasty of North China. This History first

mentions the name ` Persia ' in A.D. 455 and the existence