[2] Charchan, Charcham, Carcam, Hiarkand, Jarkun, Jerket, Jerken, Urkend; such are the varieties in the editions of these travels, for the Yarkand of modern maps. This paragraph ought obviously to have followed the account of Cashgar.--E.
[3] Cotan, Cotam, Hotum, Khoten, Khotan, from which the useful material of manufacture, cotton, takes its name. But instead of being between the east and north-east direction from Yarkand, as in the text, or E.N.E. it is actually E.S.E.--E.
Proceeding through the same country, we come to the province of Peim, extending four days journey in length, and containing many towns and castles, the city of Peim being the chief, near which there is a river in which jaspers and chalcedonies and other valuable stones are found. The inhabitants, who are Mahometans, are expert manufacturers, and are subject to the great khan. There is a custom in this province, that when any married man goes to a distance from home, and remains absent for twenty days, it is lawful for his wife to marry another husband; and reciprocally, if the wife absents herself for twenty days, the husband may take another wife.
The next province, Ciascian[4], of which the chief city is named Sartan, is subject to the Tartars, and has many cities and castles. In its rivers abundance of jaspers, chalcedonies, and other fine stones are found, which are carried by merchants all the way to Ouchach or Kathay, and sold there with great profit From Peim to Sartem, and quite through this latter province, the soil is very sandy, having very little water, and that generally bad. When an army passes through this province, all the inhabitants take their wives and children, with all their cattle and valuables, two days journey into the sands, to places where they know that good water is to be found, and remain there till the army has quitted the country; after harvest also, they uniformly take all their corn into the desert, and hide it in pits, and the wind soon obliterates all traces of their footsteps, so that their enemies are unable to discover where they have deposited these precious hoards. After travelling for five days through the sands from this province, we arrive at the great city of Lop, which is at the entrance of a great desert called the Wilderness of Lop[5]. The inhabitants of this place are Mahometans, and are subject to the great khan. All the before-mentioned provinces, Cashgar, Yarkand, Koten, Peim, Sartem, and Lop, are in the bounds of Turkestan.
[4] Called likewise Ciarciam, Ciartiam, and Sartam, in different editions. --E.
[5] The journey from Sartem to Lop is obviously retrograde, and this course must have been pursued by the Polos for commercial purposes; perhaps for collecting those valuable stones which are mentioned by Marco as giving so much profit when sold in China.--E.
It requires a months journey to cross this desert from south to north, but to go through it lengthways would take up a whole year. Those who intend to cross the desert remain for some time in Lop, on purpose to prepare all necessaries for the journey, as no provisions are to be met with for a whole month. These, with their merchandize, are loaded on asses and camels, and if provisions fall short in the desert, the unfortunate travellers are reduced to the necessity of killing their beasts of burden for sustenance, preferring the asses for this purpose, as the camels can carry much heavier burdens, and are satisfied with less food. This journey is entirely through sands and barren mountains, in which water is found every day; yet at some of the resting places it is so scanty as hardly to suffice for a caravan of fifty of an hundred persons and their cattle. In three or four places the water is salt and bitter, but in all the rest of the journey it is very good. In the whole of this journey there are no beasts or birds to be seen. It is reported, that many evil spirits reside in the wilderness, which occasion wonderful illusions to travellers who happen unfortunately to lag behind their companions calling them even by their names, and causing them to stray farther from the right course, so that they lose their way and perish in the sands. In the night time also they hear noises as of their friends, and sometimes the sound of music is heard in the air, and people imagine that they hear the din of drums, as if armies were marching past. To avoid the danger of separation, the travellers in the desert keep close together, and hang bells about the necks of their beasts; and if any one stays behind, they set up marks in the route, that they may know how to follow.
Having crossed the desert of Lop, we come to the city of Sachion[6] or Sachiou, which is subject to the great khan, and is situated in the great country of Tangut. The inhabitants of this city are mostly idolaters, who have a peculiar language, mixed with a good many Mahometans, and some Nestorian Christians; this people are little addicted to merchandize or manufacture, and live on the products of their soil. In this city there are many temples, consecrated to various idols, with monasteries of priests devoted to the service of these false deities, to which numerous sacrifices are offered with great reverence. When a son is born to any person, he is immediately consecrated to the protection of some particular idol, and the father nourishes a sheep in his house for a year with great care; and on the anniversary day of that idol, he presents his son and the sheep as a sacrifice, with great reverence and many ceremonies, before the shrine of this tutelary deity. The flesh of the sheep is boiled and set before the idol during the continuance of the prayers and invocations, as an offering for the preservation and protection of the boy, and the idol is supposed to inhale the savour of the meat. After the religious ceremonies are finished, the meat is carried home to the father's dwelling, where all the kindred of the family are convened, and feasted with great joy and devotion; but the bones are religiously kept in certain appropriated vessels. The priests receive the head, feet, skin, and intrails, with a portion of the flesh for their share.
[6] Schatscheu, Tschat-scheu, or Chat-chou, on the Polonkir, which runs into the Hara lake.--E.
When a person of any estimation dies, his funerals are celebrated with much ceremony. An astrologer is sent for by the kindred, and informed of the year, month, day, and hour when the deceased was born, when he calculates the aspect of the constellation, and assigns the day when the burial is to take place, sometimes at the distance of seven days, or perhaps the planet may not have a favourable aspect for six months, during all which time the body is kept in the house. For this purpose a fit chest or coffin is provided, which is so artificially jointed that no noisome smell can escape, and in this the body is placed, having been previously embalmed with spices. The coffin is ornamented with painting, and is covered over with an embroidered cloth. Every day, while the body remains unburied, a table is spread near the coffin, and set out with meat, bread, and wine, which remains for as long a time as a living person would require to eat and drink, and the soul of the deceased is supposed to feed upon the savour. The astrologers sometimes forbid the body to be carried out for interment at the principal door of the house, pretending to be regulated in this by the stars, and order it to be carried out by some other way; or will even command a passage to be broken out in the opposite wall of the house, to propitiate the adverse planet. And if any one object to this, they allege that the spirit of the dead would be offended, and would occasion injury to the family. When the body is carried through the city to be buried, wooden cottages are built at certain distances by the way, having porches covered with silk, in which the coffin is set down, with a table spread out with bread and wine and delicate viands, that the spirit of the dead may be refreshed with the savour. When the body is carried to the place of the funeral, a number of pieces of paper, made of the bark of trees, curiously painted with figures of men and women servants, horses, camels, money, and garments of all kinds are carried in procession, all the instruments of music in the city sounding as the cavalcade moves along; and all these pieces of painted paper are burned in the same funeral pile with the body, under the idea that the deceased will have as many servants, cattle, and garments in the next world, and as much money, as there were pictures of these things burnt along with his body, and shall live perpetually hereafter in the enjoyment of all these things[7].
[7] It is highly probable that this emblematical representation had been substituted by some humane legislator or conqueror, in place of the actual sacrifice of the servants, cattle, and goods themselves, which we are well assured was once the practice among many rude nations, in honour of their deceased great men.--E.
SECTION VII.
Of the Province of Chamil and several other Countries on the road