Geog. "Sunt Bezzi De Suis Uxoribus." The Crusca Vocab.
Has
inserted bozzo with the meaning we have given, on the strength of this
passage.
It occurs also in Dante (Paradiso, XIX. 137), in the general
sense of disgraced.
The shameful custom here spoken of is ascribed by Polo also to a province
of Eastern Tibet, and by popular report in modern times to the Hazaras of
the Hindu-Kush, a people of Mongolian blood, as well as to certain nomad
tribes of Persia, to say nothing of the like accusation against our own
ancestors which has been drawn from Laonicus Chalcondylas. The old Arab
traveller Ibn Muhalhal (10th century) also relates the same of the Hazlakh
(probably Kharlikh) Turks: "Ducis alicujus uxor vel filia vel soror,
quum mercatorum agmen in terram venit, eos adit, eorumque lustrat faciem.
Quorum siquis earum afficit admiratione hunc domum suam ducit, eumque apud
se hospitio excipit, eique benigne facit. Atque marito suo et filio
fratrique rerum necessariarum curam demandat; neque dum hospes apud eam
habitat, nisi necessarium est, maritus eam adit." A like custom prevails
among the Chukchis and Koryaks in the vicinity of Kamtchatka.
(Elphinstone's Caubul; Wood, p. 201; Burnes, who discredits, II. 153,
III. 195; Laon. Chalcond. 1650, pp. 48-49; Kurd de Schloezer, p. 13;
Erman, II. 530.)
["It is remarkable that the Chinese author, Hung Hao, who lived a
century before M. Polo, makes mention in his memoirs nearly in the same
words of this custom of the Uighurs, with whom he became acquainted during
his captivity in the kingdom of the Kin. According to the chronicle of
the Tangut kingdom of Si-hia, Hami was the nursery of Buddhism in Si-hia,
and provided this kingdom with Buddhist books and monks." (Palladius,
l.c. p. 6.) - H. C.]
NOTE 4. - So the Jewish rabble to Jeremiah: "Since we left off to burn
incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, we
have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by
famine." (Jerem. xliv. 18.)
CHAPTER XLII.
OF THE PROVINCE OF CHINGINTALAS.
Chingintalas is also a province at the verge of the Desert, and lying
between north-west and north. It has an extent of sixteen days' journey,
and belongs to the Great Kaan, and contains numerous towns and villages.
There are three different races of people in it - Idolaters, Saracens, and
some Nestorian Christians.[NOTE 1] At the northern extremity of this
province there is a mountain in which are excellent veins of steel and
ondanique.[NOTE 2] And you must know that in the same mountain there is a
vein of the substance from which Salamander is made.[NOTE 3] For the real
truth is that the Salamander is no beast, as they allege in our part of
the world, but is a substance found in the earth; and I will tell you
about it.
Everybody must be aware that it can be no animal's nature to live in fire,
seeing that every animal is composed of all the four elements.[NOTE 4] Now
I, Marco Polo, had a Turkish acquaintance of the name of Zurficar, and he
was a very clever fellow. And this Turk related to Messer Marco Polo how
he had lived three years in that region on behalf of the Great Kaan, in
order to procure those Salamanders for him.[NOTE 5] He said that the way
they got them was by digging in that mountain till they found a certain
vein. The substance of this vein was then taken and crushed, and when so
treated it divides as it were into fibres of wool, which they set forth to
dry. When dry, these fibres were pounded in a great copper mortar, and
then washed, so as to remove all the earth and to leave only the fibres
like fibres of wool. These were then spun, and made into napkins. When
first made these napkins are not very white, but by putting them into the
fire for a while they come out as white as snow. And so again whenever
they become dirty they are bleached by being put in the fire.
Now this, and nought else, is the truth about the Salamander, and the
people of the country all say the same. Any other account of the matter is
fabulous nonsense. And I may add that they have at Rome a napkin of this
stuff, which the Grand Kaan sent to the Pope to make a wrapper for the
Holy Sudarium of Jesus Christ.[NOTE 6]
We will now quit this subject, and I will proceed with my account of the
countries lying in the direction between north-east and east.
NOTE 1. - The identification of this province is a difficulty, because the
geographical definition is vague, and the name assigned to it has not been
traced in other authors. It is said to lie between north-west and north,
whilst Kamul was said to lie towards the north-west. The account of both
provinces forms a digression, as is clear from the last words of the
present chapter, where the traveller returns to take up his regular route
"in the direction between north-east and east." The point from which he
digresses, and to which he reverts, is Shachau, and 'tis presumably from
Shachau that he assigns bearings to the two provinces forming the subject
of the digression. Hence, as Kamul lies vers maistre, i.e. north-west,
and Chingintalas entre maistre et tramontaine, i.e. nor'-nor'-west,
Chingintalas can scarcely lie due west of Kamul, as M. Pauthier would
place it, in identifying it with an obscure place called Saiyintala, in
the territory of Urumtsi. Moreover, the province is said to belong to the
Great Kaan. Now, Urumtsi or Bishbalik seems to have belonged, not to the
Great Kaan, but to the empire of Chagatai, or possibly at this time to
Kaidu. Rashiduddin, speaking of the frontier between the Kaan and Kaidu,
says:
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