the cap of the hero of the drama, and also decorate the hats of certain civil functionaries.

Size is the point in which the bird fails to meet Marco's description. In that respect the latter would rather apply to the Crossoptilon auritum, which is nearly as big as a turkey, or to the glorious Múnál (Lopophorus impeyanus), but then that has no length of tail. The latter seems to be the bird described by Ælian: "Magnificent cocks which have the crest variegated and ornate like a crown of flowers, and the tail feathers not curved like a cock's, but broad and carried in a train like a peacock's; the feathers are partly golden, and partly azure or emerald-coloured." (Wood's Birds, 610, from which I have copied the illustration; Williams, M. K. I. 261; El. De Nat. An. XVI. 2.) A species of Crossoptilon has recently been found by Captain Prshevalsky in Alashan, the Egrigaia (as I believe) of next chapter, and one also by Abbé Armand David at the Koko Núr.

CHAPTER LVIII.

OF THE KINGDOM OF EGRIGAIA.

STARTING again from Erguiul you ride eastward for eight days, and then come to a province called EGRIGAIA, containing numerous cities and villages, and belonging to Tangut. The capital city is called CALACHAN. The people are chiefly Idolaters, but there are fine churches. belonging to the Nestorian Christians. They are all subjects of the Great Kaan. They make in this city great quantities of camlets of camel's wool, the finest in the world; and some of the camlets that they make are white, for they have white camels, and these are the best of all. Merchants purchase these stuffs here, and carry them over the world for sale,3

We shall now proceed eastward from this place and enter the territory that was formerly Prester John's.

NOTE 1.-Chinghiz invaded Tangut in all five times, viz. in 1205, 1207, 1209 (or according to Erdmann, 1210-11), 1218, and 1226-7, on which last expedition he died.

A. In the third invasion, according to D'Ohsson's Chinese guide (Father Hyacinth), he took the town of Viraca, and the fortress of

Imen, and laid siege to the capital, then called Chung-sing or Chunghing, now Ninghia.

Rashid, in a short notice of this campaign, calls the first city Erica, Erlaca, or, as Erdmann has it, Artacki. In Demailla it is Ulahai.

B. On the last invasion (1226), D'Ohsson's Chinese authority says that Chinghiz took Kanchau and Suhchau, Cholo and Khola in the province of Liangcheu, and then proceeded to the Yellow River and invested Lingchau, south of Ninghia.

Erdmann, following his reading of Rashiduddin, says Chinghiz took the cities of Tangut, called Arucki, Kacku, Sichu, and Kamichu, and besieged Deresgai (D'Ohsson, Derssekai), whilst Shidergu the King of Tangut betook himself to his capital Artackin.

D'Ohsson, also professing to follow Rashid, calls this "his capital Irghai, which the Mongols call Ircaya." Klaproth, illustrating Polo, reads "Eyircai, which the Mongols call Eyircaya.”

Petis de la Croix, relating the same campaign and professing to follow Fadlallah, i. e. Rashiduddin, says the king "retired to his fortress of Arbaca."

C. Sanang Setzen several times mentions a city called Irghai, apparently in Tangut; but all we can gather as to its position is that it seems to have lain east of Kancheu.

We perceive that the Arbaca of P. de la Croix, the Eyircai of Klaproth, the Uiraca of D'Ohsson, the Artacki or Artackin of Erdmann, are all various readings or forms of the same name, and are the same with the Chinese form Ulahai of Demailla, and most probably the place is the Egrigaia of Polo.

We see also that Erdmann mentions another place Arucki ( in connection with Kanchau and Suhchau. This is, I suspect, the Erguiul of Polo, and perhaps the Irghai of Sanang Setzen.

Rashiduddin seems wrong in calling Ircayá the capital of the king, a circumstance which leads Klaproth to identify it with Ninghia. Pauthier, identifying Ulahai with Egrigaya, shows that the former was one of the circles of Tangut, but not that of Ninghia. Its position, he says, is uncertain. Klaproth, however, inserts it in his map of Asia, in the era of Kublai (Tabl. Hist. pl. 22), as Ulakhai to the north of Ninghia, near the great bend eastward of the Hoang-Ho. Though it may have extended in this direction, it is probable, from the name referred to in next note, that Egrigaia or Ulahai is represented by the modern principality of ALASHAN, visited by Prshevalsky in 1871 and 1872.

NOTE 2.-Calachan, the chief town of Egrigaia, is mentioned, according to Klaproth, by Rashiduddin, among the cities of Tangut, as KALAJÁN. The name and approximate position suggest, as just noticed, identity with Alashan, the modern capital of which, called by Prshevalsky Dyn-yuan-yin, stands some distance west of the Hwang-Ho,

VOL. I.

T

in about lat. 39°.

and his next stage.

Polo gives no data for the interval between this

NOTE 3.-Among the Buraets and Chinese at Kiakhta snow-white camels, without albino character, are often seen, and probably in other parts of Mongolia (see Erdmann II. 261). Philostratus tells us that the King of Taxila furnished white camels to Apollonius. I doubt if the present King of Taxila, whom Anglo-Indians call the Commissioner of Rawal Pindi, could do the like.

Cammellotti appear to have been fine woollen textures, by no means what are now called camlets, nor were they necessarily of camel's wool, for those of Angora goat's wool were much valued. M. Douet d'Arcq calls it "a fine stuff of wool approaching to our Cashmere, and sometimes of silk." Indeed, as Mr. Marsh points out, the word is Arabic and has nothing to do with Camel in its origin; though it evidently came to be associated therewith. Khamlat is defined in F. Johnson's Dict. "Camelot, silk and camel's hair; also all silk or velvet, especially pily and plushy," and Khaml is "pile or plush." Camelin was a different and inferior material. There was till recently a considerable import of different kinds of woollen goods from this part of China into Ladakh, Kashmir, and the northern Panjáb. Among the names of these were Sling, Shirun, Gurun, and Khoza, said to be the names of the towns in China where the goods were made. We have supposed Sling to be Sining (note 2, ch. lvii.), but I can make nothing of the others. Cunningham also mentions "camlets of camel's hair," under the name of Suklát, among imports from the same quarter. The term Suklát is, however, applied in the Panjáb trade returns to broadcloth. Does not this point to the real nature of the siclatoun of the Middle Ages? It is, indeed, often spoken of as used for banners, which implies that it was not a heavy woollen :

"There was mony gonfanoun

Of gold, sendel, and siclatoun."

-King Alisaundre, in Weber, I. 85.

But it was also a material for ladies' robes, for quilts, leggings, housings, pavilions. Franc. Michel does not decide what it was, only that it was generally red and wrought with gold. Dozy renders it "silk stuff brocaded with gold," but this seems conjectural. Dr. Rock says it was a thin glossy silken stuff, often with a woof of gold thread, and seems to derive it from the Arabic ṣakl, "polishing" (a sword), which is improbable. Perhaps the name is connected with Sikiliyat, "Sicily."

(Marsh on Wedgwood, and on Webster in N. Y. Nation, 1867; Douet D'Arg, P. 355; Punjab Trade Rep., App. ccxix.-xx.; Ladak, 242; Fr.-Michel Rech. I. 221 seqq.; Dozy, Dict. des Vêtements, &c.; Dr. Rock's Kens. Catal. xxxix-xl.)

CHAPTER LIX

CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF TENDUC, AND THE DESCENDANTS OF PRESTER JOHN.

TENDUC is a province which lies towards the east, and contains numerous towns and villages: among which is the chief city, also called TENDUC. The king of the province is of the lineage of Prester John, George by name, and he holds the land under the Great Kaan; not that he holds anything like the whole of what Prester John possessed.' It is a custom, I may tell you, that these kings of the lineage of Prester John always obtain to wife either daughters of the Great Kaan or other princesses of his family.

In this province is found the stone from which Azure is made. It is obtained from a kind of vein in the earth, and is of very fine quality. There is also a great manufacture of fine camlets of different colours from camel's hair. The people get their living by their cattle and tillage, as well as by trade and handicraft.

The rule of the province is in the hands of the Christians as I have told you; but there are also plenty of Idolaters and worshippers of Mahommet. And there is also here a class of people called Argons, which is as much as to say in French Guasmul, or, in other words, sprung from two different races: to wit, of the race of the Idolaters of Tenduc and of that of the worshippers of Mahommet. They are handsomer men than the other natives of the country, and having more ability they come to have authority; and they are also capital merchants.+

You must know that it was in this same capital city of Tenduc that Prester John had the seat of his government when he ruled over the Tartars, and his heirs still abide

there; for, as I have told you, this King George is of his line, in fact, he is the sixth in descent from Prester John.

Here also is what we call the country of GoG and MAGOG; they, however, call it UNG and MUNGUL, after the names of two races of people that existed in that Province before the migration of the Tartars. Ung was the title of the people of the country, and Mungul a name sometimes applied to the Tartars.5

And when you have ridden seven days eastward through this province you get near the provinces of Cathay. You find throughout those seven days' journey plenty of towns and villages, the inhabitants of which are Mahommetans, but with a mixture also of Idolaters and Nestorian Christians. They get their living by trade and manufactures; weaving those fine cloths of gold which are called Nasich and Naques, besides silk stuffs of many other kinds. For just as we have cloths of wool in our country, manufactured in a great variety of kinds, so in those regions they have stuffs of silk and gold in like variety.

All this region is subject to the Great Kaan. There is a city you come to called SINDACHU, where they carry on a great many crafts such as provide for the equipment of the Emperor's troops. In a mountain of the province there is a very good silver mine, from which much silver is got the place is called YDIFU. The country is well stocked with game, both beast and bird."

Now we will quit that province and go three days' Journey forward.

NOTE 1.-Marco's own errors led commentators much astray about Tanduc or Tenduc till Klaproth put the matter in its true light.

Our traveller says that Tenduc had been the seat of Aung Khan's sovereignty; he has already said that it had been the scene of his final defeat and he tells us that it was still the residence of his descendants in their reduced state. To the last piece of information he can speak as a witness, and he is corroborated by other evidence; but the second statement we have seen to be almost certainly erroneous; about the first we cannot speak positively.