part is about 8000 feet above the sea, and the highest _Kishlak_,

or village, about 11,500. A few willows and poplars are the only

trees that can stand against the bitter blasts that blow down the

valley. Wood estimated the total population of the province at

only 1000 souls, though it might be capable of supporting 5000.[1]

He saw it, however, in the depth of winter. As to the peculiar

language, see note I, ch. xxix. It is said to be a very old dialect

of Persian. A scanty vocabulary was collected by Hayward. (_J.

R. G. S._ XXI. p. 29.) The people, according to Shaw, have Aryan

features, resembling those of the Kashmiris, but harsher.

[Cf. Captain Trotter’s _The Oxus below Wakhan, Forsyth’s Mission_,

p. 276.]

We appear to see in the indications of this paragraph precisely the

same system of government that now prevails in the Oxus valleys.

The central districts of Faizabad and Jerm are under the immediate

administration of the Mír of Badakhshan, whilst fifteen other

districts, such as _Kishm, Rusták, Zebák, Ishkáshm, Wakhán_, are

dependencies “held by the _relations of the Mír_, or by hereditary

rulers, on a feudal tenure, conditional on fidelity and military

service in time of need, the holders possessing supreme authority

in their respective territories, and paying little or no tribute

to the paramount power.” (_Pandit Manphul_.) The first part of

the valley of which Marco speaks as belonging to a brother of the

Prince, may correspond to Ishkáshm, or perhaps to Vardoj; the

second, Wakhán, seems to have had a hereditary ruler; but both

were vassals of the Prince of Badakhshan, and therefore are styled

_Counts_, not kings or _Seigneurs_.

The native title which Marco gives as the equivalent of Count is

remarkable. _Non_ or _None_, as it is variously written in the

texts, would in French form represent _Nono_ in Italian. Pauthier

refers this title to the “_Rao_-nana (or nano) _Rao_” which figures

as the style of Kanerkes in the Indo-Scythic coinage. But Wilson

(_Ariana Antiqua_, p. 358) interprets _Raonano_ as most probably

a genitive plural of Rao, whilst the whole inscription answers

precisely to the Greek one ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΚΑΝΗΡΚΟΥ, which is

found on other coins of the same prince. General Cunningham, a very

competent authority, adheres to this view, and writes: “I do not

think _None_ or _Non_ can have any connection with the _Nana_ of

the coins.”

It is remarkable, however, that NONO (said to signify “younger,” or

lesser) is in Tibet the title given to a younger brother, deputy,

or subordinate prince. In Cunningham’s _Ladak_ (259) we read:

“_Nono_ is the usual term of respect which is used in addressing

any young man of the higher ranks, and when prefixed to _Kahlon_

it means the younger or deputy minister.” And again (p. 352):

“_Nono_ is the title given to a younger brother. Nono Sungnam was

the younger brother of Chang Raphtan, the Kahlon of Bazgo.” I have

recently encountered the word used independently, and precisely in

Marco’s application of it. An old friend, in speaking of a journey

that he had made in our Tibetan provinces, said incidentally that

he had accompanied the commissioner _to the installation of a new_

NONO (I think in Spiti). The term here corresponds so precisely

with the explanation which Marco gives of _None_ as a Count subject

to a superior sovereign, that it is difficult to regard the

coincidence as accidental. The _Yuechi_ or Indo-Scyths who long

ruled the Oxus countries are said to have been of Tibetan origin,

and Al-Biruni repeats a report that this was so. (_Elliot._ II.

9.)[2] Can this title have been a trace of their rule? Or is it

Indian?

NOTE 2.—This chapter is one of the most interesting in the book,

and contains one of its most splendid anticipations of modern

exploration, whilst conversely Lieutenant John Wood’s narrative

presents the most brilliant confirmation in detail of Marco’s

narrative.

We have very old testimony to the recognition of the great altitude

of the Plateau of PAMIR (the name which Marco gives it and which

it still retains), and to the existence of the lake (or lakes)

upon its surface. The Chinese pilgrims Hwui Seng and Sung Yun,

who passed this way A.D. 518, inform us that these high lands of

the Tsung Ling were commonly said to be midway between heaven and

earth. The more celebrated Hiuen Tsang, who came this way nearly

120 years later (about 644) on his return to China, “after crossing

the mountains for 700 _li_, arrived at the valley of _Pomilo_

(Pamir). This valley is 1000 _li_ (about 200 miles) from east to

west, and 100 _li_ (20 miles) from north to south, and lies between

two snowy ranges in the centre of the Tsung Ling mountains. The

traveller is annoyed by sudden gusts of wind, and the snow-drifts

never cease, spring or summer. As the soil is almost constantly

frozen, you see but a few miserable plants, and no crops can live.

The whole tract is but a dreary waste, without a trace of human

kind. In the middle of the valley is a great lake 300 _li_ (60

miles) from east to west, and 500 _li_ from north to south. This

stands in the centre of Jambudwipa (the Buddhist οἰκουμένη) on a

plateau of prodigious elevation. An endless variety of creatures

peoples its waters. When you hear the murmur and clash of its waves

you think you are listening to the noisy hum of a great market

in which vast crowds of people are mingling in excitement....

The lake discharges to the west, and a river runs out of it in

that direction and joins the _Potsu_ (Oxus).... The lake likewise

discharges to the east, and a great river runs out, which flows

eastward to the western frontier of _Kiesha_ (Káshgar), where it

joins the River Sita, and runs eastward with it into the sea.” The

story of an eastern outflow from the lake is, no doubt, legend,

connected with an ancient Hindu belief (see _Cathay_, p. 347), but

Burnes in modern times heard much the same story. And the Mirza, in

1868, took up the same impression regarding the smaller lake called

Pamir Kul, in which the southern branch of the Panja originates.

“After quitting the (frozen) surface of the river,” says Wood,

“we ... ascended a low hill, which apparently bounded the valley

to the eastward. On surmounting this, at 3 P.M. of the 19th

February, 1838, we stood, to use a native expression, upon the

_Bám-i-Duniah_, or ‘Roof of the World,’ while before us lay

stretched a noble but frozen sheet of water, from whose western

end issued the infant river of the Oxus. This fine lake (Sirikol)

lies in the form of a crescent, about 14 miles long from east

to west, by an average breadth of 1 mile. On three sides it is

bordered by swelling hills about 500 feet high, while along its

southern bank they rise into mountains 3500 feet above the lake, or

19,000 feet above the sea, and covered with perpetual snow, from

which never-failing source the lake is supplied.... Its elevation,

measured by the temperature of boiling water, is 15,600 feet.”

The absence of birds on Pamir, reported by Marco, probably shows

that he passed very late or early in the season. Hiuen Tsang, we

see, gives a different account; Wood was there in the winter, but

heard that in summer the lake swarmed with water-fowl. [Cf. Captain

Trotter, p. 263, in _Forsyth’s Mission_.]

The Pamir Steppe was crossed by Benedict Goës late in the autumn of

1603, and the narrative speaks of the great cold and desolation,

and the difficulty of breathing. We have also an abstract of the

journey of Abdul Mejid, a British Agent, who passed Pamir on

his way to Kokan in 1861:—“Fourteen weary days were occupied in

crossing the steppe; the marches were long, depending on uncertain

supplies of grass and water, which sometimes wholly failed them;

food for man and beast had to be carried with the party, for not a

trace of human habitation is to be met with in those inhospitable

wilds.... The steppe is interspersed with tamarisk jungle and

the wild willow, and in the summer with tracts of high grass.”

(_Neumann_, _Pilgerfahrten Buddh. Priester_, p. 50; _V. et V. de H.

T._ 271–272; _Wood_, 232; _Proc. R. G. S._ X. 150.)

There is nothing absolutely to decide whether Marco’s route from

Wakhán lay by Wood’s Lake “Sirikol,” or Victoria, or by the more

southerly source of the Oxus in Pamir Kul. These routes would unite

in the valley of Táshkurgán, and his road thence to Kashgar was,

I apprehend, nearly the same as the Mirza’s in 1868–1869, by the

lofty Chichiklik Pass and Kin Valley. But I cannot account for the

forty days of wilderness. The Mirza was but thirty-four days _from

Faizabad to Kashgar_, and Faiz Bakhsh only twenty-five.

[Severtsof (_Bul. Soc. Géog._ XI. 1890, p. 587), who accepts

Trotter’s route, by the Pamir Khurd (Little Pamir), says there are

three routes from Wakhán to Little Pamir, going up the Sarhadd: one

during the winter, by the frozen river; the two others available

during the spring and the summer, up and down the snowy chain along

the right bank of the Sarhadd, until the valley widens out into a

plain, where a swelling is hardly to be seen, so flat is it; this

chain is the dividing ridge between the Sarhadd and the Aksu. From

the summit, the traveller, looking towards the west, sees _at his

feet_ the mountains he has crossed; to the east, the Pamir Kul and

the Aksu, the river flowing from it. The pasture grounds around

the Pamir Kul and the sources of the Sarhadd are magnificent; but

lower down, the Aksu valley is arid, _dotted_ only with pasture

grounds of little extent, and few and far between. It is to this

part of Pamir that Marco Polo’s description applies; more than any

other part of this _ensemble_ of high valleys, this line of water

parting, of the Sarhadd and the Aksu, has the aspect of a _Roof of

the World_ (_Bam-i-dunya_, Persian name of Pamir).—H. C.].

[We can trace Marco Polo’s route from Wakhán, on comparing it with

Captain Younghusband’s Itinerary from Kashgar, which he left on the

22nd July, 1891, for Little Pamir: Little Pamir at Bozai-Gumbaz,

joins with the Pamir-i-Wakhán at the Wakhijrui Pass, first explored

by Colonel Lockhart’s mission. Hence the route lies by the old

fort of Kurgan-i-Ujadbai at the junction of the two branches of

the Tagh-dum-bash Pamir (Supreme Head of the Mountains), the

Tagh-dum-bash Pamir, Tásh Kurgán, Bulun Kul, the Gez Defile and

Kashgar. (_Proc. R. G. S._ XIV. 1892, pp. 205–234.)—H. C.]

We may observe that Severtsof asserts _Pamir_ to be a generic term,

applied to all high plateaux in the Thian Shan.[3]

[“The Pámír plateau may be described as a great, broad, rounded

ridge, extending north and south, and crossed by thick mountain

chains, between which lie elevated valleys, open and gently

sloping towards the east, but narrow and confined, with a rapid

fall towards the west. The waters which run in all, with the

exception of the eastern flow from the Tághdúngbásh, collect in the

Oxus; the Áksú from the Little Pámír lake receiving the eastern

drainage, which finds an outlet in the Áktásh Valley, and joining

the Múrgháb, which obtains that from the Alichór and Síríz Pámírs.

As the eastern Tághdúngbásh stream finds its way into the Yarkand

river, the watershed must be held as extending from that Pámír,

down the range dividing it from the Little Pámír, and along the

Neza Tásh mountains to the Kizil Art Pass, leading to the Alái.”

(Colonel Gordon, _Forsyth’s Mission_, p. 231.)

Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon (_Forsyth’s Mission_, p. 231) says also:

“Regarding the name ‘Pámír,’ the meaning appears to be wilderness—a

place depopulated, abandoned, waste, yet capable of habitation.

I obtained this information on the Great Pámír from one of our

intelligent guides, who said in explanation—‘In former days, when

this part was inhabited by Kirghiz, as is shown by the ruins of

their villages and burial-grounds, the valley was not all called

Pámír, as it is now. It was known by its village names, as is the

country beyond Sirikol, which being now occupied by Kirghiz is

not known by one name, but partly as Chárling, Bas Robát, etc. If

deserted it would be Pámír.’” In a note Sir T. D. Forsyth adds that

the same explanation of the word was given to him at Yangi-Hissar,

and that it is in fact a Khokandi-Turki word.—H. C.]

It would seem, from such notices as have been received, that there

is not, strictly speaking, one steppe called Pamir, but a variety

of _Pamirs_, which are lofty valleys between ranges of hills,

presenting luxuriant summer pasture, and with floors more or less

flat, but nowhere more than 5 or 6 miles in width and often much

less.

[This is quite exact; Mr. E. Delmar Morgan writes in the _Scottish

Geog. Mag._ January, 1892, p. 17: “Following the terminology of

Yule adopted by geographers, and now well established, we have (1)

Pamir Alichur; (2) Pamir Khurd (or “Little”); (3) Pamir Kalan (or

“Great”); (4) Pamir Khargosi (“of the hare”); (5) Pamir Sares; (6)

Pamir Rang-kul.”—H. C.]

[Illustration: Horns of _Ovis Poli_.]

Wood speaks of the numerous wolves in this region. And the great

sheep is that to which Blyth, in honour of our traveller, has

given the name of _Ovis Poli_.[4] A pair of horns, sent by Wood to

the Royal Asiatic Society, and of which a representation is given

above, affords the following dimensions:—Length of one horn on the

curve, 4 feet 8 inches; round the base 14¼ inches; distance of tips

apart 3 feet 9 inches. This sheep appears to be the same as the

_Rass_, of which Burnes heard that the horns were so big that a man

could not lift a pair, and that foxes bred in them; also that the

carcass formed a load for two horses. Wood says that these horns

supply shoes for the Kirghiz horses, and also a good substitute

for stirrup-irons. “We saw numbers of horns strewed about in

every direction, the spoils of the Kirghiz hunter. Some of these

were of an astonishingly large size, and belonged to an animal

of a species between a goat and a sheep, inhabiting the steppes

of Pamir. _The ends of the horns projecting above the snow often

indicated the direction of the road_; and wherever they were heaped

in large quantities and disposed in a semicircle, there our escort

recognised the site of a Kirghiz summer encampment.... We came in

sight of a rough-looking building, decked out with the horns of the

wild sheep, and all but buried amongst the snow. It was a Kirghiz

burying-ground.” (Pp. 223, 229, 231.)

[With reference to Wood’s remark that the horns of the _Ovis Poli_

supply shoes for the Kirghiz horses, Mr. Rockhill writes to me that

a Paris newspaper of 24th November, 1894, observes: “Horn shoes

made of the horn of sheep are successfully used in Lyons. They are

especially adapted to horses employed in towns, where the pavements

are often slippery. Horses thus shod can be driven, it is said, at

the most rapid pace over the worst pavement without slipping.”

(Cf. Rockhill, _Rubruck_, p. 69; _Chasses et Explorations dans

la Région des Pamirs_, par le Vte. Ed. de Poncins, Paris, 1897,

8vo.—H. C.).]

In 1867 this great sheep was shot by M. Severtsof, on the Plateau

of Aksai, in the western Thian Shan. He reports these animals to

go in great herds, and to be very difficult to kill. However, he

brought back two specimens. The Narin River is stated to be the

northern limit of the species.[5] Severtsof also states that the

enemies of the _Ovis Poli_ are the wolves, [and Colonel Gordon says

that the leopards and wolves prey almost entirely upon them. (On

the _Ovis Poli_, see Captain Deasy, _In Tibet_, p. 361.)—H. C.]

[Illustration: _Ovis Poli_, the Great Sheep of Pamir. (After

Severtsof.)

“=Il hi a grant moutitude de mouton sauvages qe sunt grandisme, car

ont les cornes bien six paumes=” ...]

Colonel Gordon, the head of the exploring party detached by Sir

Douglas Forsyth, brought away a head of _Ovis Poli_, which quite

bears out the account by its eponymus of horns “good 6 palms in

length,” say 60 inches. This head, as I learn from a letter of

Colonel Gordon’s to a friend, has one horn perfect which measures

65½ inches on the curves; the other, broken at the tip, measures 64

inches; the straight line between the tips is 55 inches.

[Captain Younghusband [1886] “before leaving the Altai Mountains,

picked up several heads of the _Ovis Poli_, called Argali by

the Mongols. They were somewhat different from those which I

afterwards saw at Yarkand, which had been brought in from the

Pamir. Those I found in the Gobi were considerably thicker at the

base, there was a less degree of curve, and a shorter length of

horn.” A full description of the _Ovis Poli_, with a large plate

drawing of the horns, may be seen in Colonel Gordon’s _Roof of the

World_. (See p. 81.) (_Proc. R. G. S._ X. 1888, p. 495.) Some years

later, Captain Younghusband speaks repeatedly of the great sport

of shooting _Ovis Poli_. (_Proc. R. G. S._ XIV. 1892, pp. 205,

234.)—H. C.]

As to the pasture, Timkowski heard that “the pasturage of Pamir is

so luxuriant and nutritious, that if horses are left on it for more

than forty days they die of repletion.” (I. 421.) And Wood: “The

grass of Pamir, they tell you, is so rich that a sorry horse is

here brought into good condition in less than twenty days; and its

nourishing qualities are evidenced in the productiveness of their

ewes, which almost invariably bring forth two lambs at a birth.”

(P. 365.)

With regard to the effect upon fire ascribed to the “great cold,”

Ramusio’s version inserts the expression “_gli fu affermato per

miracolo_,” “it was asserted to him as a wonderful circumstance.”

And Humboldt thinks it so strange that Marco should not have

observed this personally that he doubts whether Polo himself passed

the Pamir. “How is it that he does not say that he himself had seen

how the flames disperse and leap about, as I myself have so often

experienced at similar altitudes in the Cordilleras of the Andes,

especially when investigating the boiling-point of water?” (_Cent.

Asia_, Germ. Transl. I. 588.) But the words quoted from Ramusio

do not exist in the old texts, and they are probably an editorial

interpolation indicating disbelief in the statement.

MM. Huc and Gabet made a like observation on the high passes of

north-eastern Tibet: “The _argols_ gave out much smoke, but would

not burn with any flame”; only they adopted the native idea that

this as well as their own sufferings in respiration was caused by

some pernicious exhalation.

Major Montgomerie, R.E., of the Indian Survey, who has probably

passed more time nearer the heavens than any man living, sends me

the following note on this passage: “What Marco Polo says as to

fire at great altitudes not cooking so effectually as usual is

perfectly correct as far as anything _boiled_ is concerned, but I

doubt if it is as to anything _roasted_. The want of brightness in

a fire at great altitudes is, I think, altogether attributable to

the poorness of the fuel, which consists of either small sticks or

bits of roots, or of _argols_ of dung, all of which give out a good

deal of smoke, more especially the latter if not quite dry; but I

have often seen a capital blaze made with the argols when perfectly

dry. As to cooking, we found that rice, _dál_, and potatoes would

never soften properly, no matter how long they were boiled. This,

of course, was due to the boiling-point being only from 170° to

180°. Our tea, moreover, suffered from the same cause, and was

never good when we were over 15,000 feet. This was very marked.

Some of my natives made dreadful complaints about the rice and dál

that they got from the village-heads in the valleys, and vowed that

they only gave them what was very old and hard, as they could not

soften it!”

NOTE 3.—Bolor is a subject which it would take several pages to

discuss with fulness, and I must refer for such fuller discussion

to a paper in the _J. R. G. S._ vol. xlii. p. 473.

The name _Bolor_ is very old, occurring in Hiuen Tsang’s Travels

(7th century), and in still older Chinese works of like character.

General Cunningham has told us that Balti is still termed _Balor_

by the Dards of Gilghit; and Mr. Shaw, that _Palor_ is an old

name still sometimes used by the Kirghiz for the upper part of

Chitrál. The indications of Hiuen Tsang are in accordance with

General Cunningham’s information; and the fact that Chitrál is

described under the name of Bolor in Chinese works of the last

century entirely justifies that of Mr. Shaw. A Pushtu poem of the

17th century, translated by Major Raverty, assigns the mountains of

_Bilaur_-istán, as the northern boundary of Swát. The collation of

these indications shows that the term Bolor must have been applied

somewhat extensively to the high regions adjoining the southern

margin of Pamir. And a passage in the _Táríkh Rashídí_, written at

Kashgar in the 16th century by a cousin of the great Baber, affords

us a definition of the tract to which, in its larger sense, the

name was thus applied: “_Malaur_ (_i.e._ Balaur or Bolor) ... is a

country with few level spots. It has a circuit of four months’

march. The eastern frontier borders on Kashgar and Yarkand; it has

Badakhshan to the north, Kabul to the west, and Kashmír to the

south.” The writer was thoroughly acquainted with his subject, and

the region which he so defines must have embraced Sirikol and all

the wild country south of Yarkand, Balti, Gilghit, Yasin, Chitrál,

and perhaps Kafiristán. This enables us to understand Polo’s use of

the term.

[Illustration: MARCO POLO’S ITINERARIES Nᵒ. III. Regions on and near

the Upper Oxus]

The name of Bolor in later days has been in a manner a symbol

of controversy. It is prominent in the apocryphal travels of

George Ludwig von ————, preserved in the Military Archives at St.

Petersburg. That work represents a town of Bolor as existing to

the north of Badakhshan, with Wakhán still further to the north.

This geography we now know to be entirely erroneous, but it is in

full accordance with the maps and tables of the Jesuit missionaries

and their pupils, who accompanied the Chinese troops to Kashgar in

1758–1759. The paper in the _Geographical Society’s Journal_, which

has been referred to, demonstrates how these erroneous data must

have originated. It shows that the Jesuit geography was founded

on downright accidental error, and, as a consequence, that the

narratives which profess _de visu_ to corroborate that geography

must be downright forgeries. When the first edition was printed, I

retained the belief in a _Bolor_ where the Jesuits placed it.

[The Chinese traveller, translated by M. Gueluy (_Desc. de la

Chine occid._ p. 53), speaks of Bolor, to the west of Yarkand,

inhabited by Mahomedans who live in huts; the country is sandy

and rather poor. Severtsof says, (_Bul. Soc. Géog._ XI. 1890, p.

591) that he believes that the name of _Bolor_ should be expunged

from geographical nomenclature as a source of confusion and error.

Humboldt, with his great authority, has too definitely attached

this name to an erroneous orographical system. Lieutenant-Colonel

Gordon says that he “made repeated enquiries from Kirghiz and

Wakhis, and from the Mír [of Wakhán], Fatteh Ali Shah, regarding

‘Bólór,’ as a name for any mountain, country, or place, but all

professed perfect ignorance of it.” (_Forsyth’s Mission._)—H. C.]

The _J. A. S. Bengal_ for 1853 (vol. xxii.) contains extracts from

the diary of a Mr. Gardiner in those central regions of Asia.

These read more like the memoranda of a dyspeptic dream than

anything else, and the only passage I can find illustrative of

our traveller is the following; the region is described as lying

twenty days south-west of Kashgar: “The Keiaz tribe live in caves

on the highest peaks, subsist by hunting, keep no flocks, said to

be anthropophagous, but have handsome women; eat their flesh raw.”

(P. 295; _Pèlerins Boud._ III. 316, 421, etc.; _Ladak_, 34, 45, 47;

_Mag. Asiatique_, I. 92, 96–97; _Not. et Ext._ II. 475, XIV. 492;

_J. A. S. B._ XXXI. 279; Mr. R. Shaw in _Geog. Proceedings_, XVI.

246, 400; _Notes regarding Bolor_, etc., _J. R. G. S._ XLII. 473.)

As this sheet goes finally to press we hear of the exploration of

Pamir by officers of Mr. Forsyth’s Mission. [I have made use of the

information collected by them.—H. C.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] “Yet this barren and inaccessible upland, with its scanty handful

of wild people, finds a place in Eastern history and geography

from an early period, and has now become the subject of serious

correspondence between two great European Governments, and its

name, for a few weeks at least, a household word in London. Indeed,

this is a striking accident of the course of modern history. We

see the Slav and the Englishman—representatives of two great

branches of the Aryan race, but divided by such vast intervals of

space and time from the original common starting-point of their

migration—thus brought back to the lap of Pamir to which so many

quivering lines point as the centre of their earliest seats, there

by common consent to lay down limits to mutual encroachment.”

(_Quarterly Review_, April, 1873, p. 548.)

[2] Ibn Haukal reckons Wakhán as an Indian country. It is a curious

coincidence (it can scarcely be more) that _Nono_ in the Garo

tongue of Eastern Bengal signifies “a younger brother.” (_J. A. S.

B._ XXII. 153, XVIII. 208.)

[3] According to Colonel Tod, the Hindu bard Chand speaks of “Pamer,

chief of mountains.” (I. p. 24.) But one may like and respect

Colonel Tod without feeling able to rely on such quotations of his

unconfirmed.

[4] Usually written _Polii_, which is nonsense.

[5] [“The Tian Shan wild sheep has since been described as the _Ovis

Karelini_, a species somewhat smaller than the true _Ovis Poli_

which frequents the Pamirs.” (Colonel Gordon, _Roof of the World_,

p. 83, note.)—H. C.]