NOTE 6.—Two particulars appearing in these latter paragraphs are alluded to by Rashiduddin in giving a brief account of the overland route from India to China, which is unfortunately very obscure: “Thence you arrive at the borders of Tibet, where they _eat raw meat_ and worship images, _and have no shame respecting their wives_.” (_Elliot_, I. p. 73.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] [Baber writes (p. 107): “The river is never called locally by any other name than _Kin-ho_, or ‘Gold River.’[A] The term _Kin-sha-Kiang_ should in strictness be confined to the Tibetan course of the stream; as applied to other parts it is a mere book name. There is no great objection to its adoption, except that it is unintelligible to the inhabitants of the banks, and is liable to mislead travellers in search of indigenous information, but at any rate it should not be supposed to asperse Marco Polo’s accuracy. _Gold River_ is the local name from the junction of the Yalung to about P’ing-shan; below P’ing-shan it is known by various designations, but the Ssu-ch’uanese naturally call it ‘the River,’ or, by contrast with its affluents, the ‘Big River’ (_Ta-ho_).” I imagine that Baber here makes a slight mistake, and that they use the name _kiang_, and not _ho_, for the river.—H. C.] [Mr. Rockhill remarks (_Land of the Lamas_, p. 196 note) that “Marco Polo speaks of the Yang-tzŭ as the _Brius_, and Orazio della Penna calls it _Biciu_, both words representing the Tibetan _Dré ch’u_. This last name has been frequently translated ‘Cow yak River,’ but this is certainly not its meaning, as cow yak is _dri-mo_, never pronounced _dré_, and unintelligible without the suffix, _mo_. _Dré_ may mean either mule, dirty, or rice, but as I have never seen the word written, I cannot decide on any of these terms, all of which have exactly the same pronunciation. The Mongols call it _Murus osu_, and in books this is sometimes changed to _Murui osu_, ‘Tortuous river.’ The Chinese call it _Tung t’ien ho_, ‘River of all Heaven.’ The name _Kin-sha kiang_, ‘River of Golden Sand,’ is used for it from Bat’ang to Sui-fu, or thereabouts.” The general name for the river is _Ta-Kiang_ (Great River), or simply _Kiang_, in contradistinction to _Ho_, for _Hwang-Ho_ (Yellow River) in Northern China.—H. C.] [2] Baron Richthofen, who has travelled hundreds of miles in his footsteps, considers his allowance of time to be generally from ¼ to ⅓ greater than that now usual. [3] See _Quatremère’s Rashiduddin_, pp. lxxxvi.–xcvi. My quotation is made up from _two_ citations by Quatremère, one from his text of Rashiduddin, and the other from the History of Benaketi, which Quatremère shows to have been drawn from Rashiduddin, whilst it contains some particulars not existing in his own text of that author.