Chapter XLIX

CONCERNING A FURTHER PART OF THE PROVINCE OF CARAJAN.

After leaving that city of Yachi of which I have been speaking, and travelling ten days towards the west, you come to another capital city which is still in the province of Carajan, and is itself called Carajan. The people are Idolaters and subject to the Great Kaan; and the King is COGACHIN, who is a son of the Great Kaan.{1}

In this country gold-dust is found in great quantities; that is to say in the rivers and lakes, whilst in the mountains gold is also found in pieces of larger size. Gold is indeed so abundant that they give one _saggio_ of gold for only six of the same weight in silver. And for small change they use porcelain shells as I mentioned before. These are not found in the country, however, but are brought from India.{2}

In this province are found snakes and great serpents of such vast size as to strike fear into those who see them, and so hideous that the very account of them must excite the wonder of those to hear it. I will tell you how long and big they are.

You may be assured that some of them are ten paces in length; some are more and some less. And in bulk they are equal to a great cask, for the bigger ones are about ten palms in girth. They have two forelegs near the head, but for foot nothing but a claw like the claw of a hawk or that of a lion. The head is very big, and the eyes are bigger than a great loaf of bread. The mouth is large enough to swallow a man whole, and is garnished with great [pointed] teeth. And in short they are so fierce-looking and so hideously ugly, that every man and beast must stand in fear and trembling of them. There are also smaller ones, such as of eight paces long, and of five, and of one pace only.

The way in which they are caught is this. You must know that by day they live underground because of the great heat, and in the night they go out to feed, and devour every animal they can catch. They go also to drink at the rivers and lakes and springs. And their weight is so great that when they travel in search of food or drink, as they do by night, the tail makes a great furrow in the soil as if a full ton of liquor had been dragged along. Now the huntsmen who go after them take them by certain gyn which they set in the track over which the serpent has past, knowing that the beast will come back the same way. They plant a stake deep in the ground and fix on the head of this a sharp blade of steel made like a razor or a lance-point, and then they cover the whole with sand so that the serpent cannot see it. Indeed the huntsman plants several such stakes and blades on the track. On coming to the spot the beast strikes against the iron blade with such force that it enters his breast and rives him up to the navel, so that he dies on the spot [and the crows on seeing the brute dead begin to caw, and then the huntsmen know that the serpent is dead and come in search of him].

This then is the way these beasts are taken. Those who take them proceed to extract the gall from the inside, and this sells at a great price; for you must know it furnishes the material for a most precious medicine. Thus if a person is bitten by a mad dog, and they give him but a small pennyweight of this medicine to drink, he is cured in a moment. Again if a woman is hard in labour they give her just such another dose and she is delivered at once. Yet again if one has any disease like the itch, or it may be worse, and applies a small quantity of this gall he shall speedily be cured. So you see why it sells at such a high price.

“=Et encore sachié qe ceste gens chevauchent lonc come franchois.=”]

They also sell the flesh of this serpent, for it is excellent eating, and the people are very fond of it. And when these serpents are very hungry, sometimes they will seek out the lairs of lions or bears or other large wild beasts, and devour their cubs, without the sire and dam being able to prevent it. Indeed if they catch the big ones themselves they devour them too; they can make no resistance.{3}

In this province also are bred large and excellent horses which are taken to India for sale. And you must know that the people dock two or three joints of the tail from their horses, to prevent them from flipping their riders, a thing which they consider very unseemly. They ride long like Frenchmen, and wear armour of boiled leather, and carry spears and shields and arblasts, and all their quarrels are poisoned.{4} [And I was told as a fact that many persons, especially those meditating mischief, constantly carry this poison about with them, so that if by any chance they should be taken, and be threatened with torture, to avoid this they swallow the poison and so die speedily. But princes who are aware of this keep ready dog’s dung, which they cause the criminal instantly to swallow, to make him vomit the poison. And thus they manage to cure those scoundrels.]

I will tell you of a wicked thing they used to do before the Great Kaan conquered them. If it chanced that a man of fine person or noble birth, or some other quality that recommended him, came to lodge with those people, then they would murder him by poison, or otherwise. And this they did, not for the sake of plunder, but because they believed that in this way the goodly favour and wisdom and repute of the murdered man would cleave to the house where he was slain. And in this manner many were murdered before the country was conquered by the Great Kaan. But since his conquest, some 35 years ago, these crimes and this evil practice have prevailed no more; and this through dread of the Great Kaan who will not permit such things.{5}

NOTE 1.—There can be no doubt that this second chief city of
Carajan is TALI-FU, which was the capital of the Shan Kingdom
called by the Chinese Nan-Chao. This kingdom had subsisted in
Yun-nan since 738, and probably had embraced the upper part of
the Irawadi Valley. For the Chinese tell us it was also called
_Maung_, and it probably was identical with the Shan Kingdom of
Muang Maorong or of _Pong_, of which Captain Pemberton procured a
Chronicle. [In A.D. 650, the Ai-Lao, the most ancient name by which
the Shans were known to the Chinese, became the Nan-Chao. The Mêng
family ruled the country from the 7th century; towards the middle
of the 8th century, P’i-lo-ko, who is the real founder of the Thai
kingdom of Nan-Chao, received from the Chinese the title of King of
Yun-Nan and made T’ai-ho, 15 _lis_ south of Ta-li, his residence;
he died in 748. In A.D. 938, Twan Sze-ying, of an old Chinese
family, took Ta-li and established there an independent kingdom.
In 1115 embassies with China were exchanged, and the Emperor
conferred (1119) upon Twan Ch’êng-yn the title of King of Ta-li
(_Ta-li Kwo Wang_). Twan Siang-hing was the last king of Ta-li
(1239–1251). In 1252 the Kingdom of Nan-Chao was destroyed by the
Mongols; the Emperor She Tsu (Kúblái) gave the title of Maháraja
(_Mo-ho Lo-tso_) to Twan Hing-che (son of Twan Siang-hing), who had
fled to Yun-Nan fu and was captured there. Afterwards (1261) the
Twan are known as the eleven _Tsung-Kwan_ (governors); the last of
them, Twan Ming, was made a prisoner by an army sent by the Ming
Emperors, and sent to Nan-King (1381). (_E. H. Parker, Early Laos
and China, China Review_, XIX. and the _Old Thai or Shan Empire of
Western Yun-Nan_, _Ibid._, XX.; _E. Rocher, Hist. des Princes du
Yunnan, T’oung Pao_, 1899; _E. Chavannes, Une Inscription du roy.
de Nan Tchao, J.A._, November–December, 1900; _M. Tchang, Tableau
des Souverains de Nan-Tchao, Bul. Ecole Franç. d’Ext. Orient_, I.
No. 4.)—H. C.] The city of Ta-li was taken by Kúblái in 1253–1254.
The circumstance that it was known to the invaders (as appeals from
Polo’s statement) by the name of the province is an indication of
the fact that it was the capital of Carajan before the conquest.
[“That _Yachi_ and _Carajan_ represent Yünnan-fu and Tali, is
proved by topographical and other evidence of an overwhelming
nature. I venture to add one more proof, which seems to have been
overlooked.

“If there is a natural feature which must strike any visitor to
those two cities, it is that they both lie on the shore of notable
lakes, of so large an extent as to be locally called seas; and for
the comparison, it should be remembered that the inhabitants of the
Yünnan province have easy access to the ocean by the Red River, or
Sung Ka. Now, although Marco does not circumstantially specify the
fact of these cities lying on large bodies of water, yet in both
cases, two or three sentences further on, will be found mention of
lakes; in the case of Yachi, ‘a lake of a good hundred miles in
compass’—by no means an unreasonable estimate.

“Tali-fu is renowned as the strongest hold of Western Yünnan, and
it certainly must have been impregnable to bow and spear. From
the western margin of its majestic lake, which lies approximately
north and south, rises a sloping plain of about three miles average
breadth, closed in by the huge wall of the Tien-tsang Mountains. In
the midst of this plain stands the city, the lake at its feet, the
snowy summits at its back. On either flank, at about twelve and six
miles distance respectively, are situated Shang-Kuan and Hsia-Kuan
(upper and lower passes), two strongly fortified towns guarding the
confined strip between mountain and lake; for the plain narrows at
the two extremities, and is intersected by a river at both points.”
(_Baber_, _Travels_, 155.)—H. C.]

The distance from Yachi to this city of Karajang is ten days,
and this corresponds well with the distance from Yun-nan fu to
Tali-fu. For we find that, of the three Burmese Embassies whose
itineraries are given by Burney, one makes 7 marches between those
cities, specifying 2 of them as double marches, therefore equal to
9, whilst the other two make 11 marches; Richthofen’s information
gives 12. Ta-li-fu is a small old city overlooking its large lake
(about 24 miles long by 6 wide), and an extensive plain devoid of
trees. Lofty mountains rise on the south side of the city. The Lake
appears to communicate with the Mekong, and the story goes, no
doubt fabulous, that boats have come up to Ta-li from the Ocean.
[Captain Gill (II. pp. 299–300) writes: “Ta-li fu is an ancient
city ... it is the Carajan of Marco Polo.... Marco’s description
of the lake of Yun-Nan may be perfectly well applied to the Lake
of Ta-li.... The fish were particularly commended to our notice,
though we were told that there were no oysters in this lake, as
there are said to be in that of Yun-Nan; if the latter statement be
true, it would illustrate Polo’s account of another lake somewhere
in these regions in which are found pearls (which are white but not
round).”—H. C.]

Ta-li fu was recently the capital of Sultan Suleiman [Tu Wen-siu].
It was reached by Lieutenant Garnier in a daring détour by the
north of Yun-nan, but his party were obliged to leave in haste on
the second day after their arrival. The city was captured by the
Imperial officers in 1873, when a horrid massacre of the Mussulmans
took place [19th January]. The Sultan took poison, but his head was
cut off and sent to Peking. Momein fell soon after [10th June], and
the _Panthé_ kingdom is ended.

We see that Polo says the King ruling for Kúblái at this city
was a son of the Kaan, called COGACHIN, whilst he told us in
the last chapter that the King reigning at Yachi was also a son
of the Kaan, called ESSENTIMUR. It is probably a mere lapsus or
error of dictation calling the latter a son of the Kaan, for in
ch. li. _infra_, this prince is correctly described as the Kaan’s
grandson. Rashiduddin tells us that Kúblái had given his son
HUKÁJI (or perhaps _Hogáchi_, _i.e._ Cogachin) the government of
Karajang,[1] and that after the death of this Prince the government
was continued to his son ISENTIMUR. Klaproth gives the date of the
latter’s nomination from the Chinese Annals as 1280. It is not easy
to reconcile Marco’s statements perfectly with a knowledge of these
facts; but we may suppose that, in speaking of Cogachin as ruling
at Karajang (or Tali-fu) and Esentimur at Yachi, he describes
things as they stood when his visit occurred, whilst in the second
reference to “Sentemur’s” being King in the province and his father
dead, he speaks from later knowledge. This interpretation would
confirm what has been already deduced from other circumstances,
that his visit to Yun-nan was prior to 1280. (_Pemberton’s Report
on the Eastern Frontier_, 108 _seqq._; _Quat. Rashid._ pp.
lxxxix-xc.; _Journ. Asiat._ sér. II. vol. i.)

NOTE 2.—[Captain Gill writes (II. p. 302): “There are said to be
very rich gold and silver mines within a few days’ journey of the
city” (of Ta-li). Dr. Anderson says (_Mandalay to Momien_, p. 203):
“Gold is brought to Momein from Yonephin and Sherg-wan villages,
fifteen days’ march to the north-east; but no information could
be obtained as to the quantity found. It is also brought in leaf,
which is sent to Burma, where it is in extensive demand.”—H. C.]

NOTE 3.—It cannot be doubted that Marco’s serpents here are
crocodiles, in spite of his strange mistakes about their having
only two feet and one claw on each, and his imperfect knowledge of
their aquatic habits. He may have seen only a mutilated specimen.
But there is no mistaking the hideous ferocity of the countenance,
and the “eyes bigger than a fourpenny loaf,” as Ramusio has it.
Though the actual _eye_ of the crocodile does not bear this
comparison, the prominent _orbits_ do, especially in the case of
the _Ghaṛiyál_ of the Ganges, and form one of the most repulsive
features of the reptile’s physiognomy. In fact, its presence on the
surface of an Indian river is often recognisable only by three dark
knobs rising above the surface, viz. the snout and the two orbits.
And there is some foundation for what our author says of the
animal’s habits, for the crocodile does sometimes frequent holes
at a distance from water, of which a striking instance is within
my own recollection (in which the deep furrowed track also was a
notable circumstance).

The Cochin Chinese are very fond of crocodile’s flesh, and there is
or was a regular export of this dainty for their use from Kamboja.
I have known it eaten by certain classes in India. (_J. R. G. S._
XXX. 193.)

The term _serpent_ is applied by many old writers to crocodiles and
the like, _e.g._ by Odoric, and perhaps allusively by Shakspeare
(“_Where’s my Serpent of Old Nile?_”). Mr. Fergusson tells me he
was once much struck with the _snake-like_ motion of a group of
crocodiles hastily descending to the water from a high sand-bank,
without apparent use of the limbs, when surprised by the approach
of a boat.[2]

Matthioli says the gall of the crocodile surpasses all medicines
for the removal of pustules and the like from the eyes. Vincent of
Beauvais mentions the same, besides many other medical uses of the
reptile’s carcass, including a very unsavoury cosmetic. (_Matt._ p.
245; _Spec. Natur._ Lib. XVII. c. 106, 108.)

[“According to Chinese notions, Han Yü, the St. Patrick of China,
having persuaded the alligators in China that he was all-powerful,
induced the stupid saurians to migrate to Ngo Hu or ‘Alligators’
Lake’ in the Kwang-tung province.” (_North-China Herald_, 5th July,
1895, p. 5.)

Alligators have been found in 1878 at Wu-hu and at Chen-kiang
(Ngan-hwei and Kiang-Su). (See _A. A. Fauvel, Alligators in China_,
in _Jour. N. China B. R. A. S._ XIII. 1879, 1–36.)—H. C.]

NOTE 4.—I think the _great_ horses must be an error, though running
through all the texts, and that _grant quantité de chevaus_
was probably intended. Valuable _ponies_ are produced in those
regions, but I have never heard of large horses, and Martini’s
testimony is to like effect (p. 141). Nor can I hear of any race in
those regions in modern times that uses what we should call long
stirrups. It is true that the Tartars rode _very short_—“_brevissimas
habent strepas_,” as Carpini says (643); and the Kirghiz Kazaks now
do the same. Both Burmese and Shans ride what we should call short;
and Major Sladen observes of the people on the western border of
Yun-nan: “Kachyens and Shans ride on ordinary Chinese saddles.
The stirrups are of the usual average length, but the saddles are
so constructed as to rise at least a foot above the pony’s back.”
He adds with reference to another point in the text: “I noticed a
few Shan ponies _with docked tails_. But the more general practice
is to loop up the tail in a knot, the object being to protect the
rider, or rather his clothes, from the dirt with which they would
otherwise be spattered from the flipping of the animal’s tail.”
(_MS. Notes._)

[After Yung-ch’ang, Captain Gill writes (II. p. 356): “The manes
were hogged and the tails cropped of a great many of the ponies
these men were riding; but there were none of the docked tails
mentioned by Marco Polo.”—H. C.]

Armour of boiled leather—“_armes cuiracés de cuir bouilli_”; so
Pauthier’s text; the material so often mentioned in mediæval
costume; _e.g._ in the leggings of Sir Thopas:—

“His jambeux were of cuirbouly,
His swerdës sheth of ivory,
His helme of latoun bright.”

But the reading of the G. Text which is “_cuir de bufal_,” is
probably the right one. Some of the Miau-tzŭ of Kweichau are
described as wearing armour of buffalo-leather overlaid with
iron plates. (_Ritter_, IV. 768–776.) Arblasts or crossbows are
still characteristic weapons of many of the wilder tribes of this
region; _e.g._ of some of the Singphos, of the Mishmis of Upper
Assam, of the Lu-tzŭ of the valley of the Lukiang, of tribes of
the hills of Laos, of the Stiens of Cambodia, and of several of
the Miau-tzŭ tribes of the interior of China. We give a cut copied
from a Chinese work on the Miau-tzŭ of Kweichau in Dr. Lockhart’s
possession, which shows _three_ little men of the Sang-Miau tribe
of Kweichau combining to mend a crossbow, and a chief with _armes
cuiracés_ and _jambeux_ also. [The cut (p. 83) is well explained by
this passage of _Baber’s Travels_ among the Lolos (p. 71): “They
make their own swords, three and a half to five spans long, with
square heads, and have bows which it takes three men to draw, but
no muskets.”—H. C.]

NOTE 5.—I have nowhere met with a _precise_ parallel to this
remarkable superstition, but the following piece of Folk-Lore has a
considerable analogy to it. This extraordinary custom is ascribed
by Ibn Fozlan to the Bulgarians of the Volga: “If they find a man
endowed with special intelligence then they say: ‘This man should
serve our Lord God;’ and so they take him, run a noose round his
neck and hang him on a tree, where they leave him till the corpse
falls to pieces.” This is precisely what Sir Charles Wood did with
the Indian Corps of Engineers;—doubtless on the same principle.

Archbishop Trench, in a fine figure, alludes to a belief prevalent
among the Polynesian Islanders, “that the strength and valour of
the warriors whom they have slain in battle passes into themselves,
as their rightful inheritance.” (_Fraehn, Wolga-Bulgaren_, p. 50;
_Studies in the Gospels_, p. 22; see also _Lubbock_, 457.)

“=Ont armes corasés de cuir de bufal, et ont lances et scuz et ont
balestres.=”]

There is some analogy also to the story Polo tells, in the
curious Sindhi tradition, related by Burton, of Bahá-ul-haḳḳ, the
famous saint of Multán. When he visited his disciples at Tatta
they plotted his death, in order to secure the blessings of his
perpetual presence. The people of Multán are said to have murdered
two celebrated saints with the same view, and the Hazáras to “make
a point of killing and burying in their own country any stranger
indiscreet enough to commit a miracle or show any particular sign
of sanctity.” The like practice is ascribed to the rude Moslem of
Gilghit; and such allegations must have been current in Europe, for
they are the motive of _Southey’s St. Romuald_:

“‘But,’ quoth the Traveller, ‘wherefore did he leave
A flock that knew his saintly worth so well?’
• • • • •
“‘Why, Sir,’ the Host replied,
‘We thought perhaps that he might one day leave us;
And then, should strangers have
The good man’s grave,
A loss like that would naturally grieve us;
For he’ll be made a saint of, to be sure.
Therefore we thought it prudent to secure
His relics while we might;
And so we meant to strangle him one night.’”

(See _Sindh_, pp. 86, 388; _Ind. Antiq._ I. 13; _Southey’s
Ballads_, etc., ed. Routledge, p. 330.)

[Captain Gill (I. p. 323) says that he had made up his mind to
visit a place called Li-fan Fu, near Ch’êng-tu. “I was told,”
he writes, “that this place was inhabited by the Man-Tzŭ, or
Barbarians, as the Chinese call them; and Monseigneur Pinchon told
me that, amongst other pleasing theories, they were possessed of
the belief that if they poisoned a rich man, his wealth would
accrue to the poisoner; that, therefore, the hospitable custom
prevailed amongst them of administering poison to rich or noble
guests; that this poison took no effect for some time, but that in
the course of two or three months it produced a disease akin to
dysentery, ending in certain death.”—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] [Mr. E. H. Parker writes (_China Review_, XXIV. p. 106): “Polo’s
Kogatin is _Hukoch’ih_, who was made King of Yun-nan in 1267, with
military command over Ta-li, Shen-shen, Chagan Chang, Golden-Teeth,
etc.”—H. C.]

[2] Though the bellowing of certain American crocodiles is often spoken
of, I have nowhere seen allusion to the roaring of the _ghaṛiyál_,
nor does it seem to be commonly known. I have once only heard it,
whilst on the bank of the Ganges near Rampúr Boliah, waiting for
a ferry-boat. It was like a loud prolonged snore; and though it
seemed to come distinctly from a crocodile on the surface of the
river, I made sure by asking a boatman who stood by: “It is the
ghaṛiyál speaking,” he answered.