"The Disposition Of The Men Is Fierce
And Impetuous, And They Are Mostly False And Deceitful.
They make light of
decorum and politeness, and esteem learning but little." Stein adds, p.
70, with regard to Polo's statement:
"Without being able to adduce from
personal observation evidence as to the relative truth of the latter
statement, I believe that the judgements recorded by both those great
travellers may be taken as a fair reflex of the opinion in which the
'Kashgarliks' are held to this day by the people of other Turkestan
districts, especially by the Khotanese. And in the case of Hiuan Tsang at
least, it seems probable from his long stay in, and manifest attachment
to, Khotan that this neighbourly criticism might have left an impression
upon him."
XXXVI., p. 188.
KHOTAN.
Sir Aurel Stein writes (Ancient Khotan, I., pp. 139-140): "Marco Polo's
account of Khotan and the Khotanese forms an apt link between these early
Chinese notices and the picture drawn from modern observation. It is brief
but accurate in all details. The Venetian found the people 'subject to the
Great Kaan' and 'all worshippers of Mahommet.' 'There are numerous towns
and villages in the country, but Cotan, the capital, is the most noble of
all and gives its name to the kingdom. Everything is to be had there in
plenty, including abundance of cotton [with flax, hemp, wheat, wine, and
the like]. The people have vineyards and gardens and estates. They live by
commerce and manufactures, and are no soldiers.' Nor did the peculiar
laxity of morals, which seems always to have distinguished the people of
the Khotan region, escape Marco Polo's attention. For of the 'Province of
Pein' which, as we shall see, represents the oases of the adjoining modern
district of Keriya, he relates the custom that 'if the husband of any
woman go away upon a journey and remain away for more than twenty days, as
soon as that term is past the woman may marry another man, and the husband
also may then marry whom he pleases.'
"No one who has visited Khotan or who is familiar with the modern accounts
of the territory, can read the early notices above extracted without being
struck at once by the fidelity with which they reflect characteristic
features of the people at the present day. Nor is it necessary to
emphasize the industrial pre-eminence which Khotan still enjoys in a
variety of manufactures through the technical skill and inherited training
of the bulk of its population."
Sir Aurel Stein further remarks (Ancient Khotan, I., p. 183): "When
Marco Polo visited Khotan on his way to China, between the years 1271 and
1275, the people of the oasis were flourishing, as the Venetian's
previously quoted account shows. His description of the territories
further east, Pein, Cherchen, and Lop, which he passed through before
crossing 'the Great Desert' to Sha-chou, leaves no doubt that the route
from Khotan into Kan-su was in his time a regular caravan road.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 625 of 701
Words from 330161 to 330667
of 370046
