Marco Polo
translation: Henry Yule, Henri Cordier

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
Volume II.
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NOISES IN THE GREAT DESERT.

As an answer to a paper by C. TOMLINSON, in Nature, Nov. 28, 1895, p. 78, we find in the same periodical, April 30, 1896, LIII., p. 605, the following note by KUMAGUSU MINAKATA: "The following passage in a Chinese itinerary of Central Asia—Chun Yuen's Si-yih-kien-wan-luh, 1777 (British Museum, No. 15271, b. 14), tom. VII., fol. 13 b.—appears to describe the icy sounds similar to what Ma or Head observed in North America (see supra, ibid., p. 78).

"Muh-süh-urh-tah-fan (= Muzart), that is Ice Mountain [Snowy according to Prjevalsky], is situated between Ili and Ushi…. In case that one happens to be travelling there close to sunset, he should choose a rock of moderate thickness and lay down on it. In solitary night then, he would hear the sounds, now like those of gongs and bells, and now like those of strings and pipes, which disturb ears through the night: these are produced by multifarious noises coming from the cracking ice."

Kumagusu Minakata has another note on remarkable sounds in Japan in Nature, LIV., May 28, 1896, p. 78.

Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, Buried Cities in the Shifting Sands of the Great Desert of Gobi, Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., Nov. 13, 1876, says, p. 29: "The stories told by Marco Polo, in his 39th chapter, about shifting sands and strange noises and demons, have been repeated by other travellers down to the present time. Colonel Prjevalsky, in pp. 193 and 194 of his interesting Travels, gives his testimony to the superstitions of the Desert; and I find, on reference to my diary, that the same stories were recounted to me in Kashghar, and I shall be able to show that there is some truth in the report of treasures being exposed to view."

P. 201, Line 12. Read the Governor of Urumtsi founded instead of found.

XL., p. 203. Marco Polo comes to a city called Sachiu belonging to a province called Tangut. "The people are for the most part Idolaters…. The Idolaters have a peculiar language, and are no traders, but live by their agriculture. They have a great many abbeys and minsters full of idols of sundry fashions, to which they pay great honour and reverence, worshipping (...)

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