And so throughout the year, there
are reliefs of maidens by six and six, changing every three days and
nights.[NOTE 3]
[Illustration: Portrait of Kublai Kaan. (From a Chinese Engraving.)]
NOTE 1. - We are left in some doubt as to the colour of Kublai's eyes, for
some of the MSS. read vairs and voirs, and others noirs. The former
is a very common epithet for eyes in the mediaeval romances. And in the
ballad on the death of St. Lewis, we are told of his son Tristram: -
"Droiz fu comme un rosel, iex vairs comme faucon,
Des le tens Moysel ne nasqui sa facon."
The word has generally been interpreted bluish-grey, but in the passage
just quoted, Fr.-Michel explains it by brillans. However, the evidence
for noirs here seems strongest. Rashiduddin says that when Kublai was
born Chinghiz expressed surprise at the child's being so brown, as its
father and all his other sons were fair. Indeed, we are told that the
descendants of Yesugai (the father of Chinghiz) were in general
distinguished by blue eyes and reddish hair. (Michel's Joinville, p.
324; D'Ohsson, II. 475; Erdmann, 252.)
NOTE 2. - According to Hammer's authority (Rashid?) Kublai had seven
wives; Gaubil's Chinese sources assign him five, with the title of
empress (Hwang-heu). Of these the best beloved was the beautiful Jamui
Khatun (Lady or Empress Jamui, illustrating what the text says of the
manner of styling these ladies), who bore him four sons and five
daughters. Rashiduddin adds that she was called Kun Ku, or the great
consort, evidently the term Hwang-heu. (Gen. Tables in Hammer's
Ilkhans; Gatibil, 223; Erdmann, 200.)
["Kublai's four wives, i.e. the empresses of the first, second, third, and
fourth ordos. Ordo is, properly speaking, a separate palace of the
Khan, under the management of one of his wives. Chinese authors translate
therefore the word ordo by 'harem.' The four Ordo established by
Chingis Khan were destined for the empresses, who were chosen out of four
different nomad tribes. During the reign of the first four Khans, who
lived in Mongolia, the four ordo were considerably distant one from
another, and the Khans visited them in different seasons of the year; they
existed nominally as long as China remained under Mongol domination. The
custom of choosing the empress out of certain tribes, was in the course of
time set aside by the Khans. The empress, wife of the last Mongol Khan in
China, was a Corean princess by birth; and she contributed in a great
measure to the downfall of the Mongol Dynasty." (Palladius, 40.)
I do not believe that Rashiduddin's Kun Ku is the term Hwang-keu; it
is the term Kiun Chu, King or Queen, a sovereign. - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - Ungrat, the reading of the Crusca, seems to be that to which
the others point, and I doubt not that it represents the great Mongol
tribe of KUNGURAT, which gave more wives than any other to the princes of
the house of Chinghiz; a conclusion in which I find I have been
anticipated by De Mailla or his editor (IX. 426). To this tribe (which,
according to Vambery, took its name from (Turki) Kongur-At, "Chestnut
Horse") belonged Burteh Fujin, the favourite wife of Chinghiz himself, and
mother of his four heirs; to the same tribe belonged the two wives of
Chagatai, two of Hulaku's seven wives, one of Mangku Kaan's, two at least
of Kublai's including the beloved Jamui Khatun, one at least of Abaka's,
two of Ahmed Tigudar's, two of Arghun's, and two of Ghazan's.
The seat of the Kungurats was near the Great Wall. Their name is still
applied to one of the tribes of the Uzbeks of Western Turkestan, whose
body appears to have been made up of fractions of many of the Turk and
Mongol tribes. Kungurat is also the name of a town of Khiva, near the Sea
of Aral, perhaps borrowed from the Uzbek clan.
The conversion of Kungurat into Ungrat is due, I suppose, to that
Mongol tendency to soften gutturals which has been before noticed.
(Erdm. 199-200; Hammer, passim; Burnes, III. 143, 225.)
The Ramusian version adds here these curious and apparently genuine
particulars: -
"The Great Kaan sends his commissioners to the Province to select four or
five hundred, or whatever number may be ordered, of the most beautiful
young women, according to the scale of beauty enjoined upon them. And they
set a value upon the comparative beauty of the damsels in this way. The
commissioners on arriving assemble all the girls of the province, in
presence of appraisers appointed for the purpose. These carefully survey
the points of each girl in succession, as (for example) her hair, her
complexion, eyebrows, mouth, lips, and the proportion of all her limbs.
They will then set down some as estimated at 16 carats, some at 17, 18,
20, or more or less, according to the sum of the beauties or defects of
each. And whatever standard the Great Kaan may have fixed for those that
are to be brought to him, whether it be 20 carats or 21, the commissioners
select the required number from those who have attained that standard, and
bring them to him. And when they reach his presence he has them appraised
anew by other parties, and has a selection made of 30 or 40 of those, who
then get the highest valuation."
Marsden and Murray miss the meaning of this curious statement in a
surprising manner, supposing the carat to represent some absolute value, 4
grains of gold according to the former, whence the damsel of 20 carats was
estimated at 13s. 4d.! This is sad nonsense; but Marsden would not
have made the mistake had he not been fortunate enough to live before the
introduction of Competitive Examinations.
