Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/303

 288 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [September., 1875. The Book of See Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Murrels df the Hast. Nt-wly translated and edited, with Notes, Maps, and other Hlmttrations, by Colonkl Henry Yule, C-B., late Royal Enjriiieera (Bengal). In 2 vols. 2nd edition, revised; with the addition of new matter and many new illustrations. (London : John Murray, 1875.) Both to editor and publisher this is one of tbe most creditable books bbftt have of lute been issued by the English press. As a specimen of masterly workmanship, it may well be looked to as Hie example of its clnss by those who may engage on similar tasks with this of Colonel Yule's. The first edition appeared little more than four years ago, and was received with, bo much favour that we are glad,fco sec the editor has been encouraged again to open his stores, and whilst lopping his former work in some few places, it has been only to make partial room for the many interesting additions from a hundred sources that he now lays before his readers, — additions that " bare come in'up to the last moment", — so that the 17 pages of " Supplementary notes" he has added to ■coud volume, he tells us, "has had to un- dergo repeated interpolation after being put in type." The result is an encyclopaedia of informa- tion and reference respecting Central Asia and China, especially in the Middle Ages, such as is to be found nowhere else. Marsden's version of Marco Polo, published in 1818, and hitherto the standard English one, was translated from the Italian of Ramusio, printed in 1559; but Ramusio' s was itself a translation from Latin copies, which again were derived, probably through Italian versions, from it French original. The old French text, published by the Societe" deGeographie in 1824, seems to be by far the nearest approach, to the original as written down from the dictation of Marco by his i' prisoner Rusticiauo of Pisa, in Genoa, in the year 1298. Probably derived from this, through a re- vised copy by the author, are live other French H8S., ou three of which, in the Great Paris Li- brary, M. Pauthier based his valuable text of 1865. " Having translated this," says Col. Yule,— "not always from the text adopted by I'authicr him but with the exercise of my own judgment on tho various readings which that editor lays before us,— 1 then compared the translation with the Geographic Text, and transferred from tho latter not only all items of real substance that had been omitted, but also all expressions of hoi t and character, and occasionally a gn fulness of phraseology where the condensation in Panthier's text seemed to have been carried too fir. And finally I introduce n bracket* everything peculiar to Ramusios version seemed to me to have a just claim to be reckoned authentic, and that could be so introduced with- out harshness or mutilation. Many passages from the same source which were of interest in them- selves, but failed to meet one or other of these conditions, have been given in the notes." This plan must commend itself as a most judicious one. The Book itself consists of two parts, the first containing the brief but interesting narrative of '• the circumstances which led the two older Polos to the Kaan's Court, and those of their secoud journey with Mark, and of their return to Persia through the Indian Seas," and the second consisting of a long series of chapters— 332 in the Geographic text, 200 in Panthier's, and 183 in the Crnsca Italian — " descriptive of notable sights and products, of curious manners aud remarkable events, relating to the different nations and states of Asia, but above all to the Emperor Kublni, hi.-- court, wars, and administration." — A series of chapters, near the dose, either omitted or much abridged in nearly all the copies, " treats in a verbose and monotonous manner of sundry wars" between different branches of the family of Chenghiz. These chapters, the translator, "though sharing the dislike that every man who uses books must bear to abridgments," has felt " it would be sheer waste and dead-weight to print." The Commentary is very full and complete, no pains having been spared to clear np every point of interest or difficulty, by extracts from every known source— many of them but little known— nnd by personal inquiry from people of all coun- tries, and all over the East. Nothing; is nm; fcho aoconnl of iii'' Old Man of the Mountain, for example, is illustrated by an outline of the Ismaili Beet, with references to the authorities, down to the trial in tho High Court at Bombay in 18G6, and a portrait of H. H, Agha Khan MehelAti. The references to Buddha lead to a br.ef account of his life, and of the old religions romance based upon it— the Hlatvry of Barlaam and JoMfphat-^ illustrated by a woodcut from an old German version of tbe story printed in 1 177, re pre sen t ing ' Sakya Muni as a Faint of the Roman logy.' The illustrations indeed— of which there are about 180— are a mo ting featm this handsomely got up work : the maps are numerous and specially in ood- cuts, Ac— many of them now, others very old and quaint, drawn from mediaeval source* BurCH pean, Chinese, Persian, &c. — are ail interesting. Tho notes on the chanters respecting In Socotra, 4c, in tie- second volume, will be studied by many of our readers with much inter Index is fall, and a most valuable guide to the very varied stores of information which till :. two weighty tola]