Yaci
[Ya-ch'ih, Ya-ch'i] is frequently mentioned in the Yuean-shi, and the
whole of Deveria's quotation given by Cordier on p. 72 appears there [chap.
121, p. 5], besides a great deal more to the point, without any necessity
for consulting the Lei pien. Cowries, under the name of pa-tsz, are
mentioned in both Mongol and Ming history as being in use for money in Siam
and Yung-ch'ang [Vociam]. The porcelain coins which, as M. Cordier quotes
from me on p. 74, I myself saw current in the Shan States or Siam about ten
years ago, were of white China, with a blue figure, and about the size of a
Keating's cough lozenge, but thicker. As neither form of the character pa
appears in any dictionary, it is probably a foreign word only locally
understood. Regarding the origin of the name Yung-ch'ang, the discussions
upon p. 105 are no longer necessary; in the eleventh moon of 1272 [say
about January 1, 1273] Kublai 'presented the name Yung-ch'ang to the new
city built by Prince Chi-pi T'ie-mu-r.'"
XLVI., p. 49. They have also in this country [Tibet] plenty of fine
woollens and other stuffs, and many kinds of spices are produced there
which are never seen in our country.
Dr. Laufer draws my attention to the fact that this translation does not
give exactly the sense of the French text, which runs thus:
"Et encore voz di qe en ceste provence a gianbelot [camelot] assez et
autres dras d'or et de soie, et hi naist maintes especes qe unques ne
furent veue en nostre pais." (Ed. Soc. de Geog., Chap, cxvi., p. 128.)
In the Latin text (Ibid., p. 398), we have:
"In ista provincia sunt giambelloti satis et alii panni de sirico et auro;
et ibi nascuntur multae species quae nunquam fuerunt visae in nostris
contractis."
Francisque-Michel (Recherches, II., p. 44) says: "Les Tartares
fabriquaient aussi a Aias de tres-beaux camelots de poil de chameau, que
l'on expediait pour divers pays, et Marco Polo nous apprend que cette
denree etait fort abondante dans le Thibet. Au XV'e siecle, il en venait
de l'ile de Chypre."
XLVII., pp. 50, 52,
WILD OXEN CALLED BEYAMINI.
Dr. Laufer writes to me: "Yule correctly identifies the 'wild oxen' of
Tibet with the gayal (Bos gavaeus), but I do not believe that his
explanation of the word beyamini (from an artificially constructed
buemini = Bohemian) can be upheld. Polo states expressly that these wild
oxen are called beyamini (scil. by the natives), and evidently alludes
to a native Tibetan term. The gayal is styled in Tibetan ba-men (or
ba-man), derived from ba ('cow'), a diminutive form of which is beu.
Marco Polo appears to have heard some dialectic form of this word like
beu-men or beu-min."
XLVIII., p. 70.
