I looked up and beheld sweeping over
me a fire-red cloud, from which these sounds issued, and in it movements,
as it were, of men and horses; the men grasping bows, lances, and swords.
This I saw, or thought I saw. Then there appeared a white cloud of like
aspect; in it also I beheld armed horsemen, and these rushed against the
former as one squadron of horse charges another. We were so terrified at
this that we turned with humble prayer to the Almighty, whereupon the
natives about us wondered and broke into loud laughter. We, however,
continued to gaze, seeing how one cloud charged the other, remained
confused with it a while, and then sundered again. These movements lasted
deep into the night, and then all vanished."
(Fraehn, Ueber die Wolga Bulgaren, Petersb. 1832; Gold. Horde, 8, 9,
423-424; Not. et Extr. II. 541; Ibn Bat. II. 398; Bueschings Mag. V.
492; Erdmann, Numi Asiat. I. 315-318, 333-334, 520-535; Niceph.
Gregoras, II. 2, 2.)
NOTE 3. - ALAU is Polo's representation of the name of Hulaku, brother of
the Great Kaans Mangu and Kublai and founder of the Mongol dynasty in
Persia. In the Mongol pronunciation guttural and palatal consonants are
apt to be elided, hence this spelling. The same name is written by Pope
Alexander IV., in addressing the Khan, Olao, by Pachymeres and Gregoras
[Greek: Chalau] and [Greek: Chalaon], by Hayton Haolon, by Ibn Batuta
Hulaun, as well as in a letter of Hulaku's own, as given by Makrizi.
The war in question is related in Rashiduddin's history, and by Polo
himself towards the end of the work. It began in the summer of 1262, and
ended about eight months later. Hence the Polos must have reached Barka's
Court in 1261.
Marco always applies to the Mongol Khans of Persia the title of "Lords of
the East" (Levant), and to the Khans of Kipchak that of "Lords of the
West" (Ponent). We use the term Levant still with a similar specific
application, and in another form Anatolia. I think it best to preserve
the terms Levant and Ponent when used in this way.
[Robert Parke in his translation out of Spanish of Mendoza, The Historie
of the great and mightie kingdome of China ... London, printed by I.
Wolfe for Edward White, 1588, uses the word Ponent: "You shall
understande that this mightie kingdome is the Orientalest part of all
Asia, and his next neighbour towards the Ponent is the kingdome of
Quachinchina ... (p. 2)." - H. C.]
NOTE 4. - UCACA or UKEK was a town on the right bank of the Volga, nearly
equidistant between Sarai and Bolghar, and about six miles south of the
modern Saratov, where a village called Uwek still exists. Ukek is not
mentioned before the Mongol domination, and is supposed to have been of
Mongol foundation, as the name Ukek is said in Mongol to signify a dam of
hurdles.
