Now I Have Told You All About The Manners And Customs Of The Tartars; But
You Have Heard Nothing Yet Of The Great State Of The Grand Kaan, Who Is
The Lord Of All The Tartars And Of The Supreme Imperial Court.
All that I
will tell you in this book in proper time and place, but meanwhile I must
return to my story which I left off in that great plain when we began to
speak of the Tartars.[NOTE 4]
NOTE 1. - The cudgel among the Mongols was not confined to thieves and such
like. It was the punishment also of military and state offences, and even
princes were liable to it without fatal disgrace. "If they give any
offence," says Carpini, "or omit to obey the slightest beck, the Tartars
themselves are beaten like donkeys." The number of blows administered was,
according to Wassaf, always odd, 3, 5, and so forth, up to 77. (Carp.
712; Ilchan. I. 37.)
["They also punish with death grand larceny, but as for petty thefts, such
as that of a sheep, so long has one has not repeatedly been taken in the
act, they beat him cruelly, and if they administer an hundred blows they
must use an hundred sticks." (Rockhill, Rubruck, p. 80.) - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - "They have no herdsmen or others to watch their cattle, because
the laws of the Turks (i.e. Tartars) against theft are so severe.... A man
in whose possession a stolen horse is found is obliged to restore it to
its owner, and to give nine of the same value; if he cannot, his
children are seized in compensation; if he have no children, he is
slaughtered like a mutton." (Ibn Batuta, II. 364.)
NOTE 3. - This is a Chinese custom, though no doubt we may trust Marco for
its being a Tartar one also. "In the province of Shansi they have a
ridiculous custom, which is to marry dead folks to each other. F. Michael
Trigault, a Jesuit, who lived several years in that province, told it us
whilst we were in confinement. It falls out that one man's son and another
man's daughter die. Whilst the coffins are in the house (and they used to
keep them two or three years, or longer) the parents agree to marry them;
they send the usual presents, as if the pair were alive, with much
ceremony and music. After this they put the two coffins together, hold the
wedding dinner in their presence, and, lastly, lay them together in one
tomb. The parents, from this time forth, are looked on not merely as
friends but as relatives - just as they would have been had their children
been married when in life." (Navarrete, quoted by Marsden.) Kidd
likewise, speaking of the Chinese custom of worshipping at the tombs of
progenitors, says: "So strongly does veneration for this tribute after
death prevail that parents, in order to secure the memorial of the
sepulchre for a daughter who has died during her betrothal, give her in
marriage after her decease to her intended husband, who receives with
nuptial ceremonies at his own house a paper effigy made by her parents,
and after he has burnt it, erects a tablet to her memory - an honour which
usage forbids to be rendered to the memory of unmarried persons.
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