official interpreters had to translate Mongol texts; they were selected among the Academicians, and their service (which was independent of the Sse yi kwan when this was created) was under the control of the Han-lin-yuen.  There may have been similar institutions under the Yuen, but we have no proof of it.  At all events, such an office could not then be called Sse yi kwan (Sse yi, Barbarians from four sides); Niuche (Niuchen) was taught in Yong-lo’s office, but not Manchu.  The Sse yi kwan must not be confounded with the Hui t’ong kwan, the office for the reception of tributary envoys, to which it was annexed in 1748. (Gaubil, p. 148; Gold.  Horde, 184; Ilchan. II. 147; Lockhart in J.  R. G. S. XXXVI. 152; Koeppen, II. 99; G. Deveria, Hist. du College des Interpretes de Peking in Melanges Charles de Harlez, pp. 94-102; MS. Note of Prof.  A. Vissiere; The Tangut Script in the Nan-K’ou Pass, by Dr. S. W. Bushell, China Review, xxiv.  II. pp. 65-68.)—­H.  Y. and H. C.

Pauthier supposes Mark’s four acquisitions to have been Bashpah-Mongol, Arabic, Uighur, and Chinese.  I entirely reject the Chinese.  Sir H. Yule adds:  “We shall see no reason to believe that he knew either language or character” [Chinese].  The blunders Polo made in saying that the name of the city, Suju, signifies in our tongue “Earth” and Kinsay “Heaven” show he did not know the Chinese characters, but we read in Bk.  II. ch. lxviii.:  “And Messer Marco Polo himself, of whom this Book speaks, did govern this city (Yanju) for three full years, by the order of the Great Kaan.”  It seems to me [H.  C.] hardly possible that Marco could have for three years been governor of so important and so Chinese a city as Yangchau, in the heart of the Empire, without acquiring a knowledge of the spoken language.—­H.  C. The other three languages seem highly probable.  The fourth may have been Tibetan.  But it is more likely that he counted separately two varieties of the same character (e.g. of the Arabic and Persian) as two “lettres de leur escriptures”—­H.  Y. and H. C.

NOTE 2.—­[Ramusio here adds:  “Ad und citta, detta Carazan,” which, as we shall see, refers to the Yun-nan Province.]—­H.  C.

NOTE 3.—­From the context no doubt Marco’s employments were honourable and confidential; but Commissioner would perhaps better express them than Ambassador in the modern sense.  The word Ilchi, which was probably in his mind, was applied to a large variety of classes employed on the commissions of Government, as we may see from a passage of Rashiduddin in D’Ohsson, which says that “there were always to be found in every city from one to two hundred Ilchis, who forced the citizens to furnish them with free quarters,” etc., III. 404. (See also 485.)

CHAPTER XVI.