CONCERNING THE KAAN’S PALACE OF CHAGANNOR.
At the end of those three days you find a city called CHAGAN NOR [which
is as much as to say White Pool], at which there is a great Palace
of the Grand Kaan’s;{1} and he likes much to reside there on account
of the Lakes and Rivers in the neighbourhood, which are the haunt of
swans{2} and of a great variety of other birds. The adjoining plains
too abound with cranes, partridges, pheasants, and other game birds, so
that the Emperor takes all the more delight in staying there, in order
to go a-hawking with his gerfalcons and other falcons, a sport of which
he is very fond.{3}
There are five different kinds of cranes found in those tracts, as I
shall tell you. First, there is one which is very big, and all over
as black as a crow; the second kind again is all white, and is the
biggest of all; its wings are really beautiful, for they are adorned
with round eyes like those of a peacock, but of a resplendent golden
colour, whilst the head is red and black on a white ground. The third
kind is the same as ours. The fourth is a small kind, having at the
ears beautiful long pendent feathers of red and black. The fifth kind
is grey all over and of great size, with a handsome head, red and
black.{4}
Near this city there is a valley in which the Emperor has had several
little houses erected in which he keeps in mew a huge number of
_cators_, which are what we call the Great Partridge. You would be
astonished to see what a quantity there are, with men to take charge
of them. So whenever the Kaan visits the place he is furnished with as
many as he wants.{5}
NOTE 1.—[According to the _Siu t’ung kien_, quoted by Palladius,
the palace in Chagannor was built in 1280.—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—“_Ou demeurent_ sesnes.” _Sesnes, Cesnes, Cecini, Cesanae_,
is a mediæval form of _cygnes, cigni_, which seems to have escaped
the dictionary-makers. It occurs in the old Italian version of
_Brunetto Latini’s Tresor_, Bk. V. ch. xxv., as _cecino_; and for
other examples, see _Cathay_, p. 125.
NOTE 3.—The city called by Polo CHAGAN-NOR (meaning in Mongol, as
he says, “White Lake”) is the _Chaghan Balghasun_ mentioned by
Timkowski as an old city of the Mongol era, the ruined rampart of
which he passed about 30 miles north of the Great Wall at Kalgan,
and some 55 miles from Siuen-hwa, adjoining the Imperial pastures.
It stands near a lake still called Chaghan-Nor, and is called by
the Chinese Pe-ching-tzu, or White City, a translation of Chaghan
Balghasun. Dr. Bushell says of one of the lakes (Ichi-Nor), a few
miles east of Chaghan-Nor: “We ... found the water black with
waterfowl, which rose in dense flocks, and filled the air with
discordant noises. _Swans_, geese, and ducks predominated, and
_three different species of cranes_ were distinguished.”
The town appears as _Tchahan Toloho_ in D’Anville. It is also,
I imagine, the _Arulun Tsaghan Balghasun_ which S. Setzen says
Kúblái built about the same time with Shangtu and another city “on
the shady side of the Altai,” by which here he seems to mean the
Khingan range adjoining the Great Wall. (_Timk._ II. 374, 378–379;
_J. R. G. S._ vol. xliii.; _S. Setz._ 115.) I see Ritter has made
the same identification of Chaghan-Nor (II. 141).
NOTE 4.—The following are the best results I can arrive at in the
identification of these five cranes.