NOTE 1.-The readings differ as to the length of the journey. In Pauthier's text we seem to have first a journey of 40 days from near Karakorum to the Plain of Bargu, and then a journey of 40 days more across the plain to the Northern Ocean. The G. T. seems to present only one journey of 40 days (Ramusio, of 60 days), but leaves the interval from Karakorum undefined. I have followed the former, though with some doubt.

NOTE 2. This paragraph from Ramusio replaces the following in Pauthier's text. "In summer they get abundance of game, both beasts and birds, but in winter there is none to be had because of the great cold.” Marco is here dealing, I apprehend, with hearsay geography, and, as is common in like cases, there is great compression of circumstances and characteristics, analogous to the like compression of little-known regions in medieval maps.

The name Bargu appears to be the same with that often mentioned in Mongol history as BARGUCHIN TUGRUM or BARGUTI, and which Rashiduddin calls the northern limit of the inhabited earth. This commenced about Lake Baikal, where the name still survives in that of a river (Barguzin) falling into the Lake on the east side, and of a town on its banks (Barguzinsk). Indeed, according to Rashid himself, BARGU was the name of one of the tribes occupying the plain; and a quotation from Father Hyacinth would seem to show that the country is still called Barakhu.

Mescript, or Mecri, as in G. T. The Merkit, a great tribe to the S.E. of the Baikal, were also called Mekrit, and sometimes Megrin. The Mekrit are spoken of also by Carpini and Rubruquis. D'Avezac thinks that the Kerait, and not the Merkit, are intended by all three travellers. As regards Polo, I see no reason for this view. The name he uses is Mekrit, and the position which he assigns to them agrees fairly with that assigned on good authority to the Merkit or Mekrit. Only, as in other cases, where he is rehearsing hearsay information, it does not follow that the identification of the name involves the correctness of all the circumstances that he connects with that name. We saw in chapter xxx. that under Pashai he seemed to lump circumstances belonging to various parts of the region from Badakhshan to the Indus; so here under Mekrit he embraces characteristics belonging to tribes extending far beyond the Mekrit, and which in fact are appropriate to the Tunguses. Rashiduddin seems to describe the latter under the name of Uriangkut of the Woods, a people dwelling beyond the frontier of Barguchin, and in connexion with whom he speaks of their Reindeer obscurely, as well as of their tents of birch bark, and their hunting on snow shoes.

The mention of the Reindeer by Polo in this passage, is one of the interesting points which Pauthier's text omits. Marsden objects to the statement that the stags are ridden upon, and from this motive misrenders "li qual' anche cavalcano," as, "which they make use of for the purpose of travelling." Yet he might have found in Witsen that the

Reindeer are ridden by various Siberian Tribes, but especially by the Tunguses. Erman is very full on the reindeer-riding of the latter people, having himself travelled far in that way in going to Okhotsk, and gives a very detailed description of the saddle, &c. employed. The reindeer of the Tunguses are stated by the same traveller to be much larger and finer animals than those of Lapland. They are also used for packcarriage and draught. Old Richard Eden says that the "olde wryters" relate that “certayne Scythians doe ryde on Hartes." I have not traced to what he refers, but if the statement be in any ancient author it is very remarkable. Some old editions of Olaus Magnus have curious cuts of Laplanders and others riding on reindeer, but I find nothing in the text appropriate. (Erdmann, 189, 191; D'Ohsson, I. 103; D'Avezac, 534 seqq.; J. As. ser. 2, tom. xi., ser. 4, tom. xvii. 107; N. et E. XIII. i. 274-6; Witsen, II. 670, 671, 680; Erman, II. 321, 374, 429, 449 seqq., and original German, II. 347 seqq.; Notes on Russia, Hac. Soc. II. 224.)

The numerous lakes and marshes swarming with water-fowl are very characteristic of the country between Yakutsk and the Kolyma. It is evident that Marco had his information from an eye-witness, though the whole picture is compressed. Wrangell, speaking of Nijni Kolyma, says: "It is at the moulting-season that the great bird-hunts take place. The sportsmen surround the nests, and slip their dogs which drive the birds to the water, on which they are easily knocked over with a gun or arrow, or even with a stick. . . . This chase is divided into several periods. They begin with the ducks, which moult first; then come the geese; then the swans. In each case the people take care to choose the time when the birds have lost their feathers." The whole calendar with the Yakuts and Russian settlers on the Kolyma is a succession of fishing and hunting seasons which the same author details (I. 149, 150; 119-121).

NOTE 3.-What little is said of the Barguerlac points to some bird of the genus Pterocles, or Sand Grouse (to which belong the so-called Rock Pigeons of India), or to the allied Tetrao Paradoxus of Pallas, now known as Syrrhaptes Pallasii. Indeed, we find in Zenker's Dictionary that Boghurtlák (or Baghírtlák, as it is in Pavet de Courteille's) in Oriental Turkish is the Kata, i.e. I presume, the Pterocles Alchata of Linnæus, or Large Pin-tailed Sand Grouse. Mr. Gould, to whom I referred the point, is clear that the Syrrhaptes is Marco's bird, and I believe there can be no question of it.

The chief difficulty in identification with the Syrrhaptes or any known bird, would be "the feet like a parrot's." The feet of the Syrrhaptes are not indeed like a parrot's, though its awkward, slow and toddling gait on the ground, may have suggested the comparison; and though it has very odd and anomalous feet, a circumstance which the Chinese indicate in another way by calling the bird (according to Huc) Lung-Kio, or Dragon-foot." The hind-toe is absent, the toes are unseparated,

recognizable only by the broad flat nails, and fitted below with a callous couch, whilst the whole foot is covered with short dense feathers like hair, and is more like a quadruped's paw than a bird's foot.

The home of the Syrrhaptes is in the Altai, the Kirghiz Steppes, and the country round Lake Baikal; though it also visits the north of China in great flights. "On plains of grass and sandy deserts," says Gould (Birds of Great Britain, Part IV.), "at one season covered with snow, and at another sun-burnt and parched by drought, it finds a congenial home; in these inhospitable and little-known regions it breeds, and, when necessity compels it to do so, wings its way . . . over incredible distances to obtain water or food." Huc says, speaking of the bird on the northern frontier of China: "They generally arrive in great flights from the north, especially when much snow has fallen, flying with astonishing rapidity, so that the movement of their wings produces a noise like hail." It is said to be very delicate eating. The bird owes its place in Gould's Birds of Great Britain to the fact-strongly illustrative

of its being moult volant, as Polo says it is-that it appeared in England. in 1859, and since then, at least up to 1863, continued to arrive annually in pairs or companies in nearly all parts of our island, from Penzance to Caithness. And Gould states that it was breeding in the Danish islands. A full account by Mr. A. Newton of this remarkable immigration, is contained in the Ibis for April, 1864, and many details in Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk, I. 376 seqq. There are plates of Syrrhaptes in Radde's Reisen im Süden von Ost-Sibirien, Bd. II.; in vol. v. of Temminck, Planches Coloriées, Pl. 95; in Gould, as above; in Gray, Genera of Birds, vol. iii. p. 517 (life size); and in the Ibis for April, 1860. From the last our cut is taken; but the head and neck are here too dark.

NOTE 4.-Gerfalcons (Shonkár) were objects of high estimation in the Middle Ages, and were frequent presents to and from royal personages. Thus among the presents sent with an embassy from King James II. of Aragon to the Sultan of Egypt, in 1314, we find three white gerfalcons. They were sent in homage to Chinghiz and to Kublai, by the Kirghiz, but I cannot identify the mountains where they or the Peregrines were found. The Peregrine falcon was in Europe sometimes termed Faucon Tartare (see Ménage s. v. Sahin). The Peregrine of Northern Japan,

and probably therefore that of Siberia, is identical with that of Europe. Witsen speaks of an island in the Sea of Tartary, from which falcons were got, apparently referring to a Chinese map as his authority; but I know nothing more of it. (Capmany, IV. 64-5; Ibis, 1862, p. 314; Witsen, II. 656.)

CHAPTER LVII.

OF THE KINGDOM OF ERGUIUL, AND PROVINCE OF SINJU.

ON leaving Campichu, then, you travel five days across a tract in which many spirits are heard speaking in the night season; and at the end of those five marches, towards the east, you come to a kingdom called ERGUIUL, belonging to the Great Kaan. It is one of the several kingdoms which make up the great Province of Tangut. The people consist of Nestorian Christians, Idolaters, and worshippers of Mahommet.'

There are plenty of cities in this kingdom, but the capital is ERGUIUL. You can travel in a south-easterly direction from this place into the province of Cathay. Should you follow that road to the south-east, you come to a city called SINJU, belonging also to Tangut, and subject to the Great Kaan, which has under it many towns. and villages. The population is composed of Idolaters, and worshippers of Mahommet, but there are some Christians also. There are wild cattle in that country [almost] as big as elephants, splendid creatures, covered everywhere but on the back with shaggy hair a good four palms long. They are partly black, partly white, and really wonderfully fine creatures [and the hair or wool is extremely fine and white, finer and whiter than silk. Messer Marco brought some to Venice as a great curiosity, and so it was reckoned by those who saw it]. There are also plenty of them tame, which have been caught young. [They also cross these with the common cow, and the cattle from this cross are

VOL. I.

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wonderful beasts, and better for work than other animals.] These the people use commonly for burden and general work, and in the plough as well; and at the latter they will do full twice as much work as any other cattle, being such very strong beasts.'

In this country too is found the best musk in the world; and I will tell you how 'tis produced. There exists in that region a kind of wild animal like a gazelle. It has feet and tail like the gazelle's, and stag's hair of a very coarse kind, but no horns. It has four tusks, two below, and two above, about three inches long, and slender in form, one pair growing upwards, and the other downwards. It is a very pretty creature. The musk is found in this way. When the creature has been taken, they find at the navel between the flesh and the skin something like an impostume full of blood, which they cut out and remove with all the skin attached to it. And the blood inside this impostume is the musk that produces that powerful perfume. There is an immense number of these beasts in the country we are speaking of. [The flesh is very good to eat. Messer Marco brought the dried head and feet of one of these animals to Venice with him.+]

The people are traders and artizans, and also grow abundance of corn. The province has an extent of 26 days' journey. Pheasants are found there twice as big as ours, indeed nearly as big as a peacock, and having tails of 7 to 10 palms in length; and besides them other pheasants in aspect like our own, and birds of many other kinds, and of beautiful variegated plumage. The people, who are Idolaters, are fat folks with little noses and black hair, and no beard, except a few hairs on the upper lip. The women too have very smooth and white skins, and in every respect are pretty creatures. The men are very sensual, and marry many wives, which is not forbidden by their religion. No matter how base a woman's descent may be, if she have beauty she may find a husband among the greatest men in