Volume I Part 100 (1/2)
_Al-Barniya_, ”vas fictile in quo quid recondunt,” whence the Spanish word _Albornia_, ”a great glazed vessel in the shape of a bowl, with handles.”
So far as regards the form, the change of _Barniya_ into _Vernique_ would be quite a.n.a.logous to that change of _Hundwaniy_ into _Ondanique_, which we have already met with. (See _Dozy et Engelmann, Glos. des Mots Espagnols_, etc., 2nd ed., 1867, p. 73; and _Boerio, Diz. del. Dial.
Venez._)
[_F. G.o.defroy, Dict., s.v. Vernigal_, writes: ”Coupe sans anse, vernie ou laquee d'or,” and quotes, besides Marco Polo, the _Regle du Temple_, p. 214, ed. Soc. Hist. de France:
”Les _vernigaus_ et les escuelles.”
About _vernegal_, cf. _Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 86, note. Rubruck says (_Soc. de Geog._ p. 241): ”Implevimus unum _veringal_ de biscocto et platellum unum de pomis et aliis fructibus.” Mr. Rockhill translates _veringal_ by _basket_.
Dr. Bretschneider (_Peking_, 28) mentions ”a large jar made of wood and _varnished_, the inside lined with silver,” and he adds in a note ”perhaps this statement may serve to explain Marco Polo's _verniques_ or _vaselle_ vernicate _d'oro_, big enough to hold drink for eight or ten persons.”--H. C.]
A few lines above we have ”of the capacity of a _firkin_.” The word is _bigoncio_, which is explained in the _Vocab. Univ. Ital._ as a kind of tub used in the vintage, and containing 3 _mine_, each of half a _stajo_.
This seems to point to the _Tuscan_ mina, or half stajo, which is = 1/3 of a bushel. Hence the _bigoncio_ would = a bushel, or, in old liquid measure, about a firkin.
NOTE 3.--A buffet, with flagons of liquor and goblets, was an essential feature in the public halls or tents of the Mongols and other Asiatic races of kindred manners. The amba.s.sadors of the Emperor Justin relate that in the middle of the pavilion of Dizabulus, the Khan of the Turks, there were set out drinking-vessels, and flagons and great jars, all of gold; corresponding to the _coupes_ (or _hanas a mances_), the _verniques_, and the _grant peitere_ and _petietes peiteres_ of Polo's account. Rubruquis describes in Batu Khan's tent a buffet near the entrance, where _k.u.miz_ was set forth, with great goblets of gold and silver, etc., and the like at the tent of the Great Kaan. At a festival at the court of Oljaitu, we are told, ”Before the throne stood golden buffets ... set out with full flagons and goblets.” Even in the private huts of the Mongols there was a buffet of a humbler kind exhibiting a skin of _k.u.miz_, with other kinds of drink, and cups standing ready; and in a later age at the banquets of Shah Abbas we find the great buffet in a slightly different form, and the golden flagon still set to every two persons, though it no longer contained the liquor, which was handed round.
(_Cathay_, clxiv., cci.; _Rubr._ 224, 268, 305; _Ilch._ II. 183; _Della Valle_, I. 654 and 750-751.)
[Referring to the ”large and very beautiful piece of workmans.h.i.+p,” Mr.
Rockhill, _Rubruck_, 208-209, writes: ”Similar works of art and mechanical contrivances were often seen in Eastern courts. The earliest I know of is the golden plane-tree and grape vine with bunches of grapes in precious stones, which was given to Darius by Pythius the Lydian, and which shaded the king's couch. (Herodotus, IV. 24.) The most celebrated, however, and that which may have inspired Mangu with the desire to have something like it at his court, was the famous Throne of Solomon ([Greek: Solomonteos Thronos]) of the Emperor of Constantinople, Theophilus (A.D. 829-842)....
Abulfeda states that in A.D. 917 the envoys of Constantine Porphyrogenitus to the Caliph el Moktader saw in the palace of Bagdad a tree with eighteen branches, some of gold, some of silver, and on them were gold and silver birds, and the leaves of the tree were of gold and silver. By means of machinery, the leaves were made to rustle and the birds to sing. Mirkhond speaks also of a tree of gold and precious stones in the city of Sultanieh, in the interior of which were conduits through which flowed drinks of different kinds. Clavijo describes a somewhat similar tree at the court of Timur.”
Dr. Bretschneider (_Peking_, 28, 29) mentions a clepsydra with a lantern.
By means of machinery put in motion by water, at fixed times a little man comes forward exhibiting a tablet, which announces the hours. He speaks also of a musical instrument which is connected, by means of a tube, with two peac.o.c.ks sitting on a cross-bar, and when it plays, the mechanism causes the peac.o.c.ks to dance.--H. C.]
Odoric describes the great jar of liquor in the middle of the palace hall, but in his time it was made of a great ma.s.s of jade (p. 130).
NOTE 4.--This etiquette is specially noticed also by Odoric, as well as by Makrizi, by Rubruquis, and by Plano Carpini. According to the latter the breach of it was liable to be punished with death. The prohibition to tread on the threshold is also specially mentioned in a Mahomedan account of an emba.s.sy to the court of Barka Khan. And in regard to the tents, Rubruquis says he was warned not to touch the ropes, for these were regarded as representing the threshold. A Russo-Mongol author of our day says that the memory of this etiquette or superst.i.tion is still preserved by a Mongol proverb: ”Step not on the threshold; it is a sin!” But among some of the Mongols more than this survives, as is evident from a pa.s.sage in Mr. Michie's narrative: ”There is a right and a wrong way of approaching _yourt_ also. Outside the door there are generally ropes lying on the ground, held down by stakes, for the purpose of tying up the animals when they want to keep them together. There is a way of getting over or round these ropes that I never learned, but on one occasion the ignorant breach of the rule on our part excluded us from the hospitality of the family.” The feeling or superst.i.tion was in full force in Persia in the 17th century, at least in regard to the threshold of the king's palace. It was held a sin to tread upon it in entering. (_Cathay_, 132; _Rubr._ 255, 268, 319; _Plan. Carp._ 625, 741; _Makrizi_, I. 214; _Mel.
Asiat. Ac. St. Petersb._ II. 660; _The Siberian Overland Route_, p. 97; _P. Della Valle_, II. 171.)
[Mr. Rockhill writes (_Rubruck_, p. 104): ”The same custom existed among the Fijians, I believe. I may note that it also prevailed in ancient China. It is said of Confucius 'when he was standing he did not occupy the middle of the gate-way; when he pa.s.sed in or out, he did not tread on the threshold.' (_Lun-yu_, Bk. X. ch. iv. 2.) In China, the bride's feet must not touch the threshold of the bridegroom's house, (Cf. _Denny's Folk-lore in China_, p. 18.)
”The author of the _Ch'ue keng lu_ mentions also the athletes with clubs standing at the door, at the time of the khan's presence in the hall. He adds, that next to the Khan, two other life-guards used to stand, who held in their hands 'natural' axes of jade (axes found fortuitously in the ground, probably primitive weapons).” (_Palladius_, p. 43.)--H. C.]
NOTE 5.--Some of these etiquettes were probably rather Chinese than Mongol, for the regulations of the court of Kublai apparently combined the two. In the visit of Shah Rukh's amba.s.sadors to the court of the Emperor Ch'eng Tsu of the Ming Dynasty in 1421, we are told that by the side of the throne, at an imperial banquet, ”there stood two eunuchs, each having a band of thick paper over his mouth, and extending to the tips of his ears.... Every time that a dish, or a cup of _dara.s.sun_ (rice-wine) was brought to the emperor, all the music sounded.” (_N. et Ext._ XIV. 408, 409.) In one of the Persepolitan sculptures, there stands behind the King an eunuch bearing a fan, and with his mouth covered; at least so says Heeren. (_Asia_, I. 178.)
NOTE 6.--”_Jongleours et entregetours de maintes plusieurs manieres de granz experimenz_” (P.); ”_de Giuculer et de Tregiteor_” (G. T.). Ital.
_Tragettatore_, a juggler; Romance, _Trasjitar, Tragitar_, to juggle. Thus Chaucer:--
”There saw I playing Jogelours, Magiciens, and _Tragetours_, And Phetonisses, Charmeresses, Old Witches, Sorceresses,” etc.
--_House of Fame_, III. 169.
And again:--
”For oft at festes have I wel herd say, That _Tregetoures_, within an halle large, Have made come in a water and a barge, And in the halle rowen up and doun.
Somtime hath semed come a grim leoun; * * * * *