Chapter XXI: Concerning the Land of Darkness

Still further north, and a long way beyond that kingdom of which I have spoken, there is a region which bears the name of DARKNESS, because neither sun nor moon nor stars appear, but it is always as dark as with us in the twilight. The people have no king of their own, nor are they subject to any foreigner, and live like beasts. [They are dull of understanding, like half-witted persons.{1}]

The Tartars however sometimes visit the country, and they do it in this way. They enter the region riding mares that have foals, and these foals they leave behind. After taking all the plunder that they can get they find their way back by help of the mares, which are all eager to get back to their foals, and find the way much better than their riders could do.{2}

Those people have vast quantities of valuable peltry; thus they have those costly Sables of which I spoke, and they have the Ermine, the Arculin, the Vair, the Black Fox, and many other valuable furs. They are all hunters by trade, and amass amazing quantities of those furs. And the people who are on their borders, where the Light is, purchase all those furs from them; for the people of the Land of Darkness carry the furs to the Light country for sale, and the merchants who purchase these make great gain thereby, I assure you.{3}

The people of this region are tall and shapely, but very pale and colourless. One end of the country borders upon Great Rosia. And as there is no more to be said about it, I will now proceed, and first I will tell you about the Province of Rosia.

NOTE 1.—In the Ramusian version we have a more intelligent
representation of the facts regarding the _Land of Darkness_:
“Because for most part of the winter months the sun appears not,
and the air is dusky, as it is just before the dawn when you see
and yet do not see;” and again below it speaks of the inhabitants
catching the fur animals “in summer when they have continuous
daylight.” It is evident that the writer of this version _did_
and the writer of the original French which we have translated
from _did not_ understand what he was writing. The whole of the
latter account implies belief in the perpetuity of the darkness.
It resembles Pliny’s hazy notion of the northern regions:[1] “pars
mundi damnata a rerum naturâ et densâ 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 _Masálak-al-Absár_,
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 _Kará Hulun_, Ughuz and his officers were much perplexed
about finding their way, as they had arrived at the Land of
Darkness. The old Bushi was then consulted, and his advice was that
they should take with them 4 mares and 9 she-asses that had foals,
and tie up the foals at the entrance to the Land of Darkness, but
drive the dams before them. And when they wished to return they
would be guided by the scent and maternal instinct of the mares and
she-asses. And so it was done. (See _Erdmann Temudschin_, p. 478.)
Ughuz, according to the Mussulman interpretation of the Eastern
Legends, was the great-grandson of Japhet.

The story also found its way into some of the later Greek forms
of the Alexander Legends. Alexander, when about to enter the Land
of Darkness, takes with him only picked young men. Getting into
difficulties, the King wants to send back for some old sage who
should advise. Two young men had smuggled their old father with
them in anticipation of such need, and on promise of amnesty they
produce him. He gives the advice to use the mares as in the text.
(See _Müller’s ed._ of _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, Bk. II. ch. xxxiv.)

NOTE 3.—Ibn Batuta thus describes the traffic that took place with
the natives of the Land of Darkness: “When the Travellers have
accomplished a journey of 40 days across this Desert tract they
encamp near the borders of the Land of Darkness. Each of them then
deposits there the goods that he has brought with him, and all
return to their quarters. On the morrow they come back to look at
their goods, and find laid beside them skins of the Sable, the
Vair, and the Ermine. If the owner of the goods is satisfied with
what is laid beside his parcel he takes it, if not he leaves it
there. The inhabitants of the Land of Darkness may then (on another
visit) increase the amount of their deposit, or, as often happens,
they may take it away altogether and leave the goods of the foreign
merchants untouched. In this way is the trade conducted. The people
who go thither never know whether those with whom they buy and sell
are men or goblins, for they never see any one!” (II. 401.)

[“Ibn Batuta’s account of the market of the ‘Land of Darkness’ ...
agrees almost word for word with Dr. Mirth’s account of the ‘Spirit
Market, taken from the Chinese.’” (_Parker, China Review_, XIV. p.
359.)—H. C.]

Abulfeda gives exactly the same account of the trade; and so
does Herberstein. Other Oriental writers ascribe the same custom
to the _Wisu_, a people three months’ journey from Bolghar.
These Wisu have been identified by Fraehn with the _Wesses_, a
people spoken of by Russian historians as dwelling on the shores
of the Bielo Osero, which Lake indeed is alleged by a Russian
author to have been anciently called _Wüsu_, misunderstood into
_Weissensee_, and thence rendered into Russian Bielo Osero (“White
Lake”). (_Golden Horde_, App. p. 429; _Büsching_, IV. 359–360;
_Herberstein_ in _Ram._ II. 168 v.; _Fraehn, Bolghar_, pp. 14,
47; Do., _Ibn Fozlan_, 205 _seqq._, 221.) Dumb trade of the same
kind is a circumstance related of very many different races and
periods, _e.g._, of a people beyond the Pillars of Hercules by
Herodotus, of the Sabaean dealers in frankincense by Theophrastus,
of the Seres by Pliny, of the Sasians far south of Ethiopia by
Cosmas, of the people of the Clove Islands by Kazwini, of a region
beyond Segelmessa by Mas’udi, of a people far beyond Timbuctoo
by Cadamosto, of the Veddas of Ceylon by Marignolli and more modern
writers, of the Poliars of Malabar by various authors, by Paulus
Jovius of the Laplanders, etc. etc.

Pliny’s attribution, surely erroneous, of this custom to the
Chinese [see _supra_, H. C.], suggests that there may have been a
misunderstanding by which this method of trade was confused with
that other curious system of dumb higgling, by the pressure of the
knuckles under a shawl, a masonic system in use from Peking to
Bombay, and possibly to Constantinople.

The term translated here “Light,” and the “Light Country,” is in
the G. T. “_a la Carte_,” “_a la Cartes_.” This puzzled me for a
long time, as I see it puzzled Mr. Hugh Murray, Signor Bartoli, and
Lazari (who passes it over). The version of Pipino, “_ad_ Lucis
_terras finitimas deferunt_,” points to the true reading;—_Carte_
is an error for _Clarté_.

The reading of this chapter is said to have fired Prince Rupert
with the scheme which resulted in the establishment of the Hudson’s
Bay Company.

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[1] That is, in one passage of Pliny (iv. 12); for in another passage
from his multifarious note book, where Thule is spoken of, the
Arctic day and night are much more distinctly characterised (IV.
16).