Marco Polo
translation: Henry Yule, Henri Cordier

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
Volume I.
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CHAPTER LVIII.

OF THE KINGDOM OF EGRIGAIA.

Starting again from Erguiul you ride eastward for eight days, and then come to a province called EGRIGAIA, containing numerous cities and villages, and belonging to Tangut.[NOTE 1] The capital city is called CALACHAN.[NOTE 2] The people are chiefly Idolaters, but there are fine churches belonging to the Nestorian Christians. They are all subjects of the Great Kaan. They make in this city great quantities of camlets of camel's wool, the finest in the world; and some of the camlets that they make are white, for they have white camels, and these are the best of all. Merchants purchase these stuffs here, and carry them over the world for sale.[NOTE 3]

We shall now proceed eastward from this place and enter the territory that was formerly Prester John's.

NOTE 1.—Chinghiz invaded Tangut in all five times, viz. in 1205, 1207, 1209 (or according to Erdmann, 1210-1211), 1218, and 1226-1227, on which last expedition he died.

A. In the third invasion, according to D'Ohsson's Chinese guide (Father
Hyacinth), he took the town of Uiraca, and the fortress of Imen, and
laid siege to the capital, then called Chung-sing or Chung-hing, now
Ning-hsia.

Rashid, in a short notice of this campaign, calls the first city Erica, Erlaca, or, as Erdmann has it, Artacki. In De Mailla it is Ulahai.

B. On the last invasion (1226), D'Ohsson's Chinese authority says that
Chinghiz took Kanchau and Suhchau, Cholo and Khola in the province of
Liangcheu, and then proceeded to the Yellow River, and invested Lingchau,
south of Ning-hsia.

Erdmann, following his reading of Rashiduddin, says Chinghiz took the cities of Tangut, called Arucki, Kachu, Sichu, and Kamichu, and besieged Deresgai (D'Ohsson, Derssekai), whilst Shidergu, the King of Tangut, betook himself to his capital Artackin.

D'Ohsson, also professing to follow Rashid, calls this "his capital Irghai, which the Mongols call Ircaya." Klaproth, illustrating Polo, reads "Eyircai, which the Mongols call Eyircayá."

Pétis de la Croix, relating the same campaign and professing to follow Fadlallah, i.e. Rashiduddin, says the king "retired to his fortress of Arbaca."

C. Sanang Setzen several times mentions a city called Irghai, apparently in Tangut; but all we can gather as to his position is that it seems to have lain east of Kanchau.

We perceive that the Arbaca of P. de la Croix, the Eyircai of Klaproth, the Uiraca of D'Ohsson, the Artacki or Artackin of Erdmann, are all various readings or forms of the same name, and are the same with the Chinese form Ulahai of De Mailla, and most probably the place is the Egrigaia of Polo.

We see also that Erdmann mentions another place Aruki ([Arabic]) in connection with Kanchau and Suhchau. This is, I suspect, the Erguiul of Polo, and perhaps the Irghai of Sanang Setzen.

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