after their cattle at pasture. From the city of Kerman to this descent the cold in winter is so great that you can scarcely abide it, even with a great quantity of clothing."

NOTE 1.-Kerman is mentioned by Ptolemy, and also by Ammianus amongst the cities of the country so called (Carmania): “inter quas nitet Carmana omnium mater” (XXIII. 6).

M. Pauthier's supposition that Sirján, and not the city now known as Kerman, was then the capital, is incorrect. (See as to this, passages from Abdurazzak in N. et E. XIV. 208, 290.) Our author's Kerman is the city still so called. According to Khanikoff's observations it stands at 5535 feet above the sea.

Kerman, on the fall of the Beni Búya dynasty in the middle of the 11th century, came into the hands of a branch of the Seljukian Turks, who retained it till the conquests of the Kings of Khwarizm, which just preceded the Mongol invasion. In 1226 the Amir Borrak, a Kara Khitaian, who was governor on behalf of Jalaluddin of Khwarizm, became independent under the title of Kutlugh Sultan. The Mongols allowed this family to retain the immediate authority, and at the time when Polo returned from China the representative of the house was a lady known as the Pádishah Khátún, the wife successively of the Ilkhans Abaka and Kaikhatu; an ambitious, clever, and masterful woman, who put her own brother Siyurgutmish to death as a rival, and was herself, after the decease of Kaikhatu, put to death by her brother's widow and daughter. The dynasty continued, nominally at least, to the reign of the Ilkhan Khodabanda (1304-13), when it was extinguished.

Kerman was a Nestorian see under the Metropolitan of Fars. (Ilch. passim.; Weil, III. 454; Lequien, II. 1256.)

NOTE 2.- A MS. treatise on precious stones cited by Ouseley mentions Shebavek in Kerman as the site of a Turquoise mine. This is probably Shahr-i-Babek, about 100 miles west of the city of Kerman, and not far from Parez, where Abbott tells us there is a mine of these stones, now abandoned. Goebel, one of Khanikoff's party, found a deposit of turquoises at Taft near Yezd. (Ouseley's Travels, I. 211; J. R. G. S. XXVI. 63-65; Khan. Mém. 203.)

man.

NOTE 3.-Iron mines are not noticed by modern travellers in KerEdrisi, however, says that excellent iron was produced in the "Cold Mountains," N.W. of Jiruft, i.e. somewhere south of the capital; and the Jihán Numá, or Great Turkish Geography, says that the steel mines of Niriz on the borders of Kerman were famous. These are

also spoken of by Teixeira. (Edrisi, vol. i. p. 430; Hammer, Mém. sur la Perse, p. 275; Teixeira, Relaciones, p. 378.)

Ondanique of the Geog. Text, Andaine of Pauthier's, Andanicum of

the Latin, is an expression on which no light has been thrown since Ramusio's time. The latter tells us that he had often asked the Persian merchants who visited Venice, and they all agreed in stating that it was a sort of steel of such surpassing value and excellence, that in the days of yore a man who possessed a mirror, or sword, of Andanic regarded it as he would some precious jewel. This seems to me excellent evidence.

Avicenna, in his 5th book De Animâ, according to Roger Bacon, distinguishes three very different species of iron. Ist. Iron which is good for striking or bearing heavy strokes, and for being forged by hammer and fire, but not for cutting-tools. Of this hammers and anvils are made, and this is what we commonly call Iron simply. 2nd. That which is purer, has more heat in it, and is better adapted to take an edge and to form cutting-tools, but is not so malleable, viz. Steel. And the 3rd is that which is called ANDENA. This is less known among the Latin nations. Its special character is that like silver it is malleable and ductile under a very low degree of heat. In other properties it is intermediate between iron and steel (Fr. R. Baconis Opera Inedita, 1859, p. 382-3). The same passage, apparently, of Avicenna is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais, but with considerable differences (see Speculum Naturale, VII. ch. lii., lx., and Specul. Doctrinale, XV. ch. lxiii.).

The Andena here corresponds precisely to the Andaine of Pauthier's Text, and to the Ondanique of the G. T. I have retained the latter form because it points most distinctly to what I believe to be the real word, viz. Hundwániy, “Indian Steel" (see Johnson's Pers. Dict. and De Sacy's Crestomathie Arabe, II. 148).

The same expression found its way into Spanish in the shapes of Alhinde, Alfinde, Alinde, first with the meaning of steel, then assuming, it would seem, that of steel mirror, and finally that of the metallic foil of a glass mirror (see Dozy and Engelmann 2d. ed. p. 144-145).

The sword-blades of India had a great fame over the East, and Indian steel continued to be imported into Persia till days quite recent, perhaps still continues. The fame of Indian steel goes back to very old times. Ctesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got from the King of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps the ferrum candidum of which the Malli and Oxydracae sent 100 talents weight as a present to Alexander. Indian Iron and Steel (σίδηρος Ινδικὸς καὶ στόμopa) are mentioned in the 'Periplus' as imports into the Abyssinian ports. Ferrum Indicum appears (at least according to one reading) among the Oriental species subject to duty in the Law of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus on that matter. Salmasius notes that among surviving Greek chemical treatises there was one περὶ βαφῆς Ινδικοῦ σιδήρου, On the Tempering of Indian Steel.' Edrisi says on this subject: "The Hindus excel in the manufacture of iron, and in the preparation of those ingredients along with which it is fused to obtain that kind of mal

leable Iron which is usually styled Indian Steel. They also have workshops wherein are forged the most famous sabres in the world. . . . . It is impossible to find anything to surpass the edge that you get from Indian Steel."

Klaproth in his 'Asia Polyglotta' gives Andun as the Ossetish and Andan as the Wotiak, for Steel. Probably these are substantially the same word with Andaine and Hundwániy, pointing to India as the original source of supply.

The popular view at least, in the Middle Ages, seems to have regarded Steel as a distinct natural species, the product of a necessarily different ore from iron; and some such view is I suspect still common in the East. An old Indian officer told me of the reply of a native friend to whom he had tried to explain the conversion of iron into steel-" What? You would have me believe that if I put an ass into the furnace it will come forth a horse?" And Indian Steel again seems to have been regarded as a distinct natural species from ordinary steel. It is in fact made by a peculiar but simple process by which the iron is converted. directly into cast-steel, without passing through any intermediate stage. analogous to that of blister-steel. When specimens were first examined by chemists in England, several of them concluded that the steel was made direct from the ore, and had never been in the state of wroughtiron. The Ondanique of Marco, if really wrought from mines in Kerman, had no doubt some peculiar resemblance to the Indian article. (Müller's Ctesias, p. 80; Curtius, IX. 24; Müller's Geog. Gr. Min. I. 262; Digest. Novum, Lugd. 1551, Lib. XXXIX. Tit. 4; Salmas. Ex. Plinian. II. 763; Edrisi, I. 65-66; J. R. A. S. V. 387 seqq.)

NOTE 4.-Paulus Jovius in the 16th century says, I know not on what authority, that Kerman was then celebrated for the fine temper of its steel in scymetars and lance-points. These were eagerly bought at high prices by the Turks, and their quality was such that one blow of a Kerman sabre would cleave an European helmet without turning the edge. (Hist. of his own Time, Bk. XIV.)

There is, or was in Pottinger's time, still a great manufacture of matchlocks at Kerman; but rose-water, shawls, and carpets are the staples of the place now. Polo says nothing that points to shawl-making, but it would seem from Edrisi that some such manufacture already existed in the adjoining district of Bamm. It is possible that the "hangings (cortines) spoken of by Polo may refer to the carpets. I have seen a genuine Kerman carpet in the house of my friend Sir Bartle Frere. It is of very short pile, very even and dense; the design unlike any other carpet I have seen; a combination of vases, birds, and floral tracery, closely resembling the illuminated frontispiece of some Persian MSS.

The shawls are inferior to those of Kashmir in fineness, but not in colour. In 1850, their highest quality did not exceed 30 tomans (147) in price. About 2200 looms were employed on the fabric. A good deal of Kerman wool, called Kurk, goes via Bandar Abbas and Karachi to

Texture, with Animals, &c., from a Cashmere Scarf in the India Museum.

Amritsar, where it is mixed with the genuine Tibetan wool in the shawl manufacture. The silk embroidery, of which Marco speaks, is still performed with great skill and beauty at Kerman. Our cut illustrates the textures figured with animals, already noticed at p. 63.

The Guebers were numerous here at the end of last century, but they are rapidly disappearing now. The Mussulman of Kerman is, according to Khanikoff, an epicurean gentleman, and even in regard to wine, which is strong and plentiful, his divines are liberal. "In other parts of Persia you find the scribblings on the walls of Serais to consist of philosophical axioms, texts from the Koran, or abuse of local authorities. From Kerman to Yezd you find only rhymes in praise of fair ladies or good wine."

(Pottinger's Travels; Khanik. Mém. 186 seqq., and Notice, p. 21; Major Smith's Report; Abbott's MS. Report in F. O.)

NOTE 5.-Parez is famous for its falcons still, and so are the districts of Aktár and Sirján for those of the species called Terlán, esteemed the finest in Persia, and which Mr. Abbott identifies with those described in the text. Both he and Major Smith were entertained with hawking by Persian hosts in this neighbourhood. (J. R. G. S. XXV. 50, 63, and Reports by Abbott and Smith as above.)

NOTE 6.—We defer geographical remarks till the traveller reaches Hormuz.

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE CITY OF CAMADI AND ITS RUINS; ALSO TOUCHING THE CARAUNA ROBBERS.

AFTER you have ridden down hill those two days, you find yourself in a vast plain, and at the beginning thereof there is a city called CAMADI, which formerly was a great and noble place, but now is of little consequence, for the Tartars in their incursions have several times ravaged it. The plain whereof I speak is a very hot region; and the province that we now enter is called REOBARLES.

The fruits of the country are dates, pistachioes, and apples of Paradise, with others of the like not found in our cold climate. [There are vast numbers of turtle-doves, attracted by the abundance of fruits, but the Saracens