XIV. EXPLANATIONS REGARDING THE BASIS ADOPTED FOR THE PRESENT TRANSLATION.

88. It remains to say a few words regarding the basis adopted for our English version of the Traveller's record.

Texts fol

lowed by

Marsden

and by

Pauthier.

Ramusio's recension was that which Marsden selected for translation. But at the date of his most meritorious publication nothing was known of the real literary history of Polo's Book, and no one was aware of the peculiar value and originality of the French manuscript texts, nor had Marsden seen any of them. A translation from one of those texts is a translation at first hand; a translation from Ramusio's Italian is, as far as I can judge, the translation of a translated compilation from two or more translations, and therefore, whatever be the merits of its matter, inevitably carries us far away from the spirit and style of the original narrator. M. Pauthier, I think, did well in adopting for the text of his edition the MSS. which I have classed as of the second Type, the more as there had hitherto been no publication from those texts. But editing a text in the original language, and translating, are tasks different in their demands.

Eclectic

formation of

the English

Text of this

Translation.

89. It will be clear from what has been said in the preceding pages that I should not regard as a fair or full representation of Polo's Work, a version on which the Geographic Text did not exercise a material influence. But to adopt that Text, with all its awkwardnesses and tautologies, as the absolute subject of translation, would have been a mistake. What I have done has been, in the first instance, to translate from Pauthier's Text. The process of abridgment in this text, however it came about, has been on the whole judiciously executed, getting rid of the intolerable prolixities of manner which belong to many parts of the Original Dictation, but as a general rule preserving the matter. Having translated this,-not always from the Text adopted by Pauthier himself, but with the exercise of my own judgment on the various readings which that Editor lays before us,-I then compared the translation with the Geographic Text, and transferred from the latter not only all items of real substance that had been omitted, but

also all expressions of special interest and character, and occasionally a greater fullness of phraseology where condensation in Pauthier's text seemed to have been carried too far. And finally I have introduced between brackets everything peculiar to Ramusio's version that seemed to me to have a just claim to be reckoned authentic, and that could be so introduced without harshness or mutilation. Many passages from the same source which were of interest in themselves, but failed to meet one or other of these conditions, have been given in the notes.

90. As regards the reading of proper names and foreign words, in which there is so much variation in the different MSS. and editions, I have done my best to select what seemed to be the true reading from the G. T. and Pauthier's three MSS., only in some rare in

Mode of rendering proper names.

stances transgressing this limit.

Where the MSS. in the repetition of a name afforded a choice of forms, I have selected that which came nearest the real name when known. Thus the G. T. affords Baldasciain, Badascian, Badasciam, Badausiam, Balasian. I adopt BADASCIAN, or in English spelling BADASHAN, because it is closest to the real name Badakhshan. Another place appears as COBINAN, Cabanat, Cobian. I adopt the first because it is the truest expression of the real name Koh-benán. In chapters 23, 24 of Book I., we have in the G. T. Asisim, Asciscin, Asescin, and in Pauthier's MSS. Hasisins, Harsisins, &c. I adopt ASCISCIN, or in English spelling ASHISHIN, for the same reason as before. So with Creman, Crerman, Crermain, QUERMAN, Anglicé KERMAN; Cormos, HORMOS, and many more.

*

In two or three cases I have adopted a reading which I cannot show literatim in any authority, but because such a form appears to be the just resultant from the variety of readings which are presented, as one takes the mean of a number of observations in surveying when no one can claim an absolute preference.

*In Polo's diction C not unfrequently represents H, e. g., Cormos = Hormuz; Camadi probably = Hamadi; Caagiu probably = Hochau; Cacianfu = Hochangfu, and so on. This is perhaps attributable to Rusticiano's Tuscan ear. A true Pisan will absolutely contort his features in the intensity of his efforts to aspirate sufficiently the letter C.

Polo's proper names, even in the French Texts, are in the main formed on an Italian fashion of spelling.* I see no object in preserving such spelling in an English book, so after selecting the best reading of the name I express it in English spelling, printing Badashan, Pashai, Kenjanfu, instead of Badascian, Pasciai, Quengianfu, and so on.

And when a little trouble has been taken to ascertain the true form and force of Polo's spelling of Oriental names and technical expressions, it will be found that they are in the main as accurate as Italian lips and orthography will admit, and not justly liable to those exegetical distortions which have been too often applied to them. Thus, for example, Cocacin, Ghel or Ghelan, Tonocain, Cobinan, Ondanique, Barguerlac, Argon, Sensin, Quescican, Toscaol, Bularguci, Zardandan, Anin, Caugigu, Coloman, Gauenispola, Mutfili, Avarian, Choiach, are not, it will be seen, the ignorant blunderings which the interpretations affixed by some commentators would imply them to be, but are on the contrary all but perfectly accurate utterances of the names and words intended.

The chapter-headings I have generally taken from Pauthier's Text, but they are no essential part of the original work, and they have been slightly modified or enlarged where it seemed desirable.†

* In the Venetian dialect ch, j, and c are often sounded as in English, not as in Italian. Some traces of such pronunciation I think there are, as in Coja, Carajan, Cerazi, and in the Chinese name Vanchu (supra, p. cxxiv). But the scribe of the original work being a Tuscan, the spelling is in the main Tuscan. The sound of the Qu is however French, as in Quescican, Quinsai.

I should have pointed out at pp. xxxvi, xxxvii, the verisimilitude of the tradition there related by Ramusio, when regarded by the light of genuine Mongol practice, such as is quoted in the last paragraph of p. 345 of this volume.

NOTA BENE.-The Appendices frequently referred to in the course of these Introductory Notices will be found at the end of Vol. II.

VOL. I.