NOTE 4.—As regards Bayan personally, and the main body under his command, this seems to be incorrect. His advance took place from Siang-yang along the lines of the Han River and of the Great Kiang. Another force indeed marched direct upon Yang-chau, and therefore probably by Hwai-ngan chau (_infra_, p. 152); and it is noted that Bayan’s orders to the generals of this force were to spare bloodshed. (_Gaubil_, 159; _D’Ohsson_, II. 398.) NOTE 5.—So in our own age ran the Hindu prophecy that Bhartpúr should never fall till there came a great alligator against it; and when it fell to the English assault, the Brahmans found that the name of the leader was COMBERMERE = _Kumhír-Mír_, the Crocodile Lord! ——“Be those juggling fiends no more believed That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear And break it to our hope!” It would seem from the expression, both in Pauthier’s text and in the G. T., as if Polo intended to say that _Chincsan_ (Cinqsan) meant “One Hundred Eyes”; and if so we could have no stronger proof of his ignorance of Chinese. It is _Pe-yen_, the Chinese form of _Bayan_, that means, or rather may be punningly rendered, “One Hundred Eyes.” Chincsan, _i.e._ _Ching-siang_, was the title of the superior ministers of state at Khanbaligh, as we have already seen. The title occurs pretty frequently in the Persian histories of the Mongols, and frequently as a Mongol title in Sanang Setzen. We find it also disguised as _Chyansam_ in a letter from certain Christian nobles at Khanbaligh, which Wadding quotes from the Papal archives. (See _Cathay_, pp. 314–315.) But it is right to observe that in the Ramusian version the mistranslation which we have noticed is not so undubitable: “Volendo sapere come avea nome il Capitano nemico, le fu detto, _Chinsambaian_, cioè _Cent’occhi_.” A kind of corroboration of Marco’s story, but giving a different form to the pun, has been found by Mr. W. F. Mayers, of the Diplomatic Department in China, in a Chinese compilation dating from the latter part of the 14th century. Under the heading, “_A Kiang-nan Prophecy_,” this book states that prior to the fall of the Sung a prediction ran through Kiang-nan: “If Kiang-nan fall, a hundred wild geese (_Pê-yen_) will make their appearance.” This, it is added, was not understood till the generalissimo _Peyen Chingsiang_ made his appearance on the scene. “Punning prophecies of this kind are so common in Chinese history, that the above is only worth noticing in connection with Marco Polo’s story.” (_N. and Q., China and Japan_, vol. ii. p. 162.)