The people who dwell in the valleys and mountains adjoining that tract of 13 days’ journey are great huntsmen, and catch great numbers of precious little beasts which are sources of great profit to them.  Such are the Sable, the Ermine, the Vair, the Erculin, the Black Fox, and many other creatures from the skins of which the most costly furs are prepared.  They use traps to take them, from which they can’t escape.[NOTE 4] But in that region the cold is so great that all the dwellings of the people are underground, and underground they always live.[NOTE 5]

There is no more to say on this subject, so I shall proceed to tell you of a region in that quarter, in which there is perpetual darkness.

NOTE 1.—­There are two KUWINJIS, or KAUNCHIS, as the name, from Polo’s representation of it, probably ought to be written, mentioned in connection with the Northern Steppes, if indeed there has not been confusion about them; both are descendants of Juji, the eldest son of Chinghiz.  One was the twelfth son of Shaibani, the 5th son of Juji.  Shaibani’s Yurt was in Siberia, and his family seem to have become predominant in that quarter.  Arghun, on his defeat by Ahmad (supra p. 470), was besought to seek shelter with Kaunchi.  The other Kaunchi was the son of Sirtaktai, the son of Orda, the eldest son of Juji, and was, as well as his father and grandfather, chief of the White Horde, whose territory lay north-east of the Caspian.  An embassy from this Kaunchi is mentioned as having come to the court of Kaikhatu at Siah-Kuh (north of Tabriz) with congratulations, in the summer of 1293.  Polo may very possibly have seen the members of this embassy, and got some of his information from them. (See Gold.  Horde, 149, 249; Ilkhans, I. 354, 403; II. 193, where Hammer writes the name of Kandschi.)

It is perhaps a trace of the lineage of the old rulers of Siberia that the old town of Tyuman in Western Siberia is still known to the Tartars as Chinghiz Tora, or the Fort of Chinghiz. (Erman, I. 310.)

NOTE 2.—­We see that Polo’s information in this chapter extends over the whole latitude of Siberia; for the great White Bears and the Black Foxes belong to the shores of the Frozen Ocean; the Wild Asses only to the southern parts of Siberia.  As to the Pharaoh’s Rat, see vol. i. p. 254.

[Illustration:  The Siberian Dog-sledge.

“E sus ceste treies hi se mete sus un cuir d’ors, e puis hi monte sus un mesaje; e ceste treies moinent six chiens de celz grant qe je vos ai contes; et cesti chienz ne les moine nulz, mes il vont tout droit jusque a l’autre poste, et trainent la treies mout bien.”]