449; Bul. de la Soc. de Geog. 1873, I. 333.)
["This poisonous plant seems to be the Stipa inebrians described by the
late Dr. Hance in the Journal of Bot. 1876, p. 211, from specimens sent
to me by Belgian Missionaries from the Ala Shan Mountains, west of the
Yellow River." (Bretschneider, Hist. of Bot. Disc. I. p. 5.)
"M. Polo notices that the cattle not indigenous to the province lose their
hoofs in the Suh-chau Mountains; but that is probably not on account of
some poisonous grass, but in consequence of the stony ground."
(Palladius, l.c. p. 9.) - H. C.]
CHAPTER XLIV.
OF THE CITY OF CAMPICHU.
Campichu is also a city of Tangut, and a very great and noble one. Indeed
it is the capital and place of government of the whole province of
Tangut.[NOTE 1] The people are Idolaters, Saracens, and Christians, and
the latter have three very fine churches in the city, whilst the Idolaters
have many minsters and abbeys after their fashion. In these they have an
enormous number of idols, both small and great, certain of the latter
being a good ten paces in stature; some of them being of wood, others of
clay, and others yet of stone. They are all highly polished, and then
covered with gold. The great idols of which I speak lie at length.[NOTE 2]
And round about them there are other figures of considerable size, as if
adoring and paying homage before them.
Now, as I have not yet given you particulars about the customs of these
Idolaters, I will proceed to tell you about them.
You must know that there are among them certain religious recluses who
lead a more virtuous life than the rest. These abstain from all lechery,
though they do not indeed regard it as a deadly sin; howbeit if any one
sin against nature they condemn him to death. They have an Ecclesiastical
Calendar as we have; and there are five days in the month that they
observe particularly; and on these five days they would on no account
either slaughter any animal or eat flesh meat. On those days, moreover,
they observe much greater abstinence altogether than on other days.[NOTE
3]
Among these people a man may take thirty wives, more or less, if he can
but afford to do so, each having wives in proportion to his wealth and
means; but the first wife is always held in highest consideration. The men
endow their wives with cattle, slaves, and money, according to their
ability. And if a man dislikes any one of his wives, he just turns her off
and takes another. They take to wife their cousins and their fathers'
widows (always excepting the man's own mother), holding to be no sin many
things that we think grievous sins, and, in short, they live like
beasts.[NOTE 4]
Messer Maffeo and Messer Marco Polo dwelt a whole year in this city when
on a mission.[NOTE 5]
Now we will leave this and tell you about other provinces towards the
north, for we are going to take you a sixty days' journey in that
direction.
NOTE 1. - Campichiu is undoubtedly Kanchau, which was at this time, as
Pauthier tells us, the chief city of the administration of Kansuh
corresponding to Polo's Tangut. Kansuh itself is a name compounded of
the names of the two cities Kan-chau and Suh-chau.
[Kanchau fell under the Tangut dominion in 1208. (Palladius, p. 10.) The
Musulmans mentioned by Polo at Shachau and Kanchau probably came from
Khotan. - H. C.]
The difficulties that have been made about the form of the name
Campiciou, etc., in Polo, and the attempts to explain these, are
probably alike futile. Quatremere writes the Persian form of the name
after Abdurrazzak as Kamtcheou, but I see that Erdmann writes it after
Rashid, I presume on good grounds, as Ckamidschu, i.e. Kamiju or
Kamichu. And that this was the Western pronunciation of the name is
shown by the form which Pegolotti uses, Camexu, i.e. Camechu. The p in
Polo's spelling is probably only a superfluous letter, as in the
occasional old spelling of dampnum, contempnere, hympnus,
tirampnus, sompnour, Dampne Deu. In fact, Marignolli writes Polo's
Quinsai as Campsay.
It is worthy of notice that though Ramusio's text prints the names of
these two cities as Succuir and Campion, his own pronunciation of them
appears to have been quite well understood by the Persian traveller Hajji
Mahomed, for it is perfectly clear that the latter recognized in these
names Suhchau and Kanchau. (See Ram. II. f. 14v.) The second volume of
the Navigationi, containing Polo, was published after Ramusio's death,
and it is possible that the names as he himself read them were more
correct (e.g. Succiur, Campjou).
[Illustration: Colossal Figure, Buddha entering Nirvana.
"Et si voz di qu'il ont de ydres que sunt grant dix pas.... Ceste grant
ydres gigent."...]
NOTE 2. - This is the meaning of the phrase in the G. T.: "Ceste grande
ydre gigent," as may be seen from Ramusio's giaciono distesi. Lazari
renders the former expression, "giganteggia un idolo," etc., a phrase very
unlike Polo. The circumstance is interesting, because this recumbent
Colossus at Kanchau is mentioned both by Hajji Mahomed and by Shah Rukh's
people. The latter say: "In this city of Kanchu there is an Idol-Temple
500 cubits square. In the middle is an idol lying at length which measures
50 paces. The sole of the foot is nine paces long, and the instep is 21
cubits in girth. Behind this image and overhead are other idols of a cubit
(?) in height, besides figures of Bakshis as large as life. The action
of all is hit off so admirably that you would think they were alive."
These great recumbent figures are favourites in Buddhist countries still,
e.g. in Siam, Burma, and Ceylon.
