But
it must not be supposed that I have described the whole province of Kathay,
as I have not spoken of the twentieth part of it; for in passing through
this province, I have only mentioned the principal cities on my way,
leaving those on both sides, and many intermediate ones to avoid prolixity,
and not to set down in writing what I only learned from hearsay.
[1] The meaning of this sentence is obscure, unless it is intended to guard
the readers against the supposition that these countries were to the
west of Europe. - E.
[2] Called Lazi by Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition of these travels,
mentioned in the introduction. This place, therefore, may be Lassa, in
the kingdom or province of Ou, in Middle Thibet, the residence of the
Dalai Lama, situate on a branch of the Sampoo, or great Brahma-pootra,
or Barampooter river, which joins the Ganges in the lower part of
Bengal. - E.
[3] This sentence most probably is meant to imply the use of cowries,
sometimes called porellane shells, both for money and ornament. - E.
[4] Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition, names the country Cariam, and the
governor Cocagio. - E.
[5] The ordinary European price is about fourteen for one. - E.
[6] The description of this creature seems to indicate an alligator or
crocodile; which probably Marco had not seen, and only describes from
an imperfect account of the natives. - E.
[7] According to Pinkerton, this province is named Cariti, and its
principal town Nociam, in the edition of Trevigi. - E.
[8] Named previously Carazam and Caraian, afterwards Caraiam, or Carian.
- E.
[9] In some modern maps, Mien is introduced as a large province on the
river of Pegu, immediately to the south-west of Yunnan in China, and
divided from Bengal by the whole country of Ava. But the distribution
of eastern dominion has been always extremely fluctuating; and Mien
may then have included all the north of Ava. - E.
[10] In the original text this animal is called the unicorn; a word of the
same import with rhinoceros. - E.
[11] This either implies that Bengal on the borders of India is to the
south of Thibet; or south is here an error for east, Bengal being
the eastern frontier province of India proper. - E.
[12] The difficulty, or rather impossibility of tracing the steps of Marco
Polo, may proceed from various causes. The provinces or kingdoms,
mostly named from their chief cities, have suffered infinite changes
from perpetual revolutions. The names he gives, besides being
corrupted in the various transcriptions and editions, he probably set
down orally, as given to him in the Tartar or Mogul dialect, very
different from those which have been adopted into modern geography
from various sources.
