And it is the truth that if a foreigner comes to the house of one of these
people to lodge, the host is delighted, and desires his wife to put
herself entirely at the guest's disposal, whilst he himself gets out of
the way, and comes back no more until the stranger shall have taken his
departure. The guest may stay and enjoy the wife's society as long as he
lists, whilst the husband has no shame in the matter, but indeed considers
it an honour. And all the men of this province are made wittols of by
their wives in this way.[NOTE 3] The women themselves are fair and wanton.
Now it came to pass during the reign of MANGU KAAN, that as lord of this
province he came to hear of this custom, and he sent forth an order
commanding them under grievous penalties to do so no more [but to provide
public hostelries for travellers]. And when they heard this order they
were much vexed thereat. [For about three years' space they carried it
out. But then they found that their lands were no longer fruitful, and
that many mishaps befell them.] So they collected together and prepared a
grand present which they sent to their Lord, praying him graciously to let
them retain the custom which they had inherited from their ancestors; for
it was by reason of this usage that their gods bestowed upon them all the
good things that they possessed, and without it they saw not how they
could continue to exist.[NOTE 4] When the Prince had heard their petition
his reply was "Since ye must needs keep your shame, keep it then," and so
he left them at liberty to maintain their naughty custom. And they always
have kept it up, and do so still.
Now let us quit Camul, and I will tell you of another province which lies
between north-west and north, and belongs to the Great Kaan.
NOTE 1. - Kamul (or Komul) does not fall into the great line of travel
towards Cathay which Marco is following. His notice of it, and of the next
province, forms a digression like that which he has already made to
Samarkand. It appears very doubtful if Marco himself had visited it; his
father and uncle may have done so on their first journey, as one of the
chief routes to Northern China from Western Asia lies through this city,
and has done so for many centuries. This was the route described by
Pegolotti as that of the Italian traders in the century following Polo; it
was that followed by Marignolli, by the envoys of Shah Rukh at a later
date, and at a much later by Benedict Goes. The people were in Polo's time
apparently Buddhist, as the Uighurs inhabiting this region had been from
an old date: in Shah Rukh's time (1420) we find a mosque and a great
Buddhist Temple cheek by jowl; whilst Ramusio's friend Hajji Mahomed
(circa 1550) speaks of Kamul as the first Mahomedan city met with in
travelling from China.
Kamul stands on an oasis carefully cultivated by aid of reservoirs for
irrigation, and is noted in China for its rice and for some of its fruits,
especially melons and grapes. It is still a place of some consequence,
standing near the bifurcation of two great roads from China, one passing
north and the other south of the Thian Shan, and it was the site of the
Chinese Commissariat depots for the garrisons to the westward. It was lost
to the Chinese in 1867.
Kamul appears to have been the see of a Nestorian bishop. A Bishop of
Kamul is mentioned as present at the inauguration of the Catholicos Denha
in 1266. (Russians in Cent. Asia, 129; Ritter, II. 357 seqq.; Cathay,
passim; Assemani, II. 455-456.)
[Kamul is the Turkish name of the province called by the Mongols
Khamil, by the Chinese Hami; the latter name is found for the first
time in the Yuen Shi, but it is first mentioned in Chinese history in
the 1st century of our Era under the name of I-wu-lu or I-wu
(Bretschneider, Med. Res. II. p. 20); after the death of Chinghiz, it
belonged to his son Chagatai. From the Great Wall, at the Pass of Kia Yue,
to Hami there is a distance of 1470 li. (C. Imbault-Huart. Le Pays de
Hami ou Khamil ... d'apres les auteurs chinois, Bul. de Geog. hist. et
desc., Paris, 1892, pp. 121-195.) The Chinese general Chang Yao was in
1877 at Hami, which had submitted in 1867 to the Athalik Ghazi, and made
it the basis of his operations against the small towns of Chightam and
Pidjam, and Yakub Khan himself stationed at Turfan. The Imperial Chinese
Agent in this region bears the title of K'u lun Pan She Ta Ch'en and
resides at K'urun (Urga); of lesser rank are the agents (Pan She Ta
Ch'en) of Kashgar, Kharashar, Kuche, Aksu, Khotan, and Hami. (See a
description of Hami by Colonel M. S. Bell, Proc. R. G. S. XII. 1890, p.
213.) - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - Expressed almost in the same words is the character attributed by
a Chinese writer to the people of Kuche in the same region. (Chin.
Repos. IX. 126.) In fact, the character seems to be generally applicable
to the people of East Turkestan, but sorely kept down by the rigid Islam
that is now enforced. (See Shaw, passim, and especially the
Mahrambashi's lamentations over the jolly days that were no more, pp. 319,
376.)
NOTE 3. - Pauthier's text has "sont si honni de leur moliers comme vous
avez ouy." Here the Crusca has "sono bozzi delle loro moglie," and
the Lat.
