immense size that each pair had an elephant to carry them, whilst an Indian astride upon the elephant between the two Naccheras played upon them with both hands, dealing strong blows on this one and on that; what a din was made by these vast drums, and what a spectacle it was, I leave you to imagine."

Joinville also speaks of the Nakkara as the signal for action: "So he was setting his host in array till noon, and then he made those drums of theirs to sound that they call Nacaires, and then they set upon us horse and foot." The Great Nakkara of the Tartars appears from several Oriental histories to have been called Kúrkah. I cannot find this word in any dictionary accessible to me, but it is in the Ain Akbari (Kawargah) as distinct from the Nakkárah. Abulfazl tells us that Akbar not only had a rare knowledge of the science of music, but was likewise an excellent performer-especially on the Nakkárah !

Nakkaras, from a Chinese original.

The privilege of employing the Nakkara in personal state was one granted by the sovereign as a high honour and reward.

The crusades naturalized the word in some form or other in most European languages, but in our own apparently with a transfer of meaning. For Wright defines Naker as a cornet or horn of brass." And Chaucer's use seems to countenance this :

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"Pipes, Trompes, Nakeres, and Clariounes,
That in the Bataille blowen blody sounes."

-The Knight's Tale.

On the other hand, Nacchera, in Italian, seems always to have retained the meaning of kettle-drum, with the slight exception of a local applica tion at Siena to a metal circle or triangle struck with a rod. The fact seems to be that there is a double origin, for the Arabic dictionaries not only have Nakkarah, but Nakir, and Nákúr, "cornu, tuba." The

orchestra of Bibars Bundukdári, we are told, consisted of 40 pairs of kettle-drums, 4 drums, 4 hautbois, and 20 trumpets (Nakir). (Sir B. Frere; Della Valle, II. 21; Tod's Rajasthan, I. 328; Joinville, p. 83; N. et E. XIV. 129, and following note; Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari, P. 50-51; Ducange, by Haenschel, s.v.; Makrizi, I. 173.)

NOTE 4. This description of a fight will recur again and again till we are very tired of it. It is difficult to say whether the style is borrowed from the historians of the East or the romancers of the West. Compare the two following parallels. First from an Oriental history:

"The Ear of Heaven was deafened with the din of the great Kurkahs and Drums, and the Earth shook at the clangour of the Trumpets and Clarions. The shafts began to fall like the rain-drops of spring, and blood flowed till the field looked like the Oxus." (J. A. S. ser. 4, tom. xix. 256.)

Next from an Occidental Romance :

"Now rist grete tabour betyng,

Blaweyng of pypes, and ek trumpyng,
Stedes lepyng, and ek arnyng,

Of sharp speres, and avalyng

Of stronge knighttes, and wyghth meetyng;

Launces breche and increpyng;

Knighttes fallyng, stedes lesyng;

Herte and hevedes thorough kervyng;

Swerdes draweyng, lymes lesyng

Hard assaylyng, strong defendyng,

Stiff withstondyng and wighth fleigheyng.

Sharp of takyng armes spoylyng;

So gret bray, so gret crieyng,

Ifor the folk there was dyeyng;

Also in a contemporary account of the fall of Acre (1291): "Renovatur ergo bellum terribile inter alterutros clamoribus interjectis

hinc et inde ad terrorem; ita ut nec Deus tonans in sublime coaudiri potuisset." (De Excidio Acconis, in Martene et Durand, V. 780.)

NOTE 5.-" Car il estoit homme au Grant Kaan" (see note 2, ch. xiv., in Prologue).

NOTE 6.--In continuation of note 4, chap. ii., we give Gaubil's conclusion of the story of Nayan: "The Emperor had gone ahead with a small force, when Nayan's General came forward with 100,000 men to make a reconnaissance. The Sovereign, however, put on a bold front, and though in great danger of being carried off, showed no trepidation. It was night, and an urgent summons went to call troops to the Emperor's aid. They marched at once, the horsemen taking the foot soldiers on the crupper behind them. Nayan all this while was taking it quietly in his camp, and his generals did not venture to attack the Emperor, suspecting an ambuscade. Liting then took ten resolute men, and on approaching the General's camp caused a fire-Pao to be discharged; the report caused a great panic among Nayan's troops, who were very ill-disciplined at the best. Meanwhile the Chinese and Tartar troops had all come up, and Nayan was attacked on all sides: by Liting at the head of the Chinese, by Yusitemur at the head of the Mongols, by Tutuha and the Emperor in person at the head of his guards and the troops of Kincha (Kipchak). The presence of the Emperor rendered the army invincible, and Nayan's forces were completely defeated. That prince himself was taken, and afterwards put to death. The battle took place in the vicinity of the river Leao, and the Emperor returned in triumph to Shangtu" (207). The Chinese record given in detail by Pauthier is to the like effect, except as to the Kaan's narrow escape, of which it says nothing.

As regards the Fire-Pao (the latter word seems to have been applied to military machines formerly, and now to artillery), I must refer to Favé and Reinaud's very curious and interesting treatise on the Greek fire (du Feu Grégeois). They do not seem to assent to the view that the arms of this description which are mentioned in the Mongol wars were cannon, but rather of the nature of rockets.

CHAPTER V.

HOW THE GREAT KAAN CAUSED NAYAN TO BE PUT TO DEATH.

AND when the Great Kaan learned that Nayan was taken right glad was he, and commanded that he should be put to death straightway and in secret, lest endeavours should be made to obtain pity and pardon for him, because he was of the Kaan's own flesh and blood. And this was the way in which he was put to death: he was wrapt in a carpet, and tossed to and fro so mercilessly that he died. And the Kaan caused him to be put to death in this because he would not have the blood of his Line Imperial spilt upon the ground or exposed in the eye of Heaven and before the Sun.'

way

And when the Great Kaan had gained this battle, as you have heard, all the Barons and people of Nayan's provinces renewed their fealty to the Kaan. Now these provinces that had been under the Lordship of Nayan were four in number; to wit, the first called CHOR CHA; the second CAULY; the third BARSCOL; the fourth SIKINTINJU. Of all these four great provinces had Nayan been Lord; it was a very great dominion.2

And after the Great Kaan had conquered Nayan, as you have heard, it came to pass that the different kinds of people who were present, Saracens and Idolaters and Jews,' and many others that believed not in God, did gibe those that were Christians because of the cross that Nayan had borne on his standard, and that so grievously that there was no bearing it. Thus they would say to the Christians: "See now what precious help this God's Cross of yours hath rendered Nayan, who was a Christian and a worshipper thereof." And such a din arose about the matter that it reached the Great Kaan's own ears. When it did so, he sharply rebuked those who cast these gibes at the Christians; and he also bade the Christians be of good

heart, "for if the Cross had rendered no help to Nayan, in that It had done right well; nor could that which was good, as It was, have done otherwise; for Nayan was a disloyal and traitorous Rebel against his Lord, and well deserved that which had befallen him. Wherefore the Cross of your God did well in that It gave him no help against the right." And this he said so loud that everybody heard him. The Christians then replied to the Great Kaan: "Great King, you say the truth indeed, for our Cross can render no one help in wrong-doing; and therefore it was that It aided not Nayan, who was guilty of crime and disloyalty, for It would take no part in his evil deeds."

And so thenceforward no more was heard of the floutings of the unbelievers against the Christians; for they heard very well what the Sovereign said to the latter about the Cross on Nayan's banner, and its giving him no help.

NOTE 1.-Friar Ricold mentions this Tartar maxim: "One Khan will put another to death, to get possession of the throne, but he takes great care that the blood be not spilt. For they say that it is highly improper that the blood of the Great Khan should be spilt upon the ground; so they cause the victim to be smothered somehow or other." The like feeling prevails at the Court of Burma, where a peculiar mode of execution without bloodshed is reserved for Princes of the Blood. And Kaempfer, relating the conspiracy of Faulcon at the Court of Siam, says that two of the king's brothers, accused of participation, were beaten to death with clubs of sandal-wood, "for the respect entertained for the blood-royal forbids its being shed." See also Note 6, Chap. vi. Book I., on the death of the Khalif Mosta'sim Billah. (Pereg. Quat. p. 115; Mission to Ava, p. 229; Kaempfer, I. 19.)

NOTE 2.-CHORCHA is the Manchu country, Nyuché of the Chinese (supra Note 2, Chap. xlvi. Book I.). KAULI is properly Corea, probably here a district on the frontier thereof, as it is improbable that Nayan had any rule over Corea. BARSKUL, "Leopard-Lake," is named in Sanang Setzen (p. 217), but seems there to indicate some place in the west of Mongolia, perhaps the Barkul of our maps. This Barskul must have been on the Manchu frontier. The reading of the fourth