In

Idolaters, Saracens, and Christians, and the latter have
three very fine churches in the city, whilst the Idolaters
have many minsters and abbeys after their fashion.
these they have an enormous number of idols, both small
and great, certain of the latter being a good ten paces in
stature; some of them being of wood, others of clay, and
others yet of stone. They are all highly polished, and then
covered with gold. The great idols of which I speak lie at
length. And round about them there are other figures of
considerable size, as if adoring and paying homage before
them.

Now, as I have not yet given you particulars about the customs of these Idolaters, I will proceed to tell you about them.

You must know that there are among them certain religious recluses who lead a more virtuous life than the rest. These abstain from all lechery, though they do not indeed regard it as a deadly sin; howbeit if any one sin against nature they condemn him to death. They have an Ecclesiastical Calendar as we have; and there are five days in the month that they observe particularly; and on these five days they would on no account either slaughter any animal or eat flesh meat. On those days, moreover, they observe much greater abstinence altogether than on other days.❜

Among these people a man may take thirty wives, more or less, if he can but afford to do so, each having wives in proportion to his wealth and means; but the first wife is always held in highest consideration. The men endow their wives with cattle, slaves, and money, according to their ability. And if a man dislikes any one of his wives, he just turns her off and takes another. They take to wife their cousins and their fathers' widows (always excepting the man's own mother), holding to be no sin many things that we think grievous sins, and, in short, they live like beasts.4

Messer Maffeo and Messer Marco Polo dwelt a whole year in this city when on a mission.5

Now we will leave this and tell you about other provinces towards the north, for we are going to take you a sixty days' journey in that direction.

NOTE 1.-Campichiu is undoubtedly Kanchau, which was at this time, as Pauthier tells us, the chief city of the administration of Kansuh, corresponding to Polo's Tangut. Kansuh itself is a name compounded of the names of the two cities Kan-chau and Suh-chau.

The difficulties that have been made about the form of the name Campiciou, &c.) in Polo, and the attempts to explain these, are probably alike futile. Quatremère writes the Persian form of the name after Abdurrazzak as Kamtcheou, but I see that Erdmann writes it after Rashid, I presume on good grounds, as Ckamidschu, i.e. Camiju or Camichu. And that this was the Western pronunciation of the name is shown by the form which Pegolotti uses, Camexu, i.e. Camechu. The pin Polo's spelling is probably only a superfluous letter, as in the old spelling of dampnum, contempnere, sompnour, tirampnus. In fact, Marignolli writes Polo's Quinsai as Campsay.

It is worthy of notice that though Ramusio's text prints the names of these two cities as Succuir and Campion, his own pronunciation of them appears to have been quite well understood by the Persian traveller Hajji Mahomed, for it is perfectly clear that the latter recognized in these names Suhchau and Kanchau. (See Ram. II. f. 14 v.) The second volume of the Navigationi, containing Polo, was published after Ramusio's death, and it is possible that the names as he himself read them were more correct (e. g. Succiur, Capiou).

NOTE 2.--This is the meaning of the phrase in the G.T.: “Ceste grande ydre gigent," as may be seen from Ramusio's giaciono distesi. Lazari renders the former expression, "giganteggia un idolo," &c., a phrase very unlike Polo. The circumstance is interesting, because this recumbent Colossus at Kanchau is mentioned both by Hajji Mahomed and by Shah Rukh's people. The latter say: "In this city of Kanchú there is an Idol-Temple 500 cubits square. In the middle is an idol lying at length which measures 50 paces.

The sole of the foot is nine
Behind this image and

paces long, and the instep is 21 cubits in girth. overhead are other idols of a cubit (?) in height, besides figures of Bakshis as large as life. The action of all is hit off so admirably that you would think they were alive." Those great recumbent figures are favourites in Buddhist countries still, e.g. in Siam, Burma, and Ceylon. They symbolize Sakya Buddha in the state of Nirwána. Such a recumbent figure, perhaps the prototype of these, was seen by Hwen Thsang

in a Vihara close to the Sál Grove at Kusinagara, where Sakya entered that state, i.e. died. The stature of Buddha was, we are told, 12 cubits; but Brahma, Indra, and the other gods vainly tried to compute his dimensions. Some such rude metaphor is probably embodied in these large images. I have described one 69 feet long in Burma, but others exist of much greater size, though probably none equal to that which Hwen Thsang, in the 7th century, saw near Bamian, which was 1000 feet in length! (Cathay, &c. pp. cciii, ccxviii; Mission to Ava, p. 52; V. et V. de H. T. p. 374)

NOTE 3.-Marco is now speaking of the Lamas, or clergy of Tibetan Buddhism. The customs mentioned have varied in details, both locally and with the changes that the system has passed through in the course of time.

The institutes of ancient Buddhism set apart the days of new and full moon to be observed by the Sramanas or monks, by fasting, confession, and listening to the reading of the law. It became usual for the laity to take part in the observance, and the number of days was increased to three and then to four. Fahian says that in Ceylon preaching took place on the 8th, 14th, and 15th days of the month. Four is the number now most general amongst Buddhist nations, and the days may

be regarded as a kind of Buddhist Sabbath. In the southern countries and in Nepal they occur at the moon's changes. In Tibet and among the Mongol Buddhists they are not at equal intervals, though I find the actual days differently stated by different authorities. Pallas says the Mongols observed the 13th, 14th, and 15th, the three days being brought together, he thought, on account of the distance many Lamas had to travel to the temple-just as in some Scotch country parishes they used to give two sermons in one service for like reason! Koeppen, to whose work this note is much indebted, says the Tibetan days are the 14th, 15th, 29th, and 30th, and adds as to the manner of observance: "On these days, by rule, among the Lamas, nothing should be tasted but farinaceous food and tea; the very devout refrain from all food from sunrise to sunset. The Temples are decorated, and the altar tables set out with the holy symbols, with tapers, and with dishes containing offerings in corn, meal, tea, butter, &c., and especially with small pyramids of dough, or of rice or clay, and accompanied by much burning of incense-sticks. The service performed by the priests is more solemn, the music louder and more exciting, than usual. The laity make their offerings, tell their beads, and repeat Om mani padma hom, &c." In the concordat that took place between the Dalai-Lama and the Altun Khaghan, on the reconversion of the Mongols to Buddhism in the 16th century, one of the articles was the entire prohibition of hunting and the slaughter of animals on the monthly fast days. The practice varies much, however, even in Tibet, with different provinces and sects a variation which the Ramusian text of Polo implies in these words: "For five days, or four days, or three in each month, they shed no blood," &c. The days which Mr. Jaeschke names to me differ from the above, and he has not known them to be kept by fasting, whilst the number observed in the remote west, where he is (Lahaul), is very small.

In Burma the Worship Day, as it is usually called by Europeans, is a very gay scene, the women flocking to the pagodas in their brightest attire. (Koeppen, I. 563-4, II. 139, 307-8; Pallas, Samml. II. 168-9.)

NOTE 4. These matrimonial customs are the same that are afterwards ascribed to the Tartars, so we defer remark.

NOTE 5. So Pauthier's text, "en legation." The G. Text includes Nicolo Polo, and says, "on business of theirs that is not worth mentioning," and with this Ramusio agrees.

CHAPTER XLV.

OF THE CITY OF ETZINA.

WHEN you leave the city of Campichu you ride for twelve days, and then reach a city called ETZINA, which is towards the north on the verge of the Sandy Desert; it belongs to the Province of Tangut. The people are Idolaters, and possess plenty of camels and cattle, and the country produces a number of good falcons, both Sakers and Lanners. The inhabitants live by their cultivation and their cattle, for they have no trade. At this city you must needs lay in victuals for forty days, because when you quit Etzina you enter on a Desert which extends forty days' journey to the north, and on which you meet with no habitation nor baiting-place. In the summer-time, indeed, you will fall in with people, but in the winter the cold is too great. You also meet with wild beasts (for there are some small pine-woods here and there), and with numbers of wild asses.' When you have travelled these forty days across the Desert you come to a certain province lying to the north. Its name you shall hear presently.

NOTE 1.-Deguignes says that YETSINA is found in a Chinese Map of Tartary of the Mongol era, and this is confirmed by Pauthier, who reads it Itsinai, and adds that the text of the Map names it as one of the seven Lu or Circuits of the Province of Kansuh (or Tangut). Indeed, in D'Anville's Atlas we find a river called Etsina Pira, running northward from Kanchau, and a little below the 41st parallel joining another from Suhchau. Beyond the junction is a town called Hoatsiang, which probably represents Etzina. Yetsina is also mentioned in Gaubil's History of Chinghiz as taken by that conqueror in 1226, on his last campaign against Tangut. This capture would also seem from Petis de la Croix to be mentioned by Rashiduddin. Gaubil says the Chinese Geography places Yetsina north of Kanchau and north-east of Suhchau, at a distance of 120 leagues from Kanchau, but observes that this is certainly too great (Gaubil, p. 49).

NOTE 2.-" Erberge" (G. T.). Pauthier has Herbage, which is not preferable.