The Men Are Very Sensual, And Marry Many Wives, Which Is
Not Forbidden By Their Religion.
No matter how base a woman's descent may
be, if she have beauty she may find a husband among the greatest men in
the land, the man paying the girl's father and mother a great sum of
money, according to the bargain that may be made.
NOTE 1. - No approximation to the name of Erguiul in an appropriate
position has yet been elicited from Chinese or other Oriental sources. We
cannot go widely astray as to its position, five days east of Kanchau.
Klaproth identifies it with Liangchau-fu; Pauthier with the neighbouring
city of Yungchang, on the ground that the latter was, in the time of
Kublai, the head of one of the Lus, or Circles, of Kansuh or Tangut,
which he has shown some reason for believing to be the "kingdoms" of
Marco.
It is probable, however, that the town called by Polo Erguiul lay north
of both the cities named, and more in line with the position assigned
below to Egrigaya. (See note 1, ch. lviii.)
I may notice that the structure of the name Ergui-ul or Ergiu-ul, has a
look of analogy to that of Tang-keu-ul, named in the next note.
["Erguiul is Erichew of the Mongol text of the Yuen ch'ao pi shi,
Si-liang in the Chinese history, the modern Liang chow fu. Klaproth, on
the authority of Rashid-eddin, has already identified this name with that
of Si-liang." (Palladius, p. 18.) M. Bonin left Ning-h'ia at the end of
July, 1899, and he crossed the desert to Liangchau in fifteen days from
east to west; he is the first traveller who took this route: Prjevalsky
went westward, passing by the residence of the Prince of Alashan, and
Obrutchev followed the route south of Bonin's. - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - No doubt Marsden is right in identifying this with SINING-CHAU,
now Sining-fu, the Chinese city nearest to Tibet and the Kokonor frontier.
Grueber and Dorville, who passed it on their way to Lhasa, in 1661, call
it urbs ingens. Sining was visited also by Huc and Gabet, who are
unsatisfactory, as usually on geographical matters. They also call it "an
immense town," but thinly peopled, its commerce having been in part
transferred to Tang-keu-ul, a small town closer to the frontier.
[Sining belonged to the country called Hwang chung; in 1198, under the
Sung Dynasty, it was subjugated by the Chinese, and was named Si-ning
chau; at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (from 1368), it was named
Si-ning wei, and since 1726 Si-ning fu. (Cf. Gueluy, Chine, p. 62.) From
Liangchau, M. Bonin went to Sining through the Lao kou kau pass and the
Ta-Tung ho. Obrutchev and Grum Grijmailo took the usual route from Kanchau
to Sining. After the murder of Dutreuil de Rhins at Tung bu mdo, his
companion, Grenard, arrived at Sining, and left it on the 29th July, 1894.
Dr. Sven Hedin gives in his book his own drawing of a gate of Sining-fu,
where he arrived on the 25th November, 1896. - H. C.]
Sining is called by the Tibetans Ziling or Jiling, by the Mongols
Seling Khoto. A shawl wool texture, apparently made in this quarter, is
imported into Kashmir and Ladak, under the name of S'ling. I have
supposed Sining to be also the Zilm of which Mr. Shaw heard at Yarkand,
and am answerable for a note to that effect on p. 38 of his High
Tartary. But Mr. Shaw, on his return to Europe, gave some rather strong
reasons against this. (See Proc. R. G. S. XVI. 245; Kircher, pp. 64,
66; Della Penna, 27; Davies's Report, App. p. ccxxix.; Vigne, II.
110, 129.) [At present Sining is called by the Tibetans Seling K'ar or
Kuar, and by the Mongols, Seling K'utun, K'ar and K'utun meaning
"fortified city." (Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, 49, note.) - H. C.]
[Mr. Rockhill (Diary of a Journey, 65) writes: "There must be some
Scotch blood in the Hsi-ningites, for I find they are very fond of oatmeal
and of cracked wheat. The first is called yen-mei ch'en, and is eaten
boiled with the water in which mutton has been cooked, or with neat's-foot
oil (yang-t'i yu). The cracked wheat (mei-tzue fan) is eaten prepared
in the same way, and is a very good dish." - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - The Dong, or Wild Yak, has till late years only been known by
vague rumour. It has always been famed in native reports for its great
fierceness. The Haft Iklim says that "it kills with its horns, by its
kicks, by treading under foot, and by tearing with its teeth," whilst the
Emperor Humayun himself told Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish admiral, that when it
had knocked a man down it skinned him from head to heels by licking him
with its tongue! Dr. Campbell states, in the Journal of the As. Soc. of
Bengal, that it was said to be four times the size of the domestic Yak.
The horns are alleged to be sometimes three feet long, and of immense
girth; they are handed round full of strong drink at the festivals of
Tibetan grandees, as the Urus horns were in Germany, according to Caesar.
A note, with which I have been favoured by Dr. Campbell (long the
respected Superintendent of British Sikkim) says: "Captain Smith, of the
Bengal Army, who had travelled in Western Tibet, told me that he had shot
many wild Yaks in the neighbourhood of the Mansarawar Lake, and that he
measured a bull which was 18 hands high, i.e. 6 feet. All that he saw were
black all over. He also spoke to the fierceness of the animal. He was
once charged by a bull that he had wounded, and narrowly escaped being
killed. Perhaps my statement (above referred to) in regard to the relative
size of the Wild and Tame Yak, may require modification if applied to all
the countries in which the Yak is found.
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