NOTE 4. - Ramusio's is here so much more lucid than the other texts, that
I have adhered mainly to his account of the building. The roof described
is of a kind in use in the Indian Archipelago, and in some other parts of
Transgangetic India, in which the semi-cylinders of bamboo are laid just
like Roman tiles.
Rashiduddin gives a curious account of the way in which the foundations of
the terrace on which this palace stood were erected in a lake. He says,
too, in accord with Polo: "Inside the city itself a second palace was
built, about a bowshot from the first: but the Kaan generally takes up his
residence in the palace outside the town," i.e., as I imagine, in Marco's
Cane Palace. (Cathay, pp. 261-262.)
["The Palace of canes is probably the Palm Hall, Tsung tien, alias
Tsung mao tien, of the Chinese authors, which was situated in the
western palace garden of Shangtu. Mention is made also in the Altan
Tobchi of a cane tent in Shangtu." (Palladius, p. 27.) - H. C.]
[Illustration: Pavilion at Yuen-ming-Yuen.]
Marco might well say of the bamboo that "it serves also a great variety of
other purposes." An intelligent native of Arakan who accompanied me in
wanderings on duty in the forests of the Burmese frontier in the beginning
of 1853, and who used to ask many questions about Europe, seemed able to
apprehend almost everything except the possibility of existence in a
country without bamboos! "When I speak of bamboo huts, I mean to say that
posts and walls, wall-plates and rafters, floor and thatch, and the withes
that bind them, are all of bamboo. In fact, it might almost be said that
among the Indo-Chinese nations the staff of life is a bamboo!
Scaffolding and ladders, landing-jetties, fishing apparatus, irrigation
wheels and scoops, oars, masts, and yards [and in China, sails, cables,
and caulking, asparagus, medicine, and works of fantastic art], spears and
arrows, hats and helmets, bow, bowstring and quiver, oil-cans,
water-stoups and cooking-pots, pipe-sticks [tinder and means of producing
fire], conduits, clothes-boxes, pawn-boxes, dinner-trays, pickles,
preserves, and melodious musical instruments, torches, footballs, cordage,
bellows, mats, paper; these are but a few of the articles that are made
from the bamboo;" and in China, to sum up the whole, as Barrow observes, it
maintains order throughout the Empire! (Ava Mission, p. 153; and see also
Wallace, Ind. Arch. I. 120 seqq.)
NOTE 5. - "The Emperor ... began this year (1264) to depart from Yenking
(Peking) in the second or third month for Shangtu, not returning until the
eighth month. Every year he made this passage, and all the Mongol emperors
who succeeded him followed his example." (Gaubil, p. 144.)
["The Khans usually resorted to Shangtu in the 4th moon and returned to
Peking in the 9th. On the 7th day of the 7th moon there were libations
performed in honour of the ancestors; a shaman, his face to the north,
uttered in a loud voice the names of Chingiz Khan and of other deceased
Khans, and poured mare's milk on the ground. The propitious day for the
return journey to Peking was also appointed then." (Palladius,
p. 26.) - H. C.]
NOTE 6. - White horses were presented in homage to the Kaan on New Year's
Day (the White Feast), as we shall see below. (Bk. II. ch. xv.) Odoric
also mentions this practice; and, according to Huc, the Mongol chiefs
continued it at least to the time of the Emperor K'ang-hi. Indeed
Timkowski speaks of annual tributes of white camels and white horses from
the Khans of the Kalkas and other Mongol dignitaries, in the present
century. (Huc's Tartary, etc.; Tim. II. 33.)
By the HORIAD are no doubt intended the UIRAD or OIRAD, a name usually
interpreted as signifying the "Closely Allied," or Confederates; but
Vambery explains it as (Turki) Oyurat, "Grey horse," to which the
statement in our text appears to lend colour. They were not of the tribes
properly called Mongol, but after their submission to Chinghiz they
remained closely attached to him. In Chinghiz's victory over Aung-Khan, as
related by S. Setzen, we find Turulji Taishi, the son of the chief of the
Oirad, one of Chinghiz's three chief captains; perhaps that is the victory
alluded to. The seats of the Oirad appear to have been about the head
waters of the Kem, or Upper Yenisei.
In A.D. 1295 there took place a curious desertion from the service of
Ghazan Khan of Persia of a vast corps of the Oirad, said to amount to
18,000 tents. They made their way to Damascus, where they were well
received by the Mameluke Sultan. But their heathenish practices gave dire
offence to the Faithful. They were settled in the Sahil, or coast
districts of Palestine. Many died speedily; the rest embraced Islam,
spread over the country, and gradually became absorbed in the general
population. Their sons and daughters were greatly admired for their
beauty. (S. Setz. p. 87; Erdmann, 187; Pallas, Samml. I. 5 seqq.;
Makrizi, III. 29; Bretschneider, Med. Res. II. p. 159 seqq.)
[With reference to Yule's conjecture, I may quote Palladius (l.c. p. 27):
"It is, however, strange that the Oirats alone enjoyed the privilege
described by Marco Polo; for the highest position at the Mongol Khan's
court belonged to the Kunkrat tribe, out of which the Khans used to choose
their first wives, who were called Empresses of the first ordo." - H. C.]
NOTE 7. - Rubruquis assigns such a festival to the month of May: "On the
9th day of the May Moon they collect all the white mares of their herds
and consecrate them. The Christian priests also must then assemble with
their thuribles.
