Latest / The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 1 / 031 - Book First Chapters 55 to 58 Concerning the administering of justice among the Tartars Sundry partic

Transcript

031 - Book First Chapters 55 to 58 Concerning the administering of justice among the Tartars Sundry partic · The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 1

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section thirty one of the Book of Sir Marco Polo,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the Venetian concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Lynn Thompson. The
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Book of Sir Marco Polo, the Venetian concerning the Kingdoms
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and Marvels of the East, Volume one by Rasticello da Pisa,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: translated by Henry Yule, Section thirty one, Book first chapters
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: fifty five to fifty eight concerning the administering of Justice
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: among the Tartars Sundry, particulars on the plain beyond Caracoran
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of the Kingdom of Oguil and province of Sindu of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Egrigaya. Book first chapter fifty five, concerning
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the administering of Justice among the Tartars. The way they
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: administer justice is this, when any one has committed a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: petty theft, they give him, under the orders of authority,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: seven blows of a stick, or seventeen or twenty seven,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: or thirty seven or forty seven, and so forth, always
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: increasing by tens in proportion to the injury done, and
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: running up to one hundred and seven of these beatings.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they die, but if the offense be horse stealing
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: or some other great matter, they cut the thief in
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: two with a sword. Howbeit if he be able to
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: ransom himself by paying nine times the value of the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: things stolen, he is let off. Every lord or other
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: person who possesses beasts has them marked with his peculiar brand,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: be they horses, mares, camels, oxen, cows, or other great cattle,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and then they are sent abroad to grave over the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: plains without any keeper. They get all mixed together, but
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: eventually every beast is recovered by means of its owner's brand,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: which is known. For their sheep and goats, they have shepherds.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: All their cattle are remarkably fine, big, and in good condition.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: They have another notable custom, which is this, if any
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: man have a daughter who dies before marriage, and another
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: man have had a son also die before marriage, the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: parents of the two arrange a grand wedding between the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: dead lad and lass and marry. Then they do making
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a regular contract, and when the contract papers are made out,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: they put them in the fire in order as they
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: will have it, that the parties in the other world
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: may know the fact, and so look on each other
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: as man and wife, and the parents thenceforward consider themselves
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: sip to each other, just as if their children had
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: lived and married. Whatever may be a read on between
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the parties as dowry, those who have to pay it
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: cause to be painted on pieces of paper, and then
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: put these in the fire, saying that in that way
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the dead person will get all the real articles in
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the other world. Now I have told you all about
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the manners and customs of the Tartars, but you have
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: heard nothing yet of the great state of the Grand Khan,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: who is the lord of all the Tartars, and of
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Imperial Court, or that I will tell you
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: in this book in proper time and place. But meanwhile
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I must return to my story which I left off
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: in that great plain when we began to speak of
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the Tatars book first chapter fifty six Sundry particulars of
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the plain beyond Caracoron. And when you leave Caracoron and
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the altae in which they bury the bodies of the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Tartar sovereigns, as I told you, you go north for
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: forty days till you reach a country called the Plain
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: of Bargu. The people there are called Mescript. They are
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a very wild race and live by their cattle, the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: most of which are stags, And these stags, I assure you,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: they use to ride upon. Their customs are like those
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of the Tartars, and they are subject to the Great Khan.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: They have neither corn nor wine. They get birds for food,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: for the country is full of lakes and pools and marshes,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: which are much frequented by the birds. When they are malting,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and when they have quite cast their feathers and can't fly,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: those people catch them. They also live partly on fish.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: And when you have traveled forty days over this great plain,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you come to the ocean at the place where the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: mountains are, in which the peregrine falcons have their nests.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: And in those mountains it is so cold that you
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: find neither man, nor woman, nor beast nor bird, except
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: one kind of bird called barge lak, on which the
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: falc feed. They are as big as partridges, and have
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: feet like those of parrots and a tail like as swallows,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and are very strong in flight. And when the grand
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: calm wants peregrines from the nest, he sends thither to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: procure them. It is also on islands in that sea
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: that the gerfalcons are bred. You must know that the
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: place is so far to the north that you leave
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the North Star somewhat behind you towards the south. The
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: gerfalcons are so abundant there that the Emperor can have
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: as many as he likes to send for. And you
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: must not suppose that those gerfalcons which the Christians carry
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: into the Tatar dominions go to the Great Khan. They
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: are carried only to the Prince of the Levant. Now
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I have told you all about the provinces northward as
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: far as the ocean sea, beyond which there is no
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: more land at all. So I shall proceed to tell
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: you of the other provinces on the way to the
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Grand Khan. Let us then return to that province of
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: which I spoke before, called Campichu, book first chapter fifty
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: seven of the Kingdom of Ergriel and Province of Sindhu.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: On leaving Campichu, then you travel five days across a
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: tract in which many spirits are heard speaking in the
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: night season. And at the end of those five marches.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Towards the east, you come to a kingdom called Erguil,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: belonging to the Great Khan. It is one of the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: several kingdoms which make up the great Province of Tangut.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: The people consist of Nestorian Christians, Idolatas and worshippers of Muhammet.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: There are plenty of cities in this kingdom, but the
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: capital is called Ergril. You can travel in a southeast
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: silly direction from this place into the province of Cathay.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Should you follow that road to the southeast, you come
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: to a city called Sindju, belonging also to Tango and
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: subject to the Great Calm, which has under it many
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: towns and villages. The population is composed of Idolatas and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: worshipers of Muhammet, but there are some Christians also. There
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: are wild cattle in that country, almost as big as elephants,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: splendid creatures covered everywhere but on the back, with shaggy
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: hair a good four palms long. They are partly black,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: partly white, and really wonderfully fine creatures. And the hair
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: or wool is extremely fine and white, finer and whiter
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: than silk. Messer Marco brought some to venice as a
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: great curiosity, and so it was reckoned by those who
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: saw it. There are plenty of them tame, which have
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: been caught young. They also cross these with the common cow,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and the cattle from this cross are wonderful beasts and
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: better for work than other animals. These the people use
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: commonly for burden and general work, and in the plow
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: as well, and at the latter they will do full
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: twice as much work as any other cattle, being such
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: very strong beasts. In this country too is found the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: best musk in the world, and I will tell you
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: how tis produced. There exists in that region a kind
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: of wild animal like a gazelle. It has feet and
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: tail like the gazelle's, and stags hair of a very
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: coarse kind, but no horns. It has four tusks, two
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: below and two above, about three inches long and slender
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: in form, one pair growing upwards and the other downwards.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: It is a very pretty creature. The musk is found
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: in this way. When the creature has been taken, they
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: find at the navel, between the flesh and the skin
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: something like an impostume full of blood, which they cut
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: out and remove with all the skin attached to it,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: and the blood inside this impostume is the musk that
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: produces that powerful perfume. There is an immense number of
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: these beasts in the country we are speaking of. The
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: flesh is very good to eat. Messer Marco brought the
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: dried head and feet of one of these animals to
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Venice with him. The people are traders and artisans, and
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: also grow abundance of corn. The province has an extent
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: of twenty six days journey. Pheasants are found there twice
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: as big as ours, indeed nearly as big as a peacock,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and having tails of seven to ten palms in length,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and besides them other pheasants in aspect like our own,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: and birds of many other kinds, and of beautiful variegated plumage.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The people who are idolators are fat folks, with little
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: noses and black hair, and no beard except a few
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: hairs on the upper lip. The women, too, have very
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: smooth and white skins, and in every respect are pretty creatures.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: The men are very sensual and marry many wives, which
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: is not forbidden by their religion. No matter how base
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: a woman's descent may be, if she have beauty, she
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: may find a husband among the greatest men in the land,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the man paying the girl's father and mother a great
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: sum of money according to the bargain that may be
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: made Book first, chapter fifty eight of the Kingdom of Egrigaya.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Starting again from Aguil, you ride eastward for eight days,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and then come to a province called Egrigaya, containing numerous
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: cities and villages, and belonging to Tangut. The capital city
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: is called Calachan. The people are chiefly idolatous, but there
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: are fine churches belonging to the Nestorian Christians. They are
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: all subjects of the great Khan. They make in the
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: city great quantities of kamlets of camel's wool, the finest
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: in the world. And some of the kamlets that they
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: make are white, for they have white camels. These are
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the best of all merchants. Purchase these stuffs here and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: carry them all over the world for sale. We shall
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: now proceed eastward from this place and enter the territory
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: that was formerly pressed to John's end of section thirty
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: one