Fattening up
horses for food is mentioned, and washing the feet with kumiss--
both incidents purely Tartar. "Cattle," distinct from horses and
oxen, are alluded to--probably camels, for which no Chinese word
existed until about the time of our era.
The second and third journeys, which occupied another 600 days
between them, both ended at, and therefore it is assumed began at,
the same place as the first journey's terminus; that is, at a
place marked on modern maps as Pao-CH'ENg, on the Upper Han River.
In later times it belonged to the semi-Chinese kingdoms of Shuh
and Ts'u in turn. One of these narratives is taken up with a
description of the Emperor's infatuation for a clever wizard from
a far country, and of his liaison with a girl bearing his own
clan-name, who died about two months before he reached home, and
was buried on the road with great pomp. These two later journeys
have no geographical value at all; but as the Emperor in each case
again crossed the Yellow River, it is plain that he was amusing
himself somewhere along the main Tartar roads, as in the first
case.
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