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.

NOTE 1.--No approximation to the name of Erguiul in an appropriate
position has yet been elicited from Chinese or other Oriental sources. We
cannot go widely astray as to its position, five days east of Kanchau.
Klaproth identifies it with Liangchau-fu; Pauthier with the neighbouring
city of Yungchang, on the ground that the latter was, in the time of
Kublai, the head of one of the _Lus_, or Circles, of Kansuh or Tangut,
which he has shown some reason for believing to be the "kingdoms" of
Marco.

It is probable, however, that the _town_ called by Polo Erguiul lay north
of both the cities named, and more in line with the position assigned
below to _Egrigaya_. (See note 1, ch. lviii.)

I may notice that the structure of the name Ergui-ul or Ergiu-ul, has a
look of analogy to that of _Tang-keu-ul_, named in the next note.

["Erguiul is Erichew of the Mongol text of the _Yuen ch'ao pi shi_,
Si-liang in the Chinese history, the modern _Liang chow fu_. Klaproth, on
the authority of Rashid-eddin, has already identified this name with that
of Si-liang." (_Palladius_, p. 18.) M. Bonin left Ning-h'ia at the end of
July, 1899, and he crossed the desert to Liangchau in fifteen days from
east to west; he is the first traveller who took this route: Prjevalsky
went westward, passing by the residence of the Prince of Alashan, and
Obrutchev followed the route south of Bonin's.--H. C.]

NOTE 2.--No doubt Marsden is right in identifying this with SINING-CHAU,
now Sining-fu, the Chinese city nearest to Tibet and the Kokonor frontier.
Grueber and Dorville, who passed it on their way to Lhasa, in 1661, call
it _urbs ingens_. Sining was visited also by Huc and Gabet, who are
unsatisfactory, as usually on geographical matters. They also call it "an
immense town," but thinly peopled, its commerce having been in part
transferred to Tang-keu-ul, a small town closer to the frontier.

[Sining belonged to the country called Hwang chung; in 1198, under the
Sung Dynasty, it was subjugated by the Chinese, and was named Si-ning
chau; at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (from 1368), it was named
Si-ning wei, and since 1726 Si-ning fu. (Cf. Gueluy, _Chine_, p. 62.) From
Liangchau, M. Bonin went to Sining through the Lao kou kau pass and the
Ta-Tung ho. O