Marco Polo: all who meet a khan's funeral are killed
Editorial contextDiscussing where Marco Polo's 'Altai' was, Humboldt quotes Polo's story that Chinggis Khan and all his descendants were carried back to be buried in the Altai, however far away they died, and that everyone met on the road was killed to serve the dead khan in the next life. In a note he compares this to Herodotus' account of Scythian royal funerals some 1,700 years earlier.
'Chinggis himself and all his descendants,' says Marco Polo, 'are buried in the Altai. They are carried there even if they died forty days' journey away. All those who happen to be on the road as the body of the great khans passes are mercilessly put to death, to serve their sovereign and master in the other life.'
Working translation
Original wording
« Tchinghiz lui-même et tous ses descendants, dit Marco-Polo, ont leur sépulture dans l'Altai. On les porte vers ce lieu, et fussent-ils morts à quarante journées de distance. Tous ceux qui se trouvent sur la route au passage du corps des grands-khans, sont impitoyablement mis à mort pour servir leur souverain et maître dans l'autre vie. »
About Mongol grand khans (the house of Chinggis)
Keep in mind
Polo was repeating what he was told; Humboldt uses the passage to locate Polo's 'Altai' (the mountains of northern Mongolia), not to vouch for the killings.
Sheep sacrificed to a 'volcano' in Lake Alakol
Editorial contextAt Orenburg in 1829 Humboldt copied a caravan report from the papers of General Gens. It described a high mountain rising like an island in Lake Alakol that had once spewed fire and still caused storms that troubled caravans, so travellers sacrificed sheep to it as they passed. Humboldt believed the report came from a Tatar informant.
we saw a very high mountain that once spewed fire. Even now this mountain, which rises in the lake like a small island, causes violent storms that trouble the caravans: that is why, in passing, people sacrifice a few sheep to this old volcano.
Working translation
Original wording
nous vîmes une très-haute montagne qui a autrefois vomi du feu. Présentement encore, ce mont qui s'élève dans le lac comme une petite île, occasionne des tempêtes violentes qui incommodent les caravanes : c'est pourquoi on sacrifie en passant quelques moutons à cet ancien volcan.
About caravan travellers between Semipalatinsk and Yarkand (Tatar informants)
Keep in mind
A later informant, the mullah Sayfulla, knew nothing of a fire mountain or of sacrifices to it, and said the offerings were made at a hot spring instead; Humboldt prints both versions.
'The high plains of Tartary' are not the centre of Asia
Editorial contextExplaining why he calls his book 'Central Asia', Humboldt warns that terms like 'Central Asia' and 'High Asia' are used loosely. Travellers from India who cross the Himalaya to the sacred lakes of Tibet, on the plateau once called 'the high plains of Tartary', are in fact as far from the true centre of Asia as a Siberian at Tobolsk.
When travellers from India cross the Himalaya … and reach the two Sacred Lakes, on the plateau that people once saw fit to call 'the high plains of Tartary', they are no doubt heading towards Central Asia, but they are still … as far from the centre of Asia as are the inhabitants of Siberia on the parallel of Tobolsk
Working translation
Original wording
Lorsque les voyageurs de l'Inde franchissent la chaîne de l'Himalaya … et arrivent aux deux Lacs Sacrés, sur le plateau que l'on a cru devoir nommer jadis « les hautes plaines de la Tartarie, » ils marchent sans doute vers l'Asie centrale, mais ils se trouvent encore … aussi éloignés du centre de l'Asie que le sont des habitants de la Sibérie sous le parallèle de Tobolsk
Flood geology and the 'Plateau of Tartary'
Editorial contextHumboldt explains how a geographic guess became a myth. If the highest lands had been the first to emerge from the waters, they must also have received the first seeds of civilisation; 'diluvial' geology built on ancient myths encouraged this, and so the vaguely named Plateau of Tartary gained a 'moral interest'. Travel, measurement and the study of Asian languages, he says, have corrected these exaggerations.
The high regions that had been the first to be left by the waters must also have been the first to receive the seeds of civilisation. Systems of diluvial geology, founded on ancient myths and local traditions, favoured these views. … gave this great massif, this continuous plateau vaguely called the Plateau of Tartary, a moral interest and a special importance.
Working translation
Original wording
Les hautes régions qui les premières avaient été abandonnées par les eaux, devaient aussi avoir reçu les premières des germes de civilisation. Des systèmes de géologie diluvienne, fondés sur des mythes anciens et sur des traditions locales, favorisaient ces aperçus. … donnait à ce grand massif, à ce plateau continu, vaguement appelé Plateau de la Tartarie, un intérêt moral et une importance particulière.
About European scholars of the 18th century
The ancient people who 'taught us everything except their name'
Editorial contextHumboldt says the high plains of Tartary are no longer seen as the cradle of human civilisation and of the arts and sciences. He borrows d'Alembert's joke about the vanished ancient people imagined by Bailly: they taught us everything except their name and the fact that they existed. Solid research, he adds, has shown that learning reached the lands between the Pamirs, China and the Altai late.
These high plains of Tartary are no longer regarded as the cradle of human civilisation, the original home of the sciences and arts. It has vanished, that ancient people which, in d'Alembert's happy phrase, 'taught us everything except its name and its existence.'
Working translation
Original wording
Ces plaines élevées de la Tartarie ne sont plus regardées comme le berceau de la civilisation humaine, le site primitif des sciences et des arts. Il a disparu, ce peuple ancien qui, selon une expression heureuse de d'Alembert, « Nous a tout appris, excepté son nom et son existence. »
About an imagined lost people of Tartary
The storm cave of Oufbe
Editorial contextAn old Tatar mullah of Semipalatinsk, who had travelled to Kulja, told the Kazan orientalist Kazim-Beg of a huge cave on the caravan road past Lake Alakol, called Oufbe in Tatar. It blew out storms lasting two days, strong enough to fling things into the lake; nobody dared go in, and only God knew how deep it was. Caravans waited a week for the winds to pass.
there is a great underground cave; it bears the Tatar name Oufbe. Sometimes, and chiefly in winter, it produces violent storms that last for two days. The entrance of this cave looks like a vast vault, and no one dares to enter it or even look at it closely. Its depth is unknown to everyone except God (Allah).
Working translation
Original wording
est une grande caverne souterraine; elle porte le nom tatar d'Oufbé. Quelquefois, et principalement en hiver, elle produit des tempêtes violentes qui durent pendant deux jours. L'entrée de cette caverne ressemble à celle d'un vaste caveau, et personne n'ose y entrer, ni même y regarder de bien près. Sa profondeur est inconnue à tout le monde, à l'exception de Dieu (Allah).
About Tatar and Kazakh caravan travellers
Keep in mind
Third-hand: Humboldt prints Kazem-Beg's English letter in French, and Kazem-Beg himself only guessed that fire had once come out of the cave. The pass is known for violent winds.