D'Avezac
Thinks That The Kerait, And Not The Merkit, Are Intended By All Three
Travellers.
As regards Polo, I see no reason for this view.
The name he
uses is Mekrit, and the position which he assigns to them agrees fairly
with that assigned on good authority to the Merkit or Mekrit. Only, as in
other cases, where he is rehearsing hearsay information, it does not
follow that the identification of the name involves the correctness of all
the circumstances that he connects with that name. We saw in ch. xxx. that
under Pashai he seemed to lump circumstances belonging to various parts
of the region from Badakhshan to the Indus; so here under Mekrit he
embraces characteristics belonging to tribes extending far beyond the
Mekrit, and which in fact are appropriate to the Tunguses. Rashiduddin
seems to describe the latter under the name of Uriangkut of the Woods, a
people dwelling beyond the frontier of Barguchin, and in connection with
whom he speaks of their Reindeer obscurely, as well as of their tents of
birch bark, and their hunting on snow-shoes.
The mention of the Reindeer by Polo in this passage is one of the
interesting points which Pauthier's text omits. Marsden objects to the
statement that the stags are ridden upon, and from this motive mis-renders
"li qual' anche cavalcano," as, "which they make use of for the purpose
of travelling." Yet he might have found in Witsen that the Reindeer are
ridden by various Siberian Tribes, but especially by the Tunguses.
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