Volume 1

Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet : being a narrative of three years' travel in eastern high Asia / by Lieut.-Colonel N. Prejevalsky .. ; translated by E. Delmar Morgan ... with introduction and notes by Colonel Henry Yule.

  • Nikolay Przhevalsky
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet : being a narrative of three years' travel in eastern high Asia / by Lieut.-Colonel N. Prejevalsky .. ; translated by E. Delmar Morgan ... with introduction and notes by Colonel Henry Yule. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    356/364 page 284
    TSAGAN BALGAS. P. 106. The Tsagan Balgassu, noticed in Mr. Morgan’s footnote, is a different place, being the Chagan-nor of Marco Polo, some 45 miles NW. of Kalgan. Chaghan Balghassun, or ‘ White Town,’ is a term applied by the Mongols to all royal residences.1 The place mentioned in the text was on the banks of the Shandu- (or Shangtu-) gol, immediately north of the town of Dolon-nor; and one at first supposes that it must have been Kublai’s famous summer palace of ‘ Xanadu ’ or Shangtu, which almost occupies such a position, but is nearer NW. than N. of Dolon-nor. Moreover, the place stands on the left bank of the river, whereas we find Prejevalsky’s Tsagan Baigas by his map to be on the right bank. I have little doubt that the site seen by Prejevalsky was that of another of Kublai’s foundations, called in his day Langting, of which Dr. Bushell wrote to me : ‘ The ruins of the city are marked on a Chinese map in my possession, Pai-dzeng-tzu, i.e. “White City,” implying that it was formerly an Imperial Residence. The remains of the wall are seven or eight li in diameter (qy. circumfe- rence ?), of stone, and situated about forty li NNW. from Dolon-nor.’ All the points named do not correspond, but the name and position do seem to answer.—[Y.] DUMB BARGAINING. P. 145. This kind of dumb higgling by finger pressure inside a sleeve or under a shawl, is found over all the longitude of Asia, from Peking certainly to Bombay, and possibly to Constantinople. I have suggested elsewhere2 that a rumour of the use of such a system among the Chinese 1 See Marco Polo, 2nd cd., vol. i. p. 287, and vol. ii. p. 9. 2 Marco Polo, 2nd ed., ii. 486.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3