It Resembles Pliny's Hazy Notion Of The Northern Regions:[1] "Pars Mundi Damnata A Rerum Natura Et Densa Mersa Caligine." Whether The Fault Is Due To Rustician's Ignorance Or Is Polo's Own, Who Can Say?

We are willing to debit it to the former, and to credit Marco with the improved version in Ramusio.

In the Masalak-al-Absar, however, we have the following passage in which the conception is similar: "Merchants do not ascend (the Wolga) beyond Bolghar; from that point they make excursions through the province of Julman (supposed to be the country on the Kama and Viatka). The merchants of the latter country penetrate to Yughra, which is the extremity of the North. Beyond that you see no trace of habitation except a great Tower built by Alexander, after which there is nothing but Darkness." The narrator of this, being asked what he meant, said: "It is a region of desert mountains, where frost and snow continually reign, where the sun never shines, no plant vegetates, and no animal lives. Those mountains border on the Dark Sea, on which rain falls perpetually, fogs are ever dense, and the sun never shows itself, and on tracts perpetually covered with snow." (N. et Ex. XIII. i. 285.)

NOTE 2. - This is probably a story of great antiquity, for it occurs in the legends of the mythical Ughuz, Patriarch of the Turk and Tartar nations, as given by Rashiduddin. In this hero's campaign towards the far north, he had ordered the old men to be left behind near Almalik; but a very ancient sage called Bushi Khwaja persuaded his son to carry him forward in a box, as they were sure sooner or later to need the counsel of experienced age. When they got to the land of Kara Hulun, Ughuz and his officers were much perplexed about finding their way, as they had arrived at the Land of Darkness.

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