The Travels of Marco Polo 1: Chapter 3

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CHAPTER III.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GREATER HERMENIA.

This is a great country. It begins at a city called ARZINGA, at which they weave the best buckrams in the world. It possesses also the best baths from natural springs that are anywhere to be found.[NOTE 1] The people of the country are Armenians, and are subject to the Tartar. There are many towns and villages in the country, but the noblest of their cities is Arzinga, which is the See of an Archbishop, and then ARZIRON and ARZIZI.[NOTE 2]

The country is indeed a passing great one, and in the summer it is frequented by the whole host of the Tartars of the Levant, because it then furnishes them with such excellent pasture for their cattle. But in winter the cold is past all bounds, so in that season they quit this country and go to a warmer region, where they find other good pastures. [At a castle called PAIPURTH, that you pass in going from Trebizond to Tauris, there is a very good silver mine.[NOTE 3]]

And you must know that it is in this country of Armenia that the Ark of Noah exists on the top of a certain great mountain [on the summit of which snow is so constant that no one can ascend;[NOTE 4] for the snow never melts, and is constantly added to by new falls. Below, however, the snow does melt, and runs down, producing such rich and abundant herbage that in summer cattle are sent to pasture from a long way round about, and it never fails them. The melting snow also causes a great amount of mud on the mountain].

The country is bounded on the south by a kingdom called Mosul, the people of which are Jacobite and Nestorian Christians, of whom I shall have more to tell you presently. On the north it is bounded by the Land of the Georgians, of whom also I shall speak. On the confines towards Georgiania there is a fountain from which oil springs in great abundance, insomuch that a hundred shiploads might be taken from it at one time. This oil is not good to use with food, but 'tis good to burn, and is also used to anoint camels that have the mange. People come from vast distances to fetch it, for in all the countries round about they have no other oil.[NOTE 5]

Now, having done with Great Armenia, we will tell you of Georgiania.

NOTE 1.--[Erzinjan, Erzinga, or Eriza, in the vilayet of Erzrum, was rebuilt in 1784, after having been destroyed by an earthquake. "Arzendjan," says Ibn Batuta, II. p. 294, "is in possession of well-established markets; there are manufactured fine stuffs, which are called after its name." It was at Erzinjan that was fought in 1244 the great battle, which placed the Seljuk Turks under the dependency of the Mongol Khans.--H. C.] I do not find mention of its hot springs by modern travellers, but Lazari says Armenians assured him of their existence. There are plenty of others in Polo's route through the country, as at Ilija, close to Erzrum, and at Hássan Kalá.

The _Buckrams_ of Arzinga are mentioned both by Pegolotti (circa 1340) and by Giov. d'Uzzano (1442). But what were they?

Buckram in the modern sense is a coarse open texture of cotton or hemp, loaded with gum, and used to stiffen certain articles of dress. But this was certainly _not_ the mediaeval sense. Nor is it easy to bring the mediaeval uses of the term under a single explanation. Indeed Mr. Marsh suggests that probably two different words have coalesced. Fr.-Michel says that _Bouqueran_ was _at first_ applied to a light cotton stuff of the nature of muslin, and _afterwards_ to linen, but I do not see that he makes out this history of the application. Douet d'Arcq, in his _Comptes de l'Argenterie_, etc., explains the word simply in the modern sense, but there seems nothing in his text to bear this out.

A quotation in Raynouard's Romance Dictionary has "_Vestirs de polpra e de_ bisso _que est_ bocaran," where Raynouard renders _bisso_ as _lin_; a quotation in Ducange also makes Buckram the equivalent of Bissus; and Michel quotes from an inventory of 1365, "_unam culcitram pinctam_ (qu. punctam?) _albam factam_ de bisso _aliter_ boquerant."

Mr. Marsh again produces quotations, in which the word is used as a proverbial example of _whiteness_, and inclines to think that it was a bleached cloth with a lustrous surface.

It certainly was not _necessarily_ linen. Giovanni Villani, in a passage which is curious in more ways than one, tells how the citizens of Florence established races for their troops, and, among other prizes, was one which consisted of a _Bucherame di bambagine_ (of cotton). Polo, near the end of the Book (Bk. III. ch. xxxiv.), speaking of Abyssinia, says, according to Pauthier's text: "_Et si y fait on moult beaux_ bouquerans et autres draps de coton." The G. T. is, indeed, more ambiguous: "_Il hi se font maint biaus dras_ banbacin e bocaran" (cotton _and_ buckram). When, however, he uses the same expression with reference to the delicate stuffs woven on the coast of Telingana, there can be no doubt that a cotton texture is meant, and apparently a fine muslin. (See Bk. III. ch. xviii.) Buckram is _generally_ named as an article of price, _chier bouquerant_, _rice boquerans_, etc, but not always, for Polo in one passage (Bk. II. ch. xlv.) seems to speak of it as the clothing of the poor people of Eastern Tibet.

Plano Carpini says the tunics of the Tartars were either of buckram (_bukeranum_), of _purpura_ (a texture, perhaps velvet), or of _baudekin_, a cloth of gold (pp. 614-615). When the envoys of the Old Man of the Mountain tried to bully St. Lewis, one had a case of daggers to be offered in defiance, another a _bouqueran_ for a winding sheet (_Joinville_, p. 136.)

In accounts of materials for the use of Anne Boleyn in the time of her prosperity, _bokeram_ frequently appears for "lyning and taynting" (?) gowns, lining sleeves, cloaks, a bed, etc., but it can scarcely have been for mere stiffening, as the colour of the buckram is generally specified as the same as that of the dress.

A number of passages seem to point to a _quilted_ material. Boccaccio (Day viii. Novel 10) speaks of a quilt (_coltre_) of the whitest buckram of Cyprus, and Uzzano enters buckram quilts (_coltre di Bucherame_) in a list of _Linajuoli_, or linen-draperies. Both his handbook and Pegolotti's state repeatedly that buckrams were sold by the piece or the half-score pieces--never by measure. In one of Michel's quotations (from _Baudouin de Sebourc_) we have:

 "Gaufer li fist premiers armer d'un auqueton
 Qui fu de _bougherant_ et _plaine de bon coton_."

Mr. Hewitt would appear to take the view that Buckram meant a quilted material; for, quoting from a roll of purchases made for the Court of Edward I., an entry for Ten Buckrams to make sleeves of, he remarks, "The sleeves appear to have been of _pourpointerie_," i.e. quilting. (_Ancient Armour_, I. 240.)

This signification would embrace a large number of passages in which the term is used, though certainly not all. It would account for the mode or sale by the piece, and frequent use of the expression _a_ buckram, for its habitual application to _coltre_ or counterpanes, its use in the _auqueton_ of Baudouin, and in the jackets of Falstaff's "men in buckram," as well as its employment in the frocks of the Mongols and Tibetans. The winter _chapkan_, or long tunic, of Upper India, a form of dress which, I believe, correctly represents that of the Mongol hosts, and is probably derived from them, is almost universally of quilted cotton.[1] This signification would also facilitate the transfer of meaning to the substance now called buckram, for that is used as a _kind_ of quilting.

The derivation of the word is very uncertain. Reiske says it is Arabic, _Abu-Kairám_, "Pannus cum intextis figuris"; Wedgwood, attaching the modern meaning, that it is from It., _bucherare_, to pierce full of holes, which might be if _bucherare_ could be used in the sense of _puntare_, or the French _piquer_; Marsh connects it with the _bucking_ of linen; and D'Avezac thinks it was a stuff that took its name from _Bokhara_. If the name be local, as so many names of stuffs are, the French form rather suggests _Bulgaria_. [Heyd, II. 703, says that Buckram (Bucherame) was principally manufactured at Erzinjan (Armenia), Mush, and Mardin (Kurdistan), Ispahan (Persia), and in India, etc. It was shipped to the west at Constantinople, Satalia, Acre, and Famagusta; the name is derived from Bokhara.--H. C.]

(_Della Decima_, III. 18, 149, 65, 74, 212, etc.; IV. 4, 5, 6, 212; _Reiske's_ Notes to _Const. Porphyrogen._ II.; _D'Avezac_, p. 524; _Vocab. Univ. Ital.; Franc.-Michel, Recherches_, etc. II. 29 seqq.; _Philobiblon Soc. Miscell._ VI.; _Marsh's Wedgwood's Etym. Dict._ sub voce.)

[Illustration: Castle of Baiburt.]

NOTE 2.--Arziron is ERZRUM, which, even in Tournefort's time, the Franks called _Erzeron_ (III. 126); [it was named _Garine_, then _Theodosiopolis_, in honour of Theodosius the Great; the present name was given by the Seljukid Turks, and it means "Roman Country"; it was taken by Chinghiz Khan and Timur, but neither kept it long. Odorico (_Cathay_, I. p. 46), speaking of this city, says it "is mighty cold." (See also on the low temperature of the place, Tournefort, _Voyage du Levant_, II. pp. 258-259.) Arzizi, ARJISH, in the vilayet of Van, was destroyed in the middle of the 19th century; it was situated on the road from Van to Erzrum. Arjish Kalá was one of the ancient capitals of the Kingdom of Armenia; it was conquered by Toghrul I., who made it his residence. (Cf. Vital Cuinet, _Turquie d'Asie_, II. p. 710).--H. C.]

Arjish is the ancient _Arsissa_, which gave the Lake Van one of its names. It is now little more than a decayed castle, with a village inside.

Notices of Kuniyah, Kaisariya, Sivas, Arzan-ar-Rumi, Arzangan, and Arjish, will be found in Polo's contemporary Abulfeda. (See _Büsching_, IV. 303-311.)

NOTE 3.--Paipurth, or Baiburt, on the high road between Trebizond and Erzrum, was, according to Neumann, an Armenian fortress in the first century, and, according to Ritter, the castle _Baiberdon_ was fortified by Justinian. It stands on a peninsular hill, encircled by the windings of the R. Charok. [According to Ramusio's version Baiburt was the third relay from Trebizund to Tauris, and travellers on their way from one of these cities to the other passed under this stronghold.--H. C.] The Russians, in retiring from it in 1829, blew up the greater part of the defences. The nearest silver mines of which we find modern notice, are those of _Gumish-Khánah_ ("Silverhouse"), about 35 miles N.W. of Baiburt; they are more correctly mines of lead rich in silver, and were once largely worked. But the _Masálak-al-absár_ (14th century), besides these, speaks of two others in the same province, one of which was near _Bajert_. This Quatremère reasonably would read _Babert_ or Baiburt. (_Not. et Extraits_, XIII. i. 337; _Texier_, _Arménie_, I. 59.)

NOTE 4.--Josephus alludes to the belief that Noah's Ark still existed, and that pieces of the pitch were used as amulets. (_Ant._ I. 3. 6.)

Ararat (16,953 feet) was ascended, first by Prof. Parrot, September 1829; by Spasski Aotonomoff, August 1834; by Behrens, 1835; by Abich, 1845; by Seymour in 1848; by Khodzko, Khanikoff, and others, for trigonometrical and other scientific purposes, in August 1850. It is characteristic of the account from which I take these notes (_Longrimoff_, in _Bull. Soc. Géog. Paris_, sér. IV. tom. i. p. 54), that whilst the writer's countrymen, Spasski and Behrens, were "moved by a noble curiosity," the Englishman is only admitted to have "gratified a tourist's whim"!

NOTE 5.--Though Mr. Khanikoff points out that springs of naphtha are abundant in the vicinity of Tiflis, the mention of _ship-loads_ (in Ramusio indeed altered, but probably by the Editor, to _camel-loads_), and the vast quantities spoken of, point to the naphtha-wells of the Baku Peninsula on the Caspian. Ricold speaks of their supplying the whole country as far as Baghdad, and Barbaro alludes to the practice of anointing camels with the oil. The quantity collected from the springs about Baku was in 1819 estimated at 241,000 _poods_ (nearly 4000 tons), the greater part of which went to Persia. (_Pereg. Quat._ p. 122; _Ramusio_, II. 109; _El. de Laprim._ 276; _V. du Chev. Gamba_, I. 298.)

[The phenomenal rise in the production of the Baku oil-fields between 1890-1900, may be seen at a glance from the Official Statistics where the total output for 1900 is given as 601,000,000 poods, about 9,500,000 tons. (Cf. _Petroleum_, No. 42, vol. ii. p. 13.)]

[1] Polo's contemporary, the Indian Poet Amír Khusrú, puts in the mouth

   of his king Kaikobád a contemptuous gibe at the Mongols with their
   cotton-quilted dresses. (_Elliot_, III. p. 526.)