Certainly The Indian Saras (Vulgo Cyrus), Or Grus Antigone, Which
Answers In Colours And Grows To 52 Inches High.
NOTE 5.
- Cator occurs only in the G. Text and the Crusca, in the latter
with the interpolated explanation "cioe contornici" (i.e. quails),
whilst the S. G. Latin has coturnices only. I suspect this impression
has assisted to corrupt the text, and that it was originally written or
dictated ciacor or cacor, viz. chakor, a term applied in the East to
more than one kind of "Great Partridge." Its most common application in
India is to the Himalayan red-legged partridge, much resembling on a
somewhat larger scale the bird so called in Europe. It is the "Francolin"
of Moorcroft's Travels, and the Caccabis Chukor of Gray. According to
Cunningham the name is applied in Ladak to the bird sometimes called the
Snow-pheasant, Jerdan's Snow-cock, Tetraogallus himalayensis of Gray.
And it must be the latter which Moorcroft speaks of as "the gigantic
Chukor, much larger than the common partridge, found in large coveys on
the edge of the snow;... one plucked and drawn weighed 5 lbs."; described
by Vigne as "a partridge as large as a hen-turkey"; the original perhaps
of that partridge "larger than a vulture" which formed one of the presents
from an Indian King to Augustus Caesar. [With reference to the large
Tibetan partridge found in the Nan-shan Mountains in the meridian of
Sha-chau by Prjevalsky, M. E. D. Morgan in a note (P. R. Geog. S. ix.
1887, p. 219), writes: "Megaloperdrix thibetanus. Its general name in
Asia is ullar, a word of Kirghiz or Turkish origin; the Mongols call it
hailik, and the Tibetans kung-mo. There are two other varieties of this
bird found in the Himalaya and Altai Mountains, but the habits of life and
call-note of all three are the same."] From the extensive diffusion of the
term, which seems to be common to India, Tibet, and Persia (for the latter,
see Abbott in J. R. G. S. XXV. 41), it is likely enough to be of Mongol
origin, not improbably Tsokhor, "dappled or pied." (Kovalevsky, No.
2196, and Strahlenberg's Vocabulary; see also Ladak, 205; Moorcr. I.
313, 432; Jerdan's Birds of India, III. 549, 572; Dunlop, Hunting in
Himalaya, 178; J. A. S. B. VI. 774.)
The chakor is mentioned by Baber (p. 282); and also by the Hindi poet
Chand (Ras Mala, I. 230, and Ind. Antiquary, I. 273). If the latter
passage is genuine, it is adverse to my Mongol etymology, as Chand lived
before the Mongol era.
The keeping of partridges for the table is alluded to by Chaucer in his
portrait of the Franklin, Prologue, Cant. Tales:
"It snewed in his hous of mete and drinke,
Of alle deyntees that men coud of thinke,
After the sondry sesons of the yere,
So changed he his mete and his soupere.
Full many a fat partrich hadde he in mewe,
And many a breme and many a luce in stewe."
CHAPTER LXI.
OF THE CITY OF CHANDU, AND THE KAAN'S PALACE THERE.
And when you have ridden three days from the city last mentioned, between
north-east and north, you come to a city called CHANDU,[NOTE 1] which was
built by the Kaan now reigning. There is at this place a very fine marble
Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men
and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all
executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and
astonishment.[NOTE 2]
Round this Palace a wall is built, inclosing a compass of 16 miles, and
inside the Park there are fountains and rivers and brooks, and beautiful
meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (excluding such as are of
ferocious nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there to
supply food for his gerfalcons and hawks, which he keeps there in mew. Of
these there are more than 200 gerfalcons alone, without reckoning the
other hawks. The Kaan himself goes every week to see his birds sitting in
mew, and sometimes he rides through the park with a leopard behind him on
his horse's croup; and then if he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he
slips his leopard at it,[NOTE 3] and the game when taken is made over to
feed the hawks in mew. This he does for diversion.
Moreover [at a spot in the Park where there is a charming wood] he has
another Palace built of cane, of which I must give you a description. It
is gilt all over, and most elaborately finished inside. [It is stayed on
gilt and lackered columns, on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the tail
of which is attached to the column whilst the head supports the
architrave, and the claws likewise are stretched out right and left to
support the architrave.] The roof, like the rest, is formed of canes,
covered with a varnish so strong and excellent that no amount of rain will
rot them. These canes are a good 3 palms in girth, and from 10 to 15 paces
in length. [They are cut across at each knot, and then the pieces are
split so as to form from each two hollow tiles, and with these the house
is roofed; only every such tile of cane has to be nailed down to prevent
the wind from lifting it.] In short, the whole Palace is built of these
canes, which (I may mention) serve also for a great variety of other
useful purposes. The construction of the Palace is so devised that it can
be taken down and put up again with great celerity; and it can all be
taken to pieces and removed whithersoever the Emperor may command. When
erected, it is braced [against mishaps from the wind] by more than 200
cords of silk.[NOTE 4]
The Lord abides at this Park of his, dwelling sometimes in the Marble
Palace and sometimes in the Cane Palace for three months of the year, to
wit, June, July, and August; preferring this residence because it is by no
means hot; in fact it is a very cool place.
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