usca Italian transformed
into an adjective, "_vaselle_ vernicate _d'oro_," and both Marsden and
Pauthier have substantially adopted the same interpretation, which seems
to me in contradiction with the text. In Pauthier's text the word is
_vernigal_, pl. _vernigaux_, which he explains, I know not on what
authority, as "_coupes sans anses vernies ou laquees d'or_." There is,
indeed, a Venetian sea-term, _Vernegal_, applied to a wooden bowl in which
the food of a mess is put, and it seems possible that this word may have
been substituted for the unknown _Vernique_. I suspect the latter was some
Oriental term, but I can find nothing nearer than the Persian _Barni_, Ar.
_Al-Barniya_, "vas fictile in quo quid recondunt," whence the Spanish word
_Albornia_, "a great glazed vessel in the shape of a bowl, with handles."
So far as regards the form, the change of _Barniya_ into _Vernique_ would
be quite analogous to that change of _Hundwaniy_ into _Ondanique_, which
we have already met with. (See _Dozy et Engelmann, Glos. des Mots
Espagnols_, etc., 2nd ed., 1867, p. 73; and _Boerio, Diz. del. Dial.
Venez._)

[_F. Godefroy, Dict., s.v. Vernigal_, writes: "Coupe sans anse, vernie ou
laquee d'or," and quotes, besides Marco Polo, the _Regle du Temple_,
p. 214, ed. Soc. Hist. de France:

"Les _vernigaus_ et les escuelles."

About _vernegal_, cf. _Rockhill, Rubruck_, p. 86, note. Rubruck says
(_Soc. de Geog._ p. 241): "Implevimus unum _veringal_ de biscocto et
platellum unum de pomis et aliis fructibus." Mr. Rockhill translates
_veringal_ by _basket_.

Dr. Bretschneider (_Peking_, 28) mentions "a large jar made of wood
and _varnished_, the inside lined with silver," and he adds in a note
"perhaps this statement may serve to explain Marco Polo's _verniques_ or
_vaselle_ vernicate _d'oro_, big enough to hold drink for eight or ten
persons."--H. C.]

A few lines above we have "of the capacity of a _firkin_." The word is
_bigoncio_, which is explained in the _Vocab. Univ. Ital._ as a kind of
tub used in the vintage, and containing 3 _mine_, each of half a _stajo_.
This seems to point to the _Tuscan_ mina, or half stajo, which is = 1/3
of a bushel. Hence the _bigoncio_ would = a bushel, or, in old liquid
measure, about a firkin.

NOTE 3.--A buffet, with flagons of liquor and goblets, was an essential
feature in the public halls or tents of the Mongols and other Asiatic
races of kindred manners. The ambassadors of the Emperor Justi