Thus Also Polo Is Made To Describe Ormus As On
An Island, Contrary To The Old Texts And To The Fact; For The City Of
Hormuz Was Not Transferred To The Island, Afterwards So Famous, Till Some
Years After Polo's Return From The East.
It is probably also the editor
who in the notice of the oil-springs of Caucasus (i. p. 46) has
substituted camel-loads for ship-loads, in ignorance that the site of
those alluded to was probably Baku on the Caspian.
Other erroneous statements, such as the introduction of window-glass as
one of the embellishments of the palace at Cambaluc, are probably due only
to accidental misunderstanding.
[Sidenote: Genuine statements peculiar to Ramusio.]
62. Of circumstances certainly genuine, which are peculiar to this edition
of Polo's work, and which it is difficult to assign to any one but
himself, we may note the specification of the woods east of Yezd as
composed of date trees (vol. i pp. 88-89); the unmistakable allusion to
the subterranean irrigation channels of Persia (p. 123); the accurate
explanation of the term Mulehet applied to the sect of Assassins (pp.
139-142); the mention of the Lake (Sirikul?) on the plateau of Pamer, of
the wolves that prey on the wild sheep, and of the piles of wild rams'
horns used as landmarks in the snow (pp. 171-177). To the description of
the Tibetan Yak, which is in all the texts, Ramusio's version alone adds a
fact probably not recorded again till the present century, viz., that it
is the practice to cross the Yak with the common cow (p. 274). Ramusio
alone notices the prevalence of goitre at Yarkand, confirmed by recent
travellers (i. p. 187); the vermilion seal of the Great Kaan imprinted on
the paper-currency, which may be seen in our plate of a Chinese note (p.
426); the variation in Chinese dialects (ii. p. 236); the division of the
hulls of junks into water-tight compartments (ii. p. 249); the
introduction into China from Egypt of the art of refining sugar (ii. p.
226). Ramusio's account of the position of the city of Sindafu (Ch'eng-tu
fu) encompassed and intersected by many branches of a great river (ii. p.
40), is much more just than that in the old text, which speaks of but one
river through the middle of the city. The intelligent notices of the
Kaan's charities as originated by his adoption of "idolatry" or Buddhism;
of the astrological superstitions of the Chinese, and of the manners and
character of the latter nation, are found in Ramusio alone. To whom but
Marco himself, or one of his party, can we refer the brief but vivid
picture of the delicious atmosphere and scenery of the Badakhshan plateaux
(ip. 158), and of the benefit that Messer Marco's health derived from a
visit to them? In this version alone again we have an account of the
oppressions exercised by Kublai's Mahomedan Minister Ahmad, telling how
the Cathayans rose against him and murdered him, with the addition that
Messer Marco was on the spot when all this happened.
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