"They Generally Arrive In Great Flights From The North, Especially
When Much Snow Has Fallen, Flying With Astonishing Rapidity, So That The
Movement Of Their Wings Produces A Noise Like Hail." It Is Said To Be Very
Delicate Eating.
The bird owes its place in Gould's Birds of Great
Britain to the fact - strongly illustrative of its being
Moult volant,
as Polo says it is - that it appeared in England in 1859, and since then,
at least up to 1863, continued to arrive annually in pairs or companies in
nearly all parts of our island, from Penzance to Caithness. And Gould
states that it was breeding in the Danish islands. A full account by Mr.
A. Newton of this remarkable immigration is contained in the Ibis for
April, 1864, and many details in Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk, I. 376
seqq. There are plates of Syrrhaptes in Radde's Reisen im Sueden von
Ost-Sibirien, Bd. II.; in vol. v. of Temminck, Planches Coloriees, Pl.
95; in Gould, as above; in Gray, Genera of Birds, vol. iii. p. 517
(life size); and in the Ibis for April, 1860. From the last our cut is
taken.
[See A. David et Oustalet, Oiseaux de la Chine, 389, on Syrrhaptes
Pallasii or Syrrhaptes Paradoxus. - H. C.]
[Illustration: Syrrhaptes Pallasii.]
NOTE 4. - Gerfalcons (Shonkar) were objects of high estimation in the
Middle Ages, and were frequent presents to and from royal personages. Thus
among the presents sent with an embassy from King James II. of Aragon to
the Sultan of Egypt, in 1314, we find three white gerfalcons. They were
sent in homage to Chinghiz and to Kublai, by the Kirghiz, but I cannot
identify the mountains where they or the Peregrines were found. The
Peregrine falcon was in Europe sometimes termed Faucon Tartare. (See
Menage s. v. Sahin.) The Peregrine of Northern Japan, and probably
therefore that of Siberia, is identical with that of Europe. Witsen speaks
of an island in the Sea of Tartary, from which falcons were got,
apparently referring to a Chinese map as his authority; but I know nothing
more of it. (Capmany, IV. 64-65; Ibis, 1862, p. 314; Witsen, II.
656.)
[On the Falco peregrinus, Lin., and other Falcons, see Ed. Blanc's paper
mentioned on p. 162. The Falco Saker is to be found all over Central
Asia; it is called by the Pekingese Hwang-yng (yellow falcon), (David
et Oustalet, Oiseaux de la Chine, 31-32.) - H. C.]
CHAPTER LVII.
OF THE KINGDOM OF ERGUIUL, AND PROVINCE OF SINJU.
On leaving Campichu, then, you travel five days across a tract in which
many spirits are heard speaking in the night season; and at the end of
those five marches, towards the east, you come to a kingdom called
ERGUIUL, belonging to the Great Kaan. It is one of the several kingdoms
which make up the great Province of Tangut. The people consist of
Nestorian Christians, Idolaters, and worshippers of Mahommet.[NOTE 1]
There are plenty of cities in this kingdom, but the capital is ERGUIUL.
You can travel in a south-easterly direction from this place into the
province of Cathay. Should you follow that road to the south-east, you
come to a city called SINJU, belonging also to Tangut, and subject to the
Great Kaan, which has under it many towns and villages.[NOTE 2] The
population is composed of Idolaters, and worshippers of Mahommet, but
there are some Christians also. There are wild cattle in that country
[almost] as big as elephants, splendid creatures, covered everywhere but
on the back with shaggy hair a good four palms long. They are partly
black, partly white, and really wonderfully fine creatures [and the hair
or wool is extremely fine and white, finer and whiter than silk. Messer
Marco brought some to Venice as a great curiosity, and so it was reckoned
by those who saw it]. There are also plenty of them tame, which have been
caught young. [They also cross these with the common cow, and the cattle
from this cross are wonderful beasts, and better for work than other
animals.] These the people use commonly for burden and general work, and
in the plough as well; and at the latter they will do full twice as much
work as any other cattle, being such very strong beasts.[NOTE 3]
In this country too is found the best musk in the world; and I will tell
you how 'tis produced. There exists in that region a kind of wild animal
like a gazelle. It has feet and tail like the gazelle's, and stag's hair
of a very coarse kind, but no horns. It has four tusks, two below and two
above, about three inches long, and slender in form, one pair growing
upwards, and the other downwards. It is a very pretty creature. The musk
is found in this way. When the creature has been taken, they find at the
navel between the flesh and the skin something like an impostume full of
blood, which they cut out and remove with all the skin attached to it. And
the blood inside this impostume is the musk that produces that powerful
perfume. There is an immense number of these beasts in the country we are
speaking of. [The flesh is very good to eat. Messer Marco brought the
dried head and feet of one of these animals to Venice with him.[NOTE 4]]
The people are traders and artizans, and also grow abundance of corn. The
province has an extent of 26 days' journey. Pheasants are found there
twice as big as ours, indeed nearly as big as a peacock, and having tails
of 7 to 10 palms in length; and besides them other pheasants in aspect
like our own, and birds of many other kinds, and of beautiful variegated
plumage.[NOTE 5] The people, who are Idolaters, are fat folks with little
noses and black hair, and no beard, except a few hairs on the upper lip.
The women too have very smooth and white skins, and in every respect are
pretty creatures.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 242 of 335
Words from 246116 to 247132
of 342071
