CHAPTER XX.

HOW THE EMPEROR GOES ON A HUNTING EXPEDITION.

After he has stopped at his capital city those three months that I

mentioned, to wit, December, January, February, he starts off on

the 1st day of March, and travels southward towards the Ocean Sea,

a journey of two days.{1} He takes with him full 10,000 falconers,

and some 500 gerfalcons besides peregrines, sakers, and other hawks

in great numbers; and goshawks also to fly at the water-fowl.{2} But

do not suppose that he keeps all these together by him; they are

distributed about, hither and thither, one hundred together, or two

hundred at the utmost, as he thinks proper. But they are always fowling

as they advance, and the most part of the quarry taken is carried to

the Emperor. And let me tell you when he goes thus a-fowling with his

gerfalcons and other hawks, he is attended by full 10,000 men who are

disposed in couples; and these are called _Toscaol_, which is as much

as to say, “Watchers.” And the name describes their business.{3} They

are posted from spot to spot, always in couples, and thus they cover a

great deal of ground! Every man of them is provided with a whistle and

hood, so as to be able to call in a hawk and hold it in hand. And when

the Emperor makes a cast, there is no need that he follow it up, for

those men I speak of keep so good a look out that they never lose sight

of the birds, and if these have need of help they are ready to render

it.

All the Emperor’s hawks, and those of the Barons as well, have a little

label attached to the leg to mark them, on which is written the names

of the owner and the keeper of the bird. And in this way the hawk, when

caught, is at once identified and handed over to its owner. But if not,

the bird is carried to a certain Baron, who is styled the _Bularguchi_,

which is as much as to say “The Keeper of Lost Property.” And I tell

you that whatever may be found without a known owner, whether it be a

horse, or a sword, or a hawk, or what not, it is carried to that Baron

straightway, and he takes charge of it. And if the finder neglects

to carry his trover to the Baron, the latter punishes him. Likewise

the loser of any article goes to the Baron, and if the thing be in

his hands it is immediately given up to the owner. Moreover, the said

Baron always pitches on the highest spot of the camp, with his banner

displayed, in order that those who have lost or found anything may have

no difficulty in finding their way to him. Thus nothing can be lost but

it shall be incontinently found and restored.{4}

And so the Emperor follows this road that I have mentioned, leading

along in the vicinity of the Ocean Sea (which is within two days’

journey of his capital city, Cambaluc), and as he goes there is many

a fine sight to be seen, and plenty of the very best entertainment in

hawking; in fact, there is no sport in the world to equal it!

The Emperor himself is carried upon four elephants in a fine chamber

made of timber, lined inside with plates of beaten gold, and outside

with lions’ skins [for he always travels in this way on his fowling

expeditions, because he is troubled with gout]. He always keeps beside

him a dozen of his choicest gerfalcons, and is attended by several of

his Barons, who ride on horseback alongside. And sometimes, as they may

be going along, and the Emperor from his chamber is holding discourse

with the Barons, one of the latter shall exclaim: “Sire! Look out for

Cranes!” Then the Emperor instantly has the top of his chamber thrown

open, and having marked the cranes he casts one of his gerfalcons,

whichever he pleases; and often the quarry is struck within his view,

so that he has the most exquisite sport and diversion, there as he

sits in his chamber or lies on his bed; and all the Barons with him

get the enjoyment of it likewise! So it is not without reason I tell

you that I do not believe there ever existed in the world or ever will

exist, a man with such sport and enjoyment as he has, or with such rare

opportunities.{5}

And when he has travelled till he reaches a place called CACHAR

MODUN,{6} there he finds his tents pitched, with the tents of his Sons,

and his Barons, and those of his Ladies and theirs, so that there

shall be full 10,000 tents in all, and all fine and rich ones. And I

will tell you how his own quarters are disposed. The tent in which he

holds his courts is large enough to give cover easily to a thousand

souls. It is pitched with its door to the south, and the Barons and

Knights remain in waiting in it, whilst the Lord abides in another

close to it on the west side. When he wishes to speak with any one he

causes the person to be summoned to that other tent. Immediately behind

the great tent there is a fine large chamber where the Lord sleeps;

and there are also many other tents and chambers, but they are not

in contact with the Great Tent as these are. The two audience-tents

and the sleeping-chamber are constructed in this way. Each of the

audience-tents has three poles, which are of spice-wood, and are most

artfully covered with lions’ skins, striped with black and white and

red, so that they do not suffer from any weather. All three apartments

are also covered outside with similar skins of striped lions, a

substance that lasts for ever.{7} And inside they are all lined with

ermine and sable, these two being the finest and most costly furs in

existence. For a robe of sable, large enough to line a mantle, is worth

2000 bezants of gold, or 1000 at least, and this kind of skin is called

by the Tartars “The King of Furs.” The beast itself is about the size

of a marten.{8} These two furs of which I speak are applied and inlaid

so exquisitely, that it is really something worth seeing. All the

tent-ropes are of silk. And in short I may say that those tents, to wit

the two audience-halls and the sleeping-chamber, are so costly that it

is not every king could pay for them.

Round about these tents are others, also fine ones and beautifully

pitched, in which are the Emperor’s ladies, and the ladies of the

other princes and officers. And then there are the tents for the hawks

and their keepers, so that altogether the number of tents there on

the plain is something wonderful. To see the many people that are

thronging to and fro on every side and every day there, you would take

the camp for a good big city. For you must reckon the Leeches, and the

Astrologers, and the Falconers, and all the other attendants on so

great a company; and add that everybody there has his whole family with

him, for such is their custom.

The Lord remains encamped there until the spring, and all that time he

does nothing but go hawking round about among the canebrakes along the

lakes and rivers that abound in that region, and across fine plains on

which are plenty of cranes and swans, and all sorts of other fowl. The

other gentry of the camp also are never done with hunting and hawking,

and every day they bring home great store of venison and feathered game

of all sorts. Indeed, without having witnessed it, you would never

believe what quantities of game are taken, and what marvellous sport

and diversion they all have whilst they are in camp there.

There is another thing I should mention; to wit, that for 20 days’

journey round the spot nobody is allowed, be he who he may, to keep

hawks or hounds, though anywhere else whosoever list may keep them. And

furthermore throughout all the Emperor’s territories, nobody however

audacious dares to hunt any of these four animals, to wit, hare,

stag, buck, and roe, from the month of March to the month of October.

Anybody who should do so would rue it bitterly. But those people are

so obedient to their Lord’s command, that even if a man were to find

one of those animals asleep by the roadside he would not touch it

for the world! And thus the game multiplies at such a rate that the

whole country swarms with it, and the Emperor gets as much as he could

desire. Beyond the term I have mentioned, however, to wit that from

March to October, everybody may take these animals as he list.{9}

After the Emperor has tarried in that place, enjoying his sport as I

have related, from March to the middle of May, he moves with all his

people, and returns straight to his capital city of Cambaluc (which is

also the capital of Cathay, as you have been told), but all the while

continuing to take his diversion in hunting and hawking as he goes

along.

NOTE 1.—“_Vait vers midi jusques à la Mer Occeane, ou il y a

deux journées._” It is not possible in any way to reconcile this

description as it stands with truth, though I do not see much room

for doubt as to the direction of the excursion. Peking is 100

miles as the crow flies from the nearest point of the coast, at

least six or seven days’ march for such a camp, and the direction

is south-east, or nearly so. The last circumstance would not be

very material as Polo’s compass-bearings are not very accurate. We

shall find that he makes the general line of bearing from Peking

towards Kiangnan, _Sciloc_ or S. East, hence his _Midi_ ought in

consistency to represent _S. West_, an impossible direction for

the Ocean. It is remarkable that Ramusio has _Greco_ or _N. East_,

which would by the same relative correction represent _East_.

And other circumstances point to the frontier of Liao-tong as

the direction of this excursion. Leaving the _two days_ out of

question, therefore, I should suppose the “Ocean Sea” to be struck

at Shan-hai-kwan near the terminus of the Great Wall, and that the

site of the standing hunting-camp is in the country to the north

of that point. The Jesuit Verbiest accompanied the Emperor Kanghi

on a tour in this direction in 1682, and almost immediately after

passing the Wall the Emperor and his party seem to have struck

off to the left for sport. Kúblái started on the “1st of March,”

probably however the 1st of the second Chinese month. Kanghi

started from Peking on the 23rd of March, on the hunting-journey

just referred to.

NOTE 2.—We are told that Bajazet had 7000 falconers and 6000

dog-keepers; whilst Sultan Mahomed Tughlak of India in the

generation following Polo’s, is said to have had 10,000 falconers,

and 3000 other attendants as beaters. (_Not. et Ext._ XIII. p. 185.)

The Oriental practice seems to have assigned one man to the

attendance on every hawk. This Kaempfer says was the case at the

Court of Persia at the beginning of last century. There were about

800 hawks, and each had a special keeper. The same was the case

with the Emperor Kanghi’s hawking establishment, according to

Gerbillon. (_Am. Exot._ p. 83; _Gerb._ 1st Journey, in _Duhalde_.)

NOTE 3.—The French MSS. read _Toscaor_; the reading in the text

I take from Ramusio. It is Turki, _Tosḳáúl_, توسقاول, defined as

“Gardien, surveillant de la route; Wächter, Wache, Wegehüter.” (See

_Zenker_, and _Pavet de Courteille_.) The word is perhaps also

Mongol, for Rémusat has _Tosiyal_ = “Veille.” (_Mél. As._ I. 231.)

Such an example of Polo’s correctness both in the form and meaning

of a Turki word is worthy of especial note, and shows how little he

merits the wild and random treatment which has been often applied

to the solution of like phrases in his book.

[Palladius (p. 47) says that he has heard from men well acquainted

with the customs of the Mongols, that at the present day in

“battues,” the leaders of the two flanks which surround the game,

are called _toscaul_ in Mongol.—H. C.]

NOTE 4.—The remark in the previous note might be repeated here. The

_Bularguji_ was an officer of the Mongol camp, whose duties are

thus described by Mahomed Hindú Shah in a work on the offices of

the Perso-Mongol Court. “He is an officer appointed by the Council

of State, who, at the time when the camp is struck, goes over the

ground with his servants, and collects slaves of either sex, or

cattle, such as horses, camels, oxen, and asses, that have been

left behind, and retains them until the owners appear and prove

their claim to the property, when he makes it over to them. The

_Bularguji_ sticks up a flag by his tent or hut to enable people to

find him, and so recover their lost property.” (_Golden Horde_, p.

245.) And in the Appendix to that work (p. 476) there is a copy of

a warrant to such a Bularguji or Provost Marshal. The derivation

appears therein as from _Bularghu_, “Lost property.” Here again

it was impossible to give both form and meaning of the word more

exactly than Polo has done. Though Hammer writes these terminations

in _ji_ (_dschi_), I believe _chi_ (_tschi_) is preferable. We

have this same word _Bularghu_ in a grant of privileges to the

Venetians by the Ilkhan Abusaid, 22nd December, 1320, which has

been published by M. Mas Latrie: “_Item, se algun cavalo_ bolargo

_fosse trovado apreso de algun vostro veneciano_,” etc.—“If any

stray horse shall be found in the possession of a Venetian,” etc.

(See _Bibl. de l’École des Chartes_, 1870—_tirage à part_, p. 26.)

[“There are two Mongol terms, which resemble this word

_Bularguchi_, viz. _Balagachi_ and _Buluguchi_. But the first was

the name used for the door-keeper of the tent of the Khan. By

Buluguchi the Mongols understood a hunter and especially sable

hunters. No one of these terms can be made consistent with the

accounts given by M. Polo regarding the Bularguchi. In the _Kui

sin tsa shi_, written by Chow Mi, in the former part of the 14th

century, interesting particulars regarding Mongol hunting are

found.” (_Palladius_, 47.) In chapter 101, _Djan-ch’i_, of the

_Yuen-shi_, Falconers are called _Ying fang pu lie_, and a certain

class of the Falconers are termed _Bo-lan-ghi_. (_Bretschneider,

Med. Res._ I. p. 188.)—H. C.]

NOTE 5.—A like description is given by Odoric of the mode in which

a successor of Kúblái travelled between Cambaluc and Shangtu, with

his falcons also in the chamber beside him. What Kúblái had adopted

as an indulgence to his years and gout, his successors probably

followed as a precedent without these excuses.

[With regard to the gout of Kúblái Khan, Palladius (p. 48) writes:

“In the Corean history allusion is made twice to the Khan’s

suffering from this disease. Under the year 1267, it is there

recorded that in the 9th month, envoys of the Khan with a letter

to the King arrived in Corea. Kubilai asked for the skin of the

_Akirho munho_, a fish resembling a cow. The envoy was informed

that, as the Khan suffered from swollen feet it would be useful for

him to wear boots made of the skin of this animal, and in the 10th

month, the king of Corea forwarded to the Khan seventeen skins of

it. It is further recorded in the Corean history, that in the 8th

month of 1292, sorcerers and _Shaman_ women from Corea were sent at

the request of the Khan to cure him of a disease of the feet and

hands. At that time the king of Corea was also in Peking, and the

sorcerers and Shaman women were admitted during an audience the

King had of the Khan. They took the Khan’s hands and feet and began

to recite exorcisms, whilst Kubilai was laughing.”—H. C.]

NOTE 6.—Marsden and Pauthier identify Cachar Modun with _Tchakiri

Mondou_, or _Moudon_, which appears in D’Anville’s atlas as the

title of a “Levée de terre naturelle,” in the extreme east of

Manchuria, and in lat. 44°, between the Khinga Lake and the sea.

This position is out of the question. It is more than 900 miles,

_in a straight line_ from Peking, and the mere journey thither and

back would have taken Kúblái’s camp something like six months. The

name _Kachar Modun_ is probably Mongol, and as _Katzar_ is = “land,

region,” and _Modun_ = “wood” or “tree,” a fair interpretation lies

on the surface. Such a name indeed has little individuality. But

the Jesuit maps have a _Modun Khotan_ (“Wood-ville”) just about

the locality supposed, viz. in the region north of the eastern

extremity of the Great Wall.

[Captain Gill writes (_River of Golden Sand_, I. p. 111): “This

country around Urh-Chuang is admirably described [in _Marco Polo_,

pp. 403, 406], and I should almost imagine that the Kaan must have

set off south-east from Peking, and enjoyed some of his hawking not

far from here, before he travelled to Cachar Modun, wherever that

may have been.”

“With respect to Cachar Modun, Marco Polo intends perhaps by

this name Ho-si wu, which place, together with Yang-ts’un, were

comprised in the general name _Ma t’ou_ (perhaps the _Modun_

of M. Polo). Ma-t’ou is even now a general term for a jetty in

Chinese. Ho-si in the Mongol spelling was Ha-shin. D’Ohsson, in his

translation of Rashid-eddin renders _Ho-si_ by _Co-shi_ (_Hist.

des Mongols_, I. p. 95), but Rashid in that case speaks not of

Ho-si wu, but of the Tangut Empire, which in Chinese was called

Ho-si, meaning west of the (Yellow) River. (See _supra_, p. 205).

Ho-si wu, as well as Yang-ts’un, both exist even now as villages

on the Pei-ho River, and near the first ancient walls can be seen.

Ho-si wu means: ‘Custom’s barrier west of the (Pei-ho) river.’”

(_Palladius_, p. 45.) This identification cannot be accepted on

account of the position of Ho-si wu. —H. C.]

NOTE 7.—I suppose the best accessible illustration of the Kaan’s

great tent may be that in which the Emperor Kienlung received Lord

Macartney in the same region in 1793, of which one view is given in

Staunton’s plates. Another exists in the Staunton Collection in the

B. M., of which I give a reduced sketch.

Kúblái’s great tent, after all, was but a fraction of the size

of Akbar’s audience-tents, the largest of which held 10,000

people, and took 1000 _farráshes_ a week’s work to pitch it, with

machines. But perhaps the manner of _holding_ people is differently

estimated. (_Aín Akb._ 53.)

In the description of the tent-poles, Pauthier’s text has “_trois

coulombes de fust_ de pieces _moult bien encuierées_,” etc. The G.

T. has “_de leing_ d’especies _mout bien curés_,” etc. The Crusca,

“_di_ spezie _molto belle_,” and Ramusio going off at a tangent,

“_di legno intagliate con grandissimo artificio e indorate_.” I

believe the translation in the text to indicate the true reading.

It might mean camphor-wood, or the like. The tent-covering of

tiger-skins is illustrated by a passage in Sanang Setzen, which

speaks of a tent covered with panther-skins, sent to Chinghiz by

the Khan of the Solongos (p. 77).

[Illustration: The Tents of the Emperor Kienlung.]

[Grenard (pp. 160–162) gives us his experience of Tents in Central

Asia (Khotan). “These Tents which we had purchased at Tashkent

were the ‘tentes-abris’ which are used in campaign by Russian

military workshops, only we made them larger by a third. They were

made of grey Kirghiz felt, which cannot be procured at Khotan. The

felt manufactured in this town not having enough consistency or

solidity, we took Aksu felt, which is better than this of Khotan,

though inferior to the felt of Russian Turkestan. These felt tents

are extremely heavy, and, once damp, are dried with difficulty.

These drawbacks are not compensated by any important advantage; it

would be an illusion to believe that they preserve from the cold

any better than other tents. In fact, I prefer the Manchu tent in

use in the Chinese army, which is, perhaps, of all military tents

the most practical and comfortable. It is made of a single piece of

double cloth of cotton, very strong, waterproof for a long time,

white inside, blue outside, and weighs with its three tipped sticks

and its wooden poles, 25 kilog. Set up, it forms a ridge roof 7

feet high and shelters fully ten men. It suits servants perfectly

well. For the master who wants to work, to write, to draw,

occasionally to receive officials, the ideal tent would be one of

the same material, but of larger proportions, and comprising two

parallel vertical partitions and surmounted by a ridge roof. The

round form of Kirghiz and Mongol tents is also very comfortable,

but it requires a complicated and inconvenient wooden frame-work,

owing to which it takes some considerable time to raise up the

tent.”—H. C.]

NOTE 8.—The expressions about the sable run in the G. T., “_et

l’apellent les Tartarz les_ roi des pelaines,” etc. This has been

curiously misunderstood both in versions based on Pipino, and

in the Geog. Latin and Crusca Italian. The Geog. Latin gives us

“_vocant eas Tartari_ Lenoidae Pellonae”; the Crusca, “_chiamanle

li Tartari_ Leroide Pelame”; Ramusio in a very odd way combines

both the genuine and the blundered interpretation: “_E li Tartari

la chiamano_ Regina delle Pelli; _e gli animali si chiamano_

Rondes.” Fraehn ingeniously suggested that this _Rondes_ (which

proves to be merely a misunderstanding of the French words _Roi

des_) was a mistake for _Kunduz_, usually meaning a “beaver,” but

also a “sable.” (See _Ibn Foszlan_, p. 57.) _Condux_, no doubt with

this meaning, appears coupled with _vair_, in a Venetian Treaty

with Egypt (1344), quoted by Heyd. (II. 208.)

Ibn Batuta puts the ermine above the sable. An ermine pelisse,

he says, was worth in India 1000 dinárs of that country, whilst

a sable one was worth only 400 dinárs. As Ibn Batuta’s Indian

dinárs are _Rupees_, the estimate of price is greatly lower than

Polo’s. Some years ago I find the price of a _Sack_, as it is

technically called by the Russian traders, or robe of fine sables,

stated to be in the Siberian market about 7000 banco rubels, _i.e._

I believe about 350_l._ The same authority mentions that in 1591

the Tzar Theodore Ivanovich made a present of a pelisse valued at

the equivalent of 5000 _silver_ rubels of modern Russian money,

or upwards of 750_l._ Atkinson speaks of a _single_ sable skin of

the highest quality, for which the trapper demanded 18_l._ The

great mart for fine sables is at Olekma on the Lena. (See _I. B._

II. 401–402; _Baer’s Beiträge_, VII. 215 _seqq._; _Upper and Lower

Amoor_, 390.)

NOTE 9.—Hawking is still common in North China. Pétis de la Croix

the elder, in his account of the _Yasa_, or institutes of Chinghiz,

quotes one which lays down that between March and October “no one

should take stags, deer, roebucks, hares, wild asses, nor some

certain birds,” in order that there might be ample sport in winter

for the court. This would be just the reverse of Polo’s statement,

but I suspect it is merely a careless adoption of the latter. There

are many such traps in Pétis de la Croix. (Engl. Vers. 1722, p. 82.)