And you
must not suppose that those gerfalcons which the Christians carry into the
Tartar dominions go to the Great Kaan; they are carried only to the Prince
of the Levant.[NOTE 4]
Now I have told you all about the provinces northward as far as the Ocean
Sea, beyond which there is no more land at all; so I shall proceed to tell
you of the other provinces on the way to the Great Kaan. Let us, then,
return to that province of which I spoke before, called Campichu.
NOTE 1. - The readings differ as to the length of the journey. In
Pauthier's text we seem to have first a journey of forty days from near
Karakorum to the Plain of Bargu, and then a journey of forty days more
across the plain to the Northern Ocean. The G. T. seems to present only
one journey of forty days (Ramusio, of sixty days), but leaves the
interval from Karakorum undefined. I have followed the former, though with
some doubt.
NOTE 2. - This paragraph from Ramusio replaces the following in Pauthier's
text: "In the summer they got abundance of game, both beasts and birds,
but in winter, there is none to be had because of the great cold."
Marco is here dealing, I apprehend, with hearsay geography, and, as is
common in like cases, there is great compression of circumstances and
characteristics, analogous to the like compression of little-known regions
in mediaeval maps.
The name Bargu appears to be the same with that often mentioned in
Mongol history as BARGUCHIN TUGRUM or BARGUTI, and which Rashiduddin calls
the northern limit of the inhabited earth. This commenced about Lake
Baikal, where the name still survives in that of a river (Barguzin)
falling into the Lake on the east side, and of a town on its banks
(Barguzinsk). Indeed, according to Rashid himself, BARGU was the name of
one of the tribes occupying the plain; and a quotation from Father
Hyacinth would seem to show that the country is still called Barakhu.
[The Archimandrite Palladius (Elucidations, 16-17) writes: - "In the
Mongol text of Chingis Khan's biography, this country is called Barhu and
Barhuchin; it is to be supposed, according to Colonel Yule's
identification of this name with the modern Barguzin, that this country
was near Lake Baikal. The fact that Merkits were in Bargu is confirmed by
the following statement in Chingis Khan's biography: 'When Chingis Khan
defeated his enemies, the Merkits, they fled to Barhuchin tokum.' Tokum
signifies 'a hollow, a low place,' according to the Chinese translation of
the above-mentioned biography, made in 1381; thus Barhuchin tokum
undoubtedly corresponds to M. Polo's Plain of Bargu. As to M. Polo's
statement that the inhabitants of Bargu were Merkits, it cannot be
accepted unconditionally. The Merkits were not indigenous to the country
near Baikal, but belonged originally, - according to a division set forth
in the Mongol text of the Yuan ch'ao pi shi, - to the category of tribes
living in yurts, i.e. nomad tribes, or tribes of the desert. Meanwhile
we find in the same biography of Chingis Khan, mention of a people called
Barhun, which belonged to the category of tribes living in the forests;
and we have therefore reason to suppose that the Barhuns were the
aborigines of Barhu. After the time of Chingis Khan, this ethnographic
name disappears from Chinese history; it appears again in the middle of
the 16th century. The author of the Yyu (1543-1544), in enumerating the
tribes inhabiting Mongolia and the adjacent countries, mentions the Barhu,
as a strong tribe, able to supply up to several tens of thousands (?) of
warriors, armed with steel swords; but the country inhabited by them is
not indicated. The Mongols, it is added, call them Black Ta-tze (Khara
Mongols, i.e. 'Lower Mongols').
"At the close of the 17th century, the Barhus are found inhabiting the
western slopes of the interior Hing'an, as well as between Lake Kulon and
River Khalkha, and dependent on a prince of eastern Khalkhas, Doro beile.
(Manchu title.)
"At the time of Galdan Khan's invasion, a part of them fled to Siberia
with the eastern Khalkhas, but afterwards they returned. [Mung ku yew mu
ki and Lung sha ki lio.] After their rebellion in 1696, quelled by a
Manchu General, they were included with other petty tribes (regarding
which few researches have been made) in the category butkha, or hunters,
and received a military organisation. They are divided into Old and New
Barhu, according to the time when they were brought under Manchu rule. The
Barhus belong to the Mongolian, not to the Tungusian race; they are
sometimes considered even to have been in relationship with the Khalkhas.
(He lung kiang wai ki and Lung sha ki lio.)
"This is all the substantial information we possess on the Barhu. Is there
an affinity to be found between the modern Barhus and the Barhuns of
Chingis Khan's biography? - and is it to be supposed, that in the course of
time, they spread from Lake Baikal to the Hing'an range? Or is it more
correct to consider them a branch of the Mongol race indigenous to the
Hing'an Mountains, and which received the general archaic name of Bargu,
which might have pointed out the physical character of the country they
inhabited [Kin Shi], just as we find in history the Urianhai of Altai
and the Urianhai of Western Manchuria? It is difficult to solve this
question for want of historical data." - H. C.]
Mescript, or Mecri, as in G. T. The Merkit, a great tribe to the
south-east of the Baikal, were also called Mekrit and sometimes
Megrin. The Mekrit are spoken of also by Carpini and Rubruquis.
