PROLOGUE
II., p. 6.
SARAI.
“Cordier (Yule) identifiziert den von Pegolotti gewählten Namen Säracanco mit dem jüngeren Sarai oder Zarew (dem Sarai grande Fra Mauros), was mir vollkommen untunlich erscheint; es wäre dann die Route des Reisenden geradezu ein Zickzackweg gewesen, der durch nichts zu rechtfertigen wäre.” (Dr. Ed. Friedmann, Pegolotti, p. 14.)
Prof. Pelliot writes to me: “Il n’y a aucune possibilité de retrouver dans Saracanco, Sarai + Ḳúnk. Le mot Ḳúnk n’est pas autrement attesté, et la construction mongole ou turque exigerait ḳunḳ-sarai.”
XIII., pp. 25–26.
SHANG TU.
See also A. Pozdneiev, Mongoliya i Mongoly, II., pp. 303 seq.
XV., pp. 27, 28–30. Now it came that Marco, the son of Messer Nicolo, sped wondrously in learning the customs of the Tartars, as well as their language, their manner of writing, and their practice of war—in fact he came in a brief space to know several languages, and four sundry written characters.
On the linguistic office called Sse yi kwan, cf. an interesting note by H. Maspero, p. 8, of Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, XII., No. 1, 1912.
XV., p. 28 n. Of the Khitán but one inscription was known and no key.
Prof. Pelliot remarks, Bul. Ecole franç. Ext. Orient, IV., July-Sept., 1904: “In fact a Chinese work has preserved but five k’i-tan characters, however with the Chinese translation.” He writes to me that we do not know any k’itan inscription, but half a dozen characters reproduced in a work of the second half of the fourteenth century. The Uíghúr alphabet is of Aramean origin through Sogdian; from this point of view, it is not necessary to call for Estranghelo, nor Nestorian propaganda. On the other hand we have to-day documents in Uíghúr writing older than the Kudatku Bilik.