The
Bularguji Was An Officer Of The Mongol Camp, Whose Duties Are Thus
Described By Mahomed Hindu Shah In A Work On The Offices Of The Perso-
Mongol Court.
"He is an officer appointed by the Council of State, who, at
the time when the camp is struck,
Goes over the ground with his servants,
and collects slaves of either sex, or cattle, such as horses, camels,
oxen, and asses, that have been left behind, and retains them until the
owners appear and prove their claim to the property, when he makes it over
to them. The Bularguji sticks up a flag by his tent or hut to enable
people to find him, and so recover their lost property." (Golden Horde,
p. 245.) And in the Appendix to that work (p. 476) there is a copy of a
warrant to such a Bularguji or Provost Marshal. The derivation appears
therein as from Bularghu, "Lost property." Here again it was impossible
to give both form and meaning of the word more exactly than Polo has done.
Though Hammer writes these terminations in ji (dschi), I believe chi
(tschi) is preferable. We have this same word Bularghu in a grant of
privileges to the Venetians by the Ilkhan Abusaid, 22nd December, 1320,
which has been published by M. Mas Latrie: "Item, se algun cavalo
bolargo fosse trovado apreso de algun vostro veneciano," etc. - "If any
stray horse shall be found in the possession of a Venetian," etc. (See
Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1870 - tirage a part, p. 26.)
["There are two Mongol terms, which resemble this word Bularguchi, viz.
Balagachi and Buluguchi. But the first was the name used for the
door-keeper of the tent of the Khan. By Buluguchi the Mongols understood
a hunter and especially sable hunters. No one of these terms can be made
consistent with the accounts given by M. Polo regarding the Bularguchi.
In the Kui sin tsa shi, written by Chow Mi, in the former part of the
14th century, interesting particulars regarding Mongol hunting are found."
(Palladius, 47.) In chapter 101. Djan-ch'i, of the Yuen-shi,
Falconers are called Ying fang pu lie, and a certain class of the
Falconers are termed Bo-lan-ghi. (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I.
p. 188.) - H. C.]
NOTE 5. - A like description is given by Odoric of the mode in which a
successor of Kublai travelled between Cambaluc and Shangtu, with his
falcons also in the chamber beside him. What Kublai had adopted as an
indulgence to his years and gout, his successors probably followed as a
precedent without these excuses.
[With regard to the gout of Kublai Khan, Palladius (p. 48) writes: "In the
Corean history allusion is made twice to the Khan's suffering from this
disease. Under the year 1267, it is there recorded that in the 9th month,
envoys of the Khan with a letter to the King arrived in Corea. Kubilai
asked for the skin of the Akirho munho, a fish resembling a cow.
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