Yet I suspect his own mental expression was Farangi.
CHAPTER IV.
HOW THE TWO BROTHERS TOOK THE ENVOYS' COUNSEL, AND WENT TO THE COURT OF
THE GREAT KAAN.
So when the Two Brothers had made their arrangements, they set out on
their travels, in company with the Envoys, and journeyed for a whole year,
going northward and north-eastward, before they reached the Court of that
Prince. And on their journey they saw many marvels of divers and sundry
kinds, but of these we shall say nothing at present, because Messer Mark,
who has likewise seen them all, will give you a full account of them in
the Book which follows.
CHAPTER V.
HOW THE TWO BROTHERS ARRIVED AT THE COURT OF THE GREAT KAAN.
When the Two Brothers got to the Great Kaan, he received them with great
honour and hospitality, and showed much pleasure at their visit, asking
them a great number of questions. First, he asked about the emperors, how
they maintained their dignity, and administered justice in their
dominions; and how they went forth to battle, and so forth. And then he
asked the like questions about the kings and princes and other potentates.
CHAPTER VI.
HOW THE GREAT KAAN ASKED ALL ABOUT THE MANNERS OF THE CHRISTIANS, AND
PARTICULARLY ABOUT THE POPE OF ROME.
And then he inquired about the Pope and the Church, and about all that is
done at Rome, and all the customs of the Latins. And the Two Brothers told
him the truth in all its particulars, with order and good sense, like
sensible men as they were; and this they were able to do as they knew the
Tartar language well.[NOTE 1]
NOTE 1. - The word generally used for Pope in the original is Apostoille
(Apostolicus), the usual French expression of that age.
It is remarkable that for the most part the text edited by Pauthier has
the correcter Oriental form Tatar, instead of the usual Tartar.
Tattar is the word used by Yvo of Narbonne, in the curious letter given
by Matthew Paris under 1243.
We are often told that Tartar is a vulgar European error. It is in any
case a very old one; nor does it seem to be of European origin, but rather
Armenian;[1] though the suggestion of Tartarus may have given it readier
currency in Europe. Russian writers, or rather writers who have been in
Russia, sometimes try to force on us a specific limitation of the word
Tartar to a certain class of Oriental Turkish race, to whom the Russians
appropriate the name. But there is no just ground for this. Tatar is
used by Oriental writers of Polo's age exactly as Tartar was then, and is
still, used in Western Europe, as a generic title for the Turanian hosts
who followed Chinghiz and his successors. But I believe the name in this
sense was unknown to Western Asia before the time of Chinghiz. And General
Cunningham must overlook this when he connects the Tatariya coins,
mentioned by Arab geographers of the 9th century, with "the Scythic or
Tatar princes who ruled in Kabul" in the beginning of our era. Tartars on
the Indian frontier in those centuries are surely to be classed with the
Frenchmen whom Brennus led to Rome, or the Scotchmen who fought against
Agricola.
[1] See J. As. ser. V. tom. xi. p. 203.
CHAPTER VII.
HOW THE GREAT KAAN SENT THE TWO BROTHERS AS HIS ENVOYS TO THE POPE.
When that Prince, whose name was CUBLAY KAAN, Lord of the Tartars all over
the earth, and of all the kingdoms and provinces and territories of that
vast quarter of the world, had heard all that the Brothers had to tell him
about the ways of the Latins, he was greatly pleased, and he took it into
his head that he would send them on an Embassy to the Pope. So he urgently
desired them to undertake this mission along with one of his Barons; and
they replied that they would gladly execute all his commands as those of
their Sovereign Lord. Then the Prince sent to summon to his presence one
of his Barons whose name was COGATAL, and desired him to get ready, for it
was proposed to send him to the Pope along with the Two Brothers. The
Baron replied that he would execute the Lord's commands to the best of his
ability.
After this the Prince caused letters from himself to the Pope to be
indited in the Tartar tongue,[NOTE 1] and committed them to the Two
Brothers and to that Baron of his own, and charged them with what he
wished them to say to the Pope. Now the contents of the letter were to
this purport: He begged that the Pope would send as many as an hundred
persons of our Christian faith; intelligent men, acquainted with the Seven
Arts,[NOTE 2] well qualified to enter into controversy, and able clearly
to prove by force of argument to idolaters and other kinds of folk, that
the Law of Christ was best, and that all other religions were false and
naught; and that if they would prove this, he and all under him would
become Christians and the Church's liegemen. Finally he charged his Envoys
to bring back to him some Oil of the Lamp which burns on the Sepulchre of
our Lord at Jerusalem.[NOTE 3]
NOTE 1. - + The appearance of the Great Kaan's letter may be illustrated
by two letters on so-called Corean paper preserved in the French archives;
one from Arghun Khan of Persia (1289), brought by Buscarel, and the other
from his son Oljaitu (May, 1305), to Philip the Fair. These are both in
the Mongol language, and according to Abel Remusat and other authorities,
in the Uighur character, the parent of the present Mongol writing.
Facsimiles of the letters are given in Remusat's paper on intercourse with
Mongol Princes, in Mem.
