The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano
2. Professor Vámbéry thinks that it is probably _Chingin Tala_,
1830 words | Chapter 302
“The Vast Plain.” But nothing can be absolutely satisfactory in
such a case except historical evidence of the application of the
name.
I have left the identity of this name undecided, though pointing to
the general position of the region so-called by Marco, as indicated
by the vicinity of the Tangnu-Ola Mountains (p. 215). A passage
in the Journey of the Taouist Doctor, Changchun, as translated by
Dr. Bretschneider (_Chinese Recorder and Miss. Journ._, Shanghai,
Sept.–Oct., 1874, p. 258), suggests to me the strong probability
that it may be the _Kem-kém-jút_ of Rashiduddin, called by the
Chinese teacher _Kien-kien_-chau.
Rashiduddin couples the territory of the Kirghiz with Kemkemjút,
but defines the country embracing both with some exactness: “On one
side (south-east?), it bordered on the Mongol country; on a second
(north-east?), it was bounded by the Selenga; on a third (north),
by the ‘great river called Angara, which flows on the confines of
Ibir-Sibir’ (_i.e._ of Siberia); on a fourth side by the territory
of the Naimans. This great country contained _many towns and
villages_, as well as many nomad inhabitants.” Dr. Bretschneider’s
Chinese Traveller speaks of it as a country where _good iron was
found_, where (grey) squirrels abounded, and wheat was cultivated.
Other notices quoted by him show that it lay to the south-east of
the Kirghiz country, and had its name from the _Kien_ or _Ken_ R.
(_i.e._ the Upper Yenisei).
The name (_Kienkien_), the general direction, the existence of
good iron (“steel and ondanique”), the many towns and villages in
a position where we should little look for such an indication, all
point to the identity of this region with the Chingintalas of our
text. The only alteration called for in the Itinerary Map (No. IV.)
would be to spell the name _Hinkin_, or _Ghinghin_ (as it _is_ in
the Geographic Text), and to shift it a very little further to the
north.
(See _Chingin_ in _Kovalevski’s Mongol Dict._, No. 2134; and for
_Baron-tala_, etc., see _Della Penna, Breve Notizia del Regno
del Thibet_, with Klaproth’s notes, p. 6; _D’Avezac_, p. 568;
_Relation_ prefixed to D’Anville’s Atlas, p. 11; _Alphabetum
Tibetanum_, 454; and _Kircher, China Illustrata_, p. 65.)
Since the first edition was published, Mr. Ney Elias has traversed
the region in question from east to west; and I learn from him that
at Kobdo he found the most usual name for that town among Mongols,
Kalmaks, and Russians to be SANKIN-hoto. He had not then thought
of connecting this name with Chinghin-talas, and has therefore no
information as to its origin or the extent of its application. But
he remarks that Polo’s bearing of between north and north-west, if
understood to be _from Kamul_, would point exactly to Kobdo. He
also calls attention to the Lake _Sankin_-dalai, to the north-east
of Uliasut’ai, of which Atkinson gives a sketch. The recurrence of
this name over so wide a tract may have something to do with the
Chinghin-talas of Polo. But we must still wait for further light.[1]
[“Supposing that M. Polo mentions this place on his way
from Sha-chow to Su-chow, it is natural to think that it is
_Chi-kin-talas_, _i.e._ ‘Chi-kin plain’ or valley; Chi-kin was the
name of a lake, called so even now, and of a defile, which received
its name from the lake. The latter is on the way from Kia-yü kwan
to Ansi chow.” (_Palladius_, _l.c._ p. 7.) “_Chikin_, or more
correctly _Chigin_, is a Mongol word meaning ‘ear.’” (_Ibid._)
Palladius (p. 8) adds: “The Chinese accounts of Chi-kin are not
in contradiction to the statements given by M. Polo regarding the
same subject; but when the distances are taken into consideration,
a serious difficulty arises; Chi-kin is two hundred and fifty or
sixty _li_ distant from Su-chow, whilst, according to M. Polo’s
statement, ten days are necessary to cross this distance. One
of the three following explanations of this discrepancy must be
admitted: either Chingintalas is not Chi-kin, or the traveller’s
memory failed, or, lastly, an error crept into the number of days’
journey. The two last suppositions I consider the most probable;
the more so that similar difficulties occur several times in Marco
Polo’s narrative.” (_L.c._ p. 8.)—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—[_Ondanique_.—We have already referred to this word,
_Kermán_, p. 90. _Cobinan_, p. 124. La Curne de Sainte-Palaye
(_Dict._), F. Godefroy (_Dict._), Du Cange (_Gloss._), all give
to _andain_ the meaning of _enjambée_, from the Latin _andare_.
Godefroy, _s.v. andaine_, calls it _sorte d’acier ou de fer_, and
quotes besides Marco Polo:
“I. espiel, ou ot fer d’andaine,
Dont la lamele n’iert pas trouble.”
(Huon de Mery, _Le Tornoiement de l’Antechrist_, p. 3, Tarbé.)
There is a forest in the department of Orne, arrondissement of
Domfront, which belonged to the Crown before 1669, and is now State
property, called Forêt d’Andaine; it is situated near some bed of
iron. Is this the origin of the name?—H. C.]
NOTE 3.—The Altai, or one of its ramifications, is probably the
mountain of the text, but so little is known of this part of the
Chinese territory that we can learn scarcely anything of its
mineral products. Still Martini does mention that asbestos is found
“in the Tartar country of _Tangu_,” which probably is the _Tangnu
Oola_ branch of the Altai to the south of the Upper Yenisei, and in
the very region we have indicated as Chingintalas. Mr. Elias tells
me he inquired for asbestos by its Chinese name at Uliasut’ai, but
without success.
NOTE 4.—
“Degli elementi quattro principali,
Che son la Terra, e l’Acqua, e l’Aria, e ’l Foco,
Composti sono gli universi Animali,
Pigliando di ciascuno assai o poco.”
(_Dati_, _La Sfera_, p. 9.)
_Zurficar_ in the next sentence is a Mahomedan name, _Zu’lfiḳár_,
the title of [the edge of] Ali’s sword.
NOTE 5.—Here the G. Text adds: “_Et je meisme le vi_,” intimating,
I conceive, his having himself seen specimens of the asbestos—not
to his having been at the place.
NOTE 6.—The story of the Salamander passing unhurt through fire
is at least as old as Aristotle. But I cannot tell when the fable
arose that asbestos was a substance derived from the animal. This
belief, however, was general in the Middle Ages, both in Asia and
Europe. “The fable of the Salamander,” says Sir Thomas Browne,
“hath been much promoted by stories of incombustible napkins and
textures which endure the fire, whose materials are called by the
name of Salamander’s wool, which many, too literally apprehending,
conceive some investing part or integument of the Salamander....
Nor is this Salamander’s wool desumed from any animal, but a
mineral substance, metaphorically so called for this received
opinion.”
Those who knew that the Salamander was a lizard-like animal were
indeed perplexed as to its woolly coat. Thus the Cardinal de Vitry
is fain to say the creature “_profert ex cute_ quasi quamdam lanam
_de quâ zonae contextae comburi non possunt igne._” A Bestiary,
published by Cahier and Martin, says of it: “_De lui naist une
cose qui n’est ne soie ne lin ne laine._” Jerome Cardan looked in
vain, he says, for hair on the Salamander! Albertus Magnus calls
the incombustible fibre _pluma Salamandri_; and accordingly Bold
Bauduin de Sebourc finds the Salamander in the Terrestrial Paradise
_a kind of bird covered with the whitest plumage_; of this he takes
some, which he gets woven into a cloth; this he presents to the
Pope, and the Pontiff applies it to the purpose mentioned in the
text, viz. to cover the holy napkin of St. Veronica.
Gervase of Tilbury writes: “I saw, when lately at Rome, a broad
strap of Salamander skin, like a girdle for the loins, which had
been brought thither by Cardinal Peter of Capua. When it had become
somewhat soiled by use, I myself saw it cleaned perfectly, and
without receiving harm, by being put in the fire.”
In Persian the creature is called _Samandar_, _Samandal_, etc., and
some derive the word from _Sam_, “fire,” and _Andar_, “within.”
Doubtless it is a corruption of the Greek Σαλαμάνδρα, whatever be
the origin of that. Bakui says the animal is found at Ghur, near
Herat, and is _like a mouse_. Another author, quoted by D’Herbelot,
says it is _like a marten_.
[Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, in his _Introductory Remarks_ to
Prjevalsky’s _Travels to Lob-nor_ (p. 20), at Aksu says: “The
asbestos mentioned by Marco Polo as a utilized product of this
region is not even so known in this country.”—H. C.]
✛ Interesting details regarding the fabrication of cloth and paper
from amianth or asbestos are contained in a report presented to the
French Institute by M. Sage (_Mém. Ac. Sciences_, 2e Sem., 1806, p.
102), of which large extracts are given in the _Diction. général
des Tissus_, par M. Bezon, 2e éd. vol. ii. Lyon, 1859, p. 5. He
mentions that a _Sudarium_ of this material is still shown at the
Vatican; we hope it is the cover which Kúblái sent.
[This hope is not to be realized. Mgr. Duchesne, of the Institut
de France, writes to me from Rome, from information derived from
the keepers of the Vatican Museum, that there is no sudarium from
the Great Khan, that indeed part of a sudarium made of asbestos is
shown (under glass) in this Museum, about 20 inches long, but it is
ancient, and was found in a Pagan tomb of the Appian Way.—H. C.]
M. Sage exhibited incombustible paper made from this material,
and had himself seen a small furnace of Chinese origin made from
it. Madame Perpenté, an Italian lady, who experimented much with
asbestos, found that from a crude mass of that substance threads
could be elicited which were ten times the length of the mass
itself, and were indeed sometimes several metres in length, the
fibres seeming to be involved, like silk in a cocoon. Her process
of preparation was much like that described by Marco. She succeeded
in carding and reeling the material, made gloves and the like, as
well as paper, from it, and sent to the Institute a work printed on
such paper.
The Rev. A. Williamson mentions asbestos as found in Shantung. The
natives use it for making stoves, crucibles, and so forth.
(_Sir T. Browne_, I. 293; _Bongars_, I. 1104; _Cahier et Martin_,
III. 271; _Cardan, de Rer. Varietate_, VII. 33; _Alb. Mag. Opera_,
1551, II. 227, 233; _Fr. Michel, Recherches_, etc., II. 91; _Gerv.
of Tilbury_, p. 13; _N. et E._ II. 493; _D. des Tissus_, II. 1–12;
_J. N. China Branch R. A. S._, December, 1867, p. 70.) [_Berger de
Xivrey, Traditions tératologiques_, 457–458, 460–463.—H. C.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] The late Mr. Atkinson has been twice alluded to in this note. I
take the opportunity of saying that Mr. Ney Elias, a most competent
judge, who has travelled across the region in question whilst
admitting, as every one must, Atkinson’s vagueness and sometimes
very careless statements, is not at all disposed to discredit the
truth of his narrative.
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