CHAPTER XVIII.

And immediately on Argon’s death, an uncle of his who was own brother[1] to Abaga his father, seized the throne, as he found it easy to do owing to Casan’s being so far away as the Arbre Sec. When Casan heard of his father’s death he was in great tribulation, and still more when he heard of Kiacatu’s seizing the throne. He could not then venture to leave the frontier for fear of his enemies, but he vowed that when time and place should suit he would go and take as great vengeance as his father had taken on Acomat. And what shall I tell you? Kiacatu continued to rule, and all obeyed him except such as were along with Casan. Kiacatu took the wife of Argon for his own, and was always dallying with women, for he was a great lechour. He held the throne for two years, and at the end of those two years he died; for you must know he was poisoned.{1}

Note 1.—Kaikhátú, of whom we heard in the Prologue (vol. i. p. 35), was the brother, not the uncle, of Arghún. On the death of the latter there were three claimants, viz., his son Gházán, his brother Kaikhátú, and his cousin Baidu, the son of Tarakai, one of Hulaku’s sons. The party of Kaikhátú was strongest, and he was raised to the throne at Akhlath, 23rd July 1291. He took as wives out of the Royal Tents of Arghún the Ladies Bulughán (the 2nd, not her named in the Prologue) and Uruk. All the writers speak of Kaikhátú’s character in the same way. Hayton calls him “a man without law or faith, of no valour or experience in arms, but altogether given up to lechery and vice, living like a brute beast, glutting all his disordered appetites; for his dissolute life hated by his own people, and lightly regarded by foreigners.” (Ram. II. ch. xxiv.) The continuator of Abulfaraj, and Abulfeda in his Annals, speak in like terms. (Assem. III. Pt. 2nd, 119–120; Reiske, Ann. Abulf. III. 101.)

Baidu rose against him; most of his chiefs abandoned him, and he was put to death in March–April, 1295. He reigned therefore nearly four years, not two as the text says.

CHAPTER XIX.

When Kiacatu was dead, Baidu, who was his uncle, and was a Christian, seized the throne.{1} This was in the year 1294 of Christ’s Incarnation. So Baidu held the government, and all obeyed him, except only those who were with Casan.

And when Casan heard that Kiacatu was dead, and Baidu had seized the throne, he was in great vexation, especially as he had not been able to take his vengeance on Kiacatu. As for Baidu, Casan swore that he would take such vengeance on him that all the world should speak thereof; and he said to himself that he would tarry no longer, but would go at once against Baidu and make an end of him. So he addressed all his people, and then set out to get possession of his throne.

And when Baidu had intelligence thereof he assembled a great army and got ready, and marched ten days to meet him, and then pitched his camp, and awaited the advance of Casan to attack him; meanwhile addressing many prayers and exhortations to his own people. He had not been halted two days when Casan with all his followers arrived. And that very day a fierce battle began. But Baidu was not fit to stand long against Casan, and all the less that soon after the action began many of his troops abandoned him and took sides with Casan. Thus Baidu was discomfited and put to death, and Casan remained victor and master of all. For as soon as he had won the battle and put Baidu to death, he proceeded to the capital and took possession of the government; and all the Barons performed homage and obeyed him as their liege lord. Casan began to reign in the year 1294 of the Incarnation of Christ.

Thus then you have had the whole history from Abaga to Casan, and I should tell you that Alaü, the conqueror of Baudac, and the brother of the Great Kaan Cublay, was the progenitor of all those I have mentioned. For he was the father of Abaga, and Abaga was the father of Argon, and Argon was the father of Casan who now reigns.{2}

Now as we have told you all about the Tartars of the Levant, we will quit them and go back and tell you more about Great Turkey— But in good sooth we have told you all about Great Turkey and the history of Caidu, and there is really no more to tell. So we will go on and tell you of the Provinces and nations in the far North.

Note 1.—The Christian writers often ascribe Christianity to various princes of the Mongol dynasties without any good grounds. Certain coins of the Ilkhans of Persia, up to the time of Gházán’s conversion to Islam, exhibit sometimes Mahomedan and sometimes Christian formulæ, but this is no indication of the religion of the prince. Thus coins not merely of the heathen Khans Ábáká and Arghún, but of Ahmad Tigudar, the fanatical Moslem, are found inscribed “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” Raynaldus, under 1285, gives a fragment of a letter addressed by Arghún to the European Powers, and dated from Tabriz, “in the year of the Cock,” which begins “In Christi Nomen, Amen!” But just in like manner some of the coins of Norman kings of Sicily are said to bear the Mahomedan profession of faith; and the copper money of some of the Ghaznevide sultans bears the pagan effigy of the bull Nandi, borrowed from the coinage of the Hindu kings of Kabul.

The European Princes could not get over the belief that the Mongols were necessarily the inveterate enemies of Mahomedanism and all its professors. Though Gházán was professedly a zealous Mussulman, we find King James of Aragon, in 1300, offering Cassan Rey del Mogol amity and alliance with much abuse of the infidel Saracens; and the same feeling is strongly expressed in a letter of Edward II. of England to the “Emperor of the Tartars,” which apparently was meant for Oljaitu, the successor of Gházán. (Fraehn de Ilchan. Nummis, vi. and passim; Raynald. III. 619; J. A. S. B. XXIV. 490; Kington’s Frederick II. I. 396; Capmany, Antiguos Tratados, etc. p. 107; Rymer, 2d Ed. III. 34; see also p. 20.)

There are other assertions, besides our author’s, that Baidu professed Christianity. Hayton says so, and asserts that he prohibited Mahomedan proselytism among the Tartars. The continuator of Abulfaraj says that Baidu’s long acquaintance with the Greek Despina Khatun, the wife of Ábáká, had made him favourable to Christians, so that he willingly allowed a church to be carried about with the camp, and bells to be struck therein, but he never openly professed Christianity. In fact at this time the whole body of Mongols in Persia was passing over to Islam, and Baidu also, to please them, adopted Mahomedan practices. But he would only employ Christians as Ministers of State. His rival Gházán, on the other hand, strengthened his own influence by adopting Islam, Baidu’s followers fell off from him, and delivered him into Gházán’s power. He was put to death 4th of October, 1295, about seven months after the death of his predecessor. D’Ohsson’s authorities seem to mention no battle such as the text speaks of, but Mirkhond, as abridged by Teixeira, does so, and puts it at Nakshiwán on the Araxes (p. 341).

Note 2.—Hayton testifies from his own knowledge to the remarkable personal beauty of Arghún, whilst he tells us that the son Gházán was as notable for the reverse. After recounting with great enthusiasm instances which he had witnessed of the daring and energy of Gházán, the Armenian author goes on, “And the most remarkable thing of all was that within a frame so small, and ugly almost to monstrosity, there should be assembled nearly all those high qualities which nature is wont to associate with a form of symmetry and beauty. In fact among all his host of 200,000 Tartars you should scarcely find one of smaller stature or of uglier and meaner aspect than this Prince.”

Tomb of Oljaïtu Khan, the brother of Polo’s “Casan,” at Sultaniah. (From Fergusson.)

Pachymeres says that Gházán made Cyrus, Darius, and Alexander his patterns, and delighted to read of them. He was very fond of the mechanical arts; “no one surpassed him in making saddles, bridles, spurs, greaves, and helmets; he could hammer, stitch, and polish, and in such occupations employed the hours of his leisure from war.” The same author speaks of the purity and beauty of his coinage, and the excellence of his legislation. Of the latter, so famous in the East, an account at length is given by D’Ohsson. (Hayton in Ramus. II. ch. xxvi.; Pachym. Andron. Palaeol. VI. 1; D’Ohsson, vol iv.)

Before finally quitting the “Tartars of the Levant,” we give a representation of the finest work of architecture that they have left behind them, the tomb built for himself by Oljaïtu (see on this page), or, as his Moslem name ran, Mahomed Khodabandah, in the city of Sultaniah, which he founded. Oljaïtu was the brother and successor of Marco Polo’s friend Gházán, and died in 1316, eight years before our traveller.

CHAPTER XX.

You must know that in the far north there is a King called Conchi. He is a Tartar, and all his people are Tartars, and they keep up the regular Tartar religion. A very brutish one it is, but they keep it up just the same as Chinghis Kaan and the proper Tartars did, so I will tell you something of it.

You must know then that they make them a god of felt, and call him Natigai; and they also make him a wife; and then they say that these two divinities are the gods of the Earth who protect their cattle and their corn and all their earthly goods. They pray to these figures, and when they are eating a good dinner they rub the mouths of their gods with the meat, and do many other stupid things.

The King is subject to no one, although he is of the Imperial lineage of Chinghis Kaan, and a near kinsman of the Great Kaan.{1} This King has neither city nor castle; he and his people live always either in the wide plains or among great mountains and valleys. They subsist on the milk and flesh of their cattle, and have no corn. The King has a vast number of people, but he carries on no war with anybody, and his people live in great tranquillity. They have enormous numbers of cattle, camels, horses, oxen, sheep, and so forth.

You find in their country immense bears entirely white, and more than 20 palms in length. There are also large black foxes, wild asses, and abundance of sables; those creatures I mean from the skins of which they make those precious robes that cost 1000 bezants each. There are also vairs in abundance; and vast multitudes of the Pharaoh’s rat, on which the people live all the summer time. Indeed they have plenty of all sorts of wild creatures, for the country they inhabit is very wild and trackless.{2}

And you must know that this King possesses one tract of country which is quite impassable for horses, for it abounds greatly in lakes and springs, and hence there is so much ice as well as mud and mire, that horses cannot travel over it. This difficult country is 13 days in extent, and at the end of every day’s journey there is a post for the lodgment of the couriers who have to cross this tract. At each of these post-houses they keep some 40 dogs of great size, in fact not much smaller than donkeys, and these dogs draw the couriers over the day’s journey from post-house to post-house, and I will tell you how. You see the ice and mire are so prevalent, that over this tract, which lies for those 13 days’ journey in a great valley between two mountains, no horses (as I told you) can travel, nor can any wheeled carriage either. Wherefore they make sledges, which are carriages without wheels, and made so that they can run over the ice, and also over mire and mud without sinking too deep in it. Of these sledges indeed there are many in our own country, for ’tis just such that are used in winter for carrying hay and straw when there have been heavy rains and the country is deep in mire. On such a sledge then they lay a bear-skin on which the courier sits, and the sledge is drawn by six of those big dogs that I spoke of. The dogs have no driver, but go straight for the next post-house, drawing the sledge famously over ice and mire. The keeper of the post-house however also gets on a sledge drawn by dogs, and guides the party by the best and shortest way. And when they arrive at the next station they find a new relay of dogs and sledges ready to take them on, whilst the old relay turns back; and thus they accomplish the whole journey across that region, always drawn by dogs.{3}

The people who dwell in the valleys and mountains adjoining that tract of 13 days’ journey are great huntsmen, and catch great numbers of precious little beasts which are sources of great profit to them. Such are the Sable, the Ermine, the Vair, the Erculin, the Black Fox, and many other creatures from the skins of which the most costly furs are prepared. They use traps to take them, from which they can’t escape.{4} But in that region the cold is so great that all the dwellings of the people are underground, and underground they always live.{5}

There is no more to say on this subject, so I shall proceed to tell you of a region in that quarter, in which there is perpetual darkness.

Note 1.—There are two Kuwinjis, or Kaunchis, as the name, from Polo’s representation of it, probably ought to be written, mentioned in connection with the Northern Steppes, if indeed there has not been confusion about them; both are descendants of Juji, the eldest son of Chinghiz. One was the twelfth son of Shaibani, the 5th son of Juji. Shaibani’s Yurt was in Siberia, and his family seem to have become predominant in that quarter. Arghún, on his defeat by Ahmad (supra p. 470), was besought to seek shelter with Kaunchi. The other Kaunchi was the son of Sirtaktai, the son of Orda, the eldest son of Juji, and was, as well as his father and grandfather, chief of the White Horde, whose territory lay north-east of the Caspian. An embassy from this Kaunchi is mentioned as having come to the court of Kaikhátú at Siah-Kuh (north of Tabriz) with congratulations, in the summer of 1293. Polo may very possibly have seen the members of this embassy, and got some of his information from them. (See Gold. Horde, 149, 249; Ilkhans, I. 354, 403; II. 193, where Hammer writes the name of Kandschi.)

It is perhaps a trace of the lineage of the old rulers of Siberia that the old town of Tyuman in Western Siberia is still known to the Tartars as Chinghiz Tora, or the Fort of Chinghiz. (Erman, I. 310.)

Note 2.—We see that Polo’s information in this chapter extends over the whole latitude of Siberia; for the great White Bears and the Black Foxes belong to the shores of the Frozen Ocean; the Wild Asses only to the southern parts of Siberia. As to the Pharaoh’s Rat, see vol. i. p. 254.

Note 3.—No dog-sledges are now known, I believe, on this side of the course of the Obi, and there not south of about 61° 30′. But in the 11th century they were in general use between the Dwina and Petchora. And Ibn Batuta’s account seems to imply that in the 14th they were in use far to the south of the present limit: “It had been my wish to visit the Land of Darkness, which can only be done from Bolghar. There is a distance of 40 days’ journey between these two places. I had to give up the intention however on account of the great difficulty attending the journey and the little fruit that it promised. In that country they travel only with small vehicles drawn by great dogs. For the steppe is covered with ice, and the feet of men or the shoes of horses would slip, whereas the dogs having claws their paws don’t slip upon the ice. The only travellers across this wilderness are rich merchants, each of whom owns about 100 of these vehicles, which are loaded with meat, drink, and firewood. In fact, on this route there are neither trees nor stones, nor human dwellings. The guide of the travellers is a dog who has often made the journey before! The price of such a beast is sometimes as high as 1000 dinárs or thereabouts. He is yoked to the vehicle by the neck, and three other dogs are harnessed along with him. He is the chief, and all the other dogs with their carts follow his guidance and stop when he stops. The master of this animal never ill-uses him nor scolds him, and at feeding-time the dogs are always served before the men. If this be not attended to, the chief of the dogs will get sulky and run off, leaving the master to perdition” (II. 399–400).

The Siberian Dog-Sledge.

“E sus ceste treies hi se mete sus un cuir d’ors, e puis hi monte sus un mesaje; e ceste treies moinent six chienz de celz grant qe je vos ai contés; et cesti chienz ne les moine nulz, mès il vont tout droit jusque à l’autre poste, et trainent la treies mout bien.”

[Mr. Parker writes (China Review, xiv. p. 359), that dog-sledges appear to have been known to the Chinese, for in a Chinese poem occurs the line: “Over the thick snow in a dog-cart.”—H. C.]

The bigness attributed to the dogs by Polo, Ibn Batuta, and Rubruquis, is an imagination founded on the work ascribed to them. Mr. Kennan says they are simply half-domesticated Arctic wolves. Erman calls them the height of European spaniels (qu. setters?), but much slenderer and leaner in the flanks. A good draught-dog, according to Wrangell, should be 2 feet high and 3 feet in length. The number of dogs attached to a sledge is usually greater than the old travellers represent,—none of whom, however, had seen the thing.

Wrangell’s account curiously illustrates what Ibn Batuta says of the Old Dog who guides: “The best-trained and most intelligent dog is often yoked in front.... He often displays extraordinary sagacity and influence over the other dogs, e.g. in keeping them from breaking after game. In such a case he will sometimes turn and bark in the opposite direction; ... and in crossing a naked and boundless taundra in darkness or snow-drift he will guess his way to a hut that he has never visited but once before” (I. 159). Kennan also says: “They are guided and controlled entirely by the voice and by a lead-dog, who is especially trained for the purpose.” The like is related of the Esquimaux dogs. (Kennan’s Tent Life in Siberia, pp. 163–164; Wood’s Mammalia, p. 266.)

Note 4.—On the Erculin and Ercolin of the G. T., written Arculin in next chapter, Arcolino of Ramusio, Herculini of Pipino, no light is thrown by the Italian or other editors. One supposes of course some animal of the ermine or squirrel kinds affording valuable fur, but I can find no similar name of any such animal. It may be the Argali or Siberian Wild Sheep, which Rubruquis mentions: “I saw another kind of beast which is called Arcali; its body is just like a ram’s, and its horns spiral like a ram’s also, only they are so big that I could scarcely lift a pair of them with one hand. They make huge drinking-vessels out of these” (p. 230). [See I. p. 177.]

Vair, so often mentioned in mediæval works, appears to have been a name appropriate to the fur as prepared rather than to the animal. This appears to have been the Siberian squirrel called in French petit-gris, the back of which is of a fine grey and the belly of a brilliant white. In the Vair (which is perhaps only varius or variegated) the backs and bellies were joined in a kind of checquer; whence the heraldic checquer called by the same name. There were two kinds, menu-vair corrupted into minever, and gros-vair, but I cannot learn clearly on what the distinction rested. (See Douet d’Arcq, p. xxxv.) Upwards of 2000 ventres de menuvair were sometimes consumed in one complete suit of robes (ib. xxxii.).

The traps used by the Siberian tribes to take these valuable animals are described by Erman (I. 452), only in the English translation the description is totally incomprehensible; also in Wrangell, I. 151.

Note 5.—The country chiefly described in this chapter is probably that which the Russians, and also the Arabian Geographers, used to term Yugria, apparently the country of the Ostyaks on the Obi. The winter-dwellings of the people are not, strictly speaking, underground, but they are flanked with earth piled up against the walls. The same is the case with those of the Yakuts in Eastern Siberia, and these often have the floors also sunk 3 feet in the earth. Habitations really subterranean, of some previous race, have been found in the Samoyed country. (Klaproth’s Mag. Asiatique, II. 66.)

CHAPTER XXI.

Still further north, and a long way beyond that kingdom of which I have spoken, there is a region which bears the name of Darkness, because neither sun nor moon nor stars appear, but it is always as dark as with us in the twilight. The people have no king of their own, nor are they subject to any foreigner, and live like beasts. [They are dull of understanding, like half-witted persons.{1}]

The Tartars however sometimes visit the country, and they do it in this way. They enter the region riding mares that have foals, and these foals they leave behind. After taking all the plunder that they can get they find their way back by help of the mares, which are all eager to get back to their foals, and find the way much better than their riders could do.{2}

Those people have vast quantities of valuable peltry; thus they have those costly Sables of which I spoke, and they have the Ermine, the Arculin, the Vair, the Black Fox, and many other valuable furs. They are all hunters by trade, and amass amazing quantities of those furs. And the people who are on their borders, where the Light is, purchase all those furs from them; for the people of the Land of Darkness carry the furs to the Light country for sale, and the merchants who purchase these make great gain thereby, I assure you.{3}

The people of this region are tall and shapely, but very pale and colourless. One end of the country borders upon Great Rosia. And as there is no more to be said about it, I will now proceed, and first I will tell you about the Province of Rosia.

Note 1.—In the Ramusian version we have a more intelligent representation of the facts regarding the Land of Darkness: “Because for most part of the winter months the sun appears not, and the air is dusky, as it is just before the dawn when you see and yet do not see;” and again below it speaks of the inhabitants catching the fur animals “in summer when they have continuous daylight.” It is evident that the writer of this version did and the writer of the original French which we have translated from did not understand what he was writing. The whole of the latter account implies belief in the perpetuity of the darkness. It resembles Pliny’s hazy notion of the northern regions:[1] “pars mundi damnata a rerum naturâ et densâ mersa caligine.” Whether the fault is due to Rustician’s ignorance or is Polo’s own, who can say? We are willing to debit it to the former, and to credit Marco with the improved version in Ramusio. In the Masálak-al-Absár, however, we have the following passage in which the conception is similar: “Merchants do not ascend (the Wolga) beyond Bolghar; from that point they make excursions through the province of Julman (supposed to be the country on the Kama and Viatka). The merchants of the latter country penetrate to Yughra, which is the extremity of the North. Beyond that you see no trace of habitation except a great Tower built by Alexander, after which there is nothing but Darkness.” The narrator of this, being asked what he meant, said: “It is a region of desert mountains, where frost and snow continually reign, where the sun never shines, no plant vegetates, and no animal lives. Those mountains border on the Dark Sea, on which rain falls perpetually, fogs are ever dense, and the sun never shows itself, and on tracts perpetually covered with snow.” (N. et Ex. XIII. i. 285.)

Note 2.—This is probably a story of great antiquity, for it occurs in the legends of the mythical Ughuz, Patriarch of the Turk and Tartar nations, as given by Rashiduddin. In this hero’s campaign towards the far north, he had ordered the old men to be left behind near Almalik; but a very ancient sage called Bushi Khwaja persuaded his son to carry him forward in a box, as they were sure sooner or later to need the counsel of experienced age. When they got to the land of Kará Hulun, Ughuz and his officers were much perplexed about finding their way, as they had arrived at the Land of Darkness. The old Bushi was then consulted, and his advice was that they should take with them 4 mares and 9 she-asses that had foals, and tie up the foals at the entrance to the Land of Darkness, but drive the dams before them. And when they wished to return they would be guided by the scent and maternal instinct of the mares and she-asses. And so it was done. (See Erdmann Temudschin, p. 478.) Ughuz, according to the Mussulman interpretation of the Eastern Legends, was the great-grandson of Japhet.

The story also found its way into some of the later Greek forms of the Alexander Legends. Alexander, when about to enter the Land of Darkness, takes with him only picked young men. Getting into difficulties, the King wants to send back for some old sage who should advise. Two young men had smuggled their old father with them in anticipation of such need, and on promise of amnesty they produce him. He gives the advice to use the mares as in the text. (See Müller’s ed. of Pseudo-Callisthenes, Bk. II. ch. xxxiv.)

Note 3.—Ibn Batuta thus describes the traffic that took place with the natives of the Land of Darkness: “When the Travellers have accomplished a journey of 40 days across this Desert tract they encamp near the borders of the Land of Darkness. Each of them then deposits there the goods that he has brought with him, and all return to their quarters. On the morrow they come back to look at their goods, and find laid beside them skins of the Sable, the Vair, and the Ermine. If the owner of the goods is satisfied with what is laid beside his parcel he takes it, if not he leaves it there. The inhabitants of the Land of Darkness may then (on another visit) increase the amount of their deposit, or, as often happens, they may take it away altogether and leave the goods of the foreign merchants untouched. In this way is the trade conducted. The people who go thither never know whether those with whom they buy and sell are men or goblins, for they never see any one!” (II. 401.)

[“Ibn Batuta’s account of the market of the ‘Land of Darkness’ ... agrees almost word for word with Dr. Mirth’s account of the ‘Spirit Market, taken from the Chinese.’” (Parker, China Review, XIV. p. 359.)—H. C.]

Abulfeda gives exactly the same account of the trade; and so does Herberstein. Other Oriental writers ascribe the same custom to the Wisu, a people three months’ journey from Bolghar. These Wisu have been identified by Fraehn with the Wesses, a people spoken of by Russian historians as dwelling on the shores of the Bielo Osero, which Lake indeed is alleged by a Russian author to have been anciently called Wüsu, misunderstood into Weissensee, and thence rendered into Russian Bielo Osero (“White Lake”). (Golden Horde, App. p. 429; Büsching, IV. 359–360; Herberstein in Ram. II. 168 v.; Fraehn, Bolghar, pp. 14, 47; Do., Ibn Fozlan, 205 seqq., 221.) Dumb trade of the same kind is a circumstance related of very many different races and periods, e.g., of a people beyond the Pillars of Hercules by Herodotus, of the Sabaean dealers in frankincense by Theophrastus, of the Seres by Pliny, of the Sasians far south of Ethiopia by Cosmas, of the people of the Clove Islands by Kazwini, of a region beyond Segelmessa by Mas’udi, of a people far beyond Timbuctoo by Cadamosto, of the Veddas of Ceylon by Marignolli and more modern writers, of the Poliars of Malabar by various authors, by Paulus Jovius of the Laplanders, etc. etc.

Pliny’s attribution, surely erroneous, of this custom to the Chinese [see supra, H. C.], suggests that there may have been a misunderstanding by which this method of trade was confused with that other curious system of dumb higgling, by the pressure of the knuckles under a shawl, a masonic system in use from Peking to Bombay, and possibly to Constantinople.

The term translated here “Light,” and the “Light Country,” is in the G. T. “a la Carte,” “a la Cartes.” This puzzled me for a long time, as I see it puzzled Mr. Hugh Murray, Signor Bartoli, and Lazari (who passes it over). The version of Pipino, “ad Lucis terras finitimas deferunt,” points to the true reading;—Carte is an error for Clarté.

The reading of this chapter is said to have fired Prince Rupert with the scheme which resulted in the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

CHAPTER XXII.

Rosia is a very great province, lying towards the north. The people are Christians, and follow the Greek doctrine. There are several kings in the country, and they have a language of their own. They are a people of simple manners, but both men and women very handsome, being all very white and [tall, with long fair hair]. There are many strong defiles and passes in the country; and they pay tribute to nobody except to a certain Tartar king of the Ponent, whose name is Toctai; to him indeed they pay tribute, but only a trifle. It is not a land of trade, though to be sure they have many fine and valuable furs, such as Sables, in abundance, and Ermine, Vair, Ercolin, and Fox skins, the largest and finest in the world [and also much wax]. They also possess many Silver-mines, from which they derive a large amount of silver.{1}

There is nothing else worth mentioning; so let us leave Rosia, and I will tell you about the Great Sea, and what provinces and nations lie round about it, all in detail; and we will begin with Constantinople.—First, however, I should tell you of a province that lies between north and north-west. You see in that region that I have been speaking of, there is a province called Lac, which is conterminous with Rosia, and has a king of its own. The people are partly Christians and partly Saracens. They have abundance of furs of good quality, which merchants export to many countries. They live by trade and handicrafts.{2}

There is nothing more worth mentioning, so I will speak of other subjects; but there is one thing more to tell you about Rosia that I had forgotten. You see in Rosia there is the greatest cold that is to be found anywhere, so great as to be scarcely bearable. The country is so great that it reaches even to the shores of the Ocean Sea, and ’tis in that sea that there are certain islands in which are produced numbers of gerfalcons and peregrine falcons, which are carried in many directions. From Russia also to Oroech it is not very far, and the journey could be soon made, were it not for the tremendous cold; but this renders its accomplishment almost impossible.{3}

Now then let us speak of the Great Sea, as I was about to do. To be sure many merchants and others have been there, but still there are many again who know nothing about it, so it will be well to include it in our Book. We will do so then, and let us begin first with the Strait of Constantinople.

Note 1.—Ibn Fozlan, the oldest Arabic author who gives any detailed account of the Russians (and a very remarkable one it is), says he “never saw people of form more perfectly developed; they were tall as palm-trees, and ruddy of countenance,” but at the same time “the most uncleanly people that God hath created,” drunken, and frightfully gross in their manners. (Fraehn’s Ibn Fozlan, p. 5 seqq.) Ibn Batuta is in some respects less flattering; he mentions the silver-mines noticed in our text: “At a day’s distance from Ukak[1] are the hills of the Russians, who are Christians. They have red hair and blue eyes; ugly to look at, and crafty to deal with. They have silver-mines, and it is from their country that are brought the saum or ingots of silver with which buying and selling is carried on in this country (Kipchak or the Ponent of Polo). The weight of each saumah is 5 ounces” (II. 414). Mas’udi also says: “The Russians have in their country a silver-mine similar to that which exists in Khorasan, at the mountain of Banjhir” (i.e. Panjshir; II. 15; and see supra, vol. i. p. 161). These positive and concurrent testimonies as to Russian silver-mines are remarkable, as modern accounts declare that no silver is found in Russia. And if we go back to the 16th century, Herberstein says the same. There was no silver, he says, except what was imported; silver money had been in use barely 100 years; previously they had used oblong ingots of the value of a ruble, without any figure or legend. (Ram. II. 159.)

But a welcome communication from Professor Bruun points out that the statement of Ibn Batuta identifies the silver-mines in question with certain mines of argentiferous lead-ore near the River Mious (a river falling into the sea of Azof, about 22 miles west of Taganrog); an ore which even in recent times has afforded 60 per cent. of lead, and ¹⁄₂₄ per cent. of silver. And it was these mines which furnished the ancient Russian rubles or ingots. Thus the original ruble was the saumah of Ibn Batuta, the sommo of Pegolotti. A ruble seems to be still called by some term like saumah in Central Asia; it is printed soom in the Appendix to Davies’s Punjab Report, p. xi. And Professor Bruun tells me that the silver ruble is called Som by the Ossethi of Caucasus.[2]

Franc.-Michel quotes from Fitz-Stephen’s Desc. of London (temp. Henry II.):—

“Aurum mittit Arabs ...

Seres purpureas vestes; Galli sua vina;

Norwegi, Russi, varium, grysium, sabelinas.”

Russia was overrun with fire and sword as far as Tver and Torshok by Batu Khan (1237–1238), some years before his invasion of Poland and Silesia. Tartar tax-gatherers were established in the Russian cities as far north as Rostov and Jaroslawl, and for many years Russian princes as far as Novgorod paid homage to the Mongol Khans in their court at Sarai. Their subjection to the Khans was not such a trifle as Polo seems to imply; and at least a dozen Russian princes met their death at the hands of the Mongol executioner.

Mediæval Russian Church. (From Fergusson.)

Note 2.—The Lac of this passage appears to be Wallachia. Abulfeda calls the Wallachs Aulák; Rubruquis Illac, which he says is the same word as Blac (the usual European form of those days being Blachi, Blachia), but the Tartars could not pronounce the B (p. 275). Abulghazi says the original inhabitants of Kipchak were the Urús, the Olaks, the Majars, and the Bashkirs.

Rubruquis is wrong in placing Illac or Wallachs in Asia; at least the people near the Ural, who he says were so-called by the Tartars, cannot have been Wallachs. Professor Bruun, who corrects my error in following Rubruquis, thinks those Asiatic Blac must have been Polovtzi, or Cumanians.

[Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, p. 130, note) writes: “A branch of the Volga Bulgars occupied the Moldo-Vallach country in about A.D. 485, but it was not until the first years of the 6th century that a portion of them passed the Danube under the leadership of Asparuk, and established themselves in the present Bulgaria, Friar William’s ‘Land of Assan.’”—H. C.]

Note 3.—Oroech is generally supposed to be a mistake for Noroech, Norwege or Norway, which is probable enough. But considering the Asiatic sources of most of our author’s information, it is also possible that Oroech represents Wareg. The Waraegs or Warangs are celebrated in the oldest Russian history as a race of warlike immigrants, of whom came Rurik, the founder of the ancient royal dynasty, and whose name was long preserved in that of the Varangian guards at Constantinople. Many Eastern geographers, from Al Biruni downwards, speak of the Warag or Warang as a nation dwelling in the north, on the borders of the Slavonic countries, and on the shores of a great arm of the Western Ocean, called the Sea of Warang, evidently the Baltic. The Waraegers are generally considered to have been Danes or Northmen, and Erman mentions that in the bazaars of Tobolsk he found Danish goods known as Varaegian. Mr. Hyde Clark, as I learn from a review, has recently identified the Warangs or Warings with the Varini, whom Tacitus couples with the Angli, and has shown probable evidence for their having taken part in the invasion of Britain. He has also shown that many points of the laws which they established in Russia were purely Saxon in character. (Bayer in Comment. Acad. Petropol. IV. 276 seqq.; Fraehn in App. to Ibn Fozlan, p. 177 seqq.; Erman, I. 374; Sat. Review, 19th June, 1869; Gold. Horde, App. p. 428.)