ince _on the confines_ of India, as being under
the same king as Mien, as lying to the south of that kingdom, and as being
at the (south) western extremity of a great traverse line which runs
(north) east into Kwei-chau and Sze-ch'wan. All these conditions point
consistently to one locality; that, however, is not Bengal but _Pegu_. On
the other hand, the circumstances of manners and products, so far as they
go, _do_ belong to Bengal. I conceive that Polo's information regarding
these was derived from persons who had really visited Bengal by sea, but
that he had confounded what he so heard of the Delta of the Ganges with
what he heard on the Yun-nan frontier of the Delta of the Irawadi. It is
just the same kind of error that is made about those great Eastern Rivers
by Fra Mauro in his Map. And possibly the name of Pegu (in Burmese
_Bagoh_) may have contributed to his error, as well as the probable fact
that the Kings of Burma did at this time _claim_ to be Kings of Bengal,
whilst they actually _were_ Kings of Pegu.

_Caugigu_.--We have seen reason to agree with M. Pauthier that the
description of this region points to Laos, though we cannot with him
assign it to Kiang-mai. Even if it be identical with the Papesifu of the
Chinese, we have seen that the centre of that state may be placed at Muang
Yong not far from the Mekong; whilst I believe that the limits of Caugigu
must be drawn much nearer the Chinese and Tungking territory, so as to
embrace Kiang Hung, and probably the _Papien_ River. (See note at p. 117.)

As regards the name, it is _possible_ that it may represent some specific
name of the Upper Laos territory. But I am inclined to believe that we are
dealing with a case of erroneous geographical perspective like that of
Bangala; and that whilst the _circumstances_ belong to Upper Laos, the
_name_, read as I read it, _Caugigu_ (or Cavgigu), is no other than the
_Kafchikue_ of Rashiduddin, the name applied by him to Tungking, and
representing the KIAOCHI-KWE of the Chinese. D'Anville's Atlas brings
Kiaochi up to the Mekong in immediate contact with Che-li or Kiang Hung. I
had come to the conclusion that Caugigu was _probably_ the correct reading
before I was aware that it is an _actual_ reading of the Geog. Text more
than once, of Pauthier's A more than once, of Pauthier's C _at least_ once
and possibly twice, and of the Bern MS.; all which I have ascertained from
personal examination of those manuscripts.[1]

_Ani