del deus generasions de la lengnee des celz_ Argon Tenduc et des celz
reduc et des celz que aorent Maomet. _Il sunt biaus homes plus que le
autre dou pais et plus sajes et plus mercaant_." Pauthier's text runs
thus: "_Il ont une generation de gens, ces Crestiens qui ont la
Seigneurie, qui s'appellent_ Argon, _qui vaut a dire_ Gasmul; _et sont
plus beaux hommes que les autres mescreans et plus sages. Et pour ce ont
il la seigneurie et sont bons marchans._" And Ramusio: "_Vi e anche una
sorte di gente che si chiamano_ Argon, _per che sono nati di due
generazioni_, cioe da quella di Tenduc che adorano gl' idoli, e da quella
che osservano la legge di Macometto. _E questi sono i piu belli uomini che
si trovino in quel paese e piu savi, e piu accorti nella mercanzia._"

In the first quotation the definition of the _Argon_ as sprung _de la
lengnee_, etc., is not intelligible as it stands, but seems to be a
corruption of the same definition that has been rendered by Ramusio, viz.
that the Argon were half-castes between the race of the Tenduc Buddhists
and that of the Mahomedan settlers. These two texts do not assert that the
Argon were Christians. Pauthier's text at first sight seems to assert
this, and to identify them with the Christian rulers of the province. But
I doubt if it means more than that the Christian _rulers have under them_
a people called Argon, etc. The passage has been read with a bias, owing
to an erroneous interpretation of the word _Argon_ in the teeth of Polo's
explanation of it.

Klaproth, I believe, first suggested that _Argon_ represents the term
_Arkhaiun_, which is found repeatedly applied to Oriental Christians, or
their clergy, in the histories of the Mongol era.[2] No quite satisfactory
explanation has been given of the origin of that term. It is barely
possible that it may be connected with that which Polo uses here; but he
tells us as plainly as possible that he means by the term, not a
Christian, but a _half-breed_.

And in this sense the word is still extant in Tibet, probably also in
Eastern Turkestan, precisely in Marco's form, ARGON. It is applied in
Ladak, as General Cunningham tells us, specifically to the mixt race
produced by the marriages of Kashmirian immigrants with Bot (Tibetan)
women. And it was apparently to an analogous cross between Caucasians and
Turanians that the term was applied in Tenduc. Moorcroft also speaks of
this class in Ladak, calling them _Argands_. Mr. Shaw styles