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Marco Polo, Rustichello of Pisa - The Travels of Marco Polo, 1
prescription by Aetius of Amida, a physician practising at Constantinople about the same date.
(Martini, p. 39; Tav., Des Indes, Bk. II. ch. xxiv.; J. A. S. B. XI. 285; Davies's
Rep. App. p. ccxxxvii.; Dr. Flueckiger in Schweiz. Wochenschr. fuer Pharmacie, 1867;
Heyd, Commerce du Levant, II. 636-640.)
NOTE 5. - The China pheasant answering best to the indications in the text, appears to be Reeves's
Pheasant. Mr. Gould has identified this bird with Marco's in his magnificent Birds of Asia,
and has been kind enough to show me a specimen which, with the body, measured 6 feet 8 inches. The
tail feathers alone, however, are said to reach to 6 and 7 feet, so that Marco's ten palms was scarcely an
exaggeration. These tail-feathers are often seen on the Chinese stage in 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 Munal (Lopophorus impeyanus), but then that has no length of tail. The latter seems to
be the bird described by Aelian: "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; Ael. De Nat. An.
XVI. 2.) A species of Crossoptilon has recently been found by Captain Prjevalsky in Alashan, the
Egrigaia (as I believe) of next chapter, and one also by Abbe Armand David at the Koko Nor.
[See on the Phasianidae family in Central and Western Asia, David et Oustalet, Oiseaux de la
Chine, 401-421; the Phasianus Reevesii or veneratus is called by the Chinese of
Tung-lin, near Peking, Djeu-ky (hen-arrow); the Crossoptilon auritum is named
Ma-ky. - H. C.]
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.[NOTE 1] The capital city
is called CALACHAN.[NOTE 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.[NOTE 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,
1210-1211), 1218, and 1226-1227, 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 Uiraca, and the fortress of Imen, and laid siege to the capital, then called Chung-sing or
Chung-hing, now Ning-hsia.
Rashid, in a short notice of this campaign, calls the first city Erica, Erlaca, or, as
Erdmann has it, Artacki. In De Mailla it is Ulahai.
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