The Tartar Justice System

CHAPTER 55. The administering of Justice among the Tartars

When any one has committed a petty theft, they give him, under the orders of authority, 7 blows of a stick, or seventeen, or twenty-seven, or thirty-seven, or forty-seven, and so forth, always increasing by tens in proportion to the injury done, and running up to one hundred and seven.

Of these beatings sometimes they die.

But if the offence be horse-stealing, or some other great matter, they cut the thief in two with a sword. Howbeit, if he be able to ransom himself by paying nine times the value of the thing stolen, he is let off.

Every Lord or other person who possesses beasts has them marked with his peculiar brand, be they horses, mares, camels, oxen, cows, or other great cattle, and then they are sent abroad to graze over the plains without any keeper.

They get all mixt together, but eventually every beast is recovered by means of its owner’s brand, which is known. For their sheep and goats they have shepherds. All their cattle are remarkably fine, big, and in good condition.{2}

If any man have a daughter who dies before marriage, and another man have had a son also die before marriage, the parents of the two arrange a grand wedding between the dead lad and lass.

And marry them they do, making a regular contract! And when the contract papers are made out they put them in the fire, in order (as they will have it) that the parties in the other world may know the fact, and so look on each other as man and wife.

The parents thenceforward consider themselves sib to each other, just as if their children had lived and married. Whatever may be agreed on between the parties as dowry, those who have to pay it cause to be painted on pieces of paper and then put these in the fire, saying that in that way the dead person will get all the real articles in the other world.{3}

CHAPTER 51. Sundry Particulars of the Plain beyond Caracoron

When you leave Caracoron and the Altay, in which they bury the bodies of the Tartar Sovereigns, as I told you, you go north for forty days till you reach a country called the Plain of Bargu.

The people there are called Mescript; they are a very wild race, and live by their cattle, the most of which are stags, and these stags, I assure you, they used to ride upon. Their customs are like those of the Tartars, and they are subject to the Great Kaan.

They have neither corn nor wine. [They get birds for food, for the country is full of lakes and pools and marshes, which are much frequented by the birds when they are moulting, and when they have quite cast their feathers and can’t fly, those people catch them. They also live partly on fish.

When you have travelled forty days over this great plain you come to the ocean, at the place where the mountains are in which the Peregrine falcons have their nests. And in those mountains it is so cold that you find neither man or woman, nor beast nor bird, except one kind of bird called Barguerlac, on which the falcons feed.

They are as big as partridges, and have feet like those of parrots and a tail like a swallow’s, 270and are very strong in flight. And when the Grand Kaan wants Peregrines from the nest, he sends thither to procure them.{3} It is also on islands in that sea that the Gerfalcons are bred.

You must know that the place is so far to the north that you leave the North Star somewhat behind you towards the south! The gerfalcons are so abundant there that the Emperor can have as many as he likes to send for. And you must not suppose that those gerfalcons which the Christians carry into the Tartar dominions go to the Great Kaan; they are carried only to the Prince of the Levant.{4}

Now I have told you all about the provinces northward as far as the Ocean Sea, beyond which there is no more land at all; so I shall proceed to tell you of the other provinces on the way to the Great Kaan. Let us, then, return to that province of which I spoke before, called Campichu.

CHAPTER 57. 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.

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.{1}

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.{2} 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, 275and the cattle from this cross are 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.{3}

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.{4}]

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.{5} 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 276and 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 the land, the man paying the girl’s father and mother a great sum of money, according to the bargain that may be made.

CHAPTER 58. 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.{1}

The capital city is called Calachan.{2} 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.