CHAPTER XLI.

OF THE PROVINCE OF CAMUL.

Camul is a province which in former days was a kingdom. It contains

numerous towns and villages, but the chief city bears the name of

CAMUL. The province lies between the two deserts; for on the one side

is the Great Desert of Lop, and on the other side is a small desert

of three days’ journey in extent.{1} The people are all Idolaters, and

have a peculiar language. They live by the fruits of the earth, which

they have in plenty, and dispose of to travellers. They are a people

who take things very easily, for they mind nothing but playing and

singing, and dancing and enjoying themselves.{2}

And it is the truth that if a foreigner comes to the house of one of

these people to lodge, the host is delighted, and desires his wife to

put herself entirely at the guest’s disposal, whilst he himself gets

out of the way, and comes back no more until the stranger shall have

taken his departure. The guest may stay and enjoy the wife’s society as

long as he lists, whilst the husband has no shame in the matter, but

indeed considers it an honour. And all the men of this province are

made wittols of by their wives in this way.{3} The women themselves are

fair and wanton.

Now it came to pass during the reign of MANGU KAAN, that as lord of

this province he came to hear of this custom, and he sent forth an

order commanding them under grievous penalties to do so no more [but

to provide public hostelries for travellers]. And when they heard this

order they were much vexed thereat. [For about three years’ space

they carried it out. But then they found that their lands were no

longer fruitful, and that many mishaps befell them.] So they collected

together and prepared a grand present which they sent to their Lord,

praying him graciously to let them retain the custom which they had

inherited from their ancestors; for it was by reason of this usage that

their gods bestowed upon them all the good things that they possessed,

and without it they saw not how they could continue to exist.{4} When

the Prince had heard their petition his reply was “Since ye must needs

keep your shame, keep it then,” and so he left them at liberty to

maintain their naughty custom. And they always have kept it up, and do

so still.

Now let us quit Camul, and I will tell you of another province which

lies between north-west and north, and belongs to the Great Kaan.

NOTE 1.—Kamul (or Komul) does not fall into the great line of

travel towards Cathay which Marco is following. His notice of it,

and of the next province, forms a digression like that which he

has already made to Samarkand. It appears very doubtful if Marco

himself had visited it; his father and uncle may have done so on

their first journey, as one of the chief routes to Northern China

from Western Asia lies through this city, and has done so for many

centuries. This was the route described by Pegolotti as that of the

Italian traders in the century following Polo; it was that followed

by Marignolli, by the envoys of Shah Rukh at a later date, and

at a much later by Benedict Goës. The people were in Polo’s time

apparently Buddhist, as the Uighúrs inhabiting this region had been

from an old date: in Shah Rukh’s time (1420) we find a mosque and a

great Buddhist Temple cheek by jowl; whilst Ramusio’s friend Hajji

Mahomed (_circa_ 1550) speaks of Kamul as the first Mahomedan city

met with in travelling from China.

Kamul stands on an oasis carefully cultivated by aid of reservoirs

for irrigation, and is noted in China for its rice and for some of

its fruits, especially melons and grapes. It is still a place of

some consequence, standing near the bifurcation of two great roads

from China, one passing north and the other south of the Thian

Shan, and it was the site of the Chinese Commissariat depôts for

the garrisons to the westward. It was lost to the Chinese in 1867.

Kamul appears to have been the see of a Nestorian bishop. A Bishop

of Kamul is mentioned as present at the inauguration of the

Catholicos Denha in 1266. (_Russians in Cent. Asia_, 129; _Ritter_,

II. 357 _seqq._; _Cathay, passim_; _Assemani_, II. 455–456.)

[_Kamul_ is the Turkish name of the province called by the Mongols

_Khamil_, by the Chinese _Hami_; the latter name is found for the

first time in the _Yuen Shi_, but it is first mentioned in Chinese

history in the 1st century of our Era under the name of _I-wu-lu_

or _I-wu_ (_Bretschneider, Med. Res._ II. p. 20); after the death

of Chinghiz, it belonged to his son Chagataï. From the Great Wall,

at the Pass of Kia Yü, to Hami there is a distance of 1470 _li_.

(_C. Imbault-Huart. Le Pays de Hami ou Khamil_ ... d’après les

auteurs chinois, _Bul. de Géog. hist. et desc._, Paris, 1892, pp.

121–195.) The Chinese general Chang Yao was in 1877 at Hami, which

had submitted in 1867 to the Athalik Ghazi, and made it the basis

of his operations against the small towns of Chightam and Pidjam,

and Yakúb Khan himself stationed at Turfan. The Imperial Chinese

Agent in this region bears the title of _K’u lun Pan She Ta Ch’en_

and resides at K’urun (Urga); of lesser rank are the agents (_Pan

She Ta Ch’en_) of Kashgar, Kharashar, Kuché, Aksu, Khotan, and

Hami. (See a description of Hami by Colonel M. S. Bell, _Proc. R.

G. S._ XII. 1890, p. 213.)—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—Expressed almost in the same words is the character

attributed by a Chinese writer to the people of Kuché in the same

region. (_Chin. Repos._ IX. 126.) In fact, the character seems to

be generally applicable to the people of East Turkestan, but sorely

kept down by the rigid Islam that is now enforced. (See _Shaw,

passim_, and especially the Mahrambáshi’s lamentations over the

jolly days that were no more, pp. 319, 376.)

NOTE 3.—Pauthier’s text has “_sont si_ honni _de leur moliers

comme vous avez ouy_.” Here the Crusca has “_sono_ bozzi _delle

loro moglie_,” and the Lat. Geog. “_sunt_ bezzi _de suis

uxoribus_.” The Crusca Vocab. has inserted _bozzo_ with the meaning

we have given, on the strength of this passage. It occurs also in

Dante (_Paradiso_, XIX. 137), in the general sense of _disgraced_.

The shameful custom here spoken of is ascribed by Polo also to a

province of Eastern Tibet, and by popular report in modern times

to the Hazaras of the Hindu-Kush, a people of Mongolian blood, as

well as to certain nomad tribes of Persia, to say nothing of the

like accusation against our own ancestors which has been drawn from

Laonicus Chalcondylas. The old Arab traveller Ibn Muhalhal (10th

century) also relates the same of the Hazlakh (probably _Kharlikh_)

Turks: “Ducis alicujus uxor vel filia vel soror, quum mercatorum

agmen in terram venit, eos adit, eorumque lustrat faciem. Quorum

siquis earum afficit admiratione hunc domum suam ducit, eumque apud

se hospitio excipit, eique benigne facit. Atque marito suo et filio

fratrique rerum necessariarum curam demandat; neque dum hospes

apud eam habitat, nisi necessarium est, maritus eam adit.” A like

custom prevails among the Chukchis and Koryaks in the vicinity of

Kamtchatka. (_Elphinstone’s Caubul; Wood_, p. 201; _Burnes_, who

discredits, II. 153, III. 195; _Laon. Chalcond._ 1650, pp. 48–49;

_Kurd de Schloezer_, p. 13; _Erman_, II. 530.)

[“It is remarkable that the Chinese author, _Hung Hao_, who lived

a century before M. Polo, makes mention in his memoirs nearly in

the same words of this custom of the Uighúrs, with whom he became

acquainted during his captivity in the kingdom of the _Kin_.

According to the chronicle of the Tangut kingdom of Si-hia, Hami

was the nursery of Buddhism in Si-hia, and provided this kingdom

with Buddhist books and monks.” (_Palladius_, _l.c._ p. 6.)—H. C.]

NOTE 4.—So the Jewish rabble to Jeremiah: “Since we left

off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out

drink-offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been

consumed by the sword and by famine.” (_Jerem._ xliv. 18.)