7 miles) from Lan-chau, has
a population of about 30,000 nearly entirely Mahomedans with 24 mosques;
it is a "hot-bed of rebellion." _Salar-pa-kun_ means "the eight thousand
Salar families," or "the eight thousands of the Salar." The eight _kiun_
(Chinese _t'sun_? a village, a commune) constituting the Salar pa-kun are
Ka-tzu, the oldest and largest, said to have over 1300 families living in
it, Chang-chia, Nemen, Ch'ing-shui, Munta, Tsu-chi, Antasu and Ch'a-chia.
Besides these Salar kiun there are five outer (_wai_) kiun: Ts'a-pa,
Ngan-ssu-to, Hei-ch'eng, Kan-tu and Kargan, inhabited by a few Salar and a
mixed population of Chinese and T'u-ssu: each of these wai-wu kiun has,
theoretically, fifteen villages in it. Tradition says that the first Salar
who came to China (from Rum or Turkey) arrived in this valley in the third
year of Hung-wu of the Ming (1370). (_Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, Journey;
Grenard_, II. p. 457)--H.C.] (_Martini; Cathay_, 148, 269; _Petis de la
Croix_, III. 218; _Russian paper on the Dungen_, see supra, vol. i. p. 291;
_Williamson's North China_, u.s.; _Richthofen's Letters_, and MS. Notes.)

NOTE 4.--_Mangalai_, Kublai's third son, who governed the provinces of
Shen-si and Sze-ch'wan, with the title of _Wang_ or king (supra ch. ix.
note 2), died in 1280, a circumstance which limits the date of Polo's
journey to the west. It seems unlikely that Marco should have remained ten
years ignorant of his death, yet he seems to speak of him as still
governing.

[With reference to the translation of the oldest of the Chinese-Mongol
inscriptions known hitherto (1283) in the name of Ananda, King of Ngan-si,
Professor Deveria (_Notes d'Epigraphie Mongolo-Chinoise_, p. 9) writes: "In
1264, the Emperor Kublai created in this region [Shen si] the department of
Ngan-si chau, occupied by ten hordes of Si-fan (foreigners from the west).
All this country became in 1272, the apanage of the Imperial Prince
Mangala; this prince, third son of Kublai, had been invested with the title
of King of Ngan-si, a territory which included King-chao fu (modern Si-ngan
fu). His government extended hence over Ho-si (west of the Yellow River),
the T'u-po (Tibetans), and Sze-ch'wan. The following year (1273) Mangala
received from Kublai a second investiture, this of the Kingdom of Tsin,
which added to his domain part of Kan-Suh; he established his royal
residence at K'ia-ch'eng (modern Ku-yuan) in the Liu-p'an shan, while
King-chao re