The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 1396-1427Schiltberger, Johannes
History
The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 1396-1427
Schiltberger, Johannes
Timur, 1336-1405 -- Early works to 1800; Turkey -- History -- Bayezid I, 1389-1403; Voyages and travels -- Early works to 1800
(6.) “Ugine.”—One is liable at first sight to identify the “Ugine” with
the Ung of Marco Polo (Yule, i, 276), whom he distinguishes from the
Mongols proper; “two races of people that existed in that province
(Tenduc) before the migration of the Tartars. _Ung_ was the title of
the people of the country, and _Mungul_ a name sometimes applied to the
Tartars.” Pauthier (Marco Polo, i, 218) explains, that by Ung are meant
the Keraits, or subjects of Prester John, so named because, like them,
he was a Nestorian. A descendant of this Prester John, named George,
mentioned by Marco Polo, was converted to Catholicism by Giovanni di
Montecorvino, who had numerous partisans in China during the stay
in that country of Giovanni de Marignolli (_Reis. in das Morgenl._,
41); Pauthier is therefore of opinion that, in Schiltberger’s time,
there were Christian Ung in Northern Asia, who, if not Catholics, were
perhaps Nestorians. There could scarcely, however, have been anything
in common between the Ung and the “Ugine”, for the author says that,
although they worshipped the infant Jesus, they were not Christians;
and this he makes more explicit in Chap. 45, where he includes them
among the five classes of infidels known to him, being those who
confessed the three kings before receiving baptism. None of the three
kings became the founder of any religion whatsoever. Neumann’s views
may, therefore, be accepted, viz., that Schiltberger alludes to
Buddhism, introduced among the Mongols by Jengiz from Thibet. I should
consequently prefer to associate the “Ugine”, not with the Keraits, but
with the great Turk tribe, the Ung-kut, in whom Colonel Yule (Marco
Polo, i, 285) recognises the real Ung of Marco Polo.—BRUUN.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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