Chapter LVII: Concerning the Province of Anin

Anin is a Province towards the east, the people of which are subject to the Great Kaan, and are Idolaters. They live by cattle and tillage, and have a peculiar language. The women wear on the legs and arms bracelets of gold and silver of great value, and the men wear such as are even yet more costly. They have plenty of horses which they sell in great numbers to the Indians, making a great profit thereby. And they have also vast herds of buffaloes and oxen, having excellent pastures for these. They have likewise all the necessaries of life in abundance.{1}

Now you must know that between Anin and Caugigu, which we have left behind us, there is a distance of [25] days’ journey;{2} and from Caugigu to Bangala, the third province in our rear, is 30 days’ journey. We shall now leave Anin and proceed to another province which is some 8 days’ journey further, always going eastward.

NOTE 1.—Ramusio, the printed text of the Soc. de Géographie, and
most editions have _Amu_; Pauthier reads _Aniu_, and considers the
name to represent Tungking or Annam, called also _Nan-yué_. The
latter word he supposes to be converted into _Anyuë_, _Aniu_. And
accordingly he carries the traveller to the capital of Tungking.

Leaving the name for the present, according to the scheme of the
route as I shall try to explain it below, I should seek for Amu
or Aniu or _Anin_ in the extreme south-east of Yun-nan. A part of
this region was for the first time traversed by the officers of the
French expedition up the Mekong, who in 1867 visited Sheu-ping,
Lin-ngan and the upper valley of the River of Tungking on their
way to Yun-nan-fu. To my question whether the description in the
text, of Aniu or Anin and its fine pastures, applied to the tract
just indicated, Lieut. Garnier replied on the whole favourably
(see further on), proceeding: “The population about Sheu-ping is
excessively mixt. On market days at that town one sees a gathering
of wild people in great number and variety, and whose costumes
are highly picturesque, as well as often very rich. There are the
_Pa-is_, who are also found again higher up, the _Ho-nhi_, the
_Khato_, the _Lopé_, the _Shentseu_. These tribes appear to be
allied in part to the Laotians, in part to the Kakhyens.... The
wilder races about Sheuping are remarkably handsome, and you see
there types of women exhibiting an extraordinary regularity of
feature, and at the same time a complexion surprisingly _white_.
The Chinese look quite an inferior race beside them.... I may add
that all these tribes, especially the Ho-nhi and the Pa-ï, wear
large amounts of silver ornament; great collars of silver round the
neck, as well as on the legs and arms.”

Though the _whiteness_ of the people of Anin is not noticed by
Polo, the distinctive manner in which he speaks in the next chapter
of the _dark_ complexion of the tribes described therein seems to
indicate the probable omission of the opposite trait here.

The prominent position assigned in M. Garnier’s remarks to a race
called _Ho-nhi_ first suggested to me that the reading of the text
might be ANIN instead of _Aniu_. And as a matter of fact this
seems to my eyes to be clearly the reading of the Paris _Livre
des Merveilles_ (Pauthier’s MS. B), while the Paris No. 5631
(Pauthier’s A) has _Auin_, and what may be either _Aniu_ or _Anin_.
_Anyn_ is also found in the Latin Brandenburg MS. of Pipino’s
version collated by Andrew Müller, to which, however, we cannot
ascribe much weight. But the two words are so nearly identical
in mediæval writing, and so little likely to be discriminated by
scribes who had nothing to guide their discrimination, that one
need not hesitate to adopt that which is supported by argument.
In reference to the suggested identity of _Anin_ and _Ho-nhi_, M.
Garnier writes again: “All that Polo has said regarding the country
of Aniu, though not containing anything _very_ characteristic, may
apply perfectly to the different indigenous tribes, at present
subject to the Chinese, which are dispersed over the country from
Talan to Sheuping and Lin-ngan. These tribes bearing the names
(given above) relate that they in other days formed an independent
state, to which they give the name of _Muang Shung_. Where this
Muang was situated there is no knowing. These tribes have _langage
par euls_, as Marco Polo says, and silver ornaments are worn by
them to this day in extraordinary profusion; more, however, by
the women than the men. They have plenty of horses, buffaloes and
oxen, and of sheep as well. It was the first locality in which the
latter were seen. The plateau of Lin-ngan affords pasture-grounds
which are exceptionally good for that part of the world.

“Beyond Lin-ngan we find the Ho-nhi, properly so called, no longer.
But ought one to lay much stress on mere names which have undergone
so many changes, and of which so many have been borne in succession
by all those places and peoples?... I will content myself with
reminding you that the town of _Homi-cheu_ near Lin-ngan in the
days of the Yuen bore the name of _Ngo-ning_.”

Notwithstanding M. Garnier’s caution, I am strongly inclined to
believe that ANIN represents either HO-NHI or NGO-NING, if indeed
these names be not identical. For on reference to Biot I see that
the first syllable of the modern name of the town which M. Garnier
writes HO_mí_, is expressed by the same character as the first
syllable of NGO_ning_.

[The Wo-nhi are also called Ngo-ni, Kan-ni, Ho-ni, Lou-mi, No-pi,
Ko-ni and Wa-heh; they descend from the southern barbarians called
Ho-nhi. At the time of the kingdom of Nan-Chao, the Ho-nhi, called
In-yuen, tribes were a dependence of the Kiang (Xieng) of Wei-yuen
(Prefecture of P’u-erh). They are now to be found in the Yunnanese
prefectures of Lin-ngan, King-tung, Chen-yuen, Yuen-kiang and
Yun-nan. (See _Devéria_, p. 135.)—H. C.]

We give one of M. Garnier’s woodcuts representing some of the races
in this vicinity. Their dress, as he notices, has, in some cases,
a curious resemblance to costumes of Switzerland, or of Brittany,
popular at fancy balls.[1] Coloured figures of some of these races
will be found in the Atlas to Garnier’s work; see especially Plate
35.

NOTE 2.—All the French MSS. and other texts except Ramusio’s read
15. We adopt Ramusio’s reading, 25, for reasons which will appear
below.

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[1] There is a little uncertainty in the adjustment of names and
figures of some of these tribes, between the illustrations and
the incidental notices in Lieutenant Garnier’s work. But all the
figures in the present cut certainly belong to the tract to which
we point as Anin; and the two middle figures answer best to what is
said of the _Ho-nhi_.