ty. But the Jesuit maps have a _Modun Khotan_ ("Wood-ville")
just about the locality supposed, viz. in the region north of the eastern
extremity of the Great Wall.
[Captain Gill writes (_River of Golden Sand_, I. p. 111): "This country
around Urh-Chuang is admirably described [in _Marco Polo_, pp. 403, 406],
and I should almost imagine that the Kaan must have set off south-east
from Peking, and enjoyed some of his hawking not far from here, before he
travelled to Cachar Modun, wherever that may have been."
"With respect to Cachar Modun, Marco Polo intends perhaps by this name
Ho-si wu, which place, together with Yang-ts'un, were comprised in the
general name _Ma t'ou_ (perhaps the _Modun_ of M. Polo). Ma-t'ou is even
now a general term for a jetty in Chinese. Ho-si in the Mongol spelling
was Ha-shin. D'Ohsson, in his translation of Rashid-eddin renders _Ho-si_
by _Co-shi_ (_Hist. des Mongols_, I. p. 95), but Rashid in that case
speaks not of Ho-si wu, but of the Tangut Empire, which in Chinese was
called Ho-si, meaning west of the (Yellow) River. (See supra, p. 205).
Ho-si wu, as well as Yang-ts'un, both exist even now as villages on the
Pei-ho River, and near the first ancient walls can be seen. Ho-si wu means:
'Custom's barrier west of the (Pei-ho) river.'" (_Palladius_, p. 45.) This
identification cannot be accepted on account of the position of Ho-si wu.
--H. C.]
NOTE 7.--I suppose the best accessible illustration of the Kaan's great
tent may be that in which the Emperor Kienlung received Lord Macartney in
the same region in 1793, of which one view is given in Staunton's plates.
Another exists in the Staunton Collection in the B. M., of which I give a
reduced sketch.
Kublai's great tent, after all, was but a fraction of the size of Akbar's
audience-tents, the largest of which held 10,000 people, and took 1000
_farrashes_ a week's work to pitch it, with machines. But perhaps the
manner of _holding_ people is differently estimated. (_Ain Akb._ 53.)
In the description of the tent-poles, Pauthier's text has "_trois
coulombes de fust_ de pieces _moult bien encuierees_," etc. The G. T. has
"_de leing_ d'especies _mout bien cures_," etc. The Crusca, "_di_ spezie
_molto belle_," and Ramusio going off at a tangent, "_di legno intagliate
con grandissimo artificio e indorate_." I believe the translation in the
text to indicate the true reading. It might mean camphor-wood, or the
like. The tent-covering of tiger-skins
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