And the Kaan caused him to be put to death in
this way because he would not have the blood of his Line Imperial spilt
upon the ground or exposed in the eye of Heaven and before the Sun.[NOTE
1]
And when the Great Kaan had gained this battle, as you have heard, all the
Barons and people of Nayan's provinces renewed their fealty to the Kaan.
Now these provinces that had been under the Lordship of Nayan were four in
number; to wit, the first called CHORCHA; the second CAULY; the third
BARSCOL; the fourth SIKINTINJU. Of all these four great provinces had
Nayan been Lord; it was a very great dominion.[NOTE 2]
And after the Great Kaan had conquered Nayan, as you have heard, it came
to pass that the different kinds of people who were present, Saracens and
Idolaters and Jews,[NOTE 3] and many others that believed not in God, did
gibe those that were Christians because of the cross that Nayan had borne
on his standard, and that so grievously that there was no bearing it. Thus
they would say to the Christians: "See now what precious help this God's
Cross of yours hath rendered Nayan, who was a Christian and a worshipper
thereof." And such a din arose about the matter that it reached the Great
Kaan's own ears. When it did so, he sharply rebuked those who cast these
gibes at the Christians; and he also bade the Christians be of good heart,
"for if the Cross had rendered no help to Nayan, in that It had done right
well; nor could that which was good, as It was, have done otherwise; for
Nayan was a disloyal and traitorous Rebel against his Lord, and well
deserved that which had befallen him. Wherefore the Cross of your God did
well in that It gave him no help against the right." And this he said so
loud that everybody heard him. The Christians then replied to the Great
Kaan: "Great King, you say the truth indeed, for our Cross can render no
one help in wrong-doing; and therefore it was that It aided not Nayan, who
was guilty of crime and disloyalty, for It would take no part in his evil
deeds."
And so thenceforward no more was heard of the floutings of the unbelievers
against the Christians; for they heard very well what the Sovereign said
to the latter about the Cross on Nayan's banner, and its giving him no
help.
NOTE 1. - Friar Ricold mentions this Tartar maxim: "One Khan will put
another to death, to get possession of the throne, but he takes great care
that the blood be not spilt. For they say that it is highly improper that
the blood of the Great Khan should be spilt upon the ground; so they cause
the victim to be smothered somehow or other." The like feeling prevails at
the Court of Burma, where a peculiar mode of execution without bloodshed
is reserved for Princes of the Blood. And Kaempfer, relating the
conspiracy of Faulcon at the Court of Siam, says that two of the king's
brothers, accused of participation, were beaten to death with clubs of
sandal-wood, "for the respect entertained for the blood-royal forbids its
being shed." See also note 6, ch. vi. Bk. I., on the death of the Khalif
Mosta'sim Billah. (Pereg. Quat. p. 115; Mission to Ava, p. 229;
Kaempfer; I. 19.)
NOTE 2. - CHORCHA is the Manchu country, Niuche of the Chinese. (Supra,
note 2, ch. xlvi. Bk. I.) ["Chorcha is Churchin. - Nayan, as vassal of the
Mongol khans, had the commission to keep in obedience the people of
Manchuria (subdued in 1233), and to care for the security of the country
(Yuen shi); there is no doubt that he shared these obligations with his
relative Hatan, who stood nearer to the native tribes of Manchuria."
(Palladius, 32.) - H. C.]
KAULI is properly Corea, probably here a district on the frontier thereof,
as it is improbable that Nayan had any rule over Corea. ["The Corean
kingdom proper could not be a part of the prince's appanage. Marco Polo
might mean the northern part of Corea, which submitted to the Mongols in
A.D. 1269, with sixty towns, and which was subordinated entirely to the
central administration in Liao-yang. As to the southern part of Corea, it
was left to the king of Corea, who, however, was a vassal of the Mongols."
(Palladius, 32.) The king of Corea (Ko rye, Kao-li) was in 1288
Chyoung ryel wang (1274-1298); the capital was Syong-to, now Kai syeng
(K'ai-ch'eng). - H. C.]
BARSKUL, "Leopard-Lake," is named in Sanang Setsen (p. 217), but seems
there to indicate some place in the west of Mongolia, perhaps the Barkul
of our maps. This Barskul must have been on the Manchu frontier. [There
are in the Yuen-shi the names of the department of P'u-yue-lu, and of
the place Pu-lo-ho, which, according to the system of Chinese
transcription, approach to Barscol; but it is difficult to prove this
identification, since our knowledge of these places is very scanty; it
only remains to identify Barscol with Abalahu, which is already known; a
conjecture all the more probable as the two names of P'u-yue-lu and
Pu-lo-ho have also some resemblance to Abalahu. (Palladius, 32.) Mr. E.
H. Parker says (China Review, xviii. p. 261) that Barscol may be Pa-la
ssu or Bars Koto [in Tsetsen]. "This seems the more probable in that Cauly
and Chorcha are clearly proved to be Corea and Niuche or Manchuria, so that
Bars Koto would naturally fall within Nayan's appanage." - H. C.]
The reading of the fourth name is doubtful, Sichuigiu, Sichingiu (G.
T.), Sichin-tingiu etc.
