Chapter LVIII: Concerning the Province of Coloman

Coloman is a province towards the east, the people of which are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They are a [tall and] very handsome people, though in complexion brown rather than white, and are good soldiers.{1} They have a good many towns, and a vast number of villages, among great mountains, and in strong positions.{2}

When any of them die, the bodies are burnt, and then they take the bones and put them in little chests. These are carried high up the mountains, and placed in great caverns, where they are hung up in such wise that neither man nor beast can come at them.

A good deal of gold is found in the country, and for petty traffic they use porcelain shells such as I have told you of before. All these provinces that I have been speaking of, to wit Bangala and Caugigu and Anin, employ for currency porcelain shells and gold. There are merchants in this country who are very rich and dispose of large quantities of goods. The people live on flesh and rice and milk, and brew their wine from rice and excellent spices.

NOTE 1.—The only MSS. that afford the reading _Coloman_ or
_Choloman_ instead of _Toloman_ or _Tholoman_, are the Bern MS.,
which has _Coloman_ in the initial word of the chapter, Paris
MS. 5649 (Pauthier’s C) which has _Coloman_ in the Table of
Chapters, but not in the text, the Bodleian, and the Brandenburg
MS. quoted in the last note. These variations in themselves have
little weight. But the confusion between _c_ and _t_ in mediæval
MSS., when dealing with strange names, is so constant that I have
ventured to make the correction, in strong conviction that it is
the right reading. M. Pauthier indeed, after speaking of tribes
called _Lo_ on the south-west of China, adds, “on les nommait
_To-lo-man_ (‘les nombreux Barbares Lo’).” Were this latter
statement founded on actual evidence we might retain that form
which is the usual reading. But I apprehend from the manner in
which M. Pauthier produces it, without corroborative quotation,
that he is rather hazarding a conjecture than speaking with
authority. Be that as it may, it is impossible that Polo’s Toloman
or Coloman should have been in the south of Kwangsi, where Pauthier
locates it.

On the other hand, we find tribes of both _Kolo_ and _Kihlau_
Barbarians (_i.e._ _Mán_, whence KOLO-MÁN or _Kihlau-mán_) very
numerous on the frontier of Kweichau. (See _Bridgman’s transl.
of Tract on Meautsze_, pp. 265, 269, 270, 272, 273, 274, 275,
278, 279, 280.) Among these the _Kolo_, described as No. 38 in
that Tract, appear to me from various particulars to be the most
probable representatives of the Coloman of Polo, notwithstanding
the sentence with which the description opens: “_Kolo_ originally
called _Luluh_; the modern designation _Kolo_ is incorrect.”[1]
They are at present found in the prefecture of Tating (one of the
departments of Kweichau towards the Yun-nan side). “They are _tall,
of a dark complexion_, with sunken eyes, aquiline nose, wear long
whiskers, and have the beard shaved off above the mouth. They pay
great deference to demons, and on that account are sometimes called
‘Dragons of Lo.’... At the present time these Kolo are divided
into 48 clans, the elders of which are called Chieftains (lit.
‘Head-and-Eyes’) and are of nine grades.... The men bind their hair
into a tuft with blue cloth and make it fast on the forehead like a
horn. Their upper dresses are short, with large sleeves, and their
lower garments are fine blue. When one of the chieftains dies, all
that were under him are assembled together clad in armour and on
horseback. Having dressed his corpse in silk and woollen robes,
they burn it in the open country; then, invoking the departed
spirit, they inter the ashes. Their attachment to him as their
sole master is such that nothing can drive or tempt them from their
allegiance. Their large bows, long spears, and sharp swords, are
strong and well-wrought. They train excellent horses, love archery
and hunting; and so expert are they in tactics that _their soldiers
rank as the best among all the uncivilized tribes_. There is this
proverb: ‘The Lo Dragons of Shwui-si rap the head and strike the
tail,’ which is intended to indicate their celerity in defence.”
(_Bridgman_, pp. 272–273.)

The character _Lo_, here applied in the Chinese Tract to these
people, is the same as that in the name of the Kwangsi _Lo_ of M.
Pauthier.

I append a cut (opposite page) from the drawing representing these
Kolo-man in the original work from which Bridgman translated, and
which is in the possession of Dr. Lockhart.

[I believe we must read _To-lo-man_. _Man_, barbarian, _T’u-lao_ or
_Shan-tzŭ_ (mountaineers) who live in the Yunnanese prefectures of
Lin-ngan, Cheng-kiang, etc. T’u-la-Man or T’u-la barbarians of the
Mongol Annals. (_Yuen-shi lei-pien_, quoted by Devéria, p. 115.)—H.
C.]

NOTE 2.—Magaillans, speaking of the semi-independent tribes of
Kwei-chau and Kwang-si, says: “Their towns are usually so girt by
high mountains and scarped rocks that it seems as if nature had
taken a pleasure in fortifying them” (p. 43). (See cut at p. 131.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] On the other hand, M. Garnier writes: “I do not know any name at
all like _Kolo_, except _Lolo_, the generic name given by the
Chinese to the wild tribes of Yun-nan.” Does not this look as if
_Kolo_ were really the old name, _Luluh_ or Lolo the later?