(See The Dungens, By Mr. H. K. Heins, In
The Russian Military Journal For August, 1866, And Western China, In
The Ed.
Review for April, 1868;[6] Cathay, p. 261.)
[Palladius (pp. 23-24) says that "it is impossible to admit that Polo had
meant to designate by this name the Christians, who were called by the
Mongols Erkeun [Ye li ke un]. He was well acquainted with the
Christians in China, and of course could not ignore the name under which
they were generally known to such a degree as to see in it a designation
of a cross-race of Mahommetans and heathens." From the Yuen ch'ao pi shi
and the Yuen shi, Palladius gives some examples which refer to
Mahommedans.
Professor Deveria (Notes d'Epig. 49) says that the word [Greek: Archon]
was used by the Mongol Government as a designation for the members of the
Christian clergy at large; the word is used between 1252 and 1315 to speak
of Christian priests by the historians of the Yuen Dynasty; it is not
used before nor is it to be found in the Si-ngan-fu inscription (l.c. 82).
Mr. E. H. Parker (China Review, xxiv. p. 157) supplies a few omissions
in Deveria's paper; we note among others: "Ninth moon of 1329. Buddhist
services ordered to be held by the Uighur priests, and by the Christians
[Ye li ke un]."
Captain Wellby writes (Unknown Tibet, p. 32): "We impressed into our
service six other muleteers, four of them being Argoons, who are really
half-castes, arising from the merchants of Turkestan making short
marriages with the Ladakhi women." - H. C.]
Our author gives the odd word Guasmul as the French equivalent of Argon.
M. Pauthier has first, of Polo's editors, given the true explanation from
Ducange. The word appears to have been in use in the Levant among the
Franks as a name for the half-breeds sprung from their own unions with
Greek women. It occurs three times in the history of George Pachymeres.
Thus he says (Mich. Pal. III. 9), that the Emperor Michael "depended
upon the Gasmuls, or mixt breeds ([Greek: symmiktoi]), which is the
sense of this word of the Italian tongue, for these were born of Greeks
and Italians, and sent them to man his ships; for the race in question
inherited at once the military wariness and quick wit of the Greeks, and
the dash and pertinacity of the Latins." Again (IV. 26) he speaks of these
"Gasmuls, whom a Greek would call [Greek: digeneis], men sprung from Greek
mothers and Italian fathers." Nicephorus Gregoras also relates how Michael
Palaeologus, to oppose the projects of Baldwin for the recovery of his
fortunes, manned 60 galleys, chiefly with the tribe of Gasmuls ([Greek:
genos tou Gasmoulikou]), to whom he assigns the same characteristics as
Pachymeres. (IV. v. 5, also VI. iii. 3, and XIV. x. 2.) One MS. of Nicetas
Choniates also, in his annals of Manuel Comnenus (see Paris ed. p. 425),
speaks of "the light troops whom we call Basmuls." Thus it would seem
that, as in the analogous case of the Turcopuli, sprung from Turk
fathers and Greek mothers, their name had come to be applied technically
to a class of troops. According to Buchon, the laws of the Venetians in
Candia mention, as different races in that island, the Vasmulo, Latino,
Blaco, and Griego.
Ducange, in one of his notes on Joinville, says: "During the time that the
French possessed Constantinople, they gave the name of Gas-moules to
those who were born of French fathers and Greek mothers; or more probably
Gaste-moules, by way of derision, as if such children by those irregular
marriages ... had in some sort debased the wombs of their mothers!" I have
little doubt (pace tanti viri) that the word is in a Gallicized form the
same with the surviving Italian Guazzabuglio, a hotch-potch, or
mish-mash. In Davanzati's Tacitus, the words "Colluviem illam nationum"
(Annal. II. 55) are rendered "quello guazzabuglio di nazioni," in
which case we come very close to the meaning assigned to Guasmul. The
Italians are somewhat behind in matters of etymology, and I can get no
light from them on the history of this word. (See Buchon, Chroniques
Etrangeres, p. xv.; Ducange, Gloss. Graecitatis, and his note on
Joinville, in Bohn's Chron. of the Crusades, 466.)
NOTE 5. - It has often been cast in Marco's teeth that he makes no mention
of the Great Wall of China, and that is true; whilst the apologies made
for the omission have always seemed to me unsatisfactory. [I find in Sir
G. Staunton's account of Macartney's Embassy (II. p. 185) this most
amusing explanation of the reason why Marco Polo did not mention the wall:
"A copy of Marco Polo's route to China, taken from the Doge's Library at
Venice, is sufficient to decide this question. By this route it appears
that, in fact, that traveller did not pass through Tartary to Pekin, but
that after having followed the usual track of the caravans, as far to the
eastward from Europe as Samarcand and Cashgar, he bent his course to the
south-east across the River Ganges to Bengal (!), and, keeping to the
southward of the Thibet mountains, reached the Chinese province of
Shensee, and through the adjoining province of Shansee to the capital,
without interfering with the line of the Great Wall." - H. C.] We shall see
presently that the Great Wall is spoken of by Marco's contemporaries
Rashiduddin and Abulfeda. Yet I think, if we read "between the lines," we
shall see reason to believe that the Wall was in Polo's mind at this
point of the dictation, whatever may have been his motive for withholding
distincter notice of it.[7] I cannot conceive why he should say: "Here is
what we call the country of Gog and Magog," except as intimating "Here we
are beside the GREAT WALL known as the Rampart of Gog and Magog," and
being there he tries to find a reason why those names should have been
applied to it.
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